MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A night at the Magical Forest

Just look at that face...he was grinning from ear to ear the entire ride!! When the carousel took off, I was surprised at how fast it was going... I was trying to hold on to Matthew w/ my left hand and the pole that was moving up and down with my right hand ... and I ALMOST FELL OFF!! LOL, I should have been on the other side, but as we went flying past Heidi, I said, "OMG I almost fell!" and she was laughing and said, "I know, I saw!!" There was only a small area for me to stand on.

He loved the snowman... there were teddy bears and doggies walking around too.

Here's a little balloon doggie w/ a leash.

He loved this kiddie slide!! Can you see his excited face??

Heidi and her two sons, one to the right of her and one wayyy down below.

There were firetrucks, ambulances and even police cars passing out stickers and candy canes.

Look what Grandma W bought for the little man.. he loves his rocking horses.

Making Kool Aid Play Doh

Magoo and Ms. Dorina, his speech therapist. LOL, he kept trying to eat it.. you know how he likes "salty" foods... it was funny, he was taking big bites, not just tastes. It smelled good, like juice.

Steel Magnolia: *giggling*

Steel Magnolia: *giggling*

Look at that face.... lol

He was making some strange sound w/ his throat... we were heading up to Beaver and he ate a package of Oreo cookie wafers.

Matt and his Uncle Russ. Russ was working the marathon down the street... and Matthew got busted "stroller speeding".... lol. We took Russ some cookies and hot coffee to get Matt out of his ticket.

Daddy's helper

Oh how I LOVE THIS!!

*lol* Notice the contrast of our faces... one is gleeful bliss, the other... not so much.

Oh how I wish I'd had this alllll along.

A friend from Beaver is letting me borrow "the monkey" leash ...

I can actually stop and talk to someone now w/o Matthew running off like he does ~ he's just too heavy to hold all the time. Honestly, you can't take your eye off him one second up there... he could get lost very easily in the woods.

This sure makes it a lot easier to run back and forth to the cabin... OH MY...

I was just tickled pink when they handed it to me...

My sister Kim didn't like the idea one bit ... but, my Mom liked it too...

Now remember, Kim hasn't had kids and my mom has had four ... *smile*

so sheeee understands what it's like to chase after these monkeys all day long.

*LOL*

Some fun news

Matthew went up to Mike the other day and said, "poo poo" w/ a serious look on his face ...
Mike rushed him over to the potty chair and he pooped... wah hoo.

I did buy Matthew some "pull ups" the other day ... I will start setting the timer for 30 minutes and take him to the potty chair. We'll see what happens after a week.
I didn't know they came in boy or girl pull ups... I accidentally got him pink Dora pull ups...LOL... and it smells like powder.

This morning, Matthew ate a bunch of cut up grapes, apple, yogurt and oreo cookies.
He actually asks for "yo~dirt" and "gwapes" "eerio's" ... today he asked for "appo". I love it when he asks for "oreo tooties".

Things are coming along! We are so excited.

He also lets us know when he wants to watch Baby Noah, Baby Neptune, Elmo, Wiggle's,
and Nemo.

This kid and his glasses!!

He is so funny... really wondering what the heck daddy had on his face.

A walk to the park with "Dwamma"

He really wasn't interested in anything else... just wanted to push the stroller... and he wanted NO HELP from us... he would shove our hands off if we tried.

New "Roadster" by Schwinn his "Auntie Tim" bought for him

Auntie Tim is really Auntie KIM. He can't pronounce his K's. His K's are T's.

We love our mailman, Terry

This is Terry, our favorite mailman.. he's been so wonderful to us over the years. He really cares for Matthew ... and look what he brought to him a couple weeks ago!!

His very own USPS mail truck!!
He loves playing with the little door on the side that slides open. Thank you Uncle Terry!!!

I've been trying to spoil Terry lately with some home baked cookies ... soon it'll be cool enough for me to leave in the mailbox... but for now I must leave him notes so he can come to the door for his bag of goodies. I felt goofy yesterday b/c I was all grungy looking ... like a "momster".
I might have scared him! Oh wait... that's supposed to be saved for Halloween!!

Speech and OT therapists from the school district

*giggling* Isn't this funny! Matty getting a little ride in Miss Dorina's rolling cart! Miss Dorina is his speech therapist from the Clark County School District. She is wonderful, we love her.

Miss Dorina is trying to get the little guy to ASK for a ride instead of grunting and whining for a ride.

This is Miss Lisa from the school district, she is his occupational therapist. We love her, too.

She had soo many ideas for us to help him. Brought him some goodies to help w/ his fine motor skills w/ his hands and fingers. We sure love this play table his "Dwamma" bought him last year. We use it every day.

Here is a little peanut ball... since he's so active.. he can sit and work and bounce all at the same time.

Honestly... we have always been blessed to have the most wonderful case workers from the state ... from the Nevada Early Intervention girls to the school district.

We are ever so thankful to them all!! Oh, and the transition team ... they helped switch us from NEIS to CCSD was just as wonderful!!

He has a special education teacher, Miss Heidi that he loves as well. I promise to get some pics of her this week. They are all so patient and loving to our little man.

That means the world to us.

Two doctor appointments this morning.

Our first appointment was with Dr. Mayman. Unfortunately, we didn't get to visit and talk politics b/c he got tied up this morning and he was an hour late. This was the very first time in over 3 years we didn't get in on time. It did make us late to our GI appointment, but his office called Dr. Baron to let him know we were on our way. Wasn't that nice! I have to say too, today is his admin day... and he squeezed us in early so that Mike didn't have to miss a trip to Beaver.
That's only one reason why we love this guy so much. He's very special to us all.

We didn't get "his numbers" yet because we were rushing out... but we will know soon. Dr. Mayman said so far it looks pretty good. 6:00PM Just in from Dr. Mayman, "The numbers on Matthew's echo were great!!!!"

So, by the time we got over to Dr. Baron's, Matthew was in a VERY foul mood. He was sure to let everyone in the office know... for about a half an hour or so. That's always real fun.

He's very sleepy because he had been up since 2:30 AM ~ yep, 2:30 AM.
Now the tears... along with the whining and crying.
He's goin down.
Down....
OUT.... he is fast asleep during his doctor visit. Ah... some peace and quiet. It made it quite easy for Dr. Baron to do his thing.

He's doing good.

We get to add another cc to his mic key button to help keep it from ripping out. Hopefully it works... we'll try 6cc's if the 5cc's doesn't work first.

We think he had a headache b/c he was so miserable. About an hour after I gave him some baby ibuprofen, he was settled down and back to his sweet little self.

I was sooo thankful Mike was able to come with me today... I couldn't imagine going alone with him being so grumpy and fussy.

It's tough for Mike, these early morning visits because he doesn't get home til around 1:30 or 2:00 AM on a good night.

We like to snag those first appointments ... usually you're pretty much on time.

What is a mic key mom & dad to do???

Well, well, well... what do we have here??? Oh yes, this is Matthew's little mic key button! :-/

This is becoming a daily occurrence these days. *smirk* I thought he was napping on my bed ... but he had actually slid off my bed, on his tummy and ripped out his mic key. As I walk in the room, I can smell it immediately and his shirt and shorts are sopping wet. I had fed him a little bit earlier.

Uh, ya... this is real fun... it smells rotten and it's all over Matthew and the carpet. I clean Matthew all up, then I deflate the balloon on the mic key ... slather it w/ KY and put it back in. He was being quite difficult today... tightening up his tummy... fighting me .... and I have this goey slimey mic key in my hand trying to put it back in. With one hand mind you. *l0l* I had the hardest time w/o Mikey here. You only have a small window (about an hour or two) to get these things back in or you go to the ER for a radiologist to put back in, since it's going thru his stomach wall. The dreaded ER!! YUK!! Luckily for us... we feed him every 2 to 3 hours... so chances of that are pretty slim.

So, I go grab a tube of handy dandy KY jelly... a couple syringes. I keep this with me at all times... it's in my diaper bag, up in Beaver in our trailer and my parents motorhome and at the Baxters. I save all my old mic keys for emergencies since our insurance only pays for one every three months. I like to keep them "just in case". They are quite pricey. We've had several spring leaks and they just fall out.

I started using an Ace bandage ... I have the self sticking kind and the kind w/ the clips. It helps "some"... but the mic key has still come out with this wrapped around him, like a girdle. It's the best we can do ...unless there is something else!! Who knows what else there could possible be!

He freaks out over the little clips... don't know why, I've never hurt him w/ the clips ... the big goof ball... anyway... I keep them in my mouth until it's time to attach to the back.

*big sigh*

The life and times of mic key parents. This is part of why we can't leave him with "just anyone"... only family that has been trained... and our Tanji girl in Beaver.

After all the fun, I rewarded myself w/ a bunch of cookies I shouldn't have eaten. DOH!

My "heart mom" friend Kathy, Isaac's mommy is having the same kind of issues. Sure glad we have each other .... we can all relate.