All The Way to the Top!

Time for baby gates! He loves going to the playroom UPstairs!

Katherine's Weekend

Saturday was a gorgeous day. Katherine, the socialite, had Jacob’s birthday party to go to. Katherine tells me she is going to marry Jacob, she even told Jacob’s mom that at the party! Katherine and Colin had lots of fun; Jacob has a brother 2 months younger than Colin.
Saturday evening Matt’s parents came over for dinner and water gun fights!

Sunday was yet again a beautiful day. We all got up and were getting ready for our family day at the Astro’s when the stomach bug knocked on our door. First I got sick, and then matt wasn’t feeling well. Katherine went ahead and went to the baseball game with my family and matt’s mom came and picked up Colin to give us a break and keep him away from our sickness. Katherine got to the ballpark and played, ate a pretzel, cotton candy, she had fun until the 8th inning when she got sick all over uncle Russell, then my mom on the ride home, then me when she got home! Poor kiddo! But she was better before the night was over and was playing nurse for me & Matt. Hopefully none of our family gets sick this time!
Monday afternoon we sanitized the house from top to bottom before Colin came home! I was very upset that we were not able to have our family outing to the baseball game. Colin will just have to wait a little while longer for his 1st Astro’s game.

Backyard Fun

This week we have had some nice weather to enjoy, so we have been spending our evenings in the backyard. Katherine loves her tee ball set and Colin is enjoying the slide.

Katherine hits the ball, and of course has to pick up the tee before rounding the bases!

Colin likes to climb up the slide, not on the stairs, but on the slide itself! He accomplish getting to the top 3 times that night!

First day in the Pool, Tubes in Ear, and More

Matt was gone all last week to a training seminar in Philly, I was outnumbered! Luckily my parents are so close; they came over a few times that week to help out. Matt got home late Friday night and the kids were so excited to see him. They both were wired all night long, finally at 10pm; we made them go to sleep. Katherine had a hard time this week without Matt being around. Matt usually reads her bedtimes stories, guess I don’t read them as well!

Saturday started off cloudy, but it cleared up and we took the kids over to my parents to go swimming. For those who don't know, my parents sold their house a few months ago and once my mom retires in May, they are going to pack up and travel in their 5th wheel for awhile. So they are staying close to us at an RV park unitl their new lifestyle takes into affect. It was Colin’s first time in a pool! Of course he loved it, it’s a big bathtub! Katherine can swim on her own for about 4-5 feet. She was diving down in the water getting a ball. Both of the kids cried when it was time to get out of the pool. My mom fixed a nice BBQ meal, and afterwards Uncle Russell took them for a walk in the park. The kids were so exhausted, they both slept really well that night. Katherine chopping down on some steak!

Sunday, the rain came! We made cupcakes inside and watched movies. It was nice to have a relaxing day after a hectic week (hats off to all single moms)!

Katherine is so spunky lately. The things she says and does just makes us crack up. This weekend she said she needed to get her haircut because it was not beautiful anymore! We took her to a buffet on Friday night and could not believe she did not explode! She ate a taco, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, 2 big rolls, corn on the cob, THREE chicken legs, cantaloupe, strawberries, cake, and ice cream, and some gummy bears! I thought I was going to have to roll her out like Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Violet, your tuning violet!) She saw a picture of her this weekend from when she was a baby (it was at a party), she told Matt “Daddy remember when you took me to the restaurant when I was a baby, that was adorable!” She is really into Scooby Doo lately. She told me the other day she likes Daphne, she wears purple and pretty hair. When I asked if what about Velma, she told me Velma looked like a boy and her hair was not very pretty.

Colin’s eating has really picked up lately. He is enjoying table foods more and more each day. This weekend, he ate nonstop! And was drinking about 7 ounces of milk each bottle, one he even drank 8 ounces in 10 minutes! Colin will be having tubes put in his ears May 4th. He has fought an ear infection for the last 3 months, several rounds of antibiotics, so the best treatment is tubes! I had tubes as a child; his doctor said it was largely hereditary, sorry Colin! Good news is that Colin can stay off propanolol which was one of his heart medications! So he is just down to medicine twice a day (blood pressure and small dose of reflux in the morning and aspirin, blood pressure, and reflux in the evening).

Help, I got in, but how do I get out?????

Spring is in the Air

Since today is an overcast rainy day here in Houston, thought I would share some of our springtime photos to brighten up the day.

Future softball player! She can hit!

GOALLLLL!Flowers we planted in the front yard, Katherine's favorite color!

Matt & I's date night to the Astro's.. too bad they can't win!

Bubble time!

Matt planting hibiscus, we lost ours in the snow & freeze

Katherine watering the yard, what a helper!

One Year Ago Today - Norwood

Today marks a very special day, one year ago today Colin underwent his first open heart surgery! It's a very bittersweet anniversary. Colin would not have lived without the surgery but it's still breaks my heart that he had to go through it.
That morning we got up early, we spent the night at home with Katherine, and got up to the hospital at about 6am. I think we only slept maybe two hours that night, it was a hard night/morning. We got to hold and visit with Colin for about 1 1/2 hours, then they came to wheel him away. We got to ride up on the elevators with him from the 4th to the 18th floor, then had to say our goodbyes. We had to hand over our week old baby and trust in God and the surgeons that they would make his heart better. Colin was in surgery for 10 hours, the longest 10 hours of my life! We left Colin at 7:30am and got to see him at 8:00pm. It was so hard to see him in Cardiac ICU that night, at least he had a great roommate (sweet Elle had her surgery that day also).
As I think about our lives a year ago, the chaos and uncertainty that surrounded us, I am so amazed at Colin now. I am amazed in how they took a heart that was only half functioning and gave life to him. When you look into his big beautiful blue eyes and he gives you that suave grin, you have no clue what he has been through, until you look at his chest. His scar used to make me sad and angry in the beginning, now I am so proud of it. I want everyone to see his scar and know he is a fighter.
One year ago, I had a son who was hooked to so many monitors and medication to help him survive and now he is a thriving one year old who is keeping us on our toes.

Happy Easter

The Eyrings had a very nice Easter this year (minus the stomach bug that came along that afternoon). This year I had a new respect for Easter and celebrating the sacrifice that Jesus made for us to live. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in dying eyes, the Easter Bunny, and hunting for eggs. But the last year has reaffirmed my faith and has let me see things in a more clearer light. Last Easter we spent the morning with Colin at TCH, his 1st heart surgery was the next day, then the afternoon with Katherine to hunt eggs, then back up to the hospital in the evening. It was great gift to all be together at home this year!
Saturday night we watched the 10 Commandments and dyed Easter Eggs. Katherine was really into The 10 Commandments, when Matt flipped on commercial to watch basketball, she actually got upset and told Matt "Daddy, turn it back, I was watching that!". She was asking lots of questions, who is that man, why are they in a dungeon, what is the mean lady doing.
We got up Easter morning and had breakfast with my parents. We had homemade waffles with all the fixings (strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, whip cream, powdered sugar). The kids got their Easter baskets and hunted for eggs, Matt being Colin's chauffeur.
That afternoon we went to Matt's aunt's house for lunch and more hunting eggs! Katherine was very good at finding them, she was so good, we had to do it twice, she did it so fast the first time. I then got the stomach flu for 4 days, but no need to go into that!
All in all it was a wonderful Easter and a great reason to celebrate the many many reasons why we are so blessed.

Colin's 1st Birthday

Sorry it took me awhile to post, Colin decided to give me his stomach bug, and it was not fun!

Colin turned 1 on Saturday! What an amazing journery we have had this year. We had some tough times but none of it seems to matter when you see the smile on his face. I am so proud of how strong Colin is. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful child. He is always so happy and snuggly, he loves people and loves to laugh, adores his big sister and his pets, LOVES OUTSIDE, actually loves to eat now, his is calm natured except now he is learning about tanturms.

1 year old milestones:

- 18 1/2 pounds

- Can walk if holding onto your pinky

- Says 4 words: Mama, Dada, Up, and Look

- Has 5 teeth

- Eating table foods well

- Drinking fortified milk (we add a scoop of formula to milk for extra calories)

- Working on sippy cup, will drink from it, just not large amounts

- Had check up with cardologist on April 5th, Echo and Chest X-Ray looked great. Colin is dong well and won't have to go back for 6 months!

Saturday we had a party for Colin. He wasn't 100% himself from being sick, still a little clingy, but he had a great time playing with everyone and all his toys. As soon as the last guest left, he slept for 2 hours!

Just One of THOSE Days

Yesterday was just one of those days I wish I could erase. It started with Katherine getting up at 4:00am thinking it was time to get up and watch some cartoons. I made her lay back down and got her to go back to sleep. Matt fed Colin at 4:30am, then was off to work. While I was getting the kids ready, Colin spit up all in the bed. At this time I just thought it was strange that he would have reflux issue, he hasn't had one in so long. Colin was very clingy all morning, which just isn't like him.

Running a little late since I had to change our sheets and scrub the mattress. On our two minute ride to school, Colin threw up all over himself, I say throw up because this is NOT reflux, this is something else! So we get inside, and I have to change him again and scrub down the car seat. So now really running late!
I get outside my parking garage for work and come within an inch of getting side swiped, my horn was the only thing stopping them from hitting me!
So trying to catch up from our crazy morning and my cell phone rings at lunch, Colin now has a fever of 101, so I leave to go get him.

When I pick him up he is BURNING up. We get home, he is screaming, the dog is barking, the alarm is chiming to be turned off, so I got to turn off the alarm and in all the madness, I punch in the wrong code TWICE. It now locks me out for a few minutes, now the alarm is not just chiming but fully going off, making Colin scream worse! After 2 minutes, I punch in the right code and it turns off
I get Colin calmed down, he drinks his bottle, then the POLICE come! They came to check on why the alarm went off.

Colin sleeps for a bit, but is fussy most the afternoon. Fever gets up to 102 and he does not want to be put down! I hook him up to his pulse ox monitor just to make sure, his sats are usually high 80's to low 90's , they were at high 70's, pretty low for him. But his heart rate was up. So when Matt gets in, we call Texas Children's. They said not to be concerned unless sats stay at low 70's.
Few hours later, sats were up, but heart rate being so high bothered me, so I called back to cardiology. They said it can be common with fever for the heart rate to be higher, but we need to make sure it's the fever elevating it and not that he has been off his beta-blocker which helps slow down heart beats.

Colin refuses night time bottle, then throws up on both of us, so off to Shower # 2 of the night for both of us! Colin fever back down to 101 when we go to bed at 10:00pm. Midnight Colin wakes up very uncomfortable, still have fever, then starts dry heaving.

He woke up at 2am and had 4 ounces of his bottle, then threw up about an ounce on me, luckily just on my foot, so my foot gets a bath.
While Colin was crying, Katherine woke up, and she woke up wanting to play. After an hour Matt got her to lay back down, but he forgot to shut her door all the way. At 3:30am we hear RUNNING upstairs (the guest bedroom and gameroom are above us). Matt goes to check it out, Katherine is up running around, grabbing toys from the gameroom into her room. Matt puts her back to bed, then gets down and realizes she had necklaces on (we don't let her sleep with anything around her neck). So I go up to take them off, she is VERY excited to see me until she realizes that I am NOT there to play, but to make her go back to bed!

Glad to announce today that Colin's fever is gone and he is eating and keeping it down, must have been a stomach bug! Matt's mom came over to watch him this morning. Katherine was very excited this morning about her Easter party at school, that's all I need is her hopped up on sugar!

Just another exciting day in the Eyring household!