Christmas tree helper

After getting our Christmas tree home, we had Drew help us put on the ornaments. I brought the tree into the house and put the lights on it while Drew was taking a nap. He was quite excited when he got up and there was a Christmas tree in our living room! We developed a system where Drew got an ornament from Jana, walked across the room with it, and then I put it on the tree. We wanted him to be able to handle the ornaments, but not get the idea that he might be able to touch them on the tree! Here is Drew on his way to the tree (and me) with an ornament in hand.

Drew is getting ready for another ornament. He LOVED helping out with decorating the tree!

Drew was very careful with the ornaments and taking them out of the box. He got all excited as each one was unwrapped!

This ornament was one of Drew's favorites: a cable car from San Francisco. He calls it a train and says "Chug, chug, woo, woo!"

Drew hasn't been able to take his eyes off the Christmas tree. He loves going and looking at it in our living room.

Here he is at it again! He loves naming the ornaments on the tree and he learned a new word from the ornaments: "snowman!"

This video is just for fun from the other night. Drew and I were eating our night time snack together and for some reason every time I looked at Drew funny he would crack up. Usually, I am not this amusing!

Christmas tree

This morning we went out to cut down a Christmas tree! We got ready by putting Drew in his new boots and his snow pants. It was a balmy 25 degrees Fahrenheit outside when we left. Drew was VERY excited about having his snow pants and snow boots on (as you can see!). As I was getting Drew ready he looked up at me most of the time with a grin on his face!

Jana couldn't let me be the only one getting all Drew's attention, so she grabbed him for getting on his coat. Our whole family was excited about going outside and getting a tree.Here we are at Tannenbaum Farms, which is in Mason about 15 miles from our house. Without Drew, we've made it from our house to the tree farm, picked out a tree, and been back home within 45 minutes. We know what we want and we get it!
I needed my picture taken with Drew too before we headed out to find our tree. Drew and I matched in our dark green coats!

We started out by riding on a wagon pulled by a tractor. Drew LOVED seeing the tractor and getting a ride from it. Look at that face of serious concentration!

Drew loved waddling around all the trees. We headed straight over to the Frasier Fir section and let Drew run among the rows of trees. It took him a couple feet to get used to all the clothes he was wearing!

As I said, Jana and I are fast to find a tree, so after about 5-10 minutes we had settled on a nice little one for our nice little house. Drew and I paused for a picture during the tree's last few moments before being cut down.

This is what Drew was doing while I was cutting down the tree. He was more interested in running around than cutting the tree down. Jana was excited as the tree fell to the ground, but Drew was off exploring!

A lot of our snow has been melting, but Drew still found some pockets of snow and had fun tromping through those areas as we brought our tree back to the car.

Now we just need to get the tree inside the house and trimmed. We'll keep you posted on what Drew thinks about that process!

snow boots

We've been getting Drew ready for winter, and it's a good thing because we've got snow on the ground here in Lansing! On Wednesday night we got an inch or so of snow that mainly stuck to the grass and trees. Drew has been fascinated by it! Every time he looks outside he says, "Snow! Snow on the ground." Seeing the snow on the ground made us realize that Drew needs some snow boots. We went out today and got Drew some boots, and he LOVES to wear them. He's been running around the house looking down at his feet and saying "Boots! Boots!" Here Drew is in action looking down at his feet as he runs around in his boots.

I don't think this video does justice to Drew in his boots, but it least gives you an idea of how active he's been in his boots. If we want to tire him out, all we need to do is put his boots on for a little while!

return to normal

When Drew got home from the hospital he missed having his IV mitt on, so he grabbed one of my wristbands for basketball, put it on and said "mitt." He wore this white wristband around the house the entire evening!Ever since Drew has been home from the hospital we've done a lot of this: holding him! Drew's doing much better and he went back to daycare for this short week. He's running around, playing hard, and not getting too out of breath in the process (he still occassionally wheezes a little). It'll probably take 3-4 weeks for him to get back to full strength again.

Drew loves shoes, especially because they usually mean going outside. He's especially fascinated by my shoes. It was fun watching him try to walk in these!

This picture is in our kitchen, and it was very cute because after getting home from the hospital Drew was a little bit clingy. He's normally quite independent, but he followed us into the kitchen while Jana and I were working on dinner. We like having him around!

Drew has been playing away, and last week he got visits from Grandma Sue, Grandpa John, and Grandma Lynn, who helped us watch him until he got better.

Drew grabbed this shape sorter container, put it on his head, and said "hat!"

We have to play chase at least once a day. Drew runs around while I chase after him. He screams and giggles the entire time, and I don't think he always avoids me because sometimes he'll run right at me.

I took this picture while spending a day home with Drew last week. As you can see, he was still in the process of getting better and he got tired more quickly than usual. I could tell Drew was tired when he started to get down on the ground like this!

I am seriously behind on posting videos of Drew, so be warned that I have a bunch here! This first video is of Drew trying candy while taking a break from trick or treating. You can see him in action in his pumpkin suit!
The day after we got Drew back from the hospital he was already in much better spirits. Jana did some grocery shopping and Drew found the cans of food that Jana bought and started to make towers and knock them over . . . with his head. I don't know where he picked that up, but as each tower fell over he'd say "boom."

Here is our little percussionist at work. Drew found these beaters and decided to "play" every drum he could find! He got one whack on the table before I could stop him, but then moved on quickly to other allowed targets.

This is an old one that I keep on forgetting to post, but it was a lot of fun, so I'm putting it on. Drew and I were making mouth noises back and forth, and I caught a couple seconds of it on film.

Omega update

After all the excitement of the weekend, we got home last night and our whole family was exhausted. It was emotionally exhausting to be worried about Drew! I was standing at our kitchen sink doing some dishes, when I heard Drew calling for me from the living room. "Dad! Dad! Dad!" He walked into the kitchen, looked up at me, and gave my legs a huge hug as I stood at the sink. He looked at up at me and said one more time, "Dad." Then he walked into the living room and continued playing again. It is so good to be home!

This morning Jana had another doctor's visit for Omega baby (baby #2). Everything is continuing to go very smoothly! The baby's heart rate was immediately detectable and going strong at 157 beats per minute. Jana is gaining weight at an appropriate rate and she feels the baby moving every evening now. I've even gotten to feel it a couple times now! We've got an ultrasound scheduled for December 10th, so we'll have an opportunity to find out the sex of the baby then. Are we going to find out what sex the baby is? Of course!! We're excited about seeing the sex of the baby and getting a better idea of what names to consider. Jana and I have been having fun considering other names than the ones we've already had in mind, but we'd like to know what sex we should be focusing on!

scary stuff

I was at a conference in Cincinnati last week on breast cancer and the environment when I received a call on Friday from Jana that Drew was very sick, having trouble breathing, and that she was headed to the hospital. I immediately got in the car and drove straight to Lansing to the hospital.

On Friday morning Jana woke up to Drew having a hard time breathing. His breath was rattly (like congestion) and raspy (like asthma). My mom was coming that Friday to watch Drew on her day off, and when she arrived she too immediately noticed that something was not right with Drew. This was further confirmed when Drew started to vomit and vomit and vomit some more. He did not seem to be getting any better so after a second call to our pediatrician (Jana had already called earlier in the morning to set up an appointment), my mom and Jana decided to take Drew to the doctor immediately and not wait any longer.

At the doctor's office Drew continued to vomit and was given a breathing treatment that didn't have any effect. At that point, our doctor advised taking Drew immediately to the hospital. Drew was admitted into the hospital immediately upon arriving there on Friday morning. He stopped vomiting, but was getting dehydrated, and was having difficulty breathing. One lung was raging with an infection that was diagnosed as bronchiolitis. All total, Drew vomited close to 15 times on Friday morning and he was listless and lethargic. The doctors got Drew started on an IV to give him fluids and attached him to a monitor to measure his blood oxygen saturation, which was low.

I arrived at the hospital a little after 6 p.m. to a very lethargic Drew and a very worried Jana and grandma. Here are some pictures of Drew on Friday night. In this first one Jana has a smile plastered on her face. Drew was quite sick, but somehow getting through stuff with him seems manageable when the two of us are able to face it together. Over Jana's right shoulder is the monitor showing Drew's heart rate (152 bpm) and oxygen saturation level (95%). The heart rate is a little high, but that oxygen level is decent. You can also see the big "mitt" on Drew's left hand for his IV. It's not an easy thing to keep an IV in a 21 month old!

Here's a close up showing Drew with his sad little IV attachment. He did a wonderful job of leaving it alone and continuing to use his left hand for playing.In this picture Jana shows her true feelings . . . NOT HAPPY! Drew was listless, his color was bad, his breathing and heart rate were rapid, and we had a steady stream of respiratory therapists, nurses, and doctors coming in to check on Drew. It was heartbreaking to see Drew attached to the IV on his arm (to Jana's right in front of the monitor) and to a biomonitor on his foot. It was hard to move him around with all the tubes attached to him.

We mainly held Drew, even for sleeping, but here is a picture of Drew's "crib" in the hospital. We thought it looked like a prison, but at least no baby could get out of this thing when it's all set up (it has bars on the sides and plastic on the top and upper parts).

On Friday night I settled into that armchair that Jana was pictured in with Drew above, and we both tried to get some sleep. Friday night was not a good night. The infection spread to both Drew's lungs and his oxygen levels lowered and his heart started to race (>180 bpm). The monitor emits an alarm whenever the oxygen saturation is below 90 or the heart rate is above 170 and it was going off left and right. The respiratory therapists got concerned and decided to put Drew on oxygen to help him breathe. The oxygen helped a lot (it allowed him to work a little less hard to breathe), it stopped the alarms from going off all the time, and it allowed Drew and I to get some sleep. Hooray!

We still had an unhappy, lethargic boy on our hands on Saturday morning. You might be able to see in Jana's face that we were still worried and we didn't get the best night's sleep on Friday night. In this picture you can also see Drew's oxygen tubes, which were taped to the sides of his face to hold the tubes in place. At this point he was receiving oxygen, IV fluids, and attached to a monitor. That's three tubes too many attached to my boy!!

Most of Friday and Saturday morning Drew was content to sit in our laps and play quietly. About midmorning Drew started to perk up a bit. Grandma Sue came from Grand Rapids again to give us a hand, and Drew even started to have some smiles for us. He didn't talk on Friday, which is unusual for him, and on Saturday he started to chat again.

Saturday was a day of great progress for Drew. He started to drink again. He started to eat again. By Saturday afternoon Drew was coming out of it! Drew first was able to get rid of his IV. He drank enough fluids on Saturday that the IV was no longer necessary (he was wetting diapers left and right!). In the afternoon, they started to wean him off the oxygen and by late in the afternoon he was breathing room air again.

We had a good night in the hospital last night with good oxygen levels and without any major episodes. Actually, as Drew slowed down and slept his lungs sounded almost clear. We were all able to get a little sleep (as much as you can get in a hospital), and we were optimistic about today. Jana's parents came from Grand Rapids today to provide support. We've been very grateful for the support we received from our church (our pastor and her husband visited us) and from our family. They made this whole experience much easier to deal with. This afternoon Drew was discharged from the hospital and we are now home! Hooray! It's so nice to be at home after three days and two nights in the hospital.

Drew handled the whole episode beautifully. He learned some new words: doctor, nurse, numbers, monitor, mitt (for his IV mitt), and cough (he's learning how to cough on command). He was VERY well behaved even while not feeling well, and we received many compliments from Drew's nurses, therapists, and doctors on what a good little boy he was. Drew had smiles for everyone who came in to check on him, and he did a great job of taking deep breaths and coughing for all the people listening to his chest. Now that we are home though, it's nice to have Drew back to his squirmy, into-everything, exploring his environment self. It was weird to have him sit so still!

Drew's is still a little bit sick. His breathing is a little raspy and asthmatic, he's still experiencing some retractions (drawing in of the neck and chest), and he's got a cough, but his breathing is MUCH improved and we're happy to have him home. We need to keep an eye on him for the next week, but it is expected that he'll be fine. Drew is happy to be rid of all those tubes and to be mobile. He's been all over the house. We've enjoyed getting our pajamas on, being home, and starting to breathe a little easier (pun intended!).

hat night

Our little adventurer loves to sit on top of his toy chest to eat a snack. I have a feeling that as he gets older Drew will be quite the tree climber!The one place that we allow Drew to get into in the kitchen is into the drawer that holds our baking sheets and muffin pans. This past Sunday Drew disappeared into the kitchen with his container of Duplos in tow and entertained himself for a long time. Finally, I went into the kitchen to see what he was doing (there was the occasional bang of a cookie sheet hitting the ground to let me know he was still playing hard). Drew had quite the area staked out! Look at the "doughnuts" and "cookies" on the pizza pan.

I couldn't believe that Drew is this into organization, so I snapped a picture to remind myself that he did this. Drew has never seen us use a muffin pan, he just decided it made a nice holder for his toys.

One night this week Drew and I decided to have a hat party. We took turns trying on all of Drew's hats!

As long as I had a hat on, Drew insisted on wearing one too. We still think Drew is a lefty, but look at him throwing right handed here!

These are Drew's two favorite things: basketball and football. Drew loves to say those words!

The whole day that Drew wore this shirt he was saying "fire engine" and making a fire engine noise. The fire engine noise is one that we never grow tired of hearing!

Drew continues to fascinated by our "big person" stuff. Here he is in the living room trying to put on Jana's shoe. They are way more interesting than his shoes.

Last night Drew and I had a great time while giving him his bath. I brought the camera with the capture some pictures and I was rewarded with some huge smiles.

Next week we have a doctor's appointment for baby #2. I'll be using Drew's blog to continue to update you on Drew's progress, and I will start to use it for any news we have to share on baby #2.

By the way, for those of you who remember, Drew was "Cletus the Fetus" when he was in Jana. The new baby we've been calling "Omega Fetus" or "Omega" for short. Drew was the first baby, our alpha baby, and this one is going to our last (we hope), the omega baby. I doubt I can do as good of a job with the blog for Omega as I have for Drew, but I will try! We've already been brainstorming ideas for changing the name of "Drew's Room" because Drew is going to have to share.

Halloween

For my birthday a little while ago I got a new cordless drill. Drew thought it was pretty cool! Now I need to find a project for the two of us to work on together. I thought this was a much better toy for Drew to check out than one of my saws :) While Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill visited with Drew they read LOTS of books.

Drew loves to go to our roll-top desk, sit down, and move around books and picture frames on the desk. We've started calling it "Drew's desk!"

Happy Halloween! On Wednesday night Drew was a pumpkin for Halloween. We matched in orange! Like most things, I think Drew wears it better :)

I've got MANY pictures of Drew in his costume, so get ready! I am throwing in a bunch of random ones that might not even have stories associated with them.

We trick or treated from our friends Jayme and Lindsay's house. Drew loved their staircase!

Jana was very excited about the opportunity to hold Jayme and Lindsay's baby, Cole. Isn't he cute?! We figured it will be good practice for April when our next baby arrives . . . by the way, Jana is pregnant!! Hooray!! I thought I'd slip that in here to see if all of you are actually reading what I write :) Everything is going well so far and both Jana and the baby are excellent. At our last doctor's visit we heard the baby's heartbeat going strong at 160 beats per minute. It was nice to know that the little fetus is in there and doing nicely. Jana is currently 15 weeks along and the baby is due on April 25. She has been feeling the baby kick for about a week now!

Here's another picture of our little pumpkin! Drew picked out his costume this year, and he LOVES to say the word pumpkin. His costume has been hanging up in my closet, so whenever he's with me as I get a shirt from my closet he pointed up to his costume and said, "pumpkin!"

Drew's favorite part of Halloween: passing out candy! Tis' better to give than receive.

Here is our friend Jayme with HIS little pumpkin. We had a little pumpkin (Cole) and a bigger pumpkin (Drew) for Halloween.

Here are the three of us getting ready to go out trick or treating. We were pretty excited about taking Drew out for the first time and we'd been practicing getting Drew to say "Trick or Treat." He didn't quite get the hang of it, so we settled for "Treat, please," which is probably more cute anyway.

It was raining on Wednesday night, as you can see in the picture, but we had a great time anyway. Drew walked from house to house in his pumpkin suit, while Jana carried Drew's pumpkin for him that held his candy.

Jana and Drew looked so cute together with Drew in bright orange pumpkin suit. The other benefit of Drew's costume: great visibility!

After a while Drew started to get a little tired, so for the last bit that we had to walk I threw him up on my shoulders. We could tell he was tired because he didn't protest and repeatedly say, "Down, please!"