Asthma?

Today we took Charlie to the pediatrician, after a night of coughing, crying, and generally not sleeping. Our normal doctor, Gwen, doesn't work fridays, so we saw a different pediatrician in the practice, Dr. Dudley.

After explaining the last year or so of our battle with the mystery cough that has once again reared it's ugly head even on month 5 of a daily steroid, she gave us a new batch of medicines and dosages to try. She believes that he has allergies, reactive airway disorder, and potentially a sinus infection on top of all that.

She gave me a new prescription of the Pulmicort at twice the strength he is currently taking. This is the daily steroid he has been on 5 months. She wants me to bump it back up to twice a day for a month and then once a day for another five months. (sigh) This will be a full year on this medication.

She gave me a prescription for Singulair, for him to take in addition to the Zyrtec he already takes daily to combat allergies.

When he has his coughing fits, he takes Xopenex in his nebulizer every 4-6 hours for 2 or 3 days.

Oh, and one of his tubes fell out.

She also wanted another round of x-rays to confirm/rule-out sinus infection and/or pneumonia, so we obliged and headed over to Austin Radiological Association to get them taken. Thankfully, Mark met me there so he could go in with Charlie and I could stay in the waiting room with Owen.

After it was over, the x-ray tech came out into the waiting room to tell me that Charlie was the best patient she had ever seen (I'm guessing of the 3-yr-old variety.) He was so proud of himself! So we decided to reward him with a family lunch at Fuddruckers, naturally.

When the xray results came in and Dr. Dudley called me, she said he did not have pneumonia, but a slight sinus infection that concerned her enough to start an antibiotic (Augmentin). She wants us to do the treatment and come back in a month to talk about all of it and discuss whether we need to see a pulminologist.

So if you've lost count, here's what my baby boy is taking on a daily basis:

• Zyrtec
• Singulair
• Xopenex - 6x a day
• Pulmicort - 2x a day
• Augmentin - 2x a day

This seems pretty idiotic for a 3 year old. I'm going to need to get my nursing degree just to keep up with the proper dosages!!

And even with all this, we still don't have a definitive 'asthma' diagnosis. SO frustrating!!

So enjoy your Labor Day 2011 and take a deep breath in honor of our son, Charlie the Chronic Coughing X-Ray Champion!!

Lizzie's Future Derailed

"Mommy, I don"t want to be a cowgirl when I grow up anymore."

"Why is that, Lizzie?"

"Because the horses poop."

Charlie's First Day of Preschool - Ever!!

Okay, today was harder.

Charlie had the best attitude and was so excited to go to school. He wouldn’t eat anything but a smoothie for breakfast, which was my only hint he was nervous at all. He even got into his lunch box and found the helicopter I bought him as a surprise. He is so much like Mark!!!

When we got to school, he literally ran down the hall and left us in the dust talking to Lizzie’s old teacher, Mrs. Fionda. When we realized he was gone, we hurried down the hall to find him totally busy playing playdough and talking to the teachers and other parents. Who is this kid?

Mark and I just stood around and watched, waiting for our son to realize how scary this was supposed to be and come running for hugs. But he never did. He was happy and comfortable. Even his teacher said she thought he was going to be the kid she could get to try things first.

So we walked out to the quiet car with Owen and Mommy & Daddy were sad. So proud of our children and relieved that they embrace school so openly with joy, but sad about the time that has passed so quickly and these little ones who find their wings and fly off without a glance behind.

The day her dreams came true...Lizzie gets to go to Kindergarten!

She did it!! My baby started kindergarten!

So many of my friends homeschool or send their children to private schools that I was feeling a little alone as I prepared my heart for the first day of kindergarten. I imagined tears and butterflies in my stomach. I was "letting go" of my baby, after all.

But as He always is, God was faithful.

Our friend, Lisa Haug, who we know from Hill Country Bible Church UT back in the day, is a kindergarten teacher at Lizzie's school. And all summer long, we've been praying that she would be the one to teach our little girl. And God answered that prayer! Lisa is a Godly woman, a Longhorn, AND a reading specialist! Seriously? What more could you ask for?

So on that big day as we walked down the sidewalk behind our little princess, it wasn't quite so scary for Mom & Dad to hand over our baby.

She was so excited to get to school, make friends, and start learning. She has always loved school and began negotiating for more school time her first week of preschool as a 3 year old. But mommy is a little less excited to say goodbye to long mornings in PJs and happy shopping trips to Target.

Kindergarten is a whole new world. And truthfully, I'm not handing over my baby.

I'm sending my little girl, who is confident and eager to learn, to her first day of elementary school. A dream come true, indeed.

The park and a chick-fil-a cup

Took all 3 to Target today. The kids ate popcorn and dropped it all over the store as we shopped and I talked on the phone to Jenn Gilbert.

Afterwards, I took the kids to the park.  Lizzie had to pee, so she peed in a chick-fil-a cup.  When she was all finished and I began to unload the car so they could play, I realized I had chicken and milk in the car.  So we couldn't stay at the park and had to go home anyways!

The kids were NOT happy with me.

Ahh, Blessed June 2nd!

The big day has come and gone...and I'm so thankful it's over!

Owen turned one yesterday. My baby. My last one.

The night before his birthday I stayed up much later than normal just to delay the inevitable sunrise which would mark his first birthday. I just wasn't ready to face the truth - that ugly truth that happens each day, mostly unnoticed. The truth that time moves swiftly and unmercifully, whether you are in agony over each second that passes in the grip of grief and sadness, or having the time of your life celebrating the joys of this life. For each of us, the minutes and hours are all measured the same, completely unaffected by our desire to control them.

And so, that brings us back to the marking of time in the life of one little boy.

When the sun did come up on the morning of the 1st, I actually had an easier time than I'd expected. I had a list of things to accomplish in preparation for his birthday party this weekend. The back of my car was filled with bags full of clothes and baby goods to donate to the crisis pregnancy center, and my heart was happy to give them to the little ones whose mommy & daddy were scared and unprepared to care for them. I thought it would be difficult to let go of these things, well, let's be honest, these memories, but that was the serendipitous discovery - I wasn't letting go of those memories!! I was releasing myself from the burden of storing it all and hanging on to moments that had already passed, seconds and minutes that were meant to pass so that I might enjoy the moments being made all around me.

And so after we left the pregnancy center, I decided to bask in the moments in front of me (or behind me, actually, in the backseat) and head for the park. A friend of mine and two of her sons came to the park and even brought us Happy Meals. The kids chased an aggressive squirrel, throwing nuggets at it and feeding it french fries. We watched the scores of high school students at the pool and playing volleyball, and I was thankful for my little ones. Who are still little. Even if they are turning one.

Today is June 2nd. Today I can just breathe. Today is the beginning of year #2. And God-willing, I can enjoy each day until May 31st.

I'll be up late that night.

Coupons are a lot of Work!

I'm trying so hard to save money on our groceries. Like, REALLY hard.

The problem is that my kids love fruit. And because I feed them mostly organic, this adds up to some serious grocery bills!

Thankfully, we are getting some organic vegetables for free from Mark's amazing garden. But the kids don't eat most of this free bounty, so that doesn't help my bottom line that much. (Well, it helps my bottom line, but that is not really where I was going with this...)

I started getting coupons from my parents that they weren't using, and I got us our own subscription to the newspaper. So my collection of RedPlums and SourceSavers is well underway.

But the way to save money with coupons is to actually cut them out. To be even more excellent in the pursuit of savings would be to use these cut out coupons at a store where the item is on sale!! (Can you imagine??)

This is all well and good, and sounds so simple and easy. But let me illustrate how time consuming this becomes by outlining the steps in a numbered list.

1. Gather coupons from newspaper and collect each week's sales papers.

2. Go through old coupons to trash ones that have expired.

3. Throw away last week's sales papers.

4. Spread out coupon stash, new coupon inserts, and current sales papers all over the table.

5. Look through sales fliers for items on sale. I shop at Randalls, Target, HEB, and CVS.

6. Look through coupon box for existing coupons, or the new coupon inserts to see if you have one for the 'deal of the week' item. You can also look online for coupons and print them out.

7. Make a list for each store, and put the coupons you need in a separate pile.

8. At Target, you can use 'Target' coupons and manufacturer coupons, so that is one more mind-blowing step. Because now you have to see if you have the Target & Manufacturer coupons for an item, and if that makes it cheaper than a sale price + coupon somewhere else.

I feel like it's a good time to mention that yesterday, while I was doing these exact activities, Charlie dumped out his water glass and soaked three of my coupon inserts in the process. He got a stern talking to and the inserts got dabbed with paper towels and spread out all over the kitchen counter to dry.

I have done these activities and had tremendous success. Like 4 times.

Now, I have this huge collection of coupons and an irrational disinterest in purchasing groceries because I feel like I need to complete my research and couponing before I go anywhere.

Which is actually saving us loads of money.