The Perlins

We went to the Royal Oak Farmer's Market today to see BARNEY and support PBS!
We got a balloon while standing in line, not a bad way to start!

We met Cat in the Hat first! Adam wasn't so sure about a big character with a huge hat. He was hugging me a little tight.

He was much more relaxed when he saw his buddy Clifford!

There were small animals there to pet.

Grandma Shirley came and was a huge help to me. She saved our front row seats and held Katelyn while I walked around with Adam.

We had great seats! It was first come, first serve! Once the show started a lot of kids filled in the area between us and stage. They actually had bouncers by the stage to keep the kids off.

Barney in action!

I took a video of Adam's reaction when Barney came on stage. I thought he would be really excited. Instead he was very reserved and kept looking at Grandma to see what she thought. As the show went on he clapped and smiled and waved to Barney, it was sweet. He was very good at the event! Katelyn did great too. She just stared at Barney the whole time!

So Kevin's parents came over last night to watch the kids so Kevin and I could go out for our anniversary. It was so nice to go out to dinner with each other and actually enjoy each others company and talk to one another. Thank you so much Mom and Dad! We went to Flemings for dinner in Birmingham. Our meal was wonderful!

Kevin and I have the sweetest parents. Every year they both get us an anniversary gifts. This is just another way they show their love and support for our marriage. They try to get us things from the traditional or modern gift list for anniversaries. So last year for our 5th anniversary (our wooden anniversary) my parents got us a tree. It was planted this spring. I love the symbolization of this tree. I love that it was planted at our first home (and probably our only home due to the housing market) where we began our "roots" as a married couple. I look forward to watching it grow and change just like our family will.

Adam, Katelyn and I went to Bounce U on Friday. He loved it. When we first got there he pretty much had the place to himself. He was bouncing while shooting basketballs and listening to Black Eyed Peas "Good Night" one of his favorite songs! Life was good. We went for Preschool Playdate so it was all little kids. I used fruit snacks as my bride for a peaceful departure. Worked like a charm!
Mom and Tot Class on Tuesdays
Adam and I taking a mom and tot class on Tuesdays again. We took the same class last summer. The program is exactly the same as it was last year so it is really neat to see how much Adam has grown in year. He did everything with the group. He even lead the marching band. Last year he would not leave the carpet with his instrument and this year he just took off. Last year he would want to take the play dough with him to the cars area or the sand table. This year he found some play dough that someone brought in the kitchen area and returned it back to the play dough table because he knew it didn't belong there. We still need to work on our sharing. Everything is still "MINE...NO STOP... MINE!" He listened to story time and sang all the songs. Last year he would take off for story time and he actually did the art project for the day. Last year he had no interest. He was so cute. I think he will do really well in preschool in a year and I think he will really enjoy it. He was really excited for snack time. He ran all the ran across the room to the snack table yelling SNACK! He washed his hands by himself and sat down nicely at the table.

Here is Katelyn giggling at 5 Months Old.

Here is Adam and Katelyn outside. Adam loves to entertain Katelyn.

More entertaining Katelyn. Here he is singing a combo of "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and "Goosey Goosey gander."

Here he is singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Running through the sprinklers with Daddy.

Katelyn rolling and feeling back to her old self after she got back from the hospital.

Here is Katelyn eating cereal for the first time.

Katelyn at 5 Months
Katelyn weighs 14 pounds and 11 ounces.
She started eating rice cereal but isn't a big fan yet.
Since coming home from the hospital she has been a very content baby. She doesn't mind strangers holding her and she is not as fussy as she once was. Kind of funny how the hospital was a blessing.
She eats 4 times a day. Mostly formula now but I still nurse her a little. My milk supply has been down since she got sick and I can't get it back up so... formula it is.
She takes her last feeding around 8:00 and then goes to sleep until 6:30 in the morning. Sometimes I can pacifier her until 7. Sometimes she will get up at 3am, talk to herself for a minute and then go back to sleep.
She loves to put her feet in her mouth and she LOVES to sit in her Bumbo chair and be right where we are. She could sit in the chair forever. I don't know how we didn't have one with Adam. It is GREAT!
She is rolling over like crazy front to back, back to front and sometimes she will just keep tumbling. She scoots and rolls all over her crib. I am sure she will be crawling in no time at all.

Adam was so cute the other day. He ran to get books and started reading them to Katelyn.

Not only does Adam love Katelyn but she loves Adam. Her face always lights up when he comes in the room. She smiles and laughs at him all the time.

We went over to Kevin's parents house for lunch outside! It was a beautiful day.

Sweet Kate!

Daddy and Katelyn.

Grandpa and Katelyn

Holding Grandpa's finger...

Adam kept Grandma busy! He kept us all busy.

We came to our house for dinner with my family. We celebrated Joey and Kevin's birthday too!

Adam and Kevin had their first water fight and Adam thought it was GREAT!!!!

I am looking for a picture for my dad and I came across this in my files. It always makes me smile! This is the video when I went to surprise Summer for her birthday right after Henry was born, 3 years ago.

Happy 32nd Birthday to Kevin!!! We had one his favorite dinners... steak and we had one of Oprah's favorite things, Key Lime Cake from We Take the Cake. It is a long story but we ended up getting the cake for free. It was very yummy!!!

Kevin and I gave Katelyn cereal for the first time a week ago. She was not a huge fan. She had a pretty normal reaction to it but in the days that followed she refused it. She purses her lips and won't open her mouth. So I stopped and I figured that I would try again in a week or so.

Katelyn is doing GREAT!!! She is back to her old self. No more breathing treatments either!

Bye-Bye breathing treatments!

Katelyn went to the Doctor's today. Her lungs sound better. She needs to continue her breathing treatments ( 3 times a day.) The problem right now is that she isn't a huge fan of eating. She has lost 1 pound in the past week. Nursing has been a roller coaster since she was born and a real struggle ever since she was in the hospital and it has gotten to the point now where she just needs to eat. I gave her some formula today and she gulped it down and kept it down. The last 3 normal feedings she has had ended with her throwing everything she just ate right back up again and all over the floor and me! I have to feed her in little increments and do a lot of burping in between to break up the mucus in her chest. We also gave her cereal tonight for the first time... pictures to come.

So Wednesday I got home from work and Katelyn was not well. I gave her medicine and thought she would be fine. I came home from work on Thursday and she was still not doing well. Thursday night she sounded awful. She would cough and then cry because the coughing hurt and then whine because she was in pain. It was so sad. I actually fell asleep at 9:00 when she fell asleep. Kevin got home from soccer around 11:00 and I woke up and still heard Katelyn crying so I knew I had to take her to urgent care. I thought they might give us an antibiotic and send us home. I was not prepared for what was to come.

The doctor at Urgent Care gave Katelyn a breathing treatment right away. She also gave Katelyn a chest x-ray, blood draw and said she wanted a urine sample (I don't think so.) In order to get the blood draw they had to put an IV in her. I had to hold her. A nurse had to hold Katelyn's arm and another nurse put the IV in. She also stuck a cotton swab up her nose to test for RSV. The RSV test came back positive right away. She said she wasn't sure if Katelyn had pneumonia or not because she was not experienced at reading infant x-rays. She told me that Katelyn needed to go to the hospital and stay the night there. She also told me that I was not allowed to take Katelyn myself. She had to go in an ambulance in case she stopped breathing. So I followed the ambulance to Royal Oak, Beaumont.

We went to the pediatric ER and they were really great there. They gave her this sweet blanket when we got there. I was so unprepared. I didn't have diapers or extra clothes or anything. They had everything for me.

They told me she didn't have pneumonia but she did have RSV and they gave her another breathing treatment and admitted her to the hospital. She had a little hospital crib. They said she could stay anywhere from 1 to 4 days.Her little arm was so pitiful. She had to wear a splint on it so she wouldn't aggravate the IV. They put a sock over it so she wouldn't pull the cords because she loves to grab right now.

She slept well some of the time and other times she was miserable. Nothing seemed to make her happy. She seems to be in pain or discomfort when she eats and her voice is so hoarse from crying. It sounds so sad when she cries.

This morning my pediatrician came back. He visited us on Friday and Saturday to see how things were going. Today he told me that we could go home. I was SO excited to get all the wires off of Katelyn. I put her in a wagon with all of our stuff and we got out of there! It was so nice to go home.

This was the longest I have ever gone without seeing Adam. I have never gone a full day without seeing him and I didn't see him for 2 days. Well, he was not impressed that I was home. I went to get him up from his nap and he threw a fit because he wanted Daddy. Katelyn has been doing great since she got home. She is still not eating like champ yet but she ate a little bit. She has to get a breathing treatment 3 times a day now and we go back to the doctors on Tuesday. Thank you to everyone for their prayers, thoughts and concerns. Thank you to my mom who brought me dinner while I was in the hospital and kept me company. Thank you to Kevin's mom for watching Adam and visiting Katelyn. Thank you to Jill and Danny for watching Adam on Saturday so Kevin could come to the hospital. It is so nice to have such supportive family.

The plan is for me to go back to work tomorrow. Aunt Mary and my mom are going to watch the kids. Hopefully Katelyn will have a great day tomorrow.

One of my students gave this to me last week to thank me for a wonderful year.

Adam didn't quite know what to do with it.
She is very talented at making balloon "things."

Drinking water with Papa!
Eating with Uncle Kenny!

Katelyn was the center piece

Look at those cute Perlins!

Katelyn and Grandma

Sprinkler fun!

CHALK!!!