Olympian

Ethan and his gold medal the Drs gave him

Within the past two months Caden and Ethan have started playing Mario Olympics in the playroom. At first I thought this would be another one of toys where they both have about a 2 minute attention span and then on to something else.  Well I was wrong.  This game seems to be the most desired toy to play.  Ethan's favorite events are the hurdles, long jump and triple jump.  He has now incorporated these events into his daily walks around the hospital halls.  He usually does the triple jump and hurdles with just a little leg lift and a "ump".  It's the long jump where we get the arm workout and the nurses trying to keep up with us with "big blue", the Berlin pump.  We had the opportunity to watch a little of the Olympics with Ethan.  He was disappointed that he didn't see any long or triple jump.  As we watched some of the most amazing athletes compete in these games, I began to think about Ethan.  These athletes train for months and even years to accomplish their goal of a gold medal.  As we watch these games we are in awe of their talent.  How much sweat and pain have they gone through to train, all for a gold medal.  What a journey to experience.

Mario and the Gold Medal

Ethan's Beads of Courage

Even though Ethan did not participate in the London Olympics to me he is  an Olympian.  He's now been on the Berlin for almost 5 months.  He has been through quite a bit for just being 2.  His daily routine usually consist of blood draws or as he calls it "pokes".  He then has to have a dressing change which can hurt depending on how they need to clean his cannula sites.  Sometimes they have to dig around the sites to clean and sometimes all they have to do is wash it.  Ethan does all of this just with Tylenol, no morphine.  Each week he has "picture" which is an echo to check the function of the right side of his heart as well as looking at the blood clot that formed around his cannula back in June.  For 3 hours each day he has water pumped into his stomach from the NG tube.  At night he's hooked up again receiving Pediasure or as Ethan calls it "feeds".  All of this and we are also trying to push food down him.  He's the bravest little boy I know.  He talks about home, and wants to know when he can go.  Ethan hasn't stepped a foot outside and felt the wind or the sun since March 20th.  He may not have a gold medal but he has 10 full strands of beads that hang in his room.  Each bead represents something he's had to go through.  I look at those beads and I hurt for Ethan but I have to stay strong for him.  I'm so proud of my little boy.  To me he stands above all with his medals of courage.

Caden and his superhero powers!

I also feel that my two other children are also apart of this Olympic team. Caden has been through so much and not quite understanding everything going on.  At night after his prayers he'll tell me how he misses Ethan and wants him to come home.  I just keep telling him soon.  And Maddison, what a rock star!  She's had to basically live in the hospital since she was born.  Every day I'm up here I drag her along.  She is so easy going and happy no matter if we are at the hospital or home.  God truly blessed me when he gave me that baby girl that could handle the craziness of our daily life.

Maddison playing in the playroom

All this to say, I am truly amazed by the talent of those that represented their countries in the Olympics.  But, I do believe that my kiddos are all Olympians in their own way.  God has given them strength and calmness in the craziest of storms.  He has given all 3 a unique heart that he touches daily.

Decorating cookies together.

 

Sesame Street Party

This is a little late coming but a few weeks ago we had a Sesame Street Party for the boys at the hospital.  Our child life specialist came up with this idea to allow the boys to have time together and to give them something different then just the playroom at the hospital.  The party was so much fun and was way more than I expected. In this post I'm letting the pictures do most of the talking!  The people at Children's are amazing!  They truly treat you as if you were family.  Not that any of this is easy for us but they do make things much easier to deal with. I didn't blog about this but back in June we were able to have a family dinner together just the 5 of us!  Between a few nurses and our child life specialist they were able to arrange a meal for us in one of the conference rooms.  Perry picked the menu of steak and crab legs.  I really thought he was kidding when he told me, but that's what we had!  Again, this place has been great to us!  The people we have worked with will always have a place in our hearts for how they've helped us and Ethan!




Ok, so back to the Elmo party,  We had the party set up in the auditorium there at the hospital.  There were all sorts of games and things to do.  We played pin the tail on Elmo, glued feathers on Big Bird, and decorated cookies for Cookie Monster.  The boys also had a scavenger hunt were they found all sorts of toys.  Our child life specialist really out did herself!  One of the toys they found on there hunt was a set of plastic golf clubs and bag.  In the afternoons we  go play golf in the hallway, well a version of golf.  It usually looks more like baseball with the swing of the club. The boys really had a blast!  



Caden decided to alter one of the games which ended up being the hit of the day.  It was a pool of plastic balls, like we all use to play in when we were young, that he would run and jump in to.  Caden just loved doing this.  Well, monkey see, monkey do, Ethan wanted to join in on the fun.  He would get a running start and then Perry would help him jump into the balls.  As the game went on Perry started dumping the balls on the boys after they jumped in the pool.  Hearing the boys laugh was one of those small things I've missed so dearly during all this.  It can be difficult to find a place for the boys to just play together like they did so many months ago.  So to really see them enjoying themselves together was so wonderful.  I think sometimes it's easy to take for granted the little things like listening to the boys when they played back at home before Ethan got so sick.  Such precious words I sometimes never listened to because I was to busy doing laundry or picking up the house.