KerryAndGabe.com

Something I’m hoping: Well, when I first started writing this, I said that I hoped that Gabe and Cullen were better soon and didn’t spread their germs to me. Unfortunately, they did spread their germs to me, but after 24 hours of the stomach bug I felt a lot better. We are crossing our fingers that Maddie stays healthy.

Something happening around the house: We were supposed to have been out of town of this weekend, but we had to cancel our trip to Atlanta since the boys were sick on the way down. Our house might have been tidy, but instead it’s the usual disaster zone.

Something I’m reading: I finished the 4th Percy Jackson book, and I started and finished The Kitchen House for book club. I enjoyed it and look forward to discussing it at book club! I started the 5th (and final) Percy Jackson book.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished The Lightning Thief in the Percy Jackson series and started on the 2nd book. Unfortunately, the Percy Jackson series is no longer “always available” on the kindle at the library. Darn! It was so convenient. Oh well, we have the 2nd book in paperback, and we put Gabe on the waiting list for the 3rd.

Something I’m watching: We sorta watched Red, but it didn’t keep my attention too much. I took Maddie to see Puss in Boots at our dinner theater on Sunday afternoon. She really loved it! Mostly, we wanted to get out of the germ infested house with Gabe and Cullen and their bugs.

Something I’m playing: Go Away Monster and Kids of Carcassonne. I played a few minutes of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Something I’m creating: I have been creating more blog posts than anyone wants to read. I don’t have any lined up, so I’m going to have to work on those this week, I suppose. If I get the motivation… I am finally getting around to our Christmas thank you notes.

Something about both kiddos: The kids are very cute together this week. Sometimes, they can play together so well. Of course, they have their share of fights (and things can escalate so fast with siblings!).

Something Maddie is doing (46 months old): We went to her first movie at our dinner theater, as I mentioned. She also had her first in a series of ballet classes. Work is offering another set of convenient classes after work on Thursdays, so we’re giving those another try. She participated very well in her first session. She listened to the instructor and followed all of the instructions. This is quite a change from her first class last time. It helps that some of her friends are in the class!

Something Cullen is doing (23 months old): I took a cute video last week of Cullen singing almost all of the words to “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” He’s quite the cutie! He’s had a stomach bug for most of the past week and a bit of a cold, too. Poor little guy. He’s also still working on those eye teeth. He has been in the booster instead of his high chair at the dinner table, and he’s done with high chairs at restaurants. He kicked the table last week and toppled his chair backward. It’s one of those things that happened in slow motion for me, but I couldn’t stop it from happening. Yikes! The top of his chair (and his head) landed on the carpet, which I think helped. Fortunately, he was fine, but it was scary for a moment! He has had some bad nights in the past week between teething and being sick and has done some waking in the middle of the night to fuss a bit and then goes back to sleep. He’s still using the paci at night.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I might book not just one but two Disney trips…one for me and a girlfriend (without kids!) and another with the family in October. Woohoo! I can’t believe that I’m planning to go to Disney without the kiddos, but I’m looking forward to doing some of the adult and less little-kid-friendly things.

Something I learned: Gabe and I are getting more educated about fructose malabsorption (something he was diagnosed with a while back but we haven’t been diligent about).

Something I’m looking forward to: We have dinner and games with friends, a balance bike date, and another ballet class, assuming that we are all healthy enough by then. Cullen’s birthday is Sunday. I can’t believe that he’s going to be 2! We are going to find some special ways to celebrate on Sunday, and the kids are having a small joint party this year in a few weeks.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Wednesday, we had Cullen’s follow up VCUG, exactly one year after his first one. After the first test, he was diagnosed with kidney reflux. The course of action was for Cullen to take a daily maintenance antibiotic and to retest periodically to see if he would outgrow it. He had Grade 3 kidney reflux on one side and Grade 2 on the other.

I am extremely happy to report that Wednesday’s testing showed amazing improvements (at least as far as this Mommy is concerned). The renal ultrasound showed no visible scarring or damage with normal kidney growth. The Voiding Cystourethrogram study (VCUG) showed no reflux on the side that was previously Grade 2 and only Grade 1 reflux on the side that was Grade 3. I’m thrilled!!! We have a followup with the doctor in a few weeks. I hope that we will be able to put VCUGs and maintenance antibiotics behind us with the improvements that we saw today! I have no idea what his recommendations will be, but unless he strongly urges us to retest, I’m pretty sure we are DONE WITH THAT.

We had to get up bright and early to have Cullen at the hospital by 7:45am. Gabe and I drove separately so that Gabe could take Maddie to school during early care hours. Cullen and I arrived at the hospital, and he had breakfast/snack while we checked in. The check in process went quite smoothly, and Cullen was a happy boy. He didn’t even beg to be out of the stroller.

They called us back to the ultrasound not long after we arrived at the waiting room. Cullen did great in the ultrasound! He got a little wiggly at times and didn’t like sitting still, but overall he did better than expected. He even giggled a little bit as we told him that the technician was going to “tickle” him a little with the wand. This test didn’t take very long. We were given a CD of the images after all the tests were over. You decide… kidney or baby?

We went back out into the waiting room where we thought we had over an hour and a half between tests. We waited for Daddy to arrive. They then told me that they would try to take us back for the next test in a few minutes. I hoped that Daddy would get there before we started! Fortunately, he arrived shortly before we were called. Cullen had fun climbing in the chairs. We read a few of the books we brought, too.

For the VCUG, we knew we were going to have to put him in a hospital gown (which is a good thing considering that the point of the test is to get him to pee all over the table…it’s a messy test!).

He did not want to sit on the table while we were waiting for them to get ready for the test. I debated between my child’s happiness and what I’m sure is not the cleanest floor. I chose my child’s happiness. He tried to escape.

When they were ready to insert the catheter, we got him on the table and into the Papoose Board. This is the first time that we had encountered it. I was worried that he wasn’t going to like being strapped onto the table, but he wasn’t unhappy with the chest straps. He could still move his arms freely, and we distracted him with Tigger. I also tried reading him a book, hoping that would help get his mind off of things.

Once they inserted the catheter and started to put fluid into his bladder, he started crying and did not stop until the test was over and he was off the table again. It was awful. I held his little hands and “hugged” and kissed him as well as I could for 99% of the time (pretty much the whole time, except when a couple photos were taken). I felt awful for the little guy. Once again, I’m not sure how long the test lasted, but it was at least 20 minutes.

The table moved him into the x-ray machine. I was able to continue to hold his hands and talk to him and kiss him throughout the test. The worst part was that he kept trying to undo the wide velcro straps and he was saying, “Help me. Help me. Help me.” It was heartbreaking.

The test this year uses a different kind of fluid and less radiation. I was thinking the images would look similar to last year’s, but they were much different. I couldn’t tell if the results were good or not. The technician did not give us information about the results right away, but at one point I was convinced he had NO reflux since I didn’t see any obvious lines from the bladder leading up to the kidneys. This set of images represents when they were filling the bladder (the first 3-4), and then when he was voiding (you can see that the fluid exited the bladder and some of it was in a pool on the table).

I didn’t see this at first, but once you look very carefully at the 2nd to last image, the technician spotted a slight whisper of reflux. I think it is minor, even for Grade 1.

All in all, we are thankful that the test is over. We are hopeful that we will never have to put Cullen (or Maddie) through it again. We are THRILLED that the results were so positive.

Something that makes me happy: Visits from my parents. They were here this weekend for a quick visit. I think they enjoyed seeing the kids. The kids change so much from visit to visit, even if it has not been long since the last visit. We already have plans to see them again in a few weeks.

Something I’m thinking: I’m looking forward to spending some time with the kids on vacation coming up soon!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on work projects this week.

Something happening around the house: We got a new kids’ table for Maddie and Cullen from the work bulletin board. It’s adorable with 4 little chairs all painted in different colors with handpainted animals on each one.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Lightning Thief as well as the second book in the series, Sea of Monsters. I had those two books already, and I plan to read the others as well. I decided not to buy them yet and read something from our shelves instead. I decided last night to restart Kushiel’s Justice. I had made it through about half of it a couple of years ago. It’s the 5th book in that series. Now, there are 9 in the series, so I have some catching up to do. I did read a couple of chapters in A Clash of Kings but decided I’d rather catch up on Kushiel first.

Something I’m watching: Gabe and I went out to see Thor on Friday night! We loved it. Sadly, this was the first time that we had been out together without the kids all year. We’re going to have to do it again several times this summer with Cars 2, Super 8 (maybe?), the final Harry Potter, X-Men: First Class (maybe?), Green Lantern (maybe?), Captain America (probably), and whatever else everyone else is talking about.

Something I’m playing: We played Telestrations and Kaleidos last night with my family.

Something tasty: We had breakfast at Brigs this morning. We haven’t been there in a long time! I had granola pancakes, and they were yummy!

Something Maddie is doing (39 months old): Maddie is now 39 months old, and I’ve been working on her letter. I hope to get it done this week. She continues to be more sophisticated with her vocabulary. I had a few moments this week where I was amazed again at the things that she says and conclusions that she draws on her own. Of course, who knows what she’s telling people now. Friday night, Kristin was babysitting and Maddie made sure to let her know that when Mommy and Daddy were sick the other day, “they didn’t read any stories that night.” True. She’s been doing a lot of art projects this week. We’ve been doing dot art and markers quite a bit. She’s still working on practicing her letters. Her people drawing skills continue to evolve. She draws stick figures now, and all of them have a ton of “crazy hair.”

Something Cullen is doing (16 months old): Cullen is 16 months old! I’m doing his letters every 3 months, so I still have 2 more months until his next one. Earlier this week, I asked Cullen, “are you a baby?” and then said, “noooo, you’re not a baby!” I asked him many times this week if he’s a baby, and now he will shake his head and sometimes also say “nooooooo” or a short “no!” It’s so cute. This morning, I heard him at the breakfast table babbling. During his babbling, he said, “baby. no no no no no” while shaking his head. It’s adorable. He loved playing at the park this morning with Nana and Papa. He wanted to climb all over the play structures and go down the slides. He also loved swinging! This is the first time that we’ve put him in the swings at the park. Most of the time, we’re running around the playground and climbing. This afternoon, he came down with a fever. Poor little guy. He had the stomach bug a week ago, though he thankfully had a much milder version of it than I did.

Something I am struggling with: I had a terrible stomach bug that started Monday morning. I didn’t feel better until Tuesday night, so the bug lasted more than 24 hours. No stomach bug should ever last more than 24 hours! I was really, really sick on Monday night. Gabe was worried he was going to have to take me to the hospital.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I finished my 2010 photobooks…finally! They ran a special deal this week for certain customers involving a coupon for 50% off 12×12 photobooks! This gave me the motivation to finish my 3rd volume for 2010 (yes, I had 3 books of more than 80 pages each for 2010). Only one coupon was allowed per account. Gabe and I each ordered one, and a friend ordered the other for us! With the free shipping deal, we were able to save almost $300 for the 3 photobooks. Of course, now that I’m finished with my 2010 photobooks, that just means I have more photobook projects to work on. It’s a never ending process. I think my next book might be Volume 1 of “letters to Maddie” (which will also serve as Maddie’s “baby” book).

Something I learned: I learned that Gabe and I have absolutely no issues plopping the kiddos in front of the TV as much as possible when we’re both feeling sick. Gabe didn’t get the stomach bug as badly as I did, but he didn’t feel well on Monday night either. We watched a lot of Mickey Mouse and Cars that evening. Maddie told Kristin later in the week that “Mommy and Daddy were sick, and we didn’t read any stories that night.”

Something I’m looking forward to: We have a follow up with Cullen’s ENT this week. I’m eager to find out more about his “mucus blob.” Book club is also this week, and we’re going to be discussing Sarah’s Key and American Gods. Our trip is coming soon where we will be going to the mountains with friends, visiting family in Cincinnati and Lexington, and going to our nephew’s high school graduation.

Something planned that I’m not looking forward to: I’m not looking forward to my dental appointment this week. He’s doing some adjustment to a filling (which doesn’t appear to be bothering me, but whatever). He’s also going to take some x-rays of a tooth that has been bothering me for years. I’m going to have to get a crown which I dread both psychologically and financially! Ugh! So, um, I’m not looking forward to that!

Something captured: The kids with my parents at the park this morning.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

We’ve had a lot of Maddie posts lately, but I have a few Cullen posts to do as well.

Little dude had his surgeries last week. He’s still recovering, but I think we’re making progress.

Our ENT does surgeries at two of the main hospitals in our area (we’re lucky to have many options). We were originally given a choice, but since we were coordinating with the other surgeon, we had to go with the hospital where both doctors operate. Maddie’s was at the other hospital, so this was a new experience for us. At Maddie’s hospital, we spent very little time in the general patient waiting area. For surgeries, they like for you to arrive 2 hours early. The majority of the waiting time was spent in the child pre-op area where they had the beds with curtains as well as a play area with tons of distractions. We met with the various doctors as well as a child life specialist.

At Cullen’s hospital, we spent the majority of our time in a general waiting area full mostly of adults awaiting their surgeries. We spent very little time in the pre-op room with the bed and the curtains. The waiting area had nothing for little kids aside from a child sized table and chairs. There was nothing to indicate that children were treated here regularly or that they were accustomed to pint-sized needs. I’m glad it wasn’t our first surgery experience or I would have been more anxious. Maddie’s hospital had a way of putting the child and parents at ease. It makes a big difference.

We anticipated a rough night with Cullen the night before his surgery. He wakes often on a normal night, and usually the only thing that soothes him is Mommy. He will go back to sleep fairly easily after seeing me and nursing a little. Since he wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight, we woke him at 11pm to nurse. I hoped that would get him through most of the night, but we had no such luck. He woke at 1ish and Gabe had a very rough time getting him back to sleep each time. Then, it would only last for 10-15 minutes each time until about 3:30am. At this point, I wasn’t able to sleep. I guess I was nervous about the surgery and knew I had to wake up in an hour.

We had to leave the house around 5am, and woke Cullen up shortly before that. He wasn’t thrilled to spend almost 2 hours in the waiting room. Dude is about to have two different surgeries including one that involves a painful recovery in a sensitive area. We employed heavy use of the pacifier to distract him from the fact that he was hungry, tired, and bored.

I had to walk him around the waiting area and lobby to distract him. He was getting a bit fussy with the long, boring wait.

We finally get called back into the partitioned area where they checked his vitals.

We changed him into his adorable hospital gown. We talked to both surgeons, the nurses, and the anesthesiologist. The process was a bit different at this hospital. We had to wait a little while here before they whisked him away for the surgery.

They let us know that the ENT would take about 10 minutes for his portion and the urologist would take 20-25 minutes. We retreated to the waiting room where we mostly talked to the ENT’s nurse until the ENT came out to let us know how it went. The nurse kept expecting the doctor to come into the waiting room any minute. It was taking longer than expected, but we weren’t too concerned. This happened with Maddie, too. With her, the doctor had to clean out an excessive amount of infection gunk. We figured that something similar must have happened with Cullen.

Cullen had lots of fluid in his ears. This just reaffirms that we made the right decision to get the tubes surgery done now. His hearing test had shown diminished hearing at his initial appointment. While we don’t believe it has greatly affected his language skills, it can’t be a good thing for the kid to hear everything as if he were submerged in a pool of water. Cullen also had a “mucus glob” that was difficult for the ENT to break up. He wasn’t able to remove all of it, and he mentioned that I should not google “cholesteatomas.” Of course, I knew I would google it, but I tried not to worry too much. We have our follow up with the ENT in a month, and he should be able to take a look to see if the “mucus glob” has improved on its own. I hope so. I’m trying not to worry about it until we have more information. For once, I’m doing a decent job of not worrying or thinking about it too much.

The urologist came out a while later. I wasn’t watching my clock, but I would guess that it was probably 20 minutes or so after the ENT left us. He was not as helpful with information but indicated that things went well. I wish that he had given us a better idea of what to expect in recovery over the next week. I’m not sure whether he gave us any indication about when to be worried and what is normal. He didn’t go over how long it would take to heal or anything. If we ever have to do the kidney reflux surgery, then I’m going to be really sure that I ask very specific questions and have them ready before the surgery.

The recovery at this hospital is a two step process. We weren’t able to visit with Cullen until he was in “recovery 2.” We had to wait another 20 or 30 minutes to see him. Once during that time, I went to use the restroom and told Gabe, “don’t you dare go in there without me!” I wanted Mommy to be there when he saw us as I knew that is what he was going to want. We finally got called back to see him. This recovery from the anesthesia was a bit different from Maddie’s. He was under much longer than Maddie was for her tubes surgery, and they had to give him an IV. They also had given him painkillers (Tylenol with codeine) that made him drowsy. He was very out of it. He did get excited when he saw me and practically jumped off of the hospital bed. They had to check our bracelets to be sure that they match before I could hold him. I thought it was pretty obvious that I was Mommy (though I understand protocol). I just snuggled him until they let us leave. I was glad that I am still nursing as it was easy to comfort him. He was obviously experiencing some pain and discomfort and was a bit drowsy. We did a lot of cuddling the rest of the day. Poor little guy.

Something that makes me happy: Spring!! The blooming trees have been pretty this week.

Something I’m thinking: Not much. I’m sick. Again. Hopefully, this is just a short cold this time.

Something I’m hoping: To feel miraculously better in the morning.

Something happening around the house: Lots of rain today.

Something I’m reading: I decided I wasn’t in the mood to read Nurture Shock and read the quick and easy Tales of Beedle the Bard. I am now reading Assassination Vacation. I’m trying to tackle more books from our shelves.

Something I’m watching: We’re getting into this season’s Amazing Race as well as Survivor.

Something tasty: I’m trying out a different recipe for icing as I’m making a cake for a shower on Saturday. I’ll have to trust Gabe’s tastebuds since I can’t really taste anything right now.

Something Maddie is doing (36 months old): She’s been into her art projects this week since she got several new supplies for her birthday. She’s still drawing the people, and she’s starting to write more of her letters. We’re working on the letters in her name. She has got the M and A down pretty well. She doesn’t seem too interested in working on the others at the moment. She hasn’t napped during the weekend in a while. We try to put her in her room for “quiet time,” but that doesn’t always work out well either. We will be meeting her preschool teacher this week, and she’s starting her transition a week from Monday. I took her to get a haircut yesterday. This was the first time that she had a haircut since she was just over a year old! We just had her ends trimmed mostly. It is definitely shorter, but it really doesn’t look that much different. They put pigtails, ribbons, and sparkles in her hair. She was very serious during the haircut and refused to even crack a smile for the stylist. She was excited before and after, though she really didn’t show it during!

Something Cullen is doing (13 months old): He has a cold and has lovingly shared it with his mommy. I hope that this won’t turn into croup or another bad ear infection. We heard this week that he will be moving up to the 1-year old classroom (with Maddie’s old teachers) on March 21st. He’s not quite walking (though taking more and more steps), but I think he’s ready in most other ways. His teachers did tell me this week that he looks over into his cup at lunch and snacks as if he’s looking for the straw. We’ve been using the straw cup at home a lot, so I’m not surprised! Cullen has been taking 3-4 steps at a time here and there, but he’s definitely not a walker just yet. He can crawl and climb pretty fast, though. He can now sling his leg up onto the couch and scramble up with ease. We have to really keep an eye on him since he’s climbing everything and also wants to climb over the back of the couch. We took Cullen back to the pediatrician early this week. We were sure his ear infection hadn’t cleared up. They thought that it was improving (though it could also be getting worse again). They saw fluid in the ears but the infection didn’t look as bad. She did say that they would put him on antibiotics if that was the first time that they had seen the ear, so obviously it wasn’t right yet. The pediatrician suggested that we make an appointment with the ENT later in the week to recheck the ears. We were able to make an appointment for Friday morning. The ENT said that his ears “could look much worse,” but he saw some fluid. He was planning on seeing Cullen again in a month before we went to get the hearing test and other tests done. The tests showed that the ear drum was not moving back and forth as it should, indicating extra fluid, and his hearing was affected by the fluid. With this and Maddie’s history with tubes, the ENT said that Cullen was a candidate for the tubes. He felt that we could wait, but that we’d probably be back in a few months to get tubes anyway. The surgery coordinator was going to schedule it for next Thursday, but I let them know that we may need to coordinate with the urologist if we opted to fix his botched circumcision. The urologist had told us that we could do it if Cullen had any type of surgery that required anesthesia, most commonly tubes. We already had a call into the urologist to change Cullen’s daily antibiotic, and the nurse called while I was in the ENT appointment. We called back and got a new daily antibiotic as well as an appointment to discuss the surgery. Unfortunately, we have to wait a few weeks since the earliest we could make the appointment was March 22nd. We started Cullen on his new antibiotic. It’s crappy that we can’t take the other one as it’s the only one that has a longer shelf life. This one expires after 14 days. I hope that we can figure out something different at the urologist appointment. Getting a new antibiotic every 14 days for who knows how many years sounds like a huge pain. This one also needs to be refrigerated.

Something I am struggling with: Decisions about Cullen’s surgeries and another cold. It’s been a rough year for (thankfully, mostly minor) illnesses. The kids have been sick a lot, and I’ve caught a lot of what they have had (plus random pink eye). Not fun.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m trying to raise money for the National MS Society. Our walk is in about a month. Visit our team’s fundraising page!

Something I’m looking forward to: My friend Shannon has convinced me to get my hairs done, and that is happening on Wednesday! I also have a baby shower, dinner with friends, and our first meeting with Maddie’s preschool teacher.

Something captured: Maddie had this serious expression the entire time that the stylist was cutting her hair. She maintained this deadpan look even when the stylist asked her questions or asked her to smile for her.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Today made me very happy. We celebrated Maddie’s birthday with a special lunch at the American Girl store and time spent with family. It was a very good weekend!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about my little girl who is THREE today and what a wonderful time we had celebrating. My heart is full and happy at the moment!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping for an uneventful day tomorrow.

Something happening around the house: I keep finding a stray ant here and there in our master bathroom. WHY?

Something I’m reading: I finished Still Alice. It’s a sad, scary topic, but I’m glad that I read it. I am looking forward to the book club meeting about it in March. I started reading Water for Elephants. I can’t believe I managed to find a little time to read a non-book club book! I wanted to read that one so that I could go see the movie when it comes out in a couple months. I’ve been wanting to read it for years.

Something I’m watching: We watched the premiere of this season’s Amazing Race. I LOVE IT! I remember all of the teams (well, except one, though I know I must have seen them…they just weren’t memorable), and I really like most of the teams that are back. FUN! We also decided due to the Russell/Rob gimmick and the Redemption Island gimmick that we would watch Survivor this season. The first episode did not disappoint!

Something I’m playing: I thought we might get a chance to play something this weekend while visiting with family, but we didn’t. Oh well!

Something tasty: The lunch at the American Girl store was pretty good, all things considered. We had some tasty cake, too!

Something Maddie is doing (36 months old): Her 3rd birthday was today. I can hardly believe it. She’s growing up so fast! We’ve been talking up her birthday all week, and she knows very well that she is THREE today. She has known for a few weeks that we were going to go to the doll store on her birthday and eat in the cafe. She seemed a little overwhelmed at first, but I could tell that she was very excited. She started to show her enthusiasm shortly after we sat down at the table. Her dolls were in attendance and had their own seats at the table (as well as cups of tea and crowns). Aside from Henry, it was just us girls at the lunch. We were joined by Grandma, Nana, Great Grandma, and Great Aunt Frances. She got a few gifts (ok, more than a few – this is what happens when you take the grandmas to the store with you). It’s hard not to get caught up in all the fun at the store! Happy birthday to my little girl! Oh, and she got a balance bike for her birthday. We gave it to her on Saturday since the weather was so perfect. She is going to need some practice, but I think she’s very excited about it!

Something Cullen is doing (12 months old): Cullen is getting better at climbing and has started to take a few more steps. He has taken only 2-3 at a time, but his attempts have been picking up in frequency. He used a straw for the first time, and he had no trouble at all with it! I was amazed at how quickly he’s picked up on it. He’s sometimes drinking regular cow’s milk and appears to have no issues with it now. Thank goodness for that. He’s still nursing several times a day and several times at night. Up until this week, he has been pretty easy going at restaurants. Unfortunately, our good little restaurant goer is now a bit difficult at times. He constantly wants SOMETHING at the table that he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter what it is. The only requirement is that it be something he doesn’t have. He seems to want a specific item, but sometimes we can’t figure it out. Often it’s something like a soda can or glass or knife that we can’t let him have. He’s getting better at using the fork and spoon. He now feeds himself yogurt and applesauce most of the time. He doesn’t always get it right, but he can do it.

Something I am struggling with: Ugh, I’ve been sick all week. The laryngitis didn’t go away for days, and now I have issues with swallowing. I don’t have a lot of pain, just swollen glands and thick drainage which is making it hard to eat or drink. It’s been very annoying. I’ve been to the doctor twice, but both people I saw felt it was viral. My ears have been hurting now which is due to the fluid in them (apparently they aren’t infected…at least not yet). I still feel like we can’t catch a break this year with illnesses!!! Ugh!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I listed Gabe’s goals. I’m not sure specifically what I did to accomplish mine, though…

Something I learned: I learned how to use a neti pot. I think it might have helped me some, though my congestion is not in my head (or in my chest…just right there in the throat). I think it will come in handy the next time I have a sinus issue.

Something I’m looking forward to: Book club and Maddie’s birthday party at the museum.

Something captured: Our group at American Girl!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with these letters! I knew I had no chance over the holiday week since we were going to be out of town for more than a week and I had to write TWO letters. Whew! I finally finished Cullen’s latest letter. I had it written a few days after he turned 10 months, but it took me a while to get it organized and add the photos. Now, I’ll have to write another letter in just a few days. It’s crazy how time flies. (more…)

Any time I think that the months cannot go by any quicker, they do. Life is pretty amazing with the kiddos. It’s time for another letter to Cullen! (more…)

Something that makes me happy: Managing to play some extra games this week.

Something I’m thinking: I’ve been thinking about getting started on the year’s photobook (well, volume 1 from January to June). I’ve been unable to get started, despite my good intentions.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping the mood of my kiddos improves soon. They have been super cranky this afternoon and evening. Fortunately, they are both in bed now (but for how long?). Cullen is getting over a cold, and we are worried Maddie is coming down with it now.

Something happening around the house: My parents came for a brief visit on their way back from their huge vacation (transatlantic cruise).

Something I’m reading: I read a teeny amount of Mockingjay.

Something I’m watching: I went to see Eat, Pray, Love. I enjoyed it, but I see why the critics gave it bad reviews. Mostly, I enjoyed having a girls’ night out!

Something I’m playing: We bought the Alchemy expansion for Dominion and have had a chance to play several nights this week. We even played with friends on Friday night. We’re still playing lots of Carcassonne on the iPhone.

Something tasty: I had dinner at Lucky 32 this week as a birthday treat.

Something Maddie is doing (30 months old): Maddie went to the dentist for the first time. We are doing fine with her home care, but she has enamel hypoplasia. This means that she has a lack of enamel on her baby teeth. We are hoping that she won’t have the same problem with her permanent teeth. This is often genetic and can be due to illness/fever in the mother during pregnancy. I can’t remember whether I had a fever with Maddie, though I do know I was sick a few times. I know I had a fever or two with Cullen.

Something Cullen is doing (35 weeks old): Cullen is getting around with his army crawl. He goes all around the house quite quickly. Cullen isn’t quite as restrained as Maddie was at his age. We haven’t gated off the kitchen or blockaded the living room with furniture. He’s pulling up onto the activity table, baby piano, Maddie’s chair, and ottoman quite a bit. He’s also starting to climb over things (like me when I was playing with him on the floor). He still says “dada” frequently and may be adding a few other sounds to his repertoire. He sounded like he was saying, “mama” earlier today. He’s been sick for the majority of the week. He has a very runny nose and trouble breathing at night. Our nights have been very rough.

Something I am struggling with: I’ve been exhausted this week. This is due to not getting much sleep at night (with Cullen screaming quite a bit) and catching Cullen’s cold.

Something I’m looking forward to: Our return to games night!

Something captured: The kiddos were actually playing together this morning. Maddie and Cullen were army crawling all around the house.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

The months where I have to write a letter to Maddie and a letter to Cullen are a little rough! It’s challenging to get them both done on time, and this time I missed the “deadlines.” Oh well, as long as I write the letter on or around the date, then I’m happy. Here’s the latest letter to Cullen. I wrote it on the day after his 7-month “birthday,” but I’ve been struggling to keep up with the photos. (more…)