Self Control by Nathan Garcia

Nathan’s class singing about Self Control….

 

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….

Nathan’s First Surgery

Today is Nathan’s first surgery.  Nothing big (or really scary), but unusual only because it’s Nathan.  You know!  My healthy child!  I joke that Nathan gets overlooked on the blog because he has hit his developmental milestones on time and has no major health issues. 

In a few hours we’ll be at Children’s Hospital waiting on a plastic surgeon.  Nathan has had a small lesion on the underside of his nose since birth.  Three years later we’ve finally decided it is not going away on it’s own so we are dealing with it.  We, personally, think it might just be a small wart that keeps resurfacing.  But Nathan tends to pick at it which makes it bleed like crazy for a few days.  It’s certainly not an eye sore as most people don’t even notice it, but we do not want to risk infection in the cartilage of his nose.

We saw a dermatologist about a 2 months back.  She couldn’t tell what the lesion was at the time because Nathan had just managed to knock the top layers of skin off when he fell and bumped his nose on the ground.  She told us that if it Nathan was an adult she would just numb the tip of his nose and cut it out in the office, but since two year olds don’t tend to hold still when we want them to – we were better off with a plastic surgeon.  And let’s be honest here …. this mom doesn’t want a scalpel anywhere near her son’s precious face when he starts flailing around in panic!

So today we’re off to the hospital for a quick ‘twilight’ anesthesia and facial plastic surgery.  They’ve got an hour blocked, but the surgeon predicted it would be less than 10 minutes from start to finish. 

In the meantime, I’m busy being thankful we’re close to family and have lots of friends!  Pawpaw picked John up at 6:30am this morning so that John didn’t eat or drink in front of Nathan.  And Pawpaw is probably dropping John off at school as I type.  Uncle Charles is picking John up from preschool and taking him over to a friend’s house for the remainder of the morning/early afternoon or until I can get home from the hospital. 

Seriously – how blessed are we to have friends and family that bend over backwards for us?!?!?!?

Back to My Successes!

I love Small Successes!  Sometimes they are enough to keep me blogging when I feel like I have nothing to report.  Sometimes (when I have a ton to report) they hold me back.  Sometimes I skipped them for months because I just don’t blog the way I dreamed I would when this blog started. 

That having been said – I’m back to the original point – I love Small Successes! It reminds me of what I’ve accomplished each week.  There’s simply nothing like celebrating the little things because those are the things most often overlooked.  So behold…here are my successes this week:

1.  I dug the “to-do” notebook out of the pile of “to-deal-with-later.” So I now have a list (albeit long) of things that need to get done.  Blogging was on this list.  I’ve written 4 (this is 5) posts today.  Check all five of those off the list.  Look! It’s getting shorter by the minute!  Now to tackle some of the more pressing issues like faxing papers to doctors’ offices, completing some sewing projects that have been looming forever, and knocking some gift-buying out. 

2.  We took John for allergy testing.  I was originally pretty apprehensive of doing it, but it has been recommended by John’s pediatrician, his speech therapist, his teacher and most recently an ER doctor following a 4AM ambulance ride to the hospital.  The results show he’s basically allergic to the great outdoors during the spring, summer and fall.  (Oh, and cats)  So we’re trying some meds first. In 8 weeks we’ll re-evaluate to see how he is responding.  Right now we’re trying to avoid allergy shots – although they may very well be in his future.

3.  (This is really Nathan’s success!)  Nathan peed in the potty!  Just once and after leaking on the floor….but it looks like we may be on the way to potty training.  I’m cautiously optimistic.  While I love the idea of not buying diapers, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to potty train him while driving John all over town for different appointments, preschool, and practices.  I know other families do it so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.  But with John I just committed a week at home and we did it.  I’m thinking it may be a different story this time around.

4.  (And it should be noted that this is really John’s success!)  We had John’s parent/teacher conference early this morning.  He got an absolutely glowing review from his teacher.  Apparently he’s a great listener, rule follower, super smart, has excellent fine motor skills and is generally a hard worker (at least for 2 1/2 hours, 5 days a week).  On his writing skills tests he needs a little work on drawing a person and he called a ‘crescent’ a ‘moon’ on his shapes test.    Not bad if you ask me!  Top that off with a conference with his school speech therapist who claims he has met or surpassed all but one of his speech goals for the school year (and it’s only October!).

Yay for Small Successes!    I’m excited to get back on the bandwagon with them again.  Not to mention that I now have the aforementioned “to-do” notebook back in my arsenal…I’ll be getting so much more done!

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!

Not a Baby Any More

Nathan has been growing like a weed.  He’s now wearing 2T shirts and 18-24 month pants.  At his 18 month well-child appointment Dr. Herman assured me that he was “proportionately large” so “there’s nothing to worry about.”  Not that I was worried – he’s been my BIG boy since birth.  He’s now in the 98th percentile for height and the 92nd percentile for weight.  Wowzers!  And I can’t even estimate the number of people who ask me if the boys are twins…  I’d really like to take pictures of their faces when I explain that they are 20 months apart.  It’s funny – when Nathan was first born everyone had a “wow – kids 20 months apart – that’s so close” look on their face when I told them.  Now when I tell people I get the “20 months apart? – I would have sworn they were twins” look.  He he he…how things change!

While Nathan has almost caught up with his brother in size and stature although his coordination is still lacking.  (Maybe because there is so much of him to move around for only being 18 months old?)  He spends the vast majority of his day tripping over his feet and face planting.  That means we’ve got lots of pictures with various cuts and scrapes on his face.  This includes New Years Eve photos where just 24 hours prior he fell out of the door to the garage resulting in a huge bump on his head, tripped on a sweet gum ball in the yard - landing face first on another sweet gum ball  that several bloody indentions in the already swollen bump, and then fell over his own feet in the driveway giving himself road rash down the side of his face.  For the record – my husband has since repaired the latch on the door so that pushing on it won’t make it pop open, cleaned up all the gum balls (although more have fallen), and following the road rash episode – relegated Nathan to “driving” the car so that he couldn’t fall over anything else since he refused to stay inside.

Our youngest is also trying to prove that he does not have a speech delay.  He’s constantly talking (although not necessarily intelligible) and his most recent favorite words are “NO!” and “Mc-Non-nos” (McDonalds).  He now calls for mommy from his crib in the morning and after naps instead of crying.  It would be impossible to list all the words he uses on a regular basis, but suffice it to say Nathan is my chatty one.

It’s the End of the World As We Know It

 

I’m proud to present…

a little boy who can walk!

What To Choose?

What a great week it’s been!  So much accomplished and so much to be proud of that I’m going to having a hard time picking out our successes.  We’ve just been a really busy family!

1.  Last week I hosted cooking club for our MOMS Club.  I choose a theme of “Served On A Stick” and it was a huge hit.  We enjoyed fruit salad on a stick (fruit kabobs), stick in the mud (chocolate cookie on popsicle sticks), PB&J skewers, muffin pops (mini muffins on toothpicks, and more.  I personally made bacon-wrapped breadsticks and they were the hit of the party!  And super simple to make thanks to the microwave and only 3 ingredients.  Then a mere 3 days later I hosted the MOMS Club executive board here at the house for our monthly meeting.  We got through our business and had time to enjoy each other’s company which was wonderful.  So we’ve been a bit like MOMS Club Grand Central Station this week…

2.  With the help of my wonderful husband, we purged the clutter out of the dining room, cleaning closet, coat closet, and most of the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen this weekend.  I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with all the random ‘stuff’ that doesn’t have a real home in our house, so he graciously agreed to help me do some serious cleaning.  A lot of items went in the trash, some went to family members  who could use them, and a bunch are now downstairs in our yard sale box  Those two rooms and two closets make me happy!  Hopefully we can keep up the momentum and work our way through more of the house in the upcoming weeks.

3.  Nathan is right on the verge of walking.  He has taken a couple steps here and there this week (the first truly notable ones on Sunday, July 24 while we were Skyping with grandma and grandpa).  He’s now standing up in the middle of the room periodically so I’m sure the actual walking will be here in no time at all.  Then I’ll be chasing two little boys around! Nathan-man is also a chatty little boy.  “Up” seems to be his favorite word right now meaning “pick me up mommy!”  He babbles the day away and makes requests for “dink” (drink), “up”, “ow-pa” (out please – of his highchair), “mow” (more) and “aw-duh” (all done).  I’m loving all the conversation!

4.  Since I used #3 to celebrate on behalf of Nathan – I’m tacking on a #4 for John.  He successfully made it 60 minutes in the child care room at the YMCA yesterday!  Only brief tears at the very beginning and then he did fine the rest of the time.  This is a huge success in my book.  Since he was 1 we’ve never been able to use the child care room because he would cry to the point of hyperventilating within the first 10 minutes at which point the day care workers would come get me from the gym.  With the help of his psychologist from Early Intervention over the past 6 months – we’re now up to 60 minutes!!!  And on another note – we’re meeting with a physical therapist today to have the structure of John’s ankles and feet examined.  I’m interested to see what she has to say! 

So – it’s been a busy week – I could keep going!  We’ve booked tickets to South Padre Island in September, I’ve started holiday/birthday wish lists for the boys, I baked my first ever blackberry pie, I located a developmental pediatrician for John and have started gathering the 9 bazillion papers and forms he wants, and we started doing some school supply shopping in hopes that John gets into Early Childhood starting in October.

Jump over to Chocolate For Your Brain and share your successes!

Nathan-Man

My little Nathan-man is a long way from being little now-a-days.  He’s weighing in at nearly 25 lbs (85%) and his height puts him well into the 98% – so according to the doctor “he’s taller than he is thick” – well, that’s a relief to a mother who’s lugging 25 lbs everywhere she goes!

Besides the physical developments – he’s desperately trying to catch up with his brother in motor skills, cognitive skills and speech.  He’s attempting to stack blocks when he’s not busy knocking over his brothers.  Nathan loves self-feeding, periodically manages to actually get something on his fork all by himself and if it wasn’t for the fact that most things that go on a spoon slosh right off – he’d be a pro with the spoon.  (As I type this I’m remembering that we used to buy John the whipped yogurt because it was thicker and would stick to the spoon.) 

Let’s talk speech – yeah, Nathan’s going to be my talker.  He pretty much narrates his whole day with babbling right now.  His current vocabulary includes: mama, dada, ow-tide (outside), in-tide (inside) more, aw don (all done), oh no, mmmmm (yummy), dink (drink) and okay.  On top of those – he’s mimic and imitate almost anything.  In fact, when John’s speech therapist works with John – Nathan sits across the room and does the speech sounds on his own. 

Nathan-man isn’t quite walking yet.  He’s at that stage where he gets distracted and lets go for a few minutes, then suddenly realizes he’s not holding onto anything and either lunges for the nearest item or falls down.  Seriously though, walking has to be close because when he cruises the furniture, walls, and everything in between, he’s only hanging on with 2 fingers most the time!

Other important growth milestones – his lovely curly hair that Matt wants to cut.  Right now I’m winning this battle if only because the ladies at Matt’s office are smitten with the curls!

Now – for the visual update!

Happy Second 1st Birthday!

We enjoyed a wonderful celebration for Nathan’s second 1st Birthday…yes, you got that right…his second 1st birthday.  Remember?  We celebrated his first 1st Birthday Party in Texas during our trip…

So here’s the highlights:

• Nearly 40 people (including kiddos) descended on our house
• Matt was the grill master with ranch burgers and hot dogs
• All the kids knew exactly what Chuggington was – none of the adults did
• Little man successfully devoured an entire baby cake (and I’m really not exaggerating)
• Nathan got more toys than he could ever play with in a lifetime, although the one below seems to be a favorite

Seriously – who buys a 1 yo a power wheel? 

Oh wait – Grandma and Grandpa!

 

Happy Birthday Nathan-Man!!!!

Travel Successes

So I missed Small Successes last week because we were in Dallas….  a wonderful week filled with Nathan’s first 1st birthday party, a rehearsal dinner, a wedding, a reception, and an impromptu and very unofficial gathering of classmates from UD.

I could go on and on about successes from the past week, but instead I’ll leave it at one BIG success and then let a few pictures be worth 1000 words….

The BIG success – Matt and I survived 12 driving hours to Texas and 12 driving hours back to STL with an 11 month old and 2.5 year old in tow. 

And to be truly honest, we only came close to breaking point once (somewhere near Joplin, MO where there was no place to stop due to the recent tornados that ripped through the town).

 

The rest of the successes can be summed up by the photos below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Less Than A Month To Go

I can’t believe that in less than one month I’ll have a 1 year old and a 2.5 year old.  Wow!  Where did the last year go?  Plans are well underway for appropriate birthday celebrations for Nathan. 

Yes – I said celebrations (plural). 

Since we’re heading to TX for Chris & Steph’s wedding next week and the whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts & uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and the like) as well as many of our family friends will be in Dallas together – we decide to go ahead and celebrate turning 1 a few weeks early.  Then, when we return to IL, we’ll have another birthday celebration with more family and friends at home.  In other words, my child should be spoiled completely rotten by the time he actually turns 1!

The theme for the party extravaganzas – Chuggington! 

Easier said than done….  Chuggington party supplies have not been released in the US yet.  (At one point in time I seriously considered having them shipped from the UK, but who wants to spend that much money on a birthday that their child won’t even remember?)  So the current, and only, plan is to decorate with the colors of Chuggington’s main characters – Koko, Brewster and Wilson – which are lime green, yellow, blue and red.  Then we’ll toss up some fun Chuggington pictures that I’ve downloaded off the web and stick a toy Chuggington train on top of Nathan’s birthday cake.  Simple enough!

My Family Rocks!

Successes come in big and small packages throughout my week.  Sometimes they are directly my successes, sometimes they are the successes of others that I get to share.  This week it’s a little of both…

1.  With the help of Tot School I was able to create two lapbooks for John.  One focusing on feelings (something his therapists want him to work on) and another highlighting his favorite – tractors!  John loves them so much and has been playing with both every day.  Maybe what surprises me the most is how surprised the therapists are when they see the books.  I’ve gotten so many comments about how they’ve never seen a family take so much interest and initiative in their child’s development!  Really?!?!?  I feel like I can’t do enough…. 

2.  Now that Nathan is finally feeling better (see last weeks post for details) he is full on crawling now!  YAY!  He’s still faster on his belly using the army crawl – but for the most part he’s on all fours and touring the entire house.  We’re also catching him standing up in his crib after naps and in the morning.  I imagine it will be only a few days before he’s pulling up on everything and cruising the furniture.

3.  Thanks to my husband for helping out around the house and with some outings with the boys.  The house has remained relatively clean considering we didn’t really leave the house much in the past two weeks since Nathan was sick.  And then yesterday we made it to the library to pick up some books for John to take on our trip to TX next month and I grabbed a few teacher’s aids so I can make some copies of activities for our travel bags/boxes.    Now to finish up our travel activities bags/boxes and get the family packed and organized for our trip which will include a wedding and a first birthday party!

Make sure to celebrate your successes over at Faith and Family Live! 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Garcia Family!

I Did It!

These may be seemingly “small” things in the grand scheme of things, but it’s these small things that add up to my big triumphs throughout each week.  With that in mind – let’s celebrate the small!

1.  Even when it became evident that this week’s schedule was going to completely derail, I remained relatively calm.  We worked through rearranging flights, leaving cars at airports 5 hours away, and sending boxes via UPS to meet my husband at the hotel in Nebraska next week.  It hasn’t been easy – but we made it work!

2.  I ran a bunch of errands today – and I mean a bunch! With both boys in tow.  We made it to the pet store, gas station, bank, art class, courthouse, lunch, three different grocery stores, and Hallmark.  Plus we still fit in an afternoon nap for everyone!

3.  We’ve made the transition to whole milk for Nathan.  I know this doesn’t seem like much of a success – but my wallet would say otherwise compared to being on formula.   

Make sure to check out other great successes both BIG and small over at Faith and Family Live!

What Are The Little Things?

Every Thursday Danielle Bean over at Faith and Family Live! encourages us fellow moms to celebrate our small successes from the past week.  She reminds us that when you work as a stay-at-home-mom it's often the small successes that add up to one big triumph.

So with no further ado - here's the successes from the Garcia clan this week:

1.  I have resisted the urge to completely panic even though the computer gurus who currently have my dead laptop are having trouble finding the pictures on my hard drive.  They have located the ones from March 2010 and earlier - but nothing from the last year.  Please, oh please, Lord - a little intercession would be greatly appreciated!  I can't imagine losing a whole year of photos of my family (including the first 6 months of Nathan's life!)  I keep reminding myself that I have most of the photos on Walgreens.com and my family and friends have a wealth of photos of my family...but still...prayers and pleas are appreciated!!!! 

2.  John's next IFSP meeting has been scheduled and this time I'm better prepared.  After the last meeting I was so upset about the outcomes, but I won't be this time!  I have spoken with the speech therapist, done my research, gotten copies of all his evaluations/reports and more!  John's lawyer (read as: Grandpa) will even be there to back us up.  We're gearing up for a battle - but I'm optimistic of the potential outcome.

3.  The family attended a rally this week to support the state workers of Wisconsin.  I know it can quickly get to be a heated topic, but as a child of a State of Illinois employee father and a teacher union-supported mother - I think collective bargaining and unions are important.  Since not everyone has a voice at the table (for obvious reasons) I think the least we can do is allow a few to speak/negotiate for the many.  Even more important to me is I truly believe that the right to freely associate is God-given. That being said - I don't think anyone, government included, should be allowed to strip any of my God-given rights.

Whether you agree with those who are protesting/rallying or not, I think we can all agree that prayers are needed.  Prayers for those involved in the protests, prayers for those at the bargaining table, prayers for those who are trying their best to work with a completely out-of-balance budget.  Let us offer up our thoughts for everyone involved to come to a mutual understanding and do what is best for the majority.  Really - God has never asked us to do anything more.

Late, But Finally Here

As promised...pictures from our San Antonio trip including Nathan's baptism, Grandpa Warren's birthday, Chris & Stephanie's engagement party and Thanksgiving....

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!



The Future Mr. & Mrs. Garcia



Garcia Sisters



Newly Baptized Nathan!

Godparents

Godparents & Grandparents

 

Bathtime!



FAMILY PORTRAITS

and finally....

Hangin' Around Grandma's Kitchen