Love it

Today as we were driving to VBS Jackson says to me, "Mommy Jesus came to take Grandma Libby home". I love her presence every where, it makes me smile.

Summer Fun

Who knew summer would be so busy!! Jackson did his second week of VBS this week. He has done 4 weeks of swim lessons every day and will now go to twice a week. He starts a two week camp at his school next week as well. Ava and I go to the gym every day and Thursday we go to The Little Gym (another plug for gift cards there for her bday :)). I am going on a girls trip to The Woodland's Resort this week end with 10 awesome girls!! WHOO HOO!! Daddy will be left behind with both kids alone. Pray for him, ok just kidding!! He will do great!

On another note I have something else to talk about. Jackson has had so much fun at VBS the past two weeks. I mean really fun! He has been singing about Jesus and so excited to learn about him too. He told me today, "Mommy I love this church can we come here". We currently go to Saint Batholomew and are Catholic (for our friends who don't know). Jackson never wants to go and it is so boring for him (even for me a lot of times). Switching faiths is not an option. I love our church and our priest. I have a strong emotional attachment to our church since this is where I went through RCIA, Greg and I got married there, and Jackson was baptized there as well. Not to mention I love the priest. The only thing is they have NOTHING for the small children of the parish. The do have children's liturgy once they are 4, but I have gone with Jackson and it is so boring! I mean kids like to sing, dance, color, and have fun learning. Why can't they do that while they learn about faith and Jesus?? I am praying for the right decision as we have tried to switch to Epiphany before. It is more contemporary and I LOVE that. They have so much for the kids!! It is just large and hard to feel at home. We are really going to have to work to make it a home church should we decide to do this. Maybe that is what God is calling us to do, work harder and put more into our faith. I know I have been slacking. My other dilemma is my husband. He likes the more traditional church. I feel like we need to do what is best for our family as a whole. I want my kids to love church and have fun learning the faith, but I want my husband to be happy too. Anyway just needed to vent, hear some other perspectives, and ask that you think of us as we try and make the decision.

Milestone's

Sweet Ava Bear is getting big. Yesterday she decided to finally pull herself up on her own. After she did it once she was unstoppable. She pulls up on everything she sees. She also broke her second tooth right next to the first one on the bottom. Ava is getting so much hair as you can see. She is really starting to look like a big girl. I am in a bit of denial that her birthday is coming up. I planned Jackson's when he was 6 months old! I finally started today to plan hers today. This little girl melts my heart!

Kids

I promised pictures from Ava's first day of Little Gym and I forgot my camera! My friend Brandi and I went with our babies. It was priceless to see Ava's little face. She loved it!! She laughed and smiled the whole entire time. She was so excited!! The teacher said she has a natural toe point which means she is going to be a dance ;). She also was already hanging from the bar. I am so excited about many years of Little Gym, gymnastics, and dancing!!
Jackson is doing so good at swimming. He did private lessons last year and was swimming. We took the fall off and he was so nervous to get back in the water. After only two weeks with Mr Rudy he is doing great! He is floating on his own and learning to use his arms when he swims. I am going to keep him in 2 more weeks straight before switching to once a week. It is an expense, but to watch him make so much progress is awesome. He is is confident and so proud of himself. Priceless!! I plan on starting Ava in Mom and me swim classes next month :).
So hint hint Little Gym gift cards or gift cards to Houston Swim Club would be a great birthday gift for Ava since we are asking NO toys. We are blessed with so many wonderful friends that give our kids toys. If our family and friends both continued we could open a toy store. They have so much as it is.
The summer is off to a great start!

10 months

Long time no post!! Ava is going to be 10 months old this week. I can not believe 2 more months and she will be a year old. She is the most loveable, precious, sweet natured baby. Everyone that meets her falls in love with her. She loves to here me sing to her, loves her big brother, and loves going to the YMCA every morning. She and I are starting Mommy and me classes at Little Gym on Thursday. She really loves music so I am so excited to do this with her. She finally got a tooth about 2 weeks ago!! I can’t believe it took 9.5 months to get her first tooth (check out Jackson at 9.5 months with all his teeth). She still can’t crawl, but manages to get around by doing the army crawl. She also can pull herself up to her knees. She so completes our family. I know I say this all the time, but she is such a blessing.

Jackson is all boy!! I worried about him for awhile, but no need to worry. He is the typical whiny three year old. He has done a total 180 since having his tonsils out. He went from sleeping 13-14 hours at night to 11. He used to sleep 3-4 hours for a nap and now naps maybe every other day. He used to tell me he was ready and crawl in bed. Now he fights it every step of the way. He really is over all a good boy, just needs constant reminders of how to act lol. He starts Vacation Bible School next week, 2 weeks of Camp at his school after that, then another Vacation Bible School, then another two week camp, and finally the last week of July we go to the beach. He only goes until 12:00 every day and I am at the gym. The YMCA is so packed during the summer I am glad he will have his own fun things to do.

I am learning to sew. I took my first sewing class with 3 friends and really enjoyed it. My Mother in law bought me a sewing machine and I am bound and determined to learn to sew. It will be a long process I am sure since I don’t have much spare time. Life just keeps getting busier. My days seem like a couple hours and months seem like only weeks. I am trying to enjoy every minute of my babies being small while it lasts. I am missing my Grandma like crazy. It kills me to think about the fact that she is gone. I guess that is one good thing about life being so busy, it keeps me from staying down. I don’t think I could have handled her loss her at any other time in my life. She was here for a purpose and I truly believe part of that was to make sure I was ok.

Greg and I got a night out with several of our good friends and had a blast! We are in the process of trying to hire a baby sitter so we can get out once every other week. We need it! It is nice to reconnect.

Check back for pictures of Ava’s first day at “gymnastics”. Hamiltonhomeof4.blogspot.com

Go Yankees!

The first season is coming to an end. We had a rocky start, but Jackson has made so much progress. I am really proud of him and I see many years of baseball in our future!

Grandma

How wonderful must it be to be so sweet and innocent? Jackson and I would always pray that God would take care of Grandma Libby since she was sick. I explained to him that she had died. I told him when you die you go to live with Jesus. He said, were does Jesus live, Dallas? I said no way on the other side of the clouds. We can not see Jesus, but he is our hearts just like Grandma Libby is now in our heart. He responded how did she get there, ambulance? He told me Grandma Libby is not sick anymore and I said you are right she is not.

I hope we can keep those memories he has of her alive! He is so sweet and innocent. I miss her.

My Grandma

I remember as a small child spending summers with my Grandma. We would rent movies, go to the mall, and just hang out. When I think of my child hood memories that is what I think of. I think of her, Granny, and their love and dedication to me. When I would go home or they would leave after a trip I would cry because I would miss them so much. She would always take me shopping as far back as I can remember. She loved buying for me and it made her feel good. My Grandma was like a mother to me. She was the one person in my life I could always count on…always. She was always there to listen any time day or night that I would call. She may not always tell me what I wanted to hear as she was a straight shooter, but she always had a way of making me feel better. My Grandma was the best person in my life. She never got mad at me, she never stopped talking to me, and she was always there for me. I am so grateful God gave her to me for so many years. I am glad she got to see my become Catholic, get married, and have children. I am glad I got to make her proud. I will watch my Grandmother be buried today knowing she knew how much she meant to me and how much I loved her as I knew the same from her. I will miss her so much.

God saw she was getting tired and a cure was not to be.
So He put His arms around her and whispered, "Come with Me".

With tear-filled eyes we watched her suffer and fade away.
Although we loved her deeply, we could not make her stay.

A heart stopped beating, hard-working hands put to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us He only takes the best

I love you Grandma. Thank you for being my rock. Thank you for everything. I pray you help me get passed losing you and I pray you watch over my family.

Until we meet again, peace be with you.

Amber

9 months

What a big girl!! She went to the Dr and everything looks great!! She still has no teeth, is doing the army crawl, and talking a lot. Her words are Dada, Buba, and Mama (yay finally). She will now hold her own bottle too! It is so funny to look back at Jackson at this age. He was pulling up on stuff and crawling every where. I can only get away to do her army crawl if I put food in front of her :).

Ava 9 month stats
weight 20 lbs 1 ounce 70%
length 27.25 inches 25%

Jackson 9 month stats
weight 22 lbs
length 31 inches

On the move

She is on the MOVE

24 hours after posting she is still not crawling, Ava is on the move!! One week before turning 9 months old she is now doing the army crawl. We came home from church and she took off!! We got some video, so I will up load it soon!

Is this picture not HILARIOUS?!?!

Long time no post

Things have just started to settle here. Tuesday Jackson finally was back 100%. He is eating us out of house and home. I had no idea how hard the surgery would be and I am so glad it is behind us. I can already see a huge difference in him. He now sleeps about 10 hours at night as before he was sleeping at least 12. His nap went from 3-4 hours to 2 hours. When I check on him at night he is peacefully sleeping instead of fighting the bed. What a relief!!
Ava will be 9 months old next week, can you believe that??? I sure can't!! She is so precious! She still has no teeth and can't crawl, but getting close. She can say Dada and not Bubba (for Jackson). It is so cute!! Maybe Mama will come next? She LOVES food and will eat anything we give her. You would be amazed how much she can gum with no teeth!

Post surgery

Here is a before picture, right after, and a few from today (4 days post surgery). Jackson has lost almost 5 pounds and he did not have any extra to begin with! He looks pretty frail so we have been offering him everything. I have had to set a timer for every 5 minutes and when it goes off he knows he has to take a sip of liquid. Man does it save a lot of arguing and whining. The food part has not been as easy. Since surgery he has hardly eaten anything. I offer him ice cream, pudding, popsicles; you name it all through the day. When he has fully recovered I am going to have to load up on high fat foods for him. I don’t think any of us were prepared for how hard this has been. This by far has been the hardest thing I have experienced as a parent. It is no fun to watch your child in so much pain and be able to do nothing for them. We managed to get out of the house for t ball pictures this morning through a lot of tears. After pictures we headed to Target to get him a real watch. A little boy in his class has one so I told him if he wanted one he had to earn it. Each day he has good behavior at school he gets to put a sticker on his chart at home. After he gets 5 stickers he gets a reward. Ever since we started this he has had nothing but great days! The first 5 stickers he got to go to Chuck E Cheese. He only had three stickers, but I told him after his surgery he could get it. Poor kid I think he earned it and some! I am sure hoping he is turning the corner to recovering.

Jackson

We are DONE! We got a late start since they were backed up. We started our day waking at before 6am to get here by 7:30 and they did not even start with him until 11:00. He cleaned his ears and said he did not think he needed another set of tubes (great news). He had left over adenoids so he removed those (a nice way of saying his first Dr did not remove them all) and he took out his tonsils out. Jackson was a brave boy and rode back in a wagon with the anesthesiologist. He made friends with him before hand and sang him the whole super man song on his lap. I will NEVER take either of my kids anywhere, but here. It is like night and day (compared to Katy hospitals). Jackson had some trouble with his breathing when he woke up and high heart rate. He was very upset and it took awhile to calm him, but we are resting in our room right now (he is watching TV). We are in the West tower room 1112 if anyone wants to come see him today. We will hopefully go home in the morning or mid day. Thank you for all the support and prayers, hopefully he is on the mend!

April 14th

Ok I think I got all our immediate family receiving updates.

Tomorrow is Jackson's surgery and I think it just hit me. My nerves are a mess. I know he is in good hands and everything will be fine, but when it is your baby you still worry. It is 8:20 and he is eating Oreo's (big treat for him). So if you think about it say an extra prayer for our family. Surgery is at 9:30 am at Texas Children's and we will spend the night.

So on to my other precious baby. She is such a sweet little thing! This child is always happy! She was up watching Greg's family play rock band at 9:00 Easter Sunday. Greg's Aunt Shellie mentioned her tugging her ear and thought she may have an ear infection. Well two weeks ago she was doing the same thing and the Dr said it was wax. She was not fussy nor running fever so I never thought twice about it. She has also had a runny nose for a few days. Last night I heard this horrible sound and honest to God I thought it was the dog. It was Ava barking! It scared me to death! Today she woke up sounding horse and I knew I had to take her in. She had a couple more "barking" spells and one right in front of the Dr. Poor angel, she has Croup and an ear infection! UGH!!! Could this happen at a worse time?? I have to leave her tomorrow night (for the first time) and I just stopped nursing two weeks ago. Talk about feeling guilty!!! My Dr assured me the two DO NOT go hand in hand. You would never know this baby was sick as stinking cute as she looked!

Wed it is

So the Cardiolosit said if they diverticulum gets bigger it could rupture the chamber. We are going to keep a close eye on it and NOT worry right now! We will be at Texas Children's to have his tonsils out Wed and spend the night. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

8 Months

Where does the time go? I can't believe it has been 8 months already! I don't really have anything new to tell. Ava is trying so hard to crawl, but just can't quite get it. No teeth yet either, but the girl can scarf down a pancake in no time. You would be surprised the things she can gum. Life is pretty fast paced over here and we are enjoying every minute of it.

Good News

I spoke to the Cardiologist tonight. He called me and answered my questions. The diverticulum is not new. It was on the first echo a year and a half ago. They are only able to see 95% on the echo and this was just hard to see. An extra set of eyes picked it up and gave us an answer to what is going on. This is completely separate from his innocent murmur. We will monitor it and make sure the diverticulum does not get any bigger. I am going to ask him what happens if it does get bigger I just did not think of that when I spoke to him. He is going to have the chief on the echo lab look at this and if she feels any other further testing is done then he will call us. If not we will have another echo in 6 months to a year. He said this will not affect Jackson surgery next week to have his tonsils out and if it was his son he would still have it done. I have full confidence we are with the very best people at Texas Children's. Our Dr is well known, highly respected, a professor, and on the Board of American pediatrics (he is damn good). I also have 100% confidence that God has a plan and he will take care of my precious little boy.

UPDATE

Some of you have not been receiving my email updates. I added some who wanted them and when I did some were removed. I can only have 10 people to update. I am removing this feature completely so no one has hurt feelings. Please check back at your leasure for updates or feel free to call us.

hamiltonhomeof4.blogspot.com

281-660-1634 cell
281-712-1820 home

WOW

I spoke to soon!! The Cardiologist just called me at home. They have had people looking at Jackson's echo all day long. He is such a rare case. They have found a pocket (Diverticulum) of blood. He will have to be monitored every 6 months and if it is bigger next 6 months then we will have to do a MRI. This is going to make me a nervous wreck during his surgery next week! He went from his blood flows different and it is fine too he has a heart defect that will have to be monitored. Prayers PLEASE~