Pumpkins 2010

This year we decided to sort of cheat with our pumpkins. It is hard for us to carve a pumpkin and have it stay nice without it molding quickly because we have to carve it so early. We also ended up having a big debate over who is going to be the one to get all the guts out and what the pumpkin should look like. I had seen the little kits you could buy at Target where you just pushed the pieced in, but they were close to $10 and only did one pumpkin. Cloey had picked out a pumpkin for all 4 of us and I really didn't want to pay $40 to decorate them. We considered paint at one point, but that just seemed like it could get real messy. So I got to thinking about what we could do and decided to put our MANY Mr. Potato Head pieces to good use. Instead of buying the kits at Target we used the Mr. Potato Head pieces and they served the same purpose. Cloey had a blast decorating the pumpkins and Emma stay and went through the bucket and found pieces to chew on. When all was said and done we ended up with some great looking pumpkins. I was proud that I had solved the pumpkin dilemma without having to spend any extra money. This might be our new family tradition with our pumpkins each year.
Cloey and Emma with the final masterpieces.


Our Beautiful Pumpkins

Disney Princess Wishes On Ice

Our big girl!

Daddy with one of his girls

Kristyn, Daddy, and Cloey waiting for the show to begin.

$125 for tickets
$12 for a Snow Cone
$15 Ariel Necklace - thanks to Grammy and Pop Pop
1 Minor Meltdown over not getting popcorn
A little bit of whining and worry about not making it in time
All worth seeing the look on Cloey's face when the show began.

Cloey had a blast attending Disney Princess Wishes on Ice. We made a special Cloey evening of it and left Emma at home with Nana and Paw Paw while Grammy and Pop Pop came with us to the show. Cloey was absolutely in awe of the show. At one point Jason and I both got a big hug with, "Thank you for bringing me Daddy and Kristyn, this show is awesome!" It was priceless to see and hear the joy she had over the show. After the show we all headed to Red Robin for a yummy dinner before heading home. We missed Emma while we were gone and know before too long we will have two girls with us at the show.

Emma at 6 months

Emma had her 6 month check up on Tuesday. She now weighs 13 pounds 1 ounce and is 25 and 1/2 inches long. Her doctor was pleased with her weight gain. She is small, but is gaining weight at a steady pace. We are going to try and stop fortifying her milk and see if she can still take in enough calories to steadily gain weight. He also would like us to work on adding the solids back into her diet. We tried the other night and they once again came back up. She does well with oatmeal and some fruit mixed in, but once you add something else it goes downhill. We will keep working at it day by day. She had to get 4 shots - 2 were her regular immunizations, 1 was the flu vaccine, and the other was the RSV vaccine. The RSV vaccine is one she will need each month until about April to protect her against RSV because of her lungs and their development. She handled the shots okay, but since she has to get them every month now we got a prescription for a numbing agent and hopefully that will help her out. We also increased her medicine for her reflux because it has flarred up again. If this medicine doens't work we will have to switch to another type. The office is in the process of scheduling her an appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist at UVA to get another echocardiogram. The day she had hers in the NICU was the day of the big scare when she almost was put on the heart lung bypass machine. For some reason that day she couldn't handle getting an echocardiogram. This is just a follow up to make sure everything that needs to close in her heart has closed since the last time they didn't get the best information. She also is getting scheduled for a hearing screening. It is common for babies in the NICU because of medicines to have some hearing loss. On top of that CDH for some unknown reason causes hearing loss for some children. She will need her hearing checked every 6 months and then every year for awhile. Overall her doctor is very impressed as to where she is at in life. He even told us he was bragging about have a CDH infant who was doing so well at a meeting a couple of weeks ago. It is such a blessing to have her doing so well!!!! We thank God every minute for the healing, blessings, and joy He has given us through Emma. Well I hear crying in the other room guess she is up from her cat nap.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Last Saturday we headed to a pumpkin patch with Mom and Dad that was near there house. Cloey complained because we had to drive the 40 minutes to Mom and Dad's house and then it was about 30 minutes from their house. She was mainly complaining because she wanted to pick out her costume before the pumpkin patch, but that wasn't happening. We arrived at the pumpkin patch, our first time to this one, grabbed our wagon and headed to the patch. In previous years there has been a field with pumpkins laying around randomly. Well this year we cut the pumpkins right of the vine in the pumpkin patch. Cloey had a lot of fun at this patch and Emma was more interested in the checking out the grass on the ground.
After getting our 3 big pumpkins, 1 little pumpkin, 1 apple, peach cider we headed to pick out Cloey's costume. It was hard to find one that was appropriate this year. A lot of them were way to reveling and I am not talented enough to make her a costume. She settled on an angel and Emma will be a pumpkin. We then grabbed a few other things at Target and headed to Chick Fil A for lunch. Emma kept us all laughing as she wanted to put everything in her mouth at lunch. After lunch we headed back to our house and the girls got to visit with both sets of grandparents. It made for a very nice Saturday with the family.
Our cute little family.

Cloey picking the best pumpkin in the patch.

Emma taking it all in.

Cloey and Daddy picking the perfect pumpkin.

6 months

Dear Emma,
Today you are 6 months old, half way to a year, growing up way too fast. It doesn't matter how we put it you are growing up to be such a big girl. It seems like just yesterday I was getting all those jabs and punches while you resided in my belly. Now we get all those jabe and punches on the outside. I think you have taken to us call you are little fighter to a serious extent. You are changing by the day. You already have 2 teeth(which came in when you were 4 months old) on the bottom and the top 2 teeth are working on making their appearance. You have started to say Mama and while it is not in context it still melts my heart. You seem to only say it when you are mad or crying, but hey Mama can deal with that. You seem to like playing a lot more these days. You have fun when we get down on the floor and play with you. You love to have books read to you - especially by your big sister. We even had to record her reading you a book to keep you happy while she is gone. Your favorite author is Sandra Boynton(Mommy loves her books too). So far you have The Going to Bed Book, Moo, Baa, La La La, and The Pajama Book all by her and are looking forward to adding more of her books to your collection. You sadly still do not care much to eat and we don't think it will ever be a favorite past time of yours. We had to take some solids away and you only get a small amount at night now until you can manage solids and keep up your liquids. You keep us on your toes with your diva meltdowns every once and awhile. You are like a mini version of your big sister Cloey, yet your own individual at the same time. If I had to sum up the number one comment we get about you it would either be that you are a blessing or that you would never be able to tell there was anything wrong with you. Mommy and Daddy agree with both of those comments. Like always it is our goal to give you the best life possible and let you show CDH who is boss and that you can live a happy, healthy and amazing life.
We love you our little fighter.
Love,
Daddy, Mommy, and Cloey
Emma's 1st day in the NICU

Emma at 1 month

Emma at 6 months

6 month Bloppers

It is starting to get a lot harder to get bear pictures of Emma.

Mazingo Happenings

I know, I know I have been a horrible blogger and have not even been close to meeting my every other day post. I have valid reasons for not posting often, but they are no excuse for family and friends who are far away and can't keep up with goes on in our daily lives. To make it short and simple we will do it bullet style(this seems to be a common pattern).
* I have been busy, busy at school these last few weeks. The year is going by at an okay pace, but there is a lot to be done this school year. I average about 3 meetings a week and that puts me home about 4:30 or 5 on those nights. When I get home I a beat and just want to spend time with Emma. I would like to start walking again and need to find time when I get home I think it might help with me feeling so tired.
* Jason is working on his 30 page paper. It is hard to believe he will be student teaching in January. I think he might be getting a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. It hasn't been very easy working on a paper and having Emma around so we have had to call on Grammy to keep her while Daddy works in the library. It works out nice that the MBC Library is less than 5 minutes from their house.
* We have taken Emma off of a majority of her solid foods. She now only gets a minimal amount of Oatmeal and Fruit. Her body just wasn't able to take in the solids and then take the appropriate amount of milk. It is all part of dealing with a baby who has eating issues, but we think we have it somewhat fixed for the time being.
* Emma has been saying Mama over and over again tonight. This is absolute music to my ears.
* Cloey has been having a good couple of weeks at school. On Friday she was able to buy a slushie. She has Spirit Days this week - today was hat day and tomorrow is inside out day. I have her first day of school pictures and will have to scan them in this weekend to share.
* Cloey comes this weekend. We have a trip to the pumpkin patch planned and if all works out we will be going to the Cyrus McCormick Farm for a festival they are having. The second stop will depend on how the girls are acting. I think we might even make a stop at Target for a Halloween costume for Cloey on Saturday.
* Emma's Walk continues to be a reality. As we hear the details we continue to get excited on how we are going to be able to use our situation to spread the word about Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Stay tuned as the details come in we will share them.
Well that is about it in the Mazingo household right now. I am sure we will take lots of pictures at the pumpkin patch and my goal will be to post them Sunday. As I have quickly learned around here is that a lot of the time we run on Emma's schedule so hopefully she allows some time for me to post on Sunday.