What a week!

We had Stephanie, Elsa and Tred visit for 12 days.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of memories were made.  Elsa and Brent got a long VERY well and Brody came to accept that Tred was here to stay for awhile and even started sharing some of his toys with him.  I don't remember the last time I laughed so much.  We really enjoyed their visit and hope that they come again someday.

We stayed busy.  Here is some of what we did...

Sunday March 27

After enjoying more of the beach and the pool, we headed home.  Seemed we stopped every 30 minutes for one reason or the other but finally made it back to the house in time to bath everyone and do 3 loads of laundry before Steph needed to pack.

It started with Elsa requesting that we pull over so she could go to the bathroom.  In true "Monkey See Monkey Do" style, my boys insisted they use the roadside as a bathroom as well.  Fun!

Saturday March 26

Destin, FL

We had plans to go camping near Panama City but those plans got changed and we ended up heading down to the beach Saturday morning and stayed in a really nice Holiday Inn right on the beach.  The weather was a bit chilly when we first arrived on the beach because the sun was behind the clouds.  The day got nicer as time went on and despite several mishaps, we really enjoyed the day.

Friday March 25

Stephanie, Elsa, Tred and I went to watch Chelsea in her last Dance Recital.  Elsa really loved watching all the girls.  Tred danced the night away standing in front of us until he fell asleep.

Thursday March 24

Ben took Steph and the kids to the National Infantry Museum here at Ft. Benning while Brent was at school and I went to a meeting.

Wednesday March 21

Montgomery Zoo

We met Stephanie's college friend, Laurie, and her 3 children at the Zoo in Montgomery, AL.  Aunt Carol joined us too.  It was the perfect day for the zoo.

Tuesday March 22

Day of Rest

Monday March 21

"Dance Party"

We had many Dance Parties here this past week.  I finally figured out Pandora on our Blu-Ray and we had some fun with it.  Notice that Elsa was usually in charge of Brent during the dancing.

 

Sunday March 20

Macon Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday March 19

Columbus "Thunder in the Valley" Airshow

Of course all the kiddos needed baths after sweating our butts off in the almost 90 degree weather!

Visitors

My cousin, Stephanie, and her two kiddos arrived here Wednesday night.  Steph said the flight went well and we knew we were off to a good start when Elsa and Brent didn't fight that they were sitting next to each other in the car like they did last visit.  However, Tred was the victim of Brent's flying sippie cup in the car and ended up with a swollen eye.  Once we got back to the house from Atlanta, the older kids decided they needed a snack.

The next morning we got up and got ready to take a drive around post.  Tred took to Uncle Ben right away.

Friday we decided to go to the swimming pool here on post because to Elsa, vacation just isn't vacation unless you go swimming in a pool.

Tred missed all the swimming even though he was dressed in his swimsuit.

Tred loves the stairs in our house.  Steph went upstairs to dress Elsa.  I was doing laundry and Ben was busy with Brent and Brody.  That meant that noone was there to witness Tred falling down the stairs.  We have no idea how high up he got but we knew when he got to the bottom.  He now has a matching swollen eye to the one he got on Wednesday night in the car.  Poor baby.  But in true BOY style, he was over it within a few minutes of nursing on his momma.

It's been in the 80's since the Witkiewicz's got here.  We've been outside a lot.  Elsa's usually the first to ask to go out.

And Tred just hangs out inside...

It's been a great visit so far.  We have a lot planned over the next week so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the posts and pictures.

Catching Up...

We were able to take Brent's bandages off just 6 days after surgery.  We thought he would be anxious about removing them so we had originally planned to take them off while he slept.  However, he asked to take them off that evening.  So we did.  His feet look great!  It took him a couple of days to get his stride back but we say the surgery was a huge success.  We go back in a couple of weeks for the followup.

We decided to make cookies to celebrate being able to take off Brent's Bandages.

We've come up with a reward system to try and help us get Brent potty trained once and for always.  I printed off a train with a train track.  Every time the boys go peepee on the potty, they get a star.  Brody walks around saying "Star" all day long now.  Sometimes they are very interested, others not at all.  They were told that once they fill the sheet, they could have the Thomas the Train puzzle that sits atop the fridge.

 Brent has been seeing a speech Therapist, Miss Jen, for almost 9 months now.  This past week was her last visit.  Now that he is 3, he is eligible to start speech at the Elementary School.  Brent has come to love Miss Jen and has always looked forward to her coming.  She goes to the same church service we attend so he will get to see her every now and then.  She was wonderful.

Brent also started a new "school" twice a week for 3 hours.  He really enjoys it.  The new school is more of a preschool setting where they will learn to write their name among other things.  He had no problems getting dropped off and was happy to see Brody & I when we picked him up.  He had lots to tell us.

It was in the 70's this past weekend so we decided to get some camping in.  The boys were so excited when we brought the Scamp home to load up.  We just went about an hour away to Eufala, AL. 



We stayed in a really nice State Park, along the shoreline of a large lake. The boys were constantly dirty. I ran out of socks for them (I had to keep clean ones on Brent) and they used every pair of pants I brought for them.  There was a really nice playground that the boys enjoyed.  As you can see, Brent has no issues using his feet!

Our campsite was right on the lake.  Ben was able to do a little fishing both mornings and threw in the line a couple of time Saturday night.  The boys really liked it and Brent even mastered casting the bobber into the water.

The boys had plenty to do.  We brought along their wagon and bikes which got plenty of use.  They even had some time to color on the patches of pavement.

Ben and I like to do simple camping.  We ate a gourmet meal of hotdogs roasted on sticks for dinner Friday night and the boys ate PB&J on the remaining buns the next day.  They were happy.

We then decided it was time to go on an afternoon walk.  There was a trail that circled the large campground.  It was nice to get out and walk.  It didn't take long for Brent to fall asleep.

The Walkers decided to join us for the night.  They are on a whole other level of camping.  They brought along their grill and some steaks.  Aunt Carol even baked potatoes in their camper oven.  What a nice treat.  We sat around the fire until we decided to take a walk down the street to listen to a little Bluegrass Festival that was going on.  We listened to a few songs and then headed to bed.  All that fresh air made us all tired.

It was a great weekend.  Hope all is going great with you all.  We have a busy week coming up as Stephanie and her two kiddos are coming to visit for 12 days.  Should be fun!!



Getting Around

This past week we've tried to continue with our normal routine as much as possible.  Brent has been doing so well during recovery from his surgery but he still hasn't walked.  Bandages come off tomorrow so maybe that will make a difference to him.  He's off the pain medicine and only complains every once in awhile when he hits his foot against something or if Brody steps or sits on them. 

We received "A Deluxe Fort Kit" from the Hess' (Zac, Emmy, Piper & Calder) for Brent's 3rd Birthday.  We put it to use over the weekend and turned our front room into a huge fort.  The boys had a great time, including Ben.  Ben kept having memories of when he was a kid and created forts.  We loved the way Emmy made the sheets with loops and ties.  It made it possible to build the fort so many different ways.

Ben's been trying to get Brent to walk since Saturday.  Or at least stand.  Brent's gotten very good at holding his legs up off the ground.  He did finally take a few steps this afternoon while holding onto Ben's hand.

It's been nice the past few days so we've been outside as much as we can be.  Brent figured out how to play Basketball without standing all on his own.  Brody was his personal ball retriever.  They both seemed to enjoy it.



We decided to squeeze a bike ride in this afternoon.  We found a nice shortcut to the other side of post without all the traffic.  Both boys ended up falling asleep.

10 Fingers, 10 Toes???

SHORT VERSION: Brent has surgery to remove his extra toes on each foot.  SUCCESS!!

THANK YOU GOD!!

LONG VERSION:

After 26 hours of labor and a c-section, I barely remember seeing Brent through the window of the nursery the night he was born.  It really wasn't until the next morning that I got to meet him.  Before that happened, Ben came into the room and I said in a matter of fact way, "10 Fingers, 10 Toes?"  Ben smiled and said "10 Fingers, 12 Toes!"  The nurse scolded him for making up such a thing to a new mother that was not funny.  Ben laughed and said "I'm not joking." 

It was because of Ben's lightheartedness that I embraced Brent and his "extras" with such an ease of "it's no big deal."

After visiting the first Orthopedic Surgeon in South Carolina, I truly learned that this was no big deal.  The other families in the waiting room were dealing with so much more than simply an added digit.  We were blessed to have the extra little Brent pieces!  We were told that we would have to wait to have them removed until the cartilage grew into bone and that it they would do one foot at a time and each would require a 6 week period in a full leg cast.  I dreaded this surgery since!

We moved to Georgia and in May 2010 we saw another surgeon who stated the same, "One foot at a time and a 6 week recovery per surgery with casts."  I was so frustrated when it came time to schedule the surgery after Ben returned from Iraq because they referred us to a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon in Atlanta stating they just weren't comfortable with the surgery.  Why couldn't they have done that when we saw them in May rather than wait until December!!

All in God's Plan. . .

We met Dr. Oswald for maybe 10 minutes on a Friday afternoon in January in an office in Columbus.  He stated and acted as if he sees 12 toes every day.  He didn't even look at an xray and declared that he would do both feet at once and it would be 2 weeks in casts.  Ben & I felt reassured in his confidence.  Surgery was scheduled for February 24th.

Today couldn't have gone any better.  God answered prayers from the beginning because I received a call on Wednesday afternoon stating we needed to be at the Children's Hospital in Atlanta at 10:45am.  How on earth was I going to deal with him not eating until then?  I hung up the phone and cried.  Called my mom and talked with my aunt, hung up the phone and cried again.  Then the phone rang, there was a cancellation, could we be there by 8:45am.  YES!!

Ben & I got up at 4:45am.  Took showers, started the car and got Brent into is carseat by 5:45.  He woke up briefly and said "Momma what we doing?"  I told him "going byebye."  He then asked where Brody was and fell back asleep.  He slept until we woke him when we were at the Hospital at 8:15.  We went upstairs, registered, got our room and the waiting began.  He never once asked for something to eat or drink!  He was such a good boy and was generally happy and smiling.

At 11:25 the nurse came in and gave him "Joy Juice."  We were told that children react differently to it.  Some fall asleep, others climb the walls and scream and others just sit and giggle.  Fortunately for us, Brent just sat and giggled and often tried swiping things out of the air.  We enjoyed the 20 mins before they took him away so much that it wasn't so tragic when they came to wheel him away.  The nurses asked if he wanted to go on a train ride.  He giggled and started shouting "Chooooo, Chooooo!! while pumping his arms in the air.  We could hear him as they took him down the hall.

The surgeon came in to speak with us about 45 minutes later saying that everything went perfect.  Because there was little bleeding and everything looked so good, they just wrapped his feet and calves in bandages that we can remove in 6 days.  Keep them dry and the stitches they used will come out on their own when it's time.  Told us to check back with him in 4 weeks and then he was gone.

They brought Brent into us and he was sleeping so hard.  When he did finally wake up, he asked for something to drink and then told us he had casts.  He wanted to eat but we were told to limit the eating and drinking because he would most likely vomit from the anesthesia.  We got him dressed, got our prescription for Tylenol with Codeine and left.

We stopped to fill his script for the long ride home just in case we needed it.  While we waited for it, we went to Panera where Brent picked out a cookie he wanted.  He drank and ate.  Ben tried to take the cookie away from him after a few bites because of the vomiting chance but Brent started to have an emotional breakdown that broke our hearts.  He was hungry and thirsty.  We couldn't say no.  We would deal with the puke!  He was happy.

We got in the car and Brent stared out the window for most of the ride home and finally gave into sleep 45 minutes from the Walker's.  He only said once that his feet hurt.  He was so good.  AND, NO VOMIT!

When he saw Brody he immediately showed him that he had "casts".  He seemed so proud.  Brody was so happy to see Brent.  They spent the rest of the night giggling at each other except for when Brody would get interested in Brent's feet and try to touch them.  On the way home, Brent asked for a Taco and Chocolate Milk.  Turned out he didn't actually want either once we got home.

Today was such an amazing day.  The worst part was truly the anticipation of the entire event.  Right now, Brent lays in his bed with the "right" number of "Little Piggies" for the first time.  Next week we can look forward to actually putting the correct size shoe on him.

Ben and I finally feel a peace about the decision we have made.

THANK YOU GOD!!!

New

In thinking about expanding our family, Ben & I came to the conclusion that we needed a bigger vehicle.  We began the search for what would meet our needs and what would last us many years as switching out vehicles every couple of years is no way to save any money.  After much thought and searching we agreed on the Honda Pilot.  Great safety rating, keeps it value and holds 8 passengers.

It is my plan to hit the potty training on both boys hard in a few weeks.  I've been lazy with Brent using all the traveling we had done and his upcoming surgery as an excuse to not wrap it up with him and get him out of pullups all together.  Brody gone both peepee and poopoo on the potty at different times.  Brody often plays with the only doll in the house and tells me she has to go "potty."  This is how I usually find the doll after he tells me that. 

I have no doubts Brody will do great with it along side with Brent.  He always wants to do what his Big Brother is doing!