The Boys and Eli started Swim lessons today...

At Pike High School.....Here's what the whole pool looks like

They tested them to see what they knew first

Then divided up the kids, Reese was in a class and then Malcolm and Eli were together in a different class

Malcolm and Eli learned how to kick....

Here's Malcolm learning how to float

more of Malcolm

Now Eli floating

more Eli

\

Malcolm and Eli tried to put their face in the water

Eli is learning to float on his back

Now Malcolm is floating on his back

Reese is in a separate class.....

Reese learns to float

Here's Reese

Trying to float on his back

Reese swimming on his belly

All in all the three boys had a good time.... we have swim lessons twice a week for the whole month. It's exciting that they are learning something so important.

Oh here are the boys getting in the car (Jenn and I was hoping that they would be tired and quiet on the trip home) but Malcolm was tired, cranky and fighting Reese. They are attempting to fix Malcolm's seat belt... this is after Reese got yelled at and slapped 2-3 times by Malcolm.... Reese was only trying to help Malcolm and fix it for him, but Malcolm wanted to do it himself, or with Eli's help. I thought it was so funny, that we had to have a picture of it.

  Oh I forgot a main thing.... we saw Reese's love of his life. Mariela was in the next swim class, so she waved at me and I introduced myself to her mom (a bit of a language barrier however - I don't speak Spanish) I said "Hi I'm the mom of Reese, you know the one that wrote your kid a love letter"

Go here to hear the story about her: http://www.xanga.com/supersjbroaddus/658423547/item.html

The fun new diet I'm on.... well not really fun

The other day I had to go to my doctor to get tested for diabetes. My doctor did a fasting test – where I hadn’t eaten for 12 hours. (drink the orange drink, tested when I arrived, ½ later, ½ later and then 1 hour later) She also did a glucose hb1ac test – which shows how much in control my body has been over the past 3 months. I flunked all the tests, so I received the bad news of now I have diabetes. (once you get it, you will always have it – however some people have more control than other people do)

It’s not a total shocker to me due to the fact that both my parents, one of my brothers (Brad) and my Sister (Natalie) has it too. (if your parents have/had it then it’s a higher risk that you will get it) Plus I had Gestational Diabetes (pregnancy diabetes) with both of my boys, and so when you have/had it when you are pregnant then you have a 50 – 60% higher chance of having it later in life.

So the doctor was telling me what to not eat, and she then said to make sure I eat more times a day (every 2 hours), three meals with snacks in between, so it should be more like this:

Breakfast – Snack – Lunch – Snack – Dinner – Snack

She said DO NOT EAT THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

White Rice (Aw, rice is good!)

White Flour items

White Pasta (Pasta is a majority of what we eat!!!)

White Potatoes (however sweet potatoes are OK)

White Sugar

Corn (my favorite veggie)

Pizza

Chinese Food (come on, that’s going too far!!)

Fast food

Popcorn

Instant Oatmeal (regular Oatmeal you have to cook is OK though)

She said Fruit is OK but STAY AWAY FROM:

All Berries

Bananas (my favorite fruit)

Oranges (my second favorite fruit)

Fruit in a can is OK only if you do the “No Sugar Added” or “In Light Syrup”

Then in case I didn’t know, she said STAY AWAY FROM:

Brownies

Cake

Cookies

Donuts

Pies

Ice Cream

Then if limiting the food isn’t enough – she said to make sure I didn’t drink Alcohol (which is not a huge issue for me, since I only drink occasionally, socially – you know like maybe for the big event of Mo Con this weekend.) Now the nurse said – we all know that drinking alcohol is going to happen from time to time, But to try to stay away from:

Malt Liquors (Smirnoff ice)

Fruity drinks

Well, now those are the only type of drinks that I ever drink

Then she said I needed to exercise more, to make sure I am doing some sort of exercise for 45 minutes at a time, 4-5 times a week.(she said she didn’t care what I did - workout, dance, walk, weights, or what ever I wanted to do as long as it lasted for 45 minutes) She said More exercise = I can have a small piece of chocolate cake. So when I want to cheat on the diet, I need to exercise before I do it. (Yuck)

Then to top it all off my doctor said to lose at least 10 – 20 lbs.(but closer to 40 – 50 total) she wants me to lose 1 lb a week. I thought to myself “NOW, THAT I CAN DO!!!” You may be thinking “What! If you think you can lose weight so easily what were you waiting for all this time?” (since Malcolm’s birth – so 6 years) Well the doctor took 90% of the food I regularly eat away from me, then she wants me to exercise on top of that. THE POUNDS SHOULD FLY OFF NOW!!!!

I know it’s not going to be easy, and I might be a bit grumpy lately…. OK I’ll be real with you, I’m going to be a whole lot grumpy about it for the next few weeks at least, but I am sure I can do pretty good with it. (I did it for 7-8 months each time for both of my boys’ pregnancies.) Heck I was so strict with myself that I was losing weight or staying at the current weight most of the pregnancies. However I understand that it will be much harder now since I have to keep it up for the rest of my life. With my pregnancies I could see an end to it, but now it’s going to be for the rest of my life. (Oh what fun!)

So now I’ll try to get a handle on my body with: Medicine, Diet and exercise. I have to test my blood first thing in the morning (should be under 120) and then 2 hours after dinner, (should be under 140) so only twice a day. A good blood reading is between 70-100. (Where we want me to get it to be)

I go back to see my doctor in a month to let her see if I am listening to her very well and then every 3 months and if I do that good, then it gets switched to every 6 months. If I listen to my doctor and actually do all that she wants then I could be taken off the medicine at a later time.

Indy Rainy Day Kids Magic

Hey we were over at the Weber's house just about all day Saturday. Andy wanted to make a special video with our boys. (clear your mind, he's not a perve) Here's what Andy did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crv0DUt9gvk

Scary bike ride......

Well the boys were at their Aunt Ro-Ro's house Monday night and all day Tuesday. Just for fun, to spend time with their cousins.

So I had gotten a new bike (well new to us - from Goodwill) for Malcolm. Since he just learned to ride a two wheel bike and his other bike had a broken piece on it and I couldn't fix it.

So as we came home from Creative Space (at our church) Malcolm wanted to test his new bike out.

Malcolm rode up and down our small driveway a few times,

our driveway in on a small incline, so as Malcolm was heading down the driveway he was picking up speed, I thought he was going to turn and head in the grass like he did the last time so I turned toward Reese for a second and then looked back at Malcolm as he was entering the road. Heading straight across the street. I ran toward him, as I was still on our side of the road I saw a car driving a bit crazy toward us.(about two houses down from us)

I felt relived when Malcolm got to the other side of the road and was in the grass but when I looked at the car that was coming again (which was full of teenagers about 4-5 of them) and they were joy riding swerving from lane to lane, not just swerving but going up slightly in the grass on one side of the road and then swerving back and slightly hitting the grass on the other side of the road. That's when I knew Malcolm was still in trouble, since they were due to swerve my direction and then toward his direction. I was yelling for Malcolm to back up in the grass, (get back Malcolm, get back) there was not enough time for me to cross the road to help Malcolm and I had to back up on my side of the road in fear of them hitting me. They saw me as they were about a car length distance away from us and then slowed down, straightened up and drove straight on the road.

I think my heart stopped.

I had to catch my breath a minute and then I crossed over and got Malcolm and helped him safely cross the street. I talked to him about how dangerous that was. How he can not ride into the road.

WOW that was close, too close. But I am glad everything turned out O.K.

Reese's eye issues......

So Saturday (05-24-2008) Reese was complaining his eye hurt and itched, he was rubbing it most of the day. (we were at the 500 parade when he first complained, then went to Lafayette Square mall and then to the Park) I just thought it was allergies or maybe he got some sunscreen lotion in it. I kept looking at it but didn't find anything, well once there was an eyelash in his eye and then some dirt around the eye, which I think happened since he kept rubbing it. So I told him to use a napkin or his shirt when he rubbed his eye. Once we got home he used his favorite blanket and a wet rag to keep wiping it.

Sunday (05-25-2008) his eye lid was swollen, his actual eye wasn't red but the skin was, plus we had to pry his eye open that morning. Fearing he had something contagious (I knew it wasn't pink eye) but since we were going to go to church I didn't want to get all the other kids sick. So I called the St Vincent /Payton Manning Children's Hospital Helpline 338-KIDS (available 24 hours a day) and the nurse said it doesn't sound contagious (The eye not red and no white drainage = no infection / not contagious) so I was to immerse the eye in warm water (bathtub) and have him open the eye and look around under water for 2 minutes. How do you think that turned out with my 7 years old..... yep it went horrible. So the next thing to do was to pour warm water into the eye for 2 minutes. Man that was a huge fight, my boy is pretty strong and he wasn't about to let me do that. I did the best I could and both me and him were pretty wet and tired by the end of it. Hopefully I got enough water into the eye. Maurice and Malcolm had already left for church so I was doing this alone, not the best plan. His eye seemed to get better, we went to church, the swelling went down, but later in the day he complained of needing glasses. He also stayed in his room and watched movies with the lights off. (I figured he was just tired and left it at that)

Monday (05-26-2008) - Memorial Day he complained many times (3-4 times) of needing glasses, he even told Maurice that he was going blind. But his eye looked much better, the swelling was pretty much gone. However the helpdesk nurse said if he had blurry vision or got worse to call back. so around 11:30 am I called the St Vincent /Payton Manning Children's Hospital Helpline 338-KIDS (available 24 hours a day) again. The nurse said to cover one eye and have him read the fingers I am holding up and then switch eyes and do the same while she stayed on the line. He was getting both wrong, I was having Malcolm hold up the fingers. So then I held up my fingers and he still got them wrong with both eyes. So the Nurse said to go to the E.R., I asked if it's something that could wait until Tuesday with his regular doctor and she said no it's something you want to get looked at today.

So we (Reese and I) were off to the E.R.(St Vincent /Payton Manning Children's Hospital) Even though we were planning on having a cook out today and people were going to arrive at 12 noon. His white of the eye was slightly red/pink now. They tested his eyes by having him read a eye chart - both eyes together he read great, left eye was very bad he could only read the E at the top the chart correctly - right eye he read great, he could read many lines.

The E.R. Doctor checked him out. She put some glow in the dark drops in his eyes and held up a black light to them to check for scratches, that was cool since his eyes were a glowing neon green color. She didn't see a problem. So she tried to call our eye doctor (grant it's a holiday) so she waited an hour for a call back and then called the doctor on-call for St Vincent.

So we waited: Reese watched TV - he was very light sensitive, so he covered his eyes, made binoculars with hands so he could see the TV

and waited.... played with a yo-yo

and waited...... read a comic book

and waited.... They gave him coloring pages and crayons

and then just got silly waiting some more..... Me and Reese

Then the doctor came back and said they think it's IRITIS, the Iris is inflamed. Gave us a prescription for eye drops (2 kinds), told us to call that eye doctor first thing in the morning, keep Reese home from school and have him wear sunglasses and stay in a dark room.

Tuesday 05-27-2008 Reese really wanted to go to school (there was only 2 day left of the school year) so I let him go to school and made him wear sunglasses (even in class -talked to the teacher about it)

I got a appointment at 11:15 (good it's at the end of his lunch time) The eye doctor found something in his eye - a small piece of rust, only visible with a microscope since it was on the dark part of his eye. The eye doctor tried to numb Reese's eye with eye drops and tried to remove it with a Q-tip. How do you think Reese reacted to this? Not so good, I practically had to lay on him while the doctor struggled with his head. No luck after 3-4 tries, the doctor said he needs to use something else, metal instrument but is worried he's going to poke Reese's eye since he's fighting us, so he said it's best to do it at the hospital so we can put him to sleep. I agreed that was best. He said we could wait and see if it's going to come out on his own but we chance getting a infection and loosing eye sight more permanent. So off to the hospital we go..... wait off, to dropping off Malcolm at school and telling Maurice what's going on, then off to the hospital. Oh and me missing Malcolm's Kindergarten graduation (at 2pm), it's the reason I had the day off from work, but Reese's eye sight is more important right now.

We get to St Vincent O.R. at 1:50pm and get registered at 2:15pm, later a nurse came out and said we'd have to wait until 5pm to do the minor surgery since Reese ate some food at 11am and we have to wait a certain time from eating and before they can put him to sleep. 4:00pm they put us in a room, 4:30pm we try to prep Reese, change his clothes, try to get him to swallow some medicine to relax him. (no luck he spit that all over the floor), they said they will give him the medicine the hard way, through an IV. 5pm the nurses (2 of them) come to take Reese from me, they tell him to tell me "see you later alligator" he said "see ya" I said "I'll be right here when you get back" Reese thought I said "I'm right behind you" One nurse told the other nurse to make sure he understand he's leaving me. Those nurses were great with him, they were really nice and talked to him about what was happening.

5:30pm they said, he's in recovery and I get moved to a waiting room, they gave me a pager that they will page me when he's allowed to be seen. 5:45pm I go back to see him, I have to try to wake him up. He wants to be left alone. I keep working on getting him woke up and about 45 minutes later he finally is awake enough to think about leaving, he finishes his pop, and goes potty, get's his IV port out and changes clothes and we are out the door around 6:45pm (I carry him to the car) he has an eye patch he has to leave on until morning.

we went off to Church for Creative space, Reese is tired but all is good with his blanket

he ate dinner while he was under his blanket

here he is with his eye patch

Wednesday he was fine and went to school (last day of school)

Here's Reese at school - he had writing from the O.R. above his eye, it wouldn't come off

Thursday we had another eye doctor appointment, to see how it is healing. The Doctor said everything looks good, just a small scar left which should heal by Friday. (eyes heal fast)

So we need to wait about 2 weeks and then we test his vision again, but the doctor is sure he'll see better by then. However he thinks he's ready for glasses, not because of this but in general. Our regular eye doctor said before to long but not yet (back in November 2007) so we'll see what happens in a few weeks.

But for now Reese feels much better, although we have to put eye drops in his eye for a few more days (1 drop, 3 times a day)...... Reese is not fond of this and he fights me, I found a new way to hold him to get it done...... since 2 times a day I have to do it by myself. It works well until Reese found out he could pinch me, that is until I warned he was going to get in trouble if he pinches me again, these drops are for his own good. 

Here's the eye drop hold, I practically sit on his chest and arms..... ah, what a mother does when she loves her kid, he doesn't think that, but it has to be done.