Disney on Ice

Today I took Alyssa to Disney on Ice. To say she loved it is an understatement. We didn't tell her until yesterday that we were going.
This morning I put videos from youtube on for her to watch of what we were going to see. We left the house about 11 and went to Steak n' Shake and got burgers and milkshakes for lunch. We then drove down to the Casino Queen.
(Side note: When we got to the Casino Queen and I got her out of the car I discovered she had peed her pants and I didn't have a change of clothes. All I had was Colin's diapers so I took off her underwear and put a diaper on her praying that would keep the wetness off of her)
 We then rode the metrolink to the Scott Trade Center. This was her first time on the metrolink (train). She loved watching out the window. We went over the river and through a tunnel.  We then got to the Scott Trade and I had to buy her a new shirt since she had peed on her other one.
We then found our seats. Our seats were two rows from the ice! We were in the last row of "real" seats. The two rows in front of us were folding chairs. Alyssa was not big/strong enough to sit on the chair so she either stood in front of me or sat on my lap. When the announcer came on saying the show would start in 3 minutes her mouth dropped and she looked at me with a big smile on her face.
  The show started and that girl did not move a muscle for the first 15 minutes. She sat on my lap with a huge smile on her face watching the people dancing around the ice. After the first princesses story she got down from my lap and stood in front of me to watch the second.
During intermission she talked about the princesses. Then it started again. I don't think she ever took her eyes off the ice for the whole show.
Once the show was over she was super tired but she was a trooper getting through the crowds and back to metro link. She once again looked out the window the whole time. Once we got in the car she put her head back and fell fast asleep.
  The second I pulled into the garage she woke up and said "I have to tell Daddy all about the Princesses" and came running into the house yelling for him.
It was a very successful trip I would say. She LOVED every second of it! I really enjoyed the show and couldn't help but tear up a few times as I looked at her and saw the big smile on her face.
It was an awesome day for both of us!

Spring is here

Spring is here all this week the weather has been warm. We have been able to get outside to play and best of all our night walks are back.
On Monday night we got Alyssa's bike out. Last year she was not able to pedal it at all. This year it was hard for her to get started but she was able to pedal. I'm so proud of her and it is so much fun to see her grow up.

Hit my goal!

Today as I got on the scale I held my breath and the number I have working so hard for since January popped up! I'm officially at my goal weight! I'm so excited. I haven't been this skinny since JR high school and I'm in a size 4 pants!
If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would give birth to two children and then weigh 40lbs less than what I did the day I got pregnant with my first I would have told you that you were crazy! But a lot of crazy things have happened in the last 4 years!

So just a little number game for you. I am 40lbs less than the day I got pregnant with Alyssa. I'm 22 lbs lighter than the day I got pregnant with Colin. I'm 70 lbs lighter than my heaviest pregnancy weight. And down 50lbs from my heaviest non pregnant weight.

Those are numbers to be proud of. It has taken me a long time to be happy with my body. But I'm very happy with the way my body looks and even happier with the example I'm setting for my kids by being active and eating healthier.

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.