Friday, April 25 & Saturday, April 26, 2008 - Travel

We've begun our travels through western Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania & New Jersey, to go see Royce! He's been gone since February & the kids and I have been missing him dearly. The drive through Ohio on Friday seems to go super fast. The kids and I are jamming out to The Backyardigans (Thanks, Michael & Marilyn!) and The Legend of Johnny Cash. We listen to Ring of Fire about 17 times in a row with all of us singing at the top of our lungs. Even Nora interjects "FIRE!" when the time comes!

Lily's favorite thing on these 2 days of travel are the tunnels along Interstate 70 in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The kids also got a big kick out of the different types of bridges we drove across.

April 24, 2008 - Nora's Riley Appt

We saw the Urology Nurse Practitioner today at Riley. Nora still has some reflux (VUR) on her left side. Right now it is a Grade II (of a possible IV). When she had the Deflux procedure several months ago, she had grade III-IV on both sides. We will be scheduling another Deflux again, in the next few weeks/months, which will probably take care of the reflux for good!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

1 night until we see Nora's urologist's NP.

1 day before we leave for WV (and then on to NJ!)

3 days before we see Royce!

This morning I got my hair cut & bought all new tires for the van. Sort of an expensive morning!

I can't believe how much gas is right now, today I saw it was $3.69/gallon! It's going to cost us around $400 in just gas for our trip!

Thankfully, Michael and Marilyn are in town, to give me a generous and selfless hand with all I have to do in preparation for our trip to NJ. Today they folded over 10 loads of laundry, while I dealt with still more cleaning, doing more laundry, picking Lily up from school & countless other forgotten tasks.

Tomorrow they are even going with me to Riley, to help take care of Thayne while I do Nora's appointment. Thank goodness there will be no testing tomorrow! I just hope that we are seen close to our actual appointment time.

Well, off to pack, our day begins tomorrow with the alarm sounding at 5:30am!

April 21, 2008

Wow! I haven't kept this up very well, lately! I'm trying to get all the laundry done and the house all clean in preparation for our trip to New Jersey.

All three kids are about halfway through their antibiotics for their ear infections. Nora is still wetting the bed at night, so I'm not entirely sure her UTI is gone. Hopefully by the end of this Rx, we will have kicked the UTI's butt! Her appointment with the urologist is April 24th, so we should, hopefully, know more then.

We went to Callie's house last night for a lovely dinner prepared by Marilyn, Michael & Aaron. Here are a few pics from that.

Will and Stephanie
(Royce's step-brother
& soon-to-be S-SIL!)

Aaron & Heidi
(Royce's brother and SIL)

Thayne,
the chubby cheeked dimpled wonder
a.k.a Royce, Jr.!

Royce was even able to call during the evening & spoke with Aaron, Heidi, Michael & Marilyn!

April 15, 2008

Lily was so happy to go to school today!

And I was happy to be out of the house. Since everyone was feeling so poorly all last week, I put off going to any stores and replenishing any of our necessities that we were running low and even completely out of. So today was the day for me to drop Lily off at school and take the other 2 little ones and visit all the other places we needed.

Well, we turned a 30 minute shopping trip into a 2 hour trek with 6 total trips to the bathroom! Nora was just not feeling well & kept complaining of her tummy hurting. She ended up pottying several times and then vomiting! After that she said she felt fine, so I thought, perhaps it was the chocolate milkshake that we enjoyed together. So we picked up Lily and I needed to run in to Hobby Lobby and check if they had a particular fabric. I had Thayne in the Maya Wrap (Thanks, Beckie!) on my front and Nora in the Ergo on my back. We found that, indeed, they did not carry the fabric I was in search of, and upon continuing on to the next area that interested us, Nora vomited, again, all down my back and into her lap. Poor baby! So we quickly exited the store, and got Nora and myself cleaned up. And skipped going anywhere else!

Nora sort of layed around the rest of the evening, and surprisingly, she did eat a lot at dinner.

(I made tofu, pinto beans & tomatoes seasoned in a Mexican style, then eaten with blue corn chips...yummy!)

April 14, 2008 - Dr.'s Visit!

Lily - Another ear infection - left ear. Another round of antibiotics!

Nora - Another ear infection - right ear. Urinalysis revealed white count. So, UTI! I have to take a specimen to the hospital tomorrow for a culture and sensitivity. Another round of antibiotics!

Thayne - Another ear infection - left ear. Another round of antibiotics!

And all three have upper respiratory colds, with thick snot and coughing!

I really can't wait for nice weather!

April 10, 11 & 12, 2008

Well Lily's fever broke on Friday morning, but she kept having a low-grade fever. Nora is still wetting the bed every night, but is having better bladder control during the daytime. Thayne is also having fever off and on.

Saturday morning I decided to call our pediatrician and I made appointments for all three kids for Monday morning, as Lily was off of school (Teachers' Professional Day) that day.

I just want to get my kids well, again. This winter is truly kicking our butts. Last winter we were also afflicted with chronic illness which lasted about 2 months or so. But I think this one may be worse!

The kids have had so far since January... head colds, ear infections, strep throat, strep throat, again...

In mid-March, Nora was diagnosed with a UTI (more info in prior post).

Now, it looks like Nora still has a UTI. And I have no idea what's wrong with the other two!

April 9, 2008 - Parent Teacher Conferences

Later in the morning, I had Lily's Spring Parent-Teacher Conference. Her teachers (she has 3) had nothing but praise for Lily! She is doing just great in the classroom. Her attention span is growing and growing. She is showing much leadership, and is even acting in the capacity of a Kindergartener (which is what she will be next year!) and helping out the younger children with works!

At home, she has been so interested in anything have to do with letters, phonics, reading, you name it! She has completed 2 Kindergarten workbooks that I bought her. She is now !READING! Set 1 of the BOB books!

April 9, 2008 - Trip to Spencer to Find Bruno

This morning we got up at 4:45 and I put all the kids in the van to drive out to Spencer, IN, to see if a dog, which had shown up in a barn at a farm, was Bruno. The people had only gotten a close look at him once, and had hollered at him and scared him off. After this instance, he won't go near them. In the mornings, as soon as he hears their front door close, he gets out of their pretty quickly. Hence the wee hours of the morn. We got there about 15 minutes before daylight, but I parked up by the house, and I got to see the dog, barely, but as soon as I opened and closed the van door, the dog was off. Probably not Bruno, but it was still very dark, and I couldn't really see.

April 8, 2008

Lily still had a fever upon waking up today, but felt much better, but I decided to keep her home from school again, to be safe. As long as she has ibuprofen, she feels and acts totally normal...but as soon as it wears off, she just feels terrible. It was so nice, today, though, I had to let her go outside.

I put away the TV, again, about a week ago, and I can’t even believe the difference! Today the girls played with each other inside and a lot outside in our fabulous afternoon weather! No fighting, super nice to each other, and wonderful manners. At one point, I asked Lily to get me something and she said, “Oh, of course, Mom!”.

This afternoon, Lily fed Thayne a whole bowl of baby oatmeal. And he drank water out of a Thayne sized open top cup for the first time today!

Sadly, this morning, we found that our baby bunny had died. We wrapped it up and put it in a box and held a funeral to say goodbye.

April 7, 2008 - Fevers, again!

Lily woke up today with a fever, & tummy ache, so I kept her home from school. Thayne was so unhappy, I literally wore him on my back this entire day. Then, lo & behold, by the evening, he got another tooth! That makes 6! Maybe now, he won’t be in so much pain.

On a brighter note, Nora and I (Lily fell asleep, poor thing!) scrubbed the whole front hallway & stairway, floors and base boards. Nora worked on it with me and then on her own for a total of about 2 hours! She was having such a good time...and so was I!

April 6, 2008 - Party!

We went to Jeff & Nicole's son, Tyler's 3^rd birthday party, in Greenwood. It was a dinosaur party, and the cake had dinosaurs and volcanoes on it. The kids had a great time. Their daughter, Reese, is about a month younger than Thayne. Those two were so funny to watch. Reese sits up, now & Thayne, as you all know, is very mobile. He kept crawling over to her and grabbing her face and laughing and using her to pull up to standing...and she just laughed and laughed the whole time!

I met an very nice lady there (the mother of one of Nicole's friend's) who raised 10 children, and homeschooled all of them using the Montessori method! We chatted about our experiences & ideas for most of the party. It was so nice to be around and talk with other adults!

Our momma bunny has been so good with the baby...keeping it clean and letting it nurse, I went ahead and put them together.

I'm uploading photos to Snapfish & I had to share these on here!

April 5, 2008 - Thayne

Poor little Thayne! He had a fever for a few days last week, unrelated to anything, and then had both top front teeth come in! So he now has 5 teeth! He had a fever again last night and today & just doesn't feel himself. He just nurses and snuggles, and nurses and snuggles! I'm wondering if maybe he's getting even more teeth! He's 7 1/2 months old now and as mobile as can be. He was chasing the girls all around the kitchen today and just having a ball. I recently installed a bar and mirror in the living room, so he has his own space to play and pull up and down. The day before Easter he was crawling and got himself into a sitting position for the first time. Now, of course, that's old hat! Check out that ORANGE hair!

April 5, 2008 - Bruno :(

Today marks 3 weeks that our dog, Bruno, has been gone. We continue to put up flyers, run lost ads, and drive all around our area searching. Hopefully he will find his way home or someone will find him and bring him back. While we have grown closer to our other dog, Bianca, Bruno will be sorely missed if he does not return.

April 4, 2008 - Nora

This morning Nora had a VCUG (Voiding Cysto-Urethro-gram), and a renal ultrasound, to see if she still has VUR (Vesicoureteral Reflux) and to check on the size and growth rate of her kidneys.

She was diagnosed with VUR when she was younger, and had a Deflux procedure performed to fix the reflux. Evidently the Deflux did not work.

We now get to go back to Riley to see her Pediatric Urologist and decide what to do at this point.

April 3, 2008 - Kittens!

The orange cat who has adopted our house had 5 kittens! All look exactly like the mama, but I don't know if they are boys, or girls, yet. It was really neat, because the girls and I got to watch most of their births!

April 1, 2008 - Baby Bunny!

We came home to find that Nora's bunny, Chocolate Milk, had a baby! She hasn't quite figured out what to do with it, so several times a day we get her out and hold her so her baby can nurse. It is just about the cutest naked little thing I've ever seen! I will keep re-introducing mama & baby, hopes that the nursing hormones will trigger stronger maternal instincts.