Happy Birthday, Max!!

Dec. 28th

Merry Christmas!!

Max and my first Christmas was wonderful. My parents are visiting, and all are enjoying each other tremendously. Max is getting rightfully spoiled, especially in the fact that his birthday is only a few days after Christmas. January is going to feel very boring to him. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, and beyond...

Over Thanksgivingm Max and I joined a few other friends in Twisp, WA where we rented a big house, and spent time playing games, reading, hiking, visiting the horses, and basically just hanging out. It was absolutely lovely. Max needed to get used to sharing his momma with other people, but other than that, he connected well with everyone and had a good time. It was so nice to get away for a few days, and basically just think about the next meal. :)

An update from the palate surgery: unfortunately, the hole in his palate came back. This basically means that we have to do the whole thing over again sometime next year. Besides that being a bummer, the second time you try anything like that, it only has a 50% chance of working because of all the pre-existing scar tissue. We'll see what our options are when we meet with the surgeon again in January.

In the meantime, we're heavily getting ready for the holiday season. We put up our lights today and getting ready for Max's grandparents to join us Dec. 21. Very exciting, and we're all looking forward to it.

Halloween is almost here!

We went to a local pumkin crawl, and got to try out Max's costume for the first time. He is a panda bear this year, although people kept thinking he is a cow... hhhmmmmm.... He doesn't like the hat much, so it's lucky that I got at least one photo. Let's see what happens next weekend.

The Pumpkin Patch

It's been two weeks since Max's surgery, and it's taken him some time to get back to his old self. For the past week, Max has been running a fever, so that's been a bummer for him. We went back to the dr, and they think it's not connected with this surgery, but rather a virus independent from his operation. But for the last two days, he's been fever free and acting quite normal again. Phew!!

Some pictures from the hospital

Before the operation. We had to wait a while as the surgery before us took longer.

The last time he can suck his fingers for a while...

After the operation - poor little dude....

Napping in the hospital. I don't even know what day this was. They all started to blend...

Hugging his new favorite stuffed animal, Papa New Guinea.

Recovering

It's funny to read the last post because we didn't end up leaving the hospital until Fri morning. 3 catheters later, Max finally was able to get his system working again and the drs finally felt fine about releasing us. I am so glad to have the hospital behind us. Even though it's a great place for when your child is sick, it's never fun to have to spend an extended time there.

Max, Carolyn and I had a good weekend. We took lots of walks, ran some errands, and basically took it easy. We did manage to go to a pumpkin patch, which was a lot of fun. Max did great, and continues to love little adventures. We managed his pain through ibuprofen and Tylenol, and he was content and mellow most of the time. Last night, he did have a fever, but he was fever free today, and even had some of his mischievous side back tonight. Let's see how tonight goes.

Carolyn left early this morning, and once again, I don't know what I would have done without her. She made sure to free up everything I had to worry about, so that 100% of my energy could go toward Max. "Hey Car, do you know where my wallet is?" "Why, yes, Jess, it's ..." "Hey Car, did you pack the ...?" "Yes, Jess, I got it!!" She was amazing, and words cannot express how thankful I am to have had her here for so long! Now, it's onward with recovery.