Welcome to the life and times of John, Alisha, Micah, Caleb and Lima the dog!

Monday, September 29, 2008

To the mission we will go

John and I took the boys to La Purisima Mission on Saturday morning.  We had some veggies (yes, we actually have veggies at our house!  Don't act so surprised!) that were at the end of their life span, so we decided that we could feed them to the animals at the mission.

On our past visits to the mission, Micah has loved to look at the horses, but doesn't want to go near them to feed them.  I guess it's because one time the horse leaned over the fence and tried to lick his head.  I guess a huge horse could scare a little boy who wasn't expecting that.  This time was also the first time that we've been since Caleb started walking.  We let him roam about while we were there, and he LOVED it!

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Here's Micah feeding the sheep.  The goats and the sheep are penned up together, and Micah kept yelling out, "Come here goats!  Over here!" 

 

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Here's Caleb getting to feed the goat for the first time.  On past visits, he was confined to the stroller and it was too hard to feed them from there.

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Caleb is petting the sheep.  I didn't get it on camera, but the sheep was licking his hand.

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Dad helping Caleb pet a horse for the first time.

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Caleb kept following Micah around.  If you look closely, Micah is feeding the horse just like we told him to, with his palm out.  What a smart boy!

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John and Caleb at the fountain.  I would have tried for a picture of just Caleb, but I think he would have tried to go for a swim.  The kid has no fear!

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What a pig sty!  I know that those of you who got my email read the same joke, but I tickle myself, so you will just have to put up with reading the joke a second time.

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Micah was getting a closer look at the pigs.

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Caleb and me. 

We had a great time at the mission. Both boys love being outdoors.  They could run and play forever.  I don't know why no one has ever figured out how to bottle up all that energy and make some money.  Oooh!  Note to self.... Ha ha!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

We found a new park

We are always on the lookout for new places to take the boys.  Especially the free ones, since we like to be frugal.  Well, we found a new park the other day.  A couple of days after Caleb's surgery,  John took Micah to go try out a new park in Vandenberg Village.  It is in a new subdivision that has recently been built.  They had a great time, so last weekend we took both boys to try it out.

A great time was had by all.  There is a little window, and Micah likes to take our food orders, except that all he serves is pizza.  There is also a great big basketball court and a baseball field.  Both boys had fun going all over the place.  It was such a nice day, so we stayed for quite a while.

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Can I take your order, please?

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Climbing on the playground           Going down the big slide

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Climbing the rock wall

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Getting ready to bat

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Dragging the bat around

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Batter up!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Go Team Go!

John took Micah to his first high school football game last night.  Cabrillo was playing St. Joe's.  Micah was pretty excited.  After packing up everything they thought they might need, they were ready to go.  Remember the days when you could just hop in the car with your purse and be ready to go?  Those days are gone.  Blanket, check.  Water, check.  Blanket, check.  Snacks, check.  Who knows what else was in that backpack.

The boys got back right after halftime ended.  Micah couldn't stop talking about the game.  He said he saw "his cheerleader."  Apparently, Micah kept waving and smiling to one cheerleader in particular, so she was his.

John said that Micah had so much fun.  Everyone stood for the first kickoff, so Micah decided that you needed to stand and cheer for every kickoff.  He would clap for the players and would stand in front of John watching the game.

Micah also loved the band.  He did a little imitation of how they played their instruments when they got home.  The guys watched the halftime show.  John could tell after that that Micah was getting a little antsy, so they came home.

Once they got home, Micah kept pretending to be a football player and trying to tackle John.  He kept pretending to take off his helmet and put it on the end table.  It was too funny!  Micah is getting really good at pretending things.  I think both boys had a good time and this most likely won't be their last football game.

Monday, September 22, 2008

An Update on Caleb

Forgive me for taking so long to update on Caleb's surgery.  I sent out a quick email the day of the surgery, but since then I have been too busy and am just now getting to reporting on him.

My mom was able to rearrange her schedule and make it out for the surgery as she had originally planned.  So she stayed with Micah as we headed out at 5:30 in the morning to make the trip to the Santa Barbara Surgery Center.  We had to be there at 6:30 to check in for his surgery.

Caleb was a little trooper.  He was fascinated with his new surroundings as we waited to called back to meet with the anesthesiologist and doctor.  He was waving to people and walking all over the place.  When they called us to the pre-op area, he enjoyed exploring the hospital bed.  He got a cute little hospital gown that was WAY too big for him.  It was too cute.

He flirted with the nurses, and the anesthesiologist told us what was going to happen.  Then the doctor came in and talked to us for a while.  Once we were done, the anesthesiologist took him from me and let me give him (Caleb, not the anesthesiologist) a kiss.  He walked him over to John so he could give him a kiss as well (again, Caleb, not the anesthesiologist).  And then they just walked through the double doors.  Caleb didn't even look back, he was so interested in the anesthesiologist.  I was pretty proud of him.  I think it would have been harder on me if he had been taking away crying.  Just goes to show how good these people are at their jobs!

The nurse sent us away and told us to go across the street to get some coffee.  I think she was just doing that to keep me preoccupied.  Once we got our coffee, we went up to the family waiting room.  After a little while of waiting, Pastor Bob and Pastor Joey came and sat with us.  They would have been there earlier, but they went to 2 wrong surgery centers before they got to ours.  I thought John had given them the address, but he hadn't.

It is so nice to have a church family that cares and prays for us.  John and I are really blessed to be at our church.  We really feel that this is where God wants us to be, and that the made the right choice in moving to North Avenue Baptist Church.

It wasn't too long after Pastor Bob and Pastor Joey got there that the doctor came out and told us that Caleb had done great.  He said it was a big hernia, and that it was one of the biggest he had eve seen in a baby.  He gave us instructions on how to care for the incision, and said that we could go see Caleb in a few minutes.

We waited a couple of minutes, but then I got antsy, and wanted to head down so that we would be closer to the recovery room when it was time to go in.  When they called us in, he was just waking up.  They still were checking his vitals, but they let me hold him and comfort him.  He was also pretty hungry since he hadn't had his morning bottle.  He was none too pleased when I only gave him water.  The nurses wanted to make sure that he would be able to keep that down.  After a while, they let us put a little juice in his bottle. 

They had these nice comfy recliners, so Caleb and I sat down and rocked and enjoyed his bottle.  You could tell he was still a little dazed, but he was once again fascinated with everything going on around us.  He just kept looking around at everything and everyone.  Once the nurses had decided that he was doing ok, they let us leave to go home.  They were nice enough to call in a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine for Caleb's pain so that it would be waiting for us when we got home.

Caleb took a nice nap on the way home, and once we got home, he wanted to be held for a little while, but then he wanted to be put down, which surprised me.  It was pretty cute, because he kept trying to walk.  He must have still been feeling the effects of the anesthesia because he kept toppling over.  But soon he got the hang of it. 

I'm really impressed at how well he was doing.  He was just up and about.  We kept making sure to give him his medicine so that he wouldn't feel the pain of the surgery.

It's now been about a week and a half since his surgery.  The incision seems to be healing fine.  We go to see the doctor on Thursday, but I'm sure he will be given a clean bill of health. 

I just want to thank everyone again for all of their prayers.  I knew all along that God had Caleb and his surgery in His hands, but it really does a mama good to know that loved ones are praying.  So thank you.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Change of plans

Well, I've gone and done it again.  I'm a worrier by nature (gasp!) and I have now thrown a wrench into the works.  Caleb has a hernia and was scheduled to have the surgery to repair it on September 15th. 

The problem was that since we had gone to see the urologist, John or I had had to push the hernia back in every day since.  I thought that if it was out, it would be hurting Caleb.  So I started to worry about it and decided to call the doctor.  He reassured me that if Caleb wasn't crying, he probably wasn't in any pain, and that it was ok to just let the hernia bulge out.  He said that it is probably out more than I know because I can't see through the diaper.  But at the end of the call, he said he would see if he could move up the surgery.

Yesterday I was very busy with both boys since they have been having tummy problems and diarrhea.  I took them both to the doctor.  Micah seems to be on the upswing, so he said to just continue what we were doing for him.  But along with the tummy problems, the doctor also found out that Caleb has an ear infection.  Since he already had diarrhea, he couldn't give him an oral antibiotic.  So poor Caleb had to get a shot of antibiotic.  Not fun.  Plus, I found out I would have the pleasure of getting to collect a stool sample to send to the lab.  Interesting work, I must say.  I wouldn't recommend it as a fun thing to do.

Well, we got home and I was in the middle of cleaning up  poop  when the surgery scheduler called and told me she had gotten  us a new date of September 11 for Caleb's surgery. 

Now this wouldn't be a problem except that my mom was planning on flying out for the surgery to help out, and she had already arranged all of her time off.  So I had to  make the call to her to let her know.  I felt really bad.  If I wouldn't have worried there wouldn't have been any problem. 

Plus, I completely forgot to  mention to the lady that Caleb was sick.  I expect him to be better before the time of his surgery, but you never know with babies.  I called the pediatrician to let them know of the date change.  We have to go back in on Monday to recheck Caleb's ears, so I guess we will know if he is on track to have his surgery as scheduled.