Never again

Note to self. One baby with GERD is enough to completely cure me of any future baby fever. I never knew how miserable it could be having a GERDling. God has given me a new level of compassion for anyone going through physical problems with a child. I thought we went through a lot with Blake, well this takes the cake. So much harder. Just needed a place to empty my brain for a few minutes.

Sprinkles and Shopping

Ava won the coloring contest at Wal-Mart  back in March. She won a whole Easter basket full of really yucky candy. Stuff that I just couldn't bring myself to let her have. She did have some of it, but there was a bunch of stuff that this semi-crunchy mama just couldn't do. So we made a bargain that she was thrilled about. I would take her out for ice cream. We went tonight to The Big Dipper and she got her cone with sprinkles. The sprinkles were a very important factor in this bargain! Then we went shopping. I really had a good time just spending time with just her. One thing is true- she talks a lot! I love this little girl!

Tadpoles

I took the kids for a walk a few weeks ago and we found a bunch of tadpoles in a puddle next to the road. They had so much fun watching them and of course wanted to bring some home with us. So I let them put a bunch in our water jug and we brought them home. Erik took the kids back to the mud puddle a few days later and got a bunch more. We filled 2 saucer sleds with some water, gravel, and clumps of sod and put the tadpoles in them. Several have died but most of them have lived. It has been fun watching them transform into little toads. 

Campfire

A friend of mine has encouraged me to get back into writing so I'm going to give it another go. Life has been so difficult the past 7 months! Evelyn. That's all I need to say!

Today was a good day! She actually ate several times throughout the day while awake, with minimal convincing! I'm still in shock. It's been almost 4 weeks of feeding refusal again and I think today was finally a turning point. She has been on her new medication (Lansoprazole) for 9 days now. I think it's starting to work! I was terrified to put her on it. TERRIFIED! But I have exhausted all alternative treatments and nothing else is working. We have tried: chiropractic care, muscle testing, Total Elimination Diets, homeopathics, probiotics, prebiotics, Mylanta, Zantac, I think we've tried it all. And my baby was still not eating unless she was asleep. Finally I broke down and went to the doctor and asked for a PPI. It sat in my fridge for a week before I couldn't handle life the way it was for one more minute. I had to give the scary PPI a try. We are on day 9 and I don't want to jinx us, but I think it's kicking in. She is eating!

Life for everyone has been on hold now for 4 weeks because of this feeding aversion. My life has been completely consumed by trying to feed her, pumping when she won't eat, and trying to bottle or dropper feed her. When I'm not trying to feed her I'm reading about what to do to help her. My other three kids, I feel so bad for them. They've been lost in the shuffle for too long. I just couldn't handle anymore and so they've been watching movie after movie for weeks now. Finally today I was able to spend quality time with them. Oh how I've missed them. I took them to the playground and played with them for well over an hour. They are so sweet! I'm so excited to have our life back. I hope and pray that this continues.

There is one lesson I'm really learning through this; take advantage of every day you have with your family. Don't assume you will have one more day to do that fun thing, or to make that memory with them. DO IT TODAY! I was not intentional about building memories and having fun with my children. Until the time came that I couldn't. I mean I absolutely could not spend time with them for 4 weeks in a row. I have missed my 3 other kids so much these past 4 weeks. I am determined to make it a point every day to have fun in some way with my kids. Laugh with them, sit and talk with them, play a game of Operation or Candy Land, take a walk, do whatever, do something. When something is taken away from you it really makes you realize how blessed you were and how easy it is to take things for granted.

Tonight we had a camp fire in the back yard. We have had s'more stuff sitting in the cupboard for over a week now just waiting for that perfect night to use them. The kids keep begging for a camp fire. We keep saying not tonight; it's too cold, it's too late, we're too tired, we have to get up early, it wasn't a good day, etc. Well, tonight we had a campfire! I don't care anymore if it's not the perfect scenario. We just need to do it! The kids had a blast. We spent an evening of quiet time just being with each other. Then they were off to bed by 9 pm. I put Evie down for bed and now it's my turn for some 'me time'. 

Closing a Chapter

Blake had his last appointment with his urologist, Dr. Hollowell, this spring. This was in April and when we were there she told us that she was retiring in May. I'm so grateful for having such a great doctor. After interviewing a few different doctors in NYC we knew that Dr. Hollowell was the doctor for Blake. I'm so glad that she was in Albany and not NYC, the train rides and subways would not have been where I wanted to be going all the time for his appointments. And I cannot even imagine having to deal with all of that 3 days after a major surgery with a 13 month old. The poor little guy was so miserable I can't imagine. And then because he did so poorly getting back on track after the surgery he had to be readmitted after we were home for a day. He couldn't keep anything down and refused to eat and fluids were critical for proper healing of his bladder. Two years after surgery he has not had a single problem and has been given a good report for his last follow-up visit. His left kidney will never heal from the damage but we are thankful that there was no damage to his right kidney. He should be monitored throughout life for blood pressure problems but other than that he should not be affected from this almost dead kidney. It was a long first 15 months with this little guy. I'm glad that chapter of life is over. Here are a few pictures from his journey. 

Ss Sun and Mm Moon

  I want to try to blog about some of our school projects. I don't plan on going crazy with blogging about every day or every detail but I do want to keep it more updated than I have been. When I first started my blog I had mentioned that one of the main reasons in doing so was to be able to print it at the end of the year in book form instead of trying to keep up with my scrap booking that I used to do. So here's the first of my school posts. Enjoy! :)
  Hailey was 5 in April and we are doing the My Father's World Kindergarten. Blake is 3 and is following along with us when he feels like it. So far it's going along great and we're all loving it. I bought Math-U-See and planned to do that also but so far it is still sitting on the shelf untouched. By the time we get through MFW we've all pretty much had enough by the end of the day. I hope to get started with it in the near future though. It's been very busy around here with still getting settled from our latest move in July and then with the food preserving season in full swing. Things have started to slow down just in the past week and I'm getting back into the swing of things. 
  Our first two weeks of school were two units on creation. The next 6 days (MFW does 6 days/unit, not a week at a time) we studied Ss Sun. This unit is Mm Moon. Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the library looking for any book we could find that had anything to do with the moon. Today we read about the moon and tomorrow we will do some moon projects. 
  For lunch today I made suns with a clementine and carrot sticks. I didn't get to it for the last unit but today I just happened to have what I needed for it. (And we painted faces today. She had a butterfly on one cheek but then she got crazy with it and scribbled all over) 

    As the unit moves along I will try to add more pictures of some of our projects. And of course school wouldn't be complete without a visit from 'Derek (turned army style) and Odette'...

                                         We finally got the MUS out and she loved it!

                         The electric was out for most of the day so she wanted her flashlight.

             Of course she had to do a silly face picture. 

First she practiced her letters in the moon dust.

Then we added water and black finger paint to form moon rocks.

They squirted vinegar on their moon rocks to watch them erupt.

     

The phases of the moon with Oreos. 

Selfie

I'm not one for selfies, but this is one I don't mind sharing because my kids are the star of it, not me. I'm really trying to work on being more fun, taking the time to be goofy, taking the time to live a little. I've made some changes in our home and we're all receiving the benefits of them. More about that in another post to come. But for now, I'm enjoying my littles. :)