My Favorite Time of Year!!!

Yep, playoff basketball! GO MAVS!!! Did you think I was going to say spring? I do love spring and the weather that comes with it. I can't tell you how much I love 75 degree weather. Not too hot and not too cold. But, the best thing about spring is playoff basketball. I've loved basketball ever since my grandaddy started taking me to Spurs games as a little girl. Sorry grandaddy, but I'm rooting for the Mavs! I still have my coyote mascot stuffed animal. Even though I'm a Mavericks fan now I can't seem to part ways with it. My basketball roots start in San Antonio.

Enough about my love for basketball. It has been a long time since my last post and I doubt I will be able to update you all on everything that has gone on. We have been busy and I am extremely tired. I think I may be even more sleep deprived now than I was when Pierce was a newborn. I will try to just touch on the highlights of the past 6 or 7 weeks but even then it will be a long post. So, here is the warning: if you aren't that interested in the latest adventures of a 4, 2, and almost 1 year-old then this would be a great place to stop reading. Don't say I didn't' warn you if your done reading and you think "gosh, I just wasted 15 minutes of my life that I'll never get back just now". This post is mainly just for me to look back on because life has been so hectic that I can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. At any rate, I do try to make it fun to read at the off chance someone else reads this.

So, I had to go and read my last post to see where I left off. Since then Emerson has had more blood work, another GI test, and another surgery. There was no cutting during the surgery but they had to put her to sleep again. That makes 3 times this year. She was very brave but you can tell these hospital visits are taking its toll on her. Last Monday they performed an endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and a capsule endoscopy at Children's Dallas. The capsule endoscopy is the latest tool that GI docs have to look for abnormalities. They inserted a capsule that is actually a camera inside her small intestine that then proceeded to take 2 pictures every second for 8 hours as it traveled through the bottom of her GI tract. We are hoping to get those results this week. I may go into more detail about our visit at Children's in a later post but for now I will just say I was less than impressed with the Dallas location. The upper GI series with a small bowel follow through ruled out any blockages in the GI tract that could be causing the bleeding. The surgeon on Monday shed some insight on why they are having a difficult time in locating the source of the bleeding. Basically, she has to be bleeding at the time of these procedures. Well, her problem seems to be happening intermittently and the procedures have just so happened to occur during the times where the bleeding has been inactive. This information of course did not eliminate any of my frustrations and fear but did ease a small amount of anger and resentment I've had toward some of the physicians. I had been holding up pretty well and making it through her procedures without getting emotional until Monday. The 3 previous times they have put Emerson to sleep I have been able to be in the room with her. They do things a little differently at Children's. So as they wheeled her off still awake to the OR (again, no cutting) I reached my breaking point and got emotional. I felt so helpless and was so afraid she was going to be scared and I couldn't do anything about it. It is definitely one of the worst feelings I've had yet as a mom. It didn't help that I was there alone. Jamie couldn't go because the "big guys" from corporate were in town to tour the restaurant with potential investors. Fortunately, she did great thanks to that anxiety medicine they gave her beforehand. Okay enough of the medical drama.......

And on to the little ones. Back on March 30th I took Reagan and Pierce to their well check-up appointments. At 2, Reagan is right on track as we suspected. She is our healthy girl and really haven't had any concerns with her since her 1 year check-up. She has been in for a few ear infections but other than that is in perfect health. Her behavior, on the other hand, needs some tweaking. Let's just say she has entered the "terrible twos" with a fury. This behavior has included full blown-throw herself on the floor-screaming at the top of her lungs-abundant tears flowing tantrums smack dab in the middle of Target. And yes, just last week as I was trying to ignore this hideous outburst that one of the cashiers picked her up to console her. Yep, that's right, totally reinforced the blood-curdling cries to where I'm sure she is bound to do it again on our next trip in hopes that the nice lady in red is there to rescue her from her mean mommy. She is however doing really cute things as well. She wants to be exactly like Emerson and does EVERYTHING she does. She literally follows behind Emerson and mimics everything from mannerisms to words. Most of the time Emerson obliges but there are other times where she just gets annoyed. And boy do I remember those days (sorry Heather and Michele). A few things I definitely don't want to forget: her "Reagan drives a car" dance move; the way she runs with her arms behind her back; how her "I love you" is so slurred that Jamie and I are the only ones that know what she is saying; and her obsession with Dora.

And for Mr. Pierce, his 9 month check-up wasn't AS great as Reagan's but nothing too alarming. 90% of babies have outgrown their reflux by this point. Well, Pierce falls in that unfortunate 10%. Really, I'm the unfortunate one because I am cleaning up and covered in spit up all the time. He continues to spit up to 20-30 times daily. The reflux has not improved at all and in fact it has become more of a nuisance. Why? Because now it is multi-colored and chunky. I know gross. But, it doesn't bother him so that's all that matters. He is what they call a "happy spitter". Yay, I guess. He falls in the 20 percentile in weight at almost 18 pounds and 4% in height. Poor guy got his dad's short genes. He is somewhat behind the girls in his milestones and I'm convinced that is my fault. Emerson hit all her milestones either on time or early because I was constantly working with her. Partly because I had nothing else to do and another part to ensure I was a "good mom". Well, poor Pierce hardly ever gets 1:1 time. Most of the time I am talking at him or around him not to him. Tonight I worked with him some on saying "mama" and what do you know he repeated me. He's smarter than I thought. He is trying really hard to crawl but most of the time settles on just getting around by doing a fish/frog style type crawl. Not quite the army crawl, but more of what looks like the breast-stroke in swimming. Little does he know he is doing the hard way. He is EXTREMELY protective of his mommy and gives anyone the evil-eye that gets close to me, including Jamie. In fact, every time Jamie gives me a hug Pierce starts to scream. WAY CUTE! I hope he is always protective of me. I'm proud to say that I have a "mama's boy"!!!! It is the non-stop screaming, just because he has figured out how to get some one's attention, that is NOT CUTE. Seriously, if I am in the room but not engaged with him he screams. It is not necessarily a mad or sad scream but a "hey, I still here" scream. We all thought it was cute a first and totally reinforced this behavior by laughing and well, it has gotten way out of control and I'm at a loss of what to do. I don't know how to get a 9 month old to stop doing something. I tried sternly telling him "no" and made him cry. Well, then I felt guilty. So, I tried ignoring it. Well, he does it in public and people started staring and giving me dirty looks. So, I am at a loss. Seriously, it is so bad I am contemplating giving my pediatrician a call just to ask, "how do I get my kid to shut-up?" No, but I do need quick solution. I still love him to pieces despite his constant "school-girl, like screeching".

Well, I warned you this post would be long. I really have a tendency to ramble. I think that may be because I pretend the computer is an actual person I'm having a conversation with other than toddlers and babies. I'm not going to lie, these last couple of weeks have really been a beating. I really needed to take a moment and regroup. Thanks to those who have read to this point for "listening". I had a great time today chatting with adults at my sister's bridal shower so I feel somewhat recharged for this coming week. I hope the weather perks up again because we have been doing a lot of things outdoors and the kids love it. And, I love getting out of the house other than going to Target. Plus, it is easier on the wallet to get out and go the park. I will try to do better about the updates and Emerson's results. I know some of you that I don't get to talk to on a regular basis check this for information.

Until next time, GO MAVS!!!! Great start tonight with a win against the Spurs!

Oh, and the picture posted were taken April 9th. I'll post more later. All the pics from the shoot turned out amazing.