A Little Slice of Harrison

Emilie: The Full Story June 2011

2011-06-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been avoiding this, but here's the longer version of events for the past week for those of you that have been following:

Monday, June 20th
We had a doctor's appointment at Emilie's regular medical Opthamologist. She did awesome, we went in and did some vision checks where she looked at pictures and showed off her intelligence, etc...

Then the fun part happens, where they use an instrument to check Emilie's eye pressure. The instruments have gotten even smaller and less invasive, so for the first time ever, we were able to check her eye pressure without having to put her under anesthesia. Good news, pressure in right eye was normal. Bad news, pressure in left eye was too high, 35, when it should be below 20. The doctor immediately wanted to schedule surgery for some time early next week. He doesn't do the surgery, there's only one doctor in the state that does these types of surgeries for Emilie. This doctor can do an evaluation and he's the one that measures her eyes for glasses, so he said that we would do an "EUA" to make sure the office pressures were accurate and also measure her eyes for glasses. As long as her pressures were high in the left eye, we would laser the left eye.

Why laser? The thought is that the eye has pressures that are too high because either the eye over produces fluid or because the eye doesn't drain well. We have already done three surgeries to help the eye drain better, so lasering the eye should stop it from producing fluid.

The curve ball: Our Vegas vacation was planned for next week, so we start to cancel vacation plans to be able to have surgery.

Tuesday, June 21st
We call the surgeon's office and confirm that they will be able to do the surgery one week before vacation, whew. We call the medical Opthamologist office and get a strange voicemail to our phone. This message says that they aren't sure both doctors will be there. Stupidly, we assume this secretary doesn't know what she's talking about and prep for surgery in the morning.

Wednesday, June 22nd
I wonder if these dates are right, LOL. I have no idea what week in June we are in...

We arrive to the surgery center and the first thing given to me is a consent form to Laser Em's left eye. I state, in what I believe is a non-chalant tone, that I thought we were checking her pressures again before agreeing to surgery.

As a side note, you don't say "bomb" on a plane and apparently you don't say "no" to a consent form in a surgery center. People start shuffling nervously around asking me why I refuse to consent. I explain again that I want Emilie's pressures to be checked first, which is when I then ask where Em's medical doctor is.

Medical doctor? Who's that? Exercise Caution? Why? Berb berb berb...

So they put in a phone call to that doc. He responds with "nah, just laser the eye." I respond with "no, check the pressure again." More panic and anger ensues.

Let me take this moment in an already lengthy post to mention why I demand this. In January Emilie's left eye was bulging. We took her to the doctor who took Emilie's pressure in the office and it was 50+. We rush her into the OR the next morning to laser the eye, and they put her under anesthesia. When they do the evaluation, her left eye pressure is 20. The deal with eye pressure is that it can spike anytime pressure is in the head or eye, so squirming, screaming, fidgeting, or a combination of all 3 can mess with the pressures. Needless to say, that day both the surgeon and the medical doc were there, and both of them metaphorically patted us on the butts, told us we were over-reacting and sent us home without doing anything.

Having just experienced this, the last thing I want to do is start cutting on Emilie's eye without an evaluation. The nurse comes in and assures me that they will check the eye pressure before they decide to cut, and I consent. But now, the anesthesiologist is concerned because in my ranting I also mentioned that her eyes have to be measured for glasses (you know, she's too young to read an eye chart, so they measure the size of her eyes to determine near or farsightedness) and the anesthesiologist doesn't want Emilie under anesthesia more than once in a month if we can avoid it, so they call the medical doctor again. Oops. He forgot about that and consents to rush over.

Rushing, btw, takes an hour. So Emilie is approaching 20 hours without food and 8 without fluid, she is, how you say, irate? Yeah, that'll cover it. Btw, screaming children make no one comfortable.

Doc's here, rush, rush, rush. Everyone's nervous and the doc's are both angry b/c both of them have been thrown off of their schedules, so they want to communicate with us in short terse sentences that don't really elaborate post-operative care. Bottom line, as you saw, her eye was operated on and yes, her glasses precription changed.

After a nice and demeaning post-op conversation that amounted to "I should just trust them when they say operate" they send us home.

Here's where my anger begins. I know doctor's are busy and arrogant and assume all of us are over protective fools, I'll even concede that I've had my days where I deal with parents and marginalize their reactions as over-reactions, but the way we were treated during recovery was unacceptable. Kasey and I had to clarify three times the directions for post-operative care because doctors were speaking too quickly (c'mon, you know it's too fast if we can't comprehend it), we were left with recovery nurses who held Emilie less than 30 minutes (against protocol) who didn't wait for her to drink any fluids (also against protocol) and who still hadn't quit screaming from the time she woke up from the anesthesia, common for kids, but also HIGHLY AGAINST PROTOCOL. Emilie should have never been allowed to leave recovery having gained no composure and having consumed no fluids.

So we get home. Don't be suprised, but she starts throwing up. An hour or so later, this finally ends and she sleeps the rest of this day off.

Today, whatever day it is
Some time during the night last night, Emilie started throwing up. She hasn't eaten well and she hasn't felt well since the surgery. When she throws up 6 times in about 2 hours, we start debating who to call. Finally we call the emergency number on the post op orders...mistake.

We get the weekend on-call doctor, who hasn't ever seen Emilie. And what everyone has to keep in mind is that Emilie's condition is rare. There have only been 2 other cases in the last 10, well now 12 years of congenital glaucoma in the state of Oklahoma. So even the eye doctors haven't seen it. When we get there this doctor panics. She wants to put dye in Emilie's eyes, she wants to dialate Emilie's eyes, she wants to take pressure, and finally after 20 minutes of this circuis, Kasey and I remind her that we are there because we are concerned about Emilie's vomiting, not her eye. The doctor says we probably need to go to the ER for the vomiting but that she is really concerned about Emilie's left eye, as it is really cloudy.

Okay. So we try to be patient and explain to the doc that Emilie's eye has always been this cloudy and she really does have a pupil that doesn't dilate or respond to light changes, and that this is all nothing new, but this doctor, of course, doesn't want to believe us because she's never seen this in a child and is concerned that something has gone terribly wrong. So again, I get to play stubborn parent and refuse to allow her to continue touching an eye of a vomiting child less than 24 hours after it has been operated on. She isn't satisfied and insists on calling her medical eye doctor. This guy must be loving us. Bad news, her eye pressure in the left eye is still 31, so she does need some meds for the eye, but we still haven't addressed the vomiting. She tells us to go to the ER, at this point, Emilie has quit vomiting and is just passing out in our arms.

We resolved to go home and let her sleep for a few hours before we tackle another ER and another barrage of doctors who are scared to treat Emilie because of her condition.

After a little more medication this afternoon Emilie woke up and started asking for french fries and a hamburger. She ate it and kept it down and wanted to go play with her sister. Whatever effects the anesthesia had on her must have finally worn off because this evening, even though her eye looks substantially worse, she was up and running laps and playing like a kid.

If you were patient enough to read all of this, thank you. Sometimes, as a parent, we have to vent anger. I know Kasey and my instincts are right, and I know that the doctors in charge of Emilie are capable and willing, but I also know they are human. This week it was their turn to make the mistakes regarding coordination of what was best for Emilie, and that's why Kasey and I had to step in, but if you've ever been there you know, there is nothing more scary than questioning the authority of a doctor. There was a time in this world when, as patients, we treated doctors like demi-gods and that time has passed. We know that they make mistakes, I just pray our relationship hasn't been too terribly damaged by the battles we fought this week. I even know too that the recovery room isn't used to young patients, Emilie didn't have this procedure at Children's hospital, she did it at the specialty clinic, and I know those nurses are used to dealing with older adults, but if they cannot maintian a high level of care for Emilie, then we will do battle again when we visit them in three months.

Thanks again for reading, the days surely get better from here!

Potty Training

2011-05-08T18:46:00.001-07:00

Just in case you missed the memo...we've been "potty training." I say this with quotation marks because in the week that we have been "pottying," we've only managed to actually "go" in the potty once!!! It was, however, last night, so we are hopeful that more tinkling days are to come!

Emilie Birthday Photos

2011-02-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Here are Emilie's pictures from the birthday party she had at daycare and opening presents at home!
We ordered cookies from Eileen's Cookies, they were great!!

Here are Emile's Friends, left side from top is Ben, Grace, and Geneva. Right side from top is Levi, Kayla, Iyla.

Why doesn't she smile like this @ home?!?

This week, having decided that Jacob would marry 'Drea, Grace has declared that she will marry Levi. I am okay with this.

Emilie's present and Giant Cookie for home, thanks to my 3rd hour drama kids for wrapping these!! It was a busy week preparing for more snow!!

We still have these from Emilie's first birthday! If I am lucky, we will be able to keep them until she is 6. We lit the 'E' and the 'M' this year and they burned fast!!! I don't know if we'll be able to light them every year!

Emilie opening her Dora Mega Blocks. She actually got these for Christmas but on Christmas morning she was so pumped about the tricycle Santa got her, she totally forgot about the Dora Blocks. So we wrapped them again and called it birthday, she loved them the SECOND TIME we gave them to her!

That's a tea set-thank you after Christmas sale.

The tent that was discontinued at Target, sold out because of the Blizzard at Wal-Mart and over-priced at Toys R Us. But the girls think it's fine.

Emilie's Second Birthday Video

2011-02-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

As far as bad camera technique, this tops the cake! Either way, Grandma was stuck at work and had bought the girls pajamas from the Disney Store, and we attempted to record them opening it.

For a heart-warming and anti-climactic segment, click below! :)

The Mole

2010-08-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well, as usual things never go as planned. Today that absolutely worked in our favor. When we arrived this morning at the hospital for Emilie's surgery the doctors had already decided that they wouldn't take the entirety of Emilie's mile because it was probably too invasive. They took almost the whole thing, leaving about 2 mm of dark spot and some of the very light spots alone. I told the docs this would be emilie's first hair cut and they were more than happy to save her hair for me! After she woke up the nurse told kasey that emi looked up and said, "all done?" We are glad she did well and is currently up and tormenting her sister. The only strange part of today is that we won't know the results for another three weeks. However, we are at least relieved that regardless of the biopsy results, about 98% of the mole is already gone. I want to go snuggle with the kids so I'll leave the updates at that. Sorry, typed this from my phone, so it's probably barely legible. Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Emilie Update 7/30/10

2010-07-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Emilie saw the dermatologist in the beginning of June. We were told that her mole on the top of her head had grown. It was close to two inches long. We waited until July 23rd for the consultation with the Plastic Surgeon. He was concerned that the mole looked malignant. He wants to do a biopsy first before removing the entirety of the mole to see if it is malignant. Regardless of its cancerous status, Emilie needs to have the mole removed so that it doesn't develop into cancer cells.

So the question is a matter of two options:

Option A: Two Surgeries. One to remove the entire area and placing a skin-like substitute on her head. Re-grow the skin with a series of shots in the back of her head to grow skin and then another surgery to cut and place the skin. Painful. Involves shots, scarring, things we really really don't like.

Option B: Three Surgeries. One to biopsy the mole, then stitch together. One to remove the mole, then stitch together. One to get the surrounding breaks of the mole, you get the point. No permanent hair loss on skull, no major scarring (we hope). There is also hope that her skin will stretch enough to get all of the growth areas in two surgeries.

Choosing between Option A or B involves how threatening the skin cells are. We of course pray for Emilie's health first, but it is hard to think that she could have more surgery, more scars, etc...I hate this for her and apologize for the negative tone.

We did get our vacation pictures back and I will be posting them soon. We had a very enjoyable time, unfortunately coming back has reminded me of the tasks to come.

The difference between kid 1 and kid 2

2010-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

I know that we have now grown as parents. This became apparent when I found Emilie last week rumaging through the house. Specifically, through the bathroom. Even more specifically, well the picture speaks a 1,000,000 germs, er, words.

So, if this were 2008 and Grace were the one with her precious little head in the potty, I would have had to cancel Christmas in order to spend extra hours bathing the sweet one to get the icky off. With Emilie, my laughter outweighed the panic. Thankfully I had the sense of mind to grab the camera on my way to the Germ X bottle, which is, by the way the course of action for baby #2.

A Photo Tour of our Spring Break

2010-03-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

With brief descriptions as we go, spring break in photographic order. We decided to catch up on some movies that the rest of you have seen, but we haven't.

We also wanted to watch an Academy Award Nominated film, but settled on this instead. Kasey swears it was nominated for best something at some festival or another, whatever, it was hilarious.

I had my first 3-D experience, though Kasey sand Uncle Kyle stayed home with the kids so Blaire and I could go. Considering how scared I was, I was pretty sure that Grace and Em needed to stay behind.

We also had to do something outside, considering we wanted to paint the house this week and only managed to come up with cold rainy and soon snowy days that prevented us from doing so. So I settled on the porch swing. Of course you get a before circa 2008 and an after from tonight, yes I am aware that my swing has been snowed on by the ridiculous Oklahoma weather.

The bottom looks like the back of the swing, it is just covered in snow now and the frame is black.

Next, the best picture of Kasey, er I mean Santa Claus that you have seen RE: 2005 with the old kitchen in the background.

The last of our spring break has been spent fixin' up the kitchen in between naps, after bedtimes and during the snow. Enjoy, please let the work week start so I can get some rest.

We got the backsplash for three dollars after some teenage kid charged us for two tiles instead of two boxes of tiles.

We took a pic of the door not because we love the door, but rather because the legitimate camera is missing so we are on cell phones that don't have flashes and you can see the red that we put on the walls. You get the point, hope everyone had a good week! We are going to bed!

The Deceptive Penguin

2010-02-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

I remember a few months ago when we were debating about vaccines and one of our students found an article that essentially stated that pharmaceutical companies are looking for ways to keep us all sick and dependant on their drugs. At a glance, one would think this is conspiratorial habedashery. Enter Mr. Penguin. Cute, isn't he? He even comes with his own special igloo that he lives in. And all over the world he has little friends who wear the same tie as he and who have the same friends. I didn't even know Mr. Penguin until this morning, when my lack of sleep and "mommy instinct" told me it would be bad for Emilie to have surgery on Monday. Her panting had progressed to wheezing and coughing where she seemed close to passing out just from the cough in the wee hours of the night. So, I start with calling in. And follow that with a call to Emilie's doctor, who happens to be closed for training.

After arranging a special meeting to see the doc, Emilie meets this guy. He is her new breathing treatment machine for the RSV she has. And he is so damn cute. Too bad we only have him to encourage Emilie to punch his face while she sucks on medicated air. And he kind of has that face that means that he is looking at us like we are the suckers. The kicker is that RSV is highly contagious. It is still a mystery where Emilie contracted it, where her daycare seems symptom free and we haven't felt like we've been around anyone sick...

So, now the doc prepares us for saving the "extra fun parts" of Mr. Penguin which are there in case other members of the family need to stare at his smug face and receive treatments as well. Oh you know who is most susceptible in this little game is Grace, so I can't wait to mask her down with the not quite as comforting parts of Pengy. I am told reassuring things like, "Don't worry, if she screams the medicine will work better," and "Don't be afraid to hold her down while you keep the mask on her face," and "It will get into her eyes which may cause discomfort but won't hurt them." And then the best information of all, which is that we get to purchase this guy but again to not worry because "...the insurance will send you a bill for the machine." So I'll set the over/under at $200.00. Aaand, our house will be betting on the over. So we finish where we begin which is with the pharmaceutical companies. I enter Wal-Mart to get the prescriptions (thinking it will be cheaper) and as I am waiting the 1:15 it takes instead of the 0:45 it takes to get the medicine, I have the realization that I am standing here making the calls that involve "yes, it's RSV" and "yes it is highly contagious" and "oh yeah, that is my highly contagious daughter wiping her nose with her hands and then grabbing the shopping cart." I think Wal-Mart's got this figured out and for this reason DOESN'T have a drive thru pharmacy, which is to keep people from keeping their germs to themselves. It's like open season in that store and on those carts, thus insuring that just like Emilie spread her nasty disease all over that cart, she also probably contracted the disease from the same cart. And yes, as an afterthought, I did consider wiping down the cart, but that was BEFORE both kids starting melting down from hunger and boredom and before the rest of the customer population in the store became so uncomfortable that they had to start clicking their tongues at me and saying things like, "that's a shame" and "they are so sick," etc....The kicker and completion to my theory? Of course the darn drugs aren't cheaper when you have to wait in the store and buy chicken poppers, tiana dolls, candy cremes and poppin trains to keep the kids occupied and happy.

Einstein Pooping Snow

2010-02-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

You were hoping I had found some interesting fact about Einstein? Nope, just summarizing our lives in three words or less. You know, it's like when you used to take your street name and put it in front of your last name to see what kind of stripper you were. Mine was always "Gray Fox Lehman" which made it sound as though I were some 65 year old gray-haired Grannie who was workin' the clubs to feed a meth habit, no offense to Grandmas, clubs or drug addicts. Well okay maybe offensive, but where were we?

Emilie is busy making preparations to turn one. What that means for Emilie? Presents, parties, a Baby Einstein theme that only the internet carries such that $2.93 plates became $7.99 plates because shipping & handling from the internet is worse than Oklahoma City taxes, and THAT is saying something! So after some arts and crafting, we fashioned some invitations, spent half the savings on filling helium in the ballons, and made some good deals remembering that Walmart has site-to-store free shipping!

Em is also prepping to be evaluated by SoonerStart this week, which is the OKC child development agency that will help us determine if Em has a "developmental delay." Which is great because if she does, their services are free, and if not it is even greater because, well you sillies then she doesn't have any delays.

And as is always the case with Em, we also are making phone calls today to have another surgery done. She needs the shunt in her eye moved, as it has moved anterior. This also happens to be GOOD NEWS because the docs hope that once we move that tube that Em will actually lose most of the cloudiness in her left eye too! That would be her best birthday present!

And, if you haven't heard, Grace is pooping in the potty. By the way, if you aren't a parent or haven't cleaned up after an invalid, you may need to stop reading here. Just like there were some delevery suprises and pregnancy suprises that NO BOOK discusses and just happen to be cute little shockers when you get there, a child learning to poop in the potty has the same such shock. No one tells you that learning to poop in the potty with a kid is the equivalent to grabbing the dog who has started to crap on the carpet and running frantically out the door. If they haven't told you that yet, you are in for quite the treat. Grace's first "poop" in the potty amounted to her "in the act" begging to sit on her new princess potty while we grab her under the pits, holding her a fair amount away (as if poop would go flying on us?) wondering how much will hit her pants (or worse-THE FLOOR) and we slide into home base with a little submarine in the bottom of the potty, no mess-no "bad pants." Just one happy customer who now gets a ring poop, I mean pop, ring pop. (Thanks for that tip Tracy!) It's better now, I mean now she can say, "I have to poop" and we can run together into the bathroom and then sit down, but no one told us the first 10 "I have to poops" mean "I am pooping and you better just hope you can maneuver pants down, potty balance and no emotional trauma to me before this process is done." Thanks for the heads up on that one, guys.

Last, but not least, SNOW PICTURES!!!

Christmas Morning!

2009-12-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

Santa!

Kasey and I had to decide for the first time how we wanted Santa Claus to drop off toys for our first Christmas at home as a family. Having opened up our camcorder present from Grandma (thanks Granny!) we set out to put together some Christmas fun. We decided to mostly go with Kasey's version of Santa, mainly because we didn't want to spend all of today building and we built all the toys that needed to be constructed and didn't wrap them but them set them out in front of the tree.

Following our daycare provider's advice we also chose special Santa papers to wrap the Santa presents in.

We worked our little elvin butts off during nap time yesterday, but all was constructed. At 12:30 a.m. last night, Santa struck the house and left the following goods:

We also have the girls starting to open presents. We have two more but because it takes long to post, we will have to get to those tomorrow. It's like Christmas in two parts. Enjoy!

All right going to go out on a limb and go ahead and post the other two tonight because neither girl is ready for bed and I have been able to let these upload while we were chasing kids...Number 3 is ready...

And, hold on, you know you are curious enough to need to see four and finale if you've still been watching thus far!

Have a Happy Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve Blizzard

2009-12-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

So it is worth adding these pictures, although I am sure we will be adding more as the days go by. Yesterday, as we watched the weather pile up, we used the Christmas tree lights as a measure of how high the snow was banking.

Thus, the start of the snow and the end of the ice at about 12:00 p.m. 12/24/09

After about two hours, the Christmas presents you see the back of in the front yard end up under the snow. This is about 2:00 p.m. 12/24/09

This is the last picture I took before nightfall where the snow had risen even more, about 4:00 p.m. 12/24/09

We were stuck in the house all night without any way for Grandma to get home. She reluctantly stayed the night and as we get outside today, we will get some more pictures.

The "It's Been Too Long" Update and Pics

2009-10-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I haven't been keeping much up, so if we haven't talked lately, here is what is going on.

Emilie has had three doctor visits since 8/19 surgery. Her eyes are doing well. The last doctor's visit that I took Em in for was because her left eye came up with a massive red spot. When I called, they told me to bring her in right away. Turns out, she busted a blood vessel in her eye, but it was "no big deal," which only means that it was no big deal to them. We were freaked.

That was on September 29th.

On September 30th, Grace decided she didn't appreciate Emilie getting all of the attention and decided to have herself a seizure.

I only say this in a light hearted manner now, after it has been 3 weeks without a repeat. Saving some grueling emotions and a BUNCH of tears from this household, I will suffice it to say that the Doc essentially told us that kids have seizures, often unexplained, and that we have to keep watching her. Grace had started a new allergy medication, one which we immediately stopped. She seems to be doing great.

The last medical update is that Emilie was just observed on Friday under anesthesia and her eyes are actually doing great! Her pressures in her right eye are at 17 and pressures in the left are at 14, both of which fall in the normal/high normal category. She has officially been given the prescription for glasses, so look for newer and even cuter pictures to be coming from Emilie soon...

I even think our surgeon and doctor might somehow be reading this blog, because he even made the comment that he didn't have to sign her eyes since we were looking at both. He must know we are collecting pictures from Emilie's medical adventures.

We have now been attempting to get finished with Kasey's musicals and also just been looking for some kind of free time to get to Kansas to visit our family there.

We are pleased with our picking of Halloween costumes, as Kasey seems to think the girls look extremely scary wearing, which are OSU cheerleader outfits.

The one thing I will say is that we have not anticipated how hard it is to get two girls to look at a camera at the same time. And while we have tried on many occasions to get this to happen, we still have better pics of the two sperately than we do together. You will also notice some of Kasey's new mastery in the background, as he seems to think he is a master pumpkin carver. Such a master of the live botanics, that he (okay and I) left the pumpkin outside, to which is was rained on and molded within two days. He re-carved a headless horsemen into a new pumpkin that he have. Upon completion, Grace informed him that it was too scary and made him turn on the lights and blow out the candle. So much for jack-o-lanterns in this house.

Those pics are to follow and you should be getting some in the mail soon (although soon most likely means after Halloween!)

The girls otherwise are doing well, Grace is close to completing her potty training, we just have to go two weeks accident free and we will leave behind the pull-ups and Emilie is now crawling and saying "mama" and "dada." She also seems to have cheered up more since becoming more mobile. (Video coming soon)

We are blessed to have the little ones in our lives and look forward to hearing from you all as well.

Home Improvement and a Little Game of "Where's Emmie?"

2009-09-07T19:37:00.001-07:00

Kasey hounded me about posting about home improvement. He is already annoyed by how I have asked him to "ooo" and "ahhh" over every $3.00 change made in the house, but we really needed to be able to get some things done before debate season starts.

So. We made some changes to the rooms in the house, took the girls both to the doctor who both were diagnosed with ear infections and both were given allergy medicine and I spent a good 40 minutes chasing a wild baby bird through our house. Aaaand, I think that about covers labor day weekend. While you look at the pictures, it was Kas' suggestion to "hide" Emilie in each of the photos for visual stimulation. See if you can find her in each of our home improvements.

We started in the back bathroom. There happens to be a before and after photo because when I started this, I didn't anticipate doing anything else to the house. We pulled wallpaper, added some new pretties, installed shower shelves, and built some storage which looked silly, so we unbuilt the storage and opted to cover some light fixtures and bought new lights instead.

And you know how these things tend to go, you start in one place and it spills to the other. So we replaced the light cover in the bedroom and added some cubes that had been given to us from Grams and Pops. (Not pictured) I don't know how this managed to spill into the kitchen, but it did. New rugs there, got the fall stuff out from storage which turned into re-organizing a few of the drawers as well.

That's when the bird started to play. We heard a familiar thumping in the fire place. Unfortunately, I say familiar because at least four times in my life there has been a bird in the fire place. My mom reminded me that we chased a bird through the house when she was living in the house, and then I know that David and I also once previously chased a bird out of the fireplace while Kasey waited in the bedroom "protecting Grace." Don't worry, he stayed in the bedroom with both girls this time while I chased the scared bird through the rooms, off of my head and hair, to the back and front of the fire place, through the kitchen, behind the couch and back to the outside of the fireplace before I finally got the sheet over him to set him free outside. Thanks for watching the kids, husband, well done. Once finished with the bird fiasco, we pulled some stuff from the living room, moved the furninture and added the corner lamp.

Finally, we cleaned up the clustered mess by getting rid of the baby bathtub (another milestone in this house), replacing it with a pink duckie bathtub which hangs up inside the tub, buying some better storage for toys and getting some stackable shelving for some shampoos as well. It gave us back some floor space and it became the center of the evening's attention as the girls fought over who got to bathe in the pink duck. Even Grace's new turtle toy holder didn't hold a candle to the red-tinted quacker.

Emilie's surgery yesterday

2009-08-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well, in the tradition of collecting surgical signatures, Emilie had both of her eyes signed yesterday by Dr. S. about an hour before going into surgery. Right before she went in, the nurse read her onsie p.j. which said, "I heart my auntie." The nurse said Emilie must have a pretty big fan, I told her that I know our little girl has lots of fans, but Aunt B certainly is one of the biggest ones.

Both eyes were checked to see which was worse and which needed to be operated on.

The left eye won that contest with a pressure of 35, which is how high her eye pressures were when she was born. The right eye is still registering at high normal which was 19. Dr. S. said today in Emilies post-op visit that if the pressure goes up in the right eye, then we would consider surgery for it, but that he is satisfied with how it is doing right now, so he prefers to leave it alone.

Emilie now has a shunt in her left eye. It took about 15 minutes to go in. The shunt makes her eye look like she's been in some type of horrible fight, and the doc said that we will always see a little white bubble when she looks down or over that is where the tube is. He did see that the tube was placed and laying correctly today, all of which is good news. They did also go ahead and check her left eye pressures and they were registering in at 16 even while she was screaming. Doc said that he expects that they are close to 5 when she isn't screaming, which is good.

As Emilie heals, she will gain some scar tissue that will make pressures go back up in the left eye. It was his expectation that she will have to re-start some type of eye drop again in around a month. The last conversation that I had with the doctor this morning was hopeful that Emilie would re-gain some vision in her left eye, but that her vision would probably not completely restore for the left eye. We keep guarded optimism that this is the case. We continue to be thankful that her right eye stays the way it does, this is good news that things are under control in her right eye and that is what we do want to hear.

Emilie will undergo anesthesia again in a month to check her pressures while she is asleep (which is when it is most accurate). Emilie immediately following surgery was pulling her patches off. She may not get perfect vision from that left eye, but she sure knows when it is covered up. Other than dealing with some pain, she has been a happy happy baby today. She smiled every minute of the last hour just before she drifted off for nap.

We are thankful to have another surgery down and to be one step closer to a better seeing child.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

2009-08-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

At this moment four years ago, I was arriving at the church to discover that the groom's cake was missing strawberries. It was the worst part of my day, so we frantically sent Elanna to scrounge the metro for chocolate dipped strawberries to put around the outside of the cake. Sometime around this time is when Blake, Jake, and Nick were convincing Kasey that he could escape out the back of the church. A joke that I can only laugh about now, because even when Kasey told me about it back then I was fuming, even after the wedding. I remember having to be ready by 1:00 p.m. to be ready to take the pictures with the Asian guy and "Becca" whom we later, upon reflection, realized wasn't "Becca" at all, but rather "Backup" as she was the one taking the second set of pictures. Either way, Impressions Photography did a great job.

And, as is customary, I have to use our anniversary to reflect on how much Kasey and I have changed. We thought about what we are doing tonight, which consists of going to Red Lobster and maybe going for a movie. We already sound like we are celebrating our silver or pewter or we-are-old-as-dust anniversary, but the truth is that Kasey and I are reality tv hacks and we want to go taste Jeffrey's dish (who is the guy who should have won Food Network's "Next Food Network Star") which is currently on their menu. We could go somewhere nicer, or quieter, or even more local or authentic, but on a night where we are celebrating why we work so well together, it seems only fitting that we would spend tonight chasing down some probably OK dish that reality tv created. Oh, and we'll love it. Even if it is an awful experience, we'll love it.

And is it just me, or does four years not seem to do justice to how long it feels like it has really been? Not long as in "this has been torturous" long, but it seems crazy that four years has brought two kids and two job changes and two high school reunions for each of us. We are still proud of what we have achieved and we are just thankful for each other, thankful for our families, and thankful for our health.

This week's new developments

2009-08-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well the girls have both hit new milestones this week, and we thought we would share both.

First, Grace has started potty training. (Pictures, for the sake of her dignity not included) She has pee peed 4 times in the potty, recieving M&Ms as well as suckers for her prize. She is doing okay with the progress, though sometimes she cries when we have to take her to the Restroom for the 6th or 7th time. We have gone through more Pull-Ups than I can describe, and today resorted to just putting her in panties so that we can wash the panties if they get dirty. We are on day 2 and I am exhausted. The worst part is that every time I go with Grace to the bathroom, my Pavlovian brain tells me that I too must use the restroom, so I have been pottying much more than Grace has these past few days. And no, don't even wonder about any possibilities, I swear I am only going because we have to sit in the bathroom and think about pee all day long. But enough of the urethra functioning of the household.

Emilie is currently working on two new tricks. She has almost mastered the art of sitting up. She can go about 5 seconds without assistance, so she should have the sitting thing mastered before the end of the month. Also, she got a new jumper gym toy that helps her strengthen those legs. Grace is dangerously excited about it and I would post that video, but we haven't pulled it off of the phone just yet. Here are the pictures in the mean time.

Kasey and I start school soon. I go back on the 13th and Kasey goes back on the 17th. Until then we are captives of the house until Grace gets her confidence up with potty training! Talk to you all again soon!

Emilie's Latest Visit to the Doctor 7-24-09

2009-07-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

We went to see the surgeon and Emilie's medical doctor yesterday.

The good news about Emilie is that she is a tough girl, and she wasn't going to have anyone touching her. The bad news is that this made it impossible to determine what her eye pressures were. The surgeon did agree that Emilie's left eye does look worse again, or at least not as good as it did right after surgery. The left eye continually looks like it is struggling. The did a preliminary eye test and Em's left eye just acts like it can't see at all. Her right eye is doing well, it can follow objects and is not very cloudy at all. Most days you can see her iris and pupil, it seems to be doing great.

The tentative plan for now is to put Emilie under anesthesia on the 19th of August and then check the pressures on the right eye. If the right eye has normal pressures, then the surgeon will operate on the left. The left eye has already had a trabeculotomy on both sides of the eyes, so it looks like now that we are headed for shunts-ville. A shunt will be placed in her left eye when ever it is operated on. (If not in August, then soon after.)

Either way, we have two surgeries remaining: the interior trabeculotomy of the right eye, and the shunt in the left eye. I hesitate to really discuss what the medical doctor discusses if that left eye doesn't respond, but needless to say words like "transplant" were thrown around. Kasey and I will just keep praying for better results so we don't have to reach that point.

Lastly, what I consider some good peices of news. The doctor gave us the number of the developmental agency that will help us make our home better equipped for Emilie so that when she walks and reads and plays that we have all the toys and equippment necessary that will adjust to her needs. We will call them after we get through this August surgery. Emilie will also be measured for glasses, and will start wearing them soon after, which is kind of nice for us, because if the doc can locate glasses for her, then we can surely locate sunglasses (which she desperately needs). That and I think the little one will look pretty darn adorable in a pair.

Keep the prayers coming if you will. And we will let you know in 3 weeks how the surgery goes...

Grace's New Talent???

2009-07-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

So, we are getting more and more convinced that Grace is going to grow up to do what Grace wants to do. A while back Grace told Grams that she loved the cheerleaders at a basketball game and now last night she picks up a tent pole and decides to start "twirling" it. That's her words. Now, I know that Grandma was a baton twirler for a time, but absent Granny doing some secret training sessions, I have no idea where this comes from.

Crap, here comes cheerleading camp...Kasey seems to think that if we let her near anything that has to do with Cheer, she'll never grow up to be a debater. Nevermind that one of his best students that got a ton of awards was in POM. Who knows, either way, it's worth 19 seconds to check it out!

Happy Birthday Kasey!

2009-07-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so technically Kasey's birthday isn't until Monday, but I couldn't resist posting this because we are actually celebrating his birthday today.

Soooo. Grace got her first Barbie Doll today, on Dad's birthday! Ha! Ariel Barbie at least gets us AWAY from the t.v. and away from that flippin' Little Mermaid DVD...

I can roll over onto my tummy now!

2009-06-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

At four months, a full month before my sister, I have mastered the art of rolling over. Don't tell Grace, she may not like the competition!

Emilie Harrison, 4 months

Trouble with Audio

2009-06-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I can't get the audio working that was given to us for Emilie's baptism. I have the CD, so I guess if anyone wants a copy, I can burn it, otherwise I have the pictures and will be posting them momentarily.

Summer Ice Cream

2009-06-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Let the messy days begin!

First Post

2009-06-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hello!