Recovery Months

Lane turned 30 last year and I failed to do something exciting like I wanted to because it was right after I had Kobe and I was having back issues, so I was a little preoccupied. I was determined to make up for it this year but then I decided to have surgery for his birthday instead. I'm such a good wife. So 31 was pretty low key for Lane. I got him a small gun safe and printed off a picture of a Glock and instructions on how to get his license/carrying permit. It was basically my stamp of approval for him to buy a gun. He didn't waste any time and ended up buying a pistol and a shotgun! ~ I would have been a little upset about the two guns, however, the cost of the two ended up being what I had found for just one. Fair enough. ~ He also got a new golf caddy, bag, and shoes, so he's all set for all the golf tournaments this summer! And he played three days in a row when I went to California. 

Erin and Russell sold their home in Vegas and moved up here, so now we have the whole Larson gang here! It's fun having all the little cousins together to play, plus their beautiful new addition, Ada! We love that little bug. Rex has become every one's little buddy. He's adjusting to being the "older" kid, being around Tate and Kobe, but those boys love him. He's become my buddy too because for some reason he wanted to play with my right off the bat. I love it because I haven't been able to pick up Kobe and so he hasn't wanted to come sit on my lap or play with me as much. Rex made up for it a little bit.

Kobe copies everything Rex does, like these yoga moves. Rex copies everything Tobie or Faith do. It's pretty stinkin' cute.

Kobe got to play with Heather's niece and nephew for a day. He sure likes being around other kids (mostly just observing).

I had my first checkup after surgery and they said everything was healing well and looking good. It's been a rough recovery for me. The surgeon told me that the first three or so weeks after this surgery would be hard and that I would wish I didn't get the surgery. He was absolutely right. It was painful beyond measure, but mostly depressing. I had such a hard time emotionally because I couldn't pick up Kobe, he would get frustrated with me because I wouldn't pick him up or get on the floor and play with him, I constantly had to have someone around to help; which I'm completely grateful for those who did. I just felt like I lost every ounce of independence, and I was tired of being medicated, and coming off of medications was difficult and I felt like crap pretty consistently. As you could imagine (if you weren't around to witness it firsthand), I was always in a bad mood. I knew it was short term and that in the long run this would be best, but I had a hard time focusing on that positive aspect. So I am now expressing my gratitude for the service that has been given to me by wonderful friends and family. Lane has been amazing. He never showed any signs of being impatient or frustrated with me when he had every reason to. He did everything for me to make me as comfortable as possible. 

My dear friend, Laurel also has been incredible. Very last minute, she arranged her schedule to fly with me and Kobe to California so that I could attend my sister's sealing. I even had a bad cold when we left and she sat right next to me on the plane, consuming my germs and spent her time down there being sick as well. She sacrificed time and money and has shown an immense amount of patience towards me and I am eternally grateful for her friendship. Because of her, my family was able to see my little mister, and I was able to go through the temple with my sister and be a part of her beautiful family's sealing ceremony. They were sealed on May 31st, the date Lane and I got married. Although Lane wasn't with me, it was the perfect way to remember our special day 6 years ago. It brought back so many wonderful memories and reminders of going through the temple with my sweet husband. 

What better way to recover from a surgery than to be at the beach?! I would love to just lay on the beach and nap every day of my life. 

It was so much fun watching these kiddos interact. Reagan has become such a beautiful, sweet little girl. Her smile is just so heartwarming. I wish that I lived closer to be a part of her growing up, and that Kobe could have his other cousins close. Yes, I said cousins. Britt's preggers again! YAYYY!!! She's due in November. I can't wait to find out what she's having!

Mimi wasn't able to make it out to the temple but we were able to meet her and Uncle Gary for lunch the next day. It's always fun catching up with her and seeing how happy she gets to see her great-grandbabies!

Reagan showing Kobe the ropes on eating dog food.

Everything was a competition with Reagan and Kobe. They are so funny to watch!

Family time

Now that Kobe is a year old, I guess I've stopped doing my monthly updates on him. So here's my update:

He just keeps getting cuter and I'm continually thinking that's not possible.

Words:

Dada

Mama

Ba/ba-ba = baba (bottle)

Bah = ball

Kah = car (his current favorite as he points to cars)

Kah-kah = cracker

Uh-oh

NO (his favorite)

Hi

Go

Hey

Muh/Nuh = more

Heh = here (when handing you something)

Pa = pop (popping bubbles)

Mmmm (when he finds something tasteful in his mouth)

Nana/nanana = banana (or Nana sometimes)

and a bunch of jibberish that cracks us up because his facial expressions show that he thinks we understand what he's saying

Loves/Activities:

Cars

Books

The garbage truck

Juice

Throwing things

Balls

Going outside

Rearranging furniture

Dancing

Dogs

Monkeys

Climbing

Being chased (if you're crawling and he's running)

Paw Patrol & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Snuggling with Daddy

Anything with Daddy

Sharing his snacks

Nana (Vicki) retired from working at Lincoln Elementary School after about 17? years, so we stopped and surprised her with some goodies the other day. The kids thought it was fun to be showcased in the office lobby.

Kobe loves his chair that we got him in December. He climbs in it all day and sometimes sits in it for 15 minutes straight if his shows are on and he has his cup of cereal. 

Like I said, he loves his dad. Whenever Lane hints at leaving or even just going out of the room, Kobe (whom is already following him around) starts grabbing at Lane's shorts for him to pick him up and starts crying. As soon as Lane leaves the room, especially outside, Kobe starts bawling! It's officially the end of the world. I find it pretty humorous.  

Kobe always has a car in each hand (when he's not eating his snacks or carrying a sippy). He will remind you over and over of what he is holding. 

He sometimes loves on me :)

He loves playing with his basketball hoop and bin of balls. 

Kobe and Rex are buddies.

We have a picky eater on our hands. He spits a lot of food out of his mouth. I can't figure out what he is picky with though because he will spit something out of his mouth one day, and then if his cousin is eating it the next he will eat a lot of it. Sometimes he doesn't like something when he's sitting in his chair, but then if he sees us eating it when he's walking around and he takes a bite he'll like it. He's a weirdo. We still give him mostly baby food because he's so random. 

Foods he likes:

Bananas

Mac-n-cheese

Applesauce

Meatballs

PBJ sandwiches

Pizza

Yogurt

French fries

Anything chocolate

Mashed Potatoes

Ice cream

He got his second set of hives, but these ones were worse than the first time. We never figured out what they were from before and especially couldn't figure it out this time. The doctor just said that sometimes they just break out in hives. She didn't think it was a food allergy because it didn't happen right away. The hives went away though so that's that. 

My friend, Heather and I have been talking about going to Seattle to shop and eat for about a year now and we finally did it! There's not much in good ol' Wenatchee so it may not seem exciting to others to just have Panda Express and Jamba Juice but I crave it and it was delicious! It was such a fun day of driving, eating and shopping with my gal pal and little mister. We talked about how cool (or not cool) we were in high school and had some funny conversations getting stuck in traffic. 

Lane hurt his knee recently playing ball and golf and Hoopfest is this coming weekend, so hopefully he can have fun and not injure himself more! Here's to June flying by!

Beginning of May Madness

April whizzed by and now my baby is 13 months. Just in the last month he has turned into a new kid. He is walking/running everywhere. He has learned how to pick things up and put them in/over things, such as the garbage can, down the stairs, in the clothes hamper, in the food cupboards, and I'm sure if the bathroom door/toilet was left open more often we would find things in the toilet as well. He is busy all day long rearranging his toys around the house. He loves getting into the recycling stuff and taking all the soda cans out, sipping the last little drops and then throwing them. He has quite the arm, and loves throwing everything! We think he might be left-handed. He does things with both hands but it's mostly left, and his throw is stronger with left. It's something I had never thought about I guess just because Lane and I are both right-handed. It could make teaching writing and such interesting. He is Mr. Jabber Jaw as well now. He has said "Mama/Mum-um" before a few times but ever since I went to the hospital, he has been saying, "Mama" a whole lot. I love it! So he says: Mama, Dada, bah (ball), baba, hi, bah (bye--with a wave), uh-oh, cah (car--sometimes), wah-uh (water), and heh (here). He is definitely understanding a lot. I love watching him learn and understand things, and hearing him attempt words. Along with all his babbles he has learned how to squawk/scream; which is not a pleasant noise. He makes up for his not-so-cute noises and activities with his sweet smile and dimples. We love him to death! 

Kobe had his first Easter and Easter basket, and egg hunt. Oma got him his first basket, and because of travelling and back issues I was lazy and didn't get around to doing anything cute for him this year. So the Easter bunny reused Oma's basket with a couple items, and added sippy cups and bubbles, and filled his sports eggs with Cheerios, puffs, and Craisins. He doesn't know any different. Next year we'll have more fun with it. 

When I was pregnant with Kobe, there were about 5 other women in my ward that were pregnant and due around the same time. Last year we took a picture of those babies, and there are even more now around the same age. We did our best a year later, this year, to take a picture of them all again. Nursery should be fun, haha!

Laurel and Ranzy joined our family dinner and Easter egg hunt this year. They're basically family and it was fun to have them!

Kobe just bein' cute.

At his cousin, Tobie's baseball game

Taterbug at his brother's baseball game

We tried taking Kobe to the carnival but he was too little to ride the rides so we just walked around

Playing with his neighbor, Quentin DeJong

He loves to snuggle his monkey when he sleeps. I can't handle how cute it is.

Watching Daddy play in the Appleblossom 3on3 basketball tournament. 

Sharing his love with Popo. Popo went into the hospital when I got out of surgery. He wasn't feeling well. 

Kobe loves his daddy. He just sits there and plays by/on him and randomly snuggles.

Doing his soda can business

I have never had surgery before, on anything. The idea of it terrified me. I had a nervous pit in my stomach for over a week before it happened. I knew it was the best thing for me because I was going on two months of being on heavy medication and still hurting and was limited on what I could do. We are wanting another baby soon and I especially didn't want this happening while I was pregnant. I got a blessing the day before surgery and had many people fast for me and felt a little more ease and comfort prior to surgery. I was still very nervous. I didn't know until Monday, the day before, what time my surgery would be but they had told me that it would most likely be first thing in the morning. When they called me Monday they said to come in at noon. Noon doesn't seem that late on a regular day, with regular sleep, on a day where you can wake up and eat, and when you don't have a child to wake up to at 6am. But when you have to fast starting at midnight (I started earlier because I didn't feel like eating after our 7pm dinner), and your baby wakes up at 6am, and you are nervous about surgery, and you've already cleaned the house and packed, noon is a long time to wait for! We went to a couple stores just so I would calm down because I was pacing around the house like a crazy person. Finally we dropped Kobe off with Laurel and checked into the hospital. The prep for surgery could have taken a half hour, but with all the waiting and stuff it took almost 3 hours before they wheeled me into the OR. I got in my gown, answered questions, got hooked up to my IV (I hate IVs), got blood drawn, answered more questions, talked with the anesthesiologist and surgeon, had the process explained to me and then finally the nurse came in for me and said it was time. The nurse gave me the "pre anesthesia" med through my IV and told me it would make me drowsy and calm. The anesthesiologist called it "liquid courage." I said goodbye to Lane and was nervously wheeled into that cold OR with all those big scary machines and bright lights. I remember stating my name for another nurse, getting really tired, and hearing the nurse say she was going to give me some oxygen, and then I took a half hour nap.

...Only it was a 3.5 hour nap. I woke up in the recovery room on my left side. I actually wasn't totally confused or out of it. I knew where I was and what had happened. I just remember feeling a tight, pulling pain across my lower back and was uncomfortable. I did feel like I was going to throw up right away so I told the nurses and they quickly gave me some nausea medicine that set in almost instantly, luckily. I asked them if they could help me move to my right side and so they moved me and I was trying to get comfortable. One of the nurses said, "Oh ya, you just moved to your side while you were sleeping," so I said, "Oh well then can I lay on my back because I am not comfortable." That was much better. I was in there for about 20 more minutes and then the nurse said my room was ready so she wheeled me upstairs, and I was so happy to see Lane in there waiting for me. 

I had a rough couple days of recovery. My surgery was Tuesday and I wasn't ready to go home Wednesday but the surgeon thought I was ready Thursday so he set everything up for me to go home that day. I wasn't ready at all. I felt like all the nurses were trying to push me out but I didn't feel like I made any progress. The first time I stood up on Wednesday to use the restroom was a fail because I got close to passing out/throwing up, so I had my first bedpan experience. Bleh! I did okay the second and third time but nausea started setting in again so I warned the nurses that I would probably call the next time I had to pee, and sure enough that night (Wednesday night) I passed out in the bathroom. It took about an hour for them to get my blood pressure up, give me fluids in my IV and finish with my vitals and medications. I don't know why but all the nurses would leave my door open and it made me so angry. I couldn't sleep as it was, but when I could see the lights from the hall, and hear everything rolling around out there and talking all night long, I was so edgy. I didn't sleep at all the night before either so I'm sure that didn't help with my moods and attempts to stand. So after the nurses finally left my room that night, and they left the door open, I had a break down. I bawled my eyes out like a freaking baby for 45 minutes. I know I could have pushed the call button for them to shut my door but I felt like I was being annoying (I know. It's their job. That's just what was going through my head). Then I finally fell asleep and they came in to give me more meds. All day Thursday I would try to sleep and then someone would walk in the door right as I drifted off, and I had physical/occupational therapists trying to get me to try moving, and I was just so frustrated and tired and in pain. They decided (long after I had told them I wasn't ready) that I wasn't ready to go home yet. I fell asleep trying to eat my lunch. I could not keep my eyes open. I took a good nap finally and was woken up in a grog by the physical therapist. I knew I needed to try to move but beforehand I was just hurting too much and was way too tired. This time I stood up ok and was able to get to the bathroom and walk down the hall a little ways with a walker. I finally felt like I was making progress. I felt ok enough to finally try taking a shower. The surgeon had ripped off my big bandage and I felt itchy all over. The occupational therapist (whom was a very sweet lady and very helpful) came in as the nurse was getting me set up and she took over. She was talking me ear off and trying to get me to do more than I was wanting, like blow drying my hair. I was getting so annoyed and anxious and overwhelmed. Like I said, she was a very nice lady, but my exhaustion and pain were getting the best of me. I went on a couple more little walks with Lane that evening and after a good night's sleep Thursday night I finally felt ready enough to get the heck out. I had so many wonderful visitors, and a lot of good nurses, and friends helping me out by sleeping in the room with me (Laurel), scratching my itchy legs (Laurel and Ranzy), and helping me stand up and get to the bathroom or roll over in bed. I hope to return favors one day to all these wonderful people.  

The pain I experience in my back now is completely different than before. It now just feels like my muscles were sliced (because they were) and I can feel them healing every day. I feel the need for physical therapy and strengthening my core. I have gotten over the worst part though and am on the high road to recovery. 

I finally got a few minutes of snuggles from my sweet boy.