A new neighbor

The other day grandpa called to have hubby look up what he could about armadillos. Come to find out we have one living in our backyard. Of course I HAD to take pictures of it....when would I get another chance to see out this close!?

Our Neighbor

It's pretty neat, but I'm hoping he moves on soon, they aren't suppose to be dangerous and only come out at night, but with the kids I still worry since I let both of them just walk to the back door whenever we get home from somewhere(though let me tell ya I didn't today!)

This Week

It's been a little crazy this week w/school starting and Fay threatening.

Sooooo, N started school on Monday he wasn't happy about it AT ALL. He wouldn't even let me take a picture :(. I dropped him off w/him still being mad at me for not letting him stay home and play. When I went to pick him up he was in a great mood! I asked if he had fun and he told me "I had lots of fun!" Later that night I got a call(a recording really) telling me that they decided to close school for Tuesday due to the threat of Fay. I told N he would be going tomorrow he then got mad cuz he wanted to go to school. Sigh what is a mom to do!

Tuesday no sign of Fay we were suppose to get the tails of it, but if you looked at the radar it was like there was a big wall about an hr southeast of us that Fay couldn't go past, so we got nothing. The rest of the week pretty plain. Though I did get a good note from school on Thursday saying-"N loves robots. Everything we played today, he turned into robots(smiley face)!" I thought this was amusing since for the first day of school I wrote a quick note to the teacher about his summer what he learned/been up to and included that he LOVES robots and anything can become a robot.

Today when I got him from school he was mad(can you tell his new thing....he gets MAD when he's upset and he'll tell you"me mad!") I asked why and he told me he wanted to stay. Got to love him! He really is liking school even more than last "yr" and he's talking more and more, though I still can't figure out half of it, he's very excited about it.

Also a Fay note, we are just got lots of wind and drizzle(some downpours but not many) today.

One more thing before I finish I got a call from All Children's Center today. M will be starting OT(occupational therapy) 2 times a week starting next week. Thank goodness, I was starting to worry when they could get her in since some of her sensory has been getting worse the. She'll be going on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, should be fun!

Vacation

I've been trying to write this post for the last few days now, but the kids have not been sleeping while....OK M hasn't been. I'm not sure what is wrong she keeps waking up every few hrs, I really hope having her tonsils out will help! It's been so bad that we have had to give her a pillow to sleep on which seems to be helping. Anyways, on to our trip.....

On Tuesday morning we got up at 4am packed the cooler got the kids in the car and was on the road by 4:22, Pretty good! We drove all day and made GREAT time. We drove 14hrs and made it just inside the IL boarder. The kids did really well, then we stopped at a hotel and I wanted to pull my hair out. They were bouncing off the walls and bed and anything else they could jump off or on. We FINALLY got them to fall asleep at about 9pm(Central time). We ate breakfast and then headed out at about 9:30 on Wednesday. It took about 6 hrs to get to Tony and Christy's and they were really rough, the kids had had enough of the car. Once we got in we had just enough time to unload our luggage at the house and get the car washed(at Fuller's of course) before we were to meet and my Dad and Lisa's house. Unfortunately in the rush to unload and get back in the car, I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pics of the kids with them, which totally stinks. The kids had a great time so that's all that really matters right! Poor N did have a bad few hrs in IL though. Well we were at my dad's he was(we think) trying to get off this bench and scratched his face, well then about 3 hrs later after we left we headed to watch our nephew at football practice. I was with the kids at the playground and N had just came down the twirly slide when I noticed M starting to WALK off onto the slide, she's tried to just walk off a slide before so I went running to caught her well I tripped and ran right into N, our heads hit hard...I had a headache. Poor thing!!!

Next up was for hubby's grandma to see the kids. So we headed to the Chicago, M had her first taste of Kugalis(I hope I'm spelling that right). And man did she LOVE it.

Then it was time spent with Tony, Christy, and the kids. We went to Splash Vally water park! N had a blast. He keep going down this slide over and over, that is after he got over the first time's shock. I think he scared himself the first time cuz he goes under water and don't know it was coming.

N just coming out of the slide

This is how far under he got after he hit the water

Aunt Christy blow some bubbles for M one night

Saturday we were going to go to Brookfield Zoo with Cole, but once we got there is started raining so we ended up just going to Hunted Trails. The kids still had fun. And can you believe I had my camera, but Cole kept having me take pictures with her camera I never got any on mine, Sigh that's what happens to your brain when you have to kids! After that we went to Grandma Chris' and were going to have a cook out, but it was raining there too. N had fun with Shelby(the dog), he thought it was funny when she chased him onto the couch.

N trying to get Shelby to chase himAunt Cole and N making silly faces

Sunday we went to Tony and Sarah's house and then Aunt Karen, Uncle Mike and 2 of the girls came over later. Tony ended up going in storage and getting one of his lego boxes, which N was in heaven. I think Uncle Tony was regrating it after about the 4th robot he had to build! N also got some quality time with one of his Snoopy's......As in beating it up....poor snoopy never saw it coming!

N beating up Snoopy

Uncle Tony building robots

Aunt Sarah having to model ALL the robots per N

Monday was the Field Museum, I was really looking forward to taking N(cuz of the dinosaurs). The boy had a blast, we had a few moments that he was getting bored(all the animals that are stuffed), but he loved the Underground which we had to go through 2 times...good thing it was free!!

N touching an earthworm

M at the hands on kids area

And he really liked the Dinosaurs, M missed them that's when she fell asleep.

N on a Dinosaur Bone

And of course we got his picture in front of Sue!!
Don't you just love the hand on the hip?!

After the Field Museum we went to Uncle G and Aunt S's after we picked up my Grandma R. We had some Chicago pizza....MMM! N got to try and play tough of war with Roxy(the dog). The poor thing was so tired by the time we left, she's not use to young kids anymore! On our way home, M got sick we still aren't sure why. Hubby think's something she ate or car sickness. So we ended up just staying at the house on Tuesday just to be safe. N and his cousin N had a BLAST though. They were running all around. At one point cousin N was pulling N around on a blanket, they loved it. Even M got a try! Though, poor cousin N couldn't pull both of them so it was a one time run for her.

On Wednesday at 3:30am we left to drive home. We had desided earlier that we would just drive straight through, so after about 21 hrs in the car we made it home at 12:30am(Eastern time). It was ok til about the last 4 hrs. The kids had a little bit of a hard time falling asleep(who wouldn't after being in the car all day). And it was starting to get really hard to stay awake for hubby the last hr.

And a "fun" little thing that happened on the way home...in Georgia we see some flashing lights up ahead and when we get "there" it's these 2 cops slowing everyone down to about 30 mph(ON THE HIGHWAY) this went on for a good 15miles. Then the road went from 3 lanes to 2 then about 2 miles later down to one lane. Then the cops lead us off the off ramp and try and flag us across the street on to the on ramp. Apparently they had to close off the bridge there, but it was crazy.

This was the view in front of us we weren't that far from the cops

This was a view of the cars behind us(at only 3 mins into it!)Anyways, Thank you everyone for all the gifts the kids loved them. And thank you Tony and Christy for letting us stay with you!

M playing with bubbles

Home

I just wanted to let everyone know we got home at 12:30am this morning and we all slept in til about 10am....it was nice. I'm still really tired today so I'll write about our vacation in the next few days.
We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to so we are sorry if we missed you. Next time we are in town we'll try to get everyone. It was really hard this time since we drove we tried to limit the time the kids had to be in the car. On the way home M was not happy every time we had to put her back in the car seat...poor thing! Anyways, I'm off to get ready for bed.

Teenager already????

As many of you know my very good friend T's son, is N's best friend. They love hanging out with each other, they are two peas in a pod. The other day I called T to talk(and make sure we could still borrow her Portable DVD player :) ) So we were talking and she said my name, which then her son heard and after that is was all over, he wanted to talk to N so we but the boys on the phone together and this is what it looked like on my end.....

Yes his hand is on his hip he was in deep conversation!

T didn't get to take a picture of S but I know that he took the phone and laid out on the couch. I have no clue what they were talking about(there are still time's I can't figure out what N's saying), but N was just chatting away. It was just to funny and cute, but I'm not ready for teenager yet, I haven't even made it to kindergarten!!!

Our Busy Day

I'm sure everyone is wondering how everything went yesterday. Sorry I didn't write yesterday but it was very busy(as you'll read in moment) and I also had to work last night. By the time I got home I was way to tired besides it was already 10:30pm I didn't really think anyone was going to look at it by then. On to our day.....

First thing in the morning we stopped by the bank to make sure everything was good with the loan before we headed to the car dealership. Didn't think it would take to long, which it didn't, but the lady was already with someone so we had to wait 10mins before getting in. After that it was off to the dealership. During the drive I realized my phone wasn't working. It had froze up(AGAIN!!) I was pissed to say the lest this just happened to me a month ago and they had to send me a new phone. We get to the dealership, but I was still on hold trying to deal w/my phone so hubby goes to see the guy and see about test driving it. I was on the phone for 24mins trying to get a different phone which didn't work, but that's a whole other issue. So after that we pick out the car we want(which one exactly) and they start the figures. Which of course took forever, and then they were trying to get it more than what they said last week. We got it back down and after 2hrs there the kids were getting hungry and we couldn't get hold of the bank lady to see what they needed next. So the dealership let hubby take our almost-our-car to the bank and I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch. At this point I was going to take the kids home for a little while til hubby got the bank stuff done, but I also realized that it was getting really close to the time that we had to be leaving for M's appointment, so I then had to track down hubby(remember my phone isn't working) cuz I had the down payment checks. I meet him at the bank, then it was 30mins relax at home for the kids, before getting back in the car for a 45min drive to the Dr's office. SIGH and it was only 1pm.

Off to the drs appointment. Usually we go to the office down the street, but we wanted to get in as soon as we could since we didn't know how serious it was. The appointment went great in and out. M does need the surgery to have her tonsils and adnoids removed. Her tonsils don't look that large, but with the results of the sleep study it's best to take them out. I'll try and explain what I was told. They have a scale for the results as far as their breathing goes, and they(the drs) like kids to be below 1. M in non REM was at a 3 in REM(deepest sleep) it was 8. Not great. He said it wasn't a life or death issue, but it wouldn't get better, mostly worse as she gets older. He also told me that she will not stop breathing so that made me feel A LOT better, that's been my biggest scare since I found out the results. Which is crazy since I've never been one of the moms that has to watch their sleeping child to make sure they are still breathing, but lately I've felt like I should check. We are having it done Sept 8th and she will have to stay over night, cuz of her age. I wanted it done right away, but the dr doesn't want her traveling for 14 days after the surgery, in case of bleeding or complications.

During all this(the above) Hubby was still at the bank getting the check. Poor guy! The lady was really nice but hadn't done a car loan in a long time and they also just got a new system, so she had to call and make sure she was doing it all correct. Hubby finally made it out of there about the time I was leaving the dr's office. O'at this point I found out my phone started working again-thank goodness!! So I was able to talk to hubby, and let him know everything. Before we left the dealer, they had told us that it would take maybe 30mins to detail the car and do the pinstripe(it looks really good with pinstripes) and do the rest of the paperwork. Hubby was there for over an hr waiting for the detailing, and pinstripe. Which first off they didn't do that great of a job and second there still isn't any pinstripe cuz they didn't have enough black, we have to go back Friday. SIGH! I had to be at work at 4:30 which means leave the house by 4 thankfully grandpa stopped by to talk to N about the new car so he watched the kids till hubby made it home.

It was a LONG day, thankfully work wasn't to bad. It was a little crazy cuz someone called out so I had to watch fine china and another department, which was a nice change of pace.

And to end this post here is a picture of the new SUV.....minus the pinstripe :) it's the best I could do it was so humid the lens keep fogging up. And it was still drizzling a little.

Answers

I called M's nero dr today-yes I was getting inpatient, can you blame me! They called me back about an hr ago, but I've been researching all the aberrations they gave me so I could know what I was talking about, or at lest have a better understanding of it. She is having obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) in deep REM sleep. The dr wants M to go to an ENT(ear, nose, and throat) dr to have a T&A(tonsils and adnoids removed) done. So it's back to her ENT dr. I was able to get her an appointment next week(Tuesday), I'm so glad I was able to get in so quick. Next will be what kind of surgery he'll want to do(if any). Hopefully it will be the small and we can get it down the week after(in 2 weeks) so she'll be good to go for Vacation. A "nice" little tidbit I just read on our ENT dr's website was that the most common neck abscess are caused by the streptococcus bacteria, and if you remember that's what bacteria her sinus culture came back as.
This mom is feeling a big sigh of relief that Madison may finally sleep through the night, though now I'm a little nervous about what is causing this and how we will take care of it. N's quite time is just about up so it's time for mommy to get off the computer. I just wanted everyone to know right away.