Yard sale tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm having my very first yard sale. My mother-in-law and I are doing a joint one. I have so many baby and kids clothes to get rid of and a ton of toys, too, along with some other miscellaneous stuff. I'm REALLY hoping to get rid of most of it! We put an ad in the paper and my very sweet mom made me several signs and my equally sweet dad hung them for me around town last night ; ). So hopefully that will bring the people in! I'm a little nervous just because I don't like dealing with people sometimes, but I think it will be fine. I have special plans for the money, which I may or may not post about soon.

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And because it's been almost a week since I last posted pics, here's a few random ones that were taken a couple weeks ago : ). The third one is Brooke modeling a new diaper cover from Mudshrimps. I LOVE Mudshrimps covers. Brooke has (I think) 7 now and I would like one or two more because she can be a little pooping machine and we go through covers like crazy some days, lol.





Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! : )

Where are my french fries?!

I forgot to post about this Monday when I updated about Ryan's eye exam. By the time we left the surgery center, I was starving so we stopped at Sheetz before heading home to grab a little something to eat. Ryan wanted french fries. Once we got the food and got back on the road, I handed the fries back to Ryan. They were on the hot side, so I told him to let them cool down for a few minutes. About 5 minutes later, I looked back to tell him that he could probably eat them now, only to find him sleeping. So I took the fries and put them back in the bag. He slept the whole way home (about an hour) and woke up once we pulled in the driveway and the car shut off. Whenever Daddy went to get him out of the car, the first thing he said was, "Where are my french fries?!" LOL. It was just so funny that he remembered so quickly after waking up!

Eye Exam Today

Ryan had his follow up eye exam today to check on things after this appointment in May. Today the pressure was down in his right (bad) eye. It was still a bit on the high side, but nowhere near what it was last time. Normal eye pressure is 15 to 21 and the last time his right eye was in the high 30's. This time it was in the mid 20's. The pressure in his left (good) eye was still in normal range, in the upper teens. Whew! He wants to see him back for a regular office visit in 6 months.

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I'm sure most of my readers also read MckMama's blog. For those of you who don't, please, please pray for her baby, Stellan. He has a heart condition and he's not doing well at all : (.

Blueberry Picking

Nothing says summer like picking yummy blueberries! My mom and dad have a few blueberry bushes and Ryan was having a blast picking them the other day. He even ate some! If you know Ryan, you know the only fruit he eats is bananas (and if you can count applesauce...haha), so I was really surprised! Oh, he even ate a couple grapes the other day, too, so he's getting a little braver, lol.

Here are a few pictures I took of him!

A Diagnosis

Sorry, but this will be short because I already typed it out once and lost it and I am ready for bed after getting up at 5:30 to leave for this appointment! : )

Ryan's appointment was today and it went well. He was diagnosed with pervasive development disorder (PDD). Autism and Asperger's Syndrome both fall into this category and he has traits of both. In case you don't feel like clicking on the link, here is the definition of PDD: The term "pervasive development disorders" (PDDs) refers to a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate and to use imagination. Children with these conditions often are confused in their thinking and generally have problems understanding the world around them. This describes Ryan perfectly. It doesn't describe all his "issues", but it does a lot of them.

Now I will admit I'm a little confused about this PDD term and I didn't get to ask (or even think of) many questions : /. I need to make a list and give her a call. She will also be sending a report out in a couple weeks.

With the PDD diagnosis, it will be easier to get him services in school and hopefully even an aide which we (and the doctor AND his former preschool teacher) think he needs in order to keep up and do well.

I just hope that Ryan is one day able to live a fulfilling, happy, "normal" life and have some real friends. I hope he doesn't turn out to be a social outcast : (. It's tough being a parent and worrying about all the "What if's...?".

ETA: There's no way of knowing if the PDD is due to the extreme prematurity and/or PVL (brain damage, probably due to lack of oxygen and/or brain bleed in the NICU) or if he would have had it even if he was a healthy, full term newborn.

Also, the doctor suggested getting some genetic testing done just to rule anything else out, which I think is a good idea!

Teething sucks

I never even knew Ryan was teething as far as how he acted, but Brooke is a different story. Actually I guess it could be a whole lot worse, but as of now she hasn't slept well in almost 2 weeks, save for a night here or there. She usually wakes up at least once, but usually 2-3 times, and sometimes I'm up for an hour or more trying to get her back to sleep. It's strange, though, because she isn't fussy or seem like she's in pain when she wakes up. She is just awake and doesn't want to go back to sleep. She has a few teeth getting ready to pop through and another one that already has made it's appearance. I give her tylenol sometimes, but it doesn't alway seem to work. Teething tablets do nothing. Someone told me to try Motrin and nighttime Orajel so I may try one or both. I've never done Orajel because I'd heard that it can numb the baby's throat and make them choke on their drool or something to that effect, but I don't know if it's true or not. Anyone else hear that?

Last night I was up with Brooke from about 2:50 to 4:15am...ugh. I really hope she sleeps better tonight because my mom is keeping her. We have Ryan's appointment at the Child Development Unit tomorrow and we have to leave around 7am, so it will just be easier if we don't have to worry about dropping her off in the morning. I'll have to havel my mom to try the Motrin on her. I'll feel terrible if Brooke has her up and down all night.

Ryan ended up spending 2 nights at my aunt's house. He had a lot of fun and she was planning on bringing him home this afternoon, but I talked to him this morning around 10 and he said he wanted to come home. He hasn't been away from me for that long in over a year (since I was in the hospital with Brooke), so I think he was getting a little homesick. Then after he got home, I thought he really was getting sick because he was just acting off. He started having a meltdown over his Nintendo DS, so I took him and he was sitting on my lap and ended up falling asleep. I laid him on the couch and he slept for almost 2 hours! It is VERY, VERY rare for him to nap so I was hoping he wasn't getting sick. Plus, he'd slept well at my aunt's, putting in about 11 hours a night...but I guess he was just that played out because once he woke up, he was back to his normal self : ).

So tomorrow we'll have a long day...we have a 2 hour drive each way and the appointment is supposed to take up to 3 hours. Then on Monday is his sedated eye exam so that could turn into another long day. I'll update about his appointment tomorrow and exam Monday ASAP!

My brave boy!

Ryan's follow up sedated eye exam is coming up Monday. Yesterday I had to take him to the pediatrician for his pre-op. physical. He just saw the nurse practitioner and when she came in, she was looking over his chart and asked about his vaccines that he still needs. I knew he needed them and planned on getting them soon, but I didn't think it would be brought up at yesterday's visit. She asked if I just wanted him to get them then and I figured we might as well get it over with. I was nervous and felt bad, though, because I didn't get to give Ryan any warning before the appointment. I told him he was going to be getting 2 shots and it would only hurt for a minute. He kept saying he wanted zero shots : (. I was prepared for a total screamfest like last year when he got his flu shot. The nurse came in to give them and he got on my lap with no problem. He was watching what she was doing and we told him to look at the big plastic jar of little toys that he could pick out of when he was done. She was smart and gave him the less painful one first and he didn't even flinch! He let out a tiny gasp and that was it. The 2nd one was one that burns and she warned me (spelled it out quickly), so I really thought he would cry, but he didn't! He tried so hard to keep from crying and just let out some little gasps. It was so cute (but sad)! I told him how proud I was of him and he was soooo proud of himself : ). We hit the vending machine when we left for some M&M's ; ).

After the appointment, he went to my aunt's house to spend the night. He loves playing with her granddaughters (who her and my uncle adopted), Jade (almost 9) and Hayley (7).

Our Trip

Here are some pics from our trip!

He is actually a really good golfer!

Brooke and me : )

Me and the kids

Dontcha love the forced smile? LOL.



There was actually a hole on the ship...pretty cool. It was a really nice course!

Playing at Long's Park.







This is Brooke and Bev's grandson, Riddick. He loved kissing Brooke, lol. She, on the other hand, was not so sure about that! My darn camera wouldn't flash, so I didn't get the actual kiss...just this shot...



...and the snub afterwards, lol. She wasn't sure what to think about it!

I officially suck...

...at keeping up with this blog lately! I don't know what my problem is. We went away last weekend, like I mentioned in this post, to visit my mom's very good friend, Bev, that she's known since before I was born. She's closer than most of my (extended) family ; ). We used to go visit every summer when I was a kid (she lives 3 hours away in Lancaster) and then stopped around the time I graduated H.S. for various reasons. Now this was our 3rd year out 4 (we missed summer '07) going down and I'm so happy we're making it a tradition again : ). We fit a lot in while we were there, including getting to meet up with a couple moms from the cloth diaper message board I post on and their kids (and one of their hubbies). We also went to a huge flea market and we played mini golf and visited a huge outlet center with tons of stores. The kids were really good while we were there and they had fun : ). We were there from Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon. I was ready to get home to my own bed and shower, but other than that was not ready to leave!

Brooke has 2 new teeth on the bottom starting to poke through. She had a couple rough nights from them and LOTS of drool, but otherwise is handling it like a trooper. She is walking a lot, but not all the time and hasn't figured out how to stand up in the middle of the floor yet. She's still getting a bottle and refusing the sippy cup, but soon I think I'm going to try to be a little firmer with her and not give in when she refuses to drink....and stock up on watermelon to give her because she loves it and so she'll stay hydrated, lol. This child LOVES to eat and sometimes I swear would just keep eating until you stop feeding her, lol. If you're feeding her, she's happy and if you take food from her, LOOK OUT! (Sound familiar, Heather? LOL.)

Ryan is.....Ryan. We've really been struggling with him lately and his behavior. He's VERY defiant and difficult 80% of the time. He rarely eats a meal without fighting about it. He is mean to Brooke out of nowhere. He argues about anything and everything. Then sometimes he can just be so loving and sweet and well-behaved. You never know what you're going to get with him.

No pictures this time. Our desktop 'puter got a virus and is out of commission (maybe permanently). PLEASE pray I can at least get my pics off of there : /. I have a year's worth on there. I've been procrastinating on saving them to a disc...ooooops : (. It's more of a pain to get my pics from my camera on to the laptop and I haven't done it yet, with our trip pictures. I'm way behind on posting pics already. I might get to it someday : P.

Chuck E. Cheese...

...where a kid can be a kid! We went this morning for a little while...we surprised Ryan and didn't tell him where we were going. He was so excited : ). Here's a BUNCH of pics!

Pointing at a game...she loves to point.

She LOVED the skeeballs.

She even tried to throw one up the lane/alley/whatever you call it, but it didn't go too far : P.


He has to sit on it in order for the ball to make it all the way up, lol. Don't you love his fake smile? : P

I just think she looks so cute and "grown up" in her little jeans ; ).

She only liked this ride when it was NOT moving. LOL. She's going through a phase (I hope that's all it is) where she doesn't like rides or things that move (like swings). When we went to CEC a couple months ago she LOVED this dolphin ride there (and this ride). Not anymore!

Can you see her curls? : ) They aren't always there, but if I wet her hair and fluff it, they "come back"...my hair was the same way when I was her age. I love it : ).

Waiting for his picture that "Chuck E. Cheese drew" to come out!

More skeeball. It's his favorite game there, besides the Dunk'n'Alien game (right next to him on his right)...sort of like skeeball. It was broken most of the time we were there. One of the employees was working on fixing it. We were cashing in our tickets and she came and told us it was working b/c she knew Ryan was wanting to play it. She even gave him a token. I thought that was nice of her : ).

Checking out the front of the skeeball machine.

Nicktoons racing.

She is perfecting the art of tantrum throwing at a young age : P.

Popcorn game.

Thanks for looking! : )

Word-FULL Wednesday

Sorry, no pics today, just an overdue update!! I've been majorly slacking in the blogging department : /.

Brooke had her one year check up on the 11th. Nothing much to report other than she weighed 17lbs. 11oz (in just a dry diaper). And you know, I *just realized they never gave me her height and weight percentiles! Hmmm, guess I'll have to look them up myself. She got 2 shots that day and I took her back this past Monday for 2 more. Now she is all caught up until 18 months : ). Monday she weighed 18lbs. 8oz. (fully clothed, wearing shorts and a tank top). I can't believe she finally made 18lbs.! It was sad Monday...she remembered getting her shots 2 1/2 weeks ago, so she started screaming bloody murder before the nurse even touched her :*(. She is fine now, though ; ).

Our swimming pool (one of those smallish frame ones) has been up since the middle of May and I was getting super annoyed that it hadn't been hot enough or the water warm enough to swim in it yet. So last Wednesday night we went to Walmart and bought a tiny wading pool for the kids to splash around in. So wouldn't you know it, Thursday it got to be almost 90 out and the pool water was 72, so we finally got to swim! Ryan freaked out at first, but then got used to it once he realized he could easily reach the bottom and walk around in it. Brooke whimpered and whined a couple times, but mostly loved it : ). Pics coming later!

I have some exciting news to share! Brooke is walking now! Not fulltime, but she is walking a little more each day. She starts off walking and then when she falls, she just crawls. It is SO, SO cute to see her toddling around : ). Here, I'll try to post a link to a video of her walking, but I'm not sure if it will work or not! This was taken last week, on my parents' deck (that's them...well, my dad anyway, in the video)...she's walking a lot steadier now : ). I'll have to try to get an updated video up if this one works!

We are taking Ryan on the 24th of this month to the Child Development Unit in Pittsburgh (Children's Hospital) to get him evaluated. There are some behaviors and things that are starting to make me/us wonder if it's maybe not all prematurity related, like maybe Asperger's syndrome and/or autism and/or ADD and/or I don't know. I actually don't have time to get in to it all right now, but hopefully someday soon I'll post more about it. I'll definitely update after the appointment!

Next weekend we will be out of town. We're going to visit a very close family friend, "Aunt" Bev, that my mom has known since before I was born. My parents and sister and her boyfriend are going as well. Bev lives about 3 hours away in Lancaster. We're leaving Thursday afternoon and will be home sometime Monday. It should be fun!

Brooke has hit another small milestone. She now points to everything and babbles. She mostly points to things she knows she's not allowed to have, like the remote. LOL. It's super cute : ).

Well, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but there's at least some of what I wanted to update any readers I still have on ; ). I'm hoping to post some new pics sometime soon!