Monthly Archives: June 2009

A Day @ the Park

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We miss Auntie Merdy a bunch, so we had a play date with her on 5/28 (click the photo below to see all the pics from our outing). We went to a shady and secluded park nestled in her beautiful neighborhood. There were lots of other stay-at-home moms there and plenty of kids who were Houston’s age, not to mention, three other sets of twins! It was a perfect spot for all my zany boys to spread out and play to their hearts’ content. And it was especially nice to spend some quality time with our beloved Merdy.

Auntie Merdy keeps Houston in check as he pushes an unwitting little boy on a fast ride.

Other things in the news:

  • Last month, Gabriel and Zeke uttered their first “words,” which were “da da da” — a milestone that tickles Daddy pink.
  • Zeke also enjoys making bird-like sounds, which is the reason his nickname has morphed from Z-Man to Z-Bird. Happy growling is another way enjoys expressing himself.
  • When Gabriel screams, which is luckily only when he’s tired or hungry, the sound nearly shatters glass. We are fairly certain he’s going to grow up to be a heavy metal singer.
  • Gabriel has dimples way high up on his cheeks when he smiles a big grin — too cute!
  • Auntie Lisa came to visit in May and brought the kids tons of hand-me-downs, which included a Zeki Bird — a toy that came after Zeke’s new nickname. Lisa also passed on other great toys, nice clothes and many books, some of which date back to when Lisa, Dina and I were little tikes in the ’70s.
  • Houston pedaled on his “sickle” (tricycle) a few weeks back — not yet a constant, but I bet he’ll be trucking quite nicely by the end of the summer.
  • Gabriel and Zeke are now doing what I would officially call crawling. Gabriel began first, so his style is a tad more advanced. Zeke can certainly hold his own, but he prefers moving backward, instead of forward.
  • The twins are growing like weeds. I did a home-scale weigh on 5/24; Gabriel weighed 17 pounds and Zeke was close behind at 16.5 pounds. Then Zeke got weighed at the doc on 6/2 and had already plumped up to 17 pounds, 10 ounces.

Gabriel & Zeke also enjoy the park, & have fun investigating Mommy’s cheap sunglasses.

Hyper Houston is all boy. He’s like a Coke bottle — initially calm, excited when shaken up and eventually explosive when the top pops off. So, I asked Houston whether he wanted his nickname to be Bull, as in bull in a china shop, or Taz, as in the Tazmanian Devil. He chose Bull. Mommy and Daddy are working diligently to help Bull keep his cool a bit more. “Horses” (which means, “hold your horses, wait, be patient”), “calm” and “gentle” are oft-repeated refrains these days.

Our energetic toddler has been taking swimming lessons with Daddy at the YMCA. Houston indubitably possesses a rebel streak, wanting to make his own rules and swim against the tide, so to speak. He didn’t want to participate in any of the group activities during his first lesson. He’s not afraid of water or getting his face wet because he loves taking baths, playing in the hose and swimming in his kiddy pool. (Hence, the reason his upcoming birthday party is going to be centered around water activities.)

We’ve concluded that during his first visit, he may have just been overwhelmed by all the goings on at the Y. Daddy says Houston did much better at the second lesson, although he still wanted to take things at his own pace and branch out with some individual play. Houston simply has a unique learning style, as do so many boys, so it’s a darn good thing we plan on home-schooling our kids, or else he’d most definitely be pushed Ritalin by our public school teachers.

Houston was quick to make friends in the sandbox.

Houston’s seasonal allergies are still raging, despite his being on Claritin and prescription eye drops. I’ve tried a few natural remedies, like the juice of half a lime squeezed in his regular juice daily. Not sure if it’s helping all that much, but I figure it couldn’t hurt.

Also, his previously moderate skin allergies — they had been occasional bouts that never seemed to bother him all that much — have developed into a full-on dermatologic issue. Poor ol’ Houston has eczema on the insides of his elbows and behind his knees, and battles patchy dry skin on his face. Yesterday he complained that the “hummah” (hummus) he was eating was hurting his face. So sad. Right now I slather him with Eucerin lotion and lanolin, but I certainly plan on getting him in to see a derm doc once we have Zeke taken care of.

Zeke attacks the Zeki Bird with gusto!

Speaking of our darling Z-Bird, he goes in for surgery this Thursday morning. I’m lucky that I lead such a busy life ’cause I’ve rarely had time to dwell on how freaked out I am about having my almost 8-month-old son cut open and then having one of his lung lobes removed. But we didn’t name our youngest Ezekiel for no reason. That boy earned his name, which in Hebrew means “strengthened by God,” during his treacherous time as the “stuck” baby in Mommy’s bum placenta. He is not only a survivor, having defied the odds with TTTS, but Zeke is also a thriver, making it through his preemie birth, his NICU challenges and all the subsequent trials those entail for newborns.

I have total faith that God is not yet ready for Zeke in heaven; I believe that God would rather keep our sweet Zeke here to be the constant ray of light he is to anyone who is fortunate to meet him, as well as those of us who are blessed to be loved by a true angel.

Be sure to check out all the May – part 2 pics, which include birthday-suit shots of the twins and Houston wrestling with Daddy.

Zeke’s CCAM

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As many of you may recall from past blogs, Zeke was diagnosed with having a CCAM when I had a fetal MRI done in Cincinnati prior to my fetoscopic laser surgery last July. Here we are in Ohio, coping as best as possible with the realization that I have Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome when the docs say, “Oh, by the way, if the twins are lucky enough to survive this semi-experimental surgery for this rare prenatal condition you have, one of the babies will have a rare birth defect known as Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation.” Say what?!?!?!?

Yes, that was quite the bombshell at the time, but really, having TTTS was a blessing in disguise because it is highly doubtful that Zeke’s CCAM would have otherwise been detected, that is, until poop hit the fan — poop being a serious lung infection at best or lung cancer in childhood at worst — since Zeke shows no signs at all of any breathing problem or other physical distress.

“I worked too darn hard to make it into this world,” explains Zeke. “I’m not going to let a little CCAM screw things up!”

The next order of business in Zeke’s treatment since his chest x-ray at Brenner’s Children’s Hospital in December was to get a CT scan, since CCAMs sometimes just go away on their own. So, Zeke had his scan done yesterday morning at Brenner’s and the imaging confirmed that the cystic mass of abnormal lung tissue is still indeed present in the right lower lobe of his lungs. (Check out this link to see a diagram of what the three types of CCAM lesions look like. Zeke has a Type I CCAM, which is the image on the far left.) Stephen and I then had a consultation with Zeke’s surgeon, Dr. John Petty, and decided that we are going to forge ahead and get this thing removed asap so that our Z boy can get back to living a healthy, happy life.

Moreover, we damn sure wanted to have the surgery before universal/socialized healthcare is forced upon our nation by the losers in Washington and treatment for conditions like Zeke’s are rationed by some pencil-pushing federal bureaucrat. Somehow I think Mr. or Ms. Government Worker wouldn’t deem Zeke’s surgery near as urgent and necessary as would Clan Dillingham.

Zeke & Gabriel will grow up together healthy and strong … and sometimes naked!

Surgery is scheduled for next Thursday, June 11. Dr. Petty is going to do a lobectomy, which removes one of the five lobes of the lung. The lungs will continue to grow until age 9 and the other lobes will compensate for the missing one, making for a totally normal child, who is able to play sports and hike mountains and scream as loud as any other kid at the park. Recovery time in the hospital is 3-7 days. He and Gabriel are going to miss each other so badly, but luckily they’re too young to be scarred for life over the separation. Speaking of scarring, Zeke will have a small scar under his arm and shoulder blade, but we figure he’ll come to think that that’s pretty cool.

“I’ll miss Daddy when I’m away,” says Zeke, “but at least I’ll have my thumb.”

Zeke was truly amazing yesterday, quietly soaking in all the roadway interests en route to the hospital, inspiring smiles in all the sick and worried people in the hospital’s hallways and waiting rooms, and charming the pants off of all the staff. He had been without food since 11 p.m. the night before and didn’t even go in for his CT scan till about 10 a.m. the following morning, so this makes his behavior all the more surprising. He did cry when a nurse put an IV in his arm for the contrast dye, but quickly got distracted by and subsequently grabbed another nurse’s medical badges that were dangling above his face, and then proceeded to take his sedative like a champ. We think his stellar behavior was due to the fact that he had Mommy and Daddy all to himself and was just enjoying the lack of brotherly competition … for once!