Winter wear

Since half of our household is male, we are used to the request to throw a football around outside before dinner,  In the dark.  In 42 degree weather.  

Ellie then grabbed a scarf and a houseshoe from the pile on the floor and said:

"Let me out there, coach."

She watched with excitement for a very long time!!!

Then she took a hot bath and realized how good it can be to be a sports fan watching from indoors!  Go Sounders!!!!!

Halloween!

Happy lovely month of November!

I'll start by sharing that Ellie's swallow test went GRRRRREAT!  She swallowed 5 good times with three different cups each so we got lots of good data on the x-ray!  It is a video study so we watched her little skeleton and this white thick liquid mixed in with her water (called barium) shoots down her throat like flashes of light!!  Just in time for Halloween!!!!  Sorry, I don't have a picture of that for you :).

Anyway, I found one lady in town that was familiar with the test and had done them on children before.  (we wanted to save ourselves a trip to Atlanta)   She was a wonderful, knowledgeable person and the whole expereince was fantastic.  The kids had to come with me and starting from the check-in all the way to the waiting area outside radiation, staff was giving them candy and even set them up in front of a t.v. with PBS on just for them!  Ellie got a teddy bear for being a patient and the guy gave Julia one too!  God was really with us and the whole thing was smooth.  Everyone in the room was celebrating and cheering with each swallow!  So now she's all clear to receive any and all therapy she needs to eat/drink effeciently!  The timing/place is up to God - we've done all the work we can do!

On to a fun night trick-or-treating!

Here we have: A Waffle House server, an astronaut, Ellie in a cute shirt and a Rainbow!

Ellie didn't have a costume per se, but her Mommy was dressed as her heart surgeon!  Ellie was happy when I told her the surgery was complete and she was all better!!!

Back to the house in time to hand out candy!  The kids enjoyed seeing people come to the door!  I was in the middle of getting Ellie in the bath when she crawled away from me to see the action! 

Looking at the candy we were handing out! 

We'll see if we can get Ellie to practice swallowing any of this candy.  We may just have to do it for her ourselves.  The things we do for love of our girl.

Appointments!

Our girl has been busy this week!  Heart check-up here, trip to Atlanta there...and then she's got a swallow study by x-ray and Halloween coming up later this week - where does she find the time?!

Here she is at our local heart clinic getting an ultrasound - she still gets two a year for now.  Great news - she looked great!  The thing that's supposed to happen after heart surgery is happening!

Ellie's happy about that news!

Getting ready to get hooked up to wires!!!

Waiting between tests, no need to get fully dressed again.  Just her little shawl will do :).  (historical note which may need correcting/editing: Shawl made by the original Eleanor's mother?)

 

 But the wait was a bit long so I let her down on the floor - my thought process is that we were the first appointment of the day.  How dirty could the floor be???

"Excuse me Doc, you comin'?"

 We played honk-Mommy's-nose for a minute when the wait got a little long.

Then her big test where she looked super!

Next up, a trip to Atlanta for a long-awaited visit to a special feeding clinic at the hospital.

Our appointment was early morning so this happened one exit before where we had to get off!

Ellie did great in the car!

Here we are at the visit - she showed them how she could put food in her mouth but not swallow it very well...then she showed them all her smiley faces! :)

By the time we left, Ellie was OUT!

She slept about halfway and was very happy to be home!

Both the feeding clinic and the parents are reviewing information as to whether this place could help Ellie and how/when that will all work out!

Grey Sweats

 The post is courtesy of Jacob who saw a photo opportunity and grabbed the camera!  I stole some sunshine with Ellie on the floor and Jacob said "you look like twins"!  The weather is indeed shifting so here we are soaking up some sun in our sweats together.

Hospital Facebook

Ellie is on the hospital's Facebook page!

Take a look, Like it, post, share, do whatever it is that you facebookers do!  I had to post a comment under an alias since I don't actually have a Facebook account!  But do give the hospital site some press and attention!

Click here to go to the Facebook link.

Birthday and Haircuts!

A surprise post mid-week!  As Ellie's agent, I could not wait a whole week to release her new haircut!

There is a precious barber shop here in town that offers free haircuts to kids on their birthday (a fact I discovered when dashing home from a 2-week hospital admission for Jacob's birthday in 2012).  So today we went for a haircut for Ms. Julia - 5 years old today!  The people there were soooo nice, they cut all the kids hair for free!!!!  We arm wrestled about a generous tip (I won) and they kids all came away looking so good!

Without further hesitation - here is Eleanor Louise sporting her bob:

"Here's the side."

"Here's the back."

"I think it makes me look 2 months younger."

"Hey, it's Julia's birthday!"

The photo came out blury but you can see all the haircuts and all the smiles!

Julia got a cute shirt that said "Best Sis". When we told her what it said she said "I do have the best sister, Ellie."

Julia's favorite stuffed animal - a cow named "Moo Jersey" from their Aunt Louise of The Garden State.  Moo Jersey got a quilt for a present for Julia's birthday. 

Happy Birthday Julia and Moo Jersey!!!

Whipped Cream

Hi friends!

Sorry we've stayed away so long!  All is well - some pictures to share.

Ellie has a very sweet therapist who comes to the house every other week. She brings toys and puzzles...and everyone gets involved!!!

This week she wanted to get Ellie exposed to different textures including whipped cream!

School came to a screeching halt for the big kids when a tray of whipped cream and powdered Kool-Aid mix were offered for their use.

 Ellie got really into it and eventually did put some in her mouth!

My assistant grading some of Julia's school work.

A smile in the morning.

 She looks like she is catching some sun rays!  I love the shadow on the wall.  "The love we have for You Oh Lord, is only a shadow of Your love for us."

Our flag holder decided to climb to a higher point to wave Old Glory.

Ellie picked out one red shoe from her dresser and brought it to me.  She is The Girl with One Red Shoe.

 Mommy and Ellie cheering on the boys playing soccer.  Julia was on picture duty and did a great job.

Lastly, Ellie got her teeth looked at this week by the dentist and they look great!  Let's hope the same for her heart in a few weeks!

Our week

We had a good week here, we hope you can say the same!

A little sleeping in...

A little school...

 

(notice Ellie's position - this is about where she stands after minute 12 of a television show when I'm trying to keep her out of the school room!)

And a little reclining...Ellie had a sippy cup and crawled in the den with it and got herself up on the couch.  She then put her cup right next to her on the side table and sat back and smiled.  I wonder who she sees doing this while sneaking in an occasional cooking show on Food Network :). 

Atlanta ad

WHAT AN HONOR!!!

What started out as an agreement to pose for photos for the hospital marketing department last summer turned into a huge blessing for our family.

First of all, it was a wonderful distraction for us on that day.  I got my hair and make up done and Ellie got all spruced up and we had alot of fun with the camera crew.

Then these amazing shots came out of it that are framed in our den and Ellie's room.

And now, the hospital has called to say they are using a photo of Ellie in an ad in the Atlanta newspaper!

This week was not the week for me to figure out how to convert this file to a picture in the blog so I took a picture of it on our computer.  (I fully intend to have the newspaper ad framed)

Brings a tear to my eye just reading it alone. THEN I remember that she is our flesh and blood!  That's our baby!

Look at our Ellie - and her Daddy's hand!!!!!!