Baby I -- all smiles
She is off and running now...

I went out tonight, which is weird all in itself. It felt odd leaving Stel and the kids at home but I knew they could handle it. met up with a girlfriend and we went for dinner then to see Jann Arden. The concert was great, she is a great entertainer and just so funny. Why is it then that even though I was enjoying myself, I kept thinking of: I wonder if the kids have had dinner/ or did they eat it, then later, I wonder if Baby I was put to bed yet, how is S doing, is he comfortable, Is B in bed yet and so on... I did have a good time, everything is perfectly fine at home and ˆwonder when I will do it again?

We thought today was casts off day for S but no such luck, we'll try again in another month, poor guy - they are so uncomfortable and hot,but on the upside, he can sit up now so yipeeee
So I thought this water play thingy looked really coolbut maybe its just not for her!!! there just isn't enough room to swim...

Life has been busy and life is coming under control and our home is becoming our home again. It feels so good to be able to lead our "normal" life again!! We are exhausted and keep finding things we have to do or want to do. The ceilings look great, so much better than before.
B was quite sick for a couple weeks but is feeling much better and was back to school this week. Since the weather has been improving we've been out playing hockey with him ever night!
S is very sick right now, sure hope he will begin to feel better very soon. He has been doing quite well with his cast and has been doing quite well until he got sick this past week.
Baby I as become a very busy little girl. She loves to climb, especially onto the compuer desk to watch the pictures!!

Hi, here we are again....
We will be trying to paint the house possibly thursday and/or friday morning (or saturday if we need too) and picking up the moving truck friday mid-day to move back into the house. So if anyone is bored and wants to drop by.......

S is doing quite well considering he cannot really move or do all that much. Baby I was so happy to finally be able to be on the bed with S here in the picture she is giving him lots of kisses.

We are staying at our very awsome friends right now, their home of six is now a huge home of 11!!! We have had our fun.... Suzanne and I ventured into the toilet with an Auger to try fishing a flushed fisher price little person through to the sewer! Thanks guys its very much appreciated - I don't go and get Augers for just anyone!

B went to the first Canucks vs Dallas hockey game, he had a great time!!! Way to go Canucks for moving on to the next round --- Hooray

Baby I during her EEG. She looks like such a big girl sitting there!! She did such a great job, even fell asleep when she was supposed too.

We had a long 9 hour wait while S was in surgery. Amusing her was not always the easiest, but she did enjoy listening to her music!! She had lots of fun wandering around and buying a balloon

Well thats about all i've got right now, cheers

S is doing quite well. We are hoping to get out of hospital Thursday now so that will be nice.

He is no longer able to eat due to some complications ofremoving a device from his chest. The wires were attached around an artery, the vagus nerve and to the vocal cord and the vocal cord is now not working on one side. we are hoping this is not permanent, but for now and the next many months for certain he will be on his feeding pump, poor guy . Stel and I went searching through the storage unit looking for his feeding pump and found it!!! We were feeling very good about ourselves for it felt like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sadly, it is not working properly, apparently from lack of use so I had to send it out for repair, sure hope that it is an easy fix and not incredibly expensive. I guess the good thing is we figured this out before we were out of hospital and desperate!!

We are all a bit tired, but it looks like the roofers should be putting a new roof on the house this week, keep your fingers crossed. Once they are done the inside guys can begin. We are so glad there are plans for repairing, but it sure has taken a lot out of all of us.

B and Baby I are doing very well, but I think they will be doing much better once we get out of hospital and have some space and freedom again. B loves school here but gets bored in the afternoons and Baby I wants to visit the nurses whenever possible!!!

S had a pretty good day today. He is having some problems with some antibiotics so hopefully that will resolve quickly. He has to go back into the OR saturday, but that should be quick and done within an hour.

B really enjoys going to school here at the hospital, they really challenge him so he's sure been happy with school, but he was bored this afternoon so we'll have to get him outa here and having some fun over the weekend!!

Baby I loves the attention from all the nurses, especially when they take her out and around!!

Canucks lost tonight in game 2 of the playoff's, sure hope they are back and ready to play for sunday's game.

We think we may be able to leave tuesday, yipee, still working on where we will be headng though. Our house should be getting a new roof this week coming up , then the contractor should be able to get in and repair the ceiling everywhere. We are praying this will happen early in the week so we can get in the house soon. its been a long time!!

Hope all is well with you

Hi Again,

S has had a pretty good day today!! He has been awake and rather smiley - some smiles are from withdrawl from morphines but hey he is smiling.

Not sure when we might be heading out of here yet but its great that he is now awake!

Stel and B went to the first playoff Canucks game. They had a great time, can';t believe it went into 4 overtimes though!! they didn't get back to the hospital till after 1:30 am - they were both very tired happy guys today!!

Goodnight

Happy Birthday S

S is 10 today, wow I just can't believe 10 years old!
And another birthday spent in the hospital.

S is fighting to recover from his surgeries as well as heal from the pnemonia, so again today he didn't really wake up. we did see him open his eyes 2 times for maybe a couple minutes, but nothing was really registering. His breathing was not as laboured today so that is good. Another anti-biotic was added and we are hoping it works wonders for him.

Cheers from BC Childrens

Well Hi

Further to yesterday's bad day the night just got worse!

S needed another blood transfusion and now also has pnemonia. Sadly recovery is again tough for him, but on he fights!!!

Happy Easter Monday

Happy Easter To All.

S had his surgery this past Wednesday. All seems to have gone well - He has had pain issues and today the epidural has been turned off so today is rough. He now also has a fever so we are just hoping for no infection!!!! Poor guy, its tough right now - but he is a fighter.

We are all tired, but Baby I and B are doing very well considering.
No news on our house problems but we are still hoping.

Well S will be turning another year older in the hospital again this year!!! He will be 10 on Tuesday, I can't believe he is going to be TEN!!

Happy Easter

Life is a bit challenging for our family right now - We go on for them (and B too but he does not love the camera!!!!!!)

Well another weekend is coming to an end - and what a weekend it was!!! All was going well until Saturday dinner time!!! All of a sudden as we were getting ready to go out we heard this monsterous crash/banging sound -- this is what we found
All we are so relieved about is no one was under it. Baby I likes to play in that area, thank Goodness no one was hurt

Sooo Sunday was spent filling a U-Haul and putting our house into A Storage unit. We are not quite done, but almost (I hope!!!)

I guess after we finish up monday, we will be looking for a new place to live, oh my, Hope we can find something before S goes in for surgery 4th of April.

Hockey tournament is OVER later today YOOOHOOO
B is having a great time with the tournament but it sure will be nice to have a few months now with no hockey practice and early Saturday morning games. B has done very well this year and truly loves being goalie and defence. I hope he is with some of the boys from this year - he has really enjoyed them!!! He's in goal today so here's hoping he does well for this last game!!

S has had some fun!!!! Man that was a pain to clean up, he just shredded it up

Baby I had great fun with S's supply delivery!! Poor baby I was very sad - there was double the boxes and we kept putting them away - so she decided she wasn't moving from the top and hopefully we would leave the rest for her to play on!!! If you look past her, you can see her drawing on the wall!!
Baby I loves her baby einstein sign language dvd --
This is how I found her watching it the other morning - sitting on her toy box a few inches away from the tv!!!

A very very wet weekend is coming to a quick end.

B had his last official hockey game of the season (just a week tournament next week still to go) Way to go B ... He was in goal against their biggest rivals. He made some amazing saves, he is a natural in goal - much to my dismay!!!! I know the boys coaches were hoping to get bragging rights for the summer......

From there we headed to B's soccer tournament. Soccer is now officially over for this season. (you can actually see the rain if you make the picture bigger - you can also see b's goal kick!) It poured and came down like I haven't seen in forever, but the boys sure didn't seem to notice! They did great both games and todays were cancelled thank goodness. You know the rain is bad when the coaches and ref's are using an umbrella and are still soaked right thru!!
Stel had been in the back yard and did not remember to close the baby gate, so when I went a looking for baby I, she was hard to find!! She was out on the back deck looking for her daddy!!!

S had a so so weekend, he doesn't love it when there are lots of games all weekend!! He is feeling better from having a tough time battling his cold. When he is doing well he is the healthiest of all of us, but since he is having such a tough time with his hip he just cannot fight off all the viruses going around!!! Looks like surgery will be the first week of April, wow that is sure getting close. Just have to mention how amazing his brother is again, when S doesn't look great he sings s's favorite song to get a smile from him, no matter what he was doing - way to go B!

Baby I and things she does.... Oh the things she gets into!!!!
baby I loves to take S for walks now. She just realized a few days ago that she could hold on and push her big brothers wheelchair and then she could walk. She now loves to hold our hands and walk, she isn't quite stable enough to go one handed but is gettint there
She is a happy girl here giggling

Another day Another dilema

Well its almost 5 am and i can't sleep, I figured i should get up for a while so I don't wake Stel too since i have been tossing for hours.

Both Baby I and S see the same private physio and both see her twice a week, for sanity reasons it would be great if they could share days but unfortunatley that isn't the case now - hopefully one day! Anyhow, after last week I was feeling she was expecting too much from baby I in too short a time. Last week B came for the appointment and heard how upset Bab I was and even he tried to get her to stop, so yesterday when he found out she was going to physio while he was at school, he was dissapoined he was not going to be there to "help" her!! He is so great. As I drove there I kept thinking about what I would say. Well we were a little late as I had said we would be and physio was busy on the phone anyways so baby I was crawling around and found a pink balloon. Holding the pink balloon the entire physio session (and in the car, to childrens with S and around the house for the rest of the day) she hardly cried at all!! Physio was not quite as tough on her and she was not quite as stubborn!
Baby I loves to hug her brothers, especially S We also had an appointment at Childrens with S for orthopedics. He as been going down hill and we know the hip is the reason, so we were prepared to argue why we think they need to fix it. The last time he was seen the dr. was adament he did not want to "fix" it again. For those that do not know S has had severe issues with his right hip since he had them fixed 2 years ago. The left worked beautifully but the right has been re-opened 7 times due to problems caused after the 2 major surgeries. Bone grafting had been done but it never took and the metal plate had to be removed and a much bigger one placed. Each time he ended up with an infection in the site after surgery as well as major bleeds from accidentally hitting 2 arteries. There are only 2 options left, one which we wanted and thought we would have to really push for, but he agreed to do - if it does not take we have to do the last option which we DO NOT want . So great right, we should be so happy right, well no, the recovery this time will be significantly more extreme. Stel is totally for it still and now I am concerned if S can handle it. He cannot go on how he is I totally see that, but this recovery will be a test of will and determination seperate from putting him through another big long surgery (either way he has to have big surgery though)
So I am awake! and probably will be exhausted today!!