Well this has been a big year, and today was the biggest of big days - Ian was approved by his gastroenterologist to get his feeding tube removed!!! 🎉 His feeding tube was surgically inserted into his stomach when he was only 5 weeks old, so it has been a part of him almost his whole life but he hasn’t needed to use it for almost a whole year now. Our “getting so much bigger” kid has had some mixed feelings about this step - something that has been a big part of his life is hard to part with, but he is also getting so much bigger and no longer needs it. He ended up being a little sad and scared when we actually removed the tube but I think he will slowly adjust in the coming days/weeks.

Also big news in 2024 is that Ian is now fully potty trained. We started with his school on this process at the beginning of the school year but it started clicking the other month, and even night times have been dry and clean for weeks now. Always fun to see this big milestones achieved. ❤️ 

Some pray points going forward:
- Quick healing of the feeding tube hole in his stomach. It’s going to be leaking stomach contents for at least a few days to maybe a week+, but if the hole doesn’t close up on its own, it might need to be surgically closed.
- Continued therapy success. Ian is getting OT weekly but we need to get on the schedule for behavioral as well after his neuropsychologist identified anxiety and possible ADHD with his neuropsych testing. - Health: he has had a range of illnesses including covid, influenza and croup this season,.

(Pictures: Ian impressed the GI team with his friendly energy and cool monster drawings. We need to find some bigger ways of celebrating but so far he got some mini donuts and a balloon after we took the feeding tube out. A few weeks ago, Ian was an “elephant” in his school’s Kindergarten Circus performance.)