10 Weeks at home.....together

I know, that sounds like the start of a terrible horror movie. And believe me, I almost thought it would be horrible. But it turns out we like each other a lot more than I thought. 

These 10 weeks at home together with Anthony after his transplant have been such a blessing to our little family. We have enjoyed more time just being together than we ever have before. Anthony got to enjoy plenty of quality time with each of the kids, not just the 2 hours he sees them after work and before bed. What a difference that makes. To him, and to them. Anthony and Aspen really bonded, and he got to learn even more about Lincoln's amazing personality. They truly are amazing little people.

The best part of this has been Anthony's new appreciation for me...the stay at home mom. Before he would come home and look around the house in it's messy, and usual, state and make off-handed comments like, "What did you do all day?" These ten weeks have truly opened his eyes to the amount of things that we do on a daily basis, me and the kids. Moms aren't just moms. We are teachers, doctors, nurses, mediators, referees, short-order cooks, maids, playmates, wives, women, and mommies. There is no free time to sit down. We don't just spend the day lounging in our PJs in front of the TV. Ok, many days are spent in our PJs but that's just because they're comfy! We're definitely not in front of the TV, ever! No time for that!

Anthony now comes home and is more appreciative of me, and what I give to, and for, the children. He says thank you more often for the meals I cook. He understands how tired I really am after a long, hard day of screaming children and he offers to bring home dinner so I don't have to do one.more.thing. He calls at lunch to check up on me to make sure the morning is going smoothly, or offer condolences when it's not. Then he rushes home to love on the kids so I can get a break. Nothing will heal, help, and support your marriage than when your husband appreciates all the little things you do, day after day. It's amazing what just this time at home as done for our family. We're nicer to each other, we respect each other just a little more, and we have a greater understanding of what it's like to spend quality time together. 

We did tons of fun stuff while Anthony was home with us. Here is a VERY short, and VERY abbreviated list:

We went to Christmas parades.

We saw Santa!

We went to Boone.

We went to Gatlinburg, TN with the kids for the first time.

We had a beautiful Christmas together.

WE WENT TO DISNEY WORLD!!!

We made cardboard cars.

And so much other stuff I can't even remember. So much of that time was spent just being together. We took lunch trips to the mall, just because we could. We had movie night in our PJs, because it's fun. We ate lots of Sweet Frog...no explanation needed. And we loved each other.

I am so thankful for this time our family has enjoyed. We have been truly blessed. God has taken care of Anthony, and of our every need and I am thankful every day.

Anthony went back to work on January 22, 2014. He's doing great and feeling wonderful. He's traveling to Baptist Hospital's Transplant Clinic every week or every-other week for blood work and testing. They're always checking his blood for the level of medicines and creatanine, the yucky stuff that your kidneys filter out. Nurses call back every week to tell him how to adjust his medicines to keep everything on the right levels and even. So it's just a process. Slow and steady, right? Hopefully soon he will be able to only travel to Winston once a month to get checked, but they're still keeping a really close eye on him right now. I am so thankful that we have such a great team of doctors taking care of him. Our family sure does need him.

18 Months & Updates

  

I can't believe it's here...my baby is officially one and a half. It just doesn't seem possible. Here are her 18 month check up stats:

Weight: 24 lbs, 14 ozs (60th percentile)

Height: 32.5 inches (80th percentile)

They measured her head but didn't write it down for me...bummer. 

She is doing everything just fine, Kate says she looks great. 

She has 14 teeth and is about to cut the top two canines. She's chewing on everything! I hope her amber teething necklace really works and gets us though this!

What she's wearing:

12-18 month clothes fit perfectly

We're buying 18-24 month for the fall/winter but they're a little big still

Size 4 disposable diapers, but we do cloth most of the time

Size 6 1/2 shoe!!

We went into Our Hearts and Sole, a kid's shoe store in Hickory, with Aspen wearing a size 5 in Stride Rite. We walked out in a 6 1/2. What a moment of mommy failure! I had no idea her shoes were so small! Mom of the Year. Right here.

What she's "saying"

Aspen can sign

help

outside

more

cup

water

milk

eat

all done

bear

dog

bird

duck

sleep

music

hat

yogurt

daddy

bath

diaper
airplane

She can actually say

mommy

daddy

baby

Every once in a while she tries to say

nana

dadaw

buhbuh (brother)

Overall she's still pretty quiet. She makes jibberish noises and acts like she's talking to herself alot. Kate said she scored a 25 on communication skills and she had to score a minimum of 15. They don't refer for speech until 2 1/2, but she said Aspen doesn't have a problem with speech. She has a problem with verbalizing, she can communicate fine. We're working with her to get her to speak more, but she just doesn't seem interested. She will not try to repeat what you say like Lincoln did. Lincoln made every sound you made, like a parrot. She doesn't have any desire to do that. So I hear mommy and baby about a million times every day!!

She LOVES music and makes the sign every time she hears it and starts dancing with a big smile on her face. She plants her feet apart and swings her hips. Precious! Her current favorite toy is her Cabbage Patch Aspen doll. Anna Fitzwater got it for her when she was born. It's a specially made doll named Aspen Ensley, so we call her Little Aspen! Aspen carries her everywhere she goes and always needs a baby. She also likes Lincoln's cars, trucks, and trains. The little house/door play center that Anna also gave to us is one of her favorite things to do in the house. She loves pushing the buttons and listening to the music. If I'm working on Thirty-One business at the table she wants to sit with me and draw. She loves making doodles on the paper. She's also the only one at the table when we eat out that colors. Lincoln only has eyes for his trucks! She can blow her nose, and tells us when her diaper is stinky. She's very interested in the potty and likes to sit on it. Let's hope potty training goes quickly!

What Lincoln is wearing

2T-3T shorts (3T only if they have adjustable waist, some are even 24 months!!)

3T-4T pants (adjustable waist, needs 4T for length this fall)

3T-4T shirts - we are buying 4T for fall/winter

Size 10 shoes

Lincoln is still very much in love with the Cars movies. He has all the cars at home and plays with them every day. He still loves music and dances all the time. You'll often hear him singing or humming to himself while he plays. He sings songs from Cars movies, Sunday School, Mickey's Sing Along, and the Disney Movies we watch all the time. Right now it appears that The Little Mermaid is his favorite. With Tarzan or The Little Engine that Could being very close runners up. We got him his very first "big boy bike" with training wheels last month. He LOVES it!! He would ride it all day, every day if we would let him!! It's a Schwinn, and very nice! I hope Aspen likes it, she'll probably be riding it too!

Lincoln started Pre-School this month!! He is on Bust'r Bus, a free mobile pre-k program for Burke County. He goes Tuesday and Thursday from 10:15-12. The first day he went he screamed the ENTIRE ride there, "I don't want to go to Bust'r Bus! I don't want to get on the bus!!" He screamed the entire way up the stairs of the bus and was still crying when I walked away. Aspen and I went to the Food Lion just around the corner so we'd be close if they  had to call us to come get him. Fortunately, he made it through with no problems! His teachers said he didn't cry for more than 5 minutes and then was just fine and played with everyone. Phew. We've been back twice now and he's seemed to enjoy it. No more crying or tears. Here is our first day...soo sad! Notice the tears on his shirt!

We visited with mamaw a few weeks ago, a BIG surprise for her as Mom didn't tell her we were coming! We played in the creek and everyone got deliciously dirty!

Anthony was in the Soldier's Reunion parade in Newton for Carolina Orthopaedic Sepcialists. I had the joy of wrangling both kids while we watched the LONGEST PARADE OF MY LIFE! 

On the kidney front there is no news. Just continuing to do dialysis manually 4 times a day, sucking away 2 hours of our lives. No one else has been tested as a living donor, all the others who turned in paperwork were refused for one reason or another. We don't know why, and wouldn't know they were refused without them telling us. Unfortunately, the living donor coordinator at Baptist has left and there is a new girl in her place. That means that poor girl is trying to catch up, figure things out, and take over. When Anthony called a few weeks ago to check up on his possible donors she seemed very frazzled and not entire sure she knew what she was doing. There is one woman from Anthony's mom's church who was a potential donor and was called in to be tested, the week before Thanksgiving. She declined that appointment because of the holiday. They took that as dismissal entirely and shelved her info and didn't call her for a repeat appointment. So she is now filling out paperwork again and hopefully she will be allowed to be tested this time. Everything just feels like "hurry up and wait."

As of August Anthony has officially been on the transplant list for a year. The average for Baptist's wait list is 2-3 years. Hopefully we're getting close. I'm not sure how ready I am to take care of a patient recovering from a kidney transplant, but I'm ready for Anthony to be back to his old self again without dialysis sucking away his time.

On a sadder note, my grandmother, Moppy, is at Hospice. She's been home with hospice care for several months now and she continues to go downhill. She is in congestive heart failure and every single breath is a struggle. She is swelling from the fluids and needs constant oxygen.  I went to visit her at Hospice House yesterday and it made me very sad. She was heavily drugged and couldn't even make it through a sentence without falling asleep. I took her SweetFrog yogurt as a treat, but she could only eat a few bites. After talking with Mom last night she told me they had given her a new antibiotic for her kidney infection and had reacted poorly, that's why she was so swollen and out of it when I visited yesterday. Hopefully she will be well enough to come home again, but I fear she won't be around to see another Christmas.