James had a great Christmas.  We went over to the mainland and had a big family dinner with the Avery clan.  James seemed to enjoy himself,  and handled the Avery chaos well.  It was noisy and crowded but  we were there for over 3 hours before he asked to leave.  Dinner was yummy and I brought our magic bullet so I was able to purée some dinner for him.  The ferry ride was an adventure.  On the way over we didn't think about needing to be parked by the elevator and having enough room to get the chair out.  We had to get him out of his chair and fold it and walk him in areas to get him through on the ferry ride over.  By the time we got him to the elevator,  they had locked it due to bad weather.  The crew were great and came and escorted us up on the elevator.  We learned from the ride over and on the way back we asked for handicapped parking on the ferry.

James is eating a lot more purée.  We have had to drop him from 5 cans of tube feed a day down to 3 cans.  He is staring to drink slightly thickened fluids too.  He is booked for a barium swallow x ray on  January 17th.  If that goes well I imagine the next step will be planning how to get to a point where he no longer needs the tube feed.

January is a busy month for appointments.  He is going to see a dental specialist in Victoria on the 4th.  On the 11th he goes back to Victoria to see the eye specialist. The 17th is the swallow test in Campbell River and on the 21st he sees the physiatrist (basically a doctor of physio medicine) in Nanaimo.  Also he will likely have another appointment in Campbell River to have a splint made for his right hand to help stretch some tight muscles and tendons.

He is seeing his physiotherapist 3 days a week,  and we are talking about having a rehab assistant who will come to the house to do exercises with him,  so that some of that is taken off of me.  He is doing well on his new walker.  We picked up floor to ceiling poles at ikea while we were on the mainland.  He is practicing balancing between them.

James has been definitely thriving since he came home.  He is loving harassing his brother and sister  and I am actually enjoying seeing him bug them!  It is amazing how the things that used to bug me I now see as huge blessing!  Who knew that I would be thankful that my kids are capable of scrapping with each other!

James has been home for just over a month now  and , wow,  he has been working hard!  His Physiotherapist is awesome!  He loves Physio,  and his balance is definetely improving. His physio therapist makes it really fun,  but works him very hard!  Its cool because he explains to James what muscles he is working or stretching,  so it becomes a bit of an anatomy lesson too!   He can also get down to the floor and back up using the couch to lean on with very little help.  He got a new walker last week and he walked into church today!  We left his chair at home!  He is also starting to eat enough puree to drop a can and half of tube feed a day!  He has an appointment with the Speech therapist again next week,  and I think she is going to be surprised!  When we saw her last, she okayed us to give him about 1/4 cup of puree twice a day,  and I was feeding him.  Now he is feeding himself and he is eating about 1/2 a cup three times a day.  He is wanting more though,  and is asking for something more solid than puree!  I am hoping to find a speech therapist to work on vocalizing with him.  He has mouthed at people a couple of times lately.  It has seemed automatic and while he hasn't actually said anything it is the beginning of automatic movement!  He can say "Hi" and "Hey"  though, if prompted.  It is a bit nasal and slow,  but with practice I am sure it will get better and can be added to!