Epic Failure

Urban Dictionary describes epic failure as this:

a failure so incredibly astounding it goes down in history with the guy who threw his shoe at President Bush and missed and Pet Rock.

"You just misspelled your name... epic failure.”

Well Ryan and I had our own epic failure this week. It started out with good intentions but resulted in us both shaking our heads and going home with a huge bag of popcorn, half an icee and a refund.

The epic failure you say? Taking Ben to see Cars 2. Yeah.

I tried to set us up to succeed. Got him down for his nap early, a HUGE bag of heavily buttered popcorn, matchbox Lightning McQueen and Mater in hand, Cars t-shirt on chest, and mommy and daddy at his side. We even played in the arcade during the previews in an attempted to “not lose him” too early.

The first indicator of the epic failure should have been the fact that he wouldn’t even sit in a seat. So we moved to the handicapped section where Ryan and I could sit and he’d walk around.

Next indicator of epic failure? Completely ignoring the movie and pointing out every single light on the nasty, sticky ground. I saw more of the movie then he did.

Last sign of epic failure? Ben fussing and trying to push open the heavy movie theater doors to leave after 30 minutes.

In conclusion, Ben’s first movie was a huge failure. But at least we had a good laugh and full bellies from all the popcorn.

Jelly Beans

Jelly Beans are my life-line lately. Treatments have been going a little, well, rough the last couple weeks. With our beautiful weather and fun backyard, the last thing Ben wants to do is sit down and be strapped to a machine. So, we’ve had to improvise. Bring on the bribery.

Now, I am not above bribing my child. Not in the slightest. It gets things done.

Ben now gets 2 Jelly Beans when he puts on his vest and 3 when he’s done with the neb. He never hesitates to remind me of this fact and we’ve even incorporated counting into our game. He counts out exactly the right number (but has been known to pop one into his mouth before I can get to it) and lays them on his giraffe to eat slowly.

I feel like writing the Jelly Belly factory a thank you note. Just because we have to do treatments, doesn’t mean it needs to be painful.

More sunshine

I know I’ve said in the past that we love our new backyard but I have to say it again. We love our new backyard especially now that it’s been 100+ degrees outside.

When Ben wakes up in the morning, he asks to go outside. When he gets up from his nap in the afternoon, he asks to go outside.

We eat dinner outside.

We have gotten more miles out of Ben’s pool then any of his toys so far. He jumps in and out, in and out, in and out… (you get the picture)

Ben entertaining himself while Ryan and I get to watch him while sipping a drink?

PURE HEAVEN.

We stayed out until past 8 o’clock last night. I {heart} summer.

Babies

Last weekend I was surrounded by baby-goodness. Saturday morning my cousin had her second baby, a little boy, I went to a baby shower and one of my closest and dearest friends had her much anticipated first baby girl.

This Saturday I finally got down to the Bay Area to get my hands on baby Kaitlyn. She was worth the wait! She is the tiniest, yummiest, and most scrumptious thing ever.

She looked adorable in her pink polka dot outfit with a cow. I promptly decided that Ben will marry her one day!

Father’s Day was a good day with Ryan being pampered all day. Ben and I are so thankful for a wonderful, loving husband and father. He deserved his day of pampering. For now, we are just enjoying this hot weather and trying to stay cool!

Here comes the sun

Like I said before, it’s finally warmed up here!

So, what did we do? Break out Ben’s never-been-used birthday pool of course!

In typical Hughes boy fashion, he repeatedly launched himself down the slide, splashing into the water, giggling the whole time.

It was a perfect afternoon. Mid-90’s temp, just the way I like it.

Even in the pool, we didn’t abandon our trucks.

Mr. Sun, we are glad you made your reappearance!

Summer time

Last weekend all three of us went down to Monterey to celebrate our brothers graduating. Yes, Ryan and I have brother the same age and they go to the same school which makes things very convenient  

The weather down in Monterey has been just yucky as it has been here in Sacramento. We’ve all been wondering where our summer went because it’s usually in the 90’s by now. But we had a great time none the less and I continued to stay in Monterey for another week.

While I had fun by at my parents, it’s always nice to come home. I think Dorothy was right- there’s no place like home.

All photos

It’s been way too long since I posted some photos of my little cowboy so I thought an all picture post would be fun.

It was a Toy Story theme playtime, with his Buzz PJ’s and Woody hat!

Results

I know, I know, another blogging break. We’ve just been super busy around here so I’ll get to the good stuff first- Ben’s culture results.

I was doubtful. Ben’s had a cough since we stopped Cayston and I attributed it to pseudomonas, thinking we still hadn’t ditched the clingy little bastard that is now a thorn in my side.

By Sunday afternoon, Ben’s cough had gotten so bad that I called our NP and had her write a prescription for Bactrim so Ben could start it. He’s been on it for 4 days and his cough is almost gone. Now on to the good stuff.

Drum roll please…..

ONLY NORMAL FLORA GROWTH!!

That means no pseudomonas is showing up! We may have been able to shake it! Now, I’m being cautiously optimistic and until we get three free cultures, I won’t consider it completely gone but for the next month I plan on reveling in the feeling of not doing extra treatments or figuring out the next step. I’m having champagne to celebrate and Ryan and I have been giving each other high fives. Whoop! Whoop!!

CF clinic visit

Today, was our 3-month Pleasanton clinic visit.  Usually I wake up feeling anxious about these visits, but today I wasn’t. Ben’s weight’s great, his appetite is fine however he still has a dry cough. But for some reason, I’m not too worried. If he cultures pseudomonas again, we’ll figure out the plan and go from there. I’m letting go of my worries and just being thankful that we are happy and healthy.

Our “little” man is still tippin’ the scales at nearly 34 pounds! Only up 1 pound from 2 months ago but since he’s still in the 92 percentile (!!!!) they are not worried in the slightest. He’s at the age where he’s going to start lengthening out and growing thinner. He did grow a whole inch and is now half an inch shy of three feet! We are so thankful that Ben continues to grow and thrive!

His lungs are clear and he was even able to cough on command for our NP to hear. This helps her listen to his lungs better and make sure there is no crackling. We even introduced him to the lab where he will eventually do his Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT’s). He had an infant one done under sedation about a year ago and I’m hoping we can start doing them regularly in the future. I want to introduce him to the equipment and how to blow now, so he’ll be a pro by the time he’s around the age to start. Our clinic hopes to have him up and going with PFT’s around age 3. Ben did great with the equipment and was even able to give a couple practice blows.

Eventually his nose will be plugged and he’ll take a deep breath and blow into the hairdryer thingy (we use technical terms around here) and the computer will measure how much air he can blow out. If there’s an infection or he’s not feeling good, the numbers will go down indicating a problem. Then we know to step in and change up his routine. I’m hoping that by the time he gets good at them, we can do them every appointment.

A throat culture was taken and we were on our way. We swung by Walmart to allow Ben to pick out a toy and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he picked out a new car, bringing our toy car count to a gazillion and one. A milkshake at the golden arches completed our day.

The culture results should be back next Tuesday. Once we know what and if he grows anything, we’ll go from there. I’ll deal with the results then.