January (Removal of Tonsils & Adenoids)

1.8.17 Emerson is getting so smart. We were at church yesterday and he pulled a felt book out of my bag. It has some felt monkeys that go with it and I gave him one to hold. He said "monkey" right when he saw it. I had no idea he knew the word monkey or what one was. We also have a toy frog in the church bag that he played with earlier and he knew it was a "frogie" and he called it that. I guess we must add "ie" to a lot of the words we teach him i.e. sockies, frogie, ect. We yesterday he started to call his books "bookie."He has always said "book" when referring to a book, so i'm not sure how it changed to "bookie." Still cute to me. 

Deacon had his tonsils and adenoids removed on Friday, January 12. We have been telling him for a few weeks that he is going to get his tonsils out, but it's hard for kids to understand time. On Monday, January 8 when he woke up he asked me if he was getting his tonsils out that day. I told him not until Friday, which he then tried to figure out when that was. 

Deacon and I had to be at Davis Hospital at 7:15 a.m. He was really good getting up the early in the morning and was fine going. He was so brave and did such a great job the whole time at the hospital. We got checked in and then a little while later they took us back into a room where they had a gown and bed for him. I filled out some more paperwork and Deacon got to watch cartoons on the bed. I just brought him in his pajamas. They said to wear something comfortable and that he could bring a toy or blanket (of course he brought both). They also gave him a little monkey stuffed animal, which he is pretty attached to. When it was his turn, they took him back on the bed and I went into the waiting room. I called Matt and he said he would come up after he dropped Emerson off at my mom's. The surgery went great and only took 20-30 minutes. They came and got me and I stayed with him int he recovery area. Matt showed up about 5 minutes later. Deacon seemed very calm and awake and was doing great. They showed us how to check his mouth for bleeding with a flashlight and said to eat soft foods for the next few days. One thing we didn't know was that his scabs would come off in about 7-10 days, and that was painful. Matt drove Deacon home and I stopped at the pharmacy to get him his medicine and some jello. He did really good all day on Friday. He watched shows and even ate Mac&Cheese that night. Our plan was to have me work from home on Monday & Tuesday, and then we thought/hoped he would be able to go back to daycare and pre-school on Wednesday. That did not happen...

Starting around noon on Saturday, Deacon got a fever. He had a low-grade fever for the next 5 or so days. The instructions said to have him seen if he had a persistent fever for 3 days or more. I took him to the doctor's office on Tuesday. They thought he maybe had the flu, but his test came back negative. They said he probably just caught a virus. His whole first week was rough. He slept and watched movies most of the time in the day, but the nights were awful. He would wake up in pain every 4 or so hours after his medicine wore off crying, but he refused to take more medicine. The first few times, after about 15 minutes, he finally took the medicine, but the time seemed to grow and grow. Matt stayed with him for 1.5 hours one time while he cried, and then finally took the medicine. He would always tell us that he couldn't take it - it was hard for us to understand what he was feeling and going through. Once he would take the pain medicine, he would usually quite right down and go to bed, but it was so hard to get him to take it. My boss was amazing and let me work from home the rest of the week so I could be with him. On Thursday, he started to complain that his tongue was hurting. It was very white and I suspected that he had thrush. Back to the doctor's office we went and he got some thrush medicine. His mouth looked much better after he used the mouth wash for a few days. Thrush is not a fun thing to get. Poor guy!

Finally by Saturday, he seemed like he was feeling better. He played with Livy and was a bit more active and ate more. He complained a few times on Sunday and Monday that his throat hurt, but I think we're finally done with it and can move on. I hope in the long run it will be much better for him to have them out. He didn't get ear infections or strep a lot, but his tonsils were just huge (see before/after picture below). I don't even know how he swallowed, but he never complained about it. He also snored at night, so he should be able to sleep better now, too. 

Watching cartoons before surgery:

I don't know if he actually wore this hairnet or not, but he found it on the bed and put it on, so I took a picture:

Before:

 After:

Wyatt

Of course Wyatt will never be forgotten, but as time passes, I don't think of him as often as I should or used to, which saddens me,  but unfortunately that's what times does. I do find it very interesting though that Deacon seems to talk about Wyatt all the time. He's constantly saying "Wyatt, my brother who died..." when he talks about different things. Just this morning I turned on some music and Deacon didn't want to listen to it because it was "baby songs." I told him that listening to music helped him learn to talk and that Emerson can listen to the music now and it will help him. He told me that Wyatt taught him how to talk, how to crawl, how to walk, etc., and he will teach Emerson all those things. It's interesting to hear the things he associates Wyatt with. It will still be along time before he really understands who Wyatt is and what happened, but he knows he has an older brother in heaven, and he seems in a way proud of Wyatt and that he has two brothers. I find it to be pretty sweet.  From the eyes and mouths of babes. 

December 2017 & Christmas

My work raises funds each year for a charity called Junior Achievement. They had a kick-off meeting and then a Santa event on Friday, December 1. Matt brought the kids after my meeting and the kids got to get balloons, sit on Santa's lap, and get their faces painted. Emerson wasn't a fan of Santa, but the other two did had fun seeing him. They had a fun time and were sad when they had to take their face paint off (I hate face paint!) 

Emerson likes to vacuum our kitchen now, and he fell asleep on the floor at Grandma's:

 

Our Ward Christmas Party was on Friday, December 8. The adults ate dinner in the cultural hall while the kids went into the primary room and played games and ate a "sack lunch" dinner. It was interesting... but I think Deacon and Livy had fun. They even got to take home a "prize" that they picked out of a bucket.

Emerson and Deacon have both enjoyed the Christmas decorations and seeing the lights.

My Aunt Tera had her annual Christmas Party and White Elephant Gift Exchange on Sunday, December 16. Several families were not able to attend this year, but we still enjoyed a nice dinner and had a fun time! The White Elephant was a hit!

 Deacon and Livy also got to see Santa and do another gift exchange at preschool on the 20th. Livy somehow opened the present she got and started using the stickers and drawing in it before the party started, so she ended up taking home the present she got - funny girl!

Emerson has been talking a lot more lately and can say quite a few words. Some that I remember that he can say now are book, tree, remote, drink (most the time he just yells at the fridge when he wants a drink), toot, "b" for binkie, num, shirt, pants,  nap, nana (banana), all clean, stinky, bye bye, amen, night-night, balloon, more, up, buzz... pretty much if you say something to him, he'll try to repeat it back. I'm sure most of these words are not recognizable to others, but he can and does say them. 

Our first Christmas party was on Saturday, December 23 at my Grandma Mecham's house. We had a fun time, ate yummy food, and opened gifts. My Grandma gave Deacon and Livy some activity books with stickers in them. They enjoyed putting the stickers on everyone else at the party. Livy was nice and would ask if people wanted a sticker. Deacon would just get one and stick it on whoever he wanted to have it. 

On Christmas morning, Santa came! He gave Deacon a Pikachu stuffed animal he wanted, and Emerson got a Tickle-Me-Elmo (among other things). 

 Then at 10:30am we had a party with Matt's family. We ate French Toast and other breakfast foods, and opened gifts at our home. It had snowed that night, so Matt was out shoveling the walks for most of the morning. Everyone got to our house closer to 11, which was good because the food was not ready yet, but I think it turned out to be a fun party. We got super luck and Emerson took a nap from 12-2pm while everyone else opened presents. We actually had to wake him up to go to our next party.

Nate gave some of the kids head massages. They loved it!

At 2pm, we went to my Mom's house for my Nelson family party. We didn't end up eating breakfast until closer to noon, so I didn't think we would be hungry enough to eat lunch - but after seeing all the good food, somehow we managed to eat it (: 
It was great to see everyone and get together and I'm so glad my grandparents were able to make it. My Grandma got Livy a Chase Paw Patrol lamp, Deacon a Hulk pillow pal, and Emerson a train with farm animals. They all seemed to love their gifts and enjoyed helping everyone else open theirs.

This Hulk came in the biggest gift bag I've ever seen!

 

Emerson loved carrying around the pig from his train: 

We went home that night and opened a few more presents to/from each other. We all got Lagoon passes this year and Deacon is super excited to go! I hope we're able to get some good use out of them and that it won't be super crowded every time we go. 

The next day we went to my parents house for our last little party and exchanged gifts with them. Deacon got a "grabber" and some magnetic blocks that he's very happy with! Emerson got a cute dog that sings songs and does other things and some super cute Ninja Turtle shoes. 

I had the rest of the week off of work and it was so nice! Deacon and Emerson finally learned how to sleep in a little and didn't wake up at 7am every day. It seems like on weekdays I always have to wake Deacon up and it's so hard, but on Saturdays or any day I have off, he's up and ready to go at 7am. On Saturday, December 30, Emerson slept in until 9am, and Deacon slept until 10am! It was so nice! Unfortunately I had to return to work the next week, but it was nice while it lasted. The kids played with their toys, built a fort, and we were even able to go to the Zoo one last time before our pass expired. It was a sunny day and not too cold or crowded. Grandma Fenwick even came along with us, which was wonderful and so nice to have the help! 

This is Emerson yelling that he wants more "NANA!"

Emerson climbed over Deacon and sat on him all by himself:

Last trip to Hogle Zoo in 2017:

Deacon trying to sneak up on a Peacock:

Emerson liked Grandma to push him over and stop by the lights so he could touch them: 

This was the best picture I could get of the polar bear ): there were a lot of people in the way: 

Grandma put her gloves on Emerson. He looked so cute with them on! 

Merry Christmas!