My own personal janitor

With a set of keys like that you'd think he'd have a clue how to clean.

Shorty

She'll get taller....some day. By the way, Cole put that blanket there himself. He didn't want his picture taken with his face showing.

Things to know

If you are putting cream cheese on a bagel for Cole and he tells you to "put the lid on it". He wants you to put the two bagels halves back together.

When putting socks on Cole he will tell you he wants "little ones" which means you can't pull the socks up. They have to be pushed down to his ankles.

Cole will pretty much eat anything if he can make it. He loves to get "the big step" (the step ladder) so he can make scrambled eggs.

Camels are still a big part of Cole's vocabulary but he is now getting more creative with it.

"Oni chase big camel in to tree, Oni get owie"

"Baby camels outside"

Camel and Camo are used interchangeably.

New Shoes

Awhile back Oprah had a 50% off coupon on her website good at payless shoes. You got 50% off your ENTIRE purchase!!! So needless to say we all got some new shoes. Well Cole has become pretty attached to one pair in particular and he only wants to wear these "new shoes". When ever I hear him say "Cole wear new shoes mama" I think of this song.



Woke up cold one tuesday,
i'm looking tired and feeling quite sick,
i felt like there was something missing in my day to day life,
so i quickly opened the wardrobe,
pulled out some jeans and a T-Shirt that seemed clean,
topped it off with a pair of old shoes,
that were ripped around the seams,
and i thought these shoes just don't suit me.

Hey, I put some new shoes on,
and suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
it so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
but long on time,
slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
and i'm running late,
and i don't need an excuse,
'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes.

Woke up late one thursday,
and i'm seeing stars as i'm rubbing my eyes,
and i felt like there were two days missing,
as i focused on the time,
and i made my way to the kitchen,
but i had to stop from the shock of what i found,
a room full of all my friends dancing round and round,
and i thought hello new shoes,
byebye them blues.



Hey, I put some new shoes on,
and suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
it so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
but long on time,
slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
and i'm running late,
and i don't need an excuse,
'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes.

Take me wondering through these streets,
where bright lights and angels meet,
stone to stone they take me on,
im walking to the break of dawn.

Take me wondering through these streets,
where bright lights and angels meet,
stone to stone they take me on,
im walking to the break of dawn.



Hey, I put some new shoes on,
and suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
it so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
but long on time,
slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
and i'm running late,
and i don't need an excuse,
'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes.

Oh, Hey, I put some new shoes on,
and suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
it so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
but long on time,
slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
and i'm running late,
and i don't need an excuse,
'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes.

Click HERE if you want to hear the song and see the video.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was small this year. We were missing four people but for obvious reasons they were unable to make it.

Cole spent his time before dinner make road (as he told me) in Grandma Caroles' nice potted plants.

We ate some great food and had lots of yummy pie (it went to fast before I could get a picture).

Can you find Cole in the group shot? He was not interested in having his picture taken with Alix and Uncle Larry. Yet, when Uncle Larry left, Cole kept asking where he went. "Where ungle larrie go?"
Oh my! Pictures of the mom.

The ever changing head tilt

So Siena woke up this morning with her head tilting to the right.....THE OPPOSITE direction that it normally does. I am beginning to think that it was sickness related because while at physical therapy at noon today (she had already had a two hour nap) she was falling asleep and really fussy. She could hardly sit up because she wasn't using any of her stomach muscles to support herself and with the head tilt she would just fall over. The physical therapist said that it was a different type of head tilt (to the right) because she would let him to pull her head up straight but with left head tilt she doesn't.

She has vomited over 15 times today but I have managed to get her to keep 8 oz of formula down this evening and she ate some baby food. This child has pooped an so many times today I think I have lost track. We are getting close to 10!!! And they are all solid. I am wondering if the 3 days of soy formula at the beginning of the week caused her to be a little backed up!

I guess I should explain the usage of soy formula. At her 9 month check up I mentioned to the Dr. how Siena still doesn't sleep through the night and that from 2am-6am she is constantly farting and crying. She suggested switching to a soy formula and see if that helps. Well after 3 days I can tell you that it did not help and it actually made her worse. So we are back on the organic dairy formula and besides the sickness today she is still farting. So no idea yet on what to do. I may try a lactose free formula but they don't make an organic one so I am debating at the moment.

Gut feeling

I shot straight up in bed at 1 am this morning. I knew what had happened.

Goodbye Grandpa. I love you.

Giving thanks and saying goodbye

Not sure where to start with this post. My tears are bluring the screen at the moment.

Thanksgiving is a holiday spent with family and for the first time that I can remember my grandpa was not able to spend it with us. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life was say good bye to my grandma 4 years ago and this morning I had to say good bye to my grandpa. He has not passed on yet but he will any hour now. He is my last living grandparent and I am going to miss him so much. He is one of the most kind and generous people I know and with out him we would not be where we are today. He would do anything for his family and I feel so fortunate to of had him for my grandpa.

He has had an amazing life. He was a veterinarian and part of his job included being the vet for the Fresno zoo! He has been retired for my entire life plus some and traveled to over 60 countries with his last trip being a year ago (at age 89) to Chile and Argentina. There was nothing that he couldn't do and he is truly an inspiration.

Seeing him this morning was difficult. Sitting on the bed holding his hand was enough for me. I know he knew I was there. I know he heard me tell him that I loved him and that he was the best grandpa any one could have asked for. I know he felt Siena crawl over and kiss his hand and the fact that he smiled at Cole when he kissed his cheek was perfect. They have always had a bond.

Nobody wants to see another person dying but my grandpa is so fortunate to be at home and have his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren by his side, holding his hand and supporting him until the end.

I could give thanks for so many things in my life right now but they would not even be possible with out my Grandpa Tom. I will be eternally thankful to him. For everything that he has done for me. He is an amazing man and life will not be the same with out him in it.

I miss you already.

I do not take off my diaper.

I have no idea you would think that. It just falls off.

Neurologist Appointment

Well that was fast. Between 6pm last night and 9 am this morning, Siena got an appointment scheduled for the neurologist for this afternoon. Talk about getting things moving. So at the visit the neurologist examined Siena and determined that with out the head tilt she is a normal 9 month old. With the type of head tilt he would have said she had torticollis but because the head tilt comes and goes he does not think she has it. So to rule out any major problems he wants Siena to have a brain scan to make sure that the brain, muscular system and nervous system are all working correctly together. He wants to make sure that during the pregnancy the development of the nervous system and or muscular system wasn't underdeveloped.

So in order to do a brain scan Siena needs to be put under ansethesia for an hour. Any movement messes up the test. So I put in a call to the woman that sets up the anesthesia appointments to make sure we get a very early morning appointment because they don't want the babies eating for 8 hours!!!! They can have clear liquids like water, apple juice and gatorade but no nursing or formula or solid foods.

The Dr. thinks that everything is going to be totally normal but doesn't want to miss something. So we are to continue with physical therapy for now and wait until we can get the scan set up.

It's beginning

Letters to Santa are starting early this year

Physical Therapy Update

Because Siena looked like this last week and wasn't 100% better today, we are going to be continuing on with therapy for the next month, twice a week. We are also taking her to a neurologist to have another opinion on her neck. Neither the pediatrician nor the physical therapist is quite sure why she continues to tilt her head to the left. I for sure feel like this is all related to the pregnancy. I mean how can it not be. She was an IUGR baby and I don't see how it wouldn't at least cause one issue. Let's hope that there isn't any significant findings with the neurologist and that maybe this is just tight muscles from the pregnancy.

Fall - gone in a flash

This is the view out our bedroom door. I love waking up on stormy mornings in the fall. The colors are so bright and everything seems to stand out. The bummer part is that it is also 30 outside which means that fall came and went so fast! Time to get ready for winter. Let's hope we get some snow this year!

How many tooths does Sea-ah-na have mamma?

Siena has two teeth now! The bottom right tooth pushed through on thursday. I discovered it while waiting at physical therapy when a guy (actually a client from my work) asked how many teeth she had.

New Moon

I made my way over to Santa Rosa (yes, I drove 2 1/2 hours both ways) to see New Moon with friends. It was great. I loved it (not at first since New Moon was my least favorite of the 4 books) but it is growing on me the more I think about it and I want to see it again. I am going to drag Mike there with me. After wards we had a great dinner with no husbands or kids. It was nice. I needed a little vacation, even if it was only for 14 hours. I drove home in silence. What a nice treat that was as well. No screaming and crying kids. Loved it too.

Some one knows how to get up the stairs

And she goes up the stairs (sideways) every time. Thank goodness these are the only two steps we have in the house. And yes, we haven't finished the stair yet. This is the only part of the house besides the inside of the closets that still has carpet.

Mamma. Does this look cute?

Almost every day Cole asks me the same question "mamma, does this look cute?" This photo is just one example of what he wants to know if it looks cute. Sometimes it's my shoes, other times is Siena's headbands. He is so sweet and innocent when he asks. I just look at him, give him a big kiss and tell "yes, sweetie, you look very cute!"

So much to do

Now that Siena is mobil, she is all over the place. Getting into things, pulling her self up and of course following Cole everywhere. She just adores him and wants to go where ever he does.

This is a view I see a lot!

Sorry for the washed out flash photos. My camera does not have a bulit in flash so I almost never use one but at 9 o'clock at night I don't really have much choice. I use my Gary Fong Diffuser on my external flash and I like it so much .

Yes I know the diapers are giant. I put in size 4 diapers at night time because I have never seen a baby urinate so much and the cloth diapers require like 3 pads to soak up all that urine.

You can tell Siena is getting stronger becasue of her newest trick. She does this little lift all the time now.

I love the excitment in her face!

Teething

I know it's hard to tell that's a carrot but the lighting sucked so I went to my fall back of black and white. She sure liked that cold carrot though! Once it got to room temperature she tossed it on the floor. She's been super fussy lately and I think another tooth might be on the way.

9 month check up

Siena had her 9 month check up today. She is 17 # 8oz (25%) and 26 1/4 inches tall (11%). Over all she is in the 75% which is still so funny to me when the stats by them selves are so low. She got her flu shot and the Dr. wanted her to get the H1N1 and I refused it and the doc wanted to know why. I just don't agree with loading this little kids up with so many vaccines. And besides they are pretty confident she already had it but the Dr said they don't know yet if you can get it twice. Anyways, I told the Dr. I didn't want my children being an experiment for the government. We left it at that. Siena also got her blood drawn to confirm if she really did have chicken pox or not. We will get those results in a few days. It is no fun to have to bear hug a little peanut in a chair while one nurse is grabbing her arm and the other is poking needles in to. To be fair they did get in on the first poke which is AMAZING considering she has marshmellow arms.

Another ER visit

I am beginning to think that Cole is just going to make a habit of going to the ER. For the third time this year we made the trek down to Auburn Faith and waited 2 hours to be told that he is going to be just fine...

Part of the reason for the dumpster was to clean out our GIANT two car garage that has been used as a storage unit for the last 9 year. Between our stuff, Mikes' parents stuff, and Mike Great Aunts' stuff that garage was ready to burst! Well this afternoon it was getting close to Cole's nap time and I called down to Mike and asked if Cole was acting sleepy or if we should let him run around for a little while longer to tire himself out. We chose the later and 15 minutes later I hear Cole screaming (tantrum) and Mike carrying him up to the house. Mike's gets him inside and starts washing his mouth out and telling Cole he needs to drink some water. I inquire (like any mom would) as to what in the world was going on. Mike tells me that they were all going through boxes and Cole was digging through one of his own and he happened to find a little pouch with four vials in it that contained pills of Aunt Marys'. I ask what the pills were and if he ate them and Mike didn't have an answer to either question. I sent him back down to the garage (in so many nice words, I swear, really, I was nice) and he returned a few minutes later with the pills and told me that the only type of pill out of the four that had a white center (there was white on his face) was this one that looked like a small white skittle. I could not read what was on the pill but with Mike's deciphering and Mike's mom's knowledge of the medication Aunt Mary used to take we figured out that Cole ate ( or at least bit in to and tasted) a migraine medication called Cafergot. Aunt Mary has been deceased for 9 years and according to Carole, hasn't taken migraine medication for like 10 years before that. So these pills were probably expired by 20 years.

I immediately called poison control (they have all your info, very strange - oh you live at ....) and informed me that Cafergot was highly dangerous and we needed to take Cole to the ER asap. Poison control called the hospital and told them we were on our way down. We get there, get checked in and then have Cole get the initial check in and then get told he is OK to have a seat in the waiting room. TWO HOURS later Cole gets examined by the doctor ( he listed to his belly, that's it) and we get told that there really isn't much that can harm a kid in small doses and sometimes poison control over reacts. Great! $250 and a waste of an afternoon. Just what I had planned for the weekend. I honestly don't know how they expected us to keep a two year old who ingested medication with CAFFEINE in it quite and in a small space for two hours. He spent most of his time jumping on the seats and trying to figure out how to get into that wheel chair with out getting in trouble while screeching like a monkey.

Frog Boy

Every time Cole is ready to get out of the bath or shower he says "Cole be frog boy" and then runs around naked with the towel on his head for as long as he can get away with it.

Dumpster

Finally after 3 years of remodeling and accquiring tons of stuff with two kids we got a dumpster to get our property cleaned up. I was sooooo happy when the disposal service left this bad boy in my drive way this morning.

Only four hours later and the thing is already halfway full! So exciting!