Therapy, and handling comments

Yesterday at lunch Jude went to see the speech, and physical therapists at Baylor Our House. Speech therapy went amazing, and Jude is mimicking us by opening and closing his mouth, when we talk. He wants to talk back to us, but has not yet found his voice. Although he is saying ....... mum (he knows his English heritage), agee, da, and ahhh. He will talk more when he is on his side, in a dark room, without noise. He is also making progress when the speech therapist places her finger inside his mouth to simulate a spoon. Rather than clamping down on her finger he allows her to touch his tongue, pull forward, and then pinch his lips. This is encouraging.


During physical therapy, poor little Jude got very upset. The physical therapist explained that even though Mike massages Judes limbs every morning, he is very tight. In other words Jude is in pain, and there is a reason for his tantrums. She explained that he feels like a football player that has been working out constantly. So Mike finally admitted to me that I was right and he must give in, and take Jude to my cousins friend Judd, and Pam who are chiropractors. They are amazing, and Pam was the one who naturally turned Jude from a breech position to ready for birth without any medical intervention. So he will be contacting them soon.



Poor Jude:



Also, Emily received some mixed responses to her huge award from Prudential today. I let the comments come in regardless of what they were, and I watched how Emily handled them. She received so many wonderful comments from generous people who knew this major exposure could only further her charity work. Although, children are young, and Emily heard some snide remarks. I sat back and watched her friend tell her she was jealous, and I wondered what Emily would say. Then she spoke.. "I would trade this in a minute if my brother was healthy". She blew me away! In addition to that she received a text from a friend who said she was a tad bit jealous. Em just responded "I only do this for the kids not the awards" she then told her friend she needed an award too for being so wonderful. Em means it too, and that makes me happy because it's me that nominates her, teachers, or strangers, not herself. Many kids don't realize that Em spent over a 100 hours last year working on her project. She went to fundraisers, she walked her neighborhood, put together boxes, toured facilities, wrote countless thank you notes, and more. On weekends when many people were having fun in the sun, Em was walking the halls of hospitals. I am proud she has won this award, and I only think it will further her goal to grow her charity Nationwide. She also has a goal to now have boy, and girl boxes, vs generic boxes. The real question here is if I can keep up with her giving heart.


Now let me also assure you that little miss giving also has a naughty side. Tonight she threw a really good tantrum. She was so angry that I told her she needs to be neater she threw down her unopened yogurt smoothie. Said yogurt smoothie exploded upon impact and coated me, Mike, the walls, the couch, and more. I initially got very upset until I saw Mike polka a dotted in pink liquid, and then we all laughed. Then Em got a swift kick in the rear (just kidding.......well kinda), and we talked about why we shouldn't jump to irrational behavior.