Thursday, October 27, 2011

Pumpkin Patch

We headed over to the pumpkin patch with our good friends the Hunter's. Great company, perfect weather, and happy kids made for a great afternoon.
Taking his pumpkin picking very serious
Final Choice. Perfectly round
Boston.Kayla.Lucy
Ok so he wasn't happy the whole time ;)
Riding the ponies was definitely a favorite
Mom and Carter
Running around the corn maze
The Wilson and Hunter kiddos.
(and yes Carter is beginning to be quite the little tank)

Monday, October 17, 2011

carter "talks"

After waiting for what felt like forever we finally got Carter's passy muir valve. Turns out it can be a tricky thing to get with insurances. We are used to that. Anyways it has been kinda a roller coaster. We are used to that too. The first time we put it on he was coughing like crazy, but we heard him cry for the first time. I bawled, Trav was teary eyed and had a huge grin, and Boston was laughing like crazy. Needless to say we were all very happy. Minus Carter that is. After a short minute he turned the color I hate purple! Luckily its an easy fix we just pop the thing off. Over the next couple days we got the same reaction and he was only lasting about 45 seconds before tuning purple. So we headed back over to the doctors and got him checked out. My mind was going crazy mostly filled with thoughts that his airway was in fact in not so great condition and his trach would be a long term thing. The Doc was actually very impressed with Carter's cry and how strong it was. Good news for those vocal chords hooray! He challenged us to keep working with him and if he only lasted two minutes than great he lasted two minutes. We talked about long term stuff and he felt confidant that if Carter didn't figure out the valve it would most likely mean that he would probably need some sort of repair surgery, but he also felt confidant that if Carter did figure it out we might still be looking at spring time to get his trach out!! Well folks Carter figured it out!!!! One day he did some huge cough thing and found out how to breathe out his nose a just like that he got it and went from 2-3 minutes to 1-2 hours! Every time we put it on it takes him a good 10-15 minutes to remember how to breathe like that. We just give him a little O2 boost and endure the coughing, gagging, crying, and not so pretty sounds. After he calms down and realizes it's not so bad he usually does pretty good. It's definitely not his favorite thing, because it is hard work, but like with everything else this little boy pushes through. Have I told you that I think he is simply amazing? Well I do. So with all that said enjoy our little guy trying to figure out his voice. One thing for sure he will definitely have a RASPY voice.

Pretty much we are in Heaven. I can't wait until we are able to listen to him all day. We all LOVE it. Boston is very protective and sometimes gets sad when Carter is sad at the begining, but loves when he gets past the hard part. I think he was expecting him to have full on conversations with him, but for now he will take his growls when ever he can get them.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

White Rock Lake

For some reason I never blogged about this, but it definitely is blog worthy. My Mom and I have talked about biking around White Rock Lake for a long time. Then summer came and unless you were in a pool it was just WAY too hot.
It was a perfect day and we had no appointments so we headed over. After it taking forever to get things ready we started the 9 mile trek around. Of course Boston fell asleep five minutes before we got back to the car. Since Carter was asleep also and didn't need to be fed for a while we decided to keep going. We ended up going 15 miles. Pulling an extra 75 pounds at least definitely made this out of shape girl sore.
It was so much fun. I love doing things like this with my Mom. She is such an incredible lady and we love playing with her on her days off.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Magical Santa Rosa

Two weeks ago we were lucky enough to go to Trav's parents house for a week. We all were holding our breath that everyone would be healthy enough to go. Getting there was quite the ordeal. I spent weeks on the phone with doctors, airlines (virgin america was incredible), and our home health company getting everything in line for us to go. It was SO worth it. I was at a breaking point right before we left just being so tired from going all the time. When I asked Boston about the vacation he said it was "magical". I couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure Carter agreed. He was such a happy boy and loved being able to sleep and not spend the week in doctor's offices. Trav was able to come for a quick trip over the weekend. We made sure to hit up Kirin both nights he was there for dinner. YUM!

Since I'm pretty sure I took more pictures that week than I have the last three months combined I will let them do most the talking.
Good ol iphone pics. Farmers Market, cute boys, and a numb face after the dentist for me.
Sunday afternoon at Strawberry Elementary (Daddy's old school) Santa Rosa is seriously so beautiful. Huge tree's line all the roads I LOVE it!
Trains and more trains at G&G's house, shoulder rides (carter's face is hilarious), and bed and tubby time for the boys.
Someday I hope to get a decent picture of these boys together.
Riding the train and "fishing" at the beautiful Howarth Park.
Painting with Grandma and working in the Garden with Grandpa.
The Beach. Probably one of my favorite things we did. Boston and I spent lots of time going on treasure walks to find things for our castle. Boston was in heaven having my full attention and was great at telling me exactly what to do and Carter was in heaven listening to the ocean and sleeping in grandma's arms. All the while my hair puffed up about ten inches and my mother in laws lost all it's puff. That night we went to see the Help. AMAZING!
Before the beach we went to one of the cute salt water taffy stores and Grandma told Boston to "get whatever you want". We left with a $9 bag full of taffy and I'm pretty sure I ate 90% of them. I love cute little stores like that.
Howarth Park with G&G. I don't know how it happened, but it was so hot that day! We only packed cooler clothes so we left a little sweaty.
Have I mentioned that my in laws are AMAZING!!! Well they are. I have such a great relationship with both of them and love that I feel so comfortable and genuinly love being with them with or without Trav. The boys are so lucky to have them. We also did our duties as far as shopping goes just ask Papo and eating yummy food.

It really was such and incredible week. I wish we could do it once a month. Definitely filled my tank up and gave me enough of a break to get back into our grind.

A week of no Doctor's appointments, no cleaning, no cooking, my family, and incredible in laws really is Magical. Boston hit this one right on.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

10 Months!!!

Didn't I just do his 9 month post? This is going by way too fast!


This little guy continues to be the best baby ever! He is so happy and still such a good snuggler. He found his feet about a month and a half ago and hasn't let go of them since. Because he refused to do a baby push up we decided to move on to sitting ape style. He surprised us and did it within a week.

We hope that he will keep his arms ape style for a bit so that he can learn to balance his weight in both arms the prepare for crawling. He has now figured out how to tuck his right arm under while sitting to roll over onto his back which proves that this boy will do things the way he wants to. He has yet to roll over from back to tummy only because he doesn't want to. He has almost done it a 100 times, but the second his nose hits the carpet he whips his body back so fast. It's hilarious! I gave him his first try of rice cereal yesterday and he did surprisingly well. Just like everything with him it will definitely take a while to get down. He is growing like a weed these days which we are so so happy about. Boston continues to be his favorite person even though he isn't always the nicest to him. He grabs a hold of EVERYTHING these days. I guess I shouldn't say everything, but always the things we don't want him to. Doesn't it always work that way ;) You still cover your eyes with snuggly when you get tired. We always joke that it's a good thing you don't breathe out of your nose and mouth because you are constantly covering your entire face with snuggly. You LOVE your snugglies they are always close by your side.

Carter boy you continue to amaze us every day. Thank you for coming to our family we are more than blessed because of you.