Archive for the 'Blogroll' Category

ABR Improvement Posts…#2

January 18, 2010 | Blogroll

This short video shows the improvements in Samuel’s shoulders. Originally, when you picked him up from underneath his arms, his shoulders would literally slide up to meet the bones at the base of his neck and then you could begin to lift him. In the second half of the video, you can see that his shoulders are staying more in place and he actually has a neck when we lift him from beneath his shoulders. Password is abr2.

Password is abr2.

Love,

The Jewkes

ABR Improvement Posts…#1

January 12, 2010 | Blogroll

We came back from our ABR trip with 2 hours of BEFORE video and 2 hours of AFTER video. I figured no one in their right mind (which obviously doesn’t include me) would want to watch all 4 hours of those videos. So, I’ve been taking segments of them and putting them into smaller videos for those of you who wish to see some of the improvements in Samuel. I’ll post one short video at a time so that, hopefully, you’ll have time to watch them.

You have to keep in mind that ABR is a slow process. It is a process to rebuild the structure of the body from the inside out. Samuel’s body has become very flexible over the past 4.5 years. But this flexibility is actually weakness in all his joints. One of the most obvious weaknesses is the weakness in his back where every vertebrate will collapse down onto the next one giving him no stability and no strength in his spine. This weakness makes it impossible for him to sit up - even if his brain knew how, his body is incapable of it.

So, when you watch these videos, look for subtle changes in the structure of his body. Changes that will give him the strength and stability to eventually sit on his own. We still have a very long way to go. But we knew that when we started.

This first video shows changes in the weakness in his back and his chest. Before we started ABR, I would sit Samuel on my lap, facing me, with his legs straddling me. I would hold him upright in a sitting position and then let his head fall back to nearly touch his bottom. He was most comfortable this way. He would cry until I would put him in this position. It was neutral position for him. I had forgotten that until I watched this original video again. And that is when I realized that he probably can’t even get in that position anymore and that neutral for him now is much more normal. It was a neat thing to see.

So, here is improvement video number 1. The password is abr1.

Password is abr1.

Love,

The Jewkes

November in a nutshell…

January 7, 2010 | Blogroll

November was a little less dramatic. Thank heavens.

Ben had a birthday!

This is what opening your gifts looks like when you have a little brother who thinks every birthday is his…

Hugging Aunt Kaylee - isn’t he cute handsome!

Giving the “evil eye” to anyone even thinking of eating his carmel ear of corn…

Blowing out the candles on his specially requested cinnamon roll cake and wishing he had someone to help him. Oh, wait, he does!

It was a fun party (especially for Nathan - apparently). It’s a good thing Ben is so patient with him and so willing to let Nathan be his little shadow. Ben’s a good big brother for sure.

For Thanksgiving, we visited my sister in Idaho and had a great time seeing family from all around the country. I already posted our family pictures from that fun time in a previous post. It was certainly nice to see everyone and let the kids play with all their cousins.

That was about it for November. I’m finishing up a video of some of the changes we saw in Samuel at our ABR evaluation. It’s pretty cool.

Love,

The Jewkes

The wedding…

November 10, 2009 | Blogroll

I need to preface this post with a few things. First, Samuel didn’t throw up for 2 months prior to my sister’s wedding (which was at the beginning of August). Two days before the wedding, he started throwing up a couple times each day. Nothing serious, really, he seems to cycle thru these stages. But my sister, being in love with Samuel as much as I am, had asked Samuel to be her ring bearer. So, amidst all the excitement and fun of the wedding, we were all a bit worried. Worried that Samuel might throw up on his tux and scared to death that he would throw up on the bride. I mean, can you imagine it?

Luckily, we’ll have to leave that to our imagination as Samuel was a doll all day long and didn’t spit up once. It was a beautiful ceremony followed by good food and lots of dancing. We stayed late and Samuel was happy as could be. And, may I add, the most adorable thing in a tux EVER!

Samuel all dolled up and ready to go!

A kiss from the bride.

The wedding party - don’t you love the colors!

So handsome…

The proper way to pose for pictures at a formal wedding.

The bride and her nieces and nephews (minus my oldest - not sure where he was).

The littles ones dancing away.

Even Samuel got to dance with the bride.

The sisters gettin’ down!

Oh, there’s my oldest. Wait! What’s he holding? Are you kidding me? Hey Mr. Groom, can we try aiming for someone else? Anyone else??? (Just kidding…I still love you Ben…sort of :)!

Love,
The Jewkes

Birthdays…

September 3, 2009 | Blogroll

(This post was written in June of 2009.)

We’ve had a lot of birthdays the past few months.

First, there was Weston’s. He’s officially a teenager now, although I don’t think he will ever prove to be too difficult of one :). Kaylee made him a butterfly cake and he got good things - like frogs and games - things boys love. (Things to note in the picture below: Nathan helping blow out the candles and Samuels feet in the air :)!

My birthday was next. I turned 29 for like the 8th year in a row. It was great! I got to go to dinner and everyone gave me sweet gifts.

And last was Nathan’s birthday. He got a bouncy horse just like the one he accidentally almost stole from the baby animal days store. He loved it. He also got cowboys and horses (do we see a theme here)? And a nice big dragon. His favorite thing, though, was blowing out the candles. He did it over and over and over again. But he wouldn’t do it if we didn’t sing first, so we did A LOT of singing. It was a fun day and now my baby is 3.

Now we get a little break before it’s Samuel’s birthday. We’re hoping to make that a nice celebration. I can’t believe he’s going to be SIX! Wow!

Love,
The Jewkes