Bye Sweet Baby

They said baby Joe had to go today.

Pray for our hearts.

We have great peace, knowing he is with
a family member who will love him
and care for him, but we are still sad.

It's just sad.

We will miss our littlest man.

One Happy Cripple

This news is backwards.

We cut the shirt.

He lived.

He did cry.

But he lived.

We cleaned him.

He smells nice.

He smiled.

He loves his new pj's.

Because the process of going from standing up to laying down hurts so much, Ashton decided he would stand for the rest of his life.

We waited.

He changed his mind after about 30 minutes.

He's now back in our floor watching Dora.

He gets to take some good drugs now.

We might all get some sleep tonight!

Ashton has a new blankie formerly
known as favorite pajamas.

Tomorrow Ashton gets to wear a cool
arm sling AND his new "Cars" pajamas.

Hayden will be so jealous.

"As God as our witness, we will NEVER
let boys sleep with out bed rails again."

This Just In

This will be a moment-by-moment Hendrick House Newscast. Brought to you by the makers of the Hendrick children.

Last night, we were awakened by a screaming child in the hallway.

Ashton stood there, stiff as a board, head down, arms drawn tightly to his chest…loud shrieks coming from his tiny petrified frame.

He could not move his neck.

He would not stop crying.

Because I had just watched House, I was positive he had meningitis.

I should have known he didn’t, because if you didn't have fever, House would just give you two pills and send you home.

Ashton did not have fever.

We did what any reasonable person would do.

We called Rusty in the middle of the night and woke him up to see if Ashton was going to die.

He said no.

Ashton said he did not fall out of his bed.

So maybe these neck cramps were simply the result of sleeping all founky in his bed or something.

We laid him down on the floor in our room.

Every time we touched him he screamed…loudly.

He laid there with Aaron until about 3:00 a.m.

I’m not sure any of us actually slept, because Ashton did not stop crying.

Then, Ashton said he wanted in bed with mama.

We put him in bed between us…same scenario.

Lots of crying…lots of screaming.

At 5:00 a.m. we finally realized that Ashton MUST have fallen out of his bed. This meant, the damage was probably far greater than a crick in his neck.

The only time he moved his arm was to point across the room and say, "I want you to go over there."

This was his way of telling us to stop touching him.

We were sure something was broken.

Aaron loaded him up and off they went to the ER.

They got home at 8 a.m.

Ashton had fractured his collar bone.

They drugged him good, so he slept almost all day.

Now here’s the dilemma we are faced with this wonderful evening.

Of all the apparel someone should choose to break their collar bone in, these pajamas would never be top choice.

Ashton can’t lift his arms.

He can barely move them at all.

And, these are the ever-popular pajamas made for kids these days…you know the ones that are the size of panty hose?

With out arms inside them, the material where the arms go looks the same size as Barbie socks.

How arms fit in them, I don’t know.

This phenomenon should be studied like Stonehenge.

I also don't know how Barbie sock pajamas keep your kids from bursting into flames.

It's a mystery.

So here we have Ashton….

Broken boned, Ashton.

In pajamas that are not bath conducive.

Yet Ashton unfortunately happens to be VERY sweaty and nasty from being at the hospital and in the bed doped up on codeine all day today.

We need these pajamas off.

To make matters worse, these are Ashton’s FAVORITE pajamas.

His absolute favorite.

I knew this was going to be an issue at about 3 this morning.

These pj’s will eventually have to come off…but how?

Aaron and I had a little pow wow about how to get our boy naked.

We could get the pajamas off two ways...

1. Remove them the normal way, moving his arm, causing him INCREDIBLE pain.

2. Cut them off with scissors.

We decided this was one of the best examples of a lose lose situation, if we ever saw one.

Ashton would react to both choices with hysterics.

Either way…major screaming and sadness.

We broke huddle, confronted the boy and tested our theory.

I said, “Ashton, do you want me to take your pajamas off the regular way…and hurt your arm while I’m doing it…or do you just want me to cut your shirt with scissors, but not hurt your arm at all.”

He looked at us like we asked him if he thought it would be ok to chop his legs off.

He simply said, wide eyed, “I don’t like this.”

Aaron’s idea was different.

He says to Ashton, “Do you want to take a bath with your pajamas on?”

We had not discussed this option in our meeting. Aaron was flying solo on this one...thinking on his toes.

Now both Ashton and Ashton’s mom stared back at Aaron like he had lost his mind.

What?

Aaron defended his plan saying, “He will eventually dry. We could lay him on a towel and keep him warm somehow until he dried out.”

Oh heavens.

I reminded Aaron that the pajamas would eventually have to come off our baby boy, some time BEFORE his arm healed.

We needed to regroup.

Then my brilliant husband came up with plan C.

Aaron says to our sad son, “What if I get you some new pajamas?”

Ashton liked this.

However, since I have been given the gift of telepathy…a rare ability only mothers have to listen to their children think…I sat there, staring at Aaron, anticipating Ashton’s response.

Sure Ashton thought getting him new pajamas was a good idea.

It WAS a good idea.

However, I knew our smart little son would never agree to these terms until the goods were already delivered.

He’s just too brilliant for that.

He looked at his daddy, who had just gotten out of the shower and was only wearing shorts and said, in his sweet Ashton voice…

“I want you to get dressed.”

This means…”Go get the pajamas…now…and let me see them…and then we’ll talk.”

Aaron sat there staring at his clever boy and said, “Ok. I’ll go. All crippled children should get what they want.”

That’s why Aaron is the best dad ever.

He’s at the store right now buying a bed rail and racecar pajamas.

We’ll let you know tonight, how the bath time saga staring a boy and his broken bone turns out.

In moments, we’ll be cutting up pajamas.

Ashton got us to agree to cut out the motorcycle so he could keep it forever.

This was after Aaron suggested that we cut his favorite pajama shirt right up the middle and make it into a jacket.

Ashton was not impressed.

Feeding a baby in the middle of the night
has made me realize one thing.

I love Claire Huxtable, and I want to be her.

Tortillas and Tushies

My Hayden

Source of much laughter

Crazy

Creative

Incredibly sweet

Constantly listening to his MP3 Player

Singing loudly

Living la vida loca

Hayden is my child that runs head first into danger, into trouble, into moving objects with out ever pausing to think.

He is my only child that sees a stranger's large rear end at HEB...eye level to him...so he reaches out and grabs it.

With out thinking he shouldn't.

Even after I give him an "Oh my gosh" look...he simply shrugs, as if to say..."There was no way of avoiding what just happened. Her rear was there...I was there...It looked smooshy...I needed to prove my theory with a hands on experiment...so...there you go."

I have watched him do things like this his entire life.

Once, at the zoo, a man was behind a huge table full of salt water. The purpose of this table was to allow kids to GENTLY touch some ocean animals. The animals they could touch were in shallow pans.

We made the mistake of not watching Hayden like a hawk.

I looked over at my child AFTER I hear this strange man firmly speaking to my silly son.

Somehow, Hayden had gotten his shoe OFF and then stepped on a star fish.

Why?

He said he wanted to feel it with his foot.

What?

If I had a dollar for every time I have walked around a corner and said, “What on earth were you thinking?” I would be the highest paid stay at home mom in America.

He’s learning NOT to do all the things he used to do with out thinking…but I get to still hear what it was he was about to do….which is always entertaining.

Now sometimes before he does something, I watch him.

He pauses.

He thinks.

Then he says, “Mom…of course I’m not going to wipe mud all over my belly.”

“That’s so good, Hayden” I say.

That’s been the pattern for weeks now.

He always stops.

Thinks.

Then starts his sentence with “Of course I’m not going to….”

My favorite moment came a couple nights ago.

I was holding Joseph feeding him a bottle.

Hayden came around the corner holding a huge, round, burrito sized tortilla.

He was about to eat it.

He stood a couple feet from me…paused, looked at his enormous tortilla and thought.

Then, out it came…

“Mom, of course I’m not going to put this tortilla on his head.”

See?

Now that’s progress.

Seriously

This kid is so cute!

Know what the Hendricks do when there's nothing to do on a Friday night?

I paid them a piece of candy per nostril to let me use this tool on them.

Much laughter.

Mainly from me.

They kind of gagged and gasped for breath...and shuddered.

Hayden said it does two things...sucks out your boogers and makes water come out of your eyes. He said it so excited like...as if he was the host of a snot sucker infomercial.

But he's right!

If you're ever bored at home on a Friday night...it's your own fault.