Ezzy, the Stander!

Ez Man is in his stander. This newest piece of equipment he has gotten gives him the feeling of standing upright. As you can see, he is still tilted at an angle until he gets a bit more comfortable with being completely upright. He kept pushing up with his legs when he felt himself slouching down! It was fun to see him respond and USE his legs! Praise God!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O54ahfzZD80

Sweetly sleeping...

Ezra will often drift into a very deep sleep, a sleep that makes you smile, because he is at such peace. For those of you who have met Ezzy in person, know that he is often uptight and tense due to his very high muscle tone. So when he sleeps in such peaceful slumber, I enjoy watching him rest. The rest you see in this picture took place days ago after eating his dinner. The noise level was not at a low volume, actually there was commotion and life sounds taking place all around him, but yet, he was peaceful, content. Seeing him in such a state of contentment and peace made me realize that this pleasant peace is what God desires of our lives when we are trusting in HIM, when our mind is stayed on HIM, then we will have peace. He has told us that He has come into the world that we would have and enjoy peace; not only when things are going our way or life is quiet and "perfect", for there will never be a time apart for the craziness of life and the loudness of it all. So take a lesson from Ez man, who even in the noise surrounding him, opted to rest, to peacefully enjoy true God given REST; for God truly is the One who blesses him with the ability to rest....something that is not always easy for him to do...even more the opportunity to praise God and smile when his chest rhythmically moves to the rhythm of his peaceful rest.

"The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace."

Psalm 29:11

Fit for a King :)

This past Monday, Ezra was "fit" for his new Stander. This piece of equipment will enable Ezzy to experience standing. As he uses his little legs, safely and snuggly in his Stander, he will begin to gain muscle in his legs, so that ONE day LORD willing Ezzy will walk! :)

After about 10 minutes of fitting his cute little body just right in all the straps and braces, the therapists and equipment guy lifted him upright. As you can see from the pics below, his eyes were bright and ready to take in life in his new position...STANDING! He was so marvelously ALERT and awake, it made me smile! I loved seeing him respond so wonderfully to his new equipment. I just received a message that his new feet braces that he will wear with his Stander are ready to be picked up. So soon, Ezzy will be "cruising"! This Stander IS on wheels that also has brakes, which is good with the hardwood floors we have within our home! Between Ezzy and Owen in his walker, a baby gate is a sure order for the stairway.

Our little Ez Man continues to teach us so much about God's perfect PLAN and POWER!

We PRAISE Him for the wonderful day of being "fit" for new equipment and for the genius inventors who have thought all these new contraptions up for kiddos like Ezzy. We are blessed and wanted to share a little about what is new in the life of our precious son...

Clippers, bubbles, and my sneakers...

My hair was getting really long, so Mommy and daddy thought it was a good time for a NEW haircut....so Daddy buzzed my hair off! I did really well, I sat very still for him.

Time for the a long awaited bubble bath.....it felt soooo good on my legs!!!

Howdy partner! Chilling in my Bumbo seat with my sneakers on...they feel kinda funny.


Here our my "boots" as Mommy calls them.
"These boots were made for walking"...well, not yet, but they will help my feet to keep growing straight so that one day, I CAN walk! :)
(keep praying for me, that I WILL walk one day!)


Hanging out with my Daddy, we were bouncing my new basketball.
I love my Daddy.

At the Docs with my Bro!

Here I am with Owen. I had just gotten my casts off and then re-casted in the clinic office. The whole time while wearing my casts, I would go every two weeks for clean new casts. This picture was from two weeks ago....now this week, on Thursday the 8th I will be going into the surgery room to have my casts come OFF FOR GOOD!!!!

I am very excited! I will come home with leg braces and instructions from my doctor to regain my strength. My therapists are looking forward to having my legs FREE and are ready to stretch and work my legs!

My family and I are going to be "hitting" the road right after my casts come off and I am all set with my leg braces. We are traveling to attend the memorial service of one of my mommy and daddy's friends. They told me my FIRST full-body bath (in 6 months) will be in a hotel bathtub! How fun will that be?! My sisters even want balloons and streamers for my "casts off celebration"!

I love you and will have mommy put new pics up to show off my FREE legs!

Love you,

EZZY

Casts coming OFF!!!

Yippee!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!

We are very excited to share with you that on March 8th, Ez Man will have his casts OFF!!!

He will then start wearing braces on his legs and it will be a long road of recovery and therapy, but we are THRILLED for this new journey ahead of us and will keep you posted once his little legs are breathing FRESH AIR!!! :)

LOVE ya, thanks for praying!

Baseball Birthday!

Of course, a RED SOX Baseball Party! Fun was had by all as we celebrated Ezzy's SECOND Birthday!!! Thank you Lord for the blessing of another year with sweet Ezzy. Mommy made the Baseball cakes and cupcakes for the guests. We all had fun.

I had a BIRTHDAY!

I had a birthday on Sunday. I am now TWO years old. I had a fun day on my birthday with my Nana and Papa, my Daddy, Mommy, sisters, brother, and Uncle Dave. I can't wait for my big boy BASEBALL birthday party on Friday with all my friends!

Thank you to all of you who pray for me and love me. I feel very loved!!!

LOVE,

Ezzy

Ezzy's Foot surgery

I updated about Ezzy's foot surgery on our family blog.

Check it out!

Ezzy and his Nana

I LOVE my Nana. We spend lots of time together. She snuggles me and gives me lots of kisses!

Love you Nana!

Love,

Ezzy

I am a BIG brother!

I LOVE my little brother Owen! He is really cute...he makes this "noise" a lot...I am still trying to figure out why he makes this noise all the time! But it is nice, because as soon as mommy picks him up, he stops making the noise! I like to hold him and snuggle him.

Thank you for praying for my little brother and my mommy! We are all doing well. We LOVE Owen so much and thank Jesus for him!

Almost a BIG brother!!!

 

"Can you hear me now??"

This past Tuesday Edwin and I took little Ez man for an ABR, which stands for Audiotory Brainstem Response, in short a detailed hearing test. He was sedated and it took a couple of hours. The results proved what we as his parents knew all along :), that he can indeed hear! This test was to show whether or not there was any hearing loss at the time of Ezzy's brain injury. This test showed that there was not any hearing loss and that all mechanical parts of his inner ear are all working and ready to recieve sound. Our question to the "hearing test lady" was, "what can he understand and how does he respond to the sounds he hears?" She told us that finding out that information needs to be done through a Neurological test, such as an MRI.

So, as of right now, we KNOW he hears :) and we KNOW his ears are working correctly. As far as knowing how well he processes all that he hears, we will have to wait for another MRI if ordered by his Neurologist and also, time will tell as Ezra continues to develop and show signs of being more alert and understanding more of what is going on around him. We thank God that he did not suffer any form of hearing loss and now we view his continued development with an attitude of "the sky is the limit" :) when it comes to him processing and developing the world around him.

He does react to familiar sounds, such as mommy or daddy's voice. He will turn his head and find us when we walk in the room....something that melts both of our hearts! When I return from being away from him, I walk up near to him and in my mommy talk :) say his precious name and he will respond by opening his mouth, like as to say HI Mommy and give me a kiss! He is so very precious and such a sweet little guy! He loves to hear his sisters running and yelling all around him. We antinicpate some "getting used to" for when little brother enters the world!

Thank you to all who continue to pray for our little man. We are very blessed by your continued outpouring of love and support for our little Ez man!

Casting Day with our friend Crysten

Mommy has a good friend named Crysten who is from Maine. She recently came for a visit. We had so much fun while she was here with our family for a week. She even was able to come and experience a Children's Hospital day with us when Ezra received his third set of casts....since then he is on to his fourth set...it has been a bit busy around the Borbe household!!! :) So here are some pics from a re-casting day that took place a few weeks ago!

I like this picture of his precious little foot "breaking free" from his old casts.....he has a 20 minute break free from casts and then he is recasted.

Here is a picture of how wonderful his little feet are coming along in reshaping and resetting his foot bone.

We had a fun day with Crysten!

Ezzy is ready for the town with his bright white new casts!
Thanks for coming Crysten!!!

Ezzy- casting take TWO

Ezra was a champ while the doctor casted his feet this past Tuesday. He will wear these for three weeks and then will go again for another set of "cowboy boots" :) These this week are a bit larger and heavier. He is such a trooper and handling them extremely well. We praise God for this blessing of Ezra allowing the casts to do their designed job! We are already seeing some results. The doctor was very happy with the level of flexibility he saw and felt so far when examing his feet out of the casts! Praise GOD! It was fun to cuddle and snuggle him without the casts on for about 20 minutes before they re-casted him. He was so LIGHT and skinny :) My growing mommy belly and his casts can be a bit of a challenge at times....but worth it all.

His sisters, along with Nana, came this time to experience the casting experience. They were wonderful helpers and were able to sit right next to him, to encourage him and whisper, "don't worry bubby, your big sister is here..." Is there anything more precious? They LOVE their brother so much, we are blessed by them daily and their love and concern for their bubby. They are his prayer warriers....just this morning, we had to stop eating to pray for bubby's brain....they simple humble me.

Ezzy, our big boy...just had another hair cut!

 

Ez Man with his big boy casts

Thank you to all who have been praying for Ezra in regards to our new adventure of casting his precious little feet. As you can see, he is adjusting well to his new "cowboy boots" as Nana calls them :) and able to rest peacefully during nap time. He has his moments when they seem to be a bother, but overall, he is doing amazingly well. During the casting process he did great and was very relaxed, he actually fell asleep for a bit and seemed to enjoy the massaging the Doctor was doing on his feet to cast them into place. We will go back every two weeks for new casting and continue until his feet are corrected. There are a lot of unknowns to us. We do not know how long this whole process with take or if surgery will be needed. We will just take it week by week and see what God has for him.
At first, we were told that we would need to go back to St. Louis on a weekly basis, which was a bit stressful for mommy to fit into her already packed schedule. I decided to give it to the Lord and pray for the strength needed week by week. The Lord really calmed me and totally encouraged me when the doctor said that due to our traveling distance, Ezra could be casted every TWO weeks instead of every week! I am aware that this might change, but for now REJOICE in this schedule. I know this may seem like a little thing to most, but for me, it was an answer to prayer and again God teaching me that HE IS IN CONTROL and will never give me more than I can bear!!! So with all this updating, the biggest area of praise is definitely in God's amazing grace and consitent control of all things. God continually uses my son Ezra and all that it takes to care for him, to remind me of how GREAT God is and that HE ALONE knows the future and I may plan my ways, but HIS WAYS are best!

Love to you all. We treasure your friendship and love for our Ez Man!

Ezzy's big sisters had fun writing their names on his casts! They LOVE their "bubby" so much.

Ez Man at the Zoo a few weeks ago

 

The world of HEARING.....

Many have asked how Ezzy is now doing after having his ear tubes put in and my response has been GREAT!!! As far as daddy and I can tell, we do believe his hearing is better. Even his speech therapist has said that she thinks he is turning his head more to sounds and is finding the source of sound with much more ease! Overall, we are very happy and still have to have a official hearing test done at Children's Hospital to specifically find out how well he is actually hearing and if any hearing assistence is needed for him.

He is very alert and taking in all that is around him. It is so fun to "play" with him! He LOVES to dance and loves to have his arms swung all around!! He is just a sweet little buddy and we PRAISE God for the blessing he is in our life!!! His sisters ADORE him and I love to see them interact with him.

Thank you again for all who have prayed for him and continue to....God is working and ALL glory to Him for our sweet little Ez Man!

The most recent St. Louis trip

Good Morning!

Mommy has written all about my foot and back check up in her blog.

You can check it out at:

www.jewelsofjoy.blogspot.com if you want!

THANK you for praying for me!

Love,

Ezzy