Milwaukee Monday

ANOTHER Milwaukee Monday! You may remember a post a while back about having a Tuesday appointment and I was all thrown off.... whew, we're back to Milwaukee Monday's.

Brode was scheduled for his 1 year check up with his craniofacial surgeon and it fell at the same time as the 1 month post-op check for his eyes. LOVE when that happens!

We were to report to radiology by 9:00AM, that craniofacial clinic by 11:00AM, and the eye clinic at 12:45PM. LONG day.

Brode did GREAT! First off at 9:00 he had a CT scan to re-check the alignment and holes/bone growth in his skull. There are 2 options with a CT scan - not moving (5 minutes), or being sedated (1 hour - 1.5 hours and a whole lot of frustration with an IV). Well good thing we brought Grandpa because Brode sat perfectly still and we were able to get in and out of the scan with no moving. Beforehand we talked about taking pictures, showed him pictures of the "big donut" (scanner), and told him it wouldn't hurt at all. He was a bit hesitant but after a few minutes of talking and looking around and practicing he let them strap him down, hold Grandpa's hand and they scanned him quickly. We were all so proud of him and extremely thankful we didn't need to do the sedation.

At his 11:00 appointment we were able to look at the scans right away and discuss with his doctor. Everything is looking great for a year. He has a few holes, but nothing alarming. His eye has dropped off and his nose is sideways, both things that they can fix in the future, but nothing we're looking into. It would be too much pain for the small outcome. We will just keep them in mind for future if he struggles with his looks.

Lastly, after a long wait and exploring adventure, we had the eye re-check after surgery. The tracking looks great from the surgery and his vision hasn't changed. We're down to patching for 1 hour a day to work down to none and getting rid of the patches as they do not think the vision will change any more than it has.

The best news of the day, we go back to the eye doctor in 6 months and the craniofacial clinic in 1 year. Those are great stretches of time as we were doing at about every 3 months or less lately.

As if the day wasn't long enough, we made an afternoon trip to the Milwaukee Zoo!

 All of the animals were pretty active except this guy.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming has been one of my main frustrations for a few months now. I want Brode to have fun in the water, while also feeling confident and safe.

Brode began swimming lessons around 6 months in a parent child class. After a few sessions of that and a bit of a break he moved up to the "shrimp" class for 3 and 4 year old. During his second go around in shrimp he had a mishap where he ended up too deep (my heart rate goes up picturing it again).

My goal with swimming has always been safety. The neighbors have a pool, we're always my grandparents cottage, and we've seen first hand in the PICU what a near drowning can do. My biggest fear is anything ever happening to him and I don't want him afraid of the water when it is always around.

We tried moving up to the next level (and multiple new pools) but it proved he was too nervous after his incident. He fell behind the other kids and feared putting his face in the water. There was no way he would pass without going under or putting his face in the water, and the teachers didn't want to re-teach him in that level.

Backwards we went back into shrimp. He got nowhere and it wasn't a challenge as they don't stress going under in that level. He was incredibly stuck so we decided to take a break.

Break lasted all of 3 weeks and with conflicting words from different teachers we decided to put Brode into private lessons.

Tuesday night was his first of nine private lessons. By far our best move and he did AWESOME! He took right to Miss Amy and they had a lot of fun. Without the time waiting between kids they were able to cover a lot of different skills and spend more time on them. Our main goals aren't perfect swimming, they are to be confident in the water alone without clinging to me or the teacher, as well as learn to go under. If we can get through private lessons getting those skills he would be able to pass through the next levels with the other kids.

He wasn't happy about going, but he laughed through the whole lesson and was incredibly proud of himself! Progress!

Catch Up #3 - Day Out With Thomas

After our Fun Run we headed home to cool down before we headed to:

Day Out With Thomas

Thomas was in town at the National Railroad Museum and we knew we needed to take Brode. My parents, Dane, Brode and I headed out for the 2:30 train ride. Little boy was excited:

It rained on our drive up there and right when we got there so we looked around in the museum a bit before getting ready for our ride.

We got a bit of kettlecorn to wait in line. Brode's eyes were ready to close, but Thomas' whistle kept him awake.

We were on the open air car right behind Thomas. Brode wore his shirt, lanyard, hat, and blew his whistle.

He said his favorite part of the day was when he blew his train whistle Thomas would answer.

We got a 25 minute ride around the outside of the museum.

After our ride we walked through a few more trains. Brode wanted nothing to do with the passenger train so my mom, Dane and I went through. When we got off we heard Brode's high-pitched headache train whistle, but we couldn't see him. The boys found a sneaky place to hide and watch us:

We climbed the lookout tower to see the river, Lambeau Field, and watched Thomas come around the track.

Lastly we did a few of the children's activities including the hay maze and the bounce houses.

Brode picked a little Thomas lantern from the gift shop and we took the exhausted boy for some food and rest. We stopped at Curly's Pub in Lambeau Field for dinner (oh the agony, have I mentioned we're Cowboy fans?), then headed home. Brode fell asleep half way home at 6:30 and didn't wake up until 7:00AM the next morning refreshed.

Our Father's Day was spent celebrating. We started the morning giving Grandpa his presents, then having a peaceful outdoor lunch with Dane's family. Grandma Beth picked Brode up so they could work on a little project and celebrate Father's Day with Matt while we headed up to the cottage to celebrate with my mom's family. We swam (in the 80 degree water!), ate, and laughed.

After a good long bubble bath Brode went right to bed and we were all exhausted.

Talk about a busy 2 weekends, and there is no slowing down. The weekends ahead are just as crazy before we head out for Florida for the 4th of July!

Catch Up #2 - Little Laughs

We have been so busy already this summer, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Originally we didn't have anything planned and now we're making plans for the end of July as they are our only open weekends. It has made the summer very fun and enjoyable!

Last Saturday the 9th we had a day full of Streetball downtown, a bridal shower, a cookout and ClaytonFest. It was a hot day but we saw a lot of people and had a lot of fun. The best part was finishing off the day with fireworks before putting Brode to bed.

The next morning we were up bright and early for Breakfast On The Farm. After a big breafkast of eggs, ham, cheese, hashbrowns, cinnamon rolls, milk and ice cream we walked around the farm:

Brode loved the cow barns. One barn we were forced to look at the backsides of the cows so Brode liked this one more. These cows were eyeing him up!

We walked around and looked at the tractors. This was Brode's favorite as it had "Bucky" on the front.

Lastly we did the bounce toys. Brode loves the bounce houses, but it was very hot from the sun and the bottom was blowing in the wind so he got nervous once he got to the top. Slowly but surely he made his way down.

After a hot day in the sun we came home to get out Brode's new toy:

The Banzai Sidewinder Falls

Brode got this waterpark as a present from Grandma and Grandpa for being brave through surgery and following up by wearing his eye patch every day. We were waiting to give it to him, but 90 degree days couldn't hold us back.

It was easy to set up, but Brode had a hard time waiting for the freezing cold hose water to fill up the pool on the bottom.

The first few times down he didn't like getting sprayed, but it wasn't long until he was screaming "I LOVE IT!"

(Libby loved it too!)

Yes, the weight limit is more than my weight so I tried it. It is AWESOME. Perfect toy for a hot day. We put our towels out at the bottom with the radio and some lemonade and had a fun afternoon.

So outside of the waterpark what have we been doing? Well after a weekend of basketball, parks, fireworks, dancing, breakfast on the farm, waterparks, and mini golf it was going to be hard to top...

.... but I'm pretty sure we topped it this past weekend. Friday after day care we played outside before heading to Madagascar 3! Brode has been SO excited to go and it was a great night to cool down and relax at the movie. He ate a ton of popcorn and laughed hysterically.

(Horrible picture with my phone)

After getting home from the movie we patiently waited for the sun set to play with glow toys. We had glow sticks, a glow sand ball, and glow bubbles to play with in the yard amongst the billions of fireflys. Brode laughed harder and jumped higher than I have seen him do in a while. He LOVED the glow sticks. We ran around the yard until we couldn't handle any more mosquitos.

Even after a late night of playing Brode was up and ready for our fun run on Sunday morning. I did the Mom's Run for women's health (and took 2nd, killing my time) and Brode ran the Sprinkle Sprint (1/4 mile fun run). He cheered for me loudly and sprinted and laughed his entire race.

(another bad picture with the phone)

We got goodie bags and shirts, Brode got bubbles at the finish line, and we ended up winning a kite and a big s'mores kit in the prize drawing.

It was a fun morning, but the day wasn't close to over. Look for Catch Up #3 tomorrow to see the rest of our weekend.

Catch Up #1 - Eyes

I haven't had to do a whole seris of posts to catch-up yet, until now. There are too many pictures and fun activities to put into one post.

After dividing them up I've got 3 full posts of activities that are finished and scheduled to go out each day this week - check back to see all of our fun activities.

First update, Brode's eyes. He has been doing great! We're already 4 weeks post-op. It doesn't seem like it could be that long ago, but on the same note it doesn't seem like he hever had the surgery. He did great!

He spent 10 days off of day care between holidays, weekends, and a vacation week recovering with me at home.

Here you can see the redness that was in his eyes the week of surgery, but it only took a week for the redness to get drastically better. He still has a bit on the inside of the right eye, but that was expected.

We've got an appointment on the 25th to get them re-checked and see how much of a difference the surgery actually made. Hoping for all good news.

After surgery Brode was spoiled with presents! He got cards and presents galore for being so brave and tough.

Dane's parents were in Florida the week Brode had surgery and somehow got this giant Disney bag/present into their luggage on the way home for the little guy.

He loves his "Pirates of the Caribbean" Mickey pirate set. Whenever we play Brode gets everything while we get the little rowboat and Minnie Mouse.

Brode also got an autographed picture of Ovechkin from Dane after surgery. For those of you that know Brode know how much he loves Ovechkin! He has his picture displayed in his sports room.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Catch Up #2 to see what other very LARGE post-surgery present Brode received.

iPhone Photos

A few photos from my phone to drop.

I had a little mishap with my phone camera and it just got replaced (for free, thank you Apple!). It is now clearer than ever and easy to snap photos anywhere again!

Letters: I got Brode upper and lowercase dry erase sheets with markers and an eraser a few weeks ago. He loves to draw on our dry erase board at home, mainly because he loves the eraser so this is great. He writes, erases, writes, erases, etc.

Window Washing: Who knew the kid loved to wash windows? My mom mentioned she needed to wash them and he followed her around "please please grandma can we wash the window?" She gave him a spray bottle and towel and he went to town. Wasn't long and he was scraping away at all the big windows.

We now know how to keep him busy!

Another little fun one - after all Brode's window washing hard work we had to have mini root beer floats. Delicious.

Lastly, the Big Bed: Brode got this bed for Christmas from my parents. We set it up as the twin bed for the last 6 months before extending it to the low loft. We (ok I) were getting anxious so get it up so Grandpa said once Brode's eyes are all healed up we could set up his big bed now that he is a bit bigger and can do the ladder and slide safely without being TOO big.

 He loves it and did great his first night in it last night!