The Goose's Birthday

Rise and shine, the Goose is now six. We have a donut-for-your-birthday tradition, but I don't think she was quite awake yet.

Still not quite awake, but maybe presents will help her move a little faster.

All the Mahlmann grandchildren and Popo at Lucy's party. Look at all the boys.

Lucy decided that she wanted to have soccer birthday party. So we had a soccer ball pinata. We had the party at the park and had a soccer goal and balls for the kids to play with. I also made plaster of paris soccer balls for them to paint. They enjoyed the painting and playing on the playground, they weren't too interested in the goal.

Even the Gopher got to go down the slide with a little help from Daddy.
Here is a video of the cake, ignore my singing and try and listen to the kids, they are much better. The cake is a soccer field with two goals, but one didn't make it through the night. So we decided that the white team won. Everyone had a great time at the party and the Goose got lots of great presents.

Halloween

They may look cute now, but before this picture was taken, there was a whole lot of screaming going on. Originally the plan was for the Gopher to be a cowboy and the Bear and Goose to be cowgirls with the hats they got at the fair. Well when they came home from school they changed their minds. First the Goose was going to be an angel with her dance costume from last year, then she decided to be a cheerleader. So I thought we were done, well then the Bear decided she wanted to be a cheerleader. That sent the Goose into a fit because she didn't want them to wear the same costume. So we told the Bear she had to pick something else. Well after much crying and screaming she came out in her school clothes with a stuffed dog and said she was going to be a person carrying a dog. We told her that wasn't going to work. So after some more screaming and crying, she ended up in the above cowgirl outfit. I'm not sure why she didn't want to be a cowgirl to begin with, but after much ado we got it straighten out and were on our way to Trick-or-Treat.

Give them a little sugar and they can be so cute. (Or maybe that is give me a little sugar and they can be so cute.)

The cutest Gopher ever

I wanted to post a different one where he was laughing a lot, but it was too long and wouldn't upload. So this one he is smiling and talking and looking very cute too.

To Market, To Market to buy a fat Goat

Well the fair has arrived and it is time to take the goats and show what they can do. The Bear was very excited about going to the fair and showing her goats. She was also excited that she would get a wristband and get in free everyday. So Tuesday evening we loaded up the goats and headed to the fair. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we got there early and put them in their pen and waited for the sift. There were 120 goats, so we knew that we needed to get in line early, because it was going to take awhile. In previous years, the kids had to walk the goat in themselves, so you couldn't line up with both goats together. They changed that this year and someone held the second goat, while she took the first. Of course after the weigh in they both weighed exactly the same 77 pounds. So they would both be in the same class. So we found another member of our 4-H group to show the second goat.
Say cheese. Doesn't it look like he is smiling. He had something stuck to his lip, it was very funny at the time.
There's our little cowgirl, or goatgirl like she says. I had a hard time finding her a long sleeve button down shirt. They don't make very many of those for girls, especially in small sizes. Next year, I will start earlier and find one that looks a little more girly. Time to line up for the show.
Here she is walking in with Waddles and Gordie is right behind. They walked in fine together, but when the judge separated them, Waddles wanted to follow and drug the Bear across the ring. She did a great job of holding on to him the whole time and making him look as good as she could. Gordie on the other hand did not want to cooperate. He was the better goat, but because he was so ornery that day, he didn't look very good. So they placed 12th and 13th, with Gordie being the higher goat.
The Bear went back in for Showmanship and did a great job. The judge was looking more at the older kids, but she did really well for her first time.
Now that all the showing fun was over, it was time for the parade. The gopher enjoyed watching all the floats and cars go by. He didn't even mind when the fire trucks blew their horns.

The Bear had a great fair. She made the sale with Gordie and after dragging her across the ring, she got $1600 for him. We were very pleased, it was more that we expected. She also did great in the Home Economics department. She received two Grand Champions and a Reserve Champion on items that she entered and then she got the High Point award for the Clothing and Needlework division. She was so excited about her ribbons that she took them to school to show her class. Since you can only win high point in each division once, she is trying to figure out which one she wants to try and win next year. Overall we had a great fair and are looking forward to next year.

Hunkering Down

Well we were very blessed that Hurricane Ike decided to shift a little more to the east so that we were spared the major path of the storm. We send out our thoughts and prayers to all the people of Galveston and Houston and the gulf coast that were hit hard by this disaster. We prepared for the worst and stocked up on food and water and then the night of the storm we brought the goats in the garage so that they could hunker down too. We heard that we should shelter in place but in Texas they call that hunkering down. Well we hunkered and stayed up late watching the television coverage as the storm moved in. Daddy and all the kids slept in the living room so that they would be away from the windows in case the winds got really bad. We were very lucky to be on the clean side of the storm. If it had come in just a little further west down the coast, we would have been hit hard. We were also very fortunate to not lose power. The goats didn't like being in the garage all night and they were very happy to be let out in the morning. Thanks be to God for the cooler weather we are having today so that all those families that are without power don't have to suffer with the heat too. We hope that all our friends in the Houston area are doing okay and if any of our friends without power, need a place to go, just let us know. We are a shelter that accepts pets.

The Goat Girls

How many girls does it take to walk a goat? At least 2, maybe more. There were a couple of times where we had to remind them to both go in the same direction. That was Flash Gordie. As you can see he doesn't like to walk, especially when he is not walking with Waddles, now Waddless as both waddles have now fallen off. The Bear had her first Showmanship contest on this past Sunday. We were a little nervous as this would be only her second time in the ring with Waddless and other goats. Waddless can be a little unpredictable. Sometimes he walks great, other times he tries to jump up on you. The Bear did great. She kept a firm grip on the goat and her eyes on the judge. A few times she was busy looking at what the other goats were doing, but overall she did a great job. And in the end she got 3rd place in her division, which includes kids in the 5th grade. The judge complemented on how well she walked the goat and kept control of it, but she said that she needed to have a little more confidence in her answers to the judge's questions and not be so shy. So we will work on that for the fair, and work on walking Gordie as he will be the most trouble come show time. We are very proud of her hard work and I would have had pictures of the actual show, but of course, I forgot the camera. So come fair time, there will be actual footage of her in the show.

1st Day of School

It is hard to believe that it is already time to go back to school. This year the Goose starts Kindergarten. She has been waiting a long time and now it is here. I think that she was excited, but also a little nervous. She has never been to daycare or pre-school, so this will be her first experience of a full day away from home (besides trips to Grandma's house). She will have to go all day with no snacks, no drinks, and especially no toys to play with. I think she is going to be very tired when she gets home. We went to school this morning and the Bear went to her class (third grader - no problem) and then we walked the Goose to her room. Of course we were late on the first day, so they were already at their desks working. She went straight to her seat, sat down and started. She didn't even want to say good-bye. I know that she will do great in school.

The Olympic's Biggest Fan

We love watching the Olympics and the Gopher wanted to show his support for the team. I think if there was a cutest Olympic baby contest, he would certainly get the Gold Medal. I know the video looks a little scary in a few spots, but he was supervised, so ignore the potential eye injury. He had a great time and it really shows.

Video Crazy

Now that I have figured out that I can use the video recorder on my digital camera, I can upload videos of the kiddos. We have been going a little crazy with the videoing, but it is nice to actually watch the videos we take and not just leave them in the bag on the tape. This way we can upload them to the internet and then family and friends can see them too. This one is so cute of the Gopher wearing his big boy boots and swingin' in the the swing.

The Gopher's favorite toy

The Gopher really likes this farm toy. He recently learned how to make the bottom part spin all by himself. Sunday morning I put him on his tummy in front of it and he stayed on his elbows and played with it. He looks so cute and really likes being able to play on his tummy. He can now get on his elbows all by himself and will play until he gets tired. We are so proud of him.

Goats and Ponys

Well who says you can't be stylish while goat herding. The adventure has begun. Now that the Bear is going into the third grade she can show an animal in the fair. So we decided to try goats. We spent the weekend building the goat pen. Congratulations to Daddy he worked very hard and did a great job. We had a few minor setbacks when it came to actually getting the goats, but finally the first one arrived.

Here is Waddles Walle Wallace, or WWW or any other name that starts with a W that you can think of. He started out as Waddles, because of the little things hanging down from his neck, but then Daddy started calling him Walle and Mommy just calls his Wallace or Waldo. He started out very afraid of us, but now he likes to eat out of your hand and get his head scratched. I don't have a picture of the second goat, but his name is Flash Gordie. He is white with a brown head. He is smaller and they were fast friends. Goats like to be together, so they follow each other around. Waddles is like the big brother and where ever he goes so does Gordie. The girls are having fun taking care of them. Sarah is in charge of scooping the poop and checking and refilling the food. So far she still likes it, but she has until October to get tired of it.

Now for the Pony. It is a new trainer they got at his therapy. He really seems to like it (he didn't cry while on it, so that is a good sign). He doesn't know how to work it yet, but he likes sitting on it and trying to reach for the toys, so hopefully he will figure out how to make it go. He looks like such a big boy sitting on it.

ArkMoTenn

Well it is 5:00am and time for another Family Road trip. Every summer we take a family trip to a different state. So far we have been to New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama & Mississippi. This year we decided to head to Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and Western Tennessee. Everyone was bright and chipper for an early start. See that little space between the Goose and the Bear, that is where I had to sit. The Gopher and Daddy had it easy with their seats to themselves. We drove for a few hours and then stopped for breakfast at McDonald's.

We made it to Texarkana by lunch time. We found that there isn't much open on a Sunday afternoon on the Arkansas side. But we found a great restaurant and had lunch. Since we were spending the night in Texarkana, we decided to add a short hike to the afternoon.
We visited Millwood State Park. It was a short 1 mile hike around a lake with beaver lodges. It was nice to be out of the car and this was the Gopher's first experience in the backpack carrier.

He did very well over the whole trip. He would get a little fussy when he got tired, but as long as Daddy kept moving he would fall asleep and be happy.

Day two involved Diamond hunting. The Goose was really looking forward to this (or at least the idea of this). But after about 20 minutes in the heat, she was tired of looking. The bear lasted a little longer, but no one struck it rich.

But luckily there is a wonderful little water park right next to the field of diamonds. So as soon as it opened, Goose and Bear were ready to go. We had lunch first and a little water fun in the car (the plug on the ice chest came open and drained in the car - luckily we had put towels under the ice chest just in case and they were the only thing that got wet). We spent about 4 hours playing in the water and I think the Bear went down the water slide at least 50 times. Afterward we decided to go dig a little longer while Daddy took the Gopher for a stroll. He called me a little later saying that he needed rescuing. They had had a diaper explosion that went everywhere including his shoes and all over the stroller. So we turned in our mining equipment and went to find them. Luckily they made it to the campground laundry facility. So after cleaning everything up, I put everything in the dryer for awhile. We had a short drive to our hotel and that was the end of another fun day in Arkansas.
We headed north to Lake Catherine State Park. After a short hike, we found this small waterfall. The Goose was not too excited about getting close to the water. We stayed here for quite some time. Daddy enjoyed damning up the water for a big water release. The girls practiced skipping rocks across the water and making a path with large stones.

The Gopher decided he had had enough hiking and took a nap. He was getting heavy and there wasn't any grass to lay him in, so I improvised by laying him on the backpack carrier.

After hiking, we continued north towards Hot Springs. There is a beautiful view from Hot Springs, here is the Gopher "On top of the world". We walked around Hot Springs and saw the old bath houses and a display spring. The water was so hot that there was steam coming off of it. We ate lunch and stopped at a candy store (there always has to be at least one candy store on every trip). Then it was back in the car and onward and northward.

Next stop was Mt. Magazine the highest mountain in Arkansas. The Goose and The Bear enjoyed the gift shop and then we had more driving to do. We stopped at Petit Jean State Park. We climbed the Turtle Rocks and saw the Rock House Cave. It had several cave drawings, but it was getting dark so we couldn't find them. We also hiked over to Bear cave, and fortunately didn't see any bears.
All the trails are marked by Blazes. It was the Goose's job to find the Blaze and keep us on the right trail. They did a great job during all the hikes. We had a few grumpy moments, but I would complain too after a 2.5 mile hike if I was only 7 or 5.
On our way to Missouri, we stopped to see the Pedestal Rocks. This was the longest hike, but had a great view. After we finished, we headed to Branson to see Dolly's Dixie Stampede. It was certainly the highlight for The Gopher and the girls. He really enjoyed to juggler that did the pre-show and the food was really good.

Thursday, we spent the majority of the day in the car. We had to get from Branson, Missouri to Jonesboro, Arkansas. We had lunch at a super catfish buffet (one of Daddy's favorites) and then it was back in the car for more driving. Thanks to Wal-mart for being so easy to find in most places. We used many as rest stops for potty breaks and diaper changes. I had to include the above picture because I had never seen a turtle ride on an alligators back. This was at another one of Arkansas's great state parks. They were all free and very well maintained with visitor centers and bathrooms.

Next we headed to Tennessee. Memphis is right across the border from Arkansas, so we thought we would cross over. Memphis has a great zoo, so since we always go to a zoo on our summer trips, we added it to the list. While we were there, we had BBQ at the Neely's (as seen on the Food Network). Daddy had the signature BBQ spaghetti and BBQ nachos. They were both really good. We also drove by Graceland, so that we could say that we say it. Our mantra for the Zoo was Penguins, Polar Bears and Pandas, and we weren't disappointed.

The Penguins were outside swimming around. They are South African penguins, so they prefer temperatures in the 80s. They were small and when they swim on the surface they look like black ducks.
I didn't include a picture of the polar bear, because I didn't get a very good one. So instead here are the sea lions. They had a great show including tricks and a lesson about the difference between sea lions and seals.
The Pandas certainly did not disappoint. Ya-Ya was very active and came right up to the glass for a picture. She posed and walked around a lot while we were there. Ling-Ling the other panda, was asleep every time we went by.

They had a carousel and Goose and Bear both rode on pandas. The Gopher really enjoyed watching and he smiled and laughed the whole time they went around. Overall we had a great trip. On the way back we stopped in Dallas to have lunch with Marcus and Kelly and meet baby Grant. We had great weather the whole trip and everyone had fun.

Little Boy Blue and his new doo

Well now that we are completely recovered from surgery, thanks to everyone for all the prayers and thoughts and support. We were very blessed. The Gopher is back to his old self and his smile did return along with a new interest in making noises. The ENT that operated on his nose said that she goes for the 10 foot rule. They try and make it look good from ten feet away. They can make it look prettier when he gets older. We think that she did better than that. This picture was taken after only a few weeks. It looks even better now. All the redness is gone and he only has a small little bump on the bridge of his nose. He will probably need another surgery later in life to "pretty it up", but who knows, maybe he will like this way.

Here is a picture of the Gopher in his Thera-tog. It helps him with muscle support and trunk control. I think he is a future member of the Blue Man Group. All he needs is the face and arms. He also looks very cool in his shoes.

Day Six, We are out of the mix

Well we have made it home. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and words of support. The doctors came by this morning and said that we were cleared to go home. They stopped his antibiotic and checked all his sutures. They said that everything looks really good. The swelling should subside by the 10th day and all the stitches will dissolve. During the night last night The Gopher pulled off the cast that was on his nose. The doctor said that it looked fine and didn't need anything to cover the stitches. They said that if he bothers it we can put a band-aid over it. His nose looks very different. It went from big and bulbous to small with a little hump at the top. He will probably need another surgery later in life to make it look prettier, but for now he will look fine. He has been a little grumpy (but who wouldn't be after having your head cut open), but we had a few faint smiles when he got to play with his toys here at home. The neurosurgeon said that he can resume normal activities within a few days, but I think we will be a little more cautious. He will get lots of pampering and special treatment. We decided that he needs a t-shirt that says "I had brain surgery and all I got was a hole in my head and this lousy t-shirt." Hopefully as the next few days go by he will continue to be more comfortable. Especially now that nurses aren't checking his vitals every few hours. In the next couple of days I will post some pictures of his new nose and his baseball-like incision (once the redness and puffiness go down a little). Thanks again to everyone and we really appreciate all of you so much.

Day Five, we will survive

Well today has been a very good day. Very early this morning the nurse took out one of the Gopher's IV's. And late this evening they removed all his monitors except for his pulse ox. So we are certainly moving up. He had a very good day. The swelling in his right eye has really gone down, and he can now open both eyes almost completely. He is much more awake and even spending a little time playing with toys. He is staying awake longer and eating more. He moved up from baby food to chopped up real food. His incision is looking really good. He has one small spot on the left size that is oozing a little. So the neurosurgeon came by and replaced his Steri-strips. They wanted to keep him today since he is still on IV antibiotics from the ICU for his chest congestion. It looks like we might get to go home tomorrow, but that all depends on the doctors. The Bear and the Goose got to come up and visit today. I'm not sure what they think of the Gopher's new look, but they will get used to it as he heals. Hopefully tomorrow will be our last post from the hospital, but we will have to wait and see. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Day Four out the PICU door

Well we finally made it out. The Gopher had a really good night last night and didn't need any pain medication all night. The neurosurgery team came by early this morning and checked his incision and swelling and wrote the orders to move him up to the floor. They took out his artery line and his Foley catheter. The ENT came by and said that he didn't need his "face shield" any more either. We spent the morning just waiting to get a room on the tenth floor. His neurosurgeon came by before we got moved up and said that he was doing really well. He is eating and drinking good, no longer needing any breathing help and managing his pain well. He said that it might be possible for him to go home tomorrow or Monday. It depends on how long he needs to be on the antibiotics they gave him for his chest congestion. Around 1:00pm we moved up to our apartment in the sky. It seems like a mansion after being cramped in our shared room in the PICU. He has been doing very well all day. His left eye is completely open and his right eye started opening this morning. All day long the swelling has been going down and his eye has been opening more and more. He has even been playing with his toys a little bit. We haven't seen a smile yet, but at least he is content. We will see how tomorrow goes, and who knows, we might even make it home. The power of prayer is certainly evident in the events of the last few days. We went from unsure complications to complete turnaround in less than 24 hours. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. I thought you might like to see what the Gopher now looks like with out the bandages. I included a before picture that we took the night before surgery. You can certainly tell a difference in his nose.

BEFORE

AFTER

He has a really bad hair-do. It is kind of hard and crusty from the surgery and incision. But as you can see you can't really tell when you look at him head on. I have a close up of the incision, but Daddy didn't want me to include it. We decided that he looks like a baseball because the incision is wavy. He looks 100% better today and he is starting to look like himself again. With a good head wash and a comb over no one will even be able to tell.

Day Three we wait and see

We thought that you might like to see what the Gopher looks like through all of this. Here is a picture of him will all his wires and his "face shield".

Here is a close up of his face. Be warned that he doesn't look much like himself. Nana said that if he were in a baby line-up she wouldn't be able to pick him out. The only thing that looks the same is his mouth. Everything else is just really swollen. But you can tell that his nose is so much smaller.


Day Three was much better than day two. We got a great night's sleep at the Ronald McDonald House and what a difference that makes. The Gopher was doing well in the morning. When we got there, the neurosurgery team was taking the bandages off his head. We didn't really want to see what his incision looked like. We had visions of Frankenstein will a giant puffy cut across his head. But when we looked, we were very surprised. On his right side you could hardly even see the incision. We thought they would shave his head at least to the middle, but they barely cut a strip. He still had hair in the front (kind of like Daddy's) and a bunch in the back (way more than Daddy). His swelling had gone down a little and was starting to open his left eye a teeny-tiny bit. They said that we could start feeding him some liquids, so we started with Pedialyte. He really liked that. I think his throat hurt from the tube and I'm sure his tummy hurt from no food in three days. After the juice and a good burp, the nurse decided to try cleaning him up a little. He had a lot of dried blood in his hair and ears. Since she only had one patient, she had time. So while we went to breakfast she cleaned him up a little. He took a great nap now that his tummy was full. He also started pooping and peeing more. They decided to take him off his IV fluids since he was drinking well. We spent the day watching his eye open a little more and actually get to see us for the first time in three days. He was a lot more active, kicking and moving his arms. He had a face shield with humidified room air that we call his dog collar (like the ones they use to keep them from scratching). It helped him keep his hands away from his nose too. The neurosurgeon came by and decided that he needed to spend one more night in the ICU just for observation. We got spoiled with our own nurse. In the ICU they have one nurse for every two patients. But Thursday night our roommate left and they didn't bring in anyone new. Friday evening they brought in a new patient, but for some reason he got his own nurse too. So the Gopher got one-on-one treatment for almost two days. He did really well all day drinking and even got a few jars of baby food. He made it through the whole day with only one dose of morphine in the early morning. We are so thankful for all your prayers. They are certainly working as he is doing so much better. Sorry that I didn't get to post yesterday. We didn't have internet access last night so I couldn't post anything. I will update for today, later this evening.

Day Two, almost through

Well the end of the day has come and it certainly ended better than it started. After I posted this morning, we went back to the PICU a little refreshed, thanks to a shower and food. We met with the neurosurgeons, neurology, ENT, and the critical care doctors. They all felt that his seizure was probably caused by his respiratory distress. They continued the seizure maintenance medication, the antibiotics, steroids, and anti-inflammatory medications. He had three IV pumps all going at the same time. He had been having trouble with his arterial line (used to measure blood pressure and draw blood when needed.) They were finally able to get it positioned correctly so that the alarms would stop. The ENT came by and cleaned out his nose so that he could breathe more freely. After that he made a quick turnaround. They were able to take him off the oxygen and just have him on humidified room air. His oxygen saturation is staying at close to 100 percent and his respiratory rate is back to a more relaxed pace. He had a fever earlier today, but that is normal for up to 24 hours after surgery. They gave him a dose of Tylenol and another dose of morphine and he slept for a while. His fever is gone and his temperature is normal. He hasn't had any pain medication since that dose around lunch time. He is more awake and moving his arms and legs. We think that he is frustrated because he can't open his eyes. He is still very swollen and the neurosurgeon said that it will probably peak tomorrow and then start to go down. They are going to remove the dressing around his head and check his incision. They will leave the bandages off and let it air out. We are not too excited about seeing it, but we will manage. If he continues to do well through the night and tomorrow morning, he will move off the PICU up to a room. From there it will just depend on how he does, as to when he comes home. The doctor wants him tolerating solid foods, pain managed by Tylenol, and breathing normally. We will keep you posted and thanks for all the calls and prayers. They were certainly needed today and they seem to have been answered as he is doing so much better.

Day Two, we will make it through

Day two did not start out to good. After I posted last night, we went to sleep. Around 2:30 am the phone rang. The nurse said that the Gopher had had a seizure and they thought we should come back to the hospital. The doctor asked me a few questions and then we got up, changed and headed over. It was an eerie feeling walking down Fannin with absolutely no cars. Not even an ambulance or people walking around. We made it up to his room and the nurse described the events that led up to the seizure. He had had some trouble breathing so they suctioned out his throat and placed a face shield with oxygen in front of him. He did a little better, but continued to have low oxygen levels. So they suctioned again and gave him a breathing treatment. That helped a little, but he continued to have labored breathing. At around 2:15 am he started having a very mild seizure that only lasted about 2 minutes. They gave him medication to stop the seizure and also gave him steroids to help open up his throat (which might be swollen from the breathing tube used during surgery.) At 4:00am they decided to do a CT scan of his brain to check for possible bleeding. It was quite an event to get all his wires and monitors and equipment on the bed to move him. It is a good thing he is a small boy or there wouldn't have been room for him. The CT went fine and the results showed that there was no bleeding, but he did have a little air in there (so now he is an air-head). The neurosurgeons said that this is very normal after surgery and the air will dissipate on its own. They decided to put him on maintenance medication for the seizure for at least a few days and if everything goes well they will take him off of it. We will speak with a neurologist later this morning about that. He has been very sleepy from all the different medications and that is not helping his breathing. The breathing treatments have helped a lot and they took a chest x-ray this morning. It showed a little fluid in his lungs, so they changed his antibiotics to help prevent pneumonia. They are also going to clean out his nose a little and give him some saline spray and ointment to try and help him breath a little better through his nose. Right now he will stay in the ICU until his breathing improves and they can take him off the oxygen. We are doing the best we can on very little sleep and the doctors and nurses have been super. They have been explaining everything and we are able to stay in the room with him 24/7 if we need to. We took a break at 9:00am to shower, check-out of our hotel and write this. Tonight we are hoping to stay in the Ronald McDonald house that is in the hospital. It is only one floor up from where he is, so we will be closer if he has any more problems. Thanks again for all your support and we will keep you posted.

Day one is almost done

Well the day started at 4:30 am this morning when we had to head to the hospital for the Gopher's surgery. They took him back at around 8:30am, but didn't start until 9:30am. The neurosurgeon went first and we spent several agonizing hours waiting for him to finish (we had thought that his would be the shorter portion of the surgery.) After four long hours, he finished and the ENT started (that was at 2:00pm). Finally at 4:45pm, the ENT came out and talked with us. She said that they were able to completely remove the cyst and the tract connecting it to the brain. He had lots of extra skin on his new nose, so she added a few stitches to make it look nicer. She called it the 10 foot rule (they should look good from at least 10 feet away). Right now he wouldn't pass, but hopefully later he will. She said that he will have trouble breathing through his nose for awhile, but after it heals a little he will be better. She said at that time the neurosurgeon was closing up and would be out in an hour or so. At around 5:30 pm the neurosurgeon came out. He described his portion of the surgery. He said that it took longer than he expected because the tract went further in than he had originally thought. It took a long time for him to close up the hole and then put everything back together (like Humpty Dumpty). He said that we should expect him to not look to good for the first few days. (He wasn't kidding.) We had to wait another two hours until we were able to see him in the recovery room. Once we did see him, it was a little hard to take. His nose was much smaller, even with the bandages we could tell that there was a big (now little) difference. His head was completely wrapped in bandages (like a stocking cap) and on the side by his ear you can see part of the sutures. His eyes are swollen shut and he is not a happy camper. He has a hard time breathing through his nose (as to be expected) so they have oxygen blowing by him. He has tubes coming out of everywhere (and I mean everywhere) except his right hand. He was very unhappy when we got there so they gave him some morphine (I'd want drugs too if someone cut my head open). Finally Daddy got to hold him and that really helped calm him down. He was fine until they had to put him back in the bed for the transfer to the pediatric ICU. Once we got to the ICU it was like all hands on deck. He had 6 nurses plugging and unplugging and checking and flushing. Once they got him all connected (I think he is wired for internet now), Daddy was able to hold him again. He was fine for awhile, until the nurse cleaned the drainage from his nose. Then nothing made him comfortable. So we put him back in his bed with some music playing and he finally settled down. We decided that it was a good time for us to leave and try and get some sleep. It was hard leaving him, but he needs his rest and so do we. It has been a very long day and tomorrow will probably be another one. He is supposed to only be in the ICU for 24 hours, but that depends on how his breathing and pain management go. We will keep you posted and thanks to everyone for all the prayers and well wishes. We certainly needed them and felt them today.

The Dancing Queen and the Holy Queen

The first Sunday in May, the Bear had her first Communion. She looked as pretty as a princess, or a bride as she said. The dress was borrowed from a friend, but she didn't just like it, she loved it. The veil was my wedding veil. She wore her sister's "high-heeled" shoes and a necklace from her Uncle Robbie and Aunt Judy. Daddy had a sad moment before Mass, as he looked down and realized that the next time he will be standing next to her in a white dress and veil will be her wedding day. She did a great job and remembered how to hold her hands and what to say. I can't believe how grown-up she is getting.

She and her cousin had a great time at their party afterwards. They got to cut their cakes and open presents, and I think they both enjoyed being the center of attention for the day.

The Goose had her second dance recital at the end of April. For her tap class they were pink poodles and danced to "Who let the dogs out". They stole the show. They were so cute and in the bottom picture, she is the poodle on the right. They had to stick out their tongues and wag their tales. The Goose is certainly a dancing queen. She goes from shy and quiet to smiling and putting on a show as soon as she is out on that stage in front of the audience. She is certainly a natural when it comes to dancing.

Swing batter batter swing.

The Goose and Bear started baseball this past weekend. This was the Goose's first tee-ball game. It took her a few swings before she actually hit the ball.

But she did hit it. Then she stood there for a minute before the coach told her to run to first base. The first at bat she got out at first, but the second time she made it there. She said that she had fun.

This was the Bear's first game of instructional softball (machine pitch). During the first inning she had to be the catcher. She had never done that before. The pads were so big, she couldn't see or walk, much less catch or throw.

She looked like a robot trying to field the ball. But after being catcher, she did a great job at bat. She even made a home run. She doesn't hit the ball far, but she hit it on all three of her turns at bat and she scored on all three. The first time, her helmet was so big and had a face mask, so she had to hold it the whole time she ran. On her second turn, she knocked her helmet off when she hit the ball. She said that she had fun and is looking forward to her next game.