First haircut

My baby boy is growing up too fast. He now can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. He says 'da da', 'da dee', 'ba ba', and on a rare occasion he will throw 'ma ma' in there. He blows raspberries with his mouth and can sit up unassisted if placed in that position.

He can add another notch of accomplishment to his baby belt. He had his first hair cut today given to him by his Uncle Jason. In case you didn't know, Derrick's middle name is Jason and he is named after his uncle. The fact that Uncle Jason was able to give him his first hair cut is very special (at least to me, being the sentimental person that I am).

Check ups

We had a super fun 3 kid check up today. The best mother in law in the world went with me knowing that all three kids were going to need shots.

Riley is at 61% for her weight, which is 36.31 lbs. She is at 84% for her height which is 41.5'' tall. She definitely takes after her Daddy. She will be our little sports girl. She is super smart and ahead of her peers cognitively.

Bree is finally on the charts! She is at 6% for her weight (26 pounds) and 34% for her height (36.5'')...hooray! I also heard the most beautiful words out of our pediatrician's mouth: "Cognitively, she is doing everything I would expect a three year old to be doing." I think I heard the heavens open up and the angels sing.When Johanna asked Bree one of the questions: "Bree, are you a little boy or a little girl?", Bree stared at her for a few seconds then said "BIG girl." (She said it with an attitude of "duh lady").

Derrick is 20 lbs and 8 ounces, which is at 74% for his age. He is 28 inches long, which is at 91%. She checked his ears and found that he still has fluid built up behind his ear but that his ear looks the best it has since July. We are to continue to keep him on benadryl to dry out his ear and to finish up the last three days of his antibiotic.

When it came time for shots, Riley was hysterical. Even before the shots she was not wanting them. As soon as our pediatrician walked in the room for the visit Riley tapped her on the shoulder and said "Hey...did you know that kids don't need shots anymore?" I love the things that she comes up with! It was a very valiant effort to avoid shots. If I can get a video up here on the blog I will post her hysterical crying pre shots. It is so ridiculous it is funny.

Bree took her shots like a champ, and whined just a bit. She had a few tears. Derrick also is a big boy with his shots and didn't cry either.

When it came time to leave, Riley insisted that she was unable to walk and she was pitiful enough that Grandma carried her to the car. I will send the picture to the blog when I finish up on here. That is a very good Grandma, and Riley greatly appreciated it.

The girls got to go pick out some special treats for being such brave girls!

We suck at blogging.

Okay, so I suck at blogging. Life just gets busy. And the blog is the first thing to go. So, sorry for the lack of communication...I will try to be a little more "chatty". (Did you ever think I would be accused of not talking?)

So, in a nutshell....Bree had super enlarged tonsils for about 2 months before she got them out a month ago. We have seen much better improvements with speed of swallowing, and articulation of speech. She is still doing feeding therapy, but we had to drop down to one time a week because we maxed out our credit cards paying for the gas of driving 1 hour each way three times a week for 3 plus months. We are just trying to do the best that we can.

Derrick is on the never ending ear infection. We have discovered that he is allergic to penicillin, and one other antibiotic (it starts with an O?) so the only antibiotic he can use is zithromax, which really does not do much for him. It keeps the infection from getting worse, but does not really clear it up. He has had his current one since the beginning of August/end of July. We are waiting on his ENT consult to get tubes put in. We have an appt on October 10th.

Riley has started seeing a therapist because she acts out with her behavior. She is very angry towards Bree and when she gets into trouble she screams, hits, and throws things. We do still give consequences because of her behavior but we do not see much results. Hopefully, the therapist can help us as a family and her as an individual.

I am going through some allergy craziness.  I have discovered that I am not a picky eater as I thought....I am actually allergic to the stuff I do not like. However, my body is a medical mystery that likes to keep everyone guessing. The first time I was allergy tested I ended up needing an epi pen and had a bad reaction. Ended up in the ER and was on some heavy duty meds. Last week I had another skin allergy test with a different doctor and even though the skin prick part showed negative on everything, my throat still started to swell. Off the ER I went. Once again I am on prednisone (devil drug) and needing benadryl to help keep my throat swelling feeling and chest pain at bay. I have to lay low and not do very much...which is kinda hard to do with 3 kids, especially when it is your oldest's birthday.

Adam made Staff Sergeant last month and I could not be more proud of him! He finally applied himself and studied his booty off and he made it! This is wonderful news. He also received orders last month that informed him that he will be leaving in April to go serve a one year remote tour in South Korea. We will miss him, but we know that it is necessary for his job. Even military members (and families) who are not serving actively in the war must make sacrifices.

I will keep up as well as I can. Hope you all are doing well!

Happy 4th!

My Riley Kay is 4 years old today. It seems like just yesterday I had her and could hear her screaming as I was on the operating table. She has far exceeded our expectations and she amazes us on a daily basis. She is very witty and comes up with the craziest things to say. She also seems wise beyond her years and knows things that she shouldn't. I cannot believe how you have grown my sweet girl and I look forward to watching you grow some more in the coming years....