glasses

Athan has had some glasses for a while now, but I've had very little luck getting him to leave then on his face. But Ryan's cousin Amy suggested we try again while he was watching a video to help him get used to wearing them. It has gone pretty well! He still pulls them off about every 8 or 10 minutes, but I can usually get him to put them back on and leave then alone for a while. Maybe Baby Einestien will be the trick to help him wear his glasses more often.

halloween, pt 2

Morgan and Mama went to a great event called Treats on Main. Here in Wilmore (just a stone's throw from our front door), all the businesses and churches on Main street have employees out in costume to give away candy and other bits and bobbles to the kids. The Methodist Church gives out free hot dots. The owners of the Sub-way give away cotton candy (illustrated below). You get the idea. It's a huge crowd of fun costumes, familiar faces, and free sugar.Ryan stayed home for Athan to rest and eat since he has been sickly. They made a brief appearance just before we all came home.

After Treats on Main, Morgan and I went to a party hosted by our friends the Jaggers and the Graces. Oh what fun! Morgan got to go bobbing for apples (she almost immdiately spotted the apple with a stem still attached and removed it by simply biting the stem - didn't even get her nose wet). She got to play in a sandbox, and Mom got to have good conversation with adults! :) Just before we came home, Morgan wowed the crowd with impromptu performances of a couple of her favorite songs. Good times for all! :)

like every other parent's post lately: Halloween! :) (part 1)

Morgan got to decorate the little pumpkin at Justin and Charis's house last weekend. Then her Daddy helped her carve the big one (and roast the seeds) the next day. She loved it.


As to the costumes - Morgan said she wanted to be Darby. The new Winnie the Pooh cartoons have a girl character named Darby who helps Tigger and Pooh solve mysteries:


So here's our version :-):

some catching up

Morgan is coughing a little, but she is almost out of the woods now. Athan, per usual, just takes a little more time and effort the kick a cold. He's still coughing quite a bit, nose is running, and he is not sleeping well at all.

Ryan is showing signs of getting sick, too. Poor guy sounds like he's going through puberty again with all the voice cracking.

With the exception of some lost sleep, I'm well.

Ok, details out of the way. On to the fun part: pictures.

yeah!

GO RAIDERS! :)

snot, snot, snot

Both kids are drippy. And both kids are asleep.

Why am I sitting at a computer?! Both kids are asleep!

all weekend long

I've been meaning to get to the computer to tell you all about physical therapy on Friday!! Soo.... Athan is getting closer to cruising! Can you believe it?! He has been standing for a while, but his feet were always glued to the floor - no hint of the desire to try to step. But the past week and a half, Laurie has gotten him to realize that he can move once he's standing. On Friday he held onto our chest/coffee table and took several steps with minimal assistance ("minimal" meaning Laurie still has to push on his back a bit or he would sit down as he took steps, but the rest he did on his own). Woo-hoo! :) I'm so proud of him!

while I was gone

The kids were great, apparently. I heard nothing but good stories. Athan kept them all up some nights, and slept others. Morgan, as you'll see, was her usual entertaining self. MANY thanks to Papa, Naw-naw, and especially Nana for being here to help Ryan while I was gone.

This is the video they sent me while I was in London, and it's too good to keep to myself. (The first movement herein is both spontaneous and original, as far as we know. The second movement is a not-so-subtle tribute to Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer - our many thanks to them both for contributing).

and home

Ok, now I'm home. Jet lag is real, and my brain has been mush the past couple of days. But the trip was AMAZING (details on my blog later), and it is so good to be back here with my babies and my Ryan. I think I'll have some time to post more in a couple of days.

made it

I'm in London! With Meme. Just wanted the worriers to know I'm ok. :)

better

Morgan is feeling better. After a week of lethargy and lack of appetite, she is finally bouncing and singing and eating again. Laurie was here to see Morgan at the top of her game this morning during Athan's PT. Quite entertaining.

Athan is better, too. No more snot or cough. I may, however, have to renig on the "sleeping" post from last week, because this boy is suddenly up once or twice a night again. Sigh... poor kiddo. Maybe now that he feels better he can sleep better again.

Ryan is doing what seminary students do - read and write and read and read and read and write and go to class and read.

I am getting ready to go on my trip. "London, baby!" (Friends, anyone?). I leave Wednesday at noon for and 8-day trip to London. Yes, London, UK. Not London, KY. I'm excited and nervous and really excited! :) Posting on the blog may be a little thin, but I'm hoping Ryan will put an update or two up for me to check while I'm gone.

random pics

Morgan and I got to see some itty bitty bunnies last week. there's my giant shoe in there for perspective:

I just liked this one:
Ella thought Athan needed to snack on a domino:

sickly

Morgan has been feeling yucky the past couple of days. It started with a midnight round of puking, and she just hasn't fully recovered yet. This morning she slept until almost 11, then sat at the table staring blankly past her food for over an hour. She's perked up a bit right now because she got a letter in the mail from Tia Mitsi (thanks for the stickers!), and she is making her a sticker page to send her "for her wedding so I can be there and dance with them and the stickers."

Athan still has a bit of a cough, but I think he's about to kick it altogether.

So far, Ryan and I are fine (aside from missing sleep to clean up after Morgan and keep Athan hydrated). :)

more mobility, and more snot

Mobility: Laurie is a genius. She brought us a creeper dolly wrapped in baby-friendly material. We put Athan on his tummy on the cart, and he uses his ARMS to move all over the kitchen. He loves it - giggled for most of the PT session. So the two big things here are that he is using his ARMS and he is HAPPY about it. Yeah! :)

Snot: Yuk. Runny nose. Little cough. Not sleeping well. But no fever, so maybe it'll be over soon.

more appointments

Ryan took Athan to Lex yesterday to see Dr. K (cardio) and Dr. Irene (endo) for checkups. According to both, everything looks good. His heart looks a little better than last time, and we'll see cardio again in March. We see endo again in February to check his labs, but she was very pleased with his progress.

The biggest news from the appointments: His weight is finally ON the growth chart! :) He is only in the 3rd percentile, but that's great compared to being off the chart low until now. I've never been too concerned about his weight gain after surgery, and now I can relax even more. Morgan, who as you know was otherwise healthy, was in the same range of the weight chart. Soo.... I just make skinny kids.

I think that does it for doctor appointments until December.

birthday date

Ryan and I had an impromptu date on Tuesday for his birthday. MANY thanks to Laurie, Jordan, Shannon, and Kelly, who combined efforts to babysit our kids and give us some grown-up time. It seemed like Morgan and Athan entertained everyone quite well in our absence. :)

sleep

I always manage to pout in my blog posts about things that are tough, then I forget to tell you when they get better. Oops.

Athan is sleeping. Alot. He has a consistent daily nap schedule, and sleeps through the night probably five nights a week or so. Once in a while Ryan has to get him a drink and rock him, but we are edging closer to sleeping from bedtime (9:45 or 10) to breakfast time (6 or 6:30).

And I'm edging closer to sanity because of regular sleep. Yeah!

Also - Ryan is 29 today. :)

mobility

Athan is finally moving, and of course our boy had to find a unique method. I give you "Scoot":

doctors and company

We saw a couple of new doctors last week, and I'm finally getting to an update:

On Wednesday, we say and orthopedic doctor at the Lexington Shriner's hospital. Laurie and Dr. Coburn wanted to make sure we were not going to hurt his feet or back by letting him learn to stand and walk without any kind of brace or other help. We got the go-ahead to let him move however he's motivated to move and to keep working on his low muscle tone. They think any of the issues we might have are primarily due to the low tone. We'll see them again this time next year just to check up.

On Thursday, we saw an ENT. We know Athan can hear, but Dr. Bay (geneticist) recommended we just make sure he can hear well. We were not able to do an actual ABR, but the preliminary tests showed his hearing to be well within normal ranges. Also, he saw no signs of fluid in Athan's ears that might suggest the need for tubes (as had been suggested by another ENT once). So two days in a row we got an "all clear." :) We'll also see then in one year, just to make sure everything's still fine.

Changing subjects, we have company! :) Jeremy and Amy Patman are here to visit for a few days, along with their precious kiddos - Cap and Ella. They arrived Saturday afternoon, and we have had a good visit so far. Morgan and Cap are hilarious together, and I think watching Ella might just get Athan motivated to be more mobile. I think the Patmans will leave tomorrow to spend mid-week down in Nashville, then back to see us briefly before they head back to Texas. So good to have our friends (also family - Amy is Ryan's cousin) here to see us.

future PT?

With no prompting at all, Morgan brought Larry the Cucumber in one day for some physical therapy:

finally!

I didn't take the time to do much editing, so with almost no ado at all, here are a couple of recent Athan clips. First, the Yes/No Game (with hiccups), followed by Knock Knock and More (which you can hear better than see, but oh well)...

the budding artist

Last time I posted about Morgan's art, we were in the strictly green phase. Now she has branched out. You may call them meaningless scribbles of a preschooler, but I (with my well-trained, unbiased eye) call them poetic experiments with color and motion.

When she is slightly less ad lib and slightly more supervised, we are working on learning some letters and other recognizable shapes. :)

from yesterday...

This boy loves his bath time! Finally caught a picture of his shoulder tape:
Morgan and her dad camped out in the back yard Friday night. This is Morgan watching Dad deftly toast marshmallows:
The cook at work:
And Morgan enjoying the result!
Then they got to sleep in a tent all night long. So fun!
(Grammy - I haven't forgotten your request. I have to do video stuff on Ryan's computer, so when he's not typing a paper, I'll grab it and get some of the latest stuff up)

thanks for the picture, Kelly

This just needed to be shared. That's Morgan's friend Ellie H. in there with her. Ah, friendship.

Sabbath

It is interesting to aim for a day of rest when you have young kids, but I think we came close today. Morgan gets to do special things like stay in the bathtub for an hour - twice, and eat dinner in the living room with the adults. Athan gets rest from all therapy (and as an added bonus, he filled his diaper - twice - always good news given his recent struggles with constipation). I got to worship with fellow believers this morning - twice. Once over coffee with Rob, Kat, and Ryan in our kitchen, then later at Wilmore FUMC. Ryan got to watch football today - (you guessed it) twice: Cowboys game, then Colts/Bears. He and Rob also made big batches of yummy salsa with ingredients grown in Rob and Kat's back yard (plus a few from the Wilmore Farmers' Market).

A good restful day for the Strebecks today.

Athan has been...

learning to self-feed with a spoon (also known as Lessons in Body Paint):teething,
standing!
and hanging out with friends,

Morgan has been...

jumping,reflecting,

hanging out with friends,
and, of course, being a princess (or ballerina or lion or Mama or fish or baby or...)

I was reprimanded

By my mother. She said I was starving them for updates. So here goes...

Ryan - He started classes again, and the same word has already emerged that shows up at the start of each new semester: overwhelmed. It just seems like too much to do/learn/read/write in one semester. Still, I think he will enjoy his classes, and Athan being healthier should give him more time to focus on school. He's also working on the house and yard and things, getting ready for fall. He shaved his beard (but promised me he'll grow it back when the cooler weather comes to stay).

Amberly - I'm still working on the house. With vacation time in the mix, we've only actually lived in this house a few weeks. Today, for instance, I sifted through all our boxes of decoration-type stuff and tried to rebox the stuff we'll save for the next house, hang some pictures, etc... I've been riding my bike again, which has been great! I'm also keeping Claire, daughter of my friend Eve, on Wednesday and Friday mornings. I'm (finally) trying to learn to really cook, so I've been to the grocery store and in the kitchen quite a bit.

As to how we're really doing as the parents on Athan's Journey... Most days I'm doing really well. I adore my son, and I'm so impressed with all he has grown to be already. I've also recently been encouraged by some GREAT information on this website about panhypopituitarism (which, if you're a new reader, is the biggest part of Athan's diagnosis). So many of the times I feel sad or afraid or overwhelmed, I've felt also very alone. Reading about even just one other family's experience with this diagnosis has helped so much.

I think I'll update on the kids in separate posts.

we're spoiled, I tell you

The Whortons stopped by tonight to deliver some very clever therapy tools for Athan - plastic bottles full of colorful water and heavy beads and rocks (lids are glued on, don't worry). They will help him work out his arms and work on his vision. Laurie and Jordan made them and walked over tonight to drop them off. Wow. Thanks guys!

Seeing the physical therapist tonight reminded me to post an update. Laurie put tape across Athan's shoulder blades to help him work the muscles and increase stability in his back/shoulders/arms. I keep meaning to take a picture, but I only seem to think of it when he's asleep. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, you can imagine a tiny version of this diagram. He has had the tape on since Friday, and we'll keep it on until Tuesday, we hope. We will continue with this taping therapy for several weeks (at least 6) and see how he responds.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend!

made it

Ryan is home! :) It is amazing to me the level of relief I can see in the kids now. Morgan is in a much better mood. Athan even slept better last night. We are all just so glad Daddy is back! :)

almost...

Ryan will be here in a few hours. He just passed Evansville, Indiana. He'll be here about 2:30, I think...

this week's top 5

LOVING seedless watermelon:The aforementioned "I'm bored" state...
"I'm one!"
Watching Veggie Tales together:
Mobility update - I know he is able to scoot a little, because when I sat him in the floor of the bathroom he could not reach the cabinet. When I came back from checking on Morgan...:

sigh...

Well, of course I felt guilty for letting Athan get so constipated that he got a UTI. So I totally over did the remedies. But still, I'm glad things are cleared out a bit, and now we'll get into a better rotation of foods that will hopefully keep him regular and gaining weight. (Thanks to Jan for the tip about pumpkin - I'll give it a try!).

If the kids are asleep at a reasonable hour tonight, I'll take the time to upload some new pics...

yucky

Dr. Coburn wedged Athan in for an appointment today. He has a UTI. Ick. Poor kid. Probably being constipated has also put pressure on his bladder and caused the infection. We're working on both things more aggressively, so maybe this will be it.

So here's the challenge: Athan is still underweight, so we're trying to pack on the pounds. Athan is prone to constipation. Foods that are high in calories are usually foods that constipate. Foods that help keep things moving are low in calories. Any ideas about what I should feed my son?

Moments to celebrate

Morgan, unprompted, told Athan she was sorry for taking his toy and that she loved him.

Athan, for the first time ever, pointed at me and said "Mama." (not the first time he's said it, but the first time he has POINTED and said it).

Ryan (my husband of SEVEN years) keeps blowing me away with the way he loves people, especially me.

I, in case you can't tell, have decided to quit whining and have a better day today. :)

Raborns and Walts to the rescue!

Rob and Kat came over to eat last night, then Tiffany, Lilly, and Sam came over to play again today. My Morgan is sighing in relief, I can tell. She just LOVES to be with people! :)

Athan is not quite himself yet, but he is sleeping well at the moment. Poor guy.

Mom is better, too. I got some good "alone time" after the kids were asleep last night, plus some great adult conversations with our visitors. Yeah for friends and lower stress.

rough couple days

Not awful. Really. Just a little rocky. Athan has another fever. No other signs of anything wrong, and not a very high fever. I think it's just teething again, but if it goes up or lasts through the weekend, we'll go see Dr. Coburn.

With Athan not feeling well and (therefore) not really on a schedule, we are pretty home-bound. For Athan, good. For Morgan, not good. We went from weeks of constant change and people and activity to home with Mom and brother all the time. She's taking it kinda rough. I remember whining at my mom "I'm boooooorrrrrrreeed." Morgan's 3-year-old version today was, "Mom (insert dramatic huff), there isn't anything that is what I want to do."

Sooo... the transition home has been a bit turbulent, but I'm hopeful that Athan will feel better soon, and I'll be able to get the kids out more for Morgan's sake.

we've come a long way, baby...

home sweet home

It's good to be home. The kids are both rolling around in familiarity with smiles and giggles. We're edging back toward our routine, and both kids are eating and sleeping a bit better (though Athan and I were still up at 5 a.m. today...).

We've reunited with some friends, and we get to see lots of folks tonight at the High Bridge Festival. yeah!

As Morgan said to Grammy in the car on our way home, "I love all my people." :)

made it

We're in Wilmore. We had a great trip with Grammy, and we're getting settled in just fine. It was fun to have all our familiar toys again! :)

More when I've slept a bit.

i should be asleep

We head back home tomorrow, but I thought I would post a few pictures of our time here in Clovis (and 1 of the CA trip):



Lots more fun pics to come. For our friends and family here in Texas and New Mexico, we'll miss you all! Kentucky fam - see you soon!

Ryan's trip, my trip, and Ryan again

Ryan had a good trip with his Dad and brothers, and we had a bleary-eyed reunion sometime around 2 a.m. yesterday. Then I left a few hours later to spend the day in Canyon with my dear friend Cindy and her son, Ben, who is recovering from back surgery (going well, and thanks for those who prayed). Now I'm back in Clovis, and Ryan is off again. Now he's backpacking for a couple days with Bailey. He gets back Friday in time for us to celebrate our 7th anniversary (a couple days early - it's officially the 10th). Then a family reunion Saturday, packing up Sunday, and the kids, Mom, and I head back toward Kentucky Monday morning.

Whew.

The kids are doing great - LOVING all the attention of so many friends and family.

Ryan keeps taking the camera on his little adventures, so I'm short on visual updates for now.

lazy post

1 - We ordered Athan's glasses

2 - Ryan is having a good trip and will be home tonight.

3 - [pretend i took the time to write two or three of the "Morgan is NOT shy" stories from the past few days]

Real updates later this week.

little trip

Morgan and I went with the Strebecks to Albuquerque yesterday for Layne's last basketball game (moment of silence for the passing of the basketball era of the Strebeck house). It was an all-in-one-day whirlwind trip, concluding sometime after 2 a.m. this morning, but well worth it.

Ryan has gone with his dad and brothers for the "Brothers Trip" to California. If they survive each other, they'll be back Monday or Tuesday.

Athan spent the day with Grammy and Uncle Jer - Thanks guys!

Also, I ask that you all pray for our friends who are moments away from finding out if a birth mom is willing to let them adopt or not.