first school picture

3 yr old preschool

2014-2015

 

Even though she is not giving her sweet little pirate grin, I still think this is such a sweet picture of her.  Folding her sweet little hands in her lap

She would sit there forever

   We try to move Sadie around to do different things through out the day.  Sometimes our ideas work and other times we fail, she gets mad and throws a fit.  But this we found to be one of her ultimate favorite pass times. Sitting with her head on Chloe's shoulder watching her play on the ipad.  Chloe sometimes puts on Sadie's visual stimulation apps (which is very boring for Chloe to watch, but she does it cause Sadie loves them).  Sadie would sit for hours with Chloe if Chloe would sit in one spot for that long time.  Chloe is an incredible big sister. There is such a sweet bond between these two.

The magic necklace

Who would have thought that these would be an answer to one of our small problems?!

 

   What is this? Baltic amber teething necklace.  A while back my mom was telling me that she was at one of our friends houses and that her little boy was wearing beads that stopped him from drooling.  I just smiled and nodded at my mom.  I won't lie, I thought she was crazy.  Beads can't make a child stop drooling. Right?  That was like 2 months ago or so.  I totally forgot about this conversation. Then a few weeks ago, we had a new neighbor move in next door.  I noticed he was wearing a necklace and asked about it.  She said it was a teething necklace to help with drool. Really?  This is twice now that these beads have been mentioned. I inquired a little further, intrigued abut these beads.  Still a little leery about these beads, she suggested that I borrow them for Sadie and see for myself.  Sure, why not?  I have nothing to lose. Other things that are "not in the box" have worked for her, why not these?  Ok, won't lie, I still thought that this was a crazy idea, however, we borrowed the beads anyway.  Not even an hour after putting these beads on her, the drool stopped.  I just figured it was a fluke.  A few days passed, the top of her shirt was still dry. I thought she probably just wasn't teething at the moment.  Pure coincidence.  Then a few weeks passed and then my husband said to me "Sadie isn't really drooling anymore, maybe those beads do work".  Then my mom commented on her shirt being dry. And then her teacher commented on her not being so drooly anymore and having to wipe her face all the time.

  Are we all crazy or do these beads really work? It really seems like they do.  Heck, why not?  We will get Sadie one of her own.  It's not going to hurt her, the beads can't break apart for her to choke on, and she doesn't put anything in her mouth anyways.

  A few more weeks go by and I still hadn't gotten Sadie a necklace.  But it was time to give this one back to our neighbor.  We had borrowed it for way too long.  I took it off and went over to my neighbors to give it back, but no one was home.  So I came home put it on the counter to try again later.  Later that evening, I picked Sadie up off her blanket and she was soaked from drool.  Her hair was soaked and her shirt.  I was shocked.  As fast as the drool went away with the necklace on, it came back just as fast with the necklace off.  I am now a believer.  These beads work!  LOL I'm pretty sure they are magical!  I am not a naturalist at all, but I really am beginning to believe that there is something to all this natural stuff.

October, not a great month

  October was not one of Sadie's best months. She was cranky, cranky and a little bit more cranky.  Her ear would not stop draining.  Have I ever told you just how much I hate these tubes in her ears.  She got this set of tubes in April. May was a good month for her ears, but then the middle of June she got an ear infection (right before her heart surgery), a couple weeks after her heart surgery (still in July) she got another one. Then again in August, September and in October.  Really?  I thought tubes were supposed to stop ear infections?  Nope, not these ones. These where causing ear infections.  It was getting pretty old. 
  Then on top of that she had this cough, sneezing, extreme amount of drool that she was choking on and random fever thing going on.  But the cold wouldn't just come, stay, do its thing and go away.  No, it would come for a day or two and then get better.  Come again for another few days and then leave.  This went on the entire month of October. It was getting really old.  She was cranky, cranky and a little bit more cranky.
  And then on top of the ears and on top of the cough/cold thing she had going on, Sadie also had gut issues. These gut issues had been going on for months (started in April), but progressively getting worse and causing really big issues.  She would be either really constipated or have extreme diarrhea, color was always different, smell would vary.  I know this is TMI, however, you need to see the whole picture.  This does not make any sense.  She gets the same formula, same amount of water, same amount of food, at pretty much the same time every day.  Nothing ever changes.  Her bowels/stool should not change.  Her bowels use to be perfect: same time, color, consistency, daily. So what happened?  Her gut was making her cranky, and more cranky, and then a little bit more cranky. 
  She missed multiple days of school because she was just so cranky.  When I would send her, her teacher would either call me or send a note home saying that she was cranky and screamed the whole time or would sleep the whole time.  This was a causing mommy to be cranky. Why? Because baby wasn't sleeping, baby wasn't going to school, baby was always going to the Dr, baby didn't want to messed with, baby was CRANKY!!  This was not my baby.  Sadie, just like every other human being on the face of this earth, has had her moments when she just wasn't feeling it, wanted to be left alone, and has just had a cranky DAY.  She is human.  But this was different.  It was a day after night after day after night of pure crankiness!  I think I may have lost my mind for part of the month because thinking back now I don't really remember much of it.  But I know that it was a terrible month.  Finally, I had had it! I called some Dr's and begged for help. Don't get me wrong I had been talking to Dr's all month and they just kept telling me "try this, try that, it'll pass".   Ok, well it wasn't passing.  Time for new interventions that were going to work.  If they didn't work, poop may hit the fan!
  Dr #1  ENT.  Obviously he is dealing with her draining ears.  He looks in them, "well I don't think they are healing from the ear infections, we should probably take the tubes out". No s*%t Sherlock.  I have been telling him this the past couple of MONTHS.  He took them out, within a day they stopped draining.  Amazing how that worked.  Dumb!
  Dr #2  Special needs/dietitian Dr.  They are dealing with her gut issue.   Do we change her formula, add more water, start her on a blended food diet, start her on a motility drug, do some testing?  What happened to her gut?  Why the change?  We started going over everything that has happened since her gut issues really started to become a problem. Antibiotics. They seem to be a common theme: tonsils out, ear infection, heart surgery, more ear infections.  All had antibiotics.  Antibiotics change the bacteria count in your gut causing all sorts of issues.  So we are going to treat her with probiotics for a month and see if that fixes her problems.  After a couple of days we still don't have a bowel movement, however, the pain has stopped.  She's not screaming, holding her legs up, rolling side to side in pain.  So something must be working! Right?
  Dr #3  Pediatrician.  Ok, she has got to help with this random cough/cold/fever thing that has been off and on all month.  She examines, listens to all the shenanigans of the month, doesn't really know what to think without putting her through a battery of tests.  We decided that instead of x rays, cultures, blood work, and whatever else she was thinking of doing we would start her on an antibiotic. One that would cover ear infections, pneumonia, strep throat, and something else that I can't think of right now.  But if one of those things were bothering her, or anything else that we hadn't thought of,  this antibiotic was gong to take care of it.  It wasn't going to help with the gut/bacteria issue, however, she was still going to be on the probiotics so hopefully that will counteract enough to move her into a positive direction.  I REALLY needed my happy, easy going little girl back.  Again it's only been a couple of days but it seems to be helping something.
  Fingers crossed now that things keep moving in a positive direction.


***Update:  It has been a couple of weeks and life is back to wonderful again with her.  Whatever was ailing her, seems to be gone.  Not sure which one was the huge issue or if it was a combo of everything.  But it's gone.  We continue the probiotics because we need to use them for a month, but they seem to be working on the bowel movement issue.  HALLELUJAH!! She is sleeping again through the night, the rolling in pain is gone and the CRANKINESS is gone.  Life is good!

Halloween 2014

Chloe was a "magic" witch.

 

 

 

Aubrie was a "candy stealing" witch.

 

 

Sadie was bat girl

 

 

 

 

 

Sisters!

Aunt Taryn dressed up too.  She was a cute little zebra.  The girls thought it was cool that she dressed up.  Gotta love Aunt Taryn.

 

 

Third Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday Sadie!

 

This is my attempt at drawing Olaf on a cake.  Not too bad, right? LOL

 

 

 

  Why did I choose Olaf as her theme? Because Olaf is a little different, a little odd, as funny as can be, so lovable and everybody fell in love with him.  He reminds me of Sadie. A little different, odd, lovable, funny, and everybody loves her.  What better theme can there be for my little girl this year?

  Sadie was really into her birthday this year.  Obviously, she can not open her presents on her own, so whoever is giving her the present gets to open it for her.  In the past, Sadie never paid much attention to what was going on. This year was different.  Every time a new person would come and sit down next to her with a present she would watch intently and smile.  She really got into it this year.  It's the little things like this the truly makes my heart happy.

 

(No she wasn't sleeping, I just snapped the pic at the wrong time)

 

Sometimes getting all these kids to look, smile, and act correctly can be a chore in itself.  Geez. loweez!  This one was the best.  However, everyone was happy, so really, what more can we ask for?

 

   How lucky am I that I have now had her for 3 years?!  I was told I would have her for minutes, then hours, then days, then months. No one ever thought she would make it to a year.  Well look at her now.  3 years later!

 

 

my soccer girl

   A majority of my nephews play soccer. So soccer is a big discussion at our family gatherings. The girls have grown up listening and learning all about it.  The girls thought they had some interest and tried it out this summer.  And that's when my girls true personalities shined.  Chloe is a very much a girly girl.  She likes to dance and ice skate, do her hair and others, put on make up (dress up only) wear cute, fashionable clothes and earrings.  Let me tell you soccer is not her thing.  She would run towards the ball with the group of people but would never go after the ball. Her arms were flailing all around and she would run sideways or do ballet leaps.  Yep, I don't see soccer being a part of her future. But she finished the summer session with a smile.

 

 

   Then we have Aubrie.  She has always been my even mix of girly and tomboy.  She loves playing with baby dolls and stuffed animals and playing Dr and is very loving and caring, very sweet and gentle.  Then she will turn around get down and dirty in the mud, play with matchbox cars, is into spiderman and superman, picks up bugs and frogs, will growl and get rough and tough.  So out on the soccer field her true colors shined.  She would run after that ball and kick it, kept her arms up tight to her body like a true runner and player, kept score and payed attention to when her team would score, would look forward to playing every week.  She loved it and was sad when the summer session was over.  She wanted to play again.

Yes, Chloe is wearing a skort and her hair was down cause that is how girly girls play soccer.

 

   This fall I signed Aubrie up to play on a soccer team.  She was so incredibly excited, it was all she talked about for a month.  The first week it had rained the night before so the field was wet and slippery.  Aubrie had been excited that morning and when she first got there she ran out on the field did some warm up exercises.  Then the game began she chased the ball and then slipped and fell.  She ran off the field and refused to return.  Aubrie was so emotional about it. Just cried and cried and cried. She is a very emotional girl, but usually mud doesn't bother her.  She usually will cry after a fall but after a few minutes will move on.  Not this time.  I thought "great, shes scared for life from ever playing again, and there goes that money down the drain cause she's never going back out there".  Pleasantly, I was wrong (there is a first for everything... just kidding).  The whole next week she talked about soccer.  The day of the game she was a little hesitant, but she went back out there and played her little heart.  This week was much more enjoyable and they "won" there game (this is 5yr olds at the Y, there is no winning team).  After that soccer was at the top of her list and she was back to loving it. 

She got to start the game with rock, paper, sissors. Check out that soccer stance.

 

She was always so proud of herself when she actually got to kick the ball.

Warming up

Half time, time for a drink.  Always had this smile on her face.

 

   Then came the last game.  On the way to the game she was so sad cause it was the last one and was counting down the months until the spring season of soccer started. But her little frown turned upside down as soon as she found out it that she was getting a medal for participating on the team.  It was like Christmas morning for her.  The pictures say it all.

 

The smile and excitement when she first found out about the medal.

 

I wish I could have gotten the picture from the ground up.  That smile was gigantic.

After she sat down from receiving her medal.

Couldn't stop looking at it.

Being polite and clapping for her team mates.

 

Showing me her medal.

 

   Not sure, but I may have a soccer player in the family.  I love the innocence of these kids and the pure enjoyment that they get from getting a medal.  This is what life is about.  Love her!!