Duke Day

Olivia had an ENT appointment at Duke this week. We do have a local ENT but Olivia needs to have another hearing test done and one of her ear tubes fell out last month and since those procedures require sedation we prefer to have those tests done at Duke. When I scheduled our appointment with the ENT at Duke I gave Olivia's PBMT nurse practitioner a call to let him know we would be at Duke so he scheduled an appointment for us in the PBMT clinic just to check how Olivia was doing. Mike was able to take the day off from work so that he could help out and it was wonderful to have his help!

Mike and Peter enjoyed playing in the waiting room during our audiology appointment. As expected they were not able to get much data from a traditional audiology exam so they will do another exam when Olivia is sedated.

**FYI--Mike is riding a whale that makes a whoop whoop sound according to Peter**



The ENT confirmed that the tube on Olivia's left ear did indeed fall out (I did give them the tube so I'm not sure why there was any question about this, I found it stuck in her hair near her ear). We will schedule to minor surgery to replace the tube and perform the hearing test in a couple of weeks.

After our ENT and Audiology appointments we headed up to the PBMT clinic. It was strange to see an entirely different crew of post-transplant kiddos. We were in their shoes 20 months ago, I still cannot believe that we made it through that crazy experience. Everyone was so impressed with how well Olivia is doing. She had a blast running all over the 4th floor of the Children's Health Center. For me it is such a refreshing and rewarding experience to see the PBMT staff at Duke. They know and love our family and we love them all! Olivia is also super familiar with the routine at Duke even though it's been months since we were there. She happily stands STILL on the scale all by herself. She sits still while they get her vitals. She sat quietly on my lap and didn't even flinch when they did a blood draw (and the lab tech is always able to get draw in the first try). Olivia was a rock star! She also received her first vaccinations post-transplant. She should have received these months ago but her local doctor has hesitated. Olivia got a total of 4 shots and she didn't even cry! The day of visits did tire her out though and she enjoyed a quick nap on my lap. Love the cuddle time!



Peter kept himself busy in the exam room. Future occupation maybe? Notice Mike in the corner reading work emails but fortunately there were very few work calls!



The kids were really excited to get home and ditch us for their toys. Peter has recently started reading to Olivia, so cute!



Several people told us how beautiful Olivia is and I can't disagree! Love that happy face!



We also had another appointment at the eye doctor this week. Olivia was giving me kisses in the waiting room. XXOXO!



Overall we love our Duke family and are blessed to be so close to great medical care. This makes the relocation cross-country to Ft. Bragg worth it!

Celebrity look-a-like?

Is it me or does Peter



look a little bit like Ronnie (from Jersey Shore)?


Something about the eyes or the eyebrows? Peter is making his best "tickle monster face", I have no idea what type of face the Ronnie kid from jersey shore is making but I don't think it's his tickle monster face....

Hi

Olivia has started to say "hi" or "hey" with some regularity. I would say that she does this 2/5 times. Don't you love that, 2/5 times, it's from one of the many developmental tests that we fill out when Olivia has an appointment with the geneticist or the team at UNC. I was trying to catch it on video but I had pushed the wrong button on the camera and ended up taking a still picture instead.



I'm on a mini-mission to capture Olivia on video more often. It's been a frustrating process for both of us as she never wants to perform when I pull out the camera! We have a few videos of her talking. Here's one of her when she's about 18 months old using her sign language to ask for more jello. Makes me smile. I really wish things were still as simple as a mild speech delay!

Consignment

My first experience with consignment sales was the semi-annual sale in our neighborhood in Washington. Peter was a few months old and I was able to make quite a bit of money selling all of Olivia's old clothes. Olivia had a TON of clothes and I had saved everything in case we ever had another little girl. It took quite a bit of work to get everything ready for the consignment sale (cleaned, ironed, hung up, tagged) but I made enough money to purchase a gently used Maclaren double stroller, a britax single stroller, and a small slide/fort for our backyard and I still had a bit of cash left over. I was hooked!

This past weekend there were a couple of big consignment sales here in Fayetteville. I didn't sell anything this past weekend, I'm working on getting things organized to sell in another sale towards the end of the month. I did shop though and found some great deals! The consignment sale put on by a local MOPS group was extremely organized! And they allowed parents of children with special needs to shop the night before the sale was open to the public. Here's a picture from the sale website.



I'm pretty picky about clothes, but I did manage to find a couple of brand new Janie and Jack outfits for Peter that still had the original tags for 1/3 of what they'd cost in the store. I also got a few Izod and Gap polos for Peter.

I bought a lot of toys for Olivia. Peter and Olivia both love this fishbowl toy and played with it together for almost 15 minutes! That is a new record!



It can be difficult to find toys that Olivia is able to enjoy playing with that are durable enough to last. Olivia enjoys playing with toys that are geared for the 12-18 month child but those toys aren't necessarily built to withstand abuse from a 4.5 year old. She LOVES this shape sorter and has been playing with it all morning!



I bought several pairs of shoes for Peter. I've learned that Peter's feet seem to grow at least twice as fast as Olivia's and while I don't mind spending $30-40 for a pair of shoes that Olivia wears for at least 6-9 months it gets a little ridiculous with Peter. I may have gone a bit overboard but Peter is just as excited about the shoes as the toys because he's really into taking his own shoes off and on lately. Each of these pairs of shoes was between $1 and $6 so I bought all of them for less than it would cost for a single pair!





If you haven't been to a consignment sale yet I recommend you check one out! Here's a link to a directory of kids consignment sales by state. Happy Shopping! http://www.kidsconsignmentsales.com/seasonalsales.htm