Have To Share This

WATCH this video! So inspirational!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDaf3fe9NT0

Oprah: "What do you think is the biggest misconception about people with disabilities?"



Zach Anner: "That they they are helpless and that their personalities are defined by their disabilities...I am so many things before I am a person in a wheel chair. Get to know the person. The chair is incidental."



Please, God, help us raise Davis to think this way about himself.

Follow-Up

We saw Dr. Boydston yesterday for Davis' 6 week post-op visit. He thinks Davis looks great; 'exactly where I expect him to be at this point'. We just need to be doing more stretching exercises with him, especially at his ankles. And he wants him to continue to 'not walk' for another 3 weeks.

Potty update: Davis has wet the bed for the third night in a row. I'm taking full blame for this because I'm a mom and that's what I do I haven't been waking him up at 5 a.m. to go pee. And I haven't been super strict about the 'no liquids after 6 p.m.' rule. We went to dinner with my family last night and some friends had us over the night before. But I'm back on track now. :) On the bright side, it's giving him great lessons on what happens when he pees on his 'duh'. He's doing so great during the day, though!!! He's telling me that he needs to go, pooping every day, and hasn't had any accidents!

My Boogie...

Have a great weekend!!!

Movie, Underwear, A Bond, Steps

On Thursday night, two girlfriends and I left our children home with the hubbys and enjoyed an evening of pedis and a movie. Just Go With It. Just go see it! Probably one of the top 5 funniest movies I've ever seen. Hilarious. Wanna see it again! AND!!! Dave Matthews is in it!



And here's what us Nunleys were up to all weekend...



I found this 'guaranteed to work' 3 day potty training program online and thought I'd give it a shot. It only cost $24 and seemed really credible. So, we set aside this past weekend to see if we could get this 4 and a half year old of ours potty trained.



The program requires you to set aside 3 consecutive days where you do nothing but stare at your child's lower half. Basically, you throw away all pull ups and diapers, focus on constant positive reinforcement and praise, and repeat the phrases 'Be sure to tell me when you need to go pee or poop, ok?' and 'Be sure to keep your underwear clean and dry, ok?' about 87,000 times a day (and night). That's right. I slept on D's floor for 3 nights and every time he moved, I had to repeat these mantras to him. You're never supposed to put the child on the potty to 'try' and go and you must catch EVERY single accident. You only put them on the potty when they tell you they need to go and during an accident. It was so unbelievably exhausting, but we were so dedicated to giving this 100% effort.



Justin took care of Reese all weekend so they're super tight now. And, I have to say, there's pretty much nothing cuter in the whole entire world.

"What did you just say to me?"

So, did it work???


It's Tuesday now and since we started this on Friday, Davis has only wet the bed once. And he hasn't had an accident since Sunday. He's not 100% there yet, but he'll never wear another pull up or diaper again! And that is a miracle!!!


OH! And my Underwear Wearing Son gave me a nice surprise yesterday when he said this, "Momma, my boo boo is all gone so I can walk now!"

Visit At School

We stopped by school today so Davis could say 'hello' to all of his friends and pick up a cubby full of paperwork, Valentine's goodies, and a special 'get well' gift from one of his classmates. All the kids were so excited and happy to see Davis! They all came running over and asked him a million questions. Davis told them that he went to the hospital and got a boo-boo and now he has a cool chair. He played on the playground for a few minutes and got really sad when it was time to go! But we plan on sending him back on March 7th!

We have something very important planned for this weekend. It'll require us to be indoors for the next 3 days. Stay tuned...

Monster Trucks and Monster Sister

Davis, Justin, and I had a blast at the Monster Jam over the weekend! It was so nice to spend a special evening out with our little man!

Update on Baby Sister...she's rolling over like it's her job. We'll put her down somewhere and have no idea what position she'll be in when we look at her again. She started sleeping in her room about a week ago...I know, I know...I waited a really long time to do this, but she's my last baby, people!!! She is gigantic and loves baby food, especially pears. She's already wearing 12 month clothes and we keep warning Davis that she's going to be wailing on him soon if he doesn't start eating more. I'm having serious 'blues' about all this baby growing up crap.

HOPE EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL VALENTINE'S DAY!

He's Better Than The Best

Once again, I panicked. Why, after 4 weeks, is Davis still not walking on his own???

I called Scottish Rite and spoke to one of their on-site PT's. I let her know that my son had the Rhizotomy procedure done 4 weeks ago and is still not walking independently. I asked if she was familiar with that particular operation and its recovery process and whether or not I should be concerned. She told me that he shouldn't be walking for at least 8-12 weeks. His muscles are so weak right now that if he was able to walk, he'd quickly fall back into his old walking patterns and start using the wrong strong muscles to compensate. She told me that, upon discharge from the hospital, we should have been given a wheel chair and that that should be his primary means of getting around right now. It'll take about 2-3 months of intensive therapy to retrain and strengthen his hip and leg muscles before he'll even be able to walk 'the right way'. He can practice walking in therapy, that's it.

I know you're wondering 'why weren't they given this information before surgery?' Well, we were. Kind of. I remember them telling me that he shouldn't even try to walk for the first month. But I forgetted. Oops. And I was comparing him to other kids who were walking within a week or two. It sounds like it's actually a blessing, though, that Davis is too weak to walk because when we were practicing with him at home we could see how what the therapist said, totally made sense.

I relayed all this information to Davis' wonderful and amazing therapists and they immediately began researching vendors that loan out wheel chairs. Within two days, this bad boy was at our front door step...

Davis LOVES it! And Justin's having lots of fun with it, also!

Dadda, PaPow, and Davis went 4-wheeling and rabbit hunting earlier this week...

And we had a wonderful, surprise visit from Pop and Busha...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We're taking Davis to Monster Jam at the Dome tomorrow night and I...CAN'T...WAIT!

Three Weeks Post-Op

See his video progress here.


Davis' therapists are really pleased with the progress he's already made. He's doing such a great job at staying motivated and positive during therapy and his at-home exercises...despite what the end of the video shows!

OH! And I am so excited to announce that our family is growing!!! My little bro got engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Elle! I love her all the days and can't wait to call her my 'sister'! AND...Brother asked Davis to be his 'Best Man'! Can't wait!

Enjoying our beautiful weekend...