be-lated birthday

On September 25th Simon turned 9 years old.  Originally I had planned to have a BIG, HUGE, party, it could be Simon's coming out...everyone who supported us, all those who love us would be there...because that is what we should do, this would be Simon's first birthday at home.  But this would also be his first birthday that anyone ever celebrated...most likely.  The more I thought about it, the more upset I became.  You see, I am not the mom who plans a birthday for her 1 year old.  More power to you all that do, but in my mind I have always thought....well, they aren't going to remember it anyway.  (which is probably a bad attitude to have).  I began to think about how Simon was going to have NO IDEA what was going on.  He can't open gifts, he can't really eat cake, he doesn't know what a birthday is....let alone, that it is his birthday.  This reality made me really mad and really sad.  NEGLECT is such a HORRIBLE enemy....we fight his effects everyday.  Often I forget how frail my son looks, until someone observing his diaper change is drawn to tears.  Simon was so hurt, is so hurt, by what was done to him....his birthday was a glaring reminder that for 9 years while other children were learning to play and being lavished with kisses and gifts, he laid in a crib, in a room all alone, waiting for someone, anyone to touch him.  We were lucky to have even pulled off the family birthday party in the park, good thing his wasn't the only birthday that needed to be celebrated and I wasn't the only person in charge!  So here is my terribly depressing intro into Simon's first birthday party photos....sorry....the truth hurts alot sometimes.

the birthday boys, my hubby and Simon and the birthday girl, cousin Elia...and Ishmael...who couldn't stay away from the cupcakes!!!

Play with a toy....yes I will!

On Monday of last week we had our first visits from therapists with the public schools.  The speech therapist brought a big bag of toys, which I have been trying to hide from Ishmael, hoping to find something that would interest him.  And we found something.  I was VERY shocked when he grabbed this toy from me.  Even MORE shocked when he pushed the button himself.....however I didn't get that on camera.  What I did get on camera was him grabbing the toy and holding the button down himself, once I put his thumb on it....which I still think is pretty darn significant.  I am one proud mama.

Watch for yourself right here.

Today the PT and OT came over to our house.  I don't have any videos of his progress in this arena just yet.  We are going to try to work on his crawling skills before we start walking.  I think I really like therapists...they seem to just think everything my child does is amazing.  That is how I like it....some doctors have been a little, blase to say the least, some look at me like I am one crazy person to have adopted Simon.  But the praise of therapists....now that is a comfort.  Thank you LPS for your free services!!! :)

We finally have our insurance all set up.  I am VERY THANKFUL and grateful.  We will not, however, have coverage for August.  So there are some pretty huge bills hanging around out there.  I am praying for some Jesus provision...and I must really believe in it...because I am NOT stressed at all :)  Which, if you know me, is a bit of a shocker.


Here are some random and I will just say it, darn cute, photos of my kiddos for your enjoyment.  It is odd to me that we don't seem to have any photos of us feeding Simon, since some days, it feels like that is all we do. :)
These first pictures are from a trip to the zoo....

These next pictures are from 3-4 weeks ago....what a difference a month makes...he looks so small in these photos...darn cute but so small...I guess all those HOURS of feeding him ARE paying off!!!

other than the loss last week,  we have been pretty giddy about this football season.

there are times when he looks like a 9 year old boy....trapped in a very skinny 3 year old's body.

I was aiming for a side by side...but I failed.  Here are 2 photos closer together......

He has gained 3 pounds since coming home 6.5 weeks ago!!!

The operation

One week ago today Simon had dental surgery.  All in all the day went really well.  It confirmed in me how much we love our son's dentist and how much God surprises us in little ways.  It also confirmed that 8 years without any dental care can leave a whole lot of decay in one child's mouth.

we checked in bright and early for all of us.

We asked for it and they gave us a little medicine to help Simon relax.

We discovered our friend Brittany was our nurses aide...this helped me relax, she also treated me to a iced toddy, delivered to our room.  She also delivered us an extra recliner while we waited the 3.5 hours we waited. :)

Just waiting to send him back.

Can I really send my baby back?  :(


This nice lady came and took Simon back.  I told them several times that I wanted to know right when he started waking up and that I wanted to be brought into the recovery room right away.  The eye doctor saw Simon first, he broke the news to us that Simon's right eye is dying.....which was rough to hear, but we were prepared for that since the Doc had already said he wasn't seeing anything out of that eye.

Next the dentist came in to tell us how her part went.  She did 14 restorations, 1 extractions, and 8 crowns.  WOW that was a lot of work....yet somehow I wasn't prepared for how sad, swollen and miserable my son would look coming out of surgery....

for about 30 min he was just in and out of sedation.  It was hard to watch...especially when the Advil took a while to get to us :(

Once the Advil kicked in we decided we better try to feed him.  He hadn't eaten since 10pm the night before and it was going on 4pm.  The thing you never want to do is let your child who was starved for 8 years go hungry!

Not knowing how he would handle "chewing" we went ahead and syringed his favorite formula in...because he should have his favorite on a day like today.

The nurse gave us a flow chart...I don' t know about you but I am ALWAYS confused about all the names for the pain meds....name brands, generics, synonyms....Since Simon wasn't going to be able to tell me if he was in pain....the plan for me was to just keep dosing him for the first 24 hours.  So I did the whole switch back and forth with acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

At one point Jon discovered he could give Simon "ace ventura" hair...this picture does not do it justice.

They also did a MRI.  The results showed that Simon has a small and atrophied brain.....big shocker there.  BUT there are no tumors....no evidence of anything crazy going on in there.  So we will keep giving him good brain food and we will continue teaching him how to do the things he was NEVER taught.  We will teach this child how to play and how to be loved.