BEAMING WITH PRIDE......................

Today was parent/teacher conferences. Terry and I had teased Raelynn quite a bit the last couple days about what her teacher would say about her and so forth. This morning she was quite distraught about conferences. I guess we had teased her a little too much but it was so cute. She wasn't upset about it she just wanted to know exactly what time we went and if I would tell her what was said. I promised I would and asked her if there was anything she wanted me to talk to her teachers about. She couldn't think of anything and then I asked her what she would like me to tell them she liked. She said, "I like coloring and crafts and really everything!" It was great. So we got to conferences and we could not have been prouder. Her teachers complimented her in so many different ways that Terry and I were almost tearing up with pride. Of course everything thinks their kids is great but to hear someone else who spends so much time with your child and several others say it is so rewarding. When I picked Raelynn up after work I told her how well conferences went, she too was beaming with pride! Like Terry said,"when will the bubble burst?!". Raelynn has been such a strong and mature but fun kid. She is bound to have some difficult years ahead of her but so far she has been amazing. I love her sooooo much!

Yesterday Cooper had another doctors appointment for his synagis shots. The good news of the visit is that Cooper has gained 6 oz. which is wonderful! The bad news is that Dr. Kelley is consulting with Coop's cardiac team to decide if they should do a procedure on his stomach that would reduce the amount of acid reflux which is what Dr. Kelley thinks is causing him to throw up. Dr. Kelley feel like if the cardiac team did the procedure in conjunction with one of his upcoming surgeries, then it would be well worth it. However, if it would have to be an additional surgery, he does not feel like it is worth the risk. In addition Dr. Kelley is still contemplating putting a G-Tube in Cooper's stomach. This would allow us to feed Cooper real food directly in his stomach. I am not sure about either procedure. Of course, we will do and be confident in whatever the doctors advise us to do. However, I would prefer there to be nothing combined with his open heart surgery because I think that surgery itself is going to be plenty difficult. I assume we will hear early next week as to what they decide to do. I really am only concerned with what is best for Cooper and making sure we still have several years with him. He is such a little man!

Tonight when we got home Terry and Raelynn were playing in Raelynn's room. Cooper opened up the closet where Raelynn keeps her babies and he yells, "Baby where are you?" Then he saw her and said, "there you are!" He is just growing up so quickly just as Raelynn has. I just wish I could capture every minute of every day so when I am old and they are grown, I can still feel the way I feel right now.

KNOCK ON WOOD..................

We are 72 hours throw up free and counting! The last time Coop got sick was Friday afternoon. We have adjusted a few things like giving his meds earlier in the evening and not pushing his milk quite as much. He is still drinking plenty but at night we just let him have a few drinks before bedtime instead of drinking a full cup. This weekend he also ate quite a bit of solid food. No, not any "good for you" food but at least he ate something. Tonight when I was getting Raelynn's apple ready for her bedtime snack, I hollered into the living room and asked Coop if he wanted a bedtime snack. He hollered back, "Yea please". It was pretty cute, then I asked him what he wanted. He came running into the kitchen and said "watcha got?". I have no idea where that came from but it definitely made me smile. I asked him, "how about some cereal?". He replied, "yea please!" and ran back into the living room. I love the way he is communicating now. He is getting to be quite the big boy. Tonight I didn't get home until late and apparently Coop had gotten into a little trouble with Dad. When I asked him how his day was he told me, "I got trouble!". "You did?" I replied. "Yea trouble", he said. I asked him who he got in trouble with and he quickly said Daddy. It was adorable how sincere he sounded. I still am no sure what he did, it didn't really matter, it was just great that he was telling me.

We had another great weekend. Terry and the kids got out and played a little in the snow. We really had a pretty quiet weekend and just hung out together which I cannot think of a better way to spend a weekend. On Sunday night after we put the kids to bed Raelynn asked if Daddy could come in and see her. I came out to the living room and told Terry she wanted to see him. He took a while going back to see her and all the sudden we hear her saying, "I should be hearing footsteps! I don't hear any Daddy footsteps!" She is suck a little comedian. Terry and I burst out laughing and Terry headed down the hall to see her. She is so sarcastic and cracks jokes all the time now. I was watching something on the news last night that just showed a high school and all these kids were walking in the halls. I literally almost starting crying. Raelynn is going to be one of the kids far before I am ready for her to be. She has already grown into this amazing little person and I just cannot believe how much she has changed in the past year. She has this great personality and truly I love everything about her. I hope we can stay close as she grows up. I want so much for my kids to always be able to talk to me, trust me, look up to me, everything! I hope I can always make choices they are proud of. Everything I do I think about them. Who would have known such little people can have such a big impact!

You will notice a March of Dimes March for Babies tracker on the side of my blog. We are the ambassador family for the March of Dimes this year and Terry and I are both trying to raise $200 for them. If you are able to make a donation or would like to walk on our team.....please just click on the tracker. Thanks so much!!!

JUST GOING ALONG.................

From birth to about 9 months old Cooper threw up ALL the time! During that time along with everything else we just dealt with it and that was that. For the past year or so Coop has been pretty low maintenance. We have a few scares and issues here and there but mostly it has been pretty easy going. So I guess Coop just thought out job was getting a little too easy because we are back to the throwing up again. For the last 3 or 4 weeks Coop has been throwing up and it is only getting worse. We spend every day and night trying to figure out why and adjusting things to see if it matters but nothing seems to fit. It could be his heart, his lack of oxygen, his sensitive gag reflex, his quick rise in body temperature, the amount of milk he intakes, his medicines....the list goes on and on. We have pushed less for him to drink, we have adjusted the times we give him his meds, we have tried slowing him down from time to time so his body doesn't lack oxygen, we have tried to dress him warm, we have tried to dress him cool, we have tried EVERYTHING! So we have no answer as to why he is throwing up nor as to how to fix it so last night I decided to embrace it. I found a new support system, it is called the Bissell Little Green Machine! It is awesome. Terry calls it the "Coop Clean Up Kit" and Cooper thinks that is funny. It is small but mighty and Terry and I can now see some hope! Ok, so all kidding aside,Cooper's throwing up is so difficult to understand and so difficult for Coop. Cooper says, "I Torry Mommy" every time he throws up which breaks my heart. He also says his throat hurts which too makes me feel so bad for him. His daycare providers have been great pretending that they are fine with the constant mess. Anyway, we see Dr. Kelley on Tuesday and we will see what he has to say about it all. Once we figure that out then we can start working on why he is waking up all the time during the night. Other than that he is doing great!

Raelynn is getting very concerned about the fact that preschool is about over. Today she asks me what she will do this summer. I tell her she will go to Mary Beth's each day. She asks "Do you think Grandma Karen could teach me this summer so I will be ready for Kindergarten?". This coming from the girl that is starting to read. I assured her that she would be ready but we would continue to work on things. She then told me that I couldn't forget to work with Boo (Cooper) too because he needed to get ready for preschool and the first year of preschool isn't easy! Raelynn also is starting to be quite the comedian. She is learning how to make joking and sarcastic comments and she constantly has me smiling. Wednesday was a terrible day at work and in general the day was one I couldn't wait to get over. I picked the kids up from Mary Beth's and we had to run errands which I was of course dreading. We didn't even make it to our first stop before the kids had me laughing and I had forgotten all about my horrible day. It is unbelievable how they can brighten my day!

Tomorrow they are forecasting more snow so I am not sure what the weekend holds for us. Well better call it good for tonight........hear Coop up again! I can't wait to get past this stage, would love to sleep again someday, hahaha!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.......

We had a great Valentine's Day. It is amazing how quickly a day can go by when you do absolutely nothing productive :)! I received fabulous Valentine's Day gifts from Terry and the kids. I got the biggest Valentine's Day card you have ever seen and it played "Simply the Best!" It was awesome. It was followed by licorice and beautiful flowers. The best part was that Terry came home Saturday and picked Raelynn up to go pick out my Valentine's. I love it that they do this because it is not only sweet but Raelynn gets so excited to give it to me and therefore makes me so excited to receive it. I think she and Terry have a great time picking things out together too.

We also spoiled the kids with some Valentine's Day treats and gifts and Terry scored some Peanut M&M's and a bottle of wine. All in all I think we all loved both the giving and the receiving.



We headed to Emma Wiley's birthday party this morning at LGA which is always fun for the kids.....and Terry! After that we headed out to eat for lunch. It was very cold and windy and of course I was complaining about being cold. Raelynn abruptly told me to "quit whining Mom, we know it's cold!" Of course Terry loved this and rewarded her lecture with a high five! After lunch we headed home and did nothing. Literally we laid around, played with the kids and just hung out. We hardly ever do this so it was great!






Cooper also kicked back today, watched the Olympics and played some Blues on his harmonica!
The kids are now in bed and I so wish we had just one more day together but I guess that will give me something to look forward to for the next 5 days. Tuesday we have the kickoff luncheon for the March of Dimes March for Babies Walk. We are the honorary family this year and are looking forward to it. March of Dimes funds much research for preventing and treating birth defects. They have actually helped fund some of the researching that is leading the way in developing a valve like the one Coop needs that actually grows with the patient. Therefore, theoretically Coop would have been able to have the valve in place in his first surgery and that would have been it in regards to the valve. As opposed to our current situation where we are approaching his third open heart surgery in hopes that he will be big enough this time to insert the valve. So needless to say, we are thrilled to help in any way we can.

GO HAWKS!!!!

KU won again tonight, yea! Raelynn was especially excited about tonight's game because she now thinks she is in tight with the players. On Wednesday the kids went to a friend's birthday party with special guests, Cole Aldrich, Brady Morningstar and Baby Jay. The players hung out with the kids and were nice enough to sit through endless pictures. Of course Coop didn't think it was anything special, he just loved all the new toys he got to play with! The kids had a great time! Coop decided to be a stunt man before the party was over and was standing up on the seat of this battery operated 3 wheeler and driving it. I didn't catch a picture of it, but it was hilarious. He is a dare devil!





The week ended with a day at home. We did nothing today but clean and watch a little TV. I think the kids and I would take 5 Saturdays a week if we could :) Tomorrow we have a birthday party and of course it is Valentine's Day so it is sure to be a fun day!

NEXT PROCEDURE SCHEDULED AFTER A WEEKEND OF FUN.......

We had yet another fun and busy weekend. Saturday Raelynn had her first official play date. We invited 3 of her little friends over and they played dress up, dolls and baked cookies. I cannot believe I forgot to take pictures but they did keep me pretty busy. It all went well and the girls were all sweethearts with different personalities. Raelynn is getting so big. I remember wondering what it would be like when Raelynn wanted to go to her friends house and they would come to ours. The thought seemed so far away and now it is here. Really it is quite scary! Cooper also loved Raelynn's play date. At first Raelynn just wanted time with her friends and didn't want Coop with them but that didn't last long. Soon she was inviting him along with their fun. He was more than a little sad when he had to lay down for a nap and just kept saying, "I want Grace!" which was one of the little girls that had came over. He is also getting very independent which I love. This morning he wouldn't even let me follow him when he walked into our room to put his pj's in the hamper. He said, "Stop, I do it!" It was so cute. Then I tried to hold his hand as we walked out to the car to leave and again he said, "No! I do it!" I really like this stage. It is when they start to show confidence and adventure. I really like for my kids to be independent so when they start distributing these characteristics I get quite a kick out of it. It also tries my patience a little because you can only imagine how long it takes Coop to put on his coat by himself and of course he decides to do it on the same day we are already running late. I just keep reminding myself to watch and encourage him while being patient because it will be all too soon that these small things will just be ordinary and you can never get back how fun it is to watch them learn for the first time.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with the Keefer's. We had a good meal and fun time with them. Both Raelynn and Coop really like getting to see their Popo(Grandpa). He is so patient with them! I guess this is where Terry gets his patience!

Sunday Raelynn and I decided it was time for Coop to start going to church with us. We had taken him a while back and it didn't go well. He cried non stop. I actually had to leave church to get him out of his class so he would calm down. Well Sunday that was not the case at all. He barely gave me a second look as he said "Bye Momma". I mentioned to one of the teachers that he was not allowed to have water or juice and that he just needed to drink his fortified milk from the straw cup I had brought and briefly said as an explaination, "he has cardiac issues". She nodded and I was off to church. My friend Kelly's son, Kaden, is in the same class so when Kelly came into church I asked her how he was doing and she said great. Knowing Kaden was with Coop I did not bother to go check on him during the service. Afterwards I went to get him and was quickly approached by both teachers. They seemed very concerned and explained that he looked blue and his lips were blue and he seemed tired and his hands were blue and on and on. Oh no! I had obviously not given them enough information about Coop. I always struggle with this because I do not want to blurt out so much they think I am crazy but I certainly do not mean to leave them uninformed and worried. The funny part of it all is that Coop looked good to me, I didn't even realize he was a little dusky or "blue". So I apologized to the teachers and let them know he was just fine but if he threw up or passed out that's when they know to come and get me. Of course, I was chuckling inside because I can only imagine that there is a little part of them hoping we will not be back, but we will :)

Cooper's Cardiac Catheter is scheduled for April 2nd. We will do preop on the 1st and then will have to be there bright and early on the 2nd. After this procedure they will schedule surgery. The catheter is fairly routine these days so it should not be a big problem. I told Coop last night that he was going to have to start getting ready for his next surgery. I asked him if he remembered his last surgery and he said "yea", then I asked if he promised to be strong and make it through this one and he said, "yea". Boy how I wish it were this simple!

COOP'S CHECK UP.................

Cooper's appointment went great today. It started out great when we walked into the cardiac clinic and the lady at the front gives a little scream of excitement and yells, "Oh it's my favorite, I was just talking about you guys the other day!" It just makes it so nice that they always remember Cooper and he loves to flirt with all the nurses. He was such a big boy today. He did not cry at all and during his echo he lie so still that once the tech was done she asked if we would mind if a student practiced because he was being so good and calm. He was great. Dr. Kaine thought he looked and sounded great as well. The VSD which is a hole between the lower 2 chambers of the heart, has gotten bigger. Dr. Kaine said this is normal because he has grown so much and it is just growing with him. As for Coop turning purple and throwing up, they were not concerned nor surprised. These are just things that go along with his lack of blood flow and mixing of the good and bad blood in his heart. However, because he has grown and the VSD has grown, it is possible that his arteries that currently are very restricted are expanding which in Coop's case is not good until they get the heart fixed. Last May when we did his cardiac catheter and the postponed surgery, they had hoped that they could just use that cardiac catheter from then to prepare for our upcoming surgery. However, Dr. Kaine feels we need to do another so they have as much information as possible before his open heart surgery. Therefore, we are planning his cardiac catheter in April and then will schedule the open heart surgery in late May. Dr. Kaine continues to remind us that Coop's heart did not respond well to the last surgery and therefore they want to be as prepared as possible in hopes to avoid complications.

It was a good appointment as it assured us that he is currently stable. I think we are ready for the procedures to start, but I guess I will have to see how ready we really are when the time comes!

COOPER'S CAUSE PROVIDES ASSISTANCE.....

Saturday was a big day for us. We awarded the first families funds from Cooper's Cause Foundation. It was such a good feeling and I can't wait to help others. Both families were so deserving and I am so happy with the boards choice. We have been so fortunate to get this far!

We go tomorrow to CMH to visit Coop's cardiologist and get an idea of when they will plan his next surgery. I am very happy to be going because there has been a few things going on that we are not real comfortable with. Monday morning was one of those things. I got Coop out of bed and got him dressed. He had been up for a little while and we were in the bathroom brushing his teeth and doing his hair. He had not been very active or talkative but I had just figured he wasn't really awake yet. Anyway, he started turning purple, real purple, around his mouth and the works. He then started shaking and he was very tense. I quickly started talking to him and the thought that he might be having a seizure crossed my mind but I am somewhat familiar with seizures and I knew he wasn't because he was talking to me and looking at me and so forth. Anyway, a little bit after that he threw up all over. After that his color returned to normal and he became active and talkative and everything just like nothing had happened. Similar things to this have happened a couple other times just not quite so severe. Anyway, it definitely makes us a little cautious and it will be nice to get some answers tomorrow. Besides the scary things Coop does, he also makes us laugh......a lot! Last night I was laying in bed with Raelynn reading her story. Terry was in Coop's room reading him a story. Terry and Coop finished their story and Terry put Coop to bed. Terry walked out of Coop's room and headed down the hall. Something caught my eye and I looked up to see Coop following right behind Terry but Terry had no idea he had gotten out of bed. Raelynn and I were giggling. The next thing we hear is Terry saying, "Cooper! What are you doing out of bed?" It was really funny! Tonight he spilled his milk on his shirt at dinner time. He wanted his shirt off because it was wet so I took it off. He then wanted his pants off because they were wet too. I took them off and so there he was with just a diaper on. He looks down at himself, starts laughing hysterically. Raelynn and I are laughing just because it was funny he was laughing so hard. Then he puts his arms up like he was flexing his muscles and growled. I have no idea what the boy was doing but to see his skinny little body standing in a diaper and flexing his muscles would have made anyone laugh! Raelynn thinks her brother is hilarious too!!!