Headshots

Caelan's first surgery

Caelan returned to Children's Hospital yesterday for his first ever surgery. Ashlyn has already had 2 general anaesthetics (heart surgery and g-tube), but Caelan has so far been lucky despite his rocky start to life. It has been known for quite some time that he needed tubes in his ears to help drain the build-up of fluid, especially in his right ear, and to hopefully help his speech and hearing. We got the call a couple of weeks ago and he was booked for September 8th! Perfect timing because Johnny and I had already booked the time off work and would be available to look after him and the two girls. My biggest worry was the fact that the surgery was in the afternoon and he had to fast from the night before. I thought this would cause major melt-downs, but he was fantastic. I kept him out of the kitchen while the girls ate their breakfast and then we went to the park to play before taking him to the hospital. We arrived for our 12:15pm check-in time and he happily played in the waiting room while we waited for our turn. I wished I had brought my cameral to take a picture of him in his cute little yellow gown, but I forgot. Johnny took the girls for lunch and played with them out in the hallway during our wait. Caelan was finally called to go at 2:30pm. I was able to take him into the OR and play bubbles with him while they started his IV. I was told by the aneasthetist that "although his (medical) chart is not quite as big as he is, it is still very impressive!". Not what you would expect from an otherwise healthy 2 year old coming in for a minor surgery I guess. They had difficulty starting his IV due to the number of scars he has on his hands from previous IVs but they were finally able to gain access on their last attempt. Once the meds were given, he was "out" immediately and I was escorted out of the room. I was told it would take 20 minutes to finish, but when I came back to the waiting room 15 minutes later, I had already missed the surgeon and Caelan was already in recovery. Despite Shaylah's pleas, she was not allowed to come in with me to see him, so I went alone. He was awake and crying desperately for a cuddle....which I was all to happy to give to him. He refused to eat the popsicle they offered, but did take a few sips of apple juice. We stayed for another 1/2 hour and we were out the door by 4:00pm. The 3 nurses he had (pre-admit, recovery and post-surgical care) were all nurses I used to work with many years ago when I worked on the surgical ward at the hospital. It was great to see such friendly and familiar faces! Today he is back to his old self. Running, laughing and causing trouble. You would never know that he had surgery yesterday!

Happy Birthday to my Babies!

Ashlyn is Two!

Ashlyn is my delicate little girl. She is constantly coming to me to kiss her "owies" and to make everything better. She is becoming more easy-going as she gets older and loves to laugh. She is quiet in her bed and I only ever know she is awake if I hear her moving in her bed....she never cries or makes noise, unlike her loud brother. Ashlyn loves to sing (songs that she makes-up) and bounces to the music whenever it is on. She is learning new words weekly now and has even started to put 2 words together. She has come to me a few times to let me know that her diaper needs changing, so I guess potty-training will be in the very near future. While she is still unsteady on her feet, she has amazing climbing abilities. She weighs 21 pounds and is wearing size 18 month clothes and size 4 shoes.

Calean is a BIG boy now!

Caelan has become such a big boy these days and he seems to be growing up overnight. He loves to cuddle, wear his mother's shoes, carry a bag around to put all his treasures in...and generally just wants whatever Ashlyn has in her hands. He goes to bed easily for his naps, but likes to talk to Ashlyn for quite a while before succumbing to sleep at night. He enjoys picking up rocks when we go for walks, he loves to be chased or tickled and he thinks the game of keep-away is the funniest game ever. He is wearing size 24 months clothes and size 5 shoes and weighs 27 pounds.

Both kids love to be tickled! (videos)

Just an update

I have no pictures to post because our computer has not been working for the past 2 weeks...we are hopefully getting it back today in working order! I thought I should write a little update on the kids so that I don't forget this stage they are going through. They will be 2 years old in only 2 weeks and I am not sure where the time has gone!

Ashlyn - continues to amaze me. This is a little girl that had a grade IV intra-ventricular hemorhage at birth and she is now walking and talking. Grade IV means that the bleed was so large that it leaked out of the ventricle and caused further damage to the white matter of her brain. There are no higher grades. We were initially told that she would be profoundly impaired and that we may need to make decisions surrounding "life vs quality of life". I am so glad that God chose another path for her. There are definitely signs of of her brain damage, but she continues to surpass all my expectations. She is still quite unsteady on her feet and falls frequently...she has more bruises and scrapes than any child I know, but it does not slow her down. She gets right back up and keeps going. Her strengths are definitely in her fine motor skills and cognitive skills. Her favorite phrase lately is "Oh No!" and she says it very frequently. Other new words include, shoes (for which she continues to have a fetish), milk, juice, nose, and others that I can't think of at this moment :). She finally knows the difference between her g-tube scar and her belly-button, she likes to give kisses and hugs and she is starting to walk up and down the stairs instead of crawl. She is becoming a very sweet little girl.

Caelan - is definitely all boy. He has become a bit of a bully toward his younger sister lately, which does not make me happy. He wants whatever she wants and pushes her out of the way to get it. He laughs if I scold him and he thinks everything in life is a big joke. He loves it when he sees a plane in the sky or hears a train. He now says "wooda" for "What's that?" and "hi", but the rest is all jibberish. He walks up and down the stairs, loves to rough-house with his big sister Shaylah and loves to eat. He is becoming such a big boy so quickly and has a very fun personality.