You see these teeth?
They're good chompers huh.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Carson Quote of the Day
I can run a million liters fast!
I was wearing yellow earrings and Carson was reminded of
something.
Mom, these look like
mustard.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Reese Recited
I'm going to dance with Jocey.
Sorry, you can't. It's only for her team.
You dance then Mommy.
I'm too old.
But you're a girl.
Yeah but I'm too old now.
Then I'm going to dance party.
You're too young.
But I'm not a girl.
Sorry, you can't. It's only for her team.
You dance then Mommy.
I'm too old.
But you're a girl.
Yeah but I'm too old now.
Then I'm going to dance party.
You're too young.
But I'm not a girl.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Ten Months Old!
Gwen is our handful! I didn't think kids could get much more busy than Reese, but that was before Gwen came along! She is busy, busy, busy. She's got places to go and things to explore. She tries to walk wherever she goes and she can make it across the room if she's distracted enough to not know she walking. She's a stinker and if you tell her "no" she'll give you this big crinkled-nose grin and keep getting in whatever trouble she was doing before. You have to buckle her in the high chair now or she'll climb right out. She's learned that falling down the stairs is no fun. At any given point, she'll probably have 5 bruises on her face. And she gets a new one daily. I think if she makes it to the age of 2 without brain damage it'll be a miracle. We've considered having her wear a helmet all the time just to protect her from herself. And you'll need lots of patience trying to change her diaper but even if she is a handful, you'll never meet a sweeter baby! Always smiling, even when she's sick, always giving kisses, always ready to play, always wakes up happy. She's a cutie and she loves attention! She can do "Patty Cake" and "Eensy, Weensy Spider" and she'll try and sing with you if you sing "Twinkle, Twinkle." She is starting to say a few words like ball and bye, bye. She's got mama and dada down. Her hair is getting long but it still has that baby softness to it and it's coming in a golden blonde. So there's blonde at the roots and dark at the tips. She figured out how to drink out of straw. Her top two teeth are coming in and given her and the rest of the family grief. :) And next Tuesday she goes in to put tubes in her ears. We love this little bundle of mischief!
Gwenny Penny Meggy-Boots Crandall
Loving knicknamed by her brothers
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Carson's bday party
Carson is usually the first one up in our house so he didn't actually get breakfast in bed but he did get his favorite breakfast meal, "German eggs and pancakes" with strawberries.
I love their cute little sleepy faces.
After breakfast, he got to open one present and then off to school with cupcakes for his class.
After school it was time to party! I didn't do a whole lot as far as decorations. Just ice cream balloons, pinwheels, and some streamers.
Rice krispie ice cream cones
First game was bean bag toss and I was really surprised that the kids really liked it. I thought they would get bored after two seconds but they kept wanting to go back and play.
Then they played balloon ping pong volleyball. The littler kids didn't care for this one so much.
Then they made their own ice cream in a bag. I thought it would be a huge mess and a major disaster but it worked out really well and the kids really enjoyed it. They complained about their hands getting cold so we got a bunch of towels and that helped. Carson was having some meltdowns (hey, it's his party and he can cry if he wants too) because he got some salt in hangnails. But other than that it was a success!
There was a bunch of toppings for the kids to put on their ice cream.
The kids kept saying they were cold from the ice cream so we had an ice cream freeze dance to get their blood pumping. They really enjoyed this game too!
Once we got the ice cream mess cleaned up we sang "happy birthday" and cut the cake. We had to relight the candles because Carson couldn't wait to blow them out!
Then time for presents.
Time went quick and soon everyone had to leave. I had a good time and I think the party was a success. I couldn't have done it without Julie though! I'm glad she got off work just in time!
The favors
Later that night, the Fuquas and Crandalls came over for some family party time.
But the day wasn't quite over until we opened the package from Grandma Connie.
It was a long but really fun day! Not sure if we could've packed any more in but hopefully Carson will have some real memories of this party!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Carson is 5!!!
Look at this heart-breaker! He's such a little stud muffin! To be honest, it's really tough getting a picture of his real smile but there's these times, if you're fast enough, that you can just see that twinkle of the real Carson.
Carson plays a huge role in our family as the comedic-relief. He's always saying the funniest things, hence the "Carson Quotes of the Day," and pretty much any thought that enters his head, leaves his mouth. He'll take an idea and literally talk us all through his thought process. It's really interesting sometimes to see how he makes his conclusions.
He is our animal-lover! He's taken great care of his two pet frogs and is always reminding me that we need to stop and buy them some crickets. Every time we go to the pet store he wants to go in and look at the animals. It seems like every time I go to pick him up from school he has his teacher cornered with one of the animal magazines asking a bunch of questions about the pictures. If you ever want to get him talking, just ask him about spitting cobras.
Carson is our runner! The other day they had a jog-a-thon at his school and he had the most laps out of the whole preschool. He ran over a mile! It was so cute because he was really excited about it! We had bought him some new running shoes and he couldn't stop talking about how cool they were and then the day of the jog-a-thon he got all dressed in his running clothes and as they were getting ready to run he was all stretching and shaking it out. He was totally pumped. Then afterwards when everyone found out that he got the most laps, he was trying so hard to keep it cool, trying to keep that ear-to-ear grin under wraps. I don't know if I've ever seen him so proud of himself.
Carson has been, and most likely always will be, a fruit-aholic! He eats fruit like there's no tomorrow. I think I've bought about 4 or 5 of those big bags of the Costco Cuties and him and Reese are just barely starting to slow down on them. Between the two, they probably eat around 8 of them a day and that's on top of any other fruit that we have around. I'll buy a huge container of strawberries from Costco and it lasts 4 days and that with me cutting them off. He also loves popsicles and ice cream so it's no wonder that frozen blueberries are one of his favorite snacks.
Basically, Carson is one awesome kid. We have our difficulties of course but mostly we're really grateful to have him in our lives!
Interview:
Q: What is your name?
A: Spider Man
Q: How old are you?
A: I'm five.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: My favorite color is red. It's the most dashing color in the world!
Q: Who is your best friend?
A: Jory and Ryder and Daniel
Q: What is your favorite animal?
A: It's a llama.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: I want to be a construction worker.
Q:What is your favorite movie?
A: Shark Tales and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: It's about lots of animals. And I've been dreaming about going to the zoo. (the magazine that he's always asking his teacher to read to him)
Q: What makes you happy?
A: Going and playing at my cousin's house.
Q: What makes you sad?
A: Not being first in line. Being in the very back. (he's pretty competitive)
Q: What is your favorite food to eat?
A: Fruits and veggies (told ya! )
Q: What's your favorite song?
A: Dolphins (???) I sing it at nighttime and my daddy sings it to me.
---How does it go? Can you sing it for me?
Dolphins, dolphins, dolphins, dolphinsYou don't have legs so you don't have to crawl in little things
Dolphins eat fish
Killer whales eat fish
and sharks eat fish
and watch out for those pointy teeth!
Q: What games do you like to play?
A: Just Spider Man and TMNT and super heroes
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Hemifacial Microsomia
So let me start from the top. When Carson was brand new, his jaw would click every time he would swallow when I would nurse him. I asked his pediatrician at the time if it was something I should be worried about and he just kinda shrugged it off. Ryan has TMJ so I figured that it was something Carson had inherited. The clicking lasted a few months so I didn't think too much about it.
As he got older, there were some more warning signs. Like how he would sleep with his head clear back or the fact that he can never seem to hear what I say to him or, of course, the lisp we're still working on. We figured the weird sleep positions were because of his tonsils and the lisp was because of his thumb-sucking habit. Those issues didn't help the situation, but, come to find out, he actually has a birth defect that could give some explanation.
Carson has a goofy grin. At first I just thought it was because he didn't want to get his picture taken but then when his preschool teacher confronted me about it and expressed her concern that it was getting worse, I started getting nervous. We had him go to the school speech pathologist and she said that it was just a lisp that he would probably outgrow but to ask his pediatrician. I asked his pediatrician why he couldn't open his mouth normally and he wasn't sure either but to check with a dentist. Mind you, Carson had been to a pediatric dentist regularly who's only concern was the thumb-sucking. It took about two months before I was able to get Carson into the dentist. We were able to get a panoramic x-ray and see that there was a deformity in his jaw preventing him from chewing, smiling, and opening his mouth normally.
I was totally heart broken when I was told he had a "deformity." I went in knowing that something was wrong but thinking that he would just need a brace or something to straighten things out or maybe just re-training his muscles somehow. I was not expecting a birth defect.
The dentist recommended we take him to see an oral surgeon. There was only one oral surgeon that would even take a look at a jaw problem. I sent him the x-ray and he told me that he could do a CT scan to get a better look but most likely we'd have to talk to a craniofacial surgeon at Seattle Children's Hospital. That was some more crappy news. I was able to get in contact with a pediatric surgeon who deals with cleft palates and he took a look at the x-ray and he said that it looks like a mild form of hemifacial micorsomia. At the very least we could put a name to it. I was told that we should wait to do the CT scan for when we went to Seattle but to get an x-ray of his cervical spine to make sure that there weren't any issues there, to get an ultrasound of his kidneys because with this kind of birth defect, it's common to have duplicated collection systems, and then to get a hearing test.
So, what is hemifacial microsomia? It's the second most common facial birth defect after clefts. It's when kids have a small or underdeveloped part of the face, usually the ear and jaw. Some kids don't even have an ear or an eye! I'm so grateful that he was born with a normal looking ear! So far, researchers don't know why some kids are born with this defect. But they have figured out that it has something to do with the blood supply around 6 weeks gestation. Luckily, it's not something I did or didn't do. It doesn't seem to be inherited or something that is passed on. There's a 1% chance that you can have a child with the birth defect but if you have a child with it, the chance of having another child with it is about 3%. How weird is that?
Apparently, Seattle Children's Hospital deal with kids with HFMS a lot. We're really blessed to live so close to Seattle with the added bonus of having family living there. We're headed over there the end of April.
Some treatments include surgery. Carson might need surgery now and then again later when he's finished developing, around 18 years of age. They might need to do a bone graft or some form of orthodontics to help stretch the bone that is already there. He might need to go back to a speech pathologists to help with his lisp because kids with HFMS have some differences in the muscles in the back of their throat. It'll pretty much be a bunch of different doctors working together. I was really upset at first because I thought it was going to be worse than it is. He has such a mild form compared to others and it could be so much worse! It has made me look at my other kids differently though and now any little quirk they have I'm suspicious of something more serious. I just really hope that we can do something to help now so Carson doesn't have to have his goofy grin through his teenage years. That would be tough. Now, his goofy grin is cute but it won't be so cute on a 16 year old. I guess we'll know more in two months! I'll keep you posted!
As he got older, there were some more warning signs. Like how he would sleep with his head clear back or the fact that he can never seem to hear what I say to him or, of course, the lisp we're still working on. We figured the weird sleep positions were because of his tonsils and the lisp was because of his thumb-sucking habit. Those issues didn't help the situation, but, come to find out, he actually has a birth defect that could give some explanation.
Carson has a goofy grin. At first I just thought it was because he didn't want to get his picture taken but then when his preschool teacher confronted me about it and expressed her concern that it was getting worse, I started getting nervous. We had him go to the school speech pathologist and she said that it was just a lisp that he would probably outgrow but to ask his pediatrician. I asked his pediatrician why he couldn't open his mouth normally and he wasn't sure either but to check with a dentist. Mind you, Carson had been to a pediatric dentist regularly who's only concern was the thumb-sucking. It took about two months before I was able to get Carson into the dentist. We were able to get a panoramic x-ray and see that there was a deformity in his jaw preventing him from chewing, smiling, and opening his mouth normally.
I was totally heart broken when I was told he had a "deformity." I went in knowing that something was wrong but thinking that he would just need a brace or something to straighten things out or maybe just re-training his muscles somehow. I was not expecting a birth defect.
The dentist recommended we take him to see an oral surgeon. There was only one oral surgeon that would even take a look at a jaw problem. I sent him the x-ray and he told me that he could do a CT scan to get a better look but most likely we'd have to talk to a craniofacial surgeon at Seattle Children's Hospital. That was some more crappy news. I was able to get in contact with a pediatric surgeon who deals with cleft palates and he took a look at the x-ray and he said that it looks like a mild form of hemifacial micorsomia. At the very least we could put a name to it. I was told that we should wait to do the CT scan for when we went to Seattle but to get an x-ray of his cervical spine to make sure that there weren't any issues there, to get an ultrasound of his kidneys because with this kind of birth defect, it's common to have duplicated collection systems, and then to get a hearing test.
So, what is hemifacial microsomia? It's the second most common facial birth defect after clefts. It's when kids have a small or underdeveloped part of the face, usually the ear and jaw. Some kids don't even have an ear or an eye! I'm so grateful that he was born with a normal looking ear! So far, researchers don't know why some kids are born with this defect. But they have figured out that it has something to do with the blood supply around 6 weeks gestation. Luckily, it's not something I did or didn't do. It doesn't seem to be inherited or something that is passed on. There's a 1% chance that you can have a child with the birth defect but if you have a child with it, the chance of having another child with it is about 3%. How weird is that?
Apparently, Seattle Children's Hospital deal with kids with HFMS a lot. We're really blessed to live so close to Seattle with the added bonus of having family living there. We're headed over there the end of April.
Some treatments include surgery. Carson might need surgery now and then again later when he's finished developing, around 18 years of age. They might need to do a bone graft or some form of orthodontics to help stretch the bone that is already there. He might need to go back to a speech pathologists to help with his lisp because kids with HFMS have some differences in the muscles in the back of their throat. It'll pretty much be a bunch of different doctors working together. I was really upset at first because I thought it was going to be worse than it is. He has such a mild form compared to others and it could be so much worse! It has made me look at my other kids differently though and now any little quirk they have I'm suspicious of something more serious. I just really hope that we can do something to help now so Carson doesn't have to have his goofy grin through his teenage years. That would be tough. Now, his goofy grin is cute but it won't be so cute on a 16 year old. I guess we'll know more in two months! I'll keep you posted!
Six months old
Two years old
December 2010
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