Is it spring yet?

With Aiden in the cast I have been trying my best to keep him distracted and occupied. In the middle of all the rain there have been a couple beautiful days and we have been able to take long walks around the neighborhood. Aiden loves to get out and stroll around (yes - he actually still fits in his stroller with a little tweaking)! The other day, it was sunny and warm and I decided to take Aiden out and show him all the little signs that spring is just around the corner...

We wandered around the neighborhood, looking all around and I explained to Aiden what everything was.

I told him to appreciate the green hills around our neighborhood, because they don't stay green very long!

I showed him the bulbs starting to come up in people's yards,

And the daffodils already in bloom,

And he would look closely at everything.

I showed him Folsom lake in the distance (it does not look so hot right now!), and told him it will get full and we will go there in the summer to swim when he is a little older.

And he looked and babbled, so happy to be outside in the sun.

When we got back home we stopped at the pond,

And fed the little piggy fishes.

Then we went in our own backyard and saw the peach tree just about to bloom like crazy!

The magnolia tree is not far behind...it will get big flowers any day now.

The moral of this post is that just because you live in a neighborhood in the suburbs doesn't mean you can't take nature walks!

Happy Birthday Papa John!

Hope your birthday is wonderful!
(Aiden loves Papa John's hats)

Were teaching him the important things...

Like how to do this.

Spongebath Squarepants

No more baths for little Aiden, we have to give him sponge baths now. He does not really care for them. He misses splashing and playing with his bath toys.

Yet somehow, the other day, I got out the camera during bath time and he suddenly started smiling. Like he didn't want anyone to see that he cries during bath time. So I took some pictures so everyone can see what the cast looks like - you know you were curious!

The spica cast in all it's glory. I think this pose is what Aiden would look like if he was skydiving. See the little diaper hole, with the waterproof tape all over it? Yeah, it's fun to get a diaper shoved in there ;)

Spica Chair!

It's here.

By far the most anticipated thing I have ever ordered online.

Thank you IvyRose Spica chairs for being the only place that makes these, thank you FedEx for the 8:30am delivery. Even though I am exhausted after being up every hour last night with the boy, today is the BEST day!

The chair is built with a specially shaped seat that allows babies in spica casts to sit upright - which can't be done with any type of regular chair. It has a tabletop on it so that he can play with his toys and eat.

It was handmade by a mom of 2 "hip" kids that were in spica casts. You can't buy chairs for kids in a spica cast anywhere else and I am so glad that she sells these! I custom ordered this one and worked with her to come up with the car/truck theme. I LOVE it! It is so cute!

She put so much thought into all the details on it to make it all his!

Now he can watch "old MacDonald" sitting up again!

The other side of the tabletop is a chalkboard, this was written on it when it arrived...

A happy boy getting to play with his toys again!

1 week down, 5 more to go!

We have officially made it through week 1 in the spica cast. Yay!

We went in for a cast check and x-ray yesterday. Everything is in place and looks good! Woo Hoo! We will go in March 23rd to get it removed and they will see at that point if his hip is stable enough or if he needs another 4-6 weeks of casting or a brace.

We have the diapering down! Well, for the most part. I was all happy, bragging that we had our first poopy diaper and everything stayed in place, nothing got on the cast, this will be easy! And then...BIGGEST. POOP. EVER. Got all over the place, took 20 minutes and half a pack of baby wipes to clean. The expensive, no chemical, non-damaging to the gortex liner of the cast baby wipes. Agh. But, I am happy to say, I got it all and Aiden is not a smelly kid. Yet.

Sleeping (or lack thereof) is still a work in progress. He wakes up every 1 - 2 hours because he can't roll over - he was a tummy/side sleeper before the cast and now he can't be. Mostly he ends up in bed with us. It is really comfortable to cuddle up next to a hard cast all night ;) Luckily, Nana Robyn stayed with us for a couple days and let this tired momma sleep in! Poor daddy had to get up and go to work :(

Right now, there is alot of Baby Einstein watching and baby holding going on in our house. He can't sit upright to play with his toys. He has taken to playing with our noses, mouths, ears and hair instead. Can't wait to get his special spica chair so he can play again. The nice weather this week has made it so we can go on walks which give him (and us) a nice change of scenery. We even played outdoors for an hour or so one day.

Here are some pics. Seriously, I was not trying to take a bunch of pictures of myself (I would have done my hair and put on some makeup for that!). I was just trying to get pics of Aiden while I was holding him, since I can't exactly set him down outside :)

He is pretty easy to hold in his cast, he is a perfect little package that sits on my hip. Man, does my hip hurt at the end of the day!

His new favorite toy - my face. Grabbing at my mouth, chin, eyeballs...whatever he can get his little hands on.

Giving him extra loves!

"I will get your camera, momma. It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine."

Even Sophie got outdoors to play :)

Surgery day & the dreaded spica cast

Aiden had surgery on his hip on Friday morning at Shriners Hospital. Although we have known for almost a year that the surgery would need to be done, we were surprised when we got the call last week that it was scheduled so soon. We packed Aiden up and headed down for a 5:30am appointment. Prior to the surgery we were told that it would take around 2 hours to complete so we kissed him and sent him on his way to take a nice anesthesia induced nap. 4 hours later we were still waiting and of course, worrying. Finally the doctor came out and let us know the surgery was done. She said the process took longer because he was just so small and there was many steps; first they injected a dye to see if there was anything blocking the hip from going into the socket, of course, there was so she had to open him up and remove the tissue that was inside the socket then place the ball of the femur into it, and they also cut a ligament nearby to help loosen the hip and keep it in place. The final step was to put on the dreaded spica cast.

With daddy before the surgery - he looks pretty cute in his little hospital gown

Playing with the toys in the pre-op area before surgery

One last picture of his little legs - we won't see them for a while :(

The dreaded spica cast is blue and starts at his chest and goes to his ankles, with a little hole around the diaper area. Needless to say, he does not like it very much. It will be on for 4-6 weeks and then we will go in to get it removed, they will check his hip and he may possibly have to get another put on for an additional 4-6 weeks if it is still not stable enough. We are hoping we don't have to go through this again. It was hard to see him back in the hospital and we did not have a great experience staying overnight - let's just say it involved a nurse tripping over his IV and pulling it out, a very sleepless night and having to leave him screaming while going down the hall to heat up his bottles - only one of us was allowed to stay with him. We were happy to come home and start getting settled.

Spica bear - this is what his cast looks like, they made this in surgery to match him :)

What it takes to diaper a baby in a spica cast...we are still learning what works and it literally takes us 15 minutes to put together the "diaper contraption"!

Aiden in the dreaded spica cast, he no longer can fit in his car seat, high chair, stroller or saucer - but he finally wears a size 12 month onsie ;)

So, now we are just trying to figure out what to do to keep him entertained, clothed and comfortable sleeping. This whole experience is rough for him and for us, but we figure we will just make the best of it. So for him that means buying the pricey "spica chair", a beanbag chair, a new stroller, toys...whatever it takes to make him happy. For me, that means buying him new cute clothes - he can no longer wear pants, so onsies and BabyLegs leg warmers are my new best friend (he is wearing them above). We will post more pictures of our dreaded spica adventures once Aiden feels a little more like himself and is ready to play!

Cows are funny, too!

I know, you're all probably sick of seeing videos of Aiden laughing, but, whatever, it's cute :)



He laughs at that cow just like this every time it comes near him!

Aidens hot rod

Right now we just cruise around the house since it's a little chilly outside.

He laughs when Sophie the dog is in his drive path........

Been a while since we've posted

It's tough to find time to update the blog since Aiden demands our attention 99.9% of the day.
He does enjoy watching his Baby Einstein videos though, so I am able to get some housework done during this time.

He has the cutest laugh so I had to take a vid and post it on the blog.
Mommas at work so this ought to get her through rest of the day.

Christmas tree hunting 2009

My family goes on an annual Christmas tree hunt (ok, and we eat a lot of good food, too) with our family friends, the Ellsworth and Zang families. We always go to get our trees the first Sunday in December, and lucky for us, my parents live next door to a Christmas tree farm! This is a family tradition that I could not wait to continue with Aiden. Next year he will be in Papa John's tractor with the big kids!

This year was Aiden's first christmas tree hunt, and it was also his first snowstorm! We bundled Aiden up so snug that he could barely move and headed out to find a tree. As we left the house it was snowing a few small flakes and by the time we left there was several inches of snow on the ground. It was so fun to go tree hunting in the snow and we found the perfect tree this year!

All bundled up!

With Momma...

Standing next to our tree!

Daddy cutting the tree down...even though he complains, I think he secretly loves doing this kind of stuff...ha ha!

All decorated and in the house!

Aiden's first birthday party (finally)!

I know it took me a little while, but I wanted to post some pictures of Aiden's first birthday party! We had his party on November 22 - one day before his birthday. We invited our family and a few close friends over to our place for an afternoon of fun, cake and of course, Aiden opening presents...OK, he really liked playing with the tissue paper more than actually opening the presents ;)

The invitiation...

The decorations...

The favors - giraffe cookies...

Cupcakes! The orange were carrot cake and the blue were chocolate chip...

Aiden and Nana Robyn - couldn't have gotten his party together without her help!

Aiden and his daddy - just chillin'!

Time to open presents! Aiden in his new Mickey Mouse hat...

Playing with the tissue paper - he really had a great time!

Getting some help from his cousins Logan and Tanner. Notice Sophie in the corner she had to be envolved in the whole thing!

A post present nap on Auntie Heather (Mommy's friend and Aiden's NICU nurse).

Either he isn't sure about the flame on the candle, or he isn't sure about our singing...

Mmmmmm...he only ate a little bit of the frosting off the cupcake because he just wasn't too sure about it - but, he had fun playing with it!

Happy birthday to our fun, wonderful little boy and thank you to those who helped us celebrate!