Parker New Years Update

I had taken New Years Eve off work to do fun stuff going on around town with the dynamic duo.After an appointment with the ENT 6 weeks ago, I found out this wasn't going to happen. Parker needed to have another procedure. Not only did I know this wasn't going to happen ahead of time...I had no idea how crazy the day would be.

Payton woke up at 2am that morning and refused to go back to sleep. She was sick and nailed herself, me, my hair, blankets, pillow, etc. One moment caused a huge mess. After getting her cleaned up, I had to take a shower at 2:30 am. The fridge broke around 4am with the water line for it spraying water on the kitchen counter and floor. Both kids were up at 4:30 am wanting to watch Chuggington. I had to stall Payton's requests for cereal because Parker wasn't allowed to have anything. When Parker and I went out to the car to head to the hospital, I discovered my car had been egged along with several others that were parked on the street. And the cup of coffee the hospital brought me upon arrival tasted like it had been sitting for 2 days.

Parker and I checked into Boys Town at 5:30 am so that he could have semi-permanent tubes placed in both ears. His others had fallen out and he was already having  problems and losing hearing. The ENT has also been watching several cysts in his airway behind his vocal chords for a while. They're from being on a ventilator for so long. He's been having some issues with his reactive airway so the doctor decided it was time for them to come out - by laser.

 Surgery went fine. Because of what they were doing with the airway and his normal self, he was put under pretty deep anesthesia. HE was in recovery quite a while before coming back to the room. Once the haze cleared a little we sat on the bed and played with balls and cars, the nurses brought him popsicles and Dr. Lusk let him look at pictures of planes on one of his several trips in the room to check on us. With a promise that I would call or go to the ER on the very off chance something weird happened above what I could manage at home, we got our discharge orders and were able to go home. I grabbed myself a special load of caffeine on the way home which didn't make much difference since I'd been up since 2am.

 A quiet night at home, take out to celebrate New Years and my birthday and everyone here was out pretty early. I settled into the recliner with some champagne, a piece of my lemon cake and one of my Christmas gifts.

Parker is doing just fine. He's been a little rough in the throat  this past week post-op but nothing major and is sounding better. We check in next week with the doctor and then will just be every few months after that to monitor things. It's been 3 procedures in 9 months, and 4 in just over a year, for the little man. Praying for a new year with fewer procedures and more good coffee.

Holiday Wrap Up

The past week has been crazy and so to try and catch up with everything we'll do the full holiday wrap up in one post - of course complete with pictures!

The Wednesday before Christmas, I got a call in the morning that Parker was sick. By the time I got to go pick him up, he was have some major issues - fever, high heart rate, oxygen not doing so hot. After a trip to the doctor and a nap...

We ended up at home for two days on our usual rotation of meds and treatments because the doctor gave us a diagnosis of tonsillitis, sinus infection, strep throat and aggrivation of all his airway and lung problems. I told the doctor he had a couple days to get him fixed in time for Christmas.

Christmas was lots of fun this year. While they don't really understand what's going on, they are able to participate more and tear open presents. They got so excited about everything, there was constant squeals and laughter. They played and played and played and played. We stayed in jammies for the weekend, took a couple naps, ate, and they were completely spoiled rotten. And now it's up to us find somewhere to put everything. We could open up another Gymboree or Toys R Us (so if anyone wants to come play, come on over!).

For New Years Eve we had some plans. We started our morning at the zoo. We met Kristin, Sydney and Ava and had a GREAT time! We checked out the pavilion, got a few party favors, then headed to the jungle restaurant to use a table. The girls brought muffins and cupcakes and cards to celebrate my birthday with me. Love you guys! When we were done, we headed to the gorilla house. Parker and Payton squealed every time they saw a gorilla. And every time a monkey moved, they both pointed and made more noise. It was hysterical to everyone within ear shot. Once we were done there we headed back to the pavilion for the ball drop at  noon. Very fun...and it was absolutely packed. Sydney and Ava made a dive for it when they dropped and came up with an elephant and a giraffe beach ball for the kiddos to bring home.

Later in the afternoon, we checked out the First Night party at Bloomer School. We danced around to a drum circle that some students were playing in and doing battle on the drums. We got balloons made - a smiley face guy for Parker and a flower corsage for Payton. Payton even got her picture in the newspaper with her fancy balloon! We even tried face painting for the first time. Payton liked it but Parker got one spider leg drawn on his cheek and that was all he was going to take. Maybe next year. We also got to meet a real live reindeer, got to pet him and take our picture with him. Parker was a little more into her then Payton was, but she was so sweet.

Chris went and got take out for dinner when we got home. The babies were asleep at their normal time. We had some chocolate birthday cake after that and were out early. We got our first look at 2012 when Payton started the new year at 3:00 a.m. for the day.

We hope everyone had a great new years! Here's to an even better 2012 - more steps forward, more laughs, more milestones, more inspiration, and more love. Thanks to everyone that had helped with even one of those over the past year - you're appreciated more than you know.

Stay tuned...more to come!