Road trip . . . going to Arkansas

I'm off to Arkansas tomorrow.

For those of you that know me, you may be laughing your a@@ off to hear me say I am driving to Arkansas by myself. Well, all right, that is not exactly true, I will have my friend GPS with me. But see if you still really know me, you know that THAT isn't much better. We just got the GPS this weekend and I am so tech-challenged, not sure if I will get it to do what I want or need it to do. As far as my navigational skills, well I have been known to get lost in my own town on occasion. Even so, I am not too nervous about the trip. I am going to help my mom pack and sort through things and just to visit with her. I will be childless for a whole week - This is a very, very, rare occasion. I am not one to go away for a Girls weekend. I'm lucky if I get a girls night out a couple times a year. I am nervous about leaving the boys of course and I know I will miss them tons, but it is exciting to think I won't be changing a diaper, or filling a sippy cup or driving the kids to school or practicing math facts for a whole week!

While I am away, my birthday will come and go. . . Leave me some birthday wishes, I know you silent (non-followers) are out there and are reading my blog and I love to see posts on my blog, so shoot me a line if you can.

For your entertainment and in honor of my birthday (yes, I am going to be 30 and I'm sticking with that) here is a little pic of me at umm, 30 years ago. No, I do not have any Eskimo heritage in me (I do get teased by my aunts who referred to me as the Eskimo baby)

OK, stop laughing, I may not have been the super cutest baby as a newborn, but i did get cuter, see (although what is up with the mohawk hair style - thanks mom)!

And this one, well its only been a COUPLE OF YEARS AGO (in my umm early 20's, yep, thats right!) and I haven't aged a bit, have I? And in case you are wondering, I did that "Glamour Shots" studio pics and had my picture taken as a present for Mike, no I don't go around dressed like that with a come hither look on my face! If it embarasses you, go ahead and close your eyes!

Happy Birthday to me in a few days! See you after spring break!

We are on the charts (Weight and height)

LOOK WHO's ON THE CHART!

We hit the chart! NO not the music charts. We aren’t musically inclined, we don’t have any new CD’s coming out. I’m talking the growth charts baby!! So although I have been super busy and so much is going on that I need to blog about, I just got to blog about this happy, happy event!!!
My favorite thing to blog about seems to be Trevor. He is my baby after all, and he does have his challenges with his Failure to Thrive, his speech delay his sensory issues, and all things being 2!

Friday was CRAZY BUSY! To start the day, we had an appointment with the endocrinologist. I didn’t have anxiety and worry over this appointment as a lot of appointments I do. After his last weight check with the nutritionist, I was feeling good about my little Trev.
It was a great meeting. She looked at him and said he looked healthy (his skin color looks good, he has some body fat on him, etc. ) Plus, she noticed his hair! It is growing (finally)!. He hasn’t had a hair cut in over a year and he only had a slight trim back when he was 19 months old.
Trevor weighed 24.6 lbs (that is with clothes on, but still even subtracting clothes, it’s a great weight!) He is now ON THE CHART at almost the 3rd percentile for weight! WOOH WOOH!! This is up from under 1 percentile in December!! For height, he is close to 15 percentile for height, which we’ve seen him climbing slowly, but steadily for several months.
I was so excited to have it confirmed that he really is growing. Not just the Ped, or the Gastroenterologist or the Pediatrician, but all of them have had appts with us in the past 1 ½ motnhs and even with having the flu, he has been doing well! The nutrionist does weigh him every 2 weeks and will measure height once a month, so I knew about how much he would be weight wise and height wise, but out of all the Dr.’s, having the endocrinologist tell me how good he is oidng seems to make it more real. This appointment made me so happy because he was sick in February with a cold and also the flu and he did have 3 ear infections from early Dec - Feb, so for him to maintain and even gain was wonderful.
I have been feeling good as the past couple of weeks his appetite has been ferocious! We did up his cyproheptadine to 2 times a day (half tsp) a few weeks ago, and are keeping up with his polyvisol with iron and his Cal-Ma Zinc liquid supplement . But I have stopped adding the proteinex in his juice.We will see the Dr in 6 months, and before we go for the visit, we will have another bone age scan done as well as blood work. Dr. tells me that since he is gaining and growing, there is no need to repeat the bloodwork at this time (being that his prealbium and Vitamin D was low and his phosphorus had been high back during his last bloodwork done in Dec). I am assuming that his growth hormone level is in the normal range now as well.I drove home with tears falling down my face. They were happy tears. Some days are just so hard, but then a day like this with a Dr. appointment like this makes everything seem like everything is good in the world!

A day to celebrate for Stephen

This blog is for my oldest son Stephen. He was an easy baby (even with him being a premie). He is a great kid, and makes me so proud. He is a little shy, quiet, sensative and super smart (straight A's or close to it) and I don't have many challenges with him, so I don't blog a ton about him.

I did want to share a picture of him; Saturday was a special day for Stephen, it was Reconcilliation time for the 4th grade religious Ed students. I was at a Spring Expo, so I was not at the church with him, but I helped him dress in his “Sunday Best” and he looked so handsome. He of course did not want to wear the vest, but for a little while longer, I am imposing my motherly influence on his attire for special occasions! (Now his hair, well that is a tough one, I am trying to let him make his own decisions, but his hair just is not looking very good lately)

He is growing up so fast. I am glad and blessed to have such a good kid. Stephen - May you always be blessed, and may your faith and relationship with the lord keep developing.

Happy Anniversary!

In honor of our anniversary, we went out to lunch and then shopping yesterday.


13 years ago today we were married (We met 17 years ago). The weather was awesome. I believe it got to 59 (and I was so relieved to have nice weather for March). the weather was nice enough we even took some pictures outside.



I don't have anything special planned for dear hubby who gets home in 2 hours. We had a nice day yesterday just him and me. (maybe I should go upstairs and at least fix my hair - I just threw it up in a clip this am). Wonder what kind of surprise (other than the card I got him) I can come up with in 2 hours.

Our Engagement picture

Our wedding day:

2005 (we dont get our picture taken together too often)

Mother Son night

Last week was Mother Son night at my boys' school. I am glad that my kids school does something for the mom's and sons. The girls have a Daddy daughter dance the week of Valentines and then March is for the Mom and sons.

this year we did laser tag. This is the third year of laser tag. The year Stephen was in kindergarten, we did a Mom and Son bowling night - it was fun. The next year, we did Mom and son night at the Children's Museum - it was fun too. Now for the third year, its laser tag, and I know the boys love it. However, after 3 years, I hope they do something different next year.

I love the mom Son night at Luigis. We get 2 games of laser tag (games only last about 5 mins, so that takes up about 15 mins). Its moms against the boys. (MOMS ALWAYS WIN!!:) ) I really do enjoy the laser tag and had a great strategy this year. The boys just love the bridgeway. So i sit below and to the back and I can see them on the bridge and also as they come down the stairs into the main area. Its a great vantage point and it makes it hard to sneak up on me. So while the boys are running all around, i tend to be stationary and just shooting them. Half the time, I don't even think they figured out who got them! This is one of those events that I am a bit competitive. Stephen tells me its not fair because we have Thomas's mom on our team. I ask, why is that not fair. He tells me its because she is a cop and it gives her an unfair advantage. Hmmm. I don't have the hear to tell him that while they may have good aim, us moms probably have strategy on our side. I don't know about the other moms, but I don't let my kids win on purpose once they are of school age. (I may not play super hard if i want to let them catch up, but I usually will try to do well).

Last year was the first year Ryan did it. The gun and vest must have weighed almost as much as he did. It was so hard for him to hold the gun and shoot and I don't think he understood you had to aim at the places on the gun and vest to get a hit, so i think he was just aiming for heads! This year he did much better (all those darned video games and WII games he's been playing probably).

While this was fun, it lasted a short time, then off to eat (pizza and salad). And after that, the dreaded Arcade time. I dread it as I don't find it fun. Stephen always is off with his friends. I don't find it to be such a bonding experience in the Arcade, so I am hoping they will do something that will create more mom son together time during the event. I can take the kids to the arcade any time and watch them play. And after they are all out of their tokens, it is the pain stakingly long process of picking out prizes. That is even worse than the arcade!

I think next year I should wear an "I survived the Mom Son Night at the arcade" t-shirt. I did not do any of the planning nor did I offer to volunteer in any way for this event at the school, so i guess I should just be happy and grateful to those that did that there was such an event. Its wonderful to see that they see its important to have Mom Son night and not just Daddy daughter and Mother daughter things!

Ryan on a skiing game

Ryan at the hoops

Stephen at another game

Ryan and his friend Georgie eatin pizza

Stephen and ryan waiting for thier tickets to spew out

another shooting game - stephen and friends

Stephen and me at ice cream time

Ryan and me after ice cream

Ryans Dr. visit with the neurologist

( I am just posting this although this Dr. visit was last week and I wrote this last week)

I took Ryan for a Doctor appointment, DURING THE SCHOOL DAY! I have never before taken my kids out of school for a Dr. or Dental appointment ever. But I was itching to get in and see another neurologist for Ryan.

This year has been such a struggle and I just want to figure out how to best help Ryan. The school doesn’t seem to “get him”. They don’t seem to understand his issues and how to re-direct him and how to do preventative things to keep him from straying from his work in school.
So, today we went to see another neurologist. I liked this doctor much better than the last one we saw. He seemed very knowledgeable, and he made eye contact with Ryan and actually talked to Ryan. He seemed to be interested in Ryan and took his time with us, didn’t get flustered by Trevor being my little Tasmanian devil in the room (zooming his car and falling all over the place in the tiny room).

I was a little anxious about this appt. Do I want the Dr. to diagnose him with something, or find nothing wrong. If he finds nothing wrong, then what do I do then about his behaviors at school that at times are a big problem, not just for his learning (and the other kids) but his social interaction with his peers. If he does find something wrong, I worry about my son being diagnosed with something and being “labeled” and being categorized in some way and being treated differently. Still he already has an IEP, and so he is already “labeled” with developmental delay. He has amazed us this year is how smart he really is. I always assumed that he just couldn’t figure out things, that it was too hard for him, but now I think he is smart, but just won’t stay tuned in long enough and isn’t interested enough and so does sloppy work, and WORKS VERY SLOWLY – not always because its difficult, but just because he doesn’t want to do it. Recently at a parent teacher conference, his services coordinator and his teacher tell me he is very bright and is very capable. I was surprised that they had figured this out. (I’m his mom and I was slow to catch on as to how much potential in academics he has). When asked at the Parent Teacher Conference “what should I work on at home with him” – it wasn’t “math facts”. It wasn’t “reading”, or “practice sight words” or sentence components. Nope, their answer was “behavior”. I’m not sure what changed this year, but back in October my happy friendly boy turned into a frustrated, unhappy, rebellious, volatile boy who sometimes could be a little mean spirited. It broke my heart to see my little boy who was my “mama’s boy” go from being so sweet and loving to being so NOT sweet and loving. Yes, he has always been one to be a bit argumentative, and very “spirited” and always on the move (can’t sit still ever!), and has had poor impulse control and is a bit immature for his age, but he was funny and friendly and social and good at building things, and wanting to please, and oblivious to peer pressure and is smart in his own way. He has lots of positive qualities about him that I hope others see.

So this doctor spent an hour with us. He gave me a questionnaire and it had 3 parts to it, and each part had about 8 questions in it. I was to circle all that applied to Ryan. Out of about 24 or so questions, I circled all but one. I didn’t even have to think about most of them, they were that obvious. This questionnaire was for ADHD. I was not surprised to have a Dr. talk about this as a possible diagnosis. In fact, I have been wondering how long it would be before Drs and the school would want to have him screened for ADHD. This Dr. has prescribed some medicine to help with Ryan’s focusing and attending issues. I am feeling good about this Dr. and hopeful that this medicine might help him focus and attend. Ryan would learn so much better if he wasn’t so easily distracted and day dreaming about things and have all these thoughts about other things in his head. We will also see about seeing a pshychologist to get a better understanding of Ryan’s strengths and weaknesses. I think this is a good plan. We will try the meds at the lowest dosage for a month and see if we see any difference in his school work. The teacher and service coordinator tell me how smart he is and he has an IEP to help him with his delay, yet they don’t really have strategies that have been totally successful to get him and keep him motivated and to stay on task. He will have days and even weeks where he won’t always do his work and acts out during school, and then there might be a day or days or even weeks where he is doing good mastering word wall words, going up on his math facts and is acting and playing well with his peers. Right now Ryan is doing well at school. When he isn’t sick and is sleeping enough, he does quite a bit better so this is a good time for him to be learning. Even so, he is still easily distracted and off task. In taking the medicine, it may even help him with his anger and frustration; so although the medicine is for focusing and attending, it might also help him behaviorally.

Next week will be the 3 year eval for Ryan; ITS ABOUT TIME! I am curious to see what the phychologist and OT have to say. I’ve had very little contact with them (or maybe not even any since the meeting I demanded back Dec 3rd!). I don’t get how I can live in such an awesome school district and yet, the school district is not providing for the special needs kids the way they are for the regular and gifted kids. They are very much lacking and letting the special needs kids down (and it is not just my opinion – the latest test results show how the special needs kids at our school are scoring below the other special needs kids in the district.

We’ve been to the Allergist (ruled out allergies), had blood tests done to check his immune system (as he is always sick), had a CT scan, and now have gone to two neurologists. I feel like we are finally going to start figuring out how to best help Ryan reach his potential at school and at home soon. Academically he has grown leaps and bounds the past year and a half and is on grade level for reading. So I am going to sit back and for a bit and try to enjoy the best things about Ryan and what he has been accomplishing lately. (I’ll relax at least until the 3 year eval next week!)

The latest on Trevor - Trevor's gaining some weight!

I acutally have written stuff for my blog a bit here and there, but you wouldn't know it from my blog. The couple of times I actually do start writing a post for the blog, I get interupted and never end up posting it. So, are you still intersted in what I had to say back in Feb and early March?? I had been (have been) busy getting ready for the children's resale, then taxes, busier with my tupperware business and now filling my freezer before my trip to Arkansas and getting Ryan's birthday party planned. So much is going on I wonder when things will ever slow down. I'm thankful that things for the most part are going well with the kids ( and having 2 special needs kids, this is saying a lot!)

A post for the blog that I wrote back in med February when Trevor was getting over a virus (it was posted to several of my facebook friends, so for some of you, you may have already read the top part) I added an update at the bottom.

An update on Trevor:
Many of you know that I’ve my hands full with Trevor ( my failure to Thrive baby) lately. It seems we’ve had quite a few Dr. appointments since October and I’m not sure how long ago I’ve updated my friends and family, so here’s an update!
We just had another visit from the nutritionist on Monday. We are supposed to see her 2 times a month, but we had not seen her in a month because of some kind of paperwork issue.
Trevor had been sick last week with the flu and has not been eating well at all since weeks before that. And, he has been having some texture issues again since around Christmas. So, I was not expecting much of a weight gain. He did gain 2 oz – he is now 22 lbs 14 oz (at 30 months). The brighter side of things is that he grew 1 ½ cms and the nutritionist said that 1 cm is average for a month. So he has steadily been going up height percentile. He started out at around 3% percentile a year ago, and has steadily gone up to where he is now at just over 15 percentile in height. This is good and bad. Good that he is growing taller, yah! But of course it makes the weight to height ratio worse as his weight is still under 3rd percentile for weight. The good news is he is almost on the chart for weight. I was so happy last month to learn that his body fat has come up. When the nutritionist first evaluated him for Early Intervention almost a year ago, he had only about 5% body fat. In January he did the yearly Eval for early intervention and measured him again and his body fat again is at 20%. That is awesome! I am so, so happy about this. Even though we aren’t seeing a lot of weight gain, he is doing better!

The test for CF (cystic fybrosis) was done last month and he does not have that. I haven’t talked to the Gastroenterologist yet (apt next week) but my Peds office called and said the Fecal Fat Quantification test came back fine. (This test the doctor ordered to make sure he is absorbing nutrients from what he eats and that it is not just passing through him). We’ve done most of the tests that the drs suggested and no obvious reasons have been found yet for his lack of growth and weight gain. (We’ve done a bone age scan, celiac test, allergy test, HGH test in which he was slightly low in the Human Growth hormone test and lots of bloodwork done) (Which reminds me, I need to ask my doctor about his Growth hormone stim test and see if they are planning to re-check that as he was under the accepted level for that).
We will see the endocrinologist in March and I’m guessing she may want more bloodwork to see where his phosphorus levels are at (the leverls were high at last blood test) as well as his Vitamin D (it was low) and prealbum levels (those were low too) When we saw the Dr. back in October, she basically told us he was malnourished based on his bloodwork.

We’ve been working hard to get him to eat more protein and are supplementing his juice with liquid protein and adding more Vitamin D and Calcium Mag supplements, which does seem to be helping. But, he is getting real picky again and having texture issues and spitting out food that aren’t smooth. Our nutritionist is thinking he be having some reflux issues again as we’ve been off his reflux medicine since September and maybe we should put him back on Prevacid, so I’ll be talking to the gastroenterologist about that.

Since I wrote the above post, Trevor has been steadily eating better. He hasn't been sick since this post back mid february. He is eating much better now, guzzling his chocolate soy milk (with oil) and is not spitting out the foods as much as he had been. Our gastroenterologist dr. upped his dose on the cyproheptatine ( appetite stimulatant)to take it 2 times a day. We continue to give himt he polyvisol and CAl MAg supplements every day. I am so happy to say his hair is growing, so that along with his height is a good thing. The last weight check he was 23 lbs 4 oz and i was excited to see him over 23 lbs. He had gained 10 oz in 3 weeks. Our nutrionist says 8 oz for a month is what would be expected, so he is doing good right now. I just hope I can keep him healty for a bit! We will see the endocrinologist this coming week so stay tuned!