Sitting Up

Riley is continuing to improve since his hospitalization.  He's getting better at sitting up for longer periods of time.  He is doing really well holding his head up while he was sitting up.  He thinks he's pretty awesome.

cool kids

Have you ever had a moment so perfect to capture on film and yet you don't have a camera anywhere near by? Today was one of those moments.  The weather has been so nice so I finally took Riley outside to enjoy some sunshine.  I put him in his power chair to do some cruisin around.  He was actually doing quite well with the usual boredom after about 10 minutes.  To Riley's luck some kids came running up the street.  There was Haily, Ethan and Sierra.  They had never met Riley before and they were very curious as most kids are.  They were asking about his chair and why he has to use it...the usual stuff.  Riley was pretty excited about all the attention that he decided to start showing off.  He started going forwards and backwards with his head cocked to the side with a little smile as if to say "yeah, I'm pretty cool." They asked if he knew how to play tag and if he could play. Riley answered with a smile.  They designated Riley as the 'it' person and he just started chasing those kids all over.  They thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.  Riley especially loved the attention and action.  Little stinker never does anything like this in his wheelchair for me, or anybody else for that matter.  Looks like we might have found his motivation.  After about a half hour their dad come up to get them for dinner.  They said to me that "Riley is the coooolest friend we've ever had.  Do you think that he'll be our friend?" Riley answered with a big smile.  I so wish I had a camera I could have captured these kids running around together.  It brought such great joy to my heart to see these kids playing together as if Riley was just one of them.  I mean he is the most adorable kid ever so it's no surprise that he is the coolest kid in town.

Riley wraps it up

On February 4th I went to the hospital because I got really sick.  They had to put me on a ventilator to help me breath. It was really scary but they gave me lots of medicine so I wouldn't remember what happened. Thank goodness Elmo was there to help me get better.  After about a week I started to get better and I even got out of bed and sat in my chair.

On day 11 was my Mom's 30th birthday and I decided to give her the best present ever to get off the ventilator.  She was so excited.

After a few more days I was finally ready to go home.  They had me stay over night with only my Mom and Dad doing treatments to make sure I was going to be ok. Finally on day 16 I went home.

I have now been home for a week and I'm doing much better.  I'm starting to get my voice back and am able to talk a little bit.  I'm able to stay off my bipap all day and only wear it at night.  Hopefully I can get back to school next week.  I really miss all my friends. Thanks to everyone who came and saw me and sent me all the cards and posters.  It's so good to be home.