Zoë's time in the Hospital

Umm... I've been meaning to finish up this post for about a month now. Time is just flying by and I'm sooo behind on blogging! Rest assured Zoë is much better and we've been out enjoying the nice weather and our pool.

So briefly: Zoë had some sort of viral infection that her dear brother gave her, maybe parainfluenza or something of the sort. Basically, she wasn't handling it very well and ended up with bronchiolitis. Here is a copy and paste definition: Bronchiolitis is swelling and mucus buildup in the smallest air passages in the lungs (bronchioles), usually due to a viral infection. It's apparently pretty common in children under 2, and it doesn't necessarily mean she is at increased risk of developing asthma or other reactive airway disease later in life. She needed supplemental oxygen and some respiratory therapy to help her get the mucus out. During her time in the hospital, they would thump on her chest and back once in a while to help loosen that junk and then they would suction her nose to get it out. If any of you have a nasal aspirator for your little ones, this was the mother of all snot sucking devices. totally satisfying to get all the boogers out of her nose and anything in her lungs.

Here she is the first night in the hospital, tired and feeling crappy but still so cute...

Reuniting with Daddy after a few days separation

Feeling better and playing with her formula bottles

The nice nurse gave her a balloon!

Trip to LA: a photojournal

Vince literally fell asleep as we were landing into LAX.... otherwise he was awake the whole 5 1/2hrs.... seriously little guy?! Here's a tired momma with some tired babies.

A happy Grandma, finally with both her grandchildren (post 4 day hospitalization of Zoë)

We were excited to show Vince Point Vicente when we went to visit friends in Palos Verdes. He was very proud to share the name of the lighthouse point.

Exploring Santa Monica and the Pier

Marshall got to hear Zoë's babbling while we were out to lunch one day, boy did she have a lot to say!

enjoying the sunny warm weather at the playground, which we went to almost daily

Uncle Eric and Uncle Michael get cuddles too!

I'm sorry, but I had to get a pic of this... it reminded me of MA... and my patients haha!!

Vince and Zoë LOVED this giant teddy bear!

Vince and Kathryn have fun feeding the lorakeets at the Long Beach Aquarium (a random part of what was mostly marine creatures.... I promise!)

Where Did I Leave Off?... oh yes, Easter

Whew! It's been a long couple of weeks. We've been to California and back, and Zoë's been in the hospital twice! She's doing well now, thank you for all your prayers and good wishes.

Before I get to our trip to visit my mom, I have to finish up our Easter! Here's a few more good pictures from the photo shoot the day before Easter....

Put on your Easter Bonnet!

Don't you just want to squeeze those little faces! Where did Zoë's eyes go?

Then there was Easter morning, packed full of searching for Easter baskets, opening (and eating) presents, dying Easter eggs, making pancakes, and getting ready to go to church by 10am.

Vince found his basket in the sun room!

then he helped Zoë find hers in the dining room

time to eat Aunt Donna's present!

Vince finished his ring pop before 9am...

I was so excited to make these cinnamon roll pancakes, a recipe I found on one of my friend's facebook posts (thanks Angela!). These things are sooo decadent and delicious. Certainly only need to be consumed once a year if that.

We went to our friends house for the Easter Egg hunt, Vince ate his weight in candy

While Zoë was taken care of by all the girls

It isn't Easter without the Easter Lamb cake, I bit off the ear

Happy Easter 2011

We had fun taking pictures with a live bunny today!! Well, saying it was fun could be a little bit of a stretch. I always get a little apprehensive about going to get family photos these days. The last few times we've gone, Vince was an absolute crazy man and never did anything we'd want. I know, I know, he's almost three... that's what he's supposed to do right? test the limits...

Well today was another banner day of trying to get good photos. Vince was literally running around our little photo studio non-stop the whole time, crawling under the photo back drop, hiding behind the photo back drop, dragging the photo back drop, running into other peoples photo shoots, running out the door of the studio. It was exhausting to say the least. I totally broke out into a sweat at one point. Not something you want to do at a photo shoot, although it makes me laugh out loud to think about it now. Bribing him with lollipops barley even worked!! Nevertheless, we managed to get some cute shots.

Vince and Zoë were enthralled with the little furry puff ball but you'll be happy to know they pet her very gently (with much guidance). The bunny however, kept taking little nibbles of Zoë's tights.... slowly getting more bold until attempting to take bigger chunks each time. Luckily she didn't bite Zoë's little toes!




more to come on our Easter Festivities......

Racing Weekend

It's been almost 7 years (what!?.... where has the time gone?!) since I convinced Mike it was a good idea for us to participate in running a marathon. But when I think back on the days of training, and then running that day, the pains and aches come back as if it were yesterday. We ran our 26.2 miles at Cape Cod on Halloween. Runners were dressed up in colorful hats/outfits, and some supporters took on particularly interesting roles in their costumes: I can still remember as clear as day....this guy that was dressed up as the devil at the bottom of one of the hills. He had the red horns, the red tail, the pitchfork.... the works. As I passed by him getting mentally ready to jog up yet another hill, he waved me by and introduced the hill saying "enjoy, complements of me".... yes, he certainly was the devil!

That marathon was by far the most physically and mentally taxing challenge I've ever had. After it was over, we laid on the couch like jellyfish for the next... well.... couple of years! I never thought I would really ever want to run again.

That being said, I recently signed us up for a 5k run to get us motivated to get into shape again! With Mike planning his first Appalachian Trail hike this summer (with plans for every summer until he finishes it!), we figured it would be a fun way to exercise.

Life at the Silvestro household is of course not complete without our neighbor Mary, so naturally she got roped into training and running the 5K race too! She trained with me as we practiced running around the neighborhood, and has proven to be a loyal and positive running buddy. This was Mary's first race too, and although in the end we decided our goal was to simply finish the race..... she had so much fun running that now she has set her sites on not only running a marathon but winning too. You go Mary!

Here we are on race day

Mike took on the extra challenge of running with the stroller, pushing our personal little cheerleaders. As we started running, Vince kept yelling "go Daddy go!, go Mommy go!, go Mary go!"... soo super cute! And Zoë was just her chilled out little self in the back, waiting to get noticed every once in a while by a runner or walker. There would be the ceremonious double take as they realized "Oh my! there's a second little one back there! How cute!".

During our "training", Mary and I hadn't actually run the whole 3.1 miles that the 5K would be, but we were so pumped and excited with the crowd that we ran the whole thing without walking. We were pretty happy with ourselves. The after party had tons of kids activities, including face painting. Vince got a train and Mary got a butterfly.

Is it me or does this picture look like a budding romance?! So adorable!

Vince helped get the rest of the runners fired up during their last couple minutes in the race, giving them high fives

So will this 3 mile run eventually lead to another marathon? Easy answer: no way. I do think we may try and do every 5K race within a 50 mile radius of where we live though! It was all so much fun!

P.S., anyone want to do this run with us in June? Kyleigh's Cure is a fundraiser for a little girl that lives down the street from us, she's a brave little girl battling an extremely rare life threatening disease.