Marie's Birthday

Marie and Ryan with her Little Brats backpack

Hmmm, I wonder what this is?!

Cool, a video game system of my very own!

Look Mom - it's a neat game called School House Rock

Marie and Ryan checking out her neat birthday gifts.

I want one of these Mommy!

You will notice there are no pictures of Katie or Logan. Katie had fallen alseep on the playroom floor watching one of Logan's movies. Logan decided he didn't want any pictures taken of him so he ran back to watch his movie with Katie. Marie was able to enjoy her cake but had to have a small piece as it was very late on a school night!

Another Fun Friday....

It's all Mee Maw's fault; well, not really as I was the one to take her to K-mart the other day when the little ones and I went to visit. We have been trying to find a bunk bed for the girls room for a long time. We had a toddler bed in there with Marie's big full size bed but that left very little room for the toys etc. I spotted this nice bunk bed when we were with Mom the other day but the kids were fussy so I didn't get to really check it out then. We had Ryan's EEG appointment on Thursday and Daddy was his usual angel self and drove us. He didn't want me to deal with the I4 traffic and trying to keep Ryan awake. After we were done, we headed down to the K-mart near Mom's house.

The bunk beds are made out of nice smelling pine and we thought it would be pretty easy to build. Daddy started it yesterday around 9:00 and finished it around 2:00. It would have taken half that time but there always has to be something that takes twice as long and it was the same with this. Also, "someone" had not looked at the directions like "he/she" should have and after we got to the very last thing we realized that a board needed to be flip flopped. Since there were two of us doing it at this point it didn't take as long as it could have.

I had the brilliant idea to bring the full size bed out and leave it in the playroom while we were putting the bunk beds together. I should have taken the extra time to rearrange the garage (for the 1000th time) and put it in there. Logan proceeded to jump on the bed like it was his personal trampoline and he's still doing it. I thought maybe last night when he got tired he'd lay down on it and fall asleep but no, he just jumped off it onto the couch and settled down to sleep. I have to figure out what to do with the stupid thing until we can get rid of it or go bonkers.

Today I need to get the playroom back together then hit the boys room. You guessed it; that's where I shoved the blankets/sheets and Katie's toddler bed. I can't get near the changing table or either boys dresser so the clean clothes are sitting in baskets ready to be put away. I really need to get that room fixed pretty quickly; if I leave clothes in a basket too long Ryan and Logan both think they are fair game. Logan will throw food and toys into the basket where Ryan just pulls all the nice clean folded clothes out and tosses them around the room. It's my boys way of telling me to put the clothes away and stop being lazy.

Ryan - EEG

We won't get the results on Ryan's EEG for a couple of weeks. I believe we probably won't hear anything until our follow up visit in November; that will be after the MRI and Genetic testing. (Unless, there is something terribly wrong) He threw a major fit when they put the gunk on and an even bigger fit when they started connecting the wires. He exhausted himself out so much I was able to make him a bottle and hold him while he slept. It was soooooo different then when Logan had his done a couple of years ago. I had to hold him down and sing to him for over an hour while they tried to get a "good test".

We were smart today; we hooked up our car DVD players and let them watch Elmo and Barney all the way over. Of course, we had to promise Katie that she could watch one of her favorites (Madagascar) on the way home. After it was all done and we were waiting on Daddy and Katie to come get us, (Daddy had to take her shopping as she would have been too much of a distraction) he wanted to test the echo factor in the lobby of the neurologist's office. At first he was just doing the AH AH and then he was saying his favorite Elmo! He felt so good afterwards that he fell asleep again in the car about half way home. Katie was so tired she fell out as soon as we got back on the highway. It was a peaceful ride home and after the interrupted sleep for the past two nights it was nice to be able to relax.

Mr. Logan is hungry; he is standing at the kitchen gate screaming "Riiiii Daaaaaaa" a/k/a rice cake. I'd better get him one before he starts throwing toys at me.

Logan; Mommy's little ham!

I was trying to see how the lighting was in certain areas of the house so I had Marie sit down at the dining room table to practice with the video/digital camera. Logan decided to get in on the fun so I thought I would let you all see my little funny boy in action. I still need to work on the lighting but.....

Ryan - Take 1

Need to work on the lighting but for my first attempt with the digital camera, not too shabby!

Marie - September 26, 1998

I can't believe that Marie will be 9 years old on Wednesday. It seems like yesterday when she turned one and demolished/puked up her birthday cake. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday over the weekend and she was so cute. She said she wanted Rhys to come over and have cake with her. I asked her if that was all she wanted and she said "wellllll....no!" She proceeded to give me a very long list of things she wanted to get for her birthday. She made the list extra long so we'd have more to choose from. The past couple of years, Daddy has been taking her to Disney or Sea World to celebrate on her birthday; which means she hasn't been in school to celebrate with her friends. This year she said, "Mommy, do you think Daddy's feelings will be hurt if I go to school on my birthday this year?" She is too cute! I told her that Daddy would be fine and she could go to school and celebrate with her friends/classmates.

Marie and Logan today

Marie and her baby brother Logan - Christmas 2002

Marie and Cousin Blake hanging out in the toy box - 2 1/2 years

Marie with her first birthday cake - YUM!

Here is Marie with her Granny and her very first smile.

Few good pics

Ryan trying to play like big sister Ree Ree

Logan and Ryan hanging out watching The Wiggles

Katie and Ryan hanging out watching Barney

Saturday Chaos

I woke up thinking, Oh No! I'm late - I should have been up 15 minutes ago making lunches and getting everything together for school. After I jumped out of bed I realized that it is in fact Saturday morning. I could have attempted to go back to bed but I thought I might get some quality Mommy time to myself. Yeah, that happened for sure.

I came out to the living room and saw that the light in the playroom was on right about the time I heard some toy and Logan's giggle. I decided to hang out with Logan while everyone else was still asleep. We had about 10 minutes of snuggle time before the others wandered out wide awake. They had been watching a movie which I thought was very nice. They kept their door closed so the sound wouldn't wake Logan. They are such good girls!

After Ryan woke up I had to get everyone breakfast and diapers changed and I thought I could have some down time to drink an entire cup of coffee. Boy was I wrong! I had maybe two sips before WWIII broke out in the playroom. Katie wanted to do what big sister Marie was doing and got frustrated that she couldn't. Logan thought it was funny so I hear Katie's screaming, Marie trying to calm her down to help her and Logan's giggling. Ryan was just jibberjabbering the whole time so you can imagine the noise level. I grabbed my camera to see if I could get any good shots and I was able to get a few. Take a look...

Ryan - Early Intervention Evaluation Update

We had Ryan's Early Intervention evaluation this morning. The outcome wasn't what I had hoped it would be but we still have time to get him on track. He will be tested at 30 months "Psychological Evaluation to rule out an Austistic Disorder" but the psychologist saw characterists of an Autistic Disorder today. She has recommended that he continue to receive Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapy.

It looks like that all except for physical will be happening at home with the therapists visiting us here. I'm not sure what we will be doing for his physical therapy at this point. They do not have a physical therapist in our county so I may have to take him back down to Daytona to get that or they may get some kind of waiver for him to continue with it here at the hospital. Robin will be contacting me sometime next week to get all the therapies straightened out and discuss when it will start.

We still have to make the trip to the neurologist next Thursday for his EEG and then in October for his MRI and his genetic testing. (which the psychologist recommended as well) After all of this is done, I will bring everyone up to speed on where we go from there. I'm going to go spend some quality time playing with the little ones; feel like we all need some nice quiet Mommy and me time!

Ryan and the Barney songs

Well, it's now Thursday and I finally can sit down and write about Ryan and his Barney songs. The boy loves Elmo (which you already knew) and Barney. The other day, on the way home from therapy Barney's Wheels on the Bus was on the CD player. I kept hearing a shhhh sound. I glanced back at Ryan and there he was singing along with Wheels on the Bus. The part where he's singing "Mommies on the bus go Shhh Shhh Shhh" with their fingers over their mouths. He was grinning and had his pointer up on his mouth doing the shhhh sound.

We listen to Barney most of the time when we go somewhere in the van and it's paying off. The other day when it was time to meet MeeMaw at Walgreen's I had to sing that song to both Ryan and Katie so they wouldn't throw a fit that we had stopped. In the parking lot waiting for MeeMaw I'm singing the Barney songs, doing all the gestures with the windows wide open. You should have seen some of the looks I was getting from the people coming in to the parking lot. It was quite comical but I kept on going to keep them calm and because Ryan was doing more than just the shh sound. He was doing the "Babies on the bus go waaa waaa waaa" with his hands up near his eyes. He was also doing the "People on the bus go up and down"; they both would sit up straight for up and slouch down for down. Katie would do the "Wheels on the bus go round and round" along with the arm gestures but Ryan wasn't quite there yet.

Daddy and Baseball

It's really Monday morning but I knew if I didn't jot down a few of the things I wanted to post I would forget about them.

Daddy is a BIG time Houston Astros fan. Thanks to Belinda who told me about when her husband used to purchase this baseball package through the cable company, we can now watch just about all of their games throughout the season. If you are a baseball fan, you know it's down to the end of the regular season. I have to keep asking him; are they still in the hunt for October? He has been saying that "mathematically" they are still in contention. A/K/A - no they are not in the hunt. He's been watching the games at night and using some pretty nice language. He very rarely uses language that he wouldn't want the children to repeat.

No, Mom it isn't as bad as when I was 15 years old watching the Dallas Cowboys getting their butts kicked. (Thank you Don for teaching me all those lovely words) You remember when you were hanging clothes out on the line and had to come back into the house and shut all the windows? I believe you had to emphasize almost every word with a slam of a window. Something like.... "I (slam) can't (slam) BELIEVE (slam) the (slam) words that (slam) are coming (slam) OUT OF YOUR MOUTH! (SLAM) I can say that I'm really thankful that the kids were all asleep or almost asleep and didn't hear it.

Fun Friday

Logan is so much fun! (He really is - he likes to keep me on my toes and I love him more each time he comes out of his shell to see what he can get away with) He has been smacking at the pictures we have on the wall of the playroom. I'm not sure if it's because he just wants to see my reaction or if it's because he's over the Lion King. He will stand on the arm rest of the couch, turn and smack at the picture and just laugh and laugh. Last night, at 6:30 I decided I had enough of that so (while dinner was cooking) I rearranged the playroom.

Oh that was a lot of fun. I had to move the couch out from the wall so he couldn't reach the wall and what a mess I found under it. I had to vacuum the entire room because you know the messes the kids can shove under and around heavy items. I got rid of some of the smaller baby items (pack-n-play, bouncer and swing) so now there is a lot more room. I will have to see if this new move is good enough to keep my little monkey man from getting to those pictures.

After all that, I went back to getting dinner prepared and made Logan his favorite peanut butter sandwich because he asked so nicely for it. (can you sense the sarcasm here??!!) I believe he ate two pieces before he started the gravity test on the couch this time. I had to vacuum his seat and all the floor in front and behind the couch again and he wasn't happy with me. He had to sit in time out and I swear I heard him say "I sorry" but I couldnt' get him to repeat it again verbally. He just kept doing the sign language. It was worth all the extra work to hear him say those two words.

Katie likes to do whatever Logan and Marie are doing. Thankfully she isn't tall enough to reach the pictures but we did catch her trying to climb the entertainment center the other day. I can only assume she was trying to do the Logan; mess with the DVD player.

As you can see, Ryan loves his big sister Marie. He sees pictures of himself and says "Ree Ree" and of course, when she gets home from school he has to follow her around. When she goes in her room to do homework, I can always find him there with her. He will sit on the floor playing with some toys or she will put a Barney movie on for him and he will sit in there with her. When she gets hyper, he's right there with her. (I'm not too sure that it's a good thing!)

Kids...

I've tried several times to get a picture of Ryan dragging his blanket around. Just as I'm about to snap the picture he drops the blanket, every single time. His back is to me so I'm still trying to figure out how he knows I'm about to take his picture.

He decided he wanted to check out the baseball games yesterday around noon time. I could hear the sound of the music but couldn't figure out why the Elmo DVD had it on there. When I came around the corner, I realized it wasn't Elmo making that music. I found Ryan sitting in the middle of the floor with the t.v. remote in his hand just staring at the television. I waited for a few minutes to see what he would do but he just sat there as if waiting for the commercial to end so he could watch the game. (I would have had to change the channel in order for him to catch a game that early in the day.)

Here a few good shots of him playing with Elmo last night. He had coughed until he threw up his bottle and had a long long nap. It was getting a little late and I didn't want him to stay up all night so I woke him up. Boy was that a mistake!! It took him about 45 minutes to get into his normal adorable Ryan mode. Here he is after he was back to his adorable self.

Something cute

I had to post this before I got too busy and forgot to do it. Today, after Logan started feeling better he decided to hang out with Mommy and Ryan for a little while. He and I began singing the Barney I love you song. I was able to get him to give me a kiss and to give one to his baby brother. He gave Ryan three kisses before he finally said I'm done performing for you. It was so cute! Ryan would giggle and say "again!" This is just one of many reasons I love being home with the kids all day. My two boys actually bonded today - I'd say a miracle has occurred!!

Odds and Ends....

Believe it or not I attempted to start this post this morning but it's now after 2:00 and I'm just getting back to it. What do you think of Katie's Elmo sunglasses? She wanted Daddy to wear them but I think they may be a little too small!

Katie has been really helpful lately. She was telling Ryan just last night, "it's okay Rye Rye, Daddy's making you a baa baa." Today she helped me by pulling her pants up and putting on her own shoes. The shoes were on the right feet today too! While Ryan was in therapy she wanted to play with everything in that room. She must have asked me twenty times to play with the puzzle. I let her walk while I pushed the double stroller around. (Now that got us some strange looks. Child walking while mommy pushed the double stroller with no children just diaper bag and purse in it)

Ryan has been lots of fun lately too. Yesterday he told me to "psh play!" He wanted to watch "Barby" Today he said shoe, because he found his Elmo shoes and wanted to wear them. At therapy he said bye bye and waved at me while in Ms. Cheryl's arms. He has been dragging his blanket around behind him while walking everywhere so his new name is "Linus" (you know, from Charlie Brown) I've been trying to get a picture of him with blanket in tow but so far......nada.

Logan had to come home early from school today. He caught what everyone else had finally so I went to school to pick him up. I have given him some medicine and he seems to be doing much better. He's been eating non-stop since the first dose so I'd say he's almost back to normal. I have to tell you a little funny story about Mr. Logan. He loves these Koosh balls (will try to find a picture to insert so you know what I'm talking about) with little things that stick out like spider legs. It's a very stretchy ball so you can pull those "spider legs" and stretch them out forever it seems like.

He has decided that he likes to eat them instead of just stretching them now. Apparently, he ate a couple (if not the whole stupid ball) the other day because I received a call from Ms. Ann yesterday. She had to warn me just in case he had a bowel movement. She thought he had worms at first but then realized it wasn't a worm it was one of those "spider legs" from the koosh ball. They were trying to find the ball but hadn't had much luck so they weren't sure how much he had ingested. I spotted one in his diaper myself today. That would explain why he wanted Marie to rub his tummy on the way home from school yesterday. Whatever happened to the days when the kids just stuck beads up their noses?? Marie likes to chew the erasers off her pencils too but I can assure you I won't be looking for those erasers anytime soon!!!

Update

Sorry - all the children (except for Logan) have been sick and of course, they shared with me too. Ryan came down with it Thursday morning so I had to reschedule his evaluation for Friday the 21st.

Logan has been doing great! He was playing with My First Leappad last night and trying to say the colors and other items. He was able to say apple, milk, yellow, purple, blue and red. Of course, he isn't saying them as clear as possible yet but he is saying them! This morning we had a break through as well. He said I love you - not I la oo. He said it for Ms. Cheryl and again when she was telling me about it after his session. He also said Mommy - first time I have heard him say that. It's been a great morning!

Ryan - more information

I have spent my morning setting up and rescheduling appointments for all the tests that they want Ryan to have done. He has his EEG scheduled for September 27th early as he needs to be sleep deprived. Since he tends to nap no matter what time we go; I asked for an early appointment so he would be ready for his morning nap at test time. His MRI is scheduled for October 18th early in the morning as well. He can't have anything to eat up to 6 hours before test time so the earlier the better. His genetic testing appointment is a week later on the 25th of October.

We will be driving to Orlando a lot in the next month or two. Actually, after yesterdays trip we have decided that they will no longer be family trips. We are going to take turns driving him so that there isn't the extra added stress of all the others being irritable from all the driving and no play time. I'm going to volunteer for the EEG and the MRI and probably the Genetic testing as well. I can't see letting Daddy take him and me sit home worrying the whole time. When Logan has his EEG it wasn't much fun. I had to hold him down and sing to him for about an hour. (It was very stressful on Daddy) Logan's MRI was a little easier except for the fact that I was pregnant and had to hold him down while they put him to sleep. Thankfully they didn't do by IV but by gas mask but still..... I cried like a baby after they wheeled him off. I figure this time I will probably not cry (no extra hormones going crazy) but then again that is my baby they are taking.

The little guy is down for his first nap of the day. He played with big sister Katie all morning and watched Barney. Katie has been quite the artist. She wanted "eggies" so I made her some scrambled eggs and gave her a fork. I had to walk away because I knew it was going to be messy but she needs to use her utensils so.... When I looked at her again she had the eggs in her hair and all over her face and clothes. She said "Eggies all gone Mommy!" but she was still trying to lick the bowl.

I should have taken a picture but I couldn't stand the mess so I cleaned her up as quickly as I could. Her reward for eating her eggies all gone was to color with her crayons and her "Ho Ho coloring book". She doesn't say Santa - it's always Ho Ho. "Mommy can we watch Barney Ho Ho?" "Mommy I want to color Ho Ho" In the hospital while Logan was in therapy last Christmas, we would walk the corridors and head toward the gift shop. There were several Santa's in the display window and of course she would scream out, "Mommy, look; it's Ho Ho!"

This reminds me of a story from about 16 years ago that a friend of mine told me about one of her children...... The story goes something like: "Young lady, do you know what a 'Ho' is?", "Yes sir, it's something you use in the garden." The girls were in the principal's office because of some name calling that had gotten out of hand with a group of girls. I really don't think they were referring to that type of hoe. Needless to say, that young lady didn't get into any trouble and gave the principal his great story for that day. This just goes to show that not all children in school know the bad words. I'm thinking this is my favorite Jennifer story. Love you Jennifer!

Ryan continued

I have to make this short and sweet as I'm tired and somewhat brain dead. We went to the neurologist for Ryan's initial visit today. I always end up with a migraine when we make a trip there and today was no different. My brain is mush but I wanted to let everyone know how it went so I will give you a short version and try to be more in depth tomorrow.

She couldn't and wouldn't say that Ryan was on the autism spectrum. Yeah! She did recommend genetic testing and an MRI and EEG. She acknowledged that nothing was found with Logan after this (MRI and EEG) testing but was afraid that if she didn't do these tests for Ryan that something could be missed. To me this is just precautionary but the genetic testing is something else entirely. I will go more in-depth tomorrow but for now I must go tend to Logan who had a very full and boring day with us. He's a little on the cranky side as he was woken up before 6:00 by his oldest sister. She decided since she couldn't sleep (allergies) that no one else would either. It made for a very fun trip!