Friday was a very long day. It really started at 2:30 a.m. when Katie woke up with a nightmare (the monster was eating her). I took her to my bed with me and one of us slept (I'll let you guess which one). When my alarm went off at 5:00 I kissed her and told her Happy Birthday. She began crying because she knew that I was going to work early and Jared was going to put her on the bus. Getting her to go back to sleep was not going to happen, so she got up and had breakfast with Marty and I. She was in good spirits and watching cartoons when we both left at 6:15. I had to go to work early to set up and prepare breakfast for our department (60 people), for our end of year substitute and employee appreciation. I was at Wegman's at 6:30 a.m. Marty actually took the afternoon off so that he could do some grocery shopping and make dinner. Jared had made plans to join Katie's class for her special snack, but when he got there they were at an assembly. So much for that! On Friday night, Michael, Cryt and Christopher joined Marty, Jared, Katie, Emily and I for a little birthday dinner for Katie. She had requested her favorite dinner, ham. Jared had given Katie a t-ball bat and six balls. We gave her a sleeping bag (her biggest wish). After dinner we all went outside and played some baseball. We had a lot of fun.
On Saturday we had Katie's 6th birthday party with her friends. It was actually a shared party with Katie's best friend, Abby Jones. We were planning on having a pool party, and renting a bounce house. We also have a trampoline, so we thought that a bunch of kindergarteners would have fun with those three activities. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We've been having way too much rain, and not very high temperatures lately. I know that today is the first official full day of summer, but come on!!! Bring on the dry, hot weather already!!!
Oh, well - we had a good time without the pool, trampoline, and bounce house. One of the moms that stayed the whole time told me she counted 21 kids. I don't know for sure - they kept moving so much that I gave up trying! Everyone seemed to have a great time (although there were a few moments of tears).
I really can't believe that my baby girl is already six.....seems like just yesterday that we came home from China, and in actuality it's been almost 5 years. Where does the time go? Kindergarten is almost over (only 1 full day and 3 half days left), and then onto summer vacation. It's been a very good year for Katie in Kindergarten. She's learning to read, and making progress in math. Her only issue that I'm concerned with is her lack of attention. It's not all the time, but often enough that her teacher has mentioned it more than once. She'll really have to pay better attention in first grade, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
This morning (Sunday), she and Emily have been playing with all of Katie's new toys, including taking a long bath with two different mermaid dolls that Katie received. She also got a doll from the movie "High School Musical". The microphone plays music, and when it's held near the doll's mouth, the words are sung. It's only 11:00 a.m. and I'm already tired of that song! Wonder how long those batteries will last?
Marty, Michael and Jared have been out bass fishing since about 7:00 this morning. I expect they'll get back around 2:00 or so. The girls and I will celebrate Father's Day with Marty when he returns. They're pretty excited about giving him all the things they made for him at school. To tell you the truth, I haven't even bought him anything yet. I think the girls and I will run out in a little while and buy his gift.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
1982-1984
How in the world do other bloggers update on a daily basis? I realized that it's been nearly 3 weeks since I blogged. Maybe I just don't have enough to write about. Maybe I'm just too busy....
I'm going to try to build this blog from the beginning - well, mine & Marty's beginning anyway. Here we go....
Way back during the spring of 1982 I started working at Burger King in Watkins Glen. I worked there until Marty and I were married on September 11th of that year, and transferred to 7th North Street, Liverpool (north of Syracuse). Those two restaurants were owned by the same guys, so it was an easy transfer. We lived in Phoenix, NY at the time in a little apartment which was the 2nd floor of an old house. Downstairs were two even smaller apartments.
Marty and I settled into married life pretty easily. He worked as a mechanic at a wine distributor. Money was pretty tight - we had one car, and we didn't even have a phone for a long time! These days everyone has cell phones, so a home phone is unnecessary. Sure would have been nice back then! One of my bad habits was locking my keys inside the apartment. Of course, since we only had one car poor Marty would have to borrow a car from work, come all the way back to the apartment (about 15-20 minutes away), and use the ladder to break into our apartment to get my keys. It probably only happened 3-4 times, but I know it was rather annoying. I don't know why we didn't just give Mrs. Robinson downstairs a copy of that key. At this time in our lives we still hadn't achieved too much independence. By that I mean that we enjoyed going home most weekends. Marty would spend most of the day at his parent's house, and I'd spend it with my parents/sisters. I don't remember why we didn't want to stay in Phoenix each weekend - these days I'd love to have some time to just stay home.....
Sixteen months after our wedding, we received a phone call that Marty's father had passed away. This proved to be a turning point in our lives. During the time of the funeral, I began to suspect that I was pregnant. Sure enough, about a week or two later the doctor confirmed that we were expecting! Of course, we were thrilled, but the joy was tempered by the loss of Marty's father. Not everyone in the family was ready to share in our happiness. At the time I was pretty hurt by the reaction that we received by some. Now, of course, I can understand it but back then it was painful.
My pregnancy progressed normally other than the fact that I became HUGE very quickly. My due date was September 4th and by May when I was my cousin's Maid of Honor I looked ridiculous! It was difficult to convince people that I was only 5 months along! Marty had been applying for mechanic jobs "back home" since January. He really felt the need to live closer to his mother and younger brother. I was all for it! I didn't want to have my first baby and live away from family, either. Funny, we were less than 2 hours away from home and felt like we were worlds away.
Marty interviewed for a job at GoodYear in Horseheads on a Saturday, and they wanted him to start in one week. We were excited, but really had to move to make that happen! Sunday we spent looking for an apartment. We finally found one that we could afford, although it was in a terrible old building in Watkins Glen. It really was our only option other than moving in with Marty's mother. I was just a bit too hormonal for that to happen, so we took it. We drove back to Phoenix with my sister Donna and her daughter Tiffany (who had just turned two). On Monday we both gave our notices at work. We spent the rest of the week packing things up and getting ready to move. We had a cat that had kittens that week, too. I remember driving back down to Watkins Glen with the car full of Marty, Me, Donna, Tiffy, the cat & kittens and our stuff we couldn't live without. Everything else would get moved the following day (or two?) once we borrowed Don's truck. It was a crazy weekend, but in the end we got moved in.
We settled into a new routine. Marty took the car to work each day (a good 1/2 hour away or so), so I was stranded at the apartment. Often my sister or Dad would pick me up and I'd spend the day at their house. I was a very hot summer for normal people - and I was not normal that year! My feet swelled up until I couldn't wear my own shoes! I started borrowing Marty's and making him help me tie them. In July we decided that we didn't want to bring our baby home to that apartment, so we found a mobile home to rent. It was located in the country very close to Mom K's house, and still close to my parent's. Our landlord was a double amputee who lived next door. He and his assistant had two horses and a bunch of goats. Often the whole managerie would get out during the day and he'd call me to take a feed bucket up the road and convince them to make their way back home. Once, one of the horses stepped on my foot and purposely stood on it. I remember my swollen foot took months to return to normal!
As I said before, I was due on September 4th. I was sure I'd deliver in August just because everyone kept saying how big I was and asking me when I was due. I started thinking there was no way I was going to go that long. What did I know? I'd never been pregnant before! When September finally rolled around, I started getting phone calls. Lots of phone calls! My mother and sisters called quite often to ask how I was feeling, ask if I was in labor, ask what was new, etc. As though I wouldn't have called them immediately if something was going on! I couldn't believe that I was going overdue, but that's exactly what happened!
On the evening of September 14th, my back was killing me. I finally decided to go to bed at about 10:00 and hope that I could relieve some of the pain. I remember waking up just a few hours later and realizing that these pains were becoming very rhythmic. There was a pattern emerging here. Now, none of these pains were in my stomach - only my back. I didn't want to be embarassed by going to the hospital and being told I was in false labor, so I didn't tell anyone. I took Marty's watch off his dresser because I could use the little light on the face and start timing these pains. Sure enough, they started coming around 7 minutes apart. I woke up Marty (who wasn't sleeping very well anyway), and called my mom. It was about 2:30 a.m.
Eventually Dad convinced Mom that phone in the living room was ringing and after waking up enough to pick up the phone (not the alarm clock), she advised me to call the hospital. As she headed back to bed, my Dad (who had already started to get dressed), asked "aren't we heading out?". Mom replied that she had to work at the hospital the next morning and they'd go then. That was the end of Dad's night of sleep....he got up and made coffee.
I called the hospital, and in my excitement, told the person on the other end of the phone my symptoms and the fact that I was now 11 days overdue! She congratulated me and connected me with OB. Oops - I'd just spilled my guts to the receptionist! I then repeated my news to the nurse who answered, and she suggested we come in to be checked. Checked? Are you kidding? This better not be a false alarm!
After Marty hit every pot hole between the trailer and the hospital (and there were a lot of them), we arrived at about 3:00. A quick check convinced everyone that this was for real (thank God!). I was started on a pitocen drip to help the contractions come closer together. At this time, I was also explained what "Back Labor" is. It's due to the fact that the baby is face-up instead of face-down. The nurse said that my spine would feel like it was going to snap before I was done. What??? I guess that's why no one talked about it previously. I never once felt a contraction across my belly, as everyone describes. No wonder I didn't realize I was in labor! When mom and Dr. Tague talked at about 6:30 that morning, she asked him how long he thought it would take. Apparently, he said "by about 3:30", and Marty's eyes bugged out and said "THIS AFTERNOON?". Of course, I wasn't around for this discussion - it took place in the waiting room. Others have told me that the look on Marty's face was precious - I can just imagine!
Many hours passed. I spent quite a bit of time on my hands & knees doing "pelvic rocking" during contractions. This was supposed to help the baby turn over, but it didn't work. I don't remember how long I pushed (I tell Michael it was around 12 hours, but that math doesn't work!). All I know is that at 3:12 p.m. Michael David Kennedy finally made his way into this world. He was 8 lbs, 5 1/2 oz., and the most beautiful child! He had a fuzz of dark brown hair, and big cheeks. He was absolutely precious. The doctor withheld the baby's sex when the nurse was dispatched to tell my dad that we had a "big healthy baby". When dad asked the gender, they said that the parents wanted to announce it. Dad went down the hall to where mom was working and told her. She was a bit miffed to say the least. Marty and I did not know about Dr. Tague's little trick until he had us announce it in the hallway back to my room. At this point I didn't mind - I was finally done and was on my way to a well-deserved rest.
Life was about to get very interesting. Wonderful, but interesting!
I'm going to try to build this blog from the beginning - well, mine & Marty's beginning anyway. Here we go....
Way back during the spring of 1982 I started working at Burger King in Watkins Glen. I worked there until Marty and I were married on September 11th of that year, and transferred to 7th North Street, Liverpool (north of Syracuse). Those two restaurants were owned by the same guys, so it was an easy transfer. We lived in Phoenix, NY at the time in a little apartment which was the 2nd floor of an old house. Downstairs were two even smaller apartments.
Marty and I settled into married life pretty easily. He worked as a mechanic at a wine distributor. Money was pretty tight - we had one car, and we didn't even have a phone for a long time! These days everyone has cell phones, so a home phone is unnecessary. Sure would have been nice back then! One of my bad habits was locking my keys inside the apartment. Of course, since we only had one car poor Marty would have to borrow a car from work, come all the way back to the apartment (about 15-20 minutes away), and use the ladder to break into our apartment to get my keys. It probably only happened 3-4 times, but I know it was rather annoying. I don't know why we didn't just give Mrs. Robinson downstairs a copy of that key. At this time in our lives we still hadn't achieved too much independence. By that I mean that we enjoyed going home most weekends. Marty would spend most of the day at his parent's house, and I'd spend it with my parents/sisters. I don't remember why we didn't want to stay in Phoenix each weekend - these days I'd love to have some time to just stay home.....
Sixteen months after our wedding, we received a phone call that Marty's father had passed away. This proved to be a turning point in our lives. During the time of the funeral, I began to suspect that I was pregnant. Sure enough, about a week or two later the doctor confirmed that we were expecting! Of course, we were thrilled, but the joy was tempered by the loss of Marty's father. Not everyone in the family was ready to share in our happiness. At the time I was pretty hurt by the reaction that we received by some. Now, of course, I can understand it but back then it was painful.
My pregnancy progressed normally other than the fact that I became HUGE very quickly. My due date was September 4th and by May when I was my cousin's Maid of Honor I looked ridiculous! It was difficult to convince people that I was only 5 months along! Marty had been applying for mechanic jobs "back home" since January. He really felt the need to live closer to his mother and younger brother. I was all for it! I didn't want to have my first baby and live away from family, either. Funny, we were less than 2 hours away from home and felt like we were worlds away.
Marty interviewed for a job at GoodYear in Horseheads on a Saturday, and they wanted him to start in one week. We were excited, but really had to move to make that happen! Sunday we spent looking for an apartment. We finally found one that we could afford, although it was in a terrible old building in Watkins Glen. It really was our only option other than moving in with Marty's mother. I was just a bit too hormonal for that to happen, so we took it. We drove back to Phoenix with my sister Donna and her daughter Tiffany (who had just turned two). On Monday we both gave our notices at work. We spent the rest of the week packing things up and getting ready to move. We had a cat that had kittens that week, too. I remember driving back down to Watkins Glen with the car full of Marty, Me, Donna, Tiffy, the cat & kittens and our stuff we couldn't live without. Everything else would get moved the following day (or two?) once we borrowed Don's truck. It was a crazy weekend, but in the end we got moved in.
We settled into a new routine. Marty took the car to work each day (a good 1/2 hour away or so), so I was stranded at the apartment. Often my sister or Dad would pick me up and I'd spend the day at their house. I was a very hot summer for normal people - and I was not normal that year! My feet swelled up until I couldn't wear my own shoes! I started borrowing Marty's and making him help me tie them. In July we decided that we didn't want to bring our baby home to that apartment, so we found a mobile home to rent. It was located in the country very close to Mom K's house, and still close to my parent's. Our landlord was a double amputee who lived next door. He and his assistant had two horses and a bunch of goats. Often the whole managerie would get out during the day and he'd call me to take a feed bucket up the road and convince them to make their way back home. Once, one of the horses stepped on my foot and purposely stood on it. I remember my swollen foot took months to return to normal!
As I said before, I was due on September 4th. I was sure I'd deliver in August just because everyone kept saying how big I was and asking me when I was due. I started thinking there was no way I was going to go that long. What did I know? I'd never been pregnant before! When September finally rolled around, I started getting phone calls. Lots of phone calls! My mother and sisters called quite often to ask how I was feeling, ask if I was in labor, ask what was new, etc. As though I wouldn't have called them immediately if something was going on! I couldn't believe that I was going overdue, but that's exactly what happened!
On the evening of September 14th, my back was killing me. I finally decided to go to bed at about 10:00 and hope that I could relieve some of the pain. I remember waking up just a few hours later and realizing that these pains were becoming very rhythmic. There was a pattern emerging here. Now, none of these pains were in my stomach - only my back. I didn't want to be embarassed by going to the hospital and being told I was in false labor, so I didn't tell anyone. I took Marty's watch off his dresser because I could use the little light on the face and start timing these pains. Sure enough, they started coming around 7 minutes apart. I woke up Marty (who wasn't sleeping very well anyway), and called my mom. It was about 2:30 a.m.
Eventually Dad convinced Mom that phone in the living room was ringing and after waking up enough to pick up the phone (not the alarm clock), she advised me to call the hospital. As she headed back to bed, my Dad (who had already started to get dressed), asked "aren't we heading out?". Mom replied that she had to work at the hospital the next morning and they'd go then. That was the end of Dad's night of sleep....he got up and made coffee.
I called the hospital, and in my excitement, told the person on the other end of the phone my symptoms and the fact that I was now 11 days overdue! She congratulated me and connected me with OB. Oops - I'd just spilled my guts to the receptionist! I then repeated my news to the nurse who answered, and she suggested we come in to be checked. Checked? Are you kidding? This better not be a false alarm!
After Marty hit every pot hole between the trailer and the hospital (and there were a lot of them), we arrived at about 3:00. A quick check convinced everyone that this was for real (thank God!). I was started on a pitocen drip to help the contractions come closer together. At this time, I was also explained what "Back Labor" is. It's due to the fact that the baby is face-up instead of face-down. The nurse said that my spine would feel like it was going to snap before I was done. What??? I guess that's why no one talked about it previously. I never once felt a contraction across my belly, as everyone describes. No wonder I didn't realize I was in labor! When mom and Dr. Tague talked at about 6:30 that morning, she asked him how long he thought it would take. Apparently, he said "by about 3:30", and Marty's eyes bugged out and said "THIS AFTERNOON?". Of course, I wasn't around for this discussion - it took place in the waiting room. Others have told me that the look on Marty's face was precious - I can just imagine!
Many hours passed. I spent quite a bit of time on my hands & knees doing "pelvic rocking" during contractions. This was supposed to help the baby turn over, but it didn't work. I don't remember how long I pushed (I tell Michael it was around 12 hours, but that math doesn't work!). All I know is that at 3:12 p.m. Michael David Kennedy finally made his way into this world. He was 8 lbs, 5 1/2 oz., and the most beautiful child! He had a fuzz of dark brown hair, and big cheeks. He was absolutely precious. The doctor withheld the baby's sex when the nurse was dispatched to tell my dad that we had a "big healthy baby". When dad asked the gender, they said that the parents wanted to announce it. Dad went down the hall to where mom was working and told her. She was a bit miffed to say the least. Marty and I did not know about Dr. Tague's little trick until he had us announce it in the hallway back to my room. At this point I didn't mind - I was finally done and was on my way to a well-deserved rest.
Life was about to get very interesting. Wonderful, but interesting!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
(LONG) Weekend Update
Marty, Katie, Emily and I all travelled to Boston on Thursday evening for a re-check of Emily's palate. We didn't get on the road until almost 6:00, and arrived at our hotel shortly after 12:00. That's pretty good timing for us!
The girls were really good on the trip down (that DVD player has paid for itself many times over in the past year!). Katie fell asleep somewhere around 10:00 (very late for her), and Emily stayed awake until about 11:30 or so. That kid just never wants to fall asleep! She'll sit right there and tell you she's tired, but it just never occurs to her to go to sleep. If you tell her to close her eyes and rest, then she falls right to sleep!
Friday morning we were able to take our time getting around (appt. at 11:00), which was nice. We got to the hospital around 10:00 and our first stop was the blood bank. I like to donate while I'm there not only because I believe that donating blood is vitally important, but also because I get free parking for the entire day. It's a win-win situation!
Dr. L (and Dr. P's resident) saw Emily first, and took lots of photos. He is the plastic surgeon who did the tissue graft. He was very happy with the healing that has taken place, both in her mouth and her arm. We got talking about the mouth, and something he said triggered something I've been meaning to point out. I asked him to get her a cup so he could see how she swallows. It's really pretty funky. She opens her mouth, sorta throws back her head, and chokes the liquid down. Dr. L seemed a bit concerned about it, too. After a short time, Dr. P joined us. Dr. P was the one who, along with Dr. L, closed Emily's hard palate with the donated tissue from her forearm. She also looked at the mouth and confirmed that there were no fistulas (yippee!). I brought up the swallowing issue, and Emily demonstrated. There is a concern that Emily's soft palate, although corrected in September 2007, is still not working properly.
Dr. P wanted Emily assessed by one of the speech pathologists, as well as scheduled for a swallow study. Although we weren't on the schedule, they were able to squeeze us in for the SLP. The SLP did quite a bit of testing on Emily, and documented everything. She explained to us that some of Emily's issues are due to her tooth placement, and until they're straightened up, she simply won't be able to make certain sounds. She agreed with Dr. P that it's possible that the build up of scar tissue may be causing the muscles in the soft palate to not work correctly. The swallow study will help us determine if that is the case. I phoned before we even left that department, and got an appointment for the swallow study in July.
We all discussed the future plans for Emily. Dr. P explained that Emily will need orthodontics starting in about a year (her teeth are really crowded now - wait until the adult teeth come in!). They will widen her jaw slowly, which will prepare her for the bone graft surgery (from her hip). This will happen at approx. 8-10 years old. Once that is healed and her adult teeth start coming in, she will need extensive orthodontics. Fortunately, we have a really good relationship with a local Dr. who did braces for each of the boys. Emily's teeth can't be that much worse than theirs, right? We'll see...
Finally, both Dr's agreed that Emily needs to be seen by the entire cleft team , led by Dr. M, at this time next year. I think the only reason we haven't seen the entire team yet is because once we found Dr. M, time was of the essence, and they got Emily scheduled for surgery last year asap. We first met all 3 doctors in April 2008, and she had her surgery in July 2008. That's especially fast, believe me! After all is said and done (jaw-wise), Emily will have a lip and nose revision by Dr. M. All in all, that's a pretty minor issue compared to what she's been through.
So, all that was Friday morning. We were headed to the hospital playground (the girls had been bugging us to visit it), and they were setting up for a carnival. We stood around for a short time, and decided to get a bite to eat, and then return. When we came back, there were lots of children getting their photos taken with a dinosaur, making photo frames, painting small treasure boxes, coloring paper masks, and gettting their hands painted (instead of the face). The girls had a great time, and brought home lots of little souveniors.
Saturday morning we got around, packed up the room, and again headed into the city towards the aquarium. There wasn't anyone at the ticket booth for the whale watch, and we wanted to check that out, too. Once we did, we decided to purchase combo tickets for the aquarium/whale watch. Our WW wasn't scheduled until 2:00, so we headed into the aquarium. Because we'd already purchased our tickets, we were able to bypass approximately 100 people in line waiting to purchase aquarium tickets! We had a terrific time there! We saw penguins swimming and standing around, a huge spiral tank in the middle where untold numbers of different types of fish were swimming, and tanks throughout to view many other species. The girls were able to touch starfish; I think that might have been the highlight of the trip! We saw a huge sea turtle in the main tank, swimming along with 3 sharks and tons of other fish. Again, I took a ton of photos!
We had lunch at the cafe there, and then headed outside to get in line for the Whale Watch. Before we did, we found a display of harbor seals (a favorite of Katie's!), and watched them for a short time. We joined a very long line of folks for the whale watch. Our boat eventually showed up, unloaded the folks from the earlier tour, and loaded us on. There wasn't room for everyone to have outside seats, so we settled for seats mid-deck inside. After a while Katie was getting upset because "you promised we'd be outside". I eventually took her and Emily outside and we stood near the rail as the boat was making it's way out of the harbor. It was very windy and pretty cold, but it felt great! We quickly went back inside to get Marty to join us. Emily and Marty went back in after about 45 minutes, but Katie wanted to stay out longer. Eventually, we also went inside, and stayed there for about the next hour. I got just a touch of sea-sickness, and needed some fresh air. Once back on deck I felt much better. After we'd been going for nearly 2 hours, some whales were spotted! As we got closer, we found some room near the railing and we were given quite a show! Several humpback whales were about 25 yards away from us. They did quite a bit of showing us their tails, and once one of them bobbed up and stuck it's head out of the water quite a ways. I took more photos... We didn't see any of those big leaps that we were hoping for, but no one was complaining!
The ride back to shore took around 1 hour, and was much smoother than the one out to sea. We got back to the aquarium around 5:45, ran in and used the facilities (again, happy that we'd bought combo tickets!), and headed to our car. We got on the road towards home around 6:30, I think. We stopped around 8:00 for a potty break, and Emily was hungry. No one else wanted to eat, so we got her a burger and got back in the car. Marty got pulled over for going 79 MPH in a 65 zone. The officer said that when he walked up he saw that Marty was not wearing a seat belt. Marty said he'd just taken it off to get his wallet out. The officer said that he could ticket him for speeding which would put 4 points on his license, or ticket him for the seat belt, which wouldn't add any points. Marty said thank you very much, and went on our way! At 10:00 we stopped again, and the rest of us ate. Although we were very tired, Marty said he was fine and drove all the way home. I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I wasn't much help to him! We got home at 12:30 (again, really good timing), and were in bed minutes later (the girls didn't even change out of their jeans!).
Sunday we spent the day mowing lawn, having a picnic lunch, opening up the pool (we jumped in for a short time to make it official & begin the cleaning process), having a picnic dinner, and making s'mores around a bonfire. All in all, it was a very nice day. Denise M. came over to enjoy s'mores with us. We were sharing photos, and my lovely new garden swing that Marty & the kids got me for mother's day broke! That put a damper on things, but Marty is going to try to fix it. He doesn't have the receipt any more, and we had used the box it came in to help build the fire that day!
Monday (Memorial Day) was spent at home. We went outside to take the solar cover off the pool, and were shocked at how dirty it looked! Yesterday we were pleasantly surprised at how clean it was, and today it was nasty! We started the filter, added some chlorine, and went to the store for some shock and other chemicals. When we returned about an hour later, we were again surprised at how clean it was! We tested the pH, added the shock and chemicals, and I scooped up tons of stuff that was falling from the trees. I've never noticed how much stuff there is falling out of trees at this time of year, but then again, I've never had a pool in my back yard. Marty worked on installing the solar cover reel. Jared came home from Kari's house, stripped down to his shorts, and did a flip into the pool! He realized very quickly that it's going to take some time for that solar cover to do it's job and warm up the water! We spoke to Adam on the phone, and he told us about his adventures in Puerto Rico. He's been having a wonderful time visiting Ingrid's family, not to mention the snorkeling, fishing, drinking, etc. that's been happening.
Sorry this has been so long. It was a long weekend, and I wanted to get it all down before I forgot it.
The girls were really good on the trip down (that DVD player has paid for itself many times over in the past year!). Katie fell asleep somewhere around 10:00 (very late for her), and Emily stayed awake until about 11:30 or so. That kid just never wants to fall asleep! She'll sit right there and tell you she's tired, but it just never occurs to her to go to sleep. If you tell her to close her eyes and rest, then she falls right to sleep!
Friday morning we were able to take our time getting around (appt. at 11:00), which was nice. We got to the hospital around 10:00 and our first stop was the blood bank. I like to donate while I'm there not only because I believe that donating blood is vitally important, but also because I get free parking for the entire day. It's a win-win situation!
Dr. L (and Dr. P's resident) saw Emily first, and took lots of photos. He is the plastic surgeon who did the tissue graft. He was very happy with the healing that has taken place, both in her mouth and her arm. We got talking about the mouth, and something he said triggered something I've been meaning to point out. I asked him to get her a cup so he could see how she swallows. It's really pretty funky. She opens her mouth, sorta throws back her head, and chokes the liquid down. Dr. L seemed a bit concerned about it, too. After a short time, Dr. P joined us. Dr. P was the one who, along with Dr. L, closed Emily's hard palate with the donated tissue from her forearm. She also looked at the mouth and confirmed that there were no fistulas (yippee!). I brought up the swallowing issue, and Emily demonstrated. There is a concern that Emily's soft palate, although corrected in September 2007, is still not working properly.
Dr. P wanted Emily assessed by one of the speech pathologists, as well as scheduled for a swallow study. Although we weren't on the schedule, they were able to squeeze us in for the SLP. The SLP did quite a bit of testing on Emily, and documented everything. She explained to us that some of Emily's issues are due to her tooth placement, and until they're straightened up, she simply won't be able to make certain sounds. She agreed with Dr. P that it's possible that the build up of scar tissue may be causing the muscles in the soft palate to not work correctly. The swallow study will help us determine if that is the case. I phoned before we even left that department, and got an appointment for the swallow study in July.
We all discussed the future plans for Emily. Dr. P explained that Emily will need orthodontics starting in about a year (her teeth are really crowded now - wait until the adult teeth come in!). They will widen her jaw slowly, which will prepare her for the bone graft surgery (from her hip). This will happen at approx. 8-10 years old. Once that is healed and her adult teeth start coming in, she will need extensive orthodontics. Fortunately, we have a really good relationship with a local Dr. who did braces for each of the boys. Emily's teeth can't be that much worse than theirs, right? We'll see...
Finally, both Dr's agreed that Emily needs to be seen by the entire cleft team , led by Dr. M, at this time next year. I think the only reason we haven't seen the entire team yet is because once we found Dr. M, time was of the essence, and they got Emily scheduled for surgery last year asap. We first met all 3 doctors in April 2008, and she had her surgery in July 2008. That's especially fast, believe me! After all is said and done (jaw-wise), Emily will have a lip and nose revision by Dr. M. All in all, that's a pretty minor issue compared to what she's been through.
So, all that was Friday morning. We were headed to the hospital playground (the girls had been bugging us to visit it), and they were setting up for a carnival. We stood around for a short time, and decided to get a bite to eat, and then return. When we came back, there were lots of children getting their photos taken with a dinosaur, making photo frames, painting small treasure boxes, coloring paper masks, and gettting their hands painted (instead of the face). The girls had a great time, and brought home lots of little souveniors.
After we left the hospital, and were headed back towards the hotel, we found this big water fountain that children were running through. It was in the high 80's, so we found a parking gargage and let the girls run off some steam. They had a wonderful time! We had planned on visiting the children's museum, so we started asking people how to get there. Everyone said it was pretty close by, but no one could give us directions. We decided to return to the hotel, get the girls changed, and ask at the front desk for directions. Traffic was backed up pretty bad, but we eventually made it. The front desk took about 20 minutes to figure out that their printer wasn't working, and finally wrote down the directions. We drove through McD's for dinner and back into the city we went.
We found the museum easily, and the girls had a fantastic time! 3 stories of everything imaginable, including a 3-story climbing apparatus (photo on the left). I took about 100 photos.... Before we left I asked the young man at the information desk about directions to the aquarium for Saturday. He printed them off (less than a mile away from the museum).
Saturday morning we got around, packed up the room, and again headed into the city towards the aquarium. There wasn't anyone at the ticket booth for the whale watch, and we wanted to check that out, too. Once we did, we decided to purchase combo tickets for the aquarium/whale watch. Our WW wasn't scheduled until 2:00, so we headed into the aquarium. Because we'd already purchased our tickets, we were able to bypass approximately 100 people in line waiting to purchase aquarium tickets! We had a terrific time there! We saw penguins swimming and standing around, a huge spiral tank in the middle where untold numbers of different types of fish were swimming, and tanks throughout to view many other species. The girls were able to touch starfish; I think that might have been the highlight of the trip! We saw a huge sea turtle in the main tank, swimming along with 3 sharks and tons of other fish. Again, I took a ton of photos! We had lunch at the cafe there, and then headed outside to get in line for the Whale Watch. Before we did, we found a display of harbor seals (a favorite of Katie's!), and watched them for a short time. We joined a very long line of folks for the whale watch. Our boat eventually showed up, unloaded the folks from the earlier tour, and loaded us on. There wasn't room for everyone to have outside seats, so we settled for seats mid-deck inside. After a while Katie was getting upset because "you promised we'd be outside". I eventually took her and Emily outside and we stood near the rail as the boat was making it's way out of the harbor. It was very windy and pretty cold, but it felt great! We quickly went back inside to get Marty to join us. Emily and Marty went back in after about 45 minutes, but Katie wanted to stay out longer. Eventually, we also went inside, and stayed there for about the next hour. I got just a touch of sea-sickness, and needed some fresh air. Once back on deck I felt much better. After we'd been going for nearly 2 hours, some whales were spotted! As we got closer, we found some room near the railing and we were given quite a show! Several humpback whales were about 25 yards away from us. They did quite a bit of showing us their tails, and once one of them bobbed up and stuck it's head out of the water quite a ways. I took more photos... We didn't see any of those big leaps that we were hoping for, but no one was complaining!
The ride back to shore took around 1 hour, and was much smoother than the one out to sea. We got back to the aquarium around 5:45, ran in and used the facilities (again, happy that we'd bought combo tickets!), and headed to our car. We got on the road towards home around 6:30, I think. We stopped around 8:00 for a potty break, and Emily was hungry. No one else wanted to eat, so we got her a burger and got back in the car. Marty got pulled over for going 79 MPH in a 65 zone. The officer said that when he walked up he saw that Marty was not wearing a seat belt. Marty said he'd just taken it off to get his wallet out. The officer said that he could ticket him for speeding which would put 4 points on his license, or ticket him for the seat belt, which wouldn't add any points. Marty said thank you very much, and went on our way! At 10:00 we stopped again, and the rest of us ate. Although we were very tired, Marty said he was fine and drove all the way home. I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I wasn't much help to him! We got home at 12:30 (again, really good timing), and were in bed minutes later (the girls didn't even change out of their jeans!).
Sunday we spent the day mowing lawn, having a picnic lunch, opening up the pool (we jumped in for a short time to make it official & begin the cleaning process), having a picnic dinner, and making s'mores around a bonfire. All in all, it was a very nice day. Denise M. came over to enjoy s'mores with us. We were sharing photos, and my lovely new garden swing that Marty & the kids got me for mother's day broke! That put a damper on things, but Marty is going to try to fix it. He doesn't have the receipt any more, and we had used the box it came in to help build the fire that day!
Monday (Memorial Day) was spent at home. We went outside to take the solar cover off the pool, and were shocked at how dirty it looked! Yesterday we were pleasantly surprised at how clean it was, and today it was nasty! We started the filter, added some chlorine, and went to the store for some shock and other chemicals. When we returned about an hour later, we were again surprised at how clean it was! We tested the pH, added the shock and chemicals, and I scooped up tons of stuff that was falling from the trees. I've never noticed how much stuff there is falling out of trees at this time of year, but then again, I've never had a pool in my back yard. Marty worked on installing the solar cover reel. Jared came home from Kari's house, stripped down to his shorts, and did a flip into the pool! He realized very quickly that it's going to take some time for that solar cover to do it's job and warm up the water! We spoke to Adam on the phone, and he told us about his adventures in Puerto Rico. He's been having a wonderful time visiting Ingrid's family, not to mention the snorkeling, fishing, drinking, etc. that's been happening.Sorry this has been so long. It was a long weekend, and I wanted to get it all down before I forgot it.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time to start blogging...
Well, I guess it's time to enter the world of blogging. This is something that I've been thinking about doing for some time. I kept a blog during our trip to China to get Emily, and since then I've wished that I had done one for Katie (live and learn!). I've always had that nagging little voice saying "How can you start now? Half the story has already been played out!" It would be like beginning a novel in the 10th chapter.... Oh, well, I guess you have to start somewhere, huh?So, here we are. Those of you reading this probably already know me, but just in case, I'll introduce myself. I'm Diana. It's currently May 19, 2009 and I'm the ripe old age of 45. I've been married to my high school sweetheart, Marty, for 26 years! That's something I'm especially proud of. In this day and age it's not something that you hear about very often. Let's see - what else? I'm the mother of 5 (3 bio, 2 adopted), and grandmother of one. I'm an administrative assistant at Tompkins Community Action, Early Childhood Department. We run the Head Start program in Tompkins County, NY. I've only been at this job for just over a year, but I'm loving it so far! My hobbies include family photography, reading, painting, and embroidery. I'm the youngest of 8 siblings. I've always lived in upstate New York. I've been a hockey mom for the past 20 years, but retired that title this past year. Now I'm working on being a gymnastics & dance mom - big difference, let me tell you!
The love of my life is my husband, Marty. We started dating when I was in 10th grade - shortly after I'd gone to the prom with the only other guy I've ever dated. I was Marty's first serious girlfriend, and I think that's pretty cool. Marty took me to the prom in 11th & 12th grades, and we married after I'd been out of high school just over one year. Marty works at BorgWarner, Morse TEC as a machinist. These days it's not so easy to be employed in the automobile industry, and lots of his co-workers have been laid off. Hopefully, Marty's job is safe, but I still worry. Martin is without a doubt the most incredible husband and father ever. He's 100% hands on, and I couldn't be happier! In fact, the title of our blog "Day by Day, Side by Side" comes from way back when we were young parents and having all those responsibilities. Some days were tougher than others, and that phrase came to me.... It's how we've gotten through some of our rougher spots.
Ok, so moving on - Michael is our oldest son. He's what made me into the mother that I am today. I had no idea that I had the capacity for love that I currently have until that beautiful little boy was born. He has been a delight to raise, and I'm proud of the man that he's become. He is currently 24 years old, and the father to our granddaughter, Dakota (almost 5!). Michael lives with Cryt (real name: Christy), and her son, Christopher. Although Dakota isn't in the picture these days, Michael gives a lot of himself to Christopher, showing how to hunt and fish.
Adam is our "middle child, turned middle son". That's because for a long time it was just the 3 boys. Adam is 22, and a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He has recently returned from his third tour of duty in Iraq. I am exceptionally proud of Adam. He's only got about 8 more months in the Marines.... I don't know what he'll do once he gets out, but I'm sure it will be great! Adam lives with his girlfriend, Ingrid, near Camp Lejuene in North Carolina. Although we don't get to see them very often with today's technology I actually hear from him more than Michael!.JPG)
Jared is our youngest son. He's 18, and just about to graduate from high school. Jared is the sweetest, most compassionate young man! He has been taking Auto Body at school for two years (earned awards both years - very unusual as a Junior!), and is headed off to Ohio where he will go to college for collision repair/custom paint. He is excited to go, but it will be hard for all of us without him around. Jared has been dating Kari since he turned 16. They seem to have a terrific relationship for such a young couple. Reminds me of Marty & I when we were young....
Katie Mei is our eldest daughter. She was adopted from China at the age of 13 months back in July 2004. Katie is going to turn 6 years old next month. She is currently in Kindergarten. Katie loves music and gym class best! She complains when there is no school! Her reading is really progressing, and she is so proud of herself. Katie has been doing gymnastics since she was nearly 2, and has taken dance class for two years now. The recital is next week, and she is very excited about it! T-ball is new to our weekly routine, and the girls have so much fun (even if they don't know what they're doing!).
Emily Rose is our youngest daughter, and the baby of the family. She was adopted from China at the age of 2 years, 4 months back in March 2006. Emily is currently 5 1/2 years old (there's just under 5 months difference in the two girls). Emily is also in Kindergarten, where she has about 20 best friends! Emily is a chatter box who can't sit still (her teacher calls her a hummingbird, which is perfect!). Emily does gymnastics, dance and t-ball with Katie. Emily sings and dances non-stop. I'm sure she'll be in drama/chorus as she grows up!
Ok, well, this first entry is longer than I thought it would be, but you really need to know all the players to know where I'm coming from. My family is absolutely most important thing to me, and I hope you enjoy meeting them and getting to know us. Happy reading!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)