I got a buddy......

This is Madeline's new phrase.  She is actually saying it right now.  "I got buddy, I like buddy."  Gideon is he little buddy.  It is so cute.  She will sit by him or let him sit by her.  She will pat his head or back.  Madeline was already downstairs when I brought Gideon down yesterday and the minute we came down she yells "that my buddy, he's a cutie."  Sometimes when she calls him her buddy, Gideon will look at me and say "buddy!"  It is very endearing.  Madeline is also pretty attentive to Gee when he is hurt (even if she causes the booboo).  She will pat him or rub his head and say "it ok."

Speaking of buddies, we kind of have a buddy system when we go out.  Anna is Leah's buddy and Madeline is Logan's.  Gee is mine.  It works pretty well when the kids need to hold hands in the parking lot.  We tried different "buddies" and this works best.  It is kind of funny to me because Leah and Logan are pretty opposite and fight about those differences all the time.  Well, Anna is way more like Logan and Madeline is way more like Leah, I guess I thought Leah/Madeline  and Logan/Anna would be more of natural match.  But, Madeline really doesn't listen to Leah very well and while she doesn't listen to Logan well either, he is more gentle with her and she responds well to that.  Anna pretty much likes everyone, but I think her and Leah have a little something special going.  For some reason Leah has a lot of patience for Anna.  She is always grabbing her to snuggle and stuff.  It is really very cute.  Annie just loves it and is getting quite close to Leah.  Annie was feeling badly yesterday and her and Leah snuggled most of the morning.  Anna even fell asleep on her.

Gideon is feeling better and sounding better.  Thank goodness.  I think though all of the kids have caught something over the weekend.  Annie felt bad all day yesterday and she just laid around, she also had a low grade fever.  Both her and Madeline woke up coughing in the middle of the night and I had to give them something.  We seem to be fever free today, but now all 5 kids have coughs to varying degrees.  Yuck!

We are kind of gearing for a busy couple months.  We have graduations, a birthday party, camping trips and vacations coming up in the near future.  I love that kind of stuff, so it will be fun, but it will keep us hopping!

Julie

Xray results......

Well, he's got pneumonia.  Rats!  The Dr. said that his antibiotic should take care of it, along with the nebulizer treatments.  He wants to see him back in 2 weeks to recheck him and probably do a repeat xray.

Poor guys, his cough is just so frequent and unproductive.  He slept ok last night.  I got up around 3:00 to check on him and he was coughing and his fever was up again.  So, I gave him some more fever meds and cough syrup.  I have got to tell you a funny about that 3:00 am wake up.  I went upstairs and I didn't even know Gee was awake.  I heard him coughing, but he's been doing that all the time.  So, I sneak into his room and out of the blue he yelled "WHAT?!"  It scared the pee out of me, I screamed.  I guess he was totally awake and heard me coming in.  I still kind of laugh about that.  Gideon is still being a real trooper.  I mean his cough is awful, but for the most part he is playing and being goofy like normal.  I mean you can tell he is a little off, but not too bad at all.  

Ugh, sick again......

Well, Gee is sick ............ again.  It was just 6 weeks ago that he had bronchitis and was pretty miserable.  Well, about 3 weeks ago he was sick with a cough and fever for 2 or 3 days.  He also had the yellow crud coming out of his nose.  Well, we just kept him on fever meds and he got better.  Well, except for the cough.  It got a little better but here in the last few days it has gotten much worse.   Even in the last 24 hours has gotten increasingly bad.  So, we took him to the Dr. today and he's kind of a mess.  His lungs are 'wet" and his lymphnodes are swollen.  He has a fever again (102.6) and his nose is a little bit yucky again.  His cough is completely awful.  He is coughing so hard on a regular basis that he is gaging.  He has literally coughed all day today.  So, that Dr. prescribed him an antibiotic, a cough syrup and some asthma meds (along with a nebulizer).  He also ordered an xray (we should get those results tomorrow).  And btw, Gee had gained zero weight on the Dr.'s scales since he was there 6 weeks ago.

I am just sad that Gideon seems to spend so much time sick.  I tell you what though, he is a trooper.  For as sensitive as he can be when he is well you'd almost expect him to be high maintenance when he's sick.  He is not at all.  He still smiles and acts sweet even when he's hacking like crazy.

We are no closer to finding what Gideon's long term issues might be than what we were in my last post.  He has another appt. at Columbus children's with his GI guy in June (the first available they had).  Actually, he has an appointment sooner than that (May 12th) with the pediatric urologist.  It is time for Gee to get circumcised and since he is older it will be an outpatient surgery.  

Everything else is going well.  I finally got the girl's room's switched around and the little girls are doing pretty good in their new beds.  It has been a little tough, but I think they are finally starting to get the hang of sleeping in their beds and not playing in their room (maybe).  They love their new big girl beds and special blankies though.  It is really cute to see how excited they are about them.  When we first got the room/beds ready I took all 3 little ones upstairs to see.  I showed the girls thier beds and they of course hopped right on.  Gideon walked in between the beds and turned and looked at me and did his "hands up, shoulder shrug" thing and said "My bed?"  It was sooo funny and pathetic I just had to laugh!

Ok, here's some recent pics:

Doesn't he look great in that blue?  He has such a beautiful smile!

Annie in her new bed!

Maddie in her new bed!

That cannot be comfortable!

We took this right before I cut Gee's hair.  This is his new "scrunchy" look.

Ok, so he didn't love the swing...........

My little girls LOVED the slide (it took like 5 minutes of bribing to even get this picture, they just wanted to "go")

Enjoying the beautiful day at the park.

Until later.........

Julie

Just checking in........

Nothing terribly new to report, so basically I am just checking in.  

Gideon news:

Well, he got a hair cut tonight and he looks super cute.  I cut about an inch or so off and it needed it.  Right now his hair is super stringy.  I think his baby hair is just growing out, but I just don't see lots of new hair growing in.  I will post pictures sometime this week!

Health wise he is doing ok.  He spiked a fever again this last week, but it never got near as high as I've seen it (102.5 is about what he was running).  He has a cough and definite head cold that seems to be on the upswing.  He broke out in hives again tonight after his bath.  They were pretty bad and covered his arms and legs.  Some bynadryl cleared them up pretty quickly, but they looked very uncomfortable.  We have been introducing dairy back into his diet so I guess it could be that, but we've been giving the dairy for a week now (off and on) and I would think we'd of seen more hives if the dairy was the problem (although he did have a couple hives on his tushy yesterday).  He just needs to have a full allergy panel done.  I am going to call his gastro Dr. tomorrow and set up an another appointment.  Ryan wants to go with me this time, which will be a welcome change.  Weight wise, Gideon has gained a few ounces in the past few weeks, but over the last week, he lost a couple.  But, his poo's seems to be better.

Anna update:  

Anna is really just doing great!  I praise God for that.  Her and Gee are like 3 months into their 9 month TB meds and they take them with ease.  Annie is gained weight beautifully and she is even getting some chunk to her (which I love).   Annie is talking much more now and repeats anything.  She is very orny and out of the 3 I think she pushes the most buttons.  She will swipe a toy just to tick Gee or Madeline off.  She is also my whiney one, but I have been impressed lately that she is getting better at that.  She is still little miss cuddly and she loves to snuggle.  

Anna and Madeline are getting ready to change rooms (probably this week) and move to toddler beds.  I am excited for them, but personally dreading it.  They will both be tough to transition, but Anna will be the hardest.  She is just such a busy body, we will see though, maybe I will be suprised!

Well, until next time, talk to you later!

Julie

We are good!

I am very happy to report that Gideon's labs came back all negative (the soy and milk allergy and most importantly the CF bloodwork)! I am so happy and relieved. I know that test isn't 100%, especially for his ethnicity, but unless we see more symptoms, I am not going to worry about it!!!

Thank you God that our boy does not have that dibilitating disease........

Well, sorry to be so short, but I wanted to at least update!

Julie

Still waiting.......

Hello all,

Well, we haven't heard anything yet about the bloodwork. I am going to call on Thursday though if we still have not gotten any news. We have found out that the test they are running tests like 80 or 90 most common strains if CF (there are over 1500 strains). This catches approx. 90% of CF in caucasions. Well ,since Gee is hispanic, it will only catch CF 57% of the time. So, not real conclusive, but I will definetly feel better if it is negative.

You know I go back and forth so much with this. Sometimes I just know he does not have it, others times I worry enough about it I get scared for him. Right now I am feeling pretty confident he is ok. He just seems to be doing so well. According to our scales, he has gained some weight (like 6 or 7 oz.) and he just seems to be pretty happy (for the most part). His hasn't had a fever in a few weeks (since he had bronchitis) and his poo hasn't been too terribly outragous. We even gave him some milk the other day and I never noticed any ill effects. So, maybe is just totally ok?

I wanted to put in this blog that we still keep in contact with Gee's foster family. Their oldest son (he is a super smart kid) speaks fluent English and we e-mail him and he passes it on to the family. They are such good people. Gee's foster sister sent him/me a hand colored card a few weeks ago that was sooooo precious. We are getting a box of pictures and goodies together to send to them right now. I wanted to share with you all the e-mail I got just today from the foster brother:

Cole Family,

Hello, how are you all? We really appreciate that we are available to keep in touch!
My mom says: "I think we all yearn for a child who will become a good, kind and candid man, and who will fulfill my heart with pride. Just like the tree that prepares itself for many seasons for giving life to a perfect fruit, every parents see their children as a beautiful dream come true. Although Gideon is far from here, he is always in my mind and every beat of my heart and I will be by his side because I pray every single day for him".

Take care!God bless you!


How beautiful is that? I cried when I first read it. I want so badly to go back to Guatemala to see them again. I want them to see how beautiful and smart Gee is!!!

I don't have much to update on Miss Anna. Right now the poor girl is fighting a cold that seems to have settled in her eyes. She's been goopey for a while, but it now seems to be getting better. Anna is saying more and more words. It seems she went for a while without adding any new vocabulary, but now, she is really taking off. I am so proud of and amazed by her. He and Gideon both really!

Anna still want to be just like Madeline. She is always asking to go potty and for a "chockie (an m & m)." We let her sit on the potty, but I don't think she quite gets it yet. Although Ryan said this even she spread her legs (with a diapie on of course) and said "go potty" and she pooped (was that TMI?). Soooo, maybe just maybe she gets it after all?

Right now we are working on switching Anna and Madeline to Leah's bigger bedroom and Leah to their smaller one. We are painting and I am making the girls quilts for their new big girl beds. Yes, they are both moving to toddler beds very soon. Oiy. That will be stressful. But, I am sure they will do great! I hope they will at least.

Well, here are some recent pics of the kiddos:

Our very cold Easter egg hunt with my side of the family:

Annie and her lovely morning "doo." She loved her Easter basket, as did all the kids.

The whole family Easter Day.

Oh my goodness I love this picture of Gee. He looks like Oliver asking for more porraige (that totally dates me right?). He is actually saying "I don't know," which is his new favorite phrase. We asked him where the Easter eggs were at and he gave us this look and said "I don't know."

PawPaw and 3 of his little ones.

Logan playing ring around the rosie with the kids.

Two of my beauties!

These get ups lastest for maybe 30 seconds. They beg me to put them on and then the rip them right off. I had to redress Madeline just to get a picture.

The kiddos at Dave and Buster's eating some ever so healthy french fries. Hey, it was a party (Logie's birthday), you don't have to be healthy at a party, right?

Boy, do they love their Ketsup! (does Annie look way big here, or am I just in denial?)

That's all folks!

Julie

Columbus Children's today

Well, we finally got Gideon's bloodowork done. Than took blood for his cystic fibrosis test and for milk/soy allergies. He did amazingly! He fussed when the lap tech put the band around his arm, but didn't cry or fuss when they put the needle in his arm or for the whole minute or so it took to get the blood. I was so proud of my little guy! We should know something in a couple weeks. Please pray for him if you think of it. My gut still says he just has some sort of allergy/intolerance. But CF is very scary and I am obviously a little worried. His weight today at the hospital was 22.6 lbs. I think that is up a couple oz. from 2 months ago.

The kiddos have been home long enough now that we have to have their 6 month post placements done. This is just a follow up that our home study agency does per a government/adoption country requirement. Pretty much a social worker will come to our house and make sure things are going well. We also need to take both kids back to Cincinatti Children's hospital to have their 6 month follow ups there. Oh, and I need to add re-adopt the kids to the list. Ohio recognizes Anna and Gideon as our legal children, but we need to legally change their names and get them US birth certificates and social security cards. They are legally Ana Maria Cole and Jose Alexander Cole right now and we'd like to get those first names fixed. Gesh, we need to get on the ball!

Julie