Parker's Back

Parker is back to his normal self. (Ok so normal doesn't usually look like this...but for Parker it's very normal!)

See....he is still cute like always. Hair is regrowing slowly. I would guess it will take a month or so. He had a red spot on his head last Friday, then it got purple and twice as big, and by Sunday it was swishy (like pushing on a water bed). I called the doctor every day to make sure that was normal. But, I was assured that it was. It looks so much better today. He's encouraged too! His eye gets a little tired after awhile. But, they said that was normal too. So, YEAH!!!

Funny Story- A neighbor kid came to the door the other day with a friend that we hadn't met before. (Background- The neighbor kid saw Parker at the beginning of the week with his bandage off. ) Anyway...so I open the door and he says, "Hi." And, I said "hi". Parker is standing next to me. There is kind of this akward silence. I tell him that Parker's not ready to play yet. More silence. The neighbor boy says, "my friend wanted to see his head". So funny! I said "Oh ok. Thanks for coming over. Bye."

Bennett Makes Us Laugh

Bennett is a funny boy. Yesterday, he went into the backyard and began spraying everything (and I do mean everything) with the hose. I let him at it as long as it interested him. The plants looked like they needed a little extra water anyway. He sprayed the patio, the patio furniture, the grass, the flowers, the trees, and some even went over the neighbors fences. I didn't hear any screams of outrage from unsuspecting neighbors getting wet....so I let him so that for awhile too. My favorite part though was watching him trying to squirt the airplanes overhead. He'd squirt it straight over his head and was so sure he reached them. Of course, all that water came right back down on his head. But, he was happy and I was happy watching him. :-) Mom

Lowden Hits Double Digits

Happy 10th Birthday Lowden!!!

Dad made him a "10" pancake in honor of his big day. He gobbled it up happily. Lowden said "I wonder if I'll make it to triple digits!" (Smile). We still can't believe we have a 10 year old...

Update on Parker

I haven't posted on our blog since August 7th. Here is the reason why....Parker ran backwards off the trampoline on August 8th while he was with the babysitter at our home. (Greg and I were at dinner at the time.) He fell on his back in the bark mulch. He had no bruise or bump on his head but was crying. The babysitter helped him into the house and he got really lethargic and fell asleep. He threw up on himself and became barely responsive. Greg and I rushed home and then took his straight to the ER. They ordered a CAT scan and decided he needed surgery to relieve some bleeding between his brain and his skull. Greg and Martin gave him a priesthood blessing and then he was taken straight into the OR. We were escorted to the waiting room to .....wait. Time never seemed to stand so still. Wednesday night was the hardest night. After waiting about an hour and a half, the neurosurgeon came out and said everything had gone really well and we would be able to see him soon. I felt like I could finally breathe again. We were able to see him at about midnight in the OR recovery room. He was mostly sleepy from the anaesthesia but he could respond a little bit. The recovery nurse gave him a stuffed bear with gauze wrapped around his head too. He spent that night in ICU and I (mom) stayed with him that night in a sleeper chair. He spent two nights in the ICU with two of nurses I will never forget. So grateful they were the ones watching over him. Greg and I took turns every night being at the hospital. He had quite a bit of swelling from the surgery which they said was normal. But it was hard to watch. He swelled up so much that his left eye swelled shut on Thursday and by Friday the other one swelled shut too. Again, they kept reassuring us that it was "normal after head surgery". He was transferred to the pediatric unit on Friday. But, Friday was a hard day too as his swelling peaked that night. He spent about 6 hours with both eyes swelled shut. It was hard to watch him have to go through that. Since then his swelling is down almost completely. He came home yesterday (Wednesday) and we are so happy to have him back around us all the time. We felt so incomplete without him. The house was just too quiet. (Never thought I would say that). He has 24 staples in his head from the surgery. It is in the shape of a question mark from his ear to the middle of his upper forehead. He gets those out on Monday. He is going to have a note from the doctor that he can wear a hat for a little bit at school until his hair evens back out. We are so grateful that he was protected and is back to his old feisty :-) self.

When shopping for a trampoline, we chose to go with the one that had the best safety enclosure to keep kids from falling off...even waited a few months to get it because the trampoline we wanted was on back order. The trampoline came and set up easily enough, but after several hours of effort we realized the package was missing some parts for the safety enclosure. So we contacted the trampoline company. In the course of the next few months they sent us the wrong parts two different times, which is why there was no net to prevent Parker's fall. Very sad.

(Greg spent lots of time reading him the sports page when he was so swollen.)

To clear up a few misconceptions floating around...

1. Greg did not fall off the trampoline. (it was indeed Parker)

2. Parker did not get a gash in his head. (he got a subdural hematoma which means he had bleeding in his head between his brain and his skull.)

3. Parker did not go to the children's hospital in Portland (although we were given that option).

A funny note...

He swelled all up and Margaret had two nurses say "he looks just like you!" We are happy that he is back to looking like Dad again. :-)

We sincerely want to thank everyone that has prayed for Parker! We know it helped. Thanks for the calls and emails offering help! It has been a great comfort to us. Thanks to everyone who has helped with the kids (grandparents, rachel, kristy), with meals, with returning phone calls (kristy and brooke), and who came to visit Parker in the hospital. Thanks to aunt rachel for the big "Tough Dude" poster and the Church Primary for the bandaid poster. We hope to pay it forward....

Idaho here we come

We just returned from a family reunion on Margaret's mom's side of the family. It was in Coeur d'Alene and Athol, Idaho. We had a great time catching up with family. It was a long drive with lots of potty breaks for the three year old. But, it was well worth it! We were able to take a boat trip on "The Spirit of Coeur d'Alene". It was a lot of fun. Lowden even got to steer the boat a few times. He was thrilled about that. The kids enjoyed meeting my cousins, Alicia and Melissa, who played with them for hours in the hotel swimming pool! The hotel had free meals for kids. I bet they regretted that after we left....since we ate almost all out meals there for that very reason. Wahoo. I had great talks with my some of my aunts and my cousins. So fun to catch up! It was very nice to see Grandma and Grandpa still alive and well! Here are some pictures from this weekend... (click on the plus and minus signs in the bottom left-hand corner of the slide show to make it go faster or slower. Press the pause button to stop it. Hover the mouse over the bottom middle of the slide show to show the captions.)

See Mom Nervous

Well the boys have been LOVING cub day camp. Their favorite part....can you guess? Archery and BB shooting. Eek! Greg went to camp with them yesterday and he took these pictures. But as nervous as I am as their mom about such (safe-as I am told) activities....they just beam about how "Parker popped a balloon" and how they both hit the target and how many times and how they "can't wait to do it again tomorrow!"

Brom Passed Away (we think)

We came back from vacation to find the new black snail for Lowden's aquarium, Brom, was not in his shell anymore. We think he just passed away. Or maybe the fish ate him. Or really...who knows? I hope he didn't crawl away or something. (bleck) Honestly, we are not sure. It is a bit of a mystery. But, Lowden was very upset as he doesn't like "when my animals get sick or die".