Haircuts and what-not

I had intended on blogging long ago. There is indeed still a lot going on. Does the picture to the left summarize it?

Some updates.
Todd made it back from his trip, he had a great time. No work trips planned anytime soon for him. Yay!

I had an appointment with the surgeon this week. What I was hoping would be an easy surgery on an outpatient basis, turned into the planning for a 4-5 day inpatient stay. Sounds like this surgery will be quite the adventure for these hernias. I have to get them done. The pain is more and more, and with the pubic symphysis bone being so close to the hernias, they can very easily get pinched and that would be an emergency. I need to talk to the scheduler this week. I think he is going to have me do another CT scan, and asked me to schedule as soon as possible to avoid any small bowel damage related to the location. Super. However, he said the recurrence rate of the hernias with the mesh placement (I need synthetic mesh placed in my abdominal wall as well) is about 10%. That is good news. I am taking it one day at a time. For some reason, I am a bit worried about this surgery. Perhaps because he said it is one of the most painful surgeries that he does. Can’t wait.
Owen is doing very well. I think he is saying “ball” now. Most of his words are “dirwwt” (which sounds like a little English accented toddler saying “dirt”). He also says “dutch”…. No idea what that is. He likes to yell when he gets outside to hear himself echo and he still thinks barking at the dogs is really fun. It seems like he has been teething for months, but he is getting his molars. He walks very well, and can out and out run at times when he doesn’t want to get caught. He is adapting to his shoes well, and when outside for wagon rides is now starting to want to walk instead to ride.

Lilly the princess… She is still quite the eater. We have cut out all formula during the day, they only get 2 bottles…. One before the afternoon nap and one with 2 oz of formula along with whole milk before bedtime. By the end of the month, we will be done with formula. She is doing fine with that, and so is Owen. She likes sitting on the dinosaur we have, she should be pushing it instead. She still is not walking. She has been holding on and cruising around furniture etc, for months now. We do have physical therapists in the house weekly for Grey, and we are just working with her the way we work with him. I think it is a confidence thing. The therapist seems to think the same. We are going to push her a bit harder for a few weeks and see how she does. Her new thing is taking off all her clothes and her diaper in her crib. Lillian may have to wear a onesie until she is 3. She has quite the personality!

Grey has lots of things going on in the near future. He has his eye muscle surgery on Friday Sept 23rd. It’s coming up so soon. That is an outpatient surgery that we should see instant results. Very happy when we have that behind us. He is also progressively eating better. He is trying new things, and taking more bites of them all. We are going to a feeding clinic in Fishers called Feeding Friends. He is doing well with it, and my goal is before Christmas, we will have him eating and also walking. He will likely keep the feeding tube just in case until spring. That is pretty common. He is pulling himself up, and cruising as well as Lillian is. They both are pushing toys all over. Grey is improving very quickly. We went to the developmental peds doctor at Riley last week. Dr. Brei is his name. Great doctor. Seems like they are never really full of reassurance when you go, however this time, he said, “If you would have told me that Grey would look like this today, 6 months ago, I would not have believed this. ‘’ He then said that we should pat ourselves on the back for what we have done for him, and as well as how hard he has worked. Dr. Brei told me to make sure we keep up the good work, and as soon as he has better oral coordination he will be ready to wean off his feeding tube. AMEN! He is very verbal now a days. He wants to be heard! I think he still likes growling more than anything though.
Fall is coming. I love fall. I cannot wait for frost though. Ragweed season has been overwhelming this year! We are still debating on Halloween costumes. I think I have convinced Todd to do a “themed” Halloween, since our days of being able to actually pick their costumes and coordinate them are limited. We hired a cleaning lady. Her name is Angel. It is fitting! We have to cancel our trip to Orlando for mid October. It isn’t going to work with my surgery.

Jasmine’s leg is feeling better. She is back to jumping over the couch. Unfortunately, I think she has a UTI. To the vet we go on Monday.

The kids got their hair cut at Cookie Cutters this week. It was as painless as it could be.

Owen didn't mind the haircut, unless she touched his ear.

Lilly is concerned.

Grey tolerated it all.