Masons Pictures

We had Masons pictures done right before surgery. I hadn't gotten his 12 month pictures done, so these are his 20 month pictures I guess! I posted a ton of pictures, but I couldn't decide which ones to post I love them all!

Visiting the Aquarium

Recently we went to the Grapevine aquarium. Mason wasn't too sure about the visit but he did like the shark tank! We had fun being together as a family.

Mason's Surgery

Mason had his detether surgery on June 30th. He got bumped from being the first surgery in the morning to later that morning. He ALWAYS gets bumped at that hospital. It's frustrating. Anyway, after waiting for several hours after being admitted, Malone and I had to hand off our baby to a nurse to go to surgery. That was hard. I worry so much about if he is going to be scared and cry with all these strangers. Luckily they gave him some medicine to help him relax before we had to hand him off.

Waiting to go to surgery

Scar before sugery

The surgery lasted about 4 hours. His neurosurgeon felt good about the surgery and said it was successful. Mason had to be on oxygen the rest of that day and night because he couldn't keep his oxygen up on his own. The doctors felt he should spend the night in the NICU so they could keep a closer eye on him for the first 24 hours of recovery. Mason had to lay on his sides only and not on his back or tummy. We couldn't hold him for those first 24 hours. The good news Mason was okay with laying there and didn't want to be touched anyway. His body was very stiff. And he didn't love the nurses. He cried every time they entered the room because he knew they'd bother him and touch him. Poor kid. The first 24 hours went okay. Eventually they took him off oxygen and took out his catheter. After that they finally moved him to the recovery floor in neuro and out of NICU. I was finally able to hold my baby!

Mason was in the hospital for about 3 days. He had a lot of pain and we had to stay on top of his pain medicine. He was still stiff. Every time I moved him to hold him he'd cry. We had to have him on muscle relaxers to help with the stiffness. His incision looked really good. It was right where his other one was on his back, about 5 inches long. I stayed with him the three days in the hospital. I didn't want to leave his side. We had friends who were nice enough to bring us dinner one night and it fed us for a couple days for lunch and dinner so I didn't have to leave Mason at all while we were there. Malone had to go to work for a couple of the days but was able to stay with us on surgery day and the day we checked out. After I was told I could hold Mason I held him a lot and just snuggled him as he slept. Even though it was a tough time for all of us, I will cherish those moments when he wanted me to just hold him.

Finally getting to hold my baby!

On our way home

After we got home that night we were discharged members of our ward reached out to us and brought us meals for the next few days which was nice. It felt good to have someone care about us when we were so far from family. I am glad we have a ward "family".

It was a tough recovery the first week or so after we got home. Mason continued to be stiff and sore for a few days. I had a hard time transferring him and picking him up because he was uncomfortable. I kept on top of his pain medicine and muscle relaxers. It was almost two weeks after surgery when I finally felt like he wasn't in pain or stiff anymore. He eventually was able to start crawling again.

 It has been a month now and he is slowly regaining his strength. He started crawling, then kneeling up to things. We had to encourage him to stand for just short moments at a time and he struggled with endurance. But this past weekend we had a breakthrough! Mason is standing up to things voluntarily on his own and is doing it more often. Sunday he walked holding Malone's hands and Monday he walked holding my hands. We are excited to see him progress. Eventually we will reintroduce his walker. Today the therapist put kenisio tape on his legs to see if it could help him activate the weak muscles. When she did this he stood so much better! Hoping that putting this kenisio tape on from time to time will help Mason be able to strengthen those weaker muscles.

We have been praying that he would be able to recover and get back to where he was before surgery. We are so thankful for those who have reached out to us during this time. We had been anxious about this surgery and Mason's recovery for weeks. We have felt the prayers and seen the blessings and miracles. This is yet another example to me of Heavenly Father's hand in our lives as He watched over Mason, Malone and me. I am so grateful for eternal perspective and for the power of the priesthood.

Vacation home to Idaho

Well last month we made the trek to Idaho. We left Thursday May 21st in the afternoon. We planned on driving all night like we did last year. Everything was going well till we hit Amarillo when it started to rain. And it rained and rained for hours and hours. It was the kind of rain that makes it difficult to see, and you have to slow down so you don't hydroplane. It made for a scary drive for those hours. We made it to about Denver when the rain finally stopped. Not long after Denver when we were headed to Wyoming and we were surrounded by a thick dense fog. We couldn't see more then a few feet in front of us. That also made for a scary drive for a couple hours. To say the least it was a really really long night.

Mountains! How I have missed the Tetons!

Eventually we made it to Idaho! We spent the week riding go karts, did some shopping, had picnics, and spent a ton of quality time with family. My sister and her family were up visiting also, so we were able to spend time with them also. We visited Malone's dad and brother in Idaho Falls where Mason got to visit the horses and ride the lawn mower with his uncle Milt. On Memorial day we visited graves of our relatives who have passed on. Mason got to visit his uncle Mason's grave (who he is named after) in Iona, which was very special. We also met up with Malone's mother and had lunch with her. And we visited Malone's sister Holly's kids who have gotten so big!  We finished our trip with a visit down to Utah to see my brother Marshall and his family. We had a barbeque and went to a cool store together. It was such a wonderful visit being with family. It has been so long and Mason has grown a lot since everyone has seen him. I loved seeing him interact with all our loved ones. I so wished Mason could be with our families all the time, especially all his grandparents and cousins. Having this visit made Malone and I even more homesick. We hope to someday move back closer to be near family again.

Mason and Grandpa Snedaker

Ashley Cleah Danielle and Mason

Bear World

Cousins!

Grandma Snedaker

Riding horses at Papa Bullocks

Papa Bullock

Mason standing by his uncle Mason's grave

Grandpa and Grandma Snedaker

Uncle Parker

19 months old

I feel like I post about Mason all of the time, but I realized I haven't posted about all the great things that are going on with him. I have dwelt on the negative things lately and haven't even mentioned what he is up to these days.

Mason is about 19 1/2 months old right now. At his 18 month check up he was 23lbs (33%) , 30 1/2  inches (47%), and his head circumference was 49 cm (89%). I think he's in a growth spurt right now actually. Most of his progress lately has been with speech and some communication stuff. He has learned some new words and understands a lot of words too. I can ask him where his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head, hair, hands, belly button and toes are and he will point to them. He likes having the fan on and he will ask me to turn it on. (fa on?) He still calls me dad, but when Malone refers to me as Mom, he knows who I am. He just won't say it, the stink! He likes to watch TV, even though I know I should be discouraging it at this age. But he'll ask for a "no?" for show ( and he does this thing where he puckers his lips when he says it, it's so cute). He will give me kisses and hugs when I ask for them, and he is such a good hugger! He will lay his head on your shoulder and pat your back and just stay there. He is such a lovey kid! There have been days when I will be crying about something and he will be so concerned and give me a hug. I love that he is so compassionate! He still does the knuckles thing with everyone he sees. He even gives Malone knuckles before he leaves every morning, as part of his routine. He waves bye and will say it too whenever someone or he goes out the door. Of course he's at the age where he is wanting to be independent but struggles to communicate what he wants. He gets very frustrated and will have a fit. But slowly we are making progress with the communication.

As far as physical progress, Mason is getting braver about standing and walking. He will grab my fingers and encourages me to walk with him a lot. So we will walk together and he loves walking around and exploring outside. Outside is his favorite place! I work with him trying to get him to walk holding just one hand and also stand without holding on to anything. He can do either one for a few seconds. His feet and legs tend to trip him up because his foot turns in on the right and the left one is starting to turn out. It's a muscle imbalance in his lower extremeties. Some muscles are stronger than others and those muscles will pull harder when the ones that would balance those ones out lack the strength. We are looking into figuring out a way to help with that. In the mean time, we are currently waiting on a walker for Mason. It should hopefully be here next week. We are eager for this next "step" for him.

I have to mention that he does this thing where he'll say something like, Oh no! And he'll put his hands to his cheeks. And also, he loves loves loves babies. I have a couple friends with little babies and Mason wants so badly to hold them and pat them softly. He will make an excellent big brother some day. Sometimes on TV when someone is sad, he will say Oh no! and sometimes he will even start to cry. I tell you, he is very compassionate!! And he loves playing with other kids. He plays well with them and just wants to do what they're doing. Because he isn't walking on his own yet, he often gets left behind a bit. But he just crawls along behind them anyway, it doesn't seem to bother him usually.

Mason is such a good boy. He has his moments that frustrate us and we frustrate him probably, but overall he is such a doll. I love snuggling with him (when he lets me!) and spending time with him. He makes me laugh a lot and knows he's funny too. He truly makes our lives wonderful.