Getting Ready for the big TWO

So its about to be Ms Brittany's 2nd Birthday!!! She is pretty excited about it. Today Jeff actually sat down and thought out some birthday games and activities. I got excited, Brittany was excited...



And Kade was pretty thrilled. LOL



Of course there will be pin the flag on the mailbox. I printed out some Blues Clues characters and the actual game you can print online and Jeff took it to work and blew it up so it would be big enough for all the little ones to get a fair share at pinning the flag on the mailbox. There will be like around 17 kids and since there's five flags we will have to split it up by 5 people at a game and then we will have a pail and shovel filled with random party favors/ toys for the winner to stick his hand in and pick a prize. We will have it full so basically everyone will be able to pick a prize before they leave. Cool idea huh?




The ghoulie pack was not impressed.

Then there are my cookie cutters that I decided to just dye the cookie dough blue and then cut it out sparing me the trouble of icing them blue and making a mess. I will test this theory out this weekend. I have already made a couple of batches and they sure do look like dog treats! lol

Then we will use these washer boards that Jeff's mom made him for Christmas but instead of using the metal rings we will make a salt and pepper bean bag and let the kids have a contest of throwing them in the hole. Brittany did something similar at my Nanny's over the weekend and she got the hang of it pretty fast. I figure its will be a good little game all the kids could do. I need to just get some white and black fabric, draw cut and sew and fill with beans. We will also have the cotton candy machine and blues costume with Brittanys chair for photos. Face paintings and tons of food. WalMart makes a Blues Room cake we ordered the full sheet that feeds 100 people and will pick that up the night before. We have all the paper products Blues Room so it works out perfect. We are trying to figure out if we should actually do a game of "Blues Clues" but I really need a Steve.... so to speak. I can't necessarily be running around doing 50 things so I am gonna look for volunteers... lol

I got Brittany to try on her Birthday outfit Grandma, Jeff's Mom, made her. It fits good and she looks too cute. This is her cheese face. She doesn't quite understand that she will be TWO but she does have a vague idea about birthdays.

Princess cheese Birthday face!

Kade was so excited he had a small jump off to end the evening.

I got these hilarious shots of Brittany going down and up... LOL too funny.

Kade's Progress

So Kade always had a beautiful smile. The first time I saw him after surgery I almost cried because he will never smile as big again. But it didn't always stay so pretty.... days after surgery were horrible. I never had time to post until now. This is Kade on 3/19 just days before surgery.



This is him just post op, 3/22, just coming out of anesthesia. See how crusty and swollen he is?


It gets worse. 3/23 he was so so so swollen and miserable. I pretty much had him jacked up on meds and passed out. He bearly could eat and we had to position his bottle to the side. He wimpered and cried and had arm braces on unless I was holding him.

3/24 its not as swollen but still pretty painful. His nose would run and leak blood and crust. It was kinda scary but we knew it would happen. We had to keep his stitches wet with cream and he hated it to be touched but he is getting better every day eating without it hurting as bad.

3/27 his lip and nose are looking much better now and his glue is starting to come off. I try to keep it clean and let his arms breath as much as possible but he is still pretty angry about being restrained. He wants to put everything back in his mouth about this time and doesnt understand why it hurts to touch his mouth and nose. His lip gets scabby from rubbing on his arm braces trying to itch it and I can tell from the itching that its healing.

3/30 he looks soooo much better. I think most of his glue if not all is gone by now. Braces are being kept off for the most party because he seams to not be hurting himself and can sleep much better without them. Helping my sanity.

4/1 Glue is completely off. Just a stitch under his nose and some puss pocket that developed from there still being a gap and probably snot coming out his nose. He is awhole different baby compared to just days ago and is back jumping full time. lol

4/12 Puss pocket gone. Still has stitch under his nose and his notstril is closed partially from irritation and swelling but the Dr says it will go down with time and will eventually open back up fully. The stitch will desolve and to still keep cream on it. His lip will pull up slightly just from the scare but after a year it will go back down and you will hardly notice he had a cleft palate.

Today we went to his second follow up and the Dr was very pleased with his progress. Tomorrow his social worker comes for her first visit. She JUST called to set. I haven't really spoken to her since he came. I asked her how much he weighed at birth and she said 6.3 lbs and was 19 inches long. So that's good to know since his Dr's always ask and I don't know anything. She said nothing is new with the case and his birth mom keeps calling and saying she wants to work the plan but then doesn't do anything. She seams not to like the BM. I guess I will find out more tomorrow though.

Easter

So this year we actually had kids at Easter! YAY! Which made it 100 times better then usual. We made some easter eggs the night before. Kade could have cared less and was perfectly content jumping in the background, but Brittany enjoyed getting messy and making colored eggs.



We used the tye dye set and the glitter set but the glitter set was pretty messy so our hands were pretty busy making those vs taking pictures.



In the morning I set out both their Easter baskets the bunny rabbit brought them. Again Kade rolled his eyes and ate his rabbit and Brittany got a kick out of her bunny ears, candy and little chick that made noises. It was cute.

We dressed them both up before we went to my Nanny's for other Easter festivities.

But somehow Brittany still managed to get a time out before we left. She literally has turned into Ms Independent over night. Can you say beat down?

It did start raining around noon but we hunted easter eggs non the less, anticipating it would rain all day we figured what the hey?

Kade with my cousin Anna.

Brittany blew bubbles all day long with her Daddy. It took her awhile to figure out not to put the stick in her mouth and blow but she got it down fast.

My sister Brittany's baby Aiden threw up on my Dad. LOL I took the perfect picture.

Later in the day the weather did get super nice and I got some great picutres.

We had fun and it was great.

Poor Baby

Poor little man had his surgery Monday. Things went good. They almost didn't let him go in because he had a cough but decided to let him since his lungs were clear. My mom went with me. Thank God. It was so hard to come in after the surgery and see him moan and cry coming out of anesthesia. They gave me some tylenol with codine to take home for the pain.



This is him pretty drugged out. But they did a good job. Its kinda hard to tell because its swollen and today the whole side of his little face is swollen. Its been a bad two days but we will make it thru. He prob wont have another surgery until he is 7. They said the cleft in his palate is not in the hard palate and quite frankly is really on in the left side of his gums. He will need dental work and some bone graph from is hip injected into his gums when he is 7 to repair it. They said his gums will naturally kinds level out between now and then as he grows. He shouldn't have any problem with his hearing and very few with speech. Kinda freaked me out today when he took a nap because he woke up with blood coming out of his nose a bit, old blood, because his nose was runny and snotty. He was PISSED and hungry but today it hurts a bit more to eat because its so swollen.

My clinician called me today and said the licensing team wanted some paperwork from the hospital to say WHY he needed surgery. Are you freaking kidding me? Cleft Lip is just not enough reason huh? So I emailed my clinician the only paperwork I got from the hospital. Hopefully that will do. Idiots. CPS was after all the ones who set all this up. Shouldn't they be calling them? Not me? I swear, after we adopt him.... that's freaking it. I am not saying no one should take this route but honestly how do people put up with them for years and years? I guess its just one of those win some lose some and keep on tring deals. Okay I am dilerious... its like 9 and I need to go to bed... I am raceing the clock. Little man wakes up every two hours to get comferable and then eats every 4 hours. Then needs meds every 6 and Brittany wakes up around 7 or 8. LOL Driving me insane.

Let's just say... I don't know any better.

And oh yea

We are naming him Kade.

And we have TWO!

So today... was pretty damn exciting.

There I was sitting at work looking up vacation cabins in Arkansas, reserving and planning when all of the sudden guess who calls? Emily Ferrel. Who is she? Only the BEST person I know working at DDC. She single handedly brought home our son.

She is the woman who is in charge of the home study division. Some might even call her, "The Woman" just plain in charge. She calls me and asks me " We have a 4 month old hispanic baby boy... interested?"

And I am all "Go on..." lol yea right I was so jumping out of my skin excited. I knew this call would come, I knew one day I would be running around the office screaming "Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God" and today was that day.

She continues to tell me that " he is an emergency placement, been in care since he was born, reasons unknown, has no visits with family, CPS is looking to place him in an adoptive home. He is healthy and on target... he has a cleft lip and/or palate and that will need to be scheduled for surgery asap. It is not effecting his eating nor health but is basically cosmetic"

Okay I am not gonna lie, the cleft palate is kinda scary... not to mention the fact I haven't seen a picture nor know to what degree it is. All I am hearing is baby with a hair lip. But non the less... BABY.

Dilema... Jeff is still out of town. What to do what to do? I call him and he says YES of course so I quickly call Emily back to reply. The next thing I know our home study is sent and we are approved within the hour. CRAZY? Yea pretty crazy. I feel like I have been pregnant for a day. He is coming home tomorrow. Supposedly.

Jeff's mom is on the internet right now trying to fly Jeff in tomorrow... kinda sweet. He has been gone two weeks and prob still has another week and 1/2.

I am pretty excited. There are so many what ifs? Like has the baby seen the Dr. Surely he has seen a Dr.? How many surgeries does he need? Am I gonna be all grossed out if its really bad? Am I gonna totally look past it and just see his big brown eyes? Or is he pissed at mother nature for screwing up his mouth and has a bad displacement? I am worried/excited/nervous/anxious/impatient/scared to death. Apparantly I AM a mother.

So anyways since he is so young we are going to just ignore his given name because its kind of rediculous and no its not "Jesus or Carlos or Jose" As a matter of fact I don't even know his last name. I don't know much, all I know is that he is 4 months, hispanic and has a cleft palate and needs a home who is willing to take him to get his surgery. Apparanly his last family could not comply. Sad really... oh well their loss. I do hope they have pictures.

So anyways Brittany keeps getting out of bed tonight and I am about to strangle her. But not really. lol

I told her today her baby brother is coming home and he has a boo boo on his lip. I am sure she is going to want to kiss it a million times. LOL ...creapy? We will see. I hope she isn't scared of it. I can't say for sure myself if I am totally okay with it... but how are you gonna say no to a baby with a cleft lip? What if I birthed a baby with one? Would I love him any less? Its not like it won't get fixed. Right?

Baby room is ready. I am ready. The house is ready.

And we have a treadmill!!!

So I finally went and picked up the treadmill I jewed this guy down on to $300. muh aha ha ha ha. He was asking 500 to 400 and sold it for 300. Yea that's right... I said hey buddy I got CASH and he said hell yea here you go. I was originally going to get this ladies 6 year old treadmill she paid 1500 hundred four (yea but like 6 years ago) and she said she hardly used it. But I just couldn't get over how outdated it was, plus it was like an hour away in The Woodlands and this guy just bought this one last summer and is brand new but joined a gym and doesn't need it anymore. He paid 1200 at Sears. Pretty sweet...for me.



Its practically the size of a small car. LOL no really its huge and couldn't fit in the back of my Sportage.... so what my car is itty bitty its still capable of folding down its seat and fitting large things in there. One time we fit a huge baby crib in there, I figured it was worth a try. So when we realized this thing wasn't gonna fit I called my dad and he came to the rescue. This thing weighs a ton and some how by the work of God I slid it across the floor and positioned it against the wall until Jeff comes home. I can't fit it thru my bedroom door without turning it sideways and its too heavy for me to do alone. SUCKS.





Its kinda dusty, I am about to clean it, give me a break. So I did work on it for like 9 min before I needed a drink, but I just lugged the dang thing in so relax, I am not done. It has 12 speeds and by number 3 I am RUNNING. It also has 10 inclines and I switched it to incline 8 speed 3 and almost fell off. LOL




It's SUPER quiet and the only noise it makes is the sound of your feet hitting the belt and a little click when the belt turns a full turn because where its sewn together I guess rubs against something and it makes this tiny click. But no worries. It also tells your BP when you put your hands on the bar, how many calories youve burned and how long you've walked and how far. You imput your height weight and if your male or female and I guess it just kind of knows. So far I burned off the quarter pounder I bought on the way to pick it up. HA HA HA HA. Brittany was hungry and I had to get something quick. But its okay, I only ate half of it. When you go on a diet and you eat lettuce and chicken straight for aout 4 days your stomach shrinks.

So anyways I don't know how much weight I have lost thus far. I only started Sat and I don't have a scale but I can tell my face is kinda not feeling so bloated, which is the first step. Did you know we gain weight from toe to head and lose it from head to toe? Kinda cool huh?

Oh and this is my work hole. I work on a double screen so I have time to work and play. heh heh

Toy Chest

So my sister Brandy gave me this pretty awesome toy chest. The lid was pink, it was her girls, but I spray painted it Blue with the Krylon plastic paint. It worked like magic and now I have the best little boy's toy chest ever.