I find it’s always hard to come back to the blog after taking a bit of a break: where do I pick up? Do I skip everything we’ve done since our last post or do I go back and cover every single little thing?

I’ve decided this time around to do a quick recap of the end of the year as we did some noteworthy things that I want to mention.

Enjoying Nashville in the late Fall

In short, the last six weeks were a blur. Here’s what we did:

• On Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, Solly and I boarded a plane for Los Angeles. We spent one week in sunny L.A. for a week-long intensive at NAPA Center (which was just as magical as the first time we went), and on Tuesday of that week, we drove up to Pasadena for another round of stem cells. Despite having a full calendar of therapy, the week was lovely: Solly and I got in several runs along Manhattan Beach, we ate at all of our favorite L.A. restaurants, and got to spend some quality time with one of my best friends. It was hard to be away from Mike and Bea for a whole week, but we enjoyed our time on the West Coast.
  

  Working hard at NAPA Center

  

  Snuggling during stem cell therapy

• After we got back, Solly started a weekly physical therapy appointment at High Hopes Development Center with a new therapist. She’s a great fit for him and we’re excited to continue to work with her in 2019!
• Solly and Bea got their pictures taken with Santa Claus at High Hopes Development Center.
  
• Solly had his 4 year wellness exam at his pediatrician. After several years of struggling with weight gain, our hard work at feeding therapy has paid off: Solly is now on a great growth curve!
• We had Christmas here in Nashville with some of my family, and both Solly and Bea had a blast opening presents and hanging out with cousins.
• The day after Christmas, we flew down to Miami and boarded a cruise ship for a 5 day Disney cruise with my entire family. While both kiddos weren’t quite sure what to think of the Disney characters, they both loved the Disney princesses, and Solly especially loved Captain America. The cruise experience was wonderful in that the entire staff always made a point to say hi and engage our kids every time they saw them, and by the time we disembarked, every single crew member knew who Solly was. It was a great way to end the year.
  

  

  

  

What’s Up Next

Oh my, we’ve got some big plans for 2019.  We’re planning three more trips out to Los Angeles for therapy and another jaunt to Roanoke for more constraint therapy. In the near term, next week, we’ll be seeing a new orthopedic doctor who will hopefully help us to continue to closely monitor the health of Solly’s hips and spine, and then at the end of February, we’ve got a consultation with Dr. Parks, a neurosurgeon in St. Louis, to see if Solly will be a candidate for a procedure called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. (The latter appointment is a big one – more to come on that later.)

I hope you had a great holiday season and 2019 is starting off with a bang!