Check up...

Little Man had his cardiology check up today. Drum roll please...Everything looks good. There is no progession of the stenosis this year from last year. So no better, but no worse. So that is a good thing. We just keep doing his yearly check ups for now.

Busy still...

In the previous post, I talked about the busyness of life and all Little Man's health issues since the Staph infection. Well, it strikes again. After the last ear infection and Strep throat at the same time, it looks like we will be back at the doctor tomorrow. Fatigued and running a fever of 101. It's been two months since that Staph infection and we have yet to have Little Man healthy for more than about a week and a half at a time. Fun, fun. Mini-Me is sick too.

I really would like to runaway for just a few days and sleep. Do absolutely nothing but sleep. Is that possible?

I doubt it, but man is that a lovely thought.

Busy...

Life has been extremely busy these last few days and doesn't show signs of being less busy for a few more days.

Monday...Well, Monday's are Monday's. Then add an ECoG test on top of that. I have been diagnosed with Meniere's Disease. So much fun for me. I knew I was dizzy, nauseas, echoing in my ears for a long time, just didn't realize they were all related. So now I am on a low, and I mean LOW sodium diet. And I return to the doctor on Friday to review results and get more medication to take. Little Man comes home from school with a red, swollen, sore elbow.

Tuesday...Took Little Man to the doctor, because I knew his elbow was infected. Can't take a chance with infections due to his heart condition. So we spent on hour at the doctors office yesterday morning to discover he has a Staph infection. First, squeezing the infection out of the elbow. Can you say, OUCH? Blood was drawn from one arm for CBC and sedimentation rate. Doctor called Little Man's cardiologist. After that call, more blood had to be drawn from the other arm for a blood culture, to see it the infection had gone septic. Left knowing we might have to go on IV antibiotics, an appointment for tomorrow, and horse pill antibiotics to take 3 times a day. Then Little Man could not go back to school, due to having to monitor his behavior. In the midst of the doctor's office visit, my Meniere's decided to make a visit. Dizzy, nausea, had to lay down. Why in the middle of Little Man's appointment. Squeezed more infection out last night. Can you say, GROSS?

Wednesday...Back to the doctor's office at 8:30 this morning. Infection was not found in the blood. So that is a good thing. Still able to squeeze infection out of the elbow. The elbow is still red, but not blood red like yesterday. Swollen, but not as bad. And still tender. Meniere's set in again, UGH. Left doctor's office this morning with another appointment for tomorrow morning. IV antibiotics is still a potential. Will lance the elbow and clean out as much of the infection as possible tomorrow. Trying to give the antibiotic a fighting chance of catching up to the infection.

Tomorrow...We'll see at the pediatric office.

Friday...Back to the ENT for Meniere's.

Doctors are great, but sometimes, do you ever feel like you are just seeing them WAY to much.

Spina Bifidia Occulta

So, I would assume most people remember Little Man's journey through diagnosis, treatment, and recovery of his tethered spinal cord. Well, at the time I knew it was related to spina bifidia, but I didn't know how. And of course, if you don't ask, doctors don't tell you a whole lot.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, God introduced me to a complete stranger whose daughter has spina bifidia as well. Sophie has the lipo form of spina bifidia. They, like us, did not know until they started seeing signs that something was just not right with their daughter. Sophie's form of SB is more severe than Little Man's, but still not the worst form. The form of spina bifidia most people think of is the most severe, which is the one where you see the hole in the back. Where as Little Man has the least severe (Spina Bifidia Occulta) of all the forms, Praise God. Anyway, as we talked about the tethered spinal cord and the releasing surgery and all that kind of stuff. She asked who our neurosurgeon was and all those related questions. I also told her that I was confused because they released us, but yet there is the possibility that the cord could re-tether, especially during periods of rapid growth.

So she proceeded to give me information on a SB clinic at UAB where the spina bifidia kids go and they see all their doctors in one day. So I am contacting them to find out what we need to do to get Little Man into that clinic. The main advantage to being in the system is that they see him yearly, so if we ever see signs/symptoms of re-tethering he already has a group of doctors. We don't have to go back through everything we went through previously. So we'll see...

Interesting facts about spina bifidia:
1) It is hereditary. I was told don't worry about it, your other children are fine. So when Little Man gets married and he and his wife are considering children she will need to take additional folic acid supplements months before conceiving. SB occurs within the first 28 days of in utero development.
2) It is more prevalent in people of Irish, Whales, etc decent. We are. The geneticists don't understand the correlation yet, but they know there is on.
3) 87% of all spina bifidia patients have blue eyes. Little Man has blue eyes. Yet again, the geneticists don't know the correlation, but there is one some how. That doesn't mean if you have blue eyes you have SB, it means that 87% of SB positive people have blue eyes. Just want to clarify.

I'm 5

So Little Man turned 5 on September 28th. I just posted the pictures of his favorite gifts. First off, he loved his new shoes. Which by the way, he asked for. I thought that a little odd, but hey, he is my kid.
Another one of his favorite gifts was his five dollar bill from his Uncle Scott. He says he is going to buy a red cup, but he hasn't yet.
Then his Mamaw got him Mario Party for his DS. I have to say, Mario Party is a pretty fun game. Little Man and I play it a lot.
Then of course the cake. Which the ice cream store messed up, so Mamaw and I did a little re-decorating of the cake. Little Man like it much better when we were done with it.

First Day of Preschool

Okay, so this post is almost two months behind the first day of preschool, but I still wanted to post it.

This was Little Man's first day. Which by the way, he loves preschool. The first week, he was upset because there was no school on Saturday. I'm sure that won't be the case next week when we hit Kindergarten, but I can always hope.

So much to post...

Just some pictures of the kids. They are growing up quick.

Here's Mini-me and Little Man. Mini-me turned 3 October 5th, Little Man turned 5 September 28th. I've got birthday pictures to post, if I make it that far.

Mini-Me, knowing he is cute.

Little Man hamming it up for the camera. He has now entered that phase of goofy smiles. Hope it doesn't last long.

Kid-O and Little Man being silly.

Kid-O, beautiful. We're hoping for awkward, not embarassing teenage years, then into a beautiful women inside and out.

Columbia Zoo

We went to Columbia the day before Skippy's appointment to visit the college, so that we could take all the kids to the zoo. I have to say the Columbia zoo is very nice. Here are a few of the pictures.

Skippy and Mini-Me on the Carousel.

Kid-O feeding the birds. By the way, I am scared to death of birds. I have this irrational fear they are going to pluck my eyes out. I know silly, but go figure, me silly.

The sleeping Grizzly.

The kids rugrats. If they look wet, it's because they are. We got rained on at the zoo. We were very wet by the end of the day. That is the great thing about the zoo though, if it rains, they are still open and the animals are still there.

The pretty elephant. Look at those ears.

Young Love

So, I promised the greatest love story ever. Well, here it is. This first picture is CutiePie. A beautiful little four year old daughter of some friends of the family.

This is, of course, Little Man.

The friend's family joined our family again this year for the July 4th celebration. Little Man, and CutiePie knowing each other began to play together. They were almost inseparable and played the day away. After the fireworks, it was time to part ways for the evening. When we got back to the house, and were bathing the boys. I asked Little Man, "Do you like CutiePie?". His response, "As much as my best friend Jonathan." Well, those of you who know Little Man and Jonathan, you know that Little Man really misses his best friend. All the while, the father of CutiePie was saying good night to CutiePie and CutiePie asked, "Daddy, do we have J____'s phone number?"
Then Sunday morning comes, and Little Man comes looking for daddy to see if he has already put on his cologne. Daddy said, yes, but Little Man asked for some anyway, so daddy gave him a little cologne. Then on the way out the door, Little Man was putting on his red flip flops because they matched his clothes. Then he stopped midway through, and said, "CutiePie has already seen those, I will wear these instead." Which was his orange and black flip flops. All the while at the friend's house CutiePie was getting all dolled up for church. Including, lip gloss and body mist. The funny part is she raised her arms, and said, "Mom, do the pits too."

At the church, Little Man and CutiePie sat beside each other to eat their breakfast and then lined up to go upstairs for music time. Well, a girl was in line behind CutiePie and had her hands on CutiePie's shoulders, and Little Man happened to turn around and noticed, and he proceeded to push the girls hands off CutiePie and put his arm around her waist, as if to say she is mine. Then we all went out for lunch and of course they had to sit beside each other. Little Man ate cottage cheese because CutiePie was eating cottage cheese. It was quite humorous to watch these two four year olds. We decided that we just needed to go ahead an arrange the marriage now, since we know they each come from "good stock" and the dowry would be a Bible.

When we left Little Man last night, he was on his way back to church to see CutiePie. We understand from Mamaw that Little Man got CutiePie's number. Okay, so maybe it is not the greatest love story ever written, but you have to admit it is quite funny. We laughed ourselves to tears. I hope you enjoy this story as much as we did.

A funny...

This evening while we were eating dinner, we were doing simple math with Little Man. Two plus two is 4, 3+4=7, 2+8=10, etc. Well,he does excellent with those, so we have been moving on to larger numbers. Anyway, I asked him 10 plus 1 equals and his answer was eleven, then I asked him 8+3. His answer was so funny to us...He looked at his hands and said "I only have two left". Then the hubby asked him how would you figure that one out, Little Man's response, "I could use my toes."

Ah, to be four again. They truly are priceless.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

So, what's a boy to do when his fifteen minutes of fame in life is at the age of 2?

Notice in the background, Little Man is flirting with a pretty 7 year old girl. He obviously likes them older and pretty. If you double click on the picture you can see Little Man better and my comments.

Question of the Day...

The words of a four year old...

"What happens to you when you die?"

"What happens to the gray stuff in your head when you died?"

Little Man's questions never stop amazing me.

Not Again...

Potty Training...I hate it.

Kid-O was horrible, it took three years to fully potty train her.

Little Man, very good, just a few short weeks.


Mini-Me, right now, he is not cooperating at all. We will see, today starts week two of underwear only. Lots of prayer for Mommy is required.

Alabama Snow

So Sunday, the kids got to play in a little bit of snow. They went out while it was snowing, which was probably for the best because it melted pretty quick. We got about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of snow. Not quite enough for a snowman; however, there was enough for them to try and throw snowballs at me through the glass door.

One person snowball fight.

Little Man looks cold.

Just copying his sister. That is what he does.

Chicken Pox

So this is Kid-O's lot this week. Chicken Pox. Fun. Fun. This is exactly why I hated that the government of Alabama at least forced me to vaccinate my children for chicken pox so that they can attend school. If they are going to get chicken pox anyway, natural immunity is always better.

The fabulous new is that due to the fact that she has had the vaccine, she does not feel even remotely sick; therefore, she is running around the house, but can't go to school. Also due to having had the vaccine, the case is a little bit milder, but she will be out of school longer because it will take longer for the pox to dry up. Great.

To top it off, Little Man has pox on him as well. Not as bad as Kid-O, but he still has them.

Getting closer...

Here is the most recent picture of Little Man's bedroom. I got it painted, and his new bed quilt came in yesterday. It is corduroy, like his red curtains. I have to plug Pottery Barn kids though. The quality of their stuff is great and the colors always match. Everything in all of the kids rooms came from there, ordered at very different times, but the colors match. Makes decorating easy, a bit expensive, but easy. I still have the red stripes to do in Little Man's room also. I will get to those after I get all the rooms painted.

Kid-O's rug finally came in Monday. So I can finally get her room painted. We went yesterday and got the paint for her room, rosewood pink and chocolate pudding is the brown. These are almost the exact colors of the pink and brown polka dot area of her rug. She is excited and I am ready to get started. Hopefully today, we will see.

Ronald McDonald House

The hubby, Little Man and I are headed to the Ronald McDonald house this evening. That way we don't have to leave here at 3am to be a UAB at 5:30am. I will try to post several time tomorrow to let you all know how everything is going. I have high hopes for internet around the hospital. I know there is internet at the Ronald McDonald house.

I just ask for continued prayers for Little Man and the guiding of the doctors hands by God.

I Got too it...

I told you I would try to get to uploading pictures of the scrapbook room, now that it is organized. We have been back to the doctor twice this week. Once to the ENT to have Little Man's tubes removed, which they did not remove one, because it is still slightly attached to the eardrum. Then back to the sick doctor, as we call him around here, because Little Man spiked a fever of 103.4 yesterday evening with a sore throat. The quick strep test, and flu test came back negative, but his white blood cell count is high (indicating bacterial) so they proceeded on with chest x-rays, to make sure it was not pneumonia, due to his surgery on Monday. They would not proceed if, it was pneumonia. Anyway, those came back negative also, so we are waiting on the results of the overnight strep culture.

So anyway, back to the point of this post. Ah the scrapbook room, which I have yet to use. Too busy. Imagine that. So when you walk down the stairs, the first thing you see is the old desk with the kids' computer. The hubby still has to run phone line, so they can play webkinz. You ask about the door behind the desk. Well, the answer is that is the door that used to go our to the garage, but the hubby and I closed it off and put a new hole in the wall in the laundry room. You ask Why? Well, that door was in a very bad location. You could not park both cars in the garage unless you wanted heo one vehicle next to the door to be beaten to death by the door. So we changed the way you come in and out of the house from the garage. We still have to finish out the hole, and put in a nice door, not the bi-doors into the laundry, because of the heating and cooling. That is for another time. I digress again.

To the left is the laundry room, to the right is the scrapbook room, with the weight bench, which I love because I can get back to working out. It has been years since there was no room in the old house for the weight bench.

Then on you right is the scrapbook desk area. The desk runs the length of the wall, which is really nice. About six to seven feet. I have plenty of room to work.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, with the digression at the beginning.