Hello?!

Are you all still there?  I am!

It feels like forever since I've been able to blog and I'm sorry!  Honestly, I've been short on time lately (as if I'm ever NOT short on time) and the blog has taken a back seat to everything else.  Rest assured, we are doing really well.  Elena, Cal and I are settling into a great weekly groove.  We are on the go practically every day, but we're all handling things pretty well at the moment.  Now, I know that since I've said that, it's all subject to change at a moments notice :)

Elena continues to thrive at school.  Every day she starts laughing as soon as she gets off the bus, anxious to "tell" me all about her day at school.  It's the same with the Jackson Center.  The whole time she's there, I can hear her "talking" to her friends.

We've started her on a new medication this past week.  It is an oral medication that helps with her muscle tone.  We're trying it out in place of the Botox.  So far, she's had great results.  Though, it has a much more global effect that can make it difficult for her to hold up her head and trunk.  It's really quite difficult to explain how her muscle tone operates, but basically even though she seems really strong (I can't tell you how often people tell me how strong she is), her muscle strength is incredibly weak.  This medication is something similar to a muscle relaxer so when her muscles aren't in that neurologically "stiff" mode, they're like jelly.  The result is a floppy Elena (great for her hip!).  We have to play around with the dosage quite a bit to get the desired effects, but we're hopeful this can be a nice change to to the painful Botox injections every 3-4 months.

Speaking of her hip, cue the "wah wah wah".  We're facing another hip surgery, but we are so, so hopeful that this surgery may curb her problem awhile.  Nothing has been scheduled yet, but we will go ahead and ask you to start praying.  To remind you, Elena had surgery last October to help with her left hip dislocation, which is a result of her muscle tone (see above) and some weird brain stuff that doctors have yet to figure out.  Something like more than 50% of kids with cerebral palsy have hip dislocation...we're in that lucky 50%.  Anyway, I'll share more details with you when we actually have them, but go ahead and add Elena and that naggin' ole' left hip to your prayer list!

Cal is doing great....growing like a weed.  He's rolling all over the place.  We put him square in the middle of his blanket and the next thing we know, he's half way across the room, on his belly facing the opposite direction.  Movement is quite foreign to us around the Hinton house!  It's amazing to see him in action..I can only imagine what's to come!  He's as happy as can be, though he still loves to rock his famous "scowl".  It's a relief that we are now getting more toothless grins and giggles these days than his stare down!  We got his three month pictures done back in early August, and I'm just now getting around to showing you all, but they're pretty darn cute.  They capture his personality pretty well at that age.

Well, that's all of an update that I can muster right now!  I'm trying to wrangle both kids down for a nap, fingers crossed.  Thanks for hanging with us, continuing to follow and pray for our family.  It really means so much to us.  We still have our days and our struggles.  Knowing that we're still on prayer lists and that our Elena is still inspiring others, fill us up when we need filling.  We love you all!

Cal the "Scowl"

He smiles!!

 My favorite look ever!