Spring Is In The Air ~GIVEAWAY~

Spring is quickly approaching. Okay, maybe it doesn't feel like it, especially if you live on the East Coast like me, but I know it's coming (it WILL come soon, it will, it will!) In my anticipation for the loveliness that is blooming flowers, growing grass, longer days and color I have been crafting some spring worthy flower power headbands. Turns out I made way more than Keira could ever need, so my overstock is your gain! These are white, stretch lace fabric that is comfortable for your little princess, and they are adorned with a magenta flower and a purple flower (one on each.)
These are fun, and super cute. Below are photos.
How to get your hands on these for your little flower child, or as a gift for someone you know?

1. Make sure you are a follower of my blog (worth one entry) and let me know you are.

2. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite springtime activity is. (worth one more entry)

3. Advertise this giveaway on your blog, facebook, or twitter account, and let me know about it (worth three entries EACH site.)

winners will be chosen using random.org

winner is announced Friday March 5th

Good Luck!

Girly Girl

Keira's carseat cover came in the mail today. I ordered it from Elizabeth Park Designs on their Etsy site. I am in love with this. It came in a pretty pink bag and is soft and cushiony and as girly as I could get. Elizabeth Park Designs makes carseat covers for various Britax car seats. I could not be more pleased with this. She even includes a belly pad and strap covers with the carseat cover. Keira is clearly just as pleased with her new cover as I am. Elizabeth Park Designs has so many great covers to choose from. I enlisted the help of my friend and my mom when I was trying to narrow them down. Ultimately we decided on "Pretty Kitty".

Farewell Dear Friend

Today I am mustering up my inner strength and bidding all the yummy comfort that is referred to as carbs farewell. It has been fun, but almost 11 months after the birth of Keira, I can no longer refer to this as baby weight. It's fat, plain and simple. I can either accept that, or do something about it. Yesterday I ate about half a box of reduced fat cheez-its, but I had a lovely salmon dinner with steamed broccoli! What that doesn't make up for the carb fest? They were reduced fat, doesn't that count? Nope. Can't kid myself here. I have managed to keep off the weight I lost from being sick, and even have lost a couple more pounds on top of that. I need a major body makeover. This mama needs to start loving herself again, and as vain as this sounds, that means I need to love my body and feel good about it.
So if you have been keeping track, and reading my blog you will notice slowly I have been making changes. I said buh-bye to the death that is soda (and with that the silent, horrid additive aspartame) and I have strictly limited dairy due to Keira's tummy, and meat is gone as well (okay meat for me doesn't include fish, I love fish, what's that called a pescatarian?) Yes, now I will add carbs, that comfort deliciousness that I know all too well.
So I say so long for now. Hopefully I'll see you again when I have the ability to not eat half a box of cheez-its and can stick to the 26 cracker serving size recommended by the box itself.

New Do

Brody and I got new hairdos. I chopped many inches of mine and got a choppy layered style, Brody got a "big boy" hair cut, and boy does it make him look all grown up. We now refer to him as Dennis the Menace.

See?

Get Ty ready for school
Get Nate ready for school
Get Keira and Brody up and ready for the day
Drop Nate off at school
Brody's Early Intervention Visit while Nate is at school
Lunch for Brody and Keira
Pick Nate up from school
GO REGISTER NATE FOR KINDERGARTEN
Attempt to do some cleaning in the 45 minutes I have before
Ty comes home from school
Help with homework and practice MCAS
Make dinner
Take Ty to basketball
Come home, give kids baths
Pick Ty up from basketball
Put kids to bed
Clean the house

I'm looking at what 11pm before I can stop? This week is INSANE!

Bliss

School starts tomorrow. Happiness has filled my heart. I don't even care that my house is loud and the kids are going crazy because I know tomorrow, despite my insane weekly schedule, we will at least be back on a schedule at all. I got to take an ah-mazing two and a half hour nap with Keira this afternoon. Let me repeat. I got to take a TWO and A HALF HOUR nap this afternoon. I woke up and made a quick trip to the grocery store for some fresh veggies for homemade pizzas, which are currently cooking and filling my house with mouth watering scents. To top it all off, Nathan has okayed painting my living room wall tonight once the kids are in bed! I have only been asking to do this a few times a week for say, two years! I'm so happy I feel like breaking into hardcore hymns... Glory, Glory Hallelujah!
On a quick side note, my ever entertaining five year old has been singing "All the single ladies, all the single ladies... if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it..." and ALL I can picture is the episode of GLEE which revolves around this song. Seriously. All I can think about.

Dear Keira (The Power of Friends)

Dear Keira,
Last night we went to Auntie Kerrie's house for a much overdue girls night. Auntie Meire was there and Auntie Victoria, and later Auntie Kerrie's friend Amanda joined us too. My sweet Keira, my prayer and deepest wishes for you include friends as amazing as mine. I know you will have many people come into your life. There will be friends that will help you through difficult times, there will be friends that are so much fun to be around and make you laugh, there will be friends you make because they are at the same point in life and going through the same things as you. My wish baby girl, is that you find friends, or even just a friend that is a forever friend. I want you to have the bond of friendship that is so deep and so thick that it can carry you through whatever life throws at it. I vow to you to help you always nurture and respect those friendships. There is more power and strength in a woman's bond with those special friendships than I could put into words. Those friends will know you in a way others won't. I know the term soul mate is given in the context of love and finding a partner, but I believe your soul also has counterparts in friendship as well. Why else do we bond so closely with some friends and not others? Why couldn't the answer simply be somehow our souls already knew each other? Last night while you were sleeping like a little angel on Auntie Kerrie's couch, wrapped in her red blanket, your aunties (and I use that term because they are our family) and I laughed, and cried, and caught up. In the midst of all this is when I started to think about you, and yearn for this in your life. I want you to have the kind of friendships that are selfless. I want you to have friendships where you can speak your minds, and give advice (advice that is given even when it's tough), and genuinely trust each others insight. I want you to have memories that you can spend an entire night retelling and laughing all over again. I want you to go through life with these friends, experiencing all the highs and lows together. I want them to be your children's aunties one day, and you their children's auntie. Keira, friendships like that are to be cherished. I can not wait to meet your forever friends. They will be surrogate daughters to me, and I will love them for loving you.
Love,
Mama

Durga

I have survived folks! February Vacation week is rapidly coming to a close and gosh golly gee willakers, I SURVIVED. Please see slideshows in my previous post for proof of survival.
Last night Keira participated in her first pageant. It was fun, and I'm glad we did it. Before you get all Toddlers and Tiaras on me, it was a natural pageant. No make up, tanning, false anything was allowed, not even in the older divisions. Give me a break, I have a girl now!!!
In other news, Brody met with his speech therapist this week (I am patting myself on the back for being able to juggle two speech therapists, early intervention, kindergarten registration, a pageant, policy council for Nate's school, pop warner board meetings, basketball practice, and vacation week ALL AT THE SAME TIME, in other words I am channeling my inner Durga.) I felt validated and like we are finally getting somewhere with Brody. She picked up on the tone issue in his voice that sounds a bit off. She described it as a poor quality of voice. She actually said it sounds like there is an obstruction causing the poor quality of voice. She had me discuss what she observed with Brody's pediatrician and he agreed with her. Brody is set to see his Ear, Nose and Throat doctor in March and will be discussing having his tonsils and adenoids removed as well has having tubes put in his ears. Hopefully we will get this taken care of sooner than later and he can continue to develop normally. The speech therapist did pick up on the letters and sounds Brody has the most difficulty with and the correlation with high frequency hearing loss. It seems those sounds are in the high frequency and although he is attempting to say them, but is just having so much difficulty, it makes sense in that he can hear some high frequency (in one ear more than the other), but he can't hear it completely., thus causing the difficulty. All in all I just feel so happy to be getting somewhere with all of this.
I got to fill out the mound of paperwork that goes along with kindergarten registration this week. I can't believe my baby Nate is going into kindergarten!!! It just goes by so fast. Moms with children not in elementary school yet, it goes by SO fast. The thing is, once the enter the school system, you just have t pray you did everything you could to prepare them. This sounds depressing, because they are still your babies, but once the enter elementary school, they enter their new world. It is possibly more emotional for me this time around because I know how incredible a change it is. I won't even get started on the fact that when Nate enters kindergarten this also means Ty will be in his LAST year of elementary school. Yikes.
It is gorgeous out, and I am aching to get out for a walk, so I will bid you farewell. Hope everyone's weekends are enjoyed and fun!

Photos from bowling and February Vacation week


Keira's first Pageant Slideshow

Love Bug

I hope you all had a wonderful, love filled Valentine's Day! Although our normal tradition is to make our own fondue, but since I still am unable to eat much, and I really look forward to once a year cheese and chocolate feast, we opted to hold out for a couple of weeks. Saturday night Nathan made the boys a steak tip dinner with rice and butternut squash. We all cuddled up and watched a movie together. Sunday morning Nathan got the boys donuts and I set their places with their Valentine's Day gifts. The boys and Nathan gave me a gorgeous new jewelery box and two new pairs of earrings. Ty had his last regular season basketball game, which they won! Ty got two baskets and did great. We then headed to Nathan's parents house for his mother's birthday dinner. It was a great day. I even have come close to catching up on all the laundry from when I was sick.
Now I am at the beginning of vacation week and am praying for sanity for the next seven days.

Lion

Listen at the 10-11 second mark, Keira says Lion. I have wondered for a while if this is what she was saying, and finally got it on video! Now I know I'm not crazy!!!

Hello Stomach, I'd Like to Eat Now

Silly me, I thought I could eat a piece, ONE BITE SIZE PIECE of pineapple yesterday. It was my first attempt at food in two days. Well that backfired miserably. Although I no longer feel like I'm on my death bed, my stomach would beg to differ. Or maybe it is telling me it's time to lose the baby weight, and wants to give me a jump start in the process. Seriously folks, 9.7 lbs in three days. Losing water weight can be my only silver lining in this whole fiasco. In all truthfulness though, I really want to eat.
Amidst the audible screaming my stomach has been doing these past few days, we did have one piece of excitement. Keira decided yesterday to walk! She is right on target with Nate who also walked the week he turned 10 months old. Keira was cruising around the coffee table, which was pushed in the middle of the living room, and I was laying on the couch. Keira spotted my phone and low and behold the girl just walked over to me! I thought at first I was delirious and may need to call 9-1-1, so I decided to test my sanity and pushed through the agony to move, and put her back to the coffee table, went back to the couch, held up my phone, and the girl did it again! We've known Keira was capable of walking for a few weeks now, we would only allow her to touch, no longer hold on to a finger of ours while walking, but man Keira is cautious. If there is one personality trait I could use (okay well this may not be the one, but one of the many I could us) it would be cautious. She is concerned with her family's activities (some may call this nosy, but I say concerned because she furrows her brow while searching for or observing them.) Keira also seems to be a worrier by nature. She is always cautious, and worries about falling, or the possibility of getting hurt. I know it seems insane to read all of this into a ten month old, but it's SO true. Keira has never attempted to crawl off a couch or my bed (yes as a mother I know we should avoid these things anyway, but babies usually don't perceive depth. Keira will look at the edge, and back away.) Maybe this is a girl thing. I have only been exposed to loud, daring, active, rough and tumble boys, and I have been conditioned by them for almost nine years. Oh my, I have been a mother for almost an entire DECADE. Well after that revelation and at my stomach's insistence I'll end cut this short. Damn gatorade.

BLAH

I am SO SICK.



Isn't that enough of a reason to write something??? Who can I complain to if not you, dear readers? Didn't you want to know that I can't be less than 3 feet away from the toilet? (I calculated that. Three feet is the exact distance I can magically leap from the point my stomach cramps into a ferocious ball of fury to point of impact.)
Where are the fairy nannies when you need them? I actually contemplated keeping the kids home from school today just so I didn't have to get up. Then I remembered yesterday's useless snow day massacre and came to my wary senses.
Aren't you glad you decided to check in with me today?

What Animal Are We Eating?

I am a pseudo vegetarian. There. Make sense of that. It all started when I was younger and learned the working of a farm (sorry Dad, just know I'm not blaming you directly.) I have gone years, months, weeks, days, even just mere minutes being vegetarian. I held out the longest from some time towards the end of high school until about three days after I found out I was pregnant with Ty, when his Nana and I went out to Fridays and I ordered a bacon cheeseburger. I then proceeded to eat bacon at all 5 meals I ate every day for the remainder of the pregnancy. Suck on that PETA. (You'd think I was joking but the 57 pigs I put in the ground will vouch for me.)
Recently my children have realized that meat was once living, and enjoy grossing each other out, okay grossing me out by asking what animal our food came from and then making that animal's designated "sound" throughout dinner. Well folks, 9 years later, with all the credit due to my lovely boys, I have once again converted. It started out slowly, pushing the meat to the side of my plate or hiding it in my napkin as I told the boys they had to finish their food, but Nathan's meat and potato appetite has made me aware I have avoided making meat in the past week. The boys' groans over "more black beans" and my response lectures about the amazing amount of protein they contain have reached their peak.
I should tell you just because I am a herbivore does not mean I make the rest of the family eat that way. HOWEVER with that said, I have been slowly and secretly changing the eating habits of my family. It started out years ago with eliminating white pasta, white bread and white rice. Trust me, Nathan was not too happy with the no white bread rule. He rebelled often and on grilled cheese or sandwich days went out and bought a loaf of white bread "just for him." About two years ago it was no white flour. Last year I eliminated soda. I am *hoping* that by slowly making these changes over the years it doesn't shock them too much and they just get used to them. Folks, I am fully aware I will have to make two or three trips to the grocery store or farmer's market a week now, but honestly I don't mind. It gives me less to remember at once.
And that is my post for the day.

Winter Vacation 2010

We're home! Despite earlier plans to stay until Monday, we decided to come home tonight. We had so much fun. Even though vacations with children are far from what normal people call a vacation, I think the rewards of seeing and enjoying everything through the eyes of a child is worth all the packing and exhaustion and are we there yets. Here are a few highlights of the trip (I'll spare you the details)

• I could have spent all three days shopping at the outlets and would have been happy.
• Watching movies snuggled under blankets by the fire is one of most peaceful events of my life.
• Snow tubing down mountains=awesome.
• Keira was an angel all weekend.
• The boys did amazing ice skating.
• Brody is now convinced he can "hit puck goal Brody Bruins"
• I can no longer do fast spins without warming up first.
• I will take a picture of the bruise on my leg/.butt to prove the above statement.
  
• I hid in the shower and scared the boys when they were brushing their teeth. Call it mean, scarring my children for life, but I have never laughed so hard.
  
• I caught that last one on video
• The boys are determined to get me back and scare me.
• What is better than hot chocolate to drink with breakfast?
• Keira took her first step!!!
• Okay, it was one step, but she is now taking ONE step consistently unsupported, and that's something!
• The mountains are mesmerizing.
• I love my family
  

Winter Family Vacation

This morning we are escaping to the mountains for a long weekend. I will be technology free for four days and couldn't be happier! Fingers crossed for no broken bones, twisted ankles, concussions, and (wishful thinking) sibling rivalry. I'll be back Monday with lots of pictures and hopefully accounts of me winning all board games. What, that seems selfish? I'm a competitive person.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys the company of friends and family and guilty pleasure food that you really don't need but it looks to good to pass up on Sunday.
:)

A Great Contest

My dear friend Sarah, owner of Abigail's Bake Shop makes quite possibly the most delicious baked goods in the world. Seriously. Don't believe me? Order some for yourself and try them! Or enter this cool contest hosted by the blog Blissfully Enamored and hopefully you can win some FREE. What in this world is better than free cookies delivered to your door? The best part is you don't even have to share with the kids or snack hungry husbands.

New Videos

Uploaded four new videos for your viewing pleasure, ENJOY!!!

Keira practicing walking

Brody playing basketball

Sneaking up on Nate (he was singing and building models)

Ty and Keira dancing

Current Happenings

I realize it's been a while since I have just done some old fashioned updating, so here we go! (In birth order)

• Ty is finishing up the regular season of basketball. They FINALLY won their first game last week (SO exciting! Ty got 2 baskets, and did great all game.) We are looking forward to today's game. He has finished reading his newest book for his book report (Old Mother West Wind) which filled my heart with joy. Why? Well it is written by my great great grandfather, Thornton W. Burgess. There's a lot of links in there (well three.) His project for this book report is to have one character write a letter to another character and put it in a bottle. A message in a bottle book report is what it is called. He is really excited about this report, and I know it makes him so proud to have such strong family ties to the author.
  
• Nate has been LOVING his school's theme this week, Dinosaurs. For week now Nate has decided he will be a paleontologist. He is definitely my little scientist. In school they made volcanoes and got to bring them home. We have been making that thing explode every day since. I will upload a video in the near future of this fun, messy experience. Nate has really surprised us with his skills in building models and constructing the most detailed, cool structures. I get to sign him up for kindergarten in a couple of weeks. Words can not describe what an amazing feeling it is for this moment to come, when when he was first born and we didn't know if he would ever get the chance. Each one of these milestones with Nate is extremely emotional for us, that we do not take for granted.
  
• Brody is recovering from yet another double ear infection and goes in this week to meet with an ENT. It breaks my heart to hear him tell me his ears hurt every day. I will be so happy when this phase of his life is over (the bad ear phase) and he is no longer in constant pain. We went out to eat Friday night (this is blog worthy because we not only never order food in, but I can count on one hand the times we have gone out to eat in the past 5 years. I'm not being dramatic, we just don't do it. Times are tough people!) Brody was so excited. In fact he told everyone we saw yesterday "eat out dada mama" which translates into dada and mama took me out to eat. He was so well behaved (they all were) and so grateful. He said "welcome" (he can't say thank you) to everyone (us, the servers, food runners, etc) and it made me feel like I was doing something right!
• Keira is fully recovered (knock on wood) from our new year's fiasco. She is back to eating real food again, and I am trying to give her, within reason, everything we are eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She is standing on her own, and walking (assisted with a finger or two to hold on to.) She can say "uh oh" (my personal favorite), baby (ba-bah), dada, mama, doggie (daga), hi (ha), she blows kisses, waves hi and bye, and tells us she's hungry by signing, tells us she wants more of something by signing more, and tells us she's all done by signing done. I can not believe she will be one so soon. Man oh man where has the time gone so quickly?

P.S. Updated the music player.

All You Need Is Love

Thank you Beetles and Mastercard, because this song is permanently stuck on my mouth and brain. Although I will say it is fitting for this post.
Yesterday while the older boys were in school, Brody, Keira and I headed to Playtown Express.
We met two very dear friends and their children there. I got to meet the newest addition to one friend's family (who is handsome and gorgeous and just perfect), and she also has a son around Brody's age (who is again, handsome and gorgeous and just perfect, oh and boy can he dance!) Brody, although a bit overwhelmed at first, really loved playing here. My other friend is a former roomie from college and the owner of Abigail's Bake Shop.
Although we don't live super close, we try to meet and catch up frequently, and I have come to really look forward to those times. There is nothing like spending time with an old friend and picking up right where you left off. There is a comfort level that has already been built over the years and that is something that is very difficult to obtain with just anyone. It has been so fun to see each others children grow and change. Sadly (for me) Sarah and her family are moving (but we are wishing you the all the happiness in the world!) I will miss our lunches so much!!!
I came home to finish up some cleaning, and Nathan picked up the boys in the evening to run some errands. I again got to visit with my best friends. I brought Keira to her first playdate with Mr Kai. Although they have been around each other a lot, they have surprisingly never just hung out and played. They. Were. So. Cute. I would now like to take this opportunity to thank my friends for producing a ridiculous crop of boys. I mean maybe I am biased, but I think they are some of the most handsome boys I have ever seen. Keira is one lucky girl!
The other part of our trio (the Summer Sisters we call ourselves, myself, Victoria and Kerrie) joined us, and again, it just feels like home. That comfort that is so tangible you want to curl up in it and stay. It was such a great day, and I truly believe spending time with close friends is sometimes all you need to regroup, refocus, and feel refreshed. It is REmarkable. (I had to stick with the re theme.)
Thank you Andrea, Sarah, Victoria and Kerrie for making yesterday so enjoyable.

Excitement in the Clan

As most of you know, I was a born actress. Eat, sleep, cry, bleed, live acting. Since my professional career (despite a brief week of excitement) is on a foreseeable hiatus, I naturally find that the environment if confidence boosting and fun for my children. This does not mean I force them into this business. In fact, I feel it's the opposite. I expose them to something interesting and if they don't like it, cool we're done. It was fun while it lasted. I did work while pregnant with Ty, and went on a few audition with him when he was younger. Nate has done work for Hasbro (Helmet Heroes toy to be exact) and Brody was signed to an agency in Boston at 6 months old and has gone on more calls than I can begin to count. Now before you whip out the judging thoughts, here is my stand point. If they're not into it, we're out. I have left auditions before because Brody was just not in the mood. Oh well, it happens, I'm not forcing him to do anything he doesn't want to do. My other (and main reason) is future, future, future. College is only getting more expensive every year, and if I can give my kids a leg up, and a decent savings account to start out with, well by golly I'll do it. I'm not forcing them into child labor or anything. They go somewhere, play with a cool toy that's not out yet, have people fuss over them and do everything in their power to get them to smile and laugh (I could write a whole post about baby wranglers alone) and it is a very pleasant experience. With that said, I have debated doing this with Keira for a long time, since I knew I was pregnant really.
Why, when I have just explained how great I think it is did I question it? Well, it is time consuming. A lot of auditions you only have a couple of days notice. There have been times we have been called the night before. There can be traveling, and you are not guaranteed a job.
My decision finally came after updating Brody's pictures last week. I figure if I am going to be making the casting call rounds with him, and Keira will be in tow anyway, why not get her involved as well. The only change I made, was signing her to a different agency. This has nothing to do with Brody's agency. I love them, and have had nothing but good experiences with them. The agency I signed Keira to does a bit more film and commercial work, rather than a print based clientele. They also do some international work.
After over a year of debate, I am so happy with my decision. Keira has an appointment for pictures this weekend. Once those are in, it is a waiting game. I hope you join me in wishing her well on this new adventure.

Spring oh Spring

Winter blues have set in. Cabin fever have taken over. HELP! Spring, I need you. I need my yard to not be soaked in slush, or iced over. I long for green grass and light jackets and sweatshirts. My mud room has been taken over by gloves and mittens and hats and boots and snowsuits and I look at the bin they belong in and curse it, and think about just putting it all down in the basement until next time.
I spend free time looking up kid friendly hiking trails (something I am vowing to take up this year, so hold me to it.) I question my Eastern roots this year in a way I never have before. Why is this winter so darn difficult to get through? Is it because we were robbed of our summer with two months plus of rain? I'm thinking that is the answer.
To stay sane, I am wondering, what are some things you and your family do to beat these winter blues? I am especially interested in low cost/no cost ideas. Museums and play areas are fun, but you can only do them so many times. Let me hear the creative, interesting stuff!

Midnight Madness

Keira had a case of insomnia last night. It is so hard to be mad when she is just so cute!

Exorcism

Yesterday Keira was emotionally scarred for life. Since the acquisition of her first two bottom teeth (which have just really started to be visible) she has not bitten me, or anyone else.I thought this was because of her superior intelligence, but alas, yesterday afternoon she decided to give it a try while nursing, and I let out a big "OOOOWWWWWW", which made her bite down harder, which made me scream a bit more. She then stopped, sat up, stared at me and locked eyes with me for one brief second. That one second was where she used her jedi mind powers to tell me "This is the moment you ruined my life." Her eyes got as wide as possible, her bottom lip curled in a largest pout you have ever seen, and then the water works came. The girl let out the "waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh" of the century. It took me A FULL THIRTY minutes to calm her down and convince her I was no longer possessed by the devil. She spent this thirty minutes with her head buried in my neck, refusing to look at me. Good God in Heaven, I am in for it.
Fast forward to seven-ish last night. Ty and Nate are occupied playing against each other in their life sucking Nintendo DS in their 37th "just one more game", and Nathan and I are enjoying playing with Keira and Brody on the couch. I should premise this by saying Keira is obsessed with pointing. This is a newer trick of hers, so she enjoys doing it 24/7. Brody, being the good, funny big brother he is, was pointing too, only in his game, he'd slowly raise his pointed finger and poke Nathan in the nose and say "beep!" (because in our house noses always are for honking, beep beep. Well that and eating," Keira thought this was funny, so she decided to beep her daddy's nose. She was thrilled with this new game. Then her father decided to switch up the rules, and when it was Brody's turn Nathan pretended to swat his finger away and get Brody's nose instead. Brody thought this was even better than the first game, and his belly laughs made Keira release her own belly laughs. Naturally Keira wanted to play, but the minute Nathan pretended to swat her finger away and playfully said "What are you doing", well readers, those eyes got wide, the bottom lip came out, she stared at him, locked eyes with him long enough to confirm the devil had now entered his body and tell him she would never be the same again, and then the waterworks came. Her head once again found it's spot buried into me, only before looking at me to make sure I wasn't evil. Despite Lucifer's attempts to apologize, Keira held strong to her convictions and dug her tiny hands into me, because of course her life was at great risk. How long? Almost an hour this time. Boy oh boy did her devil dad feel every second of that time.

Keira at 9 months

C is for Cookie

Readers, meet the cookie that almost burned my house down. While cooking a tuna casserole a few nights ago, I was shocked to see the bottom of my oven suddenly burst into flames. Turns out Brody didn't think this cookie was quite done cooking, so sometime throughout the day he shoved it way down into the crack at the bottom of the oven. A bowl of water and lots of smoke later, I saw the culprit, and got it out.

Ah hem, Your Attention Please

Internet, at 2:30pm EST WE HAD POOP!!! Keira FINALLY, after two weeks of torture, had NORMAL poop! (I restrained myself from taking a picture and showing it to you all, be happy.) Who's throwing a party? This girl deserves presents!

Streaming Thoughts

I am all for keeping a clean house. In fact, there are a few things that I won't budge on and need to make sure get done on a daily basis. It is such a shame though, when more important things are pushed aside for the pursuit of the perfect house. This morning I was smack in the middle of cleaning every surface of my house when my dear little Brody continued to tug at me and play silly games. I didn't ignore him, and played back, but only while continuing my cleaning process. It was at that moment that I decided that the cleaning could wait. That moment, the one that I will never again have back with Brody, when all he wanted to do was play with his mama, that was something I couldn't pass up. Parents, there are so many expectations that I think we put on each other. Don't tell me you're not judgmental when you go to someone else's house, we all do it. It's not just keeping up with your house, it extends to making sure we look as close to perfect as possible, when we're not and never will be. I guess all I am saying here is, that load of laundry can wait. The world will not come to an end if the dishwasher isn't unloaded right away. Your children will not blame all of their adult psychological issues on you if you didn't give them only organic, homemade foods. What is important, what actually matters is if you dropped everything to read your child's favorite book for the 4,987th time, or waited to clean the floors later so that game of peek a boo could last longer. We don't get this time back. Perfection is overrated. I'll scribble outside the lines with my kids, thank you very much.

Heartfelt

The people of Haiti, and their family and loved ones are in my thoughts and prayers. I am relinking this page with six ways you can help.

Knock on Wood

Ok internet, as soon as you read this email you are required to knock on wood so we won't be jinxed here. WE HAD A GOOD NIGHT. (Despite a 3:45am wake up call of Brody puking in our bed, and requiring a bath... the up chucking is due to bad coughing fits, we think, and as I write this I am thinking to myself, my idea of a good night is very warped.) Keira has not had diarrhea since yesterday after noon. Yes, I am now one of those moms that talks about her children's poop. Check out my last few posts. Poop, poop and more poop. In fact if you put 20 different dirty, poop filled diapers in front of me, I don't think I'd even cringe. I think I could pick my kid's poop out of the line up in 3.7 seconds. Yes, I am THAT in tune with their poop. Smells, textures, colors, I know it all, and I am not afraid to admit it!
Back to Keira's lack of poop, well we figure that is a HUGE start. Our new motto is not having diarrhea is better than having it at all! However this has so far meant nothing, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her little body is again binding itself and soon my posts will read, "Internet, we have normal poop!" and then we can all celebrate together. Let's spread the joy around, think of it as a conversation piece... "Did you hear Keira finally had normal poop?"
Keira had her nine month check up today, and we of course followed up on the bastard RSV. Her lungs sounded clear, with just residual upper respiratory junk lingering. Hallelujah!
She measured in at 27 1/.2" (No she did not grow an inch since the hospital... or maybe she did, but we're guessing they just measured wrong.) This was right at the 50th percentile. She weighed in at a whopping (not really) 16lbs 3 oz. (Hanging between the 5th and 10th percentiles.)
Here is the part where I sound pathetic, when my dear friend Dr Hoder told me I had to make her next appointment, I got upset because I realized that not only was this appointment her 12 month aka ONE YEAR appointment, but that it was only THREE months away. Hello?! Readers, WHY did no one prepare me for this? After her appointment I promptly called my mother and whined about this horrifying realization.
In other news I began the process of coloring my hair today. I was reminded by Auntie Kuckie (Kerrie's new name via Brody) that August was the last time I have done anything to my hair. If I admitted the last time I got a pedicure (before Keira was born) never mind a manicure (we're talking years) I'd be really giving you a good vision of where I stand looks wise.
Oh Internet, I must cut this short... we have poop (but I don't think it's the kind to make headlines just yet...

Who Needs a Vacation?

Keira's stool sample results came back today. She was positive for Clostridium Difficile Toxin A and B. Since Keira was not on antibiotics, which is usually the cause of this, it is the doctor's belief that she picked this up in the hospital, which is where unfortunately these kinds of bacteria are thriving. This is also most likely the cause of the horrible stomach cramping and pain and running to the bathroom that the boys have been going through the past few days. The bacteria is again, highly contagious.
How are we holding up? As I spoke to the nurse this morning as was going down the list child by child, I started laughing, because really what else can I do? It's not funny that my children are so sick, but it just seems so ridiculous, this string of bad luck I mean, that I feel like laughing about the event of it all is the only way to push through.
Although I will say one of the nurses who I again just had to repeat all the childrens symptoms to did not sound very happy when I laughed on the phone telling her everything. She must think I am crazy. I am now going to look out my window for the men in the clean white coats who are coming to take me away ha ha.. coming to take me away ho ho hee hee ha ha, to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time...

A Case of the Crazies

Hi. My name is Nicole and I am officially going a little crazy. I think this means that I can not be held accountable for my actions or words until I can be clinically diagnosed as sane once again. (See, this means this is a judgment free zone now.) Keira has still been throwing up, so she was back at the doctor's office today. She lost the weight she had regained since the hospital and is down to 16lbs 3 oz. The doc said we should expect her to lose more weight as long as this continues. On the bright side of things, separation anxiety seems to have left the building, and Keira is a pro and getting poked and prodded and bats her eyelashes at the nurses and doctors and waves hi and bye to them. She is really just such a sweet baby girl.
The pukey bug has gone through Brody, and tonight it struck Nate. Looking on the bright side of things (this is where I start to sound crazy) I am seeing this as one more anti body we all will have, and one less illness to potentially derail us this lovely year of 2010.
In other news the one lone non sickie (Nathan) suddenly had horrible pain in his ear, and went to the doc's and turns out he has a middle ear infection. Looks like no one is immune to this.
Ty is doing much better though... on the bright side.
That is as much of a depressing update as I can give (even with the bright side) so I'll switch gears a bit. I am a diet coke addict. Last week, right before New Years, it just so happened that I didn't have any soda for a day or two, then being in the hospital with Keira, again no soda. I have wanted to quit for a while, so I saw this as my opportunity, and low and behold I feel so much better without aspartame in my life. No more highs and lows (energy wise) and my body just feels better. After the lack of sleep going on, you'd think I'd be crashing constantly, but without soda, my body seems to regulate itself and I am actually okay. For those of you who don't know, I am not a coffee drinker, so I am caffeine free as well. Add to the mix that I can not have any dairy products (due to Keira being sick) and well by golly if I don't start dropping weight really fast without soda and cheese in my life, then something is wrong.
On the no cheese subject, I had plans to make pizzas with the kids for dinner last night, but when I realized pizza obviously contains cheese, I was a bit discouraged. I made it work though. I created this wheat pizza with fire roasted tomatoes (instead of sauce), mushrooms, and red and green peppers. I drizzled some olive oil over the top, and when I ate it, I put a touch of hot sauce on it. It was HEAVEN. All I could think when I was eating it though was that my child self would be appalled by my adult self enjoying this. I am however in desperate need of some new recipes (remember dairy free as much as possible... a splash of milk is okay) so please, share with me!
Also, as you can see, I have changed things up a bit on here... I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks for bearing with me during this hellish start to the new year, and my loss of sanity.

And the Fun Continues (In Bulletpoints)

• Preface: Somebody call the Waaahhhhh-mbulence.
  
• I have become an expert diarrhea in diaper scooper. Moms... c'mon, you know this is a skill.
  
• We watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs last night, and my mom brought us dinner. That was the most blissful part of my day and night.
  
• I can barely go a full two minutes without attempting to cough up my ENTIRE lung.
• We went to bed early last night (8pm) to get rest. I was woken up at 10:52pm by Keira projectile vomiting all over my neck, chest, and even a bit of my face. She looked like one of those gags in the movies where a thick steady stream of vomit comes shooting out of the character's mouth for an unnatural amount of time. I actually had time to think that as she continued to recreate an exorcist moment all over me. She promptly whimpered and went back to sleep, I picked up my phone and called Nathan (who is not sick and was downstairs) to please come bring me things to clean up. I was too tired and sick to even shower after that. Go ahead and judge.
• Brody woke up at 4am, climbed out of his crib, and went downstairs. Since the exorcist child had just woken up to refuel for her next showing, I told Nathan to get him.
  
• Nathan got up and retrieved him, only to have Brody turn to him and projectile vomit on him. Nathan had enough sense to aim him towards the sink as soon as it started coming out though.
• K woke up bright and early, we sat down on the couch to play and she decided that the crusty baby vomit smell was not enough, so she added explosive diarrhea (that somehow shot out of her pants and all over MY pants and the floor) to the mix. I wish I was exaggerating even a little bit here, but I shit you not. Ha, get it... I know, I know, but my sense of humor is all that is getting me through this.
• I have still not showered.
• It is not even 8am.
  

Virus-Gate 2010

This morning Keira ran a fever again, and had a very difficult morning. After speaking with her doctor, he decided she should be seen again. Her lungs sounded better, still coarse though. His concern was the fever and constant diarrhea she has had since the first. He decided to order stool samples and I am on a strict diet to help her (because I am still breastfeeding.) My question was how do you collect a stool sample from a diaper when it's all liquid (and diapers absorb liquid.) n I have to line her diaper with plastic wrap and I have a handy scooper (I can probably just pour most of it in the vile though.) Gross. I have so much more respect for lab techs who have to deal with all kinds of poop on a daily basis.

Starting 2010 off with a bang!

Happy New Year! It has been an eventful one to say the least, for us. New Years Eve Brody had his follow up hearing test at Children's and although he did far batter than the previous one, he does seem to have some hearing loss in the high frequency range and low frequency range. This really just seems to effect him when things are very soft (low volume) in those ranges, not when they are loud. He will go back when he is three years old to do a more extensive test.
We rang in the new year with lots of board games, a movie, sparkling grape juice (for the kids) and a glass of champagne (for me and Nathan). It was perfect.
New years Day Keira started getting a little cold, and by that night, Brody seemed to follow suit. Over the next day or two they became worse, coughing a lot, and I noticed Keira was doing a whole lot of wheezing. I joked that the poor girl sounded like Kathleen Turner if she were a squeaky toy. Sunday I attempted to take them both to the urgent care center at their doctor's office, but the roads were terrible, and I have a nebulizer at home, and decided to wait until the following day. At 1 am Sunday night/ early Monday morning I woke up because Keira's breathing was very shallow, very strained, and VERY scary. I got up, got the neb and gave her a treatment. No luck, just a lethargic, barely breathing baby. I got up, got dressed and headed into the ER. When we got there, they checked her oxygen levels and they were 92-93, not bad but not great. The did an xray, stuck this lovely tube up her nose pushed saline in her nose then suctioned it all out to do gather as much mucus as possible, she was given breathing treatments and oxygen. Her oxygen levels dipped to 88-90. The dr came in and told us she has RSV. She also told us due to her difficulty breathing without oxygen, she would be admitted and the pediatric dr would come speak to us. It was around 4 am at this point. We didn't get moved from our lovely ER accommodations to the depressing pediatric floor until 11:30am. I will spare you the frustrations during this time period, but I'm pretty sure I saw two very old men die and the lady in the next room was on her way too, because she was moaning in pain and agony the ENTIRE time. I am not heartless, I felt bad, but I am/was also extremely sleep deprived and upset and I just wanted someone to help the darn lady and give her some morphine or something to make her more comfortable!
When we got to the pediatric ward (I called it depressing because what is happy and joyful about a bunch of babies and children crying in pain and so sick?) and met her dr and her normal pediatrician came in to meet us as well. (Reasons why we love Dr. Hoder.) Her dr at the hospital was a funny, but in a kind of geeky way, young Indian dr. He was quirky and entertaining, but great at making us feel like she was getting the best care possible. Keira had a rough couple of days, needing oxygen almost the entire time. Her breathing treatments made her shaky and we had a very scary morning Tuesday where she ran a high fever, was lethargic and shaking all over. Her oxygen level had dropped to 81. Thankfully that was the very worst of it. She has slowly been making progress since that morning, albeit slow, but progress nonetheless. We were released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon because her oxygen level remained around 91-93 without giving her oxygen since 4 am.
During our hospital stay (I remained with Keira the entire time) Nathan took off work to be with the boys. Brody was seen at the doctor's office Monday for the same virus, just (as you can read about in the RSV link) just not as severe as Keira. I was more worried about him getting an ear infection. He is still coughing so hard, but isn't running a fever. We had a follow up appointment at the doctor's office Thursday morning, and I had to make an appointment for Nate also because Wednesday night Nate's fever reached 103.5. Keira's lungs sounded better, which is great news. Nate however, didn't get great news. He has pneumonia. (You're thinking we can't catch a break? I agree!) He is on meds and more breathing treatments.
I forgot to mention that Keira also has a stomach issue and has been having diarrhea since the 1st as well. Yesterday was my first day with the bad cough, and my empathy has turned into sympathy because man this virus is doing a number on me, and their bodies are just so little.
I do want to take a moment to thank my family and friends for their support and thoughts and prayers. Words can not express our gratitude. Whether it was a phone call, a message, visits at the hospital (so I could take a shower), or bringing me dinner and a magazine at the hospital, bringing us dinner and breakfast at home (which ended up being even more helpful now that I am so sick), and just being there for us. Knowing we have so many people willing to interrupt their lives and give themselves to us at such an overwhelming time, well it makes us feel very loved. I know saying two words can not convey thee true emotions behind them, but thank you.
Keira sleeping in the hospital, and her and I cuddling in the hospital bed.

Videos Galore

Visiting Santa

Keira waving hi

Breakfast (and listen carefully, Keira says Done)

Brody explaining hockey

Magic

Despite Brody's attempt to stay awake to see Santa, and Ty's brief sleepwalking venture right when Santa was about to come, Christmas went off without a hitch. We don't take many pictures Christmas morning, and instead videotape the whole ordeal. Nathan and I actually decided to spend the night before Christmas watching all of our previous Christmas mornings together. It made us so excited to wake up early with the kids. Santa left a very nice note to the kids, and he ate all his cookies, drank most of his milk, and the reindeer really chewed up the carrots the kids left for them. Santa left so many gifts for the kids. The boys were in awe. We had more gifts than I knew was possible to fit under a tree this year, so after they looked through their gifts from Santa, we got to tackling those wrapped gifts under the tree. The boys loved giving the gifts they had picked out for their siblings and for us, and actually were great about looking at who things were from this year. Brody was so excited to tear open wrapping paper, and even would exclaim (in most cases) what he got! HUGE progress!!! Keira was so funny, because when I would help her open (yes she got into the wrapping paper rip off game) she would squeal with delights and pat the gift. The kids changed into their new clothes, and helped put EVERYTHING away. I made a yummy breakfast casserole and we prepared for our Christmas visitors. This is the first year we have not gone out on Christmas. my family stopped by to open gifts first, and Nathan's family came over in the afternoon to open gifts. It was so nice to be with everyone. Ty went with his Nana and cousin Christmas night until New Years Eve, although we will be seeing him tonight for Disney On Ice (can't wait!)
Thank you everyone, for your generosity, thoughtfulness, and giving spirit. We all are so blessed to have you in our lives. Thank you for making each Christmas more special than the last, and for helping us create wonderful memories. We are so grateful for your love and kindness.

Merry Christmas

On our town's common, every December, Santa's Headquarters, or a wonderful little house, magically appears, and every afternoon Santa is there to visit with kids and go over their lists. As much as I love the very famous resident mall Santa that is in my hometown, the lines are usually outrageous, and the prices of pictures with him are expensive, and well, to be honest, holiday season at any mall gives me instant claustrophobia. Have I mentioned that our town common Santa is there for free? He takes lots of time with each child, makes sure to tell them to behave, and do what parents tell them to do, and generally we leave with the kids promising Santa to be the world's most perfect children. No complaints from me on that.
Nate went first and told Santa that he wants a robot that cleans houses and folds laundry and can make food, and I shouted a big AMEN to that one. Ty made a very thought out list with the items he wants, and Brody, bless his heart, was very nice to Santa, gave him his letter, talked to him but refused to go anywhere near him. Did I mention they take a picture for free picture too? Well when it came time for that, I asked Santa if he wanted to hod Keira, who was smiley and happy this whole time, but as soon as I passed her off to Santa, screamed for her life. This picture makes me smile.

Silly Boys

watch the boys pretend to be on So You Think You Can Dance

An Early Christmas

Lots of pictures of Keira on her first Christmas. The boys were so excited to play with their cousins. Thank you all for everything!

About that...

I am feeling abandoned as I am writing because Keira is no longer content in crawling around the toy/computer room, and she immediately crawled off to find her brothers.
I didn't get to mention that I have recently started actually using my prescribed inhaler (suddenly my asthma has made itself front and center in my life, because I obviously needed something else to worry about.) The side effect of using the inhaler is that for about a good chunk of time after I use it, I feel like I have been given a shot of adrenaline and am like wonder woman. Or maybe wonder woman if she was all shaky from too much caffeine or something. To put it in perspective, after dropping off Nate at school yesterday morning, I came home and had 4 hours to start my baking of cookies, make a double recipe of chicken, broccoli and ziti, and make a wonderful pumpkin dip (and the dip was an "if I get to it that would be great" item, that I know could hold off until morning.) My mom stopped by with some ornaments for the kids. I had just used my inhaler and well, before I knew it, less than an hour later, I had completed around 40 sugar cookies, made that double recipe of chicken, broccoli and ziti and finished the pumpkin dip. I also packaged everything up, so my mom could take it with her, cleaned up, and hung the new ornaments, AND did a load of laundry. In fact when I was done, I went back and made another big batch of cookies for our house and for our new neighbors. Honestly, I am a self confessed master multitask-er, but even I was shocked when I was done. I should mention that Brody and Keira were both home, awake, and yes I was taking care of them, which included holding them each intermittently. I'm not a coffee drinker, and have been weaning myself off of diet coke (which is a WHOLE other subject.) Who knew using an inhaler would turn into this?

Bullets

• I have a major cooking day today
• Christmas shopping is nearly complete!
• Keira tried to climb up the stairs today, yikes.
• I love hearing Keira's sweet little voice.
• Brody looks like a mini Nathan. I think they should dress up as Dr Evil and mini me for Halloween next year.
• Yesterday I got a text from my wonderful, dear friend Meg asking me what I was doing (she lives in California) and I found out she was home, and was coming to visit me. I cleared my day, because there is nothing better than having a friend you don't get to see often come visit.
• On that same subject, I think my boys may have scared her daughter, and they each put up a pretty good fight for their attention. I have actually never heard Brody attempt to speak to another child as much as he did to her daughter. I should add he was pantless the whole time.
• When I returned home from errands yesterday I found out that my wonderful child Brody had stolen a shirt from an unnamed store. He had somehow, wriggled out of his jacket, put on the shirt (a Boston Bruins Jersey) and then put his jacket back on. I was unaware until we were home and I took his jacket off. Oops.
• As those close to me know, I find complete joy in putting things in alphabetical order. This stops with helping Ty put his spelling words in alphabetical order because he takes all the fun out of it by complaining about how much he hates it.
• It is below freezing here. Nate wanted to play outside early yesterday morning despite my warnings of his fingers/ears/limbs falling off from frostbite. When he came in (20 minutes later) he ran up to me and asked me if his nose was red. I said yes, to which he broke out into a huge smile and said "Now I know how Rudolph got his red nose!"
  

The Here and Now

I hope everyone is doing better than we are, and has finished up their holiday shopping, and has a sense of peace. I on the other hand still have about a third of the shopping to do, and have a general feeling of anxiety. Ah, tis the season, after all!
On the brighter, more day to day side of life, Nate is getting better about waking up in the morning for school, and has been so helpful (when he's not on a crazy, too much energy induced state) and that has been an enormous help.
I have re decorated the tree about 25 times per day since putting it up. I am on constant Brody-watch because those darn ornaments are apparently too fantastic to pass up. I can not be mad because his eyes light up and he screams "Santa!" or "tanta" in Brody speak, and his excitement is infectious. Think Buddy the Elf level of excitement. Brody also has decided to potty train himself (we have been telling him this was his last package of diapers, and that Santa is bringing him a potty and big boy undies.) He has however, refused to wear a diaper, or has been running into the bathroom every 2 minutes to pull down his diaper and pants and try to go potty. Can't ask for anything better than that! Both Ty and Nate were fully trained by the time they were 3, (Ty just around 3, Nate 2 1/2) so we are on the right track!
Keira has started waving "hi" (I will get it on video very soon) and it melts my heart! She gets very shy around others, and likes to bury her head into me, but when she peeks back out, her little hand opens and closes in the most adorable effort to communicate. I can not even fathom that in four short months she will be a year old. It blows my mind.
Ty got his first graded report card. He did alright, mostly B's, one A+, and two not so hot C's. On the other hand, he got mostly excellents with a few goods in effort, which is what matters most to me. Parent teacher conferences tomorrow. His basketball team was leading their entire game this past Sunday, and in the last period the other team tied it up and the game went into overtime. Unfortunately they lost by 5 points in overtime, but it is a far cry than the past two games.
I will try and update more soon! Happy Holiday Season!!!

Hooray for the Holidays

Ty hanging the first ornament
Nate hanging his first ornament
Brody's turn to put the angel on top this year (we are a democratic household... equal opportunity and such)
I love Christmas lights
the kids in front of the tree
Ty and Nate being silly

Bath time

click here for yet another video (I'm freeing up my camera, finally!)

Mobile Baby

Here are two videos of Keira. Click here to see her crawling. Or click here to see her cruising the train table.

Songs for the Elderly

Here is a link to the video of Nate's preschool singing in the elderly home. Unfortunately, I can not just post the video here, because the file is too big.

As Promised

As promised, here is a slideshow. Some random pictures, Thanksgiving, Brody getting his ride-on Thomas from his godmother, Brody's first haircut, and Nate's haircut, ZooLights, Dinner out and Keira's first pizza, Keira standing, playing in the snow, Keira in her new outfit from her godmother. I'm sure there's more in there too!

Almost!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am getting my computer back tonight! Words can not describe the excitement!!! Turns out it wasn't the fan that was broken (what we thought) but the sensor that detects if the fan is working or not. So simple fix, turn the sensor off, and we're back in business. AND we got it tuned up added some ram and ta-da! Tonight I can look forward to setting it all back up and uploading the 200 plus photos anxiously waiting on my camera. We've had a fun weekend, following a chaotic week. Friday night we went to ZooLights at the Stone Zoo with Nathan's parents (our new holiday tradition with them) and then out for dinner at Polcari's for some can't beat Pizzeria Regina Pizza. The kids loved ZooLights, but this was definitely Brody's year for it. He could have watched this one train display for hours. It's so much fun to see the wonder and amazement in the kids faces. It makes me love the holiday season. Keira had her first bit of pizza that night, and didn't seem too impressed, but then again she had already filled up on the warm bread appetizer.
Saturday we had NOTHING, yes that's correct, a big fat ZERO to do, so I took advantage, cleaned, relaxed with the family. I even got to go to my friend's house for a Lia Sophia party and got a free necklace... can't beat that! We had a family movie night and watched Night at the Museum 2 (really cute) and all in all it was a wonderful night.
Sunday we woke up early and played in the few inches of snow that we got overnight. The boys stayed out for a little over two hours. Keira and I called it quits and watched from the porch after 45 minutes. We all came in, made some wonderful hot chocolate and finished up some cleaning before heading out to Ty's basketball game (another loss, but only by 15 points this time.)
Keira has learned some new tricks as well the past few days. She has mastered going from crawling back to a sitting position, standing on her own, and is getting lightening fast crawling. She seems to alternate between the army crawl (only she does it with one leg crouched, one leg straight) and the typical crawl, depending on the surface of the floor. She is getting more and more vocal every day. She is also getting very daring with her cruising, thinking she can let go and walk on her own.
I will GLADLY be uploading a slideshow of all of the pictures from before Thanksgiving until now sometime tomorrow.
Nate's school's holiday party is tomorrow, and Wednesday his class is singing at an elderly home. (It's another very busy week!)

I see Audiologists...

Brody had his hearing test yesterday. We went to Children's Hospital to get the test done, and I will spare you the details of my day, which include driving for most of the day, back and forth, and never coming home until it was all over with.
The woman, who is a specialist in the Audiology Department, was very nice. We discussed the reasons for the test, and concerns, and then she checked his ears. His left was nice and clear, but his right had a lot of "junk" in it. She then did what I have referred to as the air pressure test, and he actually did better than he ever has on that. Essentially what that means is that his middle ear looks good, where as before it did not. After that we entered a small sound proof room, and Brody sat in my lap. Another Audiologist came into the room and sat across from us, and the original woman was sitting on the other side, observing Brody and working the sounds. If Brody turned towards the speaker the sound came out of, he was rewarded by a little cartoon snip it coming on a tv, or a little animal would light up. It was very odd, and A Clockwork Orange-esque. I was not allowed to make any noise, or talk, or hint that I could hear the sounds.
They switched things up, leaving us alone in the room, and then the women switched places. But there were a large chunk Brody didn't react to.
At this point Brody was done, and had lasted a pretty long time, and I'm sure he will recall memories of this odd place to his therapist someday. We then sat down, and the woman explained that Brody is hearing mid range tones perfectly fine. He could hear some low range tones, and was not hearing any high tones. What does all this mean? Well, for now it means we will be back in Children's to repeat the test focusing primarily on high and low tones (he goes back in 3 weeks) and if we get the same result, there is one more option before having to go in for a procedure where Brody would be sedated and they would record his brain waves when playing sounds.
So that is where we currently stand.