2 Brothers Layne

The last few days I've noticed something odd with the way Jonah stands. He stands on the inside of his left foot to the point that the only toe touching the floor is his big toe. This in turn causes him to throw his hip out to the right which puts the majority of his weight on this right foot. I brought up my concern with one of Jonah's physical therapists this afternoon and over the course of discussing what I was seeing I made a mental connection. This discovery may explain why it's so difficult for Jonah to step with his right foot and relatively easy to step on his left. The PT suggested to call the rehab doctor and update her on my observations to see if it is something that would cause us to need to come for a visit before our regular appointment in September. As for the house, the contract that was faxed to our realtor is not what they told us it would be. It would leave us very vulnerable to be taken advantage of and as a result we will not be pursuing it. We...

I got a call from our realtor asking if Dave and I would consider doing a lease to own. There are still a lot of questions that need to be asked and some prayer but at least it's something. Jonah has had another good day. He is still requiring 1/2 liter of oxygen. Before all of illnesses he was on a 1/4 liter and we'd really like to get him back to that bit it seems that it will take some time. As for me I'm starting to feel better!

I've been ill for a week now and it seems that I've been a little worse each day. I was so grateful to see our nurse this morning after my cold kept me up half the night. Jonah played so well with her all day. Jonah even sat by himself for nearly 45 minutes while they played with his toys!!! That's a record!

Gaga came home from a meeting at the church this morning to report that the wooden gym floor had been refinished during the week and no one could step foot on it. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but today was a mission couple day to report on their mission and this family has a whole lot of support. It was inevitable that the room Jonah and I use for Sacrament Meeting would need to become the overflow since the gym was not in use. So that meant no church for the two of us. We did get to enjoy visiting family and playing outside in the beautiful weather!

Jonah and I had a great second day of camping. I was so greatful that the new baby carrier I ordered arrived while we were camping yesterday. I was so excited to try it out and It is every bit as good as I was told! LOVE IT!!! The highlight of the day was taking a mile hike up to the spring. Jonah didn't seem to mind a bit being strapped to my back. In fact he fell asleep on the walk back to the trailer! Jaxton absolutely loved playing in the water. He was as good as gold.

It has been a great day camping! Jonah was a great sport all day.... he only missed one thing, a nice clean carpeted floor where he could have some independent time. We did a whole lot of visiting and we enjoyed the fresh air. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I got distracted and forgot to get the camera out where I would see it and remember to use it. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!

So tonight the big family camp out kicked off. As you can tell, Jonah and I will not be joining them tonight. I decided that it was just to difficult being away from home over night since he still requires a significant amount of electricity at night. As such, Jonah and I will be traveling to the Malad Summit Camp Ground Friday and Saturday morning then home again each night. With as much as Jonah enjoyed hanging out while fishing I'm hoping and anticipating that camping will have a similar result!

My little boy is growing right up and is always showing me new things he has picked up! Over the last few days I've realized that Jonah can identify his head, nose, tummy, and toes! He understands and can demonstrate the meaning of the following words/phrases... Big stretch, clap, kick, splash, stand up, sit down, jump, and big jump, kisses, tap... I'm sure there are more but you get the idea! His cognitive abilities are blossoming. This was one area that the doctors said would be questionable. It seems that Jonah is going to prove them wrong once again! Go Jonah Go!!!

It has been a GREAT day! Jonah, Nurse Ally, and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves fishing with Nana and Papa! We arrived at the reservoir around 9am and we had caught our limit before noon! I wondered how Jonah would react to the change in scenery, he seemed to LOVE it! Chillin' on Mommy's blanket. It felt like we packed up everything but the kitchen sink in preparation for our outing. Thankfully, we only needed to use the basics. Jonah caught the first fish of the day! He helped me reel it in until the fish started tuggin on pole causing it to shake. At that point he refused to continue helping. He's not really sure what to think about that "Thing"! He had to get his loves from Papa! He lookes so grown up in this picture! I can hardly believe Jonah is nearly 2 years old. Reeling in another fish with Mommy. Check out that sweet grin. He is finally feeling better...Hooray! Helping Ally reel in another fish. These two took up the job of supervisors by the end...

Jonah and I started off our day with running some errands. One of which took us to he home of David's oldest brother Andy. We had a wonderful visit with Andy, Peggy and the kids and Jonah was happy to do some showing off. As we left Andy commented that our visit had made his day but I'm pretty sure it was the other way around! I'm pretty excited for the big adventure tomorrow... we are going fishing with Papa and Nana Layne! They go fishing at least twice a week from now until the reservoirs freeze over. It has always been one of our favorite summer activities and from the day Jonah was born we've anxiously awaited the day we could take him with. So it is with mixed emotions that we adventure out tomorrow without Daddy. ...none the less it is exciting! I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share tomorrow!

Jonah has been playing with the cousins again and as a result we have some new flavors to add to Jonah's tasted list. Yesterday while spending some quality time with Matt and Maddy we stopped to get a bite to eat and Maddy got some rootbeer. Her mommy put it in her sippy cup and Jonah immediately started begging Maddy for a taste. He pulled some funny faces but he kept asking for more. Then he watched them eat some red licorice and insisted on tasting some. Today the amazing tasting continued. The first video is Jonah eating a Rice Chex Cereal square. Eventually, over the course of about 30 minutes, Jonah did successfully bite, chew, and swallow the equivalent of 1 square of cereal! The second video we took while visiting Nana and Papa. Aunt Tami had a bag of sour gummy worms and we decided to see what Jonah thought of them. We are sooooo excited to finally see some progress in Jonah's feeding therapy!

I thought it was time for an update on Jonah's progress in sensory play. Today was a mile stone in playing with beans. Jonah, as you can see by the pictures, is finally able to tolerate sitting in the beans and he is choosing to touch them with his hands. You'll also notice that as the pictures progress we eventually took Jonah's pants off leaving him in his onesie to play. I wondered whether or not he would tolerate having that much skin exposed to the beans and initially he did pull a few funny faces but in the end he didn't seem to mind! Soon we'll start playing with some rice! The barn you'll see in the video is currently one of Jonah's favorites. Today while he was playing with it the concept of dancing seemed to finally soak in. We've talked a lot about dancing when ever we hear music and he likes it when Mommy holds him and dances around the room. It wasn't until today that he started to move to the music himself! Hope you enjoy!

We had a nice visit with Jonah's Pediatrician. She suspects that Jonah may have picked up another bug while staying at PCMC. She prescribed the Z-Pack for my kiddo. Hopefully this will do the trick in getting Jonah feeling better!

With the help of my sister Morgan we created this collage. I then had it printed as a 12X12 photo and framed in a simple black frame. We sent it off to Daddy on Tuesday and he received it today. He called right after opening it to say how much he LOVED it and how it was the PERFECT gift! Jonah has had kind of an off day... nothing to cause us to be alarmed, just strange. We'll bring his pediatrician up to speed tomorrow at our appointment and see what she thinks!

Not really sure what to write about tonight. It has been a pretty uneventful day... which makes it a great day considering that Jonah is still recovering from the virus that hit him. We are starting to get Jonah back into his rigorous therapy routines. He seems to have lost very little while being sick. That didn't use to be the case. Shows us that he is just growing right up!

Garrison came to visit Gag and Mamaw again tonight and brought with him his pajamas. Last week Garrison observed Jonah getting ready for bed and quickly pointed out that he had the same PJs at his house. So tonight Garrison had his Daddy (my big brother Justen) bring along his matching PJs. This is what we came up with! You'd never guess that these two are just 6 months apart. Jonah is wearing size 12 months and Garrison is in 3T. They were so cute! Jonah really responds to Garrison's attention and Garrison seemed to enjoy being up close and personal with Jonah. Jonah's big news today was how he impressed our feeding therapist Trent. Jonah showed off his refined water through a sippy cup skills and his new love of the cheese off the Cheetos. It was a good visit from Trent and he had numerous ideas for us to try this week! Dave reported that school was canceled today due to a visit from President Obama. Dave said he spoke to about 3,000 people and shook the hands of abo...

Jonah has had another good day. This afternoon Jonah's cousin Garrison came over for a visit. Garrison was curious about what was on Jonah 's tummy so to help him understand he got a band-aid that matched Jonah's! showing off the belly band-aids! Garrison's cute belly! Jonah's cute belly! Jonah has been very interested in food today. He insisted that I share my rootbeer dum-dum with him and he licked the cheese off of 6 Cheetos! Hooray Jonah!

Jonah seems to be very happy to be home. I think the thing he missed the most was his bed. His little body must be on the mend because he has spent the majority of the day sleeping. He has not required any Tylenol today, another good sign. From the looks of it his progress will be slow and steady. Hope you enjoy the pictures and the video. Gaga decided to see what Jonah would do with some Mini Marshmallows on his tray. Jonah held one in each hand until they were good and melted then he had a hey day trying to figure out what to do with sticky hands. The mess didn't stay just on his hands for long! Following this adventure he was swept away to bath in the tub!

We are HOME!!! Thanks to a fabulous nurse last night, your prayers and thoughs, and a Doctor who agreed with me! Last night when Jonah and I went to bed I was afraid we'd be staying at PCMC for the entire weekend. Even though Jonah's fever had broke around noon he was still on .9 liters of Oxygen and he wouldn't budge. We were very blessed last night with a nurse named Erin. She reminded me of our primary care nurses that we had at both of the NICUs. You could tell that she loved her job and that she truly cared about Jonah and I. She worked very hard last night to enable me to get a full night's rest and to watch for opportunities for Jonah to be willing to decrease his oxygen. Imagine my amazement when I awoke to find out that he was only needing .4 liters!!! When Jonah woke up I could tell that he was feeling much better. The intern doctor came in (she was the one who admitted us when we arrived at the infant unit) she said that she could tell Jonah was fe...

Jonah's IV. He is still a tough stick. It took three pokes to get a good IV. Waiting around in our room in the ER. This is not where I had hoped to be blogging from today, but here we are. Yesterday morning Jonah started to run a fever of 103 degrees. Throughout the day we kept him on Tylenol and Ibuprofen and were able to manage it for the most part. It wasn't until around 7 that his oxygen needs started to increase from .5 liters to .75. Then at 9 he went up to a full liter of oxygen. This is A LOT of Oxygen and it immediately set of sirens in my head that what ever we were dealing with was too big of problem for me to handle at home. I called Dr. Null and gave him the report and he suggested that we get Jonah to PCMC as soon as possible so that he could be checked out. I packed an over night bag and took a very fast shower and we (Jonah, Mamaw, Gaga, and Mommy) were off. We got to the ER around 11:30 PM and after chest x-rays, bloodwork, an IV, and a stool sample we...

We are just leaving for PCMC Emergency room. Keep Jonah in your prayers. I'll tell more in the morning! ~Tanya

It has been another good day for Jonah. Other than a few minor melt downs when Mommy left him in the very capable hands of the nurse. Jonah seems to be handling the separation much better than in the past.

Jonah seems to be well on his way to being healthy again. His cough is nearly gone and his energy level seems to be rebounding. I'm so very grateful for how well he has battled this bug. It seems that he is not only getting stronger on the outside but the inside as well. Dave reports that he starts the last leg of his training tomorrow. That means that 57 week days from tomorrow he will be finished with his "A School". In theory we should know where we are going to be stationed some time next month (July). I am equally as excited as I am nervous. If I didn't know in my heart that this was the path the Lord had set for us I don't think I could muster the courage to undertake such a life altering change. Sure am grateful for personal revelation!

The first week of May I started noticing that Jonah was having what I recognized as seizures. There are all kids of seizures, the type I've noticed Jonah having people call either absence seizures or staring spells. In the middle of regular everyday activities Jonah's eyes will suddenly fix on something across the room. If I say his name or tap the bridge of his nose he is totally non-responsive. After 2-5 seconds he blinks and looks around and all is well again. I'm very grateful for the experience I've had as a teacher with identifying these and other types of seizures. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have identified what I was seeing as seizures. We told the pediatrician about it and she arranged for us to have an EEG today. Our instructions were to put Jonah to bed two hours later than normal on Sunday night and wake him up two hours early this morning and keep him awake until his appointment at 9:30. They needed him to fall asleep through the test to lo...

It has been an emotional roller coaster ride for me today. The last two days I have really missed my sweetheart. The house has been pretty empty giving me ample time to do way too much thinking. With that said it made our hour at church all the more sweet! Jonah and I attended Sacrament Meeting in the Relief Society room. While we where hanging out Jonah suddenly found his funny bone and anything I did he found hilarious! We both were laughing until tears were running down our faces. That hour was a gift from God to boost my spirits and remind me how very blessed I am to be the mom of such a special boy! Jonah is making great progress in sitting independently! Check out the video!

There was nothing on our agenda today so we decided to take a walk. This is Jonah all geared up and ready to go. A better shot of Jonah's wheels! This is the aftermath of our walk. We were both hot and thirsty. Jonah is getting sooooo big!

Our day has been spent in helping Mamaw prepare for the wedding she is decorating for and catering tomorrow. Jonah had 2 naps and and played independently a lot today. He was a saint in allowing Mommy to help while he kept himself entertained. We took Jonah's super walker up to the church so that he could cruise around on the gym floor while the adults set up the decorations and tables. He did remarkably well. He isn't so good at steering but he'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Jonah's Pediatrician says Jonah definitely has some sort of virus. His tonsils are bright red and obviously very sore, his left ear looks red, and his cough is pretty icky. She prescribed an antibiotic and we were told that the virus should peak in 2 to 3 days then Jonah will be on the mend. I was given a list of red flags to watch for over the next few days. If any of them should manifest it is a trip directly to PCMC. We are very hopeful that we will be able to avoid this. Jonah has been a little more like himself today and we are taking that to be a good sign!

Well it would seem that some sort of illness has been unleashed in out house. Gaga and I have started feeling the effects today and Jonah is definitely feeling under the weather. We have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow just to double check that all is well. Dave is doing well and getting settled back in to the daily grind in Florida. As for me... I'm doing great!

I sure hope I'm wrong about this one but I think Jonah might be headed for some sort of illness. He has all the classic signs of illness with the exception of one, the need for an increased amount of oxygen. With any luck it will be over quickly or maybe never happen at all. Dave and I need a favor. As we get ever closer to being able to be together as a family again, the fact that we have yet to sell our house is weighing heavily on our minds. We've realized that if it comes time for Dave to report to his first duty station, and we haven't sold our house, Jonah and I will have to stay behind in Utah. There is no way we can afford to pay our mortgage along with paying rent. So we are asking anyone who is willing to join with us this Sunday (June 6th) in fasting that our house sells in time for us to move. Thank you all for your support!