Mason 22 months

Mason is 22 1/2 months old. He will be 2 next month! Since Masons surgery he has made a great recovery. It took him about 6 weeks to get back on his feet and start walking again. He can walk with his walker for about 30 minutes before he gets tired. He cruises around furniture and can even climb on onto our coffee table now. That was a great surprise! We have been watching to see if the tethered cord release would make any difference in his lower extremities. The only things I have noticed so far is his weak right ankle that use to be floppy isn't floppy anymore. It feels stronger, has some resistance now. He walks a little differently now, which is hard to explain. But basically he is starting to walk on his toe on his left side instead of striking on the bottom of his foot. We have been working with the physical therapist and orthotist on seeing if we need to make some adjustments to his AFOs.

He is obsessed with cars. He points them out wherever we go. He has about 6 hot wheels cars that he carries with him everywhere. He also likes anything with wheels, which he also considers a car. Strollers, trains, bikes, even his walker is called a "car". He likes to build with his Lego blocks and we make a track for his cars to slide on.

He loves to eat goldfish crackers, noodles, and fruit snacks. He loves to watch 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' and 'Thomas and Friends'. He also loves to explore outside and pick up rocks and leaves and look at bugs. He loves the park and swinging on the swings.

He thinks its funny to terrorize the dog and has become such a tease! He will throw his drink at the dog or scare him. It doesn't take much to scare Tivo.  Mason likes to tease me and Malone and poke us and "zing us" like Grandpa Snedaker does to all the grandkids. He thinks its funny to throw his food on the floor  and empty all the diapers out. He likes to wrestle with Malone and snuggle with me. He gives us kisses and really good hugs ( he will lay his head on your shoulder and pat your back). He is usually friendly with strangers, always saying 'hi' and fist bumping people.

Mason talks a lot. He has quite the vocabulary. 'Mom' is the newest word! He finally calls me mom! Before he called me and Malone both 'Dad'. So that has been wonderful. He says car, dad, stairs, side ( outside), no ( nose), eye, shoe, boo, flah ( flower), where is he/it, where'd it go, ball, bubble, show, Da'oh ( Daniel ) O ( O the Owl) and many more. He understand quite a bit more than just what he says. We can read a book and I can ask him where something is on the page and he will point to it. He knows the moo sound for a cow, and growling around for lions tigers bears dinosaurs etc. Of course he knows the sounds for cars ( vroom or sometimes whee ooo for his ambulance).
Mason is so much fun to be around. He continues to surprise us with how smart he is all of the time. And he is walking more and more all the time.

This week a friend of mine called me and asked me if I would like to help out at her preschool in the two year old class a couple times a week. In exchange I could bring Mason with me, even though he's not quite two yet. It has been a great experience for Mason. I bring his walker with us and he has plenty of room to roam and play with the other kids. He gets to play with toys, learn colors and shapes, do crafts, play with kids and eat snacks. I get to get out of the house and help teach Mason and other kids so its pretty great.

I have been hanging out with friends and getting out more than usual lately. I have been serving as pianist in Primary at church and once in a while get asked to play at baptisms, choir, or even funerals. I enjoy being able to serve in a way I am most comfortable! Piano is no biggie for me. I love it. I been with friends to some indoor play areas and open gyms lately for kids. So Mason gets to play and exercise and I get a little social interaction with other moms.

Malone was able to borrow a bike from someone and has been riding it to work.  I have had the car and he is getting a great workout. He has been really great at working out consistently lately.  Malone started up with Webelos again since school has started. They had a pool party last week.

We have been doing pretty great lately and are enjoying life!

August fun

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.