Alex's hard day

Little Alex had a hard day today. He woke up cranky and I had to forcibly dress him. Loads of fun for both of us. After dropping Izzy off at pre-school I took him to his first eye doctor appointment. Of course they dialated his eyes. He did not like it. Who could blame him though. I don't like it much either. After waiting for 30 minutes for the dialation to take effect they took him back into the room and check him. They found that he is farsighted in his left eye so we may have to watch out for some eye crossing from him too. The doc wanted us to wait for another 15 minutes to make sure that the difference in his eyes wasn't due to the right eye not being dialated as much so we waited some more. Have I ever mentioned that he NEVER sits still? It was a long visit. We finally got finished and left. I had some sunglasses for him, but he wouldn't leave them on. Thankfully it was a little overcast today.



When we left we had to go to get Isabelle and take her something else for lunch. Her pre-school called just as we were going into Alex's appointment saying that her blood sugar was 301 and she was hungry. I told them to give her the pepperoni and cheese that I had packed for her lunch and that I would bring her something else for lunch. I stopped to get her something and Alex didn't want to get out of the car. He had a screaming fit about it and I just carried him into the grocery store and grabbed what I needed and checked out as quickly as possible. When we got back to the van he threw another fit because he didn't want to get in his seat. I strapped him in anyway as we were trying to beat the clock.



We finally got to the school a little later then we should have been there and he threw another fit about getting out of the van again. I think he just wanted to fall asleep. We went in and gave Isabelle her insulin and back out to the van again. Another screaming fit about getting back into the car seat. By this point I was really feeling sorry for him, but was also ready to scream myself. We made it home and I put him down for his nap after some cuddling and rocking. He slept for 2 1/2 hours. I didn't have the heart to wake him up. He woke up in a much better mood even though his beautiful blue eyes were still dialated.



Alex ended his day by telling his Daddy and I a joke.



Alex- Why chicken cross the road Mommy?





M-I don't know Alex, why did the chicken cross the road?



A- Get to the other side.



Repeat with Daddy and then again with Mommy at least 20 times before he went to bed.



LOL!!!! What a trooper. It is so nice to have a child that goes with the flow.

Quicky's Redemption

Major drama today. I was cleaning the kitchen and getting ready for dinner this evening and I decided that poor Quicky needed clean water. I didn't mention this out loud as the last few times Isabelle has wanted to 'help'. It makes things much harder when you are changing the water so I kept my mouth shut.

Things started smoothly. I transfered Quicky (yes...Isabelle named him) along with some very yucky water to another container and cleaned his tank and the rocks and plant in it. I filled the tank with clean water and put the water conditioner in. Then I got water started for spaghetti and continued tidying up the kitchen. When I thought that the clean water was at room temperature and Quicky would not go into shock I decided to put him into his freshly cleaned tank. This is when the drama truely began.

I emptied most of the gross yucky water into the sink and a horrible thought crossed my mind...what would happen if Quicky decided not to cooperate and he started flipping around? I shoudl really be doing this with the sink plugged. Stupid me didn't stop and plug the sink and wouldn't you know it, the darn fish started flipping around and he flipped out of my hand and down the drain!!!! I gasped in horror. Isabelle popped up and asked me what was wrong.

At this point I had my hand in the garbage disposal as far as it would go trying to find the darn fish. Izzy walked around the corner into the kitchen and saw me with my hand in the sink, looking frantic. After searching through the muck I finally gave up and told her that Quicky was in the sewer and he was finding new friends.

She totally freaked! She started crying and wailing and asked me what happened. I explained what had happened and she said that she wanted to talk to Daddy. NOW! I was trying to calm her down, she was almost hysterical at this point, so I grabbed the phone and using the speed dial called Thomas. Isabelle said that she wanted to tell him what happened so I put her on the phone. Of course he couldn't understand what she was saying because she was frantic. I took the phone and explained what had happened. He didn't quite know what to say. I gave the phone back to Isabelle planning our trip to Pet Smart to replace the fish.

I started to put the tank away and picked up the sponge that had been left on the counter and was about to put it back into the sponge basket that is on the side of my sink. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something strange in the basket and decided (thank God) to take the couple of seconds to see what it was. It was Quicky!!!! I grabbed that basket off of the sink and screamed, "It's Quicky!!!! He's here. I found him." I dumped him back into his tank and low and behold the darn fish started swimming around glad to be in the water again.

I have no idea how he lasted that long. The whole situation couldn't have takend longer then 3 minutes, but man, how long can a fish out of water last??? I'm still wondering if he will make it through the night. He is a fish with 9 lives.

By the way...Izzy took that picture of Quicky. :)

Brotherly Love

My kids are like every other set of siblings out there. Sometimes they just absolutely love each other and other times they can't stand the sight of one another. We have been having lots of sibling rivalry lately. Mostly consisting of screaming fits because Alex is in Isabelle's way and she can't watch the t.v.. Then there are the fights because Isabelle takes EVERYTHING that Alex ever picks up. One of those ended with Alex biting Isabelle on the arm. I felt bad that I had to punish him for that...Izzy really did have it coming.

After dealing with the fighting on a daily basis it is amazing when something like this happens.

First a little background. Those of you who know us know that we deal with Type 1 Diabetes on a daily basis since Isabelle has it. Alex was just over a year old when Isabelle was diagnosed. I have often felt like sweet little Alex has been put on the back burner the last 10 months while we have been dealing with learning the ins and outs of this disease. He has had a front row seat. He has often been in my lap as I draw up insulin or give Isabelle her injections or check her finger. I never realized how much he has taken in.

Recently as I stated before, there has been quite a bit of sibling rivalry going on around our house. I know that Alex really wants more of Mommy's attention. He is on my lap every chance he gets. I really even think that his recent interest in t.v. is because it is a time that he can sit in my lap and enjoy some time without inturruption. The other day I was sitting at the table writing down something to do with Izzy's diabetes when Alex climbed into my lap and grabbed Izzy's test kit off of the table and said "Check finger Mommy." I of course that it was charming and sweet. Isn't it nice to want to be so much like your sister that you want to have your finger checked too? Then, one evening we were in the living room and I was giving Izzy her insulin shot which was very trying since she was screaming and fighting me about it, Alex was sitting right next to her and when I got done Alex said, "Mommy insulin shot too!" I asked him to repeat what he said. He repeated it. I didn't know what to say. I told him that he didn't need insulin shots.

The next day Alex found the play doctor's kit. What does every kids doctors kit have in it? A shot. He pulled it out and put it to his little leg and said "Owww!!!!! Insulin shot Mommy! Hurt. Owwww!!!!" I almost fell over. I told him that they don't always hurt. He walked around with that shot for a few days.

Last weekend we were all in the car and Izzy's diabetes kit was on the seat next to Alex. I guess he was bored so he stared pulling things out. He grabbed the notebook that I write all of her meals, carbs, and insulin shots in and he was looking at it. I asked him what he was doing and he said, " Figuring out Mommy." That is what I say when I am trying to figure out how much insulin to give Isabelle. I can't freaking believe how smart and how sweet he is. He is so empathetic. I can't believe how much he worries about his sister. He often tells me in the morning that Izzy is crying if she has been up during the night crying.

I hope that Isabelle knows some day what a wonderful brother she has and how much he loves her. I have two brothers and it is hard for me to believe that either of them would want to take an insulin shot for me if I had to have them. I am so blessed to have two such wonderful children. Thank you God for my wonderful family.

Flushed Away

It seems around this house that anything having to do with toilets is loads of fun. Alex discovered the t.v. just before Christmas while the movie Flushed Away was on. He continually asks over and over again, "Watch Flushed Away! Watch Flushed Away Mommy!" His absolute favorite part is when Roddy gets flushed down the toilet. He is so funny to watch. He sits very still (anyone who knows him knows that this is NOT like him at all) and his head moves when the toilet paper hits him in the face and then he shakes his head No when the fish asks if he has seen his Dad. I crack up every time I see him. He will sit through everything up to the flushing part, but after that he is off running around.

He also loves to play with the Potty Time Elmo. He likes to make Elmo pee pee on the potty. He flushes every toilet he can get his hands on. Multiple times.

You would think with all of this potty talk that he would be interested in actually going to the potty. After bath the other night he pooped in the tub while I was helping Isabelle get dressed. While I was getting that cleaned up he ran off and peed and pooped in his bedroom on some big floor pillows. Lovely. Maybe next time the poop will go in the potty and be Flushed Away!

A New Year

I know I've been a bit on the invisible side in the OC. I'm sorry to say that it probably won't get much better anytime soon. I have decided to try and simplify my life so that our little corner of the world can be a little more relaxed and happy this year. It seems crazy to me that my life as a stay at home Mom is so stressful. I don't think that it has to be this way.

Last year was a very hard year for us as was the year before. This year will be different. I'm counting on it.

It has already started off with a bang.

The kids were well for about 3/4 of December (including the holidays) and it has snowed here TWICE!!! All would probably still be well, but I got sick and then of course Izzy got it. But, it seems to have been relatively short lived and I think that she will be back at pre-school in the morning.

Thomas actually put the kids to bed (yes...you read that right...multiple kids) at least 4 times. Gee...things happen differently when mommy can't get out of bed. Alex is now in a big boy bed and he is doing really well with it. He would probably be heading for potty training if I had the energy and I could keep Isabelle out of the way.

Isabelle is back to not wanting to get her shots. I guess this is something that we will have to go through from time to time. It seems to be sort of a cycle with us. We have another endo appointment in February and I am planning on talking to the doctor about a pump at that time. I'll see how Izzy feels about it when the time comes. Boy...it sure would be nice not to have to worry about giving her all of those shots every day. It's hard sometimes not to get upset when she is running from you and begging you not to give her a shot.

Isabelle had her 4 year old well check up last week and the doctor was very pleased with her progress. She has done a lot of growing the last year. For what is probably the first time in her life she is well past the 10% of everything on the growth charts. She is still petite, but she is within the normal range.

So enough rambling. I will try to get back soon with some fun little stories of the kiddies. Don't forget about me out there...I am still here. And Scott(if you are out there)...I swear I will get around to the meme sometime soon. :)

Welcoming highs

So the kids have been sick. What's new. Izzy and Alex and I had a stomach bug and as soon as Izzy began getting sick with the tummy bug she stopped eating. She didn't really eat for almost 2 weeks. Last Monday she still wasn't eating well but she did eat lunch so I gave her insulin to cover the food just like I would normally do and a little over an hour later she was in the low 40's. I gave her some juice and a snack and checked her again in about a half hour. She was still in the 40's. It took me almost three hours to get her into the 70's! I almost threw her in to the car and took her to the ER.

I spoke to the endo office after it was over and they told me that it is not unusual for a child who has been sick like Izzy to do this. Apparently if they are not eating they utilize all of the stored sugar in the body and they don't have any to fall back on. This all happened after over a week of lows.

She is finally over the lows and we are seeing quite a few 300's. We are working on getting her back on track. We are slowly increasing her Lantus trying to get rid of those highs. But I have to say...after chasing the highs for a few months and then dealing with really bad lows for over a week I am not hating the highs as much.

During one of her lows...she woke up in the middle of the night low and scratched her face. Really bad. I took her in to the ped for her cold and her little face was infected. It was bad. It is looking much better now, but I doubt she will get over it without a scar. What a bummer!

Where did November go???

Here it is already December 8. I just looked and I didn't even manage to post 1 post in November. Geez...I'm a bad blogger. :P

All I can say in my defense is that I also missed 5 birthdays in November. I think I was asleep with my eyes wide open all month. The kids have been sick (what's new) and of course there was Thanksgiving and a trip to visit the in-laws. Lots of things going on at pre-school and lots of doctors appointments. Not to mention that the laptop that I was using took a dive. It was a little hard to get online and find the time to get online.

Izzy was getting better about sleeping. I actually got an entire night of sleep right after Thanksgiving. Yeah!!! Now she is back to fighting it. We'll see what happens.

Alex is the sweetest thing when he isn't throwing a tantrum. :0 He has taken to calling me sweetheart...like when ever I do something for him he says thank you sweetheart except he doesn't say the sweet part. I just get a lot of 'Thank you Heart!" It is just the sweetest thing.

Ok...enough for now. We actually got our Christmas tree up today and all of the lights on it. Tomorrow we will do the ornaments.