Fun and not so fun

So this is Scott writing. I just thought I'd start out with that because I actually haven't posted in months. I got bored of the whole blogging thing. So Becca has been posting all Summer. But I decided to add in my two cents to what's been going on in our lives. Let's see, where to start, where to start? We'll start off with the best part of the summer: Vacation of course.

So we went down to the Outer Banks in N.C. For all of you who don't know that is where Kittyhawk is. (Where the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane.) We were just a few minutes away from there. As you probably saw from the pictures Becca posted we spent most of our time at the beach. The place we rented was right on the beach. Literally!! It was pretty awesome. Take a look at a picture I took from the balcony:

Jade and Becs mostly just chilled on the beach. Cody and I enjoy a little more active pursuits. The waves were really big some of the days we were there because of the storms to the south of us. This made it perfect for surfing on the waves in the kayak and doing some boogie boarding. Even Cody took his turn.

Surfing the waves in a kayak is tons of fun. It's really easy to catch the wave because the kayak is so bouyant, the trick is not flipping over. I only flipped the first time. After that, I kind of got the hang of it. Luckily Becs didn't get a picture of me flipping though. We also got to chase crabs around the beach and go to the Aquarium.

We've also done a lot of other fun things this summer. We have a season pass to the zoo, so we've gone there several times. Cody loves animals. They have a trick-or-treat thing at the zoo in a few weekends, and we're thinking of going. Of course, we've also been camping quite a few times. We've tried out a couple of new places this summer. It's always nice to get a way for a few days. We even went to the Deleware Water Gap with the Barlows. Luckily they brought a camera so we could get a few pictures. Here we are at Dingman's Falls. There are alot of waterfalls around there that we went hiking to.

Cody giving a nice pose. He's going to be model when he grows up.

Jade looking cute!

A couple of bears hiding in a cave we found while hiking.

I also got to go river rafting down the Lehigh river a few weekends ago with some family. It was a lot of fun. I was elected to be the captain and steer the boat. I turn into a little bit of a different person when I'm on the river. I was really bossy. That's a warning for anyone who goes on the river with me in the future. Be prepared to sit down, shut up, and paddle hard. J/K. Here's a picture of us when we got done. See, everyone looks happy.

The rest of our time this summer was spent at the hospital or doctor's appointments. Seriously. I'm not even kidding. I created this spreadsheet to keep track of our doctors and medical expenses because it is too hard to remember them all. We see doctors or go to the hospital probably 2-3 times per week. And let's not get started on the medications my family is taking. Crazy. Of course, I can't take credit for it. Becca is the one who does it all. I just go to work every day. But seriously, I'm the only healthy one in the family. Becca is going to a doctor to figure out her high blood pressure problem, and has to take daily pills. Cody sees the doctor about his low growth hormone levels, and we have to give him shots nightly. Because of Jade's Prader Willi Syndrome, she sees the most doctor's. She sees a physical therapist weekly, pediatrician every three weeks, her feeding therapist monthly, a physiatrist every three to four months, endocrinoligist every six months, neonatoligist and geneticist and neurologist yearly. Plus anything else that comes up along the way, such as when Becca and Cody and Jade all got Hand, Mouth, Foot disease.

Wow that sounded depressing. If you want you can go back and read the above paragraph using Eeyore's voice.

We've actually been very blessed though. We've been able to live by family and we live in a really great ward so we always have had a babysitter when we need one. Plus we have been able to do a lot of fun things as a family.

Well, I've got to do a parting shot. Let's see. How about this one:

Better late than Never

I'm finally posting the pics from our week in Nags Head, North Carolina. We had a great time.

Here is Jade at the beginning of the week.

By the end of the week she was just exhausted from all the excitement.

Scott was able to go kayaking right behind our place.

Of course Cody wanted to join in.

Cody got a new boogie board!

Both kids had a blast surfin' the waves.

Ouch!!

We got through it. Cody officially started on growth hormone tonight and we successfully administered it to him. Only approximately 4015 days still to give. We had a registered nurse come to the house tonight to teach us how to give the medicine. Don't worry, it's nothing like the above needle. The length is probably only a centimeter long or so. He woke up from the cold of the alcohol swab and cried a little when I stuck him, but fell back asleep almost immediately after. We figure if by chance he does remember it in the morning we will just tell him that he got a bug bite ; ). So we have become a "clean house". Not really, but we do have our very own sharp container with a bio-hazard sticker and everything. So if you find yourself needing injections you know who to call now.

(On a side note, stay tuned for pics of our week at the Outer Banks!)

Rollie Pollie!

Our little Jade has learned to rollover. This is such a great milestone for her. The video is a little bit dark but you can still see what she is doing. Go JADE!!

Cute Kids

Here are some random pics I took today of my cute kids.

It is almost impossible to get both kids to smile at the same time so I added one extra of Jade to show what a happy baby she is.

Below is Jade's new toy. She absolutely loves it. What a good work-out for her.

Medical Update

I thought I would give a quick medical update on Cody and Jade. Jade first because honestly she is just cruising along. She now weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz. at 7 1/2 months old. Not bad considering her brother was 17 lbs. even when he was 1 year old. The good news about her weight is that they let me slightly decrease her milk intake and increase her baby food. Hopefully that is a good step in the direction of having her feeding tube out. By the end of the month she will start having physical therapy once a week. With this increase hopefully her motor skills will start to show even more improvement. But overall, she is doing wonderfully. It is fun to see her start to come into her own personality and really just be a happy baby.
Cody also had some medical stuff this month. He had some blood work done that showed he was insufficiantly producing his growth hormone, hence his short stature. Anyway, before he can be treated they had to give him a MRI to rule out a brain tumor. So yesturday we headed to The Children's Specialty Hospital in New Brunswick for the MRI. I think the staff thought we were weird for taking pictures, but I did it anyway.

Here is Cody waiting to be taken in.

To administer the anesthesia they were going to use this mask, so they let Cody play with it for a minute so he wouldn't be scared of it. Cody loved it because it smelt like bubble gum.

I held him while he "fell asleep". He was such a good kid. All the technicians kept telling me he was their best patient of the day.

Into the big machine.

This is what he looked like when we got him back.

Overall, he did really well. When he first came out of the anesthesia he was very out of it. He was thrashing and kicking all over and screaming and crying. He almost fell of the bed a few times too. But he was not really awake and quickly fell back asleep again. Then when he woke up the second time he was more like my sweet little guy and didn't remember anything that happened. Hopefully this is our last experience with anesthesia

Tag, you're it!

This is my first tag. I wasn't officially tagged, but I found this on a friends blog and thought it was a cute idea.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses...