She's Pinkalicious

For Halloween a local farmer donated a pumpkin to every child at the school to help with the "Reagan Reads" program. Each child was assigned to dress up their pumpkin like a book or book character. Ellie had to choose Pinkalicious. I think she did a pretty good job of helping me make the tutu and painting her face. This was a fun project for us to work on together!

Gymnastics, Staples, and Ellie

Ellie is my monkey...poor kid was blessed with (cursed?) the Larson clumsiness. I swear that sometimes all she has to do is walk around the house and she'll trip for no reason. That being said you'd think she would really have struggles with balance on a bike or a balance beam. She learned to ride her bike without training wheels at age 4 and can walk across the balance beam without any help to keep her from falling. I think the difference is that she loves to do both of those things and she is really focused when she does those activities. She amazes me!

Remember how Ellie had to have her chin glued back together a while back? She was sitting on our coffee table and laughing at Nathan a week and a half ago. She wasn't watching what she was doing and slid off the back of the coffee table and the back of her head caught on the corner of my piano bench and gashed it open. She started screaming in pain and I had her turn around so I could look at her head. I placed one hand on her head to steady it and felt this wet oozy feeling on it. I took my hand off her head and looked at it to discover it was COVERED in blood. I looked frantically for the source since head wounds are always worse than they seem and sure enough she had an inch and a half gash in the back of her skull.

We gathered her up, made sure she didn't have a concussion, called Grandma, and then took her to the Instacare in Springville. They were just closing when we got there so we were instructed to take her to Provo for medical attention. It is pretty uncomfortable to see your child have staples placed in their head. She was holding onto me and digging her nails into my hands. I now know what I put Jake through last May... The biggest concern for Ellie was that she was told she couldn't go to gymnastics for the week.

Ellie is such an interesting girl. She is a ball of fire for sure!

Intermountain Healing Hearts - Walk for Healing Hearts

On Sept 11, 2010 we participated in the annual Walk for Healing Hearts. I love participating in this event and look forward to it every year. To me its a celebration of life - for those that are living with and courageously fighting their congenital heart defects and for those that have lost their battle whom we honor their memories. I especially love to see all of our friends and that we get to "catch" up with each other. Its about finding the strength within each other to keep up with the kind of life that a CHD hands you - the doctors visits, the worry, the intervention... but its good to see that you're not alone.

I was so grateful that Janice, my little sister that is living in Nashville, came out over the weekend and went with us to that event. I'm glad too that Jake's family could support us again.

Nathan, Baseball and Overall Development

Nathan has been fixated lately on baseball, which is strange since Jake hasn't really watched much of it this summer. He walks around the house with Jake's Boston Red Sox hat on his head and usually with a ball in his hand and a red child's bat in the other.



This is the "UH OH, Mom caught me and I'm a deadman for knocking everything all over with my bat!"



This is what Nathan usually looks like walking around the house. He is such a little ball of energy who is starting to stick up for himself a little bit more. Boy, if Ellie gets in his way she has to watch out! He starts growling at her in a deep voice saying... ELLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE. Then in response she justs starts laughing at him and then runs before she gets in trouble with us.

Here is his current stats at 33 months:

Weight 26lbs even (he lost 3/4 a pound last month)
Height: 34 1/2 inches
Speech: 22 month old
Gross Motor: 24 month old

Nathan is going to be tested on November 12th by Nebo School district to see if he qualifies for services that could be provided by the preschool. They do not take into account that he still does not eat orally because that does not meet an "educational" goal. To which I think that's a bunch of bunk because it will affect his academics if he goes to school in first grade and is teased for having a g-tube. We are doing all we can to help him but its only been 5 months since we have been able to really make progress with him and in many ways his oral skills are at that of a newborn. Articulation is going to be Nathan's biggest hurdle to get over in the next little while, but that is mostly due to the Pierre Robin and cleft palate.

Overall Nathan is doing awesome. Maybe someday he will be a professional ball player (just not for the Angels or the Yankees :).