Friday, April 13, 2007

Happy Birthday Monkey Boy

Happiest Birthday to our sweet boy who thinks everything is a jungle gym (including his Mommy), loves bananas, and is a big fan of the Wiggles and peek-a-boo.

SIDENOTE: He also love Play Dough - big problem with Play Dough and 2-year olds, they put it up their nose! Worth had to hold Gray down while I took the tweezers to his nostril last weekend. NOT good birthday fun. We love you darling boy.

Click picture for Easter pics.
Easter was great! Pop-Pop (Lee) and Me-Maw (Rose) came to visit and the kids had a blast. We hadn’t been able to visit in a while so in two days we covered Christmas, Easter, Shane’s birthday and Gray’s birthday. The Sparkman’s know how to pack-it in! We are all about the quality!

We attended an Easter egg hunt on Gray’s birthday. We were very late because of naps but the people took pity on us and gave us a candy bonanza. They gave Rose two BAGS of candy and she made sure they got it all. That night we had a mini-party and a Cookie Monster cake. Easter morning the giant bunny stopped at our place and the kids hunted eggs in the freezing sunshine – the hunt was short. Needless to say, by Sunday night they were worn out and full of sugar!

Click picture to see party pics.
Then on Monday, Worth and I took Elmo cupcakes to Gray’s school. Shane goes to the same school and since I made 35 Elmo cupcakes and there were only 9 kids in Gray’s class, Shane’s class got some too. I am quite sure the school hates me now considering how much food coloring it took to get the frosting red. Let me just say, between blue Cookie Monster cake and red Elmo cupcakes Gray has had some colorful diapers – I know, thanks for sharing – right?

On Tuesday we returned to Arkansas Children’s Hospital to get Gray’s swallow study done. The speech pathologist gave him an F-. She said in her 15 years there he was the worst she had seen. What that means for Gray is that every liquid he swallows, he aspirates. So when he swallows a lot of the liquid goes into his lungs - they were shocked he has never had pneumonia. This is probably what causes all his rasping and hopefully he doesn’t have asthma. The bad side is he MIGHT have minor lung damage and he can’t drink any liquids, all his drinks have to be thickened. This first meal after the hospital, we put a thickener in and he took a drink, scrunched up his little face and said “Donlike it” and spit it out. We are learning a lot and becoming inventive on how to thicken the liquids. The first days he has been drinking much but it is getting better. We will return to Children’s soon for an MRI to check to see what can be done to help him. Hopefully, he will outgrow this by the time he is 8. It wasn’t good news at all, but being at Children’s makes you realize how lucky you are and things could be MUCH worse. Gray’s condition is worrisome but not life threaten and treatable.

I also want to say how great Arkansas Children’s Hospital is. They are WAY understaffed and are in WAY too small a space, but everyone there is great to work with.

Another busy weekend ahead with a visit from Grandma and a birthday party for Shane to attend. Maybe we will even venture to (dare I say it) Chuck E. Cheese's for small party for Gray.

4 comments:

typingelbow said...

Gray has been inhaling his Juicy Juice?! Oh, man, that is awful. What causes something like that? Can he at least drink a Wendy's frosty? Good luck finding some other thick drinks, hon. Oof.

Texas Trail Mix said...

Frosty...now there's a good idea actually! You could mix him up smoothies and things like that! That EB is BRILLIANT!

Darling I looked at those pics of those happy happy babies and OH what a beautiful mother and father they have. Happiness...it's in their eyes you know.

Texas Trail Mix said...

So you're saying he had rainbow poop poo?

Anonymous said...

ELMO!!! Those cupcakes are awesome!!!!!!