Our first trip outside!

Hello everyone!

I meant to post this yesterday, but Atticus just did not want to got to sleep last night! :) He was too busy playing and laughing. But he had had a rather exciting day yesterday. First, we got to go to the Children's Atrium and meet THE CAT IN THE HAT!! And yes it was THE cat. Apparently his "handler" is personal friends with Dr Seuss' second wife, who loans her the costume to go to various children hospitals and brighten the day of the patients. How cool!

Then, we got to take our very first trip outside!!!! This was very special to me because Atticus has never been out in the fresh air before. It also shows how well he is doing! They were willing to let him go outside with only an air tank...and no monitors!!! :) Atticus was asleep on the trip down the elevator, but when we went outside and the strong warm breeze hit his face, his little eyes just popped open! He started looking around like, "What is THAT??!" He dozed some more as we strolled around the circle in front of the hospital, and we eventually came upstairs.

Later the ladies from OT (Occupational Therapy) and PT (Physical Therapy) dropped by to work with him and give him some exercise and practice on holding his head up, rotating his joints, putting some weight on his feet, etc. You would think that all that excitement would just wear him out, but not my little man! He decided that there was too much that he might miss out on and didn't go to sleep until almost 1AM!!

The doctors also gave us some good news, and some not so great news yesterday. The good news is that it looks like Monday will be the big day!!! :) He won't make it home for Gideon's birthday, but the more I got to thinking about it; that may be a good thing too. That way Gideon can have all my attention on his birthday, which he has largely been without for the last 5 months. Again, God's timing is perfect in all things. (It also gives me the opportunity to take a lot of my & his things home and put them away before we come home with medical equipment, etc) The not so great news I already posted a little while ago. Atticus has not passed his last two hearing screens. They don't know yet how severe this means his hearing loss is. He'll have a follow up visit sometime in the near future with an Audiologist, to determine exactly that. A little silver lining though; the doctors did say that it would be very unusual for complete hearing loss...especially since he's given signs through out his time at MUSC that he could hear people's voices, and would react to loud noises. There's just no way to tell until he has his follow up visit. Please keep praying for Atticus, and for me. Pray that his hearing loss is not severe, and if it is, that I can learn sign language fairly easily!! :)