For Cousin Corah

Last Tuesday we went to Dave's sister, Kristy's house for the Cousins Christmas Party. All of the Clawson cousins draw names and get each other presents. This is a picture of Andrew with his first Christmas present, a Build a Bear Dog. He loves it. It is one of the first stuffed animals that he wants to play with. This is Andrew feeding his dog a cookie, he did it first without prompting but I asked him to do it for the picture. We are trying to teach him to share because it is hard when he is the only child and you expect his cousins to share with him, he needs to know how to share too. Thanks Corah for the doggie, he loves it!

Quick Update

Hey everyone. I just wanted you to know that Andrew had another doctor's appointment yesterday. All is going well. His platelete count is up to 28000. Because it is going up naturally and nothing is bleeding uncontrollably they are going to keep him off the medicine. It was good to talk to the doctor, she seemed really up beat and positive about Andrew's progress. As long as nothing goes wrong we don't have to go back to get him tested until the first week in Jan. When we do go back we will be able to go to a local hospital or doctor's office to get the blood test and then they will just fax the info up to Primary Children's. I am happy not to take the drive again anytime soon! (This is Andrew on his walker. He can use it just fine but gets so mad when you try to put him on it. He has fallen on his bum a couple of times and can't seem to forget it!)

Update!

So Andrew had his doctor's appointment today. Things went well, pretty much no news but I guess no news can be better than news. He was of course an angel again and was so good for the guy taking his blood. They even gave him a toy car for being so brave. The doctor said his platlete count is at 25,000. It is lower than when we left the hospital but they expected that to happen. They said it is okay for it to be low because the plateletes that he has are the strong ones from the transfusion. The doctor and I agreed to not put Andrew on the steriod yet. One of the side affects of the steroid is major crankiness and I don't know if I could put up with that. I will be back next week to check him again and see where we are at. As long as he is good and not getting more bruises we should be good. Thank you for all your prayers, please keep them coming. Here are some current pictures of Andrew.

This is how Andrew is "crawling" He is getting pretty speedy like this. He discovered crawling in the kitchen this morning. With the lenolium, he can really speed.

Here is our little angel decorating the tree. He didn't want to touch the star so he is arching his body. I think it looks like he is flying.

Thanks for the comments!

Thanks for all the support that everyone has given our little family. Andrew is still going good. Hopefully everything checks out okay at our next doctor's appointment next Tuesday. Just to answer some questions from the comments... ITP is most commonly a one time illness. There is a twenty percent chance that it could be chronic. We are praying for the best. ITP stands for Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. Idiopathic means they don't really know what causes ITP. They think it has something to do with the cold and the stomach flu he had two weeks and one week prior. Kind of scary that normal child illnesses can cause such terror! Well, thanks again for everything. I will keep you updated.

We Love Primary Children's Hospital!

So we have had a pretty adventerous/scary past two days. Here is the story...On Saturday morning Andrew woke up and I was changing his diaper and I noticed some bruises on his leg, they were light but I pointed them out to Dave but we moved on. On Saturday night I went to the hospital to visit a friend and Andrew fell over on the hardwood floor hitting his head really hard. On Sunday everyone was noticing the large bruise on the back of his head and so it made me remember about the bruises on his legs. I checked them out and they were much darker. We called some family members to get their imput. Of course we worried and all I could think of was "leukemia". Dave counted the bruises and he had about 30 alone on his legs. So I called the nurse at lunch time on Monday when I picked Dave up. She put me on hold and came back saying we had to get into the doctor immediately. So we went into the pediatritian, they took a look and said it could be anything from anemia to leukemia. They decided that we needed to be sent to Primary Children's where they could do some bloodwork. We went up there to the outpatient clinic and they drew blood but they asked us to stay around until we could collect a urine sample from Andrew. While we were waiting our pediatrician called and said we needed to admit Andrew to the ICS unit. We didn't even know what ICS stood for but when we entered we knew it wasn't going to be good because we were surrounded by small children with cancer. After what seemed like hours of waiting the doctor came in to tell us that they were fairly positive Andrew had ITP. ITP is a blood disorder where your body is extremely low on plateletes because you have developed antibodies that are destroying the plateletes. A normal person has at least 150,000 plateletes per cubit milimeter, Andrew had about 4,000. At 9pm they began to administer a IVIG, a tranfusion of plateletes. The transfusion took about 4 hours but Andrew was so good during it all and slept most of the time. After a long night in the hospital, they re-checked his blood and the platelele count increased to about 43,000. That was good but they wanted to double check for leukemia. Luckily, everything checked out good and we were able to be released around 12pm. We have another appointment next week and hopefully the platelete count continues to increase. We were so scarred but he feel so blessed that it was something that was easily controlled and taken care of. Dave and I both felt that leaving the hospital was bittersweet because we were so happy that Andrew was okay but to see all those poor children was just heartbreaking. The nurses, staff, and doctors at Primary Childrens were just amamzing. I don't think that I could have felt anymore confortable at the hospital than they made me. Here are some pictures of Andrew we took when we got home from the hospital. Hopefully these bruises go away soon.



As you can see, Andrew is showing no other signs of an illness except the bruises. We are proud of our brave boy and are so happy that he is still happy!

We have movement!

Okay, no pictures to document the excitement, but I do believe that it will happen again one day and I will be able to take pictures then. Andrew isn't quite crawling but he is moving when he really wants something. Both times it has been towards something plugged into the wall. Don't worry, we have baby proofed the house and there are plug covers everywhere. From the sitting position he gets on all fours but one leg can't quite get around so he just scoots forward then sits back down and does it all over again. Okay, I know it isn't cruising yet but when you have a 10 month old that just sits you will take anything. Hooray!

I love my boys!

As I have been working to adjust to becoming a mother Dave and I realized something, I must have time alone. I am the youngest of five, which you would think would keep me with someone at all times but since I am five years apart from my youngest sister I have been the only child since seventh grade. I love being alone. Now that I have a little child, the chances of being alone are pretty much never. Dave has been wonderful lately and has taken Andrew so I could have alone time pretty much everyday. Even if he just takes him upstairs for a half an hour it can bring such a relief. Yesterday Dave had to run to the grocery store to pick up some food for work today so he took Andrew with him. They walked in the door and Dave was carrying Andrew and Andrew was carrying these.

Man, these boys do know how to take care of the woman in their lives! (As a side note, Dave said he wanted to get some flowers that were Thanksgiving-y. I just found that humorous that he would think of such a thing!)

BYU Magazine

So here is the link to Dave's article in the BYU Magazine. I think it turned out really good. If you have the opportunity to actually have the magazine, there is a picture of Kevin Clawson (Dave's little bro) among the choir pictures!

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2115

Weaning Update

I want to send a thanks to all those who have sent there love and hope about weaning. I was feeling very overwhelmed the last time I blogged but I am feeling much better now. I would like to sing my praises to a lady from babycenter.com. I went on the website and searched things about weaning and she gave me the best advice. I don't know how conventional it is but it is the only thing that has worked. First I followed everyone's advice and just cut out some nursing times. It is going just fine, we are down to a morning, midday and night. The problem I had was that I could not for the life of me get Andrew to drink formula, he thinks it is disgusting. Then I read about a lady that gave Pedisure to her baby. So this is what I have done. I gave him a sippy cup of Pedisure, French Vanilla. He drank it and enjoyed it. The next cup I gave him half Pedisure and half formula. He had no idea. Hopefully by the end of the week we will only have formula in the sippy cup. I will keep you updated.

I'm Done!

So nursing has been a great experience and I have really loved the bond that I have with Andrew but I am at my wits end. I am sure many of you remember the begining of nursing and the awful pain that it causes, well I am experiencing pain that is ten times worse. Andrew has recently gotten his top two teeth and they are the sharpest teeth I have ever felt. When he first got them he bit me twice but after pulling him off and telling him no he never tried it again. Now the teeth have grown in more and every time he sucks they scrape me, drawing blood and creating wounds. Sorry if that is too much information but it is AWFUL. I think weaning him is going to be the hardest thing I ever do but I have to do it so I don't cry everytime I nurse him. So, any suggestions for a desperate mother?

Happy Halloween!

So here are some pictures from the Halloween parties we participated in. On Monday night we had friends over and we all dressed up. Dave was Peter Pan, I am Captain Hook, and Andrew is the crocodile. On Tuesday we went to Hailey's birthday party and all the cousins dressed up. We put Andrew in a gorilla costume. Tonight my sister Mandy came over and we took her kids Alexandra and Ashlynn trick or treating with Andrew. Andrew loved his candy. He just wanted to pick up each one and inspect it. It was even better when we let him taste some! Three days of Halloween are enough for me. At least I got good use out of my borrowed costumes!

I'm Back!

The computer is back! Hooray! Thankfully it is completely repaired and they didn't erase anything. I am espescially grateful for that because one of our back up CD's did not work and we did not realize this until I tried to print of pictures from it at my sister's house. Here are the projects I worked on while I had no computer. We took down our blinds in front of the sliding glass door and I made this curtain. This shelf is on the kitchen wall perpendicular to the sliding glass door. My favorite thing on the shelf is on the left, it is a trivet that Dave found at Target.

So long- for 7 to 10 business days

So once again, our laptop has broken (sort of) and thank goodness for warranties. So we have to send in our computer and they have promised to have it back within 7 to 10 business days. We will see though. They said they might just give us money to buy a new one. Of course I would love that but we will see!

Pumpkin Patch

Andrew, Dave, and I visited the pumpkin patch today. Andrew wasn't that interested but I still got some good pictures of him. He is wearing his "my first halloween" outfit. I realized today that I needed to have him wear it more this month so he can get the use of it. There has not been a week that I haven't seen Jen's kids (my sister) in halloween shirts. I love the festiveness!

Playing at the Park

So after being cooped up in the house for two days enjoying conference, Andrew was ready to get out of the house and do something. Dave and I decided to take him on a walk and let him play at the park. It was a little cold (as you can seen by his bright red nose) but he didn't seem to mind at all.

The blanket Andrew has on his lap is one that I just finished. I thought the fabric was the cutest. Dave has been pointing the animals out and telling them to Andrew and doing the sounds that they make. On Saturday night on the way up to West Jordan, Andrew was in the car seat just talking to himself. That is pretty normal but I turned around and he had the blanket on his lap and he was pointing to the animals with his little finger and "saying" what the animals were. It was darling. He has just discovered how to point and he points at everything. It is nice because I now have an idea of what he wants!

PS-If you click on the first picture to make it bigger you can see Andrew's teeth really well.

Reaping the Rewards

So tonight for dinner we drove to a park in Cedar Hills that Dave designed. It was one of the first projects that Dave worked on when he started at Civil Science. It was one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. It is on the side of the mountain and it has a spectacular view of the valley. The coolest part was actually seeing what Dave does. I mean he explains the stuff to me all the time but he could show me how he picked out all the stuff to make this park, and how he designed things like the walk ways and the slope of everything so the water flows correctly. What can I say, I am a proud wife. Sorry no pictures, I will have him take me back soon so you can see what it looked like.

Let's Play Ball

Okay, so it is not a baseball but Andrew is a big fan of the golf ball. It is the perfect size for his hand. This video of Dave's attempt to teach Andrew how to play ball. He is getting better each day and it entertains him for quite sometime.

Go Cougs!

So I wanted to post these pictures of Andrew from the first home game but I never got around to it so I thought this would be a good time because of BYU's win over Air Force today. The games was fun. It started to rain during the fourth quarter so we left because, even though we could keep Andrew pretty dry he was not a fan of the rain. We made another discovery at the game, Andrew's other bottom tooth has broken the gum. Thank goodness his cranky demeanor and runny nose this week can be attributed to the tooth!

A Toothy Grin

Teeth have been on our minds lately. Andrew's new tooth is getting big and I think his top ones could be coming in soon. His gums are pretty swollen and he was pretty cranky today.


Dave is on a first name basis with the dentist. Funny, but very true. I called to schedule another appointment for Dave the other day and all I said was "my husband" and she said "okay, we will set that appointment up for David" Over the weekend, one of Dave's two temporary, white crown fell out and he bit it in half so now he sporting the bling for the next two weeks.

Andrew Clapping

Here is the video, I hope this works.

He's finally got it!

So Andrew has been trying to clap for the past couple of weeks and he finally realized that when we tell him to clap he can do the action. I think it is so cute, espescially because he is doing it all the time now. He likes to clap when he hears clapping so he is clapping all day long with the tv on.

Here is a picture of Andrew in a new outfit, sitting on our new ottoman. We are really excited about the new purchase!

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo was probably our favorite part of the trip. We went two days. These are pictures from our second day because unfortunatly I left the camera in the car the first.


These pictures are from the best exhibit at the zoo. The panda bears were so awesome. The first day we went on of the panda's was at the top of the tree, reaching out to some bamboo. It was the ultimate photo opportunity but these pics will have to do.



Andrew has become such a cheese for the camera. The moment we pull it out he is all smiles. This first picture is from the hippo exhibit and the next one is of Andrew sitting on the polar bear sculpture. After San Diego we went up to L.A. and went to the Angels game and the BYU vs. UCLA game. The camera died before we went up there so I didn't get any pictures but the whole experience was a lot of fun. I am glad to be home though. I need a routine!

California!

So we got back yesterday from our vacation to California. It was tons of fun and I am very sad to be back to reality. I feel even worse for Dave because he had to go back to work! Here are some pictures from the vacation.

We started off our trip by stopping in Las Vegas to spend time with Janet and Aaron. We visited the Shark Reef Aquarium. Andrew wasn't that interested but it was so much fun to watch his cousins, Ben, Luke and Zack enjoy it so much. It got me so excited for when Andrew is older. It makes me wonder what he will be interested in. This is a picture of Andrew and Zack strolling through the exhibit.

Then on Tuesday morning we drove to Aliso Veijo to visit Nathan and Emily Judd. It was so fun to see them. They moved last December when Nathan graduated from BYU. Their little boy Easton is so big. His personality is darling and I can see a lot of similarities between him and Andrew. After hanging out with them and going to dinner we were off to San Diego. Of course Andrew had enough of being in the car by the time we arrived and unfortunatly, we go a little lost. It was a rough end to our first evening. The next day, Wednesday, we decided to go to Sea World. We had to find a place to eat first and we randomly drove right to a Denny's. I was so excited that something worked out perfectly that I had to take a picture!


Then we were off to Sea World. It was a lot of fun. It was hot though and Dave and I both got sunburned. Don't worry, we were smart enough to put sunscreen all over Andrew. These pictures are from the Shamu show. We went to all the shows, one right after another. The craziest thing was when we went to the Seal and Otter show. There were a bunch of camera people around before the show started. Dave and I noticed but had no idea why. Then before the show officially started one of the actresses had Gene Simmons come out of the audience to meet the seal. If anyone knows why Gene Simmons was there and for what they were taping him, let us know!

The next day we went to the beach. We didn't stay too long because all Andrew really wanted to do was to eat the sand. We took some photos and then went back to the hotel because our pool was really nice and Andrew loved swimming in it. Andrew is trying to get the computer away from me so I will have to blog about the zoo and the rest of our trip later!

Pictures, finally!

This is a picture of Andrew during the West Jordan cook-off we ran. I think this is his first time to fall dead asleep in public. Lets just say that people were constantly walking past him and he stayed asleep, he was so tired!

This is front of the gift shop at the MGM Grand.

This is at the rainforest cafe giftshop. He loved the animals because they are animated and make animal noises.


This is at FAO Schwartz. Dave decided that it was finally time to put Andrew where he belonged, with the monkeys!