Caden & Sierra

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Time to be a big brother!!!

Caden is now a big brother. Sierra Nevaeh Masako Vermule was born at 8:53 AM on Wednesday May 14th, 2008. She weighs 8 lbs. 1 oz. and is 21" long.

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

hypothyroidism

We recently found out that Caden might have hypothyroidism. Which is an under active thyroid. (Check HERE to read on hypothyroidism.) So, on top of his syndrome that tells him to eat and hinders his metabolism, he might have this to hurt his weight gain problems as well. We are going to have him checked again the week before his surgery, and if his numbers come back the same the doctors are going to put him on medication for that. So, he'll get rid of the medication for his kidney and replace it with a pill for that.

How do you get a 2 1/2 year old to take a pill? I guess we'll figure something out.


He goes in on March 19th to get his bad kidney removed. So, prayers are needed then.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Merry Christmas

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Back From Vacation

It's been a while since I've posted, but we've had a lot happen. Where to start. Caden is going to be a big brother, we went on vacation, and Caden is walking more than anything now.

Until I have time to post more, here is some photos from Mt. Rushmore.





Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

My Little Cutie

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

End of August Updates

Caden is now walking a lot more. He still crawls a lot, but he is using walking as a way of moving quite a bit. He will walk with and with out help. He is still too scared to do it all by walking all of the time, but he is getting there. He almost never scoots on his butt anymore. Except when he goes down the stairs. He will now go down the entire flight of stairs by his self.

He is also now drinking from a straw. When we tried it before, he would bite the straw and attempt to remove the straw with his teeth. When we would give him a taste of something by a straw he would suck out of it then, so he knew how to. He just didn't do it. Last week I got an icee from QT and he wanted some. So, I told him that he had to drink out of the straw like a big boy to get some. I figured he wasn't going to drink out of the straw. Next thing I know, my finger that is touching part of the straw is cold. He did it! I was so ecstatic. So, we have used a straw several times since then and he has consistantly used it.

He had a visit from a speech therapist last week. We figured she would say that he would need help, but she says that he is doing fine. She was not even expecting him to be doing as well as he is. He is not using the same sound all of the time. Although some times it feels like it. He does use some words, but he is showing us a lot using signs. She said that we aren't giving him the credit that he deserves. Using signs is treated the same as normal speech. She went through an evaluation sheet for children his age with 7 or so development areas. He cleared 6 of the 7 and almost cleared the 7th. So, we'll just keep working with him as we are and it will all come together eventually.

On Monday I (daddy) took him to see his Nephrologist, Dr Lovell. She asked how he has been healthwise. Asked if he has been sick or had any Urinary Tract Infections. Which he has not, so she was happy with that. They were able to get his blood pressure on the first shot. That is not an easy feat with Caden. It was good. She looked him over and he appeared to be good she said. Caden is now 35 inches tall, and about 35 lbs. She also asked for a urine sample and for him to give blood before we left so they could ran their panel of tests that they like.

Tomorrow we will go to his Endocrinologist's office. We are not going to see Dr. Corley, we will see his assistant Arlene. I don't entirely remember why we aren't seeing him, but I think this visit is mainly to get height, weight, check for any concerns. Basically a checkup to make sure there are no problems. We'll see tomorrow morning.

We are also going to be on vacation towards the end of September. We will leave after Holly and I finish work on Thursday September 20th and then return back Tuesday September 25th. We are taking Caden to see Mount Rushmore. I have never been there. Holly was when she was younger. We are really excited to go and we hope that the weather will be nice to us. In the Black Hills, it can snow as early as September. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed.




Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

New Photos & Mouth Noises

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

A Long Time Gone...

Sorry that I haven't posted anything. There really hasn't been much to say. That's why I haven't posted.

As I write this, Holly calls me and tells me that Caden walked out of the bathroom his self. She had him in the bathroom downstairs where the changing table is. She changed his diaper and set him down on his feet. She told him to go in the play area expecting him to sit and then scoot on his butt or start crawling. He walked to the door, pushed it open, and then took a few more steps before he sat.

She calls me again and he walked from the couch to the TV. That is a good 15 feet or so. He was on the couch eating his afternoon snack and he had finished. He got off of the couch and was standing. So, she told him to "Go get Alyssa." Then he walked all the way across the room to Alyssa (his cousin).

I will be posting some pictures later today or tomorrow, so keep a lookout.




Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

The Badger Centennial

We went to South Dakota to visit Holly's family. There was a celebration in the town of Badger, SD for their centennial (100 years). Caden went swimming in Lake Poinsett. He didn't like the swimming part as much as he like sitting at the water's edge and throwing rocks in as you'll see in the pictures.

There was a parade that Caden's 2nd cousin Casey was in. He entered in using his race car as his float. There'll be pictures for that as well.

There was a street dance in the downtown area, and we could barely keep Caden away from the stage. Every time that we pulled him away, he'd pull us right back and start dancing. When the fireworks were going off, Caden was paying attention to them, but he was also watching his 2nd cousin Andy. He would watch one go off, then he'd wait to see Andy's reaction and then mimic what Andy did. So, if Andy said "Wow!" Caden would. It was kind of funny.

The view the photos on pickle click here.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

7 steps and no help stands

Caden took about 7 unassisted steps last night.

He also pulled himself to standing quite a few times in the middle of the floor.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Big Boy Bed & Chicken

Caden as in his big boy bed:

Caden & Cameron Play Chicken Part 1:


Caden & Cameron Play Chicken Part 2:




Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Time for a Big Boy Bed

On saturday Holly and I decided that it was time to try Caden in a toddler bed. So, we pulled out the extra boards for his bed. It converts from a crib to a toddler bed, and then to a twin. We thought the instructions were wrapped up with the boards. Well, they weren't. I looked at the boards and one of them seemed to be the length of the front of the crib between the posts.

So, I pulled the plastic wrap off the boards and the board was the correct length and it had the holes on the sides for the bolts. I removed the front part and put the board in place. It was the correct board. I later looked up the instructions on the internet and I did it correctly according to them. I also found out that when we are ready to change it into a twin bed, we are missing a board. So, we are going to contact the place where we bought it from out of chance that they will replace it.

Holly had a "girl's come buy some stuff so I can get free stuff" party saturday night, so Caden and I went over to uncle Josh's house to watch movies and play with his cousin Cameron. Cameron has some toddler size, battery powered four-wheelers. Josh put Cameron at one end of the hallway and I put Caden at the other end and let them both go. They went for each other on the 4-wheelers and played chicken. It was funny to watch. I'll post the video to it later or tomorrow.

Since we were at Josh's, when we came home Caden was already sleeping. I put him into his toddler bed for the night. I was up all night checking on him. He rolled out of bed twice and got out of bed once.

The first time he rolled out of bed, we didn't even hear him. I came in the room and there Caden was sleeping on the pillows we put at the side of his bed in case he did roll out. The second time, I was walking in to check on him as he was rolling out of bed.

When he got out of bed, I didn't think it was him at first. I was already up for the day. I heard a rustle at the child gate we put on his door. I thought it was Kira, our cat, just rubbing against it. Then I heard Caden grunt as he was standing up at the gate. So, I picked him up and sat back on the couch with him. He fell asleep on me, so I put him back to bed. He was good for the rest of the night.

Last night, he moved all over his bed like he usually does, but he didn't roll out at all. So, it may have only taken him one night to get used to being in a toddler bed. If he did roll out, he got back into bed all by his self. We'll see over the next few nights if he is used to it.


NOTE: Pictures and video to be posted later tonight or tomorrow.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Bomb Pops

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

PT at Children's

Caden had his first PT (Physical Therapy) session at Children's Hospital in Omaha, NE yesterday morning. His therapist's name is Katie. She evaluated how he pulls up, crawls, walks, and climbs stairs. She did ask about what his current services are and said that she likes what his current therapists are saying.

She doesn't think it'll be much longer before Caden walks. Which is good news of course. We scheduled Wednesday mornings for the next 6 weeks, but she is guessing that we won't need that many. We can only hope.

On more of a funny comment. Caden wrestled one of the daycare kids to pin her. He and Cara were sitting in a turtle sandbox that we are using as a ball pit. Holly said that he got face to face with her, really close, then he pushed her over and put his arm around her neck to get her down all of the way to pin her. I don't know where he learned this from since I don't watch wrestling.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

2 Years Old

Well, neeedless to say, but yesterday was Caden's 2nd birthday. I've got a couple pictures at the moment of his party. The rest will come shortly. I do also have some short videos of Caden eating his cake and ice cream.





Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Family Awareness

This is Prader-Willi Awareness week/month. So, we decided to do some awareness in our family and friends. The Prader-Willi Association sent us some orange support bracelets to hand out, some information pamplets, and an "Early Years" video to watch.

We invited mostly family, and some friends to come watch the video. We were so happy with all that showed up. Even some people who said that they weren't coming over still did. We treated them to dinner and a show (the video). They had a few questions, which we were able to answer, and some comments.

We are so thankful that those who came did.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Caden Climbs the Stairs

Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

A new friend

Last night we had a visit from a family that has a 19 year old son with PWS, namely Jeff. When they first got to our house, Caden and I were downstairs playing. Jeff was kind of reserved to start, but opened up quickly. He was playing with Caden and Caden was loving it. They were crawling all over the basement, chasing each other, and playing hide-n-seek. Caden had a ball.

Holly and myself got to talk with a family first hand and ask some questions, as well as asked some questions about Caden. Since our situations were a bit different, they seemed curious about how we approached the diagnosis.

Jeff was diagnosed when he was 2 and 1/2 years old. So they did catch it a little late for him. Jeff walked when he was 17 months old, so earlier than Caden will. When he was 3 he weighed 84 lbs. Last year he went to a place in Pittsburgh and they helped him lose over 100 lbs. Go Jeff!

I am sure we will talk with them more in the future.





Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Leaps and Bounds

(NOTE ON POSTING DATE: This was supposed to be posted 3/22/07 at 2:40 PM.)

Caden is now climbing everywhere he can. On tuesday night Holly called me while I was at work. She was watching a little boy named Mario and of course Caden. They were in our basement, which is where Holly has her daycare, and she went into the bathroom and when she came out she asked herself, "Where's Caden? Where's Mario?" She looked around the stairs real quick then she darted up the stairs. They were up stairs and headed towards the bedrooms and Caden's playroom.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.