Only 2 months late :)

Here are the birthday photos from when Nathaniel and Penny and I all worked on his birthday cake. His birthday was July 7, 2009, but we had his birthday party on July 18 (or whatever that Saturday was ) This was the fateful day I broke my camera by the way. Penny is helping Mommy pick out the pans and bowls that we needed.

Nathaniel and Penny can't wait to get started!!

I can tell Nathaniel was trying to be very careful not to make a mess.

What a steady hand this boy has!

Penelope is so cute sitting up here stiring the batter. It looks like she is having a great time.

Now to reap the benefits of hard work and lick the beaters!!

Ta-Da!! The finished Star Trek cake for Nathaniel's 7th birthday party!!! At least he wanted something easy. Sheesh!

Team Penny Girl Sponser #2

I just received word that our TEAM PENNY GIRL T-shirts just arrived and I cannot wait to see them. This is so exciting.

So, . . . I just wanted to give a shout out to our other TEAM PENNY GIRL sponser, Aero- Med, of our own Glastonbury, CT. They donated a generous amout to the CDSC in honor of Team Penny Girl as well as paid for the printing of the T-Shirts that Harbor Productions donated.

THANK YOU SO MUCH ALLISON AND THE OTHER PEEPS AT AERO-MED!!
YAY!!!!!

Who loves to See Penny Dance?

Off To the Farm!!

I am so excited to be heading off to the Fish Family Farm day to benefit the Lutz museum this afternoon. I know that Penelope and Nathaniel will have lots of fun!

TEAM PENNY GIRL SPONSOR

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I am so excited!!! Team Penny will be sporting some beautiful T-shirts donated by Harbor Promotions/ Harbor Publications, Inc. of Madison, CT. I was moved to tears when I learned that this company wanted to help us show our spirit for the CDSC Buddy Walk.


You can also visit them online at http://www.harborpromotions.com/. Thank you Harbor Promotions!!!

Penny had fun on Nathaniel's 1st day too.

So Penny climbed up on this chair all by herself, she has been doing that a lot lately. Her reward were the leftover pancakes from her brother's breakfast. Ymmmm

"Don't worry Mommy, I will help you fold this pesky laundry!"

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 9/01/09

Another successful day of school. Nathaniel got the teacher he wanted and he actaully said that his first day was "great!" I hope that this is a good year for him. Here are some pictures of the first day:

Nathaniel packed himself a healthy lunch that included some of his favorite vanilla yogurt.

He also packed his bag all by himself!! My boy is getting so big!

We have taken this pose each year since he started preschool 3 years ago. I should find some from past years and post them as well.

Here we are, the family waiting for the school bus to come take him away.

"Bye Mom, I can do this you know!" Me: "Have a great day my little wubby poopey bear!" ha ha ha

And I thought we were in the 21st Century People!!

As published by the Wall Street Journel
By Sue Shellenbarger
An Ohio Supreme Court decision allowing a breastfeeding mother to be fired from her job for taking breaks to pump milk has ignited an angry buzz among bloggers.
The decision came in the case of LaNisa Allen, a temporary warehouse laborer for Totes/Isotoner Corp. in West Chester, Ohio. Ms. Allen was fired after taking unscheduled breaks from work to pump milk. She fed her five-month-old baby before reporting to work for her 6 a.m. shift, but found waiting until her scheduled 11 a.m. break to pump milk was too difficult. Any breastfeeding mother could relate to the discomfort and leakage Ms. Allen said she was experiencing.
Ms. Allen asked her bosses either to let her take an extended break at 10 a.m., or to extend a brief 10-minute break she was allowed at 8 a.m., to allow her time to pump, but neither request was granted. After suffering for several days, Ms. Allen began taking an unscheduled restroom break around 10 a.m. every day to use her breast pump, court papers show. A supervisor told her she was violating work rules by not waiting until her 11 a.m. break, and she was later fired.

you can read the full article here: http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/08/31/can-pumping-at-work-get-you-fired/

another point of view can be viewed here: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/08/28/fired_for_pumping/

still another point of veiw can be seen here: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/28/LACTATE.ART_ART_08-28-09_B1_8EET5UK.html?sid=101

And if you would like to send an e-mail to Totes/Isotoners to tell them how you feel, you can do so at this address: mailto:customeraffairs@totes.com

Nathaniel's Dreams are coming true

So we got the mad hook-up tonight!! Turns out, Nathaniel is a boy aged 6-8 and LEGO wanted him to play with Legos for an hour and then give them feedback. I wasn't too clear on the compensation piece, but I figured at worse, they would give him a small set of free Legos right. And it was in the town next to us, and it was in the evening so it was doable. Well, Nathaniel was giving me a hard time, because he wanted me to give him all of whatever money he makes. I told him no, it would go to his savings. Well, wouldn't you know, he got this Lego Service Station Set (I priced it at $120 on Toywhiz.com) AND a check for $50. He doesn't even know about the money. He is too excited about his Legos that he gets to build tomorrow. So, in the end. . we both win!! I can't wait for the next one!!!

This couple will be matching

So, I was at Target (my favorite store) and saw this raincoat that I thought would be perfect for Penny's boyfriend, Dillon. Then I saw the matching hat and I was sold!! I then noticed the pink set and I knew I had to get this for Penny. Can you imagine how cute our kids are going to be. I am almost hoping for rain this year at the Buddy Walk so that they can be sporting their rain gear together!! ( I didn't bother with the umbrellas, we are talking about a 2 and a 3 year old) Oh, and I couldn't find the pic of the yellow matching hat online, but rest assured. Dillon got a hat too :)

Penny feeds herself Oatmeal!!

. . .And she is starting to get really good at this too. Barely a mess! I am so proud and impressed with her.

FlashBack Friday

Memorial Day - 2005

I am still a sucker for flattery

Yesterday, I had an awesome time with the kids at the beach at Camp Harkness. I was able to meet up with Holly and Sam as well as Laureen and Stephen. We really missed Melissa and Dillon but I know they wanted to be there. While there, I had a great encounter with an adult with Down syndrome. He was roughy fifty or so. I was outside of the bath house waiting for Nathaniel when he approached us and started talking to Penny, telling her how cute she was and such. He then looked up at me and asked me about her, what her name is and how old she is. So I told him of course. Then he began to talk to Penny again and while motioning up to me he said, "So, are you out having fun with your older sister?" I must admit I was confused at first and then when I realized he was referring to me, I did become a little flushed. I smiled so widely at this man and informed him that, "No, actually, I am her mother." He looked back up at me, then back to Penny, then back to me and said, "Nah, you look to young to be any one's mother!" I gushed again and thanked him for the compliment. He told me he was going off to swim then and we said our goodbyes. Imagine that!

www.flickr.com maxiak's pix for badge photoset

What every crazy fun night at home needs!

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THEIR VERY OWN PENNY!!

ENT follow up

Well, we were asked to wait for awhile, which is ok, I happen to have patience for this sort of thing. Penelope's ENT visit is scheduled for Oct. 12 at 9am. Hopefully I will be laid off by then, but if not, I will just take a morning off so that I can be with the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor that morning.

Wish us luck!!

Audiological Report

Hear (pun intended) is the audiological report that came in the mail over the weekend. I think these things are interesting to review and I figured I may not be the only one. We spoke with her pedi last night to get a referral to an ENT . . . and another journey has begun!

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Some more milestones

One thing I never take for granted with Penelope is her ability to feed herself and try new foods. Too many of her friends have aversions to eating, or are just plain picky eaters. Penelope can use her fork and spoon well enough for a two year old. She can self feed with her fingers like a champ, and she will pretty much try anything once. For example, I was surprised a few weeks back when she tried some sauteed collard greens and continued to ask for more. Also pretty recently, we began to give Penny a whole corn on the cob. She LOVES IT!! Today, I decided to have her try a whole fresh peach. I took the tiniest of bites first just to expose the flesh to her and then I handed it over. She LOVED IT!! When she had chomped off enough to expose the pit, I dug it out for her and tossed it. She demanded that I be quick about handing the fruit back over to her too. She is just so funny, she finished the whole dang thing!

Another thing that I am so incredibly proud of just happened this past Tuesday. We went to this family lake house to have a nice refreshing dip after work. I sat her down, waist high, in the water at the shore. I then showed her about twenty times how to blow bubbles under water in the hopes that she would copy me. I had pretty much given up with Nathaniel asked me to turn around to look at some feat he had accomplished and when I turned back to look at Penny, her face was under the water and she was blowing bubbles just like her Mama had done! Since this day I ask her to blow bubbles during bath time and she has happily complied.

I love getting excited over the little things in life!

Friday's Favorite Quote

I am going to start something new, at least, I think it is new. I love going on websites to find a good quote to get me smiling, thinking, or both. From now on I am going to share my favorite one on Friday!

"IT IS NOT GIVING CHILDREN MORE THAT SPOILS THEM; IT IS GIIVNG THEM MORE TO AVOID CONFRONTATION." - John Gray from Chilren Are From Heaven

Audiological Exam and Montana Travel

I am such a proud momma to my darling Penelope. She was such an excellent baby during the air travel to Montana. On the way there we had to take three planes. This would have been bad except my kids were truly angels during the whole ordeal, so I was able to manage just fine. We were supposed to leave the CT airport at 7:50. Since I had the baby and I wanted to buckle in the car seat, we arrived at 6 am. *this is a small airport* We learned at the time of arrival that our flight was delayed until 10:50! This was really bad news because our connecting flight in MN departed at 11:40 am. We didn't arrive at MN until about 2pm and we were quickly shoved onto another plane to Salt Lake City in an effort to reroute us to Montana. This proved difficult since we had a hard time getting seats together, but it all worked out. I sat with the kids, Scott in a different row, as well as Matt, Wendy, and Martin peppered elsewhere throughout the fuselage. Once we arrived in SLC, we had some time to breathe during our five hour lay over. Mind you, we had all been up since about 5 am CT time and our flight did not leave until 9:30 UT time. You can imagine we were a little tired. I was a little sad sitting there at the SLC airport knowing that we should have been at MT a few hours ago. The airline provided food vouchers so we were more than fine and we were able to spend very little to no money on food in the airports.

The point I wanted to make was that even with all of these take offs and landings, Penny hardly complained. Maybe a little whining from time to time, but never really upset over the altitude change.

Our travel did get a little stressful in that the rental car store closed at 2pm on Saturdays and we were not arriving until 11pm. There was some big horse show in Kalispell so all the other rental car agencies were booked. AND all the hotels were fully occupied. Now, we had a vacation home lined up, however, we were supposed to meet him between 2pm and 3pm. Several attempts to reach him and apprise him of our situation proved only failure and we were worried that even if we got a car to get off the airport grounds, where would we sleep that night? Moments before we boarded our 9:30 pm departure from SLC, a voice mail was retrieved that indicated that our home would be left open for us and that we could go over the paperwork (i.e. rental payment) the following day. THANK THE LORD!! So we were able to board this plane with that sense of security at least.

Once at the Kalispell, MT (glacier Nat'l park) airport, I sweet-talked my way in to an Alamo minivan. I was charged a disgusting $184 for the night and I had to promise to return the damn thing the very next morning when I got into my Enterprise cars, but we were desperate! I drove the absolute wrong way to the rental house that added about 25 minutes of travel time, because ya know, I wanted to take the scenic route at midnight when there are no street lights, and a deer (or worse, Moose!) could jump onto the road at any second. Damn! I should have taken that damage waiver. :) Luckily, the following morning myself and a few people in my party arrived at Enterprise to pick up our scheduled vehicles. (Thanks Doc Vivien!!) And we traveled back to the airport to hassle the manager about this insane $184. I was able to further sweet-talk the manager into a reasonable $69.99 (after taxes) and I was on my way with a huge smile on my face. I mean, we could have easily paid that in cab fare to the rental house 30 miles away so it was all good.

Additionally, Penny had her audiological exam yesterday at the Glastonbury office of CCMC. This was all new to me, however, I have no doubt that I will learn fast the ways of the ear. She failed her tympanic test, as it was pointed out to me that her graph made a very shallow peak indeed. It was suggested to me by the audiologist that this may indicate fluid in her middle ear, or it may just be her baseline. She said some children with Down syndrome exhibit this sort of graphical representation even though they suffer no hearing loss. Of course, it would have to be up to the actual doctor to report any true diagnosis.

Then we were ushered into the sound booth where I was met with two speakers. One situated on the top left corner of the cubicle, and the other in the top right corner. I was instructed to hold her and let her demonstrate on her own if she is able to determine what side of the room a particular sound was coming from. Basically, each time the administrator spoke into the speaker, Penny exhibited good hearing. If the administrator chose a static or other soft noise, Penny did not do too well. It was funny because even though she would not turn her head as we would have liked to definitively demonstrate that she could tell where and when the sound was produced, she would imitate the sound, thus indicating that she at least heard the noise. It was a really subjective test at that point. Overall she didn't flat out fail, but there were some concerns.

Then the audiologist put this headband thingy on her that positioned two soft round "speakers" directly behind her ears on the nerve itself. The conventional wisdom is that this "noise" bypasses the middle ear by putting sensory information directly on the nerve. She "passed" pretty much 100% of the time. This did reflect that she possibly has some mild hearing loss. We need to proceed with these concerns and see an ENT as soon as we can to explore further. Most likely there is some fluid in her middle ear that muffles the sound she hears in her day to day. She can hear noises, but we want her to be able to hear clearly and I will do whatever it takes!

Mourning at St. Mary's

This is St. Mary's lake in Glacier Nat'l park that we visited on the 2nd anniversary of the death of my mother in law. Last year on this day, Scott's stepfather spread her ashes in this lake. I love Scott and Penny so much and it was hard to see Scott in pain on this day.

Saying good bye to our house

DSCF1963
Originally uploaded by maxiak

Sorry this is such an awful picture. We took this one in the morning before our departure and the sun was directly in our faces no matter which why we looked. :)

**Edit** Sorry Joanie! This is us leaving our vacation house that was in MT. We were sad to say goodbye

Back From Montana

What a week we just had!! We enjoyed gorgeous weather and a beautiful rental house located in the tranquil Glacier Park area of Montana. Over the week I will plan to post pictures from our vacation. Check back often!!

Penny eats her Zuchinni

Pucker up!!!

So, Penelope has just been an explosion of development lately. I know that it is true now that kids can only work on one thing at a time!! All that hard work to learn how to walk was truly taking up most of her brain power. :)

She knows roughly 40 signs now and sometimes she uses signs that i don't even know. Everyday there is a new one. She will use a modified sign for help when she wants me to turn on a toy of hers and it is really great. No tantrums when she cannot get her toy to work. She simply walks over and puts it in front of me and then signs "Help".

Wednesday I came home from work and there was my happy girl waiting to give me hugs and kisses. Yes, kisses. She puckers up her cute little lips and will smack away until her mouth lands on you. I was so amazed. Honestly, Nathaniel was over 3 when he learned how to kiss. He used to make this noise that sounded like "mmm-baaaah" when he "kissed" us. So I am loving life now that I am getting kisses from my precious little girl.

New Friend for Penny

On a brighter side, I think Penny met her new best friend. Up until now, Penny has met a lot of boy children with Down syndrome, and we were on the look out for a girl that is local to hang with. Well, we went and visited a family that lives about 15 minutes away. If the mom sends me her pix (again my camera was not operable) and her permission to post I will throw some pictures up soon. I know that this is a match made in heaven so to speak because her name is Helen. Both Penelope and Helen are strong Greek names that are rich in Greek mythology. In fact, the name Helen made it on my short list for that reason, but Penelope won out in the end.

Penelope was the wife of King Odysseus of Ithaca. Odysseus was pretty much forced to help the king of Sparta when his wife, Helen of Sparta was "kidnapped" by the prince of Troy. Thus began the Trojan war, ten year battle over a woman. Helen's beauty was unmatched and she was said to have had "the face that launched a thousand ships" because of all the countries involved in this fight. All the time that Odysseus was absent from home, twenty years in fact, Penelope never once took on another lover. She had many suitors since there was an empty thrown, but she turned down each one of them because Penelope believed her husband was to return. The name Penelope has two meanings; the first is "always faithful" but the name also has a more literal translation, "one who weaves." This is because it was said that during the time Penelope waited for the return of her husband, she was constantly weaving a garment to keep herself too busy for the suitors.

So sad and other thoughts

We had Nathaniel's 3rd celebration for his 7th birthday on Saturday. It was a glorious laser tag party, sans Penny so that Scott and I could get in there with Nathaniel and tag him over and over. Well, I dropped the camera and it is broken. I can't even get my computer to read the card so I can't tell if that was damaged as well. I just emptied the photos recently so the only pictures are those that I took on Friday while making the cake with Nathaniel and Penelope. And then those pix taken on Saturday of course, but man, was that cake cool! Not to mention that we only had that camera for about a year and it was a couple hundred dollars. It makes me so sad. . . .

**update** Scott purchased the protection plan that will cover you if you damage your own camera so they are sending us a new one. YIPPEE!!!

New Penny Montage

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Ramdon Thoughts

This is were I will be in 2 weeks! I cannot wait for my vacation to Montana. This will be Penelope's first trip on a plane. Nathaniel went out to California when he was 3 and still in diapers. He was so cute then.

It is increasingly difficult for me to stay focused at work. I am not sure if it is because I am getting laid off soon and my work load is staring to taper off, or if it is because I need this vacation or what? If there is anything I have learned about myself is that I need a heavy workload to stay focused on anything. When the work amount is lessened, I don't feel that sense of urgency and then nothing gets done! When I look back on my college career, I could maintain the Dean's list when taking 5 or more classes, but whenever I decided to "take it easy" with 4 classes, I did awful.

Also had a couple of those moments where I questioned my ability to be a mother. Last night I took the kiddies to the town pool in East Hartford. It was our first trip in the wading pool because the last few times it was closed. (Don't get me started on that) I let Penny run/wade right into the water without holding her hand and . . . she. . . FELL. Face first right into the water! By the time I picked her up she was already gagging on water. I could hear her clearing her airway so I tried not to panic, but man, it was pretty scary. After that, I would not let go of her hand!

Then, after the pool session was over, I let the kids play in the play scape right outside. I parked myself on the bench to watch them enjoy the summer evening. Penny seemed to find something interesting since I saw her bringing an object up to her gaping mouth. I got up as quickly as I could and yelled, "No Penny! That is yucky!!" Alas, she is fast when it comes to food. What I found in her hand was a cream sandwich cookie with her little teeth marks in it. IT WAS TEAMING WITH ANTS!! They began to crawl from the cookie in her hand up her arm. I slapped the cookie out of her hand and swatted the ants off her chubby arm. As I brushed cookie crumbs of her face several seconds later, a live ant crawled out of her mouth!! GROSS!!! Several minutes after that, her tongue ejected a dead ant from her mouth too.

My only hope is that ants are a laxative and this traumatizing experience will help out her constipation issues. lol.

Little Hearts Picnic Pictures

Our good friend Katie from the pediatric cardiology's office at CCMC. She touched both our children's lives!!


I wonder what Penny is laughing at?


Penny is always happy to play with her boyfriend Dillon!!


These kids are starting to look like some tired babies.

That shortcake was so good she had to double fist it!!

Tired babies after a fun day at the Strawberry festival in Unionville!

Little Miss Delicate Fingers

Like most parents, I continue to fall into the trap of obsessing over what my child is not doing, when I need to celebrate more in what Penny is doing. I so wish she could talk to me, is saying "mama" too much to ask?

Don't get me wrong, I love to listen to her beautiful babble. It is wonderful that she vocalizes as much as she does. And she understands a lot. Sometimes I really feel she is saying things but I don't understand her. Like "what's this!" I really think she says that, but it is very high pitched and jumbled I might be making that up. She certainly has a very respectable vocabulary for a 2 year old. (New 2yo at that!) She says dog, duck, all done, dada. And she has at least two dozen signs that she uses consistently.

I love that she is so social. She is never shy around strangers!

One of the things that I have been noticing a lot lately is her ability in fine motor skills. She has been building megablock towers since about Christmas time. Although she does yell at the blocks a lot to get them to cooperate :) She is good at putting tiny pasta or Cherrios in a narrow necked bottle. (Such as a water bottle or empy trial size shampoo bottle) She even amazed the OT last week when she held the bubble wand on her own and showed everyone she could put the wand into the bottle on her own and then proceeded to blow bubbles. I love watching her tiny fingers pick up blueberries and eat them. Her mouth has been blue a lot from this new experience.

Also she is so strong. She will think nothing of picking up the entire bag of megablocks or her farm house or doll house and walk around the house with it. Looking for a suitable place to camp out.

Our new adventure is the terrible twos. I remember that three was much much worse with Nathaniel. Maybe with girls it is two? She has been having temper tantrums more often lately. I know, I should let herself dive down the stairs in an effort to keep her happy. :)

I guess the bottom line here is that of course I think she is wonderful no matter what milestone she has reached yet. I just want her to stay happy and healthy!

Nathaniel Update

MY LITTLE BOY TURNED 7 ON 7/07. I cannot believe that seven years have gone by so quickly!!!

What I am about to tell you is his secret. If you see Nathaniel, you cannot mention this to him otherwise I might be in big trouble. But it is too juicy not to tell people. :)

Nathaniel told me the other day that he will have to marry his friend Satiria. I asked him why, do you love her? He told me no, he kissed her so now he has to marry her. WHAT?!?!?!? I asked him how this happened. He told me that first he kissed her on the cheek and then he kissed her on the lips. How is this starting already?

Last night he announced that she is his girlfriend. But he was really sheepish about it. I just hope he doesn't get his heart broken. Although, she did call to hang out with him last night as well (before the announcement) and Nathaniel declined the offer. He would rather play video games than hang out with his girlfriend. So typical of a guy!!!!

Penelope the Terror

Penny: "DA DA DA DA DA . . . .DA DA DA. .. DADADA. . . DA DA DA DAD DDADDDAAA"

Me: "No, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA."

Penny, with her cute look and hands gesticulating like she is giving a disseration: "DA DADADADAD DAD ADAD DADADADA DADAD DA, AHHHHHHH"

Penny ambled over to her brother and seemingly began to hug him saying, "AAAAWWW." Then she commenced to viciously slap him repeatly in the face. Usually Nathaniel is very patient, but tonight, he seemed intent to enjoy the video game time he had earned. He turned around and yelled at Penny, telling her to stop hurting him and to go away. It only took a few seconds for the hurt to build in her face. She clenched up her face and burst into tears. Then she looked up to see me sitting there across the room. She ran over to me all the while crying and waving her hands wildly in the air. I felt like she was saying "Mommy, how dare Nathaniel talk to me like that!!! Make it all better with your kisses."

I kind of forgot what it was like to have someone come to you to be comforted. Even though she was sad, I loved every minute of the comforting.

Remembering 4th of Julys past

So my post is a day late. . . sue me.

Seven years ago yesterday I had approached my due date with Nathaniel. It was a very hot day, not like yesterday at all. I am pretty sure the temperature had reached 100 degrees. Having stopped working only 1 week prior as a waitress at TGI Fridays, I enjoyed lounging around at my parents house for a BBQ that day. Amazing that I cannot remember the 4th 3 years ago, but that day I remember all sorts of details. A good friend of mine, Kelly, stopped by with gifts from her mother and herself for the new baby that was to arrive. I was only 22 with all sorts of expectations of what motherhood was going to be like.

I tell his birth story to Nathaniel every day on his birthday, July 7. Has it really been 7 years already???

Two years ago yesterday I woke up early to get Nathaniel ready to go to CCMC. Penny had been re-admitted five days earlier for an infection to her open heart surgical incision. She hadn't responded to oral antibiotics, and we weren't sure what we were dealing with so, she was kept on the inside for a full course of IV anceph. I was bummed for obvious reasons, but also because we would have loved to spend the holidy with Scott's mother. (Of course we didn't know this was her last 4th of July.) Scott and I were hopeful that Penny was getting freed that day and we would have the rest of the day out of that place. Scott had slept over since we never left her in the hospital by herself. Nathaniel and I made our way through the short fifteen minute drive, and then spent an unusually quick 5 minutes to find a parking space. I pulled Nathaniel in one of the wagons since I was ready to take advantage of any fun thing for Nathaniel. In the lobby in front of the main elevators they had two tables with volunteers making party hats. It was such a neat thing for Nathaniel (almost five) to do. I was so grateful for that, I mean, how nice is it that they do this for families on a holiday. We finally made it upstairs and I learned that Penny was indeed going to be discharged that afternoon!!!!

Tonight, Nathaniel is at the Manchester fireworks with Scott. I got a call at 8 pm that Nathaniel had fallen asleep at 7:30 or so. What a tired maniac!!! Poopers finally crashed at 9 pm tonight after I worked her hard at the playscape down the street. This girl can crawl up the stairs and slide head first down the short slide. What a nut!! Then we had girls night out at Friendly's. We tried out a booster seat for the first time, instead of the high chair. She was wonderful! So engaged with her meal and her momma. We conversed most of the eveing about Dada, but sometimes we talked about the light, and sometimes we discussed the baby in the booth near us.

I hope everyone esle is having a great holiday weekend.

Happy Independece Day

I know the weather hasn't been too accomadating the northeast, but I wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July. Scott still doesn't want to take Penny to see fireworks, he is afraid she would be upset with the loud noises. How do other parents fare when taking their little ones out to firework festivities?

How stressful is your morning?

I try not to wake up before 6 am, although sometimes the wailing of a 2 year old still prompts me to jump out earlier. I move into the shower first thing. I have always been a morning shower person. I hate going to bed with my hair wet. Also, my hair is so fine that if I go to bed with wet hair, it becomes so matted that my pinwheel spot looks like a gigantic bald spot. After I am done in the shower, I brush my teeth and get dressed. I jump in the car within 20 minutes of waking up. If I am really motivated, I might do makeup or hair, but since I am in dire need of a hair cut I haven't been motivated to do anything with my hair lately.

I love and hate it when the babies don't wake up. They slow me down considerably because I would have to change Penny's diaper and make sure she has enough entertainment in the crib to last her until Scottie gets up. It also makes my day when I get to rub my face on her babyish cheeks and kiss her all over. Nathaniel usually tells me first thing that he loves me if he spies me before making it to my car.

My car ride to work is usually only 20 minutes. I really don't think I could handle more of a commute then that.

I would like to get back into doing yoga in the morning. I feel so much better even after 3 or 4 days of yoga.

All in all I would have to say that my mornings are not very stressful?

How is your morning?

2 year check up

Penny had a check up today. She is doing very well, as anyone might have guessed. She weighed in at 25 lbs 10 oz. She also started to sign cold. It is the funniest thing!! :)

Is there anyone that will have us?

Everytime I come back from a trip I long for more. I had a bug in my hat for a brief time about possibly flying out to CA in October to see my family, but I decided to put a hold on that for a time. Now, I am toying with the possibility of driving my family to Chicago from CT to visit my friend that I just saw. This will only work out if I am laid off by Sept 1. Irene will be on maternity leave until about October and I will only consider this trip if I get to spend time with both her and the baby. I thought that Chicago was 11-12 hours, but I learned today that it will be 14 and one half hours! We will most likely have to stop over somewhere and break it up. So if anyone lives near I-80 (from PA to IL) and they are willing to possibly maybe give some respite to my traveling family in September let me know!!! I love road trips!

Jambo!!

I am back from Chicago and I am beat!! I am stuck here at work since my office is a 2 minute drive from the airport I just thought it would make more sense to finish out the day at work and then go home at 4pm. But it is so hard!!! 2 hours left before I can see my babies. My girlfriend Irene lives out there and she is having herself a little Tanzanian-American baby any day. She met her hubby in Tanzania in June of 2006 when she went out to do some volunteer work for six months. I finally got to meet him and I learned that he is such a perfect man for Irene.

Irene, good luck to you when the baby comes!!! I pray for a fast and pain-managable labor for you!! Give the baby lots of smooches for me.

Away I go. . . .

I really intended to have Penelope's birthday pictures as well as pictures from the Little Hearts picnic up, but I have been such a slacker lately.

I am flying out to Chicago tonight all on my lonesome to visit a very close and dear friend from High School whom with I have remained close. Strange that I am soon turning thirty and two of my closest friends are from high school and they have lived out of state pretty much since we graduated. I also connect with 2 other friends pretty regularly.

My friend Irene that lives in Chicago is having a baby at the end of the month. Please pray and hope for a smooth delivery and a healthy baby. Thank you all and I will post when I get back!!

Man, maybe I should just find people to biography all week!

from http://www.louisianamedicalnews.com/news.php?viewStory=1172

Dr. Dennis Mello

By: PATRICIA GANNON

No one ever has to plead with Dr. Dennis Mello to have a heart. It's an absolute necessity in his business, literally and figuratively.

As a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon, he often delivers the most serious diagnoses for the most fragile of patients. It's a job he does well, for a number of reasons.

"I took congenital heart surgery and was almost finished with the study when my first son was born requiring congenital heart surgery," said Mello. "It solidified everything. I can look at it (the specialty) from both sides."

"I was fortunate to be where I was."

It also helps that his father was a plumber and for many years, Mello likewise supported himself fixing leaks and valves while still in school. Although he briefly considered ophthalmology, the signposts along the way were clear. "Once, when I was a medical student, I watched a heart surgeon—a pediatric heart surgeon—and that was the moment for me. I always loved to take care of children."

Congenital heart surgeons treat lesions or conditions people are born with, from premature babies to adults. "It's sort of a misnomer," said Mello. "Some patients require further surgeries as adults. They need to be managed, a valve put in, or one degenerates and needs to be changed-- for instance, a baby was born without a valve. Eventually the valve will become too small and require multiple operations. We don't have a valve that lasts forever."

Still other operations are corrective, meaning all the parts of the heart are there, but in disarray. Other patients sometimes have half a heart and will have palliative operations but will never be normal. "Instead of four chambers, they have three," he said. ""It's congenital, not acquired. We make it work well the way it is."

Born in Farmington, Connecticut, just outside of Hartford, Mello was a Yale undergrad and later attended medical school at the University of Connecticut, where he did his surgical residency as well. His cardiac training came later at the University of California in San Francisco, and included two years of adult cardiac studies and two years pediatric cardiac and congenital training—the latter under the trained eye of influential pediatric surgeon Dr. Frank Hanley,

After completing his training, Mello returned to Connecticut as director of Pediatric and congenital surgery at Children's Hospital of Connecticut, and subsequently collaborated in a similar position with another physician at Yale Children's Hospital. He is 44. "But physically, it feels like 69," he laughed. "You go through a lot of schooling, I didn't finish until I was 35 and I've been at this for 10 years.

"The work puts on about 30 years."

Married to an anesthetist and the father of three, Mello was recruited by Ochsner after the post was left vacant after Katrina. "It's a great institution," he said. "I was recruited and came down not only to rebuild, but for the opportunity."

Thus far, Ochsner's new director of pediatric cardiac surgery has also been accorded the opportunity to evacuate. "The storm was interesting," he said, referring to Gustav. "My wife preceded me here, then called and said 'You have to get down here, we have to evacuate.' I slept one night in my new home and had to leave it."

Hurricane season and living out of boxes aside, Mello says New Orleans is a good fit. He likes the friendly people, the different culture, and learning to walk with his head up, not down, like they do in the Northeast. But while he worked on his home in Connecticut, he's resisted the temptation to renovate in New Orleans.

"I've been doing it awhile, plumbing, heating, carpentry, making furniture. I wanted to get settled first. Otherwise, I'd focus on the crown moldings the doors and cabinetry," he laughed. Not only does he use dangerous tools, it's a risk he takes on a regular basis. "I've been doing it a long time," he said. I have a woodshop, and I come home at night and go out and do stuff, you know, get the kids involved. I don't actually pull myself away from the family. It's not like golf."

He also has his eye on Lake Ponchartrain. A former yacht club member back home in Connecticut, he hopes to get his racing sailboat up and running soon.

But first and foremost is growing the premier congenital and pediatric department in the area. "We have a major one to the west, in Houston," he said. "I'd like to dominate the whole Southern Region."

Mello dedicates what little spare room he has in his professional schedule to missionary work in other countries. Every year, he travels to St. Petersburg, Russia, and then to the city of Ascension, in Paraguay. In just ten days time, he'll leave with a medical team, half of which he recruited from Ochsner and half from Connecticut. It's a mission he warms to. "Children in the U.S. have easy access," he explained. "Even in Russia, an unbelievable number die simply because they have no access." Mello volunteers his time and organizes other doctors in his field, then lobbies to the companies that manufacture his sutures and valves. "I'm really passionate about it," he said.

"You'd be surprised, Russia's so backward. They don't put their money and resources back into their people. Paraguay simply has no money."

What doesn't surprise us is Mello is all heart.

Dr. Mello did both Penny's surgeries and boy, was he good! He also repaired Dillon's heart as well as Georgia's and many many other children. I was actually devestated when I learned he moved down to New Orleans last September. Those kids down south sure are lucky. Penny will need additional surgeries eventually and we will have to decide if we want to go to Yale, Boston, or the new guy (girl) at CCMC at the time her next surgery is needed.

Friday Quote of the Day

"At no time is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were, and are, a human being."~Dr. Jerome Lejeune

http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/2007/05/jerome-lejeune.php

I am really interested in Dr. Lejeune right now.

Question of the Day.

Does anyone have some neat plans for the summer that they want to share? Scott's step-father is taking us to Montana at the end of July. I can't wait!! We have Nathaniel in the Fun Days day camp run by the East Hartford parks and rec. He is signed up for June 29 thru July 24 and it is from 8am to 4 pm. If they have space open in August I may have to add some weeks. I just don't know when I will be laid off to plan for all this. But we always have Diana as a back up plan.

Soooo, tell me your plans.

An example of May 2010?

My calendar was marked today with an 8:00 am visit by Penny's PT and OT, Yvette and Linda respectively. We generally have them come together because we can only fit so many appointments in the week. At 8:07 I began to get a little nervous. Did I have the time right? Was today supposed to be a 9:15 visit with Scott. "Oh man! Now I am going into work late for no reason," I thought to myself. At 8:09 (and my clock does run a little fast), I picked up the phone to call Yvette, when I saw Linda walking up toward my door.

After we exchanged greetings I asked if Yvette was just running a little late, and Linda gave me this bewildered look. Linda then explained that she had been informed that morning that Penny was doing so well in the physical development department that she was discharged from Yvette's case load. Well, I didn't want to take this out on Linda since this was certainly not her doing, but I had to hold back the tears. You may recall from a previous post that Yvette is very important to me. Not to mention that this came as a huge surprise. I began to wonder what was going on because I know that my approval is needed to change Penny's plan. Then I thought, well maybe Scott was aware and in agreement to this and he forgot to tell me. He is always forgetting things. I attended Penny's OT in a confused (and a bit angry) state. I was upset that I never got to say goodbye; but on a more important note, I didn't agree that Penny lost that service. She is only 2. Don't I get another year out of the birth to 3 services.

At 9 am, Scott emerged from the bedroom and came down the stairs. Immediately I asked about his last visit with Yvette and if it was mentioned that her services would be reduced. Scott thought about this for a moment and then explained that they might have agreed to reduce her visits to one time a month rather than two since Penny is doing so well, but he was pretty sure he didn't dismiss Yvette's visits all together. Linda was still there at this time and admitted she could have heard wrong this morning too. . . but she didn't sound very convincing. I asked her to have Yvette call us if she met up with her.

At 9:00 am I should have been on my way out the door, but this really upset me and I was serious when I said I was holding back the tears. At 9:15 I finally got the gumption to get out the door when the phone rang. Marni was on the other line when I answered to explain that Linda just called her. No less then fifteen emphatic "No"s later, she told me that services are not cut without written documentation and a review meeting so that everyone has an opportunity to consider any changes. I kind of figured this, and I said as much to Marni, but I also explained that if Scott agreed to once a month, I am on board with that. I was just really confused and concerned if the services were just cut all together. She assured me that no, it doesn't work that way and we have a our annual review on June 16 anyway so we can address any changes to her plan at that time and have it all in writing. Hopefully, we will be meeting with Yvette sometime this month. I mean, the girl is good, but she isn't walking up and down stairs yet, so I know she will still benefit from PT at this stage in her life.

So, even though alls well that ends well is where I should be at right now, I wonder; how am I going to handle May of next year when her B23 services end?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNY!!!

2 years old

I can't even believe that at 6:50 am this morning it was 2 years ago that my life changed forever. My dear Penny, my heart is filled with love for you. I hope that many great things come for you this year.

YOU WERE ABOUT 15 MINUTES OLD IN THIS PHOTO

ABOUT 10 DAYS LATER AT CCMC NICU, THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME YOUR BROTHER WAS ALLOWED TO HOLD YOU. HE WAS THE PROUDEST BIG BROTHER EVER. AND HE SITLL IS. . . .

DOWN SYNDROME OPENS NEW WINDOW ON CANCER

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
People with Down syndrome confront a wide range of health challenges, including mental retardation, congenital heart disease and hearing loss. Yet doctors have long wondered why this community is protected from one of the most devastating illnesses: cancer.

Although people with Down syndrome are at increased risk for leukemia, they rarely develop solid tumors, such as cancers of the breast or colon, says Sandra Ryeom, a researcher at Children's Hospital Boston and author of a study published online Wednesday inNature. In a study of 17,800 people with the disorder, the mortality rate from cancer was less than 10% of what doctors would expect to see in a general population.

In the past, doctors assumed that people with Down syndrome simply didn't live long enough to develop solid cancers, because many died in their 30s, Ryeom says. Yet children with the disorder don't develop common pediatric cancers, either, such as neuroblastoma or bone tumors.

The answer to the mystery probably lies on chromosome 21. People with Down syndrome have three copies of the chromosome instead of two. That extra chromosome — and extra copies of disease-causing genes — are responsible for many of their health problems. But researchers suspected that the extra chromosome may protect them indirectly by preventing tumors from growing new blood vessels, she says.

In experiments in mice and in human cells in lab dishes, Ryeom and her colleagues found two genes on chromosome 21 that block this process, called angiogenesis. She suspects there may be several additional genes that block angiogenesis, as well.

Interestingly, angiogenesis isn't involved in leukemia, the cancer of the white blood cells that's more common in Down syndrome patients, says Jessica Pollard, a pediatric oncologist at Seattle Children's Hospital not involved in the study.

Doctors already treat cancer with a variety of anti-angiogenic drugs. The first of this new class of drugs, Avastin, was approved in 2004.

Ryeom is trying to develop additional cancer therapies based on her research.

Roger Reeves, a professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, says he's working on a drug based on another anti-angiogenesis gene on chromosome 21, called endostatin. Doctors already are testing that drug in humans.

Pollard describes Ryeom's findings as intriguing but says researchers need to do more human studies.

Has anyone else done this?

Information on PECS (picture exchange communication system)

"The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative communication system developed to help individuals quickly acquire a functional means of communication (Bondy and Frost, 1994). PECS is appropriate for individuals who do not use speech or who may speak with limited effectiveness: those who have articulation or motor planning difficulties, limited communicative partners, lack of initiative in communication, etc."

My good friend Audrey, is employed at a school that utilizes this system. She is very enthusiastic about it and gave me a bunch of resources for me to learn about this program. Audrey mostly works with autistic children and PECS seems to be helpful in her experience. The last time our ST came out she introduced us to this as well. There hasn't been enough studies to show if this encourages or inhibits verbal communication, but for those that are verbally delayed, any alternative method to communicate has to be good. I can't even imagine how frustrating it is not to be able to communicate my needs and wants.

Basically, you have this board with Velcro and you stick pictures of people or things or ideas (like "want") and the child will come over to the board, grab a picture to exchange it for the real thing. The transfer has to be immediate, almost overlapping, to ensure that the association is strong. Sarah (Penny's ST and Marni (her sped) were both very impressed at how quickly Penny got the idea of this method. . . and her strength to rip that picture off the Velcro. That was pretty tough. And Penelope didn't even tire of these exercises for a good 30 minutes. I think that the B23 office is making her a board of her own. Hopefully, we will have the time and energy to be consistent with this sort of thing. As of now, Penny knows to walk over to our pantry cabinet, stand at the door, point and wine until she gets a snack. How cool would it be if she exchanged a picture for her graham cracker?

If anyone Else has any experience with PECS I would be interested to hear about it. Thank you.

SHE'S BAAAAACK!!

How did a whole month go by?!!??? That is truely insane to me. I guess I have been too busy at work to slack off and keep up with my blog :)

Penny is the most wonderful child in the world. Every day I think about how remarkable she is. (Well, ok, maybe not last weekend when she cried from 9p to 3a straight and then was up again to greet the day at 6a on Sunday ready to go!! Turned out she had an ear infection.) It is just so neat to see the progression it takes for her to learn how to walk. Just 2 weeks ago she would take 5 to 9 steps or so, fall and then crawl the rest of the way. Last week, she was still at the 5 to 9 step maximum, but when she fell, she would stand right back up and walk another 5 steps, fall, then get right back up and walk some more. SO EXCITING!! This weekend, she goes for it all the time walking 10 steps is the norm; she can just about transverse our living room without taking a digger.

Yesterday we went to Bushnell Park in Hartford, there is a carousel from 1914 that is actually quite fast. Penny and Nathaniel really enjoyed themselves at the park. In between rides, they played right outside the carousel building where there is a decent sized playscape on a spongy material. Penny enjoyed the slides; she is so daring, she wanted to go down head first all the time. This girl is crazy!!

Right now, I am watching her feed herself little pineapple tidbits from a dole fruitcup. She has her little fork, and she makes these cute stabby motions at the food. She fishes until something finally sticks. Then she generally holds the fork up to marvel at her accomplishment with an "AHHHH-OHHHHH," and then proceeds to eat.

Still not too much progress with the verbal communication, although it is clear she completely comprehends just about everything I say to her. I talk to her like she is a typical 2 year old, as I have learned not to underestimate her in that department. She uses about a dozen signs regularly. The words that she can say all start with "D" such as dada, down, duck, dog, and done. Pretty much all small mamals are "Dogs" although she can discrimate when she puts her mind to it. She can sign "cat" and uses it when she sees one in a book, but in person she will either say, "dog" or make a very pronounced hard "c" sound. In any event, her eys get so big and wide they look like they will pop right out of her head. She is so dang cute.

She is content to play with her blocks for an hour at a time, even by herself while I get things done, but of course she prefers company as any child would.

My heart melts each time she kisses me. Basically this is a wide mouth contact on my cheek. But I can tell she is proud of herself too, because these kisses are given on command, and again, she is able to demonstrate that she understands me, and that is a cool thing.

So where have I been? Well, working 40 hours a week as usual. Monday night is libray night for me and Nathaniel. Tuesdays I do have off, so no excuses there. Wednesday night is soccer practice for Nathaniel, Thursdays was swim lessons: I had parent and child swim class with Penny and Nathaniel had his level 2 class at the same place and in the same time slot. I was very excited about it, but Penny was sick and missed the first 2 or 3 classes. Then we went to a class, but the following 2 weeks were canceled. They had closed and drained the pool to change the filter. The very first class after that was the first day water had been added to the water and it was FRIGID!! Penny lasted all of five minutes before she was a purple baby. Of course being of concern for her heart defect, I didn't push the matter. The last class was supposed to be last week, I think, but we kind of dropped out of it. We will pick it back up with fall classes. Friday nights were cub scouts, as I am the den leader for this fine group of boys. 5/15 was our last official meeting, although there will be plenty of activities through the summer. Our Saturdays and Sundays have been filed with various playdates and museum visits. I will have to tell you about our visit to Boston on another post.

Anyway, I just wanted to finally check in with you people. I have pletny of video of Penelope walking, but I just need to get in on the pc. Oh, yeah, SHE IS TURNING 2 ON FRIDAY! I can't believe my baby is turning 2.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe memorial day!

Fun times at Wickham Park

Baby Steps

First off, I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. Ours was really wonderful. I had Scott's sister Wendy over with her husband and their grand daughter Aarylin.

Penny is just so close to walking and I am so excited!! I don't remember this whole process with Nathaniel, probably because it was so quick - no time to enjoy it. Penny has been standing up in the middle of the room countless times a day and more often then not, she will take one little hop-like step. She then shakes her hands with excitement and pride, then falls. It is so adorable. Sometimes she takes 2 steps. Today after her nap, I walked her one-handed from her bedroom to my bedroom and then 2 steps away from my bed I let go. She took the two steps to the bed so she could get closer to her daddy. Yesterday morning, she took 5 steps from the dinner table toward me. I just love her so much!!

Her 2nd birthday is coming up next month and I really want to have a super birthday for her. She had been through so much and I am really looking forward to celebrate the anniversary of her birth. I just can't think of the perfect idea yet. Anyone who wants to come to the Hartford area and celebrate Penny's birthday with me shoot me an e-mail. It will be on May 30. Again, just not sure what the festivities will be yet.

So Close to Being Done!

You can scroll down a little bit to see the bathroom before pictures. I have to find a new outlet face plate (the one I got to match the light switch didn't fit, go figure) And the faucet doesn't actually dispense water yet. But BABY STEPS!!!

Another Day at the Museum

We were so lucky to hang out with Amy's cute family. Here is Chloe, she is about 7 months old or so and she is such a cutie!!!

I will post more pictures soon, but Flickr is bugging out on me!

More important notice.

Because I am bored at work.

The fact that I am going to Montana a few days before I am laid off has not escaped me.

Play Date for Penny

www.flickr.com

A couple of weedends ago Penny, Nathaniel and I went to her new friend Dora's house. I hung out with her mom, Jill and Nathaniel got to play with Nicholas, Dora's 6 year old brother. Nick enjoys Bakugan and Legos just like Nathaniel. Penny and Dora had a great time playing and checking each other out. They both love, love books. Dora is such a little cutie pie and I can't wait for our next get together because I know that they really had lot of fun together and Jill is just such a nice and wonderful person. Thanks for having us over Jill!!

Wordless Wedsnesday

Go Dillon

Please pray for an uneventful surgery for Dillon and a quick recovery. He is have his g-tube placed today God willing. This will be huge for him!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY

Who Was St. Patrick?

"St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.

Taken Prisoner By Irish Raiders

It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. . . ."

You can read the whole story by clicking on the title or here.

AND YOU CAN TAKE THE IRISH QUIZ HERE. It doesn't test how Irish you are, just how much you know about Ireland. :)

Blankies for Babies

I have wanted to post on this for some time now. Jaxson's mother Lacey, who has so much on her plate already, wants to comfort other children that may be going through a rough stretch of medical concerns with her blankets. I think it is so wonderful that she wants to donate her time and materials for this. I personally know a mother (and her kid) that has benefitted from Lacey's thoughtfulness.

So if you think your child would like a blanket or you know a child that might need a blanket spread the word. You can also go onto this site and donate. Every $ counts and it helps to offset Lacey's expense of materials so she can get more blankets out there!!

I won another award!!

Thanks to Joanie I now have another award. I guess you get this for having a good attitude or some crap like that. You know, "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade."

So, I would like to hand this out to a few people I know that just have a swell attitude about life, even though there have a been a few bumps in the road of life.

Melissa from Having fun at home with Master Dillon.

Lacey from Jaxson's fight.

Jessica from Raising Joey.

Cammie at The Helflin Family.

Michelle at The Zoromski Chronicles.

Erin from Adelynn's Journey.

And Rene at Life with My Special Ks.

Now the recipients can pass this on to as many or as few blogs as they want, maximum of 10! You will need to link to the other person's blog. Lacey, for the love of all that is good. We will figure this out together ok! and then you need to comment on their blog so that they know to come find this award.

Congratulations winners!!

Museum Visits

Nathaniel, Penny, and myself have been taking advantage of our CT Museum pass. For a yearly membership fee, we have access to several musuems across the country. We have been to the Lutz serveral times. Penny really gets engaged even though she is not yet walkin; however it is not too big so I don't feel that she gets overstimulated or anything.



Here is Penny checking out the model cow with working udders!!



Now she is constructing her own farmyard.



Nathaniel brought Penny "under" into the yellow submarine that they have there. She loves that thing.


I think Penny could stay at the helm (is that what they call it on a submarine?) and press buttons all day! One button plays The Beatles "Yellow Submarine."

So much to catch up on

So I have not disappeared off the face of the planet. I apologize for being away for so long, but there has been so much to do. This week I have started a bathroom remodel project.




Not that I want to complain or anything, but why, why can't anything be easy. This wall paper backing is NOT coming off easy in any way. I have tried to commit about an hour every day after work to scraping the paper off the wall, but I can't even get one tiny wall done in an hour. Please excuse my giant butt!! But, hey, I have a wonderful little helper. For now, we are going to paint the walls. Color is TBA, and I want to change out the vanity top and the sink. It has seen better days.

The glaze has been literally popping off the sink bowl. It is a creepy noise when you are on the toilet and then you hear this noise like chipping glass. You can't see it in this picture, but there are spots where you see the cobalt metal that is rusting.

My Miserable Little Girl

That little girl was the most desperate, miserable little baby I have ever seen tonight. Part of me wished I could provide her comfort, the other part wanted to pass this off as possibly the onset of the terrible twos. Scott and I were unable to put her down for a nap until closer to 3:00pm. On it's own, that should not have been enough for the meltdown that ensued. She woke herself up around 5pm. At the time she woke up I considered that a plus. Penelope is a much crankier baby when she is woken up by an external source. Scott brought her downstairs and we both took turns trying to calm her down. Scott went to make dinner and I cuddled with her on the couch. Any move I made elicited screams and cries from that little girl.

Then dinner time came. Typically, when Penny sees the highchair, we get big smiles out of her. However tonight there was only a lukewarm reception. I was able to buckle her in without resistance. Then. The food was served. I do not believe I have ever heard her scream and cry as loudly and for as long as tonight. Every attempt to feed her brought more screaming. I took her out of the highchair and had her sit in my lap a bit. She calmed down, but just. I admit I was a little tired of her behavior so I put her on the floor. There. She had such an awesome temper tantrum. She rolled around on the ground. She sreamed; she flailed around; she breathed in and out so fast I thought she was hyperventilating. I tried to ignore her and go back to my dinner. After I said, "Welcome to the terrible twos," Nathaniel was a little amused since he knew she was still only one year old. Of course he had to correct me.

We tried to put her back in the high chair and feed her yogurt to replace the offending spaghetti and sauce I had attempted to poison her with earlier (any one who has ever fed my daughter knows that marina sauce can never do wrong, she would eat absolutely anything if it has tomato sauce on it.) Even the yogurt upset her so badly. In between bites we couln't tell if she was holding her mouth in agony or trying to sign "eat," but we kind of gathered it was the former. Oh the horror!!

Scott and I finally blamed her very unusual behavior to her molars that may be coming in. Being a little tired and cranky would possibly be enough to put her over the edge when the severe mouth pain began to come in. Penny had been grabbing at her ears and her mouth all weekend, and I have been wondering about the 2 year molars. So we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed with a bottle. I do hope that she feels better tomorrow. Poor baby!!!

Can you believe that it is March already

Gees, wasn't Christmas, like, a few weeks ago? Between running around to complete tasks for Nathaniel's Cubscout Den, working full-time, Penelope's appointments, Scott becoming ill, play dates for the children, and of course making time for myself, this year is already flying by. Pretty soon I will be looking forward to the Easter bunny. I do hope Penny will understand a little more about Easter bunnies this year than last.

Mostly, I am not that frustrated by her self-paced development. But I have to be honest and admit that there are those things that I miss. She is 21 months and she has not uttered "mama" or even attempted to sign it. She uses about four signs routinely now, why can't mama be one of them if she cannot form the sounds with her mouth? And don't get me wrong, she is doing wonderfully and I am very proud of where she is today. But I still wish she would say my name!!!!

Today I took her to the Lutz Museum, a children's museum in Manchester, CT that I have loved since I was a child. How proud I was when Penny initiated one-handed walking throughout the museum. How dare I cramp her style by making her unable to point at the things she wanted as she ambled over!!? She was such an adorable cutie-pie strutting her stuff all throughout the museum while I followed. I know that she is mostly crawling as she investigates the exhibits, but as I keep telling her, "If you want to check those out so badly, you can figure out how to walk on your own!" Does this display of encouragement border neglect? Her glares back at me paint the picture that she knows my opinion on the matter, but she remains steady on her course to complete these achievements on her own time. And what else can a mother expect, or accept?