Brief Update of this year so far . . .

Since our last post in April, we have been from Missouri to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio to Pennsylvania to New York to Massachusetts and back through those to Missouri. Then we went from Missouri to Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming to Utah to Idaho. Then we flew from Idaho to Colorado to Hawaii to California to Idaho. Then we went from western Idaho to eastern Idaho and back. Then from Idaho to Utah to Wyoming to Nebraska (and stayed) to Iowa to Missouri. There we loaded up our moving truck and drove again from Missouri to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio to Pennsylvania to New York to Massachusetts where we now live. After moving in, we went New York city by way of Connecticut and New Jersey for a bit before sending Sarah's amazing Dad home. Since then we've been repeatedly in New York and Massachusetts and up to Vermont once.

To recap, that's 18 states most of which was visited multiple times. Thus we've not updated this blog. For our parent's, we make 6x6 scrapbook pages for each month with highlights of our lives. We thought we'd post that as a brief update of this year so far, so here they are.

Mackenzie's Big Girl Bed

After our company left, we moved the crib back into the kids' room. We decided that since it was already in toddler bed form that we should just leave it for Mackenzie that way. To make it special, we took her to WalMart to pick out a sheet and pillow case set. She picked Tinkerbell. She handled it great, but Jay struggled with the change. I closed the door so she had to get back in bed and couldn't just escape. Every time she got out of bed Jay would shout that she was up and needed Mom. He even opened the door for her because she was sad. While sweet, it was not very helpful.

She was soooo excited! At first she didn't realize the outside rail was off. She reached for it and caught air, looked at her hand in shock and then laughed and waved it around.

She even fell asleep in her bed!But this is how we found her in the morning. We put blankets on the floor for cushion if she fell out and it is a good thing we did!

Jay's 1st ER Visit - April 12-13

By the time that we got to Pizza Hut, all the kids were filthy. Jay was no exception and had used his dirty hands to rub his eyes. Sarah took him into the bathroom and washed out his eyes and hands hoping that would fix the problem. His right eye was covered by his eye patch for almost all of the day, but his left eye was very swollen by now. After dinner, we got back in the vans to head home. We stopped to get gas and noticed that Jay was struggling to breathe and his eye was more swollen. The gas station didn't have children's Benadryl so we rushed to the WalMart in Columbia which was still 45 minutes away. By the time we got there he was still worse. We dosed him with Benadryl and Lisa's MDI albuterol inhaler with a spacer then continued on our way home, hoping he would get better with the medicine. We got home around 1 am and gave Jay a shower to get all the grass out of his hair. By then he was only getting worse and you could see every one of his ribs when he tried to breathe (costal retractions). At first, James really was reticent to go in because he only trusts a couple of the ER doctors here, but after he listened to his lungs we decided it would be best to take him in.

Sarah was going to go with Jay since Lisa was gracious enough to offer to stay with the kids, but when she asked Jay if he wanted her to go he said, "No Mom, Daddy is a doctor. I just need him." Cute, but ouch. Sad to realize they grow out of needing their mommies. Thankfully, the ER doctor there was one of James' favorites and handled the situation very well. They gave him an oral steroid and albuterol nebulizer treatments. James tried to talk the Dr. out of the chest x-ray, but he felt better practicing defensive medicine. At least he was able to convince him to avoid an IV which frequently leads to IO (Intraosseous Infusion) in this ER. Jay's oxygen sats were in the low 90s and his respiratory rate was in the mid 30s so the ER Dr. really wanted to admit him, but said he figured that James could watch him and would know what to look for.
James and Jay got home around 3 am and we took Jay into bed with us. We dosed him with albuterol nebs every 4 hours, Benadryl, Clariton, and oral steroids. It took almost seven hours, but he finally started improving.

The next morning he was laying on the floor playing and Sarah laid down next to him. His breathing was still labored but not as bad. Sarah asked him how he was doing and if he felt any better. He smiled so sweetly and said, "Oh yes mommy, I am doing much better. Daddy is a good doctor." He said this while having to stop twice to breathe. Sad but sweet.

He is doing much better now, but it breaks our hearts to know that his parents have given him a gift that we never wanted him to receive. Thankfully, the medical community's ability to manage asthma has greatly improved since we were children. He will be fine especially since James knows the NIH asthma guidelines and will make sure he gets the best treatments available. Although for now, it doesn't help that our air conditioner is currently broken and all of our windows are open.

Jay LOVED rolling down the hill with his cousins.
We realized he has never really done this and so we didn't
know he was allergic to grass or something on the grass.

Jay so pleased with picking grass and throwing it at his parents.

Visiting with the Bjornberg's - Monday 4/12 St Louis Arch

In the evening, we headed down to the Mississippi River and the St Louis Gateway Arch. We walked by the riverside from the parking garage and let the kids play on the way. They loved rolling and playing in the grass. Jay loved it a little too much, but more on that later. We ended up with some fantastic shots of the all of us with the arch.

This photo will come back to haunt us.

Mikey

Jera

Ryan

T.J.

His eye is already swelling shut at this point, we just didn't see it.

When the boys were asked to build an arch between them,

this is what T.J. came up with.

Running up the stairs to the arch, Rocky style.

Mikey

Intense concentration . . .

Who needs toys when you have railings?!?

James

Ryan

T.J.

Jera

Mikey

Mackenzie

Jay (no he's not posing, he's actually itching)

Walking (racing) back to the car was almost as much fun as seeing the Arch.

All of the kids loved walking Mackenzie by her tail.

Jay was "pushing" the button for Jera to get a drink, unfortunately he thought
it was really funny to let got right when her mouth got there
and shout, "Oops, you missed!"

Jera thought it was funny the first few times but quickly got sick of it.

Mikey thought it was hilarious to make Mackenzie squeal by stepping
on her tail. He'd step on it and just smile at her while she threw a fit.

After all the fun of the day, we rounded it out with pizza at Pizza Hut.
Dinner from a restaurant instead of WalMart is what we used to
bribe them into being good.