HIGHLIGHTS

Jim’s Stress Test * Tori’s 9th Birthday and Superbowl Party * Gymnastics * Soccer * Archery * Art * Colonoscopy and Endoscopy *

TROY
Troy this week was listening to Pharrell’s “Happy” in the car and said, “This is my jam!” LOL

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Troy: Daddy what does “literally” mean??? Jim launches into this long explanation (which wasn’t easy to explain!)
Troy: So literally is not right!
Jim: What do you mean?
Troy: You can’t just drop trash.?? LOL. Oooohhhhhhh littering!!!!! 🙂

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It is so hard to discipline Troy because he is so darn cute. The cutest 5 year old ever. When I talk to him about anything he did wrong, he is super sweet and submissive. He ducks his chin down and looks at me with these big baby browns over the rim of his glasses. He says, “Ya” to everything I say (as in “ya I did that”) and then he will say “I am sorry. Will you forgive me?” It is the sweetest ever. Then he walks out with his head hanging low. I gotta admit, I somewhat doubt the sincerity of his show because it is just TOOOOOOO good. LOL

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A couple of weeks ago Troy hit his head on something in the front room. In the kitchen:

Troy: Mom I hit my head and I fink I broke my brain!
Me: Oh no! I wonder if you can still think?
Troy: I am finking???.I am finking???I am finking about when I was younger???.I CAN FINK! I didn’t break it!!

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Thurs, Feb 23rd
Skipped archery and went to the Dr with Troy. At about 3:00 AM he went to the bathroom in my bathroom. Of course he made a lot of noise and left the light on thus waking me up. He has been using my bathroom because??every other toilet has been making odd noises and he is still terrified of flooding. LOL. Anyhow, just a few minutes later he was back going again. This happened 3 or 4 times. I finally moved his bed into my room because I noticed that he kept spitting into a bowl as well (for well over an hour). He had wet his bed again (2nd time this week) and said he was spitting because he was thirsty. I assumed he was feeling nauseous and thought maybe he had the flu. I rubbed his back until he settled enough to fall back to sleep. I didn’t let him eat this morning and took him in to see Amy Machelli (spelling) at Pediatrix. She did a urine test and a glucose test. The good news was – no sign of diabetes. No keytones being spilled in urine and his glucose test was in the low 90’s (90 or 96 I forget which). BUT he did have blood in his urine though I think she said no white blood cells. She talked to Dr. Mitra and Dr. Mitra told her that sometimes UTIs are present with no white blood cells and that sometimes boys will frequently urinate with UTIs so they decided to treat him for a UTI with antibiotics until they get the culture back. She wants to keep looking into it if the culture comes back clear. So???glad I went. I laid awake for hours worrying about diabetes so at least I can check that off my list. He was in the 9th percentile for weight and the 4th for height. Tiny but on the curve so fine. 41.3 inches tall and 37 pounds. BMI was 47% which is great. He was pretty upset with that finger prick (like hysterical!) So like any good mom, I interviewed him after the Dr left the room on video. There is about 3 minutes of cell phone video goodness. Too funny. He talks about how he can no longer use his hand to eat now or play with toys or anything!

 

Tue, Feb 28th
His blood culture came back negative so no UTI. I stopped the antibiotics. Dr. told me to take him to a urologist if the bed wetting and tummy pain continues. We shall see. He just got in trouble with me because I startled him when I walked into the bathroom and caught him going potty in the bathtub! His fear of flushing that toilet is just getting ridiculous. It makes me laugh though when you ask him if he did something and he doesn’t want to verbally say yes so he takes his hands and moves his jaw up and down making himself nod yes. LOL. He is truly adorable. It is SUPER hard for me to get upset with the kid because he melts me. I really have to try to look real serious because even when he is getting in trouble with me I am adoring him. His face has looked like a burn victim this winter so I keep have to use hydrocortisone on it. He has complained of itchiness on his back so much that I have been better about the neosporin daily excema cream and his back actually feels great. I probably already mentioned this but I am having to patch both eyes for 10 minutes a day now and he is going to be evaluated for surgery this summer.

TANNER
Tue, Feb 28th
Tanner’s school day this Sophomore year has been LONG. Geometery takes him 3 to 4 hours a day and it is excruciating. I have not helped him with math this year. I think most students would just get through it and accept average or less than average scores. Not Tanner. It takes him that long because he is determined to get at least a B so he just works and works until he thinks he can get as close to 80 as he can. I am super proud of his diligence in this. What more could you ask for? I think next year will be a much easier year for him actually. He only has 29 lessons left in geometry and then he is technically done with high school math.

TY
Tue, Feb 28th

He has been doing well – he is about 5″ 10 or more now. He is doing decently in school but 7th grade math has just gotten out of scope. Not because he can’t do it, because he can’t write it. It isn’t just the inability to handwrite because he uses a math pad. It is because he can’t type the formulas down in a spacial order that keeps him from confusion and then he ends up mixing himself up too much. I realized by doing math orally with him and having him talk me through what to write, that he actually DID know how to do the problems. This is not fun for me to realize that I will now have to do every math lesson and write for him but it is what it is. If I want to get us through high school math, this is what is required and it just is what it is. I don’t want to give up. I want him to earn his high school diploma so I will do what I have to do to accommodate what he needs. Having said that, I really really really need more hours in my day at this point.

TORI
Jim told me this morning that he found a compact of glitter makeup in the dryer with his work clothes. Now his work shirts sparkle! LOL She is getting good at putting her makeup on for playtime – super impressive.

Friday, Feb 24th
Going to do Tori’s 9 year old pictures this afternoon with Dusty out by lake pleasant.

Tue, Feb 28th
She has fallen in love with a YOUTUBE reality channel called Britaley. A family whose daughters are in gymnastics. I totally don’t get it but she can’t get enough of it. She has started saying “Tarter Sauce” as in “darn it” and it drives her brothers crazy. She got that off the show. She is still doing gymnastics in the house constantly. School wise she is doing well. Her reading is really improving as is her spelling. She struggles with math concepts but it doing pretty well with it overall. She loves IEW the most.

JIM
Jim’s cardio appointment was awesome. Dr. was AMAZED that Jim could do 12 minutes on the tread mill. They wanted him to get his heart rate up to 149 and then to hold it there for a minute or so. Dr. Tri said most people average no more than 8 minutes and that he personally only got to 10 minutes with a heart rate of 100 and he is thin, fit, healthy and no heart problems. He said that was like marathon runner length. Wow!!!!! Jim has been exercising but not excessively so this makes me wonder what he is capable of if he was even trying. Dr. said whatever is going on with Jim does not seem to be cardio related because everything looked SO good. He was super impressed and kept saying, “12 minutes! TWELVE minutes!!!!”

DONI
Tue, Feb 14th

Colonoscopy and Endoscopy day. They found no hiaetal hernia or duedenal ulcer this time. They did find gastritis. Testing for celiac and H. Pylori and I don’t know what else. No polyps or tumors – yay! 🙂 They had to do SIX ivs though! Or they tried six times. The first few the vein blew and then it infiltrated and was swelling my hand with liquid. That was painful. The anesthesiologist finally had to do it with an ultrasound machine. It took him two tries as well and went deep in the arm. The anethesia they gave me did not make me feel sick afterwards so I liked it but I was processing slowly and very emotional for the entire day until bed time.

Fri, Feb 24th
My lab work came in and it said that I have gastritis and tested negative for celiac and H. pylori. Not sure what to do at this point. I am definitely not as sick as I was last year but I do have a burning stomach off and on through the week – most days. Not as bad as last year but noticeable. I really need to get to the bottom of that.

Mon, Feb 20th
School and lots of chores. I love my life. Happy happy girl. Been listening to a lot of Hillsong lately and wow – it moves me. I purchased the Dirt and Grace album and it is my favorite ever. I think Oceans may be my very favorite worship song right now though. I also love Touch the Sky and Even When it Hurts, Say the Word and Broken Vessels. That is my list this week. I have such a need for worship. Every day. .