Our Dental Journey

 

When Paul was little, at the age of four to be exact, he went to the dentist for his check-up only to find out that he had a number of cavities. His teeth are very prone to cavities…and guess what, Noah has his genes!! We went for his check-up a month ago and lo’ and behold, all of his molars had cavities! Ugghhhhh! It has been a long journey – he has had to get them filled one section at a time. So after a round of antibiotics, 4 fridays in a row of shots and drilling, and one silver tooth later – we are ALMOST finished! Next week is our last week of fillings and thank goodness, these are ALL baby teeth. But since he has been such a trooper and he didn’t even cry or budge with his shot and silver tooth today…he FINALLY got to get a sweet prize to reward his braveness. And what has he been asking for you say???????

Rapunzel of course!

I tell you what – for a very BOYISH, testosterone driven boy…he has the sweetest, most loving side to him. He loves to take care of things, loves to love fully, and loves the ladies in his life. He tells me every day that I am beautiful. I heard him tell Rapunzel tonight “don’t worry, I will take care of you” – heart melting.

As we were in target after his  appointment and every single person we passed he would say “Hey guys…I have a GOLD tooth!!!!” His daddy has a gold tooth so he is getting a bit confused but he thinks it is the coolest thing EVER! Do you see the left side of his face drooping and swollen in the pic above? Poor thing is a trooper…

Bumpkin’ Quotes

Keep in mind that my little lovelies have very good grammar – well, very good for a 4 and 6 year old. But, below is a conversation (fight) Paul and I heard going on this past weekend:

(You have to read this in a very ‘country’ accent because it was spoken that way)

Noah: “No I weren’t!!!!”

Elijah: “Yes you WAS!!!!”

Our Newest Discovery

Learning body parts this week – but an obsession has started…

Crafty Tot Valentines

Super excited about having two that are now old enough to have a great time with Valentines, enjoy the true meaning of it, and have friends to exchange ‘love’ with!! So this weekend we made our valentines mail boxes for school – these are so PERFECT for the little boy on such a girlie, pink, fru-fru holiday.

Before:

During:

 

The Final Monsters:

 

Happy Valentine Week!!!!

Paul’s Accident Update–Jan. 28th

First of all I want to thank everyone for the calls, concerns, offers, and prayers. It is a humbling experience to see your support system shoot through the roof when something tragic happens. I am thankful for each and every one of you – I love you all!

First I want to start off with the accident:

Last night after 5, I received a call from Paul telling me that his truck died on the side of 85. The battery died as he was driving down the highway. He pulled off the road and began calling for help. The tow truck was on it’s way and the Hero unit was on it’s way. He called me back to tell me what was going on when all of the sudden I heard a very LOUD crashing sound that seemed to go on forever with Paul yelling in the background. I KNEW what was happening. I heard him yelling ‘I am OK, I am OK’ But I called 911 right then.

Another man was driving around 80 mph on 85 when he veered off the edge and ran right into the back of Paul’s truck and turned on it’s side. The 2 cars slid down the hwy for a while and stopped up against the guard rail. Because Paul’s battery was dead, his airbags did not deploy – the impact shot him up against his roof, then up against his windshield, and he landed up against the passenger window. He was able to kick his door open and went straight to the other car where he saw a lot of blood. The man answered Paul’s calls and Paul was able to help the man out of his seatbelt. NOBODY STOPPED!!! Can you believe that?!? Not one person stopped to help. The police were there very fast, thank goodness. But as the other man was being put into the ambulance, his speech was starting to slur and they were becoming very worried. He was covered in blood. We do not know any updates on the other man, sadly.

The miracle: Paul was outside of his car 5 minutes before the accident looking for jumper cables. The Hero unit was told that Paul was on I85 south bound so he was over on the south side looking for him – come to find out, Paul told them he was on Northbound and they wrote it down wrong. Had they heard him correctly, the hero unit would have been there when this happened and they would have been working on Paul’s truck. I was going to go down there with the boys to jump him off when he called me the first time, but he told me to wait a little bit. All of this could have been MUCH worse but thank God, things worked out for the best.

How Paul is doing:

He was taken to the hospital because of blood on his face and a lot of bruising. The CT scans came back normal. The swelling and bruising is scary looking, but that’s all it is, outside bruising. He is home and just needs time to rest and time to heal. He may have a cracked collar bone, right next to the plate that was put in from his motorcycle accident. His hip is also really bothering him today. We have a follow-up appointment with his Orthopedic Surgeon (that he knows from his other accident) so we will find out more and do more x-rays then.

Prayers still appreciated! Not sure of his full injuries yet. His car will be totaled so we will be looking in to all of that the upcoming weeks. He adored his old truck, but it had seen better days. Thank you again for all of your support! Stay safe out there!!

Jobe’s Diagnosis

Whew….It has been a year of many different ideas and Dr. visits. The days after my sweet baby was born, the Dr.s in the hospital noticed that his skull plates were overlapping. We were all worried that his plates may already be fused but by the time we were heading home after our hospital stay, they were already spreading apart. Because of these issues, we decided to see a neurosurgeon here in Atlanta just to be on the safe side. So at 3 months, we met with a great Atlanta surgeon to rule out a cranial issue. While we met with him, he noticed that Jobe was tilting his neck and sent us to PT to get possible ‘torticollis’ taken care of.

A new chapter of PT began!! With amazing help from my sister, we were accepted into a Georgia program called ‘Babies can’t wait’ where we were able to have a therapist come TO OUR HOUSE to perform PT on my little man. For those of you that know me well, know how freaked out I am about germs. This was a HUGE blessing. If we weren’t able to use ‘Babies’, then we would have to travel down to Childrens Healthcare every other week where he would be chewing on other toys, playing with other toys, etc, etc, etc….This was a nightmare for me. He was so little, so fragile…..PT in our home was such an amazing blessing!!!

Things were going well with PT but as the weeks went on, we kept noticing that his left eye seemed smaller than his right and it didn’t want to move to the left. Therefore, we were sent to a pediatric ophthalmologist. After 2 visits with her, we were finally diagnosed with something called ‘Duane’s Syndrome’. This is where there is a palsy of the sixth cranial nerve, or the nerve is missing all together. The only way to get a definite diagnosis would be to do an MRI – but my little guy is so little. Therefore, we are going to wait a while to expose him to so much radiation since this condition (supposedly) cannot be fixed with surgery. But come to find out, Duane’s syndrome can cause a tilt in the neck because of eye strain and turning of the head to see, instead of turning of the eye. He probably never had torticollis in the first place!

In the meantime, we are visiting our beloved ophthalmologist every 4 months. We were also accepted into Vision Therapy through ‘Babies’ this week – so exciting!!!! The vision therapist will come to our house, too. We are soooo enjoying his cuteness and his little quirky eye. Below is a picture of him when he is sleepy and another of when he is well rested. See the huge difference in how lazy his left eye is?? His left eye is usually a tad bit crossed, but not really noticeable. Just enough to make him even cuter!

 

In the end, I believe that all of this is due to womb constriction. Contractions started for me when I was only 4 months pregnant and came pretty steadily until he was born at 39 weeks. He was head down for a long time – so head down, with a lot of strong contractions….who knows. His skull plates were over lapping at birth, etc, etc, etc. Only time will tell what we are dealing with. He is a super happy baby, and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!!!! I will keep family and friends updated as updates come…

On to another fun year with our little monkey!

2011 Fun-filled Tot Fieldtrips…

Those of you that know me the best, know that I would rather spend my time in the mountains hiking, camping, playing and taking it all in. But, since we aren’t able to live in the mountains at this point in our lives, I am making the best of the fun things to do around here and letting my babies explore!! Who doesn’t love to explore??

2011 was a big year of field trips around the south. My boys are the perfect ages to love new exploration and booooooy are they curious!! My little Georges, sweet curious monkeys. Every year, the Freeman family is blessed enough to have a membership to one place in Atlanta and we go many times over the summer, all school vacations, and really, just whenever we can. 2010 we did Fernbank, 2011 we did The Alanta Botanical Gardens, and later on in 2012, we will most likely do the Zoo.

The Atlanta Botanical Gardens!!! Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow River Game Ranch in Stone Mountain:

Yellow River is a super fun, hands-on zoo for everyone! The entire zoo is fenced in. Therefore, you are able to walk around with most of the animals, including deer. The staff also encourages you to bring in your own food to feed the animals. The boys had a GREAT time!!!

 

Even Jobe got in on the fun of feeding:

 

Opryland in Nashville:

We got to meet ‘Puss in Boots’, ride a river boat, and see some amazing decorations! Oh, and who can forget the amazing dessert we found – YUM. Fun!

 

  

Duluth Train Museum:

A fun little museum in Duluth, Ga. They have tons of old trains that have barely been changed over the years. Therefore, we (Noah, Jobe and I) were able to see what the trains used to look like WAAAAY back in the day all the way down to the antique kitchens, fabrics on the chairs, and even the mail room in a train that delivered mail!! So cool. We saw an old Atlanta Taxi and at the end, we were able to take a little ride on an old train. We will definitely be going back!