We had excited neurosurgery news last week. Tyler's MRI looked "Fantastic"! The cyst that had holes poked into in August is barely seen on Thursday's scan. The shunt is draining that off relieving any pressure on the brain stem and the cerebellum area of the brain. This is one of the area's that could continue to give Tyler a hard time to develop properly. With the cyst going away...well it's awesome news for us. The weird area in the front right ventricle where we were concerned another cyst was forming has also cleared up. His over all ventricle size is slowly equalizing to were they need to be. It was an a huge day for us. And the icing on this cake is we don't have to see neurosurgery for 3 months and don't need another MRI at that visit unless he starts to act funny.

Tyler is doing beautifully to go along with this news. He smile and giggles all the time now. He is hitting all his developmental milestone appropriately for his corrected age. We are helping him out with some stretches to be able to move his head better because of the shunt. The shunt and "bump" stick out of his head on the right side making it hard for him to turn his head up and over it. Over a long period of time fat deposits and scar tissue will minimize the bump the shunt causes but for now it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. I've had more little kids come up to Tyler fascinated by the shunt and ask questions about it while the parents take one look at him and avoid us like the plague.

Over the last two weeks, we've seen him gain more head control and is starting to raise his head off the ground when he is on his tummy. This has been the hardest milestone for him to hit. With the shunt, his tummy hurt for a while after the surgery making it hard for us to put him on his tummy. We are even seeing him being able to sit for a few seconds before crunching over. Then he will straighten up for a couple more seconds before he is too tired to sit. We are hitting the really cool stage where we see changes from little baby to big baby.

Tyler had is weight checked yesterday and weighted in at 12 pounds and 4 ounces. He grew a pound in just about 3 weeks. He is getting so big when I tell people he's 5 1/2 months they accept it. I don't get, "but he's so small" anymore. He is such a happy little guy to boot.