5th Grade Graduation

This is a picture of Bryson on his first day of kindergarten. As you can tell, he wasn't too excited to be there. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. We were both new to the school and had so much to learn. Six years have gone by very quickly.

Bryson graduated from 5th grade and from elementary school today. I really didn't expect to get emotional about it. I was SO READY for him to be finished and to move on to middle school. Well, so I thought. I took him outside this morning to take his picture in the same spot as I did almost six years ago. That is when the burning in my nose started. I knew it was going to be an emotionally rough morning from that point on.

Here is my big 5th grader ready to leave the school. He didn't really want his picture taken today, either, but for different reasons. There happened to be four 5th grade girls putting the flags up when we went out there. I told him I would be quick and they wouldn't even know what I was doing. I snapped the picture real quickly and off he went. I headed straight to my office to wipe the tears away in private.

I really can't believe it is time for him to leave elementary school. I knew this day would come. I thought I was ready for it, but I'm really not. I keep wondering if I have done a good enough job parenting him to move on to the next phase in his life. I have made SO MANY mistakes. I just hope he can remember the good lessons I have tried to teach and forgive me for the many mistakes I have made. My first baby is growing up and I can't do anything to stop it. All I can do is try to be the best parent I can be and ask for grace and forgiveness when I mess up.

I love you, Bryson James. I am sad to see you leave, but I am excited to watch you grow into a wonderful young man.

Update on Addison

Addison hasn't eaten solid food since LAST Saturday. She has been living on yogurt and the occasional pudding or applesauce. And she just started applesauce yesterday. She is afraid to eat anything "hard." She only wants "soft" foods, but the only "soft" foods are the ones I have already mentioned. She won't eat ice cream or popsicles. Oh, the reasoning of a three year-old. Go figure! We have even resorted to bribery. I offered to take her out for another "Ladies Day" if she would eat some "real" food. She said she would stay home with Daddy. I offered to take her to get her toenails painted. She said her toes look fine. Drew even offered to buy her a new toy if she would eat some "real" food. No interest. Those are all her favorites, and she isn't budging.

We are hopeful that she will eventually start to want to eat other things. Last night at dinner she licked a very small taste of refried beans off her spoon. And when I say very small, I mean about the size of 1/2 of her pinky nail. Tiny. Apparently, I really screwed her up when I scraped her tonsil. Or maybe it was the choking/tonsil scraping incident followed by strep throat that really messed her up. I'm sure she will blame me for her food issues when she is older anyway even if it isn't due to the choking/tonsil scraping incident. Don't we all blame our mothers for our food/body insecurities/issues anyway?

She had lost 4 pounds last week, but I think she has gained back one or most of one pound. She doesn't have a whole lot of energy (for apparent reasons), but she is doing okay. Monday will be a week since she started antibiotics, so hopefully when she finishes that after Wednesday her appetite will come back and maybe (hopefully) she will want to eat some of her favorite foods again. I hope she isn't scarred for life.

So, our lives right now consist of trying to survive until school is out THIS Friday and trying to find something Addison will try to eat. Yes, we are that exciting. Aren't you jealous?

Addison

Addison was diagnosed with strep throat yesterday. Drew stayed home with her yesterday, so today was my turn. And, let me just say, we were TOTAL bums today. We did absolutely nothing, nada. We hardly left my bedroom. She did eat part of a yogurt and a snack pack pudding. She drank a yogurt drink this morning and some apple juice. That is all. She has lost a couple of pounds since the weekend, but will hopefully get her appetite back in the next couple of days. She does well once the ibuprofen kicks in and we plan on sending her back to her sitter's house tomorrow. I feel like I wasted an entire day, but if I had it to do over again I would probably do the exact same thing again! Now, let's just hope nobody else gets strep throat before school is out!

Ladies Day

Addie and I had been waiting for this past Saturday to get here. Finally, it arrived! We had a "Ladies Day" scheduled over a month ago and have been waiting and waiting (patiently, of course) for it to arrive. We had tickets to Casa Manana to see The Wizard of Oz and planned on eating dinner at Zoe's Kitchen. She wanted to throw in a pedicure, also, but I had to put a limit on our "Ladies Day!"

While we were waiting for the show to start she started getting a little restless, so I offered her a Tic Tac. After a couple of minutes of sucking on it she began to choke. She started crying and coughing, so I took her out to calm her down. We went back and enjoyed the show. (By the way, if you have a chance to go see The Wizard of Oz at Casa Manana you have got to go! They did a fantastic job!) Throughout the show she kept apologizing for choking. It was really quite sad.

When we got to Zoe's Kitchen she wanted a bowl of rice pilaf and a bowl of fruit. This is what she always orders when we go there. When our food came she said she was going to eat her rice in small bites, in fact "one piece at a time." She put the first piece of rice in her mouth and chewed it up and started choking. That was it, she wouldn't eat another bite of anything. I told her to drink some water, but she was choking on that, too. I got some to-go boxes and we headed home.

I told Drew what had happened and we tried to get her to eat some dessert pizza the boys had ordered while we were gone. She took one bite and started choking again. By this time we were starting to worry. This wasn't normal. Believe me, that girl doesn't miss a meal! We noticed a fleshy piece sticking up in her throat we had never seen before. After talking about it for several minutes and looking in her throat numerous times, Drew decided to take her to the urgent care clinic.

The doctor examined her and even took some x-rays to make sure there wasn't a foreign body stuck somewhere in her throat. He found nothing. The piece sticking up in her throat is her epiglottis. Who knew?!? I do know that we have NEVER seen her epiglottis before, so this was unusual for us. In fact, I have never seen ANYONE'S epiglottis before. Drew told him about the Tic Tac incident earlier that day and he said the Tic Tac could have aggrivated some scar tissue that may have formed from the time she choked on a meatball and I dug it out and scratched her throat. (See my previous post for that story.) The doctor also thought maybe she was just a little paranoid to eat because she has choked several times. He didn't seem overly concerned, though, and sent them on their way.

Yesterday we offered her anything soft that we thought she would eat. She tried to eat pudding, but choked on it. She tried to eat applesauce, but choked on it. She did finally drink most of a yogurt drink, but that was all. She hasn't eaten anything of substance since lunch on Saturday. Drew is taking her to her regular doctor this morning, so I will post an update later on.

So, we did finally get out "Ladies Day," but it sure didn't turn out like I had hoped. We may just have to have another one to make up for it!

Happenings~ Funny and Not Funny

Monday morning our phone rang right after 6:00. I always wonder what's wrong when the phone rings at an odd time. I usually think of my Granddad and wonder what has happened to him. That day, however, it was our Addison's sitter, Miss Linda. Her electricity was out and she didn't know when it would come back on. After a quick discussion, I decided I would take her to work with me and drop her off at Miss Linda's after her electricity came back on. This has happened before and isn't a big deal.

Addison was excited about going to school and she's old enough to follow directions stay out of the way when I need her to. My first class on Monday's is first grade. She played a little bit with them and had a good time. When their teachers came to pick them up, she said she had fun and was ready to leave! I explained that I have to do the same thing five more times before we could go home. I had already printed some coloring pages for her and went to get those. I couldn't expect her to not get bored. I set her up with her coloring pages, markers, a clip board, blanket and exercise mat to lay on. She was set for the day. At lunch she went through the lunch line and bought her first school lunch~ corn dog! She ate with me in the teacher's lounge and was as happy as could be!

When I opened my lunch bag I saw a plastic Easter egg taped up with a note stuck on it from Bryson. It read, "To Mom and Addie. I hope you injoy your lunch. There is a chocolate candy inside. From Bryson and maybe Jack." I thought that was so sweet, but it was really light weight. I wondered what kind of chocolate was so light. I untaped it and inside was a LIVE cockroach! Yeah, my sweet son (s) thought that would be pretty funny. And, I have to say that I got a good laugh out of it! Addison made it all day at school that day. Miss Linda called that evening and said her electricity had just come back on. Good thing, because the next day I was scheduled to go on Jackson's field trip to the zoo.

Tuesday, we went to the zoo and had a great time. I was with Jackson and three really good kids. We made it to most of the animals and had a fun time hanging out together. I am so thankful for the opportunity to go with him.

Friday I gave Addison some Spaghettio's for dinner~ don't judge! It was a long week! I left the kitchen to run myself a bath~ again, don't judge! I walked back in the kitchen just as she took a bite with two meatballs on the spoon. She immediately began to choke. She couldn't breathe and there was only a slight wheezing sound coming out. She couldn't cough or talk. I ran over to her and hit her on the back real hard. I'm sure that is not what I was supposed to do, but I sort of panicked. Nothing happened and I swept my finger in the back of her mouth to try to dislodge the food. As I was doing this I felt my finger scrape across her tonsil. She has really big tonsils and I knew what it was when I scraped it. Thankfully one of the meatballs came out. I guess she swallowed the other one. When the meatball came out she spit it in the bowl along with A LOT of bright red blood. This freaked her out. She started crying to the point of not being able to breathe. The blood just kept filling her mouth. I was worried that it wouldn't stop. It finally began to slow down. It took her a good 30 minutes or so to calm down. She just kept saying, "You stuck your finger in my throat. You scratched my throat. You hurt me, Mommy." I felt horrible, but she told me she forgave me. That was a very scary moment. I hope I don't ever have to do that again. Her throat still hurts and probably will for several days. I just have to keep a close eye on her when she eats and make sure she knows to slow down and take smaller bites.

Friday evening we also went by a new bakery near our house. I wanted to get some cupcakes for Jackson's birthday. I ordered a dozen assorted cupcakes and the total came to $38!!! Uh, hello, they are cupcakes! We were going to go out to eat that evening, but not after paying $38 for 12 cupcakes. That is one of the reasons Addison had Spaghetto's for dinner! I think I was still in shock from paying that much for cupcakes.

Saturday Jackson had his final soccer game of the season. He played very well and they won their game. It really was fun watching him play and he seemed to enjoy it, too. After the game we took a group of 5 boys to the movies to see Rio and then out to dinner to celebrate Jackson's birthday. After dinner we let the boys choose a cupcake. They were so rich, the kids couldn't finish one. Drew and I finished ours, though! We weren't going to waste those expensive cupcakes!

Today is Jackson's seventh birthday. Drew's mom took him out to dinner after church today and then shopping at Toys R Us. This afternoon we took him to Academy to pick out a new bike. That's what he wanted from us. He rode it in the rain as soon as we got home! He had a great day. I am so thankful for my sweet little boy and I can hardly believe that it has been seven years since I first saw my cute, tiny baby. Time is going by way too quickly.

So, that pretty much wraps up our week. We have FOUR more weeks to go before SUMMER!!! I am looking forward to some down time and to our trip to Orlando in July!