Last Days of School

As of last Friday, another school year has come to a close! We sputtered to the end of the year and have already been enjoying summer - not packing lunches, sleeping in {a teensy bit}, staying in pjs all day if we want {or being naked if you're talking about Paige}, and lots of pool time!

When Trent started 3rd grade, he was at CMS in the same class he'd been in the previous 2 years. We moved him in January to Goodwater Montessori where he finished the lower elementary cycle. He limped along the last month of school - lots of fighting, he got sent home twice, not a whole lot of work being done - but he survived. He made a few really good friends and was mostly happy there.

First day of 3rd grade

Moving Up Ceremony!

{A little ceremony for the kids moving to Upper Elementary - 4th-6th grades}

Trent and Mrs. Worcester - she had great patience with Trent!

Drew had a great last year at CMS. Next year, she'll go to Goodwater and will be starting Kindergarten! That is technically the last year in Children's House {3 years old - Kindergarten}, and her favorite assistant is there, so we're hoping Drew gets in her class. This year she has really blossomed with a love of learning - she's really doing good with math and beginning grammar. She loves to work on spelling and early reading. She can read some words and CANNOT wait to put it all together.

First day!!

Last day! She's so big!

Little Miss Paige will be the lone Gurley at CMS next year - I'll have 2 dropoffs and pickups for AT LEAST 2 more years {SOB}, but I'm also not quite ready to say goodbye either, ha. She started the year in the infant class and moved up in early winter to the toddler class, called Casita, where she will stay until around 3. She has the same teacher Drew did and has LOVED it. She JUMPS out of the car to get to class, loves to wear her backpack, and is so independent!

End of year party

2 Gurley gurls

We have 2 months off and things are going good so far. It's always a bit stressful at first figuring out our routine and putting childcare together. We have a new babysitter this year, but she's in high school, so we hope to use her for years to come. But there's been a lot of painting, coloring/drawing, swimming, game playing, and general silliness. I love that working from home allows me to have the kids home in the summer!

I can't believe next year I'll have a 4th grader and a Kindergartener!

Drew's ENT Appointment

I'm sure everyone is dying to know how Drew's ENT appointment went. When I last wrote, she had 3 confirmed strep throat cases with 3 rounds of increasingly stronger antibiotics. 

She finished her 3rd round of antibiotics on June 2, and I had already scheduled an ENT appointment for June 7. Monday morning, June 4, Drew told me her throat hurt. ARE YOU SERIOUS? So back to the pediatrician we went for a 4th positive strep test. The pediatrician suggested we do a penicillin shot, and I agreed. If the strongest antibiotics they'd prescribed couldn't keep her clear of strep for even 48 hours, we needed to do something. Poor baby had a rough appointment - she hates the throat swab, so to have that AND a painful shot in the same appointment - NOT okay in her book. It took me and another nurse to hold her down for the shot, and she was so angry at me afterward, she wouldn't let me hold or snuggle her. She also got herself so worked up she gave herself 2 nosebleeds.

I promised her Starbucks AND a toy. We got Starbucks Tuesday morning and ordered an Aurora play-doh set from Amazon. #suckerforsickbabies

Yes, Drew's wearing the same clothes - we love summer!

Thursday we had her ENT appointment, and Dr. Connolly gave us a lot of good information! He said he's seen people have strep in a random cluster and then not again for a long time. He's also seen people be carriers of strep and test positive on an office rapid test {which just tests for the presence of the bacteria but can't distinguish having the bacteria with having an infection} when they don't truly have an active infection. His concern was that she was a carrier, and if so, we would need to react differently in the future when she had a sore throat besides just relying on the office rapid test. So that meant...ANOTHER throat culture so that he could do a longer test to determine if she is a strep carrier. I got the call yesterday morning, and her culture was NORMAL! So that means she's not a carrier and hopefully, the penicillin shot knocked the infection out. His rule of thumb for discussing a tonsillectomy is 6 infections in 1 year, 4 in 2 consecutive years, or 3 in 3 consecutive years, so we wait and watch.

I also talked to him about her nose bleeds. 

Brent and I both had frequent nosebleeds as kids {Brent had to have his nose cauterized and eventually something had to be done to his septum}, and Trent has them as well - his gene mutation test shows that he has several clotting mutations which I find fascinating.

Drew has been getting increasingly frequent nosebleeds, and Dr. Connolly noticed she has a blood vessel near the surface in both sides of her nose that would create frequent nosebleeds. He suggested us trying to keep her nose more moisturized, using something like Neosporin, and we can also put a cool mist humidifier in her room at night. If this doesn't help over the next few weeks, he suggested cauterizing as well, which we would likely do under anesthesia - and one nostril at a time - due to her age and anxiety-level.

So a very informative appointment overall! Now let's all cross our fingers for a) no more strep throat and b) a reduction of nosebleeds!