Cars Party

Saturday February 6, 2016 at 4:00 pm we celebrated Liam's 2nd birthday! Tadd's parents came from Arizona, Jill came from San Diego, Katie came from Florida, my parents were there and lots of friends came to the party! It was an absolute blast! Liam took a great nap perfectly timed by my family in order to maximize the fun to be had. Katie decorated the house with a car wash and other car cutouts and we picked up balloons, a fancy cake, chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A and pizza for the adults. 

We had stop light krispies, spare tire oreo cookies, and other snacks to go around. All the adults hung out, ate pizza and enjoyed each others company while Liam ate his heart out on oreos, mac n' cheese and of course frosting and sprinkles! He was compltely spoiled with love and attention from adults and kids alike. His older kid friends Emma and Own entertained him by participating in the car wash despite maybe feeling a little old for it. Liam was able to show off for all the adults and danced and ran and played and screamed and definitely had a blast. 

He got so many wonderful gifts including tractors, cars, playdoh, books, clothes and even a big boy bed and step stool. He opened every single present and played with pretty much all of them before the night was over. I had such a blast seeing all of our friends and celebrating our favorite little boy. 

He is getting so big and now that he is sleeping in his toddler room it is blowing my mind how quick he is growing up! This year has lots of milestones like moving on from the pacifier, potty training and an explosion of words has already begun, this year 2 is going to be a good one!!!

Oh yeah...and on Tuesday, which was his actual birthday, we went out to breakfast and got him a fancy sprinkle donut which he proceeded to devour as I think sprinkles and donuts might be one of his favorite things. Happy Birthday Liam! 

A Two Year Old

I have a 2 year old. How did that happen? How did he grow so fast? Either way, I feel incredibly lucky. Liam is something else...so special and this having a kid thing is better than I ever expected. He makes everything and anything more exciting, challenging, fun, and bigger and better!

He has been so incredibly happy and fun to be around lately. He wakes up, says "mama" and "pancakes" within minutes and we are in the kitchen making him waffles or pancakes, to put on his truck plate with syrup and milk. He then proceeds to watch Super Why while enjoying his breakfast and getting syrup all over the place!

He loves so many things right now. His biggest interests are trucks, tractors and cars. He is also very polite and says thank you when given something. He also just started saying Hello. It is still a relatively new word so the pronunciation is a work in progress. He has ridden his bike a few times by simply putting his feet up and letting me drive him around the driveway.

He loves building blocks, playing at the park, his train table and nana and papas house and loves seeing the ducks at the pond. And we have random cats in our backyard and he always says meow and tries to kiss them through the window!

He is so playful and fun and makes every day that much more enjoyable.

For his birthday we are doing a Disney Cars Party. I even ordered a special cake! My sisters and Tadd's parents are even coming into town which is pretty cool.

My little nugget is growing so fast and I love him more and more everyday!!!

A New Diagnosis

At the beginning of 2016, Liam had been sick for about a week and we were wondering why he didn't seem like he was getting better. We took him to the Emergency Room on Saturday January 2, 2016 and they did all the normal tests including blood, urine, swab, chest xray...the works. As we were waiting for results, they mentioned that they needed a finger poke, which they proceeded to get. At this point, we found out that his blood sugar was above 500. The normal range is 80-120. It was incredibly high and he was dealing with diabetic keto-acidosis. This is a very dangerous condition and therefore needed to be treated immediately. We were taken back into the hospital and Liam was hooked up to an IV in order to get fluids started. At that point we were informed that Liam has Type I Diabetes.

He was born with the gene, that is somewhere in our family, however we do not know where. It is not hereditary but it is passed in genes. Therefore, Liam was most likely going to develop the disease at some point in his life, it just so happened to be before he turned 2.

At about 10pm on that Saturday evening, Liam and I headed in an ambulance to Sutter in Sacramento in order to have the best endocrinology team take care of him. The next few days were a blur of doctors, social workers, dieticians, diabetic educators, needles, finger pokes, heel pokes, IV drips and hospital food. Liam was a total trooper. When we first got there and he was really sick, he was so lethargic and not himself at all. As the days wore on, he began to get more energy back and began to return to his normal self again.

This diagnosis totally came out of nowhere and caught us completely off guard, and although there is a moderate learning curve in terms of care for our baby, the transition has been smoother than we thought. We now have all the necessary tools to be able to regulate Liam's blood sugar on a daily basis. And even though no one enjoys finger pokes or belly injections of insulin, we have taken to the responsibilities as needed and Liam has made it even easier. He knows when he is getting boo boos on his fingers or his belly and although it is not enjoyable, he truly bounces back every single time.

Now, instead of pancakes right away in the morning, he has to wait just one more minute so we can take his blood sugar first. And instead of eating anytime he wants, we count his carbs. However, this has gotten our family into a really good routine of meal times, snack times, nap times etc. We were always organized before, however, now we have a chart for all his numbers and we have it down like clockwork. However, we still have to adapt to the numbers that he has each day.

This silver lining in all of this is that we still have our perfect Liam. This does not affect anything he wants to be or do in his life. We just take one more step in preparation or being aware so that he will feel good when participating in any part of his life. Now we are able to take the best possible care of him and know that as he grows up this is all that he will know. He will get used to all the appointments and pokes and soon enough he will be able to do it all himself from his I-phone. But let's now get ahead of ourselves.

Now, Liam is happy as every and he gets lots of kisses on any and all boo boos since there are a few more than there were before.