2 Months

We are at 2 months post-op and the doctor is very impressed with how well it looks already! We took B in yesterday for his 2 month post-op visit. If we lived far away, we would just email pictures to the doctor and have her check them out. Since we live 40 minutes away we are able to go in and see her. It's a huge advantage for living close to the dr. office and surgery center, we are so grateful.
We don't need to see the doctor again for 2 to 3 months, unless we feel we need to see her sooner. She is also just a phone call or email away.

We were able to meet another family at the office who is new to the Microtia world. They have an adorable 2 week old daughter and were meeting with the doctor for the first time. I was able to show them B's ear and talk with them about our experience and answer any questions they had. I just love being able to share our story and help out other families in their journey. I pray I get more opportunities to help out others and be able to be an encouragement in such a time of worry and overwhelming emotions .

I mean... look at this guy... he's such a cutie!!!

I look back at everything we have been through the past 4 years (oh my, he will be 4 in a couple weeks...seriously, where did the time go?) Through it all, we had so many questions and worries. We did a TON of research. We contacted other families who were in the same situation. We met with doctors and specialists.

Other than that, we just lived our lives making sure that B was treated the same as everyone else. We never "shielded" his 'little ear'. It was a part of who he was and we were proud of it. Praise the Lord he developed fine and has the cutest personality! Making the decision for surgery was probably the hardest decision we had to face. We are so thankful we did, especially because he his healing so great!

Now, it's just time for me to 'relax' and not be so paranoid about his new ear. I know bumps and bruises are imminent, especially with a little boy. This is a whole new range of emotions and 'worries' for me. Now it isn't the stress of a surgery, it is about protection and healing. This is a whole new growing experience for me and I am daily working on putting my full trust in God!

Thank you for your prayers with us on this long 4 year journey!

Cubbies Awards

We started off Easter morning by looking to see if the Easter bunny made it to our house. Brennan was excited to see that the carrots were gone, which means the Easter bunny was here! They loved their Easter baskets. We had yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then went to church. We then went to my mom's for dinner and had an Easter egg hunt in her backyard.

Tonight was Brennan's Awanna/Cubbies awards show. It was the last day of Cubbies for the year and they had certificates and awards for each Cubbie Kid! Brennan had to miss quite a bit of Cubbies in October, November and March due to his surgeries, but he was able to return each time and get back into the routine. He also memorized all the verses, even during his recovery time! He had a great time tonight. He couldn't contain himself on the stage. He was moving around so much. I think he's meant to be on stage... either a dancer or drummer... this kid always has a beat going on in his head :)

Brennan receiving his award

With his new cubbie bear for his vest

Brennan with his Cubbie table leader

My boy and I

B's certificate of completion

He loves his new Awana puzzle!



Pnut in her nursery class :)

Kiddos with Grandma

Easter!

Of course it was Easter Egg Hunt time!!! Faith was sick and missed out on the one we had at the MOPS group I attend. She is finally better so we went to one at a park near where we live. There were areas for different age groups so Brennan and Faith got to 'hunt' in the same area together. My mom walked around with Pnut and I stayed with Brennan. It was so much fun!

Pnut and Grandma

Pausing for a picture

Cheese!

They both had a blast... AND... GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!!!...

Faith had the 'Golden Egg'!!! It was inside one of her plastic eggs! She found it herself!!! She won the prize and got a basket with some cute things inside, including a pink stuffed bunny that she won't leave out of her sight!

We colored some eggs and will be decorating them in the morning

Dipping the eggs in color

Leaving out carrots for the Easter Bunny!!!

We left them outside by the front door so the Easter Bunny knows it's our house :)

The carrots are all gone and their baskets waiting for them!

It's nice to participate in the 'bunny' part of Easter, but we as a family are really celebrating the death and resurrection of of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to make sure our kiddos know the real meaning of Easter and want to help them better understand our Savior and His sacrifice for us.

7 weeks post-op

Yep... 7 weeks already. We see Dr. Lewin next week but I emailed her a few pictures today to see how she thinks it's healing. Here are a couple pictures. Looks good doesn't it!!! I'm still amazed at how great it looks! B loves it too!

I don't think I've ever posted pictures of his skin graft sites. There are different techniques for the surgery and the skin graft sites vary for each patient. Brennan's sites were under his left arm and behind his right ear.

Here B is showing his cool scar under his arm. I keep medical tape on it. When a piece falls off, I just reapply another one. Dr. Lewin recommends doing this for 6 months for less scarring.

There are usually 5 pieces of medical tape. A piece on the very bottom had fallen off so I took this picture before I applied another piece of tape, so you can see the scar. Looks good already doesn't it!

There was also skin taken from behind his right ear. I tried to get a good picture of it, but really it's just so hard to see the scar. It's almost invisible already!


And... a few things this week...

Took the kiddos on a run and ended up hiking a little at a nearby park. Here are the kids with a cool view! And yes... isn't B's outfit cool! Ha ha, got to love the button up shirt with workout shorts. I think it's the next fashion trend :)

Poor Pnut has croup so she has been home for a couple days. My friend Christy had her baby 3 weeks ago! I just love little AJ so much! Today B and I went for a walk with them. Of course we fed the ducks on the way. It was AJ's first time with the ducks... of course he slept through it all :)

Yeah, I know... B isn't supposed to be at the park yet. Hey, it's just the swing :) He was in heaven!

B enjoying a treat!

Lots of Plaid

I thought I would show a little peek into Brennan's closet. I'm still not comfortable pulling a t-shirt over his head so he's wearing lots of button-ups these days. He had a ton from his last surgery in October and of course he needed to wear them for this surgery. If you scroll through all of our pictures through the blog since his surgery, you will see him sporting all the different ones... lots of plaid :) B has been wearing button-up pj's at night but they are way too warm when the weather is hot, which it is recently. So, I've cut a little slit in the back of a few of them to pull over his head :) When all is said and done, I plan on packing up all his button-up shirts in a box and donating them to another family whose son will be having surgery too.

We got EGGED!!!

It was a beautiful day today so we decided to head on over to the beach! Joel was able to come and hang out with us and see our usual routine: run, hang out on the pier and play on the beach. Joel can't run yet so he rented a bike and rode along side us...I had my own peparazzi following us taking our pictures :)

I wish we lived close enough so I could run this path everyday :) But, I'll probably be here at least once or twice a week in the summer!

Stopped for a photo op!

Picture on the pier

Carousel on the pier

We got home and their was a basket by our front door filled with fun, yummy treats. There was a sign that said, "You've been egged"! The kid's loved it! They think the Easter Bunny brought it :) I have no idea who did it! The kids and I are talking about who we should go "egg" now!

What we have been up to...

We have FINALLY been getting back into some what of a routine. B started back at Awana/Cubbies... of course there were only 3 weeks left. He started Preschool again! I pick him up 1/2 hour early because he can't do recess yet. About 3 more weeks and then he is cleared for all activities! Joel will probably start back at work in a couple weeks. He's been off work for almost 6 months. His leg is healing more. He is still doing his physical therapy to make it stronger. Joel's parents are still struggling with his dad's ALS. The challenges continue to mount and we are helping them out as much as we can. The kid's love their grandma and papa so we are trying to spend as much time with them as possible. It has surely been an emotional roller coaster... this past 6 months... but we are still doing our best to hang in and trust God through the process. Since B still hasn't been able to do many things since his surgery (6 weeks ago already), we have been doing different things to keep the kiddos busy! Joel spent the day helping his parents out so I took the kiddos to the beach. I love that we live about 45 minutes away (that is with no traffic of course). It's low key for Brennan so it worked out perfectly. I did my usual run with them along the bike path and then ended up on the pier to do some people watching! We ended the day at the beach and they got to play in the sand. I bought B a hat to keep his ear out of the sun, it worked great! Both kiddos kept their hats on the whole time :)

And yes... they were exhausted!

We took the kids to cool little place where we live. It's an area full of different farm animals for the kids to look at, pet and feed.

Pnut was kind of fearful of the animals so B gave her a kiss... so sweet!

Brennan still can't go to the playground yet. We took them to a park by us that has a huge green grass area. We had a little picnic and let the kids run around. That's the safest thing for Brennan right now and it gets a lot of his 'pent up energy' out!

Visiting a dog park to check out all the different dogs!!!

Joel's parents are in the process of looking for a new van and needed to go to Carlsbad. We all ended up going to Lego Land for the day with his parents! It was such a fun time, our first.

We had a little family gathering for Pnut's 2nd birthday!

With her new Tinkerbell outfit! This girl sure loves to dress up!

Future Cheerleader?!

Love this one!!!

B is finally back at Cubbies!!! It was picnic day and we had to be very careful because of all the kids running around. B was excited to be back with his friends!

Brennan has always loved Preschool. He has been out for 7 weeks. He was so excited to go back and see his friends and teachers! To be honest, it was a little hard for me to let him go. He's been with us 24/7 since his surgery. It was hard to let him go and just 'trust' that he will be okay and that he wouldn't harm his ear. His ear is doing great but I still have worries about some kid throwing something hard at it, B running into a doorknob, a ball getting kicked into it, being elbowed really hard... the list goes on and on. I have realized I need to 'let go' and just trust that he will be okay. Brennan has been really good with it and knows to be careful.

When I picked Brennan up from school, his teachers said that he is very careful and when all the kids are together close that he stands a foot back... so I know he is being careful!!! Also, his teachers said they notice his hearing is better and that he hears well in the noisy environment... such an answer to prayer!!!

So, that's what we have been up to. Please continue to pray for Joel's dad as ALS is taking a serious toll on his body and pray for our whole family that we can support him through this.

Thanks!