He's out!

Shriners appointment today, and Caden's out of the casts! And he doesn't need another set. They still don't know if he'll need the AFO's or not, so they're going to watch him for 2 months, then see him back. If his heels are popping up again in that time, he'll need them. If not, he won't. But between then and now he has feet again! Or rather, he has feetsies I can kiss again :) He's not a huge fan of the actual process of getting the casts off (he's a little phobic of things that go buzz, go figure), but once they were off he was raring to get walking. And it was hilarious. As we were waiting to get him fit for the next size up in Mitchell clubfoot boots, he kept clomping around as if he still had the casts on because he was used the weight. He was a little wobbly for a couple hours (and he turfed it HARD at Aunt Sessie's work), but by the time it was bathtime, he had his land legs back.

The bath. OH the bath. Bath bliss. For both of us. He was a little wary of getting into the tub (we've been having 'lay on the kitchen counter' sponge baths for 2 weeks), but once his feet hit the warm water and the water came up to his knees, he just kinda went "ooooooooo" and sat down like "oh MAN that feels gooooood." He was so relaxed after the bath, he must have felt so much better to have a real soaky bath again. And I know he smelled better, he had stinky cast feet. We put on his new "n-night shoes", had us a good snuggle with the bottle, book, and toothbrush (yes, he likes to hold onto his toothbrush during storytime....nut), and then he was out cold in about 10 minutes flat.

It's days like today when my feelings are at diametric odds. I get so discouraged, so sad for him, when he has to have things done (like these casts), or when I think ahead or even think of now and realize I have to buy shoes that'll fit braces, buy jammies that'll accommodate the Mitchell boots and bar instead of ones that look cute or super warm, or think of the things he might not be able to do later like hold a pencil securely, squeeze the handlebar brakes of his first bike, and can't do now like make a fist. On the same token, it has been so rewarding to watch him adapt through this all. He's writing his own rules to the development book, and those rules work for him JUST FINE. He is the personification of perseverance for me. He doesn't care what's thrown down in front of him. Life tosses him lemons? He doesn't make himself a mere glass of lemonade, he puts up a stand and makes bank off the earnings.

I love my Nugget so much. His journey has been scary, things we've been told during it have been disheartening at times, but I wouldn't change a bit of it. My 19 month old son has shown me what it means to be a real man, and he's my superhero.

New 'wheels'

Not a very fun day for mommy and baby today. For about 2 weeks I've been noticing that Caden was walking on the balls of his feet, instead of his heels coming all the way to the floor. I wondered if that meant a relapse in his clubfeet (which is possible with his Arthrogryposis alongside the clubfeet), so I called his care coordinator at Shriners last Thursday. They wanted to see him as soon as they could, so they made us an appointment for this morning. So me and my mom and Nugget drove down and sure enough, x-rays revealed that it's not just his tendons and muscles that are tight, but his heel bone is no longer where it should be, it's slid up again a bit. Really aggressive therapy just wasn't going to be enough, so they had to put him back in casts. Luckily for us both, they're not the hip-to-toe casts that his initial castings were because they're not trying to correct recurvature of his feet, just trying to stretch his Achilles back out. They also said the reason that he's walking on the balls of his feet is because of his Arthrogryposis - his legs don't straighten so with his knees contracted like they are (albeit not as severe as they could be), the only way for him to find balance in that 'hunchback' position was to pop his heel up and walk on the balls of his feet. He might need some AFO's to correct that after he's out of these casts, but they'll make that determination in 2 weeks when the casts come off.
For viewing pleasure, here's my hero already figuring out how to walk around the house in his casts without holding my hand, not 2 hours after he was casted. I love my man:

We moved! (The "befores")

FINALLY. We're finally out of that awful apartment complex, and more importantly, away from our psychotic violent neighbor. We've moved to a little home in North Ogden on the E side of Washington Blvd, and we love it. It has a huge yard (yay, Nugget's never had a yard of his own!), two massive living/entertainment rooms, an enormous kitchen, great laundry area...everything about it is just fantastic. Caden loves it. He was so sad every time, while moving, we had to leave the house and go back to the apartment at nights....there's so much room for him to grow. Here are the 'before' pictures. I'll put the 'after it's decorated' pictures up as soon as, well, everything's decorated and it no longer looks like we just moved in!

Standing in the back of the kitchen, looking into the laundry/storage area that leads to the back door/carport:

Right side of the kitchen (laundry room door in the corner there), standing at the doorway between kitchen and first living room:

Left side of kitchen, standing in the same place. Sliding glass doors lead onto a cement patio:

Right side of the second living room, looking from about the half-way point. Door leads to the patio off the kitchen:

Standing in the hallway to the bedrooms/bath, looking across first living room into the second. Front door is on the left of the big window, kitchen entrance is to the right:

Flipped around in the hallway now, looking into the bathroom, which is on the left of the hall:

Master bed, right across from the bath. Second bedroom is on the left at the end behind Brando...forgot to get that picture:

The back yard, looking from the driveway next to the back door. Yes that whole thing is yard for Caden (shared with the house to the right - which you can only see the back garage of - that Branden's aunt lives in), complete with a dog named Max: