** UPDATE ** May, June & July

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Here is the long awaited update on the boys ..........

Calahan got his eyes checked out in May.  He needs reading glasses, but he has for years now.  He could go without them, it's a mild prescription.  Much like mine.

Calahan had his first date with his girlfriend :)   Even though they have been dating for about 2 1/2 years.

They went to see Fast 6 at the theater and then we went over to my mom's for a BBQ ...

He's growing up so fast, it's hard to believe in 6 months he'll be 18.   We'll be taking his Senior pictures soon!!

He's such a handsome guy :)

Nathan and Noah at the Ped's office - Noah is NOT happy ...  

Noah  is never happy going to the DR ...  but this day, he was exceptionally grouchy...  LOL.   Noah has a habit of not telling the whole *truth* when he's at the DR.   About what hurts or what's going on.  He'll say he's fine.  He hates the DRs and it causes him a ton of anxiety.

Noah at the doctors 

I had the shock of my life the day of their Ped Well Child....  Noah had gained weight, and height - which is a great thing!  Trust me I'm not complaining about that.   I have also, over the past few months, noticed stretch marks, and he's gotten a little mustache, and a tiny amount of under arm hair....   but when the DR pulled his pants down to check his boy parts, I was NOT expecting what I saw.  I was one of those cartoons with the mouth hanging open.  The other child (who won't be named, but he's older) ... itched and itched and itched, so we knew he was changing, but Noah's never complained.  It was bizarre.  I knew he had started puberty, thought it was too early but according to the experts blah blah blah .. its normal.   What the F*** do they know?  

Now normally I wouldn't talk about that stuff, but ...... I have one of those Mommy moments you want to rewind and take back.   Still reeling from shock, when we got home...  I marched Noah into the kitchen were Dennis was and proceeded to try to pull down Noah's pants to show Dennis do something really embarrassing, and Noah squealed with embarrassment and I snapped out of my shock.  It was a - WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING - moment.   I wasn't thinking, I was in shock.  My 1lb 12oz preemie has HAIR down THERE.  Rewind.  Walk in the door.  "Hey Honey, we're home ....... GUESS WHAT!!!   It's confirmed, Noah's started puberty."  Walks into bedroom.  Yep, that's how it should have went.  

Dumb Mom.......

So ... let's see, what was next.....

Beginning of June we went to Seattle for Noah's Nephrology appointment. If you don't know what Nephrology is... it's the kidney Dr.   So we had a check up with him and Noah's still pretty stable.  They did some blood work but it seems it turned out all good since I haven't heard anything otherwise.  We all went that day ......

After that appointment we went to what we thought was going to be an Orthodontist appointment, but all it was - was another pediatric dentist.  We already have one of those.  She told us the only way to get orthodontics covered by insurance was through Cranial Facial   ...  Now, Noah use to see Cranial Facial   in WI and I dropped the ball on that specialty when we moved here.  So we got a referral to the one that is at Seattle Children's (that Nathan sees) ...  so I'm hoping maybe there is a chance, but I doubt it.  I'm not holding out any hope on that so we're trying to raise money for it.

So ...  Noah's oral surgery was scheduled for the end of June and the dentist we saw above made me feel as if the only way to get Noah Orthodontics was if we went through them and saw the surgeon that she wanted to do the oral surgery, because she was the one who did the orthodontics through Cranial Facial  ... but our local Pediatric Dentist, whom we know and love - had already scheduled the surgery ...  so we decided to go ahead and do the surgery.  So in late June we went in... it was Nathan's last day of school.  I got Nate in the van and Dennis called my cell and asked if I left yet, cuz they called to see if we could come in early.  So Noah came out, we dropped Nathan off, and then I took Noah to the dentist.  She did the surgery right at her office.  So she came out and told me they pulled 17 baby teeth out of his mouth.  You have 20 baby teeth that you lose between (normally) 6 and 12.  He had lost only 3, and those were always a pain to get out, they were loose forever - not for lack of trying, they just didn't want to fall out.  Much like the rest of his baby teeth.  But all his adult teeth were coming in around or behind the baby teeth ...  Noah had three rows of teeth ...his baby teeth in front, the front two adult teeth behind those, and then the two teeth that are suppose to be beside the front to teeth behind the adult front teeth ... on both his upper and lower jaws.  He has an incredibly small jaw. She also fixed a couple cavities he had - no more No Cavities Club for him.

So yeah....   he came home with 17 teeth in a bag, and 12 teeth in his mouth ...

He is still struggling with eating stuff.  Most of his adult teeth are coming up all at once now that the baby teeth are out of the way.  

Also Noah saw Orthopedics about his legs.  Now, Orthopedics says it's not an Ortho issue, and sent us to a Rheumatoid Arthritis doctor.... we just saw him, and he says - that he doesn't *think* he has it.  Even if it makes sense with his symptoms he doesn't have the wear and tear that would come with having it all his life untreated.  He's not saying he absolutely doesn't - but he says because he came in symptom free, and from what he saw, he doesn't think he has JRA...   so we still don't know why Noah's legs are in pain all the time.

Nathan has officially graduated Kindergarten!

 He was so proud :)

So in May, Nathan had another appointment with Dr. G in Urology, Dr. B's colleague whom trained under him, and hes going to be the one handling Nathan's hypospadious/undecended testicle surgery.  We liked him enough, still like Dr. B better but he's not doing surgeries at the hospital anymore and since Nathan will be staying in the hospital, it has to be done at the hospital.  Dr. B promised we were in good hands though.  Dr. B did his last surgery (2nd one) and the first one was done in Wisconsin.  This will be his 3rd surgery, and even this may not be the last.   They are going to be taking some skin from inside his cheek to put around his urethra to try to bring it to the tip of his penis since it's still on the underside.

Nathan absolutely LOVES the dyson hand dryers..... he will keep using them over and over and over and over...  LOL....  and he laughs when he's doing it...  

Nathan's self portrait drawn on one of the dry erase boards at the DR.  He's a happy mutant cyclopes... but at least he's smiling! 

Then we saw Dr. P (ENT) and we talked about his surgery ... and he wanted to look at Nathan's ears.  He said ... his left ear is con-caved in right now with the tube out.  He talked about taking his tonsils and adenoids out...  and they were going to try to schedule both surgeries together.  But he forgot about the talking about taking the tonsils and adenoids out.  So we had to go back to see him to talk about that again.  @@  LOL...   it is what it is, right?   So got that all squared away, and he decided to NOT take out his adenoids.  So hes going to get tubes and then his tonsils and because of his fragility - he'll be staying over night for that too.  :/

Because, after waiting a month and a half, FINALLY got a call with a date and found out they couldn't schedule them together.  I know that Dr. P wanted it done ASAP because of the way its affecting him.   So I just had them schedule them separately....  his Urology one will be August 2nd (next week, er, a week from tomorrow) and the ENT one will be September 3rd.  

So in other news, one hot afternoon when moods were boiling, Nathan pissed off Kaedyn somehow (really, its not that hard) and Kaedyn picked up a full 2 liter bottle of soda (Mt. Dew to be specific) ... and THREW IT AT NATHAN hitting him in the head.  He came crying and screaming and blood GUSHING out of his nose ..  (I have pictures of the massacre but I won't share, cuz it looks like someone was murdered.)  Anyway - I knew he probably broke his nose, but it wasn't obvious like Noah's had been when he broke his in Aug. 2011.  So we took him to see the same DR.  Noah had seen when he broke his.  Anyway, it was a process.  We didn't take him in the night it happened because we took Noah to the ER with an OBVIOUS break, and they hemmed and hawed over if it was broken or not, they TOLD Dennis it wasn't but then send them home with paperwork that said it was!  Regardless, Noah saw the local ENT the following day and he said it was absolutely broken.  So - we felt it was pointless if they couldn't tell that Noah's broken nose was broken, Nathan's wasn't obvious - so they'd say it wasn't.  So the day after it happened, he woke up with brusing in the corner of his eyes by his nose, and across the bridge of his nose.   We took him into the Ped to get the referral to the ENT, and had to stop for x-rays in between.

The verdict.  Hair-line Fracture.  It would heal in 6 to 8 weeks.

Nathan has also been having a lot of asthmatic coughing spells so we've increased his nebby treatments.  He is really good now for them though, sits there like a champ!

This is Nate and Kaedyn playing one hot day under the A/C in the master bedroom ...  it's a one room A/C.  They kept themselves occupied with their Leap pads.  

Eating a snack after therapy one day.  Nathan still had therapy so ... Nathan was HAWNGRY so we got a snack.  Got Noah some too for after his therapy.

This was BRIBERY ..  I found this at Goodwill and it was only a couple dollars, Nathan LOVES Angry Birds.  So this was bribery to put on short sleeves because he just won't.   So - it obviously worked!  Once he's in them and he's not throwing a fit, he's okay.  It's putting it on and fit ensues....  

This is another day at Seattle Children's with the Dyson Hand Dryers ....  LOL

 They make him so happy!

Nathan got his Sure Steps that he was fitted for w/ the last update.  He actually enjoys wearing them.  They said socks on the inside, and always have shoes on, well, that's easy for them to say.  Nathan is mostly inside and he doesn't wear shoes inside, he barely wears socks....  so we put socks on the inside after Mommy got to see them on his (bare) feet and put slippers on, that works.... right?   We also figured we could just put socks on the outside too if he wanted that ...  that way, not so slippery ...   hospital socks!  Or socks with treads on the bottom....   note to self, steal many hospital socks while in the hospital ....  and get socks with threads....

 He did have some redness after wearing them for awhile....

Nothing makes me happier then those moments where Nathan is giving me those true smiles.  Like this.  Not the smiles to appease me ... the ones where I have to say "Look at Mom" a hundred times and "Smile" fifty.   No - this is a spontaneous smile...   this is the best smile EVER ...

He got to go bare back riding at our friend Lisa's one day recently ...   he didn't like bare back riding much...

But he had a BLAST leading De around.  And just look at that picture.  He is a 6 year old little boy who is the size of a two year old, leading a horse around.   WOW right?

We got Nathan's new ear pieces for his hearing aids today.  This is what he picked up....

Kaedyn got signed up for his THIRD year of Pre-school.   This bummed me out soooooo much.  Kaedyn is totally 100% ready for Kindergarten - first kid who is very clearly ready.  But he missed the cut off by EIGHT DAYS!!!!   Ugh....  the cut off is Sept. 1 and his b-day is Sept. 9.   Yep, 8 days....

Kaedyn went back to the eye doctor and got a new pair of glasses, a little weaker prescription ... he went with Daddy and picked out his own glasses and was much more open and not as shy during the whole process so it worked much better...  Here is my handsome guy with his new glasses.

At the end of school they sent home a whole bunch of artwork......

And here he is with this end of the year diploma

He also drew his first self portrait for me .......

I always knew he was a box head.  Wait........ since he's a mini-me, does that mean I'm a square head?

For a little treat, here is Nathan, Kaedyn and Mickey Mouse at Seattle Childrens ...

And one last thing, we have some new furries in our family right now.  Our Cat, Autumn, had kittens.  She had five - one had severe Spina Bifida ... she lasted over 24 hours, and then Cupid, was a white kitten with only an orange tail and an orange heart on the back of his head ...  he died of Kitten Vanishing Syndrome which is pretty much Failure to Thrive.  We tried to save him ...  it was really sad.

Marnie is our kitten herder ...  she literally runs around them keeping them on the bed... it's funny.   The kitten names,  Rex is the Orange one climbing on Marnie.  Abby is the one that she's "hugging" and Boo is the black and white Persian ...  we lubs them.   Originally we weren't going to keep any but we had to put our cat Mia to sleep.  So ...  yeah.  There went that theory.

And I think that's it for this update!!  Next will be some entries from the hospital for the first surgery, I'm sure....