Batter up!

This summer William started T-ball. This was a first for Will. He is four, so he was part of the 4 and 5's team. Most of the kids on the team were getting ready to start kindergarten this fall, so he was one of the youngest on the team. Will was very shy and did not want to do much the first day, so Matt ran along side him everywhere he went. He had two games a week and by the second week he was doing MUCH better. He needed a little encouragement still, but we were able to cheer him on from the cheering section :) By the end of the season he was by far the most improved out there. He ended up having a lot of fun, loved bating, loving running for the ball, and loved playing with the other kids. He had lots of fans too. Matt's parents, my parents, Will's great grandma and grandpa B., Unlce Joe, my friend Megan and our friends Bob, Alisha, Bre and Haylee all came out to cheer him on several times. We were so proud of him for going to his games and having fun each week. He is getting ready to start soccer on Saturday and is really excited about it. I can't wait to see him in the high socks, shin guards and cleats! He is going to be so cute! Here are some pictures from his t-ball games this summer.

Looking back at our summer...starting in May

Spring and summer have gone by and I haven't posted anything. I thought the best way to start would be to go back in time and share a little of what we've been doing the last several months. I'm going to start all the way back at the beginning of May when the kids and I went to Texas to visit Aunt Rachie. I really wanted to be with Rachel on May 1st which marked the one year anniversary of Justin's death so the kids and I packed our bag and caught a flight to Austin Texas. Matt had to stay behind due to work, and I was a little nervous about taking both kids by myself on a long trip. Thankfully, it was by far the best time we've ever had in Austin. Rachel was very happy to have us there and I was so happy when she told me that was the happiest she had been in the past year. I really wanted to go to distract her and just be with her. We went to San Antonio for a day, we went on a "drive through Safari" and to a cave. The kids had a blast with their Aunt Rachie. When we went to the cave I wasn't really sure what I was expecting, but as soon as we got out of the little train car that took us down into the cave, I started asking my sister why I agreed to do this. I started thinking what's going to happen if the lights go out in here (believe it or not I'm still scared of the dark at 30, pathetic, I know) or what if it collapses and we are stuck in there...my anxiety level was a bit high for the first 10 minutes. The kids did great. At one point towards the end of the tour they turned all the lights out for about a minute and a half so we could see how dark it was in a cave. I thought this was a horrible idea, but nobody cared. The lady turned the lights off and I was sure the kids were going to flip out, but instead they didn't make a sound. I was begging them to cry or something so they'd turn the lights on as I clung to them and my sister. My sister loves making fun of me for this.

The Safari thing was so much fun. My sister and I laughed so hard during that drive. It was the hardest I think both of us laughed in a long time. They gave us food to feed the animals and of course all the signs say to drop the food on the ground but I don't think there was one animal that didn't shove his head in the car waiting for food. One of the Zebras put his head in the car, grabbed my bag right out of my hand and ate the whole thing including the bag! I screamed, my sister screamed and then the kids started screaming 'roll up the windows!" It was hilarious. The Ostriches were actually really scary too. These HUGE birds (3 of them) walked right towards us as we drove up towards them and came right up to the window. They stuck their long necks into the window and that actually freaked me out as well as poor Kaela who hated every moment of this. I thought it was a good idea to try and convince Rachel into having one of the Ostriches feed from her bag and she agreed when one came up and pecked the heck out of the bag. I wish I would have had it on video because my sister literally jumped from her side of the car into my seat! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen :) Kaela literally hated every moment of this drive, but the rest of us had so much fun.

I am so glad we were able to spend this time with my sister and so glad we were able to give her a happy long weekend when she's had so many bad ones over the last year. We continue to miss Justin every day and I know my sister struggles every single day so I just have to do my part in taking care of my little sister now. We can't wait to go back to see her hopefully soon.

Kaela's progress

Once again, I've neglected the blog. Life has been so incredibly busy the last three months that I just haven't found time to get on here and post anything. A lot has happened since Kaela's fusion and decompression surgery 12 weeks ago. She was put in the halo and was scheduled to be in it for 3 months. She was due to come out of it the first or second week of May. Unfortunately, we had a lot of issues with the halo, or rather, Kaela had a lot of issues with the halo. Her Orthopedic surgeon and Neurosurgeon both told us that her bones are much different than the average person, or even most kids with dwarfism. They had never had such a problem putting a halo on someone as they did with Kaela. Her bones are very soft, so when they originally put the halo on they tried it out in many spots before finding the right spot. The first several tries ended with the pins slipping through the bone. They also had problems with the pins clicking into place, so they didn't put much pressure on them (to avoid having them go through her skull). About 5 weeks after surgery Kaela started to scream and cry that it hurt every time we put her on her back or sometimes when she sat up. It was horrible hearing her cry out that we hurt her. We knew something wasn't right, so we called and scheduled an appointment to see the halo docs. It turned out that she had 2 loose pins, both on the left, one in the back and one in the front. Kaela had 3 pins in each site, for a total of 12 pins. Her Neurosurgeon felt okay taking one pin out of each site since she had so many pins in already. They took out the two loose pins and we went home. She was feeling much better the next day having those loose pins out. About a week and a half later we went in for a regular check up with the halo docs and found out that she had several loose pins. They can't leave less than two pins in each site, so a lot of times if one comes loose they just re tighten it, or put another pin in. Because of the problems with Kaela's bones already, they didn't feel comfortable adding more pins or tightening existing pins. Instead, they decided we should just take the halo off. They felt that having had the halo on for half of the desired time was good enough for them. They took the halo off in less than 10 minutes, while Kaela was awake. She was NOT happy about that, but the pins were all so loose that it wasn't as bad as if they were tight. If the pins were tight, they would have put her under general anesthesia to take it off. Kaela has been a MUCH happier girl since the halo came off and is back to her typical self. Even her Neurosurgeon commented on how different she at one of her appointments. With the halo on he'd come in and she would be very quiet on my lap and just overall not happy. This time he came in and she was chatting up a storm and let him pick her up and put her on his lap with no complaints. She told him about her stickers and everything.She was in a neck brace for a couple of weeks, but since then she's been free of everything. We have gone in for several check ups and xrays since it came off, and so far everything is doing just what it's supposed to do. The last visit, just about a week ago, they said it looks like there is some bone growth where they did the fusion. This is great news. It's healing up from what they can see. She has an MRI in 2 weeks just to confirm that it's all healing well. We are so happy that with all the problems and complications, it all turned out okay. I was so worried when they took the halo off early that they'd have to re do this surgery because she wasn't secure. So far, there's been no concern for that, which is wonderful!Kaela's back to bossing everyone around and running the show. Sometimes when her and William play I have to tell her to stop throwing herself on the couch, because I'm so worried about things staying in place, but it doesn't seem to faze her at all.