Pics I forgot from the Kennedy Space Ctr

They have a moon rock there that they let you touch. Face it. That's pretty rad.

Florida trip, Journal 1

Some of you might have thought we were crazy for driving to Florida with two little ones and especially overnight. Maybe we were crazy but it worked out great! The boys slept really well. Only one wake up and a little fussiness, mostly from the adults, but we drove thru the night and the rain with basically no problems. Thank you for answered prayers!!! We arrived in southern Georgia the next morning and stopped at a restaraunt where the waitress must have said "ya'll" over a hundred times. Seriously! We made it to Orlando by late morning after seeing why it's called the dirty south. We saw a truck in southern Georgia that was so covered in mud that we honestly didn't know what color it was.

We had arrived. Yay! We stayed at a Sheraton resort, I think, and it was Gorgeous!!! I have video of it but I've been waiting for Doug to turn it into stills. So maybe another day I'll show ya how amazing it was. You'll just have to trust me for now. It had four pools and some really cool kids areas. Our condo was pretty but who wants to stay inside when you're in Florida so instead of staying put and getting some much needed sleep, we decided to go out. Just then it started to rain. Just a light rain though, so we decided to go to the Kennedy Space Station. So glad we did. We had such a great time and most of it is indoors or on a bus so the rain was no big deal. Ethan was flabberghasted by the sheer size of things and the fact that they had actually been to space. If you've never been, it's definitely a must see. So amazing! The kids were so good and we got to see bald eagles and their nests which started Ethan's fascination with eagles. Did you know that the Nasa property is home to hundreds of bald eagles?

Ethan was speechless and soooooo excited to meet a real astronaut! Not really an astronaut but we didn't tell him that.

Blake's update

So I know it's been forever since I posted last but I've had so much fun this summer and been so busy with Blake that I haven't had the time. I still have to post about my vacations but I'm still waiting on some pics to be finished. Oh well.

So here's the update. Blake's leg is doing really well. It healed faster than anyone expected. The doctor originally said 4 to 6 weeks with the spica cast on and it ended up only being 3 weeks. At first I was elated but then the doc told me that he still wasn't allowed to walk on it.

"How the Heck do you stop a 2 year old from walking?!"
He told me not to worry and that he wouldn't want to walk. "Trust me" he says.
OK harder to do than say.

So I trusted him and he was right. Blake didn't start walking along furniture until about 6 weeks after the accident and then by himself a week later. It was difficult to watch my two year old be in pain from the weakness and soreness that still lingered.
Now he is doing great though. Still limping a very little bit but he doesn't let anything stop him. Ofcourse I am now the hoovering mother but wouldn't you be?

In regards to his other issues well he still cannot gain weight. Do you know that he has gained less than 4lbs. in this last year? I went to have him weighed and measured yesterday so that the Mayo docs had the very latest info. He is 18lbs. 14.5oz. and 33inches long.
So since May he has lost weight from 19lbs even. Which we did expect some weight loss from his accident but I just didn't think he'd gain nothing from May to the end of June and then none or very little in the last month. He has grown a half an inch and broken in 4 new teeth so that's all good news. We still have no clue why he can't gain weight and he is still falling farther and farther down the chart. Really, he's not on the chart. I like to still think of him as being on there because you can still put the dot somewhere on the chart. It's just in that large space at the bottom with no lines.

As soon as we here from the Mayo clinic I will let you all know. Thank you so much Ryan and Holly for your friend at Mayo. He has been so nice and so helpful. We love you guys so much. Please keep Blake in your prayers. We really need to find answers.

Love you all

Worst Day and Night Ever!!!!!

I wish that I was posting about my vacations like I wanted to but unfortunately I'm not. Last Sunday, Father's Day, Blake broke his femur and we spent the night at the hospital to put the cast on and control his pain. Which was a lot of pain! So how did it happen? I'm not really sure but I can guess. We were all outside playing with some soccer balls. And when I say all I mean myself, Doug, Ethan, Blake, my nephew Braeden, Papa, Kyle, and Garret. So 5 adults and three kids. How could someone get hurt with that much supervision? Oh ya Blake has my genes. So we think that Blake's foot found a divet in the grass and his leg twisted or he fell sideways while he twisted with his foot stuck. None the less his femur broke. Biggest bone in the body and the littlest two year old. I still am dumbfounded by this and just don't understand why or how! When he fell onto the soft grass he was on all fours and not crying yet so we thought he was fine. Now looking back he must have been in shock. Doug picked him up and set him back on his feet obviously not knowing. Our first reaction was that he was just fine. It's grass. Who gets hurt in the grass. Once his feet hit the ground again that's when the screaming started and the crying didn't end until 13 hours later. Literally. After he wasn't calming down and he started screaming harder every time I moved while I was holding him we decided to go to the ER. I thought maybe he pulled something or tore a ligament. No way did I think it was possible that he broke a bone, let alone the largest and strongest one at that. So once at the ER we very quickly found out that his femur was broken. The staff at NIMC was absolutely amazing and made things go so quickly. When I found out that his femur was broken I sobbed so hard. Even more than I was already crying. Let me tell you it is so hard to not move when you are crying that hard. I was holding Blake as still as I could but the poor thing still felt every breath I took. He had already had a dose of pain meds by this point but a femur fracture is very painful.

So next step was meeting the ortho surgeon who came so quickly. We were so lucky that Blake didn't need surgery. His break was huge but it was not compound and would be easily set back into place. So we waited for the OR to open up so that we could get his SPICA cast on. Basically his body cast. Unfortunately the OR was taking longer than the Doc expected so in the interest in decreasing Blake's pain he did it right there in the ER. They put us in their largest triage room and got to work. Doug and I even helped. I am so thankful to this doctor. He didn't even wait for an OR nurse knowing that it would be so much easier if he did. Instead he got to work with ER nurses that didn't know what he was doing since they never do that in the ER, just to get Blake into a more comfortable position. Blake was more than amazing. I'm even crying thinking about how brave and amazing he was. They were going to sedate him but he was doing so great that they decided not to. You might think that's cruel but that would have ment much higher risks and he could have woken up sick and vomitting reardless of the anti nausea meds. So they gave him some morphine and went to town. One of the only funny parts of this whole thing was that the doctor had to make a whole for where the diaper would go and he was sawing away cast around the pee pee area and I think Doug was extremely close to passing out at that point. Blake was funny though too. He had a huge IV in his arm and we are putting on a gigantic cast and he was crying about the pulse ox thing on his finger. It's this little thing they put on your finger to make sure you get enough oxygen. Anyway the nurse took it off and moved it to his toe and mid crying Blake says "Thank you". It was soooooo cute.

So once the gigantic cast was on, Blake was free to fall asleep if he could through all the pain. The morphine helped but since he's so little they can't give him that much. Once he fell asleep he kept on waking up from massive muscle spasms that caused him a lot of pain. We finally got up to the pediatric unit and into his bed. I pushed the two beds together so I could sleep next to Blake. Anyone that knows him knows that my hair is his security blanket so I slept as close as I could so he could have it. That night was the longest night of my life. Not only did I need to check his diaper every hour but Blake was in so much pain and it was excruciating to watch him go thru that. I don't think I ever cried that much in my life. The doctor even begged me to not cry.

By about 8:30 the next morning he finally fell asleep for about two hours and woke up in a much better mood. He saw my mom and a micky mouse balloon from his aunt and cousins and smiled. Best moment ever! To see him smile again was heaven. So after talking to specialists, social workers, and a police officer we worked out how we would get safely home and we are receiving a special car seat from Children's Hospital today. I was soooooo glad to take Blake home. The nurses were all amazing but there's nothing like home to make you feel better.

So now we are home and have our own hospital bed set up in the living room next to the couch where Blake and I will be spending the night for the next week. He's doing much better now and is not in as much pain but still is in some pain. We are medicating him around the clock and won't stop until Saturday. Thank you to everyone who has helped and called and came to visit. We love you. If I haven't called to tell you what happened yet then you're not family. I have just been so busy taking care of Blake that I contacted a few family members and let them call down the chain. So if anyone wants to come visit you are more than welcome. Looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while.

Here's a pic before the pain meds were finally easing the pain.

After pain meds had finally started easing the pain. Leave it to Blake to be a goof ball.

Blake's 2nd Bday party

I had all these plans for a grand party and then quickly let those go, because I was way too busy and he's two. Really? Does he need a big party? He's never going to remember it anyway. I was actually really glad that we kept it really simple. We ordered pizza, got juice boxes for the kids, water bottles for the P's, played outside, and ate cake. No games, no elaborate menu and most importantly, no crazy mom that hasn't slept in a week getting ready for this party. I was kind of sad that the kids couldn't play the rock star video game that I wanted to set up but honestly most of them were too young to play it anyway. So here are some pics of my super relaxed bday party for Blake. I wish I had a pic of me in here so you could see the pure joy on my face that I didn't have a big party.

Blake's cupcakes and cake. The cake was confetti cake with strawberry buttercream. Yumm!!!!!

It was humid and warm so the color mist I used was sweating off the cake. Oh well. At least I tested it on my own cake and not a clients.

Blake blowing out the candles. I had to help him to save everyone from eating his spit. It was so cute though.

Blake having a great time on the trampoline. It is probably his favorite thing to do outside.

These are our friends Cassie and Myles. Myles is only 6 weeks older than Blake and ridiculously cute.

Nana and Poppop Patterson. We love them so much! I can't believe I don't have pics of my own parents. Oh well.

Some of the friends. We are so blessed to have really great friends. Even some of our friends with no kids absolutely love our kids and always come to their parties.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come. We had a great time!

Long time, no post

I know I've been MIA lately but I really didn't want to post about all the crap that's been going on in our lives because when I look back at this I don't want to remember how miserable things were. I will be posting about our Florida trip soon though. As soon as I get my pictures off the video camera I'll share it all with you. We had the best time and we can't wait to do it again. So until then I hope you all are doing well. See you soon.

Blake's stats

At Blake's 2 year well check we finally weighed him after not doing it for three months. He now weighs 19 lbs. 4.5 oz. and he is 32 inches long. So he has gained 2 pounds in three months. For him that's not bad. He also now has eight teeth and we'll be seeing the dentist soon to make sure that there are more. He's still not on the chart for his weight but he's in the 3rd percentile for his height. For the last three months we ditched the pedia sure type drinks and the heavy whipping cream and did things like chocolate syrup in his milk and olive oil in his mashed potatoes. We were spending an extra $150 to $200 on the pedia sure and whipping cream a month. And that was using coupons. So for budget reasons we decided to give it a break. Plus it didn't really seem to be working that well. He still wasn't gaining weight when he was on that diet. He still gets a higher calorie diet just not an astounding 1400 calories a day. So now for the next three months we are going back on the 1400 calorie diet with the drinks and see what happens. Wish Blake luck and us luck that I don't have to declare bankruptcy! Oy! At least Blake's happy, I think.