Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

So two things, my parents (and Chili) were very nice to sit still for me while I took countless photos of them.  I was sitting on the changing table (yes, not very safe) and as Mommy has taught me in the past asked them to say "cheese" over and over again.  Not a great photo with my foot in it but you do get a good idea of the size of the big, big bear in relation to everything else in my room!

So the other thing is the new trach change video.  My parents are prepared for numerous comments wondering why the hell they would allow a 3 year old to take out her own trach (actually I am closer to 4 but who's counting).  Actually, they have been letting me take my own trach out during trach changes for several months now.  Although I need a little help getting it back in, taking it out is no big deal!  OK so here is my parents philosophy on this - bear with me.  This trach thing is probably pretty long term for me so the sooner I get involved in my own care the better.  Obviously I am a pretty smart cookie so they weren't surprised when I wanted to participate in this weekly event.  In addition, they figure if I get to take it out once a week with their permission I will probably be a lot less interested in taking it out on my own to try to irritate or scare them.  Now if I was not stable without a trach in for a few minutes at a time my parents would never have gone down this path but as it is they really are not too worried since I can stay capped for hours at a time.  So I should probably put the warning out there not to try this at home but there might be a few other trach toddlers out there who might want to give it a shot and some parents who are not currently having heart palpitations watching my video - to those of you have fun - let us know how it goes!

Peyton Nicole Smith