Bound to happen!

They told me in the hospital that this would happen at least once. Since a year had passed without incident, I thought I was in the clear. Apparently I was wrong. This morning he did it. He pulled his trach out!! I heard him wake up at around 7 am and almost immediately I heard him making a funny sound. I rolled over to Rich and I said, "Doesn't he sound funny?" Of course Rich just kinda grunted and said, "Humf". I waited just a little bit longer and I noticed he was kind of gasping for air a little bit. I shook Rich and told him to go and get him because he is making funny sounds. He laid him next to me and I just thought he had a mucus plug because he was breathing fine but he was making normal sounds as if he had his speaking valve on. That is when I noticed it. The part of the trach that is supposed to be in his trachea was sticking out!!! I freaked out! Then I realized that he had been breathing and making sound for the past minute or two without the trach and I calmed down a little. I still undid his trach tie and put the trach back in but it was so "exciting" that he did fine without the trach. I am grateful that he pulled it out when I was paying attention and could react quickly. It makes me nervous now that he is going to pull it out when I put him in his room to take a nap. I think the reason it happened is because I left his trach tie too loose. I will be sure not to make that mistake again.

Happy Birthday Aidan!!

"Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you.

Before you were here an hour I would give my life for you. This is the miracle of life"
"NICU week 1"

"Babies are angels that fly to the Earth. Their wings disappear at the time of their birth"
"NICU week 2"

"He was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into."

Aidan has a very sweet and loving personality and even from a very young age I could feel his love for me.

From the moment he was born he was my pride and joy.

He never fails to make me smile.

He brightens each day of my life.

One year of fun filled adventure, joy and happiness has passed...

I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

Happy birthday Aidan!! I love you more than anything. Thank you for an amazing year!

Aidan crawls???

Oh how time flies. I started to work on this post almost 2 weeks ago and then our computer died :( I was so sad because Rich takes the laptop to school everyday and when he is home and I have a chance to blog, he is using it to do his homework. I am anxious to get our computer up and running so that I can blog more often now that I actually have the time. We took this video when Aidan 1st seemed to discover crawling. He is currently scooting and crawling (depending on what he's in the mood for I guess). So here he is, growing up so fast. I love my baby boy!

Orientation week

This is basically how Aidan and I spent the majority of Rich's orientation...sitting in the hall. With the help of some snacks and toys we were able to sit through about a third of the orientation then Aidan just got too loud. Yes we do have the unique option of taking his voice valve off but I feel really bad when we do that so we don't. The funny thing is that Aidan is well known amongst the pharmacy students because not only was he the only baby there but during the first speakers speech he spoke out during a pause and she acknowledged his yell as a valid comment. Both Rich and I turned bright red but every body just laughed. Now when Rich mentions Aidan to any of his classmates, they know who he is.

We thought this was a pretty cool ice sculpture.

The highlight of orientation week was the BBQ. We met a really nice family and had lots of fun. Aidan had way too many sweets!

The last day of orientation was the "White Coat Ceremony"!! This is where all of the pharmacy students are presented with their white coats that distinguish them as being in the pharmacy program and take a pledge, making them official pharmacy students. Doesn't he look so good!?!

So here we are! Rich is officially a pharmacy student!

This is Rich on his very first day of school. We live so close to the University that he walks. We are loving Florida. We have been so blessed that everything has worked out for us and things couldn't be more perfect. Well...unless our families decided to move out here. Think about it :)

Aidan's 1st beach experience

Aidan wasn't quite sure what to think of the beach. He thought the sand was ok. As for the ocean, the waves made him a little nervous.

What he really loved were the birds! This is him bird watching with his daddy. Anytime a flock of seagulls would fly by he would get so excited and scream.

Because of the trach we didn't stay for long, but we had a really great time and look forward to MANY fun days on the beach.

Here is a video of Aidan first moment on the sand. He was so cute!

Leaps and bounds

I like to call him the traveler because he loves to walk along the couches or anything else he can grab on to. The moment we left Missouri he has done something new almost every day!

I laughed so hard when I went to check on him after I put him to bed. He fell asleep when he was sitting up and this is what I found.

He just loves to climb and walk (with help) especially if daddy is the one helping him.

Too much to tell!

Well as you all know the past couple of months have been sooooo crazy for us. We moved from Springfield to Branson to stay with my mom for a little over a month as part of our transition to Florida. That time was spent preparing for our future. The most important thing that we did during that time was we were FINALLY sealed as a family for time and all eternity! It was such an incredible experience to enter the holy temple with the two people that I love the most and know that we will be together forever. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple.After all of that preparation, the big day finally came. My family came to see us off. Yes, we did actually ride in that big Penske truck. No, it was not comfortable at all.

Of course, not everything went perfectly smooth. Rich was not happy when our car got scratched while loading it onto the dolly.

Then, we were finally off! With Rich in the drivers seat...

And Aidan as his right-hand man...

We finally made it to beautiful Florida. After about 24 hours of driving we were all so ready to be "home sweet home"