Monday, May 23, 2011

Jay and the Baby

Tonight I had Jay feel his baby brother or sister moving for the first time! The baby is strong enough now that he could easily feel him/her.

Two videos...

Video of Jay and Baby moving 1
Video of Jay and Baby moving 2

Friday, May 20, 2011

Jay's Reading and Writing

Here are some of the words jay was writing on his white board tonight. He decided to write "cat" and 'dog" then I told him to write "God" and "frog".


Then I walked out of the room and he came and told me he wrote "lost God" (don't ask me why - I have NO idea, but that isn't the point....) He actually wrote God and lost all on his own!


This picture is sideways (again another thing I have no idea why). Jay started playing and just writing letters randomly so I told him to write a real word that I could try to read. So what does my not even 4 year old try to write....
dinosaur!
He told me he wrote Dinosaur before I even saw it and sure enough that is what it looks like he tried to do!

And ok - I am sure not everyone wants to watch these, but I want to keep them for me! And I'm sure the Grandmas want to see them....

Here are a bunch a videos of Jay reading....
(it was the first time Jay EVER SAW these 4 books! I have never read them to him and he has never opened them before)
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Reading game (I didn't get to record when he read "Daddy will be home soon." Perfectly - all by himself)

Good job Jay, I'm so happy you love to read and are working so hard. One day you will look back on this blog and see how well you were doing 5 weeks before turning 4! Mommy loves you Jay!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dillon's new wheelchair

The first wheelchair took 2 years to get approved by insurance. This time we started the process in February and we picked up the new chair TODAY!

I was SO nervous about the new chair, just not knowing if it would work for Dillon. Would he be comfortable in it? Would it fit in the van with a child in a car seat behind him? Would he hate the new chair? etc etc etc

It is Awesome! He did GREAT! We had to put him in and out about 5 times as adjustments were made and his heart rate stayed below 120! Then for over an hour on the way home, he did GREAT!!!!!!!! His heart rate was below 125 the whole time. I KNOW it looks so tight and constrictive, but I think he is much more comfortable being supported instead of limp and moving when he is unable to hold himself or put himself in a better position.

Here is his new GRASSHOPPER GREEN wheelchair! (Don't you love the color I picked out for him - such a little boy color!)
Going into it for the first time...
I love that it even has his name on the back. The oxygen tank holder is pretty high on this chair and since he hasn't been needing oxygen I will probably ask for the smaller tanks so the don't stick up in the air so far.
You can see it tilts back on the "rocking chair" like prat so if he needs to go back. The downfall to it as you tilt him back your handle goes way down (you'll see what I mean in the lower pictures)
Looking good with his new headrest. It comes from the back and down the front of his chest to keep him from tilting his head back and resting it on his back. He puts himself in a very bad position that would cause some issues if he continued to do that all the time so this is much better. It will also help him breathe better.
The red block slides up the head rest to keep his chin up which helps with his breathing, plus will keep him from making the horrible noise he makes sometimes when breathing. It also helps him from pulling his head out of the head rest and getting it stuck down on the side of the chair (which he does all the time while driving and is why I cannot go places with him alone.) It will also keep him safe if we were in an accident because his head won't be thrown about as would have in his old chair. Again, I know it looks horribly uncomfortable, which is why I was so nervous, but he really seems to like it. It HAS to feel better knowing you are safe and secure than feeling like you are falling all over the place!

See? When the tilt is down it handle is so low Truett can push him! I don't know HOW Josiah is supposed to push if Truett can!



Praise the Lord! We were approved with out a fight by the insurance at all! It came quickly! AND HE LIKES IT!!!!!! I am floating on cloud nine right now!!!

Monday, May 16, 2011

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TRUETT!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Truett!

It's hard to believe it has been a whole year already! It has been a busy year, since Truett's birth we have moved, Dillon had major surgery, we went to Va a few times to see my Grandparents, we went to Va for my Grandpa's Homegoing service, we have been approved for a new wheelchair for Dillon, etc. Times flies!

Josiah left last Friday for Texas for his brother's law school graduation. Congrats Ezra! So that meant a whole weekend alone with all three kids! We did good, we all went to Walmart (Dillon in his wheelchair, Truett strapped to me, and Jay being my helper with a bag on the back of Dillon's chair to hold our groceries.) Then we walked to a flee market and had hot dogs. We did well even going to the early service at church (starts at 8:30), but we were missing Daddy!!!

Today we started off with a night nurse needing to call off last night (it was the first time this nurse has called off) so we had a new nurse that we had never met. She seemed to do well with Dillon. The only problem was Dillon hasn't had a bowel movement in over 5 days! I saw this yesterday and had tried to do something for it, but nothing worked. I was starting to think we might need to take a trip to CHOP but I asked this new nurse to run to CVS before the end of her shift and get me some stuff and THANKFULLY it worked (just a little, but it did work)!

Through out the night I heard Truett cry a little off and on. He doesn't normally do this so I was thinking "Oh no, is she going to be sick for his birthday?!" At 6:30 when he cried and didn't stop I went into the room and he had his leg stuck in the crib. Based on the red mark I would guess it had been there for a while. So he was up and had milk and cereal, and of course the Jay was up and eating too. WAY too early! Truett went back to bed till noon so that gave Jay, Dillon and I time to prepare for his birthday.

(I don't know why a few of these pictures are flipped - it is blogger changing them for some reason.)

Dillon wrapping his gift for Truett






Jay wrapping his hand picked gift for Truett

Truett loved the balloons we blew up for him! He played with them ALL day!



Of course Dillon had to get in on the fun too!


Jay and I actually did the cake around 8 am but it ended up being an all day project... you'll see why



Enjoying the butter cream frosting we made...

Iced cake with butter cream frosting

I bought fondant on Friday so we would have it. I have never used it before so I didn't know how hard it should be. As I opened the package I saw it had a whole in it. Sure enough it was ROCK SOLID! We ended up having to run back to the store, thankfully they let me exchange it for a new one that was not rock solid. Jay is helping to roll it out.

covering the cake with the fondant

all trimmed up

Then we took the left over fondant and colored them 4 different colors with food dye. This took the longest. Jay helped me cut all the stars out and I put them on after he was napping.

Truett's cake with the candles! I am pleased with how it turned out since it was my first time working with fondant. I am excited to keep practicing (don't worry I will have TONS of birthdays over the next 18 years to perfect my skills!!)

Truett's presents! Daddy finally got home from Texas, too! It wasn't until almost 6pm, but he would have been at work all that time anyways. I am so thankful he was able to get home for all the fun!

Family picture

I think Truett thought the candles were the food!

The three boys!

Mommy and the boys

Daddy and the boys

Eating his cake and ice cream too.


YUMMY!

Why doesn't Mommy normally let me eat with my hands?

Think he liked it?!

A present from Dillon's nurse

Dillon and his baby brother

Can you guess who picked this one out?

Other than the balloons, this was his favorite present...
A basketball from Dillon!

I love this little man so much!

Adorable!

I really think the balloons were his favorite!

Mommy and the One Year Old!

Happy birthday boy!


How nice of Daddy to give Truett a phone for his birthday...

Happy Birthday Truett!!!!!

Click HERE to watch Truett with his balloons
Click HERE to watch Truett playing with the basketball
Click HERE to watch us singing to Truett
Click HERE to watch Truett eating his cake and ice cream