An Ordinary Tuesday Made Extraordinary

I have to confess that some days, I don't enjoy my job as a mommy. Let's be honest, being a full-time mother is a tough job -- you cook, clean, cook, clean, and work, work, work, just to get up the next day and do it all over again. And it's sometimes gross...like wiping a runny nose all day long or being sneezed on about 100 times.

But then a day comes along like yesterday and I think how lucky I am to be a stay-home mom! Yesterday was Tuesday and Patrick's birthday, my younger brother. Tuesdays are my play group days with my friends from church. So the kids and I went to the library for story time and then we went to McDonald's for lunch. Afterwards, I came home, put Addison down for a nap, and then baked a yellow birthday cake...from scratch. What working mother could have baked a cake from scratch on a Tuesday afternoon? Not many! Then I made a delicious chocolate icing. And then made my brother his favorite dinner, the Kraft spaghetti from a box. It was so fun to bake and cook for him to make his birthday special!

Now don't get me wrong, my being a stay-home mom comes at a great sacrifice for my family. Roger bears the weight of being the sole provider for our family. And we both work here and there to earn whatever extra money we can! And I'm NOT in anyway bashing the moms who divide their time between two jobs -- working outside the home and working at home. But I wouldn't trade being home for any thing. Because I wouldn't have the time with my children to do things like story time, or the time to do things like bake a cake on a Tuesday for my brother. So I wouldn't trade my job for anything...well at least not today anyways! Happy Birthday Patrick -- he's a great brother and uncle!

The End of An Era...

The Elmo table has been a permanent fixture in my living room for about three years now. Santa brought it to Alex when he was about a year and a half. Alex and I have had some fun times at that table! We ate at the table, played, did projects. But alas, it was time to put the Elmo table away. Addison had started to climb on the chair and up onto the table. Roger and I were worried that sooner or later, she would get up there and fall off. So he took it apart the other morning. We were both a little sad. Alex seemed ok...but he takes most things in stride.

The extra bonus that came from taking down the Elmo table is that it motivated me to re-claim my living room. Alex and Addison's toys had seriously started to take over! So Monday we got in the playroom and sorted through some old toys and took a load over to Goodwill. And with more room in the playroom, tonight I moved most of the toys out of the living room and back into the playroom. Ahh, it's so nice to have my living room back! It's so clean...until I looked down. My carpet is so dirty! Ha! A project for another week maybe. In the meantime, I'm working on getting this house back in order.

Ahh, my nice clean living room. Maybe when I'm done organizing my house, I can work a little more on decorating...

No Week is Complete

No week is complete without at least one trip to the doctor. Oh, you mean this isn't the norm every where? Just around my house. Right. Well, today I took Addison to see an allergist. It was kinda a waste of two hours. When we finally got to see the doctor, we started talking about Addison's history and I told the doctor that she had recently done an allergy panel. Come to find out that he wouldn't order any other tests than that one panel we've already done. Well, I didn't know that. And I didn't even think about getting a copy of those test results for him to review. Well, duh, Nora! So we tried to get those results faxed over. The pediatrician's office couldn't find the results. I'd also requested her records from the GI. That didn't get sent over to the allergist. All in all, it was a slightly pointless, wasted, and frustrating visit. I did read a really interesting paper that the doctor wrote about food allergies. And he said I could go ahead and try milk with Addison. I tried...she took one sip and threw the sippy cup on the floor. I'll keep trying though. In the end, I really liked the allergist and left feeling that this was a good doctor to have helping us with Addison. Now if I could just get him all the medical records he needs....

Cowboy High!

Seriously, I'm failing miserably at keeping my 11 curfew. It's 11:15 and I'm blogging again. Alex has really gotten into dressing like a cowboy lately. It all started when we went to the rodeo back in February and bought Alex a real cowboy hat. It was compounded when my friend Becky was visiting and she wanted to buy a cowboy hat. So we took her to Sheplers and she bought a really cute straw hat. Well, Roger and I couldn't resist buying Alex some cowboy boots. Which he now proudly wears with shorts! Then Roger got some boots for Father's Day, so he went a few days ago to buy some wranglers. Well, he came home with a pair of wranglers and Alex got a new belt. With a shiny silver belt buckle and all! It's too cute. Today he was showing it off to Ella, his favorite girl friend at play group. Really, he'll show it off to anyone who will listen. And a few times I've told him to "cowboy up" Just playing around with him because he doesn't really know what that means. Well, I think he can't quiet remember that phrase, so sometimes he'll tell me, "Cowboy High, Mommy!" as he's riding his stick horse around the house. Sometimes he plays until he plum tuckers himself out! But I love that little cowboy with all my heart!

What's A Girl To Do?

What is a girl to do while her mommy cooks? Why, discover new drawers in her mommy's kitchen of course!

I volunteered to make dinner for someone at church and while I was cooking Addison found a new drawer to play with. Yes, that's one of my drawers with the ziplocks. So I'm sure every day she will want to pull every last plastic bag out of that drawer and drop it to the floor. She seems to enjoy this type of activity...she tossed my purse Saturday, pulled every last tissue out of the kleenex box a couple days before. And when I removed the ziplocks from the drawer (and her), she decided to play with the drawer below that one.

Which coincidentally, makes a perfect little boat for Addison to play in! How convenient! She was pretty proud of herself for getting into the drawer. As usual, she couldn't figure out to get herself out of it. But it kept her entertained while I cooked, so who can complain? Truly, this just illustrates how Addison is pulling up on a much more consistent basis. She pulls herself up constantly! It's so fun to watch her discovering new things and testing out those legs of hers!

I didn't realize they both had their eyes shut! Ha! Kinda creepy! Anyways, the point is Addison continues to develop this skill, which is such a milestone for her. We're so excited to see her continued growth and development.

And just a side note, her procedures went really well this past Thursday. The scope of her esophagus, stomach and small intestine looked good. The doctor said he would find out more from her biopsies. She also had her MRI done and the impedence Ph probe. We don't know the results yet of any of the tests. So when we hear, we will let everyone know. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Addison with the probe..warning, it's kinda disturbing :(

Roger is feeding Addison in this picture. She has the probe in her nostril and down her throat into her stomach. It's then taped across her cheek, around her ear and down her back. You can see the probe under her leg. It's attached to the machine, which is that little black box hanging on the chair. It recorded every time we fed her, if she was sitting up, laying down, coughing, crying, etc. It also recorded the Ph of her stomach.

On her arms were little stints called "No no's" or "No Nose" I'm not sure which phrase the nurses kept saying. Anyways, they kept her from bending her elbow and reaching her hand up and pulling out that probe!

Addison really is such a good natured little girl! Look at that smile despite the tape, probe, no no's. She was so happy to be eating and drinking! We had to feed her on a strict schedule...every four hours. She could eat and drink for 30 minutes and then nothing until her next feeding four hours later. This was her last feeding before she went to bed that night, and she was so thirsty! I cried with relief when she went to bed and we made it through the whole day without her pulling the probe out. Seriously, tears of relief! So that's my little trooper. She was so happy that next morning to get the probe out of her! And I didn't realize it, but the No no's also kept her from giving me hugs -- which she happily did again after we took the No no's off. I missed those little hugs so much! So sweet!

Finally, (this is the longest post ever!) Roger started his new position with the police department today. He is an accident investigator now. Of course, he has a new schedule with his new position. Good news and bad news with this change -- the bad news is he works from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. The good news is that he works 4 - 10 hour shifts with three days off! What I'm getting to is that I promised myself that I wouldn't stay up all hours of the night while he was working. Here it is, midnight, and I'm still blogging. So I'm going to bed right now. Good night all!

Thursday, Thursday

I have so many emotions running through me these days, I don't know how to sort them all out. Thursday is Addison's MRI. According to the "insurance specialist" (fancy name for bill collector) that called me from Cook Children's, it's a brain MRI. I was a little taken back by this tid bit of information. I thought it was an MRI of her upper GI. But no, we are checking to make sure there aren't any other reasons for her developmental delays. She is also having an EGD and an impedence Ph probe, which are both to test for reflux.

These three tests come with a hefty price tag of around $8,000. Another little shocking tid bit of information. Hence the bill collector, I mean, insurance specialist, calling me on Monday. She wanted to verify insurance and collect $1200 from me. What!?!? $1200??? Well, after my past experience of over paying my OB/GYN and not getting that money returned to me for nearly a year, I called my insurance company before I agreed to pay fancy "insurance specialist" lady any money.

So after calling my insurance this morning, I discover that Cook Children's is out-of-network on my insurance. And there are NO children hospitals on my insurance. WHAT!?!? Seriously? Does my insurance company really think it's appropriate for a 14-month old to get these procedures done at a hospital that doesn't treat children? Seriously!?! So because Cook is Cook, and is a company that actually lives up to their motto of providing exceptional care, they will not charge us at out-of-network prices. What a relief!

So many emotions...relief that this whole experience won't put a strain on my finances, anger that my insurance company doesn't provide adequate and appropriate care for my child, and anxiety. So much anxiety about how these tests are going to go and the anxiety of not knowing. And the anxiety of what if...But in the end, hope. Hope that Addison does not have cystic fibrosis or something worse. Hope that if she does have something wrong with her that it's treatable. And hope that she will get better soon. Hope. And of course, in the end, optimism.