Camden Turns 4!

Well, Camden's birthday was on Tuesday the 26th, I can't believe that I have been a mommy for 4 years!  He is one of the best things that has ever happened to us ever!

The day did not start off as planned and it continued to stay off track the rest of the day.  It started at 5 am with Camden coming in at 5 and crying that his tummy hurt.  So I broke our no bed rule and let him climb in with us.  At 7 he got up and seemed fine so we went downstairs to get breakfast, I gave him some milk which he downed as usual, and then started crying, not putting two and two together, since he is hardly ever sick, hence, Camden always cries before he pukes, I went about getting his breakfast surprise.  I turn around and see him return all the milk that he just drank!  Oh joy!!!  On to bath #1 that day.  I went and put him in the bathtub as Randy was running out the door to his class, went back down to clean the chair, as they are cloth chairs that I HATE for that very reason!  After his bath he was ready for breakfast, I tried to get him to eat some toast and he refused, he demanded French Toast Sticks, so who am I to say no on his birthday! 

For the next hour I monitored him, he seemed fine, and so we went about our day, I went to get a few items for his birthday dinner that night, went to the library all was good!  We got home and settled down to watch the movie of his choice, about 10 minutes in he started crying again, so I grabbed him and ran for the bathroom, didn't make it...He got the carpet, me, him, and the kitchen floor.  On to bath #2 of that day.  I threw him in, changed my clothes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the carpet, and then went and cleaned him up.  Then I got a shower. 

About 30 minutes later, I started getting the feeling that I was not feeling so hot and by nap time, I knew I was in trouble!  I slept all during nap time, Randy came home from class for about 2 hours, which I crawled upstairs to bed, and then he had to go to the firestation, so I had 1 sick kid, 1 hyper kid, and a puppy to take care of, when I could barely lift my head.  So needless to say, the birthday dinner didn't happen, dinner was soup out of a can and crackers.  He did get his birthday song, and his birthday swats, but it was not the best birthday. :-(  Luckly it was just a 24 hour bug for both of us and Dasha didn't get it! 

Today we made up for it though, we started off going for his 4 year old well check, he has grown 3 inches, and he finally broke the 30 lb. barrier, and now officially weighs 31.2 lbs!  He is a tall and skinny boy!  We then went to Schlitterbahn to beat this 105 degree day we had today!  It is insane how hot it is!  We need some rain horribly.  But he had a blast! 

Hopefully next year will be a better birthday experience!  I am almost glad we didn't have a huge party planned because it would of been an epic fail!

Injuries

Well, we have had a few interesting days here at the Denson household.  On Wednesday the kids and I were outside taking Aspen to the bathroom before we went to the vet's office and Dasha, running as usual, tripped over our horrible driveway.  Well she went face first into the driveway and we ended up with this.

Doesn't look too bad, but I knew that she was going to scab a little.  The next picture is after I cleaned her up, put a band-aid on her nose to stop the bleeding, and we headed up to the vet's office.  She didn't leave the band-aid on long!

Again doesn't look too horrible.  Though it kept getting redder and redder as the evening went on.
But then we woke up Thursday morning and this is what we got.  Pretty yucky.  She left it alone on Thursday, but today after I got her up from nap I saw that she was picking at the scabs, so she went to bed with socks on her hands tonight to keep her from picking and scaring her nose.  Good thing she doesn't suck her thumb anymore!

And not to let his sister out do him, yesterday, Camden took a spill on our neighbors driveway and skinned his knee, but you would of thought it was the end of the world!  Dasha cried for maybe 2 minutes, Camden, 20 minutes!



Happy 6 Months home!

6 months ago we touched down on U.S. soil and Dasha became a U.S. Citizen!  It has been a crazy and at times rough 6 months but we are enjoying our lives very much.  Since Randy worked today we celebrated Father's Day yesterday.  We went to Schlitterbahn and spent the morning taking the kids on all the rides.  Dasha is a fan of the water, and the kids slides, not so much on the big slides though!  She literally is a fish though, she does not care if her face is in the water at all.  She is just happy to be in the water!  We then went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and the kids just had a blast with Randy being home.  We have 4 more weeks of Randy working 2 full time jobs and after July 22nd he gets to go part time at the hospital so we will get him home 1-2 more days per week!  I am so excited about that!  The kids will also!

Surgery Consult

Yesterday we went back to Children's Mercy for our consultation with the surgeon about Dasha's hernia.  He was running about an hour behind so the kids were pretty antsy by the time we got back to the room.  He came in and gave Dasha a quick examination.  He was feeling her hernia and then immediately went down to feel her belly button, and said, "you know she has an umbilical hernia also right?"  We were like yes we do.  So then he asked some follow up questions, has it gotten bigger, does it stick out more at certain times etc.  Then he gave his recommendation. 

Her umbilical hernia should heal itself by age 3, but the incensional will not heal on it's own as her muscles are already weak there because of her previous surgery, it will have to be fixed no matter what.  But what he wants to do is wait a year, to see if the umbilical will fix itself.  If it does not, he will fix both at the same time.  But he would rather only make 1 cut than 2.  Understandable.  But he said that if the incensional hernia gets bigger or becomes painful, then we will fix it sooner and if the umbilical is still an issue at that time, he will also fix it then.  So sometime next summer she will have surgery, just hoping for one cut, and not two! 

On a totally unrelated topic, I had given up on potty training and was going to work on it later on, but this morning, I went and got Dasha up and she told me, "stink", which is her cue that she dirtied her diaper.  So I went to go change her, no poo.  I said, "Dasha, do you need to poo?"  "Yes."  So off the the potty we go and we achieved poo.  That was the first time she has ever told me she needed to go.  Maybe we are closer than we thought!

Meet Aspen!

Camden has been asking for a dog for at least a year.  At first we told him "after the adoption."  Then after the adoption it was "Let's get used to our new life."  After 6 months there was no more excuses!  So, meet Aspen.  Don't worry, Dasha loves her now!

She is a purebred Golden Retriever and so good with the kids!

Oncologist Appt.

Today was Dasha's 2nd oncologist appt.  We have to go every 3 months for a year and then once a year after that.  Dasha had to have an ultrasound first, but she had to fast before the ultrasound.  No food or drink after 8 am.  Her ultrasound was scheduled for noon.  We got in a little early and we went back to the room.  I have been pretty good about warning people of Dasha's fear of the latex gloves that they wear, but the Ultrasound technician was faster than I was.  Dasha saw the gloves and it was all over.  She freaked.  I wish I knew what it is about them, what they did at the orphanage that made her fear the gloves, because she has had a fear of them since we went to Minnesota, her first dr. appt. with us, she has a memory of them.

Anyway she cried the whole ultrasound but it went well, and we went and got some lunch.  She scarfed her food down.  We had about 45 minutes before our appt. with the oncologist so we went back to the car and I put a movie in for her.  Love the DVD player in our new car!  We then went back in the hospital and got checked in and they weighed her, checked her height, head circumference, bp, and temp.

We went back and the nurse not knowing Dasha's history at all, said that they needed a blood sample and asked where her pic line was, stomach or chest.  I blinked a moment and was like, oh, she doesn't have one.  It is very unusual to take a healthy child to an oncology clinic after all!  So they got the blood the old natural way.  We sang the bible song as she softly cried through the whole thing.  The nurses laughed as Dasha yelled BIBLE at the end of the song, as she is crying! 

Her oncologist came in and stated that her ultrasound is great, no tumors, no masses.  Clean scan.  And asked if I had any other concerns, I pointed out a bulge in her incision that has become more prominent as she has gained weight.  He poked around on it and confirmed what we thought, hernia.  He said that we was going to send an email to the surgeon to see if he would like to see her and examine it.  Most likely he will.  So we might be getting it fixed, or it might not be severe enough to fix.  If they do fix it I think I will ask them to fix her umbilical hernia at the same time.  Rather have only one surgery rather than two. 

We had to leave a potty sample and then we were all done.  I also asked about the constant pottying that she does, and he said that most likely it is just her, and to wait on the potty training when she can understand a little bit more.  A long day, but overall very good. 

I have read this many times, but do not remember who...

Wrote what things.  I have come to the conclusion a few months ago, to leave Dasha's adoption out of my everyday conversations with people both old and new.  Now I am not saying that I never talk about it, but I don't go telling every person that I meet that she is adopted.  I have just decided that Dasha is my daughter and that is all that people need to know.  If they get curious, or if there is something obvious I will bring it up.  We are not hiding it, but it is her story to tell, not mine.  Though Camden loves to introduce his Russian sister!

While it is very much part of who she is, it doesn't define her.  I know that there are people who are going to need to know, like her teacher next year, but she already knows and has been prepping for her.  Mainly due to her language delay, etc.  While she improves every day, she is behind the average 2 year old.  Dasha is stringing 2-3 words together every day more and more often.  Like "Pee in Potty!"  Though she never tells me before she actually goes!

How has everyone else handled this transition?  Or have you done this transition?  What do you openly share, what do you keep to yourselves?  While I am very open on this blog, the average person in our daily lives do not read this. 

In other news, I have reached out to a family birth searcher, but we are not going to proceed right now due to the costs of it right now.  With Randy and I both in school, it is going to stretch us a lot.  But he has our documents and when he plans his next trip to Kirov, he is going to contact me.

Have a blessed day everyone!
Denise