Discovering Nature in our Backyard....

Chloe and I went exploring today and this is what we discovered:)

It's a DOG Party!!

A perfect excuse to reconnect with old friends is throwing your dog a party!! Back in "BK", before kids, Benji and I lived in a townhouse and one of our neighbors was also a co-worker of mine. Our first year we were married, Benji and I got a dog from the Humane Society and Jim, our neighbor also got a dog that same year- Shadow, a little hot dog. Abby, was the center of our attention. She got three walks a day, special treats, playtime, playdates with other dogs, etc.... Abby's best friend, Shadow played together every day. Then we moved and had two kids and Abby didn't get all the attention that she had before, especially traveling to the hospital every day for 5 months. We still loved Abby, but things were different. Lately, we started returning our attention back to Abby. She goes on every family walk with us and we play with her along with the kids together. This year, Abby turned 8 years old, so we decided to invite our friend Jim over and surprise Abby by also inviting Shadow. Abby was super excited to see both of them, in fact she was so excited she peed on the floor. She has not done this since she was a puppy!!! We made cupcakes, a juicy hamburger for Abby and Shadow, gave goody bags, and Abby got presents. It was her special day!!... and a great excuse to catch up with an old friend!!

Fancy Nancy

Chloe goes to daycare with her best friends and today they had a Fancy Nancy party. This week, they focused on learning about manners and celebrated their good manners by dressing really pretty and having a tea party. The kids loved it!






Stay tuned for tomorrow.... it's Abby's (our dog) birthday party! Shh... don't tell her, but I invited her best friend Shadow to surprise her!! Abby was the center of our attention until Chloe and Wyatt came along. We love her very much, but she wasn't the only child anymore... so tomorrow Abby turns eight and it's her special day! She is looking forward to her yummy treat and all the attention she will be getting!

Making Pizza on a Friday Night

I hope we started a Friday night tradition of making pizza for dinner. Both kids loved helping to make it. Chloe like that we put her favorite topping on it- pepperoni!

Gymnastics

Chloe loves gymnastics and today she got to wear her leotard in class. She usually wears just a shirt and pants, but our neighbor Emily handed down this pretty leotard and Chloe was so happy to wear it. In fact, she was so happy, she wore it all day long and did gymnastics in our house all evening long:)

Discovering Nature

Today Chloe took her first school field trip to the local nature center. The kids got to touch a snake, turtle, and a toad. They also got to see the toad and turtle eat. Chloe was very clingy at first, but then got up off my lap to sit next to her "boyfriend" Matthew:) We then went on a little hike. After everyone left, we stayed behind to do some more exploration in the nature center.

Super Cool Bike

We want to thank Gran and Grandad (Benji's parents) for getting the kids this super cool cart to attach to the back of a bike. For the first time ever, we all went bike riding together as a family. Wyatt had a blast and the faster, the bumper the ride was, the better:)) Chloe was such a nice big sister and took care of her brother while inside the cart. Today, our nurse Susan took Wyatt on the bike and he fell asleep in it! After she brought him in the house, he slept for almost 3 hours!!! I think it wore him out!

It takes Rain and Sunshine to Make a Rainbow

I got this off of Baby's Andrew's blog- It takes both Rain and Sunshine to make a rainbow. As you all know, I am very saddened by the destroyed woods in my backyard. I knew it was coming, but I am such a nature lover and knowing that many animal homes were displaced and the space where my children will explore, imagine, and discover nature is gone. I looked out my window and saw this beautiful double rainbow and both ends of the rainbow were present. I take this as a sign! I have a new attitude now:)

Good Friends = Good Times

On Sunday my friend Laura and her kids came over for lunch. We had a great time watching the kids play together. Each kid made their own pizza, ice cream sundaes, and we made a Fall craft- Autumn Leaves Sun catchers. I got the idea here.

The only good thing...

The only good thing about our woods being destroyed is that Wyatt now sits with his feet underneath of him and pulls up into a kneeling position to watch the tractor's outside. He is fascinated in watching the tractors and even carries his "mini" tractor around with him. I just love boys!!


Two weeks ago this was a thickly wooded area... you could not see the houses:(((

Halloween Fun!

Here is just a few pictures, more to come later of our Halloween. It's the first time ever we spent Halloween as a family. Wyatt was in the hospital one year, my sister got married in Mexico last year, and finally this year, we are together! We started early today by carving pumpkins with Aunt Danielle and a visit from my Mom and Grandmom. Then Benji's parent's came over and I made a big pot of chili for everyone! Trick or Treating is so much fun in our neighborhood. It's like a huge party on the street. Chloe had a great time trick or treating for the first time... then after the kiddies went to bed, I went to the coolest gig ever... Benji's band played at a barn party. Each member of the band dressed up as one of the Adam's family. Benji was Cousin It. They sounded the best ever and the stage was so cool... full of cobwebs on a loft. It's late so I will share more later:) Good night and Happy Halloween!

Coolest Gig ever... Benji's Band as the Adam's Family!

It's Super Why flying through the air!!!

Carving pumpkins with Aunt Danielle

Trick or Treating... (I don't know why the photos are sideways?? It's not like that when I post them)

Our hearts are heavy for Baby Andrew who became an angel yesterday. Please head over to Andrew's page if you like to leave a comment.

Is there a Super Why in the house??

The rain did not stop us from celebrating Halloween early! Chloe and Wyatt had a party Friday night at the YMCA and they got to wear their costumes early. More on their costumes during out Halloween post, but here is a sneak peek! Then Mommy and Daddy got to go to our neighborhood Halloween party while Mom-mom babysat. We really do live in the best neighborhood! Everyone definitely knows how to have fun!!




Chloe Monster!! She just made this up, but insisted she is a NICE monster:)

This is what the kids did while Mommy and Daddy went to the party.... reading with Mom-mom

Can you guess what we are? I am a deviled egg (I even sprinkled the paprika on top!) and Benji is Pink Floyd.

Picture of the day

Wyatt is saying, "Go away bubble!" and then he says, "I got it!" Since we are giving him bolus feeds and venting him through out the day, he has become a good helper, and even wanting to do it by himself.

A is alligator

It's been a long week. Pulmonary just called at 3pm and said that they have a limited supply of H1N1 vaccine and they are saving one for Wyatt if we can get there by 4pm (we live an hour away) or first thing tomorrow morning. This will be our third doctor's appointment this week, Benji was away in Colorado for work Sun-Thurs, and I maintained my work schedule... so I said, sure! no problem! I will leave tomorrow at 6:30am with a happy face and then go to work, because it's important for Wyatt. I know the H1N1 vaccine is controversial, but I did a lot of research and talked to all Wyatt's doctors and it's the best for him. After reading Jack's mom's post who has her PhD in microbiology and is a virologist, I feel so much more comfortable about getting the vaccine for my kids. Last year, two simple colds put Wyatt in the hospital, so I really want to avoid H1N1. Chloe's daycare got it, so I kept her out for two weeks. I travel to different schools for my job, Chloe goes to daycare, pre-school, grandparents, and nurses come in and out of our house... so I am taking every measure for our family to stay healthy. I made a "sick-free" corner in our house where I put gloves, masks, hand-sanitizer, Lysol wipes, and bleach water in a spray bottle. I also have hand sanitizer around every corner in my house too. I asked anyone that has contact with Wyatt to stay home if they are sick. I also said if you are not feeling your best, but not sick, to wear a mask and gloves when handling him. I asked everyone to pitch in in wiping down toys, equipment, and surfaces with bleach/water solution. So far, so good!! I am soooo looking forward to this weekend!! Friday- Halloween party at the YMCA tomorrow for the kids, then girls night in the neighborhood. Saturday- Parade and old fashion games in the neighborhood, then adult Halloween Party. Sunday- Sunday School (I am an assistant), then my friend Laura and her two kids visiting for a trip to the pumpkin patch and lunch. I am stumped on what to be for Halloween. If you have any ideas of simple costumes, I would love to hear about it!

I want to thank you for the e-mails and comments concerning Wyatt's care at KK. It was very beneficial and I really appreciate the time you took in sharing your experiences with me. It was very meaningful! So I called KK today and canceled our Nov. 5th day of appointments with them so that I could attend Chloe's first field trip.......... and then I rescheduled them from early December. We are going to give it a try. I am going to experience it first hand and see how I feel about it after talking to the people that will be treating him. I may regret it if I don't try. If it's not for Wyatt, then we will continue with the excellent therapy he is getting now.

Also, Wyatt's hematologist reviewed Wyatt's blood work and called me yesterday around 6pm, saying that his white blood cell count at 16,900 is the lowest it has ever been. He has had a consistent high white blood cell count ranging from the high 20,000-30,000 when the normal range is up to 10,000. As you may know this is another worry for me. But this is good news! He also recommended that we stop Wyatt's iron supplement since his hemoglobin is no longer on the low side, it's now on the high side. He also mentioned that it showed that Wyatt was slightly dehydrated. This may be because of his diuretics, which we are going to wean next month, and starting to experiment with bolus feeds. We are hoping to solve this issue by supplementing Wyatt's feeds with water or pedilytle (recommended by the GI doc) and keeping detailed records of how much formula he is actually getting.
Wyatt's pulmonlolgist's office also called again today to schedule a sleep study for Jan. Finally a lady from our insurance company called today to let us know it's time to take Wyatt to the dentist!!! After all these phone calls and appts., going to the dentist is not on the top of my list, especially since Wyatt doesn't even eat!!! (just venting).

Finally, Chloe is learning so much in school, but I also want to take time at home to reinforce things that she is learning. We started designing our alphabet book today. I got this idea from a blog I read, Planted by Streams. Like this mother's dilemma, Chloe does not like to color, so I had to figure out another way for her to create her alphabet book. So far, we created the letters A and B. A for alligator, B for beans. On a separate sheet of paper she practices writing the letters in uppercase and lowercase and sounds them out as she is writing them. Here are a few pictures, more to come as we create!! If you have any ideas of items to use, please let me know! I have fur for F, cotton balls for c, pipe cleaners for p, noodles for n, but I need more ideas:))



We used foam for the letter A and crazy eyes!!

What a week so far!

It has been an overwhelming past few days with two doctor appointments. First we went to Kennedy Krieger Institute for a developmental pediatrician to assess Wyatt. It was so nice to arrive there with free valet parking and a welcoming front desk and swift friendly service. Very customer friendly. However, the calmness stopped there:) The doctor was very nice and Wyatt did fabulous! He took a test and followed directions enthusiastically! I wish I had a camera to video him taking this test. He stacked one inch blocks, dumped something out of a container, put pegs in holes, and when asked to draw a circle and line (which he scribbled), he made a funny sound just like the doctor. He was soooo cute!! He performed at 24 months,on target and 21 months for motor skills. I am so proud and the doctor was shocked by how well he did for everything he has been through. She said he was a pure miracle given all the surgeries, brain bleed, and vocal cord paralysis. She said she never saw a person with IVH grade four bleed perform like Wyatt did!! Then came the part of her recommendations. She wants to act aggressively with Wyatt. She wants to enroll him in there INTENSE feeding clinic where there is a high success rate, but kids are force fed and it's very traumatic for the parents. It could be inpatient or outpatient. Then she wants us to stop Infant and Toddlers and start using there PT, because she thinks Wyatt's refusal to walk is because of low muscle tone, but it is also behavioral and if he is out of his environment with other people, he may act differently. Finally she wants the caregivers- parents, nurse, grandparents attend behavioral psychology clinic. As we were leaving, the check out lady made appointments for all of these for us plus a follow up with this doctor one year from now... my calendar doesn't even go that far!!! Wow!! talk about overwhelming. Wyatt cries when we pull into the parking garage of any doctor. EVERY doctor's appointment is traumatic for him.... even the one with his friendly pediatrician. I feel like we are at such a great place now. Wyatt loves his PT lady who comes to our house. He is talking so much, pretending to eat at every meal, and we are making baby steps with getting him to stand (we are conquering kneeling now:) I always want to do what is best for Wyatt, but with working, Chloe going to pre-school, and normal life stuff, I don't know if I could go to Kennedy Krieger on a regular, weekly, basis. Don't get me wrong, I would if I knew for sure it was best for Wyatt. People from all over the world travel to Baltimore to go to KK. I have been googling it and people from as far as Australia come to participate in their 8 week feeding clinic. So I told myself to attend the first appointment and see how I feel. I refuse to allow Wyatt to be force fed and scream and cry. I am an proponent for the loving and caring approach in the security of our own home rather than an institution. But I will go to the appointments and see what happens. I just feel like we are starting all over again and I strongly dislike explaining Wyatt's history to a new set of doctors. I feel like I am opening a can of worms!! We have a set of doctors and they all know Wyatt and we like them. However, I don't want to shut the door on KK just out of convenience. So what would you do? I would love to hear all your comments on this. Oh yeah, two of the appointments is the same day Chloe has her first school field trip!!!

Today we had our GI appointment with Dr. G. After waiting for two and half hours, we were finally seen. I toke Chloe with us and both kids were wild! Scooting everywhere!! Dr. G was very happy with Wyatt's progress. He is in the 60 percentile for weight... he started below the growth line and now he is in the middle. Now we have to watch he won't gain too much more weight... I thought I would never say that!! We always tried to prepare him for surgery and encouraged weight gain. Now we want to stay steady. He would also like to start bolus feeds at about 40cc at a time and increase his continuous feeds during the night, so we don't have to feed him as often during the day. We also can give him pedilyte or water to stay hydrated instead of formula after he has met his daily intake of about 1200cc. Basically it's the first time he did not give us a prescribed plan. We can do what we want as long as he gets 1200 cc a day. He also said that he did most of his training at the feeding clinic at KK and he did say it's extremely intense and hard on the parents. He said Wyatt is doing fine as is and it's totally up to us of what we want to do.

My priority for Wyatt now is letting him be happy and healthy in his own environment. I want to focus on his PT and standing. We were in the hosiptal five times last year for respiratory illnesses and reherinations. We are finally at a good place and have not been in a hospital since last June (our longest stretch). After standing and walking, then I will work on feeding. But I also don't want to miss the window of opportunity either??? What to do??

Finally, I want to thank my friend Teaette for hosting a high school friend reunion in her brand new big house:)) I love my friends and Teaette and Nicole have been with me through the thick and thin! Here are some of the pictures of all five kids together. Teaette has twins that are Wyatt's age- Taylor and Joey and a girl Haley who is Chloe's age. They had great fun playing with balloons!

Prayer Request for Baby Andrew

Prayer request for Andrew- http://babyandrewhobbs.blogspot.com/ Andrew is fighting hard on ECMO and has hit a little bump in the road. He has two wonderful parents that are always by his side. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

What to do on a rainy day??

You have to make a little sunshine in your house when it is down pouring rain outside, and the forest behind your house looks like a tornado riped through it with deer walking all over it looking for stuff to eat... very depressing:((( but we can fix that inside our house! What does a green apple and my bathroom have in common? It's the color I am painting our bathroom! So today we went to Target looking for accessories... new mirror, towel holder, trash can, etc... Then I got some stuff done, and then we had some fun! Baking an apple cake from this blog and yes... I did beat the eggs for 15 minutes! We had a great time making it... everyone took part! finally for dinner on a cold evening... chili with turkey!

Helping with the cake... (making noise banging the steel bowl on the granite:)






Yum-O


Kids are ruling the house!! Both kids locked themselves in the study!! I was in the other room when I heard "Mommy!!" When I found them, they were both laughing!! I love it!!

Benji's Turkey Chili

A Very Rainy Friday....

Chloe had a special day with her Daddy today. He took the day off and took her to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, lunch, and a trip to the bookstore to pick out a book. I got to paint our bathroom:) It's cold and rainy here... Here are some random pictures

Practicing to stand, as you can tell, Chloe is taller and Wyatt is heavier.


Wyatt's therapy with his nurse Susan.... it's the only time and way he will stand for us!! However, he is sitting on his feet more, going into the crawling position more, and sits criss cross applesauce then, props up on his knees. I am being hopeful that standing is just around the corner!




We just had a family dinner for Wyatt's birthday, but I still wanted to make invitations because it's fun... so here is a picture of it!


My frig is getting overfilled of crafts, so I made a craft wall today and hung them up on the wall.


Yummy breakfast made by Chloe and her Daddy... chocolate chip pancakes, sausage, and a hot latte!

Chloe's Sharing Day at School

Chloe absolutely loves school and her teachers. Today was a special day, because I got to volunteer and it was Chloe's sharing day! So I made sure I took my camera!! Chloe picked her favorite thing(s) in this entire world to share- her piggies. Chloe loves her two piggies. She takes them everywhere with her and falls asleep with them every night. She loves them so much, she is going to be a pig for Halloween!! She also shared a book that she read to the class- "Chloe's Snowy Day."
(don't worry... I washed the piggies as soon as we came home!!)

Sharing her book, "Chloe's Snowy Day" with her class and her teacher.


Sharing her piggies


Showing her class her piggies...



Painting...


Getting distracted in circle time and decided to do gymnastics... (they are suppose to sit- criss cross applesauce)

Sitting in circle time...


I forgot to take my camera to "large motor play-time" (fancy word for recess), but it was the first time I saw Chloe ride a tricycle by herself and not steering into a wall or the grass!! She is getting so big and I had a wonderful time with her. Meanwhile Benji was with Wyatt during this time attending an Infants and Toddler's review meeting. It's the first time we divided responsibilities up between the kids for their activities and it's the first medical thing I missed with Wyatt.... but Benji did a good job in catching me up and basically nothing has changed:) Tomorrow, Benji took off work for a special day with Chloe... they are going to see the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and lunch! and I will have a special day with Wyatt:)