Easter Plans

We have worked everything out so we will be going to the campground in VA for Easter weekend. The boys are going to spend the night with Nana & Poppy Thursday night to dye eggs. Ben will be away for work Thursday night so that leaves me alone on Friday to get everything packed. Once Ben gets home from work on Friday we will pack up the dogs (and their crates) and head to Rich & Laura's house. We will drop the dogs off, pick up the boys and head to the campground. It will probably be about a 3 hour drive (possibly more) depending on traffic. We will get there pretty late at night, but all of the main activities are on Saturday so we want to just get up there Friday night. We will stay at the campground Friday, Saturday, Sunday and head back Monday. We will pick up the dogs on our way home. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees so we should have a really good time!

On to a different topic....yesterday while I was talking to Ryder's case manager on the phone about the upcoming meeting she told me that his original speech therapist (the one we loved) was back from maternity leave. After we finished talking she put Rachel on the phone and we set up a session for this morning. I am so excited she is back! We talked a lot about his progress and what the main concerns are now. We are going to start working with picture exchange communication. He still does not ask for basic needs such as food, drink or needing his diaper changed. So she is going to start coming weekly (instead of every other week) while we get him started using the pictures. I am hoping this will make mealtimes easier so he can tell us what he would like to eat. She is also going bring pictures with her to make a Before and After board so we can visually show him what the schedule is going to be (First Dinner Then Bath kind of thing). I am also supposed to start giving him lots of opportunities to make choices throughout the day (what color washcloth, what shirt, etc) to try and get him to voice his needs/wants more. We will also work on yes and no questions with him.

Next week on Tuesday Ryder is going to have his formal Autism testing done at Kennedy Krieger. Hopefully we will get more of a definitive answer regarding this possible diagnosis. It is perfect timing since his IEP meeting is next Friday!

639 pages in 34 hours

This weekend the weather was not as nice as it had been...there were more clouds, wind and rain with cooler temperatures. We continued the breathing treatments for the boys all weekend and they are started to sound much better with less coughing. Ryder still has a pretty bad runny nose, but it doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all. My plan is to take Zak to daycare tomorrow and go to Ryder's class since they both sound better and have been on the antibiotics for a few days.

On Friday when Ben got home from work we all took a trip to WalMart so we could buy a lawn mower. The boys had a blast playing with the box...

On Saturday morning we dropped Ben off at his mom's house to help Rich with something in their backyard. The boys and I went to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast then we went to Target & WalMart for a few things. Once we finished those errands Ben was ready to be picked up. We hung out at their house for a bit and then went to Panera for lunch. After a few more stops we went home. That evening Ben mowed the lawn which the boys enjoyed watching.

Today it was a pretty lazy day. I went out this evening to WalMart, but other than that we stayed home all day.

Now, on to the name of this post. It all started when we received the movie New Moon (the second of the Twilight series) from Netflix the day it came out on DVD. I was dying to see it and LOVED it! I ended up watching it three times before we mailed back (which was only about 24 hours after we received it). I decided I couldn't wait until June to find out what happens next so I went out and bought the third book, Eclipse. I started reading it on Saturday morning in the car while Ben drove us to his mom's house. I continued to read it during the car ride home and throughout the rest of the day. I then continued to read the book throughout the day today. Right before dinner I finished reading the book. I read 639 pages in about 34 hours which is BIG for me since I am not really a reader at all. But once I find a book that I like I tend to get hooked and can't put it down! Tonight when I finished the book I was more than eager to find out what happens in the last book. So I went to WalMart and bought the fourth book to start reading. Along with the book I also bought both of the movies from the series that are out so far...Twilight and New Moon. I am completely hooked on this series at the moment and plan to borrow the first two books from Chelley so I can read them also.

Take 2

Well, this morning I took the boys back to the pediatrician for what I was hoping would be their last lung re-check. She listened to Zak first and said his lungs sounded much better. She could hear some crackles & congestion, but as soon as he coughed it went away. So he is doing what he needs to do to help the antibiotics get rid of all the junk in there.

Then she listened to Ryder. I told her his runny nose was worse and he was coughing more. She heard several crackles in his lungs and even when he coughed she said it didn't get any better. His pulse ox was fine and respiratory rate was also normal which are both good signs. She decided to go ahead and give him an antibiotic and send us to get a chest x-ray. I just got a call from the pediatrician saying he definitely has junk in his lungs and it is borderline pneumonia so hopefully the antibiotics will help get rid of that. We have also noticed a trend with Ryder that is slightly concerning...he has never really been able to have a productive cough and get the junk out of his lungs which leads to the several bouts of pneumonia. The pediatrician said it could have to do with his low muscle tone.

Tomorrow is the last day for oral steroids for both of them. Zak has 6 more days of antibiotics and Ryder has 10 days of antibiotics. The pediatrician wants to re-check both of their lungs the beginning of next week and hopefully that will be the last for a while.

Onto a slightly different topic...I got a call the other day from the Immunologist at Johns Hopkins. Ryder's Geneticist wants him to see this Immunologist since he seems to get several infections along with the fact that he had that rare H.Influenzae Non-Typable back when he was 9 months old. I was shocked to get a call from the actual Immunologist. She was calling to ask me to send all of his shot records, any immune system blood work he has had, along with all appointment notes when he went to the pediatrician with a sickness. Before I had a chance to say anything she said she realizes that is a lot of information, but it will be helpful to her. Once she receives all of that information I will get another call to set up the appointment to see her at Hopkins.

Health Update and New Clothes

Zak woke up once overnight with a really bad coughing spell so I took him to the bathroom and gave him a breathing treatment. After I put him back in bed he fell asleep pretty quickly. This morning he was extremely cranky and continually told me "No want mesin", but he did take the steroids and antibiotics with no problem once he saw it in the syringes. He did fight me during the breathing treatment this morning, but was more cooperative for the others today. After listening to him whine and complain I realized he wanted me to pull down their train set which we had put away a little while ago. We decided to put some toys away in Rubbermaids so that we could rotate them since they have way too many toys! Looks like it is time to rotate the toys since they seem to be getting bored with the current ones in the playroom. Here is the train tracks they set up all on their own (I was doing dishes and laundry)....

Once I got Zak to put on the mask for his breathing

treatment he seemed to forget it was even on...

A picture the boys made on the computer paint program

Zak had an appointment with the pediatrician today at 1pm to re-check his lungs and see how he is doing. The pediatrician said there was still wheezing and junk in his lower right lung where the pneumonia is, but the rest sounded much better today. She thinks the medicine is kicking in and working well so we are happy about that. She then went on to tell me that they think we should start both boys on Zyrtec for allergies to see if it will help keep their asthma and breathing under control and prevent more infections and breathing issues. Also, she wants me to bring Zak in on Friday with Ryder to have one last check on his progress. On the way home from the pediatrician we stopped and bought some of the generic Zyrtec to start using tomorrow. Once we got home I laid the boys down for a nap and they actually fell asleep pretty quickly. I took advantage of that time to get some of their new clothes organized and I took some pictures. They are very difficult to buy clothes for right now so I am not sure that all of it fits them. We know they can wear 2T and 3T tops, but the bottoms are the issue. In some brands/styles they can wear 24month/2T, but in other brands/styles they still have trouble holding up the 18 month size.

Shorts and 2 outfits

(WalMart, Children's Place, JC Penny)

Shorts from Sears that Ben fell in love with

3-Piece outfits from Sears

Outfits from Sears

Shorts and Overalls from Yard Sales

Outfits from Yard Sales

Short Sleeved Shirts from Yard Sales

Tank Tops from Yard Sales

Outfits for Baby Abby (in FL)

Skirt for Piper (in FL)

Outfit for Baby Noah (in FL)

I also bought a bag full of clothes for Maddie at the yard sales, but I didn't get a picture of them before we dropped them off to Chelley. Girls clothing is so addictive and I just couldn't stop picking things up....and no, I still don't want a girl!

Sick Again...

On Monday the boys started to cough and have runny noses, but I thought it could be from allergies since we spent all weekend outside. Last night and this morning it became obvious that they were both actually sick so I made an appointment for them with the pediatrician for 9:30am. I gave them both a breathing treatment around 7:30am when they woke up and then we headed to the pediatrician around 9am.

The pediatrician first looked at Ryder and said he had some wheezing in his lungs and his throat was red. So they did a strep test (came back negative) along with a breathing treatment. His pules ox (measurement of how much oxygen is in the blood) was around 94 before the treatment and jumped up to 96 afterwards. His lungs sounds really good after the treatment. She sent him home with oral steroids for 5 days to try and help with his cough and prevent any infection and wants to see him back on Friday to make sure his lungs are doing good.

Then she moved on to Zak and I knew he was worse. You could hear his wheezing from another room so I knew his lungs were not doing well. She said his throat was red so they did a strep test which came back negative also. She also said his lungs were very congested and not moving air too well. His pulse ox was around 94 and his respiratory rate was very fast. After his first breathing treatment his pulse ox actually went down to 90 which she said was normal. The medication loosened all the junk which actually made it harder for him to breathe. So they did a second breathing treatment for him. After that the pediatrician said his lungs sounded much better, but he still had lots of junk in there. They couldn't get his pulse ox above 91-92 and usually they send kids to the hospital if it is below 92, but they felt we knew what signs to look for along with the fact that we have a nebulizer at home so they sent him home. We did have to go and get a chest x-ray on the way home which showed he has pneumonia. So he is on oral steroids for 5 days, antibiotics for 10 days and breathing treatments every 4 hours. We take him back tomorrow to check his lungs and pulse ox. If the pulse ox is still low then we will more than likely end up in the hospital.

It has only been about 2 weeks since the last illness! Ryder had pneumonia and Zak had Roseola at that time. When we go back tomorrow I am going to ask if she thinks any of this could have to do with allergies. I know allergies can cause asthma to act up so I want to see if we should start the boys on some sort of allergy medication to try and prevent more breathing issues.

Over the weekend we picked up the boys' old exersaucer from Chelley since Maddie is no longer using it. It has been sitting in the living room and tonight the boys wanted to play in it. So Ben set it up which led to a fight. So Ben went to the basement and brought up their old bouncy seat also...

We told Zak it was bedtime so he laid his head down and pretended to go to sleep!

Busy Weekend

The weather this weekend has been beautiful! We decided to take full advantage of the weather and spent most of the weekend outside. On Friday I took the boys to a local playground which they loved. I got a workout chasing them around all over the place.

They still fit together without a problem at 2.5 years old

Ryder freaked out when I tried to put him in his own swing

He would only swing with Zak

Ryder was concentrating very hard while filling the bucket

Zak's sand castle

(little circle by his feet)

Friday night we dropped the boys off to spend a few hours with Nana & Poppy so that Ben and I could go to the Annapolis Moms of Multiples consignment sale. While we were out we decided to see if the boys wanted to spend the night with Nana and Poppy...which they did. Saturday morning Ben and I went to the Columbia Moms of Multiples consignment sale also. Then we went to Rich & Laura's house to get the boys. Laura and I went back to the AMOM sale during the half price hour while the boys played with Poppy and Ben. At the two sales I was able to get a bunch of Spring/Summer clothes for the boys and other kids in the family!

After that we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then went to see Chelley, Maddie & John at their apartment. I had bought a bunch of clothes for Maddie so we needed to drop them off and the boys had fun playing with Maddie. When we left their apartment we headed to Colleen's for a bit. The boys played in the yard with Joey, Jay, and Natalie. We finally made it home around 7pm. Here are some pictures from Saturday...

Ben charging the power 4-wheeler we got at the sale

Natalie's doggy

Zak didn't want to go home

Ryder REALLY didn't want to go home

Today Ben cleaned up his work truck and tools with help from the boys while I went to Target and WalMart. Then we packed up lunch and headed to Annie's Playground for a picnic lunch, walk on the trail and some time on the playground.

After about 3 minutes the boys decided they didn't

want to ride the scooters...

Zak playing in their old exersaucer

Eating chicken salad sandwich

As we got to our court in the neighborhood we noticed there was something going on across the street. There were a bunch of people watching, a few cops, and a tow truck. I am not sure exactly what went on, but a car drove into somebody's backyard....

Cute video of Maddie dancing