A New Year

Hello 2016! 

A new year brings new hope!

 We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! Our Christmas started off a little rough, the stomach bug made a visit before Santa could and left all three of us sick to our stomachs. Luckily we all bounced back pretty quickly. Marek loved Christmas this year, and it was such a joy watching him get excited about new toys. He was able to open his own presents this year with a little direction from Mom and Dad (since he found each piece of wrapping paper he ripped off THE MOST FASCINATING THING EVER!). The fact that Marek would get excited about certain toys is HUGE, if we saw that he was extra interested in something we would open it up right then and there and play with it. The big winner this Christmas was BALLS! He has discovered how to play with them by taking turns rolling balls back and forth to someone. It always gets him smiling.

Marek must have been a very good boy this year because he was blessed with so many gifts, however I think that the gift he gave us on Christmas was by far the best gift of the season. He said "dada" for the first time! Ryan was feeding him in the kitchen when he thought he heard it, but wasn't a 100% sure. Later, he brought him into the bathroom to give him a bath, I was doing my hair in there when I heard it. I almost burned myself with the curling iron because I got so excited. We heard him say it for the next couple of days but then he took a break and just this weekend picked it back up again.

Our New Year's Eve was perfect in my eyes. We went out to dinner, just the three of us, then watched a Netflix series together. Marek was asleep by 8:30 and Mom and Dad shortly after, around 10:30. I did however, set my alarm for 11:50 to wake us up. Ryan and I rang in the New Year with a champagne toast.....then went right back to bed!

Back to work!

I survived my first week back to work. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least. Marek did great at daycare the two weeks before Christmas and I was hoping that would continue over to my first week going back to school. Monday morning went smoothly, which I was very thankful for, but Tuesday was a different story. I set him on the play mat and put his things in his cubby and when I went to kiss him goodbye and walk away he started crying. OH MY GOODNESS! It took everything I had not to call in sick that day and take Marek back home so we could spend the day together. I gave him an extra kiss and gave him to his teacher as I quickly exited the building with tears in my eyes. That was a rough morning, but I called to check in on him at ten and they said he was doing fine. The good report helped me make it through the rest of the day. The next three days my sister, Kourtney, took care of Marek here at the house which took a lot of stress off of me. She knows the therapy exercises he needs to do, pushes him to try new things, and best of all he doesn't shed a tear when I leave him with her. Thanks again for being such a terrific Aunt!!

Marek has gone down yet again on his Sabril dose. We are at 11 mls twice a day. Like I have said before, each step down we see things starting to click for him. Right after Christmas Marek started to ARMY CRAWL! It started off with moving forward just an inch and now he can make it halfway across our living room floor. He had another session of ABM therapy this weekend and his therapist said this is the best he has ever seen him and was even able to assist him in getting into a crawling position and Marek held if for 30 seconds. 

We are keeping our fingers crossed that 2016 continues to offer big things for our Mighty Man.