Pumpkin Pictures

We had Crystal Garcia take pictures of the kids a couple of weeks ago.  I was really sure if she was going to be able to get anything because my children didn’t exactly cooperate.  Shocker, I know!  So, since they were dressed, I took a few of Campbell and Larkin when we got home…here are the best…and they still aren’t great but oh well!

Let me give a little update on Larkin’s health:  We had tubes put in on October 18th.  We found out that she has the IGA deficiency while doing the routine preop blood work.  We were told that she doesn’t have the first line of defense antibodies to protect her from respiratory viruses.  So…guess what?  A week after getting Larkin’s tubes, we were back at Dr. Slusher’s office with a horrible cough and WHEEZING…again!  I feel like a broken record.  When I got in there, Larkin was, of course, smiling and acting like she was perfectly fine…why do our children always have to make us look like liars at the dr. office.  Anyway, I gave my spill.  She didn’t have a runny nose.  I heard her cough a few times wednesday evening, put her to bed, and she woke with a HORRIBLE cough and wheezing.  Dr. Slusher listened to her and said her lungs sounded great and she didn’t hear any wheezing.  SIGH…double SIGH!  Larkin never wheezes when we are in the dr. office.  It is so frustrating…to the point that I thought that I must surely be confused and maybe I really hadn’t been hearing wheezing.  Well, I was talking to Dr. slusher about the iga thing and she stopped mid sentence and said “did you hear that…keep talking…I am going to listen with my stethoscope.”  She listened for a few minutes and she said “yes…she is wheezing off and on all the time”.  And the angels started singing!!!!!!  FINALLY!  It wasn’t just me hearing it at home!  FINALLY!!!!!!!!  This wheezing has been happening with every illness but they haven’t heard it since the spring.  I, on the other hand, hear it ALL THE TIME!  So, she said that I needed to be tested to see if I have the IGA issue because it is hereditary…I don’t have it!  YAY!    So, maybe that means she will outgrown it.  Dr. Slusher is referring Larkin to Dr. Zambie for more testing and find out a course of treatment…if any at all.  In the meantime, she is on preventive breathing treatment twice a day to help prevent the wheezing…not the actual respiratory illness so she will still get sick, she just wont wheeze.  The reason wheezing is so bad is that your bronchial tubes are being squeezed so much that when oxygen is going through, you hear a whistling.  It’s bad because obviously, you don’t want your oxygen to be clamped off at all….and you don’t know at what point, the clamping will go past this point. Does that even make any sense?!  Anyway, she will be on the preventive steroid breathing treatment twice a day for AT LEAST all of winter…yay, because breathing treatments are my absolute favorite to administer to a baby! Ha!  AND, she is on albuterol (the normal steroid) breathing treatments three times a day for at least a week.   So, at this point, I feel like this is what I do:

Wake up and shower and get dressed, get breakfast for boys, nurse larkin, give her a breathing treatment (sometimes while I am nursing…I am sure that is a no, no), dress Larkin, dress the boys, fix boys lunch (on school days), load kids (and junk) in the car, take boys to school, come back home, give larkin another breathing treatment, put her down for a nap listen to her scream until I give in and go get her, clean up boys breakfast, try to eat some breakfast myself (whats the point at 10), start some laundry, nurse larkin, give larkin breathing treatment, feed larkin lunch (when I actually have time and she isn’t falling asleep from exhaustion of refusing morning nap), put larkin down for a nap, clean up around the house, wake larkin up (before she is ready to be woken up…so sad), load up car, go pick up boys, come home, give the boys a snack, cook supper, nurse larkin, give breathing treatment, feed everyone supper, clean up supper, bathe everyone, give larkin ANOTHER breathing treatment, nurse Larkin/put her to bed, go kiss the boys (while matt puts them to bed), finish cleaning up the kitchen, laundry, fold clothes, etc., Take bath, and CRASH!

I could probable sum it by saying that I feed children, administer medicine, clean and dress children, chauffeur children around, and clean house.  That’s it in a nut shell!  OR, as some people think, I twiddle my thumbs all day!

Wedding

On September 29th, my youngest brother, Lance, got married.  It was a very busy weekend.  On Friday, Matt’s mom came and got the boys.  Larkin and I went to the wedding site and “helped” decorate.  We rushed home to get the boys by 1.  Everyone took naps.  I got ready for the rehearsal dinner.  Matt came home and picked up Trigger.  Matt was a groomsmen and Trigger was the ring bearer.  They went to the rehearsal in West Monroe.  I stayed and fed Larkin and put her down.  Matt’s mom came to put Campbell down and stay with the little ones while they slept.  I left and went to the rehearsal dinner at Squire creek.  The pictures below are all from Friday/Rehearsal.  Trigger was so excited to spend some time with just Momma and Daddy.  He was “special” for a night.  He did get pretty tired towards the end and asked to go home and get in bed!  Ha!Seth and Vanna were at our table.Trigger got to open his ring bearer gift.  He got a watch and a wallet…he was beyond excited!!!!Me and Lance. 

I will have to post more on the wedding later.  I don’t really have many pictures.  It did rain pretty much the entire day and it was an outside wedding.  They did have tents though so that was good.  I can’t believe that Lance is married…I still see him as a little boy!

SOCCER

I signed Trigger up for soccer a couple of months ago.  He has never played any organized sports so I knew it would be interesting.  Matt got outside and practiced a few times with him.  Bless his heart, Matt and I don’t really know much about soccer…in fact, I have never really been a fan of soccer.  It is good exercise and I thought it would be good for him to learn a little team work.  The first game, I almost wanted to cry.  Trigger was so overwhelmed.  He had no idea what was going on.  The whole game was just completely foreign to him.  He teared up several times and just stood there and looked around like a lost little puppy for part of the game.  The momma in me wanted to go rescue him and just give him a big hug.  But, I didn’t!  As the game went on, he started to understand some of what was going on.  Little brother was TICKED off completely because he couldn’t go on the field and play.  Poor little guy!  It’s strange because for the first game, it was BURNING up.  The second game was FREEZING!  That’s Louisiana weather for you!

Trigger has had a cheering squad for each of the games….Aunt Jennifer and Chelsea came to one of the games. I have to say that I think his absolute favorite part of soccer is….THE GATORADE!

And, it’s little brother’s favorite part too! Ha!This game it was rainy and cold…Campbell and Larkin were sick…so zizzy kept them in their car…it was parked right in front of the field so they still got to watch.  Campbell was excited because he sat in the drivers seat the entire time!

We have one more game left…it has been a great experience for Trigger.  He’s gotten some exercise and learned a lot about soccer.  Maybe he will want to play again in the spring!

Larkin- 9 months

Whew…time is FLYING!  We are busy, busy, busy and time just won’t slow down.  You were 9 months on September 6, 2012.  I took some pictures of you that day so I could remember what you looked like on your 9 month birthday!  I feel like there is so much to tell about this month.  Let me see if I can remember everything.

Stats: 16 lbs. 9 oz. (14th percentile) and 25.5 inches (4th percentile) and 44.4 cm (62nd percentile)….Soooo, you are obviously petite with a big head.  Haha! 

Clothes: It really varies depending on the brand but I would say that 6 month dresses fit you the best.  If it is a bubble, you wear 9 months.  In pjs, you have moved up to 9-12 months.  You have the tiniest feet. You still wear 0-3 months shoes. You can wear your new 3-6 months shoes but they are too big for you.

Teeth:  In the last month, your left fang tooth has come through AND your two top middle teeth. 

Health:  You have been sick for the entire last month….with upper respiratory and ears.  Your ears have been infected the entire four weeks.  We have had you on three different oral antibiotics AND 3 rocephin shots AND 2 steroid shots and none of it made the infection go away.  So, last week you had tubes put in your ear.  We have also discovered during the preop bloodwork that your IgA antibodies are very low.  These are the antibodies that your body is supposed to have to help you fight respiratory infections.  This pretty much means that if you get a runny nose/common cold, it will turn into a respiratory illness.  We haven’t met with Dr. Neal for our post op appointment…he is going to talk to Dr. Slusher to come up with a plan of treatment.  Dr. Neal did tell us that it would me more aggressive treatment as soon as a cold comes on and not let it run it’s course like they usually tell you for a virus.  When I went to Dr. Slusher this past week for Trigger’s ears, we briefly discussed Larkin.  She wasn’t overly excited about this discovery but did say that this did explain a lot about why she has been so sick during her first 9 months of life!  Campbell had had the test done also back in May when he got tubes.  His numbers were a tad low but still in an acceptable range for his age.  Dr. Slusher couldn’t find Trigger’s numbers and would like him tested because it is hereditary.  I’m fairly certain that she got that from me since everytime my nose runs, it goes STRAIGHT to my chest….dr brantley always wanted me to have that test run but just haven’t gotten around to it! Sorry, little girl!

Sleep:  Larkin rarely takes two naps…it just never works out…she usually gets one nap a day.  This four week long ear/resp. infection has gotten us a little out of a napping habit! Slowly but surely we are getting back into the routine.  Larkin would like to be in bed by 630 but that doesn’t always happen.  She sleeps until 7 or 8 in the morning. 

Eating:  She is eating great.  I am a horrible mother.  I always forget to feed her food.   She nurses all the time!  But, it seems that we are always on the go and I forget to feed her food.  She gets one (maybe two) meal a day.  I am still making all of her food.  She eats the traditional fruits and veges.  She has also discovered that she really likes to eat what we are eating so I usually give her bites of my food.  Physical:  Larkin is BUSY!  She is crawling EVERYWHERE…from room to room…all over the house.  And, she is now pulling up.  She likes to go, go, go.  And she loves the playroom.  I am thinking that we are going to have to do some cleaning out of boy toys soon and make room for Larkin’s toys.  I love these next three pictures…she was throwing a royal fit because she wanted down out of the chair.check out the tears!She still sucks her thumb.  At some point, she switched from her right to her left thumb.  I think that happened around her 7 month.Absolutely love this outfit.These pictures of Larkin with her baby doll make me smile every single time!Her sweet, tiny foot!

Glad I got this 9 month post in….it’s almost time for her 10 month post.  I must, must get better about blogging on time!  And, I must start working on Larkin’s first birthday party.  I need to start coming up with a theme!  Oh my goodness…you have NO idea how much we love this little girl.  She has been such a blessing to us!!!!!!