Quotes of the Day

 

 

Today Katrina and I had the blessing of taking care of two little friends. Katrina and Abby had a great time together and I had a wonderful time listening to their conversation throughout the afternoon while I took care of the one-year old.

I wanted to share some memorable quotes with you ...

"I sleep with my eyes open."

This was Abby who was convincing me that she was napping "with her eyes open."

"Abby's choking, Mama."

This was Katrina's perception of Abby's cough.

"Not like that, Abby."

This was Katrina again referring to how Abby was "choking" and then went on to demonstrate "how to choke."

"Katrina can borrow one of my bows to play with her arrow. I have a lot of hair bows."

This was Abby asking about what sort of toy this arrow was. I explained to her that it is a real arrow (without the point) that Katrina's grandpa gave her and that you use it with a bow -- little did she know not a HAIR BOW!

"I let little girls like her step on me."

This was Abby explaining to me why she was telling Katrina to walk on her back while she laid on the floor in the living. (Don't worry Dan and Kristy, I didn't let Katrina do it!)

"I may get a little squished but that is fine."

This was Abby telling me that it was ok that Katrina sat with her in the rocking chair clearly built for one little bottom.

"I don't like the way this blue bib looks on me."

This was Abby telling me that she would prefer a different bib. (If you have a child that makes a comment like this, she probably doesn't need a bib at mealtime anymore, which is what Abby explained to me but I didn't want her nice shirt to get stained with lasagna.)

Hearing their conversations throughout the afternoon was quite entertaining.

Eyes Bigger than Stomach

 

Today Katrina asked for pancakes for lunch. I do not consider myself a short-order cook and yet with one child, how can you refuse a lunch of pancakes?

So, I made her some pancakes. As I put them on a plate to cool she asked for the entire stack. I asked her if she was really going to eat all of them and she said, "I'm hungry."

Needless to say this entire stack, except for one pancake, is in the freezer waiting for the next time she asks for pancakes.

Cutie Pie

We don't "do" Halloween in our family.

On Saturday Katrina and I went to Old Navy because she has really been asking for a scarf for the winter. This past Saturday at Old Navy it was a trick-or-treat day. Kids could come dressed up and get some candy. We, of course, were unaware of this event when we arrived and it did not bother either of us that Katrina was not dressed as anything.

On the way home she said, after obviously pondering all of the strange looking children we saw there, "Mama, I'm dressed like a cutie pie."

I smiled and said, "That's right, Katrina. You are dressed like a cutie pie and you dress like one every day."

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If you notice in this picture Katrina has a silver nose. She likes to use some of my eye shadow to "make herself pretty."

Cleaning Day

Monday is our cleaning day. What that means is that every Monday we do a "thorough" cleaning of the house. Katrina has become accustomed to this routine and most recently has wanted to help in more ways than simply pick up her toys, etc.

So, I figured I would teach her how to mop the floor. "Forward, back. Forward, back. That's right, Katrina. What a great helper you are."

With about 12 Mondays left between now and when the baby comes I think she might be ready to do "cleaning day" on her own for a few weeks after the baby is born!

Results

Wednesday we received a phone call from the doctor's office saying that the biopsy results came back negative. Everything looks good according to the lab. So, now we are back to working with these symptoms. We appreciate your prayers as we "press on." When the nurse called, Katrina had been doing GREAT with her bowel movements but yesterday and today she has not gone at all... This is one of the reasons we wanted to find something, you know? It is just stressful not really having an alternative form of treatment (besides milk and molasses enemas and good ol' Fleet). We will keep you posted. For now we are content with the course the Lord is calling us to.

How are you doing?

We are doing well in the "aftermath" of the surgical procedure. Katrina is back to eating normally and today she has had her first bowel movements after the colonoscopy (3).

We are now waiting for the biopsy results. We are hopeful for a few different things...

We hope that they find something so that we can treat the constipation issues with more than what we are doing now (daily laxatives). If they do find something, we hope it is more allergy-related than Herschsprungs because we feel at this time that we are readier to deal with allergy issues than surgery. (I know, certain allergies are not desirable...)

We hope they find nothing with the biopsies. If they find nothing, we will be given more information about dealing with her constipation issues. This is positive and negative. Positive in that we are done with procedures, etc. Negative because we will sort of be back to square one.

We know the Lord already knows what the outcome will be and He is preparing us for whatever it might be. His plan for our lives is PERFECT and we have experienced it over and over and over. We are thankful that He is with us no matter what the results will be.

It's Over

 

The procedure is over and we survived.

We should get the results sometime next week and we will keep you posted.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We KNEW people were praying for many reasons. Here are three...

At 7:30 this morning I heard the phone ringing and knew it was the hospital (ring tone). One of the surgeries had been cancelled and we were told to arrive at 10:30 instead of 11:30. One less hour of having to distract Katrina was such a blessing and answer to prayer.
 

Katrina normally sleeps 10 hours at night. Her normal bed time starts around 8:00 and she is typically sleeping at 8:30 or 8:45. She then wakes up at 7:00 the next morning. Even if she goes to bed later than 8:45 she still wakes up around 7:00. Last night we kept her awake until 10:15 to see if she would "sleep in" per the nurse's suggestion. This morning she woke up at 8:15. What a praise! We watched Sesame Street and headed to my brother and his wife's house to play with their little puggle, Ginger, and only had to distract her there for about an hour.
 

Yesterday, as you are probably aware, Katrina was restricted to a clear liquid diet. It went well until 5:00 and then she was begging me to make her a pancake. I have never been so tempted to make a pancake! She was hysterical and I began to sob because of all the built up emotion. Finally I distracted her enough to try some jell-o animal cut-outs and it passed. Her friend, Taylor, showed up with a gift and we were good to go. The rest of the evening went well and even this morning when she woke up she did not ask to eat. When we went to my brother's house she asked a few times for juice or yogurt or french fries but was satisfied when I said they didn't have any for her today. Thank God she was as easy to "starve" as she is!
 

We are certain that the Lord was being petitioned on our behalf and He is ALWAYS faithful to answer prayers. We are thankful He answered them in accordance with what we hoped this time.
 

Like I said, I will keep you posted. As for now, we are emotionally exhausted and will be laying low for the rest of the day/night.

 

Not So Good News

Unfortunately I have an update for Good News Good News

Katrina was doing so well with her bowel movements for a week and a half and then on Saturday she simply stopped going. She did not go on Sunday or Monday and this morning when she woke up she started out with the symptomatic signs of wanting to be changed EVERY time she urinated even a tiny bit.

So, I called the specialist's office and spoke with the nurse who talked with the doctor and immediately recommended that the procedure be rescheduled. Thankfully they still had an opening on Friday. Unfortunately our check-in time got pushed back until 11 AM.

Please pray for all of us! I will begin to make all kinds of clear liquid popsicles and finger jell-o today and that will be her diet on Thursday. After midnight on Thursday she cannot eat or drink anything and that will be a long haul for her to make it until we get to the clinic at 11. I am racking my brain for ideas of how to distract her both Thursday and Friday and I am very open to ideas...

I will keep you posted. The procedure is a colonoscopy where they will biopsy a portion of her colon to determine if she has Herschprung's disease. She will be under general anesthesia. Apparently it is a 45 minute procedure and then about 45 minutes in recovery. We should have results from the procedure within 3 business days so I expect sometime in the middle to later part of next week.

We appreciate your prayers on our behalf. We know God has His hand upon her and us, just like He does every single day.

I've been tagged

1...In 5th grade my head and waist circumference were the same (we were studying circumference in math class)

2...I have over 30 first cousins on just my mom's side of the family (she has 13 brothers and sisters)

3...I do not go to bed unless the ENTIRE house is in order (I even put all the
Christmas gifts away the same day so I don't have to wake up the next morning to a "mess")

4...I speak fluent Spanish

5...I knew my husband one year to the day we were married (we met on August 11, 2000 and were married August 11, 2001)

6...I am a "member" of a bi-racial marriage (my husband is from Venezuela)

7...In the past five months I have received at least one injection/day (I have to take a blood thinner injection every day with this pregnancy)

I don't have anyone to tag! If you read my blog and have your own and have not yet done this "7 random things" you are it!

 

Another Trip to the Apple Orchard

Yesterday we took another trip to the apple orchard. This time we went with my parents and my youngest brother and his girlfriend.

Katrina's style has not changed... She took a bite of the first apple she picked and then let us fill the bags with our pickings while she enjoyed her apple.

Walking down the lane after picking the apples.

This time we tried out the corn maze... Katrina wanted to navigate through the maze on her own so she constantly told us to go ahead and then when we were just out of sight she would start coming. It was not the safest feeling as a mom thinking about losing our little girl in a HUGE corn maze. Thankfully we could keep our eye on her through the rows of stalks.

We also tried out the playground this time. Last time we went we skipped the playground area because it was $3.00/child to enter. This time we all had wristbands (courtesy of my parents!) and could enjoy all the amenities of the apple orchard.

Ride 'em, cowgirl!

This scarecrow is not scary at all!

"Quit kidding around, Durán family."

I think this is where the term "pumpkin head" originated.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

I had to include this picture... Not sure what a good caption would be... Any suggestions?