Peanut's First Food

I can't believe Peanut is going to be 5 months old tomorrow. It just doesn't seem like he's been here that long. Of course he's only been home for 4 so that my have something to do with it.

Anyhow...at Peanut's 4 month visit the doctor encouraged me to try feeding Peanut Rice Cereal from a spoon. I for one, do not see the purpose of the all starch empty filler crap known as Rice Cereal. Plus, Peanut already gets more than enough of it in his bottles since he doesn't keep anything down. So I figured I'd wait a little while and skip straight to the first food.

One of my concerns about this is that he is nowhere near sitting up on his own which meant the high chair really isn't much of an option. So per her suggestion, we just put him in his carrier instead. I eventually moved him into the high chair because of his fidgeting in the carrier and he did okay. He struggled to stay upright and probably, no DEFINITELY, burned more calories to stay upright than he got in that baby food, lol. He really didn't get much down his throat since his thrust reflex is still so strong but by the end he was at least figuring out he had to open his mouth to get any. I think he sucked more of it off his hands and fingers than he did off the spoon.

Of course immediately after this experience it was bath time. And in true Peanut fashion shortly after I finished bathing, dressing and lathering him in lotion, what little sweet potatoes he'd eaten came up. Gotta love this kid.

Not to be outdone, Little Man had to go and do something cute/funny tonight. He found his daddy's boots sitting around and took 'em for a stroll. He wouldn't look up at me while he was walking though because he knew he'd fall over, lol.

Updates

I am FINALLY trying to get some things updated around here. I've been working like mad to get pictures off the camera and onto the computer & eventually uploaded to the online photo album. I don't think I've ever been this far behind, but I also don't think things have ever been quite this crazy!

Things should settle down into a routine now and we can get back to business around here. Little Man had his physical therapy evaluation today and that was interesting. There is definitely much to be worked on and while his trunk is strong, his arms, hands, legs, ankles, etc are not. He has his assessment with the school district on Thursday to determine what services he'll be eligible for through them. Again...that should be interesting.

One of the great things is that Little Man is VERY interested in signing and he's trying hard. He's learning what they mean quickly. He can now spell his name if you sign the letters to him. He can also pick those letters out of a line up. Not too bad. I've got him spelling his name on video and you can find that in our online photo album in the VIDEOS-2008 Album. We're so proud of him. If you don't have the link handy, email me so I can send it to you.

I realized after I posted about Peanut's 4 month check up that Peanut is the same size at 4 1/2 months old as Little Man was at SIX months old. Crazy to me, especially considering Peanut was almost 2 months early when Little Man was only a month early. CRAZY!

And last but not least, a few pictures from our trip to DC.

Little Man with his adorable cousin.

Little Man making a face at me while feeding the ducks.

The 3 of them. Our niece (who was so upset we had to stick that pacifier in her mouth to get her to sit still, lol), Peanut & Little Man.

Remember how I said Peanut slept on the tray? Here it is. He slept like this basically the whole flight home.

More Ike

I have no idea what's going on in the "real" world. I've seen nothing but Ike coverage since Thursday morning when it was apparent SE TX was going to be pummeled. I have a very dear friend who has no power at her house, so she & her son are riding it out with her mom who has had electricity restored. That being the case, it put her about 45 minutes closer to me than she usually is so we used the opportunity to hang out and get a little shopping done together today.

It was surreal. I went to Target first looking for a new phone since ours is on its last leg. They were obviously using generators for what little power they had. The doors were tied open for light, ease & to let folks know they were open for business. They had just enough power to run a handful of registers and have sporadic lighting available. I shopped in the dimmly lit Target finding what I needed along with a couple of extras. The freezer cases are empty and all things cold are in short supply around here.

The story was different at one grocery store where they at least had power, but had not cleaned out the freezer cases yet. Instead they were tied shut with big posters stating no sales of frozen foods. I got lucky with being able to top off my tank for $3.23/gal before making my way home.

Whenever something tragic or traumatic happens in your own backyard you're more inclined to pay attention and appreciate the coverage that it does get. I have to admit that I'm sad. Crystal Beach will probably never be the same. I saw the Chevron station that is standing yet empty and torn to shreds. I'll never forget the night I watched some cops hog-tie a chick since she was drunk (underage) and uncooperative. My car was stuck in the sand and awaiting help, lol.

One of mine & hubby's favorite places to go while we were dating was Galveston, Bolivar/Crystal Beach. We always rode the ferry from Galveston to Bolivar & spent HOURS at Crystal Beach. Crystal Beach will never be the same and I'm sure we won't recognize Galveston the next time we're there. Of course, I know it's going to take a lot of time but I just know they'll build it bigger & better.

As for family, they are doing well. I believe my parents are the only ones with power restored, having been without it for about 36 hours. I know the rest of you don't have power so you can't see this but know that you are all in our thoughts & prayers, we hope this gets fixed ASAP.

And for all of you that think bigger government is the answer (traditionally democrats) this is the perfect example of how it's NOT the answer. FEMA is dragging its feet and causing all kinds of trouble while things at the local & even state level are flowing very well. People are coming together to help each other, their neigbors and the like and it's working nicely.

Today as I drove into town I passed a convoy of about 30 tree mulching trucks. All I could think was man, that's not even enough to clean up one neighborhood in these parts, lol. Help is coming, we will get back to normal and hopefully it will be soon.

God Bless!

Peanut's 4 Month Visit

He had his 4 month check-up yesterday. He weighed 15lbs 12ozs and I can't remember exactly how long he was. Perhaps 23" or so? Anyhow, what it means is that he's doing great!! Last night was our first night without the apnea monitor. Did you see that?? I said without it! For the first time in my son's life he slept without a wire hooked up to him last night. What a fantastic feeling for us!

He really is doing great and we are extremely happy to have that apnea monitor gone. She'd like us to start feeding him rice cereal from a spoon 2-3 times a day in hopes it might act as an anchor to keep everything else down. Since he's still gaining weight so well she's not concerned about how much he spits up, it's just a nuisance for us. As far as feeding with a spoon goes, we discussed the fact that he might not be ready skill wise, but it's worth a shot. So sometime in the next couple of weeks I'll give it a shot. I just think it's ridiculous since he can't even sit up in a high chair which means I have to feed him in his bouncer or carrier. Whatever.

She's going to check his head circumference again in 30 days when I take him in just for his shots. Apparently the growth of his head was pretty rapid this time around and they'd just like to keep an eye on it. No surprise to us if he has a big head since Hubby's head is gianormous. Sorry hon, but we know it's true ;)

So that's really about it, Peanut is doing very well!

Ike's Damage

Ike was here. Ike did lots of damage around these parts. Keep in mind I'm speaking of Houston since that's where we rode out the storm. That was a long night too. Little Man has never been afraid of a thunderstorm but I fully expected there was no way he would sleep through the night once the wind really picked up. Needless to say he didn't make it quite all the way through.

But first Diva's story. We lost power around 3:30am we were one of the last in our area to lose it. Shortly before we lost power, it surged probably 8 times. At some point (time is a blur at this point) Diva began to cry, Oma heard her & went to check on her. Poor little thing tells Oma, "My mommy isn't going to be happy but my tv keeps getting angry at me." We laughed so hard and of course gave her huge hugs and took her to her mom for comfort. It took her quite a while to fall back asleep.

Little Man on the other hand didn't wake up until about 5:30 after the absolute worst had passed us and just clung to me for a short while & laid with me until daybreak.

At daybreak, as the winds slowed down some (meaning somewhere between 30-40 mph sustained) my dad, sis & myself went outside to check out the damage, find out if we still had cars in one piece & unclog the storm drain so the parking lot would quit flooding.

We really weren't very far at all from the western eye wall and I'm not going to lie, at 3:30 when the power went out, the eye was getting pretty dang close to us; it was of course pitch black and completely silent other than the winds, (which I can assume were sustained above hurricane strength by then) and it was eerie.

Of course adding insult to injury we got a ton of rain today flooding everything. I think we got nearly 3-5 inches total at our house & 12 inches at my parents.

Of course we had to drive around and check it out. I was also curious to see if I could get to the hwy to be able to go home. I knew I had to go home that day no matter what unless the power came back on thanks to Peanut's apnea monitor.

So anyhow here are the pictures we took.

Go Mayor White!!

Mayor Bill White of Houston has been a good mayor, but right now, he's GREAT!



I'm personally impressed as how smoothly things have run at the local levels and people have really been getting the job done. However, we've been waiting for a press conference all day about PODs or Points of Distribution for supplies. We only know there are 24 locations around the area. This is where people can go pick up ice, water, etc.



Mayor White comes up & says they have requested the aid from FEMA and they expect FEMA to live up to their part of the request. You could see the man standing behind the mayor, wearing his FEMA shirt & his eyes got HUGE. This was a very clear message from the mayor to FEMA to get the lead out of their asses and get things moving.



So FEMA guy comes up to speak and says the supplies that are in Texas and they are waiting to find out where they will be distributed, etc. OOOhhhh at this point you can see the Mayor, standing behind him, starting to waive his arms. FEMA guy finishes and Mayor White interupts the questions and says, I've got something to say.



He goes on to inform everyone that FEMA already has the PODs as the Mayor knows where they are going to be and has already informed them where they are. Mayor white is truly a white guy & his face even started to turn a shade of red, lol. FEMA guy made a fantastic face!



GO MAYOR WHITE!!!!!

Pictures & information to follow, I've got about half of them uploaded so far.

Ike is coming.

Not much has changed, Ike is still headed this direction, although a bit further east from our house than first projected. Unfortunately it's such a big storm it still doesn't matter. I cannot believe that Hubby & I are riding this out separately, but whatever. Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do.

As I was headed towards I-10 early this afternoon with the boys in tow, I called my sister to let her know we were on our way. I told her I was probably the only moron headed INTO Houston at this point, lol. Turns out I wasn't. But I did feel really bad for the people sitting for almost 20 miles trying to get away from the storm.

So the past few days I've seen some pretty funny stuff and heard about some too.

There were the geniuses in our town that were boarding up their aluminum trailer by hammering nails into it. I'm not sure which part was better. Boarding up the trailer or using nails in the aluminum. Did you see the person dressed as in a bear costume down on the beach in Galveston? Guy clearly has some attention seeking issues, hahahaha!!!

How about the stupid people? Yes, I said stupid which isn't a word I like but can't think of anything more appropriate. Okay, You live in a house that is on stilts in the sand which is situated on an island or peninsula. You're told the winds are going to be well over 100 mph and the storm surge alone is going to be something like 8,10,12 feet high (or higher, it's 22 feet in some places). You're told that if you stay you're on you're own because it won't be possible for them to get to you even if they wanted to. It's clear that this ENTIRE area of land is absolutely going to be underwater. So what do you do? You stay, right? Wrong. Morons. That's all I can say. Galveston and other coastal areas have been flooding for many hours, LONG before time for landfall so that's just insane! They just said there were 12 (I think that was the #) people stranded on roofs on one of those beaches. They should win IDIOT OF THE YEAR awards!

They ruined the term "hunker down" over recent times. I'm so sick of hearing it. This time, it's "shelter in place" and "Run from the water, hide from the wind." True but FUNNY.

Okay I can't think of anything anymore at them moment because there is too much going on. But we're safe and boarded in (almost). You know me, pictures will follow.

Going to go fly kites with the kids before we have to be stuck indoors for the next 24+ hours.

Hurricane Ike

It doesn't look likely that we'll escape Ike. Depending on which forecast or computer model you look at the eye will either be going over us or just to the east of us, but not far enough east to make a difference. Even as far inland as we live we've been told to expect sustained winds of 80-90 mph with gusts of 110+.

There is only one tree that I'm concerned about but I hope that with the way these storms rotate it would blow it away from our house.

We had to call the utility company today (conveniently owned by the city) and let them know that we have a medical device (Peanuts Apnea Monitor). They told us that so far in the history out here they've never been without power for more than 18 hours. That's great to hear but Hurricane Alicia was the last big storm, which was 25 years ago, and the eye went over Houston. That's still a good 50+ miles from here so where we live now would have been on the 'clean' side of the storm. I remember Alicia. The eye went over our house.

Although because it is a smaller community hopefully it won't take as long to get power restored.

So tonight we start the prep around the house, hopefully we have enough supplies because just about everyone is already sold out of just about everything. We tried last night to get more of what we would need.

So it might take even longer to get those pics up of our trip. But they will definitely be posted...too cute not to share.

Visit with the Neurologist

Yesterday we took Little Man to the neurologist. At first the doc's reaction was, "We'll do an MRI of his head but I expect it to be normal." THEN he did the physical exam on Little Man and he changed his tune some. They are going to do an MRI on his head & do an EEG. We know Little Man doesn't have seizures but they have been doing hefty research into his type of speech problem and have found that a bunch of kids that have his problem have an abnormal EEG and they think it's genetic. He said a year ago they wouldn't have done that test on him.

Hubby isn't happy about the MRI because he has to be sedated but we just don't have much of a choice. Upon physical examination they found several abnormalities. A couple of examples: They tickle the bottom of his foot and his initial reaction was to turn up his big toe instead of instantly clutching it down. His reflexes are also too quick on top of the way he holds his arms out to run & his abnormal gait.

After the exam he showed us which part of the brain they would be most likely to see abnormalities based on his problems. He did tell us it's possible they won't find anything and he may remain a mystery forever. He also said that regardless of what they do or don't find the course of action is the same: intense therapy.

He has his physical therapy eval on Monday...FINALLY. After this appointment, we realize PT is going to be more important that we first thought.

Looking for pictures from our trip? I'll get them up over the next couple of days, I suddenly started running a high fever yesterday and it's not going anywhere yet. My only symptoms are migraine & the ickiness that the fever gives me. And it is SO icky. My temp has been steady at 102 or higher since yesterday, even with meds to bring it down.

So look for pics soon.