Blog For A Cure

I have met many people online over the past few years. Many of them are other mothers with multiples. I have been following many blogs of the people I meet online and occasionally they will come up with some fun ideas.

A mother of triplets that I met online is doing her Blog For A Cure event for the second year. I wanted to take part in it again since it is for such a good cause. All you need to do is go to the link I have above, read the rules and then donate at least $1. That $1 donation gives you the ability to enter once for each of the several give aways she will be posting daily this week.

If you are able to help out and donate, make sure to leave a comment on her blog that you heard about this even from me.

My Escape

This weekend I made an escape from the house and left the boys with Ben. I left the house on Saturday morning around 5am and headed to Rose's house. I then rode with her to VA for the National Capitol Cat show. I had so much fun seeing friends in the cat world, having adult conversation, grooming and showing the cats and just being out for myself for a bit. I got back home around 7pm, but had such a good time that I went back on Sunday also. Sunday I left the house around 6am and got back home around 6:30pm or so. I was able to make this get away since we were able to borrow Laura's car while they are away.

Here are some pictures of the kittens that I helped show...

While I was gone on Saturday Ben & the boys went to Rich & Laura's house to check on the cats there and then visited with one of Ben's friends from high school for a while. On Sunday they stayed home watching football for most of the day. I did get text messages from Ben showing my Zak cuddling with VZ and Sam...

I showed the picture of VZ and Zak to many people at the cat show and they all loved seeing how well VZ was doing with the boys. You wouldn't think that a deaf cat would do well with two 3 year-olds, but she is a perfect fit in our house. Stella showed VZ as a kitten and an adult for a while so many people at the show knew of her and of my boys so they enjoyed seeing the picture. I also got a call from Ben on Sunday telling me how bad the boys had been since they woke up and went on to tell me some of the things they had gotten into. I did feel guilty for having such a good time while he was dealing with the chaos at home, but I also felt good that he was experiencing what I go through on a daily basis!

Today Ben took off from work because Ryder had a doctor's appointment at Hopkins and Rich & Laura are away so they were not able to watch Zak. I decided taking Zak to this appointment would be difficult because it was a consultation with the swallow study doctor so she was going to as lots of questions and watch Ryder eat & drink so I figured it would take a while and Zak would probably get bored pretty quickly. At the appointment the doctor watched Ryder drink from various cups (sippy cup, straw cup, cup with no lid) and eat some different textured foods such as applesauce and cereal. The doctor we saw today works in the Pediatric Pulmonary department at Hopkins, but she is actually a speech therapist who works with chewing/feeding/swallowing issues. We walked away from the appointment with the following....

(1) Ryder is scheduled for an x-ray swallow study on September 23. This will allow the doctors to see exactly what is happening when he swallows liquids and food. They will look for any aspiration of liquid into his lungs (possible cause for his many pneumonias). They will also be able to determine if his airway and other anatomy is formed and shaped correctly.

(2) Ryder's chew is not efficient. I forget the exact wording the doctor used this morning, but she said he is not chewing efficiently or correctly. While watching him eat the dry cereal she could tell that it takes him a lot longer or more work to chew than it should. We knew he has always had a weak chew. Her advice was at meals to always give him something soft/easy to chew with a high calorie count and then offer him the crunchy or harder to chew foods. If he only eats the harder to chew foods then he takes long to eat and tires out quicker so he won't get enough food inside of him at the meal. She also suggested that he would probably take in more food over the day if he ate several little meals (more of snacks) because she noticed after sitting for a full meal his chewing would get worse and worse.

(3) She suggested that Ryder should drink out of the straw cups.

(4) She thinks he should see the pediatric pulmonologist since he never has and he has the lung issues going on. We are going to wait until after his Sweat Test on Friday because if it does come out positive (hoping it doesn't) we would see a whole new set of doctors. If it is negative we will make an appointment with the pulmonologist that works with his geneticist.

Tomorrow schools are closed for elections. On Wednesday Ryder has school and Zak has his class at YMCA. Wednesday evening once Ben is home from work we are taking the dogs and their stuff back to their house since Rich & Laura will be coming home from Myrtle Beach that day. On Thursday Ryder has school, AC guy is coming to show us their estimate, and we have the HOA meeting. On Friday Ryder has his sweat test. Saturday we are going to the zoo with Tracy, Dave & Kyle.

Zak's YMCA Class

I wanted to share a picture of the boys that I thought is very cute. Zak is much better about watching Ryder get on the bus and go to school, but he still loves and misses his brother while he is gone. This was Zak hugging Ryder as we saw the bus coming into our court yesterday to pick Ryder up....

Today was Zak's first class at the YMCA. All morning he was telling me "I go to my school. Ry Ry no go my school. I play sports my school". I was glad to see how excited he was about getting to go to his special class while Ryder was at school. I had planned to just sit in the lobby or outside during the class because I was hoping to use this as socialization and independence time for Zak, but when we got there all of the other parents sat around the gym to watch. So I joined them and sat to watch the class. At the beginning Zak wouldn't sit and stretch with the coaches and kids and continually ran over to me. I went over and stood by him while he sat with the other kids. When they did running, skipping, and sliding across the floor he again refused to do it, but finally gave in and ran back and forth. Once the soccer balls came out he participated without needing me which was good. He did have some issues sitting and waiting for his turn so he would start to wander or kick the ball while he was supposed to be sitting. The coach was really good and would tell him if he sat and waited his turn on the next drill he would get to go first and then he ended up taking Zak's ball away from him until he agreed to sit and wait for his turn. I think overall he did great for being his first class and needing to take direction from other adults and learn how to wait his turn with other kids. I didn't take my camera since I had not planned to sit and watch, but I did get a few with my cell phone. The video quality is horrible, but it gives you an idea as to what they did. Next week will be soccer again and then the following 2 weeks they will work on basketball.

Ryder does not have school tomorrow or Tuesday because schools are closed for various reasons so his next day will be Wednesday. Zak's class is every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks.

Maryland State Fair

Yesterday we left the house at 8:15am and headed to the Maryland State Fair. We knew it was going to be crazy since there was a sold out concert at 7pm for Justin Bieber, but thought if we went early we would be able to leave before it got too bad. We were meeting Colleen and the kids there also which the boys were excited about. As we were getting to the fairgrounds Colleen called asking if we had seen the line to get into the fair...there were people standing waiting in line to get into the fair for blocks! So we decided to drive around to the back and park at the MARC station. It was a great idea because parking was free and there was no line to get in at that entrance.

We first went to the cow palace to see all of the cows. They had big ones, little ones and babies. The boys liked watching the cows walk around in the circle ring for the cow shows.

Our next stop was the birthing center. They had several eggs hatching so we stood and watched that for a bit. They also had two mommy piggies nursing their babies which the boys really liked watching.

After watching the babies for a while we went to see the horses. Zak stood and watched this girl ride this horse for a long time, he thought it was so neat.

We then found our way to the Lego area. Jamison was extremely excited about this area and the boys had fun as well.

After walking around for a while the kids convinced us it was time to get get tickets and ride a few rides. Zak wanted to go on all of the "adult" rides, but we convinced him to ride the "big kid" rides instead.

This ride went much faster than we realized it would! Zak's faces were SO funny the whole time. Ryder also looked freaked out, but as soon as they got off they both wanted to go again!

Joey, Jamison, and I went on this ride. It was pretty fun, I had never seen this ride before.

We then walked through the competition building and saw the giant pumpkins and watermelons.
Then we went back to the Lego area for a while again...

Around noon we made our way to the pig racing area. The pigs were very cute and funny to watch racing around the track. They also had a pig that jumped into the water and swam across to the other side.

Then we found the Animal World exhibit which the kids liked because they got to pet some of the animals.

We then went to the kid's area where they had coloring, corn maze, and a few other things for the kids to do.
While they were in the kid's area I went back to the birthing center. There was a cow in active labor so I stayed there for a bit to see if I could watch the calf be born. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it because the kids were ready to leave. I did get to see one of the piglets that was born 2 days ago at the fair...

We got home around 3pm and the boys were napping by 4pm. Around 6pm Rich, Laura, and Haleigh came over for dinner and to bring the dogs to our house. They are going to Myrtle Beach for about 1.5 weeks so Sam & Alexis are going to be staying with us.

Here is a video of the end of the fast ride the kids went on. I wish I had taken a video sooner while Zak was actually screaming...