Dinos

Daycare was closed last Friday, so Carson spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Hermsen.  In the afternoon, they took him to a dinosaur exhibit at the Lancaster Event Center.  He had a wonderful time!

Halloween 2013

After much discussion on his part, Carson was a firefighter this year.  He was about to be a pirate, but kept changing his mind.  Thankfully, we had a firefighter dress up outfit at home, so that was easy.

October CF Clinic

Carson had a good clinic visit.  He's up to 38 pounds and 41 inches tall.  His BMI was over 65%, so they were happy with that (they would like it to be over 50%).

Roca Berry Farm

Since I had off today and Carson's preschool was closed, the two of us went out to the Roca Berry Farm for the morning.  It was a bit muddy and cold, but he had a great time.

Scaring and chasing the goats:

 Trying to the pet the hens, but one pecked at him:

 Enjoying the bouncing "pillows:"

 Digging in the corn:

 Ready for the ride back from the pumpkin patch:

 

The bouncing pillows:

Building a Fire Truck

A friend of mine told me about these free workshops at Lowes and Home Depot where kids get to build things.  A few weeks ago, she called me up and asked if Carson wanted to join her boys to make a fire truck over at Lowes. 

 

He was quite proud of the truck.

 

His partners in crime--Max and Oscar.

 

They got to keep the aprons and goggles too.  Plus, they got a patch that I will iron on to his apron to mark his accomplishment!

First Day of Preschool

Carson has been going to preschool twice a week for a few hours.  He absolutely loves it.  He has a friend from his daycare that goes with him, so that was great. 

Getting Ready for Preschool

Tomorrow is Open House for Carson's preschool.  I'll pick him up from daycare, go to Open House, then head back to work.  He's been so excited to go for a while now.  Yesterday, he put on his backpack and was doing letters so he would be ready!

Playing in the Sprinkles

Chris built this sprinkler contraption for Carson to run in.  Since he can't play in a swimming pool unless is cleaned all of the time and has chlorine, this is the next best thing.

Zoo Fun

Carson and I went with Ashley a couple of weeks ago to the Omaha Zoo.  He loved it except for the  T-Rex...

This week we went to the Lincoln Zoo--not as cool, but he still had a good time.

More Great Strides

More photos from our walk:

 Carson and the alien-

 Meeting cousin Evan for the first time-

Great Strides Walk

We had a great turn out for the walk--a total of 25 walkers!  Even though we don't have our final team total in, I'm going to guess that it is right around $3,000.  I'm glad that the rain held off for us to get the walk in.

McPhee Rocks!

Our school every year does a Pennies for Patients drive for Leukemia.  It usually doesn't net more than $20 and the students and staff don't seem to get behind it.  This year Breanna (see picture below) came up with the idea that we should raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and put the money towards our Great Strides walk. 

We had a kick-off celebration and one of our students read some facts about what Carson has to go through every day.  The class with the fullest bucket would win a root beer float party.  So for the month of April, students were asked to bring in money.  The money poured in!  I had a student whose family donated $100 and another one in the picture below brought in $50 from her family.  The response was overwhelming.  Students asked around their neighborhoods too.  In the end, we raised $1,000!  That is so amazing!  Because of the amazing response, Ayars & Ayars donated root beer floats for the entire school.  Thank you so much for everyone's generosity.

April CF Clinic

Carson had his CF appointment last week.  He was up to 34 pounds and 39 inches tall!  They were very pleased with him.  His BMI dropped just a smidgen under the ideal 50%, but he has been doing great. 

We got his culture results back yesterday.  Carson's staph is gone, but he still has MRSA in his throat.  Last time it was in his nose, but must have moved out of there and down only to his throat.  He started on three antibiotics yesterday--two are for 28 days and the other is swabbed up his nose for five days. 

How the Time has Flown

A couple of things came up with Carson in the past two weeks.  Many of the little people at Carson's daycare got sick.  Carson was pretty good except for a runny nose.  Then I noticed he had a lump in his cheek.  I called and got him an appointment right away.  It ended up being a swollen gland.  I was told to give him sour things to make him drool more.  The CF clinic later prescribed him an antibiotic to help with that.

Here is Carson eating a sour candy.

 

Then Carson started throwing some tantrums.  He goes and sits in his bear rocking chair and pouts.  When I asked him if he was done having his "pity party," he said he wasn't and that he had balloons.  Later he offered me some cake from his pity party.  So the other morning before leaving for school, Carson had another pity party.  Here he is with his balloon from the celebration.  He wanted to take it with us in the car.

 

Carson is 3!

I can't believe that Carson is three all ready!  Time has certainly flown by.  It was a crazy week for us.  We ended up getting Chris a new car on Tuesday.  He was tired of driving a gas guzzling SUV.  On Thursday, our frig died.  Thankfully, we had plenty of room in the deep freeze and I had a spare mini frig to throw the food into.  We had to throw some things away, but they needed to go anyway.

So on Friday, Carson's birthday, we went out to buy a new frig.  By the time we got to Macaroni Grill (Carson requested spaghetti for dinner), it was a 45-60 minute wait.  We placed an order and came back for it.  We took Carson to Target to pick out a present.  He was really mad when he had to leave the train table at the car dealership, so we found a train set for him.  Carson loves it!  He also picked out an airplane.

Since Carson didn't get to enjoy someone singing to him (and the fact that we didn't have any food due to the frig), we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Saturday.  Someone loved a little too much riding the "horse" and wearing the hat.  He kept yelling "yeehaw" at the people around us.  I apologize to those that were around us.  Carson has talked about his evening there a few times this week.

:(

When Grandma and Grandpa Hermsen went on vacation last summer, they brought back Carson a VW van from Austria.  It's the type of car you pull back and it drives off.  I wondered how long it would be until Carson broke it.  I was betting on a week.

Throughout the summer, Carson would get it's wheels jammed, but it was easy to fix and the van would go.  He loved driving off of the coffee table and hearing Chris go "ahhhhhhh!" for the people inside.  Well today, it is broken.  I was sitting at the breakfast bar and Carson came up to me.  In one hand was the van, the other was one of his play screwdrivers.  "Mommy, can you fix it please?"  Sadly, the mechanism that makes the van go is toast--no way to fix it.  Carson is quite bummed out, but it was too cute seeing him bring me a tool to attempt to fix it.

Throat Cultures

We got the results back from Carson's cultures on Monday.  He recultured MRSA in his nose and staph in his lungs.  At this time, they are not going to add any medications since he all ready did a treatment when he first cultured them.  His doctors were not worried about it since he sounded great when he was there and his x-ray looked good too.  You would never know that anything is going on and Carson continues to be an active guy.

January CF Clinic Visit

I took Carson to his CF appointment on Thursday.  It was his annual day of testing--x-ray, blood draw, urine test, and throat swab.  Because he previously had MRSA and he was clear at the last appointment, they did three follow up swabs-nose, belly button, and arm pits.  This doesn't hurt a bit, but Carson thought that the world was going to end.  Good thing that I brought Emily along with me to help hold him down.

His x-ray looked good and he sounded great.  Even though he only gain 8 ounces in three months, they were okay with his growth because he was still following the growth curve.  I swear he weighed more than that, but he must be getting more compact.  He was officially 32 lbs. 10 oz, and 37.75 inches tall.  His height/weight ratio was 53% (goal is >50%).  We'll see if he changes his ways when he goes in for his three year check up in a few weeks.

Because Carson has been having a hard time eating lately (maybe because of the craziness of the holidays, we don't know...), they are having him cut back on the antihistamine that he was taking as an appetite stimulant.  He will now be on it for three weeks and off one week.  We'll see if that helps.  I'm supposed to let them know in a month.  If there isn't much progress, he will get a higher dosage. 

Carson the Calmer

I didn't do the best last year to keep up with our blog.  I promise that I'll post more this year. 

I thought that I would share a silly Carson story from Christmas break.  The other day, Carson was trying to carry his large jungle/rainforest playset (see video below) through the kitchen.  He tripped, fell, and started screaming.  Then I heard him say quietly, "Shhhhhh.  It's okay, Carson.  You're fine."  I was super confused, but kept on listening.  Then Carson went to the freezer and got out one of his boo-boo ice packs and put it on his face.  About another minute later, he put it back and continued playing like nothing happened. 

If only everything injury was that easy!

Great Strides 2013

I know that you all are as excited as I am about this year's walk.  The Lincoln Great Strides for Cystic Fibrosis walk is May 18th at 10AM (registration at 9AM) at Holmes Lake.

We had a great turn out last year.  Our team came a little bit short of our goal.  Let's make sure to blow past it this year!

Click the link on the right side of the page to either register for the walk or to donate.  Every little bit helps make CF stand for "Cure Found."

Christmas 2012

So it's been a while since we've posted.  Carson had a wonderful Christmas.  He was pretty tired after all of his adventures, but never too tired to play!  A few of his favorite gifts:

Construction/Work Bench:

 Dr. Carson checks out Mario.  He was thankfully okay.

 

Animals that make sounds in the jungle.  Uncle Matt really liked this one too!