M-I-C-K-E-Y MOUSE!!!

This past week, Grey, my mom and I went to the National Spina Bifida Conference in Anaheim, CA. It. was. amazing. The best part about the whole trip was having the opportunity to meet some of the SB families that I have come to know so well over the past 3 years. Seeing them face to face and feeling like I already knew them was really something that I will never forget.

One of the first nights there, we had a little get together to meet with everyone, I could have stayed there all night. Unfortunately Grey couldn't. :) The time change was a bit much for him. But he was a real trooper.

I was really terrible with taking pictures, but here is one with just a few of the moms that I was able to meet.



We had 3 days jammed packed with classes like "Management of the Neurogenic Bladder" and "Insights into Maximizing Bowel Function and Achieving Continence" and "Nonverbal Learning Disabilities: How to Remediate Executive Function Weaknesses that Inhibit Self-Help and Adaptive Skill Development" so you can only imagine how our minds were mush by the end of each day. It was so nice to be there with people who really, truly "get it." To those families that I was able to meet while I was there...Thank you so much for all of the love and support, my life is better because of all of you.

The conference was held at the Disneyland Hotel, and we couldn't go there and NOT go to Disneyland! From the minute we arrived, Grey was OBSESSED with "Micky Mouse's house" seriously, obsessed! He LOVED every second of Disneyland. Every ride, every tram, every elevator, EVERYTHING!! Here are a few picture of him during a ride, I'm not sure which one. I know it looks like he is terrified, but it is a good terrified. :)





We also couldn't go to Disneyland without meeting Orie (Eey Ore) and Mickey. He was intrigued by both and WANTED to meet them, but the second we got close to them he kinda freaked out.:)





We were lucky enough to get to go to Disneyland with our good friends David, Joanna, and Jet Penny one day. Grey and Jet weren't too sure of each other the last time they met (last summer) but they seemed to warm up to each other a bit during this trip.



It doesn't really look like it, but they really are BFFs!! :)

Here are just a few more Disneyland pics...




It really was such an amazing trip. Going out of our room each day we saw many, MANY other people (adults, kids) in wheelchairs and it was so nice. We are home now, and Grey is back to being the only kid around in a wheelchair...which is OK! but boy was it nice to just "fit into the crowd" for a few days. :)

Here is our friend Katie, she is going into 2nd grade and her attitude is amazing. She loves sports, reading, and LOVES LIFE. I, love her. :)

We really had such a great time, and I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone again next year...and so is Grey!! :)

Grey Spells his name...and sings

So Leigh and Grey are currently at Disneyland at the National SB conference, and from what i've heard they are having a wonderful time! Sadly i couldn;t make the trip this year as Leigh and I blew through a large chunk of my vacation time within the first couple months of the year. haha. oh well, it was worth it. Anyway, Leigh, Grey, and Chris (Leigh's mom) left Sunday for the conference and ever since i've been getting emails, calls, texts saying just how great their time has been. In the meantime, while im here back at home, i was looking thru some video i shot at lunch this past weekend and thought i'd share. We've been trying to teach grey how to spell his name and while having lunch he was willing to show us what he's learned. oh and a little bonus after the spelling is a rendition of "Jesus Loves Me."

enjoy.



:)

love,
Andy

Greys bed ramp/slide

So in the last post we showed off Grey's new Big Boy Bedroom, and this week we made one addition... a bed ramp. As much as we (and Grey) loves his new bed there's just one issue with it for him...he can't get in or out by himself. So in the interest of giving him as much Independence as we can, we had this idea of a ramp that would allow him to pull himself up and slide down whenver he wanted. Okay, admittedly its not often that hes asking us to go to bed these days, but if we introduce this to him now, he will learn early that when he's ready to go to bed, he needs to get into bed himself, and the same goes for when he's done with a nap, he can get out of his bed with out our help. As he's getting older we've been encountering more and more scenarios of times when Grey needs our help with things that typical kids don't. It's our job to think creatively about how we can adapt things to make it easier for Grey, this is just one example so far. A big thanks to my Dad for building the ramp! Lord knows if i tried to do something like this Grey would be riddled with splinters. :)

So he's not a pro at it yet, but he's got the concept down.




Oh and heres a detail of how it seamlessly attaches:

One other big discovery that Grey has made is that this also serves as a pretty cool ramp for his cars... here he is putting it to use!



love to all,

grey, leigh, andy

It's Official...

We have a big boy. A few weekends ago my mom, my sister, and my nephew took a trip out to Ikea (my nephew had a soccer tournament there so it worked out great!) and I took the plunge and bought Grey a big boy bed! This is something that I have seriously lost sleep over. I had no idea what kind of bed to get for Grey. Should it be low to the ground so he can climb onto it? Should it be higher so he can transfer over from a wheelchair? Decisions, decisions. I decided to go with this bed from Ikea. It is low, but not too low and seems to be just perfect for our Grey. :)

Before we put together the new bed, I wanted to spruce up his room a bit. We hadn't painted it since we moved in (over a year ago) and I was so excited to finally decorate Grey's room! I loved putting his nursery together in our old house, but I wasn't sure what to do here...until now. :) I had visions of colorful robots dancing through my head. We knew that we wanted Grey's room to be fun and colorful and this is what we did...




This GNG has been with Grey from the beginning. Greyson Neal Gibbs...gotta love the initials.


Grey loves his letters so I thought that this would be perfect!!


I just love these robots!!

So far, Grey loves his new room and his new bed. It was a super easy transition for all of us and I'm so happy that we did it! Although more times than not, we go in to check on him and he looks like this...
he's been wearing undies to bed for a few weeks now (yay!!) but his scrawny little booty has a hard time keeping them up!!

Here he is his first night in his new bed, still has to have his Ories!


Hope you all are enjoying your summer!!
Love,
Leigh, Andy and the big boy

Grey counts "real fast"

Lately Greys been wanting to do things "real fast" and just the other day we caught him counting real fast. He loves counting...randomly he'll just blurt out his numbers, loudly and most of the time accurately, so i guess thats good. Heres a little video of him counting real fast and playing the role of Batman/conductor of a symphony orchestra. goof.




heres just a picture o him in his Batman pj's, he likes them almost as much as his Monkey ones (curious george)

the weather's been amazing the last couple days...almost nice enough to make it worth living in Michigan. :) So we've taken advantage and greys been playin outside!



love,

the gibbs'

A Little Spring Gardening

Well the weather is getting nicer lately so the 3 of us decided to try our hand at gardening this year. Having very, very little gardening experience we decided to start simple...and followed the square foot gardening method. We built two 4'x4' garden beds, mixed our soil and last weekend bought our plants. So after one full week in the ground we are "happy" to report that only 2 green bean plants have fallen victim to that "cute" little bunny in our yard. The fence will be going up tomorrow! But yeah, its been fun and this week grey's been helping "wash the plants" as he puts it. goof.

Here i am showing him how to do it. He quickly pushed me aside and wanted to do it himself...naturally.




Here's a little video of grey washing the garden.


love,

the gibbs'

"I go OUTSIDE"

This is the phrase that Andy and I hear...A LOT!! Grey wants to be outside all. the. time. The past few weeks have been difficult trying to find things that he can actually do outside. He isn't crawling on all fours yet so if he is on the pavement or the deck he gets so dirty and I am super paranoid that he is going to get all scraped up. He rides on his 4-wheeler, rides his amtryke on the deck, and loves to rip out grass and throw it...other than that, we were at a loss, not wanting Grey to be stuck inside all summer, but really having a tough time finding things for him to do outside..until today. :) This past month (thanks to 1+1 therapy) Grey has made some amazing progress with his walker. His balance is great, he is taking steps and moving the walker all on his own, and his confidence in his ability has soared. So, I decided to take the walker outside and let Grey stand at it while we played catch...he had other plans. :) He was walking all over the place!


He walked (really fast because it's sloped downward) down the driveway, he walked on the grass, he walked on the deck. He walked all over! It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast...but he did it. I was so proud as our neighbors walked by and saw my little boy doing what little boys do. And amongst all the walking/playing he had time to give his mommy a kiss :)


Today, Grey showed me (yet again) that I need to stop worrying about the future and just focus on all of the amazing things that he is doing today!

love,

Leigh, Andy, Grey.