Surgery day finally arrived!

Ross finally had surgery on Friday. Almost one year after the first scheduled surgery and another cancellation later, it is over! He did fantastic.

Here he is before we left for AR Children's Hospital. He had to get in a pre-surgery Barney.
The surgery waiting area had all sorts of things for the kids to play with. Ross had a great time. He had no idea what he was in for!

We weren't in the waiting area long before they called us back. We had to be creative to keep him occupied in the patient room.

We took some self portraits.

Da-Da getting a bit more nervous by the minute.

I didn't get a picture as they took him away because I honestly wasn't thinking about a camera at that moment. I wish I had gotten one of him though. He was so cute. His nurse was very sweet too. They let him take Blue Dog with him, which was great.

Once he finished and was in recovery for a short time they let us go back to be with him. He was quite groggy at first and wanted his Momma. (y'all know I hated that!) Poor baby had to get stuck quite a few times to get the IV started but they don't do that until they are asleep so he didn't have a clue.

I highly recommend downloading the Netflix App on your iPhone before anything like this takes place. It was an absolute life saver!

This was taken after our first attempt to leave. As we took a step outside the room Ross puked everywhere. He and I both had to get a change of clothes. GROSS! Thank goodness it was there and not in the car. Blessings come in small packages sometimes! :)

Finally made it to the car and headed home.

Once we got home Ross took it easy and pretty much got to do whatever he wanted. It'll be interesting to see how he does when he goes back to school. Though he loves school and his teachers so I'm sure he'll do fine.

Ross has to miss school this week because of some limitations from surgery but he's doing great. I think the codeine has made him even more fearless and he's running faster than ever!

I can't say enough positive things about our experience with ACH. From timeliness of appointments to great physicians and nurses it was all an excellent experience and now I understand what my friends mean when they talk about how wonderful ACH is. We are definitely blessed to have such a wonderful pediatric hospital in our city!

Another trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Ross got to go back to Hardin Farms Pumpkin Patch this weekend, and once again he loved it! First he and Uncle Kevin milked the cow. Then he decided he wanted to slide. Uncle Kev was his slide partner this week and I think we'll keep him!

Just like before, as soon as Ross got to the bottom he was right up wanting to go again.

After another round of sliding he decided he wanted to go see the animals at the petting zoo area. He had a nervous giggle the whole time. It was cute!

Uncle Kevin took these pictures. You can tell Ross is so happy!

...and of course back to the slide!

This is Ross' "I don't want to leave" face. I think many of you are familiar with it.

Cat! Cat!

When I took Ross to school the other morning he went outside and the first thing he said was "cat! cat!". Sure enough here comes Furry Cat so Ross had to go follow her all over the yard before he would get in the vehicle.

He also picked up 2 rocks that he insisted were balls and tried to give them to Furry Cat. She wasn't very intersted in them, to say the least. (I know the picture is fuzzy but I thought it was worth sharing.)

Lil' Diner

Ross has been driving me crazy lately at meal time but I've found a great product! Lil' Diner. He can not pull the plate off to save his life! He definitely tried though. It was such a nice meal this morning. I love it because you can use any flat bottom dish. You can leave one in your bag for eating out and snap on the plate at the restaurant. A must have in my opinion!

Cool dude!

Ross woke up Saturday rocking a side mohawk. It was absolutely perfect so I was taking a picture of it but thought I'd show what he looks like most morning with his random things he carries around. First and foremost we must have Blue Dog his BFF, then he'll throw in another buddy but it varies, then he decides on a different object as he passes me getting ready in the bathroom (that morning it happened to be Da-Da's glasses case), and then of course rounding out the items is his milk cup. He loves to "cheese" for pictures.

A better angle.

Last one just b/c it cracked me up.

State Fair

We took Ross to the fair yesterday mainly to see the animals, thinking he'd really enjoy it. Not the case. He was ok when we were around the people b/c he likes to look but the animals there to be judged bored him. He got to ride the carousel with Da-Da. He started out on a horse and then when he came back around they had moved to a seat. He wasn't too sure about the horses.

Then he got to ride the helicopter. I rode with him on this because I didn't think I'd get sick on it. Not the case. One more spin and I'd have been in trouble! I see a future of Da-Da getting some great quality time with kids when we go to theme parks. Wish I could do it but me and rides are not friends!

If you look close you can see him waving out the window.

Before we left we visited the little petting zoo. Ross did enjoy that. He fed the goats carrots. Only he wasn't much for sharing. He kept eating the carrots! He certainly won't do that at home!!

Randomness

When Ross went to the Pumpkin Patch he also got to see grandparents and great-grandparents. They took him to the park and granddad went too! He loves his great grandbabies!

He was being funny the other night playing in the tub so I was going to get some pics. Of course he quit playing as soon as I got the camera. This is the only one I snapped.

Now that the mornings are cooler Ross has to wear his slippers, which he isn't totally sold on just yet. I don't have a clue why. They are soft and look quite comfy. I think they are cute so I took a pic. The nice thing about his chair is when he's sitting in it for breakfast he can't reach his feet. I found the slippers at Baby Half Off. The sales change daily. The brand is BePe Baby. Highly recommend to all my mom friends.

The Ultimate Slide!

Ross went to Hardin Farms Pumpkin Patch on Saturday for a little while and got to play. It was so hot he didn't get to stay very long. The main attraction for him was the big slide. I think he'd still be there sliding if we would have let him. :) He loved it. I could hear him giggling through the tunnel as he and his Daddy got ready to slide down. He gets to go back before the season is over and I'm sure this will be the first thing he'll want to do. He didn't even act like he wanted a pumpkin!

Ring! Ring!

My little guy has picked up a love of talking on the phone. Often you don't quite know what he's saying but he'll toss in a random "momma" or "da-da" and you can pick back up on the conversation. For those of you that have spoken with him lately this is what he looks like. He just cruises around the house chatting away like a big boy. He's also figured out how to unlock my phone. One day he just picked it up and slid the arrow in the direction it pointed and voila! Thank goodness you have to enter a code on it to completely get it unlocked or he'd have called China by now!

Alex comes to visit

Alex made a surprise visit on Thursday and even spent the night!! He had a good time and (shhh! didn't want to leave). It took his Uncle a second to get back in baby mode but he got there pretty quick. I think Alex likes him! Um, Alex loves him!! He knows the way to a baby's heart is through his stomach. A baby and a man are so much a like. (That's my deep thought for the day and totally free to those reading. ha)

He really enjoyed the jumper and Ross showed him all the bells and whistles with it. Ross even let Alex take it home to play with.

Ross is quite the dancer. He doesn't care what the music is my boy is going to shake his boo-tay! He didn't get that from his Momma! Daddy tries to break it down. Yes, and I did mean to put "try".

Mr. Alex decided to wake up at 4:00 on Friday morning, which led to Ross waking up at 4:15. So I think this picture was taken at about 4:20. I don't even know where I got the energy to take it. We've gotten out of those super early morning habits.

Ross absolutely loved having Alex over! He is such a sweet dude with him. Wherever Alex was I knew I could find Ross.

Hopefully we'll get to keep him again. Hint! Hint!