Eli's First Haircut

This beautiful boy just had his first haircut about a month ago. He has since had it cut shorter so it stands up a little better. You'll see what I mean if I ever get to blogging Charleston.

Pre-cut:

The back pre-cut:
Big sister supervised.
And big brother refused to get his cut.
Eli wasn't too happy about it at first.
But then, they busted out the lollipops.
He had a taste...
And all was well!

Cell Phone Photo Dump

Here a wide variety of photos from the last 3-4 months.

Out with friends in March. I survived 27 months of grad school with these girls!

These two (Eli and Tessa) are finally getting along better. They were fighting a LOT! They had ice cream sandwiches a few weeks ago, and when I peaked down below the deck, they were sitting together like this. Too sweet!!!
One day when I was picking up the kids from preschool, this is what I found in Drake's room. It's so cute to see him being such a big boy in circle time. Makes me realize how fast he's growing!

Tessa being her sassy self.
Our sweet little Eli. His eyes and smile light up my heart.
Here is one of Drake's Valentine's crafts from school. The idea was to glue the candy hearts on the paper. My future engineer/architect built parallel towers instead. Little genius!
Three amigos watching funny youtube videos together.
It isn't often Eli still seems like a baby. I love this picture, because all you can see are sweet chubby cheeks as he rubs his tired eyes. LOVE!
Big girl likes to help wash dishes.

Between us going to China, and not seeing him for five days after Tessa's surgery, Drake is crazy attached to me. We went to a monster truck show for some Mommy & Drake time. He loved it, I hated it. But I'm sure we'll go back.

We had our first trip to the pediatric urgent care center, but didn't need stitches.
Even though it looked bad!
Drake's three year well check.
"The princess and the power tool".
That's it! I still need to blog Eli's first haircut, his birthday, and our Spring Break fun!

Tessa's Surgery

Let me take you back to last February. When we first reviewed Tessa's file from China, one of her medical needs was listed as "archostenosis". We'd never heard of it. The international adoption pediatrician we consulted suspected it was a poor translation of anal stenosis, since her file also said she had anal dilations as an infant. We honestly didn't know what was awaiting us in China, as far as her medical needs, but trusted God would give us whatever we could handle. The first couple of months home were crazy busy. Regular pediatrician, ENT, ophthalmologist, urologist, ultrasound, Echo, MRI, contrast enema. Every single Thursday I took her to an appt after I dropped the boys at preschool. I knew from her first diaper change in China that she would need surgery on her bottom. Or, at least I hoped she would. Our worst fear is that we would take her to the pediatric surgeon and he'd say there was nothing he could do for her- which meant she'd always be incontinent of stool. As parents, we wanted more for her. She deserves it. We rocked her world and dragged her halfway across the planet, we really wanted phenomenal medical outcomes for her.

Well, cue my favorite person on the planet, Dr. Dan Bambini. One of the perks of working at a large Children's Hospital is knowing precisely who you want to operate on your child. All of our pediatric surgeons are great at different things, but I knew Dan would be great for Tessa's surgery. What she ended up having was an anorectal reconstruction with postsaggital anorectoplasty. In short, her bottom is all fixed, anatomy is normal, and we should be able to start potty training this summer. The surgery went WAY better than we could've expected. Going into it, he said there was over a 90% chance of a colostomy. Him and his partner, Dr. Cosper, agreed just minutes into the case that she needed it. But by the time they were winding down, they agreed it was a textbook, picture perfect repair, and she could skip the colostomy. Huge PRAISE!!! I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God was all over her surgery that day. The surgery and anesthesia both went perfectly. She spent 4 days total in the hospital, and you would never know anything was ever wrong.

She still has other non related issues, like strabismus. We need to patch one of her eyes to correct that. She does have some abnormal shaped vertebrae, which we will soon see a pediatric neurosurgeon about. He doesn't think it needs any surgery, but he wants to do a baseline exam on her. Another perk of my job- having a surgeon pull up my kid's scan and go over it with me, all without an appt:-) So, that's an update on our sweet girl. She is adjusting and attaching, and things get better every day. She is truly a joy and I'm so happy God put the desire to adopt in my heart, and gave my husband the heart to agree. I have even more respect for him, seeing him as a "Father to the Fatherless". Tessa is a Daddy's girl, and they are such a cute twosome! Here are some pictures from Tessa's hospital stay:

In pre-op holding: She pulled that little wagon all around after this picture. She even pulled it TO the OR, and it was adorable. I went with her to the OR, which is not standard, but hey-there have to be perks to working here. She was such a big girl breathing through her mask, and went to sleep beautifully.

Outside the hospital at night. This was actually the night we were discharged.
Laying with Daddy a few hours after surgery.
Oxygen monitor
Central line (Big IV in her neck)
Asleep in the pediatric recovery room. We were there about an hour after surgery.
She only wanted Daddy. And Morphine.
The Morphine worked:-)

She wasn't supposed to be laying on her bottom, so I put her in the nest of pillows.
Why do kids always flip horizontal?
Her beautiful pillow and blankie that her Grandma made.
Another Dilaudid induced nap.
WE ARE GOING HOME!!! Best picture from our hospital stay. Her surgery was Feb 15th, and we went home the 18th. We are so happy to have it behind us!

Winning

I'm obviously winner of the world. I have all three kids asleep for naps, in one hotel room. Booyah.

And there is a new quote of the decade, soon to go up on the fridge at home. "It is better to cross the line and suffer the consequences, than to spend the rest of your life just standing and staring at the line."

I've been all about crossing lines and setting boundaries lately. And it feels really good, I've just got to tell ya. I've been telling the TRUTH about how I really FEEL, and it's liberating.

You should see our three stinkers in the pool. They absolutely love it! The next session of swim lasts thru mid June, and all three are taking lessons this time. Then we are going to take a break for a while, probably until fall. We bought our day passes for Great Wolf Lodge, and can't wait to take the kids back, but this time the outdoor water park should be open. We also are in the process of buying our season passes to Carowinds, and I know the kids will all love the water park this summer. I somehow still have plenty of vacation time left, even after taking leave for China, staying home with T for a while, and then her surgery. One place I can assure you we will be this summer is at my parents pool!!! I may not have any time off come September. We also want to get down to my aunts lake house and beach house some.

In between all of that, it's time for me to finally get in shape. I've now watched and trialed a cross fit class, and LOVE it. Once we get back home from Spring Break, I will do the six class foundations series, then I can start going to regular classes. We still have a family membership at the Y, so I went there last week to have all my measurements done. I wanted to know how many inches I lose/gain, and my body fat percentage. I will check them all again in three months. Interestingly enough, I've been thinking about how much fun it would be to take boxing lessons. I know- strange, right? But it would be!

With a full time job, and three young kiddos, there just aren't enough hours in the week. I think Eric may do cross fit with me, and we will have a babysitter while we go. We get pretty much zero time together, so I think that would be fun. And we are instituting a new monthly date night!

We should have Eric's student loan paid off in the next few months, and then we are down to just two debts we are working hard at paying off. The next is my student loan, and then we are tackling our home equity line of credit. Then we have to take a serious look at where we are going to live long term. A HUGE factor is if the kids win the lottery with magnet school assignment. That would make it harder to move out of the county. But, Eric's work is in Mooresville and Statesville, so that makes us want to move up to the lake. I am glad these decisions are a few years away, because they are hard ones.

Well, I hope you all (meaning Michelle) have enjoyed this little blog update. It is not often I'm in a quiet hotel room with three kids sleeping, and nothing else left to do.

Spring Break!

After a fun filled afternoon at their grandparents, we are on to the best part of Spring break!!! Three days in Charleston, and I can't wait to have fun with my three sweet babies. The three stinkers had a blast playing at Grandpa's pool, with all their aunt, uncles and cousins. And then they slept late, which was an added bonus. We got on the road after lunch, and hope to be checked in by 330. We have family pictures at 4pm, and then we are going to putter around downtown. Tomorrow is the aquarium, the beach, and angel oak tree. And my parents arrive:-)

Tuesday is a boat wildlife tour to Capers Island, and I know the kiddos will love it. We head back to Florence late Tuesday so Tessa can have studio portraits done Wednesday morning, and then it's home sweet home. I love visiting my parents, but visits back "home" make me ever so thankful for our real home. And thankful for our amazing friends and family in Charlotte as well! We have amazing people in our lives, and our children's lives, that are daily reminders that family is much more than blood.

Eli is up from his nap now, so duty calls!

For Michelle...

An update is in order. So here goes. Life is busy- very busy. Great, but busy. And at the end of the day, I'd simply rather sleep than blog. 3 kids three and under are quite busy. Did I mention our house is a little busy? The only reason I'm blogging tonight is because I'm at work. Love slow nights here! This is the biggest trauma center in NC, and some nights that is painfully obvious. Then there are nights like tonight, where we all get a little breather.

In any case, after the kiddos birthdays, January was pretty status quo. The boys went to school twice a week, and Tessa and I went to a bunch of doctor's appointments.

After we got home from China, Tessa had her first appointment with our pediatrician. She had a couple immunizations and a lot of blood drawn. We love our pediatrician, and he spent so much time with us that morning making a game plan. We've since seen a pediatric ENT twice, and had a hearing screen. The audiologist *thought* she had moderate hearing loss, but I seriously doubt it. She understands everything we say, and already says about 15 words. The ENT wasn't concerned either. We've seen a pediatric urologist after her abdominal ultrasound was done. He was not concerned with a mild kidney abnormality, and we'll see him back in 6 months. Since we are friends, he's just going to do an ultrasound himself at her next visit. If all is well, we'll be released from him. We've seen a pediatric opthamologist to evaluate a possible lazy eye, and she was diagnosed with mild strabismus in her left eye. That's just a weak eye, and can be fixed with patching the other eye. All of her blood work came back great, and that left us with her main issue, the "rectal stenosis". I knew with her first diaper change in China that her "anal stenosis" was something more complex. When we got home, I made an appt for her with my favorite pediatric surgeon, before we even saw our pediatrician for the referral.

We saw Dr. Bambini (pediatric surgeon) the beginning of January, and he said he thinks her original diagnosis was imperforate anus. She never had surgery, (we don't think), but will never know for sure. They did anal dilations for sure. I was so happy to have an official diagnosis. BUT, he through me for a loop. First off, he wanted an lumbar MRI to rule out a tethered cord. He also wanted a cardiac ECHO to rule out any heart defects. And, a contrast enema to evaluate the length of her colon. And the kicker was he said he was pretty sure she'd need a colostomy to let everything heal. And then another surgery 8 weeks later to reverse the colostomy. Oh.My.Goodness. I was one big ball of stress. She had to have anesthesia for the MRI, but it went great. And the results were negative for a tethered cord, although some other abnormalities did show up. Her ECHO showed a small defect, but nothing that will even need follow up. The contrast enema showed a beautiful colon:-)

We saw Dr. Bambini again the end of January, and got her surgery scheduled for February 15th. It was going to involve two days of clear liquids, and a bowel prep the day before surgery. I was not excited. About the prep, or the surgery. We were looking at 4-5 days in the hospital. Nothing to eat or drink, foley catheter, and central line for 3-4 days. Yuck!

Well, it all went SO much better than expected!!! Her surgery itself, an anorectal reconstruction, went awesome, and there was no need for a colostomy. We were SO shocked. He was over 90% sure he'd do one, so we just couldn't believe it when he came out of the OR after just 3 hours. The next few days in the hospital were tiring, but honestly just fine. We had GREAT care, and were very pleased with our entire experience. But nonetheless, we are happy it's behind us. My parents were very gracious and took the boys for 5 days while we were in the hospital with Tessa, and got her settled in at home.

That pretty much sums up February! March has been nice with some warmer temps, and we have enjoyed lots of time outside. And plenty of time with crafts and paints. It amazes me how much these three LOVE painting. Tessa has started childcare on Tuesday mornings at church, when I go to my women's lifegroup. It's been nice b/c she gets time to play with other kids, and I get some Mommy time. Plus, she cries when I leave which is a GREAT sign when it comes to attachment.

Drake has been SERIOUSLY and MAJORLY attached to me since we traveled to China. He refuses to sleep in his bed, and doesn't want me to EVER leave the house. Even if I just go for a five minute errand, he wants to come with me. He has a new teacher at swim school, and is now screaming at his lessons. He also used to love playing at our neighbors, but is now hesitant to go visit. I am so flattered that he loves and wants his Mommy, but he is seriously like a barnacle. I know that this is also just a phase, and will pass. But any positive thoughts you could send our way would be great for our sweet boy. He LOVES his sister, and is upset she can't go in his class at school, or to swim lesson with him. He also climbs in her bed every night to give her a big kiss goodnight. So sweet! Despite his drama, he is doing well at school. One of his teachers just got home from China today (from picking up her new daughter!!!), but the other one told me last week that he's doing great and talking all the time now. He used to be shy and quiet, but I guess that's over. I love getting there a minute or two early and watching him sit sweetly in the circle for whatever circle time activity they are doing.

Eli is my sweet little baby, but GEEZ is that kid head strong and stubborn!!! He's been like that since birth, so I don't know why it surprises me anymore. He hates getting his diaper changed, hates putting clothes on, and hates his sister to take his toys. He LOVES daddy's tools, and being outside. He also loves popsicles. Like, really loves them. I quit buying them and just started buying frozen fruit and making them myself, with fruit and juice. They all like to help make them, and really love when they are done. Eli is finally starting to get along better with his sister. They play together well *most* of the time, but still do fight over toys frequently. He has pretty much quit biting. YAY!!! Eli talks up a storm, and has the cutest little voice. I was just talking with his teachers about how much him and his classmates have grown since September. It's truly amazing.

That's a recap on our three crazy kiddos. Overall, life is great. We are busy, but I am learning to let everything but the essentials GO. If they are fed and safe, the rest is details;-)

We have Eli's birthday coming up, and a trip to Charleston during their spring break. Plus two nights to visit my parents, and family pictures. Exciting! I will try to put some pics up, but don't hold your breath.

Birthday Party Fun!

Okay, so back over a month ago was Drake's party! Here are some pictures, although in reverse order.

After the party, all the cousins:

What's going through Tessa's head: "Crap, what have I gotten myself into! These people are crazy with a capital C!".
Opening presents at the party
Loving the ice-cream
Mommy and Daddy helped Drake blow out the candles. Turns out he didn't need us. (Sad face)
Obviously, she wanted more juice.

Oma and Opa were here from Buffalo!

Sweet lil' Baylor!
Tessa went down this slide no less than 20 times.
Our friends observing how times have changed;-)
Cheese pit! Drake was loving having his cousin to play with!
Oh, I heart this little face. My sweet baby.


And we marched!
And ran under the parachute...
And had an all around great time!