Eva walks! Sort of…

This girl! She can walk but she doesn’t always want to. Let me rephrase that, she can walk but she rarely wants to. If and when she decides she wants to walk it has to be in this exact setting. She will never try to walk without someone cheering her on and she will never try to walk on anything but carpet. She is such a nut! Here’s another cute attempt of hers at walking.

Eva Update and Japan!

We just got back from Eva’s appointment with the ENT. Rich had super high expectations and thought that Eva was going to come home without her trach. I knew that it wouldn’t quite work out that way.

(Rich forgot his sunglasses and it was super bright so I let him borrow mine. Hahahaha! He’s gonna kill me when he see’s this picture and will probably make me take it down.)

So here is the low-down…last week Rich got a call where he was told that we would be getting orders to Yokota Air Force Base in Japan. If that wasn’t a big enough shock, they told him that we would be leaving in August! If I’m being completely honest I was jumping up and down when he told me Japan but then he told me we had to leave Utah in 4 months and I was SO SAD! I love it here and had my heart set on another year but then again, it’s JAPAN! So we got super excited and then a few hours later he found out that the guy that was supposed to be going there didn’t get medical clearance and is now appealing. Grrrr! Which leads us to right where we are now, in limbo. We should be finding out within the next couple of days if the guy is going to get approved or if we will be going. THEN, to top it all off WE have to get medical clearance which means Eva has to be trach free and all healed up. That would usually be no problem since she’s been ready to get the trach out for a couple of months now except for the fact that her ENT was on vacation for a few weeks and is now way overbooked and can’t get her in for surgery until May 29th!!! Ahhhh!

(When your baby sister has a trach of course your stuffed toy named Tiara needs a guaze too!)

Rich has been really stressed about the whole situation which is not like him to be stressed over anything. I have been up and down but have finally settled on knowing that if Japan is where Heavenly Father wants us to be He can move mountains to get us there if necessary. I am so happy here in Utah that I am really more than ok with staying another year if it works out that way. I know that another adventurous opportunity will be just around the corner.

Back to Eva. Dr. Mutz scoped her and both of her vocal cords are moving. They aren’t opening as wide as ours open but they are opening enough to get the trach out. There was a lot of irritation and swelling from reflux so he upped her Prevacid dose from half a pill to a whole one. As we were leaving the hospital I realized that this whole exciting time of Eva getting decanulated has been overshadowed by the stressing and rushing to get her medically cleared so we can go to Japan. I hate that! I had the chance to just stop and think about the miracle of this process. 3 times we’ve been through this. 3 times and now Eva is going to come out on top just like Aidan and Arabella did. We are SO BLESSED! There are so many parents who’s little ones never get decanulated, never crawl, walk or eat and some who never make it to toddlerhood. Yes, it has been emotionally challenging but we are in the process of witnessing our 3rd huge blessing and miracle of having a perfectly healthy and normal baby. I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude. I told Rich that whatever happens it doesn’t matter because we already have it all! I love this rollercoaster we are on because even the downs feel like ups! Blessed beyond measure.

Utah is confused

This Utah weather has been CRAZY! One day it’s in the 70’s and the next it’s like a tornado is sweeping the valley and in that same day there is a huge snowfall!

Just 2 days ago…my girls bonding on the trampoline.

Yesterday morning (Of course, she dressed herself from head to toe)

Noon

Later that day

What is this crazy state we live in?

Pure joy!

She was screaming to go outside in the snow but didn’t last long. Once a gigantic snowflake landed on her eyelashes she was done.

 

I had selfishly hoped that winter was long gone but we did have a lame snowfall this year so the kids deserved an extra one randomly in the middle of April. It snowed all night so they spent a lot of time playing in the snow today.

 

Throwing giant snowballs.

Eva was content just watching them from the girls bedroom window.

Did I mention that it was my birthday yesterday and I hate the cold? Yeah, somebody has a great sense of humor

Change is coming!

Ohhhh, there are big things happening here at the Baker home! Today, Rich called Eva’s ENT and was able to get her appt. bumped up to next week on the 16th! I’m not sure if Dr. Muntz will decanulate right then and there or if he will schedule a bronch/decanulation for a later date but we are sooooo close to the end! I’m so grateful because we are all beyond ready to be done with this trach business. Eva is to the point where she knows everything there is to know about her trach. She knows where her “voice” is, if I ask here where he trach is she will point to it and if I ask her where her gauze and trach ties are she knows exactly what they are too. I need to get it on video, it’s so cute!

She is 10 days away from being 20 months old and she is STILL not walking! Yesterday she made huge progress and was taking 4-5 steps consistently but she’s slacking in the self-motivation department. Oh well. She has her whole life to walk, right She did do this today…

I think it’s so funny that she is brave enough to climb all the way up to the top of a pretty big slide but she’s too scared to walk. Silly girl!

One morning I slept in a bit and came out to find this:

She also recently went on her first date, haha!

Maya has decided that she wants to be a Chef and a Pastry Chef when she grows up and is obsessed with cooking shows.

I snapped this picture as she was heading off to school with her friend, Marissa. Such a big girl!

This Utah weather is CRAZY! Just 2 days ago this happened:

And today we’ve been playing outside all day!

Look at all of those cute teeth!

I am so excited for summertime! The kids have so much fun running around to each others yards and now that Eva is doing so great we can actually visit all the beautiful sights Utah has to offer. Feeling so blessed!

Catch-up

Ever since I discovered Instagram Chatbooks I have been majorly slacking on my blog. Its time to refocus and play blogpost catch-up so here I go.

St. Patrick’s Day. The kids have been counting down the days until St. Patrick’s day for a whole month so I figured I should probably do more than I usually do for it(which is nothing).

This small effort brought out some pretty great comments like: “You are the best mom in the world!” “This is the best day ever!”

I finally took Arabella in to get a referral to go see a podiatrist. She trips on absolutely nothing atleast twice a day.

While I was there Dr. Thacker thought we should go ahead and do an EKG on Eva because our nurses have noticed an irregularity in her heartbeat.

Before: So happy

 

During: Curious

 

After getting pinched with one of the leads: Not so happy

We’ll try again next time.

Now for some randomness. Any time I take her clothes off she lies down on my legs to get a little back scratch. They are her absolute favorite!

After telling my bishop that I was ready for a calling now that Eva is so close to the end and she’s doing so well, he gave me one. I am SO CRAZY EXCITED about this!

We still get to go on a date every Friday night. I love our alone time together. This past Friday we went out to eat and then to a movie at the “fancy” theater.

Lastly, my other handsome man likes to smell good on Sundays. He asks Rich for some cologne every Sunday and I think it’s because the first time he wore cologne to church my friend Jess complimented him on how great he smelled, hahaha!

The fun just never stops! In fact, I feel like it’s getting better and better. Loving this time in our lives!