Cast/Foot Update

Today we went to see Dr. Frierson, a pediatric orthopedic in Baton Rouge for Baylor's followup. The first thing they had to do was cut of his cast with this loud saw. Suprisingly, Baylor did very well and only let out one or two whimpers but no bouts of hysterical crying, thank goodness.

We got to keep his cast as a souvenir!

After we got the cast off, we went for more xrays. Dr. Frierson came in to assess Baylor's leg and talk to us about the xrays but there were still no signs of a fracture in Baylor's ankle or foot. He asked if Baylor had been sick the week or two before and I told him yes, a nasty sinus infection that went away on it's own, just like all the other ones he gets every few months. He told me that it is very common this time of the year for kids to get sick and the fluid/infection ends up settling in their joints or synovial cavities. He was 100% sure Baylor had "synovitis" in his ankle/foot from his recent sinus infection. Synovitis is just inflamation of the synovial membrane that lines the joint. (This is also what Scott suggested to the other Dr. in Mobile that just blew us off!) He told me to keep him on Motrin for a couple of days so his leg wouldn't get stiff and he would be good to go. And that he was..... go, go, go. He got that cast off and kept going. He was a happy camper!

Of course I didn't even think to bring his other shoe. The whole week I only had to worry about one. Thank goodness we didn't have any errands to run afterwards.

Christmas 2010

This Christmas we traveled home for the entire week to Alabama. We spent 1/2 of our time with Scott's family and the other 1/2 with my grandmother and Dad's side of the family. I've been wanting to take Baylor to Bellingrath to see the Christmas lights since he was born. The first year he was too small, being only 3 weeks old. Last year it was way too cold and this year between the cast and the traveling back and forth, we did not make it. We did get to take him to see the "Field of Lights" by Scott's parents house in Irvington. Down the street there are some houses that sit about 1 mile or more off the road. Every year (since Scott can remember), they decorate the entire field leading up the the road with Christmas decorations and lights. You can drive down the lane to see all of the lights and there is a turn around at the end. We let Baylor sit in our lap up front so he could see (and we were only driving 2 miles an hour, I do not condone this at any other time). Oh yea, and he got to drive his Daddy's truck:

I cannot tell you how much I love beenies on my child... i think he is stinkin' precious in those things!

Santa visited Baylor and his Mimi & Honey's house since we were there this year. Santa left his first letter for Baylor this year:

It pretty much said he was a good boy but asked him to be careful jumping on the beds and running around so much. It also referenced his Christmas cast :)

Christmas morning was exciting. When Baylor woke up, we tried to get him to lay back down with us in the bed so we could wait for Madison to get up and they could open presents together. Didn't happen.... Baylor climbed out of the bed, opened the bedroom door and bolted out. It took all I had to run, get my camera (which I did have ready) to catch him in front of the tree. I couldn't stop him once he saw everything and needless to say his Daddy was not happy we didn't wait for him as you can see at the end of this video.
We put the tricycle he pulled out back and went to wake up Madison and everyone else and then we redid the whole moment with everyone. Baylor got way too much stuff! A boy's dream: tractor's, cars, trucks, a tricycle, movies, coloring books, reading books and much more!

His absolute favorite gift was the tricycle which was from his Nana & Pop (my parent's) delivered via Santa. Baylor did not let his cast keep him from riding his new toy. He is so short he can't reach the pedals yet so he pushes himself around with his feet or prop his feet up so we can push him.

I wanted to stay in my p.j.'s all morning with my little guy but I wanted to go to Christmas mass with my hubby. Since we didn't make midnight mass the night before, we went for 11 A.M. right down the street. It was nice to go to church with Scott alone and be able to pay attention to the mass. After that we went back home and spent the day playing with new toys, playing outside and riding new tricycles. What a blessed family we are and what a wonderful Christmas we had with family and friends.

A Cast for Christmas

On Wednesday around 11 A.M., Baylor walked into the other room for maybe 20 seconds by himself and when he returned he had this "mysterious limp" in his right leg. We never heard anything fall, he never cried. Nothing. Scott, his parents, brother and I all noticed it and looked at each other like "somethings not right". As the hour went on, the limp got worse. Scott poked and prodded Baylor's hips and legs but nothing seemed to bother him. I tried to lay Baylor down for a nap at 12:30 but being unsuccessful in doing so, I let him down out of the chair and that's when he almost tumbled over. That's when we decided to call an Orthopedic Pediatrician in Mobile. They were able to get us in for 2 P.M. that day thankfully. By the time we made it to the doctor's office, Baylor couldn't even stand up on his right leg to walk. It was scary, to watch your child go from running that morning to not even being able to walk and not knowing what caused it. Once the dr. assessed Baylor, he decided to do some xrays. This was not a pleasant experience: a big dark room with big machines and having to sit completely still is not fun for a 2 year old. Once the xrays came back, the dr. came in to talk to us. Nothing showed up on the xray but in kids, if they fracture something, it doesn't show up until the bone starts healing in a week or so. Scott googled "2 year old with sudden limp" and all this stuff came up about infections, Perth's disease and toxic synovitis. So when the dr. told us he thought he just sprained his ankle or had a stress fracture, Scott told him about his google research and pushed for them to do blood work. The Dr. told Scott we were thinking worse case scenario and overreacting. I thought these two were going to start going at it with all the tension you could feel in the room but I mean what would it of hurt to do some blood work, that's what I have insurance for right? He reassured us it wasn't nothing to worry about and to just have a follow up at home in BR when we got home from Christmas vacation. Regardless, Baylor could not walk so they had to cast his leg, for support and for what ever was wrong to heal. The process actually went over very well. Baylor flirted enough with a nurse enough to get a cookie and then get a sucker before the process began:

We picked out Christmas Green for his cast to celebrate this unwanting Christmas present. They also gave Baylor a little gripped boot to put on over his cast to keep it from getting dirty and so he wouldn't slide all over the floor. Believe me, this cast did not slow down my baby one bit! He still ran (yes ran), jumped on the bed, played and rode his tricycle. By the time we finished up at the dr. and made it home, my little guy crashed at 5 p.m., in the car, a few minutes from the house. We brought him inside and let him take a cat nap under the tree:

What an eventful, nerve-racking Christmas experience this was! I never could have imagined Baylor would be in a cast before the age of 3 for no apparent reason at all! I knew a cast would possibly be in our future but for crazy reasons like diving off the bed or jumping of the climbing castle outside or falling off his skateboard or bike, typical boy behavior. What a bazaar Christmas present!? Follow up is scheduled next Wednesday with Dr. Frierson in Baton Rouge.

Elf on the Shelf

We traveled home to Alabama for a whole week this Christmas. Baylor's cousin Madison has a special elf that comes to visit her every year before Christmas, to report back to Santa about how good or bad she is being up until Christmas. Baylor stumbled upon Madison's elf one day at nap time and was in love. One night, he had to have the elf to rock with for bed time. When I finally got him asleep, he had such a good grip on the elf, I couldn't pry it out of his hand. Needless to say he went to bed with Baylor and that's where he stayed until he decided to leave to visit Santa for the night:

I have talked to Santa and he told me that Baylor's very own elf will make his first appearance next year. By that time, I think Baylor will have even more of an understanding of Christmas and Santa since he will be turning 3 next year. And I already know Baylor will love having his very own elf!

Baylor's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Baylor's 2nd birthday with a party on Sunday, December the 12th. We ended up moving the party from the park to our house at the last minute due to the windy weather forecast. The morning was super cold and windy but as the day went on, it warmed up and the wind died down. Oh well, the kids at least got to play outside in our backyard. I didn't get to use all of the decorations I made since alot of them were made specifically for the park but I did use his banner and balloons. In the midst of all the excitement and rush, I forgot to put Baylor's hat I made him on when he went to eat his cake. I hated that I forgot since I took so much time to make it and Baylor attempted so many times to wear it days prior to the party. All in all, we had a great time with friends and family that care about my little man so much. I am grateful to have them all in our life. I am especially grateful to my parents for being so good to me and my little one. I am thankful for everything they did to help me get everything ready,from the Go Diego big wheel to the chili, but I am especially grateful for them just being there to celebrate with Baylor.

Mommy Memo #5

Work on getting myself up in the mornings before Baylor makes it to the pantry to get his own breakfast.

Goldfish..... the breakfast of champions!

Birthday Party Planning Update... 4 days to go!

With only 4 days to go to the party, I am cutting everything down to the wire but going at it full force. It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't now expecting a high of only 52 on Sunday, my husband wanting to move the party to a place I haven't even checked into and to top it off, the lady who is making Baylor's b-day shirt called to tell me it has been a disaster. I originally bought a brown shirt to have his 2 and name appliqued onto since I could not find the baby blue shirt I originally wanted. I searched high and low for the baby blue and had to settle for a brown $2 shirt from Hobby Lobby. She called to tell me this morning that in the middle of making the brown shirt, her machined messed up and ruined the brown shirt. Luckily though, she did have a baby blue shirt she was able to find and redid everything on it. Needless to say, this disaster turned out to be the best!

She's also insisting that she is not letting me pay her a dime since she messed up the brown t-shirt I bought him but I am still going to pay her the $10.00 she originally asked for. Moving on.... I completed Baylor's cake eating bib last night. I used the same fabric that is used for the #2 in his b-day t-shirt. The hardest part was sewing on the snaps since I had already sewn 98% of the bib before I realized I hadn't done the snaps yet. I was proud of how it turned out:

Decorations are almost complete. I received Baylor's dump truck last night that I ordered from

Gilt Groupe a few weeks back, thanks to my $20.00 credit. It will be used along with a boat and another truck on top of the picnic tables to hold balloons. I have to admit I thought it was going to much bigger but I am still pleased with it... and so is Baylor. He played with it from the moment it came through the door until he went to bed.

I had alot of scrapbook paper for his party theme leftover so I decided to make some other things to hang from the pavilion as well:

There are 2 of these and both have a #2 and a B on either side of them. I just cut a circle out of card board and covered it with his scrapbook paper, which is super cute with the tires in different colors. I will hang it with baby blue ribbon. I also decided to make "poofs" to match. I found a great tutorial on how to make them and went and bought 2 packs of lime green tissue paper to make them. They will hang interchangeably with the cardboard circles.

So now I am just praying this will all piece together perfectly and we will have a warm enough day to have his party at the park. If not, the house it is!

Happy 2nd Birthday Baylor

Today, December 8, 2010, my big guy is 2 years old (as of 5:o5 P.M.)! Wow, these last 2 years have just flown by! Now I understand what my parents meant when they would tell me as a child that time flies as you get older. It especially seems to now that I have this sweet little guy in my life. I wish time would just stop. My birthday boy this morning on his way to the babysitters:

As you can tell, he was not a happy camper at 6:30 A.M. I guess he deserved to sleep in for his birthday... so he thought. Happy Birthday Baylor! Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Birthday Party Planning Update... 11 days to go!

With less than 2 weeks until Baylor's birthday, this party planning committee is really kicking it into high gear. Being out of town for Thanksgiving put me a week behind but now I am back and going at it full force. Here's the latest on my checklist:

1. Invitations completed and mailed out... check.

2. Baylor's birthday shirt... in progress.

3. Baylor's birthday hat made... check.

4. Birthday decorations... in progress.

5. Baylor's birthday bib for cake time... in progress.

6. Baylor's present ordered and delivered... check.

7. Baylor's cake... arrangements made (thanks to my wonderful boss).

8. Party favors... at a loss on what to do at this point. Suggestions are welcomed!

So far, so good. The only thing I am having problems deciding on is party favors. I like the idea of small cars and trucks but there will be older kids (and really small kids) and girls at the party. Then I thought about buying these cute, plain lime green and hot pink water bottles and painting the kids names on them and filling them up with goodies but then I don't know if every one of those kids will show. I hate to spend the money on unnecessary purchases at this point. I will just have to continue to ponder on this but I can't ponder for too long!

Mommy Memo #4

Call American National to see if I can Baylor coverage on the "Cozy Coupe"... Looks like I will need it!

Go Car, Go!

Baylor's friend Ashton celebrated his 1st birthday 2 weeks ago. Baylor loves birthday parties so much, but the downfall to that is he thought it was his party and wanted to open the presents and play with the new toys before the birthday boy did. Needless to say, we spent 95% of the time outside playing in the backyard with the other kids. In the backyard was an inflatable jumper, new swing set, a see-saw and toys galore for the kids to play with. Was my son interested in any of that fun stuff? No, Baylor set his eyes on a faded, older "Cozy Coupe" and that's where he stayed almost the entire time! Scott kept saying he was gonna go buy Baylor one since he liked it so much but I figured he would just wait until his birthday which was only 1 month away at that time. WRONG! Sunday, after the party I went shopping at Mistletoe Market with my friend Christian (Ashton's Mommy) and Baylor stayed home and spent the day with Scott. Apparently while I was gone, they went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and ended up getting something a little extra for Baylor. This is what I saw when I came in the door:

An excited little boy that wouldn't even let Daddy finish putting it together before he got in it! Scott literally had to put the whole thing together while Baylor sat in it, mesmerised.

He.loves.this.car! When I tell you the boy lives in it, he literally lives in it from the time we get home until I have to drag him out for his dinner and bath. He will even sit in it to watch t.v. in the afternoons. Baylor doesn't say much but is picking up more and more each week thanks to his therapist. But let me tell you, when he runs around the house pushing his Cozy Coupe or is riding in it, he will say, "Go car, go, go car, go"! He especially loves it when his Daddy or I push him in it and he knows exactly what to do, he picks his feet up and props them up on his dashboard and cruises! I am so glad my little guy is enjoying his new ride, thanks to his Daddy.