Sunday, April 22, 2007

When it rains it pours...

So the title of this post may seem a bit ominous, but actually, just as the rain and cool temperatures have subsided over the past few days, things have been good. Sophie is milling about the neighborhood like a regular little girl now. Even playing in the dirt! Right now it's pouring good times!


Since her central line catheter has been removed from her chest, she is even more bubbly than usual. She has always had such charm, with a party seemingly following her around all the time waiting to happen, but now, with no real restrictions, she is so full of life and it's just wonderful to watch!

Since Easter, there have been some difficult times, including a stomach virus that plagued the house putting Sophie back on IV fluids for a few days, keeping Zach home from school for a day and ending a night at CPK early for Mike. Mom got a respiratory version of the virus lasting for several days, but never enough beyond annoying to stop regular activities - and there were many!

We've also been struggling with oral medications for Soph. She has always hated any medications by mouth, but without the central line, there's just no other way (and we want to avoid putting line back at all costs!) We tried all sorts of creative things, like oral disintegrating tablets, a flavored liquid version, and just plain old pills. We tried hiding it in food - yogurt, frozen yogurt, spinach dip, olives, berries, bananas, and other things -- no luck! Finally we tried grinding the pills and putting them in a little bit of apple juice. We put a gummy candy in her mouth and she takes sips and eats more gummies until it's done, usually about 20 minutes. Then we have a big dancing and clapping party to celebrate! Sophie takes any opportunity during the day to tell others that, "I take my medicine, Yay!" We're not arguing with the process, it works!

We've been spending a great deal of time enjoying home lately. The weather this weekend kept the kids out and playing late into the evening each day. Sophie wouldn't even stop to take naps, but fell asleep before her head hit the pillow!

Zach is doing great lately, he's reading and spelling and enjoying math too. He raised almost $200 for St. Jude's Children's Hospital as part of a school sponsored Math-a-Thon fundraiser. It's a really cool program that has the students do math to earn money - who wooda thunk?!? Even better most of it was done on-line. You can check it out at www.mathathon.org. He's been really busy doing Kindergarten stuff, he even lost another tooth last week. A front one at that. He's not really listhping, but it sure looks cute! Tomorrow he heads to the National Zoo for a field trip and Dad is even a chaperon. There's great weather in store and hopefully we'll get some great pictures to post!

We are so happy to report good times, and hope that your lives are doing well also. Best to you all, until next time... Peace!

2 comments:

Jackie Hajji said...

So glad to hear such good news! Happy Spring!
Jackie

Hammond Family said...

Sophie is quite the make up artist and I love Zach's new smile :-) Let me know the next time you're in SS and we'll catch up. - Jennifer