"Home"?

A few days ago, Austen and I were eating breakfast (Berry Captain Crunch, our favotite:)as Jeremy was getting ready to leave for work. He grabbed his briefcase to head out the door when Austen looked up and said "Bye-Bye"? "Yes, honey", he responded. "Daddy has to go bye-bye." Austen then pleaded in the most adorable innocent little face, "Home"? imploring her daddy not to go to work but to stay home with us. It was too precious, and although Jeremy did go to work he was still talking about it that night at dinner. She really does hold a special place in his heart:)

Parenting Two:)

When I first discovered I was pregnant with Luke, a very wise person told me "Now the real parenting begins." I am now learning exactly what that means. I love having two children, however there are moments when you pull your hair out. (Those of you out there who have the same blessing know what I mean:) We have been potty training Austen all week and she is doing wonderful. She loves to potty and about every 15 minutes she wants to go. So it's 1:00 and I'm feeding Luke and sure enough I hear, "POtty?" "Yes, baby let's go potty" I say because I'm a good mother:) and put Luke down. Now Luke is crying because he's only had a mouthful of food. So the same thing happens 2 or 3 more times until I end up sitting on the floor outside the bathroom nursing Luke while "helping" Austen potty. I'm telling you mom's really should get a wonderwoman t-shirt to wear every so often:)
I think I may write a poem "An ode to mothers"
Check back next week and maybe my volunteer will have it posted:)

Tonya

Pictures Again

More Pictures:)

I have decided I'm going to recruit a volunteer to update my blog page for me. I simply cannot find the time. I know, it's sad.
Well, we have a lot to catch up on. Since the last time we talked Luke went to his ENT doctor and we were told his ear canals are tiny and that may be part of if not all of the problem. Although there are still no absolutes at this point, we took this as good news and are now waiting for little Luke to grow. Of course the rest of him is growing just fine. At his two month checkup he weighed 13lb 3oz and was 24 inches long. 89% for weight and 80% for height. I love that he has some fat on him because it means he's eating well and for all of you who were around when Austen was a baby you know we struggled with her being underweight and not eating well at all so this is a blessing:)

Austen is also doing well. She is so Austen. It is evident God has given her a precious personality that she will use for him one day. She is officially potty trained. She has gone two days without having aby accidents and has peed and pooped on the potty:)
That's a really big deal when you're potty training:) We are very proud of her and the "big girl" she is.

We also went to the beach on vacation so I am including some of those pictures:)

Luke's Hearing

Today we went back to Duke Children's Hospital to meet with the audiologist to conduct more tests on Luke's hearing. He did great this time. They need him to be a sleep so they can measure the brainwaves properly. He slept through an hour's worth of testing. Austen played with her nana (great-grandmother) in the lobby. The results for his hearing have not changed much. They were able to get a response above 35 dB in his left ear and only at 45 dB in his right ear. Both of these figures are not up to normal hearing ranges. They call this type of hearing loss conductive hearing loss, meaning there is something preventing the sound from reverberating off of the eardrum. They still are not ruling out the possibility of fluid and that is still the most logical explanation up to this point. We will now take him to an ENT where they will determine what is causing the obstruction behind the ear drum.. This could mean an MRI or other scans to see in his ear canal. If it is fluid they will remove the fluid and then conduct the test again at Duke to see how his hearing is. Please keep praying for Luke and his hearing.
While we were there they checked Austen as a precautionary measure. They take her into the sound proof room with speakers on each wall beside her. They call her name from one speaker and when she turns to the speaker a little bunny rabbit lights up that clangs a tamborine loudly. Evidently this is quite exciting for most children. However, for Austen that little bunny might as well have been the boogeyman. She screamed and clung to her daddy petrified. From then on every time a sound came out of the speaker she would jump and scream and would repeatedly say 'No'. By the time it was all over they knew she could hear not because she got excited but because she was shaking with fear. Poor girl. She did not even want a Blue's Clues Sticker with her favorite character, Mailbox. She was just ready to leave. She is growing so fast. Her Gi-gi and Pappy taught her over the weekend to say "aflac" whenever you ask her what a duck says. Yes the child is spoiled.