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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Excitement!

I just wanted to share some really exciting news with y'all!  This morning, it has been 72 hours since Delilah wore her last diaper.  We have begun potty training!! The mornings seem to be the hardest on her - she had maybe six accidents the first day, two accidents the second day (woohoo!!), and yesterday was really really rough - I lost track after the 10th pair of undies.  All of her accidents, though, have been before 2:00 pm.   So, from roughly two until bedtime, she has been going only on the potty 100% of the time.  It's awesome!! She is recognizing everything a bit more now - she even runs to the potty whenever she has to toot (lol).

Since her language skills are still not up to par, she can not say "Pee pee" or "Potty," or anything like that.  She can say "poo poo" which she uses for every bodily function down there.  She gets an excited yet somewhat nervous looks on her face, yells "poo poo! poo poo!" and jumps up and down as she struggles to get her undies off and onto the toilet.  She has not had a single accident where she first said "poo poo" and then went - she has always made it to the potty on time if she recognizes she has the urge to go.

I saw this method on YouTube, where you just quit the diapers cold turkey and give the child regular underwear, and during nap time and bed time, Pull-Ups.  I can't remember the method we used with Keegan, I am guessing it was similar though, because I do remember doing a whole lot of laundry.  Anyway, it seems to be working so far.  We are all so excited and proud of Lila, but as you can see in the picture, nobody is more proud of her than herself.  You should see how she beams every time she goes on the potty.  :)


Saturday, February 23, 2013

Will You Settle for Three?

I tried to get some good pictures when we took the kids to the zoo in Tyler, Texas a couple weeks ago. It was a really rainy day and the kids weren't in the best of moods, so three pictures it is! Heh. Trust me, I wish I had gotten more too.  I love looking back at all of the wonderful pictures I've gotten of the kids, I always kick myself when I miss an opportunity to get more. 




"What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce."  -Karl Lagerfeld

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Lemons

When it rains, it pours.  I'm really not one to complain; I usually try to find the silver lining in every situation.  I feel like recently I've been hit with one thing after another and I can barely hold my head above water.  As a blogger, writer, artist, what have you - it will probably help me to get everything out there, so that is what I intend to do.  Right now.

I think I posted before about my concurrent and ongoing health issues that start back in August.  I have had every test under the sun in the past 5-6 months, from blood tests to ultrasounds to MRIs.  The stress of the unknown didn't help any.

Then, around Thanksgiving, a very dear friend of ours was diagnosed with Stage 3A Colon Cancer, not to mention my grandmother's recent diagnosis of Uterine and Colon cancers.  You just never think of a thirty-year-old fit and healthy guy as even having the possibility of getting sick.  For those wondering - David is doing well right now; he is on his six week break from chemotherapy and radiation until his surgery in April, where they will will remove his whole large intestine and rectum.  He is in good spirits for now and has a wonderful support system built of family and friends standing by his side!

I thought I had caught a break on January 1st when my symptoms finally stopped.  Could I be so lucky? 2013 seemed to have brought me some relief and hope for a better year.  That all changed when I got the phone call from my doctor on January 4th, giving me my diagnosis.  I am not quite ready to share so publicly what that is just yet - I have known for a little over a month now and I seem to learn something new about it every day, and it's never an easy pill to swallow.  I don't want to worry anybody though, so know that it is not life-threatening as this point. It is something physically wrong with my body and has to do with my central nervous system. It's not a mental illness, but the easiest way for me to describe it at the moment while keeping this to private is to relate it to dementia - it starts out slow, but there is no cure. I can change things about my life and get on controller medicines to help with some of the symptoms, but it will progress. Hopefully it does so at the slowest rate possible. It has definitely been life-altering; it crushed a previous dream of mine, one that I am really struggling to let go of.

And then there was Natalie's accident on the 8th.  Oh goodness.  I feel like every time I think of her or see her picture (which is multiple times daily) it hits me all over again.  Did this really happen?  Is she really gone?  A random picture of her will resurface on Facebook, most of them bringing me to smile from ear to ear and even laugh out loud - if you knew Natalie, you know that this is no surprise.  She made people laugh, that's just what she did, what she has always done.  She made people feel better. She brightened up every room she walked in.  She included everybody.  She loved everybody.  Everybody loved her.  Everybody loves her.  I see that smile - you know the one, where you can see and feel how genuinely happy she is - and her infectious energy surrounds me.  It's bittersweet, really.  I feel such great joy seeing that smile, and I think to myself, This is Natalie's way of comforting me, with that incredible smile and the memories she left behind...  Then I feel overwhelming grief as those last words replay in my mind.. She left behind, she left behind... She left.  She is gone.  I know it, I saw her.  I couldn't feel her awesome energy when I said my last goodbyes to her.  She wasn't there.  Maybe the immediate comfort I feel whenever seeing her picture really is her shining through, her way of telling me to please not be sad for her, that she is having a blast up in Heaven with all of our other friends that are up there.  She's probably kicking Tommy's butt up and down the basketball court, maybe even playing lacrosse with Cameran.  I am sure she is so glad to be with Merrill again.

Amidst all of this, I still have to carry on.  I have two wonderful munchkins that depend on me, I don't want to let them down.  As many of you know, we have been struggling to reach Delilah's developmental milestones, and that has also been weighing heavily on my mind.  She is about a year behind in her speech development.  We had her hearing test, and while she has some hearing loss in her left ear, it is not enough to constitute as "hearing impaired," which leaves me thinking maybe it's cognitive.  They say most children are ready to potty train between 22 and 30 months (with girls being even sooner than boys); Lila is about 31 months now, and has absolutely no interest in potty training and has a full diaper every morning.  I know she is still young and I'm probably nitpicking (heck, KP wasn't potty trained until 33 months - but he's a boy), but every little thing with her now worries me.  My anxiety doesn't help this.

So, as for the lemons..  They say "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  I really just don't know how to make lemonade right now.  I know I am blessed in so many ways, and there are people out there that have it far worse than I, it's just hard to see all that through the muck.  Bear with me; I'll get there.

Friday, February 1, 2013

January Pictures

Here are some of our pictures from this month, mostly of our recent trip to the duck pond! (Weather here is unpredictable, to say the least - 75°F (24°C) one day and 35°F (1-2°C) the next).  Enjoy!







 ^^ way overexposed, I know - I just really love the colors!



 ^^ this is one of my favorites!