Deep Thoughts by Olivia Cowan

Okay, for all you SNL fans out there, some of my favorite skits were the "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey". Well, Miss Olivia regularly comes up with some quality material SNL could use, but yesterday I could hardly contain my laughter. We were driving home from the store and this is how it went...

Olivia: Mom, you know why God made hills?

Me: No, why did God make hills....

Olivia: Well, since He made the earth round, the people on the sides have to use the hills so they don't fall off and get hurt!

She was so serious that I couldn't laugh out loud, but I was dying inside.

Fun at Home

Well, we are loving the new house! We've been in now for two weeks, and it totally feels like home. There are so many things we didn't realize were going to enjoy as much as we do. For example, our living room had french doors which face due west. I was really worried about this because I thought the evening sun would make the living room so hot...however, the trees shade the sun AND we are treated to a beautiful sunset every evening. It's just one of the many things were love about it. Here is a picture I took this evening.

David's been traveling quite a bit lately so we've had to find entertainment else where. This is a video of the kids playing in the living room. I just caught the tail end of it, but Reece was teasing Olivia by making her think he was going to kiss her and she was acting like she didn't want him to. I'm so glad they play so well together.

We're In...

Okay, sorry it's been SO long since my last post. It took a few days to get things to a point where I could "get" to my computer and set it up. We closed on the house last Friday 8-8-08 and moved in over the weekend. We could NOT have done it without the help of Felix and David's brother John and Angela. Also, thanks to Granzie and Grandad for watching the kids for us. I would seriously be bald by now if we had moved with them at the house all day.

Everything is going great so far...only a few minor issues. I can't tell you how thankful I am to have all this room! After being in that apartment for almost 3 months. Reece just marches all over the house and I don't have to follow him around everywhere since I've been able to child-proof the house. Olivia has already had several bike rides and she is so glad to have her outside toys back. Our highlight so far has been the snake we found who was EATING a frog last night. Hmmm, not so sure we'll be going in the yard without shoes....ever!

Here are a couple of pics of the place just before we moved in. I'll need to do a little decorating before I do any new pics. Right now, we're still in the phase of trying to remember where we put stuff.

Kitchen

Living Room
Master Bedroom
Backyard

Port Surgery

We met with our wonderful Hematologist today and we were all in agreement that Reece will have his port surgery sometime early September. Since he has had two joint bleeds in the last 6 weeks she thinks we should also come in to their office (starting Thur) for factor treatments until the surgery. This will hopefully better our odds in preventing another bleed before we can get him on prophylaxis.

For the surgery, he will need to spend 3 nights there, then I can't remember, but I think she said we come back everyday for awhile, then every other until everyone is satisfied that mom and dad are okay doing the injections at home. I'm still a little gray on the particulars, but she did say that there are about 10 days where we will be submerged in this. She told us a couple horror stories on kids who had complications during or after surgery, but the benefits to doing this far out weigh the small percent of negatives. We are going to schedule a consultation with the surgeon asap, and hopefully set up his surgery for early September. Stay tuned for more details.

Another Trip to the ER

Well, last night we had another trip to the ER. This time I knew without a doubt what it was another ankle bleed. The moment Reece woke up from his nap yesterday he was crying frantically. He also screamed when I set him down in my lap and his foot was tucked under the other leg. So, I did all the tests...tried to see if he would put weight on that leg, which he wouldn't. Also tried flexing his foot up towards his knee, and he was super sensitive to it. Luckily, his ankle wasn't hot to the touch yet, and the swelling hadn't started either, so I knew it was early. True to form though, it was 4:15 on Friday and I knew I couldn't get to the doc office in Austin before 5, so they sent us to the ER. This time though, our experience could not have been better. I have a card (similar to a credit card) that the ER staff gave me last time which allows us to bypass registration. They were so on top of things, that we didn't even go into the waiting room. We went right into our exam room and met with the doc. and nurses. Our Hematologist suggested that we give him a larger dose of 500ml this time since it was the same ankle as before that we had to do two 250ml treatments before it got better. Thankfully, our wonderful nurse Brian found the vein first stick with little "searching". Olivia was along again, and she was such a big girl. She wanted to be on the bed rubbing his foot while they were sticking him. She was loving on him and telling him what a big boy he was. I was so proud of her. It also helped that our nurse gave Olivia the syringe (minus the needle) and told her to try and shoot the saline left in there up to the ceiling. They were best pals after that for sure! We checked-in at 5 and were out by 8. That was a little long for me, but over all it was a good experience. Poor David was again on a business trip in B.F.E. Arkansas so he missed out on the action. However, this time, I felt totally in control and it went very smoothly.

We already had a meeting scheduled with our Hematologist for this Tuesday to discuss how soon to have the port surgery....I'm thinking now she is not going to want us to wait. I'm just hoping that we can at least wait until after August when David's travel won't be as bad. I can't imagine holding Reece down alone and giving him shots w/o David there. We will have an update after our meeting. We are also moving this Friday....YEAH!! I'm ready to be out of this (shoe box) I'm mean apartment ASAP! Here are a couple of pics I took with my phone of Reece at the hospital. He was such a trooper!!