Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Andrew's almost birthday

While at my parents' house, we celebrated Andrew's 'almost' birthday. He requested a meal at Cracker Barrel (there may have been some help from Gramma with that decision).






CASH!




Several years ago, one of the boys asked for a 'pie in the face' as part of his celebration with Gramma and Grandad. My mom was happy to oblige and a new birthday tradition started. This year, Wilson got in on the fun.






Daniel kept his face in the tin for a while---eating every bit of whipped cream that he could get to.











I also introduced the boys to a Philly favorite--Tastykake pies. Sadly, they are not nearly as good as they were when I was growing up but getting a WHOLE pie to yourself is always a win.









Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Daniel Day

Daniel had an important day today. Aside from being his 1/2 birthday (which we don't celebrate but the school does) it was also his very last day of phono, which is the speech class he goes to twice a week. He has not been happy having to leave his kindergarten friends to go to phono on Mondays and Wednesdays. He has been working very hard on his k and g sounds so that he could graduate from phono and be a 'whole day friend' every day in kindergarten. Today, I signed the paperwork that will make his 1/2 birthday wish come true. 

To celebrate, I made some Ethiopian food for dinner. He was in heaven. 

Daniel has been struggling since Wilson came home. Having to share Andrew's attention has been very difficult for him. It was nice to celebrate him today and give him some of the positive attention he has been wanting.



Those eyes....

Giving me the 'OK' sign.

Even on his hardest days, he is ridiculously cute.


Wilson's 1st day of school (sort of)

Huge day today! Wilson went to school! (sort of).  He rode the bus with the boys and then I drove to school for a meeting and to hang out with him for a while in his new classroom. I was so nervous about him riding the bus (he is TINY. His legs barely make it up those giant bus steps.) but he was excited to go. 








He's in there....right next to Andrew. He's so small you can't even see him above the window line. I'm pretty sure that he and I should just stay home together for the rest of the school year.



When he got to school, he stood in line with Daniel and then walked into the room with the rest of his class. I controlled myself and did not take pictures of his every move. I hung out in the room and let his teacher take the lead on showing him around and asking him to try new things. He did great! The only issue was a food-related one, of course. He handled it pretty well and was ok once I let him keep his snack in his pocket until it was time to eat it. 


He has an amazing teacher and classroom aide and I feel so much better about him starting kindergarten full time after break.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Caribbean Christmas

Andrew sang in the school concert tonight. All first and second grade classes sang. The theme was 'Caribbean Holiday' and he has been practicing his songs at home for WEEKS. (Sorry, Jimmy Buffet. You and I will be taking a little break from each other for a while. I've heard way too much of you lately.)



Unlike the woman in front of us, I chose not to have my camera blocking everyone else's view so I only have two pictures. Instead, we sat back and enjoyed watching Andrew have a great time on stage. 



Some of the other parents may try to tell you differently but I can say with 100% certainty that my child was THE cutest one there.  And for real he has some crazy good rhythm which he obviously did not get from me. He could not have stood still if he had tried.

SO proud of this kid:

Monday, December 16, 2013

A turning point

Last week, the pediatric infectious disease team decided that the side effects of the TB meds were outweighing any potential benefits at this point and stopped five of Wilson's meds, including the IV med he was getting each night. The cultures still haven't shown any signs of TB even after 6 weeks. Today, we went for a check-in/check-up and they decided to pull the picc line. Wilson was mildly excited. I was ECSTATIC. 
Since he has been a frequent flyer at the clinic, he was given a Christmas present when we arrived today. He got his favorite planes, El Chupacabra and Dusty. He also got a box of legos. He was very excited about the legos and immediately started to build a hangar for Dusty and Chupacabra.




One of the nurse practitioners was as eager as I was to get rid of the picc line.  She offered to give it to us for his baby book. Ummm............yuck. 






After our visit, we headed over to the 5th floor pediactric unit to say good-bye to Eleanor the Elephant and to drop off cookies for the nurses who took such great care of him. We even got to give them to Krista, who took awesome care of Wilson on our last visit.


We got home early enough to do some serious lego building before Andrew and Daniel got home from school. 




So, for now, we are cruising along without TB meds unless something else shows up. They are pretty sure that all of this was caused by leftover pneumonia bacteria that was still in his lungs. His x-ray continues to show improvement. He has gained back the 6 lbs he lost two weeks ago and has most of his energy back. We are doing a trial run of kindergarten Wednesday morning and he will start full time after Christmas break. 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We are ready to settle into the 'normal' life of a family of four.