Really? Two more months?!

Do you ever feel sorry for little boys when they are the only boy in the family? Well, TS would like me to ask you to NOT feel sorry for him. He is very happy he is having another little sister, and he wishes she would get here sooner. Why? Well, how about you scroll down and see for yourself.















Doesn't seem too happy in his fairy princess dress...(yes, he still has a rash on his face)


He got a little happier once he was given a wand, which he then used to sword fight with Emma. Here he was on his way to come to me, probably to beg me to take the dress off of him (in reality, he didn't seem to care too much. He has no clue about clothing yet!).
Story behind the clothing:
You might be wondering why I let Emma dress him up. You might not be. Either way, I'm going to tell you. Emma innocently asked for her dress-up clothes. She really wanted to wear her princess dress. I thought, sure, why not, and pulled it out.

She pulled out her dress, and I continued on my way, doing whatever it was that I was doing. A few minutes later I turn around and see TS dressed in a princess dress. I was actually quite impressed with the speed of Emma dressing him. Why do we need thumbs again? This girl doesn't seem to be slowed down one bit without them!

She added a few accessories here and there: the wand (above photo), the wings (below photo), and then the crown (no photo). I'm continually amazed at how boy TS continues to look regardless of what he is wearing. No one has ever mistaken him for a girl (even as a wee babe), and I think if he went out in that dress, people would still think he's a boy.



Emma kept walking around with a little smug smile on her face. It was really funny. She's very excited for the new baby to come because she wants to dress her up a lot. I know TS will be very happy about this too (and so will daddy since he doesn't find this quite as amusing as me!)...well, that is until his little sister is old enough to conspire with Emma and the two of them will figure out how to dress him up as a girl, again. There's just something so tempting as a sister to dress your brother up in girl clothes. I know I would've...had I had any brothers.


Lastly, Emma wrote her name tonight. It's not a new thing. She's been able to do it for a while now, but we thought we'd take a photo of it. Whenever she does her "E", she generally does about five lines on the "E" instead of the usual three (since she is five, it must have five lines).

Chico Bags

Guess what came in the mail today?!!


Ten of these little things...



They're little duffel bag things that you can make pretty designs on the floor with. This is my partial flower that I made...




Okay, so maybe that's not what they're for. What are they really? I'm guessing you've probably already figured that out, but just in case not, they are reusable grocery bags, called CHICO BAGS. Mine are pretty wrinkly, though according to the photo on their website, they aren't wrinkly. I think they must iron theirs before they go shopping!




This is what it looks like when you pull it out of the little bag. It's pretty nifty too because the little bag it comes in is sewn onto the big bag so you don't have to worry about keeping track of the little bags. So, the little bag is sewn on the inside of this big bag.





How convenient is it to carry around ten little grocery bags when you go shopping?









Well, how convenient is it to have your child(ren) with you?

As you can see, they clip on very nicely. You can loop them around your wrists, clip them onto your belt loops, clip them onto your sleeves, or if you wear a headband - clip it on that. It's pretty cool!

Or if you are a coward, you can carry them in your pocket or bag. They are pretty small when they are all compacted and stuff.



I've yet to use them, but according to what I've read, you lay the reusable shopping bags on the conveyor belt in front of your groceries. Most cashiers know what to do with them without you having to tell them, though if you get one that is confused, it's a simple thing to explain! If you're at a place like Wal-Mart, you can even assist and stick them on the rotating grocery bag thing to make it super easy for the cashier.



They are washable and reusable. I was able to get these pretty babies half off the normal price. They come in several different colors, but Tyler wanted a man color. So, I got army green. I'm kind of excited to use them!


I'm not sure how excited Emma will be to come with me...


:-) Teresa

Today's Dr Appt

Today's dr visit is brought to you by Tara, the nurse practitioner at our pediatricians office...

Reason for our visit:

• Check on Emma's bladder infection
• Do another CBC (blood draw) to make sure the antibiotics didn't mess up her counts much.
• See how the meds are working for the acid reflux
• Talk about the possibility that Emma might have some eye issues.

Emma was very cooperative as we got ready and left. She continuously told me that she was not going to cry when she has her blood taken this time. She did everything they asked with her weight and temp, and she even eagerly left a urine sample for them! When Tara talked to her, Emma actually answered. Granted, it was in a whisper, but still...she was talking!

Results from our visit:

• BLADDER INFECTION: Appears to be completely gone (yay!). They have sent it off to be cultured to make sure it really is all gone.
• CBC: Emma stayed very calm, came and sat on my lap, chose her finger, held it out, didn't fight, didn't flinch, didn't cry...just watched as they did her blood draw! I was SHOCKED. I have never seen her behave this calmly during a blood draw. What a relief! She was so proud of herself. It was really exciting.
  
• Platelets are actually a touch higher at 70 (were 64), but they are accurate give or take 10, so they are basically the same...though, we're glad they are higher!
• White blood cells are a bit lower. This might be from the antibiotics. Hopefully next time they will be back to a higher number. They aren't terribly low though.
• ACID REFLUX: The meds appear to be working well for her. There are some times when the acid reflux still seems to be bothering her, so Tara told us we can try giving it in the morning as well as at night to see if it helps.
• EYE ISSUES: Tara looked at Emma's eyes and had Emma follow her finger back and forth. She said it did look like Emma's eyes weren't focusing quite normal. She gave us a couple ophthalmologists that we can call to go see. So, we'll be doing that soon.

Here are a couple photos:

Emma chose her lovely outfit. Not really sure why she is standing like a monkey (no offense to any monkeys reading this).

TS wouldn't hold still, so he ended up blurry. He had fun looking at the animals painted on the walls. He still has a rash all over his cheeks. Poor boy! Emma seems pretty cleared up from her thing, but TS still has the rash. It doesn't really appear to be getting better. I hope it does soon!!
Since TS hasn't been getting much attention lately, I thought I'd mention a few little things. He is getting more dramatic about things. Sometimes when he gets upset he will shriek really super high...not so fun. We're trying to figure out how to stop that one before it begins to be normal for him. If I'm sitting on the floor, he loves to run to me with his arms out and hug me really big. Then he'll walk back several feet and do it again and again. He loves to give kisses. When we go somewhere and has his shoes on, he'll go get my shoes for me (how polite!). He's started holding his finger out in the "one minute" sign and say "Right back" to let me know he'll be right back. It's so cute! Oh, and he often will walk holding his hands together behind his back. He's the sweetest, squishiest, and lovable little man...

Kidney Ultrasound

Emma did great today! We told her about the ultrasound last night and went through the usual things to explain it all to her. She was upset at at first, but once she realized it wasn't going to hurt and it was an ultrasound like I'd had with the baby, she was just fine with it. Even when we walked into the waiting room this morning she was still excited. It was almost like being in another reality...

In fact, she was the opposite than normal. I pretty much had to try to keep her from doing backflips off the chairs, yelling too loud (out of having fun), and to try to keep her somewhat calm. She had a nervous excitement about her that was definitely new. When we were at the registrars desk, I was focused on answering the lady's questions, and Emma fell off her chair from being so wiggly. It was kind of funny...definitely not what I'm used to! Okay, I think I'm making her sound too wiggly. She was mostly well behaved, just had spurts of the wiggles.

Here's a photo of her in the waiting room. I didn't realized the flash was on on my phone and it kind of whited her out, but you can see the crazy look in her eyes.


Though one thing didn't change. There was a nice older lady who was sitting there and kept smiling at Emma. Did Emma smile back? No, she glared at her. The lady thought it was really funny, which I'm glad she had a sense of humor! I poked/tickled Emma a few times (she was on my lap) and told her she shouldn't be glaring at nice people. She really easily started laughing, as though she had been right on the verge anyway. It's like it's a game to her or something.

After about 45 minutes, we were called into the back. Emma didn't even get nervous...at least not obvious with it. I laid Emma down on the table and she seemed excited still! So weird! She didn't cry or fight or anything. You could tell she was having fun. At one point, the technician left for a few minutes, and Emma told me that she was happy and having fun. It was really exciting to see her this way!

Here's a photo of her laying very still for the ultrasound. She LOVES this photo.


Since we didn't see the doctor, we didn't get any results about anything. I was able to see her kidneys and bladder on the monitor, and in my incredibly professional opinion, all looked great. Truth be told, unless we were looking at the kidneys straight on, it was very difficult to see them, and often when he was taking shots from a weird angle, it was very difficult to differentiate her insides one from another. At one point the tech did explain what we were looking at. It was both of her kidneys and where they were conjoined. But then a fish or squid or something swam by and got in the way... But I shall be sure to share any results once we get them from the doctor. I would be surprised if there was anything wrong.

When we left, Emma did say goodbye to the lady she had been glaring at, who eagerly waved goodbye to Emma. We went and picked out a little treat in the gift shop. Then we sat and ate in the eating area. It was fun spending that time with her.

We dropped by Wal-Mart on our way home, and she glared at the lady that welcomed us in, which made that lady burst out laughing. So, Emma and I had another talk about the glaring thing...maybe if they'd all quit laughing she wouldn't find it worth it to glare at them. Perhaps I should put a sign on her "Please don't laugh when she glares at you."

Here she is at home with her cat she picked up from the gift shop.

Oh, and sorry if I almost always type too much. It's really easy to keep on typing and typing... I did have one more thing to share, though. I finally got all the stuff for the blood glucose monitor kit thingy that I have. I took my blood twice, making sure the second time (since I forgot the first time) to have Emma watch. She gets finger pokes for her blood draws sometimes, so I wanted her to see someone else have it done. She loved it and kept wanting me to poke my finger again. Then when Tyler got home, we did the same thing to him to see what his blood sugar is like after eating (just out of curiosity).

Emma was a bit ruthless and wanted to do the poking of his finger herself. So, I let her push the button that poked his finger. He pretended to scream and then was fine. Emma thought it was way cool. She wanted to do it again. Then a few minutes later she asked me if I would poke her finger too. What?! Really...hmmm...what to do when little girl asks to have her finger poked. I told her if she really wanted me to that I would, but that it is just a tiny bit owie.

I could tell she was really wanting to do it, but she was scared at the same time. I didn't push it AT ALL. I was feeling torn about it all anyway! I kept thinking, if she does it at home in a comfortable environment, where she has control & say over whether she wants it or not, and does it when she sees that it's not super scary at all...maybe this could be a turning point in her blood draws and she won't freak out so bad anymore. But then I really didn't want to poke her finger and have her start crying. I would feel horrible. In the end, she told me that she would like to do it later. I told her that was just fine... Then we talked about her blood draw tomorrow and that they will poke her finger for it. She seemed fine with that - as long as it wasn't out of her arm, she was okay. I guess we'll see! Maybe something good will come from the gestational diabetes stuff and she'll end up getting over her fear of fingers pokes (I hope!). Now that I have written that down publicly, I'm sure tomorrow will go horrible...