Priceless

One trip to Toys R US +
one very indecisive 4.5 year old +
$40 Phineas & Ferb camera=

CALEB SLEPT IN HIS BED 16 NIGHTS IN A ROW....BY HIMSELF.....ALL NIGHT!!!!

I still cannot believe it! He's had the same sticker chart for over 6 months and it's FINALLY filled up!


We've been telling him that when his chart was filled up, he could pick out a surprise from the toy store. He had free reign (within reason) of the store and had a very hard time picking something out. I still cannot believe he picked the camera. Well actually I can, I guess. He LOVES taking pictures and this is a "real live camera." I tried conning him into getting one of those break-proof Fisher Price "real" cameras, but he insisted that those weren't "really real." He LOVES his pick and I love seeing him so happy. (And that he's not sleeping with us anymore!)


He's already taken over 200 pictures. It's so funny to see what he's been taking pictures of.

Good times with great friends

We don't see many of our friends nearly as much as we used to. Gone are the days when we'd play Spades every night and go out to eat/mini golf/movies every weekend. Everyone is so much busier than they used to be. Sometimes I wish time would slow down again and we'd see each other more often. Most of us have kids now and they are all very close in age. They have so much fun when we're all together and really look forward to those times.

We were lucky to get to spend most of Saturday with our dear friends, The Blawats. The guys were helping out the "other" Blawats at their new house. So Rhi and I decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was so nice to catch up and let the kids run! Here's a pic of the boys, and of course they were being goofy!


While we were there, the guys decided that we were all going to Lake Geneva for dinner. We LOVE Lake Geneva, but haven't been there in a long time. The kids were great at dinner, even though we ate at least a couple hours past their normal meal time. Even the waitress commented on how well behaved they all were! HA! Afterwards, the boys wanted ice cream (even though it was freezing outside), so we went to a cute little candy store and got them ice cream. Caleb ate his entire "junior" cone by himself! Apparently he loves Superman ice cream!

Here's a couple pics from the evening:




Such a great day! Looking forward to the next time we get to hang out with friends!

Preschool take 2!

Our church has been trying to get a preschool started for years and this year their dream came true...sort of. The plan was to start with 2 classes. One for 2 year olds and one for 3 year olds, each with a parent. They have been asking me for at least 6 months if I was going to bring Isaac. Of course I wanted to, really just to get some IZ/Mommy time. But I didn't have anywhere for Caleb to go for those 1.5 hours each week. (My friend offered to watch him, but she has 3 little boys of her own, and I know she has other things going on every Thursday.) I told them that we wouldn't be able to do it this year.

Fast forward to last week, I had 6 messages on my phone on Wednesday (the day before the classes were supposed to start). They were calling to tell me that they had expanded the ages of the classes for ages 2-4 years old and wanted to know if we wanted to attend (we meaning me, Isaac AND Caleb.) It became apparent that they were really desperate needing more kids and needed our 2 boys to make the class a go. So I decided to give it a whirl. And when we went the next day, I almost laughed out loud because Caleb and Isaac are 50% of the class! (The other class has 6 kids, but they meet in the evening.) There's another wild man who's 4 years old and a little girl who doesn't turn 2 until December! The boys got crazy together and the little girl cried constantly. It's quite the crew!

So we've had one class, which was a bit unorganized, but for the most part it was okay. It obviously has christian based lessons, so they are pretty much just learning about the Bible. Which is fine with me, of course! (Although she threw in some colors and shapes at one point...) And it was funny because she told us at the beginning of class that one of her goals was to have the kids be able to recognize their names by the end of the semester...both boys know how to do that already.

I really didn't think they were paying attention too much last week, but Caleb has been opening up books and "reading" to Isaac and he always is talking about "On the first day, God made the sky, on the second day, God made..." So he WAS paying attention! So we'll see how it goes. It kind of reminds me of the library classes I take them to (which we now have to miss because of this class...), but those are free! I guess I should look at it as helping the church build their program up. Plus, it gives us something different to do together each week.

Isaac's "First day of preschool" Although he told me "Dis is not preschool. I go to preschool when I free (three) and den I go to Cay-yub's school!"

Wordless Wednesday

Too cute not to post

Sorry if you are getting sick of my conversations with the boys, but this one is too cute not to share.

As we were getting ready this AM, Caleb came to tell me it was raining. I was being over-dramatic and said "Oh no! Not again!" So Isaac comes up to me and here's our conversation:

Isaac: I sorry bout that.
Me: Sorry about what? (Thinking he broke something again...)
Isaac: Sorry God did that.
Me: (Not getting it) Sorry God did what?
Isaac: Sorry God make it rain today. Sorry bout that!

Isaac's World

I have to write down a few of things that Isaac has been saying so I don't forget.

Everything is "wast week" (last week) to him. Even if something happened that morning, he still says last week. An example "Member last week, I ate up all your berries?" (which was really this AM!) or "Where my balloon I got at Grammie's house last week?" (which was really yesterday!)
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He was throwing cars down the hallway and I asked him to stop.

Isaac: But I not frowing cars!
Me: Isaac, I saw you throwing them! Please stop and pick them up!
Isaac: But I not frowing cars!
Me: Isaac, now you're telling stories and remember you need to tell the truth (we are working on this with both of them...)
Isaac: But I NOT frowing cars! My wip was frowing cars (My lip was throwing cars). Not me, my wip!
Me: (silent...I didn't know how to respond to that one!)
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He has an excuse for everything. And every excuse starts with BUT! "But! Caleb do dat!" or "But! I don't want peaches"
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If you ask him something and his answer is yes, he doesn't say yes. He says "I guess!"
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He has a new pair of jeans that came with a belt and I went to put them on him yesterday and he yelled "YESSSS! My jeans dat have a seat belt! Wook Cay-yub! My jeans have a seat belt!"
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One of his new favorite shows is "Cat into the Hat" (Cat in the Hat).
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His favorite book is "Easter Eggs Everywhere." He knows almost all of the words by heart and of course knows when I try to skip some pages!
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He has started to make up words. He usually uses them under his breath after getting scolded about something. For instance if he has to go on time out, he starts muttering "Oh singo, sango, stupid, singo...." It's so cute because he doesn't want us to hear what he's saying, almost like he thinks the words that he has made up are naughty. He's also started saying "Dats waited" (That's rated) when something is wrong. For instance, If the battery was dead in one of his toys and he'll say "Dat battery not working. Dats waited." Or if Macy is barking, he say "Macy is waited." Not sure what rated means in Isaac's world :)

No girls allowed!

Up until recently, the boys didn't want much to do with Joel. Of course they have always loved him, but they needed/wanted me to do anything and everything for them. Well that has changed and all they want is their DAD! They cannot wait until he gets home from work and he has to help them do everything now. Sometimes they cheer when they hear I have to work, and then are not excited to see me when I come home! When I ask them if I can help do something, they always reply, "No, Daddy can do it!" (They still both want me to put them to bed though...)

The other night, we were all playing outside. I went in to get the phone and when I came out, this is what I saw (they were watching for bunnies):


Then I decided to take a few more pictures of my boys, most of which didn't turn out because they were being so silly:



Then I asked Joel to take a picture of me with Caleb and Isaac. Neither of them would take a picture with me! "No! We take pictures with Daddy!" However, Caleb was very eager to take a picture of me by myself! (Pretending to be sad that no one would take a picture with me.) I hope this picture isn't a preview of what my future is going to look like!!

IZ Update

I think I mentioned that he complained about his right ear hurting one time while we were in MN last week, but never said anything about it again. Then yesterday AM, he was crying that his left ear hurt. So I took him in because he always seems to get sicker on the weekends. His cold has cleared up, but he usually ends up with an with an ear infection after he's done being snotty. Sure enough, he has a "raging" double ear infection. It's never good when the ped asks "How long has he been complaining about this?" (In other words: Why didn't you bring him in sooner?!) Talk about making me feel horrible! Poor baby!

Caleb's 1st and 2nd days of school

Caleb's first day of school was on Wed. Technically it wasn't a real day of school since it was only an hour and I was there with him. Today was the real deal. He did great. He's at the same school with one of the same teachers from last year and another teacher that he knows and loves. (There's 16 kids and 2 teachers.) This year, however, it's much more structured. Most schools in our area have a K4 program (4 year old kindergarten), but ours doesn't. The class that he is tailored a lot like K4, so he will hopefully be ready for kindergarten next year:) They pack a lot of stuff into the 2.5 hours that he's there. I don't think there's much time for him to be opening windows or getting into the teachers' purses this year!

He has a couple kids in his class from last year. I asked him if he saw that Allison was in his class again, he told me "Yah, I talked to her." Not sure if this is true or not, but at least he noticed that she was there! He also learned how to read the words "boy," "girl," and "friends," which he was pretty excited to show me. I told him that he was pretty smart and he replied, "But I didn't know them until they teached me!" His teachers told me he had a great day, which was so good to hear. The funny thing is he thinks he only has 3 days of school left (next M-W-F) and then he's done. HA!

Annoyed (again)

I wasn't really expecting to get much out of Caleb's latest visit to yet another new clinic (asthma/allergy). We didn't really get any answers and I left being rather annoyed. I actually did like the doctor and loved the fact we didn't have to see a resident. And even though we were "squeezed" in for our appt, he spent a lot of time with us. He was extremely impressed with how Caleb looks (he's also an immunologist and know a lot about C's disorder) saying that he's never seen a CGD kid "look so good". On a side note, Caleb was 31 pounds, 4 oz (with jeans and a sweatshirt on). And he was 39 inches tall....he's grown over half an inch since May!

Anyway, after going through C's history and the history of his never ending cough, I felt like I should have had Isaac there as the patient instead of Caleb. Everything he was asking me was pretty much "no" for Caleb and "yes" for Isaac (watery eyes, especially outside..check!, dark circles under eyes...check!, eczema...check!, wheezing...sometimes!, hives..check!, etc.) Sometimes I think I overlook things with IZ because he's my "healthy" one. Maybe I'll have to bring him back for an appt!

After all the questioning, he wanted Caleb to do pulmonary function tests, even though I told him that he just had them done in May. After comparing them (with the 4 others he's done in the past) it was determined that they were all pretty much the same (no kidding!!). So then the doctor suggested that they give him a large dose of albuterol and then redo the test. Of course the test came back better and they were thrilled. They "found" the reason for his coughing....asthma. That really annoyed me that that was their conclusion because we did albuterol treatments twice a day for 2 weeks and then every 4 hours for 1 week, plus did the steroid inhalers for 2 weeks and those things did NOTHING for his cough. In my uneducated opinion, he did better the second time because the first test was sort of like a practice and then he remembered how to do it the second time. He's never done it twice in the pulmonology clinic, and by the time the test is over, he's just getting the hang of it.

When I brought up the fact that we already did all of those inhalers for a month, he kept going back to the "facts" and that C improved 86% after the albuterol. In my other uneducated opinion, maybe the albuterol DID help him a little bit with the test. Maybe it does help open up his airways so that he breathes better, but it clearly has not helped his cough. But what do I know. The plan is to give him his albuterol inhaler for another month and if he's still coughing, he will have a CT of his sinuses so see if there's something brewing in there. (Which apparently is common for kids with his disorder. He has sounded a bit nasally and has been snoring since all of this started, so who knows.) In the mean time, I will continue to pray that this is a virus and it will be gone before then.

And since he's an allergist he wanted to do allergy testing...which I also thought was ridiculous. C's never had an issue with allergies before and he admitted that if C did have allergies, we weren't going to treat them unless they were "out of this world." So they put C through yet another test and this one made him crazy. For a kid with sensory issues, having stuff jammed into his back that made him itch like crazy was about enough to put him over the edge. He was in pure misery for 30 minutes, tears in his eyes trying not to cry. It broke my heart. And to make it worse for him, Isaac kept saying "I can scratch my back Cay-yub, see? I can scratch my back and you can't do it." Stinker!

In the end, it was found that he has pretty bad allergies to some trees, grass, and mold/fungus. And this is likely due to the fact that we purposely try to keep him away from these things (as much as possible) because of his immune deficiency (fresh cut grass, grass clippings, leaves, and of course all types of mold/fungus). Apparently with "typical" children, the more they are exposed to these things, they become more tolerant to them and less allergic. And since he's not really exposed to them much, he's highly allergic?? I don't know. But what are we doing with this info anyway?? NOTHING.

After sitting in a little room with two very energetic boys for 2.5 hours (and not being able to allow them to eat in there due to some kids' severe allergies to food), we are no closer to finding out the cause of C's cough. ANNOYING!!

Unscripted, Part 2

This nearly brought tears to my eyes!!

Still coughing....

Well, Caleb still has his cough. Nearly two months and counting. I am a little less concerned about it because Isaac has been coughing for a couple weeks now too, although he's a snotty mess along with it. Caleb still just has the junky cough. I am hoping it's just a virus that's taking it's sweet time to get out of C's system.

The Singular didn't do anything for Caleb. And we also did a steroid inhaler for 2 weeks, which also didn't help at all, so I guess that rules out Asthma? Who knows. Of course his ped is concerned and wants him to see a doctor that specializes in asthma/allergies/immune deficiencies and get his take on the whole thing. His ped called me on the way to his son's school open house last week, so I couldn't get too into it, but he told me he'd probably want pulmonary function tests done to rule out asthma. Caleb has these done every 6 months with his pulmonologist! I thought his ped would be up to date on this, but I guess not.

Anyway, he told me to call and make an appt for next week with the asthma guy. HA! I told him I bet I couldn't get him in for at least 2 months. He told me to call him the next day if I couldn't get him in within 10 days. Of course "The first appt available" was on October 29th. So annoying. But guess what?! His ped miraculously got us into the new guy this Wednesday! That's also C's first day of school, so things may be a little tight...

Isaac's cough is much worse sounding than Caleb's, but it's not slowing him down either. When I was talking to their ped a couple weeks ago about Caleb, I mentioned the cough to him. He told me to give him his steroid inhaler to try and clear it up (which it has in the past), but of course it didn't. I am debating about taking him in tomorrow. This type of stuff usually settles into his ears and he was complaining on Friday that his ear hurt (but not since then). Plus, his ped has always said they want to see kids if they've been coughing more than 2 weeks, which he has....

My dad had hip surgery last Tuesday, so the boys and I took an impromptu trip to MN to visit my parents (Thurs-Sun). They did really good in the car, which was so wonderful. Caleb only had one freak out and it was on the way back home. While in BE, we visited my dad in the hospital, went to a volleyball game, and played outside (A LOT). They also had a lot of fun playing with my brother's old Tonka trucks while we were there. I got to catch up with some old friends, which was fun too. And of course a trip to BE is never complete without a stop to the John Deere "store!"