14 months (and a couple of days)

Whew, what a crazy couple of weeks! Will has been in Egypt for some sort of training exercise so it's just been Alison and me here at Casa Perkins. Well, when we've been here, that is. We've been burning up the road between Raleigh and Linden the past couple of weeks. Between my Mom breaking her leg (it's sort of funny now, not so funny when it happened) and being insanely lonely, Alison and I have been spending lots of time in the loving home of my Mom and Dad. So, because so much has happened since I've written a (non-depressing) post, here are some highlights...

* Mom broke her leg. She spent 3 weeks in the hospital and still has a long road of recovery left but she's getting better everyday. Now we all feel more comfortable calling her gimpy.

* Our septic tank filled up. It turns out that it's never been emptied in the 5 or so years since the house was built so it was time. That doesn't make the crap filled tub and shower any more fun though. Luckily, my super nice neighbors were able to give me the name and number of the person who took care of their tank and all was well the next day. I'm so sick of poop.

* We finally heard back from UNC about Alison's culture results today. The treatment is that we have to add an inhaled antibiotic to her treatment routine twice a day for three weeks. Based on the past few days, this is not going to be a fun addition.

* Alison had an appointment with her local pediatrician yesterday. Her ears are clearing up and draining the fluid just fine so there's no need for tubes right now.

* We went to the NC State Fair with my Dad. I loved going to the fair growing up and was so looking forward to being able to take Alison. She's still a smidge young but we had a great time!

Alison showing Aunt Lauren the adorable bunny rabbits.

Awww, look at the baby goat (or maybe it's a sheep, I'm not sure!)

Alison loved riding the rides! She's such a daredevil.

* Raleigh isn't the only place we've been traveling too. My youngest sister, Gwen, moved to Rocky Mount at the end of the summer and our middle sister, Lauren, and I decided that we needed to invade Gwen's new place and have dinner together. So on Monday, Alison and I got in the car once again and made the trip up to Rocky Mount. We had a great time, even though I wasn't as impressed with the restaurant we went to as Lauren and Gwen were. Oh well. The company made up for it!

* Will came home this morning. This was the first time he's been gone for any length of time since Alison was born and I have to admit, it was harder than I thought it was going to be. I am definitely NOT cut out to be a single parent! We were both very happy to see that Alison had no problems adjusting to Will being back home. Sure, he was only gone for a little over 3 weeks but that's a long long time in toddler time and we weren't sure how she would react to him since she's gotten so attached to me.

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Monday was a BIG day for little Alison. It was her 14 month birthday! Here are some things that she's doing now...

* Alison started school! I have been desperate for some time to myself, especially with Will being gone now and possibly more later, so on the recommendation of some ladies from my MOPS group, I checked out a Mother's Morning Out program at a local church. Monday was Alison's very first day and she did so great! She'll go from 9am-12noon on Mondays, which is good because it gives me time to do whatever I want for 3 whole hours.

Where are we going Mom?

All right, I've got my kitty and I'm ready for school!

* Alison has a new tooth. I noticed today that she is getting a third tooth on the bottom front, bringing her total numbers of choppers to 7. I guess this explains some of her crankiness the past few days. I didn't even think that it could be her teeth because she had SIX teeth come in all at once and barely batted an eyelash!

* Her new word is "Pop", although it really just sounds like "pa". Still no progress on saying "ma

ma".

* Alison's most favorite toys right now are her books. I am so thankful that she loves to read. Will and I are both big readers and it was so important to me to be able to instill a love of reading in our kids. If she has a willing reader (usually Mimi!) then she'll listen to the same book over and over and over and over again.


* Poor Alison has inherited my clumsy gene. She was trying to make her way down the steps leading down from our front porch and silly me thought "hey, she's never done this before. Let's see if she can do it". This was the result...

Every day with Alison presents a new challenge but each also brings us a new joy, a bigger smile, a louder giggle, a sillier face that she's learned to make. We are so thankful to have her in our lives. We love you baby Alison!

Alison update

It's been a rough week for me so I apologize in advance if this post is a little less than cheery...

Alison had her CF clinic visit last Friday (the 9th) and at the time, it looked like things were good. She's over 18 pounds now, which is still on the very low end of where she should be, but she's still gaining and that's the good thing. Her lungs sound clear still, which is always good news. At the time, she had just finished a round of antibiotics for a double ear infection but it turns out, they were still infected so we got a different antibiotic to try (she finishes tomorrow). Overall, pretty uneventful and routine, which is just what I hope for.

At every clinic visit, Alison has a throat culture done to see if there is any bacteria growing in her lungs. She's never had anything abnormal come back from this test, until this time. I called for her results on Tuesday, thinking that the news would be the same as it has been since January, normal flora (which is what we all have). Nope, the culture came back abnormal this time. (Please forgive me, I know that I'm using all the wrong terminology but I'm still learning.) We're still waiting to know for sure exactly what bacteria is present and knowing this will determine what the treatment is. The nurse that is assigned to Alison's doctor is so great about keeping me informed and trying to work with me as I'm learning. She said that because this is the first time she's had any bacteria, the treatment will probably be fairly aggressive.

In addition to the throat culture results, I've also been concerned about Alison's ears. She had a follow up appointment with her local pediatrician on Tuesday and she said that even though the infection is gone in both ears, there is still a lot of fluid. Because she's had 2 infections in 3 months, she wants to monitor Alison a little more closely to determine if she'll possibly need tubes. The usual standard is 3 infections in 6 months but I got the feeling that her pediatrician would rather err on the side of caution for Alison.

I'm trying to be positive and have faith that things will turn out ok. I really am. But I have to admit that I'm scared. I'm scared for Alison. Please pray for Alison. Please pray for her doctors. Please pray for wisdom for Will and I make the right decisions about her care.

(Oh, and did I mention that Will is not even here for all this? Yup, he's in Egypt for a training exercise right now.)

My little pumpkin

Today started out with some not so great news and when Alison went down for her nap, I knew that I wanted to do something fun when she woke up because I was feeling a little down. I decided that it was time to take full advantage of the beautiful fall day that we were blessed with today and head to the produce farm not far from here. I pass their sign everytime I go into Fayetteville and I was beyond excited when they started advertising pumpkins and mums and hayrides. So I called up my friend Carrie and she brought her son Bradley and we picked out some pumpkins and saw some very loud animals (a donkey, lots of cows, some sheep, and a pig!), and even though they weren't doing hayrides, we still had lots of fun.

Here's the proof!

Alison is always on the move and she just doesn't understand that Mommy wanted a really cute picture with all the beautiful pumpkins!


Hey, this little pumpkin is just my size!


Alison is trying to figure out why in the heck this silly donkey was so loud!


I just love the shape of this, although I have absolutely no idea what it is.





Another my size pumpkin! Let's take this one home! (We did.)

Happy Fall Ya'll!