Great News! She's back to work!

Kiki, my boss, returned to work today.  Yes, that's 4 months after receiving a lung transplant.  I'm in awe of her!  She's feeling good.  She wears a mask to protect herself from germs (in the pediatric clinic) but other than that, you wouldn't even know she's been through so much!  So, I'm amazed by this miracle and feel so happy to have her back.  :) 

Ruby Do Turned Two!

Yesterday, my baby girl turned 2-years-old!  It seems like she was just born yesterday.  She is such a blessing and I am so grateful for her.  Since she was born in 2008, our family has endured so much like my illness, our parent's illnesses, Daddy's job change, and deaths in the family.  Her beautiful smile and pretty face (and precious girlie clothes) has helped me persevere.  She is smart, cuddly, independent, and fun.   Here's a photo from the day she was born, and a photo from her 2nd birthday (with her bathing suit and Minnie Mouse ears). 

We had a nice day of celebrating.  Unfortunately, I had a little too much fun at the Magnolia Ridge Wine Night so I was a little sick in the morning.  I got an early morning birthday cuddle with Ruby and then Chris took Ian and Ruby to Panera for breakfast.  Thank you!   We then got ready for Mom Mom, Aunt Trudy, Aunt Christine, Kyle, Taylor, and Grayson's visit.  Uncle Allen was working.  When they all arrived, we headed to the pool.  We enjoyed swimming and seeing our friends at the pool.  Then, we went home for a yummy lunch of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.  Thanks Daddy.  We had Minnie Mouse cupcakes and chocolate ice cream and then Ruby opened her presents.  She got 2 phones (Dora and Elmo) and a tackle box to go w/ her fishing rod.  She also got a new bike helmet, pink Crocs, Play Doh w/ shapes, a pink watch, precious girlie outfits and much much more.  She, and the boys, enjoyed her new toys.  Then Ruby took a good nap.  :)  Grayson stayed for a sleepover so Ian and Grayson had a great time playing together.  Ruby had fun busying around with her new toys.  There was a thunderstorm so we didn't head back to the pool.  Ruby got a quick visit from Meg, Landen, and Kate and a great voice mail message from Amanda, Chris, and Drewbug.   We are looking forward to celebrating with the Folsom crew next weekend.

I was proud of my Minnie Mouse cupcakes.  Here's a photo:

Some good news... our ENT physician, Dr. Dodson, recommended ear tubes for Ruby due to the level of pressure in her ears.  It did not resolve w/ a month of Nasonex.  That's 5 out of 6 grandchildren on the Folsom side w/ tubes.  Can we say, genetics?  And unfortunately, Ian and Ruby have it from the Starrett side too.  Luckily, it's a pretty easy and painless solution.  So, Ruby will get her tubes soon, hopefully.  I am hopeful that maybe if she is more comfortable, we will see her pull her hair less and less.  It already seems to be a little better but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 

Some other GREAT news...my boss/friend, Kiki, was discharged from the hospital on Friday, one week after her lung transplant.  She's doing great.  She will stay near the hospital for about 2 months to complete rehab and be monitored closely.  What a blessing!  Here's a photo of Kiki holding Ruby 2 years ago.   A lot has changed since then. 

GREAT NEWS!!!

I have some great news to share!!!  My boss/friend, Kiki, got her lung transplant yesterday and she's doing great.  Today she is talking to her family and continuing to do well.  Praise God!  Thank you to the unselfish donor and his/her family who chose to donate life to Kiki (and many others, hopefully).  She still has a long recovery ahead but she's got the lung and that's the first step.  She got "the call" on Thursday 6/3/10 so we knew that hopefully, she'd get the lung that night or on Friday 6/4/10. We had a tense morning at work on Friday until we heard from Kiki's daughter that the lung was in and was she was doing well.

Here are a couple photos of the rainbow that was in the sky on the evening of 6/3/10.  It was beautiful and you could make out all of the colors perfectly (ROYGBIV, somehow that stuck in both Chris and my heads from elementary school).  It was so beautiful that we decided that it was for Pop Pop and Kiki.  

Update

Last Wednesday was big!  Chris took me to see Travis Tritt at Innsbrook After Hours.  We had a nice meal at Capitol Ale House.  We sat outside and enjoyed watching the mama duck and her 8 ducklings in the pond.  The concert was fun.  He sang a lot of his old ballads.  There was some fun people-watching.  It was great to be with my hubby w/ no kids around.  Thank you to Erik and Landen for babysitting. 

When I got to work on Thursday morning, I learned that my boss, Kiki, had gotten "the call" from INOVA and she had gone to Fairfax for her lung transplant.  Apparently Kiki was really scared and anxious on the way to Fairfax and then she became "at peace" that this was all in God's hands.  Unfortunately, at 2am on Thursday she was told that the transplant was not going to happen.  She still isn't clear on what happened but she and her husband packed up and came back to Richmond in the early morning.  Her daughter had flown from Atlanta to Washington that night and her son was en route by car from Atlanta.  Too bad it was a dry run.  This whole experience has been so emotional.  I am continually inspired by Kiki's perseverance.  Please keep her and her family in your prayers.  I so hope that she will get a new, healthy lung soon. 

Ian had his 4-year-old doctor visit on Thursday, 5/20/10.  He weighed 41 pounds and was so brave while he endured 3 shots.  I can't believe how grown-up he is. 

I wanted to share a few "Ian quotes" from today. We were driving from daycare to Chick-fil-a and Ian said, "My knees have hair on them, I'm starting to look like a daddy!" That cracked me up since I've always said that I know I will have children who are short and hairy. Later, when we were leaving Chick-fil-a, Ian said, "Mommy I want to fly to the moon. I've never been there." I said, "Well, you need to be an astronaut so you can fly in a space shuttle." He said, "Okay, I will do that." At bedtime Ian said, "When I am 17, I will drive a monster truck. Ruby can ride on your lap in my monster truck. It will jump so high that it goes over the clouds."

He is always thinking...

I've really been struggling with his behavior since he turned 4-years-old. Today was a good day. His name was not put on the board at daycare (for not listening) and we didn't have any time-outs at bath/bedtime. Yeah!


Ruby has been exploding with language and is such a happy little girl!  She loves to play outside and sing the end of the alphabet song.  She's not especially fond of the whole alphabet song, just the end...  Every afternoon she gets in the car after daycare and says, "Chick-fil-a?"  I say, "not today."  She says, "Oh man!"  So funny. 

We had a good weekend even though Daddy worked OT on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday afternoon we went to our neighbor's birthday party.  It was a party for their 2 children who are turning 7 and 4.  Ian goes to daycare with the 4 year old boy, Marco.  It was a fun party because they are Filipino and Marco's father cooks a great Filipino foods.  We got to meet a lot of people and the children had a great time playing.  They even sent a plate of food for Chris to enjoy when he gets home from work (12:00 or 1:00 am). 

Sunday morning was nice because Chris let me go shopping in the morning alone.  I needed a new bathing suit and as my dad says, "I'd rather lie on nails.."  But, I went anyway and found a suit at Kohl's.  It's not my favorite but it will work.  I'm going to look some more later but this will do for now.  I also found a nice dress and a couple of items at Old Navy.  Later on Sunday I took Ian and Ruby to Crump Park and Erik, Landen, Kate, and Cohen met us there.  Meg was on her way home from Northern VA and helping with new baby, Aislin Alexis Helsley (welcome sweet baby!).  We had a great time but when it appeared that the sky was going to open up and pour rain, we left.  It never rained so after dinner the 3 of us headed out for a walk to the playground and we enjoyed talking and hanging out with some neighbors there. 

Now we're just trying to get through the week.  I'm look forward to a 4 day weekend and we're counting down to the opening of the Magnolia Ridge pool.  I'm also excited about seeing Sex and the City 2.  I'm thankful that Chris will be home all weekend too. 

I've got to get ready for tomorrow...

First Warm, Sunny Weekend in 2010

We had a great weekend!  I had Friday off so I was able to have lunch with my friend, Deanna, at a yummy Thai restaurant in Carytown.  The rest of the day was spent sorting the kid's clothes and shopping.  On Friday evening I took Ian and Ruby to First Baptist Church so that I could go to dinner with Nichole and Wendy.  First Baptist Church was offering babysitting as a fundraiser and Wendy had signed the kids up for me.  Wendy, Nichole, and I went to Bandito's for burritos and Bev's for ice cream.  We had a great time and I was in Carytown twice in one day.  That's crazy for a suburbian like me! 

Saturday was busy with Ian's haircut, Target shopping, playing with the cousins, and birthday parties.  We really enjoyed the day.  Ian loved the birthday party at SCOR with the indoor soccer field.  His face was plastered to the glass watching a soccer game when we first arrived.  I guess we need to sign him up!!  Ian had a great time playing with his friends from daycare.  After we celebrated with Gavin, we hopped in the car and headed north to Will's 5th birthday party.  We met Ruby and Daddy there.  There was a bouncy house that Chris seemed to enjoy as much, if not more, than the children.  There was some serious wrestling going on in that bounce house.  I let Ruby bounce quickly and then we headed inside where I didn't have to look.  The negative part of being a pediatric social worker is that I've seen some horrible accidents happen to children while they were "having fun".  You don't understand until you've walked into a Pediatric ICU.  So, I just went inside.  Outta sight, outta mind.  Will's party was lots of fun and we enjoyed hanging out with some our favorite people.  And thankfully, no one got hurt (well Chris was a little sore the next day). 

Sunday was spent OUTSIDE!   Ian and Ruby "helped" Chris outside early in the morning and then we all headed to the playground.  Then we all napped.  YEAH!  After naps we played outside at the playground behind our house and in our backyard.  Ian and Ruby had a blast and we all enjoyed being outside.  Ruby, especially, is just so happy outside.  She's such a big girl!  She's able to walk up and down all of the stairs on the deck and kick the balls.  She runs everywhere and loves to swing and slide.  Ian had a great time playing baseball with Chris.  He really is doing well with hitting the ball.  I got a lot of "watch me Mommy"!  Also, inside, she went pee pee on the potty.  Not much, but she tried and I was really impressed with the little drops she left her her tiny "big girl potty".  Mommy did the big girl dance in celebration! 

Ian said something really cute tonight.  I was reading a Curious George book and there was a sentence with an exclamation point.  Ian said, "exclamation point" and said, "We need to say that sentence again and say it like we are excited".  So we did.  We then "pointed out" every exclamation point and question mark we saw.  Ian is learning so much, it amazes me.  He tells me about  animal's habitats and points out patterns of different colors in pictures. 

Some prayer requests...

1. Kiki, my boss, was approved for a lung transplant.  That's great news but scary news too.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She has been battling pulmonary fibrosis.  Her daughter is getting married in Atlanta in 2 weeks so I pray that she will be able to get brand new healthy lungs right after her daughter's wedding
2. 
   
   Of course, please continue to pray for Allen (Pop Pop).  Allen has a 2nd biopsy on Friday afternoon.  I pray that it gives the oncologist more information to help determine the best type of chemo to help him fight the lung cancer. 
3. 
   
   Nicole, my sister-in-law's sister, is home from the hospital. 
4. 
   
   A child on my caseload is having a big orthopaedic surgery tomorrow, she is 3 months younger than Ruby. 
5. 
   
   My friend and colleague, Laura, is having her little boy, her 2nd, tomorrow if the induction goes as planned. 

Please keep them all in your prayers, I know I will. 

Oh, and please pray for more sunny weekends so we can play outside.  :)