UH MOM, COULD YOU BUY ME A BELT PLEASE???

Okay, Carson is 2 years, 5 months old and because of his length, he is wearing 24 months. But because of his weight, he still fits in 18 months. So unless I want his shorts to be short and his jeans to look like he is ready for a flood, I have to go big. I rolled his waist up but still had problems. There were some girls warming up behind us and every time he lost his pants, the girls would all laugh and tell him that they see his elmo butt (the diaper). Carson could have come home with lots of phone numbers if I would have let him. He was actually enjoying losing his shorts.

What, the chipped tooth wasn't enough?

Well I'm so excited that I'm counting down
Carson's 19 Doctor appointments through December 3rd and Coltan is trying to keep up. Last week it was 4 doctors appointments when he chipped his tooth. (Dentist, ortho, dentist, ortho).



So, I'm thinking this is turning out to be a good week. We only had OT this week. Oh wait, Coltan is at a friends house and while playing basketball, jams his finger. So he was babying it all night and I looked at it and decided it wasn't looking any better. The next morning when he was getting ready for school I looked at it again and it actually looked worse. So being the EMT/ over protective mother I am, I decided on an X-Ray. I called Dr Tarvin and had them order it for Diagnostic Images and then after that we went to Dr Tarvin for the results. Turns out it is just a bad sprain. So here are some pictures of Coltan, Cody, and Carson while we are waiting in Dr Tarvin's office. The boys had a half day so Coltan didn't have to miss any school that day. Me on the other hand, I got into work about 2:30 and still had to do payroll. But Denise knows all to well how I work under pressure, don't you?



Yep, more good times!!

Hanging at the Bow Range with Daddy

Charlie left for Wyoming to go Antelope hunting and the night before we went up north to see him for a little bit. We started off at the bow range and then we went to Cabelia's where Carson always goes crazy. Then to Famous Dave's for dinner.



Charlie and I got up at 3:00AM to get him packed and out the door. With everything going on, Carson woke up around 5:00AM and Charlie left town at 5:30. So I really thought Carson would go back to sleep but boy was I wrong. We are both walking around like zombies.

Cody playing soccer this weekend

My son is the one on the ground. He did a slide tackle and pushed the ball to another team mate.

Cody is number 3 and we are in our white jersey's.

Just another action shot with my great camera.

We ended up losing 0-3 and I was actually very shocked. I really thought we dominated the ball. Anyways, it just gives our boys something to look forward to the next time we play this team.

Denise, you could have warned me about Alec. Holy Cow. Is he taller than us now? And his hair, he cut it all off. I would have never recognized him if it weren't for Jimmy standing by me. Your so going to have the girls chasing after him if they aren't all ready!!! It was good to see him but I did miss seeing you. You were the only reason I came to that game (okay, I was really there for Cody but I'm trying to give you a guilt trip).

I'm accepting this wonderful award

I have received this award from a person who has been following my blog from afar. It is my honor to accept this from Tracey at 4my3suns. I didn't know her blog until this morning when I was checking my blog buddies and saw that she left me a comment. To come and find out, she had been following me for quite some time. I popped over to her blog and found so many similarities about our families. She has three boys and named all with the letter "T". Her youngest two are very close in age (like my oldest 2). Her middle son is very active in a sport (like my middle son). Her oldest is very smart and loves to read (like my oldest). If you have time, stop by and check her out as well. I will definitely be following Tracey and family now.

So anyways, I just want to say thanks for my award and I'm ready to pass it to my favorites.

Here are the rules for this award

1. The winner should put the logo on their blog

2.The winner must link the person who gave them the award

3.The winner must nominate 7 other of their favorite blogs

4.The winner must post a link to these blogs on their own blogs

5.The winner must leave a message on the winners blogs

My nominations are

Amy from Kaden and Angel Ave

Pam from Rhett's Journey

Rachel from Love for 9

Alisha from Izzy N Emmy

Melissa from Jack's Life

Colleen from Spaghetti

Amiee from Klye / Ava / Amiee

There are more that I enjoy following so this decision was pretty hard to come up with only 7.

Thanks again Tracey.

Nothing too exciting

Well it has continued to be a pretty uneventful week. We had are usual soccer practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

School has been going okay. I finished my first paper in English and have already had two test in Math and 1 in History. I've got a B in Math and in English and History, well, we just had the test and turned the paper in so we will see. I'm still studying a lot which means less sleep.

Carson only had OT this week and it turned out to be lots of fun as usual.

As far as work, I have so much to do and I'm just overwhelmed with all of my paperwork that has piled up over the last few weeks. So my goal is to try and get all that in order because I'm in the process of getting new tax ID's and new business checking accounts and my paperwork needs to be done as well. I do have two new girls wanting to come and work for me (one is a massage therapist, the other a hair stylist). But the one that is a massage therapist wants a different room which means I will have to switch out other rooms, meaning, I'm going to have to move my office as well. In the long run, it will be a good business decision but it also means bad timing for the amount of work I will have to do to get them ready. So if I can have all of this done in the next week, I will feel very fortunate.

I have some really good pictures from OT that I will try to post this weekend. Other than that, it is soccer, soccer, and more soccer. We will have two soccer games Saturday and then Sunday we have three games and church. So we will be living out of the car. I'm going to try and get some pictures of the boys if Carson cooperates for me.

Anyways, hope everyone has a great weekend.

PS, Carson wanted to say hi to everyone and this is what he typed

JXMM MIHASOHIH

Lunch at Fritz and Company

This is a very cool restaurant at Crown Center. There are trains going around the whole restaurant and you pick up a phone on the wall and order your food. When it's ready, a train delivers it to your table. Now that I know this place is here, I'm sure we will be going back a lot. Carson absolutely loved it.

This was Carson's cute expression when the train stopped at our table to serve us our lunch!!!

After lunch, Carson showing me that he forgave me for having to get blood drawn at the hospital. He is the most loving little guy. I love you so much Carson. Even though you keep me extremely busy, I wouldn't change one thing about you. Thank you for picking me as your mommy.

Signing times preview

Signing Times is having a competition and the winner gets the all new Baby Signing Times Volumes 1-4 free.

So the Top 10 reasons we love Signing Times
10. Carson has communicated with me since he was around one and that has helped me understand important things. (like his ear hurts, meaning another ear infection).
9. Carson is learning more words everyday and retains them so well
8. Carson has started to identify some small words that he has seen on Signing Times.
7. Carson knew how to count from 1-10 before he was 18 months old.
6. Carson could say his ABC's before 18 months old
5. I can take a shower in the morning and leave him in the playpen for a few minutes with Signing Time and he is perfectly content.
4. Carson has asthma and when we are at big brothers soccer games, he likes sitting in the vehicle and watch the Signing Time videos.
3. All three of my boys will sit in front of the TV and we all learn together as a family. Then one more than one occassion, we have made it into a game to see who knows more.
2. I love watching people just be amazed with how smart a little boy can be. It's my bragging moments.

And my favorite reason,
1. When we travel all the time for soccer tournaments it makes our 4 hour drives so much easier if we are watching Signing Time while we are driving. Thanks Rachel for that!!!

Carson currently knows more than 300 words just from watching Signing Time exclusively. He reached his 100 word mark somewhere around 18-20 months. He is now 2 years 5 months and his vocabulary has expanded to over 300 words. I have seen first hand how beneficial these videos have been for us and I'm so excited about more videos coming out. I usually pre-buy the videos and we currently own all from Baby, Series 1, Series 2, and the ABC,123 practice series. Carson would much rather watch these videos than Sesame Street, Blues Clues, or any other popular kids series.

Asthma Clinic 9/17

After a long morning, here is our wonderful lunch. We ended up not getting a real lunch until way after 2:00.

Mommy trying to entertain Carson while we wait for Dr. Dowling to come in. He took some extra time because he was busy going over all of Carson's medical records from every other clinic since the last time he saw him. He is really great about being thorough.

Finally, Papa came and saved the day!!! Looks like a totally different kid huh?

Occupational Therapy 9/17

I took a lot of pictures from 9/17. Remember now, Carson did have two appointments and then my step-dad, mom, Carson, and I went to eat lunch. So I decided to break down my pictures into three individual blogs. This is the first one. I will publish the next one tomorrow and so on. This way I don't overload you on pictures. It is just so hard to pick the cute ones when I had so many. Here is where our O.T. started out. We had a lot of fun at first and then when he couldn't feel the bottom with his feet, he was ready to get out.

Carson really likes the tire swing. He played on this last week as well and didn't like having to get off of it.

This was to work on his upper body strength. He got to swing and fall off onto the pillows. Probably not one of his favorites.

Here he is concentrating. I always love his expressions. Nancy put some beads in the play-dough and he had to try and get them out. He probably stayed focused on this project the longest without losing interest.

Another swing. I love his little personality. He just makes everyone smile. After this, we played with some cars and basketball. He was real mad when our time was up. We went from having a lot of fun with Nancy in O. T. to the boring asthma clinic. I don't think I will be making that mistake again. ( Note to self, never schedule OT first, bad idea).

My 100th post and nothing to exciting to report

Well it was a pretty peaceful weekend. Friday Chris called me and told me that he got bumped on his shift so he now has Friday and Saturday off. So he surprised Coltan and Cody at the bus stop and took them with him for the weekend. Carson and I went and had dinner with my mom and step dad. They were leaving Saturday morning to take my niece to Des Moines for a soccer tournament. Aspen travels as much and maybe a little more than Cody.

Saturday I was up again in the middle of the night with Carson for his asthma. My dad was going to watch him for me so I could work but he has not been around Carson's medicines enough for me to feel comfortable to leave him. My dad probably sees Carson 4-5 times a week but I'm always there and that just seem like a lot to put on someone if they don't have a clue. So with that said, I did go into work for a little bit and I did take Carson with me so I could get something done. I did however manage to lose my mind and we ended up not staying all that long. He is just soooooo busy.

Coltan and Cody had soccer games as well. They both played the first game at 11:00 and Chris said that they won 4-1. Cody did get one of those goals. Coltan usually plays defender on this team. Cody played again at 1:30 and they lost 1-0. This is the team that does travel everywhere and we are 11 and 12 year olds that play up. So they are playing boys who are 14. We really don't worry if the boys lose these games because we are playing the older boys for the challenge. We play boys in our age group and dominate every game. The problem with that is we actually get weaker because there is not a challenge. So this league gets us prepared for our tournaments. We do have one game coming up that is also in this division and are boys from our age group. So Denise and I will be rooting for both teams and all of the parents will be looking at us like we are crazy (sound familiar Denise? I believe that was West Des Moines last year wasn't it?)

Anyways, Sunday I just played catch up on my house. I went in and did a detailed cleaning on my kitchen and my bedroom. I then ran around and vacuumed and dusted the rest of the house. Carson was in real rare form today and every time I picked up his toys, they would be right back on the floor again. He was trying to push my buttons. But he kept looking at me and would smile like he was innocent. Chris brought the boys back after Coltan's game tonight( he won that one 3-1). I was going to go but had a change of plans because of Charlie. Not a good day for us. Anyways, I had to take them out for dinner because I didn't know that they hadn't eaten before getting dropped off and after that we ran to Wal-Mart to buy cereal, milk, apple juice, trash bags, and cascade. My how quick you can drop $50.00.

So it was a pretty nice weekend. I spent all weekend with Carson so he should be loads of fun when I take him back to Kelley's on Tuesday. I always joke with her and ask her to put Carson back on his schedule because he always falls off track when he is with me. So I will apologize in advance..........



We only have one appointment this week and it is with O.T. on Wednesday. So hopefully it won't be to stressful.

KYLE'S HEART

I came across this wonderful family and I would like everyone to help me pray for them. First off, they have a beautiful daughter and son. Kyle was born in 1995 (Coltan and Cody's birth year, no, they are NOT twins), and when I came across his story it hit very close to home considering this amazing little boy is my boys age. He was born with CHD. His family is from Iowa and they have been coming down to Children's for appointments and now it looks like his case is being transferred to a Children's hospital in St. Louis. He is looking at a heart transplant. So I know how we can pray for him, his health, and the strength of their family. Please stop by his blog and let them know that we are all rooting him on. Thanks

OT and Asthma update

Yesterday turned out to be a very exhausting day. We started out at 9:30 in the OT. Boy that sure seems more like playtime to me. We met with Nancy and she started by showing him pictures and then he would find that activity. The first one was the ball pit. He had fun at first but I don't think he liked the idea of not being able to plant his feet on anything. So after playing on that for a while, we went to the mat and played on the tire swing and then another swing to work on him balancing. He seemed to have a lot of fun. After that we went on and played with play-dough. Nance had placed beads in there and his job was to kneed the dough and find the beads. This was to work on his motor skills. After that we played a little basket ball and finally some cars. He pushed cars down a ramp. Insurance pays for this???? Anyways, it was all to help him in the long run. Nancy has also given me another phone number to another clinic and wants me to call and schedule him an appointment. I think it is called Behavioral Medicine. Right now that is all I'm going to say. We are going to be testing him for some possible disorders but I'm actually in denial right now to say the least. I have totally shut down with friends and family and I'm just waiting until I get a little more info before saying it. It isn't anything that is life threatening, just not ready to face it. (Denise and Amy, I have mentioned it to you).

So after that appointment we went up to Asthma Clinic. His appointment was at 1045 and we arrived a few minutes early. Well since Pulmonary had sent him an e-mail on checking his blood levels, he took forever coming in to see us while going over all of Carson's charts. He did warn me so I wasn't just sitting in the dark wondering. I do have to say that Dr Dowling has turned out to be one of my favorite Doctors there. He just seems to be very thorough and if it takes an extra 30 minutes for my appointment, oh well. So he came in and told me that he didn't feel to alarmed with his blood work and because he hasn't had a lot of flu, colds, things of that nature, he feels that all of our asthma related issues are from Carson's anatomy. Meaning, he is hopeful that once we get the tonsils, adenoids out, do the exploratory surgery, and ear tubes that Carson's asthma will be controlled better with just his preventive medicines. That was some positive news that I really needed. By this time it is already noon. My mother had called and said they were heading downtown and she was going to stop by to help me since Charlie wasn't there. Charlie had a meeting from 8-11 and I thought he was coming over after but I was wrong. So anyways, we talked about Carson's swallowing issues and a feeding tube was mentioned. I'm not in favor at this time because even though we do have slow weight gain, he is still able to swallow. I want him to eat and drink without choking but I don't want to distract him with a NG. I think it would reverse all the efforts. I think I would rather make a big decision like this after all of our surgeries and Behavior, Feeding and OT appointments. Carson isn't losing weight, just doesn't gain very well. Any opinions on this? I know some of you have children on NG's and would really like your input. It's not that I'm opposed, I just think we need to slow down a little and let me breath.

So then we talked about Carson's eczema. It isn't getting any better behind his knees, his legs and around his elbows. So he is taking him off of hydrocortizone (wouldn't you know it, I just filled that RX) and is going to try another ointment. I already gave it to CVS so I'm not sure what the name of it is. He wants Carson to have a real bath every night and lather him with this and then he wants me to soak him everyday for 10 minutes in the tub (preferably first thing in the morning, when I have SO much time) and then apply it again. He said that this particular ointment should only be applied to damp skin so it penetrates his skin better. Apparently dry skin doesn't allow the ointment to sink in.

We refilled his Singular and he wrote a script for chewable Zyrtec because his liquid over the counter that he has now, he chokes on every day. He only needs 1/2 teaspoon so he was going to write a script and see if the pharmacy can help me out. Otherwise, I will probably have to try to put a dab of the simply thick in his liquid which isn't convenient at all when a lot of times I'm giving him this medicine away from the house. So now we don't need to see Dr Downling until next year. He wants to take himself out of the loop for 4-6 months while all the other doctors are busy stepping on each others feet with plans.

Last but not least, we had to go down and get some blood work. Dr Dowling wanted to look at some numbers now that Carson is over two. He is also looking at the strider (I think that is what he called it, nurses, help me out if this is wrong) to make sure that his pneumonia shot took. So they call our name and the lab tech looks to be about 16. I asked if he had been doing this long and he said almost a year. That should have been my first flag. So Carson is sitting on my lap and the lab tech keeps pulling the needle in and out trying to find his vein. Carson all the while is screaming for his daddy? I finally told the lab tech that if he can't find the vein very soon, he would need to find another tech to help. I refused to let him continue poking my son and just as I was telling him to stop immediately, I saw the flashback. So he was able to draw the blood and we were able to leave. It's not that I think anything bad about this man. I'm sure he is a great person and to work at children's and stick needles in babies all day, I'm sure he has his share of stress as well. But we are talking about MY son and I have to do what is best for him. So my mom and step dad decided that Carson needed to go to Crown Center to the Crayola store for a special reward. We finally left Children's after two.

I'm not sure if any of you guys have ever been to a restaurant at Crown Center called Fritz and Company. When you go in, it looks like a railroad diner. It had trains all over and Carson finally forget about the needle for the first time. They gave him a conductor hat and we sat in a booth. You pick up a phone and order your food and when it is ready, a cho-cho train delivers the food to your table. It was pretty neat. Carson's expression was just priceless. I wish I would have gotten that on camera.

So after that I ran home and grabbed Cody, picked up the other boys (my turn to drive to soccer practice) and off we went. I then ran to Toys are Us and the dollar store to grab a few things for Carson. OT wanted me to get him some magnets for the fridge so he could work on motor skills. I also went to the dollar store and bought him some play-dough and coloring books. I bought some jumbo coloring books for $1.00 and $2.00. What a great deal. OT also wanted me to buy him some bath toys and shaving cream for his hands. Carson hated to have his hands messy and that is what the shaving cream and play dough is for. She also wants me to get him some messy finger paint but I haven't bought that yet. That would be a great thing for him at say like grandma's house :-0 . I also bought a couple of those chunky puzzles for him as well. Another motor skill game for him. It is supposed to help him try to stay focused and not be easily distracted like he is. So hopefully all of this will help him out.

So after all of that, we went back and picked up Cody, took all the other boys to our drop off spot and ran through Arby' for a "my mother would be proud" dinner. We ended up all eating dinner at 9:00 and then it was finish up homework and everyone off to bed. I noticed Carson was wheezing again around 10:00 so I gave him one treatment and thought he sounded better. Well guess who was up at 3AM wheezing again? Oh I would give anything to have 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep :-).

I will post a couple of pictures tonight or tomorrow after I download them into the computer. As always, I feel that I have some really cute ones that I would love to share.

Oh and GI called, they scheduled Carson for Oct 7th. We already have appointments on the 6th and 8th and they couldn't make those two days work. How lucky is that????

Never a dull moment

So my plans today when I woke up at 6AM was to get the boys on the bus, get ready for school, then go to work. God had different plans for me. Coltan comes in this morning after eating breakfast (Lucky Charms) and he has broken his front tooth. Not so lucky. So I tell him to go back to bed and we would call the dentist when they open. Then I realize I don't usually take the boys to the dentist and I have no idea who he is. So I called Jessica (Coltan's stepmom) and she says she would call and make the appointment. She called back and said 1045 and that was working him in. So we get ready and run Carson to the sitters and off we go. Now for those of you who do not know Coltan, he has had braces since Jan 07. Apparently this is a problem. So Dr Goodheart says I need to take him to the ortho and get that part of his wire and brace off. I call the ortho and they said sure bring him in now. So I have to make an appointment to come back at 2:30 so they can fill the broken tooth. In the meantime, I call Jessica back and plead my case so she says she can handle the afternoon appointments so I can go to work. As I'm checking out with the dentist, the receptionist tells me that we will owe $66.20 for my portion of the tooth. Then I go to pay and now the total is $113.80. HOLY COW!!!! I ask why it is more and she informs me that I also have to pay a $47.00 office visit???? I guess the 120.00 he is making off of the tooth isn't enough? That doesn't seem so goodhearted to me. So I leave and take him to the ortho who doesn't charge me anymore than my time and I run him back to his dad and stepmoms. I questioned the bill to Jessica and she said she would question it as well when she took him.

So after all of that, I went to work and got about three hours of paper work in. I then left to grab Cody and take him to his drop off spot for carpooling to soccer. I called Coltan and after deciding that he was staying at his dad's Jessica got on the phone and told me that she took Coltan and got his tooth filled and got me $87.00 back. WAHOO!! I guess we can eat dinner now:-). She talked to a different lady and they agreed I was overcharged.

So other than that, my day was really calm.............

Carson and I will be back at CMH tomorrow for two appointments. After tomorrow we will be 3 down, 18 to go before Dec 3rd. Look how that number is decreasing!! But remember, GI still hasn't got back with me on Carson's Oct visit so it will really be 19. Anyways, we are going back to OT at 0930 and then Asthma/Allergy/ Immunology at 1045. Looks like another fun filled day for us. Please pray that Carson can make 4 hours at CMH. It is a lot to ask a two year old for.

My first award!!!!

I just wanted to tell Amy how honored I am that she thought so much of my blog to send me this award. So here is what I get to do



1) Proudly accept this award



2) Think of 5 other bloggers that I think are Brainy Bloggers



3)Post the names on my blog so everyone can see and notify them as well.



4)go back to Brainy Blog Headquarters and sign the Mr Linky and pass it on



So here it goes, my 5 Bloggers I would like to pass this on to is



1) Pam at Rhett's Journey

2) Amie at Kyle / Amie / Ava

3) Rachel at Love for 9

4) Melissa at Jack's Life

5) Carey at Dream Big for Chelsea

Six Flags St. Louis with the boys

Carson wasn't sure about this swing ride at first. Once he got the hang of it, he rode it over and over. There wasn't a line so we would just get right back on. I'm seeing a pilot in his near future!!! He looks so natural at this.

Hey Codesters, don't look like your having to much fun!!

Coltan and Cody, your great big brothers and Carson loves you so much. Thanks for helping me with him so he had a wonderful time.

Pictures from Occuptional Therapy 9/11

We started out with motor skills and Daddy started building the blocks first. Carson did a really good job.

These were the different types of swings that Carson got to play on. This was testing his balance and trunk stregnth.

Carson then got to play a fishing game with Daddy. This again was testing his motor skills

After OT, Charlie and I went to the City Market and ate BBQ at Winslows. Carson was out two minutes before we pulled in the parking lot. Man what a nice meal it turned out to be :-).

Occupational Therapy Update

Well we ended up having a pretty good night last night. I had Charlie down for dinner so he could spend some good quality daddy time with Carson. I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and for dessert, I make some chocolate brownies. The downside was my kitchen became a diner. Charlie came down and we sat down with Carson to eat. Then after soccer practice, I fed Cody, then Coltan and his friend Jarrad went with my mom to the Lees Summit North boys soccer game so when they got back at 9:00 I finally fed them. My kitchen wasn't back in order til 11:00 PM. But on a good note, I fed 6 (including Carson) for less than $20.00. Can't beat that!!!!





Carson's asthma started back up again yesterday around noon so I had to put him back on breathing treatments every 6 hours. That is always good times. Anyways, he decided that he just HAD to go home with Charlie so I had to pack everything but the kitchen sink up to take to daddy's house. (Okay, maybe I'm being a "little" dramatic). Anyways, I took advantage of not having a two year old running around and read a lot in my history book so I think I might be a little ahead of my lectures. As for English, we are writing a paper and I'm pretty much done with that.





Then the beauty of falling in love with a Crime Scene Supervisor and then bearing his child........the phone rings at 7:15AM and Charlie got called in for a homicide. So, I thought first OMG something is wrong with Carson and his asthma. Nope, Charlie just letting me know that he was taking Carson to Aunt Danita's for a few hours so that he can take the call. Aunt Danita hasn't been around Carson that much but Charlie is trying to correct that. So she is not fully aware of ALL of Carson's medicines. Danita is a dietitian at a couple of hospitals and also has a son that had asthma (he outgrew it). So I knew Carson would be in great hands. I called over there this morning to get Carson started on all of his meds and to my surprise, he was doing exceptionally well considering this is probably only the 5th time he has ever been around her. Charlie did take him over to her house last week for dinner so I'm hoping that was a contributing factor for him not acting out with her. I'm just really glad that Carson is finally getting the chance to meet his family. If you haven't figured it out by now, family IS everything to me.





As far as his doctor's appointment. We had to be there at 1:00. This appointment is a result from his swallow test back in June. They are going to try to teach Carson how to eat different textures so he doesn't choke all the time (like Saturday). Today was really more of just an evaluation so we really didn't get into much. We started out by building blocks, drew some lines with crayons and then used scissors, you know, motor skills stuff. After that we went to another room and used different swings to check out his strength. He actually had a lot of fun. Then we played in a ball pit and finally it was snack time to see how well he eats. Well for the sake of the appointment, he choked on his liquid. So unlike the car mechanic where you take your car in and it runs just fine, Carson actually showed them that his swallowing is not. So then she told me that we will start a more structured therapy starting next week for a total of 12 weeks in a row. Yup, 12 more appointments to the already 10 I have scheduled for Carson. Oh and did I mention that Cody has a Dr. appt on Dec 1st and Coltan has his orthodontist check up every 6 weeks? I'm thinking about hiring a nanny. Anyone looking to work really hard as a loving nanny to Carson but for dirt cheap? Just thought I'd throw that out there.

More pics of St Louis

The top picture is Carson getting mad because he couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed on the soccer field to help out the boys. The next ones were of us at Cracker Barrel. We went there for lunch with two other families and were slow to leave. Carson was really into the checker game and was trying to concentrate so he could beat his imaginary friend. Of course Cody and his friend Charlie played soccer on the sidewalk. The last two were just some shots of Carson hanging out at the fields. The one where he is in his car seat is actually at the game. We ended up hanging out there and watched Signing Time videos because it was really hot and humid and Carson was having a hard time breathing. So I kept him in the car with the air on. He was the "coolest" kid there!

Weekend Review

Well it has been busy as usual in my household. Friday Coltan had two of his soccer buddies over for the weekend. They ended up catching the Lees Summit North football game and we won so that was good. I stayed at home with Carson and we played cars until it was time to pick them up.



Saturday Cody had a game in the morning and won and then Coltan had one in the afternoon and they won as well. I ended up going in to work and stayed for a while trying like heck to get caught up. When I got home I still had all the extra kids. One boy Joey was going home so I took all the boys out to eat. While we were there, Carson got choked on a chicken nugget. This happens all the time so like an old habit, I looked over and asked him if he was okay. This time it was different. He was still choking and you could see the panic in his eyes. I opened his mouth to look for it and couldn't. I started patting him on the back and nothing. I stood him up and put my arms around him and one thrust and he started dry heaving. I looked in his mouth again and finally he had pushed enough back up so I could use my two pinkie fingers and pull some out. After that he started coughing and finally threw the rest of it back up. Carson's initial reaction was to jump in mommy's arms and he started crying. I could tell how scared he was. I then got out of my EMT mode and realized it was MY child I was working on so then the mommy came out in me and I started tearing up with him. As I looked around the restaurant, I noticed this must have been quite the show because you could hear a needle drop. When I went up to refill Coltan's drink the girl at the counter said they had called 911 for me but after I "saved his life" the manager called back and cancelled the fire dept. Does that mean I was the hero for the day? I certainly didn't look at it that way. I just thank god every day that I had that training and was able to react naturally and take care of the situation.



So then Sunday finally came around and I thought good a new day. The boys and I got ready for church (where I said a few extra thank yous ) and it turned out to be a great service. After church we went to grab something to eat and then we were off to Cody's soccer game. After the game, Cody left with Chris and I ended up keeping Coltan. Coltan has a school dance this Friday and the poor kid has outgrown everything. So I ran him to Oak Park Mall and holy cow. I don't think I've been there in 3 years and I just couldn't find anything. So anyways, we managed to find him something nice and a few extras and we ended up closing the mall down (don't forget, it's Sunday so it was still only 6). After the mall, Carson, Coltan, and I went and ate dinner and then I took him back to his dad's. So when I got home, I realized that Carson hadn't taken a nap and I just couldn't believe he was still so full of energy. I finally convinced him to sit in mommy's lap and I rocked him to sleep. I bet I kept him there til 1:00AM because I just love watching him sleep. After the weekend I had with him, I just couldn't put him down.



So anyways, that was our exciting weekend in a nutshell.



Also, I don't know what everyone schedule is but Carson will be at Children's this Thursday at 1:00 so if anyone else is out and about, give me a shout and we could set up a play date with our little ones. Plastic surgery called me today and said they were not going to be able to perform surgery on Carson on Oct 16th with ENT and Pulmonary. I already knew that but was hopeful. They did however set his surgery up for Nov 24th. Yes, it is the Monday before Thanksgiving. So that also just pushed up his doctors appts from 9 to 12. I'm also still waiting on GI to get back with me as well. They are going to schedule Carson for a follow up the first part of Oct and Dr Kain does not have his schedule out yet. So that will really be a total of 13 appointments. Does anyone want to help me rent a room by Children's for the next couple of months??????

Angel Elli Reed

It is such a sad day for me. I came home from college and thought I would check in on everyone and clicked on Elli's blog to see that she went to heaven this morning. She fought so hard for her 20 days of life. Please pray for her family and the healing of their loss. It is so hard not to get attatched to these little hero's when I have spent so much time with Carson at Children's and have met some of these wonderful famlies or just heard about them through others. I will post tomorrow. I'm at a loss of words right now. I'm sure that Cassie and Brian could find comfort in words from everyone. Just click on Elli on my sidebar.

Hanging at the hotel

The top pic is Cody just lounging around with his Ipod and texting everyone on his cell. Then we have cute little Carson who is really signing deer. I think we were watching Signing Times #8. He likes to stick his tongue out when signing this one. And the bottom one is on top of the bed playing with his cars. I took a couple of pics and then left him in his car world while I did homework.