Punky Time

Mattox has been giving me fits lately - but at least he makes me smile in between.  He calls a pumpkin a "punky" and he'll change his voice lower and haunt Mati Claire by yelling "I'm scawy!!!"   He is making progress in the potty training department - yay!  But still not sleeping well.  No idea what's up with that.  Win some and lose some.  

Given a 1 week notice, I THREW a Halloween Party together!  And this was my first Halloween Party so I had to scrounge to find the leftover stuff at all the stores.  Most of the stores had already cleared out Halloween and moved onto Christmas.  So it was Punky Time at our house!  Plus I'm doing the Halloween Party this Wednesday for the Kindergarten class, so I really had double cause.  I got some of these ideas from Our Best Bites.  I have one word for you: Pinterest.  All things are possible with Pinterest.  I kid.  Other food items there: apple cider, burnt rotel, rice krispie treats, hot dogs, and candy of course! 

Thank you to everyone who came and those of you that contributed (food, hayride, drinks, ice, and even keeping an eye on the kids too).  It was a blast! A cold blast - which is why you don't see Merritt in any pics.  She stayed inside with my mother-in-law.  Thank you Mrs. Paula too!

Graveyards: chocolate pudding with crushed oreos on top.  

Frankenstein marshmallow pops! I couldn't find my stand for these but still cute.

Pretzel Candy fingers.  Not my fave to make...which is why there were only 12.  

My "8-layer Taco Dip".  All the taco dip recipes are called "7-layer dips" but none had a guacamole layer.  I don't like guacamole, but my sister has a fine recipe for homemade guacamole.  Decorated with sour cream piped through a Ziploc bag.  And a plastic spider.  

Carly made these ADORABLE Acorns!! Everyone's favorite! All I know is that you can't go wrong with Shipley's donut holes!

Best party trick ever.  Dry Ice in Kool-aid.  It bubbles, sizzles, makes slurpy creepy noises.  Apparently its safe to drink as well, but no one was brave enough to try it (sans the actual piece of ice)

Mummy Dogs

I found these cute spider bowls at Kroger.  Too cute!

Found cute stickers at Target for the drink labels.  Poison = orange Kool-aid.  

It's my new must-do.  Just in case they ever do get married.  We'll have tons of pics. hehe.  I kid. Well not really. ;)

Mattox actually MINDED and sat still for the group photo!!

3 Little Pigs: Kaytlin, Kinley, Macy Kate; Wolf: Murphy; Batman1: Walker; Batman2: Matthew; Spiderman: Kellan; Peter Pan: Jack; Batman3: Landry; Giraffe: Hudson; Strawberry Shortcake: Brooke; Little Red Riding Hood: Mati Claire; Wolf: Mattox; Rapunzel: Jordan Ann; Superwoman: Peyton [not pictured: Grant, Jack H., Addy Ryan, Merritt, and Allie]

His first hayride I think.

Thanks to Mr. Will and SchoggenScapes for the hayride!!!!

Brooke and MC

What do you do when the party is over? Sit in the floor and eat chocolate of course!

Genetically 50

Merritt had her Genetics appointment yesterday.  He saw no physical indicators of any other disorder but took a blood test to rule out anything that the amnio could not detect.  We get those results back in about 2 months! yay for waiting!  Its been awhile since we had been back at UMC, and it brought back alot of unpleasant thoughts and memories.  We were both glad to be out of there! He brought up all of the questions that we have answered SO many times before and just reminded me of all the things that I don't like to think about.  We have definitely moved on in a good way, because I left the office on the verge of tears - just felt like he was hammering at me to give him an answer on why she had an omphalocele.  I understand its their job to find evidence of everything - but we are at peace knowing that we don't know why it happened or how exactly - but that God allows things to happen for a reason.  It was a good example of science trying to interfere with God's work!  There is no explanation!

Today was the 50th day of school for kindergarten - so they had a sock hop and learned about the 50's! Which means this Homeroom mom went into working overtime! Served hamburger sliders, fries, coke floats, and my usual cupcakes! sorry - i can't throw a party without cupcakes!  Mrs. L's birthday was last week, so I wanted to throw in a few pics from that too - we gave her a surprise party with "26" candles on her cake! 

I took 2 ideas I found on the internet, and took it to Dream Cakes in Flowood.  They actually made it. Awesome.  And every child had "their own piece of cake with their name on it!"  = no fighting over the pieces!  The candles I had leftover from MC's art party cake.  

Umm.. yeah, we thought we might set off the smoke alarm at Clinton Park.  How embarrassing would that have been?!?! I would have died.  Luckily we didn't! But alot of smoke.  Thank goodness I only put 26 (and not 40).

Mrs. L blowing out her candles!!!!

This makes me want to go back to Kindergarten!  Hamburger cupcakes (stole this idea from Obseussed.com .  Yellow cupcake cut in half, brownie for the "meat", Yellow and red tube frosting for "mustard and ketchup", and green colored coconut for the "lettuce", and real sesame seeds sprinkled on top!)

My little 50's girl! "Pink" lady

Yep! That's 20 slider burgers going on all at once in my kitchen!  Set my smoke alarm off finally.  Had to make 40 burgers for lunch today! whew! I'm tired.  Thank you mom for washing my dishes while I served up at the school. 

Thank you Paula for the baskets, liners, and picking up the fries!! You rock!  

Kellan and Mati Claire striking a Grease pose I think.   They say you marry someone that you look similar to.  Hmmmm... ;)

I hadn't had a coke float in For.ever.  Soooo good! Thank you DeMarla for supplying the cups!

You Decide

(Second post of the day)

Can you guess who is who?  lol!  

Almost everyone tells me Merritt looks like Mati Claire... but lately I've been seeing alot of Mattox.  She is a GOOD combination!!!!! Depends on who she is sitting next to!  

Just FYI, Merritt is on the right of each row.  Mattox in blue on top and Mati Claire on bottom left.  All at 3 months.  

3 months!

Technically its tomorrow, but tomorrow is a busy day for us and I didn't think I'd have time to take any pictures.  Here is the 3 month update - which the last post pretty much summed up.  But official-at-home-photo-session 3 month belly pics.

She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz this morning.  She wears Newborn size clothes and diapers still.  She eats every 2-3 hours during the day and can sleep 4 hours at night.  On occasion I might get a 5 hour stretch.  When she doesn't have gas or the hiccups, she is a VERY happy baby! She is beginning to smile and talk to you - that is oh so precious! She doesn't meet a stranger either.  She will smile at every stranger we pass (even the ones with rude comments).  She says mommy needs to learn that trick - ha!

Her friend in the NICU, Miss Ava Grace, passed away yesterday.  (Her blog is on the right in the link list.)  Heaven gained another angel and she fought hard to the end.  She was suppose to have surgery this morning but decided she didn't need to put herself through that.  Ava Grace was the only other baby that we knew in the NICU while we were there.  She taught me some life lessons that are too much to share.  But in the midst of my sadness, I would pass by AG's unit in the NICU, and be reminded that life is too short - don't take it for granted. Don't be mad at God.  Count your blessings and be happy everyday - even on the bad days.  Please say a prayer for the Oakes family in Greenville, MS as they cope with the loss of their sweet baby girl.  She was ~3 weeks older than Merritt.  Merritt was suppose to be the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" for Halloween, but after reading Amy's blog and being reminded of how special these babies are, Merritt is going to be an angel instead.  Because that's what they are.  Angels among us.

Size Matters

Ha! Got your attention, didn't I?  ;)

I had written a rather lengthly post venting about how strangers react to her and my reaction to them.  I'd rather share good news, so I won't post that one.  Just know that the thought of lying to you for multiple reasons runs through my mind if you ask me how old she is.  And yes I do realize that she is small.   If you can't say anything nice, its best to leave this mama bear alone and not say anything at all.  moving on...

Merritt is 12 weeks/3 months old!!!  She weighs 8 lbs!!!!!!!!  whohoo!  She is still wearing newborn-size clothes and doesn't sleep more than 4 hours generally.

We had her cardiology appointment with the new cardiologist (Dr. Braden) today.  And it was SO worth getting a second opinion.  What a difference a nice informative doctor can make!  She still has a PFO and VSD that have not closed yet (see links for definitions).  However, the PFO was so small the sonographer could barely see it.  The VSD is getting smaller!!  Dr. B said there is a thin membrane above the hole and he is VERY optimistic that it will close on its own eventually.  He has seen some close as late as 1-5 years old.  The best part?  He did not see a reason to do surgery anytime soon.  IF it doesn't close later and IF it is still causing a problem later, he could see the possibility.  Those are 2 big IF's though.  We are keeping her Lasix dosage the same and she should out-grow all of this!  The left side of her heart was still enlarged but he thought it was in the process of shrinking back to normal size, and she still had a little pulmonary stenosis but he thought that was due to the fact that the VSD is getting smaller so naturally there is more blood elsewhere.  That's a good thing.

We have come full circle and we are finally back at Baptist Hospital where we began exactly 1 year ago.  Its nice.  Dr. Braden's office even had an electric warming blanket for the babies.  Yeah we're spoiled like that!  So Merritt is good for another 6 weeks til the next checkup.

Her 0-3 month sized pants that are HUGE on her

I'm sure we'll be seeing alot of this office in the future

My lil cutie patootie!