Happy Birthday, Dad!

I realize it's been a while since I've graced your screens with some news and pics. (Although the pics are online in the photo album.) So here I am.

First, the sad news. Rocky, the family cat, is gone. He wasn't happy here. I really think it had mostly to do with the toddler that appeared to be permanently affixed to his tail. He was comfortable here, but not happy. When he was living with my parents, he could at least go out on the porch and here, he wasn't allowed out at all. We found a place that we believe will find him a suitable home and won't put him to sleep. In fact, while we were there an elderly gentleman brought in a kitten he'd rescued and nursed back to health and he inquired about Rocky. After talking to him, I hope he is the one to adopt Rocky b/c I think they'd be a good match. A couple of pics of our last night with Rocky.

He's a beautiful cat that is playful & loving so I know it won't take long for him to find a good home and I just bawled as we left him.

On a much happier note, yesterday was my dad's bday and after taking Rocky, we went to their house and spent the day there and then made him his favorite dinner & dessert. (which conveniently enough happens to be a couple of my own faves) It was YUMMY! LOL! The kids had a TON of fun.

They even let us take some pics of them together in their Christmas outfits. This is the first time EVER that they have both cooperated.

At the end of the night Sis & I attempted to let the kids decorate their very first (& probably last b/c it's such a royal pain) gingerbread house. Little Man was pretty much over it and didn't want to help b/c it was late but Diva really enjoyed herself. Here is the masterpiece, lol.

I can't believe Christmas is only a couple of weeks away. Could someone please tell Jack Frost that he's completely forgotten Southern Texas this year? It feels more like summer outside than winter, lol. Yesterday the avg temp here was 23 degrees above normal! In spite of that, I really don't miss the snow, hehehehe. We are really excited though about Little Man's first Christmas that he can really participate in. He's actually showing interest in the gifts under the tree.

Baby Update

This pregnancy has been very interesting to me so far because it's been so different from what I experienced with Little Man. I haven't felt pregnant and other than extreme fatigue I've had little to no symptoms. I'm extremely thankful for that though since I am still caring for a 2 year old. A cardiologist is now part of my prenatal team thanks to hypertension that has gone ape shit since becoming pregnant. I see the doc(s) again on Fri and I believe I'm having an ultrasound done before seeing the doc that day. More pics! It's been pretty cool to document this pregnancy in such a way also.

Hubby

Hubby & I have been married for 9 years now. WOW! lol. He is a project manager for weapons systems with a defense contractor. That's as much info as there is on his job since it's all top secret stuff. I myself, just don't ask questions. ;0)

A few things about Hubby

* He cannot sit still to save his life, but that means lots of things DO get done. :0)
* He loves motorcycles, although it used to be cars.
* He enjoys spending time at the shooting range.
* He is a fantastic father, very hands on.
* He loves music and enjoys trying to make me listen to stuff I don't like, lol

If you ask me he is forever attached to that blackberry. Fortunately, he really is my best friend and we work well as a team.

New Baby....

It's official....Little Man is going to be a big brother!!

While a few of you knew, I wasn't willing to shout it from the rooftops until I'd had my first appointment.

I had that first appointment today, along with an ultrasound to get an accurate due date. (June 14) That's VERY important in light of Little Man's early arrival. Since I've delivered preterm once, it puts me at a higher risk of it happening again.

I love, love, love, LOVE my doctor!!!! Hubby & Little Man like her too!

While the due date is June 14, I'd look for an arrival about 2 weeks before that unless he/she decides to make an early appearance. And I'm hoping not because with Little Man, my first stage of labor was only 4 hours and I live almost an hour away from the hospital!!!!!

It was really nice to see the baby bean today and hear the heartbeat. Very reassuring to us both.

My Budget

We are a family of 4. Two adults, one day-time potty trained toddler, & an infant. This is my budget.
$10/week for diapers
$17.50/week for formula
$75/week for all food (excluding eating out), toiletries/HBA, paper products, cleaning products, batteries, OTC meds, etc.

$10 a week in diapers is from when both were in diapers. I probably have 6-7 months worth of pull-ups here so I should probably just adjust the amount we're putting towards it. Huggies are my preferred brand followed by Pampers but if there is a good enough sale I'll use just about anything. Afterall, he's only going to poop in it! :)

Just because we have the budget for it doesn't mean I'm spending it. One example is that I don't actually buy diapers every week, I wait until there is a decent sale on my preferred brands and buy some then. Formula is another example of this. I have done SO well with the formula budget that I still have 20 cans in the top of my pantry and haven't bought any formula since the end of December. I'm setting that money aside every week for when I do need to buy a little more.

That last category doesn't include eating out because we have a bad habit we are trying to break.

How I Calculate My Savings

I am calculating my savings pretty much based on what receipts say I saved. This would include the savings on a sales price versus the regular price in most cases. My opinion is that if I needed an item immediately, that is the price I'd pay so I am still saving it. By stocking up on certain items I am able to wait until another sale comes around and I just buy more at a cheaper price. The amount I pay on a gift card is savings. The amount I get in a RR, Catalina, ECB, GC, etc is not counted as a savings until I spend it. Many people like to talk about the "net cost" of an item AFTER RR or ECBs. An Example:

Buy 2 deodorants for $5 get $2 in RR back. I will only count the $2 as savings when I spend it on a future purchase since that's when it will actually reduce my OOP costs.

Updated Feb 2, 2009

New Arrival!

Our third born son, also pre-term, arrived safe & sound on Oct 9, 2009. He weighed in at exactly 6lbs & 18" long. A healthy little boy to bring even more joy into our home & hearts.

So far, so good.

Diva

Meet our sassy niece, Diva. She's one of our 3 beautiful nieces. (No nephews). She also happens to be Little Man's best friend. She is 14 months older than Little Man, which means she turned 5 in August. Most of the time they act more like brother & sister than cousins.

Spitfire is a great word to describe Diva. Wait...so is Diva, lol. She's great though. She's stubborn and head strong but she's also very intelligent. She is incredibly articulate. She has a never ending imagination and there is no shortage of "OMG, Did you hear what she said?" when she's around.

She is starting Kindergarten this Fall (in a G&T program) which I know is going to bring some great humor to us. Bless this child's teacher. Bless EVERY Kindergarten teacher, lol.

You'll have to excuse the hair in her face in this one...she was playing really hard at the bounce place for her birthday.

Peanut

Peanut celebrated his first birthday this past April. =)

He was born just over 7 weeks early and spent 29 very long days in NICU before coming home with us. (It's all documented here on the blog.)

In December we found out that Peanut has external hydrocephalus. That's fancy words for a head that grew so quickly that his brain began to make more fluid to surround his brain since his now bigger than normal head has a more than normal amount of space. Did ya catch all that? You can read about it in this post. The most important info is that we recently learned he should be out of the woods and not need any surgical intervention to correct this problem.

Peanut is eager for attention and loves to laugh. He knows how to get what he wants, which is called screaming. Or screeching. Or squealing. Pick your description because whatever it is, it's LOUD & will wake the dead!

This child is an eater. There is NOTHING he will not eat. Apparently eating is now one of his favorite hobbies. :) He is a really good eater though which is a huge relief to us seeing as we've been fighting with Little Man about eating for going on 4 years now.

He has zero words in his vocabulary but he makes a lot of noises & sounds so we're not ready to worry about that yet. He has an infectious smile that will leave you in a good mood, no matter what.

It's just amazing to see how different the personalities really are. Peanut is more agressive & demanding. Little Man just goes with the flow most of the time.

Maybe we should call him Linus since he's so attached to his blanket.

He is DEFINITELY a button pusher. He can't help himself when he sees a button...he MUST push it, lol.

Updated: August 19, 2009

Little Man

Little Man is 4 and thankfully he doesn't give us a lot of trouble. He's eager and determined and doesn't quit until he's "figured it out". He loves puzzles, drawing and writing. Yes, he can write the entire alphabet, upper & lower case, and can spell a few handfuls of words. It's just something that he really loves.

Traumatic would be the appropriate adjective for his birth, which also happened a month early. Since then we've been slowly putting the pieces of his puzzle together which is finally starting to shape into a whole picture. He didn't learn how to eat so he spent 6 months in feeding therapy with a speech therapist to learn how to chew. He also has some sensory issues which can make for some amusing moments. I won't lie though, it can also make for some frustrating moments.

Probably the most important treatment he's getting right now is speech. Little man has a (rare) true case of childhood apraxia of speech. His expressive speech is significantly delayed although his receptive is where it should be. He's learned a lot of sign language and is making huge strides each day. When he turned 3 he had literally a handful of words in his speaking vocabulary and very few of them were recognizable to an "outsider." Fast forward a year later and he's speaking sentences and talks about everything. Most of what he says while not perfect is at least recognizable. Especially if you know the context.

He's in a special preschool class this fall and is loving the heck out of it. We are so excited to see how much he's going to grow this coming year.

Halloween 2007

You had to know this blog was coming. hehehehehe.

Seriously though...a truly uneventful night. It was a little strange because our last three Halloween's were in Michigan and with our Michigan Friends. We have very few of those out here in the boondocks as of yet.

Only a handful of trick-or-treaters to bother us and it gave Hubby an excuse to play with his fogger (and strobe light). Little Man wasn't too sure about that at first, but eventually he too thought it was pretty cool.

We know we'll probably never top the Yoda costume from last year but he still made a cute little pirate. Enjoy the pictures...you know where the rest are. Well, they'll be there tomorrow anyway, ha!

Little Man's Fishies

Little Man is fascinated with fish. It all started with the trips to Texas Children's and their very large fish tank. He spends all of his time with the fish while we wait for his appointments each week. While we were in MI, he spent plenty of time at our friend's tank too. He got some money for his birthday so we bought him his very own fish tank.

So here it is, he's not spoiled or anything,

Just Cute

Okay, so we're both partial...after all, he is OUR child. :)

Yesterday we let Little Man loose with his new easel and some chalk (a bday gift from his Uncle & Aunt in VA). He had a blast. By today, his favorite part seems to be erasing the writing which is hilarious. He's the same way with the magna doodle, btw. He wants you to write on it so he can erase it, haha!!!!!

He also still appears to be completely ambidextrous with his writing. It all depends on his mood but he also loves to be writing/coloring/etc with both hands simultaneously.

Later that night we took him out to the driveway and put him on his brand new tricycle that he received as a birthday gift. He loved it and we were both impressed at how quickly he seemed to catch on with regard to the peddals. He can barely reach them without shoes on but he tries. These are just precious to us :)

Great Trip

First of all, an update on my mom. She's doing better. They succesfully put her under and cleaned out the infected area. They should get the cultures back tomorrow (hopefully) to actually confirm the suspicions of MRSA. Hopefully she'll be able to leave the hospital on Wed and be back at work next Monday.

On another note: DAMN it feels good to be home, lol.

We did have a great trip though. 4300 miles worth of great trip.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Seeing old friends....

The National Zoo

Hanging out with family: SIL & her DD (b. Aug 3) & Cousin & her DS (b. July 19) and Little Man with the kids great grandma.

Little Man LOVED playing the piano with Granny

Pittsburgh Zoo (& Aquarium)

Eating Cake in Michigan

More friends...

The St Louis Zoo with friends...

By now you know where the rest of the pictures are *wink*

There are a ton of them and some videos too. Although I'm not done uploading the videos yet.

MRSA

Unless you've been living under a rock you've probably at least heard the term MRSA at least once or twice lately. It's the potentially deadly bug that has been making people fall ill left & right over the past few weeks. (At least it's been in the news for that long anyway).

Please take a moment and say a quick prayer for my mom who is in a Dallas area hospital with MRSA.

Her bday is in a few days and for her bday she was going to Dallas and was going to go to the Cowboys game today. But something wasn't right and this little red spot had suddenly gotten huge so she went to the ER.

The doctor made a 2 inch incision told her he was all but certain it was MRSA but they weren't going to grow the cultures b/c that would mean lots of paperwork in reporting it. (Oh that makes my blood boil, btw). They gave her a lot of oral antibiotics, drew a circle around the red spot and told her that if it got outside the line, she needed to come back ASAP for IV antibiotics.

So early Sat afternoon, that's exactly what she did. She was admitted and they began the really strong stuff through the IV's.

We were all in hopes that we would see the red starting to retreat this morning and although she was feeling better, it wasn't retreating even though it wasn't still growing either.

Fast forward to this afternoon...it's still growing on at least two sides of her 'circle'. They are going to be taking her into surgery soon so that they can open up the area and try to make sure as much of it is removed as possible. I do hope that by tomorrow morning I can say that it's finally retreating and she's actually getting better. If not, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I think I can honestly say it's torture for all of us, just sitting around waiting to find out if it's going to respond to the antibiotics.

This surgeon did finally take cultures yesterday so that they can grow it and actually confirm their suspicions of MRSA for a fact, but they all expect it will come back as that.

As for the school, I don't know what they are going to do. (she's a middle school nurse) She is going to call the principal at his home and let him know so that appopriate action can be taken. I think what's scary is that there is probably a student out there that has this and either doesn't know it or it wasn't reported, just like they tried to do with my mom.


So keep her in your prayers and I'll keep you posted.

THANK YOU!!!!!

The Birthday Celebration

Yesterday morning we went to pick up Little Man's cake. She couldn't find our cake. Long story short, nobody had made it and they had to do it right then while we waited. Once we got the cake, we realized the lady did a bummer of a job. I took the cake from her and checked out but the longer I looked at that cake, the uglier it got.

So we talked to a mgr and got the cake for free. I don't really like to do that kind of thing because I did at least get a cake, just not like the one I ordered. Here are the pictures of this caketastrophy.

Here's what I ordered:

Here is what we got. I would have made them do it again but just didn't have time. Little Man HAD to have a nap before people started showing up at the house.

I hope this isn't this poor woman's best work and it's just because she was under pressure or something.

So later on, we had some family over to help celebrate Little Man's birthday.

Diva & Little Man had so much fun!!

They played on the swing set, in the bouncer, with bubbles & balloons; and of course, they both enjoyed some cake. He got some really awesome gifts as well. By the time we were done singing Happy Birthday to him, he was filling up with tears and had this HUGE frown on his face. That was priceless.

Here are a few pics from yesterday:

Be sure to check out the rest of the photos from yesterday in the online album.

PS....You CAN leave comments in the photo album.

Learning to Chew

You're probably wondering too...."How in the world do they teach a child to chew when they aren't capable of following commands yet?"

It's interesting to say the least and I've probably been asked that very question over 100 times in recent months.

As you may already know, Little Man's core problem is that he quite simply never learned how to chew. The child can suck just about anything into nothingness and he's learned how to swallow bigger pieces of food in order to compensate, but don't expect to see that jaw moving up and down. In fact, when Little Man first started therapy, he couldn't even move his tongue from side to side.

Now he's got great tongue movement and is even following food with his tongue. We're starting to see some chews with him and once those are more consistent then we'll be able to move onto the next step, releasing food from the bag. (You'll understand what the bag is in a minute).

Most children that have these eating issues also have huge behavioral issues when it comes to eating. Luckily for us, Little Man started therapy just as those behaviors were starting to emerge.

So step one is behavioral. He had to be trained to a way of eating using 'preferred' foods. That way you can increase textures, volume, etc without the behavioral issues. Luckily for us/Little Man that part of the therapy was quick since behaviors weren't too big of an issue to begin with.

Alongside of training him to eat, we start using exercises to loosen up his cheek muscles and attempting to get him to follow our finger with his tongue.

Then we move on to the tools, lol.

So here are some pictures of the exercises we've been using. (oh yeah, and the 'tools'.)

The orange and yellow ones are called "Chewy Tubes"

After doing the exercises and stretches with his mouth, we move on to the mesh bag with a food in it. (just a note: we do go back and forth between the bag and the chewy tubes during each session)

That's a red gummy bear and the mesh in my hand.

The food (gummy bear, nutrigrain bar w/yogurt, licorice, crackers, etc) is rolled and twisted up into the mesh like this so that it can be placed on his molars to encourage chewing.

Where do we go from here? Well I don't have all of those answers yet since we aren't there but I do know that one of the next steps is to release food from the bag once he's chewing more consistently for us.

So in a nutshell, this is what we've done with Little Man so far. Any questions?