Wow – where do I even begin?! Maybe with an apology
for leaving everyone hanging for the past year…. It wasn’t my intention
but for several reasons, I just never found time to update my blog.
It was a very busy year but also somewhat “normal” relatively
speaking. I will try to briefly summarize it below:
We survived the remaining two weeks of Coleson’s
braces with relative ease. I stress the word “relative” as having a 5
year old in braces during the summer isn’t easy at all. I do have to
gloat for a minute about my son (as if I don’t always)… he did not complain AT
ALL during the 5 weeks he was in the braces. Outside of the
initial pain of surgery and the catheter, once we made it back home he was a
trooper. However, I don’t think we prepared him well enough for the first
few days once we got the braces off. We kept telling him that he would be
able to walk and run again, but we failed to tell him that it would not
immediately after getting the braces off. Needless to say he was quite
confused and scared when we took the braces off and he couldn’t walk and we
handed him this contraption (walker) to use. It didn’t take him long
though (probably 2 weeks) before he was up and walking around and by the time
school (Kindergarten) started (August 3rd) he was walker free.
Fast forward 1 year and he is now a 1st
grader. Completely blew over his Kindergarten year. We still have some residual side
effects of the surgery. His feet are a little turned out (apparently, due
to his abnormal bone growth, his tibia is rotated out on his left leg).
His left leg is also ½ in shorter than his right leg and so he has to have a shoe
lift. Unfortunately, it isn’t one that goes in the shoe therefore we have
to have it mounted on the bottom of each shoe, costing $170 a shoe!
Fortunately, he is a boy and doesn’t have a big shoe wardrobe. None the
less, it is a pain to deal with. And he has developed into a toe
walker. The ortho surgeon failed to
communicate that we should watch out and try to prevent this from
happening. The feet are definitely an
underappreciated body parts. So we have
added daily stretching to our routine. Otherwise
medically speaking we are contemplating stopping the weekly Enzyme Replacement
Therapy and also considering timing of getting the hardware out of his femurs
as well as contemplating removing his port. I am also starting to
suspect he has ADD or ADHD based on his short attention span and lack of
focus. He is a really good kid but struggles a bit with following
directions the first time and staying focused on task. I used to chalk
this up to being a 6 year old boy but after talking to some friends, I am
starting to question whether or not there is something else at
play. We skipped going to Minneapolis this summer as I
thought we could all use a break but I have come to the conclusion that we have
to go. I have too many questions that just can’t wait. I have
to say Coleson was pretty upset when he learned we were not going to
Minneapolis this summer, which says a lot that he remembers more of the fun we
have than the Doctors appts and hospital visits. He wants to go to
Crayola Experience and Mall of America. So we will be jetting off on his
birthday and as an extra fun surprise we are going to stay at the Great Wolf
Lodge the first weekend. We will move into the RMH for the work week so
that we can navigate all of the medical appointments. He did have a
significant anniversary this summer, his 5 year transplantiversary. I
can’t believe it has been over 5 years already but am grateful for every
year! He is in gymnastics and hip hop and started boy scouts this
year. He is taking after school soccer and golf (which Paul is happy
about). Not sure how long he will be able to do any of these sports so am
encouraging him to do all he can while he can.
Peyton continues to be a great big sister and just a
great person overall. I admire her big heart and though I do get nervous
that it can easily be broken, I appreciate how thoughtful and caring she
is. She is almost 9 already, being only 3 when Coleson had his transplant
and only 5 when my dad passed. Both events having a significant imprint
on her. Thankfully she is a good student
and is very respectful of rules and teachers. I rely on her to
counterbalance the worry I have with Coleson. I don’t take her for
granted though as I know she still needs my attention and quality time.
She picked up cheerleading last year which is a perfect sport for her due to
her nature of supporting and encouraging others. She is the “tumbler” on
the squad being able to do both back and front handsprings. She is still
in gymnastics and we added hip hop as well as Girl Scouts to the mix. Are
you starting to understand why I am so busy? She had her first “major”
(well to her it was Major but again, it’s all relative) surgery the first day
of summer after falling on the slide in our pool and cutting open her
chin. She has severe anxiety when it comes to pain but after numbing the
area and 9 stiches later, she was showing off her injury and recounting how
brave she was.
We suffered another death in the family this past
November (just before Peyton’s birthday) with my Grandma passing away at 102 ½
years of age. After 100, the ½ years become relevant again!
She had a stroke and briefly regained consciousness but died within 2
days. My sisters and I spoke at the funeral remembering all of her great
qualities and all of her “hidden” tissues which she pulled out at the first
sign of a sniffle, a tear or a dirty face! When we cleaned out her
apartment we discovered lots of these tissues hidden in sleeves, pants pockets,
etc. Enough to fill a trash bag.
Part of the reason why we have been so busy is that
we ended up buying a new house (in Tempe) while we were in Minneapolis… sight
unseen. We had been considering moving to a bigger home in our
neighborhood (really just one with a bigger yard) and the prefect one came up
for sale about a week after we left for Minneapolis. Thanks to great
neighbors and friends and FaceTime (not to mention timing), we cut our
Minneapolis stay 2 weeks short and signed a week later. Thankfully Rachel
had been in between jobs and helped pack up our house and the Ranch. Yes,
with this purchase, Paul had made the dissection to sell Rancho Costa
Lotta. I know it wasn’t an easy decision but he swears he doesn’t regret
it. It is an end of an era but we are making our new home just as unique
and special to our whole family. It has a big back yard with an awesome pool
(with a big slide and waterfall) and we have had more get togethers here
already than we had at the old house, including a surprise birthday party for
Paul!
Paul got a new job (at Honeywell) in July. He
is getting back into Sales where he spent most of his career. I think
this is more his calling and although he is selling a different product line to
different end users, you can see he is enjoying it. Believe it or not, I
am celebrating my 20th anniversary at Honeywell. My job has
undergone some recent changes as well and I am finding more balance in my life
as a result. We also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary
this past August. I used to tease Paul before we were married how his
life changed once he met me, but wow, the past 10 have been eventful! I really
hope the next 10 are a little more relaxing. I’m sure Paul will be
retiring in that time so it should be for him at least.
I will post again once we get through our week in
Minneapolis. Oh, and I will try to find time to update pictures. Wish us luck (on both)!
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