Busy days!

It has been a busy couple of days in our life - but all good things!

Yesterday was our "Big Anniversary Date". I actually bought a new outfit, had a mani/pedi and wore almost full make-up. The new outfit ended up being a disaster. Although I washed it before I wore it, something was still in the fabric that I was allergic to. Total hives on every part of my body that came into contact with the clothing. Lovely. The mani/pedi was wonderful. They used a newish process on my nails called Shellac (http://www.cnd.com/Products/Color/shellac-hello.aspx) and it is awesome. My nails are all nice and shiny and they haven't chipped yet!!

We went to see Horrible Bosses and LOVED the movie. It was very lightweight but very funny.
"I was drag racing"
"In a Prius?"
"I don't win much"

After a great movie we went out for a DELICIOUS dinner at Maggiano's.

It was so so yummy and relaxing. I do not know the last time we have had such a nice night. It felt weird leaving the kids with an actual babysitter and not a family member, but I got over it quickly.

It probably wasn't the best planning to have a yard sale the day after date night but oh well. The garage sale went really well. Between Jen and I we made almost $350. I was amazed how much stuff David and I had to sell. This is all of our stuff:

Suzie did pretty well with seeing her toys going. The toy she is on in the picture is one of Jen's that we ended up buying. The item Suzie hated to part with the most were her flower rain boots. As soon as she saw them she wanted to wear them. We had some tears when she had to give them back.

This afternoon David had some cuddle/play time with the kids. He HATED it.

Zachy also has a couple new toys that will help him use different muscle groups.

Luckily Suzie has approved of both toys. Phew!!!

Torture

I think today should be officially called Torture Thursday.

First of all Suzie woke us up at 5:45am. Not that unusual but the volume this morning was unreal. It was like the chickie had just shotgunned a quart of 5 Hour Energy shots. Unreal. So imagine a hyper, loud, fully awake toddler in your face starting at 5:45 AM and talking non-stop.

Amanda and her friend (not sure what approval level I have to discuss her life and friends) were coming over so Suzie decided that she would wait outside for them. She found a great stick full of dead leaves and decided to remove all the leaves right outside the front door.

Seriously - I don't think she could have tortured Zach anymore if she had tried. Wait - was she trying? Is she so diabolical that she would torture her poor defenseless brother? Hmmmm

After Amanda arrived Suzie decided that she was terrified of Amanda's friend. She would not even look in friend's direction. She is so goofily scared/she of random things. I hope Suz eventually relaxed. I wouldn't know because *I* went out by myself!!

That's right - I went out to lunch with a girlfriend - with ZERO children!!! To prove I was wild and crazy I even ordered a drink - with alcohol in it!

Thankfully they were running late in the restaurant because I ordered my drink at 11:50 but did not get it until 12:02pm. Phew - I was almost trashy there for a moment! So I had a great time catching up with my friend and just being able to have a meal without any little finger around.

To end my alone time I decided to go to Walmart. As I was quickly trying to get some shopping done (I had 30 minutes to shop because I needed to get home before David left for work) I spotted the most divine item I have ever seen. I swear I heard angels singing...

This product was clearly designed with Zach in mind. Heck even the woman on the cover looks just like me! ;) Diapers without any tab for Zach to grab! I was able to put a diaper on him without wanting to duct tape his  hands to the changing table! They are just like Pull-Ups - only diapers. GENIUS!!!!

So now I wait for David to get home. My last bit of torture? Having to wait for him to get home before I can have a Magnum ice-cream bar.



(BTW - Amanda's friend was very nice! I was impressed by them!)

Happy!

First I would like to wish my wonderful husband a very happy anniversary. I would also like to thank Match.com for connecting me with such a wonderful man. I love you!!!

Zach had PT today and he is just crazy about his therapist. Whenever he sees Jennifer he crawls into her lap and crawls on her. He also likes to lean back on her and nuzzle her. Today he also put an arm around her neck while he nuzzled her hair. It was so cute!

While Zachy took a nap this morning I got the living room all picked up and the toys put into one area. Within 4 minutes of Zach getting up he had already destroyed a lot of my work.

I think he looks a little guilty here.

Zach is also really wanting to stand on his own from his chair.

Both kids crashed pretty quickly this evening - or so I thought. About 30 minutes after putting Suzie to bed she got up because she needed "1 more hug". She got her hug and went right back to bed. A few minutes later I heard a "Bless you mommy!" when I coughed. It was such a sweet little thing.

What you put in comes back...

Yesterday I read a post by another PWS mom on FB who was upset because no one commented on any of her posts or questions. I immediately felt guilty thinking that I should have been a better PWS FB person. I started looking through their posts and I found a couple pics, a couple comments and one question they had asked that had gone unanswered. The question was not in any of the PWS forums and it was done as a note that you had to click on. I know when I joined FB it was all a new world and it was nice to just be able to catch up with people I had not seen in a long time. When we found out that Zach had Prader Willi Syndrome I made an active effort to become involved in the PWS forums here on FB. I made an effort to reach out to other PWS moms and to get to know them. I made the effort, I did not wait for everyone to find me, seek me out or to give me answers every time I had a question. This is FB, not every post gets seen by everyone. Sometimes there is one person who has the answer you need and you need to keep pressing until you get the answer. For me the answer I needed was finding the perfect Endo. The first Endo David and I took Zach to said that he doesn't do GH until 12 months at the earliest. We had already done a lot of research and we were pretty sure this wasn't correct. Through another PWS mom we heard of Dr Miller who we seriously credit with saving Z's life and making him the super star he is today. We made the effort, no one held our hand and gave us the answers. We got answers because we put in the effort - not because we asked one question.

Okay - getting off my soap box...

I took the kids to hippo therapy this afternoon. I didn't think it felt quite as hot as it had and they missed last Saturday.

Zachy before riding Crissy

Zachy after riding Chrissy. Do you think he was a little overheated?

We were all hot and sweaty by the end of their lessons but their had a great time. Suzie is now using stirrups which is just too cute. Zachy has been pretty fussy the last 2 sessions but I think it is from the heat.

I was able to get a couple videos of Suzie riding and trotting.

And some various pics...

nothing much

I am sick with a cold/allergies/cough and feeling pretty crappy. Needless to say today was a pretty mellow day for me.
One of the (odd) highlights was dinner. I have discovered that Suzie loves zucchini and readily eats it raw. We have been having it fairly often and so far she still loves it. Tonight I really didn't feel like cooking so we just had melon slices, zucchini spears, cheese sandwiches and yogurt. Zach is still working on liking zucchini but he loved the melon and loved feeding himself the whole meal - minus the yogurt.

To end the night Suzie wanted to sing some songs for Daddy...

The lump under her shirt is a teddy bear. She wanted to spin on the sit and spin but needed her hands free. So she stuck it under her shirt. Love it.

Zach is continuing to work towards walking. Today he would stand for a couple seconds and then take a few steps. It is great to watch! He is also using Suzie as a walker. If she is standing in front of him, he will hold onto her and she walks. They both laugh as they walk around. Priceless.

Veggies

We had a fun day today. We went to a friends veggie patch and picked up some great tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash and a melon. This was the first time Suzie has seen veggies outside of a grocery store. I think she thought it was pretty neat. Suzie wanted to wear her polka dot dress - and who am I to say no? Of course the sunglasses stayed on for most of the day.

The kids took a shortish nap today. While they napped David put up a new gate into the kitchen. We have a pocket door but it is really hard to open and close. So to make it easier and to help with air flow we put up a gate - without Suzie's approval. Once Suzie got up and saw the gate she declared "Ooohhh Daddy! What did you doooo??" So we called Daddy and she told David that he was in trouble, it was not nice. She told him that he was going to go sit in time out, that he was going to get a spanking on his bare hiney and that he was going to cry!" It was so funny. David was on his way to work so he put the conversation on speaker phone so his carpool work guy could hear. The chickie cracks me up.

After dinner Suzie wanted to share the chair with Zach. I am not sure how Zachy felt about it.

Long Day

Suzie decided that today would be a great day to wake up at 5:45am. Considering that I was up until 2:30 with Zach I was a little pissy. That pissy feeling continued through the entire day. I am a joy to be around right now. David is also in a great mood so we are annoying the crap out of each other. Anyone want to come over?

Even at 2am he has awesome hair!

Suzie went to her first friend bday party today. Because of the heat, the party that was planned for outdoors was moved indoors. Imagine a house filled with 12 - 14 kids, 10 - 12 of which were under the age of 4. Only 3 of them were girls. It was a rowdy, loud, and I think they may have been filming the WWF at one point. It was a nice party and the kids were sweet - it was just very busy. Suzie wanted to wear a party dress so I let her wear the pink dress I had been saving for something and I french braided her hair. We were there about 90 minutes before coming home. We were getting to the breaking point and I knew it was leave now or have a meltdown on the way home.

Pics from the party - note the blue on some of the kids faces - that was the blue from the cupcakes. Yikes!! I was very happy that Suz took my 'hey Suzie try the yellow' advice.

Playing guitar

Pin the tail on the donkey

Mmmm cupcake!

Seriously - look at that little girl's blue lips. That is frosting! 

That's all folks!

The heat is on.....

Well it has been a heat filled few days for us this week. With temps reaching 106 WITHOUT heat index we have had to resort of staying inside with the drapes closed to keep the house cool-ish.

Tuesday was party day for Zach. Suzie was swimming at David's parent's community pool so Zach took full advantage of the our undivided attention.

We decided to play blind for a while

and then we felt the need to dance

Zachy also had the rare un-Suzie-fied visit with his big sister Amanda. He was totally content to let Amanda cuddle him and babbled at her a lot. Normally Suzie monopolizes Amanda and Zach is pretty quiet. On this visit you could tell that he was just loving all the solo attention. Amanda is SO great with both kids and it is fun to watch them together.

On Wednesday Zach's PT brought over a bouncy horse for us to use to do some core strength building. We are hoping that it will mimic riding a real horse a little. Zach LOVES riding it and stays on much better than Jen (his PT) and I thought he would. Suzie also loves it and as soon as Zachy falls off of "Rockin'" she declares that it is her turn.

She had to practice her sad face after riding Rockin'

She loves having Henry and wants to check on his all the time. I think it would be nice if we could have Henry in the living room but there is no where to put him that he would not get knocked over by Z,
Suzie is also starting to help me fold laundry. It is cute to watch her try SO hard to fold a dish towel. We worked together last night to fold one of her blankets. She was very proud of the end result.

All of us went to Jason's Deli for lunch yesterday. That place is the perfect quasi fast food place for families. Their kids menu is very reasonable and they have healthy choices. They have a great salad bar and a great drink selection. Lastly there is an ice-cream machine where you can make your own cone or dish. Do you think Suzie had any ice-cream?

It was interesting to watch her 'help' me carry drinks and cones back to the table. She walked in front of me and never hesitated walking back to the table. She just looked like such a big girl.

Today we decided to play hide and seek peek-a-boo... Can you find Zachy?

 

Zach is continuing to work on his walking. He has taken 3 to 5 steps by himself several times now. We bought him one of those popping push toys and he loves it. He will hold it up off the floor and walk a few steps with it. He has a push toy (in the pic above) that he has mastered. He will walk everywhere with it, pick it up to move it and turn it to go in new directions. It is also sad/interesting to see Zach trying to get used to feeling pain. Things that never used to bother him now hurt. He hit is mouth on the end table today - sort of intentionally - and looked shocked when it hurt. Since he didn't feel pain as an infant I don't think he knows that a kiss or hug can make it all better. His favorite thing to do it bounce so I have start to use bouncing to distract him from the pain. Poor guy...

Tomorrow is Suzie's first friend b-day party. Hopefully she will allow Colin to actually blow out his own candles and open his own gifts!