Day 442 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today it was back to the regular week – work for Regina and me, and the clinic for Grayson. Grayson had a good day at the clinic, including a fair amount of Southern California sunshine! For physical therapy today they played some kickball outside as a group. In his cognitive rehab, or speech therapy, he worked on the computer for a bit, did some exercises in the Dynavision room, and worked in the sensory room.

If you have seen Grayson in the past 9 months or so, you will notice that when sensory input increases, Grayson tends to scratch his head. The greater the sensory input, input such as noise, touching, excitement, laughter, etc., the more he scratches. When he needs to summon cognitive energy, such as tying his shoes, trying to write something, or trying to answer a question, he almost immediately starts scratching his head. Sometimes he just scratches instead of accomplishing anything. In the sensory room, they are working to have him tolerate greater amounts of sensory input. They will have him sit quietly and brush his hand or sit in a massage chair then ask questions to build up a tolerance to the sensory input so he is able to function.

Grayson was my grocery shopping buddy tonight as we did the marketing for the week. On the way home I asked him if it was fun, and he said "No!" He did allow that eating the food was fun, so we agreed that the effort to acquire the food was worth it!

Pax!

Brant

Day 441 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today we celebrated Lauren's 21^st birthday! We celebrated a day early because she is working tomorrow. By the time you read this she will officially be 21 – I still can't believe that my baby girl is now that old!

We had a family lunch at a local restaurant to celebrate the big day and in all of the hustle I forgot to bring my camera! She looked beautiful as always with her million dollar smile, but I have no pictures to share. I'll try and get my hands on some that others took and share tomorrow!

Grayson was well behaved and quiet, but enjoyed the food!

Pax!

Brant

Day 440 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today we enjoyed a morning at home before heading off to another USC Rugby match – this time a home game against the University of San Diego. Rugby is not quite as popular as football at USC, so the women's soccer field became the pitch instead of the Coliseum! While it was a beautiful and warm Sothern California day, USC fared badly against the Toreros of USD. Here is a picture of Austin advancing the ball today.

I leave you with a picture of Regina and Grayson taken at the match today!

Pax!

Brant

Day 439 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson woke up this morning bright eyed and alert. His alertness and assistance shaved a full 30 minutes off of his usual morning routine! He was still alert and smiling when he returned home this afternoon. Many thanks to Austin and Xixi for picking him up from the clinic today!

Austin and Xixi joined us for sushi this evening at our favorite La Canada sushi bar. Grayson's alertness also kept him wound a bit tighter, so he kept standing up from the table. (There are pluses and minuses to this "alert" thing!) Fortunately, asking "Where are you going, Grayson?" usually does the trick. He usually responds, "I don't know" then he will sit back down when asked. Once he responded "bathroom" and we were on our way. Listening is still an important parenting skill!

Back home we made it an early night. It is officially the weekend!

Pax!

Brant

Day 438 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

We had our patient teleconference today and we got to hear from and talk to each of the therapists as they gave a report out of their activity with Grayson for the past month. I can report that slow progress is being made, but it is very slow – almost impossible to see without detailed measures. However, I'll take any progress that we can get!

Grayson and Regina had a good evening tonight while I was at a Scouting function. After dinner they read together, played some music then settled in to watch Marley & Me. A nice quiet evening at home!

Pax!

Brant

Day 437 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson helped me prepare dinner this evening. We made grilled chicken, green beans and (Grayson's favorite) cheese tortellini tossed with olive oil, marinated artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, pesto and parmesan cheese. Yum! Grayson was gathering stuff all over the kitchen for me as I tossed the meal together. He was quite a good helper!

No television tonight. Grayson read while I prepared some things I needed to for work. A quiet night tonight for all!

Pax!

Brant

Day 436 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson woke up slow as molasses again this morning. When he is like this it is like he is in a thick fog. It takes several hours to get him to do much more than be led around. After enough time passes he gets back to Grayson's "new" normal. Today he was fully alert when he arrived home from the clinic.

Grayson and I made a quick market run to pick up some things that we forgot yesterday. When we got home we tossed a tri-tip on the grill. While the rest of the nation is in the grips of a cold snap, it is sunny and warm here during the day, and not too cold at night. So why not cook outside? That will probably change soon, but we are enjoying it while we have it!

Grayson was a little excited this evening – perhaps he was wound a bit tight – so that bedtime was a bit more challenging than usual. He eventually wound down and went to sleep, but not without a few visits by the motion sensor, alerting us that he was exiting his room!

Pax!

Brant