all about Brandon

Add another injury to Brandon's list... he now has a busted finger, as of last night, the night before the morning that got his stitches out. He was catcher at baseball practice last night. When he was throwing a ball back to the pitcher, he brought his hand forward and nailed his finger on the batter's metal bat. It looks painful, poor guy was in P.A.I.N. We cleaned it and I gave him some Motrin before bed. I hope it helped him.

On another Brandon note...he left for Branson this morning with Ryan's parents and sister. The Kelleys are having an informal family reunion. I am excited for Brandon, they are going to Pirate's Cove for putt-putt, Silver Dollar City and will stay at the Welk Resort where they have a splash-a-torium. He will have so much fun! Ryan and I chose not to go since we will do a family vacation in July when we go camping, something that all of our little ones can enjoy. We did purchase a disposable camera for Brandon to take with him to capture special moments to him! I cannot WAIT to see what he takes pictures of. Ryan's cousin Lori performs in shows at the Welk Theater there in Branson. Her son Jack and Brandon are super tight so they have big plans to hang out! If the Motrin hadn't knocked him out last night, I don't know that he would have slept, he was ecstatic!
I will miss him, this is the longest he has been away from me but I look forward to talking to him and hearing about it when he gets home!

He starts a month of craziness when he gets home. Tuesday kicks off the week of cub scout day camp and is also his first baseball game! GO RED SOX!!! VBS is the next week!! He has baseball games Tuesdays and Fridays with tournaments the first two weekends in June and is taking golf lessons Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings throughout June.
We have plans in July to go camping for a week and also Ryan will take off a couple of days to go to the zoo and hang out!

cub scout camping

Jackson, Brandon and Nathan

clockwise: Caleb, Jackson, Brandon N., Brandon K. and Daniel

Ryan, Nathan and Blaine
I LOVE Blaine's goofy expression!!

Jackson in the hammock and then the best buds, Jackson and Brandon

Ryan let Brandon take the camera and these pictures below were just a couple of the shots he took!

This past weekend was the annual cub scout camp-out. It's always in May as a sort of wrap-up to the year and a graduation to their new rank. Brandon was a "wolf" this past school year and is now a "bear!"
Gracelyn and I didn't camp the two nights with the boys, I just wasn't ready for her to be outside that much yet, but we went Saturday evening to the promotion ceremony and supper and then back to the campsite to hang out for a bit. (I don't have pictures of the ceremony because I drove in and just met everyone at the pavilion and it was left at the campsite.) It was totally fine though because Ryan had all the kids plus the baked beans he prepared for all the families for the cookout. And it made room for more pictures of the boys being boys!!
He got some great pictures around camp and I had difficulty selecting just a few for the blog. I'm thrilled they had such a great time and I am sad that I missed out.
The boys went fishing, hiking, climbing and just hung out and goofed off and most of all, got d.i.r.t.y. and had a BLAST!

Britton and Blaine with their Mickey Mouse fishing poles,
ready to fish!

Kathy, Jackson's mom, and myself
with the girls, Emily and Gracelyn
(pardon my white-ness, you need shades to shield your eyes!)

Gracelyn thoroughly enjoyed pulling on Emily and her dress!
They laughed so much at each other!!

one-upping??

As if the week before last wasn't filled with enough injuries to Britton, Brandon one upped him last Thursday. We were all outside playing when Berkley's ball went over the fence. Brandon quickly climbed over the fence, threw it back but when he was climbing back over, one of the top spikes of the chain link caught him. It stabbed his inner thigh and made a gross looking, nickel sized spot. Ryan called our doctor, then took Brandon to meet him and got 3 stitches. It was the second time Brandon's had stitches. The first time being in Kindergarten when he was shoved on recess and fell on the concrete and needed stitches in his forehead. He told me when he got home that they were nothing this time! The doc wanted the stitches to stay in and dry for 10 days but Brandon is leaving Friday to go to Branson with Ryan's parents for the weekend. They have big plans for swimming and Silver Dollar City so he will get them out Friday morning before they leave. The doctor doesn't see a problem with taking them out a little early, he plans to use steri-strips.

Gracie's new discovery~ Berkley

Berkley is our 6 year old black lab. Gracelyn has seen him before a couple of times while being held by one of us standing and he was running around. Last night though she saw him up close and thought he was the funniest thing ever!
Ryan was helping me organize stuff to sell for a garage sale this weekend and needed me for a quick second. I was in the middle of getting G dressed for bed but took her outside for a bit, which is why she only has shorts on but no shirt or bow! I sat her in the hiking backpack seat, which she LOVED but Britton quickly informed me that that was his seat.
Anyway, Berkley was running around the front yard since the back gate was open and he caught Gracelyn's eye. She laughed so hard at him!

And I apologize for my obnoxious voice in the video, it makes me shudder.

Gracie hard at work...

...at Physical Therapy!

I've been meaning to take my camera to Gracelyn's PT sessions each week for the past 8 weeks now. Unfortunately it has slipped my mind with having to drop Britton off at a wonderful friend's house while remembering his bag and Blaine off at another sweet friend's house if he doesn't have speech therapy that same day AND get Miss G to therapy 20 minutes away that morning. And I am NOT a morning person, actually Blaine is the only one who is.

But I finally remembered it today! Gracelyn works really hard at therapy. She is a rock star each week, even on mornings when she didn't sleep so well the night before. Like last week, the night before PT she maybe slept a total of 4 hours and she did fantastic, rolling over 3 times, rotating her body on the mat, sitting up while supported! She is making amazing strides.

Gracie LOVES PT! From her awesome therapist Derrick to Rusty, another PT and even Miss Bev, the glue that holds the place together!! They all love her too and give her so much attention that I think she shows off especially for them! I will find out what she can do for the first time there and I really think she has been able to do it for days but she will perform her new tricks for them!

Mr. Derrick just couldn't stay away.
Gracelyn lights up with him and he does with her!

Up until today, I haven't seen her roll from her back onto her tummy on her right side. Well she did today at PT and she did that 5 times!! She sat supported, more steady this week though, not needing so much help. Mr. Derrick was with another patient so a student worked with her today. Miss Lindsay attempted to put her on all fours but G didn't much care for that. She is getting there!!

she is D-O-N-E!

G is 7 months old~ over halfway to 1 year

Gracie is 7 months old now. I just cannot believe it. So much has happened in her short little life. It seems like she should be older, of course I'm perfectly happy that she isn't!

this picture makes me laugh because as I was taking her picture she reached up to grab her bow (which she does often now) and I made her laugh so she got distracted and just left her arm raised!

As of now, Gracelyn is rolling over, both front to back and back to front. She cannot continuously roll, like across the floor. She will roll onto her back to her left and then back on her tummy to her right, just back and forth, back and forth.
She can put her weight on her legs for a few minutes before it's too much for her. She won't step forward though.

Gracie is very vocal. She "talks" loudly! Ryan and I went to lunch the other day and she was not fussy but letting everyone, and I mean everyone, around us know she was there. It is good for her because her voice box was damaged by the botulism but not everyone appreciates it like we do!

On the floor Miss G is quite the little wiggle worm. She can rotate her body 180 degrees. She lifts her arms and legs and LOVES to play with her feet. She can sit, supported, for at least 10 minutes, at most, so far, 12. She can lay on her tummy and hold her head up for at least 11, at most, so far 13. She's started straightening out her arms, as if she is preparing them for lifting up her body! Her physical therapist said he wouldn't be surprised if she is up on all fours, in the crawling position in the next few weeks! WOW!



She has tried applesauce, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots and peas. She doesn't like green beans at.all. She makes the worst face and blows raspberries (oh, she is blowing raspberries now too, which her brothers think is "sooooo cool!" and so funny!) to get every last bit out of her mouth. And side note: I wasn't aware that she could blow raspberries until she did with a mouth full of sweet peas. Carrots were okay with her, not her favorite but I think she will eat them mixed with peas just fine. The boys were never big fans of carrots but they didn't mind them in peas. I will try that mixture starting tomorrow.

Most of all, Gracelyn is a HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, MIRACLE from God! He has such huge plans for her and it is so exciting and awesome to see the healing He has done in her in such a short amount of time.
She loves her brothers, lights up when she sees them and has started reaching for people. It absolutely touches my heart to have her reach for me as she gives me a HUGE smile. She has gorgeous grins!

I am so happy that Gracelyn's story has gotten out and helped in the awareness of this rare illness. Her battle was featured in the local paper and I have heard from friends with babies that their docs have mentioned it to them.

Britton = toughguy

Britton is 2 and by far our clumsiest boy. He has had the most and the worst bruises and scrapes between all three boys, luckily, to date, no broken bones by any of the boys.
This last week has been the roughest for Britton though. A week from this past Thursday he was hit in the forehead at Mother's Day Out with, I'm not exactly sure what, but it's marble sized. It made a bruise and a week later the bruise is still there on his forehead.
Then Tuesday evening he scraped the top of his hand pretty bad so we have been doctoring it. We never did get an answer as to what he hurt it on.
Thursday afternoon, the boys were outside playing while I was fixing supper and I heard a blood curdling scream. I knew it was Britton and I ran as fast as I could outside (not that I wouldn't have ran as fast as I could with the other boys or Gracie) and I found him in the garage with liquid running down from his eyes. Blaine had sprayed Britton in the eyes with Repel bug spray that apparently had fallen down from a high shelf. Oh.my.word. I was freaking out and that is putting it mildly. I called Ryan and he came racing home. Britton was fine but I had to laugh later because when testing out his sight I couldn't hold up fingers and ask him what number I was showing because he doesn't know them and I couldn't ask colors because he says every.single. thing is blue so I had to ask what was showing in a picture instead.
To cap off the week, Friday, Ryan left for Austin so the kids and I went to my dad's for the night. Gran-Gran was making supper and I was feeding Gracelyn when we heard the loudest, most thunderest noise and turned around to find Britton laying on the floor under the glass top kitchen table. He had been trying to climb up in his booster seat and must have been standing up and slipped and crashed HARD. His eye swelled within minutes and looked nasty.

He would not let me take a picture of him that night
so the first pic I got was the next morning but he refused to look at me.

Picture taken Sunday.
Now his left eye looks to be bruised underneath it.

and here is his hand, which he wouldn't show me when he was awake.

Ryan got back in town this evening and Britton informed him that his new name is "Bruiser" because that's what I have been calling him. Poor boy, I feel so bad for him.

fear

Today is Mother's Day and it also marks 7 weeks since Gracelyn has been home. 8 weeks and 3 days since she was taken to Children's Hospital.
That morning that Gracie was taken to the hospital was the absolute most terrifying day for me. As I drove to the city with my limp, non-responsive baby girl, I honestly didn't know if I would be coming back home with her. With 3 kids already and never having experienced anything like that I was scared. a fear that I cannot begin to describe and still, in part, feel today.
Since that day, Thursday March 11 (I will never forget that day) I have been scared. Scared of the unknown. It's all been unknowns, from what was wrong with her, to what caused it, to treating her, to the success of the medicine, to the length of her recovery and what comes along with it.
At the hospital she had many doctors, but only her first doctor for the first 4 days, Dr. Mo, was the only one to ever treat botulism before. Regardless, I still felt it best and safe for her to be there.
As we drove away, an hour away, 11 days later, I bawled. for so many reasons. On one hand I was truly, extremely happy to be taking my baby girl home. That she was able to go home. But then we were driving away from the safety net. We didn't even know what caused her to be so sick in the first place and if she started having any difficulty, we were an hour away. I also couldn't get the image of her lifeless body, arms falling as I removed them from the sleeves of her gown on the morning of the 11th out of my head. I still cannot.
Gracelyn has most definitely made progress, amazing steps that the doctors are baffled by. She has accomplished a lot in the last 7 weeks, more than what I ever thought she would by this time. She is behind developmentally, of course, I realized this and I know with 3 older brothers that she should have no problem making up for lost time when she is stronger. It's in the back of my head though.
I worry constantly about everything, all day long, since this all started a little over 8 weeks ago. From Gracelyn's well being, to the boys' (considering Blaine still asks randomly if Gracie is going back to the hospital,) to every day occurrences like meals and laundry and the house and bills, the list goes on and on.
I pray a lot. a lot. I know this is something that only God can help me with. It's because of Him that Gracelyn has made the recovery so far that she has. I fear coming across selfish because it may seem like I'm bitter that she was sick or want her to be where other infants her ago are. I'm not and I don't expect her to be with all that her little body has been through. I know that God has a purpose for us all and even little Gracie and myself. Patience has never been a trait that I possess and through this God has most definitely taught me that, as well as a true love for others that I never had before. And those are just the 2 most obvious!
Just like my first Mother's Day 8 years ago and every one in between has been special, I feel this one especially is. I am holding Gracelyn and my boys closer, just as I have been for the last couple of months.

Latest on Miss G

Gracelyn is finishing up her second solid food, sweet potatoes, this week. Just like the applesauce, they were a hit! She grabbed the spoon and sucked every last drop of them off the spoon! My plan is to finish out the veggies before any more fruits.


She is doing well at PT, getting stronger. She had rolled over front to back a few weeks ago (just like she had the week before she went into the hospital) BUT she has begun rolling over back to front!!! Talk about exciting! This is HUGE for her!! She is 2 months behind developmentally but we pray she will catch up eventually.




I had asked the doc at her 6 month well-check about her spitting up and was told to resume giving her the axid because her digestive system could be compared to a newborn's due to her sickness. I started giving it to her, but each day following, she was only getting worse. I mean the amount that she was spitting up, or more like projectile throwing up, was significant a week later.
This last Tuesday we went back to the doc and she was given a script for reglan, which didn't thrill either one of us because it limits mobility (the last thing she needs) BUT she needs to start keeping food down. For the last week and a half leading up to Tuesday morning, it was just milk that she wasn't keeping down but by that evening, it was her sweet potatoes too. On top of that she suddenly experienced extreme constipation beginning last Friday, more so than she has been since we've been home. The doc didn't know Tuesday if that's related to the other or not. AND she has thrush again, the second time since we've been home. That is another mystery. I'm really worried about her and the food situation. She's now been on the reglan since Wednesday and it isn't helping at all.
Recently, Gracelyn has been having fewer happy moments. She still has a pleasant personality but not as much as before. I don't know what is going on but I pray it's nothing serious.

This is the roller coaster that the PICU doctor warned me about and all I can do is pray for strength and patience for Gracelyn and myself. I know she will experience these and I trust God completely. What He has brought her through thus far, in such record time, is nothing short of a miracle.