Jocelyn's Procedures

It's been a stressful few days, but it's over.   Now the waiting begins....

On Thursday Jocelyn went into John Hopkins Pediatric Gastroenterology for an Endoscopy and a Colonoscopy.  She has been dealing with belly pain for months and as any parent knows, it's been so hard to see my baby girl in pain.  But it's been a process.

After numerous conversations and visits with the Pediatrician, she decided to send Jocelyn in for bloodwork. We thought that would be really scary for Jocelyn, but she had been with me to get bloodwork a few times so she knew what that was about.  When her turn came she watched the whole process barely phased.  Little did we know that was the easy part.  I guess it's good news that the blood test results came back negative for everything - allergies, infections, Celiac, ulcers, etc.

We started to suspect that Soy was an issue because many of the complaints came after she drank a big cup of soy milk.  And sure enough, we discovered, , that after years of drinking soy milk and eating soy cheese - as the replacement for a dairy intolerance - Jocelyn has become intolerant to soy products as well.  Yippee.
So we switched her to Almond and Rice products and thought the problem was solved.  But then a few weeks later, we were STILL dealing with belly complaints.  So at that point, the Pediatrician sent us off to the Gastroenterologist.

And that is how we ended up with the procedures this past week.

It's very hard as a parent to watch your little girl go through such grown up scary stuff, but let me start by saying, I could not be more proud of Jocelyn.  For anyone that's had these procedures, the prep is not much fun.  We told her what to expect, and she just went along without complaint.  I'm not sure I would have!!

Reading and waiting...

The next morning we were off to the hospital.  We tried to avoid describing the actual procedures.  It was all about trying not to scare her.  But she was doing great!

Waiting with Stripes our new trip-to-the-hospital friend.

Lots of people came in and out of the room to talk to us, and her.  Every single one of them was great with kids, but this lady, Jessica, brought her friend Lucy the hand puppet, and together they showed Jocelyn everything that was going to happen, so she would know what to expect, and hopefully not be afraid.

Learning about blood pressure cuffs with Lucy.

We had to wait a bit for the patient procedure that was scheduled before Jocelyn's, so she watched TV, and I got more and more nervous.  Eventually it was her turn and I went with her to the OR.

Looking MUCH calmer than I felt.

I kept my brave face until she was asleep and then I fell apart.  She did amazing.  She told me that night that she was afraid when they put her to sleep "because it's not normal to take a nap in the daytime!"  But you would never have been able to tell that she was scared by looking at her at the time.

When the procedures were over an hour later, the Dr. told us that everything *looked* normal.  Which is a good thing because some of the worst possible outcomes are visible.  She took numerous biopsies and now we wait for results.  It's going to take a week to 10 days.  Guess we've waited this long...  but I just want answers so Jocelyn can stop having belly pain and get on with her little girl life.

Waking up after the procedures was probably the worst part for Jocelyn.  Not because she felt bad, but because I did not bring her lovies and she wanted them BAD!  I had made the decision to leave them at home because I didn't want to risk losing the only four "Big Heart Lovies" in the world.  BIG Mommy mistake!  So when she was ready, they sent us on our way, and she was much happier at home with lovies in hand.  Of course, my no-nap child did not nap that day, but she slept like a rock that night, and other than a sore throat, she was back to normal yesterday.

I know I've said it before, but I am so proud of this girl.  That whole experience was so scary and unknown for her, and yet, she was a brave, strong, wonderful girl through all of it.  I hope so much that we never have to put her through something like that again.  Now I just hope that something comes back from the test results, that gives us an answer, and makes all this worth it.

Mommy Volunteers!

I'm sure this comes as no surprise to anyone that I am volunteering at Jocelyn's school a bunch!

I am on the PTA, and have been since May (yes that's 3 months before she even started Kindergarten!), and I love it.  I have two jobs on the PTA.  I change out the PTA bulletin board at the front of the school.  It's the first thing everyone sees when they walk through the door!   For me it's like a giant scrapbook!

October's Bulletin Board

November's Bulletin Board

I'm also on the Teacher Appreciation Committee.  A few times a year we give luncheons, or gifts to the teachers.  It's a great way to meet the teachers and they appreciate it so much.

Jocelyn helped give out plates at the teacher luncheon

I've also been volunteering in Jocelyn's Technology Class on Thursday mornings.  Having 22 Kindergarteners trying to log in to their computers all at the same time is a challenge for one person to handle, let alone the two of us!!

Annndddd...  starting last week, I'm volunteering in Jocelyn's classroom once a week doing whatever the teacher needs help with.

And then of course, there was the Halloween Parade and Party, and the Farm field trip. 

So really, I'm sure you're not surprised!

I love being on the PTA.  It gives me something to work on with grownups, and I get to hear the school news often before other people do!

And I am so happy to be able to spend time with Jocelyn at school and she is so happy to see me each time I come in.  It's exactly like I had hoped it would be.  I get to share her day, and feel involved and spend time with her.  It's perfectly wonderful!!

Our Weekend Projects

We had a busy weekend around here.

Anyone who has ever been to our house knows we have LOTS of trees in our backyard.  During the summer this is a wonderful thing.  Lots of shade!
During the fall, it means one thing -- LEAVES -- and lots of them!!  It takes two rounds of leaf raking to manage them.  If we let them all fall before doing any raking, the entire back yard would be a foot deep, no joke.

So round one was this weekend, 14 very large leaf bags later and we found the grass, for a fleeting moment before today's windy day.

But lots of leaves also means lots of fun, with Aunty of course!

Remember the Recycling project we started a couple weeks ago?  Daddy and Jocelyn finished it this weekend.  We've decided next year we're going for a smaller project - much smaller.  But Jocelyn was pretty proud of her Princess Castle.  And yes, that is Prince Ziggy on the tower!   ...and Goldfish in the moat.

So it was a busy, but productive weekend!

The fun part was getting the castle into school!

The Beach... Yes Really!

This weekend, Jocelyn and I went out to visit Grammy.  She's been having a rough year.  She broke her ankle in December right before Christmas and unfortunately it never healed right, so she recently had ankle replacement surgery.  Not a fun time for her and not surprising, she's not getting around much right now.  So Jocelyn and I went out for a visit and to help her with some things.

Trying on Grammy's boot!

We decided on Saturday that Grammy needed to get the heck out of the house for some fresh air, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for a trip to the beach.  Yes I know it's November!!!  But it was 70 degrees and no wind.  It was a perfect day to play in the sand.  I love the reflections on these shots.

Ooops!  Got the bummy wet!!

Daring the waves to come and get her!






























Unfortunately, We couldn't get Grammy's wheelchair down the sand to the waves, but she watched from afar.  She'll be heading down to the beach on her own soon enough!  In the meantime...  there was plenty of caramel popcorn to share with Grammy!

Lately...

It wouldn't be our life if we weren't busy.  Here's what we've been up to lately.

Jocelyn had a Friday off of school in October and Daddy took the day off so we could go to the National Aquarium.  We've been a couple times before, but as Jocelyn gets older, it's so much more interesting to her.  We had to keep slowing her down!  She couldn't wait to move on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.

"Inside" the Megalodon.

She was fascinated by the 3-finned turtle Calypso

And the octopus was fun to watch.

What a great day with Daddy!

Speaking of Daddy time, Jocelyn and Daddy are getting creative with recycling materials and making a castle for a school project.  More on this later.

And of course there's Halloween!  

Jocelyn had a really fun parade and party at school.  I didn't really get any good pictures of that because I ended up at the tail end of her class in the parade.  Ah the life of a volunteer mom!  :-)

That night, our little pumpkin couldn't decide what was more fun...

Trick or treating...

Or handing out candy!  (While eating some of course!)

As busy as our lives are, we're always having fun!