Clot, Crash, and Catching up

Our lives can change in an instant. Brandon and I have experienced a time recently that reminded us how frail life is and how much we need to treasure each moment.

For the past several weeks Brandon has had some pain in his leg. Not last week but the week before the pain, swelling, redness, and heat got intense and it was finally time to go to the doctor. Our doctor was very concerned and sent him on for an ultrasound which confirmed that he did indeed have a blood clot in his leg (above the knee). It is a DVT clot which is a scary kind with 1 in 3 clots breaking loose and traveling to the lungs. 1 in 3 people who experience the clot entering the lungs die. Yes, I said DIE! My healthy, young, thin, active husband got this report at the start of 4th of July weekend.

Because God is amazing and knew what we had in store for us my mom "happened" ;) to be staying with us at the time. We had the trip planned for a while, but the timing was perfect. Due to pain and fear Brandon spent the next several days trying to get comfortable and having my mom here was such a huge blessing. Those days were filled with creating simple memories and cherishing the moments. They were filled with deep conversations that most people our age don't have, things about death and "what would happen if's." They were days where we felt like Brandon had a bomb about to explode and we all waited and watched and prayed. Many of you heard about this through FB and prayed too. We sure felt every.single.prayer as God gave us peace and joy in the midst of extreme uncertainty. This doesn't mean that I didn't cry, that I didn't have fear, but through it all there was a peace.

On Wednesday we were blessed with a visit to our doctor with great results. The danger period was over and we could all breathe again. Physically, Brandon is still in quite a bit of pain, esp. with the Tylenol wears off. Please continue to pray for healing and a reduction of swelling and pain. Emotionally, we are drained and blessed. I think I tried to "be brave" and am now dealing with the emotions, but thankful that I learned so much about how deeply I treasure my amazing husband. I don't want to take him for granted and I call all of you to ponder this sometime. It is so easy for those we love the most to get taken for granted. It is easy to take life for granted.

In other news, the lack of blogging has been due in part to our computer crashing. Yes, at hard point in my life I could not communicate with others on FB, email, or blogging. This was not fun, but caused me to talk with the Lord about this even more, which was a very special thing. The whole computer crashing thing is sort of funny because most people would be a bit sad that this happened to them, but the timing was such that it was the least of our worries and we were pretty cool about the whole thing. Amazingly, Brandon was about to order a new hard drive and find installation instructions on-line and do the whole thing himself for under 100 dollars. We were quite sure we would need to buy a new computer, but we now think we might have a couple of good years left on our macbook. I am sure M is sad he won't gain a "toy" with this crash, but rest assured that he will do all he can to destroy it as often as I turn around ;)

OK, enough heavy stuff... here is an update on M the amazing!

~He is talking up a storm, saying over 100 words and learning new ones each hour. Right now he loves to say "big truck" "all right" "ready, set (not go)" "helper" (he says this ALL THE TIME) "lawn mower" "tractor" "kitty" "more" "dinosaur" "garbage truck" and many more, but those above are said over and over again and he babbles A LOT and then inserts one of his key words into the babble. We are pretty sure he is often talking about something because he uses hand gestures a lot.

~He sings all the time! Christ is Risen is has favorite, but he has many songs in his internal playlist and is humming all day long.

~He is a ham and works a crowd large or small. He loves hanging out with his "fan club" after church and knows how to escape from me so quickly running between all the people having conversations. I am so thankful for all his big friends who help keep him from falling down the stairs. Today he got to play the drums after church (first on a little monitor, then someone from sound turned them on for the whole church) so I would say he is being super spoiled, but loves every minute of it.

~He loves to swing and could do it hours a day! I enjoy the fresh air and talking with him as he swings. It brings back such great memories of pushing, D, G, E, and A when they were around his age. I always start with A and say A words and have him repeat them and sing about A and then move on to B. So crazy that I am finally doing these fun games with MY son!

~He is growing. He is now 23 months and in the last 2 months seems to (from our calculations) have gained 2 pounds, grown an inch, and his hc grew 2cm. YAHOO! He still fits in 6-9 mo and 9-12 mo clothing, but he sure looks more grown up to us! Still hoping he makes in up to an actual % at his 2 year check-up.

~He is feeding himself. We still help, but he can do most of it on his own. We mainly help to build attachment, but he is pretty good solo!

~ He played in a baby pool recently and loved it. We think he will be ready for the lake and water slides when we visit family this summer.

~He still has lots of crabby moments and sleep issues, but overall we know we have come a LONG way!

~He is a delight and we are so blessed to be his parents.

Sorry that this post is filled with sort of serious stuff and not very light and funny like usual, but I am quite tired and some of this stuff was just not super funny. After all the photos get added back on to the computer I (I guess M really) will have to do a photo blog which will be more entertaining.