Soccer and Family Fun Day!

Here are some pictures of Casey's first soccer game and the Family Fun Day at the fairgrounds. Casey had a great time at his first game. He's on a team with some kids from his kindergarten class. He loves playing soccer!
Then we went to the fairgrounds to Family Fun Day. We went with my friend Jenny and her son Gabe and a friend of Jenny's and her little boy. Jenny is actaully the one who found Cody's spina bifida on the ultrasound. She also did my ultrasound the day we found out we were having twins! The day we almost had to peel Matt off the floor in the ultrasound room! Jenny and I have become good friends since Cody's diagnosis that day.
Enjoy the pics!

Connor's Turn!

We took Cody and Connor to see their ENT today. Cody had to have his ear tubes checked and Connor had his first appointment to see if he needed tubes.

On the way over, I told Matt if we weren't going to see the ENT today I'd be taking him to see the pediatrician. He was coughing and was warm. Well, guess what!?! Ear infection number 6 since November. So........next Friday he gets his tubes put in and his tongue clipped.

We've noticed Cody talking a lot more clearly since he got his tongue clipped and his tubes put in so we're hoping the same happens for Connor. He's a little harder to understand.

On another note, Connor now has a tent over his crib. He has mastered climbing out and was even trying to climb back in! So he's now tented in. It's really pretty neat! :) I'll have to post a pic! Why can't I think of this stuff to invent?

Casey has his first soccer game on Saturday. This is the first time he's played in this league. He's starting t-ball this spring too. He also joined a 4-H club. He's a clover bud. He had a great time when he went to his first meeting. Awana is almost over. There' s only 3 more weeks left of it.

Cody is still walking. He's even standing up at his walker and walking and standing up to the parallel bars! :) Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

That's it for us!

Great appointment for Cody!

Today we saw Cody's orthopedic surgeon. We had seen him back in November. At that point, he was just starting to walk.

He has not done any damage to his hips by walking which is good. Cody may or may not be a candidate for the surgery to put his hips in. He may have enough muscle function to hold them in. But then again, he may not have enough muslce function to hold them in. We could put him through all of that and it may not work so we're waiting to see. He won't have it past the age of 4. Probably between 3 and 4 from what he said today.

He said he has great balance while sitting so his hips being out are really affecting him! :) And of course he's walking with them out!

He was very happy with the progress Cody is making with his walking and his moving. A little while ago he was getting brave and even letting go for a few seconds while standing by the couch!

Thursday we go back to Columbus for Cody to get his ear tubes checked and to see about Connor getting them put in.

Back To Normal!

We are glad to have life back to normal around here after our trip to Children's! Cody had his follow up last Thursday from his surgery and the doctor thought his incision looked great. It's funny when we look at pictures of him now, his shunt was definetly blocked and making his head get bigger! You don't notice it because it's so gradual but he's all back to normal now!

The boys are talking up a storm! Connor is saying some colors now and they are both starting to put words together. Alice has them saying "Please, Thank You and Bless You." They are becoming little boys!

Casey is on spring break right now. He got new golf clubs today from Grandma and Grandpa. His trip to McDonalds was the hi-light of his day, though.

I get off work on Friday and Matt has a vacation day.......it's off to find Easter outfits for all 3 boys, dress shoes for Connor and soccer shoes and a jacket for Casey! Plus maybe an Easter dress for me????? We'll see if I'm still in the mood after getting that stuff!

Monday is Cody's next big appointment. We see the orthopedic surgeon about Cody's hips. When we went in November he was just really starting to walk so we need to see if his walking has done any damage and we need to do surgery or if we are going to leave them the way they are...time will tell!

Here's a link to a video of him walking:
http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w265/twins2707/?action=view&current=codywalkingapril2009002.flv

Thanks for keeping up with us!

We are home.......

What a week! We just got home late this afternoon. Cody did great with both surgeries yesterday. The nurses thought he was adorable! He wasn't as into them as they were into him! He did not need any pain meds until during the night and then only needed Tylenol and Motrin. The nurses said he did better than most of the big kids do! Connor and Casey are glad to have us home. They spent the week with mom, grandma and Alice. Casey enjoyed spending part of today with his friend, Clay.

Thanks for the prayers, e-mails and text messages. We are so thankful for all of those who care for Cody! He's certainly a trooper!

Cody's big adventure.......

We are on quite a ride here at Children's! Cody had a CT 2 weeks ago and it showed larger ventricles than 6 months ago. We were scheduled to get a follow up CT today (Thursday). Well on Monday he started vomiting and continued doing so on Tuesday. We got him in on Tuesday and they decided yes, he did need a shunt surgery.

So they admitted him and planned to do it yesterday. Well that all changed yesterday!

When the nurse practitioner was examining him yesterday she noticed his ear was still infected. We knew he had an ear infection because we'd had the twins to the pediatrician on Friday and they had ear infections. They were actaully scheduled to see about getting ear tubes on April 3rd.

Well Cody beat them to the punch!

They cancelled his surgery yesterday until we could get the ear stuff figured out. We saw the ent folks yesterday and they decided he needed tubes. So they scheduled that for yesterday. He obviously needs a revision soon. So they have decided to do both surgeries on Friday. I guess that's good in the regard that he'll only have to go under once. They just don't want him to have any infection in his body when they do the shunt surgery.

The ENT folks did not think he had as much infection and he had fluid. That makes me feel better that he is not 'infected' and that he will be okay for surgery in that regard.

So........Cody gets ear tubes and a shunt revision on Friday.

They ended up keeping him since he is indeed in shunt failure and want to watch him. As of now he's not having any 'symptoms' like vomiting or anything so he's early on in shunt failure.

Please keep him in your prayers!

Trip To Children's......

Yesterday was a big trip for us. Cody and Connor both needed CBC's and lead tests as part of their 2 year well checks. I decided since we were going to Children's anyway, we'd get it done there. So we did that first.

Then Connor had an X-ray of his spine........he has a dimple at the base of his spine. Thankfully, it is not spina bifida oculta. If it was we knew it was not causing him any trouble but we just wanted to rule it out. Cody's neurosurgeon read the x-ray for us so I'd know for sure.

Cody had his 6 month CT of his brain to check his shunt. Unfortunately, we have to go back in 2 weeks because his ventricles in his brain are larger than they were 6 months ago. We are praying that it's just the size they are going to be. If they have grown, it could be because his shunt is not working and he will surgery to revise his shunt. For those just joining our story, Cody had a shunt placed at 3 months of age and it was blocked (like it possibly is now) at 7 months of age. Since then he's been fine. Most kids with spina bifida need shunts because thier spinal fluid builds up in their brains. The shunt drains into thier bellies and causes no problems (unless it gets blocked..........) We go back in 2 weeks for another CT and another appt. I will post after that.

Otherwise, everyone is doing well. We're ready for spring so we can outside! Connor is really starting to talk and put two words together. Cody is hanging on to everything and walking around things! His PT is ordering him his very own walker this week! Casey is still doing well in kindergarten. We're very proud of him!

Matt's busy with ball games........The teams in his county are really good!

I'm loving our new wii, especially wii fit! I'm trying to lose my twin weight two years later!