Carson's Party Hat

Dec. 31, 2015
Carson has brachycephaly, so he needs a helmet because his head is as wide as it is long.  (The length is supposed to be double the width by "normal" head standards.  We heard it was a long process to get one and so I started working on it in mid-November to get our ducks in a row with the pediatrician, physical therapist, orthotics office, and insurance.  Helmets are super pricey ($2500-$3000) and we'd already met our deductible in 2015, so we obviously really wanted it to go through since our deductible is $10,000. Eek.

We were seriously so lucky and Carson got fitted for his helmet on Dec. 31. Talk about cutting it close! We're so grateful that he was able to get it in time and also that we can fix his weird head now and not have issues later. It's been a rough transition for the poor kid since he has to wear it 23 hours a day and can only take it off to get dressed, clean the helmet, bath, and for physical therapy stretches. He's struggled to sleep a lot (which is crappy since he's our worst sleeper anyway).  It's only for a few months. Hopefully when he gets it off he'll be able to sleep better again. Fingers crossed...

At any rate, he sure looks dang cute in it! The thing I was most sad about when I originally found out that he needed a helmet is that the helmet would cover up his awesome, sticks straight up little mohawk.  But as you can see it's got a little hole on the top for ventilation and luckily his hair can still poke up.

When I brought Carson home from his appointment to get his helmet I said, "look Kaden, Carson got a new party hat just in time for New Year's Eve tonight."

K: "Mom. That's not a party hat. Real party hats are pointy."

My mistake Kaden, my mistake...

Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, at my parent's house. We had a nice dinner and opened presents from my parents.  

We were so excited because we got to do our first Christmas morning at home as a family! It was so much fun to see the anticipation on Kaden's face if Santa came or not.  The only thing he asked Santa for this year was the movie Inside Out. You'd never know this is what he wanted based on this picture... but in real life he was SOOO excited!

We made cookies the night before for Santa and set out carrots for the reindeer too.  Kaden was excited to find this note in the morning from Santa. 

Santa knows that Kaden loves music more than anything in the world and he is always drumming on everything in the house, including furniture, so imagine his delight to get his own frog drum set that plays songs!  Kaden played with the drum set most of the morning and it has continued to be a favorite toy ever since Christmas.

It was really nice to do Christmas at our own pace this year. Kaden woke up way before either of the twins and so we had lots of time for him to open a present, play with it, open another present, play with it, before they got up.  We paused for breakfast in the middle of opening presents once the babies got up and didn't actually finish opening all of them until around 10:30 am! 

The twins got a new exersaucer from Santa since we only had one.  They love to jump in this thing!

Carson and Cole also got their own toy balls, which they love!

 Christmas breakfast was taken from my family's tradition of ice cream on waffles. Kaden loved it!

Kaden's drumming outfit of choice for most of Christmas. Just underwear. Ha ha.

We didn't go anywhere during the day to allow our kids to nap, but Christmas night we had my family come over for dinner, karaoke, a few games and an ugly sweater party.

We tried to play the "Present Game" where you roll dice, if you get doubles you get to put on all the clothes in the middle of the circle and start unwrapping the present.  Whoever gets it open wins a prize. We thought Kaden would love this game, however as soon as someone besides him started opening the present he went ballistic! He had this look on his face of complete horror and lunged towards my dad and started screaming, "No, I want to open the present!!!" It was hilarious.  We could not stop laughing. He was soooo mad! So maybe it was not as big of a hit as we'd hoped...

The day after Christmas we headed up to Logan to spend some time with the Fairbourns.  We went sledding and Kaden loved going by himself. He's so over mom and dad doing it with him.  This was our best attempt at getting all three boys to be in the same picture. (Jackson, Jace, Kaden) Kaden loves getting to play with his cousins any chance he gets so that always makes it fun.

Kaden wouldn't go down much with Curtis and I, but it seems he's taken a liking to Alicia (Jason's girlfriend) because he wanted to go down with her repeatedly. Ha ha. Oh well.

We grown-ups have fun sledding together, even when our kids don't want to join us!

After sledding, Nana did a fun scavenger hunt for us all over Logan where we eventually found some fun prizes at the end.  

We did our traditional Christmas bells and had an improv sing-along/guitar jam session. 

I played airplane with Carson and he couldn't stop giggling! What a cute little face! Love this boy!