I apologize it has taken me so long to post Ethan's results. We received them last week and everything came back NORMAl. We were so releived that there was nothing seriously wrong, but we still have yet to receive answers. We are waiting for Dr. Shienkein to get back into town and we will have our follow-up with her and discuss what should happen next. Ethan still has some good days and bad days. Friday evening he spit up a little more blood but hasn't been fussier than normal. We have Ethan on cereal and fruit and he LOVES it! Saturday he had four bowls of cereal and he loved every bite, I couldn't get it in fast enough. We talked with our pediatrician yesterday and he really wants us to try Ethan on the Neocate formula and see if it helps his pain when drinking a bottle. We started that last night and I haven't seen any major results, but Ethan has been sleeping a lot more. We will give it a couple days and see how he does. Hopefully between the Neocate and the cereal our little Ethan will be a happier and feeling better baby. I have to say he is chunking up really fast. He currently weighs 17lbs and is growing like a weed! I am so glad that he is gaining lots of weight because if he wasn't I would be more worried. We love chunky babies and the rolls on his legs are just adorable!
What a Week!!
Warning, this is going to be a long post so, bear with me.
This last week was one of the most stressful weeks I have had. It wasn't stressful because of lots to do it was stressfull because of my sweet little Ethan. I tell ya, this kid keeps us on our toes around here, literally. So, if any of you have been reading my blog you know that Ethan has had some problems with digestion and we thought the problem was cured with soy. Well, we were wrong. Ethan, back in May, spit up a little bit of blood and ofcourse, I feaked out, and we were in the doctors right away. Our pediatrician examined Ethan and said overall he looks good, but this is now out of my scope and we need to refer you to a pediatric GI. He gave me a name and number of a highly recommended doctor in the East Valley and when I called I was told there was a 3-4 month WAIT! Are you kidding me? My little guy is only 2 1/2 months and you're telling me I have to wait 3-4 months, I couldn't believe it.I said ya okay, and called my pediatrician back. To make a long explanation short, he put us on the "urgent" wait list, which was 3 weeks. Oh my heavens! I would think they would try to get a baby spitting up blood in a little sooner than that, but I guess not. A few weeks passed and we were doing good. Ethan has always had a hard time sleeping and is pretty fussy after he eats, so we figured as long as he wasn't spitting up blood we were okay. Ryan and I have decided to do some research on our own and we came across GERD's (Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease, pretty much reflux)and we read it and said this is Ethan to a T. After researching out GERD's we figured this is just something we are going to have to endure through and hopefully he will out grow it. Well, just when we came to that conclusion Ethan decided on Monday he was going to throw a curve at us and spit up quite a bit more blood than before. Okay, so let me explain this blood. On Monday it looked like raspberry syrup with seeds. It was very strange, but we knew it was blood because Ethan is only drinking white formula. You could also see that his spit up had red streaks in it when normally it's white. Anyway, so I have to say at that point I was very stressed and worried about our little guy. This is just not normal and we need to get this figured out. Ofcourse, it was during lunch time and no doctor's offices were open. I did get ahold of the Pediatric GI office and they said they couldn't do anything for him because he wasn't an existing patient, I just don't get it. So, I called our pediatrician and had him paged during lunch and he had us come right in. I brought Ethan's onsie with me so they didn't think I was crazy and while we were with the doctor he called Dr. Schenkein (the Pediatric GI) and left her a personal "urgent" message to please call him back. So, home we went and we were to watch him closely and wait to hear when we could get in with this doctor. I have to say, all night Monday I just prayed and asked that we could please find answers for our little guy. Low and behold Tuesday morning at 7:53am I received a call from Phoenix Children's Hospital (Where Dr. Schenkein's office is) and they had us in at 10:50 that morning. Oh, was I relieved. We were at the appointment for 2 hours. Dr. Schenkein was awesome and I am so grateful for her and her concern for Ethan. She listened to us and gave us all her attention. She was very concerned about Ethan and wanted to get him in right away for an upper endoscopy. For those that don't know what it is it is where they put a scope (camera) down his esophagus, into his stomach and into the duodenum. They would be checking for ulcers, irritation and were also going to do byopsy's along the way to check for a severe allergy. She tried getting us in that afternoon, but scheduling wouldn't do it. She really wanted to do the procedure and so we ended up having to wait until Thursday morning. She tried everything to get us in sooner, but couldn't. So the procedure was scheduled for Thursday morning at 7:30am, we had to be at Phoenix Children's at 5:30am. Wednesday was a LONG night for us and I was so worried about Ethan. They were going to have to put him out using anesthesia and that worried me the most. You never know how a babies body will respond and the whole thing just broke my heart. I feel so bad for him and I just wish that he would feel better and not be so uncomfortable. The procedure went great. It took about 1/2 hour and we were back with Ethan before we knew it. I just have to say waiting in the waiting room for a 1/2 hour was hard and I couldn't imagine waiting longer. We did have a family that entertained us very well with their 2 year old TRIPLET boys, and a 4 year old brother. They had a brother Ethan's age in surgery. Oh, we sat there and counted our blessing that we have only 1 cute, sweet, energetic, talkative little 2 year old. Props to that couple, I just admired them and we had some great chats as the triplets where jumping on couches, taking pillows off, playing with the fire extiguisher thing on the wall and just being cute 2 year old boys, we loved it and thanks for the entertainment. Anyway, back to Ethan. We went back with him in recovery and he was screaming. That's when I began to cry. I was holding strong all throughout and then I broke. It took him probably a good hour to come out of the anesthetic and then I was able to console him. It was so hard. I cannot explain it in words except it just broke my heart. All I did was hold him, give him lots of kisses, talked to him and sang him songs. Oh, it was hard, but I couldn't have done it without my other half. Ryan, I love you so much and you were and always are my strength. Thank you for being such a fabulous, loving, husband and father. I love you lots. By 9:30am we were in the car headed home. We were so glad that we didn't have to get admitted and that Ethan was good enough to come home. The results of the upper endoscopy where that they saw irritation, a few red dots in the duodenum that they biopsied and they also took a few other biopsy's. Last minute the doctor decided to do a flexible sygmoid oscopy (like a colonoscopy)and take a few biopsy's there also. We have not received any results back and are hoping to get them back this week. So, I guess you can pretty much tell what I did for the days following. Ethan and I sat on the couch watched movies and tried to sleep. I ended up watching sad movies that I didn't know were sad and that didn't help the situation, but that's okay. I just got to cry more because I obviously hadn't cried enough. Our sweet Hollie had a fun week at the Skousen's house (KC's in-laws). Oh, I don't know what I would have done without them. Thank you so much for being there for us and playing with Hollie, I know she had a blast because she continues to talk about Dallin, Jeffrey, Kathryn and Kimberly. You taught her lots of good things and Ryan and I swear she matured and grew 2 feet.
As of today Monday, June 23rd Ethan is doing good. He has his moments, but he is sleeping now and that's a good thing. Sleeping during the day has been challenging and he LOVES waking up between 4:30 and 5:00am!! Yes, the Larson's like to start Early so don't feel bad if you call us at 7am, our morning is already half way over, haha. Oh, I just love him and I enjoy those moments where I can hold a sleeping, peaceful baby.
Oh, some good news to add to this post. Ethan, who doesn't like laying on his back, decided on Saturday morning to roll from his back to his stomach. We are so proud of him and are glad that he is still growing and developing normal. He is right on track with his sister. And.... we also went to the juvenille court to sign our petition to adopt Ethan and it's looking like it will be finalized the end of September beginning of October, HURRAY!!!!!! We love to share that exciting news.
This is just for me, but I want my sweet little Ethan to know how much I love him and how grateful I am for him. I couldn't imagine my life without him. He is the little man that we have always wanted and complete's our cute little family. I love you Ethan and I promise we will get you feeling better soon.
A fun weekend at the River
This last weekend we went to the river with friends of ours from California and we had a BLAST!!
Hollie and Brooke. Aren't they cute in their matching suits?
Ryan and Hollie on the jet ski
I love this picture of Ethan. He LOVED the boat and the second we were on he was out like a light. I have the same picture of Hollie in the same place except she was 6 months old.
Hollie loved driving the golf cart around with Daddy
This girl loved and lived in the water. She may not look like it but she did, I promise.
Okay so what Hollie is holding in her hand (below) is a hot dog. We had hamburgers and hot dogs one night and Hollie had finished her hot dog and everything on her plate. After she had eaten everything I find eating her SECOND hot dog!! She must have climbed on the chair and helped herself to another hot dog. I couldn't believe it, our 2 year old ate 2 hot dogs!!
Binki Bye Bye
Oh, I have been so excited to post this great news. As some of you know our big girl has been attached to her binki, aka pacifier. We have tried so many times to get rid of it and it just wasn't working. Well, the good news came to pass on Sunday.
We usually try not to bring it to church but we find that if we don't she will throw a fit during sacrament meeting and that's just not good. So we give in and bring it along with her blanket. She is just like Linus from Charlie Brown. Anyway, Ryan took her to nursery, and she never goes with her binki, but this time, some how, she got away with it and took it with her. Daddy must have given in but it paid off. I went and picked her up from nursery and like usual, the teacher handed me her shoes and hair bows, I tell ya this girl doesn't keep anything on, and off we went. I was unaware that she went to nursery with her binki so, I wasn't looking for it as I was shoes and everything else. We got in the car and the question arose from the back seat, "binki mommy?" I told her I didn't know where it was and then daddy spoke up and said, "Hollie, don't you remember you took it with you to nursery?" "No dadda, binki" says Hollie. This went on for a few minutes and then we hear Hollie in the backseat say, "binki bye bye, church, all gone." We said, "that's right binki bye bye at the church and it's all gone." We have now gone 4 days with NO BINKI and we are SOOO PROUD of our Big Girl. Sometimes she will ask for it and all we have to do is remind her that it is lost and then she remembers and thinks nothing of it. HURRAY FOR HOLLIE!! We thought this day would never come and I am so proud of her. We still have the blanket and that's just fine. I can deal with a blanket better than a binki in her mouth. Man, I just didn't like that thing and now we don't have to worry about it any more!
Ethan
Okay, since there have been lots of pictures of Hollie I had to include a couple cute pictures of our growing, chubby little boy. As you can see I LOVE to take pictures and when the kids are good and happy I take lots. Thank goodness for a camera to capture all the fun and adorable moments.
Canyon Lake
Last Thursday we had the opportunity to go to Canyon Lake with some friends of ours who have 2 waverunners. Hollie was so excited to go on a "boat fast" she says. Thursday are great days for us. Ryan is only at the office half day and then gets to come home and spend the rest of the day with us, we LOVE Thursdays!! We made it up to the lake just around 1pm. The weather was just perfect, about 85 degrees, and sunny. Hollie loved playing in the water and LOVED watching all the boats go by. I was excited to be able to sit out and catch some sun. We couldn't bring Ethan so he stayed at a friend of ours and enjoyed his time sleeping and getting LOTS of attention. We were probably hanging out on the beach for about an hour before we went on the waverunners just chatting and relaxing. And then, yes there is always an, "and then" in the Larson family. We decided to go out on the waverunners and within 10 minutes of us being out these DARK clouds came rolling over the mountains, the wind came and was blowing SO hard and then the rain was righ behind it. Oh my GOODNESS, it went from absolutley gorgeous to FREEZING cold within minutes. We were out pretty far and since I was sitting on the back with Hollie inbetween us all the COLD water was hitting MY back and let me just tell you it was COLD!!!! We immediately started heading back laughing and screaming all at the same time. Ofcourse, there was a no wake zone for what felt like an eternity, but we finally made it and Hollie and I jumped off the waverunner and ran under the patio and bundled up with towels. Poor Hollie was freezing but she is one tough cookie. We were all laughing and believe it or not it was fun. I love adventures like that, that's just what makes life fun and exciting. Within 40 minutes the storm was gone and it was beautiful outside and everyone was back to playing. It was a great time and very adventurous. Thanks for the fun and hopefully we'll do it again sometime.
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Baking cookies is not something rare around here and neither is eating cookie dough. Cookie Dough, we feel, is the best part of it all. We love to bake some cookies and then save cookie dough, eat it and put it on ice cream, YUMMY!!
The finger just wasn't good enough!
Planting a Garden
My great and wonderful husband had this grand idea to make a small garden and teach Hollie how to care for it. I thought it was so cute and such a great idea. He and Hollie went out and bought some watermelon seeds and the necessary potting soil for them. Ryan had made an area for the garden and did all the necessary preparations for it. On Saturday Ryan and Hollie decided to go ahead and plant the seeds. They planted 3 seeds and 2 weeks later they are growing and you can see the vine's. There is a lot of excitement around here and we are waiting to see a baby watermelon. Here are a couple cute pictures of the event. I really think Hollie just enjoyed playing in the dirt with daddy.
Hollie loved playing in the dirt and took charge of the project.
Pictures of the Kiddos
Hollie's newest and most favorite thing is to hold Ethan on her lap and have her picture taken. She loves holding Ethan. She says to me, "Hollie's turn mommy", it's so cute I just love it.
I have to selfishly say that we have two of the cutest kids. 
