We got the Vest!

The Vest came in the mail today! Hooray! No more CPT for us. The best part about the Vest is that we can do his breathing treatments while we do his airway clearance rather than before. This is going to cut this process in half! If you want to know what the Vest is or how it works, click on this link to read all about it.

A respiratory therapist came this morning to show us how it works. He puts on this tiny little blue vest (it looks like a life jacket but not inflated at all), hooks up to this really long tubes that are attached to a machine, set the compression, frequency and time, and then hit start. The Vest fills with air and the poor little man shakes like a mofo (that's right, I said mofo). His chubby little cheeks just vibrate like crazy. They told us that the compression feels like standing in 3ft. of water, so its not to tight, but holy cow does it shake. He didn't seem to mind it. He looked mildly confused the first time we gave it a shot, but we were all in the room (including the RT) and he just looked around and shook wildly. I wasn't here this evening when Martin did it again, but he said that Drew screamed and cried the whole time. I have to imagine that it will take a little getting use to, but I think/hope that he will get use to it and can just relax for the 24 minutes it takes to run.

I wasn't here while Martin did the treatment tonight because I went to the mall to have the twins stocking embroidered with their names. Crazy as it sounds, when I got our stockings from Pottery Barn post Christmas 2008 on super sale clearance, I bought two extra. I got mine, Martin's and Ella's embroidered with our names on it, but the stockings were such a great deal that I got two more with nothing on them. Worked out perfectly! The guy at the mall told me it would only take 20 minutes so we decided to just walk around for a bit. I don't know if its the full moon or what but Ella is in rare form. She hasn't stopped talking for 2 seconds ALL DAY LONG and is just bursting with energy. In the car she sings and sings and sings. I turned down the radio so I could hear her at one point and she singing "The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell, hi ho the dairy-o the farmer in the dell. The mommy takes a wife, the mommy takes a wife, hi ho the dairy-o the mommy takes a wife. The mommy takes a goat, the mommy takes a goat, hi ho the dairy-o the mommy takes a goat. And the goat takes a bigger goat, the goat takes a bigger goat..." I dunno.

Anyway, we're walking through the mall and all of a sudden, through the crowd, we see Santa. I'm not really sure she knows who Santa is or really gets the whole idea of Christmas and presents and whatnot. She was only one and a half last year. But as we approach she lets go of my hand, walks in the exit and right up to Santa and says "Who are you?". He says "Well I'm Santa! Do you want to sit on my lap" and she says "No". And she asks "What are you doing" to which he says "Do you want some stickers?". The photographer was like do you want a picture? I said no. I'll go later when I have all 3 kids. Meanwhile, Ella is looking this guy up and down, takes her stickers, and bolts. It went better than last year. (I'm not sure who looks more scared!)

We continue our trek through the mall in an effort to waste 20 minutes. On our second lap, we again came upon Santa. Ella looks at me, shouts "I want more stickers" and goes running back at Santa. I caught her before she got in the gate, and told her she couldn't have more stickers but she could sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wants for Christmas. Not a moments hesitation, she was up on his lap, staring curiously. He said, "What would you like for Christmas?" She goes, "Little puzzles". He said, "Is that it? Anything else". She goes "Ummm, some big puzzles too." He asks,"Have you been a good girl this year?" She takes one good, long, hard look at him, jumps down off his lap and bolts.

We got the stockings and headed back to the car. I needed to make a quick stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I found an associate to ask him where I could find what I was looking for. He came back with it two minutes later. I let go of Ella's hand so that I could take it from him, I turn around, and Ella is gone. Literally, no more than 3 seconds, and shes completely missing. I am panicked. I start calling her name. The associate and and another employee both start combing the aisles that we were in/around. About 10 seconds later we found her, hiding behind a shelf. She thought it was hysterical. I was almost in tears. She was only missing for maybe 15 seconds. It was no time at all but it felt like an eternity. I said to her very sternly, "Ella, you cannot run away from mommy like that! You scared me! It made me so sad when you were missing". She responds with "Don't be sad mommy. Be happy you found me".