Unsung struggles of parenting an ADHD child

My son was only 9 months old when he started to walk. At birth, he had colic and wasn't satisfied just sitting; he had to be entertained, constantly. As first time parents my husband and I didn't think much of it, we just thought he was a needy baby. Now looking back, I realize that many of these traits are early indicators that your child may have ADHD. Please don't misunderstand, these things don't always indicate ADHD, but they can. It wasn't until a few months ago when we put our now four year old son in tee ball that we really realized the difference between him and other kids his age. While the other children were somewhat distracted (they are four year olds after all!) most of them at least grasped the concept of what was going on. They were distracted, but present. Our son, however, was just plain distracted. No matter how much coaching he received he never really seemed to grasp any of it. He just went through the motions as he was told to do. We saw a great difference between him and the kids around him. We saw him struggle with simple tasks and directions, though not for lack of trying or being obstinate. We quickly learned that his struggles, while they seemed so small, were monumental to him. We learned that life with him would be much different than we expected.

When I brought up this observation to his daycare provider she mentioned that she had wondered for a while if he might have ADHD. With his first year of school looming ahead my husband and I were faced with a decision: do we get him an official diagnosis before he starts school and give his teacher that information right away? Or do we give him a chance to figure it out and adjust to school on his own and see how he does? We ultimately decided to let him go into school as any other kid would, and see how he did. The first week or so went really well, but after that it was downhill. He was struggling with staying in his seat, finishing his school work, and communicating effectively with other kids, which resulted in him hitting out of frustration. At our first parent teacher conference the teacher let us know that he was "extra wiggly" and "had a very short attention span". She let us know that, while she wasn't a doctor, as his teacher she might recommend that we get him checked for ADHD. We trusted her opinion over that of many people around us. After all she works with children his age all day, year after year, and should have a good idea of what average is. After that, we had a consultation with a behavioral specialist who was able to officially diagnose him with ADHD, suggest some therapy for us, and give us a little more insight into our son's mind.

This is where life starts to get a lot more complicated. Now ADHD is more than just a wiggly kid, this is my child. My child, who is coming home from school crying because he's sad he got in trouble. My child, who wants so badly to be successful in school and please us, but sometimes he literally cannot help himself. His struggles in school were already so real. I recall one night he was particularly down, so I asked him what was wrong. After a little prodding he burst into tears and declared he didn't know how to be good while standing in line. Small things in school, like standing in line, that came as second nature to other kids were a very real struggle for him. We were faced with a new struggle of our own at this time: how do we punish him for things he fails to control due to his ADHD? His issue of standing in line often turn into him pushing the student in front of him, which would result in him getting sent home with a "red card". My husband and I were at a loss of how to handle this. We didn't want to punish him for something he couldn't help, but we also had to let him know that those actions weren't okay. So how do you punish a child for something they can't, or don't know how to, control? We have been walking this very thin, very complicated line. We have learned that it's important to let him know that his actions weren't okay, let him know that he handled his feelings poorly but don't always necessarily punish for his indiscretion.

After seeing his struggles in school we were faced with another hard decision; should we look in to medication or not? We had no idea where to even start with the option of medicating him or not. An internet search revealed there are a plethora of options on the matter. This created almost an over saturation of information, making a lot of good information hard to find. We initially were absolutely against medication. We would try any natural remedy in the book but we had all but closed the door on the option of medicating. But every natural remedy we tried fell flat. And once his struggles in school became more intense, we re-evaluated. Was it fair to him for us to deny him of something that might help him? Clearly he was struggling, and his struggles were very hard and very real to him, so why would we deny him the opportunity to clear some of that stress away? Before we had to parent a child with ADHD we thought that we would make a decision and that would be final, we never considered that something we were so sure of might not be the best decision. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that we didn't have a clear image of what was best for our child.

Upon our search for what was the best route for our son we discovered that many people don't take ADHD seriously. A staggering amount of people shame parents for having their kids diagnosed and/or medicated. They believe that the parent is just too lazy to deal with their children's behavior issues so they medicate them into submission. Some people take it as a joke, and think that ADHD is something to laugh about. Some people just plain don't believe ADHD is real. That is what cuts the deepest for me as a parent of an ADHD child. My child is struggling through real issues that are very hard for him, and my husband and I have struggled through decisions we have had to make regarding our sons care, and some people just write it off as fake or judge us as lazy parents. People are discrediting the hardships that our family has, and continue to, go through. They fail to see the very real struggles that are associated with ADHD. People need to understand that ADHD is indeed real, and is more than just a wiggly, spazzy child. It comes with real struggles, tears, and hurdles that other children and parents don't have to deal with. We could all benefit from being more understanding and compassionate to people who are going through a struggle that we might not understand.

For ADHD information, visit http://www.chadd.org/

The rising of the dead!

Just in time for Halloween i'm raising this blog back up from the dead! I don't know why it fell off the face of the earth... it just happened. But it's back! Reanimated, brought back to life!

Too much has happened since my last post to catch you up on all of it. The biggest change in our lives between then and now was that we bought a house! I was seriously unsure if it would ever happen, but it finally has! We had been renting in the neighborhood for about a year and decided if this one particular house was still for sale when our lease ended, we would try to buy it. Our lease ended, and the house was still for sale. I wish I could say the buying process was easy and carefree but it really, really wasn't. We looked at other houses too; we looked around, we made offers, we stressed, we cried. I wish there was a show on HGTV that showed the REAL house buying process instead of acting like you sit in a cafe, make an offer, and an hour later you have the house.

But alas, after all the stress and worry, we have our house! We are completely in love. The house was a foreclosure and had been empty for a few years, so right away it needed some work. The first thing on my list was to remove the disgusting carpet in the master bathroom. Really people, who carpets a bathroom?! My husband and his dad tiled both bathrooms, we painted the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, we replaced all the lovely gold fixtures in the bathroom (again, WHO DOES THAT?!) with some brushed nickle ones and the place looks 100x better already. Our to-do list is still about a mile long, but we're slowly making progress. We have to keep reminding ourselves that this house is ours, and we don't have to rush through it all. We have years to get it all done.

I have found a downside to our house though. Our neighbors. We are on a corner and only have neighbors on one side (none behind us either) but those neighbors do enough "neighboring" to make up for the lack of more neighbors. Did I say neighbors enough time in that sentence? Neighbors. Anyway. They're about middle aged and I believe the wife doesn't work, and they are extremely nosy. They love to pop their heads over the fence, which isn't hard because it's only a four foot fence, and give their opinions about something in our yard or on our house or IN our house. So I think "putting in a higher fence" is quickly vaulting it's way to the top of our to-do list...

Do you guys have any crazy neighbors??

I'm still here! Consolidated update

I'm alive! I know I haven't written in a month but I just plain didn't feel like it. My life has been kind of all over the place and I just haven't had the urge to write. I'm not even sure where to start with all of it.

Early in December Anthony had ear surgery. Two years prior to that (almost exactly two years to the day) he had ear surgery to put in tubes because he got frequent ear infections. The tube in his right ear never fell out,  and actually turned sideways blocking the drainage. We gave it a few months to try to allow it to fall out on its own but it didn't happen. So the dr went in and took it out. Easy peasy. He seems to be doing better and has a follow up appointment with his ENT specialist tomorrow.

Christmas was hectic and wonderful as usual. The kids were spoiled rotten, my husband spoiled me rotten and I got him a few small things then two worthless pieces of paper that I paid $200 for. I got him hockey tickets but thanks to the lockout, the game I got the tickets to got officially cancelled just a few days before Christmas. So basically I owe him a Christmas present still.

Our new years was pretty uneventful. My mom took my kids and we went to a friends house where I drank a little too much and had a headache the next day. Happy New Year!

The least fun thing I have to update on is my own surgery. The day before Halloween I went into my OB/GYN for my annual pap. I was shocked when two weeks later he called me to tell me it came back abnormal. They reassured me on the phone that it was "barely abnormal" and "just above average" and they were sure it was nothing, but they scheduled me to come in three weeks later for a biopsy anyway, "just to be safe." I was confused and scared because just one year prior was when I had Noah and had my post baby exam that showed nothing, so how could something happen so quickly? And honestly, that question still lingers, we still have no idea how it all moved so fast. I went in for my biopsy as scheduled and exactly one week later I got a call from my doctor saying that the biopsy "came back more abnormal than the pap did" and that I had high-grade moderate dysplasia. That means I had pre-cancerous cells growing on my cervix that needed to be surgically removed. If you have low grade, mild dysplasia normally the plan of action is to just watch and let the body correct the issue itself, but mine was high grade, moderate which meant that the cells needed to be removed before they turned into cancer. So we scheduled it then and I had my surgery on Jan 10th. During the surgery they took more cells from deeper inside the cervix to ensure that there weren't more cell and that they weren't further progressed than the biopsy showed. I go in to read the pathology report and get my post-op exam this Thursday.

So 2012 ended and 2013 began with a little bit of health issues but I have full confidence in both my doctor and in Anthony's doctor that everything was taken care of and settled in both our surgeries. I'm ready to put it all behind us and move forward.

Moving forward for me means more school, and working on my photography. God willing and hard work put in I should be done with school in about a year and a half at the most. I realize I'm behind about 90% of my high school graduating class in getting my degree, but I figure better late than never, right? Then I got a gracious offer from a talented friend to build a website for me and my photography and I may take her up on it. (IF the offer still stands, that is. ;) We'll swap, pictures for a website!) I've been taking some pictures for friends and family, trying to build up a portfolio basically. I really need to decide how serious about it I want to be basically. I would love to go full speed ahead and try to launch a whole business but I don't know how realistic that is. First of all, the market for photographers in San Diego is pretty saturated, and I feel like no matter how much effort I put out I'll still be just part of the crowd. Second of all its not like time is on my side, in a sense that.. I don't have any. I would only be able to shoot on weekends and even then I would be sacrificing time with my family (Which is something I don't get a ton of) to do these shoots. So I think the plan right now is just to get the website built, get my portfolio built by offering cheap shoots at work and photographing friends and family and just basically do it on the side. If I seem to catch attention and business comes in, then I'll think about getting more serious about it. If not, then I'll just keep taking pictures of my family and whoever happens to ask.

A life secret.

I know that everyone wants to talk about this tragedy in Conneticut but I just can't. My heart just hurts too bad. So instead, i'm gonna tell you guys a secret. A life secret. It's something I learned a few years ago that has made me a substantially happier person. I'm not trying to say I have life figured out because believe me sister, I don't. I'm just saying that with this one, little secret that I learned I have become a far more relaxed, happy, and less high strung person. You ready for it?

Learn to accept help. Like, really accept it. Don't go out seeking help (unless you really need it!) and pawn everything off on other people, but if someone offers to do something small to help you out, say yes! If you ask yourself "why not?" and cant come up with a legitimate answer why you shouldn't let this person help within about 5 seconds, tell them yes. But first you have to realize that accepting help comes in different forms.

When my husband and I first started dating we were very young and I was just starting to find myself as an adult. In that journey I learned that adult me likes my house clean. So I would clean our house, and I would get mad that he wasn't helping. So I would make him help. Then I would get mad that he did it "wrong." Then I would go behind him and re-clean everything he just cleaned, all while getting even more mad that he did it wrong and I had to clean it anyway. After a while he saw that I would just go re-clean everything he cleaned so he stopped cleaning. Why clean something if someone else is going to? So I would get mad all over again that he wasn't helping. It was a lose/lose. If he cleaned, I was mad he didn't do it  my way, if he didn't clean I was mad he wasn't helping. I wanted his help but I wouldn't accept it.  I couldn't accept that his way of cleaning was good enough when in reality, it was just fine.

No, he may not have wiped down the sink after he was done doing dishes, but those water spots weren't going to kill anyone were they? The dishes were done weren't they?  He may have missed a spot vacuuming but I'm pretty sure that one little triangle of carpet didn't contain the plague, and we'd all be just fine.  This one definitely took some time, but I eventually learned that I my way is not the only way, and that I don't have to be the one to do everything in order for it to be done "right." This applies to other areas too, not just cleaning. Parenting, driving, cooking... everything. I let him do things and we are a partnership. Not only has this relieved stress for me by not feeling like I need to do it all and being bitter that I'm the only one working, but it's relieved stress on our relationship too. We don't fight about me not having help and doing everything alone because I allow him to help, I don't push it away saying it's not good enough or not "right."

Another way to accept help is to just plain accept it. Let people help. This is still a work in progress for me. When I was slammed busy trying to get everything ready for Anthony's birthday party my mom offered to help. My knee jerk reaction was to tell her no, but thank you. Then I thought about it for a minute, why not? What in the world was so bad about me letting her help assemble some of the things I had made? Why would I say no? Pride? So I went back and told her that I actually could use her help. And you know what? She ended up staying late that night helping me, I would never have gotten everything done in time without her help.  I have a surgery coming up in a few weeks and I have no idea how long I will be down afterwards. My sister offered to make a few meals for my family and I, so I could relax and recover and Brandon wouldn't have to add "cooking dinner" to the list of things he'll already be handling by himself while I'm down. Again, my reaction was to say no. But why? Because I want to be super mom and not let someone else take care of my family? I thought about it for a few minutes and again went back and said actually, yes. Now that's one less thing I have to worry about during my recovery. I know my family and I will eat well (and not fast food) and my husband wont be stressing about making or buying meals.

Next time someone offers help and your reaction is to say no stop for a minute and ask yourself why you're actually saying no. Is it pride? Do you really actually have any reason at all to say no? If you don't have a reason, then just say yes! You can do it, I know you can. Next time your husband cleans the kitchen and leaves streaks on the countertop, just take a breath, walk away, and go kiss him and tell him thank you for the help. It's amazing how much stress you can relieve by just accepting a little bit of help.

Fall/Winter pictures

It's the time of year for Christmas cards and family pictures! Because nothing says I love you quite like giving someone pictures of yourself, right? The concept of pictures in/on Christmas cards is a little bit lost on me, except for when given to family members that rarely see you or your kids. But its a "thing" and my family all seem to love it, so we divulge and we took our Christmas pictures this past weekend.

We went up to a really pretty park. It has a railroad track running through it and has a ton of seasonal trees that give off a lot of leaves. It photographs really well. Well enough that there were about ten other families there taking family pictures the same time we were. I wish I was kidding or exaggerating, but I'm not. There was a lot of "watch out, we're gonna be in the background of these peoples pictures" or "just a sec there's someone in the background." But luckily everyone knew what everyone else was trying to do and was mostly courteous about trying to stay out of each others way.

I love photographing my family. In my completely unbiased opinion, my boys are pretty freakin cute and easy to photograph so its fun. The downside of it is that I'm never in any of the pictures. I have about 486,542,878 pictures of my boys together and my husband with them but about 20 of me and the boys and like 3 of the four of us together. I used the self timer to jump in a few of them, but I look a little beat from first taking pictures and the toddler chasing that entails, and then from running to try to beat the timer and get "posed" in time.

The shots I got of the boys were pretty good. I was really sad though, I got some really really cute ones of the two of them when we first got there, only to realize my 1yr old who was trying to play with my camera the night before had switched me from auto focus to manual focus and all of my favorite ones were not in focus. I was able to get a few that were in focus but the boys were over that spot so we had to move on. Sad me. Our day ended early when Anthony got stung by a bee and was in no mood to continue taking pictures. Through the timer beating, the bee stinging, and the manual focus I was able to get some really cute shots. So now, I share them!

This was my favorite spot, that was first out of focus then the boys were over it. As Anthony is demonstrating here.
 

 

 

Hey look! I'm in one! Messy hair and all.

 

After posting these an old friend from high school contacted me about taking some pictures for her family. So not this coming weekend, but the following I'll be taking pictures of someone elses family for the first time! Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving

I realize it's been over a week since Thanksgiving, but oh well. This Thanksgiving was momentus for me because for the first time ever, Brandon and I hosted! That week was a little bit of a whirlwind. We hosted Anthonys birthday party (30+ attendees) then 5 days later hosted our first Thanksgiving (~15 attendees). I also went black "friday" shopping that night at Target but it was such a monumental waste of time I wont even go into it.

On Thanksgiving morning Brandon and his friends have a tradition of playing football, the turkey bowl, so he left at like 10 that morning. Thankfully he gutted the turkey for me before he left because I was really not looking forward to doing that and was happy to pass that task along to him. I was a little nervous about him leaving and me being left alone with the boys trying to watch them and get the food prepared at the same time but it actually worked out perfectly. Noah went down for his nap and I put a movie on for Ant, so everyone was gone and out of my hair and I was able to work pretty much without interruption for most of the morning. I got the turkey prepped and in the oven before 11am, got the deviled eggs made, and chopped up and laid out the veggies for the platter  before people started arriving and Brandon got back home. Then I got to open up the wine ;)

Everything went pretty smoothly until it was time to pull the turkey and ham out of the oven. The gravy needed to be made and for some reason, of everything that I made that day the gravy was what intimidated me the most. I got started (with the help of my sister) working on the gravy, but then every side that had been brought over and was sitting out needed to be put in the oven to be warmed up. It got a little hectic in the kitchen and I felt like I needed 5 ovens but in the end it all worked out. The ham was a little cold by the time it was time to eat but it got eaten up anyway.

For my first Thanksgiving hosted I think it went well! Everyone ate a lot, and went back for more so I'd say they enjoyed it. Even with the little bit of chaos I would love to host again, I really loved having everyone over and being able to open my home up. Oh and I REALLY enjoyed the whole not having to drive anywhere thing. I didn't take many pictures becuase I was a TAD busy. But here are a few pictures of the food tables before they got dug into.

 

 

Taking a leap?

Photography has been something I have always really enjoyed and appreciated. A few years ago I bought a DSLR camera and for years I simply used the camera on auto and was confused as to why the pictures weren't awesome like other people's photos were. Hesitantly I will admit I gave up. I basically stopped using my camera and it sat in my hall closet like a really expensive paper weight. Until about a year ago, I decided I wanted to dust it off and make an effort to actually learn how to use it. How novel, right?

I am no where near a professional photographer, and really, I'm not sure I ever really need to reach that level. I really have no desire to shoot in manual. But I like to think that I can take some decent pictures of my kids. Over the last year my skills have come leaps and bounds from where they were.

While I've always loved and appreciated photography I don't think there was ever a time in my life when I wanted to be a photographer. I've always wanted to be able to take amazing photos, just not necessarily as my career.

Now that being said, let me contradict myself. I'm thinking of offering up some family/kids photos to some of the families at work. Why? I don't know. To make a little extra money? (I mean a little. I would be charging next to nothing, since I'm not actually a photographer) To prove that I can? To see IF I can? To take photos of someone other than my kids? Or maybe deep down in there some part of me does want to do this and wants to see if I can. Who knows.

Now, Please be honest. Post your comments anonymously if you feel you must, but please look at some of these photos and tell me if they're something you would pay for.

<edited to add> I noticed some snarky comments on facebook after posting this and even though I don't know this person, it was still upsetting. It's hard for someone to completely open themselves up like this. So if you have some criticism at least make it constructive.

I made a skirt!

I am not Martha Stewart. I know, you're all shocked. I like to pretend like I am for some reason, but I'm not. I love to craft. I'm not very good at it, but I really like to do it! Many times, and I mean many times, my crafts are a lot better in my head than they are in real life. My ideas are way better than my skills. Despite my less than stellar results, I just keep on craftin away! As evidenced by the task list I gave myself for Ant's birthday party this weekend. As if making the happy birthday banner, centerpieces, as well as putting the entire party together wasn't enough, I decided I needed to make a batman skirt to wear.

Aside from going old school needle and thread to fix a torn seam here and there, I have never sewn anything in my life. I've never made an article of clothing, until now. Despite my complete lack of skill and experience I decided I could, and should, make this skirt. I have no idea why. I used this tutorial, which made it look so incredibly easy.



All pinned together, ready to be sewn

I went to JoAnnes and got the fabric I needed, got the elastic waist band and got some stitch witchery, to cheat a little on the seam.  Putting the skirt together to prepare for sewing was actually pretty easy. Just cut the fabric to the length you want, use some stitch witchery for the bottom seam, use some for the top (so the fabric is thicker and will stay with the elastic better, put your folds (or ruffles) in the skirt so the fabric fits along the elastic band and pin it all in place. TA-DA! After I got that all done I thought damn, maybe this wont be so hard! That was pretty easy! I was in for a rude awakening.

After I had my brother in law set up the sewing machine for me, (apparently his grandma taught him how to sew) I looked in the manual for a "stretch stitch" the instructions told me which stitch and which setting to use to allow for some stretching in the stitches, it said "for use with elastic" Well perfect! I thought. I was so proud of myself for thinking to look for a stitch that would stretch with the elastic. The problem was, that I somehow messed it up and the stitch does not stretch, at all. I have no idea how I managed to mess it up after just reading how to do it, but considering that was my first ever stitch done on a sewing machine its not all that surprising. Not only is my stitch not stretchy, its also not very straight or clean looking. After sewing the skirt of fabric onto the elastic I decided it was time to sew the side seam. I decided to use a cross stitch so it would be more secure. The problem was, those cross stitches are crazy. Somehow the bottom thread that comes from the bobbin (is that the right spelling for that??) got tangled. I tried to take it out and untangle it but I just made it worse. The more I tried the worse it got. After about an hour of fighting it I gave up. I hand stitched the side seam of the elastic and then stitch witchery'd the side seam of the fabric.

Finished product! Not the cleanest of jobs, but works.

So overall, it works. It's a skirt. As long as I put it on over my head because that not stretchy seam wont fit over my fat butt, I can wear it and still look cute for the party. Just please, don't look closely at it, because up close its not pretty haha.

Cake Bossery and other craftyness

Have you ever watched a show so much that you think you can now do whatever it is you've seen on the show? Like if you watch a marathon of CSI you think you could go out and solve a few crimes? Watch some Deadliest Catch and you think you can go out and crab fish? Well I used to watch a lot of Cake Boss. Don't ask me why, but I did. They make that shiz look easy. Fondant people? No problem. Buttercream roses? Childs play.  I don't know why, but I seem to think that I have magically become a pastry chef via Cake Boss.



This is the cake I will be attempting. Attempting.

This coming up week, I'll put my cake bossery to the test. Anthony's birthday party is next weekend and I have given myself the task of making his cake. Really, in the world of fondant and cake making it's easy. Easy...relatively speaking. You see, no matter how much I've watched Sir Cake Boss work with fondant, I myself have never done it. Looks easy enough, right? Mix it, kneed it, flatten it, lay it out right??? Sure.....

We'll see if next week I post a picture of a pile of fondant on the floor, wet from my tears. The bat signal and city are the least scary parts. Its the laying of the yellow across the cake that scares me the most. I need to spend some time on google, finding some tips, pointers and tricks to try to ease the process. Who knows, maybe i'll do this and find out I have some hidden cake making talent. Yeah, that's totally what's going to happen.



The listing can be found here

Because I have so much time on my hands, I also took on the task of making the "Happy Birthday" banner, the center pieces and cupcakes for those who don't get to enjoy the batcake. I got my inspiration for these from Etsy, so as to not be disrespectful towards this person who is trying to make a living, I'll post the link to the listing with the picture.  My center pieces will be similar, but with no blue. We're doing black, grey, and yellow.  The banner will be pretty much the same colors/theme.

We'll see how it all turns out! It's going to be a lot of time that I don't really have, and a lot of work but I'm excited to try it all out. Stay tuned to see how it goes, my crafts are usually way better in theory than they are in reality so it will be interesting!

Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Hands down. I love Christmas, I love Thanksgiving (really, who doesn't??) But there's just something about Halloween that I LOVE. I love the spooky, creepy, scarys. Its my thing. I was beyond excited when we moved into our new house earlier this month and were told by multiple neightbors that Halloween was a big deal around there. We found out on Halloween...they weren't kidding.

Brandon and I left work at noon and after a quick stop at the dentist (I got to have a root canal on Halloween, lucky me!) we were home getting everything ready for the night! My mom, my sister and her kids came over to join in the festivities. We set up the driveway with some chairs, the fire pit, and a cauldron full of dry ice. My brother in law stayed behind and passed out candy while we took the kids out to trick or treat.

Seriously it's been a dream of mine to live in a neighborhood like that. I enjoyed every second of not having to drive anywhere and of being able to host my family for my favorite holiday. Unfortunately all I took was a few pictures on my phone, but you can see how cute my boys are!

Noah was Hulk baby!

Anthony was a super studly superman!

He decided that Superman needed a mask, I dont know why. He INSISTED.

My trick or treating babies!

Brandon and I were the bad wolf and dead red riding hood. See? Im dead cause the wolf got me....get it???

Red riding hood needs to invest in an iron.

Our set up in the driveway

All that candy and we still ran out. We started handing out Noahs trick or treating candy haha

We have a sick little guy on our hands.. part two

Remember how I told you when Noah was born he needed to spend three days in the NICU where he was on oxygen and heart monitors? And then how about 6 months ago he got bronchiolitis and had to receive breathing treatments, steroids and an inhaler? Well I think this kid likes to get sick and scare me. I think its a hobby of his. That, and poking people in the eye.

Last Tuesday I noticed my normally happy, smiley baby was a clingy, fussy, warm little ball of cries following me around and knew he was getting sick. Wednesday morning he woke up sounding raspy with a clearly sore throat and a little bit of a cough. But with it being a week day and him not having a fever, we gave him some tylenol and sent him to daycare anyway. I was getting calls and texts all day about how his throat sounded worse and worse all day. He was getting raspier, he cough was getting deeper, his breathing was getting wheezy, and his voice was getting higher and higher like his throat was swelling.

I went to pick him up after work and did not find my baby, but found what sounded like a barking seal instead. So I dropped Anthony and Brandon off at home and Noah and I headed off to urgent care. We waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes, watching people get called back, get their vitals taken and get sent back out into the waiting room to wait their turn.

They called us back for our turn to get his vitals taken and the nurse commented at least three times on how bad Noahs breating sounded. She took his vitals, asked a few questions, heard him cough and then told us we were being bumped ahead of everyone, and ushered us to our room.  Soon the doctor came in and told us what the nurse had already told us she suspected, that he had croup. They gave him a steriod and a breathing treatment and he sounded better by the time we left. They told us that it may have been because of his bronchiolitis that he got this, it left him with sort of a pre-disposition to respritory issues. And even more good news is that now that he's had croup once, he's more likely to get it again.

The real good news is that he's doing better. We've been running his humidifier and giving him ibuprofen to keep the swelling in his throat down. He still has a cough but it just sounds like a gunky cough, not a seal bark anymore. Lets hold out hope that this fall and winter dont bring us many more croup issues!

Eight years!

Once you're married are you still allowed to celebrate your dating anniversary? Is it weird that we still do? We don't go all out, we usually just go on a date and call it a night. We don't generally exchange gifts or anything, but we still want to at least acknowledge the day that initially brought us together.

Today, my husband and I celebrate EIGHT YEARS of togetherness. Eight. Holy moly. We met when we were eighteen years old. We were both just barely graduated from high school, fresh, shiny new adults trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing. We were both working for a retail store, same store but different locations. We met when his friend worked at the same branch as I did, and he had come to pick said friend up from work. I knew it was love after our very first conversation:

Brandon to his friend: Okay I'm going outside to smoke, meet me outside.
Me: Ew, nasty.
Brandon: It's not like I'm trying to impress you.
Me: It's a good thing, too.

Ahhh love was in the air. Our second interaction a went slightly better. He came to cover a shift at my branch and we spent the entire shift chatting, him letting me poke him in his freshly broken nose (he was 18 and super tough, guys!), and letting me draw tattoos on his arm with a sharpie. That time, there really was something in the air. We hung out a few days later and were pretty much inseparable after that. I'd also like to happily report that he no longer smokes, because I still find it gross.

Eight years of togetherness, three years of marriage, and two babies later, I still kinda love him. I'm very blessed to call him my husband, and I thank God regularly for bringing us together. I wouldn't choose to walk through life with anyone else by my side.

New years 2004-2005. Please feel free to laugh at my black hair.

On our wedding day May 2009

Our first ever picture as a family of three. November, 2008

and then came baby #2 August 2011.

Look what we made together!

One of the very first, (and very few :/) pictures of the four of us together

On our third wedding anniversary, in Hawaii May 2012

That one week I spoiled my kids

Last week the owner/operator of our daycare (who also happens to be my sister) took a vacation, leaving the daycare closed. A closed daycare meant no other means of childcare for me, which ended up resulting in me taking a week off of work. It didn't take much convincing to get me to take the time off.

I work, a lot. I drive a lot to get to and from work. I don't get a lot of time with my kids. So when I saw an entire week of time off just me and my boys, I pounced on the opportunity to go do fun stuff. Not only did I want to spend some time doing fun stuff with my boys, I also didn't want to stay in the house all week long with a bored 1 and 3yr old. That does not equal a fun time for mom or boys. So I made a little bit of a game plan and my boys and I got to have a seriously awesome week.

Our first stop of the week was to the happiest place on earth... that's right... we went to DISNEYLAND! We have annual passes so this really isn't that huge of a deal, we go about 8 times a year. But our passes are blacked out during the summer and this was the first week they were valid again, so after a summer of no Disneyland Anthony and I were pretty stoked to go. Last time Noah went he was about 6 weeks old (yes, I took a 6wk old to Disneyland, judge me!). The last two times we went we left Noah with Grandma so this was really going to be the first time Noah could experience any rides. It was....underwhelming? haha! He didn't really seem to care about any of the rides. The only two he had any reaction to were Small World, he danced and seemed to enjoy it! And Pirates of the Caribbean, where he had a death grip around my neck, whining... he hated it. Maybe next time he'll go to Grandmas again. Anthony had a great trip! Other than an accident on the Dumbo ride, (upcoming post for that!) it was an awesome day.

Getting ready to go on our first ride of the day: Peter Pan

Anthony and I on the rockets

Noah and I on Dumbo

Our next stop of the week was to the New Children's Museum. I had heard good things about this place but once we got there it was seriously awesome. We spent over three hours there without even realizing how long we had been there. Everything is child friendly (duh) and interactive. They have crafts and painting, building blocks, bubble blowing, a real car that the kids could paint, and best of all a giant bouncy tube thingy!

Painting the car! The color of the day was red. Clearly.

Looking like Dexter after painting

Noah playin drums

My little men!

Inflatable tuby thingy!

Playing on the giant love sack thing

Anthonoy rockin the rock wall!

Next stop on our tour de awesome was up to Grandmas house in Oceanside. We needed to escape the East county heat and where better to go than the beach!? So we made the trip up to Oceanside and made our way down to the beach. We enjoyed ourselves so much up in Oceanside we ended up staying two nights up there and making a couple trips to the beach!

Beach baby. He LOVED it at the beach

Beach baby 2.0

My boys and I out to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside - Cafe 101

After we packed up and finally left Grandma alone, we headed out to the San Diego Zoo to meet some friends who were in from out of town. The zoo is always a good day! But unfortunately we didn't take many pictures.

hippo sittin!

We left the zoo and went straight to a birthday party, fully equipped with a bounce house and cake! What more could a kid ask for!? The next day, my final day off work we spent at Grandpa's house, swimming, snacking, and relaxing.

It was a very busy. very exhausting, but awesomely fun week. I would do it all over again in an instant. I had so much fun getting to spend some good time with my boys, time like that is so rare in our house. They really enjoyed it too, they both definitely had a look of WTH this morning when I dropped them off at daycare rather than whisking them off to the next fun adventure.