Spring Break 2009

This past week was spring break here, which meant virtually nothing to us except that we had friends who were out school that we could go play with.
We started the week by going to the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas.

Caleb was SO excited to go and see all the fun things at the museum.

I could not get a decent picture of the two of the kids together because Caleb was more than anxious to get into the exhibit halls.

While we were there, we play archeologist and searched for dinosaur bones,

made huge bubbles,

watched balls float on air,

drove a fire engine,

rode a horse (can you tell he's saying "yee haw" here?),


playing with the water features,

tried to roll a ball into holes on the floor,

learned to milk a cow,

all while Piper watched.

Last, we learned a little about gravity and losing money...

We played with this cute little girl,

and went bowling.

Then we got all dressed up and

went to Jumpin Land

where we all (except Piper) went down the big slide.

We ended the week at a friend's birthday party where we dug in the dirt

and had lots of fun!

A Message from the Pster

Pssst. Hey peeps! This is Piper and I've hijacked my Mama's blog. Don't tell her. She probably won't notice anyway, what with the sleep strike I've been on lately.

So, do you notice anything different about me? Look closely...

Oh, come on. You don't see it? Well, let me just make it very obvious for you.

My Mama and my Mommaw gave me my very first pedicure!

You know what? I love it!

Pulmonologist Appointment

Today was the normal 3 month check up for Caleb at the pulmonologist. While we were there, they worked Piper in, as well, to check her out due to the persistent cough she has had. Here's what we found out per kid.

Caleb: The flu he had was reported and since it was so very minor there was really no concern about it. Also, last time we visited with the pulmonologist, he sent us for a blood allergy test. Since there was no positive result on any of the allergens that he was tested for, the doctor was very optimistic that he would be one of those kids who would outgrow his asthma. That's one the best things we've heard lately! The other thing that we are going to be doing is slowly taking him off some of his medications. We will start by stopping a steroid inhaler that he takes twice a day and see where that puts us. By the time that summer begins, Caleb may only be on one or two medications on a daily basis. It's been a long time since we've been anywhere near that (nearly 3 years to be exact!).

Piper: As I said, they squeezed her into Caleb's appointment so that the doctor could take a look at her. Since I had my minor freak out and had her seen at 6 weeks, she was already an established patient and was easy to put on the schedule. My biggest concern with Piper is the chronic cough that she has had for roughly the last 3 or 4 months. Another concern stems from the sinus infection that she was diagnosed with about a week and a half ago. The doctor thinks that Piper may have had a sinus infection before she caught the flu and that it has been an ongoing issue. So, we have switched her to a different antibiotic and we will return to the doctor in 3 weeks. If this round of antibiotics doesn't fix the infection we will need to do some imaging on her sinuses as well as a chest x-ray to ensure that nothing is being missed. The doctor did tell me that he did not feel like Piper has asthma, which was extremely comforting to me as this was the exact point at which Caleb was diagnosed with all his issues.

8 Months

It occurred to me the other day that I had not posted anything for Piper's 8 month "birthday". I guess I got thrown off because I watch for the 30th of each month, and February didn't have one. It really doesn't take much. Anyway, what you came here for:

Piper has been able to sit up with some assistance for the past couple of months, but this past month she perfected it and we feel comfortable letting go. She will still topple over if she tries to look up or get something that is too far in front of her, but I let her sit like this on the floor for a good 15 minutes and she never fell over.

Well, she never fell over until this happened. With every month that passes, Caleb and Piper are able to interact and play more and more. Caleb is really very good at being gentle with her and loves to play with her.

Many people tell us that Piper is a good baby and really we are blessed in this aspect. Piper rarely cries and if she does we know it's one of three things. As long as we feed her, change her or get her to sleep, she doesn't fuss over anything. She is super observant and loves to watch and explore things around her, so taking her places is really a pleasure. We love to go to the park and even though she can't do much, most often you will catch her giggling at her brother's antics or just quietly sitting in my lap enjoying the sunshine. We couldn't have asked for a better second child.

I think I mentioned before that I was falling down on the job in that I had introduced and had Caleb completely on a sippy cup between the ages of 5 to 6 months. I just didn't see any reason to get in such a hurry to do that this time but have been giving to her every once in awhile. This month, she seems to have realized that there is something yummy in it (water) and that she can get it out on her own. She still does more chewing on the cup than anything, but I do catch her sucking on it on occasion, so she's getting the message.

I don't believe that I have mentioned here our vacation plans. We are all hopping in the car mid-July and driving to California for a family reunion, and then driving on up to southern Oregon to spend a little time with my in-laws. While in California, we will be taking the kids to Disneyland and Caleb, at least, is super excited. While we were buying the invitations for Caleb's birthday party, I spied these Mickey and Minnie ears and HAD to have them. Piper looks less than excited here, but she was quite tired and ended up loving them. I had to have a picture!

The weather around here has been SO schizophrenic. The upside to that has been some beautiful 80 degree days. We have tried to take advantage of those days as much as we can and go up the street to a fairly airplane themed new park called Aviator Park. The reason we get in the car and go there, instead of walking up the block, is that park has swings, something that I've not seen at other parks in our area. Both the kids love the swings, especially Piper. She gets quite the kick out of swinging and feeling the wind in her hair.

Around the time that Piper turned 7 months old, she learned how to click her tongue. This video shows her doing it a couple of times at the beginning. For the longest time she seemed to think that my name was a click of her tongue. More recently though, she has learned a few words. She said her first word, Da-Da, on the day she turned 7 months. The day after she said, "Ma Ma" and now she also says, "Ba Ba" for her brother. I was trying to get her to demonstrate her speaking abilities in this video, but it obviously didn't work. At least you all get to see our sweet Piper in action.

Free Day

That, my friends, is what I got for FREE (!) today. Two cases of formula and a prescription for amoxicillin.
Of course there's a story behind all this.
Yesterday morning, I noticed Piper wheezing a bit and it was time for her flu booster, since she is sufficiently over the virus. So, I made an appointment yesterday for her to see her pediatrician. As we entered the office, I noticed the coupon rack where people could drop off coupons and pick up any that would be beneficial to them. I always try to look through this rack, on the off chance that someone would have dropped of a coupon for this type of formula, as it runs nearly $30 a can. Quite pricey, but it's what we used with Caleb and knew that Piper would probably tolerate it well too, and has. I mentioned to the front desk girl that I was looking for a coupon for this and she asked me what type and I told her the brand and the color of the can. She disappeared into the back and came out with 2 cases of it and told me to take it to the car right then. They had just received a delivery from the reps and I was thrilled to take it all off their hands! Freebie number 1!
So, we saw the doctor and I explained P's symptoms to him and he determined that she has a sinus infection, secondary to the flu she had. It's pretty common, but an antibiotic is necessary. Since Piper's never had any they always try amoxicillin first. The doctor mentioned that a local store in town, Market Street, has a whole list of 70 or so medications that they are giving away free to their patrons to compete with the other big store in town and did I want to go to the hassle of going there to get it? Hello? It's free and I'll take it! Freebie number 2!
The moral to today's story is this, mention to your pediatrician's office staff what products you are using and they might just hook you up and a little extra effort to go to a different store might net you free medicine!

Disappointed? Not Really.

I think I may have mentioned a few times on our blog how we were considering putting Caleb in a school near our home that is both private and a university model school. Basically, that means that he would go on MWF and be home with me on TTh, homeschooled those two days.
Tonight was the open house and it seems as if this school is just not going to be Caleb's school next year. Alot of this decision is financial, not that we can't afford it, but more that it would derail our plans for getting completely out of debt, something that would benefit our family long term. I don't like to discuss money on our blog, or anywhere else, but with the economy the way it is and Jes being in such a volatile profession, we just can't commit to spending that amount of money every month starting just this next month, March.
The biggest question was this, "Do our kids REALLY need to attend preschool?" I know that I never went to preschool, as is true for most of my friends, however the standards for kids coming into Kindergarten these days just seems so much more stringent. We just had to make the difficult decision of what would be BEST for the WHOLE family, longterm, not what we WANT for Caleb.
So the plan now? We go back to our original plan: homeschooling. I will be getting online this week and looking at curriculum for Caleb. I had researched this two years ago, but let it go by the wayside as we thought that we would be going another direction.
I have heard from multiple friends about "needing a break" from their kids and that preschool would afford this for me, but to be completely honest the past couple of months with Caleb at home, while hard, has been some of the best months we have had. Caleb is more well behaved, is totally done potty training and has learned some essential skills that he hadn't been able to pick up when he was in Mother's Day Out. He has also returned to the sweet natured little boy that I knew before the beginning of last year. He no longer has melt downs and is, for the most part, very well behaved. All in all, the behavior that sent us into such a tail spin 4 or 5 months ago has resolved.
In many ways I'm disappointed for Caleb, but in more ways I'm relieved. It's good to have a plan and something to be moving toward.

Best Friends

All afternoon, Caleb has been running up to me, hugging me and saying, "You're my best friend in the whole world."

Funny, I thought this guy was his best friend. I guess I can settle for being his best friend today, or at least just his Mama. What a pleasure!

Consignment Mania!

This time of year is one of my favorites, not because of the weather, because really, it's a never ending cycle of 80 degree days and ice the next. No, it's consignment sale time!

I have lots of mommy friends who would never even consider dressing their kiddos in consignment sale finds, but I have to tell you that over the past few years these sales have become like a sport to me. I have found some of the cutest things for each of my kiddos in the sales that I frequent. Case in point: at the last sale I attended, I procured a precious navy and white gingham print smocked dress from one of those fancy boutiques, with the tags attached. I paid $10.00 for it and it was marked for $55.00 on the tag from the original store. I would NEVER buy my child a $55 dress, at least not now. We'll see how things change when we're looking at prom and such, but for a 7 month old, it's just not practical.

I've also heard from some of my mommy friends that they don't want to bother with going to the sales because they only want to dress their kids in high quality, usually name brand things.

Here is a picture of Caleb in a Ralph Lauren long sleeved, button down shirt that retails normally for between $25-$35. Again, not something I would buy in a store, however my mom found this at one of our local resale shops for less than $10. A steal to say the least.

All this jabbering on about consignment sales leads me to this:

This is the consignment sale that my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group puts on biannually. It is not only a huge fundraiser for us and for the other groups we support, but it is a great ministry to our community and to other moms that need a group for belonging. The sale is March 28th at Trinity Presbyterian Church in McKinney. It runs from 7am to noon with a half price sale from 12:30 to 3pm. You can find everything here from baby and children's clothing, toys, accessories, books, games, and even outdoor playthings. We only take cash, so come prepared and stocked. Just fyi, in the fall I shopped for both Caleb and Piper with $120 with me and left with about $30 in my pocket. I didn't get everything I went for, but they were both well stocked for the fall and winter, only needing a few pieces to fill in here and there.

Ok, that ends the advertisement portion of our show. I must go assist a little boy on the potty.

The BEST Valentine's Day Gift E.V.E.R.!

Valentine's night, after returning from visiting the family, I was presented with my normal box of chocolates and cards. One was from the kids and oh so cute, the other from Jes. When I opened it inside was a coupon that he had made (I would post a picture but my Picasa isn't cooperating today). It read:

This coupon is redeemable for 1 day of shopping with you mom without Caleb and Piper.
This time and the cash is provided for the redeemer of this coupon to shop for herself and not for her family, as her family is well provided for by her and her husband. This requirement must be met for future coupons to appear.
Expiration: My love has no expiration.

While a day of shopping may not seem like a big deal to most, it really is to me. Jes has complained since we were dating that I wouldn't ever buy myself anything, unless it was needed right then. I know that this is something that I do, but I find much more enjoyment in shopping for others than I do myself. Also, like most people right now, all of our disposable income is either going to buy something for the kids or paying off debts. This means that Jes has been planning this for months as he has to stash money away without me knowing about it. So sweet. I'm a lucky gal!

Her Father Was Horrified, But She Looks Pretty Proud

One day last week, Caleb came running up to me saying something about Piper and her shirt and her arm. I couldn't figure what he was trying to tell me, as he just didn't have the correct words. When I came around the corner, this is what I saw. I instantly took a picture on my Blackberry and sent it to Jes. He texted me back with the following words:
"Isn't she a little too young to be taking her clothes off for just anyone?"
Yea, well. What can I say? Silly girl.

Flu- Part Deaux

Guess who started running a fever this afternoon? That's right, the boy. He's now coughing and sneezing and acting like he'll be felled by this flu soon. We're hoping for best case scenario, that it is very short lived, like his sister's case is (she's feeling much better today but is still quite cranky). We've dusted off the nebulizer, as we haven't had to use it in a month or so, so we're ready to go. The lock down continues.

Flu

We found out today, after a few days of fevers and feeling not so great, that Piper has the flu. It's not just any type of flu, it's the type A strain of the flu. This happens to be the strain that is totally resistant to TamiFlu, the normal treatment for this issue. It is really a non-issue right now for her because even if it were another strain, she's entirely too young to take it. So, we are watching and hoping that no other more serious respiratory symptoms develop. If so, we're headed for the hospital.
The more scary part of this is that Caleb is at risk to get it. Jes and I are old enough to take the alternative drug to help prevent us developing symptoms, but Caleb is just too young. Kids have to be 6 or older to take it. So, we're in a holding pattern with Caleb. The big problem here is that if Caleb were to develop the symptoms then it would impact him much more than any of the rest of us due to his significant asthma. Last time, in 2007, when he had flu the first time, it deteriorated into pneumonia and we ended up in the hospital for just a few days. He was on TamiFlu then, so his symptoms were somewhat lessened, but he couldn't this time due to the resistance. So, needless to say we're pretty concerned.
We are hunkering down in the house this week and I'm cancelling all activities as well as missing some meetings and even working at the church on Wednesday morning. What a nightmare.
Oh, and if anyone wants to know, we were ALL vaccinated... Sigh.

7 Months

Can you believe I'm doing this again already? I'm a couple of days late, but our baby girl is officially 7 months old. Isn't she the cutest thing? It's ok, you can admit it...

The mutual admiration between Caleb and his sister continues. Now that Piper is a little older, the do enjoy playing together as much as possible. Piper is trying to sit up unassisted and is mostly successful, however she does tend to fall to the side when bumped so we can't leave them alone too long. Caleb and Piper seem to have a language all their own. Sometimes they are just looking at each other and laughing and you know that there is more going on there and that they understand each other. It is exactly the type of relationship I hoped my kiddos would have.

On the feeding front, the pediatrician told us at her 6 month appointment that we could start introducing proteins into her diet. I wasted no time at all incorporating yogurt, which she looks forward to everyday. However, the idea of making some type of baby food with chicken (the suggested place to start) seemed a little daunting. I did get up the nerve to try it and eventually mixed it with squash, one of her favorites. Turns out, Piper loves chicken. She eats up everything that you mix it with, well except peas. The girl still doesn't like peas, but I try to mix them into various things so that she'll eat them. She seems to have some type of pea radar though because she ALWAYS makes a face when they are included. Silly girl.

I also decided to purchase and try some puffs to see if she liked them as they are a good snack. She loves the rice rusks and devours those, but the puffs seemed to be another story. The first and second time we tried, P turned up her nose and spit them out when we finally just stuck one in her mouth. The third time, I just place a couple on her highchair tray, turned around to wash some dishes and turned back around to see her clutching on in each fist, licking her hand. She seems to like them ok right now, but they are still not her favorite!

By this point in Caleb's growth, I had him completely on a sippy cup. Piper, on the other hand, just doesn't want one. Call it second child syndrome or whatever, but I just don't care if she doesn't want it right now. We try it every once in a while with water, but she just wants to chew on it and doesn't care to drink out of it. When she does happen to get some water in her mouth she likes it, but we're not forcing the issue quite yet.

Earlier this month I got the hairbrained idea that we would all watch the swearing in of the president together. Of course the kids could not have cared less, but I wanted to document it for future reference. Now they can say that they saw it on tv.

Piper is a very aware and observant child. We love to go places and do things and she is just as happy in her car seat looking at the people around and the surroundings as she is out and playing. In fact, most times she is perfectly content to people watch while we are browsing in a store or playing at the park.

Piper also has developed quite the personality lately. While she's always been quite smiley, she has discovered her voice and just loves to use it, constantly. Is Piper is awake, she talking, squealing, or making some type of happy noise. Piper is quite expressive as well. The video above is very short, but shows some of her personality and of course her ever present doll that she loves to attack. I was hoping that the doll could be a lifelong keepsake, but the way that she attacks and beats that poor doll around, it might not make it to her first birthday!

On the health front, Piper has been a very well baby, certainly far more so than her brother. She caught the dreaded stomach bug that we all had a couple of months ago, but this past month she officially had her first cold. I figure that if that is the first respiratory issue we've had with her thus far, then hopefully we are headed down a good path toward avoiding all the issues we've had with Caleb.

Piper also perfected her raspberry this month. She loves to do this at any time. She really gets her "motor" going when she's super excited and laughing. She is also sleeping much better these days than in the past. Towards the end of this past month, when we started giving her more protein at dinner, she will actually sleep from 8 or 9ish until at least 5am. After nearly 7 months of having to get up at least once, most times twice, a night it has been a VERY welcome change!

Piper is really the best little girl and more than we could have ever asked for in a baby girl! She is just so laid back and patient with us and is just such a loving little girl. We feel so blessed that we have the opportunity to share our lives with her!

Here We Go Again

Caleb was exactly 7 months old when he uttered his first word, Mama. Perhaps it was just an accident during a regular babbling session, but I counted it and it became an oft repeated word for him. From that time on, he has never ceased the chattering, even during sleep.
This morning, Piper, now 7 months old, said her first word: Dada. I've told Jes over and over that I've finally birthed a child for him, this just is another thing to prove it. I guess this means we have another talker on our hands. It will be a loud next few years!

The Days of Our Lives

Nothing super exciting around the Mathis camp, just the normal.


Caleb riding his motorcycle in the kitchen while wearing half his pajamas, his whitey tighties and his goggles.

Trying to teach Piper to actually OPEN her hand to eat the puff. Haven't succeeded in this one, yet.

The Two of Us - Buffed Edition

Caleb has a few sets of those Imaginex toys. He loves them, and frankly so do we. Each set comes with a little person and some accessories. This is a picture of 2 of his little Imaginex people. He was playing with them today in one of his trucks and he started trying to name them like most kids do at this age.
He called the guy in green on the left Daddy; which I can totally see with the green, Jes's favorite color, and the facial hair. The guy in tan on the right apparently is me. Oh to have that guy's quads.

Proof

This morning, Caleb and I were working on his writing skills. Look what he did! He's been able to write letters for awhile now, but has never put them all together to spell his name all on his own before. He asked me to take a picture and I couldn't say no!

During Piper's lunch, Caleb provided a little lunch time show for her. He was dancing around the kitchen and carrying on, she, of course, was laughing. My two babies...

Brotherly Love and A Little History

Caleb kissing Piper. Oh, if only this mutual admiration of each other would last!

I decided that the kiddos and I would watch the Inagauration today. We didn't vote for Obama, but he's the guy that got elected, so we'll support him. I took a few pictures today, mainly to prove to them one day that their dear old mother did in fact expose them to a little history in the making. Piper couldn't be bothered but Caleb seemed to understand that there was something big afoot. Anyway, this will be good in the future with Caleb becomes president, or as he says "presentdent"!

Story Time

Caleb has been learning more and more words and is reading better and better, so lately he has decided that he will read stories to Piper. I caught him reading one of his Curious George books to her and she seemed to really enjoy it, but then again she enjoys any interaction with her brother!

Oops. I forgot.

So, I guess I forgot to post the results of Caleb's evaluation with the ENT who was supposed to do his sedated ABR. We got to the office and immediately, I knew that it was going to be a good visit. While we love our regular ENT, he's not one who just treats kids. When we walked into the office, I noticed that out of the 3 kids in the waiting area, 2 of them had double hearing aids on. That told me that this particular doctor probably knew what he was looking at when he saw a kid with a potential hearing loss.
When we finally got through all the paperwork and whatnot and got to see the doctor he told me that he wanted to try another test on Caleb. He wanted Caleb to see his audiologist and have the hearing tests repeated. So, off he went to track her down and we got in right then to do the tests. Here's the best part: Caleb passed all the tests and was determined to have totally normal hearing in both ears! I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself! We saw the doctor again after the tests and he said that he felt as if the results would turn out that way because Caleb's speech is so good. I was very confident that he would know what he was talking about since he sees so many KIDS with hearing difficulties. So, the long and short of it is, we don't have to put him through anymore testing for his hearing. Yea!
I wanted to post that quickly because I have to head off to bed. Neither Jes nor I got much sleep last night as he was called into work around 9pm and Piper started shooting massive amounts of snot out of her nose. So, one of us was up with her off and on all night. I figure that if I get to bed now, 1am won't be so so bad!

Emerson

Today I pulled myself out of my pity party (sorry about that, by the way) and looked for things I can be thankful for. For all the health issues we have been through with Caleb nothing compares to the issues of this little girl, Emerson. She has already been through one small bowel/pancreas/liver transplant and now needs another to survive. Her home state of Colorado has since dropped her from Medicaid, even though she relies on it and cannot have the transplany without it. In short, Emerson will die if she does not have this transplant and/or if the state of Colorado gets its way. Go here http://cotaforemersonw.com/node/35 to check out her story and see what you can do to help. I know I'll be taking a few minutes to write a little letter myself.

A Couple of Fun Videos

I got a new camera for Christmas, so I thought I would try out the video recording part to see how it worked. This first video is of Caleb riding his tricycle, and quite well. This may not seem like a big deal to most, but every kiddo has abilities that they are better at than others, and my son has never been all that great on the physical/athletic front. He's just like his Mama. We all worked so hard with Caleb to help him acquire this skill, so we're quite proud.

This next video is of Piper in her swing. Caleb was playing with a ball in the house and she just got so tickled. I got the tail end and it's a little dark and quite grainy, but you get to see my P in action. She even gives you a little "hi" at the end. (Just a disclaimer, she's not really saying hi, it's just the sound she's always made when she sees me. She's always done it.)

Today

Caleb's long awaited speech evaluation was this morning at 10am. We were told to plan on just over an hour, so I was surprised, to say the least, when the speech therapist delivered Caleb back to my mom, Piper and myself just before 10:30. The therapist and I had a meeting and she said that just from comparing his ability before Thanksgiving at his intake appointment and today, she saw a huge improvement in his speech. She seems to think some of it is due to his tubes but also because he is just growing and learning so fast.

The unofficial determination is that Caleb will probably not need speech therapy and is actually scoring above what a normal 3 to 4 year old would in the area of speech. There will be an official report, but no one is expecting that he will need much, if any therapy. While I was there, I also asked about the report from the observation that was done for Caleb while he was still in the Mother's Day Out program. While we don't have an official report from that yet either, the paper work indicated that the lady who did the observation did not see anything that warranted much, if any concern.

I also talked briefly with the therapist about why we decided to take Caleb out of the school and they agreed that what they were teaching was somewhat too elementary for him at this point and that he might need an actual preschool or something with set curriculum in the fall. Maybe they can teach him how to not write a runon like that... :)

Anyway, let me leave you with a couple of cute pictures of the kiddos:

Here's something I never thought I would see, hair! Enough hair to put a bow in!

It's a tiny bow, but it's a bow and it stayed there all day long! This is an exciting day for us! (It doesn't take much to get me excited, now does it?)

Here's Caleb playing with his Click Start, or more commonly called, his computer. He LOVES this and plays it as much as I will let him!

Can We Stop At 2 Please?

So, you know how you have heard that all bad things come in 3's? Well, we experienced number 2 last night and are hoping that we can stop there.
We were having a particularly fun night with Caleb, as we had to wake him up from a nap and he was crabby to say the least. I told Jes to put him in a bath to relax him a little and then it was off to bed for him. He had just finished with his bath and Jes shuttled him to his room when he realized that his lotion was in the bathroom, just next door to Caleb's bedroom. As Jes rounded the corner he saw that Caleb had a can of room air freshener in his hand, pointed directly at his eye and sprayed it. In his eye.
Immediately, the screaming and crying commensed, so I told Jes to put him back in the shower, turn it on and start forcing water into his eye to wash it out. We read the can and it said to either call the doctor or poison control. This was around 7pm, so I decided to call poison control, since it would take the better part of an hour to hear back from the nurse on call with the pediatrician.
Long story short, Caleb sat in the bathtub with the shower running over his head and face, and ultimately into his eye to wash it out. We reevaluated in an hour with poison control and they deemed him ok and we didn't need to go to the ER.
So, let's take score here, 1 call to 911 to rescue Piper from a locked car when it was below freezing and raining outside and 1 call to poison control to ensure that Caleb doesn't lose his eyesight.
Can we PLEASE be done now?

Pediatrician Appointment and Speech Eval Update

This morning, I took Piper to the pediatrician. She checked out and all my questions were answered. Her measurements are as follows:

Weight: 18lb 12oz (89th %tile)

Length: 27.5in (93rd %tile)

Head Circ: 17.75in (96th %tile)

We go back in a month for her booster flu shot and then again in 3 months for her 9 month appointment. I can't believe my baby is so big already!



Yesterday, before all the mayhem and 911 calling ensued, I got a phone call from the school district people regarding Caleb's speech evaluation. I was under the impression that if he failed his hearing test that they wouldn't do the speech eval at all. Apparently, if Caleb has normal hearing in one ear, they can still do it. So the long and short of it is, we're back on for Thursday morning at 10am for his official speech evaluation. If Caleb needs therapy, I think it will be a positive thing to get him started before his ABR and determination on that. If he does need a hearing aid, at least he's on the right path with the therapy and we can hopefully just continue on or tweak as we need to. We're still praying that his ABR comes back totally normal, but I guess I'm just trying to prepare for the worst. Hopefully, that's unnecessary.

I Didn't Want a Post THAT Bad.

Last night, I opened up the blog to post and realized I didn't really have anything to say. I closed it back up with the thought, "I'll post when something exciting happens or when I just have something to talk about". Well.
This morning, we were getting ready to get to MOPS. Since it was our first meeting of the Spring semester, all us girls on steering were to bring the food. That just means one more bag for me, so I loaded everything up in the car and then went after the kids. After putting Piper in the car and crossing over to the other side to put Caleb in, I realized that the keys and P were locked in the car. Evidently, Caleb was playing with the door and locked it without unlocking it again. We got rid of our home phone some time ago and my purse was in the car, so I didn't have my cell phone to call someone. My next inclination was to go to the neighbor's to try to use their phone. Our next door neighbor did not answer the door, neither did the one across the street or next door to her. As I walked away from there in tears, soaking wet, cold and dragging Caleb with me, the meter reader came around the corner. He saw that I was quite distressed and asked me if there was something he could do for me. I explained the situation and he used his own personal phone to call a locksmith, who was none too helpful. They explained it would be about 20 or more minutes before they could come around to open the car, regardless of the fact that my 6 month old was locked in and it was below freezing temps. Sigh. Some people...
The meter reader said he would finish up the street and come back around to wait with me, so I headed back to my garage. About that time, my neighbor came out and asked if everything was ok. I explained what had happened and she told me to come over and use her phone. She was so sweet and watched Caleb for me as I called Jes to figure out what to do. We decided that waiting on the locksmith was not an option at this point, so I called 911. About 5 minutes later I heard sirens coming toward our house and sure enough an ambulance peeled around the corner. They were able to open the car and check on Piper, who was more upset about being woke up than anything else.
Poor Caleb felt so bad because he was the one who locked the door and as I stood in the driveway crying from despair, all he could say was, "I'm sorry Mama, I'm sorry." It all worked out in the end, but this was not the best way to start a Monday. I made it to MOPS, late (!), and won a door prize, at which point our coordinator explained what had happened. She said she was glad she drew my name because she thought I needed a door prize more than anyone else! It seems as I have entered some sort of club now that this has happened to me because around 15 ladies told me they had done the same thing in some form or fashion. I'm so thankful that we live less than a mile from 2 (!) fire stations and have so many lovely women in my life that make me feel better when I do something stupid like this! Here's to a boring afternoon!

Month 6

Yesterday, Piper turned 6 months old. We are having a really hard time believing this and can't fathom how we got from this:

to this:

Piper is just the sweetest little girl who is very quick with the smiles, unless she's got a camera in her face. She is very inquisitive about all things right now and especially likes the computer and the camera. Sound like anyone else you know? Piper is trying SO hard to sit up unassisted, but still falls to the side or forward when she sits. She is currently enamored with her feet, so if she is sitting and catches sight of them, which happens most times, she ends up folded in half with toes in her mouth, happy as a clam!

This month, we had the priviledge to have Piper's dedication at our church. This was something that we did with Caleb too, but we were very new members and knew next to no one. This time around, we were surrounded not only by our family, but also our good friends who have loved us through good and bad. Piper was very happy and just sat in her Daddy's arms and looked adorable in her expensive dress. One of the more special things that our church does, along with giving Piper her first Bible, is the pastor writes a letter to each child that we are instructed to save until they make their decision to come to Christ. I have filed Piper's away and will be very excited to give it to her during that special time in her life.

Piper's gross motor skills continued to progress this month. I think that I wrote that late last month, Piper made the harder move of rolling from her belly to her back, but this month she has really perfected it. We have to be very vigilant to watch her when she is on the floor, as she has gotten herself in some pretty sticky situations a couple of times because she just rolls into things and all around the place. She is also working SO hard at crawling. Sometimes Piper gets so upset because she gets her hiney in the air, but not up on her hands and vice versa, but never at the same time. She wants to crawl so bad, but just can't yet and honestly, I'm ok with that.

Piper's fine motor skills are coming along too, but not nearly as quick as the other. She is able to pick up small things, but still with her whole hand, and not her first finger and thumb. I know her brother way way ahead of the curve on this, doing it well by this age, so I'm not worried about her not being able to do this quite yet.

Obviously, this last month brought Christmas. Even though we had a pretty low key day, just hanging out with my mom, dad and grandmother, it was still a day full of new things for our little P. She got the hang of opening the presents because she loves to grab and pull things, so that was easy.

My parents and grandmother all went in together and bought Piper the super deluxe Exersaucer model. We never had one of these with Caleb and I really wanted her to have one. She really loves sitting in it and all the things that she can do while there. Sometimes she still gets a little overstimulated, but all in all, it is her favorite Christmas gift!

Her other favorite gift was this light up, spinning top that sings and does all manner of things. She seemed to know right away what to do with it and played with it instantly. She will probably have much more fun with it when she can sit up independently, but for now we just sit and play with it either holding her or in her Bumbo seat.

Piper still has an intense love affair for her brother. Here are the two of them right before we went home Christmas night from my parent's house. She has a tight grip on Caleb's hair and he certainly doesn't care.

Piper also made it through her first annual Lee family Christmas that involves my sister, two brothers and their families, all in my parent's house for the fun. This year, we all were cutting back, so we decided to draw names for both the adults and the kids and Piper got this cute dress/leggings set that I had been admiring for sometime, and a precious pair of pajamas. She was well loved by my brother Damon's girls and she had fun watching everyone have a great time!

Here's the annual cousin picture after the Christmas party at my parent's house. From left to right: Caleb, Madison, Tristen, P, and Dixie. Matt was missing this year because he is in the navy now (we're all so proud) and has been stationed in Maine. Piper loved the Christmas tree and all the sparkle associated, so she was easily entertained by that.

Piper has developed her definite favorites when it comes to what she likes to eat. On her list of favorites are sweet potatoes, squash, an apple/pear mixture, bananas, blueberries and oatmeal. She really does not like peas and the above picture was her first experience with green beans. She did not like them, but I managed to get it all into her by mixing it in with some sweet potatoes. I am still making all of Piper's baby food and have yet to try anything that is canned/jarred with the exception of the oatmeal/rice cereals out there. I have recipes for those, but I'm not too sure that I'm able to make those.

Here's the face I see when she gets her fruit/oatmeal mixture. Happy girl!

Now that she's 6 months old, we get to start with meats and yogurt. We tried a little yogurt this morning with her daily banana/oatmeal concoction and she seemed to like it, once she got past the initial newness of it. The meat, I'm not so sure how I'm going to do that, but once again, I have recipes and I'll figure it out.

This month, Piper also made a new friend, our cat Gus. While she has noticed him all this time, Gus has finally found it in his heart to let her get near him. I don't know if it's that he's getting soft in his old age or just getting old, but he tolerates a little of her clumsy grabbing of him, until she pulls his whiskers or fur. Gus is a sweet cat and never retaliates, just runs off, so we don't worry about him. He is, in fact, quite protective of both our kids, especially when they are babies, watching every move we make and making sure that they are ok.

All in all, this has been a month full of changes and a lot of growing up for our Piper. We can hardly believe that she's already half way through her first year of life, but we can't wait for all the fun that we know is in store!

Well Then.

So, let's start with the easy part first. Piper's pediatrician was sick today, so we rescheduled her appointment for the 6th, so no stats today. I'll get her 6 month newsletter up in the next day or so.
Now, on to the other child. We had Caleb's ENT appointment this morning which started off with yet another hearing exam. Caleb would not cooperate for a portion of the test and even turned off one of the machines in the middle, prompting us to have to do one whole test over again from the beginning. Needless to say, we walked away from there without a completed test and a very annoyed audiologist.
What we do know from the test is this, his right ear is working perfectly but his left is a totally different story. The next step is that we have a test called an ABR done to test the nerve function to see if there is really a hearing deficit or if he's just being difficult. Our ENT does do ABRs in the office, but they do not sedate, which is not an option with our busy 3 year old. If he wouldn't sit and cooperate fully for the simple hearing exam, he wouldn't cooperate for the ABR. I never thought I would willingly ask for a test that involved sedation, but in this case to get answers, it's necessary.
There are two possible outcomes for this test:
1. his ABR will come back totally normal and we'll know that his hearing is ok and he's just difficult
2. his ABR will come back abnormal and we'll be looking at hearing aids
To be perfectly honest, this second possibility scares the living daylights out of me. I understand that there are many kids and grownups out there with hearing aids, but I also know the stigma that is attached to them. Someone told me that it is no different than wearing glasses, but in reality it is. Every other person on the planet wears glasses, so kids have someone to look to to know that they are normal, hearing impared kids, on the other hand, don't necessarily have that. I know that this is probably the most minor thing that could happen, but I'm to the point where I'm wondering when Caleb is just going to get a break. It seems like if something could go wrong for him, it has and the poor kid has been through too much, in my opinion, for his short 3 years. Ok, sorry. I'm just feeling sorry for him and us.
In the next few days we will be getting information about this office that we go to to have the test done, but I guess this means his speech evaluation for next week is off. Thanks for your prayers. I guess God has another path for our son, I just sure wished that I knew what that was.

So- Tomorrow is a Big Day.

Tomorrow, I take Caleb back to the ENT for his post surgery follow up and yet another hearing test. If he does not pass this one, I'm not sure what we do from here. The whole theory is that he's failing the hearing tests because of fluid in his ears, but the tubes should have taken care of all that. Oh, there's also that pesky speech evaluation he cannot have on the 8th if he doesn't pass the hearing test tomorrow.
Needless to say, there's quite a lot riding on this test and he HAS to have a good result or we're headed down a very unknown road.
Caleb's appointment is at 8:30 in the morning, so I'll know something well before lunch time. Piper has her 6 month appointment with the pediatrician right after, therefore it will be later in the day before I can post anything about the appointment. Hopefully we'll have good news the next time we meet!

You HAVE To Read This

So, go to the link below and read the story. It restores a little faith in our society. With all the crud going on (hello, crazy man driving down the freeway shooting innocent people?) we all need a little of that once in a while.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Holiday Wishes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Mathis family to yours!

Love,

Jesse, Shannon, Caleb and Piper

Hm. I Wasn't Expecting That.

So, two blog posts in the same day. I guess either I'm really interesting today or just trying to put things off, like cleaning and laundry. Let's just go with the first one.
I wrote a week or two ago about taking Caleb to the pulmonologist and how he wanted to have him testing for allergies right.then. I had a thought this weekend that I should have probably heard back from them on the results, so I placed a call to the office. We were headed to Target so I was ready with a pen and paper the whole time so I could whip it out and write down all the things that "dinged" in his test if they called while we were in the store.
I got the phone call as we were on our way home and the respiratory therapist said something I was not expecting:
"All his tests came back negative."
They tested Caleb for all the vegetation and animals in this half of the US and also indoor allergens and he was not allergic to any of them. I was told that the test he had done was accurate and that even the allergic chemicals in his blood were very low, so he's not allergic to anything.
So, why does he have the symptoms he does? Apparently, he has a condition called nonallergic rhinitis. Basically, he has all the symptoms of having allergies without actually being allergic. If you read up on it, you treat this the same way (with all the medications) and it is triggered by things like changes in weather (something that I have always said is causing him symptoms).
So, in all it is pretty good news, just news that we don't know yet what to do with.

I Guess We Should Start Taking Up Collections Now.

When I met and, shortly thereafter, married Jes, I noticed one very astounding thing about this man I loved so dearly.
He could eat.
No, really, he could put it away and never, never, never gained even an ounce. This has since caught up with him thanks to my stellar (yeah right) cooking and his entering the 4th decade of life. My grandfather used to say he had a hollow leg, and at one point in time, I started to believe it everytime I went to the grocery store and spend so much money on 2 people.
When we found out we were having a boy, one of the many discussions we had was how he would be like his daddy. We all know that teenage boys are famous for their ability to pack it away, I just didn't think that it would happen so fast in my house.
This morning, in his first hour and a half awake, Caleb has eaten a breakfast bar (Nutrigrain type thing), applesauce, and a bowl full of oatmeal with bananas. Now he's asking for a peanut butter sandwich. Normally, I'm not one to deny my chid something to eat, but seriously, I had to say enough is enough.
Maybe I should start looking for another part time job now and save up for his teenage years if this is what he's like when he's 3!

The 4th Thing

So, that was entirely too much information about the digestive goings on in our household, huh? Jes and I are on the mend, so I thought I would do this thing that has been going around the blogs that I love to read.
Basically, you go to your picture folder, go to the 4th folder within the pictures and post the 4th picture. Then you explain it. Here's mine:


This is Caleb and I at the Dallas Aquarium in front of the flamingo habitat. This was a couple of years ago when I was teaching the gymnasts and one of them needed to go to either the aquarium or the zoo for a school project. This photo was taken in mid-May, so it being in Texas, we chose the indoor spot.

Now, all of you do it too! It's so much fun to look back!

The Last Two

Jes and I have the stomach thing now. Hopefully this is where it ends. Yuck.

On the Upswing?

Dare I say it? Oh, I'm not superstitious... I think we're getting better here in the land o' germs. Caleb has only "exploded" once today and Piper actually took something by bottle this morning, other than Pedialyte. P's appetite is still not what it was, but it took Caleb a few days to get back to eating somewhat normally, so I'm thinking it will be back to normal by Monday. She is still coughing, but I've been able to start her on some medication the doctor gave me to help with the congestion in her sinuses since the puking has stopped. It does seem to be helping and hopefully, she'll be past the worst of it in a couple of days. This is not new territory for us, but we're very thankful that it took nearly 6 months for her to get her first real illness.
Currently, I'm watching Caleb play in a laundry basket (clearly we need to get out!) and I've already had to banish him to his room 3 times this morning. Apparently, he's back to his old self.
We'll be staying in today and tomorrow and will reassess tomorrow night to consider church. Thankfully, we can watch church and join in via the Internet, so at least we'll be able to hear the message, if we can't be there in person!

And Then...

The baby girl has it. Sigh.

On a positive note, I'm sitting here watching Caleb eat a grilled cheese and french fries from Sonic. He says his "tummy feels a lot better Mama", so let's hope it stays in him, right where it's supposed to be.

I ready to be done with this particular illness. So, this is what being a Mama of 2 sick kiddos is like. Well then.

Still Not Good

So, what a night/day we've had. Last night, Caleb spiked a fever. Higher than normal, but not yet high enough to call the surgeon. What's a mom to do? So, I called the pediatrician's on call nurse service. She told us exactly what we thought, push fluids, give a lukewarm bath, dress in light clothes, rest. We did it and he decided to eat a little before going to bed (with me, again.). We'd been lying in bed for just a few minutes and I heard the unmistakeable sound that no mom wants to hear come from your child who is lying in your bed - puke, on its way up. That's right, he puked. In my bed. All over himself. And me. Yuck.
Jes and I got him and the bed cleaned up and we tried it again. Eventually, he passed out and slept all night without hardly a whimper (hardly). Meanwhile, Jes tried to convince Piper to sleep in the other room.
This morning, bright and early brought on a mom's second worst nightmare, the d word. I called the ENT to see what exactly we should do and they were afraid that he might be having some type of allergic reaction to the antibiotic ear drops. Off the the doctor we went this afternoon only to be told that he has a stomach virus, probably "the one" that has been going around.
Are they serious? We've had this twice before! Anyway, Caleb will miss his last day of school tomorrow and we'll be hunkering down here in the house praying that Piper doesn't succumb to it. I'll be on the hunt for this little bug and spraying it into oblivion with my trusty can of Lysol tonight. Have a good evening all!

Recovery

The last 36 or so hours have been pretty difficult around here with Caleb's recovery. He has the normal aches and pains that come with the procedure he had early yesterday morning, but added to that he has his normal issues from his asthma that seem to rear its ugly head each time he has a surgery. (Boy, that was some sentence.)
Caleb was diagnosed with asthma when he was 9 months old and is highly medicated. In fact, he is on the highest dosage of all the medications that he is on that would be safe for his age group. The only times that he has difficulties or you even know that he has asthma is when he is either sick (including allergies) or has had surgery. With his first and this last surgery, he was not intubated as the surgery was very short and it was not needed, but he still had/has symptoms. Needless to say, we are doing breathing treatments every 4 hours and following the same protocol that we have for each of these incidents.
The other issue we are having with Caleb right now is that he will not eat. Last night he was complaining of a tummy ache, but did manage to eat a container of apple sauce. In the time since his surgery, he has had the following to eat:
- 2 popscicles (directly after surgery, at the hospital)
- 1 cheese stick
- 1 breakfast bar (Nutrigrain type thing)
- 1 container of apple sauce
- 1 cracker
We have tried offering him everything that we have and nothing is what he wants. He seems like he does not feel bad, but just won't eat! We are falling back on an old standby, a Happy Meal. Even at his most sick, he has always eaten at least part of one, so Jes is going to stop and get one on the way home. He is drinking lots, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow he'll be eating us out of house and home again!

Home

This morning was Caleb's surgery. I was up bright and early at 4:45 am (!) and he was up around 5. We got ourselves together, he took his asthma meds and we were out the door. When we had his tonsil and adenoids out, we left about the same time of morning and hit a good bit of traffic, so I decided that we would do the same this morning and probably wouldn't arrive too early. I guess with this cold front that blew in (um, hello? could it be colder in that 30mph wind? yikes!), many people weren't out yet. We made it to the hospital with about 20 minutes to spare, so Caleb and I drove around and looked at Christmas lights. We quickly discovered that not many people still have their lights on at 5:45 in the morining, but we did manage to find a few and get a giggle out of others.
We were able to get into the surgery center around 6ish and checked in. There was another little boy before us, so we had to wait for a little while. I could totally tell that his mom and dad had not done this before and that he was new to the surgery thing too. Because of their freshman status, the staff and the doctor (ours too) took a little extra time with their family.
Caleb was taken back, given the liquid medication to make him loopy and was wheeled back into the OR around 7:30. I managed to get a cup of coffee and address 1 Christmas card, looked up and the doctor was walking toward me. He said that the placement of the tubes was very easy, but he did see fluid in each ear and that it drained right out. We will go back for a follow up appointment in a couple weeks and will do another hearing test then to determine if the tubes are successful.
We left the hospital at 8:25 and Caleb has been home for 2 hours now and is playing his computer and is acting like nothing happened (except for the fact that he is still slightly drunk from the medication. It's pretty funny watching him try to walk and stand in one place!). We are hoping Caleb will be able to go to school tomorrow for at least the morning as they are doing a project that I really don't want him to miss. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!

About Jes

I've seen this on several blogs and I just love these things. I've done these before, but this one is slightly different and we can look back on this in 10 years and see how things have change.
1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? As long as he has the remote, it's usually something about motorcycles, guns, old westerns or, lately, the military channel.
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? if they have it, honey mustard
3. What's one food he doesn't like? cooked carrots
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? we don't go to bars, but he will get Dr. Pepper or Coke with lime when we go out to dinner
5. Where did he go to high school? North Valley High in Grant's Pass, Oregon
6. What size shoe does he wear? 13
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? motorcycles
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? ham and cheese with ranch dressing on one side and mustard on the other. I know, I don't get it either.
9. What would he eat every day if he could? hot dogs. (yuck)
10. What is his favorite cereal? Raisin Bran or anything sugary. When I shop for cereal, I either look like I'm buying for a house full of kids or senior citizens.
11. What would he never wear? Anything pink or purple or with the Dallas Cowboy's logo on it.
12. What is his favorite sports team? SF 49ers and the Dallas Mavericks. He's a study in contradication.
13. Who did he vote for? McCain. He's very opinionated on many issues, so he was the logical choice.
14. Who is his best friend? Me. He has guy friends, but they don't know him like I do. I guess that would be a question for him.
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Slam doors. I'm a recovering door slammer when I get mad. I relapse from time to time and it drives him nuts!
16. How many states has he lived in? Let's see, Oregon, California, Texas. That's 3.
17. What is his heritage? Rural Oregon.
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be? Well, he doesn't like cake all that much, so I would be taking myself to the bakery and buying a pie. His favorite is strawberry rhubarb, but I've yet to find a place that makes one.
19. Did he play sports in high school? He was great at track and field. Cross Country, high jump, etc.
20. What could he spend hours doing? Riding his motorcycle, or for as long as his body would allow.
21. What's something cool about him? He LOVES his kiddos and is very passionate about what happens to them. I could never have imagined that I would be so luck to end up with a guy who loves his kids like his does.

Small Victories

So, what a downer the past few posts have been, huh? Sorry about all that. We're just up to our eyeballs in 3 year old-ness.
The past week or so have been super busy with MOPS, me finishing up the semester at work, and all the Christmas stuff that has been going on. With all that, Caleb, Piper and I have been spending more time than usual out and about doing what needs to be done. I have to say that Caleb has been so great through all this. His behavior is getting so much better.
Yesterday, Caleb had a pulmonologist's appointment at the hospital. The boy that was right before us was a Down Syndrome child and was particularly difficult for the doctor to examine. (We knew this because our exam room was right next door to his.) We waited for over an hour to see our doctor and Caleb behaved very well. He watched the movie that the nurse chose for us and only tried to get to the tv and another DVD once or twice. Each time, I was able to tell him no and he immediately complied.
The doctor then decided that we needed to do allergy testing in Caleb, right then. That day. In the hospital. I don't know if y'all have all done a simple blood draw in an outpatient lab in a hospital before, but it involves the same check in procedure as surgery. Caleb was great through all of this. The only time he had a moment was when he saw the needle that they were to draw his blood with. He vividly remembers all the IV pokes from last year when he was in the hospital, so he did whimper a little bit, but was a trooper the whole time.
We left the hospital around 5.5 hours after we arrived and all of us were in one piece and still happy with each other. It was a small victory!
Today, he decided that he HAD to go to the bathroom before we went to his classroom before school. After he did his business and washed his hands, he decided that he was not. going. to. ride. on. the. stroller. I thought for sure it would be a fight to get him to his classroom without his running off or us getting into it. No, he walked calmly beside the stroller all the way to his room.
Like my title says, it's the small victories in life that encourage me that this whole situation might be turning around.
Coming up soon, pictures of Piper at her baby dedication on Sunday in a ridiculously expensive outfit. In fact, you may see her in this dress until she's 2! Monday is Caleb's surgery, so there will be a post about that too.
Thanks for all the patience with all the doom and gloom around here. I promise it will get better, it has to!

"The" Meeting and a Surgery Date

So, Thursday I had the meeting with Caleb's Mother's Day Out director. Let me just preface this by saying that while I talk a good game, I am one to avoid confrontation at all costs. Just the thought of having to have this discussion with her made me break out into a cold sweat, but I knew that I had to be the grown up and do it. I got some much needed advice and a fabulous pep talk from my good friend Courtney. She never fails to boost my confidence!

The director and I sat in her office and had a rather nice conversation. We talked for around an hour about all the ins and outs of what she has seen in Caleb over the past nearly 3 years that he has been at the school. Come to find out, she has a son who has severe ADD and had a terrible time in school over the years. He turned out to be a great boy and is about to graduate from college, so most of her experiences with teachers have been far and away worse than what we have gone through in the past couple of years. The conversation just really cemented in my mind that we know Caleb best and that most of the time, the teachers really don't know the child, and frankly don't care to.

Sorry to fall back on bullets, but that is the best way for me to organize what we discussed. Here goes:



- We both agreed that we did not feel there was anything wrong with Caleb. She has seen the gamut of issues with kids through the years, not to mention living with one with a learning issue and one without, and I trust her judgement when she says that what was implied by Caleb's teachers is just not the case. So let's do a quick count here, 2 parents, 3 doctors, 1 speech pathologist and 1 diagnostician all say he's got nothing wrong. 2 Mother's Day Out teachers who don't really know my kid (coming later) say that he's ill. Hm. You do the math.



- The director totally supported our decision to take Caleb out and homeschool him on the days he would normally be in school. She even told me that she still lives with massive amounts of guilt over not doing that for her son, as he apparently needed it. To be perfectly honest, when I talk with friends and family who are educators themselves about our decision to homeschool, they become particularly silent. Not the silent where they are listening, but I can see them biting their tongues. This used to bother me, but I've learned to have confidence in our choices as parents. We know that Caleb is just excelling in this setting right now and he's not a bad kid, he just needs me and one on one time, so he'll get it.



- She was very open to listen to me about Caleb's health issues from the past and actually took into account the fact that those same health issues could be part of the problems here. One such example, Caleb was quite a severe aspirator until he was nearly 2. The muscles that are used for swallowing are also somewhat used for other things, um like speech (!). He also has issues with severe allergies and asthma and this time of the year is very difficult, healthwise, for him as he is on at least 6 medications daily. No one, and I mean no one, else at that school would listen to me when I tried to explain that to them. They just wanted to write him off as "that" kid. He's gotten somewhat of a label through all this and I'm working on ways to remedy that situation, or at least get him away from those teachers. In fact, one day I went to pick him up and they mentioned that he was coughing a lot while running around. I asked if they had given him his inhaler and, I kid you not, they asked if his had asthma. Um, what is that mountain of health information paperwork we filled out for? Did you even listen to me when I told you his inhaler is in the bag? Do you not talk to the other teacher, whom I told this to as well that morning? Needless to say, I medicate him BEFORE he goes now.



- We both feel like some of this is also coming from the fact that our Caleb is still having quite a difficult time acclimating to life with his sister. He seems to be doing better, but Jes and I are trying to make more of an effort to make sure he feel included and gets enough one on one attention. It is getting easier, as Piper is getting older and is a little less needy. When Piper was born, Caleb essentially lost his father, as he is just in love with her, and I was so caught up in the feeding/pumping/diapering/recovering from surgery game that it was almost impossible to give him the attention he had before she came along. I am not blaming Jes for any of this, he does blame himself though (one of his first comments after this all started happening was that he felt like he did this to him and that he caused this. We are working through this.), which is one of the worst things about parenting, thinking you did this to your kid. We have had to really talk our way through all this and are finally coming out on the other side.



The last part of this is that the teachers had to fill out a very abbreviated set of paperwork, similar to what we had to fill out on the skills that Caleb may or may not have. I didn't look at my copy until today, and I was furious after I read it. I had Jes read it too and he felt the same way. It is very apparent to me that these teachers, who have been with him for months now, don't even know our son. I'm not sure how they came to the conclusions that they did when they filled out the paperwork, but most of what they said he could not do, he in fact does do well with us. I know it's a very short time period of the week and I know that he's not cooperating, but my fear is that the diagnostician and speech therapist will put more stock into what they say than what we say. I'll be calling on Monday.



I think that's all about that meeting that was decided/talked about. Caleb will be having his tubes put in on the 15th of this month. The one issue that we are coming up against is that he HAS to pass a hearing test before they can do his complete speech evaluation on the 8th of January. We are hoping and praying that these tubes will help him do just that. After he has his tubes put in, we go back just about 2 weeks after the procedure and have another hearing test done. That's the one he needs to pass. If he doesn't, we reschedule the speech evaluation and try to figure out what our next step is. I hate the unknown!

We Won't Be Pursuing a Musical Career for Him.

Overheard coming from Caleb's room this afternoon:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
And a Happy Thanksgiving.