Fixing the washer

I have a love-hate relationship with aquaphor.

I love that it makes Wyatt all hydration-y

I hate that it coats all of his clothes

It really does work wonders for Wyatts skin

But it's impossible to get out of clothes

Wyatt is a much happier boy with a fresh coat of aquaphor

It's destroying my washing machine.

Because of the obvious benefits aquaphor provides I know it will be a part of my life until the day Wyatt moves out of the house... but even then it won't really go away because I'm sure he'll want to visit his favorite mother all the time.

So to get to the point... aquaphor is destroying my washing machine.

When I turn it on it's all rattley, and then when it gets the the spin cycle... psshhh, it sounds like a freaking freight train is going through my house.  I'm surprised the thing hasn't rattled itself to pieces yet!  So I went to my trusty advisor, GOOGLE, for help.  I checked out a bunch of different help blogs and a few you tube videos and decided that the bearings were bad.  With Jareds help we pulled up the user manual for our washer to get the item number and couldn't find it anywhere, figures.  So we called sears for help and wouldn't you know it, they don't sell the bearings separately.  You have to buy the whole friggen outer tub.  What?!  No thank you, I DON'T want to spend $350!  eBay it is.  Oh eBay, you have yet to let me down!  We were able to find and purchase the part for less than $100, so we also purchased a new water valve and boot {water valve was dripping and the boot was all saggy and gross from all the aquaphor} All the parts we needed were around $150.  Not too shabby!  Definitely worth attempting to fix it on our own!

Yesterday was the day Jared decided to tackle the project.

 New part vs. old part... covered in aquaphor lol

 new bearing vs. old bearing

 Jared tried scrubbing the aquaphor off of the drum with a brush and degreaser to no avail.  He had to take a pressure washer to it!

 Even the pressure washer couldn't get it all

 Installing the new bearing

 Putting it all back together

 This is how all the professionals put their stuff back together right? :)

 All back in place after only 5 hours!

I'm so happy to have my washer back!  And guess what?  No freight train anymore!  I'm thrilled that with my diagnosis and Jared's handiness we were able to fix and clean the washing machine all by ourselves {ahem, and the internet!}

To have a tech come out and do this same project we would have had to put out around $1300 between parts and labor {based on the pricing I did} So we saved around $1150 by doing it all on our own!

I'm definitely feeling pretty proud of Jared right now!  Even my dad said he was impressed :)

Learning to stand

This last week our main focus with Wyatt has been helping him build the confidence to stand on his own.  He's gone from immediately falling over, to standing for a few seconds all on his own.

We're so proud of him!

I feel like the timing of Wyatt's helmet couldn't have been better.  Often, when kids with ichthyosis learn to crawl, then walk, as with other children they fall down.  A lot.  The difference with ichthyosis kids is, each fall can result in some pretty bad damage.  A blister on their feet or a chunk of skin missing on their head when they clipped the table or ran into the door-jamb... luckily Wyatt's helmet is not only helping to shape his head, it's helping protect him from his falls :)

We're soooo close to having a walker I can hardly stand it!

I got kicked out of Wyatt's therapy

Wyatts therapists have decided that he is too attached to me.  For example, last week when his PT walked in the door, he crawled behind me, stood up, and peeked around and gave her this look that said, "You'll have to go through my MOM to get to me!"  So... My presence is now a distraction and they want to work on getting him less attached.  Thus I got kicked out.  They're in my living room working with Wyatt and I get 50 minutes of free time!  

Woohoo!!!  

Now I just have to decide what to do with these 50 golden minutes...

I could give myself a pedicure

I could lay out {yeah right}

I could... oh who am I kidding?

It means I have time to clean my office.

Teething & the park

Wyatt is getting his 4th molar in right now and is going through some serious teething pains.  These molars have been harder for him than any of his other teeth.

I never had my wisdom teeth removed and a couple of them came in a few years ago.  HOLY CRAP IT HURT!  I really feel for these little guys!  I can't imagine having that happen over and over and over for months on end.  But I really feel bad for kids with EHK.  When Wyatt teethes it stresses out his body and he gets blisters all over.  Pain inside and out.  The past 2 weeks he's been waking up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night dealing with itchy skin and now we get to add teething and blisters to the list.  This isn't any fun for him

On a fun note...

Yesterday was Wyatt weather!!!  70 degrees and overcast until noon!  We celebrated by going to the park.  It's been so hot out the past few months that we haven't had any outdoor excursions so we were both very relieved to get a break from our house prison.

This was Wyatts first time at the park.  I plopped him in the stroller and walked the 3/4 mile to get there.  Wyatt was practically in a trans with all of the activity around him.  He loves walks :)

When we got there I discovered that our park doesn't have any swings.  Lame!  What park doesn't have swings?  So he slid down the slid {with some help from me} over and over and over.  And then he stood at the bottom of it and hit it for like 5 minutes.  It made a different sound than all of the other things that he's hit before so of course it was entertaining.  I'm glad he's easily amused!

Hopefully this heat goes away for good soon so we can have lots more outdoor adventures!

Close to walking!

Wyatt has been cruising and crawling EVERYWHERE lately and it has been wonderful!  I love his independence!  Yesterday he started pushing his activity table away from the couch.  I thought he was just being lazy and pushing it our of his way because he didn't want to walk around it.  But then he started doing this!

My little boy is getting SO close to walking on his own!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  I expect he'll be walking within 2-4 weeks WHICH MEANS he'll be walking by Halloween!  People won't look at me like a complete freak when I roll up with a stroller bc my big boy is going to walk to the doors this year!  :)  Eek!