Surgery for Emma

Yesterday's trip to the ENT proved to be fruitful, I think.

Emma is going to have surgery on October 29...she'll have her tonsils and part of her adenoids removed. She'll also have another set of tubes put in.

I know this is for the best. I just hate seeing her go through another surgery.

For now, this is outpatient surgery. He's going to do the surgery at the hospital, so if he does have to admit her, he can.

I guess we need to get lots of ice cream stocked up! :) Luckily, Emma likes soup, so hopefully, she'll be able to eat something afterwards!

Yet another trip to the doctor...

Emma has another ear infection. I took her to the pediatrician yesterday. We go to a group, so we see someone different each time. Well, when we went back, I saw one of the doctor's in passing and he said, "Uh-oh, I hope you're not here about her ear"...Yep, we are! We've been there so many times, the doctor's are getting to know us quite well.

At any rate, we're taking her to the ENT today. I would have taken her to him yesterday, but couldn't get in. I think we're going to have to discuss tubes seriously this time (2nd set of tubes). I hope he agrees with us and does this as soon as possible.

We're going on vacation in October and would love to have this done before then. Poor thing is constantly fighting something.

I'm not sure Callie is over her crud either (I have a half a notion to take her with us today to have him look at her, too). She woke up several times last night and just didn't sleep well. She sounded stopped up several times - poor thing. We need to take her back in soon to have them look at her ears anyway - to see if she has a hole in her eardrum.

I'm tired...I need some sleep. :) Yes, I'm whining. We've had someone in bed with us the last 2 nights. Phil finally just slept on the couch last night because Callie was such a wiggle worm.

The Weekend (common name for my posts)

We had a nice weekend, although, I think everyone's a little tired. Josh didn't have school on Friday, so my sister drove in from Memphis Thursday evening to spend some time with him.

I took the girls to school on Friday (after making a quick trip to the doctor's office to have Callie's ears checked).

Phil and I met Wendy and Josh for lunch at Wild Wing Cafe. Josh ordered a corn dog, but ate my wings. HA! I told him the next time to just order the wings. :)

He and Wendy played most of the day, I think. My parents and brother came over for supper Friday night (mom brought dinner). It was alot of fun - of course, I took tons of pictures. :)

Saturday afternoon, after Wendy left, we all took a 3 hour nap - Josh included. He was getting pretty cranky by this point (stayed up late 2 nights in a row, got up early - you get the picture). I forced him to take a nap...he yells that he's not sleepy, but finally lays down anyway. 3 hours later, he woke up.

This next weekend is going to be funfilled, too. Greekfest is in town this weekend. There's also a balloon festival going on, too (hot air balloons). We just need to decide what to do. We're also going to a birthday party Saturday night, so it's going to be another weekend where we're all going to be worn out!

Josh had scouts last night. He seems to really be enjoying it. It doesn't hurt that his best friend from daycare is in the same den. He's so relaxed w/ his friend around.

Not much else going on - we're just selling Coupon Books for school (we have made Josh's goal of 25) and popcorn for scouts (we're almost halfway to our goal of $450). I don't think Josh realizes what cool prizes he can win for selling popcorn. He was very much aware of it for the coupon books, so he kept pushing us to make more sales (he's such a salesman). Phil and I need to change our careers and go into sales (NOT).

School Fundraisers

Why can't the state just give our schools enough money so they don't have to rely on fund raisers to get through the year?

We are now selling school coupon books. Granted, I do like these books and have saved a lot of money with them, but still...

So, on top of selling Boyscout popcorn, we are selling coupon books. Josh said he had to sell 25 books (HA) so he can get some sort of frisbee or something - didn't quite understand what he was saying. :)

I think I need to change my profession to salesman instead of software developer. This is one time it would be nice if Phil worked at an office instead of at home. LOL That way, HE could take this stuff to the office to sell.

I just dread it when the girls get into school - then we'll have 3 of them selling all of this. Yikes!!

Scouts and Popcorn

Oy! Let the selling begin. They sent home information about selling pop corn last night for scouts. I really hate fund raisers. :) This pop corn is so expensive, but it does fund the troop for the year. Our fees are very low compared to some troops.

Josh will work a table at the grocery store at least once to help earn money.

I hope people at work will want to buy some because I don't want to have to buy $100 worth of popcorn. LOL

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Emma's speech therapy sessions have been moved to Tuesday mornings at 8:00 (so much better for us). Phil said she did great at the beginning and then kind of got tired of it all and quit talking. :) I can't blame her.

One nice suggestion the therapist gave us was to "wait" on Emma. If she wanted more of something at dinner, wait and make her ask for it before offering it to her.

Emma has really come a long way w/ her speech. She's doing really well. She still sounds like she has marbles in her mouth, but I'm beginning to understand more and more every day. I know it's been so frustrating for Emma to not be able to communicate as well as Callie. She's getting there, though!! :)

Funnies

Phil just reminded me of a couple of funnies from Callie (treating this post like a baby book post). :)

This morning, at 2:00, Callie woke up crying. She wanted to go to the doctor (I think I posted that in an earlier post). Anyway, after she told me that, she was talking about Josh's Gameboy. She said she wanted a Gamegirl! :)

Also, a couple of days ago, Phil's parents were keeping the girls. During one of their many handwashings of the day, one of the girls tried to turn the hot water on. Grandmother told them they could only have the hot water on if mommy, daddy, grandmother or granddaddy were there. Well, Callie piped up and said, "or Beverly or Junior!" (Phil's sister and her husband). They were thrilled to be considered responsible adults. HA! :)

Callie's sick

We had NO CLUE that Callie was sick. She has had a slight cough for the last couple of weeks, but mostly in the morning and then she just coughs a couple of times - it's not an ongoing cough...just figured it was allergies (like the rest of us).

Well, last night, she told me her ear hurt. I looked in it (we have an otoscope)...it was nasty looking - just full of gunk. We cleaned it out some and gave her ear drops. She did wake up last night, but didn't act like she was in pain. She came to bed with us and she just kept talking about how she needed to go to the doctor.

Well, she was right!

She has a whopper of an ear infection - the ear drum didn't burst, but could have been sightly punctured, causing all of the drainage. On top of that, she has bronchitis. The dr gave her a breathing treatment to break some of that up. She's now on 4 different medicines and has to go back in a week.

This girl must have a high tolerance for pain. She's never once acted sick. Even this morning, she was running around saying, "Callie's going to the doctor!". I've never seen a girl so excited about being sick. I don't think she's ever been to the doctor for being sick (maybe 1 time when she was a baby)...I don't think she's ever been on an antibiotic.

I feel so bad that she was that sick and I didn't know. We're not used to Callie being sick...Emma's always the one w/ the ear infections and such.

I got a bandaid!!!

Last night, Callie was messing w/ the doors in front of our washer and dryer...yep, you guessed it! She smooshed her finger. She screamed, cried and then yelled, "I need a bandaid!". This time, she was right. Her finger was bleeding (just a little bit). I asked Phil to bring me a bandaid...he brought me a normal size bandaid. I wonder how many times that would have really wrapped around her finger? 10? 15? I asked him to find me a smaller one. :) He did...it still wrapped around her finger 3 times.

At that moment, Emma walked in. Callie calls out, "Emma! I got a bandaid!!". Josh comes in...same thing, "Josh! I got a bandaid!!" She told everyone in her path that she got a bandaid! She was so proud!

Of course, Emma needed a sympathy bandaid...she got the monster bandaid on her knee. :)

This morning, Callie didn't want to take her bandaid off. She wanted to show it to Miss Nancy at daycare (yeah, right). :)

Ramblings...

So, Josh had another meltdown on Tuesday...is this going to be an every Tuesday thing? Does Scouts = Meltdown Tuesday? He got up in a great mood, ate his breakfast, got dressed and we're ready to walk out the door. He asks what I put in for his snack. I told him I had a chocolate chip bar for him (thinking this would be a nice treat). Meltdown begins..."I don't like that!"...how does he know? He never had one before. Well, I told him if he didn't like it, he didn't have to eat it, but we had to go. I told him to grab the crackers out of his lunchbox if he wanted to.

By the time we got to school, the meltdown was in full force. He refused to get out of the car. I parked, took him in - walked him to his classroom. He runs out trying to follow me. ARGH! Luckily, his teacher came around the corner and got him. I left.

Needless to say, last night was a very quiet night...no tv, no playing, no messing w/ his sisters, etc. Bath time was at 6:30 instead of 7:00. He got up very happy this morning. :)

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Is Emma OCD? That girl is going to drive me nuts! She's the sweetest thing in the world, until something doesn't go her way. She wants the red plate, not the blue one...she can't break her pop tart in half...if it breaks, she won't eat it, if her bread has a hole in it, she won't eat it. It goes on and on...and, oh! The handwashing! She loves to wash her hands...a lot! At daycare, she's constantly doing it. I think it's more because she can do it all by herself -the sink is low, the soap is reachable, she can get her own paper towel. At home, she's not as bad, but there is ritual...she has to have a little soap on each hand...usually 2 different kinds. Then, she rubs them together and rinses them off.

Lotion is the same way...except that if it doesn't come out in a nice little "ball", she shakes it off and makes you give her more.

Josh was a little bit like this when he was younger, but has seemed to outgrow it. I hope Emma does, too!!

Emma's Speech Therapy

What an insurance nightmare!! I may have written part of this in an early post...a little background, though. Emma has gone to 2 speech therapy sessions. We get a call from the rehab center saying our insurance wasn't going to pay for her therapy. What? Why not?!! They said she just had a developmental delay - didn't qualify.

Baloney!

So, after a little research, I found out that the main doctor only mentioned Emma's cleft lip, not her cleft palate. After 2 weeks, she finally sent a new referral saying Emma had a cleft palate...it made all the difference in the world. Our insurance company now says she qualifies.

So, tell me, why does a child that truly has a developmental delay not qualify for speech? Emma has no developmental or language delay. She just can't say the words! Bless her heart, she tries so hard to talk. She is improving every day, but she still needs some help.

I'm not sure how much speech therapy actually helps her, but it helps us help her (if that makes sense). :) We're learning how to help her...basically, it's all about repetition.

I'm so glad we didn't have to cancel her session for tomorrow! :)

Happy Labor Day (a day late)

We had a pretty nice weekend.

We went to Kingsport on Saturday. It was great to see everyone. Phil and his family did have to go to a funeral on Saturday (I stayed at the house w/ the kids).

Tommy and Susan were able to come down - it was nice seeing them again, too!

We didn't do too much yesterday. We ran out for lunch, but that was about it. The kids got to play outside some (it was still really hot).

Our washer has been on the fritz for a month...every time we decide to go out and buy one, it decides to behave again for a few loads. We finally have a washer picked out, so when ours goes down again, it's history. Phil spent most of free time this weekend working on it.

Josh was excited about going back to school today. His class was suppose to get a treat today because they passed all of their marbles. :) His teacher basically has a box of marbles and every time the class is really good, follows directions, etc., they get to pass a marble from one box to another. When all of the marbles are in the other box, then they get a treat (they can lose their marbles, too). Anyway, they're suppose to get a treat today.

Josh actually had homework this weekend...it's only the 2nd time this year. His teacher is all about getting the work done in class. If they don't get it finished, then she'll send it home. He had a math worksheet which he breezed through. He also had a book he had to read...again, he breezed through it. It's really amazing because I am having a hard time figuring out where he stands w/ his reading skills. He's really doing a great job (in my opinion). I rarely have to help him w/ a word in his readers. I know alot of it is pure repetition, but hey, it seems to be working.