Appointments, Appointments and More Appointments.

this was in the first few days of drinking the Reliv drink, we had to hold her nose. She now does it by herself!

one of the nights, Avery was up having trouble sleeping but finally crashed on the couch

Ethan and his spiderman tattoo and new toothbrush and toothpaste

This last week or so has been full of lot's of appointments for the kids. Ethan had his follow up hearing test at the audiologist which he passed with flying colors this time around! He had his 3 yr checkup (no shots, YAY) and then he had his first dental appointment yesterday. I didn't think i would be hearing the words "He was the most cooperative 3 yr old i've done" yesterday but he was so excited for his turn to go back (all by himself mind you) and just did awesome. They cleaned his teeth and he got a new toothbrush and toothpaste and spiderman tattoo so what can make a 3 yr olds day better than that!?

Trey had his yearly physical and they wanted to give him 5 shots, i was in shock but then remembered that he had had all of those shots at a different dr and they just didn't have record of them, so he didn't end up getting any much to Trey's relief! He had his dental cleaning and checkup yesterday with no cavities but a couple "watches" teeth that may easily turn into a cavity. We have to step up the quality of brushing i suppose.

Raegan had a follow up with her dermatologist and got a great report. Her skin is doing great, still has several patches and can't be outside long without breaking out some but overall great! She saw her allergist for a follow up as well last week and had a good report there too. She drinks rice milk now which she seems to handle much better than the soy. We keep her away from milk product but occasionally treat her to a bite of something and she acts like she is in heaven (ice cream). Raegan went to the dentist but didn't get her pearlie white checked, she is getting 4 teeth at once on the top. The front two and her two eye teeth. Fun fun...

And then there is Avery. She had a staph infection several weeks ago on her legs and her eczema was out of control and nothing was working to calm it down so they put her on antibiotic and on prednisone for the infection. The warning on the side effects "pssible mood changes" yea that's an understatement!! She had some major mood swings and i thought the poor girl had gone off the deep end until now i see that she is a completely different girl since being off the meds for a week! The warning on the bottle should be "your daughter is going to have meltdowns 3 times a day at least, not be able to sleep and you mommy are going to just about lose your mind". Hopefully we don't have to take prednisone anytime again soon! Her infection cleared up nicely, still battling the eczema but somewhat under control. She is having no trouble with asthma though so that is awesome! As for the allergy shots...we get to switch to bi-weekly shots after the first good hard freeze of the year so until then we will continue with weekly.
She also had her dental cleaning and checkup and had a couple of "watches" as well but no cavities. She had a looses tooth when going in and the dentist pulled it while she was in there so she came out with one less tooth. I also saw that they are billing our insurance for a tooth extraction $147. You can bet i will be fighting that one if the ins. doesn't pay and we get billed for it!!

My wonderful parents got Avery and Raegan some Reliv powder that you mix in a drink, that is supposed to do wonders with allergies, asthma and eczema. We have just recently started it. Raegan does great, i put it in her bottle and she drinks it down. It hasn't been so easy on the other hand for Avery...she despises the taste but is getting SO much better about drinking it without too much drama. We are holding out hope that this may help both the girls!

I think i am now done with all appointments until at least December when we do allergy and dermatology follow ups again. Gonna take a breather for awhile!

Kisses

my camera is really slow so i missed the kiss but this was close enough

Raegan's favorite hiding place is behind this tree, that's where she runs when she knows she has something she shouldn't

another sacked out picture-when it's nap time this girl will fall asleep anywhere

Celebrating Ethan's Birthday

a box from Grandma came in the mail

and everyone get's excited

opening all the goodies and their were LOT'S of goodies

Mile' and Ethan having fun before cake and ice cream

had to throw this one in cause this is Mile' and Ethan as babies, they are still buds

I found Ethan (and Raegan right their being fed bites) after we frosted the cake

his "star wars" cake-nothin fancy

a singing card from Grandma and Grandpa and his Handy Manny tool set that he LOVES

Mr. Serious while we were singing to him

"how old are you Ethan??"

We had a little party for Ethan last Saturday for his birthday. He chose many different themes he wanted for his cake (it changed daily) but we settled on Star wars since he is very into that right now (having a daddy and brother being star wars fanatics makes it pretty much a given that he will be too).

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Our little guy is 3 years old today. Ethan is such a sweet little guy. He is into pretty much any super hero right now with Star Wars, Spiderman, and Batman being the top 3 picks as of recent. He has grown up a lot the last few months, he pretty much potty trained himself and has done awesome, though at times he does not care where he is when he needs to go, just drop the pants and go i think is his motto- on the playground during jogathon at the kid's school, on the sidewalk at church, in the front yard...you know whenever nature calls...he can now buckle himself into his car seat as long as you are not in a hurry cause he likes to do it in his own time, but he can do it!

He wipes off Mommy's kisses at night just to get a reaction out of me and then grins in his mischievous little grin. He says the cutest little prayers and HAS to be the first to pray and will just start praying out loud to get his in before anyone else starts praying.

He is a very happy guy but when he is feeling shy or uncomfortable he get's a pretty grumpy look on his face and can give quite the little attitude. I saw him be protective to his little sister recently for the first time, he told another little girl "don't mess with my baby sister". She was trying to pick Raegan up and he didn't like it!

We love you so much Ethan, you brings lot's of smiles to your family! Happy Birthday, you big 3 yr old!!

Chicago Trip

at Moody Church

taking a subway ride Saturday night "screaming tourists" waiting for our train

walking around the city

our train that took us to Chicago

waiting for our train Friday morning

ferris wheel at Navy Pier

view of the city

the Museum of Science and Industry

eating at Gino's pizza

making my mark on the wall at Gino's, it was very hard to find a spot!!

relaxing on the train

Dad and John

Dad and Mom

"the girls"

before we had to turn our seats back around, at least we got a picture :)

We headed to the train station early Friday morning. We spent the day on the train in our seats for a while then headed to the observation car and the snack car. Susan and i were both having a little trouble with motion sickness. We had lunch reservations in the dining car but by the time it was our turn they were out of everything except a salad, a couple of macaroni and cheese, and a couple of hot dogs off the kids menu so we opted to heading down to the lounge/snack car and ate lunch down there. We arrived in Chicago at around 3 in the afternoon and got checked into the hotel which was right in the middle of downtown just a few blocks from Michigan Ave. We took off and rode a trolley down to Navy Pier for awhile and then headed back to go eat at Gino's pizza. We lucked out and only waited in line for a few minutes. People shortly behind us were waiting for a LONG time! We gorged on pizza till we could no longer eat any more and enjoyed our waiter of many moods! We went to a movie that night too i just can't remember in which order we did that. I guess that's a sign of a full weekend when you ca't remember when you did what!

My dad purchased 2 day passes to ride the busses and subways. On Saturday we rode the bus to The Museum of Science and Industry. It was really cool, we toured the smart home, and a German submarine that we captured in World War 2, it was pretty interesting. After spending several hours at the museum we headed back downtown and did some shopping and then went and saw the movie Fireproof. After dinner we took a subway trip up north (i think it was north). We only encountered one little incident when someone started banging on the outside of the train on John and Susan's window and yelling something, not quite sure what his deal was.

On Sunday we took the bus to Moody Church and then went back and packed up our stuff and then went and ate lunch. It was raining by the time we were heading to Union Station, glad it waited till we were heading back to KC to do that!

I think we all sacked out on the train for a while on the way back only after Susan and John FINALLY figured out after much trying how to turn the seats around so that they faced each other (we knew they did from pictures). After all that work and being so excited and actually having another group do the same things as us. "Mr. Grouchy pants" came back and informed us we were not allowed to ride that way (apparently they had been sued and now it is a safety violation) oh well. We had dinner in the dining car with plenty of food left on the way back. We had so much fun packed into the weekend and it actually felt longer than a weekend amazingly enough!

Thank you SO MUCH Dad and Mom for the fun trip, we had a blast!!

Tagged

Ok i've done this once before, but i got tagged again by Barbara and Paula, so here i go throwing some more of my quirkiness out there...

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you. (Little Wifey and Smith Family Three)
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. List 6 unspectacular quirks you have.
4. Tag 6 bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each taggee's blog to let them know they've been tagged.

1. I can't sleep with socks on, i've tried just can't do it. (Johnny tells the kids to take their socks off or their feet will rot, maybe i sub consciously think my feet might rot) :)

2. I do everything in the exact same order in the shower every day. shave top of leg, shampoo,condition hair while shaving calves.....so on and so on

3. I can't think about epidurals without feeling faint and light headed. If Johnny touches the middle of my back i just about fall to the floor. My last one wasn't even that bad, just a phobia and the thought of a monstrous needle in the back, oooo feeling a little faint just writing about it.


4. Before a race i tie my shoes 3-4 different times before they are just right.


5. Everything in my refrigerator has to be just so...everything has it's place and get's lined perfectly. (Johnny's cousin thinks i'm half crazy) :)

6. I have a new one thanks to my sister's that she mentioned. I now can't go to a public restroom without tearing off the first few sqares of toilet paper. (i hadn't ever even thought about it but now get a little grossed out by it. I also have a very hard time touching the door handles on the way out of the restroom, i see way too many people not wash their hands!!

I now tag June, Susan, Julie, Kerry, Mom, and Melanie...i know you guys have got to have some more quirkiness cause most of you are related to me.

1 Year Portraits

Ethan's Hearing Test

Today we went to the district audiologist to have Ethan's hearing tested. As a newborn he failed the hearing screen in the hospital and was referred out to CMH. The test they did on him there was "inconclusive" so they wanted us to come back and have it redone later...that was almost 3 years ago. We had decided to wait till he got a bit older to have him retested. Because of having a sister with hearing loss we wanted to go ahead and get him tested earlier than school age.

He was such a big boy today! I was very proud of him, he didn't want to go in the room but when he did he sat and played the game (put a ring on the spindle each time you hear a beep) so well. The audiologist said he did better than most 5 yr olds during the test and she even did a bone conduction study which he cooperated for wonderfully. (ahh my child's not a little monster after all, at least not today anyway :)

His left ear was perfect in normal range, his right ear was great until 2000 decibals and then dropped, but the 4000 decibals were back in normal range (weird). After a lot of checking and rechecking he continued to always drop in the 2000 range so she will have us come back in a couple of weeks to retest him just to make sure things are the same that day before she actually says he has hearing loss. Even if so this should not affect him greatly because his other ear is great and would compensate for the loss in the other ear, probably will just mean a visit yearly for both he and Avery with the audiologist. Weird how our middle two have hearing loss but Trey and Raegan don't.

Avery also had her audiology appt the other day and her hearing has not changed. It has remained stable which is great! She has "severe high decibal hearing loss" in one ear but the other ear is perfect. She cracks me up after her tests when i ask how she did "i did great mommy, i heard ALL the beeps" :)

Countdown To Chicago...Chicago Here We Come...

I am just a wee bit excited (ok maybe a little more than a wee) about an upcoming trip. I just put my request off in at work tonight so it got me even more excited. Many moons ago or at least twenty some odd maybe more years my parents took the three "big kids" to Chicago on Amtrak. Us little kids if i do remember correctly were a bit sad (i think i remember some crying involved) and my parents promised us that someday they would take us too. Being a man of his word and wanting to fulfill that promise that "someday" is just around the corner, less than two weeks to be exact! They booked a weekend to take us "little kids" to Chicago on Amtrak. How awesome is that!?! I'm sure i will have pictures to share after the trip... i can't wait!

Picture Day

sleeping hard

get this bow out of my hair

love my raisins!

I had to do it on a whim, yesterday i called as soon as the studio opened at 10 am and made a 12 pm appt. (yes right during nap time). I had been putting off 1 yr pictures since...well since the 23rd of August. Raegan was raring to go, you would have thought i had loaded her up with sugar right before taking her in. She wouldn't sit, wouldn't hold the letters and reminded mommy exactly why i dread picture times and why i put them off so long!!! Thank goodness we got the most patient photographer and despite Raegan not sitting still for longer than 2 seconds at a time she managed to get a lot of good pictures, i was amazed! But no i don't have the pictures yet i'm waiting for them to be on the website so that i can download them and then i will post some....

On the other hand i have some pictures of my tired baby after her pictures...well during and after her nap that is...her hair is getting a little crazy these days!

A Wet Run!

coming in to the finish line

these guys were quite the cheerleaders along the run!

On Saturday i filled in for a triathlon team that needed a runner. It was DOWN POURING the entire race and we were running through lot's of water on the trail. I was not one bit jealous of the swimmers getting into the cold lake water :)! It was a fun race despite being water logged and having the chills for the rest of the day.

Comparisons

I was just looking at pictures today and saw this picture of Ethan on his first birthday and thought it looked very similar to one i took a couple of weeks ago. I wish i had digital's of all 4 of the kids, it would be fun to compare them all! These photos were taken on their 1st birthday's.

Another This And That Post...

waiting for the "spin the cage and scream ride"

Ethan stuck with the motorcycles that were quite jerky, we cracked up seeing him grab on and concentrate every time.

raegan just chilled in the stroller all night

Friday night we took the kids to Old Settler Days in downtown Olathe. We made our way through all the booths picking up a bunch of freebies, and had a yummy funnel cake. We then let the kids each pick two rides to ride and they even lucked out and were handed a ticket by someone leaving so they each got to ride one more ride. A couple of lost balloons later (Ethan doesn't go for the "it went up to Jesus" quite like Trey did when he was little!) we had our fill of Old Settlers.

The other day Raegan found her a nice comfy spot on Trey's bean bag and took a snooze.

Let me explain what this terribly sad face is all about... mommy was putting away laundry yesterday afternoon before going to work, Raegan came walking in the room with her bottle and what looked like grape juice. I quickly grabbed the bottle cause let's face it grape juice stains and Raegan slobbers! I asked Johnny if he gave her grape juice and he said no, i took the lid off and smelled it and it was COKE! Aha, i immediately knew one of her siblings was the culprit, and after questioning the older ones and them knowing nothing about it, Ethan chimed in "i gave it to her and she LIKED it mommy!" I was a bit surprised he managed to fill her bottle with coke with no spilling and then got the lid on tight as well! We just have to work on what goes IN the bottle, anyhow the picture of her crying is after i took her bottle of Coke away from her, she was ticked to say the least!