The TABLE!!!

Once a month I am lucky enough to have coffee with a bunch of my friends who also happen to have kids with spina bifida.  Last month at coffee I was talking with the other moms about how it is starting to get difficult for me to watch as Grayden becomes frustrated that he cannot always keep up and play with Zander.  Grayden LOVES his big brother and is constantly wanting to be where Zander is and to be doing whatever it is that Zander is doing. Physically this is difficult for Gray though. Don't get me wrong he figures it out, but I can tell that he wants to be able to do more.  He HATES to be left out. 

So, a few weeks later my good friend Lauren posted this awesome table on her facebook that she and her husband created for their son based on inspiration from this amazing blog that we have been following.  It was an awesome table and I knew right away that was just what we needed so that Zander and Grayden could play together at the same level, both kneeling.  It is great for Grayden because he can practice pulling himself up into a kneeling position and go from kneeling to tall kneeling while playing.  They can also sit at the table and play as it is only 6 inches tall. 

Thanks to Grandpa Jeff, we now have a table just like Lewis'.  It is AMAZING. We love it.  It has been so fun to watch the boys play at it together.  Grayden is quickly learning how to get himself up to kneeling at the table as well as get himself back down. 

It has a cut out so that we can put different sensory bins and the homemade light box in it.  This thing is awesome!! We are already having so much fun!

Today we played with blue water beads on top of the light box.  The boys loved it. Grayden sat there and played for over an hour. He was so amused and every time I tried to take him away from it he would cry. 

Yesterday, I caught the boys playing with the magnet balls/sticks together at the table too!

Thank you Lauren and Coleman for the idea!

Thank you Grandpa Jeff for so quickly fullfilling our wish and making us the table!

Thank you playathomemom3@blogspot.com for inspiring me to PLAY!

Face of Spina Bifida

A few of the other moms I have met online have been featuring kids on their website as a way to introduce the world to all the amazing people who are living with Spina Bifida. Today Grayden was featured on one of them. Go check him out at www.themclellands.blogspot.com, and check out all of his other buddies as well!

Spina Bifida Awareness Month

"This isn't good, I have some really bad news for you" This is exactly how we were told that our second baby boy would be born with Spina Bifida. I will always remember how we were told, the sinking in my heart, the immediate worry and sorrow. I love our OB but I really wish the news had been delivered differently. I have met so many other families who share this experience with me. We all remember that day like it was yesterday. We remember the exact words, the despair, the grim diagnosis. What none of us remember being told in that moment, that vulnerable moment, is that we would be having beautiful babies that may have special challenges, but that would be so much more similar to other babies than they are different. We weren't told that our baby would change our lives in so many unimaginable ways. We were given "really bad news" unfortunately by doctors who are excellent at diagnosing Spina Bifida, but not so excellent at knowing the kind of amazing lives these people live. It is my wish that through awareness, we will change the future of that day. That more doctors and medical professionals will gain greater awareness of what it means to be an individual living with spina bifida, so that when they are in the position of telling excited, soon to be parents of this diagnosis that they can send a message of truth, a message of hope!

This is not "really bad news", this is one of the brightest lights in my life!!