I started posting on Wellsphere, you can join me!

So I am over here, helping to bring Down syndrome awareness to Wellsphere. If there is anyone else that wants to help me please sign up. You can use the button that is in my sidebar.

Penelope is scheduled to have her MRI on Feb. 25. I am a little nervous. They will need to sedate her, but at least this way the cardiologist will have a great picture of the heart and all the vessels to figure out if the repair is failing in anyway. Clearly my little girl is thriving and I am not expecting bad news. Please pray that her little heart is working as it should! I am kind if interested in the MRI picture. If anyone else has had experience with this sort of thing with their toddler, please let me know how it went.

Homework time for Nathaniel is a fun time!

Tuesday night homework consists of finding rhyming words for Nathaniel's 10 spelling words. Inevitably there are 1 to 3 words that do not have a rhyme, such as "also," I mean what do you do for that!?? His last word on the list to rhyme was "close." We already had "nose- hose" and "rose - doze" so he was thinking really hard about this one. I tried to give him a clue and I asked him to think of what was on his foot. He said, "skin?" I said, "nope, what is on the tips of your feet?" He replied "Your toenails?" I said "close, what if you take the nails off?" (I was going for toes.) Nathaniel's mouth dropped open and he stared at me for a minute. "Ew, that is gross and it would hurt!!!"

A NEW BLOG!!

My mother has started a blog too! Stemming from her love of books, she will be posting about new releases, old releases, and anything else that comes to mind about the authors that are on her radar! Go visit her at EllsBookReports.

Dillon update

I am such a bad friend. I told Mel I would post an update on her facebook wall last night but I feel asleep instead. Facebook acess is restricted here at work so if anyone else out there wants to write on her wall please do so. Dillon was brought to the hospital yesterday because after a few days of refusing to eat or drink he seemed ill again. They ran some blood tests to rule out some bad things, but his blood work came back normal today. Yay!!! They will let Dillon leave the hospital after they put in a G-tube or NG-tube. They are not sure which is best for him at this point. Melissa will need support either way because this is a tough time for her, but we all know that this will be the best thing for Dillon. Please pray that the doctors and Melissa are able to make the right decision and that Dillon feels better real soon.

btw, Penny is feeling better today

My poor baby

She is miserable!! She had diarhea a few times in her sleep and so she did not sleep well. We have been up since 5:30 but she will not go down for a nap!! That led me to the point where I have left her in her crib to cry. I HATE DOING THAT, but don't we all have to do this at some point? She wouldn't go to sleep for the 30 minutes that I rocked her. And I know her, she is over tired at this point. If she starts her "I am dying" scream, I will go get her, but for right now, she just has the "Pity Me" scream.

We are almost well

Scott is still a little run down but he is feeling much better. I felt really crappy on Friday, but never got sick. Nathaniel is whinier then ever but he hasn't gotten sick. Penelope, still is having diarhea. She doesn't seem to be too upset over it, but it is blowing through her huggies every time. She is taking a long step to get to the coffee from the couch and the other way around. We missed my niece's birthday party today. I felt really bad, but I didn't want to infect all of her guests.

I know this was a short post, but I wanted to let everyone know I was still out there. goodnight!!

I CAN'T SHAKE THE FEELING THAT MY HOUSE STILL SMELLS LIKE THIS!

Yep, now it is the Ringroses' turn for this stomach virus that is going around. It started off this morning when Scott told me that he had been up all night in the bathroom. He had the nerve to blame me because I went to see Dillon last night. Uh. . . I don't think so. I am sure that it takes a little longer then 6 hours to start showing symptoms. He begged me to take him to the ED at about 9am. I told him they wouldn't be able to do anything for him, what is he point? I then told him to call his dr. first and find out what they suggest. He called the dr at about 9:40 but he was told that he would have to make an appt. The receptionist wouldn't let him speak to a nurse or the doctor over the phone! So he had an appt scheduled for 11:30 am. Meanwhile I could tell he really wanted to talk to a real person so I suggested he reach out to the nurse helpline with my insurance company. He called and the nurse on the other end suggested that if the intense pain that he is feeling does not go away in an hour then he should go to the ED. Wow, an insurance company suggesting you go to the ED. By 11 am, his breathing became labored and I began to worry for the first time. I remembered back to when I had the most awful stomach bug ever when I was about 5 months pregnant with Penny when I couldn't keep anything down for about 36 hours and I actually lost weight! I felt some cramping then too, but I attributed it to when it went out the other end. (i know, tmi) I felt that Scott could handle a little pain. But I forgot, he is a man and we all know they are such babies. At least, that was how I honestly felt at about 11:15 when I was driving him to the hospital. We were seen to almost right away and the doctor was wicked nice. Dr. B really listened to him and took his concerns seriously. Scott was scheduled for a CT Scan so Penny and I decided to leave at this point and come back when Scott was ready to be discharged.

While Scott was feeling miserable upstairs, this morning was kind of normal with Penny, I made her some eggs and fed her breakfast while getting Nathaniel ready for school. She was clingy afterwards and whiny which is really unlike her, especially so soon after getting up. I figured she must have woken up earlier then I thought and decided she must be tired so I gave her a bottle of milk and prune juice just like she prefers it. :) I even warmed up the bottle because it was really frigid in our house and I decided that I like my hot tea or coffee in the morning, she would certainly enjoy some warm milk. Within twenty minutes or so she projectile vomited the milk and her breakfast of eggs. She was coughing a little before she got sick and I though maybe she gagged on herself and it was not related to Scott being sick. (me, ever the optimist!!) Well, about thirty minutes after that she threw up again! This time I was able to run her to the bathroom and most of it got in the toilet. What was strange was that she was just so darn happy in between bouts that again, I thought this must have been a coincidence. I changed Penny and we brought Scott to the ED. While we waited for triage Penny was sitting on my lap and began to cough and then. . . you guessed it. She threw up on me! She was not happy about this but after I cleaned her up she was happy again.

When Penny and I left Scott to his CT scan, I decided to meet my mother for lunch at Friendly's because I was still not convinced that Penny was actually truly sick. Five instances of vomiting within 1/2 day is not enough for me. She did not exhibit a fever and she was happy and playful, not lethargic or cranky. I gave her some apple juice while she waited for her lunch of mac and cheese. Well, after only 2 bites of the lunch, she lost it again. We finished out our meals because as long as she wasn't upset, I decided to stick around. I let her have some ice cream and she tolerated that well. At home I put her down for a nap and she went right to sleep. I was feeling bad at that point since she did not eat too much, but she showed no indications of being hungry, so I tried to push those guilty feelings aside.

Penelope was sleeping when I got the call from Scott at 4:30 that I could pick him up. I had to wake her up, but she didn't get too mad at me. This is about the time that she usually would wake up from her nap anyway. Nathaniel, Penny, and I drove to get Scott and on the way home he told me that they diagnosed him with diverticulitis that was probably provoked by the stomach bug. Diverticulitis can cause vomiting and diarrhea on it's on, but it would be too much of a coincidence that Penny was sick too. I think it is more likely that he was sick with a bug first.

At home, Scott went right to bed and I spent some time downstairs with my happy little girl. She had a dinner fit for champions : Saltines and Pedialyte. I guess I am very blessed that she will eat Saltines on her own. She did spread some crushed saltines ALL OVER MY LIVING ROOM. Who know that 5 saltines could cover such a large diameter of area? About one hour into play, her bottom made so much noise and there was a very large mess for spread everywhere for me to clean up. I feel like I am still trying to get the stench out of the air. I just put her down to bed and I she hasn't made a peep. Nathaniel is out at McDonald's night with my brother Joey. His treat no less; what a guy!

I just hope that all of my babies wake up all healthy tomorrow. Good night!!

Wordless Wednesday

DSC01097
Originally uploaded by maxiak

Jedi Baby!!! I am too proud for words. Penelope, I hope that the light saber beam is not hurting your hand.

Unreal!!??!

I first heard of this from Tricia's blog and then Cynthia had a great link that I wanted to share. Yesterday, a statement was issued that an organization called Changing Minds Foundations claim they can "cure" Down Syndrome. You can find the link to the Changing Minds Foundation through Tricia. Below, is an excerpt from a Down syndrome organization commenting on the assertions of Changing Minds.

"Introduction
We are a group of healthcare professionals, scientists and support organizations who care for and about people with Down syndrome. We wish to provide families with information about a proposed "treatment" for Down syndrome. We recognize that all parents wish to improve the lives of their children with Down syndrome and are interested in treatments, therapies and interventions that can help. We respect these wishes. At the same time, we are concerned that these "treatments" are potentially dangerous."

You can read the rest of this article here.

More Prayers for Dillon

I just got a voice mail from Dillon's mother that he is going back to the hospital to be admitted for his stomach problems and dehydration issues. It is very serious in that this little peanut cutie is acting very lethargic and he needs to be gaining weight, not losing it. Please pray that he will come out of it ok. Thank you!

A light-hearted video

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Penny and her boyfriend!

These photos are from awhile ago but I thought it would cheer up Dillon's mother because poor Dillon isn't feeling well. Here is Dillon and Penny together at the book party with Jessica as the consultant!

www.flickr.com

Special prayers for a special guy

If you are not familiar with Parker's story, please visit Tammy's site and wish Parker good luck. He had a pull through surgery several months ago and is just now suffering from a bowel obstruction. Prayers for Parker!!! We hope you do well in surgery and recover swiftly.

Ok, I need to relax because I have been searching the Internet on what my score really means. I guess the verbal section is harder for the typical student that takes the test so a score of 570 in the verbal means I am in the 78th percentile for verbal skills and a score of 710 in the quantitative section places me in the 72th percentile for math skills. How can I be under in math!!! I feel so inadequate.

"Veni, Vidi, Vici"

Well, I am glad it is over. That is one good thing. I won't know my score on the analytical writing section for 2 weeks or so, but on the math section I scored a 710 out of 800. I am pretty happy that I got over 700. In all the practice tests my score was not so good. My verbal section was a lousy 570. I felt pretty good about some of the analogies, but the antonym section completely blew me away this time. Oh well, I have some time to take it again if 570 is not good enough. Combined score is a 1280, which is pretty much what I got on the SATs. (1260 the first time).

I CAN GO ON WITH MY LIFE!!!

Wish me luck

I am off to take the GRE. It will be a 4 hour experience. Wish me luck!!!

Some Christmas PHotos

www.flickr.com

I know that I haven't done well in the department of photo sharing our Christmas story, but suffice it to say the kids had a great Christmas. Nathaniel was hard at work playing with his Lego sets, he was especially proud of Indiana Jones. Penny loved her baby that Santa brought and enjoyed her new bath toy!

Penny and her dancing skills

That is Scott playing one of his unfinished songs in the backround. We think it is her favorite song. She was drinking her night bottle and started to boogie to the music. Scott and I are amused by her abrupt contact with the bottle.

BRING IT!!

As I said in an earlier post, Scott got Sing Star Vol. 2 for his birthday. It is really so much fun, but then I am a huge kareokee fan. He downloaded some additional songs to the "library" and we battled each other in Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" We were almost tied. I was so happy with how well I did!!! Then we did the Darkess, you know that song with all the falcetto "I believe in a thing called love. . . just listen to the rythm of my heart . . . " I am pretty sure we both did pretty aweful with this song, but Scott still beat me. We gave Penny a microphone and we were hoping that she was going to start singing but she was only interested in eating the microphone and licking it. We did hear a lot of heavy breathing! lol. She started dancing when Scott began to sing "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel.

Only a short few months ago, Penny would refuse to walk more then 5 or so steps while one of us held her hands. Now, she will do laps around the house with her walker and/or one of us holding onto her. She has this huge grin on her face and she is just so happy to be up and around. I can't wait for her to be walking on her own. She is going to be 20 months soon.

Another Nathanielism

I need to preface this post with: "I love my mother."

I took the boy to Kohls yesterday to spend my Kohls cash and had settled on a pair of jeans to try on. He is still at an age where I take him into the stall with me, so when I took off my pants to try on this likely candidate, Nathaniel proclaimed, "Mommy! Your butt is as big as Grandma's!" Amongst the snickers from ther other stalls I asked him if maybe my butt is a little bit smaller than my mother's. I mean, who wants to be told they look like their mother from behind, right? Nathaniel agreed that maybe, my butt was just a little bit smaller. Ok, I guess that will have to do.

On a brighter side, I bought a very comfortable, cute looking pair of jeans for myself.

Does anyone else have a replicator?

Ever since Nathaniel knew that the letter p said "puh," we have let him put little flat, seemingly empty bags into the mircowave. He reaches up to press the "Popcorn" button and sits back to watch the blag infate. When the bell rings, he pulls out a nice hot bag of popcorn. Well, now that he can read a little bit more, something must have been on his mind for a little while today. About twenty minutes after he made popcorn today, he came up to me and asked, "If you were to put the bag in the microwave and pressed the "Potato" button, do you get potatoes instead?"

One more thing that Penelope did

I had her in the bathroom while I was taking a shower. Clearly done waiting in her crib, since she patiently amused herself while I practiced some yoga an hour earlier, I removed her from the cage and expected her to play on the bathroom floor for the five minutes or so that I needed this morning. She then pulled herself up to the side of the tub as she has done many times, and then. . . I. . . heard a. . . thump. I brushed the water out of my face to realize she fell into the tub with me face first. She was in her pj's still with a brand new diaper. Penelope was a little startled, but otherwise perfectly fine. She went to clapping right away; my little girl was having so much fun. Anyway, Melanie's post reminded me of this occurrence. Her son Logan is only 2 weeks older than Penny, as he was born on Mother's day of 2007.

News from the homefront

So, Penny has been practicing really hard at walking. She must have put herself into a standing position from the inverted "v" at least a dozen times today. She also got a push toy for Christmas form her Aunt Wendy and she has been pushing it all around our house since yesterday morning. She is so stinking cute. Also, Penelope has been so miserable. I think that once a kid is about to take on a milestone they get really cranky, right? I swear she is sitting there frustrated as all hell that she can't just get up and go. As I sit here writing this, she is standing up with her back against the couch, using the couch for support. I think it is funny when she does this.

Nathaniel is just turning into such a little man. We were sitting down the other night, Scott, Nathaniel and myself, when he turned to me and said, "I think it is time for us to have another baby." He told me that he needs another baby sister. Well, I told im that as soon as he buys me house we can start trying! lol!! Although, Nathaniel has obviously been thinking this out, because he rebutted with the plan that we can put in the bunk bed below his loft, so that Penny can move in below him and the baby can sleep in Penny's crib. You can't blame a boy for trying, eh?

I am a studying fool.

That's right, I am working on something. I am studying for the GRE, it is like the SAT's for grad school. I am not sure if I am going to grad school, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have one step out of the way just in case. Anyway, I have come to realize that I am in big trouble. Who in the hell decides that analytical writing is a good idea on standardize tests? That person needs to be shot. I have been taking practice test after practice test for both the verbal and quantitative components, but I am afraid to go near the writing section. I know this is really stupid of me too, since I enjoy writing (albeit I am not that great at it). I even write a proof or two in the course and scope of my occupation such as when I need to send a case into arbitration. Please wish me luck. The countdown begins. I take my examination on January 10 in the morning.

The author presumably believes that all businessmen are _________, for her main characters, whatever qualities they may lack, are virtual paragons of _________.
A. clever . . . ingenuity
B. covetous . . . greed
C. virtuous . . . deceit
D. successful . . . ambition
E. cautious . . . achievement

(from Kaptest.com)

Recount of 2008

Overall a much better year than 2007! Here are some of the highlights of 2008;

January - Penelope was recovering so nicely at home, having just came home from surgery on Dec. 22 for her TOF repair (2nd surgery was on Dec. 17, 2007) and at just seven months old, her first tooth erupted. The most exciting thing of Jan. '08 must of been when I joined blogger, of course! My first ever blog post was on Jan. 12.

February - My father turned 59, Penny worked hard on sitting up on her own and with the exit of Feb. she was very close to doing it. She also was holding herself in a standing position on the coffee table. Scott and I were both back into our routine at work having found a babysitter to come to our house three days a week.

March - Penny celebrated her first Easter in March. I also hosted the annual Easter candy hunt at my mother's house. I learned that Penelope could drink through a straw. She also had her 9 month well baby check up where we learned our little monster was over 18 and a half pounds!! We were so proud of her growth. She also started to say "dada" this month.

April - One of my brothers celebrated his 19th birthday and my mother had a birthday as well. Penelope continued to grow and tried out new foods. My god baby, Shamus, was born to my best friend Jessie and her hubby, Nate.

May - Such a busy month. I went up to visit Shamus and en route to NH with Penny my car broke down. I was able to get picked up from my break down location and I rented a car to resume my trip. We ended up buying a 2008 Honda Civic before the month was over. My family was proud to celebrate Penny's 1st birthday!!! Penelope wasn't too happy because her molars erupted the weekend of her birthday party. She also had a cardiology visit that concluded her left pulmonary artery miraculously grew and everything else looked great.

June - We started out the month when we took the kids to the Little Hearts picnic. This included Tanner. I know that I had a great time and I can't wait to go back this year. Having decided that rolling around was not very effective, Penny learned to perfect her military crawl. Another brother of mine turned 27 and Nathaniel graduated from Kindergarten into first grade.

July - Nathaniel had his sixth birthday at Chuck - E - Cheese. I had my 29th birthday. We placed Nathaniel in summer vacation camp through the parks and rec department for a few weeks and on July 25, Nathaniel fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm. Penelope started putting herself into a sitting position on her own. This was huge!! We also went to the Down syndrome picnic where we met up with Melissa and Dillon. We also ran into Jessica and Joey as well. Diana, who is our current babysitter, came on board. She is absolutely wonderful!

August - WE WENT TO CAPE COD!! It had been 3 years since Scott and I went on vacation together and we had a wonderful time with the kiddies. My mother, father and brother Michael were with us for part of the week.

September - I found out that my job will be consolidated to another claim center. At the present time, we still do not know where this claims office will be. The deadline is supposed to be Aug. 1, 2009 so we were given 11 months notice and a severance option if we are still with the company by the time Aug. comes. Nathaniel started 1st grade.

October - This brought Halloween of course and lots of fun fall activities. I had my first Usborne home show with Jessica where I picked up a lot of cool books. I made two trips to Burlington, VT. Scott and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on Columbus Day weekend up there. Penny came with us, but my friend Jessie was great enough to keep her overnight. Nathaniel stayed home with my brother and sister - in - law and niece. Then my other best friend Irene flew in from Chicago and I took her to Burlington so that us girls could party. It was a crazy weekend. We finally started speech therapy for Penny, and have been continuing with the PT.

November - I was reacquainted with blogging and made a real effort to blog more than once a month. lol. Penelope began to crawl on her hands and knees more consistently. She had her check up with the cardiologist which will lead to a future MRI. Her growth is awesome!! 23 lbs in November. Unfortunately, she was sick through Thanksgiving. First she had croup, then walking pneumonia, and then an ear infection. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA.

December - Scott's birthday, my other brother's 22 birthday, and CHRISTMAS!! Nathaniel told me Santa brought him everything he asked for, so he must have been a good boy. Penelope began to stand without holding onto anything for close to a minute. We also learned that she likes to eat the crib when we are not looking.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

My family and I rang in the new year in West Hartford at my girlfriend's house with her family and our good friend Tanner. Audrey and her husband Tim had a wonderful dinner waiting for us. I have to say, Tim's quiche is even better than mine. We played guitar and sang kareokee until the ball was about to drop on Times Square. Then the 9 of us all waited eagerly as the ball began to drop. Nathaniel was in amazment that he was able to stay up "until the next day." At first he didn't believe me. I guess the concept that the day begins in the middle of the night was tough for him. But it helped when I explained the term "midnight." Tanner and Nathaniel basically ran around Audrey's house for 5 hours straight. I feel really bad that her house is now trashed, but in Tim's words, "it was to be expected." So that alleviated some of the guilt.

2009 is a scary year for me. I don't know where I will be working by the end of the year, but then, with this job market, I am sure I am not the only one. What makes me so special?

Anyway, I am excited to post my first post for the NEW YEAR!!! We made it to 2009!!