Hamilton can't fly

(Looking up at Grandma)

(Silly boy trying to blow bubbles)
(The "wingman" out cold with his hand stuck up in the air and his hat all messed up making the Colbster look like a cone head)

Colby had a wonderful trip visiting with his grandparents yesterday. He usually falls right asleep when we put him in his car seat. All in all an uneventful trip, he wasn't cranky, I packed everything I needed and my parents were thrilled to see their grandson.

I was sooooooo happy to get a good night's sleep last night. I crashed around 9pm and didn't get up until close to 8 this morning. Boy did I need that. Tonight is Tracey's night again but she went into the bedroom to lay down so I'm going to try to get some work done in preparation of the upcoming week and allow her at least a couple hours rest before I head in.

Colby had a good day today. He had a spell this evening when he was just crying with no relief.....until he pooped. Poor guy. Other than that, just hanging out. He loves his swing. We're glad he has a spot that he likes because it gives us a place to put him when we need a break. I've heard of kids who aren't happy unless they're in their parent's arms and that's gotta make things tough!

Tracey is going to call the neurosurgeon tomorrow to find out when Colby is going to go in for his surgery. I'm anxious to tackle this and get it behind us. We think that he'll be in his own room again so that means we'll take shifts staying there with him for as long as he's in the hospital. Hopefully he'll only be in the hospital for a couple days or a week at the most. Being that it's going to be surgery on his head and all, I can imagine we'll have some instruction on things we'll need to do and watch for once he comes home.

He's also going to have a diagnostic hearing test in the coming weeks. They will sedate him and attach electrodes to his head. This will measure his brain activity and I guess is the only real way to know if an infant can hear. It's not like you can tell an infant to raise his right hand when he hears the sound. I'm not sure when this will be yet. It's not correlated to his surgery so it may be after he's discharged and hopefully will take place at UCONN.

Ever since Tracey was admitted into the hospital, I haven't gone to the gym, gone mountain biking or done anything exercise-related. I've really been feeling kinda crappy the past month or so. I attempted to go to the gym last weekend, only to arrive at 5:55pm, enter the gym and be told that the gym closes at 6pm. So after last night's good sleep, I finally made it to the gym today and it felt great.

Probably being overly motivated, I called my friend Josh and asked if he, his wife Laura and his dog Bacci wanted to go with Hamilton and I on a hike in the snow this afternoon. I want to make sure Hamilton feels like he's getting the attention he needs. Laura and their dog (which is very small and thin and thus not well adapted to being out on the 25 degree weather) stayed at our house with Tracey and Colby. So Josh, Hamilton and I headed to the state forest. In the forest there are the remains of an old mill from hundreds of years ago. All that's left is the massive stone foundation that's cut into the side of the hill. When you stand where the building used to be and look up toward the hillside, the foundation is a made of huge rocks cut perfectly straight forming a wall that is over 10 feet high at some points. Hamilton was doing his own thing ahead of us and had stopped up towards at the top of the foundation. He's usually very cautious and hesitant with things. I don't know what got into Hamilton...maybe he thought he could fly or something. All of the sudden, Hamilton leaped off the top, dropped out of sight and landed below with a yelp. He continued to squeal as he hobbled a couple of feet until Josh and I got to him. He was favoring his front left leg. I was really worried that he broke something or really hurt himself. We were still maybe 1/2 a mile from where the car was and no chance of getting the car any closer. So my immediate thought was that if he couldn't walk we needed to get him to help that we would need to lug my 115 pound black lab out of the woods on a snow covered, icy path. I had some treats (chopped carrots and pieces of Swiss cheese...two of Hamilton's favorites) with me, so I told Hamilton to lay down in the snow and I stayed with him for a couple minutes. I did what I could to feel his foot, leg and shoulder and didn't feel anything. Hamilton didn't mind the pressure of my hand squeezing up and down his leg either. He got up and I was VERY relieved to see that he was OK. I think the snow helped cushion his landing a bit. He continues to favor his leg tonight off and on. So at least I know it's nothing too serious as he can walk on it and even wanted to play with Josh and Laura's dog when we got back to the house. But he's a big dog and I don't want an injury now to haunt him as he gets older. We'll watch him tomorrow and if he continues to favor his leg, we'll bring him to get checked out.