I'm hoping it's almost here! For the last few weeks, we've had so much snow and ice, it's been crazy. The boys only went to school a handful of days in the past month. This week, they have went every day. Woot! It has actually been in the mid 60's, and you better believe I am enjoying this.

So, next month, the kids get their lead levels retested. I am incredibly nervous about this. I've noticed Nick's been throwing up lately, not as much as he used to, but maybe once a week. (That's a sign of lead poisoning.) Oh, and going off on a tangent about that, why is it that he can puke in the toilet on his own, but he can't poop in it? I'm so done with potty training. This has to be the worst parenting task there is. I have three potty training right now, and Annabelle actually seems to be doing better than the boys, insane! I have all the kids wearing underwear all day, then pullups at night. The boys have to wear pullups to school, but since Nick is starting to pee at school, I may start sending him in thick underwear with plenty of spares.

Nick. Nick, nick, nick. When he was a baby, my mom told me, "That's going to be your trouble!" Boy, was she right! This boy is definitely a handful. He is very determined and strong willed. I'm not sure if I've posted about this before, but he's being evaluated at school for some speech and behavior issues. It seems like he just doesn't comprehend what you tell him sometimes. I think he's trying, because he gets frustrated, but he has difficulty responding or even repeating what you tell him. I think this is an effect of the lead poisoning. We've been working with a group of people from school, and they tend to think that what he has may be Auditory Processing Disorder. The problem is that they can't test for it at his age, I'm not sure why. They said that he fits into the description though, and there are a few things they can do to help his development even without the diagnosis. He's been going through a lot of testing at school, and we'll have a meeting soon to discuss the results. Yesterday, he had a vision and hearing test, which he passed. Yay!! The person doing the testing said she was impressed with his vision test, and that he could read every letter. She said that often they have trouble doing it at his age because many kids can't read the letters off. I say thank God for They Might Be Giants. Their video, "Here Come The ABCs" has helped us so much in teaching them. So much, that I think they might be ready to start reading. Aaron can read a couple simple words, like Mom and Dad. Honestly, though, he may just have memorized what they look like. We are working on letter sounds, though.

Speaking of Aaron, he is doing absolutely wonderful! His progress report from school was excellent. He is getting along with other kids very well, in fact, his best friend is a little girl named Hannah. He has adjusted so well to a structured setting and just loves school. He's excited every day to go. I've noticed, also, that he and Nick are doing really well with their manners. Please is still one to work on, but they have thank you and you're welcome down. They say excuse me if they burp or let a windy. I've had a lot of people comment on their manners, and that feels really good. I also have a lot of people comment on how well behaved they are when we're out in public, and I'll give them that, I just wish they would be at home!

Annabelle is doing excellent with speech & development therapy. She started last fall, and the results are astounding. When she started speech therapy, she would barely say mama or dada, and had such a hard time telling us what she needed. I was really starting to wonder about hearing problems, or even the "A" word. Five months later, though, she is talking so well. I can't even count how many words she has now! She can carry a very short conversation, and put together short sentences. Just a few months ago, I thought there would be no way that she'd be ready for pre-k or headstart next year, but I think she's right on track now. We are working with Archway in Carbondale to get her into a program, most likely headstart.

Oh, that's another thing. Aaron and Nicholas may move to a different school next year because they are thinking of putting Nick in a special education class, one that will be able to better deal with his behavior issues. If that happens, the boys will be able to ride the bus to school. Wow, what a relief that would be! At this time, I take Annabelle with me to drop the boys off at school. She wants to stay so bad, it's hard to get her back out of the classroom. Then picking them up is just as bad! They don't want to leave. Any idea how hard it is to get three toddlers out the door and into the van when they don't want to go? Whew! Oh, did I mention that Annabelle is now bigger than Aaron? Well, around anyway. She is wearing a 3T-4T and weighs 30lbs. She's on the short side, though. Aaron is 28lbs and in a 2T-3T. Nick is 31lbs and in a 3T.

Okay, I guess I need to update about myself now. I've had some gyn issues for a couple years now. It started after I had Annabelle, my AF became very irregular and heavy. At one point, I actually skipped 3 months, freaked out and bought a bunch of pregnancy tests. Of course, those came back negative. So I talked to my OBGYN (have I mentioned before how much I love her?) last November and we discussed treatments. I asked about Novasure (which is a thermal ablation.) She said that would be a great idea, then she stopped herself. My c-sections had a verticle cut, and that disqualified me for that procedure. So, she suggested a Cryoablation, but my insurance won't cover it. We settled on a depo shot. I went in for a few months in a row to get it. At first, it worked beautifully, but after the second month it started giving me horrible mood swings. I had a hard time dealing with day to day life because I was so sad and irritable. Poor Mike got the brunt of it, too.

When I went back in February, I told her what had been going on, and she gave me a few other options. She said we could continue the depo, continue the depo with Wellbutrin or do the Cryoablation. I asked her to see if we could get a special approval for the Cryoablation, and I'm still waiting on word back. I'm getting discouraged, though, and don't think they are going to approve it since I haven't heard anything back yet. In the meantime, I went 25 days straight bleeding. I am in shock that I went that long, I've never went more than 2 weeks before. It just stopped, and I'm nervous about it starting back up. If I'm not approved for the cryoablation, my last option will be a partial hysterectomy. My doctor has not mentioned it yet, but I don't see any reason why she wouldn't. I'm done having babies. I had my tubes tied after Annabelle's c-section. Even if I wanted to do IVF, I wouldn't because pregnancy was just way too hard on me. I really don't care if I have my uterus or not. In fact, it really has caused me nothing but trouble. I had an irritable uterus (yes, that's a real condition!) through all of my pregnancies, and now it's even angrier. Let's just get it out of there, leave my ovaries and cervix, and I'll be a happy camper!

I think that brings us up to date. We're car shopping right now. We went last weekend but didn't find anything, so we're going to try again this weekend. We're looking for either a minivan, suv or car with a large backseat that will fit 3 boosters. Wish us luck!

I may be changing the format of this blog soon. I get so many spam comments, that I think I'm going to try another platform. If I do, this address will automatically go to the new one.

The kids are really getting good at learning their shapes and are starting on letters and numbers.  Here's Aaron:

http://www.rebmandesigns.com/lisa/misc/aaronshapes.wmv

Nick loves to sing along with his Backyardigans radio:

http://www.rebmandesigns.com/lisa/misc/nicksings.wmv

And of course, here are the three in action.  Notice Annie sitting quitely on top of the toybox.

http://www.rebmandesigns.com/lisa/misc/kidsmorning.wmv

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the toybox itself, Mike made it over the weekend!  He made it to match their headboards.  When he was done, he painted it then put the kids' handprints on it (his handprints and initials are on the back.)  I think he did a great job!

I've been building Santa up for quite awhile now, and the boys were so excited that we were going to go see him. Unfortunately, Nick started running a fever two days ago, and last night it peaked at 103.4 so the poor guy had to stay home with dad. I felt so bad for him, I could just cry. He really wanted to see Santa!!

We got to my stepfather's restaurant, and about the time we got seated, in walked Santa! Aaron heard him, and we lifted him up to see. He got so excited! He immediately recognized Santa, and started saying his name. We waited until the line died down, and then we went to see him. Aaron was just in awe!! It was like he was star struck, and couldn't say a word.

Santa gave Aaron a special toy to bring home to Nick since he was sick and couldn't make it. The first thing Aaron said when he woke up this morning, was, "Where's Santa?"

Here are the pics!

Annie waiting on Santa

Aaron meeting Santa

Annie & Santa:

Aaron beaming because he got to meet Santa:

Here are the recent portraits we had done. I'm not thrilled at how the one of the kids turned out. I'm going to have my dad take some better ones.

She's putting everything on her head, but it's just so cute!!

Annie's birthday cake! As you can see, years of decorating have tore my hands up and I can't even write straight anymore.

She wanted that cake NOW!

Opening Gifts

Nick & Aaron Chowing Down

The boys inspecting Annie's new gifts

Little Princess in her new nightgown holding her first Cabbage Patch Kids

Lifesize Cabbage Patch Kid, Aaron Michael