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ENT

So, I took Jackson to a Pediatric ENT because I've been concerned about his snoring and sleep apnea. I brought up my concerns of his snoring with his Pediatrician at his one year appt, May '09, but she said that an ENT wouldn't do anything for him until he was two. Since the fall I've been more observant of his snoring to see if he's actually having sleep apnea too. I was able to get a great video of snoring and sleep apnea so I decided to make a ENT appt now instead of waiting until he was two.

At the appt the ENT put a camera down his nose (after a numbing spray, although I don't think it helped much) and we found out his adenoids block his airway almost 100%. Wow, so it looks like he will have surgery at the end of March to remove them. I also brought up my concerns with the ENT that he really isn't speaking very much at all, only a handful of words. So the plan right now it to put tubes in too. Although, after speaking with a few Pedi's that I work with they've encouraged me to have his hearing tested first. So I will plan on doing that too. I've also made an ECI referral for him too for further testing.

Valentino

Emma's pet fish, Nicodemus, died a few weeks ago. When I told Emma that he died, she ran off into her room and cried. It took her a while to calm down she was so upset. She didn't want to join us in the "burial". She got over it pretty quick, especially when we told her we would get her another fish.

Well, I would like to introduce our new addition to the family, Valentino. Needless to say, he was a Valentine's present to Emma, hence the name. Isn't he beautiful? I've never seen an orange Betta.

Hopefully his life will be longer.

Symphony

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we are planning on homeschooling Emma. I've been involved in the local homeschool group for the last two years just to see what it's all about and to get support from other families that are homeschooling. Anyways, the homeschooling group arranges field trips. We have done several of them, at least the age appropriate ones. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy doing them with her. Here we are at the symphony.

Dentist

I took both the kids to the dentist today. Emma did great! She brought her dentist book along with us. Speaking of the dentist book, you would think that a book designed for kids about going to the dentist they would have left out the picture about the shot with a huge needle on it. Just sayin'. Anyways, Jackson wasn't so hip on having the dentist check out his teeth. Both kids checked out! No cavities! Yay for us!

Stylin

Jackson thought it was so funny to wear these sunglasses. He wandered around and played for a while in them.

Tooth Fairy

Ok, so I must admit I'm not looking forward to Emma losing her teeth! Yuck! I didn't even like losing my own teeth. I have a feeling Mema or Daddy are going to be the teeth pullers in the family. Hopefully, I won't have to worry about that for a year or two. It was so cute today Emma dressed up as the tooth fairy. Notice what she's holding. Hehehe. At least someone seems to be excited about the tooth fairy.

Jackson's sick

My poor little buddy, Jackson is sick. I was very worried about him last night before bed. He seemed to be having a difficult time breathing. He was breathing fast, had a few episodes of apnea, and was coughing so much. He finally settled down and slept pretty well after being restless for a few hours. I was seriously considering taking him to the ER. I googled online his symptomes and had determined he had RSV.

So this morning Kevin was so sweet to let me sleep in until 11. Jackson seemed ok when he came in to wake me up but after running around for a while it was obvious he was having a difficult time breathing, he was coughing nonstop. So I pinned him in the pack and play so he couldn't run and made a doctors appt. When I took him in I told his pediatrician all his symptomes and that I thought he had RSV. She examined him and asked me all the little details of him being sick. While listening to him she chuckled and said "only a nurse would come in with a diagnosis", and then she said that she thought I was right! She also found that he had bilateral ear infections, which apparently is pretty common with RSV. Poor baby. So he started on his first ever antibiotic, Amoxicillin, and a respiratory treatment, Albuterol. He seems better already after a day's worth of respiratory treatments. I hope he doesn't end up with asthma, apparently 30% of children that have RSV before the age of 2 end up having asthma.

Here is a picture of my little buddy doing his first respiratory treatment, reluctantly.

Little Actress

About 6 months ago my work was looking for employee's that were interested in being part of a new ad campaign. It sounded interesting so I filled out the application. Guess what? They picked me! Actually, they picked me and Emma. So, what do you think?


Now, they use me as a NICU nurse and technically I'm a nursery nurse. Although, I was a NICU nurse for 5 of my 10 years, so that should count, right? I do still work in the NICU occasionally and I feel comfortable taking care of the sick babies on ventilators. I don't know, I just don't people to feel I'm misrepresenting myself, you know?

Lunch with Friends

I took the kids out to lunch to meet my friend, Karisa, and her new baby, Ella. Isn't she gorgeous!! She's going to have beautiful blue eyes like her daddy! I love her and I've only met her once. My kids were mostly behaved. I have to admit, lunch out with friends was a bit more fun before kids! =)

Funny Story

Emma cracks me up almost everyday with something she says. I wish I could remember everything! The other morning I woke up very grumpy and she wasn't being particularly cooperative while I was trying to get her dressed. So I pulled her in to me and I said, "Emma, mama is very grumpy this morning, I'm trying very hard to be patient with you but I need you to help me by listening to me, ok". Then she pats my knee and says, "mama, do you need a snack". I just laughed and said, "yes, baby, your probably right, I do need a snack". So, I bet you can guess what I ask Emma when she is being grumpy?

Boom chicka boom

Yeah, I want to say something clever and funny, but I'm not sure what to say. I think it explains itself.

Winter Jacket

Mema got Jackson a new winter jacket. It's huge on him, but he seemed to like it. Sorry my voice is about 8 octaves higher, I get pretty excited talking to the kids sometimes. =)

Funny Kids

My kids just crack me up some times. Jackson has discovered the camera, he enjoys having his picture and video taken and looking at them. Any time I take out the camera they want to see themselves on the camera, ahhh digital! What did we do before digital camera's?

Strange sleeping

I was looking at Jackson on the video monitor tonight and couldn't see him clearly. I went into his room and found him buried under his pillow. I took the pillow off of him and covered him with a blanket instead. Silly boy.

New Years Day

So, for New Years Day we spent the day with some friends, Marcello, Denise, and their two girls, Julia and Isabella. It's actually an interesting story on how we met, I had taken the kids to the park late summer of 2008 and Denise was there with her two girls. We had some small talk as Emma and Julia found each other to play. When I was about to leave Denise asked for my phone number to have a play date. It was so strange, I've never had a stranger ask for my number to get together, but I'm so glad I did. Her family is just delightful and I enjoy spending time with them.


Anyways, we went and spent the day with them on New Years. At one point during the day I remember saying, boy, the girls sure are being quiet. I was just thinking they had listened to us when we told them to be quiet because Jackson was napping. Hmmm, thinking back, that's never a good thing when we don't hear them playing. Marcello had gone to check on them and immediately came back and said something about the bathroom, soap, water, mess, and naked. At first I thought he was joking and then I went to check on them. Emma and Julia were butt naked and there was a sink full of water and soap all over the counter. There was water everywhere. Emma looked up when I opened the door and said (with a huge smile on her face), "we're making a mess and giving our baby doll a bath." I just shut the door and proceeded to get my camera!!

They had this fun little helicopter toy that we found as interesting as the kids did!

(This post is for you Kim!)

Cute things Emma said...

Emma just cracks me up. She has been saying the funniest things lately. The other day I put her in a pair of pink jeans that had a belt in it. I told her it was a belt and she found the pants fascinating. She said, "Look mama, it has two pockets in the back, two pockets in the front, and (as she pointed to the belt) a butt". LOL, I just cracked up. I said, "oh a butt huh?". We were both laughing and she kept saying, "what's it called again?".

Tonight Emma overheard me talking on the phone to Kevin about trying to get her an older lap top for her to play her games on. She asked me about the computer and I told her that she could play her games on it and she said, "of course I would want a pink one". Well, of course.

This isn't funny, but it was worth mentioning. She is just so sweet. Let me start by saying Kevin and I have been getting up and doing quiet time in the morning and sometimes if Emma was up already she would join us, although it wasn't so quiet then. Hehe. She really enjoyed sitting at the table and "reading" her bible while we did. Anyways, this morning I was up getting dressed for the gym when she came into the bathroom. She is just so sweet first thing in the morning. She said, "Good morning mama, where you going?". I told her I was going to the gym. She said, "wouldn't you like to go down and read bible stories with me first." How could I resist. Needless to say I didn't go to the gym. Instead all four of us spent snuggle time in bed and then ate breakfast together and had "quiet" time. What a great morning.

I'm back... again...

I'm so excited! I have my computer all decked out in the newest software update (Snow Leopard), I have a TON of hardrive space (212GB), a new backup system, and I am able to upload my pictures to MY computer instead of Kevin's computer so I have access to all my pictures all the time without depending on his computer. And I have the new version of iPhoto which has a sweet face recognition feature! I'm so excited can you tell! Why you ask? I'm going to start blogging again!! No, really! I am!

Do you know what my biggest reason is? I found an AWESOME easy way to make my blog into a book! Click here to check it out! I've always worried about losing my stories about Emma and Jackson. I'm so excited to be able to just print out my blog and have it in a story book. The first book I'm going to print out is going to be from my very first blog, Sunday, July 31st, 2005, to the end of 2006 (Friday, December 29th, 2006). It will be 118 pages, hardbound book, cool pink cover, for $60. My second book is going to be all of 2007. So, do you know what that means? I need to get caught up from my year off of blog making! I want to do a blog book every year! I'm just so excited. I figure if I can spend an hour on Facebook every night I can take 15 minutes of that hour and write a couple blog posts (a current one so I don't get behind and a old one to get caught up). That way it won't seem so unmanageable. Especially now that my computer is working great (thanks baby!)

So here goes!

Should I give up?

I'm annoyed with myself for not keeping my blog up and running. I've just spent the last 10 minutes going through older blog post and remembering things I've completely forgotten about Emma when she was just a baby and toddler. Now she is 4 and all grown up and I have hardly nothing about her or her brother for the last year! Booo!

The problem now is that my husband is telling me that the hard drive that stores all our pictures is failing so he unhooked it so that he can transfer the data off of it before it is completely lost. So I can't even down load what pictures I have on my camera! Booo! (Think Princess Bride when the witch is boooing Princess Buttercup in her dream!). So I think if I would have all my stuff working I could at least post a few pictures... maybe. I'm gonna have Kevin get a new hardrive soon, because I'm eager to get started again, no really, I am! So, I hope to see you soon!

Prayer

Last night this was Emma's prayer:

Dear God,
Please help mama have fun while she pays bills, be a good mama to me, and that she washes her hands everyday.
Amen


I just found it humorous. Oh, and by the way, I wash my hands more than once a day! =)

Long time no see...

Hello there! I know, I know. It's been forever since I've posted anything. I'm going to try to be better. Here's my problem, I hate the fact that I've missed about 5 months of my kids life by not posting. I want so bad to "catch up" but the farther I get behind the more overwhelming it gets. So, I just need to make up my mind to start from now and if I can I can post some pictures and videos from the last few months then I will. So here goes...

Biting

For those of you that have breastfed before you know there is a time when a baby gets their teeth and will think it's fun to bite your nipple. With Emma she did it about 3 times. I would stop breastfeeding, scold her, and then put her down on the floor. She would cry and acted like I had beaten her, but she learned! Emma only bit me a handful of times and that was it. Well, Jackson is a completely different baby. Jackson bit me one day and I scolded him and put him down, just like I did with Emma, he didn't seem phased by it. The next time he bit me I was in the car breastfeeding him so I couldn't really put him down, but I scolded him. Well, do you know what that little stinker did? He laughed! Hysterically. He thought it was so funny that I was scolding him. He laughed, can you believe it. I had a vision of him being 2 years old running through the house laughing with scissors in his hand with me chasing him saying "Come here Jackson, don't run!". I'm scared. I've tried scolding, putting him down, stopping the feeding, pinching his nose, spanking (yes, I know, but it didn't hurt, he has a soft fluffy diaper on and it was only two soft pats). So, I read online some tips because what I was doing wasn't working. Someone suggested that you pull the baby into your breast until they let go, basically you suffocate them with your breast. Nice huh? Well, I did it and it worked. The first time I did it I pulled him in until he started struggling and then I let him go. He gave this half hearted smile like "well, that was interesting, I don't think I liked it that much, but it was still fun ... a little." So the next several times he bit me I was consistent and pulled him closer. Needless to say, he eventually figured out that he didn't like that much, no more smiles after that first time. He was good for about a week. Just about the time I thought to myself that "great, I finally got him to stop biting", he started bitting again. Now it was time for desperate measures because he was biting harder and then when I pulled him in he would bit down harder instead of letting go! So I had to switch it up a bit. I would pull him in and scold him then I put him down on the ground away from me, on his stomach which he hated, and gave him two spanks on his bottom. After doing all that he actually cried, which was the first time since I started tryng to get him to stop. I only needed to do all this about 4 times before he figured it out that I didn't want him chewing on my nipples. Wheww, he's going to be a difficult one with discipline. Yippee.

You can't really tell here, but this is the first day I noticed Jackson's bottom two teeth, around 6 months old. This week he got his top teeth too. I'm glad that I got the biting thing under control now.

Last day of 29...

So here is a picture of the last day I was 29. =( Where has the time gone? I can't believe I'm 30! Oh, wait, what did you say? What am I wearing? That would be my hospital scrubs! Yeah, I didn't notice that my 30th birthday fell on a Sunday and I forgot to request off. So, needless to day I worked on my 30th birthday! Yuck!

Jackson sleeping and playing

Jackson fell asleep in his car seat while he was playing with his toys. It was so cute that he still had a hold of the toy.

Best Mama

To start I promise I'm going to update my blog soon with some pictures of Christmas. One of my resolutions this year is to be better about keeping up with my blog. I so enjoy doing it and it frustrates me that I get behind. Anyways, here is the sweetest story I just had to get it in tonight so that I don't forget it.

Emma was doing the "pee pee dance". Come on now, you all know what it looks like. A little shake here, a little wiggle there. Anyways, I made her go to the potty even though she professed that she didn't need to go, well, interestngly enough she didn't go, which just annoyed me. I told her to stop doing the pee pee dance if she didn't need to go potty and she told me "I was just getting comfortable". Well, that isn't the cute part. About 5 minutes after I had fussed at her she said, "mama, I love you." And I said, "you do? why?" She said, without hesitation, "because your the best mama in the whole wide world", and then she proceded to give me the best and longest hug ever. I of course teared up a little and squeezed her so hard, knowing that some day, some day soon, she is going to think I'm stupid and I don't know anything at all. Man, I love her.

Being Silly

We were getting gas and Kevin was being so silly. He had me laughing so hard before I thought to get my camera out. He will probably be embarrassed that I am posting this on my blog, but I love showing his silly side.

Mema and Papa Presents

Mema and Papa came over and brought the kids presents. Emma got a bike for Christmas. We've since exchanged it for a bigger bike that fits her better. She really likes it but she's not very good at it. We need some nice weather to practice. And as a Christmas present Emma got all her grandparents and great- grandparents a calendar of her art work!

Merry Christmas! 2008

Christmas is so much fun with kids. Emma got a kitchen and a real digital kids camera from Santa. Although she saw the kids nativity scene first and she played with it for 10 minutes before we convinced her to open her other presents. I'm glad she liked it. So last year I learned a lesson about Christmas, take all the toys out of packaging before Christmas morning, which I did this year and it was great!! Emma could play with her toys immediately and I didn't have to fight with packaging. Well, this year I've learned another lesson for next year, wrap the presents before Christmas Eve. I think Kevin and I crawled into bed at 3am! Uggg. Luckily our kids aren't old enough to wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas, I think we got up at 9am, which was great. Of course Jackson didn't care if he had presents or not. He just liked chewing on the bows and wrapping paper.

Christmas Eve '08

Getting ready for Santa. Reindeer food. Cookies and milk for Santa. Reading The Night Before Christmas, Cranky baby ready for bed.