Foto Friday 2, vol. 9 - Easter

We hope you had a really nice Easter!

We spent the day and evening with our friends (who are our neighbors) and their family. Such kindness and generosity was shown to our family and we are so grateful to have been included in their family's celebration.

The day was wonderful... a delicious dinner, great company, a super fun egg hunt and lots of talking, laughter, and chasing kids. Oh... and an earthquake! (Yep, we felt the 7.2 quake... and for a moment, everyone thought perhaps they'd had too much wine! It was the strangest sensation I've experienced in an earthquake. Thankfully, the kids didn't notice the ground rolling below them!)

There were several highlights to the day. Several. But, I believe the one that really stands out for me is when Gracie wanted up from her chair toward the end of dessert. She sat with John for a moment and then lunged toward me. She sat with me a moment and then made her way around the entire table by leaning toward the next person. When she got to the end, she made her way back, stopping a few times to go back and forth between certain people. She was socializing... communicating... being part of the action in the way she best knows how - - by touching their hands to her face and sitting close. I loved seeing her check everyone out. I loved seeing her "introduce" herself to those she didn't yet know and love on those whom she already knows well. And I loved watching everyone love on her.

And now, for the pics...

What's Easter without a little mommy-playing-photographer torture?!
The obligatory "photo shoot" before we left the house. Let's just say they weren't overjoyed about mommy having her camera out... yet again!


Easter Egg Hunt
John helped Gracie find a few eggs. Then she scooted out of the sun, tucked herself under the play structure and sucked on a hard-boiled egg! Check out the dye on her lips in the top left picture!
Preston was very focused! I think he gets his fierce egg-hunting skills from my brother as he was a little man on a mission...

... on a mission, that is, until Addison created a diversion by showing him the candy inside the plastic eggs! Such a smart girl!

Taking a break from the hunt to enjoy a treat!

This Year's "Ears"
It was fun watching Gracie snag eggs from Addison. Addie would empty the candy and Gracie would snatch the egg... so cute to watch them interact!


Going for a drive


Running hand-in-hand.
They ran several laps and played for hours in the backyard.
(Thankfully burning off all that sugar!)

Back at home... Easter surprises from Mommy & Daddy, Nana & Papa and our kind friends, Danny, Jackie and Dave
Miss Gracie was ready to strip! She had spent the whole afternoon and evening in her clothes (great job, girlie!) and was not going to enjoy the fun at home without stripping off her shirt at the very least!

"Ears" Gone By...

Super corny post title... I know! I just couldn't help myself!

Here are some of our favorite Easter pictures from the last several years.
We are making new memories with dear friends today and we are wishing all of you a very Happy Easter!

2000
Sophie was such a good sport!


2003
In the NICU - - Gracie was 4 days old


2004






2005


2006
Also Gracie's 3rd Birthday




2007


2008




2009

Foto Friday 2, vol. 8 - a visit

John's sister, Kristen, and her family were in town this week. It was so nice to see them. Now that they're gone, Preston wants to know what time his cousins are coming over. Sorry, Buddy... they had to go home!

Kristen (aka, Auntie NuNu) and Gracie.
Remarkably, she kept her clothes on long enough for this picture!

Preston and Tyler playing at the beach

Austin and Tyler helping Preston dunk!

Austin showing Gracie his video game.

Austin climbing the avocado tree.

Uncle David, Auntie Kristen, Gracie and Grandpa John.
(Gracie was less than thrilled to still be dressed, but humored us for a couple of pictures!)

Uncle David to the rescue!
He learned how to sign "shoes off" and "socks off" and then helped Gracie take them off. This, of course, made her very happy!

Auntie pitching some balls to Preston

Preston, who loved playing with the big boys, also loved having an audience for his stories of monsters and dragons.

(Somehow, John managed to stay out of all pics taken with our camera! Grrr...!)

Happy 1st Birthday, Jack!

Happy Birthday, sweet little boy! We can't believe you are already ONE!!!



Have tons of fun, make a big mess with your cake and frosting and make sure your mommy and daddy take lots of pictures!!! We love you so very much!

Next year, sweet nephew, you'll have a baby sister at your birthday party! :-)

This is more like it!

Thankfully, the trend of healthy, happy kids (and parents!) has continued for six straight days now! We've had fun, busy days with some wonderful moments captured on my cell phone.

Tuesday after school...



"First I'll try to pick it, then you try."

After a trip to Walmart...



Much needed haircuts on Thursday...



Cute as can be!



Friday after school...

Oh, Bubba... how did you get so big, so fast?

Saturday morning...

It might be a blurry shot, but the joy in Gracie's face is clear!

On our way to meet friends at the park Saturday afternoon...

Preston was so excited that he didn't even protest getting in the stroller! Gracie actually wore those sunglasses to the end of our street... a record! And, all three of us had so much fun playing with our friends!

Foto Friday 2, Vol. 7 - Catch-up

I wish I could say that it's been smooth sailing since I last updated... it hasn't.
The pain from Gracie's ear infection (and the remaining congestion from getting over pneumonia) got the best of her on several days throughout the last ten and (by my estimation) helped induce the migraine that plagued her from late Saturday afternoon through Monday evening. Thankfully, she has now had three really good days in a row - - the most successive "good days" she's had in over a month. It's been a really rough stretch since January. On Wednesday, she finally returned to OT and PT for the first time in three weeks. Dare I say (or even think) I see the light at the end of the tunnel?!

Preston returned to school on Tuesday for the first time in two weeks. I probably could have sent him on Friday, but after a few hours of play and activity last Thursday, he was exhausted and I just didn't see the need to push it. He's now very much back to his old self - - and has new "all boy" bumps and bruises to prove it! He's got a scary-close-to-his-eye shiner on his left eye from getting tangled up with a bike on Saturday evening (my fault... I should have stopped him from trying to chase the big kids) and a bruise/burn/scrape on his right cheek from getting to squirly on a slide with his friend. This "boy" stuff continues to yield me gray hairs and wrinkles weekly! Oy!


Needless to say, with all the ick in this house, I have neglected Foto Friday (amongst other things) for a month. Here are some of the better moments from the last several weeks... with some more to follow in the next few days!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!
John's birthday was February 28th. When he got home from work, we had dinner and then a very low-key celebration with a chocolate chip swirl cake (too sweet for frosting!) made by the kids and me. The hat was quickly fashioned as the candles sat on the cake at Preston's insistence!

Leapin' Lizards
We have lots of lizards in our area... lots. As much as Preston enjoys watching them scurry on our backyard wall, he's not overly fond of being too near them. John caught a little one a while back and helped Preston get a closer look.

He's still not convinced... and I am so glad! I do not look forward to the day when he wants some cold-blooded pet, or worse, a rodent!
(A lizard got in the house the other day and Preston, in one giant leap, made it from the floor to the seat of the chair, all while screaming that there was a lizard in the house. As he screamed about how scared he was, the baby lizard froze in fear. I stuck a tupperware container over it and waited for John to get home and rescue all of us!)

Can your toes do this???
Recently taken during what we affectionately call "Gracie Yoga," I have hundreds of pictures like these. Gracie's feet can do amazingly flexible things! Her big toes are more like opposable thumbs and she can bend her other toes every which way. Sweet, petite feet, indeed (size 6 toddler shoes at nearly age seven), but super-powered in their own right!

An afternoon with Papa
The afternoon before Gracie was blind-sided by pneumonia, Papa was here for a few hours. He hung out with Preston and played (rough-housing, soccer, tennis... you name it!) until Gracie got home from school.

Once Miss Gracie was home, she settled into her favorite spot in the world. (And he was afraid she'd forget him when he was in Afghanistan for a year... ha!)

While the boys are being silly boys, Gracie's content with Papa's dogtags in her hands.

Oh-so-very sweet!

Update #2 - This, too, shall pass... right?!

Um... don't even know where to begin.

- Preston is still sick... still has a nasty cough, his fever finally broke on Sunday and his tummy is still bothering him... everything he drinks and eats (not wanting to eat much still) goes right through him (TMI!). He hadn't thrown-up since Friday around 3:30pm... until tonight at 7:30pm... what?! We were, in vain, trying to get him to eat some dinner. He whined, "I can't... I'm too sick." I said (in all my mommy ignorance, thinking he just didn't want to sit at the table), "You're still sick, Bubba, but you're not that sick."
To which he responded by throwing up all over our kitchen floor... twice! Poor little dude.

- When I got Gracie out of the car from school on Friday, I noticed she had blood in her left ear... what?! Never have had that experience - - after easily over a hundred ear infections - - so I was startled. I cleaned her up, fully inspected her ear with a flashlight and it seemed to have stopped. I thought maybe she scratched herself or got scratched. It was back again Saturday morning, so I called the doctor and he said that it's clearly infected. I told him she's never had blood drain out her ear from an infection and he said, "It's common, ma'am." Oh... so that should make me feel better about it? I was appalled that he didn't want to see her right away.
I took her in today to have it looked at. He suctioned it... forever. She hated every minute of it. He said, as though I couldn't tell by the amount of suctioning he did, that it was a terrible, terrible infection. He put in an antibiotic-soaked sponge, prescribed ear drops and yet another oral antibiotic. (On the latter, I informed him that she's been on "everything under the sun" over the last 28 days... her bottom could really use a break... was it really necessary to start her on another antibiotic when she just ended a course of a different one this morning? He said it was. Mommy is so sorry, Gracie Girl... for you and your very, very sad bottom.) He also pulled the "almost out" tube from her right ear and did a tympanogram... full of fluid. Ugh. We go back in ten days.

The good news on all this... with the exception of sleeping more than usual over the weekend, you'd have never known anything was bothering her.

- Like a good little boy, Preston shared with his mommy and I had to call John at work on Saturday around 2:30pm to tell him that I was pretty sure I was getting the stomach portion of his "ick." By 3pm, I had it... full-on. By 4:15pm John got home and I spent the next several hours getting well-acquainted with the fine details of the tile and grout on our bathroom floor. I was incredibly weak all through Sunday, but rallied to take care of the kids for a couple of hours while John went to the grocery store and Blockbuster.

Let me just say this... as bad as I felt (worst stomach flu I can remember as an adult... every muscle in my body still hurts) it hurt my heart far more to realize that my little man had also felt that bad, not to mention that Gracie feels that bad all too often. Not that I needed the reminder, Preston... please don't feel compelled to share again, little man. (And, please, please, don't be going for round two as I type this. Let that incident earlier tonight just be a fluke.)

- Like a good wife, I shared with John. He woke-up today feeling green. He was "lucky," though, and didn't actually get the full-blown ick. Just a very wimpy version of it. He spent five hours in bed, rallied for a while and then turned in early tonight.

- So, Big Swann is sleeping it off. Little Boy Swann is asleep, hopefully sleeping away round number two. Little Girl Swann is supposed to be asleep. Instead she's giggling in her room and watching, "Signing Time." Thank goodness for small favors!

A little levity and an update

Fact of Life:



After Monday and Tuesday...
even the calendar says

W T F

My mom sent me this a few weeks ago...
It made me laugh...
I hope it made you laugh, too.



For the second week in a row, a little Swann woke up in the wee hours of Wednesday night as sick as can be. This time it was Preston. Fever, barking coughing like a seal and too congested to sleep soundly. By just after midnight Friday, he was throwing up every hour and as of late morning still can't keep any liquids down. He's resting next to me at the moment, watching "Dora" and trying to be brave even though he's super sad to be missing school and his friends. We are headed to the doctor at noon... where I am so thrilled, again this week, to sit on the "sick side" and breathe in even more of the community's current "ick" with one of my children. Before getting back into the car, we will go through a full decontamination process that might rival what would be done at Three Mile Island! The last thing anyone needs around here is to pick up another bug.

I am super happy to report, though, that Miss Gracie avoided the hospital and is on the mend. She woke up this morning with a twinkle in her eye that's been missing for days. While talking with the school RN this morning, I was told that everyone there also noticed that her sparkle was back. Yay!

Each day this week has been small step toward recovery. On Monday night, she gave me her special hugs and asked for kisses... the first real spontaneous communication we'd seen in days. She attended school on Tuesday for the last three hours of the day and fell asleep in the car less than ten minutes after I picked her up. She was pretty quiet Wednesday and Thursday, not working much at school, and napping at home in the afternoons. We've skipped all her therapy appointments this week and hope to return to her full routine next week.

Thanks to everyone for all your well-wishes, emails, comments and prayers. Needless to say, I am so behind on responding to emails, reading blogs, etc. Please know how much we appreciate all the love and support you show our sweet girl and us... it means more than you know.

Pneumonia

For the third time since her heart cath in January, Gracie's really sick. This time it's pneumonia. Our girl can't seem to catch a break. Ten (most of which were busy and wonderful) days after ending her course of Cipro for a completely different kind of "ick," she's down for the count again. Big Time.

She woke up around 1am on Wednesday night (Thursday morning) with a 103.1 fever and violent retching (her fever has since reached 104.2 but seems to have leveled out in the low 102s now). By Thursday afternoon, though I couldn't yet hear much in her lungs, I suspected she was brewing pneumonia. Something about the way she was "presenting" reminded me of how sick she was a few years ago. On Friday afternoon, her doctor confirmed it in her right lung... base of the lobe... so likely not an aspiration pneumonia. He gave her an antibiotic shot and prescribed a ten-day course of yet another antibiotic which she started today.

So far, we've been able to keep her at home (thanks to all the equipment that we have on hand) and my ability to keep up with breathing treatments, chest percussions, hydration, etc. Her "team" agrees that as long as she's not any worse, it's better that she's not in the hospital where she'd be more uncomfortable and likely get sicker from exposure to all the other "ick" there. If she sounds any worse, starts having lower oxygen saturations or seems to be struggling more despite her numbers, I will take her to the ER. My biggest concern is her hydration (she's retching all the time) and her CO2 levels. In the past, she was notorious for working hard to keep her sats up and then suddenly down-turning because she'd retain too much CO2. (Doc also gave her something for nausea in the hopes that it will become easier to get fluid in her, though I don't think it's made a dent.)

This is the first pneumonia she's had since July of 2006... and that was the onset of heart failure prior to her third open heart surgery. Her heart looks good, so this is "just" pneumonia.

Here she is last Sunday (Daddy's birthday) chillin' on her favorite bench at the park.
It's amazing how fast things change.
Hopefully, those drugs kick in and she is back to herself again, ASAP. I miss her.