Parker--You're Two!

Parker

You are now a BIG two year old boy and have been for just over a month.  I am way behind in writing this because of the two hospital visits we've had since your birthday and everything in between.  Let's talk about your party first.

Right before the party, we gave you your present from us--your very own Jeep!

You had no idea how to steer the wheel, so you didn't!  Everyone was chasing you all over the yard.  It was pretty funny.

The theme of your party was Sesame Street.  It's funny because only four weeks later, I would maybe pick a WIGGLES party because that's all you want to watch now.  You are obsessed.  I got this cute sign from Etsy and still need your dad to cut the stick off so we can hang it up in your room.  

You had lots of presents from our family and friends, including books, clothes and toys.  You had a little help opening your presents from your friends, Kaley and Wyatt.  You didn't mind, though!  

NayNay helped you with your stickers.  I thought this picture was sweet.

You looooooved playing with your new basketball hoop from Honey and Granddad!  Now you like to "slam dunk" it and fall down on the ground.  You always want us to do it and then you ask us if we're okay.  Sooo sweet.

The four of us at your party!  It's a little blurry but it's the best picture of the three of us.  We really had a great time.  Next year might be the first time we have a party elsewhere, but it was nice to have it at the house.  We had pizza (which you don't even like) and some simple appetizers.  I made two different kinds of cupcakes instead of getting a cake--chocolate with peanut butter icing and vanilla with orange buttercream icing.  You ate the vanilla with orange and really seemed to like it, so I was happy!  

The rest of the pictures are from our birthday breakfast at IHOP.  A very popular thing to do right now is a yearly "birthday interview" with your child starting at age three since at age two, you don't really know what a lot of the questions mean.  So for now, I'll answer them for you in what I'm pretty sure would be the answers you'd give.  This is definitely something I'd like to continue each year.

1.  What is your favorite color?  You ask for your blue bath crayon most, so we'll go with that.

2.  What is your favorite toy? Like I just mentioned,  you really love to slam dunk the basketball in your hoop right now.

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  Blueberries.

4.  What is your favorite TV show?  Wiggle and Learn.  But two weeks ago it was Play with Me Sesame.  You also really enjoy Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Right now, you pretty much only eat three things for lunch or dinner--grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly or chicken nuggets.  I don't know when we will be able to expand your menu but hope next year the answer to this question may be a little different!

6.  What is your favorite outfit?  Jeans with your Elmo or Mickey shirt.

7.  What is your favorite game?  Probably "kicking the ball"--so maybe soccer?

8.  What is your favorite snack?  We don't usually end up eating too many snacks at home, but if you do have one, it's usually some kind of cracker.

9.  What is your favorite animal?  Either a dog or a cat.  Or a dolphin.  Or a lion.  Or a chicken.......

10.  What is your favorite song?  You love to sing "Old MacDonald" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  You also really enjoy dancing to a lot of different wiggles songs and other nursery rhymes.

11.  What is your favorite book?  We actually read four books at bedtime--"Little Bug Book," "Big Bug Book," "Elmo Book," and "Mickey Book" (not the actual titles).

12.  Who is your best friend?  Probably Wyatt AKA Wydet.

13.  What is your favorite store?  Either Wal-Mart or Target. 

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Anything. Kicking the ball, sliding, swinging, driving your jeep, jumping on the trampoline.....you LOVE to play outside! 

15.   What is your favorite drink?  Milk.

16.  What is your favorite holiday?  Maybe birthdays.  Like...anyone's birthday.  You get pretty excited about them!

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Puppy.  

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles or pancakes.

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  See number 5.

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  A momma's boy.  (What?? I know that would be his answer. :) 

You currently weigh about 33 pounds and are about 38 inches tall!

There are so so so so so many things I could write because you do the sweetest cutest things all the time.  Basically, I just need to start blogging more often so I can remember them as we go.  For now, I'll just say that you are the absolute best thing that has EVER happened to your dad and me.  Ever.  You brighten up every day and  make us smile all the time.  I'm not going to lie--there are a lot of frustrating two-year-old moments, too, but the good definitely outweighs any bad behavior that may occur.  

You are caring, funny, smart and cute. You love to dance.  You can say all of your ABC's and count to 20.  You ask us if we're okay if we get hurt or say, "ouch."  You give your baby sister kisses and tell her "night-night" and that you love her.  I know that when she gets here that you are going to love her so much and be the best big brother to her.  I can't wait to watch the two of you together, but at the same time, I am just a little sad that you will no longer be the only one we focus on and hope that you don't notice too much that we can't give you nearly as much attention as you've had for the past two years.  I hope that you will always know and feel how strong my love is for you, no matter what happens.  

You are my little baby boy and always will be. I will be here for you whenever you need me, even if you're thousands of miles away.  I will support you in whatever you choose to do with your life, even if I disagree with your choices.  I will always squeeze you tight and tell you how much you mean to me.  No matter how old we are, I will always love you like I do now--with the strong passionate love that only a mother can give to her son.

Parker, all of this is to simply say that I love you so, so much and am beyond thankful to have you in my life.  Thank you for being the best first child and most likely only son we could ever ask for.  And.........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! :)

Love,

Your Momma

Sick

Unfortunately, I have fallen behind on my blogging again.  It's all for legitimate reasons, though.  Four days after my last blog post, we took Parker to the emergency room at CHKD because he was breathing pretty fast and heavy and acting "off."  It was all very similar to the last time we visited the hospital with Parker, but this time we ended up being admitted to the hospital because they couldn't get his oxygen turned off without his pulse ox levels being too low.  Parker had breathing treatments every four hours.  Once the oxygen was turned off and he had a night with no extra oxygen, we were able to go home.  We stayed Sunday and Monday night and came home Tuesday evening.

This was right before we left the hospital.  Parker had fallen asleep right before they discharged us.  We were waiting for Ryan to get the car.

The following weekend was Parker's birthday party!  I still need to to his 2-year old blog and talk about his Sesame Street party.  It was fun and low-key, but I did a lot the couple days before to prepare.

Five days after Parker's birthday,on Thursday, we were back at CHKD.  On Tuesday, I noticed that he was coughing a little bit again, but didn't think too much of it because it was mainly a night time cough that I heard more than anything in his sleep.  He coughed a lot on Wednesday night and was awake at about 4:30 on Thursday morning.  We decided that he could still go to Ryan's moms' house because he was acting fine, just coughing.

She called Ryan mid-morning and said that Parker had just thrown up and seemed to be coughing more and breathing fast.  Ryan took him to the doctor where they gave him a breathing treatment which Ryan said made him seem soooo much better.  He ended up bringing home a nebulizer so we could give him  breathing treatments at home for the remainder of the day.  Ryan tried taking his temperature because he thought Parker felt warm.  He could not figure out how to use our thermometer, so when I got home early from work, I flipped off the cap and got a reading of 104.5.  Parker was lethargic, breathing fast, and now had a very high fever, so we drove straight to CHKD.

More iPhone time in the ER.

Once we got there, things were pretty much the same as the time before.  Three consecutive breathing treatments, a chest x-ray, and oxygen were all administered.  The only difference in this ER visit was that they decided to test him for RSV.  This involved sticking a thin tube in his nose to go down and suction out mucous for the test.  This was the absolute worst thing I have ever seen.  The respiratory nurse, ER nurse, and Ryan all had to hold him down.  He cried, gagged, sneezed, screamed, and said, "no, no, no Momma Daddy".  It was horrible, but they did find out that he had RSV.

A self-portrait.  There was a lot of iPhone and iPad time.

They decided to admit us, and what we thought would be another two-night or even a one-night stay turned into a five-night stay in the hospital.  We did not leave until Tuesday afternoon.  This was very unexpected because he kept seeming better at different points and then would suddenly seem worse.  The doctors all said that this was very normal and that RSV usually peaks on about day four or five, which by the doctor's calculations would have been on Saturday or Sunday.  These were definitely his worst two days.

Parker was on oxygen most of the time because when they attempted to turn it down, his pulse ox numbers would go down below the level that they like.  He also had fevers as high as about 103 on and off that often occurred at night.  He had the breathing treatments every four hours except for the last night we were there.  He barely ate anything other than yogurt and a few crackers here and there, and we had to ensure that he continued to drink to avoid giving him an IV.  Thankfully, he drank enough to avoid having that done.  For most of the time we were there, he just seemed "sick" and was not acting like himself.  There was a lot of crying.  It was tough to see him like that, but the doctors continued to ensure us that it was all part of the normal course for RSV.

This was on Sunday--the first time he got out of the bed.

They took his oxygen off on Monday mid-day, and we really thought we'd go home Monday night.  Monday evening came around, and we found out that we were not going to go home until probably the next day.  With all of the build-up of us thinking we were leaving combined with thinking about tons of other things, I was an emotional wreck for about an hour.  It just seemed like a never-ending cycle of oxygen and pulse-ox numbers and treatments, etc.  We were also "sharing" a room (it was semi-private) with a 9-day old baby, so at night we heard her screaming when she woke up or when the nurses came in to suction her nose.  Because of this, we were a little more sleep-deprived than we would have been if we were in a room alone.  With all of that being said, I felt bad for being emotional about not leaving because we were really most likely leaving the next day and there were lots of kids in there that had no idea when they'd go home.  Thinking about that and also how much worse things could be made me even more upset.  Once we got something to eat, I felt a little bit better.  I think the lack of sleep had finally caught up with me, so it felt good to just go to bed.

More window time.  Love the hand on the head.

When we left Tuesday, he was definitely ready.   He had come out of the bed that morning and did not want to get back in.  At that point, we were definitely ready to go.  The doctor told us at about 9am that we were going to be discharged, and we didn't actually leave until just after noon.  Overall, the experience at CHKD was so great and we feel SO blessed to live so close to a children's hospital.  It is beyond comforting to know that the hospital is there should we need it for any reason at all.  

I actually took this right before we left.  In the waiting period between when the doctor said we'd be discharged and when we actually left, Parker got a little nap in!

We are so glad to be home and that Parker is doing well.  He had a follow-up appointment at the doctor's office this week, and she was very happy with his progress.  We are still giving him breathing treatments for the next two weeks because he still has a cough and she said the "wheez" is what we want to avoid.  She said that this could mean that he will have asthma but it does not mean it for sure.  We won't know that until he's a little older.  For now, we just have to keep him healthy and get into spring and better weather to avoid having another "episode" like this again.  So far, he has been playing and laughing just as hard as ever.  He's not quite back to his normal self in the eating department, but he'll get there.  Again, we are just glad to be home and that he is doing so much better.

So there's the update!  Up next will be a full-blown 2-year old post.  It's only a few weeks late, right?