Evan the Great

Titled by my husband.

Three videos and a picture for your enjoyment and mine:

Walking without braces on daddy's homemade parallel bars

Walking with braces on PT's portable parallel bars

Hold 'em Close

I held Evan close today for all the mamas and want-to-be-mamas who can't hold their babies tonight. There seems to have been a lot of that lately. Too much, from people too close to me. It kills me a little bit to post pictures and videos of the time I have with my son while hearts are breaking or broken for children who aren't around anymore...or yet. I think about these mamas all the time and they give me perspective I'd rather not have to gain through my own experiences. My prayers go out to all of you. You probably know who you are.

Let it be known, I cherished Evan today:

Cheerios, Life, and blueberry pancakes by the window

"But MOM...!!"

Our new water table--I'll post more on this later

And this is pretty much all the words Evan knows how to sign/say. He really does know touchdown, I guess he got camera shy for that one.

Spina Bifida Clinic

Yesterday was Evan's follow-up visit at spina bifida clinic at UCSF. I love going to San Francisco. And I hate going to San Francisco. Clinic is great because it's a one-stop shop for all of Evan's specialists. Clinic is annoyingly long and tough on kiddos for that same reason. We are fortunate to have extremely boring and uneventful clinic visits most of the time. The docs come in and ask lots of questions, most of which we have positive responses to, leaving them with not much to do for us. For example, Evan is the only person with spina bifida I've ever heard of who doesn't either cath or have some sort of bowel management program. We waited an hour and a half while the urologist met with two other families. Our visit with her was 5 minutes max. There's just nothing she can help us with right now...for which we are SO grateful!

I'm often focused in this world of fetal surgery families whose children are so impressive in their physical abilities that I forget about how hard spina bifida can be. We don't experience even half of what so many spina bifida families go through. We met a new friend yesterday while roaming the halls. She is 15 months and has spina bifida. Her mom did not do fetal surgery because the girl is a twin so she didn't qualify. This girl had/has? a syrinx which is fluid built up in her spinal chord due to her chiari (pulled down hindbrain--Evan has this). She had chiari decompression surgery a few months ago to help but it's caused weakness in her arms and torso which causes difficulties in crawling, which she is just now beginning to learn. I admire her mom and realize over and over that we are just so, so blessed.

We're starting to collect some things for Evan's therapy at home. Some day (in my dreams) we'll have a large room to dedicate as a therapy gym for him. We bought an exercise ball to help with core strengthening, and a little indoor slide/climber thing. We also got a small coffee table that we'll cut out holes to put Tupperware containers in to use as a sensory/water table. My hopes is it will help motivate him to stand without realizing he's standing because he's just playing. Last, we're making some PVC pipe parallel bars for him to cruise along as he works on walking. I'll post pictures when we get them finished and get Evan working. We're also getting close to pool therapy time. :)

For my workout, Isaiah found me some sweet roller blades at Savers. We both go out with our blades with Evan in a jogging stroller we found on craigslist. Family fun for all! We also have nice road bikes to go with Evan's bike trailer and we enjoy cruising together.

Speaking of cruising...

I'd say these videos give a pretty accurate view of how Evan uses his feet. Sometimes they're in a great position and sometimes they drag a little bit. And I like to think he wears pants most of the time but these videos seem to reflect otherwise. Whatever.

We talked with ortho about his braces and they said there's a couple things they can try to help his feet stay in. The first option is to add a strap or change the straps to a figure 8 kind of thing. The other option is to put an SMO inside of the AFO (they'd have to be completely remade) and the plastic locks into the plastic and his foot should stay in place. These both sound like much better options than the casting I was fearing. I do think he needs the braces, especially on his right foot, to help keep his feet in a good position all day long. So that's our next step!

Lucky

Presenting....Evan the walker!

Cell phone in one hand, ipad in the other

This is pretty much what you get every day with Evan: Remote, dirty shirt, messy hair. 

Again, remote between the legs, reaching for the apple tv. He just can't have enough of his electronics.

Who wants to play with me in Utah this weekend?

Evan got his 49er's AFO's last Thursday. They don't fit. Well, they fit but they don't stay on. I haven't told the orthotist yet because I'm worried it means Evan will have to be serial casted to correct his clubbed feet. I think his feet are just a little too tight to stay in orthotics. I've thought a lot about it, though, and if the only reason we'd cast him is to fit in his braces (which it would be) and the only reason we're bracing him is to give him stability in his feet (which it is) and if shoes can fulfill that same purpose (which they do)... then maybe we'll just work on his standing in his shoes, since they actually stay on.

At 17-months old I can finally announce that my child will NOT be the 5-year old who still uses a bottle. I was honestly worried about this for a while. It took him 3 weeks to learn how to eat in the first place so when his pediatrician told us at 12-month appointment that we had 3 weeks to transition to a sippy cup/straw I thought "You're crazy." We had been trying various sippy cups for a while with no success. We received a lot of advice and practice equipment from Evan's speech therapist, also to no avail. One of the most frustrating truths about children was again biting us in the back: They'll learn when they're ready. Ugh. I'm rolling my eyes just thinking about that.

Well, we skipped the sippy cups and moved on to straws and practiced and stressed and practiced some more and now, 7 months later, I thrill each time Evan drinks from his little cup with a straw. 100% bottle-weaned, thank goodness.

We got our tax return. (Money in the BANK) Then we paid off Evan's hospital bills and debts. (No money in the bank). I'm so grateful that our church offers sound financial advice including making getting out of debt a priority. It feels great to have made that step towards financial independence.

Evan's current obsessions are remotes, windows, the country music station, mama holding him, walks, and cats. He also just discovered his belly button but cannot yet find it when his shirt is on.

And seriously, I'll be in Utah this weekend. Let me know if you want to play.

Toddler Time

Evan Michael Hudson, 16 months

Hello $2 Barney shoes from D.I.

Evan's 3rd or 4th haircut (1st in a salon)

Evan is going through one of those not eating/throw food on the floor phases that many toddlers go through. It's okay, though. I'm not the kind of mom who freaks out and worries and goes crazy and gets upset. I can handle this....okay, I'm lying. It's driving me nuts--definitely testing my patience more than he ever has before. Not so much the not eating part, since he's got plenty of chub and I know he'll eat when he wants to, but the throwing food when he doesn't want it just irks me so bad. It's pretty much the first time we've had to tell Evan "no." (deep breath) I can do this.

A few different people have told me, "He's such a toddler...carrying his car everywhere." "He's such a toddler...chasing balls." "He's such a toddler!" It surprises me because as long as I'm changing diapers, feeding bottles, and watching him crawl around, I think of him as a baby. However, over the past week or so I've noticed a huge jump in his communication and also in his mobility. Between that and his temper tantrums he's feeling more like a toddler to me. He learned his 2nd sign--"food". He took 4 steps cruising along the couch yesterday. He can point with one finger now so I can ask about pictures in a book and he can point to show his comprehension. So far his verbal words are "a", "e", and "uh" so it is thrilling to learn how many things he can identify by pointing.

Some words Evan seems to know, at least the majority of the time:
cat/kitty
dog/puppy
dad/mom
banana
food
more
monkey
ball
toes
truck
baby
dance
clap
touchdown
wave
eyes
milk
peek-a-boo
upstairs
no
pull/push
stand up

AND...this is my 100th post on the blog! I wish I could celebrate by doing some exciting give-away or something but I wouldn't even know where to start nor do I have anything to give away. Thanks for reading anyway.

February 10, 2014

Jace and Tasha are having another baby in August! The baby will be Evan's first younger cousin and he certainly looks forward to leading the way and showing the ropes to this young'un.

Lyndon and Chelsie's adoption profile is live HERE! These two are already the best parents. I can't imagine how much better they'll be when have children. They work so hard to prepare their house and their family and themselves in every way possible to be ready for their children and they deserve the best whenever God is ready to give it to them and in whatever way He wants it to happen.

My dad is going in for heart valve repair surgery on Wednesday. After a long day of evaluations he reported, " They calculated that my heart is operating at about 40% efficiency, with 60% of the blood regurgitating backwards through the leaky valve.  They see me as an ideal candidate for a very necessary valve repair surgery.  (On a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the worst case, I am a 4+.)"  He says his heart will be fixed just in time for Valentine's Day....

...which in our family happened last Friday to avoid the crowds. Isaiah and I took our sweetheart, Evan, out to eat at Outback for delicious food and desserts. Then we went to a pet store to look at the birds and fishies and doggies and guinea pigs and reptiles. Loved it.

Evan and Isaiah are pretty much my only friends, but even if they weren't they'd both still be my best friends. Evan is so fun to adventure with.

Unfortunately for me, Evan's favorite channel is the rolling TV guide that plays country/western music. He could dance to this music all day if I could stand it. I typically only last a few minutes listening to that stuff.

We borrowed Mr. Caterpillar from the toy library

Evan had to try out all the walkers before we bought one for him. He's a little big for them--I guess they don't make walkers for 16-month olds--but he can still benefit from the practice.

Evan LOVES pillows. He also has two books with sound buttons that he loves to push over and over.

Evan's other newest obsession is remotes. He's learned how to crawl around with two remotes in his hand. And don't even think about taking it away from him. Tantrum mania! Of course we've given him his own remote so he doesn't have to take Grandpa's. He also loves playing peek-a-boo in any form he can. He usually uses his arm to cover his eyes and then peek out, but sometimes he just turns his head bashfully and ducks his eyes downward, thinking we can't see him that way. He cracks me up. 

Family Reunion 2013

We went to Utah for Christmas to be with my parents and siblings and niece. With Jace and Lyndon and their families moving out of state for PhD programs, Nate going on an LDS mission in Bulgaria, and me and Isaiah moving to California, we haven't all been together for a few years. We have cousins who live in a beautiful house mansion in Alpine. While they vacationed in Vegas they loaned us their sweet digs which comfortably housed all 12 of us for our mini-reunion. There was a little bit of basketball, wallyball, eating out, Just Dance, bowl games, junk food, babies, family pictures, sharing germs, board games, card games, presents...you name it. One highlight involved a family meeting where we all found out what my dad actually does for "work". Here's some other highlights:

Evan and Uncle Lyndon, male-bonding over cars

Nate (21), Austin (18)
(At first I put "Nate (19)"...then I had to think about that for a while. They grow up so quickly!)

"Touchdown, Evan!" Photo compliments to @austinavongarrett

Wallyball

Evan must've blinked. He was not sleeping.

Out to eat at Chili's

Bulgaria souvenirs! 

Evan and cousin Aisley                            

On the way there we split the trip in two and stayed in a hotel in...somewhere. (I don't remember at the moment.) On the way home we drove all the way straight. By Reno, Evan was DONE. We took a break at Subway and walked through Scheels, thinking it would let out some energy and give us all a boost for the rest of the drive. Nope. Evan was pretty upset the remaining 3 hours. It was a nice stop anyway.

This picture would've been a lot cuter if Evan would've cooperated and sat in the jeep by himself.