Christmas Cheer

Hello all! I am ignoring the fact that it has been so long since I last posted and I am going to not feel guilty about it. I do what I can when I can. That has to be enough.



Here is a nice little photo to get me going. They were both eating cookies. teehee. I love it when the babies learn to follow their siblings.

Little is "talking" all over the place and Buggy is too. She was just retested in her speech and she just kept going through the test when they expected her to start getting them wrong, she just keeps going. I think her language may be pretty close to her age. Her receptive may actually be over her age. Now her speech is nowhere near that good. Her clinician can understand her and so can I (most of the time). :-) But others...it's kind of a crap shoot. :-)

Rapunzel is such a big helper. She now knows how to change diapers (paper only, thank -you-very-much) and she does so well with the little girls. She loves to "read" stories to them and has a great "small business" with Frodo.

Frodo wanted to learn some real-life applications of math and a few other things. He is starting to sit in on our budget meetings and he came with me to the store a few times. Then we talked about his goals for money.

Omi and opi wanted to go to Disneyland as an extendeds vacation. Not my thing. Or hubby's. We opted to just have HeaterBoy take Buggy since it is her turn anyway and opt out of the rest of the trip. I had no idea of the wrath that we would incur. It was terrible. We talked to the kids and told them we just didn't have the money, not did we want to use the money we did have for this trip. We talked about our options and the kids chose to start their own money-making venture to contribute to the trip.

Oh my goodness. We are not ever giving these kids an allowance. I'm not even going to feel guilty about it.

They made cookies and are also now selling spiced apple cider and their first day they made over $30. For two hours. They sell out on our yard corner and I'm a little concerned that since they do so well, someone might tell on us and we'll have to get them a business license. ;-)

They aren't out there every day, but usually at least once per week. They are going to make their end of the money pretty quickly. It's almost shameful how much people tip my children. Especially poor college kids who can't afford their own food. It's not completely uncommon for them to make as much in tips as they did in actual sales. One of the advantages they have over other kids is that they can sell right when the college kids get out around twelve and one, when the school kids wouldn't be able to set up shop until 3 or so. Too bad I don't have any photos of them. I'll have to do that one of the times they are out there.

I am now officially finished with my Communication Skills Training. I have passed the mentorship phase and they trust me to teach/facilitate Communication Learning that fosters respect trust and empathy. Hooray!

I actually started this job in LLL to learn more about communication. We don't always pick up the best habits in communication as we are growing up. I realized that many of my habits were not creating the feeling I wanted in my home. I was doing things that I didn't realize were sabotaging us and I didn't know how to fix it. I know feel much more "aware" of how I speak with others. I'm not done learning, but I do feel like I have new tools that work much better than the old ones. It has also changed how I think about communicating and creating/maintaining relationships. It's a paradigm shift that fits better with my belief in God and the divinity in all of us.

so...
That's all for the next two or three months. ;-) If you want to connect, please contact me. If I get back to this earlier than that, then it will be a surprise. ;-p

Here are some Halloween photos for your viewing pleasure. :-)

Happy Birthday!

I just looked at a cousin's blogroll and realized it had been two months since my last update. ?!?!?! 2 Months?!?!

oops.

Today is Buggy's Birthday! (This was written on Friday)

I would love to have some photos posted of her, but my battery died on my camera. Maybe I can find some in the pile of photos I just uploaded.

She is 4 and we have sung Happy Birthday at least 5 times up to this point. It will be many more, I'm sure. She was so excited for her presents and has been talking about them all day. she loves her new Barbie and Polly Pocket. I can't believe I actually paid money for them. Aah well...I try to keep them from being too commercial, but by this point, Barbie isn't commercial anymore, is she? She's just a part of childhood. ;-)

What is Happening...

This is from an email that I just sent out and I figured it would work well to post it here...

"Thank you so much for the offer of help. They are able to keep Buggy at Logan for now (we switched pediatricians a while ago to someone with more experience with kids who have "complex" issues). And actually, yesterday she was doing much better. I just talked with dh and she has continued to do well. She may get released either today or tomorrow.

"We were in Chicago all last week and the day after we came home, HeaterBoy got really sick with the flu. Buggy started to act a little sick, but not much, so we assumed she was just tired from the traveling. Little had a runny nose, but that was it. Then as the week wore on, Buggy just wasn't getting better and on Sunday, she crashed. We gave her a blessing, but she told me that she wanted to go to the hospital. On Monday, I could see that she was not keeping her sats up and she wouldn't even tolerate pedialyte through her g-tube. tha'ts when we took her in. She tested positive for Influenza A and her chest x-ray had lots of gunk, but no definite spots of pneumonia. The doctor said that 95% of Utah's influenza A cases are H1N1 flu right now, so they are kind of assuming that's what it is. Although I'm almost positive that whatever this is, we caught it in Chicago. Rapunzel is coughing a teeny bit, but Frodo had a full blown fever last night and continues to be very sick today. At least he is still drinking. Little has had a fever for about two days and has been super cranky for the last week. Last night she didn't sleep much and keeps biting me while nursing because she is so miserable.

"My nose has gotten pretty stuffy today as well, but I'll continue to fight it. We are pretty much quarantined in our house. I don't want to let the few "healthier" people go anywhere in the fears that they will spread it around."


There it is. We are sick. Don't come over. Unless you don't have littles and you are not afraid of the swine flu. And even then, I will just send you away. :-) unless you bring chocolate, in which case, I will take the treats and then send you away...

Soapbox

http://health.utah.gov/epi/h1n1flu/SFQ&A_061709-Final.pdf

Everybody wash your hands one more time today. Please. For me.

For my daughter.

Updates

I know, what a boring title, right? I just couldn't think of anything witty at the moment and I really need to get a post done.

Frodo is acing his times tables after a few accommodations in the classroom and is learning the finer points of 3rd grade bathroom humor and why some kids think it's okay to tease mercilessly. He's also learned how to cook ramen and crepes and loves to learn new dishes. He and Rapunzel made me so proud at their great-grandmas house for breakfast. They said all the right things and used their best manners. It's times like that that make it worth it. They wanted to show their grandma how much they appreciated all the work she put into making breakfast for them.

He moved his things into the extra bedroom last week. I almost cried. If I had known it was going to stay, I would have cried. My baby is gettng big and he wants his own private space.I knew the transition would come, just like others have and new ones will. I'm so glad it was done smoothly and without any pain.

He still likes to jump on my furniture and bother his sisters. He's becoming a master at avoiding chores, but on the whole, he is growing into a delightsome boy. I'm glad he's mine. :-)

Rapunzel is loving reading when it is on her own terms. She loves being able to read the names of being she knows: Nephi and Sariah and some of their own stories. She felt so accomplished when she actually read her scriptures in family reading instead of parroting while a parent read them to her. She constantly is telling me that *all* girls are princesses and loves to help her sister with her princess attire. She no longer likes school, but still loves her teachers. She knows how to change a cloth diaper (mostly) is so good about playing with both Buggy and Baby. she says funny things all the time, but I can't remember any of them right now. :-)

Buggy had surgery this past weeek. Just a little one, but surgery nonetheless. she had her ear tubes replaced and since we knew she needed it, we decided to get a bunch of pending trests all done at the same time with the same anesthesia. Anyone remember her last bout with anesthesia? (If I were any handier with HTML, I would have a link to that post...alas...) She was cranky and yelled for 3 weeks. This time, she has been very lethargic, and snuggly, but no crankier than normal. they tested her for functioning lung cilia (a total longshot, but actually a possible problem)and they also cultured all of the junk hanging out in her lungs.The fun thing she threw in this time was "weird breathing." Let me tell you...that was fun for neurotic old me...

She would gasp in two or three times before she had enough air for an exhale, which also happened in two or three gasps. We had her on her monitors and I was calling her docs.She needed to be on oxygen after we came home. I know they messed with her lungs which could potentially cause some problems, but come on. :-P

We'll find out the results of everything in a day or so.

Buggy also got a new pair of braces that have seriously cut down on the drunken sailor gait and have given her new stability and confidence in the walking arena.

Baby is starting to walk! This weekend she was taking 2 & 3 steps. She also started vomiting like crazy...while nursing, sometimes. Fun times at our house for all. :-P

Happy Spring everyone!

And Now a Word From Our Sponsors...

In the middle of our previously mentioned post, and just to make life interesting, we now have Rotavirus

Lucky us. There will be no more caught poo for the near future. Stay away from our house (although most who read this are already far away and probably glad about it).

Hip, Hip, Hooray, for the Piglet and the Pooh!

She did it! She pooped in her potty all by herself. (You didn't really want a photo of that, did you?) ;-)

Christmas Carnage

That's what it's called, right? We try to simplify, we try to focus on the right things, the right people and not the stuff.

Here's our carnage:

pre-carnage



I tried to post the pics of the carnage and blogger's being silly. Maybe I'll try again later. I was able to get our required sock photo. We don't do pajamas or an outfit for every year-we were too poor for too long. But we do socks. Every year we get socks and we take a matching photo. Here is this year's:


We've been trying to figure our Buggy's "snot" problem. The current dr'sd were all of a mind that it was just part and parcel of the stroke and the only thing we can do about it is to not feed her. Well, nothing improved when we stopped feeding her, so we went back to food and saught a second opinion. We may be switching peds and my heart is hurt. We love our ped and he has been through so much with us. It's getting to a place now where we need a more assertive and respected advocate when it comes to continuity of care, so we have found someone new in the valley. Our previous ped just was too new of a doc to hold much clout with the "specialists" at Primary's. The new ped has bunches of new suggestions and they are actually working.

The ENT in the valley has decided to open an allergy clinic here in town. I know he's new and not very experienced, but he may be more open to new methods of testing, right? I have a great blood test that I want Buggy to have that has much fewer false negatives than the RAST. We did a RAST in Decemeber and as it turns out, Buggy is allergic to corn and soy (among other things). WE cut them out and didn't see any difference for almost three weeks, then she got sick...

For the last 8 or so days, Buggy has had absolutely no green goo when she wakes up. It's been so exciting. !!!!!


We also cut all dairy for the same time period. We have to replace her tubes and plan to do some other tests while she's out for the surgery, and we'll be having a "collaborative" meeting with some of her docs in about a month or two. It looks like we might actually be getting closer to getting her healthy.

Little is cruising all over the place. she is a pro at crawling. She is so young and doesn't understand object permanence, though, so she crawls behind me until I leave the room and then she starts to cry as I've disappeared. She also can't climb, so she tries to crawl over me and can't get all the way over. It's been so funny to watch. I've never had a baby do this much this early. Enjoy your January