Surgery a Success!

Today's surgery went great. We arrived at 7:00 am at TMH for pre-op and while I got all the paper work together Brian and Cole ran the halls which was wonderful to keep him occupied since he had been asking for milk and food earlier. He wasn't allow to have anything after 2 am. Luckily things did move quickly once we arrived. We were back in the pre-op room by 8:00, talked with Dr. Soto, the ENT, then the nurses and the anesthesiologist. After the first case, we walked with Cole back to the Operating Room and handed him over to the doctors. That is the killer to turn him over; none of us were happy about that. We then made our way to the waiting room and within about 30 minutes, Dr. Soto came out to let us know that the surgery was a success, he had removed the adenoids, which were enlarged and full of puss and bacteria, and had cleaned out fluid in his left ear (another ear infection). He stated that the removal SHOULD be the end to all Cole's problems and would see us back in 3 weeks for the follow up and hopefully not before then. I then was able to go be with Cole in the recovery room. Once he woke up from the anesthesia the nurse said he was exactly what they liked to see; woke up quiet yet groggy. She stated she that she had drawn the long straw today; which is always something you like to hear. So back to post-op we went, he fell asleep for about an hour, the nurse took out his IV and we were discharged. Looking back, it was easier than I had made it out to be in my head but I don't want to ever go through it again.

Once we got home he pounded 2 small bottles of gaterade, a couple glasses of water, and has been eating great! He has been very active and is acting 100 times better than we expected. It is nice to see how well he has recovered.

Here are a couple picture we took before and after:

Here he is using the sink as a basketball hoop. Unfortunately the ball didn't return automatically after the 100th time he made it in. You can see he would get mad if we were quick enough on the retrieval.





Once again, he found a sink to get under. This time he got himself stuck and got very upset about it.

At home pulling out all the Tupperware after surgery.

Eating some goldfish with his monkey (who also was admitted to the hospital today-see wrist)

One year molars

I have been assuming Cole has been teething but have been terrified of checking for the thought of losing a finger was a little intimidating. Well tonight I got brave and noticed he has two teeth (one on each side) coming in on the bottom. According to the "Baby Tooth Chart", it appears he is now getting his one year molars. This explains the screaming out he has been doing at night. Those teeth look so sharp too. I can't even imagine going through it. Luckily I don't have to.

Cole's Week Ahead

We met with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor at Shands in Gainesville this morning. Dr. Collins concurs that we need to proceed with the surgery to remove Cole's adenoids. He stated that the adenoids are a breeding ground for bacteria and when your Eustachian tube isn't effective at draining this out, you get ear infections. So, get rid of the adenoids, get rid of the ear infections (this is the hope and plan and should be effective.) We took Cole's ball with us to help keep him entertained which indirectly enhanced his throwing abilities. The doctor even commented on his abilities and asked us where he would be playing ball. I quickly responded and stated he wouldn't be a Gator and about that time Brian was whispering in Cole's ear and out busted the Chop and Warchant by Cole. It was really cute. So, in short, we have surgery scheduled for Thursday morning and hopefully he will bounce back over the weekend.


Finally, click on the link to see some pictures from the Friday photoshoot. http://longsphotographyblog.com/


Here are a couple pics from the doctor's office today.

Found an empty cabinet.

Hum....

I'll hide in here.

The Bowl Hat

Cole is great at feeding himself, not that he comes out clean in the end, but he can get the spoon to his mouth about 80% of the time. However, the other night when he was feeding himself, he decided to make his dinner bowl into a hat. You can see the sequence of events below:

Fun on Friday

We had such a fun day on Friday. My mom is in town so I took the day off to spend with her and Cole. We were off bright and early to get Cole's pictures taken at nine. We then hit target, went by Scan Haus to visit with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Gary, picked up some Sonnys togo and headed to the house for lunch with Gram. While at Scan Haus Cole took a power nap of about an hour and I suppose he thought that was plenty for the rest of the day. We went for a nice Friday afternoon ride and somehow came upon the Extreme Makeover Home Edition house. CRAZY, you would have thought we were "stalking" to see Ty Pennington, and just to let you know if you do want to stalk, you can and can't. They have it blocked off but from 8am to 8pm there is a spectator's area you can go to see the progress. Congratulations to the Kadzis family! Anyhow, after our non-stalking, we came back home and played somemore. Cole refused to go down for another nap until 5:00. So needless to say he was ready to go after a late, late, late afternoon nap. Here is Dance Party USA that resulted after the nap. He was absolutely hysterical and we had tears running down our faces because we were laughing so much. He is quite the natural little dancer--Watch out ladies.

Happy Valentines!

We packed up Friday night and went to visit our friends Todd, Carly and their twin boys, Brody and Wade, in Destin. We got to celebrate the 6 month birthday of the boys and welcome Wade's first tooth. Cole absolutely loved climbing up and down their stairs, loved the all the new toys, love the "babies" which is what he calls the boys (I suppose he feels so old around them) and was terrified of their dogs. They have very sweet dogs but they move quick and are very large. We were glad to be able to visit with the Harrells and look forward to seeing them again soon.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend of the boys. As you can see we had no trouble getting all three boys to lay still and smile for the camera.

Brody and Wade tackling Cole!

Cole fighting back.

Hum, what next....

Here's my hand...

Brody and Wade.

Brody telling Cole a funny joke as he has his arm around his buddy Wade.

Dang, Brody, that was one funny joke.

I can't take it so I'll just have to hide my smile.

Just an FYI, we are still battling ear infections. We head back to the Ear Nose and Throat doctor on Tuesday and determine what our next step will be. It looks like we are going to more than likely have the surgery to remove his adenoids. Unfortunately the tubes that were put in back in October were unable to cure Cole of the chronic ear infections he develops a couple times a month. We will keep you posted on what the doctor says.

Have a great week.

Love, E

Cole sipping milk

So, this morning, Cole took a sip of his milk and right afterwards said, "Ahhhhh." I shortly afterwards realized I had just done the same thing when I took a sip of my coffee. I have finally realized he is starting to copy everything we do.

I plan to keep this updated weekly if not sooner, so please check back regularly for updates.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

My little ham....