Sunny Sunday

The last day of June was super, super hot.  It was a Sunday, so I tried to plan a meal that used minimal appliances to keep the house cool.  We have no central air in our house, which is pretty common in Portland.  Usually our two little window units work great when the average summer temperature is 80, but on those few days in the high 90’s, we all just about melt.  I made some chocolate “cookies” that you make in your waffle iron and top with ice cream (thanks to Mel’s Kitchen Café!).  We ate them outside, and then the boys had fun throwing a ball at the swimming pool and trying to get it to bounce off the top of the water and out the other side. 

The boys eating their ice cream dessert:

 

Asher relaxing on Grandma’s lap in his tie-dye onesie, and James jumping on the $5 Craigslist trampoline:

 

The water ball bouncing game:

     

James got bored of the pool game a little quicker than Landon and Davis, so he started perfecting his drop-kicks. 

   

We found this sign on the side of our little pool pretty funny, and one more of Asher hanging out with Grandma.

 

June Happenings

While Asher recovered, we spent the rest of June just hanging out around the house and enjoying summer.  Here are some of the things we did.

1.  Took care of Asher:

Asher continues to recover from his surgery. He has moments when we can tell he is in pain, but most of the time he is happy and recovering well. After about a week, we were able to stop the Tylenol with codeine and just have him on Tylenol. He still gets fussy when he eats sometimes, we think because he gets a burp and it hurts. He makes this cute little sneezing sound, but then avoids the actual sneeze sometimes, probably because that also hurts his chest. He’s getting stronger and stronger every day, and we’re so happy with how he is doing. His only one area of concern is his weight check 9 days after coming home from the hospital was one ounce less than the week before. It was a different scale though, and the week before I had fed him right before he was weighed where this time he was just due to eat when we weighed him. We’re praying he is able to eat what he needs to and be able to gain enough for his next weight check.

2.  Talked to Grandpa Morris on the computer:

My dad is in France right now directing a summer language institute that he started.  He called a couple of times a day on Skype to talk to Grandma, and to us.   Here’s a picture of Asher with Grandma while they’re on Skype.

3.  Finally let Landon’s mealworm beetle go:

The last month of 2nd grade, each student got a mealworm, and they recorded in a journal  its changes as it grew, formed into a pupa, and eventually came out as a beetle.  Landon brought his home from school as a pupa, and it came out as a beetle a week or so later.  He would take the beetle out of its container a few times a day and let it crawl around on his hand (Eww!)  He would laugh because it ticked him.  I finally convinced him after a week or so that it was time to let the beetle go.

 

4.  Swam in the pool:

As it usually does once June ends, it all the sudden turned really warm here.  Shane filled up the pool, and we left it up for a few days for a nice place to cool off in the warm weather.  (We later learned our lesson though – it left a nice brown spot on our grass and stunk like a barn when we took the pool down a few days later).  James especially had fun one afternoon in the pool with Shane.  He had Shane swing him around, throw him up in the air, and do all kinds of tricks that had James laughing hysterically.  Asher enjoyed relaxing in the shade and sucking on his hands (a new favorite past time) while they played in the pool.

 

5.  Built and set off Landon’s volcano:

My mom got Landon this volcano set for his birthday, but we hadn’t had a chance to make it yet.  She helped him make the volcano and paint it one day, then he had fun setting it off multiple times after that.

 

6.  Tried to get James dressed right:

James is very independent when it comes to getting dressed.  He likes to do it all himself.  He often picks out some interesting outfits, and lots of times I find his entire drawer of shirts dumped out on the floor as he digs through to find the shirt he wants (lately one with a frog on the front from Grandma Malan).  It’s not uncommon to find his underwear and/or his pants on backwards.  It doesn’t bother him though – and he is pretty adamant about leaving them as they are!

7.  Read a lot of Sonic:

While we were in the hospital with Asher, my mom took the boys to the library.  While they were there, they found these Sonic comic books, and they have been obsessed with them ever since.  They will sit and look at them forever, and each time we go the library, we check out some new ones.

 

8.  Colored a ton of pictures!

Landon and Davis are really into drawing pictures lately.  My kitchen table is pretty much constantly covered with papers, scissors, tape, and markers.  They work on different drawings multiple times a day, and most of them end up taped on the walls around the house.

We also went to lunch at the park a few times, went on some walks, and Shane and I even went out on a date to see Man of Steel while my mom watched the boys.  It was our first night out since before Asher was born.  Hopefully it won’t be that long before we can go out again!

Slowly But Surely

Life here has been pretty quiet the last two days.  It has been nice to be home again to relax and be with the boys.  Asher has been slowly recovering, with us still trying to figure out the best balance for his pain medications.  He’s been having some stomach aches, which yesterday made it difficult each time I tried to feed him because he would cry and pull off.  Now that I know that’s what’s going on, I hold him and gently try to burp him, and usually once he does, he calms back down and can finish eating.  He did much better today.  Today he had hardly any of the tylenol with codeine, which seems to upset his stomach more, and he seemed to do better and still be able to manage his pain okay.  He hasn’t slept very well during the day, but he’s never been a great napper.  He has slept well at night though, sleeping from 9:00 pm to 3:00 am.  When he wakes up to eat, he has a harder than normal time getting back to sleep, but we’re glad he is able to sleep so good until then. 

Asher hanging out in his vibrator chair – he seems to like to be swaddled more, maybe because it keeps him from moving around too much when he is in pain.  He also really likes being in his vibrator chair because it keeps him propped up a bit more.

 

The boys have been really good, and it is nice to be home with them now.  Last night, we had a Family Home Evening lesson about the Nephites building up their walls of defense around their cities.  We made our own walls, then talked about how we can build up our defenses against Satan.  The boys wrote their ideas down on popsicle sticks, and we added them to our fortress.  We then played a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Goose (in which Dad was definitely the most popular goose), and then had some yummy homemade oreos. 

 

Landon and Davis are going to Bible camp this week, so they are gone in the mornings.  That has been kind of nice for James to have some alone time to play.  He gets Grandma to play with him quite a bit, building towers and playing with his letter transformers.  Asher requires more attention, kind of like having a newborn again, so I am so grateful my mom can be here to take care of the boys so that I can focus on Asher and what he needs.

 

Home!

I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday because in the evening, Asher became quite fussy.  He was calm as long as I was holding him, but anytime I put him down, he would scream and scream.  We finally got him to sleep in his bed around midnight, and he did sleep there until 6:00, just waking up at 3:00 to take some medicine and for me to feed him quickly before going back to sleep.  With all of that, though, I didn’t get a chance to post about the day.

Overall, Asher did a lot better yesterday.  He had a bit of a busy morning though, with Dr. King showing up around 8:00 a.m. to do an echocardiogram, then he was wheeled downstairs in his bed to get a chest x-ray.  Following that, he had an EKG.  Once everything was reviewed and found clear, the surgeon came in and removed his three final drainage tubes, and while they were at it, they also removed his last IV at the same time.  They also discontinued his telemetry monitoring, so he got all the stickers off his chest that were monitoring that, and all that was left was a probe on his toe for his oxygen saturation monitoring.  He had sticky marks all over his body from the tape, and his skin was broken out and red in spots from so much being on there.  He still had three bandages on his chest where the tubes came out, and those need to stay on for a few days.  It was still nice to have everything else off though.

My mom brought the boys up around lunch time, and they brought some happy meals to eat while they visited.  They then watched Winnie the Pooh there, and they were laughing pretty good at it.  Meanwhile, my mom held Asher for a minute, and he was feeling pretty good then and even smiling a little at her.

   

That evening, like I said before, Asher got pretty fussy, and we had a hard time calming him down and getting him to sleep.  It started when he had to take his meds, which he has quite a few.  He has done really well with the, but this time he just got really mad, and we had to give him all four doses while he was screaming.  There is one that is a blood pressure medicine that he seems to especially not like.  I then fed him, and I tried to put him in his bed, but he just got upset.  Shane and I tried back and forth, but we finally gave up and I held him for an hour and a half until it was time for his next pain medication.

Asher all tuckered out after his screaming over medicine:

 

Luckily, after that, he slept in his bed until 6 in the morning, but after that we couldn’t get him to sleep in his bed anymore until we left the hospital.  Shane and I took turns holding him while we packed up to go.  Finally, as we were about to leave, he was awake, and Shane put him back in his bed one last time.  He smiled and looked at his favorite mobile until it was time for us to go.

   

When we got home, we found these notes on our door, and these beautiful plants from some friends in our ward!  What a nice surprise!  I can’t wait to plant them in our yard.  They definitely brightened my day.

   

Asher seems happy to be home too.  He has still been fussy and cried out in pain at moments, but he has smiled a lot too, and had fun seeing his brothers and grandma again.  He has quite the medication lineup over the next few weeks, so hopefully I can keep up on it all plus get him to take them!  I’m sure he will need to be held a lot more this week, and more fussy as he doesn’t feel good, but hopefully he can gradually feel better and better.  I’m glad my mom will be here to give me breaks from holding him, and to take care of the other boys so I can focus on Asher.  That will make the week go by so much smoother!

 

Thank you so much for all of the prayers and support.  We still have a long ways to go with Asher to recover from this surgery, but I already feel a huge weight being lifted as we can check off his first two surgeries and the high-risk period of the first few months of his life.  We have had so many prayers answered with how well Asher is doing, and know that our prayers and faith alone could not have brought about this miracle baby.