Seasonal Affective Disorder

I know I don't have an advanced degree or the formal training that comes with it. But I'd like to think some of my husbands brilliance has rubbed off on me over the years. So I have taken some liberties and diagnosed him. He officially has Seasonal Affective Disorder. And I'm not sure what to do with him because he needs to get over it but its not that easy when you are handling someone with depression. This winter he has told me every day, several times a day, how much he hates it here. The winter weather is wearing on him. He hates the cold. He hates the freezing rain and snow. He can't see the good in any of it (which is admittedly hard for a normal person too). But really?! This last week we had several days that were beautifully spring. And the boy was giddy. Smiles from ear to ear. Talkative?! Energetic! NO complaining about anything. I was feeling nervous and confused about what was going on. We flew kites [that Tyler had picked out as his prize for being super brave at the "nose doctor". He had gotten one for himself and then insisted on getting one for Brynn because she hasn't let him for forget how in Arizona she had let him fly her kite and he let it go and it go stuck in the tree in our front yard :)] We went to the park and even had a picnic - where he even let us buy our sandwhiches on the way?! It was a wonderful couple of days...

Then it got cold again. And my husband needed a pick me up. So a short but sweet visit from our dear friends the Thomas' this weekend was just what he needed!!

Unfortunately their visit was interrupted by him needing to leave and go deliver a baby and then cut a little short by the dang weather...

...yup, it started snowing around lunchtime yesterday, beautiful big wet snow, and it didn't stop all day. I think its pretty outside. I do see the end in sight. I just hope my husband can too. He'll have his day at the beach...

7 Months!

Its the 26th day of the month today. So Kate is now 7 months old. Not a ton has happened over the last few weeks. She is a great sitter upper now. She sleeps through the night (until about 5am when she gets a bottle) about 75% of the time. And something that she is finally making improvements on is eating. She's been basically on a liquid milk diet for 7 months because she hasn't been able to grasp the concept of eating. Her little tongue would just push the food out the front of her mouth as fast as I would put it in. Too frustrating. Its not that she didn't like the food, she just couldn't figure out how to swallow it.

But I've decided to start trying harder, and buying different new fangled contraptions to see what would work/help. And she can sometimes eat now ;)

She doesn't pick up little puffs or whatever off her tray and put them in her mouth but we found these bigger Mum-mum things are easier for her. Wierdly enough she doesn't put a lot of stuff in her mouth. Never thought I'd have to teach a baby to do that?!

ENT's coming out of our ears!

My husband heart's specialists :) Medical specialists that is. Despite the fact that he is a doctor, he rarely believes in going to the doctor, let alone a specialist. So it surprised me when I asked him if he would go to my ENT appointment (over in St. Louis at Washington University) with me and he didn't hesitate to say yes. Now up until that point I had firmly believed him when he told me I was fine. That I just had a sore throat. But at that moment - that very moment when he didn't roll his eyes, or put up a fight, or make any kind of sarcastic comment, or laugh out loud - that was the moment I felt a little twinge of worry inside of me. Why did he agree to this? This wasn't normal for him. Maybe deep down he was worried about me. Was it possible? ;) But I was also just happy he agreed, never thought that would be my outcome, so I didn't say anything and went along with it. And the dreaded day came... I really didn't want to have anything stuck down my nose or biopsied out of my throat. But PJ insisted (worry level rose for me a little more) so we went. I was feeling WAY better. The lump was disappearing and my swelling was practically gone, could just feel a little something in there still, not a big deal. So I felt silly for going because I "had a sore throat" as my husband couldn't stop telling me. And it was interesting... The conversation between my husband and the specialist. Not sure why I brought him ;) PJ literally laughed out loud behind the specialist as he audibly made louder and louder "ohh. ohhh! oo00OOHHH!'s" while looking at my CT scan and asking me why I hadn't been hospitalized and lecturing me on how life threatening it looked and what not. PJ literally shot down his initial suggestions of an anaphylactic reaction and other random things. But in the end, as they both looked down my nose/throat with that awful camera, they agreed that it was a clear case of Herpes type 1 viral ulcer on my voicebox (still there). Wait, yes, you heard me right. Who gets that??!?! An ulcer on my voicebox!!?!?! I guess I do. I was the random "lucky" one. And he thought it was still pretty swollen - that's when I laughed out loud - cause he had no idea how bad it was before. Although, when learning it was a viral ulcer, and then thinking back to my CT scan he admitted in his 40 years he's never seen the swelling that bad for what I had. And so I just got more lovely and amazing steriods and was told to check back with him in a few weeks for another looksee. I won't be taking PJ this next time ;) And promptly after we walked out of the doctors office he turned to me and said, "See, that's just what I told you. You've had a sore throat." Gotta love him! But did I mention how well cared for I was while sick? I have the best sisters ever who sent me the sweetest packages and mail...

So, after being on vacation and sleeping in the same room with Tyler again, we realized how bad his apnea had gotten again. It was hard, and worrysome, to hear him at night. So I took him to the doctor to get him back on allergy medication. And the doctor took one look up his nose and, after calling him "uni-nose", told us he needed to check in with an ENT again. Man. I had to go back. This time to St. Louis Childrens hospital with Tyler. Wierdly, my brave boy, balked at the idea of going. So a little bribery may have been involved. But I felt so bad on the car ride over when he asked me several times if the doctor was going to cut his nose off. Poor thing, I didn't realize how worried he actually was and how little I must have explained to him. This after he told Dylan he couldn't have any of his medicine because he needed it for his "yucky nose". And the ENT was great. He did the most thorough exam I've ever had one do on Tyler - complete with him testing his speech (cause certain sounds come through the nose) and sticking his fingers all up in Tylers nose. And he admitted, like all the others before him, that this was the worst deviated septum he's ever seen in a child. But he also told us he wouldn't touch it for another 10+ years if we could help it. We don't want to fix a childs nose. When we finally go through with the awful surgery we are going to be wanting to fix and adult nose for an adult face. So we'll keep trying the allergy medication and hope it helps til we can get him older.

So, all these ENT appointments is making me thing PJ should have specialized...

Snaggletooth

Brynn has a reputation for being a little bit of a wimp in our family ;) Most times she could be a little braver. But she usually sees no point in facing her fears. I mean, why would she do that?!?And so we know, since we've discussed before, she lets her teeth dangle until they literally just drop out of her mouth (instead of pulling or helping them along). And so she she has also developed a new nickname in our family - given to her ever so lovingly from her dad - Snaggletooth. Her front tooth has been somewhat loose for a while and has been going crooked. But the snaggletooth tiger would come out (and grrrr and roar loudly) whenever we even uttered awful words that mentioned wiggling or pulling or even looking at the crooked snaggletooth.
Now, I'm not above force as a parent. If I had the strength and the ability I would have pinned my child down weeks ago and yanked the thing right out of her mouth so fast she wouldn't have known what was coming. Only I'm not that skilled. And the one in our family who is that skilled, is not a forceful parent. He is more calm, tame, and agreeable. He chooses to discuss the topic with her and let her decide. While that certainly is a good quality that I love about him.... it also drives me nuts at times. So you can believe my utter disbelief when I walked into the living room Sunday afternoon to find this scene...

Wahoooo!!! He had finally had it with Snaggletooth! I don't know what came over him but he went to work and got it right out. He may have left the even more wiggly and bothersome loose tooth on the bottom (?!?!) but he got the snaggletooth taken care of.

And Brynn was of course a disaster - (no not crying) we are talking raging mad and "dizzy" and needy and whatnot. And Tyler was a sweetie little brother who took good care of her by getting her her blanket, and fruit snacks and whatever else he thought she needed.

And so we told Brynn that for her ordeal she could pick whatever she wanted to do for Family Home Evening the next night. (I was secretly hoping, and for sure thought, she'd choose to go to dinner because she is a girl after my own heart). But she thought and then announced that we would go "balling" aka bowling. Good choice Brynn!! We took our friends the Shumways and had a blast...

Here's too our snaggletooth and happy endings!

Any Resemblance??!? Part II

**Guest post by Preston***

Driving home from church today...

Kelly- "How was your Priesthood lesson on work and personal responsibility?"

PJ- "Fine."

Kelly- "Well, I am feeling inspired to start instilling a better work ethic in our family. I really think we can do a lot better with teaching our kids about hard work. Its so character defining. How about doing a chore chart or something to start?"

PJ- "Fine."

A few minutes later trash flies out the car window as we are driving home on a beautiful day...

Kelly- "Ugghh!!!! I really want to go somewhere and have my car detailed!!!"

PJ- "Huh? What happened to your work ethic project?"

Family Vacation 2011 - The End.

Over our 3 days at Disneyland we covered a lot of ground! And with 6 little ones with us running around we were pretty sure we were going to lose somebody at one point ;) I think the Bakers thought for sure it would be Dylan! But thankfully, Megan had heard that you can pick up these handy stickers at City Hall on Main Street... Genius!!! And not to rub it in or anything but we never lost Dylan, and they did lose Joshua in Toone Town ;) Stickers weren't needed but sure glad we had them. Anyway, speaking of covering ground...
PJ's work has been researching something that has had all of them wearing pedometers, and as we were packing to leave we had the brilliant idea of taking it with us to track our mileage. Now I told you we aren't hard core Disney goers. We aren't at the park from open to close or hustling from one ride to the next to smash everything in. And at our easy pace we still clocked in at 8 - 10 miles a day! Didn't seem that bad as an adult, but I know those little feet did a lot of walking and climbing and running (despite how much it felt like we were carrying them or pushing them more)!

We all definitely got a good work out in! (which was needed because of all the yummy food we had too)!

But one things for sure... it wore everyone out!

Yep, we caught them sleeping anywhere from trains and planes, to slings and strollers. Even restaurants and waiting in lines. But their favorite was the stroller for sure!

Its no wonder we all crashed every night!

And then, when it was over, we needed a vacation from our "vacation". But I think we'd go back to Disney and the coast anytime! Its too fun not to wear ourselves out for it!

Family Vacation 2011 - Special Moments

Life (and vacation and travel) are full of ups and downs, highs and lows... But living is all about capturing those special moments with your heart and letting them change you. Its about the magic, the experience, and letting things come to life. Its about remembering what childlike qualities we need to possess.

Its about making and keeping friendships...

Its about soaring to new heights, testing your strengths and weaknesses, and conquering new challenges...

Its about filling up on the good things...

And not letting any of it go to waste...

Its about reaching out, holding on tight, and not letting go...

...its about loving and living life together and letting those special moments affect you!