Random stuff

Jarika and Utah are scaring me. I think they are going to have buy a house in the country with about a million acres to house all of their animals! They now have two hamsters and two bunnies. They are adorable I must say, however, our house (and Utah's, they are sharing physical custody) is beginning to look like a zoo! Here are some pix of their latest addition, Thumper. Addy isn't impressed, but Bella, our dachshund was very interested in it!

I thought I would try giving Addy a bath in my spa tub. It's a corner tub and it's nearly impossible to reach her but I thought I would give it a try since she has just about outgrown her blow up tub. I don't have a regular tub upstairs and honestly, Jarika's tub downstairs would need to have a major overhaul before I would let Addysen sit in it! This is what she thought of the whole experience.

And here she is, all smiles signing "more" for her tub on the counter!

Addy is doing a tiny bit better with food. She loves things that are salty. She really enjoys these massive pretzel sticks. She licks them and then accidentally some gets into her mouth and she throws it away. It's too funny!

Oldies but Goodies

I was going through old pix and found the ones of Addysen the first time we met her and our first week home. She was nine months old at the time. She is so chunky in these pix! The top three pictures are in Minnesota and the bottom ones are from the first few days home. She doesn't look like a baby anymore, she's looking like a little girl now!

Addy's many tubes

Addy got changed back to a Mic-Key button today! Yeah! We are excited about it. It was removed in December since her skin was really reacting to it. So a Bard button was placed. We have hated it. The only thing I like is that it laid much flatter but it leaked constantly! The extension wouldn't lock so she was constantly pulling it out, or we would accidentally when we would pick her up. So we are very thankful to go back to the Mic-Key. I'm hoping that her skin will heal and toughen up but you never know with her skin! Check out the tube from when we brought her home, it was a beauty huh? This was the first time that we had given her a bath too. We had just flown home and we trying our hand at this bathing thing with her two colostomies and her massive tube! She has changed so much! She's going to get weighed this afternoon, I really hope that she has put on some more weight, but by the looks of her ribs I doubt it's much :(

Why you should never mess with stray animals

3/21/09 Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

Way to go Addy!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Today is the day my little boy turns 10!!! Cooper is the child that we prayed and prayed and prayed for! Scott and I got married in 1996 and immediately began trying to have a baby. It wasn't until a year later I finally got into a new OBGYN for an appointment. I was having female issues and was put on fertility drugs to help things out. After six months nothing happened so I had a test to check for a block in my tubes. Nope, all clear, no problems, but still no baby. Scott had to get checked too, yep all good! Then I had a laser laparotomy to check things even further. We found out that my tubes were tied with scar tissue from my c-section with Jarika. So the doc freed up one tube with the laser and we had another surgery schedule to go in and remove all of the scarring. We schedule it for the beginning of June so I would be out of school. I went in for my pre-op appointment and that night I got a call from my docs nurse, "Cammie, you must call the office first thing in the morning, it's urgent." Okay I'm thinking I'm dying! Nope, I was pregnant!!! I was so ecstatic!!! I went to the doc for further bloodwork and tests. Unfortunately my results were not good. It was obvious that the baby wasn't growing and I would most likely miscarry. I did twelve days later. We were devastated. The doctor told me to just relax and we would reschedule the surgery to clear things up. We weren't to "try" and if nothing showed up in five weeks to give him a call to get "things" flowing :) Well there goes five weeks and I have the worst PMS ever. So, I tell my mom and she suggests I take a home pregnancy test. Yeah right, it took over two years to get pregnant the last time, there's no way! Well God had a plan and his plan was to create my first son, Cooper William! His pregnancy was definitely full of complications, stress and worry, but on March 19, 1999 after two and a half years of waiting for this gift, my prayer was answered. God meant for Cooper to be my son. He is a wonderful, amazing child who I love so much and I am honored to be his mom. Cooper has Asperger's syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. He is a gift. I have someone who always knows what the temperature is going to be, knows the number of every highway we have ever driven on and the number of every hotel room we have ever stayed at! He also does his sisters math much to her dismay!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!!

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly update

Tuesday night we had Jarika's cheerleading banquet. It was a pretty small affair since the squad started with 20 members and ended with 10. Long story, not going into it. Jarika won the award for: Best Sound Effects. Sounds like a pretty good award for a cheerleader but since it was due to her unbelievably loud hiccups (which has also happened and church and Pastor Gary swore it was an Amen!), her disgusting burps and yes the flatulence. My child, the sound effects girl. For winning this award, she was given a can of Flarp (too funny, a fart in a cup) and a little megaphone that is really annoying. I must say that this has been the worst year in Jarika's cheerleading life that has been ongoing since the age of five. I am so thankful that this season is over and we can put all of the issues in the past and hopefully have an awesome year next year. Her senior year should be the best and I'm truly hoping it is!

Avery's first baseball practice of the spring season was cancelled due to rain on Tuesday but he did have it last night when the wind chill was below freezing. I would have taken pix, but the dedicated mom I am was sitting in her nice warm car reading Beth Moore! Shame on me, I know but there will be more practices when it's much warmer!

Addy had a cardiology check up yesterday. Her doc said that her EKG is improved from four months ago and her echo looked okay since she was screaming the entire time! She is usually an angel there, but she is definitely leary of scrubs since her hospital stay last month! I am happy that things look good and her ASD is so tiny that it won't need surgery. He did think her right side of her aorta, is a little enlarged, but nothing too worry about since it may have just been the angle but he'll check it again in four months. So good news! Her pulse ox was a little low but still above 90 so no alarm there either, thank goodness! I didn't take pix at the appointment since she was so hacked off, but here are the way home pix!

These are just pix of her today because she is so darn cute playing Pat-A-Cake!

Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake

Roll It

Throw it in the pan!

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend stuff

Friday night I took the boys to the Carnival at school. I wasn't about to take Addy into that crowd! The boys had a blast jousting each other and thoroughly enjoyed the slide, too bad my camera stinks and these are the pix I got. Not one of their adorable faces zooming down!









This is one of my favorite kids ever! She is a friend of mine's daughter and she is a hoot! The face painter was amazing, this pic does not do the work justice because there were sparkles all over the girls' faces! My boys aren't into the face painting thing but I at least got pix of L!!

Addy is feeling better, we are still not 100%, her sleeping is still messed up and having the time change has definitely not helped matters! Her g-button is leaking a lot and that's driving me crazy, good thing we go and see the surgeon in a couple of weeks. I'm probably going to ask to have a mic-key put in again. It looks like her skin is reacting to the Bard too so we may just be out of luck with that. Her nurse is going to start oral feedings tomorrow. She has tolerated her 30 minute feedings since Friday night so I think it's okay to re-introduce food. I'm sure Addy will have a much different attitude about it, but that's okay!!
I went shopping with my mom after church yesterday, it was so much fun! We haven't been shopping together in ages! We got Avery new baseball pants and cleats (which are too small so I'm gonna have to exchange them), we got both boys new Cardinal shirts, and we got Jarika a new shirt and necklace from the Buckle. She had a job interview with them today, we are praying really hard that she gets it! She needs a job in the worst way and it's something she would really enjoy. Sonic hasn't been giving her any hours so it's time to look elsewhere! We went into Gymboree and got Addy the cutest Easter dress! She is going to look darling as usual! We even got me some things in a size smaller than before!! Woo hoo! I was pretty stoked about that!

Don't you just love that tongue!

When all else fails, put her in the Jumperoo!