The Elecare Jr. Saga

Waaaaay back in February, we trialed KayTar on Elecare Jr. and it made a big difference for our little lady! On Februrary 27th, I asked her pediatrician to write a prescription change from Pediasure, KayTar' previous formula. Remember that date, FEBRUARY 27th!

My last update on the blog about her formula was on March 17th. At that point it had been 2.5 weeks and the HHC still did not have correct paperwork from the pediatrician's office. KayTar had been surviving on samples provided by the GI clinic up to that point. I think in all, they gave her 12 cans of formula. An Internet acquaintance then shipped us a case of 6 cans at no cost, just to help us out. I'm sooo thankful for that gift! I don't know what we would have done without it. It took forever for the pediatrician's office to get the script corrected, at one point it was written for 6 cans a day, which would have been 11,256 calories PER DAY! I think they were under the impression that it was RTF formula like her Pediasure had been, not cans of powder. We got that ironed out and the CORRECT prescription was finally sent on the 19th and the HHC (home health company) sent it to insurance for authorization that day. Throughout this process, I was talking to the HHC every 1-2 days. Oh, and during this time the HHC sent me a sample can to help float us...and it was INFANT Elecare, so they wanted it back and shipped us a new can. The poor Fed-Ex guy brought me the new can and said, "Are you sure you want this? Because I've been doing a lot of dropping off and picking up of the same boxes here." Haha! You know there is a problem when the Fed-Ex guy notices something isn't quite right.

I gave insurance a few days to authorize and send back before calling the HHC again, but when I did, they said that insurance hadn't sent authorization yet. So then I continued to call. I learned their names and voices and I'm pretty sure they learned mine. They continued to tell me that insurance had not sent anything back to them and I started to get pretty anxious, because the kids' insurance plan changes as of April 1st and then we have to do this all over again. I really need ONE shipment before that happens, because this process has taken a month! The HHC re-faxed the forms on the 23rd, but continued to tell me they had not received anything back, so I called insurance directly. The rep told me that they had faxed approval on the 19TH! The day it was originally sent! What?!? I had been waiting over a week for something that had already been sent?! So, the rep gave me the authorization code and I called the HHC back. She pulled up KayTar's file and still could not find any authorization. I gave her the authorization code and THEN she found it in the system, not attached to KayTar's main file. Oopsie! But, there was a problem (who is surprised??). The letter said that it was authorized for 6 months, from "3/19/12-3/19/12" A simple typo!! That second 3 should have been a 9. That is all. We had been waiting a week and a half for something that would have taken seconds to correct if I had been notified of it one of the 10 times I had called to check on her file since then! Maddening. I found all of this out on Thursday, which was getting PRETTY close to the insurance change deadline, so I called insurance and told them the issue and they said the HHC had to call directly, so I had one of my new BFFs at the HHC call insurance to request corrected paperwork. Then my HHC BFF called me back (all on her own!) to tell me that insurance had assured her it would be faxed within the hour and she even got the rep's name for me. I called back in the afternoon to check on the status and one of my other HHC BFFs told me that it had been received and the shipment was scheduled to go out on Friday. On Friday morning, I called and another of my HHC BFFs told me that the shipment had already left the warehouse!! I got so excited that it made her laugh! It was a beautiful moment!

It was a comedy of errors, getting this script filled...everyone involved made mistakes.
1. Pediatrician took forever to send it out, incorrectly.
2. HHC guy gave me incorrect info about how the pediatrician should fill out the form.
3. Pediatrician took forever to get it out CORRECTLY.
4. Insurance authorization made an error on the letter.
5. The erroneous authorization form was not attached to KayTar's file and nobody told me about the error.

Soooo, that is why it has taken from FEBRUARY 27th to MARCH 31st to get this glorious shipment of formula! Here's hoping that it takes less than a month to do it all again. Clock starts again on Monday!

Food, Glorious Food! :)

Grapes.

KayTar wrote this poem at school recently and I had to share it. The assignment was to write a poem about any fruit. KayTar does not eat fruits (in fact, part of OT for her is just TOUCHING fruits without vomiting), so she chose grapes because they are purple and there were no pink choices. I love this poem. (She also signed her name "KayTar S." for Sock Monkey, since she is married to her giant sock monkey, Socko Sock Monkey.)

 "I hate grapes. Big little bally yucky. Juicy. From seeds. Purple green never eaten by me. Bleh! Disaster! Oooh. Healthy. Gassy. Hard. Bumby. Little brown sour nothing."

TubieWhoobies!

KayTar got her super awesome, custom-made Sock Monkey TubieWhoobies this weekend! :) She's in love and I don't know if she will ever go a day without her button being in costume now.

If you'd like to order some adorable g-tube pads like KayTar's, you can order them here! (and no, I'm NOT being compensated to mention these...I just think they are awesome!)

Meet the Chicks!

My husband is a country boy at heart. We live in the suburbs, but he likes to hunt and fish and he started a backyard garden last spring. This spring he wanted to add chickens to his little backyard farm, which I wasn't 100% on board with when he brought it up LAST spring...but since he was still talking about it a year later, we decided to go for it. And seriously? Who can resist baby animals? I cannot. Over Spring Break last week, the kids each picked out a chick at the feed store and got to name it. KayTar's is Nancy Chicks (a nod to Oliver! and her nickname for her school nurse) and BubTar's is Wiggins. Then on Friday, Josh came home with a third which we haven't named yet! 

They are so cute and EASY to care for. They currently live in a big Rubbermaid container with bedding, food, water, and a heat lamp. Josh is building them a coop for when they get old enough to live outside. KayTar loves them to pieces and spends a huge portion of her free time with them. I'm pretty sure they've imprinted on her and think she is the mother hen! So the current tally of animals at the 'Tar household is 1 snake, 3 chickens, 2 dogs, and a cat that comes and goes of her own volition (she's not around so much since we added Dobby to the mix, but she comes by to visit). I think we'll be able to do petting zoo parties soon and not hire anyone! In five months, we're going to have more fresh eggs than we know what to do with...might have to start inviting people over for omelet parties on Saturday mornings! ;)

Nancy Chicks

Wiggins

Yet to be named...

Princess Ladybug!

KayTar received her TubieFriend on March 14th. It was love at first hug!

If you know someone who could use a TubieFriend or would like to make a donation to this wonderful organization, please follow this link. 

Happy Belly.

KayTar has been on Elecare Jr. for roughly two and a half weeks now and it has been EXCELLENT! She has vomited once, but it was due to respiratory junk, not GI issues. She has had no tummy pain, no complaints to being too full, nothing! In less than 3 weeks, she has gotten back up to full volume feeds (8 ounces) and she is *almost* back up to full rate!! It has been over six months since she's been able to tolerate this! She is also eating a lot more by mouth, which is wonderful. We didn't realize how poorly she was doing on Pediasure until we switched.

However, getting her prescription changed has been a NIGHTMARE. After the first few days on it, I talked to her pediatrician about getting it changed, but there have been multiple delays on both ends. The main issue is that the clinic is on the HHC's (home health company) Do Not Call/Do Not Fax list...so even if the HHC finds errors in the paperwork, they don't contact the pediatrician. Basically, if I don't call and find out the error and communicate it to the doctor, it doesn't get communicated. All paperwork has to be delivered/picked up by hand, so even if the doctor does what I ask...it can still take a few days before the HHC picks it up and processes it. At this point, we are over 2 weeks out and it has not even made it to insurance for authorization. AGH!

The GI clinic has been floating us with samples, but it has been TWO WEEKS. Two weeks is more than enough time for a script change, honestly. The nurse I spoke to this morning didn't know if they would be able to give us anymore samples, so we were in limbo all day waiting to hear back...meanwhile, we're on the tail end of our very last can. Boo. She is doing SO incredibly well on it, I would really, really hate to change anything. Unfortunately you can't just pick specialized formulas up at the store! I have Pediasure, but she was doing so poorly on it that I don't want to put her through that again. I was thinking that we might need to switch to Alimentum temporarily while we wait for the prescription change, but I got a call from the HHC this afternoon saying they would ship us ONE more can. Then I got an online message from someone who is willing to ship us 6 cans, no charge, just shipping (6 cans cost roughly $130!). Then I got a call from the GI nurse saying that the doctor gave the okay to give us 6 more sample cans we can pick up tomorrow. So that is 14 days worth of formula, I HOPE that 2 more weeks is enough time for the HHC and pediatrician to work out the prescription change. It is pretty miraculous we've been able to keep her on it this long without the paperwork in place, but I am incredibly thankful that it has all worked out so far!

Beads of Courage!

So proud!

So many beads!

She had quite a few leftovers after making 1 necklace!

Bead Meanings:

BLUE: Clinic Visit (I only tallied her specialist visits that I had note of.)

MAGENTA: Emergency (ER trips)

YELLOW: Sleepover at Hospital (per day)

TORTOISE: LP

BLACK: IV/labs/pokes

GLOW IN THE DARK: EEG

DARK GREEN: NPO (inpatient fast)

GLASS STAR: Surgery (they were out, so she'll get these soon)

LIGHT GREEN: CT scans/MRI/PFT/X-Ray

AQUA: Tube Placement

She really enjoyed making the necklace together and finding out all the bead meanings. BubTar even helped us by looking the different colors up on the tally sheet as we made it. She is super proud of her necklace and beads! :)

KayTar's Field Trip

KayTar's class went on a field trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 9th. Because it was a Friday, I was able to go along as a chaperone! Because of KayTar's medical needs, I'm pretty certain that either me or the nurse would have had to be there, so she could get her meds and tube feeds...and someone could push her in her stroller! I had to field about 50 "Why is KayTar in a stroller?" questions from her curious classmates. Sometimes my answers were not satisfactory (like, "KayTar can get sick from too much walking."), so they would then ask KayTar. It was a little humorous. Finally, I took to using a robot metaphor...KayTar is like a robot and when she gets up to participate, it runs down her batteries, so she gets back into the stroller to recharge while we walk. They understood that! Anyway, we have GOT to get her a medical stroller or chair soon. Her poor little Strollee is not cutting it anymore. She is under the weight limit still, but it just isn't meant for a child her size (especially height-wise) and it can be very difficult to maneuver, especially when trying to keep up with the boys who were in our group. It was a fun field trip, though, and KayTar really enjoyed herself and didn't mind being the only kid in a chair OR all of the questions from her schoolmates! We got to see baby animals, watch a cow get milked, see pig races, and pretend to work on a farm and sell our products at market!

This is how R stayed with the group when K was out of her chair.

Bunny ears gone wrong. LOL!

 

Rodeo!

 

Cool Stuff for Complex Kids

In the recent weeks, we have found a few very cool organizations that offer/sell products meant to make life as a kid with complex medical issues just a bit more fun and KayTar now has several super cool things headed her way! I wanted to share that information here, so more kids like KayTar can benefit from these neat programs and/or to highlight some great organizations that would be very thankful for a donation if you felt like sending one their way.

First up, there is TubieFriends (who just launched their website yesterday!). This organization was started by a group of moms with complex kiddos who wanted to create/provide stuffed animals with the same medical accouterments as the child they are made for, so they can have a little friend who is just like them! They use Build-A-Bear animals and have TubieFriends Surgeons place g-buttons, PICC lines, O2 cannulas, you name it! You can look around the website and see how happy they have made these kiddos! You can also visit my friend Leah's blog and see a post about her son Nolan and his new TubieFriend. He is having surgery tomorrow to have a fundoplication done and a g-button placed so his TubieFriend was his gentle introduction to his new accessories. Isn't that cool?! They ask parents to pay $8 for shipping IF they can afford to, otherwise it is a completely free, donation-driven organization. If you happen to have any Build-A-Bear coupons lying around from the recent McD's Happy Meal prizes, send them their way!! It will only cost you a stamp and it will help make some kiddos VERY happy! They have only been able to do AMT Mini-One or Mic-Key buttons, so KayTar couldn't get one like her (she has a BARD), but when I posted to inquire about whether it might be ever possible, another mom said she had a BARD she could donate...so KayTar's TubieFriend is now in the works! She is going to be SO thrilled!!

Second, there is Beads of Courage. Beads of Courage provides a wide variety of beads that each symbolize a type of medical intervention, like surgery or having an IV placed or having to sleepover in the hospital, ect. I've known about Beads of Courage for a while, but unfortunately our hospitals do not participate in this awesome program. My friend, Heather, recently wrote about it and I learned that they now have a distance program AND a new chronic illness program. Previously, your hospital had to participate in the program AND you had to have a specific condition, such as cancer, cardiac problems, or burn injuries to participate...but now kids like KayTar, who have been through years of medical treatments and testing without one of those specific diagnoses can benefit from this program! I can't tell you how excited I am for her, now after every yucky, un-fun poke, prod, surgery, test...she will get a special bead in the mail. She'll be able to tell people what her beads mean and SHOW people what she has been through. Not having a diagnosis does NOT mean you haven't been through the medical wringer! She has 137 beads heading her way...and that was just for the non-regular kid stuff that I have written record of. I think there is more that I've overlooked, but it is a solid start!

Finally, there is TubieWhoobies, which is not a non-profit organization like the previous two, but it still deserves to be included in our list of cool stuff! It is a small company run by parents of a medically complex kiddo and they make the CUTEST g-tube pads I have ever seen! The pads cost $5 each, which is pretty standard cost-wise, but they are so adorable AND I discovered that she takes special orders. I ordered KayTar a few Sock Monkey pads! She is going to love it! G-tube pads are generally used to keep the area around/under the tube or button clean and dry. KayTar doesn't have issues with leakage, so we don't need them all the time, but occasionally she does get a rash (yeast or staph) around her tube and we need to put medicine on it and keep something over it to keep it in place. However, she is VERY sensitive to adhesives and so securing split gauze can be tough and make more irritation that the rash itself does! It will be great to have some SUPER cute g-button pads around for those times. TubieWhoobies also makes PICC pockets (to keep PICC lines secure) and custom made hospital gowns, too!

KayTar's new goodies will be arriving over the next several weeks and I will be sure to post photos and her opinions when they get here! She knows about her Beads of Courage, but the other things will be surprises! I can't wait!

The Daily Business of KayTar

The following is a snapshot of what goes into keeping KayTar running on a daily basis when she is healthy and functioning at her BEST*.

5am: I wake up and mix her Nexium (and sometimes Culturelle), 1 packet of medicine and 15ml of water, rinse 2 syringes (It takes 2 to give the meds and 1 to flush the tube, but Josh leaves one rinsed and ready for me) and give it to her in her sleep.

5:45am: I wake up again (on the days I can actually fall back asleep), mix her Miralax and cornstarch with water, pour 8 ounces of Elecare Jr.** from the mixed jug in the fridge into a baby bottle for measuring purposes and add it to her feeding bag, along with the cornstarch/Miralax mixture. I attach the extension tubing to the feeding bag and prime the line. I rinse another syringe and draw up 7ml of Augmentin. I go upstairs, give her Augmentin, plug her into her feed bag, and start the pump.

7am: Josh dresses KayTar in her sleep. She is NOT a morning person. I refill her feeding bag with 8 more ounces of Elecare and then reverse prime the line so all the formula goes back into the bag before priming it regularly to remove all the air from the bag so it can be packed into her feeding backpack for school. Josh makes her lunch (which she often does not eat, but we always pack just in case). Yesterday her lunch was water, pepperoni, Lay's Classic chips, and a slice of crustless Parmesan cheese bread. It always consists of some variety of water, meat, chips, and an additional carb. Depending on the day, she receives 7ml of Claritin (or 10ml of Benadryl if she is very congested), 2 puffs of Advair, and/or 2-4 puffs of Albuterol.

7:45am She brings her feeding set to the nurse to be stored in the fridge until it is time for her feed. On Mondays, I bring her Augmentin into the nurse's office to be stored in the fridge for the week.

11:30am At school, she has her glucose checked daily before her feed. The nurse gives her 7ml of Augmentin and starts her tube feeding, which she wears to lunch in the cafeteria.

(12:30pm Fridays only: I pick KayTar up from school, drive her to occupational therapy. I drop her back off at about 2:15pm and pick up her Augmentin and feeding set from the nurse, run it back home to the fridge before running back to the school to pick up the kids.)

3:30pm After school, I add 8 more ounces to her feeding bag and rinse another syringe, draw up/give her another 7ml of Augmentin and start her feed. If she wants it in her backpack, I have to get the air out of the bag and re-prime it. She usually has a snack, generally a few chips while doing homework. After homework, we haul her and her IV pole downstairs. I hate moving the IV pole back and forth and I almost always have a bruise or two on my legs from accidentally smacking myself with the base.

5-8pm At some point in this timeframe, KayTar either successfully goes #2 in the potty or I discovered she has had an accident. The odds here are roughly 2/5. Either way, I'm cleaning a tushie. ;) Also, she usually has a little "dinner" in this window, typically 1-2 still-frozen chicken nuggets. Some nights she doesn't eat anything, of course.

7pm 10ml of Benadryl for congestion (almost every night). 2 puffs of Advair.

7:30pm Rinse another syringe and give 7ml of Augmentin, bring IV pole back upstairs, and give another 8 ounces of formula plus 3 teaspoons of Miralax. KayTar goes to sleep during this feed.

8:30pm Josh unhooks her from her feed and turns the pump off. He disconnects and rinses the extension tubing for the next day.

9:30pm Josh mixes/gives KayTar a dose of Nexium (and sometimes Culturelle) in her sleep. I rinse her formula jug that has been filled with/soaking in soapy water and mix her formula for the next day. 27.5 ounces of water and 22 scoops of powder. Shake well! I collect the syringes and fill a cup with hot soap water and draw it into each of them to let them soak overnight. We get 8 per month and use more than that daily! I fill the jug her formula was in that day with hot soapy water and shake it up, let that sit overnight, too, along with any bottles I used for measuring.

10pm Josh sets out the things I will need for the next morning. A cup with 15ml of water for her Nexium, a cup with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 3 teaspoons of Miralax, a clean syringe, and a escargot fork for mixing/stirring water into the Miralax/cornstarch mixture (seriously, they work the best!), a clean baby bottle for measuring, and a feeding bag.

*When KayTar is not at her best, there are a LOT of extra steps to this process...this is an example of the simplest life ever is with her at this point in time, the bare-boned skeleton of life with KayTar. Earlier this week, we were doing five tube feedings a day and not too long before that we were doing EIGHT tube feedings a day. That schedule really consumed the day, even when she was healthy. Adding in some of the illness related work, Benadryl every 4 hours, cough meds, fever meds, Zofran, nebulizer treatments of Albuterol and Pulmicort, multiple glucose checks and urine ketone checks...just to name a few of the possible additional steps. Yeah, it gets a little busy at times. ;)


**KayTar started a trial of Elecare Jr. on Sunday. It is an elemental formula, meaning that it is already broken down (like the proteins are already in amino acid form) so her body does not have as much processing to do. The hope is that it will be easier for her struggling gut to digest and will relieve some of her gastroparesis symptoms. So far, so good!! She has been back on 8 ounce feeds since Thursday and hasn't felt "too full" or "like [she] is going to throw up" or had tummy pains at all! It will take longer to tell if it is as successful as we think it is, but there have already been definite improvements! Plus, she says her burps now taste like Lay's Classics, which is awesome in her opinion.

Blue and Gold 2012

Blue and Gold Ceremonies are a yearly Cub Scout event and, historically speaking, they stink. Don't get me wrong, it is GREAT to acknowledge these boys and their accomplishments throughout the year, BUT the format has always been really lame and most people (even the BOYS) are bored and feel like they've wasted 2.5 hours of their time. 40% of the time is taken by adults speaking, 50% of the time is spent getting food from the banquet line that nobody enjoys, and 10% of the time is spent watching boys get awards. Boo. So Josh and I had been discussing this somewhat lacking format and he decided to propose that the pack change it up this year and they did! 

They treated it more like a banquet; assigning a theme (Under the Sea), setting a cohesive menu and assigning each of the boys a dish to bring (seafood and sides), and requesting that each of the boys participate in a skit to be performed during the night. They changed awards formatting, too, each boy decorated a picture and their awards were attached to that and given out to each den at one time. The leader would list a couple of impressive accomplishments, but did not spent an hour listing each little belt loop or patch they earned. Instead of doing the meal buffet-style, each boy served his table of guests. All in all, it was a HUGE improvement!! If your pack is finding Blue and Gold to be somewhat lackluster, I really recommend revamping it. I think both the guests and the boys enjoyed it a lot more this year!

My boys worked SO hard on the table decorations and we DEFINITELY had the best looking table there! They were both so secretive about their prep work and wouldn't tell us what they were doing since KayTar and I would be guests. The skits were cute, but we were in a gym and those guys do not know how to project (unless they are supposed to be being quiet, then they know how to get loud! LOL!) so we didn't always hear the dialogue. People still politely laughed and applauded, though, and KayTar would turn around and look at me and say, "Why are they laughing? I do NOT know why that is funny!!" Always honest, that one. Nathan had an idea for a Spongebob cake for the cake auction which they decided to execute as a inside out Boston Cream Pie; yellow cake, chocolate icing, pudding as the outer coat. Other ingredients: black licorice, marshmallow fluff,  Nilla Wafers, M&Ms, Nutty Bars, Oreos, and Twizzlers Pull-N-Peel. It came out pretty well, I think! :)

BubTar's Spongebob cake

Our table's centerpiece

Paper towel roll sea creature

Inside the fish tank

Refueling the submarine

BubTar's treasure chest

BubTar and his Aunt A watching the submarine.

More submarine watching

Treasure box and toilet paper roll sea creatures

She picked this shirt because of Cinderella's gold hair and blue dress.

Mmm, cake!

You guessed it...submarine watching! That Dollar Store sub was well worth it!

My silly dad.

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SEVEN!

Wow, it has been over a week since I posted! Whoops! It has been a pretty crazy week, though. So Wednesday was the big birthday. My mom ate lunch with KayTar at school, brought her a little present and a Cinderella cake. After school was the gauntlet that is Wednesday afternoon, Girl Scouts for KayTar which we have to leave early from in order to get BubTar to theatre class in the next town over. KayTar and I hang at the library while he does his thing, then we headed home for about 2.5 seconds before heading out to dinner. We went ate at Casa Ole that night, her choice, and she ate REALLY well! They sang to her in front of everyone and it was awesome...she ate it UP! (video quality is poor, my phone didn't focus and if I had tried to reset it, I'd have missed it!

Poor Josh missed it because he was in bed with a migraine all day....so we went again the NEXT night, too.

On Friday, BubTar had a field trip to Austin (about 4 hours away) so I woke up and took him to school extra early and didn't pick him up until 8pm! He had a blast! KayTar had OT that afternoon, as usual, and we discovered she has VERY weak eye muscles. She has been having trouble with school work pages with LOTS of little problems on them (like half-sheets with 18 math problems on them) and so the OT checked her eye muscles and YUP, she's got a definite deficit there. So now we have eye exercises to do...which she HATED! She actually said, "Can't I just EAT something?!" she got so frustrated. The OT and I laughed...we NEVER thought we would find something she liked less than feeding therapy! That evening we went grocery shopping and started setting up for her party the next day.

Saturday was her Sock Monkey themed birthday party with a suggested dress code of pajamas! A lot of people, even grown ups, did come in PJs. I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of KayTar with each of her guests like I have in years past...it just slipped my mind! She had a great time at the party and got a lot of neat stuff, Sock Monkey and otherwise. A few of her new favorites seem to be her Smashbook, Sock Monkey slippers, WillowTree angel (from Nurse C, who we regularly give these angels to...so special!), her Sock Monkey in a box, her two-faced Sock Monkey umbrella, her Sock Monkey Family, and the $20 she got from her honorary aunt and uncle....among other things. When I ask her what her favorites are she just CAN'T narrow it down and starts to list everything. She's such a thankful kid.  She spent the night with her cousins at my parents' house that night and some of our friends stayed over after the party and we had PJ game night.

On Sunday morning, I picked her up and we went over to Josh's parents' house for a belated birthday brunch for KayTar. KayTar LOVED the fancy breakfast place settings and the breakfast meats of course! After that was over, we had to run a few errands. When we got home, I had to start on my Stats homework...three chapters in ONE day! Agh! The boys were busy working on preparations for the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold ceremony the following day and KayTar was happily engaged with all of her new goodies for most of the day.

Monday was Blue and Gold, which deserves its own photo-centric post. The boys did such a great job with the decorations and cake! It was a late night, though, especially for KayTar who was up 2 hours past bedtime, and she ended up with a bit of a headache the next day. Tuesday was a delightfully laid back day...class, laundry, grocery shopping, lots of Wii time with the kids, and dinner at home! Yesterday was a bit busier...school, driving out to the hospital to get more formula for KayTar, picking up the kids, coming home for a short pit-stop before rushing BubTar to theatre, going to the library with KayTar, coming home to rush through homework, dunking KayTar in the tub for a quick bath, and barely getting it all done before it was her bedtime! Whew! And that brings us up to today which is the first decent chunk of time I've had to devote to blogging since KayTar turned 7! ;)

Her Sock Monkey Family waiting to PAR-TAY!

Didn't Josh do a great job?!

Just one of the monkeys!

Presents!

Opening her WillowTree angel from her nurse

Her nurse always says this to her (and to me when KayTar is absent)!

After reading the note on it, she said, "YOU always say that!"

Sock Monkey slippers!

Playing with her Sock Monkey in the Box, the only thing she asked for.

Birthday ice cream!

A whole lot of monkeys!

Smashbook stuff from my mom.

KayTar's angel's special place in her room.

Smashbook stuff again and cool art stuff from KayTar's aunt

She tucks in her slippers at night.

Money! She was stoked.

Her two-faced Sock Monkey umbrella. A genetic abnormality, I assume.