He's Moving, We're Moving

Thomas is moving!!! He recently received his second dose of Zoledronic Acid (a biphosphonate).  Zole slows down bone resorption, allowing the bone-forming cells time to rebuild normal bone and allowing bone remodeling. He received his first dose at the beginning of February and his second dose mid-June. It's been about a month and I can see HUGE improvements in gross motor skills! Thomas is doing things that normal babies typically do by 3 months. It's a big deal for us though considering that until his trach surgery on April 27th, he had spent half of his life in the hospital and the most of that time struggling to breathe.

Our strong little boy is finally kicking his legs when he's happy, when he's mad, and just to play. Thomas is lifting arms enough that his shoulders are off the ground. He's reaching for and holding on to toys with both hands. Head turning is becoming more common when he sees something he likes and he's trying to find it. His grasp is getting stronger and loves to hold our finger to go to sleep.

Some of the funny things about Thomas:

- He loves to play and bat at Taylor's bright pink and purple necklaces.
- He eats like a hungry dinosaur. They even noted that in Thomas's chart as "hungry dinosaur". Baby food is one of Thomas's favorite things in life. I guess if you go months without taking anything by mouth rice mush and pureed prunes taste amazing.
-Baths are awesome! He enjoys them hot and loves getting his hair washed.
- Typically, a trached baby is silent because they don't get to move air across their vocal chords. However, Tommy has figured it out and loves to hear himself talk. He only does it when he's relaxed, but once he gets a squeak out he'll keep going until he's distracted.
- Thomas goes every where in his diaper. All the time. No matter what. He sweats so much which is typical of severe OI. No one knows why but they all share that odd characteristic. Thomas gets so hot even just laying on a pillow that we always have a fan on him even in an air conditioned room. He goes to church in his diaper, out in public, and probably won't be wearing clothes again until fall.
- Taylor and Thomas have inherited a mommy trait. They both twirl their hair. I have a horrible habit of playing with my hair and both of my kids do it when they're falling asleep. We noticed it in Taylor when she was a baby and she still does it. Thomas has long enough hair and he does it when he's relaxing and going to sleep. It's weird seeing your kids do the exact same things that you do and you wonder how the heck did that get passed on? It's like it was prewired in them.
- Thomas loves to be kissed everywhere and loves getting raspberries. He enjoys his feet being stroked and his favorite way to fall asleep is on mom's chest (if I can manage to get him there without the trach getting accidentally pulled out).
- Thomas is the happiest boy you've ever seen at 3am in the morning. He is sunshine and rainbows and will just smile at you until he goes back to sleep.
- Finally, Tommy  gets to have blue poop every once in awhile. It's like he's a unicorn or something. Every so often he has to have his food dyed blue so we can see if he's eating safely and not aspirating. The whole next day is full bright blue surprises.


WE'RE MOVING!!! Well, at least we thought we were...
Living in a three story house has been very difficult when it comes to regular day to day stuff as a mom. First off, Tommy hasn't slept in his bed ever since February. He hasn't even seen another floor of the house since then. He is stationed to a 3 foot radius in the main room off of the kitchen. That's it. His trach is his airway and therefore he has to supervised CONSTANTLY. I can run upstairs quickly to do laundry but if I hear him beep I have to fly down the stairs to make sure he's ok. We haven't had a real scare since May, but that's because we've gotten better at managing everything and preventing issues with the trach. But back in May Tommy was having so much condensation build up in the tube that he was coughing on it all the time, so we thought we'd take him off the humidity and just use the little filter that's meant for when we're on the go. Terrible and life threatening idea... Tommy's lungs got so dry that his mucus was super thick and clogged the trache and we almost lost him. We were able to switch out the trache quickly and he started breathing again with the help of the vent. That moment will forever be burned into my memory but also reminds me how quickly something could go wrong for Thomas and how someone knowledgeable ALWAYS has to be near.

I would love to be able to have a routine with Taylor and Thomas of how we do our days, play, and get things done. But it is so hard with three floors. Plus, even getting Tommy out of the house is hard because of the steps out of the house. So, we made the decision to put our house on the market and look for a spacious rambler with easy entry! We decided to look up in Davis County to be closer to family. After two failed offers, we found a new planned community in Layton that works with a builder we were impressed with and has a layout that's perfect for what we need. We don't get to start construction until our South Jordan home sells. We did go under contract within a few days of going on the market, but their financing failed so we're back on the market. It's scary to not have any idea when things will happen, but I trust that it will work out. In the meanwhile, we're enjoying staying with Meg and Kent (Shane's parents) in Centerville. It's nice to be able to do things with his siblings and be back in our old stomping grounds from when we were dating and first married.

Staying out of our house while on the market was a decision we made to make buyers feel more comfortable in the home without all of Thomas's equipment and to make it less stressful on Thomas. Getting him out of the house is a ton of work. Unless Shane or his parents are available to be with him, I am with him most of the time. If I'm alone with Thomas and miss T, I am not able to just pack the kids up and go to the store or to the park. It is a lot of work to get all the machines set up for on the go and then into the car. I can't take him in the stroller by myself because I can't take him down the steps without a second set of hands. Also, Thomas gets extremely hot and kinked in his carseat. The trache sits below his chin and the connection to the tubing is hard plastic. His head is also really big for a 7 month old and he doesn't have the strength yet to hold it up. But, his head is also too big for the infant padding insert that is meant for newborns. So his head rolls to the side. It's just stressful for all involved but he does love to get out. Thomas enjoys seeing the trees, the colors, the lights in the hallways of a building, and other kids. It'll get easier, but for now we mostly hang out in our 3 foot radius.

The only day this summer that Thomas has worn clothes. For the Broadbent Family pictures.
He looks like a cute young man!

An awesome benefit of living at Grandma's- unlimited access to cousin fun!

Day 20- Summer is on it's way!

Shane and I spontaneously decided to go camping down in Moab with some friends for Memorial Day weekend. I can't believe I've never been there before! It was so beautiful! I loved the scenery, the hiking, the quality time with my family, and laughing with friends...

On our way! Thirty minutes in and realize that Taylor didn't get in the car with any shoes!

Yes, we look like we belong to Big Bird's family. 

I love this picture of Shane. He didn't get why I had him point his finger. 

Shane and Taylor were great climbers!

Taylor's first s'more!

Getting ready for a swim to cool down... 

I have about 5 days left of school. I'm two days in to my second Beach Body Challenge and am loving it! The accountability and the workouts are going to help me smash my goals! I have big plans for the summer:

• Continuing to read the Old Testament. 
• Put Taylor in a "mommy and me" swimming class. 
• Camping! Lots of camping...
• Get reunited with my cousins for my grandparents' anniversary party. 
• Take care of my first garden and make some homemade salsa with what I grow. 
• Succeed with second Beach Body Challenge. 
• Go to the temple regularly. 
• Take Taylor to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. 
• Run a 5K. 
• Go mountain biking with Shane. 
• Get my hearing checked... (I can't hear what people say unless they practically yell)
• Take my family on picnics to the near by parks/lake. 
• Try new recipes!

Day 15-17: Everything has its opposite...

Day 15: Friday is My Favorite Day!

I love Fridays! Shane is always singing this song about the days of the week and how Friday is the favorite day. I honestly don't know if it's real or if he's made it up. He sings it with such confidence and pizazz! 

Today is our last activity for DECA. I am ordering pizza for the kids and we'll watch a slideshow of all of our pictures from the year. It's bitter sweet. I've loved the year, the students, and the fun memories we've made. I'm sad to see this year of DECA be over. But, I'm also excited for next year's presidency and competitions. Nationals will be in DisneyWorld! Woop woop! Can I feel the magic? Yes I can!!!

Tonight we helped our some of our neighbors pack up their truck to move up to Logan. I'm really going to miss their family! The mom and I really enjoyed talking and our kids had a lot of fun playing together! I got a good workout in with taking boxes out to the truck and back. Workin on the muscles!

I'm super excited though because our fence was put in today so we now can let Taylor run loose without fear of her running towards the alley or the street. We won't have random people walking through our yard as a shortcut or thinking it's community property. It looks so good and we're already spending a lot of our extra time out there! BBQ anyone????

I've also made the spontaneous decision that we're going to go camping on Memorial Day weekend with all the other crazy people who have the same great idea. We're going to go down to Moab and hike Arches National Park. I've never been! We've extended the invitation to our friends and some of them will be joining us as well! This will be our first campout with Taylor. Wish us luck!

Day 16: Everything Going Great to What Else Could Go Wrong? 

Shane woke up and headed to the basement to take his practice test (4 hours) for his first CPA exam he has next week. While he did that, I fed Taylor breakfast and worked out. AWESOME WORKOUT BTW!!! We're going to ready and head to the store I tell myself. We ended up going outside to peak at some of the yard sales that are going on. My neighborhood hosts a huge community yard sale. It was like Halloween out there. People going house to house for goodies. I heard about some awesome tamales down a couple of blocks so I went and bought what I could with my sad little $5 bill, stuck them in the fridge, and then headed out for our errands. 

First stop- Home Depot! I was in the search for shade flowers and no one seemed where they were. I finally found this awesome associate who looked younger than I am. She answered every question I had after I told her I was a yard virgin. I found shade flowers and all the things on my list. I even lifted four bags of mulch by myself into the car. Taylor was not a happy camper and needed a nap so we headed back. I stopped by at the tamale house now that I had more change. She was all out of the meat tamales so I couldn't get any for Shane. First Bummer. 

While Taylor slept, Shane and I went out to work in the yard. While Shane was digging up grass to start putting in the mulch around the perimeter of the fence he noticed that our sprinklers ended up on the outside of the fence... Uh oh! It's only by a couple of inches but the posts are cemented in. We called and left a message so we'll see what will happen. Second Bummer. BIG BUMMER.

After cleaning up and throwing stuff into the garbages, Shane went to close the garage door and it hit a piece of wood hanging out from one of the big cans. It made a grinding sound and wouldn't go all the way down even after Shane moved it. It took Shane and a friend both on ladders to get up there and fix the thing. I was scared we broke our garage door motor! Third Bummer. 

At the grocery store, Shane and I decided to divide and conquer. At this point we're just trying to survive the day. I was on a mission to buy all the things required to make the meals in the 5 Day Meal Plan for T25. It's meant to be used right when you start the program to get the best results. I'm determined to get the best results so I made a grocery list and that was what I was going to get! Shane took Taylor and went in search for half of the items. I did the other half occasionally checking in with each other. We're almost done when Shane comes up to me and whispers in my ear that Taylor dropped a glass jar of pesto sauce. It ended up all over his shoes, the floor, and Taylor. It smelled like pesto for aisles. I felt so bad that I was one of those people who spilled something and then had to have the employees clean it up. I would have done it myself but he insisted. Smelly Bummer. 

Finally, we were done for the day. I mean done. We mentally checked out. So we ordered take out from Olive Garden and I went to pick it up. They charged extra for bread sticks and the food didn't have the quality it consistently has when we go there. And they didn't include their delicious mints. Small, but Final Bummer. 

Yes, we went to bed early. 

Day 17: Sunday Is My REAL Favorite Day

This morning, I caught up on my training for BeachBody while Shane spent some time with Taylor playing. I'm not going to let myself get behind again on that because A) I don't want to do it on Sundays, and B) it would have helped to have that knowledge earlier last week. I started the T25 Five Day Meal Start today so I drank my fancy recipe for Shakeology and got my workout in. I love having Taylor near by while I work out. She claps for me and sometimes tries to do the moves. Also, it helps me not feel so silly when I shout out "yeah!" or "woo hoo!" or "We've got this!" or "Focus!". 

I played with my Tater Tot and read her some books. She's always finding books and bringing them to me! 

My AM snack: Nonfat Yogurt with grapefruit zest and honey

Taylor goes down for a morning nap (only on SUNDAYS...) and I rest or hang out with Shane. I took a bath today and read the Ensign. It was the General Conference edition so I was reading the Saturday morning sessions since that was the one that I missed. I love Elder Holland's talk. "Be strong", he says. He encourages us to continue to testify of Christ and to build our foundations on Christ. 

I get to dress nice on Sundays. On weekdays I'm normally looking for clothes in the dark because I don't want to wake Shane. I'm also trying to get ready in 5 minutes because I press snooze too many times on my alarm. 

Lunch: Veggie Burger (yes, that's what I said- but it was way good!) on whole grain bun, with avocado and salsa. Apples on the side. 

Get Taylor ready and give her lunch! Walk two minutes to church! 

I loved the talks today! Do I remember what they about now? Sadly no.  But I remember what I felt and how it motivated me to want to be better! I get the privilege of teaching the amazing three year olds. They are the cutest things ever and amaze me every Sunday! Today the lesson was on our hands and how Heavenly Father gave us our hands to do good! 

Taylor naps again... It is so needed and so appreciated by all. 

PM Snack: avocado, goat cheese, and walnuts wrapped in sliced turkey! THIS IS A KEEPER!

Relax with Shane. Taylor wakes up and plays with us while we fix dinner. 

Dinner: Grilled cod with cumin, sea salt, and lime juice. Shredded on a corn tortilla with cabbage, cilantro, and avocado. Taylor loved it! Shane rated it a 7!

We sat outside and enjoyed our flowers and wished our sprinklers were on the inside of our fence. We talked and were just at peace together.

I took Taylor on a walk to visit a friend. Taylor got out of her seat and got really wet in someone elses yard. I had to strip her down and do the rest of her walk in her knickers with her strapped in. 

We played more with Taylor then read her some books and put her down for the night. 

I just love Sundays. I feel peace, patience, and joy. Today, I was no longer bummed or upset about what happened yesterday. I just enjoyed the day, being at church, and being with my family. 

Day 9- sprinng break 2014 woo hoo!

I feel so productive today! We started out our morning with prayer and scripture reading! I worked out to Turbo Fire for 40 minutes and then Taylor and I got ready to go to the park! She loved it so much! She cried when we had to leave. We did laundry together, made an art project with buttons, made some freezer meals, cooked Hawaiian Haystacks, read many books, played, repaired some broken picture frames, and even practiced going to the potty (not me, Taylor)!

It was such a good day. After Shane got home we ate (he said my Hawaiian Haystacks were delicious!) and then headed back to the park! I've  noticed a real difference in our home since we've been regularly reading scriptures and praying individually and together. The Spirit is stronger in our home and we are loving each other with a more Christ Centered love.

Above- Taylor relaxing after a long hard day of fun!

Day 10- We went to a park up north to meet up with some old friends of ours from where we used to live. Those moms are wonderful friends and I've really missed them! It was nice to see how their kids are growing and what they're up to! One of the friends at the park is my Beach Body Coach. She too has plateaued. For me, I think it's because I haven't been advancing in my workouts or in my nutrition. Change makes change. What I'm doing is maintaining. I don't want to maintain though. I want to change and continue to lose. Back to tracking calories tomorrow and working out hard even though it's supposed to be my rest day in the program.

I went back to IMC today about the IUD. Thankfully they were able to take it out... with a lot of yelling on my part. It really hurt! Hopefully my body will heal quickly and will be back to its regular scheduled programming in a month or two. My good neighbor watched Taylor while I had the appointment. When I went to pick her up she was all dressed up. Turns out her own little girl loves to dress up and had quite a fun time dressing up Taylor. I love having a girl because I too loved to dress up when I was younger.

I made cheeseburgers for dinner and should have made a salad with it but I didn't because of time. I should always prep a salad and eat it while I wait for dinner to finish. That used to work really well for me but I became complacent  and didn't think that it was necessary to continue that habit. I was wrong... I love learning lessons along this journey!

DAY 3- Enjoying the sunshine!

It was so nice outside today! It was wonderful! My teaching scheduled got finalized for next year! I'm super excited to teach IBCC, Internship, Accounting, and Marketing! It does give me mixed feelings though, because I can't wait to spend summer with Taylor... but sad that it will end so quickly.

Today was the perfect park weather! When I picked Taylor up from daycare she was so sad to leave. She used to crawl or wobble towards me with excitement. Now, she's upset to leave because she wants to play with the kids. I feel bad that we don't have regular play dates with neighbors. That's something that will definitely have to change for the summer. So I brought her home, started to marinate the chicken for tonight's dinner, and walked with her to one of the near by parks. She loved it! We stayed for about an hour. When it was time to leave to go home and make dinner. Taylor kept scrambling out of the stroller and then crying because she'd get stuck. Finally I strapped that little girly down. I hadn't used those straps since she was just a little baby. 

I made grilled chicken and mango/avocado salsa with a side of asparagus for dinner. Yum! Then after Shane came home from work and ate, we headed to a different park! Taylor loved hanging from the monkey bars and trying to do the climbing wall. She's definitely strong enough, but not quite tall enough. It'l be nice this summer to go to a different park every day. 

We played a little longer together and then said our prayers and she went to bed. Since Taylor has started walking, I've noticed a stronger willed little person. She wants to be independent and be in charge. She is becoming more vocal though which helps us understand her better. It's funny though because she talks A LOT but we can't understand a lot of what she says. I'm starting to think that some of it is in spanish since her daycare teachers are all spanish and speak spanish with the kids. Taylor know several phrases in spanish. I love that!

Cool experience today while reading my scriptures- I was in charge of monitoring a hall by the gym during an assembly today. The assembly was at the other end of the school so there wasn't supposed to be a lot of traffic over where I was. I decided to take a book instead of taking all my grading or laptop over there. Sitting on some steps in the hall, I read my scriptures while I kept an eye out for students wandering. A young man started to hang around the hall and was marking dance moves while he quietly talked to himself. I asked if he was ok and he said he finished his run early for gym. I was then realizing that he was practicing a routine for dance company. He asked what I was reading. I said "Scriptures". He asked which one. I simply told him "The Bible". He said "Cool!" with a big a smile on his face. Then he went on with what he was doing. I first felt almost worried about a student knowing I was reading my scriptures while at school. But, a lot of teachers bring a reading book with them to monitor the halls during an assembly or during a dance. My book was the Old Testament. After the student had a positive reaction to my response I felt good that even if a student had different beliefs that at least in that moment I was saying something about who I am and that what I believe is important to me. 

My goals for today:
Water- check!

In bed at 9- check!

Work out by 8- got distracted by skittles and by Sheldon Cooper. Decided today (instead of tomorrow) will be my rest day.

Taylor's goals for the year:
First tooth- CHECK!!!!