Back To Business

Here I am!  I have so much I've been wishing to blog about in recent years and I think this particular general blog will be my main page to voice my opinions, progress on health and general family items.  Exercise, eating well, being frugal, saving money and enjoying life with my family are my biggest passions.  Now that I have high(er) speed internet, I should be able to upload photos with ease and expedience.

I see my diligence in posting about Holden's progress over years so I believe I can do this with this blog too.  I want to stay true to myself with goal setting and this will aide me in staying focused on the "prize" and staying accountable to what matters most to me.  I'm certainly excited at the prospect of what my words can help me do.  I think our entire family will benefit!  So - here goes.....let's see where we end up, shall we?

I wrote this a few days ago so pardon how it seems outdated now….

Well, we survived the dreaded stomach virus around here….luckily only Quinn caught that horrible thing! I’m not sure how we all escaped it but I will tell you that I washed my hands almost constantly, used Purell on top of that and used Lysol and Clorox wipes throughout my home on commonly used surfaces like doorknobs, the phone, etc. I also used lots of Lysol and Clorox bleach on the barf bucket each time it was used to make sure the germs died! The other two families that had this dreaded thing both had the thing sweep through their entire homes and two even ended up at the ER with an IV for hydration. I kept Quinn drinking water and hopefully that helped him in that regard. Toward the end when he had a high fever but no more vomiting, he refused to take the Motrin so I was a bit nervous for a few hours while he just slept and slept. His fever probably reached 103-104 although I could only get a reading of 102 before he ripped the thermometer out of his armpit. My main worry was preventing Avery from contacting it – thank goodness we opted not to go to the party where Quinn picked it up! And the same folks that gave us that last doozy of a cold, gave us this thing too!

I’m having too much fun shopping for Avery. Let me explain….you see….she has received so much beautiful clothing from family members and hand-me-downs so I’m finding myself buying the most fun accessories. I spent some money at these two shops: www.hairclippy.com and www.hipclipsboutique.com and now I’ve found some adorable headbands at www.warmingtheheart.com. I truly am enjoying having a baby girl to dress up even if I don’t get to deck her out as often as I’d like.

Avery is getting into some nice sleep patterns, able to fall asleep on her own when drowsy at times. We’re trying to get into a routine again, something we had going last week but when her cold struck, I felt entirely guilty letting her cry in bed for any length of time. Recently when we’ve gone out, she has barely cried in the car – and that is a big change. When she’s overtired, the car can be a nightmare.

Quinn hasn’t peed his pants in over a week now – we know he is potty trained but the negative attention seeking, while perfectly normal, is annoying. He is such a sweet kid and we’re now giving as much effort as possible to give him attention and let him know he’s appreciated around here. We’ll see how it goes – so far, so good. T.J. was leaving for four days, starting last Monday but that all changed when Quinn became ill – while I probably could have handled it, it would have been close to a nightmare so I am grateful that he opted to stick around.

I have more new recipes I’m excited to try in the upcoming weeks. Now that Avery is in a better mood come dinnertime, I can actually try some fun stuff in the kitchen! Last week the apple cider chicken was excellent – one of Rachael Ray’s recipes. When T.J. travels we don’t eat nearly as well – leftovers, drive-thru and fast food made at home are all possibilities.

So now Holden has a seemingly mild cold that I am sure the rest of the house will catch (at least the kids will). As usual, I will try to keep Avery healthy and germ free but if I have to leave the room to use the bathroom and come back and see Holden kissing her or touching her, all bets are off! And coughs and sneezes in the backseat in close proximity to her are not helpful either. I am becoming obsessed with trying to keep her healthy and so far the viruses are beating me 10 to 1!

P.S. While the cold is not the worst ever by any means, it has produced yucky symptoms for the boys especially in the morning and T.J. has a nasty sore throat too. Avery is showing just mild, mild beginning symptoms so we’ll see where this goes. Now that we’re traveling to Northern California next weekend for services for my Grampy, of course we can’t be healthy!!!

A very Buzz Birthday for Quinn

Wow – what a day we had here Saturday. It was tons of fun, tons of work and there were a lot of folks here enjoying the festivities. I think it was a bit overwhelming just because of the sheer number of people in attendance – 17 kids which included 4 of the Mexican kids from across the street. 13 were here for the bulk of the time, swimming in the pool, jumping in the jump house, eating hot dogs, playing outside and inside and having a ball. The cake was good, the sangria was tasty and it was a nice day weather-wise. Two other families opted to camp out and the kids all thought that was pretty cool too. There was a sick kiddo that touched the baby before I discovered his hacking cough later in the day and surmised that he was not the picture of health L. I am hoping that she won’t catch the dreaded crud but I am going to be shocked if she doesn’t end up with it. By Sunday, his other family members had caught the thing and it wasn’t looking pretty. UGGH! It just annoys me to no end when sick people touch my baby. I might have to get a bit more forceful – I am just too polite because I don’t want to appear bitchy but truly, I have got to protect my family here.

Please read about Holden on his blog – I will say that he did exceptionally well and appeared to enjoy being around his friends the entire day.

Also check out Holden’s blog to see some pictures taken at the party – they upload much quicker onto his blog. I hope to have it updated by tomorrow.

New picture alert - check out Holden's blog for some new shots of him at school.

Avery is adjusting well, falling asleep on her own now (yes!) and getting into a more regular nap pattern. It is making life much, much easier even though she still does not seem to love the car, she is improving in this regard. She particularly loves to laugh with her brothers and giggles when they play with her.

Tomorrow we have her 4 month appointment and Quinn will get his DTaP shot....happy 3rd birthday, Quinn! He is enjoying being the center of attention today, eating cookies of his choosing, selecting his cake for Saturday and being proud to be three. I promise to take lots of pictures at his party this weekend to share with everyone.

The kids all seem to be recovering well from their colds – but now I have a scratchy throat. Hopefully it will go away without much incident – I just don’t have time to feel crappy right now.

Holden is still in a stim-fest of sorts – not completely back to his semi-normal self.

Today we are going to be hanging out with some friends, perhaps at the local lake down the street or at their swimming pool up the hill. Hopefully it will be a good time for the kids to relax and have some fun together.

We have absolutely NO plans tomorrow – which is nice. We have put the RV purchase temporarily on hold while we decide what we want to do. Last week T.J. went to the place where we saw the model we believe we want and he made an offer that they refused (and not politely, I might add). I wonder if perhaps we were being a bit stodgy and lost out but really, I think the guy was a bit rude on the other end regardless. The one other dealership that sells this model in this state is near my Dad’s house so I had him go tire kick there yesterday to see if he thought it would be worthwhile for T.J. to make an offer there the next time he’s in Northern CA. If T.J. is in Sacramento within the next two weeks, which he does plan to be, he might stop by and make an offer and see what they say there.

The weather has really turned nice and feels like Autumn is in the air. Crisp nights and mild days make this my second favorite season…Spring is my favorite. Time for apples and Halloween – fun stuff.

Getting Sick of Cold Showers

Well, our hot water heater is supposed to be replaced today…and not a moment too soon. Cold showers are literally painful, especially when it’s early in the morning. I don’t feel very clean but certainly I’m cleaner than if I didn’t shower at all! The kids have been swimming in the pool so they’ll get a nice, hot bath tonight as well. If this isn’t fixed soon, T.J. has threatened to get a hotel room! How funny is that?

Holden’s school bus broke down on his way home Tuesday and he thought it most interesting and entertaining. He shared this with me a few times – telling me the bus was broken. He loved that yellow school bus but the white van with a/c is welcome in my opinion. They made it home only about 20 minute later than usual.

This weekend we might be buying an RV – we are checking out two other models and if they look good we may make an offer. If they don’t look good, we’ll be making a final decision and hoping to make an offer somewhere within the week. It’s a big decision and I’m researching the heck outta everything. There is a lot to consider and I’ve got the equivalent to Consumer Reports for RV’s – although the guy that compiles the information is really strict beyond belief, it’s good to have this information.

I am strongly considering enrolling Quinn in preschool, although I fear more exposure to viruses, it’s just going to be a fact of life, I guess. He seems interested in attending so I’ve got some research to do. If I do send him, it will most likely only be twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The cost is minimal (under $200/month). I have heard that most of the private preschools will allow unvaccinated kids – and Quinn is close to being as fully inoculated as he’s ever going to be so hopefully that won’t pose an issue.

See Holden’s blog for some more stuff on him.

Yep – we’re alive and well out here in hot, humid Southern California. The blog has fallen by the wayside as of late but rest assured, we’re busy, busy, busy around here. I actually had something long typed up and I cannot locate where I saved the damn thing so I’ll try to attempt and re-cap the last month or so and give you an idea of what we’ve been doing.

Our trip to Northern California camping was a blast. Although Holden had some difficult times adjusting to being in a new place, we had a good time visiting family and hanging out in the rented motorhome. We came to the revelation that we are indeed going to buy an RV and have since been doing research, shopping for new and used trailers that will fit our lifestyle and pocketbook. We’ve narrowed it down to two models (or floorplans – we are still going to be doing a little bit more research this week) and perhaps we’ll have something before the month end. We’re hoping to get away once a month for a weekend and do a long trip each summer too.

Holden returned back to school last Monday and fell right back into a good routine. His therapist Karen moved and so we’re working with his other therapist Sheila full time (9 hours per week) now. Nicole has two more days to work here before she leaves too so it’s a big time of change and upheaval for him but he is rolling with the punches quite nicely. We may hire someone else to work with him once per week starting in October or we just may use the hours to let someone babysit – we shall see. We’ve let biomedical stuff fall by wayside and he has been a bit more stimmy – looking back I’m wondering if we should go back to the things that we were doing including the mild chelation. I feel like I’m not doing enough right now and not in the loop with the latest and greatest thing.

We had an RDA, an assessment for Holden’s RDI skills and he is doing remarkably well there. We need to focus more to get him through stage 3 so we can move him along to stage 4. We notice a difference in him when we continue to do RDI activities on a daily basis. Unfortunately it’s difficult for me when T.J. travels – especially because the baby is being a bit high-needs these days. She is not a good day napper at all but sleeps amazingly well through the night which is a godsend (and I’m not complaining)….it just makes the days a bit difficult, particularly when the boys need my assistance. We are meeting with the RDI consultant this week to figure out where we’re at and what we need to be doing with Holden.

Quinn is 100 percent potty trained (okay - besides at night) and doing awesome in that regard. It took about 2 weeks for him to completely get it and now he’s a big boy! I must say, I love having only one child in diapers and her poop doesn’t stink yet so I am loving life! Avery has a hard time settling down though, prefers to be held and is a catnapping queen. She doesn’t stay in a good mood for long, mainly because she’s too tired during the day. She also can cry for one hour plus in the car, especially when she’s exhausted. This makes for a frazzled carload once we arrive anywhere (except for Quinn – he has been known to sleep right next to Avery when she’s screaming her little head off).

This month we don’t have much brewing besides Quinn’s birthday party on Sept. 30th. We are having a campout sleepover that night which should be a ton of fun! S’mores are a featured menu item and I have already bought out the Disney store in Buzz Lightyear regalia. He is going to be thrilled with the goodies I got him! I really can’t believe he’ll be three years old…wow! Time sure flies having three little ones, no doubt about it. I promise to post some photos soon of our vacation and other recent adventures.