A Visit from Grandpa Jacobs

Not long ago my Grandpa Jacobs came for a visit. I don't see him very often so it was fun to get together at my Uncle Jeremy's house for a big family visit. My Uncle Chris was there too. (I usually only see him on the weekends when I'm at Grandma's house.) And then, of course, my Aunt April, Miranda, Logan, Haylie, Hannah, and Lauren. It was a fun day. Everyone (everyone but me that is) ate pizza and talked (I didn't do much talking either. Eating and Talking, not my favorite things to do, although I am getting much more into that whole talking thing.)

I spent most of the time outside in the backyard with my Dada and cousins. I like to throw things over the fence into the pool next door, but don't tell the neighbor about it. She's kinda cranky.

Anyway, that was the visit. More later. Halloween is coming and I'm not sure how I feel about all the spookiness just yet.

Mama and Dada take a Night Off.

So when Mama and Dada got invited to Matt and Angie's wedding, they decided it was a good opportunity to get away on a Saturday night. Matt and Angie are good friends from work. We went to their house once, ate dinner, and swam in the pool. They also watched my older brothers, Ethan and Caleb, for a night while I was in the hospital for my second ph probe.

While at their house for dinner, I tried a tortilla chip for the first time. And they have dogs! I like dogs, but I don't think Mama will ever allow us to get one. I bet if I actually asked for it, she might run out that moment and buy one.

Anyway, Matt and Angie have always been willing to help a fella (or his parents) out, so I thought I'd give them some space on my ramblings to the cyber-world.


Here's my Mama and Dada on their night out, celebrating with their friends. Don't they look good together? Bom chica wow wow!


Oh, and there was the cutting of the cake. That was an exciting moment. My Dada and a trio of other fine men were asked to move the cake while on it's table to an area suitable for an audience. Can you imagine the pressure? Well, it all worked out nicely in the end. It was a pretty cool cake, so I heard.


And there was dancing, of course. Singing as well, but we probably don't need to go there. Here's a pic of Matt and Angie Switzer's first dance. The wedding took place in a quiet municipal park in Danville with a big open field surrounded by the most amazing houses and a creek my Dada probably could have pulled some nice fish out of if he'd had his stick with him.

Anyway, after the celebrating was done, Mama and Dada were off to the movies. That's they're favorite thing to do. Me, well, I got to hang with Grandma Jacobs. I think I got the better end of that arrangement.

Me and My G-Tube.

So the day my parents have been fighting to avoid finally came September 8, 2008. It was a Monday morning. We left home just after 0800 hours and drove to Kaiser Oakland Main Hospital. Dr. Kim and his surgery team met us in our little waiting room where Mama, Dada, and I waited for the frightening reality of today to sink in. It would, eventually, as my Mama dressed me in my little blue gown and yellow sticky-feet socks.

The hour finally came, 1230 hours, and I was wheeled off to the OR in a wagon full of pillows and carrying two of my rubber ducks. For my Mama, it must have been the longest hour of her life. I know I couldn't wait to be back in her arms.

The OR was all flashing lights and beeps and dull stainless steel and blue. And then suddenly I was drifting deep in a beautiful dream. I couldn't tell you much more about anything that happened after that, not until I woke up to a large white man in a light blue shirt covered in Winnie the Poo images. No, not my father you silly people, my Recovery Room RN. Nice fella, in his own way. Dry sense of humor, though.

It took a bit for me to wake after the surgery, but I did eventually, although I had some trouble getting oxygen into my blood just after waking and then again later that night. Mama called Dada (who'd had to go home to sleep) at about 0400 hours when they had to start me on some oxygen. I have the best parents in the world in case you were wondering.

Pain killer at first was 1mg of morphine. That kept me pretty doped up all day long. I didn't eat, didn't sleep, and pretty much just laid around all day in a tiny room with two other kids and their families. At least I had the middle space which turned out to be the biggest space of the three. The kid in the space to my right was Robert and his appendix had burst. He'd been in the hospital since Friday. The other Kid, the one in the window space, didn't get to know his name but apparently he was there after having a seizure. He'd been there since Saturday. There were a lot of kids in my hospital, but, like I said, I didn't do a whole lot that first day.

Day two went a lot better. They got me off the morphine and started me on Tylenol with codeine. It made a huge difference. I was alert, babbling again, and taking an interest in all the things around me. Dada ran errands, got Mama food, changed my videos, and did all the things Dadas are good for when Mamas need them. I started eating again through the new tube in my belly (my throat was still pretty sore from the breathing tube put in during the surgery). Did I mention the surgery was laproscopic? It was. They made a small incision in my belly where they placed the Mic-Key button and pushed the camera through my belly button so they could see what they were doing. Anyway, Day Two gave my Mama and Dada hope, hope that I was still gonna be the same little boy I'd been before going into the OR, only now with an easier way to get me nourished and healthy.

We met lots of nice people at the hospital and Kaiser hooked us up (the $200.00 a month Mama and Dada were spending on my food will now be bought and shipped to us by Kaiser. YA, baby, YA!). We checked out Wednesday afternoon and headed home. I took a five hour nap when I got home and still slept through the night.

Now that you've got the scoop, here's a few pictures documenting the day.


I swiped this Little Einsteins book from the Ambulatory Surgery Unit and kept it with me the whole time I was in the Hospital. When my nurse found it as we were walking out the door, she asked, "Where did this come from?" Ooops. He he.


My ride to the OR, pulled along by my anast, anestizi, the dude who gave me my drugs, and my OR Nurse. As you can see, my Mama wasn't far behind. In fact, the only time my Mama wasn't by my side was during the surgery.

Our room eventually had a view, when the family by the window moved to a different room. The view, you ask? Well, in the near distance we could see downtown Oakland. In the far distance is my favorite big city, San Francisco.


And finally, me at home, shirt off and feeling a little better about the whole experience (but very aware of the new addition to my little body). The "button" is kind of like one of those valves you use to blow up a floaty toy for the pool, only this one can spin around. It's kind of stomach churning at first, but we're all getting used to it and it has made feeding time a whole lot less stressful for everyone.


There's more coming. We've had some pretty crazy experiences already with the tube and getting food through it, but I'll save it for another day. Ta ta for now, my Peeps.

Hunter. 2 years 9 months.

A Day at the Zoo

The Oakland Zoo. It's not San Diego, but there is something special about this particular animal preserve. Tucked into the rolling hills east of Oakland, the Oakland Zoo is home to some of my favorite animals. And although my last visit to this zoo didn't go so well (I didn't eat well and then threw up what I had eaten, and then there was the discipline issues with my older brothers), I was very excited about this trip.

My ABA skills trainers (and Mama and Dada, of course) have been teaching me all about animals. I can identify fifty or more by picture AND know their sounds (or just make up sounds for the animals I don't know). So, when Mama and Dada pushed my stroller and all into the zoo, I was totally stoked! I had no idea how cool giraffes, camels, elephants, zebras, and monkeys really were!






And the day just kept gettin' better and better with giant lizards, alligators, and turtles all just feet or even inches away, but always just out of reach. Where does a guy have to go to get some hands on experience with animals?




And then there were the Meerkats (What a weird name! I don't even know if I have that spelled right! But would it matter with a name like that?) and giant fruit bats! Bats are Cool.



And then I found the place where we got to get hands on, or somewhat hands on. Seems the workers aren't real fond of close interaction with the "wildlife". I mean, come on, if you're going to put balls out for the goats to play with and you're going to let kids in to play with the goats, then shouldn't you be alright with kids using the balls to play with the goats? Anyway, I think the goats and I got along just fine...




We made a couple more stops before it was time for Mama and Dada to grab some grub from the on-site eating facility (animal friendly, of course. Nothing a lion wouldn't eat.)




And that was all she wrote, folks. I was out. But my day at the zoo was perfect for everyone, which is hard to accomplish sometimes around here. Maybe next time we can bring Grandma.


It was fun. Hunter out.

Protecting Hunter.

My Mama and Dada had to get a little extreme with my crib because I returned to banging my head, banging it hard.

It didn't start out like this. At first, it was just a few cushy pieces of foam covering the top of the crib. It wasn't long, though, before I figured out I could drop to my knees and bang my head on the walls of my crib and create just as much chaos. That was when Mama and Dada got crazy with the Water Noodles, slicing and splitting the soft foam into enough pieces to cover every inch of wood that could possibly be used for head-banging.

My efforts at head-banging for attention thwarted, I resorted to something new, something I hadn't yet tried but found I was very good at: climbing out of the crib. That only lasted a couple of days before Mama was on the Internet and searching for a way to keep me inside.

My aunt and uncle once used a tent to keep one of my cousins locked down during nap/quiet time. That inspired my Mama to search the World Wide Web for a "crib tent". Low and behold, we found one at Babies R Us (Of all the places to be turned on! I mean really, Babies R Us, I thought you were on my side of this arrangement!).

So, that night the crib tent was put in place and, Boo-yah, we have a miniature maximum security crib for head-banging babies prone to escape attempts. Guess that's what happens when you have two parents smarter than the average bear.

(For information regarding the building of your own maximum security crib, contact my Mama.)

Hunter Out.

Between Then and Now

Disneyland..........miss you.

But, life goes on, even after Disneyland. And we got back in the swing of things with a summer get together with the Jacobs. And wouldn't you know, everyone wanted a shot at the Sidewinder!





But, as with all good things, the serious stuff was waiting for us as soon as we were doing having our fun. I got to spend a day and a night at Kaiser Walnut Creek having a second ph probe done. Why? Well, it seems inevitable that I will end up with a g-tube (for feeding purposes) and my GI is suggesting the Fundo as well, because of my previous issues with Reflux (aka GERD). Notice I said "previous"? After a horrible day and night in the arm restraints you'll see below and a very long night for my Mama (and Dada who couldn't stay in the hospital with us), we got the results of the probe.

The results: I no longer suffer from an abnormal amount of reflux, in fact, the test said I had better than average control over the acid flow between my stomach and esophagus. How cool is that!? Thanks Mama, for being patient and letting my body work out its issues.






So, now we get to tackle my eating aversions head-on, nothing else to worry about, nothing else to prevent us from making me the little eater everyone hopes some day I will be. I do too, and with my Mama and Dada, I don't see how I can possible fail!

Disneyland Vacation - The rest of our Trip

What do you do after Disneyland? You spend time with family at the park and go to Zuma Beach. So, for our first day with Aunt Jami, Uncle Rob, Spencer and Gwen (Taylor was still at Girl's Camp when we got there), we went to one of the local parks where it was way too hot for my own personal enjoyment, but we did seem to have fun.






The next day we were off to Zuma Beach near Malibu, and, No, we did not see any celebrities, to my Mama's dismay. I could see why the stars and People Magazine hang out here though.

I cannot tell you how much I love the water, especially the beach. What a cool, fun place, not to mention how everyone puts on special clothes to run around in the waves and sand. (Nothing quite like when Jim Carrey put on his girlfriend's bathing suit, his girlfriend being none other than the mother of a child with Autism, Jenny McCarthy)But it was still quite the place. What'd we do while we were at the beach? Well, have a look...







Oh, and I can't forget these excellent moments! We did have a lot of fun at the beach, a whole lot of fun.







So, that pretty much brings our fun little family vacation to an end. It was a good time, a success in every way, and the most fun I've had in a long time. Well, with hours and hours of learning to do every day, it's hard for Mama and Dada to find time to get us away for a few days. But they do alright, I like them. Think I'll keep around for a while longer.

Choa for now, my Peeps.

Hunter