Lawn Mowing, "Tawah Building," and Book Reading

The day we brought Asher home from his surgery he we pretty drunk, like I mentioned before.  However, it didn't take him long to bounce back.  Dad brought out the lawn mower and Asher was bound and determined to help him out.  I thought it was so cute I had to get some photos.  

You can see that Durrant has his earphones in.  Asher will usually insist on taking one of D's headphones and listening to music along with him.  That usually leaves D to hold Asher in one hand so they can both listen to music, and mow the lawn with the other.  By the time they are done, Dad is DONE. :)

 Some very dear friends of ours were kind enough to bring Asher a get-well gift.  He LOVES it.  Here is a photo of him building his "tawah (tower)."  Now, his favorite word in the mornings (walk) has grown to two favorite words.  We do a lot of tower building. :)

I took this photo this morning before church.  I thought it was very appropriate for Father's Day.  Nothing like layin' on the floor reading books with Dad.  Awesome.  

 

Asher's First Surgery

We made it!  It was rough going for a while (at least for mom) but we are now home and are ready to get back to life.  The surgery went well, only took about 20 minutes, and the doc said everything looked really good.  At the moment we have a kid drunk on pain meds who has the munchies and listening to Pink Floyd and Yellow Submarine (courtesy of his dad).  We are pretty entertained. :)

Anyway, here are some of the photos of the day:

Dressed to impress!!! :)

They have some pretty cool toys here, Mom.

Right before they took him back, looking drunk on drugs. :)

Made it through, and snoozing in Mom's arms.

Attempting, and then successfully taking off the band-aid from the IV.  He didn't like it so much.

Communicating Hydroseal

So, some not so awesome news in this post. Asher is going in for a surgical procedure Monday morning. Evidently, it is a fairly common, easy procedure, but I'm still a bit nervous about it. Anyway, here is what is going on:

When Asher was born his Doc said something about a communicating hydroseal, but said they usually fix themselves over time and not to worry about it. Well, when Asher had the flu last week I noticed his little sac was strangely lopsided. I got online to WebMD (NEVER do this!), and started freaking out as I read about hernias, etc. We called the doc and made an appointment.

Evidently, when little boys are forming their testicles actually come out of the abdomen. And their little sacs have a sleeve-like structure that they slide down until they get to their permanent spot. That sleeve is supposed to close off. Asher's didn't. Currently there is fluid going in and out of that sleeve, which isn't life threatening. However, eventually some of the intestines could find their way into his sac and that could cause some major problems. Therefore, Monday morning we are going in to get him drained and sewn up so he doesn't get a hernia playing T-ball when he's 8 years old or something.

Durrant keeps telling me that it is a common procedure and not to worry about it. But, I confess, I am worried. I know it doesn't make any sense, but I don't like the fact that my child who is less than 18 mo. old is going under the knife - I just can't be comfortable with that. I called my bro-in-law, who is going to be a nurse anesthetist, and told him he had to make me feel better. I called my bro, who is going to be a urologist, and asked him if we really needed to do this. If I had a phone number for God, I think I would call him and ask Him a few other questions (hope that isn't too sacrilegious).

However, as much as I'm not looking forward to this, I realize it is a small "trial" in order to prevent a bigger one in the future. I'm sure everything will go fine and Asher won't even notice the difference (it's same-day surgery, and he should be back to normal Mon afternoon). And then I can go on and worry about how to pay for all this!!! :)

Ah, life, aren't you grand.

Anyway, along with my goal of keeping everyone updated I have shared the latest. And if I'm brave I will try and bring the camera so I can adequately document my son's first surgery for all of you who are so far away. :)

Goin' on a walk!

Okay, so I'm trying harder to keep you up to date, so here goes:

Asher LOVES to go on walks. Really, he just loves being outside. So, the first thing he says every morning when he wakes up is "wok" (pointing to the door just in case I missed it). These are a few of the pictures I took this morning as we walked to the store. I think he looks pretty cute in his shades. :)



Until next time... :)

Catch Up Time...

Wow, has it really been since Christmas since I last posted pics of Asher??? Okay, I am a slacker. Well, here is a bunch we have taken since then:

Here is The Christmas Story snowsuit all over again except in baby blue. I loved it, Asher didn't so much.

I have to time my dish-doing for when Asher is either with Dad or asleep. If not, I have discovered through examples like below one of the lessons you learn when you are a parent: dishwashers are FREE GAME.


Cousin Hope was here for a few hours and we played ourselves silly during that time. Here is some of the evidence:

And last but not least, tub shot. Great times were had by all.

Asher wearing Mom's shoes (he does this a lot, he really likes the heels...) during our first picnic of the year.

Before and after of Asher's first ever haircut. It was a little complicated, but we got 'er done. :)

Playin' with the dog at Grampa Hunter's house (May 2010). Don't know exactly what is so cool over there but it's pretty awesome, let me tell you!

That's all for now. Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping you up to date. Until then, we love ya! :)

Webcam Available!

Hey All!

So, unfortunately our old laptop died. (sob, sob...) As a result, we had to get a new one for me to take to work. Bonus: the new laptop has an installed webcam! So, all of you who have this capability we have a skype account. Search for us: durrant.and.jill.pettey and we can visit! :) 20th century - here we come!!!!!

Kitchen Before and After

Thanks to the desperate need to provide the illusion of having a clean house, we decided to clean the house for the Superbowl party we hosted. As a nice side-note we had to clean the kitchen as well. Yes - I finally took some pictures. And, miracle of miracles, I finally remembered that I have pictures while Asher is taking his nap. As a result, I am fulfilling my promise to post pics of our house. Cross your fingers that I can get this done before naptime is over... :)


Okay, it looks like I only took one photo of the kitchen before we tore everything apart. In the bottom left hand corner you can see what looks like a counter. That is actually a portable dishwasher, and was what I had as a counter for about 6-8 weeks. Those pictures are below.




Doesn't even look like the same room, does it? We decided to go to Lowe's and do the prefab counters. We were on a bit of a budget, so we did the unfinished oak stuff. We did all the sanding, staining and sealing. It took a while, but we got her there and we are proud of it.

Don't mind the mess - it was simply always that way. I figured I might as well give you a realistic version of our life for almost 2 months. The reason for the delay is the counter-top. We initially thought we could do a patch job on the stuff you can get at Lowe's. Then, we realized that wouldn't work because of the splash guard against the wall. Anyway, long story short, we decided to have a professional come in and do a custom counter for us. This worked out pretty well for us and the pics below are the final result.

Hark, what is that I hear? Alas, nap-time is now over. Till next time, my friends!