He looks like a million bucks!

Hey y'all!

We are back from Fargo. The appointment went entirely different than what we expected! Dr. Lindley did a Capute Scales developmental screening assessment, in which Isaiah followed simple instructions and played with some toys. It revealed that he is above average in his development, with a language age equivalency of 9.3 months, and a nonverbal age equivalency of 11 months! Because of this, she decided that the MRI can be held off til Isaiah is 1 year old because according to her he "looks like a million bucks"! Needless to say, we were thrilled!

On our way back, I picked up the last two penny jars, which lead us to a total of $76! Hopefully next year, every business will keep their penny jar for the entire month of May so that even more money can come together.

Isaiah's crawling attempts are getting better and better by the way! With that  being said, I will need to get 3 more safety gates!!!!! Anyway. Let me get to unpacking, washing diapers and cooking dinner. After this trip I am pooped and hopefully I'll get to go to bed early tonight.

Love,

Clap your hands, clap your hands!!!

Hey y'all! I haven't posted in a while and I truly apologize! A couple of things have happened in the meantime. Isaiah has started to clap his hands, he is making attempts to crawl forward (I think he might be tired of getting stuck underneath all those chairs, haha) and he can switch from the crawling position to sitting and vice versa. He has also started to "talk", dada seems to be the word of choice.......it's ok, he's still a mama's boy!

Joseph got me a kindle fire for Mother's Day and Isaiah loves the piano app!

They have more apps that are perfect to help encourage him to use his right hand, the kids drawing app for example is so colorful and he loves seeing the colors appear when he moves his fingers across the screen. Other apps will be more appropriate later on, like the preschool app for instance. Nia is a sucker for that one! Moving puzzle pieces across the screen, identifying letters.....all things where she has to use her hands, so those apps will be great for Isaiah later on.

With May coming to an end so will the Pennies for Pediatric Stroke. We've received the first couple of dollars from Infant Development Program and tomorrow I will pick up money from KFC, as well as from the base's post office Tuesday morning. I'm anxious to see how much has come together. Next year I will hopefully have more businesses participating. This also means, you only have til Thursday to make a donation that will help Isaiah win an iPad. For every $25 donated, he will receive one entry in the drawing, that doesn't mean you need to donate $25, you can donate less or more. Just like the kindle it will help him with motor skills in his weaker arm. Of course, you will still be able to make donations after May 31st, however, the drawing for the iPad will only consider donations that were made by May 31st. You can find the link to Isaiah's firstgiving page in the left upper corner. Every single dollar will be much appreciated! There are lots of children who's stroke had a much more severe effect on them than Isaiah's stroke did and unfortunately their health insurance do not cover the majority of therapies the children receive. Isaiah may benefit from your donations personally as well! He just got measured for his splint - I had mentioned the splint in an earlier post - and we're not sure our insurance will cover it either. 

By the way, Isaiah's MRI is coming up this Wednesday! We're getting ready to head to Fargo Tuesday morning and will be back Thursday evening. The last MRI was done when he was only a few days old and with him being on medication at the time he slept through it. This time will be different, depending on how he does he may or may not need a sedative.

Standard MRI machine 

This MRI will hopefully come back completely normal without any signs of damage from the stroke. Please keep Isaiah in your prayers!

I sincerely thank you all for following Isaiah and us on this journey and for all the love and support you show! Love,

Update on the penny jars, KFC anyone?

Happy belated Mother's Day everyone! I hope all you mommies, fur mommies, angel mommies, and mommies to be had a fantastic day yesterday! I sure did!

It's been a pretty busy weekend. I picked up the penny jar from Tutti Frutti here in Minot and am happy to say it had $43 in it! KFC close to Walmart is next in line to have it! So go ahead and put some change (or bills) in it while you get yourself some fried chicken! We have another one up in the break room at the Infant Development Office, thank you Kelly for that! I will also be hitting town this week to see who else is willing to participate!

Again, if you would like to put a penny jar up in your business, whether you're near or far, let me know!
And guys, don't forget to make a donation to Isaiah's firstgiving page (button on the left), no matter how big or small! It all makes a huge difference! Plus, for every $25 donated, Isaiah will get an entry in a drawing for an iPad! You can also make an offline donation, contact me for details! Again, it doesn't matter how big or small your donation will be! Every cent, every dollar makes a difference! We appreciate y'alls support so very much!

Thank you! Love,

Our streak

We have almost finished decorating the front of the house and front yard for Pediatric Stroke Awareness month! It's kinda hard to tell form the picture and I haven't taken close-ups but there's a purple pinwheel in each planter. Uhm, and please ignore my pathetic version of a boxtree. I have no idea why one died and the other didn't....

Our front yard: ribbon on the tree, small pinwheels in planters, wreath on door and window art.

Our purple wreath for Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month

Window art (there are also 2 purple ribbons left and right)

The window art took all afternoon! Thanks to the lovely Ms. Rica it only took the afternoon, if it had been me only I'd still be painting! We've already gotten a few responses, people driving by real slow (and trying not to stop, lol). Tomorrow I just need to get the labels for the jars printed, T-shirts for walking, purple nail polish and the ribbons finished. Oh, and maybe purple clip on hair extensions. I am slightly behind since I'm just now getting over whatever bacterial infection I had. So walking will have to wait til Saturday afternoon so I can make sure I am not going to get a heart attack. Whoever wants to join me walking, let me know and I'll make sure I'll have a ribbon for you!
By the way, I walked into the post office yesterday to mail out our waivers for the stroke retreat and I asked if they were ok with having a "Pennies for Pediatric Stroke" penny jar for a week. They said I can have it up as long as I want!!!! Woot woot!

Alright y'all, Nia is super cranky tonight so I'll have to go. But remember, Saturday is Pediatric Stroke Day, so wear something purple and tell someone about pediatric stroke!

Love,