Daycare

Before Miles was born, we expected him to start daycare at 3 months old. However, everything changes with his heart defect. We knew that he would need to stay awake from most germs for a while, until his body was strong enough to fight awake any germs that there might be. We wanted to make sure that he had the chance to get exposure to the germs that would help him with his immune system so he would not be out of school when he first started and he needed to get the socialization. We were lucky enough that on that 2 days that I worked, my mom would be able to take care of him. we expected that by the time he was 2 (in October), he would be in school. After his heart cath in May, our pulmonalogist thought it would be good to start him in daycare this summer when the germs we not SO bad. Therefore, we are going to start him in school 1 day a week when we get back from vacation.

We decided to do a trial run at school to let him get used to the other kids. The 1st day only lasted about 15 minutes. It was a little late when we got there and he was tired. The biggest problem was a little girl that just walked up to him and hit him in the eye. At this point, he started to cry and we could not get him calmed down. Then we went home and he took a three hour nap.

So we decided to try again the next day. We went at an earlier time when the kids would all be heading outside. We arrived just as everyone was gathering to walk down to the playground area at the end of the building. Again, the same little girl went after Miles and tried to hit him, but the adults were able to stop him. We got outside, but Miles was alittle overwhelmed by all the kids and did not want down. Finally, he was able to get down and started to play. He got onto the slide and was away from all the adults. The same little girl made a break for it, gave him a big hug and kiss, AND MADE HIM BLEED. we are not actually sure what made him bleed, but the administration was worried and sent the little girl home. The felt that it was important for the little girl and her parents to know that this was not OK. That made me feel better, because I was worried that she would keep ganging up on him. Previously, we had a lot of trouble with a little boy hitting Sophia frequently at school. They eventually moved him to the bigger classroom with BIGGER kids, and he eventually left.

All in all, we spent about 2 hours at school. He are a few picture of him having fun at school and the end result.

Music time with Ms. Shannon, Gracie, Mikah, Maddie, Katilyn, and Sam.

Hugging his newest friend, Maddie. She is usually stone cold around new people. SHe has a look that could kill, but underneath that hard shell, she is very sweet. Here she is hugging Miles. She gave him about 8 hugs.
Here Miles is hugging Sam. Sam has an older brother named Miles.

All in all, there was good success in the end. We will se how July 2nd goes. It may be a whole nother story after vacation and withour mom there.

Sprinkler fun

The past week the weather has been REALLY too hot to enjoy. So on Sunday, we broke out the sprinklers and had a great time. Miles was enthralled with the sprinklers. To start out with his pants/swim shorts were just a little too big. So we had to change into slightly smaller ones so he continued to have something on.





Sophia was sizing up the neighbors slip in slide. She had a great time playing on it. Thanks for sharing Matson family.

Chocolate ice cream and party dresses!

Chocolate ice cream and party dresses should never be in the same sentence, let alone occur at the same time. Somehow, Sophia managed to keep the beautiful dress that GG bought nice and clean. Ms. Kelly came around and continued to wipe the girls hands and ice cream cones to try to keep everything clean and she did a great job. Thanks Ms. Kelly!

Dance Party!!!!

This is footage of the actual dance and how crazy everything was during the dance.

It was fun to watch, but boy did those kids wear me out!!!

1st Dance

I just LOVE this picture. Sophia and Miles were dancing together. He was so excited that she wanted to include him in the fun. The smile on his face just says SO much about how much he loves being and her school and then just being with HER.

Then he decided, that was enough nice guy, and began to act like a true brother. He began to untie her dress.

Party Man

Miles was in his party attire for Sophia's graduation. He was only one-uped by the grandpa wearing the fake tuxedo shirt, brown shorts, white socks and black shoes. Sorry, no pictures of that. Miles had a great time with Sophia.

Girlfriends

Here is the picture of Sophia and Bela (pronounced bay la). Sophia believes that they are twins. They do look pretty cute together.


Sophia and Lilly

Head and Shoulders

In pre-K, the kids are made of all differnt heights and shapes. The 1st 3 girls to the left are ALL in pre-K and either 4 or 5 years old. Kira (on the Left) is about Sophia's height and size. A little intimidating if you ask me.
Here are more pictures of the height difference, some of the kids are head and shoulders above Sophia.
Sophia had her 1st (of many) graduation and PROM on june 5th. It was strange to see so many parents acting as if this may be the only graduation that they may get to see. Too many presents and cards with cash. No for our daughter, we will only pay out when she recieves her Ph. D.

Diaper Cake

Our friend Joy and Mike are having a baby and Sophia and I made a Diaper Cake to take to the shower. Sophia was originally a little confused and asked if we could eat it. It was a big hit at the party. It was a lot of fun to make and a unique gift that no one else had brought. If you are interested in some simple instructs you can e-mail me.

This boy is trouble!!!

You can just see the look on his face and how happy he is with himself. Miles enjoys being naked and running around the house. Usually this does not cause any problems, except for Justin. He thought, "riann lets him do it all the time, no big deal." Miles decided to really frustrate his dad on this particular day and while wearing no diaper, proceeded to go to his bookshelf and pee on all the books. There were many books lost in the great flood of 2008, but the top 2 pictures so Justin's method of drying.

Sophia Summer 2007 vs 2008

Summer 2007 compared to summer 2008. I think that she has not changed much, only gotten taller.

2007
2008
2008

pre-k dating

Sophia let us know recently that she was just getting tired of David. She said as follows:

"This is it, i told David that if he went back with Haley, that we were done. I am not going to have him come back again. I will not be his girlfriend any longer if he keeps this up."

At this point, I needed to check to see that this was actually my 4 1/2 year old and not my 14 1/2 year old. Wow, what is coming up may not be pretty.

mustaches

Sophia began to tell me about a boy in her class. Sometimes, i think that she gets ages confused, but for the most part she is usually correct. She was telling me about Jay is 6 years old and has a mustache. I kept asking her about this mustache. She said is was a real mustache and it was because he was 6 years old. However, her boyfriend David is only 4 or 5 and had a mustache, but it was only a milk mustache. seriously, when did little girls stop playing with barbies and start talking about facial hair???

BALLOONS, BALLOONS, BALLOONS

Right now, it looks like they are just going to balloon the artery instead of placing a stent. He is getting good enough blood flow right now and they would rather wait on the stent and just watch him instead of placing one now. This is good news, but we will need to wait until we see him and we can take him home before we can call this a successful trip.

waiting

waiting for the time to come to leave for the hospital sucks. There are kn0ts in my stomach, i cannot decide if i am hungry or just going to throw up. The minutes seem to tick by slowly, i am tired, but i doubt there will be much sleep tonight, just too much thinking about nothing and everything all at once.

I know that tomorrow will be a long and exhausting day, and we cannot wait for it to be over.

wish for us some sleep and less nervousness about the cath.

Cath countdown

Tomorrow is the big day. I actually think it is going to happen instead of all the other times that i just was not sure it we would get to have it done.

We are just ready for the cath to be done with and to have had everything go smoothly. We are slowly packing out items, making sure that we have plenty of items to keep him busy, when he is allow up and out of bed.

For now, the cath is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., we have to be there at 8:00, nothing to eat after 2:00 a.m. (including milk) and nothing to drink (clears) after 7:30. I think that we will actually have to sneak Sophia out of the house to make sure that he does not see her eating. This may be harder than keep him still for 6 hours after the cath. The cath is expected to take between 4-6 hours. This will of course be a long day. I will try to post tomorrow as the day goes on, but timing may just not work out. Please check the blog to keep an eye on us

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

the Taylor's

Mother's Day

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
— Dorothy Canfield Fisher

This just seems like the best quote that I have found recently regarding being a mother.

I did not really realize how important mothers day was until I became a mom and also gained a great relationship with my mom. I can think of numerous time I would (and still do) call for advise. Just another idea or looking for support for my idea. Someone to lend an ear, to listen to the frustrations and many joys of being a mother. It is really awesome to watch my mom with Miles and Sophia. To see their relationship grow so quickly and strong is wonderful. I do not remember having a great relationship with my grandmothers, so I value the relationship that Miles and Sophia can have with their grandmothers.

Miles heart defect and hospitalization brought my mom very close. Even at 29 years old, she did not want to see her daughter hurt and wanted to take away the pain. I assume that this is a common feeling of a mother. She continues daily to make the leaning unnecessary.

Mom, thank you for all that you do. I have learned so much from you and need your help daily.

Love always,
your daughter

countdown

It is May 6th, only one more week until the heart cath on May 13th. I actually think that it is going to happen this time instead of the previous 4 times where it was canceled. We are ready to get it over with and be done, but we just want a good outcome. We have known for a while that he had a kink in his Left proximal pulmonary artery. This is an important one and it takes the blood to the lungs. Therefore, we want to make sure that it continues to work well. Right now he is not symptomatic, but this is something to be handled before there is actually a problem. Right now, the only 2 concerned are that I think he is teething again and he usually spikes a high (103) fever with teething and his hemoglobin has been low. We had blood drawn yesterday, so we hope the numbers are better than 2 weeks ago (8.6) and normal is 11-13 for this age.

The heart cath will take between 4 and 6 hours. That is a really long time to wait. But, I do not want them to rush anything and Miles is a complicated kid anyway. Then he has to "sit still", yeah right, for 6 hours. Are you kidding me, 6 hours. So we are starting to pack the bag to keep the little guy entertained. We are getting pretty good at packing this bag, which also includes overnight stuff for us too, since this will be the 4th attempt at the heart cath and bronch.

Everyone is ready for the heart cath to be done and over. It is weighing heavily on us, especially my mom. My parents will continue to keep an eye on us and try to keep us sane while everything is going on. On Saturday, Justin's mom flies in for the week to help keep a watch on Sophia while everything is going on with Miles at the hospital. She will be taking Sophia to and from school and also staying with her while we are at the hospital.

I have been collecting stuff for Sophia and Miles goody bag. Miles is getting new matchbox construction cars and Sophia is getting a book of tattoos. It is always really hard on her when we have to be gone. I know that she is concerned that we will be gone a full month like before, and it is hard to reassure her that it will not be that way, even when you are not really sure.

We all continue to just move on and make it through the day. I do start to reflect back to the beginning days and get sad. It is just so hard to think of those days, I try not to think of them too often. Just remember to give your healthy kids a big hug for me today and prayers would be greatly appreciated.

love,
the ohio taylor family

Pulp therapy

If only this post was about oranges.

We thought that Miles had chipped his front tooth while jumping off of the couches and we were watching it for changes. Over the past few weeks, it has started to darken, so we decided to take him to the dentist.

Once there, they decided it need treated because it was actually decay. This is common in front teeth, per Dr. Tom. So they decided to wrap him up in a pappoose (as seen clearly in the 2nd picture) to complete this dental work. Once they got started, Dr. Tom realized that it was much more involve and quickly started bleeding. Therefore, Dr. Tom performed pulp therapy also known as a:

pulpotomy /pul·pot·o·my/ (pul-pot´ah-me) excision of the coronal pulp.

In otherwords, Miles recieved a root canal yesterday. They were surprised with how little pain he was in, but luckily we gave him antibiotics prior to the dentist to protect his heart.

The pictures below show how he is NOT HAPPY getting started for the treatment, i.e. eyes closed and red in the face in picture number one. He was even able to kick out of the leg portion of the pappoose, (they had never seen that happen before!)

He was worn out from all the time at the dentist and took a 3 hour nap once we got home. They did a great job with him. I do have to say, I am glad that I am NOT a pediatric dentist.

The problem with upright/canister vacuums.

First, I love my canister vacuum. I did not grow up using a canister vacuum, but it is so much more convenient than a regular vacuum. However, you are always pulling something behind you. Sophia has always loved riding on the back of the vacuum, but Miles took it all to a new level. Today, while I was vacuuming, I could hear him calling my name, MOM, MOM. So I turned off the vacuum and look what i saw:




What a daredevil. But, it did make me laugh.

Basketball anyone???

Miles thought that it might be fun to try a pick-up game of b-ball at the park the other day. The littel girl in the picture, Gracie, did not appreciate it and walked away with the ball. Miles then took a different ball to the actual basketball courts thinking that he could find someone else to start a game. As you can see, Sophia joined it. Who do you think won????

Butterflies and Trains

The Franklin Park Conservatory had their exhibit of trains and butterflies. They were 2 different exhibits and the butterflies continue until September. We highly recommend seeing the butterflies. Sophia enjoyed looking from afar, but did not want one the butterflies to touch her. However, Miles jumped right in and almost squeezed this butterfly to death. You can see how different the kids are, Sophia will take her time to observe and Miles just goes. We can hardly stop him. The last 2 pictures are the kids enjoying the trains. Each child watched quietly until the trains came around.

After seeing the trains, we had to get our own motorized Thomas set from www.craigslist.org

So far the kids love it too, but Sophia gets a little freaked out when there are 2 trains on the track. She is sure that they are going to crash.

sweet and innocent

These are a few pictures that we took at the Conservatory a few weeks back.

This shirt (I still live with my parents) looks really good on a 1 y/o.
They held hands as they walked out of the building. Sometimes, they really do love each other.
Don't Move
Trying to show her summer freckles that are starting to come out.
Swing in circles with grandpa herb.

Parenthood

Tonight the kids were overly tired from the fresh air and playing at the park (pictures to come later). They wanted to go to sleep, but not really, atleast not until the other one fell asleep first. Justin took Miles and I read to Sophia. This is usually how it happens each night. Sophia will push all of Justin's button and frequently loose books.

So Miles was not going to sleep and had worked Justin pretty hard in the attempts to get him to sleep. Sophia was actually reading very well, so when Justin asked to switch, I did not think much of it.

Miles was refusing to take the milk before bedtime, but it was slightly warm. I refreshed it with ice cold milk and he promptly (in 5 minutes) fell asleep.

I returned to Sophia's room where they were still reading.

Sophia: "Wow, that did not take long."
Mom: "he just wanted fresh milk."
Sophia: "all you had to do was get cold milk."
Mom: "yes"
Sophia: "that's it??"
Dad: "Yes, Sophia, that's all mom had to do. Now stop rubbing it in."

Sibling Rivalry

Sophia and Miles are becoming good friends and enemies.

The other night, Sophia and Miles were on the couch bouncing. This is a common activity in our house. Next, Miles decided he is going to climb over the arm of the couch to the side table. I began my counting:
mom: "one"
miles: "ttwwoo"
mom: "three, miles get your leg back down."

This works once, but then he tries it again and we count again.

Next, Sophia encourages her parenting skills,
"mom, put him on the naughty step. Come on, put him on the naughty step."

Boy, this is going to be fun to watch. And no, he did not need the naughty step yet.

Sleep training- Part 2

I am glad to report that in the long run, the parents won the game of survivor.

That night was a particularly long night, but each night has gotten SO much better. Last night, Miles even slept for 11 hours with one interruption for 15 minutes and then took at 3 hour nap.

So this is what a good night sleep feels like??

We could get used to this!