We have a 3 year old?!

Sorry for not writing for awhile. We have had a lot of things going on and we are trying to get ready for Avery’s 3^rd birthday party this weekend! Its hard to believe she is going to be 3. I remember when preemie diapers didn’t even fit her. She has come a long way and starts Special Ed Preschool next week. She will most likely be the youngest kid there (since she will have just turned 3 two days before preschool starts) but I think its going to be really good for her. She will get all of the services and attention that she needs. I am really excited for her.

I promise to have a longer post with more pics after her birthday!

 Just 3 of us trying to swing on a tire swing

I had so much fun at the playground!

Mommy says I finally need to get a first haircut.

I now like to try to wash myself in the tub

Daddy hung up paper on the wall. I love it! Chewie is watching an artist at work

See how interested he is?

Chewie and I were both on Mommy's lap!

I didn't feel like drawing on the sidewalk today. I wanted to decorate Daddy instead!

Mmm grilled cheese!

It's official! I am going to be starting preschool!

I was pooping on the potty...yes i still had my pants and diaper on but hey, you have to start somewhere

My handprint stone for this year! Notice the little chicken charm :)

We have a Zoo

Avery has been doing well with her new tubes. She hasn’t gotten sick yet {knock on wood}. I’m a little sad that Tim and I haven’t really noticed a difference with her hearing yet.

Guess what, we are the proud owners of a new cat. Having one child, two dogs, two cats and 3 chickens wasn't enough I guess. We weren’t really in the market for  a new cat. Tim’s brother is having his girlfriend move in with him. His brother is super allergic to cats..and by allergic, I mean --even the whites of his eye balls get swollen--allergic. No joke, I have seen it happen. Anyways, his girlfriend was asking if any of her friends would take in the cat. I knew that if I ever had to get rid of any of my animals for some reason, I would really want them to go to a loving home..who wouldn’t, right? But what would be even better is if they would go to a home of someone we knew and then could visit them. So even though we weren’t looking to adopt  a cat, we knew it was the right thing to do.

Her name is Archimedes (medes for short), named  by her previous owner. She is two years old and is super cute. We didn’t end up giving her the best introduction to our other animals and she and our one cats got into a huge fight. I have had cats my whole life and have never seen cats fight like this before. They looked like they were going to kill each other. Avery was drinking a bottle while laying on her bean bag chair in the other room and she ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The cats looked like a tornado was flying by and they ran right over Avery, literally..they ran across her face. When It was all said and done, Avery had a few huge scratches across her face and we put the new cat in a cage. We decided that we are going to take our time introducing the cat. We put two big dog crates together and put a sheet over it so she could get some privacy. The dogs and cats can come up to her but nobody can kill each other. Its been almost a week and she has been doing pretty good. Today is the first day we left her out of the cage all day. I think her and Scarlett are going to become buddies and sit on the top of the couch and watch over the neighborhood.

The chickens are still getting so big! They will be 10 weeks old tomorrow! You can read more about them HERE

Here is where Lily and Medes ran over my face! It's ok, I am one tough cookie.

Mommy taught me to hold my hand like this and let an animal sniff me.

This is ranch dressing. You can't see it in the picture but I ended up smoothing it all over my hands and then doing hand prints of it on my tray, like I was finger painting.

Isn't my dog Chewie so cool!?!

 

I was so happy when my cousins came home from Walt Disney World. I got to play with their light sabers!

Mommy and I painted our piggies the same color!

Medes is so cute!

Daddy and Medes

Hey Medes, Chewie and I are best friends. So don't try to win him over by looking all cute

So Far, So Good (knock on wood)

Just a little update. Avery is doing well so far. Friday, we kept up with Tylenol/Motrin. She woke up crying Saturday morning and cried for about an hour. We were finally able to get some Tylenol in her (it was so much easier when we had her feeding tube!) and then she was acting normal. We kept up with the Tylenol/motrin on Saturday. Tim's parents watched Avery for a few hours Saturday night so Tim and I went out to the casino for a little bit and then went to dinner. On Sunday and Monday she didn’t have any pain meds and she was good. I haven’t really noticed any difference in her hearing though so I am hoping it helped. She did have something in her hand that she wanted Tim to open yesterday and she said "Open" clearer than she has ever said it (except for maybe the video we have of her pounding on the door saying open). Tim and I both looked at each other in amazement. Hopefully that will be the start of good things to come.

 I was off Friday and yesterday. Tim is off today with her and then she is going to daycare on Wednesday. We wanted to give her a few days to relax. We ended up giving Avery her birthday present a month early but I wanted her to get some use out of it while the weather is still nice. We got her a little playset with slide and a little gardening wheelbarrow.

Here is the video of me saying open and knocking on the door. It was from back in January I believe.

My daycare is awesome! My friends and teachers made me a get well card. So cute, I love the bandaids!

Opening up the wheelbarrow (yeah, I never knew wheelbarrow was spelled like this).

Mommy isn't very handy but she put it together in about 20 minutes. She also forgot to take a picture of it all together. I like to use the shovel and scoop up rocks and put them in the wheelbarrow.

I like my new playset. After these pictures were taken, i was being quite the daredevil, going down backwards and climbing up the slide.

Peek a boo! Thanks for checking up on me!

Surgery Day! (Part Two)

The surgery started around 11:30 and was finished around 12:30. Dr Hopkins came out and talked to us. He said Avery had a lot of thick, gross gunk in her left ear. They cleaned it out, put the tubes in and performed the hearing test. It showed her hearing on left side is perfectly normal which is awesome!!!

 

He said there wasn't much gunk on the right side. He put tube in and they did the hearing test. It showed mild hearing loss on the right side. Dr. Hopkins said it is either from fluid that he couldn't see or its possible that something is physically wrong with her ear. This is still better news than when we had during all of her past hearing tests where they said she had a moderate-severe hearing loss. When she was born they did a hearing test before she was discharged from the Nicu and she passed in her left ear and was referred in her right.

 

Dr Hopkins then gave us discharge instructions.  We have to give her an antibiotic, 5 drops in each ear twice a day, for the next week. She has no restrictions with water and can swim and bathe right away. Starting in a week, he wants her to wear her hearing aid on right side but not left. We have an appointment in a month to see doctor and repeat the hearing test. He said when she is a little older if she continues to have hearing problems with her right ear, they will get a CT scan to see if there is anything physically wrong with her ear.  

 

We were brought back to see Avery and she was just waking up and whining and moving all around. She then fell back asleep for about a half hour. We were able to leave the hospital by 2pm.

 

She was given some acetaminophen in the hospital and we were told we could stagger that and Motrin for pain. We gave her one dose of each today/this evening. She seems to be acting pretty normal.  She doesn't seem to be in pain but we gave her the pain meds anyway to try to stay on top of it. I think we will give her some tomorrow and then that's it, unless she seems to be in pain. 

 

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes. I think they worked because we got good news. We are very optimistic and excited about her future.

Having surgery is tiring!

Really Mommy, another pic of me sleeping?

Now a pic of me and Daddy. I was showing a little leg in this picture 

Just taking it easy, relaxing outside after the surgery. Notice my left ankle is bandaged. This is where they had my IV

Surgery Day! (Part one)

Well today Avery goes for surgery and we are super nervous. It didn't go as planned last time so praying this time works out.

We were given the surgery time of 11:30 which is horrible because she could have nothing to eat after midnight and only clear liquids before 8:30. Tim tried asking them three times for an earlier time but they said they had you get kids that were before Avery. 

Tim and I kept her up until about 11:30 last night hoping that she would sleep in. She woke up around 9 and played with toys. She woke up after the time she was allowed to eat until so she didn't have anything to eat or drink since 11pm yesterday.

She was pretty crabby because she normally gets a bottle of Pediasure in the morning. We checked in around 10:20 and were taken back.

Seeing avery in a hospital gown is the cutest but saddest thing. Dr Hopkins talked to us about the surgery saying she will have tubes put in and ten they are doing a repeat ABR(hearing test) while she was still under anesthesia. 

I got to carry her back to the operating room and hold her while they put her to sleep. I was fine up until the point of walking out of the OR, having to leave Avery behind. I started to tear up. I know this is a simple surgery but it is still difficult to see your child go through something like this, especially when she is young and doesn't understand  what is going on. 

I was not happy that I couldn't eat anything this morning!

Mommy and I have matching wristbands. But I am small so I wear mine on my ankle. 

How cute am I in my hospital gown? 

Mommy got to come back to the operating room with me and held me while they put me to sleep. I cried when they put the mask over my face but I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Feeling nervous

Sorry that there hasn't been an update recently. We have been pretty busy.

As we get closer and closer to Avery's ear tube surgery on Friday, I am getting more and more nervous. For those of you that don't remember, she had tubes put in when she was about 8 months old. We had nothing but issues (from infections to pseudomonas bacteria). I think we were at the pediatrician's office and ENT's office 8 times in one month. Needless to say, they were removed a month later.

Here is a link to her first surgery. Look how little she was and how cute she was in her hospital gown!!
http://theaverysvitakadventure.blogspot.com/2013/04/day-108-at-home-april-25-2013.html

I am really hoping these tubes will work out for her. She is sooooooooooo close to talking, I am hoping this will give her the push she needs. If the tubes don't work out, we are going to really start getting her to wear her hearing aids. Even though she doesn't talk, she does communicate with us. She does a few signs for more and drink. She says "aaaa-yeee" (daddy without the D sound) for Daddy. She follows simple directions like go get your bib and then get a blanket or throw this away in the garbage. She understands a lot of what we say but sometimes gets frustrated trying to communicate back to us.

Her personality is really starting to come through. She is very shy at first with anyone she just meets. After an hour she starts to let her guard down. She is cute all the time (gets that from Daddy) and stubborn most of the time(gets that from Mommy). She is a little spitfire and if she doesn't want to do something, you better believe she will let you know. She is a diva that wants to be carried around everywhere. Tim and I are enablers and have to break this habit. We don't want to have the daughter that gets carried to preschool everyday..lol

Tim's sister, Cheryl, had a baby girl so we are Aunts and Uncles again! Avery got to meet little baby Makinsley this past week. She is super cute! I don't think Avery was a fan though.

We got Avery's 3 year pictures taken this week. She was not having it. I really wanted a picture of Tim and I holding her hand and walking but she didn't let us put her down on the ground during the whole photo shoot. I go give the photographer a lot of credit for having to photograph Avery!
Thanks Sarah Joy Photography! (http://sarahjoyphotography.zenfolio.com/)

I don't have much else to update. Please wish us luck for Friday! Thanks!

I finally got my Father's day pic with Grandpa S!

Hanging out at Target with the 'rents

Happy Birthday Grandma B!

Me, Daddy and Makinsley

 Do you want a taste?

What?! These chickens want to eat my feet?

Look what a good Mommy I am

Yo, whats up?

Look at all my bodyguards while walking around the block

Daddy loves me, he loves me knot. J/K, he always loves me!

Here Daddy, I love you!