Trendy Tots #5: 9 months old!!

I'm joining the Trendy Tots Party on A Real-Life Housewife's Blog this week. Here are the boys' 9 month pictures! It's hard to believe they are 3/4 of a year old already!

I am in love with their argyle sweaters from The Children's Place! Their jeans are lined with flannel and are from Old Navy and their black velcro shoes are from Babies R Us.

And here are their individual shots...

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

~Anika

Surgery Update

We are thrilled to say that we are home and everything went wonderfully!

• We didn't hit rush hour traffic on the way to the hospital.
• Ezra fell asleep during pre-op so he wasn't screaming from hunger pains even though surgery was delayed about 45 minutes.
• The hospital staff was amazing!
• Surgery took WAY longer than we thought it would, but they were able to keep the facial nerve completely intact! His surgeon said it was quite a mess in there.
• The incision is shorter than I anticipated it would be.
• Within hours after surgery, Ezra was a happy guy!
• We realized how truly blessed we were after seeing other families dealing with much more challenging issues.
• Ezra had very little pain after surgery. We didn't even have to get a prescription for pain meds when we left the hospital.
• They were able to remove his drainage tube before we left so we don't have to deal with it at home or make an extra trip back to the hospital this week to have it removed.
• So far, he doesn't rub or scratch at the incision so we don't have to keep the splints on his arms.

Here's a post-op picture...Steri-strips, left over marking pen, some swelling and a little bruising

Happy reading a book with Daddy and Ashton

Crawling all over the house with his little smirk! You can barely tell anything was done from this angle.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for Ezra, our family and the doctors. We felt them all - especially during the extra 90 minutes of surgery when we were anxiously waiting to hear from the doctor. Keep praying that the rest of recovery goes just as well!

~Anika

Atypical Mycobacterial Infection

Our little Ezra is way to cool for your run-of-the-mill ear infection or any other kind of typical childhood illness! Somehow, he managed to contract an Atypical Mycobacterial Infection. What's that?? Well, it's something you get from drinking unpasteurized milk (which Ezra hasn't) or from eating bird poop!! The infection has an incubation period, so that means he contracted it when he was 3-4 months old...not sure how he managed to get into bird poop at that age!

See the red lump on his jaw line? It just started turning red last week (which is the normal course of the infection) and it doesn't bother him at all; he doesn't poke at it and it doesn't hurt him when we touch it.

This is the short version of how we figured out what he had...

On November 28th, I noticed a lump on his jaw line and instantly freaked out. Lump=Cancer in my brain! The next morning I called to make an appointment with his pediatrician. Unfortunately, he wasn't in that day so we had to see a different doctor...I won't go into the details, but that was a BIG mistake!

After 3 weeks of appointments including an ultrasound, blood work, seeing a pediatric ENT, a CT Scan, a Fine Needle Biopsy, a TB skin test, and a chest x-ray, we FINALLY had our diagnosis. An Atypical Mycobacterial Infection. It requires surgery, but it is NOT life threatening and that was a huge answer to prayers.

We are lucky enough to live within an hour of several amazing Children's Hospitals and the one Ezra will have surgery at is brand spankin' new! His doctor/surgeon is awesome, and we are confident that he will do a fantastic job. The main risk to the surgery is damage to the facial nerve that runs along the jaw line. Ezra's doctor has never damaged the nerve, though! Surgery is in a week. Any prayers that you could say for a successful surgery and smooth recovery would be greatly appreciated! I will update you all as soon as possible after surgery.

Thanks a bunch!

~Anika

Our First Christmas in Pictures

We hope your Christmas was Merry & Bright and that 2012 will be too!

~Anika

Halloween!!

Guess what?? I got to dust off my craft supplies! I was able to do some sewing on Halloween costumes and make a couple gift tags for the ladies who take care of my boys while I'm working. Let's start with the gift tag. I only got pictures of one, but they were both the same. (Although the other was attached to a package of Heads & Tails Oreos instead...yummy!)

I was also able to put Ezra's scarecrow costume together. I had planned to make the lion as well, but we found this one and the price was right. Andrew's tin man costume never got finished, but it was good enough for some pictures. So here's our whole Wizard of Oz family.

And the boys in their pumpkins...

~Anika

6 month pictures

I decided to take the boys 6 month pictures myself. I just love how you can capture so much personality in a single picture! Here's what I ended up with...

Enjoy your day!

~Anika

(Using my pictures is a violation of copyright laws.)

Quarterly Top 5 Photos

I am participating in the Quarterly Top 5 Photo Party! Not that I need an excuse to share pictures of my boys, but if I did, this is it! And let's just say it was really difficult to only pick 5!

First up...

I just can't get enough of them in their sunglasses! They don't seem to mind wearing them either.

These silly little smiles get me every time.

Only 4 months old and they are already telling each other secrets!

Ready for a shopping trip. There is nothing better than two happy, smiley boys!

Not only do I love how cute they look in their new winter hats, but their personalities are totally captured in this picture as well!

It's amazing how much the boys have changed over a few months! I had so much fun looking back through all the pictures I have taken of them. Hope they brought a smile to your face too. If you want to join the party, you have until Wednesday, October 5th. Click on the button below for the details.

Enjoy the day!

~Anika