Kinder- WHAT??

I will admit, I've been putting off this post for far too long. For about six weeks now (maybe more, I've lost count!), Colin has been in KINDERGARTEN! With an October birthday, he misses the deadline by a few days but we decided to have him start kindergarten early this year at Little Red so that he will be extra prepared for kindergarten next year. We weren't sure if he would be able to handle it, which is part of the reason I have delayed posting this. But he has adjusted to the structure and the workload and is doing so well! We are very proud of him!

On his very first day of kindergarten, Colin picked out his entire outfit. Including the tie. He said he wanted to look just like Dad because he had to 'go to work'. So sweet! 

Stay tuned for more kindergarten adventures!

Health Updates

Some REALLY fun news and some not so fun news.

First for the FUN news- Colin can now have egg, as long as it is in baked goods! I know, not completely life-changing. But, for the first time in his entire life, the kid has been able to have delivery pizza! Woohoo! Donatos, thankfully, has started to offer a gluten-free product, which, of course, is awesome. However, it has 'egg' listed in the ingredients. So, until Colin was recently tested, he couldn't enjoy this treat but now he can! And it is YUM. We are excited to try new foods with him now. 

Now for the not-so-fun-news. In April of this year, Salem was diagnosed with ITP - idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. He had been sick for a while and then started developing what we thought was a rash but we later found out it were small, broken blood vessels. His pediatrician immediately sent us to Children's Hospital Outpatient to have some blood drawn. We found out that Salem had an unusually low platelet count (28,000, at the time, normal range is 120,000 -150,000) and this is what had led to the broken blood vessels and bruising covering his body. A visit to a hematologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital confirmed that he did in fact have ITP.\

 

 

Now, what is ITP? It is a blood disorder that can cause unusually low platelet counts. Basically, Salem's immune system confuses his healthy cells for bad cells so when he gets sick, his system works in overdrive and depletes his platelet count.

 

How do you treat ITP? There isn't really a treatment. Crazy, huh? Try telling that to two pharmaceutical reps! Chris and I are so used to having a drug to treat or prevent almost every disease or condition out there. This one had us stumped. Other than wrapping our boy in bubble wrap, there is literally nothing we can do to prevent it. However, if his platelet counts do drop too low, there is a treatment available called IVIG that helps to pump up his system. This is an infusion of platelets that is given intravenously over a couple of hours. Not so fun. Salem has had two of these treatments since his diagnosis and although it can be a struggle with a toddler, they have worked well for him so we cannot complain!

 

 

Currently, we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will all go away within the next few weeks. If not, we are looking at possibly having to face this long-term (it goes from acute to chronic after 6 months). In the meantime, we are in good hands at Children's Hospital!

Summer 2013 {Part Three}

Salem's first baseball game {Florence Freedom}

Yard work 

Summer 2013 {Part Two}

Swimming at the pool {TCCC}

Colin's 1st Race - he came in 3rd place! {TCCC}

Swim Lessons {Silverlake}

Sweet moment with Dadda

Summer 2013 {4th of July}

All photos taken from the iPhone. I apologize in advance for the quality :)

4th of July Family Picnic {Grammy & Grampy's House}

Boating with Grammy, Grampy, and Gigi - Salem's First Boat Ride

 Sleepover at Gigi's Cabin

Fishing at Grammy & Grampy's 

Summer 2013 {Part 1}

This summer is flying by! And I have been horrible about keeping up. On the blog, at least. Here is a picture-overload of our overloaded summer:

End of School Year Party {Little Red School House}

Blueberry Picking {Evan's Orchards in Georgetown, KY} 

Hiking at Big Bone Lick State Park {Union, KY}

{Home}

Colin's 1st Fishing Pole

Ode to Teacher Jessica

Words cannot describe how grateful we are for our Teacher Jessica!

Colin switched rooms at the beginning of the year, leaving behind his friends and his beloved Teacher Tina (and Stephanie!). He was in a completely new environment and a little out of his element. Within a few weeks, we were given notice that he was going to have yet another new teacher as his current teacher was leaving the school. Colin had already struggled a bit with all of the changes. I remember him telling me one day that he didn't have a class (or friends) because he felt like he was constantly moving around. Now he was going to have to go through it all again.

Enter Teacher Jessica. How she does it, we will never know. There were days when I couldn't even handle just stepping into the room to pick Colin up. 10 four-year-olds is more than any one person should handle at one time! But she does it. And she does it well!

Colin quickly adjusted to his new teacher and his new friends. He was excited to go to school again. And as a working parent, there isn't anything more that we could ask for! We couldn't have hand-picked a better teacher for Colin at this season of his life. She got him. She understood his quirkiness and, even better, encouraged it. And he began to thrive again because of that.

The end of the school year came too soon! We are sad to leave behind yet again another great teacher. Colin will miss you greatly, Teacher Jessica! Know that your impact will always be fondly remembered.