Day Thirty-Five

We are now into our second week of therapy at Our Children's House. It's not like painful physical therapy in the sense that we think of when we hear those words. Basically he just plays but all the play is focused on his right side, which is his weak side. Then he gets a nice neck massage and does some fun stretches. As you can tell he usually likes that part the best. He almost fell asleep today.

Parker even made a friend there today! There was a young boy there this morning that was in a wheel chair and he had some other issues as well but he was the cutest thing ever. He came in singing "Oh tannenbaum oh tannenbaum, how lovely are thy branches..." Parker loved it. He started squealing and waving his arms around. The boy asked why he did that and I told him because he likes your singing. Then I told him "he really likes the song the wheels on the bus. Do you know that one?" And the sweet guy started singing it. It was so cute because Parker got even more excited and so did the boy.

Being there makes me oh so thankful for the three beautiful children that God has given Brian and I. The waiting room is full of children and parents all on different journeys than ours, most of theirs are life long. As I look around I think boy we're lucky. Sure things are hard right now, we get a few funny looks and rude comments here and there. But, at least Parker's condition is completely fixable. Those parents are amazing for having the strength to get up each day knowing all the challenges they and their children are going to have to face for the rest of their lives. Makes me hug my girls and my little helmet head man a little tighter.

Day Thirty-Four

Actual Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Super Baby!

Parker and Mommy trying to have fun with the physical therapy exercises.

That's his "Okay, I'm over it Mom" look.

Day Thirty-Three

Actual Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Grandma Marcia!

Day Thirty-Two

Actual Date: Monday, April 26, 2010News flash: Someone is now using sippy cups. It's not to pretty but he's having fun!

Day Thirty-One

Actual Date: Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last weekend we tried a new church. We have tried at least 4 since moving back here and we finally decided we should just bite the bullet and make the drive to our old church that we used to go to when we first lived in Texas. We love it there but the drive was really starting to be an issue for us. By the time we got home more than half the day was gone. A few weeks ago we got a flyer in the mail for a church. After checking out their website it sounded like it would be a good fit for us and as a plus, it's less than 5 minutes from our house. So said we'd try this one last church. I am so glade we did. We really liked it. We plan on going back next week.

Everyone was super friendly and the kids loved it. The message was really good as well. They are doing a series on how to "Lovestrong." Each week they are kind of doing a play off of popular televising show names and applying it to everyday lives. This week that we attended happened to be "The Bachelor." It was a serious on living single but he also touched on some great points for married and divorced couples as well.

I am a note taker. I have my own journal and I have to take notes or I don't remember anything. Plus it gives me a chance to write down key points and verses to look up later. As I look over last weeks notes one of my favorite lines that the Pastor said is "Unforgiveness is like drinking poison, expecting the other person to die." That is so true. A lot of times we hang on to something that someone did or said to us and dwell on it so much that we actually make the wounds worse. In a sense we make in impossible for ourselves to heal because of the anger we are carrying around.

There were a lot of great points that were touched on in that sermon but that was just one that jumped out at me. Can't wait to hear what is in store next week, the topic is "The Office." Should be interesting.

Day Thirty

Actual Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010

The girls had their last swim lesson this morning. Brooke is doing really well. She can swim on her back doing her "peanut butter and jelly" arms for quite awhile without the teacher holding her. Ava however did not want anything to do with any of it until about 4 min. before the class was over. The only part she likes is trying to splash Daddy, who was standing outside the pool, with her kicking legs and blowing bubbles in the water. Other than that she can't be bothered.

After swim lessons we had a list of places we needed to go and we also needed to grocery shop so we headed home to get cleaned up so we could head out. I have been seeing all the beautiful flowers blooming as we've been driving places and I just knew that I wanted to stop and take pictures in them one of these days and Brian read my mind. He told me about a place on the way to his work that has a beautiful field full. So we decided to head over there on our way to our errands and try to get a few pictures. It was super windy so it kinda messed up some pictures but it was so pretty we didn't care. And I got the chance to use the tripod I got for my birthday!

Brooke at the pool with her ear plugs. It will be a happy day when we no longer have to use those things.

Day Twenty-Nine

Actual Date: Friday, April 23, 2010

I just realized you can't really tell what's on the nightstand. It's a Bible on top of the DVD case of The Grinch.

A few days ago Brook said she wanted to watch the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch. Up till this point she has been scared of it but she said "Mom, I'm almost 4 so I'm big enough now." About a half hour into it she turned it off and said "Never mind. I don't like it" but she neversaid it scared her.

Later that night, a few hours after she had fallen asleep she came into my room and told me, " I'm not dreaming too good..." Which in her words means she had a nightmare. So I took her back to bed and rocked her back to sleep. The next night the same thing happened. This time I asked her what her dream was about. She told me that she was keeps seeing the part on The Grinch where the little girl gets stuck in the mail sorter and it scares her.

So I layed back down with her and we started talking. Then it came to me. I said "You know what, you don't have to be scared. God is always with you. Maybe we can pray that he will take the scary dream out of your head?" Next thing I know she's crying. When I ask her whats wrong she says "I don't want God to have to take my bad dream because then it will be stuck in His head." My poor sweet little girl. She's always concerned about everyone else.

After I explained to her that God is bigger than anything and he can handle anything we said a prayer for God to take her bad dream. The next morning when I asked her how she slept she said, "Great! I prayed for Jesus to take my bad dream and put it in a glass jar. Then I prayed that his Daddy would not let him open it to let the bad dream out, even if it bangs against the glass. So now God has it."

I love the way kids think. And I guess this is proof that " God is bigger than the Boogieman."

Day Twenty-Eight

Actual Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010

Today Parker had his first Physical Therapy appointment for his Torticollis. For those of you who don't know what Torticollis is, basically he had a very tight muscle in his neck that held his head in an award position, which resulted in his Plagiocephaly.

Ever since he was about 2 1/2 months old I started to notice that he always held his head to one side. Before that I thought it was because he was a baby and he couldn't hold his head up to good on his own. But as he started getting older and it wasn't improving, I started to worry. The doctor said he had Torticollis and gave us some neck stretches to do and said she would look at it during his next appointment at 4 months. We worked hard on those neck stretches and he had such a great improvement as far as the tightness letting up.

At his 4 month appointment the doctor said he looked great as far as the neck tightness but now she said he was behind pulling up his head (when he lays on his back and you pull him up with his hands he should have been able to tuck his chin in and "help" pull up). So she told us some exercises to do to work on that. But then I showed her the back of his head and how it looked to me to be flat. She said that is common in Torticollis babies and to try to get him sitting up in his Bumbo seat and see if it rounds itself back out.

Fast forward to today,we kept doing out stretches and added in the neck exercises and bumbo seat and it helped but just not enough. Now that the tightness in his neck is all gone Parker has been doing a lot better on holding his head up straight, unless he's really tired or cranky. And he's also developed this habit of throwing himself straight back and he's so strong it's hard to hold him sometimes. We were refereed to physical therapy to help strenghten the muscles in his neck and see what else we could do.

The first appointment went great. He had fun! His eyes light up as he saw the Therapist pulling out of the fun toys. It is so cute to watch him because we cheer when he does good and he gets the biggest smile like he is so proud of himself. We got some new exercises and stretches to do that should help too. She also said that she thinks he throws himself backwards because that is probably how he learned to look behind him since he couldn't turn his head like he should because of the Torticollis. Makes sense. As a result, his back muscles are very strong but his trunk and tummy muscles are weak. So we'll work on those abs and he'll be sporting a six pack before you know it!

It looks like we will be making two trips a week for the next 4-6 months to physical therapy. That's on top of his weekly growth adjustments trips at the Doc Band office in Dallas. The picture above is my calender showing this last month. It'll be challenging fitting everything in, especially with our upcoming trip to California and Reno but I'll make it work. I've been told I'm a "stay at home Mom who's never home."

Day Twenty-Seven

Actual Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What the heck is it?

For at least a month now this thing has been hanging on a tree in our front yard. Ava found it while I was digging up some bushes in the front yard. She came up to me with it in her hand and said "look Mama!" I just about smacked it out of her hand because honestly I thought it was a piece of dog poop. Then it wiggled...I know gross huh? Anyways I put it on my shovel and walked over to my neighbors house to ask him what the heck it was. He says he's never seen anything like it but he thinks it's a cocoon. Makes sense I guess. The outside of it is hard but when you touch it it wiggles! So for now Brooke is convinced it's a cocoon and has hung it on the tree in the front yard. Every day she and the neighbor kids check it to see if it has turned into a butterfly and every day it looks like this... A month after we first found it the thing still wiggles when you touch it but that's about all it does. Anyone have any knowledge on this kind of stuff? What is it?

Day Twenty-Six

Actual Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

On this day Grandpa Jim and Grandma Marcia headed home. The kids were sad when they woke up in the morning and they weren't here. Ava said "where did Grandma go?" Today was also Parker's second day in his Doc Band. They told us to take it off every 3-4 hours for the first day and check for any red spots. If the red spots stayed for more than an hour we had to bring him in to have the helmet shaved down a little. He had one little red spot at the top of his neck in the back on the right side, so I went ahead and took him in. They shaved that section of the band down and put it back on. It fits much better now! We also added a "Prince Charming" sticker to the front of it. We are still undecided on how we want to decorate it. There are so many fun options out there. I wish we could change the theme every day! He doesn't seem to mind it much still. The hardest part is not being able to kiss his sweet little head. Now whenever we hold him you have to dodge that little noggin so that he doesn't bump you in the mouth with that thing. It's a weapon. He hasn't figured that out yet but I'm sure he will soon.

Day Twenty-Five

Actual date: Wednesday, April 21, 201

Game night with Daddy!

Day Twenty-Four

Actual Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I am so lucky that my girls were born in the same month almost two years apart. Because of this I am able to reuse all of Brooke's old clothes on Ava. Well the ones that made it through without being too thrashed. I love it because there are some things that I have forgotten about and it's exciting to see them again. Like this cowgirl shirt that Great Grandma Leona got for Brooke on a trip to Montana. Brooke liked it just fine, but Ava loves it! Ava is all about cowgirls and "weehows" (her word for horses).

Another plus side to having girls born in the same month and seasons, whenever I find something that is too cute to pass up, I justify it by saying, "well both girls are going to wear it so it's like a 50% discount! 2 for 1 really!" Am I right?! Works for me.

Day Twenty-Three

Time to get caught up! I am now a week behind. I told myself I wouldn't get behind and now here I am. I have a good excuse though, my strep came back. This last Friday I couldn't take it any longer so I went to the Urgent Care because my doctor did not have any appointments left. I got a new antibiotic and it is helping tons! So now I need to get this up to date!

Actual date: Monday, April 19, 2010

Parker had his appointment early this morning to get his band. This is him a few minutes after getting it on. He doesn't seem to mind it at all. All he was worried about was flirting with Mrs. Wendy, the technician who we have been seeing. He just loves her.

After that we went to the Fort Worth Zoo to celebrate Grandpa Jim's Birthday. We let him pick what he wanted to do. And "by let him pick" I mean we gave him the option of shopping or going to the zoo. He picked the zoo...go figure.

Here's Ava showing her "crokerdial teef"This was weird! All that stuff in there is stuff that has been found inside different crocodiles stomachs!Brooke growled at this lion and he woke up and looked right at her. Then he stood up and turned his back to her and laid back down. Brooke said "Mom, he doesn't want to play."Ava loves her some Kangaroo. She was SOOOOO excited to see just the statue of the Kangaroo. We practically had to drag her away from it to go see the real thing. She thought that the statue was real. When we did see the real ones she told me that all the babies were "crying for their Mamas." She got that from an episode of the Wonder Pets, one of her favorites, where the baby Kangaroo gets lost and crys out for its Mama."That thing was HUGE!One of our favorite things were the monkeys. The girls are still talking about how the monkeys were swinging around with bags on their heads showing off. There was even a Mommy with a little tiny baby. It was so cute.
When we left the zoo Grandma Marcia let the girls pick out one special stuffed animal each. Ava of course picked a Kangaroo and Brooke picked a Panda Bear. The Panda Bear was a hilarious choice to Marcia and I because we did not see any Pandas all day. But Brooke insisted on having a Panda. In fact on the way to the car she said "the best part of the whole day was getting my Panda Bear!" After all the fun we had at the Zoo we came home and had a wonderful dinner. Steak, twice baked potatoes and salad. Yum! I am full just thinking about it. After that we had cake and ice cream. I'm not sure where we put it all but I'm sure I'll find it when I get back on the scale this week. Brooke helped me decorate the cake in a Nascar theme. Here is Grandpa as the winner with the Sprint Girls behind him. There's a little inside joke about that with our family.

Day Twenty-Two

Actual date: Sunday, April 18, 2010

Another fun day with the fam. Jim and Brian hung the new screen door on the back porch and it looks good. It will be nice to be able to open the door and let in some fresh air without the cat running in all the time. Here's the girls with Grandpa Jim acting goofy.

After the little goof balls went to bed we sampled some of the wine and cheese that we had bought earlier in the week. The strawberry wine was my favorite. I'm not much of a drinker so I tend to lean more towards things that could pass as juice. Haha. We all had such a great night talking. We often have long talks at night when we get together with Brian's family and it's one of my favorite things to do with them. On this particular night Jimmy was cracking us up with stories about how he wooed Marcia when they first met, and tales about his days in the National Guard. At one point he had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to throw up. I just love that man. I'm so blessed to have him and Marcia in my life. They have so much love for me and my kids it's awesome. I look forward to many more years of our late night chats and Jim's roll on the floor funny stories.

Day Twenty-One

Actual date: Saturday, April 17, 2010

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 25 last weekend. It seems so weird. Forever I've always been the youngest in the crowd and now all of a sudden I'm 25. Where did the time go? It was a great day. I got to sleep in, we went to Lowe's and picked out a new screen door for the back porch, and then my In laws took us out to Olive Garden that evening. Marcia and Brookie made me a banana chocolate chip monkey bread and it was good. After we put the kids to bed I made everyone watch the Notebook with me. I thought I had watched it before but when we started watching it I didn't remember any of it. We all got to tired to finish but what we did watch so far was good.

Day Twenty

Actual date: Friday, April 16, 2010

Ava had her first dentist appointment today. Her eyes were completely cleared up, her ear infection seemed to be under control but I was still nervous about how she would do. Ava has been known to have a shall we say "spirited" personality. She is such a ham and loves to show off, but only if it's her idea. So I was a little worried about how she would feel about some stranger poking around inside her mouth.

Thankfully she actually did better than I expected. The worst part of the whole thing was trying to get her weight. She didn't want to stand on the scale. She went boneless and refused to stand. So then I tried to sit her on it and she climbed up me like a little monkey. Needless to say we guessed on the weight. She did surprisingly well with the doctor though. No cavities and everything looks great. But he did notice that she has two molars starting to come in in the back. Poor girl! Now she has 6 teeth coming in at the same time. No wonder she's so miserable.

He gave us the green light to go ahead and start using fluoride toothpaste because she has some white spots that he thinks will clear up once she starts using fluoride. Ava is excited about that because up till this point it has been off limits, only for Brookie. She is actually doing really well with it too. It's exciting for her because she gets to spit.

The picture shows Ava's funny personality. She was so excited to get her prize out of the treasure chest for being a big girl but when we got to the car and started to tell Daddy and Brooke about what a big girl she was, she had to be dramatic about the whole story. I love her. She keeps us laughing. There she is with her farm animals (the prize she picked), her new "Winnie the Poop" (that's what she calls Winnie the Pooh) toothbrush, and a pouty face. Gotta love her!

Day Nineteen

Actual date: Thursday, April 15, 2010

My Mother and Father in law came today! We've been waiting and so excited and they're finally here. I was feeling a little better on this day, still coughing pretty hard and my throat still hurt a little but I was excited that Jim and Marcia were here. And so were the kids. Here's Brookie and Grandpa Jim.

After dinner Brian went and got me some frozen yogurt because I was convinced that it would heal my sore throat. Couldn't hurt to try right? It was yummy regardless if it helped or not. I think Brooke's messy face and Marcia's empty bowl speaks as evidence to that.

Day Eighteen

Actual Day: Wednesday, April 14, 2010

On this day I was sicker than I remember being ever. I had not had more than 4 hours of sleep a night for at least 4 nights in a row at this point and I was starting to really feel it and the strep was in full force. On top of that I was coughing like crazing which was making me throw up and giving me a nasty headach. It was not my day. Luckily I have the best kids in the world so I was able to make it through the day until the afternoon when my amazing husband came home early to relieve me.

Day Seventeen

Actual date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010

This pretty much sums up my day. I went to the doctor and I indeed do had Strep throat. I was starting to feel it at that point as well. So between Ava and I we had a pharmacy of our own going on.

Day Sixteen

Actual Date: Monday, April 12, 2010

Just after midnight Ava woke up fussing. She is getting 4 teeth in right now so we figured that's what it was. Brian checked on her and said she felt a little warm, no doubt from the teeth trying to come through, so he gave her some Ibuprofen. At about 2:15 she woke up crying again so I checked on her. She felt really hot and she was shaking uncontrollably. I scooped her up and brought her in our room to take her temperature. It was 103.8* under the arm, without adding a degree or two (I have been told by three different doctors at three different times to a) don't add anything with an under the arm temp., b) add 1 degree to the under the arm temp., c) add two degrees to the under the arm temp.). Regardless, she was really hot and still shaking uncontrollably. I called the nurse advice line through our pediatrician while Brian undressed her so we could cool her off a little bit. We have to leave a message with the advice line and they will call back within a half hour...I'm not a fan of this, a lot can happen in a half an hour. So, we decided to give her a cool bath and give her some Tylenol and see if that helped. It didn't. By the time the nurse had called back, we were getting her dressed to take her to the hospital. She was shaking worse and the nurse said to go ahead and take her.

Luckily we live literally down the street from a hospital so we got there in less than 3 min. and they got her right in. The poor girl had an ear infection, probably a result of the Strep throat she had a few weeks ago. And on top of that she had pink eye in both eyes. I had known something was going on with her eyes because they were all green and buggery and her cousin that had been visiting had had to get eye drops for his eyes before he came out here. I had planned on calling the doctor first thing Monday morning but might as well get it taken care of since we were in the emergency room.

Finally her fever started to come down to a safe temperature and they gave her a shot of antibiotic to get her started. They wanted us to hang around for a half an hour so they could monitor her a little longer so I curled up on the bed with her and cuddled her. She was a little out of it because her fever, she kept cracking me up. She would sit up and say in a paranoid voice, "what's that sound? You hear that? Somebody is watching Berry-Cake!" Berry-Cake is what she calls Strawberry Short Cake, her favorite show. It was really cute.

After the half hour was up she was doing much better and they gave us our prescriptions and let us go home. I was amazed when I walked in the door at 4:05 a.m. We had left at 2:45 a.m. for the emergency room and we were there and back home in less than two hours! I love living in a small town. :o)

This was Ava and I Cuddled up in the hospital waiting for the doctor.
So what we had on our calender for Monday was dentist appointments for the kids and I. Obviously Ava was not in any shape to make hers so I called and rescheduled hers. I was still not feeling my best but I figured it was from not getting a great nights sleep and my allergies were still acting up. So I went ahead and went to my dentist appointment. After doing all my x rays and all that fun stuff the hygienist started doing her thing before the doctor came in, and she asked "have you been sick recently?" I told her well I am not feeling so hot but I was thinking it was my allergies...?... Then she told me that she thinks I have Strep throat because there are white patches all over my tonsils! Yikes! My throat hadn't been hurting at all! The hygienist was so sweet, she told me to hurry and get over to the doctor and maybe I'll catch it before it gets too bad. So I called to make an apt. but I couldn't get in until Tuesday.

I went home to get Brooke (Brian had to take the day off to help me watch the kids so I could go to the dentist) and take her to her dentist. He was really nice. He was from Cleburne and he had lived in Huntington Beach for awhile too. Small world! Brooke's visit went awesome. No cavities and everything looks great! Just look at those pearly whites.