Hip Hop 5K Erie

     I'm excited to say that I've been away for a variety of exciting reasons; planning a 5K, prepping for my little sister's wedding, buying our first home and planning vacation.
     You read that right! The Hip Hop 5K is coming to Erie, PA! It's this coming weekend but it's not too late to donate or sign up to participate! Any donation helps and just think, if 50 people were to donate their $5 coffee for just one day that would be $250! If they rounded their donations up to $10 that would be $500! You get the point, small amounts add up quickly!
     Do me a favor and if you aren't able to participate, consider donating. The proceeds all go to the International Hip Dysplasia Institute so that more cases of hip dysplasia can be caught and treated. Together we can, together we will!
     Find the link to the website here, there are options to register yourself or a team as well as to make a donation. Hip Hop 5K Erie registration Website.

What No One Tells you After Treatment

     While the pool of information about Hip Dysplasia is pretty small the information regarding the normal expectations of kids following treatment is almost nonexistent. This means that, no matter how much research you do or what you read, there is always some degree of doubt as to whether your child is supposed to meet milestones regarding mobility on track with their peers once the harness, brace, or cast comes off.
     While Froggie seemed to be meeting milestones rolling and crawling regardless of her time in the harness she hadn't shown much interest in walking (especially walking unassisted) or in standing up by herself. I really didn't think too much of it until Hubby said "Should we be worried that she's not walking yet?" the other day. At that point I realized that my answer was "I don't know". 

     If you know me you know that "I don't know" doesn't sit well with me; I have a ton of fairly useless knowledge stored away and I will look for the answer if I don't know it. However, with this issue, there is no looking up the answer. I decided not to panic about it and to call her doctor next month if she still wasn't walking (since she is supposed to be walking before her next X-ray and that is scheduled for April). Noah started walking right when he turned one and all kids are different so I wasn't overly concerned that she wasn't walking yet. 

     Well she showed us that she was just waiting until she was good and ready. Thursday she walked across the room and got us all excited. She wouldn't do it again though so I couldn't take pictures/video. Friday though, she walked all over the place and she hasn't stopped moving since!

Froggie was bit by the walking bug!

Happy Valentine's Day!

     This morning we decked the kids out in they're Valentine's Day apparel and set them up on the couch to open up their goodie bags. We had gotten a book, cookies, pretzels and chocolates for each of the kids and then had bought The Jungle Book for them to share. Froggie also got her new hat this morning because I finally had time to finish it!

The hat

Hugging her baby doll

opening their gifts

Froggie LOVED her book and Big Brother liked the movie

of course she got frog chocolate

Frog chocolate

Froggie wearing her hat

Big Brother all decked out

     Later this morning Hubby came into work for Big Brother's classroom party, which just so happened to be combined with my classroom for today. While we were waiting to start Hubby went in to say hi to Froggie and she didn't want him to put her down so he took her with him out to Big Brother's party. It was a lot of fun and I think Froggie had a lot of fun hanging out with Hubby and crashing the party.

Froggie sitting with Hubby

Big Brother showing off his shirt

Coloring

Froggie walking with Hubby

The kids hanging out with Hubby

     I'm not sure if we are doing anything tonight (other than watching The Jungle Book) and Hubby and I exchanged our gifts last night since he was impatient and couldn't wait for me to open my gift today.
     One year ago we had our first trip to Shriner's Hospital with Froggie. There were no sonograms or X-rays at that visit and we had just met Froggie's doctor. She was tiny (13 days old) and her doctor did the same hip check on her that the pediatrician's in the hospital and or family doctor had all done previously; he came to the same conclusion as her other doctor's - something was not right. So we scheduled an appointment for a sonogram and headed out, we were given a Valentine (her first!) that was made by a local elementary school student and a stuffed bear that was as big as she was! Little did I know that with that appointment began our journey towards her treatment, this blog and my desire to spread the word about Hip Dysplasia.

February 14, 2013                                  February 14 2014

Spread Awareness for Hip Dysplasia

Froggie's first full day in her harness

 
    I've said it before and I'll say it again… until Froggie was born I had NEVER heard of hip dysplasia! I was an EMT for a while after high school and received my Art Therapy degree in a medical school where we shared the halls and student lounge with medical students and never did I hear anything regarding this particular topic. (That is not to say that they were not taught that information, just that I either didn't pay attention to it or they weren't studying it in the halls/lounge)
     That being said, a few advocates have made the push for more publicity regarding hip dysplasia and are targeting popular medical TV shows. While I don't always value these types of shows for a variety of reasons I do think that creating better screening and conformity in evaluation and treatment will be beneficial but will only come about through awareness.
    So… help spread the word and get hip dysplasia out there by clicking on the link below to sign a petition asking Dr. OZ or The Doctor's to discuss the topic.

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO VOTE!

Froggie in her harness

Walking?!

     Froggie turned 11 months old on New Years Day and up until recently she had no real interest in walking. If we tried to hold her hands and have her walk with us she would pull her feet up or try to get back on the floor. I remember Big Brother being so much more interested in walking so it made me a little worried that maybe her disinterest was linked to pain, discomfort or an issue with her hips that wasn't resolved by her time in her harness.
     Well, for the past few days she's been pretty willing to walk while holding someone's hands so I decided to introduce her to one of the "walking toys" at work. You know, the things with a TON of toys on them or shaped like animals that kids can sit on or push while learning to walk. She LOVED it!

moving all around!

     To show Hubby how well she did we dug out Big Brother's old one (which doesn't roll very well so she really just slid it around the kitchen, Big Brother already decided he wanted to get her something like this for her birthday). Maybe she'll be right on track with walking as well, though milestones regarding movement are always a little hard for me because I'm not sure if her hips will hold her back anywhere.

Cruising around the kitchen

concentrating!

Froggie's First Parade

     Saturday was a day packed with things to do. October is always our busiest month and we typically have something (or multiple things) going on each weekend. This year is no different and we kicked off the month with Homecoming festivities, a fall festival, military ball and a birthday dinner.
     I think I've mentioned before that we live in a college town and it just so happened to be homecoming weekend. Hubby and I are both Alumni of the school and I've been attending homecoming parades since I was a little kid so we continue the tradition and head out to watch the parade and participate in the festivities. We met up with some of my familyat the parade route and ran onto some people I hadn't seen in awhile.
     This year the parade was an hour earlier but was still as packed as it's every been. Big Brother and Froggie got to watch and collect candy as it was thrown. Froggie did great for her first parade and was completely unfazed by the loud noises. After the parade we walked down the street to campus to see what was going on. Big Brother got some goodies, including a tattoo, and we all snagged a quick lunch before heading out to a fall festival. We walked around for a bit and I got some cute hair clips for Froggie and Big Brother got some sweets.
     It was a nice start to our day and we were able to get home and relax a little before getting ready for the Navy Ball.

Hubby and Big Brother

Watching the parade

Fire truck!

Family picture

Froggie and I

Hubby and Froggie

Baby's need to eat everywhere!

Big Brother showing Froggie his tattoo

Getting a ride with Hubby

Fall festival

Fall festival

Fall festival

UPDATE: Froggie's Hips

     So, I know you've all been waiting all day to hear how Froggie's appointment went.
     We got moving a little early and dropped Big Brother off at school. He's always a little thrown off when he gets dropped off alone since we go in as a family every day. Hubby stayed in the car with Froggie since she had fallen asleep and we headed to her appointment from there.
     Traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be (read as we didn't get stuck behind as many buses as I thought we would) so we sat in the parking lot and talked while we drank our coffee for a few minutes. It was nice since Hubby and I don't get a lot of time to talk without the kids around. We will be going out in formal attire this weekend, but that's for a later blog.
     We got in and were quickly sent back to radiology. The ladies there were very nice and were exceptionally tolerant of Froggie's melt down. She has become very uncooperative for people she doesn't see very often and even though we have the same staff every time we go to Shriner's she was not happy to see any of them today.
     We got through the X-ray and there was a marker in the wrong spot. It didn't obstruct the view of the joint space, which is what Froggie's doctor wanted to look at, but they needed to check with the doctor before they sent us back to the main waiting room. Once they tracked down Froggie's doctor he said the image was readable and we were sent back to the waiting room.
     Froggie got to eat her oatmeal and watch the bubble wall while we waited. She really seemed to like the bubble wall and she REALLY likes being able to move herself around.
   

Bubble wall!

     We were taken back and Froggie weighed in at 16lbs 2oz and she is getting SO big. We were taken back to an exam room where we played with Froggie to keep her entertained. We hadn't ever been in this room and it had dolphins in the lights!

In the exam room

Dolphin light!

Hubby making Froggie smile

     Before Froggie's doctor came in the nurse and an intern came in to talk with us and check on Froggie. The intern wanted to do a hip exam on Froggie and she once again went into a melt down. Screaming, tears, batting at anything and anyone.... As soon as I picked her up she patted me and smiled.
     Froggie's doctor came in and said that her X-rays looked good and there was a consensus that her hips were stable and still in the proper position. Her treatment is officially considered over and she will have to go back only one more time in 6 months (once she's walking) to have one last X-ray.
     On our way out we took Froggie's picture with the Frog statue in front of the hospital. Overall it was a great day!

Froggie and the Froggy

LBM Update

     The wonderful ladies at Poison Control called me at approximately 7:30pm to check on Addi. She reminded me that if she hadn't thrown up or shown any signs of belly pain that she was in the clear and the LBM wasn't poisonous (or she didn't actually ingest any of it.)!
     We were a single car family today since Hubby's car needed to be inspected. While we were waiting to pick up Hubby once I was done with work I took the kids to the zoo. It was in the 70's again and it was another beautiful day. They have been setting up for the zoo's Halloween festivities and some areas of the zoo are closed off for setting up but Big Brother and Froggie still had fun. We tried to snap a group picture and it turned out ok.
     Tomorrow is the day... we head in bright and early to have a set of x-rays done to determine whether Froggie's time in the Pavlick Harness remedied the issues with her hips! Wish us luck!

I'll take what I can get from them... 

Beautiful Weather, Pirate Baseball, LBM's and Government Shut Downs

     With the temperatures in the low 70's I'm starting to wonder if Fall decided to take a vacation. I'm not going to complain about it though and it makes for beautiful afternoons.
     So I decided to walk the kids to the park furthest from our house so that I could get in some exercise and they could play. It was a nice walk and Froggie fell asleep while Big Brother tried to point me in the direction of the park every couple minutes. Hubby met us there and we enjoyed the park for a little while. I decided that I also wanted to take pictures of the kids.
     Big Brother went first and I had to bribe him with the offer of a new cup to get him to participate. Luckily I pulled his camel back bottle out of the cupboard and he doesn't remember the 1 other time he used it so he was really excited about his new water bottle.
     Froggie was up and she really liked playing in the grass and trying to eat it. Hubby and I were pulling her hands away from her mouth the entire time and she would crawl a little then sit back up with a handful of grass. At one point she found a mushroom, an LBM to be exact. LBM stands for Little Brown Mushroom and covers any small brown mushroom since they all look the same. This is good and bad. Good because they're common so we were able to find another very close to the one she grabbed to have. Bad because not only did she find a LBM she was chewing on it... LBM's range from harmless to poisonous and after 15 minutes of searching for the type of mushroom on the internet I found a site about LBM's.
     After reading a little I decided we should probably take Froggie in to the ER to be checked out since I didn't know which type of LBM she had chewed on and I wasn't sure if she'd actually swallowed any of it since I had nearly gaged her trying to get all the little pieces out of her mouth. Big Brother didn't want to leave the park and, honestly, we were pretty abrupt in our decision to go. Once we got in the car I had Hubby call poison control (I didn't immediately think about poison control for a mushroom, but I'm glad we called).
     The woman was really very calm and nice. She was patient when Hubby asked to put her on speaker phone so that I could hear what she had to say. She was very insistent that we didn't need to go to the ER (yet) and that observation would be suitable for the time being. We were instructed to look for vomiting, diarrhea, signs of nausea and abnormal behavior. If we noticed any of these things in the next 24 hours we were directed to contact her doctor/head to the ER.
     When we started unloading the car at home Hubby tossed my picked mushroom into the yard (I almost strangled him!) and then started kicking around the grass for it when I explained that we should keep it until we know that she isn't going to have to go to the doctors. I was pretty angry that he hadn't even thought about keeping it until we knew Froggie was ok (it must have been a mom moment) but after asking where he had thrown it from I picked up something of a similar weight and tossed it from the same spot and TADA mushroom found... It's now in it's own little bag in the fridge until about 6:30 tomorrow evening.
     Froggie has been fine so far but I will probably still not sleep much tonight since I'll be in observation mode... At least now I have the blog to work on and Pirates baseball to watch while Froggie sleeps in Hubby's lap. The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since I was 11 and they're holding strong so far! I wore my Pirates gear to work today and if Hubby didn't have to wear his uniform and I wasn't afraid that Big Brother would ruin his Jersey EVERYONE would have had pirates gear on today. Big Brother did sport his Pirates hat, which is amazing since he rarely wants to wear anything but his Lightening McQueen hat.
     Speaking of uniforms... Hubby is still heading into work though some of his civilian co-workers have been sent home. If you weren't aware the federal government shut down today it has... lots of things are closed or have lost funding/priority. If Hubby's school schedule wasn't up in the air before it is now and we're back to waiting to see what's going to happen.
     Ok... That's enough for now, I'm off to obsessively stare at Froggie for the rest of the night!

Climbing at the playground

My favorite!

Love this little girl!

My cute crawling girl

Chasing my camera

Mushroom Mouth!

Daddy Day Spa

In our rush to get out the door Monday morning Hubby tried to do Froggie's hair. Before I took over I snapped a few pictures. Hubby actually did fairly well but didn't wrap her hair tie tightly enough and it fell out which is why I took over. He'll have to learn sooner or later!

She was so patient with him

Tobin's AutumnFest 2013

     We decided to make the most out of our day and headed out to another fall fest before the Steelers game started. Today's autumn fest was nice, but not as child friendly as Port Farms was yesterday. They had a bunch of local crafters and vendors set up with a few areas that were decorated and set up for the kids. Big Brother REALLY wanted to push Froggie in the umbrella stroller and despite images of him pushing her right into the pond or nearby ditches we let him. He did a great job and only needed help steering a few times. I think he was really proud of himself for pushing his baby sister. Hubby got to buy his apple cider and Big Brother picked out 2 more "little pumpkins" for he and Froggie.
     Big Brother then got to go get up close and personal with a horse! A local training camp for horses had brought four of their smaller horses out for children to ride. He said he wanted to ride but we weren't sure if he would be afraid once it was his turn. We were lucky enough to be able to let him meet the horse and have me walk alongside him while he rode. Hubby and my mom couldn't get any smiles out of him while he was in the saddle but as soon as we got off he said he wanted to get back on!

   

Big Brother pushing Froggie

Doing a good job

Picking out "baby pumpkins"

The kids and their pumpkins

Happy Froggie

Apple cider!

Meeting the horse

waiting to ride

Riding the horse

Doing great on the horse

making laps

Happy little pumpkin

Just for fun!