Eva’s Airway Scare

Late last night Rich and I were watching a movie when we heard a croupy sounding cough. This sound is fairly common around our house whenever one of our “trach kids” is sick. Since none of our kids was sick we thought it was just a random, funny sounding cough. About 30 minutes later we heard it again, so Rich hopped up to see whose room it was coming from and it was Eva. Since being decanulated, this was the first time we’ve heard her have any sort of obstruction in her airway so we freaked out a bit and Rich grabbed her out of bed. She was really wheezing and having a hard time swallowing. She had shown no signs of being sick at all and the onset was an hour and a half after putting her to bed so the only thing we could think that could be happening to her was some sort of allergic reaction to the food we ate at the restaurant that night.

 

She was really struggling and we weren’t really sure where the ER was and Rich was scared to take her alone, without me in the back making sure she was still breathing so he called 911. Within 5 minutes there were 8 or 9 men in my tiny living room surrounding Eva. Of course, by then she had become much more alert and was able to better control her breathing. For a minute I started to wonder if we had jumped in to calling 911 too quickly but they assured us that we did the right thing. Every second was unpredictable when we got her up. We didn’t want to risk waiting it out and or attempting to make the 15 minute drive, by ourselves, without any way to open her airway if it completely obstructed.

 

They monitored her while they called their headquarters to ask if they should drive her in to the ER by ambulance or let us take her. They were instructed to take her by ambulance because of her history and the risk so off we went for Eva’s second ambulance ride, the first being her transport to Primary Children’s after birth. Her breathing was stable enough that I felt I had to get a picture, for her life history book(my blog).

When we got to the hospital they gave her an oral steroid called dexamethasone and a breathing treatment of albuterol. She was upset about the breathing treatment and it really exacerbated her already inflamed airway. The only thing that called her down was daddy rubbing her head.

Eva Nebulizer treatment

Eva's Inflamed Airway

It took a good hour and a half for her breathing to normalize and then she was back to her normal self. Here she is showing daddy her mint.

She was clearly ready to go home so off we went with a back-up syringe of dexamethasone in case she needed it again. We are so grateful for our neighbor, Millie, who chilled on our couch until 3am. We are also very grateful that it wasn’t more serious and that she had a very quick recovery from what started out as a really scary moment.

Aidan Changes

Aidan’s teacher sent out an e-mail asking for parents to volunteer in the classroom. I was so excited because, for the first time ever, I am finally in a situation where I can do something like this! I worked out a weekly swap with my friend, Emily, and signed right up for Tuesdays from 10-11:30. Tuesday came and I dropped Eva off. This is what was taking place while I was helping out in Aidan’s class.

EVA BEING BRAINWASHED

Emily’s husband is hilarious!

Back to my experience volunteering in Aidan’s class…it was AWESOME! I loved it so much! The kids were so sweet and excited that I was there. I basically just walked around and made sure they were on task while going to various “centers” in the classroom. I would help them on worksheets and in their reading group. It was so fun to see Aidan in a school setting and see how he was doing as far as being a student was concerned. School is something that has always been such a big stressor for us with Aidan. He had some behavioral problems and learning delays that were a big concern for us and for his teachers. Last year, we made the decision to have him repeat 1st grade. We had to fight against his first 1st grade teacher and the district in order to make this happen but we did it because we knew that it was what he needed and the only way he would be able to catch-up and excel. It was THE BEST decision we have ever made in regards to Aidan’s education. For the first time he thrived in school and gained so much confidence and self-esteem that we were never able to give him no matter how hard we tried.

He was supposed to do crazy eyes with me…I was also doing tired with bags under my eyes, eyes. Haha!

Spending that hour and 1/2 in Aidan’s classroom made my heart so happy! My little boy, who we were always so worried about, was not just getting by but he was excelling! He is one of the better readers in his class and is so well behaved and on task. That extra year in 1st grade changed his future. I am so grateful that we fought for him even when faced with adversity from the “professionals”. When it comes to our kids Rich and I are the professionals and I’m so grateful for the confirmation that I received on Tuesday.

Everyday Okinawa

It’s funny that we’ve only been here for a couple of months but Okinawa life is already feeling like the norm to me. I have to remind myself that every single thing about being here was so foreign to me and that I need to document it all because, in a few years, when we leave this beautiful place, all we will have is our blogged memories.

 

Driving on the wrong side of the road feels so right now. It’s not weird any more and I no longer accidentally turn on my windshield wipers instead of my turn signal. I’m beginning to miss the convenience of running to Joann’s to grab any kind of crafting supplies I need. I think I could find anything I would need on island but it’s not all in one convenient place. If I need any kind of paint for small crafts I need to go to Makemon which is like our Home Depot.

Us on a quick trip to Makemon. We got hungry so we grabbed a quick bite at the Blue Seal there. Btw, Blue Seal is AMAZING! More on that later.

You never need to bring your own stroller anywhere in Okinawa. Everywhere you go they have these convenient things available for free!

Daiso has a few random crafting items and there is a fabric store called House of 66 cents that has tons of fabric.

I’m gonna be completely random now, there are tons of Indian restaurants and they are all delicious! Can’t remember what this one was called but this was on Rich’s birthday! My old man is 38!

I took this picture just to show their drink sizes out here. You can’t really tell how small it is but it is smaller than a small drink in America. I remember when we first ordered a coke we laughed because it felt like it was one sip.

No pumpkin patch for us this year Instead, we got our pumpkins from the commissary…just not the same.

You know what though, we can do without a pumpkin patch for a few years. It seems like a fair trade-off to be able to live in such an awesome place.

American Village, just down the street from the base. It has tons of restaurants, shopping and arcades.

On to produce here. The carrots are gigantic!

There are lots of farmers markets on the island. I decided to venture out last Saturday in search of what American’s call the “banana stand”. They call it that because you can get big bunches of bananas there. So, my neighbor vaguely described to me how to get there and for some reason I thought that I would just run right into it. Not so. When I finally did find it I was reminded that I am very much in a foreign country. This was the sign for it.

The produce was very affordable though!

This made me laugh.

We are so enjoying this adventure and doing our best to explore and take advantage of all the island has to offer.

So, our stuff came/Playing catch-up

Yup, that’s about all I want to say about that. The long awaited day marked the beginning of a round of sickness in our home that would last almost 3 weeks! We were so excited for our stuff to get here and after the first day of unpacking I was useless. So, our boxes and boxes of stuff sat mostly untouched until I was well enough to get on it.

It’s been a good couple of months and we are almost completely settled. There are still a few things that need to be hung and organized in the bedrooms. Here’s a tour of the living room/kids area/dining room.

Okinawa House Tour!

I feel like most of my posts titles are “Catching up” haha! I guess I’m not one to blog unless I feel like my life is stable and you can guess how often that is. Well, life is finally “stable” and I’m starting to have free time with Aidan, Maya and Arabella in school all day. So weird! Anyway, catching up…here comes a whole lot of random goodness!

AIDAN

He’s just awesome! He’s doing so much better now that our house is more settled. He isn’t having as many ticks and his behavior has drastically improved. He is loving school and his teacher. He always gets 100% on his spelling tests and he has become such a bookworm! He finished reading all of his Magic Treehouse books and Rich bought him the first 3 books of a different series called Sideways Stories Of Wayside School and I am always finding him in his room reading.

He is so curious and interested in learning new things. He loves to study Japanese and learn new words. After every episode of Wild Kratts, he has a million questions and wants to know more and more about whatever animal was the subject. I’m just really enjoying this sponge stage he is in! A couple of weeks ago he cracked me up with his version of “Cups”.

Aidan's version of "Cups"

When I told him that it didn’t go quite like that, he determined to learn it the right way. He practiced for half an hour with a youtube tutorial.

All of our kids love to draw. They spend a lot of time and go through lots of paper drawing, every single day. Here are a few of Aidan’s most recent creations. He’s really into labeling, lately.

 

MAYA

Oh Maya…she is my sensitive one. She takes after me in so many ways. My girl has been extremely sensitive lately and just needs to be spoken to with an abundance of love or she WILL cry. If she thinks she did something wrong, she will cry. If you look or talk to her with an ounce of annoyance or frustration, she will cry. Sigh. I love how kind and thoughtful her sensitivity makes her though. I’m always finding little love notes from her.

She has a very artistic mind! She spent forever on her homework doing this.

She creates the most unique and interesting stories with her drawings. There are so many great ones that I’ve tucked away, these are just the ones I have hanging on the fridge right now.

She begged to go to Zumba with me one night so I took her! Best class ever. She was so cute dancing and didn’t stop once during the whole hour!

ARABELLA

The main thing that I can say I’ve learned about Arabella in the last couple of months is that she was made for school and school was made for her! She LOVES it! Rich and I were admittedly worried about her because she has such a strong will but she couldn’t possible be doing any better. She’s never been happier and I just love to see her excitement when she gets off of the school bus every day.

Arabella is also a little artist and in every single drawing there is a unicorn.

Her unicorn’s heads have progressively gotten smaller and their bodies bigger, haha! She has also begun to include our names on all of her drawings.

 

She is still the friendliest kid you will ever meet who makes friends everywhere she goes. She has a definite opinion when it comes to what she wears and always has. She will not wear certain shirts if they are not “cute” enough and she adds a tutu to every single outfit. This is her most favorite outfit, recently. Also, that is the ocean in the back.

Maya just told me the other day that she likes more of a “boy style”. She was basically trying to nicely tell me to stop buying her pink and girly clothes because she prefers an athletic look. So fun to me to see how they are discovering themselves.

EVA

Oh boy, where to begin with this girl. She is her own person, for sure! She LOVES LOVES LOVES purses and shoes. Yes, at the tender age of 2 she is already obsessed with cute shoes and purses! This is a picture outside of Daiso where she found a purse she HAD to have! I tried to put it away but she refused to let go.

She is extremely independent. We went for a walk as a family and she refused to hold my hand even after falling twice.

Also, My Little Pony, is her favorite! She takes a pony everywhere we go. It can begin to be a bit much with all of the things she wants to take with her every time we leave the house…purse, pony, blanky…she’s a fancy girl!

I still have so much to update and there is much more to come if I could just get myself back into the habit of blogging. We are in love with this beautiful island and it’s people and haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of all there is to see and do here. We are excited!

Arabella the Kindergartener!

Arabella is in school! She has looked forward to the day she would start school for SO LONG! When Aidan and Maya started a week before her she was sad and waiting that last week was torture. Finally, the day had come and she couldn’t have been happier!

Her super cheesy smile in front of her cubby.

At her desk she found a paper to color and got right to work.

Her teacher, Ms. Draper, is awesome! Her room was all decked out and looked like so much fun!

Arabella has loved school more than she has ever loved anything else! I was worried about her “strong will” but she really tries hard to follow the rules and wants to be her best. Arabella was made for Kindergarten and truly is enjoying every second of it!

She also loves riding the bus.

The second her feet hit the pavement she starts to tell me about every last detail of her day. I love how happy she is!

Minna Island

We went to Minna Island about a month ago or maybe it was more like 2 months, I’m not sure. I’m a bit behind but Minna Island had such a beautiful beach and it was a great time so it’s a *must blog*. Once again, we did this through the base travel organization and loved how easy they make it. We caught a bus on base that took our group to the ferry and then we took a short ferry ride to the island. While waiting for the ferry, Arabella saw a little girl standing outside holding a beach ball. She can’t help but make friends everywhere she goes so she walked right up to the girl and asked if she would play with her. The girl didn’t speak ANY english but I guess she figured out what Arabella was asking her…

Eventually, all of our kids joined in the game of hitting the beach ball to each other and they played until the ferry came.

Once we got to the island, we set up camp and enjoyed the day!

This beach was so perfect for little kids. The snorkeling sights were nonexistent but it was a fun place to just enjoy the beach.

 

Minna Island Video

The kids became quick friends with the family that was set up next to us.

Quick, crazy story about them…I was talking to the mom, Jandy, and she was telling me how they were about to sign for an off base house because housing told them that there weren’t any available on base homes. I was annoyed but not surprised that they would tell her that because they were horrible to work with and seemed to be so disorganized. I told her that there were several open houses in our building so, as I would later find out, they told housing what I had told them about available homes on Chibana and now they are our neighbors! I was so happy because I really liked her and our kids got along so well.

Minna Island was a really fun experience.