mid-feb

I saw this happy heart banner here and the kids and I made it over the weekend.  I love it!

...and love the festiveness it adds to our mantle.  (Its the small things!)

Yesterday, I took the kids for yogurt during naptime (our first time ever) as a V-Day treat... 

 And, today is a BIG DAY... one that we've been looking forward to and talking about and counting down to for a few weeks!...

 Yep, we are going to the circus tonight!  We are all so excited!

(fyi, for other Richmonders, its 1/2 price the first night so that's why we are going tonight)

I've wanted to go for a few years but this is our first.  I hope its FUN!
Its bound to be better than Feb 15th last year!

(I bribed her with the candy so she'd talk to the camera.  Thanks, Aunt Joy!
We are excited about the elephants and clowns too... but I think its cute how she does her fists when she says "roar!"... and ironic that she most often talks about the lions and what they say b/c in reality, that roar may be really scary... So there will be lots of happily holding her!  :)

under-estimate

After doing Valentines at school today, I thought I would teach Peter a verse on love... so I went for a short one...  I was asking him to repeat after me, "We love because He..."
Peter finishes it for me... "He first loved us.  1 John 4:19"  Thanks, Pete.  I had no recollection of what the reference was for that one... thanks for letting me know (and thanks to everyone who teaches Truth to my child at Preschool, Sunday School, and Wellspring!).
On a lighter note, before naptime, Peter was going to the potty.  I asked him to hold "it" to aim.  He said "I don't need to hold it, it can work by itself.  I can move it when I move my body".   Oh.  

this week

Best of friends, these kids are best of friends.  I love it!

Peter went out alone one eve to Speech (thanks to Gram and Pop).

Lily MISSED him and was so glad to see him when he returned.

 So they went for a ride together.  Lily had been the baby so her chair was in the back, but then she said she was the Mommy so she moved her chair next to Peter's and got her purse.  They are a trip... I love it!

 Such good friends that now that Lily is in her big girl bed she likes to wake up early with her bro.  So she feel asleep in the van one day, which is so not like her!

 We went to see Baby Isaac for naptime fun this week.  Lily loved it!!

 Peter got new artwork sent home today... His projects have been the same or similar this year since he is repeating the 3 year old class... but we get to see improvements!  Like this!

Of course, its yellow.  (I sorta liked the green color better to match his room decor.)

 and it went up to update a frame!  Yay, Pete!

Paint Update

This was the winter to paint our bedroom!  Yay!

(2011 was the dining room)

(2010 was the family room)

Before:

The crown molding was even a different color from the rest of the trim.  :P  I chose the most painful part first and did all of the trim to match the other "updated" white trim.  I am down to only two remaining rooms after this that need fresh trim paint... yea!  I had been thinking for a while that I'd do a gray on the walls.  I wanted something sorta neutral and calm but different, not a color we already had in another room.  I ended up trying 5 sample colors... the walls were a big mess.  I narrowed it down to two of those samples and then got "votes"... everyone picked the darker of the two... "French Silver".

 Lily Bug and I went to the store to pick up the paint last week while P was at preschool

 Lily found this paint card and told me, "I just love these little puppies!"  How sweet is she!

I came home and worked and worked on it...

I asked Mike if he thought I could convince Behr to sponsor my blog  (!!!) since their paint covered my dark blue walls with ONE coat... I had to do two to edge it in, but only roll ONE. 

 I still have to re-hang things on the wall so I'll leave it with just pics of the painted walls...I do like the way it turned out.  Its darker than I was initially thinking but its good.  It has been good for my sanity too. :)

Naptime Fun

Last week I decided to let the kids skip naps and we headed to the Children's Museum for some fun.  There was some motives for ME mixed in.  I wanted to get out of the house during the pretty afternoon hours instead of hibernating here... a change of routine was needed.  

{they played dress up}

{and puppets}

Peter was a farmer again.

Lily was his helper.

{planting}

 {watching it grow?}

 {time for harvest!}

 {getting the last of the crop}

{and fun the the sandbox... looking for treasure!}

And we did pretty art work also (the BEST place to do art/painting- not at home).

This may be a new part of our routine.  It got me motivated to take advantage of this season where they are now old enough to skip naps... it gives us a bonus chunk of free time in the afternoon for fun activities if we decide to go out.  :)

movin'

I just found this great song.... enjoying some good music and crazy, fun dancing (that I'd only do while home alone) and painting... its hard to keep my brush steady with such fun beats....

Medical Update

We are in need of pictures on here... next post, whenever that may be...


So this past week, we've had some follow up appointments.


Monday, it was the Sleep Study results... Peter's apnea had improved from 5X/hour to 2X/hour... but the doctor still recommended CPAP (a mask you wear at night that's hooked up to a machine that keeps your airway open... positive airway pressure)... great.  There was immediate prayer for the Lord to help me be open to the idea.  They told us a tentative plan to get him used to it, which by the way included another sleep study for the first night hooked up to CPAP (um, I don't think that is gonna fly with the boy and I DO NOT blame him.) So we were gonna play it by ear as the appointments went on...


Tuesday, it was our first neurology appt since April (thank you, Lord!).... just to follow up.  Obviously, he has been doing really well.  We can not say that we have seen any seizure activity so we are continuing with more of the same... which is great.  Please continue to pray that would be true.  Lord, heal our boy!  My main gripe about neuro appts/assessments is that they feel 90% subjective based on  our report.... argh.  Altho Peter has been doing so well in general in the last few months, in the last week he has had more behavioral problems in my opinion... more impulsive, not a lot of self control, a complainer, out of that "mature" phase I mentioned recently.  So I never know what to make of it.  I've never had another boy obviously, but there are times that he is just so different than our other little (tho she can have a case of the 2's lately, but smaller scale)... my data group is small and only includes two so I don't know exactly what to make of it.  But we'll go with it.  So the great part is that we could talk with his neurologist about his sleep study.  She does not feel that his sleep study is "bad" enough that it plays into the picture with his seizures.  So I guess that's good (and bad).  She felt like CPAP sounded a bit extreme.  So she told us she'd schedule us a consult with another neurologist who directs the sleep center at VCU.... that it may be a few months (after we'd have had to make the decision with the St Mary's doctor).  Well, the VCU doctor himself left us a message yesterday!!! My jaw stayed on the ground the whole message.  He was the first neurologist we saw at Peter's first admission last winter.  We adored him but he only sees patients in the sleep center (and makes inpatient rounds).  He's felt like this great & wonderful doctor that we just aren't "allowed" to see (and he left a voicemail for us!!  WOW!)... SO... today I called him back.  And talked to him, right away!!  What?!  This is SO rare for us!  He was as wonderful as I remember... calm, kind, smart (really smart), fatherly.  He said that he spoke with Peter's neurologist and reviewed his sleep study report and that he is "under-whelmed" with Peter's results.  We do NOT need to treat him.  His results were completely in the range of "normal" for his age.  WOW!  We are so relieved!  It is such a blessing (and answer to prayer!) that we do not have to "decide" whether to follow the original doctor's recommendations.  I feel really good about it.  More still, I talked with him about Peter's daytime breathing.  He said that is also not of concern to him.  It sounds familiar (he is the first doctor to say that after telling five doctors about it).... it could be related to his muscle tone as I suspected but its not detrimental to his health (only my nerves).  ;)  So my plan is to have him just sit in an upright chair (to encourage better posture) to watch TV and ban him from the couch (tho, I better have low expectations for this)... I am learning that my "black and white wiring" rarely really works.  Ah, sanctification... 


Peter and Lily are off for the weekend with Maw and Paw to see Copper and ride the tractor... oh, fun childhood and fun weekend with my favorite person.  OH, and painting! (pictures to come sometime... who knows when....) and a trip to the river house!!