Last days of August

Just some misc pics from the end of August. The kids are loving their new classes at church! They are so excited each week to come home and sing their new songs for us...and of course dance, too:) It's amazing how well they know the songs.

Kassidy is really into taking pictures. She'll ask to take just 1 picture, but always ends up taking a bunch! Some of her pics are silly, but some really aren't that bad!

She tried to catch Kaleb doing his summersault
Trying to get a smile
No smile, but managed to get a funny face:)
Little too close-up of Karson
Her beautiful toenails

Her best one...The kids just love to goof around in the playroom.
Showing off his fish faceThere's never a lack of love, or hugs, for Karson
Our friends moved back from Charleston (they were there 2 yrs for school) so we had a cookout...actually we had to have a cookin becuase it was raining. Oh well, still had fun:)

Todd with Karson eyeing his drink
Kassidy was practically in Brandi's lap the whole time!

Thanks Brandi for being such a good audience for the kiddos:) Of course we have done other things, too, just don't always remember my camera! We made a special trip downtown after church one Sunday to play in the childrens fountains. Kassidy and Kaleb had a blast running and playing in the water! Karson even liked getting his feet wet. I forgot the camera at home, but did have the video camera with me. Too bad the memory was full! We had some great trips to my sisters house recently, too. Busy practicing riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline.

Family fun

Who doesn't like making fresh brownies right?

Great help stirring, but no tasting of course!

One BIG taste for Kassidy:) Loves chocolate like her mommy!

Lots of chocolate chips and mini Reese's pieces, and I mean LOTS:)

Zoo with cousins Sara, Alex, and Evan

Proud of my family pic that I took:)

I promised to show you the finished product from the first day of Kindergarten so here it is!

Playing Simon Says...Kassidy definitely gets how to play this one, but Kaleb hasn't quite figured it out completely. He knows to say Simon says whatever and then do that...but doesn't understand how you get out. He just decides all of sudden that you're out then laughs!


Walking in mommy and daddy's shoes...always cute!

Big boy slept thru the fun Keith always has fun throwing Kaleb around (he's so light!) Monkey see, monkey do!
Our first baby, Jack has had many visits to the vet lately. Poor baby had 2 compressed vertebrae in his neck a few wks ago, who knows how this happened. Luckily he made a full recovery without needing surgery!! He got a spider bite (at least they think that's what it is) had a reaction to it and it's swollen and hard now. If it doesn't go away in 2 wks they'll cut it out...poor Jack! He's doing great though:)
Daisy looking goofy

Kaleb's progress-1 month

First feeding, 1 month ago

Now
I know it may be hard to tell in the pics, but Kaleb has definitely put on some weight. His face is noticeably fuller, his chest/stomach are fuller, and he's starting to get the slightest little love handles. I love it!!!!! I've also noticed some tiny leg muscles starting to develop.



We met with the nutritionist yesterday and he's up 1 1/2 pounds (way less than my $15 Target scale said at home) but none the less it is progress:) Even with just a 1 1/2 lb weight gain his BMI jumped from the 2nd percentile to the 12th...that's a huge jump in only a month! I've noticed a big difference in his energy level, too (I always thought it was fine, but now he's very active all day long) and he's definitely getting stronger. Usually when one of his friends bump into him they knock him to the ground, but now he takes it like a champ and is still standing! No change in height yet but the nutritionist is sure it will make a big jump soon, too.



I also noticed that his clothes are starting to get small...yes, small!!! I can't believe it! He is FINALLY growing out of his 24 month clothes! He's been in them so long I can't wait to see something different on him:) He's moving up to 2T shorts, 3T pants (for length, waist will be big), and big 2T or 3T shirts. I brought some clothes home a few days ago that a friend let me borrow and Kaleb was SO excited! He let me try on about 5 different shorts/pants and then demanded to wear red sweatpants the rest of the day (even though it was 93 outside!) Guess he's really excited to see some new clothes, too:)



Long story short, I got ahold of the lady in charge of a feeding program at The Univ of Virginia (which is 180 degrees different than the Marcus Institute) and she said we need to get Kaleb's whole body desensitized before we can work on feeding. (He definitely has some sensory issues) Anyway...we have an eval for OT next Friday. The OT will probably focus hard on sensory stuff for awhile, then move his feedings during the day (to get him used to hungry/full feeling), then work on feeding. It's all a process and this feeding clinic gets to the bottom of the problem for not eating, fixes it (or makes it better), then works on feeding (instead of just trying to make him eat). It makes a lot of sense really. They have great success with kids like Kaleb so we'll see!



Kaleb's eating the past few weeks had really dwindled to basically nothing, just water and sips of his milk. Well, this last week it picked up again. He usually will eat around 10:30 (half waffle) and then again around 4:30 (some yogurt or cheese). He still only takes sips of his milk but will drink plenty of water. The nutritionist said again that this is fine because he is actually full from his feeding over night. Once we switch to the feedings during the day he'll slowly become more hungry. Oh, and we're sticking to 2 boxes of his drink/day (not the 3 she originally said) because it seems like it's enough right now for good weight gain.

So, there you have it! More info than you probably wanted. We're just SO pleased with how well Kaleb has handled everything so far and how the long tube doesn't even phase him during his active days. He is such a big boy and a real sweetheart:)

Kassidy's 1st day of Kindergarten:)

As you can see, Kassidy was VERY excited about starting big school:) She's been asking for weeks when school starts and I finally got to say today (which was yesterday). Keith woke her up at 6:45 and she said "Why did you wake me up so early?" Even though we've been practicing waking up early for a week now it's still hard for her to actually do. She got dressed (of course picked out her whole outfie), hardly ate breakfast (too tired), and did her hand print with me (my sister Kelly's cool idea...grab a baby handprinting kit, do the morning of their first day of Kindergarten, and put a picture on the other side of the frame). I'll show you the finished piece once I print out a pic.

We took some pics outside, of course she wanted a picture of her backpack, lunchbox, and pretty nails too:) Do you notice she likes to use 3 different colors now??? Such a girly girl!

Keith dropped her off at school while I got the boys up and ready for the day. Keith told her to turn around for a picture after she got out of the car, but she just said bye dad and walked away! Miss Independent!!!

Kassidy gets to ride the bus home every day, which was her idea by the way. The bus stop is only a house or two down the street so it's very convenient. I waited and waited and finally the bus came, only 15 min late. I should've known it would be late the first day! Anyway, I started to get nervous because other kids got off and no Kassidy. So, I started walking closer to the bus and I finally saw her, smiling so big:) She hopped off the bus and ran to us (Kaleb and Karson were with me) and said "I missed you so much" with a big hug!!!So, home we went...Kassidy ate 2 snacks and vegged out with a movie for a little bit then started talking about her day. She said she walked to her classroom all by herself, she sits with 2 boys and 3 girls at her table, everyone is really nice, she played with her friend Jillian and the other girls all day, they walked around the school on a safari, she had fun with the grown-up boy (gym teacher), she played on everything outside on the playground, she ate almost all her lunch and all of her snack, the teachers liked how she wrote her name, and big school is a lot of work! That is more than we usually get out of her after preschool.

Kassidy is looking forward to going to school every day and riding the bus, too:) I don't think she realizes that school isn't open on the weekends yet. I'm just SO proud of my big girl for having such a great first day!!! (Daddy, too!)

Tuesday was Meet the Teacher. Her teacher is Mrs. Harrison and her teachers assistant is Mrs. Forthaus. Mrs. Harrison has been teaching for 25 years so she's very experienced! They were both so kind and sweet! I've already received numerous e-mails, which I love, telling us all about their day, class schedule, important dates coming up, etc.

Here's Kassidy outside her room, #4.

And in her seat (a little shy first meeting her teachers)

That's it! Off to a super start for the year:)

New post below

Please scroll down below Kaleb's update for Karson's 5 months post:)

Kaleb update-2 wks after G-tube

Well, Kaleb is doing a great job with his tube! He is back to his normal self, running around, jumping off the couch, climbing on playset, etc. He had to stop sleeping on his tummy because the tube is so big right now, but has done just fine sleeping on his side. When you give him a hug he turns his body to the side so you don't bump his tube and when you pick him up he puts his knees up to protect it...its funny how it's just an automatic response.

Kaleb gets to eat/drink as much as he wants during the day and whatever he doesn't drink gets pumped into the tube when he goes to bed at night (and ends when we go to bed). Our goal is to give him a total of 3 boxes of his drink total each day. The first week he was drinking the usual 1 1/2 boxes so we only had to pump in 1 1/2 boxes. The past few days he has really decreased the amount of milk he drinks during the day, down to only 2-4 oz at the most! And that's with a lot of work on our part!!! That leaves up with almost 3 boxes to pump in at night. So, the first night we tried 2 boxes at a rate of 200/hr. Well, that was too much too fast and he threw up everywhere! The next night we tried 2 boxes at a rate of 150/hr and he did just fine. Last night we moved it up to a rate of 165/hr (2 boxes) and he still did fine. So, just taking it slow and gradually building up to a bigger amount.

Kaleb doesn't eat much breakfast anymore (usually his best meal) but does eat his normal lunch and snack. (of course consisting of either a waffle, 2 mini pancakes, string cheese, or some yogurt) We know the reason he's not eating/drinking very much is because we are filling up his stomach late at night and he's just not hungry.

The good news is that he is getting more calories than he ever has and is gaining weight! That's the main goal of this so it is working!!! Before the tube he weighed 23-24 lbs on our scale, today he weighed 28!!!!! We are SO excited with his progress:):):) His cheeks looks a little fuller and his tummy a little bigger, too.

Today we had a recheck with the surgeon and found out that Kaleb had an area around the tube that was trying to reject it. They cleaned it real well then burned it with some silver nitrate. Kaleb did extremely well, thanks to the numbing cream! It should heal up just fine. We're due back Oct 14th (unless any problems arise) to get his new short tube, or button as they call it:) Looking forward to that day!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers, support, and love through all of this with Kaleb. God IS good!!!

Check out another new post below...
We go back to the nutritionist at the end of the month to reassess things and change as needed. We'll also measure his height and weight to see where we stand.

Karson is 5 months

I can't believe another month has gone by! We've had a little bit of a fussy/cranky spell recently. I'm not sure if it's teething or what, but he's been tough getting to nap and just fussy. It was so bad this past weekend I thought for sure he had an ear infection (he would fall asleep on me but when I lay him down in the crib he woke right up and started crying) but...no ear infection or anything else they could tell. So the mystery goes on...hopefully he'll start feeling better real soon:) I miss my happy, always smiling baby!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Kassidy loves feeding Karson his cereal/baby food. She actually does a pretty good job! It's A LOT more messy but a big help.

Kassidy is always ready to smile with her baby brother:)
Here's Karson rolling over...he hasn't done this since he was a week or two old, and hasn't again yet. I think he's just too big!

Karson is getting really good at grabbing small objects.

Showing off Karson's cute Cleveland Indians (9 months) outfit. During one of those fussy days I finally got him to sleep for awhile in the bouncy. He was still holding onto one of the toys but I dared not move his hand!!!

Karson doesn't need any blankets stuffed in front of or behind him now to stabilize him in the exersaucer. He still doesn't really put much weight on his feet or legs but really enjoys the toys:)Can you tell he doesn't feel good here???
Karson and Daddy...everyone says they're twins! (although Karson has my nose)

I laugh every time I look at this next pic. Keith is making his ears stick out!
This ones for daddy...GO DUKE!Karson loves grabbing all these toys and will even try using his feet!

And here it is...Karson's biggest achievement of the month..sitting up!!! (Oh, and he's found his toes, too!)
He can even do it without any support...strong boy:)