Dirt Piles & 4 Year Old Boys

So we are finally getting some work done on the creek side of the house (we're having a retaining wall built and the yard leveled out to give Andrew and soon, Alyssa, more room to play)...

The dump truck brought a couple loads of dirt by today. The first load, Andrew wanted to play in soooo badly. We were supposed to be leaving for HEB but David said it would be cruel to not let him play in the dirt pile for awhile first....






He climbed, slid and dug in that dirt until he was brown. He had a BLAST! And he minded well and showered, dressed and joined me & Alyssa for a trip to HEB... (which I'm sure was not NEAR as fun as playing in the mudpiles!) :)

Loving on her Daddy!

'nuff said... ;o)

AWANA Cubbie Award Night

On April 17th, our Andrew was presented an award for doing such a great job in his AWANA Cubbie class and memorizing so many verses!

While we were waiting for Andrew to put on his shoes, I had to get a picture with my girl!

Proud Mommy & her two beautiful kids!

Our big boy walking towards the stage for his "Major Award" as he calls it :)

YAY! Andrew! We are soooo proud of you and the great job you did memorizing your verses!!!

Andrews 4 Year Check Up

My baby boy is growing up WAAAAY too fast! He had his 4 year checkup on 04-13-2011.

He is now 3' 8" tall and weighs 44.5 lbs!

He is off charts for height and our doctor remarked at how SMART Andrew is. He told me, "Some folks think there kid is advanced... and they aren't really... yours... WOW... he's going to be tough to keep up with!" He forewarned us that Andrew would be really bored in school, so that we need to be prepared for that. David and I have figured for years that Andrew would outsmart us by the time he was 10... we may have been right... haha!

My poor baby boy had to get 4 shots and now he is caught up on his immunizations. He won't need any more until he is 12. The nurse assured me that time would fly by and he'd be 12 before I knew it. (As if I needed another reminder of how quickly my baby boy is growing up!)

Andrew, you are such a Blessing to us! We can't believe how quickly you are growing up! You ARE so smart, witty and funny! You love superheroes and dancing silly and figuring out how stuff works. You like to talk and count in Spanish and have picked up a few french words, too! We are always amazed by you! We love you!

5 Months + 1 Day

Our pretty girl ready to go pick her brother up from school and head out to eat! This was 04-16-2011.

04-16-2011

Just playing "dress up" with our pretty girl and her sweet brother just loves to take pictures with her!

Love these sweet kids!

Meal Time...Round Two!

Just a few fun pictures of Ms. Alyssa as she prepared to eat dinner on Wednesday night... this time we did the rice cereal. Which she hated. She liked the pureed pears (which by the way, now comes in a squeeze tube... LOVE IT!).

5 Months Old (minus 1 day!)

4-13-2011

Posing with her brother...

First "OFFICIAL" Food Fest

OK... so with Andrew, we were "BY THE BOOK" kind of parents. We did everything in order and based on what all the parenting books said to do, all are friends advised and whatever the lady in the checkout line recommended :) (Not really!) But we did try to follow the "rules" of parenting.

Guess what they say about your second child is true as we have been much more laid back and not quite so "routine" with Alyssa's "firsts" and the order of things. This includes food.

Poor girl. For the past few weeks, we have noticed when we have been eating dinner that she grabs at the food, our plates, the table and just gawks at our food. She watched us intently as we ate our food.

So from time to time, to calm her "antsy-ness" down, I would ball up tiny balls of bread or give her tiny bites of my mashed potatoes. Nothing "official"... just trying to keep her occupied before my meal would get cold :)

Last Tuesday after we got home and settled from our visit to Scott & White, we decided it was time to try something a little more formal. I know we were supposed to start with baby rice cereal but I didn't have any on hand and figured mashed carrots would be fine. The pediatrician, after all, had already given his blessing to us to start her on table food.

Gotta get strapped in!

Big brother Andrew needs his picture taken of course!

You know he is going to try and feed her! haha!

SOOO proud of himself!

Watching intently for her next bite...

She's enjoying this!

Starting to get a little "'tude"... (I think we were taking too long to give her next bite!) :)

Getting bored waiting...

YAY! Success! She likes food!

EEG

On Tuesday, April 12th, Alyssa had her EEG at Scott & White in Temple. It was almost 2.5 hours long.

Always her Mommy's happy and sweet girl!

She's grabbing for kisses!

She's always Mommy's hungry girl, too!

Dave and I counted and she ended up having 28 leads attached to her noggin...

We go in on April 26th for our follow up and to get the results. Today (April 16th), Alyssa had another "episode" while we were driving home from lunch. Her monitor went off signaling us that she had quit breathing for at least 20 seconds and Andrew said things that he saw her doing that made us think she had another "seizure like activity". We're anxious to get answers as to what is happening with our sweet princess!

Sleepin'...

Just too sweet!!! :)

Sillies and their Shows

Our kiddos love watching "their shows" together...here's a few evenings ago...

And here's the other morning....they like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in our bed :)

Rainbow Mobile

Here's a few pics of Alyssa in early April in her "Rainbow Mobile"...

My precious girl!

Hospital Stays and Scares

Last week, our pediatrician speculated that Alyssa is having "seizure like episodes" (they don't want to label her until they do testing...) He was very serious about being diligent about watching her until he could get her into a pediatric neurologist. He went over instructions which involved calling 911 and other scary details.

Obviously, we heeded his words but didn't anticipate any need to apply them.

Friday night, we had a nasty "April Fool's" trick played on us. Around midnight, Alyssa's Angel Monitor alarm starting going off. An Angel monitor is a sensor used in the baby's crib or playpen which monitors their breathing and movement activity. For the sensor to go off, meant that she had stopped breathing for at least 17 seconds.

I didn't listen to the dr and call 911 because she was fine and breathing again (we think the alarm sounding startled her back into breathing) but I did take her to the ER just after midnight.

After 5 hours in the ER, they admitted us to Providence where we stayed until Sunday evening. Here are some pics of our princess on Saturday morning. She is hooked up to have her heartbeat, respiration's and blood oxygen levels monitored continuously. They noticed mostly when she was sleeping but sometimes when she was awake too that her respiration rate would drop into the teens and her blood ox levels would drop into the upper 70's and 80's.

My sad and tired looking baby :(

Perking up for her Daddy and Big Brother...

Smiling for her Daddy!

Here is Sunday... she was happy with her Minnie Bobeet

Holding onto her wires... it was tough keeping her hands off of those. AND she had just figured out how to get her toes in her mouth so it was a tough time keeping the sensor wrapped on her toe out of her mouth, too!

So, we came home and on Tuesday, April 12th, she goes in for a 2 hour EEG with video with a pediatric neurologist in Temple. We'll go back on April 26th for the results. The pediatrician decided yesterday that she'll wear her monitor at home 24/7 for the next 2 months and strongly suggested that David and/or I take CPR and only leave her with someone who is CPR certified.

The fun and worrisome world of parenting!!!!!