Day 105 - Sept 13, 2008 - pic included

This has been another good day. Today Kevin laughed for hours with me and Breezy. It was almost just like normal family times. The only way it could have been better was if Kevin was talking. Honestly - he keeps up with everything me and Breezy say. He comprehends nearly everything and let me say, we don't slow our speech down for him at all. We were just cracking jokes and he was laughing right along with us. Then Breezy started making faces and Kevin even made a few back at her. He was also tricking us into doing things and just generally being the jokester he always was. At one point, he even put his hand up at the side of his face so that he didn't have to look at Breezy cause she was being a dork. I could honestly hear him saying that to her too - " I am not even looking at you because you are a dork!". It was just his way of playing with her. I have to say, it's sure nice seeing my son and daughter laugh together. Y'all just can't imagine how awesome Breezy was today (and everyday really). She was just plain being silly to keep him smiling and laughing. It's not only good for him mentally, but we need to start working those facial muscles and his lips. They were burned and haven't really been used at all for nearly 3 months. We have some work to do for sure. Just imagine a stroke patient if you will - where their face doesn't quite move the way it should.

Kevin also played catch today with the doctor. He both threw and caught the ball of gauze. And at one point the gauze started unrolling and he rolled it right back up. I had to laugh too, because he rolled it crooked and when he realized it, he unrolled it and fixed it so that it was done correctly (can you say obsessive compulsive disorder? He gets that from his mom, LOL)

He also learned how to do the thumbs up gesture, but I am not sure if he is aware of what it means. That is about the only thing I am seeing wrong mentally at this point - he can't make any decisions and can't answer questions. So if you ask him 'do you want to watch this?' he just looks at you. Although truthfully, even that is changing. Tonight he made a motion to Breezy to turn the channel when she would stop on one he didn't want.

I did have to laugh too, because he watched 2 episodes of 'Burn Notice' tonight and would not even acknowledge us unless commercials were on. He literally put his hand up to shut us up if we tried to talk while the show was on.

Kevin is also using a kleenex to wipe his nose now. He had a little sniffle today and Breezy just handed him a tissue and he used it with very little encouragement from her.

So now, I am going to share a picture of Kevin with you. This is a picture of what he looks like now. A picture of him brushing his teeth. I am coming at him on his good side - the side where his skull is intact and basically his facial skin is starting to look really good. I am just not ready to show you the other side. Anyway, you can see that he is mostly just a dark pink color and it may be noticeable that his eyes are still puffy and discolored from the grafts. He has to wear the gloves for 23 hours a day for at least a year. He has gloves, sleeves and leggings that he will have to wear. And truthfully, once his feeding tube comes out he will need to wear compression garments on his chest/back as well. His left pinkie is splinted yet as we had some tendon showing up until recently. You will notice he doesn't have a full head of hair. We don't know what that will end up being like. It's partly due to the burns and partly due to the medications he is on. His eyebrows still need to fully grow back too (sections are there). They did once already (maybe twice?), but they keep falling out too. The bandage on his neck is from his trach removal and you will notice everything is padded. He just moves around so much and we have to protect the 'good' part of his brain that is completely vulnerable due to his skull being removed. So anyway, I think I explained everything and if not - feel free to ask. And now...here he is: