Surgery.

Well, we had a day of doctor's appts with some good news and some bad news. Good news first! We went to see the ENT again about Vic's ears since the P.A. at the MRI said they looked bad. The ENT said that lady must not have known what she was talking about because his ears look great! yay! So on the one hand, irritated that the lady was so wrong and we had to spend $35 copay to find out his ears were fine, but on the other hand, yay! so happy his ears look fine!

Then the good/bad news. The hand surgeon said that the MRI showed the lump to look fluid-filled (good news!). However, because of the location, size and Vic's age, it would be better to remove it. This way it doesn't interfere with any development in his hand or his muscles or anything like that and it can be sent to be biopsied to make sure it really is just a benign cyst. SO... Tuesday morning at 8am he will be having surgery to have it removed.

I'm totally. bugging. out.

this will be the third time that Vic will have been put under general anesthesia and I HATE that. I hate that he has to be put under with all those chemicals and crap in his tiny litttle body... But it's times like these that I'm soooo incredible glad we are still nursing. At least I know I can comfort him in that way when he is going to need me the most. I don't know how long the surgery will last, I'm hoping not too long , but I figure at least an hour, probably longer. And afterward is going to suck so bad with the bandage on his little hand. He hates when you touch his hands and the few times he's had a bandaid on one of his fingers (just from a little stick to get an iron test) he flips out! I can't imagine how it's going to happen with stitches and a bandage. *sigh*.

He's 1 year old!!!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!! One year ago at the beginning of October, this is what i looked like! then about 2 weeks later...

Magic! This beautiful baby boy entered our lives. Our lives have never been the same since this moment... they have been so much richer, more extraordinary and better than we could ever have imagined!

Pictures from his party!

Victor with Matt's mom Melanie.

Victor with my mom, Janene. She was visiting us for 2 whole weeks! We LOVED having her!

Vic with my mommy again.

Family Pic. I hate this pic I think I look terrible, but oh well.

First taste of the cupcake! Just dipped his fingers into the frosting.

Daddy laughing as Vic finally took his first bite.

Vic sharing with Mommy :-)

Yummy!

And.... he's done! He got mad when I was trying to help him eat it and he wanted out of his high chair. So we let him down and then started opening presents.

We asked everyone that if they wanted to get us something to bring books. We only had a few and Vic LOVES me to read to him so we really needed to expand our library. We got a bunch of really great books! Thanks sooo much!

Our friend Jessica and her son Isiah got us a lawnmower! He freaking loves this thing and pushes it all over the house!

More presents!

Yay for books!!

He's such a cute birthday boy!!! We love you soooo much bubba! Happy Birthday!

Ear infection, a lump and the MRI...

This is going to be a HUGE update with lots of talking and not a lot of pictures, sorry guys!!



So he got his tubes in about 3 months ago and he's been good since then. He was tugging at his ears a little bit but I was assuming it was due to teething cause he's been working on his molars for awhile now. One evening about 3 or so weeks ago I was nursing Vic in the living room and holding his hand to keep his fingers out of my nose (ha ha) and I felt the lump in his right hand. It's in his palm right where the first big knuckle is. First thing the next morning I called to make an appt with his pedi. The pedi ordered an xray of his hand and checked his ears for me too. Sure enough the left one was infected so we got some antibiotics for that.



The xrays sucked! I had to hold him while the tech was trying to hold his hand in the right place and he was screaming and fighting and just sooo pissed off. The next day they called and said that nothing showed up on the xray, just that his bones looked fine and normal, which in itself is good. But frustrating that they can't tell us the the lump is. So they referred us to the Bone and Joint Surgeons. Finally got an appt with them just this past Monday. Doc said he thought it might be a cyst, but couldn't be sure so they needed to do an MRI of his hand to find out for sure what they are dealing with.



Of course, for a 1 year old they had to do the MRI under sedation. AWFUL! They had to ue the mask to make him sleepy and start an IV to keep him asleep. It all took about an hour and a half. Of course I wasn't allowed to feed him beforehand, except nursing him, and the nurse was very misinformed about breastmilk and I tried to explain to her that BM is a clear liquid (it's 80% water!) and it only takes 90 minutes to digest so the fact that she was going to make us wait a whole other HOUR (it had already been 5 since he'd nursed) before starting was compeltely wrong, but she started in on the whole "it it were MY child I'd wait just to be safe.. blah blah blah..." making me feel guilty and then I couldn't even argue with her without making myself the "bad parent". I was SOOO PISSED. Anyway, then they had to check his ears to make sure his tubes were MRI safe. The lady was looking in his ears and there was enough build up of wax/fluid that she couldn't even see them. I mentioned that he'd had an infection a couple weeks ago and she said "yea, that left one is still red."

Arrggghh! So mad that it's still infected and that the stuff apparently isn't draining.

Anywho, The MRI took an hour and 38 minutes. The longest 98 minutes of my life. Poor guy was so out of it when we got to go back in. He just laid on me for awhile while we both cried for a bit and he nursed a bit and we cuddled and Matt and I passed him back and forth for a bit. After about 30 minutes we got to go home. He was actually pretty good after we got home, played and ate for a bit and then we crashed for 4 hours! He's feeling pretty good today, just is nursing quite a bit, i think to make up for yesterday.



We have an appt on Monday to get his MRI results and discuss what needs to be done. Then it's off to the ENT to have his ears looked at. Gonna be a long day of doctors!!!

I wanna be like Handy Manny

Really, I do. Anyone who has seen his show will know what I'm talking about. He is the ultimate at gentle parenting. No matter what the tools get into or break or destroy he never yells. He never gets upset or even frustrated with them. Manny always manages to say something like, "That's ok, everyone makes mistakes. But next time you should be more careful with that." I love that he manages to phrase things in a positive manner while being proactive about fixing the mistake and he always shows them how to fix it. This is sooo important! He always praises them when they do things correctly and they all know how much Manny cares for them.

I wanna parent like Handy Manny. I wanna be endlessly patient and a real role model for my children. I do not want to parent with fear, I want to parent with love, and kindness and gentleness. I hope I remember this on days when I'm frustrated. Luckily our DVR is recording episodes of Handy Manny, so hopefully I'll have an episode to watch and remember on days like that :-)

2 years of Wedded Bliss!

Well, maybe not bliss all the time, lol but damn near close! and it's definitely been fun and exciting and sometimes challenging. Every moment has been wonderful and it's all gone by just sooo quickly!

I love you baby, so much and I am looking forward to every moment that is still to come for us, no matter what the future has in store, as long as we're together it'll be amazing!

Videos!

We were playing Peek-a-boo and this is the picture I got! Cutest thing ever! "Gimme some Cheese Dad! I love it!"

Every time I get the camera out he immediately stops what he's doing and crawls (or walks now) over to me and tries to grab it. SO I get lots of pictures like this!

Look at that face!! I laugh every time!

I love watching this video! We have a couple of them, but this is the best one so far of him walking. He can walk longer than this, but every time he sees the camera he stops what he's doing and tries to grab the camera! So I do what I can :-)

We've been trying so hard to get video of the little goober walking. He just took his first steps last week as you all know, and since then has just gotten better and better every day. He is starting to cross whole rooms now, and I know that in a day or 2 he's gonna be a PRO! I can't believe my baby is walking!

He's also been saying "Mum" or "Mumma" to me and "Dah Dah Dah" at Matt, it's so adorable, we love it! He loves to "talk" all the time and will happily squeal at me all day long. He has 8 teeth and 9 and 10 are on their way in sometime soon as he's been teething like crazy.

Oh, and we moved! it was a crazy week-long adventure, but we made it! We just moved about 15-20 minutes from where we were but to a much bigger 3 bedroom townhouse as opposed to the 2 bedroom we were in. It's a bit further from town and work for Matt, but it's a quiet neighborhood, very kid-friendly. Also, it's just a couple of blocks from the library, a playground and the pool, yay! And we discovered (again) that we HATE MOVING. Next time we move it's gonna be to a house were we will spend the rest of our lives. lol, well maybe not really, but hopefully somewhere we will be for a while at least!

First steps!

Can't believe how big my baby boy is getting..... He took his first official steps today!!

We were all in the kitchen, Matt, Vic and me. Vic was standing up, Matt was holding his hands, then Matt let go of his hands and Vic took 3 steps toward me! Then after we got over the shock, I stood him back up and he did it again!!! Can't believe it! In a week he's gonna be running around like a pro, sheesh! where'd my sweet baby go?