His fast feet

Graesen headed back to the physical therapist today.  The lady who makes the orthotics was actually able to adjust them enough there in the office to make them work.  It was a really long appointment.  Unfortunately, none of his shoes fit with them on :(  My parents, however, were very nice and offered to get Graesen a pair.  I am so grateful, because the type of shoes he has to get now are rather expensive.  Gone are the days of the cheap Target or Old Navy shoes :(
His orthotics are pretty intense and will definitely take him a while to get used to.  He started with about an hour of wearing them today and will add an hour each day.  His poor little feet were already so sore today:(  He's excited, though, because I told him that these are going to give him fast feet :)  (Which really they kind of are, because once he is used to them he will be better able to preform large motor skills with them on).

And this is Graesen showing me his "fast face" on the way to his appointment.  He makes this face when he runs lately and it just makes my day :)

This is the tired little munchkin at movie night tonight:

During my bible study time they had all the kids watch a movie with popcorn tonight.  It was a hit:)

Tricky

Happy little guy

Graesen is so happy about Christmas being on the way.  He gets so excited about every little thing :)

Enjoying his doughnut after church yesterday:

Looking for his elf tonight:

Eating a little treat left over from filling the advent calendar:

A second after this picture I realized that he was eating part of the wrapper and had to fish it out of his mouth.  It was gross :(

His favorite

One of Graesen's favorite things to do these days is have picnic dinners in the living room.  All week he asks for picnics, but I only let him on Fridays or Saturdays.  The rest of the time we have to have dinner at the table like a regular family :)  Tonight was a picnic dinner night complete with the movie "Elf" and homemade popcorn.  It was a big hit :)

Earlier today we went to a friend's birthday party.  He got a ride on stuffed pony as a present.  Graesen tried it out, but was a little nervous and wanted me to stay near.

I am just loving having our house decorated for Christmas.  Here are some of my favorites:

Can you see where his elf hid today?

Thanksgiving, elves, and more

I am finally getting around to posting about the last few days.
To start out...
Wednesday I let the kids play with those water bead things (not sure of the actual name) at school.  They were a huge hit.  They probably would have stayed there for a couple of hours if we didn't have to get to gym time.

We spent Thanksgiving day at my parents' house. 

Phoebe and Graesen dressed in their turkey gear.

My mom had some crafts for the kids to do:

Later that night Graesen got to open up his Christmas pajamas.  He loved them, but he wouldn't stop and pose for a picture :)

Friday Graesen woke up to a little surprise from Santa.  He was so excited.  I asked him what his elf's name was and he said, "I."  I changed the spelling to "Aye" in his book so that when he gets older he can just pretend that his elf really likes pirates :)  Maybe one day he will learn how to come up with good names!

Watching a Christmas movie:

Later in the day we met up with Phoebe and Shannon to go to the trampoline place.  I had some free passes, so it was some great free fun!

At night we decorated for Christmas.  Graesen gets a little fake tree in his room.  We'll get our big one for the living room later.

Little turkey

One of the parents at our school brought supplies to make turkey cookies today.  I tried to get a picture of Graesen with his finished product, but as you can tell he was not too happy about me making him take a picture before eating the cookie :)

Physical Therapy Fail

Graesen had his appointment today at the physical therapist to get his orthotics.  This appointment should have been at least a month ago, but the insurance company was super slow about approving the orthotics.  They finally came in, but they don't fit!  The orthotics are not made by Graesen's physical therapy office.  Another group comes in to cast the kids once a month.  That group has changed the type of plastic they are using on their braces, and there has been the occasional problem of the arch collapsing with this new plastic.  The arches on Graesen's collapsed and wouldn't provide any support for him :(  So, now we have to go back next week to re-cast.  This time it should hopefully only take 2 weeks to get the orthotics in after casting.  Graesen was pretty bummed, because I have been talking up his "fast feet" for weeks (hoping to get him excited about wearing them).

I talked to the therapist about Graesen's muscle tone.  It is just his arms and legs that have "lower" muscle tone.  She said that there is nothing we can do to fix Graesen's muscle tone.  It is what he was born with and what he will have his whole life.  However, we can do things to help strengthen his muscles and improve his balance (and having his feet in braces should help him develop some of his balancing skills that he is struggling with).  His muscle tone will never be great, but I can help him reach the highest potential for his body.  She said that the biggest thing is to encourage him to be as active as possible.  Kids with lower muscle tone sometimes become sedentary, because exercise is harder for them than the average person.  She said that I should fully support and encourage whatever sport or physical activity that interests him in order to keep him excited about exercise.  Graesen loves to run and play, but I do notice that he has trouble keeping up with other boys his age and seems to tire more easily.  I'm going to look at some options for increasing his physical activity.  I want to help him be healthy and strong so that he never feels like he can't do something. 

Speaking of physical activity, yesterday before church Graesen and I fit in a quick run (probably shouldn't have done it, because we were then late for church :( ).  It was a bit cold out, so I just bundled Graesen up in his snow gear and he stayed warm the whole time.  He really likes rides in his stroller, so going for runs is really good for both of us :)