Busy Busy

What a day!

Charlie's oldest brother turned 5 today. We celebrated by eating John's favorite meal over at grandma and grandpa's house: shrimp, pork steaks, roasted broccoli, sweet carrots and chocolate cake. This is a 5 year old food snob!

Our MOMS Club sponsored a bake sale benefitting Charlie today too! Charlie spent a few hours there smiling (ok - sleeping) at the patrons. We had a chance to meet and visit with a heart transplant recipient who happened by the table. It was wonderful to talk with him and hear his story. It was an awesome happenstance. We honestly can't believe how blessed we've been in this journey. Our friends, family and more than a few strangers have more than stepped up to the plate! I was in tears as I left today.

Tonight was a little rough for Charlie. He's been a tad bit "dusky" and pale the last two days. This evening he was inconsolable and irritable. His eating has been erratic (at best) today. He just didn't seem himself.

When we checked his saturations he was only in the high 60's and his heart rate was higher than it has been in three weeks. Since he had been fussy most the evening this wasn't a huge surprise (he typically desaturates when he's crying). After trying a few things to get his sats up on their own (a.k.a. resolve the fussiness: pain meds, gas meds, bottle, burping) - We resorted to administering oxygen. His pink color came back quickly and his saturations s-l-o-w-l-y came back up to the low 80's. It took nearly an hour and half to get his heart rate back down to a "almost normal" pace.

Charlie is sleeping peacefully in his bassinet now. We'll continue to monitor him throughout the night as he wakes up to eat and tomorrow throughout the day.

Monday is our next cardiology appointment and another echo. We're hoping that the valves in Charlie's heart have slowed (maybe stopped) their leaking and that his aorta shows no further signs or narrowing. If those things happen we should get a full month before we have to return to the cardiologist! And it means we most likely won't have to schedule Charlie's cardiac cath until December or even January.

Prayers that tonight was just a fluke occurrence and Monday yields good results are appreciated!

FCI & NICU Reunion

This weekend has been filled with family activities! Charlie's grandparents watched him on Saturday so that the big boys could go to the ItalianFest parade with mom and dad. Everyone seemed to enjoy the time including great-grandma who got to feed Charlie a bottle that afternoon.

Then yesterday we packed up the whole family and headed to Laclede Park at St. Louis University. We had a great time celebrating our little Charlie at the Fetal Care Institute's and Cardinal Glennon NICU's annual reunion. They had an awesome set up complete with a picnic lunch, photo booths, face painting, storytelling and more. We had a chance to see several of Charlie's nurses and even saw the Rally Squirrel. We also spent some time catching up with my high-risk OB and the sonographer who saw Charlie weekly for nearly 4 months! Everyone was so impressed at how well he was doing, how much weight he had gained, how great his scar looked, etc.... It's so reassuring to know that the doctors and nurses think he's doing as well as mom and dad think he is doing!

Today was another nursing visit. I'm happy to report that we've broken the 11 lb mark! Charlie's heart rate was around 140 which is a little low for him, but still in the normal range. We'll continue to monitor it with the ever-so-finicky pulse-ox meter to make sure it is not dropping too much. His digoxin (heart med) slows the heart rate down so we'll need to be cautious when we administer that particular med.

Overall, we continue to thrive and we're slowly but surely getting out and about. As cold and flu season kick in we'll be somewhat quarantined due to Charlie's weakened immune system and lousy oxygen levels - so we're trying to spend a little time around the community now.

Progress is Progress

"Progress is progress" is our motto around here. Some days we can see that Charlie has made loads of progress. Other days it is slow moving - two steps forward, one step back - kind of progress.

The past few days have been funky when it comes to Charlie's eating habits. He refused the bottle a few times, skipped a couple feedings all together, and has been particularly pokey when it comes to eating. Last night (with the permission of the cardiologist) we let Charlie lead the way on his nighttime feedings. He slept one slightly longer stretch of about 4.5 hours. He polished off all his nighttime feedings after that and has consistently eaten every 3 hours all day. Yay! Maybe that one longer stretch helped even things out a little.... Plus we're trying to move him up to a larger size nipple on his bottle so he won't have to work as hard to eat (meaning he'll burn less calories and hopefully put on more weight).

Charlie started his new medicine today. We'll need to wait a few weeks to see how it works in regards to the leakage around his valves. It's good to know that we are on the road to addressing the issue though. Blood work and his echo in three weeks will tell us his progress on that front. Hopefully it works miracles!

Also by way of progress - we managed to get out of the house for a bit today. The older boys had an appointment a few towns over from us so we packed up after school and headed that direction. Afterwards we had lunch at a local farm and took a wagon ride out to the orchards to pick some apples fresh off the trees. Charlie slept through most of it only waking long enough to drink two bottles during the trip. Nonetheless, it was great to get out and about today and healthy for the big boys to see that life will return to normal.

Now, if I could just make progress on the mess that is my house these days or on some of the million thank you notes that need to go out - that would real progress!

Today Is The Day

Well, today is the day!  It’s already been a busy morning in the Garcia household.  John and Nathan headed off for their first day of preschool and I’ve finished packing those last minute items into the hospital bag.

Nathan did great with drop off so hopefully the rest of his preschool morning will go equally as well.  He located his locker and settled in at a table to work on writing his name.  Right at the end he was a little upset to see Grandpa Garcia go, but overall the transition went well. 

John was a pro!  He went right into his class, put away his stuff and wrote his name on his worksheet.  Aside from playing “master distractor” and trying to avoid having to do the rest of the worksheet – he was perfect. 

Everyone at school was asking about Charlie.  Friends, teachers, aides, staff….  Not much to report right now.  We’ll head to the hospital around 1:30 with a scheduled induction at 2pm.  We’re excited!  But for now, there isn’t much to share.  We are most definitely in a holding pattern until this afternoon.

The boys are excited about Charlie’s arrival too.  They have both been asking this morning if Charlie would be here when they get out of school.  Matt and I are hopeful we’ll be able to take them to meet Charlie at the hospital tomorrow if I can get discharged (or at least get a hall pass) myself.  We’d really like to be there as a family for 5 together.  If Charlie’s health doesn’t warrant waiting until mommy is free from the hospital, then Matt will take the boys on his own. 

The next few days will be a roller coaster of emotions and activity.  We appreciate all the prayers and well wishes we’ve already received this morning.  Know that they are pulling us through this tough time.  Everything seems to be up in the air so we’re flying by the seat of our pants.  Luckily we have plenty of people here to help us out right now and even more waiting on the sidelines to be called into the game. 

We’ll continue to post updates here and on Facebook.  Hopefully we’ll have a chance to snap a picture or two of Charlie before he gets rushed out the door to the ambulance….  Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for a picture from the pediatric hospital….

Annual Tradition - Lake Geneva, WI

We've really come to look forward to June each year.  For the last several years we've spent a long weekend in June at Lake Geneva, WI.  Years ago my dad was appointed to an Illinois State Bar Association committee and the ISBA holds their annual conference in WI...weird, right?  But it's a nice little resort town close to Chicago and since people in Chicago think they own the whole state - they pick the location.

The conference is super family friendly complete with a carnival kick-off and kid's camps/activities scheduled each day for while the adults are in meetings.  As if that's not enough, the hotel that hosts the conference has a private waterpark with two great kids areas and lots of water rides for all ages.  My parents have been gracious enough to let our boys tag along on these trips the last few years.  Now, they spend most of the year talking about the next time we go to the waterpark.  So much so that this year when we got ready to leave, John had to run back inside to get last year's room key to the hotel (I guess he was worried we wouldn't be able to get in our room?  Seriously though - what 4 year old keeps track of a room key for 365 days?!?!?  Most days he can't keep track of his sippy cup!!!)

We had some rain on this trip, but it didn't keep us from accomplishing all our favorite activites.  We spent time at the waterpark, ate at some of our favorite restaurants, and toured the lake on the mailboat!  John mastered all the waterslides he was big enough to ride on this year.  Most the time he didn't even need mommy at the bottom to catch him.  Nathan even got going on a few of the slides.  Despite not napping most of the weekend the boys were very well behaved and even sat through the 2.5 boat tour of the lake.  Although it probably helped that there was a mailman jumping off the front of the boat, running down the dock to the mailbox, tossing mail in the box and then sprinting back to the still moving boat in an attempt to jump back on to the back of the boat before it pulled away.

This year on the way home we swung out to the Jelly Belly warehouse (something I've wanted to do since I was a kid but my parents never indulged!).  The boys loved it!  Jelly Belly's galore!  And as a side note - if you've never had a red apple Jelly Belly - get on it!!!

Here's some of the photographic highlights of our trip!

Vacation 2013

We're on limited travel this summer with Charlie due to make his arrival in August.  We weren't planning anything big this year anyway, so it wasn't really a deal breaker.  So this past weekend we took the 4 hour drive to Branson and enjoyed some quality family time.

We managed to fit in dinner at the Dixie Stampede, a day at Silver Dollar City, a round of mini golf, a trip on the Ducks, some shopping, an evening with the go-karts and bumper boats and and early morning ride on the scenic railroad.  Oh yeah, and plenty of swimming in the hotel pool!

Nothing fancy, nothing exciting, but nice to get away from it all.  We actually might even use the word "relaxed" in a description of what we did.  And it's been a long month or two since anyone in our family has actually used that term in any fashion other than ordering another family member to do it.  :)

So - here's a small glimpse into our last family vacation as a family of 4....

John and Mom on the Ducks

Both Boys Got To Drive The Duck In The Water

Driving Their Own Go Karts

Right Before Boarding The Scenic Railroad

Family Shot On The Top Deck Of The Scenic Railroad

We still have one more trip planned.  We're off to Lake Geneva in a few weeks for our annual Rekowski family outing.  The boys have been talking about it since last summer when we got home.  We're grateful that the doctors have tentatively cleared me for this trip as well.  To date the only restrictions are that I must take a copy of my medical charts and Charlie's clinical notes with us in case he would decide to make an early appearance.  It's a little longer drive at close to 6 hours, but very close to Chicago - so if something happened we'd head straight to Chicago, but let's pray that won't even be an issue.....

February…and the winds of change are blowing in

Ahhh…February….that time where you start to see tiny glimpses of spring in the future.  You know, that random 65 degree day or the fact that it’s not pitch black both when you wake up and tuck the kids in bed.  It’s amazing what those little “looks ahead” do for my mental state of mind.

Last night I found myself daydreaming of the garden plans for this year.  Marigolds by the lamp post again (last year’s attempt at something different didn’t do it for me).  We’ll certainly need basil, cilantro, strawberries, and maybe some cucumbers this year.  And I’m trying to figure out if we can transplant our surprise lilies to a different location this spring (preferably one where my husband won’t view them as weeds and run them over with the lawn mower).  Hmmm….is it too early to be thinking about such things?

Also in my daydreams are playroom storage, design, and functionality.  We’ve been in cleaning/decluttering mode around here recently – which I always seem to associate with spring.  We’re in the process of moving our playroom downstairs, Matt’s office to the other side of the basement and attempting to find a way to separate the two as best as possible.  This is a process.  I’m thinking it may take all spring and a chunk of early summer.  But slow and steady will win the race….AND – I can guarantee that it will be done by August.

Why? Well, because in August we’ll be needing the current playroom to serve as a nursery.    Yay!  Garcia baby #3 should arrive in mid to late August 2013. 

So there’s the big news!  Super excited!

Weddings, Weddings, Everywhere!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the blog!  I hate that.  But I always seem to lose track of the blog during the summer months.  What can I say – we get so busy playing, traveling, swimming, and generally spending time outside, that I just can’t find the time to sit in front of a computer.  Even in the evening – would you rather sit at the computer or enjoy a cold beer poolside with the neighbors?  Yeah, I’m gonna drink that beer!

So what did the summer look like for us?  Well, we’ve been in full on wedding mode around our house for the last few months.  My baby (ok – I acknowledge that she is 23 years old) sister got married to a great man who I’m happy to call my brother.  I had the privilege of being the Matron of Honor so with that came the work of bridal shower, bachelorette party, errand running and activity planning.  Despite the priest missing the rehearsal and dinner – everything worked out and in the end she had a great day and a wonderful wedding.  A big thanks to my in-laws who helped man-handle our boys while I was busy tending to wedding day obligations!

That was wedding #1 this year!  A few weeks ago we dressed up the whole family for Matt’s little sister’s wedding.  We packed the whole family up and spent a week in San Antonio.  It was a great day for the everyone.  Both boys managed to walk down the aisle without tears, Matt and I loved being part of the wedding party, and despite a missing mariachi band, the reception was a blast!  This time the thanks go to my family for taking time off to travel to TX for the purpose of babysitting children!  We are so blessed to have great family supporting us!!!!

Well, that completes the wedding post for this summer.  I’m going to try to back-date a few posts with important events like birthday parties, family vacations, John’s first soccer season, medical updates and more.  Hang in there – I’ll get everyone caught back up as quickly as I can!

First Official Family Vacation

Yay!  We had our first, official, family vacation!  No extra grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, or the like….just our little family of four.  And it was a huge success!

First we spent a few days in Louisville.  I know it’s not necessarily a sought-after vacation destination….but it worked for us.  It was drivable, had stuff for kids to do, was reasonably priced, and most importantly, was close enough to Santa Claus, IN to justify spending the end of the vacation there!  Not that I think Santa Claus, IN is any more of a destination, but we wanted to take the boys to Holiday World for a few days.

Louisville’s first stop was the Churchill Downs.  We took a quick tour of the track, moseyed through the museum, (pretend) bet on old races without knowing the outcomes, and saw a retired racehorse. 

While in Louisville we also managed to fit in a horse and carriage ride around downtown and a trip to the Louisville Zoo.  Thanks to our STL Zoo membership we got into the Louisville Zoo for free courtesy of a reciprocal agreement.  The boys loved the zoo and their super cool zoo key that told the kids about each animal as they wandered the grounds (seriously – it was $4 well spent!).

Now – for Holiday World!  It’s a great amusement park complete with water park inside.  Admission prices are based on height (because that’s what determines how many of the rides you can ride!) and soft drinks, sunscreen and shows are all free once you’re inside the park.  Everything has a holiday theme – so you wander from Christmas to Halloween to Fourth of July to Thanksgiving as you enjoy the day.

Nathan just barely made the 36in mark (we’re talking cm to spare here!) so he could even ride a few of the big kid rides.  We got the boys on the log flume, two of the big water rides, and enough kiddie rides to last a lifetime.  The first day we arrived at opening and left 30 minutes before they closed.  Nathan actually fell asleep while cruising one of two lazy rivers – so we just carried him to a shady spot and made a bed out of beach towels for a few hours!

 

If you buy your “next day” ticket before you leave the park – it’s half price!  So back we went for day 2.  Although our second trip was much shorter – we had to drive home that evening – we did manage to fit in a visit with Santa Claus during one of his daily story times. 

We had a great time celebrating our little family!  No work had to be done, no speech therapy sessions to attend, no doctor appointments or the like.  Just some fun and relaxation for the four of us!  Priceless!

Oh Two-dles!

I can’t believe that I have a 2 year old!  And a 3 year old!?!?!  When did that happen?  Nathan opted for a Mickey Mouse birthday party this year.  Not a big surprise since he pretty much wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day, every day. 

We managed to squeeze his second birthday party in between Lizzy’s rehearsal dinner on Thursday and her wedding on Saturday.  I mean, it’s not like we had anything else going on….right?  Convenience was the key so we grilled hot dogs (hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog) to serve with picnic staples like chips and salad.  We had lots of neighbors, all the family (thanks to everyone being in town for the wedding!) and a handful of MOMS Club friends over for the BBQ. 

Nathan, of course, was spoiled rotten by friends and family when it came to gifts.  We have enough toys and books to open our own toy store!  And in keeping with tradition, my 2 year-old got upgraded to a big kid bed courtesy of his maternal grandparents.  There were some questions about the ability to fit two twin size car beds into the boys’ little  bedroom, but sure enough they fit and both boys are ecstatic.

I know the picture is small….but trust me – they are both grinning from ear to ear!  And naturally, being boys, it took them about 30 seconds to realize they could jump from one bed to the other.  *sigh*

 

Happy Birthday Little Man! 

Mommy and Daddy LOVE you more than you’ll ever know!

Better Late Than Never

Another week has passed.  My how time just flies by once the weather warms up! We’ve had the pleasure of hosting Matt’s younger cousin, Stephanie, this past week.  So aside from having a little extra laundry and a few more dishes, we’ve also been busy playing tour guide.

It’s been a great week so let me share some of those successes with you!

1.  Despite the fact that Stephanie’s unexpected arrival conflicted with naptime, I managed to get to the airport on time to pick her up.  She was flying stand-by (thanks to Air-Tran’s awesome college student program) so we were kind of at a whim for when she would arrive. 

2.  We spent Saturday at the zoo enjoying the beautiful weather, animals and, of course, the choo-choo train.  The boys had a blast.  Stephanie spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how it was possible that our zoo is free to the public, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch right by the 1904 flight cage in the zoo.  A good day had by all!

3. I worked out a deal with John’s speech therapist to enroll John in speech camp this summer.  There is no way we could possibly afford the speech camp without blowing our current budget.  Luckily, our speech therapist LOVES John and despises anything related to food (i.e. cooking, shopping).  So – I’ll provide the snacks/drinks for camp each day (4 kids, 3 days a week, 4 weeks) and in return John gets to attend speech camp.   I’m certain God had his hand in this!

4.  Managed to use up most of the produce from the co-op again this time around.  I love all the fresh fruits and veggies of summer.  In fact, we just made carrot/apple/orange juice for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.  Yay!

5. When I was ready to sit down and type up this post early this morning…I didn’t.  Now wait!  This really is a success!  I sat down in my chair outside on the front drive, turned on the computer, opened the program, and heard, “Maaa-meee, we’re ready!”  Upon peering over the screen I saw two little boys, buckled into the wagon, smiling contently.  So I closed up the computer and tossed it back inside the garage door….and we went for a stroll through the neighborhood.  See?!?!?  Wasn’t that a much better use of my time?

Make sure to surf on over to CatholicMom for a chance to read up on other Small Successes.  It’s a great way to remind yourself that the small things in life can really add up to great victories. 

Busy Week

We’ve been on the go this past week.  Bustling around town doing different things seems to make the warm weather season fly by!  But who can resist spending the days out carousing around town when the sun is shining and the skies are bright blue?

*On Friday last week Matt took a (rare) random day off or as we like to call them in our family – a mental health day.  We took the boys to the Museum of Transportation.  They enjoyed two train rides around the grounds, spent lots of time in the Discovery Zone (which is basically a little boys dream playroom with every “transportation” toy known to man), and loved crawling on and wandering through all the train cars.

*We have been spending a ton of time outside playing.  John is still in love with his Power Wheels tractor and Nathan runs from one activity to another.  Both boys are enjoying their swing set and love playing on the slide together.  As a bonus – I’ve gotten some work done in the yard and garden.

*Spent the early part of this week cleaning and organizing the art/craft closet.  I didn’t feel like trekking out on the one rainy morning of the week so I tackled the closet instead.  I’m happy with the results!  And just as soon as my hubby gets home from his business trip I’ll be even happier (he’s been assigned the duty of moving the wall mounted fire extinguisher that hangs in the closet).

*Wednesday was John’s last day of Early Childhood!  Next year he’ll be attending Pre-K so he’ll be at a different school with a different teacher.  We’re thrilled he’s progressing enough to move to Pre-K but it will bring with it some new challenges.  The school bus won’t pick him up next year (something he’ll be extremely disappointed by once he figures it out) so I’ll have to drop him off and pick him up 5 days a week at a school across town. Luckily, he’s in the morning program so drop off is at 8am and pick up is at 10:30am (no naptime interference).  It will be a transition for everyone!

*Made tentative plans to take a Friday Field Trip this week.  Assuming one of our buddies are free we’ll be headed to the Butterfly House tomorrow.  I’m excited as I haven’t been there since I was a kiddo and we have had free carousal tickets for a little over a year now!  We’re going to try to make Friday Field Trips a regular thing this summer.  Mommy is excited even if the toddlers have no clue…

*Just to share a joyful moment – as I sit here in the bathroom typing up my post while the little boys bathe…..I just want to ask….is there anything better than little boys giggling in a bathtub and the echoes that bounce off the walls from such delight?  I think not!

Sherry is hosting Small Successes over at CatholicMom nowadays.  Make sure to surf on over and celebrate the successes of other great moms!

Plans Are Underway

The first weekend of June is going to be a busy one! 

My little sister is getting married, my in-laws will be in town for the wedding, and we’re wedging Nathan’s second birthday party into the mix.  Why add more hoopla to an already crazy-busy week you may ask?  Frankly, because family will already be in town for the wedding and Matt will be in Austria over Nathan’s actual birthday.

So put your party pants on! 
We’ve got some celebrating to do!

Starting to Prep

As I mentioned in a previous post – our house is clean enough to be safe and dirty enough to be lived in.  I like this philosophy.  I have two little boys and the idea of having a sterile and completely organized home seems completely impossible.  I’m not by nature a huge lover of housework, but I don’t mind an afternoon or two of cleaning and organizing when the rooms start having “round corners” from all the stuff I’ve wedged in them to clear a path through the middle of the space.

So I’m starting to prep….and by prep I mean I’m cleaning because over the next month or so our house will be inundated with visitors.  In the upcoming weeks (months?) we’ll be playing host to a soon to be 21 year old, my in-laws, and a 10 year old.  Not to mention that somewhere in the mix of all that we’ll host a 2 year old birthday party and a number of friends/family visits during a wedding (which happen to be occurring the same weekend).  Oh yeah – factor in there a road trip to Wisconsin and my husband heading to Austria for 10 days.  It’s gonna get busy really quickly!

Successes for the week then? Well, I’ve….

…organized the coat closet in the front entry way.  Nothing exciting, but it’s done.  Coats that don’t fit (or won’t fit by the next appropriate season) have been donated or stored.  The items that were piling up on the floor have been purged and organized.  We might actually be able to put some additional items in the closet now that it’s cleaned out.

…trimmed the hedges.  We have several shrubs that require periodic trimming throughout the warm months.  This is one of my few ‘official’ outdoor chores (Matt does most the lawn care, garage cleaning, planting, etc).  This task fell to me a few months after we moved to this house when Matt inadvertently trimmed the extension cord that was powering the electric hedge trimmer.  (It should probably be noted that as of typing this I’ve got 5 more hedges/bushes to punch out…but that’s down from 13 and I promise to have them done before this posts on Thursday morning)

…after a small pity party (and some tears) on Tuesday following a phone call informing me that John’s speech therapy was being denied by the insurance company, I’ve started the appeals process.  By started I mean I’m gathering the appropriate paperwork before I can officially start the appeals process.  I am mommy…hear me ROAR!

…enjoyed a family dinner out with Matt’s national sales manager.  Yes, I said enjoyed!  The boys were well-behaved, the food was good and plentiful, and the conversation actually flowed easily.  Since I much prefer speaking to large groups (I’ve never really enjoyed or excelled at 1-1 small talk) this experience certainly qualifies as a success.  And the sales manager commented on how beautiful and well-behaved our boys were!  (Proud mommy moment!)

…spent a lot more time playing with the boys despite my desire to clean the house from top to bottom.  Nathan is loving to do art projects right now and John’s imagination is taking off, so it’s been a lot of fun around here recently.  I’m trying to remember to embrace those moments. We’ll get the house cleaned before company arrives….but these little daily moments will disappear long before the first person knocks on our door.

“Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow…for babies grow up…I’ve learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs… dust go to sleep I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.” – Author unknown

…been diligently cleaning out our fridge.  Sounds silly, right?  But we’re not a huge leftovers family.  So we tend to pack up the leftovers after a meal then leave them in the fridge until I can no longer remember when we originally consumed the item and I throw it away.  This is not budget friendly!  Instead, I’ve been trying to repurpose items into other meals and working hard at eating those leftovers out of the fridge.

…utilizing our produce co-op again.  Yay!  I love our produce co-op, but often we don’t consume all the produce before it goes bad.  Again, a waste of money.  I hate that.  Since the fridge has been relatively cleaned out recently I’ve had room for all the produce.  Added bonus is that with the extra space in the fridge I can see all the produce and we’re consuming it in a more timely manner.  You just can beat the taste of fresh fruits and veggies compared to canned and/or frozen. 

Well, I’m feeling like a pretty big success this week!  Lots done, lots still to do…  Bring it on!

Make sure to swing over to Chocolate for Your Brain and encourage other moms on their journey to success!

Routine and Bucket Lists

I function best with routine.  It makes me feel in control, orderly, organized.  My little boys function best with routine.  (Their new bedtime routine is working swimmingly.) Even-my husband works best when plans are well-laid.  Basically, what I’m saying here is – we’re a bunch of Type A personalities here in the Garcia house.

However, I’m trying to teach myself to allow our routine to fall by the side occasionally.  Let’s be honest – a missed nap won’t kill anyone and if the house isn’t spotless upon falling into bed the walls won’t tell anyone that I’m a failure as a housewife.  I still crave the structure, but I also know that the unexpected brings my family such joy when it arrives on our doorstep.

Recently many of our mornings have been spent at the local YMCA.  I have been getting in a workout and the boys have been playing in the daycare room.  More importantly though, is that I’ve allowed the kiddos to enjoy time at the climbing wall and the skate rink too. Their eyes light up when they see me load toys in the car for Tot Skate or when I check them out of the daycare with climbing passes in my hand for Tot Climb. 
Yes – these things make John rush a little to eat lunch before getting on the bus for school.  And our little extras always mean that Nathan will fall asleep in the car before we get home to eat lunch, thus resulting in some funky dining consisting of lunch(?) at 2:30 and dinner at 6. But the boys are loving them and I can handle a day or two a week without lunch right at 11 and nap at 11:30. 

All this got me thinking about the upcoming spring and summer.  We always have such big dreams about the activities we’ll do as a family, the places we’ll go, the things we’ll see.  Yet, at the end of each summer I lament that we “didn’t do anything we wanted to do this summer.”  Part of this is because my Type A personality family functions with such routine that we forget to enjoy those warm months.  I mean…Saturday mornings are for running errands and Saturday afternoons are naps and yard work and Sunday morning we go to mass and by the time we have breakfast it’s too close to nap time to go do anything fun and….  Well – you get the drift! 

So we’ve worked on a bucket list for the summer.  Some of the items are simple activities we can do at home and some are day trips that we’ve always wanted to take.

I’m excited to see what this summer brings. It will be great to have a visual way of tracking what we’ve accomplished and what our summer has entailed.

Since Last Thursday

What’s been going on in your house since last Thursday?  Have you had any successes (big or small) that are brag worthy?  I’m sure everyone has – so head over to Sherry’s blog, Chocolate For Your Brain, and share them with the world!

The Garcia household successes include:

1.  Got signed up for a Lenten prayer buddy.  It’s the first year I’ve done this, but I’m really excited to participate in the program.  I believe powerful things can happen with prayer and having a someone extra praying for you can NEVER hurt.  Plus – I’ve found some time to pray for my buddy and read some part of her blog (so I know her story a little better while I pray for her).

2. Survived 24 hours with a 3 year old running 104 fever.  Turns out he has his first round of strep.  *sigh*  But the plus side to this is that our wonderful pediatrician gave me antibiotics for both boys (Nathan has had a snotty nose for over a week anyway) so I know no other kids will get strep.  Although I suppose Mom and Dad are still susceptible. However, Ash Wednesday mass was a wash – so we just took time at the dinner table to talk about the start of Lent, sacrifices, and penances. 

3.  Enjoyed President’s Day with the family doing a store/food tour of STL.  In one morning we hit up World Market (candy and soda), Trader Joes (frozen appetizers, specialty cheese, and vitamins), Whole Foods (whole grains, vitamins, and cheese), Lions choice (lunch), The Container Store (Lenten bean containers with lids so Nathan is less likely to spill them), Mexican Mercado (drinks, fajita meat and chorizo) and REI (cause it’s fun to walk around).

4.  Prepared as much as possible for Lent. Got our Lenten beans set up on the table.  Signed up for Holy Heroes Lenten Adventures – I hope this works out for us this year! Filled our Blockbuster at Home queue with some Easter/Bible stories for the upcoming month.  I also reserved some books at the library on the lives of saints.  I just finished reading My Life with the Saints by James Martin SJ and it really sparked my interest in a couple saints’ biographies….no time like Lent to dive in!

5. Have started my commitment to get the house more organized during Lent. (This is a continuation of my New Year’s Resolution.)  My goal for Lent is to organize one area of the house every.single.day.  Now keep in mind that one area might be a cabinet, drawer, or closet.  It might be a table top or an overflowing laundry basket.  So yesterday’s task was the tupperware cabinet.  I’m tired of items falling out of the cabinet, trying to wedge different size/shape containers into the small space, and not having containers of appropriate size for our needs.  On my trip to the grocery last night – I bought a new load of Gladware.  Then I emptied the shelves of the old, put them in the donate box, and restocked with new, properly sized, and organized containers.  Not all the projects will require such an investment – but the $$$ was well-worth my sanity. Hmm….what should I tackle today?

Yay!  I’m feeling particularly successful this week!

Teaching My Children

I’m awe inspired by those that homeschool.  How do they do it?!?!  How do they find time?  How do they find the balance between “mom” and “teacher”?  Is their house even remotely clean?  Really – all homeschooling mothers are SUPERMOMS!

That being said – I know I teach my children things every day.  We spend countless hours counting blocks we are stacking, finding different colored crayons during an art project, and identifying letters in signs we drive past.  Maybe not your definition of homeschooling – but mine. 

And more important than that – I know that I’m teaching my children other things that will serve them later in life.  Although it still requires constant reminders, my boys say please and thank you regularly.  We say hello to people we meet and say goodbye when we leave our friends.  My children pick up their toys before going to bed (we should probably work on doing that more often throughout the day) and they clear the table after they finish eating (without being told!).  At the ripe age of 2, John could say “Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen” – very impressive for a little boy with apraxia.  And now at 18 months, Nathan is half way there with “Father, Ho-weeeee Spirit, Amen!”.  I’m trying to teach them manner, teach them home management, and teach them about our faith.  These are not little things.  These are monumental.  These things take time.  They take reinforcement.  They take more consistency that I can muster most days!  But I keep plugging away.  We’ll get there some day! 

Here’s a great example of my attempt to encourage these things:

A few weeks ago as we were departing McDonald’s after an evening of burning energy in the playland, I spotted a uniformed airman.  (This is not totally uncommon in our area as we live close to an Air Force base.)  As we walked by, I squatted down and encouraged my boys to tell the man “Thank You for serving.”  The airman then got down off his stool, knelt down next to the boys and exchanged niceties (although it should probably be noted that I’m not 100% sure either of my boys mustered even so much as a “thanks”).  As we meandered off, I mouth “thank you” one last time.  Then, to my surprise, as Matt and I were buckling the boys into car seats, the airman came jogging over to the car!  He handed each of my boys a real USAF patch from his posting with the DCS.  Talk about little boys’ dreams being brought to reality!  But the disappointing thing in all this – as he handed the boys the patch he confessed, “No one ever stops to thank me.  That meant a lot!” 

I’m not a homeschooler.  I truly don’t believe I’m meant to be a homeschooler.  But I know that I teach my children.  That night I taught my children the value of saying thank you.  Hopefully that airman went home that night knowing that his service does not go unnoticed and my boys know that it’s important to recognize peoples’ work (added bonus that they got a present for doing so!). 

Surviving the everyday…

Sometimes Small Successes have to be more about surviving the everyday than about celebrating truly monumental occurrences.  This week shall be a little of both – but leaning a little heavier on the survival.

1.  When I absolutely didn’t feel like cooking because Matt was taking a client out to some fancy restaurant in downtown, I cooked anyway.  I’m talking – I was looking for every reason to NOT cook!  It was Papa John’s day for my mom’s elementary school (I could earn her classroom points if I ordered a pizza).  I forgot to get the chicken breasts out to thaw in the morning (so the planned dinner was out the door).  The boys were snacking all afternoon and probably not that hungry anyway (Halloween and Easter lead to abnormal amounts of snacking in our house).  But ultimately, I bucked up, boiled some pasta and cleaned the random veggies out of the fridge resulting in a rather delightful “Vegetarian Pasta a la Frigidaire” that both boys seemed to enjoy despite the fact that Nathan’s first bowl got dumped on the dining room floor.

2.  I let Nathan eat his yogurt all by himself this morning, even though I knew it would result in laundry and a need for a bath all before 8:15 this morning.  Despite it being a “whipped” yogurt (meaning it clings to the spoon even when turned upside down – Nathan still ended up wearing more of it than he ate.  Nonetheless, he enjoyed it since his favorite phrase right now is “I do it” and this mommy is using bath time as an excuse to blog. 

3.  This past week has been a lot about surviving without a reliable car.  Matt’s car was on it’s last leg and seemed to tip the bucket late last week.  I’ve been relegated to necessity driving (this isn’t really a bad thing) while Matt has been taking my car to work.  It’s the little things that never get done when you can’t depend on a car.  I didn’t NEED to get to the dry cleaners to drop off clothes.  I didn’t NEED to return the books to the library, I could just get online and renew them.  I didn’t NEED to pick up my Rx at the pharmacy across town – it’s maintenance meds and I had plenty to survive for the week.  I didn’t NEED to get blood work done right away – it’s maintenance too and I requested it, not the doctor.  I didn’t NEED to drop stuff off at my parents house as they could surely survive a few more days without the ovenproof soup bowls we borrowed.

4. OK – here’s my monumental one….I told you I had one!  We bought a new vehicle on Halloween.  We are now the proud (?) owners of a Chrysler Town and Country minivan.  The payments will tighten the budget (it was nice not having any car payments for the short while that it lasted), but the cost is worth it to be able to tote the kids around.  Plus, by buying the minivan now – it prevents needing to upgrade our car for space later on and having two car payments in the future.  Right now we’re liking the idea of only paying on one car at a time.  John and Nathan LOVE the minivan and think it’s a giant toy for them to play in.  We’ll see if they still think it’s cool when they are in junior high….

So that’s been our week – what have you been up to?  Head over and visit Sherry at Chocolate for Your Brain to share your successes with the blogger world! 

I’m Back…..

I feel like the last few months there have been more posts about why I haven’t blogged recently than there have been posts about our family life.  So no apologies this week – I just didn’t blog for a while – I enjoyed my family instead.

That being said, since I’ve been absent for a while, I’ve decided to share our successes from the past several weeks with everyone.  Here they are:

1.  We enjoyed a wonderful vacation to South Padre Island with my husband’s family.  Ten of us in a condo with 6 family friends about 3 doors down and we had a blast!  And despite the sensory stuff with John, we managed to get him not only in the ocean – but in the SAND at the beach.  Granted it took 3 days for him to warm up to the idea, but we made it.  (And I got to nap and read a book!)

2.  With the help of my father, John’s therapists, and the support of my husband, I think we’re ready for John’s IEP meeting tomorrow.  We’ve got a battle plan for what we want, we’ve got research to support our requests, and it seems like the school district is being relatively accommodating thus far.  I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with a child in school 4 or 5 days a week but we’ll make it through.  In the mean time, I have an almost 3 year old who is pretty excited about the prospect of riding the bus….

3.  With some funky stuff going on with the MOMS Club, I’ve managed to keep my head above the water.  I’m realizing that this president thing is becoming pretty time consuming and unfortunately (and honestly) I’m not managing my time well.  I’m hoping that with a new schedule (John in school) I’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief and start anew.  But for the current time, I’m still head above water and I don’t think too much has fallen through the cracks.  That’s got to be good enough under the circumstances.

4.  Both boys had their well-child physicals yesterday.  John is in the 75% for height and 50% for weight.  According to Dr. Herman, if John’s growth stays on the track, he’ll be 5’11 1/2.  Nathan, per the norm, is 90% for height and 75% for weight.  Overall, we have two happy, healthy boys who are growing just like the should be.  Both got their flu shots and Nathan got his last required shot before he needs all his Kindergarten shots.  (And as a side note, Matt and I both have our flu shots scheduled!)

And for next week – my goal is to get the house clean and the laundry caught up.  We’ve got a birthday to celebrate and family coming in town!!!!

What have you been up to?  Share your successes over at Chocolate for Your Brain!

Thoughts On Activity Bags

Thoughts in 3 words: Best Idea Ever!  The activity bags worked out great!  We were able to provide the boys with a couple items at a time out of the bags as we drove.  Each bags provided around an hour of entertainment without the movie.  In fact, we only stuck the movies in about half the time – the other half we really didn’t need them and there’s no reason for the boys to zone out to the TV if they can do something that requires some brain waves.

Here’s the original post to the Activity Bags so you can check out the pictures and contents in detail.  Let’s get to the highlights though. 

Activity Bag #1 –

• The small Magnadoodles were a hit.  Both boys enjoyed coloring and erasing pictures and since we had 2 of them there was no squabbling over the toy.
• John loved pounding the golf tees into the playdough with his toy hammer.  (For some reason John wouldn’t pull the tees out of the dough though so I had to keep reaching back and yanking them out for him.) 
• The colored clothespin activity was a success and John proudly exclaimed every time he was all done.  The only thing I would have changed is that I probably would have written the colors on the back of cards so that we could have worked on sight words too.
• Nathan enjoyed the toy phone – but as you’ll see throughout this post – Nathan enjoys anything have makes noise when you press a button.

Activity Bag #2

• The LeapFrog Fridge Phonics was a loaner item from John’s speech therapist.  Both boys played with this incessantly.  As long as you can handle the repetitiveness of the jingle it sings every time you put a letter in it – you’ll be fine. “Every letter makes a sound…the A says Aaahhh”
• John spent quite a bit of time flipping through his Tonka Truck book from the library and playing with his toy trucks at the same time.
• We actually stuck another kid-friendly camera in the bag right before we left and the boys spent at least 30 minutes “taking pictures” of each other, cars, trees, mom and dad, and who knows what else.
• The Lap Book was a success – but John always likes playing with it.

Activity Bag #3

• In the interest of full disclosure – we didn’t even touch this bag.

Activity Bag #4

• We got to this bag in the last hour of our drive home…so we only played with a few of the items. That being said – the playdough finger puppets were a wise investment from Target.  Both boys thought they were great.  John wanted to make his own finger puppets but wasn’t coordinated enough to do it yet. 
• Nathan didn’t really enjoy the toy remote much so that one didn’t make it back into an activity bag for the 6-hour drive to Lake Geneva.

Activity Bag #5

• John played with the transportation themed “I Spy” bottle for a while on his own.  I hadn’t glued the lid on though so I found myself constantly worried that he’d open the bottle and I’d have beans from here to who knows where.  In reality – John never even tried to open the bottle.
• The Disney Storybook CD was nice and we listened to it, but the boys couldn’t grasp the idea of following along so it was more like kid-friendly background noise.
• Toy keys were a great success as long as Nathan didn’t throw them around…
• And John did color one picture in his Mickey Mouse coloring book – although he’s never been much into coloring.

Activity Bag #6

• Another bag that went untouched on the trip with the exception of the electronic storybook.  When the toy remote was failing I grabbed this as a back-up.

So there you have it – a simple recap of our activity bags.  The boys did great on the trip! But the pictures below probably tell the greatest truth…

New  tractors Mom & Dad bought on the trip make little boys smile

When all else fails – get Taggie out & take a break to suck your thumb

The best way to entertain little ones on a road trip:

Stop the car, get out, and PLAY!