Surgery

Ella's bowel study came back today, it was good, no Hirshprungs!! This is great news. On the other hand we had her cardiology appointment today and they do want to go ahead and repair the PDA in her heart. It really isn't too big of a deal, she will even get to come home the same day. Their reasoning for going ahead with the closure is that she has a history of pneumonia and aspirating her liquids, which is hard enough on the lungs, and the PDA circulates extra blood that has just come out right back into the lungs, so closing the hole will help prevent pulmonary hypertension. Also they want to look inside and make sure that everything is okay with her aorta, since it was shown "bulging" into her esophagus during her upper GI study. They did a repeat echo today and said something about her aortic something or another coming in from the left instead of the right, I don't know what they are talking about could have been another language for all I know. Also an open PDA also increases the risk of an infection in the heart which obviously is no good. So, surgery is set for December 3rd. The doctors were great, at the Center for Congenital Heart Defects, so I am not too nervous!

I was asked last week by the Director of Ella's school, Spokane Guilds School and Neuromuscular Center, if I would like to be on the Board of Directors. Of course I said yes. I am super excited about it!! I have a meeting with the Director tomorrow while Ella is in school. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her school!!! Well, I suppose that's it for now, just wanted to update everyone on Ella's medical stuff!!

New pics

Well, sort of. I took them a couple of weeks ago back in the apartment, but they will be new to all of you : )

I am hoping to hear tomorrow about Ella's bowel study, and then Tuesday is the peds cardiology appt, hoping for good news there too. Chris just got back from Texas yesterday, while he was down there I had him go into the military clinic and find the info from Ella's cardio appt in Texas, ya know the one that completely cleared her from any heart issues, I am going to write a very nice letter to that doc to inform her that she MISSED A HOLE IN A HEART. I'm not bitter, ha.

Ella has been quite the stinker this past week. I do not have a clue what to do with her. She is biting, hitting, pushing, yelling pretty much everything except for listening. She is pretty exhausting. I've tried time-outs but 1, you have to physically hold her there because of course she will not listen to "stay there" and 2 she kind of finds them funny, laughing with her little nose in the corner. So, obviously not an effective way of punishment. Hunter was SO much easier, yes of course he had his naughty moments but all you had to do is look at him crosseyed, or raise your voice a bit and he melted. Ella, not so much. If Hunter started to walk away from you in public all you had to do was say "see ya later" and act like you were going to walk away and he would cry and come running at you. Ella, says "BYE" and RUNS the other way. Ahhh, I know that her strong will and toughness will serve her very well in life, BUT what do you do with a crazy 2 year old???

Quick funny to me story..... I went to the bank last Monday to switch our accounts from Military checking to just regular checking, something the bank has been wanting me to do. I had both kids with me, which is always fun. We were sitting at this lady's desk, and she was asking all the questions etc, well Ella had had quite enough of sitting so she began her yelling, going limp bodied routine and trying to slide out of my arms to get down and run. This carried on for at least 10 minutes. The lady was really sweet, and tried to ignore the monster. She did say, "how old is she?" I said 2 can't ya tell. Anyhow, I don't know what struck me but as we were finishing up I said to her "the next time you hear someone say that all kids with Down syndrome are sweet I want you to remember this face." Of course I just got a blank look from her, I just kind of chuckled to myself and left. I thought it was funny. I guess I need to keep my little jokes to people that know me.

With all of that said here are some pics. Ella is obsessed with getting clothes out of the dirty laundry pile and put them on. So, we were getting ready for bath time, I put on her diaper and she took off. When I found her she had grabbed her shirt and pulled it up her legs so that the neck of it was around her waist. She then would pull up the bottom of the shirt, tuck it under her chin. She was SO proud of herself!!

No news is good news????

Right? Ella had her bowel study, or whatever it was on Thursday, as we were leaving the lady that did the test said that they would have the report done today or tomorrow. Well, today is tomorrow and we have nothing. I called my peds office and they said I shouldn't worry because when something is wrong they usually get a phone call before they get the report, so the fact that they have heard nothing should be good. Does that help my anxiety? Not so much. And, Monday is a holiday, great. So, hopefully we will get the results by Tuesday which is also the day we visit the cardiologist.

On the up side, Ella is doing pretty good potty training herself, well the poop side of it anyway. After her barium enema they said to expect an explosion within an hour, well 4 hours later we were at Hastings, the bookstore, and Ella said "poop" and patted her diaper so I took her into the bathroom and she let out a tiny pebble. I wanted to cry, I was SO proud of her. She was sleep deprived, hungry, at a store, and had had an enema and still told me she had to go. I'm really hoping that she does not have Hirshprungs, obviously because I don't want her to have surgery, but this would also set back the pottying!

In Hunter news, my child is a genius : ) Or at least I think so. I had my first parent/teacher conference at his school. His teacher had only wonderful things to say about him, that he is very caring and helpful to all of his classmates, considerate, and just all around a joy. Also that she thinks he will be reading by the end of the school year (he's in Pre-K) and starting multiplication and division. What??? I still don't know my times tables, I'll blame Georgia schools for that one ha ha. Anyhow a 4 year old doing that kind of math, CRAZY. The kid definitely has a knack for numbers, beyond anything I have ever seen and is also a sponge and can memorize things instantly. Hunter is quite the amazing kiddo!!!

We have moved....

We are officially moved into my mom's house, hopefully to never return to apartment life again!!! When I was young and single living in an apartment was the way to go, but definitely not for two small kiddos!!! Last Thursday our apartment was broken into, I accidentally left the door unlocked, while I went to pick Hunter up from school. It took me 5 hours to figure out that we had been broken into : ) We had already moved our furniture and had things in various piles around, stuff in boxes etc. I sat down to eat dinner, I had been using a throw pillow as my table, and realized my pillows were gone. Two very lovely red pillows, covered in baby barf, slobber, snot stains. I thought I was going crazy. I even blamed poor Hunter, thinking he had hid them from me. I went outside to make sure I hadn't loaded them into the van and saw a bottle of my gel hair spray under the stairs. Hmmmm. I went back inside and looked under my bathroom sink and low and behold a basket with all of my hair products (I use a lot to control this crazy curly mess) along with some makeup were gone. SERIOUSLY???? Also gone a lamp, with a nice dented shade. If someone was going to be ballsy enough to break into a residence they could have at least stolen some boxes of already packed items so I didn't have to move them!!! Obviously not very smart people, in plain view were 2 piggy banks full of money, a small flat screen TV, an expensive camera.... All I have to say is there better be some girl out there with curly hair and pale skin getting good use out of my products!!!

Other than that the move went pretty smoothly. The kids are loving living in a big house with room to play!! It is so quiet here I don't know what to do : )

We still haven't hooked up our computer, Chris left Sunday morning for Texas to testify in a trial on a case he worked when we lived there. I opened the computer cabinet saw all the wires and decided to leave that for him. So, for now I am using mom's laptop and therefore have no pictures to post!

Thursday morning is Ella's bowel study, I guess she is getting a barium enema, to hopefully rule out Hirshprung's disease. Then next Tuesday is her appointment with the Cardiologist to see what they want to do about her PDA. Ahhh, gotta love all the appointments. Oh yeah and I went to the dentist today and had a lot of work done, so I am in a bit of pain. Well, that's it for now, hopefully I hear one way or the other on Thursday about Ella!!

Happy Halloween!

Of course I have a billion pics, I won't post them all but I have lots : ) BUT, first I want to tell you all that Chris, Ella and I were just sitting on the couch, yes I realize it was 11:30pm, trying to get Ella to sleep. Ella, mind you she is 2 years and 2 months and has oh about 3 words that she actually says, pats her diaper and says "poop," Chris and I kind of give eachother a shocked look and I ask "Ella, do you have to go potty?" she shakes her head yes, slides off the couch and walks to the bathroom. I take off her jammies and her diaper and sit her on the toliet. She pushes really hard, nothing happens and she laughs. I think okay well I guess she is just stalling going to bed. Then she pushes again and poops. I CANNOT believe it!! How smart is that??? I am so proud of her!!! She is leaps and bounds ahead of her brother at this age, which is just so funny for so many different reasons!!

Anyhow, Ella dressed up in her costume, an ANGEL, for school and they took them around to all the other classrooms and offices to trick-or-treat, it was so cute. Of course Ella was in her element, everyone that saw her said how cute/pretty/beautiful she is and she LOVES that!!!

Circle time at

school.

Riley the duck.

Trick-or-treating

Look what I

got!!!

Smooch break

Then we picked Hunter up from school, came home and got him ready for trick-or-treating. He decided he wanted to be a police officer again, big surprise, and wanted to wear his same costume from last year, score for mom!!! We met Mary and family at the mall and trick-or-treated there, have to say doing that at the mall turned out to be pretty cool!!!

Tough guys

don't smile.

Muscle man

smooch for

daddy

The gang.

Buddies!!

Hunter and

Rex

Fall pics round 2

I'm excited for Halloween tomorrow! Ella's school is having the kids wear their costumes to class and they get to trick or treat at school, should be really cute, I will definetly have my camera with me!!! So I will post pics of that tomorrow night. For now here are the rest of the pics I took last week...

I am not above

bribery, Smarties

work great!

Woo-hoo

My computer is back up and running!!! We have been really busy the past couple of days trying to get moved to my mom's house, all of our furniture is in storage, thanks to Justin and Mary for your help! We will be all moved in by Saturday.

I hauled Ella back into the pediatricians today, her reflux has kind of kicked itself into high gear. This morning she spit up but it was thick and she started gasping for air and I had to suction it out of her nose. Ugh. Her constipation is back after a brief time of being able to poop everyday, her little bum bleeds when she poops (more than you wanted to know I'm sure.) So, the official report from her Echo cardiogram came in and all was well except for the PDA, which looks small. Now her peds are wanting us to see a GI doctor, have a small bowel study and of course see a cardiologist. They are thinking she may have Hirshprungs disease, which of course has me worried. The doctor said if that is the case that it may be contributing to her reflux, as her stool backs up she is not able to digest her food quickly and combined with her low muscle tone it comes back up. So now I get to wait around for those tests.

I wanted to clarify something from my last post, I said that I hate Texas, which is true, but it's just the place I hate. While we lived in Texas we met some very wonderful people (Mrs Deena) that of course never would have been in our lives if we didn't live there!!!

Last week I took the kids out to take some pictures. I have been reminded living here how much I love fall. We went up by a park, the houses around there are older and beautiful with all of these great trees! I'll split the pictures up into two posts, so here is the first round....