In a nutshell

Last week was a bit insane for us, and this week will be only slightly less insane.

Last week I had a doctor's appointment. Turns out that even being on the pill I'm still having cystic ovaries. So that's fun. But luckily we're done having kids, so as long as it doesn't cause too much pain, we can deal with that. It does explain the odd pains though, so that's good. Sometimes it's just better to know what it is, and that it's not all in your head.

Then we had Nicky's appointment Tuesday. This was the big one about the circumcision. We were pretty convinced that this was simply a formality and that they'd be scheduling surgery for him. But the doctor took a look and said he's fine and while they'll do it if we want it done, he's likely to outgrow it and be totally fine. What a relief! So we'll check back around age 7 or so if there is no change, but she didn't seem at all concerned. No surgery for now!

Wednesday was nearly normal for a nice mid-week break.

Thursday I flew out of state for an interview. I was nervous as the trip involved two planes and a train, but it went very smoothly and my luggage and I both arrived everywhere on time, together.

Friday was my interview. I think it went well. I certainly have no trouble talking. Put me in a room with a bunch of people who want to hear about me...well, I am a Leo after all. :) I very much enjoyed the location, institution and people I met, so I have high hopes about that. I should know more in two weeks.

Then I traveled home Friday. The trip home wasn't quite as smooth. A few delays with the planes and my leisurely layover became a mad dash through the airport, but I totally made it home on time. And I actually had time to read two books by one of my favorite authors during the trip. That was a great perk!

Saturday morning Nicky and I were up early to go fishing! This was our first time at this event and we had a great time. Nicky caught 6 fish! One little brim and 5 catfish. He nearly caught one more brim at the end, but he ended up flinging it off the hook before we could take it off, so I told him that one didn't count. They were all small, about 6 inches or so, but it was enough action over the 1-2 hours to keep us happy. And it was catch and release anyway, so no worries about having them eating-sized. I think we'll have to do this again! (just pretend there are photos here, because I was a bad blogger mommy and did not take even ONE photo)

After fishing we cleaned up at a gas station (cause fish slime + raw bait = ew!) and bought slushies. Then we had a picnic at the park and Nicky worked out whatever remaining energy he had (I had NONE by this point).

Sunday the Easter Bunny treated all the kids right, and even hid eggs for Nicky in the front yard. Nicky and I dyed about 36 eggs in the morning too. No fancy dying for us, just made homemade dye with boiling water, vinegar and food coloring. Oh, and used white crayons to draw on the eggs. That was the first time he did that. It was a lot of fun.

The girls' baskets, that's Lily in green.


Nicky's basket. That's his "Easter Style". He totally dressed himself, and put his shirt on backwards on purpose.


Now today was Nicky's last day of Pre-School. He 'graduates' on May 2nd, but he's done with classes already. No more driving him to school and working out a carpool to pick him up at my lunch time. Life should be a little easier travel-wise, but of course that also means Tom has no respite during the day either.

This week is much less hectic, but we do have to register Nicky for Kindergarten on Wednesday and then we have both the girls' PT follow-up and Nicky's staffing (the results of his evaluation) on Thursday. We're also working on getting 8 estimates from HVAC companies and insulation companies to get some work done on the house that should save us on our electric bill.

So that's what we've been up to in a nutshell. A very very busy nutshell.

Baby Blue Eyes

There's Lily with her new face she's been sporting for a few days. I think she's doing it because of her teeth. Both girls are getting their bottom front teeth very soon. You can see them coming up.

Notice the nice bruise on her forehead though. She decided to take a nosedive off the recliner and hit her poor head on the bottom shelf of the side table. Poor baby. She seems totally fine about it, but what a mark! It didn't bleed or even raise up much though, mostly just a little line of a bruise. It has made it easier to tell them apart the last few days though. Not my preferred way to do that!

One more thing though. Here's a closeup photo the same day from Gabi:


And Lily:


And for comparison, here's a closeup of Nicky from when he was 11 months old (thier age):


Notice their eyes. Tom's been insisting since practically day 1 that the girls would have blue eyes. Nicky's stayed blue for a long time too, but his did eventually change. I was looking back to see about when they changed and found the photo above. It seems his were definitely starting to change about that time. Maybe the girls really will stay blue. We shall see.

Good mornings

Saturday morning:


So then the girls go to their first Physical Therapy evaluation Monday.

And Tuesday morning:


So cute!

Returning to the Routine

We just had the girls' PT evaluation today. Looks like Lily is doing pretty well. The only thing they want to watch on her is her rolling her feet in towards the arch when she stands. With Gabi, she rolls her feet too, but their main concern is her asymmetry with her feet. She really is only using her right foot to crawl and always leads with that foot when standing as well. She has the power in her left leg, but for some reason doesn't use it. So we have some exercises to do with her for the next two weeks and then they both go back for a re-evaluation.

Nicky headed back to school today after his spring break. He spent the whole week with Nana! I was worried we'd get a call asking to pick him up, but he did great! Then Saturday he went to Colin's birthday party at an ice skating rink and had a great time. Of course I didn't get any photos, I was lucky to get there at all. I ended up arriving an hour late (luckily Nana dropped him off there for me). I was trying to follow two sets of directions (one to Nana's house and one to the skating rink) and the GPS kept trying to send me all over hell and back. Next time I drive anywhere I'm taking an old fashioned MAP.

Other than that, I suppose things are rather quiet here. We're just trying to settle back into our routine. Tom has a job interview this week so we're very excited about that. It'll be interesting getting the girls into daycare, but we have some ideas we're working on.

Nicky's going back to his Kung Fu class in another hour. I bet he'll sleep good tonight! Hopefully so will the girls. We started putting them down awake at night and letting them cry it out. The first night took about 10 minutes. Not so bad after that. We're also trying it for naps, but right now they're still fussing in there. They are overly tired I think. PT evaluation fell right during bottle/nap time. They were angels during the whole thing though. We must have been there for well over an hour! Now they just had a bottle and need to settle down.

Next we try to wean them off bottles. Now that will be fun. I need to go back through my blog and see what we did with Nicky! I can't remember it at all.

Evaluations: done but not finished

It's Nicky's spring break and he's off to Nana's house for fun in the sun! Tom drove him there today, and he'll pick him up next weekend. At least that's the plan. Last time he tried staying over at Nana's he made it about two days or so and then Tom went to get him in the middle of the night. But he's five now, so hopefully this will work out to be a fun week for them both.

The girls had their evaluation Friday. They performed for the four ladies who came over. And by the end I think everyone was in love with them. They did think that they need a physical therapy evaluation due to low tone in their torsos, and asymmetry in their fine motor and gross motor. Basically they both have better pincer grasps on their left hands and Gabi really uses her right foot and leg much more when moving around. Gabi was more in need of the PT evaluation, but since she's going, we'll have Lily evaluated too since she's also showing low tone and asymmetry.

Of course they continue to make huge strides every day, so who knows what they might be able to do by the time they're evaluated! Gabi is now pulling up reliably on the sofa, toy box, shelves, etc. And she can sit very well too. Lily can finally sit, but not quite as well as Gabi. Lily can cruise a little bit, but Gabi can't yet. Really they're both doing great, and always progressing, so we're not really concerned exactly. But they were behind enough in gross and fine motor to qualify for services.

Nicky had his 5 year checkup Friday afternoon. He had three shots and it took two nurses and myself to hold him down for them. He's a lot stronger than he used to be! I think if Tom had been there he would have been braver, but since it was Mommy he really let loose. Of course he was fine immediately after. They also did a finger stick for hemoglobin testing. He's all vaccinated and his iron is fabulous! We did get the pleasure of collecting urine for the first time too. That was fun. I had to ply him with about 3-4 glasses of water to get him to go. But we finally finished up. Oh, and a hearing test too that came out fine. We'd been concerned since his eval Monday showed there might be an issue. But he checked out ok on Friday.

But there are two referrals we're getting for him. One for a psychologist to discuss his attention and focus issues, and one to a surgeon.

Scary huh. Well don't give me ANY crap about this, but it appears he has phimosis and is going to probably require surgery (circumcision). I'm having plenty of mommy-guilt all on my own here. So saying 'I told you so' is NOT going to help anybody. We knew this was a small risk of not circumcising him at birth, but actually I think we did make the best decision we could at the time. It sucks to have to do it now, but he's five and it really doesn't seem to be loosening up at all. For anyone trying to make the circumcision decision for their baby, know this is NOT common. We might have suspected since theoretically Tom had it as an infant, but really, we weren't convinced he'd had it either since it was noted on the hospital papers from when he was born. Really, that's a bit early to make that kind of diagnosis.

So anyway, yeah probably looking at surgery this summer. He doesn't know yet, and we haven't exactly figured out how to have that conversation. The last thing I want to do is give him a complex about something being wrong with that body part.

As for the psychologist, well we suspect ADD. Not really ADHD, but just ADD. I don't anticipate medicating him at this age, but if we can get the diagnosis(if that is what we're facing) then we can get a 504 plan for him at school which will make sure he has accommodations for things like testing. Going into school I think that is important. So we'll see what the school system evaluation says on Monday, and then what the psychologist says. The initial feel from the assessment Monday was that his learning isn't really being affected by his focus/attention issues, but his expression or relating what he HAS learned really is. A section 504 plan would help him to have accommodations to mitigate that.

So that's the past week in a nutshell. Tom will have it relatively easy this week if Nicky makes it through the week at Nana's. Just two to watch! To most that would still be overwhelming, but really it'll probably feel like quite a break for Tom. I swear, I don't know how he does it! He's really the most amazing dad ever.