Twenty-Three Months

I can't believe my Little Man is almost two! We've had a pretty eventful past month and are ready to ring in the New Year.

Since Noah's trachea reconstruction surgery and latest scope he has made some progress. He is now swallowing his saliva and we no longer need bibs. Yippee!! On occasion, we can hear him inhale while he is playing...especially when his neck is extended. We have been given a Passy-Muir valve to place on Noah's trach. It allows him to inhale through the trach, but blocks any exhale and forces it out through his mouth and nose. Unfortunately, Mr. Stinkpot has not taken it like a fish to water...it's more like a boy to water. He STRUGGLES to exhale and will create such air pressure that he pops the valve off his trach. I knew that learning to breathe would be a long process for my Little Man, but seriously, this is hard {for me and Mr. Man}.

In addition to the adventures in breathing, Bubs was hit with a trach infection shortly before Christmas and the flu shortly after. It has been a month of vomiting, antibiotics, more vomiting, and even more vomiting. Because of the lack of eating {or rather keeping it down}, our Little Man has lost quite a bit of weight. His latest stats are:

Weight: 28 pounds 3 ounces
Height: 33 inches

Bubs is telling you that this is his last month of being ONE.
I'm almost TWO! Rock Out!

Fresno Christmas

After spending several days in Rocklin, the Jacksons returned to Fresno to spend Christmas with Nana, Pop-Ro, Uncle Drew, Auntie Nessa and Cuz Jonah.

It was so much fun to see the cousins together. They truly enjoyed playing with each other and did so with quite a bit of sharing.Once the boys woke up on Christmas morning, the stockings were the first to be opened.Noah got some great watercolors, some fun markers that he and Jonah shared, an icky, light-up, squishy monster thing,and a super fun slinky that he shared with Pop-Ro.After a yummy quiche breakfast and showers all around, it was time to tackle the presents under the tree. Well, we did have to start with the customary family photo.

Kc, Rebecca, Pop-Ro, Noah, Nana, Jonah, Vanessa, Andrew

Charlie came with Noah to offer emotional support with all those presents.Cuz Hunter and Cuz Brooklyn sent Mr. Man a super cool John Deere truck. It's the perfect size to fit in his hand, tuck in his pocket, roll under the front seat of a car, and zoom across the hardwood floor and terrorize Kitty.Noah got some great lacing beads from Nana and Pop-Roas well as the most fantastic outdoor slide.

After presents, naps, snacks, and more presents the night was topped off with the most delicious crab dinner. Yumm-O!

Outdoor Adventures

Noah has slowly been learning to LOVE being outside. As long as he has shoes on and doesn't have to walk on grass, he quite enjoys God's creation.

While in Rocklin, we spent time every day playing on the driveway. My in-laws have a long, steep driveway leading from the street to their home, and Mr. Man found so much to do there.

There were sticks and rocks to pick up.Leaves to touch {Noah is signing leaf}.
Pumpkins to roll.Lights to explore.And trees to climb {maybe when he's a bit bigger}.Noah is gaining quite a bit of strength and loves to walk all over the place.
Noah found Grandpa's orange tree and was in Hog Heaven.He picked several oranges and threw them as far as he could.After we told him he couldn't pick anymore off the tree, he started picking them off the ground.What do you want?Noah is signing "orange".

He also tried climbing over the small retaining wall to fetch the oranges he threw.
Who knew outdoor adventures made your hands so dirty?
We may have a long way to go before my Little Stinkpot is playing in the mud...but we sure have come a long way.

Rocklin Christmas

Several days before Christmas, the Jacksons headed up to Rocklin to celebrate the birth of our King with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Scott. It was a relaxing couple of days filled with good food, games, movies, outdoor adventures, and, of course, presents.

The first gift Noah opened from Grandma and Grandpa was a Rock-n-Roll Elmo. Now, Mr. Man absolutely LOVES Elmo. He loves to watch Elmo on Sesame Street. In fact, he will sign "Elmo" and "TV" whenever he wants to watch. Too cute! When Noah opened up the box and Elmo sang "A,B,C...easy as 1,2,3", our Little Stinkpot was less than enthusiastic about it. He was a bit weirded out by the fact that his favorite TV Star was in Grandma's living room. Noah still refuses to touch Elmo, but is a tad more open to his existence.

Somehow, Uncle Scott knew how much Mr. Man LOVES lions. He must have read this. When Noah opened the two adorable lions from Uncle Scott, he instantly got over his uneasy feelings about Elmo and signed "lion".Noah was quite interested in his last gift.What a fun gift!A fun trike with Buzz Lightyear.To infinite and Beyond!After all the gifts were opened, we headed outside for a bit of play and pictures. Here are Grandpa and Grandma with Biscuit Dog.Uncle Scott with his GQ pose.Our first Christmas celebration was quite fun. We are truly blessed with great families!

Merry {Belated} Christmas

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and are preparing for a Happy New Year!

There's No Place Like Home...There's No Place Like Home...

We made it home last night...finally. There was a bit of a back-up of patients being discharged from the hospital yesterday and we had to wait {forever} for discharge orders to be written up. Once the orders were {finally} given, we were able to make the three hour drive home.

We have discovered, after giving our Little Stinkpot every single type of food to taste, that he does enjoy salty things. For a while, goldfish crackers were his food of choice. Now...let me clarify. Bubs did not actually eat the crackers. Oh, no! This is Stinkpot we're talking about. Eating is OUT OF THE QUESTION! He did, however, lick all the salty goodness off the goldfish. And let's face it, that is the best part of the cracker anyway.

Mr. Man has recently expanded his repertoire of salty foods that he enjoys licking, but he definitely gravitates towards foods that are abnormally orange.

He has learned how to say most of his colors and quite enjoys the color orange.

Anyway...to keep him occupied on the drive home, I gave him some Cheetos and boy did he ever love them.Yummy, Salty Goodness!The famous bright, orange fingers.If there is food all over your face, it must be good!We finally made it home and Mr. Man was SO happy! Bubs ran into the house and insisted on taking ALL his toys out and playing with each and every single one of them. Too cute!

We all enjoyed a GREAT night of sleep, uninterrupted by nurses, beeps, doctors, medications, and the hum of florescent lights. We are now ready to start our Christmas Vacation! Yeah!

Stayin' Down

Just a quick update to let you know how Mr. Stinkpot is doing.

He was started on Pedialyte today...very slowly. Noah tolerated it quite well and had a great day considering he underwent surgery the day before. Mr. Man played with just about everything in and around his crib, charmed both of his nurses, watched some Signing Time on TV, convinced the doctors that he didn't need oxygen and could go back to room air, traveled from one PICU room to another, and learned how to sign Cuz Jonah {we've been working on that one since we'll be seeing him soon}.

Noah called it a night around six p.m. and I don't plan on being far behind him. He started on formula tonight and if he tolerates that fine and is able to keep all his food down, our MOST FANTASTIC Otolaryngologist will discharge us tomorrow. YEAH!!!!! We've been singing the "stayin' down" song {to the tune of Stayin' Alive} all day today and it seems to be working. Wish me luck and I spend another night at Noah's bedside and attempt to sleep in a recliner.

Gorgeous Looking Hole

That's what our MOST FANTASTIC Otolaryngologist said after Noah's surgery today...he's got one "gorgeous looking hole".

The stent removal went well today and when the doctor looked around, he said Noah's trachea looked very good. There was very little granulation tissue and the hole was nice and big. Our MOST FANTASTIC Otolaryngologist even plugged Noah's trach with his finger, and while Mr. Man DID NOT enjoy it, he did breathe through his mouth.

WOW!

Breathing through his mouth!

Well...it was more like crying through his mouth, but whatever.

Noah's vocal chords are "quite unique" and we have yet to hear any noises from him but the doctor is cautiously optimistic for the future.

We're currently in the PICU {the exact same room we were in last time} and thanks to Tylenol, Noah is resting comfortably. We will begin feeding him tomorrow morning and are fervently praying that our Little Stinkpot does not vomit and aspirate {like last time}. If Noah can tolerate his food and "looks good" we'll be going home on Friday.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Your encouraging words are a true blessing!

On The Road Again

So...if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

New York City?

Hawaii?

Venice?

Paris?

Well...if you were Noah, you would choose this place...
Doesn't it just look amazing?!? They have lovely accommodations, excellent room service, gorgeous views, and great entertainment. Where, you might ask, is this amazing resort? This awesome destination? This relaxing retreat?

Why it's the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford...of course. And if you were Noah, this would be your third visit in the past four months. One would think he truly LOVES this place.

Mr. Man is just truckin' his way to Packard.
We got the news late tonight that our surgery time, which we thought was six a.m. which meant a three a.m. departure time, was actually nine a.m. which means a respectable departure time of five a.m.

Our MOST FANTASTIC Otolaryngologist will remove the stent {you remember that famous stent}, take a look around, and remove any scar tissue.

We should get a good picture as to what Noah's future looks like. How his trachea is healing up? How are his vocal chords looking? Functioning? Is his epiglottis functioning? So many questions we have...they will not all be answered...but it will be a start.

Please pray for Noah and his surgical team tomorrow. We are one step closer to a possible decannulation...one baby step...one Noah step.

Holiday Baking

All of you who know me know that I don't bake.

Don't like it.

Never do it.

Respect those who can.

Understand my limitations.

I just can't.

I come from a long line of bakers. My grandmother was an amazing baker. She felt no dinner was complete without a touch of sweet at the end. Whether it was her amazing chocolate chip cookies, awesome chocolate cake, or marvelous apple pies...she made baking look effortless.

I remember Christmas Baking Days as a little girl. My Mom, Gretchen, Jo, and Kathy would spend an entire day baking Norwegian delicacies...krumkake, rosettes, spritz, and berlinerkranser to name a few.

I however, did not inherit any of those great baking genes. I have attempted many times, mind you, but everything I try just seems to fall flat. Literally!

So Nana has moved on to Noah. She is attempting to try and pass down some of her baking secrets to my Little Man...seeing as how they have failed to stick with me.

For my birthday, Nana and Noah made me my favorite red velvet cupcakes. So delish! Today, Nana and Noah made traditional Chex Mix. Yumm-O!
My sweet Little Man just loves to stir.
Note to self...teach son to bake so I don't have to.

Brilliant!

Handprint Wreaths

Noah and Daddy-O have been hit with the flu this week, so we're just hanging out at home trying to take it easy.

I thought it would be fun for Noah to make some Handprint Wreaths. Because of Mr. Man's sensory issues, he DOES NOT like to touch anything that is cold, slimy, sticky, or gooey. We have been working hard...forcing him to touch things he doesn't want to.
He wasn't totally opposed to having his hand painted. Once the prints dried, I cut them out and arranged them in a wreath shape. I found Tacky Glue worked best at sticking them together.
I added cute red berried with my hot glue gun...I have red hot glue sticks.
Add a cute red bow and...
voilà...an adorable Handprint Wreath!