In March we also took the girls to Sand Mountain and Auntie Desiree and Uncle Kel joined us. We had a great, low key time and the weather was pretty nice for us. Faith went to the top of the mountain a couple times, too!

The following week Faith had a CF Team appointment. Everything seems stable for now. She got to try the FEV machine (Forced Expiratory Volume to check her lung capacity, essentially) again, we worked out some information for her vest and have a few things to be followed up on, but her lungs sound clear and she's at 70% for height and 67% for weight, which is phenominal! We are fully aware that this can change dramatically with a minor illness, but we will happily take these numbers when we can! Our goal is always above 50%, GO FAITH!

February 2010

The month of February started off with Brooke in for a Dr. visit with an ear infection and Stephanie got to go to Pismo Beach to visit her great friend Catheline for a girl weekend.

Faith was due this month for her annual blood work. Grandpa Marlin joined us. Faith was nervous and scared as usual. She cried, but always seems to understand it's necessary and doesn't fight. She did a great job. Results later came back with very good information and she seems to be absorbing all of her vitamins well.

Brooke tried Faith's dance class and after two times she no longer had interest. Not sure why, but I got a couple of cute photos as proof she tried! This month was 'puppy' Falon's 1st birthday, too, so we celebrated with a little doggie ice cream.

We have been growing about 70 plants from little seedlings and went ahead and planted them prior to our upcoming trip. The girls LOVE planting and checking on the garden.

Steph's parents shared the duties of keeping the kids while we went on an adult's only trip to Vegas for Morgan's 30th birthday! The first night we stayed in an amazing suite at Vdara, one of the newest hotels on the strip. Then, the rest of the friends and family joined us at a timeshare down the road. We had a great time and in all saw 2 shows (Morgan was even pulled up on stage and we laughed SO hard), walked a bunch, danced a bunch, gambled some, then finished the weekend with Nascar......the rest is as they say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!"

When we got home from Vegas, all of our little plants had croaked. There was a huge storm backat home and none of them really made it :( so we'll have to try again...

Happy FIFTH Birthday, Faith!

March 4 was Faith's 5th birthday. Five is a big deal for Faith and our family. If Faith was born 50 years ago, we would've been told she wouldn't live to see age 5. I cannot imagine that and try to only seldom even allow myself to be swallowed by the thoughts & devastation that cystic fibrosis is.

Faith had a Garden Party. I gave her a list of ideas weeks ago and her eyes lit up at the garden idea. She had about 10 girls over to decorate little pots, color butterflies then pin them on the flower while blindfolded, played a game outside and planted seeds into their pots of dirt to take home. The party was complete with ladybug strawberries, flower sandwiches and a 65 roses garden with info to sign up for the CFF Greatstrides walk. Everyone had a great time! After the party Faith said, "Happy Birthday to myself!" I asked her what her favorite part of the day was and this was her reply:

"Everything! I have 4 favorites: 1. The dirt cups (to eat), 2. Qwynci's messy face (from the purple cupcake frosting), 3. The rainbow facepaint (thanks Tiffany for helping!), 4. All my friends helping me open my presents.....and I have one more, playing with all my presents after the party (naturally!)." I'm not sure about posting pictures of all the kids without parent consent, so here's what it looked like before the chaos, haha!

Also after the party, Brookie was caught trying to give Falon lip gloss!

Brookie's 4rd Bday

We celebrated Brookie turning 3 by giving her an official party, finally. It was a great bash at the backroom of Strikes Bowling.

Faith is loving dance class and Brooke is thinking about joining in soon. Faith's appointment went well this month...she gained about a pound since last month! She's doing so well that her pulmonologist gave us the option to skip her CF Team appointment since we'd pretty much done everything on their task list over the past few appointments. She also discussed with us the option of quitting TOBI semi-permanently for now since she's had clear cultures for about 18 months. She's only ever cultured a 1+ Pseudomonas twice in her life, approximately 2 years apart, so it seems to be a rare occurence. What we hope is that she doesn't culture it again for many months or even years. If she does so within the next few months, it is possible that she has it so deep in her lungs that it takes a few months of a break from TOBI inhaled antibiotics to grow up to a point at which the throat culture would catch it. So, it's a wait and see game, but for now....NO TOBI, which elates us :)

Mid January we had this conversation:

Faith: "Mommy, if you have an eye in the back of your head, how does it see?"

Steph: " It's super special"

Faith: "Does it still work when you turn your head like this?"

Steph: "Yup, it's magic."

Faith: "Will I ever grow and eye in the back of my head?"

Steph: "Yes, you get it when you have kids and become a mommy"

Faith: "Oh! And how can it see through your hair?"

Such inquisitive thoughts she has for a little one!

In November, Faith suddenly began crying because her ear hurt. She's never had an ear infection and really, rarely has a fever when she's sick. Over the next week or so she was on and off with a congested nose which led itself to a wet cough by Thanksgiving Day (which we spent at my dad's house) and Brooke had her own cough going as well. Once again, she had no appetite and was lethargic. After a visit with the pulmonologist and a throat culture, Faith ended up on antibiotics which slowly cleared her cough up and luckily, the culture came out clear. Morgan and I were able to have a weekend getaway to Half Moon Bay for my birthday at the end of the month :)

December brought my dad and stepmom's 20th Anniversary....the four of us kids and spouses took them out for a night on the town in San Francisco, complete with a limo, dinner, video montage and a Cirque de Soleil show. We all had a wonderful time celebrating them! As everyone knows, the month is also filled with a miriad of Christmas parties and dinners as well and we were able to enjoy them all. Neither of the kids got sick, but Faith's appointment with the pulmonologist did reveal that her weight gain remains at a standstill and she was to come back in one month.

Faith's requests from Santa once again had us on our toes for the big red guy. She was asking for a remote control ladybug, a flying Barbie (which we convinced her that perhaps a Tinkerbell would be more suitable to fly) and a pink quad. It's a good thing she got her letter in on time because Santa came through and the girls both had a great Christmas. We were supposed to start TOBI, her extra hour of breathing treatment right around Christmas Eve, but we pushed it off until the New Year. Brooke's request was candy and sure enough, that was her favorite item Christmas morning! The four of us went up to Tahoe to play in the snow for a couple of days and Brooke turned 3 on the 30th. We rang in the new year with Morgan's brother's family nice and causally, playing Rockband!

The Miralax seemed to help within a few days because Faith grew an appetite. Despite having the flu vaccine, we're pretty sure that Brooke and I had the H1N1 flu (those vaccines weren't yet available to us) and Faith was put on Tamiflu along with us as a precaution. We stayed away from she and Morgan as much as possible and they escaped with no illness. As sick as the two of us were, I can't imagine her having that flu, it was ugly. She did end up with a few stuffy noses and ended up staying home from school for what seemed to be almost half her scheduled days due to either her illness or other kids' sick at school. We're grateful for her teacher who gives us a heads up when there's something going around.

As you can see, the homemade unicorn and Rainbow Brite costumes worked out just fine and we had a great Halloween party!

Oh, Poo! Sept/Oct 2009

Faith has had an incredible lack of interest in food lately. She enjoys helping cook and often says something, "smells so gooood, " but once it's in front of her, she avoids it completely. We saw her pulmonologist this month and the concern for me was that the scale showed she hadn't gained weight at all in almost 6 months! Her arms are starting to thin out and she's grown a little in height. The Dr. did a throat culture and Faith was a little nervous at first, but a total pro while I counted to 3 during the throat tickles. Her lungs sounded clear, which is always a good thing to hear ;)

So, our never-ending quest to put weight on little Faith continues...
October 1st she had a 3 hour appt with the CF Team. I voiced my biggest concern, which is her lack of hunger. We talked about what she's been eating, her height and weight were more meticulously measured...turns out that she actually had gained over a pound in the last three months, phew! The BMI is above 50%, which is always MY goal for her. The throat culture results came back clear, just the normal flora of bacteria. We will continue all of her regular treatments.

The nurse felt her slightly distended belly and felt like we should get an x-ray of Faith's abdomen to see if something is going on in the intestines, which could cause her to not want to eat. So the next day after her dance class we headed for the xray. My mom met us to keep an eye on Brooke (thanks so much, mom!). I explained to Faith that nothing would hurt, but a lady would be taking a picture of her belly with a really big camera and mommy would get to stay with her the whole time so there was nothing to be scared about. I prefer to always tell her what is going to happen: shots, culture, treatments, etc so that she trusts me and knows what's going on. In this case I knew because she had a chest xray a couple years ago.

She started to get a little nervous when putting her gown on, but I reiterated the truth. When it was her turn, she got up on the table and did a fantastic job staying very still with a smile on her face for 2 pictures. 4 days later the Dr. called with the results. She doesn't have a complete blockage, but there is a large 'build up' of stool in her right colon, still allowing regular amounts to pass by. She said older kids often complain of stomache ache, but very young children often just stop eating. A complete blockage would mean a hospital stay, but since this is not, we first begin treating her with a type of laxative that will help break down what's in there to get it out. This may or may not become an addition to her regular medications. For now, it's a matter of figuring out the balance Faith needs. She understand well what is happening and even retold the info to my mom mthe next day quite precisely! We are truly greatful that our CF Team caught this before it became a bigger problem and that the treatment is fairly 'simple.'

So far this Fall, Faith is really loving school and dance class. We just decorated for Halloween and plan to have a party this year. Faith decided she wants to be a unicorn....not sure how that will turn out! Brooke will be rainbow brite. We'll be heading to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow and plan to get these last few beautiful weeks out and about before the winter hibernation for us arrives. We were warned it's going to be a harsh winter for getting sick and we've already all gotten our flu shots!