Catching Up!!

Some of you are my FB friends and have seen things that have been posted. I figured it was time to actually get an update together on all things Cooper!

Bennett got his cast off 3 weeks ago. Yea! However, he is still on complete restriction. Ugh! He feels perfectly fine so this is proving to be quite the challenge with him. He came running in the living room this week and did a handstand and a cartwheel before I could stop him. I am guessing that means that his arm doesn’t bother him a bit anymore. He is becoming quite the 7-year old. He is starting to get a little attitude! He has had to move his color at school a couple of times so last night resulted in him having to write 25 sentences…and it didn’t really phase him. I am hoping once he gets clearance to go to recess and play soccer again that he will have an outlet for his energy. He literally can’t sit still and I think a lot of it is due to the fact that he just can’t release it right now. Craig took him back to the dermatologist last week. His wart isn’t getting any better and we discovered that he has sweaty palms. This is causing the wart to be slow in the removal process. We got a prescription for a compounded cream and it is already making a difference! And, they told us that we might have to eventually treat the sweaty palms…..

Maggie is still such a sweetheart. Her 4-month (AHHHH! How can she possibly be that old already??) was Wednesday. She weighed 13.4 pounds (45%tile). I can’t remember what her height was but she was in the 75%tile. She is my tallest kiddo!! She has consistently been tall. She had her first bite of cereal last night and didn’t know what to think. Most of it came back out of her mouth! She is laid back and such a smiley girl. She is so close to rolling over….that darn arm just gets in her way!

And then we have Grace….as some of you know, we have been battling sickness since the beginning of December. She has had fever off and on, the elevated heart rate, and low sat levels. No one could really pinpoint what was going on with her. Lungs sound clear, x-rays look fine, etc. Last week was a rough week with her being sick. She started running fever on Saturday night. We went to the doctor last Monday and got diagnosed with “the crud”. She still had fever on Tuesday and it finally broke on Wednesday morning. She seemed to be feeling better. This week brought more of the same. She woke up on Monday looking very blue. We made an appointment with Dr. Prestidge on Monday. Her sats were in the high 60’s when we got there. He gave her steroids and breathing treatments. He wanted to see her back so we went back to Dallas on Wednesday. Her sats were in the low 80’s. Dr. P said he wanted to contact the pulmonologist and bounce things off of him. In talking with him and Dr. Thomas (cardio) we think there is something going on with the transfer of gases in her lungs. Last night, she threw up 3 times and then started running 102 fever again. It is so sad to see her like that. So, we went back to the pediatrician today. (That is the 3rd time this week!!) Dr. P was out, but we talked to him on the phone. Dr. F didn’t really have any explanations to the fever – because she had no fever once they got to the office! Her sats were 80 and Craig said she was bouncing off the walls. The plan is to get into the pulmonologist early next week to see what is going on with her lungs. We are glad that we are finally getting some leads on what to check because it has been very frustrating not knowing what is going on with her.

Whew. That should catch everyone back up! We would appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts that we can find out exactly what is going on with our girl.

2 Weeks.....

We just got back from a pre-op check up with our pediatrician.  Gracie weighed in at 27 pounds (shoes and clothes).  We haven't seen Dr. P since she had the flu in February.  He walked in, looked at her, and said, "This is the best I have ever seen her look!"  I agree - makes it harder to take her to the hospital.  He thumbed through her charts and said, "Man, this kid has come a long way, hasn't she?"  Ears, throat, lungs, etc all looked great.  He said that he wanted to come by the hospital to check in on her.

So, here we go....  2 weeks from tomorrow.  Ugh.  My stomach is getting more and more nervous.  We have our heart cath next week to measure all of her pressures in her heart.

Start saying those prayers!

Kindergarten Graduation

My son is officially a first grader!  I am a little sad, because he is getting so big.  Here are some pictures and videos from his ceremony.

Minute to Win It

Bennett and Grace love to watch the show Minute to Win It.  It is one of their favorite shows.  Bennett - my creative child - loves to create games and try to "win."  (He also created a Wipeout course....but that is a whole different story....)


Here is the course and their "completion" of it....

A Conversation with Grace

A night time conversation with Grace...

Fun in the Mud

We went to the farm for Craig's birthday. (This is Craig's parent house)  They have a couple of hundred acres.  It rained all weekend.  Bennett, my little water bug, was very encouraged by D-Daddy to go check out the mud pit.  You can see what happened.....

Healthy heart!

We got some terrific news on Wednesday!! Baby Cooper has a 4-chambered heart!!! We saw the ECHO tech at Dr. Thomas' office. It was still a little early to check, but we could see everything except the pulmonary artery clearly. However, Dr. Thomas said that based on the blood flow through the ductal arch that it looks as if there are no problems!! Hooray!! We will set another appointment in a month just to look at the pulmonary artery to be sure. It will also be time for the sonogram at the OB/GYN office so we will get to see baby lots next month!!


Bennett and Gracie are getting more and more excited. B wants to feel the baby moving. Hopefully baby will cooperate at some point before it is born.

We have all been relatively healthy...with the exception of pink eye that Gracie caught....gave to Craig....who in turn gave it to Bennett.....who had a terrible case! Grace and Craig's eye cleared up so quickly, but B's has really hung around.

Our friend, Karen aka Jozzy, came to visit us the last weekend of March. She was running the half marathon. The kids were beside themselves to see her....which turned to pure estatic glee when we pulled into the parking lot of Great Wolf Lodge to spend the night! They ask to go there all of the time. We got a gift card 2 Christmas's ago and we have been saving it. Lots of time at the water park....Gracie must have gone down the blue slide 976 times. She would get cold....we would take her to the hot tub to warm up....and then she would be off to the slide again. B's highlight was defeating the dragon playing MagiQuest. He had a wand and had to solve several puzzles to collect all of the runes. Then, we headed down to become a Master Magi and defeat the dragon. Homeboy was all kinds of proud of himself.

We are all still doing well. Times are tough in education right now, but thankfully I have a job for next year. Kids are doing well in school. Craig is staying busy with work. Everybody feels good.

B has been in soccer overdrive. He plays on a rec team. He got invited to join a club team with his kindergarten teacher. So we have soccer camp on Monday, practice on Weds for rec, practice on Fridays (that last from 1-1 1/2 hours) for club, and games on Saturday. He says he loves it! Every other night, he and Daddy play soccer in the house. (grrr)

Lu is still loving dance! It is her favorite activity. She is going to be a princess in her recital so she is pumped about that.

Only 2 more months before we begin all the heart stuff again. Ugh. Pulmonology appointment in mid-May. Heart appt in early June. Heart cath on June 22. Pre-op on June 27. Big surgery day is June 28. She tells us all the time that she "is going to be able to run fast after she gets her heart fixed." She definitely gets tired and out of breath easily. She has started showing anyone who will look her zipper. And she loved the fact that Nana had 2 zippers on her knees! (she had double knee replacement) She even showed her zipper to the nurse at the hospital!

Thanks for checking in on us. Drop a line to let us know that you were here!