all moved in

and loving it! The things we gained on this move are priceless! We have a garage, and for the first time ever are in a place with washer and dryer hook-ups!!!! Also for the first time we are in a place with a fireplace which means a mantle! The townhouses have a common playground that William and I walked down to today and it was great! We were the only ones there, and he had so much fun exploring! We still have a few odds and ends that aren't quite unpacked yet, but are definitely making progress!

What we did today

Okay so for the past several weeks I've been working Thursdays, which means missing our usual Thursday playgroup! Today I was off, unfortunately we still did not get to attend playgroup! We headed up to my moms to do laundry (8 loads of it!) so that EVERYTHING is clean for the move! I AM so excited that we will finally have our own washer and dryer!!!

The kids spent quite a bit of time outside today, playing on there bikes, chasing each other around, playing in the mud, splashing in the puddles! AND I had my camera with me :) so here are some pictures of the fun they had!!!


The joy on her face! BTW she cut her own bangs last night, after she'd been growing them out for over a year, they were about the length of the piece on the left side of her chin, which she also cut herself!

William on the Tricyle!

My baby boy is getting so big!

William and Nathalie pulling weeds lol!

Sliding down the bank on her bottom!

ok so....

William and I didnt attend playgroup as planned yesterday, we had been running around all morning and the weather was kind of blah so I opted out. He and I did walk to pick Nathalie up from school, although, due to the fact that he skipped is nap yesterday I did cary him most of the way.

His appointment went well with his ped yesterday. She agreed with the previous evaluation that William does have some sort of speech delay and will indeed require therapy. We have an appointment scheduled with audiology on the 6th of March, to make sure that it is not hearing related, as Sam pointed out to me, a lot of the sounds that William makes sound like that of someone hearing impaired. The ped put in the referall for the speech therapy, and I will call Friday to schedule that. In the meantime, I am working with him consistantly and making sure that he can see my lips when I talk (just incase).

Today is not a school day for Nathalie so we spent about 45 minutes outside this morning stomping in rain puddles, William got so much joy in this, he was sooo excited, and wore himself out. He is now napping (and has been for 2 hours) which is nice as he hasn't taken a nap for the past three days.

Posting may be scarce over the next week or so as we move on Sunday!

Phthalates

toys r us to go phtalate free

I was happily surprised when I stumbled across this letter! Its so nice that such a large corporation may actually start caring for our kids! I was further impressed by the 'r Us company when I was online shopping for a mommy to be who was registered there and I discovered that they are now carryingNaturals/Organics,Slings, wraps, and pouches,Kushies, and severalBPAfree bottles and sippy cups!

More on William

to come tomorrow....He has an appointment at Kaiser at 9:45 tomorrow morning to be evaluated through them, as I couldn't see waiting until April if he truly needs speech therapy and thats how long it would take if I went through Ca first 5. On an amazing note, he said bear and baby today, more than once, which adds two new words to his vocabulary!


Todays Green Hour was just a simple walk to Henry's, with William and Nathalie, as Nathalie didn't have school today due to Presidents day. William walked the entire way there and back, which is probably about a mile and a half round trip.

Tomorrow Nathalie has school, and William and I will be going to playgroup after his appointment, so that will be his Green Hour tomorrow. I also think we'll walk to pick Nathalie up from school, as once we move at the end of the week we wont be within walking distance anymore and I may as well get in all the walking we can!

Birch Aquarium

As I mentioned in Saturdays post the kids and I went to the aquarium. We went with my good friend Jen and her son Dylan, we all had so much fun! It was somewhat crowded, but nothing unmanagable by any means. William was the craziest (of course) and I think it would be a lot of fun to go back there with Daddy, or even leave William at home with Daddy and just take Nathalie because, she really wanted to learn about everything!

Green Hour

I feel that I do my best to take my kids outside, and expose them to nature. Sometimes, I feel like I don't try enough, or that I'm lacking motivation! In reading some blogs through my goolge reader account I stumbled across the green hour website. I was sooo disturbed to read "the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen.". Thus, I've commited myself to Green Hour. I will do everything in my power to keep track of our daily Green hour ventures and post them on here (although most likely not always on a daily basis). The sight is excellent in recomending "teaching" activities, and also provides a nature finder that helps find activities nearby.

Todays Nature hour was spent at Nana and Papa's house. We played outside, saw birds and Williams favorite find was a Lizard.

William's appt

went wellish.....Cognitively and developmentally he his on trakc and advanced for his age. Which is good news in that he definitely understands a lot of things, and is capable of quite a bit. Unfortunately, his speech is delayed and currently at the level of about a 12-15 month old. Rather than continuing through Early Intervention;however, we will be trying to pursue this through Kaiser, due to the fact that E.I can't get him an appt for language diagnostic until april 15th and frankly I'd rather get the ball moving.

Today, though I should of been packing, I took advantage of Museum Month and took the kids to Birch Aquarium and then to the park. They had a great day with mommy, although mommy should have been packing, and studying, the day was much to beautiful for that!

Happy Valentine's Day

Nathalie was my sweetest valentine today. When I left for work this am she was still asleep. So I called around 10 to talk to her and wish her a happy valentines day, and without any prompting from daddy she said "mommy happy valentines day to you too" I thought it was so adorable as shes just getting so communicative and really starting to understand things like this.

Sam is still in lots of pain, with his MRI scheduled for next week. I just hope he doesn't end up needing surgery on this shoulder too.

I have been suffering from insomnia a lot lately. I know its stress. I've been using rescue remedy. And tonight just started melatonin, I need sleep. and I'm not getting it.

William has an appointment tomorrow morning with early intervention at 10 am, Im nervous but hope we'll get some much needed answers regarding his speech/hearing. I know that this too has been increasing my stress level leading to my inability to sleep.

On top of all this we are moving on the 24th, and I have only packed one box thus far.

will I ever shut up about BPA, probably not

I'm happy that I just found this because Nuby is sold at target and walmart and is pretty cheap!

click & sign this petition.... BPA free is the way to be

This is a direct copy, becuase I was to lazy to retype into my own words, but please just sign the petition!!!!! Thanks :)



Did you know many baby bottles contain an unnecessary toxic chemical even though safer products are available? Visit http://www.babystoxicbottle.org to learn more and sign the petition for toxic-free baby bottles.

A recent report, Babyâ?Ts Toxic Bottle: Bisphenol A Leaching from Popular Brands of Baby Bottles, found many baby bottles leach the chemical bisphenol A when heated. Laboratory studies demonstrate that bisphenol A causes damage to reproductive, neurological, and immune systems during critical stages of development, such as infancy and in the womb.

Join parents from across the country standing up for our childrenâ?Ts health and safer products. Help us send a message to leading manufacturers of baby bottles that toxic chemicals like BPA donâ?Tt belong in baby bottles.

Visit http://www.babystoxicbottle.org to learn more and sign the petition for toxic-free baby bottles.

Thanks.

I just had to post

that I really thing that this guy has a fear of never having any more childern, so he gave his newborn daughter any name he's ever considered. Granted some of the names are very cute! I think Posey is adorable, but at some point there should maybe be a limit on the name? But I think its awesome that they had the baby at home. If I had a house, not a lame appt I would have loved to have mine at home!

With no end in sight

Sam is still in tremendous amounts of pain. He stayed home from work today. My work aholic husband stayed home from work today. He layed in bed for a lot of time using a heating pad, propping himself up with numerous pillows. His MRI is currently scheduled for February 20th, but we keep calling every day hoping for a cancellation, no such luck this far.

Nathalie has been coughing/ running a fever for about 3 days now. This horrible coughing led to almost no sleep for her or Mama last night. On top of the cough, she woke up in agonozing pain 3 or so times in the middle of the night, shrieking that her ear hurt. I made the decision to take her in today, and apparently it was a good thing I did, I guess her right ear, the one that was hurting, was really badly infected. Poor baby girl.

The boy child is as wild and crazy as ever.

Here's to hoping theres an end in sight!

21 months

The littlest is 21 months old today! He's still our little guy though, weighing in at just around 25 pounds. He is a little onry lately, and I long for the days when he out grows this stage. His sister is so sweet to him, and yet he remains to not be as nice to her. The other day he bit her. It left a mark on her shoulder that she still has, I couldn't believe it. He also is at a stage where he thinks screaming is fun. kid, its not. He is still my boy though, momma prevails over all else and that makes me feel amazing.

Sam's hospital stay OH and today is his birthday

First, so I don't forget Happy birthday to the man I married! I love him with all of my heart, and today he is 45! Or as he likes to put it 39 plus 6.

Sam has 2 stents that were put in back in 2003; when he was only 40! Since that time we have been in constant monitoring of things that most 40ish men don't really have to worry about, like cholesterol and blood pressure. Needless to say that when Sam came into the front room around 10 pm on Sunday night complaining of SEVERE pain in his shoulder and back, my first thought went to his heart... It was the kind of pain that brings a man to his knees. He was dying. I called Kaiser and they, as I thought they would, told me to take him to the ER. Nathalie was asleep so she stayed home with our roommate, and the lil' guy, well he got to come along for the ride! AT about 4 am, once they had rulled out all to do with Sam's heart for the most part, by way of EKG and blood work, I decided to take my baby and myself home as neither of us had slept, (YES William really stayed awake the ENTIRE time!) Monday morning I woke up around 730 got Nathalie and William all ready and then dropped Nathalie at school around 9 and William with my sister. I then headed back down to Kaiser, where Sam had been moved from the ER to the "observation unit", you know like the animals in the zoo! They were going to perform some further testing on his heart, and run Xrays on his shoulder as the pain was still a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. all tests run. no results. Final goal, to get pain managed. I never understood Chronic Pain until I saw my husbnd in it! Monday night was the first night my children have been without either of us over night! The good news is that they were super good for they're auntie, which means we may get an overnight date-night out of this eventually! The bad news, this means I got to sleep on a gurney next to my husband in the hospital! I mean common kids, that would have been the time to throw a fit so mommy had to come get you! No, I really didn't want to leave Sam..... He was discharged yesterday, (Tuesday) afternoon, still no answer. Seriously. I took him to his primary care today as he was so miserable all.night.long and really still no answers, we have to call Friday to schedule an MRI.......

anyways thats how my week started, how about yours?

Knott's Berry Farm

We took a trip up to Knott's Berry Farm on the 13th. It was when Sam's girls were here, and we had all planned on going, but William was pretty sick with a fever and runny nose/congestion, so daddy stayed home with him. It was the 3 girls, my sister and I! Nathalie had a blast. The prices were great, it was 20 dollars a person if you brought a can of food to donate to the Orange County food bank. It was around 80 degrees, and so uncrowded!

BPA- free is the way to be

for very many reasons, and due to my lazy attitude right now, I'll let you research that on your own! However, I stumbled across this awesome sippy cup review today. And although I was aware of most of these cups being BPA free, I had no idea that the munchkin cup was, and those are a lot less expensive, which makes mamma happy!

only a few more days

until I'm back to school! I feel like I just had finals and I start again Monday. I am waitlisted for both of my courses, but am hoping to take Anatomy with Lab and the 2nd Semester of Organic Chemistry w/ lab. My work schedule will also be quite different this semester, I'll be working Thursday through Sunday, which means quite a bit of changes in our household. On top of that, we are looking for a new place to live, as our lease is up at the end of February, and we really aren't happy with the new management in our complex. I always seem to strive under stress, I'm just hoping that I won't be biting off more than I can chew.

Sams visit with his girls

was fantastic, and we all enjoyed it so much. They left to go home on Friday and Nathalie misses her sisters tremendously! I know that Sam wishes they still lived out here. At any rate we had a great visit, and now my kids don't know what to do without there older sisters to bug constantly!

Nathalie got her ears pierced today

Its something that I've always wanted to do, and today ended up being the day. Lately she's been asking for earings more and more, I explained that it would hurt kind of like a shot, and she said that it was okay. She was such a brave girl, unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but I did get a shot of one ear at the park, afterwards.