Friday, February 26, 2010

Just to Catch Up

Thought I would just take a moment to catch up on what’s being going on at our house.

Katherine is in LOVE with Bluey the blue fish. She loves to feed him (it’s a boy, but she says he is a girl), talk to him, and blows him kisses. We will see how long she is entertained by the fish, hopefully he sticks around awhile. She still loves her brother very much, but sometimes is not so excited about sharing lately! I see this becoming more of the trend.


She still gets excited in the morning that Colin is coming to “her” school. She says the cutest things all the time. In the car coming home from the race, she was trying to fall asleep, half awake she asked me if I could come back there and hold her, made me feel special. She told me the other day that winter was no longer fun and it needed to be spring, I told her I agree! When asked how old I was I, she said 5.. guess again Katherine.

"Camping with Seger kitty"


She is very silly. Katherine’s favorite game to play is Robot Katherine, where she talks like a robot and turns you into a robot. The other night I came into the kitchen and she was on the barstool naked talking to Bluey and I asked her what she was doing, she simply said being naked. The other night Matt and I were watching TV; she came in, put her arms in the air, shushed us, then farted loud, laughed, then left.

Colin is doing a lot better with eating at school and at home. His appetite has really picked up a lot; hopefully he is going through a growth spurt. He is drinking more formula and baby food in a day than he ever has before. He has improved so much on solids too. He now will pick up cookie/cracker, put into his mouth, lick it, take a bite, CHEW, but then spits out about half. Two weeks ago he would just lick things! I think it has really helped him being around children his own age. Like I have said before it’s really hard to understand how to feed a baby who could care less about food. BUT WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY. Bottles used to be screaming fits and take 45 minutes then he would spit up half. NOW it takes 10 minutes, no crying, drinks the entire bottle, and doesn’t spit up. We decided to reduce his reflux medicine; he was on the max dose.

He stands up and holds onto everything he can. Can walk while holding onto an object, but still lacks the balanced needed to stand on his own. But I am not in a rush. He can crawl really fast, so that’s enough for us right now! Even his teachers commented on how fast he is! In school they are doing the “Your Baby Can Read” video series. He rolls his tongue like how in Spanish you roll R’s, it’s so cute, and I can’t even do it.

Monday, February 22, 2010

It’s My Heart Fun Run/Family Walk

Thank you all for your support in the 4th Annual It's My Heart Fun Run/Family walk. We had a great time and beautiful weather on Saturday. We even had a member of Team Colin finish 2nd in the 5K FUN Run!

Thank you to all who donated and came out to support Team Colin. Team Colin raised almost $4,000!

It was great to see many of Colin's heart friends and make new ones. We got to spend time with Colin’s heart friend Elle for the first time OUT of the hospital. It was great to see her family and how well she is doing. Colin and Elle overlapped their time in the hospital for both surgeries. It’s nice to have friends going through the same life events you are. Colin took a little nap before our walk!

We also got to see Abigail, who Colin spent time in Cardiac ICU and on the regular floor with. She is beautiful and very fancy with her red boa. Matt’s friend from college has a little girl, Amelia, who is 4 months old and on the heart transplant list. It was nice meeting them and spending time with our friends Josh and Melissa who were on Team Amelia.

After the race/walk they had a family festival with food, music, moonwalks, and dancing! Katherine was amazing by the STOMP performance and the line dancing that followed. Of course she got to bounce on the moonwalks! And we even came away with a new member to our family - Bluey the Blue Fish (that's a creative 3 year old for you)!
Every kid that raced/walked got a medal, Colin thought his was a great chew toy!
If you didn't have a chance to join us, we will be doing the event again next year.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Colin’s first week at daycare, Ear infection/fever, and Valentines Day

This has been one interesting week! Colin’s first day of daycare was Monday! He really had lots of fun playing with the other babies and exploring a whole new world, BUT he didn’t drink much of his bottles. He was TOO interested in everything going on around him. Tuesday he was a little better.

Then came Wednesday, Colin didn’t sleep much Tuesday night and in the morning he had a temperature. So he didn’t go to daycare on Wednesday or Thursday. Turns out Colin’s ear infection from the other week never fully went away, so they put him on stronger antibiotics.

Katherine was VERY excited about Colin going to school with her. Though it was hard for her to understand that they would not be in the same class, she would go to her class and he would be in the baby room. She told me that Colin doesn’t like other babies and needed to be in HER class. So sweet, hope she remembers that when she’s 13 and he is 10! And she was sad when Colin had to stay home with his fever.

Thursday night, Katherine and I made Valentines cookies for her party on Friday. She came home with so many cards and candy.. Of course she LOVES this holiday! I think she was on a sugar high ALL weekend long! Last night she crashed on the living room floor while asking to watch cartoons. Had to check to make sure she was breathing, she fell asleep so sudden!

Colin’s fever finally broke Saturday afternoon, and we all finally got a full night sleep!Sunday Matt’s parents came over and watched the kids while matt and I got to enjoy a Valentines lunch just the two of us.

So we are giving daycare another try this week! I really hope he starts eating more there today! I want him to stay there and be with other kids, but if he doesn’t eat, he will have to go back home. It’s tough having a baby who could care less about bottles, baby food, and has such a strong gag reflex when it comes to solid food. But we are working on solids, so we can get away from bottles and baby food. My dad went to daycare this morning to show the ladies how to feed Colin. He took the whole bottle, no fuss, hopefully they will have the same luck this afternoon!
Colin waiting for his breakfast at "school" with his "classmate"

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Our Trip to Phoenix




Okay.. Finally I am going to update this from our wonderful trip to Phoenix. We had a great time visiting family and getting to enjoy the wonderful 70 degree weather. We went hiking at Lake Pleasant, hiking at White Tanks, saw the amazing Phoenix Zoo, spent a day in Scottsdale, got a visit from Barney, and stayed up late with family every night.

The kids did excellent on the plane rides! Colin slept all the way there and most the way back! We had no problems with his oxygen levels, something we were told to watch out for. Katherine was so excited on the way there, she told everybody on the plane that we were ALL going to Granny’s house! The flight attendants LOVED her!

The only problem we had was on the way back we got the pre-boarding medical pass, but they would not let the 4 of us board together, but they were advertising people to get upgraded and a chance to board early. I wrote Southwest a NASTY email about not letting a medical family board together but SELLING pre-boarding passes to other people.

The first night we were there, Katherine had to slept with her Granny (my grandma), she even kicked Sunshine (what she calls my mom) out of the bed for Granny. I am so happy that the kids got to spend time with my grandparents, it has been over a year since we got to see them. It was the first time Colin got to meet them! Come to think of it, this trip was full of a lot of first for Colin, 1st airplane ride, 1st time to go hiking, 1st trip to a zoo, and 1st time out of state! We took Katherine to Phoenix when she was 9 months old, so this was her second time for all this. But she enjoyed it all a LOT more this time!

We took so many pictures! I am just going to post a small amount, since we have over 200! Matt got up every morning at took pictures of the beautiful sunrises out in the desert.

Below are pictures, keep scrolling, there are a lot!

Hiking at Lake Pleasant






















Hiking at White Tanks





























Phoenix Zoo






















Sunrises and Scenery from Arizona





























Family Pics from Trip

Grandpa and the son-in-laws
Grandma and her daughters minus Renee

Grandma & Grandpa with the grandkids




Grandma & Grandpa with the GREAT granchildren, Colin is squishing Katherine!

The whole gang.. minus Renee and Freddy & Family