Michael's Lego

Michael loves lego's and I decided to show some of his creations that he asked me to take pictures of.

New Haircut for Mattie

Mattie got her haircut today and I love it. The pictures really don't show how cute it is. In some of the pictures you can see bald spots. In the past few weeks her hair has been falling out like crazy. She has a autoimmune disease called propecia which causes bald spots. There is not much that can be done but we do have a appointment with a dermatologist just to make sure it is nothing else or related to some other stuff she has going on. The hair loss comes in spurts and unfortunately this is the time for it to happen. Her hair is thin and brittle and tangles easy. At first I was going to get it trimmed but the lady talked to me about doing a bob style and defining the bangs that were growing. She looks so cute and I think it makes her look a little bit older. I love Mattie with her pig tails but she is not the girl who keeps her hair done, she was always pulling the pig tails out. I've tried ribbons and bows and barrettes and she pulls them out. This new style is easy to maintain, less combing and Mattie won't have to pull anything out.

We call her medical Mattie

Will post pictures later... Having a hard time up loading from blogger site. Does that make sense?

The past week Mattie has had a few medical procedures. Mattie had ear tube surgery last weeks ago also she had a ABR Hearing test after the tubes were put in. ABR stands for Audio Brain Response. ABR is performed while the patient is asleep. It requires silence and the patient to be still. It measures the vibrations of the ear drum to the brain response of different sounds and pitches. Don't ask me how because I don't know. Anyways usually her hearing test come in around the 45 mark and after the ABR test she was at 30. The normal range is 15-30. Yea Mattie can hear! Well she could always hear but with all the goop that is in her ear that does not drain out it sounds like muffled under water talking. (that is what the doctor said). Anyways for different reasons Mattie is a hard needle stick.

I have to add a quick note. To the few adults that say I'm a hard stick to please don't, I think Mattie is harder than you and really you are comparing yourself to a 3year old.

.....Anyways sorry for the rant..............

It took the doctor 45 times to finally get the IV started. We did not know it at first but when we got home we were looking at her feet and at first I thought it was a little rash but nope it needle marks. I felt so sick to my stomach. The good thing is she was asleep. The doctors gas the little kids first get them to sleep and the start the IV. So at least she did not feel the pokes but she was a little sore after the surgery. To top it off the next morning she woke up crying and Dan went to check on her and she managed to get her arm stuck in a crib slate and between the wall. The pressure was on one of the needle pokes and it came open and was bleeding. Dan said it could be marked down as "not one of the best parenting moments".

Well to add to the fun of surgery the next week (fast forward to this week) she had to be put under anesthesia again for a MRI/MRA scan. I was a little nervous for a few reasons and when we showed the doctor and nurses her needle marks. They were in shock and a little worried about getting a IV because the bruising and scarring on the veins. It took 6 times to get the IV started. All in all the good news is and this is what we wanted she has no changes with her brain arteries. Things are stable and still look good. She is due back in 6 months for another scan and we get to repeat this procedure again.

Little Getaway

Last week Dan and I did a overnight trip to Tucson for Dan's birthday. My mom watched the kids for us and it was the first time that we have been away from them. The trip could not have come at a better time since the night before neither of us had a lot of sleep. I was with my brother in Phoenix and we took our Aunt to the hospital. The hospital was a interesting place and there was a homeless guy who followed me around. I did not get home until 3 AM and then was up at 6 AM. Dan went to bed around 1 AM and woke up at 5 AM. We both were so tired Friday night when we got to the hotel but after relaxing a little bit we went to dinner and because it was Dan's birthday he received a free meal. After dinner we made a pitsop at Walgreen's to get a few of the left behind items such as a comb,deodorant and toothpaste. We then headed back to the hotel and hung out by the pool for a while and people watched. I just remember asking Dan what time it was thinking it was around 11 and it was only 9 PM. We headed back to the room where the air conditioning was set at 65 degrees. It was nice and cold and the bed was soft and fluffy and warm and we both crashed. It was so nice to get a good nights sleep and not have anyone wake me up in the middle of the night. The best part was the next day I did not have to make the bed. After breakfast we headed to spa and each one of us got a massage. After the massage we hung out for about an hour and then did a little shopping and went to lunch. Dan's favorite Mexican food restaurant was packed so we went to another favorite place. After we got home baby David was not feeling well and had a little fever. Plus he was so mad at us for leaving. He would not look at us and just hung is head down. After a hour he started to warm up but still would not smile at us. Sadly to say we don't have any pictures of us together. I'm horrible about things like that but we both did manage to capture a few random pictures.

A cute little squirrel


Yikes... yes a picture of me, I don't have many pictures of myself so this one shows that I do exist.

The view from our hotel room

Proof that my husband does remember how to iron

I would love to have this

I would love to have this for my kids, mostly David and Mattie. Dan and I talked about getting a playhouse. The other day I saw chance to win this and know I'm super excited. I know my chances to winning are between slim and none (that's just how things role for me) but I thought what the heck I'll give it a try.

www.realmomrealviews.blogspot

Updates

Tonight I made the best dinner, at least I thought I did. I made a copy cat recipe of sweet pork from Costa Vida. Instead of burritos I served tacos with grated cheese and cabbage. I also made some spanish rice from a recipe I have but I added some diced tomatoes to it. In addition I made black beans. It was yummy and the kids ate everything even Micheal told me I did a good job and he went back for seconds. Mattie is having a hard time sleeping again tonight. She does this once in a while. She will cry out and fuss in her sleep. When you check on her she is sound asleep. There is nothing wrong with her it is something she does. I talked with other parents who have children with Down Syndrome and they all have the same issue. Some nights are better than others but it is hard to sleep when your child is crying and kicking the wall or side of the crib. She is a great little girl but I sometimes wonder when the horns will pop out. She loves to make messes and can be a little bossy. Today she kept telling David to "it", which is sit. Her vocabulary is getting better and I get so excited when she says something new. She is also figured how to take off he clothes and she has become the little nudist.

David is so busy and he can get so wild he will just run around the house laughing and then he will come up and push you. He can climb anything and is starting to figure out jumping. Sometimes he will count "done, due, dthee" and either jump or take off running. He is obsessed and I mean deeply obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and the steam mop. He will play with them non stop. When either on them get stuck he will sit and cry and scream until you come and help him. He then sucks that bottom lip in and off he goes again. If you try to move it or put it away he will run after you yelling "no no". His vocabulary is getting better and he knows words he just chooses not to say them. His favorite word the past few days is "o-ta". Also the other day I was doing something and I said crap. He started saying ap, ap. I thought oh-no but since that day he has not said it.

Together Mattie and David are constant. Into everything and you clean up one thing and then you turn around and it is something new. They love to climb into the bathtub and turn the water on. They also love the toilet and toilet paper. Both have figured out climbing and will use anything to push over to the counter or table to get on top. have found them on the half wall, the dresser and stove. I added a few pictures of their adventures. I thought I had put up all of the groceries put I missed the large carton of eggs. I was in another room and I kept hearing this noise but I thought he had my pad of paper. I did not worry about it and when I came out I saw the mess of eggs. It was not horrible at first until I picked him up and realized that he was sitting on eggs. Turns out it was mess to clean up. Of course David was excited when he saw the carpet cleaner and even took his turn helping.

Michael is great. He likes kindergarten and tells us about his day with other people and other kids but will not talk about what he learned or did that day. He also has informed that the maintenance guy is really cool because he fixes things and has a belt with tools on it. I saw him one day and told him what Michael said and he thought it was so cool. Michael is great with Mattie and David. I would be lost sometimes without Michael's help. He keeps them so busy and even if there are times he gets frustrated with them he still is very loving and will share a toy with them. He is really into airplanes and his favorite is the Stealth Fighter or F-117. Dan was given a collection of airplanes and we use them for rewards for Michael. The only rule is he can not play with the collection and has to keep them on the dresser. He has done great with them and every day he checks them. Michael's Grandpa Henney bought him a F-117 T-shirt and hat. He wears both of them all the time. He will wear the shirt and then reminds me to wash it so he can wear it again.

First Day of School

Today was Michael's first day of Kindergarten and Mattie's first day back at pre-school. Michael did great and is really excited about school. I tried to get more pictures of him but it did not work out. Dan took Michael to his class and I took Mattie to her pre-school class which is a few doors down from Michael's classroom. Mattie did great also but we have had a little incident with her after she came home from pre-school. Long story short she has the beginnings of bronchitis. I noticed yesterday she had a little bit of a cough and it was the same this morning. After pre-school she went downhill pretty fast. She had a fever and was having a difficult time breathing. I called the doctor to speak to the nurse and she was able to fit us into a appointment this afternoon. Tonight she is doing much better and even found the time to bite David on his arm and it left a nasty mark. Since Michael has been home he is non-stop talk about kindergarten and all the things he learned today and he earned 3 stickers today from his teacher. Way to Go! He is so tried tonight and he fell asleep around 7.



David coming along for the ride.


Mattie with one of the class room aids.


Going into classroom with her walker.


Michael all set and ready to go. He has been waiting all summer to wear this shirt but I would not let him wear it. Every time he would see it in the closet he would always tell me that he really liked that shirt.