Hotel Rady

Hello....we are writing to you all from our lovely room at Rady Children's Hospital. Kali has been admitted once again for RSV, similar to our experience in early 2011. The diagnosis was confirmed today and we have been banned from having a roommate since it is viral. We even have a giant green sign on our door that warns everyone about taking extra precautions.  We are not sure how she got it, but 'tis the season for colds and flu..

In our waiting time, Matt created this video for Kali's viewing pleasure. She loved it, so we hope you enjoy it too.

Back From Hiatus

Happy winter everyone!  We are back from a blog hiatus.

Many events have happened since our last post and we have many photos of the family to share, but we have to share that over future posts to keep each post short and sweet.

So what have you been up to you ask???

Kalista is doing well at school and is a super chatty girl. She loves to do the Gangnam dance around the house and even danced with Santa today. We're a little sad that we didn't get that on video. (oops!!)  She has gained a lot of weight and is even taller than many of her classmates.

Matt is working hard at the Marriott and enjoying the benefits of the hospitality business when we jet set on the weekends all over southern California. 

Jen has started her new position as Sharp and is enjoying her new place. She gets off work earlier now and is able to spend more time with Kali.

Bella....oh Bella....she is still the same 'ol lap dog. She still loves snuggling and sitting on everyone's lap, if she gets the chance.  She just got over a bit of a incident last week and is recovering well (we will elaborate more in a future post).

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and stay tuned for more of the Lam adventures!

Just for Kalista...we have posted her favorite song and video:

The Summer Finale

It's September already and the summer has come to an end.

We just returned from a short trip to the Bay Area over the Labor Day weekend.  Matt's mom celebrated her retirement with a big party, Kalista started her first day of school last week and Bella had a blast at the doggie hotel.

Grandma Evelyn's retirement bash at the Cliff House

 Bella enjoying playtime and making new friends at the pet resort

We got this emailed to us from the pet resort on Labor Day...Bella is too cute!

 Kali enjoying her last few days of summer vacation before her first day of school

Kalista also sat on the airplane for the first time over this past holiday weekend.  She did a great job on both flights.  She said "whoa whoa whoa" upon take off and then slept for the remainder of the flight. Whew...we were so glad that we did not end up a victim of those crying kid airplane stories.  She did a great job!

Here are a few pictures from our trip up north visiting friends and family:

 Having dinner with Great-Grandma (Jen's Grandma)

 Hanging out with Great-Grandpa (Matt's Grandpa)

Kali borrowed Auntie Jeanette's Barbie mobile with Grandpa's help

 Kali had to show off her new bathing suit. It hides her belly bump well!

 Enjoying pool time with dada

 Poolside party with the cousins

Because we haven't updated our blog over the past few months, we have plenty to talk about now.  Kalista is growing leaps and bounds.  Her speech and vocabulary has expanded and she talks non-stop.  her new favorite phrase is: "What is.....????"  So she asks us all the time: "What is a bird?  What is Brobee?  What is Muno? What is dada? "  Kali is still a big lover of Yo Gabba Gabba and asks about Brobee and Muno on a daily basis.

Bella has adjusted to life without Joey and is enjoying all the attention she gets from all of us in the house. She loves cuddling with Kali and I think the feeling is mutual from Kalista too. We will sometimes find Kali laying on Bella as if she was a pillow.

 Summer chalk art classes for Bella - Kali is a good teacher!

 Mastered the pursed lips pose for blowing bubbles

Enjoying plenty of time outdoors

We just celebrated our five year anniversary and will celebrate the monumental milestone in the next few weeks while we are on a long vacation.  Matt is working hard at the Marriott still, but Jen has decided to leave private practice after almost 7 years to join the optometry team at Sharp Rees-Stealy, a larger medical practice, as their pediatric specialist mid-October. It has been exciting news and a big change!

Update on Kali's medical status: We have been placed on hold from any surgeries until we wean her 100% off her g-tube.  Which might be a good thing since she is so petite.  We have seen the GI department and our nutrition team quite a bit over the summer because we were not gaining weight as quickly as we should have.  With a little adjustment in the calories and quantity of tube feedings, we are back on the growth chart with good progress. We had to bump back up to Boost 1.5 formula with some extra calories from Duocal, but we broke the 20 pound mark FINALLY sometime in mid-August.  Yay!! 

We have a feeding team evaluation coming up in the next month and a half to assess where we are and figure out our next plan since we are at a standstill with oral feeds again. Kali will get hungry...stuff food in her mouth....but won't swallow it and then gets frustrated and taps her belly for her tube feeding. She is too smart for her own good!  

We are just blessed that she is doing well overall and growing into such a little woman.

Not Enough Hours in the Day

Where did we leave off?   Oh yes...we left off with Kalista's birthday weekend getaway.  Sorry for the delay. We know that all of you have been waiting for the anticipated birthday party pictures.  There are just not enough hours to get to the blogging.

So yes...back to where we left off.  The next following weekend we took a mini trip to Dana Point/San Juan Capistrano for Jen's birthday weekend trip.  We had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and beaches.  We also took Bella with us since the hotel allowed animals.  Bella had a blast!!!  She exuded the spoiled princess vibe all weekend.

 We enjoyed a clam baked style dinner from The Boiling Crab...Yum!

This Squirrel cake was courtesy of Chubby Cakes in Westminster

Kalista has become an expert in the sport of bubble blowing. Whenever she sees a bubble wand or bubble container, she goes into bubble mind mode.  She can't enough of her assortment of bubble wands that were left over from her birthday party.

Grandma Susan came to visit right after Grandma Evelyn left...literally on the same day.  It was nice having some extra hands around the house for two weeks between the two visitors.

  

We made a few trips to the zoo with Grandma's new annual pass.  Kalista loves wearing sunglasses and has a tendency to borrow them from others.

Kalista's official birthday party was postponed to June for many reasons, but it finally happened.  It was Yo Gabba Gabba themed and she loved her cake until we lit the candles.  She bursted into tears for some reason.  Maybe she thought we were trying to torch her new friends....eek...that would freak me out.

The party was a success!  We had a fabulous turnout and the weather was just right for the park.  Kalista's little friends had a blast on the jungle gyms of various size. We had some relatives that flew into town just for the weekend to celebrate it with us.  Thank you for the trip down here!!!

Kalista says "THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING TO MY PARTY AND FOR ALL MY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!".  She wasn't into opening gifts at first, but when she saw what was all wrapped up....it was worth all the work.

We had a mini photo shoot for Project: Father's Day.  With the idea from her teacher, we borrowed this little outfit from her school and took a bunch of photos to frame for Matt's special day.

 HAPPY DADA DAY !!!

Kalista learned to say : Happy - Dada -Dee (Happy Father's Day) and Owl - Juice ( I Love You).  It sounds much cuter when she says it.

We all mustered up some energy to get to the SD County Fair this year since all three of us have been fighting off this cold of various extent.  Along our stroll past livestock, we met this HUGE cow.  MOO! It doesn't seem so big from this picture, but it was very large. We tried out the bacon wrapped turkey leg this year and it was pretty good.  We didn't try anything exotic this year...no deep fried trix or coco pebbles.

We hope this summer will bring some fun times and memories for all of you!!

Birthday Getaway

We hope all you mamas out there had a great Mother's Day. We celebrated Kalista's birthday in the same weekend.  

Kalista enjoyed opening a few gifts.  She received a few books, stickers, clothes and Yo Gabba Gabba items. Thank you so much for the birthday presents!!!!

Thanks to Auntie Kimmie, Kalista loves putting stickers on her face and feet.  It's like a sticker pox outbreak has taken place.

Matt's parents came into town and we whisked away to Newport Beach for a weekend getaway. We stayed near the Pelican Hill Resort at one of the Marriott Villas.  We were greeted with towel animals on our beds.  We had a very plump turtle awaiting us.  Very nice!!!

We had a wonderful brunch in Laguna Beach at a french bakery/restaurant.  We had some fabulous sweets. Kalista had a yummy red velvet birthday cake, but only ate the white chocolate flakes off the top of it.  However, she used the star shaped sugar cookie to dig into the cake itself.  She doesn't like to get her hands dirty.

We spent the part of the afternoon hanging out at the Villas and enjoying all the cool events on the property.

 The ponds had some humongous Koi fish

 Kali could not get enough of the mini putt putt golf

We spent the other part of the afternoon enjoying Downtown Disney. Yahoo!!!  Gotta love the Lego store.  It's amazing how elaborate those Lego sculptures look.

Aww...Beauty and the Beast

Lego-fied Aladdiin, Princess Jasmine and The Genie

Everything Gabba

Oh yes....Gabbaland coexists in our house. "Gabba" has become one of Kali's daily words.  She even does the same arm gestures and dancey dances when she gets a chance to watch "Yo Gabba Gabba' during her tube feedings.  It's actually pretty cute, but a person can only take so much of the five creature clan.  Oops, my mistake....four creatures and a magic robot.  For those who don't know the YGG show..here's a snippet of one of their catchy social interaction songs : Don't Bite Your Friends.

Life has continued on with one less furry family member.  Bella has been pretty quiet lately, but is starting to expand her social calendar.  Our neighbor has a eight month old schnauzer mix that will be scheduling weekly play dates with Bella.  In the meantime, Matt took Kali and Bella to a local park for some free play. Kalista looks so grown up holding Bella by her leash.  She loves having that role, but isn't always reliable with holding on for very long.

Our Beloved

Joey "The Fox"

July 4, 1998 - April 26, 2012

You will always be loved and missed.

New Beginnings Come With Endings

It was a bittersweet day for our family.  

The Ending.....

The agenda for the day unfolded at the later part of yesterday. We anticipated Kalista's first day of school, but we didn't anticipate that we were also going to be putting our dog, Joey, down that same day.  Joey has been wasting away before our eyes more rapidly in the past few weeks.  He had lost so much weight from his inability to eat his normal large quantities of food due to the tumor in his mouth.  Joey did not look very happy, but bless his soul...he never whined or complained.  Not a whimper at all.

 

Our handsome Joey just finished his gourmet breakfast

Bella wanted to get in some last minute sniffs and kisses

Joey has been with our family since he was six months old and was about to turn fourteen this upcoming July.  He was our 4th of July baby.  He has definitely had a good long life with us and we know he will continue to have an even more fulfilling one in doggy heaven.

Matt had to take Joey this morning to our vet's office, while Jen got Kalista ready for her first day of school. Kalista had no clue what was going on this morning, except the usual dog feeding session.  Joey got spoiled with finely chopped chicken breast meat, all minced up to perfection by our close friend, Beverly.  Bella looked jealous, but also a tinge saddened.  We couldn't quite tell if she was sad because she didn't get any of the gourmet meal or sad because she knew something was going on.

Saddened Bella

We will miss Joey very much. He was a great friend, companion and brave dog.

A new chapter begins, as one ends.

The Beginning...

Kalista started her morning with a little breakfast.  She ate a bit of her hash brown before we had to give her a tube feeding.  Ironically, she hasn't been super hungry when she wakes up.  We'll give it a little more time.  It's only the second day without an overnight feeding...we're a little over anxious for amazing results.

We dropped Kalista off at school and she said "Hi" to her teacher before she  ran to the trampoline.  We stayed for about 20 minutes to see if she would be fine without us. It appeared that she was doing fine on her own.  She would play a little bit and then look up to smile to let us know that we could leave.  We knew there would be no tears as she giggled and ran around meeting her new classmates.  Kalista even waved "Bye" to us through the window. So precious!!!!  Kind of glad that there was no separation anxiety, but at the same time...disappointed that our baby didn't really need us.

Bounce Bounce Bounce

She found another lam-b in her classroom. How funny!

When Jen went to pick Kalista up, she was so tired from the half day of ultimate fun.  Jodi, her teacher, said that Kalista had a great first day. Kalista did her own thing at times, but for the most part...she sat like a big girl with all her other classmates during lunchtime and ate her noodles and Vienna sausages.  All in all....a success!

Bella was super excited to see Kalista when she returned from school.  Kali spent some time hanging out with Bella- petting her, chasing her and even putting all of our dog toys into Bella's crate.  Oh that Kalista!!!!

Bella got a surge of extra attention and pampering today.  We renovated her living quarters and expanded some space for her to roam.  We washed her linens and gave her a spa treatment during her bath.  The princess is back!

Bella found a comfy spot while we were doing laundry