A Year in Pictures

Wow! Has it really been almost a full year since I posted?? I guess as a mom of 3 now I don't feel like I have much to say besides "Fed the kids breakfast - Changed a diaper - Picked up toys - Changed another diaper - Fed the kids again - Changed ANOTHER diaper - FINALLY the kids are in bed and I get a feaking second to myself".

Now that we finally moved the baby out of our room (Ok, ok, we actually put him in my closet so he's not really out of our room, but I'm getting a lot more sleep!) and dealing with my health (more on that in another post) I'm finally feeling more like myself and like I can update on what we're up to. PLUS, we got a new camera! My big Sony Cybershot SLR wasn't holding a charge anymore so besides our smartphones we'd been camera-less for a while. I was looking for something smaller that could fit in my pocket and work with just one hand since I'm quite often carrying a kid or two plus diaperbag and food and sweaters......you get the idea. So I got this pretty little number:

So here we go: A year in pictures

DECEMBER

Starbucks in Reno while Driving to Grandma's

Cousins

JANUARY

Babywearing Daddies are Hot!

Bumps and Bruises

FEBRUARY

Learning to eat the "Baby Led Weaning" Style

Naps with Daddy

MARCH

Sibling Fun

Naps on Mommy

APRIL

We love Chick-Fil-A - This was Family Night

Up close and personal at Earth Day

MAY

Ezekiah got his turn with the nebulizer

Pioneer Days Train

JUNE

We got to ride on Daddy's plane!

Family vacation in Telluride

JULY

Renaissance Festival

AUGUST

In the airport flying home from Grandma's

Facepainting

Mama's big helper in the kitchen

SEPTEMBER

Astronauts at the Denver Museum of Science and History

Getting to ride on our first school bus (just from a parking lot to a Patriots Day Festival)

Better late than never!

So, my muddled brain thought that I had no Halloween pictures from this year. I was right that I didn't get any from Boo at the Zoo, Treat Street or the Harvest Fest. BUT - when I turned on my camera to take a couple pictures this last weekend (I know, I really need to step up the pictre taking, lol) I found a bunch of cute pictures of the kids at Shanna's work! They had a little "trick or treat" time the friday before Halloween for their workers kids, and Shanna invited us. So here are my "better late than never" Halloween Pictures!

More Medical Mumbo-Jumbo

Today consisted of two different Dr. appointments.

___________________________

First was Mika's Orthopedic, Dr. Siegel (finally!). It was waaaaaay back in January when our pediatrician, Dr. Cunningham, told us we should probably go see her because Mika was looking pigeon-toed. To refresh your memory, we also needed to make another appointment for her hips to be checked at about 21 months because of her hip dysplasia so we just lumped it all in now.

So, should I give you the bad news or the bad news first?

OK, I'll start with the bad news.

Mika's x-ray on her hips show that they are not progressing as we would like. I don't fully understand all the angles and such, but I know that at 1 year we wanted the angles to be less that 30% and at 2 years they want them to be less than 20%. At 1year they measured 28% and 27%. Well, now 8 months later they still measure 28% and 27%. Not good.

As far as the other bad news goes, Dr. Siegel explained that when a kid is pigeon-toed they look to see what joint/bone is causing it: is it the hips, tibia, or feet themselves? We already know Mika's hips aren't perfect, so that is a little bit of our problem. Most of it is her tibia's, however. Her right isn't as bad as her left, but they both still turn in.

So, here is what comes next: We are going to first deal with the feet. Dr. Siegel has prescribed what is called a Denis Browne Splint for Mika. I believe she wants to be this aggressive because a) we need to deal with the hips as well, and b) Mika's getting to an age where she can get out of/take off braces and splints. She will only wear this at night. We have an evaluation with the prosthetic/orthopedic people tomorrow to get Mika fitted and find out more about her wearing it.

At this point here next appointment is in 6 months, when she'll be 26 months old (2 years and 2 months for those of you who need it broken down). Looking back on that I'm not sure if it was a mistake, or if she really doesn't need to be seen with the Denis Browne Splint for 6 months. If the people tomorrow don't have any insight into this I'll call Dr. Siegel's office back and ask them.

_______________________________

As for Urijah, he had his weight check today. He is a whopping 13lbs10.5oz!!! Eat boy, eat!!! I can't tell you exactly how much he's gained 'cause I can't find my record right now, but if I do, I'll update this post. The only bad thing is that I've had to completely stop nursing him because I just completely dried up. :-( I'm bummed about that, but happy my boy is getting fed.

His reflux is still going strong, unfortunately. So we'll just keep him on the Previcid until his 6 month appointment (which will be when he's 7 months, thanx to me not knowing I need to schedual his appointments 4 months in advance), then wean him off and see how he does.

Urijah did get 2 shots today - PC and HIB. He's a little grumpy so far but not bad, poor boy.

Fisheys!!

Busy Bees

Wow! It's almost been a month since I last posted! Bad me! I'll try to update most everything, so this may end up kinda long.

I'll start with Mika. Her rash has been completely healed! Praise God! We took the pediatrition's advice of just using plain ol' vaseline on it, and it worked. Who woulda thunk? I also had a Physical Therepy evaluation done on her through Early Intervention just to see what they thought about her being pigeon toed. Basically, because of being pigeon toed, she is a little behind developmentally, but not enough that PT is a must for us. So when we see the orthapedic next month we are most likely getting special shoes for her, and we'll ask the Dr what she thinks about PT.

On to Urijah. Sigh. The problem here is actually more me than him, but it doesn't make it any easier. Basically, my milk supply is a bit low. Which means Ri Ri isn't gaining weight. Not good for a bitty baby. So I am now taking feenugreek, drinking Mother's Milk Tea, pumping a LOT and suplementing Urijah after each feeding. Not fun. But nessesary. And now that he's full, he's my happy baby again! (He'd been getting really grumpy since he was so hungry)

Now for Zarik: He actually got a line this month!! (for those who don't know airline "speak", that means he actually got a schedual where he has to go to work) He's been on reserve (or on call, if you will) for over a year now, so this is huge. However, his schedual looks like this this month:

2 days off, 6 days on
3 days off, 4 days on
3 days off, 6 days on
3 days off, 2 days on
2 days off

That's 13 days off, and 18 days on. And by on I mean he is not home at all (except for maybe 8 hours at night, one of those nights)

We've already gone through the first 6 day stretch and it was hard. But God is good and we got through it with a lot of hard work and a little separation anxiety (on all our parts, lol)

Ok, I guess it's my turn now. As I posted about last month, I have started my own Pampered Chef business (again). God is totally blessing it! I will be closing my second show tomorrow and I got enough commissionable sales with just these two shows to qualify! (Meaning I'm a real consultant now and will have a website and other benefits) However, between that, taking over church nursery, no husband 18 days this month, and a 4 month old and 19 month old, I am definately tired. God is definately teaching me that my only means of survival is to trust in Him and the only way any of my endevers are going to succeed is because of Him. But He is definately faithful.

So now to close with the words of Tiny Tim:

"God Bless us, every one."

Fabulous (aka Mika's 18 month checkup)

So. Today was Mika's 18 month checkup.

Let me preface this by saying that we woke up today, immediately got dressed and hopped in the car by 9am so that we could drive down to Focus on the Family for an all MOPS playdate. We had a blast! We were having so much fun I dragged leaving for the appointment, so we ended up 5 minutes late.

At this point both kids are now asleep in the backseat. I sit for a second looking at them through the rearview mirror, and the kid's monkey mirrors, wishing I didn't have to wake them up. I notice that Urijah needs his snuzzler replaced with our strap bears for more support 'cause his head is at a very odd angle.

So I fix Urijah's head, get the carseat out (with him still sleeping) then wake Mika up and haul them, and the diaper bag, into the Dr's office. Urijah immediately wakes up. I put Mika down and she runs for the toys. I then deal with one $15 past-due co-pay, today's $15 co-pay, call Zarik for Mika's insurance member # (since he has her card because he picked up her prescription last week), give them Urijah's card to copy, write her card # down, and try to start filling out all the paperwork. Before I even get her name on it all, we are called back.

As soon as we get to the room, Urijah starts crying. The nurse kindly looks after him while I strip Mika for her weight and height. After that's all done I take Urijah out of his carseat and try to fill out the paperwork again. The Dr comes right in and starts talking while I finish up the stuff pertinent to the appointment.

Rundown:
Height - 31" (30%)
Weight - 23 lbs 1.5 oz (30%)
Head - 46.5 cm (48%)
Shots - DTaP
Speech - Dr was amazed she says more than one or two two-syllable words (said bubbles and backpack just today!)
Milk - Whole until 2 years old
Diaper Rash - Ahhhhh. Here is were things get interesting:

The terminology she used is that Mika is allergic to diapers. ALL TYPES OF DIAPERS. Cloth included.

Basically, she gets yeast rashes. Then because of the dark, damp, constantly-on, always-rubbing-against-her-bottom environment it turns scabby and stays that way. Basically, this is not fully going away until she's potty trained. We are trying an antifungal mixed with Desitin right now per the dermatologist, and the dr wants us to try plain vasaline and cortaid for a few days instead and see if that helps the scabbing now that the yeast is gone (for now).

PTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, after all that I put Urijah in his carseat so I can get Mika dressed and hold her for her shot. He starts screaming. We're finally ready to go so we go to the waiting room to make our next appointment (2 years old) and so I can fill out the insurance paperwork. Urijah is screaming the whole time. I really hope they can read my handwriting.

And hear.

We finally get to the car and both kids immediately fall asleep.

Ah, Bliss.

Pictures

Poor Baby Mika :(

Honestly, I was waiting to write about this because I was hoping we'd go to the Dr really fast, and I'd be able to give a great pro-active update. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case.

Since Mika was a year old she's been getting really bad diaper rashes. REALLY bad diaper rashes. The scabby, won't-go-away type. Fortunatly not the open-bleeding-sore type, but almost there. We've taken her to the pediatrition a couple of times for it, plus our pedi glanced at it at each of Urijah's appointments, and at Mika's 15 month appointment. We feel like we've tried just about everything - Aquaphore, Nystantin (a yeast med), Bacitracian (an antibacterial OTC med), a special compound of Aquaphore and a steroid, plus Courtaid 2x/day. We think that her last round of a rash was Staph (scary, I know! But the pedi says it's not as bad as it sounds) and that the Bacitracian helped it. She still had red spots, but we were told that they were probably scars from how bad the rash was.

Well, now here we are about three weeks later and she has ANOTHER rash. I know what started THIS one. A week and a half ago we gave her a LOT of bluberries. That really affected her pooping. (TMI, I know) I mean, it turned terquoise!!! And she immediately got a rash. We started immediate action with all of the things above, and.....nothing. It's still horrible! It will start to get better, then she'll poop again and it's back to really bad! She's definately in pain, too, poor baby.

So I called the pedi again, and she's reffering us to the dermatologist. Only problem is the pedi wants us in THIS WEEK and the dermatologist can't get us in until February 4th. So today after Mika started gasping in pain I called the dermatologist in tears begging them to find a cancellation or gap somewhere so my baby can be seen. The nurse was really sweet when she called back, and now we're hopefully going to get a call from another nurse tomorrow telling us they talked to a different Dr. and he can see us.

I just hope we have a good update soon!

Urijah's 2 month Dr Appointment

I've totally been slacking in posting this, since the appointment was Monday, and it's now Thursday, but such is my brain and my life. :)

The appointment went great! Our big guy is now 10lbs, 9oz (25%) and 22 3/4" long! That is 4lbs, 4oz and 2 3/4" bigger than when born. Way to go big guy! Besides a li'l diaper rash he looks completely healthy and happy. (The diaper rash is gone already, BTW. It was gone by Tuesday night.) He got 2 vaccines: the DTaP shot, and Rotovirus by mouth. He cried just for a second, then was all better. I talked to the pediatrition about him possibly having reflux (he spits up every time after he eats, and does a "spit up face" then "chews" and swallows it back down [gross!]). She agrees that he does have it, but for now we're just going to watch it and pray he grows out of it with none of the weirdness Mika had.

Speaking of Mika, the pediatrition saw her walking down the hall, and noticed that her feet go in when she walks. I had noticed it too, and was going to bring it up at her 18 month appointment next month, so I was glad the pediatrition noticed this time and mentioned it. She wanted us to make an appointment with the orthapedic to have it looked at, which works perfectly because we needed to make an appointment for when she is about 21 months to get another check up x-ray on her hips. So we're doing the whole shabang in 3 months (April) when she's 20 months.

Baby Feet, Mommy Feet

"I'm SO bored"

November Pictures

Mika's 15 Month Doctor Appointment

Monday we went for Mika's 15 month appointment. Our girl is getting so big!! She's 21lbs, 12.5oz (the 40th percentile), 30.5 inches long (50th percentile) and her head is 46cm around (46th percentile). Her "curve" on the growth chart is staying nice and consistant, except for her weight which is going up, and that's what we've wanted since she was 6 months old, so yeah!!

The pediatrition was VERY impressed by Mika's verbal skills. We guess-timated that she has about 35 words that she says, plus animal sounds. We were told that most kids only have a couple dozen at MOST and animal sounds are more like 18m-2y! She's a li'l talker!! Now if only we can get her to USE her words when she actually wants something.... ;-)

There really wasn't a whole lot we needed to talk with her about, so it was a pretty short appointment. It did end with the inevitable shots, though - HIB and flu. She did so great though! Cried just for a minutes while I frantically grabbed for her binky, then walked out of there like it was nothin'!

Mika Really Loves to Dance!

I'm a big girl! Look what I can do!

Our pediatrician recommended at Mika's 1 year appointment that we start giving her a spoon or fork while we feed her so that she can start imitating us and learn to feed herself. Well, as you can see, it's going very well! This was taken October 5th, 2 days before she turned 14 months!

Bla, bla, bla.....

Zarik and I have been telling people different numbers as far as how many words Mika has (I would say 8, he would say 15), so I sat down to figure it out yesterday. Here are the words she knows:

Dada
Mama
Baby
Juneau
Aw-ooh (for dog)
Key or Maw (for cat)
no
nose
hi
bye bye
night night
nana (banana)
baba (bottle)
pree (pretty - as in a necklace or hair clip)
t'ank you (as she hands you something, in expectation of you saying it!)


So that's 15 or 16 (however you count cat!) words that she knows all ready! And of course there are always the 3 or 4 that she's in the process of learning that she just mimics right now (milk, pet, quack, poo-poo). I was definitely amazed when I realized it was that many. I knew I had a smart daughter, but I guess I was underestimating her a wee bit!

Mika The Hiker

Mika went with Daddy and Aunt Shanna on a small hike to Rampart Range Reservoir yesterday. They took it slow and had fun with Mika and the dogs on the trail. Mika even got some hiking of her own in!

We love the Zoo!

We absolutely love our local zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We got a membership this year so that we can go as much as we want. It's so big that if you want to actually stop and watch some of the animals or feeding times, it takes about 4 hours to go through the whole thing! (At least that's our usual time.) Mika LOVES looking at all the different animals. So far her favorites are the meercats and wolves - especially the wolves! We just walk into the wolf den and she starts howling! So cute!

Here's some pictures and video of our latest visit...


Mika and a Gorilla Mommy sucking on their fingers

 

Mika in the "Beaver Dam" watching the River Otters

 

Waiting for the River Otter feeding to start

 

The Grizzlies giving us a show during feeding time