Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Connor has a surprise!

Connor's got a surprise for everyone!



On May 10th, we should be meeting someone new! If you can't read the text on his shirt above, the shirt below is a little easier to read. Connor's going to have to be a big boy and a good example soon! We're all very excited!

Living with the cast



Living with the cast is pretty difficult, but we've adjusted to it as best we can. Connor needs a lot of room to successfully roll over and adjust his position at night and he was pretty cramped inside his crib. When the Grandmas were watching Connor, they put the futon mattress on the floor and that has worked pretty well. Although the Grandmas were able to sleep on the mattress with Connor, he is out of control squirming, shifting and kicking at night. The right leg, which isn't enclosed in the cast, never seems to stop moving. Grandma Genie says that it's making up for both legs.

We couldn't get any sleep if we tried to sleep in the bed with him, so we set up an air mattress next to his bed and that's worked well. We thought about just setting up a monitor and going to check on him from time to time, but he gets wrapped up in his blanket or stuck halfway through a roll many times during the night. It's easiest just to stay close at night. He's done well with the mattress, he stays on it at nap time and bed time and he enjoys having us close.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Liberty fall festival and parade

We went to the Liberty fall festival and parade today. It was a beautiful day for it. Grandma Genie and Grandpa Garry came to the festival today too and Connor had a good time hanging out with them. It was a nice break for Mommy and Daddy's laps that the grandparents held Connor during the parade. The parade was really long, but Connor enjoyed watching all the people and trucks go by. Definitely the motorcycles too. He remembered the motorcycles from the Puddle Jumpers parade and covered his ears when they came by even though they weren't nearly as loud.

Connor seemed to be one of the main attractions of the day. I can't count how many times people would stop and point at him. We had to explain how he broke his leg to countless people.

Just 10 more days and we're done with it! (Hopefully!)

Getting ready to watch the parade:


Uh oh... guess what's coming?


Motorcycles! Motorcycles are loud!


The clown making Connor a balloon:


Lion balloon and Daddy:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

50% mobile, 100% sassy

We were trying to get a video of Connor "crawling" in his cast and got a lot of sass along with the "crawling".

It's tough to get Connor to cooperate when you have the camera out, but he always likes to see pictures of himself and family and really loves to see videos. Enticing him with seeing himself on video was the only thing that finally got him going.

Standing in the cast

Connor's been pulling himself to his feet lately and we were starting to get worried about it. This morning he pushed over his little table and then stood up and grabbed on to it. We were worried it would hurt his leg or his cast, so at today's appointment we asked the doctor about it and he said it was fine. We let him stand up a little tonight and got a few pictures.




Also in these pictures you can see he's had a lot of people sign his cast. We'll have to get a picture of all the names soon.

All Connor's cars

We wanted to display Connor's treasure trove of Cars cars. They're from the Disney movie Cars and they're his favorite kind of toy in the world. He got a few earlier this year and they've recently multiplied like crazy after he broke his leg. He's always saying "I play car". Since he broke his leg he likes to sit in his chair and play with them on the table or during tummy time he'll play with them on the floor. The Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles have gotten him even more. This picture doesn't quite show all of his, some are under furniture or something, it's hard to keep track of all of them since he takes them everywhere.



From Left to Right:
Boost, Sally, Ramone, Mater, Fillmore, Doc Hudson, Strip Weathers (The King), Lightning McQueen, Flo, Sherrif, Sally, and Chick Hicks

We're missing Vitoline...

Checkup 9/22/2009

Connor's doing great! He had a check up today at the Ortho clinic at Children's Mercy and everything was healing up well. Actually, according to the X-Rays, the bone's completely healed at this point, but they want to keep the cast on for a couple more weeks just to be safe. We would love to get the cast off early, but would NOT ever want to have to put it back on, so we are fine with being safe.

The doctor was talking with the resident and said that for most kids they take the kid's age, add 2 and that's how they figure up how many weeks to leave the cast on. Connor is scheduled to get his off October 6th, which will be a little over 5 weeks. Our backs can't wait to have him out of it!

The doctor showed us some X-Rays and there's a big glob of new bone surrounding the break. It should be very strong, and as Connor heals the glob will go away and you shouldn't be able to tell the bone ever break. Apparently bones don't scar.

Here are the X-Rays from today's appointment:




In this picture, I put a thin red line along side the new bone that's grown around the break:

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Checkup went well - X-RAYS!!



Connor had a great week last week with both Grandmas. He has been struggling with his pooping, and he's exhausting to haul around, but it was a good week to bond and spend time with the Grandmas.

He learned to "Make Fish" with Play-Doh and although it's pretty messy, he really loves his Play-Doh. In his Play-Doh kit he has little cookie cutter shapes and one's a fish. Whenever he wants to play with the Play-Doh he asks to "Make Fish".

Making fish:


He still spends most of his time playing in his chair on the table that Daddy made him. He has a lot of tummy time and we go outside with him if it's not too hot, but usually he likes to sit in his chair and read or play cars or make fish.

Tuesday, September 8th, Connor went in for his first check up and everything is healing up pretty well. He had some X-Rays and they're juxtaposed with the original X-Rays taken in the Emergency Room.




A big thanks to both Grandmas to all their help and also to Andrea's cousin Jessica for helping the Grandmas and Connor with his Ortho clinic appointment!




Friday, September 4, 2009

Grandmas and Allison with Connor before cruise



Mommy and Daddy are leaving for a cruise tomorrow. Grandma Alice, Grandma Genie and cousin Alli came up to take care of our little man while we're away.

Connor's been doing really well with his cast. He's adjusted to it great so far and has really started to get used to living with it. He doesn't really struggle against it or fight it, although it's still pretty uncomfortable with him.

We're really glad that the Grandmas love him so much and we're happy that they'll be taking care of him while we're away. He's going to have a great time connecting with them and playing with them while we're gone.

We'll miss you Beebs!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Buzz cut

The first part of this post has some slightly older pictures. The weekend Connor broke his leg, we were really going to post about his new hair do. He got it cut as a "Faux Hawk". We styled it by gelling it up quite a bit and pushing it all towards the middle like a Mo-Hawk. It's called a "Faux Hawk" since it's not all buzzed everywhere else and isn't actually just a thin strip, more of a normal head of hair styled like a Mo-Hawk.





Well, hope you enjoyed the pics because that's the last we'll see of the Faux Hawk for a while. Against the wishes of Mommy, Daddy decided that it made sense to buzz off Connor's hair. We can't bathe him normally with the cast, and it would be a lot of work trying to keep his hair looking decent. Daddy was afraid that the hair would get oily, messy, and gross, so he convinced Mommy that it needed to be cut.

Mommy kissing the cute hair cut goodbye:


Daddy with the freshly cut Connor:


Connor coloring:


The theory is, with this new hair cut, we'll be able to just wipe his head down with a washcloth and not worry about the hair looking messy. It's functional, but it's definitely not as cute as any of his other haircuts.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

First day at home with big cast



Today we tried to work out the best way to live with the big Spica cast. It's a difficult cast to live with since it's frozen Connor somewhere between a sitting and standing position. He can't exactly sit without being laid WAY back and he can't really lie down very comfortably either.

The first part of the day we propped him up on the couch when he watched his Elmo DVD and Seasame street. He could put some of his cars on the couch's arm rest but he couldn't really play with them like he wants to.



We did tummy time for a while, which was good since it was a different position, but it was not very comfortable for very long. He had to have pillows under his chest to keep his toes from digging into the ground and then couldn't hold his head up well or reach the cars very well.



The best overall position is sitting in a bean bag. We put a sheet over the bean bag because we haven't taken the tag off yet and don't want to get it dirty in case we find a more manly color and decide to return it. Connor whined a lot at first when we put him in it, but he is able to sit up properly to eat. Unfortunately there isn't much to do when sitting in a bean bag.

Last night, when Daddy bought the bean bag, he kept his eye open for some kind of a table for Connor to use. Unfortunately, Walmart and Target didn't have anything at all that would work. I put Connor in the bean bag today around noon and measured the dimensions, then put together a little table that was custom fit to his bean bag and to him.

I spray painted it black so it wouldn't clash with Mommy's decor and while the neighbor girls were visiting we gave it a try. So far, it seems to be a hit. He's able to reach everything on it and it's a perfect height for him. We're really hoping he'll be able to use it for eating, playing, reading, etc.

He had some big smiles while playing cars for the first time in days. It was great to see him smiling and enjoying himself again.




Overall today we just focused on making Connor comfortable. We did get out early in the day and had to take Connor to the Ortho Clinic at Children's Mercy. The cast on his left leg was put together in two sections, one above the knee and one below. Apparently they didn't bond very tightly and he was able to move the area beneath the knee very slightly. Everything's got to be stuck tight, so there's no movement. The clinic was very good about just getting us in with no appointment. We didn't have to wait at all and a nurse practitioner just wrapped the area where the two cast pieces joined and it solidified that area so it won't move.