Back in a Routine

Syd started 2nd grade last week and absolutely loves it!  Of course she only went 3 1/2 days, but I think she'll still love it even after 5 days.  She's in class with her best bud Teagan and her teacher is a lot of fun.  Can't get much better than that, until I start volunteering and then she'll have the coolest mom ever! 

Alex is doing great in the braces!  He stands most of the time and is starting to walk more along the furniture and behind his truck.  He thinks his shoes are the neatest things and is signing "shoes" and trying to say it also.  Comes out "oooooooz" but we know what he means :-)  We haven't measured him yet to see how tall he is but he seems huge!  Some day he's going to eat us out of the house!

Happy Day!!

We are FINALLY out of the casts and into braces!  He'll be in them 23/7 for 3 months and then we'll slowly cut down on the hours everyday.  Eventually he'll only wear them at night.  Alex seemed pretty unsure of them at first, but he's already crawling, flipping around on his knees and standing on his knees.  Pretty sure he'll be walking very soon!   He was very happy to get his casts off this morning!  The incision sites aren't even visable but for a tiny bruise on one foot.  Now we get to finally take him swimming, even if it's only for half an hour.                            

Girls Weekend

Me, mom and Syd had a girls weekend in Denver and we had so much fun!  We're going to make it a yearly tradition to have just the girls do something before school starts.  We had great meals, lots of swimming, saw pretty butterflies and had a ton of giggles!

Summer seems to be winding down and it's not even August yet.  Syd starts school on the 16th and we've got all of her supplies ready to go.  Except for the recorder, not sure I'm looking forward to that sound flowing through the house.  Syd took a bunch of art and science classes at a local store instead of a summer camp.  It worked out well instead of having all the fun stuff over in one week.  Syd will also be starting inline hockey in September.  She and James play in the driveway all the time and is super excited to "slam someone into the boards!"   She's decided to grow her bangs out, which will be tough for the tomboy who refuses to wear any kind of barrette in her hair, not even a bobby pin.  Wish me luck!

 Alex is doing great.  He gets around like he doesn't even have casts on, walking along anything he can.  He's been with us for just shy of 5 months now.  Seems like yesterday and seems like forever.  He's becoming very lovey and clingy with us and it's great!  He loves to grab our face (sometimes a leg or arm), wrap his hands around whatever he's grabbed and lay his head on you.  It's so sweet!  His little 'tude is starting to show now too.  He pretends to cry when he doesn't get what he wants, he smacks and yells when he's mad at you.  It's cute, except when he kicks you during a diaper change with the casts.  I have a few more bruises than I would like :-)  Casts come off in 2 weeks and will be remeasured to see if his heels are where they need to be.  If they are, we'll have to remeasure for his braces.  If they don't fit, back into the casts until new braces are in.  If his heels haven't dropped to where they want them, back into casts until the next surgery.  Here's hoping for stretched heels!!!!

Surgery Day

Alex had his bilateral tenotomy done this morning.  Dr said that she wasn't happy with just one cut of his left achilles tendon so she did an additional one on that side.  Other than that everything went perfectly.  We spent most of the time waiting and keeping Alex amused with his little trucks and a couple of critters.  By the time I got to recovery, he was awake and drinking a bottle.  Then he wanted another bottle, crackers, juice, pudding, jell-o and cheerios on the way home.  Think he's feeling better!  So now he'll be in one set of casts for 3 weeks and check his range of motion and if his heels have dropped.  If the left one hasn't dropped we'll have to do it all again, but if it has it'll be time for braces!!

         Before surgery and hungry!

Spiffy gown.

Tears and pudding.

Playing Tourist

Even after living in Colorado Springs for 27 years, I still love doing the "touristy" things. (and getting out of the 95 heat)  Today we drove up Pikes Peak for the first time with the kids.  Syd had a blast on the drive up and down, even though she was a little scared on the sheer drops next to the road.  Once we got to the top, we walked around and got a small lunch, 2 tiny cheeseburgers, nachos and an order of fries for 18 bucks!  Next time we'll be taking our own lunch!  I think Syd, Alex and I were getting a bit of altitude sickness.  Syd and I got some pretty bad headaches and Alex wouldn't eat.  He was definately not feeling well to pass up a burger and fries!  On the way back down, we stopped at one of the lakes so James and Syd could fish.  Alex had a ball playing in the rocks and throwing them every which way.

Sand Tables and the Aquarium

We went to our friends, the Henry's, for a BBQ on the 4th.  Didn't get any pics of Alex and Ty because poor Ty was feeling pretty yucky.  Alex had a fantastic time playing in the sand/water table which he's not experienced yet because we didn't want his casts to get wet.  We put some of James' socks over his casts so he could play outside and he went to town and still got wet!  So now we know what to get him after the casts are off :-)

 We stayed at a hotel overnight, with a pool of course so Syd and James could swim.  Me and Alex hung out in the room relaxing.  And yes, he does have red and blue casts.  For Independence Day of course!  We went to the aquarium today and had a blast.  Alex loves it as much as his sister does!  And they both got new critters (well, I got one too) at the gift shop.  We are one dolphin and 2 stingrays bigger than before we left yesterday.  I think Alex is going to love the critters as much as Syd, sigh.  This first pic is James and the kids in a bubble under a huge fish tank.

This starfish looks strangely like a raw chicken!