Grand Isle Trip: Birthday Party

Continuing the blog about our recent trip to Grand Isle: Since Trace was turning two this year he got two birthday parties. (Really the GI party was for family and friends on the island who wouldn't make it to the Baton Rouge party).

Maw Maw and Rhi Rhi were able to find decorations from Trace's favorite TV show for the party: Blue's Clues. Ashley had wanted to make Trace a Blue cake, but we had trouble finding decorations. Grandmaw to the rescue - and Houma having outdated birthday party characters :) - and the Blue's Clues party was on.

Here's the awesome Blue cake. She even dyed the cake batter blue:

The party included both sets of Trace's grandparents, his aunt Rhi Rhi, Nonk Eli, Kassi and cousin Morgan, great grand maw maw, 2nd cousins Drew and Destin, and his friend Emma and Emma's mom, Kat.

Trace and Emma enjoyed swimming in the pool (until someone had a little accident in it). I'm not going to name any names, but his name rhymes with Race. The funny moment is captured on video with an unknowing dad and Pop wondering how that "sand" got in the pool. But a quick water change, and the pool was as good as new. Due to the incident, the culprit enjoyed running around in his birthday suit and getting hosed off. Surprisingly (or should it be not surprisingly?), this moment would be recreated after his Baton Rouge birthday the next week. More on that to come.

Trace got lots of presents including a Powerwheels F-150, a toy 4-wheeler, Blue's Clues DVD, a fishing pole, clothes, a toy helicopter, some cash and a few other things. He enjoyed picking at the cake icing after we sang Happy Birthday and liked the attention given to the birthday boy.

Here are a few more pictures from the party:

Wating for the party to start:

Swimming (Trace has no fear in the pool anymore. He likes to dive from one part to the other):

Ready to test the cake:

Playing the Blue's Clues Game:

Opening Presents:

Grand Isle Trip: The Beach

We went to Grand Isle this past weekend for part 1 of Trace's birthday celebration. On June 27, Trace turns 2, but since Maw Maw and Pap will be out of town for his party, we decided to do a family birthday on the island.

But before we get to the party, Trace had another first: His first time to go to the beach!

Ashley and I weren't sure how he'd react to the beach. He loves to play in the sandboxes at school (evidence: the pounds of sand we've emptied out of his shoes each afternoon when he gets home), so we went to Sureway and picked up a few sand toys. Once we got to the beach, we let him check out the sand and surroundings:

He wasn't quite sure what to think, but he knew that this was a place to have some fun. Once we broke out the sand toys, he started playing and seeing what he could do in the sand. He'd dig with the shovel and throw the sand around. So far so good.

Next step was to check out the water. At first he wasn't sure about it. He's swam in pools before and loves to splash in the bath. Ashley walked him to the edge of the water and he checked it out.

It didn't take him long to get comfortable. He loved sitting on the edge of the water and playing in the sand. I took him in a little deeper, but a fin in the water about 10 feet away from us scared mommy and daddy back to the beach (it was actually a porpoise who was swimming way close to the bank, but when you see it out of the corner of your eye so close to you, it's pretty scary).

We spent an hour of so on the beach and Trace got to see a crab and enjoyed throwing the hermit crabs back in the water. He had his most fun, though, when we found a rubber ball. He liked throwing it in the water and down the beach and then chasing after it. He basically had no fear and wanted to explore everything at the beach. We'll definitely be spending more time on the beach with him than Ashley and I ever did when we lived on Grand Isle.

Here's Trace waving bye bye to the water and the beach:

Big Boy Bed!!!

Trace's Big Boy Bed came in this week! It's an early birthday present from his grandparents. I love it! He loves it, too! He keeps pointing to the back of the house saying "new bed" & "stepsss" (emphasis on the "s"). Don't worry, we're gonna take the steps down so he can't get up there on his own. But here of some pics of him enjoying his new bed! Now, I just need to decide where it should go in the room.

Trace exploring his new bed!

Thanks, Maw Maw & Pap!!!

Pneumonia

So, it's been awhile; but all this time in the hospital has given me the perfect opportunity to post. Rewind to Friday night, we had friends over to celebrate the birth of our good friends Leslie and Matt. We're watching the game, eating tacos, and everything seems completely normal.

Trace was giddy to have so many people over and someone to share his toys with. The kids are running inside and out and from one activity to the next. He's happy as can be eating his cupcake near the end of the night, then out of nowhere starts whining. I thought surely he's just tired; he's been running on empty. Then I notice his whimpering. I take him into the room so I can hear him better and his chest is caving in and out with every breath.

My first thought was that he's got something stuck in his throat. We gave him something to drink, still no change. I called the nurse; but it's Friday night, so I leave a message with the answering service. After second opinions from a few friends, we decide not to wait and head for the ER. Thankfully, they saw us right away and said because he was laboring so hard to breathe that they were treating him as "asthmatic". However, they don't diagnose asthma until 2 and after repeat attacks. They start him on breathing treatments, and we immediately see some improvement.

Later they gave him a steroid and did chest x-rays just to be safe. At this point they say they want to go ahead and admit him to the hospital for overnight monitoring, and we're just waiting on a room. We're all exhausted, but can't sleep cause they come in for one thing or another every 10 minutes. Then the doctor comes in after examining Trace's x-rays and tells us that he has pneumonia. This shook me up a little. I was calm as a cucumber up to this point, and for some reason the term "pneumonia" made me weary. But the Lord was quick to put my fears and worries to rest and reassured me that Trace was going to be okay.

We finally got in a room and got to sleep around 4 AM. The next morning we got to see Dr. Bankston and she agreed we should stay at least until Sunday for treatment/monitoring. Trace was acting and feeling great that same day. The hardest part was keeping him in the room, since he couldn't really go out and mingle with the other kids in the play area. But he had lots of brave visitors who were secure enough in their immune system to come by and hangout for awhile. This was a great distraction for him and us.

Thankfully, we got to come home today (Sunday) and we'll see Dr. Bankston tomorrow morning for a follow up. They sent us home with a nebulizer (sp?) aka breathing machine, and Trace does it all by himself! He's also on antibiotics/steroids which seem to be working really well. He's been such a trooper and surprisingly cooperative through this whole ordeal. But we survived our first hospital stay and hopefully won't have any more of these for quite awhile! Thanks for all the much needed prayers. We really appreciate all of you.

Here are some pics...of course. :)
Trace eating his first "hospital food" and watching Mickey Mouse.
Trace playing with his balloons.

Trace doing his "breavin" and watching "Blue's Clues"!