Things I Love

I love spending time with my girls. We are having so much fun together and they make me laugh all the time. Here are a few of my favorite things:

1. Eva's favorite new phrases to incorporate into conversation these days are "It happens" and "Bad news." For example, this is a real conversation I had with her out of the blue the other day.
Eva: Sometimes I get poo-poo on my hands.
Me: Wait...what? You got poo-poo on your hands? When?
Eva: It happens
Me: No response

Wowzers. What in the world?

2. One day last week I was trying to decide what to feed Ella for breakfast and was just kind of talking out loud to myself about what to give her and Eva pipes up, "Ella wants a cupcake." Fantastic I say and without hesitation I joyfully opened up the box of cupcakes and fed one to Ella for breakfast...and I didn't feel bad about it. All I see here are calories people, calories. Don't judge my mothering skills. :)

3. I love that to entice Ella to eat her chicken all I had to do at dinner the other night was squirt some Cheez-Whiz on each piece and we were in business. Everybody wins here...Ella wanted cheese, I wanted her to eat her chicken, the solution? Cheez-Whiz on the chicken. We all win.

4. Who needs hair gel when you can get this beautiful look with a dab of Cortizone cream lovingly applied by your big sister.
A nice greasy, yet firm and flexible look that will surely keep your hair in place throughout the entire day. Lovely. What are little kids thinking sometimes??

5. I love that Ella now loves cheeseburgers and fries from McDonalds. You know how much I love a good McDouble and fries and now it's even better because I don't need an excuse to go to McDonalds. I practically have medical necessity...the necessity being that Ella needs to gain weight and is there really a better place than the golden arches to help you pack on the pounds? I think not. Cheeseburger, small fries and a juice box is like 630 calories. This is what I'm talkin' about. We've been twice already this week. Medical necessity I tell you, keep that in mind. I love you McDonald's!

5. Eva and Ella's favorite new show to watch is my Denise Austin workout DVD. Not kidding. What's funny is they like to watch it as entertainment as if it's Dora or something. Seriously, Eva will sit on the couch and watch it like it's a cartoon. Uh..okay. Other times they watch it to try and copy the moves and it's hilarious watching them bounce around the living room trying to do lunges and jumping jacks. Priceless. Reminds me of when I was little and I would lay out my little beach towel for an exercise mat and do Jane Fonda with my mom. Aaah, blast from the past. Good ol' Jane.

6. Ella has started saying Eva's name and calling her by name. So precious! She pronounces it with a short e sound "Ehva" instead of a long e sound though. It's so cute to listen to her talk to Eva. They love each other so much and it just melts my heart.

Old Friends and New Friends

Well friends, I can't believe it but this past weekend marks ONE MONTH with no feeding tube for Ella!! Not once have we used it. This is huge! I can't believe it has been a month! She is doing so well and is eating pretty much anything we give her. Thank you Lord! Sorry about all the exclamation points...I feel like I'm yelling at everyone through the screen but it's just so exciting, I can't help it!
So, this OLD friend has not gotten much attention this month and no one is upset about it. Ella's feeding pump and tubes have just been sitting in the corner of her room and I hardly even notice it's there.

But, our NEW friends here are where the party's at, know what I'm sayin'? Our freezer is the picture of health isn't it? We will stop at nothing to keep our little Ella's weight up and if that means ice cream out the wazoo every night then so be it. Whatever it takes right?

This past month Ella has maintained her weight which is great news in my opinion. She has gained some and lost some but no real big gain, just maintaining. I don't know how everyone else, doctors etc. feel about that but I think it's great. She will be weighed tomorrow again and I think it's now time to discuss with her dietician and doctors what the expectations are for her with no feeding tube as far as growth, weight gain, etc. so that is my goal in the coming weeks. I am extremely pleased with how this month has gone and the fact that she has been able to maintain her weight. She is eating better than ever before and we do have to work at it still and be really diligent about making sure we stay on top of calories and everything but overall she is doing amazingly well. I just can't stop thanking the Lord for all He has done for Ella. He is Great! Another thing that has done amazingly well are my new running shoes! I know you were wondering about that. Take another look at the picture of my freezer...go ahead, go look. Aaaannnd that's why it's time to get moving, too much Blue Bell in the hiz-ouse. I'm telling you, if you are in the market for a new pair of kicks the Salomon Whispers are where.it's.at. I mean, you know I am such the running expert now since I've been running for what two weeks :), but I'm just saying, these shoes are great! No laces and I don't even wear socks because socks drive me cRaZy and make me feel claustrophobic so I just don't do it. No laces + no socks = AWESOME!

Anyway, I know in my last post I said that Ella's surgeon said that typically he would remove a G-button once a child hadn't used it in a month or so and now we are at that month but we are in no hurry at this point for Ella's to be taken out for several reasons. First, we have not communicated with her GI doctor about it all and I don't know what her opinions are on when she feels is the right time to remove it so we still need to get the okay from doctors. Second, we would like to wait until the summer is over and swim season is over because there is a chance that once her G-button is removed, the hole may not close up on it's own. Typically the hole should close up within a few days but in some cases and depending on how long you have had it, it may take a surgical procedure to go in and close things off on the inside as well. I am hoping this will not be the case for Ella when the time comes but who knows. Third, even though I look forward to the day when Ella will not have a G-button, I also dread the moment when it will be taken out. It's only for a few minutes, but it is painful and I don't know if my poor heart can stomach to watch her get it yanked out right now. Yeah, I'll spare you the details but basically the surgeon just counts to three and then yanks it out. We've had this done once when we had to get it replaced and I'm still traumatized. Horrible, just horrible. Anyway, at this point things are going so well that we would just rather enjoy our summer and we'll take care of the ol' G-button issue at a later date.

That's the big news, one month folks, one whole month! Unbelievable and I get a lump in my throat every time I think about it. Thank you for your continued prayers, please keep praying for Ella. Your prayers are such a blessing to our family.

In other news, we just took a little family road trip up to Kansas City to see Rick's family and we had THE best time. The girls had soooo much fun with their cousins and their CC and Dee. We went swimming, watched fireworks, ate lots of good food, went fishing, went to the movies, went shopping and just played and played. It was so fun! The last time we were there was at Thanksgiving and Ella was still using her feeding tube around the clock so it made it a little more stressful and difficult to travel or do much in between feedings but this time was a different story. We were so blessed by getting to spend almost a week with Rick's family and we're so thankful for the wonderful family we have. Thanks CC and Dee and Caire Family for a super fun week, we loved it and miss you so much already!! I don't have many pictures but here are a few. Enjoy!

Ella and CC

Bubble bath with cousin Emery

Eva and Dee

So sweet! I love this picture.




Ice cream on the porch for everyone!

Aunt Amy making sure Ella gets her daily dose of ice cream :)

See ya!