Blustery Fall Day

 Super windy day, so we went down to the beach to check out the waves. They were AWESOME!

DUH!

Today, I remembered to bring Ryan to preschool. It seems like such a silly thing to forget, but last Friday, I forgot that my baby goes to school, and brought him an hour late.
WOW! Great Mom!

A new year

Obviously, it has been an extremely long time since I have blogged. Life has just been life, and has kept me busy. Many things that I love, the blog being one of them, has had to sit on the back burner until I find the time to get to it.

We have been having such a great summer! We took a family trip up north (Michigan), got an in ground pool in our backyard, and I got to spend some time with Amaya (just Amaya) on a trip to Chicago.

School started this week. Amaya is in 4th grade, and Jake in 1st. Ryan will be starting pre school next week, as he is a "big boy" now. It is so crazy to think that all of my kids will be in school!! Sad, but OH SO exciting!! So far J and A are loving everything about school! The kids, their teachers, and eating hot lunch. Amaya is NOT a fan of getting up early, but she will have to live with that! Jake just jumps out of bed and gets ready. I love that!

I will be finding a little more time to do some of my "things", so you will be seeing more of me on here!

I has been forever......just a random post to get something on here.

It is spring, the weather has been fair, so we need to get outside. I bought a trampoline yesterday. I was a promise to Amaya when she was going through everything and wasn't able to jump, run, etc...be a kid. I would have promised her the world, but a trampoline it is. So today we will be putting it together. The kids are sooo excited!!

4 eyes?

We got a letter from the health department about a month ago stating that Amaya had failed two different vision tests and that we need to have her screened in a more formal manner. (I laugh as I type this because with everything that has been going on around here, I have let this sit on the back burner for a little while) At the time that I got it, I thought that she really probably does need glasses, but that we could wait a little to get them, as we have had a ton of $$ go out lately.
I was talking with Amaya about her vision tests, and she was telling me that she asked them if they intentionally made the letters blurry (laughing again). Poor girl!
Anyways, I took her last week to get the exam and to order her new glasses.
We picked them up today and she was so excited with the fact that she could read things better and that everything looked so much better. (laughing again) While walking out of the optical place, she said, "I love my new glasses".
She is so cute in them too!!

It's Negative!!!!!!!

Dr. Forness called the other day to let us know that Ryan's MRI came back negative!!!! Phew! He said that he must have been "over reading" the xray, and with his history, that he is still happy that he had it done. Ryan continues to limp, so he is going to have us get some lab work to rule out some arthritis problems.....I am going to delay on this, as I think that he (and I) have had enough medical stress lately.

The cannels came out!

The cannels came out....

Ryan has been sick with cold like sympotms the last couple of days. I have been teaching him to blow his nose. Tonight, after he blew his nose, he repeatedly told me that the cannels came out. I kept asking him, "what", but he just kept repeating it.
Then I remembered: I have been teaching him to "blow- like you are blowing the candles out (like on a cake), but through your nose".
He has apparently taken that as he is blowing candles out of his nose!

Will you hold my thumb?

Today Ryan went for his MRI. It has been rescheduled 4 times in the last 2 weeks, two of those times they moved it up for us, one was cancelled because Ryan has been sick, and of course, the last one we kept! He had to be there at 8am and the procedure was to begin at 930. Scott was not able to go with me because of the last minute schedule thing, so I had to go alone, with Ryan. I really didn't want to go alone, but there is so much going on with everyone right now, that I didn't really have any other options.
 I was anxious the whole way up. I know, an MRI is no big deal, but they had to sedate him because of his age. He is only 3, and there is no way that he would be able to lie in a tube that makes a ton of very loud noises, for an hour. Let alone, not be scared.
I am a nurse and know what to expect. Heck, I do this to people, even kids! However, it is a completely different thing being on the patient side of things. They are so nice there and did SUCH a great job, but still, I was anxious!!!

Ryan with his "lotion" on. (numbing cream-EMLA for the IV start)

We hung out, watched TV, played trucks, then 2 nurses, and 2 other women came in. Two nurses for the IV start, and the others to distract and play with Ryan. He did an awesome job!

After the IV start, he wasn't that happy, but he really did get over it very fast. We kept blowing bubbles, and he would swat them with his hands, popping them.

When he couldn't hold the bubble container, he got a little sad, and asked "will you hold my thumb"? So sad, it is awesome how kids accept situations, and make the best of them.

Then after a while, we went down the hall to the MRI room. He didn't want to get on the "other" bed, so they said that I could just hold him. The peds anesthesiologist came out with his syringes of meds, and administered them right then and there! Diprovan, (the Michael Jackson drug) was the drug that they used. So there I am, just standing in the hall, holding Ryan in my arms. He was sitting up, not lying in my arms, so when they gave the drug, he just lightly fell down into my arms more, and became unresponsive.What a horrible feeling! To just watch him like that was the worst thing ever! They helped me lower him to the cart, I gave him a kiss, then they wheeled him into the MRI room.

He looked so small with that huge machine, so helpless. I was only allowed to watch for a few seconds, then went back to the quiet, empty room. The nice women helped me get back there, but on the way they were trying to comfort me, offering me coffee, etc. but all I said, was, "If I talk, I am going to cry", so they left me alone and.....I shut the door, and cried.I still can't believe that I cried, that was so unexpected!After an hour, they wheeled him back in. He was trying to roll a little bit on the cart, but didn't have a lot of coordination, so I just rubbed his back and loved on him. He recovered quickly and didn't cry or anything! I asked him if he went to sleep while at the hospital, but all he says is, "I slept in your bed" (which he did last night). So, it is nice that he doesn't remember any of it. Even after showing him pictures, he says he doesn't want to go in the dark hole because it is scary. Then I tell him that he already went in it, and he looks at me like I am crazy!Anyways, it was a hard morning for me, which is crazy, because he wasn't affected by it at all. Oh well, the joys of motherhood. Now, we just wait for Forness to call with the results.

Ryan, recovering while watching TV. It is funny how he is having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

Ryan back to his normal, active self. It didn't take much time at all for him to recover!

Ryan Joe

We have been working on brushing teeth with Ryan lately, but I don't think he quite has the hang of it yet!!

Sigh...

So, Ryan has been limping for like 2-3 months. He had no trauma, injury, bruise, swelling or redness to think that he hurt himself.
He went in for a well check last Thursday with Dr. Galvin, so I told him what has been going on, and with Amaya's history of this type of problem, he ordered some xrays and blood tests. His office called us and said that everything came back negative, and that if we wanted to be referred to an orthopedic specialist, to let them know. So, I called back, and of course, got that referral. Two days later, today, we got in to see Dr Forness (same ped orthopedic as Amaya). He checks Ryan's range of motion.....limited, as his L leg won't cross over the midline just like Amaya's wouldn't. Then he looked at the xrays that I brought from Hackley and tells me that he thinks he sees something on there in the L femur head. "It looks a little white, patchy, but I'd like to repeat the xray, and get a peds radiologist to read it".
Okay, repeat xray done, Forness comes back in to the room, and says that the radiologist agrees with him, and there is something going on, and that it is an abnormal xray!! Ryan needs to have further testing, which means an MRI. He will have to be sedated for it, so will require some preop stuff at his primary care doctor, then will need an peds anesthesiologist for the procedure....ugh!!
I am sad, mad, and confused. I don't understand. How can 2 people in the same family have Perthes', same leg/bone, etc. I wonder if it isn't something else, congenital, hereditary, or something else. Forness says that we will talk about it after the MRI, and that more blood tests will need to be done. Amaya had 2 of the many lab tests come back abnormal. They were blood clotting studies, they were elevated, so maybe that has something to do with all of this...who knows...?
Sigh, here we go again!!!

Gardens??

Ohhh, the gardens.....

I have never been to the Meijer Gardens before, and I just can't believe it! It was awesome, so beautiful, the kids loved it, and we will definitely be back....and soon!!! I ended up buying a family pass so we can go whenever we want.

The end of summer?

I have to say that we had a pretty good day today. I feel like the summer is coming to an end, but we haven't been able to do a lot this year, because it has been so unseasonably cold! We hung out at home this morning, then went to Fredric Meijer Gardens in the afternoon. THEN, we went to the SL beach after dinner. I feel like I am jamming in all of the stuff that I wanted to do this summer into the last few weeks. Thursday, I want to go to Chicago!

PS, I LOVED the gardens!!!

Pics to come later.

Peeee U!

Jake: Mom, do trees poop?

Mom: No Jake, trees do not poop, why?

J: That tree that fell over stinks, and I just wondered????

Alright then!

It is funny to look back at these pics, as he said this today, and realize that kids are smelling it and plugging their noses. I think it stinks because of all the moisture at the base of the tree and down in the roots, and whatever fungus, etc has been growing down there all this time. These pics are from like 2 weeks ago.

Just a peek!

Ay, yi, yi, it has been sooo long since I have posted anything. It's not that there aren't a million and one things going on in my life, but I just haven't been in the "mood" to blog. We have had a busy summer, even though the weather hasn't been the greatest, but this week it is finally calming down. This is the first week, all summer, that Amaya and Jake get to sleep as long as they want, and don't have to get up and get ready to go to swimming or tennis. Ahhhh, this is how the summer is supposed to be!

Hopefully, I will get back into blogging, like I was last year at this time!!

Here is a peek at how big the kids really are now!

If you love something..

A turtle, is all Jake wanted, as far as pets go. We got the rats, but he always wanted a turtle....So Granny found a baby turtle walking in her yard one day and gave it to Jake. He loved that turtle, but wouldn't take care of it as often as he needed to. He agreed to set it free, but back at Granny's house/pond, so that he could get back to his mommy!

Obviously, he is sad about this, but it is so much better for the turtle this way!! This was hard for him, and I am so proud of him for letting it go (before it died) and making the best choice for "turtle".