Visiting The Roitsch's!

This past weekend we had the privilege of visiting Charles, Jordie, and Samson in Birmingham. We caught a flight out Friday afternoon and came with a backpack full of toys, books, food, and movies. Thankfully the flight wasn't full and we had the whole back row of the plane to ourselves. Tyler was LOVING it! He kept saying "airplane zoom" and "Tyler's chair". He wanted to sit in is own chair and put the window shade up and down, up and down… 

Brian stayed for the weekend and headed back early Monday morning (due to a cancelled flight Sunday night) but Tyler and I stayed until Tuesday night. Friday night we bathed the boys and then put them down and spent a few hours just catching up. 

Tyler wasn't so keen on sharing the bathtub. 

Best friends!

Saturday we met up with Kyle and Liz and spent the afternoon at a state park. Tyler loved throwing rocks into the water and running around in the sand. Kyle and Brian offered Charles $50 each if he would swim out to the rope and back in the cool 50 degree weather. Charles will do anything for money :).

Samson (11 months) & Tyler (21 months)

Tyler showing Samson the wonderful world of Gru from Despicable Me.

Sunday morning we headed to a coffee shop for breakfast and then played at this awesome park!

After nap time we headed to the Birmingham Zoo and thankfully they had Tyler's favorites…hippos and rhinos. 

and yes, Charles is wearing a tank...

elephants

rhino!

Monday Brian flew back to Dallas and Charles had to go to work so it was just the girls with the littles. Tyler and I offered to watch Samson while Jordie had some alone time :). That afternoon we headed to the Science Museum. We only had about an hour to play but it was so much fun!

Tuesday afternoon I headed to the airport with Tyler all on my own. Honestly, I was very nervous. I checked the flight to make sure no one was sitting next to me since we didn't get Tyler his own seat and thankfully we were good to go. We watched a lot of movies for about 10 minutes and ate lots of snacks. He did great and only had trouble while we had to taxi. He was so happy to see his daddy especially since he brought Tyler a balloon and M&Ms.  Overall we had a great time and are so thankful for our friendship with the Roitsch's! 

Happy to be home!

RSV = NO FUN!

Poor Tyler has not had very good luck this winter. In November he had bronchiolitis which had us in the ER for half a day but this time we got hit a lot harder with RSV. 

Monday, Tyler woke up with a runny nose, cough, and a very light fever but I thought it was just a cold. He didn't seem to be acting any different so I kind of dismissed it. Tuesday morning (New Years Eve) he woke up and it was a lot worse. Now he would cough and then sneeze and when your kid has a runny nose and starts sneezing…well its just not sanitary! ;)  I also noticed that he was having labored breathing which was similar to when he had bronchiolitis. I decided to take him to the doctor just to make sure it was a cold. Well…I was very wrong. Poor baby had RSV. They gave him a breathing treatment and told me to come back on Thursday since they were closed on New Years Day. I took him home and went and got a nebulizer so I could begin giving him breathing treatments at home every 4 hours. 

Getting his first breathing treatment in the doctors office

Poor baby was not feeling good!

We went back to the doctor on Thursday morning and he wasn't doing better. His pulse ox (the oxygen in his blood) was 89 and normal is 95 or better. He had developed a double ear infection so we did another breathing treatment and were sent home with 2 medications. They told me to call back if he was having any trouble breathing or seemed to get worse. After his nap he woke up and his cough was worse and he was so upset which is not normal for him. After he finally calmed down I called the doctor to see if I could come in one more time because I was scared to put him to bed overnight unless I knew he was ok. When we got there the doctor said he was still getting worse so he said we needed to be admitted to the hospital. Thankfully Brian had met me at the doctor so we just headed over together. We had no idea what to expect…. 

We got in a room at Plano Presby and Tyler was quickly hooked up to a pulse ox machine and put on oxygen. Basically they drew blood, gave him shots, breathing treatments and deep suctioning every 4 hours. It was pretty much the hardest thing I have ever had to see. Thankfully, Brian helped hold him down during all of the painful things and I left the room. When they finished I ran in and took Tyler and snuggled with him in the hospital bed we shared. Basically, they monitored his oxygen around the clock and wouldn't let us go home until his oxygen levels stayed above 90 all night. Finally, Saturday night he made it all night without oxygen! We were SOOO happy to go home and sleep in our beds. We had so many friends offer to come bring us things at the hospital but because of how contagious Tyler was we had to say no. I would hate to get any one else's baby sick! Thankfully, both of our parents were able to come up and visit. Tyler enjoyed watching cartoons pretty much non stop, having his paci all day, and getting whatever he wanted. :) He became very attached to me and says "momma" and "hold me" pretty much all day long now. I am so thankful that he is pretty much 100% now (a week later). His ears are both still really infected but the shots he was given should heal it in time. Here are some pictures from our time in the hospital. 

 

Get us OUT OF HERE! Lets go home :).

Christmas 2013

December was such a fun month filled with lots of Christmas activities! Here are some pictures of our favorite things we did.

  

Train Exhibit at Northpark with our MOPS group. Tyler was excited for about 5 minutes and then decided he was done and ran out. :) Maybe next year it will hold a little more of his attention. Tyler and cousin Will giving me a big hug! It is so fun having a cousin that is only 4 months older than Tyler. These two will be big trouble some day!

Making and eating Christmas cookies! 

We had a crazy ice storm hit Dallas and lasted what seemed like forever! Don't be fooled…that is not snow but ice! Tyler liked it until he fell down and then he was done. He has no idea how lucky that both December's since he has been alive have had snow/ice. Hopefully next year if it happens again we can go sledding :).

Tyler loved looking at the Christmas lights in Addison. This was our first time coming to this park and we will definitely make it a yearly tradition. It is so beautiful! Obviously Tyler was way more interested in the lights than smiling for a picture. 

And then we went to see Santa…

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This year we spend Christmas Eve and morning with Brian's family so we did an early Christmas dinner with my family on the Monday before Christmas. Tyler got a kitchen from my parents and a lawn mower from his cousin Tanner. 

He loves bringing me coffee, corn, and filling up his cup in the "water dispenser" on the fridge. :)

Christmas Eve we headed over to Brian's parents house for dinner. After dinner they always sing Christmas songs and Tyler LOVED it. He said "more more" after every song. 

After diner and songs we let the kids watch a short Christmas movie and then it was off to bed so Santa could get everything ready!

Matching PJs!

Christmas morning we woke up and let Tyler open some of his gifts. Santa brought him an Elmo that sings and hugs as well as a Batman car. His stocking had an M&M cup with a swirly straw, an etch-a-sketch, and a Mr. Potato head. Who would have thought but the "tato" is one of his favorite toys now! LOL

The rest of the day was spent opening gifts and playing. It was such a fun day!

Making the birthday cake for Jesus! 

What do you do with all the empty wrapping paper rolls? Hit each other!

We ended the morning by having a silly string fight! 

Merry Christmas!