PERFECT

Questionairre for Kiara

Kiara, I thought it would be fun to ask you some questions and have you answer them on the blog for all of our family to read.  You are doing so many exciting things, it will be fun to share some of them with everyone.

1) What grade are you in and what is your teachers name?

1st grade.  mrs andras.   


2)  What is your favorite part of your school day?

Lunch  and recess.

3)  What is your favorite subject in school?

Math.

4)  What sport are you playing right now?

Sokr.

5) What is your favorite part about playing sports?

I like that  thars a girl  on my sokr team that is in my clas and was on my tebol team.

6)  What is your favorite thing to do at home?

work at my desc.

7)  If you could have any treat right now, what would it would it be?

cake and ice crem weth wept crem.

8)  If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? 

To seattole.

First Grade

Does she look excited?  Does she look ready?  1st grade here she comes.....

Here is a picture of Mckenna in her new boots and dress as well.  There was no way that Kiara would be the only one wearing new clothes today! 

This is actually how Kiara went to school.  When I asked if she wanted to wear her hair down to school she said "No, I want it up for recess and stuff."  That's our girl :)!

She had a BLAST!!!  Here is the info that I was able to pull from Kiara:  She had art class, loved recess, her teacher was nice, hot dog lunch is tomorrow, there was not enough time to finish her lunch, she is able to buy dessert at school, she is able to buy chocolate milk at school, she only wants to buy lunch when it is chicken nuggets, she would like to buy dessert and/or chocolate milk sometimes, and she will ask for no fries when she buys lunch.  I guess the highlight for her was lunch!  She came home and went with Mckenna to a neighbors house for an ice cream party, then home for dinner, and off to soccer practice.  Because of all the excitement today, it took Kiara a while to fall asleep tonight.  I guarantee by Friday she is going to be so exhausted but it is sure awesome to see how excited and happy our little girl is.  Tom was able to be home tonight and share in all the excitement of the day!

Art Class

Kiara does art constantly!  She absolutely loves it.  If she had to pick 1 favortite activity, that would be it.  She is so creative.  This past week at the rec center there was an Fashion Art Class that Kiara participated in.  She went the first day a little timid and not quite sure what to expect.  By the end of the week she was dressing herself, wearing bracelets & necklaces, and was not shy at all about class.  Here is a look at Kiara's work from the week.

Day 1 - faces

Here is Kiara with all of the faces she drew on the first day.

The next few days they worked on full bodies, accessories, and texture.

Day 4.

Day 5.  I still can't believe my 6 year old drew this!

A few weeks ago I asked Kiara what activities she would like to participate in besides soccer.  She said she would like to take an art class and piano lessons.  After this week of art, she is even more excited about taking an art class.  The same group that put on this fashion art class, offers an art class at Whitney El once a week after school.  We will for sure sign up this little artist for art class in the fall!

WE ARE BACK!!

Man has it been a tough 11 days.  We came home from Ava's surgery with a huge weight lifted off our shoulders.  Then she got a fever.  Today (9 days after it began), it finally broke.  The fever had nothing to do with her surgery, it was just bad timing.  She is still not eating or drinking very well but she is smiling, playing, and talking again.   Here are a couple of post surgery pictures of our little girl.

Update on Ava

Ava is doing OK.  Surgery took a total of 2 hours 20 min.  Dr. Marcoty came and saw us right after he was done and was pleased with how everything went.  Ava had trouble waking up and although we were expecting that, we were relieved when she was able to calm down and just cuddle with us. 

She slept pretty well last night but has had a high fever off and on for about 15 hours.  This fever is making her pretty lethargic.  We went to see her eye dr. this morning and he is not worried about infection at this point.  We will watch her fever and go see a pediatrician tomorrow if needed.  Dr. Marcoty was THRILLED with how her eyes looked!  It was nice to see him so pleased with how everything seems to have gone.  He wants her to start wearing her patch again today (NO WAY) but we will put it on her tomorrow.  She has pretty red eyes and some bruising underneath but looks pretty good considering!

Moving forward:  We will go back to patching but in a different way.  She will be 3 days right eye patched, 1 day left eye patched.  She will only need to wear it for 3 hours at a time (YEAH!!!!).  Now that her eyes are straight, Dr. Marcoty wants them to have the best chance they can of working together (no patch) but still work on the sight in each eye (patch).  We have an appointment on Wednesday (August 17th) and another in 4 weeks. 

We are relieved to have this surgery behind us.  It has been something we have talked about for some time now and it is nice to be past it.  We are not naive to think there will not be more in the future, but we do feel that the future surgeries will not be as extensive as this one.   Ava is sleeping now.  I am hoping she will wake up fever free and ready to play :)!!

Could we pretend that....

airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, a wish right now.

Every time this song comes on the radio, we all scream out wishes.  We have had so many wishes from Kiara and Mckenna; I wish I could go into the woods and see a lion, I wish I could fly, I wish we could go to Seattle everyday, I wish I could eat ice cream everyday, I wish I could go to Heaven and see Ben, I wish Gram could stay here for a year (was the most recent one from Kiara), and many, many more.

Tonight I wish for Ava to have a safe surgery, wake up healthy, and come home happy.

Ava, Ava, Ava

This girl has SO many tricks.  Walking - no.  Talking - yes (and a lot).  She can say hi, bye-bye, hi dada, mama, love you (doesn't sound anything like it but she always says it back), uh-oh, oh boy, yah, ni-ni (night-night) and ba (for ball).  She knows where her tongue is, will cuddle if you ask her to, gives kisses, high fives, will dance when music is on, knows what a fish "says" and what a dog says.  Ava is adorable and so much fun to be around.  Here is a video that captures a few of her tricks and her sweet personality.

We are quickly approaching surgery for this little princess.  My mom gets here Monday and surgery is probably going to be the first spot on Wednesday morning (on Tuesday we will find out what time but because of her age, they assume she will be first).  We will need to arrive around 6:30.  Surgery will be at 7:30 and should last around 1 1/2 hours.  Ava will stay for observation 1-2 hours after she wakes up and we can take her home after that.  She will need eye drops daily/ twice a day for 7-10 days.  Ava will not have any bandages after surgery.  Ava has a post-op appointment 1 day after surgery, 7 days after surgery, and 1 month after surgery.  Ava's Dr. expects that the patch will go back on day 2 after surgery. 

How are we feeling about all this?  This process is so unfamiliar to us, it is hard to understand how we are feeling or what we are feeling.  What we do know is that the perspective we have on Ava's surgery is probably different than others facing the same thing.  We understand that Ava is having surgery to help her eyes to be straight, "look" straight, and therefore help her in her development and sight in the future.  She has eye issues and that is all that we are dealing with.  We will keep you all posted and don't hesitate to text us for updates. 

Training Camp

The girls and I headed to Berea, Ohio this morning.  Berea is about 20 minutes from our house and it is where Daddy works.  We went to watch our first training camp practice this year.  On the way I asked Kiara and Mckenna if they were excited to see Daddy and watch practice.  They yelled "YEAH!!" but quickly asked two questions.  Can we have those huge popsicles again? and Can we ride in that little car to practice again?  The huge popsicle is a giant otter pop and that little car is a open golf cart.  We got to do both and those were definitely the highlights. The girls also got to spin a wheel and win a prize.  Seeing Daddy and watching pratice were exciting but not quite as much as those other 3 things!

Here are the HUGE otter pops.  Thank goodness for those because it was really hot!

Welcome to training camp!

"OK girls - get together.  The team is huddling up so Daddy will be right over".

Mckenna: "Mommy I have a good picture.  Kiara turn around with me, put your hand here.  Mommy, take our picture!!"  (this really happened)

First thing Daddy did was pull Kiara and Mckenna over the fence for a big hug.  They were pretty excited to get to go on the field!

We came home to babysitter day.  I had a dentist appointment, so Ms. Rebecca had all three girls for 2 hours.  Kiara and Mckenna were bummed when I got home (as they always are) while Ava was happy to see me.  Both reactions are welcomed but it will be nice when Ava is bummed as well :)!  Ava has been left a few times and it has gone really well!

We ended the day with a pizza and swimming party with a girl that lives down the street.  What a fun summer day!!!  Now everyone is asleep and I am enjoying a Miller Lite on the couch :)!!