Happy Easter!

The Verdict Is In

Miles was good all week at school, so he got to pick out a toy.  His choice....a "narf" gun...

It's a small price for us to pay for no marks on his chart.  Tuesday was a little questionable.  He had a mark for bad manners at lunch.  Turns out he said "Coconut poo poo" while eating.  We can live with that.  He's since been instructed that we only speak such nonsense in our own house.  He also had a mark for hitting another kid.  That kid is notorious for hitting everyone & Miles even said that he tried to go play somewhere else and the kid followed him.  I've seen it happen myself, so we opted to give him another try.  Yes, we're a little soft, but three out of four days isn't too bad. 

Tonsil Update

We had Miles' appointment with the ENT yesterday.  Dr. Resser was very nice.  He spent a lot of time with us and told relatable experiences that he's had with his own children.

To sum up our visit, Miles does have very large tonsils.  Dr. Resser believes that removing them could have positive results.  However, since we don't have a clear cut reason for taking them out, such as infections or definite sleep apnea, he said it might be best to drag our feet until he gets a little older.  In the meantime, he wants us to try a milk free diet to see if his tonsils will shrink at all.  He didn't seem to think this would have a huge impact but given Miles' sensitivity to milk, he thought it was definitely worth trying.  We also need to watch him while he's sleeping to see if he's using a lot of his upper body to breath and to see if he stops breathing at all, which indicates sleep apnea.  The ball is somewhat in our court to decide if and when we want to go ahead with a tonsillectomy. 

I promised Miles an ice cream cone if he was good at the appointment.  Ironic that we were told to try a milk free diet and yet he ate ice cream on the way home.  I guess it was the last splurge.  I stopped by daycare on our way home and talked with them about his new restrictions.  They are used to a few things with him, such as only almond milk and no grape juice, but this is obviously more intense.  They were great and actually started today.  Thankfully this isn't a serious allergy that will close his throat or anything.  Darrin and I don't have dairy/milk on our new diet, so at least we don't have to go through the learning process with Miles.  The hardest foods for Miles to live without will be string cheese, yogurt, and pizza.  Thankfully marshmallows and Bisquick (for his pancakes made with almond milk) are milk free.  I think as long as we offer him plenty of options, he'll be fine. The kid gobbled up tacos without cheese on brown rice tortillas last night, and creamy chicken tomato soup tonight.  Clearly, he's not too picky.

If I had to guess, I'd say that he'll get them taken out one day.  Dr. Resser said that his daughter's situation was a lot like Miles and now he looks back and feels strongly that having them removed was the right decision.  Only time, and a milk free diet, will tell. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday night, Darrin & I had a date night.  We got a babysitter for Miles and went to Jackson to do some shopping for the house and out to dinner.  We usually have one date night a month, so we decided that it would be a cheat night from our diet once a month.  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings.  It was so good, but we both left feeling a little sick.  Well worth it though.

Saturday, Darrin's team had a tournament in Memphis.  Miles and I went grocery shopping early and then went to see the Easter Bunny.  He was really excited, which is a little surprising since he does not like character at all. 

Peeking in to see the Easter Bunny, who he now says lives here...

A little reserved at first...

The lady taking the pictures told Miles to give the Easter Bunny a high five, and then he warmed up to him...

He loved him & had a great time seeing him...

On the way home, he informed me that he was just a man dressed up as the Easter Bunny.  I asked why he thought that.  He said b/c the real Easter Bunny, like in the Rise of the Guardians, is gray and this Easter Bunny was white.  Pretty good reasoning skills if you ask me.

After the Easter Bunny visit, we took a three hour nap.  I needed it so much and I think he did too.  When he rolled over after three hours, he had a sticker on his eye, like an eye patch.  No idea what happened there...

We colored some pretty pictures and hung out at home for the rest of the day.

Today was our usual Sunday....church & naps.  One funny Miles story before I call it a night.  Darrin was washing dishes this afternoon.  I walked by and flicked some water at him.  Miles told Darrin that he would put water on me to get me back.  Miles disappeared and we carried on with what we were doing.  A minute later I felt something cold on my foot.  He was pouring his water bottle in my shoe.  As Darrin put it, I guess we know he'll take up for us. 

Double Trouble

Miles & Ava....these two are so much alike they should be siblings for sure instead of cousins. They test you to the nth degree...they have a hard time listening & obeying the first time, especially without talking back...they are talkative, mischievous, and seem to lack remorse....but at the same time, they definitely aren't mean spirited, and they are two of the funniest kids you will ever meet....witty beyond their years.

Miles had a rough day at daycare on Friday.  The teachers usually write a sentence or two to let you know what he did wrong, but yesterday, I had a paragraph.  To sum it up, he wouldn't listen...when the teacher tried to talk to him he acted silly...he took toys from other kids....and he threw sand in a kid's face outside.  All of this led to a trip to the office.  The paragraph closed by saying that they hoped taking him to the office would make him take it more seriously "as this type of behavior is fairly consistent".  Excellent.

Let me interject here that I understand airing your kid's behavior issues on a blog isn't for everyone.  And, I did ask Crystal if it was ok that I wrote about Ava.  We take Miles' behavior seriously....but at the same time, not too seriously.  I want him to be respectful and learn as he grows up, but he's a kid and we LOVE his spunky personality.  If he's loving and caring and healthy and happy, we don't need the most well behaved child in the room.

To speak to his hilarious personality, yesterday he said probably the funniest thing he's ever said.  I'll try to do it justice, but you probably had to be there.  Darrin & I went on a date last night, so I was in the bathroom getting ready after work.  I had just picked Miles up from school so I was telling Darrin about his day.  I thought Miles was in the living room.  I said to Darrin, "What are we going to do with him?"  Immediately, Miles popped his head around the corner and said "Get rid of me?" in the form of a question.  It was priceless.

Another story....on our drive home from daycare I was talking to him about his day.  He kept acting silly and interrupting me.  I finally told him not to say another word...he tried to talk...I cut him off and said, "not one more word from your smart mouth".  So, he started humming.  And, when we got home, he said "Mom, you called me a smarf (smart mouth)".  He's so funny, you can't possibly stay mad at him.  Darrin & I secretly laugh for hours about his smarf.

Next week, we are going to try a little positive reinforcement.  If he's good every day at school, no marks, notes, or time outs, we will go to Walmart and pick out a toy.  Toys speak to his heart.  We've tried positive reinforcement before and it didn't work, but he's a little older now.  It's worth another try.

Randomness

Just a little randomness for this Thursday night.  I felt a little better today after going to bed at 6:30pm last night due to a headache.  Miles was very concerned about me feeling badly.  He kept telling Darrin that he was going to check on me.  He brought me his Teddy and told me I could keep him until I felt better.  He also said that he had just the thing to make me feel better, which was a pink blanket that my mom made for me.  I use it every time I lay on the couch.  He also brought me his toy lantern in case I needed to see something.  As you can see, he took great care of me.  After a trip to the chiropractor and a workout tonight, I feel pretty good right now. 

When I picked Miles up from school today, he ran to hide from me.  He was looking back at me and ran into the rock wall.  You could tell instantly that it hurt.  He had a nice little knot within minutes.  Mr. Chris was nice enough to send us home with an ice pack.  Miles milked it for a couple hours.  He seems to be fine now and the knot went down quickly...

Darrin put Miles in time out tonight for not listening, which is his typical offense.  When his 4 minutes were up, Darrin went back to get him and Miles had pulled his recliner to the time out spot (the front door) and was laying in it...fully reclined.  The kid is no dummy.

He has a new obsession, which is a blue penguin that he calls Tweet Tweet.  Miles won him at Sea World two years.  We've not seen much of Tweet Tweet over the last two years, but he's very popular all of the sudden.  Miles took him to school as his sleep toy for nap time.  Tonight he hooked Tweet Tweet up in the recliner and read stories to him....

Today is Day 4 of my meatless diet.  I'm starving....and the headaches have not subsided at all.  I also gave up chocolate and nuts b/c I eat a lot of both of those and they are known to cause headaches also.  I'm quite relieved that chocolate is not the culprit.  I really love chocolate.  Next week, I'm going to add these three back in and exclude four other foods that are related to headaches: bananas, eggs, oats, and garlic.  Please Lord, let it be any of these.  I can certainly deal with eliminating any of the four, or all four, for the rest of my life, if it meant no headaches.

Well, I think that is all of this somewhat pointless post.  I read a lot of blogs.  I only know 50% of the people whose blogs I read.  I tend to find their everyday lives most interesting.  Here's hoping you feel the same.  Good night!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Allie

We helped celebrate Allie's birthday tonight at Wee Play, which is a jumpy place.  Miles has been very excited about her party.  He was so sad this morning when he figured out that he had to go to school first and then the party.  When I picked him up from daycare, he was ready to go!

Miles and Ansley racing to get in the bounce house....

They have two bounce houses and a big slide.  He went down the slide a million times, but when I asked him what his favorite thing was, he said this big bounce house...

The birthday girl & Presley...

Presley & Ansley...what cute friends...

There were a ton of kids at the party and I think Miles thought that he was the only one there.  He smothered Allie with attention.  He wanted her beside him all night....eating pizza, cake, playing, opening presents....I think he said her name a hundred times :)  I told them I wanted a picture and this is what I got...

At least his feelings seem to be reciprocated.  Happy Birthday Allie!!!

The Last Word

Miles has been having a little trouble at school lately....well, and at home for that matter.  He has this little problem of talking back.  He must have the last word.  As I've mentioned on here before, getting in trouble at school is nothing new.  He seems to have streaks of it.  He's good for a while and then he's consistently bad.  Truth be told, I think a lot of the "good" days only happened b/c his teachers didn't write his time outs on his sheet.

At first it really bothered me when he would misbehave at school.  I certainly don't like it now, but I've come to accept that he's a 3 year old boy that just has to learn.  We try not to practice double jeopardy.  I feel like his teachers are very capable of disciplining him at school and at his age I think that's what needs to happen.  We usually talk to him about it but I try not to come down on him too hard when he's already paid for his crime.  However, when it comes to disrespect, I just can't handle that.  Talking back is definitely in the disrespect category.  Yesterday, he went to time out for refusing to stop yelling at a teacher to the point that he had to be taken out of the room.  Oh my.

We had a very stern talk on the way home and then he had to make a card for the teacher he yelled at.  I know this doesn't qualify as punishment, but I thought it would be good for him.  We practiced his apology.  We also practiced appropriate responses that don't involve talking back.  He worked so hard on his card...

 

I would love to report that he didn't go to time out today, but he did...twice.  Once for hitting a friend b/c the friend called him "Co Co".  Serious stuff, I know.  The other was for throwing a toy.  I can actually live with that and consider it a success that there was no talking back :)

Lyme & Diet Updates

I had a phone appointment with my doctor today & realized I haven't updated the blog about my Lyme in a while.  There hasn't been much to report.  I have a lot more good days than bad now, which is such an improvement.  The main issues I deal with are headaches & night sweats.  I still have headaches 3-4 times a week and the night sweats are just nagging....such a pain.  The headaches hurt.  My head hurts right now.  If you don't get headaches often, be thankful.  It would be amazing to not have them consistently. 

After talking to my doctor today, here is our plan.  I am having blood work done for an ECP test, which checks for certain protein levels.  High levels indicate the presence of parasites.  Sounds freakish, but everyone has parasites in their body.  If the tests show high levels, we are going to add an herbal treatment for Babesia.  I am going to continue the homeopathic treatment for Bartonella.  My doctor thinks this could be the infection that is causing my night sweats.  Lastly, he wants me to try a meatless diets to see if it helps my headaches.  He said I might have a sensitivity to meat.  The plan is to eliminate all meat and eggs for 1 week.  If my headaches improve at all, then I will continue to see if they will go away.  If the headaches go away, I will gradually add back in different meats and eggs until I see which one bothers me.  Since we are on the new diet anyway, eliminating meat really won't be that big of a deal, especially since it may only be a couple weeks.  I wish it would help my headaches, but I have no confidence that it will.  However, I would gladly give up meat if I meant giving up the headaches too. 

Speaking of the new diet....it has gotten so much easier.  I wanted to give up after 2 days, but Darrin encouraged me to continue.  I had every excuse in the book...I like to cook & this is no fun....I like to bake & I can't....I'm hungry....it's too expensive...we can't live like this forever and function....and to top it off, we were both so grouchy the first week.  We argued nonstop.  This sounds crazy, but the withdrawals you go through mentally and physically are so strong.  After we got through that first week, it's been great ever since.  The cravings are all but gone, we are eating far less than we used to, I am sleeping much better, and the grouchiness is as good as it gets :)

We are learning new things to cook, and I will admit it's actually fun.  We bought a new food processor and I am in love.  I think Darrin secretly loves it too.

We made our own peanut butter...

...and Reece cups...

....and smoothies & ice cream & salsa & cereal, but I don't have pictures to show for those.  We've even made "sausage" patties out of ground chicken.  I think I can survive on the diet as long as I have the Reese cups and Darrin feels the same except it's all about the peanut butter for him.  I've tried versions of this diet many times & failed.  The key is having both of us do it together.  We are slowly trying to get Miles switched over too.  If you would have asked me the first week I would have said that we'll never stick with this, but I'm starting to feel like the diet might be here to stay.

How It All Began

I just finished watching the Bachelor finale. They actually seemed very genuine.  The way they talked and acted reminded me of mine and Darrin's relationship from the start.  It dawned on me that I don't think I've ever told you all this story.  If I have, forgive me.  It's one of my favorites.

Darrin and I started working at Goodyear the same week in 1999.  I'm dead serious when I say that the very first thing I did when I was introduced to him was look to see if he had on a wedding ring. There was something that immediately drew me too him.  Even though he was not wearing a ring, he was in fact married.  Fast forward a couple months.  I heard that he was moving to Florida and that there was  possibly some trouble in paradise.  I didn't know him all that well but I remember feeling sad that he was moving and that I wouldn't see him any more.  Life went on and before long Darrin and his wife were moving back to the area to work things out, and he was trying to get a job in the same department as me.  Not b/c of me....it was just a great department to be in.  He was hired and we began working together a lot.  We worked opposite shifts but often had to cover for someone or work over time.  We became friends, and great co-workers, but nothing more. 

Then one night everything changed.  The two of us were sitting in the office before the shift start and he casually said, "I think I'm getting a divorce."  We had never talked about stuff like that so I think I probably just said that I was sorry or something like that. He seemed shocked and relieved to say it.  There wasn't much else said b/c it was time for the shift to start.  I never told him, but in my head I thought "this is it".  There was no doubt in my mind that we would be together. I realize that sounds very opportunistic, but it really wasn't.  I just felt strongly that we had a connection.  It's hard to explain.  We never flirted and he had no idea that I had those thoughts until months later.  Just to be clear, his divorce was completely separate from me.  This conversation and my thoughts occurred around February or March.  His divorce was final on May 3, 2001, which was also our first date.  This is a picture from our first date.

I'm pretty sure we both knew that night that we would be married....but we waited two whole months and actually got engaged on July 17, 2001.  We freaked our friends & families out, some more than others.  They all showed it in different ways....some were very supportive, others raised strong objections, others thought we were crazy, and some friends even thought I was pregnant (which they told me years later). Most people just wished us the best and feared the worst. 

We got married on October 6, 2001, with no doubt in either of our minds that we had found the person that we were meant to be with.  Twelve years later, we still run in to people from Goodyear and they always want to know if we are still married.  I'm sure it seemed crazy from the outside, but we knew exactly what we were doing.  When you know, you know.....and we had no doubt. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Warning this might be the most boring post ever.  Not feeling very bloggy and we had an uneventful weekend.  It went like this.  Friday night, Darrin left for Louisville.  Miles & I went out to dinner and then rented two Redbox movies.  As I was checking out at Redbox and a women told me what the promo code was for the day.  I've seen something on Pinterest that says "never pay for Redbox again" but I've never tried it.  Well, this woman's code worked & it was free!  I searched online for a code the next day and got another free one.  The code I used on the second day said that it was an ongoing code for 2013.  You might want to try it....DVDONME.  Miles watched ParaNorman and The Tiny Kingdom, and I rented The Help but never actually watched it.  I kept it for two days, so I guess Red Box still made some money off of me.

Saturday, we met Carrie & Ansley at the gym.  Then Miles and I went grocery shopping.

After grocery shopping, Miles got a haircut.  Carrie gave me a little tip that Rural King has baby chicks this time of year and it serves as great bribery, which I decided to use during his haircut.  Haircuts have the potential to be a nightmare with him.  Unfortunately his hair grows quickly, so we have to go every 3-4 weeks.  Candy & the baby chick bribe worked like a charm.  He was excellent...probably the best he's ever been during a hair cut.  We took our own cape again (hooded towel) and that seemed to help too.  After the haircut, we went straight to Rural King.  Unfortunately they were sold out of baby chicks :(  Surprisingly he was ok with the free popcorn instead.  They are supposed to get some more this week, so I'll make good on my promise eventually.

Saturday night, we hung out at home.  Darrin got home around 10:30pm.  Church today, and then long naps for Miles & me, while Darrin enjoyed the quiet & caught up on his DVR shows.  We also did lots of laundry, errands, cooking, getting food ready for the week, selling consignment clothes, shopping online, obsessing about the house, etc.  It's been a good, productive weekend at home.  Hope yours was good too!

Randomness About Miles

The other day Miles stayed home with Darrin so they could have a male bonding day.  That night I had to clear the following off my bed, just to go to sleep.  He is never without a superhero accessory.  One of his teachers told me today that the boys always play Power Rangers, Transformers, super heroes, etc, but Miles is always a Ninja Turtle no matter what anyone else is.

My conversation with Miles the other day...
Miles: "Mom, when persons want to grow, they have to be patient.  You have to be patient Mom."
Me: "So, you think I'll grow?"
Miles: "Yes. Right now you are medium sized."

My view while I put on my make up the other day...sleepyhead...

Tonight at dinner he said that he got in trouble for kissing at school today.  I asked him who he kissed.  He said Neeley during circle time.  I asked if she was upset or if she was ok.  He confidently said that she was ok :)  I guess he's too old to be kissing his friends at school, but it makes me sad.  He's so affectionate and I hate to take that innocence away from him. 

Darrin fell asleep on the couch the other night.  He said he woke up in the middle of the night and Miles was staring at him.  When Darrin opened his eyes and looked at him, Miles leaned down and kissed Darrin's arm....then walked to the frig and got a drink of water....then walked back to bed.  This house has been a miracle in regards to sleep.  He went from not sleeping all night in his bed ever in the old house, to sleeping all night, every night in this house.  I really hope the new house doesn't mess it up.

He has been asking for a belt for a while now.  I finally ordered one online the other day.  I also ordered some pants with belt loops b/c we currently have none.  He's been asking me everyday if it's in the mail yet...meaning the mailbox.  It arrived today.  He had to try it on immediately (with his dirty shirt from daycare).  He was so proud... 

Wordless Wednesday