Surgery

Tayton had surgery today. He has had reflux since he was born. He didnt gain any weight as a baby and spit up EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME!! They thought it might go away by the time he was a year, chalking it up to reflux after they did countless CAT scans and MRIs and xrays and could find nothing. They didnt want to do an endoscopy or colonoscopy till he was two. When he was 18 months and nothing had changed, the poor guy threw up everytime he burped and if we were late on a dose of medicine he would throw up whatever he ate, they decided that it might be a twisted asaphagus and would need surgery to fix it. He has been a trooper and doesnt hardley ever cries, except at night when he is asleep and its painful and then the poor guy whimpers in his sleep A LOT, it makes me so sad to hear it, I want to go in and hold him and make it all better. So today was the magical day, he is finally two and they could go in and see what was wrong. If it was the throat they would fix it with a quick surgery.

Tayton came through surgery fine. He didnt even cry when they put him out (he did convulse a lot and his eyes rolled in the back of his head. His breathing got really labored and made me want to cry. They did warn me about all of this so I was prepared but I still wanted to cry) He didnt cry when he woke up or when they pulled the tape off and took the IV out. He was a trooper, they were going to keep him out until after they took the IV out, but I knew he would be fine. He woke up before hand anyway and they gave him a popsicle and blew a bunch of bubbles for him while he adjusted to being awake. He was so sweet. I just held him and he snuggled in close, not ever uttering a peep. The took the tape off (and there was a TON of it) and then pulled out the IV and he just layed there watching them do it all, again never making a sound. Everyone commented on how amazing he was and how he was the best 2 year old they had ever worked with. The anesthisiologist kept telling me that he would fight it when they put the mask on and so we would have to hold him down and not to be alarmed. When he got into the OR they put the mask on (which had bubble gum flavor on it) and the tech pulled out his Iphone and put on some cartoons for Tayton to watch and narrated it for him while he held the mask on. Tayton didnt fight, he didnt budge he just held my hand and layed there. Such a sweet sweet boy. Everyone in there was blown away by how well he did. I had no less then 10 people come talk to me to tell me how amazing he was and how they had never seen a 2 year old so calm and sweet. It was proud to call him mine.

 After the proccedure (which I could follow on the awesome digital board at sunrise hospital, well I could only see a break down of what was happening in writing) the doctor came out and showed me the pictures and told me what he saw. So it turns out he didnt have a problem with his throat like they originally thought (which would have been a quick one time fix). His throat and stomach are fine but his intestines are all messed up. The villa are dead and missing in places and his intestines are very inflammed, they also think they saw some ulcers but they couldnt get close enough too them with out puncturing through the wall. They did do some biopsy's and should know more by friday. They are leaning towards ulcers  and ulcerative colitis (this would also explain a lot of his other symptoms, like painful swallowing, random fevers, rashes, lack of weight gain, and malnutrion) and/or celiac. If its ulcers they need to figure out why he is getting them (probably from the ulcerative colitis, but again why? and what to do to fix it? diet? ect.). So now we went from a quick fix, to a life long illness that will not be fun to have or lots of meds and pain off and on (remission and withdrawls) for the rest of his life. I am anxious to find out what the test results show. I am glad that we are on the way to figuring this all out for the poor guy, but Im sad for what the future may hold for him. In the picture you see his (from top left to right) asophagus, stomach, and then his intestine, In the bottom left picture if you look on the top center you can see one of the ulcers (its a little pocket looking thing)nand then if you look for the little tiny pockets of white villa (kind of litle the suction cups on octopus's tenticals) you can see some sections of them and some sections where they are missing.

He got a cute little gown and socks and he kept telling me over and over again while rubbing his tummy, "I cute!" yes my dear beautiful baby boy you are.

They had a tv in his little room with Mickey Mouse playing so he ran around saying "Toodles" "pluto" and "donald" over and over. Everyone who walked by told him how cute he was and he told them all "Hi buh bye".

 There was a very awesome room with lots of toys in it for him to play with while we waited. We walked around the floor in a car and then he played with a bunch of toys, that he had all to himself without anyone he had to share with. He was in 2 year old heaven. It was so fun to watch and get to spend time with him and not have to take time out to help or listen to his brothers. Its so fun to get to have my kids in some one on one time. It sucked that it was a surgery that made this one happened, but I really enjoyed spending time with him non the less.
I love his cute little diapered bum sticking out of his gown.

 I love to see him consentrate on things and to watch them work and function. I can just see the wheels in his mind spinning so fast trying to figure out how it is all working. He loves to carry things around with him, he puts as many things in his arms as he can, and he also uses his mouth as a hand too,

 I just adore this little man! I want to squeeze him and hug him and kiss him over and over and over again. He smells so yummy, he is so soft and warm and sweet and his hair is so fluffy. I watch him and hold him and I dont want it to be over, I dont want him to grow up so fast, Im not ready for this sweet little learning stage to be over. Before I know it he will be married and gone with his own little men (and women) so I better just enjoy as much of him for as long as I can.

 He loves to tell us to go, go, go! When we are driving, if we are stopped at a light or in slow traffic he will say "Momma (or dadda)" and when we answer he will say "go, go, go". when he got in the car he immediately started to yell GO GO!!

 His poor little hand was so swollen after he got the IV out. The picture doesnt do it justice, the poor little man had a big swollen pocket sticking up from his skin.

Random bits

So I woke up with my hair all a fright and the first thing I thought when I looked in the mirror was that I looked like Bellatrix Lastrange, apparently I love Harry Potter a little too much.

My sweet high maintance beauty. So happy and letting mommy take pictures. But wait, take out the binkie for less then 10 seconds to snap one itty bitty quick shot and she gets very upset very fast. Apparently nobody told her that her mother likes to take lots of binkie free pictures. I think she was mad at me for a bit. Luckily she got over it, eventually.

My beautiful beautiful angel

My sweet baby girl is 6 months. I cant believe it! I cant believe that six months ago I was going into the hospital to have what I was told (what I hoped so badly in my heart was true) was a baby girl. My sweet Aowyn has changed my life in ways I cant even explain. I never knew I wanted you until I had you. I cried tears of pure happiness when they did the ultrasound and I found out you were a girl, my sweet girl that I never knew I needed. I cant imagine life without you, I cant imagine looking into another set of little girl eyes and being so in love. I adore her! I am possessed by her wonderfulness (is that a word?) She gives me a future of bows, nail polish, princesses, tea parties, barbies, jewlery shopping, dress shopping and wedding planning. She is our princess, her brothers most prized possession. They are so in love with her. They call her Princess, Wee Wee, Wynee and Sissy. They love her with a love I have never seen then ever give to each other. Dont get me wrong they are great brothers and love each other so much, but they love I see them have for her is so different, some how protective and graceful.

For our babies 6 month birthday we give them a half birthday cake and let them go at it. Its a fun tradition and always one that the rest of the family enjoys as well. It took Aowyn a bit to get into it but as soon as she did, she was in chocolate cake heaven. I told Noah I knew exactly what kind of cake Aowyn wanted, A chocolate one. He laughed and asked me how I knew that, my reply was "She is a girl, and girls love chocolate."

 Her brothers had to get in on the cake fun too. Luckily Aowyn was almost done and didnt mind sharing.

At 6 months
 Aowyn has now cut her first tooth, bottom middle right tooth.
She rolls over, and every where and ALL the time.
She loves her baby.
She loves to smile and laugh and giggle
She loves rattles and toys that make jingly noises (such a girl). She is our first kid to love stuff like that so much, up until her I always wondered what the jingling facination was with babies.
She loves to wear her bows and her shoes. She gets super smiley when I put them on and truthfully (much to my love) fusses when she doesnt have her bow on.
She loves to be held and cuddled but also loves to be on her own.
She tries to get into everything and loves to play
She loves to talk and talks all the time. We went to the movie with her the other day thinking she was going to sleep but instead she talked THE WHOLE MOVIE!!! We kept telling her to stop talking. I think she just liked Chris Hemsworth character, she must have thought he was cute, because every tiem we turned her towards us she would crane her neck to look back at the screen and just jibber jabbered on and on.
She loves baby food and is a little piglet. She eats and eats and eats. She also likes to spit, so feeding times are lots of fun and messy.
She eats like every 2 hours, every other time is breast and the others are bottle. She does do more bottle now though because she wants to eat all the time.
She is our chunkiest baby and shortest baby. She is 25 inches and 13 pounds. (only 1.5 inches bigger then her two oldest brothers were AT BIRTH). She has thighs for days, and a booty that doesnt quit and I LOVE IT!
She is So high maintance. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. She is the PERFECT baby and never fusses unless she is hungry, sleepy, pooped or gets hurt. But you have to figure out what it is and exactly how she wants it. Breast or bottle or baby food. Nap in bed or rest in her bouncer. Lay on the floor to play or jump in her jumperoo. ect.

Basically we love this girl and our family wouldnt be complete with out her. She makes our brood a much more peaceful group (if thats possible)

Kindergarten graduate

Okay, so can I cry for a minute? I mean really full on sob because the time has gone by so fast. When did this little baby, become this almost 6 year old? Somewhere inbetween all that time he became an awesome big brother two 3 younger siblings. Somewhere in there he learned to ride a 2 wheel bike and how to swim. Somewhere in there he learned how to read and write and talk like a little mini adult, make his own sandwiches (and ones for his brothers) and how to cook food in the microwave. He learned about earning money and doing chores and how to save money for the future (he doesnt like it and we are still working on it) I cant believe it! I am in shock as to where the time went. My baby is not a baby anymore. He is a big boy! A smart boy! An Independant boy! A little boy who loves his mommy with all his heart and thinks Im the greatest thing ever.

 He got an award for knowing over 50 sight words, 57 to be exact. He actually knows lots more then that but he is a very nervous, anxious, adhd type test taker. He doesnt focus enough and doesnt trust himself enough when he is testing. It took us a long time to get him to answer his own questions with confidence and not wait till his friends answered (and usually got it wrong). It was really hard putting him in a local Las Vegas school because the school system is so bad here. His teacher got cancer and was gone in the first month and he got a new teacher who had never taught kindergarten before, so needless to say this year was an adventure. Im so glad we are moving and dont have to deal with this school system anymore.

 Landon loved his teacher Ms. C(chrapynski). She didnt really know how to teach kids who actually listened and wanted to learn. She spend most of her time of kids who needed ALOT of help, so the "average or above average" kids kind of got swept to the wayside. Landon had to sit at a table by himself during tests because he was always done before his class. In his mind he was being punished, she didnt handle it very well. She was good but was for sure still learning.

 Our kindergarten graduate!!! So proud of him and his hard work!

 Landons best friends from kindergarten: Charlie Smith, Kendrick and Landon

 Tayton had to jump in on the picture taking fun too. Now we get to move onto full day school next year. I am very ready for summer and for being able to spend time with my handsome man before he leaves me for almost 7 hours a day. GAH!! Im looking forward to it because I know he will LOVE it, but Im not at the same time, Poor Braddoc is going to be so lost without him.

Alaska (part 3) Family time

We went to Alaska for 3 weeks, which with 4 kids was WAY to long, but the best part was that I got to spend so much time with my four favorite little people and with my super wonderful favorite guy. It was nice to get to spend so much time just enjoying the kids and not having to worry about cleaning everything, and working on homework, and cooking every night, and running errands, and being a single parent. It was a blast to be with them all. I love watching them grow and learn and just be kids and have fun, so it makes it even better when we dont have 5000 other commitments we have to keep all at the same time, it take a lot of stress out of parenting. It was nice to go and even better to come home and be rejuvinated and ready to tackle the next few crazy weeks we have ahead.

Aowyn was a bit terrified of Mimi at first. I love the look that they both gave each other. We left Aowyn with her one night to take the big kids to Red Robin for some big kid time and Mimi called and you can just hear Aowyn (the baby who hardly ever cries, but is also very high maintance) SCREAMING in the back ground, and oh yeah the great and wonderful parents we are, walked off with the wipes, so poor Aowyn is chilling in a poopy diaper and Mimi had to use a wash rag to clean her up. Ahh memories!!!