Happy Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving, we made the trek to Burley, ID.

I had my own little Indian and Little Turkey.

  It was a wonderful trip, but with every trip there comes with it the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  

The Good

1.  We got to watch Aunt Catherine (my little sis) play high school basketball.  She is a great player and we loved going to 2 of her games.  Look at that follow through! (#31)

2. Meeting up with old friends.  This is my good friend from High School, Caroline.  I also got to go out to lunch with her and a few other friends later that week.

3. Sharing a pomegranate with Papa.

4.  Hanging out with my fabulous sisters.  (We are the Good, the Bad and the Ugly..... ha ha).

5. Spending time with cousins!!

6. Great food on Thanksgiving Day!

7.  The weather was beautiful- sunny and not cold!  We enjoyed a lot of time outdoors and the weather was perfect for driving.

The Bad

1. Mitchell refused to nap, except for a few times, and every time he was put down for nap or bed time he would SCREAM and scream until he'd finally drop into an exhausted sleep (for a few minutes).

2. Chloe would NOT listen to Ben or me.  She was having a blast playing with cousins and aunts, uncles and grandparents, which was great, but did not want a thing to do with us.  Obedience was a frustrating issue....

3.  Mitchell was into everything!  He would take things and hide them all over the house, pull things off shelves, and was under everyone's toes.  Here he shows his climbing and standing tricks- a true danger baby.

4.  My children are obsessed with the neighbor's horses.  This is good, but bad because Chloe was CONSTANTLY begging someone (anyone) to take her to see/feed the horses- she would ask multiple times a day.

They sure were cute with them, though...... This obsession is also bad if they start requesting horses for Christmas or birthday gifts some year.......

5.  Along with asking to go feed the horses every hour, Chloe begged someone to jump on the trampoline with her every 10 minutes.  She is more obsessed with the tramp than anything else.  Grandma, Ben and Aunt Amanda and Aunt Catherine were more than kind to jump with her multiple times during the week.  It is cute that she loves to jump and be outside, but her constant requests got..... annoying.  And she refused to put on a coat each and every time (where the obedience issues kicked in to high gear).....

The Ugly

Mitchell decided to fill his pants on the road trip to Idaho.  We could smell it in the car and knew it probably wasn't going to be pretty, so we decided to pull over and change him.  Of course, it was in the middle of nowhere and the only place to pull over was a scenic overlook.  It looked bad when we first pulled him out of the car seat......

But THIS is what we discovered when we opened his pants!  It was not a pretty picture.  Keep in mind there was no changing table to put him on, and we were outside and it was FREEZING that day.  It was definitely UGLY.

Eye Don't Like the Sound of This

I knew before I ever got married and had kids that my children would most likely have eye problems. Both of my parents and all 4 of my siblings and I wear glasses or contacts. My mom is legally blind in one eye and my dad and sister both had Lasik surgery done because their vision was so terrible. After I married Ben and found out about his eye problems and the history of eye problems in his family, I knew our kids did not stand a chance. I have made peace with that, but did not think (or I desperately hoped) it would not start this early.

Last week, Chloe had her 4 year well child check at the pediatrician's. She is very healthy and STILL in the 95+% for height and weight, for any of you wondering...... Yes, my 4 year old could beat up your 8 year old. Anyway- she passed all the tests except the eye test.

The nurse had her sit in a little chair and put an eye patch over her left eye and had Chloe look up at the little board with letters on it. Chloe could name off the biggest letters on the top row with ease, but even by the second line, she started to struggle. At first, both the nurse and I thought she just didn't want to do this. There were only 4 letters to name off and Chloe had the letters memorized and started guessing by reciting off the memorized letters. She seemed very distracted and I tried to help her focus by directing her to look at the board rather than at me or elsewhere. After many more attempts to get her to say the correct letter, she turned to me and whispered, "Mom, I can't see it. I can't see it." By this time, I knew something was off. I was still hoping that it was just Chloe being impatient and not wanting to play this "game," but I knew that most likely wasn't the case.

The nurse seemed to sense that something was off too and decided to switch the eye patch to the other eye. This time, Chloe blew through the test with ease and was perfect- she got every letter right and with astounding speed. The nurse and I both looked at each other- we knew something was wrong with the first eye. She switched the eye patch back to the "bad" eye to test it again and it had the same results- she could only read the biggest letters, and after that she started to squirm in her chair and get distracted and whisper, "I can't see it, I can't see it." She even asked at one point if she could take the patch off the other eye so she could see better.

So my pediatrician recommended that I take her to a pediatric ophthamologist. He recommended 2 different doctors and I went home to look up their information. Not being very familiar with our vision and eye care insurance coverage, I wasn't really sure what I was doing in the first place. I did find out that these doctors were not covered by our insurance and I was crushed. I had no idea who to pick now out of the 40 or 50 names I could now choose from in our insurance. I chose one close to our house, but had a bad feeling about them as soon as I got off the phone from making the appointment. When I asked if they did pediatric care, the receptionist said, "Um.... yeah, we can do that. Sure! How old is she? Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem...... yeah, yeah, that's fine." I should have called back and canceled right away, but I didn't know if it was fair to judge the whole office by an incompetent receptionist. But I was worried about it for the 4 days before the appointment.

Today came and off we went to the eye doctor. I could tell as soon as I walked in that this office was not geared towards small children at all, but tried to stay positive. Everyone was very nice and accommodating, but as soon as we were called back for the first test, the machine did not fit Chloe and the lady helping us seemed awkward as she tried to adjust her to it. When the doctor came in to see us, I could tell within seconds that she does not spend time around children and even wondered if this was the first 4 year old she had ever treated. She was very patient and kind to Chloe, but she seemed very awkward in her speech and terms with Chloe and I could tell she felt weird giving Chloe instructions, as if she had never had to give these kinds of instructions to a small child before. If Chloe didn't understand what she was supposed to do (which was often- these tests are much different than anything she has ever experienced before), the doctor would turn around and glance at Ben and I with a "why is she acting like this" glance?

The doctor was great to answer any and all questions Ben and I had and ran many tests on Chloe. She diagnosed her with a word that I do not remember and explained to us that Chloe has one good eye and one bad eye. Her good eye sees 20/20 and the bad eye is significantly worse. Chloe favors her good eye and is most likely not using the bad eye at all, since she can hardly see out of it. This seemed to make sense, due to how Chloe responded at the pediatricians office last week. While I do not doubt the Optometrist's diagnosis, I felt very weary of her "treatment." She simply said that Chloe needs glasses and perhaps some eye patch therapy. She gave no written instructions for us on how to do any at home therapy and no suggestions on how to get a 4 year old to wear an eye patch and glasses. At one point she said, "After she gets her glasses, put the eye patch on her bad eye, wearing her glasses, and have her sit down and draw pictures for 2 or 3 hours so she can strengthen her bad eye." 2 or 3 hours? How many 4 year olds does she know that will sit and draw for more than 20 minutes wearing an eye patch, looking out an eye that they can't even see out of?

I felt very weary and uncomfortable for the entire appointment, and especially after we got home. After talking to my all knowing and very wise mother, I found out that I should have been seeing an Ophthamologist instead of Optometrist (especially now that Chloe has been diagnosed with a condition) and that I really need to see a pediatric one, as I knew all along. My mom said that an Optometrist is not really equipped to handle this, but that she should have at least given me a plan- a list of things that need to be done to treat and help this- we got nothing.

I will now spend tomorrow researching Pediatric Ophthamologists in my insurance and find someone who will give me a second opinion and give me answers. I know that what Chloe has is not extremely common and that I need a little more than glasses and drawing paper and a pencil.

Next time, I will follow my instincts. I never felt good about going to this place. We are just hoping we can get Chloe the help she needs before things get worse.

Despite our bad news, Chloe was such a trooper!  She had many lights shined in her eyes, many covers over her face, and even had to have eye drops put in her eyes to dilate her pupils, which made her vision even more blurry than it already was.  She was ready to go by the end, but did great.

5 Parties for a 4 Year Old Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Birthday Girl!  Chloe turned 4 today and did it in style!  With having a birthday so close to Thanksgiving, Chloe has always been lucky enough to have more than one birthday party each year.  Ever since she has been born, we have traveled for Thanksgiving to one of the grandparents' house.  Each year, she has been thrown an "early birthday party."  This year was no exception- she had 5 "early birthday parties!"

Birthday party number one was shared with Chloe's cousin Tristan who turns 1 the day after Chloe's birthday.  They celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's house.

Cousin Paige gave her a pretty princess dress up dress, to match her own. 

Grandma made cupcakes and Chloe ate quite a few!

Party number two happened on our way back from Idaho after Thanksgiving.  We stopped in Tri-Cities for the night and Chloe got to open gifts at Nana and Papa's house.

She loves games!

On her actual birthday morning, Chloe was so excited she could hardly wait to start celebrating.  No, the time on the clock is not what time she woke up..... she was awake by 4:30 (or earlier, we're not positive).  Mitchell decided he didn't want to miss out on the fun and woke up minutes later.  The time on the clock is when I started making her birthday cupcakes and cake.  And yes, folks, that is A.M...... Once the kids are up, there's no sleeping in.  Ben left for work at 5:30 and I had nothing else to do, so I started the birthday prep work at 5:37 a.m.  I know, I know, we were the ONLY people in the world awake at that hour- awake and doing things.

By 6:00 a.m., Mitchell was already exhausted.  He was ready for a nap soon after, before most kids in the world are even waking up for the day!  But by 7:00 a.m. I had accomplished a lot- the cupcakes and cake were made and baked and I made 2 loaves of banana bread.

Breakfast was also made and cleaned up before 7:00.  Chloe requested animal pancakes (her new favorite thing).  I made a mouse with chocolate chip facial features.....

And some birthday balloons for good measure.

Our day was jam packed.  The Birthday Girl had preschool at 9:00 and here she is with her show and tell.

Party number 3 was at preschool.  After she was off to school, I made birthday treats to take to her class (M&M cookies) and took them at snack time.  Her teacher made her a birthday crown to wear, too.

The cookies were well received by the class!

After school, she came right home, ate lunch, then was off to play group with some friends.  I bustled around and got everything ready for her next party while she was gone.  When she got home, I let her open a few gifts early.  She got some Hannah Montana pajamas.....

And some new slippers!

In her new sleep wear, she was ready for Party number 4!

Here are the invites we sent out for her first friends birthday party- a little girl in her pajamas in her bed.

It was a pajama party theme and we asked each little girl to wear her pajamas and bring her pillow to the party.  And the girls did just that- they all looked so adorable in their pj's with slippers and pillows.  Chloe was so excited she could hardly stand it!

First on the agenda was to decorate socks with puff paint.  The girls kept telling me that they already had socks and didn't need new ones.

But when we started decorating the socks, no one had any issues with it.  They were all so cute as they waited their turns for each color.  

Some of them glopped on the paint by the bottleful, including Chloe.  It was fun to watch and I was glad Chloe had a chance to do this, as I never let her do these kind of projects otherwise.

Next was musical pillows!  Each girl put her pillow on the floor and walked around in the circle until the music stopped.  Don't let the picture fool you, though- this game was quite confusing to the girls at first!  Getting them to stand behind their pillows and walk in a circle was a task itself!  And then, when the music stopped, they all wanted to sit on their own pillow.  No one got upset, though, and we finally convinced them to just sit on any pillow by the last round.

With 10 little girls in my small family room, I realized if I ever want that many kids (ha ha) I will definitely need a bigger house!

I was so impressed with all the girls.  When they would get out, they all sweetly went and sat quietly and patiently on the couch until the next round started.  Chloe was so well behaved.  She can be quite bossy, especially with friends over at her house, but she was so relaxed and wanted everyone to have a good time.  When each girl got out, she would try and make room next to her on the couch so every guest could sit next to her.

Our  next game was the Stuffed Animal Toss.  The girls divided into two teams (or tried to, anyway) and stood behind a pillow and threw stuffed animals into a basket.  The girls were very cute and would cheer each other on.

Go Chloe!

Chloe opened presents next.  All of the gift givers were so excited for Chloe to open the gift they had brought and couldn't wait to tell Chloe what it was and how to use it.

Chloe was equally as excited to open them!  She was very sweet to thank each person after opening their gift.  Everyone brought such cute presents and Chloe loved them all.

Next was cake time!  The girls all enjoyed a pink cupcake around the table.

After dessert, each girl sat on their pillow in the family room and we put on a movie (Barbie Swan Lake) and passed out popcorn.

They LOVED the popcorn and happily ate, watched and visited while waiting for their mom's to come pick them up.

It was a very fun party- Chloe has the cutest, sweetest friends and they were all such a delight to have at the party.  I was amazed at how well behaved and sweet they all were.  Everyone shared, no hurt feelings and they all loved to eat! :)  As much fun as it was, I'm glad this pajama party was not a sleepover!  We will be waiting many years to do those...... 10 little girls, all night?  Can you imagine?  I'll wait patiently for that day, and then we will take it one friend at a time!

To keep the birthday fun going (and to try to get her to bed at a good time), we dove right into party number 5 after all of Chloe's little friends had left.  We ate a quick dinner (as if she was hungry after all the treats of the day), then opened gifts from Mom and Dad (us!)

I was worried that after all the cute, fun gifts her friends gave that she wouldn't be excited about the gifts from me and Ben.  But she oohed and ahhed over each one of them.  Here she is, happily scribbling in her new Hannah Montana notebook.  She could write and doodle all day (and cut, if I let her).

Chloe LOVES rainbows right now, so I thought a rainbow cake made with skittles would be fitting.

She thought it was very pretty, but was so full she couldn't even eat one bite, not even a skittle!

I can't believe my "baby" is 4!  What a wonderful 4 years it has been with a very busy, spunky, hilarious little girl!  She keeps us on our toes and laughing constantly.

Thanks to all who called and send cards and gifts to wish the birthday girl a happy day!  She had a wonderful birthday.