Happy Birthday Nathan!

Since Nathan didn't get a birthday party before we moved, we decided to have one at Grandma's house while we were stopping in Minnesota.  Nathan had such a great day that it didn't matter it wasn't his actual birthday one bit.  Nathan got to help make his cupcakes, which may not seem like your typical birthday fun, but Nathan loves to help in the kitchen.

We had Nathan's presents up on the table all day and at lunch, Nathan decided it was time to open up another present.  He had already gotten several trains from his Thomas set while we were driving in the car, but I was waiting for his birthday party to give him Thomas.  But Nathan was too eager for that.  He reached up and grabbed one of the presents and told us it had Thomas in it.  Sometimes he's just too smart.  He was so excited to get Thomas.

That evening we had a special birthday dinner, cupcakes, and presents.  By this point Nathan was so excited to open his presents.  He loved all his new toys and books.

And what better way is there to end a birthday than with stories with your Grandma? It sure made for one happy birthday boy.

Moving, Moving, Moving

We decided on our move date based on Nathan's birthday.  We needed to wait for his IEP to go into effect on his birthday before we moved so that it would transfer to Colorado.  If we left before Nathan's birthday, we would have to start completely from scratch.   It was well worth it for us to wait after Brad's graduation before we moved.

We had so much help packing up.  There were many friends from our ward and even a friend from dental school came to help us pack up.  We’d like to think they were there for us, but we know it was really for the free Krispy Kremes we bribed them with.  How else were we going to get people up at 8 am on a Saturday to help us move?  We had a lot of help so loading up our pods was pretty quick.  Then we cleaned, dropped off the keys, and headed out.

I felt a little bad that we spend Nathan’s birthday moving and in car.  He did get to have one last play date with his buddy Russell on his birthday while we were packing up.  Then, while we were in the car, I had wrapped some presents for Nathan to open.  Nathan has recently gotten into Thomas the Train and so I got him a set of the characters.  He was so excited to open up the new trains.  He knows all the names and loves to play with them.

It took us about 17 hours of driving time to get to Minnesota.  The kids did surprisingly well until the about the last 2 hours.  Then they were just done.  We were done too.  Good thing we had Grandma and Grandpa’s house to crash at for a few days.

Things To Know About Philly

If you are moving to Philly there are a few things you should know right off the bat:
- I know people always say traffic is bad wherever they live, but driving in Philly is like driving in another country.  People don't pay attention to red lights.  It's a very common occurrence for cars to be parked in traffic, blocking a whole lane.  I'm talking about at least 15 just to go pick up Brad from school. Usually right next to an open parking spot. Pedestrians do not look before they cross the street. Take any estimate of driving time and at least double it and you'll be closer to the truth.  There aren't turn lanes usually.  You just block traffic until you can go. Traffic is truly awful.
- Also, don't turn right on red.  You will get a ticket.  I'm serious.
- One way roads.  Which can turn into two way roads.  And then back to one way.  All in a 2 miles stretch.  You'll get used to it.
- You know how you complained in drivers ed that you'd never use parallel parking? Well, you'll use it multiple times a day here.
- Did I mention traffic is awful?
- It's a good idea to carry cash.  There are a good number of things you'll need it for.
- Be safe.  I can't count how many friends were robbed while we've lived here. Things can be stolen right out of your hands.  Or even your car (not just what was in your car, but your actual car) from the street.  Brad was assaulted on the street. Philly didn't get the name City of Brotherly Shove for nothin.
- Housing out here starts at about 80-90 years old so rentals are a little outdated.  Don't expect A/C, garbage disposals, gas heating, doors that close properly, floors that are even, bathrooms that are updated, etc.  It's just not very common.
- Go to craft night and book club.  Not only are these great nights to get out of the house, but these ladies will be your closest friends.

Things you'll know after 4 years:
- Some seriously good eats.
- In four years, you'll call the cops more times here than you've ever had to in your entire life.
- There is amazing medical care to be had here.  We've had some seriously wonderful doctors through CHOP and Penn.  Both are top in their field.
- The trees.  Oh the beautiful trees.  People rave about New England fall, but spring is my favorite.  Magnolia, cherry, and dogwood trees all in bloom.  It's gorgeous.
- We had a friend who introduced us to Philly as "the armpit of America." Sandwiched between two world famous cities of New York City and Washington, D.C., Philadelphia is a city with a lot of problems.
- Potholes will not be filled for at least a month.  Please memorize we're they are if you don't want to burst a tire.
- So much history.  Philadelphia was once the capital of the US and as such a lot of very important historical events occurred here and in the surrounding areas.
- Snow shuts down the city.  Even if there is the threat of snow, the mayor will declare a "snow emergency." I'm not making this up.  And often there won't be any snow and people just get the day off work.
- You are needed at church.  It's so different than a Utah ward.  There are not enough members to fill all of the callings in our ward.  You will have a calling or two. At one point Brad had 3 callings. But the opportunity to serve has made church much more meaningful to me.  You see the gospel in action.
- The wards here are very diverse.  The ward boundaries cross a lot of different neighborhoods.  You have everything from wealthy suburbs to inner city projects. We have a lot of converts.  Having gospel singing as the special musical number is not odd.  You have people from all across the world.  It's such a unique group of people, but we're all united in the gospel.
- Your friends here will become like family.  No one has family nearby so you rely on those around you.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to rely on my friends out here.  They are seriously wonderful people.

Living here has had its good and bad.  While I've wondering many many many times, "Why did we move here?!?" Philly has been the right place for our family to be.  Nathan wouldn't have been diagnosed as early if we were someplace else and we wouldn't have had as many services.  We've been needed in our ward.  Brad's been at a great program.  I'm so grateful for the wonderful friends we've made. Heavenly Father had his reasons for directing us to go to Philadelphia.

Goodbye Philadelphia

We had one last outing in downtown Philadelphia before we moved away.  We invited our friends the Murphys, who are also moving away, to come with us.  We met at Reading Terminal Market.  There is so much good food there.  We had to have one last cheesesteak in Philly.  We were able to sit around and chat while we enjoyed our food.  We'll miss the cheesesteaks, but we'll miss our friends more!  We both moved in at the same time and now we're both moving away for residencies.  We've gone through a lot in 4 years together and the Murphys became part of our family while we were away.  We'll truly miss them!

Nathan adores Shawna and Aubrey and asks for them frequently

While we were at Reading we also had to (and I mean had to) stop and get some doughnuts from the Almish.  They ran out of the apple fritters while we were in line, so we tried some new flavors and they were all delicious.

Making apple fritters

On the way home we drove around a bit to see the sights.  We passed the temple, Art Museum, and Rocky.  And then we drove around our old hood and saw our apartment in University City.  Both of us were just so happy we moved to our home in the suburbs!

When we moved to Philly we thought the temple would be done before we left.  Now we're sad we won't see it completed.

It was nice to send off Philly with good food and good friends.  Now on to our new home in Colorado!

Evelyn's Surgery

Yes, my 3 month old baby went in for surgery.

I first noticed it when Evy was 6 weeks old.  At diaper changes I would look in her mouth and it looked like there was something connected to her tongue.  I'd look again and it wouldn't be there.  I kept noticing it and so finally I reached in and found a little growth coming off of her cheek.  It felt like a little tentacle.

I took her in to our pediatrician who thought it was a mucocele and referred us to an ENT.  A mucocele is a plugged salivary gland that fills with saliva.  Brad didn't think it was a mucocele because it didn't look like a typical one.  They're usually cyst like and whiteish/blueish.  This wasn't.

I took Evy to see the ENT.  The doctor took a look at the growth and said, "Well that's interesting."  She went on to say, "I think its an E-P-U-L-I-S.  I'm not sure how to pronounce it."  She then took about 5 minutes on the computer, during which I thought she was typing notes about the exam.  When she was done she told me she had spent that time looking through a textbook of pictures to see if anything else fit better than an epulis, but she decided nothing seemed to fit better.  She said she would like to surgically remove it and that Evy would have to stay overnight at the hospital after having it removed.

We did not feel at all comfortable with this doctor.   She couldn't even pronounce what she was diagnosing.  Not a confidence builder.  And this was not a typical presentation of an epulis.  So we decided to get a second opinion.  We have an oral surgeon in our ward that we reached out to for recommendations.  The oral surgeon was able to connect us with the chief pediatric oral surgeon at CHOP.

When we met with the oral surgeon, he thought it was a mucocele as well.  Brad questioned him on it since it didn't have a typical presentation.  The reason it didn't look like a normal mucocele was because Evy's had filled up up and then ruptured.  Since a mucocele can continue to fill with saliva and then rupture he recommended surgically removing it.  The really cool thing about having the oral surgeon do the surgery is that he would use a laser to cut out the mucocele.  It cauterizes while it cuts so there is less bleeding, less pain, and less likelihood of the mucocele developing again.  Sounds good to me.  We felt a lot more confident with having the oral surgeon do the surgery.

We were pretty concerned about having our 3 month undergo anesthesia.  But Evy was having some eating problems from the mucocele.  There was one week were we could visually see it getting larger.  Evy flat out refused to eat sometimes because of the pain.  And then it ruptured and things got better for awhile.  We knew she would also have trouble eating with the mucocele in her mouth when she started eating solids since it was long enough to go over her gums.  We decided to go ahead with the surgery.

Evy did really good the morning of surgery considering she couldn't eat before the procedure.  She mostly sucked on her binkie, but every once in a while she'd cry herself to sleep wanting to eat.  We got her changed into her hospital jammies and met with the oral surgeon and the anesthesiologist before the procedure.  I really love the staff at CHOP.  They really take very good care of their patients.  I handed Evy off to the nurses to bring her back for surgery and went to the waiting room.

CHOP knows how to do parent waiting rooms.  There was a giant TV screen displaying how all the children were doing.  You just looked up you child by their initials and birthdate and it would tell you where you child was (pre-op, OR, recovery) and what time your child's procedures started.  Evy's surgery was the third one started that morning, but her doctor was the first one done.  The whole thing only took 20 minutes.  They put her under, put in her IV and monitors, the surgeon took 10 minutes to cut out the mucocele with the laser and then she was sent to recovery. They took me right back to see her.  With Nathan's surgery he wanted to keep sleeping so I had prepared myself to see her lying in bed with all the stuff hooked up to her.  I heard Evy from down the hall.  She was MAD.  She wanted to eat and now.  One big thing I worried about was how Evy would do with eating after surgery and it didn't bug her at all.  She latched right on and ate and ate.  She was so happy afterwards.  She wasn't groggy or crabby.  She didn't act like anything had happened.  The whole day I was expecting her to sleep longer than usual or act like she was in pain.  She was actually very happy and wanted to stay up and play.  The nurses monitored her for awhile to make sure she was doing ok, but then we were sent home.

So happy to have food in her tummy

Evy's done great with recovery.  On the day of her surgery she kept acting normal and happy so I actually never gave her any pain meds.  And since the surgery she hasn't had anymore feeding problems.

We went in this last week for follow up and got the pathology.  It was a mucus extravasation phenomenon, which is still basically a mucocele.  The oral surgeon was very happy with how things had healed up.  We have to watch and see if it comes back, but there is only a very small chance of that happening.  We're just happy that Evy doesn't have any more eating problems and doing so well!

The Shore

Our friends the Murphys had a residency down on the Jersey Shore and they invited us to come visit them.  This was our first time going to the Shore (#9) and it was a great day!

Nathan was so excited to go to the beach.  Nathan liked watching the water, but did not want to get wet.  He must have enjoyed it more than he let on then because now Nathan asks to go to the beach all the time!

The Murphys also took us to the boardwalk.  We went to the one in Ocean City which was very family friendly. We grabbed some boardwalk foods including some amazing custard.  It was fun just walking down the boardwalk and talking with our friends.  We'll sure miss the Murphys when we move!