July/August

July proved to be just as busy. 

On the 3rd we traveled to Alamosa to spend the holiday with family. 

Milo found the one puddle in the crazy dry state at the rest area in
Colorado City

When we arrived at my parents home we were greeted by this momma deer and her brand-new baby.  The poor little guy was still so wobbly.

Our 4th of July celebration began with the traditional parade down Main Street.  Of course my grandpa's red International tractors were part of the festivities. 

That afternoon we went to Splashland with a bunch of cousins and aunt Lois.

   

Then we had a family BBQ at my parent's house. About 30 friends and family gathered for some yummy food and fun.

The evening rapped up with the professional fireworks display.

Thursday we went back to Splashland to enjoy the warm water and spent lots of time playing in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.  The weather was beautiful and we had a great time.

Friday we went back to our house stopping in Colorado Springs to pick up my cousin's daughter, Alisha.  She stayed with us for the next week.  While Alisha was here we went to the zoo and pirate's cove.  Unfortunately she was sick 3 days.  The next Sunday we met up with my cousins & aunt to get Alisha back to her mom.  We met at the Outlets at Castle Rock and did a little back to school shopping too.

Grandpa came up for a weekend, we enjoyed playing with him :0)

The end of July/beginning of August Grandma and my newphew Brett came up to spend the spend week.

We went to Big Time Trampoline Center

Swimming at our neighborhood pool

 

Went to Heritage Square and got caught in a huge rain/hail storm.  We waited it out in a storage room then resumed our fun.  The carnival rides were a bit small for Brett to enjoy but Milo loved them.  Both boys really enjoyed the Alpine slide.

Brett loved the alpine slide

but he got lost in the maze

Milo enjoyed climbing

Had a blast at Water World even though we got rained out and didn't get many pictures.

The last day we spent 12 hours at Boondock's Fun Center.

bowling, playing laser tag and arcade games...

 

bumper boats and go-carts...

 

mini golf & a giant play structure where Milo spent hours.

After Grandma and Brett left we had a week to relax a bit then Milo started Kindergarten!

Phew, we had a busy end of summer break but we had a blast!

Labor Day

We had a great start to Labor Day weekend.  Milo didn't have school on Friday or Monday or Tuesday so we ventured down to see family.  On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, and then had a photo shoot.

 

After that we played at the park and saw a few old cars at the Early Iron Festival (we got there pretty late so there weren't very many left), had dinner at Chili's and then Milo's cousins came over to spend the night.


Sunday we went to church, back to Grandma & Grandpa's for lunch, jumped on the trampoline then went out to see Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa.  The cousins spent the night again :0) but Milo started to feel sick and this is how the next few days went:



Monday was spent sleeping and managing a nasty stomach virus, Tuesday we managed to get home without too much drama and Wednesday Milo got to stay home from school and see the doctor.  Luckily he is on the mend now but still pretty calm, watching TV and napping.  Maybe he'll get back to school on Friday...

Kindergarten

 

Milo has made it through his first 2 weeks of Kindergarten!  His first week was only 3 days long, they started on a Tuesday and Friday was already a teacher work day.  This week he went all 5 days and this evening he is worn out.

 

The school is only 3 blocks away so we get to walk to and from school each day.  His school has a dress code which is kind of nice, no fighting about what to wear in the morning.  He can wear white, yellow, green or purple polo shirt and tan, blue or black pants and on Fridays jeans are allowed. 

 

The biggest concern I had about school was Milo's behavior.  His control issues have not disappeared, he gets quite upset if thing don't go his way and tantrums are not out of his normal behavior.  Milo has a male teacher which I think is good and he is very calm and matter of fact and a good authority figure.  Mr. L has a "Working Levels" system in his class and at the end of the day each the teacher let's me know what level Milo got that day. 

 

Level 3

Working hard the whole time and helping others

 

Level 2

Working hard most of the time

 

Level 1

Working hard a little bit of the time

 

Level 0

Playing most of the time

 

So far Milo has recieved two Level 1's, one Level 2 and five Level 3's including today's Level 3 + 3 star stickers.  I am very impressed with his effort so far. Several days he has cried when I have to leave (or rather when his class walks into the building and I don't) but that seems to be getting a little better.  The other concern I had and still have is his nutrition.  He can eat, at this point he chooses what and when he will eat which works out alright at home but not so much at school.  I send lunch with him every day, between his food allergies and what he is willing to eat it is just easier this way.   Kindergarteners eat lunch early (before 11) so he might not be hungry but who knows.  The problem is his behavior deteriorates when he is hungry but he won't say he's hungry and if he gets really hungry he won't eat at all no matter what you give him.  Afternoon snack is fresh fruit which he isn't great at eating but hopefully he will try out more fruit if everyone else is eating it everyday...eventually.  The kids does eat quite a bit when he gets home though so that's a good thing.  Unfortunatelly he has not been eating much lunch at all which means we will likely have to introduce tube feeds to school if he doens't eat more soon.  The thing is threre hasn't been a g-tube fed kid at his school so no one is familiar with it.  I did go through what to do if it comes out or gets pulled out.  The school nurse is there only 1 day a week but a health paraprofessional is on site full time.  She did seem kind of nervous about it coming out but I'm sure she will be fine.  If he does end up needing to be fed at school more training will have to be done.  Interestingly enough there is a little boy in Milo's class that has an NG feeding tube (the kind that goes through the nose into the stomach), if they thought a g-tube was scary I wonder what they said about the NG.

 

Academically he is doing well.  He does get OT, PT, Speech and Special Ed services so make sure he can keep up.  I'm not sure all of those services have started quite yet though.  Yesterday we got the homework assignment for this year.  So far it is learning to write letters and numbers, learning some sight words, reading stories and talking about them and counting.  Not too bad I guess I just hope Milo adjusts to his new sleeping schedule so he isn't as crabby in the evening :0)

Trach Keepsake

I can hardly believe that 3 years ago today my little boy started breathing without the assistance of a hole in his neck.

 It was a big step that hardly seemed to phase him and today he knows why he has the scar on his neck but doesn't really remember having the trach. He has been very interested in what he did as a baby so we have been talking about how he was born and he was very sick and he stayed in the hospital for a long time and how his trach helped him breathe.

For many parents a trach is something that is feared, a last resort. To me the trach was a life saver because without Milo would not have survived. I welcomed it into our lives.  I pushed the doctors to do it sooner rather than later, they were not used to that reaction.  I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive when it went away. Life has been a little simpler for the last 3 years but I cherish this piece life saving medical technology. I wanted to find a way to "honor" Milo's trach. On the day his trach was removed one of the respiratory therapists at the hospital said I should bronze one of his trachs and honestly I looked into that but at $120 is was a bit cost prohibitive. For a long time I pondered how to creativly and stylishly display a trach.

Here are two trach keepsakes that I came up with. 
The first one is a simpler design with store bought chain and beads. This one is sitting on the bookshelf with our photoalbums for everyone to see.

The other one is a little more elaborate.  I used the trach chain that we tryed to use on Milo but he was too active and his trach kept pulling out.  I got custom made rectangular pendants with the date he got his trach and the date it came out and a round pendant with his name.  I found some beads and charms at Hobby Lobby to finish it off.  I think it turned out beautifully and his hanging in my bedroom.