October 2008

Warning: Long post with lots of pictures to follow!

On October 12, Peyton turned one. ONE! That year went by so fast. He grew so quickly and changed so much. Every day, it seemed, he learned something new. I think the next years are going to go just as fast.

Peyton was lucky to have his birthday fall on a Sunday, so we were able to have his party on his actual birthday. The theme was baby Sesame Street. It actually turned out to be a really good choice of themes because Peyton adores Sesame Street now. He knows all of the characters, but Elmo is his favorite. But anyway, back to his birthday... We had the party at our house, which worked out well because it gave our family a chance to see our new place. We had it catered by Beefalo Bob's and the food was really good (well I thought so, at least). Lots of our family made it to the party, including Linda from Michigan. Some special people were missing though, including Aunt Bev and Kate and Dave, and a few others who were all out of town or busy and unable to make it. It was a nice day, so we also got to sit outside.

Here is a picture of Peyton's big cake, as well as his special cake to eat.
As you can see from the next picture, Peyton really enjoyed his cake! It took him a few minutes to get into it though. At first, he couldn't figure out why so many people were just staring at him and snapping pictures like crazy. Once he figured out the cake though, he was in heaven.

I'm not sure why the store would put icing in that shade of blue on the cake. They knew exactly what it was for. I was so worried that he was going to be stained blue for a few days! Thankfully, my mother cleaned up the high chair for me and Kyle gave Peyton a bath. Look at that water! It looks like it could have been from the Caribbean.

Peyton got what seemed like a million presents. I've only included a few pictures here. I think we took almost 150 pictures that day. I won't bore you with them all. Ha. Jill did a fantastic job of snapping a photo of each gift that Peyton received. Surprisingly, Peyton did not receive any repeat gifts, and only got one toy that he already had. My parents got him the Power Wheels Lawnmower. It took him a while to figure out how to ride it, but now he loves it!

Towards the end of his party, Peyton started getting really cranky. We figured that he was just exhausted from the day. After everyone left, we laid him down for another quick nap while we cleaned up. He didn't sleep long. When he woke up, he was coughing pretty badly. I'm sure everyone knows about his "asthma" by now. The doctors won't diagnose him with asthma until he is two years old, but it is fairly evident that it's what he has. He uses a nebulizer when he gets sick. We gave him a breathing treatment and put him to bed at his normal time. Around 10 pm, he woke up and was crying inconsolably. We could tell that Peyton was having a difficult time breathing. It had never been this bad. Kyle and I decided, with little debate, that we had to go to the hospital.

We arrived in the ER around 11:00 pm Sunday night. They gave Peyton treatment after treatment and nothing was helping him. Finally, around 2:00 am the doctors admitted him. We went upstairs to our room in the pediatric wing. Peyton had to have the oxygen cannulas put in his nose. It was at that point that I lost it. He just looked so sick. I started to cry and Kyle comforted me and reminded me that I had to be strong for Peyton. Peyton didn't get any sleep up until this point. When we got settled into the room, he finally fell asleep. The doctors came in every two hours to give him breathing treatments and to check his stats.

Kyle went home to tell Linda (who was staying at our house) what was going on while I stayed with Peyton. He also had to take Linda to the airport in the morning so that she could get home. Thankfully, Linda let Kyle take her to the airport very early so that he could get back to the hospital. We just hung out at the hospital all day Monday. Peyton continued to receive treatments every few hours. He was tied to his bed due to the oxygen in his nose and the oxygen monitor on his toe. This didn't go over so well with a one year old who just wanted to run around. Monday night I stayed at the hospital while Kyle went home to go to sleep so that he could go to work for at least a little while on Tuesday. The fold out chair that I slept on was not so comfortable and the doctors came in every two to three hours during the night to give Peyton treatments. Peyton slept through most of them, but needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. Tuesday was more of the same. They let him get off of the oxygen and go to the playroom down the hall for short periods. This helped a lot with Peyton's 'cabin fever'. He was able to get some of that pent up energy out.

While he doesn't really look sick in this picture, believe me, he was. But he was discharged on Wednesday. I begged Peyton not to make it an annual event of being in the hospital on October 12.

On a happier note, we took a trip to the pumpkin farm on October 19. Here is Peyton riding an old tractor.
There were a few animals there, including goats, turkeys, and peacocks. Here were are checking some of the animals out.
There were lots of activities set up, like a hay maze, hay ride, and giant slide. Here is Daddy and Peyton at the bottom of the slide. Peyton really liked it!

This is the three of us on the hayride.

Peyton picked out a good pumpkin. It's almost as big as him.

The next weekend we headed to the Baltimore Zoo for ZooBoo. The kids wear their costumes and there is a trick or treat trail set up, along with lots of other activities. We hung out in the Halloween section for a little while, then toured the zoo. Peyton might have been a little young to enjoy the zoo. If the animal wasn't right at the front of the display, he didn't see it. He did like looking at the animals that were close up though. Here are some pictures from our day.

On the night before Halloween, we carved our pumpkins. Peyton had no reservations about digging into the pumpkin and pulling out the seeds.

On Halloween, we took Peyton trick or treating to a few houses in our neighborhood. It was nice to meet all of our neighbors. Here is Peyton in his turkey costume. Don't worry about Peyton's teeth or belly -- I took care of eating his candy.