Prebble Family Tales

For those of you who didn’t already notice, the photos from the Spikes game are now available. I’ve included a small taste here so you can decide whether or not you really need to see more.

What’s really funny is that every time I take Brandy’s picture, she says, “That better not end up on the Internet.”  Well geez, that’s just about the best way to make sure that it absolutely will end up on the Internet.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

This might be of interest to baseball fans.  Gareth will be throwing out the first pitch tonight at the Spikes game!

Based on prior experiences, he’ll likely be one of many first pitchers for the night, but it’s still incredibly exciting for us and for him.  He went nuts when he found out what he would be doing.

So if you’re up for seeing a kid explode with joy, I’d highly recommend going to the game tonight.

On second thought, no, don’t give us any more heat.

Gareth earned some respect today for enduring the usual innings at his Miracle League game today. We could barely take the heat on the bleachers, so I can’t imagine what it was like for Gareth to be sitting in a black padded wheelchair seat in zero shade for two hours.

The good news is that the sunscreen he used was awesome. No burns at all.

After baseball, we went to as many places with air conditioning as we could find – Friendly’s, Dick’s, Ross, Target, Barnes. Yes, today became a “shop to get out of the heat” trip.

We had an opportunity to try Gareth in a power wheelchair yesterday. It was incredibly short notice, but we couldn’t pass it up.

It was a Quantum 1107 Dynamo chair in a green very similar to Gare’s bike. We got him strapped him, gave him the basic info on how the joystick works, and then watched him lose all control as he locked his arms in excitement. After a bit of work, he was wheeling around under his own direction, though we had to help hold his elbow still so he could keep his hand on the stick.

The specialist who brought the chair wants to set us up with two more test drives so that she can bring along some accessories that will help with Gare’s arm placement. We’re pretty optimistic that this will work for Gareth in the long term. Which means that we’ll have to garner a similar level of optimism for acquiring a wheelchair accessible van.

Power wheelchairs are heavy.

Saturday marked Gareth’s inaugural participation in the fine sport of baseball. He is playing for the Yankees in the Miracle League of Blair County.

He got up to bat twice (as did all the other kids) and scored two runs.

We are now debating whether or not to add HGH to his Pediasure.

Enjoy some photos.

This week is turning out to be rather eventful. It started with an afternoon spent waiting to see the elephants unloaded from the Ringling Bros. train near the Nittany Mall. We managed to just barely make it into a photo in the CDT – you can clearly see our legs through the underbelly of an elephant.

The next day, Gareth went on a field trip to the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center out at Stone Valley. I don’t have any good details on that since he was asleep when I got home from work, but all indications are that he had a great time.

And tomorrow we head to Philadelphia so Gare and I can geek out over the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute.

For those who don’t follow the bike blog, Gareth made an appearance at the Bellefonte Middle School Make-A-Wish fundraiser a couple weeks ago. The whole family went, actually. And we took his bike.

Brandy and I were introduced as former students (which we are) and my old math teacher managed to rip on the fact that I was nearly bald. I did my schtick, got us off the stage, and then we danced for a little bit before heading home.

Gareth has acclimated to his glasses rather well. He doesn’t fight them at all and continues to tell us that he is seeing everything better than before. I can’t wait to see his reaction the first time he wears them on a bike ride!

In two weeks, we’re all heading to Philadelphia to check out the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute. Should be a fun trip, at least for yours truly.

That’s the big news for right now. Gareth received his first pair of glasses on Wednesday. He has been having some trouble seeing things at a distance, so a visit with his eye doc resulted in a prescription. So far, he hates wearing them but admits that he is better able to see things on the walls at school.

These glasses are arriving just in time as it looks as though Gareth and I will be attending the Walking With Dinosaurs show at the Bryce-Jordan Center in just over a week.

Gare has recently discovered The Hampster Dance and loves to listen to the dance remix of it. He was initially introduced to it via the KidStuff channel on Sirius, but he’s a lucky kid and has a dad who, uh, already had it on his MP3 player. So now it’s on Gareth’s player, available at any time to send Gare into paroxysms of laughter.

There’s been an interesting development in magical world of science. A device now exists that is able to vocalize thought (that description is a gross oversimplification). Can’t wait to see how this pans out as it could enable Gareth to speak.

Wow, almost two months without updates. Why hasn’t anybody stoned me yet? Accused me of parental neglect? You’re all far too nice.

So… since the beginning of December… huh…

Christmas happened. Gareth got a bunch of stuff. His favorite gift was probably his ESPN baseball toy. How much does he love it? If I do the ESPN “DUH-duh-DUH, DUH-duh-DUH” music blast (which this toy plays), he laughs. The kid is hooked on stuff I could never love. Such are the trappings of raising an individual.

Gare has been sick the past week, leaking from every orifice while running a temperature and taking antibiotics for cellulitis. He’s on the mend now, but he had to miss two days of school as part of his recovery.

Brandy has done some preliminary investigation into a baseball league geared towards kids with disabilities. We’ll find out more about it, but what we know now is that it’s a weekend thing that happens in Altoona. Imagine… me going to baseball games. Yikes.

Gareth did a pretty fantastic job making it through his holiday concert. It was especially impressive for a child that is normally asleep by 7PM. Not only did he manage to stay awake for the concert, he was up for another hour and a half after it was over because of all the excitement and adrenaline in his system.