Wesley's 3rd birthday party, first basketball game and my knee surgery

As you can tell by the title, we've had a busy week. Last Saturday was Wesley's third birthday party. Later that evening, Damon and I took Wes to the Wright State University basketball game. Sometime during all that, Wes got a cold, which is actually the first time he has ever gotten sick (other than the surgery for his esophagus). I don't know how people handle it when their children get sick often because I was worn out getting up every two hours to settle Wes back down from his coughing. Thankfully he doesn't get sick!! We like our sleep around this house :)

 

Wesley opening his DVD "Up"

still opening it the gift several minutes later...

a firetruck bank

an airport play set from Grandma (Pawpaw spent at least 20 minutes getting the whole thing apart)

giving Doda a hug

playing with his elephant with Grandma

Pawpaw finally got part of the airplane and airport apart

Mom and Dad finally got Wes a firetruck that makes noise (like Santa didn't get for Christmas)

blowing out the birthday candles and spitting on the cake I'm sure

having just a bit of cake (Wes preferred the chocolate cupcake the night before to the white cake at the party)

Who doesn't play baseball in the living room? We do at our house! At least until Wes can actually hit the ball and break things.

Wesley and Daddy at the game

Wes enjoyed cheering for both Wright State and their opponent (I already forgot who WSU played. I love sports, but basketball isn't my thing)

Damon tried to explain the game to Wes

hanging out with Mommy becauses it's not like Mom was watching the game (This is where I'd like to note that I am sure Wesley watched more of the game than I did)

here is where the game turned "scary"...Wesley saw the Raider (mascot) and was terrified that the Raider was coming to get him.

Wesley couldn't keep his eyes off the Raider as he walked through the stands.  

Damon doing a little snow-blowin' trying to dig us out of the house

Wesley wasn't feeling well, but he didn't want to go to bed. So instead he decided to take a little rest on the stairs. And why not? I'm sure the stairs are much more comfortable than his bed.

here's a photo of my right knee pre-surgery (my meniscus was torn on the lower inside part - lower right side of picture). The swelling was getting worse, but it's hard to see in this picture.

here's a photo post-surgery Wednesday (the gauze and wrap makes my knee look a lot more swollen than it actually is)

and the bandages come off...the two bandages are from the incisions, while I think the redness is from where cartilage was cut out that was scraping bone - and that's why I was in so much pain!!

I haven't been out of the house since Wednesday afternoon, so I plan on going somewhere tomorrow. I am not sure where we'll go, but I to bed.

Wesley's 3rd birthday!

Today is Wesley's third birthday!! I have always made fun of people who talked about how time flies, but IT REALLY DOES!! I realized that in two months, Wesley will have been with us longer than he was in the orphanage in Ukraine. I think we might have a party for that day too!

Here the fun cake from The Cakery. Several of our friends suggested it (in particular - thanks, Lisa), and man, it is delicious!! Let me explain the blue fire truck...Wesley LOVES anything related to the rescue services (police, fire, ambulance), and a township near us has blue fire trucks, which Wes never fails to notice. When I talked with him before ordering his cake, he asked for a blue fire truck. Then he added that he also wanted a barn, a tractor, an ambulance, and a cat, but I pretended like I didn't hear the rest of his list.

We got Wes a birthday cupcake to eat on his birthday since the cake is for the party tomorrow (see pictures below)

Wes acted at first like he had no idea what to do with the cupcake.

Why get your hands messy when you don't have to? I mean - the dogs eat like this.

He figured out how to eat it!! (What excited me even more though is that HE ACTUALLY ENJOYED IT!!!)

How sweet is that smile?

and another picture of the enjoyment

And just a little more...until he told me right after this picture that he was tired of eating and needed to go to bed. (How can I blame him? Who doesn't want to go to bed after a wonderful dessert?) 

Happy Birthday, Wesley!!!!

Mommy and Daddy love you so much and we love sharing our lives with you!!

first time playing in the snow

So it has been snowing like crazy here in Ohio. I've enjoyed being inside in comfortable clothes (except when I'm at work), but I think I'm getting ready for spring. There is only so much that will entertain an almost three year-old in the house. If Wes had his way though, he would watch Elmo, Sesame Street and Charlotte's Web all day long. Last week I took him to Bounce U, so he was worn out for the day. Bounce U is a place with a bunch of inflatable jumpy things (that is the technical term), slides, obstacle courses, etc. Just the two of us went, and Wes didn't want to jump around by himself, so I jumped too. WOW - I thought I was in shape, but I was worn out after two hours! 

We finally got Wesley a pair of snow pants (at Gap for only $7.00!), but a I was going to let him out in the snow last week, I realized we forgot to get snow boots. Try and find those in February. Instead we got him a pair of rain boots and put on two pairs of Damon's wool socks, which worked well. All three of us went out to shovel the driveway after work yesterday, but Wes and I only spent about 15 minutes outside. He got some snow between the top of his gloves and his coat sleeves, and it was all over. Cannot say I blame him because it's not like I enjoyed the snow myself.

Here is where things started to go awry...(and yes, I was trying to get him to sled in the trash can lid)

and continued to go downhill

here is where we had enough and went inside

I think it is going to snow more toward the weekend, so maybe he can go out again and just shovel. Wes enjoyed shoveling, but he didn't get snow all over him like he did playing in the yard.

My knee surgery is finally going to happen next week. I am glad that I scheduled it because my knee is locking up more and the swelling is getting out of control. Hopefully it's just an easy repair and the doctor doesn't find more wrong than my meniscus tear...we'll know soon enough.

Wesley's third birthday is Friday! We're having a little party on Saturday with the Grandparents. I'm not sure if Wes is going to eat cake or not, but we're going to try. I gave him a taste of brownie the other day and he said "yum," so maybe he's learning to like sweets.

Speaking of eating, we're still working on the chewing, but definitely seeing improvement. I don't think that Wes enjoys eating yet, but he doesn't hate it like he previously did. I still struggle with how anyone could dislike eating because I LOVE to eat!!!

Wesley had a swallow study done two weeks ago, and there was no narrowing or constriction in his esophagus. This is great news because so many children with this same repair have to have many dilations to open up the esophagus in the first year after surgery. We will go and have an appointment with the surgeon later this month. Then we get to talk about taking out the g-tube!!

Work for me has been going okay. I am so thankful for the great people I work with who help me see the humor in the situations and make me laugh. I am lucky to work with some wonderful people!!

I'll leave you with a picture of a little boy and his dog watching a favorite movie. The tow of them sit like this all the time!

Wesley, Duke and the fall down the stairs

(I typed this all up before I got sick last weekend with the stomach flu - YUCK!)

Thank you so much for the prayers for my Grandpa. My Dad is down in Florida right now with him and my Grandma, and I hear that Grandpa is doing better. He is out of the hospital, so that alone has to help his spirits. He has chemo again though soon, so please continue to pray for his strength and that the cancer is eradicated.

So I have a crazy little story from this morning...I brushed Wesley's teeth and then we were headed downstairs to get our coats on to leave for story time at the library. Wesley started throwing a fit about something, and he put himself in time out on the top stair (don't even get me started on the time outs). I stepped around him and went downstairs into the kitchen. I had to ask him several times if he was done with the time out, and finally he said yes. He started to come down the stairs backwards, and I told him to turn around and go down the stairs properly. As he turned around, I think he stumbled or caught his toe on the carpet and started to fall. Of course time slows down as I reach toward the stairs (even though I was about 20 feet away from the bottom of the stairs), and suddenly...Duke (one of our dogs) was running up the stairs and Wes stopped when he bumped into Duke about halfway down the stairs (Duke had stopped running and stood still). As I got to the bottom of the stairs, Duke just stood up, ran down the stairs and went to lie on the sofa. Wes cried for a minute, but I think it was because he was scared not hurt.

Now I have no idea what happened - did Duke realize Wesley was falling and stop him or it is a crazy coincidence??

How excited am I that a new season of "What Not to Wear" is on?!?! There aren't too many shows that I can watch again and again and again, but I never get tired of Clinton Kelly and Stacy London. I am a bit sad though that Nick Arrojo (the hairstylist) has left the show because I don't think the new guy does hair as well. More than anything though, I love to see the confidence that people have when they wear clothes that fit and are flattering to their figure.

Happy birthday, Mom!!!

what is going on here in our lives

The weather has warmed up significantly here in good ol' Ohio. The temperature is actually above freezing and it feels like a heat wave!! And speaking of warmer weather, I've purchased the shoes below. These are definitely not going out in the snow shoes. How much do I love shoes?!

On a completely unrelated note - We also have some sickness going around. Wesley has been complaining of stomach pain for the past few days. He hasn't thrown up (thankfully), and then Damon said the other day he was having stomach pain as well. Today he came home from work early. We were hanging out, and suddenly he ran to the bathroom. Unfortunately he didn't make it...what is even more unfortunate (for me at least) is that he had been drinking blue Gatorade. Let's just say that we are going to need to need new wallpaper in the bathroom. So now I'm trying to clean the house and spray Lysol EVERYWHERE! I am determined that I am not going to get sick and Wesley isn't going to get more sick than he already is!

I haven't discussed something yet here on the blog, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because typing it makes it more real...my Grandpa has cancer, and he's in the hospital right now for chemotherapy. Please pray for him, my Grandma, his doctors and nurses, and just for our family as a whole. I haven't been able to talk to him, but I hope to be able to tomorrow. He isn't doing well, and it just breaks my heart. Thank you so much for your prayers - it means the world to us!!!

snowing here in Ohio (and my dislike of actually being out in the snow)

It's been snowing here in Ohio like crazy! I think we have about 6 inches now and it's still coming down. Personally I have loved it because I've been able to hang out here at home in my pajamas (except for today when I went to work). I wasn't too excited to get out in the bitter cold (the wind chill was below zero when I left this morning), but the roads weren't too bad. I have to say though that even though the roads were decent, I still drove cautiously. A woman in her big ol' Cadillac Escalade though rode the back of my Accord for a few miles. When we got to the area where the road becomes two lanes, she pulls up next to me. What do you know - she was talking on her cell phone!! Why must people talk on their cell phone while driving a huge vehicle while it's snowing and the roads are snow and ice-covered?? What must be so important that you risk your own life and the lives of everyone else on the road? Sorry - this is just one of my pet peeves.

Wesley is doing well. We haven't gotten him a snow suit yet, but we're looking for one. I think Damon might have to be the one to take him out to play in the snow. My wardrobe isn't exactly made for play in the snow, even the more utilitarian items I own. I am also cold all the time, thus I would probably only let him play outside for a few minutes. Damon would be much better for outside snow play than  I would. Can you tell that I'm trying not to feel guilty for my refusal to play in the snow? I just don't think I've ever been all that fond of playing in the snow, but I'll have to ask my Mom. (Mom - did I ever like being outside in the cold, wet snow when I was young?)

See - I do think though that Damon is more suited for being outside with Wes...I mean he's going to the Cincinnati Bengals playoff game tomorrow afternoon with my Dad and it's going to be a high of 20 degrees!! I get the chills just thinking of sitting outside in the bitter, bone-chilling cold with snow blowing all around on a hard, plastic seat. You might think I am kidding, but I did just shiver.

Anyone else excited about the winter Olympics? Now with my hatred of being out in the winter weather, you might think that I don't like sports involving cold weather, but this is not so. I don't like to be in the elements myself, but I have no problem sitting in my warm home watching others freeze as they struggle to perform a sport well. I also like that many of the sports are shorter events that finish in under two minutes, so it satisfies my short attention span. Thinking about the Olympics though reminds me of Ukraine. We were completing our adoption during the summer Olympics, so that is pretty much all we watched on television. The reason is because we could watch it with the sound off (not in English) and still understand what was going on. We couldn't do that with any other program, and since VERY little on tv was in English, we loved it.

We've still been working with Wesley on chewing. He does great with mushy food that he can squish with his tongue and swallow. Things get tricky when chewing is necessary. If we don't watch him, he will just swallow the food whole, which does result in some chocking and gagging. I did get some fried chicken from the deli the other day, and I would tear off a piece about 3 inches long. I was able to hold the chicken on one end and have Wes chew the other. He kept chewing until it disintegrated, then he swallowed it. He seemed to "get" chewing at that meal, but apparently he forgot by the time dinner rolled around. I'm not sure what it is, but he understands that some things have to be chewed (like Cheerios and Alphabits cereal). He will just swallow meats, vegetables, fruits, etc., so we have a way to go.

I am still hopeful (dare I even say confident?) that the feeding tube can be removed this spring. I probably need to clear this with the nutritionist, but we have only been giving Wesley about one can of Pediasure a day. It's surprising how many calories you can pack into an almost three year-old through soft or pureed food!

GO BENGALS!!

(or as Wesley would say "Go Who Dey")

Damon partying hard on New Year's Eve

(Do you see the bottle of champagne in the background right above his head?)

here's a shot outside the front door

first accident-free nap in underwear

Wesley had his first nap in underwear and it was accident-free. Wes has actually been waking up from his naps with a dry diaper 4 out of 5 times, but I was a little afraid of switching to underwear just yet. Turns out that when Damon put him down for a nap, he forgot to put Wes in a diaper. He woke up three hours later dry!! I have to say though that Wesley actually took a one hour nap once in underwear, but until today it wasn't a dry nap of any considerable amount of time.

Because I did say that Damon "forgot" to put Wes in underwear today, I must also tell you of something I forgot lately...on New Year's Eve we let Wesley stay up later than usual, but I put him in his pajamas when we got home. We usually put Wes to bed after his last feeding, but we didn't that night. (Notice a pattern of broken rituals?) Anyway, we ended up putting Wesley to bed in his underwear. He didn't tell us, and Damon and I didn't notice...until Damon heard him talking much earlier than he normally wakes up, which was about 6:00am. Guess who had a soaking wet bed and self? OOPS! Damon was such a nice husband and he got Wes and his bed cleaned up without even waking me up (even though I did stir a little when I heard Wes talking to Damon as Damon changed his bed linens). Then Damon wasn't able to go back to sleep, but Wes and I slept in until around 9:45am.

So the moral of the story is that Wes might be ready for naps without diapers, but we aren't even close to all night without them!!! Hopefully we can remember to make sure he's in diapers at bedtime...

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. We went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (I thought it was expensive for the food you received) and then hung out at home. We rented a movie, and I took down Christmas decorations. Finally the house is Christmas-free. It's funny, but our house seems empty now...and I like it!

We've been researching preschools for Wesley to start in the fall. There are just so many choices and looking online doesn't give you enough information. I know that we'll have to visit the few that seemed like a good fit for Wesley and us, and we'll have to do it soon because apparently some are already full for the fall!! One more thing...who knew preschool could cost so much?? I found quite a few that cost as much as one quarter tuition for a public university!! For that much money, Wes better be able to speak and write Mandarin Chinese after a year.

I don't have anything more to say and I haven't gotten the pictures off my camera onto the computer, so I can't post those yet. I just wanted to wish you a happy new year!!

Oh yeah - the Cabbage Patch Doll we got Wes for Christmas is now in the extra bedroom - and still in the box. I guess maybe we'll save it for his "baby sisser" (which is Wesley-talk for baby sister).

Christmas recap

WOW! The last week for us has been busy, busy, busy! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My Grandparents are in from Florida, we had to finish Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts, and of course, we work full-time. I absolutely love Christmas, but I am not too sad to see it pass. I am already excited for Christmas next year, but I'm ready to get the house cleared and life back to "normal" (whatever that is).

So much for not playing up Santa too much - the kid is sold. He cannot get enough of the guy in the big red suit. I realize now that if we're going all out, then I should have used the "Santa is watching" line much earlier in the year. Damon is still trying to use it and Christmas is over! Damon and I have also decided that next year we'll pack up toys we no longer need for Santa to take with him. We have so many toys now that I honestly don't know where to put all of it!! I can only imagine how crowded we would have been in our old house that is half the size of our current home...

My friend Jessica came up with a great idea that we used this year...we all got together for a toy exchange. Everyone brought at least five toys and we took turns picking out toys. It would have worked better if we had more moms with children of varying ages (our kids are close in age), but otherwise it was awesome!! I was able to get a lot of toys that Wes was excited to get for Christmas. I'm not ashamed to give him used toys (and neither is Santa)!!

Wes is eating fabulously!! He continues to eat more and is chewing more consistently all the time. We've been feeding Wes small bites, but he just swallows them whole and sometimes (well, usually) gags. Amazingly when he's fed larger bites, it forces him to chew and he doesn't gag at all. Wes hasn't been to feeding therapy in over 6 weeks, and I'm not sure that we really need to go anymore. He won't eat in front of the therapist and since he's making such progress at home, I just don't know that there is a need. I'll probably call the dietician in the next two weeks to see if we can cut back on the g-tube feedings. On days when Damon and I are home all day, he usually only gets a can of Pediasure anyway. I'm sure we could just feed him a can of yogurt to get the same calorie content in.

I know I have more say, but I'm heading to bed. I just wanted to post an update because my Grandma checks every day and she asked me to post more often :)

Happy New Year!

Staci

Wesley tearing into his first present (I love his little tongue sticking out)

one of our Christmas trees (we have two up and we purchased two more for next year)

I thought that Wesley might like a Cabbage Patch Doll - I was wrong. I do like the "are you kidding me?" look  :)

It's so tough to wait for your turn to open gifts when you're two years old!!

Wesley with his cousin Lillie and his Great Grandma and Great Pawpaw

everyone on my Dad's side of the family

just the three of us

Wesley with his Uncle Scott

the family (us, my parents, my brother)

update and boring talk about the weather

The breakfast with Santa went well. Wesley could hardly hold in his excitement as we waited for Santa to arrive. Of course Wesley didn't stop moving long enough for me to get a good picture (even with the sport setting on the camera). We did a little shopping after breakfast, then came home for Wes to nap. When he woke up, he asked if we were going to eat dinner with Santa too. Well no, that's not quite how this works. Or maybe it is because he ate dinner with me and Damon...

Wesley and Daddy at the breakfast

Wesley hugging his Daddy

I just like this picture

I think my Aunt Donna said it best when she said that Wes looks like a politician in this picture. I have to wholeheartedly agree :)

Wesley couldn't stop waving to Santa

Much different than last year's Santa picture...

the three of us

Wesley is now eating dinner with us in restaurants!!! We went to O'Charley's last Friday night, and Wes ate all of his children's macaroni and cheese. The trouble is that I am not sure that most restaurants serve much variety in terms of children's foods that he can eat at this point. I also realized that we are again going to need to cut back on eating out because it's expensive when you have a child who eats! Who knew?

The weather here in Ohio is FREEZING!! Last night when I went to bed (around midnight), the temperature was -12 degrees with the wind chill. It's weather like this that makes me want to stay inside ALL the time and never leave. I think that I really mean it makes it harder for me to leave the house, but not impossible. Anyone with a very active almost three year-old knows that you cannot stay home for days at a time without the possibility of losing your mind or becoming temporarily insane. Before we had Wesley, I could have stayed home just snuggled on the sofa reading a book for days at a time, but now we get out at least once a day. Last winter when we had an ice storm, the three of us were stuck in our house for a day and a half - the stress was palpable in this house. I have to add also that this was before Wesley realized that he liked television so much, which may have made the time inside easier on us all.

But anyway...the weather is just cold and windy, no real snowfall. We did have snow on Monday morning, but Wesley told me it wasn't snow it was rain. My bad...(even though it really was snow). I always think that I want snow until it really happens. So right now I am thinking that we should at least have snow with the chilly weather.

I'm heading to bed now because I am even boring myself to sleep talking about the weather. Guess that's what happens when you are in your thirties :)

Staci

talk about the jolly guy in the red suit

Tomorrow is the big breakfast with Santa! Wesley has been excited to see Santa this year, but I don't know that he "gets" the whole Christmas theme. Which leads me to something my girlfiends and I were discussing tonight...what is the best way to handle the role of Santa in Christmas? I want him to know that Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus but at the same time I know how exciting it is to think about Santa bringing gifts on Christmas morning. Its a little tough because all of our friends are handling the situation differently, so when the kids are all old enough to talk to each other more, they'll be able to put the pieces together. What's a parent to do? We could definitely use some advice!!

I could really use prayers regarding my work lately. It's a difficult time right now for my employer, so to say that the situation is hostile might be an understatement...I am just struggling to conduct myself in an honest and upright manner befiting a Christian. Others are saying many things that are not true and trying to destroy the reputation of many hardworking, wonderful people. Please just pray that those spreadsing mistruths are exposed and those of us working for a cause will stay strong and keep our sense of humor. I am not sure I can say much more than that.

Thank you!!!

Staci

family picture for Thanksgiving (better than the previous one I posted)

Wesley LOVED jumping off the trailer. He would jump off and climb right back on to do it again.