Saturday, January 22, 2011

A Snowy Playdate!

Yesterday I took Kenzie over to Abbie's house to have a snowy play date!
I promised Kenzie to play in the snow and she did not forget allllllll morning! Despite the chilly temperature the girls had a lot of fun!! I was ready to go back in long before they were!


After....Jeff & I took the girls back to our house for a little more playtime!

They really are the best of friends....well, when they're not hitting, biting, kicking, pushing, pull hair, etc... :) ....but that only means they're close like sisters, right??

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

2011 ...so far...

We haven't been up to too much this past week or so! Jeff had his scan to check for any remaining cancer....we will find out the results next week, but his doctor is very optimistic about it! Kenzie's boo boo is almost completely better! Yay! It hasn't been packed in about a week which makes us very happy...especially Kenzie! You should have heard the screams from our sweet little girl when the nurse would come! Today the nurse is coming for one last time to check the booboo!
The weather has been wet and cold so we have been inside alll day, everyday! We've been watching a lot of Toy Story 3, playing with our new Christmas toys, playing doctor and making crafts (well my version of crafts! I'm not crafty at all). Tia Kathy bought Kenzie a bunch of crafts for Christmas and not a day goes by where Kenzie doesn't ask to make a "craff". Kenzie will first ask "mommy work today?" if I say no she will say "mommy make craff with me?" It's too cute, how can I say no to that? Lucky for me, Kenzie is satisfied with just playing with a glue stick, or tape or coloring...I guess I have to overcome my lack of craftiness for the years to come!
Here are some pictures from the past week or so...
On our way to the library to get some books and dvds! We found Toy Story 2...which has been playing non stop for the past 2 days...at least we get a break from Toy Story 3 for a little bit!
Kenzie found some army men and decided to play with them the entire time instead of looking at books!
Old pic...but cute! I think she looks so cute in her new penguin dress from Neenee! :)
Daddy's Falcon's cheerleader coloring!
1st braided pigtails! She thought she was so cool with her braids! :)

Playing with her Little People....still a favorite of hers!
Shaving cream....first thing she did was put a dab on her nose b/c that's what Daddy always does to her when he shaves!


Showing off her other braid....she was very excited about this braid too! She showed it off to Neenee, Grampy & Daddy!


Kenzie loved looking at the pictures of her blue tongue...
Sometimes I can just stare at Kenzie while she's sleeping...perhaps it's because she's not talking back and she looks so innocent?!?! She loves sleeping on her new doggie Pillow Pet from Grampy!


Saturday, January 15, 2011

Our Week

This week was a busy week! Jeff went back to work! And on Thursday he had his appt. with his oncologist! Unfortunately I wasn't able to go with him but I wrote down a list of questions to ask! :) His doctor said that Jeff caught the cancer very early!! Yay! He doubts he will need chemo or radiation since it was caught very early but on Thursday he will need a full body scan to make sure it did not spread anywhere. If the cancer did spread then he will most likely need chemo or radiation but if not then he will be considered cured (I think...from what I understand at least)! If no other spots show up on the scan then Jeff will have to be scanned every 6 months for the next 3 years. So I will keep you updated after his scan on Thursday...even though we are sure the results will be good! :)
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This week started out kinda rough! On Sunday we discovered Kenzie had another abscess on her fanny! She had been complaining about a boo boo on her fanny yet I dismissed it, thinking she was still babying her old booboo. Right before we were going to leave for church we decided to look for a boo boo on her fanny just to make sure...and sure enough, Kenzie was right she had another booboo! So we called the on call pediatrician who prescribed an antibiotic & advised us to come in the next morning. The doctor took one look at it and knew it had to be drained...which I was so hoping it didn't have to be! We figured it would be just like last time but this time (since it returned so fast) they decided to admit Kenzie for the night in the hospital to give her antibiotics through an IV and do the procedure under general anesthesia in the OR.
Kenzie was a little nervous with all the doctors, medical students and nurses coming to talk to her, taking her blood pressure, temp. etc...luckly Santa bought her a doctor kit for Xmas which seemed to help make her familiar with their equipment! A nurse took her out of the room (with out me) to start her IV and Kenzie didn't even cry when the nurse poked her! A couple minutes later another nurse came by to draw blood (this time I was with her) and she cried and cried when this nurse poked her with the needle! It's funny how tough kids can be without their mamas nearby! She had a lot of fun...before the procedure playing in the playroom and watching dvds...(the pics are from my phone so some are a little dark)

After the little surgery she was a wreck! It took her so long to calm down! A nurse even tried to calm her down and Kenzie tried to hit the nurse! She finally calmed down when a nurse offered her ice cream! After the ice cream she was fine...and we watched Barbie in her bed over & over again until I said it was time for bed at 10:15! The next morning she woke up bright and early! She was a little confused about her glowing finger (they put it on her after she fell asleep).
She was very hungry! The day before she only had breakfast and then ice cream at night! So she had a big breakfast! :)

She also had a big lunch....

Before we were discharged they had to pull out Kenzie's packing (the stuff they put in her wound to soak up puss/discharge/blood) and then repack it! I was dreading it and I wanted to faint when the nurse said she wanted us to do it at home! I knew right away I wouldn't be able to do it so Jeff said he'll try to learn.....well it was a lot harder than we thought so the nurse was able to set us up with a home health care nurse to come daily to pack the wound! To say I was a little relieved would be a huge understatement!


Kenzie was asleep minutes after leaving the hospital parking lot....

Today the nurse came and said it probably didn't have to be packed anymore!! We were so happy (esp since one of the nurses at the hospital said it might have to be packed for 2 weeks)!! Luckily I was working every time the nurse came by but from what I hear from Jeff, Kenzie was horrible when they had to unpack it and then pack it! Poor girl! Jeff said she tried so hard to get away that he was sore after holding her down! Today Kenzie's nurse brought in her puppy at the very end of her visit to show Kenzie! Kenzie LOVED it! The puppy was a cute little 3 pound Pom-Chi (half Pomeranian, half chiwawa)!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

A New Year!

On New Year's Eve Jeff's sisters Kathy & Nataly, Nataly's boyfriend and baby Drake came up for a visit! Jeff's mom is in Colombia, so she didn't make the trip upstate (Kenzie missed you Abuela!). We were very excited for their visit, although it was too short! The week before we were pretty much housebound so we were pretty excited for some visitors. For those who don't know, Jeff had surgery on the Wednesday after Christmas. A few weeks back Jeff found a lump, he made an appointment with his doctor and she sent him to get an ultrasound. After the ultrasound his doctor called to schedule an appointment later in the day to discuss the results. Obviously, if a doctor can't tell you results over the phone then that's probably not a good sign. The doctor suspected he had Testicular Cancer. She then scheduled an appointment with an urologist. The urologist confirmed that the tumor is cancer and needs to come out. So, Jeff had surgery to remove the tumor and his testicle on Dec. 29. He's been recovering well but still in a lot of pain! We have yet to meet with an oncologist, but we do know from the internet that the cancer he has has a very high survival rate! On Thursday we will meet with an oncologist to discuss if Jeff will need chemo or radiation! So we are hoping on Thursday to have a lot more answers about his treatment and so on! Right now Kenzie & I have been taking care of Daddy and nursing him back to health! Kenzie has been so sweet taking care of Jeff! She'll ask if he's feeling better or how his boo boo is. This week I went back to work so Jeff was alone with her for the first time after surgery. When she woke up from a nap Kenzie said "no da da, don't pick me up...you hurt your booboo"...so sweet! She loves her daddy! :) (Mommy does too!! :) I hope we were great nurses daddy, we love you!! :)

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Kenzie was super excited to see Titi & Tia! She would ask me "titi/tia here yet?" over and over again! Here she is waiting patiently for their arrival!
We got to spend some time with this handsome guy!
Kenzie was a little out of her element. She was very tired...it was past her bedtime and she didn't take a nap during the day. She was very clingy and whiny but she was finally able to enjoy unwrapping her presents!!

Drake looks like he's having fun...I think Kenzie was a little too concerned he was going to get her present!
The next day I tried to get pictures of Kenzie & Drake....I managed to get a couple cute ones!

This one makes me laugh....Kenzie was not well behaved during their visit! In her defense, I believe she was very tired from lack of naps and going to bed very late (after 10:15 PM on New Year's Eve) and getting up early! In this picture I believe Drake was worried to have a his back turned towards Kenzie. I think Drake was thinking, "are you serious, you're gonna have me turn my back on this cranky, kicking, hitting, biting 2 year old! No way!" (I don't blame you Drake!) Come on...look at Kenzie's face...she's trying to intimidate the poor baby by an intense, evil stare!
I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this little guy...he's too cute!!!



We manged to stay up for the ball to drop and then quickly went to bed after! We were very happy to have Jeff's family over because if they weren't here we would have probably gone to bed a lot earlier! Although Jeff was in a lot of pain he was able to stay up and snack on some goodies with us!

We hope everyone had a great new years! :)