Laughter

March 19

I can remember where and when Bailey first laughed out loud. We were in Gatlinburg at a supermarket. It was August 2010 and she about a week shy of being 10 months old. She had laughed at Brianne. For months after that we rarely heard another laugh, and frankly she did not even smile that much. Slowly she has come around and smiles freely. It still amazes me when I smile at her, and she smiles back. I am sure that one day I will take her laugh for granted, but for now when it happens I stop and enjoy.   

Indiana Jones Tyler Style

March 19

Walt Disney World inspired this video. Tyler has always had a good imagination. Brianne just doesn't seem to want to fall in with his plans. Well, what are little sisters for but to aggravate their older brother.

A Grandfather's Love

If you are still wondering what was in those boxes, it was a play set. I finally got Lee on board with getting the kids a play set. I think we both know that the twins need a play set because it will be years before they will be able to go to a public one.
Grandaddy put it together almost completely by himself. Lee was here only one of the six days it took him to put it together. I regret not getting pictures after each day. Grandaddy spent 2 days putting it together while we were at the beach.

June 16
This was the afternoon after the 3rd day he spent putting it together. The kids put chairs up there and ate dinner.

I looked and Tyler had put Star Wars Lego men all over. I sure they were fighting it out.

June 23
Wyatt was Grandaddy's helper. He was in charge of making a mess and giving Grandaddy something extra to do.

The 5th day of work

June 25
The following pictures are from the sixth and final day.
I have proof that my Dad used directions for once.

Wyatt is ready to help Grandaddy build the play set. Yes he is in his sleep shirt. It is just too hot here to put on more clothes.

Again Wyatt the ever present helper.... He loves all of Grandaddy's tools.

She loves her Grandaddy. I wonder what he is telling her.

Grandaddy also brought watermelons so the twins got to try it for the first time. Of course Wyatt is willing to try anything.

This is Bailey's reaction to any food coming near her mouth. To get it in her mouth you just hold her hands down.

Poor baby! Her mean parents put food in her mouth.

We finally got Bailey to stand up on the floor. She is so scared the grass will touch her. She enjoyed driving.

Wyatt will climb up the stair and go down the slide all by himself. He loves it. Bailey did not like the slide and preferred standing under the set babbling at anyone swinging.

I don't know how my Dad did this by himself. If I had it to do over again I would have bought it in the middle of the winter so he would not have been out there in the heat putting it together. He had a 2 hour drive just to get here and then he worked on the set for hours. Exhausted and tired he then had to drive back another 2 hours. This is one Grandaddy that loves his grandchildren. If someone had told me 10 years ago my Dad would do half the things he does I would have laughed at them. The first time he went to one of Bailey's appointments with us I was amazed. I am still amazed. Lee and I would never have survived these last 22 months without them.
Don't worry Grandaddy. I am sure Tyler is right now trying to draw up some plans for you to build something with him. He knows you need something to do. Thank goodness I think he has forgotten the wooden car he wanted you to build.

June Happenings

On the 6th we went to the pulmonologist and was cleared to take Bailey off some of the medicines she was put on in the hospital. This was good because we were planning to leave that Wednesday for the beach. She was on two diuretics which meant she could spend very little time in the heat. Don't get me wrong. We would never let them sit out in the sun for long anyway.

June 9
First time on the beach

Bailey wanted nothing to go with the sand or water. She did not even want to stand on the sheet.

Wyatt did not enjoy anything about the beach either. He got sand on his hands and refused to move his hands anymore. The sound and sight of the waves coming in was too much for both of them.

Tyler loves it all. I did not get a picture of Brianne because after just a few minutes I had enough of the babies. We went to the car. Brianne continues to be scared of getting her head wet. I hope she grows out of this soon because she needs to learn to swim.

Lee's brothers and family came down to eat with us. It was a very enjoyable night. The kids were very good. We took pictures of all the cousins, and yes my group took up most of the bench.

We ended up leaving the beach early due to Bailey getting sick. We hated to leave because Grandaddy, BeBe, and Sophie had just come down. On Sunday and Monday we took her to the doctor, and she got a shot of rocephin each day. On Tuesday I called the pulmonary group, and the RN said I needed to take her to Children's er if her sat was lower than 90%. Her sat that night had been dropping as low as 79%. What an er visit. They sent her home with no oxygen and the wrong dosage of steroids. They also told me an RN from the pulmonary group would be making a followup call. Of course 2 days later no one had called so I called them. After all the mix up was taken care of we got oxygen back in the home again. I think they should refund the $180 er copay I had to pay.

June 16
The many faces of Wyatt

June 21
Wyatt likes to go in our room and get Bailey up from her naps. He thinks he is her boss. I would just like to say a little prayer that I am so thankful that God has allowed us to get a house that had a master bedroom with a study. God knew we would need it in the future. I wake up from the smallest sound so having her way across the room is a blessing. Plus the O2 concentrator is LOUD. I also pray she is soon well enough that I can kick her back out of our room. :)

Big sister giving Wyatt a ride.

June 30
Grandaddy with Wyatt and Bailey before we left to take Bailey to see the neurologist.

What else did we do medically this month? You name it we probably had it this month. We continued to see OT, PT, and vision therapy. Does she eat any better? NO! Although Wyatt is still behind with his eating skills, he does love to try to eat everything we will let him. He still does choke some, but he is getting better. We saw the dermatologist June 29 and Bailey has keratosis pilaris or KP. She needs to use certain soaps, lotions, and detergents. In the future if she cosmetically has a problem with the "rash" there are some other treatments. Hopefully it will improve as she gets older and not be as noticeable. On June 30 we went to the neurologist. He said that the nystagmus that we see is caused from a lack of sight at some point. It started when she went blind in April 2010. He said most likely the sudden blindness occurred due to an infection in the brain that she managed to fight off herself. He said she is a miracle baby. He also feels so strongly that Bailey is not autistic that he is willing to write it in her chart. They both continue to amaze us. To think that 10 years ago they might not have survived.

May 2011

I think I was absent during the month of May. I took maybe 5 pictures with the camera. I did manage to get some with my camera phone. Low quality but convenient. I will share a few.

May 8
On Mother's Day Lee had to work so the kids and I just hung out at home. This is the one and only picture I got that day.

On May 4th, we took the long trip back to see the eye doctor. I had been telling the doctors and vision therapist that I thought Bailey's eye sight was worse because she was pulling toys and books really close to her face. The eye dr did not buy my story until she dilated her eyes. She said it was time that Bailey get glasses because without them her eye sight would not continue to develop. Duh... I think we needed them earlier than now and it has affected her development. We received the glasses on May 11 and below she is wearing them for the first time. We had them 2 1/2 weeks before we had to send them back because the lens kept falling out. In that 2 1/2 weeks she started gaining some confidence with cruising and letting go of furniture to transfer from one surface to another. Unfortunately the people (I want to call them something nasty) at the glasses store did not get them back to us for a little over 3 weeks.

May 12
In our big girl car seat

Wyatt in his big boy seat
They may hold the record for being able to sit in their carrier car seat the longest. He was walking and could still sit in it. Crazy!

May 16
First time having a McD's chicken nugget

May 17
I wondered how my plastic containers were falling out of my cabinet. Wyatt decided he would really clean out all the dishes this day. Bailey is like the bottom feeder. She gets everything he tosses out.

May 20
I am so guilty. I was unable to take pictures at Tyler's school play. Lee had the good camera in the car with him at work. He ended up working late so I was left with the bad camera and of course the cell phone camera.

May 24
Need I say more? WYATT!!!!

May 25
Tyler doing the "I am out of school dance". Somehow I don't think he will look as happy when doing the "going back to school dance." I doubt he will dance at all.

May 27
Brianne with her teacher at award's day

May 29
See what I have to deal with. I think boys come here knowing how to work the remote. Tyler has even started taking them to his room so he has one.

Just imagine wax paper rolled out all over the floor with all the ziploc bags pulled out and scattered about, all sprinkled with plastic utensils, intermixed with toys................
I don't have to imagine it. That is my life. Oh, you can sometimes add some tin foil in there.

All that fun ends with a nap in his ever loved nap nanny

May 31
Can anyone tell what is in these boxes? Grandaddy is very acquainted with them. He can tell you all about it. More to come in June....

The Last of April

On April 12 Lee and I went to Brianne's class program. They did such a good job. It is amazing what they learn now in K4. They are reading and doing some simple math.

The lady on the right is Brianne's teacher, Mrs. Shauer.

We almost did not get to go to her program because of Bailey being sick. She had just started getting sick and by the next morning she was really sick with fever and all. This was Bailey on Friday night 4/15. All she did was sleep. I posted about our hospital stay back in May, but I did not put in pictures so I thought I would post them here.

Bailey in the unit at Children's
She spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning like this. It was scary to see her sleep so much.

Tuesday after we came back from lunch this is how we found her. Kids get sick very quickly but can bounce back in a blink of an eye.

Wednesday afternoon we made it to a room.

Saturday I came home to get a few more things that I needed till we got out of the hospital. This is what I found. My poor baby had skinned up his face at school.

The Easter bunny had to come see her at the hospital.

I missed Easter with Brianne, Tyler, and Wyatt. I was heartbroken to miss this special day with them. I am sure they did not notice I was gone because Maw and Grandaddy was there with them.
Grandaddy helped little man get to his Easter basket.

Tyler got a double light saber that he had wanted at Walt Disney World. Brianne got some doll she wanted.

They hunted eggs. Maw does not know much about our camera so she did not know how to take closer shots. I was just glad to get pictures.