Max had his follow up "surgery" on Monday the 25th, and was a real trooper for the whole event. I say "surgery" because they didn't exactly operate on anything; they just put their nice flexible endoscope down his throat to check and make sure that the laryngeal cleft repair done a few months back had healed appropriately. The procedure only took about an hour, and the doctor came out and told us that everything appeared to have healed up nicely from the previous surgery, and that he really had no explanation as to why Max would still be having trouble with swallowing thin liquids. He recommended a follow up swallow study in six months to see if he was making any additional progress at that point, and pretty much told us to just manage his symptoms. While it is a huge relief to be done with constant doctor appointments and surgeries, I just really wish that the outcome of all this craziness would have been him being able to drink/eat normally (well, as normal as a CSID kid can lol). It's very frustrating to constantly have to make him up batches of thickened liquids to have available wherever we go, as well as having his special straw sippy cup all the time. Even water by itself is off limits now! He can't eat any food that gets too thin when your saliva dissolves it, because his airway rather loudly lets us know that he can't cope with it. This can really put a damper on any attempt toward a well balanced diet, which actually frustrates Max as much as us I think. But I will say, overall it is a better situation than the feeding tube, so I can't complain too loudly. The good news too is that Max really doesn't mind the texture of thickened liquids, and is quite happy to sip down a drink from his cup. And we have noticed how much better he sounds when we carefully monitor the liquids in his diet, and that's a gratifying feeling (for all of us I imagine). So I guess we continue this course for at least another six months and hope for the best.
Max REALLY wanted to wear those gloves.....maybe he will follow in mommy's footsteps and work in a lab?? :]
The next day was my studly husband's birthday, and he turned 27 this year :] Not sure how happy that makes him, but I love birthdays, so we are going to pretend that it's a good thing. We didn't do much on his actual birthday because it was near the end of my week on, but he did get to buy himself a brand new KitchenAid mixer that was desperately needed in our house....I know THAT made him happy! The Saturday after his birthday I treated him to a fancy four-course murder mystery dinner and got the kids a babysitter. Well actually, my good buddy Cortney hooked us up with a baby sitter (NEVER try to find one on Labor day weekend last minute!!) and she along with her hubby doubled for the dinner. It was even more fun going with friends, definitely recommend both the dinner and good company! This was the first time we had ever left the kids with a non-family member babysitter, and I was kinda nervous, but everything went fantastic and it really hit home to me that Sam and I have GOT to get out and date more......even if we have to pay a good babysitter every now and then. I can't believe that I didn't get any pictures of the murder mystery (especially because we were all spiffied up!) but I did get one of the birthday boy on his actual special day, so that kind of makes up for it, right?
Why do little boys never want to wear clothes?? Also, I love how Gidgett photobombed this picture lol.
By some crazy miracle, all four of us had Labor Day off: The plant was closed at Sam's work, it was during my 7 off, and the daycare wasn't open for the boys..........so we planned a fun day together! Max tried to thwart it by waking up with goopy, sealed shut eyes, but a semi-quick trip to the pediatrician's office got him fixed up pretty good (they figured it was probably just viral but prescribed us eye drops in case anyway). We visited the Children's Museum to see the Bob the Builder exhibit one more time before it left, and I somehow managed to miss getting a picture of them playing in that exhibit. I did manage to get a picture of them fighting in the toy airplane outside though, winner moment there haha :p When my kids got too cranky to stand anymore, we packed them in the car and had dinner at Golden Corral with Nonnie and Granny M. It was so nice having more adults than kids at the buffet....I think we actually had half a chance to eat this time! Plus the boys were absolutely ravenous from playing so hard that they actually took some time to eat as well (usually they pick at their plates for a few minutes at a buffet, and then want to run around the restaurant like crazy children). Overall, we had a great vacation day together, and I wish we had more times together like that!
Why get along when you can fight over every toy, right?
On Wednesday, since it was my last day off (and I wanted the boys to have a chance to get in one more visit by themselves with the grandmas) we went to the zoo after naptime! Learned a valuable lesson about the zoo though: if you go at 3 o'clock, the only animals out and about are the elephants and seals. Thankfully, that seemed to be enough for my kids to enjoy, but if I didn't have a season pass I would have been super bummed out! It was also very hot, and after about an hour and a half, Jayson complained of a stomachache, so we headed home. Pretty sure he was just dehydrated a little, and wanted to ride in the stroller. Silly boy, but it worked. We still did have some fun though, and I'm glad we went :]
Jayson saw a little girl hugging the otter, and all of a sudden HAD to get his picture taken with the magic otter. Power of persuasion right?
In a desperate attempt to not leave the zoo, Max climbed onto the giant bear statue and parked it. Good thing they run cold water through the bear so you don't get fried from sitting on it!
On Saturday all of my boys got to go to a superhero party! One of my coworker's sons turned 4, so a celebration was quite in order. Apparently everyone had an awesome time; I was at home sleeping, enjoying the big downside to working graveyards. You know, missing out on life. Ah well. Sam said that Jayson loved the superhero obstacle course, but kept trying to clean it up and put it away. Max spent the majority of his time trying to swipe sweets that would make him sick as a dog. So all in all the usual haha. Here are some fun pictures from the party that Sam took:
Max enjoying a good swing :]
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Jayson enjoying the swing too.
And of course, loving the trampoline!
The other fun thing was getting to see cousins both weekends! Audrey, Cadence, and Adelaide came to visit us two Saturdays ago and everyone had a great time, as far as I could tell. Max only sat on a twin once by accident, so overall a good playdate lol. He is definitely not used to younger kids than him in his house (or really even in his daycare class anymore), so being careful is not exactly in his nature! This past weekend the Marler cousins stayed at our house so they could go to one of their Utah cousins' baptisms. We didn't see a whole lot of them on Friday or Saturday, but the kids got to play together all morning on Sunday, and my little guys were in heaven (Jayson especially--he and Mayce just adore doing stuff together). Means I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but hey, it's overrated right??
Not much to report on the job seeking hunt for Boise. I kind of blew it with the last job I applied for, so lesson learned: take the job they offer you and don't try to champion for the better position that may or may not be open. I've tried applying a few other places, but no bites yet. Sam will probably start trying to look for jobs now, but I'm not as optimistic about him easily finding a job....or moving anymore. Still want to; just have to see if it's going to be what works out. Sigh.
Busy next two weeks for us coming up (but when aren't we busy??) Sam is going on a business trip for a part of my next week off, so the little boys and I are going to have some fun in Idaho! Hope everyone has a good next couple of weeks like we are going to (that's the power of positive thinking there lol).
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