Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great day! Long, but great. We spent it with my mom's side of the family and Little Man had a lot of fun with his cousins. Crazy times with 4 children 4 & under in the house. I missed my grandparents being there but we still had a great time with great food.

We have so much to be thankful for this year too. Peanut is doing great and Little Man is making such great progress. I could make a list but am just too tired to do so, lol.

Just know...we are grateful this year!

Peanut goes Full Circle

After he was done playing with his bottle I figured I'd just try to get some pictures of him. I didn't move, but he made a complete circle on his tummy. It was cute. Notice how in the first pic he's facing to the right and he slowly turned in a full circle, grunting the whole way, lol.

You do realize you're in trouble once he's sitting on his own, right? Oh yes, the camera will be very busy then, lol.

The Bottle

Perhaps I should change the name of the blog to, "My life in pictures" lol. Last night Peanut decided he wanted to grab and hold his bottle so of course I had to take pictures. He's not actually ready to hold his own bottle which is evidenced by how far he's got it crammed into his mouth and by how bad his aim is.

That's okay, he's still really cute to watch.

Hmmm...maybe it should be, "My boys lives in pictures" since I'm always (happily) behind the camera, lol.

Two More

Two more pictures from earlier this week.

Eat Egg

For 2 days Little Man had been telling me, "abba eeeeaaaaa eeeeeeeegh". Translated that means, "I want to eat an egg." Every time an egg was taken out of the fridge for something, he was mesmerized and that was it. Telling me OVER & OVER again how he wants to eat an egg. He was even signing (without prompting) to me to make sure I got the message.

Thursday night was it though. I'd used an egg to dip and batter my chicken and he was going on about that dumb egg again! What to do? Hubby offered to make some hard boiled eggs for him. He happily and forcefully refused his dinner in anticipation of getting, "the egg" lol. I had to document this moment with some photos and here it is:

Needless to say, he didn't eat that egg. He wanted nothing to do with it. He poked at it just a couple of times and quickly refused it, lol. That hasn't stopped him from continuing to tell me "abba eeeeaaaaa eeeeeeeegh" though.

That 2nd picture is just priceless to me.

Little Man & the Evil Bed(room)

For at least a couple of weeks now we have been having the hardest time getting Little Man to bed. We've tried everything and the poor thing just cannot tell us what's bothering him. We do think he is scared of something and we're not sure if it's something in his room or if it's just being alone in there. Anyhow, most nights the routine is such that I end up having to lay in his bed with him until he falls asleep. He has always been such a great sleeper that this is tough for us. It's also tough because unlike most 3 year olds, he can't just tell us what's wrong.

Here he is protesting, trying to get just a little closer to the couch in the living room, lol.

Him outright pointing at the couch, begging to sleep there and not in his bed.

Even after I laid down with him, he continued to let me know he wasn't happy with being there.

My first award!

So I know I'm not writing about anything important over here. That's why it says, KEEPING IN TOUCH up there at the top, so as not to mislead anyone, haha!

Seriously though, Erin is a local celebrity of sorts here. She truly is the couponing queen (just ask anyone who watches our local ABC affiliate!) and to know she's been on my blog is a bit intimidating to say the least! (Since I post some of my 'deals' here).

Anyhow, here it is: "The Marie Antoinette, Real Person Award"

Thank You Erin!!! You rock! & thanks for all you do over there at your blog & HCW.

Even More Pictures!

You're going to get sick of all of these pictures, lol. I've got a new toy that I'm learning how to use. I am trying to figure out where I'm going to house & share these photos. But in the mean time......................ENJOY! :)

Too bad Peanut was sleeping, aren't they adorable?

Picture Time!

I just love taking pictures of the boys and I've been really bad about it lately. The past few months have been so chaotic and ridiculous that I just haven't done much photo taking. So tonight I made up for that deficit, lol. Here are some of my favorites.

I'll do my best to get the rest of them uploaded to the photo album tonight. Enjoy!

Weekly Shopping

We're going out of town tomorrow to see some friends for the day so I got the weekend shopping done today. I am including the $ amounts I put on gift cards as money saved since it didn't come out of my own pocket.

First up: CVS

• 2 boxes Apple Jacks ($1 MQ ea)
• Garnier ($1 MQ)
• 1 Crest Pro Health ($1 MQ)

I also used a $5 ECB. Total put on Gift Card was $1.48 and I have $5.49 in ECBs for later. Total saved: $16.26

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Walgreens

• 1 Garbage Bags
• 1 Tylenol ($2 MQ)
• 1 Almay Mascara ($1 MQ)
• 1 Sudafed ($1 MQ)
• 1 Tylenol Cold ($1 MQ)

I used a $5/$20. Put $17.78 on gift card, received one $5 RR & will get $6.99 MIR. Total Saved: $30.78

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Kroger

• 4 Carnation Evaporated Milk ($1/2 IP & .50/2 MQ)
• 3 Scotch Brite Sponges ($1/2 & .50/1 MQ)
• 2 Betty Crocker Boxed Potatoes (.50/2 MQ)
• 2 Hefty One Zip Bags (.55/1 MQ)
• 2 jars baby food
• 1 Crisco (.40 MQ)
• 1 Shout ($1.50 IP)
• 1 Hunts Diced Tomatoes (.40/2 any Hunts tomato product)
• 1 Hunts Tomato Paste ^see above^
• 1 Peter Pan Peanut Butter (.50 MQ)
• 1 Quaker Oats
• 1 4lb Domino Sugar (.35 MQ)
• 1 Evaporated Milk (.55 MQ)
• 1 Betty Crocker Cookie Mix (.75 IP)
• 1 Cottonelle 4pk (.50 Cellfire)

I hope I have all of those coupons right, lol. Trying to do that from memory with a case of baby brain is not always the brightest idea. :) Total OOP: $11.86 Total Saved: $32.34

Totals for the day:
OOP: $ 11.86
Saved: $79.38

Toddler Antics

Yesterday I was doing something and hadn't been looking directly at my children for about 2 minutes when I turned around to this:

As you can see from this picture, he was none too thrilled when he stood up and realized he couldn't get out of it. I laughed so hard.

This morning Little Man was on his knees on the kitchen chair dropping cards into the floor (Thomas playing cards). Once the mess started to look like a mess I informed him it was time to get down and pick them up. While he was picking them up he was singing the Clean Up song. Oh it was TOO CUTE! Incredibly hard to understand but I know that is exactly what he was singing. This is the first time I've heard him sing a song unprompted.

I realize some of you are thinking, "it's a big deal for your 3 year old to sing a song?" The short answer is, "ABSOLUTELY A HUGE DEAL!"

Flameless Candles

Before I started couponing, I never would have spent money on things like the Flameless candles but over the past couple of months I've been able to score several of them for Free or a buck a piece. That means I had several sitting on a shelf just waiting for a reason to be used and last night it happened.

We had some pretty bad weather move through and somewhere just after 10 we lost power for a couple of hours. I really REALLY didn't want to take Peanut out of his crib since it was only his second night in there. I opened up a couple more of those Glade Flameless Wisp candles and those were perfect! Of course I'm not going to leave a real candle in my 6 month old's room so that I can go to bed, so these were the perfect solution. Just stuck one up on his bookshelf and that was perfect for me!

Little Man fell asleep in our bed for the first time EVER because he'd woken up shortly before the weather got nasty with a nasty cough and threw up. Once he fell asleep I promptly returned to his own bed so that I could finally sleep.

I did take some video of Little Man saying some of his words and hopefully I'll get that uploaded today.

Pictures!

A couple of cute photos of the boys. I think Little Man is really going to like it once Peanut is mobile, he loves being his entertainment.

Sleeping through the Night!

WOOHOOOO!!!!!! Peanut slept the entire night in his crib last night! This is the first time that's ever happened and he slept the whole night. Just about 10 hours. He woke up in such a good mood too! He ate like a pig for his daddy while I made some modifications to his crib to make it more comfortable for him. Needless to say I won't be putting him back in his swing even for naps now. No, he's going to spend a little more time in that crib, lol.

I was so excited when I asked Hubby this morning, "Did you have to go in there?" and he answered, "NO." YAY! He didn't make a peep until 8:15 this morning.

Let's hope this isn't a fluke...

Apraxia

Even though I know what Apraxia is, I find it difficult to explain. So...to ensure that the source is reliable, I'm taking this information straight from ASHA. (American Speech-Language Hearing Association) Keep in mind we have one speech therapist that truly believes he is Apraxic and refers to it often and the other one believes that he is (she actually brought it up first) but wants to wait a little longer before making it "official." (Not that making it 'official' changes anything anyway.) My additional comments are in THIS COLOR.
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What is Apraxia?
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g., lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech. The child knows what he or she wants to say, but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.

What are Signs or Symptoms?
Of course not all children are going to have every issue listed here.

A Very Young Child

• Does not coo or babble as an infant (We called him "The silent Baby." Nuff Said.)
• First words are late, and they may be missing sounds (First words came WAY after he was 18 months old)
• Only a few different consonant and vowel sounds (He uses these few sounds he can make and creates his own words.)
• Problems combining sounds; may show long pauses between sounds (He definitely has problems with combining sounds)
• Simplifies words by replacing difficult sounds with easier ones or by deleting difficult sounds (although all children do this, the child with apraxia of speech does so more often) (He not only deletes problematic sounds but creates new words.)
• May have problems eating (I would venture to say 6 months of feeding therapy to figure out how to chew constitutes an eating problem.)

An Older Child
Yes, I realize he's not really 'older' yet but he still falls into most of these categories.

• Makes inconsistent sound errors that are not the result of immaturity (he's only 3 so we can still blame some of it on immaturity)
• Can understand language much better than he or she can talk (There is very little he doesn't understand and he has no problem following commands.)
• Has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more clear than spontaneous speech (IF he can imitate what you're saying then Yes)
• May appear to be groping when attempting to produce sounds or to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw for purposeful movement (YUP)
• Has more difficulty saying longer words or phrases clearly than shorter ones (We're working on getting him to use more 3 word phrases and he's 3 years old!)
• Appears to have more difficulty when he or she is anxious (You can tell the poor child gets so frustrated sometimes)
• Is hard to understand, especially for an unfamiliar listener (We joke he's going to need the "Little Man Dictionary" to be able to attend preschool)
• Sounds choppy, monotonous, or stresses the wrong syllable or word (That would be a good description)

Potential Other Problems

• Weakness of the lips, jaw, and/or tongue
• Delayed language development
• Other expressive language problems like word order confusions and word recall
• Difficulties with fine motor movement/coordination
• Over sensitive (hypersensitive) or under sensitive (hyposensitive) in their mouths (e.g., may not like toothbrushing or crunchy foods, may not be able to identify an object in their mouth through touch)
• Children with CAS or other speech problems may have problems when learning to read, spell, and write
  

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And there you have it. A quick summary of Apraxia. I'm going to put together a short video with him saying the words he's made up. Just one example: the word 'YES' is "Ah-hee" in his world. One thing the can happen is that you'll hear a word and then it will disappear from their vocabulary. The word, 'kitty' is one example of that for us. As is the word, 'yes'. When he first started saying YES he would say, "essssss" and all of a sudden one day he decided it was "Ah-hee."

I can't even phonetically spell his word for Thomas (the Tank). :0) Yes, this will be a fun experiment and fantastic to document his progress since we are just at the beginning of his intensive therapy. This should be interesting. Anyone want to take a guess at how many "takes" it will take to get him to cooperate with me? LOL.

Super Shopping Saturday!

Poor Hubby. He really doesn't like these days too much, lol. He appreciates the savings from couponing, just not the journey.

Since we live in BFE (the middle of nowhere) it's forced me to get organized and plan ahead. That means some Saturdays are devoted to driving to the nearest suburb (45 minutes) and getting things done. I can do some of those things on Mondays or Tuesdays when I take Little Man into the city for his therapies but some errands are just a pain when lugging around 2 small children. That category would include the "quick trips." Places that I literally need to run in and grab just a couple of things.

Of course even with all of this planning I still forget things sometimes...like my $5/$25 for CVS this weekend! I couldn't believe I forgot it. So I improvised.

Today I did well enough I need to post it. =0)
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Stop 1: CVS

• 2 Pampers - used 2 $1.50 MQ & $12.95 ECB = $4.38 on GC, total OOP: $0
• Total Saved: $19.93 & have a $5 ECB for later. (I've not been too impressed with CVS deals lately so I'm not worried about having big amounts of ECBs)

Stop 2: Walgreens

• 4 Wags Diapers - used $2 Wags Q & $5 RR = $5.39 on GC, total OOP: $0
• Total Saved: $22.98

Stop 3: Petco (Yes, you're right in thinking...they don't have pets...I did this for a friend because I didn't have time to mail her the Q's before the sale ended.)

• 3 Science Diet Dog Food - used 3 $5 IP = $0
• Total Saved: $41.97

Stop 4: HEB (Just about the only place I'll buy formula)

• 2 25oz HEB Formula - used 2 $10 HEB Q = $5.98
• Total Saved: $20

Stop 5: Kroger (I did 3 transactions because of limits & Mail in Rebates)

• 10 Carnation Evaporated Milk
• 6 powerade
• 3 glade oil candle refils
• 2 glade candles
• 2 Peter Pan Peanut Butter (MIR)
• 3 3liter Ozarka (So I know how much to drink every day & WOW!)
• 1 Dial Hand Soap
• 2 Hefty One Zips
• 4 Betty Crocker boxed Potatoes
• 2 Betty Crocker Cookie Mix
• 1 Palmolive Dish Soap (MIR)
• 1 Desitin
• 1 Alka Selzer
• 1 Sour Cream
• 1 Gallon Milk
• 1 Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix
• 1 Peanut Butter Crackers

I cannot remember specifically which coupons I used but almost every single item had one plus I used the $4 CAT for the Glade on one of the transactions. After the store sale & coupons my total for all 3 transactions was $21.79 & my total Saved was $63.16. I also have MIRs worth $7.50.

That makes my daily total spent OOP: $27.77
Total Saved today: $168.04
If you include the $ put on GC instead of cash it would be $ $177.81

Not a bad haul at all!

Today's the day

On Tuesday I finally had my stent removed. Thankfully the CT Scan showed no trace of the stone so we're hoping that's right. The doctor warned me that they can be wrong but we feel pretty good that it means it really is gone.

Let me just say, having that stent removed was one of the most painful things EVER. Shoot, just having the stent was painful!

Anyways, today is the day that I start new dietary restrictions in hopes of lowering my risk for developing more stones. In 4 months I'll return to the doctor and he will do a full work up to determine my risk. If my risk is still high, even with the restrictions, they'll put me on some medication to help have this never happen again. I do hope I never have to go through this again. YUCK.

The boys are doing well. Peanut is rolling around now, although he still gets mad pretty quickly when he's on his tummy and doesn't always realize he can keep going on his own. He can sit for a second or two if you get him balanced just right. He's really making some great progress.

Little Man is getting lots of speech therapy and it just seems more & more likely he's headed for a diagnosis of apraxia. I promise I'll dedicate an entire post to Apraxia. Just going to take some time to get it together in a manner in which it's coherent, lol.