We need a batter, not a broken ladder. OH HI DBACKS!

Kyle hasn't been so great these last couple of months.  He's missed more than 6 weeks of school due to a bout of upper respiratory junkyness, for one.  Ultimately, we even had to bring him to Urgent Care due to an ear infection--and Urgent Care typically won't see medically fragile patients at all, but they did that day because I was just that desperate.  (kudos to our urgent care--world class, those folks.)

Today, Kyle saw our favorite orthopedic surgeon.  Unfortunately we learned that Kyle has a 21 degree spinal curvature.  This is bad news.  For now, he'll get a soft TLSO (back brace) in hopes that we can put off back surgery for a few extra years.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that we got to enjoy, again, the holiday decorations at Phoenix Children's Hospital!  Our favorite, hands down, has been the Arizona Diamondbacks Christmas tree.  It's incredibly tall (I'm guessing twenty feet?) and decorated with Dbacks ornaments, paraphenilia, and gear.  Kyle is obsessed with baseball, and the Dbacks, so he spends lots of quality time with this tree--touching it, talking to it--each time we have to go to the hospital.  Today he zoomed right over to the tree, carelessly plowing through a small crowd of folks standing around the area.  Turns out Kyle interrupted a meet and greet with Willie Bloomquist, of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Kyle is only four years old, so has yet to memorize the Dbacks roster, but as we drove home I emphasized who he just met and he finally "got" it.  Nearly an afterthought, I asked Willie for a photo.  Kyle appears as though he couldn't have been happier if Willie had offered him a light saber (Kyle's other obsession). 

The Dbacks tree, with a little more detail (from a previous visit).

Thanks to the Dbacks organization, and to Mr. Bloomquist, for arranging to meet the kids of PCH and making a little boy's day.