Bye Bye Baseball

Ready for a long post? Okay, the post won't be so long but there will be LOTS of pics! T-ball ended for both Kaden and Luke this past week. Neither are very happy that their season is over. They are already excited for next year! Kaden finished on Monday night. It was a gorgeous night and Daddy was able to be there for his last game! That was super exciting! Here's some pics of the fam waiting around for K's game. Gabriel was playing on the 'gate' to the park:

Daddy and Luke were playing catch:Josie was sitting in the grass and NOT enjoying it in the least!!!!!! Her face is so funny, huh?!:Here's a pic of Josie's incoming hair: (can you tell I am so excited about this?!)More of Gabes:Kaden scoring:Silly faced Josie during the game: More of Kaden (#10), he is such a happy guy! Here is a video of Luke. This was from Friday night and his infamous 8:35 game. We didn't get home until after 10 but it was a GREAT game! (just Mommy and Luke were at this one!) Luke was so happy. Watch and see why:

Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Mike and I bought a cute game for the kiddos last weekend. It's called "Don't Wake Hulk!" The premise is the characters are moving around Hulk's bedroom and if you wake him up, he'll be angry, and we all know you won't like him when he's angry! There is a button next to Hulk's bed that you have to push a certain number of times depending on what square of the game board you are on. Randomly Hulk will "wake up" and pop up in his bed. The kids LOVE it and even Gabriel is old enough to play (a big reason we got this game!) We have played it many times and I love to hear the kids laugh when Hulk springs up! I love the idea of a family game night and I pray this is something we can keep up as the kids get older.

Enchanting boys

I bought the Disney movie "Enchanted". It's so cute and fun! (and it stars Thad's friend, remember?!) The boys have only made it through the entire movie at one sitting once but there are a couple of parts we have watched probably around a hundred times. See for yourself:

Cardinal Fever

I have fallen behind again in my blogging, I've got to catch up the end of May before I get into the first of June here. This week is the kiddos last scheduled week of baseball, Kaden finished last night. I have adorable pics! I just don't want to blog everything in one day that way my faithful readers (you know the 3 of you!) can have something new to read everyday! :)

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Baseball season, as you know, is well underway and we are watching LOTS of Cardinals in this house. Admit it, STL fans, the Cards are doing much better then predicted this year. We just have to sit and wait for the collapse of the nasty cubs, it always happens...just wait for it.

Grandmom sent a package for the kiddos this past weekend. The boys were super excited to get new Cardinal clothes! There were books and a swimsuit for Josie (which I still haven't tried on her yet...there will certainly be photos of that!) Thanks Grandmom!

Gabriel says "It's Cardinals, Momma!" And I said "That's Fredbird on your shirt." He looks and says "No that's Cardinalbird on my shirt." He'll get there.And Ms. Josie got the biggest kick out of the post-it note name tags on the books. (sorry it's blurry)

Josie's Eval

Well another weekend came and went too quickly for me! It's amazing how that keeps happening...

On Thursday Josie was evaluated by SoonerStart. An Occupational Therapist and Child Development Specialist did a whole series of 'tests' on Josie to see where she fits on a general development scale. The ladies asked me questions "Is she generally happy?" "Does she cry when left with strangers?" "Does she help put her arms through her sleeves when getting her dressed?" etc, etc. Then they tested her cognitive level by hiding a toy underneath a cup to see if she could find it, asking her to bang toys together, seeing if she looked when her name was called, etc. They were here at the house for about an hour and half. This won't be a surprise to anyone who is around Josie but it was funny to hear the women say over and over again they were so excited to work with a baby who is so calm, happy, and cooperative. And they were here at nap time even! Josie was just perfect. At the end of it all, Josie is exactly where she should be in every category (adaptive, personal-social, communication, cognitive) EXCEPT for motor. Which is what we figured. As it turns out she is exactly 50% deficient in this category and so does qualify for help from SoonerStart. If she had scored one higher on anything she would not have qualified. The Occupational Therapist said that Josie's ankles turn out and that very well might be why she is not taking steps. Josie has to concentrate on using her whole body to stay balanced when she stands that she doesn't want to move her feet. She suggested we buy Josie some high top shoes to help those ankles stay straight. Also she did notice that Josie had some 'extra' flexibility in her hips but doesn't think it's cause for too much alarm. Something we will just watch. We are not supposed to let her sit in the "W" way with her knees bent and her feet behind her. They said not to tell her "no", or "don't do that", just to move her and tell her "sit pretty". We finish the evaluation part today when we go downtown for a hearing test. After that SoonerStart will come to the house (don't know how often yet) to work with Josie and try and get her walking!

This weekend the search for Josie's shoes commenced. I first went to the BX (store on the air force base), no luck. Kohl's--NO! Target--NO! JCPenney--kinda. They the expensive stride rite shoes but only in a size 3. Josie's feet are INCREDIBLY small, the size 3 was way too big but I went ahead and bought them so we could at least get her ankle support and because I couldn't find any other high tops period! Then yesterday at Wal-mart we found some size 2's that aren't too big. They had one pair in that size! So here is my sweet girl in her new shoes (that she is supposed to wear all the time!)

That is a hair picture for my Momma, see--it is coming in! :)

More flowers and news

Hello all! Thought I would send out a quick update and let you know how I am doing. I am recovering pretty well. I am all but back to normal. I did have a setback last night and had to take a percocet because my head was hurting quite a bit. Yesterday was my first day without a nap so I think that had something to do with the 'extra' pain. I went to bed at 9 and watched 2 episodes of "The Office", they made me laugh and I did feel better. My ear still bleeds just a little bit off and on, no biggee there. The worst part of all is that I have a metallic taste in my mouth and that SUCKS!!! (sorry Momma, but it's true!) It is there ALL the time, when I eat it is not so bad (that is good) but when I drink anything it's magnified!!! It's terrible! I can hardly stand soda and I LOVE my soda. What will I do without my Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke Zero?! Come to think of it...maybe my lack of caffeine is why my head hurt yesterday......what do you think? Yeah, probably the "drilled through the skull" thing. :)

On Tuesday I got some more flowers from my sweetie. He ordered them on Friday but they called and said they couldn't deliver because of Memorial Day. So Tuesday they came and they are gorgeous! And check out the card:

"No Fault Of The Sender". I think that's funny!

Today Josie has her appointment with the people from Sooner Start. It will be interesting to see what they have to say. I will give you a full report. Baseball is back in the swing. Luke has practice at 5:30 and Kaden a game at 6:15. T-ball runs until the middle of June or so depending on how many postseason tournaments the teams decide to play.

I am currently reading "Founding Mothers" by Cokie Roberts, all about the wives and women that played a pivotal role in the founding of our country. WOW! Pretty inspiring stuff in there. Those women were pretty remarkable. I cannot imagine living in those times and under those circumstances. Anyone interested in history should read this book.

Thanks again for the prayers, calls, and cards. I appreciate them all! Love to you!

Successful surgery

Friday was my surgery and all went well. It was a tad more interesting then I would have wanted but it was a success overall and that is what is important.

When the doc looked inside my ear he realized that I did in fact have the cholesteatoma (skin cyst) he thought I did NOT have. That changed the surgery completely and he celled Michael in the waiting room. At first he said they wouldn't be able to do the surgery at all but since I was "under" did Michael want him to do some exploring so they would know what kind of surgery they would have to do next time. Smart boy that he is allowed the doc to look around in there. They drilled through my skull behind my ear to get a better view. Not too long after that they called Michael again saying that they got the cholesteatoma out and my hearing bones all looked good. The doctor did notice some clear fluid around my hearing bones and they couldn't find a leak but went ahead and put some fat from my earlobe in there to fix a microscopic leak if there was one. He finished by fixing the hole in my eardrum with skin from behind my ear and it was over. It was a success. When I woke up from surgery the first thing I wanted to do was go to the bathroom. They had me walk there and it was quite a ways for anyone coming out of anesthesia. They left me in there alone and it's a miracle I didn't fall. On the way back I told them I was going to get sick and the nurse kept saying "you're almost there, you'll make it", I said "No, I'm sorry" and proceeded to throw up on the floor. Then someone held a trashcan underneath me so I was puking and saying "thank you". Turns out trash can man was my doc. They walked me the last 5 feet to the bed and he had me follow his finger with my eyes. He said my eyes jumped and so decided I would have to stay the night in the hospital. He thought maybe I was sick because of the clear fluid (which I am assuming was cerebral-spinal fluid--right my medically enhanced family members???) We waited for a room for about an hour and then they put me upstairs. I was a little relieved thinking I would get a good nights sleep but I forgot how much they come in while you are in the hospital, I was checked on over 20 times. I didn't get that much sleep at all. The doc had me on bed rest and so I was at a 40 degree angle all night long with the massage stockings to make sure I didn't get blood clots and I had to use a bed pan. UGH! That was pretty terrible. Thankfully it was just that one night. The kiddos and Michael came and picked me up outside of the hospital Saturday morning. The car ride made me VERY sick to my stomach and I spent much of the weekend in bed. But I think I deserved it! I am not in that much pain but once it starts hurting I take a pain pill. Michael thinks I was sleeping too much and wanted me to switch from the pain meds to Tylenol. I have done that but I don't know if the Tylenol is going to cut it just yet. I am trying though... And so now I just have to live with hardly any hearing out of my left ear because it is full of gel while it heals. I go back in the doc in a month for a check up. That's my news. Here are some pics from the hospital. I took these myself with my cell phone:

Here are my stitches behind my ear, I can't really see them. Michael called me Frankenstein but the pic doesn't look that bad I don't think. I still can't really see them!Oh yeah, and all that hair right there has glue in it. I don't know how in the world I am going to get that out. It feels gross and I don't like it, but I guess I will keep trying with each shower... And here are my beautiful flowers from Belva and James :) Thanks guys so much! They are GORGEOUS!Thanks for all the prayers, well-wishes, and phone calls. It meant a lot to me! Thanks to Kelly and Michael (her Michael) and my old-faithful Michelle for watching the kiddos on Friday for us. It was MUCH appreciated. We love you all!