A busy few weeks

We have had so much happening in the past few weeks.

On Sept 17, Reagan went to the dentist for the first time. She got to pick out sunglasses to wear and got to select what show was on the tv. Then the dentist went to look in her mouth and Reagan cried the whole time even though the dentist wasn't doing anything. Luckily Reagan's teeth are in great shape and she is now a member of the no cavity club.  When we were leaving the dentist's office, Reagan said "I had so much fun at the doctor's". I looked at her like she was crazy because the appointment I was at she was crying most of the time. Oh well, at least she left thinking she had fun.

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the nurse at Avery’s school saying she had 3 diarrhea accidents so I went and picked her up around noon. She had quite a few more accidents that day. Then I was talking to my sister and I said that Avery is 7 years old and has never thrown up before…well of course that night she threw up. Lol.

We were supposed to have a combined party for Avery and Reagan on September 21 for our family but we had to cancel it because I didn’t want anyone to get the stomach virus that Avery had. She also had a low grade fever that morning. I had ordered a big cake the day before for the party and we were stuck with all of this cake. Tim’s sister and kids were in town at Tim’s parents so we took 1/3 of the cake over there on Sunday. Then we celebrated my dad’s birthday Sunday night and took a 1/3 of the cake there..lol.

The next week I received a call from the nurse at Avery’s school saying she had 3 diarrhea accidents again. I picked her up on Thursday and we kept her home from school on Friday just in case.

She had gotten an invitation to a birthday party from one of her friends at school so on Saturday Avery and I went to the party. It was at a bounce house place. Avery doesn’t talk a lot so I have no idea who the kids are in her class. We got to the party, took our shoes off and starting running around, playing on the bounce house. Then we took a break and ate some food. Then it was time to sing happy birthday. We sang happy birthday and when they went to say the name of the birthday kid, they said Jordan. I was thinking who the hell is Jordan? Then I looked around (at the boy decorations and dinosaur things) and realized we were at the wrong party. I said OMG Avery, I think we are at the wrong party. I asked her if she recognized any kids in her class and she said no…LOL. So we were at this party where no one said anything to us, we were running around and eating their food. I looked at the invitation and it was for 9/29…not 9/28. We were there a day early. I was mortified but I wasn’t about to leave our present there so I said “Avery, we forgot to put something in our present, we have to take it out to the car”. We put our shoes on, took the present and got out of there. The people probably thought we stole a gift.

The next day we made it to the correct party and the mom introduced herself when we walked in..lol. The first thing I told her was what happened the day before J

The past two months, we have been getting a notice from the water company, saying they think we have a leak. Our water bill should be about $30/month and it has been $200/month. We called the gas company to mark the line before we started digging and it took 3 or 4 different people coming out before they could find the line. Anyways, long story short, we ended up cutting not just the gas line but also the water line so for a few days we had neither gas or water. We had to take showers at our parents’ houses and buy jugs of water for the chickens, dogs and cats. (Apparently our animals are spoiled because they get bottled water.) Luckily Tim knows how to fix things so he probably saved us a bunch of money with him fixing the water line by himself. Thanks Tim!

On Monday Reagan had a follow up appointment with the eye doctor. We last saw him about a year /year and a half ago. We were supposed to be patching her eye to help with her lazy eye but she was having none of that. It does seem like her lazy eye has gotten worse. The doctor said we could either try patching it or have surgery. The surgery is called BLR Recession (Bilateral lateral rectus recession) and would involve operating on both eyes. It is a quick surgery that she would have on a Wednesday, go for a follow up the next day and then could be back at daycare that Friday. I am just worried because he said side effects could be over-correction and then she could be cross-eyed and have to wear glasses with super thick prisms to try to train her eyes. Right now he said her vision is good. She doesn’t need glasses and the lazy eye doesn’t affect her vision at all. He said if she has the surgery and then goes cross eyed, that will affect her vision. Tim and I are still discussing what we are going to do.

Then on Thursday, Avery had a follow up for her new hearing aid. She has been doing well with it at school but usually refuses to wear it at home. I ask her if it helps her hear and she says yes so I don’t know why she doesn’t want to wear it. I have offered to buy her whatever color/design headbands that she wants to try to make it fun for her. While we were at her appointment, they did a few hearing tests while she was wearing the band and the audiologist was pleased with the results.

I am scared to say it but hopefully we will have a relaxing weekend since these past few weeks have been so hectic. Reagan’s birthday is in a week and a half. Our baby is going to be 3 already! I want time to slow down.

Daddy has some cheap child labor

Super cute picture of Reagan

No cavity club

We got to have some cake a day later since the party was cancelled.

We used 1/3 of our cake for Grandpa B's birthday!

We got our presents from Grandma and Grandpa B and Kaitlin, Eddie, Aunt Janet and Uncle George.

Reagan was crabby and wanted to sleep the whole time. Eddie tried to show her the presents but she didn't care

We had fun at my friend's birthday party!

Reagan had her eyes dilated at the eye doctor so she wore sunglasses when she left. 

This is how Mommy found Reagan the other day. She has so much stuff in her bed, there was no room for her!

Snow, freezing weather and a new type of hearing aid

Not much has been going on except we got a ton of snow one day and then really really cold weather. Thank you to our neighbors for letting us borrow their snow blower because of course ours was not working when we needed it. We are going to have to buy a new one because it wouldn’t start and we think mice have chewed parts of the lines inside of it. We got some much snow the drifts at the front door were up to my waist. It was nuts. Tim was able to make a snow chute for the girls to sled down. Reagan was too scared to try it but Avery had a blast. It took my 20 minutes to get Reagan dressed in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, snow pants, gloves, a hat and coat. She was outside for 3 minutes and wanted to come back inside ..lol.

Then came the cold. One day the high for the day was in the negatives and the wind chill was negative 30. Every time it gets cold or we get a lot of snow, I wonder why we live here in Ohio. Luckily the chickens seemed to be ok. We took the chickens that hung out in the small coop and combined them with the ones in the big coop. We had a small heat lamp in the little coop and moved it to the big coop. We also ordered a heat panel that is made for chicken coops. It’s not meant to heat the coop, just take the edge off. We also gave them cracked corn and meal worms. Our two older chickens we got from craigslist finally started laying a few weeks ago and just this week we started getting a really small egg some days so one of the new chicks we got in September is starting to lay. We also realized we have a rooster in our mix. Tim noticed that the chicken’s tail is like a plume and I put a picture on a chicken group on facebook (yes, there are backyard chicken groups on facebook) and everyone confirmed it was a rooster. The same day Tim heard him crow for the first time. We paid extra to have all female chickens but we will see how it goes with the rooster. I am actually a little excited to have a rooster. Hopefully he wont be mean like some roosters are. He seems pretty timid so far so hopefully he will continue to be nice.

Avery had an appointment with an audiologist to discuss bone conduction hearing aids. Instead of the hearing aid sitting inside her ear, the bone conduction hearing aid attaches to a headband and sits behind the ear on the bone. When sound comes in, it vibrates the bone and alerts the nerve. The sound doesn’t have to travel through the ear drum which is a good thing for Avery because there is something that is preventing the sound from traveling through her ear canal to the nerve. They don’t know if its fluid or if her ear is formed incorrectly. That is why this type of hearing aid is a great option for Avery. They put the new hearing aid on Avery and performed some testing. They gave Avery a book with pictures in it and they sat in a different room. They then called out instructions through the speakers in the room such as “Point to the duck, where is the boat, etc”. When Avery got a command when wearing the headband device, she responded immediately. Then they tested her without the band/device and the difference in the results was outstanding. They said “Avery, show me the dog” and she just sat there. They then gave out another command and the same thing happened. She either didn’t hear what they were saying or she was being stubborn and not responding. If she really didn’t hear, it is amazing how much the headband device helped. We let Avery choose which color headband and which color device she would want. She surprised us and choose a red headband and white device. The audiologist wanted us to speak with Avery’s ENT doctor before ordering to get his opinion. He said that he agrees that it would be good for her so we are going to go ahead and order it. The audiologist did warn us that many times my insurance will only pay for half of the cost. I asked how much it is if we didn’t have insurance and she said its around $6000. Typically Avery’s secondary insurance covers whatever the primary insurance doesn’t and I am hoping that will also be the case for this. Either way, I think this would really help her and if we have to pay $6000 to help Avery with her speech, we will. I am excited that this can really help her, I just hope she actually wears it.

We finally took Avery to get her hair cut a few weeks ago. She really needed it. We ended up getting 5 inches cut off. She had to stand while they cut her hair because she is so little.

Mommy came upstairs from the basement and saw that Joe had been in the garbage. Joe knew he did something bad and walked right into his cage

Buddy didn't want to let Momma read her book

Look at all of the snow we got!

Dr Reagan makes house calls

Reagan is finally ready to go outside..after getting dressed for twenty minutes. I think she spent a total of 3 minutes outside.

I had fun outside with Daddy. He built a snow chute down our back steps.

Reagan always wants to sleep in my bed. Mommy would let her if she actually slept but she just likes to play.

Reagan may or may not have gotten the potty seat stuck around her waist

After the hair cut and before

I was having fun dancing

Reagan hanging out with the pups

This is a pic of Aunt Janet and Mommy, and Grandma and Grandpa B's 1970's couch. Mommy thinks she looks like Reagan

Me trying out my new hearing aid. I am going to order a red band and white device.

Can't believe how little Joe used to be. And i love this video of Chewie running around and having fun.