Fixing Tires Just Like Daddy....

T-Ball....

So we decided to sign Ayden up for T-ball.  Here was Ayden's first at bat, he was the last person to bat, so they let the kids run around the bases.  This is Ayden's idea of running around the bases...  I will let you see for yourself.



This is his 2nd at bat.  After I stopped the video, Ayden took off running to 2nd base.  :)




This is much better than his first game.  At that game he hit the ball, fielded the ball, threw it to first to get himself out.  :) 

He definitely keeps us on our toes.

Look Mom/Dad... I'm eating...

The above one-liner about says it all.  Ayden has been making leaps and bounds with his eating... something has just seemed to click.  This past week, he ate a peanut-butter sandwich, ravioli, bagel, which were all a first for him.  The downfall is that he only eats about 20 bites, so that's definitely not enough to calories to keep the wild-man up and running.  :) Here's a little clip of him eating. 

Where do we go from here... we aren't sure... just letting him lead the way and we are hanging on for the ride.  :)

Hope this finds everyone doing well...

The Mind of a Four Year Old (all boy)

So lately, Ayden has been rather hilarious.  His vocabulary is ever expanding and comes up with these new, "bright" ideas in which he thinks is great... but Mom and Dad aren't so sure.   It usually starts with some quiet and then a, "Mom/Dad, come'ere I gotta show you something.  Come'ere...come'ere".  Here is a video and some pictures of what we have found....

In addition....

Pooh and Moose tucked in.

 He put Pooh Bear and Moose to bed and told Moose, "If you get out of bed, I take Pooh Bear away... stay in bed".  :)

Moving into the tent???

I don't quite know what he was doing here moving items into the tent...

Hey mom LOOK I am on the top bunk!! 

We moved him from the toddler bed and he now has a bunk bed, of which he sleeps on the bottom, but enjoys climbing up to the top and sitting. 

He has started "borrowing" my phone to take pictures, however, many of them end up as videos.  :) 

  Here are a few of his pics....

     

 Continues with his fascination of plug-ins.

Mom and puppies...

Dakotah wearing Ayden's hat...

 
 Finally, we have been to 2 Avalanche hockey games.  Ayden enjoys tell all the teams when to "shoot it at the net".   While at the games... he turned into a hockey player and a Nuggets basketball play all in the same day!  :)

 

Well, that's about all.  Hope everyone is well. 

How time flies!!!

I am sure this is not new news to anyone, but I was viewing other friend's blogs and thought, I wonder when the blog was last updated and when I saw that it was 6 months ago... wow... time flies.  What have we been up to... pictures are always worth a thousand words... so here is about 11,000 words worth.

Happy ** th Birthday Carol!!

Springtime flowers...

Visiting & relaxing at the camper....

New Puppy.............. 

Brody

He is in there on his own free will. :)

Remodeling our downstairs

Drive-through water tables.

Camping and boating at Blue Mesa Reservoir

And last, but not least.....

The FIRST day of School 2010/11!!

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen... hope you enjoyed the last 6 months.

Parental bragging rights...

Originally, I was going to write about the funny fort building story that involved him, Dad, & Dakotah.. which I will get to later.  But first, I thought I would brag about what Ayden has been up to.  With all the quiet time necessary to heal his lungs, he has been doing a lot more fine motor skills and it seems as if Ayden has been holding out on us.  We have found out Ayden can trace all his numbers and when he does, it's not in the steps like most kids follow, instead it's as if he knows how to write them and will trace them in one smooth motion.  Then we were coloring, he started writing the letter "A", with no assistance, but he does say,. "you wrote the letter A!"... of course this is with his usual enthusiasm.  :) 

And it doesn't stop there...  we found out he knows all his shapes.   He told us that one of his shoes has an octagon on the bottom of the sole!   Since he has been home, one of his teachers dropped off a "work bag" of things for him to do.  It has the usual shapes, but it also has trapezoid, pentagon, octagon, and parallelogram (pronounced parallagrama...heehee).... so you can just send your geometry questions to Dr. Ayden... haha 

Onto the story of the day...  I was out to dinner with some friends/co-workers who were in town.  Ayden's favorite thing to do is to build forts and hang out in them, as do most boys his age.  So this is story that was told to me when I got home tonight... Ayden and Chris decided to build a fort and Ayden instructed Chris to sit in the fort with him.  Well, since the humans were having fun and there were blankets on the floor too, Dakotah decided to crash the party.  Ayden thought it was hilarious and was saying "Dakotah inside", so Dakotah laid down in the fort.  Once she was in the fort, Dad was kicked out.  haha   Sorry... no photos were taken.


Have a good day!!

Update...

The last few days at home have been going well.  He has gotten so much better.  Not only his energy, but his oxygen has been cut in half and is down to only 1/4L at night.  He is only needing his neb treatments every 6 hrs (down from every 4 when we left) and his breathing is much calmer. 

This is one ugly bug for Ayden and his friend Faith. (Your prayers helped as she was sprung on Thursday). 

We have a follow up appointment with his pulmonologist on Monday... so we will try and get through the weekend.  I think he has caught up on sleep, but I don't think Mom and Dad have.  :)

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Ayden is on the loose... jail break confirmed

Will have more on this story tomorrow.

If you can, please say a little prayer for Ayden's friend Faith, who was 5 doors down from us at the hospital.  RSV struck her too, but much harder than Ayden.  She was still in the hospital and it might be a while for her.

have a good night!

Jail break??

Talked to the pulmonologist this morning and he thought if things go well tonight and oxygen requirement comes down, there could be a jail break in the near future.  They also want to see where his O2 requirement on room air is. If it's high 80's they will be happy... so pray for 80's! 

Otherwise nothing to report...  which is a good thing these days! 

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!

The Doctor came in this morning and gave Ayden the OK to walk around the room.  So he wandered around for about 5-10 minutes - rather boring and not much to get into.  Noticed that his equilibrium was a little off or he was a little weak, or even both.  But he found the electric paper towel dispenser and before I knew it had a bundle of paper towel (at least we don't get charged for them...lol).

Everyone seems pleased with his progress. As usual, he has to do things at his own pace.  When people push him, he pushes back and not in a good way... so his preemie traits shine through.  :) 

Since then he has cooperated with the staff and done some good breathing treatments to open up his airway. 

Once again, paper towels are the "toy" of choice.  In addition, his theme for the day seems to be "no more...___" fill in the blank.  Which means anything anyone tried, that was his response.  All in all it's a good day.  Even though the rooms a spacious for a hospital room, after a few days, the walls always get closer and closer.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Dawn, Chris & Ayden

No more ICU

Ayden's doing so much better that he will go back to the pulmonary floor today, sometime.  He got up this morn and said want to get down, then he started setting off alarms.  :)   So he sat with mom most of the morning and a watched cartoons.  I think along with weening the off the O2, we will be having to ween off the cartoons as well...lol

A few pics from this morning...

 

Chilling this morning.

Teddy Bear getting a breathing treatment (yes it is the device used for CPT)
Just before the breathing treatment, Teddy received some CPT from Ayden.

thanks for checking in with us! 

Doing much better...

Tonight he seems to be much better.  Snot came out one end while Poo came out the other, so life is getting better.  He was talking much more and instructing everyone when they should be "all done" with him. :)  I think everyone was glad to hear that.  I turned down his oxygen slightly and might get to turn down a little more.  Not quite sure where we are at because the numbers are 1-15, so the lines are very tiny. 

In addition to all this, he has been sleeping in a bed, bed, no crib.  Mine you he has been rather lethargic, so he has been willing to lay still and not attempt a jail break.

Although not completely out of the woods, he is much better than when we first brought him in, which wasn't his worst. 

Hopefully they will let us go home soon.  Have a good night!

Uff-da

Well, here is a review of what landed Ayden in the hosptial...

Sunday, we attended a friend's superbowl party and he had a lot of fun playing their pinball and slot machines. We got home and he was a little warm and it turns out he had a temp of 101. That night he needed a little oxygen, but about the same amount as with a cold. Monday... just cold "stuff", but Monday night, we had him up to 3/4 L of O2. So Tuesday morning we visited the pediatrician, who thought he had the beginnings of pneumonia. So he got a shot of antibiotics and got more to take home.

Wednesday night he had a horrible night and at 6 AM we packed up and headed to the emergency room at the Children's Hospital. He got admitted, but they didn't have a bed available until 2pm! What was thought to be pneumonia, was really RSV . Although to everyone else, it's just a bad cold, with Ayden's lungs it makes it very difficult to breath.

After being admitted, the Drs have been trying everything to get his respiratory rate down and a more calm breathing pattern, which as proven very difficult. Today, they moved him for observation into the ICU. But it seems like they were more on top of it on the pulmonary floor.

So... as of right now... Chris and I are just trying to stay on top of the hospital staff so they stay on top of Ayden's care. :)

Friday, they moved him to the ICU floor for closer observation.

Ayden's new friend he received from his buddy, Mitchell. Mr. Teddy Bear actually brought a quick smile to Ayden.

Ayden has taken to saying bye to everyone... no "hi", only bye... think he is feeling better? HaHa Thanks for checking in... will be updating as things change.

My first visit to the Ocean!!!

Well, Ayden got his first glimpse of the Ocean! In typical Ayden fashion... he threw caution to the wind and ran in! Of course, the people sitting on the beach were probably laughing their head off b/c Chris and I were chasing...



We ended up in San Diego because I was in training and so we took the opportunity to turn it into a mini-vacation. So while I sat freezing in training, Chris and Ayden hung out at the beach! We stayed at the Navy Lodge on Coronado Island, which had a complete open beach all to ourselves, while the vacationers at the Coronado Resort were packed like sardines! :)



In addition to the beach, Chris and Ayden took in a Padres game. And we took Ayden to Lego Land. Although the mounds of Legos were cool, Ayden really loved to drive the boats!



Have a good day!

Big helper...

Well, Grandpa (bap pa) Tim stopped by... brought more money (that's what I tell him over the phone and I finally figured out was it is... so now I find money laying in my parents room and I run into my room and put in my piggy bank...).

Mom and Dad were slave drivers and made him stick around until he and dad got the fireplace in downstairs (no one was hurt in the process either). I had to show bap pa a few things, but thanks to me, I think they got it installed correctly. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Checking things out....

Problem solving... where's the green switch?

He doesn't believe me!!! I might be 3, but I know what color green is....

On to my next project........

So that was our week in a nutshell.... Let me know if you need to hire me, I am sure mom and dad wouldn't mind a break from me. haha...

have a good day!

Chilling at the land....

Hey everyone... just hanging out and chillin' at the land.



Me, Mom, & Dad went up to the land near Westcliffe and I chilled and mom and dad cleaned up the camper since no one had been down there since last fall. The only thing I don't like is that I have to wear my oxygen the whole time... what a pain. These days, normally I take it off at home and mom and dad just let me, but at the land it HAS to be on... geez. :)

Here are some more pics that mom took...

Daddy and me!

My new walking stick or "hitting plants" stick. :)

My puppy, Irish, that isn't feeling too well... I don't understand it... so ask my mom or dad.

Thanks for checking in with us... sorry my parents haven't updated the blog lately... medical stuff is quiet... but I still keep them on their toes.

Where's Ayden???

Can you find him??



How about in these pics...




Yes... he cleared out my pots and pans (and put them all on the stove) and then proceeded to hang out in the cupboard for oh about 15-20 minutes. He brought a flashlight, bowl, and spoon in for comfort... and before that he was talking with Grandma. So now you know Ayden's new hangout.

We are HOME!!

Yippy... it was a short stay. The Dr was happy w/ everything and we busted out at about 10am. He took a good nap in the car b/c he didn't sleep that well as the nurse had to get his vitals taken every 4 hrs. He woke up happy and hasn't needed anything for the pain since last night... so that is good.

Some how he managed to take out his IV in his sleep and it didn't bleed. The nurse was impressed, but those w/ preemies know they are capable of doing almost anything... LOL

Now the hard part will be keeping the area dry for the next week...

Thanks for checking in!

the final step, we hope...

Today, Ayden had his stoma surgically closed. It was almost closed, but for some reason when you use it to make farting noises, it stays open. Surgery went well according to Ayden's Dr, although waking up from surgery he was one pissed off kid. Even though he could barely hold his head up, he was determined to get down off of mom or dad's lap and run around the recovery unit. Of course, he was a hit w/ the nurses, espcially when they started giving him stickers and he would say "thank you"and give them a BIG Ayden smile.

Tonight has been rough, they haven't unhooked him from his IV, but he has left it in, so that is 1/2 the battle. There haven't been enough Elmo videos in the world to keep him relaxed. He is either in some pain or his body doesn't like tylenol w/ codine. We aren't in the PICU (pediatric ICU) like we normally are, so unfortunately, no one knows us or him and we don't know anyone either.

Sorry it's so late updating, I couldn't get the computer to work. Chris and Ayden are probably falling asleep together and I walked down the hall to the lounge.

Thanks for checking in w/ us.

Well... it's been almost a month...

since my last post. It seems like he learns a new word every day. It's amazing how quickly they pick things up.... one day he is going to pick up on some of Chris' "words". :~)

Ayden has actually had a rough week. He had his 3 bought of pink eye in 6 weeks, but it probably is in the eye duct, so we had to go on an oral antibiotic (AB). So after a few days, the oral AB cause some interesting outcomes as it passed through. Because of this we ended up pediatrician's office. Everything was fine, but later that day he had to get his monthly shot too. Then the next day he had to have an echo on his heart to make sure there is no pulmonary hypertension, which is always possible since he is on oxygen. The good news is there is none, the bad news is he HATES ultrasounds... he was one mad kid!!!

After all that... hopefully it's quiet here. Have a good day!!