Alarms, Alarms, Silly Alarms

Aaron has been setting off a lot of alarms lately.  Over and over, we hear the "beep, beep, beep" of his ventilator.  But this time it's funny.

He's learned to blow raspberries!  You know, that funny time when your baby discovers that they can make their mouth vibrate and cause people to laugh?  He's having so much fun with it!

But it's actually bigger than that.  Think about what goes into blowing a raspberry.  And go ahead, try one.  (Shield your computer screen first, unless of course, you need to clean it anyway.)  Did you feel what happened down in your chest and abdomen?  You had to tighten your diaphragm.  You had to push, kinda hard because your tongue is obstructing your air flow through your mouth, and you had to direct the air through your mouth instead of your nose.  It's actually a fairly complicated process.  And the ventilator isn't quite sure what to make of it.

BUT HE'S DOING IT!!!  On top of what we do to blow a raspberry, Aaron also has a cuffed trach he's pushing the air past.

We've suspended his vent trials for a little bit.  The air here is beyond yucky with the inversions, and we've had a lot of illness in the house.  But he's still growing and learning anyway.

Today is David's mission farewell.  He'll speak in church and then the five oldest kids will sing.  I think I've been trying to keep really busy so I don't think about how long two years really seems from this side of things.  It's worked, too.  I've cleaned out a ton of junk and garbage that we've somehow been holding onto.  And the house is so much more comfortable without all the clutter.  David has a link to his blog over on the left-hand side of this page.  It's called "A Foot or Two" and I'll be putting in a sidebar that will let people follow him by email.

For those who see this today, he'll be speaking at 11 a.m. at the Village Way Chapel in Alpine, then we'll have an open house for anyone who wants to stop by.  Also, if you want to leave a comment for him, some advice or encouragement below, I'll make sure it gets printed out for him to see.

I'll leave you with a couple of short (like a few seconds each) videos of Aaron's new trick.  You'll need to turn up the volume, but it's pretty exciting.

Change always comes bearing gifts.  ~Price Pritchett