Holding Steady!

Today I had to take Jos back to the specialist.  I was a wee bit nervous for the fact that we had done some alternative treatments that seemed to be working.  I wasn’t for sure how they would respond to it.  When the nurse took us to do height/weight, she asked what medicines she was one.  I told her, but said she hadn’t take them for a few weeks.  Of course she got on the defensive side!  I stated my case and moved on!

We then got called in to our room.  Had to wait for Jos to have to go potty so we could do a flow test.  She basically had to sit on a commode type thing that had a funnel attached, that was also hooked to a computer.  Got that done, then they did an ultrasound to see if her bladder was empty.  She had 10 cc’s still left, but not enough to worry about.

We waited a few minutes and saw the doc.  Her flow test was good!  Her pee was clear!  No bacteria!!!!  I was super excited.  She then asked me how things were going.  So I told her about the chiropractor and acupuncture.  She was totally receptive to it!  She said they sometimes recommend chiro treatments for this matter.  She didn’t say much about the acupuncture.  But she was very happy things were better for Jos.  I told her that I hadn’t given her any medicine for about 3 weeks.   She was fine with  it and told us not to worry about any more medicine!!  How exciting that I don’t have to pump my daughter with drugs anymore!  She also said to keep with the chiro/acupuncture since it’s working and to call if we needed anything and we could come over.

I was glad for this as I have this odd feeling that Jos may regress at some point, then we would be back to square one.  But she said we could call and come over whenever we needed too.  So we shall see how it goes for awhile.  She’s about 80% a normal 4 year old!  She still has her moments, but they are far and few between!  I’m so happy that we are where we are at now.  I only hope that things can continue to improve and that we won’t have to go back to Iowa City again!  Keep my fingers crossed.  I worry about about next year, when she’s off to Kindergarten and only has certain times she can use the bathroom.  But, the doc told me today if it becomes an issue again we can set up an IHP (Individual Health Plan) with the school and they will HAVE to follow it.  I hope we don’t have to go through all that!

So, all in all, I am one happy mom tonight as my daughter is on the mend.  As long as we can keep it up the stress will be gone!  Thank you Joan for pushing me to do the acupuncture!  I owe ya big time!

My Bucket List

I have always wanted to do this.  I think of things I want to do or re-do, but I never seem to write them down or get them done.  This summer I had made a list of things I wanted to do with the kids.  I got most of them accomplished and I was happy about that.  The kids and I stayed busy and didn’t have many “boring” days at home!

I long to do many things in my life.  Some as simple as redoing a room, but some are as complex as trips to exotic locations.  I like to dream.  I like to say, “what if.”  I like to think of what I could do and what I can’t do.  It’s fun to dream!  So here goes my list.  Maybe I can starting marking some of these off.  And these are in no particular order.  Do house projects count as bucket list items?  I think so! :)

1.  Decide what I want to be when I grow up.

2.  Chicago

3. Yearly  Mother/daughter overnights (when she gets a couple years older)

4.  Jamaica, Cancun, Bahamas (anywhere WARM)

5.  Disney World

6.  Kitchen remodel

7.  Bathroom remodel

8.  Landscape remodel

9.  Out east to visit Karrie and Steve again (this time, fly!)

10.  Colorado

11.  Find my happy self I once was

12.  Another mom, sister, niece trip

13.  Another friends trip!

14.  Carpet upstairs

15.  Own an Ipod to call my own!

16.  Take the kids tent camping (they are spoiled with Grandma’s Camper)

17.  Move to a bigger house

18.  Take Jayden on a train ride

19.  Own something other than a minivan!

20.  Go back to Costa Rica or visit Europe

Okay, 20 is a good start!  It’s fun to dream, isn’t it? :)  Some may be many years away, but some are reachable.  Can’t wait to start marking some of these off!  I will add more as I think of them, but this is what is on top of my head at the moment!

So…what do I want to be when I grow up?

The Scoop Shop

A few months ago I stumbled upon an idea using puff balls as ice cream. I now wish I could remember who I got this idea from so I could give them some of the credit, but I just can’t remember.  I put this idea in the back of my head and said I wanted to do this sometime.  I was walking through Michaels with a friend of mine and was telling her about it and we started brainstorming what to do!  We went to the “puff ball” aisle and put our brains to work. 

I had bought some Ice cream Cone shaped glasses and scoops earlier this summer because I thought they were cute.  Then this week at Michaels,  more of the scoops were on clearance for .50 cents.  Michael's, this week, also had assorted foam 60% off!!!  Which made the big packs, $3.20!  I stocked up on some sticky back foam and used that for a lot of my decorating. and making of things.

My friend found some ice cream “buckets” at the Party Store outlet for $1 each.  She also found cute little spoons!  They work perfect for this activity! 

I then decided I needed to get more elaborate with mine as my kids are a bit older and I was afraid they would get bored fast.  So, this is what I came up with!  “The Scoop Shop!!”

 

I had a wooden toy box sitting in my storage room that I had bought on a garage sale for cheap.  It wasn’t being used, so I turned it into our shop!  The box is upside down so the top can be used as the counter.  I cut out foam letters and Ice Cream shapes to decorate the box.  I also cut out ice cream shapes to decorate the buckets.  I did buy some ice cream stickers and stuck them around the outside of the buckets to make them more fun!

The cups/cones/utensils!

I found these cute “napkins or placemats” on clearance at Michael's too!  Got to just love clearance.  I used an old parmesan container, decorated it and put tiny puff balls in it for “sprinkles.”  My friend and I came up with this for sprinkles. How fun is that!  In the red container is “cherries.”  Which is red puff balls.  I used a yogurt container and just covered it with felt.

My friend got the idea of making “syrup” out of felt.  Pink is strawberry, dark brown is chocolate, and light brown is caramel.  The white circles are what I came up with for “whip cream.”  I want to come up with some more toppings, like M & M’s, peanuts, etc. that you can put on ice cream.  Once I figure that out, I will add it to the Scoop Shop.

That is our menu on the left.  I wanted to make it easy for both kids to read and understand.  Trying to work with my son and getting him to recognize words!  I also decided, when you work in a “shop” you have to have a name tag and hat!  I made these fun hats and name tags out of foam!  Which of course, was a HUGE hit!

My daughter could not wait to get started. She had been watching me make this for a few days.  She kept on asking me, “When can I play Scoop Shop?”  How cute is that?!  Here are some pictures once the kids got to work!  Enjoy!

Craft Foam Fun!

Okay, so I ran across this idea earlier this morning.  I had some foam in my craft supply so I got to work!  I would like to thank http://www.filthwizardry.com/ for this awesome idea!  Such fun for kids!  I couldn’t wait to try it out tonight.

I cut shapes and other random things out of some craft foam.  I also went to a couple local stores and got some good deals on some clearance foam.  The foam I used is not the kind that has the sticker back.  It is just the plain foam shapes!  My daughter had fun watching me make some shapes.  She tried to help, but gave up and went and did her own thing.  I used my supply of cookie cutters.  My fun scrapbooking scissors to make some cool designs.  I made, hearts, stars, grass, circles, hexagon, bears, strips of foam, blocks, ABC’s, 1-20, squares, rectangles, triangles, etc!  Plus the clearance foam i found today!

Tonight, when it was bath time, we put the kids to creative work!  They LOVED this.  My son normally takes a “man shower,” but tonight he wanted to take a bath too so he could play.  They sat in the water for a half hour before we had to say time to wash up and get ready for bed! (school night).  We will be taking advantage of this for many nights to come.  I also want to try it some afternoon when we need something to do.  Give them a couple glasses of water and let them play with their close on.  It was totally fun to watch their minds work and see what fun art they could come up with.  And you don’t need anything!  The foam sticks with water!

 

Jayden’s pizza

Josie had all the people lined up!

 

You can get craft foam pretty cheap.  Try it out and make bath time a blast for your kids!  I will be adding to this as well, when I find some good deals, or think of some new shapes.  

Felt Cake

I couldn’t wait to make this for Josie to play with.  She loves decorating things and making it her own.  I got it, of course, from the Family Fun Magazine.

I started off with some boxes I found at Goodwill.  You can get them at local craft stores that are plain, but I wanted to see if I could find some cheaper.  Well, I did.  Goodwill had a few to choose from.  So I started with these.  Added some felt.  Cut some shapes.  And made a new fun felt cake!  It is so easy and fun to play with as felt sticks to felt!

It’s kind of a hodge podge of different felt, but I wanted it as girly as possible.  Since, my little girl, is a girly-girl.  What’s nice is the shapes I made to decorate the cake can fit right inside the cake itself.  As I did not glue the lids down.  So, now we can add more to it whenever we think of something new!  I didn’t make the candles like the magazine did.  I might make those another day, but for now we will play with it as it is!

She has managed to drag it all over the house the last couple of days!  So, I think it’s a hit!  I am going to incorporate it with the felt food I made a couple weeks ago.  That will be fun too!

Leaves and Pumpkins

Today I changed out the sensory table.  I had wanted to do some kind of fall theme to get ready for the upcoming season.  I walked around a few places and it clicked! 

 

I wanted to find pumpkins that I could cut a whole into.  It was hard to find hollow ones, but I found some at Michaels for 40% off.  I cut around the stem, like a real pumpkin.  It was pretty easy to do with a knife!

I then let the kids decorate a face.  It was kind of fun to see what they would come up with.  Jayden’s was visible.  Josie, I’m not for sure what she did!  It was still cute anyway!

Here are the “ingredients” to my fall theme:

3 packs of 150 small leaves from the Dollar tree.  Plastic/tiny/colored pumpkins, gourds,acorns,leaves from the Dollar tree and Michaels.  Two fall containers and two baskets from the Dollar Tree.  Medium sized gourds and pumpkins with a more soft/light texture from Micahels.  Two pumpkin shaped ice cube trays from the Dollar Tree that they can used to count/sort the smaller trinkets!

Such a fun festive new idea!  I am curious to see what their creative little minds come up with while playing with this theme!  I like how Josie has all the little pumpkins sorted in the Ice cube tray!  They fit just perfectly!

I think this whole thing was under $20.  I can save it for next year when we are done with it!  Can add to it or use it for something else!

Enjoy!

A surprise visit!

Over this last weekend, my sister-in-law Karrie, and her husband Steve, surprised the family and came back for a visit.  Totally awesome as we knew they were coming, but nobody else did!  Let’s just say the family was very surprised and it was great!

So, over the course of 3 days, we got to spend a lot of time together on the farm.  It was a very relaxing visit and so much fun to get caught up with them.  These are the same people we went out east to visit over a year ago!  And of course, Jayden can’t wait to go back.  Jayden told great grandma that the next vacation we take is going to be to Aunt Karrie and Uncle Steve’s house.  He just loves them!  It’s funny what a connection he can have to two people he has only met a few times in his short life!  Here are some pictures from the farm. 

What was nice, is we managed to get a family picture of all of us!  This was great as it is much needed!  Too bad it wasn’t a more close up picture, but it will work.  Memories are great to have in pictures!

 

Until we had went out east to visit Steve and Karrie, I really didn’t know them.  They don’t get back here very often.  They were at our wedding and a couple random other times in the last 7 years, but last year I really got to know Karrie and Steve.  Jayden, like I said, attached himself to Steve and became buddies.  Such an awesome connection.  But the best thing is, I have gotten to know my sister-in-law in a much more personal way.  Until last year, I knew of her and had talked to her a few times and that was it.  Then when we spent the week with her, I really got to know her and how much we are alike!  We shouldn’t be living 21 hours away!  I’m glad I have gotten to know her like I have.  She is an amazing person.  Full of love and warmth.  Relaxed and goes with the flow!  I wish she lived closer so we could hang out more and do things together.  I’m sure we can find more to do other than cross stitch and quilt stores! :)  I was a good sport though, right? :)  Karrie and Steve: I want to thank you for becoming a big part of our lives.  I only wish there weren’t so many miles between us.  Good thing for phones and computers!  Thanks for the awesome visit!  Totally worth the look on your mom’s face!  Can’t wait to get together again and make new memories!

You will do anything for your child!

So in an earlier post I was telling you about Josie and her bladder issues.  The medicine had not been doing anything. She was having a ton of spasms.  After a weekend of camping with my mom and some of my family a few weeks ago, I had had enough!  I was so sick of watching her cringe in pain when she would have a spasm or need to go to the bathroom.  People kept telling me to try a chiropractor, try acupuncture.  I was VERY skeptical of this.  But, when it’s your child’s health, anything is worth a shot. 

I researched and asked around for ideas of a chiropractor or acupuncturist.  I found one here that I decided to try out.  I walked in and told him how skeptical I am.  He told me that he can’t work miracles.  I said, I don’t need a miracle, I just need to get my daughter better.  I told him, I was coming in with no hopes, but worth a shot to try.  He also told me that he was skeptical too!  But then he saw what it can do and decided to learn how to do it.  That even made me feel better about being there!  Nice to know the guy practicing it, didn’t believe in it either until he saw it work!

His procedure is, he finds the “popcorn” in her body and makes it go away.  The first time we went, her hips were way off.  Not aligned at all.  Since then they have been pretty dead on.  Which I am sure helps her pelvic area!  He then placed about 10 tiny little magnet balls that are attached to a tiny square Band-Aid, on pressure points.  Some on her hands/wrists and some on her legs/ankles.  We then have been covering these with more Band-Aids so she will leave them alone and they will stay on 2-3 days like the Chiro would like. 

We have gone for appointments 5 times.  Besides the fact that I now need to buy stock in Band-Aids, it is working!!!  She used to have about 10 or more spasms a day, occasional leaking accidents, going to the bathroom more often than she should be.  Now, she is down to maybe 1 or 2 spasms a day, no leaking accidents and a regular bathroom schedule!!  I…AM…PUMPED! 

I truly can’t believe it has actually helped her.  It’s an amazing feeling.  The stress has been lifted greatly!  Now I know we aren’t out of the woods yet. I am just truly excited that we got her bladder calmed down and working in a more normal function.  She is still wearing her patch medicine.  So, now I want to see if that actually helps her or not.  We go back to Iowa City on Wednesday.  I’m curious how they are going to respond to all this as well. Kind of makes me nervous.  I am going to hold off on the acupuncture for awhile.  I want to see if her body accepts the changes.  And I need to see if her patch medicine is actually doing anything!  And now maybe she can get off the daily antibiotic to hold off infections!  So we will see what happens for a couple weeks.

I thank God and everyone that pushed me to try it.  I never would have, but it was nice to have the encouragement and the support!  I totally feel like she may actually get to be a normal 4 year old!  What is also cool, is she gets right up on his table, let’s him work on her.  She’s not scared at all.  She is one excellent patient!  I think deep down, she wants to be better too! 

It’s amazing what a parent will do to help their child.  It was eating me up to see this happening to her.  Now, we can focus on the future and hopefully everything working like it’s supposed too! 

I just hope this works and keeps working.  But we will see too what Iowa City says next week!

Happy Birthday #6

So, my little man turned 6 over the weekend.  We usually do a party with friends and family.  But I decided when the kids turn 5, that will be their last year of a BIG party.  I wanted to focus more on us as a family and celebrate it, “low key.”  Both sets of grandparents came, which means more to the little man than anything.  We had a good time just doing what he wanted to do and loving every minute of it.  He chose to go to Jester Park Natural Playscape.  We were there a couple times over the summer.  This place is just cool!  Everything is play oriented and made out of nature.  And time just flies!  Were were there for over an hour and it felt like 10 minutes!  If you live in the area, you need to check it out sometime.  So much fun!

 

On his birthday he got to go to Village Inn and have breakfast with both Grandpas and his dad!  This is something he just loves to do!  He feels so special and I just love it.  We then let him open his presents and play as much as he wanted.  He wanted to have Applebee’s for lunch.  Which he was still full from breakfast, so he ordered a Oreo shake for his meal!  We came home and hung out some more with the grandparents.  Then, he had a choice of a movie or build a bear.  Well, he chose build a bear of course!  My kids love that place.  I frown on it sometimes, but they actually PLAY with their animals.  They just don’t get one and ignore it.  So, I feel it is actually a useful thing in our house!  So we now have Batman the teddy bear in our collection.

His favorite thing overall was probably the Steam Engine Train he got from his grandparents!  It even blows smoke!! How cool is that!  He absolutely loves it!  The track is kind of small right now, but Christmas is around the corner.  I’m sure Santa can find some more track!  What is also cool, is it fits on the platform of his bottom bunk!  His farm scene is now a train and farm all in one! 

I can’t believe he is 6 already.  I hope this year is very good to him as he has started kindergarten.  A whole new world!  Can’t wait to see what #6 is like through his eyes!