My heart is overflowing.

LOVE!!!

No other words can express what I felt after I saw how caring Kenna is to her brother. 

Farewell cast

Tyler's thumb surgery was 5 weeks ago. Today was the big day to remove his cast and for us to get a first glance at his thumb. He was born with clasped thumbs (where the thumb stays in the palm of the hand). So we have never really seen his thumb out. He has never been able to grab things with ease or even give a thumbs up. He only had surgery on his left thumb. We will see how this one goes and then decide if it's worth doing the other. 

Tyler was definitely ready to part with his cast. And man, did he put that cast through the ringer. It was only a soft cast so it was getting very dirty and started to unravel in a few places. I really didn't think it would make it to the 5 week mark. But it did. 

He was a trooper when they removed the cast. Since it was a soft cast, they just snipped it off with scissors and then they removed the 2 pins that were in his thumb. I squirmed and made more of a big deal when he removed the pins than Tyler did. He didn't even flinch. 

The pins. 

We have grown accustomed to his thumbs being inside his palm his entire life that it's crazy to see his thumbs out. He now has a splint that he will have to wear most of the day and night for 2 weeks.

A much cleaner view.

His new splint. 

Accessible Bathroom

3 years ago when we were searching for a new home, everything we looked at just didn't seem to meet all the needs we were wanting. The main thing was to find an accessible home. Since we couldn't find the perfect home to buy, the decision was made that we would build. We found the perfect lot. We had house plans drawn up. We hired a contractor. We began the process of building. We decided it was also a good time to add another family member (not sure why we thought that was a good idea, but we managed and it all worked out perfect). We moved.

There were a couple things that we did not finish before moving in though. One of those things was finishing Tyler's accessible bathroom. A year and half has gone by since we moved in, but the time finally came. Tyler was going to get his own adaptable/accessible bathroom. Some of the key features of his bathroom are a roll-in shower, lower sink, grab bars, etc. He is one lucky guy, because I'd have to say his bathroom is much nicer than anything in our entire house. But now with these features we will be able to take care of Tyler with a little bit more ease.