Busy Spring.....

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, things have been very busy around our house. Faith Ann graduated K4 (preschool) with all A's and three awards.....Bible Memory Award, Penmanship Award and Good Manners Award. We are all so proud of her! Faith also had Kindergarten Screening and I was very excited to see that she got a 99%. I certainly couldn't have asked for her to do better than that....especially considering that she will be one of the youngest in her class. She made me very proud. Faith is now a whopping 45.5 inches tall....which puts her in the 90th percentile for girl's height at her age! I am still amazed at how quickly she grows in height, but her weight is always slower to follow in line. She is doing so well right now. Her asthma hasn't been bothering her and her allergies seem to be getting adjusted to this new weather. We saw the ashma/allergy specialist again yesterday. He decided to leave Faith on the QVar afterall...thank goodness....and if that doesn't work, he sent notes to her regular pediatrician so she can change it if needed. He also gave me the okay to see if she does okay without Flonase, so we stopped giving it to her last night and we'll see how that goes. He left her Singulair the same, but increased her Zyrtec intake. He also added eyedrops to help with the irritation she gets during this season. The really great news is that we no longer have to see Dr. Lux unless Faith starts having problems again....so we can see the regular pediatrician...who is much closer to our home! I was very happy about that. My last day working at the Credit Union was on Wednesday and I'll start the new job on Monday. I'm so very excited to be working for Vivid Impressions. I will get to learn from the best, let's hope that I can keep up with them, they are EXCELLENT photographers....I'm just a rookie! It's a little scary making such a big career change, but I'll finally get to do something that I love and actually make a living from it. Let's just hope that I'm good at it too!! I'm also glad that I'll be closer to home and closer to Faith's school...I'll actually be home by 5:05 pm every day.... which hasn't happened since I went back to work when Faith was 2 years old. We may actually get to have some time to sit and visit with eachother at night...the routine was so crowded before...come home, eat a quick dinner, do homework, bath and then go to bed.....there wasn't enough time to just play and visit....so I'm really excited about that. God has answered a lot of our prayers and eased a lot of our worries....he's such an Awesome God!!

Update....

Some of you know that Faith was not sleeping well since last week, she would take about 3 hours to fall alseep and wake up an hour earlier than usual. She was also having some headaches and pains in her ears as well. I thought about taking her back to the doctor, but decided to call instead. I contacted her ashtma/allergy doctor Monday morning to see if he had any suggestions or might know what is causing it. The Advair HFA, which she just started last week, has some side effects...three of those being restlessness, ear pain and headaches. So, he pulled her off the Advair and back on the QVar until we see him next month. Her appointment next month was going to be a routine follow up, but Dr. Lux has decided to do a Peak Flow Test and Lung Function Test to get a better idea of what needs to be done for her. So, for now I am a bit relieved....she has slept well the past few nights and hasn't complained of any pains of any kind and even with the weather changes as they've been this week, her allergies and asthma seem okay. We'll see what he says next month.

Frustrated....

I took Faith back to the asthma/allergy specialist today. I was again hoping to remove some of her daily medication. He replaced her QVar with Advair HFA (which actually has two medications in it), we have gone from two puffs a day to four puffs and day. He mentioned that a nebulizer would work a little better, but has much more harmful side effects and that we just have to continue with the action plan laid out for her. So, we now do the following each day.....one squirt of Flonase in each nostril, one Singulair tablet, one Zyrtec tablet, 4 puffs of Advair HFA and Albuterol every four hours as needed. This seems like too much medication. With today's medical advances, a person would think that one or two medications would be all that is needed for allergies and mild asthma. Am I wrong in thinking so? He mentioned that as long as the Flonase is working to keep her from snoring and mouth breathing that we won't worry about having her adenoids looked at (he thinks they have grown back), but when the Flonase stops working for this, she will need her adenoids removed again. I would almost rather have her adenoids taken out again than to have her taking Flonase every day for who knows how long. This medication stuff is very frustrating for me, but I guess he knows better than I do. She was also on Zythromax and Robittusin with Codeine for the past week, so on a positive note, we have stopped those medications. Any time she comes down with an illness and we add another medication or two, it just seems like I am turning my child into a walking medicine cabinet! I just wish there were another solution. I didn't have to take much medication as a child (nothing daily, only with illness) and I've never had asthma or any serious allergies, so I really do not know how it feels. I wonder if I would see this differently if I had the same problems as a child as she has now with her breathing and allergies. It helps to talk to people who have asthma and/or allergies. My sister, Jamie, went to Springfield with me today...her daughter Tillie also had an appointment, everything looks good following her surgery. Anyway, Jamie was miserable....runny nose, itchy eyes and sneezing all day.....and when I see what she goes through with her allergies, it does make me feel a little better about having Faith on medication. I guess I would rather her be able to have a normal childhood than to be miserable or locked up in the house all day. So, once again, you do what you have to for your child's health. But, I'm still hoping that she can come off of some medications in the future....before she starts Kindergarten would be nice, but I don't see that happening.

Birthday Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the birthday party. We did a movie theatre theme this year complete with a concession stand, tickets and an old time popcorn machine (thanks Papa Jim!). The kids went through the line to get their tickets, candy, popcorn and soda and then downstairs through the ticket line to the "theatre". Everyone seemed to have a great time and if you haven't yet seen it, the BEE Movie so adorable.

Here are some pictures of the cupcakes. This was the first time I have ever made Faith's birthday cake/cupcakes myself. I usually just buy a cake, because of the time retraints of working full time, but I was determined this year to do it myself. I was very pleased when they were done. I was hoping to have some bees and bugs to put on the cucakes, but couldn't find any, but then Josh came home with a handful of cute little bugs that my Mom took off of her nick-nack birdhouses. They added a wonderful finishing touch! Thanks Mom!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Faith Ann!!

We had Faith's five year pictures taken today along with some much needed family pictures. The above picture was taken by Ormsby Wade of Vivid Impressions here in good ole' Plato.

Faith turned Five years old today. We had her birthday party this weekend and I'll try to post some pictures later, I don't have the camera here with me right now. It's been a strange day, I've found myself thinking about the past a lot. I keep asking myself "Can she really be Five?" It seems like just yesterday when I was bringing her home from the hospital in her cute little Raggedy Ann shirt. This may sound silly to some of you, but all I kept thinking about today was that we are a quarter of the way finished with our time with Faith in our home. Those five years won't come back. These five years have gone by so quickly that I really do worry that I'll blink and miss the next five and the next five and then only have a few left before she rushes off to college or marriage or her career. Can this really be happening.....is she really growing up this fast? Strangely enough, I miss her being my tiny baby, I miss her coos and her little baby cries. I miss everything about her that is gone now. There is a country song by Trace Adkins right now that says:

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

That song explains it word for word. I think so often that we take for granted our present. We get busy with the to-do list not realizing that our children are growing into adults in the blink of an eye. Even right now, I'm sitting here on this blog typing about how much I miss her. Guess it's time to go.