Pumpkin Patch (UPDATED)

Hi all, I hope everyone is enjoying this month's festivities. We were able to go to a pumpkin patch recently,first time for Caleb. We had to move quick though as a storm was moving in.

Caleb started smiling when he saw all the pumpkins. He eventually walked around a little bit holding my hand and he did great. We picked out two pumpkins, which we later carved. He was in shock at that whole process too. He was so cute watching Brian and I when we carved the pumpkins.

Well, Caleb is still fighting his nasty cold. He is on another round of antibiotics. Poor guy. Hoping he can shake this cold soon! He is supposed to get his next round of shots/immunizations next week, but I am not sure if he will if he is still sick!

Caleb got to dress up for school for Halloween this year, he is spiderman! He won't wear the hood as Caleb is really averted to any type of hat, which will make dressing this winter difficult. But he kept his costume on all day and he looked very cute! I only got pictures of him at school with my phone, so I will take more Halloween night with my camera to post on the blog. He looks so cute as Spidey!

A couple of our friends are going trick or treating at our local zoo tonight. I would love to take Caleb but I am not sure if it is the best idea. One, he hates to wear hats and unless I can figure out some way to keep a hat on his head (even the ones that have the Velcro strap he manages to take off) it is a definite 'no go' as he has to stay warm especially with still having his cold. Two, I am not sure how he will react to that many people and the 'fright' aspect. So it looks like I am leaning towards a 'no go' as of right now. :(

As far as social security, I have contacted many local politicians and only two responded and were not a great deal of help. So needless to say I don't feel a strong urge to hit the polls this Tuesday to vote. Such a change for me as I used to be so big into politics. Anyway, we are filling out the paperwork to file the appeal. Praying they approve our appeal and don't make us pay the money back.

UPDATE: Got a letter of response in the mail today from Senator Rockefeller in regards to Caleb's SSI. I have to sign a form to allow him to look at the info, per the Privacy Act. WOOHOO I hope he can help us! He has helped or tried to help in any way every time I have asked! Thank you Senator Rockefeller!

I also wanted to say a quick thank you. I often wonder if I thank everyone enough. You all have been so wonderful to our family through the past four years. We are truly grateful for the emotional and physical support you all have provided for our family. It has meant so much and continues to mean so much to us. I thank you all for understanding our situation and our special circumstances. Thank you so much!

Well all, I have an itty bit waking up wanting to be fed. I will post Halloween pics as soon as I can!

God Bless you all!!

God Bless Caleb and Camryn!!

One of those tearful days

So I was going through the mail and received a letter from our wonderful government regarding Caleb's disability payments. The letter indicated that they want to be repaid back all of Caleb's monthly disability payments back to October '08 yes that is right of 2008. So I called the national number and the only explanation the lady could give me there was that we owe the amount specified in the letter, no explanation of why. So then I called our local office and the explanation I got was they just got through all of our information we supplied which makes no sense at all. You supply information every couple months along with pay stubs. BUT NOW TWO YEARS LATER they want everything back. What is wrong with this scenario? It takes them that long to go through everything? Are you kidding me? Nonetheless, I FULL well know that the months that we submitted pay stubs for Caleb should have gotten disability payments based upon the criteria set by our wonderful government. So the lady at the local office was of no help, all I can do is file an appeal while our government wants a lot of money back. I am disgusted. I am disgusted at the fact that we all know and have seen individuals out there that totally abuse the system and get help when they shouldn't and then there is an individual such as Caleb, who was initially told by the SSI 'he wasn't disabled enough' to get disability, who finally was approved for disability but now they want all their money back. Our government is ridiculous. I have been in the past a pretty active participant in supporting our local politicians and government, why? so they can do stuff like this to my son? I will not vote or partake in any elections anymore. They are all corrupt. They worry about themselves and not about how THE SYSTEM is failing people such as my son. I am sorry to have such a bitter post. But why do I continually have to fight with our government to get him disability. It took over a year to get him a state disability medical card. It shouldn't be this hard. Our government is getting worse and worse by the day. How can they do this?!?

Please say a prayer that Caleb get the help he deserves!

God Bless you all!!

God Bless Caleb and Camryn!!

Another infection?

So Caleb has had about three colds since the start of the school year. Unfortunately, this last one seems like it is a little harder for him to kick. This cold started about a couple weeks ago after we had a trip to the ER after he had a reaction to a vaccine. Which, I would love to note is the first ER trip that did not result in a life-flight! How about that for a milestone?!? Back to the cold..we were hoping to attend a Family Fun Night this evening at Caleb's school as Bri and I were so excited to attend something like this and see how Caleb plays with other kiddos and just to be able to go to something like that is a big deal to us as not to long ago we weren't sure we would be able to do something like this due to Caleb's medical condition. Well needless to say, Caleb has been running a fever off and on and we just got back from the hospital to get some chest x-rays and we will see the doctor this evening to try to figure out what is causing the fevers (as he still can't tell us where he doesn't feel well) and to try to get him some help to get rid of this cold. Looks like we will have to wait until the next family fun night.

Also, Caleb's school pictures came back. His teacher was so excited to show me the picture when I dropped Caleb off at school on Monday. I couldn't believe my eyes the pictures were perfect.

He didn't hide his face and he smiled, of course I did hear from a little birdie that his teacher and aide worked very hard to get him to smile like he did and not to hide. Thanks ladies! There is still a little evidence of his black eye that he got from a fall in school, but we don't mind. He looks great! So I held it together and then when I got back to the car from dropping him off I started crying. I remember praying for things such as this when Caleb was so sick in the hospital. Thank you Caleb for fighting so hard when you were sick. We love you and are so proud of all of your accomplishments. Keep it up lil man! We love you!

Thanks for checking in on Caybay!

God Bless you all!!

God Bless Caleb and Camryn!!

Bumps and Bruises

So school is going well, however, since Caleb is new at walking he takes things too fast and has fallen a couple times in school. He actually gave himself a black eye when he fell and cracked his temple on a chair. His teacher is wondering if he would be safer wearing a helmet while in school so he can be independent yet safe. We okayed the idea so we are looking into helmets. I also asked the school and his physical therapist if she could go evaluate him at school to see if she could make any suggestions. She will be visiting his classroom this week to see if maybe some sort of brace could help him be more stable.

Caleb has been very adamant at not wanting to wear his hearing aid and we aren't sure why. We are taking him to his audiologist this week to get a program put on his hearing aid that will allow him to hook up to the FM system at school.
Here is a little bit about how an FM system works:
Personal frequency modulation (FM) systems are like miniature radio stations operating on special frequencies assigned by the Federal Communications Commission. The personal FM system consists of a transmitter microphone used by the speaker and a receiver used by the listener. The receiver transmits the sound to your hearing aid either through direct audio input or through a looped cord worn around the listener's neck.

Personal FM systems are useful in a variety of situations such as listening to a travel guide or book review, in a classroom lecture, in a restaurant, in a sales meeting, or in a nursing homes or senior center.

FM systems are also used in theaters, places of worship, museums, public meeting places, corporate conference rooms, convention centers, and other large areas for gathering. In this situation, the microphone/transmitter is built into the overall sound system. You are provided with an FM receiver that can connect to your hearing aid (or to a headset if you don't wear a hearing aid)

I am hoping he will get over this aversion to the hearing aid, as I think the FM system for him would be great. Crossing our fingers that he gets used to his hearing aid again very soon. I have also asked the audiologist if we can fit Caleb for a piece that goes on the hearing aid to help it not flop on his earlobe as this is the earlobe that folds over a little bit.

Well I just wanted to post a quick update to let you know where we are!

God Bless you all!!

God Bless Caleb and Camryn!!