Daycare Fundraiser

I am co-chair of the fundraising committee for Claire's daycare and yesterday we held our largest event of the year - a food and bake sale. Last year, this event raised just over $1000. My goal this year was to raise $1500 and I am glad to report we did it!!! To give parents incentive to participate, I put together an Easter gift basket to raffle off to all those that participated.

Claire really wanted to win this!! I let her do the honours of pulling the winning ticket. Here she is contemplating what she would do with it if she won.

Sadly, she did not win. She took the news alright.

We've got something special for her for Easter anyway.

Sophie Says Quack Quack

Claire was amusing Jacob by thumping Sophie. This made him laugh. Apparently Sophie the Giraffe is also a duck!

Issue with Chest Hair

Oh the funny things that Claire says...

Claire saw Daddy shaving this morning and asked what he was doing. He told her and she watched him shave his face and she thought it was hilarious. She then went back and told him that he needed to shave his stomach (really meaning to say his chest).

She seems to have an issue with his chest hair as last week when Daddy woke her up for breakfast, he had his shirt off, and when Claire woke to see him, she refused to let him pick her up. She told him to go get on a shirt first.

Hazards

One of the dangers from playing in the driveway - scraped knees. Claire was playing hopscotch but needs more practice with the hopping.

Poor baby. Isaac put on 2 disney princess bandaids for her but that still didn't cheer her up. She was attached to us pretty much the rest of the night.

You should have seen the way she was walking around the house too. It was as if she had a wheel barrow in between her legs. She wouldn't straighten her legs because she complained of the pain. It was a sight to see and hard to keep a straight face in front of her.

We will continue to pray for a proper backyard with green lush grass!

Dress-up and Wagon Rides

After nap we headed over to Marc & Joanne's for dinner. While dinner was getting ready, the kids watched Toy Story 3. Ryan was in full costume.

Claire wanted to get in on it too and dressed up as Woody.

Jacob followed suit too.

This was Jacob's first time over at Marc & Joanne's place. I think it's safe to say he likes it here.

After dinner, Claire gave Adam a wagon ride.

Oh no, puppy down!

And then it was Claire's turn.

We had lots of fun and can't wait to see them again in a few weeks!

While Claire Sleeps

We were in Whitby for a birthday party today. After the party we went to grandma & grandpa's to give Claire a nap before we headed out to Marc & Joanne's for dinner.

Jacob was very excited that Claire was finally sleeping and had Mommy and Daddy to himself.

Then he heard Claire babbling to herself upstairs - oh no! Just go to sleep Claire.

Yeah, she's asleep guys! Now you can focus only on cute little me!

As grandma & grandpa are on vacation, Jacob took the opportunity to sit in grandpa's favourite spot on the couch.

He kind of blends into the couch.

And now, for serious t.v. watching.

Claire the Menace

While I was filming Jacob's attempts to roll over, Claire almost rolled over him a few times. I just love her facial expressions. That's our little angel.

Rolling

Jacob is soo close to rolling over.

He just needs to get his one leg over and he's good. He already has his shoulders fully turned.

I helped him over onto his belly.

Look at the amazement in his facial expression.

Starting to Jump

I swear to you he was having a good time jumping before I started filming.

T.V. in the Kitchen

Claire`s new thing is watching T.V. (or the laptop rather) as she has her bedtime snack. Well lately she`s also been hard to get going in the mornings so Daddy bribed her by bringing the laptop for breakfast too. Jacob even liked watching.

So we are adding a T.V. in the kitchen to our wish list when we build our dream home...someday...one day!

Bravery Beads

The Bravery Bead project is for children in selected programs at Sick Kids. This program allows each child to collect a different bead for each procedure or event while visiting the hospital. The collection of beads represents the child’s unique and personal journey through treatment.

I finally got a chance to put Jacob`s bravery beads together. Here they are laid out on the floor. As you can see, it`s quite long.

The beads represent the following:

15 Bloodwork / Special Poke
1 Cardiac Catheter
1 CCU Admission
2 Central Line / PORT / PICC Line Insertions
1 Central Line / PORT / PICC Line Rejection
10 Dressing Changes / Bandage Removals
1 Emergency / Ambulance Ride
10 Infusions (Morphine Pain Control)
1 Inpatient Admission
2 Intubation / Extubation
4 IV Starts
2 NPO (Nothing Passes Orally)
1 Pacemaker
1 Satellite visit / Move Up / Transfer to Community Hospital
2 Surgeries
2 Sutures / Staples Inserted / Suture Care
2 Sutures / Staples Removed
8 Tests & Scans
1 TPN (IV nutrition)
1 Transfusion
1 Transition Step-Down
5 Tube Insertion / Catheter / Chest / NG / GTube / NP
7 Tube / Removal / Catheter / Chest / Drains / NG / Gtube / VAC / NP / Wires Out
2 WOW / Special Accomplishment / Recognition
225 Blood Thinner Injections

That`s over 300 beads!! This doesn`t even include the prep work he received at Markham-Stouffville hospital where he was transported from to Sick Kids or the at-home nursing care he received a week and a half after he was out of hospital.

To memorialize this for Jacob, I put them in a shadow box. The centre red beads are all of the blood thinner injections I gave him at home. They will be a constant reminder, along with his scars, of his brave journey in life.

He is truly our little miracle.

He can continue to collect these as he will continue to have appointments with the hospital however I think I want to close these off and say we are good!

Laughing Baby

We haven`t posted many videos of Jacob yet so here`s one!

5 Month Milestone

Jacob is 5 months old today - Wow! The greatest achievement Jacob has made this past month is improving his blood clot from his heart surgery. Giving him needles twice a day since the beginning of December has been very hard. We're so happy he is doing so much better! Over the past month he continues to work on his gross motor skills. He has yet to roll over or sit up well on his own but he is getting there. He gets stronger everyday and is putting on the pounds. Here is his new monthly photo:

His hair has gotten so long that it's falling over to the side now as compared to last month. I think he needs a hair cut but Daddy doesn't agree. Here are some other cute shots:


He looks like he's dancing in this one.

He's pretty easy going and has been talking, smiling and laughing a lot more.

He is ready for solids. Only 4 more weeks to go. I can't wait!

And the slideshow from months past:

Not a Repeat

Nope - he hasn't slept through the night again the past 2 days. It was a 1 time wonder, boohoo for me. Now that he is going to bed earlier (since we can put down at 7 as we no longer have to wait to give him his shots), he is now waking up 2 times at night to feed!! So he'll sleep from about 7:30 to midnight, get up for a feeding, then sleep till about 4 or 5am and then get up for a quick snack and will go back down till 6:30-7am. My sleepbook says he's textbook. I like that he goes down earlier but getting up twice is not fun for me!

Slept through the Night

Jacob slept through the night! I put him down at 7pm and he didn't wake up until 5am! I kept getting up to check on him and eventually went to pump some milk at 4am and am wondering if he heard me doing that so he woke up. Let's hope it's a repeat!!
Here he is all cheerful the next day.

Swimming Lessons

Claire is starting swimming lessons again today. She's really excited about it because she wants to be like her cousin Ryan who also takes swimming lessons. When we were at the Disney store, we bought her a little mermaid bag and towel.

She's not happy with her swimsuit though. She told me it was too tight and wants a new one.

We'll have to check with Daddy though since he's really picky about how much skin she can show.

She did really well at her first lesson. When we got to the pool she wanted to go in right away but we had to wait until her class started. The water was warm and I was impressed that the teacher actually tried to keep the group together and had a structured lesson, i.e. telling us what to do with the kids and singing songs. Last time we signed up they just let us do whatever we wanted with them in the pool.

Anyway, so far so good. Claire is also very happy that there are no sharks in the pool. Her older brother jokingly told her there would be. I was not impressed by him!

225

Just look at all of the needles we went through. I worked it out and since he was put on his blood thinners, he received 225 injections alone!

Our Sick Kids

We had a busy day today. Both Claire and Jacob had their follow-up appointments at Sicks Kids. They both had ultrasounds and clinic appointments. Claire was scheduled for the morning and Jacob in the afternoon so we spent the entire day there. The day went by quickly and the kids were in great moods. In summary, all things are pointing in the right direction for both of them. Claire's ultrasound showed no signs of tumor growth and Jacob's ultrasound showed that his blood clot has reduced in size so we no longer need to give him the blood thinner injections - Yippee!!!! Here are some photos as we waited for their ultrasounds. I dressed them in their Lil brother and Big Sister shirts.

Both of the kids have had a few ultrasounds before - Claire with about 6 or 7 as she's been going every 3 months since she was 1 for her hemihypertrophy and Jacob has had a few since his heart surgery at 3 weeks old.

Jacob was getting a little worried about it.

And then big sister Claire gave him some reassurance that everything would be OK.

These are our sick kids and we love them!

Love is all we need to get by.

Problem Solved?

We figured out the problem with the potty...it's not a princess potty so that's why Claire can't use it. She found a solution though - stickers!

She decorated the whole thing.

Now it's ready to use, right Claire?

NO!

Almost Like the Real Disney?

Since Grandma, Grandpa, uncle Marc, auntie Joanne, Ryan and Adam are at Disney World on vacation and we couldn't go, we took our kids to the Disney store today!! Hey, what they don't know won't hurt them!! We got Claire a princess camera and some t-shirts. Here she is posing in some. Her tinkerbell shirt.

Her rapunzel shirt.

In between changes, Claire had me explain what vacation meant. I told her and I think she realized what she was missing and that Ryan and Adam were going to the big princess castle.

Hey boys, if you're reading, let's not tell Claire about the princess castle, OK?