Scooter's Jungle

Thanks to Kyle's friend, Miles, who had a birthday here a couple of weeks ago, we had a blast at this place and Kyle has been asking to go back ever since! 

On a zip-line all by himself!!

Going down the ginormous slide!! Kyle kept saying, "More!!"

All 3 of us, over and over and over! It was a really good slide. I had that roller coaster feeling in my stomach the first few times.

Kyle was not afraid of anything and went by himself, on his belly, running and jumping ... you name it!!!

Then he enjoyed making some music for us. 

I think we all agree that he's a natural with rhythm and style. Don't know how he picked it up, but he did. Maybe he can teach his parents a thing or two! :)

Momma's Birthday

Kyle was just as anxious for my birthday as he was for his ... to blow out candles!!! So far, he's got that idea down pat! Presents are fun, too, but apparently nothing compares to blowing out candles! So he helped me with mine in my maple donut (multiple times) and then later with my cake (multiple times). Thank you AJ, for helping us continue the red plate tradition in our home. Kyle now recognizes it! :)

My family met us for a delicious lunch at Zov's followed by a scrumptious tiramisu cake. Rudy and my favorite!!

Then, after a fun shopping spree with a nice gift card (from 6 months ago!), Auntie Michelle stayed to watch Kyle while Ru took me out for the evening. Thank you, sister! (And sorry, Lip! I like this picture! ;)

Saying good-bye for the evening. A tender moment between father and son...

Or so we thought!... :) Silly boy.

La familia.

I had a fun day. It's a nice tradition we have going where the birthday person is absolutely spoiled for an entire 24 hours!! :) Though I enjoyed every bit of the day, I couldn't forget the fact that my baby boy should have been very "with me." He was definitely missed and I couldn't resist stopping by to "tell him" so. Friends and family expressed that they were very aware that this past year was not the easiest, but encouraged me as I cling to the hope of a better year to come! Thanks to everyone who helped make it a special day, in person or through the mail! ;)

Recovery

It took me a few days to be able to sit up, but by the end of the weekend (and with the help of medication), I was able to move about pretty well with minimal pain. That is, until I started being up and about too much, and have since landed myself right back in bed with very specific pain that tells me I must take it slower. Sigh! It would be a whole lot easier "taking it easy" if a certain 2 year old didn't want only Mommy! I'm thinking my next surgery will find me recovering on some tropical island with a personal attendant! Because THAT would be taking it easy! If only, huh? :)

On Friday, Kyle woke up from a nap with a fever. Here he is laying with me, just miserable. The next morning, he was up and about like nothing had ever happened. A picture of us both recovering... :)

Kyle has enjoyed several adventures over this past week, and when the activity meant I could sit and watch, I've joined in on the fun, too. We've had a tailgating party at the Back Bay and a beach trip where Kyle caught his first fish off the pier. :) Go, Kyle!

We've also had several generous friends bring us meals and offer to help out in different ways. We love our friends!! And I'm super thankful for Rudy's unique schedule this fall that's enabled him to be home with Kyle, entertaining him in so many fun, creative ways. Having Rudy and our friends and family have definitely made this a doable experience!

Healing

Having the surgery done and having had the kind of result we wanted, significantly helps our healing. I realized when I woke up to the good news, that September 14th was the first day I experienced a genuine step forward. Being able to do something means everything to us. 

I was feeling a huge desire to visit Jonathan's grave to "tell him" the good news, that we fought back and got the tissue that took his life. And I wanted to apologize. All along, I had this feeling that Jonathan's marker would come around the time of my surgery because it was due to arrive at the cemetery around the end of October and my surgery date was supposed to be October 20th. I also thought it would just be good timing, emotionally speaking. As we drove up today, I was mentioning to Rudy that the timing of his marker and our surgery date would have been so nice had they coincided. Though it was a long shot, I still hoped. 

And there it was... over a month early... sitting there looking so beautiful, was our son's marker. I called to find out when exactly it had been placed, and was told it was on September 14th, the day of my surgery.

It was like a gift from heaven, from Jonathan, saying, "I see you, I'm with you." And for the first time looking at our son's grave, we cried happy tears. 

Thank you, God, for however you pulled that off, knowing how much it would mean to us. 

A Septum was Removed!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are praising God right now for a successful surgery that removed a super thick septum! This was the best-case-scenario we were wishing we had back when we were told I had a bicornuate. We'd think, "If only it was a septum!" Even all the way up to the surgery, we knew there was a very real possibility that it wouldn't be. We are beyond grateful for our specialist who just before sending us home to try again with a "bicornuate," decided he'd like to take a look himself. While looking, he spotted a slight detail that indicated a possibility for a septum. Then he ordered a second opinion on the MRI scan and sure enough, the possibility was enough to warrant exploratory surgery. During surgery, he confirmed that the septum was very thick (one of the reasons it appeared to be a bicornuate) and took that sucker out!!!!!! His precaution and thoroughness surely saved another heartbreak. We can't thank him, and God enough!!

I'm still amazed, even as I type this, that we finally have this behind us. That it's really, truly gone! And we are continually amazed that we have Kyle. We were surprised to find out that my anesthesiologist had had this same procedure done. She made the comment that after surgery, we'd be able to try to start a family. When  we told her we already had one child, she was shocked speechless! Seriously. I knew successful septum pregnancies were rare, and considering how thick mine was (I like that word WAS!), it's even more amazing to know he made it to 37 weeks! :)

Recovery time off work will be just over 2 weeks. I am feeling super drugged and tired and my incision sites are highly sensitive and painful, but I am well! Because the septum was so thick and because we want scarring to be as minimal as possible (so a future baby would have as hospitable of a home as possible), I have an air-filled balloon in my uterus holding the sides away from each other to keep them from joining together. I will go back in next week to have this removed. So for now, I've got some lovely paraphernalia sticking out of me!

We are praying now that the scarring inside my uterus would be minimal and that a future baby would try to implant somewhere, anywhere else!!!!! :) And in case anyone is wondering... though we'd love to start trying soon, we want to let my uterus completely heal and so we won't be going down that road for some time. But oh, how excited we will be for that day to come!!

Thank you for your prayers! Thank you for all your support, calls and emails! ;)
And now for some sleep! :) 

Surgery on Wednesday!!

My surgery date had already been bumped up to October 20th and today, it just got a whole lot closer! Some wonderful person out there had to cancel their appointment and I'm going to sneak in much earlier than expected! I'm still pretty shocked and am scrambling to get all my lesson plans written out, inform all my teachers and principals, and get my substitute ready to go! I also have those Friday Kinder math and writing classes to get prepared. I'm thankful I at least get one evening to do it all!

I'll have my pre-op appointment super early tomorrow and still be able to go to work to meet my sub and show him the ropes as we work and then travel to all my schools for a quick orientation. Then, Wednesday is the day!!! Fortunately, Rudy just found out today that he has Wednesday off from school and will be able to be with me in the hospital and also around to help with Kyle for the rest of the week. I'll be recovering for two weeks and hopefully we'll get the good news that it was a septum, that it was removed, and that we can be almost normal! ;)

We would appreciate your prayers for a safe and successful surgery! And that our nerves wouldn't get the best of us! :)

Labor Day Project

Ru's latest project was making Kyle his very own workbench! How's a boy supposed to grow up without a workbench, eh? The idea only needed to be there for a few minutes before the boys were off to Home Depot to make it happen! 

Kyle helped Papa all the way through and is SO proud of their finished product. "Finished" is a loose term -  Ru does have some more plans to develop this thing, which he's working on right now as I type. We're glad this will be big enough for Kyle to grow into but not too big he can't enjoy now! ;)

Kyle's been out every day since, working on this or that. Here he's painting a wooden race car.

Kyle loves to paint! And hammer and drill... oooh, the drill!!!!

Then, after a hard days work, we went to a BBQ with several friends and their kids. Kyle had a blast!

And Kyle grew up... by giving his "me's" (pacifiers) away to Elsie's baby brothers. He voluntarily agreed to do this because his tender little heart was concerned that the babies "needed" the me's. I'm not too sure if he's happy about that decision now... but it's getting better and he says he's happy because he shared. :)

Summer fun

Aside from a few weeks of heat, we've had another beautiful summer of record lows. Kyle has helped us enjoy all that we could over these past couple of months and now we are saying good-bye to our summer schedule and welcoming a new and different fall. 

Here are some of the fun memories we caught on camera:

Kyle's 1st trip to the movies!! We discovered that every Thursday during the summer our local theater offers free kids' movies for anyone interested. On the season's last movie, The Bee, we went with our friends Will, Nick, and mommy Salina.

 Kyle actually watched his first movie all the way through!

Staying cool...

Escaping the heat of our air-conditioned-less apartment with a trip to the corner store to get a popsicle! What would a popsicle be without getting it all over your face!

More Home Depot building projects. Here, the blue painter's tape is covering a white board.

Several random beach days...

Waxing up his board...

And riding some whitewater...

Then rock climbing among the tide pools.

And of course, getting buried! :)

Ahh, summer. So much of it was a blur, but I guess we did have some fun. Thank you, Kyle! :)