Back from the edge of the earth

Don't you hate it when you get used to reading someone's blog and then they fall off the face of the earth and never update it? Yeah, me too. People who do that suck. Oh wait, we're talking about me, right?

All is well in the Toser/Tater household. We made it to and from SC in one piece, with most of the headache I got coming from Toser. We haven't travelled much in his recent memory so he was very homesick. Plus he's a major daddy's boy and was a little miserable on that front. Otherwise, he had a lot of fun playing with 'Pencer. Uncle Cracker took the older boys to a baseball game, Leeda and I took all 4 boys to the zoo, and we swam, hung out and had tons of fun. It was really good to see them on their home front and see some of Leeda's friends who are like family (I actually had 4 sisters to pass muster with when I met Mr. Awesome: Kajja, Leeda and Leeda's 2 best friends KT and Shannon). AND I proved to myself that I can handle travelling with the boys. So we've got 3 more months to go before the isolation from cold and flu season begins. I think we'll go see Aunt Manny in South Alabama next. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANNY!!!)

But first there's a triathlon in August that I'm doing the bike portion of. CC, JMcGee (forthwith Ringmaster) and I are going to go for the gold in the over-30 team bracket. (Yes, CC and Ringmaster, I just publicly called you out so you have no choice but to get your bottoms in gear and train!) Leeda, Uncle Cracker, the boys and Kajja are all coming in to town to do the triathlon so we'll have fun gorging on carbs and doing triathlon things. woohoo.

Tater is doing great. The kid has 5 teeth coming in at once and was miserable last week. 2 of the teeth are molars so he's having a rough time with it. And the thing is, while I feel bad for him, I'm so happy this is something normal! In fact, I didn't really start giving him Motrin and Tylenol until I noticed the molars because I figured teeth were no big deal to him. Poor kid. Don't worry, we're keeping him doped up now. But the big thing is Tater is kind of moving around. He'll sit in the floor and turn himself around by using his legs like scissors. And he can scoot forward too. This is huge for him. We did get a gait trainer and hopefully he'll get the urge to start going. We've got to figure out the whole transporting of the vent thing but we'll come up with something.

Oh, and we got Toser's hair cut. We'll call it his summer cut since I know we'll let it grow out again. I'm sure I'm leaving something big out but I'll try to be better about the updating. Y'all take care!

crazy much?

The last 2 weeks have been busy and quiet at the same time. The pool opened and I try to take Toser for an hour or so every day. He loves being around the other kids and playing in the baby pool. And I know I say this all the time but that kid is so sweet I can't stand it. I told him he's a sweet boy and he said, "because I keep Tater safe." What 3 year-old thinks about keeping his brother safe?! I love it and hate it at the same time. On the one hand it means he loves his brother and wants the best for him and on the other it means he understands that Tater needs special care. Of course he understands that because of how our lives tend to revolve around Tater but a 3 year-old should not be thinking like that. He should only think about toys and playing but he has to think about not stepping on Tater's vent tubing or what the different alarms mean. So I make sure he has Toser play time every day where he can be a kid and not the brother of a kid on a vent.

Tater had the usual therapies where he wouldn't do a darn thing and then we would get home or the therapist would leave and he would do something they were trying to get him to do. Typical. We seriously think his problem is that he's too smart and knows that we'll eventually do for him the thing he needs to do for himself. Like eating. First of all, the kid never had a chance to get hungry because of being fed through the g-tube and second, he KNOWS we'll feed him through the g-tube so why should he swallow that icky baby food, yogurt or whatever we put in his mouth. Vicious cycle. And it's like that with everything else. We're working on getting him a gait trainer which will hopefully give him the urge to move on his own. He's getting to be a very big boy-he weighs 25 pounds and his vent weighs 15 with the battery so we're carrying 40 pounds of chunk and equipment any time we move him around. That's not counting the go-bag and suction that goes with him everywhere. Instead of making large arm muscles it's all causing us to have very bad backs!

And to add crazy to crazy, I'm loading the boys up next Saturday and we're hitting the road to South Carolina to see Leeda, Uncle Cracker, Pencer and RockStar (Mr. Awesome has to work so he's very jealous). My plan is to just take it slow and expect a normally 6 hour drive to take 8 or more. I really think I'll make more stops for Toser than Tater, who hardly needs suctioning right now. We haven't been to SC in 2.5 years and I really want to do this. If for no other reason than to prove that this vent thing isn't going to hold us back too much. Tater's doctors are all about us going about our lives so we're going to get on with the living. At least until this fall when we have to enter a health bubble again.

A few pics from the last month or so:

(more at http://picasaweb.google.com/tosertater/MayToJune2008)

Hey Y'all

I'm back. We got in Monday night and while it was a great trip, I love being home. Had a ton o' fun sitting by the pool, playing Yahtzee and drinking really yummy frozen drinks. Danica and I went with my mom and dad and 6 of their friends. We were worried about being the "young" ones and how everyone might be offended by us wanting to drink adult beverages. Well, ha! The joke was on us. We're total lightweights. Cannot even begin to hang with those people. They were so much fun and apparently need no sleep after a night of margaritas and dancing.

We stayed at a smaller house in the same villa complex that Manny and Hunter got married in 2 years ago. It was just the 10 of us in our group at the house and it was perfect. We had great food (so fresh-you would not believe the pineapples!) and enjoyed not having a true schedule. We only did what we wanted to and didn't do the stuff we didn't want to. (It was nice living the life Toser lives every day.) The one thing we really wanted to do and did was the canopy tour where you put on a harness and connect yourself to various zip lines and zip from tree to tree going up to 25 miles/hour at times. And when we were done zipping we went on a 3 hour tour (a 3 hour tour) in rafts on the Tempisque River. They billed it as a floating trip but it was more of a let's kill ourselves rowing in a river that isn't flowing much trip. We had fun but man we were tired and I got roasted by the sun. My delicate little skin cannot handle that much adventure in the Costa Rican sun. Of course I only got roasted on the top of my right arm and on the inside of my left leg. I wanted to get some sun while we were there but I wanted a more even color scheme, not the patchwork I'm sporting right now.

Oh well, we're back to the real world now. I missed the boys and I think they missed me. I know I missed my 6th year anniversary of being married to Mr. Awesome. But that's how awesome he is. He didn't bat an eye when we realized I would be gone on June 1st. He's such a great husband, a wonderful dad and my bestest friend in the whole world. He puts up with me so we know he's a saint. I love you Mr. Awesome!