A Tender Moment!

I was changing Piper's diaper this morning and she reached over and grabbed Oliver's hand. It was so precious! I tried to capture the moment with pictures, but it was so cute to see in person! Piper is such a great big sister to Oliver!!

Another Saturday at Dutch Wonderland!

We went back to Dutch Wonderland on Saturday. The weather was just perfect for spending the day at the park! The children had so much fun! We went to Duke's Cookie Kitchen and each of the children were able to decorate a cookie! They loved it! I can't wait to make holiday cookies with all of them!!!! We rode our favorite rides and enjoyed walking around the park together! We went to the diving show!

We hope to make it back for the special Fall Fun weekends in October. The children really enjoyed wearing their costumes and going trick-or-treating around Duke's Lagoon(the water park)!

Brotherly Love!

Loving Baby Oliver!

Dutch Wonderland Fun!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Dutch Wonderland. We know we won't have many more visits this season! We had a wonderful day!

Some Oliver Cuteness!

Update on Piper!

We went to meet with Piper's cadiologist, Dr. Thacker, on Thursday! Piper's heart looks great! She had a quick echo done to be sure there was no fluid around her heart! Everything looks great with her heart! The plan is still to wait six months to one year to do another catherization on Piper's heart. Once the cath is done we will find out what the next step will be regarding Piper's heart! There is a slight chance they won't be able to do fix her heart, but there are other surgery options that can be done. We will cross that bridge when we get there!

Our biggest concern is still Piper's swallowing issue. Piper will be starting feeding therapy either this Wednesday or next Wednesday! We are hoping to get this issue figured out so Piper will be able to drink on her own! Say a little prayer for Piper that the doctors can figure out what the problem is with Piper's swallowing and we can figure out how to fix it!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Piper's First Post-Op Appointment!

Today Piper, Oliver, and I went to the hospital for her first post-op appointment! Piper had a chest x-ray and an EKG done! Her chest x-ray was clear and her EKG looked great! Then, I met with Dr. Davies (the other cardiac surgeon at A.I. Dupont Children's Hospital)! He took out the last few stitches in Piper's chest and said Piper was doing well! Piper did have a slight fever today, but Dr. Davies wasn't worried. Piper has a little cold and that could be responsible for her slight fever! We will just keep an eye on her temperature. We don't want her to get sick and end up in the hospital! We are so happy that Piper is healing so well! She is one strong little girl!

We are still worried about her swallowing issue! I spoke to another feeding specialist today. She suggested we come in for a feeding evaluation and maybe some feeding therapy! She think it may help to teach her to swallow thicker liquids! At this point, we are willing to do anything to help our little princess. Right now we are still syringe feeding her liquids a little bit at a time or we are pinching a straw to reduce the flow of the thin liquid that she is drinking. Dr. Davies did say there is a procedure the ENT can do to help her vocal fold paresis. He said it was some kind of an injection that will help close the hole. He explained that her nerve that works her vocal fold was probably cut during the surgery in China. He said usually the nerve is stretched during the surgery and will function normally in two to three months. Unfortunately, since Piper never regained the ability to swallow thin liquids without coughing after her initial surgeyr in China, she will probably never be able to swallow normally. We just have to figure out the best plan for her now and in the future!

Happy Piper!

We are starting to see some of the old Piper! She was so much happier today! We are working on the drinking and swallowing issue and we are making some progress! She is eating like crazy! They told us that once this surgery was over she would start to put on weight! We have never seen her eat so much!! We can't wait until our little princess is feeling like her old self again! We miss her singing and dancing around the house!!!

Parker's First Day of Preschool!

Parker was so excited to finally be going to school like his big sister and big borther. He has been talking about going to "pschool" for weeks now! I hope preschool is ready for our little man because he certainly is ready for preschool! He did a great job at school today! We are so proud of him!

Graham's First Day of Pre-K!

Today was Graham's first day of school! He was being difficult when I was trying to take his picture this morning! He did a great job at school today! This is the first year he did not cry when I left him at school! Our little man is growing up!!!

Happy Birthday Sophia and Graham!

Here are pictures from our birthday celebration at home with the birthday girl and boy! I am a little late posting the pictures from September 1st! This was our first night home as a family of seven!

Happy 4th Birthday Graham!

Four years today I became a mother for the first time! I was so in love with you from the moment I found out I was pregnant with you! I longed for your for years and when you finally arrived I was in awe. How could I have created something so perfect! This has been a big year for you! You gave us a scare when you were diagnosed with cancer in April. We were so glad to hear that you were cancer free, but those few weeks w

ere the scariest weeks of our life! You became a big brother twice this year! You have the kindest heart and are always willing to help out! You don't like when things are different and there are any changes to our routine! You are a rule follower and like things to be just right! You always let me know when Sophia or Parker are not following the rules! You like things to be consistent! This year you have had to overcome many changes in your life! We are so proud of the little man you have become! Your love of cars has continued this year! You loved seeing your first movie, Cars 2, with your Daddy and Sophia at the movie theater! You also love to name all of the tractor trailers we pass when driving places. You can name every tractor trailer by name as they pass us by while driving! We love you more and more each day! We are very blessed to have you as our son! We love you Graham Henry! Happy 4th Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday Sophia!!!!

How can our little girl already be five? We loved you before we even knew who

you were and as soon as we saw your picture we knew you were our Sophia! I will never forget the first time I saw your beautiful little face looking back at me! We have loved getting to know you and watching you grow! You have been through so much in your short life! You are strong willed and a very determined little lady! There is nothing you can't do when you put your mind to it! You are one smart little girl! You love to learn new things! You love kindergarten and your new teachers! You are making new friends and missing your old friends! Your brothers and sister adore you! They look up to you and love playing with you! You are the best big sister most of the time, but sometimes you can be very mean to your brothers and sister! You have helped make me a better person because I am your mother! You have taught me things about myself that I would have never known if you weren't my little girl. You challenge me to be a better mother! We love you so much and can't imagine our family without you!

Update on Piper!

We have had many people ask us how Piper is doing! We had four days to be home as a family of seven. Overall, it went pretty well considering I am still exhausted and I am sure Erik is just as tired.

Piper came home on Thursday afternoon! Erik was so happy to finally be out of the hospital! He really did all the work with this hospital stay! He is such a wonderful father to our children! Piper did really well healing from her open heart surgery. We just have to be careful that no one knocks her over to prevent damage to her chest. We have to be careful when we pick her up so we don't hurt her incision. We have to pick her up from her bottom. She We certainly don't want to end up back in the hospital!

The only really problem we have now is her swallowing issue! Piper has always had a cough every time she drank a liquid. She was okay with some liquids, but most of the time she would cough when she drank something. We were always concerned about this and brought up our concerns to every doctor we met with about Piper. We had an upper GI study done as well as an esophagram, but nothing showed up that would explain what was causing this problem. While Piper was in the hospital, she had a swallowing study done. We found out she had vocal fold paresis. That basically means that her vocal fold is not closing all the way and thin liquids are going into her lungs instead of down her throat. We were told that from the swallowing study she can swallow honey like consistency liquids with no problems. We were told that about 10% of any thin liquid she is drinking is going to her lungs. The problem with that is the fluid in her lungs can cause pneumonia and she could end up back into the hospital. We were given something called thick it to add to her liquids. However, she won't drink it. So, Erik pretty much used a syringe to feed her all liquids for the past four days. Tomorrow I am on my own. I hope it all goes well!