This family is welcoming 2010 with open arms. 2009 has been a rough year for Jose, not a whole lot of work. But we have made the best of it. Jose has spent all of his extra time bonding, cuddling, and kissing Jayden as much as possible. Jayden loves his Daddy very much. Jayden is the first person in the house to get a hug and kiss from Daddy. He loves all of the attention that he has been getting. Jose has been more involved in Jayden's care than ever before. He is right there when Jayden finishes a feed to unhook him and rinse out his tubing. He massages Jayden's feet and is always worried about his hands and feet being cold. He even microwaves Jayden's weighted blanket to wrap it around his legs to warm him up. Jayden has watched tons of football this year which his father insists that he loves. I don't know if I believe it or not. I think Jayden is just happy spending time with his Daddy. I am so proud of Jose for stepping up and being the most wonderful Daddy that a little boy like Jayden could have.

Christmas With The Correa's!

We have so much to be thankful for. God has truley blessed us with a beautiful family and a healthy special guy. This year we went to Grandpa Joe's house and made cookies and tamales the week before Christmas. The kids had lots of fun decorating cookies and even more fun eating them. Jayden is holding his gingerbread man that he made at school. Doesn't he look like he is so proud of it? Jayden hung out with Daddy watching football on TV with Grandpa while I scurried around trying to clean up the mess of candy and crumbs. It was lots of fun just being with family and enjoying the time together. On Christmas Eve I went and picked up my Mom and took with me to my father in law's house for pozole. Jose and Andres had a pozole eating contest. I think Jose has met his match. Then on Christmas Day my entire family met at my sisters house for turkey and all the fixings. My Mom makes the best Christmas dinner! The kids got to open up presents there . Then it was off to Tio Frankie's house to eat more food and great company. We hope and pray that you and your families had a blessed Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we have many things to be thankful. Jayden is doing well, Jose is still working, the rest of the kids are doing great in school and sports, my Mom is healthy. I could go on and on listing things we are thankful for. We went to my Mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner and everything looked delicious. I was so mad because I spent the day on my Mom's couch with the flu while everyone else enjoyed the food. The whole time I was just praying that Jayden wouldn't get sick. Thankfully he didn't and I recovered in time for leftovers.

At Jayden's school they cooked a Thanksgiving meal for all of the kids to enjoy. Jayden got to taste pureed turkey, mashed pototaes, and pumpkin pie. For the entire month of November there was an inflatable turkey in Jayden's class that was hooked up to a switch. The kids had to hit the switch to make the turkey blow up and after about 30 seconds it would deflate and they had to hit the switch again. They kids really enjoyed it.

Jayden Turns 5!

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is 5 years old! He is such an amazing little man. I look at him everyday and thank God for the blessings He has given me surrounding this little boy. Jayden has molded me into the Mom I am and the person I have become. And everyday he continues to mold me and helps me keep in perspective how grateful I am for the little things in life. I am grateful for every night that Jayden sleeps well, every morning he wakes up talking in his own way, and many more things that we normally take for granted. Raising a special needs child can be frustrating and trying at times but above all can be the most rewarding and awesome experience that a family could have. I would not trade it for the world! This year we decided to celebrate Jayden's birthday at home. I bought him the movie UP and we watched it while we ate dinner. Jayden and Jojo made a birthday cake. Jayden hit the switch while Jojo mixed the batter. What a combo! Jayden got to taste the icing, I think he really enjoyed it. Five years have gone by so fast. Jayden is in Kindergarten at Walton, basically he gets to stay at school a couple of hours longer. He has the same awesome teacher Amy! She is just as creative as ever and always helps Jayden experience life to the fullest. It so nice to send him to school and totally trust that he is well taken care of and loved. He even gives away some of my cuddles to Amy. I tease him about that. Overall Jayden is doing awesome. His g-tube has been amazing, he looks great, he is shaking his head yes and no with purpose at times. He just recently got a brand new stander which is AWESOME! He has been taking steps in a gatetrainer, loves to swing, and rides the adaptive bike at school from time to time. He is still seizing all day everyday but he has a smile that can light up the room at the end of those seizures ( don't know why).

Jayden is AWESOME!

I woke up this morning and just felt so compelled to get on here and write about how well Jayden is doing. He was sick in August with pneumonia and vomiting and for the two weeks following that all he did was cry. I am not talking about any old cry I'm talking about huge tears and screaming as if he were in pain. It was really breaking my heart because I couldn't figure out what the problem was. He was telling me in the only way he knows how to with a cry. During that 2 to 3 weeks span I had him checked out for everything I could think of. His physical therapist checked his hips and joints, Pediatrician checked him out from head to toe including lab work and urinalysis, I took him off of Banxel which was a new med for seizures, slowed down on his Ranitidine which is for his stomach, I even turned off his VNS (it's back on now), and of course lots of prayer. And all of a sudden one day he just smiled. It was a huge smile and everything changed. I have no medical reason for why the crying started or stopped but I will tell you that prayer is a powerful thing. Sometimes when I am in the heat of the moment and I am racking my brain trying to figure out what my next step is; I get so caught up in the moment that I forget that God is waiting on me to call upon Him. Jayden is doing so awesome and I pray every night that God will keep my baby boy just the way he is. He is so happy and is actually making progress. Jayden used to ALWAYS put his right hand to his mouth and in return would have a seizure because of it. I know it's a weird trigger, but hey we are talking about Jayden here. For whatever he reason he has stopped doing that. He is keeping his arms midline, he is smiling all the time,and even laughing at us. He demands attention, he's making eye contact with us. He is even ticklish!! That is a huge deal because I have always said that Jayden's "tickler" is broken. I am enjoying every minute of everyday with this little boy who is so strong and just amazes me. Yesterday at school Jayden was in his gatetrainer and took 7 very purposeful steps without being helped at all. He is using the switch for communication and laughing at the kids. His teacher is so impressed. The other day a man walked into the gas station across the street and saw the picture of our family from a newspaper clipping from a few months ago. The man commented on the article and the cashier told him that considering what we were dealing with that we were one of the strongest families she knows. I thanked her for the compliment but I thought to myself we aren't doing anything special. We do what we have to do and we have no complaints. It's fun to hear how people perceive our family from the outside looking in. It made me think back to when Jayden was first in the hospital at 2 months old and how scared I was for him. But everything I feared came true. He's never had seizure control, he's confined to a wheelchair, and now he is even fed through a g-tube. But it's ok! We survived! He survived! And this little boy who has never uttered a word has made us the strong family that we are. We get our courage from him! God makes no mistakes, He wanted us as a family to be the best that we can be and He gave us Jayden to make it happen.

Jayden Sick Again

A couple of weeks ago Jayden aspirated while attempting to eat pureed foods at school. I could tell right away that afternoon that he was in desperate need of some breathing treatments. I had no idea that it would turn into aspiration pneumonia. Initially I dealt with the crackly sounds coming from his chest at home like I always do. I always hesitate to go to the doctors office for fear he will get sick from one of the other patients. After a week of breathing treatments and not much progress I decided that it was time to go see our Pediatrician. Dr. Cahill wasn't available so we saw Dr. Waters. All the docs at Pediatric Associates of Stockton are awesome with Jayden. She suggested antibiotics, chest x-ray, and bromide to help clear up his wet cough. The x-ray confirmed aspiration pneumonia and we decided to check back in a couple of days. Unfortunately Jayden couldn't hold off more than 24 hours before I was forced to call Dr. Waters. He took a turn for the worse and started vomiting, which was strange for him. He couldn't hold anything down no matter how much I slowed up the feeds. Dr. Waters decided that even though I was very well equipped to take care of Jayden at home it was time to admit him and get some extra fluid going through his port. I had never seen Jayden have so many secretions. He was so extremely juicy and was having a hard time swallowing. The following day Jayden really scared me when he vomited old blood. At first I was worried but then I just got upset because I seemed to be the only one worried about it. G-tube complications, it happens.... that was their response. They started him on Ranitidine which was supposed to settle his stomach. It is actually used for acid reflex. It seemed to work a little bit. A day later Jayden was sent home to finish recovering at home with Mommy as his personal nurse. He still couldn't tolerate his normal feeds. I had to give him 30 cc's (1 oz) per hour until I could gradually bump it up as he could tolerate it. It has almost been one week since he came home and he's just now back to his normal feeds. In July, Dr. Sullivan (Neurologist) started Jayden on Banxel, which has side effects including vomiting. We decided during this whole mess to take Jayden off this med. This was good because the vomiting stopped but bad because he had a very hard time getting it out of his system. He has been irritable and whinny all week. His movement disorder has been so out of whack that he sweats through his clothes and wakes up with his whole head soaking wet. Each day it gets better. This week I started Physiology. Thank God Jayden is better because I don't know what I would do. This is my last class required before I apply for the nursing program in April. Episodes like this one make me realize how wonderful the good days are and how much I dread the bad ones. God is good because we seem to have more good days than bad days. I pray it stays that way.

Summer Fun!

Summer break went by really fast. But we did manage to have some fun in the sun before the kids started back to school. Jose and I took the kids to Six Flags. The kids had a blast! They got to ride lots of rides and the weather was pretty nice. The crowd on the other hand was horrible. There was a ridiculous amount of people there and the whole time I was worried about people running into Jayden's chair. I am just now realizing that going on these kinds of adventures is actually more work than pleasure for me. I was completely stressed out the whole time. The accomdations for kids in wheelchairs was horrible. I couldn't find a place that I could change his diaper or hook him up to his feeds in private. At one point I had Jose and Jojo holding a blanket up for privacy while I changed Jayden while he was sitting in his chair. Some people might wonder why we wouldn't just leave Jayden at home. But why would we? He's part of the family and he goes where we go or we don't go at all. That's just how it is. In an effort to get Jayden out of the sun I took him to see all the shows which included the whale show and the sea lion show. The two teens took off on their own and checked in with us after every ride. I tried to get Jose to take Jojo and leave Jayden and I to do our own thing but he refused to seperate. I think he saw the stress in my face and knew exactly what I was thinking. It's times like this that I wish Jayden could just take off running with excitement and check everything out. So we decided to hangout and cruise the entire park checking out everything from the sharks to the lions and tigers. Jojo was in awe of everything. Andres and Jeana were bugging me the entire day to ride a roller coaster with them. I kept telling them no. Finally at the end of the night literally before the place closed down I gave in. And I am glad that I did.

Camp Walla Walla

Camp Walla Walla is the name of Jayden's class for the summer. His teachers Amy and Raquel have gone to alot of trouble to recreate all of the wonderful sites and sounds of summer camp. And let me tell you, they have done a wonderful job. They will never know how much it touches my heart to see all that they do for my son. The shirts these boys are wearing are made from leaves they found outside. They painted the leaves and left their imprint on the shirts, each one is unique. The campfire that you see behind them is made from their handprints. Every single time I walk into that classroom I have to keep myself from tearing up. Tears of joy to see my son being so involved with everything they do. Right now they have a tent set up in their classroom and a (fake) campfire that actually gives the illusion of a real fire and when the kids press a button smoke comes out of it. These are just a few pictures that I was able to get. Amy and Raquel have took some amazing pictures of Jayden but I won't be able to get them posted until Camp Walla Wall is finished :(

Each day at Camp Walla Walla is an adventure. Today the kids made smores. They each got to taste marshmallows, chocolate, and grahm crackers individually and then took turns pressing a button to pureed the 3 things together. I can't wait to see what they do next week!

Elmo Live

Jayden and I were lucky enough to be offered tickets to see Elmo Live at the Stockton Arena last Tuesday night. When we first arrived I found out that the tickets we had were literally out of my reach. I couldn't get his wheelchair anywhere near our seats. The people at the Arena were nice enough to accomdate us and move us closer to a section that was reserved for wheelchairs. Jayden had an AWESOME view!

Jayden actually watched the entire show. He loves anything with music and bright colors and this show had both. The show was all about Elmo trying to find a place to plant his little sunflower. During the show periodically the characters would walk off stage and say hi to the kids. Jayden was a very popular boy that night. He was visited by Baby Bear, Zoe, Grover, and Abby. They were all very sweet and grabbed his hand and blew kisses at him. While we were there we ran into Jayden's teacher Amy and her son Rocky. It was nice to do something fun with just Jayden and I. We both had a great time.

Frog Jump!

Yes you are looking at a picture of my precious little boy Jayden touching a nasty frog! Trust me it wasn't my idea.

Walton Special Center hosted its annual frog jump. Everyone gets involved. The therapists, foster grandparents, parents, early intervention teachers, people from our district office, and ofcourse the students gather around to see who can make their frog jump out of the circle first. You are not allowed to touch the frog you may yell, jump, or hit the ground to make it move. The principal of the school brought this particular frog over to Jayden so that he could get a good look at it and see how it felt. I was freaking out that Jayden was touching a yucky frog, so Tom thought it would be funny to make the frog kiss Jayden on his cheek! YUCK!

Everyone had a great time. This is just one of many events that Walton Special Center puts on during the year. Without their creativity many of these children would never experience something like this. We are greatful for all they do!

Andres 8th Grade Promotion

They day before Andres' promotion he had the nerve to ask me if I felt old because I had a son in highschool. I just laughed and told not at all I feel accomplished. Silly boy! I am so lucky and so proud to have such a kind hearted, intelligent, handsome young man. Andres absolutely amazes me everyday with his kindness and thoughtfulness. He has been my babysitter while I took classes. He's helpfull around the house. I could go on and on about this kid.

Son we love you and are very excited to see what the next four years bring you. Stay focused on what is important. Get good grades, prepare for college, and stay grounded.

Just look at him, I'm going to have to beat off the girls with a bat! LOL

Road Trip!

On May 14th my Mom, Jojo, Jayden, and I set out on a road trip to Gilbert Arizona to watch my good friend Jody graduate from ASU. I wasn't sure if taking a 12 hour drive was a great idea at first. I was worried about Jayden sitting in his chair for such a long period of time. I was expecting Jojo to complain and the drive to nothing short of excruciating. But to my delight Jayden and Jojo were both troopers! Jojo was the best big brother ever! He was there in the backseat with Jayden to entertain him or help him out if he was in a bad position. Since Jayden has the g-tube now it was much easier to feed him along the trip. My Mom thought I was crazy to teach Jojo how to unhook Jayden from the tubing from his feed, but I totally trusted him to do it. So when we would pull the car over and hook Jayden up to eat it was Jojo's job to unhook him so we could keep driving. I walked him through the steps and he did great! How many 7 year olds can do that?

Jody's daughter Jacy was so excited to see Jayden. She was all over him giving him kisses and rubbing his face. She was so genuinely happy to see him. Jacy just kept talking to him and finally she turned around and said, " I keep talking to Jayden but he won't talk to me." I just explained to her that Jayden couldn't talk but that I could tell that he really liked her. She seemed to be satisfied with that and went on her way.

I was excited to see Jody graduate from ASU. She works hard, she's a great mother, wife, and friend. I wouldn' t have missed it for the world.

You inspire me to hurry up and finish school. Thanks for sharing your special day and me and my family. We love you!

Jayden's First Lightning Football Game

A man name Armando Moreno read Jayden's story in the Stockton Record a few months ago and it touched his heart. He contacted the reporter who put us in contact with each other. Armando said he felt compelled to do something nice for our family. He asked me if Jayden liked sports. I told him he sure did. So Armando contacted Mr. Arnaiz who's company has season tickets in a suite at the Stockton Arena. He offered our entire family tickets for their suite to the opening night of the Stockton Lightning Arena Football team. With Jayden in a wheelchair and growing bigger everyday it is getting harder for us to take him to certain events without making special arrangements. We had a great view of the field and the big screen was right in front of Jayden. He was very alert and looking around up until the last period when he fell asleep. How he could fall asleep with all that noise is beyond me. My kids were especially excited because they got to bring their cousins with them. Everyone had a great time. It was a special night and we are extremely grateful. Thanks Arnaiz Company and Armando for making it happen.

Jojo my little baseball player

Jojo is my little athlete. He just finished basketball, now we're starting baseball, and we already signed him up for football which starts in June. He wasn't looking forward to baseball this year because he thought he was going to have to hit the ball off a tee. That was no fun. He was too advanced for that and last year he was bored. But when he found out that they had an actual pitcher and you could strike out or hit the ball and get a double; he was very excited. If my Dad was here he would be so proud that his grandson is the starting shortstop and lead off hitter for the Stockton Pony Giants. Jose doesn't have the patients to teach him all the fundamentals so he put me in charge. To my surprise Jojo actually listens to me. I was practicing with him before the first game and he got a basehit. He's still learning though. He doesn't always cover 2nd base when he is supposed to, and he learned the hard way what "rounding first base" meant. But other than that he's having a blast. He plays 2 games a week. I even got a Giants shirt and hat for Jayden to wear to the games. Unfortunately it has been either too cold or too windy for him to go to the park. Jeana and Andres take care of him at home. They are a great help.