We had a scary thing happen with Will yesterday. He choked while he was eating lunch, which he's done several times before. But this time, we couldn't get whatever was choking him out. He got progressively more blue, so I called 911 while Matt kept working on him. It got to the point that he wasn't breathing at all and lost consciousness. Luckily, Matt was finally able to get the chunk of sandwich dislodged and Will was breathing again by the time the paramedics arrived. His oxygen sats were low, so they gave him oxygen for about five minutes. His sats came right back up, and he was fine. He was exhausted, but fine, thank God. Stupid peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You've got to watch out for sandwiches. You know it was a ham sandwich that got Mama Cass.

So that made for an exciting Saturday morning. Although, in all honesty, we've gotten so used to crazy medical drama with Will that the rest of the day went along like normal. I went to TJ Maxx, Matt cut the grass, just a regular old Saturday!

Now we're getting ready for DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!! We're heading out later this week and we can't wait. We're dumping the babies with the grandparents and setting off with Mason to the happiest place on Earth!! He is so freakin' excited. It is going to be too much fun to get to take this trip with our sweet boy. So now I have to go make lists of all the stuff I need to pack for everyone. Lots and lots of lists!! Back soon with tales of our awesome Disney adventure!

I apologize for letting so much time pass between posts, but there has seriously been nothing going on around here! Everyone's healthy and happy and hasn't done anything particularly exciting. Plus, with the insane, incessant rain over the past week we've been stuck in the house, and that's made us super-boring.

So I'll give you the highlights of the past couple of weeks:

Hays has finally decided that it's time to start walking! He's still not walking all the time like Will is, but he's doing a whole lot more than he had been. He can go 6-7 feet before he loses his balance and plops down. And he is sooooo proud of himself. The look on his face is priceless! He's also gotten two new words over the last week- "juice" and "up," so we're proud.

Will is walking pretty much all the time. He rarely crawls and he seems to be getting taller by the day. He has a new word too, "more." He generally uses it when he's talking about food!

Mason is still loving school. He and I went to "family fun night" last week at his school. We ate Chick-Fil-A and they had a few big inflatable bouncy things set up in the gym. He had fun and spent the whole time playing with a cute little girl from his class. She kept on hugging him and all I could think was "Lord help us when he hits the teenage years!" I was so proud of him last night. We were working on homework and he was working on his alphabet tracing sheets. When they complete the whole thing, they turn it in and earn a trip to the classroom treasure box. He was about halfway through with it since we've been doing a couple of pages per night, but he decided that he wanted to finish it. So he sat down and did just that! I'm not sure where he gets his scholarly motivation from. God knows that's not a trait he inherited from me or Matt!

I've been a busy little bee as well. I finally got the boys' scrapbooks caught up so I'll be ready for the barrage of holiday pictures! I also participated in the Mothers of Multiples' consignment sale. I had so much stuff to sell!! I didn't sell as much as I would have liked, but I made a little money and got all that stuff out of my house, so I think it was a success! And I love the other twin moms in the mothers of multiples group. In fact, I'm having a few of them over for a playdate tomorrow morning. I'll have four sets of twins ages 3 and under at my house tomorrow. Fun or insane? It remains to be seen......

Our miracle, one year (give or take a few days) later

Will last summer with the trach


In the ER the day he took it out



Will one year later

Even though I'm a few days late on the actual date, I still wanted to take a moment to celebrate the anniversary of the greatest miracle that I have ever personally witnessed. Last Labor day weekend was the day Will and God decided he no longer needed his trach. If you've stuck with us this long, you probably remember the story, but I'm going to re-tell it nonetheless! I woke up with a sick headache the morning of August 31, I thought I was going to throw up, so I went back to bed, leaving Matt to handle the kids. I heard some commotion, but I just tried to ignore it. Before long, Mason comes running into the room yelling, "Daddy needs you, there's something wrong with Will!!" I went running into the playroom/mini hospital, to find Will lying on the floor, looking perfectly fine, but with no trach. His oxygen saturation levels were fine, but I didn't know how long that would last. I grabbed a new trach tube and tried to put it in, but the hole had closed up and I couldn't get the tube in. I grabbed a smaller one, but couldn't get that in either. We were freaking out because we didn't know if he was going to start struggling to breathe and turning blue at any moment, so we called 911.
The EMTs were awfully surprised to see that there patient was a perfectly happy, rosy-cheeked baby boy who looked like nothing in the world was wrong with him! They couldn't get the trach tube in either, so they decided to take him to the hospital. Matt rode along and I stayed with the other two until my mom got there. As I was frantically getting ready (and throwing down about 10 ibuprofen to try to combat my skull-crushing headache) I was trying not to get too hopeful about the fact that my child was breathing perfectly on his own. All I could think was "maybe he doesn't need the trach anymore." But I was scared to let myself hope too hard for that.
I arrived at St. Mary's just after they'd decided to transport Will to Egleston. He was still breathing fine, but no one knew how long that would last. I sent Matt home to get our stuff together to go to the hospital because we knew we'd be there for a while. I rode in the ambulance with Will, strapped to the gurney, holding him. This was a trip I'll never forget. I get terrible motion sickness. I'm ok riding in the front seat looking out the window, but that's it. So here I was, facing backward in an ambulance, still nauseous from my sick headache. That was the longest ride of my life!!! Will slept in my arms and I just held him with my eyes closed, praying I wouldn't vomit on his head!!! We finally got to the Egleston ER and spent hours waiting for a room to open up.
Those were beautiful hours. We got to hold and play with our child without having to worry about medical equipment for the first time ever. We also got to hear his sweet voice. It was amazing, but bittersweet because I was so afraid that they would have to put the trach back in, and this would be the only time we got to experience completely unfettered bonding with our sweet baby. But Will and God had other plans. We stayed at Egleston under observation for three days and Will continued to breathe perfectly. Every day I grew a little more excited at the prospect of a trach-free baby, but I never for one moment stopped praying. That was one time when I truly prayed without ceasing. There wasn't much to my prayers, they mostly consisted of, "Please, God, please." But I figured He knew what I was asking for.
After a bronchoscopy that showed that while he still had serious airway issues, they weren't serious enough to require a trach, we were released!!! I have never been so happy as the day I brought that healthy, normal, equipment-free baby from the hospital. Our family was healthy and complete and I have never felt more blessed. Not many people get to personally experience a miracle, but I did, and not a day passes that I don't say a prayer of thanks.

Night night, Hays


Cheeky monkey



My boy



Hays is studying something intently

Escape!!!!!!

Sweet Will

Hays on the tractor

Hays in the sunshine

Will says "Check me out, I can walk!!!!"

Sweet Hays

Poor Mason had a meltdown at school Wednesday. I went to eat lunch with him and he was sooo excited. He was introducing me to all of his friends and everything was great until it was time for me to leave. I saw that he was struggling not to cry, and I hugged him and told him I'd see him in a couple of hours and handed him off to the teacher. Well, he apparently lost it after I left. His teacher had to call me during her planning period to tell me that he just broke down crying, yelling that he was mad at me for leaving. He tried to make a break for it when the class went out to recess, but they caught him and had to carry him back, kicking and screaming! He eventually calmed down, and the rest of the day was fine (he even got his sticker!). I think that it was just too much for him. He's fine when he's away from me, but when I'm just there for a little while and have to leave again, that's just more than he can handle! We'll try it again sometime, but not too soon!

The rest of his week was fine. He got his progress report on Friday and he's meeting standards on all the grade level stuff. He did get a "needs improvement" in the self-control section, but that doesn't really come as a surprise! At least he's doing well everywhere else. We introduced him to the Disney classic, "The Lion King" on family movie night. He loved it, and now he's ready for Animal Kingdom at Disney World! He was confused about how the lion, Scar was Simba's uncle. I explained to him that Scar was Mufasa'a brother. He looked confused and said, "But Scar is bad, brothers have to be good." How sweet my wonderful boy is.

And I think we can say that we have a walker on our hands- Will now walks more than he crawls, so I am proclaiming him an official walker!!!! Hays is doing two or three steps at a time, so he's not too far behind, but he's also not quite as determined to do it as Will. But I am really amazed at how big they're getting. Their favorite toys right now are books, particularly Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, a red hand puppet that I put on a fabulous puppet show with, trucks, especially Mason's old trucks that have buttons to push for lights and sound, their climbing castle, the phone and the remote, laundry baskets, the clock radio, and whatever they can pull out of the kitchen cabinets. They both wave bye-bye and Hays says it. They know several animal sounds, several body parts, and they are both currently fascinated by their bellybuttons. They are into everything all the time. They understand the word "no"- they just grin at you and ignore you. So they're growing up, and growing up fast. This is an exhausting age, but it's so much fun. I love watching their little personalities develop, marveling at their sense of humor, and seeing how incredibly sweet they can be together.

Mason had another great week at school! He earned all his stickers so we could have movie night on Friday. And it's a good thing he did because we finished reading James and the Giant Peach the night before and he was very anxious to see the movie. That was our first try at reading a "big kid" chapter book and he did great. He kept up with story and listened well and I think he really enjoyed the book. We're going to get a new one this week- I'm thinking maybe A Cricket in Times Square.
The twins had their 18 month checkup this week. They're both healthy and growing and doing all the things they should be. Will weighs 22 lbs. and is 31 inches long. Hays is 29 inches and only 17 lbs. He's gaining weight, but not quickly. It doesn't help that he's started throwing half of his food to the dog! The pediatrician wants me to start giving him Carnation Instant Breakfast once or twice a day to help bulk him up. He seems to like it, but the gummy vitamins the doctor recommended are a different story. I gave him the first one and he spit it out. I thought it might have been too big, so I split one in half and gave it to him. This time, he spit it out, then threw it at me. Point taken. I guess he'll catch up eventually, but at this rate our dog is going to weigh 300 lbs and Hays is going to waste away to nothing!
I went to the giant kids consignment sale this week to try to find some clothes and toys for the kids. I didn't find much in the way of clothes- just some pajamas for the twins- but I hit paydirt on toys. I've been wanting a small climbing structure for the twins to put in the playroom, but those things are like $150 and that was just too much for me to pay. Well, I found a great one at the sale for $25!!! And the twins love it. They climb all over it and go down the slide and play peek-a-boo. Totally worth 25 bucks. I found some other fun little toys and some cool tranformers and GI Joes for Mason. So the sale was a success. Let's hope I have as much luck selling stuff at the mothers of multiples consignment sale in a couple of weeks!

My birthday was this weekend and I turned 31. I'm still not quite sure how I got to 31 so quickly, I still feel like I'm about 19! But I had a great weekend full of celebration. We celebrated with Matt's mom on Friday night with delicious take-out and cake! Not to mention lovely flowers and lots of gifts! I got several books that I've been wanting, and Pat took Mason shopping. He picked out sweet little silver and black heart shaped earrings. Pat said he told the saleslady, "I want hearts for my mommy. Just hearts." So sweet! And on Sunday (my actual birthday) I went out to lunch with my mom and sisters and my friend LeAnne. We had the most delicious lunch at a fantastic restaurant, where I got more books- yay!!! Then I went on an adventure with my mom and Elizabeth.
My dad's new hobby is landscape photography, and he's really doing some amazing work. He had taken a picture of an old, abandoned, falling-down antebellum house in a tiny town not far from here. I LOVED the picture- the house is truly my dream house, so my dad gave me the print for my birthday. So after lunch, my mom, sister and I decided to go see the house in person. The house has no front door (well, it has one, but it's sitting in the parlor!) so you can just walk right in. Throwing caution (and fears of ghosts, police, and rotting floorboards) to the wind, that's exactly what we did. This house was magnificent. 12 foot ceilings, huge leaded glass windows, grand staircase, halls bigger than my living room. If someone would fix it up, it would be absolutely breathtaking. Of course, it would cost somewhere in the range of a million dollars to fix it, but it would be soooo worth it. I just sent Matt out to get lottery tickets for tonight's $257 million dollar drawing, and if we win that's the first thing I'm buying!
The only other interesting thing from the past week was open house at Mason's school. His teacher said he's like a different child. Apparently, he was flat crazy those first couple of bad days, but she said since we put our reward system in place at home, he's been awesome! Yay!!!! He has gotten a sticker on his chart every day since then, and I am so proud of him. We've also started having homework time every night. Even though he's not assigned homework we're taking 15-20 minutes each night to work on letter and number recognition, writing, sight words and letter sounds and I'm amazed at how quickly he's learning. He's such a smart kid and he really enjoys all the encouragement and praise he gets.

Well, we made it through the first full week of school and we're halfway through the second, and so far it's pretty good. Mason is having a great time and comes home every day full of smiles. We did have a bit of a problem at the beginning of last week. Last Monday Mason didn't get a sticker on his chart because he got in trouble for yelling. Tuesday there was a note from his teacher on his chart. It said, "Please talk to Mason about saying 'damn it'" I was mortified!! I was also laughing because let's face it, that's just funny. So after emailing his teacher to apologize for his inappropriate use of language, I found out that Mason had been "defiant and uncompliant" with his teachers when they asked him to do something he didn't want to do. Greeeeaaaat. I can't say that this came as a surprise, because we all know that Mason is a stubborn little cuss who wants to do things his way. But nontheless, that kind of behavior is not going to fly at school. So we've done lots of talking about how we act at school, and we created a reward system for good behavior. Every day that he gets a sticker, he gets to choose a game to play with me and Matt before bed. And if he gets stickers all week, we get to have pizza and a movie Friday night. So far it's worked and he's gotten stickers everyday. But let me tell you, I am always nervous when I check his chart! I don't want any more notes!

Last Thursday we had an appointment with an ENT up at Scottish Rite for Will. We were going to see what further testing needed to be done to see if he actually had a fistula. I'm not sure what exactly made the speech therapist think he might, but the doctor said he could tell just from briefly examining him that he did not have a fistula. He said if Will did have one, he would have had pneumonia over and over from aspirating food and he would choke every time he ate, not once in a while. He agreed with me that the choking was likely the result of shoving too much food in his mouth at one time, and not an indicator of an underlying medical problem. He didn't feel that it was necessary to pursue any further testing, so yay!!

Will is also doing so well with learning to walk. He can walk about halfway across the room before he falls, and he is so proud of himself. I think Hays got jealous of all the cheering we've been doing for Will, because in the past few days he's really stepped up his attempts at standing independently and taking a couple of steps. Nothing like a little sibling rivalry to make them work hard! Their physical therapist was very pleased with their progress when she came to see them yesterday.