Making Friends

Grocery shopping is turning into social time for Kean and I.

When he had his Oxygen on, we'd get stopped by all the old folks

so they could compare and contrast the Oxygen they were on with his little portable tank.

Now that he's no longer on Oxygen, I thought I'd be able to breeze in and out of the store.

Not so.

We now get stopped by folks wanting to talk about his hearing aids.

Case in point- this afternoon, a man in his 30's stopped us to ask how Kean lost his hearing.

Once he saw his face-- he said; "Oh."

I'm guessing that meant he realized he had Downs. 
Who knows.

But the guy turned out to be really nice.  He lost his hearing as a 2 year old after

a bout with Spinal Meningitis.

His hearing aids were clear-- not the cool little boy blue that Kean sports.

So if you see us in the store these days, we'll likely be chatting it up with strangers
and making new friends.

Oh to be young again...

For most of us, it's just Spring.

But for those in high school, like Mark here... it's Prom Time.

Mark is the son of some of our dearest friends in the world-- so

he's like a big brother to the girls. 

Poor guy, they bug him unmercifully.

Anyway, Byron let him borrow the ol' Mustang for Prom.

Sure brings back a ton of memories, even though high school was eons ago.

I bet Mark looked darn handsome in a tux.

Crazy Dreams

Ahhh, sweet sleep.  Welcome back.

Kean is doing fabulous.

Other than pulling off those new hearing aids... the kid is back to his old self.

Now for Reese.

She's had a few nightmares that have woken her up (and me too).

One of them, I have to share.

It's, shall we say, priceless.

She woke me up to tell me she had a bad dream.

Expecting monsters in the closet?

No, try this on for size...

She dreamt there were puppies in the closet.

Lots of 'em.

They were grey with blue eyes.

And they were eating pizza.

Anyone want to try and interpret this one?

Hit The Road Jack...

They came and picked up the ol' Oxygen machine and all the

paraphernalia that went with it...

I won't miss that alarm going off in the beginning of the night,

the middle of the night and the end of the night.

Good grief, what a relief!

I will also now, hopefully, be able to find the energy to fix

this annoying blog problem and get back to my regular look.

Thanks for the patience.

P.S.  Greer turns 8 next month.

She told me yesterday that she will be so glad to finally have all that gum out of her body.

I was like, "what?"

Evidently, she was told way back that if you swallow gum, it takes about

seven years to get out of your system.

She figures she swallowed a lot of gum as a toddler and now it will finally be gone.

Free From The Wires

Ahhhh, finally, a good night's rest.
No alarms.
I called the Doctor this morning to get a
release to turn in all of his Oxygen machines.
As far as I'm concerned, he's ready to
graduate to freedom.



Take a close look at his ears.
Yep.  He got hearing aids last week.

I thought we would be able to dodge those... but his E.N.T. felt his hearing loss was enough that he should have them... especially during these years when he's trying to learn to talk.

I haven't noticed that they've made a
huge difference but he's not fighting them as much as I had thought he would.

He still has some sticky residue on his
cheeks that I can't get rid of yet.
But that sure beats the Oxygen tubing, eh?

Spring Break Shenanigans

Byron took the girls snowmobiling on Friday.
They rode in about 16 miles to a hot springs and went swimming.

They went with our friends', the Cooks.
We want to make it an annual trip.

The girls spent much of the afternoon playing dressups.
Only this time, they had an interesting twist:  check out the "rags" below.
They were pretending to be super poor.
Strange, I remember pretending to be rich and famous when I was a kid.
Must be a sign of the times.

LLB's photostream on Flickr.

And finally, here are a few snaps from their trip with my mom and the cousins to the zoo last week.

Doctor's Follow Up

Here's the good news.

Kean's ear infection has cleared up.

His lungs sound fabulous...

but the doc was concerned that he's still "de-sat-ing"

on his Oxygen levels at night and during naps.

So she sent us over to get an X-ray.

His right lung is still showing a collapsed area...

BUT.. it is a smaller area than before.

So we are making progress.

She wants to consult a Pulmonary specialist

next week to see what else we can/should be doing.

Yippeee.  More doctor appointments.

Can't wait.

On a much happier note,

Byron took Holland and Greer snowmobiling into

some hot springs for the day.

They went with another family.

Reese opted not to go.

She didn't want to get cold.

Silly girl.  She missed out on a lot of fun.