The Jones girls all grown up!

The first of many crazy days with all three of the Jones grandchildren. Baby Evie is home and doing great! What a pretty girl!

I cant believe we all had our first babies within 10 months of eachother. They are pretty lucky kids to have such fun cousins...

Beautiful Baby Evie...

Bennett being busy busy...

Home sweet home!

Our little jail bird before we left... We are home and settling in... cleaning out all that medical equipment from the nursery... man does that feel good!

I cant wait to post some pictures of our time with our new neice Evelyn Belle Petersen this Saturday... So proud of my sister and Uncle Kippy today. She is beautiful!

Our FIRST giggle!

Bennett wasn't laughing yet when he got the trach in March. This is the very FIRST real outloud giggle we have ever heard! He started doing it and I grabbed the camera right away.

At the hospital the cribs pull up really high for the kiddos that tend to want to get out... This is the first time we have had to put him in a crawler crib and Bennett thinks it is really fun.

He is doing great! We couldn't be happier!

Bennett can't wait to giggle at his newest cousin that is being born RIGHT NOW... Welcome baby Evie... we love you so much already!

He did it!

Bennett got his trach removed!

Here is a very exciting video... well not that exciting but the outcome is huge for our family. He is still being observed here at the hospital but so far so good. It is looking like we will be heading home tomorrow.

He is sleeping and acting like nothing really happened.

It is actually kinda hard to tell when the Dr. removed the trach, it was right before the little cough in the very beginning.

Also, that is a different baby crying... we had a very vocal neighbor :)

10 months already!

As difficult and exciting as the last year has been for us, it has sure flown by! We can not believe he will be a year old in just a couple short months. We have had a great week hearing all his new sounds and enjoying our last week with Stacey, our day nurse that will be moving this weekend.

He has been a funny eater since we have known him :) First he loved his bottle, then he got his trach and hated it, then he had his tongue surgery and hated it more. He was finally getting the hang of eating and loving to eat from his bottle when I tried to feed him baby food... this was not his favorite thing no matter how pretty we made it. But, being the stuborn, independant child that he is, he loves to feed himself little snacks like puffs, and especially these biscutts... he LOVES them and loves the mess they make even more. We are exploring new foods but not too worried about pushing him and just letting him enjoy it.

We have nursing here at night to watch him sleep because of the trach and equipment he has. When someone can't come in to watch him I get to stay awake all night and make sure no alarms go off (which they dont, so it makes it very boring).

The nurses called in sick a couple nights in a row this week and I finally caved to letting him sleep in our bed for a while so that I could try to relax. This is Bennett finding the beginning of his slumber party with mommy and daddy fun... lots of junk to hook up to a little boy just to sleep... thankfully after the trach is out this will all be gone!!

Bennett has not quite figured out crawling but he loves to pull him self up and stand to play. I think he thinks this is how he is going to get around in the world so he is trying to get it started this way. He has this new table that he can play with standing up like a big boy and he loves it.

Bennett goes to the Dr. on Monday... we are hopeful he will be getting his trach removed making most of the craziness of the last year the past... but we couldn't be prouder of where he is after such an eventful first ten months!

Don't Lick

When I said "Don't Lick" I should have been more specific.

They sure love eachother and we have been so happy with how gentle Hurlie is with him.

Bennett just being cute this afternoon. We talked to the Doctors today and it looks like we will be trying again with the trach removal on October 19th!

Lots of new sounds!

Bennett is trying out the new sounds today and has started sounding a bit like an angry elf.

He was actually pretty happy but just sounds mad. I am sure it will take him a while to get used to it.

We are teaching him how to sing Happy Birthday for his Auntie Katie tomorrow :)

Most beautiful sound in the world

I promise he is happier today than it seems in this video but it definately captures the new sound in our home.

I hope to post lots of cute giggles tomorrow. We are trying to give his little throat and voice some time to heal and rest.

How this works... His trach is now a smaller tube and taking up less space in his windpipe. So when we put a little cap on it allows for air to sneak around it and come out his mouth and nose. Hopefully with lots of practice over the next couple weeks he will be great at it and they will just pull the trach out!

Obviously this makes for a quiet little cry but still the most beautiful sound to a momma that hasn't heard her little man make a sound since he was 2 months old.

New Plan.

We are all home after a very uneventful day at the hospital. When the surgeon went to take a look into Bennett's airway they discovered he had quite a bit of scar tissue that can come from irritation. The surgeon said it was common in active little guys like Bennett.

They removed the scar tissue and felt like his throat would be too sore to try to remove the trach today. He sent us home to heal up and we have a plan to try again after a few weeks of healing.

They put in a smaller trach which allows him to breathe through his mouth around the trach a tiny bit. This makes it so he can practice over the next couple weeks. He loves his new sounds he is making today. Hopefully they will just get louder in the next couples weeks and he will be a pro when we try all of this again.

Thankfully the next time he wont have to be in an operating room or under anesthesia.

Bennett did wonderful today up at the hospital. He was a trooper and he always gets so many "oh my goodness what a cutie" which makes him smile even bigger.

Thank you for everyone's good thoughts and prayers, although it wasn't the outcome we had hoped for, Bennett is very happy playing at home and I think he has already forgotten he spent most of the morning at the hospital.