Preparing for the last day of school

Tomorrow is the last day of school for Jude's big brother Clayton. His last day as a 3rd grader. On Clayton's last day of 2nd grade I waited until he was getting off the bus then soaked him with over 150 water balloons. So this year naturally I had to out do that. I have a 10 gallon bucket almost full of water balloons but tomorrow I will add to that number. Unfortunately I used the old water balloons from last year and broke about half of them. Lesson learned, balloons should have expiration dates or you will get as wet as your sink.




I went on a mission today to Toys-R-Us to find the best super soaker. I came home with a water slide and a super soaker that shoots 40 feet! I also told Clayton he could bring a friend home with him so I get to soak 2 birds with one water balloon. Photos of the destruction will come soon!

I was going through some photos of Jude and I am starting to get excited about going back to Alabama. It will be hard to leave Clayton again, that's why I'm trying to make tomorrow as fun as possible. On Saturday I leave for Nashville but it starts our last week of therapy. One week closer to starting our summer. I see the pool, water slide, driveway drinks, catching fireflys, and picnics in our future! Here's some photos from last week at Jude's new favorite BBQ joint because their ribs "taste just like Grandpa's" and the Galleria mall.





Jude got some good news today. If he works hard tomorrow and Monday then he will get his cast off early. He is doing so great Jackie thinks he would really benefit from some practice with bilateral tasks. This means we will get to make use of our two pools and southern weather. I am really looking forward to having a lot of time to see how Jackie teaches him to do things. Because of the stroke Jude has to relearn how to do everything with his right hand. He has learned to compensate so much that if you looked at him without knowing he had CP you would never guess it. Jackie does a great job at breaking down each task to simple instructions so that Jude learns what the movement is supposed to be. Even taking a plate into the kitchen requires him to think each part through. Without any help he is able to pull the plate to the edge of the table, grip the plate, lift it up and walk with it over 10 feet. That's tough for any child to do but imagine it using only the non dominant hand. When we break down every move, we realize what goes into each movement. Jude has to retrain all those pathways that were damaged due to his stroke and then strengthen every movement to do it. And he does a great job at it! That's another benefit of the Acquire program at UAB, he has the time to retrain and strengthen those pathways. It's hard but worth it.


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Location:Fishers,United States