2007 In Review

Well, I like to take time at the end of the year to reflect on good and bad highlights. Honestly there were a lot of positive things that happened this year!

January - Jamie's mom, step-dad and sister came out for a visit.

February - Jamie and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss together (ok, no I don't live in a freaking castle but the years have been good ones :))

March - St. Patrick's Day!!!! We had our friend's Steve and Lisa over to share in our corned beef and cabbage :)

April - Kian and I headed out to Wisconsin for my Grandparent's 50th Wedding anniversary.

May - Kian turned 3!!

June - The Painstaking treatment began on my foot (ouch!)

July - We threw our first party at our house for the 4th of July! I think everyone had a good time :)

We also celebrated one year of being homeowners! WOOT!

August - We bid goodbye to diapers - Kian was fully potty trained!!! (well, during the day time anyway - but a huge step!)

September - Kian started his pre-preschool class (I say pre-pre because I go with Kian to this class)

October - We took our first family vacation and went to Disneyland!!! We also had a great time visiting with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Lori that live in SoCal.

Kian also got to go trick-or-treating for the FIRST time! Even though we had to take out most of his candy and replace it, he had a great time :)

November - We welcomed Jamie's Dad and Step-mom for a visit. Then a few weeks later my mom arrived for a visit over Thanksgiving! Kian had a great time with all of them :)

December - We decorated the tree and Kian got to help decorate for the first time! Kian also helped me make cookies for the first time too :) Kian's excitement of Christmas has sparked a renewed excitment in our household of Christmas!

We had a very blessed and busy 2007 and we are looking forward to more blessings to come in 2008. We hope you and yours have the same :)

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays!

This Christmas was spent in the comfort of our own home - just the three of us (ok 5 if you could Allie and Toby). Christmas Eve was had our gorging of gifts that our family sent us. We all received some very nice things, but Kian made quite the haul!

Christmas Eve night we had lasgana with garlic bread and salad for our special meal. We also had home made pumpkin pie - YUM! (ok, I took some store bought help - but nut free ones ;))

Santa brought gifts - the floor in front of the tree was filled with books, a Tonka garbage truck, My First Computer, Thomas Legos and a Thomas mat to play with his smaller trains with.

So far he has LOVED the My First computer (thankfully Santa brought two games to go with it) and his mat for his smaller Thomas trains. He really is enjoying everything, but those he's playing with the most.

And of course Santa stuffed all our stockings - even Toby and Allie's! Kian got two new cars from the movie Cars, a new Disney movie, Thomas underwear, and candy of course ;)

Our christmas vacation has been pretty relaxing. We have all really enjoyed not really having a schedule and just doing what we want when we want. A quiet Christmas this year but a good one :)

Our Christmas Gorging

Well our tree slowly filled with wrapped gifts as the month progressed. This morning, after breakfast, we gorged ourselves on those gifts. Kian was so excited! He has been asking at least once a day if he can open them lol We let him dig in while I pulled gifts from all around the tree and separated them all. Jamie and I helped Huricane Kian with his mass of paper and gifts before we opened our own. We both got some pretty cool stuff! And the best thing was that I surprised Jamie with almost everything I gave him ;) That is VERY hard to do so I was quite proud of myself :)

Before bed Kian and I baked cookies for Santa and set the cookies and some carrots on the special plate that my cousin Maggie gave him for his first Christmas....there is a sang on the plate that says the cookies are for Santa and something like "I was good this year, don't believe those things you hear" hehehe

Tonight Jamie read Kian Twas The Night Before Christmas and even I stayed in the room to enjoy the book :) We said goodnight and haven't heard a peep from that room since! Kian is so excited for Santa to arrive :)

Speaking of the big man in the red suit, I better get to bed so he can drop in ;)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Countdown!

Well, the final stretch is here! Five more days until Christmas! Kian is SO excited to open gifts. It's been a little tough to keep him out of the gifts that are wrapped under the tree, but he's done a great job listening. He does ask several times a day about Santa and if he came lol

Kian has enjoyed the Advent calendar that we bought him last year.


Here he is with the calendar looking for the door to open for the day. It looks really neat but the door numbers are not in order so it's hard for Kian to understand how many more days are left. We do show him on the calendar though how many more days until Christmas and we count together what is left. Kian just really likes to get the candy out of the door that he says Santa brings him lol

A few weekends ago we celebrated Christmas with our friends Steve and Lisa. Here is one of the things they got Kian - which is his favorite right now.


Jamie got some fun things that he has at work with him (one is a BS button - we had to try it outside away from Kian ears! lol) and he also go a hat with his name on it...ok, not really - it's a Jameson Irish Whiskey hat but is VERY fitting :) Jamie loves it!


And as you can see Steve and Lisa know me well :) We hung up the Irish Blessing hanging immediately!


Last weekend Lisa and Steve gave us another AMAZING gift! Lisa offered to watch Kian for the night while me and Jamie went to the EA Christmas party! Steve had a prior engagement that ended up being cancelled so he came along with Lisa as well. I know Kian had as much fun as we did because he loves those two :)

This year we look forward to a quiet Christmas at home - just the three of us. We plan to start a new tradition of making cookies on Christmas Eve night so that Santa can have fresh cookies ;)

We miss you all and know that we will be thinking of all our family and friends that live far and near throughout the holiday season.

Stepping into the New Year with a New Foot

Yesterday was my FINAL treatment on my foot for my warts! WOOT! I've had a little bit of pain, but nothing that some ibuprofen couldn't take care of :) I am relived that this 6 month ordeal of going to the doctor every 10 days is over! Yep, 6 months! phew! But, at least when this is done I won't have to ever do it again :)

So, here's to starting off 2008 on the "left" wartless foot ;)

Kian Visits Santa

Well, Kian met Santa today. Our track record with Santa is now 1.5 out of 4 lol I say 1.5 because when he was 7 months he was cool with Santa and every other year after that he has screamed bloody murder when we it was our turn to see Santa.


This year we were headed down the same road. Thankfully we saw Santa on a weekday so he could take time to talk to Kian. Jamie brought him over to sit on Santa’s lap and Kian yelled “Let’s go that way!!” Well, Santa came down to Kian with a candy cane and a temporary tattoo. Kian said thankyou and then pulled out his “list” that we made this morning (we cut out pictures of toys Kian wanted and put them on some notebook paper). Santa took the list and pointed out some of the trucks and talked to Kian about them. Then he took Kian’s hand and brought him around his little area and showed him the stuffed animals that were decorating the area. He then had Kian sit on his big chair! We FINALLY got a photo with a half smile from my Kian with Santa standing right next to him :)


So, this is the only photo we got this year, but it’s a good one and definitely a great memory for us all :)

Grandma Visits!

My mom made her bi-annual Thanksgiving day trip out to see us. Since my step-dad hunts over the holiday, she is usually at home alone and figures it's a good time to take off and spend the week with us :)

Grandma certainly took this trip as an opportunity to SPOIL Kian! Kian got lots of new cars, crayons and a "magic coloring book" that i think Grandma enjoyed coloring in just as much as Kian did! Every time that Kian woke up from his nap or in the morning he would say, "Where's Grandma Lopas? You wanna play Candyland?" I think my mom played more Candyland with Kian this last week than she has in her entire life lol They also had great fun playing outside, going for walks and going to the park.

It was very hard to say good-bye but her trip was a very good one :)

Kian Met A Goal!

Kian's speech teacher said she is pretty sure she's ready to write in Kian's chart that he has met his goal of putting ending sounds on words! How exciting after such a short period of time!

We are still working on complete sentences and other things related to speech. I also spoke to the teacher about what her thoughts were on the group evaluation that she told me about when we first started going to see her. It will test all areas of development like fine motor, social, speech (those are a few I can think of). If he is delayed enough they will put him into a special ed preschool until he catches up.

For me personally, I see this as a win-win...either we find out Kian's ok and has a few things work on or we find out he has a delay and it is addressed. I have been so concerned about him lately and I figured this will give me an answer one way or another.

Kian's speech teacher, Miss Denise, will be emailing the person who needs to set up the evlaution. She felt she was going to wait and see how Kian is after Christmas break, but since I mentioned a concern she is goign to get the ball rolling. I will have more of an update on this once I have more information.

Brag on Jamie!

Most of you know that Jamie was working on a game based on The Simpsons. Well, the game finally released a few weeks ago. Full Sail, the school that Jamie went to for game design, has a small article on him. Of course I have to brag on my man for being featured! I'm so proud of him!

Copy and paste the link below into your browser to see the article.

http://www.fullsail.com/news/9730-designing-springfield-jameson-durall-and-the-simpsons-game.html

Speech Update and other odds and ends

Grandad and Nan

Jamie's Dad and Step-mom (Nancy - Kian calls her Nan) flew in on Saturday to visit. It was great to have them here as we always enjoy their company. Kian was SO excited to see them and couldn't get enough of playing ball with Grandad or having Nan read him stories.

The cutest thing was when Nancy and I explained to Kian that Grandad and Nan had to go back home to Kentucky. Kian's response to that was, "You stay here." He really liked having them around. Over the last few days he has asked for them, but I think he's realizing that Kentucky is far away.

I believe we all had a great visit - hopefully we will see them again soon.

Speech Update

Kian had his hearing and vision tested today. He is normal in both categories thankfully :)

He is making leaps and bounds of progress in his speech. The last session we went to his teacher (Miss Denise) said that she thinks he's become kinda lazy because she believes the words are there he's just not saying them.

The last few weeks we have been working on ending sounds, making complete sentences and now we are working on looking at the person who is talking. Yesterday Kian had an EXPLOSION in using complete sentences! He's using them almost all the time and it's been amazing to see how much creativity he has and his thought processes! Just today we were on our way somewhere and he saw a cloud big cloud in the sky and we talked bout that for a bit. Then he saw a big truck and we talked about that. then he said as clear as day, "That big truck is going to pick up the cloud." I giggled and I said, wow, that must be a really big truck hehe

Jamie and I are very encouraged with his progress :)

Halloween 2007

Well, Kian was finally not something Blue's Clues related for Halloween hehe He decided to be Thomas the Train. The outfit was perfect for him - last year he was in long sleeves and it was in the 80s! This year it was cooler, but at least we had the option of dressing cool or warm.

Halloween morning we started out by having breakfast at our Halloween decorated table that was have enjoyed all month (special thanks to my Aunt Lori for some cool dishes and decor!). Then we headed off the class. We had a Halloween party where we had some great snacks, sang Halloween songs, did some autumn crafts, and trick or treated "door-to-door" from the doors connecting to the room we were in. Kian had a BLAST! He even did great with particiaption!

There was also a little boy who was dressed as James (one of Thomas' friends). Kian and this little boy played together pretty often throughout the class because of the commonality - so cute!

Here are some photos from Kian at class:







Kian had a blast trick or treating! This was his first year going (we have held off because of his allergy mainly). But this year was the first year he was able to really understand what was going on. He would ring the doorbell and when people would ask "Who are you?" He would say, "Thomas the Tank Engine CHOO CHOO" LOL (btw, that is something he came up with all on his own!) Sometimes he would answer "I'm Kian and then correct himself and go into explaining how he was Thomas." After he said "Thank You" he would say "Let's go find more doors." LOL!

Kian made quite a haul with candy. Unfortunately about 80% of it he could not eat. Needless to say, Jamie will have quite a stash of candy to bring to work tomorrow! Luckily I bought replacement candy for Kian so he does't feel left out. But we did let him enjoy the candy that he did get tonight that was safe for him to eat allergy wise. I'm sure he was in sugar overload mode before bed lol But he was wiped out from all the fun today!

Kian with he Pumpkin that we carved yesterday.



"Let's go find another door!"





Enjoying some candy after his night's work hehe

Pumpkin Patch!

Kian's class went to a pumpkin patch in our area a few weeks ago. We started out with a hay ride to a classroom area where we learned about how pumpkins grow. It started to rain a bit (more like mist) while we were on the hay ride so most of the moms wanted to get their pumpkin and get out! Kian and I took our time. We were able to pick out a pumpkin, a gourd, and a little white pumpkin. We took our time. Got a wagon and loaded it up with our stuff.

Here are some photos of our little excursion. I also threw in a "signature" I made since there are some cute photos of Kian in there :)


Here is me and Kian before the hayride started.


Kian in front of the yearly height sign hehe

Here is Kian with our haul from our visit!

And here is the signature that I made

Kian's first Speech Appointment

Kian started speech therapy yesterday. He actually had a good time. The teacher had him say a word and then would allow him to fish one fish from a game that she had. He really enjoyed himself. Most importantly he responded really well! Kian drops the end sound of some words like cup, truck, cat… The first word the teacher asked him to say was cup, he said “cuh.” The teacher asked him to look at her lips and said “cuP” and asked him to say it again…he said it correctly the second time! He responded well throughout the entire session and even continued on when we came home!

The speech therapist that did Kian’s evaluation said that I would see changes quickly, but really I had no idea that she meant THIS soon! I am very encouraged.

Speech Therepy

This morning I got a call from the person that will be working with Kian. It's close to our house, which is nice and she seems like a nice person. Kian will be starting on Tuesdays at 1PM.

Kian has been making more sentences and actually sounding clearer to us, but he does still need some help. I am really looking forward to getting him started.

Disneyland 2007 Recap

We just got back from our vacation – we ALL had an amazing time! We started with the long trek down to Southern California via the 5 on the last Friday of September. We were surprised at how much of nothing is out there lol! But the trip was uneventful and we had a great visit with my Aunt Lori and Uncle Dave. Toby (our black lab) stayed with them while we were at Disneyland – he of course was spoiled rotton ;)

Sunday afternoon we headed to our hotel to check in. Kian could see the “Hollywood Hotel” (a thrill ride in Californialand) from our room – which we told him was Disneyland and he often would tell us to look out and see Disneyland ;) It was cute! After that, we went to Downtown Disney to look around. We decided to have dinner at the Rainforest Café – it’s a restaurant that has “moving” animals and a “rain storm” at different times. A HUGE snake hanging from the ceiling ended up scaring the poop out of Kian…so we had to sit outside and eat…. We were wondering how the next 4 days at the Disney parks would go! We then headed back to the hotel and before Kian went to bed, we were treated to the Disneyland fireworks…we couldn’t see a lot, but we saw the ones that went high in the sky – Kian loved that!

Before we started our trip, I actually contacted Disney about their food preparations. I called and spoke to the head chef of the park - he was an amazing wealth of knowledge. Gave us a small list of places to avoid. And also assured me that each of their food places has at least one person trained in cross contamination on site - they have to pass an eight hour class in order to be certified to do this! Anyway, I felt very assured when we were there that we would have a great time without any reactions. (speaking of Kian's allergy, in some of the photos you will notice Kian's medical alert bracelet - he's really adjusted to wearing it)

Monday we headed to the park – we took a tram and then discovered that our hotel was very close in walking distance and decided for the rest of the trip we would walk to and from the park. We weren’t sure what Kian could handle ride wise so we thought It’s a Small World would be the best place to start. He’s never been on a Disney type ride before so we wanted to do one we knew for sure was not scary. A while after that we decided to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. I totally didn’t remember how scary it was!!! It has changed a bit because they added some things from the movie – but it was still scary! Kian did AWESOME! There were times he would grab my hand or he would lean up against Jamie but he did AWESOME! So well that we decided to take him into the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion was done up in the Nightmare Before Christmas theme which was really, really neat! Kian did great there and honestly there wasn’t a ride he didn’t go on – unless he couldn’t because of height requirement. The little guy even rode the Matterhorn TWICE lol

Because of the time of year that we went to the park and because we were there during the week, the park closed at 8PM every night. We decided the first day to let Kian skip his nap and see if he would make it through the day. He did amazingly well! I think it was mainly because he was doing things that he enjoyed the ENTIRE time we were there…heck we ALL enjoyed our time! The only dull moments were when we stood in line – and even with that Kian did fairly well. Every night we stayed for the parade – which is AMAZING! Kian was so amazed by it – even though it was the same thing every night, we were all still in awe :)

Tuesday we headed to Californialand. Jamie and I had never been to that park before so it was a new experience for all of us. We first headed to use some special tickets we got for booking our trip through AAA – we got preferred seating for “A Talk with Crush” – the turtle from Finding Nemo. We all sat right in front and Crush talked to Kian! He called him Kahuna Kian – so for the rest of the day Kian would say “I’m Kahuna Kian!” hehe, so cute! We then headed over to “meet” Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater from the movie Cars. Kian was in awe :) Jamie went on a few rides by himself – the one I did want to go on was Soarin’ over California – which was really neat. Kian and Jamie went on all the rides in the A Bug’s World area. There was a spinning ride that went in the air that looked like it was builtout of food boxes like Chinese take-out and animal crackers. Another ride was like the teacups but it was Francis the Ladybug that spun around and then there were bumper cars. Then we did all went on the train ride which was the caterpillar from A Bugs Life – he ate his way around the track. It was a super cute ride :) Kian enjoyed all those rides – I think he rode all of them 3 times. Californialand seems like it’s more for the older crowd, so once we hit all of what we wanted to ride and see, we headed back over to Disneyland and spent the rest of the day there.

Wednesday we had special passes (again, thanks to AAA) to get in to the opening of Toontown. Toontown in the area of the park where the characters “live.” We got to see a special opening with the mayor of Toontown and was able to get in line and meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Dale (of Chip and Dale). Kian loved that :) After that we headed to Blue Bayou for a special dinner – the restaurant functions on reservations alone and is also on part of the Pirates of the Caribbean – it’s a really neat atmosphere. It was a super neat lunch and really kid friendly – Kian even got veggie sticks and ranch dressing for dipping when Jamie and I got our soup and salad! I was very impressed with Disney and how kid friendly and focused they are.

Thursday was our last day at the park. We also had another perk of getting into the park early one day – and this was the day we chose to do so. We had breakfast at the park and then headed to some rides. Later in the day we stood in line for the new Nemo ride…AMAZING ride and worth the wait! We of course ended the day with the parade and then some souvenir shopping. I think Kian’s favorite item is a Disneyland Semi truck – he’s actually cried at night when he had to go to bed and stop playing with it lol

Friday we took it easy, checked out of our hotel and headed to Downtown Disney for some more souvenir shopping and lunch before we headed back up to my Aunt and Uncle’s house.

We had an AMAZING time and we hope to be able to do it again next year. It was a trip that we all had a blast doing – and really that’s the most important point of having a family vacation.

Here is a short slide show I put together of our vacation. We took over 500 photos! YIKES! So I pulled a select fun few.

Second Mommy and Me Class and Other News

Mommy and Me - Class #2

Today was our second class of Mommy and Me (basically preschool with mom in attendance) and Kian did very well! He is slowly wanting to participate more in the circle time. And I know that the Little Einstein's lunch box we found helped a lot with him actually eating his snack today. Today the kids got to wash baby dolls and draw with wet chalk on paper. They also have paint and easels up in the room and Kian helped himself to painting twice. Thankfully today I dressed him in clothes that I didn't care if they got stained...because Kian was wearing purple paint after the second go. I might need to head out to the thrift stores for some long sleeved shirts at a good price.

We also played outside for a bit - even though it was quite windy. We played with playdough and of course the train set. And Kian even participated in about half of the stuff we did in circle time. Thankfully some of songs that we did in our Terrific Two's class were the same so Kian knew what fun it was to join in.

He did get upset when he had to leave the trains to head home - luckily the lunch bag helped us in getting him out the door...he likes to help and I asked him if he wanted to carry his lunch bag. He even held it on his lap the entire way home hehe I think that bag was the best $5 spent!

FALL HAS ARRIVED - I think hehe

Well, the weather has turned pretty cool for us here in California. We haven't really had the air on at all and in fact today it's way too windy for us to have the windows open....even with them closed it is very cool inside. Cool enough for me to think that I might have to set up for the heat to kick on tonight!

We gladly welcome fall and all the wonderful things it brings :) Once we get back from Disneyland, I'm going to set my eyes on when we should go to the pumpkin patch!!!

SPEAKING OF DISNEYLAND.....
We leave in 9 days!!!!! I've already started making lists of what we need to pack and we have already started figuring out how Toby, the stroller, Kian and our luggage will all fit in the car.

Also, I was looking at the Disneyland page and noticed that it will be decorated for Halloween! How fun!! I'm really looking forward to that and I know Kian will be just in utter amazement :)

Update, a Brag and some Personal Notes

Update on Tantrums

IGNORING WORKS!!!! Jamie and I have been ignoring Kian's tantrums and seriously within just a few days we have noticed a difference! Now the big thing for me will be our next trip to Target. There are a lot of temptations there for him - things he wants to touch. The last trip ended with him having a scream fest because I wouldn't let him touch something - I guess we will see what happens!

Bragging about my Little Guy

I feel like I have only been sharing the things that are wrong with Kian lately and not all the wonderful things he knows or has done. So I wanted to take a few mins just to share about the nice stuff :)

When we were at class on Wednesday, one of the moms was in a previous class with us and told me she was floored Kian knew his ABCs and could identify the letters. She said neither of her two boys knew them and one of them is now in kindergarten! She wanted me to give her tips on how to get her kids to learn. I honestly drew a blank because I have no idea how I taught Kian really. He has had bath letters since he was about age one. I would sing the ABCs to him a lot...and honestly he couldn't sing the song until probably this summer sometime. But he could identify letters for sure - I could even ask him to find the "F" and he could point it out on a page.

Goodbye Albertson's - Hello Lucky's

I'm not sure if Albertson's grocery stores have changed all over the state to Lucky's but ours in Livermore have. With that we had to say goodbye to the only French dressing in probably the state of California that I can make Orange Dip and Taco Salad with. Jamie and I tried a country French by Ken's Steakhouse with our Taco Salad this week and we thought it tasted good...the real test will be if it will be good in orange dip. I'm going to make a trial run batch sometime this week to find out.

Also, with Lucky's comes a new word for Kian. He has trouble with the letter "l" - which I am told is very common at this age. So Lucky's sounds like "Yucky's" LOL

Halloween Decor - SCARY!!!

Halloween stuff is out in the stores now and with that comes all the scary masks and decor. This is the first year that Kian has really noticed it. Walking around he will tell me he's "scared" Jamie and I plan to take him out Trick or Treating for the first time this year...I am wondering how he will do. I plan to have replacement candy on hand for him since most of what is out there is probably processed near nuts.

This weekend we plan to shop for a costume for Kian - this will be the first year where he's been involved with picking out his costume! I'm pretty excited :)

As of today, 14 more days until we leave home for our Disneyland vacation!!!!

Terrible Two's? LOL! And Kian's first Mommy and Me Class

Man, if the two's are supposed to be so terrible, I wonder what people think of the threes? "Have Mom Committed" Threes or Tantrum Threes. I don't know. Whoever coined the term terrible two's must not have been around for the threes...that's my only guess.

In the last few weeks Kian has been in rare form. He has been throwing tantrums and they are getting worse and worse as the weeks have gone on. I'm beginning to wonder if he's been body snatched and where my well behaved boy went.

Yesterday I shopped Target with him screaming in the cart because I wouldn't let him hold a toy. That was a real joy. Today was our first day of Mommy and Me (essentially preschool but mommmy comes) and he threw at least two huge fits. Luckily one of the moms told me that everyone has been there and backed up what mine and Jamie's plan of action is in dealing with them. Ignoring. It's hard to do but the only way to combat this behavior.

Kian did two things at class - he painted a picture using cars as the "brush" he really liked that. And he played with a train set. I am guessing it will take him at least a month for the newness of the train set to wear off...the kid has trains at home so it's not really "new" but he plays with them almost all day long. I had a good time singing some new songs while sitting in circle time - trying to lead by example and asking Kian if he wanted to sing with me from time to time. I'm hoping my Kian returns soon....I miss him :(

Speech Evaluation Update

Kian’s speech evaluation was this morning. It was at the school that Kian will attend kindergarten at so it was neat to see the place!

When we got there I had to sign some paper work (I think mainly because in California this is something that the state pays for). The speech pathologist asked in a round about way that I not stay in the room so that Kian didn't focus on the fact that I was leaving. I could hear what the teacher was asking (but I stayed out of sight). Honestly it was then that I realized just how bad Kian’s speech is :( I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying to her at one point. I think because Kian and I are always together and I can see the context of things I can take a great stab at what he’s saying.

Kian did really well with listening to what the teacher wanted him to do. After he was done she asked him to tell me he was through and he went to play while I talked to her. She said he definitely needs help. His main issue is that he’s not putting the ending on his words. Like he says “Ca” instead of “Cat” She did tell me it was something that could be easily corrected and he will be speaking in a way that everyone will understand by kindergarten.

I guess what’s going to happen is he will go to sessions once a week for a half hour and at the end of the year the speech therapist will re evaluate him. She said I will probably be able to see dramatic changes. I go in to meet with the speech pathologist the day before we leave for our Disney trip so that she can go over a report she has to write up and have me sign some paperwork. After that we will start the appointments and I will have more information.

I just very glad that Jamie brought this issue to my attention and we pursued it.

Toe Update and other Random Tidbits

Toe Update - Treatment #4

I just realized that I've been so busy that I forgot to update on my toe. Today I had my fourth treatment. She froze the warts this time...she did that last time too. Luckily this hurts just at first and gets better as the day goes on. With the other stuff she used the first two times it gets worse as the day goes on and leaves me completely immobile.

We are gearing up for our trip to Disney - we will be leaving on September 28th to spend some time with my Aunt Lori and Uncle Dave before we head to Disneyland. I let my doctor know about our trip and my concern about walking. She wanted to put that nasty stuff on my foot again this last time...I told her it scared me :( so she said she would freeze it again and told me she thinks that after one more time freezing that these warts in this area should be gone. She also said she's hopeful. That gives me hope! The area does look a lot better...and I'm glad she's ok with doing the freezing because that kind of pain on new skin would be close to unbearable for me. She told me she could give me Vicodin for the pain (yes, it's THAT bad) but I'm not sure I could function on Vicodin and take care of Kian.


Kian's Bracelet

It seems that Kian's bracelet has pretty much become a part of him. He really doesn't figit with it much anymore. It's also serving it's purpose. Kian and I went to Trader Joe's (a local grocery store) yesterday and the cashier noticed his bracelet and told me she had no idea that they made them like that. So, it's doing it's duty...letting people know of his allergy but also looking cute at the same time.