Change of Command

On Thursday Mike took command of a Field Artillery Battery of around 120 people. While I'm a little apprehensive about what this next year of command will bring to our lives I know it's been something that he had been looking forward to for a long time. When Mike left the career course in Summer of 2007 he had 2 options, he could have deployed immediately with a MiTT and then taken command soon after the deployment or move to Ft. Lewis. Since Mike had just returned to the US after a year long deployment in Iraq he opted for Ft. Lewis. Mike was preparing to take command at Ft. Lewis but Olivia's diagnosis and our move to North Carolina postponed that. We're both glad that our unexpected cross-country move has not prevented him from taking a battery command.

I was very nervous about the Change of Command ceremony. I hired a babysitter from care.com (great site) who had experience working with children with special needs and she was fantastic! She sat with us during the ceremony and kept Olivia occupied and quiet. Olivia stayed in her stroller during the receiving line (germs people!) and then the babysitter took Olivia to Mike's office during the reception. Olivia was very happy to be able to run around after having to sit still during the ceremony and she thoroughly enjoyed her time just playing with the sitter. Peter really enjoyed Mike's reception. He also decided to demonstrate that he can feed himself with a spoon and inhaled an enormous piece of cake. I really wish that I'd taken a picture of the reception room before people started eating and the cake was half gone. We also forgot to take a picture as a family so I made everyone change back into their nice clothes for a picture when Mike got home from work. Olivia was very proud to wear her "pretty dress" and visit daddy at work. She also really enjoyed wearing her butterfly tights. It was a little chilly here so I put 3 pairs of tights on her so that she wouldn't get cold, of course that made bathroom trips and diaper changes especially challenging but we made it.

Thanks to our friend Jimmy we have some pictures of the ceremony. You should be able to click on the first picture and then press play--if you're at work turn your speakers down there's music.

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Clinic Recap

Today we went to Duke for Olivia's clinic visit for the first time in TWO weeks. It was so nice to have last week off from all things medical. No matter how much I try to prep the night before, Wednesday mornings are always a mad dash around here. I have to get ready then get Olivia up and finish her breathing treatment and meds. My goal is to leave by 8 am but that never happens. During the mad dash to get everyone loaded up into the car I walked in to find this mess on the floor.



I'm fairly certain that Olivia got the cereal down from the pantry shelf but then Peter decided he wanted some as well and somehow the cereal ended up on the floor. As I walked in I saw Olivia scurry away, she knew she was guilty. Peter looks like he loves the "breakfast off the floor" idea.

We got some snow here last night so my drive to clinic took longer than usual. The snow was pretty wet so it was mostly slush but enough to slow things down. Fortunately they did not get as much snow in Durham so the roads improved as we made our way north. I hate driving in the winter!


Olivia was very happy to see our regular nurse practicioner today. He was doing his 2 week inpatient rotation so we missed him during our last visit. Olivia's weight is up to 16 KG now and I had the nurse double check her height. Olivia is 3 and 1/2 feet tall which means that we can transition to a booster seat instead of her car seat in the car. Olivia has been unbuckling her car seat lately which is obviously unsafe and I'm hoping that using a belt-positioning booster will put a stop to that.

Both kids were actually really well behaved today during clinic. I'm also very happy to report that Olivia's labs today were perfect! I think they were her best set of labs yet. We can continue the clinic visits every other week. Just because I haven't posted her numbers in so long and today's were so good I'll end by sharing them.....

Hemoglobin--12 (range is 10.5-13.5)
Platelets--321 (range is 150-400)
White Blood Cell Count--6 (range is 3.8-14)

All of the other chemistries (magnesium, protein, sodium, calcium, etc) are well within the normal range as well so it's obvious that she's eating and processing food well.

I'm thrilled that she's doing so well physically becuase we've had a rough couple of weeks cognitively. I think that Olivia and I are getting pretty frustrated with eachother lately. I think that I've been a little bit too much of a teaching/therapist type mom and not enough of a fun/play mom. We will have to work on that over the weekend.

Imagination

I mentioned that Olivia's therapy schedule this week was changed a bit. I got confused today and put Peter down for his nap too early so he woke up about 15 minutes after the physical therapist arrived. Of all Olivia's therapies physical therapy is by far the hardest for her. It's physically demanding on her little body. I'm accustomed to making her use her words to express herself. I know she can do it so that has become a part of our routine. After everything that has happened to her little body over the last 8 months I have no idea what she can and cannot do physically. I know she's getting stronger but I don't know what she really cannot do and what she just doesn't want to do. The physical therapist is great and she and I have had a lot of conversations about this but it's still tough. We want Olivia to be challenged but we don't want it to be too hard for her. Olivia tends to do much better when I'm an active participant in her physical therapy sessions and in order for that to happen Peter has to nap. As soon as Peter woke up things started to go downhill. The physical therapist had one of those "old school" puppy dogs on wheels attached to a little string. Peter loved it!

He happily ran around the house for the rest of the session dragging his little dog happily saying "woof woof" as he went along on his way. The dog would occasionally fall over and he'd very carefully stop to put him back on his wheels. As soon as the therapist left I went to get lunch started. Peter went straight to the cabinet, pulled out my little handheld mixer and proceeded to drag it around the house, continuing to "woof woof".



Olivia wasn't having any of it. After screaming the entire 45 minutes that the physical therapist was here she just wanted to eat her lunch in peace.


Later in the afternoon Peter went to the kitchen cabinets again and pulled out a selection of plastic bowls. He brought them into the living room and then set them up on the couch. He started grabbing imaginary handfuls of food and helping himself to imaginary snacks. It took me a while to realize what he was doing. He kept walking over to the bowls then he'd walk over to Olivia and try to put pretend food in her mouth. Somehow Olivia seemed to catch on before I did because I heard her saying "thank you". It was so sweet. Sweet to see Olivia pretending because she hasn't really been into that lately. Sweet that they seemed to be communicating so well together without really saying much. Peter of course shared with me as well without even being asked. He's such a sweet boy.

Free Day

Olivia's therapy schedule needed to be rearranged this week so today ended up being a free day. It was really nice to have a free day. I rearranged the furniture in the house. I was finally able to redecorate Peter's room. When we moved here we made a transition from having 4 bedrooms to three so Mike combined Peter's room and the guest bedroom. Peter's room had an enormous king size bed along with his crib, changing table, dresser, and the rocking chair and ottoman all crammed into his little room. Over the weekend I sold the king bed on craigslist so we finally had space to decorate. The kids stayed in their pj's all day. We made mini-pizzas for lunch. We all thoroughly enjoyed our free day!





Hmmmm. What is this hole for?


I wonder if I could crawl down there?


Sibbling play time


So cute!



Peter's Room, it's finally decorated!


Peter loves all the extra space to play!


My little guy loves the shoes!


Seriously he really likes them!




Swimming in the tub!