Project 366 - Days 11-21

Yup, true to form, I dropped the ball. I wish I was better at this blogging stuff. I have daydreams of becoming some amazingly profound blogger full of good advice and this beautiful life. Alas, I spend my days with gooey kiddos, dealing with the woes of red taped insurance companies (that could be a whole blog on its own), and always seem to get behind. But I have been taking photos.

Day 11 - I made the jump back to sewing fitted cloth diapers. I get bored easily, and love to change up my projects. I've been working with a hybrid fitted for a while and one night decided it'd be fun to whip up 20 or so. Haha!

Day 12 - Small Fry only is in preschool 3 days/week while the Monkey is in kindergarten every day. So on Tuesday and Thursday, it's just the two young boys at home. Small Fry got this Cookie Monster Play Doh set for Christmas, and like with most of their haul, I put it away for later. But he's been asking for it nearly every day. So today he got to play with it. He LOVED making veggies and letters and feeding them to Cookie. Funny enough, Small Fry, my eater, is pretty much a vegetarian. So he really enjoyed making all the veggies to feed to cookie.

Day 13 - I'm on a few Facebook boards of online "friends" and one of my boards has recently taken a liking to these little creatures. They're Mutant Caterpillars and apparently very hard to come by. One really late night, I'd passed out, woken up at like 4 am to read Facebook, Twitter and my email (the life of a tech junkie), and saw that the shop owner had stocked some of these in the middle of the night. Without thinking, I bought one. His name is Espressolott and he likes coffee. And he's adorable. The boys love him, but he's living in my studio, as both of us are fueled by coffee.

Day 14 - I have a DK Visual Dictionary that my fact-loving Monkey (a boy after his mom's heart) loves to read. Each page has detailed pictures and descriptions of many things, including everything about the body. Both of the older boys enjoyed the two-page spread on how the baby grows, and I loved hearing the Monkey describe each stage. "First, the baby starts out looking like a tiny dinosaur..." I'm very matter-of-fact with the boys, and I'm a scientist (well, that's what I studied to be), so I love sharing this stuff with them. In this picture, they're looking at a cross-section of the brain, talking about the pituitary gland and how that's the part that doesn't work in Split Pea. They know so much.

Day 15 - Split Pea was ready for a story and some nursing in his rocker with "Goodnight Moon". I can't believe he's 16 1/2 months old.

Day 16 - More trouble from Split Pea who decided he didn't want to go to bed after his usual routine, but rather wander around, and jump up and down in his sock monkey chair.

Day 17 - Hubby calls me "Laura-ganized". My brain is a mess, my house is full of stuff and probably looks messy to others. But I know where every little everything is. And on certain things, it must be meticulously organized. Like with my snaps. All organized by numerically and alphabetically by the color card.

Day 18 - We got this air hockey table from my sister who didn't have room for it anymore. We sold our dining room table on Craigslist and put the air hockey table in its place. The boys don't play on it everyday, but recently, they have. And Split Pea LOVES to join in. We just have to keep reminding him about putting his fingers over the goal. YEOWCH!

Day 19 - I was in my studio and apparently Split Pea wanted something in the toy box that he couldn't otherwise reach. So in he went.

Day 20 - Or apparently the theme of standing in things is becoming a habit. (Watching Sprout while I was working).

Day 21 - I was taking product photos and Small Fry woke from a nap. Once he had a snack, he was ready to strike a pose. This kid is going to be FOUR in just over a week. We're best buddies and even though we struggled a lot when he was tiny, we're quickly becoming very close. He's amazingly intelligent, and willing to try anything. Really, anything. Which can be scary. Or super cool. That's how we discovered he likes oysters. :)

Project 366 - Day 10

I guess sort of continuing on the topic of Split Pea's condition is today's photo.  It's funny, because really we don't think about it all that much.  He gets an oral med in the morning and his routine at night, but unless he's sick (fever or vomiting), I don't think about it.  I carry a bag of emergency injectables (steroids and glucagon) at all times, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We have to keep his growth hormone and steroids refrigerated, and happen to have a mini-fridge in our bedroom.  Slowly all of his meds have migrated to our room (from his changing table), and so I finally got some boxes to organize everything.  The bottom bin is rarely-used cough medicines, motrin and ibuprofen.  I recently got caught with NO meds in the house when Small Fry got sick, so I stocked up at Target (where I got carded and realized I was buying a lot of medication!). 

And the top bin is the stuff I use every day.  Sharps container, alcohol pads, blood sugar testing stuff (need to pick up more needles and test strips!), extra needles for the growth hormone and syringes. 

I definitely love being more organized!

Project 366 - Day 9

Mondays are always a bit challenging.  I liked Garfield's stance on Monday.  This Monday had a few extra layers of difficult, as I spent a good deal of the day driving (to and from schools) and Split Pea decided to nap a lot less than usual.  Added to that, hubby was on his last day of work for the week, had pulled a double shift on Sunday and was working Monday night.  So it was all mom, all day. 

And my least favorite issue, dealing with our insurance and Split Pea's growth hormone.  GH is a very expensive, tightly regulated medication.  It comes from specialty pharmacies, and has to go through many approval processes before you can actually get it.  We spent nearly 5 months in the beginning of Split Pea's life getting it sorted out.  And for the most part, the past year was pretty easy.  But as of 1/1/2012, our insurance changed pharmacy administrators.  The new administrator, however, decided they didn't have an account for us (even though I'd had Split Pea's endocrinologist fax the prescription AND the former pharmacy forward ALL their information).  So I had to spend hours (literally) on the phone with dozens of people telling them we needed the GH, like NOW. 

Contrary to common belief, GH is for more than just growing.  And for Split Pea, he takes it mostly to keep his blood sugar in the normal range (the oral steroids help that too).  And of course, for growing, bone strength, muscle tone, mood, mental sharpness, etc.  So, him not having it is not a good thing.  He has not missed a dose since he started it over 15 months ago. 

And as of Monday night, I was just hanging in the air as to whether or not we'd get our next vials of GH in time.  I hate that stress and it makes me a bad mom because I get really short with the kids. 

Long story at its end, the boys were all freshly bathed and I was tucking the older ones into their beds (they share a room), and singing songs as I do every night.  Split Pea nurses while I sing and then loves to cuddle with Small Fry.  I figured this photo was the best part of my very challenging Monday. 

 

I feel like in the not-too-distant future that the Monkey will move into his own room and Small Fry and Split Pea will share a room.  They're growing really close these days and I LOVE to see how Small Fry is as a big brother. 

Project 366 - Day 8

As always, I'm behind.  I'm taking pictures, but sometimes I just don't get to blog about them.  I am loving this project though. 

My sister and her son came down to watch the Broncos playoff game, but first I had to quell the kids' incessant requests for snacks.  They are eating MACHINES these days.  So, I made a plate of veggies and some mini bagels with a tiny bit of cream cheese. 

In 10 short minutes, the plate looked like this:

And in another 30, it was completely gone.  Split Pea is now saying "bagel", "bumber" (cucumber), and "pepo" (pepper).  Or when he's really hungry, he likes to scream those new words at me. 

Never a dull moment in the house of ravenous boys. 

Project 366 - Day 7

A freshly bathed Small Fry, with nicely combed hair.  This was after an excruciatingly not-fun time removing a large piece of gum from his hair.  He's a food stealer, and gum is one of his favorites.  But he loves to play with the gum too.  This was the first time it's ended up in his hair, which I must say, was not a fun mom-experience at all. 

Project 366 - Day 6

So I'm a day late, but yesterday...I had to grocery shop and the kids had to eat dinner.  We met up with my sister and her son at Whole Foods for some yummy dinner (the kids had mac & cheese, sushi and veggies) followed by a little grocery shopping.  They love the "Kids Club" when we leave.  They answer a question and get a treat, usually an apple, clementine or fruit leather.  Can't beat that. 

Project 366 - Day 5

Our nightly routine for Split Pea.

- Heel stick to check his blood sugar (you can see it was 80, which is great for him when he's just about due for his next steroid dose).
- The upper right is the machine that administers his growth hormone.  He gets this subcutaneous shot every night.  I mix a vial of it approximately every 2 weeks, and that case holds the delivery system and needles.  It must be refrigerated.
- The syringe on the top of the photo is his steroids (oral hydrocortisone) that he takes 2x/day.  And then of course, the diaper :)

Except for the diaper, this will be his nightly routine for the rest of his life.

Project 366 - Day 4

Usually when I put Split Pea to bed, it's just the two of us reading "Goodnight Moon".  Tonight, Small Fry joined us too.  (And he even stayed and cuddled with me while I nursed Split Pea to sleep).

Project 366 - Day 3

This is what the kids LOVE for a snack.  Hard-boiled eggs (a hot commodity in this house), small orange tomatoes (Small Fry is the only one who likes tomatoes), peppers and cucumbers.

Project 366 - Day 2

The Monkey loves Legos.  More specifically, he loves Lego Minifigures.  He spent an afternoon constructing an army.

366 Project - Day 1

I was testing out a new diaper.  I love having a live-in product tester.  And I love it more when he naps.

366 Project

So it is January 4th.  I'm okay with starting late.  I'm late to everything.  But I take photos all the time, and thought it might be fun to have them on my blog.  One for each day in 2012.  I'm hoping to document a fantastic year full of good news.

Excuse me while I post a few days' worth of photos now :)