Cats Land on Their Feet!

Thankfully cats usually land on their feet. This was especially lucky for poor Thunder (Hannah's kitten) today because Hannah decided to toss him out of a window. He fell 12 feet down to the ground and hit a concrete patio. Not only did she make this interesting decision, but she chose not to tell anyone about it until 6 hours later when it was time to go to bed. Poor Kyle had to go searching for a BLACK cat in pitch dark. Thankfully Thunder was found, interestingly enough right where he was dropped, and does not appear to be hurt although he has been quite needy ever since being brought back into the house. Thankfully for us, Hannah did not fall out the window in her attempts which could have easily happened as I'm sure the cat DID NOT go willingly out the window!

Truly it seems as if there is never a dull moment around here. I can only imagine what it will be like once we have more kids running around that Hannah can con into joining in her antics! Still, I really want to get more kids into the house. Peer models, even if they aren't completely typical, have got to be a good thing for her!

Surgery went well and for once there were no post op complications at all! YAHOO! The rest of the day after surgery was nerve wracking however because Hannah is one of those kids who gets uber hyper instead of lethargic when she's not feeling 100% and the post op instructions were to keep her quiet and no running, jumping, or climbing. UM, YEAH. . . . . We failed ALL of those post op instructions within the first hour home! I'd just like to see that doctor try to keep a wired off of anesthesia 5 yr old still. Trust me, it's not happening with my kid.

Hannah goes back to school on Thursday and for me it can't come soon enough. This break, without the structure of school, has been hard on us all. In fact, Hannah even went as far as to write a "run away" note to Kyle and I. Thankfully she hand delivered it so there was no chance for her to put her plans into action! Apparently she was planning on going to Indiana to live with Mamaw and Papaw! Speaking of notes, notes abound here recently. Hannah writes notes about EVERYTHING. She writes me notes to ask me questions, to pseudo apologize, to announce run away plans, etc. I think I'm going to start taking pictures of each of them so that I'll always have a record of them. The run away note seems to have disappeared and that makes me sad. It was my favorite! :)

Surgery

Tomorrow we hope that the 3rd time's a charm. Hannah goes in for her 3rd set of ear tubes. This time they will be permanent ones. While I'm relieved to be getting them and be done with the 3 ear infections we've had in the month since the first tube fell out, I'm worried too. She doesn't come out of anesthesia well. She's combative and crazy. It's scary to see. She's also had some sort of post operative complication after both of her previous ear tube surgeries. Neither one has been horribly serious, but bad enough to land us in the ER both times shortly after we had been discharged from the surgery center. Thankfully, Kyle can take the day off and it's near the weekend so if something does come up I won't be handling things alone.

As far as the behavior front goes, Christmas break has been rough. I guess it is to be expected since her routine is off, but this is the absolute worst it's ever been. I'm actually praying for an acceptance to the severe behavior program at this point where only weeks ago I was still wondering if we'd even accept the spot if they said she qualified.

On the foster care front we are STILL waiting on our finger prints to clear and now we just found out that one of the states we previously lived in is asking for yet more paperwork in order to clear our background checks-something about a new child protection law that recently went into effect. On a positive note, a nice lady from freecycle gave me a big bag of infant crib bedding, some baby toys, and a bassinet today.

Photo Notes: These pictures were from Thanksgiving Day. We spent the day together as a family putting up Christmas decorations, eating a wonderful dinner, and remodeling our guest bathroom.

Deja Vu

All day today I felt like I was reliving the events of a year ago. Hannah had her surgery to have tubes placed in her ears this morning and like last year (that time she had her tonsils and adenoids out as well as the tubes put in) she was a model patient and recovered much quicker than was anticipated. We were sent home a half hour after she woke up and she was doing great. We kept it low key for the afternoon, but when she woke up from her nap we could feel the heat radiating off of her body without even having to touch her. That was NOT a good sign. Her discharge instructions stated that if she got a fever of over 101 degrees then we were to call the office for further instructions. There was no doubt her fever was over 101 degrees, but we took her temperature anyway and it was 103.4 degrees. All I could think of was, "NOT AGAIN!" This was exactly what happened last year except her temperature didn't spike until the next day instead of just later on the same day. After consulting with the ENT we were told to take her to the local pediatric hospital to the ER. He worried that she had post op pneumonia again since she was coughing like crazy as well as had the fever. Off we went to the ER thinking that this was EXACTLY like last time and wondering why on earth Hannah couldn't seem to make it through a routine surgery without getting pneumonia. At the ER they thankfully determined that Hannah does not have pneumonia (at least not yet), but instead has a post surgical bacterial infection of some kind and most likely a cold as well. We were sent home with an antibiotic and orders to monitor her fever and check back in with her doctor if anything changes. Now she is sleeping peacefully and the Tylenol and Motrin seems to be keeping the fever in check. It was quite a day, but Hannah actually did great. We had many comments made to us about what a good girl she was being. She didn't even cry when it was time to head back to the operating room! They let me go back with her and hold her on my lap while she breathed in the gas from the mask until she fell asleep. That whole process was actually quite pain free for her. I was a bit nervous and it was hard to see her slip from consciousness, but I was glad I was able to be there to keep her calm. Please keep Hannah in your prayers while we hope that whatever this infection is that it is able to be treated with the antibiotic and that she is back to feeling herself tomorrow because she has a birthday party that she desperately wants to attend on Saturday and she'd be devastated if she couldn't go!

Busy

I apologize for my extended absence from the blog, but I've been pretty busy lately. The biggest thing that has cut into my blog writing and reading time is that my sister, dad, and I have started a business together! Now, after about a month of hard work, we are up and running. Those of you who know me/us in real life know that we LOVE to take photographs so we've started a candid photography business to take photos of birthday parties, kids sporting events, family reunions, wedding receptions, etc. We're not doing formal portraits or weddings, but are available for most other types of photography. We've got a website up and running with examples of our work and a selection of prints for sale. I know most of you who read this are scattered throughout the country, but for those of you in central Indiana or Rhode Island please consider us the next time you need photography done at an event and wherever you are located, go check out our website the next time you need some new art to decorate your home or office.

Candid Captures Photography LLP

http://candidcaptures.zenfolio.com/

Besides getting the business up and running, Sally the Wonder Dog has been keeping me hopping. Since arriving in our house we've learned quite a bit about our new wonder dog. The biggest thing is that she's seriously athletic for a little dog and can jump our 4 ft privacy fence without much effort at all and does so routinely. So now, even though we have a fully fenced back yard, I have to take her out to go potty on a leash which is pretty much a pain. We've also learned that the poor thing suffers from separation anxiety and HAS to be right next to someone pretty much all the time. As I type this she's laying on my lap and licking my hand as I try to write! She's proving much more difficult than our previous dogs to crate train and she could pretty much care less about food, treats, or toys so we don't have a lot of leverage up our sleeves for training rewards. The good news is that she's SUPER sweet and loyal and loves us all already and we already love her. Her insistence that she's a lap dog even though she's over 30 lbs means she works quite well as a weighted blanket/lap pad. She also puts up with an amazing amount of rough hugs, pulls, and squeezes from Hannah. And, although she doesn't like it, she remains calm whenever Hannah wigs out or has a huge meltdown and even sometimes goes up to her and tries to snuggle with her in the middle of it. So far, Hannah hasn't been very receptive about Sally trying to help calm her during a meltdown and Sally using gets hit for her troubles, but I have hopes for this scenario in the future. If I could just find a treat Sally really loved to give her every time she tries to go to Hannah when she's upset . . . . . Any advice from dog owners out there about treats for a dog that really could care less about food would be welcome.

We've also been working hard to get Hannah's ears cleared up, but we've been unsuccessful. In fact, her ears are currently worse than they've been in the past month because now she's got a nasty cold and is full of snot again. So, we're going with surgery again to have tubes put in. The procedure is scheduled for this Wednesday. Prayers that Hannah tolerates the procedure and the anesthesia would be welcome. I'm pretty scared about the possibility of post op pneumonia again like last time. I know she'll be under a shorter amount of time than last time, but I'm still worried.