Monday, August 23, 2010

Hailey

I know many of you asked us to keep you informed with Hailey's surgery. We are hoping this was the final one. We are home from the hospital and we are so pleased with how everything went. We did not tell her about the surgery or where we were going until we arrived at the hospital and were in the waiting room. We figured there was no reason to upset her and let her worry about it any longer than necessary. Once we got her into her scrubs they had her drink some "happy juice". I wish we could get some of this for home! She was a little loopy, and didn't mind at all that quite a few nurses and dr.'s were looking at her head and touching it. Then they walked us to the door and we had to say goodbye. With her bug blankie in one arm and her baby doll in the other she was carried away. (Yes this is one of the hardest parts...watching them carry her away.) Well, about 60 minutes later the dr. came out and talked to us. It was the fastest surgery she has had yet. He said he felt really good about it and was able to get most of the original scar and the growth off. We went back into recovery where she was laying in her bed with her bite guard in her mouth. We sat there and waited for her to wake up. Well, apparently she got some really good drugs, because after a while one of the nurses came and woke her up. She hardly cried at all and did really good! (Much better than the previous screaming we have experienced). After she drank some apple juice we were good to go. We got her buckled in the car and headed home. When we were about 3/4 of the way home she started to cry and say the medicine was yucky. OH NO...I knew what that squirming meant. I grabbed the puke bucket, and got it there just a moment too late. I missed just a little, but caught a ton. Yah, I know...it's gross! Good thing Bridger had me sitting in the back with her on the way home. Poor girl, no one likes to throw up. We made it home and she's had more liquids and even some food and it's all stayed down so far! (We'll keep our fingers crossed.) She is doing so well and we are so grateful for that. I don't think she was this good until 3-4 days after her last surgery. So, for the next few days we will be watching every princess show ever made, along with just about every disney movie we own! WE LOVE YOU HAILEY! We can't wait until you are 100% back to your happy, silly, cheerful self!

Amazing photograph by Christa Elyce.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game..."

Yep, that's right... we actually stayed through the 7th inning stretch with 3 kids! Unfortunately the Astros didn't score until we were on our way to the car, but we still had a great time. It didn't hurt that we had free tickets, $10 in Astros bucks, and even found a free parking spot pretty close to the park.

Here are some pics we took with our phones of the kids enjoying the game:



Alisha was a trooper and came along because she knew if I took them by myself I'd probably come home with one less than I left with.




Making friends at the Minute Maid Squeeze Play Kid's Zone


Just couldn't resist climbing on round, smooth, concrete balls of 'can't imagine who's going to get hurt first'.

Both kids actually came up with plush Astros balls thrown to the crowd! Notice the pajamas... they are somehow still wide awake after 10:00 PM and think it's time for a good game of plush baseball tag.