April

April
updated April 3rd, 2008 at 12:22pm

Spring is in the air! We are throwing open the doors and windows and clearing our some of these germs and enjoying the sunshine. We are more than looking forward to upcoming car shows and boating season!

So far April has been a very busy month.
ETA - so much for staying healthy! The kids woke up sneezing and stuffy again... this makes virus #379 for those who were counting! UGHHH!

Pictures of the kids

Click on the photo below to see all the pictures from March.
This month the pictures really tell a story:

March Share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick continues to grow and grow. At his 12 month appt he had grown an inch taller,making him 30" even. He did go down in weight again, however, with no explanation. His doctor, Michele, is not worried about him this time, so I just keep offering food and hoping he'll take it. Nick's usually too busy to eat, I suspect that has a lot to do with his current weight of 20lbs.
He is fitting into his 12 month outfits and the 18 month outfits from his birthday will be perfect for the warmer months ahead.
We have successfully added some new foods to Nick's diet, including bananas, pears, peppers, chicken, tomatoes (Gramma's spaghetti sauce!). It appears he may be growing out of his reflux - I'm excited and nervous to even consider it. I still haven't been brave enough to try applesauce or apples since they provoked the worst reactions. I have been adding small amounts of dairy into my diet (butter, baked goods, tiny, tiny amounts of Parmesan cheese) and Nick showed no gastro-distress - however his eczema flared up badly on his face and continues to be a problem. Yes, we're still nursing. No, I don't know when we'll stop. He's just a baby still!
Nick had an evaluation done by Birth-Three. Developmentally he is at an 18 month level, which is averaged by physical, social and verbal skills. He's just amazing and funny. His assessment showed he'd benefit from speech therapy and occupational therapy to help him get over things like his food aversions and separation anxiety and help him deal with sensory integration like pain/touch/etc. You can ask me more about this but it's honestly NOT a big deal - Nick is very normal and obviously very ahead of schedule. It never hurts to have a little extra help!
Every day I get closer and closer to sleep training Nick. If I felt like he was actually receptive to the crying-to-sleep method, I'd do it. He cries and cries and cries, sometimes for 2+ hours without giving in. He usually goes down for bed and naps without a peep, falls asleep easily on his own. But wakes every 2-3 hours through the night still. We've gotten into the horrible habit of giving him a bottle to get him to go back to sleep (because it worked!) but he no longer needs to eat at night and he's leaving some bottles completely full. He's just using it to fall back asleep. We tried subbing a bottle of water in for the formula and it works 25% of the time. I hope someday this just "clicks" with him. I pray each night that tonight is the night he sleeps 5 or 6 hours.

One of Nick's funny things to do right now is "talk" on the "phone". He picks up any toy and puts it up to his ear and says "Hi, bshibishishihshizz". I remember when Marlee used to do the same thing. It's SO darn cute. He also loves to "vacuum" the house with his toy vacuum and his ball popper. He is pretty thorough. I'm ready to hand over the real vacuum! He also likes to tunnel in blankets and play Monster.

Nick is currently in 12 month outfits. He's 30" long / 20lbs.

Marlee learned to whistle... that's a big deal to her. She's been trying to learn to whistle for a few months now. She continues to excel at spelling, writing letters and reading. I am amazed by her, I remember thinking she would NEVER learn to recognize her letters and here she can read at 4.5. She's a pro at 3-letter words and getting much better with 4 and 5 letter words. Her new favorite hairstyle is two braids. She's growing out her hair and it's getting so long! Her favorite toys are still her Leapster and Barbies. She has a bad case of Spring Fever!
I went to an informational meeting regarding the 4K program that Marlee will be attending in September in the Sauk Prairie school district. One of the major concerns of all the parents was transportation. The school district is expecting the preschool children to get on the regular bus routes -meaning Marlee will be picked up at 7:05am, ride the bus with K-5th kids for an hour, and then be dropped at school at 8:00am for her 2.5 hour program. Otherwise the program is play-based, very age appropriate and the best option for Marlee.

Marlee is super excited about going to school. She also likes to do "big girl" things like style her own hair, brush her teeth in the sink by herself, and pour her own milk. Monster is one of Marlee's favorite games that we all play, along with Puppy Piles. She's already started talking about what theme she wants for her birthday party - not Barbies! She wants to be WONDER WOMAN. She says she'll be SuperGirl, and then Wonder Woman. She wants two parties. LOL!
Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 41 lbs.

US news:

Things in our house are finally settling down with the end of the remodeling project and settling into our new family room/office. We moved my desk down next to Tim's so I actually have a workable work space.
Tim's 30th birthday was a bust. The snow put a damper on our plans, unfortunately. We did nothing but eat cake. A yummy, beautiful cake! I made it myself with a little help from Marlee:

A flu/cold bug also stifled our Easter plans, again we stayed home and did nothing. The kids had a little Easter egg hunt inside instead and then we all took looooong naps.


Tim interviewed with another engineering firm and is considering taking the job with them: Henneman Engineering. There's a good number of pros and cons to the switch. Thinking about change sort of makes my eye twitch, but perhaps it's time to take life by the horns! This change is expecially exciting for Tim who was dubbed a "lifer" where he currently works as he's been there 10 years next month. The new place claims they will work with Tim's current part time schedule so we can still carpool. We're just waiting on the formal offer letter before making a decision. ETA - the offer letter came in this morning. It was an insult. Looks like Tim will be staying at AEI a little longer.

As for me, I did agreed to take on a freelance designing job for Bunbury and Associates (Realtors). I go back and forth on my validity - I am hoping that what I lack in technical knowledge I can more than make up for in creativity and ingenuity. I will be helping design direct mailing pieces like postcards as well as handouts for trade shows and open houses. No clue what the work load will be like yet.
Our dealership called yet again and would like us to take a look at SUV's... we are hesitant for so many reasons but it's very possible in the next few weeks you'll see us driving up in a bigger vehicle! Our biggest concerns are safety features, gas prices, more space, towing capabilities, and making a worthwhile investment. Nothing we can take lightly.
Tim and I would like to take a vacation to Chula Vista in the next few weeks (maybe early May). We're thinking of taking the kids with us to stay on a Friday night, then dropping them off in Mauston and spending Saturday night there by ourselves. If anyone is willing to keep the kids for the night please let me know. Hopefully Nick's sleeping situation will have improved by then. Upcoming we have the Automotion car show in the Dells May 19th, and the Power Tour in early June.

Hope this finds everyone well and happy!

Love you!

Sam, Tim Marlee and Nicholas

Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:

April 19-20th:
Easter in Mauston

April 26th:

Ethan Brockman's
2nd birthday party

SPD Info

We are working toward a formal diagnosis for Nicholas. We don't know if it's the actual disorder, or if he just has specific sensory issues. At at his most recent assessment, his case worker admitted to me that she saw signs of Sensory Processing disorder in Nicholas and considered him to be what they call “A-Typical behavior.”

What that means is Nick is “mostly” normal, even developmentally ahead, but still suffers from sensory overload. SPD often accompanies or overlaps other disorders such as autism, ADHD, Learning Disabilities. Nick’s case worker observed that he obviously has no characteristics of any of those.

I am reading a book titled “The Out-of-Sync Child” by Carol Kranowitz. I suggest, if you’d like to learn more about SPD, or even more about Nicholas, pick up this book. I’ve gone through the book twice already – once with a highlighter so I could highlight all that pertains to Nick. If you’d like to I could send you my copy.

Some of the most fascinating details I’ve picked out so far:
* SPD is a physical problem, not a neurological problem. The problem stems from a poorly functioning central nervous system.
* SPD children have “disorganized brains” and may have good days and bad days.
* Medication will not help a child with SPD, only therapy (occupational, speech, physical etc) but the problem IS treatable.
* Early intervention provides the best results.

*SPD causes problems with:
-Self regulation (fussiness, self comforting, over reacting, transitioning – may be “with it” one day and “out of it” the next
-Sleeping (falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up)
-Eating, digestion and elimination, as well as recognizing signals of thirst, hunger, and fullness.
-Social and Emotional function (resists new people, minor changes to routine upset child, significantly attached to one or two people and is fearful when apart from them)
-Allergies (SPD co-exists with allergies, specifically casein in dairy and wheat)

Causes of SPD may be:
-Genetics
-Prenatal circumstances
-Prematurity or low birth weight
-Birth trauma
-Postnatal circumstances
-Unknown reasons

It is not a new disorder. It is fairly common (10-15%) and often misdiagnosed. OT’s report that 80% of those diagnosed are boys. From time to time we all experience problems processing sensations. Identifying that the child has SPD is a positive step.
The outcome of understanding, support, and early intervention will be developing into a self-regulating functioning adult. Without treatment, the child will not outgrow SPD, they will grow into it.

March

March
updated March 17th, 2007 at 3:22pm

February was already the busiest month of the year. As was the first few weeks of March. Pay attention to the updates - there are a lot of them!

NEW VIDEO - Nicky's First Year!

Pictures of the kids

Click on the photo below to see all the pictures from February:

February Share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick enjoyed his birthday party! He had a great day and loves all his gifts. The day after his party we went to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and he had a great time there also. He's definitely getting more comfortable around people. Nick had his allergy testing on March 11.

He showed no antibodies to dairy!

However I am still confused on some issues. The doc didn't really tell me much other than it was negative. He said to wait a few months to intro dairy because they can still have gastro reactions with a negative result. He said he may just need a little more time and to work with the GI on the other issues with fruit etc. He tested him for grains and the only one that was "borderline" was oats. He thinks he just needs more time on that one.

I'm still so confused about the actual testing though...the doctor was like "this is a 2, this is a 2, this is a 0.4, this is a 6 or 7" and I don't really know what was what. He just told me dairy had no antibodies and I was thrilled - however skeptical. He told me I do NOT have to limit dairy in my diet. I asked a fellow "allergy mom" what to think and here is her response: "

Originally Posted by CMT

As others have said, the skin tests (and the blood tests) are NOT even close to 100 percent accurate in kids. Not all allergies are IgE mediated - and frequently those with GI reactions don't have IgE mediated allergies (e.g., eosinophilic disorders).

Other things I'd be pushing for testing on would include celiac disease and CF.

I'd think you'd want a GI and allergist working in concert to figure out whether there are eosinophilic issues. Otherwise, it's just a matter of avoidance and occasional trials to see if things are improving . . . . "

Something strange happened during the testing, they pricked him three times the first time for diary, something else , and control (histimine) and then left for 15 minutes and came back to check the test spots. All along his spine along the waistband of his pants there was a line of hives! The doctor freaked out because they couldn't figure out why it happened. I told them he just has really reactive skin and always has. AND I completely forgot to tell them about the peanut butter reaction though... stupid!!!

Right now Nick has the flu, diaper rash and is teething something awful. He hasn't been sleeping well (which is even worse than normal). He's been getting really high fevers and not eating very much. Poor guy.

Nick is currently in 12 month outfits. He's 29" long / 21lbs.

Marlee has some very exciting news:

She is going to 4 year old kindergarten this year! I got a pamphlet in the mail. There is a 4 year old program in our district that runs Monday-Friday 8:05am - 10:35am. It's strictly for 4 year olds. She'll be picked up at Sheila's and dropped off there when she's done. I am VERY happy that she has the opportunity to go to school this year because she's so eager to learn. She's already reading and does math (without a calculator)! She read her first book the other day. I got her some learn to read book sets and she made it through the 2nd book of the first set. "Dot has a dog." was her first sentence. :)

She asked me if I would be able to ride the bus with her :( She's a little anxious about that part, but her friend from daycare, Barrett is also going, so they can ride the bus together and she already has a friend at school that way. EXCITING.

We're on sick watch for Marlee - hoping she doesn't get what Nick and I have.

Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 35 lbs.

US news:

Tim 's 30th birthday is this Friday. We're planning to spend a weekend at Chula Vista to celebrate (sometime in the next month) so if anyone is available to either stay with or keep the kids, please let me know so we can start planning. We haven't picked a date!

share remodel

IThe latest remodel pictures are up. So far everything is mostly done. The bathroom still needs to be trimmed out but otherwise everything came together just in time for Nick's party. THANK YOU for everyone's help for the party - it went over very well.

Right now I am dying of the flu. I'm at work today but still really dizzy and spacey and tired of being sick all the time. Some immune function would really be appreciated. WARM WEATHER will probably help!

Tim is planning on going on the Power Tour again this year in June. It ends in Madison so he and Craig and Chris will be driving Iowa or somewhere to "jump on" a few days before the end of the tour.

Hope to see you all for Easter!

Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:

March 21st:
Tim's 30th Birthday

March 28th:
Nick's 1 year check up

These updates are cataloged
at this blog site, in case you
want to reference past updates:

So Much Mohr

Pictures of Nick's birthday:

Nick 1st Birthday

February

February
updated February 6th, 2007 at 9:22pm

January was a huge month. The kids both had some big things happen and we started remodeling. If you didn't catch the video of Nick's first first steps, see below.

NEW VIDEO - Nick's first steps!

January Pictures of the kids

January share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick started walking at the beginning of January. He's gone from wobbly walking to running almost overnight. He's still pretty clumsy so he has lots of bumps and bruises these days. In the past few days he's been talking a lot. He says Mama and Daddy and a few random imitations of words.

We finally figured out his diet, his medications and he's been like a different baby. His diet is limited to just sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, turkey, green beans and pasta. He's off of the Prevacid and back on the Zantac twice a day. He's also been sleeping a lot better too. He still wakes every few hours to eat, though. But this is the first predictable sleep schedule he's had since he was born.

Last night was Nick's first weight check since his last appt. Seems like the diet modification and meds are working - he's up to 21 lbs!!!! In the waiting room I set Nick down on the floor. He saw a few kids playing in the toy area and walked over to start playing with them. It was pretty cool - it was the first time he's voluntarily left my side in a public place.

Nick's new doctor is pretty cool. She said that we have to keep feeding Nick when he wakes at night even though he's waking 4-5 times and that's not typical for a baby his age. She said we just have to encourage him to eat more during the day but until then he is getting the majority of his nutrition at night. We're now supposed to feed him three large meals a day and two snacks, instead of letting him snack throughout the day (which is how we feed Marlee) so that will be a hard one to change. We're supposed to keep him nursing and on formula and on his medications until he's at least 15 months. She suggested we get in to do the RAST testing as soon as possible after his first birthday - which is rapidly approaching! I have to schedule his 1 year doctor appt, photo appt and his allergy appt.

Nick is currently in 9-12 month outfits. He's 29" long / 21lbs.

Marlee has reached the "otherside" of 4 years old - everyone told us 4 was hard but 4.5 was better and it's true. She's been very sincere and polite these days. She's had an eventful month as well: She saw the dentist for the first time and is learning to read! She was very good at the dentist. The hygienist Hannah counted her teeth and polished them with grape toothpaste and the dentist checked all her teeth over and said they were beautiful and perfect. They both commented on how "gappy" they were and said they love to see that - means no crowding when her adult teeth come in. She needed no scraping and no x-rays. The dentist said she was an excellent patient. Now she goes every 6 months just like us.

dentist and baking 1/15/08

Since getting her Leapster Marlee's been learning to read 3 and 4 letter words by recognition and sounding it out. She can at least attempt to sound out any word on sight. I took her grocery shopping and standing under a sign she started sounding out "Bread" and "Meats". That was pretty exciting for both of us.

As for Ice Skating... that was a huge disappointment. We showed up at the rink for registration only to find out that the director of the program flaked out and someone new was running it now, but class was already full and we wouldn't be able to participate until next October. Marlee is more excited about skating than ever, but now she wants to play HOCKEY instead of just figure skating. I was impressed that my "girly girl" wanted to do something so physical and aggressive! I definitely can't wait till October to see how she does in skates.

Tumbling registration is coming up next week and Marlee is excited to take the class again. Hopefully she'll be in class with some of the girls who took it last time.

Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 35 lbs.

US news:

Tim started working on a remodeling project in our family room. He tore down the walls of the bathroom and laundry closet and will be building it into one room. Hard to describe so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. The big things that need to get done is tiling the bathroom floor, building the walls and getting the new carpet in the family room. We ordered the carpet and it should be installed in 4 weeks - doesn't give us much time before Nick's party. The kids have been cordoned off to the living room. Nick is all out of sorts and for the first week he just walked around and cried all day. Now he's getting used to playing in a smaller area. The kids are destroying my upstairs living room. And I can't wait to have my "space" back. I hate remodeling projects!

In the meantime I am just preparing as much as possible for Nick's party and trying to get my spring cleaning done too. Tim's 30th birthday is coming up and I keep trying to plan something for him but he's not being very cooperative. I guess if something comes up I'll let you know.

Love you!

Sam, Tim Marlee and Nicholas

FIRST STEPS!

** Update January 5th**

NEW VIDEO - Nick's first steps!

Last night I was videoing Nick for no particular reason other than its what I always do - and he decided to let go of the couch and take a few steps!

January 2008

January
updated December 29th, 2007 at 9:22pm

Goodbye 2007! Here's to good luck, happiness, health and wealth in 2008. I'm sure we could all use a little of it all.

2007 for us was a great year, albeit exhausting and completely unexpected. Like most years it went by as quickly as a blur
but was full of living and adventures.

Pictures of the kids

December share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick is almost 10 months old. He's doing more cruising and climbing. He's also standing unassisted for a few seconds, when he's not paying attention he can stand for longer. He's steadier than he thinks. He's started taking a few steps holding on to one of our hands. It won't be long now. Above you'll see videos of him walking behind a clothes basket. With the new walkers he got for Christmas he'll be cruising all over the place.

Nick's newest favorite thing is to tear off into our bedroom after his bath and hijack one of the wooden cups from the set Gramma gave me from Czechoslovakia. These cups are by far his favorite item in the house, he clutches one while we get ready for bed and oftentimes takes one to bed with him.

Nick had a good Christmas despite being sick. He got lots of awesome toys! Thank you so much to Aunt Sue for taking care of him all night on Christmas Eve when he was refusing to sleep - we got our first real stretch of sleep in over 9 months!

It looks like we'll be going back to the pediatric GI in January. Nick had a regular check up with a new pediatrician before Christmas and we discovered that his weight had plateaued and started to drop off. The Ped thought Zantac might not be the right medication for him so she switched him to Prevacid. We also tried not giving him bottles of soy formula for a few days in case he developed an intolerance that made his reflux worse - there was no change.

The Prevacid is a huge PITA and is an extremely large dose for an infant. At first we really thought it was working. The first night we gave it to him, he slept much more peacefully and even though he woke every 1.5 hours, he was returning to his crib after being settled. Now, a few days later, he is more agitated than ever and is back to not sleeping AT ALL.

I've been talking online to a pediatrician who suggested we give the Prevacid in the morning on an empty stomach, and go back to giving the Zantac at night. She also suggested we get back in to see the GI and schedule an endoscopy. She also said we need to do another full elimination diet and consult with an allergist.

We're also giving chiropractic a shot and doing probiotics. I guess at this point we're going to exhaust all our options because we're just plain exhausted from trying to figure this all out on our own.
On a positive note, I've already started planning Nick's 1st birthday (are you kidding? I'm almost done!) and we're super excited. He'll be having a Baby Einstein 1st Birthday themed party on March 8th at 3pm. I'm working on the invites now.

Nicky fell while in the bathroom and got his first black eye. He hit the toilet with his face and cried pretty hard... the swelling and bruise looked bad at first but it's looking better now:

Ouch!

This is Nicky earlier:

Right now he is snoring while sleeping in a bouncy seat right next to me. It's the only places we could get him to sleep tonight:

Nick is currently in 9-12 month outfits. He's 29" long / 18lbs.

Marlee is doing really well at daycare and has been earning treats
via sticker charts for things like listening and using her inside
voice. She's also been working really hard at home on her chores and earning stickers for her charts here too. She loves to wash the dishes, help mom cook and bake. She did most of the work on the Pretzel Rolos we gave away for Christmas.

Marlee is enjoying her Christmas presents. She plays with them all and loves all the clothes she got! (She's watched A Bug's Life 10 times already!! AH!)

She is still super interested in figure skating and keeps asking when I will get her into classes. Registration is at the end of this month but I haven't told her we're doing them yet!! She will be SO excited.

Not really too much to say about Marlee this month, she's been a really good little girl and very helpful. This morning she told Tim he smelled like "slop" and once when he was singing she said, "Dad, everyone's looking at you." Like stop dad, you're embarrassing yourself. Where does she come up with these??

Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 35 lbs.

US news:

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve, my mom announced to me that she stopped smoking!!! I am SO proud of her and love her so much! Thanks Mom! Keep up the good work. Bruce quit too and they are both doing really well! YAY!!!! Christmas Eve night we also got a present from Aunt Sue... she took Nick for the night and let us sleep.

Thanks for all the gifts we received also, as always more stuff than we expected. The Meltaways are in my freezer awaiting the day I can eat chocolate again! Thanks also for the gifts of money. I have finally something to put into my savings fund for my new DSLR camera. I am hoping to save enough to buy a system by next Christmas. I am looking at the new Sony Alphas, the Nikon D40/D80 and the Canon Rebel Xti. The time it takes to save enough for these cameras is also giving me the time I need to research the best camera! I figure I am a far better photographer than my point-and-shoot cameras allow so it's about time I get a camera that I can do something with!

Tim got actual heat in his garage, so now he can stand to work out there when it's negative temperatures. We have some upcoming projects that we'd love to get finished by Nick's birthday. We're thinking of extending our lower bathroom/laundry closet into an actual laundry room. Then we can get the new carpet installed in the living room. And of course we still have the upper bath to remodel. New tub/cabinets and flooring. Someday our bathroom won't have peepholes!

I'm very excited about our new home phone. We have been without a phone since June and had been trying everything to fix it but nothing ever worked. We ended up in a huge dispute with Vonage but in the end we walked away and called it a loss. Now we have our phone service through Merrimac where we get our internet from.

If you ever happen to call and can't understand me (which happens more often than not) just hang on for a minute while I disable Tim's computer. He's usually doing something with it that jumbles the phone connection.

We celebrated my birthday on the 15th with our friends at Ginza for Japanese Hibachi. Thanks for Kim and Ken coming to our house to watch the kids! Nick was a little pistol that night too with the not sleeping. Gotta love him. Anyway we had a blast and definitely enough fun to keep us out of trouble for a long time.

It was Kerstin's birthday too!

Kerstin Amanda Chrissy Me and Tracy

We are planning to lay low for NYE. Steaks and shrimp for us and sparkling red grape juice for Marlee! Hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years and an exciting 2008!

(NICK IS STILL SLEEPING OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG)

Love you!

Sam, Tim Marlee and Nicholas

Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:

January 8th -
Nick's 2nd GI appt

These updates are cataloged
at this blog site, in case you
want to reference past updates:

So Much Mohr

Christmas 2007 Pictures

Christmas Share

December update

December
updated November 28th, 2007 at 8:39pm

I'm tired. Really tired. I need some sleep for Christmas.
I know I've asked before, but I haven't gotten any pictures from Marlee's birthday from anyone. If you have pictures, please share them with me!!

I don't have any pictures of her with her cupcakes or blowing out
candles, etc. Opening presents, or any other guests.

Check out the recent updates, new pictures, and Christmas lists below.

Pictures of the kids

November photos

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick is 8 months old. I get sad at the end of the day that he's gotten so big and it's happened so fast. He has a mouth full of teeth top and bottom. He worked on most of them Thanksgiving weekend but there's still some coming through. Tim and I have both walked miles around the house with him and spent many nights taking turns getting out of bed every 20-30 minutes to soothe him - I hope this part ends soon!

Nick is pulling up and cruising, he will stand next to anything. It's been a little more difficult to get him to bed because he'll stand up and doesn't know how to get down. A couple of times now he's gotten his arm and a foot caught outside the crib slats. He's finally consistantly "crawling crawling" instead of "crawling -army crawling". It's too cute. His favorite game right now is playing "Gonna getcha." Right after his bath, I set him down in his room and go about getting his diaper, pj's, lotions and meds ready. He waits poised in the crawling stance till I just about sit down, then he takes off for the hallway. And he's QUICK. He keeps turning his head to make sure I am right behind him, and giggles the whole way. I catch him near the stairs or in Marlee's room, then we start the game over. Too much fun. He's so funny.

We are both very scared for when Nick starts walking. He is terrorizing our house already. He gets into EVERYTHING and turns his nose up at toys. Yesterday he was in the bathroom (yes he sneaks off to these places by himself) and when I found him he was yelling in frustration while trying to pry the cabinet doors open. Yikes. I don't think Marlee touched a cabinet door till she was 3. And she was perfectly content to sit her little round butt in the middle of the floor with the same toy for over an hour. Nick is gonna be Trouble. <--- notice the capital T. He's already electrocuted himself once with the baby monitor - unplugged the cord from the receiver and put it in his mouth. ZAP!

Nicky's ped. GI appt was on Tuesday and we both feel like it went really well. It was at the new Children's Hospital in Madison (that Tim spent a year working on so it was REALLY cool to see in person). The GI agreed that Nick has a dairy allergy but at first wasn't overly concerned - he said dairy allergies in infancy are extremely common. After we started discussing our family history, he suggested that we have Nicholas tested via RAST (blood) and skin-prick testing at 1 year old to determine if he has the infant kind of allergy or the adult kind of allergy. The testing will let us know if he will be able to grow out of this. He said we could have done the testing now, but there is a high chance for false negative results, and in that case we wouldn't change anything that we are doing until we had him retested at a year, so we opted to wait until the results will be more accurate.
As for our current situation, he suggested we keep doing what we are doing which is TOTAL AVOIDANCE of dairy for both Nicholas and myself. The GI said that Nicholas is one of the lucky babies who is not allergic to soy - about 50% of people who have a dairy allergy also are allergic to soy. Previously I had been concerned about soy but we switched Nick's formula twice until we found one that he does better on. He spits up much less and has less gas on the new formula. His stomach seems to be getting stronger and more mature, so I worry less about the other foods he had previously been reacting to in my diet (soy, wheat, eggs, peas, beans).
Nick still has pretty bad reflux, unfortunately, I thought he may have been growing out of it. The doctor attributes his frequent night wakings (that aren't teething related) to the reflux and said we should continue with his current dose of Zantac until he is at least a year old. At Nick's next appt (December) I am going to ask his ped. about trialing Prevacid again to see if it helps.
Overall I think the appt went really well. We have a referral to the Allergist and a case file started as well as a timeline. It's nice to know we've been doing the right things and all the sacrifice is worth it.

Nick is currently growing out of 6-9 month outfits. He fits most comfortably in 9 month outfits and will be in 12 months sooner than later.See Nick's Christmas list for things he needs.

Marleeis doing really well. Sheila is doing a sticker chart with her at daycare to work on her "hyperactivity" and inside-voice as she's quite loud. So far she's gotten a sticker almost every day except one. Three more and she gets a cupcake.

We also have a sticker chart at home for Marlee's chores. Right now her chores are simple: Putting her dirty dishes in the sink, emptying her backpack at the end of the day, putting shoes away in the closet, assembling baby bottles when they come out of the washer, folding towels, refilling wipes containers and picking up her toys. She's done really well on all her chores. Right now OUR biggest struggle with her is listening. Marlee is really interested in figure skating right now (could she have picked something less dangerous?!?) and she'll be excited to know I found a skating school that she can start taking lessons at. Registration starts late January and classes run through March. I've been looking for another activity to get her involved in since she had such a fun time with Tumbling. I believe gymnastics (next level after tumbling) starts up in February in Baraboo. Hopefully there isn't too much overlapping - I know she wants to do both but I don't want to over-schedule her.
The GI also said we need to get Marlee in for testing too. Based on her symptoms, the he told us she probably has an allergy along with lactose intolerance. The allergy attributes to her rashes and the stomach cramps are from the lactose intolerance... we THINK that's what he said (Nick was sort of freaking out). We definitely need to know before she goes to school - I just read that children in Wisconsin schools must have one half pint of (cow's) milk per day. If they are not to receive milk they need a note from a physician and in that case... juice is offered. Juice? That's the best they can do? If I were the other kids I'd be jealous. hehe. I can send those little singles of rice milk I bet.

Marlee is a size 5 and needs clothes for Christmas, dresses, pants, sweaters, leggings etc. See Marlee's Christmas List for things she's been asking for and things she needs. She asked for a Princess Castle and I have no idea what she's talking about... something with a tub. She saw it on TV I bet!

US news:

We are done with our Christmas shopping! I still have plenty of work to do... always crafty fun stuff for the Holidays. Tim is getting sick (according to him it's deathly - but we all know males when they are sick). I am hoping to avoid it at all costs - for once the kids and I were healthy through Thanksgiving. Now Nicholas has a bit of a cough and stuffiness. Can't take him anywhere.

Tim is working lots of overtime and most of the children wrangling is falling to me. I'm just plain exhausted. The house is a mess. I believe we're in a funk. It doesn't help that it's so dark and cold out these days!

We have our tree up - HIGH up, on the coffee table. It's a cheapie Charlie Brown tree that I picked up at Target this year because I didn't want to deal with Nicholas the Ridiculous and our very large tree. I think it turned out nice, despite a little leaning - Marlee was very excited to have been the one to put the star on the top. She LOVES Christmas decorations and was sure to tell me it was only Skeletons and Halloween decorations that she doesn't like! :)

Can't WAIT for Christmas this year. We had such a blast at Thanksgiving, it was really great to hang out with all of you - we had the best time. Thanks for all the help with the kids.

Not spending too much time thinking about turning 28 this year. Birthdays are just so un-exciting these days. I like a nice even number though :)

Love you!

TEEEEEEEETH! And appts.

Yesterday I finally called and made Nick some appts with a pediatric gastroentonologist (omg we just call it a GI) and a pediatric allergist. And after having him in to our family doctor so many times with no answers, it's time to go to UW. Nick still has so many digestive problems, with spitting up, gas pains and bloating, watery swollen eyes, congestion. He's also had several skin rashes in the last week that are unexplainable. He's starting to want to eat more foods himself and I have concerns about soy, wheat and peas. My concern is that he is so reactive to things in MY diet, how will be react when he actually eats these things for himself?

Nick sees the GI on November 27th for bloodwork. We're hoping for a RAST panel on milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish and nuts as well as peas, prunes, tomatos, berries, etc...It's also been suggested that we have him tested for celiac's disease (YIKES).

Nick will see the allergist January 7th, possibly for skin-prick testing. We really don't know until we find out more from the first appt. I've read that testing this early can be inaccurate.

We just switched him to a soy formula WITHOUT lipids (DHA and ARA) and he's been spitting up so much less. Though it's hard to say if it was the lipids or if he's just growing out of his reflux. Marlee outgrew her reflux at 8 months too.

Tim is interested in having Marlee tested as well. I'm holding off until I see how things go with Nick - But it seems we probably should have gone this route with Marlee a long time ago. The most we'd ever been able to get out of her doctor was a referral for a hydrogen breath test, which we skipped as it was for lactose intolerance and not an actual allergy. We do allow her to eat dairy but we probably shouldn't. She is still on rice/soy and WE do not serve dairy in our house but she's had access to it at friend's houses and daycare. She had a cheese quesadilla at a friend's house and that night had a rash on her bottom so bad she was crying.

It seems like much to handle but at this point I would rather be over-reacting than under reacting. I have been in contact with several friends who have BTDT with the testing and they assure me (as did the nurse) that the worst part is holding them down, not the actual blood draws or skin pricks. And that it is so much better to know so we can avoid a potentially serious reaction later on.
Still keep little Nick in your thoughts on the 27th :)