Sunday, December 14, 2008

2 1/2 weeks left

in 2008!!!

After Joshua's issues last Monday, he has been just fine. He stayed home Tuesday with Jeff and went back to school fine on Wednesday. This week at school he learned some big things. He is absorbing and repeating back so many things right now. He is funny to watch his 'wheels' spin as he is figuring something out. One day this week, on the way home....I think it was Wednesday. We were in the truck on the way home and Joshua and I were singing songs like we always do. We were singing the 'one, two, buckle my shoe' song and I said 'one' and he said 'two, three, four, five.' It was a very cool moment in my mommy-world!! I was so impressed. We did it three more times before he was done with the moment. Now, it takes me a lot of work to coax him into saying it again. On Friday, he came home from school singing along the ABC's. He sings 'A B C D E' and the rest is not the right letters but it the right tune. I am in awe of his little mind at work. He has taken to working on a puzzle. It is an old puzzle that was Ethan's and was given to Joshua, but he loves it all the same. He will spend a good ten minutes dumping the pieces out and putting them in the puzzle and dumping the out again just to put them back in the puzzle. Very cool to mommy, too!!!...it gives mommy 10 minutes to get something done. Saturday night, he did not want to sleep...he had gone to sleep on the way home from dinner with family, but woke up two hours later around 11 pm. He didn't go back to sleep until 3:30am. Just great. I was so exhausted that I don't even remember the alarm going off to get up for church. Jeff said I talked to him about not going and I don't even remember that. Joshua exploded in the night which confirmed what I was thinking about him having a tummy ache.

My first week at my new job was...well....boring. I basically sat around listening/watching other people do their job. Tomorrow is supposed to bring more formal training and I am excited about that. I am adjusting to working 9-6 which are my new hours. It is strange to not have to rush around in the morning. To be able to eat a quick breakfast with Joshua in the mornings. The traffic is so much better too. All the crazies are already at work.

I am addicted to the Scrabble game on my cell phone. I am playing it every free second I can get. It was a bad move to get it and I knew it at the time but bought the dang game anyway.

We are nearly done with Christmas shopping. We should be completely finished tomorrow. Whoohoo!!!! Go us!!! The hardest part is always deciding what to get everyone. I remember one year I got everyone a gift card....oh...that was an easy year. Next year, I want for Joshua to be able to get a toy for the Toys-To-Tots program. I also want to make sure that Joshua next year knows more about Christmas. This year it is all fun and games for him. He keeps bringing me ornaments off of our tree. And is wowed by Christmas lights on houses, especially his own.

We had a good get together with my cousin's family & my sister's family tonight. We exchanged gifts amongst the families and Joshua scored a play run in a Cars theme and we scored a new Wii game...M&M racing. I love me some M&M's!!!

I reckon that is about all for now.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Busy seizing possums

The last few days have been cram-packed it seems. Last Wednesday, I had my last interview for a job I had been wanting. I was told I would know something Thursday and didn't hear anything. Then Thursday night/Friday morning....at 4:15....I woke up sick. Sick...is an understatement for what was happening in me. I didn't feel good most of the day and left work early to come back home. I was resting and my phone rang and it was the call I had been hoping for the day before. I had gotten the job. I was asked to start Monday. I had planned on being at work, on my temporary assignment, to let them know, but my sickness prevented this. I temporary agency let my assignment company know and I was all set for Monday.

Friday night, feeling better, I rushed around in preparation for Saturday. Somehow I didn't get to bed until 2 am. I was to be at my sister's at 6:45 am to start the days activities. I didn't even hear the alarm and she called at 6:50 am to wake me up. Lovely. I was fully prepared in the event this happened and Joshua and I were out of the house in record time. We got to Irving, to the train station in plenty of time. We caught the TRE train into downtown Dallas to go see the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade. Steph's sister-in-law's family lead us to a great spot to see the parade. Joshua had a blast as did everyone else. It was great to see his awe in looking at the floats. And he danced to all the band music that passed by. He waved at the horses and even gave high fives to some clowns. It was a great experience that I look forward to again next year. A couple of funny notes about the whole experience. When the train got to Union Station downtown, the doors opened so people could get off. Well four people in our party got off then the door shut. We were on the train and none of the doors would open. Mind you, the clowns got on the train at an Irving station. Eventually the doors opened and another half of our party got off. Finally, the doors were opened once again and everyone was able to get off. We caught the light rail over to an area closer and walked several blocks down to our stopping spot. After the parade, we needed to catch the 12:15 train out to get back to Irving in time for afternoon activities. As we are getting near 100 yards from the train.....that's right....the train pulls away from the station. It is gone. We are supposed to be back in Irving around 1pm and the next train didn't leave until 1:15. Fortunately, my brother-in-law did not go with us to the parade because he wasn't feeling well, so he came and rescued us in downtown and brought us back to our vehicles in Irving. My hero of the day!!

Then it was off to the Christmas Party with my dad's family. It is always nice to see everyone. My cousin had a little boy a few months back. I held him for a few minutes. It was so little. It is hard to believe that Joshua used to be that little. Speaking of Joshua....he did not take well to my holding little Nathan. He was not happy about it at all. I thought at one point he was going to break down into tears. My father's cousin read a great book about a Christmas tree that was shared by many and followed it with the real story of Christmas. We exchanged ornaments. Ate tasty snacks and headed home. Saturday night, it worked out just right that Jeff and I got to have a date night. It was the first dinner date he and I have had just the two of us since Joshua was born. It was nice.

Sunday after church we got our Christmas tree up. We decided this year that with a new tree we would try a new topper as well....a bow that we made ourselves. What a hard thing to do when you don't really know how to do it. We worked on it for two hours before we agreed on a bow that looked 'visually appealing'. We still need to get the ornaments on it. But it is a great looking tree as is. We ventured out of the house for grocery shopping.

When we returned from shopping we put Chanci out in the backyard as usual. Within a minute or so she began barking. It was an unusual bark...an intentional bark. I went to go and check on her and could tell she was jumping at the back fence, something else she doesn't normally do. I called Jeff. We went out to check on her. She had 'fenced' a possum. This possum was hanging on the the fence for dear life. We got Chanci inside and Jeff took some pictures of the possum.....(look for them on flickr before the end of the year.)

Monday morning brought about my new job. It was an okay day at work. I don't think anyone first day at a new job is ever super duper. It is normally full of paperwork, sitting, introductions to people that you don't even remember the names of and stuff like that. I got a call in the afternoon from Joshua's school that he had gotten sick and needed to be picked up. Jeff sent me a text saying he was going to go get him. Jeff brought him home and Joshua wanted to sleep. After I made it home, I slowly woke him up. About 30 minutes later, he got sick "puked" again, all over mommy. I had noticed his fever seemed high and was searching for a thermometer when this happened. It was high at 103 something. We prepared to take him to urgent care. He got sick again and then we left. Around 7pm or so. I was holding him in the truck, he was not feeling well and was hot and sick and I just wanted to get there before something worse happened. Then it did. We were barely halfway down the street and Joshua's body straightened and tensed and he began having a seizure in my arms. I panicked. Jeff did too for a second. We were trying to get the urgent care and I swear that every freakin' light turned red just as we were getting to it. Jeff called my mother who called the urgent care to tell them we were on our way. When we got there, they rushed us through the process and got him into a room. Then came the poking...urine sample (via cath), strep test, blood work, flu test, chest x-ray. Just what every 18 month old loves have done. In the end, it looks like his sinus congestion and stomach bug were just to much and caused his fever to spike. Now we take antibiotics for 10 days in addition to the shots of antibiotics they gave him tonight. His seizure probably only last 20 seconds, but it seemed like 20 minutes or more to me. Last time he had a seizure, he was in his bed. I am thankful that Jeff was home to help with the sickness and related trip to urgent care. We continue to run a high risk for more febrile seizures until at least age 5. I don't want more....I think half my hair turned gray tonight.

I have now eaten some chicken salad and are taking my mentally and physically exhausted self to bed. I hope even half of this post makes sense.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Whoa....two days in a row!!!

Joshua has added "twinkle twinkle" to his song list. He only sings "twinkle twinkle" and does the hand motions as you sing the rest of the song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He also sings "issy bissy" for the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and will do all the motions for it. And there is a song from church about things God made and he does all the motions for that too. It is funny to watch and see his 'wheels' start turning in his head as he puts things together. I had forgotten about going through this stage with my sister's kiddos. When they started figuring things out and connecting the 'dots', it is like a whole new world to them. The same way with Joshua.

We also broke out his potty seat this week. He is having fun playing with it. Taking it all apart. Sitting on it....in chair mode & stool mode. Taking the pee guard in and out...I wish it attached better, but oh well. He has figured out how to make it sing but touching both sensors....yes, it will sing when he makes a 'deposit'. Oh yea, the box provides lots of fun too!

In addition to putting up our Christmas things both inside & out this weekend, we have a parade, party & shopping trip planned. We are planning to go the The Adolphus Christmas Parade on Saturday morning. Then we are Christmas partying with my father's family. Always a sweet time, we don't see them that often and it is always nice to get together. There will be an ornament exchange.....exchange=stealing.....event as always. I like to think that the ornaments that Jeff & I have picked out will be hits with everyone this year.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend flew by. We went to Arkansas on Thursday mid morning and returned home Sunday night. It was a great trip despite the rainy weather we had all weekend. Joshua loved to play outside....after all, there was so much to taste out there....like rocks, grass, sticks and such. We rode him around quite a bit on the four wheelers. He kept wanting to fall asleep when he would be ridden around. He did actually go to sleep with Uncle Brandon (a.k.a. Buka Buka). I think he went to sleep riding around with Mom as well.
David fried up two turkeys. One Cajun for the adults and one not Cajun for the kiddos. It was good eating...throw in the stuffing in the new roaster, green bean casserole (my favorite), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes & cranberry sauce and it was really good eatin'.

On the poll about what Joshua would ask Santa for it was decided that he would ask for......drum roll please....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


the Tricycle. So, now we are off to find a tricycle. Several people sent comments about the safety of a fold-and-go tricycle, so we will look into more in depth & search out similar models.

Also on the Joshua front...two more teeth. He has gotten them in the last couple of weeks...the incisors....the pointy teeth on the bottom.....yea....all grown in now. He is growing like a weed lately it seems. He thinks he is getting big enough to do things and really he is not. He is still my little baby boy...or so I like to think sometimes. He has gotten to where is no longer likes to snuggle on the couch...or even be still for 3 minutes for that matter. He has developed two speeds.....1. Slow - this is reserved for the first 2 minutes after he wakes up. 2. Fast - this is reserved for all other waking minutes of the day.

He has taken to throwing tantrums over everything. I always swore that I wouldn't be that parent that walked away from my screaming child throwing a tantrum. I, my friends, have become that parent. It is really the only thing that will fix the situation. Trying to talk to him to calm him down, scolding him, distracting him, picking him up....none of this works...but walk away and he stops with 60 seconds. Of course I also swore that my kids would never drink sodas, but Joshua does on occasion....with his Daddy. I don't give them to him...his Daddy does. Joshua has a fondness for Mountain Dew. He loves that crap. And I don't drink sodas so his Daddy sneaks him drinks of the stuff.

Joshua just went to the doctor for his 18 month check up. He did have to get one shot & some blood work done. He weighs 26.8 pounds and is 31 inches tall. He has moved into the 2's class at school. He seems to be doing really well over there. He starts in the mornings in the infants room but moves over to the 2's when all the teachers are back from morning school runs.

We went and did Santa pictures a few weekends back. He did really good. He was excited about seeing Santa. Jeff and I had talked about how cool Santa was and what he looks like. When he seen Santa, he bounced up and down showing his excitement. When he got about two feet from Santa...he froze.....as in ohmygosh, he's real. It was quite funny. The Santa man was great. And we got a spiffy picture from it.

We will put up the Christmas tree this weekend. We are so excited about it. We bought a new tree this year....all pre-lit and fancy. Joshua has been impressed with his Aunt Stephanie's tree, so we will see how it all goes next weekend at home. I am sure that I will be chasing Joshua and Patches (the cat) away from the tree. What fun!!!

I could be missing other things, but I will try to post again soon.