Catching up

I know, its been ages since I've updated the blog and to top it off, I don't have any new pictures to put up. I just thought I'd fill everyone in on whats up with us.

Ben: He is actually the only one with out any major drama happening right now. His biggest issue is he doesn't want to move his bedroom into the play room when the baby comes. How can a kid not want his room to be in the same room with 1,001 toys and a tv......and video games??? I don't get it. I've been preparing for a huge battle to get him to go to bed and not play. Apparently I've been worried about the wrong battle!

Sam: You might have heard that Sam had croup last week. He had a couple days where he had a high fever, a barking cough and was just not himself. He was on antibiotics and steroids and is pretty much back to normal.

Ellie: Its now been a month and a week since her herpes outbreak. She is 99% cleared up, but you can still see some spots. It should have been gone by now so I'm not sure what is up with her immune system. She also got a cold. It moved through pretty quick. We have a little bit of left over snot, but she is getting better each day. Her reflux is a constant source of stress. She will have a couple great days and we think the medications are working, then the next day she is practically vomiting her food ALL DAY LONG! We scheduled an appointment with a gastroenterologist, but that isn't until October. She also has an appointment with an allergist to see if she might have a milk and/or soy allergy. I almost hope thats what it is. At least she can outgrow that and wont have to endure being scoped. In the mean time, she has helped to make the Giant Eagle pharmacy our second home. In the past 2 months, we have had to fill 13 prescriptions. 9 of those have been for Ellie! On the plus side, she is sitting up like a pro. She can get herself up and down and sits straight up for longer than I would have thought she could last.

Jon: My hubby is kicking bank butt and just got a raise! We still wont be paying off our medical bills any time soon, but its nice to know they value him. Jon has a consultation with a surgeon coming up to look at his hernia. Its slowly been getting worse over the last few months so I'd like him to have it taken care of before I need to rush him to the hospital with our 4 kids!

Me: We had a small scare yesterday. I've been feeling awful for a few months now so my doctor ordered extra blood work for me. I found out yesterday that I tested positive for a virus that can harm the baby. The only problem is that only half of the 2 part test was done so we don't know if this is something I was exposed to in the past or something that is happening now. I had an ultrasound this morning with the head of the fetal care department for the Clinic. So far the baby looks great. He ordered a ton more blood work and now we have to wait to see what it says. If part two of this test is positive, I'll be considered high risk and will have a bunch more ultrasounds for the next 9.5 weeks to make sure he is ok. If it comes back negative, I will probably be referred to an endocrinologist for possible adrenal issues. The only good thing in all of this is we got a 3D shot of the baby this morning. He looks exactly like Sam in the picture and you can even see some hair. I'll see if Jon can scan it next week and post it.

On top of all the illnesses, we spent the past week saying good bye to some great friends, who headed out of state yesterday. The boys don't quite understand the moving away process, but for everyone else, it absolutely sucks! Daily texts/chats just wont make up for the runs, picnics, ice cream dates and Chick Fil A play time!

We miss you guys already!

On the move

Here she goes:

Already?

When I left the living room Ellie was on her back looking at toys. When I walked back in, literally a minute later, this is how I found her:

I think she used the mat to help her up, but isn't this a bit early to be sitting up almost completely on her own?? I think we're in trouble! Oh, and she started crawling a week ago. I'm working on getting video up of that.

Camp out

Cross Point had their first annual father-son camp out last Friday. Unfortunately, bad timing left some dads at home, but it sounds like the group that got to go had a blast. Jon didn't tell the boys what was happening until the night before they left. I only had to endure a few hours of hearing over and over and over again how daddy was taking them camping and I had to stay home with Ellie. It was only 1 night, but it was packed with camp fires, stories, hot dogs, smores, hiking, fishing, swimming and probably some stuff I don't want to know about! Luckily, everyone came back in one piece and they all had a good time. Here are some of the highlights and a few shots Ben snuck in of himself:

Lookin' good

Ellie got a couple gifts when she became an official Purdum. One of them was a onesie and matching clip made by aunt Prasti. She had a little fashion show last Sunday and modeled the creation:

Hams

They spend so much time driving us crazy then they pull out the cute card and make us melt!

Follow up

Ellie has been on antibiotics for almost a week and her nose/lip area hasn't got any better. In some ways, it looks worse. I took her back to the doctor today and found out she was most likely misdiagnosed. It could have been a very resistant strain of impetigo, but she said that today it actually looks like herpes so they think thats what she's had all along. Someone with a cold sore, canker sore etc, was giving her too much love and passed on the virus. The bad news is any future outbreaks will be in the same area. The good news is they wont be as severe. We are going to stop her current medication and start her on 2 more medicines. I'm sure she'll hate that! I also found out that the virus and the antibiotics can exacerbate her reflux so we need to keep doubling her reflux medication until the herpes clears up and see if she has any improvement. This poor girl is turning into a walking pharmacy!

Prunes

I think someone is starting to like babyfood!

Zoo day

While Jon was on vacation last week, he had a boys day out and took them to the zoo. I've heard at least 100times that they got to ride the tram 3 times and they had a lot of fun spending the day with daddy. I love that the boys love spending so much time with dad.

In Ellie news, she had her 6month check up today. She is up to 14lbs (10th%) and 25 1/2inches (she is now up to the 25th %). The main topic was her reflux. We have been giving her medicine and putting cereal in her bottles. Neither are helping. Because of her weight, we can't increase the dosage of her meds so we are switching them. We are going to continue to put the cereal in her formula and we need to make more of an effort to get her eating baby food. Hopefully the medication switch will do the trick. We need to give it 2-3weeks and if she hasn't improved, we need to take her to a gastroenterologist. After hearing that, I remembered we were in this exact position with Sam. The medication switch worked with Sam so I'm going to be very optimistic that this will work with Ellie too. The doctor didn't hear any wheezing this time so I'm going to put any asthma thoughts on the back burner. While we still can't completely rule it out, its sounding like less of a possibility. She also has impetigo (a bacterial infection). If you've seen her, it looks like she has a bad cold. Her nose is red and crusty. We need to give her some antibiotics and she should be good as new in a week. Other than that, she is perfect!

Smile

Doesn't she just make you want to smile?!?!

Party time

Last night, Jon and I gathered a bunch of our friends together and celebrated (again) Ellie becoming an official Purdum. We had lots of cake, lots of kids running around and lots of fun. Here are a couple highlights:

Happy 4th

I know, I'm a little late with pictures, but we've been a little busy this week. We had a great holiday. We went to the parade Monday morning and saw Ty marching in the band with his blue shoes. It got really hot so we headed home to play in the water. We finished the night at a friends house for fireworks. Ellie did great. She watched the sky and didn't make a sound. The boys were so excited and Sam has been telling us all week how he liked seeing the fireworks and they were cool. Only 51 weeks till we can see them again!

She's official

Today we headed to Columbus to finalize our adoption. It was a lot more casual than I expected. We had our parents with us, our attorney, social worker and the judge. He was very friendly and very talkative. Everyone intruduced themselves, Jon and I answered a few questions we chatted and the papers were signed. We got to hang out after and take some pictures, the judge entertained the kids and then we left. The kids were perfect, especially Ellie. They were polite, quiet, full of smiles and Ellie even laughed at the judge a few times. It was a great day, but I'm so glad the process is officially over!

Park time

We took advantage of a beautiful day last week and went up to the park for another picnic lunch with Jon. With Jon moving to a new office we missed out on planes, but got to see water instead.

Little stinkers

They look all cute now, then the camera goes off and the crazy, evil side comes out!