The Great Debate

At almost 21 months, Owen still doesn't talk very much. His word of choice is "dada". He occasionally says "mama", but not nearly as often! We try to get him to say "mama" more, but the regular result is what you see on the video...

Shepherd Boy

Owen has developed an attachment to his blanket. He loves his blanket and is often seen dragging it around the house. One of his favorite ways to play with it is to drape it over his head. We call it his "Shepherd Boy" look and he laughs and laughs when he's Shepherd Boy!

Lazy Days

It's always nice to have lazy days at home. Lego creativity can abound when given the right circumstances!

Bagels

Sometimes, I just feel the need to bake. My family tends to be the primary recipients of my various baking endeavors. I have a repertoire of recipes that I come back to again and again, but thanks to Pinterest, I've been finding loads of inspiration to include new recipes. Yesterday, inspiration struck and cinnamon bagels were the result. They turned out surprising well and they have been a big hit!

Play Dough

Brennan has been taking more interest in doing arts and crafts lately. Yesterday, his project of choice was playing with play dough. After realizing that our purchased play dough stash was pretty well dried out, we gave up on it with the promise of making play dough at home the following day. Now, I've never made play dough before, so I was a little apprehensive about how it would turn out compared to what you can buy in the stores. But...I was pleasantly surprised. Brennan loved watching it take form and he had a great time playing with the finished product. And the recipe I used was so, so easy. This will definitely be a repeat project in this household!

Testing, Part 2

This past Monday, Brennan and I headed down to Winston-Salem, NC, to complete the motility studies that will hopefully help us figure out what is going on in his intestines. The first test was originally scheduled to be completed on Tuesday, but we discovered that either his first clean out was not fully effective or he produced enough stool over the course of three days on a liquid diet to make it impossible to do the test that day.

Of course, there was initial disappointment, coupled with the thought of "now what????". We had traveled four hours and jumped through every hoop provided by the insurance company only to think that it may not be possible at this time. But...God intervened. A quick call to the insurance company got them to cover another in-patient clean out, and we were able to do the testing over the course of the next couple of days. It meant an extra day in NC, but that sure beat having to start the whole process over again!

Brennan did fantastic in the hospital and was thrilled when he was given the chance to eat again. His first food request:  macaroni (or in Brennan-speak, "macanoni"). We hope to find out the test results in the next couple of weeks and we'll be able to start physical therapy soon (hopefully!). We are definitely hoping that this portion of testing will bring us ever closer to a real, true solution to this ongoing difficulty. Thank you all so much for your prayers during this time for us!

Testing, Part 1

Thursday ushered in part one of Brennan's big colon testing to help us get to the bottom of his chronic constipation issues. He was admitted to the hospital here in Richmond for a complete colon clean-out. He was given a nasal infusion of GoLytely to flush him out and an IV drip for fluids and some anti-nausea medication. All things considered, he did fabulous with getting poked and prodded and having tubes in various parts of his body. He loved getting the chance to watch lots and lots of movies!

A quick X-ray this morning showed that he was fully cleaned out, so we began making preparations for him to be discharged from the hospital. I will be taking him to Winston-Salem, NC, on Monday afternoon for some intense colon testing starting on Tuesday. He'll be on a clear liquid diet for the next couple of days to ensure that he'll remain cleaned out. We are hoping that all of this will finally get us some much needed answers!