Zipping through April

Oh my goodness! The month of April has been such a busy one for us! We've had a lot of company, activities, trips and appointments. Easter will be here so soon. Gosh, I'm tired just thinking about the rest of the month.

Isabella had her pictures taken at school. She looked so cute in her owl dress. Afterwards she asked to go to Salad Works. One of her favorite places!

That day she had noodles (instead of lettuce), ham, bacon, shredded cheese, croutons, apples (on the side) and a cup of ranch dressing. It ends up being four meals for her since the salad is so big. She started by picking out the bacon. She sure is like her Daddy!

The next day Raymond and Isabella received Easter cards in the mail from Aunt Linda. Raymond was so happy to show his card to me!

On Saturday I took Isabella to see the Laurie Berkner Band. We had so much fun! It was our special Mommy-Daughter day.

Isabella was a dancing machine!

The theme of the show was "Happy Birthday". Laurie Berkner and her band celebrated every one's birthday. Toward the end of the show she sang happy birthday to the kids and they wheeled a big (cloth) birthday cake out on stage. They sang a few more songs and the show was over. After the band walked off the stage, Isabella turned to me and said, "I thought we were going to have cake?!" It made me burst out laughing! We headed to the parking garage and there were a lot of people sitting in their cars waiting to leave. So instead of sitting in the car we went into the Crayola Factory. They were having a Longaberger Basket celebration/anniversary thing so we walked around a little. There was a room set up with stations to make and take your own basket. I asked a lady about making one because I thought Isabella would really enjoy it. Unfortunately, there wasn't any openings. She told me there was an overwhelming response and that there weren't enough basket makers to help everyone. Isabella was a little disappointed and then I noticed a man making flowers out of the basket materials. So I asked Isabella if she wanted one. Then we headed outside to get some ice cream. On Sunday, Isabella and her preschool class preformed a song at church. They all looked so cute (some terrified) and did a great job. Can you spot Isabella in the back? After the song there was a puppet show for the children. Isabella told me church was "so much fun today!" On Monday, Isabella's class took a field trip to the Lehigh Valley Zoo. We asked Grammy if she wanted to go along with us. Isabella was so excited to introduce Grammy to all her friends!!! Morgan, Isabella, Sienna and Ava Isabella was in charge of the map - until Grammy dropped it in the pond : ) It turned out to be a really nice day. We were a little afraid that it was going to rain but luckily it didn't. I took this picture of the camel rolling around in the mud. But in the picture, he just looks dead - don't you think? Lily was there too but she slept the entire time. Isabella was also excited to show Lily off to her friends. Raymond was at home with Daddy. Poor Raymond has not been having a good week. Over the weekend Raymond was having a lot of trouble breathing. We had him on three liters of oxygen and he was still gasping for air. I called the on-call pulmonologist at Hershey and he told us to take Raymond to the emergency room for admittance right away. To make a very long story short, the emergency room sent us home several hours later and Raymond's doctor was furious! We went back down to see her on Tuesday (since the field trip was Monday) and Raymond's airway still wasn't sounding great even after three days of steroids. She told me that he really needs to have his bronchoscopy, which is scheduled for May 12. Hopefully he can make it until them without being hospitalized. That's our goal. Since Raymond is having 4 procedures that day, by 4 different doctors, the date is not able to be moved up. Later that night (Tuesday), Isabella accidentally slammed Raymond's hand with her bedroom door. The poor little guy screamed and screamed! So back to the emergency room we went! His hand is okay. Luckily nothing is broken. It stayed swollen for a few days but he is so tough that he kept right on going. Then Wednesday night Isabella wanted for soup for dinner. She asked to eat it in the living room and I set it down on the end table to cool. Raymond saw it and headed over to check it out. Chris took the bowl and told Raymond that investigating the soup wasn't a good idea. As Chris was turning to take it out into the kitchen, Raymond lunged for it and grabbed the side of the bowl, tipping it over and spilling scolding hot soup all over his hand (the left hand - his right hand was the one that was squished). He let out a scream and I quickly scooped him up. Chris ran and got a wet paper towel and we wrapped it around his hand. It didn't blister, thank heavens, so we didn't take him to the emergency room. I told Chris that if we had to take Raymond to the emergency room for a third time in one week, that they were going to start to investigate us! Raymond's therapy was cancelled on Thursday so after we dropped Isabella off at school I decided to go get my hair cut. About a month ago I had 14 inches cut off. It was always back in a clip or pony tail anyway so I figured with summer coming up, now would be a good time. A place opened in the new shopping center by Cabela's and they are offering haircuts for $2.99 the first 6 weeks of business. My hair has actually grown a lot in these four weeks so I thought I'd have it trimmed while the cost was still $2.99. I decided to have Raymond's hair cut too. I wasn't sure if he would sit still, but for $2.99 it was worth a try. He sat so nicely on my lap while the girl cut his hair. When mommy and daddy try to cut Raymond's hair he's a wiggly-worm. All the ladies made a fuss over him and told him how good he was being. Then afterwards he ate it up when they told him he was a handsome little man. And no, even though she was there, Lily did not get a haircut. Isabella continues to be a great big sister... Lily is really starting to smile now. She was the sweetest little face. I love to see all three kids together. It makes me more happy then I can even describe! On Wednesday night Isabella graduated from Level 1 to Level 2 in swim class. All the kids had the opportunity to jump off the diving board (with life vests) into the instructors arms. Isabella didn't want to jump because she said she was scared. I told Isabella that she didn't have to jump if she didn't want to. 3 of the 6 kids in her class jumped. I'm actually glad Isabella didn't jump yet. The thought of her jumping off gives me anxiety. I get so nervous around water. That's why I want her to learn to swim. Isabella was sitting on the edge of the pool at the deep end with the other kids in her class while some of them jumped. She started to kick her legs in the water and I was so afraid she was going to accidentally slip in. It was all I could do not to run down the steps and over to Isabella and pull her away from the water. I guess I should tell you all that I can't swim and I've almost downed three or four times in my life. That's were my fear of the water comes from. I do however love to go into the pool but I worry about the kids. The local pool offers swim classes for adults. I think I'm going to look into it. This month we received a new oxygen machine for Raymond. It has an attachment on it that will allow us to fill up his small oxygen tanks ourselves. That will be a big help! Raymond loves to wrestle with his daddy. Actually, he loves to do ANYTHING with Daddy. The other night, Raymond gave him a bloody nose. I guess that match goes to the little man! On top of all the craziness this month has brought (and is bringing), I've been vacuuming like crazy. Tis' the season for shedding! Until Next Time! Lots of Love,