Colin's health

Ever since Colin got RSV in April of 2011 he has not been healthy for any good time period. He gets ear infections so we put tubes in. He coughs and wheezes, has a runny nose and doesn't feel good.
  After he got pneumonia for the 3rd time in his life on Feb 14 we made another appointment with the pulmonary doctor. He agrees that something is going on with Colin but he isn't sure what. So he ordered a sweat test to test for Cystic Fibrosis and lots of blood work to check different levels of anti bodies in his tiny body. So on Friday Chris took Colin to Children's hospital where they took all the blood work and did the sweat test. We got the results of the sweat test on Friday and it came back negative. So that is good news.
   We won't have the results of the rest of the testing until the end of this week. The doctor also wants to do a biopsy of his nose. The ENT disagree's with this, however, and so they are in talks and should get back with me this week of what we are going to do in that regard.
   There is a part of me that wants something to come back so we have an answer and can move forward. There is another part of me that hopes everything is normal because I don't want my little boy sick.
  Only time will tell. I'm just hoping he is healthier in March than he was in January and February. We have 3 more days and then I can say we went the whole month of February without a hospital visit (though that isn't fully true because he went to two different hospitals for lab work).

Terrible 3's

I have heard from many people that really the 2's are bad at all. Wait till the kid turns 3 then you are in for all kinds of problems.

  Well a month into living with a 3 year old I would have to agree partly with this. For the first time in her life she is refusing to do things she likes to do. For the last two weeks she doesn't want to do swim and they have to throw her in the pool and make her do it. After the first 5 minutes in the water she is happy and loving it again.
   Also she has always been opinionated about her clothes but it has gotten worse. Forget even trying to suggest an outfit for her. If it isn't her idea she isn't going to wear it. Some mornings we go through 3-5 outfits before we find one that works with lots of tears in between. Also since she doesn't wear pants she is wearing pretty much all summer outfits even though the high outside is like 40. It is a good thing we keep the house warm.
   On the other hand she is also a lot of fun. She has more imagination than ever. Every night we play new games and they have new rules and activities to go with them. She can also use her words to tell us what is going on which helps with figuring out what is wrong.

   We have had a few terrible melt downs in the last month but we have had a lot more good times. I'm hoping everyone that told me the 3's are worse than the 2's will be wrong for Alyssa.

Birthday Party #3

Alyssa had her third and last birthday party on Saturday. It was a huge success and I think everyone walked away happy.  We had it at Little Gym which is a place with balance beams, uneven bars and lots of mats to run and jump on.
  This was the first year we let her have a friend party and I think she loved it. We invited all the daycare kids and all but one made it to the party.
   The party was from 3-4:30 and there were three girls from Little Gym that ran the whole thing. They got the kids in organized play, free play, cut up and served the cake, wrote down all the presents received and bagged up the presents after they were opened.
   They also cleaned up all the cake that was dropped on the floor and table and provided all the paper products and juice for the kids.
   Watching all the kids run around, jump and play brought a huge smile to my face. Even Colin who is usually glued to our side was running around and exploring the gym area.
   I really wasn't sure if I should have a friend party for her yet since she was still so young, but after watching how much fun she had I'm  so glad I did!

Pulmonary Appt.

 The appointment went great! I love their pulmonary doctor. He always takes the time to listen to me. He never has a problem telling me no, but he also does what he thinks is best for the kids. 

For Alyssa he did allergy testing and it came back positive to Oak trees. There were a few other things that came up almost positive but not big enough for them to consider a true positive. So she is now on an allergy medicine once a day. He also lowered her inhaled steroid and told us to do it twice a day every day for two months( we were doing it for 10 days at any sign of illness). In two months we will see him again and re-evaluate. 


For Colin we are going to do a lot more testing. He is very concerned about all the illnesses he has had. What is nice is he is part of the hospital we always go to when Colin is sick so he can pull up all his records from them.


We are going to do more auto immune testing, we are going to do a sweat test to test him for Cystic Fybrostits (sp?), he also wants and ENT to do a biopsy of part of his nose. He thinks he might have something that pushes the dirt and pollen back into his nose causing infections instead of pushing it out like it is supposed to. 
He also took him off the steroid inhaler (advair) and put him back on a lower dose of pulmocort twice daily for two months. 


In two months we will go back and discuss all the results and decided what the plan for the rest of the summer will be.


I can't tell you how good I feel right now. I know there is a possibility that none of this will give us answers but at least he is trying to figure it out.

Cough

Both kids have had a cough that has lasted almost two weeks now. Alyssa seems to be getting better. She had 5 days of steroid and lots of breathing treatments and is now down to two a day. She still coughs some but I'm hoping by early next week we will be done with treatments.
Colin doesn't seem to be getting better as fast. He is done with his steroids, but it still at 3-5 breathing treatments a day. He still has a lot of wheezing and coughing. He has been on Singular which caused an allergic reaction and so now he is on Advair to help with the wheezing. Advair is a twice daily medicine that he will have to have daily for the next few months. I'm really hoping he turns the corner soon and is on the road to recovery. He has gone from having to get up in the middle of the night to do treatments to being able to go all night so I guess we are making some progress.

Bad Day

Yesterday was a really bad day at the daycare. Nothing horrible happened, kids were just in bad moods, there was lots of different things going on all at the same time and I was super tired for all of it which I'm sure doesn't help anything.
  Poor Chris got more than a few texts from me telling him how bad my day was. A little after lunch when things still weren't getting any better I told Chris that the day was bringing up bad memories. It was bringing up feelings I had when I was teaching and no matter how hard  I tired it seemed like I couldn't do anything right. This is a feeling that I hadn't felt since I quit teaching. It was disturbing to me that this emotion could creep back up so easily.
  I had to talk myself out of it. I knew that the kids in my care were fine, no one was getting hurt or bullied, they were feed and had gotten some learning and craft time in even if things weren't going the way I wanted them to. All the parents when they picked their kids up at the end of the day were happy and no one (kids or adult) left unhappy with the services received for the day. I didn't have to worry about loosing my job or some boss yelling at me.
   I went to bed early drained from the stress, busyness and emotion of the day.
  I woke up this morning much more refreshed and even more grateful for the good days. Because I do love the job I have now. I love the kids I have and I know I'm doing a good job teaching them the things they need to know for school and I know they are enjoying their childhood.
  Today hasn't been as smooth as normal but it is a 100% better than yesterday and I will enjoy today and know that better days are ahead.

Alyssa is 3!

Feb. 6, 2009

Dear Alyssa,
   I can not believe how fast the last three years have gone. You are now three years old and no longer a baby. You talk up a storm and tell us your thoughts and opinions on everything. You pick your own outfits and if we pick the wrong one you will let us know. You decided daily if you want your hair up or down, and decided what games you are going to play and do through out the day.

Feb 6, 2010

  For outfits you still don't care for pants all that much so you wear mostly dresses, and will put pants on if you know we are leaving the house. You also love shoes and probably have more pairs of shoes that mommy. You like to wear each pair at different times so they do all get worn.
   Your favorite foods are fish sticks, tator tots, doughnuts, PB&J, cheese itz, and yogurt. You have developed a sweet tooth and do like chocolate and other sweet things.
   You weigh about 30 lbs and I'm not sure how tall you are, you don't have your three year check until the end of the month.
   After all these years you are finally sleeping better and go to bed about 7:45 each night. You get up somewhere between 5 and 6am. But between 8 and 5 you are in your bed sleeping. You love your Ariel bed( you got a new bedspread for Christmas).

Feb 6, 2011

   You are usually very happy and love to play with all your friends you have made at the daycare. You are also doing really good at learning your letters, colors, and shapes. You can count to 10 by yourself, sing your ABC's with only missing 1 letter, know all your shapes and colors. You know the letters, A, C, J, M, W, and can read all the names of kids in the daycare.
  You are a brave little girl and love adventure. You are climbing on everything just so you can jump off of it. I'm waiting for your first broken bone.
  You also love your barbies and barbie house. You ask every night to play Barbies with either daddy or me.

Feb 6, 2012

You haven't been as sick this year. It has been nice to not have to take you to the doctor every week. You do have a bad cold right now but you haven't let it slow you down.

Alyssa you are a joy to be around and I love spending my days with you. You are such an awesome blessing to our lives and I can't imagine my life without you. I am looking forward to seeing how you grow in the next year.
 I love you with all my heart.

Love,
Mommy

(Yes that is the same Tuto in 2010-2012)

3 year old interview

What is your favorite color? Blue
 What is your favorite toy? Barbies
What is your favorite fruit? Oranges
What is your favorite tv show? Dora
 What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken nuggets (and tator tots)
 What is your favorite outfit? Cinderella Dress (anything that is a dress)
 What is your favorite game? Candy Land
 What is your favorite snack? Pop tart( really cheese itz)
 What is your favorite animal? Giraffe 
 What is your favorite song? Twinkle Little Star
 What is your favorite book? My Princess book
 Who is your best friend? Maddie
 What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Mini Wheats
 What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the snow
 What is your favorite drink? Orange Juice
 What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
 What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Animals and blanket
 What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Doughnuts 
 What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cookies
 What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm going to grow my toes bigger (after some prompting a fireman)


All (are what I added)

My Little Girl

My little girl is growing up! I can't believe that in 5 days she is going to be a three year old! When I think back on it, it does not seem like it has been that long. In other ways it seems like she has been in our lives forever.
I could go on and on about all the things she is doing and saying but I will save that for her birthday post on Monday.
  Today I'm going to talk about me and my feelings on it all. I always knew I wanted to be a mom and that was confirmed the moment she was born. Yesterday I was looking back at pictures from the hospital when she was born and watching some videos we made. You can see the love we had for that 6 lb bundle of joy then and I think you can still see it now.
   I have LOVED the last year and a half I have had at home with her. I love being able to see her learn, grow and the friendships she makes. I realized today that she has spent more of her life now at home with me than she did in daycare.
    Even this morning when she was throwing fit after fit and I had a pang of jealousy as Chris walked out the door to work, by lunch time I was once again reminded how blessed and lucky I am to be able to stay home with my kids.
  I know this is a rambling post that really hasn't said anything but these are all thought swirling through my head as my baby, my little girl is getting ready to turn 3.

Review of New Years Resolution

So it is February 1st so time to look back at my resolutions and see how I'm doing.

1. Be 145 lbs by my birthday.  This one is a work in progress some weeks are good, others I'm frustrated but not giving up yet.

2. Tone up my body (by doing ab exercises and then walk/running when the weather gets nicer) I have started working out for the last 3 weeks. I'm proud of my distance and can already see small results in the tone up areas.

3. Spend 7 hours a week with just my kids, no distractions.  I haven't kept track of the time but I know I have done this easily, we will see if I can keep it up next week when my hours at work change. 

4. Go on a date night with my husband every other month.  This did not happen in January but we are going out this weekend so that will be nice.

5. Have my business see a profit.  I'm in the hole for the end of January but that should turn around soon. 

6. Send out birthday cards on time to all family members.  So far so good.

7. Get the basement organized and looking nice. This has been done and a garage sale date has been set to get rid of the stuff that isn't selling on craigslist. 

8. Have one month where neither kid goes to the doctor.  I had to laugh when I read this one. This did not happen Colin was at the doctor 3 times and one hospital stay and Alyssa ended up with a trip to the doctor on Monday. She has a re-check in a week so it won't happen for Feb either.