Baby Delilah

Matt's brother Bart and his wife Josefine had their baby girl on April 20th.  Her name is Delilah Rose Maria Mendonca.  She was tiny for a Mendonca baby at a 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 in long, but she was born 10 days early.  We thought that Caden was going to hold the record fir the smallest Mendonca baby, but she beat him by 1 oz.  Josefine went home to Sweden to have the baby, so we haven't met her yet.  She looks so adorable, and we can't wait until they come home!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Matt's 32nd birthday.  I hope that you have a great birthday.  I love you!

My Invention

Matt hasn't really been able to carry anything since he has been on crutches, but now that has all changed.  I was trying to think of something that he could use as a cup holder, and then I thought of his water bottle holder.  He used it while he was training to run his marathon a couple of years ago, so that his hands could be free while he was running.  I just had to wrap it around the crutches until I could fasten it tight, and it works great.  Too bad that I didn't think if this 3 weeks ago. 

Happy Easter!

We had an awesome Easter, and we are so lucky to have so many people to celebrate with!

 Caden loved his the Easter Basket that he got from the Easter Bunny,



Grandma, Grandpa, and Mikey came over for breakfast.  Here is the Easter Basket that Caden got from Grandma and Grandpa.  It had a really cute Cars backpack.  He loves anything to do with cars! 

We had an Easter egg hunt in our back yard.  I put a fruit snack in each egg, and he loved it! 

 Cutest little boy ever in his Easter outfit!



Then we went to Grandpa and Beth's house.  Caden loved petting Max, and was pretty nice except for the one time that he poked Max in the eye. 

Grandpa and Beth had an Easter egg hunt.    

Then we went to Great Grandma Shobe's for some yummy dinner, 

The three of us. 

Caden was wearing Christina's sunglasses. 

Just because he is so cute. 

Riding a motorcycle.

The Phone is For Duke

Caden Dancing!

We went to my cousin Cody's wedding last night and Caden was getting down to the music.  The sound isn't very good in this video because it was recorded on Matt's cell phone, but it is really cute.  He danced for a really long time, and the more people that were watching the more he showed off.  It was too funny!

Crutches

Matt is getting around on his crutches pretty good these days.  He even went back to work on Tuesday.  It is still hard to walk far distances though.  You really take walking for granted until you can't do it anymore, and you don't realize how much that you usually walk in a day.  Just going to the store is a chore or getting to his desk at work.  He has also run into the problem of carrying things.  He pretty much can't carry anything, so he has started wearing a backpack when he goes to work.  He went out to lunch with a friend from work the other day, and his friend had to fill up his drink for him.  Then Matt had to throw it away when he left because he couldn't carry it.  Anyone who knows Matt and his Dr Pepper knows that wasn't an easy thing for him to to!  I think that he is going to invent a cup holder for his crutches.  2 weeks down and only 4 to go!

Caden's Bathroom

I am always looking for any excuse to do a little redecorating in my house, so I decided that it was time to make Caden's bathroom into a kids bathroom.  I love the way it turned out! (I am thinking that a big boy room may be next on the list.)

Caden Making a Basket

Cindy didn't want to post this, but I thought I should.  Caden has been able to catch a ball for a while now and I finally got it on video. This also shows him making a basket at all costs. 

Matt

Caden's Dilemma

Has has too many cars and not enough hands to carry them all.  Here is his solution.

He pushes his fire truck around the house with all of his cars in it.  It's really cute.  He is so smart!

Surgery Update

Matt has been doing really good since the surgery.  He only stayed in bed that first day, and then the next morning he was up and about the house.  He has gotten pretty good at using his crutches.  At first I was nervous that he was going to fall again everytime that he got up, but I think that it is okay now.  He definitely should've been practicing before the surgery, but we never even thought about it.  

The doctor wanted Matt to start riding the stationary bike the day after surgery because the motion is good for the hip.  He started off doing it twice a day for 10 minutes, but he has worked up to doing it three times a day for twenty minutes. 

Caden also likes to "ride" the bike.  He doesn't let Matt forget to do the bike either because several times a day he tells Matt "bike" because I guess that he thinks it's time.  Matt also went to his first physical therapy session on Monday.  They stretched out his leg and showed him some exercises that he can do to strengthen it.  Matt says that it feels really weak right now, so we are thinking that it is going to be awhile before everything is back to normal since he can't even walk on it for 6 weeks.  He was really tired afterwards, and we haven't really been going anywhere because it takes a big toll on him.  Matt has been having numbness in his left leg the past few days.  The doctor had warned us that there may be short term nerve damage, but we were concerned because it was not on the same side as the surgery.  The doctor had Matt come in to see him, but he said that the numbness is because they put both legs in traction for the surgery.  He said that it should get better.   

The doctor also showed up some picture that he had taken during the surgery.  Here is the torn labrum. 

Here is the labrum after he fixed the tear. 

Here is the area on the bone that is missing cartilage and the blood clot that will hopefully form new cartilage.  I asked the doctor about the fall causing damage to the blood clot, and he said that it is actually pretty secure and had already adhered to the bone.  That means that it is likely that there wasn't any damage done.  He said that when he first tells patients not to walk on the leg he tells them to be more careful then they really need to be because a lot of people don't listen.  I guess that he had me all freaked out for nothing, but I'm glad that it's not so fragile.  He still isn't supposed to put any weight on it, but a step or two probably isn't going to mess everything up.  The doctor also seemed excited about all of this, and told us that Matt is a really interesting case.  Apparently this has not been studied a lot for the hip area, and is fairly uncommon.  It is more common to do this in the knee, but he said that researchers think that it may actually be more effective in the hip.  We can only hope that is true.

Here is where the bump was on the bone that the doctor shaved down.