I feel like I haven't been around here much lately and just thought I would update what is going on with us and ask that ya'll check in and share what's up with your family
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Things are gradually feeling like there is some sense of rhythm and order most days. The mad dash to a gazillion medical appointments for Isaac and Jimmy has finally slowed to a trickle of mostly routine stuff. I am a few weeks out from being done with my second of 4 years of grad school
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: Although my grades have taken a hit with all the outside life going on, I am still making mostly B's. Rick is settling in to his new job, and really seems to enjoy it a lot. If it paid more, I could see him being happy to stay there long-term, even though he really wants to eventually teach. The pay cut has been a huge struggle for us, in all honestly, as it was about 40% plus our insurance copays, etc increased with his retirement. We are finding that, like many other families right now, we make just enough too much to qualify for help other than WIC. And then we have days like today, where I catch the inside of the oven on fire (FLAMES! SMOKE! ) when grease from breaded patties overflowed a cookie sheet, requiring us to purchase a new stove. 9 days after my hardrive physically broke, requiring the purchase of a new computer (I could have just gotten a new hard drive but it would have taken several days, plus the cd/DVD had gone out, so it made better sense to buy new). And now I have to super clean my kitchen, as the fire extinguisher left white dust all over everything and it makes me cough everyime it is disturbed. SO I had to get a HEPA filter air thing to be able to even breathe in my house. Plus, Isaac managed to get a glass bottle of olive oil out of the cabinet and drop it on the tile this morning, which means I already cleaned the floor super good once today
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: And then stepped on a sliver of glass tonight
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when I had to brave the dusty neverland. But thank you SW for requiring me to have that fire extinguisher
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since I couldn't find the baking soda to pour on the fire.
Jimmy is doing great this year--he's made almost all A's in school, and is keeping up with his dance classes and became a full fledged Boy Scout last month. He also has a newfound love for books and is finally enjoying fiction. We did allergy testing last month as a part of his eosinophil esophagitis work up, in the hopes of being able to pull the offending foods from his diet and avoid steroids, and found that would be next to impossible. Poor kid is allergic to 33 foods, almost all fruits and veggies, including lettuce. Who the heck is allergic to lettuce?!? Fortunately, all but 1 is mild enough that he doesn't have to avoid them unless he notices a specific increase in symptoms, and he has to be on steroids and other meds for his (formerly undertreated) asthma and severe environmental allergies anyway, so that controls the esophagitis and mild food allergies, too. He continues to be smart, sweet, and sensitive.
Connor is having a lot of fun being three, and letting everyone know it! He has been going to preschool daycare fulltime 4 days a week, at his request for the longer days. He just loves to be superactive and run and play with lots of other kids. He talks a mile a minute, and loves to be a helper. He is also in that whiny stage, but his moods are as mercurial as ever, and he is back to happy just as quickly. He adores everything that big brother does and is so excited to finally be old enough to play in the front yard with Jimmy and his neighbor friend. He acan also skunk Jimmy and Daddy on Wii tennis
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He is super charmer, and everyone wants to be his friend. I hope that trait continues!
Isaac, poor little guy, has had a rough 8 months or so. He is finally eating a wider variety of soft table foods, but is still having trouble with some textures, and cannot drink thin liquids safely at all. HIs quantity is the biggest problem at this point--he still only eats 6-8 oz of solids on a good day. He has another swallow study in a couple of weeks--hoping for more insight and guidance there. With great reluctance, we have switched him from his Korean formula to Pediasure, as WIC will provide it with a prescription. It saves us a bit of money, but also our "shopper" for the Korean formula will be moving shortly and we needed time to find a backup if he didn't tolerate the Pediasure. His language is coming along nicely, although he is hard to understand. Although the SLP's are still hoping it is due to codeswitching with the language change, I suspect that he will be in speech by the end of the year becasue his number of sounds is so limited. Isaac's sleep is MUCH improved from before--adding mylecon has taken care of most of our problems. His grieving is much better, although he is still fairly insecure at times. He is often clingy, and is in constant need of touching and climbing on me. His jealousy of Connor and Jimmy is still there, but he is much more tolerant of me showing them affection and attention. and he enjoys playing with them. He is also much more open to dh as caregiver, and gets excited when he hears the door open when Daddy comes home. He will stay for nursery class at church, but not the babysitting part during services only the structured classtime, and enjoys it. He cries horribly at first, but stops within seconds. He also does this when I need to leave him with a sitter or even when dh or I leave him with each other. Trying to comfort him through it works him up even further to hysterics, so it seems the most humane thing to do is to just leave him crying
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He is still very uncomfortable when in close contact with most people, but has begun initiating contact wits strangers, like waving and saying hi, as long as they keep their distance
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However, he is super affectionate with all of us, giving lots of hugs and kisses and smiles.
I suppose that's enough rambling--I would love to know what's going on with you and your kids lately. I have been missing the conversation (and chocolate recipes!)
Things are gradually feeling like there is some sense of rhythm and order most days. The mad dash to a gazillion medical appointments for Isaac and Jimmy has finally slowed to a trickle of mostly routine stuff. I am a few weeks out from being done with my second of 4 years of grad school
Jimmy is doing great this year--he's made almost all A's in school, and is keeping up with his dance classes and became a full fledged Boy Scout last month. He also has a newfound love for books and is finally enjoying fiction. We did allergy testing last month as a part of his eosinophil esophagitis work up, in the hopes of being able to pull the offending foods from his diet and avoid steroids, and found that would be next to impossible. Poor kid is allergic to 33 foods, almost all fruits and veggies, including lettuce. Who the heck is allergic to lettuce?!? Fortunately, all but 1 is mild enough that he doesn't have to avoid them unless he notices a specific increase in symptoms, and he has to be on steroids and other meds for his (formerly undertreated) asthma and severe environmental allergies anyway, so that controls the esophagitis and mild food allergies, too. He continues to be smart, sweet, and sensitive.
Connor is having a lot of fun being three, and letting everyone know it! He has been going to preschool daycare fulltime 4 days a week, at his request for the longer days. He just loves to be superactive and run and play with lots of other kids. He talks a mile a minute, and loves to be a helper. He is also in that whiny stage, but his moods are as mercurial as ever, and he is back to happy just as quickly. He adores everything that big brother does and is so excited to finally be old enough to play in the front yard with Jimmy and his neighbor friend. He acan also skunk Jimmy and Daddy on Wii tennis
Isaac, poor little guy, has had a rough 8 months or so. He is finally eating a wider variety of soft table foods, but is still having trouble with some textures, and cannot drink thin liquids safely at all. HIs quantity is the biggest problem at this point--he still only eats 6-8 oz of solids on a good day. He has another swallow study in a couple of weeks--hoping for more insight and guidance there. With great reluctance, we have switched him from his Korean formula to Pediasure, as WIC will provide it with a prescription. It saves us a bit of money, but also our "shopper" for the Korean formula will be moving shortly and we needed time to find a backup if he didn't tolerate the Pediasure. His language is coming along nicely, although he is hard to understand. Although the SLP's are still hoping it is due to codeswitching with the language change, I suspect that he will be in speech by the end of the year becasue his number of sounds is so limited. Isaac's sleep is MUCH improved from before--adding mylecon has taken care of most of our problems. His grieving is much better, although he is still fairly insecure at times. He is often clingy, and is in constant need of touching and climbing on me. His jealousy of Connor and Jimmy is still there, but he is much more tolerant of me showing them affection and attention. and he enjoys playing with them. He is also much more open to dh as caregiver, and gets excited when he hears the door open when Daddy comes home. He will stay for nursery class at church, but not the babysitting part during services only the structured classtime, and enjoys it. He cries horribly at first, but stops within seconds. He also does this when I need to leave him with a sitter or even when dh or I leave him with each other. Trying to comfort him through it works him up even further to hysterics, so it seems the most humane thing to do is to just leave him crying
I suppose that's enough rambling--I would love to know what's going on with you and your kids lately. I have been missing the conversation (and chocolate recipes!)
