William is finally riding his bike without training wheels. After another friend riding without the training wheels off her bike, led him to ask us to take them off. He didn't wanna be the last one of his friends riding with the training wheels on their bike. It didn't take him long at all to pick it up. Within just a few minutes he was off and doing well. I am so proud of my little man!!!
I love these pictures. These range from the one above of our trip to the beach to the following two from the second day of school... To Gabe's 6th birthday party... 
These next several pictures are from the school carnival this last weekend.. Outside of not winning a goldfish, William, Ron and I had a great time! 
I am thankful for the great friends, family, boyfriend, son, pets, and other things I have in life. Lately we have been through some changes in our lives that have made me think and made me really look at what is going on in this sometimes hectic thing I call life. William played t-ball for the first time and did an amazing job. He LOVED it. We had games and practice twice a week. He had fun playing with kids he went to school with and some he didn't. He got to play games against classmates and had a wonderful time learning about teamwork, sportsmanship, and most of all the game. I am thankful for his love of the game, his enthusiasm, and most of all his curiosity.
He finished pre-kindergarten this June and enjoyed a few final moments with some good friends and two amazing teachers who have given him some amazing skills. I am thankful for my sons growth and for all he's learned. I am thankful that he has a wonderful school. A small school that's got more of a community feeling than just a school you send your kid to for several hours a day. I can't believe that in just a few weeks my son will be in kindergarten and more than that will be on to a new adventure of making new friends, learning more, and most of all going to school in the morning instead of afternoons. That's going to be the toughest change for us.
We endured two hospitalizations of my mom (grandma) and it has been a difficult road. The first was for a minor issue, but it made a big impact and left her feeling very ill. What seemed to be food poisoning wasn't food poisoning and could have been avoided had other symptoms been present. It made mother's day even more special to have my mom home before and able to celebrate it as a family. This latest one.. still ongoing.. makes it even more real that my mom's health issues can turn insanely overwhelming in the blink of an eye. We have endured the scare of very low blood sugar levels to very high blood sugar levels.. to an er trip that showed sudden dangerous levels of potassium.. We endured the thought of kidney failure, dialysis, specialists and ICU. As of today we are thankful for the wonderful doctors, nurses, and health professionals who are taking care of her. Who have made her condition so much better. That have given my mom the word that her kidneys are in good health, that her potassium levels are down, that she would be moved out of ICU and into her own room. I am thankful that the doctors and specialists are taking a look at her medications and have taken her off two that may have interacted and helped this happen. Thankful that my son will now be able to visit her while she's there. Thankful that I will still have a mom and that they are doing everything they can to ensure that she is on the right medications for her conditions and will be coming home. Most of all I am thankful for my mom. I know William is thankful that he still has his grandma.
I am even thankful for the changes in my sons father that led to many calls and a trip to visit dad. I am thankful for the changes he made. The growth he's shown and hopefully it will continue.
Most of all I am thankful for those that are close to me to help me through these times. I just want to say thanks to everyone near and dear to me for everything they do.
I guess the title says it all... almost.. In February we got papers home from school regarding T-ball and baseball sign-ups through the school district. At first it listed t-ball as kids that were 5 and in kindergarten. Later they sent home another paper listing that the kiddos in pre-kindergarten were allowed as long as they were 5 before a certain date. I contacted the person listed and they were still accepting the sign ups so we quickly got William all signed up. After waiting patiently for just over a month we finally got an email from the coach for William's team. The teams were assigned colors and William's team is the green team. Try finding baseball stuff in green.. not so easy to do. We got William his pants, shoes, shirt, and belt. He looks absolutely adorable in them. He also has his own glove. The first practice is on 4-6 and their first game is 4-29. The rules were sent out in the email and each child will get a chance to hit the ball, run the bases, catch, be first to bat, etc. The coaches goal for the season is to get the kiddos throwing the ball properly. NOt a bad goal for the kids I think. They also have the option to try hitting a ball being "pitched" to them by the coach. If they don't hit it in 3 pitches then they go to the tee. They don't have a time limit or a number of tries to hit the ball. It should be interesting to see.
The second part of the title.. well.. Mommy (that's me) is in some pain.. Starting Wednesday (3-31) night, I have been having neck, shoulder, and upper back pain. Enough that I haven't really slept, have been nauseous, and the pain has induced headaches. After suffering for basically 2 days with no relief and being barely able to move my neck... I gave in.. My boss was nice enough to let me go home... I called the dr and ended up going in for the first open appointment they had.. 6:30 pm... The dr did a few basic tests and feeling my neck, etc.. she came to the conclusion I have extreme muscle tightness.. maybe spasms, and the ever exciting nerve compression.. If I lay on my left arm or hold it in just the right mannor/angle my left hand starts to go numb. It gets better once the pressure is taken off that arm. she gave me a mixture of a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, and muscle relaxer to get this to go away, but wants me to recheck if it isn't better in about a week. If the numbness in my hand doesn't go away after the muscle stiffness/spasm goes away then I need to go in for x-rays. I'm hoping that the nerve issues subside once this goes away. It's been a long time since I've had back pain to this extent. Hopefully I'll be feeling back to my normal not in pain mommy self soon for me little guy.. Poor kid tries giving me a hug and it hurts. He's not hurting me.. just my back and neck are.. Too bad he sees it as him hurting me when he does that..
Hopefully the weather will also clear up in time for his first practice and I'll be able to get some good pictures. On another note.. we took him fishing for the first time last weekend and he caught his first fish. Today (4-2) my boyfriend Ron and my best friend Julie took William and my nephew Marcus fishing. Marcus caught one fish, fell into the lake, and well ended up having a hard time behavior-wise for a while.... William caught 3 fish and even helped Ron clean all three of his.. The first one he was a little apprehensive of touching, but after that he was fine. Looks like we'll be doing a lot of fishing and shooting and maybe even hunting with him...
He had his adenoids out on 2-26... on 3-1 we went back into the dr who told us he had a cold. we've been dealing with the symptoms off and on since then. Saturday he started in with more of a cough and had some icky green snot when he blew his nose.. It's just progressed down from there. Tuesday (3-16) he was up until after 1 am coughing.. Coughing through his albuterol dose, coughing after delsym... Just coughing and coughing the poor thing. After talking with the advice nurse for his doctor we have an appointment at 8:20 am on 3-18. While explaining to him that the doctor is just going to check him out, listen to his lungs, check his ears, eyes, throat, etc. He asked how they were going to check his throat. After explaining that they will have him open his mouth, stick out his tongue and say "Ahhhh", he came back quickly with "but mom! it's dark in there"....
Even after trying to re-explain to him that what they will use to see down his throat has a light on it and they will be able to see his throat just fine, he again came back with "I don't have a light in my throat mom.. it's dark in there." He just makes me laugh sometimes. I certainly got a laugh out of him tonight. Not to mention he wants those "bad buggies" gone.. I can't blame him. It's those "bad buggies" that are making him sick. Hopefully he'll get better soon. After all what fun is spring break going to be next week if he's sick???
William had surgery to remove his adenoids on 02-26-10. We had to be there super early. William was the doctor's first patient at 7:30 am, but that meant we had to be there at 6..... It made for an early morning leaving the house at 4:45. We got there and checked in. I had one other paper to fill out and then we were called back. We got William all settled and soon the fun began. The nurse came in and placed another bracelet on his wrist and allowed him to watch some tv. The anesthesiologist came in shortly after that and talked to us and more importantly William. He asked William a few questions and then asked him to come see the balloon they would have him blow up. He went with him willingly so they decided he didn't need the sedative to make him relaxed enough to go without an argument. After the anesthesiologist left the nurse came back in and put some numbing cream on the top of his hands and covered it with a clear bandage on each. They numbed the area for the iv with the cream, although, they really didn't need it since he was under anesthesia when they put it in. Before we knew it the doctor came in and did what she needed to for the surgery to go on. It wasn't too long after that when they wheeled him into the OR for surgery. He gave us hugs and kisses and off he went.
Ron and I went and met up with William's dad, grandma, and uncle. We got some coffee and talked. Before we knew it the 1/2 hour surgery was up and just as I was walking to go upstairs to get his medicine from the pharmacy out walked the doctor and we were called back. She said that things went very well and that there were no complications at all from the procedure. He was asleep when we got back to his room. He looked so peaceful. There were two nurses there checking on him, but on his table there was a stuffed dog. The admitting nurse he had that day had searched to see if there were any extras and just happened to find some. she said its something the volunteers at the hospital give to them so they give those to the kids who have surgery. When he woke up he didn't talk much, but when he did he wanted grandma and daddy. They came in and visited with him. I went and got his medicine. They gave him Tylenol with Codeine, which we later had flavored sour apple, and that didn't help his pain much. We later learned that they had way under dosed the tylenol. They gave him some apple juice and chocolate pudding to eat. What a great breakfast at 9 am..
We had a pretty busy day after that. We ended up at Target to get his medicine flavored and get a few things before heading home. We stopped and had lunch and the poor kid had a hard time eating. The scrambled eggs were ok, but the minute the applesauce hit his mouth he looked like he wanted to cry. I gave him the pain medicine while we were at Target and he ended up using some chloraseptic spray to numb his throat so he could eat. That continued throughout the weekend. I did call the nurse for the ENT and they were at a loss as to why he was in so much pain. They said that there is a chance for referred pain, but the amount he was having sounded like that of a child who had tonsils out. He had a lot of pain in the middle of the night for a few nights, but thankfully has been healing up nicely since. He is able to breathe much better and I am thankful that his sinus issues are for the most part a lot better.
A couple days later he had ultrasounds to recheck a problem they spotted with one of his kidneys as a baby. I got a letter from the doctor today that his kidneys are just fine. :D
Today we had William's ENT appointment. We were looking forward to it to see what they thought his issues were. As we were standing in line to check in, he looked at me, and said "mommy, I'm scared." Apparently the thought of what could be going on or could be done to him was scary. After we checked in we had barely made it up the steps when the nurse called his name. We went back into a large room (too bad the dr's offices aren't that big) with a chair for him to sit in. Lots of things on the walls. After a few questions we were met by a very nice dr. She was very understanding and asked several questions. We went over a lot of things and she checked out his ears, throat, and nose. She numbed his nose a bit and then stuck a lighted scope up a ways to see his adenoids. She told us that they are enlarged. They aren't huge, but they are definitely a problem and need to go. She went over all of the risks, etc. She also went over what days she has free to do surgery until early March. She will be going on maternity leave and wanted us to be aware that if she goes into labor they will reschedule. He is set for Friday the 26th. Hopefully all goes well and he will heal up in no time.
And that's not all of it. To top off the 3 dr visits in less than 3 weeks, severe ear infections, meds, and no change in sinus symptoms, we also had the first migraine in months today. Poor kiddo just couldn't get comfortable. He whined, moaned, groaned, and just flip flopped. After 2 tylenol and another 20 minutes of whining he went and layed down in his bed and fell asleep. However, that meant, I had to stop packing up out bedroom.. Yup, that's right, packing up our bedroom. We are moving. In less than 2 weeks he will have his own room and for the first time in his life live outside of grandma and grandpa's house. He will still be there almost daily due to school and me working, but he finally gets his own room. He's really looking forward to that A LOT!
So in the meantime between packing and working we have an ENT appointment on the 17th to go to. When we saw the ped. on the 28th she was concerned. But after hearing that he woke up at 1 am screaming that his left ear hurt she was more than sympathetic to why we were there again so soon. She looked in his ears and immediately asked which antibiotic we wanted. :( It's sad when event he doctor is losing track of what he's been on. Granted most of them have been for his sinuses. We did a round of Zithromax which is very easy for us as its once daily for 5 days. we love those ones. :D
We were also using some numbing ear drops, but after 5 days of antibiotics he was still complaining of ear pain. We went back into see his dr. She noted that his ears were 1000% better than they had been, but that she wasn't sure what was causing his ear pain to persist. We discussed his sinuses and if the antibiotic helped at all, which it hadn't. She asked again what we were doing for his sinuses and we both agreed that at this point it'd be best to stop and wait for the ENT appointment to tell us more. The pain in his sinuses is above his eyes primarily, but he complains of his whole nose hurting at times. Hopefully we will find something out and we won't have anything more come up before then.
I'm hoping that if anything serious has to be done after the ENT appointment we can do that before 4/1... Our insurance changes and suddenly we have a deductible that we've never had before.. :(
It's hard to believe that my little guy is 5! Where did the last 5 years go??? This year, like the last 2, we had his party at Chuck E Cheese. He picked that again. We sent invitations to his entire class and were thrilled when 9 kids and 3 of their siblings rsvp'd to show up. We had a good mix of girls and boys and he several of those he REALLY wanted to be there at his party. It was nice meeting the other parents and watching him interact with the other kiddos. The day started off hectic with me and Ron being 20 minutes late to my own son's party. However, we may not have been late had Albertson's not taken forever finding his cake. Apparently saying William and Spiderman equals Noah and Cars.
Once we were there we ended up ordering pizza and getting tokens out to the kiddos. The kiddos had a lot of fun playing, whether it was games with the tokens or up in the play structure, it was a blast and I'm glad they all had a good time. Zak and William and a great time. Zak even asked if I could get this picture of them while they were eating pizza.
Lily and Zak argued over who was going to get to play with William more. Chloe and William had fun too and I love the look on her face as he was opening her present to him. Hayden was a little shy, but they had fun, and he sure enjoyed the frosting off of William's cake as I was told. I was glad to see that sophia and her sister Grace had fun. And even though one classmate had to leave early due to her mom having to work it was nice to hear that she was so excited to go.
Gabe and his brother were so nice in picking out several things for William and he loves every single one. Zak had to show him how to use the gift he got him. There were lots of good things given to him and He absolutely LOVED that everyone was there for him. He opened his presents from the family Friday night. Thursday he got a very big gift. he got his bb gun from Ron and he got to pick out some targets. He loves that gift and did very well listening to directions and using it for the first time.
It's hard to think of him as being 5 now. He is no longer a baby or a toddler. He is a BOY... He is a growing boy who has big plans. those plans as of now include school, playing football, trying to impress Chloe, and college one day. I hope he keeps on with those plans.. Even though trying to impress Chloe is one I'm not ready for... I'm proud of his accomplishments. I'm proud of him for the things he can do now.. spelling certain words, writing, spelling and reading his name, reading other classmates names, being inquizitive about things he's interested in and loving school. I love his enthusiasm for the many things he loves. Most of all I love being his mommy. Happy Birthday to my little man, I hope that this year brings many new friends, memories, and most of all good things for you. I love you!
After 6 months of prolonged sniffles, negative allergy testing, and 2 failed rounds of antibiotics William's ped is at a complete loss as to what is going on. We now have a referral to ENT department and she is hoping they can shed some light on the issues that are causing him such grief. He is having issues sleeping, he's grouchy, he is just not his normal self all the time. My hope is that the ENT can actually tell us something and not another let down like allergy testing was. His ped was almost sure that his issues were allergy related. So I will wait for word from the ENT department and if we haven't been contacted by the end of next week I will contact them to get his appointment set up.
He is also going to have a recheck that should have happened in October 2005. When he was born we had to see a urologist before he could be circumsized and when we finally got into the urologist in April 2005 we were asked a bunch of questions related to how he was doing and if he was urinating ok. Well his frequency has always been normal to me, but if it's actually normal compared to others who knows.. At that appointment the urologist went over the results of the ultrasounds done the day after he was born. They showed that one of his kidneys is smaller than the other. To me it sounded like it wasn't much, but I'm not a dr and what do I know when it comes to those things. So I asked his ped about that and she looked it up in his records and wants to do a recheck just to make sure all is ok. she said as long as it looks good and there are no real issues then we won't worry about it after this, unless issues start to come up.
So now its just a waiting game.. waiting.. patiently... for... answers... well waiting as patiently as I can for answers. I know in the bigger picture I'm blessed with a child with minor ailments compared to others. I'm also learning to not take for granted the times where we are all healthy. When you can see your child's health decline in anyway it can be scary or nerve-wracking. I've gone from a child sleeping through the night since 18 months old to now up at least once a night. My almost always happy child is now more grouchy and at time down right mean. My normally independent, let me do it myself, child has become overly clingy at times. My son now REQUIRES a child's breathe right strip for bedtime or he FREAKS out. The only thing worse than seeing him like this is knowing that his ped is at a loss, the allergist can't entirely rule out allergies, but thinks its more than likely recurring infections, and blindly trying things in hopes that they work with no resolve. After 6 months I'm exhausted mentally.. physically and just want it to get better. So for now.. I will wait.. as patiently as I can.. for any resolve. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.
