The kids and I are waiting for Daddy to finish his race.
The lady on stilts asked Alexa what kind of balloon she wanted. Alexa replied, "A rainbow balloon, please!" The lady said that she couldn't make one of those so Alexa settled on a pink cat instead.
Afterwards, Alexa told me that that lady was really "long!"
Matthew competed in the Giant Eagle Olympic-distance Triathlon this morning. The kids and I were waiting and cheering for him at the finish line.
Matthew and his friend, Andrew, who also competed
One of Matthew's biggest fans
Tysen and Daddy are relaxing at home now after an eventful day.
We are home and the boys are doing great. They both took long naps and then had great appetites. Now you'd never guess that they had surgery today! Matthew went and picked up Alexa this afternoon and she was happy to see her brothers, too. She seemed to understand and gave them lots of hugs. Tysen had a little bit of dried blood in his ear and she noticed that right away. She wanted to get him a band-aid!
Gavin and Tysen had their surgeries today at Children's Hospital.
Aren't these just the cutest little patients that you've ever seen?
Their matching monster pajamas were a gift from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Morse. All the nurses thought they were adorable!
Brother hugs before surgery!
We had to be at the hospital at 5:45am this morning. Gavin's surgery was first. He had bilateral ear tubes inserted, lingual frenectomy (clipping under his tongue), and adenoidectomy. This is the second time that Gavin has had the ear tubes placed. The first time was in February 2010. It's common for children to outgrow the tubes in 6 months to a year and they just fall out. One of Gavin's had fallen out and the other was working its way out and was plugged up so that it wasn't functioning properly. The ENT removed Gavin's adenoid because it was enlarged and partially blocking where the tubes need to drain. The lingual frenectomy was needed because Gavin's tongue had restricted movement and could be contributing to his speech problems.
Daddy is playing with Tysen and trying to distract him from his extreme hunger! Both boys were not allowed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight the night before surgery. Although he looks quite pleasant in these photos, he was rather fussy. He didn't understand why we weren't giving him a bottle!
We are waiting in the pre-op area while Gavin is in surgery. Once Gavin was done, they came directly to get Tysen and took him to surgery in the same operating room. Once they had taken Tysen to surgery, Matthew and I went to our recovery room to wait for Gavin to be delivered to us.
This picture was taken just before Gavin went to surgery. We had to take off their cute matching pajamas and put on the hospital pajamas.
This is Tysen after surgery. The OR nurses said that as soon as he woke up from anesthesia, he was MAD! He was hungry! Unfortunately, they would not let him have milk until he got home. He was allowed to drink clear fluids so he had some apple juice in a bottle. He's never had apple juice, but he drank the whole 8 ounces. You could tell that he really wanted milk instead because he was drinking the juice angrily. He kept grunting at us. (They wouldn't let the kids drink milk after surgery because of the high risk of them vomiting on the car ride home and the choking hazard.)
Gavin was sound asleep when they brought him back to our room. He seemed really peaceful. His hand is wrapped up because they had started an IV there.
He opened his eyes and we asked him if he wanted a drink. He said, "Milk!" We brought him the apple juice and he happily downed it. He kept asking for more. We filled his cup 3 times before he fell asleep with it in his mouth. Gavin was surprisingly very content and did not seem to be uncomfortable at all. He never did fuss or cry. He's just extremely tired. He had more pain medication than Tysen did because he had more procedures done. A side effect of the pain medication is drowsiness or sedation.
Snuggling with Baby Tysen
Before the surgery, we had been told that Gavin was going to be admitted for at least one night for observation. We were relieved when the surgeon discharged both boys. We were able to get home by 12:00 noon!
We are also pleased to share the results of their ABR (auditory brainstem response) hearing tests. We now know for certain that both boys have normal hearing. This is the first time in Tysen's 7 month life that he's been able to hear! We noticed the change right away. In fact, Matthew sneezed and the sound startled Tysen so much that he nearly burst into tears! It's going to take some time before he adjusts to all these new sounds!
On Thursday evening, we went to the Obermire's house. They had offered to watch Alexa while we were taking care of the boys before and after their surgeries. They ordered pizza and we had a pizza party. My friend and co-worker, Carrie, makes these gorgeous cupcakes and she was able to whip some up in short notice for me to take. She came up with the hungry caterpillar idea and it was perfect for the kids. Alexa and Emme started arguing over who got to eat the head, so I decided that Gavin got to eat the red one as his reward for wearing big-boy underwear all day at daycare without an accident (first time- yay!).
The kids table
(Does anyone else remember this from childhood?)
Emme is enjoying the green one!
Yummy!
Maybe all the kids should have gotten a green one! The red was hard to wash off!
After Alexa's gymnastics camp, we went to the Alum Creek beach with our friends Kara and Emme. The kids had so much fun filling the bucket with rocks and sand.
Alexa attended a toddler tumbling camp on Tuesday for 3 year olds. She was so excited. Afterwards, she was exhausted!
Tysen loves Gabbi and Gabbi's pretty fond of him, too.
Tysen suddenly started taking lots of interest in standing this weekend. I swear, this little boy did not stay a baby for near long enough!
There's a pink ghost with 4 cute feet in my living room!
Today there was an event celebrating the 125th anniversary of my hospital. They had lots of fun things for the kids. Alexa and Gavin loved the balloons. Alexa asked for a flower and Gavin picked the monkey.
Another kid favorite was the bounce house. They played so hard and got very sweaty!
There was lots of good food, too. We enjoyed the ice cream. And the best part about the whole day? It was all free!
Here's Gavin's "Monkey on a tree." Unfortunately, it didn't make it out to the car. It was too tempting for him to whack things with it! Pop!
Tysen will be 7 months old tomorrow! He is amazing us everyday with all his new skills. Every time we turn around, he's doing something new! He's been able to sit unassisted for awhile now, but we would have to get him in the right position. He's just now figured out how to go from a crawling position to sitting on his bottom.
I have been making all of Tysen's baby foods. We recently discovered that he loves edamame, just like Alexa and Gavin! I've been slow-cooking vegetables in my crock pot and then blending them up. Then I scoop the vegetables into an ice cube tray and freeze them. Once frozen, I pop out all the cubes into a freezer bag. The cubes are a great serving size for Tysen. He typically eats 3-4 cubes for a meal plus a 6 ounce bottle. I usually make and freeze a month's worth of baby food on a weekend and then it makes it really easy to pack his food for daycare during the week. I make lots of fruit cubes, too, but they are a lot easier because I don't have to cook them first. Here are some of Tysen's favorite foods: edamame, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, yellow squash, fresh green beans, peas, carrots, avocado, strawberries, banana, peach, pear, blue berries, and apples. Actually, come to think of it...I can't think of any food that he doesn't like! Today after church, we went out to eat for breakfast. Daddy fed Tysen his first bites of pancake! He liked it, but he's still trying to figure out how to chew chunks of food. He likes to move it around in his mouth and get it all soggy, and then push it out his mouth instead of swallowing it!
Yesterday we met up with our friends at Easton to play in the water fountains.
Emme's having a blast in the water!
Alexa likes to sit on the water.
I don't even know what to say about this picture! It just makes me laugh! She put her goggles on herself and they are just a little crooked.
Alexa, Gavin, and Emme
Once they were done playing in the water, we changed their clothes and then went to see the trains. Gavin loves trains.
