Thursday, February 26, 2009

23 things about the 23 month old!

Believe it or not, Kanyon is almost 2! Today he is 23 months old...so as we draw near to the big 2, I thought I'd start the "countdown" with a little game. 23 Things you might not have known about Kanyon:


1. He doesn't care that much about watching the TV unless its on fast forward.

2. He has tons of tiny little white dot scars on his hands and arms. The older he gets the more they show up. They're from all the IV sticks when he was in the NICU. They are probably all over his head too.


3. He really is as smiley as the pictures you see on the blog.

This was the first one EVER!

4. He has reflux and still throws up often, but doesn't care. I do care because its A LOT that comes up. He's still on 100% pediasure, so its not too nasty (sorry for the details). We can hear it coming and usually run to the sink or hang him off of whatever we're sitting on. We still keep our recliner covered in towels and we are SO GLAD we don't have carpet in our living room! But none of it phases him one bit. He looses it and then keeps right one going!

5. There was a time when he would copy the sounds mama and da but now says za za. Stinker.

6. His name came off of a Texas map......before we had kids, we used to say it would be cool to name our kids places (towns, counties, etc.) in Montana and Texas. So, when we would travel, we would look through maps and stuff looking for names. There is a Canyon, Texas. We liked that and it sounded good with Luke....obviously we scratched the Texas Montana names, but stuck with Canyon....changed it to a "K" since Kory is with a K....and Luke is Kory's middle name. klp and KLP

7. He's heard "use your other arm" so much when he's in his standing frame or exersaucer that sometimes we just say it and he pics his left arm up and puts it out on the tray. I wish I would've been using the term "left arm" instead...then he would seem super smart like he knew his left from his right!

8. He taught himself how to kiss. We just realized one day that he would lean in when we asked him to. Since then, he is forced to kiss his mother at least 6, 000 times a day. I can't help it.



9. He RARELY wakes up crying. More often than not, I hear his rain forest soother come on...he learned how to hit the button to turn it on. He is usually sitting there either trying to lick the soother or rocking/dancing to the music.




10. If he gets tickled and laughs a good hard belly laugh he gets the hic ups...every single time.
11. He used to end his hic ups by throwing up...not any more thank goodness.

12. He has never been in Wal-Mart

13. His favorite toy is this gear toy..thanks corbitts....it combines all of his favorite things: music, spinning, and lights. This picture (taken by Mindi) shows EXACTLY how he plays with it. He is obsessed!


14. Speaking of obsessed, the obsession with the bouncy seat lives on. But his bouncing is so out of control that I have to be right there beside him to make sure he doesn't tip the thing or bounce himself out. Safety first.
15. Squirting noises or brushing noises (like scrubbing the shower) crack him up.
16. He still sleeps with the doll in his bed that he had in the NICU....they would give me these to keep in my shirt and then put over the babies' heads so they could know my scent. I had 2 for each so I could rotate....I might not could've been holding them, but by golly they were gonna SMELL ME!!! I just have to keep it in his bed...maybe I won't make him take it to college...maybe.


17. The hair on the back of his head grows sideways. Don't ask me why....I mean really, here I am talking about his hair again. What is THE DEAL!?
18. He sleeps in a closet every Tuesday night (in Dallas at Kasey's).

19. He loves to reach up to touch lights (thanks to his dad) when we go for walks at night, he will reach up from his stroller to try to touch the street lights.



20. He recently started knocking...he doesn't know he's knocking and its not a "trick" we taught him, but it does look funny when he pats something, then rolls up his fist and knocks on it.

21. He still gets rocked to sleep. Sue me. I will explain why (other than that I am eaten up with love when he lays on me and falls to sleep): We have always had to hold him up after he eats. It used to be for 30 min. now, its not near as long. And he never has been an eat-wake-sleep kind of guy.....more of a eat-sleep-wake cycle. So, he eats then we have to hold him up and 99% of the time, he's asleep almost instantly if it is bed time or nap time. There have been a few times when I wish I could just put him in his bed, but it is really rare that the rocking thing isn't super fast, easy, and sweet. PLUS, the whole "cry it out" thing = throwing up everywhere....not worth it. So there, I still rock my 2 year old to sleep.

22. He cries every time you walk in from outside.

23. If he is acting like he might throw up (we can hear it coming) and then sneezes, he won't throw up. Its like the sneeze replaces throwing up....I like sneezes.

There you have it....Did you learn anything you didn't already know? I am sorry that so many of them involved throw up. I didn't mean to do that, I guess its just a common reality in our little world! Have a great day!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Merry Christmas Kanyon!

I've never been known for being on time, so why should my son's Christmas present be on time?? I wanted to get a toy box for Kanyon (or for me since he doesn't care where his toys are) and Kory wanted to build it. He worked really hard on it and did a great job! It was finished in time for Christmas, but we just now got it stained and coated. I have a few pictures of the process, but I realized today that I'm missing a few from the middle and end...don't have a clue what happened to those pics!








Last night was the big reveal and he loved it....playing in it! Kory is holding him up, don't worry!


Here is the proud new owner of a custom made by daddy toy box!


This picture of Kanyon makes me giggle.



It is a really big chest, so it is nowhere near full, but I figured at this point in life, toys only multiply. AND my living room is now in shambles because we had to move furniture around and out. I'm not good at that. I NEED HGTV to help me!














Monday, February 16, 2009

Pics and a little medical update

Where is that boy you all came here to see???
PEEK A BOO!
Chillin' with his Nanny Lou


Patrick was showing Kanyon the flashlight thing on his iphone and klp LOVED it!! It was great fun. He could even change the colors on his own...Patrick is trying to talk us into an itouch for his bday!! Haha!


Mandatory bathtub Mohawk pictures:



trying to avoid the paparazzi

When he smiles he kinda smiles with his whole face!


Kanyon's form of army crawling and the carpet don't make a good match...it pulls his pants off! He doesn't care, he just keeps on going.

cute pic with my parents...they stopped by on their way back from Huntsville...no my mom did not go to the Freshman Social, she just borrowed my shirt. Actually....Todd, I think this is your shirt??!!! Let me know if you've been missing it the last 8 years.



A few weekends ago, my mom came and spent the night with me and klp while KLP was out of town. She got a picture of our little wake up routine. I make him kiss me through the bed before I pick him up. I just love it. It was early morning...so excuse my morningness...I feel like my hair looks like Billy Ray Cyrus.....oh well.
This picture got out of order...IMAGINE THAT ANNOYING BLOGGER!!! This was supposed to go right before the one of him with his pants completely off...here they are on their way off



That'll do for now with the pictures...I do have a little "update" Remember how all this used to be was medical updates...well, we're gonna throw back...
We met with a couple of people last week. The first one was the Physical Medicine Dr. at Our Children's House. She is really great and I like her a lot. We hadn't seen her since we were inpatient so its been almost 9 months. Kanyon has officially learned when he's in the Dr. setting and he FREAKED out the ENTIRE TIME we were with her. I was seriously sweating trying to calm him, talk to the Dr., keep my brain to ask the questions I needed to, answer her questions, and fill out 6,000 pages of paperwork. The freak out made it a little tough for her to get a really good look at him as far as his tone, etc. but we had a great write up from our PT here that she read and she was able to see what she needed. She said he's on the right track and that we're doing all of the things we need to be doing therapy wise (I told you....we have the BEST PT in the UNIVERSE!). She thinks Scottish Rite is the place to get to the bottom of the crooked foot mystery so we'll keep up with them. She is going to X-ray his hips next week (we didn't think he could be still enough then to do it) just to make sure they're OK before we start to work on standing stuff. She also would like for him to be seen at the Scottish Rite CP clinic. We've never gotten the "official" Cerebral Palsy diagnosis, but she gave it to us. Its not that big of a deal at this point. We've always treated it like that and it really just gives it an official name. Receiving a diagnosis doesn't mean we're automatically going to get magic medicine or that things are worse or better than they were. It just is what it has always been. CP is a HUGE term that can mean lots of different things. It isn't, by name, a very definitive explanation of a person's condition because it can range so widely in severity and it can take different forms for different kids. So in some ways its TOO broad to really give information, but in other ways, it makes things less complicated to explain. The technical term for Kanyon is Left Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy...that just means his left side is the affected side. We all knew that already. SOOO HOPEFULLY we will have access to that at Scottish Rite soon. We have an appointment with them in April so we should be able to find out more then. They just do a full body, full person treatment/equipment/different dr's and specialist/progress monitoring...one stop shop. We'll see.
The other person we met with was his Nutritionist at OCH. Everything was good and she have me the go ahead to go to 4 bottles a day...EVERYBODY NOW "HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH!!!!" I've always had to wake him up in the mornings to eat and he's never eaten good and he's totally asleep then he goes back to sleep and sleeps til i wake him up again at 11....then we'd have to keep him up to feed him at 11pm so it was often times midnight before he went to bed...hence his sleeping the morning away. I just felt like he needed to sleep more and that he would eat better if he woke up on his own. She calculated his intake and we can get enough in him in 4 bottles so this means he goes to bed at a normal hour and gets to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel like it is a much more healthy, age appropriate schedule and I"m so glad. So, Wed. night for the first time in his life, NO ONE WOKE HIM UP!!!! And one of the best parts is that I don't have to race to bed because its so late....I can put him down around 9:30-10 and then Kory and I can watch TV or have a little bit of time without having to entertain a baby. And maybe even go to bed at the same time...That's a novel idea!!! This has been AWESOME for me! I feel like it is SOO much better for him (and selfishly, me). Once house arrest is over, I feel like it will make it a little easier to do things in the real world since he will be up and going BEFORE noon and not staying up til midnight!! Not to mention, one less bottle to wash everyday. Have I mentioned how annoyed I am that I've been washing bottles for 2 years??!! Ha ha! Oh well, its really not a big deal, I find it kinda funny. Plus, there are way worse things. It is a GLORIOUS day for me!!!! I wanted to give the Nutritionist a big hug and a kiss, but i refrained!!!
SHEESH!! That was a long update. Sorry!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

This one is for all Kanyon's ladies....

call me. (that's what the shirt says)

Apparently this is hilarious...
Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

More Videos!

Ok, now that I know how to do the video thing, I'm having lots of fun! I am posting a couple more clips that I already had on youtube. Maybe I'll get more up soon.

This first one is of him clapping. This was right after he learned how to clap and we had to sing the song....hence me embarassing myself on the www!!! Now you just have to tell him to clap and he can do it and I'm really glad because I'm NOT a gifted singer!! Remember he has a bum left side...so his clap is a little lop-sided!

This video is really boring, but it shows something that he does ALL the time. I think he's a musical boy because he's always responded to music (this makes his Tuesday night roommate Kasey very happy!!) ...several months ago, we noticed that he would rock when he heard music....either someone singing to him, a radio, or jingle on TV. I took this video before Christmas. You can hear the music in the background. When it came on, he stopped playing and had to break it down!!

Who knows...maybe more videos soon!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Phillips Phamily Videos!!!

I have never been able to figure out how to post videos before, but I think I might have. Lindsay, if you're reading this (I just told you I couldn't figure it out...) call Rachel. She walked me through it. This blog would be nothing without Rachel!!

OK, so here are the videos...maybe....if it works. The first one is of Kanyon performing his latest trick....waving "bye bye" I have to kind of catch him relaxed and playing. He won't do it if we try too hard to get him to, ya know?! Sooooo he's in the tub. Sorry about that. AND he has a major mohawk. This short hair is kinda fun.

This is nothing but him laughing. It never gets old to me, but it might to you, so you don't have to watch the whole thing. I'm squirting water out of a duck. He loves noises like that. They get him every time.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

A few funny pics

I have a few random pictures I've taken lately that kinda make me laugh.

Since the haircut, klp's hair has been extra crazy when he wakes up!

He really REALLY wanted a drink of my Kool-Aid. I let him try some and he didn't really care that much....he was for sure giving me the stink eye for taking a picture of his mustache.
Guess who was in charge when this happened???


Kan Man is pretty much a free range chicken these days. He scoots/army crawls/drags himself all over the house....very proud to be under the table.




i think this is so cute


The air vent is one of his new favorite spots in the house. He runs his hands over it to make a noise and LOVES it!
We went to our opthomologist a few weeks ago and everything was fine, but one thing he did suggest was patching his right eye about an hour a day. He wasn't sure, but he might have seen the left eye drifting some, so he suggested the patching. Somehow, I totally forgot about patching it until just the other day. It for sure DID NOT last an hour and today was our best at about 45 min.
Speaking of...i have to share a "moment" we had today. We were sitting on the floor and I had put on his eye patch, he was trying to tear it off and I was trying to distract him. Then I realized I could kill 2 birds with one stone and wrap up his right arm (keep it away from his eye) and work on his left arm stuff. I had just finished putting his arm brace on his left arm for the day and I was reaching to grab his boots to put them on and then I kind of chuckled to myself when I realized the scene we were dealing with. Arm brace, other arm completely wrapped up in a back brace, eye patch, and at that point, I just couldn't do the boots too. I cut the kid some slack and we let his feet be free. Poor boy!



Pretty cute cyclops if I do say so myself!!


My mom found these PJ's for him a long time ago in some clearance bin at gymboree. They have cowboys all over them. They are like grown man pajamas. Pretty funny. We thought all he needed was a pair of slippers, a newspaper, and a cup of coffee.





kan man and gay gay


New game with our curtains:
"Where's Kanyon???"


" PEEK A BOO!!!!!!!"


This is what I get when he sees the camera and comes straight for it!



That's about all around here. We're just truckin' along. We're glad its February because that means next month is March and the end of March is the end of House Arrest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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