Bubble Wrap Fun

Otherwise known as "Poppy Paper" at my house. Yesterday I got a birthday gift in the mail. It was wrapped in a ton of industrial strength bubble wrap. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I LOVE poppy paper!! My mother fondly recounts walking out into the garage to find me stomping on bubble wrap because the concrete made it so much better. So anyway, I digress. Apparently my love of the bubble wrap is genetic because both of my boys love it. Back to the story...I left the bubble wrap sitting out in the kitchen last night hoping to keep myself from going crazy with it. This morning the boys finished their breakfast when I suddenly heard a loud clamour from the kitchen. This is what I walked in to find:



The first video is where the boys figure out that they have been discovered with mommy's bubble wrap. The second is the continuation of the fun. :-)



And the last one that will just make you laugh!

CT scan results

So I called the doctor's office yesterday to see if they might have gotten the results. I love how the nurse calls me back..."we got the results, everything looks fine" was her spiel. So where do we go from here was my response to her. She was totally deflated sounding. She said that she would have to talk to the doctor and get back to me. What the heck? Now going on 7 weeks with an illness and all she had to say was good test results? So I suggested that maybe he refer me to an infectious disease specialist or do another test for Lyme disease. Something, anything to figure out what is wrong with me. Right now I am fighting off the massive headache that started about 20 minutes ago. Someone told me the other day that Lyme disease doesn't always give a positive result the first time...or sometimes the second time. So maybe I got a false negative...at least Lyme disease is curable. I went in today for another round of blood work. They took four vials from my left arm since the IV was a week ago in the right one. I am starting to feel like a human pin-cushion. Yuck.


On the positive side, I celebrated my birthday this weekend. Let's just say that I am 29 with a few years of experience and chalk it up to that. We celebrated with friends on Friday night at an Indian restaurant and then we celebrated as a family on Saturday by going to the High Museum and seeing the Monet Water Lillies exhibit.

I also enjoyed the beach and water pictures exhibit as well. We ended up downstairs for a snack in the little snack shop and noticed that they had easels set up outside for kids to paint on. Grayson was all about that so we decided to go out there. Randy has this idea that we cannot go anywhere that I don't know someone. And by george, he seems to be right! Sitting outside helping was a gentleman that I spent three days with in a workshop talking about incorporating the arts into every subject of instruction. How funny it was to walk out and see him there. Plus the fact that I was totally BUSTED. I should have submitted four lesson plans on Friday...and I didn't. He said only 5 people had done it and he was going to offer an extension. Thank goodness. :-)


This is Grayson's painting. Starting from top left and going counter-clockwise: a house, then mommy, below her is grass and next to the house is a very long slide. I think it is interesting that the house looks like a stop light. :-) He is definitely the artist! He loves to draw, color, paint, write, etc.

Queue manical laughter

She let me have posting rights! Woohoo! The evil I can do! I will take over the world, one blog at a time!

Right, power trip done. I wanted to post that the boys got to experience their first MRE last night. That's Meal, Ready-to-Eat for you non military people out there. When we were at Ryan's BBQ (good times had, great food cooked and enjoyed, and tasty tasty beer) for Memorial day, we met one of his friends and neighbors, who is active service in the Army, who very generously gave the boys each an MRE he had spare.

So, I didn't feel like cooking last night, and we had these MREs that the boys have been dying to try, so... we cracked them open last night. Nathan had the meatloaf, while Grayson had the Pot Roast. Nathan loved his, eating every bit, and as per his usual, hunting around for more food afterwards. Grayson loved the _idea_ of eating an MRE but the reality seems to have differed to his expectations.

I tried both MREs, and I have to say I was very impressed. Both were tasty, and while not 5star gourmet, I could easily live on those for a while. Though with only 24 menu items, and easily 1/2 of those being things I won't eat, I can imagine they would get old after a while if I had to subsist on them for any real length of time. But I'm glad to see we're feeding our service men and women decently when they're in the field. Apparently, this has not always been the case.

Thoughts...

This week has been extra stressful it seems. Just when I think I have a handle on things, a wrench gets thrown into the spokes. I don't know why but it seems as though when I expect things to happen, they don't. When I don't expect them to happen, they do. I can't even find a word to describe that feeling. Weird.

I spent many hours calling Grayson's doctors to let them know of the latest development in his medical history. I wanted them to know and also I wanted assurance that the medicines he is on right now would still be alright for him to take. Considering the fact that medicine for his migraines is also predominantly a blood pressure medicine and one of the medicines for his asthma can cause the heart to speed up, I just wanted to check. Both the allergist and the neurologist called back with assurance that he could keep taking his meds as prescribed, but both want to be informed of the findings from the cardiologist. I had to call the pediatrician to get the the referral to go to the pediatric cardiologist, which was fine...I had to call the cardiologist to schedule the appointment first so they could fill out the referral. The cardiologist wanted a copy of the findings from the genetics doctor, so I had to call them too. All of this done before 9 AM on Wednesday morning. Talk about being busy! Plus the stress of having to do this on my breaks from teaching.

My new job is going really well. I am really enjoying having the flexibility to come up with activitities to extend learning from the classroom, all the while making it fun. I really am liking the fact that the students are happy to see me when I come in the room. It makes me smile. The fourth graders are cute and adorable. The fifth graders are the same as I remember them to be from years before. They are interesting and never boring to teach. They are just reaching that age of being torn between wanting to please their teachers/parents and wanting to please their friends. Some of them do it well, while others fail miserably at balancing the two. I have adopted a few of my students, meaning I take an active interest in their personal triumphs and tribulations. I hope I can make a difference to them in some small way. I am truly enjoying the teachers I work with on a daily basis. I am getting to know teachers I never got to know before, especially the fourth grade teachers because I have never worked on that grade level prior to this year. I feel as though I am making positive contributions to my fellow teachers and to the students I teach.

My best friend moved out of town this past summer. I have really missed talking to her in the afternoons like I used to do. Her time schedule is so different from mine that I can't call her on my way home from work anymore to vent or get advice. It has been a difficult adjustment for me. We talk, but not as often as we used to. We will always be really close because we are the type of friends that no matter how much time goes by, we are as close as if we talked yesterday. She is in town this weekend and I get to see her. Hooray! I haven't looked forward to anything as much as I have looked forward to seeing her tonight.

I found out recently that my cousin Aisha is getting married! She got engaged last week. I am so happy for her. She is one of the most wonderful people I know and she deserves happiness. Since Nathan was born, she and I have become close. I have cherished every moment that we have spent together, even the time on the train with the crazy guy! She feels more like my sister than my cousin and I love her very much. I never had brothers and sisters growing up, but my cousins on my dad's side were always a part of my life. I have another cousin Nicole on my mom's side that I am close to as well. We have always lived far apart, but we are close in age and have so many things in common. I am very lucky to have family like that! I have always felt that family is among the most important things in life.

Grayson's Genetics appointment

Today was Grayson's genetics appointment. We are getting him checked for the hemachromatosis gene. He could very well be just a carrier, but it is better to be sure than to end up being sorry we didn't check it out sooner. The paperwork is incredible! I must have filled out 20 pages of information to take with us for the appointment.

The doctor has decided that before she draws any blood, she wants to see the results from Randy's test done at the hospital. So I had to call the doctor from then to fax over the information. She basically said that if the place that did the regular test was one she would use, she would use it rather than another place. Her thinking is that they know already the gene they found in Randy and they would better be able to find it in Grayson. So until she gets the information from the other doctor she wants to hold off. If she doesn't want to use the other lab, then we will have to go in to her office to the blood drawn there. Won't that be a happy day? So no news on that front.

However...

While they were doing the check on Grayson they found that he has a heart murmer. The first doctor who does the initial check and gets the history acted a little weird when he left the room, which was my first indication of something odd. When the main doctor came in, she began by matter-of-factly mentioning the murmur. She was a little surprised that this was the first time I had heard of this. She went on to say that many children will exhibit the symptom based on the fact that the lining of the heart walls are thinner in children than in adults. She mentioned that many times it is a false positive because they can hear the blood pumping from inside the heart. Then after listening to him herself, she mentioned that it was distinct. Just when you think you have explored the possibilities, a new one pops up. I am telling you...this family and medical issues. It is phenomenal.

So now we have to take Grayson to a pediatric cardiologist. I suppose the growth issue could be caused by a heart issue. My question is, with all the different doctors he sees, why has no one else caught this? OR is this some new development? I guess we shall see. I am not going to get upset about this until I have a reason to. I will not say that I won't WORRY or be CONCERNED, I just won't go bug crazy and start choking people because of it. Not yet anyway.

Halloween!

I just wanted to share the latest pictures of the boys. They had a great night of trick-or-treating. They both got tons of loot, and yes, it was all checked. :-)


Grayson had two costumes this year. To shorten the long story, we got the costume for Nathan in the wrong size (their fault not ours), but by the time we realized it was a few weeks later. A funny mistake, it just happened to be Grayson's size! With a dress-up birthday party and festival to do before the actual Halloween night, I decided that having two costumes for him was not a bad idea. We went and got Nathan a new costume and he was happy. So there are two pictures of Grayson with two different costumes. He looked so darn cute in the Robin costume!

An Eventful Day!

Today we had lots to do! Randy took Nathan to the local Ace Hardware to sell popcorn for the scouts. Apparently they did a marvelous job. Nathan is very good at being cute when he wants to be, so he just smiles and bats the long eyelashes. They spent about 2 hours selling and they sold quite a bit. While they were doing that, Grayson and I were at the Atlanta Parent Magazine annual Family Block Party. We were there to volunteer. I received a message this morning saying that they were going to be short-handed at the Camp Fire Boys and Girls booth (Camp Toccoa to be precise). It was right around the corner, so I decided to stop in and help out. I am so happy that I did. I got to make things out of clay with children while Grayson went from table to table grinning and getting all sorts of attention. It was pretty cool how he would walk off, but always come back to home base (me) about every 10 minutes. I was very happy with him today. Neely was there...she was my counselor-in-training when I was a counselor at Camp Toccoa back in 1993. She was with me in my cabin in Yoki for the summer. We had such fun back then. It was such a great experience for me and I met a few life-long friends there as well. I made picture to put on a button (on Facebook it is known as Flair).

Joiner update: Three of us are sick!

You know, life around our house is never dull.

Last Friday, Randy came to my work to bring me lunch. It was then that we noticed his eye was red. In asking he said he didn't know what was going on. By Monday he said his eye was hurting, so on Tuesday he went to the doctor to get it checked. He was promptly referred to an ophthalmologist. Wednesday, the ophthalmologist told him that he had conjunctivitis caused by a virus, but that he also had iritis. Apparently, there was a secondary bacterial infection in his iris, which is what was causing the pain in his eye. So for the next 10 days he needed to use antibiotic drops and a dilator drop to make the iris dilate so it wouldn't bind to the lens.

All the while, Nathan told me Monday morning that his throat was a little sore. No other symptoms...no fever...no I gave him some Tylenol to help with the pain and he was good to go. He was fine until about mid-morning when his teachers sent him to me because he was shivering. I sent him to the office to get his temperature checked. It was elevated, but no feverish. So I got him my sweater and sent him back to class. An hour or so later, I went to check on him and he said he felt sleepy and he was starting to get a headache. I gave him some motrin and told him if he didn't feel any better to let me know and I would get daddy to come get him and take him home. He never came to me, and after school he actually seemed fine. All night I checked him for pain and/or fever, neither of which he had. Tuesday morning when I went to wake him up, he was flushed and had a fever of 102. Hooray! Randy volunteered to stay home with him and I took Grayson to school. As soon as the doctor's office was open, he took Nathan to see the pediatrician. The child had ACUTE tonsillitis. How do you get that overnight? So two days out of school, and by Thursday he still wasn't 100 percent, but he went to school. Finally by yesterday he seemed almost back to his old self.

All the while, I was not feeling great. Last weekend my sinuses were burning and I felt a little off. I assumed that I was probably getting a sinus infection. I felt this way pretty much until Tuesday. Then Wednesday I started feeling as though I was losing my voice. I have been feeling tired and heavy-chested which is usually a sign that my asthma is flaring. I think perhaps I have what Nathan had, but I don't have tonsils. And of course, it is a long holiday weekend. So by the time Tuesday rolls around I will probably absolutely miserable. I am keeping my fingers crossed that if I get enough rest and take my vitamins that perhaps I can stave off whatever is ailing me.

Thus far, Grayson has only complained that his head was hurting a little. Otherwise, no other symptoms from him. Let's hope he doesn't start too. It is so difficult living in a house full of sickies.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for three of us! Nathan and I set off early for school this morning with binder (that is too big to fit in the book bag), book bag, and supplies. Nathan seems to really like his teacher and even found a few new friends today. Tomorrow he will get more in the swing of things by changing classes for the first time. It should be an interesting experience for him. Every year we have a few criers on the first day of school. I am proud to report that Nathan was not one of them! He really did go with the flow.

Grayson and Daddy set off later to head to his first day of Pre-K. He too has a new book bag. There really isn't much in it, but it is new all the same. He was really excited about his teacher, he knew her before and really likes her. I hope that he grows exponentially this year. He is such a bright kid.

I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off...though I was dressed nicely. I was very busy for the first half of the day and then things slowed down enough that I could sit and eat. I finally got my computer up and running. It was more of a "had to" rather than had time to set it up. I am happy that it is done though. I hope that I can take some time to finish unpacking some of the boxes and find all my stuff. I still don't know where half of my stuff is at the moment and the rest of the office would probably appreciate my cleaning up my junk!

All in all we had a really great first day.

Grayson Update

We took Grayson to the neurologist yesterday for his 6 week follow-up. The last time we were there, he was 39 inches tall and weighed 32.5 pounds. The doctor decided it was time to try something to get him to grow again so he prescribed Periactin. There is a link somewhere earlier in the blog, about 6 weeks ago, if you are interested in what it is. He first told us to give him 1/2 tsp twice a day and after a week to increase it to 1 tsp twice a day. Holy bejeezus! After about a week of the second dosing Grayson was hanging from ceiling fans and running circles around his dinner chair! I truly believe that he was burning more energy being hyper than gaining weight from eating. The pediatrician recommended (after spending a half hour with him) that we back off the medicine to only 1 tsp at bedtime. That made ALL the difference. He still talks like a tornado through a trailer park, but at least he can sit for 10 seconds before getting up and running around. In 6 weeks the child has grown 2 inches and gained 2 pounds. It's incredible! His face has filled in a little bit and he seems happier. We are going to continue with the current meds and be rechecked in 3 months. The neurologist was hoping to try and back off the Verapamil this summer, but that idea has been put on hold until he has been stable for a while. The headaches are getting less intense and shorter in duration so I think for now we are on the right path. Mimi went with us, so she got to meet the wonderful doctor. Grayson just adores him...he really is a great kids neurologist. One of my colleagues took her older daughter to him and he was really good with her too (she was 16). If you ever need a pediatric neurologist I would highly recommend ours.

Update on the Foyer

Nathan and Grayson helped me work on the front foyer yesterday. We got the primer/sealer coat on all of the walls and trim. Boy does it look so much cleaner in there! Nathan did most of the helping though. Grayson thought it would be fun to help but quickly realized that it was messy and he suddenly decided he needed to be doing something else in another room. Randy helped him clean up from the mess while Nathan and I continued to work. Nathan soon found that painting wasn't as easy as he once thought. He did seem to enjoy helping me so that was nice. Unfortunately for him, I am a perfectionist when it comes to painting. There must be paint in every nook and cranny and it must be smooth with no drips or lumps. The way I see it is this: do it right the first time so there doesn't have to be a second. I would rather it be done right the first time than to ever have to do it again. I am priming and sealing, which was never done. I am caulking and filling holes, which was never done. I am putting on the best paint I can...the eggshell kind that is as tough as high gloss, but it is matte finish. I have it in the boys' rooms and I love it! I will hopefully have the walls done so I can get the fixtures up. My MIL is coming on Tuesday, a little earlier than I thought, so I won't have the darn thing finished before I go back to school. I will have to finish the trim (the high gloss paint) another time.

Check-ups!

Nathan and Grayson went for their annual check-ups yesterday. Both of them got shots...and both of them did very well. Nathan cried more before he got the shots than during. Go figure. Poor Grayson had 5 of them! He agreed to only two, and when the others came on the left arm he was not happy. But they both got ice cream for their pain and they were happy.

Both boys are being sent to a geneticist. Nathan for the fact that he has many signs of Albinism. We visited this issue two years ago when the eye doctor said that he had a very light retina (more pink than red). We went to a pediatric ophthalmologist who said he didn't think Nathan had it. After we did the eye exam last week and it was such a dramatic change I decided to revisit the Albinism information. Nathan has many signs, that could be just coincidence of course, but too many to be ignored at this point. The only real way of knowing is to do a genetic test. He has patches of white hair on his head near his temples and one at the back. It is funny because my cousin's son had the same thing but his hair is actually brown so it shows more. Anyway, the patches are called poliosis. If you would like to, there is a great article on the subject. Apparently, the patches can be an indication of an underlying condition, not an actual condition themselves. So this is on tick on the possible Albinism scale. He has the "blonde fundus" which is tick two on the Albinism scale. He now has at least the minimum visual impairment for tick three on that scale. So I just really really want to be sure that he does or does not have Albinism. Apparently there are different types, and the one we are looking for is not your typical Albino disease that you know about with bleached skin, pink eyes etc. The one we are looking into is called Ocular Albinism. If you are interested in learning more here is a link that can give you good information.
Nathan's "spot"

Grayson is being sent to be tested for the markers of hemachromatosis. The pediatrician agreed that is something that we don't want to wait to see if he has. Whatever we can do to prevent organ damage, the better off he will be if he has it. Just knowing will be half of the battle and knowing early will be so good for him. Basically we can watch his iron levels, and when he gets old enough he can begin giving blood once a month as a way to get rid of high iron stores. Heavy metals don't leave the body in easy ways...he would have to bleed it out. If he were a girl we wouldn't have to worry about it until he reached menopause because women "bleed" every month naturally. Apparently too much iron is toxic just like lead or mercury. So it is important to get this information as soon as we can so we can avoid major problems in the future.

Both boys are lean. Nathan is now 51 and 1/4 inches tall (about 4'3") and weighs 57 pounds. That puts him in the 16th percentile...which for him is about his normal...except for when he was a baby and in the 75th percentile! Now the boy eats and eats and who knows where it all goes. Grayson is 39 and 1/4 inches tall (about 3'3") and weighs 33 pounds. He is in the 3rd percentile for weight and the 10th percentile for height. The medicine for the eating has definitely increased his appetite, but omigosh is he hyper! The pediatrician was in awe of his movement and overall activity during the visit yesterday as opposed to all the other times we have been there...and that is saying a LOT. She told us to back down the periactin to only once a day. Apparently he is having some adverse effects! Now I know what an ADD child really looks like. I am so thankful that he is not normally like this, holy moley am I glad! It seems to me that while he is eating more, he is definitely burning more off by running at full speed all the time. In three weeks he has gained a half a pound. So we are only going to give him the medicine once a day instead and see how he does.

Grayson in Rare Form!

I have always said that Grayson is one funny child that makes me laugh. He is truly ingenious in the way he looks at the world. So the first picture is of Grayson in a paper box. I was cleaning out some stuff and actually set the box in the den for the cats to play with until I threw it out. I walked in to get him for dinner and this was how I saw Grayson. (Remember that he is small for his age...)


The second picture is us going out to dinner on Wednesday night. I was craving guacamole...so we were going to the Mexican restaurant around the corner. While we were deciding on where to go, Grayson went through a give-away box where I collect stuff to donate and found this little bag with gingerbread men on it. It now belongs to him and he was going to use it to carry his blankie with him...just like Mommy carries her purse. Let's just say that it was an interesting situation to go out in public with a four year old boy and his "purse". At some point I remember mentioning that it might have been better to have to buy him a Barbie. There was some show years ago where the dad struggled with the notion that his son wanted a Barbie doll for Christmas. Darned if I can remember which show it was...Friends perhaps?


The last picture is in the car on the way home from the Mexican restaurant. Suddenly Nathan yells from the back seat to look at Grayson, so Randy turns to see and bursts into laughter. I had to slow down the car and turn to look. Here is what we found:


Will he be the first comedian in space?

Grayson's Headaches

We went for a follow-up visit yesterday to the neurologist. Grayson has had headaches since he was two. Back then he would get them two to three times a day every day. We did a CT-scan, where everything looked normal. Then we did an MRI, where again they found nothing abnormal. So, there is no explanation as to why he was suffering from the headaches. Then there was the huge recall of all the Thomas toys. Grayson had 13 of the items so we worried that the lead might be the cause. His lead levels were tested while it was a 3 (where 10 is the lowest number for concern) it was not high enough to cause the doctors any alarm. So still no answer as to why he was having them. He was doing really well taking the Verapamil (as a liquid) until recently. He started complaining lately that his head was hurting almost every day. So the last time we went the doctor talked about cutting back the medicine. Needless to say that that will not be happening. He is also concerned that Grayson is so small (he still only weighs 32 pounds). So he is now on another medicine to help increase his appetite called Periactin. If you read the paperwork that goes with it, it says that it can be used for people with eating disorders. As far as I know, if you have a headache, you don't want to eat...especially when the headaches make you nauseous. Ugh. We hope that the second medicine will get Grayson's appetite up and help him gain weight. We still have him on whole milk to help with that as well. We go for his wellness visit in July, so we will talk with the pediatrician about this and MORE when we go.