Baby Genius - Carson at 28 months

It's been a while since I have written a progress report about Carson, so I thought I would give you guys an update:
- He can count to 50. Yes, 5-0. Not too shabby for two years old.
- He can count BACKWARDS from 20 to zero unassisted. We think he may be a numeric savant ;)
- He knows all of his letter and shapes (even the "gons" - pentagon, hexagon, decagon).
- He knows every single musical instrument and can identify which family they are in(i.e. timpani is in the percussion section). I am not making this up. I didn't know what a timpani was. Thank you, Baby Einstein! He knows tuba, flute, cello, xylophone, harp, viola, bass, bassoon, etc. It blows us away!
- He finally started pointing two months ago. I know this may seem strange - but the mind of a child with autism is complicated. He can count backwards but isn't pointing at 24 months?! Interesting! But now he is pointing and can recognize each family member by name.
- He knows all of his colors.
- He has all of his teeth including all of his molars (yippee!).
- He is still on a crazy limited diet - no progress on the GI front at all :(
- He knows most of his body parts (his favorites are his "bee-butt" aka belly button and his beloved "tee-tee").
- He loves to point to each food on his tray and "teach us" what he is eating.
- He knows all of the upper case alphabet and quite a few lower case letters too.
- He remembers EVERYTHING you tell him. You show him something once, and he knows it for life. This makes teaching him so fun and it is incredibly rewarding.
- He loves to dance and bounces up and down and grins for your acceptance when he jams.
- He is ALL boy! His favorite activities are throwing iPhones in the toilet, dumping bags of chips everywhere and pouring entire boxes of cereal in our clean sheets. Super fun.

Most importantly he is stealing our hearts more and more everyday. We may have intense struggles in the medical department, but I wouldn't want any other kiddo on the planet. He rocks my world and he is worth the fight. Carson, you make my life better!

Priceless Treasure

My mother-in-law has many creative talents. There isn't anything she CAN'T do - she can make, paint, sew or bling pretty much anything. She knitted blankets for both of my children (and both sleep with them every night still).
Deb, aka "DeDe" made quilts for all of Andrea's boys, so I've been hounding her to make one for Alex. She has always promised to do it and I knew she would, but understandably, I've been anxious to see the finished product.
The day finally arrived and she exceeded all expectations. The quilt is perfection. There is so much love, color and girl exploding from this quilt. You can look at it and tell that it was made with TLC for the one and only girl in this family. I love it soooo much there aren't words!
--
DeDe,
Thank you so much for taking the time, making the incredible effort, and the huge financial investment to create a treasure our family will always cherish. It looks absolutely perfect in her room! I've been dreaming of this quilt for years, and man was it worth the wait! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know Alex will love it and treasure it as much as I do.
Sooo...are you ready for quilt #5?
Love you,
Mel
---
Before I show the photos, I'd like to explain a few of the special qualities about it:
1. She used a diamond pattern throughout the quilt. This is very special to our family of four because: my wedding ring and necklace Nathan gave me during Alex's birth are both "diamond" shaped stones. The diamond has 4 points - each point represents one of our four family members.
2. She used black in the trim and in the stitching. I love this! Alex's bedroom furniture is black and using black in the quilt gives it a more mature look. It is still all girl but I love that it has the black - it's one of my favorite things about it.
3. She used butterflies. Butterflies have been Alex's theme even while in the womb. Her nursery had a butterfly theme - and she still has butterflies floating above her bed. To me, butterflies signify beauty, grace, growth and change. I know that my little girl isn't always going to be at home in "my nest" but I know while she is with us, we will do everything we can to give her the wings to fly on her own. I know - sooo cheesy, but that is what it means to me. I am the mother of a daughter, so I reserve the right to be cheesy on occasion...and this occasion is worthy of a little cheese. She is our beautiful butterfly.
4. The use of color - I love bright color! The colors tie in beautifully with the table and chairs and trunk that DeDe already painted for Alex.
Everyone needs a DeDe that is this incredible, but I thank God everyday she is ours!

Drumroll, please...here it is!

The entire quilt on Alex's bed

A close up of the diamonds and butterflies

The corners are adorable - hot pink, polka dotted flowers

The final result = a happy princess!

Awesome pattern on the back of the quilt

And finally, a signature - "With love from DeDe" 2010

NOOOOO!

This isn't real. This isn't happening. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We hadn't even been home from the hospital for 24 hours and Carson busted his chin open in the bath tub!!!!

I felt so bad for our precious babysitter, Gabby. I left for literally an hour to get groceries. Of course we were out of everything after being gone for a week, then going straight to the hospital. I had our sitter come over to watch the kids so I could get food and while I was out I got a phone call saying, "Mel, it's Carson. He busted his chin open in the tub. I mean, it's really bad. You need to get home now." NOOO :( I can tell you that at this point, I just started bawling. I knew in my heart I was coming home to a child that needed stitches. NOOO! No!

Sure enough, I came in and saw this:

It was a very bad gash. I ached in a way I can't describe for my son. He had been to the ER twice and stayed in the hospital just in the past week...and now THIS?! You have got to be kidding me. I was beyond a mess.

Fortunately, God is good and gave me the clarity to remember that there was a pediatric ER in Flower Mound. It was at night and after office hours, so I was calling urgent care facilities. After I heard from Care Now, "We have a 2 hour wait and we will have to hold him down to give him stitches," I was begging for a miracle. When I called Acute Care for Kids, I was trying to keep it together on the phone and the sweet nurse was so wonderful. She told me they could take care of him immediately and if we came now, we wouldn't have to wait. SOLD!

Acute Care for Kids was a gift! The doctors and nurses were incredible! They gave me a huge hug when I arrived (of course they knew we were coming off of a hospital stay as well) and instead of stitches they were able to administer Derma-Bond. WOW! There was never a thought of anything in my mind other than stitches and misery. Although it was still awful and he was a total wreck, the Derma-Bond took 2 minutes and that was that! I still can't believe he was able to walk away without stitches. Whew.

A big shout out to Kristi DeWall for meeting us at the clinic and taking Alex while we were there. We clearly need a village. Lord help us!
If you do the math that is one ER stop in Arkansas, one ER in Plano - then admitted for 38 hours in the hospital, home for 24 hours, and back to the pediatric ER...all in one week. Too much for any family, I think! They say things happen in groups of three. If that's the case, we should be done with medical facilities for the year. Good grief!

Rough Start to A New Year

I proclaimed 2011 is going to be a great year, and I still believe it will be, but man are we off to a rough start.
As soon as we got back from the cabin, I knew we needed to get Carson to the pediatrician ASAP. He had been vomiting for 5 days, had absolutely no appetite and was sleeping for hours on end. None of us have ever seen Carson act so lethargic and I have to admit, we were all very concerned for our little guy.
I got up and took Carson to the doc the very next morning. Our doc agreed that he was incredibly weak and get this....he lost 5 pounds?! Wow! Considering he's only 27lbs, that is way too much weight to lose and given the limited diet, we have a difficult time as is keeping his weight up. We felt okay because he ate a huge breakfast and seemed to perk up a bit, but the doc said if he made any digression at all, to take him to ER immediately. I remember this kept echoing in my head, "Carson is tougher than the average child. He doesn't tell us when he is in pain. To see him this lethargic makes me believe he is much sicker than we may even realize." And I am sad to report, this was absolutely correct.

I took him home from the doc and he started to tank again. He was refusing all food and kept throwing himself down on the ground and was just laying there. It was so pitiful. I went to the restroom and when I came back and found him like this, I knew it was time to go to the ER:

How sad and scary is that? He is wide awake just laying there staring at the ground. He didn't even have his paci. Umm, it was a no-brainer at this point that he needed help and quickly!

Once we arrived at the Emergency Room and met with the doctors, I assumed we would get Carson an IV, hydrate him and head out. Unfortunately, that was not the case. They did give Carson an IV to help rehydrate him but his electrolyte levels came back very abnormal. They said he was experiencing hyponatremia and hyperkalemia. He had a very high level of potassium in the body and a very low level of sodium in the body. They admitted him to the hospital for the night so they could evaluate and test his levels to make sure he was starting to regain balance. They were concerned with his heart rate, liver function and wanted to keep an eye on breathing. Lovely. Scared mommy, scared daddy, sacred every body. We were a bit surprised he was so sick - but again, the pediatrician nailed it - he doesn't indicate when he is distressed.

Here is a pic of Daddy and Carson in the ER before he was admitted:

When we arrived to our room, I immediately realized we were in the exact same room during Alex's tonsillectomy nightmare. You can imagine the deja-vu. Crazy! As usual, Carson was a trooper, but of course he was scared and disoriented. He hated the IV and wanted to walk and move around and he was unable to do anything. Mommy and Carson had a very rough night - nurses and doctors came in every five minutes (it felt like it anyways) to check vitals, turn off the machines, etc. Here is what I saw that night:

There was my precious baby - in a hospital crib. There isn't anything more heartbreaking as a parent to see your baby connected to all kinds of tubes and stuck in a metal crib. Boo! Mommy was a little fragile. Daddy was amazing and tried to keep us together and strong. He is always our rock. The next morning was Mommy's (me) personal low. I was still sick and trying to recover and was alone and exhausted from a terrible night. The doc came in at 6:45 and told me his levels were still pretty bad and until his tests looked good AND he was eating, we weren't going anywhere.

Daddy showed up as soon as he dropped Alex off at school, and that was heaven for me. I needed a breather. I actually slept for an hour with doctors coming in and out. Nathan said it didn't seem to phase me. HA!

We started to see some progress -he started drinking on his own around noon. Thank goodness! How sweet is this little man?

Finally around 7:00pm, his levels bounced back to almost normal and he was drinking and eating a little bit. The doctors felt ready to release him. Praise the Lord! Here is a picture of us soooo happy to finally get to go home:

Thank you to our village for your thoughts and prayers during a very scary time. A special thank you to Monica for coming to pray with me at the hospital and a big thank you to my mom, YaYa for helping so much with keeping Alex calm and okay during the entire experience. I know she was a worried big sister. Okay...no more drama, please! Oh and when we walked into the house, Carson said, "We home!" Melted our hearts.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011! I can't believe another year has gone by. It's amazing how the speed of time can differ so much depending on your stage of life. As a child, you are excited to grow a year older, beg for graduation and think an hour feels like a month. As a young adult, you have more time than you realize and absolutely don't appreciate it. Okay, I am really referring to adults without children. As a parent, you can experience the loooongest days of your life and cherish every moment of it at the same time - even aching to hold on to the precious moments because you know time is moving way too fast. I am a hoarder of precious moments, if you will. We are in such a magical stage of our life. This year is going to be an awesome year, I can tell. Alex is turning six and finishing her first year of elementary school, we are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary and Carson will turn three in September. We have set the bar high and have some huge plans. We are hoping to sell our home (we are still in our first house) and I am praying and hoping to see some amazing things happen with our baby boy- hoping for answers and healing. I am believing great things will happen for my parents, too!

I am all over the place in this post, but I wanted to stop and appreciate this moment in time. In a society where divorce is common, faith is lacking and "family" is undervalued, I am so so incredibly thankful for my life. I am so thankful to be married to a husband that treasures time with me, believes in me and keeps me young at heart. I am so thankful that we have chosen "forever" as our married status :) I've never laughed more with anyone else.

I am so thankful for my two beautiful children - they give me so much purpose and passion. I have the best family in the world. I have an amazing "village" with two sets of grandparents that are involved in our children's lives. I am truly, truly blessed.

I look forward to another year in the Darby nuthouse. I know one thing is for sure...we NEVER have a dull moment around here and I wouldn't want it any other way!

May 2011 be full of fun, passion, accomplishments, joy and love to you and yours!

Christmas Part 2 and New Years at the Cabin

Over Thanksgiving, we did a great job capturing beautiful family photos. This time we decided to give each other a huge break and just stay in expandable pants and Woot t-shirts for the entire week (I am sooo not kidding). It was heaven! After the go-go-go of the holidays it was wonderful to get away from all the "noise" at home and escape to one of our favorite places on Earth....the Darby Cabin!

Everything was going well on our drive to the cabin until we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. We were about six hours in and Carson started fussing in the car. We thought it was from being trapped in a car seat for hours. He is such a trooper and rarely cries. When I picked him up from his car seat, I immediately noticed his left ear was "oozing." Carson has tubes from his recurring ear infections as an infant, so we have dealt with our share of ear infections...and still, we had never seen this before. I got worried and called our pediatrician. Of course it was a holiday weekend at 5:20pm so I had to leave a message on the nurse's line. They called me back and said we needed to take him to a pediatric urgent care facility to verify if he indeed had an ear infection. Ear infections require an antibiotic so we quickly starting researching to find a facility in the area. The "area" was Boondocks, Arkansas, by the way...fun! We realized nothing was open except the Children's hospital in Little Rock, but they couldn't see Carson for two more hours. After calling Deb and discussing our options, we decided to drive to Stuttgart (about 20 minutes from the cabin) to take Carson to the Emergency Room. Pops was amazing and met us there and took Alex home so she didn't have to stay with us. That was a blessing in more ways than one. Without getting too graphic, let's just say that we saw waaaay too much blood and some very scary people there. Fortunately, the doc was great and Carson was in an amazing mood. He was running around saying, "Hiieee! Howauuu?" to each and every person he could find. The doc said that he had a severe ear infection and would need antibiotics, as we expected. He was amazed at Carson's temperament...like we said, the kiddo is used to pain. This didn't seem to phase him. We got our prescription and we were on our way! No more drama, s'il vous plait!


I (Mommy) had a nasty cold too, so we weren't in tip-top shape, but we didn't let sickness get in the way from an awesome week of presents, family, food and fun! As always the kids were in heaven together. Alex had the best time with her cousins. Carson kept getting sicker and sicker so you will see many pictures of him sitting in laps (he pretty much sat on laps for 5 days straight). I was thankful for many willing hands! The girls had a great time cooking, knitting and catching up. The Dad's went out hunting each and every morning...the agenda was to rest, play and enjoy the family. We did just that!


We have 60 pictures that tell the story much better than I do, so here they are:

Lots of lovin' to go around... a sweet DeDe and Pops moment

Brandon and Andrea didn't shy away from the love either

There was more good food than anyone could handle...

The sisters bonded in the kitchen more than anywhere else - especially sharing Gluten Free cooking tips

The Gluten Free pizzas were a hit
(the regular pizzas caught on fire...oh how I wish I had a photo!)

Aunt Missy and Caden bonded over toffee, once again
(Caden was allowed to stay up extra late to assist)

We all got a bit nutty from time to time... presents would certainly do the trick!

Caden's new iPod shuffle was a huge hit

Dru was amazed with his Lego projects and Transformers

Alex had no idea her life was about to change...

A KARAOKE machine...NO WAY?!

Alex was given a special gift from her cousins - silk pajamas from China. She thought she was Mulan!

Alex couldn't contain her excitement...she was hysterical!

Alex's favorite of the evening - A "Barbie Be-Bridal" set. The boys couldn't understand how she was so excited over a Barbie doll and she didn't get what was so great about a Transformer. Mars vs. Venus, I suppose.

Andrea was given a very special gift - a magazine featuring our DADDY on the cover - and she was the recognized photographer. Pretty amazing!

The kids loved doing crafts

Uncle N8 wins the best uncle award - he played with the bridal set with the kids (maybe the boys see why Barbie is cool now?! Umm...probably not!)

Master fort builders

The kids spent every moment outside they could

Such a precious Daddy-Daughter moment

Uncle N8 and Dru had a blast with the Legos...you should see what all they build together

Aunt Onnie spoiled my kids with a puppy tent - a HUGE hit!

Eston & Alex, our "twins" - they love each other so much

Sassy as always

Aunt Missy (me) enjoyed a personal highlight of the week - taking Alex, Eston and Dru on a big walk! Great pics too...kids being kids

Eston attempted to keep Alex on track (ha - good luck with that)

Alex points to a new discovery just around the way

The kids enjoyed a rock skipping contest

This may be my favorite picture of the bunch - I love Skeeter (Darby's lab) in the background fetching a stick. Sweet innocence and love here.

So much for sweet and innocent...ha!

Dru tried to carry the crew

But in the end, ladies win :)

Tublin' down the hill...having so much fun

I know they never wanted this day to be done

Of course I had to capture a Kodak moment - how sweet are these kiddos?

Once again, Dru leads the crew uphill

These tired kiddos were sooo happy to find Mrs. Scruffy along the path. They finally had a reason to stop and relax.

Aunt Onnie stayed behind with a very weak Carson :(

You can see the progression - he is getting worse

Thank goodness for technology - um yes, he has an old iPhone (it's OLD, no judging - it keeps him happy!)

Even sissy tried to cheer him up, to no avail

Uncle B held the key - a fancy iPad saved the day

Mommy tried to cheer him up - she wasn't feeling so great herself

Daddy sure hit the spot!

I love watching my sweet boys snuggle

A sweet overhead shot of my favorite boys - massive amounts of cuddle time

Our little sickie started vomiting and sleeping around the clock - we finally realized he was given way too much antibiotic - OH NO!

DeDe's always have the magic touch. Carson is feeling rotten but still has a smile!

One day Carson literally stayed in her lap for 5 hours straight! She didn't like that one bit ;)

Even on New Year's Eve, Carson tried to party with the gang...pretty pitiful

The last hunt was the best one of all...check out all of those ducks

Brothers had awesome bonding time together

Pops couldn't have been happier anywhere on Earth

Finally, it's New Year's Eve - a super fun night ahead

Our NYE dinner tradition - fondue! It was divine!

We wrapped up the week with a Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. It was a blast. Brandon wanted to lose so badly because they had one morning left to hunt. He just wanted to go to bed. The harder he tried to lose, the more he won. He was declared the Hold 'Em Champ!

A final wrap on 2010 - a wonderful year that I wish we could do all over again!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!