One Month Ago Today...............

So I was just finishing putting a few ornaments on the Christmas tree (yes, it is before Thanksgiving, but the boys begged me and I love Christmas, so I wasn't too hard to sell :-) when I realized that it was one month ago today that Tristan had his accident.  I have to be honest.........I don't spend much time thinking about the accident but rather I focus on the fact that God healed Tristan's little body and he was able to walk out of that hospital side by side with Daddy and I...........but as I was sitting here tonight I found myself thinking back and realized that it had been one month ago today that our lives changed profoundly.  Wow, have we come a long way in one month or what?   For those of you that get to see Tristan on a regular basis, you can agree that he has come quite a long way since one month ago.  Tristan is now running around, jumping around, trying to wrestle with his brothers and sister and buddies (much to Mommy's dismay and SCOLDING!) and he is walking, talking, thinking, arguing, speaking and behaving just as he had before the accident!  Praise God!  He does not seem to be experiencing any long term effects of the traumatic brain injury.........at least as near as we can tell.  Just one week ago today the physical therapist told me that his balance was off as well as a list of activities that a 6-year old boy should be able to do.  She requested that Tristan be scheduled for at least the next 5-6 weeks for therapy with her once per week.  Today after Tristan's therapy I was told by the same therapist that he did SO MUCH better today than he did just last week that she thinks she will only need to see him one more time and then we will be able to cancel all the rest of his appointments!  Tristan may be bummed about that as he told me today when we were driving home from therapy that he thought his therapy was fun that morning because she let him run and jump and play................something Mommy hasn't been doing!  Oh well, I'm sure we can find other activities that he will enjoy to occupy his time until he goes back to school.   And speaking of school...........Tristan's teacher, Mrs. Mize, had been working with the principal, Mrs. Heatherly, toward getting a homebound teacher to visit Tristan while he is off school to ensure that he is keeping up and not falling behind on anything.  The neuro doctor had completed the paperwork and everything was turned in to the corporate office at Dysart District and then today I get a call right after therapy from the Principal stating that Tristan is approved...............BUT there is no one in the position of homebound teacher!  Uh oh!  No tutor available!  I guess that means Mommy will just have to continue playing tutor which is totally fine...........I just wanted him to receive all the academic attention that he could and get the full benefit of having a teacher visit him several times per week.  With any luck they will fill that position before he returns to school and perhaps he will still get some benefit there............maybe we could pray about that :-)   Tristan accompanied me to have lunch with Wyatt at school for Thanksgiving last Thursday and a lot of people were sure excited to see him!  Mrs. Boehlert (Wyatt's teacher who was also Tristan's kindergarten teacher) and Mrs. Mize (Tristan's 1st grade teacher) both wanted Tristan to stop by their class after the lunch and recess, so we stuck around for a while.  Mrs. Boehlert's class had made a book for Tristan a while back and was just waiting for the opportunity to give it to Tristan!  She had Wyatt and Tristan take a seat at the front of the class next to her and she read the book out loud to Tristan and had each kid in class raise their hand when she read their letter.  He was just beaming!  It was priceless!  Then we stopped by Mrs. Mize's class so that Tristan could say hi to all of his old buddies and pick up his Boo-Gram that some little boy had bought for Tristan on Halloween while he was in the hospital.  It was a very moving day...........Tristan must have felt like royalty with all the attention!  He is very lucky to be missed by his teachers and good friends.   We are looking forward to having Thanksgiving at our house this year......we have a LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR!  It seemed only appropriate that we offer to host since our traditional plans weren't going to be possible this year.  Tristan's cousin, Carter, showed Emily (Aaron's sister) a project that he did at school with his teacher and it was showing what he said he was grateful for...........and Carter said he was thankful for his cousin Tristan feeling better and being out of the hospital!  AWWWWW!  How sweet is that?  I told Emily to bring it over and we can display it for Thanksgiving and then put it away in the "Tristan accident box" which is filled to the brim with cards and letters and drawings and mementos from all of Tristan's family, classmates and buddies!   Well, it is officially past my bedtime..........more updating to come after Thanksgiving!  Our family will be going to spend the weekend at the Cibola Vista Resort & Spa for some R & R with the kids this coming Friday and I am sure we will have some cool pictures of Tristan to post after that!  Until then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and much love to all!   Shannon

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