Once a year every year

It's that time again folks, I can hardly believe it's been a year. But it has so I want to wish all of you a very happy of New Years!

This one is special. It really is, this year we have a blue moon on New Years eve. All that really means is that it's the second full moon this month BUT it's worth mentioning. Those of us who don't have big parties to go too can go outside, look up, and see it.

I'll be doing that, and thinking that 2010 is going to be our kind of year. That we'll be happier than we've ever been, laughing harder, smiling wider, standing taller, walking lighter, dancing crazier, hugging longer, living grander, loving louder and in general just having the best year ever!

I saw, I conquered

I have to say I think I may finally be getting a handle on the Kiddos Adrenal Insufficiency condition. The quick version of the story goes like this, with a reminder of how things work...

The Kiddos condition means that when he gets sick his body has more trouble handling the sickness. Usually, with a cold or what not, you wont really see any difference in how he behaves with extra medication or with a normal amount. Which is due to the fact that his body can deal with things on it's own (with normal medication amounts) fairly easily. But, because it doesn't hurt, and it definitely helps, we Triple Dose him when we see that he is sick (or stressed).

Keeping the above in mind, yesterday morning, at his 6am medication time, I gave him a triple dose of of his Hydrocortizone. As I wrote in my post yesterday his fever wasn't really staying away, medication was cooling it but then it would pop back up as soon as the meds wore off. Anyway we usually dose him twice a day (6 and 6) but yesterday I decided to give him an extra triple dose at 1. He was so lethargic and bla laying on the couch and I couldn't help thinking that he was acting like all the books/articles said he should feel if his cortisol levels are low. I've never seen him act like that BECAUSE of low levels, and I have definitely not seen him improve just because I gave him a dose of hydrocortizone. But yesterday, when I made that call to give him extra, thirty minutes later he was up and about and acting like he felt a lot better.

At 330 the Endochornologist finally called me back and he was very happy with me making that decision. He said it was exactly right and that we should continue a 3 times a day dosing schedule through the week. I am extremely excited that from all my reading I ended up understanding enough of how things work to know that I was supposed to give him that extra dose and to actually (for the first time since all this began) SEE the difference the medication can make.

Right after that, at 4, my mother in law took us to see the pediatrition. the Kiddo told her and the nurse, quite a few times that he had "an issue" and she needed to fix it. She did a swab in his mouth and said he has Strep!! They gave him a shot of antibiotics, and sent us on our way. Last night the kiddo was spunky as his usual healthy self but went to sleep pretty hard when I put him to bed.

This morning I asked if is head hurt still or if he felt sick anymore. He said: "no, I feel fine, the Doctor worked, I feel better then I did the other yesterday, I have no more issues"

blah

Kiddo is sick again!! That makes twice in one month, which is extremely odd for him. He was a little tired and had no appatite for dinner last night so I probably should have suspected something was up. I did a little, which would be why I was still awake when he was up at 11, and then when he threw up at 12... Long story short kiddo had a fever and upset stomach several times. After two sheet changes I put him on the bathroom floor with some towels and sat with him all night. He seemed to be feeling a bit better this morning, asking for breakfast. But then his temperature rose again and so I have planted him in front of the tv on some plastic and towels and am letting him rest and veg. I hope he feels better soon, if he doesn't then I will have to call my mother in law and ask her to take us to the doc.

*pic is from last night after dinner and just before bedtime. He wanted to play napping in his tent with skits (the dog).

Update: yep still sick. The Kiddo's endo called back finally and said we really should take him in to his ped doctor just in case the fever is being caused by an infection or something that can be treated. I'm sure it'll be a "waste of time" but since we have insurance I am willing to do it. Expecially since he's holding this fever for a lot longer then he usually does.

this is him as I type this, on the couch zoned out cuddling the babydoll his grandma gave him for Christmas.

My Christmas

Well I felt awful and crabby Christmas morning... AFTER we did gifts though... why you ask? Because the transformers the kiddo got are nearly impossible to transform!! (though maybe that's just my old person brain talking). I am hoping that the more times I do it the easier it is and/or that the kiddo figures out how to do it himself and stops asking me! Other then that Christmas this year was great! The inlaws gave me a new George Foreman grill (woohoo, thanks goes out to the Man who gave his mom the idea). My wonderful brother read my mind (from a different state, THAT is skill!) and sent us some chocolate and nuts mmmm (I have been craving those since the Christmas season began). My lil sister gave me a gift card and a snowman kit (love *grin*). My twinner gave me some cash and some very snuggly slippers. The man and kid gave me cash. My father in law gave me cash. My folks gave me cash... where is this going you ask? Wellllll between all those people plus a little money from my grandma I actually DO have enough to buy myself the Nook. I do!! I am SO very excited. Lady D is going to get one too and we will put them on the same account (doubling our library) and get to share the whole experience together.

The gift card from my little sis could be used to help pay for the nook BUT since I think I have enough with the cash little sis is buying me a cover for the Nook!!! That way my pricey investment is protected. Now I just have to decide on which cover I want. Oh and of course, Lady D (being obnoxious) pointed out that I 'could' buy a skin for it too. *sigh*

Speaking of skins... she also sent a website where you can create your own. I wonder if they'd make this one or if they'd scream copyright infringment and slap me ... ?

Christmas Pictures

The Kiddo made out like a bandit! It looks like the tree is stuffed with gifts I know, really the Man is just artful at stacking. Though I suppose the Kiddo did get quite a few, two from us, two from santa (the puppy and then the game candyland) and one each from my siblings and parents (totaling 6). He was quite happy and knew exactly who it was giving him what... it's great to hear him go on about how antie or uncle so and so got him such and so yada yada.

Christmas

Videos and pictures hmmm I think I will do two separate posts, one with pics and then one with video,... even then this is going to be one LONG post...

Merry Christmas Eve

I hope everybody has a relaxing and cozy day today. I am mostly prepared for our visit at the inlaws this evening. I really hope they like the breadsticks I bought to go along with dinner. We usually get together and have a quick/easy meal (pizza this year) and I got some store bought bread breadsticks (vs the kind you have to cook). My thoughts are that it will be easier on everybody if we dont have to use the oven for the bread AND the pizza :)

I spent the evening yesterday making cookies so the Man could take some into work. I made dark chocolate chunk mini cupcakes with peppermint kisses, and cherry cordial kisses.
I also made Nutmeg logs. Which are one of my personal favorite... they are very easy but very time consuming.
And I made Forgotten Cookies (also called meringue cookies, or spp's depending on who you are). I made them perfect!.. On the top cookie sheet that is, somehow I burned the bottom sheet. Of course the Man took every single one of the top sheet cookies with him to work so I don't get to eat any of the good ones. I am glad he didn't take the burned ones but I do wish he would have left just a couple of the good ones. He didn't know though so I can't really be upset with him about it... just upset with my luck.

Read as

The Kiddo has been working on reading, and spelling... it's all Grannies fault. She showed me how to do it, and he likes to pretend he is doing it. I figure if he's going to pretend he might as well actually DO it and learn something so when he pretends I jump in and help him do it for real. I don't know if he's doing all that great but he is, slowly, learning. I think it might be time to step up and get him some preschool level work books. It's a good thing Santa is bringing him lower case letters, that'll up the words we can spell and read (like dad, or mom).

Home

My heart is in AZ, I wish I could be there this week. I am making myself feel better by believing (if things go as planned) that I can be there next year. The Holidays always fall a little flat being so far from my family. There's just something about sitting around a table with 11+ people all talking and laughing. Not a lot of whining goes on, and everybody is there because they want to be. It's warm, and comfortable, and feels like home.

Happy Winter Solstice

If you're reading this...

As I'm typing this I'm drinking my morning coffee. It could just as easily have been tea... the reason I mention drinking anything is because I"m thinking, for the hundreth time, how I desperatly need a insulated mug. It's so cold lately that my coffee cools down way quicker then I actually want to drink it. So, if you're reading this mister Man, take a note and go buy me one ;)

Several months ago I posted about bacon in a can. Today I get their product email and find they now have Bacon Flavored POPCORN. How good does THAT sound!! Every time I go to the grocery store lately I try to remember to pick up a box of popcorn, then I usually end up skipping it or forgetting it. Recently I told the Man that I really need an air popper so that the Kiddo and I can snack on healthier popcorn. The fact that they make bacon flavored stuff in the microwave bag makes me want to reconsider that idea. mmmmmmm

We have been and seen

The good news today is that we did make it down to Cabelas and we did see Santa. The Kiddo did smile, and we got a great picture. I got video for you as well.

Picture this

It's that time of year again, the time when I force the Man and the Kiddo to behave themselves for 20 minutes while I take a couple dozen pictures trying to get a good one of us as a family. I send the best one of the bunch out in my Christmas cards.

This year, in an attempt to make them both more comfortable I put them in jammies. The Kiddo loved it and hammed, the Man growled and put up with it. I think we have a good shot and am reasonably happy with them both. Of course I'm not going to put the "official" picture here, you'll have to wait till you get the holiday card for that... I am going to put a few unofficial ones though.

Grinch

I am feeling a little grinchy this week. I don't think I'm the only one. I struggled to find something to post about yesterday and failed. Today I'm sort of in the same boat. But the Kiddo is full of good cheer, so much so that it makes me smile even when I'm crabby. I thought I'd try to capture it and share it with you all...

Oh Christmas tree....

In a perfect world I'd decorate our tree the same way my family did when I was a kid. I remember we'd get the tree about a week before Christmas (a REAL tree) and Santa would decorate it Christmas Eve while we were sleeping. It was so amazing to sneak out of our rooms Christmas morning and peek downstairs to see what it looked like all lit up and beautiful. We can't afford a real tree, and dont want to lug one up three flights of stairs even if we could. As to the decorating, well... I just can't seem to wrap my head around staying up that late to help Santa out.
Anyway we did ours yesterday. It was snowing and I thought why not just get it all done. So while I strung the lights around and around I gave the Kiddo his Santa treehouse to play with.
Then, once the lights were done I unpacked all the ornaments. I pulled out my 3ft fiber optic tree from my college days and set it up for the Kiddo to decorate.
This give him a way to be completely happy and out of my way while I decorated our tree. He had me help him string the bead garland, then he very carefully picked a spot for each and every ornament. In the end he had a very cute tree! He was excited that he had his own tree for his room, and he was proud of the fact that him and mommy had both decorated trees together. We had a small glass of eggnog and a couple cookies while we congratulated each other on jobs well done.

life is a dance

It's Christmas music pretty much 24/7 here at our house. The Kiddo loves it, he wants to learn the songs so he can sing along so he asks to play his cd (with kids singing) more then any other. When he gets tired of trying to learn the words he dances. This is him dancing, note the stuffies and toys on the floor. See how they are paired up into dancing partners?

a Nook cook book*

Barns and Noble just came out with their very own version of an e-reader, it's called Nook. I really like it, in fact it's my hippopotamus for this year. I've read the reviews, and yes there are a few bugs they are still working out. I expected that, it's 1.0 programming after all, but I think most of the buggyness will be fixed by the time I've managed to scrape together enough to buy one. My evil "buy one" plan involves any Christmas money I get this year, and possibly selling the Kiddo to the highest bidder.

I have an evil plan every year though so we'll have to wait and see if this one actually happens or not.







*from Dr Seuss One Fish, Two Fish

Hippopotamuseses

I love this song, the Kiddo adores this song!! I always thought, if you wanted to get all deep, that it was talking about that great big thing, that thing you want but know you'll never get. Last year my Hippopotamus was that the man get the super great job he was trying for, oh and a car *g* This year my Hippo is almost the same thing.

I think the Kiddo's Hippopotamus is a ride on car, preferably one that transforms into a robot . What is your Hippopotamus??

D-mental...

I pleased to report that the kiddo has my families dental genetics. I'll be happy about that until he needs braces in several years... For now, clean good teeth with no cavaties. Doc was happy with him and us.

And as a side note the kiddo still loves the dentist... Here is the little play house they have in their waiting room, he's in there playing Mario racing, he's baby Mario because the other kid in there who set it up couldn't wrap his head around a little boy wanting to be baby peach.

Here he's laying down in the dentist chair. I can't get over how tiny he is, his butt doesn't eve hit the butt part of the chair! He's got the earphones on and is watching Madagascar while waiting for the doc to come check out his mouth.

Updates for December

Lets see, the Kiddo had an Endocrinologist appointment last Friday. With insurance it cost us all of 5 bucks (co-pay)! He has grown just under an inch since his last visit three months ago, but weighs about the same. Doc said he seems to be doing fine and everything looks to be on track. We don't have another blood test until the end of Feb, and the next doc appointment isn't until the start of March!

Today we take the kiddo into his Dentist appointment. Another 5$ copay, and they'll tell me his teeth look great but yell at me for not flossing him. Well shoot his mouth is kind of small and it's hard to get my hands in there!

Followup flu shot should be this week but might end up being next, it's scheduled for Saturday but the man has drill so that wont work. We'll see when they can reschedule it for and go from there.

We finally got a "good" amount of snow last night, several inches at least. It's snowing as I type this as well. I'm so glad to finally have snow to go with the super cold temperatures.

My balcony is finally completely decorated as well. I had it done a week ago but redid it. See randomly one morning woke up with the idea that I could tie my lawn stake trees to the railing! I've had these things for years but have not used them since moving back to an apartment. It's so hard to decorate a little patio w/out having it look like a silly mass of lights... I think the trees add a nice touch w/out going overboard. Now I have to decide if it's possible (and worth it) to hang my snowflakes from the ceiling above the trees... or if I should just leave it.

mmm chocolate!

Chocolate pots? She is a tiny bit annoying but these look soooo good I had to share. I'm thinking at least a couple of you will want to make these (mama? *grin*).



I watched it a couple times and jotted down the recipe.

Chocolate pots
(makes 4 ramekins worth)

Ingredients:

3/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips 1 stick plus a bit of unsalted butter

2 eggs 3/4 cup sugar 3 Tbs flour

Melt chocolate and butter, set aside to cool. Mix eggs and sugar, then add flour. Gently fold in chocolate. Poor into buttered ramekins. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Done when top is cracked but inside is goey.

Right about now is when..

I start to wonder if I was a very intelligent person to move to a state with snow... because while I like snow I kinda dislike the temperatures that come with it. I suppose I should be glad there's no snow in the forecast today but no snow seems to mean that things just feel/get a LOT colder. I'll take snow with a bit warmer temps any day!!

Christmas Tree Festival

We've gone pretty much every year since we moved here. I suppose it's a tradition of sorts. This year I mentioned to Lady D that I thought we might skip it, things are tight and it feels like a splurge. She said that while it may be a splurge, it's one for the kid and it's season/time specific so I better get off my butt and take him or she'd kick me. So we took him. It was beautiful and amazing and I hope someday we are in a place where we can donate a tree (they sell them and the proceeds go to the childrens hospital).

He loved it! It's amazing to notice the different in how he reacts to it each year, last year he looked and wanted to touch all of them. This year he pointed out his favorites and stared around in awe at all the lights, he also noticed a lot more of the little things and detailed parts of the trees. Snowman tree, little tiny snowman... such a cute tree.

This tree was so pretty, and I loved the message.

Of course trains everywhere, that made the kiddo very happy.

The man found one tree he really liked, nascar *chuckle*

I really need to get my butt to the eye doc so I can get some clear contacts, otherwise I love this picture. Sure it took 5 tries to get him to smile, but it was worth it!

I don't know why but I love nativities. This one is I think my favorite of any I have seen.

The coolest "tree". It's rock ledges with tinsel waterfall.. I really liked it.

We did the gingerbread walk last, I did take a picture of the castle just like last year but this one was really cool, and my favorite! I love that it's so simple.