26 Months.... a few days late!

Owen just turned 26 months on the 28th. Our baby is officially a TODDLER!! He is silly.
Curious.
Sleepy.
Playful.

Jabbering.
Happy.
And full of mischeif!!
Owen has made so much progress this month!! He pulls to a stand, cruises furniture, crawls up the stairs, stands with "no hands", and crawls a few crawls. He is talking a lot and communicating what he wants. Sometimes he silently communicates, like when he brings me his diapers and wipes to change him. Or when he sees that I'm getting ready in the morning so he'll get out the blowdryer for me or bring me his toothbrush. He loves to play with his big sister and is learning how to get her to do exactly what he wants. He's had his first time-out with no success as he laughed the entire time he spent in the corner.

Owen is growing tall and gaining weight slowly. At least he is gaining! He is thriving on his blended foods diet and I am almost done with a very long post on that! Owen doesn't puke much these days and we are all grateful. He enjoys all food, but still only eats a few bites and then he's "DONE!!!"

Owen has days full of energy and days where he prefers to lie around. He can't stand for his oxygen to fall off his cheeks and will go to his medical box and bring me a "sticky" for his cheek! He loves stethescopes and knows exactly what to do with them. A syringe will entertain him anytime of day! After his tubby or a swim in the pool, he immedietly requests "gauze" for his Gtube site. We're pretty sure he's going to grow up to be a surgeon or doctor one day!

We have been venturing out to museums, parks, pools and events. Tomorrow night we will be going to Disney on Ice with Hope Kids. A year ago, I would never have imagined that he would be doing as great as he is right now! We have several doctors appointments this month and we leave for Stanford the first of May. I can't wait to get their assessment of him!! How much longer do we have at home until transplant?? I sure hope it's a while!

Happy 26 Months Mister Owen!

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

During Carson's recent trip to Seattle, he went to dinner at a friend's home. He told me I had to make the Quinoa recipe that they fed him. I was skeptical because I am not a fan of grains, rices, pastas or breads. With that said, I decided to make it for him, because I'm a great wife like that! It started with a taste test and turned into a giant bowl and I could've eaten more! Give it a try... you'll love it.. and it's healthy!!

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa (Keen-Wah)

Ingredients:2 tsp grated lime zest2 tbsp fresh lime juice2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled1 tbsp olive oil1 tsp sugar1 cup Quinoa1 can black beans, rinsed and drained2 medium diced tomatoes4 chopped scallions (or green onions)1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
PreparationWhisk together lime zest, lime juice, butter, olive oil, sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and dash of pepper in a large bowl. Set aside.
Wash quinoa in 3 changes of cold water, draining in strainer each time.

Cook quinoa in medium pot according to package. Do not overcook. Remove pot from heat and let stand 5 minutes.
Add quinoa to dressing and coat until absorbed. Stir in additional ingredients and salt/pepper to taste.

Enjoy!!!

Bumble Bee Ranch

We spent our Saturday at our first Hope Kids event at Bumble Bee Ranch!! We live in the city. In fact, we live in walking distance to any store or restaurant you would ever want to visit. It was nice to get away to the mountains for a day, enjoy some quiet and let the kids roam free!
There was a petting zoo with Geese, Chickens, Piglets, and goats. Owen had a great time petting the animals!
I stayed far away from the petting area because I am just not an animal lover. Gasp. I know. I took pictures and made sure to bathe my children in hand sanitizer afterwards.
They had archery, paintball, face painting and rock climbing. Kamryn went half way up and decided she doesn't like heights. Silly girl.After the delicious cowboy cookout of burgers, dogs, bean, chips, soda, trail mix, beef jerky and anything else the kiddos wanted... we got in line for the hummer tours through the desert.
We sat in the very back (top) of the hummer. Owen thought he was something special not having his carseat and sitting all by himself. I kept trying to hold him down on the rough terrain, but he would push my hands away and say "MOOOOOVE!!!"
We drove up and down some crazy terrain, through rivers, over boulders...
and the kids squealed with delight the entire time!!! It was seriously SO much fun!!
When we got back to the ranch, the kids wanted to try a little horseback riding. Owen was cool with it until we actually put him on the horse.
He was much happier just petting the horse, for a minute at least.
The horse really did try to make friends with mister Owen. He kept sniffing Owen and loving on him and as you can see by Owen's feet in this picture, he was just not returning the love!
Kamryn had a great time on the horse and wanted to keep on riding!
After horseback riding, we dressed up like outlaws. Owen had no idea what to do with his toy gun.

Here we are... the Simmons Family Outlaws.

I'm pretty sure we won't be moving to a ranch anytime soon, but we had a GREAT TIME!! Thank you to Hope Kids for all the fun! We met some amazing families and had good conversations with old friends. Everyone has a heartbreaking story, but the kids all had smiles on their faces. We can't wait to go next year!!

Design Challenged

My name is Andrea. I am design challenged. My walls are bare, my furniture plain, my windows naked, and there are no nick nacks. Anywhere. I like it simple. I like it clean. I also like privacy at times and there needed to be something covering this sliding door that leads to the backyard. Yes, that fence and wall is the end of our 10x10 back yard. Don't be jealous. We like to live maitenance free. :)

I decided that since I hate vertical blinds, I would put up curtains. I climbed up on the dining room chair (no ladders here), and Owen handed me the screwdriver as needed. When it was done, it didn't look right.....

I measured. I even got a pencil and marked where the screws were to go. I think I'm going to leave it like this and just see if anyone notices when they come over.

The curtains are super wrinkly as well, but the tag said "do not iron" because they're raw silk. So I just hung them up with the creases in them.

This is why I don't decorate. It's just NOT my thing. I organize, that's what I do well!!

Feeding Therapy at Joe's

Owen has four wonderful therapists that he sees on a weekly basis. He has seen a couple of them for almost two years now! Connie is his Occupational Therapist and she also specialized in feeding therapy.

Connie had a great idea and wanted to see how a few of her feeding kiddos would do when they were put in a group setting. We decided to meet up at Joe's Farm Grill, which has some seriously delicious food. If they won't eat this, I should just give up now!

Owen, Tam and Cora were all born with HLHS and all have the same group of doctors through Phoenix Children's. We had plenty to talk about and catch up on. Cora spent time in ICU at the same time as Owen for their first two surgeries. I got to know Kelly (Cora's Mom) when we were in ICU prior to Owen's 2nd surgery. They just recently found out that Cora will most likely need a transplant. Like Owen, she won't qualify for the third stage surgery. We met Tam for the first time today and she's actually pretty close to her third surgery and doing great!! All three of them are social eaters and only eat a few bites at each meal. It's was interesting to see that they all have the same habits. They stuff food in their cheeks, only eat a few bits, drink out of a straw, but the great news is that they all enjoy food!!

The kids had a good time together, and we had a great time talking about doctors and surgeries, feeding and school. It's always great to talk to others that are dealing with the same issues as we are. Again, the weather could not have been more beautiful!! Here are the three kiddos with Connie.
As we were leaving, we ran into one of Owen's favorite ICU nurses from PCH. What a small world! We'll have to wait until respiratory virus season is over and make a trip over to the hospital to catch up with all his nurses and docs there. I can't believe it's been almost two years since his 2nd open heart surgery and also one of the worst days of my life!! I will never forget his surgeon telling me that "things were not okay, and we're taking things hour by hour with him."

Today was a lot of fun! I hope to get together with these girls soon and hopefully Owen will work on his social skills. He's so used to playing with older kids (sis's age) and doesn't really know how to interact with kids his own age. He watched them run circles around him, so I'm sure it'll get easier as he starts to walk and run with them. But today, he mostly just kicked them with his shoes when they got too close and ignored them. We'll see how he plays with Mason when we get to Stanford next month!!

Owen's Skills on Video

Owen started CRUISING on the couch tonight!!! He continues to impress us daily with his skills. He has been solely butt-scooting for 9 months now. Within the last month, he started crawling up the stairs, pulling up on furniture and now cruising!! He still uses his butt-scooting skills to get around 99% of the time, but look how far he's coming!

We. Are. Amazed.

Sorry about the video quality. I used my old video camera to record him tonight because my other camera is in HD and it takes HOURS to upload. This one uploaded in 20 min.

Orthodontist Consult

This morning was Kamryn's orthodontist consultation. I can't believe my baby is old enough to go to the ortho!! She still has a ton of baby teeth, so we can't do braces yet. I don't know if that's good or bad news. Her two front teeth came in pretty ski-wam-pus. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, so we'll just let them be until we have more teeth to work with.

On xray, it shows that she is missing at least five permanent teeth!! She got my great genetics. Sorry kiddo.

On the top, she is missing her Lateral Incisors on both sides and so they will either do implants, or pull her Canines (or dracula teeth) forward and fill in the gap, like mine. On the bottom, she is missing her second premolars (so 5 from the middle) on both sides. There is another one in the back on the bottom that I'm not concerned about. Also, her bottom two central incisors fell out prematurely and the permanents didn't have room to push up so there is a bottom canine that is growing DOWN into the gums. They can go after it (doesn't that sound painful) or we are going to try to get another tooth out of it's way and hope it pops up. To ensure we keep enough space open on the bottom, they are going to put in a LLHA (Lower Lingual Holding Arch). Over the next three weeks, they will get her fitted with one of these beauties! In a year or so, when those baby teeth decide to come out, we'll get her started on braces! I guess I have just stepped into a whole new stage of raising a child. It's going to be an adventure!!

Seattle

Carson is HOME!! We picked him up at the airport last night, and to say we were excited would be a understatement. I sent him with a camera and here is what he came back with! Obviously, I am the one that takes all the pictures in our family. I would have come back with hundreds of pics. He came back with 10. I love you babe.

This is the troll under the bridge. I guess there are lots of bums that live under the bridge and keep him company... not Carson... the troll.
Here is a picture of the city. Seattle is gorgeous. Not that I have ever been, but I will go someday.
I suppose this is where they filmed "Sleepless in Seattle". I'm totally making that up, but it looks like it and Carson mentioned it too.
This looks like a harbor on the bay. I'm so good at describing vacation photos from a vacation that I never went on. I should have Carson write this post! That will never happen, so I will continue.
I got this one....I totally watch Grey's Anatomy and this is the space needle! Carson said this is the view from his brother's apartment. Awesome! I asked him if he went to the top, but he didn't want to spend $20. He's frugal like that.
All joking aside, Carson had a great time!! He spent time hanging out with his brother, visited friends, saw the sights and had a nice relaxing weekend!! Everyone keeps asking me when I get my vacation.....

The first week of May. We're going to Stanford and driving up the California coast for a week. I love spending time with the family and nothing beats a fun road trip!!

As for today... it is RAINING in the desert!!
I woke up this morning and realized I had absolutely no commitments today. Nothing to do. No errands to run. This little guy and I dropped off sis at school and now we are watching a Yo Gabba Gabba marathon and relaxing. All. Day. Long.
Until 3:00. Then it's time to pick up Kamryn and start the night routine!

A dentist check-up and updates

Dentist

This morning, at 7:30am, I took both kids in for their six month visit with the dentist. Kamryn went off into one room and I went with Owen to another. The dentist put on his gloves and told Owen to say "AH". He was such a big boy! He let Dr. Welch feel around his teeth and opened his mouth so wide! Then we went to find Kamryn and she was done getting cleaned. Both kids are cavitiy FREE!! Amazing... considering I always had a couple cavities every six months when I was little. I think some kids are just more cavity prone than others. We talked about Kamryn's teeth and set up a consultation with the Orthodontist this Wednesday! I am so excited to start talking about a plan for braces!! My baby is growing up way too fast!

Now for a few updates...

My foot is feeling better. I finally got a call from my doctor's nurse this week and she said that the xray came back with no stress fractures, but there are a few small bone spurs, "no biggie." She said if I continue to feel pain, to call and let them know. My reply was "I'm still in pain." I have no idea what the diagnosis is. Either the pain is lessening, or I am getting used to it. If it's really bad, I take the anti-inflammatory meds and they help. I'll survive.

I finally got a call from Owen's nutrtionist at PCH. I sent them a copy of his food diary (of blended foods) the first week of February. They most definetly don't support a blended diet, but he was very kind and answered all my questions. He offered other formula options and I politely declined. I will never go back to a formula diet. I am 100% positive that Owen's new energy level is attributed to his nutrtion! I am amazed at how much he has changed since I started just 8 weeks ago. I am working on a blog post to share how I blend, what I give him and how his nutrtion has gone from Pediasure in a can, to a complete balanced diet!! If only one person benefits from it... then I will be thrilled!!!

Spring Break was fun, but now that it's over it's time to get my house in order. We're picking up Carson at the airport tonight and we can't wait to have him home!

Springtime Swim

We spent our Saturday in the POOL!! Who doesn't love to swim in March?? Owen is a little daredevil in the water and wants to back float or push away from me to try it all by himself. I still don't know if you can go underwater with an oxygen cannula. Anyone know??

Anyway... After Owen threw my cell phone to the bottom of the pool, we decided to start calling him the sea monster. Here is his best impression....
He is such a little fish and could live in the water!! He splashed and splashed and screamed and floated and splashed some more.
The girls had a great time! We had Rylee and Tatum for the afternoon so they didn't have to sit through Connor's soccer tournament. Gigi came to swim too, but I wasn't about to get my camera out after Owen figured out that throwing things to the bottom of the pool was a good idea. My cell phone is dead. I will try to revive it tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it'll find a new home in the bottom of the toybox and I will be buying another phone that won't go to the pool with me.

I'm sure this is just the beginning of many swimming posts for the season. We live in the pool from March-September in the Desert. Thankfully, the weather is still hovering in the 70-80's, we'll be living in the triple digits before we know it!

Museum of Natural History, Glasses and Bumps

I picked up a culture pass at the local library for free admission to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I had no idea how much fun we would have! The girls had a great time checking out all the exhibits, but Owen was only interested in the stuff he could get his little hands on.
My mom and Gigi came along for the fun. We were trying to get Owen interested in the dinosaurs, but the fossils just weren't doing it for him. The puzzle was a bit more on his level of understanding. Here he is ROARING like the T-Rex.
After we escaped the flash floods and dinosaur land, we headed over to the meteorites and learned about space.
Then we made out way through the Lost Dutchman mines and outside to pan for gold. Owen was thrilled with the idea of splashing in the water and playing in the wet sand.
Kamryn and Gigi spent there time really searching for the tiny pieces of gold. They loved it!
The fun came to an end as soon as Owen got a hold of his own pan. He filled it up and dumped it all over the stroller. Good times.
We went through the movies in Arizona exhibit and the girls played on the green screen. I love this picture.... it shows Kamryn antagonizing Gigi and that is a CLASSIC Gigi look.
The museum has a special exhibit called Colors in Motion and they had this really cool black light room. The kids (especially Owen), wrote on these glow in the dark walls for a while.
We saw the entire museum in just over 2 hours and just in time for lunch. We went out to lunch at NYPD Pizza and ate on the patio. The weather could have not been more perfect this entire week. Later this afternoon, we headed over to pick up Kamryn's new glasses. She looks so grown up. The eye doctor saw her just six months ago and hardly recognized her. She is way taller than our optometrist and she doesn't stop growing!
I had to include a face shot of Owen because I don't think I have one at all today. He was so interested in what he was doing, he wasn't about to look at me, or the camera! His face has been flaring up with Eczema lately. I don't know if it's an allergy to food or his medicine, but the boy is BUMPY! If anyone has any ideas on what causes the eczema on his forehead to flare up.. or the red cheeks that feel as hot as fire, or why he gets chicken skin bumps all over his arms... Please do share!! I am at a loss. Regardless... he is one handsome little man!
I can't believe how fast Kamryn's spring break flew by. We have tons of fun planned this weekend.. movies, bowling and swimming! We're staying busy so that we don't miss Daddy. I am so glad he doesn't have a job that requires travel.. I don't know we'd do!