Thank You Lew and Jami

What a week!  So my plan was to write after Patrick's appointment with orthopedics and sports medicine in Ann Arbor on Thursday, but that appointment never happened!  Instead I never left the house all last week, except to the store for chicken soup, Motrin and Tylenol.  Yes....the flu had invaded.  It only affected Avery, but she missed 5 days of school.  She had a fever for 4 days and the general crappy feeling, coughing, etc.  I spent the week keeping her somewhat away from the boys and disinfecting.  By the end of the week, her and I were ready to lose it, although,  I'm not sure if it was just from being in the house or the fact that I watched probably 40 hours of Say Yes to the Dress (which I love, but one can only take so much). Thank God the weather was almost 60 this weekend, so we got out of the house!  Back to normal today and we were able to get "squeezed" in on the 28th for Patrick's reschedule, so that wasn't bad.

So it always makes me smile when I see people doing nice things for others, no matter how big or small.  For some reason, we have been blessed and spoiled to have so many of these people surrounding us!  It truly is amazing!   We are at a place in our lives, we didn't necessarily plan or expect to be in, and when you're having one of those bad days, its nice when something happens or someone does something to make us smile just when we need it.  Now there are a lot of people that I could specifically write about and I will eventually, I promise, because each and every person who has helped us on our journey deserves a shout out!

That being said, one of the things that I am passionate about with regards to my kids (and all kids) is being safe in a car.  So I am pretty anal about their carseats and having them strapped in properly.  I learned it all from my best friend Sarah's dad, Lew, who works with Safe Kids USA (greater Flint area).  If you have never checked out their website....do it!  If you have or know of a child who is in a carseat and have never had it checked by a safe kids technician....do it!!!  There are so many little things that can keep your child safe, that you may not be aware of.  They hold free carseat checks all over the country.  If you go to their website you can find an event near you.  They are trained to make sure the carseat is installed properly, as well as making sure that you have them strapped in properly. There are very simple things that can make a difference in your child's safety.   I think there are 2 things they do not educate you enough on when you're having a child....breastfeeding and carseat safety.  The carseat thing is much easier to understand and you will not lose any sleep from trying to do it. 😃Check them out please!   http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/

So, I will get to my point!  The suggested age to change your child forward facing, is 2 or whatever the manufacturer recommends as a weight, on the carseat.  Well, with Patrick, we were not comfortable with moving him forward yet.  We also went to babies r us and put him in all the seats they had, and we just couldn't find one that we were comfortable with or it was only rear facing to 35 lbs, which he is approaching.  With Patrick's low muscle tone and low development, we really wanted to find him a rear facing that had a higher weight limit.  Sidebar....it was quite a sight seeing us put our child in every floor model of the carseats in the store(although I think Tim had fun).  It was quite a circus and we entertained a few passers by.  Needless to say we did some research online.  The other issue is just finding one that is good for children with disabilities or low tone, which is difficult.

Well, thanks to a donation and to Safe Kids of Greater Flint, we had a new Diono Radian RXT delivered and installed this weekend by Lew and his wonderful Safe Kids colleague Jami.  This carseat is awesome and rear faces up to 45 lbs, and will last Patrick many years.  It is like the Cadillac of carseats, and Patrick loves it!!!  Jami and Lew walked us through the features, the manual and installation.  Once Patrick got in that seat, he was in heaven!!  It was so cute.

We cannot even begin to say how thankful and lucky we are!  Patrick has this whole team of people taking care of him and no matter where we are, more people keep joining that team.  It's quite amazing!  Jami and Lew are great people and we cannot thank them enough, along with the people at Diono and their amazing carseats!!  These 2 took the time to come to our home and spend the afternoon showing us how to use the seat, install it and to just hang out with us and our kids.  They truly love their jobs and making sure that children are safe!  I want to be more like them....so much so that I really want to become a Safe Kids technician.  We shall see if I can make that happen in my spare time from eating Bon Bons and watching TLC.

We will definitely be paying it forward!!  For now, the one thing I can do is tell people to go to the Safe Kids website and find an event and get your carseat checked!!!!  It's easy and the people doing it are awesome and so helpful!  The other thing is to check out the line of Diono carseats!  They are amazing!  You can actually fit 3 of them in the backseat next to each other.  And based on Patricks reaction, they are super comfy!!  http://us.diono.com/en/car-seats/radian-rxt

Lew getting it ready

Checking the straps...notice Bubby admiring Lew :)

Jami giving Tim the rundown

Getting it in