Let them eat cake?

Wow!

Liam is two.

November 27th always has such a bittersweet taste in my mouth but this year it was almost entirely sweet.

After being gone for three weeks and returning right before Thanksgiving and then Liam's big day, I didn't really have plans to celebrate the day.

But, I didn't want it to go unnoticed and not celebrate the amazing-ness of having Liam in our lives. If not for him, then the day was for us. A day to show him the joy he has brought to all of us.

I bought a mini cake knowing full well he was not going to get his hands in it and try putting it in his mouth. And I figured there was no way he was going to taste any of it. So, for show, I put the cake in front of him, lit the candles, sang "Happy Birthday" and took pictures for posterity.

He enjoyed watching the candles and swiped at the cake once getting the green icing on his hand.

But then, I decided to see if he would at least taste the icing. A taste can't be too bad, right?

A little gagging and then I could say he tried some of his cake.

But Liam actually did pretty well! He let me feed him icing. So then I boldly decided to try some cake.
After balking at the texture with the aforementioned gagging, he would take little bites of icing with cake and was actually swallowing it!

I was excited!

He actually ate cake on his second birthday!

We are home!

I don't know where the time went and why I disappeared but I am just going to chock it up to time slipping away while I was holed up in the mountains, just me and Liam. I can't believe I haven't posted in so long!

Our last week at Miracle Mountain went by with lightning speed. I thought the week would drag on seeing as how it was the final one and everyone was getting antsy to get home to their families and get on with the holidays. But it was over before I knew it! Woohoo!

My mom and Aidan came up to see me for my final 3 days so that definitely made things go quick. We had such a great time together. On Sunday we headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took a walk to Jumpinoff Rock.







There was no one on the parkway and with cloudy skies and brisk temperatures it made for a perfect day to hike.

Our second hike was to a gorgeous waterfall called the Cascades. It's a long waterfall over slick, smooth rock. Again, we saw no one on the trails and after making our way to the falls, we promptly headed back as the temperatures started to drop.





We rounded out that day with shopping in Boone and dinner out. I was even able to get a few Christmas gifts out of the way.

On Monday night we headed to Bristol, TN to go to the Bristol Motor Speedway to see their Speedway in Lights. The entire place was decked out in lights and after a 45 minute drive we went down onto the race track and drove a lap before pulling into the infield where we ate funnel cakes, kettle corn and rode some rides.

Our final dives took place Tuesday and after saying all of our goodbye's, to friends and staff, we headed down the mountains, across the Piedmont and over to the coast where I felt weird walking into a home I left 3 1/2 weeks ago and tried resuming mom mode to my oldest two!

Today was out first full day back at home and with the holiday weekend we had some running around to do but I am looking forward to getting back into the daily grind.

I am excited about the changes I have seen in Liam already from the oxygen! He is now holding his head up when I hold him in certain positions and holding it steady, he is using his back muscles and lifting himself with them, he is much more engaged and interested in what's going on, and he is wanting to stand a lot! He's definitely not the same guy he was 3 weeks ago and it will be interesting to get his therapists perspectives when we start back up in December. I know they are anxious to get back and so are we.

Liam was scheduled for a g-tube on the 30th next week but we are still going to hold off a bit longer and see how his weight is at this next check in. He is probably going to need it before too long if he doesn't change his eating habits. He's definitely got behavior issues with his food and I still want to walk the line of keeping him eating orally with out making him pissed at every turn because we keep putting food in there when he doesn't ever want it. So far so good, but I'm thinking his attitude will only get worse before it gets better. And when that happens, we will all be ready.

Emerging

Liam hasn't gotten any new teeth in months. It's actually been more than 9 months since he got his first sets of teeth (the 4 bottom and 2 top). His pediatrician even asked me at the last appointment if I knew whether he had anymore in there since it had been so long. I laughed and said it wouldn't surprise me but at least he had the most important ones, right?

Leave it to Liam to get 3 new teeth at once, all while here doing HBOT. What's surprising is that one of the new teeth is a molar. And I can feel the other molar right below the gums. So he bypassed getting all the in between teeth and decided to go for the big ones. The first week we were here he would cry off and on once in while and it was very out of character but I attributed it to the new schedule and the HBOT. But I'm pretty sure now it was the 3 teeth coming through at the same time.

Now getting back there to brush them? That will be a battle.

Keeping in touch

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Liam absolutely loves to 'talk' on the phone. He even goes so far as to stare at the phone and grin at it when I am using it. He's been doing a good job keeping in touch with the family while we've been away. He will laugh, smile and grunt as he listens to Daddy, Mimi or his siblings when they talk to him.

Apparently he loves the phone so much that he will even think it's great to 'talk' to the automated recording.