Phlebotomy Angst

I don't see either of our girls wanting to be phlebotomists when they grow up. This is basically how they feel about getting their blood drawn.

Brave face for Lexie to begin with while Eliza wants nothing to do with it.

Lexie starts to protest & Eliza still wants nothing to do with it.

And now they both totally want nothing to do with it. Good times!

On Monday, Lexie had her first blood draw. (But I think it may technically be her second. I think in Maryland they actually drew blood for the 1 year old lead test.) Needless to say, she was not a fan & cried & begged for it not to happen. I was impressed with how the doctor explained what was going to happen, too bad it didn't really work to make her more calm. All of my kids have seen me get my blood drawn many of times so I thought that maybe she'd be a little more calm, but I can't blame her. I wish I could kick & scream each time I do it as well. Anyway, Lexie has been having lots of stomachaches & headaches lately (off & on for the past 5 months & every day for about the last 2 weeks) & we thought maybe she could be allergic to something. The doctor noticed her weight had dropped off & wanted to check all of her levels & also for celiac disease & make sure she wasn't allergic to gluten. Gratefully, her results came back telling us she is perfect. We're thinking she may be slightly lactose intolerant, so we'll just test her out by eliminating milk from her diet for a few days & see what happens. Who knows, maybe it's nothing at all, but her reaction to a milkshake has me & the doctor both thinking she may be slightly.

On Wednesday I took Eliza in for her 15 month check up. She's such a good little baby. She's in the 50th for height & head but the 7th percentile for weight. The doctor suggested we check her kidney functions & electrolytes to make sure there wasn't something going on there that would prohibit her from growing properly. So poor Eliza got to get her blood taken & get a shot-score for her! Trying to draw her blood was not a pretty picture. They tried in one arm & it really looked like a great vein, but the nurse missed, dug around for a bit & couldn't get it & finally gave up on that one. I calmed her down for a bit & then we went for the other arm. Again, looked like a great vein but the nurse missed, moved around & got a bit but it was a slow flow. She filled up the tube a bit & then the blood stopped flowing. So, we gave up. They submitted the blood but since there wasn't enough her numbers could be skewed a bit. Anyway, the doctor called me today & told me that the CO2 levels are very low (normal levels are 21-24 she was 9, but this may be skewed some because of the amount of blood they actually got) & she has renal tubular acidosis. Basically, her body is too acidic & her kidneys can't balance out the acid with the bicarbonates which makes it so that she can't metabolize the nutrients from her food. Therefore, she isn't growing very well. So, we're going to give her some icky tasting medicine for a month & test her again & see if her CO2 levels come up some. Hopefully, she will also gain some good weight this month as well. And maybe if I remember, I will let Rick take her in for this next blood draw. He misses all the fun of shots & blood. Maybe he'd enjoy a turn...probably not.

Museum Field Trip

Andrew had a class field trip to the Museum of Nature & Science today & we had such a great time! He's been talking about seeing the dinosaurs for WEEKS & wanted to walk around with his teacher, Ms. Krista to see everything. He didn't get to the whole time, but he still loved everything! Here he is with some of his friends waiting while all of us gathered to go in. It's so fun to see him interact with all of his friends & greet each of the kids as he saw them. He's really become so much more social & really loves his friends at preschool.

Andrew has never been to a museum before, so it was fascinating to see how he reacted to different things. He had to look at everything & have me read him each placard in the first room & explain things to him. It was fun, but I was grateful I didn't have to do it for EVERY area we went to.

The lady here was super nice & let Andrew touch everything. It kinda hit me how a year or so ago he wouldn't have liked it because of how sensitive he was to touch but he's come a long way & even told me how different things felt.

And yes, I did park Eliza right next to a dead bird. I thought it would be more interesting than a blank wall since she couldn't see high enough through the window to see the scientists working on cleaning fossils. She was content as well as her play buddy.

Andrew LOVED the dinosaurs! He couldn't get enough of them.

This tall one was his favorite.

And he knew this was a T-Rex head before I told him & he got to hold a T-Rex tooth, too.

He had a lot of fun walking around with his buddy, Brady, as well.

Once we finished looking at the dinosaurs we went to look at the Mummies. I was a bit nervous that it would freak him out, but it didn't. Afterwards, we went to the Discovery Zone & played a lot! He & Eliza could not get enough of everything. It was as if they had never seen toys or puzzles before, but I'm so glad they had a blast. We spent a good hour or more in here just exploring.

The fan was a big hit. Eliza would laugh every time the scarves landed on her.

And Andrew learned a lot about elevators, pulley systems, & magnets.

And also enjoyed building many different things.

He loved this owl puzzle & did it at least 15 times. He even let me do it once.

And before we left he had to put the body parts all in their right place & learn about all of the different parts & what they did. He did a great job putting it together.

Eliza really liked the brain.

As we got outside Andrew reminded me again of his awesomely vivid imagination. Before we went he thought that we would see real dinosaurs, like in a zoo. Once we were safely out of the museum he said, "Mom, I'm so glad we didn't see any real live dinosaurs that wanted to eat us. But I was ready to run if we did." He is awesome & such a delight. Even on the way over I was cracking up. We were almost to our exit off of I-70 & Eliza had fallen asleep & we were both kinda quiet for a minute & Andrew said with a slight giggle of discomfort, "Mom, sorry it's so quiet & I'm not really talking. I'm just thinking." It was awesome. I so love this boy & am glad I could go with him today.

Star Wars Party

As we all know, my kids like to throw parties. Like a lot. Joseph decided that he really needed to throw a Star Wars party & gave us all invitations.

Since we had a few days to prepare & since it was a serious party & all, I decided to pull out the big guns so that we would all surprise him. It just so happened that I saw a pin on pinterest that day about Star Wars parties & treats & showed Rick. We decided we could pull a few of the ideas off for the party.

And secondly, I have this awesome friend, Karen, who happens to have TONS of great Star Wars costumes, so I asked her if I could borrow some. Gratefully, she said yes. And yes she did. She decked the whole family out!

Our cute little Chewbacca.

Yoda, Leia, & Chewie chewing on a cucumber.

And here is Joseph (because he was the only one who came up with his own costume as our costumes were a surprise for him). He's some patrol guy that is fighting Darth Maul on the back of the wii game. He actually did a really great job of replicating him.

Here's the bunch. I was Leia as well. Joseph was over the top surprised & excited to see us all in costume! His grin was so awesome!

Then we told Joseph that we had yet another costume upstairs that he could wear if he wanted. Of course he did.

And then we showed him the kitchen. He thought all of the treats were "AWESOME" and so amazing. He starting laughing at the Yoda Soda the most. I'm so glad he loved the surprise. The kids like to pull of these little surprise parties for us, it was great that we could do one for him. We should do it more often.

Then we headed down to the basement for some games that Joseph prepared for his party. First, Joseph gave out prizes to the "best dressed" for the party. Eliza won!

Eliza rarely lets us carry her up the stairs anymore. It cracks me up!

Joseph had a fun scavenger hunt game for us & we had to find power ups along the way.

On this bucket portal thing Joseph had every name of every robot in Star Wars taped onto it. And we had to use R2D2 to open the garage for us so we could get the next clue.

Here's Leia just being pretty.

And Yoda with his favorite toy from Christmas.

And what Star Wars party would be complete with out a light saber duel?

And we also got to search for the hidden Ewok.

After all of the games we changed & had treats. And also did a little science experiment with some of the treats.

I think the Star Wars party was a success. Maybe one of these years they can watch the movies.

Choose The Right!

Andrew got a CTR ring today & he is beyond excited! He talked about it the whole way home & basically every other comment he makes since. He is constantly saying, "I just love my CTR ring!" He says it will help him to remember to choose the right and not the bad because that won't make him very happy but choosing the right does. He's right! I love this giddy little boy & am glad that he wants to choose the right!

A Super Saturday

We had such a blast today! We have really awesome kids. It's funny how many times Rick & I caught ourselves saying that these last few weeks. We love them so much & are so grateful to be their parents & are so glad we got to spend a super fun day with them today.

It started off early with Rick heading out to play football & Lexie saying she really needed some mommy time. So, we started making some snowflakes & of course everyone joined in. We had a blast making them together.

Then we went ice skating with one of Lexie's best friends, Cassidy. It was a blast! It was a first for our kids & Rick & I haven't been ice skating since the cruise when Andrew was a baby. I was impressed with how kid friendly they made it. Andrew loved using a bucket to push himself around & would even go around & around in circles like he was on the spin cycle of the washer. Then he started going really fast & then just gliding across the ice. The best with him was probably watching him crawl on & off of the ice. It was hilarious! He did get brave later & skated standing up all on his own. It was pretty fun to see how he progressed. I liked how the workers there would periodically come & get him & skate with him just to get him on his feet. So nice. And they didn't get mad at him when he decided to stack 4 of the buckets for him to use by himself. It was a lot of fun & he loves ice skating!

Lexie was really quick about getting around the rink & used a cone for a bit but decided holding onto the wall was easier. She did brave it a bit by staying off of the wall but preferred holding dad's hand & the wall most. After we ate lunch she started begging to go back for more! She is sold! She says it was, "super super fun!"

Joseph was the quickest at really trying to figure skating out. It didn't take him many times holding on around the rink before he started letting go & taking off. He really took to ice skating & wants to go back every day until it closes.

Poor Rick didn't get to do too much skating on his own. I had Eliza in the wrap the whole time so I didn't skate so he would go from one child to the next over & over. He decided next time he either needs more adults or a better back. He did a great job helping everyone & had a really fun time doing it, despite his bad back.

And here are the kids, Taren, Cassidy, Andrew, Lexie, & Joseph. It was so awesome watch the kids learn/attempt something completely foreign to them.

We went out to lunch with Cassidy's family & then headed home for the afternoon. The kids went down to the basement & started working on making a Fair for us. They started talking about it a few days ago & decided it was time to put all that talking into action. It was awesome.

They gave us wristbands once we entered.

They had a play place for Eliza so she wouldn't be bored.

Here is the "Animal Toss"

and "Dinosaur Bowling."

We played Whammy & "dress the doll" with some of Lexie's dolls.

They had stations where they set out pieces for Rick & I & timed us while we made a rocket ship or a castle with the provided materials.

Here are our finished products:

I used to think that I was a pretty creative kid growing up. We played a lot of pretend & make believe & were pioneers a lot & such, but Rick & I decided our kids totally have us beat on the creativity level.

Can't wait to see what they come up with next. We sure love these kiddos & especially love spending time with them!