Making Memories. Choosing Joy.

Choose Joy!

Many people follow along with Ali Edwards and her One Little Word each year. While I have not taken her class yet, mid-December I knew that my word for 2012 would be "Joy." When taking the Christmas decorations down I added this:

Pretty cute, huh? (Free subway art can be found here.)

And then yesterday as I was walking by, I glanced over and saw this:

Yes, it brought a smile to my face. Nicholas was pretty proud of himself. I wonder how many different words will be made of this? And how much Joy will it bring? I predict alot!

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

:::Gasp!:::

Look what I completed yesterday...and even before his birthday month is over! If today goes as planned (ha!) I'll hopefully be sharing more pages! Cannot believe my baby is 9!

Supplies Used:  Cathy Zielske Story Guide No. 1 | Cathy Zielske The Monthly 12x12 Album Set | Anna Aspnes StraightLine Stitched Red No 1 | Katie Pertiet Postage Strip Numbers | Katie Pertiet Naturally Krafty No 7 | Michelle Martin Michaela Solids | Katie Pertiet Digital Date Stamps

 

Project Life Week 5, 6, and 7

While I haven't kept up with posting my completed pages to the blog, I have kept up with the photos and completing the pages!

Week 5

I'm still working on Nicholas' birthday pages to insert after this week.

Week 6

and Week 7

We are all well. Zachary's basketball ends this weekend with the last of the tournaments. While they don't have a good record, they have learned a lot and I think they are doing a fabulous job! Isn't that all that matters...what your Mama thinks?

Nicholas' speech, reading and writing continue to improve. He has become accustomed to his hearing aid and doesn't ask to take it off anymore when he gets home from school.

We promised Nicholas two things for after his surgeries were finished...a dog (which Jasper continues to be a good dog, and hopefully even better after we have our first session with a dog trainer on Sunday) and Walt Disney World. This summer we will be taking the boys to Disney for a week and I'm so excited to see them experience it! Nicholas is worried that there won't be enough to do for a whole week!

I'm planning to enjoy every second of March. A month of no practices and no games. April we start back up with baseball practice. Oh please let the month of March go slow!

Happy New Year!

Santa bought me a zoom lens for my camera and today was the perfect time to test it out. From the comfort and warmth of inside (well, I did open the door) I caught Nick yelling "Happy New Year!" Love this dude!

Welcome 2010!

I couldn't let 2010 come without one last post in 2009, especially since it has been forever since my last post! We have all been doing well and busy living life. I can't believe I haven't even posted since school began!

Zach is doing well in school and is becoming more and more obsessed with sports. Saturday will be his first basketball game for his 4th grade team and I have to say that I think they look pretty good! It will be fun to watch it all come together (or not!) and hope that they enjoy this learning experience.

Nick has struggled a bit in reading and spelling, and after his last hearing test we knew why. Unfortunately, his hearing in his right ear now has a moderate loss (and with a severe loss in his left ear, he was really struggling). Fortunately, we were able to get him fitted with a loaner hearing aid right away until his brand new hearing aid arrived and was fitted on Tuesday. He is thrilled that he has a blue aid (blue has always been his favorite color) and while we noticed a dramatic improvement while he had the loaner aid (at school and at home), we are even more excited to see what the Oticon Safari will do for him! This aid is brand new to the market, and I'm sure before we know it Nick will be bugging us to get the "blue tooth connectivity" set up for him!

His left ear continues to heal and we see more definition weekly. I believe that he'll still need another surgery down the road, but for the time being I have been cherishing not having any stress of surgeries. It has taken a long time to heal emotionally, and I still get anxious at times when I look at his ear. The beginning of December we took him to a craniofacial clinic and they want to see him once a year to keep track of his jaw growth on the left side (hemifacial microsomia). The orthodontist would like to see our local orthodontist put some bonding material on his right side to promote growth on the left, in hopes that he won't need jaw distraction some day. Jaw distraction may push me over the edge!

That's the short of it. A quickie update to bring you into 2010 if there are still readers out there. I hope you all had wonderful Holidays and wishing you all a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

Christie

A Summer of Milestones

Throughout the years, Nicholas has been in many therapies. He's been in speech therapy since he was 2 for apraxia. But before there was speech, there was occupational. At his 4-month old checkup, I told the pediatrician I noticed he wasn't putting any weight on his legs. Thus began his "career" with Early Intervention and private therapy. He was diagnosed with having a gross-motor delay, and by the time he was 15 months old, he was walking, but not without a lot of hard work. I remember those therapy visits. The therapist would make him put weight on his legs and he would scream. And when we left, the people in the waiting room would look at us with sympathy, because they all heard the screams from where they sat.

Because of his global apraxia, he has also had fine motor delays and has been in occupational therapy again two different times. His pencil grasp is what has concerned us most recently, so back to therapy we went this summer (thanks Mimi and Pipi for making sure he got there each Monday). What we found interesting was that his therapist mostly worked on core exercises with him, telling us that if his core wasn't strong, his hand strength wouldn't be either. So we did situps (I could have done a few more) and we did jumping jacks (I could have done alot more) and we did pushups (I have weak wrists and I'm sticking to it!).

And weeks ago he surprised us with coming home from therapy and could tie his shoes! We celebrated! He was so proud of himself and I will never forget the smile of satisfaction he had on his face.

And fast-forward to today:

I love the determination on his face:

 

And if there was ever any question on who his father is (which there wasn't!)...

 

Nicholas Robert, we are so proud of you!!!

Dog Days

I'm pretty certain that today qualifies as one of the "Dog Days of Summer." I think Jasper agrees.

 

Today is definitely the hottest day of summer that we've had. Which is one of the reasons I'm taking the time to update...and because I had a request from Aunt Jane.

Thankfully, not much has been going on. We've been enjoying summer and enjoying the stress-freeness (this must be a word...Typepad didn't underline it to alert me, so I'm going with it!!!) of nothing medical going on. Nicholas' ear continues to heal and I've even noticed a bit more definition. He isn't home right now (errands with Daddy...those two make quite the pair...on the go, go, go!) or I'd take a picture to share. There's a notch on the edge where Dr. Jones had to shave a bit of cartilidge off during the second failed skin graft, where it became exposed. But you know what? I don't care! He's healing, he doesn't care, and it adds a bit of character! Perfection is over-rated!

I've been keeping busy with a combination of "Extreme Home Makeover" and "Clean Sweep." A couple of weeks ago I decided I was tired of the outdated dining room, so it went from hunter green to "crabby apple." I have to say that I love the color, but I forgot how much of a pain it is to paint red. Once it's all done (the paint is done, still deciding on some wall art) I'll be sure to post before and afters! Up next is the foyer, although we are waiting on a price from a painter since it is two-stories. Neither Scott or I are up for that challenge at this point in our lives!

It's hard to believe that school is starting in a couple of weeks. I think we are all ready though...but then the homework arguing will begin again!

Thanks for checking in on us!

Ouch!

I was finally relaxing at Nicholas' games...he has been doing so well, watching the ball and knowing where to throw the ball. Last night at his game he was playing "pitcher" (he's in C-Ball, which is machine-pitch for us) and the ball came right back at him. It was so fast he didn't have time to react, and unfortunately "caught" it with his face. It was absolutely horrible, but it could have been so much worse. I think if he would have had time to react, he would have turned his head and it would have hit him right in the ear. He is pretty sore today and still has the stitching marks from the ball.

I thanked God many times last night for watching over him and keeping him safe. Thankfully no teeth were knocked out, although he said they are sore.

He has two more games for the season, and then tournament games next weekend. I'm thinking he could play just as well in the outfield!

Whirlwind.

As I sat down to post this entry, I realized that tomorrow will be one month since my last post! Thanks for your patience...if any of you are still checking in!

Nicholas' ear continues to heal...we had a little "bump in the road" a couple of weeks ago. A layer of skin peeled off his ear (nothing major, just a real thin layer) and then the next day some boys got a little rambunctious with their wrestling and it got bumped, and was bleeding. To say I was sick was an understatement. It scabbed over, and the waiting game began. And the anxiety each time he put on his baseball helmet quadrupled. Last Saturday the scab came off and underneath was beautiful, pink skin! I still get anxious when I come home from work and see his ear for the first time that day, wondering how it will look. Part of that is habit from months of worrying...almost nine months...and part of it I'm just not too sure yet. There are still a couple of tiny tiny spots that I wonder about. I still have not been able to say "We're done." More like "We think we may be done." It's still quite red in some areas, and still pretty swollen. Here are a couple of pictures...I realize I never posted any!

[Stop taking my picture!]


[Last time, Mom]

So between healing lots of ball has been played. A typical week is Zach having games on Mondays and Thursdays, Nick having games Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Since school has been out they've been busy in the mornings with baseball camps. The difference in just a few short weeks is amazing, especially with Nick. Zach's team is doing much better than we thought (their first year with kid-pitch/stealing bases) and the improvement with Nick in just the past two weeks is terrific. This is his first year at machine-pitch and once he got the hang of it, he's been hitting great ever since. His whole team is improving and learning where the ball needs to be thrown to, etc. So...as busy and hectic as the schedule is, it is fun to watch them. I could bore you with a bunch of pictures, but after about 5, they start to look the same. Instead, I'll just share my favorite so far of each of them:

[Ready at First Base...my lefty]


[Not necessarily my favorite, but this show's him "whacking" the ball...as he tells me he's going to do before every game]

Swimming lessons and library started this week. At the end of the month we go on vacation and then when we get back we'll have about 6 weeks of summer vacation left...but who's counting? I can't believe how fast it's going! We are all looking forward to vacation and spending time with family. It will definitely be a treat.

Oh...and guess what I started doing again? Reading! I hadn't read anything for at least 8 months and I finally finished the Twilight series last week (hmmm...that could be part of the reason it took me so long to update the blog!). So, if anyone has any good book recommendations, I'd love to have them!

Have a great rest of the week...make it count!

Mother's Day Miracle

[Thanks to Sarah for the title of this post]

So, if you saw my last "tweet" you know that I am not typing this post for the surgery center in Atlanta, but rather from home (well...actually...Panera at lunch). Such a whirlwind. Such a blessing! I can still hardly believe it!

Yesterday morning we got up and around, ready for our day at the Georgia Aquarium. We went downstairs to get a taxi, and 15 minutes later a black Lincoln Town Car pulls up, asking if we called for a taxi. What style! We were at the Aquarium at 10:00, and it wasn't crowded at all. We hit all of our favorite spots and I let Nicholas take the pictures:

[This picture certainly doesn't do this wall of glass justice. I can't even get back far enough to show the entire wall. It is breathtaking.]

Then it was time to see the 4-d movie (the cute animated one where water sprays at you and bubbles come from nowhere...all of that fun!) and lunch. Afterwards, we had tickets for the Titanic exhibit. I got chills when we entered the exhibit. It was absolutely incredible. Scott and I didn't spend as much time as we would have liked, as there was alot of reading, but Nicholas really was patient with us and we did spend quite a bit of time in the exhibit. At the beginning, they give you a ticket with a passenger's name and their information, and at the end of the exhibit you can check to see if your person survived. I was a first-class movie star that survived. Sadly, as Nicholas put it, he and Scott "were swimming." It was amazing and sad. I'm glad that we were able to see it and experience this.



After we were finished, it was time to head to the gift store. I swear, I would have bought Nicholas anything he asked...the reality of soon seeing Dr. Jones was beginning to creep in and we were sure that we would be headed for surgery. Instead of a rather large stuffed animal whale, he settled on some plastic play fish and scuba divers.


We still had time so we went across the street to Olympic Park. It was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to just relax and enjoy the sunshine. It was time to call "Ben" the driver to pick us up to take us to Dr. Jones. Nicholas said "Why don't we skip Dr. Jones and just go back to the hotel and take a nap?" (The party animals didn't return from the Cavs game until 11:30 Saturday night, although Nicholas had a little nap during the 4th quarter).


Ben took us to Dr. Jones and he looked at Nicholas' ear. Left the room and came back with his microscopic glasses and was messing with the back of Nicholas' ear. He finally said those magic words..."This is skin!" He apologized for bringing us down there...are you kidding me? This was the best trip ever! He even wanted Scott to put the glasses on and look. Nicholas had a couple of spots that almost looked a bit like blood blisters, but Dr. Jones said that was fine, and he put some silver nitrate on it. He said it may need some more, or we could just leave it and it will more than likely go away on its own. I think Scott and I are ready for as little intervention as possible at this point! He gave Nicholas the clear to play ball and would like to see us in a year. He gives the ear two years for all of the swelling to go down and to see the true appearance, and at that time it may need a little "tweaking" if we choose. Obviously, at this time it's highly unlikely we'll choose anything!

[Nicholas doing a victory dance while we waited for the taxi. He was whooping it up, let me tell you! I think it was at this point that the news that he could play ball was finally sinking in! This could be my most favorite picture ever!]

Ben picked us up after Nicholas' appointment and happened to have AirTran's number programmed on his phone. Before we arrived back to the hotel, we had flights reserved for 6:40. Ben kept telling us that we would be able to make it, no problem. So we rushed into the hotel to pack (it's a good thing they didn't go through our bags...I'm not sure I would have been able to get my bag shut again!) and Scott talked to Jason, our buddy at the front desk. He was so incredibly kind and didn't charge us for cancelling the room reservations at a late notice, or for not "checking out" of our room until 4:00. If you ever need a hotel in Atlanta let us know, we are more than thrilled to recommend the Marriott and their staff at this particular location.

As Ben promised, we made it to the airport in plenty of time. The flight was great...Nicholas fell asleep before take off and we finally convinced him to stay awake after we landed. He's happy to be at school today and Scott and I are happy to be at work today (did I really just say that? Yes I did!).

[The view during decent...it was hard not to get emotional about the journey we have been on]

You know what else I'm happy about? I added Nicholas' baseball games to our calendar and had a huge grin on my face minutes ago when I purchased his baseball pants for pictures tonight. It's slowly sinking in!!!

A special thanks to our parents for helping us through all of this. You certainly made this past year easier for us, and for Zachary. Really, I'm at a loss for words on exactly what to say, but please know that we appreciate all you have done. We love you!

Lunch is about over for me, so I will go back through and add pictures later tonight. I have some good ones!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Christie