The Avengers

The Avengers came to town for the summer!

 

Capatin America brought his shield and showed off his muscles

Thor was even there with (her) hammer

Iron Man and Cap had a bit of a fight over Cap's shield (and Rory refereed)

But they made up in the end

Thor tried to bring the lightening, but it was too sunny for that

We were missing the Hulk (the shirt didn't fit)

And Rory just took it in.

 

Don't all families dress up as superheroes?

 

Marvel's Universe

As a treat for the kids for a great year at school we got them tickets to the Marvel Universe motorcycle show.

Nick's favorite Avengers character is Captain America. I got him a Captain America costume from ebay, but it came the wrong size, so he couldn't wear the whole costume, but he got to wear the mask as a costume

Because we knew that the show was going to be loud, we had earmuffs for Nick to wear. They were great! I don't think Nick would have enjoyed the show otherwise. 

Katheryn had a pair as well, but she just wore them for the beginning of the show. Once she was used to the noise she took them off.

They had face painting, so Katheryn wanted to be the Hulk

I got tickets that were 1 accessible and 1 companion, and then regular tickets right in front. When we arrived we found out that the accessible and the companion tickets were actually across and aisle from each other.
Luckily all the seats hadn't been sold. So I just pulled my chair over and sat beside Nick together.

The show started off loud... and with Loki

 There is a story line, and all of the Avengers (but not Giant Man or Wasp), Miss Marvel, some of the X-Men and Spider man, and some of their specific bad guys

The use all parts of the area and up on the bleachers (but not in the crowd)

 Nick was so excited when Captain America came on

 We got them a couple of souvenirs during the intermission.

Katheryn's favorite character was Black Widow

It wasn't a motorcycle show, but there were lots of times when the motorcycles were out and watching some tricks

Most of the show there  was no Hulk. It was just Bruce Banner. But of couse the Hulk showed up at the end

The kids had a great time at the show!

On the way home we took pictures of each other.

Katheryn took this one of Nick and me

Nick took this one of Kyle.

A great day out on the town!
Avengers Assemble!

New Braces

So the day had come for us to see our new braces!

I am having very mixed emotions about these. It is always exciting to get new braces when Nick starts outgrowing his. But the recommendation is to increase his bracing to 2 KAFOs. Which means that he will have 2 braces that go above the knee.

This gives his knees extra support and will make his stance stronger and stable. It is what he needs.

The mixed emotions comes in that he does need more bracing, more awkward bracing, more bracing that puts him one step closer to not wanting to use it as he gets old, one step closer to using a wheelchair all the time and one step away from any possibility of independent walking.

Of course the truth of the matter is that this is not new, and I can see with my eyes that he needs to the extra bracing.

The day came to pick it up. We went to a new orthodics place connected to Grandview. It is Called Design Prosthetics Orthotics and we have had an amazing experience with them!

We had our appointment to pick up the orthodics. We went to their office and the kids played in their gym with all kinds of toys.

Then it was time to try them out!

The braces have some neat features!
The K part of the braces slides into the bottom. This gives us the best of both worlds. The support of the K, but the ability to have the shorter brace when we aren't doing much walking.

The knee also has the ability to lock, which would make him much more stable and functional in specific instances, but still maintains the ability t o bend and be unlocked.

Nick liked them!
I can't believe how tall he is standing! And straight.

Our Orthotist, Eric, still had some adjustments to make, but the workshop was right in the office.

This is different from when we got our orthodics from Grandview before. And any adjustments had to be made out of the office and it would be a couple of weeks to be returned to us.

But Eric knew what he wanted the braces to do and could make all of the adjustments for us today

While we waited we got a tour of the workshop

This is a copy of the cast of Nick's legs and knees that was done last month. It gets mounted so that they can work with it.

And a bunch of other samples that they are working on

He shows us the material they use to make the braces

And samples of different colours. They had a sewing station as well

And finally we checked out the grinder. Nick got to turn it on

This is an example of one of the rejects

Then it was time to test them out again!

And see Nick standing up so straight!

No more knees turning in and feeling unbalanced. Nick felt very comfortable in them

Everyone is very excited with the results!

And the smile on both of these faces helps to over-ride my negativity.
And seeing him so stable and upright actually makes me more hopeful that he will do anything he wants!