Jared and La la

Jared ADORES his big sister. He calls her "La la". Alyssa really is a hard name to say for a toddler and so La la it is! La la can get him to do things that none of us can get him to do.

Jared has never really liked baths much. Now, one of his favorite things is, "La la bath?". Jared has always HATED showers. I have always loved sticking my little ones in the shower with me. I can shower, clean baby, and don't worry about the mess that is left in my absence when they are in the shower with me. But, Jared hasn't cooperated much with this one either. A couple of weeks ago La la managed to get him in the shower with her, and he loved it! He won't take one with anyone else, but he will take a "La la shower."

He loves to go up to La la's room. He says "find La la?". And then he follows her up the stairs. There they sing, and dance, and play, and read stories and have a marvelous time. One of his favorite La la activities is to be dragged around on a blanket. Wow does he love that!

My La la is a sweet one. Even her little brother knows that!

Watching Through the Window

I was able to go and watch Alyssa in her ballet class for a little while last week. I haven't been able to watch her for several months and it was nice to be able to see her. As soon as she saw me watching from the window she smiled and began concentrating so hard at everything she was doing. She was always peeking over to see if I was still watching. She is so BEAUTIFUL! I love watching her!

I remember my mom coming and watching my ballet classes. I would be so excited when I saw her face through the window. I would try so hard to do my very best and I too would also peek over to make sure that she was still watching. It seems so hard to believe that I am The Mom now, watching my own daughter through the window! I just hope that I can be the loving, supporting, mom to Alyssa that my Mom was and is to me! Thanks Mom, for watching me through the window! I love you!

Nap Time

Jared, as you know, is not the best sleeper in the world. So, I try to take a nap when he does. It is usually not a very long nap but quality is what counts. Right? This is our favorite way of napping. Life doesn't get much better than napping with your snuggle bug! (if you look closely near the bottom of the picture you will see the cat napping with us. He enjoys our nap time too!)

A Kind Stranger

This afternoon Jeff and I took the kids to our favorite little candy shop. Jeff gives them each a dollar and they spend ALOT of time deciding on the perfect mix for the day. As the kids were wandering around trying to decide what they wanted, Alyssa suddenly came up to me and said "A man just came up to me and put this in my hand." and she showed me a dollar. As I looked around to figure out what was going on, a man looked me in the eye, put his hand to his lips and whispered "Shhhhhhh", and then walked away. Alyssa's eyes were sparkling as she realized that she just got another dollar to spend! But, I think that the man's eyes were sparkling even more as he saw Alyssa's delight in his unexpected gift! There are so many good, good people in the world! A dollar probably seemed so insignificant to this man, but the joy that he gave a child in a candy store was priceless! Thank you, stranger, for sharing with us a bit of your light today! (Alyssa shared her dollar with Tyler without even thinking twice about it. She is just as generous!)

ENT Appointment

Jared had his ENT appt. this morning. They feel that we definitely need to have tubes put in so that we can get a better idea of how he is hearing. Often times kidney disease and hearing problems go hand in hand because they are made from the same genes, so we need to get this cleared up so that we can do more in depth hearing tests. Some of the hearing problems can even be progressive, so even though he passed his newborn hearing tests, things could have changed.

They are also going to go ahead and remove his tonsils and adenoids at the same time. They looked at his sleep study results from last summer and he does have some sleep apnea and enlarged tonsils so they are going to take them out and hopefully that will help him sleep better. They will also send in a tissue sample of his tonsils to test for PTLD (the cancer that transplant patients can get from the Epstein-Barr-Virus.) We don't think that he has this, but since we will have the tissue, they will go ahead and test it. At least we can do all of these things at the same time!

After a few weeks of having the tubes then we will go back in for further hearing tests. The fun doesn't end for my Jer Bear! So, we will be back in the hospital on March 12 for at least one night. Yipee! :)

Pokes = Cars

Jared LOVES cars. Every time that he has his labs drawn he gets to pick out a prize. 99% of the time he picks out a car. We actually walk into the lab and he gets excited about his next car. Jared has had A LOT of labs done since his transplant and so he has quite the collection of cars. You would think that he would get tired of cars, but nope, that is what he picks out every time. The lab techs even know not to offer him anything except a car! I decided to try and find as many lab cars as I could. I'm sure that some of them have been lost but this is a pretty good representation of his collection. There are over 60 cars in this picture! That is a lot of pokes in one year! And there will be plenty more where those came from! At least he has something to look forward to if he has to be poked so often! :)