Nail Polish + Abby =

Abby really wanted to paint my toes. So I let her. It was really funny because she was so excited. My feet are not something to be admired and the paint job definitely isn't doing them any favors but it was fun. The only thing was that I forgot that they were like that because I rarely paint my toes ( who wants to draw attention to those claws?) So I went out several places in public in flip flops until I remembered. Not too bad for a three year old...

Rare moments of peace

Yes, that's Abby asleep under her bed.

He fell asleep in the showerHe was zonkedStraight from the shower asleep on the bed.Doesn't he look like Abby in this one?

Tired Boy

Motherhood

Some days are tough as a mom. Everyday presents new challenges and obstacles, and each day I feel like I reach the end of my rope and one point or another. Unfortunately at times I lose my cool and I feel awful. Most often those moments are followed by tears of regret. Being a mom is HARD WORK whoever says different has no idea what they are talking about. But as I watched the following videos it helped me to know I am not alone, and though it is extremely exhausting I need to cherish the moments instead of becoming angry. It is indeed a calling from Heavenly Father. I just need to remember that :)

Family Pictures

This past weekend we finally had some pictures taken. I cannot wait to see how they all turn out. The photographer Nicole from Pickle Posh Photography took our pics. She was super nice and did really good with what we gave her. Especially since Abby was being quite the little pill/ham. We went to Trinity Park where there were some really neat places to take pictures. Hopefully I will have the majority of pictures to post within the next few weeks. But for a sneak peak you can visit her blog at Pickle Posh Photography.

Mario Kart

Grandma Cheri took the kids to Calbelas the other day and couldn't resist Abby's "need" to have a bike (that's what Abby calls it.) So she came home with this little cruiser. Its so funny because Abby looks like Bowser on Mario Kart who is much too large for the cart he drives and therefore goes really slow. Briggs loves it too. He likes to watch Abby on it as well as have a turn himself. Briggs watching Abby
See pretty similar huh?
Briggs is a little more size appropriate however he falls off and doesn't know how to hit the button. It says its for up to 40lbs but Abby is only 30lbs and it barely goes.

Abby Antics

Yet another funny sleeping picture of Abby. I went into her room to check on her and this is what I found. Abby laying on the ground with every baby doll she owns neatly tucked in beside her. If you look close you can see she removed her pillow case and used it as a blanket for her dolls as well as her swimming shirt. Sometimes she is too funny.

Swim Lessons...

Two weeks worth of pictures in one post! Abby has been in Level 1 swim lessons for the past few weeks. She loved it. The first time her grandma Cheri took her since I had to work and she did pretty well. When I took her the next day she did not want to go in the water. It took about 10 minutes for her to actually stay with her class. Everyday was a new adventure, however there was one thing that was constant and that was Abby's name being called louder than all the other children, "Abby come here" "Abby Come back" "Abby stay in the pool" Abby this and Abby that. It was kinda funny and embarrassing. So for the most part she did really well until the last day which was her worst day. She did not want to do anything. She was yelling, kept getting out of the pool not wanting to be a part of it. However, at the end there were two things she wanted to do and that was to 1. go down the slide where she ran to the front of the line and 2. get a cookie. Just chillin

A little hesitant

She kinda attached to this teacher

Briggs typical time there

See her out in front with the teacher

Coming out of the water

This is where it was time to go to the slide, she is beginning to make her move in the middle of the pack

Look not 15feet later she is close to the front.

She has secured here lead

She is first one up the stairs (in here class)

See, she is even defending her position. She wasn't going to let anyone pass.

There she is ready and waiting.

Bam! Down the slide. It was so funny all the parents were laughing at her because she was sloshing all around. One commented that she looked like she was in a washing machine.

Here she is telling the teacher he needs to move out of the way...typical.

The next time she decided she wanted a teacher to come with her. Apparently she didn't have much fun in the washing machine.

Here we go again

Brigham started crawling on the 12Th of June. He has been trying so hard for several weeks and just could not seem to figure it out. So when he began to move I grabbed my camera and off he went,well kinda, but he did move a few feet. It was so amazing to watch him learn something new. I literally almost started crying because it was so neat. So here for debut is Brigham's first time ever crawling. Now he can really crawl well since it has been a few weeks, so he no longer looks like a drunk baby :)

BTW Briggs is doing well now. He is mostly healed from his pneumonia. Now we have him on 1 breathing treatment a day with a different kind of medicine as a preventative. He will have to have it from now on. At least until he grows of of this. Hopefully it will work and he wont get that bad again. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.

3 Years, 9 Months and Pneumonia

This past week Abby and Briggs both had their well child visits.

Abby

• Weight 31lbs, 50%
• Height 37 inches 25-50 %
• Head: 49cm, 50-75%
• She is right where she is supposed to be for her language abilities and motor skills.
• Overall she is doing well. I discussed sleeping habits as well as behavioral issue with the Doctor and we are going to give a little more time and if behaviors don't change we are going to have to look a little deeper.

Briggs

• Weight 19lbs 6oz, 25-50%
• Height 28.5 Inches 50-75%
• Head: 45cm, 25-50%
• He had to have a shot which he was not fond of.
• Started crawling the day after his 9 month birthday.
• Bables all the time, sometimes sounding like "Da Da"
• Can get into the sitting position from his tummy
• Can pull himself into the standing position
• Loves to throw things
• Eats a ton

Overall he is also right where he should be. I was also a little concerned with his sleeping habits, along with some congestion he had been having. However I just assumed it was related to teething because he has 4 teeth all coming through right now. It had been clear all week, except that day it had begun to turn green which typically means infection. He had not been sleeping at all, which is a slight change from almost never sleeping and so I was concerned. The doctor checked him out. She said he seemed to be fine and didn't want to put him on antibiotics unnecessarily. I agreed.

Flash Forward: The next day, he seems worse. He screamed all night long and just wasn't right. He had a fever of 100.5 and so I called to doc to see what was up. The nurse of whom I am not exactly fond of, really wasn't listening to me. Basically she said its just related to his shot, if he gets bad take him to the ER. Gee thanks.

Flash Forward: The next day, He is even worse. Same middle of the night antics but this time he has a fever of 101 and is really breathing hard including wheezing. He is extremely congested and struggling to breath. So I gave him a nebulizer treatment and that did help him some. On top of that Abby wakes up with a fever of 100.6. Crap! So I call the doc again for an appointment. Again they say its probably related to the shot. So.... I said I didn't think so. Both the kids have fevers and I want them to see the doctor, so she reluctantly made an appointment for me.

Flash Forward: Several hours later, we are at the doctor. She sees him and the look of concern in her was not something I wanted to see. She sees how hard he is trying to breath, suggests taking him to the ER first but then decides to tell the nurse to go get him a shot of steroids immediately and also a nebulizer treatment before she does anything else. So now I am a little freaked out. He has been like this before, so I figured we would go in, get some antibiotics and other meds and we would be on our way. Wrong. Thus she has us wait awhile to see what effect the steroids and albuterol have, in the meantime she is calling the ER.

The meds did do some good, he was breathing a lot easier and seemed calmer but he still sounded horrible. Thus she sends us to the ER for Chest Xrays and observation. So while heading there I am calling all around trying to get someone to come pick Abby up. She was already heading downhill fast with her behavior and I knew she wasn't going to last hours in the ER. Thankfully both Cindy and Cheri were able to come and Cindy being closer was there very quickly which was a big relief. By the way Abby did seem to be fine and the doc said to just keep an eye on her since she had no other symptoms.


Free of Abby and holding one sick baby we sit waiting for our turn in the ER. Kinda silly you have to wait in the ER, I mean does the E for Emergency not mean NOW? But I digress. We are finally seen, they triage him, take his stats, temp, o2 levels, listen to him etc. Then off to the xray...which he hated. It was 11:40am when we got there and it was about 2:30-3pm when they finally came back with the diagnosis of Pneumonia in his right lung. Yes, my jaw dropped. I felt so bad. They told me some of the things to watch for..... and I had seen him doing it in the middle of the night. I wish I would have taken him to the ER then. Next time.

Two options were given, one I could admit him to the hospital in which case they would transfer him to the children's hospital because they don't admit children there. He could be there and get the care he needed. Or two, they could give him a really strong anti-biotic there in the hospital, give me some perscriptions for out patient care and keep a close eye on him. I was a little dismayed at what to do, he talked to my pediatrician and they both thought the home care was the best option if I felt comfortable, so that's what I did.


The nurse came with the medicine and prefaced it with "this is really going to hurt him. I mean it hurts really really bad, can you handle this?" So I say yes, hold his arms down while another person has his legs and the nurse sticks him. He immediately tensed and started screaming, I felt horrible but he was a little champ. I was so proud of him. I had to wait another half hour to make sure he was OK then, from there we were getting ready to discharge him.

So we wait. She brings in everything for discharge and she rechecks him and decides he is not ready to go home. His o2 stats were dropping and he was sounding even worse than before. She told me they were probably going to have to admit him after all. The doc comes in and confirms what she says. He wanted to try another breathing treatment to see if that would open up his lungs. He didn't want to send me home if I wasn't able to get him breathing clearly right away. So again another treatment is preformed and more waiting. Thankfully he gets significantly better and his o2 stats rise. Finally we were able to come home. With all sorts of meds, breathing treatments every 4 hours and constant attention. They said if he got worse to bring him back immediately. Gee thanks for that reassurance.

So we are now home and he is doing really well. He still sounds awful but he was like a rag doll yesterday whereas today once he gets a treatment he is full of energy and no longer has glassy eyes. He is still getting better and we are watching him but overall I am thankful he is home and improving all the time.

Happy Fathers Day!

To my husband: I love you, you are a great dad! To my pops: Thanks for all you do. To all the dads I know, you are all great examples.

Thank you to my friend Patty who took these pictures! They turned out great.