Little Dare Devil

He actually has two shirts that are quite befitting of him these days. . .one says "I do my own stunts" and the other says "Dare Devil". Don't leave him alone for more than a few seconds, because you never know what you are going to find him doing! Like trying to stand on his new fire truck or anything with a little height that he can crawl on, trying to climb in the bath tub, pulling things off tables, chasing {terrorizing} the cat around and pulling her tail, banging and pulling on the blinds and curtains, eating the cat food (or anything food like on the floor), basically wreaking havoc on our house!!

Oh no, he can't just ride things like a normal kid would. I have actually caught him STANDING on this fire truck with hands on the handle bars. But when I run to get the camera out he gets down. I have gotten over trying to make him stop, it's a lost cause. It's not like he can fall very far! We have nick- named him "bruiser" he is always crawling up on something and falling off or running into/over stuff- I know it's just him being a boy, but he looks awful! His little legs are so bummed up! Yesterday a kid at day care accidentally scratched him right across his nose! He looked just awful, I almost hated to take him to church!! People probably think horrible things about us!!

 

And he doesn't "ride" the fire truck, he is either standing on top of it or pushing it while crawling or walking. I keep putting him on it the "right" way but he doesn't know what to do to make it go yet. [Just a note: Can you see Taki in the very back of this picture? She sits by the front door until we let her out. Normally this time of year she doesn't want to be outside since it's so hot, but she will stay out for hours! I guess she just needs some alone time!]

Stratton moved up to the 1 year old class at church last night. They have "real" chairs and not the ones that are mounted into the table, so I was worried that he wouldn't sit in it.  But our good friends Amy and Alicia are teaching so I knew if he got fussy or tired they wouldn't mind "babysitting" him a little. I think he was getting bored in the other class because he always cried, but last night- No tears!! Yay! Amy did have to hold him for a little while but she put him back in his chair after a few minutes and he was fine again!

In other news he is eating SO good! And I am so happy to be buying regular food and milk instead of baby food and formula!

Surgery update

Sorry I have taken so long to update! It has been really busy around here! Last Thursday I had an appointment with Dr. Degges, the surgeon I have been seeing recently. He filled us in on the details of the test results. Basically that "harmless" lipoma in my colon is causing the intussusception (making the intestine telescope in on itself). And intussusception in adults is rare, but when it does occur it is because of an underlying problem, which in my case is the lipoma. It showed up much larger in the CT scan than he originally thought it was and he feels like it needs to be removed before it causes even more problems, like a full blockage or ulceration and bleeding. He wants to do surgery to remove the lipoma that is in my colon and correct the intussusception. I am not going to go into all the details but, he said that this is something that is really rare in adults and there aren't many surgeons with experience doing this procedure for this reason. However, the procedure itself is relatively common and he is confident that he will be able to do it with no problems. He welcomed me to get a second opinion if I felt like I needed to, and I might still but I don't feel like it's necessary after talking to him. When I told him how great I have been feeling the last few weeks he was shocked. He said there is a chance the intussusception could have corrected itself, but he still wants to take that section of my colon out. But, he said I do have some time. This isn't something I have to have done right now. Soon- but not immediately. I asked him if there was any risk of waiting and he said no. There is a chance that the lipoma could cause a blockage anytime, but I will feel it and know it and they will just have to do emergency surgery right then, but there is no way of predicting when or if that will happen. When he told me about the recovery I was stunned- 5 days in the hospital if there are no complications and 4-6 weeks off work! Wow. That info helped my decision to wait awhile. I have a major project at work that is due at the end of September and there is no way I can be off work for 6 weeks right now! But that is the least of my worries. I am worried about not being able to pick Stratton up for 6 weeks, too. It is going to be a lot of work for Jarrod- he will have to get him up in the morning, get him around take him to daycare, be back in town to pick him up by 5:30, feed him supper, give him a bath, put him to bed pretty much all by himself. It's going to be really hard on him. I know he can do it and will do it without a complaint- that's just how he is. But I am going to hate not being able to be as active in taking care of Stratton. I think that is going to be the hardest part, at least for me.

So, they have "tentatively" scheduled my surgery for Tuesday, September 28th. My thought was I should be done with my report at work by then and I want to get it over with before the holidays and for sure by the end of the year since I have met my deductible this year. I don't want to admit it, but I am really really nervous about it. Dr. D has done this surgery hundreds of times and while it's a major surgery he doesn't see it as a big complicated procedure, but I know there is always the risk of complications and there are so many things that could happen that could really negatively impact my everyday life. I am trying to stay positive and constantly reminding myself that God is in control and I need to just give it all to Him. That is the hardest thing for me to do because I am a major worrier! Please say a prayer that the surgery will be a successful one and the recovery time will go by quickly and I will be back to my normal life soon! I know my family is ready for that probably more than I am! Thanks for all the calls and emails, I really appreciate the thoughts and prayers more than you will ever know!

Stratton's Birthday Party ~ Party Details

Table in the foyer with guest book

The conference room

The tables had green table cloths on them with placemats at each seat and a small arrangement of balloons in the center of the tables.

Dessert table

Dessert table details:

~Buckets of Jones sodas in coordinating colors

~Fabulous cookies and desserts made by the fam

~Decorated cupcake tower, cupcakes with my cupcake toppers

~Food labels

~Lots of green and blue accents

~Tissue paper pom poms hung from the ceiling

~Custom designed wall art

 

Stratton's "Smash" Cake

The Cupcake Tower, cupcakes and cake were decorated with toppers I made to match the party theme

Amazing cookies made by my Aunt Christina

Favor table

Favors included; airplane suckers that I made, along with personalized hershey bars, blue sippy cups with animal crackers inside, individually wrapped cookies by Christina G., Andes mints, spearmint candy and personalized hershey miniatures. I got the galvanized metal tiered tray from Pottery Barn- I just love it! Above the favor table I hung a banner I designed with the same colors and patterns used throughout the party.

 

I wrapped a square of foam in matching polka dot paper I created and trimmed it with ribbon and topped it with some crinkled paper shreds and stuck my suckers in the foam so that they would stand up. Worked like a charm and looked pretty cute, too!

Gift Table with card container and name banner

Name banner

Stratton's coordinating t-shirt

Overall, I was pleased with everything, but it was a lot of work!

 

Stratton's First Birthday Party!

Oh my! 3 months of planning and preparation and it was all over in just a couple of hours!! We had an awesome turnout (I counted 55 ppl, including the babies) and I think everyone had a good time. It was so nice to know that so many people care about Stratton and us and made it a priority to be at his party! We just have the best family and friends ever!  We had the party in the conference room at my office. It worked out well, better than it would have at our house that's for sure! It was still a little tight, but we managed!  For the food, we ended up just having hot dogs and lots of toppings and my aunt Judy made her delicious potato salad and we had chips. We wanted to keep it simple since there were several kiddos there. Stratton had a hot dog and potato salad for supper along with the rest of us. I didn't think he would like the potato salad but he ate it all! That's my boy!! We all sang "Happy Birthday", led by my uncle Doug, to him and let him have his cake. My mom made him another small "smash" cake, which he didn't demolish like I thought he might since he had some practice earlier in the week. He did pat it a few times, but mainly he ate the icing off. We tried to dig his hands in it to show him what to do, but he wasn't really into making a big mess. Ha-ha, the one time I actually wouldn't care that he made a huge mess and he doesn't want to!?  He got lots of neat gifts. We should have brought a U-haul to get them all home! The desserts were phenomenal! My mom made yummy cupcakes, my aunt Christina made amazing sugar cookies and Margie made brownie bites, mud cookies and rice krispy treats, and I also made oreo bonbons. Way too much sweet stuff! I will post pictures of the dessert table and all the decorations in a separate post. There are just too many pictures to put them in one!!

[family picture before the party]

[cake time!]

[Present time!]

[Random Party Pics]

{Cooper and Stratton on the fire truck}

{Mom, Stratton and cousin Wilson}

{Jarrod holding Archer, Jen holding Stratton}

{Everybody having a good time}

{Stratton in his birthday t-shirt}

A big THANKS to all our family and friends that made the day so special! I know Stratton won't remember it, but we sure will and it really meant a lot for you to be there with us to celebrate! We love you!!

Test results

I had my CT scan this morning and they just called with the results. It seems I have an intussusception in my small intestines. The nurse that called me said that the surgeon told her that it would require a small surgical procedure. (I wonder what "small" means?) I go Thursday afternoon to see him and discuss options. From what I read, it can be serious so I don't think he will want to put it off much longer. Hopefully, this will take care of my problems, finally. Thanks for the prayers-please keep them going up!

1 year appointment

Weight: 23lbs- 60th percentile

Height: 31.5 inches - 90th percentile

Head measurement: 18.5 inches- 50th percentile

He had to get 3 shots! But he was a trooper. He sat very still while Dr. B checked his throat and ears, I was really impressed! He was hungry and sleepy so he didn't want to be there, but he acted much better than I expected. Afterwards we went back to my office where he had his first taste of cheese pizza from upper crust- let me just tell you, it was a big hit (duh, though!) I love seeing him try new foods. He seems to like everything we have given him from brussel sprouts to hot dogs! Hopefully, he will continue to be a good eater and not picky like someone we know!

We plan on decorating everything we can for the party today and hopefully won't have too much to do tomorrow. I'm excited! I think it's going to look really cute! Look for pictures next week! I have my CT Scan on Monday so it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get time to edit my pictures and get them up!

Stratton's birthday dinner

My mom and dad came over for dinner last night and we gave Stratton his birthday presents and let him have CAKE! I took lots of pictures of course! Here are some favorites. . .there are quite a few!

Such a big boy! He had roast, carrots, mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts for supper!

Yay! New pj's from Gigi and Pops

He got pretty excited about the puffs, too!

He wasn't into "unwrapping"

He was really excited about his new activity table from mommy and daddy!

Playing "telephone"

Before the MESS!

Not sure about the candle, we had to hold his hands to keep him from grabbing it.

And here comes the MESS. . . . .

What IS this??

YUM!

Licking the icing off his finger. . .

We finally took the cake away from him. . .

. . . he was just eating the icing off the top!

Oh, My!! He's blue!

He didn't seem to care one bit!

Mom had to scrub him good to get all the blue icing off! It was everywhere!!

We had a fun time watching him eat his first cake and play with his new toys. He did have a little sugar high, I think. He didn't go to bed till almost 9pm but he was struggling to stay awake then. I can't believe it's already came and went! But there will be lots more fun at his birthday party on Saturday! We are expected lots of family and friends to be there to help us celebrate again!