I should do better at keeping up on Bub's blog, but as always no news is good news. Actually, no news is GREAT news! I haven't written since Christmas and although we have added some new friends to Ayden's team, he has been healthy and SEIZURE FREE! :)Ayden had a rough school year with an inexperienced teacher. However, that was a blessing in disguise as we met two incredible advocates that helped us to feel more confident about his education than ever before. They also introduced us to Dr.Penning, and we met with her again today for a follow up from spring break(yep, we still rock spring break w/appts.). Our goal with Dr. Penning is to help Ayden communicate more. Many times he gets excited to share and talk, but beyond the basics he becomes frustrated and shuts down. Our old goal was to get Ayden to communicate his BASIC needs and he can. Now we want him to work on communicating more with questions beyond requests and thoughts beyond memorized responses.
Our favorite PT, is one of the most exciting parts of Bub's summer so far. When I told him we were going to therapy to see Julia on Monday(2 days before school was out), he told me he was "done with school" and could not wait to see her. He has already completed one week of PT "camp" as we have nicknamed it. This summer, Julia was willing to try seeing him daily for a full week in June and July. The benefits of the new strategy will not be measurable until we return in July to see if he is back to baseline or if he retained any of his skills gained in June. He has a new "trick", he is kneeling! He will show people how he does it for little bits at a time. It is the key to gaining more muscle in his backside, so we are trying to keep him excited and working on doing it for longer periods of time. Our short term goal for July is potty training, we shall see. We have started him with "peeing on the flowers" and he actually just asked to go do that prior to his bath this morning. Yep, it is a benefit of country living I guess, no neighbors to worry about. Silly? Have you tried lifting a 90+lb boy onto a toilet seat several times a day for the past year?? If we can get him to stand while using the restroom at least the physical strain will be a bit less for us and would not require undressing him as much each time. It has to be all on his timing and we have battled too much, he has to want to do this so we will see.
Next up - CAMP RILEY!!! We went and visited Bradford Woods in May at Newcomers Day to check out the camp. Justin and I both left very nervous, and I am not sure that has changed much. However, some of our most trusted friends/advisors on all things special needs have recommended and talked about Camp Riley for years. This will be his first time as he is finally old enough to go. Is he ready to be away from mom and dad for 5 days(yes, I said 5!!)? Is mom ready? I don't know, so I guess we will find out! Your prayers for a positive experience, great weather, and a healthy boy are all appreciated. He will go on Sunday and if it goes well we will picked him up Friday morning. I hope to update and post with great news at the end of next week, like I said prayers are appreciated!
With Love, The Hoffman Family :)
Interested in making a tax deductible donation to Camp Riley?
You can mail a check to:
Riley Children's Foundation/Camp Riley
Attn: Camp Coordinator
30 S Meridian St, Suite 200
Indianapolis, IN 46204-3509
To make a donation specifically towards Ayden's Camp Riley Fee you can simply put "Ayden Hoffman- Riley 1" on the memo line.
