Eli's Second Birthday Party

GUESS WHO TURNED TWO???

Happy Birthday to our sweet Eli! I love how head strong and determined this little guy is. He is SO loving at times, but wow is he strong willed. I love it! Just like his Momma! He turned two on the 30th, but we had his party the 24th. We did a bubbles theme with bubble machines and lots of bubble toys. It was a hit! It rained the night before, and finally cleared a little about 1 hour before the party was to start. I was sweating it! We kept it small and simple this year, because I honestly didn't have time to plan anything elaborate after we got through Tessa's surgery. I'll make it up to him next year.

Here he is evaluating the bubble machine:

Mrs. Gen and Hank
Best buddy Aidan. (Our neighbor)
Best buddy Marley. (This is the kids babysitter Mar-Mar)...She is part of the family that's our fabulous Charlotte family! (AKA neighbors across the street).
Eric's sister Lindsay, her husband Brian, and their two girls Lacey and Nora, were able to come to the party! We were so excited!!! They live in NY, and had been in Atlanta the week before. They changed their plans a little to come party with Eli, and meet Miss Tessa.

And this is why cousin Lacey had to change clothes before getting in the car to drive to Buffalo:-) The bubble machine was a hit.

Grandpa with Mrs. Anna and Mr. Bob. They are the kid's third set of grandparents, who live across the street. They are our Charlotte family!
Why does it appear Eli is eating the bubbles, and Drake is laughing?
Reese came to play!
Eric and Aunt Lindsay. (Yes, they look like twins; they're not. Eric is around 7 years older.)
Nora had to show her Daddy some of the bubble toys.

Sweet Anna came to play.

Who knows what Eli wanted here...
Our beautiful niece Nora.

Daddy to the rescue...the sandbox needed a refill.

Tessa has the cutest birthday party bow EVER!
Uncle Brian was giving Nora some smooches.
He wanted to get to those cupcakes!
Daddy lit the candles for us.

Blowing out his two candles. (There were three, until we remembered he was in fact, only turning two!)
Our sweet boy's cake!
These two were pretty pumped about the cupcakes, cake, and ice-cream.

Drake loves to walk the dogs.
Love my girl in her shirt, eating a pop-pop!
Happy kiddos!
A little bit of blue sky peeked out at us.
It started to rain as soon as we got to the park. There is a big umbrella we sat under, and I got this cool shot of the rain coming down.

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!