We spent one night in the hospital.  Mason was not at all excited about staying in the hospital, but he was a trooper and used the experience as an opportunity to catch up on his cartoons.  He was very comfortable, but didn’t sleep much at all that night, so neither did we.  I’ll admit that I got a few solid hours in the pre-dawn stretch, but I don’t think Andrea fared as well.  We were transferred to a private room Monday evening, and when we looked out the window in the morning, what did we see?  A construction site!  And not only that, it’s Grandpa’s construction site!  With a loader and forklift and dump trucks and everything!

We had a brief visit with Dr. Rozzelle, and Mason was happy to be be discharged.  The first thing we did was go see Grandpa across the street and look at the construction

Mason was so brave for his surgery that Santa brought him one present early, and it was waiting for him at Oma’s house.  He guessed it was Rokenbok before he even uncovered it, but he’s spend about 50% of his waking time playing with it ever since .

Of course, Daddy has done just as much playing as Mason has. This one took me a few hours, but it’s mostly survived Mason’s reconstruction efforts for a few days now.

We took the kids to the zoo yesterday, since the weather was so warm. Mostly we ran in circles around the reptile house. This is Mason’s impression of a crocodile:

and Giselle’s too, of course:

Mason has been ‘his old self’ practically since we came home. His sleeping schedule is still way off (he just went down at ~2am), but otherwise the hardest part has been protecting him from himself. (“No, you can’t play pillow fight right now.”) Thanks again for all the support. We can’t wait to see him without his bandages in a few weeks!

Mason had a major nose and lip revision this morning, to remove some scar tissue and hopefully open up his sinuses a bit.  This is the first major procedure he’s had since his palate repair at 10 months old.

We arrived at the hospital at 10am.  Andrea went in to do the paperwork while Mason and I parked in the parking garage at Children’s Hospital.  The process has become very familiar to us: admitting, waiting, pre-op, waiting, surgery, 2 stages of recovery, and then transfer to the room. By the time Mason and I made it inside (after driving up to the 12th floor!), Andrea had moved through the admission process and they were ready to take us up to the surgical waiting area.  Not long after, we moved into pre-op, in which they take all Mason’s vitals and ask us ‘the routine’ about allergies, prior surgeries, current medications, etc.  We also changed Mason into his awesome hospital gown.

From pre-op, Mason is allowed to have one person (Mommy, of course) go with him into the OR.  For that, Mommy has to don her own gown.  Mason was surprisingly cheerful throughout the process, and was even telling the doctors about how “the surgery is no big deal, I’m very brave” and the like.

Mason was in surgery for about 3 hours, during which Dr. Rozzelle reshaped his right nostril, removed scar tissue from his lip, and “crunched his septum over,” whatever that means.  We got to see him again in a post-op recovery room after he woke up.  He was understandably unhappy, but I was very surprised at how quickly he mellowed out–especially once he got ahold of a blue popsicle .  This is his first attempt at a smile.  Shortly afterward, we were moved up to Mason’s hospital room.

My mom brought us lunch and sat with us during the procedure and afterward.  Andrea’s parents came by later on to bring us dinner and hang out for a bit.  Other than that, it’s been a quiet evening.  I am amazed how well Mason is coping with everything.  Other than a stubborn insistence that we will *not* be spending the night in the hospital, he’s been very good about everything and has charmed every nurse he’s met along the way.  He enjoys walking the hallways with his IV stand, and playing with the tools in the 6th floor playroom.

He’s not complained of any pain, and has been surprisingly amiable all day.  While I know that he’s old enough now to remember this procedure, the flipside is that he’s also able to communicate with us about what’s bothering him, and that makes things SO MUCH EASIER than when he was a baby.  Other than the bandages on his nose and lip, and a little bit of bruising, you wouldn’t know he’d been through surgery this morning.

At this point, we’re just trying to get him to fall asleep so that we can crash too.  It’s 11pm, and he’s not slept since the procedure.  Isn’t morphine supposed to make you drowsy?

Thanks to all of our friends and family for their love and support today. We were very touched by the knowledge that so many people care about Mason.

CMU

Mason is definitely turning into a Big Boy now. He’s even got his very own chair in the living room.

Daddy went on a business trip for a few days, so Oma Opa and Omama came up to hang out with Andrea and Mason. They had a lot of fun playing at the park.

We took Mason down to Alma’s homecoming. I’m pretty sure he thought the parade was in his honor.

We stopped by the dance studio while we were there, and Mason just *had* to show off his musical prowess.

driving…

Carpentry…

Video games…

…and…learning how to pee. (We’ll work on ‘where’ later)

Cute pictures for the month:

Today’s episode: Mason eating! Everyone loves watching a baby smear green goo all over their face, don’t they? Stick through the end and you’ll be rewarded with a rare glimpse of Mason using “The Force” on daddy. (I swear, I did *not* teach him that! He picked it up after seeing Yoda on television!)

Mason and his girlfriend Kara had a finger-painting party.

Here’s the finished painting…

…and the finished artists.

One of our all time FAVORITE pictures:

Tim and Emily got married on the 19th. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and hanging out with Josh, Kathy and Ty.

(We could have done without the drive though)

For those who haven’t seen it: Mason has been practicing to be an acrobat someday.

At the reception…

…”playing” with Ty again.

Our new sister-in-law Emily had a bridal shower, which gave us the opportunity to see a lot of family.

I think there’s something in your ear, Uncle Tim!

Peekaboo!

Ty and Mason are old enough now to start playing with each other…

…sort of.

We also were able to spend some time with Andrea’s family.

Mason is getting ready for hockey season.

That Oma sure is funny!

Mason has taken up gardening…

…in between workouts, of course.

May 2008

It’s crazy to look back on these pictures and see how different he was only a few months ago.

Mason turned 1 on May 12th, so of course we threw a big party for him. Lots and lots of people came to see him, and he of course loved all the people and decorations

Oma, Opa, and Oma-ma (great grandma) were up for the Easter weekend, and definitely enjoyed their Mason-time.

Dad doesn’t get a smile, so much as a smirk.  I probably deserved it.

Mason is just starting to become interested in real food.  We’ve been experimenting with the baby “puffs” that dissolve easily in his mouth.  So far he likes to spit them out, more than swallow them.  In this particular case, he looked just like he had buck-teeth (The puff is shaped like an “A”, and the bottom of the “A” was sticking out).

We’ve mostly-baby-proofed the apartment, but Mason is always trying to get over the gate we installed.  We got a shot of him mid-escape (he had a little assistance–he normally can’t scale it himself ).

We caught this one after bath time one day…

I think he looks like one of those Treasure Troll Dolls that they had when we were kids in this one.  You know, the ones with brightly colored tufts of hair sticking straight up?

For some reason, Mason likes doors–especially the hinges on them.  Sometimes he likes to play in this little corner of the apartment with doors on 3 sides.  Sometimes dad has to play down there too…

And of course, Mason is always a hit with the residents of Larzelere Hall.  It will be interesting this summer when all of the students are gone and he has fewer people doting on him all time.  Here are two of Andrea’s staff members, Amy and Adam, with their favorite resident:

That’s it for now…tune in next time!  We’ve got a real video camera on order, so when I get some quality footage I’ll make sure to post it.

Mason is eating much better now.  He’s even using a sippy cup, but ONLY for water–he refuses any other liquid.  He won’t eat food that has formula mixed in (turns out that was a big part of the problem), so we’ve resorted to PediaSure for nutritional content, but at least he’s eating somewhat voluntarily.  Hopefully things will continue to get easier.  He also occasionally likes to chew (not suck!) on pacifiers, which make him look extra cute.

Now that he’s eating (and we don’t have any pre-surgery maintenance to worry about), we can actually use babysitters once in awhile instead of being home ALL the time.  Mason seems to be pretty comfortable with the idea–this is one of his girlfriends/babysitters ‘Nenna’ (Jenna).

Mason is very mobile now.  He crawls as fast as lightning, and he’s getting very brave about walking with support.  He actually took two steps last weekend, but we’re pretty sure that was a fluke.  He’s also very curious, and likes to get into everything–especially drawers.  It’s tough to keep him away!

Mason’s hair is coming in quickly now, and it’s now long enough to entertain us .  This is our favorite look for him:

The residents in our building LOVE Mason.  One evening they spontaneously built him a castle, complete with an observatory, dragon, several rooms and a hallway, functioning doors, and a mailbox.  Mason loved it, of course.  Thanks, guys!

That’s it for now!  Stay tuned for pictures of Mason in his Easter sweater-vest!