A Horror Story

Oh My Gosh! This story gets gross so if reading about poop grosses you out. Don't read!

I took my van in to get new tires. They told me it would be around 2 hours. Their shop is by a strip mall that has a Kmart, pet store and several other stores plus a Burger King in that same lot. I figured we would hit Kmart to return something, maybe the pet store and then off to BK to play and hit while we wait.

Last week we were at Kmart because they had some cool shirts in their ad for $4. The shirts were Mario! They had other character shirts as well. So we go buy several $4 shirts plus some some shorts for Max. The shorts were $6 so not a huge sale but he is kinda hard to buy shorts/pants for so I got a few. Well some did not fit him so I returned those that day. But the fun had not even started yet....

Max decided he was way too cool to be seen with us and decided to run off. He used to be the worst at running off but really doesn't do it anymore. And even when he does run off now he stays close and keeps an eye out for me. He tries to guess what isle I will go down then run down another isle trying to beat me to the end. Today we was all over the place. He wasn't staying that close. I needed some light bulbs so went there first. Max never found us there. The light bulbs are kinda stuck back in a far corner. I kinda think "screw it, he will find us" and go towards the underwear section. I'm looking at undies when Max reappears. He pokes his head around the corner and smiles as if to say, "HA! I found you!" I inform him he is now in trouble and will be spending time in his room once we get home and that he is to stay by my side the rest of the trip.

Sam and Joe are peeking around at him and then say, "what smells like poop!?" Then Joe announces Max has poop on his leg. WHAT? Oh my goodness, does he ever! I look at him and about die. He has been running around Kmart for people to see and he has poop ALL over his leg. Not just a little poop either. He obviously had diarrhea and it was ALL over the back of him, down his shorts leg, down his leg and on both shoes! The smell could have knocked someone over. I think about what the heck I'm gonna do. I'm in Kmart, my car is across a parking lot (well, more like behind Kmart), I have no extra clothes with me and I have a child covered in poop.

I do keep extra clothes in the car for each child. However I used Max's last week b/c the car ride to Columbia to visit my sister and a large soda from McD don't mix too well for Max. Once there I realized his extra clothes were a tad bit small anyway. I had to use lots of muscle to get those shorts up!

Think. Go pick out new shorts, pay for them then hit the bathroom. Max waddles over with me to get shorts. I try to hide his shame by walking behind him and staying far away from people. Guess what? The shorts I bought last week for $6 are now on sale and cost less than $3. I pick out 2 pairs and he waddles back towards the bathroom. I tell him to go in there and wait for me, "do not touch anything!" I pay for 1 pair of shorts at electronics, which is right outside the bathrooms. $2.60 later I open the bathroom door. Max has taken his clothes off, thrown them in the floor, sitting on the toilet with poop everywhere and the bathroom stall door opened. If anyone would have opened the bathroom door they would have gone running and screaming away in horror. I attempt to clean max up. It was a very messy job! Luckily (if that's what you want to call it!) for me, there was a huge roll of bathroom paper towels sitting in there. I was able to use lots of those and got most of him cleaned up. Never have a wanted a shower stall so badly!

We finish up in Kmart and finally leave an hour after we arrived! We go visit the pet store. The kids LOVE this pet store. They got to hold all sorts of pets. We spent another hour in there. Yes, an hour! The mechanic called and said my car was done. We walked back over paid and left. They kids still wanted to play in BK so we went there to eat and play.

We order, sit down, take Ike to the bathroom, play. Max played for less than 5 minutes and guess what? he crapped himself again. This time he was commando though. BUT, nothing fell out, thank God! It was more of a squirt. I know, you're glad I shared that. I tell the other kids to start finding their shoes. We were the only ones there by the way. I am glad I picked out 2 shorts at Kmart though!

When we finally get home he goes straight to the shower. He stank! Then went to his room for running off at the store. Where he fell asleep.

What a "stinky" kind of day!

A funny

OK, so being a mom you hear and say some crazy things. Like "don't eat your foot" is one I can think of. Max will gnaw on his toes and it drives me crazy after awhile.

But the one I thought you might find funny is this one....

Joe was playing the Wii while I was getting dinner started one night. Joe starts yelling "MOM".... Which the kids do ALL THE TIME. Joe asks for help a lot while playing games. So this time I think the same thing. I yell for him to come to me if he needs me for something. I few minutes later he comes to the kitchen with only a shirt on. "Mom, I need help wiping my bottom." Nice!

1 year ago

One year ago I was having surgery getting my tonsils and adenoids removed. It seems like forever ago.

I am SO glad I had it done. Given a choice between strep throat or a tonsillectomy, I would SO pick the tonsillectomy in a heart beat. I hate Strep throat that much. Plus my tonsillectomy was pretty easy.

Guess what most of my Google searches are that reach my blog.... Pictures of my throat after my tonsillectomy. You can find those HERE and HERE.

I have had a couple sore throats within the last year but nothing too bad. Nothing I ever went to the doctor for and nothing that kept me from doing my daily things.

So happy my tonsillectomy went smoothly and I no longer suffer with Strep throat!

Ike and his cute lips

Ike has a thing about injuring his lips. He has poked his tooth/teeth through his lips at least 2 times. I think 3 times. The last time was on a vacation and I didn't look too close. I knew he would be fine and well, the blood kinda grosses me out. He is all the time hurting his lips. They are cute and pouty.

His teeth take a beating as well. He still has all his teeth and has no chips that I know of. However, several weeks ago he was jumping on the bed and Max's foot somewhere ending up hitting Ike's mouth. I almost want to say this was on purpose but I don't know. He did cut his lips...as always. But within a couple of days I noticed Ike's tooth was turning colors. It was dying. So now his front bottom tooth is darker in color. Not too noticeable but I notice it. It is very noticeable from the inside of his mouth. As in, the back side of his teeth.

Ike loves to jump off our bed and onto our couch, which is right in front of the foot of our bed. He hits his head All the time but still he does this. So the other night he was doing this while I was sitting on the couch watching TV. Then I hear a loud bang and Ike starts crying. Nothing new! I scoop him up and he of course has blood coming from his lip area. His bottom front teeth looked a little further out than normal but I didn't want to look too close yet. Remember blood grosses me out. It makes me all queasy and light headed. I hate that I can't handle blood. I take him to the bathroom and start getting him cleaned up with a cold wet washcloth. I have him sit on my lap for a little bit and he whimpers for awhile.

I finally look at a his lips and teeth. I never could find a real cut on his lips. Maybe a small one but it was too much blood for that little cut. I should also mention he already had good size bruise/ blood spot on his upper lip before this even took place. I have no idea how he go it either. The blood was coming from his teeth. He somehow hit his 2 bottom teeth and pulled them forward just a little bit. Not much but enough to make them bleed and feel wiggly. He had a blood line around his teeth. I know they will tighten back up. He didn't hit them THAT hard. But now I wait and see if his other bottom front tooth will die and match the other one.

That boy is hard on his face! Will my kids ever learn to not jump on beds? Broken bones and so many bloody lips I can't even count.

The count down is about to start

I can barely believe Summer is almost over. Already? My kids go back August 17 and Joe starts Kindergarten August 18. Way too soon. Tuesday is registration day at school. We go fill out forms and pay money. I know, sounds like fun. I also get to pick up the yearbook from last school year that was NOT ready before school got out. They did have a meet up a few weeks after school got out up at the playground to pick them up but I missed that.

Summer has flown by. June we stayed home. We did swimming and soccer and just hung out enjoying the school break. July we have gone to the grandparents for a little over a week to hang out. It was fun. We are doing it again at the end of this week. Last week we went to visit my sister for a few days and we hung out there and had fun. She has 3 boys. The oldest was gone at a camp for the week, the middle was there to entertain my kids and the baby was also there to entertain my kids! Max and Sam love helping out with the baby.

We are going to visit the grandparents again but this will be a little different. The last half of our stay my sister in law and 2 nieces will be there as well. The girls are Max's and Sam's age. They LOVE hanging out together. They live in Chicago so we don't get to see them as much as we would like to.

Summer is busy and fun. Not lots of time for blogging.... as you can tell! Maybe once school starts back up I'll post more regularly.

3 weeks left of Summer break....

Summer Fun and Step Up walk

I've been absent from posting anything for awhile. The kids and I went to visit the grandparents. Still visiting. We have been here for a week already. We plan on heading home tomorrow though.

We have been having lots of fun. Over the weekend Pete came down and we did the Step Up for Down syndrome walk in Springfield, MO. After the walk was a baseball game with the Springfield's minor league team, the Cardinals. It was all fun. I expected it to be small scale. We live in the Kansas City area and that is the biggest walk in the country I believe. Springfield's goal was to have 1000 walkers. Not sure they met that goal or not but it was close. They did meet and exceed the $ goal. So that is good.

During the days we have been hanging out, relaxing. We have gone swimming every single day. We will go back home a couple shades darker. My parents have a pool in their backyard which is nice because we can go out and come back in for food or whatever we want. My inlaws have a neighborhood pool which we visit with them. It is also nice but different since you have a life guard watching your every move. Still fun though.

We have gone to Chuck E Cheese, I know your are all jealous, and gone out for ice cream plus went shopping at Toys R Us. I don't have many pictures as I have just been enjoying the kids. I do have a couple pictures from the Step up walk but they are still on my camera.

We plan on doing this again in a couple weeks. It has been fun. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers before it's over!

couple of pictures

A silly picture of the June birthday boys.....
And a picture of all 4 kiddos together loving on each other....


The lovin' is only for the picture; Don't be mistaken!

Seriously

Ok, so I had the dirty work done of getting Max's blood draw just a couple days ago. Yesterday I got a message that I needed to call the phone nurse in the morning. It was after 5 when I got the call.

The kids and I saw Toy Story 3 yesterday. That is when they called. So I obviously didn't answer the phone.

So Friday morning I get another message (around the crack of dawn). Well, around here the crack of dawn is a little later than most people's houses! I call back and we play phone tag.

I really didn't think too much about it. Then laying in bed this morning I start thinking, "what if it's about his CBC and not cholesterol?"

She called me back pretty shortly. She said Max has high Cholesterol. His total level was 145 and it should be 110. I am to monitor his diet and retest in 6 months. If I want a nutritionist recommended, they can do so. Isn't that nice. Well, Max is one of the pickiest eaters I know. He lives on pizza. He eats no meat. He does like yogurt, pastas, fruits (although some of those must be canned) and breads. He drinks Orange juice, watered down some. He will drink chocolate milk but I rarely serve it to him for some reason.

OK, I know he has a horrible diet. No need to see a nutritionist to tell me that. I'm sure her recommendation would be a different diet, after her shock wore off! So I'm think what I can do to change his diet. I already limit his pizza intake per day. I can try to cut it back even more and also make our own with fat free cheese. I could give him more yogurt and fruits.

So after thinking about it I decide to google kids cholesterol levels. According to several sites, including American Heart Association, levels in children should be 170 or lower. High levels start at 200. Max's was 145. Why is his considered high? It is within normal limits. Is there a Down syndrome factor that I am unaware of? I doubt it. I need to call them back to talk about it.

Re-testing in 6 months? God, I hope not. I hope the doctors tell me he is good to go and no need to re-test.


EDITED to add....
I called them up and they said his total was 217 and LDL was 145. So then, yes, he has high cholesterol. I guess that means in 6 months he will go through torture again. Poor baby! I am guessing this is heridtiy though and not dietary. That stinks!! I will still try to modify his diet some and see where we get. Now I'll have to ask to get Sam's tested at her 7 year appointment. That should be just as fun!!

Help Zhora (and Charlie) get home

OK, well if you were reading my blog around Christmas time you know I was closely watching Joseph and Charlie from Reece's Rainbow. I am happy to say Joseph is close to getting home. His parents are also adopting a little girl named Zoya. She is also adorable. You can follow that family here. Their parents have been over in Ukraine now for several weeks trying to get it all worked out.

Then there is Charlie. The other half of that incredibly cute duo. He also has a family coming for him really soon. That family has also decided to adopt another cutie pie-- Zhora.

So these 2 cute boys have saved 2 other cuties. If they were adopted together what are the chances Zoya or Zhora would have been adopted as well? So it will all work out.

Anyway, the family that is adopting Charlie and Zhora (will be going by the name Levi) is SO close to finishing up their fund-raising.

Lisa, another mom, fell in love with Zhora and has been working hard trying to find a family for Levi and trying to raise lots of money for him. So once again she has bought an Ipod touch to give away in a drawing. To enter click on these button...


Click here for more
details!!

All donations are tax deductible through Reece's Rainbow.

Each $10 donation will enter you one time in the drawing for the iPod Touch.

$20 enters you twice and $25 enters you 3 times in the drawing.

All donations go directly to Zhora's grant fund.
Ends July 24th.

You can follow Charlie and Levi's adoption blog HERE.

I can't wait to see all these kids with their new mommy's and daddy's at HOME!