Day 139...the Vian "men"

It was an early morning around our house, so before work Daddy stopped to relax for a minute with the boys. 
They are so cute.  Rhys looks just like Bodie, who looks just like Daddy.  I guess there is no question to who their father is?  (Not that there was a question.  I don't belong on the Maury show!)

It is nice to relax after another stressful day.  Rhys has continued to have "absence seizures".   

Absence seizures — also known as petit mal seizures — involves a brief, sudden lapse of conscious activity. They involve a slight twitch of his mouth and sometimes a small bi-lateral arm jerk.  It looks like he is merely staring into space for a few seconds and then its over.  None the less, it still scares the shit out of me.  So after a quick trip to the pediatric neurologist, and 5 of these episodes in an hour and a half, we now have him on an anti-convalescent medication.  Rob and I were very reluctant to give him medication, but it is truly necessary to make sure his development and fabulous progress is not affected.  So more grey hair for me...

Day 131...they rock!

McCall and Rhys rode the rocking horse today.

It was really cute and Rhys loved that Sissy helped him. 

That is until she dropped him.  She was too busy posing for the camera.  No worries, I caught his head before it crashed into the tile floor.  I guess the helmet might not be such a bad idea after all!

Day 126...the Cabin

We are so lucky to have a beautiful, relaxing oasis that we were able to spend the weekend at...

The Smith cabin in McCall!  We really needed a vacation, and it was great to unwind in the fresh air.  It's fresher up there because...

This sign made me smile :)

Maybe they were running too fast?
Bodie wore his climbing shoes,

and he put them to good use rock climbing!

It was hard work getting to the top of that rock, so he had to take a little break.

Then we went on a boat ride, and Captain Bodie (and Papa) gave us a lovely ride! 

McCall would rather take in the scenery...

I wish Rob could have been there, but my arms were full!

Rhys had a great time as the second generation to use the cabin highchair. 

We had a blast, some much needed fresh air, and lots of laughs!  But it's always so hard to leave...especially with 3 spots of road construction on the way home :)

Day 118...Our new journey

Tuesday was a big day for our family.  Bodie started pre-school, and loved it!  And we got some test results that forever changed our lives.

While a lot is still up in the air, we learned that Rhys has an abnormality on chromosome 15.  To what extent, we are not sure.  He went for some more blood work, and we will know more in two weeks.  Everything is presenting like Angelman Syndrome, a nero-genetic syndrome.  Oh, the waiting.  Punch me in the stomach and then wait for two weeks. 

So while we wait, we have so many questions, as do you.  First I want to say thank you to all our friends and family for the love and support we have been given.  We are beyond lucky to have you in our lives.  Rhys is lucky to have you, too.  

As we take all of this in, we are mourning the life that we thought we would have.  At the same time, we are learning to celebrate what we have been given...the happiest little man! The best I can describe is it feels like...

When you find out your going to have a baby it's like planning a vacation trip-- to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide-books and make your wonderful plans.  You know where you want to go and what you want to see.  Every thing is planned out in your head. 

The Coliseum, the Michelangelo, David, the gondolas in Venice. You learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland!"

"HOLLAND!?!" you say, "What do you mean, Holland? We signed up for Italy. We are supposed to be in Italy! All our life we've dreamed of going to Italy". But there's been a change in flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible disgusting place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you go out and buy new guide books. And you will learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandt's.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where we were supposed to go. That's what we had planned".

And the loss of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a significant loss.

But we WILL NOT spend our life mourning the fact that we didn't get to Italy, or we may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

We will figure this out, we always do.  Please don't feel sorry for us, and don't treat Rhys any different.  He has a great team of occupational, physical and soon speech therapists to help him.  As we know more, so will you.  It may be a day or two later, but I will update.  I am determined for him to beat the odds, and prove that miracles do happen...he's a BRONCO after all!

Day 115...First day of School...Part 2

Dear Bodie,

Twenty years from now, you probably won’t even remember today. However, I truly doubt I will ever be able to forget it. Today was one of those “milestone moments” that will forever be etched in my memory, right up there with all of your other “firsts”. That’s right, today we embarked upon a new adventure. To be honest, it’s still hard to believe that you are actually starting pre-school, you just don’t seem old enough! It seems like only yesterday that you were just a tiny little baby, totally & completely dependent on me for everything & anything. But, here we are, just 3 short years later, & I’m kissing you on the cheek, patting your head & watching you walk into your new classroom all on your own. I guess it’s time for me to accept that you are now a big boy, or as you like to say “the man”.

It’s funny… I feel like I’ve been preparing for this day forever. We’ve gone back to school shopping, and McCall started school two weeks ago, but you were supposed to be my little man forever.  You woke up this morning & didn’t even realize that anything was different or “special” about today. But when I said "let's get ready for school", everything changed.  You went into lighting mode and you couldn't wait to get out of the door.  When Daddy and I  dropped you off at school today, you scurried off, without as much as a look back, almost like you had been doing it for years. 


Obviously, I don’t really need to worry anymore about how you are handling all this. You seem to be doing fine. Hopefully I’ll adjust just as easily, & as quickly. So, I guess I’ll let you go back again on Thursday, if you really want to. Oh, & by the way, just in case you wondering…. the required hug & kiss are definitely not optional – even if your friends are looking.

xoxo, mom

Day 114...BSU vs. VT (and Labor Day)

The day is finally here.  The big game we have heard so much about for months.  It's also Labor Day...and I had to, well, labor.

Before work, I started chili for the festivities tonight.  Bodie woke up and the first thing he asked was "is it game day?"  Yep.  Well then it was time for his much anticipated BSU eye black!

After work I picked up some blue and orange chips (which were actually good) and we got our table ready for the spread.

We hung our BSU sign, made by yours truly, to welcome in BSU fans as they entered the game zone.

Aren't these the cutest fans ever...I'm a little biased!  We bleed Blue and Orange at the Vian house.

The Broncos pulled through and delivered an amazing victory...here's to a great season! 

Day 113...Morning picnic

I have been promising to take the kids to the Spirit of Boise Hot Balloon Classic. 

http://www.spiritofboise.com/index2.html

We were going to go the the night glow last night, but decided to go Sunday morning when Daddy could join us too!  So we set the alarm for 6am.  Rhys was nice enough to wake us up at 5:45 though.  We stopped at DK donuts (yummy) and away we went to Ann Morrison.

We enjoyed our morning picnic and headed over to the launch area.  Just as we arrived the announcer came on the loud speaker to announce that there would be no launch this morning, "due to the heavy winds".  What???  We woke the entire family up at 6 am?  Try to explain that to a 3 year old who is really tired and just wants to see "alloons".  Oh, well.  That's how things roll for us...but at least we got some yummy donuts.

When we came home, McCall and I started making treats for tomorrows big game.  I realized it was really quite and immediately started searching for Bodie.  I searched, screamed and began to panic.  After 10 minutes I still couldn't find him.  McCall and I were running though the house SCREAMING.  But all the doors were locked and he wasn't in the dog yard.  Finally I moved the blanket in the chair and...

I guess 6 am was just too early.