Hair & Ice Cream

My auntie Bird, cousins JenJen, and Richie came over tonight to visit with us. It ended up being an Ice Cream social and Hair night. My aunt and cousin Jen did Lauryns hair in braids. T hates having her hair messed with and this was all Richie and I could manage without her getting upset and throwing herself on the floor. Adam made the night even better when he came home with some Baskin Robbins ice cream. Yummy!!

San Francisco

I had to be in Oakland again for more training for work so Adam, the girls and I decided to make it into a mini vacation and it was perfect. We went to Pier 39 on Sunday evening and even though it was cold we had a great time. Here is Lauryn picking out oysters for pearls. It was addicting for the both of us and we ended up doing it 3 times. She is a great Oyster Pearl Picker Outer. We ended up with a pink,white and gray one!!

Sisters (last Saturday)

We decided to head out to our local golf course in Dinuba. Yes, you heard right, we do have a golf course in Dinuba;) I wanted to snap some pics but we ended up staying for all of about 10minutes because it was waaay to hot n muggy.

Kathy-our Physical Therapist. Friday of last week

Since we were gone for so long, Tacori was in desperate need of her physical Therapist, Kathy.

Kathy came by last week in the afternoon and had a Welcome Home gift for T. Her first Crayola markers!! Lauryn helped T to learn how to use them and they both had a blast and as you can see they also made quite the mess!



Kathy is wonderful and her vast knowledge about PT is amazing! She has been very instrumental in helping T to meet her developmental milestones. We love our KC Kids Physical Therapist!!

Trach Yanker-last week July 17th

Well, we knew it would happen, we just never knew when.

I was in Oakland for a training and got a call from our nurse Irene. She said you'll never believe what T did?! I was soooo excited to hear she had finally had started walking...but, no this was not as exciting...T had pulled her trach out and made herself bleed a bit. Irene is absolutely fabulous and put it right back in but thank God we just got had her airway reconstructed because she wouldn't have had as much time as she did before things could've gone bad.

Our precious little girl is a Trach Yanker!



Nooooo! Not me!!!!

Thank you!

I want to extend extra supersized hugs to all of you who have been our pillars for strength through this first phase of reconstruction (family, friends, coworkers, Dr Cotton, his Fellows and all the . You're phone calls, comments, thoughts and prayers mean sooooo much.



A special thanks to my Hospital Development colleagues at California Transplant Donor Network who sent Tacori a Welcome Home bouquet of balloons and a bear. I couldn't have been there with Tacori without their support.

Here is Tacori a few days after she rec'd the balloons-I had to give them time to deflate because Tacori was out to gettem.

We're HOME!

Home! Yes, Tacori and I are home! Who knew a four letter word could mean so much.

Six hours of flying and a 2hour layover in between-T was a good girl-ancy but good. I had to travel not only with Tacori, but,a suction machine, emergency bag,diaper bag,meds, feeding pump, feeds and supplies. But we made it.

We don't have to return for 3months (October) for another couple of surgeries. Her rib graft is healing well and now has a open airway in her trachea. However, the news we weren't anticipating to hear is now that they can actually see air moving in and out of her airway they realized that her vocal cords are not allowing enough air through. Therefore, Dr. Cotton needs to perform a cordectomy. This means he will laser off a divet on one of her cords, place another stent in to allow healing and remove a couple of weeks later. Permanently removing a piece of her vocal cord will mess with the quality of voice (she will now have a breathy voice if any voice at all) and now she will be at increased risk for aspiration since the cords help protect the entrance to the lungs. This means she will need to learn how to swallow and compensate AGAIN!! Hopefully the third time will be the charmer!

4th of July

Last year for the 4th, we were in the hospital and yet again we are now stranded near the hospital. However, for the first time in over a week, we were able to get out a bit for some fireworks. We met a really nice family from Texas. Kelly (mom), Mackenzie (big sis-7y/o) and Haily (5y/o who rec'd liver &sm.bowel transplant-10mo ago)They have grown very fond of Tacori and vice versa. They invited us to go watch fireworks with them and it turned out to be a very pleasant evening. We went to Newport on the Levee which is like a Riverpark with a River. They shot fireworks off of the bridge and there was a gorgeous view behind it with the skyscrapers in Downtown Cincinnati. Just Beau-ti-ful!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

(My Daddy's birthday was the 30th of June)

Walk a little slower, Dad
Cuz I am only small.
I’m following in your footsteps,
And I don’t want to fall.


Someday when I’m all grown up.
You’re what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child,
Who’ll want to follow me.


And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Dad,
For I must follow you.


A very very very Happy Birthday Dad

We luv you!

Tacori
&
Lauryn