Opening the Cabin

My dad flew in to town on Thursday and we took our first trip down to the lake on Friday. The water and air was still really cold, but we got to enjoy a few boat rides, some time on the raft, s'mores and Alyssa's favorite restaurant at the lake.

On Saturday Colin fell into the water with a sweatshirt and jeans after getting off the boat. He was upset that the water got him, but that didn't stop him from loving being on the dock. He also LOVED the raft, he laughed and smiled the whole time while screaming faster, faster.

Alyssa was more cautious on the raft, but still enjoyed it. She went swimming on both Sunday and Monday for a few minutes each day. She loved being on the boat and is already talking about going back.

Its official!

I am now 65% owner of a daycare center. One that is already at half capacity! WOW! I'm so overwhelmed, happy and excited.
Can't wait to see what else the future holds for me.

Ear Piercing Round two

On Friday Alyssa got the idea in her head that she wanted to get her ears pierced. I told her that we would go after work.
  So off we went. She sat in my lap and was brave until it came time to actually pierce the ears. She sat still while they marked her ears, cleaned them and got the ear rings ready, but as soon as they said ok she freaked out.  After about 10 minutes of every bribe we could think of it ended up with me piercing one of my ears and us leaving.
  We have told her that there is no round three, that she will now have to wait until she is 13.

Lets see if I keep that promise.

Dance Recital

Tonight Alyssa had her second dance recital. She only has 2 other little girls in her class so I was worried that she would get out on stage and freeze.
She did wonderful. She danced both songs watching the teacher and a big smile on her face.
She has really seemed to enjoy dance this year and we only had one week that she didn't want to go or dance.
Next year will be a little different as her best friend will not be able to do the dance with her.  So we will see if she wants to continue it.  I love having the dance on Thursdays because it doesn't take away from our weekend or our evenings and the class is so small. The Saturday class has about 13 girls in it and so they don't get as much time to practice or do tumbling because they have to wait their turn.
 I am one proud mommy of my kids. I love that they are getting old enough to do things without me, but also still young enough when it is over they want a hug and mommy time.

ENT Visit

Today was the visit to the ENT. This was the first time seeing her since Colin's bronchoscopy. I had spoken to her a few times on the phone and knew that she was working closely with the pulmonologist.

So I figured she already had a game plan before we walked into the office. So after waiting over an hour past our appointment time we finally got to see the doctor. She decided that we are going to try removing his adenoids and putting filler around the cleft. We are going to leave his tonsils in for now since they aren't inflamed and that would be even more trauma to his throat.

  The surgery is scheduled for May 6. He will stay one night in the hospital to be monitored  for swelling and issues with the filler. Hopefully he will be able to come home early the next day.

The filler only lasts 3-4 months so we will watch him and monitor his health for those few months and see if we think the surgery helped. If his breathing and other issues are greatly improved we will discuss surgery to repair the cleft.

If things do not seem improved over that time then we are back to square one and will have to try to find a new avenue to keep him healthy.

I pray this is the answer we want/need. I am so burned out. I feel so defeated. I feel so alone. I just want to see my little boy healthy and happy for more than a 5 day stretch.

I am still very nervous about the filler since there are many risks that come with it. We didn't do it in March because of the issues, and now we once again don't really have much of a choice. I just pray she has steady hands and that it doesn't do any permanent damage to his vocal cords.

Colin's Illness

Colin has been sick more than he has been healthy since he was 4 months old. Many times people would think that he just has a slight cold unless you are around him for a good amount of time.
If you spend enough time with him you know that he coughs a lot and that he doesn't have the same amount of energy a 2 year old has. He can keep up with the other kids for awhile but then he has to drop off because he can't breathe.
   We have been to doctors and had many tests run on him. Every time we think we have his illnesses under control he pops up with another symptom or issue.
   Last week he had the PICC line put in. I thought this was going to really upset him. He has done great. He doesn't pick at it, he doesn't complain about it. He has just accepted it. Just like he has accepted everything else in his little life.
  We constantly get comments from doctors, nurses, etc about what a great patient he is. As long as he is allowed to hold my hand they can take his blood, do his vitals, check his ears or lungs or any of the million other things he has had done.
   While in the hospital they had to swab his nose, I told the doctor he should do okay. She wasn't so sure. After it was over she repeatedly told him what a great job he did and that most of their teenagers don't do as well as what he did. We went off to find a sticker or something for him.
   What all this leads to, is while I'm very proud of my little boy for being so brave and doing so well with all these procedures it is hard on me.
   I feel like my 2 year old shouldn't have to know how to get his blood drawn or an IV put in, or laying still for ultrasound or x-ray. I don't want to be told that he did great, I want to be told he doesn't need them.
   I have been having a really hard time this week with accepting it all. Maybe I need to take a page from his book and just accept that this is a part of our life and it isn't going away any time soon.

Carnival

On Friday we went out to dinner. While at dinner we noticed that in the mall parking lot they had a carnival going on. After we finished dinner we went over and walked around. Alyssa asked to go on some of the rides and we told her no because it was too cold and I didn't have any cash, but we told her we would go back today.

  So today after nap we we back to the carnival. We bought 16 tickets, because we weren't sure how the kids would take to the rides. We started slow with a trip on the carousel. We then went on some super tall slides. From there the kids took off, they rode rides by themselves, they rode rides with Chris or I. They had a blast, we had to buy another 16 tickets so that they could continue their fun.
  To top the whole thing off at the end we bought a funnel cake and caramel apple.

The kids enjoyed it and we promised next time it was in town we would go back again.