I decided to turn this page into one where I can post things that people may have never seen before, would find interesting or just make you laugh. Hopefully, you will enjoy these special pictures of our little guy. I will update it as I continue to uncover things.
Tara always made sure Rocky enjoyed things that all other kids were able to enjoy. Here, she takes him sledding just a few days after being released from the hospital. Notice the IV pump and tubes she is holding. Rocket was actually getting a dose of IV antibiotics while he was sledding! That's Tara for ya.
I just found this picture in a small album. It shows Rocky about two or three weeks after he was born. You can he how under-developed he was. The nurses dressed him up with a make-shift bow tie.
This is another picture from that CD. Here Rock has just has a helping of chocolate pudding! Pudding was how we would hide some of Rocky's medications. We would mix them into pudding or yogurt and he would take them that way. But in this picture, he was just enjoying plain old chocolate pudding.
This was taken in the NICU at Lankenau hospital. Having the preemie on your bare body like this is called "Kangarooing." It allows the baby to feel the parent directly and it brings them comfort. This technique also brought Rocky his nickname, Rockaroo!
This is a picture from the NICU of Rocky on St. Patrick's Day, 2004. He was a month old. Exactly three years later, his siblings, Lyndsie and Ryder were born (March 17, 2007).
One day Tara and I took Rocky to the park near his school to see a display of equipment made for special needs kids. One company from Canada made these great bikes that could be pushed by the parents or allow the child to pedal. It also had dual steering, a hand brake, a harness, velcro gloves for holding on and a really cool horn! They let us take Rocky for a ride in one...and he loved it. We took him around the park for over an hour and realized we had to get him one. This is the one gizmo that insurance would not cover. Thus that day in the park,we wrote a check for $3,000 for this discounted "floor model" and took home Rocky's new bike. It was worth every penny.
Rocky was the ring-bearer for his sister Ashlie's wedding. But again, Rock was released from the hospital the day before the wedding. He could not walk after his release. So we did the next best thing.... we put Rocky in a decorated wagon and Dad pulled him down the aisle. He was a hit and received applause as he came down the aisle. He was simply adorable in his little suit.
In the summer of 2007, Rocky's neurosurgeon suggested we have a "temporal window" placed in Rocky's skull. Actually, nothing is "placed." Instead, a section (perhaps the size of a silver dollar) of the skull is removed to allow his brain a place to go when it swelled. We really believe this procedure bought us a lot of extra time with Rocky. As you can see in the picture above, a little bit of skull removal wasn't gonna stop Rocky from enjoying the new sprinkler park at Marsh Creek State Park in Downingtown, PA. He was tough beyond words.
My friend Mike Pietras came by one day and was cracking up at this view of Rocky. So we had to take a picture! Rocky loved to kick back and watch Thomas the Tank Engine or Elmo. In fact, he loved to "kick back" his whole life. It was a running joke that even as far back as the incubator in the Lankenau NICU, Rocky had to put his feet up. He did it constantly.