A few more pictures from Tucson

Ignore that crazy woman in the front. I don't know what she was looking at... A little out of focus, but you can see that Stephen just loves his grandparents!

With the other grandparents...

Ten days after surgery we piled into the car with a lot of "stuff," and headed off to Tucson. It was a 2 day drive, so Erik and I took turns riding with Stephen so we could read or play, or watch movies. Since Stephen is so big now, taking the Pack and Play for him to sleep in just wasn't possible. I found this bed on the internet, and although it was hard to track one down, it seemed to be the perfect solution! It worked pretty well once he understood that he had to try hard to actually stay IN the bed, and not roll all over the place.

Our first full day in Tucson, we went to Green Valley to visit the relatives down there, and then went back to Mom and Dad's to swim. They were still out of town, but Stephen's other grandparents came over to swim too! This was Stephen's very first time in a pool!!!

When Grandma Janet and Grandaddy got home, Stephen was thrilled to discover they had brought him a replacement for his much-loved, but too small, safari hat! He pulled it right on!

One of our Tucson adventures was a trip to the zoo. Although it is smaller than the OKC zoo, there were several things there that were new to Stephen, including the polar bears, elephants, and the opportunity to feed the giraffes (stay tuned for a different post with a video of that experience!).

We also indulged Daddy and Grandaddy with a lunch here:

Stephen was demonstrating how someone might feel after a little too much to drink!

And we taught Stephen how to play Pat-A-Cake...

which apparently wore him out!

Although timid at first, Stephen really took to swimming after a couple of days!

He even figured out how to paddle his arms and kick his feet a little bit - we didn't actually show him how to do this, but I guess he picked it up by watching all of us swim.

Stephen enjoyed reading while we were on vacation. A LOT!

Stephen and Grandaddy ended up with matching shirts, courtesy of Cousins David and Jayne, and the Del Mar Fair. And they were purchased a year apart, and we didn't even know they matched until we got there! Funny, huh?
More "swimming..."

This was a fantastic vacation. We saw family, and some friends, and it was a nice chance to relax, for all of us. I'll try to get a post-surgery update up later this week. To say that it was a life-changing procedure for Stephen is an understatement!

Ready to go!

Stephen is done. He is ready to be done with his convalescing, but his mean old mom and dad are still making him take it easy. He also wants to start eating regular foods again, but no dice. Stephen is staying on the soft foods diet until next Monday or Tuesday, although, we have been slowly introducing some other softer foods (pastas, jelly sandwiches...), and he's been doing ok with those.

We can already tell a difference in how well Stephen is hearing. His comprehension has improved drastically, and he is following instructions a lot better. He has done a little more talking, but not much, and his overall demeanor is just much more pleasant. He had PT yesterday, and his therapist said that she could tell that he was generally a lot happier, and that he was following instructions a lot better (although she did note that he was a LOT more clingy than normal, but that she would have expected that). He also demonstrated his ability to stand without pulling up (he FINALLY started doing that consistently about 3 weeks ago!), and we discussed how to change his habits so that he will do that more, and crawl less. And we had another first - Stephen played with Play-Doh WITHOUT even attempting to put it into his mouth! Our therapist had a student with her, and Stephen was doing pretty much everything the girl asked him to do with regards to the Play-Doh, including rolling a snake, and trying to pinch teeny pieces off of a bigger chunk. Pretty good for 1 week post-op!

We are mostly packed and ready to head out to AZ to see everyone, and we are leaving tomorrow morning. This is our first big road trip with Stephen, but between the portable DVD player and the bin of car toys that I assembled for him, it should be just fine. Plus, he LOVES riding in the car, so that should be good. We haven't quite managed to figure out the logistics of using the potty while we are going, but since he has been accident-free for 2 days, we are going to work it out to help him!

Stephen was very happy to be able to go out and swing again. We kept him off of it for a few days after we got home from the hospital, because we didn't want him to get too worked up and start bleeding or something.

All is well out here, and there will be tons of pictures and stories when we return!

Tonsils are overrated, really.

Hi everyone! For those that haven't seen any updates elsewhere, Stephen's tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy yesterday was a complete success. The doc said it all went perfectly, and there were no problems!

We got there, and didn't have to spend too much time in the waiting room, but Stephen made a new friend while we were out there. He also enjoyed playing some "Boo!" with Daddy while we waited. We were taken back to a "staging" area, where they took vitals, and met with the doctor and anesthesiologist. Stephen was also given these super cool jammies to wear! Those are tigers on there, by the way. The pants were about a foot too long, so we kept having to roll them up. They also gave him those little socks with grippies on the bottom.Yes, I am that mom that takes the camera to the hospital! Stephen was actually in a good mood that morning, in spite of the fact that he hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in over an hour.I don't know what this face was, exactly. I think he was saying something, and then blinked when the flash went off. Or it might have been intentional - he is Erik's son, after all!"So THIS is where my tonsils are, Mom?" Again, I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get this one...In between visits from various medical professionals, we walked all over the staging area. We found this wagon back in the play room, and Erik pulled him all over the place for about 20 minutes. Good times. And yes, he DOES want a wagon now!This is a couple of hours post-op, after he'd had some pain meds and rested a bit. Thank goodness for room service! After he finished his first cup, we ordered 3 more to keep in the freezer down the hall, so he could have them later. And boy, did he! For "dinner," he had 2 more cups!Stephen wanted to show that he can give Grandpa Big Rick a run for his money in the 'stache department!This was this morning. Stephen was feeling tremendously better after a good night sleep, and was pretty much back to normal. In fact, shortly after this photo was taken, he managed to get out of that black cover-thing (protecting his IV), and while I was getting that back on, he pulled off the sock, and took off his pulse-ox meter. And that was not the only time he did that before we were discharged... We had mixed experiences with our nursing staff. Our nurse in recovery was very nice, but she didn't want to wake Stephen up (he'd fallen asleep in my arms after he came out of anesthesia) to give him any pain meds. Unfortunately, by the time we got to our room, and all of his info was in the computer, he was waaay overdue, and was frantic with pain. Our nurse then was trying to get him taken care of, but she could only do so much without that information from the computer. Our next nurse wasn't much better, but the night staff was awesome. They kept on top of his meds, and respected my requests not to wake him to monitor his BP, and waited until he woke on his own. This morning, Stephen seemed more like himself. All he wanted to do was get up and walk around, but with the IV in his leg, that was just impossible. And unfortunately, due to that IV, Stephen had to wear diapers while we were in the hospital. They had to monitor his urine output, to make sure he was hydrated enough. Luckily, however, when we got home today, Stephen got right back into the groove of using the potty, minus the M&M rewards, of course.

We have already noticed a difference in the pitch and tone of Stephen's voice. It seems much less whiny and nasally than before. Additionally, when Erik was reading to him last night, he was imitating sounds more, and seemed more engaged in the stories, we suspect because he could hear the words more clearly, and was associating them with the pictures in the stories.