Surgery and Spring Cleaning

We've been so busy lately, I haven't had time to make a new post! I've been doing a lot of Spring Cleaning lately. I went through all the baby clothes and got them sorted by size. I have a bin for each size so far. Dan set up the bunk beds he found by the dumpster. They needed boards for under the mattress, so he cut those to size today and we got the bottom bunk all set up and ready for Dawson. He's sleeping on it for the first time tonight. We're using the top for storage until Tyler is ready for it. Probably not for at least another year. We'll see, I would like Dawson to be 4 or close to it before putting him up on the top bunk.

Dawson put the boppy on his lap, so I put Tyler on it. I was surprised that he didn't shove him off his lap like he usually does. He never used to be tolerant of Tyler sitting next to him. Instead he smiled and then leaned over to give him a hug.

Tyler wanted an Oreo. He got more on his face than in his tummy, but he had fun trying to eat it.

Surgery Day! Tyler's port kept flipping over all the time, so they flipped it back over and sewed it in better. Dan was holding him while I blew bubbles while waiting for surgery.

He loved the bubbles and was just happy to be held by daddy and playing with bubbles.

He got suspicious after a while, with all the Drs and nurses coming in. He started looking pretty nervous and stopped smiling. He was fidgeting and everything, I felt bad for the poor little guy. It was easier when he had no clue what was going on. He was glancing around, waiting for something to happen.

He knew he was doomed when I got all gowned up. He gave me that pity look that makes me feel so bad for making him go through all this and cuddled up to me. 

Mask and all. Poor Tyler was looking at me funny, wanting to make sure it was still me, so I kept talking to him until he was under. He fought the gas a lot, but went under quickly once he stopped fighting.

After waking up. He was very alert but stayed quiet for a while. He tired quickly at first, but he came out of it faster than he has in the past.

Giving me a goofy face. Still has his funny sense of humor intact, even after surgery. :)

He was very happy to see Daddy after he woke up. It's a special treat to have him come with to the hospital. He only takes off work for surgeries and other major stuff.

He decided he'd had enough and he wanted to leave. Was only maybe 20 minutes after waking up and he was up and crawling on the bed!

I told him he's hooked to the wall and we can't go anywhere. He must've understood because he started pulling at his tubes to get them off!

Daddy's hat is lots of fun, it distracted him for a few extra minutes so I could ask the nurse to unhook him.

This was the day before surgery. He has hair now! Not much, but they say it should keep coming in. His chemo for Maintenance isn't the type to cause hair loss. Looks like he'll get hair before Dawson did after all!

Dawson got very tired playing at Grandma's house on Surgery Day. He slept in the car and proceeded to fall asleep on the couch after we got home! He never did wake up, we put him to bed and he slept all night. He went to bed 3 hours early!!

Cute sleepy boy. He's been going to bed earlier these days. Bedtime is very easy too, I just tell him to go to bed and he goes to his room.

I found watermelon flavored snow cone syrup tonight at Walmart! I wasn't even looking, but there it was. I couldn't find it anywhere so I'd given up looking very hard. I flavored his chemo with it tonight and he seemed to like it a little better. Hopefully he'll tolerate it better with that in there.

Tyler's First Bath without Hickman!

Not much new here. Still going outside whenever we can. It's really tiring Dawson out at the end of the day, as you can see here. He fell asleep 2 hours before bedtime the 2nd day, and stayed asleep when I put him to bed! So now his bedtime is 2 hours earlier, which is what I was aiming to do anyway. :)

Tyler's steri-strips came off his old hickman site, it's looking great! A bit discolored, but that's normal to be like that for a while.

Tyler's meds on Monday. Now we're down 1 or 2, depending on how he's feeling. He's been fighting his meds bad though. Just 1 syringe takes 2-5 hours to get into him. :(

Dawson and Tyler's 1 year pics! I just had to compare, so I layed them side by side and took a pic. A definite resemblance! They have the same nose, ears, cheeks, eye shape. Tyler just has a bit more pudge in the face. Tyler still has blue eyes though, and Dawson has my hazel eyes. I'm hoping Tyler's will stay blue.

Tyler was being clingy the other day, so I left him in the carrier after doing laundry. He stayed in there for 30 minutes and only wanted out because he was too hot.

Dawson stands here a lot. It's what he does when he wants to go outside! As you can see, it was a bit dark for that at the time! That doesn't seem to bother him though. We have gone out a couple times just after dark, because there's lights over there, but I don't like going out too late.

"Will being cute help my case?"  He does this a lot. If in doubt, look really cute so Mom has to say yes!

I got new shoes! My old ones were really bad, they've had holes in the toes for the past year! So I found the red ones on sale for a really good deal. I was going to get more Asics, but these Sauconys were more supportive and the same price. I was aiming for blue, I'm not much of a red person, but I'm getting used to them. I forget how white new shoes are! My old ones used to be that white too!

Bathtime! Tyler's first bath after his hickman was removed. This will be his 3rd real bath since diagnosis. It was just too much of a hassle with the tape and saran wrap. He'd be so mad by the time he was all taped up that he didn't enjoy his bath. I'm glad he liked this one though! He was unsure at first, but quickly got into it.

Didn't want Tyler bumping his head, so I got this for the spout. Is it bad that I didn't get it for Dawson? I guess Dawson never really moved around much in the tub. Tyler is already exploring!

Dawson quickly got in next to me and was playing with Tyler.

So I just put Dawson in there too. Tyler was already getting brave enough to stand!

Mohawk! It was too long to stand on it's own. His hair is really getting long!

Tyler's incision after the tape came off. It looks pretty good.

Uh oh! My toes are all wrinkled!

Tyler was pretty tired after his bath.

Dawson's teacher came on Thursday. She brought the speech teacher and another lady to re-write his ISFP (goals). They also talked about summer school a bit. He'll be going either on a big bus or a van, depending on what they have available to them. He doesn't need much, just diapers, extra clothes and a notepad for communication between me and the teacher. He'll be there for 2 hours, once a week. It's 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, so he'll go 6 times over summer. This will give him a slow introduction to school so when Fall starts, he'll be more ready for that. He'll be going 3 days per week in the fall! Crazy to think about. He did pretty good with everything the teacher brought. He's sharing with Tyler now, where he used to freak out everytime Tyler crawled anywhere near him. It doesn't bother him anymore. He doesn't throw toys when upset, he looks at the teacher for help. He loves puzzles! I definitely have some good ideas for his birthday now.