2008 Review

Happy Holidays!

This past year was a busy one for our growing family. We started the year as a family of three and are ending the year as a family of four. March 4, 2008 we welcomed Katherine Madeline (aka – Katie) to our family. Katie was born via c section, weighing in at 8 lbs and 12 ounces. Measuring 21 3/4 inches long. Big girl! She weighed more and was longer than her mother at birth. This picture was taken when Katie was just over a month old.

In January of 2008 Chris accepted a position at B/E Aerospace as Lead Principal Engineer. B/E has been in the aerospace industry since 1987 and one of the product lines they have NOT previously carried were the vacuum systems and waste management. B/E approached the former president of his old company and asked him to lead the charge. Chris was recruited along with a couple of employees from his previous company and they started designing a new system (airplane vacuum waste system....toilets). Their charter was to design a new system and secure customers. They have been successful on both counts! In fact they are so busy that they have outgrown their space and will be moving to a new facility, and hiring MANY new employees. Chris spent two weeks in December in France - he tells me he was working, but I keep hearing about fun places he went to eat and drink. Hmmmm, work - huh. Seriously though we know he was working hard and staying very busy - we were able to set up webcams and talk to him in France from our dining room. Pretty cool! Especially when William tried to hug the computer because he was so excited to see daddy.

I have been busy this year, getting adjusted to our active growing family, and balancing home and work. I am still at teaching Psychology at a local high school. This fall semester I have been teaching Psychology 1 and Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology. Next semester I will be picking up sections of Psychology 2 and World History. Several of the students were asking so, at the beginning of the school year I started a Psychology Club that has been setting up a mentoring program with one of the elementary schools in the district. Other activities include movie night, guest speakers etc. I am definitely learning a lot as we progress with this one! Besides work and family I continue to love cooking and trying various recipes out on the family. Chris is such a good sport with my adventures and is usually readily willing to try out whatever I have concocted for the evening.This next year I am hoping to spend more time with my camera and digital editing program to capture various family moments, experiences, etc.

William is a BUSY BOY. I often comment that William has two speeds – on and asleep. He definitely keeps us on our toes. He is inquisitive, talkative, and active. He is eager to know WHY things are happening and HOW they work. Rarely is there an occasion where William is at a loss for words, in fact people who meet him for the first time usually comment on how chatty he is and how well they can understand him. Some of his favorite things are: tractors, tools, trucks, playing outside, trains, Little Einsteins (a show on Disney), and helping mommy cook supper. This picture was taken when William had just turned two. Can't you tell by the devilish grin that this little one keeps his mommy and daddy busy?

Katie, our little “princess,” is such a sweetie. While her brother has two speeds, Katie has two moods, very happy and VERY upset. Approximately 99% of the time Katie can be found smiling, laughing and clapping her hands. But when she gets upset… YIKES! This is how she has earned the nickname “princess.” She has recently started crawling and pulling up. As Chris often remarks - "Parenting begins when the child starts moving." So our parenting/discipline adventure with the princess begins. We are really starting to enjoy watching Katie and William interact with each other - they truly seem to enjoy each other and spending time together. They both get very excited to see each other and have given each other nicknames. William calls her "my baby Katie" and she seems to be calling him "Wa-wa." She also could be asking for water - but we don't know the difference!

In August of this year at Katie’s 4 month check up her doctor mentioned that she was concerned about Katie’s head. On her back right side she was developing a flat spot due to her sleeping position. We were encouraged to do special exercises for her and reposition her as often as possible. But when we started with the exercises and repositioning we started to notice that her neck was stiff on the right side. At her 6 month appointment we were referred to Cranial Technologies, a company that specializes in Orthodic Devices. Katie was evaluated and recommended for a DOC Band, a cranial band that helps her head to “round out” as she grows over several months. Katie was fitted for the band on November 10 and has been wearing it 23 hours a day since. See this post to hear more about her band and PT.

Around the house we have done a few little projects. We moved William into his "big boy bed" in early April and moved Katie into her room in late April. This summer was a little quiet at the beginning but as the summer came to a close Chris planted 2 trees, 8 burning bush, and 6 juniper in the yard. If any of you all have heard the stories about planting in our yard you probably have empathy for Chris - our house is basically built on all limestone. So when we plant - it is digging into limestone. Chris hired a landscape company to do some regrading in the side yard and backyard as well as coring out an area for a patio. However, he played mule removing the sod from the regrade areas and placing back down himself....14 tons in all! Then just after that we had a FANTASTIC company put in a fence in the backyard. William calls it "Wee-yum's fence."

Below is a link to a web album I put together with a few highlights from this past year. By no means it it completely inclusive of all the things we have done - it just includes those we were able to capture with the camera! So yes there are several events left out but I keep reminding myself - It doesn't have to be PERFECT - right?

2008 Review

We wish you all a safe and Happy Holiday season. Please give all your loved ones a hug and enjoy your time together.

Love,

Chris, Heather, William and Katie

Bored Toddler + Mommy in Shower = OMG!

So as many moms of toddlers can attest - they don't stop moving. EVER. At least mine doesn't.

Not too long ago I was getting ready for a concert that I had to perform in. Well, things really never seem to go as planned. Especially when a mommy needs to get ready and a toddler might have to occupy his time for 10 minutes - that is WITHOUT getting into something. HA HA - It makes me laugh just to think about it. Anyways, sorry for my digression.

So I needed to take a quick shower and get ready for the concert so I asked William to watch a "show" in our bedroom while I took a lightning fast shower.

Things were going good - I heard him talking to me.
William: "Mommy, what you doing? You taking SHOWER?"
Mommy replies: "Yes William I am taking a shower I will be out in just a minute. You can watch Little Einsteins for a few minutes then help mommy pick out her clothes." (Chris is going to LOVE reading that)
William replies: "Ok mommy, I go watch Einsteins."

All good right?

Hell no.

Things got eerily quiet. You know the quiet I am talking about - when you KNOW something is going on.

So I called out: "William, Mommy is done in the shower. Whatcha doin?"
His reply: Silence.... nothing
Me: "William???"

Then he came running into the bathroom... AND... he had something all over his face. It was red. Was it BLOOD?!?!?!? OMG!!! What happened? What did he get into??? If a dresser drawer had been emptied on the floor - that I could handle. But what on earth happened to his face???? Did he slice and dice himself with some unknown object. My mind started racing trying to figure what he had maimed himself with... when I realized that I needed a closer look. Oh and dear blog readers, might I mention that without my glasses or contacts I am BLIND AS A BAT (I wonder if bats are really blind), but nonetheless I cannot see much of anything. So once I got my wits about me a little and looked closer this is what I saw.



What is that all over my sweet little boy's face? PERMANENT RED MARKER!

The night before being the good teacher I am, I spent a few hours grading papers. I really prefer to use a felt tip pen or marker when grading, especially when grading essays. I don't know why. I just like it better. (I am weird like that) But the evening before I left a stack of essays on my nightstand with yes you guessed it - a permanent red marker. The only "felt tip marking pen" I could find in the house the night before.

Back to our dialogue:
William: "See mommy, look I color!" (So proud of himself)
Mommy: (Trying not to laugh) "Yes you did, but remember we don't color on our faces we color on paper." (Thinking to self.... hmmm, papers, there is something I should be thinking about right now.... OH SH!T - The essays!)

I then rushed into the room and yes on my nightstand were the papers in their neat little stack, but...

William decided that he need to "color" on Mommy's papers, aka - my AP Student Essays. Crap.

So I checked out the nightstand - all good.
The bedding - all good. And yes of course it is ALL White.

Hmmm, anything else??

Well I seemed to remember that when I first saw William he had red marker on his hand, maybe I should check that out more.

So when I was able to find him and check out his hands, this is what I saw.

Nice, huh...


Our next adventure was trying to find something that would take the marker off and wouldn't irritate his sensitive skin. Darn Eczema. So we tried hand soap - nope. Purell - nope. On an offhand chance I grabbed his bath soap - Aveeno Baby for Sensitive Skin - No Fragrance - IT WORKED! Really well I might add. His checks just had a little rosy glow. His arms were more noticeable but I figured I could keep him in long sleeves until it wears off - Right?

Why do I tell you the whole long drawn out story? Well, because after I jumped out of the shower to see what the little man was up to I threw my towel on.... and "forgot" to change into my clothes. So the ensuing craziness was all done - wearing my towel!

Oh and my student's response to the situation? She laughed and told me not to worry about it - what a great kid! Too bad she is already getting an A. She might have earned herself some sympathy points (if I ever did that).

This week in pictures

Hello again, I hope there are some of you blog readers left. We have been quite busy the past few weeks and my good intentions to update the blog more often went by the wayside... along with grading, lesson plans etc.

I did want to include of couple of recent pictures of the kids. The one of William is from Thursday night. Like many other little boys his age William is so busy doing that he frequently forgets to pay attention to where he is going. Thursday afternoon at daycare he was running from one part of the playroom to the next and BAM! He tripped over one of the toys and landed face first in the "Marble Castle". As you can see by the image he ended up with scratches under his right eye and left eye too. When I picked him up from daycare I asked William who he got into a scuffle with and if the other kid looked as "good" as he did. He told me "Noooo, Mommy. I trip and hit my face." Yes, William you did. He likes to stay busy, keeping us on our toes.


Miss Katie is doing really well with her DOC band. I included the link to the company that manufactures her cranial device. When Katie was 4 months old her pediatrician and I talked about her head and we were both concerned that she was developing a flat spot on her right parietal/occipital region. The pediatrician suggested repositioning exercises, more tummy time and limited swing/bouncy seat time. After researching plagiocephaly and treatments, I began rigorous repositioning (changing her sleeping and resting positions often) and lots of tummy time. I kept joking with others that Katie was in "Belly Bootcamp" and needed to be working on tummy time as much as possible. But honestly I did not see much if any improvement of Katie's neck control during tummy time and her flatness was not improving either. So when she had her 6 month appointment and the pediatrician recommended getting Katie evaluated for a band we were not terribly surprised. We went to a Cranial Tech site in Madison at Dean Health and had Katie evaluated for Plagiocephaly (flatness of one side) and Brachycephaly (flatness in the back). She was diagnosed with both and her asymmetry was considered in the severe category. Her asymmetry was 4 standard deviations above the mean (translation - it was quite severe). So we started on our journey of haggling with the insurance company to get her device covered. At this point we have been denied and had to pay out of pocket for the band, but are going through the appeals process to try to get it covered.


In the meantime along with Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly Katie was also diagnosed with Torticollis. Sometimes called Wry Neck or Stiff Neck. What most likely happened was that when Katie was in utero (during the pregnancy) she had a "restricted environment" (not a lot of space) so she grew with her head tilted to one side causing one of her neck muscles to develop shorter than the other. Katie HAD a subtle head tilt to the right. A physical therapist from Early Intervention of Illinois diagnosed her with torticollis this fall. So we have been working with Katie to strengthen her neck and consequently upper body. Because of the weak neck muscles she was developing slower than average with some of her other large muscle movements, like pushing up from a tummy position, rolling over, etc. All of which were influenced by her limited range of motion of her neck.

Recently, Katie has made some fantastic progress. She has graduated from "Belly Bootcamp" and is eager to conquer "Crawling College". She can roll over (when she wants too), can transition from sitting to tummy and tummy to sitting. This week she has started to take a couple of hesitant movements forward while in the crawling position. My guess would be that she will be confidently crawling by Christmas!

Take care,

Heather