Izzy and I are off to Mimi's house. Then early morning we are heading out to Royal City for the Heart walk/run. I made shirts for Mimi Eric Izzy and I and think they turned out pretty good for the day before action:) I'll take lots of photos and share them when we get home tomorrow night. Sunday we are heading to Trevor's (Izzy's CICU roomie) birthday party! He is turning 4!! Wow!! I hope everyone enjoys the weekend.

She is a fish!

Izabell did great at swim class today. She floated on her back for 3 seconds by herself! I think she may ge to move into preschool level 2 class in a week or two! The teachers test for levels on Thursdays and tell us Fridays which class to enroll in for the next week. She loves the water! She loves having her whole body under water! When it was not her turn to practice with a teacher she would dunk herself completely under the water! The last couple of days I have taken Izzy to free swim and played in the pool with her. Today she asked to go down he slide into the pool! I asked the lifeguard if it was ok and they gave her a life jacket and permission! Izzy loved it and would slide down to me where I would catch her under the water! She is now very tired but has had a lot of fun in the water this week!

Photos from the 4th!

5K RUN for CHD research!

Up for a trip to the east side??? Want to participate in the Royal City community days fun run for charity? This year it's in honor of Maddie (15 months w/ HRHS), and all proceeds will be donated to the Children's Heart Research Guild for CHD research!

Here's the details:
When: this Saturday, July 11th
Where: Royal City, WA (a little farming town about 3 hours east of Seattle)
Time: 7:00 am (if registering the day of the event, please come a little early)
Cost: $10 pre-registered/$15 day of event
5K RUN ROYAL FOR CHARITY:
Moderate difficulty through farm land and rural area starting at Royal City Lions Park at 7am for adult 5k run/walk and 8am for youth fun run. Runners and walkers welcome on this relatively flat course partially next to farming ground. Hear the birds chirping!!
Link for registration form & Summerfest Community Days: http://www.rcsummerfest.org/images/funrun2009.pdf
http://www.rcsummerfest.org/

You do not have to run you can also walk the route an enjoy some social time with friends!
If you'd rather just donate to the cause and skip out on the race, that's awesome too. You can get your registration forms here .

We had a great time at the cabin this weekend. Izzy loved the little plastic pool in the back yard and would not even try to stick her toe in the river. She said not when I asked her to try with me and told me there are frogs in there! It was way to cold to play in anyways! She did get to fish with her new little fishing rod but did not catch a fish and of course lost interest fairly quick. She loved the dog that was there and spent a lot of time with her. She even shared her meals with the dog when she thought we where not looking. (really cute) We also took her to the 4th of July parade which was her first time at a parade and she loved it! When she realized that some of the floats threw candy at the crowd she was beyond excited! She had a lot of fun and a large amount of candy! I have pictures of course and will try to post them tomorrow while Izzy naps.

Izzy started her second week of swim class and Steven was able to come watch her today which was wonderful! She is so happy and comfortable in the water. The classes change weekly as do the teachers so that the kids get different experiences in the water. She likes her new teachers. She is still the smallest and possibly the youngest in the class but it doesn't 't affect her swimming one bit:)

Last week she pulled herself out of the pool using the edge. The teacher was baffled and told me that the older kids struggle with that and Izzy just pulled herself with her arms and waved at me and her teacher! Everyone was so shocked that she could pull herself out to they had a delayed action to her dumping the water toys into the pool! She got a lot of them in there before the teacher got her back into the pool. She is my little trouble maker!

It has been nice to have a couple weeks without Dr apts! This month Izabell will see her orthopedic Dr and her Eye Dr. I still have to schedule the Doppler studies and follow ups for either late this month or early August.

Fun Conversations and Photos!

While walking into the gym this morning holding Izzy's hand she started explaining to me why she was holding on so firmly. She was protecting me from all the cars because they are dangerous and she doesn't want me to get smooshed. (dramatically claps hands together on the last word!) She is so funny and very dramatic at times!! She is very observant and has a great imagination as well :) I love having conversations with her which is good since she is rarely quite!

She did great at swim class again today and also enjoyed her first ballet class this evening. I could not take pictures of her in the ballet class because parents are not invited into the room as we are distracting. There are no windows to watch so as I sat in the hall for 30mins I made a mental note to get a few good books lined up for Thursdays!! I did take a few pictures before class and at swimming:) I am also sharing a couple pics from earlier this week. Enjoy!

Izzy on the bike trailer on our way to swim class yesterday!

Izzy pedaling her tricycle on her own!

Float Izzy Float!

You can see the difference in symmetry of Izabell's back/shoulders in this picture.

My beautiful ballerina and her beloved Count:)

We are going to spend the weekend at a cabin with Steven's friend Mike. Izzy is very excited! Mike and Steven have agreed to take her fishing which she has wanted to do for some time now. She saw kids fishing on the news and started jumping up and down shouting "I want to do that with my daddy!"

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July!

I biked Izzy to her swim class today and we both enjoyed the ride. The pool is close to our house so it is under 4 miles round trip so it was a short ride. I need to get my muscles used to a bike (and my tush!) Izzy did great at swim class again today. She did some how smash her mouth on the pool and had to leave class about 5 mins early because she was bleeding. (no bleeding allowed in the pool) She was fine (no tears and not in pain) not sure how she did it but her front tooth upper lip and lower lip where all bleeding. She is going to make her dentist work hard at this rate!! She proudly stated on the bike ride home that she had a fat lip just like daddy now! She is a riot! Steven ate puck at his hockey game on Sunday! He is fine, has all his teeth still and they are not even loose! Pucks are hard and come fast so this is all good news!!!He does have a sore swollen lip which is starting to look better but he is pretty sore. Tomorrow we are driving to the pool because I have a work out class in the morning right before her swim class so my tailbone gets a break:) Izzy has ballet in the evening and she has reminded me all week that my car was dead and she missed her first day last Thursday! She is too smart! We are not missing it again if I have to bike her there I will, though I am not sure I would make it back up the hill pulling Izzy in the trailer to get home! My car battery is charged and I will be checking though the day to make sure it stays that way!!

My sweet girl!

swim lessons

Izabell had her first swim lesson today and she did great! She started with earplugs but pulled those out halfway though the class. Urgh! She did all her teacher asked her to do and was very brave and happy in the water. She is the smallest possibly the youngest and the only girl in her class this week. I did not take photos but hope to later this week. She has class this entire week them I will sign her up for more if everything fits well:) She is very excited and happy so I think we will be signing up for next week as well.

I got Izabell ready for Ballet and went to put her in the car and my car was dead! We are getting a new battery this weekend but sadly Izzy missed her first ballet class. She was not very happy about it but we did go over to our neighbors who have three adorable girls and they played dress up for a couple hours and Izzy did not complain about missing ballet during that time:) So next Thursday will be Izzy's first class..... but I did take and up load a couple pictures:) We had a great time at the neighbors the girls are 5 years 3 years and 2 weeks old. They are all really cute and Izzy had a lot of fun playing with them!

some changes

Izabell's scoliosis has been changing and though we have not seen that Dr for a while (we go in July) I was thinking that it was looking better. But I have noticed changes....

Lately when putting her brace on after the break I have noticed that it is fitting a little different and would check to see if it was on right. Almost seemed upside down though it was not. It just does not feel like it is fitting her back the way it used to. It feels like it is not fitting her upper back on one side. When I look at hr back the major curve looks so much better and is less noticeable. A year ago I could see her curves kink back and forth and now I just see that she has a curve not the sharp kinks. But today while trying on leotards for ballet (she stars tomorrow and wanted all black attire, my sweet punk ballerina:) Her back has changed!! I noticed that her shoulder on one side protrudes more than the other side! The sales person noticed as well! The straps fit one side and would slide, twist dig in on the other side. It is like her shoulder blade and ribs have turned with her curves which is possible. Ahh I hope this is not a major change but will be calling the Dr in the morning. I know we won't get in any to see him any sooner then or scheduled apt since it is a couple weeks anyways but I want them to be aware of the change.


Izzy's eyes have been changing as well. I know I have posted about this already but now I see it more and more. I hope that maybe I am just more aware and that it is not getting even worse. Though I have a feeling that it is worse and progressing still. Her Dr said that she will most likely need surgery soon and even though I hoped that she might not need it. She has an apt with the assistant in July and then with Dr Cadrea six weeks after that. At the last apt he said he would give her this time but that we would most likely have to discuss surgery at that apt. Now that I am seeing her eyes working separately more and more I have to admit that eye surgery is looming in her future. I will keep everyone updated when I find out the details. This is not new info to me I still hoped that she would not need the surgery.

I have had people suggest though the years that it must get easier to see Izzy go to the OR since she has had so many surgeries. I am sure most of our friends and family now that this far from true. It is not easier to send your child into the OR even for smaller procedures, for some reason eye surgery freaks me out, OK the only one that did not freak me out was ear tubes! She is my baby! I take info in all the time about possibilities as since they are possibilities and not set in stone I try not to worry. I also have days when I see the changes and hear the reminders that she will need to more procedures and it is a heavy realty. So I guess this is just me accepting the eye surgery. So now the next step is preparing myself with knowledge and getting the right people (child life specialist) involved to help us plan and help Izzy though the process of another surgery. It i s not easier to send her to the OR but I do have more knowledge now than I did a few years ago about how to help her and try to make it as positive and comfortable a possible. After my surgery last week I was given anti nausea meds when waking up which helped me alot and I am going to talk with Izzy's Drs about this since she has thrown up after surgery the last few times waking up uncomfortable is bad enough but being nauseous on top of it is not something she needs to deal with if she doesn't have to. OK I am rambling and it is not even set in stone yet but I see the chisel and that means it is time to educate myself on this next step..



She is very excited about her first ballet class tomorrow and looks very cute in her dance cloths! I will take and post pictures and will try to post them tomorrow night. i am very behind on posting pictures, sorry. She also starts swim lessons on Monday!! We are looking into a couple 1/2 day summer camps that are a week long. There is a cooking one I think she would love and a hip hop dance one that her friend Crystal is going to take. Izzy would love to go to a dance camp with Crystal. Hopefully they still have an opening!