Spring Break?

Wow, spring break as a parent is sooooo much different than it was as a child!  I hope my kids are having fun with their leisurely days.

Yesterday we went to a local water park in the morning - Braden & Brian won free passes at the elementary school bingo night.  We had a good time at the water park, but I'm glad we didn't pay for it - otherwise I'd feel like I really need to get my money's worth out of it, and we'd have to stay all day.  But really, a couple hours was perfect.

Braden got really brave - even though he's not a strong swimmer, he wanted to walk across the floating lilypads.  It's a series of 4 large, anchored circles with a rope above them.  You hang onto the rope, and hop from lilypad to lilypad.  I stood near where he was in case he needed rescuing (the water was over his head there), but he did super - and he did it 3 times, right in a row!

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much he's growing up.  And then there's times like tonight, when he's twirling his pajamas around instead of putting them on his body, and he whacks me in the eyeball with the sleeve of his pjs.  Those moments, I'd gladly trade.

Here's hoping I survive spring break, intact!

Tiny Tot

Ruby is such a big kid these days - but she's still such a tiny tot! This picture cracked me up - she looks even smaller than she really is!

I don't think I'm getting this soccer mom thing right -

I just backed over a soccer ball with the mini van in the garage, when I took Braden to school.

Boring blog lately, eh?

I try really hard not to cross-blog & write about the same things here as on Lily's adoption blog. But that's where most of the excitement is these days, so it's creating a drought around here.

I mean, who wants to hear about how Braden was sick all last week with a fever & a cough? So the week after Karly missed a week of school, then Braden was home for a week. Why can't they be sick at the same time? And it's only going to get worse with 4 kids. It's not like they'll suddenly all be sick at the same time to make it more convenient.

Karly had a follow-up toe appointment today - it's looking very good.

Ruby is in high demand these days - she still has her regularly scheduled birth-to-3 therapies, and now the school is sending out the troops to evaluate her: PT, OT, speech, early childhood teacher, school nurse, school psychologist - everyone wants to meet her. We're not enrolling her until fall, so we need something to fill the gap after her birthday in May, so tomorrow I'm taking her for a speech evaluation in Green Bay, and hopefully they'll take her on for the summer.

So, we're staying busy - and at the same time, gathering stuff together for our trip to Eastern Europe.  Oh!  Anyone want to help me paint a bedroom over spring break?

Hey! Look! The sun is back!

3-21

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

Cookie or Cake?

Brades has been home sick all week - still running a fever this morning. Lots of TV time - and we're all falling in love with The Muppet Show all over again.


I was reminded that a couple weeks ago, this little video really had Braden singing - which cracked me up, because my mom used to sing this song to us when we were little:

Oops! Sorry! The video isn't online anymore :(

It was Ernie singing "If I woulda known you're coming, I'd've baked a cake," to Cookie Monster.

Brades Update

Last week Friday was Bingo Night at Braden's school; Brian & Braden went and I stayed home with the girls. They won one of the biggest prizes of the night! They won 4 day passes to a local indoor waterpark (it's in a hotel). Also included in the envelope was a package of Webkinz stickers!

Braden was so excited; he wanted to go to the waterpark right away, but I think we're going to try to go on spring break. But Monday after school, we saw one of Karly's former teachers, and she said, "Braden, I heard you won a big prize at bingo! What did you win?" and my dear son yelled out, "Stickers! WEBKINZ stickers!"
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Braden loves music, and he's always turning on the CD player in his room or the kitchen. Lately, we've been listening to lots of Disney music - and certain Beauty and the Beast songs are now permanently stuck in my head. The song, "Gaston" plays in my head while I'm sleeping.

There's a part in the song where Gaston sings,

When I was a lad I ate 4 dozen eggs every morning so I could grow large
Now that I'm grown I eat 5 dozen eggs, so I'm roughly the size of a barge!

Tonight, though, Braden made a comment about "Recyclable large" - that what he thinks the lyric is, instead of "so I could grow large." Hysterical!
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One of Braden's latest & greatest is making fun cause & effect creations - and it's all because of a music video Brian showed him the other day.

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Last, but not least, Braden's current obsession is creating stop-motion animation videos. His dad set him up with a webcam and some free software and all the rest has been Braden's imagination. Here is the first one he created; it's very short and there's no sound:

And here's one where he directed his dad making lunch (which consists of his current favorites: a homemade "uncrustable" peanut butter and jelly sandwich, raisins, and milk):

He keeps making more and more videos, and we've been putting them up on a YouTube page if anyone wants to see more.

Ruby's New Trick

is giving me panic attacks.

She's CLIMBING THE OVEN.

She stands on the drawer & holds onto the handle - the top of the oven door. This trick doesn't get pictures taken, this one gets immediate removal and time-outs.

Three times today - the third time, while the skillet from grilled cheese sandwiches was still sitting on the stovetop. Luckily she was busy holding on & trying to grab at things. Yet.


Nana? Please keep her safe while we're gone.

Karly Update

Yesterday, Karly & I ventured out into The Fog (Seriously, it's starting to feel like we live in a Stephen King novel around here) to go to Children's in Milwaukee.  This was her 3rd doctor appointment in 3 days!

Monday, Karly went to see the podiatrist - who removed Karly's big toenail right there on the spot.  Good-bye & good riddance!  Hopefully it doesn't grow back this time.  It was iffy if it would grow back last time, since it was so damaged by infection, but of course her plucky little toe grew another nail.

Tuesday I picked Karly up from school early for a dentist appointment.  And, since her dentist is a half-hour away, it's never just a quick visit.  We have to get away from the pediatric dentist and find a nice local person (Sara P, if you're reading this, I need the name of your boss!)  She did really well, though - and no cavities!

Yesterday, we didn't even have time for a partial day of school.  We headed out in the morning for our early afternoon appointment for a new patient visit to the endocrine clinic.  Remember how we recently found out Karly has very high cholesterol?  Well, now we're addressing it.  The doctor and clinic were very nice - Karly's actually very healthy, eats well and is a good weight for her height.  Since there's not a lot of dietary changes to make, we're starting medication now and then making a couple little tweaks (more fiber).

After our clinic visit, we went to the lab for bloodwork, and the Skywalk deli for a snack.  As we were leaving the deli, we ran into a familiar face, Dr. K, Karly's pediatric oncologist!

I told Brian later that Dr. K knew right away who Karly was, and was calling her by name.  He said sure he knew her - she's had an extremely rare cancer and he's seen a lot of Karly!  Really, though, I prefer to run into doctors and have them say hello in that "you-look-vaguely-familiar-but-I-don't-know-your-name" way.

Today, Karly's home sick.  She came down with a cold yesterday, and sniffled all the way home & all evening (& half the night).  She's wiped out & miserable, but resting now.  We're not too surprised - dr appointments are stressful - especially when they're new and you don't know what to expect. BUT, luckily - they all went well!

A Little Rubes Update

Ruby is changing every day, even her little face is losing its baby-ish look, and she's looking like a very teeny preschooler.

Her imaginative play continues to just blow us away - tonight after dinner, she & I sat and played with her Little People castle set for an hour or so.  For a while, she was the Mama Unicorn, and I was the Baby Unicorn.  After kicking a ball back & forth for a while, the Mama fell over & Ruby said, "Ow!" and then she repeated that multiple times - falling over, saying, "Ow."

So, I thought I'd play her game.  Baby Unicorn fell over, and I pretended to cry.  Ruby looked at me like I was out of my mind!  Then she scooted closer to me - and tousled my hair.  It was so darn cute, she did it again several times - I'd fake cry, and she'd rub the top of my head.  It was so sweet, and so adorable!
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Ruby didn't nap yesterday, instead she emptied her dresser and played in her room. It might seem that maybe she's old enough to skip her nap, but she's really not - without a nap, she lurches around the house like a drunken sailor, it's actually dangerous. Her sleeping habits have gotten worse and worse in the past few weeks. At night, when I go to bed, I have to put her back into her bed - she's always either on the floor or under her bed (which I know, is technically 'on the floor' as well). Every other night, she's been up, crying, in the middle of the night. We're lucky if she sleeps until 6:00 am now; she used to get up around 7:00.

It was really starting to concern me - we'll be leaving the country for a couple weeks, I can't have her refusing to sleep while we're gone! She (and my mom) would be so miserable!

So this morning, Brian put her crib back together. The toddler bed was a good attempt, but she just wasn't ready yet. At first, I felt bad about it, like I wasn't giving her a fair shot, but after talking to some friends, I'm fine with it. We tried it, it didn't work, we'll try it again, when she's a little older. For now, she just really needs the comfort of her crib.

I tell ya, it was a really hard decision, though - because we want so much to treat her like our other kids, and give her every chance to prove herself.  And yet, we still have to treat her like an individual, her own little unique self.

That Toe Again!

Remember last spring when Karly's damn toe was infected?  Well, since then, the nail did grow back in, but it was damaged & growing upwards.

This morning, instead of heading to school, Karly slept in a little later than her normal school day wake-up of 6:00am.  We were off to the (thankfully, local!) podiatrist to check on that toenail.  Her advice?  Remove it again, and damage the nail bed so it won't grow back again.

And since it's an in-office procedure, she did it right away!  Karly was a little nervous (especially about the shots in her toe to numb it) but afterwards, she did great.  She rested in her chair with her eyes closed and it took the doc less than 10 minutes to remove the nail & clean up her toe.

So Karly's home from school for the rest of the day, since her toe is numb & might start aching later on.  But for now, she's just fine.  Here's hoping the nail doesn't grow back this time!

Hats

Yesterday was crazy hair or hat day at Karly's school.  Just to break up the tedium of the winter, the schools often have these spirit weeks (and the elementary schools have Wacky Wednesdays with different themes).

Karly chose to wear a cute baseball hat she owns, it's pink & says, "Hershey's."  But after school, it was really bothering me that Karly was walking around wearing a hat.  It took me a little bit to figure it out, because it's not like we don't allow hats in the house - Braden's often running around with something ridiculous on his head.

But after the second or third time I caught a glimpse of her walking by, wearing a hat - I figured it out.  It reminded me of when she had cancer.  When she lost her hair - even her eyebrows! - and she hated it so much, she wouldn't even look at her bald head.  She slept with hats on, just in case she went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so she wouldn't accidentally see her bald head in the mirror.  (And I have to say - she actually has a nice shaped head!)

I tell ya, though - I sure don't miss those hats.

Ruby at Story Time

We went to the library story time today; we hadn't been there since last year.  Ruby did super amazingly well!  I mean, she does great at her gymnastics class and her music class, but those were routine week after week.  Today, she did the movements to songs she'd never heard before.  She followed along with the librarian and the other kids - Just like a typical 3-year-old.

Well, I guess she's really an almost-3-year-old, since she'll be 3 in May.  It was so awesome how she fit in so well with the group of littles - listening, singing, dancing, coloring her picture - and she now knows the movements to the song "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".

03.03.10

Today is the day!

ACT NOW - pledge your support to eliminate the demeaning use of the r-word. For more information, visit www.r-word.org and sign the pledge to stop using the r-word.

When it's too quiet

Friday night as dinner time was approaching, Brian said, "Whose house is this - it's too quiet..." Ruby was playing nicely in the living room, but Karly & Braden had both vanished upstairs to their rooms. I liked the unusual silence, so I wasn't about to go find out what they were up to. Ha!

What I had entirely forgotten was about an hour earlier, I had given Braden a stack of alphabet stickers. Old stickers I had bought for scrapbooking years before - before he was even born. I figured if I hadn't used them yet, I never would. It completely left my mind that he was armed with stickers until he came racing downstairs, so very excited, wanting me to come and see!

He had labeled the doors upstairs - "Braden2!" and "Bathroom 1 3" and "Mom & Dad 90000000" and "Bathroom2" - in a variety of mismatched colors & sizes of stickers.

I couldn't stop giggling - it was creative and cute (and had contributed to our hour of silence!)

Then, I helped him remove all the stickers, because I didn't want them to ruin the wood of the doors. He was so sad and forlorn, so we put them back onto paper to be reused - and let him keep his name on his door.

After all, he put it there himself!