Pics of the Birthday Princess and Miss Abby

Happy Birthday Isabel Rose!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE ISABEL ROSE! ONE YEAR OLD TODAY! OMG- time has flown by way too fast. I can't believe she is already one! We will not have birthday pics to share until after Easter. We will be celebrating everyone's birthdays from Feb- April belatedly when we stay in the Dells with Kendel's family next week. Kendel's parents missed all the birthdays while in Texas for winter, so we are going to kind of celebrate late for everyone. Kendel's was on 3/22, Abby's was on 3/16, mine on 2/8, and now Isabel's on 4/8. So, I'll post some when we get back.

Love to everyone.

Too much going on at once

Sorry hasn't been an update in awhile. There never seems to be much time for anything else lately, but thankfully Thaniel and Abby's sport seasons have come to end this past weekend, so that gives us a break from all the crazy running around all week long to practices (for Thaniel anyway, Abby has her gymnastics practice year round), and all weekend long to games and meets. So, hopefully things will settle down a little bit with that, but now Thaniel is driving me crazy with his "I'm so bored now" attitude with no more hockey to keep him busy and no more hockey to get his frustrations out on the ice. He doesn't know what to do with himself.

Abby just had her State meet this past weekend. She finally got her qualifying score at the meet two weekends ago to qualify her to go to State. She was so excited! She was really getting bummed that she hadn't met the score needed to qualify (which you have to get the score only once out of the whole season's meets to qualify), but I reminded her that this is her first year competing, and a lot of the other girls on the team, some whom have been competing for years, didn't qualify for State either. She is really hard on herself. But at the last meet before State, (where she got 3rd place on vault! woo hoo!) she got it!!! So, went off to Appleton on Sunday for her meet. Oma and Opa drove 3 hours to come meet me there to see her. They have been in Texas over the past 2 months escaping winter here, and keeping Grandma and Grandpa company down there. So, first time they've seen Isabel and Abby since Christmas. Isabel had her walking skills and 6 teeth to show off to Oma and Opa. She's getting to be such a big girl. Her vocabulary is "ohhhhhh", puppy, mummum, dada, and her favorite- "HHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"!!!! She says a long winded hi when you walk into her room to get her out of the crib, when you open the van door to get her out of her car seat, when someone new walks into the room... she's a friendly little one. Been into everything- her new favorite thing to do is scale the furniture! She's a monkey!

Well, big update to share about work. I have been training on 3rd shift at an assisted living facility to begin working weekends every Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Needless to say, I HATE it! Not just the lack of sleep, but the work environment itself. The residents all need a very high level of care, and the staff absolutely do not know the correct ways to handle them. They do not use gait belts, do not use the EZ stand available to them, do not do catheter care correctly, etc... they lift the residents under the arms, which is a huge "never do" to prevent injury to the residents frail arms and shoulders. I am extremely concerned and uncomfortable with everything I have been seeing during training. I talked with the manager, who I used to work with in the past, and now she is administrator there, and shared all of my concerns about what I had been witnessing, and she said she had no idea, and that she was glad I was there to set the right example on how things should be done. Yeah right! These girls don't want to be told by a new person how to do things or that the way they are doing it is wrong! They are really set in there ways and looked at me like I was crazy when I'd ask why aren't you using a gait belt, etc... they act like it's no big deal. The manager brought some of the things up that I mentioned in our staff meeting, and when I went in the next time to work, they pretty much had the attitude that what she didn't see wouldn't hurt her- that they had no intention of doing what they were told to do and would not be using gait belts, even though they were told at the staff meeting that they will have to sign a gait belt policy that gait belts will be used at all times, and you will be written up if they are not used. That didn't sink in. So, I don't know what to do. I'm miserable.

Anyhow, I'm home with Isabel and the kids all week, then work fri, sat, sun 3rd shift, and try to get some sleep off and on during the day. It hasn't been working out very well. I have been feeling sick from being so overtired.

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone else. Will try to keep updating more often.

Hockey

Thaniel's hockey team did well at the playdowns in Fond du lac this past weekend. They won both their games, and therefore won their chance to compete at State. So, Spooner it is this year for State.

Have been looking for work, but not much luck as of yet. Two of my past co-workers now have facilities of their own- Ann opened her own facility in Slinger, and Lynn is administrator at a facility here in West Bend. They both told me not to hesitate to call them if and when I decided to come back to work, since they knew I wouldn't be returning to Cedar Community (they weren't willing to work something out with me as far as a new part-time work schedule- either come back full-time, or not at all is what it pretty much came down to). I need weekend work only, so that has been difficult to find. They both only have prn work right now (fill in when others are absent from illness or vacation), so I may just do that and be patient until something more opens up. All other places locally are either not hiring for 3rd shift, or are hiring, but for part-time, which includes weekdays, which won't work for us due to Kendel's work schedule during the week. And if I worked weeknights, I would never get any sleep since I'd be up alone with Isabel all day, and only nap when she has her hour or so nap. I'm getting too old for no sleep like I used to do when working full-time 3rd when Abby was little. It took a huge toll on me, both physically and mentally. I was so burnt out all the time from exhaustion- got sick often. Don't want to go through that again. I need to get sleep to function. I'm still not sleeping well ever since leaving work after having Isabel. After working 3rd for so many years, I'm so used to being a night owl. Don't get to sleep most nights until after 1 am, and have to be up after 7:30am to get Abby off to school. Right after I usually just fall asleep is when Isabel gets up to nurse in the middle of the night, so then it is really hard to get back to sleep after that again. So, I am hoping I can find someplace closeby that will allow me to work every weekend (every Friday and Saturday night).

Hope everyone is doing well. Happy belated Valentine's Day! And thanks to those who wished me a happy 34th birthday- I'm getting old!!!!!!!!

Isabel the Giant

Yesterday was Isabel's 9/10 month well baby visit. She weighs 18 1/2 lbs. (has been thinning out due to being so active with crawling and walking along everything), which puts her in the 50th percentile for her weight. Her head circumference is in the 50th percentile, and low and behold, no surprise here.... she is over the 95th percentile for height. The pedatrician said she is the height of an average 19 month old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is only 10 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said that if she stays on this growth course, she will be the height of an average 26 month old by the time she is 19 months old. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!


She is being tested for food allergies. She has a reaction any time she has eaten carrots or tomato based baby foods (rash on face, hives), and when she eats cottage cheese, little tastes of icecream, yogurt, etc....anything dairy, she gets really cranky, throws up what looks like spoiled, curdled milk (smells like it too), and gets diarhhea and blaring red bottom. So, we are concerned what I will be able to have her start taking after done weaning from nursing. I will be going straight from nursing to the sippy cup. She's great with a cup when she has her juice throughout the day in between nursing. If she is allergic to cow's milk, there is a good chance she is allergic to soy's milk also due to they share similar proteins that may be what she is allergic to. So she said I may not be able to even have her drink formula out of a sippy cup since most formulas are made from either cow's milk or soy proteins. I was hoping to wean her around a year old, but she is already starting to show signs that she will start to wean herself. She has been showing less interest in nursing unless it is before nap or bedtime (I think it is more of a comfort thing then, snuggle time with mom). She is getting more distracted and wanting to explore and get back to playing instead of eating as well as she used to. She is a great eater otherwise, as far as solids go, so I am not too concerned she isn't getting enough. I am just concerned about getting the results from the allergy testing to find out what I will be able to switch her to once she's done nursing.

She is also exhibiting some warning signs for a need for pediatric orthotics. When she stands, she doesn't stand on the bottom of her feet. Her feet roll inward and she stands on the insides of her feet where her arch should be. But she doesn't have any- her feet are flat. So at her next check up (when she will be hopefully walking and the pediatrician can see her actually in action and see how her feet position when she is actually taking steps) it will be decided if she will need orthotics, which can get very costly since she would have to have a new one made every time she outgrows her current shoe size, which we all know, babies feet grow like crazy. Especially hers! She has had big feet from day one. She is already in a size 4 or 5 in toddler shoes. The orthotics will help to eventually force her feet to form arches, so she will not have problems in the future. It is much easier to form them when they are little and the bones more soft and pliable, than to wait til much later and have more problems and be much harder to fix.


So, alot of info and some things to worry about, but hopefully we'll get the results back from the tests soon so we know where to go from here, and we'll just have to take things one day at a time with the possible need for orthotics. I read that they can cost anywhere from $300-$600 each time you get a new one made, and that most insurances do not cover the cost. We will have to look into Kendel's insurance to see if it will be covered. Otherwise, we will really be struggling to afford that kind of cost. But you have to do what you have to do. So it will be done.

I will update when I find out more.

Abby

Abby had a gymnastics meet in Sheboygan today, and won 7th place in her age group for Beam (which actually has been one of her more difficult events, but she really did great today!) This was her first time she got to have her name announced and go up on the podium to stand on the 7th place spot and accept her ribbon. She was so surprised and excited! I was so happy for her. She was wondering when she would finally get to place in an event. So she is thrilled.

No hockey games for Thaniel today. He can't play til tomorrow. He's feeling much better though.

Thaniel has a hard head!

Well, Thursday's hockey practice gave Thaniel a little more than he bargained for... he decided to use his head to hit the ice instead of his stick! He took a bad fall and hit the back of his head on the ice. Although he had his helmet on, he still hit hard, and felt a little dizzy at first. The coach said when Thaniel stood up, he seemed to be a bit in a daze and was leaning to the left when taking the first few steps after standing up. Thaniel decided to still try to finish the drills they were working on, but the coach noticed Thaniel was a bit slow going, and then saw Thaniel walk off the ice. The coach let Kendel know what happened, and they called me. Told them to bring him home. Had two sleeping beauties here at home with me, so he had to come home first for me to check him out before deciding if he needed to go to the hospital or not. Since he didn't lose consciousness or get nauseous, I decided to keep him home and watch him through the night, and if anything changed and got worse, I'd take him in. His eyes hurt and he had a bad headache, so had him use ice and take ibuprofen. He woke up this morning feeling much better, but still had a throbbing headache. So took him in to see the doctor this morning, where she told me he had a minor concussion (which I already knew), and for him to wait to resume playing for the amount of time his symptoms take to disappear from the time of initial injury. Meaning, if he still has his headache until tonight at 9pm, that means he had his headache for 24 hours, and would then have to wait an additional 24 hours before he can get back on the ice. So, he's not too happy about that, because he has 4 games this weekend! He'll be missing Saturday's two games, and we'll see about Sunday. I think he should take advantage of the break and try to relax a little tomorrow, since very rarely does he have a weekend day without a game.

Abby has a gymnastics meet in Sheboygan tomorrow. Wish her luck. She has been improving and working hard. Still struggling a little with her beam and bar routine, but improving at every practice on those two. She has her back handspring down now. She's glad for that.