Austin's Hospital Stay

First, we want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported and prayed and thought of us while Austin has been going through all of his testing. This marks the 9th time our little guy has been under general anesthesia in the past 2 years.

Monday and Tuesday we were at Reston Hospital. Austin had an upper endoscopy and a 24 hour ph probe. He did great under the anesthesia and came out confused with a tube that resembled a spaghetti noodle in his nose (the probe). The top of the probe is in a little machine hooked onto him and the botom of the tube was inside him at the top of his stomach.
The results of the endoscopy came out GREAT. The burns/erosions in his esophagus (his throat was 90% burned with erosive esophagitis) were all healed! His esophagus looked great, his stomach looked great, no hiatial hernia, no apparent problems!

However, with all this great news, it still left us stumped as to why he's having such horrible reflux. He's been on high amounts of healing/acid reducers which have healed his conditions. But we still need to get down to the source-as we can't continue such high amts on the little guy for an extended period of time. So that's what the Ph probe was for. To test in a 24 hr span of time when his acids were greatest-he has this chronic cough and does is occur when he lies down, when he runs, etc. So the probe will measure all of this. We get the results back this week. Austin may have a problem aspirating food. That's another reason for the burns, coughs, etc. Instead of food going down foodpipe, it gets launched into the esophagus/trachea instead causing acid/and a lot of the symptoms he's experiencing. With Austin's tracheomalacia, it wouldn't be a surprise. I guess its just another test right? But we feel blessed that we have the best of the best pediatric specialists in the area.

We had fun though while he was in the hospital. We colored, read, watched movies, took wagon rides, Ashley even visited a lot and the night was topped off with a Daddy-Son campout! Dad stayed with him in the hospital and it was complete with ghost stories and all!
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Ashley has been saying the cutest things this week. She now says her name, "Ash-wee Tolah" and she calls princess things "shay shay". She sees Cinderella and screams, "Shay shay!" She also holds up her cute little fingers and says she's 2. She can count (follows us) and there's nothing cuter than hearing a near-2 year old count with their adorable baby inaudible vowels.
She hangs and climbs on everything. She'll jump up on a bar (grocery cart) and hang there for what seems forever. I'll just start to push the cart and she's still hanging. Finally what seems to be after 2 minutes, I see her sweaty little fingers start to slip. We signed her up for a tot tumbling class. She should love it!

The weather has been phenomenal here. In the eighties and we've been enjoying every second of it! Just wanted to give the udpate of Austin. Thanks again for the prayers. They've worked and we've felt them.
Love,
Angie

Preschool Begins!

Preschool started Monday! Austin goes M-F 12:30-3:30 to his Haymarket Baptist Church Preschool. His teachers Mrs. Burch and Mrs. Davis are so kind. He absolutely loves it! The program includes music time, pee-wee workouts, show and tell every friday and 10 "good" stickers each week deserves a trip to the treasure box. Austin went to the treasure box and school couldn't be cooler.
Ashley has tried different tot tumbling, baby gymnastics, tiny dancers classes this week. We're trying to find the one that's just right for this cute little monkey! She climbs on anything, can hang on anything, and is extremely active. Typical 21 month old baby. So we're narrowing it down so she can have some fun doing a special mommy-and-me class.

On Saturday we went to the Haymarket Day Parade! It was a beautiful day here (its getting much cooler and crisp!) We got there just as the parade started and different floats were throwing out candy and Austin gathered it all up at the curb and would dole it out to others. We then saw his preschool group coming by and Austin made a bee-line for the front to hold the banner.
We then followed him down the main street and he was proudly waving hello side to side as everyone clapped. He loved being in the spotlight up front! We also saw his good buddys Tate and Cameron in the parade as well for their preschool. We then shopped around at the little booths set up after the parade and saw our good friends the Turners, Petersons and Johnsons. I even got a $25 gift certificate to a local spa here! We then went to a little ice cream shop Pickle Bob's. Austin had a Reese's sundae-his favorite. This was the day of all days for Austin: candy, friends, spotlight, ice cream.....(and for mommy too-with a spa gift certificate).
Duane and I ended the night by going out with some of our friends from his work. We went to a restaurant called Chima in Vienna. It's a nice Brazlian steakhouse. Mmmmm.

We then spent spent Sunday evening with our good friends Jean and Greg Allen. We had a wonderful week! The chill is in the air and fall is approaching rapidly into Northern Virginia. Have a beautiful week!

Angie




T

My Hips Don't Lie

As sung by Shakira "Hips Don't Lie", this was my theme this week. After training 7 hard weeks for the Baltimore half marathon, I sustained my first running related injury. I saw my medical doctor and a chiropractor last week and the net net is because of overuse and overexertion I either have a stress fracture in my hip, a torn labrum or hip bursitis. Lovely huh? I haven't gotten my suggested MRI and X-ray yet, because the remedy for all of these things injuries is ice, ibuprofen and staying off of it. So, elipticals and biking are my new thing at the gym. We'll see how things go when I start to run on it again in a couple of weeks. I will not be running the race. I had a hard time with this initially, but today I ran to catch a fleeting Austin and the pain came back in my hip immediatley so sharply and I'm limping again. Nothing is worth injuring yourself further down the road. I'm only 31! I don't want to walk like I'm 50.

Duane was in Australia these past couple weeks. He loves Sydney! It's the only place that he says he would quit the State Dept to get a private sector job there. He got his picture taken with koalas and kangaroos!

Funnies this week:

AUSTIN:
Asked how people got pregnant...oh boy.
He then asked if it cost any money to get pregnant. And said, "you can buy anything in this world with money."
Then he said that if he ever had a brother, he would name him Austin II.
Announced that Jesus was his "favorite man in the whole world."
Smelled a flower and said it smells pretty. Just like you Mom.
Said, "I don't know what love is, but I know Mom, I love you." Can a heart melt anymore?
Found a pirate Halloween costume already and wears it 99% of the time.

ASHLEY:
Now carries Duane's T-shirts around with her while he's gone. It's like a blankie in her crib.
Sounds like a cat when she says "no". It's a kind of meow...but "nooow".
Is getting very vocal.
Started with the no response to everything.
Aren't the terrific two's great?!!?

Events to remember (or forget):
Austin's preschool orientation. As all parents and preschoolers met in a sanctuary at his Haymarket Baptist Church Preschool, the Headmaster is talking about rules, regulations, etc. Ashley then stands on top of a pew and starts to squeal. I grab her and take her in the back of the church as Austin is laughing hysterically and Ashely is arching backwards, yelling even louder, grabbing my hair and pinching my neck all the way back. Austin then ran down the aisle and was giggling and skipping because of the commotion. All eyes were on me. No other family was acting like this in the entire chapel. I disrupted everything. And then Ashley wouldn't stop yelling. It was horrible. At the end of this spectacle I was sweating, and near tears. Who says its fun taking almost 2 year olds out in quiet places?

The same thing basically happened at my Dr.'s office. Yelling, arching, fits. It was so loud in the examining room, that my Dr. actually said he'd step outside to write the Rx. Austin just laughs and loves someone else getting in trouble.

Should I even admit that the exact same thing happened at the Little Gym while we were waiting for Austin?

However, when she goes to sleep, girls really are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.

Have a great week!
Angie

Hawaii

ALOHA! Last week we went to Hawaii! It was my first time going, Duane's second, and it was phenomenal. We drove down to Charleston, SC to "Camp Grandma's" house and Austin and Ashley stayed with Uncle Ray, Grandpa and Grandma. We stayed one day in Charleston and went downtown to the Market, River Street Sweets, California Dreaming restaurant, and our favorite ice cream parlor-Brusters (many times!) Then the next day, without looking back, we got on a flight for Hawaii. We travelled first class both ways due to his frequent fllyer miles. Ahhhhh.

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. It was absolutely beautiful. Landing in the Honolulu airport I remember just taking the smells in just like my friend Jean told me to do. The air smelled of Gardenia, Plumeria and Jasmine. The air smelled that way the entire time.

We kept up with our morning runs each day there. It was beautiful running there, seeing the sites, breathing the sweet air. That's how we would start our day. Then we would get a smoothie and muffin at a local coffee shop.

The first day we just shopped around the Waikiki area at the little beachy shops (among our favorites were Cinnamon Girl, Billabong, ABC, Rip Tide. We then watched a surf competition at Waikiki Beach and laid out the rest of the afternoon. We then ate at Mariposa restaurant that evening overlooking the city at sunset.

Day 2, we went to Hilo Hattie and it rained a little bit. We then drove on to the Dole Plantation where we ordered 6 pineapples to be shipped to us (we thought we'd share more of them but tasting them, we hoarded them for ourselves!) We then went on to the quaint surf town of Hale'iwa. We had a pad thai lunch there and the famous Matsumoto's shaved ice with ice cream, beans, and sweetened condensed milk on top. We then drove to the North Shore and Duane body boarded the waves at Sunset Beach. Our favorite day!

Day 3: We went to the Aloha Stadium Flea market. We then drove on to the Polynesian Cultural Center all day. We saw the LDS Temple and it was beautiful. We loved seeing the different island cultures, and we had a wonderful luau that night. Sashimi, roast pig and other tropical foods. The show they put on was great.

Day 4 &5: We were excited to sit back and do NOTHING. We laid out at different beaches, body boarded, ate at Wahoo Fish Taco's a few times there and even ate at McDonald's and enjoyed the fresh pineapple they served with each meal! We were addicted to Cold Stone's Macadamia Flavor ice cream. Mmmmm We even went to an Oakley store and were looking at Sunglasses and got a complete "hook-up" on our sunglasses ($50 each instead of $180) Being Fed. law enforcement does help out sometimes.

Beyond anything else, we reconnected in a way that was giddy. Like before you have kids. We could read on the beach instead of having to sit in the sand and run in the waves because your toddler is making a bee-line for the water. It was the most relaxing 5 days I've had in 7 years. This was considered our 2nd honeymoon since it was the first time for Duane and I without kids in 7 years.

And what's most special about it all? Everyone kept telling us, "You guys must have just gotten married! You both have that glow." We felt great! The kids had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Toler and Uncle Raymond is our favorite! We were so thankful that our parents could watch the kids so we could enjoy this adventure.