Wall of Hope

At the end of January, the kids were asked if they could be photographed for the new Intermediate Nursery walls at Brenner's Children's Hospital at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Their idea was to take pictures of NICU graduates and put them up on the walls. The pictures are meant to give hope to parents whose babies are in the NICU. The pictures were put up on the walls in the middle of April. We had to take a trip back to the NICU to check them out. All the pictures turned out so good. Here are the pictures of the kids that made it on the wall.

The actual pictures up on the wall.

They each got an individual picture and then we were surprised with another picture of them together!

So Big!

It's a really cool project that we loved being a part of. There were pictures of NICU graduates younger than Lindy and Will all the way up to kids that are now 19. There were kids who had been in the NICU only 7 days all the way up to 290 days! Now if that doesn't give hope to parents, I don't know what does!

First Zoo Trip!

We had a busy week here. The weather has gotten warm and we are enjoying it. Unfortunately the pollen has gotten bad and everything is coated in a yellow powder.

The kids and I are slowly getting over our colds. It's taking longer than we'd like. Lindy seems almost fine except for a little drainage that is apparentely just sitting in the back of her throat. It has driven me nuts all week. Doesn't seem to bother her but you can hear it. Will's nose is still running, although it's getting a little slower each day. I am still pretty stopped up as well. I think we had colds but now I'm beginning to wonder if it's allergeries. Or both! We've all developed pretty good coughs as well. Drew finally caught the cold at the beginning of this week but he seems to have gotten over it already. Not fair!

Along with a cold, Will finally had his fourth molar break through on Monday. He's been a happy camper between the cold and his teeth. He's officially addicted to Tylenol. It's an instant elixir for him. You give it to him and he immediately feels better. He loves his Tylenol!

Lindy had a few appointments this week. We had our hearing teacher here on Monday. We ended up doing our session in her high chair. I think all sessions will be there from now on. She just gets too distracted on the ground in the living room. She responded to the six sounds better in her high chair too. We have rescheduled her hearing test for May 8th (the one we had to cancel because of her cold).

Tuesday she had physical therapy. They made casts for her new custom braces. We are still waiting on some paperwork to be cleared, but the casts are ready as soon as everything is done. Casting was really easy. She put this plaster type stuff around her feet and then just cut a line down the front and took it off. We had time for Lindy to show off her new crawling and cruising skills. Heather was very proud of her! Hopefully these new braces will really give her the confidence to go!

We were supposed to have our Govenor Morehead teacher here on Wednesday but she cancelled because she was getting sick. Thursday morning I took the kids to Target for a morning adventure. We were there forever, looking at a little bit of everything. That afternoon we played outside.

Today we went to the North Carolina Zoo. It ended up being pretty hot outside! The original forecase I saw said it was supposed to be 82 and I think it ended up near 90. We were tired and hot after spending almost 4 hours there. Lindy finally fell asleep at the very end of the afternoon. I thought (hoped) they would both nap. Both did fall asleep on the way there though. I've decided the zoo isn't for little kids though. I'm sure Lindy didn't see any animals and Will might have seen 3. They just couldn't see much. It'll definitely be better when they are a lot older. They were awesome though. They hardly made a peep. Just went along for the ride. We started the day with lunch at Sir Pizza which is a must if you are ever in Asheboro. Yummy!

Here are pictures from our week:

Lindy has become quite the reader lately.

I had the feeling Will has been getting bored lately. I went to the basement and brought out a new toy. I got out the tent and tunnel toy that they got for their birthday last year from the Bryants. They had so much fun in it! They played in it all day the first day I had it out!

We went outside for awhile Thurday afternoon. We were attacked by catepillars. They have seriously invaded our house right now. You'd look down and have them crawling on your clothes.

Sidewalk chalk for the first time!

She is doing so well standing up! (she has her braces on, you just can't tell)

At the zoo!

Check out the polar bear up by Drew's head. He was sacked out. We saw a lot of sleeping animals today.

Cooling off.

Hot and tired kiddo's! Will threw off his hat at least 3 times. We'd look down and it would be gone. One of us would trek back to find it. Amazingly we found it each time. Lindy did awesome with the glasses and hearing aides for a really long time but eventually started throwing them.

March for Babies

Today was the March of Dimes March for Babies. It could not have been a more beautiful day to go for a 3.2 mile walk. It was gorgeous! We had 18 friends walk with us as part of the Million Dollar Babies team. It means so much to us that our friends want to support us and the March of Dimes in our endeavors to eliminate infant mortality and prematurity.

We also want to thank everyone for financially supporting us this year. Once again the generosity of our friends and family has blown us away. Drew and I raised almost $3500 this year. Helping save babies is a good cause. It’s a good thing to donate to. One day all babies will be born healthy - we have to walk to get there.

The only small hiccup of the day was that Lindy, Will, and I caught colds this week. Will and I weren’t feeling 100%, but we definitely walked. Lindy came down with a cold on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and by Thursday afternoon Will and I had it. We stuffed our pockets full of tissues and we walked! Lindy slept most of the walk. I thought Will would since he didn’t feel great but he stayed awake.

Million Dollar Babies Team!

Louise and Janice

GrandBob, Lindy, Uncle Ed, Drew, and Will
Lauren and Isabelle
Katie, Claire, and Micah (a returning walker from last year. Little Claire was inside the womb last year though!)

Mark, Mary Allen, Conner (in the stroller) and Tyler (in Mark's arms).

Uncle Ed and Jamie Lindy thought walking was exhausting!

Lindy and Will had their pictures in Ambassador Avenue. I sent in a picture of Will in the NICU but I'm not sure what happened to it. And his middle name should be spelled Allan.

They also asked families to make posters for their babies that did not survive. I worked all week on a poster for Adam. Unfortunately they only had 3 people do it and they weren't displayed very well.

Jamie, Wendy, and Lisa. We all went to high school together (Asheboro High - go comets!). Unfortunately we all had premature babies. Wendy's daughter was born at 34 weeks and is 5 now. Lisa's son, Adam, was born at 32 weeks and is actually in the NICU right now. After 5 long months he is coming home MONDAY! Yeah!!
We saw one of our neonatologist, Dr. Welch.

At the end of the morning they had everyone gather around with balloons. We released them in the air in memory of all the sweet babies that didn't make it. We released ours for Adam.

Some of our team had already left but those of us left got a picture by the MOD sign.

Swinging before we walked.

I hardly took any pictures this week since they would have all had baby snot in them. Our only appointment this week was Lindy’s weekly hearing therapy. She originally had a hearing test scheduled for Thursday but we cancelled it after she got the cold. Any congestion in her ears would definitely throw off a hearing test.

I hate to see Lindy and Will sick, especially since we were so excited that it is April (the first month they consider it safe to come out of hibernation). But I’ll admit that both youngins fell asleep on me this week and it was kind of sweet to snuggle them. They are always so busy and on the go that we don’t get good snuggle time anymore.

One milestone of note last weekend, Lindy cruised!! She was standing and holding onto the coffee table. She moved from about half way down the table to the end. By herself!! Slowly but surely she's becoming more mobile!

Lindy when she didn't feel good last week.

Watching Daddy mow.

Easter 2009

We had a good Easter Sunday. The kids woke up and had breakfast and then a little Easter egg hunt in the living room. They seemed to catch on to the idea of hunting the eggs. Lindy was great at putting her eggs in her basket. Will kept making baskets on our little basketball goal with his eggs! They had fun opening some presents from the Easter Bunny. Who knew the snack trap would be the hot item?!

We headed to church and back home afterwards for lunch. My parents, Drew's Dad and stepmom, Drew's mom and sister, Drew's brother, his girlfriend and kids were all here. There were 14 of us total. We had a great afternoon. Enjoy a few pictures of our day!

The kids and their Easter baskets from Aunt Amy, Uncle Lee, Hayley and Rylee.

Hunting eggs!

Our family on Easter.

Here are the kids last year with the bunnies. They've grown a little bit!

Nana, Papa, Lindy and Will

The grandmas: Suzette (Drew's stepmom), Mimo (Drew's Mom), and Nana (my mom).

The grandpa's: Papa (my dad) and Grandbob (Drew's Dad). Can you tell how excited they were to get their pictures taken?! Lindy and her cousin Molly.

The Southern siblings: Drew, Anna, and Ed

Suzette and Jamie (Ed's girlfriend).

I didn't get a good picture of Corbyn but he was there too. He's not much of a picture taker!