Christmas December 28, 2009

Blazey had a great Christmas and it’s not even close to being over yet! We each opened one gift on Christmas eve. He thought that was fun, but wasn’t overly thrilled about it. He did enjoy helping us open our gifts. Christmas morning when he woke up, he was surprised to see all the Christmas lights on. Then we pointed out the stockings had stuff in them. He was so excited to open it up. His sock had several Sesame Street Books, a small round palm-sized Elmo and Count, and a Cookie Monster ornament. He was happy to put his ornament on the tree. We had breakfast and slowed things down a bit. Once breakfast was done, we read the Christmas story from Blaze’s Bible. We had his toddler nativity out, and pointed out Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. Blaze did the sign language sign for “baby”. I was pleased he made the connection. Then he got to open up his gifts. He was happy with his gifts, then we took him to the other side of the room where something was covered up by a red throw. He helped me pull it off, and just stood there in shock. Elmo’s Restaurant was there before him. Tim quickly turned it on and all these voices came to life. For the next hour, we watched Blaze cook and play with his “restaurant” while we exchanged gifts. He loves the cash register, hides the fake food, throws money in the air, and loves to hear Cookie monster phrases from his oven. It was definitely a “hit.” He also received a toddler digital camera (he looks at it and smiles really big), pjs, a pirate ship ornament (since he and Daddy were pirates on Halloween), magic Bubble stuff, sidewalk chalk and lots of other fun stuff. Tim and I had a wonderful Christmas day with our little boy. He was so stinking cute! He said our names so sweetly when we were with him at home. I think he’s figured out we’ll get things for him faster if he sweetly asks us, rather than yelling! I can hope anyway.

Saturday my mom, grandmother and younger brother came to visit. Blaze hugged his new little stuffed animals to him, a baby Tigger and a dog. It was love at first sight. The dog was from Uncle Steve, Aunt Sherrie, Megan and Layton. It was perfect. From his great-grandma Blaze got a matching sweater, mittens and hat set (very cute.) Grandma Cathy got him a portable dvd player for those long car trips to her house and a leap frog learning frog. When he’s not with his Elmo’s Restaurant, he’s making the sunshine song sing on the frog! Uncle John gave him a Farmer Says SeeandSay. His Uncle Gary, Aunt Barb and the cousins got him lots of nice clothes and a fun wooden shape puzzle. He loves the puzzle! I loved the clothes! We had such a nice visit with them. We were afraid they wouldn’t be able to make it. Their town got ice and snow dumped on them, but they found a way to get here, and I was grateful.

We’ll do our Christmas celebration with Melissa tomorrow. We didn’t want to open gifts without her. Tim’s parents come on Friday, his grandparents come on Saturday. I’m so glad we get to spread things out a bit. Blaze likes to look at and play with each thing individually. It makes it fun.

Thanks for all the cards and prayers. We were grateful for all of them. We are so blessed!

Joy Gilzow

Blaze's visit with Santa December 22, 2009

Last year we dressed Blaze up in a Santa outfit and dashed off to Bass Pro for his free visit with Santa. He didn’t mind. He snuggled in and Santa smiled and it’s a lovely Santa visit memory. We decided to keep the tradition this year. We took Blaze back to Bass Pro, minus the Santa outfit, for a picture with the rotund fellow. Blaze did NOT want to leave his daddy’s arms. I told Tim just to kneel next to Santa and hold Blaze. Santa had other ideas and ended up taking Blaze from Tim. It’s the saddest Santa picture you’ve ever seen. Blaze looks furious and desperate to get away. Santa looks equally unhappy. As soon as the picture was taken, Santa got up and took Blaze to Tim. I didn’t know Santa would leave his chair. He will. It’s just a good thing there’s no way for screams to be captured on photographs.

We then went to the large waterfall/fish tank at Bass Pro. Daddy and Blaze were friends again then. Blazey had been a little miffed with his father for letting Santa take him. Blaze was in awe of the display and the huge fish swimming past him. He pointed and jaw dropped. We got some fun pictures there.

We then ate at Famous Dave’s where Blazey LOVED the drunken apple and the décor. They put a Santa hat and beard on a ginormous moose that resides over the fireplace. Blaze tired quickly last night, though. He had a long day. He said, “Momma!” and laid his head down on my shoulder, while he was still latched in his high chair. I asked him if he was ready to go home and he just nodded his little head. We boxed up the rest of our food and headed home. He was such a good boy.

Before going to bed, Blaze showed Daddy the snowman cake he helped decorate. I was given a snowman cake pan last year for Christmas. I baked the cake and covered it in icing, then left it for Melissa and Blaze to decorate. Using M&Ms and one piece of leftover candy corn, they made the cutest little snowman. We’ll post a picture of it before long. According to Melissa, Blaze got to pick out what colors he wanted on the cake. So fun.

In the last minute rush of things, it’s our prayer that you remember the reason we’re celebrating. The packages and surprises are fun. But, it is nothing in comparison to that amazing gift we were given all those years ago.

Christmas with Blaze December 17, 2009

Christmas is a whole new experience with Blaze in the house! Instead of our beautiful, big, rotating Christmas tree, we have a skinny 4 ft tree on top of a table, and it’s adorable. We now have a stocking that has Tigger and Pooh on it and it plays music, who knew such things existed? Singing snowmen don’t sound nearly as cute without a delighted face attempting to loudly sing along. Did you know they make nativity sets for toddlers? Our “little people” set has pirates, a farmer, a veterinarian and nurse mixed in with the shepherds, angel and sheep…and it’s fun. He can throw them, chew on them and carry Baby Jesus around and no one fusses or bats an eye. It’s terrific. Our set even plays “Away in a Manger” and the star lights up. He LOVES it. Oddly enough, you never know where you’re going to find a shepherd. He likes hiding them all over the house! It’s a great game and each grown up gets a lot of satisfaction in knowing they are the one that has found the missing piece to the set. Blaze just thinks it’s funny to watch us look all over the place, I’m guessing. Did you know there are shape books that have squeaky Christmas trees and Snowmen on them? Blaze doesn’t know that either, yet. I cannot wait for Christmas eve where Tim and I will spend the evening after Blaze goes to bed putting together Elmo’s Restaurant as a special surprise. A digital camera designed just for toddlers will join it in the general area of the Christmas tree. I have never been so excited about giving a present before now. Christmas lights have taken on a new wonder and amazement. Who knew a colored light bulb could be so delightful? It was nice before, it’s wonderful now.

We have decided that it’s best for our family if we stay home this year. We hate missing seeing Blaze’s cousins, aunts and uncles open their gifts. And we hate not being there to laugh and fellowship together. But, Blaze is doing so well right now and since he is going to need his heart cath/ballooning early next year, we just can’t have him sick right now. So much of our life now is a trade off…Do we risk that restaurant? (Yes, with alcohol wipes to wash EVERYTHING down and a protective cover over their high chair. We’ve got to be in a corner, though, and discourage people from touching him.) Should I take him with me to the store? (No, not unless it’s absolutely necessary.) Church? (No, it’s too risky, someone might have been exposed to the flu and accidentally pass it on.) We just have to be careful. Thanksgiving was sort of a trial run for us. It was great to see family, but Blaze didn’t travel well, his schedule got completely thrown off and he got sick afterwards. So, for his sake and our sanity (hopefully we won’t constantly worry like we do when we take him out) we are staying home for Christmas. Blaze gets to sleep in his own bed, stay on his nap schedule AND grandparents are coming to us. It’s great. It is hard for us to not be there with others, but we’re seeing the benefits of staying at home, too. My mother, brother and I hope grandmother, are coming the 26th. Tim’s parents are coming January 1st. And Tim’s grandparents will come some time in between. We’re so happy and blessed to have such accommodating family! Plus, we get to spread Christmas out over an even longer period this way.

Last Sunday my mom was in town and watched Blaze for us so Tim and I could go to a night worship service at church. It was so nice. Everyone is so loving and sweet. We got lots of hugs, warm wishes and encouragement. It meant a lot to get such a nice welcome.

Tim’s been experiencing some horrible migraines this week. They ran CT scans and determined there was nothing else wrong, that was a relief. He’s been in a lot of pain and feeling just generally rotten. We’re hoping it was a reaction to a medication. He switched back to something that he had been tolerating well. Hopefully that will be the end of it. He was able to go to work today, though he’s fighting off another headache. Please remember him in your prayers.

Thank you for your continued love and prayers. We appreciate them! We’re so blessed to have you!

Good news December 3, 2009

Good news! Blaze’s oxygen saturation levels were higher than they have been in a long time when they checked yesterday. All that day he was lethargic and didn’t want to eat, we expected to hear some bad news. When we got to the doctor’s office that afternoon, he was a completely different kid! He ran around, laughed with Dr. Wherry and was a general show off! The stats were great, he was obviously feeling well…and they let us go home! No hospital stay for Blaze! She asked how I felt about things. I explained that I would really rather keep him away from the flu and RSV. She absolutely agreed. His lungs sounded good and looked great from the previous x-ray. She didn’t want to expose him to additional radiation, so we got out of there without an x-ray. You could tell Blaze thought he had pulled off a great trick, leaving the doctor’s office without a shot, x-ray or anything else dreadful. He was quite proud of himself.

His dad and I rejoiced and gave God thanks, then collapsed in exhaustion. It’s amazing how you can go through a stressful day, functioning and thinking you’re handling things okay, then you receive terrific news that you couldn’t even imagine would be possible…and all you can do is sit. Even Blazey was tired early. He turned on the video monitor for his room, climbed into Tim’s lap and laid his head down. It had been a long day. When Blaze is feeling better from his cold we will properly celebrate... drive through a Christmas light display or SOMETHING. Thanks for your prayers. We are grateful for them.

Blaze ill December 2, 2009

Blaze has a cold right now-runny nose, sniffling, sneezing, small cough, some shortness of breath at times. The doctors are concerned, ordinarily his oxygen saturation levels are on the low side, but because of this cold they are considerably lower. We have an appointment this afternoon with his primary care doctor (yesterday we saw her Physician’s Assistant-who consulted with another physician-who made a bunch of phone calls-including one to his primary care doctor). There is a very good probability that they will want him hospitalized this evening. Our appointment is at 4:30 p.m. They were willing to hospitalize him last night, if I wanted that, but I truly feel they are being just a tad overly cautious. I definitely prefer overly cautious versus them being flippant about it. But, we’ll talk to the cardiologist today and proceed slowly. At the same time they were telling us that hospitalization was an option, they were telling me that if he felt better today, he didn’t have to go in to this appointment at all! No matter what, he’s being seen by someone today! He did test NEGATIVE for the flu (Praise God!) and we did not hear back regarding his chest x-ray, so I am assuming his lungs were clear. They had promised to call if there was a problem. They did say yesterday that he looked like a million bucks, and that if they didn’t know his background or current oxygen stats, they would not be worried. That was good to hear. Even feeling cruddy he is thriving and gaining weight. What a blessing!

We, being Gilzows, have a plan, should he be hospitalized. I think we have everything under control right now, but should we need something, we won’t hesitate to ask! It’s wonderful to have you all behind us in this.

I do want to say that whenever we need an emotional boost, there is always someone to lift us. Yesterday, it was the scheduler at the clinic. I was bringing Blaze in with a “laundry list” of concerns to have checked out. The person who checked us in was kind to direct us to a certain area of the lobby for “non-flu” patients, when I interrupted to explain he was a heart baby, and our doctor doesn’t want him to wait in the lobby at all. She smiled so sweetly and said, “Yes, I remember his name. When I was new here, one of the first calls I made was to arrange an appointment for him in St. Louis, I think. His name stuck with me this whole time. It’s so nice to see him in person.” Then she looked at me and said, “He’s so lucky to have you.” I quickly said we were blessed to have him, but that moment she took to reach out and encourage me, when she definitely didn’t have to…that was precious. And I was grateful!

So, thank you for the prayers and encouragement you give! You will never know how much it means to us.

Please also pray for my cousin, Lori Fox, and her son, Anthony Boley. Anthony is two years old and received a traumatic brain injury last week. If he survives, he may have permanent disabilities from this. It’s a horrible situation, and all we can do is pray. However, prayer, as you know, is the most powerful thing we can do. Blaze is evidence of that. Please join us in lifting up Anthony and his family. My aunt, too, could use your prayers. She has had a stroke and her memory is confused. She has a long way to go! So, please pray, for Betty Fox and my uncle, Charles.

I’ll keep you updated as much as I can, if not through emails, check out the website, http://www.blazegilzow.com/ We’re so blessed to have you!



Joy Gilzow