Month 12, aka Her First Birthday

So. Here we are. THE day. My Piper, my last baby, turns 1. It's just so hard to believe that a year has passed since we were up and getting ready to head to the hospital for the c-section so we could see our Piper. This day, a year ago, is much different than today, but boy are we glad we walked through it.


Remember this? This was taken when my boy was just 3 (he seems so little here) and we were packing up to go home. Caleb loves his sister and they have, over the last year, reached a very comfortable point in their relationship. If Piper is grumpy and fussy, she will stop as soon as Caleb comes to her. All he has to do is talk to her and she smiles her sweet smile.
Caleb is also the one person who ilicits the most giggles from Piper. It seems that anything he does, she finds funny and amusing. It is very sweet to hear the laughs coming from the other room.

We have been told many, many times that Piper is just a sweet, happy, easy baby and nothing could be more true. This past week, Piper had her first experience at VBS and I was told, not only by her teachers, but also other teachers who happened to just see her that she was the only baby not crying or fussing about anything. She is just so content, well until she is hungry, but really who isn't upset when they are hungry. Piper loves to be on the go and while returning home is a joy for her, being out in public and looking at everything is her true joy. We have learned that we have to leave the house everyday so that Piper can get her fill. It seems that I have given birth to two kids who like to be out and about alot. No complaints here!

Piper started crawling last month, but she really perfected her skill this past one. During month 11, she would crawl on her hands and knees, but would revert back to her army crawl when she wanted to get somewhere fast. During the last 30 days, however, she has since decided that all 4 is the way to go and can go fast now. Sometimes, faster than I would like... I spend most of my days chasing her around, pulling things out of her mouth. Piper has the ability to spot the most minute speck on the floor and will promptly try to eat it. I know she'll stop doing this at some point, but until then we will battle over this little "habit" of hers!

Piper is also so close to walking. She will pull up on everything and will let go at times. She will stand there for just a second and then promptly falls on her backside. It's very cute, but she gets a little frustrated at times!

I can already tell that Piper is going to be my craftsy girl, thank goodness. I couldn't, and still can't, get Caleb to participate in crafts or art projects to save my life, so I was hoping that Piper would be the one. She seems to have taken an interest in coloring and drawing a lot younger than seems normal, well at least normal in our house. Here is a picture (of course) of Piper drawing for the first time.

This past Saturday, we had Piper's birthday party. This was nothing like Caleb's first birthday party, in that we just had a small, low key affair at my parent's house with just family. It really was so much fun and I would do it again this way, should I have the opportunity. A dear friend of mine made the tutu for Piper and she had to wear it. It's just precious, isn't it?

As you can see, we had so much fun with Piper and she had so much fun eating cake (well, icing really). Here she is just as the sugar rush started. I would almost (ALMOST!) like to give her more cake just to see this silly face again. However, the crash afterward is just not worth it!

Piper has always been very curious, but this past month she has earnestly started pointing at everything, wanting to know names of nearly every object she sees, whether she's seen it before or not. We are happy to oblige!

We have had such fun with Piper this past year and I really could never imagine how much joy she has brought to our lives. It was a difficult adjustment that was at times unbearably hard and unspeakably joyful all at the same time. However, we would do it again in a moment's notice. God knew exactly what he was doing by giving us Piper, a sweet, silly, pretty, prissy (at times), laid-back, baby girl who has completed our family and us.

Happy birthday baby girl! Your Mama and Daddy love you more that you (and we) could ever imagine. We can't wait to see all the exciting things that you will accomplish and fun we will have over the next years.

My Grandmother

So, I haven't posted about my grandmother in a good long time. It seems that the past few weeks have gone from bad to worse with regards to her health.
If you're not familiar with her history, here's the long and short of it. In September of 2007 she had a massive stroke where she ruptured a vessel on the right side of her brain, leaving her paralyzed on her left. We were told, that day, to call in our clergy and start making arrangements. She was not supposed to make it even to the end of the day. Defying all the odds, she completed a stay in the ICU and recovered more than we every expected to.
Shortly after, my grandmother was moved to an assisted living facility that we thought was top notch. We have since learned that no place is as good as they advertise themselves to be. In May of this year, my grandmother fell out of her wheelchair (fault of the facility for not having her strapped in and unattended) and broke her hip. Since her health is so poor, she was not a candidate for surgery and has had to live in constant severe pain ever since. Hospice was called in to help manage her pain medication, but we were warned that it (the meds) could lead to Congestive Heart Failure. And, it has. She has veen in and out of the hospital over and over again since then.
On Thursday of last week, my grandmother vomited and aspirated. She is now in the hospital with aspiration pneumonia, CHF, a blood clot from a PICC line, a massive UTI, all while in severe pain still. She is barely opening her eyes and is not communicating much, except to ask for someone to please help her and stop the pain. It's really a bad situation. We are all so tired of seeing her suffer and just tired. This stroke, the beginning of everything, has robbed her of her life and has trapped her inside a body that is slowly failing her. We are just praying that she'll be pain free and at peace. It's difficult beyond belief to watch a beloved family member suffer like this.

Where We've Been...

We've been quite busy around these parts with summer stuff and fun. Truth be told, I really haven't had much time nor the motivation. Here are a few pictures of the kids (what all of you really come here to see anyway) to hold everyone over until I get back in the swing of things.


Caleb and Piper are still the best of friends, playing together at every moment, even meal time.

Caleb also just started swim lessons with our friend, Ms. Jen. He is really doing quite well, putting his face in the water at his first lesson and has a killer kick. He loves going and if it weren't for VBS the week after next we might have a serious issue with not having somewhere to go in the morning like we have been.

Piper's taken up a new hobby now too: drawing. Here's her crafting her very first picture.

And this is Caleb's interpretation of me. I'm not too keen on the hair, but love the figure! :)

Here's Piper in her big floppy hat. We had a nice conversation about how good Southern girls wear their hats in the sun to protect their milky white skin, all in the effort to try to get her to keep it on so she doesn't get sunburned. It worked. For about 5 minutes.

Month 11

This month, Piper officially reached the 11 month mark. It seems that every month when I go to write these monthly update, in my mind she hasn't changed much, but as I go back and read about her the month before it becomes very clear that she's learning more everyday!

In my last monthly post, I talked a lot about Piper's hair. You will just have to excuse that, but I was SO excited about having some hair to work with and it just seems to keep coming. Neither one of our children has Jes's hair, very, very thick and very, very dark. Mine is quite fine, but there's lots of it and a medium color. Caleb is this way and Piper is turning out to be this way too. As you can see she's had more come in and I can now just stick a bow in and it will stay!

As always, Piper is still just the happiest baby ever! The nursery workers at church and MOPS always marvel at how easily she transitions into her classrooms, when most of her peers are crying. I know that my time is coming, but if she is anything like her brother, it will be short lived. Thankfully, Piper is just a laid back and easy going as her sibling.

Some of the biggest news in our household are those two little white things that you see in Piper's mouth. In my 10 month update, I mentioned that her first tooth had finally broken through, but at that point it was only one and we couldn't yet see it. Well, now she's got both of her front central incisors and she loves them, exercising them on anything that gets near them. She has already used them on yummy snacks, but also various fingers and, more recently, my nose. They work fine, friends.

In health news, Piper has had this chronic cough that I have been trying to convince her doctors is related to allergies. It seemed completely plausible to both myself and Jes that she would inherit our allergies, especially with her birth happening right before some of the worst pollen counts that our area has seen in recent years. However, each and every doctor kept telling me that she was just too young to have allergies, to which I always replied, "bull". This past month I finally conviced the kids' pulmonologist to give us a trial run of an allergy nose spray for Piper, before we had to go through a bunch of expensive imaging of her airways. Well, the verdict? It worked. No more cough, no more snot, no more sneezing. Seems I was right. Again. Doctors: LISTEN TO THE MOTHERS! Ok, enough.

Piper has also learned to clap and wave bye bye this month as well. If there is clapping going on, she will clap, but will also do it if you say, "yay, Piper" to her. She smiles the biggest smile and will clap! When she waves, she does so with both hands facing toward her. It's just about the cutest thing I've seen!

This past month, we were invited to my mom's new company's picnic. The weather was fabulous, the food was even better and the company was the best. Piper really likes being outdoors, which is perfectly fine with us, as we don't like being cooped up in the house so much either. It will get easier when she can walk, but for now her ride is the stroller,

or her doting Daddy.

So, I don't think that I have mentioned in the past about Piper's deep and abiding hatred for dolls. This began at a very, very early age when my mom and I gave her a basic doll and she began attacking it. Piper would scream, yell, bite, hit, poke, throw, and get so mad at the doll that we would have to take it away from her and physically restrain her to calm her down. She has not only done this with us, but also at church and at MOPS and everyone has commented on this. I have tried to introduce this doll in the picture to her little by little and now she plays with it more than she attacks it. Hopefully, by this time next month she won't be so aggressive toward the poor defenseless doll, but it sure is funny and a good giggle for her Mama!

This past month Piper has finally mastered the art of crawling. She will get on all fours and crawl when she is trying to get somewhere, but will revert back to the army crawl when she's in a real hurry. Here she has discovered another use for her ExerSaucer, climbing underneath it over and over. Thank you Graco for a dual use toy!

I took Piper for her first swim this month as well. We are so blessed to have a community pool in our subdivision and it's just down the street so we can well! As you can tell she feel so pretty in her new swimsuit. I hope that when she's my age she feels this good in one too!

I invited 2 of my best mom friends to come to the pool with us and both kiddos were SO excited! Between the 3 of us, we had 5 kids, totally manageable, and so much fun!

I went out and bought Piper this new float for her to ride in in the pool. I really wanted to have a float that had a shade attached to it and found this adorable turtle one at WalMart! If you look you can see that her hands are sitting in a little pool built into the front of the float. This is meant to hold a little bit of water for the kiddo to splash around in while floating. Well, our little girl decided to put her face in the water too. I predict that she'll be an easy one to teach to swim!

Swimming was so much fun, but wore Piper out so much! This is a picture of her passed out in her stroller. What I didn't get a photo of was her asleep in the float as she glided along on the water. It was so relaxing for her that we'll be sure to get back to the pool soon!

I had to get a picture of her pruney little feet... So cute!

Another huge thing that Piper is doing in our house is sleeping in her own bed! Now, she's never been like her brother, sleeping in our bed, but really just craves her own space, sleeping in a Pack 'n Play next to our bed. We decided to try her in her crib early in May, expecting a fight, as we had with her brother. However, Piper proved us wrong and has slept all night long ever since! Praise the Lord!

Lastly, Piper is officially pulling up on everything and is cruising around all the furniture. Now that she's able to get up and reach things that are higher than the floor, we are constantly chasing her around trying to get whatever she has grabbed and absconded with from her. Most often it's a piece of paper, a cell phone, or a remote that she doesn't want to give up. Sometimes I just let her have whatever it is she's after, because, really, who can resist that face?!

Conversations with Caleb- a double edition

Setting: sitting in the stall at Sonic drinking our Happy Hour drinks while I give Piper a bottle.

Caleb: Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama (evidently I don't answer quick enough)

Me: Yes, Caleb

Caleb: Can you get my Nemo ball?

Me: Caleb, I can't reach it. You'll have to wait until we get home (it's in the far back corner of my SUV, no way I can get it).

Caleb: Oh, come on now. You know you can do it! (said with a huge smile on his face!)

Who knew I had such a motivator on my hands!
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Setting: in the car on our way to some event. Hm, there seems to be some sort of pattern here. We are ALWAYS in the car, it seems!

Caleb: I have brown eyes.

Me: Yes you do. What color are Daddy's eyes?

Caleb: Brown, just like mine.

Me: Yep, that's right. What color are mine and Piper's eyes?

Caleb: Angel. You have angel eyes, just like Piper.

Awwwww. (I know he's meaning hazel, but it's still sweet even if it's not on purpose!)

Conversations with Piper

Piper: Dee, doot, boop, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (think high pitched squeal)

Me: ...

Piper: Dat? (pointing to shoe)

Me: Shoe.

Piper: Dat?

Me: Shoe.

Piper: Dat?

Me: Shoe.

etc. etc.

Evidently, the 4 year old in our house isn't the only one with all the questions.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just over 5 years ago, this little boy made me a Mama.

He brought so much joy and laughter to our lives that I never thought I could ever love another child...

...nearly as much as I loved him.

Then we went and made him a big brother,

and got this little love bug, whom I can hardly imagine my life without.

Boy, am I grateful for these two! Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Conclusion?

On Tuesday, I had to pack up the kiddos and travel up to our local special education office to sign off on Caleb's ARD papers stating that he doesn't qualify for any services. If you don't remember what has all happened to get us to this point, here's a brief run down in my favorite of forms, bullets:

• October 08- I got a phone call from the Mother's Day Out program that Caleb had been enrolled in for 3 years stating that he was having some significant difficulties and would I come to the school for a parent/teacher conference. I had a very difficult meeting with Caleb's teacher in which some very terrible problems were insinuated to be the problem and we were told to get him tested.
• Late October 08- I was able to get Caleb an appointment with the special education department in our school district for some testing that was suggested. During this time period, I had been pulled aside by 2 more of Caleb's teachers (not from the Mother's Day Out program, just teachers from church) to tell me that they also thought something was "wrong with him". One actually told me they thought he was disabled...
• November 08- We had our first appointment with the special ed department and it was determined that his major issue at the time that needed to be evaluated was most likely speech related. We decided to test his speech first and see if that would be an easily correctable issue.
• Late November 08- Caleb had an in-class observation by one of the professionals, not a psychologist or speech pathologist, from the special ed department.
• December 08- Caleb failed his hearing test that was completed by the special ed department and also failed subsequent hearing tests done by our ENT. After examination, it was determined that he had fluid in his ears, which had been a chronic, but transient issue, so tubes were recommended. We agreed.
• December 15, 08- Caleb had his tube surgery and we saw results within days. We probably would have seen results sooner had the whole family not have come down with the stomach virus of death. Seriously, it's hard to pay attention to how much you or your child can or cannot hear when its all you can do to retain your bodily fluids in the compartments in which they belong.
• December 08 (post surgery)- Caleb failed his post surgery hearing test that was conducted by a brand new, not yet licensed audiologist. Later we found out that his test was one of her first, so who knows what would have happened had we had a more trained individual. We were told Caleb would need a sedated ABR, a test in which he would be put under anesthesia to have his cochlear nerve (the one that transmits that signals for hearing to the brain) tested. We were referred to a pediatric ENT for just that test.
• December 08- The pediatric ENT spent 5 minutes with Caleb and determined that his speech was too good for a kid who couldn't hear. He wanted his audiologist to test his hearing and Caleb passed. He was given a clean bill of health and we were sent on our way.
• December 08- Caleb never went back to his Mother's Day Out class. We had decided to pull him out, due to his behavior issues that no other person had experienced with him. We were sad, but we are convinced that the stomach bug of death was God's way of protecting his little feelings by having to go back to class, knowing he wouldn't return again.
• January 09- Caleb had his speech evaluation with the speech pathologist, which he passed. Surprise, surprise. I was told at this meeting that Caleb's observation was fine and he did not exhibit any of the behaviors that were expressed by his teachers. I would find out later that this was not true.
• January 09-March 09- I fielded phone call after phone call from special ed psychologists who wanted to evaluate Caleb's behavior with the sole purpose of putting some diagnosis on him. It wasn't until I finally told them that we were not interested in them diagnosing our son with a condition he did not have that they stopped calling and backed off. It was at some point during this time that I was told that Caleb did in fact show some of the behaviors that his teachers were so concerned about. However, I was given no specifics and just assumed that I would get the report at some point in time.
• April 09- I received a phone call from the speech pathologist stating that she finally finished up Caleb's report and wanted to email me a copy. This report contained the observation notes as well and reading it made me sick. I truely had no idea exactly what was happening until I read about it from a 3rd party's perspective. The way it is written makes my son sound like he's seriously delayed and completely autistic, which we know is not the case. The opinion in the report is completely skewed and is obviously written from the point of view of looking for something wrong instead of just observing. Not cool.
• May 09- I went in and signed the papers stating that Caleb did not qualify for services at that time. The speech pathologist asked me about his behaviors and said that if we every wanted to test him in that regard then to just call. Then she said the following,"Caleb does not qualify for any speech services, however I am still very concerned over his lack of eye contact." Hm. She spoke directly to Caleb only two times with the first being while he was climbing a flight of stairs while looking for me and second while he was working puzzles. She was also concerned that when asked what his sister's name was, he responded, "Piper, P-I-P-E-R", spelling it out. If she would have asked, I would have told her that he does that because we do that. Most of the time people do not know what we are saying when we say Piper's name, so we spell it.

All in all, I'm glad that this whole disaster of an issue is done. Is this the conclusion to all this? I certainly hope so. This ball has been dropped too many times by too many "professionals" and assumptions have been made all over the place about my boy. I hope it's over.

Month 10

So, here we are again. Yet another monthly post on how big my baby is getting.

This past month has been, I think, my favorite. Piper has made some huge leaps in her development, particularly motor wise, in the past month. I'll get to that later, first we have to cover the big holiday that happened since I did this last.

This was Piper's very first Easter. In our house, Easter is a big deal, seeing that it is really THE holiday of our faith and the fact that it is my favorite. Some friends of ours host an Easter egg hunt every year for all the kids and this year Piper was able to participate. I guess, technically, she did last year too since I WAS great with child, her.

Some of my mommy friend were questioning this past Easter on the whole Easter basket/Bunny or no Easter basket/Bunny. We don't talk about the Easter Bunny in our house, much like we don't discuss Santa, but the Easter baskets are so fun and really just another way for me to give fun things to the kids. Here's Piper with her swag. In my defense, it really looks like I went WAY overboard in this picture regarding all that she got, but that basket is SO small and all that is in it is a toy that attaches to her stroller tray, a pair of shoes and some hair clips. That's all I could fit in it, so the Little People Zoo and cart cover had to sit in the couch. See, I don't just get frivilous stuff, some of it's useful!

Oh, and yes, this is yet another picture of my precious daughter in her brother's old pajamas. We're in a recession here people. If it fits her, she wears it... Just not in public!

Here's Piper in her fancy Easter dress, complete with bow that she insisted on taking off at random times and waving it around at me. She likes to have her hair "done", but I think she's quickly losing patience with the head bands. As I heard a very wise woman say once, "It is a hill that I'm willing to die on" and she will wear the headbands!

Piper took her very first ride in the cart (with the afore mentioned cover, of course) at our beloved Sprouts. She had the best time bouncing up and down, swinging her little feet and just looking around at all the fun stuff to grab! Now that she's able to ride up front, and really should be out of her carrier when we are shopping, I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do when I have to shop with both she and Caleb. I guess he'll be relegated to the large part of the cart with the groceries!

This has been a month of change, healthwise, for our little P. If you remember, Piper had the flu back in February and has had some significant coughing ever since. She was put on a couple of rounds of antibiotics that should have cleared anything bacterial in nature, but was still coughing. While we were at her brother's pulmonologist check up, the respiratory therapist took a listen to her and heard her wheeze. They, obviously, squeezed her in right then and there. A couple of days prior to this, Piper's pediatrician put her on a reflux med to see if it would clear, but the pulmonologist wanted to see how she was swallowing to rule out that issue, since her brother had significant issues in that area.

I was very concerned, not about the test, but about the demeanor of our little diva. Piper rarely cried, except when she is hungry. Did I forget to mention that she could not have anything to eat that morning? Oh, and her test wasn't until 11:30. Despite all this, P was so happy and just charmed everyone we came into contact with over and over again. This picture is her in the therapy chair waiting for the test to begin, playing.

The swallow study was normal, but the doctor did see some reflux, so we'll have to reevaluate with the pulmonologist in a couple of weeks.

Here's Caleb trying to listen to her heart. Notice the perfect placement of the stethoscope. Think we do this much?

This past month I realized that Piper's hair is in the in between stage. It is really too long the way that it is, but to cut it would make her look like she's a boy. So, my solution? I started putting it into a water spout. Her hair is pretty straight and fine, so it just sticks right up in the air like this. It's silly looking (well that and the tuft of bangs in the front that are just too short), but it just makes her all the cuter.

Last month, I mentioned how Piper was starting to get in the position to crawl and made the prediction that she would have it mastered by the end of the month. I am happy to announce that my prediction was half right. She has very much mastered the army crawl, but just isn't really into perfecting the crawl on all fours type. She gets around quickly, to fast in my opinion, with the army crawl. Many times I have come around the corner and have had to ask Caleb where she went. I often find her in the cat food or under the dining room table and have to extricate her from whatever situation she has seemed to find herself in.

Here's P perfecting her Longhorn look. You know I HAD to go there!

As you can see in the above picture, Piper has started standing. She cannot necessarily pull herself up in this position anywhere but in her crib, but if you place her standing up, she will stay that way. I think that she's going to start cruising around just as soon as she's able to get all the way up on her feet. Right now, she gets her upper body up but her feet are so far away from her that she's at a perfect 45 degree angle. I have to laugh when she gets stuck, but it SO frustrates her!

Piper has also experienced an explosion in her vocabulary this past month. She has been able to say Mama, Dada and Baba (brother) for awhile now, but she has added Dat (that?), Babe (baby), and Me to her list of words. She is also proving to be somewhat decisive lately. When I'm feeding her carrots or peas and carrots (the real thing, not the baby food mush), she loves to stick out her pudgy little first finger and point to the next veggie that she wants. I, of course, oblige, but Jes swears that I'm spoiling her. I just figure that she's a girl who knows what she wants!

It's taken a couple of months, but Piper's first tooth popped through in the last 30 days. The tooth hasn't grown up enough that an average person would notice it, but I can see it and am slightly sad that her gummy smile will be gone soon. I just love that smile with the 2 bottom teeth peaking out too!

I got brave one day and decided to give Caleb and Piper a bath one day and thought it would sure be much easier if I could do them both at the same time. Piper is sitting up very well and has outgrown her infant bathtub so I decided to give them their very first tandem bath. As you can see Piper loved the water and Caleb had a great time pouring water over her head using the washrag.

It's been a really great month and Piper is just the sweetest little girl! We can't wait to see what next month brings!

Conversations with Caleb - The Teenage Edition

So, around our house we have been teaching Caleb that saying yes ma'am/sir is the correct response to a request from a person who is older than/in charge of him. Here is the actual conversation from this morning, oh wait, this can be applied to most requests we make of him:

Me: Caleb please go _________ (fill in the blank)

Caleb: O-KAY !(imagine the way you, at the age of 15 or 16, responded to your mom or dad when they asked you to do something )

Me: Um, excuse me??? (trying to get him to use yes ma'am)

Caleb: Al-RIGHT!

Me: "the look"

Caleb: (in a very meek voice) Yes Ma'am.

I have a 15 year old trapped in a 4 year old body. Somebody help me.

Update- In Other Words A Post In Which I Have No Idea For a Title

So, I've been SO bad about updating lately. Here is the latest in bullet form (ie the lazy way out):

• Piper's swallow study came back normal. She had a few penetrations, where the thinnest fluid started to enter her airway but she cleared them herself, but they were ok with that and she was cleared to consume anything and everything in every thickness/thiness.
• Piper has reached some amazing milestones this past month that I will not divulge now as her 10 month post is coming up very soon.
• I have been working a lot and like every semester, we are deep into the most busy time of the semester where students are finishing up last minute work and taking tests and finals. This just means more grading for me. Last night I returned a 5 inch pile of papers back to my students and came home with a 7 inch pile. (Evidently I have a little time if I'm measuring the height of my work to be done.)
• Caleb has been doing well and we are working on getting him signed up for fun stuff for the summer. I am really excited about summer starting and all the fun we will have.
• I have also been doing a lot of MOPS stuff lately as well as we are wrapping up the semester and year and are all changing roles. I have decided to step out of the creative activities coordinator role in favor of membership coordinator. I just had to take a hard and close look at how my current role in MOPS is affecting both myself and my family and I decided that with the coming year and new responsibilities, I needed a job that was more administrative in nature.
• Jes and I were in freak out mode for quite a few weeks there, most of the reason for my lack of posting. It's really hard to "get it together" and complete a post about whatever when you are worried about something big. What it boiled down to was my employment for the summer and whether or not I would have anything at all. While this may not seem like a huge deal, it really is vital to the structuring of our finances for the whole year. Whatever I make in the summer goes right into savings as there are months where I am working, but am not getting paid. It's strange, but it's just the way the system is set up. We just have to be prepared, so summer does that for me. True to form, at the last minute 2 classes (exactly what I needed) came up, with a little rearranging of the schedule, and they were mine.
• Jes and I are also working on our vacation. What I haven't told you about our trip? Ok, here goes. We are going to California, LA area, for a family reunion and heading to Disney Land while we are there. Then we are driving up to Oregon to spend about a week with Jes's parents there. Oh, wait, we're driving all of this too. With both kids. Yes, I know we're slightly out of our minds, but we are both trying to be optimistic and are actually looking forward to seeing DFW in our rearview mirror and the adventures that we will encounter (within reason, of course!). We leave the middle of July, but I will be working right up until the day so we're trying to get our ducks in a row before then.

Hm, I guess that's it. Oh and my last post about Stellan, he was discharged and is on his way home to his big brothers, sister and daddy as we speak! I'll be back in the next day or two with Piper's 10 month post. Sniff.

Stellan

This is Stellan. No, I don't know him personally, but I have been keeping up with his mom's blog over at mycharmingkids.net. Right this very moment he is have a procedure on his heart called ablation, basically where they go in and destroy one or more electrical pathways in order to correct a dangerous heart arrythmia. He is not much younger than my P, and this surgery comes with extreme risks, but we all know that we serve a mighty God who will protect Stellan.
Pray with me today for Stellan.

So I Was SO Wrong!

All that talk in the last post about teething and the symptoms thereof was wrong. On Tuesday morning Piper was doing her normal coughing routine to get herself all clear when I noticed that she was coughing a little too much and a little too hard for my tastes. She coughed so hard that she actually turned herself purple and lost her breath, so that was my breaking point. I picked up the phone and called our trusty pulmonologist and they were able to get us in that afternoon for an appointment.
It turns out that our girl had bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small airways. This is not an uncommon issue for kiddos, especially ours who tend to have respiratory issues anyway, but not something that I wanted to have to deal with last week, especially since she was scheduled for her swallow study later in the week.
Oh, wait, I haven't mentioned her swallow study yet, have I? Hm.
Her test was scheduled for early Thursday afternoon, but the pulmonologist told us to reschedule if the steroids that he gave Piper didn't clear it up significantly by Wednesday night or Thursday morning. So, reschedule we did.
She's having her test this Wednesday at 1pm, if she stays well. I'm not exactly sure what we're hoping for at this point because the doctor told us that if it comes back negative then he will want to scope her airway. I'm not too keen on this step yet, so I'm not sure what to wish for here. I think we just want her to get over this hump and get well for good.
So, that's where I've been.

Of Mobility and Teeth

So, this sweet little munchkin has been keeping us up nights for the past few days and it's not appearing to improve. The problem? She's trying SO hard to crawl and those first bottom oh so cute teeth are trying to break through. She will be asleep and wake up on all fours which makes her mad. It's almost as if her brain is still trying to work out how to do it, even when she's sleeping. And the teeth, oh the teeth. She has had diarrhea, which I thought was from a new reflux med we just started, and therefore a bad diaper rash, a very stuffy nose and the cough that comes along with the drainage. The poor thing is just miserable, so you may not hear from me here for a couple of days. Not that I was all that reliable about updating.

By the way, am I the only one who thinks that she's just the cutest thing ever?

Deep Breaths...

Today the pulmonologist told me that he wanted to perform a swallow study on Piper. It was at this exact age that we had a swallow study done on Caleb and we started down the long road of health issues that came with his severe aspiration issues.
I'm trying not to freak out.
I'm taking very deep breaths.
I can't do this again with my girl,
but I will if I have to.

I'm Not So Sure I Handled That the Right Way.

I hesistate to write this because it is still so fresh and literally made me ill, but I have to get it out. Just bear with me...
Last night we went to our friend's house for their annual Easter extravaganza. We have been to these friend's house mutiple times and Caleb LOVES playing with their two youngest boys, who are near his age.
These friends of ours also have a son who is nearly 2 years older than Caleb, therefore his friends that come over during these parties are sometimes up to 4 years older than our son. Last night, while we were all sitting around waiting for the fun to begin, I heard Caleb screaming this blood curdling scream that he only reserves for times of real hurt. I, of course, hurtled up the stairs, ready to discipline, if necessary, Caleb to end the situation. I was raised that if you are in someone elses house, their rules reign supreme, so I have always erred on the side of my son being wrong unless proven right. Does that even make an sense?
Anyway, once I got up the stairs, I encountered all the older boys, aged 6-8, standing around Caleb, whom they had backed into a corner, kicking and poking at him. My mother claws came out and as I asked what was going on, one of the boys got in my face and yelled at me.
Yes, that's right, he, a 6, 7 or 8 year old, yelled at me, a 31 year old mother of two. If he were mine, I would have tanned his little hide right then, but he happened to be the child of our friends, so I did nothing.
Instead, I grabbed Caleb and took him downstairs where he was perfectly happy to hang with Jes, Piper and I and play with a toy that we swiped from the toy room.
Just typing this story out is making me nauseous and my heart rate has increased at least two fold. However, this is not where the story ends.
A little later we gathered all the kids up to go do the Easter egg hunt. The general rule is that the older kids, 5 and up, go in the back yard and the youngers go in the front. Thankfully, Caleb was assigned the front yard, so I thought we would be able to avoid the boys who were bullying him.
While we were waiting, the child of our friends started hitting and kicking Caleb when he turned on the light in the area of the house that we were all gathered in. Granted, Caleb was not supposed to do this, but all the other kids had and this child had not responded to them as such. I was so ill from the situation that had occured not 15 minutes before hand that I looked him in the eye and asked him if I needed to have a discussion with his mother. He quickly decided that he didn't want that to happen and stopped, but I was ready to leave right then and there.
My friend was not privy to this whole situation and I didn't feel it was my place to bring it up at her party. However, this is the same boy that I witnessed flip his mother off in a crowded bowling alley a couple of weeks ago and my sweet friend did nothing.
Just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.
I am not judging my friend's mothering, as I know that any of our kids could do this, falling prey to the bad influences of the world, but I don't have to let my kid be affected by it.
In all honesty, I wanted to throttle that kid, all of them in fact. I know that a little of this is somewhat normal for kids to experience, but a group of 8 year olds bullying a barely 4 year old? What exactly have our kids been taught? Why is it that parents think this is ok (I failed to mention that another mom was upstairs, witnessed the whole pinning in the corner, and just smiled at her son while he kicked mine)? I don't think that boys will be boys, I think that parents need to be parents and teach their boys that that is not acceptable behavior.
Ok. I'll end my rant there. Tell me, though, do you think that I should have handled this any differently? Have any of y'all experienced this type of thing? What did you do?

Month 9

Please make these posts stop! My baby girl, my last baby, is 9 months old now. I just am having such a hard time wrapping my head around this, but I guess I have to just be ok with it.

I took Piper to the doctor this morning for her 9 month appointment and here are her stats:

Weight: 20lb 13oz (looking like we need to go ahead and get that new car seat REAL soon.)

Length: 29in

Head: 18.5in (she's got her Mama's head. No hats for her!)

Isn't this the cutest little girl you've ever seen??? I'm a little biased, but I think so.

Piper is still just as good natured as she's always been, but this past month, she has been so much fun. Even though her first word was spoken a couple of months ago, Piper really started babbling this month and just talks up a storm. We are constantly hearing "Mama, Dada, Baba, Nana" etc. It's really very sweet and I love to hear the words.

The fun between Caleb and Piper still continues, but each month that Piper matures, the two of them are able to play together even more. Piper has developed a love for Caleb's toys, particularly his cars. There are a set of cars that Caleb has and still plays with on a regular basis that she is just fascinated with. She loves to, of course, stick them in her mouth, but also play with the wheels. There is just something about those wheels going around that she loves to watch.

This month, Piper's sleep cycle has deteriorated drastically. I've heard something of a sleep regression that occurs around 8 to 9 months and we are dealing with that now. While she does still take naps, those have also decreased in time, for whatever reason. We are working hard on trying to reestablish the great sleeping habits that she developed prior to this age.

This month, Piper also perfected sitting without assistance. This past month, we have finally reached the point where we are confident that if we set her on the floor, she will stay sitting up. Piper rarely falls over anymore and will put herself on her tummy or back only when she chooses to. Piper is still not crawling at this point, but is really trying to get there. She can pull herself toward something and can push to get somewhere, but the actual getting on her hands and knees seems to allude her at this point. She's getting pretty close to achieving the all fours position, but honestly I'm not pushing it right now. Just the thought of two little beings being freely mobile frightens me a bit, so I'm perfectly ok with her not crawling yet.

Piper is super curious and love to look around and be held. We are going through a major case of stranger anxiety and she flips out whenever I leave the room. Piper is a very cuddly and lovy baby and just wants to be held and carried around as much as possible and, frankly, I'm happy to comply. I've become quite proficient at doing most everything with one hand and you will most often find me carrying Piper around while doing household chores at the same time. I will, on occasion, put her in her sling to give me another hand while working, but she loses patience with that pretty quickly and prefers me to not use it.

This has been a very fun month and we are so excited about what is to come. Piper is still a very easy baby, just going with the flow and loving being with her family and the feeling is mutual!