Little League

Written: March 24, 2012

Little League Baseball season has officially started.
Hollister is not able to play due to his surgery. He will miss 2 weeks, which is about four games.

This year, we are in "Coach Pitch" which is equivalent to AAA baseball. We are the Red Wings. The team is the Rochester Red Wings which is the minor league team of the Yankees.
 We call it a chicken on steroids!

Once again, TKH Home Pros is sponsoring!

 Opening Ceremonies: All teams are introduced and then they play a few games.

We watched a coach pitch and a little of the majors, which are the "big kids".

It was a great night for baseball.

Today was picture day. Then there was a scrimmage. Hollister didn't play but he was there to support his team!
So was Hamilton. He LOVES baseball and loves wearing that batting helmet. He tried to wear it to bed last night.

                                                          How sweet are these boys?

                                                                         The team! Hollister is on the front, far left.

         It was overcast and kind of gloomy that morning. We are taking no chances for this boy to get sick!

                                                               Trevor's pitching debut!
                  He had a pretty good strike out ratio. Problem is, in coach pitch you pitch to your own team.

De ja' vu

Apparently blogger has changed some things and the dates are now off so I am going to start each blog the date I wrote it.. With my crazy schedule, I don't always get things posted right away.

Written: March 22, 2012

I could just direct you to November 15, 20011's blog entry. Today was pretty much the exact same day for us, but earlier in the day.

Hollister had his second tympanoplasty/mastiodectomy surgery on his left ear to get rid of a cholesteatoma. To those of you who just skipped over those big words, he had ear surgery.

This is the second one and hopefully the last on his left ear. This was supposed to be a "clean up" surgery and then the Dr. would reconstruct part of his ear to help with his hearing. When the doctor left us, he said, "It'll be about an hour and a half." The first surgery was 3 hours. It was traumatic! He did great, but it was a really tough day for Trevor and I.

His angry bird went with him this time.

Another tattoo from the Dr. This makes sure he does the surgery on the correct ear.

Of course, he had to play with the toys again.

The nurse told him he could play angry birds while he was breathing in the anesthesia. He was totally pumped.

After he walked back to play "Angry Birds" on the ipad with one of the nurses, we went and had breakfast and figured we'd be home by noon. (We were the 8am surgery this time). Well, over THREE hours later we were paged. We did get a few phone calls in those 3 hours that things were fine, but we knew something had to be up since it was taking so long.

The moment we saw the doctor he said, "Wow, that was longer than the first time." He proceeded to explain how he found more and deeper rooted than originally thought. He was amazed at how big this thing was. He did the reconstruction as well which took time. We now have a card that explains about this small titanium adjustable micron that is in his ear. We are supposed to keep in our wallet should we see another Dr. or at the airport he sets the alarms off. HA!

Seriously, what does all this mean? Well, Hollister shows signs of hearing when he has hearing tests, but he doesn't have hearing in that ear and he probably never will. The doctor wants to move on to tackle the right ear since it is small and he does have hearing in that ear. There is really no need to keep putting him through the surgeries for the left ear.

Its the worst news for us. He can't hear in his left ear. But, its the news we expected. Our doctor is still optimistic and hasn't ruled anything out.

This was him afterward. He matches his angry bird. He isn't mad, just out of it. His face is red because of the medicine they gave him. 

              Because of his surgery he got a special bracelet for being a fall risk.

Apparently he was too tired to even hold his Popsicle. He had two of them while we waited to be discharged, This was a good sign he was feeling better.

This made me so sad, but I do know he was asleep before they put this in.

Finally, a smile. His face was already less red. He started getting back to himself around this time.

Hollister has been fantastic. He is so brave and all the nurses talked about how sweet he is and what a big boy he is. We were prepared for the nausea that comes with this type of surgery, but he didn't get sick this time. Whew.

He has spent the afternoon, laying down on the couch, watching TV and playing his new obsession, "Angry Birds". For those of you who don't know, its a crazy obsessive iphone game. (Think the Pac-Man craze from the good ole days). He hasn't napped though so we are thinking he will sleep well tonight. At least we hope he does. He is eating and drinking. He still needs assistance to walk, but is so much better this time.

What's next? Post op in  a few weeks and then we will turn our attention to the right ear. Stayed tuned for another installment and that "de ja' vu" feeling.

St Patrick's Day

I know my kids hate days like these, but they do pacify me. Today, a leprechaun came and left green treats for them in their shoes. Apparently leprechauns don't mind stinky shoes.

Green milk for our lucky charms!

              Green eggs and toast, That really is just green butter, but melted looks more like paint.


This pushed the limit with the kids. Hollister saw the green mac and cheese, walked away and cried.  So, no more green food for my kids, unless of course, it's candy.

The Birthday Bike

For Hollister's birthday (in January), we wanted to buy him a bike. Trevor and I searched several stores and just weren't quite sure the size that he needed. After several stores, we decided to just buy a helmet and let him pick out a bike. Then we had his party and afterward, we gave him the helmet. He was greatly disappointed and told us he didn't want a bike. We both felt kind of glad we hadn't chosen one and gave it to him in front of his friends and him hate it! So, time has passed; two months actually. LOL We have been to stores of course, just never looked for a bike. On a random whim last weekend, Trevor had him get on a bike in Wal-Mart and HE FELL IN LOVE! We told him we would get a bike soon, but not at that exact moment. He became obsessed.  He went to bed that night and the first thing out of his mouth the next morning was, "I want a bike." It was all he talked about for the entire weekend.  Spring Break was this past week, so we met Trevor in town one day and found a bike. It was a good thing too, we would have gotten the wrong size in January. Needless to say he loves his bike and is a riding fool!

Pi day

As a middle school math teacher, I am now aware that March 14th, 3/14, is known as "Pi Day". Pi is a mathematical number that is unending. We use Pi in 6th grade. We teach it has "almost 3". For whatever reason, 6th graders don't need to know the rest. I think it has something to do with not multiplying decimals in sixth grade, but seriously, it doesn't matter.

Pi, Greek letter (), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…

But since we are on Spring Break, every year, on Pi Day, it really does get overlooked.

My kids have no clue what "Pi" is and of course they don't care. But we had a little fun with it. It was more about circles for them!

I found kinds of great things online though and of course, so many ways to celebrate. http://www.piday.org/

We started off with circle cereal!  YUM!

We saw the movie, The Lorax. It's not about circles, its about trees. But check out the trees. They are circular! (I know, its a stretch, but my kids are 6 and 2)

The boys played with "circles". First, a game of air hockey and of course, a steering wheel is round too!

 

We made note that 3:14 was "Pi time". He was such a ham during this, I had to change the clock back to 3:14 several times.

 

 

Mommy ran 3.14 miles

And we ate yummy pizza pie for dinner!

Now we just need to get prepared for "approximation day". That is July 22... (22/7) Seriously, this exist. I can't make this stuff up!