Where The Boys Are

Taken in February 2009, this is one of my favorite pictures of my two men.  At least once a week, this is my view of them (Preston much taller, of course) as they head out to do whatever it is my boys do!

Whether it's the park, errands, Disneyland, GoKart World, some secret boy adventure (that's not secret for too long, LOL!), or just hanging out, they always manage to have loads of fun. As they headed out to have lunch with one of John's co-workers on Monday, Preston took on a very big-boy posture (his gait was determined and confident) and he said good-bye to me in his deepest voice possible. It struck me how big he is... even though he is only four and a half... today.

Yep... today my little man is officially four and a half... headed toward five at the speed of light.  And it's really hard for me to believe that it won't be all that long before "TieBreaker" will be holding John's other hand as they all head out the door together.

There's not much photographic evidence of their outings... they're too busy to stop for many photo-ops, especially lately... but here is what they've been up to in the last several months.

I love that they got to do this together, though, I must admit, I am pretty jealous that his first professional sporting event did not include me!  There will be many more professional "firsts" that I will be a part of... baseball, basketball and soccer!

They regularly visit the Honda Cycle Shop... Preston has his rides all picked out!  Every time we drive by he asks if we can visit his motorcycle.  Now that Daddy has one of his own in the garage, riding that down the street with him is even more exciting!

Daddy needed his work boots shined and Preston got a little sprucing up on his cowboy boots!
I LOVE this!  They are so cute! :-)

After school beach dates with Daddy... even if for under an hour... are a favorite.  It doesn't hurt that they often include yummy treats like ice cream or a visit to the juice bar!

Boys and their gadgets!
This one is funny and terrifying all at the same time!
They are both completely unaware that I took their picture!
Clearly, it's a new generation.  Preston knows how to navigate through our phones, play the game apps we've set up for him (very handy in waiting for doctors!), read stories, watch his favorite YouTube videos, etc. 

Parades, Parties, Pumpkins... Oh My!

There was a lot of celebrating the last four days of October... a lot!

• Gracie's school had a Harvest Parade on Friday morning.
• Preston's school had a Halloween Party on Friday night.
• Our friends had a Pre-Halloween Party on Saturday night.
• We made Jack-O-Lanterns before we had our younger neighbors (and families, of course) over for Pizza and Pics before we Trick-or-Treated on Monday.

Gracie's School Parade

Gracie ~ as her real-life Super Hero, her Papa ~ complete with tank & Army gear!!  :-)
(Minus her boots and camo-face!)

Gracie spent a good part of Friday morning getting her picture taken by teachers, students and parents as the classes paraded through each room and then in front of the crowd of eagerly waiting families. 
She, and her decked out chair, were a hit... though she was definitely tired by the end!
Pushing Gracie is her wonderful aide, Robin. Next to Robin is nurse, Charo, whose last day was Friday.

Some of Gracie's friends and classmates

Preston's School Party

Preston and Mommy (with TieBreaker, of course!) on our way to Preston's school party.
Preston as Super Hero Avenger, Captain America.
Mommy as a witch... yes, it's a costume, not my uniform!  LOL!

Preston with his friend, Lola
Sweet...

... Sassy and Scary!!!

Jack-O-Lanterns

She, who used to have a goal to "tolerate five novel sensory tasks,"
goes to town scooping out pumpkin guts and feeling the slime!
 Preston, on the other hand, only touched for a second in an effort to prove he is as cool as his sister!

Please note the following:
- He is still ambidextrous... no true preference has emerged
- He got to draw his own shapes and do some "big boy" carving
- He is definitely his father's son!

Checking out her work

Armed and ready to carve!

Daddy's creation on the left, Preston's on the right.

Gracie's "Mr. Pumpkin Head" with our mini-pumpkins

"Bump-O-Lantern"
Yes... that's my "bump," at 23 1/2 weeks, painted as a jack-o-lantern by John with an assist from Preston!
Yes... I'm still sure there is only one baby in there!

Halloween Night!

Adam (Batman), Preston (Captain America), Addison (Strawberry Shortcake) and Daniel (Spider-Man)
All these kiddos on one street!  So fun!

The boys striking their best "Super Hero" pose!
Addie looking fabulous and adjusting her wig!

Daniel's little sister, Bella, in the only picture I could snap before she ran by! 

The kiddos with our awesome neighbor (and good sport), Diane.
She looks so cute!  :-)

Gracie loved having our friends over on Halloween. 
She was not, however, thrilled when it was time to leave!
These pics were the extent of her time in her costume. 
She started disrobing before we ever left the driveway.
As per usual, Daddy and I divided and conquered...
He stayed with Gracie while I took Preston out (or, rather, while I chased Preston)!

The whole crew... all friends living on the same street ages five and under!

Irvine Park Railroad

Last Sunday we took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Irvine Park Railroad.  
Unless he's on vacation, John works every weekend, but thanks to a scheduling snafu, he had Sunday off.  We realized that, with our busy schedules, it was our only chance to go to the pumpkin patch as a family.  This is one activity that I don't want to "divide and conquer" - - it's a family must!  So, we braved the crazy Sunday crowd and headed to the beautiful Regional Park.

We picnicked...

We spotted a lady bug...

And played with her for a long time...

Gracie spent at least 15 minutes staring at the lady bug.
I'm fairly certain it was the highlight of the day for her!

(I fiddled with my camera, which has either gone completely bonkers with the settings or is on it's last leg.  Every picture I took is grainy and has terrible color.  Considering it's a pocket digital, nearly five years old and has taken at least 25,000 pics, I'm guessing it's nearing it's shelf life.)

John and his "mini-me"
lead the way into the pumpkin patch...

Seriously... look at them! 
Look at their legs - - the way they step, the angles of their feet.
Look at the position of their hands and the way they swing their arms. 
Two peas in a pod.

We played with the pumpkins...

I compared my bump to a pumpkin!

We attempted some family pictures...

(I fiddled with my camera some more)

Too much glare on Preston's face here...

Too much glare on John's face here...

Cute... but for the glare (and my grainy camera issues)!

We took the cheesy, obligatory "face-in-wood-cutout" pictures...

The kids rode the "pony"

The pony/horse ride line was excruciatingly long, so the kids rode this instead. 
Neither of them minded too much as they weren't that keen on waiting in the line.

We went through the Hay Maze  (no pics!)

Preston played carnival games...

He won an elephant for Gracie and a sword for himself.
He then proceeded to beat her elephant with his sword!

We had some fresh-spun cotton candy...

(the only way cotton candy should ever be eaten!)

Gracie was fascinated by the texture, but because of said texture, refused to taste it.
I was so sure she'd love it... maybe we'll just have to keep trying!

We picked out some pumpkins

(and I forgot to use the coupons in my pocket... ugh!) and headed out...

It was a great family day...

(even with the huge crowd that made Daddy a little crazy!)

And the tie goes to...

We are absolutely overjoyed!
Our little tiebreaker looked great in the "big ultrasound" on Tuesday.

The tech and perinatologist were wonderful... both very sensitive and professional. Though baby boy didn't cooperate and give many good looks at his face (he crammed his little self against the wall of my uterus and put his hand in front of his face nearly every time we tried to look!) and was not in an ideal position to get the perfect view of his heart, the perinatologist did not see anything alarming and just wanted us to follow-up with our fetal echocardiogram as standard precaution. Such a relief.

We chose not to find out the gender during the scan and, instead, had the tech put the info into an envelope for us. John had a "girl" vibe all through the ultrasound and after. I haven't had a gut instinct at all... some things about this pregnancy were making me think girl, some boy. When the tech told us to look away if we didn't want to know, I was thinking "boy" because that is so much more obvious on the scan. But, because John usually has pretty accurate instincts, I wasn't sure. For the last 7 weeks, Preston has only said the baby was a girl once. Otherwise, he never wavered with how sure he was. If you asked him what's most important, he'd say, "Healthy." If you asked him what he wanted and what it was, he'd say, "A boy." That evening, when we gave him the ultrasound picture, he was so excited when he read, "Boy!" Though, really, he already seemed to know. So cute!

John and I peeked at lunch after the appointment. With a poker face, John looked first. He handed it to me and as I read, "It's a Boy," I burst into tears of joy which then set off a chain reaction in John. We didn't "care," as our only hope, of course, was for a healthy baby.   That being said, it's simply perfect and wonderful that Preston gets the baby brother he so badly wanted (and was so sure of all along) and Gracie gets another fierce protector in her corner.

Baby Boy's profile.
It's clearest shot we have since he wouldn't cooperate when they tried to get the 4-D pics!

The tie goes to the boys...
but Gracie and I know who holds all the power! :-)

Little Girl Attempts Kidnapping of Dolls In Front of Witnesses

In an attempted kidnapping last week, Edna and Baby Boy, were, by all accounts, lucky.  The two innocent dolls were snatched from their home on a quite Tuesday evening.  The assailant, Gracie Swann, was bold, committing the crime right in front of witnesses, both family members and neighbors.  She showed little regard for authority and no regard at all for her victims.

Cell phone images taken by eye witnesses were finally released yesterday. 
The accused, who will be entering in a guilty plea later today, is seen dragging the victims from their home with only the clothes on their backs. 

Once outside, the kidnapper is seen happily smiling at Edna, whom she sat up against the brick planter, only to throw her aside just a moment later. 

She then left behind the blonde Cabbage Patch doll, and continued on with Baby Boy (whose twin doll-sister, Baby Girl, was left inside, unharmed, but shaken from witnessing the kidnappings). 

Swann dragged Baby Boy down the front walkway and, after repeatedly being confronted by witnesses as to her actions, blatantly discarded the doll in the dirt, attempting to feign innocence.  

Fortunately for the victims, there were several eye witnesses and enough photographic evidence to charge and, surely, convict Gracie of the crime.   Thankfully, the dolls were not injured, but according to authorities, the victims report to have hurt feelings for being so easily tossed aside. 

20 weeks... and trying to keep my nerves in check

I am officially 20 weeks pregnant. 

And, yes, I am sure there is only one baby in there!  :-)

With the exception of a scary episode of dehydration following a nasty allergy/asthma/hive attack (ironically on the evening we went "public" with our baby news), things have been going swimmingly.   I was in constant contact with my doctor (who was so great and even about to drive over to our house when I couldn't reach John at work) the night it happened and continued to be through the weekend until I saw her again.  She took a good look at me and the baby and determined that things still look great.  We even saw our little Tiebreaker wave at us on the screen and my doctor printed it a picture and wrote, "Hi, I'm good!"

Up until the last five days, I had been pretty easy going... not too hormonal (aka emotional or irrational) and not in too much discomfort.  In fact, I'm too busy day-to-day to really remember that I'm pregnant (other than running to the bathroom a lot, needing to eat more often and not being able to bend over quite as easily), that is, until the end of the day when I am absolutely zonked from going non-stop for 18 hours straight!  Easy going... until Monday. 

I was a tightly wound on Monday.  (My heartburn also kicked in with a vengeance... even water is bothering me... but that's really not the point here.)  I was like a ticking time-bomb... looking at me wrong could have been the end of you!  Going through the busy day helped keep me in check a bit, but by late afternoon, I couldn't even have the radio on in the car on the way home from Gracie's therapy.  Too many chances to hear a song that would set off the waterworks.   Then, as if the universe knew I needed an intervention of sorts, we came home to find a very special piece of mail with a gift and note from a dear friend who, as usual, has the perfect timing, the perfect heart, and the perfect piece of wisdom to give me some perspective.  It took until Tuesday night for the perspective to fully sink in... it wasn't so much my raging hormones causing the emotional and (perhaps, irrational!) behavior, as it was my nerves.

John and I are both incredibly nervous for "the big ultrasound" next week... and the fetal echo cardiogram two weeks later.  And it's justified.  It's not just about Gracie's history... because we know that CHARGE Syndrome recurrences are rare - - about 1-2%.  It's about the 2-3% chance that anything can go wrong.  It's the knowledge that Congenital Heart Defects are so much more prevalent than the general public realizes.  It's about knowing way more than parents should have to about genetics, fetal development and statistics. 

It's also because Preston's "big ultrasound" was a disaster.  Over an hour on the table with the tech going back and forth over the baby's anatomy and trying to pretend she wasn't focused on the heart.  John finally told her, "Look, we can clearly see where you're focused, will you please tell us what's going on."  She said she was being thorough and would show everything to the perinatologist, who would then come in, too.  A few minutes later, the doctor came in and started scanning, again focusing on the baby's heart.  It was then that our world temporarily shifted.  She said she was 93% certain (yes... she used that specific of a number... so entirely unprofessional) the baby had a major heart defect.  (Our fetal echo wasn't scheduled for two more weeks.)  With a colorless face, John took my hand and assured me he wasn't leaving me, but that he needed to leave the room for a moment and get some air.  The doctor looked at me, wondering if he really was coming back.  I reminded her that, just the day before, we had brought our daughter home from the hospital following her third open heart surgery.   Of course my husband needed a moment.  He came back... with a bit more color in his cheeks... wearing a grim-trying-to-pretend-to-be-calm expression.  

Because of her certainty, we chose to do an amnio right on the spot... it had not been our intention to take that risk unless justified.  Because we wanted to focus on something other than what might be wrong, we also chose to immediately find out the baby's gender.  (I had wanted to wait this time.)  We didn't need the amnio for that... our little man was proudly spreading his legs and showing off his parts.   As I laid on the table while watching them do the amnio, John and I were reeling.  We had only brought Gracie home from her third open heart surgery yesterday.  How could this be happening?

Thankfully, our cardiology group didn't want us to wait the two weeks until our appointment.  But, being that it was only a few days before Christmas, there wasn't anything on the schedule and some of the docs were on vacation.  The next day, our wonderful cardiologist called us and asked if we could meet him in the office at 8am before he left for the airport... otherwise, we'd have to wait until after the New Year.  It was, obviously, a no-brainer.  His kindness and compassion during a terrifying time will never be forgotten.  He was still in town, but his vacation had already started the day before.  He didn't have to see us... but he did. 

Needless to say, neither of us had slept much since the ultrasound.  Waiting for 8am felt like an eternity and it was the longest appointment ever.  He was so thorough and agonizingly quiet.  Finally, he explained what he saw... he explained what he think the tech and perinatologist saw... and he explained that they were, in fact, wrong.  There were a couple of things he wanted to monitor over the next couple of months, but he also very pointedly said that our baby boy's heart looked normal for the current stage of development.  (John wanted to rip apart the perinatologist for her lack of professionalism... as did my OB, as did our cardiologist, as did everyone... even my new OB.  The perinatologist never should have put a number on her suspicion.  She never should have gone that far... rather, she should have told us her concerns and contacted our cardiologist.  Then we could have decided how to proceed.)   Needless to say, the news was a huge relief.  But, I never fully exhaled for the rest of my pregnancy.  Until Preston was in my arms and his first echo was complete, I never truly felt sure that he was okay. 

So... our nerves are justified.   All of that stewing in the back of my mind is how I got so tightly wound.  But, we (okay, more me than John... but, still, we)  need to pull it together and focus on all of the positive things instead of the what-ifs.   If there is one thing that we know, it's how many positives there are - - even in the smallest of things - - regardless of the "what-ifs" and what actually "is."  Our daughter, and all she teaches us, is a constant reminder of that.

Still, I will be glad when October 11th and October 28th are behind us.

Knock on wood

Quick... before I "say" it... knock on wood... or do whatever superstitious thing you do...

Done?

Okay... so...

School started five weeks ago today.  There was a rough nine day stretch (the worst of which fell over a weekend) that required significant adjustments to Gracie's feedings and an overall reduction in what was expected of her due to her energy level and how she felt moment to moment.  Thankfully, she was able to rally through her school days - - because, as you know if you've followed along here, the less she eats and the less she sleeps, the happier she is and the better she feels.  Anyway, even with those rough nine days, she has not missed any school.  for. five. weeks.  That's a record folks... for her entire school career.  Five weeks straight.  No absences.

Knock again.  Thanks.

Update:  Today (Thursday), Gracie received an award from the school Principal for... Perfect Attendance in the month of September!  Her first award... and so special because it was an amazing feat!  :-)

'S' is for... Survival Test

Just two months after starting swim lessons (for the first time... and very little pool time prior to that), Preston took his advanced level survival test at his swim school.   He was "bumped" or "tossed" (however you word it, it was a surprise to him) into the pool in his street clothes, including shoes, and had to roll to his back and find the side of the pool.

Receiving his ribbon after getting out of his wet street clothes

The week before, while swimming at a our neighbors' house, he had two separate, unexpected slips into the deep end of the pool (I was right there, of course) and he reacted as he's been trained... flipped over onto his back and floated while kicking and finding the wall.  (Terrifying for me to watch, but so grateful he knew what to do and actually did it.)    So, the next day when he had his first attempt at the survival test, I expected he'd pass with flying colors.  He almost did, but with the shock of being bumped into the water with his clothes & shoes on, he overcompensated when floating on his back and arched so much that he put his head back under water.  This is not uncommon, especially for a new swimmer who has fear (because, generally, four year-olds are much more aware of fear than toddlers).  Anyway, he had a lesson in between (so he'd be surprised again) and on August 25th, he passed with flying colors and everyone in the pool cheered for him. 

Taken during a lesson a couple of weeks ago, wearing something on his legs to help him remember to kick without bending his knees so much.  I love the look of determination on his face.  It's hard to believe that just two months ago, he refused to put his whole face in the water!

***(If you are having trouble playing the videos, right click on the video pic and choose, "stop download." 
For some reason, that will help you access the option to click play.)***

Besides the swimming, I love this clip because he just received instruction from his instructor and then happened to turn around and unexpectedly see a friend from school.

He is now totally unafraid of the water, retrieves rings off the bottom at a depth of around five feet, is working on learning backstroke and swims the entire length of the pool repeating "eyes in, four big arms, roll to your back for a breath."  Considering his limited pool exposure until June of this year (mama guilt for that... but not really in my control), he has progressed amazingly well... and is already asking for a pool when we buy our next house!