2 Brothers Layne

Jonah's new hat. He is feeling ok today. He has had a bout with diarrhea and a fever, 100.4, which the Endocrinologist said we needed to call him at. Jonah is on his stress doses of meds to prevent a hospitalization, hopefully it won't go that way; he still is his happy go lucky trouble causing boy. If his fevers get to 102.5 we will have to call him again. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to a soccer game in the morning, but with the weather cooling down and the forecast for tomorrows high of 65, we may not be going. On the bright side of things, the morning will be busy trying to gather the treats for general conference. The video. While putting his new hat on and Mom taking pictures. Jonah asked for a video so he could watch it on the computer. Ta-da!!! Hope you enjoy it.

Jonah had another good day at school! He told me that today for PT with Ms. Mary they turned on the IPod and did some dancing. He then proceeded to demonstrate how Ms. Mary dances! It was so cute. While Jonah was taking a nap I made some banana bread and after Nurse Kristen left we took a loaf over to Ms. Joy and the boys. We ended up meeting Ms. Carla over there and it was decided the we 3 are in dire need of a girl's night. So tomorrow we are going to the $2 theater to see "The Help" and then to PF Changs! I'm so excited!!! We topped of the evening with Renae Blackburn (a fellow ward member) coming over to teach me how to make fudge. Her recipe was very easy and the company was GREAT! The fudge turned out perfect and I'm pretty sure I could make it again!

Today was pretty uneventful. Jonah did well at school and we had a good time playing this evening. I finally figured out how to prevent tears at bedtime... After we've gone through our routine of reading, saying prayers, and singing I tell him that he doesn't have to go to sleep. He just has to play with his puppies in his crib and tell them a story. He played for 10 - 15 minutes and was out without a single tear! LOVE IT! We had another first tonight. Molly always lays on my lap for bedtime routine and when I put Jonah in bed she jumps down and follows me out of the room. Not today! She stayed put on the recliner until I came in an hour later to start Jonah's night feed.

After school today Jonah had a great surprise... I had planned a play date at the park with my friend Carol Ann and her son Johnathan. The boys had so much fun! Jonah has reminisced over it all evening. All afternoon I've heard comments from Jonah about how he LOVES school, his teachers, and his friends, and of course the bus and his drivers! Hooray! Today is Jonah's 15th day of school and he is already adjusted and content with the change! What a BLESSING!

So today Mommy had a 6 month check-up with the dentist to get a cleaning. I decided to take Jonah along to help him acclimate to the office, tools, noises, etc. The plan was that if I liked this dentist and Jonah did well with watching then I would make an appointment for him to get a check-up. Too bad this happy face didn't stick around too long. He was doing great with things until the lady turned on the vacuum to suck out the water. This startled Jonah, as he was given no warning, and he was in and out of tears the rest of the visit. I took a whole bunch of pictures so that I can make a Going to the Dentist Book for Jonah to look at and prepare for his visit. So I wasn't terribly impressed with this Dentist so I'll have to keep searching for someone who will be able and willing to handle my ultra sensitive kiddo! Also, Progress was made this morning! About 10 minutes before the bus Jonah usually starts into fussing and telling me he doesn't want to go to school...

Besides the usual Sunday activities Jonah decided to eat a Popsicle. He really did EAT the Popsicle! This is the first time that more if it ended up in his mouth than on his tray or the floor! Way to go Jonah!

It has been rainy most days this last week. No surprise when today was much of the same. As such we stayed indoors and had some fun. We were able to skype with family and have many laughs. We made a family outing to run to town and get some stuff for Monday morning. If you ask Jonah what Saturday is it is a Family day. Sunday is a Church day, and Monday through Friday is a School day.

When Jonah got home from school and after his nap we headed to Petco with Molly. She was overdue for a haircut! Shortly after we arrived it started raining sideways so we decided to stay and walk around for the hour they had Molly. Jonah enjoyed looking at all the animals, especially the parakeets. His favorite part of the whole event was when Molly was brought to the grooming room. It has a glass wall so we got to observe the haircut. Come to find out the groomer, when she realized we had stayed to watch, was worried that it would cause Molly to be antsy and want to get to us. Molly proved her wrong. She stood on the table like a statue and when at all possible Molly had her eyes on us! The rain had lightened a bit by the time Molly was finished so we all ran through the rain to the car. We made pizza for dinner and watched movie.

The remainder of Jonah's birthday came today. He was THRILLED!!! He got plastic food, and a Teddy Bear Eggs Pan! Enjoy the video!

Jonah brought home homework on Monday. We were asked to create an all about me book as a family. The here are three of the pages we created! The original had little circles in place of the pictures with the instructions to write down the names. I thought this would have far more meaning for Jonah! The instructions for this page said to draw pictures of things Jonah likes. Again I thought that pictures would have a bigger impact on Jonah. He has really enjoyed reading his book over and over tonight, so much infact, that we had to call and leave Daddy a message to please read Jonah's book when he gets home (at like 2:00am). There are so many things that Jonah likes that we had to make a second page to fit them all. I know that there was a cute story that I wanted to tell but I can't, for the life of me, remember what it was!

Today we met with Jonah's new endocrinologist, Dr. Jensen. We found out that he was Dr. Sherman's supervising Dr. when Dr. Sherman was as a resident. Dr. Jensen was very helpful in his explanation of what Jonah's Adrenal Insufficiency was and what things we were waiting on in order to see a change. Mommy was very impressed and pleased to have another doctor who immediately feels like an advocate rather than a judge.

The past few days have been a lot cooler and have warranted pants!!! Yes, I'm so excited! I love Fall weather! So the cooler weather finally allowed us to let Jonah wear his birthday clothes! He got a football outfit and a basketball outfit. I held them up and asked him which one he wanted to wear. He got very excited and shouted, "Football! It's Daddy's Favorite!" Jonah knows this because every Saturday you can find Daddy and Jonah snuggled up on the couch under a blanket watching college football! This outfit is a 24 month. The pants have to be rolled up at the waste and the bottom! He can still get away with wearing 18month pants! This evening Jonah came across our DVD of Tangled. He asked if he could watch, "Rapunzel's Eggs pan movie!" This is Jonah chillin out watching some quality frying pan action! Yummy water!

It was another relaxing Sunday here in Va Beach. Jonah always makes a splash at church. Everyone has to stop and visit with "their boy". After church we went to visit our friend at the hospital again. Our visit and the homemade cookies seemed to buoy up his spirits. It's nice to have someone to visit on Sunday afternoons.

So much for planning. This is exactly why I am against it. You plan for some out door activities and the weather changes and all plans are canceled. We did not make it to the fair, we did not make it to the soccer game. But on the bright side our neighbors needed us to watch Jaden, the new baby. We were happy to ablige, and as such we did not make it to the baptism. Molly loved baby Jaden too. Every time he would whimper molly was there to investigate. If whimpering lasted more than a couple of seconds molly would start to whimper with him. TOOO FUNNY!!! So because all of our plans were canceled we decided to paint some leaves for fall decorations. The finished product. The beginning process. Mother Molly

To see Jonah about squirrel out of mommies hands today getting off the bus was the highlight of my day. He was so excited to see his daddy!!! Then we cuddled on the couch for a bit to talk about what happened at school. After naps Jonah wanted to play puzzles, read books, and play with Uncle Jason Computer. We had a great time that was full of laughs. Also tonight we met some new friends. I forget the last name, but she is from Tremonton and he is from Mendon. Megan Zundel, for all those who are curious about the name game and who knows who. It was a good time. We also met their daughter Jordan. Tomorrow we have a soccer game to go to, we are planning on going to the Isle of Wight County fair, and then a baptism in the evening.

So many of you know that Jonah's nickname is Toad. He even refers to himself as Jonah toad quite often. Yesterday we got a big surprise. I let Molly out to go potty and when she approached her water dish she suddenly jumped back 3 feet! I wondered what in the world could be chillin in her dish. This little guy is what we found. I went in and got Jonah so he could see what a real toad looked like. Jonah was unimpressed. Since the toad didn't move while floating in the dish I dumped the water out hoping to get a few good hops out of the little critter for Jonah's sake. ... No such luck! The poor thing just sat there like a bump on a log! As for our adventures today, Jonah had a good day at school and took a good nap when he got home. Jonah walked all the way to the park to swing but we didn't get to stay long before the threat of rain scared us back home. It is really raining here tonight! I love a good thunder storm!

At about 5 this morning they technician came in and said, "You guys are all done." Jonah and Tanya packed up camp and headed for home. It was a stark wakening surprise for me as I was fast asleep. Jonah spent the morning playing and chatting. Tanya caught some of his chatter on the video today. As for last night, Jonah had a very difficult time getting to sleep. He was basically strapped into bed with a sock over his head to keep all the sensors in place. He looked very cute with a hole cut into the sock for his face to show through. It was too dark to get a good picture of him so you will have to use your own imagination. Although Jonah was home in time to go to school, we chose not to send him due to the lack of sleep and emotional unrest he went through last night. We received our first absent call from school to show for our decision. FUNNY FUNNY!!! this afternoon Jonah took a 3 hour nap and enjoyed playing with his puzzle ball and enjoyed parroting what we say...

If I've put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly Jonah had a decent day at school. So here are the facts: 1. Jonah was wearing the same clothes that he left the house in this morning. 2. His puke bucket still smelled clean. 3. I didn't get a call from school. So in theory it was a good day. He did tell me that he cried because his friend Xander was crying. We are off to the children's hospital tonight for the sleep study!

Jonah has really turned on his chatter box button! He is coming up with some great stuff lately. Take for example this afternoon. Jonah wanted my attention and wasn't getting it fast enough so he starts yelling, "You're not listening!!!" or his answer to everyone when they ask what he did at school, "Stuff." From the very brief note from Ms. C he threw up fresh off the bus this morning but the rest of the day went great! Tomorrow the blog will not be updated until Wednesday morning. Don't be alarmed, Jonah will be having a sleep study done tomorrow night at the children's hospital. I don't plan on taking the computer but I'll update when we get home.

Today was much of the same of any given Sunday. Other than we visited one of my friends that is in the hospital. Isaac sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for Jonah. On the ride home that is all that Jonah wanted to talk about. This evening we spent the time getting ready for tomorrow. Getting everything in order for Jonah to go to school.

Yesterday Uncle Jason stopped by to bring him a surprise for his birthday. Low and behold that is all that Jonah wanted to play with today. Although he did play with all his new toys this morning. When Jonah found out we were going to Jason's for dinner tonight he was very excited to play his computer with Uncle Jason. Jonah got a new haircut today and looks great!!!

Today when Jonah got home from school he and I had a small chat before he went down for a nap, when I asked him what he did at school today his reply was kinda funny, "Stuff." When I asked him who taught this to him? He blamed it on Mommy!! We had a good laugh. In the evening we had to cook six pounds of chicken and a couple pounds of sirloin due to our refrigerator malfunction and the meat thawing. Luckily for me I work with a bunch of single people that enjoy home made food. We made the meat into meals and divied out what we couldn't fit in our freezer. So now our fridge is up and running well, we have lunches made for a couple weeks, and most importantly Tanya is a little less stressed. We finished opening Jonah's presents today. He got some clothes and a tall race car track from Mommy and Daddy. Then Uncle Jason came by at bedtime and brought him his own laptop. Talk about a spoiled rotten kid! He didn't want to go to bed after that!

I can hardly believe another year has passed and Jonah is now 3 years old. CRAZY!!! I'm very grateful that difficult memories fade with time. As I have reflected on Jonah's early arrival into this world and the subsequent LONG days in the NICU I can no longer recall every detail with clarity. I remember faces of those we saw daily in the Unit but names are much harder to come up with. I remember that there were many terrifying things that happened and a whole lot of lost sleep but the memories have dulled as has the roller coaster of emotions we went through. It also makes me very grateful to have the blog to remind me, as memories continue to fade, that my loving Heavenly Father was there to carry the three of us though the hard times and to celebrate the tender moments. Our family is a living witness that "With GOD, ALL things are possible!" Without my belief in God and my Savior Jesus Christ I would not have had the strength to get through the 11 month NICU...

Jonah rode both the AM and PM bus with minimal tears today!!! Yeah! Sure glad Dave suggested we keep at it. The school day went great, probably in part because Mommy was there all day. He was glued to my side the first half the day but by the second half he was ok with me sitting across the room. Ms. C's plan is to have me show up at the half way mark tomorrow so Jonah has something to work toward and so that I can help with the craft that I'm bringing for Jonah's birthday. I got a monkey mask for each kiddo to decorate. Then on the back I wrote, "Oh Gee! Jonah turned 3!" It should be fun to see how they all turn out. My observations today are that Jonah has some adorable classmates, a great (slightly green) teacher, and I have mixed feelings on the subject of using a Smart Board in place of using actual objects the kids can manipulate. It is going to be a great year! So do you think I could have set a record today by calling the Vice Principal about a co...

This is how cute Jonah looked this morning. He was all ready to go to school. Here is Jonah's brand new (only has 40 miles on it) bus! He started to get a little nervous when we put him on the lift to get him in the bus. We (Ms. Debbie and Mommy) got him all tied down and buckled in and that's when the tears started to flow. Jonah realized Mommy wasn't going with. Now in a perfect world I would have got off the bus, waved goodbye, and Jonah would have been on his way. Yet this is NOT how it went down. I got off the bus and 20 minutes later, when the bus hadn't moved I got back on the bus to be informed that Debbie was unable to remove the air brakes and could go nowhere. I also found a little boy who was bawling his eyes out and had puked all over himself and his stroller. I made a mad dash back to the house for clean clothes and a rag and in no time had him cleaned up. Debbie (who is now a total wreck) all the while is talking with the mechanic and the dispat...

A little child next to us yelled out, "Look it the Lion King!" we had to laugh. playing around this morning with the camera. Jonah wanted to take a photo of himself. Mommy and Jonah on the Bronze turtle. Daddy and Jonah with Darian, the boy, and Jerome Caddell. We went with them to the zoo. Our Family on the bronze turtle. Today we bought a generator and went to the zoo. Not much but it was a lot of fun. We saw a lion up on a rock watching the Zebra and the Rhino. The Orangutangs cuddling. Some monkeys eating their own poop, a bear fishing, and some other monkeys swinging on a rope. Jonah had a good time. He like the elephants and giraffes again. The kangaroos were not active today and were a bit distant. Yet for the highlight of the day was the little monkeys who were eating apples and lettuce.

This was fun. Molly and I were playing hide-and-seek with Tanya and Jonah. I put molly in my shirt and she crawled out the top. Jonah wanted to wear my t-shirt for his jammies tonight. He kept smelling them. To Cute!! Another pick of Jonah smelling Daddies shirt. Today was a very low key day. After a very difficult night of Jonah waking up scared several times, we are glad that he is ready for another go at a full nights rest. Church went very well today. Jonah loves to stay with mommy in relief society because they sing pretty songs. The evening was full of skyping with family. Tomorrow we are headed out to the children's museum in Portsmith with some friends. The only other item on the agenda is to buy a generator to relieve stress for a lot of people, including those in my chain of command.

This is mr. crab. The one that scared Tanya so bad. Jonah did not like his feet being buried in the sand. building sand animals. Tanya buried me in the sand. Molly had a good time chasing crabs and digging in the sand. She got pretty hot and dug a hole in the sand to stick her nose in to cool down. Tanya and Molly. Molly was terrified of the water. When Tanya picked her up Molly freaked out and cuddled very tight to Tanya's neck. Jonah and I had fun playing in the surf. The waves were very large today. 4-6 feet it looked like. Today we ventured out to the beach. There were tons of Sand crabs out and about. While digging a hole in the sand to bury myself when out popped "Mr. Crabs" He was huge and wanted to fight when Dave tried to get him in a bucket. We were kicked off the beach because dogs were not allowed there so we moved a little further south. On the way over the dune another giant sand crab popped out and...

This morning we met with Jonahs education team, special ed department head, OT, PT, Nurse, and Teacher, Miss C. We went over plan for Jonah which is mostly the same goals he has had with his therapists at home. He will have therapy 2 times a week for thirty minutes. Including group and individual. This afternoon Tanya, Jonah, and Molly took a short walk. Then we played on the back lawn for a little bit before bed time.

Jonah enjoyed playing volleyball with dad. They even scored three points together. We had 2 big adventures today. The first was the Command End of Summer Picnic. It was the first time for Daddy's coworkers to meet Jonah. Jonah and I watched Daddy play some volleyball. Jonah was totally in to it until the band started to play, then he was more interested in the drums and the guitar! The food was great and it was fun to finally have some faces to put with the names I hear in stories. The fun family shots were taken by Angela Kohn (one of Dave's coworkers). She was great! This evening we attended back to school night. Both Dave and I feel a little less nervous to send Jonah on Tuesday after meeting his teacher. She was very kind and patient. Jonah may have stolen her heart already when he blew her 2 big kisses goodbye! We meet with her again tomorrow.