Matt worked a monster-shift...~80 hours, actually. Luckily, his relief called in early today and, after finding out how long Matt had been at work, graciously offered to come in early so that Matt could come home. He came into the office a little after 4:15 to surprise me (although it wasn't actually a surprise - I had called the station to talk with him around 3:45 and Hebert had told me he was on his way home - sorry honey!). It was; however, still wonderfully nice to see him after so long! He decided since it was so close to me getting off of work that he would swing by and pick up Kellen at school and just meet me at home - I would have LOVED to see Kellen react to THAT surprise!
So we all got home and Kellen just wanted to be close to his Daddy, but still wanted Mommy close by, too. This is actually something that he doesn't get all too often, which we're trying to counter. Some of his demands were:
"Get Daddy."
"Tickle Daddy."
"Daddy get Mommy."
"More Daddy get Mommy."
"Wake up Daddy - get me."
"Daddy GET UP!"
"Bite." [An explanation might be necessary on that one - he wanted a bite of our food..it always tastes better from our fork, it seems.]
"Daddy come HERE."
"Kellen flop."
It was just adorable. You can tell how much he missed his daddy this weekend...every time that we had prayed, he would start the prayer off by saying, "Bless Daddy work..."
Matt and I were sitting in the recliner in the living room and Kellen decided that he wanted to scratch Daddy's back, so he came over and sat between Daddy and Mommy and scratched, patted, and rubbed Daddy's back. Every once in a while he would just hug his Daddy's back and it looked like he was hanging on for dear life. Their time together is just so precious!
I got Kellen's clothes changed for bed and then read him a book while still in the living room, then he decided that he wanted Daddy to read him a book. Since it was 7:30 and completely obvious that Kellen was tired, I suggested that Daddy read him the book in his room and just put him to bed. So they went into Kellen's room and then Matt came out rather quickly. I looked at him with what I'm sure was a quizzical look on my face.
They apparently brushed Kellen's teeth and then when Daddy started reading the book, Kellen stated, "No read book Daddy. Kellen night-night." Well all-right then.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Close Call
That's what I'll call the events of Hurricane Rita for those of us in the original path...a close call. Our department closed down a little before 3 PM on Thursday and the University closed on Friday for hurricane preparations. Matt had worked a 24-hr shift on Wednesday and got home early Thursday morning with the intent of packing things up and putting them in a climate controlled storage facility. However, they had run all night during their shift and he kept watching the storm path and decided against that, thankfully so, now. That would have been so much work for nothing (but we didn't know that at the time). I wasn't sold on the idea, but was behind whatever he wanted to do...my thoughts...we have homeowners insurance for a reason, right? They sent him home with some O2 tanks to fill up, so without an official decision on them wanting him to come back, we took that to mean that they did.
After watching the storm track all day Thursday morning, by mid-day we finally make the decision that Kellen and I will go to Uncle Eddie & Aunt Glenda' s in Rockdale. We don't think that I'll hit much traffic going that route (and I know some back roads that no one else will be taking), and it's a good direction away from the path of the storm, and after I find out my parents are going there, too, it's a great chance for Kellen to spend some time with his Pap Pa and Gramma...So Rockdale it is. We decide that I'll just get up and leave on Friday and not worry about taking off on Thursday, since there really isn't any reason to do so. Thursday night Matt decides to go ahead and go to the Aggie game, which is fine by me...I'm not feeling well and just need to take it easy. So Kellen and I watch some of the football game, which Kellen is just SO excited about.
"Go Aggies!" He yells to the TV as the game ensues. He sure loves Aggie football - well, almost any football, actually.
I let him stay up until 8:30 PM watching the game and then he'd just had enough and to bed he went. For being as tired as he was he really didn't put up too much of a fuss, which is unusual for him when he's overtired. Some would say that based on this, he would sleep in the next day, right? WRONG! My kiddo' just isn't hard-wired that way... Up and going maybe a half hour later than his usual time on Friday morning...but basically his normal time.
I packed up things and got ready to go on Friday morning while Matt ran some errands to get ready to go back to work. His goal - get Kellen and I off to Rockdale and then head to work...for a monster-sized shift. From whatever time he got there on Friday until Monday night at 6 PM. CRAZY!!! The only break was supposed to be for him to run home to check on the house before calling me to come home, but he ended up not doing that because one of the professors I work with checked on the house for me and called to let me know everything was OK on Saturday. Thanks & Thank God!!
My plan was to leave on Friday between 8-9 AM, and I ended up getting out the door by 9:45, which wasn't all that bad. I didn't hit any traffic on Hwy 21 to Caldwell and then it just stopped as I turned onto 36...so I busted a U-turn and went down the backroad FM 908..No traffic there, which is just as I thought! I made great time, and only had to slow down 4 times, 3 times to avoid hitting buzzards in the road - stupid birds that wouldn't fly away as I was coming - even when I honked at them.
"Too loud, Mommy. Mommy hit bird?"
"No Kellen, Mommy didn't hit the bird. I just honked at them so that they would move so I wouldn't hit them."
"Too loud, Mommy. No honk."
The 4th time was to avoid some monster-sized snake that was stretched from the side of the road to the center stripe - not kidding - I just went around that sucker...wasn't about to run over it! Love those back roads with zero traffic!
"Whoa Mommy!"
We made it to Rockdale before 11, and Kellen just had such a good weekend. He didn't act shy with Uncle Eddie or Aunt Glenda, and I can't remember when the last time was that he had seen them. But, he did remember the house! We drove up and he made a comment about a puppy that he had played with during one of our visits...It's amazing what sticks in his brain and what he remembers, because I swear that was almost a year ago...As for my parents, after a quick trip on Friday morning to the doctor for dad's blood pressure, which was WAY too high, new medicine, and getting their place ready for the storm, they head off to Rockdale as well and get in Friday afternoon.
All-in-all we had a good weekend. I was kicking myself because I didn't take more craft projects to work on in my spare time. I took Kellen's baby book and the pictures that I had already picked out and ordered to go in them...got them cropped, placed and put in the book (but I had that done on Friday before my parents even got there - how much time had I thought that project would actually take?). Now I just need to add some text in places and gather a few more event pictures and that book will be done - and how old is Kellen? Whew?!? I had contemplated taking some of the t-shirts for the t-shirt quilts that are lined up for me to work on - at last count I think there are 4, but that includes a high school and college quilt for me as well. I should have taken those with me and cut the squares out while I was there, but oh well! I really expected that it would be storming some, possibly with some power outages...Again, oh well! On a positive note - I was able to take a NAP - a long one, too - I think it was 3 hours or something crazy like that on Saturday afternoon. So maybe it was good that I didn't have projects to work on, because I would have felt like I needed to work on them and I wouldn't have let myself nap...which I'm sure that I needed.
Kellen made some great strides on the potty this weekend, peeing three times in it on Saturday night - once before and then once again after his basin-bath (translation: a lazy-mom's bath when there isn't a bathtub available and you don't want to get in the shower with the kiddo), then again after brushing his teeth - Way to go buddy!
Now Mommy really has to step it up in this area...He's telling me that he needs his diaper changed and doing so well on the potty - all of which means that I need to start working harder on the potty training. Up until this point I have been very laisse-faire with this event, albeit a milestone event, in his life. Now it looks like we need to go on a shopping trip and pick out some training undies (not pull-ups - because it doesn't bother him in the least to pee pee on Buzz Lightyear...), plastic training cover pants, and some big boy undies.
Question: Am I really ready for this?
Answer: NO!
After watching the storm track all day Thursday morning, by mid-day we finally make the decision that Kellen and I will go to Uncle Eddie & Aunt Glenda' s in Rockdale. We don't think that I'll hit much traffic going that route (and I know some back roads that no one else will be taking), and it's a good direction away from the path of the storm, and after I find out my parents are going there, too, it's a great chance for Kellen to spend some time with his Pap Pa and Gramma...So Rockdale it is. We decide that I'll just get up and leave on Friday and not worry about taking off on Thursday, since there really isn't any reason to do so. Thursday night Matt decides to go ahead and go to the Aggie game, which is fine by me...I'm not feeling well and just need to take it easy. So Kellen and I watch some of the football game, which Kellen is just SO excited about.
"Go Aggies!" He yells to the TV as the game ensues. He sure loves Aggie football - well, almost any football, actually.
I let him stay up until 8:30 PM watching the game and then he'd just had enough and to bed he went. For being as tired as he was he really didn't put up too much of a fuss, which is unusual for him when he's overtired. Some would say that based on this, he would sleep in the next day, right? WRONG! My kiddo' just isn't hard-wired that way... Up and going maybe a half hour later than his usual time on Friday morning...but basically his normal time.
I packed up things and got ready to go on Friday morning while Matt ran some errands to get ready to go back to work. His goal - get Kellen and I off to Rockdale and then head to work...for a monster-sized shift. From whatever time he got there on Friday until Monday night at 6 PM. CRAZY!!! The only break was supposed to be for him to run home to check on the house before calling me to come home, but he ended up not doing that because one of the professors I work with checked on the house for me and called to let me know everything was OK on Saturday. Thanks & Thank God!!
My plan was to leave on Friday between 8-9 AM, and I ended up getting out the door by 9:45, which wasn't all that bad. I didn't hit any traffic on Hwy 21 to Caldwell and then it just stopped as I turned onto 36...so I busted a U-turn and went down the backroad FM 908..No traffic there, which is just as I thought! I made great time, and only had to slow down 4 times, 3 times to avoid hitting buzzards in the road - stupid birds that wouldn't fly away as I was coming - even when I honked at them.
"Too loud, Mommy. Mommy hit bird?"
"No Kellen, Mommy didn't hit the bird. I just honked at them so that they would move so I wouldn't hit them."
"Too loud, Mommy. No honk."
The 4th time was to avoid some monster-sized snake that was stretched from the side of the road to the center stripe - not kidding - I just went around that sucker...wasn't about to run over it! Love those back roads with zero traffic!
"Whoa Mommy!"
We made it to Rockdale before 11, and Kellen just had such a good weekend. He didn't act shy with Uncle Eddie or Aunt Glenda, and I can't remember when the last time was that he had seen them. But, he did remember the house! We drove up and he made a comment about a puppy that he had played with during one of our visits...It's amazing what sticks in his brain and what he remembers, because I swear that was almost a year ago...As for my parents, after a quick trip on Friday morning to the doctor for dad's blood pressure, which was WAY too high, new medicine, and getting their place ready for the storm, they head off to Rockdale as well and get in Friday afternoon.
All-in-all we had a good weekend. I was kicking myself because I didn't take more craft projects to work on in my spare time. I took Kellen's baby book and the pictures that I had already picked out and ordered to go in them...got them cropped, placed and put in the book (but I had that done on Friday before my parents even got there - how much time had I thought that project would actually take?). Now I just need to add some text in places and gather a few more event pictures and that book will be done - and how old is Kellen? Whew?!? I had contemplated taking some of the t-shirts for the t-shirt quilts that are lined up for me to work on - at last count I think there are 4, but that includes a high school and college quilt for me as well. I should have taken those with me and cut the squares out while I was there, but oh well! I really expected that it would be storming some, possibly with some power outages...Again, oh well! On a positive note - I was able to take a NAP - a long one, too - I think it was 3 hours or something crazy like that on Saturday afternoon. So maybe it was good that I didn't have projects to work on, because I would have felt like I needed to work on them and I wouldn't have let myself nap...which I'm sure that I needed.
Kellen made some great strides on the potty this weekend, peeing three times in it on Saturday night - once before and then once again after his basin-bath (translation: a lazy-mom's bath when there isn't a bathtub available and you don't want to get in the shower with the kiddo), then again after brushing his teeth - Way to go buddy!
Now Mommy really has to step it up in this area...He's telling me that he needs his diaper changed and doing so well on the potty - all of which means that I need to start working harder on the potty training. Up until this point I have been very laisse-faire with this event, albeit a milestone event, in his life. Now it looks like we need to go on a shopping trip and pick out some training undies (not pull-ups - because it doesn't bother him in the least to pee pee on Buzz Lightyear...), plastic training cover pants, and some big boy undies.
Question: Am I really ready for this?
Answer: NO!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Jaw update
I had my follow-up appointment with the TMJ doctor last Friday morning. It was originally scheduled for the Friday before that, but I still had medicine left to take and had it rescheduled for last week so that he could evaluate me when I had completed my 2nd round of muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds. For the record - it IS getting better, I'm just getting impatient. However, I just need to remind myself of how far I've come since May and June, when it was at its worst...bawling when Kellen would bump my jaw. Right? Right. Keep reminding myself of that. Because I don't like the alternative (I'll explain).
We chatted about how my jaw was doing and I asked him about the popping/clicking when I opened my jaw. I can still open it through the first phase just fine, it's when I push it to open through the second phase that it now pops (when before it wouldn't/couldn't open unless I manually moved the lower portion of my jaw around) and clicks. It doesn't really hurt anymore when it does this (at least most of the time, anyway), it's just incredibly loud and annoying to me. He manipulated it, and had me open and close my jaw a couple of times while he felt what it was doing, commented that "Yes, it was really loud and pretty bad", then told me the good and bad news.
The good news. The clicking is a sign that the soft tissue around the jaw area is relaxing, which means that it's getting better. YEAH!
The bad news. The clicking may not go away for 6 months to a year...maybe even longer. Or he could make it go away very quickly with surgery, but he stated that he didn't think that I really wanted him to go that route. He's absolutely correct!
Now, if he told me that the clicking would never go away without surgery, I would most likely be making a surgery appointment quite soon...but if it will go away and it just requires patience on my part...well, I'm married to Matt...God has instilled some level of patience in me at this point in time...right?
So, the plan is to drop the muscle relaxants from the mix and just take the anti-inflammatory medicine and he wants to see me back in a month.
Sidenote: The doctors office had moved locations since our last visit and I actually drove myself to the doctors office on Friday. All by myself to Houston - and I didn't get lost and only made 3 U-turns (and there were no signs telling me that I couldn't make those U-turns). I was pretty proud of myself and consider that quite an accomplishment!
We chatted about how my jaw was doing and I asked him about the popping/clicking when I opened my jaw. I can still open it through the first phase just fine, it's when I push it to open through the second phase that it now pops (when before it wouldn't/couldn't open unless I manually moved the lower portion of my jaw around) and clicks. It doesn't really hurt anymore when it does this (at least most of the time, anyway), it's just incredibly loud and annoying to me. He manipulated it, and had me open and close my jaw a couple of times while he felt what it was doing, commented that "Yes, it was really loud and pretty bad", then told me the good and bad news.
The good news. The clicking is a sign that the soft tissue around the jaw area is relaxing, which means that it's getting better. YEAH!
The bad news. The clicking may not go away for 6 months to a year...maybe even longer. Or he could make it go away very quickly with surgery, but he stated that he didn't think that I really wanted him to go that route. He's absolutely correct!
Now, if he told me that the clicking would never go away without surgery, I would most likely be making a surgery appointment quite soon...but if it will go away and it just requires patience on my part...well, I'm married to Matt...God has instilled some level of patience in me at this point in time...right?
So, the plan is to drop the muscle relaxants from the mix and just take the anti-inflammatory medicine and he wants to see me back in a month.
Sidenote: The doctors office had moved locations since our last visit and I actually drove myself to the doctors office on Friday. All by myself to Houston - and I didn't get lost and only made 3 U-turns (and there were no signs telling me that I couldn't make those U-turns). I was pretty proud of myself and consider that quite an accomplishment!
Must we do this again?
So Matt is at a FEMA meeting tonight because of the mandatory Galveston county evacuation that begins tomorrow...he is bound and determined that Kellen and I will NOT be in this house when this hurricane hits TX land on Friday night - we'll either be in Conroe or Mexia, depending on where they're estimating the path of this thing, seeing as how our house has the word "mobile" in it, we're not actually going to take any chances. We had planned to build the deck this week, had Adam all lined up to help on Thursday and really thought that they could get the entire thing done in one day, as long as Matt had the materials here and some prep work done before Adam got here Thursday morning...so much for that plan. Nature has a way of usurping things sometimes.
I know that this will come out sounding really selfish, but I want this to be all over so that Matt can finish up with his paramedic tests and get going on his rotations. Yikes! We're a year behind on our schedule with this paramedic plan here...fast-track my behind - HAH!...so another natural disaster will not help this situation, since all of the people that he needs to connect with to get fnished up are intertwined with the rescue and relief efforts around here...grumble, grumble, gripe, gripe - and that did come out really selfishly.
Kellen had an all-around bad day today. Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed...I guess everyone can have one of those days, even a two year old...His teacher said that he had a good day...guess he used up his good behavior on her. Well, that's not entirely true...we did have some fun and good times playing horsie, airplane and coloring between some of the meltdowns this evening. I think he might be coming down with something and/or didn't get a good night sleep last night, so I made sure to start the bedtime routine on time and he was at least in his bed at 7:10...I have the sniffles today, so I hope that he's not coming down with something and that I'm not either.
Here's my bright story for the day...I had an appointment this morning off campus, got into my office at about 10:00 AM and was welcomed by a beautiful spread of lily flowers. The student worker told me they were for me and that I'd just missed the delivery guy. One of the recent August master student graduates, who now resides with his military wife in Europe, had them sent to me to thank me for my hard work and effort in helping him to graduate (there had been some last-minute issues with some of his paperwork but I was able to get it cleared up with the appropriate office and get him cleared for graduation). He just wanted to thank me for the work that I did for the graduate students and to let me know that he, and he was sure the rest of the graduate students, really appreciated it. WOW! Talk about your warm fuzzy. I almost started crying as I read the card, and quite honestly, almost every time that I looked at the flowers today. It was so nice of him to take the time and effort to say, "Thanks" and he didn't need to at all - it really was all in a day's work.
I know that this will come out sounding really selfish, but I want this to be all over so that Matt can finish up with his paramedic tests and get going on his rotations. Yikes! We're a year behind on our schedule with this paramedic plan here...fast-track my behind - HAH!...so another natural disaster will not help this situation, since all of the people that he needs to connect with to get fnished up are intertwined with the rescue and relief efforts around here...grumble, grumble, gripe, gripe - and that did come out really selfishly.
Kellen had an all-around bad day today. Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed...I guess everyone can have one of those days, even a two year old...His teacher said that he had a good day...guess he used up his good behavior on her. Well, that's not entirely true...we did have some fun and good times playing horsie, airplane and coloring between some of the meltdowns this evening. I think he might be coming down with something and/or didn't get a good night sleep last night, so I made sure to start the bedtime routine on time and he was at least in his bed at 7:10...I have the sniffles today, so I hope that he's not coming down with something and that I'm not either.
Here's my bright story for the day...I had an appointment this morning off campus, got into my office at about 10:00 AM and was welcomed by a beautiful spread of lily flowers. The student worker told me they were for me and that I'd just missed the delivery guy. One of the recent August master student graduates, who now resides with his military wife in Europe, had them sent to me to thank me for my hard work and effort in helping him to graduate (there had been some last-minute issues with some of his paperwork but I was able to get it cleared up with the appropriate office and get him cleared for graduation). He just wanted to thank me for the work that I did for the graduate students and to let me know that he, and he was sure the rest of the graduate students, really appreciated it. WOW! Talk about your warm fuzzy. I almost started crying as I read the card, and quite honestly, almost every time that I looked at the flowers today. It was so nice of him to take the time and effort to say, "Thanks" and he didn't need to at all - it really was all in a day's work.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
2 Percenter...
Is what I'm feeling like today...The heat just got to me yesterday and I had to leave the game (for those of you asking, "What game?" - Shame on you - The Aggie game!) I'm blaming it on a combination of meds and total bodily exhaustion from the weeks of health issues...but I just couldn't adapt to the heat at all. And I wasn't alone...it seemed like people were dropping like flies! It was SO HOT! I can't imagine what it would have been like had there been no breeze! Yikes! But, Judy and I went over to the MSC and watched the rest of the game on the big screen TV in the air conditioning...(I know, I know...feeling like a major 2%'er here...), but it just wasn't worth either of us getting really sick. Even with slathering the sunscreen on, Matt looks like a lobster today. I know he's hurting because he actually took the aloe vera with him to work...it has to be bad if he's doing that! I think the sun got to him, too - he had a major headache for most of the day today, despite taking aspirin and drinking an entire pot of coffee...it was just so hot!!
Anyway...66-8 Whoo Hoo & a big Whoop on that one! Way to go Ags!
It was really nice to see Jen & Jason, too...we haven't seen them since the Cotton Bowl last year - man-oh-man, I hadn't realized it had been that long, has it really??? They came down with some friends of theirs and we girls actually met up at the MSC, escaping the heat, and we all ended up going out to eat at, where else, Wings N More after the game. The girls swung by our place, let my babysitter go to work on her thesis-writing (thank you Maria!!!), grabbed Kellen and got our name on the waiting list...45 minutes was not really that bad of a wait...considering that it was game day and all.
To back up, Matt and I actually had a night out on Friday night...Went to First Yell - our first First Yell, actually. Singing Cadets was the first opener...followed by the Aggie Wranglers, then Percussion Studio (I finally got a change to see them, Jen - after how many years of trying to get them to perform Aggieland Saturday?) They were all great, and I actually have one of my grad students that is a member of Percussion Studio this year...I believe that after that little performance Matt and I will be attending their fall show this December, yes sirree bob...We enjoyed all of it, except for the opener comedian...he had some funny jokes, but all-in-all he was NOT a family friendly comedian...and that was what we (and lots of other folks) were there for. There were a lot of people there with little kids, as this is touted as a family friendly occasion...I'm thinking that I'll be hearing some comments about this one at work on Monday.
Bill Envall was GREAT! His bit was an hour and a half long...and I didn't stop laughing for much of that 90 minutes. I felt like I had just been through a marathon ab workout (if I can remember what one of those feels like...). He had us in stiches! I can't remember when, or even if, I've laughed that hard or for that long. We didn't get out of there until after 11 PM...picked Kellen up by 11:30 and he was sacked out. I think he might have fussed for 15 seconds when Matt laid him down in his bed again...other than that, we heard nary a peep from him. The babysitter, the daughter of a co-worker (aren't you guys proud...I'm actually working up a set of babysitters - finally...) was great. We will (hopefully) be able to use her to cover some of the football games this season.
All-in-all a nice weekend...got quite a bit done and despite having two different babysitters on two different days, we really got to spend some time playing with Kellen, too. He's gone on the potty a couple of times this weekend - YEAH!! Although I'm thinking that the pull-ups might not be the best route to go because he doesn't seem to mind peeing on Buzz Lightyear...even when I tell him that when he puts on the Buzz Lightyear pull-ups that he needs to tell me when he has to pee pee and we'll pee pee in the potty and not in Buzz. Hmmm...I'm not pushing this, so I guess we'll just wait and see on this one...
And he was so sweet saying his prayers tonight...
"Bless Daddy work. Bless Mommy work. [Not quite sure why I got a work blessing, but whatever] Bless frog. Bless Daddy work. Bless Shrek home. Bless book. Bless Daddy work."
He sure does love his Daddy! We had thought that he didn't understand the difference between work and home...but he seemed to make the distinction tonight. I'm still not quite sure why I got a work blessing since I was at home, but he blessed Shrek home...so there is some sort of distinction going on there in his mind. Just now quite sure that we can understand what that is. Oh well!
Anyway...66-8 Whoo Hoo & a big Whoop on that one! Way to go Ags!
It was really nice to see Jen & Jason, too...we haven't seen them since the Cotton Bowl last year - man-oh-man, I hadn't realized it had been that long, has it really??? They came down with some friends of theirs and we girls actually met up at the MSC, escaping the heat, and we all ended up going out to eat at, where else, Wings N More after the game. The girls swung by our place, let my babysitter go to work on her thesis-writing (thank you Maria!!!), grabbed Kellen and got our name on the waiting list...45 minutes was not really that bad of a wait...considering that it was game day and all.
To back up, Matt and I actually had a night out on Friday night...Went to First Yell - our first First Yell, actually. Singing Cadets was the first opener...followed by the Aggie Wranglers, then Percussion Studio (I finally got a change to see them, Jen - after how many years of trying to get them to perform Aggieland Saturday?) They were all great, and I actually have one of my grad students that is a member of Percussion Studio this year...I believe that after that little performance Matt and I will be attending their fall show this December, yes sirree bob...We enjoyed all of it, except for the opener comedian...he had some funny jokes, but all-in-all he was NOT a family friendly comedian...and that was what we (and lots of other folks) were there for. There were a lot of people there with little kids, as this is touted as a family friendly occasion...I'm thinking that I'll be hearing some comments about this one at work on Monday.
Bill Envall was GREAT! His bit was an hour and a half long...and I didn't stop laughing for much of that 90 minutes. I felt like I had just been through a marathon ab workout (if I can remember what one of those feels like...). He had us in stiches! I can't remember when, or even if, I've laughed that hard or for that long. We didn't get out of there until after 11 PM...picked Kellen up by 11:30 and he was sacked out. I think he might have fussed for 15 seconds when Matt laid him down in his bed again...other than that, we heard nary a peep from him. The babysitter, the daughter of a co-worker (aren't you guys proud...I'm actually working up a set of babysitters - finally...) was great. We will (hopefully) be able to use her to cover some of the football games this season.
All-in-all a nice weekend...got quite a bit done and despite having two different babysitters on two different days, we really got to spend some time playing with Kellen, too. He's gone on the potty a couple of times this weekend - YEAH!! Although I'm thinking that the pull-ups might not be the best route to go because he doesn't seem to mind peeing on Buzz Lightyear...even when I tell him that when he puts on the Buzz Lightyear pull-ups that he needs to tell me when he has to pee pee and we'll pee pee in the potty and not in Buzz. Hmmm...I'm not pushing this, so I guess we'll just wait and see on this one...
And he was so sweet saying his prayers tonight...
"Bless Daddy work. Bless Mommy work. [Not quite sure why I got a work blessing, but whatever] Bless frog. Bless Daddy work. Bless Shrek home. Bless book. Bless Daddy work."
He sure does love his Daddy! We had thought that he didn't understand the difference between work and home...but he seemed to make the distinction tonight. I'm still not quite sure why I got a work blessing since I was at home, but he blessed Shrek home...so there is some sort of distinction going on there in his mind. Just now quite sure that we can understand what that is. Oh well!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
He did WHAT?
So I picked Kellen up from day care yesterday and posted on his cubby was a message from his teacher asking me to help her out with the ripping/tearing of book issue. Apparently Kellen had ripped several books in class. Stinker - he hasn't been doing that at home lately. So I go to the next room where he is and his teacher asked me not to leave just yet. There was another parent in the room and I was wondering just what that meant...Then she asks me if Matt had been gone a lot...no...Kellen had actually spent all day on Saturday with his dad, I told her...Matt was on a 36 hr shift Sunday and Monday, but he had gotten to spend quite a bit of time with him over the weekend, even saw him on Sunday morning while Matt was at work when we visited him on the "big truck" that Daddy drives. Well, apparently my little Kellen-man had quite the bad day at school. Not only did he rip up some books, but he had kicked one of his friends while they were taking a nap...in the head...and not by accident, either. I was mortified! Then she proceeds to tell me that he's been pushing people all day long, too. Whoa buddy! What's going on here? I told her that he MUST have been having a bad day because he had been super sweet on Sunday...and he had!! What was the DEAL?
I guess we all have bad days...and that extends to 2 year olds, too.
So we went back to our discussions about books and how we were nice to our books and didn't hurt them...NOR did we kick and hurt our friends. I just don't understand that. He's so compassionate most of the time and hates to see people hurt and upset, why did he do something that he knows would hurt someone else?
Arg...
Picked him up from day care today and was told that he had a MUCH better day today. No incidents to report. THANK YOU GOD!
I guess we all have bad days...and that extends to 2 year olds, too.
So we went back to our discussions about books and how we were nice to our books and didn't hurt them...NOR did we kick and hurt our friends. I just don't understand that. He's so compassionate most of the time and hates to see people hurt and upset, why did he do something that he knows would hurt someone else?
Arg...
Picked him up from day care today and was told that he had a MUCH better day today. No incidents to report. THANK YOU GOD!
Sunday, September 11, 2005
10 Years...Has it been THAT long?
My 10 year high school reunion was this weekend...football game Friday night and then the family picnic on Saturday afternoon at the Perry's Pecan Patch on FM 908. We didn't make the football game because Matt was on a 24 hr shift...but the picnic was a must - after all, I did get roped into helping out with the planning by the good 'ole class Prez...Frei-daddy himself. I had never been to this place, although there were apparently a lot of gatherings there while we were in high school, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from the facilities...
Saturday morning was rough...neither Matt nor I were feeling well - he was coming down with something and I think what has seemed like countless weeks of meds and sleepless/restless sleep nights finally kicked me in the tail. It took me a while longer than I would have liked to to actually get moving...Lots to do...we were all supposed to bring 1) beverages for our families...easy for us...water and apple juice; 2) desserts to share (I had planned to make these on Friday night but kinda' pooped out on this game plan while talking to Jen on the phone...I enjoyed chatting with her MUCH more than I would have enjoyed baking, so no worries there, although I guess I could have been good and done both at the same time - oh well!), so I baked a bundt cake, cupcakes for the kiddos, which I was sure there would be plenty of, and then a batch of no-bake chocolate cookies. I was geared up to make two batches of those, but was just short of 2 cups of sugar, so the second batch got shelved. Waited for the bundt cake to cool and then cut it up...cupcakes to cool and then frosted them - that baking pretty much took a while; 3) folding/lawn chairs; 4) kiddo entertainment...pull together what I think are some appropriate "outside" toys...Kellen's weed eater, leaf blower, and his new sandbox toys...for some reason I remember something about their being a sandbox available at this place - better to be prepared, right?
Prepared...HAH!...in my preparation I take the umbrella OUT of one of our bags...not thinking about the possibility of it raining on us during the reunion...so much for prepared...it ended up sprinking on us for about an hour and a half...and it ended up being so muggy that no one was really in the mood to eat anything...so all of those lovely desserts that I spent the morning making ended up coming right back home with us...virtually untouched. Oh well! Matt took the cupcakes and cake with him on shift (36-hr shift...I'm sure they'll be eating some of that) and I'll keep the no-bake cookies around...Lord knows I'll eat those!!
All-in-all it was a great turn-out and good time. I was the official photographer, which should have meant that my digital camera's memory card was full, but I slacked off on my job (sorry Chris)...with the weather and trying to catch up with people that I had literally not seen in over 10 years...it just kinda' slipped past me. I did take some good shots, and will work up an email to the class asking for everyone to send their pics to me, load them all up on shutterfly and share them with the group...so I think that was the biggest thing that Chris wanted anyway. At least if that part gets accomplished, everyone will have access to the full slew of pics from the weekend. Maybe I should change my title from photographer to historian...that way I won't feel bad about not taking so many pics and will work harder at the compilation and subsequent sharing of said pics...Yeah, I like that idea better anyway...historian it is.
Let me just say again for the record, "I have a wonderful husband!" He let me just catch up with people and checked in with me periodically, but he basically just chased after Kellen and played with him during the entire picnic. And Kellen was a handful. He discovered the San Gabriel river...discovered...literally...I'm really glad that we brought several changes of clothing for him...He played in the sandbox, with the rocks, sticks, ran around, climbed the slimy rocks covered in muck-mud...did I mention that it was sprinkling?...again, so glad we brought several changes of clothing with us!
So we got home and during the drive Matt was actually COLD. I put this word in bold for those of you who don't know Matt well - for the rest of you, you understand how crazy that is and how badly he must have been feeling...(And to chase Kellen around all afternoon with zero complaints...I love you sweetie!). We got home, I put Kellen to bed and Matt went straight to the recliner, covered up with blankets and just shivered...Bless his heart! I was really worried about him going on a 36-hr shift...took his temperature and he was actually running a fever, which he almost NEVER does...I unloaded the majority of the things from the truck that just had to be brought in...He woke up this morning and his fever had broken last night, thank God...He said that he's feeling better, so that's a plus...his immune system just amazes me! What hit him and put him through that would have probably knocked me out for at least 3-4 days...so off to work he goes this morning.
As for today, Kellen and I just had a lazy day. Since we (Kellen) only watch TV/DVD's on the weekend at our house, we watched whatever DVD Kellen decided he wanted to watch at the time, some twice, played with toys, danced around, put some puzzles together, snacked, pretty much did whatever he wanted to do that didn't require me to exert that much energy. I'm still feeling like I've been hit by a truck...I guess weeks of running close to the exhaustion line will do that to you, so I'm trying to take it easy today. I've done some laundry, but haven't been really diligent about keeping it going...Just when I get around to it. I had the idea that I could work on the spare bathroom project, which still isn't finished...possibly as a surprise for Matt...but quickly canned that idea when I realized how much energy it took for me to stumble to the DVD player to switch out shows for Kellen. Spare bathroom? Nah...I'll get to it later. I enjoyed the day much more just hanging out with Kellen and spending time with him. And he was in a snuggly mood today...I really like those days! I got a lot of random "I lub jou Mommy" today...translation, if you can't tell "I love you" - such a sweet little boy!!
Matt called this morning at about 20 minutes to 11...taking someone to the Med Center, so we got ready to go see "Daddy work" and Kellen really enjoyed watching his Daddy drive up in the "big truck" and then spend some time with him. To give you an idea of how much he wanted to see Daddy...he was in the middle of watching Hermie...one of his favorites...when I asked if he wanted to go and see Daddy. His reply?
"Stop Hermie. See Daddy. Hermie all through. Go see Daddy now. Stop Hermie."
It was just so sweet! He was ready to go and see his Daddy that very second! "Where Daddy at?" was also one of the first things out of his mouth this morning after I got him out of his bed. He seems to understand the concept of work...if nothing more than that it means that person has to be somewhere other than at home when they're at work, because that answer pacified him.
We called almost all of the Grandparents today...(sorry MeeMaw, we just didn't get a chance to give you a call today) and chatted with them. Kellen really enjoyed doing that. He's transitioned from me trying to talk him into saying "Hi" on the phone to my almost having to pry it out of his hands after the conversation is over (or while he's giving his Gramma Gerren a play-by-play of Toy Story). He really likes talking on it now. But woe is the person who is trying to compete with one of his shows, which is unfortunately what happened today with some of the grandparents.
Saturday morning was rough...neither Matt nor I were feeling well - he was coming down with something and I think what has seemed like countless weeks of meds and sleepless/restless sleep nights finally kicked me in the tail. It took me a while longer than I would have liked to to actually get moving...Lots to do...we were all supposed to bring 1) beverages for our families...easy for us...water and apple juice; 2) desserts to share (I had planned to make these on Friday night but kinda' pooped out on this game plan while talking to Jen on the phone...I enjoyed chatting with her MUCH more than I would have enjoyed baking, so no worries there, although I guess I could have been good and done both at the same time - oh well!), so I baked a bundt cake, cupcakes for the kiddos, which I was sure there would be plenty of, and then a batch of no-bake chocolate cookies. I was geared up to make two batches of those, but was just short of 2 cups of sugar, so the second batch got shelved. Waited for the bundt cake to cool and then cut it up...cupcakes to cool and then frosted them - that baking pretty much took a while; 3) folding/lawn chairs; 4) kiddo entertainment...pull together what I think are some appropriate "outside" toys...Kellen's weed eater, leaf blower, and his new sandbox toys...for some reason I remember something about their being a sandbox available at this place - better to be prepared, right?
Prepared...HAH!...in my preparation I take the umbrella OUT of one of our bags...not thinking about the possibility of it raining on us during the reunion...so much for prepared...it ended up sprinking on us for about an hour and a half...and it ended up being so muggy that no one was really in the mood to eat anything...so all of those lovely desserts that I spent the morning making ended up coming right back home with us...virtually untouched. Oh well! Matt took the cupcakes and cake with him on shift (36-hr shift...I'm sure they'll be eating some of that) and I'll keep the no-bake cookies around...Lord knows I'll eat those!!
All-in-all it was a great turn-out and good time. I was the official photographer, which should have meant that my digital camera's memory card was full, but I slacked off on my job (sorry Chris)...with the weather and trying to catch up with people that I had literally not seen in over 10 years...it just kinda' slipped past me. I did take some good shots, and will work up an email to the class asking for everyone to send their pics to me, load them all up on shutterfly and share them with the group...so I think that was the biggest thing that Chris wanted anyway. At least if that part gets accomplished, everyone will have access to the full slew of pics from the weekend. Maybe I should change my title from photographer to historian...that way I won't feel bad about not taking so many pics and will work harder at the compilation and subsequent sharing of said pics...Yeah, I like that idea better anyway...historian it is.
Let me just say again for the record, "I have a wonderful husband!" He let me just catch up with people and checked in with me periodically, but he basically just chased after Kellen and played with him during the entire picnic. And Kellen was a handful. He discovered the San Gabriel river...discovered...literally...I'm really glad that we brought several changes of clothing for him...He played in the sandbox, with the rocks, sticks, ran around, climbed the slimy rocks covered in muck-mud...did I mention that it was sprinkling?...again, so glad we brought several changes of clothing with us!
So we got home and during the drive Matt was actually COLD. I put this word in bold for those of you who don't know Matt well - for the rest of you, you understand how crazy that is and how badly he must have been feeling...(And to chase Kellen around all afternoon with zero complaints...I love you sweetie!). We got home, I put Kellen to bed and Matt went straight to the recliner, covered up with blankets and just shivered...Bless his heart! I was really worried about him going on a 36-hr shift...took his temperature and he was actually running a fever, which he almost NEVER does...I unloaded the majority of the things from the truck that just had to be brought in...He woke up this morning and his fever had broken last night, thank God...He said that he's feeling better, so that's a plus...his immune system just amazes me! What hit him and put him through that would have probably knocked me out for at least 3-4 days...so off to work he goes this morning.
As for today, Kellen and I just had a lazy day. Since we (Kellen) only watch TV/DVD's on the weekend at our house, we watched whatever DVD Kellen decided he wanted to watch at the time, some twice, played with toys, danced around, put some puzzles together, snacked, pretty much did whatever he wanted to do that didn't require me to exert that much energy. I'm still feeling like I've been hit by a truck...I guess weeks of running close to the exhaustion line will do that to you, so I'm trying to take it easy today. I've done some laundry, but haven't been really diligent about keeping it going...Just when I get around to it. I had the idea that I could work on the spare bathroom project, which still isn't finished...possibly as a surprise for Matt...but quickly canned that idea when I realized how much energy it took for me to stumble to the DVD player to switch out shows for Kellen. Spare bathroom? Nah...I'll get to it later. I enjoyed the day much more just hanging out with Kellen and spending time with him. And he was in a snuggly mood today...I really like those days! I got a lot of random "I lub jou Mommy" today...translation, if you can't tell "I love you" - such a sweet little boy!!
Matt called this morning at about 20 minutes to 11...taking someone to the Med Center, so we got ready to go see "Daddy work" and Kellen really enjoyed watching his Daddy drive up in the "big truck" and then spend some time with him. To give you an idea of how much he wanted to see Daddy...he was in the middle of watching Hermie...one of his favorites...when I asked if he wanted to go and see Daddy. His reply?
"Stop Hermie. See Daddy. Hermie all through. Go see Daddy now. Stop Hermie."
It was just so sweet! He was ready to go and see his Daddy that very second! "Where Daddy at?" was also one of the first things out of his mouth this morning after I got him out of his bed. He seems to understand the concept of work...if nothing more than that it means that person has to be somewhere other than at home when they're at work, because that answer pacified him.
We called almost all of the Grandparents today...(sorry MeeMaw, we just didn't get a chance to give you a call today) and chatted with them. Kellen really enjoyed doing that. He's transitioned from me trying to talk him into saying "Hi" on the phone to my almost having to pry it out of his hands after the conversation is over (or while he's giving his Gramma Gerren a play-by-play of Toy Story). He really likes talking on it now. But woe is the person who is trying to compete with one of his shows, which is unfortunately what happened today with some of the grandparents.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Baby Genius?!?
Ok, ok...so I may be overreacting slightly. But I finally got Kellen back today (thank you so much Maw Maw and Paw Paw!!) and what he did tonight makes me think - ok, confirms my thinking-that he's got a lot going on up there. Will explain in a minute...
Matt and I left him in Ft. Worth with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo on Sunday so that he could spend some more time with his aunt before she flew out on Monday...and they had a blast!! Anyway...Matt was planning to help out with evacuees on Monday during the day, which didn't end up happening because it was a holiday and there were many more volunteers that day than anticipated. So, he ran errands during the day, all the while still thinking there was the possibility that they were going to call him to come and work...which they eventually did...and he went here in town and helped out in the afternoon/evening rather than in Houston as originally planned. This was actually reason #2 why Maw Maw and Paw Paw had Kellen - I had to work, daycare was closed, and if Matt ended up helping out in Houston or in town...Kellen was to go where??? So this worked out really well for us. The original plan was that Matt would swing by Conroe on his way back from Houston, so quick-change of plans...and we decide that Matt will try and pick up Kellen on Tuesday. He has to work a 24-hr shift on Wednesday, so there shouldn't be a problem with Tuesday...I was geared up and ready to go pick him up after I got off of work on Tuesday, but Matt and I chatted about how much work I could actually get done with no interruptions, the fact that he could study and try to take a test or, if unable to take a test, get some things done around the house (which actually turned into him helping out here in town).... So, change of plans again and Kellen ends up spending another night away...he's having a blast, barely missing us...(I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, actually). I ended up staying at work until ~9:30...and man-o-man did I get some things done! I can tell that this is taking its toll on my body...even with the muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds in my system...my back is really sore...wait a minute...perhaps that could be from this weekend's adventures at Six Flags, too...hmmm....
So anyway...today. The grant proposal is done, off of my desk, submitted. Whoop!! At 5 PM I'm out the door to meet Maw Maw in Plantersville to do the Kellen swap. We had a nice dinner...I think he was a little happy to see me! As we were getting ready to leave, he starts to pull what I've now discovered as a fast one...
"Kellen throw up," he says as he's strapped in the car seat with the car loaded, vehicle started, and Mommy getting into the car, ready to leave the parking lot to head back to College Station.
Concerned, of course, I turn and look at him. "Kellen, do you need to throw up?"
"Yes."
"Does your tummy hurt?"
"Yes."
"Do you need to get out of the car and throw up?"
"Yes."
I get out of the car, tell Maw Maw that I think we might have a problem, unstrap him from his car seat and take him to the grass and start to rub his back. I'm thinking that Maw Maw might have a munchkin houseguest for another night...but I must be a miracle worker, because he - almost immediately - begins to try and climb up me, play with sticks, rocks, etc.
"Kellen, does your tummy hurt?"
"No."
"Kellen, do you have to throw up?"
"No."
Whoa buddy...what's going on here??? Where-when did he learn this one??? As it starts to dawn on me whats happening...I pick him up, walk over to the car, and he begins again.
"Kellen throw up. Tummy hurts."
I open the car door. "Come on Kellen. Time to go home. You're going home with Mommy now."
"Kellen throw up!! NO!" And then a monster appears where my child was only moments before...bucking against me as I try to strap him into his car seat. "Kellen THROW UP! NO! TUMMY HURTS!"
I look at Maw Maw, I'm sure with total exasperation in my eyes...and let her know that I think he's faking it...and will test my theory on the way home. If I end up with puke in my hair, I'll know I was wrong. As I'm sitting here with clean hair...I realize that I wasn't wrong, and that somehow - my child has learned to lie...
At some point in time on the way home, the monster went away and Kellen reappeared...it's nice to have him back. We got home, he was SO excited to see Bailey and by this time it's WAY past his bedtime. So, we start getting ready for bed, changing clothes, bedtime stories, etc. We read a couple of Winnie the Pooh books, then an alphabet zoo book, then I tell him to pick 1 more book. So he goes and picks the frog book that never has made its way back to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's where it belongs. We read this book and then I tell Kellen to get in bed.
"Clifford book - read Clifford book, Mommy!" he begs...
"Do you want Mommy to read you the Clifford book?"
"Yes ma'am."
I know, I know...you shouldn't give in, right? But I haven't seen him since SUNDAY!!! And how can you say no to THAT??? And it's just a bedtime story. So, I sit down on the floor and read him the Clifford book - well, I begin to read it to him, anyway. In this Clifford book, Clifford counts objects 1-2-3. We've been reading this book for ages, so he's seen me use my pointer finger to point to and count the objects on each page as I read the page...don't we all do that as an educational tool? Anyway...today, as I do every so often, I asked if Kellen would count, because in the book it asks "Can you count three ____ (houses, airplanes, trucks, cars, trees, children, etc.). Usually he says, "No, Mommy do it." But not today...today he counted to three...the first time he did it he didn't point to the objects, so I then asked him to do it again and point to the object on the page...
He did it! And actually counted 1-2-3 and pointed to each different picture like he's seen me do a hundred times before...I know that this doesn't count as reading, but man, I'm so proud of him! I got really excited and hugged him, told him how proud I was of him and how proud he should be of himself for counting in the book like that.
He just slowly turned his head every so slightly, gently put one hand on my mouth and said, "Too loud Mommy."
I guess I must have gotten a little carried away and forgot to use my night-night voice...
So we read the entire book that way, and he really only got confused on the very last page when they list all of the objects that have been listed before all on one page...he got confused between the three trucks and three cars...understandably so, I think...
I'm so glad that I gave in and read that last book to him...to think that I might have missed that moment with him...Wow...
*Just for the record, the isn't the first time he's counted...he can count to 10 (at least that's as high as I've ever heard him count), but the first time that he's cooperated with the counting in conjunction with this book.*
Then it was off to bed, say our prayers, which of course start with "Bless Daddy work..." (when he blesses anyone, he says their name and then work, even if they're in the room) and it's night-night time! I'm thankful that he was able to spend some quality time with his Aunt Boo and that I was able to get so much work done while he was gone, but I'm so glad that he's back.
Matt and I left him in Ft. Worth with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo on Sunday so that he could spend some more time with his aunt before she flew out on Monday...and they had a blast!! Anyway...Matt was planning to help out with evacuees on Monday during the day, which didn't end up happening because it was a holiday and there were many more volunteers that day than anticipated. So, he ran errands during the day, all the while still thinking there was the possibility that they were going to call him to come and work...which they eventually did...and he went here in town and helped out in the afternoon/evening rather than in Houston as originally planned. This was actually reason #2 why Maw Maw and Paw Paw had Kellen - I had to work, daycare was closed, and if Matt ended up helping out in Houston or in town...Kellen was to go where??? So this worked out really well for us. The original plan was that Matt would swing by Conroe on his way back from Houston, so quick-change of plans...and we decide that Matt will try and pick up Kellen on Tuesday. He has to work a 24-hr shift on Wednesday, so there shouldn't be a problem with Tuesday...I was geared up and ready to go pick him up after I got off of work on Tuesday, but Matt and I chatted about how much work I could actually get done with no interruptions, the fact that he could study and try to take a test or, if unable to take a test, get some things done around the house (which actually turned into him helping out here in town).... So, change of plans again and Kellen ends up spending another night away...he's having a blast, barely missing us...(I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, actually). I ended up staying at work until ~9:30...and man-o-man did I get some things done! I can tell that this is taking its toll on my body...even with the muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds in my system...my back is really sore...wait a minute...perhaps that could be from this weekend's adventures at Six Flags, too...hmmm....
So anyway...today. The grant proposal is done, off of my desk, submitted. Whoop!! At 5 PM I'm out the door to meet Maw Maw in Plantersville to do the Kellen swap. We had a nice dinner...I think he was a little happy to see me! As we were getting ready to leave, he starts to pull what I've now discovered as a fast one...
"Kellen throw up," he says as he's strapped in the car seat with the car loaded, vehicle started, and Mommy getting into the car, ready to leave the parking lot to head back to College Station.
Concerned, of course, I turn and look at him. "Kellen, do you need to throw up?"
"Yes."
"Does your tummy hurt?"
"Yes."
"Do you need to get out of the car and throw up?"
"Yes."
I get out of the car, tell Maw Maw that I think we might have a problem, unstrap him from his car seat and take him to the grass and start to rub his back. I'm thinking that Maw Maw might have a munchkin houseguest for another night...but I must be a miracle worker, because he - almost immediately - begins to try and climb up me, play with sticks, rocks, etc.
"Kellen, does your tummy hurt?"
"No."
"Kellen, do you have to throw up?"
"No."
Whoa buddy...what's going on here??? Where-when did he learn this one??? As it starts to dawn on me whats happening...I pick him up, walk over to the car, and he begins again.
"Kellen throw up. Tummy hurts."
I open the car door. "Come on Kellen. Time to go home. You're going home with Mommy now."
"Kellen throw up!! NO!" And then a monster appears where my child was only moments before...bucking against me as I try to strap him into his car seat. "Kellen THROW UP! NO! TUMMY HURTS!"
I look at Maw Maw, I'm sure with total exasperation in my eyes...and let her know that I think he's faking it...and will test my theory on the way home. If I end up with puke in my hair, I'll know I was wrong. As I'm sitting here with clean hair...I realize that I wasn't wrong, and that somehow - my child has learned to lie...
At some point in time on the way home, the monster went away and Kellen reappeared...it's nice to have him back. We got home, he was SO excited to see Bailey and by this time it's WAY past his bedtime. So, we start getting ready for bed, changing clothes, bedtime stories, etc. We read a couple of Winnie the Pooh books, then an alphabet zoo book, then I tell him to pick 1 more book. So he goes and picks the frog book that never has made its way back to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's where it belongs. We read this book and then I tell Kellen to get in bed.
"Clifford book - read Clifford book, Mommy!" he begs...
"Do you want Mommy to read you the Clifford book?"
"Yes ma'am."
I know, I know...you shouldn't give in, right? But I haven't seen him since SUNDAY!!! And how can you say no to THAT??? And it's just a bedtime story. So, I sit down on the floor and read him the Clifford book - well, I begin to read it to him, anyway. In this Clifford book, Clifford counts objects 1-2-3. We've been reading this book for ages, so he's seen me use my pointer finger to point to and count the objects on each page as I read the page...don't we all do that as an educational tool? Anyway...today, as I do every so often, I asked if Kellen would count, because in the book it asks "Can you count three ____ (houses, airplanes, trucks, cars, trees, children, etc.). Usually he says, "No, Mommy do it." But not today...today he counted to three...the first time he did it he didn't point to the objects, so I then asked him to do it again and point to the object on the page...
He did it! And actually counted 1-2-3 and pointed to each different picture like he's seen me do a hundred times before...I know that this doesn't count as reading, but man, I'm so proud of him! I got really excited and hugged him, told him how proud I was of him and how proud he should be of himself for counting in the book like that.
He just slowly turned his head every so slightly, gently put one hand on my mouth and said, "Too loud Mommy."
I guess I must have gotten a little carried away and forgot to use my night-night voice...
So we read the entire book that way, and he really only got confused on the very last page when they list all of the objects that have been listed before all on one page...he got confused between the three trucks and three cars...understandably so, I think...
I'm so glad that I gave in and read that last book to him...to think that I might have missed that moment with him...Wow...
*Just for the record, the isn't the first time he's counted...he can count to 10 (at least that's as high as I've ever heard him count), but the first time that he's cooperated with the counting in conjunction with this book.*
Then it was off to bed, say our prayers, which of course start with "Bless Daddy work..." (when he blesses anyone, he says their name and then work, even if they're in the room) and it's night-night time! I'm thankful that he was able to spend some quality time with his Aunt Boo and that I was able to get so much work done while he was gone, but I'm so glad that he's back.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Let's do that again!
Quick recap...So last weekend my parents came over on Saturday a little after Matt left for his 48 hr shift. They had such a great time with Kellen! Dad and I were able to run quite a few errands on Sunday - THANK YOU PAP PA!!
They brought him the Shrek doll, which he just absolutely adores...(see those pictures in the previous post) and some yard toys...a weed eater and a leaf blower...now, along with his lawn mower, he can pretend to help Mommy and Daddy work in the yard when we're outside. He had such a blast with those toys!
And who knew that we had a built in sandbox? We had always thought it a problem that we couldn't grow any actual grass toward the back of our yard...but not Kellen...leave he and his Gramma to it and they'll just PLAY!! Enter the new sandbox toys that they brought, and he's just having such fun...He's a mess, a sandy mess, but having a ball! Such the optimist!
The week was pretty much a blur...work, work, more work (first week of classes, need I say much more??), Matt helping out in Houston with the folks that have been evacuated from LA, Matt's work (as in actual job), Kellen getting sick on Thursday, Maw Maw & Paw Paw coming to the rescue, whew! What a week...But then the weekend...full, but fun!
On Friday after I got off of work we drove to Jeff's in Ft. Worth...spent the night there and just hung out during the day on Saturday. I actually took a NAP a long nap - can you BELIEVE it?!?! We had Allison's wedding in McKinney Saturday night and drove over there from Ft. Worth...reception after that in another little suburb about 30-35 minutes away from that at Matt's cousin's house...Watched the Aggie game during the reception...Yes, we actually did watch the game during the reception...does this fact actually surprise anyone??
Kellen was remarkably well behaved for as full of a day as it was and as late as it ended up being. When we first got to the reception, he went straight for the pool - of course, but Matt caught him just before he walked into the water...They were playing some music during the reception outside, so he wanted to dance with Mommy (no one else...just Mommy...only Mommy today). He was just so cute...Then we got him inside to watch the game and he really like that room...duh...who wouldn't like watching football on a 64" TV and running around on plush carpet?
Then back to Jeff's for Saturday night...no such luck on Kellen sleeping in on Sunday morning...at least not too long. The boys went and got us breakfast and my coffee for the 2nd morning in a row (I could really get used to that kind of treatment) then we got ready to head out to Six Flags.
What FUN! First stop, the horses...Kellen said that he wanted to ride the brown one, but when it got right down to it, no such luck. He pitched a fit as Matt and I tried to put him on the horse and strap him in. So, he rode in the carriage with Mommy, which, as you can see from the picture, was just fine by him. In his defense, he had just woken up from a very short (~1 hr) nap taken in the truck from Jeff's to the Six Flags parking lot and it was taking him a little while to wake up, so it was ok. When the ride was over he looked and me and said and signed, "More. Kellen ride horsie." Sorry buddy-boy...They don't let us just stay on here. He'll learn.
We stood in line WAY too long for the first ride...but learned about the speed pass in the process...Well worth the $$ spent, I say. Maw Maw had Kellen-patrol all day and Matt, Aunt Boo, Paw Paw and I rode the rides...WHOO HOO!! I haven't been to Six Flags in years...Matt says he hadn't been there in 15-20...and this was the first time that he and I had gone anywhere like this together. We had such a good time! Batman, Mr. Freeze, Texas Giant, Titan...man-oh-man what fun!! Got off of the wooden roller coaster with a bruise already starting on my right thigh - I can't do that to myself too much..one wooden roller coaster per trip...that's it - my back was already killing me...Matt, too.
Kellen and Maw Maw had fun riding some of the kiddy rides. If you ask Kellen, he drove the truck and train all by himself. He just looked like such a big boy with his hands on the steering wheel! Man, if we lived a little closer we would have a season pass and be here all of the time! Matt and I talked about using Six Flags and/or AstroWorld as an incentive or reward when Kellen does well in school. I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, but that will just be so much fun!
We left Six Flags minus the munchkin...he stayed with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo so that he could spend more time with Aunt Boo...he went back to their hotel and apparently had them in stitches and rolling all night long...We head back to Jeff's, get our stuff...and back to College Station we go...get back into town around midnight...Thank you honey for driving...and letting me sleep the entire way home!!
At work at 7:30 this morning and another week, here we come! Perhaps this week will be a little less crazy and I'll be able to get back into my routine of blogging a smaller blog every night...these marathon blogs take quite a bit of time, and I'm missing the cute things that Kellen does on a daily basis, which is the whole point of the blog anyway! Will do better...must do better...
They brought him the Shrek doll, which he just absolutely adores...(see those pictures in the previous post) and some yard toys...a weed eater and a leaf blower...now, along with his lawn mower, he can pretend to help Mommy and Daddy work in the yard when we're outside. He had such a blast with those toys!
And who knew that we had a built in sandbox? We had always thought it a problem that we couldn't grow any actual grass toward the back of our yard...but not Kellen...leave he and his Gramma to it and they'll just PLAY!! Enter the new sandbox toys that they brought, and he's just having such fun...He's a mess, a sandy mess, but having a ball! Such the optimist!The week was pretty much a blur...work, work, more work (first week of classes, need I say much more??), Matt helping out in Houston with the folks that have been evacuated from LA, Matt's work (as in actual job), Kellen getting sick on Thursday, Maw Maw & Paw Paw coming to the rescue, whew! What a week...But then the weekend...full, but fun!
On Friday after I got off of work we drove to Jeff's in Ft. Worth...spent the night there and just hung out during the day on Saturday. I actually took a NAP a long nap - can you BELIEVE it?!?! We had Allison's wedding in McKinney Saturday night and drove over there from Ft. Worth...reception after that in another little suburb about 30-35 minutes away from that at Matt's cousin's house...Watched the Aggie game during the reception...Yes, we actually did watch the game during the reception...does this fact actually surprise anyone??
Kellen was remarkably well behaved for as full of a day as it was and as late as it ended up being. When we first got to the reception, he went straight for the pool - of course, but Matt caught him just before he walked into the water...They were playing some music during the reception outside, so he wanted to dance with Mommy (no one else...just Mommy...only Mommy today). He was just so cute...Then we got him inside to watch the game and he really like that room...duh...who wouldn't like watching football on a 64" TV and running around on plush carpet?
Then back to Jeff's for Saturday night...no such luck on Kellen sleeping in on Sunday morning...at least not too long. The boys went and got us breakfast and my coffee for the 2nd morning in a row (I could really get used to that kind of treatment) then we got ready to head out to Six Flags.
What FUN! First stop, the horses...Kellen said that he wanted to ride the brown one, but when it got right down to it, no such luck. He pitched a fit as Matt and I tried to put him on the horse and strap him in. So, he rode in the carriage with Mommy, which, as you can see from the picture, was just fine by him. In his defense, he had just woken up from a very short (~1 hr) nap taken in the truck from Jeff's to the Six Flags parking lot and it was taking him a little while to wake up, so it was ok. When the ride was over he looked and me and said and signed, "More. Kellen ride horsie." Sorry buddy-boy...They don't let us just stay on here. He'll learn.We stood in line WAY too long for the first ride...but learned about the speed pass in the process...Well worth the $$ spent, I say. Maw Maw had Kellen-patrol all day and Matt, Aunt Boo, Paw Paw and I rode the rides...WHOO HOO!! I haven't been to Six Flags in years...Matt says he hadn't been there in 15-20...and this was the first time that he and I had gone anywhere like this together. We had such a good time! Batman, Mr. Freeze, Texas Giant, Titan...man-oh-man what fun!! Got off of the wooden roller coaster with a bruise already starting on my right thigh - I can't do that to myself too much..one wooden roller coaster per trip...that's it - my back was already killing me...Matt, too.
Kellen and Maw Maw had fun riding some of the kiddy rides. If you ask Kellen, he drove the truck and train all by himself. He just looked like such a big boy with his hands on the steering wheel! Man, if we lived a little closer we would have a season pass and be here all of the time! Matt and I talked about using Six Flags and/or AstroWorld as an incentive or reward when Kellen does well in school. I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, but that will just be so much fun!
We left Six Flags minus the munchkin...he stayed with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo so that he could spend more time with Aunt Boo...he went back to their hotel and apparently had them in stitches and rolling all night long...We head back to Jeff's, get our stuff...and back to College Station we go...get back into town around midnight...Thank you honey for driving...and letting me sleep the entire way home!!At work at 7:30 this morning and another week, here we come! Perhaps this week will be a little less crazy and I'll be able to get back into my routine of blogging a smaller blog every night...these marathon blogs take quite a bit of time, and I'm missing the cute things that Kellen does on a daily basis, which is the whole point of the blog anyway! Will do better...must do better...
Monday, August 29, 2005
Week in Review...
(Originally typed Sunday night between 7:30 - 10:00 PM...having trouble with internet...)
I can't believe my last post was Tuesday morning...how time has flown by...(wait a minute...don't a couple of my posts start out like that??? hmmm).
Anyway...last week was really full work-wise, but I WAS ABLE TO GET SOME SLEEP thanks in part to the addition of Tylenol PM to my nightly mix of meds...oh well, at this point in time, what's one more med, right? At least this one allows me to sleep and fall back to sleep if/when I wake up throughout the night.. I was able to get quite a bit done at work..(surprising, considering everything that I'm taking...) the orientation on Wednesday went very smoothly..WhooHoo!! Thursday was an attempt to tie up some loose ends and projects at work before school starts on Monday and get things ready for me to be out of the office on Friday...I didn't actually get too much of my projects done, but did put out some student fires, which is really what I'm there for, so that was fine.
Friday I had my follow-up with the TMJ doctor...so Matt, Kellen, Bailey & I drove to MawMaw & PawPaw's on Thursday night so that we could get ready and leave for the appointment bright and early Friday morning. (Why is it that we always make plans and forget about the dog? We had planned to leave on Friday morning and then go to the zoo from the dr's...spend the night in Conroe...but Hello!!! the dog has to be looked after, too). Anyway, we decide to just take one car on Friday morning, since we figured that, if things stayed about the same as in previous doctors appointments, I'll be in and out of the office in about 5 minutes. Sure enough..we chatted about how I felt the medicine was working and he checked my jaw...2 more weeks of this medicine. I told him about the insomniac issues and the Tylenol PM addition..no problems there with him, either, and I was in and out of the office before my appointment was actually scheduled to begin.
We decided to go to the same diner that Matt, Kellen and I had eaten at during our last trip to Houston, the 59 Diner, for a late breakfast. At the diner, we sat in a booth next to three older folks who Kellen just took an instant liking to...A couple named Henry & Dorothy (she says that everyone calls her "Aunt Dotty") and another gentleman named Tom. They just took to Kellen, too. He played peek-a-boo with them, went through all of his animal sounds, described their clothes, hats, etc., named his breakfast guests (Mommy, Daddy, MawMaw, PawPaw), pointed out when PawPaw was taking a nap, and all-in-all just had a BLAST playing with them. We found out through the course of our conversations that Henry and Dotty have been married for 59 years and they've never had any children, (although by the way they interacted with Kellen I would have sworn that they had at least a dozen children/grandchildren), had been close to adopting three separate times but had put it off each time and really regret it now. Tom is a sketch artist, and ended up giving Kellen one of his sketches. He also did the thumb-coming-off joke to Kellen, which really shocked him...he clung to me with a shocked look on his face...poor Tom...I think he was really worried that he had scared Kellen badly and tried to explain to Kellen that it was just a joke...his thumb was still there. After our food arrived, Kellen would periodically stop eating and ask to say Hi...he wanted to turn around and just talk with them for a minute. It was just so cute! Dotty ended up giving Kellen a dollar to use at the zoo...and he gave them all high-fives when we left. He wasn't quite up to hugs, but that was ok...Like I said...he just had a blast with them!
A quick stop at Wal-Mart for diapers, pull-ups, sunglasses, and a harness, which we never did use, and we were off to the zoo. Kellen took a short nap during the drive, and we got to the zoo at about 11:30...just in time for feeding the sea lions. He enjoyed watching that and said that he wanted to go swimming with them. Ahhh...
I can't believe my last post was Tuesday morning...how time has flown by...(wait a minute...don't a couple of my posts start out like that??? hmmm).
Anyway...last week was really full work-wise, but I WAS ABLE TO GET SOME SLEEP thanks in part to the addition of Tylenol PM to my nightly mix of meds...oh well, at this point in time, what's one more med, right? At least this one allows me to sleep and fall back to sleep if/when I wake up throughout the night.. I was able to get quite a bit done at work..(surprising, considering everything that I'm taking...) the orientation on Wednesday went very smoothly..WhooHoo!! Thursday was an attempt to tie up some loose ends and projects at work before school starts on Monday and get things ready for me to be out of the office on Friday...I didn't actually get too much of my projects done, but did put out some student fires, which is really what I'm there for, so that was fine.
Friday I had my follow-up with the TMJ doctor...so Matt, Kellen, Bailey & I drove to MawMaw & PawPaw's on Thursday night so that we could get ready and leave for the appointment bright and early Friday morning. (Why is it that we always make plans and forget about the dog? We had planned to leave on Friday morning and then go to the zoo from the dr's...spend the night in Conroe...but Hello!!! the dog has to be looked after, too). Anyway, we decide to just take one car on Friday morning, since we figured that, if things stayed about the same as in previous doctors appointments, I'll be in and out of the office in about 5 minutes. Sure enough..we chatted about how I felt the medicine was working and he checked my jaw...2 more weeks of this medicine. I told him about the insomniac issues and the Tylenol PM addition..no problems there with him, either, and I was in and out of the office before my appointment was actually scheduled to begin.
We decided to go to the same diner that Matt, Kellen and I had eaten at during our last trip to Houston, the 59 Diner, for a late breakfast. At the diner, we sat in a booth next to three older folks who Kellen just took an instant liking to...A couple named Henry & Dorothy (she says that everyone calls her "Aunt Dotty") and another gentleman named Tom. They just took to Kellen, too. He played peek-a-boo with them, went through all of his animal sounds, described their clothes, hats, etc., named his breakfast guests (Mommy, Daddy, MawMaw, PawPaw), pointed out when PawPaw was taking a nap, and all-in-all just had a BLAST playing with them. We found out through the course of our conversations that Henry and Dotty have been married for 59 years and they've never had any children, (although by the way they interacted with Kellen I would have sworn that they had at least a dozen children/grandchildren), had been close to adopting three separate times but had put it off each time and really regret it now. Tom is a sketch artist, and ended up giving Kellen one of his sketches. He also did the thumb-coming-off joke to Kellen, which really shocked him...he clung to me with a shocked look on his face...poor Tom...I think he was really worried that he had scared Kellen badly and tried to explain to Kellen that it was just a joke...his thumb was still there. After our food arrived, Kellen would periodically stop eating and ask to say Hi...he wanted to turn around and just talk with them for a minute. It was just so cute! Dotty ended up giving Kellen a dollar to use at the zoo...and he gave them all high-fives when we left. He wasn't quite up to hugs, but that was ok...Like I said...he just had a blast with them!
A quick stop at Wal-Mart for diapers, pull-ups, sunglasses, and a harness, which we never did use, and we were off to the zoo. Kellen took a short nap during the drive, and we got to the zoo at about 11:30...just in time for feeding the sea lions. He enjoyed watching that and said that he wanted to go swimming with them. Ahhh...
Then it's off to see the monkeys. At one of the exhibits there is one monkey in particular that is stretching his athletic limits and giving us all a show. It's pretty amazing! At the monkey exhibits there are a couple of other kids about the same age or a little older than Kellen..
At the orangutangs we get a glimpse of the extent of Kellen's "mine" complex when he tells a little girl looking at the orangutan "No look monkey. My monkey."
I promptly told him that the monkey was for everyone to look at and that he needed to apologize to her. "Tell her that you are sorry."
He slowly walked over to her and gave her a hug. "I sorry," he whispered. The little girls mom looked at me and smiled. She mentioned that her daughter was at the same age and going through the same thing, so she understood. Thank goodness.
To the lions next...Lion King, as Kellen calls him, and Nala, of course.... Because of how the zoo is set up with the underground tunnel, we were able to get so close to them and Kellen just loved it! The lion was asleep most of the time...but it was amazing about how big these guys actually are!
Epetants (elephants) were next. Kellen's favorite by far. They were being so active for us! The first elephant was giving himself a bath with his trunk...and a long one at that, then proceeded to get a branch and use it to scratch himself. Then he walked to the fence and started to scratch his behind...then turned and started scratching his teeth! Kellen was just in heaven! It's at the elephants that we get the true picture of the extent of his "mine" complex. There was a set of, I'm guessing twins, who came to look at the elephants after we arrived, and he told them, in no uncertain terms, "No watch epetant. My epetant!" We had to have a discussion about the elephants being there for everyone to look at, not just Kellen.
Then Matt made the mistake of saying it was time to move one...I don't think so Daddy-o. Kellen could stay here for quite some time and it will probably be Kellen who decides it's time to leave the elephant area. And he eventually does, giving us an "All through" sign when he's finished. We take a family photo by the photo-opp elephant...whoo hoo...finally a Hapes family photo without Mommy behind the camera!
Onto the giraffes. He's just amazed by them! "Big giraffe!" We lucked out and arrived for their afternoon snack. This was just our lucky day! Great interaction and activity by the animals! It was wonderful!
Have I mentioned yet that it's an incredibly hot day? It's a beautiful day, but there is no breeze, so we have to be really careful to make sure that Kellen is drinking enough fluids to not get overheated. He has the tendency to get really hot and red, so we need to be really careful about this. Since we've been at the zoo a while, we decide that the last stop after the giraffes will be the petting zoo, then we'll call it a day.
Petting zoo it is...Grab a brush and he's petting the little goats. He doesn't introduce himself like he did during our last visit...maybe he learned his lesson since they didn't talk back at that time. One of them does actually try and "talk" to him, ...he just looks startled more than anything else. And continues to pet the goats. They've added a small water area since our last visit, but we skip it...let's get out of Houston before the traffic gets too bad, especially since it's a Friday afternoon.
Mommy demands one more Hapes family photo...I know, I know...I can be so demanding. But it is a rare occasion when I'm not the one behind the camera, so here we go!
Clean everyone up and away we go...baby wipes are the best! Sleep and snoring ensues almost as soon as we get into the vehicle...Kellen, of course, is the first to go...followed rather quickly by Matt, then Judy, then me...Thankfully, George is driving and completely awake.
Matt and I have plans to have an adult night out...YEAH! Thank you MawMaw and PawPaw!! We decided to go and watch a band called The Mighty Orc's playing at a bar called The Hideaway on Dunvale. He took another nap when we got back to his folks, woke up around 5ish...I layed down and took a little nap before we left, too. We got there at about 8:30, ordered our dinner, which was very good, by the way, especially for a bar...the band started at about 9:45 and they were good! Really good! We enjoyed ourselves. On the way home I made a comment to Matt that it was nice that we were still able to go out and enjoy ourselves - it's something that you read about in a lot of magazines...couples having kids and then not really being about to connect without those kids around...it's just nice that we're able to still enjoy each other. We need to try and do that more often...Is once a month even possible???
Saturday Judy, Kellen & I went to eat a late breakfast at Luby's, then we headed back to College Station at ~11. We worked in the yard, etc...just enjoyed each other on Saturday afternoon before Matt had to get ready to go to work. On a 48 hour shift. He hasn't had to pull one of those in a while. Matt weed-eated and we had Kellen outside with us while he was doing that...it scared Kellen really badly, although I'm not quite sure why...I think it was the loudness of it...so he calmed Kellen down and was able to make that work. Matt and Kellen took another one of their Daddy/son showers after Daddy gave him a hair cut (and Mommy gave Daddy the wrong guard...what was I thinking??? it's a 4, Rebecca...not a 2...but it's just hair, right? it will grow back). Then Daddy left for work...
Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren show up moments later...they haven't seen Kellen since his birthday party in July and this is Pap Pa's long weekend...so combine that with Matt's shift, and it's a good chance for me to have some company at the house and not be all by myself. Great timing! Gramma arrives with a toy Shrek, which is the first thing Kellen goes for. They have a wonderful time with Kellen! But it's getting late, my medicine is kicking in, and I'll have to go into details later....
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Sweet Sleep!
So I had my migraine follow-up yesterday afternoon and all was well. I've had 4 migraines since beginning the medicine on August 1st, and taken 6 Imitrex for those 4 migraines (yes, 2 of those were dooseys!!) I've been marking them, along with the Kellen "special juice" dosage, on Kellen's day care menu that they send home at the beginning of each month. The migraine days are circled. He seems to think that within another month there won't be any circles on my calendar. As far as I'm concerned, I"m thrilled with the results as of now! But he said that he would be dissapointed if I would have 4 migraines a month while taking this medicine. Whoo Hoo!!! Relief!!! What a wonderful thought!
I had the forethought to bring with me the other medications for my jaw...he's a doctor right? So while I was there I also chatted with him about my insomniac phase caused by the other meds. He gently asked if I had considered trying to cure one thing at a time. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if I did cure one thing at a time that I would be going off of the Topomax...I just told him that I had to get the jaw issue under control and wasn't going to stop treatment for the TMJ. I told him that I understood his concern and under normal circumstances would agree with him, but that I couldn't continue to live with my jaw in its current condition. He was concerned that perhaps the Topomax was causing the insomnia, but I pulled out the calendar, showed him when I started the Topomax, when I started the other meds, and when the insomnia issues began...It's pretty clear to me that it's the other meds because it started up at the same time. Anyway, I asked if it would be alright for me to take some Tylenol PM along with these medications to get some rest...expressed my concern about my body not being able to function properly on 2-3 hours of sleep/night for any prolonged period of time. He said that it wasn't a problem and that the combination should be fine.
So...fast forward until Kellen's in bed...Daddy's home (but about to go to a review) and I'm taking my nightly dose of drugs...hoping, praying, "Please let this work...please let me be able to sleep...all night long. Lord, you know how tired I am, please let me be able to sleep." (I don't think I've mentioned yet that I've been up since 1:00 AM...yup...1 AM). So I'm in desperate need of sleep. And, for the most part, I DID! I woke up around 1:30 or so, but was able to go back to sleep (the very thing that has been eluding me all week long), then again at about 4:00 and thought I was a goner for sure..nope! Able to go back to sleep again. THANK YOU JESUS!
I had the forethought to bring with me the other medications for my jaw...he's a doctor right? So while I was there I also chatted with him about my insomniac phase caused by the other meds. He gently asked if I had considered trying to cure one thing at a time. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if I did cure one thing at a time that I would be going off of the Topomax...I just told him that I had to get the jaw issue under control and wasn't going to stop treatment for the TMJ. I told him that I understood his concern and under normal circumstances would agree with him, but that I couldn't continue to live with my jaw in its current condition. He was concerned that perhaps the Topomax was causing the insomnia, but I pulled out the calendar, showed him when I started the Topomax, when I started the other meds, and when the insomnia issues began...It's pretty clear to me that it's the other meds because it started up at the same time. Anyway, I asked if it would be alright for me to take some Tylenol PM along with these medications to get some rest...expressed my concern about my body not being able to function properly on 2-3 hours of sleep/night for any prolonged period of time. He said that it wasn't a problem and that the combination should be fine.
So...fast forward until Kellen's in bed...Daddy's home (but about to go to a review) and I'm taking my nightly dose of drugs...hoping, praying, "Please let this work...please let me be able to sleep...all night long. Lord, you know how tired I am, please let me be able to sleep." (I don't think I've mentioned yet that I've been up since 1:00 AM...yup...1 AM). So I'm in desperate need of sleep. And, for the most part, I DID! I woke up around 1:30 or so, but was able to go back to sleep (the very thing that has been eluding me all week long), then again at about 4:00 and thought I was a goner for sure..nope! Able to go back to sleep again. THANK YOU JESUS!
Sunday, August 21, 2005
What a Week!
Time flies! And it's been one of those weeks that has just flown by! I can say honestly that I've been a work-a-holic this week...but it's been somewhat drug induced...Let me explain...
One would think that taking a muscle relaxant at night and then an anti-inflammatory with pain meds twice a day, with both of the above meds having the side-effect potential to make one drowsy would allow the recipient of said medication to rest easily, at least at night, right? WRONG!! Why is my body hard-wired to almost always react in the opposite manner of the normal side effect of anything...EVER??? Arg... I was really worried about this particular combination of medicines impacting my ability to function in a normal capacity...but didn't expect my body to react in this manner...
Anyway...about an hour or so after I take the meds at night, I get oh-so drowsy and drift off to sleep...but woe is me if I wake up at some point in time throughout the night. There is this certain point of wakefulness that if I reach or go past...I'm a goner and up for good. Tuesday night I woke up at about 11:45...worked until about 3:30, I think (do students wonder why their advisor is emailing them in the middle of the night...does it even cross their minds??? One of my co-workers did - and he is none-too happy that I am having med trouble...he's concerned about these meds taking too much of a toll on me since I'm having such a difficult time sleeping). I was finally able to go back to sleep but was up pretty early on Wednesday morning, about 5:30 or so, even before the alarm ever went off.
Surprisingly enough despite my lack of sleep (and for those of you who know me well, you'll understand why this is such a surprise...Rebecca does not function on little sleep...just doesn't happen - must have at least 8 hours a night), Kellen and I had a great morning on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed a somewhat leisurely breakfast and morning (since I was up so early, I was completely ready to go before he was even awake at 6:15...), so we were just able to enjoy each other. How nice - and rare!! He decided during his breakfast that his two big bears wanted to eat, too, so he put them both at the table with us and fed them bites of his pancakes, making "yum, yum" sounds for them as he did. It was just adorable! He's got such a great imagination!
Wednesday was a full work-day for me...but everything went really well. Then Wednesday night happened, which I've already written about..for reference, check the "Monster-man" post. That night was a little more of the same, although I don't remember having a marathon work session.
I was up and moving pretty early on Thursday - Kellen to day care and me at work before 7:30. Whoa, Rebecca. Sometime during the day between Thursday and Friday I managed to lose my voice almost completely. I am flip-flopping between sounding like Minny Mouse and like I should be on the other end of a 900 number. I'm not quite sure why or how I've lost it...but my throat doesn't hurt at all. Odd...
Friday morning...no such luck...I'm up and working at about 4:00. Sending emails, etc...Soon after I get to work my boss pops his head in my office and makes a comment about me sending emails at 5:30 in the morning...I fill him in on the med situation and now I have a couple of folks looking for a non-alcoholic mixture to get me to sleep...*grin*
Friday night and all things go crazy...I fall asleep around between 9-10, and then something wakes me up around 1...really wakes me up. And I'm up for good. So I ended up working from 1 until about 6:30 Saturday morning on the computer. Thank goodness for proxy! This way I'm really able to get things done, since I can get to EVERYTHING on my work computer. Matt got up a couple of times throughout the night to check on me...I think it really worries him that I'm not sleeping because, of course, this just isn't like me. My body just isn't hard-wired to function like this and I'm really not sure how it's doing it. He comes into the computer room, "Honey, are you feeling OK? What's wrong?"
I try to make him understand that nothing is wrong...other than the fact that I can't sleep. My body is exhausted, but I just can't make it go back to sleep. Oh well! At least I'm getting things knocked off of my work to-do list, which is good.
At 6:30 my body finally shuts off...drowsiness kicks in...YEAH!!! I crawl into bed and sleep until 9. Man-o-man that was so nice! So was waking up to a clean kitchen and the smell of freshly cooked breakfast tacos. I have such a wonderful husband!
Big plans for Saturday...we went to the Aggies football practice, which they opened up for TAMU faculty and staff. Can't say much, but it was fun! Kellen enjoyed himself by running ALL over the stadium, which was fine...he really wasn't going to any damage and wasn't bothering anyone, so we just let him GO - we did, of course, keep an eye on him. When we arrived we ran into one of the new ENTO faculty and his twin boys (~15 months), so we sat together until they left. They're all still getting used to the Texas heat, so they weren't able to stay that long. The boys didn't even make a peep! They were complete angels the whole time. I think the only time I heard anything out of them was when they wanted more water from their sippy cups. It was amazing and I can't even imagine having two Kellen boys at the same time. WHOA-momma! Kellen managed to keep the folks above us entertained as he ran through the stands...as people would pass by us they would comment on how cute he was and how much energy he had...No kidding!! When we got home from practice we pretty much all crashed, well everyone except Mommy - I tried to take a nap to no avail. That's ok, I did rest, and the boys both got great naps.
Daddy decided to help Mommy out with Kellen's bath...since we're trying to finish up the spare bathroom and it's so dusty (no, we still aren't done with that project yet), Kellen isn't getting his baths quite as often as normal. And with him playing in some sort of sand at school yesterday - not sure about how that happened - and the sun event of the Aggie practice today - he's just GOT to get cleaned up). But Mommy's back has been kinda sore lately and it's harder on my back for me to give him a bath in the big bathtub in our bathroom, so Daddy and Kellen decided to get a shower. They were so funny! Daddy was humming and singing to Kellen and they were dancing around in the shower. I think at one point in time they were taking turning drinking the water, too. Not quite sure what that was about! Kellen sure does like to take showers with Daddy - it's one of their special times!
As for today, Matt had a VERY productive day in the back room/office. He's been working off and on trying to get this room organized for a while. He'll get it to a certain point and then will stop, and things will back up again and it will almost be like he has to start over. It's been frustrating for him...but he got started today and really got on a roll. And you can really tell the difference! I won't say that it's done, but it's quite an improvement...it's getting there!
One would think that taking a muscle relaxant at night and then an anti-inflammatory with pain meds twice a day, with both of the above meds having the side-effect potential to make one drowsy would allow the recipient of said medication to rest easily, at least at night, right? WRONG!! Why is my body hard-wired to almost always react in the opposite manner of the normal side effect of anything...EVER??? Arg... I was really worried about this particular combination of medicines impacting my ability to function in a normal capacity...but didn't expect my body to react in this manner...
Anyway...about an hour or so after I take the meds at night, I get oh-so drowsy and drift off to sleep...but woe is me if I wake up at some point in time throughout the night. There is this certain point of wakefulness that if I reach or go past...I'm a goner and up for good. Tuesday night I woke up at about 11:45...worked until about 3:30, I think (do students wonder why their advisor is emailing them in the middle of the night...does it even cross their minds??? One of my co-workers did - and he is none-too happy that I am having med trouble...he's concerned about these meds taking too much of a toll on me since I'm having such a difficult time sleeping). I was finally able to go back to sleep but was up pretty early on Wednesday morning, about 5:30 or so, even before the alarm ever went off.
Surprisingly enough despite my lack of sleep (and for those of you who know me well, you'll understand why this is such a surprise...Rebecca does not function on little sleep...just doesn't happen - must have at least 8 hours a night), Kellen and I had a great morning on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed a somewhat leisurely breakfast and morning (since I was up so early, I was completely ready to go before he was even awake at 6:15...), so we were just able to enjoy each other. How nice - and rare!! He decided during his breakfast that his two big bears wanted to eat, too, so he put them both at the table with us and fed them bites of his pancakes, making "yum, yum" sounds for them as he did. It was just adorable! He's got such a great imagination!
Wednesday was a full work-day for me...but everything went really well. Then Wednesday night happened, which I've already written about..for reference, check the "Monster-man" post. That night was a little more of the same, although I don't remember having a marathon work session.
I was up and moving pretty early on Thursday - Kellen to day care and me at work before 7:30. Whoa, Rebecca. Sometime during the day between Thursday and Friday I managed to lose my voice almost completely. I am flip-flopping between sounding like Minny Mouse and like I should be on the other end of a 900 number. I'm not quite sure why or how I've lost it...but my throat doesn't hurt at all. Odd...
Friday morning...no such luck...I'm up and working at about 4:00. Sending emails, etc...Soon after I get to work my boss pops his head in my office and makes a comment about me sending emails at 5:30 in the morning...I fill him in on the med situation and now I have a couple of folks looking for a non-alcoholic mixture to get me to sleep...*grin*
Friday night and all things go crazy...I fall asleep around between 9-10, and then something wakes me up around 1...really wakes me up. And I'm up for good. So I ended up working from 1 until about 6:30 Saturday morning on the computer. Thank goodness for proxy! This way I'm really able to get things done, since I can get to EVERYTHING on my work computer. Matt got up a couple of times throughout the night to check on me...I think it really worries him that I'm not sleeping because, of course, this just isn't like me. My body just isn't hard-wired to function like this and I'm really not sure how it's doing it. He comes into the computer room, "Honey, are you feeling OK? What's wrong?"
I try to make him understand that nothing is wrong...other than the fact that I can't sleep. My body is exhausted, but I just can't make it go back to sleep. Oh well! At least I'm getting things knocked off of my work to-do list, which is good.
At 6:30 my body finally shuts off...drowsiness kicks in...YEAH!!! I crawl into bed and sleep until 9. Man-o-man that was so nice! So was waking up to a clean kitchen and the smell of freshly cooked breakfast tacos. I have such a wonderful husband!
Big plans for Saturday...we went to the Aggies football practice, which they opened up for TAMU faculty and staff. Can't say much, but it was fun! Kellen enjoyed himself by running ALL over the stadium, which was fine...he really wasn't going to any damage and wasn't bothering anyone, so we just let him GO - we did, of course, keep an eye on him. When we arrived we ran into one of the new ENTO faculty and his twin boys (~15 months), so we sat together until they left. They're all still getting used to the Texas heat, so they weren't able to stay that long. The boys didn't even make a peep! They were complete angels the whole time. I think the only time I heard anything out of them was when they wanted more water from their sippy cups. It was amazing and I can't even imagine having two Kellen boys at the same time. WHOA-momma! Kellen managed to keep the folks above us entertained as he ran through the stands...as people would pass by us they would comment on how cute he was and how much energy he had...No kidding!! When we got home from practice we pretty much all crashed, well everyone except Mommy - I tried to take a nap to no avail. That's ok, I did rest, and the boys both got great naps.
Daddy decided to help Mommy out with Kellen's bath...since we're trying to finish up the spare bathroom and it's so dusty (no, we still aren't done with that project yet), Kellen isn't getting his baths quite as often as normal. And with him playing in some sort of sand at school yesterday - not sure about how that happened - and the sun event of the Aggie practice today - he's just GOT to get cleaned up). But Mommy's back has been kinda sore lately and it's harder on my back for me to give him a bath in the big bathtub in our bathroom, so Daddy and Kellen decided to get a shower. They were so funny! Daddy was humming and singing to Kellen and they were dancing around in the shower. I think at one point in time they were taking turning drinking the water, too. Not quite sure what that was about! Kellen sure does like to take showers with Daddy - it's one of their special times!As for today, Matt had a VERY productive day in the back room/office. He's been working off and on trying to get this room organized for a while. He'll get it to a certain point and then will stop, and things will back up again and it will almost be like he has to start over. It's been frustrating for him...but he got started today and really got on a roll. And you can really tell the difference! I won't say that it's done, but it's quite an improvement...it's getting there!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Monster-man
Kellen was in one of his moods today...Man-oh-man! We got home and he started in immediately with "Watch Pirate...Watch Pirate...Watch Pirate." (Pirates of the Caribbean, by the way - and yes, I know that it has some violent parts in it - Matt made sure to point that out to me...a thing which had never crossed my mind when I let Kellen watch it at first).
"No Kellen. It's a weeknight and we don't want TV during the week. Mommy let you earlier this week but not tonight. No watch Pirate."
Huge tears well up in his eyes as if I had just just whipped him...he proceeds to throw himself onto the floor...face first, mind you...and throws a monstrous fit, screaming his head off. Does he actually think that this behavior is going to change my mind??? So I pick him up and tell him softly, "It's ok to be upset, but if you're going to cry and behave like this, you're going to go to your room and sit in the rocking chair until you can calm down." Then I carry him into his room, sit him down in the rocking chair, and tell him that he can join me in the living room when he's decided that he is all through crying. A few minutes later I look in his room and he's stopped crying and has crawled into his bed, shoes (sandals, actually) and all. So I walk in and take his shoes off to make him more comfortable, right? WRONG! This simple action sets off yet another Kellen-bomb. YIKES!!! So we go through a repeat of the above scenario...Then he decides that he's all through in his room and he's hungry. So we're off to eat a pancake for dinner. The monster-storm has passed, at least for the moment.
Fast forward a few moments when I have to run outside to check on something...fish bowl centerpieces we have stored from our wedding that may be used for an upcoming wedding in September...gone out of the house for 1-2 minutes, TOPS. When I come back in Kellen has gotten into the - you guessed it!, DVD cabinet and pulled out both Shrek DVD's. I look at him and he puts his head down - he knows he's done something he's not supposed to. "Come here." He starts crying as he's walking to me, bawling actually. "Turn around so you can get your spanking." He obeys, gets his spanking. "Go stand in the hall." Again, he obeys, bawling the entire time. "Are you allowed to get into the cabinet?"
"NO!" He wales. "No cabinet!" (Only when he says cabinet, it doesn't sound like cabinet...bless his heart...but I know what he's trying to say and what he means - he's never heard the word that this sounds like).
"No cabinet, Kellen. You aren't allowed to get into the cabinet because you get out the DVD's and you mess them up and break them. Then you can't watch them at all. That's why you can't get into the cabinet. No cabinet, Kellen. Stop getting in there. Tell Mommy you're sorry."
With tears streaming down his face, (mind you, he's been standing in the hallway for a few minutes, bawling the entire time) he turns to me, "I sorry." he whimpers, then buries his head into my shoulder, acting like his world is going to end, just clinging to me.
"It's ok, Kellen. You aren't in trouble anymore. It's ok, baby. Mommy's here." Almost anything to make him stop being so upset at this point in time. Anything, of course, other than watching something on TV...then he's won the power struggle and that just can't happen.
"No Kellen. It's a weeknight and we don't want TV during the week. Mommy let you earlier this week but not tonight. No watch Pirate."
Huge tears well up in his eyes as if I had just just whipped him...he proceeds to throw himself onto the floor...face first, mind you...and throws a monstrous fit, screaming his head off. Does he actually think that this behavior is going to change my mind??? So I pick him up and tell him softly, "It's ok to be upset, but if you're going to cry and behave like this, you're going to go to your room and sit in the rocking chair until you can calm down." Then I carry him into his room, sit him down in the rocking chair, and tell him that he can join me in the living room when he's decided that he is all through crying. A few minutes later I look in his room and he's stopped crying and has crawled into his bed, shoes (sandals, actually) and all. So I walk in and take his shoes off to make him more comfortable, right? WRONG! This simple action sets off yet another Kellen-bomb. YIKES!!! So we go through a repeat of the above scenario...Then he decides that he's all through in his room and he's hungry. So we're off to eat a pancake for dinner. The monster-storm has passed, at least for the moment.
Fast forward a few moments when I have to run outside to check on something...fish bowl centerpieces we have stored from our wedding that may be used for an upcoming wedding in September...gone out of the house for 1-2 minutes, TOPS. When I come back in Kellen has gotten into the - you guessed it!, DVD cabinet and pulled out both Shrek DVD's. I look at him and he puts his head down - he knows he's done something he's not supposed to. "Come here." He starts crying as he's walking to me, bawling actually. "Turn around so you can get your spanking." He obeys, gets his spanking. "Go stand in the hall." Again, he obeys, bawling the entire time. "Are you allowed to get into the cabinet?"
"NO!" He wales. "No cabinet!" (Only when he says cabinet, it doesn't sound like cabinet...bless his heart...but I know what he's trying to say and what he means - he's never heard the word that this sounds like).
"No cabinet, Kellen. You aren't allowed to get into the cabinet because you get out the DVD's and you mess them up and break them. Then you can't watch them at all. That's why you can't get into the cabinet. No cabinet, Kellen. Stop getting in there. Tell Mommy you're sorry."
With tears streaming down his face, (mind you, he's been standing in the hallway for a few minutes, bawling the entire time) he turns to me, "I sorry." he whimpers, then buries his head into my shoulder, acting like his world is going to end, just clinging to me.
"It's ok, Kellen. You aren't in trouble anymore. It's ok, baby. Mommy's here." Almost anything to make him stop being so upset at this point in time. Anything, of course, other than watching something on TV...then he's won the power struggle and that just can't happen.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Wow
This week already seems like such a blur...perhaps its the medicine...who knows...Monday night was great. I decided to lighten up somewhat on the "no TV during the week" house rule and let Kellen watch a movie of his choice - surprisingly it wasn't Shrek - while I made dinner before Matt got home from work. Yummy spaghetti! It had actually been a while since we had made a dinner...such a shame that we had gotten out of the habit of that...we were doing so well for about two months there...anyway, I digress. So Kellen is watching his movie and he's so cute...so intent on what's going on...then all the sudden he screams, "Too loud!" rushes to the TV and hurredly turns the volume down....Not quite sure what's going on with this, but he's doing the same thing to and from school with the volume of the radio. And it's not like Mommy's jamming on the way to and from school to the music here...it's just at a regular volume, low even, barely enough to hear the music, but he's starting to get really picky about volumes. Seconds later he yells, "Louder!" and rushes to turn the volume up...way up...I'm not sure if he knows his own mind or what!
He did get in trouble after Daddy got home that night - and Daddy actually did the discipline on this one. Mommy's medicine kicked in at about 8 o'clock and, yes, Kellen was still up...Mommy really is chilling out, huh? and Kellen decided that it would be fun to throw his toys at Mommy while she was lying on the couch...yikes! I got a small broom thing to the face - right above the eye - that could have been pretty bad - this kid has an arm!! Kellen knows that he's only allowed to throw balls (things that are designed to be thrown), not his other toys, and boy did he get it for that! A bustin' and some wall time. Then I overheard Matt from the hallway asking Kellen if he knew why he'd gotten a busting...reminding him that we didn't throw our toys at people because it hurt them and that he'd hurt Mommy and needed to say he was sorry. Surprisingly, Kellen's getting really good at saying he's sorry when he's done something to hurt someone else. He'll give you a kiss first whereever your owie is to make it better along with a hug, then tell you he's sorry. Again, he's showing an amazing amount of compassion for a two-year old, at least from my perspective anyway. Other than this little incident, we all had a pretty good time playing on Monday night before Kellen went to bed. It's nice for us all to have some family time, it seems somewhat rare these days with our crazy schedules.
He did get in trouble after Daddy got home that night - and Daddy actually did the discipline on this one. Mommy's medicine kicked in at about 8 o'clock and, yes, Kellen was still up...Mommy really is chilling out, huh? and Kellen decided that it would be fun to throw his toys at Mommy while she was lying on the couch...yikes! I got a small broom thing to the face - right above the eye - that could have been pretty bad - this kid has an arm!! Kellen knows that he's only allowed to throw balls (things that are designed to be thrown), not his other toys, and boy did he get it for that! A bustin' and some wall time. Then I overheard Matt from the hallway asking Kellen if he knew why he'd gotten a busting...reminding him that we didn't throw our toys at people because it hurt them and that he'd hurt Mommy and needed to say he was sorry. Surprisingly, Kellen's getting really good at saying he's sorry when he's done something to hurt someone else. He'll give you a kiss first whereever your owie is to make it better along with a hug, then tell you he's sorry. Again, he's showing an amazing amount of compassion for a two-year old, at least from my perspective anyway. Other than this little incident, we all had a pretty good time playing on Monday night before Kellen went to bed. It's nice for us all to have some family time, it seems somewhat rare these days with our crazy schedules.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Weekend Fun
I haven't written anything for a couple of days...so here's a recap...
Thursday was a sort of a bad day all the way around...Everyone has had one of those so I won't go into details. Friday was slated to be an incredibly full day...preparing for the graduation breakfast (at work by 6:45), the breakfast starting at 7:30, marshalling graduation at ~ 8:30 or so, shopping for speaker gifts for a program after that, picking up Kellen and getting out of town by 11, swinging by Conroe to drop off the dog and getting to the dr in Houston for the TMJ follow-up by 1. Yeah right..It ended up being a Murphy's Law morning...I couldn't get into the main office to start setting up for breakfast (new lock system and my ID wasn't coded yet), so I had to call a co-worker at 6:45 on their cell - luckily, that individual begins their day very early, so he was able to let me in within 5 minutes of the phone call. Everything smooth until checking out getting the speaker gifts and we managed to get a slower-than-molases checker....yadda, yadda, yadda..managed to get to Kellen's day care and wrangle him off of the play ground from his last splash day of the summer (stake in my heart - thank you very much), dry him off and get his clothes changed, and we're at the house at a little after 11. Off we go to Conroe..only now it's about 11:20..take the Millican road because it's shorter, right? HAH!! Unbeknownst to us, there is 10 miles of construction going on...no..there were no signs warning us..with the road down to 1 lane...man-oh-man...back on HW 6 and we finally get to Conroe...dump the dog, grab something to drink and we're hightailing it to the dr's office..mind you it's now 12:40...and let me remind you that my appt is at 1....a couple of phone calls to the office later (just to make sure they knew we were actually coming), we get there at 1:35 and zoom into the office. Apparently on Fridays the last appointment is at 1 and the dr usually leaves by 1:30 or so...they were all waiting around for me...*grin*
So...we chat about my jaws progress, or lack thereof, actually. Since we seem to have stalled on the oral steroids he decides to progress to muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds to see if those will loosen things up. And he wants to see me back in 2 weeks. I asked about what happens if these don't work and he mentioned steroid injections. I think he must have seen the frustrated look on my face because he patted my shoulder and said, "We will get this better. It will get fixed." It was reassuring to know that he has some sort of understanding about how frustrating this entire process has been.
So we leave the dr's office and the fun part of the weekend begins..We go out to eat at a little diner and Kellen keeps Matt and I in stiches! We walk in and all of the sudden he starts saying "Burrito." I'm not quite sure where he got the idea for that, but he kept saying it over and over, and louder and louder. (By the way, there were no burritos on the menu...). He was so cute during lunch...He didn't really want much of his food, but wanted Mommy's pasta and roll. It was just so nice for all three of us to be together...with no time constraints.
After lunch we took Kellen to the Downtown Aquarium.
He loved looking at the fish..liked the "big phish" and the "Nemo!"
But I think his favorite was the turtles, he actually got away from us a couple of times and went back through several exhibits to watch the turtles for a while. He kept asking for more turtles...too cute! I was really glad that it wasn't too crowded, because Kellen didn't really have too much of a concept of other people - he kept plowing through them when he saw something that he wanted to look at. We did mosey and take our good sweet time, and when we were all through looking at all of the exhibits, including the new white tiger exhit, we went to the interactive exhibit area.
They have several interactive exhibits at the end of the inside section. One part is where kids can climb underneath the water areas and see the stingrays and fish swimming around above them. Kellen actually did that a couple of times and I think enjoyed it. He made sure that he could see Mommy and Daddy while he was under there, but I think he liked seeing the fish from a different perspective. He liked that when we took him to the zoo, too - only that time he and Daddy were in the bubble together.
The other interactive exhibits they have are where you can touch and look at some different things. Kellen had so much fun trying to touch the stingray! There was one that was particularly friendly, even jumping out of the water a little close to Kellen a couple of times. I guess they are pretty used to human contact, so it doesn't really bother them too much. He did actually get to touch it once or twice and I'm not sure that he knew what to make of that. I guess he liked it, since he kept wanting to touch it over and over again.
Also part of the inside interactive exhibit is this cute photo opp. Such a great water suit with the aquatic background. In the larger picture you can see that is looks like a whole aquatic scene with plants and fish, etc. Matt worked really hard to try and get Kellen to pose for this shot.
After we were finished with the inside fun, we went outside, put a swim diaper on Kellen, and let him loose in the water. He got nailed a couple of times by the water sprouting up - but didn't seem to mind one single bit! He loves the water so much! He had such a great time playing! So much so that I stopped feeling guilty about taking him away from his splash day early...this was so much better! AND, he got to play in the water twice in one day...he was in Kellen-heaven!!
We had wanted to go and see Tom since we were in downtown Houston, but couldn't get ahold of him...and we were running out of time as it was about 5 - and we were in downtown Houston at 5 o'clock - yikes.... So we decided to head back to Conroe. Kellen was so worn out that he crashed about 10 minutes after getting into the truck and on the road. We started out making good time and then the Murphy's Law day kicked into gear again, but it was ok...we just took a little bit of a scenic route back to Conroe. Then Matt and I took the night off from Mommy & Daddy duties and relaxed at the townhouse. We both really needed that....
Saturday morning hit with a jolt - literally - I woke up with a killer migraine - two Imitrex later and by mid-day I was feeling somewhat better...and we were heading back to College Station. Matt and I had a very productive afternoon. I managed to get the grass mowed while Matt was getting the materials to frame out the flower beds, and when he got back he weed eated and then got them installed as much as he could with the ground as hard as it was. It's going to look so nice when it's finished! As he was working on that Kellen was just playing outside - Mommy slacked off and didn't put any insect stuff on him and he's covered in mosquito bites today...he's got Mommy's blood and the mosquitos love him - I should have known better than to have done that...and Mommy pulled the weeds from the walkway and trimmed the drive way with the red bricks that used to be the flower bed in the front. It looks kind of nice that like and is at least a use for those bricks - at least something other than having them stacked up, which is what they have been. What was so funny is that while I was pulling the weeds from the walkway, Kellen was managing to find things to pull from inside the gate and was mimicking me. It was so cute and he tries to be so helpful! If I wasn't worried about the ants I would have let him help us, which he would have just loved to do.
Matt's on a 36-hour shift today, and Kellen and I have just played around today. We've watched some videos, played with trucks and stuffed animals, read some books, and I've cleaned up around the house. We've just had so much fun! (Except for his incurable desire to get into the DVD cabinet...it doesn't seem that any amount of spankings and standing in the hallway can take that urge away - what is that???)
Such a fun day...and other than the migraine...such a fun weekend...I started my new meds tonight and I'm really starting to feel them. I just looked at the clock and realized that it's almost 10:30...and I started this post at about 8...hmmm...I hope that it makes sense...but I did upload a lot of pictures and have to move them around some..which took some time...stilll, I'm so glad that it was such a fun weekend...I need a handful of those put together...oh wait..that's called a vacation, right?
Thursday was a sort of a bad day all the way around...Everyone has had one of those so I won't go into details. Friday was slated to be an incredibly full day...preparing for the graduation breakfast (at work by 6:45), the breakfast starting at 7:30, marshalling graduation at ~ 8:30 or so, shopping for speaker gifts for a program after that, picking up Kellen and getting out of town by 11, swinging by Conroe to drop off the dog and getting to the dr in Houston for the TMJ follow-up by 1. Yeah right..It ended up being a Murphy's Law morning...I couldn't get into the main office to start setting up for breakfast (new lock system and my ID wasn't coded yet), so I had to call a co-worker at 6:45 on their cell - luckily, that individual begins their day very early, so he was able to let me in within 5 minutes of the phone call. Everything smooth until checking out getting the speaker gifts and we managed to get a slower-than-molases checker....yadda, yadda, yadda..managed to get to Kellen's day care and wrangle him off of the play ground from his last splash day of the summer (stake in my heart - thank you very much), dry him off and get his clothes changed, and we're at the house at a little after 11. Off we go to Conroe..only now it's about 11:20..take the Millican road because it's shorter, right? HAH!! Unbeknownst to us, there is 10 miles of construction going on...no..there were no signs warning us..with the road down to 1 lane...man-oh-man...back on HW 6 and we finally get to Conroe...dump the dog, grab something to drink and we're hightailing it to the dr's office..mind you it's now 12:40...and let me remind you that my appt is at 1....a couple of phone calls to the office later (just to make sure they knew we were actually coming), we get there at 1:35 and zoom into the office. Apparently on Fridays the last appointment is at 1 and the dr usually leaves by 1:30 or so...they were all waiting around for me...*grin*
So...we chat about my jaws progress, or lack thereof, actually. Since we seem to have stalled on the oral steroids he decides to progress to muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds to see if those will loosen things up. And he wants to see me back in 2 weeks. I asked about what happens if these don't work and he mentioned steroid injections. I think he must have seen the frustrated look on my face because he patted my shoulder and said, "We will get this better. It will get fixed." It was reassuring to know that he has some sort of understanding about how frustrating this entire process has been.
So we leave the dr's office and the fun part of the weekend begins..We go out to eat at a little diner and Kellen keeps Matt and I in stiches! We walk in and all of the sudden he starts saying "Burrito." I'm not quite sure where he got the idea for that, but he kept saying it over and over, and louder and louder. (By the way, there were no burritos on the menu...). He was so cute during lunch...He didn't really want much of his food, but wanted Mommy's pasta and roll. It was just so nice for all three of us to be together...with no time constraints.
After lunch we took Kellen to the Downtown Aquarium.
He loved looking at the fish..liked the "big phish" and the "Nemo!"
But I think his favorite was the turtles, he actually got away from us a couple of times and went back through several exhibits to watch the turtles for a while. He kept asking for more turtles...too cute! I was really glad that it wasn't too crowded, because Kellen didn't really have too much of a concept of other people - he kept plowing through them when he saw something that he wanted to look at. We did mosey and take our good sweet time, and when we were all through looking at all of the exhibits, including the new white tiger exhit, we went to the interactive exhibit area.
They have several interactive exhibits at the end of the inside section. One part is where kids can climb underneath the water areas and see the stingrays and fish swimming around above them. Kellen actually did that a couple of times and I think enjoyed it. He made sure that he could see Mommy and Daddy while he was under there, but I think he liked seeing the fish from a different perspective. He liked that when we took him to the zoo, too - only that time he and Daddy were in the bubble together.
The other interactive exhibits they have are where you can touch and look at some different things. Kellen had so much fun trying to touch the stingray! There was one that was particularly friendly, even jumping out of the water a little close to Kellen a couple of times. I guess they are pretty used to human contact, so it doesn't really bother them too much. He did actually get to touch it once or twice and I'm not sure that he knew what to make of that. I guess he liked it, since he kept wanting to touch it over and over again.
Also part of the inside interactive exhibit is this cute photo opp. Such a great water suit with the aquatic background. In the larger picture you can see that is looks like a whole aquatic scene with plants and fish, etc. Matt worked really hard to try and get Kellen to pose for this shot.
After we were finished with the inside fun, we went outside, put a swim diaper on Kellen, and let him loose in the water. He got nailed a couple of times by the water sprouting up - but didn't seem to mind one single bit! He loves the water so much! He had such a great time playing! So much so that I stopped feeling guilty about taking him away from his splash day early...this was so much better! AND, he got to play in the water twice in one day...he was in Kellen-heaven!! 
We had wanted to go and see Tom since we were in downtown Houston, but couldn't get ahold of him...and we were running out of time as it was about 5 - and we were in downtown Houston at 5 o'clock - yikes.... So we decided to head back to Conroe. Kellen was so worn out that he crashed about 10 minutes after getting into the truck and on the road. We started out making good time and then the Murphy's Law day kicked into gear again, but it was ok...we just took a little bit of a scenic route back to Conroe. Then Matt and I took the night off from Mommy & Daddy duties and relaxed at the townhouse. We both really needed that....
Saturday morning hit with a jolt - literally - I woke up with a killer migraine - two Imitrex later and by mid-day I was feeling somewhat better...and we were heading back to College Station. Matt and I had a very productive afternoon. I managed to get the grass mowed while Matt was getting the materials to frame out the flower beds, and when he got back he weed eated and then got them installed as much as he could with the ground as hard as it was. It's going to look so nice when it's finished! As he was working on that Kellen was just playing outside - Mommy slacked off and didn't put any insect stuff on him and he's covered in mosquito bites today...he's got Mommy's blood and the mosquitos love him - I should have known better than to have done that...and Mommy pulled the weeds from the walkway and trimmed the drive way with the red bricks that used to be the flower bed in the front. It looks kind of nice that like and is at least a use for those bricks - at least something other than having them stacked up, which is what they have been. What was so funny is that while I was pulling the weeds from the walkway, Kellen was managing to find things to pull from inside the gate and was mimicking me. It was so cute and he tries to be so helpful! If I wasn't worried about the ants I would have let him help us, which he would have just loved to do.
Matt's on a 36-hour shift today, and Kellen and I have just played around today. We've watched some videos, played with trucks and stuffed animals, read some books, and I've cleaned up around the house. We've just had so much fun! (Except for his incurable desire to get into the DVD cabinet...it doesn't seem that any amount of spankings and standing in the hallway can take that urge away - what is that???)
Such a fun day...and other than the migraine...such a fun weekend...I started my new meds tonight and I'm really starting to feel them. I just looked at the clock and realized that it's almost 10:30...and I started this post at about 8...hmmm...I hope that it makes sense...but I did upload a lot of pictures and have to move them around some..which took some time...stilll, I'm so glad that it was such a fun weekend...I need a handful of those put together...oh wait..that's called a vacation, right?
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Prayers needed
Matt has a very close friend that he went to high school with that's been battling cancer for a few years. He received an email update that's really shaken us regarding Tom's status. This family is somewhat a mirror of ours...Tom and Cassi got married the same fall semester that Matt and I did (only they did it during an Aggie game - ARG!! we actually had to leave early from the game for the wedding....man-oh-man, they've heard about that one for years *grin*) and Taylor is just a few months older than Kellen. I can't imagine what Cassi must be going through...and I mean I literally can't - can't let myself even think about it...Please pray for them and what they are going through and for those that their live touch and have touched. We're going to stop by the hospital and see them on Friday if Tom is able to have visitors.
I know that God has a plan and is working in all of this, I'm just not understanding how. Maybe I/we never will. Here's the email...
I know that God has a plan and is working in all of this, I'm just not understanding how. Maybe I/we never will. Here's the email...
I’ll pick up where Tom left off on his 7/8 email status. As he mentioned, we found out that his cancer started spreading again and he was scheduled for surgery on 7/25. During that time period, Tom ended up getting pretty sick. It got to the point that he was unable to keep down liquids. So to prevent dehydration, and with his surgeon’s advice, we ended up admitting him into the hospital the day before surgery. One thing led to another and Tom wasn’t admitted into surgery until 7:30 pm on Monday.
Just after 3:00 am on Tuesday, the surgeon came to us and informed us that the left side of his abdomen contained multiple loops of small bowel that were stuck to the anterior abdominal wall. He said tumor nodules were causing the bowel obstruction and also invading the posterior wall of the abdomen. He actually told us that he was unsure that he would be able to perform the extensive surgery……we are extremely gratefully that he decided to continue. They ended up removing about half of his small intestines and half of his colon which were obstructed; along with reconstructing his abdominal wall with cadaver tissue.
His surgeon told us that it would be longer and harder for Tom to recover from this surgery since his health was so poor coming in. After his second surgery we were only in the hospital for 10 -days. Today we are on day 17 and still counting. Tom is still only allowed to eat ice chips and an occasional Popsicle. He has had some set-backs in his recovery time. He ended up getting an infection which we are still trying to deal with. Today, we are going to start to clamp his gastrostomy (G-tube) every hour to determine if he will be able to handle his own saliva and some ice chips.
Tom’s doing ok. He has his good days and bad days……as expected. He actually looks much better now than when we brought him in over 2 weeks ago. His pain is more tolerable now and he gets up to walk around a couple of times a day.
I want to thank everyone for their prayers, calls, cards, emails, visits, flowers, plants, magazines and books. I truly believe that Tom gets stronger everyday with the help and support from all of you.
God Bless You,
Cassi, Tom, and Taylor Wallace
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Caring & Compassion
For a two year old, Kellen is showing an amazing amount of compassion! My jaw has been really hurting the past couple of days, just aching terribly, actually. I finish up with the last steriod pill tomorrow and am seeing the doctor again early Friday afternoon, so we'll see what he has to say this week. Anyway, today after we got home I heated up this contraption (thank you, Judy, for letting me borrow this thing) that I'm using to put moist heat on my jaw and sat on the chair with it against my cheek. Kellen looked at me with a strange look on his face, like he wasn't quite sure what I was doing, which I'm sure he wasn't. He walks over to the chair where I'm sitting, then he proceeds to climb into the chair with me.
"Pillow?" he asked, pointing to the thing I'm holding against my face (I must check on the name of this gadget). A pillow he would understand, as he likes to sit in Mommy's big chair with his pillow.
"No sweetie." I tell him. "Mommy has an owie on her jaw and this makes it feel better."
His face registers some concern..."Kiss." I ask him if he wants to give Mommy a kiss. "Yes. Kellen kiss Mommy." he whispers. I've noticed that when he's sad he whispers. So I moved the heating pad/contraption away from my face and he leans in and kisses my cheek. I put the padding pack and he says, "No, more kiss." and proceeds to give me a half a dozen or so more kisses over the side of my face, trying to make me feel better. Then he just sits down in the chair next to me, which is fairly normal, leans his head against my chest and wraps his arms around me, which is NOT normal for him, at least not anymore. He understood that I hurt and was trying to make me feel better, and even as I'm typing this, my eyes are welling up just thinking about it again, because it was just so sweet and caring.
He didn't give me any problems, was extra snuggly tonight, and went down to bed like an angel. I wonder if he was trying to be good because I felt bad? Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into a two-year olds behavior...
"Pillow?" he asked, pointing to the thing I'm holding against my face (I must check on the name of this gadget). A pillow he would understand, as he likes to sit in Mommy's big chair with his pillow.
"No sweetie." I tell him. "Mommy has an owie on her jaw and this makes it feel better."
His face registers some concern..."Kiss." I ask him if he wants to give Mommy a kiss. "Yes. Kellen kiss Mommy." he whispers. I've noticed that when he's sad he whispers. So I moved the heating pad/contraption away from my face and he leans in and kisses my cheek. I put the padding pack and he says, "No, more kiss." and proceeds to give me a half a dozen or so more kisses over the side of my face, trying to make me feel better. Then he just sits down in the chair next to me, which is fairly normal, leans his head against my chest and wraps his arms around me, which is NOT normal for him, at least not anymore. He understood that I hurt and was trying to make me feel better, and even as I'm typing this, my eyes are welling up just thinking about it again, because it was just so sweet and caring.
He didn't give me any problems, was extra snuggly tonight, and went down to bed like an angel. I wonder if he was trying to be good because I felt bad? Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into a two-year olds behavior...
Monday, August 08, 2005
Imagination
Is what my little man has. He decided that Elmo wanted to color, too. Then decided to help him. Too cute!
Bear with me as I explore the posting-picture feature of the blog. I think it may not be quite as difficult as I had originally thought. In fact, I think I downloaded some program that I didn't actually need to...oh well! At least I figured it out!
Poo-poo problems
*Warning** This post not suitable for those that cannot stand hearing - er, reading, about bowel issues.
Poor Kellen. He's had poo-poo problems for most of his post-nursed life, and I guess even some before that, but I thought that we had those under control. Since his two-year check up, he's been getting daily, measured doses of prune juice, the only thing that really works for him. We started out with 6 oz, and after three days realized that was a little too much (sorry, Ms. Shannon), cut back to 4 oz, were on that dose for a while, then cut back to 3 oz, and I am realizing that maybe that's just not enough for him and perhaps we should try 3.5 oz. Before the check-up I was worried not only about this issue - very worried, in fact, but also worried about his consumption of dairy products, or virtual non-consumption, I should really say. So after consultation with the doctor, the daily dose of prune juice was decided upon. It's Mommy who has been playing chemist, trying to determine, with the input of his teachers at school of course, which dose is the proper dose that will allow him to actually consume dairy products and his beloved bananas and also GO.
Yesterday he started off the day with his "special juice" (4 oz of prune juice, 4 oz apple juice, & water), then had three or four sippy cups full of milk and today his belly hurts him. Poor guy. I just hate to see him hurting. Soon, very soon, we'll get this thing figured out for him...
Poor Kellen. He's had poo-poo problems for most of his post-nursed life, and I guess even some before that, but I thought that we had those under control. Since his two-year check up, he's been getting daily, measured doses of prune juice, the only thing that really works for him. We started out with 6 oz, and after three days realized that was a little too much (sorry, Ms. Shannon), cut back to 4 oz, were on that dose for a while, then cut back to 3 oz, and I am realizing that maybe that's just not enough for him and perhaps we should try 3.5 oz. Before the check-up I was worried not only about this issue - very worried, in fact, but also worried about his consumption of dairy products, or virtual non-consumption, I should really say. So after consultation with the doctor, the daily dose of prune juice was decided upon. It's Mommy who has been playing chemist, trying to determine, with the input of his teachers at school of course, which dose is the proper dose that will allow him to actually consume dairy products and his beloved bananas and also GO.
Yesterday he started off the day with his "special juice" (4 oz of prune juice, 4 oz apple juice, & water), then had three or four sippy cups full of milk and today his belly hurts him. Poor guy. I just hate to see him hurting. Soon, very soon, we'll get this thing figured out for him...
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde
Apparently there are stories about seemingly normal two-year olds turning into overnight monsters. Really hadn't needed to hear stories about other kids...just needed to listen to my mother talk about me to know that those types of things are possible. I was actually asked twice on Friday night about how Kellen was managing since he had turned two and if he had turned into a "terrible two" yet. Both times I had answered, "Well, considering the set of parents he has, he is doing remarkably well." Which, as of Friday night, was absolutely true. That statement actually remained true until Saturday afternoon, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Mommy & Daddy's child-free night, which turned into a girls-night on Friday, was a lot of fun. We went to an art gallery in downtown Bryan, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will have to do again, and then went to Revolution, a cafe/bar which I had never heard of before, also in downtown Bryan. There was some live music playing, and I realized how long it had been since I had been out - quite some time! It was nice to sit back, relax and listen to music. The courtyard kept the smoke from those with that habit from bothering those of us without, and the atmosphere was really laid-back - and they had some really interesting coffee options!
Saturday's schedule for Matt was longer than he had originally anticipated, so I headed off to Conroe to pick up Kellen and do some tax-free shopping for him - I decided to brave it, despite what I knew would be crazy-sized crowds. I'm just not really an avid "shopper," but Kellen was in need of some things and this was a good weekend to get them. Judy, Kellen & I get to the outlet mall mid-afternoon and Kellen did a really good job of behaving himself as much as a two-year old with impulse control issues can. And it didn't help that Mommy left the stroller. We hit Carters, Osh-Kosh, Liz Claiborne (some work clothes for mommy), and Nike. Somewhere in there Maw Maw took Kellen to a little coffee shop to get a cookie as a well-deserved treat and diversion, too.
Then we went to pick up Paw Paw and went out to eat. And somewhere along the way I lost my sweet, loving Kellen and gained a monster. We went to a mexican food restaurant, which Kellen normally enjoys. First he didn't want to sit down in the high chair and pitched a FIT about it - which he has NEVER balked at before. It was so much of a fit that after about 5 minutes, Mommy had to take him outside to "talk" with him about his behavior. Then he proceeds to break all of the chips given to him. No big deal. So what. But he has a COW when pieces of the chip fall/are thrown onto the floor. He's getting more and more OCD every day. I know that he gets some of that from me and yes, I really am working on that, but he's so much worse than I am about some things that I know I'm not passing all of this onto him. Anyway, he says he's hungry and wants to eat, but when the food gets there he refuses any of it, pushing it and whatever was in front of it completely away, almost knocking over his water, yadda, yadda, yadda..I have NEVER seen him act like that before. NEVER. I'm going to blame it on him being tired, and the fact that he had used all of him impulse control at the stores we had taken him in that afternoon. Case in point re: the tired theory, he was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the restaurant on the way home to College Station.
I was awakened this morning to the pitter-patter of my Kellen rooting through the forbidden DVD's in the TV cabinet. Quick swat and redirection away from the forbidden objects (those DVD's are his THING - the one thing that he can't seem to keep out of in the house) and we were set for the morning. My normal little Kellen-man was back: hugs, kisses, sweetness and all. How long can we keep away the monster?
Mommy & Daddy's child-free night, which turned into a girls-night on Friday, was a lot of fun. We went to an art gallery in downtown Bryan, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will have to do again, and then went to Revolution, a cafe/bar which I had never heard of before, also in downtown Bryan. There was some live music playing, and I realized how long it had been since I had been out - quite some time! It was nice to sit back, relax and listen to music. The courtyard kept the smoke from those with that habit from bothering those of us without, and the atmosphere was really laid-back - and they had some really interesting coffee options!
Saturday's schedule for Matt was longer than he had originally anticipated, so I headed off to Conroe to pick up Kellen and do some tax-free shopping for him - I decided to brave it, despite what I knew would be crazy-sized crowds. I'm just not really an avid "shopper," but Kellen was in need of some things and this was a good weekend to get them. Judy, Kellen & I get to the outlet mall mid-afternoon and Kellen did a really good job of behaving himself as much as a two-year old with impulse control issues can. And it didn't help that Mommy left the stroller. We hit Carters, Osh-Kosh, Liz Claiborne (some work clothes for mommy), and Nike. Somewhere in there Maw Maw took Kellen to a little coffee shop to get a cookie as a well-deserved treat and diversion, too.
Then we went to pick up Paw Paw and went out to eat. And somewhere along the way I lost my sweet, loving Kellen and gained a monster. We went to a mexican food restaurant, which Kellen normally enjoys. First he didn't want to sit down in the high chair and pitched a FIT about it - which he has NEVER balked at before. It was so much of a fit that after about 5 minutes, Mommy had to take him outside to "talk" with him about his behavior. Then he proceeds to break all of the chips given to him. No big deal. So what. But he has a COW when pieces of the chip fall/are thrown onto the floor. He's getting more and more OCD every day. I know that he gets some of that from me and yes, I really am working on that, but he's so much worse than I am about some things that I know I'm not passing all of this onto him. Anyway, he says he's hungry and wants to eat, but when the food gets there he refuses any of it, pushing it and whatever was in front of it completely away, almost knocking over his water, yadda, yadda, yadda..I have NEVER seen him act like that before. NEVER. I'm going to blame it on him being tired, and the fact that he had used all of him impulse control at the stores we had taken him in that afternoon. Case in point re: the tired theory, he was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the restaurant on the way home to College Station.
I was awakened this morning to the pitter-patter of my Kellen rooting through the forbidden DVD's in the TV cabinet. Quick swat and redirection away from the forbidden objects (those DVD's are his THING - the one thing that he can't seem to keep out of in the house) and we were set for the morning. My normal little Kellen-man was back: hugs, kisses, sweetness and all. How long can we keep away the monster?
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Go buy a lotto ticket
Maybe that's what I should go and do now! I just came back from Coach Fran's Chalk Talk with Judy and won both a door prize and a raffle ticket prize! And I rarely win door prizes/raffles, etc. The door prize is a TAMU tree (small, table-sized) decorated with various TAMU related items: Bonfire, Aggie ring, Freeb!rds burrito, elephant, etc...it's really cute! There were lots of great raffle items, but the one I ended up with is what I'll call a "pamper package" and includes a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, a bath sponge, bath mist spray, a rubber Sarge (instead of rubber ducky), bath salts, a relaxation CD, etc, all in a rectangular wicker basket. Maw Maw and Paw Paw took Kellen back with them to Conroe and Matt and I have a night to ourselves tomorrow night, so perhaps we'll get to use some of the relaxation items then. Fun stuff!
"It's not a tumor" & Interesting side effects
To quote the line from Arnold in Kindergarten Cop, "It's not a tumor." That's what I discovered Wednesday morning from the doctors office about the CT scan. YEAH! It makes me feel better to have ruled out something major, though.
Interesting note about a side effect of the prevention medicine for migraines that I've been taking since Monday night...as many of you know...I LOVE my Sonic vanilla Dr. Peppers...LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM...When the doctor was talking to me about potential side effects of the medicine on Monday, he mentioned things like:
So I didn't think much about the second part of the first item until today at lunch when I didn't have a chance to come home and eat lunch but rather stopped at Sonic for a quick grilled cheese (something I can actually chew) and my beloved vanilla Dr. Pepper (44 oz, I might add). As I took the first swig of what would have been my first carbonated beverage of the week, I stopped cold. It tasted SO ODD. I took yet another drink, thinking that Sonic had made some horrible mistake with my order and that this wasn't the drink I had ordered (which I guess I still can't really prove conclusively). Still such an odd taste. Then it hit me. I remembered what the doctor had mentioned when he discussed the medicine side effects....No wonder there is weight loss associated with this medicine! If carbonated beverages taste like this, then people aren't going to want to drink them, and there goes XXX calories/day! I worked on that drink ALL AFTERNOON long - I'm not kidding - a sip at a time was all that I could handle. Normally I can finish off a Route 44 in an hour or so (sometimes less) - which really shouldn't be a good thing, I know, but I actually threw out the vaste majority of that drink when I got home from work today. Crazy stuff...
Interestingly enough, my body is intensely craving water - lots of water - since being on this medicine. Perhaps yet another beneficial side effect.
Interesting note about a side effect of the prevention medicine for migraines that I've been taking since Monday night...as many of you know...I LOVE my Sonic vanilla Dr. Peppers...LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM...When the doctor was talking to me about potential side effects of the medicine on Monday, he mentioned things like:
- CO2 levels would be depleted from my body so my fingers, toes and lips would tingle, and if I liked beer (which I don't) or carbonated beverages, they might taste flat to me;
- The meds would change the ph levels of my urine (possibly TMI for some of you), so I would be at an increased risk of kidney stones;
- Weight loss (at least not weight gain)
So I didn't think much about the second part of the first item until today at lunch when I didn't have a chance to come home and eat lunch but rather stopped at Sonic for a quick grilled cheese (something I can actually chew) and my beloved vanilla Dr. Pepper (44 oz, I might add). As I took the first swig of what would have been my first carbonated beverage of the week, I stopped cold. It tasted SO ODD. I took yet another drink, thinking that Sonic had made some horrible mistake with my order and that this wasn't the drink I had ordered (which I guess I still can't really prove conclusively). Still such an odd taste. Then it hit me. I remembered what the doctor had mentioned when he discussed the medicine side effects....No wonder there is weight loss associated with this medicine! If carbonated beverages taste like this, then people aren't going to want to drink them, and there goes XXX calories/day! I worked on that drink ALL AFTERNOON long - I'm not kidding - a sip at a time was all that I could handle. Normally I can finish off a Route 44 in an hour or so (sometimes less) - which really shouldn't be a good thing, I know, but I actually threw out the vaste majority of that drink when I got home from work today. Crazy stuff...
Interestingly enough, my body is intensely craving water - lots of water - since being on this medicine. Perhaps yet another beneficial side effect.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Bless
"Bless Daddy, Bless Mommy, Bless Shrek," Kellen manages to find many things to bless each night as we say our prayers. We just finished our prayers and said our last good-nights and as I walk out I hear him whispering, "Bless daddy, bless blanket, bless..." and then I couldn't really make out what else it was he was blessing. It's just so sweet! He is such a blessing!
As we were finished up our pasta this evening, Kellen states, "Mommy bath." No, I don't think he was making a statement as to my hygiene; I had already mentioned Kellen getting a bath tonight during our dinner. That was his way of letting me know he wanted me to take a bath with him. After bathtime, I wrap him in a hooded towel (I'm holding on to those as long as I can) and carry him cradle-style to his room to finish getting him ready for bed. He looks at me and says, "Hold baby. Rock Kellen." When I hold Kellen cradle-style, its holding him like a "baby", which he normally doesn't like, except for after baths. When we get out of the bath and he's wrapped in a towel, he wants me to hold him like a baby and rock him. He even goes so far as to try and wrap himself back up in the towel when I put him down to diaper and dress him. It's actually quite endearing. So as I was holding this undiapered, relaxed toddler in the rocking chair, a couple of questions crossed through my mind. One...he usually pee-pees after bathtime and he didn't sit on the potty...am I going to get a surprise?; Two, how much longer will he want and/or let me actually do this? And I realized...once again...these are the moments to cherish. This little boy just makes my heart melt!
As we were finished up our pasta this evening, Kellen states, "Mommy bath." No, I don't think he was making a statement as to my hygiene; I had already mentioned Kellen getting a bath tonight during our dinner. That was his way of letting me know he wanted me to take a bath with him. After bathtime, I wrap him in a hooded towel (I'm holding on to those as long as I can) and carry him cradle-style to his room to finish getting him ready for bed. He looks at me and says, "Hold baby. Rock Kellen." When I hold Kellen cradle-style, its holding him like a "baby", which he normally doesn't like, except for after baths. When we get out of the bath and he's wrapped in a towel, he wants me to hold him like a baby and rock him. He even goes so far as to try and wrap himself back up in the towel when I put him down to diaper and dress him. It's actually quite endearing. So as I was holding this undiapered, relaxed toddler in the rocking chair, a couple of questions crossed through my mind. One...he usually pee-pees after bathtime and he didn't sit on the potty...am I going to get a surprise?; Two, how much longer will he want and/or let me actually do this? And I realized...once again...these are the moments to cherish. This little boy just makes my heart melt!
Monday, August 01, 2005
Relief
May be around the corner for my migraines. I met with our new GP today to discuss my recent rash of frequent migraines (about 1 that gets through the medicine every week, for the last 2-3 months - but I'm taking meds about 4 out of 7 days a week). He put me on this prevention medicine that he says should reduce the number of migraines that I get by at least 50%, but he's thinking more along the lines of a 75% reduction. Whooo-hooo! Not that I'm excited about the prospect of yet another pill to take every day, but if it works it will be WELL WORTH IT to reduce the number of these puppies that I have to deal with. I have a CAT scan scheduled for tomorrow, just to rule out any of the "big stuff" but he doesn't seem to think that we will find anything out of the ordinary during the scan. Probably not, but I'm at that paranoid stage now where I want to rule out those major things...This was my first visit with him and let me just congratulate Matt on doing such a FABULOUS job of picking out a GP for us. This guy is great! He listened to me as I walked through my symptoms, timeline of problems, potential triggers and compensations, etc., then took all the time he needed to explain the meds he wanted to prescribe for me, their possible side effects, etc., answering any questions that I posed along the way. And he didn't make me feel crazy for wanting a CAT scan to rule out a tumor...in fact, he said that it's common for a long-time migraine sufferer to request one of those if there is a major change in frequency or intensity of the migraine. Man-o-man Matt, you did a great job on this one!
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