Lots of Pictures

We spent a lot of time outside this week since the weather was pretty decent. There were some scattered showers and storms, but mainly they happened over night. The boys and dogs love spending time outside and playing together now that we have the new fence and everyone is easily contained.

Zak having issues driving

On Wednesday we had dinner at Rich & Laura's house since they were going away for a vacation. The boys had fun playing with the water sprayers and trying to squirt Poppy while he was in the pool.
On Thursday we spent more time outside playing. The boys now love to jump off of anything and everything. I call them jumping beans and now that name has stuck because when ever they want to jump they will say "I jumping bean".

After playing outside for a while I tried to get the boys to nap, but they refused. I put on a movie and they watched some of it and ran around for some of it. When the movie ended I realized Ryder was curled up on the floor....asleep at 5pm!

Wednesday evening the boys decided to have a wrestling match with each other, but with a twist...wearing Ben's hats over their eyes! They walked around the living room with the hats over their eyes and trying to run into each other or knock the other over. Nobody got hurt and they had so much fun.

On Friday morning the boys and I ran some errands including a trip to the grocery store. When we got home they went out in the backyard to play while I put the groceries away. Once I was done and went outside I discovered the boys had been having a little too much fun with their sand and sandbox. They had sand all over the backyard and they were covered in it. I tried brushing it out of their hair, but it was stuck on their scalp. I grabbed the camera to get a few pictures and then had to put them in the shower!

Saturday we spent the day at home not doing too much.

This morning we left the house around 10:30am to spend the day out. Our first stop was lunch at Chevys. Then we went to Rich & Laura's house (they are on vacation) to go swimming with Dani. The boys were so excited to go see Dani and asked about her all through lunch. Once we got in the pool I was surprised by how independent the boys were. They both got into little inner tubes and kicked around the pool with little to no help. After a while Ryder did want to be held, but he did so good at first. They also enjoyed shooting water at Dani and watching Ben & Dani rough-house in the pool with each other.

Ryder swimming

Zak Swimming

Tonight after we put the boys to bed I made a trip to WalMart. I wanted to look for new bathing suits for the boys since they only have 1 that fits right now. I was also looking for rash guard shirts for them to wear. My other mission while there was to look for some pool toys and floats. I was successful in finding the bathing suits, rash guards and lots of fun toys. Since my grandparents in Riva also have a pool we figured we will get a good amount of use out of toys and more bathing suits so we went ahead and got them in the hopes that they will last more than just this summer. We are thinking about going back to do some more swimming with Dani tomorrow since the weather should be about the same as today and Ben is off work.

This coming week we don't have too much planned, but I am looking forward to Tuesday night because I am going to watch Kyle so Tracy & Dave can go out to celebrate her birthday. Then on Wednesday Ryder has his special educator session. Next weekend I am planning to go to a cat show which is in Baltimore so I can help out and see some of my cat friends that I miss. On Sunday I might be going to a pre-baptism class with Tracy, but I am not sure if I will be going to the cat show both days or just Saturday.

Zak on the Potty

First, I wanted to share a few pictures from the last few days. The boys got new cowboy boots from Nanny & Poppy which they LOVE! They also enjoy cuddling with Batman and getting Bat Bat kisses. And the last picture is Zak wearing a very appropriate shirt for him recently.

Zak has not been doing so good with potty training the last few days. It is probably because he was out of the house Saturday and Sunday which got him out of his normal routine. When we are home he will tell me that he needs to go potty, but usually by the time we get to the potty he has started to go and finishes on the potty. I ask him about every 30 minutes if he needs to go which helps reduce the number of Pull-Ups we go through during the day. Today was a big day because he actually pooped on the potty! His newest thing is that he only wants to go on the big potty which is fine, but it makes getting there quickly a little harder. He also refuses to let us help him get on the potty which takes even more time. Here is a video of how Zak gets onto the big potty... (in the video he says he is being careful) He has not fallen into the potty yet, but there have been a few close calls. I am sure it will happen at some point though.

Our Weekend

On Friday the boys and I had to drive to Annapolis because I needed to pick up a written prescription for my insulin. I usually just get the pharmacy to call for more refills, but this time the doctor's office called me and said they have a new rule about how many times they will allow you to get more refills through the pharmacy. I think it is annoying for medication such as insulin which we all know I would get very sick without! I also know I need to find a doctor who is closer to where we now live, but I have not really needed one until now. So I am working on finding a doctor to switch to who is closer to our house.

After we got the prescription I decided to go to the Annapolis Mall for a bit with the boys. I had sent Tracy a text message to let her know we would be at the mall for a while if she wanted to come meet us for a bit. I had also decided not to bring a stroller with us for this trip to the mall so I was hoping I wouldn't regret that! We walked around a few stores and when it became apparent the boys were starting to get restless I headed to the play area. They played for about an hour and then we headed to the food court for lunch. Just as we were finishing up eating Tracy texted me back saying her phone had been on silent so she was just seeing my message. After we talked for a bit she asked if the boys and I wanted to come over to see Kyle. I was so excited!

We got to Tracy's house around 12:30pm or so and Kyle was waking up. The boys had fun playing ball with Dave which gave me a good escape to hold Kyle. After a while the boys realized I was holding the baby, but they didn't care which is not normally the case. I got to feed Kyle and hold him for a while. Ben called to say he was on his way home from work so we decided to head out also. This was right around 2pm or so.

We said our good-byes and headed out. We got onto 97 and then a few miles down the road we ran into big trouble! I saw a big truck in the right shoulder just burst into flames. A few cars in front of me were able to get by before the first cop showed up, but I was not that lucky. There were about 10 cars stopped with me right by the truck and others had been stopped further back. We sat for a while before any fire trucks or other cops showed up. The truck was carrying lots of cardboard boxes which continued to set off more explosions. One of the explosions sent boxes into the bushes on the shoulder which then caught fire as well. The cars who had been stopped further back were being sent down an exit ramp, but we were still stuck. At one point we were told we might have to evacuate our cars and walk! I was freaking out since I had the boys in the car (now sleeping) and no stroller. After a while a few cops came to us and said if we would let them move our cars we could get turned around and leave. I finally made it home at 5pm!

On Saturday morning we dropped the boys off with Nanny & Poppy for a sleepover. Ben and I then went to have lunch with Tracy, Dave & Kyle. For dinner we went to a Japanese Steakhouse since we would never go there with the boys. Sunday we went to Josh and Jen's wedding which was very nice. They are friends of ours from Dogwood. Ben and I ran into two other people from Dogwood at the ceremony. For the reception we sat at a table with Jen's current co-workers which was fun. We got a chance to talk with Josh for a while and we will hopefully be going to visit them in DE in the near future. I didn't take my camera, but took a few pictures with my cell phone because I LOVED Jen's dress!

We left the wedding around 7:30pm and went to pick up the boys. We got home around 9pm or so and then it was bedtime. This morning I was woken up at 4am with the sound of Batman puking. I then discovered he had thrown up on my side of the bed twice along with twice in the hallway. Ben slept through it all so I cleaned up the puke from the bed and hallway then went downstairs to lay down on the couch. Unfortunately, I was not able to fall asleep again. So it has been a very long morning. I am getting ready to pack our bags, get dressed and head out to take Zak to daycare and Ryder to his therapy class...

Therapy & Comcast

This morning when Ben opened the door to the boys' bedroom he found a mess. Ryder had taken his diaper off sometime overnight and there was pee all over the place. We have some laundry to do, but had to throw away the backrest pillows because they are just too hard to get really clean. The boys and I played in the playroom and watched some TVs hows while waiting for Ryder's therapists.

The special educator had her session first at 11:15am. Today Ryder was very distracted and had no attention span which is very unlike him. He also had trouble with taking turns which led t a few tantrums. Unfortunately, today she mentioned that she is seeing some of his "autistic tendencies" to show again. He usually has them in phases and right now is an on phase for some of these behaviors. Some of the skills we worked on were matching colors (which he did good with this time), naming animals and their sounds (he does well except for the sheep and pig sound), and then we did some fine motor activities.

The speech therapist showed up at noon just as the special educator was finishing up with her activities. Ryder was also very distracted and had several tantrums during the speech session which surprised his therapist. She did say that it was somewhat nice to see Ryder protest because we are concerned sometimes that he doesn't have enough self-advocacy. Today she worked with him on answering yes/no questions, making choices, and speaking in sentences (3+ words). This therapist is always in awe of how much Zak says during sessions and loves to have him involved because Ryder will repeat almost everything that Zak says first! She is really interested in swallow studies, but has never gotten to see one with a child so she might look into coming to his swallow study to watch.

About 15 minutes after the speech therapist left I saw the Comcast truck park in our court. The guy came in the house and asked what was wrong. I walked him to backyard and showed him how the underground cable was messed up and how we had to attach our own cable to run through the backyard. He was the typical young, arrogant service guy which I hate! He said that he would have to put in an order for them to come out and lay down a whole new underground cable behind the fence. So he got on his handheld thingy and did a bunch of stuff, then handed me the paper saying it would be done in the next few weeks. I then asked about the cable running across our backyard which Ben connected so we would have Internet and TV. He said that for now he wasn't going to do anything, but after the underground cable was laid if we wanted we could call back and have another service guy come out to put down a different cable. I called Ben and he is not happy. We wanted them to put the cable in our backyard underground as well since that is how it should be, but the previous owners obviously messed with it while putting in the deck. UGH! I am looking at the positive which is that we have Internet and TV...we just have to make sure the boys and dogs don't mess with the cable which runs across the yard!

Lots of Stuff to Talk About

This morning the fence people were supposed to come by 8am, yet 8am came and went with nobody showing up. Ben had been going back and forth about possibly taking the day off because it was raining and they didn't have a ton of work to do along with the fact that his allergies have started to act up. So he stayed home today which made my day easier since Zak could stay home with him and not have to come to Hopkins with me. He finally got a hold of the fence people and they did show up around 9:30am to start working. While we were hanging around the house this morning the boys decided to ride their bikes in the kitchen since it was raining outside.

I took a few pictures of VZ and Batman also...

Right before Ryder and I left the house the boys

also played on their scooters in the kitchen

Ryder and I left the house around 9:30am to go to story time at the library and then head to his therapy class. This story time is run by Ryder's teachers which is why we try to go there. Ryder didn't seem very interested in the stories or theme for today (knights) so we left story time early. The library was on their last day of the big book sale which means you could fill up a grocery bag for $2. Ryder and I spent a good amount of time looking around the room and left with 2 stuffed bags with books and movies.

The movies I got: Mad Money, Sex & The City Movie, No Reservations, Dark Water, Stuart Little 2, Mickeys House of Mouse Villains, Valiant, The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree, Playtime Signs (Signing Time Series), and 3 different The Wubbulous World of Dr.Seuss Movies

The books I got: 2 Tom Clancy books for Ben, Corduroy, Just Me & My Dad (Mercer Mayer), Curious George at the fire station, Clifford Takes a Trip, Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See?, Zachary's Ball (about a boy named Zachary and his baseball), and some educational teaching books

After we left the library we went to Ryder's therapy class which went much better than the last time, but he was still a little "off". We went through the drive-thru at Burger King for lunch (dropped some off at the house for Zak & Ben) and then headed to Hopkins for Ryder's Genetics appointment. We were taken back to the exam room pretty quickly, but then sat for a while waiting to see anybody. As always, the Resident came in to get history since his last appointment, do a hands-on exam, and discuss any concerns I had right now about Ryder. After he was done his initial exam he went to speak with Dr.Hamosh and then they both came back to the room.

I love Dr.Hamosh and always seem to have good appointments with her even if I usually leave having more questions than answers, but I have learned that is normal when dealing with genetics! She did a hands-on exam and asked a few more questions. Then she had Ryder run up and down the hallway so she could see how steady he is on his feet, had him jump up and down, and stand on one foot. She then sat and stared at him while in deep thought for a few minutes. She said that she feels like she should have a diagnosis for him, but it just isn't there yet. She said maybe as he gets older his "odd" facial features might become more apparent and something will jump out at her. She still really feels he has more than the Klinefelter's so she is really trying to focus on the possibility of it being more than one diagnosis which of course doesn't make things easier. She said that his most recent MRI did show lesions around his ventricles, but that they were small and were not concerning to her. She suggests we do another MRI in 2 years to see if the lesions change at all or earlier if he has any new symptoms. She agrees with the Immunologist that Ryder should have a swallow study so I will be getting a phone call with that date and time. She also wants him to have a sweat test (which Zak had at 6 months old and came back negative) because he has so many of the common symptoms or red flags for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) such as low weight, slow weight gain, issues with pneumonia and sinus infections, and diarrhea. I am hopeful it will come back negative just as Zak's did, but we will see what comes of it. I will also get a call about that date and time. This test is also very easy and not invasive. They attach a little capsule-type thing to his skin with sticky stuff and then have me let him run around so he will sweat. They then take the capsule off and test his sweat for certain things which can diagnosis or rule-out CF. She then said if both the swallow study and sweat test come back negative she would like to schedule a test for Ciliary Dyskinesia (this is a link with lots of information so don't really read into it too much). We are hoping all three tests will be negative of course. We plan to go back to see Dr.Hamosh in 6 months just like normal. I will update when ever we have the tests scheduled or results.

Ryder and I finally made it home around 5:30pm. Ben made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner since I have been craving them for a few days! The fence people were still here working, but pretty much finished tonight. They do have to come back tomorrow for a few little things though.

I wanted to share a video of each of the boys riding their bikes this morning. Zak has really gotten good at pedaling the bike on flat surfaces now!

I did get a call today from the person at the school about Ryder's IEP meeting date and time, but I couldn't answer since we were with the geneticist at the time. She left a message and sure enough they have changed his meeting date! I am going to call her back tomorrow and beg & plead for it not to change because now I have no clue what to do with the boys!

Mental Breakdown

Ben was away Wednesday-Friday last week which always makes things a little more stressful at home for me. This time I was actually fine with him being away, but was annoyed with the last minute notice...he didn't find out until Tuesday afternoon he would be going away. Zak had his normal tantrums throughout the day, Ryder had his normal tantrums when it came to meal times and neither one wanted to nap as usual. I did find out if I laid in my bed with them with a movie on they would both fall asleep for a while so that is what I did each afternoon. Thursday afternoon a neighborhood kid knocked on the door and woke the boys up because his toy plane had gone into out backyard. That evening Zak was a little monster because of this. Friday afternoon Rich, Laura & Haleigh knocked on the door which woke up the boys, but they were excited to see Nanny & Poppy so it wasn't as bad as the day before.

Yesterday we took the boys to the playground for a while which they loved. After leaving the playground we went to lunch at Fridays which was very yummy!

Last night once the boys were in bed my stomach started to bother me. I know it was from stress because that is a very normal reaction for me when I get stressed. I am very stressed about something going on, but I am not going to "post my dirty laundry" on the blog at this point. It has nothing to do with health, the boys or anything bad really so no worries. I spent most of the night awake and pacing around the house with an upset stomach. This morning when the boys woke up I had a hard time getting myself up and going since I had very little sleep. We needed to go to Target and BJ's for a few things and then planned to go to another playground to let the boys run around. They both did great at BJ's, but Zak had a tantrum and bad behavior in the parking lot which caused us not to go to the playground. I felt bad for Ryder since he didn't do anything wrong, but Zak needs to learn there are consequences to his bad behavior. I am sure Ryder will have bad days which will cause Zak to miss out on some fun also though. We stopped at McDonald's to get some breakfast (it was right at 11am when they switch over) and to return a Red Box movie. When we got home and opened the bag of food we found it was not our order so there was nothing in the bag for me to eat. I was so hungry, tired, and just annoyed/stressed with things going on. After the boys ate we laid them down for a nap (which they never ended up actually sleeping) and I laid down in my bed for a nap while Ben played some video games. I did get some sleep which was great. For some reason when I woke up I was just in such a bad mood which led to a long evening. I had hit my breaking point and was on a rampage in the house. I was annoyed with how much of a mess the house is so I went around throwing stuff away, throwing stuff around, yelling at everyone and everything in the house and so on. The boys seemed to be not listening to anything, misbehaving every move they made while Ben just sat on the couch watching TV. I was just done, done with everything...

I was able to pull myself together enough to clean up the house a bit, ask Ben to give the boys a bath, pack bags for tomorrow, take a shower and now sit down to watch some TV.

I am hoping tomorrow will be a much better day. It will be a long day, but hopefully better. The people putting up our new fence should be at the house around 7-730am, I have to take Zak to daycare, take Ryder to his therapy class, pick Zak up from daycare, figure out something for lunch on the go, and then go to Hopkins for Ryder's appointment with the geneticist. We will probably make it home close to dinner time, bath and bed.