Article on Elementary Age Boys!

I saw this article and thought of Christian! He is five, so I included him in this "elementary stage." This article talks about items that parents should do for elementary age boys to get them ready for their teenage years. I thought it was very interesting because they are things that Matt and I work with him on a DAILY basis, such as saying "no" and letting him talk our ears off. :) Another one I am always working on with him is keeping close, such as close to me in a parking lot, so he doesn't get hit by a car. (I believe this article refers to keeping him close as in keeping him close to home and training him with your values and morals.)  Matt is also starting to put him to work around this house, this article says it trains young men for adulthood and providing for their family.

http://monicaswanson.com/boy-needs-grow-well/

I have never seen an article quite like it and wanted to keep it and remind myself that we are on the right track with him! It was encouraging!

Final Verdict on the elbow

I took Christian in to an orthopedic doctor today and got an answer! His elbow is NOT broke. However, there is fluid and he did injure it in some way (obviously).  The doctor looked at all our x-rays and said they look normal.  The main piece of information he gave us was that 75% of kids with fluid on their joints usually have something broke. Lucky for us, Christian was in the 25% of kids who have fluid in the joints and do not have a bone broken. He said this is why after every x-ray, the radiologist said, "suspect a fracture" because in most cases, it is broken!

He examined Christian's elbow pretty thoroughly and said if it was broke, he would not be climbing up on the examining table or leaning back on it without it hurting a little bit.  He was doing all these things just in the room today.  He pushed on about every part of his elbow and kept asking Christian, "Does it hurt now?" There were some places where he was still sore, but the doctor said he expected that for the injury.  I think if it was broke,  he would have hurt or been tender in more places.

He then went on to say that he could put a cast on it if we wanted, but it would probably be more trouble than it is worth. I said we will pass. :)  He said if we were still worried, we could come back in about three weeks and take more x-rays. Again, I said we will pass!  He said to continue to be careful, but yes, we could get back to the pool! Hip, hip, hooray!!

Guess where we went when we were done? To the pool!

I am glad I took him in, now I don't have to worry about it anymore!

Next week, we go back to the clinic next door, which is the general surgery clinic, to consult a doctor about getting his very little umbilical cord hernia fixed! Might as well do it this year (and while he is young!)

Oh sleep! I miss you!

Why did I sleep so well for so long and now I can't get a decent night's sleep for anything?? I have been up at least 2-3 hours for the last three nights! Last night, I couldn't even get to sleep until at least midnight! What is going on??

But it's not just me that can't sleep, apparently Christian can't sleep either because he was in my room at 3 am looking for a train flashlight! I had no idea what he was talking about, so I sent him back to bed.  About 20 minutes later, I heard him get up and go to the bathroom.  Last week, this boy was up for two hours from 3-5 am! He turned his light on and was actually playing with his toys at that time!

I am not uncomfortable yet from being pregnant, but maybe I am not wearing myself out enough since we have been home for a week. We haven't been outside much and we haven't gone swimming either.  I don't know! Hopefully things will turn around and I can get a good night's rest soon!!

I have to add that whenever I am awake, baby is awake too! Yes, it's fun to feel the baby kick at 3 am, but go to sleep!!!

Starting to go through the playroom!

I know we will have to do some switching around of rooms soon, even though Matt and I have not decided on the best plan yet! Since we have been stuck at home with Christian's hurt elbow, I decided to start cleaning out the playroom.  There are so many things our kids do not play with!!

I went through the toy box, barbies, polly pockets, kitchen stuff, and closet already.  My theory is that I don't want to keep girl toys around when we don't have any young girls who play with these things anymore. I also don't just want to keep the stuff for when little girls come and visit either. I definitely want to keep the barbies, polly pockets, and kitchen food, but besides that, I think we should sell/ give away the other items. 

My first thought was to take pictures of items and put them on my facebook page to sell, but after I thought about it, I didn't like that idea so much.  My second thought was to sell them at a local consignment store here in Omaha. Sometimes I hear that they pay well, other times I hear that they do not.  My third idea was to sell the items at a consignment sale here in Omaha.  I found one that took place in two weeks, but logistically, I don't think it is going to work out.  I think my final plan is to sell what I can at a local consignment store and then maybe sell the rest on a local facebook site.  I am also going to donate some things to the Open Door Mission and to Matt's aunt for little girls who come over to visit. :)

I am hoping to make a trip over to the consignment store tomorrow with some winter clothes and some items I am willing to part with.  I want to see how much they pay first before I take a lot over there! I told the girls that if it is their toys, then they can keep the money. Matt said it has to go in their savings account though!

I also have a big pile of books that I need to take to Half Price Books stores and sell.  I know I won't get much for them and will probably end up in the recycle bin, but honestly, I need to get them out of my house.

Isn't it interesting how adding one little human being to the family makes me want to shift everything around and totally redo things??

Last day of math for Courtney!!

Courtney was pretty excited today, she finished her LAST lesson in her math book. After 170 lessons, we are FINISHED with 3rd grade math!

 

 

She knows all her multiplication and division facts, start of long division, longer multiplication, fractions, time, money, measurements, and many other skills.

 

I have really loved this math program and we are going to start on grade 4 math really soon!

 

Megan still has 10 lessons left. We are almost there! She has a review on Monday and I will probably let her take the test then too.  She then has one review chapter. Many people have told me I should just skip the review chapter because 6th grade math will review the first chapter or two. I pulled out the 6th grade math book and they do not review! They just jump right in with new concepts, so we are going to do the review chapter!

 

I am planning to start school on August 10th.  That is when our local elementary school goes back, and I like to stay on their schedule.  I also know that we are going to be taking a lot of time off in November and December, so the sooner we get started, the less behind I will be next summer.

 

I still want to enjoy summer in August, such as go swimming, so it will be a balancing act. I found out the other day that the pool at the gym will be open until the end of September, so we will see how long we stay members and how we will deal with school and still enjoy being outside.

 

I am looking forward to getting things going again!

No News from new x-ray. :(

I took Christian in to get another set of x-rays today and about three hours later, I got the results from the nurse at our pediatricians office  She said that the note from the doctor read, "Fluid on elbow, suspect a fracture, go see an orthopedic doctor."  That was it.  Seriously?? And how much did that cost me?? Talk about frustrating!!

So I spent the next half an hour trying to find an orthopedic doctor (yes, some people think I should just wait it out and think Christian is just fine, but when I keep hearing "suspect a fracture," it makes me want to figure this out and honestly, we are going to meet our deductible this year, so why not make sure it isn't broke??)

I first called the orthopedic doctor that fixed Megan's broken elbow seven years ago.  Unfortunately, he is booked solid for the next three weeks. His partners are on vacation, so he is picking up all their patients.  I then called my pediatrician back and got some more recommendations.  I ended up getting him in on Monday afternoon at a pediatric orthopedic doctor at Children's Hospital. I know one thing though, I don't want to take any more x-rays until the swelling goes down! It is not only costing us money, but it is also exposing my little guy to radiation.  I am sure we will discuss this Monday at the consultation.

He is keeping his arm in a sling, which is good, but he still uses like he usually would! We could probably be better about icing his elbow and giving him Advil. Honestly though, his arm does not hurt and the receptionist at Children's said to give it to him on a "as needs" basis. I am sure it would help the swelling though.

I am anxious to get this figured out. I miss going to the pool every day!!

Another x-ray tomorrow!

Since we don't know whether Christian's elbow is really broken or not, we are going to get it re-x-rayed tomorrow.  It has been in a sling the last 24 hours and I think the swelling has gone down, but there is still some there.  I also asked him to completely straighten it today and he could not do it.  He also could not completely bend it. It didn't hurt him though like the other night, he just couldn't do it.  This may mean that there is a fracture somewhere and things are not lining up like they should.

We really hope and pray that it is not broken! We will know tomorrow!

Update on Christian's elbow

We got a phone call about 6 pm tonight from a nurse at Children's Urgent Care.  They said that they heard back from the radiologist and he could neither confirm or deny that Christian's elbow was broken. :(  He said there was too much swelling to tell either way. The nurse then asked me if he was wearing a sling today and I said that he was not. I got it out of "Megan's broken arm box" from the attic, but he refused to wear it and he is a very strong-willed child.  I told her that he was a lot better today though, but I could tell if he put any pressure on it, he still winced a little bit.  It is also still swollen tonight.

She gave me two options.  The first option was that if he wore the sling, we could wait until Friday to check in with an orthopedic doctor.  If he continued to refuse to wear it, she wanted me to call the orthopedic doctor right away tomorrow morning and get him in. She said we need to treat it as if it was fractured until we know for sure that it is not.

I think we are going to wait until tomorrow and see what happens. Matt did get the sling on him tonight and now he doesn't want to take it off!!

Urgent Care visit last night. :(

Urgent Care is one place we have not been for a very long time!! We had to go last night because we thought Christian broke his elbow.

He was sitting nicely at the dining room table playing playdoh like he has done a lot lately.  Apparently, he reached over to get a piece off the table and fell right off his chair! He fell to the right and after all the commotion, Megan and I ran in there and he was laying flat on his back on the hardwood floor. He seemed kind of shocked at first and then started to cry pretty hard. I tried to pick him up, but of course, I couldn't and really shouldn't anyway! I got him up on his feet and brought him into the kitchen and put him on my lap. I then asked him what hurt. It was his elbow! (Not another hurt elbow!!)

I asked him if he could move it and he could bend his arm up and down. Phew! I asked him to wiggle his fingers and he could. Phew!! Ok, I have determined myself that it is not broken. If it was broken, it was not obvious

We sat down to eat supper and he had no interest in eating at all. Luckily he is left handed and he hurt is right arm, so he did try to eat a few bites while his right arm just laid in his lap.  He said it hurt every time he moved it.  You could also tell he was a little lethargic, his eyes were drooping and he had the energy knocked out of him!  He was crying on and off, it was soooo sad.

After a little bit of this, he said, "Can we go watch TV?' I said, "Of course we can!" So we walked into the living room and turned on "American Ninja Warrior." He finally let me put some ice on it too at that point. 

Matt was gone at a meeting during this time, so I texted him and told him what was going on.  He told me to give it another 15 minutes or so and see how he was. It had already been about 15 minutes since he fell and he wasn't getting any better.  In the back of my head, I just wanted to take him in and get it x-rayed. 

As I was putting the phone down, I accidently hit his elbow since he was on my lap and he started to cry again.  I let him sit there a little bit longer and finally just called Matt and said we need to take him in.

He left his meeting and we met in the driveway. I helped Christian walk to the car and get in.  I had to loosen his seatbelts all the way to get his arm in without bending in, it seemed to be hurting worse as time went on.  I gave him his ice pack and once Matt got home, we headed over to urgent care.

We got checked in over there and luckily, we were the only ones in the waiting room.  We got called back right away and went through a couple of nurses before a PA came in.  We told her what had happened and she examined his elbow/ arm pretty thoroughly.  The final conclusion was that he could not straighten his arm or bend it all the way. His elbow hurt right on the corner.  Nothing else hurt.  She thought that maybe there was a fracture somewhere in there and we needed to do some x-rays.

She also checked him for a concussion. I wasn't quite sure if he hit his head, but he got lethargic pretty fast. She went through a battery of neurological tests and he passed them all, so she said to just watch him.

During this time, they also brought in some Advil, which really helped his spirits!

They went off and did x-rays and we are so thankful that the doctors did not see anything broken on the x-rays.  They just concluded that he had fluid on his elbow and swelling and he must have just hit it pretty hard! I would agree, I don't think I have ever seen him so sad in my life. And he is a really tough kid!

The nurse came back in and went over discharge papers. They said the radiologist will read the x-rays again in the morning and if they see anything, they will give us a call.  If not, we are just supposed to rest his arm (dig out Megan's sling from when she broke her arm at age 5) for a couple of days. If it's not better by Friday, we need to call our pediatrician and get him back in.

When we left, he was back to his normal self, thanks to the Advil! We got home about 9:30 and got everybody in bed. Christian slept on the floor beside my bed last night so we could watch him, but he didn't have any problems. 

Hopefully this arm will heal up in a day or two and he can get back to being his active self! Until then, we cannot take part in swimming lessons today and probably gymnastics on Thursday!

Bedroom solutions?

We have had an ongoing discussion this weekend about bedrooms.  We will have three bedrooms and four children. Who gets to go where and how much furniture do we want to move??

We have a few options.

Solution #1: My favorite option:
1.  Put baby in Christian's room, which is right beside my bedroom and at the top of the stairs. 
Put Christian into Megan and Courtney's current bedroom along with all the toys in the house (his trains, cars, Legos) along with fish tank and bookshelves. Since this is the biggest bedroom, I thought this would make a great playroom/bedroom, especially since the girls don't really play with toys anymore.

Move Courtney and Megan's beds and dressers into the current playroom.  This room would have nothing in it except their beds and dressers (all toys and bookshelves would be moved to Christian's big room).  Courtney could keep her table by the window and we could keep the art supplies in there too.

Matt sees a few problems with my solution:
1. He will have to move every bed and dresser in the house.
2. He doesn't think the current playroom is big enough for two twin beds and the girls' dressers. I told him we will definitely need to measure before we start moving things.

Solution #2: Matt's idea:
1.  Put baby in current playroom and keep everybody else where they are.

My problem with this solution:
1. I don't want to walk all the way around the banister and back to that bedroom whenever I need something from the baby's room or even getting the baby up from a nap. Oh, and who will get up with the baby in the middle of the night and will have to walk all the way across the house? Yep, ME!
2.  Where are we going to put all the things that are in that bedroom now?? I agree that we can get rid of some toys, but what about the extra dresser and two big bookshelves? Every solution he gives me will not work.

Solution #3: Christian's favorite
1.  Keep Christian's bed and dresser in his current bedroom and add crib, dresser, and glider into that room. The baby's dresser is already in there.  We would move all Christian's toys to the playroom and leave the girls where they are.

My problems with this solution:
1. I don't think there is enough room in Christian's bedroom for all that furniture. If we did this, we would definitely need to get creative.
2. I think baby will need his own room for awhile.
3. Where are all Christian's toys and Legos going to go? Again, we can get rid of some toys in the playroom, but will I need more space?? We would need to move extra dresser and bookshelves somewhere, but again, where?

I told Matt this morning that I would like a solution picked out by the time school starts around August 10th. We are getting new windows in Christian's and the playroom at that time, so that would be a great time to clean them all out, get them painted, and get new window coverings.  I would like to let the kids pick out their paint and curtains and I need to know who is going where by that time!

Once school starts, I am going to be focused on that and not necessarily getting the rooms set up. I would at least like to get things started before that time!

Reorganization!

I have many projects swirling around in my head and today I accomplished ONE!

I cleaned my office! I have not done this for a very long time and since school is going to be starting soon, I needed to get this done.  I was able to put away all last year's homeschooling books and get our new ones out. I organized all the girls' school papers from last year and filed them away.  I went through all my file folders and threw away what I don't need anymore and reorganized what was left into new folders.  I also gave the girls their stuff back that was in my office! They had been in there working on a literary journal one day and left ALL their stuff in there, this includes a table tray (Courtney was using it as a desk), a chair, notebooks, and any other supplies. 

Along with reorganizing things, I also threw away a LOT of papers, folders, old health papers, etc. that I don't need anymore!

I feel much better now! I told the girls that their bedroom is tomorrow!!

Still finishing math!

Every morning that we are home, I try to get one more lesson done in math.  Megan has 15 lessons left and Courtney has five! We are soooo close!  We don't get any math done when we have classes at the gym on Tuesday or Wednesday mornings. Those are done in a week, so we should be able to finish up pretty quickly.

We have gotten into a good schedule when we do have time for math.  I go over Megan's lesson first, then I send her upstairs to do her homework.  I then go over Courtney's lesson and send her off to do her homework. Finally, I sit down with Christian!  I have found that all he wants to do is play, so we have negotiated.  My deal is that he has to do some school first (some structured activity) and then we can play.  It doesn't matter what, I just want him to focus on something for at least ten minutes!  Today we read two library books about tunnels and watched videos on tunnel borers. I found them quite interesting!

 After we are done learning, then I will play with him.  I want to do something with him everyday this school year, so I think if we start this now, he will be in the habit of it by fall time. I have found a couple websites with free preschool curriculum that look doable, so I think we are going to start those in August when the girls go back too.

I am adding a 3rd kid to school this year plus having a baby. Every year is different!!!

Swimming Lessons Test and problems at the gym

We have swimming lessons for all three children every Wednesday.  Christian is in level 1, Courtney is in level 4, and Megan is in level 5.  Today is week 7 out of 8 and it was testing day.  I guess they did testing today and next week is a "fun" day. (Honestly, I don't need them to have a "fun" day, just teach them one more day!)

Anyway, as I was sitting there watching swimming lessons, I was not too happy with what was going on. Apparently testing only took about 10 minutes and the rest of the time was left to mess around.  I have not been 100% pleased with Megan and Courtney's teacher this summer. They have had the same teacher and she taught from the side of the pool, rarely got in, wouldn't watch the kids, not correct strokes, etc.  Today was not much different.  After they got done testing, I saw her get her cell phone and with a smile on her face, she got into the water. For the last 15-20 minutes, she took pictures of the class with a cell phone. They were underwater, above water, about anything. She even took some videos.

I looked at another mom who had a daughter in Megan's class and I said, "What do you think of this teacher taking pictures during swimming lessons??" Her reply was, "Not a very productive use of time." Neither one of us were too happy. We just let it go and let the class finish.

Courtney had her class next and the same thing happened! Pretty soon I saw an older swimming teacher walk by who I have talked to before about this certain teacher and her not so good teaching skills. I asked her if Courtney's teacher should be taking pictures of them in the water or if she knew what was going on.  She went to investigate! She found out that the teacher just wanted to try out her new camera case and apparently she wanted to post the pictures on the gym's website. This caused this older lady AND the lady in charge of the aquatics department to go talk to this teacher and say that if she wanted to post pictures of the students, she needed to get all the parents' permission beforehand. This girl had no idea that she had to do this, she was just going to post them!

After Courtney's lessons were over, I went in to ask if she passed and this teacher said, "Were you the parent that was concerned about me taking pictures?" I replied that there were a few of us concerned about what she was doing and what exactly were going to come of the pictures.  The teacher reassured me that she was not going to post them anymore and that she was going to delete them when she got home. I guess that made me feel a little better, but I am still not happy that she spent 15 minutes taking pictures during swimming lessons. I am sure glad swimming lessons are free with my membership at the gym!

When Courtney's lessons were over, it was Christian's turn. At the same time as Christian's, Megan's good friend had her lessons.  This same teacher teaches Megan's friend for level 6.  Their goal today was to swim 500 meters and when they achieved that, they would pass.  I sat in the lobby again and watched this class swim their 500 along with watching Christian.  They swam and when they were done, this same teacher, who was taking pictures during my girls' classes, walked out into the hallway and left the three students in the pool unsupervised (except for the lifeguard who was on the other end of the pool.) As she was walking out, the head of aquatics saw her and asked her what she was doing out in the lobby and not in the pool area.  Her reply was, "I am going to get the students some water."  The head of aquatics replied, "You can't leave your students unsupervised. You get back to the pool, I will get them some water."  The teacher's reply was, "The lifeguard was supervising them."  I just shook my head, she has a lot to learn!!

Again, after lunch, our family and this same family went swimming in the indoor pool.  We were the only ones in there and when we started, the lifeguard was on his stand like he should be.  Soon, I realized that he was not there anymore, but he had moved himself over to the hot tub and was sitting on the edge.  About five minutes later, I look over and he is IN the hot tub! This guy was supposed to be lifeguarding!! How can you see if anybody is drowning or even rescue somebody when you can't even see them?? I looked at my friend and asked her if I should say something. She shrugged her shoulders, so I took the initiative myself.  I went out to the lobby and tried to find any employee I could. Luckily, I found the head manager himself and showed him that the lifeguard was IN the hot tub  an not where he was supposed to be! He could hardly believe it!  Another guy who works for the gym went into the pool and told the lifeguard he had to get out of the hot tub and back on his lifeguard stand!!

I am not afraid to say anything in any of these situations.  I have been a lifeguard and I know that it can be a boring job, but yet it is a very important job.  I have also taught lessons and have been approached by parents before.  I hope both of these young people learned from their mistakes today and it will help them do their jobs better in the future!!!

24 Week Midwife Appointment

Today I went and saw my midwife again. I always enjoy these visits, but I was a little worried about this one.  At 28 weeks, like most doctors, my midwife requires a gestational diabetes test.  They want you to drink a sugary drink made out of processed sugar, preservatives, and food dyes.  I was not ok with this, even though I drank it with my other three kids. I just know better now!

Here is an article that talks about how bad it is for moms and the babies and lists some natural alternatives:
https://realfoodhealsblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/healthy-alternatives-to-the-pregnancy-glucose-test/

I talked to quite a few other moms and did some research and finally concluded that since there were so many natural ways of checking glucose out there, I needed to talk to my midwife and see if she would ok another option.  I brought up the subject when I was about 12 weeks along and back then, she told me there was no other option.  I either had to drink the glucola or eat 18 Brach's jelly beans (again, full of processed sugar and food dyes).  I went in with an open mind today plus my reasons for not wanting to drink a jar full of junk, especially junk that I haven't had in about 18 months and would surely make me sick!

I approached the topic very carefully and as we talked, my midwife actually seemed ok with me eating/ drinking something else! I had brought a list of natural options I had found on the internet and how much sugar was in each item (banana, grape juice, apple juice, etc.) and she looked at them and we negotiated.  She seemed to want exactly 50 grams of sugar, so she didn't really want me eating any fruit because the size of the fruit and amount of sugar would vary so much.  We finally agreed that I could drink apple juice because it was measurable.  I then told her that I only buy the unsweetened juice and there was 27 grams of sugar in 8 oz.  I would need to drink 16 ounces of this in 5 minutes. She recommended that maybe this one time I buy the sweetened version, so I would need to drink less.  I told her that even though there is added sugar in sweetened apple juice, it's not processed sugar AND I would rather do that than drink the glucola or eat jelly beans!! It was a deal and I was happy!

My next question to her was how far over I could go at the end of this pregnancy.  Megan was 14 days overdue, Courtney was 8, and Christian was 6 days over due.  I don't want to be induced unless I absolutely have to and I would much rather wait to go into labor on my own. She said she has no problem letting me go 41 weeks 4 days over.  She said she would consider letting me go to 42 weeks, but only after we run some tests and make sure everything is ok.  She said that once moms get that late, she doesn't sleep well at night because there is a fine line where things can go wrong.  I totally understand!! I know things were starting to go wrong with Megan and we needed to induce.  She told me that she appreciates my patience in waiting until baby is ready!

I gained four pounds in the last three weeks (up to 14 altogether now) and my blood pressure was normal.  She measured the baby and he was measuring at 24 weeks, right where he should be! Her joke was, "You can't hide your pregnancy anymore!" Nope, I cannot!! I told her that I have an endless appetite and feel like I am always eating. I am surprised I didn't gain more weight! I believe baby's heartbeat was about 144, he was kicking her the entire time!

I go back again at 28 weeks to do my gestational diabetes test and then I start seeing her every other week. Wow! Then we are almost done!

Too hot!!

Can it ever be too hot to be outside? Can it be too hot to go swimming? I think so. I think today is one of those days!!

I had some errands to do today and if we followed our regular daily schedule, we would have gotten our math lessons done in the morning and then headed out for errands in the afternoon.  Today, we flipped our schedule.  I wanted to beat the heat, so we went out this morning to do errands and we will get math done this afternoon.  It worked out well!  We spent 2 1/2 hours out and about and got many things accomplished.  (Can I tell you that I am full of energy?? I love this pregnancy thing!!)

I am very thankful for my air conditioned house today!

I am sure even the sun wishes it had sunglasses today!

A Day at Home!

As much as I love being out and about and seeing friends, I also love a good day at home!

We had nothing on the calendar for today, so I declared it a "Let's catch up on housework" kind of day.  My kitchen was getting out of control again (we have done three loads of dishes since last night) and my laundry needed some TLC too!  I am still getting things washed that need to go back to the camper, which also needs to be cleaned out and put in storage! I need to find my kitchen island yet and sweep the floor.  Things do start to bother me after awhile!

The kids also enjoy a day at home. They have been very busy today playing legos, reading, etc.  Currently, Megan and Courtney have decided to write a paper again, so they are typing their stories out on the computer. Christian kind of does his own thing.  We also managed to get some math done this morning too!

The kids were asking me yesterday if we could go swimming today, but I haven't heard them ask once today, so I will not bring it up! They seem to be entertaining themselves quite well!

Dentist Visits!

We are continuing our tour of doctors around Omaha.:)  Today, Christian and I had dentist appointments.  Everything went well! No cavities for either one of us, but Christian did have lots of plaque buildup.  Matt has been letting him brush his teeth on his own and not really double checking when he is done. The hygienist said things could be better, but no cavities, so that is good.

My appointment also went well.  She told me to keep doing what I am doing and try to be extra vigilant, especially since I am pregnant and am more susceptible to gingivitis.

I made more appointments in December for us. We will have a newborn at that time, so hopefully little baby boy will sleep while us four (everybody except dad) gets their teeth clean. 

Five Year checkup!

The other day, we kept going, going, and going! Wasn't summer for relaxing?? I guess we have done plenty of that too, just not at home!

On Tuesday mornings, I always take a water aerobics class at a gym that we joined for the summer and Megan has been taking tennis lessons, which she loves! After our classes, I went and got adjusted. Thank you very much to this little boy who is pushing on my tailbone. My leg has been going numb on and off and it's been hard to move a certain muscle, so I went in. Thankfully my chiropractor adjusted me and we were fixed! We were good until yesterday of course when it started hurting again.

After we came home for lunch, we headed out to Christian's five year annual checkup with his pediatrician.  I did not do his kindergarten physical or shots because he is not going to kindergarten in the fall. :)  The first thing they always do is weigh these kids. He weighed 43 (65%) pounds and he was 44 (71%)  inches tall.  I had the girls step on the scale too while we were there and Courtney was 55 pounds and Megan was 93.  I think it caught Megan off guard because she was 81 last November. This child gained 12 pounds in 8 months! But she has also grown taller!! She sure doesn't look like she weighs 93 pounds!

After we got all the vitals done, we saw the doctor. Of course she asked about school (she knows we homeschool) and about Christian in general. She never asks us about our diet or what we eat anymore! We talked about how Christian's motor skills developed way faster than the girls' did and how has no interest in school. She told me this was all normal!
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We talked about shots and Christian needs a couple for kindergarten, which would include MMR, chicken pox, and DTAP, I believe.  He broke out in chicken pox after his chicken pox vaccine, so we can skip that one! She also recommended the hep a vaccine. She looked back and both my girls have theirs, so we will probably do Christian's too sometime.  We also talked about his HSP and how he will never be getting the flu shot again! 

Next she did the physical exam and everything was fine. Last year when she did his exam, she found a very small hernia underneath his belly button, so I asked her again about it this year.  She found it again and said that these rarely resolve themselves and usually need surgery.  Her next line was, "If there is ever a year when you are going to reach your deductible, you might consider getting it fixed." We are going to hit our deductible this year!! But do I want his to go through surgery? no! She gave me the name of a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital to call if we wanted to pursue it. She said that the hernia will not bother him or give him trouble as a child, but as an adult, it might.  She said we could also let him deal with it later in life when he has to pay for it! I just kind of laughed!

Other than that, we had a good checkup! I made appointments for Courtney and Megan as we left. Megan's was a little tricky because we are due to have our baby two days before her birthday, so I asked if we could do her 12 year checkup and the baby's checkup at the same time.  The receptionist said we could, but would be wise to make Megan's appointment now and then add the baby's appointment to hers later.  I made it a couple weeks after her birthday, so hopefully we will have the baby by then!!

Home again, home again!

After camping the last five days, I am excited to be home and stay home for awhile!

Things got to be a little late last night and we didn't get home until 10 pm! We had some friends come out about 2 pm and I promised my kids s'mores by the campfire, so we stuck around longer than usual.  I brought the kids home around 10 and Matt pulled in about 10:30 pm with the camper! It was a late night!!

A late night equaled a late morning, and none of my kids woke up until about 9:15, which is late for them.  I told them my only goals today was for them to take a shower and get the lake germs off of them and to get a math lesson done.  Goals were accomplished! We also had to start unpacking the camper, again! I didn't start that until about 4 pm this afternoon. I wanted to get some things in the house organized before I started bringing things in.  I got the dishes done, fridge and freezer cleaned out and reorganized, and the pantry rearranged.  I also needed some extra hands to help brings things in from the camper, so I wanted to wait until Matt got home for the heavy things, like the basket full of dirty laundry!

We don't have any plans to go anywhere for four weeks.That is a long time for us. I feel like we have been travelling non-stop for the last month and we kind of have been. :)  We have had some great trips and made a lot of memories. We are probably done travelling long distance for awhile until we find a new vehicle. I think Matt is still trying to figure out what will work for us and doing some research.

We are supposed to get new windows in July, so that will be another huge project around here. We are getting six new windows, but while they are getting changed, I would love to get rid of the old shades and replace them with curtains and paint some bedrooms.  We also need to reshuffle a few things to make room for baby coming in four months.  Once school starts, I may not have much time to get this kind of stuff done.  My goal is to start around the same time Millard Public School does, which is around August 10th.  Megan has 21 lessons of 5th grade math and Courtney has 9 lessons left and then everything will be done for this last year.  Matt promised them that he would take them to the Amazing Pizza Machine once everything is done, so we may do that one night and start the next school year the next day.  It will all work out!