Bike Ridin' Fun

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here's a little video that we shot earlier this summer.

Sophie in Boston, Mia says, "Hi" and she hopes you have a fun Halloween!

Palate diagram

So many of you wanted to know exactly how you close a cleft palate. There are many ways. But the particular way Ty had his done was similar to this. It's called a Push Back Palatoplasty. Hope this diagram helps.

So you had a bad day....

Yesterday was Ty's post-op appointment at TX Children's Hospital. For those of you fortunate enough never to have HAD to go there, there is a whole tower full of offices for " The Specialists" So that they can see regular patients but get over to the hospital quickly and easily to see their hospitalized patients.


So Ty and I went down by ourselves. It's a pretty easy drive and all we were doing was "a look see" I (in my knieve mind) didn't think there would be any problem. Boy was I WRONG!!!!

As soon as we got into the building Ty got very sullen. He stayed in my lap and wouldn't go see the fish tank or play with the toys. I didn't mind the cuddling and STILL did not see it coming.

After about 25 minutes we were called into the small exam room. We waited there while the student doctor came in and looked in his mouth. Then the fellow doctor came in and took a look. And then I spotted it.....The look.... The look of a meltdown!!


And here it came, full force!! Crying, wailing, knashing of teeth.....And we still had not seen the actual surgeon. Thankfully it only took him a few more minutes to arrive, he took a quick peek and said everything is holding tight. He was extremley happy with the results. We tried to talk a short bit and he said he would see us again in Dec. Great News!!

Then we went out to schedule the next appointment and talk with the medical assistant over the loud hysterics of my screaming boy. I decided to try to get him a drink and something to eat in the hospital, We went down the elevators (crying) Through the line (crying) Sitting at a table to drink (crying) I finally gave up. I put all our food in a bag and headed for home. In the process I left my credit card on the plastic tray and threw it into the trash. I didn't realize it until later and determined it was not worth retrieving...remember crying!!


We went down one set of elevators (crying) to the parking garage elevators(crying) paying for parking (crying) into the car (crying) Through downtown(crying) and finally somewhere around Minute Maid park it stopped! I took a deep breath looked behind me and he had fallen completely asleep!


Once we got home his outlook on life had greatly improved! He was a new boy! Thank goodness, my eardrum was about spent on the left side. We ate some lunch and played a little bit then.

I decided to make a mad dash to the Grocery store to pick up, well everything. I had to hurry in order to be able to pick Mia up from Preschool. Everything clicked along like clockwork and I had just a few minutes to spare. I was rolling the huge buggy out of the store and I was walking in front of it, kind of pulling it. When the buggy got away from me and slammed into my foot and leg. It was all I could do to not scream! I haven't been in that much pain since childbirth.


I hobbled to the car, loaded it as fast as I could (remember no time to spare) and then started driving away. Hurting really badly and beginning to feel sorry for myself, I had a good ugly cry! You know what an ugly cry is....sometimes it's the only thing that can make you feel better. (This post is so long you might be about to break into an ugly cry yourself)



But then......







I looked in the back seat and I saw this






















It's probably not half as funny to you as it was to me, But boy did I need something to laugh at. (That's an LSU sunvisior by the way.)

Here are a couple of before shots. Have I said how much I love TX Children's Hospital. They know their clients and do such a fabulous job. I never once encountered an unfriendly person. You can really tell everyone there loves kids. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful facility "in my own backyard."

This picture is with Ty's 2 new favorite things. A garfield toy and a Frankenstein Trick or treat bag. They were sent to him with balloons from our Sunday School class. He held on to them the first night he was sleeping. He need both of them tucked in his arms along with the Batmobile in the first picture.

As reported earlier the surgery is over. We are now at home. We came home yesterday about 2:30. Ty is doing much better. He is willing to drink a little bit and has had some clear broth and ice cream. The other kids have all registered their protests with the fact that Ty has had ice cream for dinner and breakfast. I told them all as nicely as I could, "When you have 80 stitches in the roof of your mouth then you can have ice cream for breakfast as well."

I decided that might be a somewhat unattainable goal so I told them there were two other conditions that would give the same priviledge. Going to the hospital for any reason or making straight A's on their report card.

keep 'em crossed

Today went very well. No big surprises. Ty couldn't have anything to eat after midnight and only clear liquids until 8 a.m So when he got up this morning we fed him apple juice and a big hot bowl of chicken broth. The sweet boy sat at the breakfast table and ate his whole bowl of broth without even asking any questions. I wonder if he thought that would be a new breakfast food. We are really lucky that he does enjoy soup.

The hospital called and said that the plastic surgeon had a cancellation and we could come an hour early. So the surgery was then set for noon. We arrived, got checked in and changed into some cute yellow jammies. The surgery waiting area is set up so cute for kids. We had lots of toys to play with. Then when it was time Ty got to pick out which little tykes car he wanted to ride. Then he rode it right into the O.R. while David and I had to watch him ride off without us. He was only awake another 2 minutes after leaving us.

Ty's surgery is now over and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will all hold together well. The doctor said that the rear muscles were put together fine but the front is very tight. He told us that the only reason he did the entire palate was because of his age. Usually this big of a hole requires 2 separate surgeries. But because he is already 3 he needs his palate closed ASAP for language development. So there is a possiblity that holes may develop but we are not to view that as failure it will just be a great accomplishment if no holes develop. So keep your fingers crossed! Or a better thing to do PRAY!

Also please pray for his pain. It is intense and he only dozes about 15

Please pray for Ty

Please Pray for our Little Guy this week. Tuesday 10.21, Ty is scheduled to have his palate repaired. His cleft lip was repaired in China but we will now have the Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital repair his palate. His plastic surgeon is pretty confident he can repair his palate in one surgery. But we won't know for sure until he gets in there. Ty has a unilateral complete cleft you can look on the web-site to read more about it.

His surgery will be Tuesday morning and it is a pretty long surgery. He will have to stay in the hospital overnight so he can be observed for bleeding and breathing problems. Then once home he will be on a liquid diet for several weeks and then soft foods for several more.(baby food consistency)
We have several specific prayer requests :
*Pray for a successful surgery(steady the hand of the surgeon),
*that it can all be done in this one surgery
*For Ty not to be scared or stir up feelings of insecurity
*For Ty's pain levels to be managable
*For the stitches to heal and not develop any holes
*For Ty to be agreeable with his food choices

We know the Great Physician and we know that Ty is loved by God also. We are trusting in our Savior to pull him through all this. He has had such a rough road in his three short years and the next 6 months will be even rougher on him. After this surgery he will have another surgery in Dec for reconstruction of his right thumb and circumcsion. He also will have to be sedated and have 4 crowns and 2 fillings. But we are confident when these medical things get taken care of he will go on to live a very full and productive life.

We are so excited to be able to hear fully all that he tries to tell us. We can figure out about 75% of it but we can't wait for all the little things we've missed already.

We got some Boo'n to do

We got Boo'd early this Halloween season. If you've forgotten what Boo-ing is then remind yourself here. Or as I heard someone explain it. It's ding-dong ditching where you leave candy behind.

So the pressure was on to return the Boo-ing favor. Each of the kids chose a person they wanted to Boo and after dinner Tuesday night we hit the streets. Ty literally hit the street at one point. His little legs wouldn't carry him quite as fast as he wanted.

Despite all the James Bond and Indiana Jones we watch around here we aren't very secretive. But really how many families with 5 children under the age of 11 are quiet. We got caught 3 out of 7 times.

The kids had a blast and the laughter was hysterical. At one point David commented that this activity really is an emergency room visit waiting to happen. But we were careful enough to not let anyone get an appendage slammed in the door.

Wordless Wednesday

A Whole new reason to cheer for the Astros

Trent began his first season of T-Ball this fall. He plays for the Astros and loves all aspects of the game. From the uniform to the gum they get to chew in the dugout. Batting of course is his favorite part.(mine too) His second favorite part is sliding into home. It's so funny to watch because they ALL slide in EVERY time. I guess they have to use up that 6 year old energy somewhere.

Mia is a Busy Bee

Mia started her first day of Pre-K right after Labor Day. She was so excited to be in the Busy Bee class because Kaylee and Trent were also in the Busy Bees. The teachers have changed over the last few years but there's just something special about being a Busy Bee. Although her other options were equally as enticing: Eager Elephant, Cool Cat or Busy Bear.
It took several minutes to get this picture because they were all blurred because she literally was jumping up and down with excitement. We finally got her to stop jumping for just one quick picture.
Mia quickly found her name which was located right next to her best buddy Nikolette. They have been in the same class every year since they were both one year old.
Ty was fine with dropping Mia off. I wonder if he knew it meant a full day of grocery sthopping and housework with mom. I think he might quickly decide Pre-school might be much more entertaining.

This is soo cute...

I thought this cute little purse might be a sewing project that Kaylee and I could accomplish together. The pattern was super easy and went together very quickly. But as she and I worked through some of it I quickly realized she's still a little young to be actually sewing. So her expertise became "fabric selections" She went through my fabric stash and would frequently say "This is soooo cute"(said with a Valley Girl accent, yes I know I'm dating myself with that one) Then she would mix and match until she found just the right combinations.

So after 5 minutes of sewing Kaylee's bag, guess who was right there asking when I was going to make her bag. Mia picked out the hot pink material and left the coordinating pieces to Kaylee and I. She only cared about the PINK. I raced against the clock on Friday night trying to beat the power outage caused by the hurricane. I had one little 4" seam in the lining to go when the power went out. So in true pioneer fashion......the next day we plugged the sewing machine into the generator so I could present Mia with her completed bag, just like her big sister's.

The bags came in quite handy as the girls packed for leaving after the storm and I believe Kaylee's bag became a squirrel nest on the ride to Nana's.

(And speaking of the squirrel we have come to the realization that we are indeed NOT nature re-habers. We tried but unfortunately Skipper only lived another 8 days after the storm. We assured the kids that it was nothing they had done, it is highly likely he had internal injuries that we were not aware as a result of the fall from the nest. Sounds good doesn't it? Think they'll believe that about our fish?)

Lessons learned

5 in 5

It is my goal this week to post 5 days IN A ROW! It is a lofty ambition... I know.... but I'm going to give it the ole college try.

"So with the Hurricane and all"....seems like most conversations around here start this way or with this phrase "When did you get power" Then you both have to figure out how many days each person was without..... The person with the most days without gets the pity look and you move on......

but moving on.... Now that we've all showered, changed clothes and put away the generators most people are looking back and finding the silver lining from the storm. Our silver lining comes from a lot of time spent with the kids and the lessons they learned.

Here is the short list:

Lesson #1 Trent can now tie his shoes independently. David spent some undivided time helping him master the art.

Lesson #2 Kaylee learned how to make doubles in crocheting.... She can turn and come back also. Granny would have been so proud. We uttered that statement more than a few times.

Lesson #3 Zane can also crochet doubles and can make a granny square with little assitance.

Lesson #4 Trent learned to chain.... His new shoe tying success spured him on to try other string related projects.

Lesson #5 I have almost finished Ty's quilt. I took all the necessary fabric, borrowed a sewing machine from Jerilyn and as soon as it was lights out I started sewing. It will only take a little more and I"ll have it complete. (Hopefully I'll get to it before the next Hurricane)

Lesson #6 Miracles do happen and a two car garage can actually hold 2 cars.

Lesson #7 All No-Carb diets are OFF and bread is the mainstay of Hurricane victims

Lesson #8 The Ice-Cream Man makes rounds in-between curfew hours.(Sonic however DOES abide by curfew hours) Nana was outside when the truck pulled up and this was her view. She called inside for me to come out and see this. Look at all those bare-feet under the van.

Lesson #9 Ty can sleep anywhere

Before and After

Over on Boomama's blog she's hosting a little Before and After Party. Since we have had our share(and then some) of Before and After's this year I thought I'd join in. So hear are just a few of our renovations. I hope that I won't be participating in any more of these for many more years to come....It feels good to feel done with this house project.

Kitchen Before
Kitchen After Den Before
Den After
Outside Before Outside After
Landing Before


Landing After

Go Tigers!

Since Hubby doesn't get much "face" time on the blog I thought I'd share this post with you guys. And because it's pretty funny also. Go Tigers!

http://thedavis4.blogspot.com/2008/09/glutton-for-punishment.html

I Got the POWAH !!

Sunday night my cell phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID and thought, no it can't be,
it can't really be my neighbor saying that

YES INDEED THE POWER IS BACK ON!

So with a skip in our step and a song in our heart we headed back to town to begin the "back to normal" clean-up. We were surprised to find our sweet friends had come over and cleaned up our deck and back yard. Now that's friendship people.....

This morning I went to pick up a few groceries at our local Wal-Mart only to find them still working on generator power. Which means they still don't have dairy, frozen, and meat items. It was eerie walking through a half dark store. It seemed a little like what I imagine it will be like after the rapture. I got my stuff and got out ASAP!

We had a brief period today of panic as we lost power for about 15 minutes. There was a look of panic in all our eyes. Thankfully, it only lasted a short time.

School starts back Thursday and life will be somewhat back to normal. Unfortunately for so many it will be months, years and maybe never before life will be normal again.

Ike's smallest victims

Apparently no one's home is safe. Not even little baby squirrels. Saturday after the storm David was cleaning the driveway and came across two little squirrels. One had not survived the drop from his nest above but this little guy was struggling and shivering.
So we brought him in and warmed him up. Then we began the every 3 hour feedings. (OK I began the every 3 hour feedings) Apparently I am the only one who can control the syringe of milk so that he doesn't choke. Or so all the kids have convinced me.
He sleeps through the night. Probably because he heard me refuse to do midnight feedings. I'm all for nature but that is the extent of my re-hab capabilities.

I thought we should name him Ike. But the kids decided on Skipper instead.
We brought Skipper with us to Nana and Paw Paw's. He still has not opened his eyes but can some how figure out how to get out of his box. Only when he's hungry. Sometimes he sneaks out and we don't notice until someone goes to check on him. So we have our own version of Where's Waldo going .....several times a day.

Skipper's future home is NOT in our neighborhood. As soon as we get back to town we will stop at the ASPCA and unite with other squirrel victims. I think he will have his own POD there. (That's hurricane lingo for Point of Distribution)

Actually the Houston Chronicle had a story about 200 baby squirrels already being rescued from people around the area. So really what is 201. I read on the internet that's it's not a good idea for just one to try to adjust to the outside world. Plus I'm not spending money on a cage and I'm not comfortable with my forage teaching skills.

Interesting Pictures

Here is a link to a web-site that has some really interesting IKE pictures. Many of these are in my area and then the rest are downtown.

www.twilightimaging.net

Safe and Sound

We made it all safely through the hurricane. After living my whole life on the Gulf coast I had never lived through a hurricane. Please Note!!! It's not something I am proud of. Other than the city of Galveston the other surrounding cities were told Not to evacuate, unless you had special needs or lived in a mobile home. So we did what we were asked to do. As did most everyone in the city.

And just for a little perspective, here's what the street looked like just a few hours before. That's my house on the right at the second white mailbox.
We lost power about 10:30 p.m. and as of now (Monday) we are still without power. It was a wild night and was very scary at times. We all tried to sleep but we took turns getting up and walking outside just to see if we could tell what was going on. Make no mistake we only went as far as the little front porch. At some point I could tell my next door neighbor had a tree down. My eyes noticed a tree going horizontal, I just couldn't tell where it started or stopped.
This is the house directly across the street from us. It probably got the worst damage of the 12 houses on our street. When the rain subsided on Saturday we walked the neighborhood to assess the damage. Here are a few of the things we saw.


We have now evacuated to Nana and Paw Paw's house. They have power and A/C. The kids don't have school until at least Thursday. I personally think the area won't have power until at least Friday. While we were at home we felt totally cut off from the outside world. Even with a radio it was hard to get information. But now that we're here we have been able to watch the news and see just how wide spread the devastation is.
Even though this has been a very big inconvenience we are very grateful to not have suffered any true damage.