She was dry. It's probably been close to a year since she's had a month where she's been dry two times. Let alone two times in a week. No alarm going off means more sleep for me. YAY!
Lisa
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Cheers, giggles and smiles
I've had a couple of these pictures locked on my camera for a couple of weeks. Jaemin found Chelsi's pom poms from the fall football games and he was cheering. And you can see what she would rather do.....duh duh duh duh....dress up as a princess. SHOCKER!
Jaemin had the giggles today. Everytime I said anything he laughed. I noticed he's been doing this a lot lately. So, am I funny or funny looking?
Jaemin had the giggles today. Everytime I said anything he laughed. I noticed he's been doing this a lot lately. So, am I funny or funny looking?
All they wanna do is potty all the time
It's only been a couple of days and I feel like potty talk all the time!
Chelsi is 5 1/2, but does not ever stay dry at night, so after the doctors all agreed that other than duplicated ureters she has no birth defects and nothing that should cause incontinence issues. So, it means it's just her. They all recommended an enuresis alarm since she's nearing 6. We were waiting for my new cafeteria plan year and the time has finally come. So we've ordered the alarm and received it this week!
I have Chelsi sleeping on a mat next to my bed so that I can make sure she wakes up when the alarm goes off. That sucker is so load it scares the crap out of me a lot of the nights. It's only been 3 nights though. The first night was aweful! She had be woken up and it took a long time to get her to her feet. Lesson learned. She needs a pullup over her underwear to keep her from peeing on the mat, or worse yet missing and hitting my floor. She peed twice that night. The second night she slept through and was dry. This generally happens one time per month....on a good month. The 3rd night, last night she only had it go off once and it was almost 6 am. She hopped up before I was really awake. Of course, I still have Jaemin in my bed too. So, about that time or maybe a little later, he was laughing in my ear. Apparently, he was having a really happy dream because he was giggling his butt off!
Thursday I decided to try to potty train Jaemin. It was not successful, but it must have put a bug in his ear. He ran around naked and peed on the potty a couple of times and stayed mostly dry even when his diaper was on. We had to put it on Thursday night because I had to go with Chelsi to play rehearsal and he won't go for Brian. Friday we had places to go and our appliances were in and we needed to install, so he wore his diaper again. But, he asked to go while we had company last night. He remembered that I had bought a brand new box of fruit snacks and I, smartly, put them right at his height in the bathroom cabinet. He grabbed a snack and told me he needed to pee. He squeezed out a couple of drops and got his snack. Brian things he just knows how to work the system, and he does, but I told him to let it go. It might be enough incentive if we're lucky!
This morning as soon as he opened his eyes Jaemin looked at me and said he needed to poo. So I took him in the bathroom, he grabbed his snack and peed....a lot! He ate his snack and then, apparently, when he took his wrapper to the trash in the kitchen he peed on the floor in front of the trashcan. I don't know how he peed that much in that short of time. 1/2 hour later, he always poops after breakfast, he said he needed to poop. So Cole took him poop. He actually went. For the first time ever. Cole gave him his snack. Then, he pooped in his diaper 10 minutes later. Hopefully, that's just a minor miscommunication with his body and he's still figuring it out.
My dream. Oh my dream is to have Chelsi and Jaemin both potty trained at the same time. It would be fine, if it had to be that way, to only have 1 (Jaemin) in nightly pullups. But, oh to get them both out of diapers and pullups!! 14 years of diapers next month is what we've been doing.!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Reasons NOT to Adopt
This is not going to be popular, I'm sure. But, this is my blog and my opinion. Though I'm not that strongly opinionated on a lot of things, this one I am. BECAUSE IT'S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS, NOT THE PARENTS WANTING KIDS. And some of this I've wrestled with, but because I feel it's right in my heart, I leave it alone and remember it's right.
1) You're already deep in debt (credit card, etc.) and you want to pursue an expensive adoption. Now, I'm not talking about you have a house loan and a car or you want to go through foster care which is free. If you're already having trouble making necessary payments and are just getting by, maybe you should hold off until you're in a better situation. Finances are stress...children can add to that stress. Who am I lying to...they do. And I mean that in the most loving way. :)
2) Your husband is NOT on board. Is it okay to talk about it over and over again...sure. As long a you're BOTH talking. As long as there is somewhat of a discussion. But, if the spouse (husband or wife....usually husband) is adamantly against it sometimes we wives need to concede. BTDT!
3) You're going to save a child from their life or possible life. While, yes, there are children who may not survive without a family to care for them, medically and otherwise I'm not sure I will ever be convinced that that is reason enough/alone to adopt. How do 'we' know we are their saviors? Doesn't only 'He' know? If you want a child that's great. That's a great reason. Not purely to save a soul. This could be a lengthy discussion, so I'll leave it here.
4) Your existing children do NOT want siblings. Okay, you argue. Do we ask our children if we can get pregnant? No. But, adoption really is a different process and can require some different parenting, sort of like some special needs children. Not the same, but sort of.....hard to explain, but other adoptive parents understand. It's also extremely purposeful. Even in the case of a sibling call like we had there is still purpose. Not accident. Unless you have no insurance there is also minimal cost in pregnancy in comparison to adoption. Though I'm not a fan of letting those pesky fees get in the way if otherwise you can financially handle another child. Anyways, when we were in process, one thing very important to us as we added each one was whether everyone was good with it. If they weren't they had time to talk about it. IF it couldn't have been alleviated, whatever fears there were, we would NOT have proceeded. Our guardian ad litem commented on how well all of our children have adapted to each other. She said she'd seen families where biological children resented adopted children and vice versa. I know hard to imagine. She asked what we did and this is all I could think to tell her. We made all of our existing children, one by one, a part of the process.
5) Okay, so number 5 is a copout because really there aren't very many reasons NOT to adopt. It's great. It's wonderful and I'd be missing 3 little pieces of my heart without it. So, the only other reasons not to adopt are just obvious. You hate kids, want a servant/worker..... Though surely that doesn't really happen, right?
If you have add ons, feel free to leave them in comments.
1) You're already deep in debt (credit card, etc.) and you want to pursue an expensive adoption. Now, I'm not talking about you have a house loan and a car or you want to go through foster care which is free. If you're already having trouble making necessary payments and are just getting by, maybe you should hold off until you're in a better situation. Finances are stress...children can add to that stress. Who am I lying to...they do. And I mean that in the most loving way. :)
2) Your husband is NOT on board. Is it okay to talk about it over and over again...sure. As long a you're BOTH talking. As long as there is somewhat of a discussion. But, if the spouse (husband or wife....usually husband) is adamantly against it sometimes we wives need to concede. BTDT!
3) You're going to save a child from their life or possible life. While, yes, there are children who may not survive without a family to care for them, medically and otherwise I'm not sure I will ever be convinced that that is reason enough/alone to adopt. How do 'we' know we are their saviors? Doesn't only 'He' know? If you want a child that's great. That's a great reason. Not purely to save a soul. This could be a lengthy discussion, so I'll leave it here.
4) Your existing children do NOT want siblings. Okay, you argue. Do we ask our children if we can get pregnant? No. But, adoption really is a different process and can require some different parenting, sort of like some special needs children. Not the same, but sort of.....hard to explain, but other adoptive parents understand. It's also extremely purposeful. Even in the case of a sibling call like we had there is still purpose. Not accident. Unless you have no insurance there is also minimal cost in pregnancy in comparison to adoption. Though I'm not a fan of letting those pesky fees get in the way if otherwise you can financially handle another child. Anyways, when we were in process, one thing very important to us as we added each one was whether everyone was good with it. If they weren't they had time to talk about it. IF it couldn't have been alleviated, whatever fears there were, we would NOT have proceeded. Our guardian ad litem commented on how well all of our children have adapted to each other. She said she'd seen families where biological children resented adopted children and vice versa. I know hard to imagine. She asked what we did and this is all I could think to tell her. We made all of our existing children, one by one, a part of the process.
5) Okay, so number 5 is a copout because really there aren't very many reasons NOT to adopt. It's great. It's wonderful and I'd be missing 3 little pieces of my heart without it. So, the only other reasons not to adopt are just obvious. You hate kids, want a servant/worker..... Though surely that doesn't really happen, right?
If you have add ons, feel free to leave them in comments.
New Site to List for SCI
I'm going to find a spot on the blog to list this site; www.christopherreeve.org.
For the most part, Brian's spinal cord injury is just something that happened to him and, of course, our whole family. Most people assume that because he walked again and regained some of his other motor functions everything just goes back to the way it was, a sort of normal, for our family. But, any SCI patient or family knows that's not really true. It's something the patient will live with for the rest of their lives and it's not a static state. Meaning just because they gain it back doesn't mean it's permanent. Brian has lost some very minor simple functions. Mostly we noticed the right end fingers. But, over time things can happen within the spinal cord because of the injury that can cause him to lose more of what he gained back those months after and in rehab.
I won't get all technical here, but I've known for some time that he, in all reality, will likely end up disabled in 10-20 years. At our age now, that's pretty young. I say disabled only because the job he is trained to do cannot be done if he loses function. Thankfully, I think he may be able to find something to do at his current employer, just not what he does now, if he ends up with a walker or wheelchair. Honestly, I tend NOT to think about this. It makes me a bit sad at our lives changing once again. But, I do know it could happen and keep it purged away so that the shock doesn't hit me like his accident did.
Anyways, this site is a great site with lots of great information on spinal cord injuries.
Lisa
For the most part, Brian's spinal cord injury is just something that happened to him and, of course, our whole family. Most people assume that because he walked again and regained some of his other motor functions everything just goes back to the way it was, a sort of normal, for our family. But, any SCI patient or family knows that's not really true. It's something the patient will live with for the rest of their lives and it's not a static state. Meaning just because they gain it back doesn't mean it's permanent. Brian has lost some very minor simple functions. Mostly we noticed the right end fingers. But, over time things can happen within the spinal cord because of the injury that can cause him to lose more of what he gained back those months after and in rehab.
I won't get all technical here, but I've known for some time that he, in all reality, will likely end up disabled in 10-20 years. At our age now, that's pretty young. I say disabled only because the job he is trained to do cannot be done if he loses function. Thankfully, I think he may be able to find something to do at his current employer, just not what he does now, if he ends up with a walker or wheelchair. Honestly, I tend NOT to think about this. It makes me a bit sad at our lives changing once again. But, I do know it could happen and keep it purged away so that the shock doesn't hit me like his accident did.
Anyways, this site is a great site with lots of great information on spinal cord injuries.
Lisa
Monday, January 24, 2011
Finally getting back on a schedule
I've never been terribly scheduled with our time since going part time, but I do have somewhat of a routine. It all got blown up when Jaemin and I were sick the first of the year and then with the older kids being home so much. Now that I'm feeling quite a bit better and not going through a box of kleenex a day I feel more up to getting things done; besides what I absolutely have to.
Last week I made a alphabet and site word binder. Sounds crazy for a 2 year old, but it never hurts and Chelsi learned at just under 3 by this repetition, so what the hey. I printed them all off in big, bold print and put them in sheet protectors to go in the binder. On the flip side of the letters are the words, including such important words for Jaemin such as; Cole, Chase, Kaelin, Chelsi, Jaemin, mom and dad. :)
Over the weekend Chelsi and I went to Target after play rehearsal to raid their $1 bins. I wanted some fun things for the trip in May and thought that would be a good place to start. We got little journals for the girls to draw and write during the trip; pens with cords to carry them around their necks so they don't lose them, stickers for the journals, little stuffed animals and I'll try to find a couple more small items. I got Jaemin a couple of Hot Wheels we'll give him as we go along on the drive and he gets Batman stickers too!
Anyways, while we were at Target they had flashcards in the bins. Princess flashcards no less. Chelsi said she wanted them and Kaelin's been struggling a bit in addition and subtraction as far as speed, so I got them. So, today, after we went through the alphabet and sight words we went through flashcards for addition and I have begun to teach Chelsi how to add once you have a number to add to. She's starting to get it and I have no doubt she'll have it down pat in no time.
So between laundry/breakfast/kids drive to school and lunch we do school time. They get to sit on a pillow on the floor while we go through our items and then Jaemin and I read a book. Chelsi doesn't really enjoy the baby books anymore and can ready anything she wants anyways, so she just reads to herself when she chooses. I do think Jaemin's as quick as Chelsi he's just not quite as interested as her. Typical boy, in this house really.
Last week I made a alphabet and site word binder. Sounds crazy for a 2 year old, but it never hurts and Chelsi learned at just under 3 by this repetition, so what the hey. I printed them all off in big, bold print and put them in sheet protectors to go in the binder. On the flip side of the letters are the words, including such important words for Jaemin such as; Cole, Chase, Kaelin, Chelsi, Jaemin, mom and dad. :)
Over the weekend Chelsi and I went to Target after play rehearsal to raid their $1 bins. I wanted some fun things for the trip in May and thought that would be a good place to start. We got little journals for the girls to draw and write during the trip; pens with cords to carry them around their necks so they don't lose them, stickers for the journals, little stuffed animals and I'll try to find a couple more small items. I got Jaemin a couple of Hot Wheels we'll give him as we go along on the drive and he gets Batman stickers too!
Anyways, while we were at Target they had flashcards in the bins. Princess flashcards no less. Chelsi said she wanted them and Kaelin's been struggling a bit in addition and subtraction as far as speed, so I got them. So, today, after we went through the alphabet and sight words we went through flashcards for addition and I have begun to teach Chelsi how to add once you have a number to add to. She's starting to get it and I have no doubt she'll have it down pat in no time.
So between laundry/breakfast/kids drive to school and lunch we do school time. They get to sit on a pillow on the floor while we go through our items and then Jaemin and I read a book. Chelsi doesn't really enjoy the baby books anymore and can ready anything she wants anyways, so she just reads to herself when she chooses. I do think Jaemin's as quick as Chelsi he's just not quite as interested as her. Typical boy, in this house really.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Fans
Do you have a celebrity you are a fan of? I generally don't. I mean, they're just people too and we shouldn't idolize people. BUT, I have to say I really do enjoy Ellen. I have very limited time to watch tv, so I pick very carefully and frugally fill my tv time. I have to really get some enjoyment or the show gets purged. The Ellen Show, though I just found last year. I know....how slow can I be. I happened to be home a day or afternoon in May and caught a glimpse for one reason or another and it just made me laugh. It generally takes a lot to make me laugh, so yep, you guessed it; Ellen made it into my DVR selections.
I still watch it. Sometimes it's pretty much an Ellen marathon because I don't have time to watch it every single day with kid activities and parenting. I guess I should keep up with that duty, huh? But I do make time for my Ellen marathon and my good laughs. The thing I really like about her is how she helps people. I think it honestly makes her feel good and I think she feels like she's giving back for what she has.
Now, if I could figure out how to have great skin like that and look as young as she does (not that she's old) at her age. So in just under 20 years I still wanna look like I do now because she looks my age now.
Lisa
I still watch it. Sometimes it's pretty much an Ellen marathon because I don't have time to watch it every single day with kid activities and parenting. I guess I should keep up with that duty, huh? But I do make time for my Ellen marathon and my good laughs. The thing I really like about her is how she helps people. I think it honestly makes her feel good and I think she feels like she's giving back for what she has.
Now, if I could figure out how to have great skin like that and look as young as she does (not that she's old) at her age. So in just under 20 years I still wanna look like I do now because she looks my age now.
Lisa
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