Boots fiasco

It's official, I hate Will's leg braces more than I thought possible. I suppose that things could be a lot worse (and actually they really really could be a ton worse) but let me point out that when something like a leg brace breaks, it makes walking rather difficult.

Will can walk without the support of his leg braces, or boots as we call them, but he is significantly less stable/sturdy and the opportunity for injury shoots way up. Not only that, but we don't have any shoes that fit a non-booted foot. Well, except slippers...

My "old man" in his slippers helping fold laundry. 

Per the usual, Will goes like a weed so about every six months he is due for a new pair. The new "Superman" themed boots arrived in November. When we were at the place doing the final fitting a piece popped off and the guy said, "huh, I've never seen that happen before. I'll go glue it back on." Right then and there a little piece of me knew that this wasn't going to end well.

Fast forward a few months of hard use and that piece, as well as some additional pieces, broke off again and again and again... No, not once, not twice but THREE TIMES.

Entertainment while we wait. 

During the second emergency "fix it" trip I had finally had it and they agreed to make a new boot. Well, that involves yet another appointment. So, three repairs, one new casting and one final fitting appointment we have one new leg brace. For those of you who are slow to add, that's five trips in a 18 day time period.

We absolutely love Hope Orthotics and they did a great job helping expedite the new boot, did them at no cost to us and always worked us in to get the current boot fixed, so kudos to them. They think what happened was on Will's right boot the plastic just didn't get hot enough to meld all the other plastic pieces together. Statistically bound to happen when you have had six pairs of leg braces.

Quinn participated in one of these trips - the one where we hauled you know what to the med center in 4 p.m. traffic to get there before they closed at 5 p.m. 

That one was my absolute fave... insert sarcastic laugh.

I think what frustrated me the most was that this happened to Will in the middle of the day at school; he basically had to sit and wait for me to come get him and couldn't really participate in any big movements without holding a teachers hand.

When I got there the last time it was a beautiful sunny morning and the class was outside doing something called "Adventure Blocks" which sounds to be one his favorite things. He was sitting next to his teacher and just had this sad little face; broke my heart right there. Granted, I found out later he was participating previously with the help of his teacher but had just sat down to take a break. It made me feel a little better but not really.

Through all of this, Will did an amazing job of letting someone know when it just didn't feel right. In other words, he advocated for himself. He asked for and immediately got help. He earned a coin in his bank at school for being so brave as well. So proud.

See that little black rubber looking piece in the middle? That rubber piece kept falling off as well as small piece of the inside of the boot. The "work shop guys" as Will calls them now used the rivets and super glue to adhere it all back together.

Today we picked up his new boot - Ninja Turtle. So one left leg is his old Superman boot and right leg is Ninja Turtle. Let's hope the Turtle was melted properly. If not, his boot won't be the only thing breaking :-)

Notice there are no rivets on this boot.

Not to worry, we'll be back getting fitted for an entirely new pair in probably two or three months. I launched a pretty aggressive campaign to get an entirely new set but lost that battle. Oh well. I got to spend a lot of extra time with Will and we made the most of it. One day he got to be my little temporary employee and aggressively tried to get my attention  waited patiently while I had an hour long phone conference for work.

Quinn is ONE!

Time flies when you're mixing bottles, cleaning up spit up and cutting up food. What a year it's been with our little lady, Quinn Katherine Martin! She is 30" tall, 21 pounds and of course has that big "Martin family" head - 18.74" - the 98 percentile.

Birthday - 1/9/2014 at 4:44 p.m.

Nicknames: Quinny bear, QB, Little Miss Grabby Hands, Quinnsy, Q, Quinny, Sis, Little Lady

Favorite foods: Strawberries, avocado

Silly, crazy things she does:

-Walks around the house holding toys and dropping them along the way

-Loves bath time; she could play till the water gets cold

-Can say uhoh, dada, thank you, bye bye

-Loves to clap for herself and say "yeaaa" 

-Occasionally can find her nose and blow kisses

-After eating in the morning; goes hunting for her brother and dad

-Very stubborn

-Laughs when you tell her no; doesn't seem to care if you pop her hand

-Not a big snuggler, but will sometimes pat your back when she wakes up or greets you

Getting her into this world, our crazy lives, was a struggle. There were prior failures and mishaps along the way, but I couldn't imagine not having this little bundle of "normal" in our lives. 

It's been a unique year for us in that we actually watched a child develop "normally" - I still watch, in utter amazement, how her body works and moves. Taking her first steps at 10 months old was and still feels insane. The way she runs, pops right up and just rolls around with such ease is an amazing and bittersweet gift to see every day. 

I will never take anything she or Will does for granted. Just watching the two of them interact, play and be silly together is quite possibly the most amazing gift of all. 

Quinn has brought so much love, joy and happiness into all our lives. Her sweetness has filled so many holes in my heart, holes I didn't think could be filled are healing in a different way. I thank God every day for her and for Will and Neil. 

May you have many, many more! 

Merry Christmas and Chunk a Deuce to 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Well I knew it would happen, I got all caught up on the blog then 17 days at home with kiddos happened and so here I am, behind again. 

Will had quite an extensive Christmas break "I want to do..." List. I won't lie, I was rather nervous about keeping two kids entertained and some semblance of sanity for me during the break, but it ended up being a lot of fun. And, it was a good confidence booster than I CAN actually handle two kids by myself for multiple hours and not just inside our house. 

Quinn's first Santa experience... okay at first then...

Not so okay. I'm utterly shocked Will didn't throw a deuce with Santa. 

He must have really wanted some presents. 

Annual tradition of breakfast with Santa with Murphy

Christmas morning! 

This was Will for TWO hours... playing the Wii. I think he tried every game a couple of times. 

Apparently this along with some serious play time at my parents house Christmas afternoon resulted in not a good situation for Will. He was totally wiped out. Neil and I were both really really concerned he was having some sort of metabolic stroke. His speech was slurring and you could tell he wasn't chewing as well. We spent the next few days laying low. 

Will gave Quinn a baby doll that giggles when you squeeze it. I think they both like it. 

JJ Watt jersey. He really is just all boy. He may have a mitochondrial disease but that hasn't hampered his love for sports, any and all of them.

More present unwrapping

Neil and I went to the Longhorn bowl game with some friends. Not to shabby of a view. I had even gotten some pictures of Bevo for Will, but he chose to get on my phone and delete them. 

He deleted those pictures AFTER I gave him his surprise of a Longhorn cookie from the game.

One of the items on Will's "I Want To..." list was to go to the library. So we went during story hour / craft hour. Quinn and Will both had a great time. They did music, books and coloring. 

Will was the oldest kiddo there... too cool for this huh?

Participating in the session

Playing operation, a Christmas gift! 

Not in the mood for photos, but another item on the list. Try out this neighborhood place called Reds for a special dessert treat. We walked there in the freezing cold / nasty weather; at least it was good to get out of the house. 

Another item on the list... make a Gingerbread House. Bonus points that it was with Aunt Lisa!!

And finally, Happy New Year from Quinn. She hasn't quite figured out how to hold her liquor yet. :-)

In many aspects I'm sad to see 2014 go. We celebrated so much, Quinn's birth, Will's 5th birthday, successful jobs, even managed to go on a vacation. Most importantly, Will had an amazing year. He started a new school and has been overall very healthy. 2014 is a year that I wish had gone a little slower because everyone and everything was pretty amazing.