Happy Birthday Ruthie!

Dear Ruthie,

It's hard to believe it was only 5 years ago that we welcomed you into our lives. It really does seem like you've always been a part of our family. From the day you came home from the hospital you have wanted nothing more than to be one of the big girls. As a baby you were always happy as long as you could see your big sisters. You have always been so determined to do everything they do and NOTHING slows you down! You don't allow your size or your age to stop you from doing anything you want to do and I love your fierce determination and the confidence you have in yourself that you can do anything! You are so blessed to have big sisters that love you and are willing to let you be a part of whatever they are doing. They willingly share their toys and friends and for many years their room with you. And you also have JP who adores you and is your willing partner in crime. He is always so sad if you are not around especially at bedtime and naptime as y'all now share a room. You are pretty positive that you are a first born child so it's a good thing that you have a JP to boss around/mother! You definitely were not meant to be the baby of the group!

Ruthie, I am constantly amazed by your strength. We asked a lot of you this year when we started OIT. We ask you everyday to eat your peanut dose and you so rarely complain. You put up with every other week trips to the doctor's office in North Carolina and you rarely complain. I am SO proud of you and your fierce drive to get control of your peanut allergy. You are so excited about all the things you get to do once you finish OIT (like go to Marble Slab) but you told me you are most excited about not having to worry about people touching you. That broke my heart a bit but made me even more determined to help you control your allergy instead of letting it control you. You are so well educated about your allergy and are very good at questioning everything before you eat it and I am so excited that, if we stay on track, you shouldn't have to worry about any food you are or anyone else are eating when you start kindergarten. I know that will be such a big relief for both of us!

Speaking of school, you have a had a wonderful year this year in the 4s! You have had a little trouble adjusting to going 5 half days instead of 2 but you love your teachers and friends so that makes it a little easier. Your teachers tell me often how sweet you are and that makes me so proud! You are SO looking forward to kindergarten next year and I know you are academically and socially VERY ready to go. The elementary school has no clue what they're in for when you walk through those doors in the fall. You already know the names of all the teachers and most of the kids in the school and you're pretty sure you already run the school! You are pretty determined that you are going to have Mrs. Estes (Emmie's 1st and 2nd and Ellie's 2nd grade teacher) and while I keep telling you she doesn't teach kindergarten you are pretty adamant so hopefully you will be content with being able to go by her room and get hugs next year!

This year you more or less stopped sucking on your fingers. You still do it occasionally in the car or at night but it's more that you put them in your mouth instead of sucking on them. Sometimes I look back at pictures of you the first few years of your life and miss that sweet baby habit you had. It definitely makes me realize how much you've grown up this year. Also, over the course of this year your hair has pretty much straightened out. I SO miss your curls...you however are very excited to have straight hair like your sisters.

Your smile lights up any room you are in and you bring so much joy to those around you. You always have fun with whatever you do and people love being around you! You know what you like and don't like and have no problems with standing your ground when you want something. This causes problems for you sometimes but I know that your fierce determination will serve you well later in life! I have loved so much watching you grow up a sweet, happy baby to a fun-loving, determined preschooler. You are beautiful inside and out and I'm so happy that God chose me to be your mom!

Happy Birthday sweet Roo Roo...I know 5 is going to be a great year!

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Happy Birthday Emmie!

That short hair is because you donated your hair this year! You decided to do this because you saw a video about it and you wanted to help someone else. I was so proud of you and your dedication to growing out your hair and helping someone else!

 

Dear Emmie,

Today you are 9 years old! It's hard to believe that next year we will have a child in double digits! Sometimes I look at you and wonder where my little round fluffy toddler went and where this tall, beautiful girl came from! You look more grown up every day and it feels like time is passing so quickly!  I have loved watching you grow up. I have so many wonderful memories of you as a baby and toddler and I have enjoyed making memories with you as you have gotten older. You are a great age to do things like go to plays or go out to eat at a nice restaurant and I treasure the (rare) moments when it is just you and me. I love that you still want to hold my hand and snuggle with me.

This year has been a really tough year in school. On top of your seizures you were also diagnosed with adhd and a math learning disability this year and you have also struggled with a lot of anxiety. School has been a big learning curve too. This year you went from a teacher that you had for 2 years to a new teacher with new friends in your class. This is the first year you haven't had your best friend Evelyn in your class and that has been really hard too. And we went from second grade where you only get grades in Math and English to also getting grades in Science and Social Studies. All of that is a lot to adjust to in a very short amount of time (and we KNOW you don't do change!). There have been many, many tears (from you AND me!) and many, many hours of laboring over school assignments. We made lots of adjustments in the classroom this year in order to help you focus better and I have been so proud of how well you have learned to communicate with me when something isn't working for you.

Through all the ups and downs in school, I have been so proud of you. I wish other people could see how much extra work you do at home in order to process and be able to apply all that is being taught at school. You are a Rockstar and I am SO proud of your hard work. When you had your 24hr EEG this summer the neurologist said you had so many seizures in the morning that he didn't know how you could even function in the morning. But you do! Yes, sometimes getting out the door is a struggle for you in the morning and sometimes I have to follow you around and help remind you what you are supposed to be doing but one way or the other you make it out the door on time in the morning.  And you were able to go to school and function. I know sometimes you get frustrated and get down on yourself because everything seems so hard and confusing but I hope one day you look back and are proud of everything you have overcome.

This year has been exciting because it seems that we have recently gotten your seizures under control (which has helped immensely with that whole getting out the door in the morning thing!). It has been a long, hard year of switching meds, dealing with and learning to manage new side effects, and trying to accept that we might just have to be satisfied with "good enough" when it came to seizure control. But then we tried a new medication. A medication with some scary side effects that the doctor had been against trying until after he saw your 24hr EEG. I had very little hope that it would work. Amazingly it did! I KNOW you must feel better overall not having seizures all the time! I have prayed so hard that we could get better control of your seizures and am incredibly thankful for this respite for you.

I constantly marvel at your sweet, loving personality. You seem to have a sixth sense for knowing when someone is hurting or needs a little extra love, especially adults. You give wonderful hugs and you give them to everyone! You brighten so many days because you take the time to give a hug to those who need it. I love how outgoing you are. You love to talk to people and find out all about them. One of my favorite stories from this year was when I went to vote and the poll manager was on crutches and you asked him if he was ok. He then proceeded to tell you all about his hip replacement surgery and all about the hip joint. You listened to every word he said. The love you have for people and their stories is simply amazing. I hope as you get older that you recognize this gift you have and choose a career that will allow you to bless others with your gift of caring.

Emmie, I can't wait to see what adventures the next year brings you! I love you sweet baby girl!

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Celebrating Emmie

Emmie's birthday is in the middle of December but we had her party yesterday. She REALLY wanted a bounce house in the back yard so that was our plan! Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate and we had LOTS of rain all day. But we made the best of it and Emmie still had a great time at her party and I think her friends did too!

Thanks to some brainstorming by some of my friends I was able to come up with some cute crafts and things to do!

We started out with the girls getting food. All of the cute ideas were pinterest…I definitely can't claim any as my own!

Once they had their food I turned on the Wizard of Oz movie for them to watch. 

About 20 minutes into the movie I told them they were welcome at any point in time to come do any of the things we and set up in the kitchen: painting nails, making an ornament, face painting, and SLIME! I figured the girls would kind of wonder in and out but as soon as I said slime they all jumped up! It was a little wild and chaotic for a few minutes there but everyone got their slime made and I was very thankful for Ainsley and Anna, my slime making experts!

Shrinky Dink ornaments...they turned out so cute!

Towards the end of the party we had ice cream sundaes and sang Happy Birthday to Emmie. It's hard to believe that in a few weeks we'll have a 9 year old!

Franklin wore his blue gingham bandanna in honor of the Wizard of Oz party :)

Ellie Takes the Stage!

Ellie decided to try out theater this year and she has been taking classes once a week at Town Theatre. She has absolutely LOVED theater and I love that she seems to have found something that brings her so much joy. She and Emma (my girls have been friends with her since they were tiny) are in the same class and they've had a great time together. And it's been really, really nice to have someone to carpool with, especially during the past 2 weeks when we had extra rehearsals!
Tonight Ellie had her first show. They combined with one of the older kid classes and did Kids on Broadway with selections from a variety of shows. Ellie's group preformed a song from Seussical and Lion King and then all the kids were in the opening and closing songs. Everyone did such a great job and we were SO proud of Ellie. She had a line in the introduction on Lion King and we had talked a lot about speaking slowly and loudly and she did great! She was so fun to watch singing and dancing on the stage and I was really impressed with all she learned this semester.
The best part of the whole night was when we picked her up and she had a big grin from ear to ear. She had SO.MUCH.FUN! She was absolutely thrilled that all of us were there and also GiGi, PaPa, Gran and Grandaddy.
Next semester they are doing Pinocchio and she's already looking forward to it (and so are we)!

Evelyn and her parents came to the show. I'm glad Amy got a picture because I had major picture fail tonight!

OIT Update

Last Tuesday Ruthie and I headed to North Carolina for an OIT updose. This updose was exciting because we are now officially through half of the doses! So since this was a bit of milestone in her OIT journey I thought I'd do an update!

Halfway there! We did 10 doses the first day and when we go back in a month we will be on yellow 2 (blue 6 and yellow 1 are the same dose so we go a month between updoses instead of the normal 2 weeks).

We've gotten into a good routine where on her updose days we drop the big girls at school and head to NC. The drive takes about 2 hours (depending on Charlotte traffic) and Ruthie rocks the drive. I pack her a little bag of things to do and a bag of snacks and she's a pretty happy rider! Once we arrive in Salisbury we have an hour in the office where she gets her dose and then they watch her for a reaction. They have a special room for OIT patients that has coloring, toys, video games and a TV with Netflix. Ruthie usually wants to watch TV because she can pick what she wants to watch without any input from her siblings! Then we grab lunch and drive the 2 hours back and we're back in time for me to pick the big girls up from school. And JP lucks out and gets undivided attention from one of the grandmothers while we're gone!

Ruthie gets to pick where we get lunch after updoses and she almost always picks CFA so she can get ice cream!

Our OIT journey has been going great and the daily dosing has been so much easier than I thought it would be. Ruthie takes her dose every morning after breakfast and then has a 2 hour rest period where she can't get overheated or have an elevated heart rate. Other than that she can do whatever she wants. So we can run errands and she can play in the house (just no running or wresting with JP). I actually drop her off at school each day with about 15 minutes left in her rest period.  And actually, during the week, she spends a big chunk of her rest period in the car while we take the big girls to school.
One thing that has really helped in this whole process is that Ruthie is VERY excited about the process. She has a lot of anxiety about her allergy and we are SO ready to not have to worry about reading labels and being concerned when we eat out about if her food has touched something with peanuts. The big girls got Marble Slab coupons with their report cards but Ruthie can't go to Marble Slab because of cross contamination. Ruthie told the girls that they would just have to go when she wasn't around but was thrilled when I told her that once we finished OIT we could ALL go! She also has a few pieces of candy that she has set aside to eat once she finishes OIT. Also, I recently printed out the schedule at the top of the post and put it on the bulletin board and she loves being able to see where in the process she is!
Our doctor has been PHENOMENIAL. We have his cell phone number and anytime we have a question or a concern we simply text him. He is always so quick to respond. Even the time I got home from work and Ruthie was wheezing so I had to text him at 9pm on a Saturday night while he was on vacation with his family. He got right back to me and we came up with a treatment plan and he had me check in with him the next morning to make a decision about dosing that day. I have been blown away by our doctor's commitment to his patients and to the success of the treatment. His dedication is evident in the big things like availability but also in little things such as when we go for an updose HE gives her the dose and HE checks on her after the first 30 minutes and HE checks her before we leave the office. He could easily pass off any of those steps to an assistant in the office...it's not like he's far away, it's a pretty small office and he's the only doctor. But he takes the time to look at her and talk to her and make sure that everything is ok. We could have gone to a doctor a little closer to us but I had heard some things from other parents that made me a little nervous about the doctor and I am SO glad we chose to drive a little further and go to our doctor.
So that brings me to where we are now. We started out with a liquid with a very low concentration of peanut powder mixed in it. Then we moved to a much more concentrated liquid. This week we moved to capsules of peanut powder that we open up and mix in applesauce. The next change in dosage form is a change to an actual PEANUT! We will gradually increase the amount of peanut powder over the next 2 1/2 months so sometime mid February, if we don't have any bumps in the road, Ruthie will have her first peanut! The idea of that is very exciting and VERY scary. We've spent every day since she was 15mo old protecting her from peanuts and the thought of giving her one to eat is a little terrifying. It's easier with the liquid and the powder because they don't look like a peanut.

Our last updose...peanut powder mixed with applesauce.

Making the decision to start OIT was absolutely terrifying but it has been an absolutely wonderful decision for our family. I am so thankful for all the support we have gotten from friends and family and from our local doctors. Many, many people have been blasted by their non-OIT allergist for even wanting to discuss OIT but our allergist was wonderful and encouraged us to investigate all our options. We would have done OIT no matter how our allergist felt about it but it is so nice to have the support of him and our pediatrician! I am so thankful that we are able to make the trip during the time that the big girls are in school so there is absolutely no disruption to their normal routine. Ruthie loves the alone time with me and JP loves his alone time with whichever grandparent has come to keep him that day.

Fun with Friends!

The Novak Family came from DC to visit us this weekend and we had a great time! They arrived Friday evening around bedtime so the kids played for a few minutes and then we hearded them all off to bed.

The Crew! Paul, JP, Me, Ellie, Caroline, Ruthie, Elizabeth, Emmie, Abby, Ben

Saturday we got up and headed roller skating! The skating rink has skating and they also have a really fun indoor playground. JP and Ruthie started out on the playground and Emmie wanted to skate. And shockingly Ellie wanted to skate too! Ellie was so brave. She skated once a year or two ago and was not a fan and hasn't wanted to try again. Well Saturday she decided that she was going to skate and she did a GREAT job and had so much fun! Ruthie ended up wanting to skate. She started with regular skates but we ended up switching her to the little kid skates and she LOVED it! When we were at skate night for school a few weeks ago JP had said he wanted to skate but I felt like it was too crowded to have him out there so I didn't let him. Well he decided after playing on the playground some on Saturday that he wanted to try skating. He had the little kid skates and did amazing! He had the BEST time too...big grin on his face the whole time he was skating. By about 45 minutes into the skating Elizabeth started to really get the hang of it and I think she had fun and once we got the smaller kid skates for Caroline she had a great time skating with Ruthie (they were pretty inseparable the whole visit). We spent about 2 hours at the skating rink (and the adults skated too!) and everyone had lots of fun!

My brave girl...I was SO proud of her!

Best friends!

Elizabeth and  Emmie

Caroline

Caroline, Ruthie, and JP on the playground!

Paul roller skating!

Still have my skills from 25 years ago!

These girls had a blast!

Pretty much cuteness overload!

We headed home and had lunch and then the kids spent the entire afternoon playing outside. We had lovely weather and they took full advantage of it!
Late afternoon another college friend, Dana, and her husband and kids came over to play and have dinner. Dana has 2 boys so JP was thrilled to have other little boys to play with! We had pizza for dinner and then set up the firepit and had s'mores. The kids had a blast playing together.
After s'mores Dana and her crew headed home and we got the rest of the kids showered and in the bed. They were WORN OUT. I think Ruthie was asleep before I even left the room!

All the kids!

Sunday morning we headed to church and Abby, Ben and the girls headed to Atlanta for the next stop of their trip. We had so much fun with them!