Monday Memories

July 2007-Starting when Zach was 9 months old, he would average a viral infection once every three months. His throat would be sore and inflamed but since it was viral, it just had to run its course. He would be miserable for days with fever and not be able to eat and drink well. Even when he wasn't sick, we could tell his breathing seemed to be obstructed, especially at night. He would snore constantly and his chest would sink in...it definitely didn't look right to us. Coupled with having extremely large tonsils (you could hear how big they were just by listening to him talk...and the dentist exclaimed "they are golfball size!"), the poor kid needed some help!

Although we had x-rays done when he was 2, which confirmed that his adenoids were large as well (just an fyi because I didn't know either, the adenoids are located up the throat near the nose and because his were enlarged, it caused his snoring and breathing issues), the doctor did not recommend surgery until after 3....apparently children can't handle the surgery well any younger than that. So, Zach suffered for another year with viral infections and finally, last summer, we scheduled his surgery for July 16th. We, of course, were nervous and our hearts broke as he cried when they wheeled him to surgery...I even had second thoughts that maybe we shouldn't have done this...but thankfully, the surgery was faster than expected and the doctor said everything was pretty easy to remove. When they brought him to us after he woke up, he was so pitiful, he was crying and confused. It was definitely not a fun process.

They told us it could be up to two weeks before he could eat anything and that he would definitely be in pain around 8-10 days after the surgery when the wounds started to scab over. Well, that evening, before we left the hospital, Zach ate two huge pancakes!! What a relief it was for us that he didn't seem to have any trouble eating!
He was fine for the next week but sure enough, around the 8-10 day mark, we experienced several nights of misery. Zach would wake up in the middle of night screaming in pain and not wanting to take medicine...it was awful! Thankfully, he was fine during the day and two weeks after the surgery, he was completely normal. Even his voice sounded different and his breathing was better and no more snoring! Jeff and I both agreed that the surgery was the best thing we ever did for him...and he hasn't had a viral infection since!

Popsicles for breakfast (because he couldn't eat anything before surgery)...sister got to have a treat too!

Coloring in the waiting room

Putting on his gown...sweet thing still has no idea what's to come, he just knows the doctor is going to fix his throat.

He got a sticker for letting the nurse see how "big his muscles were" (blood pressure).

Coloring again, waiting to be taken back to surgery...they gave him "goofy juice" which was supposed to make him loopy and not care when they took him away to surgery...it didn't seem to work, we think he might have been immune :)

Post-op recovery...he just wanted to be held...and hold his glove balloon.

At Scottish Rite, they have wagons for the kids to take trips around the hospital to get out of their rooms for awhile. Even though this was a nice feature, we couldn't help but think about the children and their families who had to endure longer hospital stays for more serious illnesses...God has blessed us with healthy children and we do not take it for granted.

There is a koi pond at the hospital that Zach enjoyed on his wagon trip.

Getting ready to go home, we got him a special toy car at the gift shop and the nurse gave him some stickers. He was finally acting like our Zach at this point...definitely feeling better.

Zach's first T-ball practice

Zach had his first T-ball practice today. His team is called the IronBirds. I'm an assistant coach on the team, and I think I probably had as much fun as Zach did today. He did really well, and paid attention to everything coach Tim said. His cousin Jackson is also on the team, and Uncle Jason is an assistant coach too... so that definately helped in the moral support department. So here's to a successful seaon...

"IronBirds Ready?".......... "READY!!!"

Renee up to her old tricks...

... this time at the beach!

Not to rub it in or anything...

... but we are having a great time at the beach this week! The weather has been great, and we are having a blast. We will do a full-fledged post when we get back... but here are a few fun pics in the meantime...

Renee is working on some skilz of her own...

We are trying everything to get Renee to stop this new dangerous activity... Every time I come in the room, she leaps off of the top of her door into my arms... She IS getting very good at it, but still... it's probably not something she should be doing.

What can I say... Ava has skilz

Monday Memories...better late than never :)

August 2007-In honor of our trip next week, here are some memories from last August in Destin, Florida! The kids are all a year older now and all of them can swim without assistance (as long as they have lifevests or waterwings on) except Renee of course...this is her first trip to the beach!! We can't wait to hit the road and of course, we will take millions of pictures!

Let's Dance!

Yesterday was Ava's first day of dance class! She was so excited and so happy to put on her tights, leotard, skirt (for twirling of course) and ballet shoes. We headed over to my brother's house to pick up Ana and Aunt Steph to ride to class together. The girls were so cute when we changed them into their dance clothes, we had to go all paparazzi on them! We took a billion pictures before we left!
We were the first ones there so it gave both Ana and Ava a moment to meet their teacher, Ms. Maria, and begin to get comfortable with her. When Ms. Maria welcomed everyone into class, Ava went right on in without looking back! I was so glad! Then, the mom's went to the special "Mommy room" where we watched the girls on a tv screen. It was just so sweet watching Ava listen and follow directions and she had the time of her life! She got to do "butterflies", "put peanut butter and jelly on her feet", "ride ponies", "dust the room" and other fun things! Her friend Addie was there and they were so cute holding hands and dancing together!
Ava couldn't stop talking about dance class when we got home and enjoyed showing Daddy the fun dance moves she learned. She said she didn't get to twirl around though but I assured her she would be able to soon :)
Our girl is growing up!

Posing queen!

Ana looks like a dancer with those hands :)

New 5k PR... 20:26

I ran in the Dog Days 5k this past Saturday in Marietta. The weather was perfect, and I was able to set a new 5k pr time of 20:26. I also got my first "trophy" for finishing in 2nd place in my age group (30 - 34... man I'm getting old!). I got 15th place overall... it would have been 13th, but on the home stretch, these two young whippersnappers came charging up behind me as fast as they could. I tried to keep up with them, but my tired old bones just couldn't do it. The picture below perfectly captures my amusement at being blown away at the end... a little humble pie.

Five days and counting...

... until we go to the beach. We are heading down to Destin with Jen's Mom and her brother and his wife and kids. This will be our fifth beach trip together, and it is becoming sort of a tradition. Being in the "beach mood" now... I put together an abridged version of the movie from last year's beach trip. It is still a little long... but if you've got nothing better to do, you might enjoy watching it. We are going to be staying in the same complex this year that is shown in the video, a very kid friendly place with lots of fun water stuff...

A Long Time Ago...

The new Star Wars movie comes out in a couple weeks. I'm going to take Zach for his first full length feature film experience. In honor of this momentous occasion, here is a clip just to prove that Daddy has his teaching priorities straight early on...

Dancing Queen... and King...

Ava starts her first dance class this Monday at Woodstock Baptist. In honor of that, we dug into the archives to pull out a couple of Zach and Ava's greatest dancing hits.

Birthday Bash

We celebrated Zach's 4th birthday on Saturday. All of our peeps came over and we played in the backyard on the new playground and also had some water fun... filling up swimming pools with water turned into spraying down the playground for a homemade water slide. All the kids (and some adults) had a blast. There was pirate cake, pirate treasure, pirate swords, pirate pizza, pirate presents, and why didn't the mom let her son go see the pirate movie... er... never mind.

Some presents of note (according to Zach):
- Storm trooper costume
- Not one, but two storm trooper blasters
- Two cowboy guns (with holster included)
- Braves jersey with his name on the back (which we used that night at the Braves game)
- Lego Star Wars video game

Happy birthday Zach, the older you get, the more Daddy enjoys playing with your presents... I'm really looking forward to next year... when does the next XBox system come out?