Birthday Pictures

Jackson, Austin and Robby-- The Birthday King!


Kaitlyn and Tommy playing in the "soft play" area....FUN, FUN, FUN!!!


Kimberlyn finally stopped for a cute smile, she'd been running from the camera!


Kimberlyn (photographer in training) took this of Mom trying to snag a picture with the Birthday King!


Tyler, The Birthday King, Jackson and Austin enjoying some silly fun while eating pizza.


MAKE A WISH!!!


Tommy wondering what all the fuss is about anyhow! He's really liking this table food eating, he eats nonstop most of the time!


Tommy REALLY wondering what is going on and WHY this King is in here?!?!?


Robby posing with the Dragon and the King....darn I hate blurry pictures! Notice Tommy, he makes this blurry picture a keeper!


KING ROBBY!


TOMMY IS REALLY WALKING NOW!!! And it is SO much fun!!


Snatchin' up the cute firls too! This is his new friend Natalie he found. They were SO curious about each other! She was just a couple months younger than Tommy (only 1 month younger per his adjusted age)!



LASTLY some random pictures from the past few weeks!

Kaitlyn riding back in January in the snow, it was barely 30 degrees out that day! She's a diehard and LOVES it!


Tommy trying to give me hand with dishes....


Robby and Dad on a ski trip Feb 16, 2008


Robby took a lesson on the snow board and LOVED it. I think he found it harder than he expected!


Kimberlyn cruisin' in her Jeep enjoying the almost 60-degree weather on March 2nd---this all changed as Robby's party day was wet and COLD!


Hmmm...I was inside, but something tells me this one was posed! BUT, how cute is it?!?!?!?

quick update....

Seems I'm always on the run and feel I don't have time to add pictures....THEY WILL COME SOON!

1) Robby is into double digits...the BIG TEN!! Pictures of his party this past Tuesday to follow SOON!

2) Tommy waved bye-bye for the first time!! It was to Daddy as he left for school this morning!!

3) My eyes are recovered, PRAISE GOD! Scarred, but recovered!

4) Tommy started (about 2 wks ago) WALKING.....like 10-15 steps at a time before falling and crawling to an object that might help him stand and sart the cycle over again. WE ALL LOVE THIS!!! Pictures will be added w/ his bro's birthday pictures!

Do you wear CONTACTS?

So previously I posted a few weeks back that I was to see an opthamologist about my seeing floaters. I DID see this doc. She was nice and did a very detailed exam. She explained that everyone has this gel in their eye and it dries up and breaks down over time, a normal natural thing for some people to notice floaters due to this.

GREAT...it's normal and I am fine....

Well, the floaters seemed to get worse. I was told to return in there was a drastic change... My change was so, so gradual I barely realized it was happening. All the while this was going on I was realizing my vision was getting gradually worse. Opthamologists don't update your glasses or contact prescriptions.

I FINALLY went to an optometrist last Thursday. The doctor was WONDERFUL! First he asked what brought me in? I explained my vision seemed bad. I was having episodes of (best I can explain it is) my eyes were going off into la-la land, BUT I wasn't. He did such a thorough exam, like I felt he examined and looked at my eyes in different ways than I have ever had done. This wouldn't be alarming if I hadn't been the faithful contact wearer to go in once a year AND had I not been seen SIX times in the last 14 months by TWO different opthamologists and an optometrist!!

Well, I did in fact have a problem and my eyes WEREN'T fine and NORMAL.

I wear disposable contacts, they are supposed to be thrown out after being worn a month. Since I do not sleep in them and soak/clean them every night, I wore my contacts for a few months at a time or until it ripped.

BAD, BAD, BAD....what happened is the contacts develop a film (get dirty) over time. My eye lid was being irritated and basically quit making this mucus/lubricant... My eyes are all irritated and swollen due to this. THIS IS why I was noticing such bad vision, EVEN in my new prescription I was not able to see 20/20! The doc gave me prescription eye drops to use for a week, I had to use the drops 4 times a day with out the contacts in?!?!? My "back-up" glasses are just that, back up for an emergency. The doctor really suggested I wear glasses for a week...

So, I ran out Saturday and bought a new pair of glasses that actually are SAFE for me to drive in :) I feel so strange in them. Larry has kindly told me I look like a librarian and then he decided I look like a school teacher?!?!? How about I look like a stay at home mama? I go back on Thursday for a check up. I feel SO much better now with a good, true understanding of what and why my eyes have gone nuts on me.

So, DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS??? Please be sure to wear them exactly how they recommend you to and get your eyes check once a year! Had this gone on much longer my eyes would have suffered forever...kind of like a nail biter....my eye lids would have fallen into a critical BAD habit. I'm praying he sees drastic improvement later this week. I feel and see much better now. Floaters are either gone or very mild.

P.S. Ask your eye doctor about this as the eyes are so complex (to me anyhow) and I feel I BARELY understand my own problem, I've just described it as best as I could!

Tommy's hearing...

A few have asked...yes so far there have been three big noticeable things....

First was last night Larry was napping for a few minutes while I made dinner. I asked one of the kids to wake Dad up, he seemed to take too long coming down and I commented to them "he must not have gotten up" and he was standing RIGHT behind me and I screamed which I do often as he's always around a corner being a brat!! This time Tommy cried!

Second was this morning....Tommy and I went to bed abit earlier than usual. He woke at 5am and I so didn't want to get up, he fell asleep until 5:30 and again I wasn't ready to get up. Finally at 6am when he cried I was full of guilt and went in his room, he was still groogy and rubbing his face in his blankie, when I said "hey there, good morning" he JUMPED and got startled!

Then after his bottle this morning I was "eating" his piggies and he was very intrigued by the loud kissing noises most moms make :) The little things like that are so cool to watch him process!

So, yep he can really hear now!

Our Valentine GIRLS!!

Kimberlyn!
Kaitlyn!
One of Kimberlyn's Valentine cards she signed to pass out to her classmates. I love her way of cramming all of the letters in the little heart....she started with K I M, then added B E up top, had to go to the bottom with R L and realized she had to fit in the Y N....so they became totally out of order, but by golly, they are all in that heart!! Notice the ink pen line on my nice dining room table??? We still love her!

Happy Valentine's Day and

Happy successful surgery day for Tommy!!

We are home from the hospital now. Tommy did wonderful! Well he woke up quicker than Robby did (8 yrs ago) and could HEAR!! He was very upset/scared and confused....it was sad. He immediately drank his bottle and then screamed bloody murder for about 5-10 minutes...in reality it felt like an hour or two, so maybe it was less than 5 minutes?!?! He snapped out of it and watched TV for few minutes, sucked on his blankie and then chilled out.

Doc said the staff in the OR was wondering what the deal was with the noise and length of time it was taking him. He told me Tommy had a severe amount of fluid and it was thick to the point of being difficult to get it all sucked out! He said to expect him to react differently to his normal surroundings since the thick fluid made his hear sound like having foam ear plugs in 24/7!?!? YIKES!

He's napping and glad to be back in his crib...thanks for all the prayers.

All loopy a few minutes before he was taken back for surgery.

Very fussy/upset after...

Ah, finally starting to relax!

TV?? This is like at home...

All better after his nap and eating lunch!

Family update...

Well no big news today like Tommy taking steps like last I posted.

I wanted to write a quick update. As I told you I expected, Tommy will get tubes in his ears. The ENT doctor said he's got a serious case of some fancy named thing, basically of having fluid in his ears with recurrent ear infections. To be a candidate for tubes you must meet one of three different criteria...Tommy meets all three things! Please pray for him to stay healthy and not get another ear infection which could delay surgery. He's scheduled for the surgery on Thursday (Valentine's Day).... I chose this date as it was the soonest surgery date the doctor had and I'm praying Tommy and his surgery will keep my thought off of the fact that my Mom would have turned 60 this day.

On a lighter, more exciting note....Thursday will mark Tommy's full official year home from the NICU...that's cause for way more celebration than Valentine's Day anyhow!

We have a busy few days ahead of us, all the while I'm praying for a big dump of snow! Forecast says 3-5 inches tonight with another few inches tomorrow! Yippee!

Tomorrow Tommy has an appointment to have his hearing tested again...his other hearing test was done as NICU babies are at an increased risk for hearing loss, it was done before his ear infection battle started. After this appt we'll go and do the pre-admission stuff for surgery.

Wednesday I have a check-up to check my thyroid (it's more in check now than ever) and then Kaitlyn goes to the dentist for a quick appointment...never-ending here lately!

Thursday is surgery day and should mark the beginning of a needed break...until next week :)

Lastly...I wanted to let you know about something burdening my heart. You see 10 months ago the opthamologist released me saying I had no permanent damage to my eyes from Tommy's delivery. Well, I have been seeing spots or floaters (not sure what to classify these things as) in my right eye off and on for a few weeks now. I finally got off my rump and made an appointment to see my PCM for a referral back to the opthamologist (obviously a new one since we moved)-- while making this appointment in person they basically told me if I see this, this or that to report to the ER immediately...that's scary! That has been in the back of my head since Friday...at the same time they told me they feel this isn't a big deal, I'm worried. When I lost my vision for those few days...it was scary to wonder if it was gone forever, what would it be like and so on. You can imagine where my thoughts have been lately... I'd appreciate you joining me in prayer for this to be exactly what they think...NOTHING important!

The exciting news is thi spast Friday Larry and I had a date night, we swap babysitting each Friday with our good friends....now we are forced to go out on a date every other week...WAY COOL! We limit ours to dinner, as Tommy STILL won't take a bottle from anybody but mom and dad!