Wednesday's Winning Words

How you know the primary caretakers of your preschooler are women (obviously including mom)

"Oh. My. Gosh!"

"I like your lips, they are such a pretty color."

"You have GOT to be kidding me."

"Awww, what a cute bow. I like the way it looks with her dress."


Yep, these are all things I have heard come out of Justus' mouth in the last two weeks. Now, I greatly appreciate the compliments to both Delaney and me, but we probably need him to have some more guy time!

Why is there never a camera around when you need one?

Today is the day--Justus' first day back to school after surgery!!  He has been doing great and could not have been more excited to see his friends and teachers.  I have to admit that although I often wish he had better control of his emotions (generally during meltdowns over nothing at all), there is something beyond precious about a 4-year-old who can't contain his excitement.  So, here are the obligatory "real" first day of pre-k shots from this morning.

Note to other would-be photographers: this is what you get when your subject insists on saying "Darth Maul" rather than "Cheese."  I'd stick with "Cheese"....

If you happen to open the picture to make it bigger, I apologize for the yucky ear business that it appears we did not address before taking said picture.

Doctor appointment went great, he is cleared for all normal activity (except swimming).  This is HUGE because we were worried about him going back to school and not getting to play with his friends in the gym.  On our way back to school, we talked about listening, paying attention, following directions, all the fun school stuff.  He also told me about what fun games he was going to play with his friends.

When we got into his class, I was immediately regretful that I did not bring my camera in with me.  Clearly, this was going to be the first-day-back moment I wanted to capture.  All his friends hollered his name, and he started flapping his arms and kind of jogging in place.  He was so excited and didn't know who to hug first.  He literally would start toward one friend and then another until he just grabbed one and started hugging.  Then I witnessed it, the first of its kind that I've seen---a dogpile of 4-year olds!  Y'all, those kids mobbed that boy like he had just won the World Series for that class!!  It was the cutest thing I have ever seen and I could just feel the excitement and love in that room (aptly named the Friendship class).  God bless private daycares where that kind of affection is still allowed.  His teacher, Ms. Carolina, was obviously concerned for his ear and pulled him from the mass and directed the others back to their spots on the rug.  She had them all clap to show their pleasure at having Justus back (much safer than the mob o' small children), and instructed them on gentle hugs for him because he had "something special" done on his ear.  She reminded them they had to be gentle so he wouldn't have to go back to the hospital.  He clearly liked the attention, but was a little nervous about it too.  He turned around and gave his other teacher, Ms. Tasha, a big hug---it took him until that moment to realize she was even there.  What a sweet moment to be able to share with him....if only I'd had my camera, or even better a video camera.  Everyone should be able to witness a 4-year old dogpile!

In an ideal world...

   ...our children would never hurt.  Not so much as a bump or a bruise...or, at the very least, we could accept the hurt on their behalf.  But, as we know, that's just not possible.  So we have to look at the less than ideal situations as opportunities to grow, learn, and be better people.  I am preempting Wednesday's Winning Words to provide an update on Justus' surgery on Monday.  I feel bad that I have not updated lately, but we've been a tad busy.

So, Monday was the first day of Pre-K, at least for the rest of the class.  I found this cute idea on Pinterest (and have since noticed, thanks to Facebook, that so did just about everyone I know).  We will take a picture on the first day of class every year with Justus holding a sign of what class he's in.  Now, before you think I'm the WORST mom on the planet for doing this on this day, know that we will take another one on HIS first day of pre-K next week and it will be shared as well.

Before (like the Spidey pj's?):

After:

 Don't you love how they put the arbitrarily placed 2 red smiley faces, you know, so it doesn't seem so bad?!  Before I give you the medical aspect of it all, know that this little guy is up and about already and is none too happy about the fact that I keep telling him to slow down as he tries to race across the house.  He's not interested in pain medicine...except the one time he took off his shirt without thinking about his ear and hurt himself.  What a big kid!

The long and short of it is that after a lengthy surgery (roughly 3 hours), the ENT was unable to get the tumor out.  It had spread further than originally thought, all the way down into his eustachian tube, over his stapes, and is firmly planted on his facial nerve.  To have retrieved as much as possible without doing anything else would both be very dangerous (risking some facial paralysis) and would necessitate further surgeries which would not be good for Justus.  He also said that the tumor, itself, was conducting sound for him, which is why his hearing is still so good.  When he got in there, the bone was basically granules.  He saved what good bone he could to do hearing reconstruction to the extent possible, with some skin grafting.  We will not know for a few months how successful that was.  He cut away most of the rest of the bone to allow the cholesteatoma to grow safely.  Overall, he anticipates about a 50-60% hearing loss on the left side.  I will tell you that, so far, we have not noticed any change in his hearing, which is great!  He said that Justus' ear will look the same, but he will have a bigger hole and he will have to go in for regular "professional cleanings."  We go back Tuesday for his follow-up and then the packing comes out a week or two after that.  Justus is in great spirits and hardly seems bothered, except when he accidentally hurts it or when it drains.  The cup came off yesterday, and we have him only use it now to sleep to prevent him from rolling over onto his ear.  

He is taking full advantage of being waited on hand and foot, but I can't say I blame him.  He's having a hard time staying inactive, and I feel guilty that he will return to school next week with a "no physical activity" note.  His teachers will surely loathe me for awhile.  Especially now, knowing the extensive nature of this growth, we are immeasurably thankful that it was "accidentally" found and treated.  Left alone, he may have suffered a great deal more damage and pain.  We just pray that he continues to recovery so quickly with minimal discomfort, and can avoid the need for further procedures.  

Although he is seemingly fine, I return to my initial reflection when I think about him being alone in surgery for that long, the way he looked when he first came out, and even the surge of pain he obviously felt when he pulled his shirt over his head without thinking.  You just hate for your children to experience any moment of pain.  But, I know they are  experiences that instill pieces of what becomes an individual's character.  

We appreciate everyone's support, thoughts, and prayers.  Each and every one is a blessing.

And stay tuned...there will be a real first day of Pre-K picture.  

Girls, Girls, Girls...

One year ago, today, this was my office door upon my arrival at work

(LOVE my office peeps for doing this).

We had found out the evening before that we would be adding a girl to our brood. Although beyond ecstatic, I admit I went into a bit of a panic mode.  After all, I was a boy-mom.....and something of a tomboy myself, to boot.  What was I going to do with a little girl?

Now, a year later and after 8 months of life with a little girl, I am happy to report that I have mad skills in bow acquisition, pigtail design, as well as dayschool and church attire assembly.  She may not be high style every day, and we will have missteps no doubt, but for the most part we are doing pretty darn well.  Fortunately, we skated through tights season without much incident since she wasn't really ready for tights then.  I did try to put them on her; but they were just too big.  We also haven't really delved into footwear or accessories since they make their way immediately to her mouth if I try to put them on her, but I know it's coming.  I am proud to say that I look to those future challenges with cautious optimism rather than the complete lack of confidence I was experiencing this time last year.  Boys are still easier to dress and prepare for the day, but the options are definitely more limited.

At this point, my bigger fear is how will we ever be able to discipline this adorable face??

Wednesday's Winning Words

Today's Winning Words come from another fine example of parenting in my unintentional series called "Watch your mouth, Mommy".....

Monday I was driving home from a particularly horrendous day of out of town work and was talking to my guys on the phone while they were driving home from hockey.  Kidd had me on speakerphone so I could talk to Justus too.  Without thinking about it, I mentioned that the day's experience had been so awful that during it I wanted to shoot myself in the head (this was actually a restrained version of what I really wanted to say).  As is typical, this is pretty much the only phrase Justus heard out of the entire conversation, and continued to reiterate that it was obviously the only relevant part of the exchange.

"Mommy, why do you want to shoot yourself in the head?"

"Shoot yourself in the head?  That would be silly, Mommy!"

"Mommy, are you going to shoot yourself in the head?"

When I arrived home a couple hours later and I went in to kiss him good night, what did he say to me?  "Mommy, puppy shot himself in the head....that's so silly!"   This time, though, I got to see the hand motions that went with it. 

Nice.

Lazy Saturday

Saturday morning after both kids were up and in our room (probably around the ripe ol' hour of 7 a.m.), I went to do something and when I came back, I found this...

At least at some point, Justus decided to get dressed...

 It reminds me how much I love a rare lazy morning in bed.  It also reminds me how thankful I am that we have Sarah to take significantly better pictures than what I get.  That's the best I have for a smooth transition into: I got my CD of pictures from the lovely and talented Sarah of Butterfly Chaser Photography notoriety and am super excited to share a few more of them with you!!

Love this face...

As if she's saying, "Who me?" or the more inevitable, "Did I do that?"

Can you ear me now? Redux

Starting to feel like a Verizon commercial....Can you hear me now?

As with most things, there is a good and a not as good.  So, we'll start with the good.  We had a great trip to Houston for Delaney's ABR testing.  We went down Sunday night and had a fabulous dinner with her Aunt Cande who we haven't been able to see since January because of her free-wheeling world traveling.  I mean, she said it was a "study abroad" program, but I've seen the pictures, and there was WAY too many good times for there to have been real studying going on.  Nonetheless, we are thrilled she's back safe and sound and it was great getting a chance to catch up with her.  If I was a smarter person, I would have a precious picture of Delaney and Cande at dinner to insert at this point, but I failed on that one and just don't have time to photoshop one of them together.  

Monday morning, after some intentional sleep deprivation, per doctor's orders, we arrived at Texas Children's for her testing.  The sweet nurse came in to give her the sedative (FAIL) and had to give her more because she spit most of it out, just as we suspected she might.  But, finally, she went to sleep so they could put all the little electrodes on her and hook her up to machines.  She did have to have oxygen because with her congestion, her level dropped a little lower than what we would like.  So, I know it's kind of sad to see her like this, but since we know she's quite well and was just sleeping, it's somehow easier to take.

She slept well for awhile, NOT the 6 hours they told us she would, but long enough to get what they needed.  She does have an inner ear that responds to bond conducted noise. This is the best news we could have hoped for because it means that at the very least, if we wanted to later, we could get her a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) to allow her to have hearing on that side.  At best, if we find through later testing that she has an appropriately developed middle ear, they may be able to restore her hearing completely without hearing aids!  They also confirmed that the right ear is in great shape.  So, fantastic day overall, and we go back yearly for follow-ups unless we notice speech development problems, etc.

Justus' appointment went fine, but it was a lot of information and not the best news about his tumor.  Rather than presenting as a pearl-like mass (which would be the more ideal scenario), his tumor is more of a spread out growth, which makes it a bit more difficult to remove.  It is also wrapped around some bone and very near/on a facial nerve.  So, the goal is to get all of it (because whatever isn't retrieved will continue to grow, necessitating another surgery) with only the bone that must be taken, and not damage facial nerve.  If it cannot all be retrieved without getting too close to the facial nerve, the tumor will stay and all the bones in his ear will come out to allow it room to grow without causing more damage.  Since some bone has to be removed, he will suffer some hearing loss on that side.  How much depends on how much bone has to be removed.  But, as we've learned with Delaney, you only have to have one good ear to hear and his speech should not be affected.  Reconstruction or a hearing aid are options later if we so chose.  The surgery is scheduled for August 22nd, so please say a little prayer.  They will go in from behind his ear, which is just fascinating to me, and exciting that he won't have a visible scar really.  It will be several hours but he should be able to go home that day.  I'll keep everyone posted.  Sorry no picture of Justus from his appointment, but it was just a regular doctor visit.  I guess I could have taken a picture of his blue mouth from his blue lollipop they gave him.  :-)

Thank you all for continued prayers!  They are so very appreciated.

Winning Words Wednesday

This little guy sometimes gets a bad wrap for being a typical 4-year old--not listening or following directions or for making a mess.  So, I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone (okay, mostly myself) that he has such a GOOD heart and will grow out of the rest of it...I hope.  

He's very into pretend play these days, and is happy to explain "Mommy, I'm just pretending" when he's fully engaged in this activity.  The other day, during one such moment he told me:

Mommy, I will share my ice cream with all my friends and family.  If we're playing cowboys, I will share with my horse.  I will also share my popcorn with my horse when we watch movies together.  This is pretty huge because this kid can put away popcorn like nothing I have ever seen!

I told him how nice that was and how everyone likes it when he shares things.

...and then he went on:  "When we play cowboys, I'll be the cowboy, you can be the cowgirl (thank you, Boys Don't Cry, for the 1986 song that I still hear every time he says this), daddy will be the daddy cowboy, and Delaney will be the cowbaby."  a cowbaby?  Really?  ok.  

Can you ear me now?

It's going to be a big few days for the left ears in our family...well, at least the kids' ears. Let me 'splain....

As some of you may know, Delaney was born with a little ear. Yeah, kinda like Nemo. Technically, it's called an atresic ear with microtia.  You can kind of see it here.

She has no hole or canal, and no hearing in that ear. We've been to a number of doctors for various discussions, and Texas Children's convinced us to go ahead and do an ABR (auditory brainstem response) test to see if she has middle ear/inner ear functionality. If she does, then her hearing will be able to be restored after they rebuild her ear when she is about 6-9 years old. She has fantastic hearing in her right ear, so even if they can't do the restoration, she should still have no problems. Depending on which ENT you ask (and we've asked several), it may be worth considering a bone conducting hearing aid, but we've about decided to wait and see how her speech develops before we consider putting her through that. I digress with the back story. Her ABR is tomorrow morning at Texas Children's Hospital and then we meet with the ENT to go over the results. They will have to sedate her for a few hours. Although it's a mild sedative and we're sure she will do great, we still ask for prayers for a successful day!

Tuesday is Justus' turn. In late June, he had his tonsils and adenoids taken out. In then process, his ENT found a benign tumor in his left ear, which he originally thought was a lot of fluid that just needed draining. We've learned that the cholesteatoma needs to be removed because if not, it could potentially cause permanent hearing loss, facial paralysis, brain damage, etc. We are so fortunate the doctor found this because Justus had not been exhibiting any symptoms. Tuesday is his surgery follow up where he will have a few tests and we will schedule his surgery to remove it.

Not a fun topic today, but important to us and we ask for prayers for an easy few days for the kids and continued prayers for healing for both of them. We will have surgery in the near future for Justus and distant future for Delaney, but we will definitely keep everyone posted about that stuff.

On a much lighter note, someone turned 8 months old yesterday!! Happy month-day to our little princess!

You love...your brother, more than anything

Your favorite food...pretty much any baby food, but you really dig the veggie/meat combos (that's my girl!)

Your least favorite food...avocado.  It's the only one I can't get you to eat.  Admittedly, I've only tried a time or two, but you've never rejected anything else like that.

What you're doing now...not yet crawling, but I can tell you are so ready to be mobile

                                  ....grabbing anything that is unfortunate enough to find itself within arm's reach, and putting it in your mouth; 

                                  ....jabbering away with mamamamama (my favorite, of course) and babababa

                                  ....Smiling all the time!

Wednesday's Winning Words

I had big plans of telling you all about Justus' special goggles today, but then last night happened and the goggles got bumped.  I have a feeling they will resurface as part of Justus' show and tell on Friday, so it may still come up again later.  

Last night from my peaceful slumber, I was awakened by the heavy breathing and occasional mild whimper of a 4-year-old standing approximately 2 inches from my face.  He complained that he couldn't find his puppy (stuffed lovey from which he has not been willingly separated since he was about a year old, seen here in Exhibit A).

As you can imagine, this could spell tragedy,particularly in the middle of the night.  Then he proceeds to tell me how he had an accident in his bed (minor downside to daycare ensuring he is SUPER hydrated in this miserable summer heat).  I, by then, figure out it's 1:48 a.m.  The conversation follows:

Me: Buddy, you don't feel wet anywhere, are you sure it wasn't just a dream?  

Justus: no, mommy, my pjs are wet.

**At this point, I realize that this child has changed clothes and is fully dressed (even with his shoes on!) and ready for school.**

Me: Justus, why didn't you just change pjs instead of putting on your school clothes?  It's still sleepy time, not time to go to school.

Justus:  But I'm not sleepy, Mommy.

Me:  Son, you better get sleepy!  It's 1:45 in the morning and the rest of the natural world is asleep.  You need to get there quick too!  Take your shoes off, get in this bed, while I go strip yours.  When I get back, I want you to be asleep.

I admit it, not my most compassionate moment of parenting.  Frustrated that I didn't even have clean sheets to put back on his bed for him to get in to, I knew it meant the rest of the night for me would be a struggle to stand my ground for my tiny part of our king bed.  As expected, a not-so-small pair of feet firmly planted in my back the next 4 hours.  Here's hoping for a better night tonight, and a prayer of thanks that it's not a common occurrence.

On a happier note, Sarah published some pics from the kids' last photo shoot at http://www.butterflychaserphotography.blogspot.com/  See a few below:

Twins!

No, I'm not having twins!!   Just had to clear that up.

So, if you've snooped around my blog some, you may have noticed that one of the photographers I follow is Andrea Burns. You may have even noticed that she's in Maryland. Why, you ask, would I follow a Maryland photographer? An old friend? No. Um, it would be because our daughters are twins. Well, not exactly since Audrey is about a year and a half older than Delaney, but it is uncanny (to me) how much they look alike, right down to the blue eyes. And, unbelievably, Audrey has even more hair than Delaney!

Here's Delaney (and me) at about 5 months.