Chili's Give Back Night for Tucker

Last Wednesday our local Chili's held a Give Back Night to benefit Tucker. A friend of mine had one in May for her son, to help pay for therapy. She told me it was very easy to set up, so I contacted the Chili's. It was easy! I sent them the costs of Tucker's therapy (when people find out the amount we pay weekly for therapy, they look at me kind of funny...like I am making it up...I assure you, I am not! Most of his therapies are covered by insurance, but the few that are not add up quickly), and then I picked a date. The manager made up a flier with the date and Tucker's info on it, then it was my job to get the flyer out to as many people as possible. Customers had to turn in the flier to their server for 10% of the proceeds to go to Tucker. So for the last few weeks we have put the fliers all over facebook, emails, and my grandmas went around handing them out to people who did not have emails. The response was impressive....ridiculous almost:) I got so many emails asking for flyers, from people I didn't even know. I also got many emails and requests from high school and college friends that I hadn't seen in years, but who had been following Tucker's story on facebook and through mutual contacts. On the day of the benefit I brought pictures of Tucker to Chili's and a stack of flyers in case people forgot theirs at home. I saw several people there for lunch, and it was so nice catching up with them. I left to get Tucker from preschool, then took him to eating therapy. He did FANTASTIC at eating therapy that day, he ATE (as in took in, chewed, and swallowed, withOUT gagging) about 20 bites of spaghettios!! YAY!! His therapist said he pretty much made her summer. Once Chris got home from work and got ready, the 3 of us headed over to Chili's. We talked to several families on their way out from dinner, including my Galatas grandparents, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Raymond, and Katti. Then we saw the Schexnaydres and LeGranges, and got caught up with all of them. Thankfully my Lavigne grandparents and Dylan and Gina sat at our table, so we had somewhere to leave our stuff and someone to watch Tucker...we knew almost everyone in the restaurant, so we spent most of the evening talking to people, and very little time sitting down! Tucker ran around, of course, sitting for over an hour is not very appealing to him. Most people had very long waits, up to an hour or more...we saw the Conyers, the Bornes/Vizinats, the Savoys/Kellers, the Pizzutos, Waggenspacks, many Lavignes, many Gonzales Baptist Temple members, so many friends from high school, and of course my sisters each brought people with them. Even before we knew the numbers, we were overwhelmed by the support and turnout. I am posting the Thank You Note I sent out to everyone, it has details about the turnout and how thankful we are. We want to thank everyone for supporting our son at Chili's Give Back Night yesterday. Through lunch, dinner, and take-out orders, you all raised $674 yesterday, meaning that $6740 worth of food and drinks were purchased in honor of Tucker yesterady. We also received several donations which total $545, bringing the total so far up to $1219. This total has surpassed any goals we had in mind, and the Chili's manager assures us it was a fantastic turnout. We were truly overwhelmed last night at the amount of people that showed up to support our family. Over the last few years our family and close friends have stood by us, but to see so many others out there last night both humbled and amazed us. People we hadn't seen in years, People who brought out co-workers and friends, People who brought out their entire families, and People who came out twice in one day....we can't thank you enough! To everyone that posted pictures of Tucker on Facebook and sent emails out...we can't thank you enough! Since Tucker's birth over four years ago, we have been on a Preemie/Medically Fragile rollercoaster, and most of the time we want to hop off. We have seen some incredible highs and gut-wrenching lows. I speak for Chris, Tucker, myself, and our parents, when I say that yesterday had to be one of the highest points in our journey. To know that so many people have been touched by our story, and to know that your thoughts and prayers have been with us these last few years means so much to us....more than I could ever express. For those of you present last night, I hope you got a chance to meet Tucker. He is a blessing to all who meet him, and Chris and I feel it is our job to give him every chance to progress that we can. He attends a special needs preschool this summer, along with 6 therapy sessions each wekk. We are about to end our 3rd week out of 8 weeks, and the progress he has already made with speech and eating this summer has been phenomenal. Thank you all for helping us to keep Tucker enrolled in all of these programs to help him thrive and succeed; we will continue to do all in our power to help this little guy meet his potential. Your help has meant the world to us, thank you all so much! Leigh, Chris, & Tucker Townsend (along with grandparents Tonia & Curtis Galatas and Mia & Ricky Townsend)

We Just Have to Laugh

Recently Tucker has really been cracking us up!! He is sometimes funny without even meaning it, but lately he has been trying to do silly things too:) I try to write these down so I don't forget them, but I know I have still forgotten some. He has gotten very sneaky....why did I think that his getting smarter would help me at all? Of course he uses his brains against me. When he has something naughty in mind, he makes sure the adults are out of the way. He will push me (or Chris or Nana) on the couch and say "sit." Then he runs to the toy room and slams the door. If you follow him, he pushes you back to the couch and says "sit." Last Saturday night Mom found him with PullUps and Dog food, two big No Nos!! The other day I was on the phone, and Tucker was feeding me what I thought was a Coco Puff. It was actually dog food, so I spit it out and said "yuck!!" Tucker laughed and laughed at me, I am 99% sure he knew exactly what he was doing. The other day he somehow got the dog food again and tried to feed it to me...that time I refused! Tucker also has a few phrases like "Oh, no!" that he uses appropriately. He falls a lot, so he is saying "oh, no" all the time, and it makes me laugh everytime. He also tells people "hi" or "bye" usually with prompting. The other day he said "Hi" very loudly to his therapist Joy when she came in. He was very happy to see her. Right when the hour was up, he grabbed her hand, put it on his buckle (he sits in a buckle chair) and demanded "get out!" She got him out, and then he pushed her bags of toys out of the room, then told her "get out!" She said, "well I know when I'm not welcome! I'll see you next week." One funny thing about Tucker is that he loves snacktime at school, but he eats NONE of the snacks! Yesterday we went to Target before feeding therapy, so he picked out some Doritos to bring to OT. He brought the huge bag into therapy, and an older kid asked me why I let him bring all those chips to therapy? I said, "Tucker doesn't like to eat, so when he likes a food, we give it to him. He is coming to eating therapy." The boy did not understand what "eating therapy" meant, so I told him "Tucker doesn't eat at all, he has a button in his tummy to get his food. We come to therapy so that he will get used to eating." The boy replied, "really? He doesn't eat? Because he is carrying around those chips like they are his prized possession!" I said, "Good observation." And all of the adults cracked up! It really makes no obvious sense, because Tucker wants all of the food he can get...he just doesn't swallow any of it. Tucker has been going to Vacation Bible School at Chris's cousin's church. Our church has VBS during the day when Tucker's at preschool, so I signed him up at this church. He loves it, and the teachers and volunteers say he is doing great. The first night they said he ate three pretzels.....I said "um, no he didn't! He probably licked them, and then some other kid ate them!" Chris said if he actually ATE pretzels, then forget therapy, we are signing him up for VBS year-round:) Our collective sense of humor has gotten through a lot, even back in the NICU. I remember for Tucker's first Christmas, he was in the NICU, and he coded a few days before Christmas. We asked Tucker what he wanted from Santa, and his primary nurse Linsdsay said "a new set of lungs, haha." Well, we cracked up, and Tucker let out this big belly laugh, which was just about the cutest thing we'd ever seen! When Tucker was moved to the "long term" area of the NICU, we were devastated that such an area existed. At the same time we were glad to be in a quieter area with more room for us to visit and bring toys and activities for Tucker. We called it the Geriatric section of the NICU, and Tucker was the "old man" in the NICU. There were babies that were older than him for most of the time, but during his last month in the NICU he was the oldest baby there. Using funny names or laughing at things that were obviously funny really helped us get through it all. The NICU docs kept giving Tucker more food and calories to fatten him up. This was very important to help his body and specifically his lungs grow, but at some points he was quite fat! We would tell him he needed to lay off of the formula (even though we were pushing it down his g-tube) or that he needed to hit the gym:) We would call him the world's fattest preemie. The pulmonologist went one step further and told him he needed to do the Louisiana Two-Step: Eat Less, Move More! This was hilarious since he could literally do nothing at this point but lay around. When it was time to move Tucker from the big hospital vent down to the home vent (a HUGE step towards home), he wrote in the chart: Try Tucker on Home Vent...expect many adventures. There were some adventures, and Tucker went back on the hospital vent and coded before finally going back on the home vent to stay. This same doctor recently warned me not to plan on buying a big house or fancy cars anytime soon...he said we will spend thousands of dollars on Tucker for orthodontix in the future due to his prolonged intibation and oddly shaped jaw....so save our money! I laughed at him, but I won't find it so funny in a few years, I guess! We have of course had many sad moments, and many angry moments over the last few years. Thankfully, we have had just as many funny moments, Tucker is one funny kid!

Fun Summer Day

A few years ago I met Kristin through the March of Dimes. She had a six-month-old daughter at the time, Kamryn, who was born at 25 weeks and had an NICU stay at Woman's Hospital. Kristin and I became good friends, and since we were both home with our babies we spent a lot of time together, taking both of the kids on outings and just over to eachothers' homes. Kamryn is 3 years old, and I am just so proud to know this family and to see how far Kam has come. Kamryn also has a 1-year-old sister (born full term). I talked to Kristin almost everyday during her second pregnancy and then after Kinley was born, which gave me a good idea of the differences between preemies and full-term babies, good and bad! Their family moved to Mandeville last year, and we all have busy schedules, so we do not see eachother often anymore. Yesterday Chris, Gina, Tucker, and I headed over there to spend the day with Kristin's family and another family at their gym. Their gym is really nice, it also includes a spa and a very nice water play area. Tucker has been very anti-water lately, but it is just SO hot outside, so I am determined to get him used to it! We need a way to "beat the heat" as people say, and playing in the pool or sprinkler is so much fun. So I thought yesterday would be a good chance to show Tucker how much fun water can be. For about 30 minutes the pool was closed due to lightning...just as we were getting ready to leave, they opened it back up. We tried Tucker in the kiddie pool, and he was not impressed. So Chris decided to try the water slide with Tucker. Doesn't this look just like Tucker's cup of tea?? Well it was!! He loved it, and they rode it about 8 times. I rode with another little girl, Maddie, and we had a blast also. Then we got in the big pool so that Tucker could float around. I brought him floaties and an innertube so he would feel safe. Chris and Gina took turns pulling him around while I took pics.

And then we let him float on his own...

Right as he was getting used to it, the lifeguards called a break, apparently they do this once an hour. So the kids have to get out of the big pool, but can play in the kiddie pool. The kiddie pool is about 6 inches deep, and it has fountains, small slides, and swings. We left his floaties and innertube on so he would feel safe....until Kristin told me that was ridiculous!! Her girls were running and diving all over, so we took Tucker's stuff off, too. He crawled around in the water, and with Chris's "coaching" he even kicked a little and went up and down the slide. I didn't get any pics because I was following them around the whole time. Tucker was the only kid with two parents following his every move, like we were afraid he was going to drown in the 6 inch pool!

The weather was cloudy and pretty chilly for June, so eventually Tucker's teeth chattered and we got him out. We said good-bye to the girls, and Tucker gave kisses to all the adults around, even the ones that weren't with us!! He bothered Gina the whole way home (he loves to bother her!), and then my mom (Nana) came over to baby-sit him so that Chris and I could go eat with some good friends, Lacy and Steve.

We had a blast eating with them, they are getting married in October and we are really looking forward to the festivities! When we got home around 1030 Tucker and Nana were wide awake and still playing, they apparently had fun, too!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

My new niece or nephew is probably the size of a thumbnail at this point....still I couldn't resist!

Looking forward to meeting the little one....and not one day early!! :)

Summertime

We are six days into Tucker's Intense Summer program. He is in 3-5 hours of special preschool and therapy each day. I really should be updating this blog everyday, because everyday there is so much to update about, good and bad! Tucker had gym therapy last summer and did okay with it, well this summer he is thrilled to be back! He is four years old (as you all know!) and he is with the two year old class, which bums me out. He needs as much help as the 2 year olds, and he is at about their physical level, so it makes sense. He doesn't care, of course, he just loves to be at gym with "Bittee" (Britni). He is also loving his new preschool, he goes Mon-Fri from 9am-noon. It's near Blue Bayou, not far from Mrs. Mia's shop. So it's a little too far for me to go home in between, which has left me with time to run errands, read, and work out, yay for Mommy time:) I was also a little bummed to learn that Tucker is in the lower-functioning preschool class. They usually have 4-6 kids per class, and this year many kids signed up. So they split them up based on their needs. Tucker is in a class that really focuses on language and eating therapy, which my goodness! he really needs, so I am okay with all of it. He is continuing with eating therapy (OT) twice a week, as well as one hour of speech therapy at home each week. His eating has improved, bit by bit, but he is not eating nearly enough to go down on any of his tube feedings. In fact, he would much rather lick food, then feed it to any nearby animals...

Tucker with Sarah's dog Eli...Eli follows Tucker around all the time, hoping for leftovers! ....or just throw the licked food on the ground! Gina calls this food "Tuckerized", and you have to check all the food you eat, because there's a chance all chips and crackers have been previously licked, then put back in the bag! Tucker has also started swimming Physical Therapy. It is through the same company that he does OT and gym with. Tucker has always loved water, and now that his trach is out, I wanted him to really experience a pool! Well now that it is allowed, he decided he doesn't really like it:( The first two times, he said, "fimmin, fimmin!" like he was so excited to go, then screamed "out" the whole time that he was in the pool! This is a pic of him waiting for his turn...

He is so pale! And skinny! This time (his third session out of eight) he did much better. They played in the kiddie pool and the big pool, so maybe this is the beginning of his love of water

With all of this going on, we have had a nice break from doctors! Tucker went to his 4 year check up at the pediatrician on Tuesday, and he was NOT happy to be back in a doctor's office. It was a "routine" appointment, I guess, most kids go to the ped once a year to check on growth and regular stuff. We mainly catch the ped up with everything that's been going on! She knows, of course, since all of the specialists send her regular reports. I noticed a brochure for the BR Clinic pediatric psychology program. I looked over it and asked the dr about it. She said Tucker could maybe benefit from it with his eating issues and attention issues. They would do a complete assessment of all of his issues (this could take a while!), and then maybe put him on a behavior plan. I have been wanting to pursue this route for awhile, so I am glad that I saw that brochure.

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since Tucker's muscle biopsy, so hopefully we just have another 4 weeks before we have some results from that and the lumbar puncture.

The Two Wolves...

I am feeling a little down tonight....feeling a little overwhelmed by the next few weeks. Tucker will be in 3-5 hours of special preschool and therapy 5 days a week all summer...preschool, 2 different speech therapies, 2 OT appointments per week, gym PT and swimming PT...unfortunately, none of this is "extra" therapy, it is all sorely needed...it is going to be intense, and I would be lying if I said I am 100% looking forward to it. I wish he could be at daycare, or summer camp, or just home running around. But at 4 years old, and over 3 years since the NICU, Tucker needs so much help just to "keep up" with other kids and/or learn in his own way. Usually when I feel this way I go to my favorite website, where the other March of Dimes moms "hang out"...but lately it has been down due to technical issues :( I have posted the story about Holland in my first ever post, and it is very nice to talk to other Moms in Holland, experiencing what we are on a day-to-day basis. I have met several of these moms in person, and even a few of their amazing kids. Because I "know" what it is like to have a sick kid, I always get sad when one of the kids is in the hospital or is having a hard time. At one point last week, there were many little boys all in the hospital at once! It made me sad, wondering how so many moms have to watch their little ones in pain, and how they all seem to get through it all and seem so strong... I remember several years ago I came across a posting about wolves on that website...I did not know that mom at all (yet!), I only knew that she had lost her precious baby girl. The post said: An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life... He said to them, "a fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil-he is fear, envy, anger, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good--he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too." They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "the one you feed." This story spoke volumes to me then, as it does now. My mom has always taught me about thinking positive thoughts, and that we should not feel sorry for ourselves. This story shows that lesson in a very simple way...the more I feed the evil wolf with negative thoughts, the stronger he will get.... Sometimes people ask me how we do it...how we have been through so much, yet can seem so happy and strong...my friend Kristin puts it nicely: "what other choice do they have?" That's a pretty good answer! Another answer is that I try to constantly feed the good wolf, and lean on friends who have been where I have been....and much worse. To acknowledge the awful feelings inside me, the fact that I really truly wish our story was different. Then to also acknowledge that this is our story, and we have so much to be thankful for and proud of. A friend of mine posted on her blog today, "how can we be bitter, we are still fighting, we are the lucky ones." This mom has been through so much, it is often hard for me to read her updates without crying. Yet she can look at things like that, which is such an inspiration to me. Four years ago, we watched our 1 pound baby fight for his life in the NICU...we saw many babies lose that fight. Some of those babies laid beside Tucker for months, only to lose their fights. We got to take our baby home....those parents never did. Anytime I got down or overwhelmed by the amount of care Tucker required, or the long wait we had for so many of his milestones, I would think of those babies, and be grateful that we still had our Tucker and we were still in the fight. Tonight I also think of those babies, and how I am sure their mommies would be thrilled to be carting their kiddos around to tons of therapy and doctors' appointments. So I am going to feed the good wolf tonight, stay positive, and thank God that Tucker has 8 weeks of intense therapy to help us fight.

Long Overdue Update!

Oh, I have so much to update on, it has been way too long! (Warning, this is a superlong update!!) Chris and I are probably going to buy a new computer Saturday, Yay! Hopefully it all works out, then I can update daily like I need to. Two weeks ago Tucker had his muscle biopsy and lumbar puncture. For the past few years (but not since Tuck's birth), I have major anxiety the night before big appointments and/or any procedure. Big appointments can come with good or bad news, and they usually mean big changes for us. You would think minor procedures would be a breeze for us, but my anxiety actually gets worse each time! The other day I came across this mom's blog, while I have never met her, I think this post sums up my feelings very well: "It is surreal to be dealing with all of this again.I can certainly tell you it is far tougher this time around.When Presley was struggling the first 7 months of her life in the hospital, she was never truly ours.We had always shared her with doctors and nurses and surgeons.She didn't have a toy box full of her own toys at home,or a bedroom she shared with her sister,I didn't know what silly face to make to get a huge belly laugh out of her,I hadn't seen her and Mikah sitting together in the 'big' chair, while Mikah pretends to read to her,she hadn't crawl around the house with naughty intentions,pulled on Gus' ear,or frustrated her big brother by knocking over his carefully constructed blocks.I didn't know the annoying little stinker that would crawl into the kitchen every morning, yelling and screaming for her breakfast,We hadn't played 'Pat a cake' or 'Where's your nose?' or 'Peek a boo!' with that little love we shared with an entire PICU.But we have done all of those things this past year and a half, and we have had to share her with no one...she has been all ours,and our house is not 'home' until she comes back." http://gilesfamilyof5.blogspot.com/ I totally understand this....when Tucker was born, he was "our" baby, we told ourselves that constantly...but he never really felt like ours until the day we brought him home 8 1/2 months later. Thankfully, we have not had another inpatient stay that lasted longer than 2 days since Tucker left the NICU...and that is a pretty HUGE deal when you consider all of his past medical issues. But as Tucker gets older, we know his little personality better, and the docs don't just take back our baby to put under and cut open, they take our bossy little fighter! So...because I knew the anxiety would be with me Thursday night, we had tons of fun Thursday before Tucker's appointment with anesthesia. The drive to Houston takes about 5 hours (at least when Chris drives!) so we like to stop halfway in Lake Charles. That is where my aunt and uncle, along with two cousins, live, so we usually meet up with them. This time we got to Lake Charles in the middle of the day, so they were at work and school. We stopped off at the Lake Charles "beach" so that Tucker could stretch his legs. Wow, he loved it!! We were the only people there, and he had the kiddie playground all to himself. Of course, by beach standards, it is not much of a beach! But this was the first time Tucker had ever stepped onto a beach, and he LOVED it! He walked in the waves and threw sticks in the water. We had a beach trip planned to Gulf Shores in July, but with the whole oil spill, we are pretty positive we are not going. So we will just have to come back to Lake Charles to get our beach fix! I wrote Tucker's name in the sand...the little grooves around his name were his work.

And I got a few pics of him throwing the sticks.

After awhile we got back in the car and headed to Houston. We got to the hospital about 2 hours early. There is a huge zoo right across the street, but we decided 2 hours was not long enough for a zoo trip. So we opted for a train ride. This is all in Hermann Park, which is a huge park with tons of stuff to do. Chris thought Tucker would try to standup the whole time, since the train goes kind of slow. Wow, was he wrong!! (But I am not rubbing it in...right!) Tucker said, "ayne" when he saw the train, and could barely contain himself! We got on the train and rode all around the park, we even went through the tunnel. It was the cutest thing to watch. So we will definitely ride it again next time we go to Houston.

The appointment with anesthesiology was pretty uneventful, except that we had to pass the swings at the park to get to the office!! Tucker screamed for the swings, and we had to promise that we would go back. We went over Tucker's entire medical history, and the doctor was a little shocked that his lungs improved so quickly. We didn't think it was so quick, lol!

The high point was when the doctor asked us if we speak Cajun at home....you could have heard a pin drop! Chris looked at the doc like he was insane! The doctor was obviously from a foreign country, and he was a young resident...so all he probably knew of Louisiana was pictures of crazy Cajuns with their alligators! Which actually is a pretty good description of my father....just not us!!

So then we went to check in at the hotel. We usually stay with Missy, and of course I would have LOVED for Chris to meet that great family and their precious kids! Missy's sister got married that weekend, so they were super busy. She still took time to text me and make sure we were doing okay, though. Her son and daughter were the flower girl and ringbearer, and she said they had a blast at the wedding...although the weekend ended with an ER trip for Samuel and he is still inpatient:( Please send prayers to them, they have been so great to our family!

So anyways, Tucker was very tired from his long day! And when we brought all of the bags into the hotel room, he burst into tears! I guess he thought we were going home! We fought the whining for awhile, and eventually got out to pick up a pizza. We got a little lost, but ended up back at the hotel with our big pizza (hey, we were on vacation, right??). We fed Tucker at 8pm and he fell fast asleep. So Chris and I settled in to watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. Oh My Gosh!!! if there was ever anything to take my mind off of Tucker, this was it! Chris is not a Grey's fan, but we both had our hearts racing watching the whole thing! So by the end, we were ready for bed....although Chris kept joking, saying he hoped the hospital did not go into lockdown the next day...not funny!

We got to the hospital the next day...Tucker did amazingly well in the pre-op room. Really amazing, way too professional at this! We had some paperwork problems...for some reason they had the biopsy scheduled but not the lumbar puncture...the LP is super important, and he needed to be put under for it. I told them I was NOT coming back to Houston for an LP, and that Dr K would not want him under again, so figure it out....I told Chris, "Tucker missed his class water day for this!! He is getting this stuff done!" So after about an hour they had all the orders in place. We had already been briefed on the biopsy, but when they described the LP I got kind of queasy...the LP actually took over 1 1/2 hours because they had to get enough fluid...yuck.

Chris and I entertained ourselves with our IPhones (Thank goodness for those!) and by eating both breakfast and lunch. BTW, that hospital has some delicious food! I definitely recommend getting sick while you are in Houston:)

When the doctors came out, they said everything went great, but they wanted him to lay down still for about 5 hours. 5 hours??!! we thought. I texted to many people, "please pray that Tucker sleeps!!" because that was the only way we would get him to lay down. I found out later that many people forwarded on those texts.

So let me just stop here....over the last 4 years, Tucker has been through some "crap" (that's my nice word for it), but we have found many blessings in the weirdest places....meeting certain people in the right place at the right time....having certain things happen exactly the way we needed....that day all I needed was for him to sleep for 5 hours...his procedure ended at 130. At exactly 630, Tucker woke up! And as soon as he woke up, he was saying "out! out!" He was not supposed to walk, he had about a 4 inch cut in his thigh. He was very unsteady, but we could not keep him down! We took him for a walk to the indoor playground on the 10th floor (seriously! an indoor playground, he loved it!), and then a trip to the cafeteria for yet another meal. Chris and I are serious stress eaters, I think we gained 5 pounds each in those 2 days! I always say, "I lost the baby weight in one week....it's the NICU weight I have left to lose!" Ugh, and it's the truth!

So we knew Tucker was completely back to himself when we saw the chips! He jumped out of the stroller and Chris had to catch him! Ugh, Mrs. Mary, if you are reading this, pretend that you don't see the PullUp! We let him hold one as long as we were in the hospital...as soon as we left, we took them away! He did very well with it.

So we left the next morning and drove straight home. We should get the results of all of the tests by the end of July....did I mention the stress eating?? I hope I can fit in the seatbelt for the ride to Houston by the end of July!! Because the next few weeks will be pretty stressful for me, waiting on the results.

I wanted to post a pic that is totally unrelated to Tucker. Last weekend I spent two days at the largest Country Music concert in the South, the Bayou Country Superfest! It was in Tiger Stadium (yay!) and featured Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Kelly Pickler, Kenny Chesney, Brooks and Dunn, Jason Aldean, and several more! My sister Meagan, her husband Chris (yes, another Chris), and I purchased our tickets last fall, and we have been patiently waiting!

It was great, I love music! And so many of the songs I heard brought me back to my childhood (in the case of Brooks and Dunn) and my teenage and college days...it was a lot of fun. The weather was supposed to be pretty bad, so Meagan told me to pack a poncho. It poured down for about 15 minutes....Chris warned me that he was NOT leaving if it rained, he paid to see Keith Urban, and he planned to stay! I told him I am not a sissy! (which is not really the truth...) and I put on my poncho as well. Well, Meagan is a genius, almost no one else had ponchos! People kept asking us where we got them, as they ran for cover.

So here is a pic of Meagan and Chris....just a little reminder that there is life outside of Tucker...at least every once in a while!!

Thanks for keeping up with this blog, the whole 4 people who read it! It really helps me to get Tucker's story out, and it helps me to remember all of the events in our lives.