Holidays

I haven't written in a while. I need to get better at this next year - it can be my resolution! Overall things are going fairly well. We have the boys on a good sleep schedule - both in their own rooms - so we are all sleeping better which helps us all be less crabby. We still have our ups and downs - as it will always be. Holidays are tough - happy and sad. We are still holding out hope for something to come through that can help the boys and all the other MPS kids. As for specifics, Ryan is doing GREAT in school. He has a great teacher and aide all to himself! They are so good with him and you can tell they really care about him alot. He is actually supposed to get a new boy in his room so he will have a "friend". I dont know any specifics about the new boy but he is supposed to start after the holidays. Ryan gets along with anyone so not too worried about it. Brayden is a typical 2 (almost 3) year old. Temper tantrums galore! But, he can also be the most cuddly sweetest boy. He is such a cuddler which is great b/c Ryan never was too in to that! The boys really interact now which is great including wrestling around. Brayden just loves his older brother and always wants to know where "Ry Ry" is :) Hope everyone has a happy holiday and a happy and HEALTHY new year!

Finally an Update

I have been bad about updating the boys blog lately. Seems like things are so crazy lately. The boys are doing well overall. Still active and happy and enjoying life. Ryan started kindergarten last month though his current assignment is not working out as we had hoped. He was put in an integrated classroom of 27 kids. I knew it wouldnt work but we wanted to give it a try. Well, it didn't work. We are exploring moving him to another elementary school in the same district where he will be in a smaller class with kids needing "emotional support". It isn't really the perfect fit but it will be better than where he currently is. It is sad b/c we like the school he is at now and the principal, teachers, aids, etc have all been so good to us and Ryan. But, we have to do what is best for Ryan.

The other recent news is the golf tournament that we had last weekend in Sugarloaf, PA at a golf course near the town Carl grew up in and he and his brother Jamie worked at for several summers. Between the tournament and the donations we raised around $40,000 for Team Sanfilippo!!! We couldn't be happier - well we could be happier if this money could help us find a cure!

Summer

The summer has been going very well for us. The boys - especially Ryan- love to be outside. It has been unbearably hot but that doesn't seem to bother Ryan. Ryan is doing well in summer school with his familiar surroundings and same teacher and aide from last year. We are getting nervous about kindergaraten in the Fall. It will be a huge transition for all of us! Brayden is not progressing in speech very well so he is going from speech 2x/ week to 3x/week. I think they are going to increase his PT frequency also. Otherwise, the boys are doing well healthwise. We hope that the genestein will help them ... we are waiting for result from their most recent urine screen to see if their GAG levels have decreased further. We are going to the beach for a long weekend next week and the boys will really enjoy that. Hope it cools down a bit!

Camp

On another note, Ryan started a week long camp today at the Mary Campbell Center. Believe me, I never wanted to have to step foot in the MCC - it is sad to see the people that live there. But, the camp for kids really is wonderful and Ryan has been having a great time there! He has been so exhausted every night this week. Today they are taking a bus trip to the Herr's potato chip factory! He will enjoy the bus trip much more than the actually factory but it will be interesting to see how he did today! The director and volunteers there are wonderful with the children. We will definitley send him there again.

Inaugural Beat MPS 5K

We had a very successful Inaugural Beat MPS 5K this past Sunday. Many people came out to support our family and a wonderful cause - despite the awful heat and humidity! We were especially happy to see so many other families effected by MPS - some familar faces and some new faces! We are still tallying the money we raised but we are very happy with the numbers we are seeing. Thank you to everyone who helped put this event together - we could never have done this alone! We just pray that every dollar we raise will get us closer to treatment and a cure for this dreaded disease.

We have had a good couple of weeks with the boys. Ryan really seems to be behaving better - for the most part. He still has his moments of course but they seem to be fewer and less frequent. Ryan and Brayden have really been playing "together" alot more lately - it is great to see. Mostly they like to wrestle! Brayden holds his own with his 59 lb brother! The nice weather is always good for us because Ryan LOVES to be outside. We have had the moonbounce up the last two weekends which they love and which tires them out :)

We are getting anxious for the upcoming Beat MPS walk/run in Wilmington and really hope it is a success.

Cardio appt went well for the most part. EKGs looked good. Ryan was really good...not sure what that was all about - ha! ha! Brayden on the other hand was not so good! He did not want any stranger touching him at all! Anyway - gonna wait another year to have the cardiogram since they will have to sedate them and we try to limit that as much as possible. Everytime Ryan has been sedated he comes out of it very agitated and they were very unpleasant experiences for us (and all the other people in the hospital listening to the yelling...).