Respiratory Distress - #5

SHOWING OFF HIS BATTLE SCAR! THE BRUISE FROM THE IV. HE IS SUCH A TROOPER...HE DIDN'T EVEN CRY ONE TIME IN THE ER OR UP IN ICU!

Well, Monday night at about 6:30 pm, Eli decided to go into respiratory distress. I didn't think it was bad enough to call 911, but I knew we needed to go to the hospital. We got about 5 minutes down the road and he worsened...so I called 911 and they met us in a grocery store parking lot!
We zipped up to the hospital in the ambulance.

It's a long story, that I just don't have the energy to type out right now. He spend the night in ICU while they monitored him. At about 12:00 he hacked up a big thick green thing that had been caught in his throat, and then he started breathing great, and slept through the night!

We are home now, and he is doing well. I'll post more later.

Thank you God for watching over my son, and helping him through his 5th event.

Amy

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party!

Our 3rd Annual Berkheimer Bash End-of-Summer Potluck....aka...Eli's Cowboy birthday party....was a huge success. Our family and friends had a great time checking out the new house, saying hello to Eli, and enjoying some good ol' country fun!

The kids loved the big tree in the backyard that has a deck underneath....it was full of little monkeys climbing it! :) This is Eli and Karla - one of his PT's, standing in front of the awesome tree!

Check out his Horse Power shirt! LOL~!

LOOK AT ME....I'M THREE!

Nice Hump and Slope in the Floor!

When we got into our new house we quickly noticed a big hump and slope in the living room floor, that was conveniently covered by a loveseat during the showing.

So, our contractor spent Thursday repairing the hump to make the floor level:

They had to lay down shims of different thicknesses up the slope and then lay concrete morter in between the shims. Then they had to lay new plywood on the low side of the room. Hopefully now it will all be even for the laminate floors to be laid on Monday and Tuesday.

The house will be finished being painted on Sunday. Wow....some of the colors turned out a little brighter than I wanted. Oh, well. Not redoing them now. Hopefully they'll grow on me.

On Friday, our contractor worked on putting a doorway in between our room and Eli's room...so I will have quick and easy access to him at night while he's sleeping. He is 100% tube fed, and gets half his daily intake at night while he sleeps. I have to be able to hear him if he has wet burps...we don't want him laying in spit up...and if he spits up too much we don't want him to aspirate. His feed gets done at about 5:00 am...so when the pump alarm goes off I have to turn it off....so this will be a great way for him to be close....but yet further away than he's ever been to me at night. I'm a little nervous! :) And excited, too. He's going to be a big boy, in a twin bed, in his own room! Oh, My!

Video - Eli Hanging Out at the New House

Each day after Eli wakes from his nap, we go over to the new house. I have a mat set up for him, we take his DVD player and music and he hangs out. He also get's his 3:30 feed over there.

He doees so well! He stays on his tummy for a long time watching TV. It's great! Today I decided to video him...and a little of the empty house....check it out...

Moving

Well, we got possession of our new house today at 3:30 pm. That is one of Eli's feeding times, so Lon and I loaded up the truck and trailer and at about 5:30 we went to our new house. It is so great. Small. But great! I will spend the weekend doing lots of cleaning. Then next week our guys are coming to paint inside, and lay laminate flooring in the Living and Family rooms. It looks like we may start living and sleeping there the weekend of the 16th.

Eli did so great there. He was really calm and happy. His DVD player battery died, and he didn't even care. What!? He throws a fit at home when his movie stops. LOL!

I came home before Lon, to put Eli to bed. We don't want to mess up his schedule too much. :)
After he was fast asleep, we loaded up the truck and trailer again. I'm already sore! This is going to be a long month isn't it? Where's my ibuprofin? LOL!

Lon took another load over....at 9:30 pm. Bless his heart. He hates moving....and he's being really great about it all. I think he's happy, simply because I'M so happy. I'm a lucky girl!

My Niece Got Hitched!

My niece married her baby's Dad on Saturday, July 19th,

(we now share the same anniversary).

She looks like a beautiful vintage bride.

The Ceremony

The Wedding Party.

Doctor is from Ghana, and he wore traditional African clothing, as did his Groomsmen.

Cutting the Cake

Doctor and Anongba

My sister, my niece, and my brother-in-law.

Am I Cute, Or What?

The Floating Head

I gave Eli a haircut yesterday...while he was sitting in his Bronco.

I covered him with a drape my hairdresser gave me (because we cut Lon's hair at home, too).

The picture turned out looking like "the floating head" of Eli.

LOL!

Now the Good News! We Found OUR House!

We finally found a house!

We will be moving mid-August. We are very excited. The packing process isn't much fun...but it's going to net us some great results! Yahoo!!!

The front entry

The back patio and deck

Goodbye Max

aka...Big Max...Maxmillion...Max-the-millionaire...

We had to put our precious dog Max down on June 26th. He had been sick for a month, and finally the third time we took them in they found a growth in his mouth, that hadn't been there two weeks prior. They biopsy'd it and it was cancer. :(

He was in lots of pain, and so we put him down the afternoon we got the results.

This picture is of us in the back of our van, waiting for Dr. Mike to come out and give him the shot.

I loved him. He was MY first dog. :)

The worst part of all is he died four days after we finally found a house....he was finally going to get to run around our property freely....but now he's gone. We are still sad....

SAVE THE DATE!

Eli's third birthday is fast approaching...and it's ON a Saturday this year!
You know what that means?!
Plans for the Third Annual Berkheimer Bash are underway!

SAVE THE DATE: AUGUST 23rd
at around 4:00 pm

Potluck party for adults....and some Cowboy Fun for the kids.
Our neighbors have horses and will be giving horse drawn wagon rides to the kids!
Lots of games and fun.
Great food!

Hope you see you there! Invitations will be mailed in August.

Horse Therapy!

We are very lucky to have a horse therapy program here in Yakima. The Tumbleweed Ranch and Pegasus Project provide "Hippotherapy" for children with special needs. And riding therapy for older kids.

Cowboy Eli did GREAT! His body was so relaxed on Tumbleweed, the POA seen in the picture. Karla, his PT is in white. The other two work at the Ranch or are volunteers. He rode side saddle, laying on his back, laying on his tummy, and sitting up!

The greatest part of all, is when we got him home....he was in such a good mood! He just laughed and laughed and laughed for about an hour. Lonnie and I were beside ourselves.....with JOY! He was such a hoot. We are very thankful for this experience, and cannot wait to see him next time. The session lasts 8 weeks....so, you'll see a lot on the blog in weeks to come.

Riding Side Saddle

More video..... :-)~

Eli slept so well last night! AND he slept in this morning!

Woo Hoo!!!!

Horse Riding pictures

MEETING TUMBLEWEED....a very calm and gentle creature.

BFF - Best Friends Forever

This is Eli with his buddy Drew.
Makes me want to cry every time I look at it!

VIDEO - Playtime in the Pool

Eli and Laura were playing with a ball. It was fun to watch!

My Mom and Me

In honor of Mother's Day,

here's a look back at my Mom and me.

I miss her so much!

Circa 1980

I was very sick here...not sure why a pic is being taken! LOL!

I remember laying on the couch for days...and ending up with such a huge knot in my hair at the base of my neck, that mom had to cut the chunk out!

Circa 1987

I know. I know. Nice hair. What was I thinking?

It was the 80's! Shut up! :)

This was on her wedding day, June 10, 1999.

VIDEO - Swimming w/ Laura

Eli does so well in the heated therapy pool at Children's Village. Someday, we hope to have one at home for him.

As you can see in this video, his body is really relaxed. Laura is able to get great stretches out of him, and also movements that he doesn't make "on land". Like here, swaying side to side. That stretches his sides by lengthening them. Good stuff!

Swim Therapy with Laura

SWIM THERAPY STARTED AGAIN TODAY!
Eli did sooooo good! He loves the water.
His PT, Laura, is just so phenominal! We love her. She is
loving, gentle, and safe with him always....especially in the water.
Thank you Laura!




But - it always wipes him out!!!!!

We could barely get him dressed...and he was ready for
a nap while we walked to the car!

May Photo Shoot

Haven't taken pics of him "just being him" in a while.
Decided to do a photo shoot! :)