Merry Christmas!

Baby Xavier is here!

My best friend, Shaina, is a mommy!! From the moment we met, I knew this was always one of her dreams. And she is one wonderful mom! The day after Thanksgiving she gave birth to a beautiful, 6lb 8oz little boy - Xavier James. His friends - Wade, Jake & Park - had been waiting FOREVER for him to arrive. :)


2 nights before he was born



Kissing Shaina's belly...  oops, close :)

Hanging in the waiting room

YAY!  He's here!!

Wade

Park & his"baby X"

I love him!!





Post Surgery

Thanks for all the prayers for Parker today!  This was definitely the easiest surgery we've been through so far.  Park has been running around the house all day like nothing happened.

I'll be honest.  When my alarm went off this morning at 5:45, I was not thinking nice thoughts about tear ducts in general.  But we made it to the Hamot Surgery Center by 6:30.  Park was so quiet on the ride there that I thought he had fallen back asleep...  until I hear him screaming "kismas lights!!!!" 

Wow.  Easy, morning person.

The actual surgery began around 7:30 and I was talking to the doctor by 8:00.  We decided right before to go ahead and do both eyes even though his right eye was a lot worse than his left.  So Dr. Sala reported that at this point both ducts are open.  The first thing he did was stick a wire down through the tear duct opening in his eye and another one up through his nose.  When they meet, he knows the tube is open.  Then he inserted the balloons to expand the tubes even futher.  After that he flushed a yellow tinted solution through the tubes to make sure he could see it drain out his nose.  Too many details?  Sorry :)

The doctor did mention that his right side was a little tricky - something about having to work his way around some bone - but that he was optimistic that this was going to work.  But then he started talking about the fact there's still other things that can be done if this doesn't work.  He wants us to wait 8-12 weeks before determining if this surgery did if fact fix the problem.  We're praying that it did!!

When I got to Park in the pediatric post-op area he was still asleep.  The nurse transfered him over to me and he slowly and easily woke up.  (SOOOO much easier than the tonsil surgery!!)  And then he looked up at me with blood streaming out of his eyes.  Yep, a little freaky!   After an hour in post-op they removed his IV and we were set to go. 

As soon as we got home he tried to climb up in his highchair while asking for oatmeal.  And since then he's been totally fine.  He has a runny nose, which is still coming out bloody, but other than that mess he's good!!!



right before they took him away!



posing post-surgery for me




again



cutest little hand





being silly!  see the bloody nose??



Back to the surgery center... again

On Friday we will be making our FOURTH trip to the Hamot Surgery Center.  Two surgeries for Jake and now two for Park!  The nurses are going to know us by name.

When Park was born his tear ducts never successfully opened on their own.  At 9 months he had a procedure done in the doctor's office where they probed both of his ducts in an attempt to get them to open - see that post here. 

There is a 90% success rate with the type of procedure that Park had done.  And for almost a whole year we thought we were in the clear, his eyes seemed fine!  Then he literally woke up one day and the tears were back.  Since he was 18 months at this point there was no more constant gunk, just constant tears in the one eye.

Because the probing was unsuccessful, our doctor recommended further surgical treatment.  A newer form of treatment is balloon catheter dilation, in which a balloon is inserted through an opening in the corner of the eye and into the tear duct. The balloon is inflated with a sterile solution to expand the tear duct. It is then deflated and removed. 

So that's what is going to happen on Friday!  It's a simple procedure but Park will be under general anesthesia, which he tolerated well when he got tubes in his ears.  Would you please help us cover him in prayer?



7 years, 9 months, 25 days

That's how long it had been since we'd seen our great friends Todd & Renee. The last time we saw them was on their wedding day!!   And now we've added 5 kiddos to the group.  We reconnected this summer but this last weekend we were finally able to get everyone together.  And it was so fun!  Todd & Renee are the type of friends who you can pick right up where you left off with - - we laughed the same way we used to in our little Broadwater apartments in Orlando!

We met at Mr. Kringle's in Tower City which is in downtown Cleveland.  Check out the pictures below...   such a fun place.  Can't wait to get together again!

Lab coats on - ready to go



Getting their imaginations going

Creating

Making snow

Professor Jake

Peyton, Jake, Wade, Campbell, Park

Renee, Todd, Colby, Kristen

Love laughing with these guys!!

Looking at the Christmas tree

Jake & Campbell

Happy Thanksgiving

This was a huge Thanksgiving in our house.  It was my first time ever making a turkey.

And I had absolutely no idea what to do.

I knew enough to know that I had to thaw the dumb thing. But I had to google how to properly make that happen. Google told me that I had to let it thaw slowly in the fridge. So Sunday I squeezed the huge thing in our refrigerator. By Tuesday it felt just as frozen to me as it had on Sunday. (It had been in my freezer for a complete year - that's okay, right?!) So I figured I'd let it sit out in the garage for a while on Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning, on my way to get out the door to take Jake to preschool, guess who greets us in the garage? The stupid turkey. I had totally forgotten about him. At this point he is clearly unfrozen. So I quickly stick him back in the fridge and tell no one.

So now it's finally Thursday. Thank the Lord above for Skype. Sitting on my counter? The bird and the computer... my mom walked me through the whole thing. And I'm happy to report that in cleaning out the insides I found ice! (Among other things. That nasty neck is another whole post.) I guess he didn't thaw out as much as I feared!

Here are a couple pics from our first little Thanksgiving at home.

Doesn't look bad, does it??

My boys.  My world.

They loved using the fancy glasses!

Sweetheart.

Me & little JD.

It's in the trash

 I remember the day...  it was in the early spring of 2005...  the day we bought the crib where we'd eventually put three of the most precious little boys down for each of their naps and to bed each night.

That scratched, floor model, generously discounted, now illegal drop side crib served us well. 

I (almost) shed a little tear when we put it on the curb.

One of Park's first naps in his new bed

Time to get up?

First he puts his paci away

Then he scoots down to the end of the bed

Ready?

Almost down

All done!

We've had tremendous success at transitioning the boys out of their cribs at an early age. (between 20-22 months)

Their bed is introduced to them as the place where they sleep and we never allow them to play on it. We've also always used a regular size twin bed, turned backwards into the corner, so that with the help of a rail they are completely boxed in. I ask Park each night when I put him to bed, "What do you yell in the morning when you wake up?" And he always answers me, "MOOOOOMMMMMYYY!" He is not allowed out of his bed until one of us comes to get him in the morning or after naps.  All three of our boys are vastly different but none of them ever got of their beds, ever.  I believe that if you train them young it's so much easier!! 

I'm curious, what worked for you??

Computer Problems

So my computer died. 

My wonderful husband is replacing my hard drive.

I'll be back soon!!