Here is Esther's Story - from her exciting birth through her difficult first few months. The joys and the pains. Her story isn't finished and her adventures are note worthy, so read her story and check back for updates!
Things are coming along nicely around here - we finally got to put up the lights I bought for the house last year - and they are sooo pretty!
[caption id="attachment_457" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Our House In Lights!"][/caption]
I also got to finally decorate our stair banister!
[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Decorated Staircase (with our birthday girl in the shot for good measure!)"][/caption]
And here's some pictures of our Adventures in the Christmas Tree Hunt of 1009:
I hope you enjoy our photos! We sure enjoyed doing it this year! And don't forget, that "Unto Us A Child Is Born" - and little baby laid in a manger made from a tree - "A Savior Which Is Christ The Lord" - a perfect man who gave up his life to pay our penalty for sin, by being nail to a cross made from a tree! Make the most of your Christmas celebrationg by remembering that whenever you see a Christmas Tree!
They were able to take care of her pyogenic granuloma in the office at Children's (Bellevue) today! She didn't appreciate the procedure, but it went well, and didn't even take very long!
They will be testing what they removed to see if it is malignant, but they assured me that these are almost always benign. The post-op instruction seem to be easy enough, but I had to sign a release that stated that I understood that there would be scaring and there is a possibility that they will recur - but that isn't really common. We also have to watch for infection.
Thanks so much for your prayers! I really didn't think that they would take care of it there, but I was so relieved that they did as it bled so many times in the last few days that I lost count...it wasn't fun being on full alert all the time as you just never knew when she'd start bleeding profusely!
And my Dr talked with the on call dermatologist at Children's and they moved the appointment up to Friday morning. I forgot to ask if they would be doing the procedure that day, but I have a feeling it's just a look-see to set up a date for the procedure. I'm thinking about calling today to find that out, and possibly trying to find out the time frame for final resolution!
Thanks for you prayers on this, as it moved up quickly yesterday afternoon - right about the time my Bible Study group was praying for that very thing! God is so good!
I've got so get so much done today and I really didn't plan on having to head to Seattle this week, and it's a very early appointment so I'm going to head down tomorrow and have some fun with my sister, Lisa, and possibly with both my sisters - Beth and Lisa have been trying to have the three of us go out for lunch together this month, but it just wasn't happening, so if we can pull it off, we are going to get together for lunch on Thursday in Seattle FUN! Esther will enjoy it too!
I've never heard these words before! But that is what Esther has on her face! It has grown a lot since we took her in to see the Dr when it first start bleeding. It now bleeds several times a day, but it stops much faster than that first time.
She needs to have it removed, and soon! I now have an appointment at Children's Hospital with a pediatric dermatoligist there, but the first opening is for October 14. This "thing" has about tripled in size in the last week and a half - and it's really ugly! I really don't want to wait another 2 1/2 weeks, as it will be so much larger! This is smack in the middle of her cheek, and I hate to see her have a large scar there! Also, they can recur if they are not taken care of properly, and I'm sure the larger it gets, the harder it is to get rid of all of it!
Children's said that we could possible get a sooner appointment if my pediatrician will do a Dr to Dr consult as to the urgency of this, so there is hope! There's no pediatric dermatologists up here, and the one in Everett won't take Esther's insurance!
Please pray that we can get a sooner appointment and get proper treatments for it!
Here are pic of the progression of this growth:
[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="397" caption="You can see the tiniest little speck here, back at the first of August - that's when I first noticed it."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="You can see it's a little bigger here - this was Sept 12 - just after the first bleeding incidence."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Here is what it looked like last Wednesday - not too much bigger, but it sticks out away from her face more."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_362" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="It's not only larger, but if it isn't underneath this waterproof covering, it stands out off her face about 3/8 of an inch!"][/caption]
Yesterday, it broke open and bled about 6 times, one time she had about half of the portion where it is attached to her normal skin broken open and it was bleeding very fast! Her pediatrician tried to cauterize it but it only began to bleed faster. Needless to say, I am anxious to get this removed!
We have been teaching Esther to do "So Big" since last spring. At first she just thought it was funny and enjoyed the attention. Then she would do it, but only if you were holding her hands...she didn't realize we were trying to teach her to do it by herself! Now she has it down pat, and does it randomly all day long!
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="499" caption="How big is Esther??? "So Big""][/caption]
Oh - and I have two new hobbies this year...guitar and bowling. I played in a bowlin league for the first time yesterday and did OK? It was quite intimidating, but I had fun. More on why guitar and bowling to come later!
Just a quick post to show you Esther's hair after a bath:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther's Woody the Woodcracker Doo!"][/caption]
Esther turned 11 months old yesterday! Can you believe it???
I got a lot of great pics, but it's too late to post them all. Check in again soon for more bath time photos and the "Biggest Birthday Party" post...coming real soon!
Have a great weekend if I don't get on again this weekend!
OK, so it's been more than a long time since I posted anything personal. Tonight I am required to sit up for 30 minutes after taking my antibiotic to prevent esophageal damage (if the pill disolved before entering my stomach). So I've decided it's time for that update! Not sure how many pictures I'll have time to add, as those are far more time consuming than text, but I'll try to update the bigger happenings in our home since May!
The most memoriable event in May was Memorial Day. We all wore red/white/blue in our clothing:
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Red, White and Blue Einfelds"][/caption]
(sorry but the lens was dirty!)
Esther was cute in red and white (she did have a blue bow in her hair):
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="376" caption="Esther in her stroller"][/caption]
What was really cool about that day is that we went to the services at Green Acres Cemetary. They had thousands of flags, all in honor of someone who died serving our country. Jerry Stewart spoke and as usual his speach was inspiring (Jerry does radio broadcast about our nations Christian heritage and he's always to good!) Also there was a veteran who carried the flag to the Marines who put the flag on top of the mountain in Iwo Jima - the photo that is the most famous and there's so many statutes of - he spoke briefly, raised the flag, and signed autographs afterward.
Here's some photos of Esther back in June:
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Here she is catnapping after playing on her play blanket"][/caption]
The next big event was going to visit my mom. She had new windows put in and decided to have her draperies cleaned. The cleaners really messed the draperies up and only Daryl and I knew how to fix them. So off we went to Grandma's house with the 3 youngest in tow. What an adventure! Daryl and I with the three little ones with no helpers! It really went well though - just like riding a bike, eh?
Here's some photos of our trip there, and also some of my sister, Beth's grandkids (we spent one day with her and her 2 sons, Ben and Scott and 3 of her grandkids, and then spent the night at Scott's house - I spent the evening jamming with Scott with his Wii - we both played guitar and I caught on really fast!).
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Daryl and Kids on Kingston Ferry"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="Esther wasn't too sure about all the wind!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Elizabeth enjoyed the Wind!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="358" caption="Esther with Noodle Fangs!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther and Grandma!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="354" caption="Esther poses as Cindy Lou Whoo!"][/caption]
The week after that we went for our annual berry picking - we did 60 pounds of strawberries, and 45 pounds of raspberries (Jessica went again with a friend later and got another 20 pounds of raspberries!):
And then the processing:
Then along came the 4th of July - we did the usual parade in Blaine (it's getting bigger every year), checked out the car show (biggest/best one I've seen), and then home for naps and a BBQ dinner. Then I took the all but the little ones to fireworks at Blaine - they did a great job!
This summer Rachel has built her own playhouse (she already has a very nice one, but she just had to do something with the left over cinder blocks from moving the mobile home!). She's done great putting it together and having sleep overs with some of our kids. Personally it tends to look like we have a homeless person living here, but who am I to squelch creativity!?
The next few weeks were planning for the Biggest Birthday Party ever! on August 1st we had over 40 kids and 20 adults for a wild and fun party - but it was so big, I asked Renee to be the official photographer and I'll save that for a post all by itself (that and the photos are all "raw" and on my other computer). But here's a photo of Esther playing with my friend, Marrianne's little boy while she helped me with some of the planning:
The more recent event was our annual church campout. Typically we take the entire week before the official campout and camp at Silver Lake Horse Camp as our family vacation and have a lot of fun with other families that are as crazy as we are! For me the highlight was watching Daryl on a team of dad's doing tug of war against another team of dad's and Daryl's team won!
Reuben's team won the tug of war contest! We also had a great time sharing our campsite with our friends and their 3 daughters and twin baby boys! It was a very busy campsite!
This year camping was a real bummer for most of us though, most of us had a terrible cold! Everyone, including Esther, got over it, with the exception of me...I on the other hand still had a nagging cough, dizziness, headaches like you wouldn't believe etc...so finally on Tuesday I went to the Dr's office and sure enough my "cold" had developed into a secondary bacterial infection resulting in brochitus and a sinus infection. So this last week I've been pretty much laid up and useless. I'm starting to feel better and have high hopes for next week - North West Washington Fair week. Jessica will be showing dogs on Monday and Wednesday, so I'm hoping to attend those days and try to catch up on all I'm behind on the other days!
Hope you've enjoyed this long (overdue) summer update!
So, last time we ended with photos of when Jeremy was home (by the way he was home for just 8 days, and left for California on March 7, and left for Iraq the week of March 20. It took him several days to arrive there and we've gotten to talk with him on the phone 3 times now).
Here are some random photos of events during March:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Dayton Up Close and Personal"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Fun with the Riding Mower - no lawn to mow, but that doesn"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Multiplication Tables - back to basics around here this spring to prep for annual testing!"][/caption]
Next the kids went to the Youth Fair - sponsored by 4H and happens every year at the North West Washington Fair Grounds. The cost is minimal and the fun is maximum! Your child selects a class to take, and spends all day Friday/Saturday learning - everything from cows (Jessica did beef cows this year), to gardening, to clowning, to chess and more! This year Reuben did chess, Rachel did knitting, and Rebekah did gardening/country crafts. Here's some photos that were the outcome of this:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Chess Game - guess who's playing against Reuben?"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="It's Dayton - he learned all the moves (but the strategy is a little beyond him at just 5 years old)"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Girls Can play Chess - I even played a few games and won!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="A Perspective on Chess"][/caption]
By the way - I didn't take any of the last 6 photos - it's the old "leave the camera out and you get lots of bonus photos" - I am so thankful for digital photography as it free the kids up to be creative with the camera and all I have to do is delete the bad ones and benefit from all the photos I didn't take the time to take!
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Elizabeth - when she sleeps, she really is laid back!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Hmmm...I wonder where I saw this before!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther with Andrea, her physical therapist. Andrea got a new job working with inpatient at St Joes, so this was her last time with Andrea - we will miss her and she was so sweet with Esther and Esther just loved her and so did I! Thanks Andrea!!"][/caption]
When Esther first came to Andrea at the end of January, she couldn't even hold up her own head, and now Esther can roll from front to back, back to front, holds her head up while on her tummy, holds herself errect when you hold her and is almost sitting up by herself now! All that in just over 3 months - amazing for a cardiac baby, let alone for one with Downs!
That bring you up to the Middle of March - now I've got two events that need their own posts!
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