Watercolor Vacation

We went to Watercolor for vacation this past week and it was wonderful! We had such a great time together, just the 3 of us.

Tuesday:
We flew out of Nashville to Panama City Tuesday morning. It was such an easy flight - we left at 8:05 and were in Florida by 9:30. That is so much better than driving! We thought Will would enjoy seeing all of the airplanes close up since he is so obsessed when they fly over our house. We really didn't get to see any good take-offs or landings though. Oh well, he still liked just looking at them at the gates. He knew exactly what they were and gave them all his airplane salute. Our flight wasn't full, so we got 3 seats to ourselves (Will's ticket was technically to be in my lap). He sat with me in the window seat and watched as we taxied and took off.

He feel asleep right after that. I kept putting the window shade down since the sun seemed so bright on his face, but he would wake up every time and want it raised back up. He was such a great traveler! The flight attendant gave him his first set of wings. (I remember my brother Kyle always getting these when he flew.)

While we were waiting to get our rental car, Will discovered water fountains. He thought they were hilarious! He is so easily entertained!

We had lunch at Bud and Alley's and had a great view of the beach and ocean. So relaxing already! Then we headed to our new home for the next few days. This year we stayed in Watercolor which is right next to Seaside. (We have always stayed in Seagrove Beach before which is on the other side of Seaside.) I don't know what to say about Watercolor except that is is AMAZING! The houses, landscape, everything about it is beautiful. We were on the 3rd floor of our building which had an elevator.

Will LOVED pushing the elevator buttons and watching the doors open! I expect him to ask for one to be put in our house for Christmas. You'll have a better chance if you ask your grandparents, Will!

The condo was beautiful and had patios on both levels. We had a small view of the ocean, but couldn't really hear the waves crashing. The master suite was the entire second floor and I wasn't sure where I was going to put Will and then I found the spacious laundry room...perfect size for his pack'n'play.
We tried to get Will to nap again, but that wasn't going to happen. So off we went to the beach club pool. This pool is so nice and it overlooks the beach. JT bought Will some "swimmies" (I think some people call them "wings") to go on his arms to help him float, but Will wanted nothing to do with that. Will decided that they would be great toys to throw.

After some pool time we headed down to the beach. I am sad to report that Will HATES sand! He does not want to touch it at all and screams like crazy if you try to put him down. Good grief! He liked being in the ocean as long as he was being held and didn't touch the sand.

We were all asleep by 8:00. Now that is what I love about vacation!

As cute as this is, they aren't really sleeping yet. Will is actually laughing hysterically because everything that Daddy does is hilarious! They always play before bedtime. 

Wednesday:
Will woke up early and was ready to play! We put Will in his stroller and walked to our favorite breakfast place in Seaside called "Great Southern". We love their cheese grits! Then we went back to the condo and got ready for some water time. We started out at the beach club pool again and had a great time. JT showed Will how to blow bubbles in the water, and Will was trying to do it too. He would lay on the top step and end up licking the water. Eeww! He loved it though. We tried the beach again, but Will still wasn't touching the sand. JT bought him a shovel and he played with it, but he was sitting in the chair bending over to shovel.

The condo provided 2 bikes for us and we called the rental place and asked them to bring us a buggy attachment for Will to sit in. That was set up when we got back from the beach so we took a ride through the neighborhood. 

We stopped at the fountain and Will threw in some pennies. All I had left was a quarter and he threw that in too. He was mad when I ran out; I guess he thought I was going to give him dollar bills next. No way kiddo!

We kept riding and found one of the other pools. This was at Camp Watercolor. It had a "hide and see fountain". Will loved it immediately and ended up soaking wet! We went back home to get our bathing suits and came back to this pool to play for the rest of the day.

Thursday:
We were up early again and went to eat breakfast. Will entertained the people sitting around us. They were from Lebanon and knew somebody that JT knows from work. Such a small world.
We took another bike ride through Watercolor and this time JT took Will. I think Will figured out pretty quickly that Mommy drives safe and Daddy drives like a crazy man!

We went back to Seaside for lunch at "Pickles" and then it was off to the pool with fountains again. As much as he loved this the day before, all he wanted to do now was play with the water faucet and shower. We made our third attempt at the beach. Still a "NO" for Will.
While I was getting ready for dinner, I saw this out of the corner of my eye and ran outside because JT was supposed to be watching Will...JT was watching Will, he was just catching this on camera. I believe he made it up 2 more boards.

Will has become a climber ever since he watched Daddy and Pops climbing the ladder. 

We went to the "Shrimp Shack" for dinner and sat on a pavilion on the beach. It was awesome! Then we went and got ice cream. Will loved ice cream!


Friday:
We biked to the Modica Market and got some muffins for breakfast and went back to the beach pavilion to eat. It is definitely one of our favorite spots!

We went back to the beach club pool and Will was finally getting brave enough to jump to JT in the water.

We stayed on the beach a little longer today. JT put a towel down and Will sat on that and shoveled the sand around him. There was a little girl next to us that was sharing her sand castle toys with Will, so he was pretty entertained. Then he caught sight of the birds. And he wanted to chase them...correction, he wanted ME to chase them while carrying him since he still refused to walk on the sand. This was exhausting. I'm glad JT was busy talking and not videoing this!
We decided not to go to my favorite restaurant "Red Bar" and instead go to "Great Southern" for dinner. We have only eaten breakfast there and decided we needed to try dinner. It was packed and Will was pretty impatient. Every time a food tray would come out and pass our table, he would start fuming!

Will says, "Stop feeding all of these other people (that were here before us) and bring me something to eat!" He obviously gets his patience from JT.

We finally got our dinner and it was so good! JT noticed a lot of people in the Town Center of Seaside and blow-up movie screen was there. He couldn't see what the movie was from dinner, but as we left we saw it was E.T. We watched for a few minutes and then biked back home. That will be a fun thing to do when Will is a little older.


Saturday:
We took one last bike ride to Seaside and repeated our new breakfast tradition that we did the day before.

We had to be out of the condo by 10:00 and our flight didn't leave until 4:00. We decided to take our time traveling back to Panama City. We were at the airport early and had to wait for a couple of hours. JT watched the UT vs. Georgia game while Will entertained us by checking to see if he fit into carry-on luggage.

We flew from Panama City to Atlanta and then back to Nashville. Will made friends with the girl sitting behind us on the first flight and they played peek-a-boo the entire time. He was really tired on next flight and was restless. He finally calmed down and passed out.

He slept through the landing, getting off the plane, walking through the airport, and finally woke up when we got to NeeNee's car.

Finally we were Home Sweet Home! We had the BEST time! together! We can't wait for the next vacation!

Few other pics...

MRI results

MRI was Thursday and the report was available to Dr. Huss (pediatrician) and Dr. Thomas (urology surgeon) Friday afternoon. Both of these doctors are great about staying in touch with me and giving me any info that they can, but this is not their area of expertise. They are basically having to figure out which specialist to send us to.

Dr. Huss called me Friday and said that the MRI showed vascular malformation that begins at the end of the right kidney, goes all through the pelvic area, and ends in his right foot. There is also a lot of soft tissue in his pelvic area (basically his butt has soft tissue instead of fatty tissue). The hemangioma on his back is part of this system. He called a neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt to review this because of how close it is to the spinal cord. Dr. Pearson wants to meet with us sometime in the future (not urgently) just to discuss what we would do if there was a developmental problem in the future. Next Dr. Huss called a cardiologist because there is a medication that can help shrink the vessels, but it is a drug used to lower blood pressure and heart rate. So if he was put on that, Will would have to be followed by cardiology. There are no heart concerns now! The cardiologist is part of a committee at Vanderbilt that meets a few times a year to discuss cases of vascular malformations. They are meeting tomorrow (9/11) and have agreed to put Will on the list. I think this is a great! A team of people who deal with this pretty regularly all giving thoughts and opinions. I expect to hear from Dr. Huss on Wednesday about what they say.

Dr. Thomas has contacted a general pediatric surgeon and they are going to review the MRI together again this evening along with the radiologist. Hopefully I will hear from him tomorrow.

Dr. Thomas and Dr. Huss have been communicating with each other. They are working together to make the best plan for us. JT and I feel that they both have a great interest and concern for Will, so even though they don't really have to be involved anymore, they seem to be sticking around. I really appreciate that!

We keep hearing the words "impressed" and "remarkable" when these specialists are reviewing the MRI. The size of it all is apparently what has their attention. Because Will is growing and developing as he should, there is no immediate need to do something about this. I'll know more in the next few days and hopefully have an update then.

I apologize if you have been asking about Will and we haven't given you much info back. It is because we don't know! I have written out everything that I have been told here, but I don't really know what it all means for Will in the long run. I'll keep posting when there is more to tell.

MRI

Back to Vandy today for Will's MRI. They are scanning his spine, abdomen, pelvis, and right calf/leg.

Will got a little upset in pre-op when we first got there, but the sweet nurse gave him some toys and then he was his fun happy self. We were in pre-op for an hour at least and Will acted like he owned the place. He was introduced to bubbles which I think he would have played with for hours! He played ball with his new nurse friend and chased around a Hot Wheels car.

Will walked around to the other side of the curtain to see the other child in there. He just had to say "HI!"

First time to play with bubbles. He LOVED them! We will be investing in bubbles soon.

I just had to get a pic of his back side. He was just so cute! The nurse gave him some socks and he kept bending down to check them out. 

We met with the anesthesiologist and MRI tech. The plan was to have them take him from us, go to MRI room, get gas mask for quick sleep, put in IV for contrast dye and anesthesia, and then get started. Because of all of the areas that they are getting pictures of, it was going to take 4 hours and we could see him probably an hour after that. 4 hours?!?! That is longer than his surgeries! They took Will around 11:20 and JT and I left the pre-op room. We went to eat lunch and then walked around for a while. We spent the rest of the time waiting.

They called me about 3:30 and said he had just gotten done and was already waking up. We couldn't wait to see him! We could hear his raspy cry when we got to the post-op area - so pitiful! He had drank a little water, but mostly just wanted his "no-no" taken off. I can only imagine how mad he was to wake up to that! We stayed there about 20-30 minutes and then were able to go home. Before we even left the parking lot, Will threw up. I jumped in the back seat with him and we kept driving. He got sick a few more times, but it was just the water he had been drinking and nausea from anesthesia. We really didn't want to call the hospital because we knew they would tell us to come back. We got home and gave him some milk. All of that came back up too. Will seemed to feel fine though. We gave him a piece of toast and no more liquids. He has been fine ever since! We played like usual. Will didn't have his balance back yet, so he was walking around like a drunk, which was pretty funny. He ate a good dinner and is now sleeping.

The report will be ready in 24-48 hours. So we are hoping to hear something tomorrow, but it is very possible it will be Monday.

Mother's Day Out

Our neighbor Karen (aka "Momma Karen" to me, JT, and Maggie and "KeeKee" to Will) teaches the 2 year old class at a church close to our neighborhood. I promised that I would send Will there when he was old enough to be in her class. Since he has so much separation anxiety and needs some socialization with other kids, we decided to go ahead and send him now to the 1 year old class. It is on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-2:30. JT and I talked about it and decided that 1 day a week should be good enough for him. (I didn't want him to go both days because if those were my days off and he was in school, then I wouldn't have any time with him that week.)

Today was Will's first day. I packed up his puppy dog lunch box and dressed him as cute as I could. I expected there to be a lot of crying, so I figured he should look cute if he wasn't going to act very well.

We got to his class room and met his teachers Brenda and Denise. There are 7 other kids in his class. Will and I played with some toys that he liked and he kind of cried and played at the same time. I decided to make my escape when he calmed down. I made a bad decision and gave him a hug which got him crying again. Next time I know to just sneak out without saying goodbye!

I didn't look through the class windows....I just walked straight to my car and started crying. I have no idea why! I didn't cry when I left him to go back to the work the first day, but I guess he is my little companion now and I don't know how to get through my day without him.

The 5 hours went by fast, but it also felt like the longest 5 hours ever! I went to Zumba, ate lunch, took a shower, and went to the grocery store. It was nice to take a shower without trying to keep an eye on him too. And I got through the grocery store fast without him, but it wasn't as much fun. Maggie moped around all morning. She won't admit it, but she was missing the little guy driving her crazy! I went to pick him up and saw Karen. She said he got really attached to Brenda and had a great day. Yay Will! He ran to me when he saw me, and I almost started crying again. Brenda said he played, held hands with a little girl in his class, and only cried for the first few minutes. He didn't nap, but I don't think any of the kids did. She said they all just laid there smiling. Will has never shared a room with anyone before so I am sure he was so interested in all of them.

All in all it was a great day. I am so glad that we are starting him in this program, I think it will be good for all of us.