Today was a good day! Colten continued to progress in the right direction and as expected. The doctors continue to monitor the blood clot in his arm and bumped him up to a full dose of the anti-coagulant today. He seems to be feeling a little stronger and used both of his arms to play today while in bed.

Our morning started with the usual rounding of all the doctors for a few hours, then after his surgeon finished up, I quietly and sneakily escaped from the room and left Colten with my mom, his “Grammy”. He was very active (compared to the past couple days) using his hands, and talked a bit more, even smiled quite a bit! He also had some more visits from some of my sisters / his aunties today – they’ve allowed us to extend the visitor list a little bit and he seems to really be awake more when they’re here. Probably because they bring him stuff. All I do is snuggle!

Grammy got him to do some big smiles today…

I enjoyed getting to see the other kiddos today and hang out at the park. The 90 degree weather was a bit of a hinderance (for us, not the kids) so we left after a while and went back to the house. Richard and Parker then took off to the hospital to relieve my mom, and I got some great snuggles in with Max and Sophia, cleared away piles of school papers and mail, enjoyed a couple cold beers, watered some flowers my wonderful green-thumb mother planted for us, and then topped it all off with a delicious dinner (thanks Dan and Ro!).

Parker brought up for Colten some gifts from the boys’ school… Both Parker’s class and Max’s class worked on a banner together that is too stinking cute! Colten’s class made a huge card with all their handprints – LOVE IT! And more gifts were sent! 

This child is being inundated with stuff. It’s been a little overwhelming because he’s just not “ready” yet for much, but I know as he gets more active and we are stuck here longer and longer, they’ll be used so much more. So thank you to everyone! Right now he mostly gravitates towards the influx of stuffed animals, and we use a lot of hand-held items/games/crafts to encourage him to use his arms and hands more. We have a growing stash of unopened presents waiting for him to perk up a bit more. His room is getting plastered in cards – thank you so much to the many, many people that have sent various well-wishes. We really appreciate all of the thoughtfulness, care, concern, and generosity so many people have shared. And if anyone wants to help us move this stuff when we transition to the other wing… 😉

We might not post every day moving forward as we are really in a waiting game here. Or who knows, we might post every day. But just in case we do not, no need to be alarmed. We’re waiting for some of his internal organs to wake up, for him to regain strength, and for his body to start healing. We will go back and forth between posting here or just throwing a picture or two on his Facebook page. So stay tuned for more – he still asks to go home, but that’s just not on our radar at this time.

Sleepy time… he’s getting his first bag of TPN as I finish this up so hopefully he will have energy to go to the playroom tomorrow…