Toothless in Texas

Well....that didn't take long!

Caed attended a birthday party yesterday afternoon at a bounce house. Need I say more? When I picked him up, his tooth was "mysteriously" more loose than when I left him. Once we got home, he stayed in the bathroom for awhile, and when he came out.....bingo.....officially toothless.

Things are going strong in the Hollingsworth Household. We are staying very busy (spending most of our days at the ballpark), and trying to finish well with our first year in public school. Todd and I have been busy coordinating summer schedules and making sure we haven't over-booked certain weeks. Summers are wonderful, but can be awfully busy in the life of a student minister (and his family's!).


Caed had a very eventful day today. He finally lost his 1st (front) tooth! To be honest I always dread this day. I just LOVE those little baby teeth. I told him I wasn't ready for him to start losing them.....and I wanted him to stay little FOREVER!! He looked at me like I had lost my mind. His other front tooth is also very loose, so I suspect we will be spending the summer with an adorable toothless grin that will melt this Mama's heart with every smile! Short Gut speaking.....Caed is doing wonderful again. NO pain spells! We are sitting at a comfortable 500 ml/night....and will probably stay that way through the summer.



Reagan is also doing great! Only 6 more weeks of school...in which she is counting the days. The (insert sarcasm here) delightful TAKS test will take place next week, and boy are we ready!! Despised it as a teacher, and even more now as a parent. But....this too shall pass....and we will do what we have to do to get through it. Reagan has had a wonderful year in school this year. Has made the A Honor Roll every 6 weeks. We are SO proud of her! She proved to them that even as a former home school student....she could hang with the best! She is in Dance and Softball...and doing wonderful in both.



Caleb, well......he is still just as cute (and ornery) as ever! He is talking more and more, and for the first time is now in the lineup for nightly prayers. It is TOO CUTE! (hard to keep brother and sister serious when it's Caleb's turn)

I am currently taking some photography classes and hope to get some of my work on a website very soon. This has been a deep passion in my heart for SO long, and now I can hardly contain myself at the thought of something possibly coming from it. It scares me to death because I don't know the first thing about starting my own business, but I'm muddling my way through the dark trusting the Lord for guidance.

Sorry this post kinda has a Christmas card feel to it. Just thought I'd give an overview of our "non-eventful" life right now.......

....in which I'm LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF!!!!

Baseball/Softball

Definitive Plan

Got a call from NE today. After talking with Caed's dietitian, they have decided to hold off on the weaning process. Our main goal is to get him stabilized. So, it looks as though we will stay on 500ml feeding through the remainder of the summer. Then.....we will slowly begin decreasing again as school starts. They also told us they are seeing several of their sbs kids experience severe cramping when coming off the feeds. THAT explains it! Finally....I get a legitimate reason in my head for all the issues we've been having lately. All of this started when we stopped his nightly feedings. I guess 500ml is not quite enough for his body to compensate on its own....as previously told to us. Caed just might be a little different than the "sbs norm" and that's ok. We will take this thing down as low as we can go....if needed. His pain spells are becoming less frequent and less intense. Praise God for that!

We haven't quite broke the news to Caed yet. And we need to rethink the bed situation. Caed and Caleb have bunk beds and the plan was to move Caleb to the bottom bunk (from crib) when Caed got off all tube feeds this spring. Then, Caed could officially go to the top. Ughhh.....now I'm not sure what to do. I guess if Caleb is not trying to crawl out of his crib, I should be thankful and let him go as long as possible. There is no way I can let Caed go on to the top and still be hooked up. I cringe just thinking about all the possible disastrous scenarios. Oh well.....if a bunk bed is the greatest of our worries right now, then we are BLESSED!




We are in FULL swing with baseball and softball these days, and spending every waking moment after school at the ball field. If I had of known how crazy it was going to be, I might have rethought both Caed and Reagan playing at the same time. BUSY-BUSY! I will post pics soon!!!!
They are both loving it!!!!

Easter weekend

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; HE HAS RISEN!



Hope you all had a very blessed Easter weekend. The kids had a great time decorating, hunting, and playing with eggs on Sat. afternoon....and then going to an "egg hunt at night." Todd and I didn't go (instead went to see the Mavs play), but we were told everyone had a great time. They all had flashlights and off they went to find their eggs in the dark!!! Sunday morning was a wonderful time of worship as we celebrated our risen Savior!



Now, for a Caed update - the results from his last test came back today. His labs look "ok." Not GREAT....but ok. His white blood cell count is dropping, which is good, but he is still a little on the dry side. Caed went 3 days pain -free. Then, in the middle of the night last night....we had 2 short spells. They didn't last long, but made for a very tiring morning. The thought is he might have some kind of GI bug that has hit him hard (going on week #4). I don't know. None of it makes sense to me......when we look back at when it all started and how the pain-spells transpired. They began hitting him right after he would eat. 5-7 a day. Then, they became much less frequent but more severe in pain. ER visit. Lately....he will be just fine, outside playing or sitting watching tv or at school or sleeping.....and all of a sudden one hits. There just doesn't seem to be any pattern that I can see. I'm still not sold on it just being a bug, but for now.....we'll keep our eye on him. It may actually be a combination of several things.



The plan as of now is to keep doing what we are doing. He will remain at 500ml of formula for the months of April and possibly May. The risk of dehydration during the spring and summer months here in Texas can be high, so we really need to be careful. Also because of this latest setback, it's looking like we may not get rid of the g-tube in June as planned. We'll just have to wait and see. NE is feeling as though we may need to wait til the end of summer to be on the safe side. (again....for risk of dehydration) As much as we are wanting that thing GONE.....we also don't want to remove it too soon. I know Caed is going to be so disappointed. He talks about "his tube being gone the next time we go to NE" all the time. Which is probably my fault! But it'll be ok. We can talk him through it, and let him know the reasons why we might have to wait. He's a big boy......








playing Egg Toss after they found all the eggs. Our street and driveway were a mess.....but made the birds very happy!!


Some pics from our night with the Dallas Mavericks.....fun!!! We had GREAT seats!

Dirk Nowitzki



Kevin Durant and Jason Kidd