Moving

Today Johnny was told he will be laid off on the 13th. In this program that just means he will be assigned to a new location. This project will be over by Christmas anyway so we knew it was coming. He will have a little time off before he is reassigned (which is a good thing around Christmas) as they will place all of the apprentices further into their program before they will place the first years. We were told probably the first of 2010. I am keeping my fingers crossed for San Diego. The Rady Children's hospital has a few EE specialists I would like to get Jaxon in to see and who would not want to visit the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park? Pray for me that we will not go up the northern CA in the middle of winter. At least not where it snows. Let all say this together NO SNOW, NO SNOW, NO SNOW! I don't handle the cold very well!

The most I can take is this...it snowed in Hemet on Saturday (when we were supposed to have a garage sale). This is the most snow I can handle! One day, a few hours, maybe a snowball fight & a little sledding. That's it! I am weak I know! There is a reason I love living in AZ and southern CA. Call me crazy.

I really want to be placed in LA this coming summer by my sister's house. There is a great RV park literally on the beach and I would love to spend the summer by the waves!

Thanksgiving

Johnny's 30th birthday was the day before Thanksgiving but we mostly celebrated with an early Thanksgiving dinner. He is a sucker for my pecan pies! Thanksgiving day was spent at DISNEYLAND! It really is the happiest place on earth. The weather was perfection! The lines were short. I am talking 30 min for Space Mountain and everything else was 10 min or less. The boys were wonderful. Johnny ended up carrying Jaxon most the day, but that was to be expected after not seeing him for almost a week. The baby was perfect too. He even slept through Fantasmic and the fireworks! My parents and sister were a great help rotating with the kids.

Daniel loved most of the rides after they were over. He was completely soaked on Splash Mountain thanks to Johnny using him as a shield, but luckily we had a change of clothes. Jaxon was not too keen on the faster rides and preferred Fantasy Land and Toon Town. Wesley screamed through Pirates of the Carribbean. Go figure. I hyped up the boys about the Haunted House and the Doom Buggies hoping they would not be scared...it didn't work!

The only downside...my camera batteries were dead! Boo hoo. My mom got some great pictures that I will post later. Here are some of us on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.

Thank you Jeanine and Kevin for the amazing time!

Happy Birthday Daniel

Daniel turned 4 on the 24th. It is so crazy to me to think he is 4 now. We had a fun day together hanging out and then going to Chuck-E-Cheese for a little party.

I found the fire fighter rain boots he requested along with a few other small things. My parents surprised him with a Hummer my dad was able to fix up. He LOVES it and said he is going to use it as his fire truck. Daniel is a great little driver and Jaxon is the perfect little passenger. Every couple minutes Daniel stops to "check the engine" like daddy does. It is so cute! Now he wears his fire fighter boots and hat while his fire fighter bear rides shot gun. The ax and other fire fighter tools ride in the back. For Christmas he requested a fire fighter jacket. I am now on the look out! Happy birthday Daniel. I love you so much.

What to do?

Daniel stated this morning "I AM NOT GOING TO PRESCHOOL!" It was less of a statement and more of a screaming hysterical fit in my face, in the trailer, out the door, sitting on the curb on the side of the road, etc. I was so mad I still have a headache over the ordeal. I am sure he does too.

I of course am trying to figure out why he would rather stay home than go to preschool. As of Friday he loved it. He has always loved it. They made Indian hats. He had a great day. His teacher always tells me how well he is doing. I have observed the class. Daniel has not said anything about a traumatic experience there. I ask him why he doesn't want to go and he tells me "because" or "I am done playing there" or "you just need to find me a new preschool." So really it is not that he doesn't want preschool, it is just that he doesn't want THIS preschool.

Do I force it? Do I force him to go kicking and screaming the whole half hour drive there? The preschool is in Lancaster so it is not convenient, but I realized I need the time with him away just as much as he needs the time away and the opportunity to learn. That is my only opportunity to shop with only two kids. That is my time to focus on Jaxon and talk with him without Daniel trying to tell Jaxon what to say and what he can or can not play with.

Anyone? Anyone? Help me out here please.

Jaxon Update

People have been asking recently how Jaxon has been doing. I forget to post about him because basically he is doing GREAT! We recently added apples back into his diet and he loves them. Apples don't sound like a big deal, but they are a BIG DEAL! Apples are in so many things. They are a cheap fruit so all juices, even 100% whatever juice has apple as the base. All fruit roll ups, dried fruit, fruit leather, etc. has apple as the base. Now that he is doing well with apple we have entered the world of prepackaged snacks! Yeah for convenience!

This picture was in January 2008, just before he was diagnosed. He was puking all the time and had a constant rash on his face and bottom.The poor boy was 13lbs at 7 months. He could not sustain himself through the night so we were awake with him multiple times per night. Look how far he has come. This is not the best picture but look at those chubby cheeks! This boy LOVES to eat! He weighs almost as much as Daniel and on Thanksgiving Day with a little help from some boots he will be tall enough to ride almost all of the rides at Disneyland!

We still avoid all corn, wheat, rice, dairy, eggs, and nuts, but other than that we are having great success treating Jaxon's EE through food exclusion without medication. He still drinks a little Vanilla Elecare (about 6-8 oz per day) but he is slowly weaning off that as well. We will try to introduce eggs next I think, just because he begs for them, and I hope that goes well.

I was told Wesley would have a 60% chance of having EE, but so far he is doing so well. He pukes if I overindulge in dairy products, but the blood test for the eosinophils in his system was normal. He is 10 weeks and the same weight Jaxon was at 7 months! He sleeps 8-10hours at a time at night. He nurses like a champ. Yeah for Wesley! Yeah for sleep at night! Yeah for food!

Build-a-Bear

Daniel will turn 4 on Tuesday the 24th. Since his b-day is the week of Thanksgiving we are celebrating a little early (basically I was stir crazy in the trailer so we headed to the mall and ended up here). We went to Build-a-Bear since we have seen it but never indulged and I had a few gift certificates. Boy that place will take you for all you are worth if you even think about letting your kids look around!

Daniel wanted a dog, not a bear. If any of you have even talked with Daniel recently you would know that anything firefighter is the greatest thing in the world. He has asked for a chopper thing (ax) and boots for his birthday. Naturally he insisted the dog needed the firefighter clothing plus the boots. He tried to steal the gloves from the Batman costume because they were the perfect firefighter gear, but I had to sneak them back. It is so cute, he dresses the dog and undresses it, packs the house, puts the clothes on hangers, makes it drive the firefighter Lego truck, etc. Really it was worth the money since he clearly loves it so much. Then because I could not let Daniel pick out something without Jaxon getting one too we ended up with a Spiderman dog. I promise, cross my heart, that I am not going near one of those places again for a very long time!

Tired Boys

Johnny is working 10 hour days Monday - Friday and 8 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday. He is so tired. This was at 6:30 with little Wesley. I have an almost identical picture of him with Daniel when Daniel was tiny. I love my sexy tired man. He is working so hard. I feel terrible but I have to wake him up to do school work...or maybe I will just let him be for one night. School work can wait. He promised to shave for me next time he has the opportunity to go to church. I hope that will be in the near future, but probably won't be until after Thanksgiving.

Ode to Diana

I miss her already! Diana left for Goa, India this morning. I am so sad. My little sister is pregnant and leaving the country without knowing when she will return. Since she returned 3 months ago she really made an effort to come see me frequently, watch my boys (which meant driving 45 min each way), call me just to chat about nothing, etc. She was with me when I went to the hospital to have Wesley and she stayed with me at the hospital while my family was evacuated from the LA fires. We grew even closer than before. I feel lonely already.

I love you Diana and I will miss you every second you are gone. Take care of yourself and baby June when she arrives. Call her June Bug for me.

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

Wow, this was a busy weekend. Halloween was great. We attended my sister Jeanine's annual pumpkin carving Halloween party in LA. I attempted a Lineman and was happy with the way it turned out. All I have to say is that I kept it natural with a knife and spoon, no power tools for this pumpkin carver. I think that should have been taken into account on the judging even though I did tie for most original.

Lee of course won most inappropriate again this year. See if you can tell which one was hers (hint: small one on the far left). Daniel wanted to carve a scary pumpkin and did a great job. He loved that fact that we let him help hold the knife.
Daniel was Darth Vader (he saw a poster in a Rite Aid and has been hooked, but doesn't really understand who Darth Vader really is). Jaxon was a green skeleton but would not wear the mask. Both were ADORABLE!
Jaxon figured out in record speed that he got more candy when he said "Happy Halloweeeeeeeen" than when he said "trick-or-treat". Priceless. After a while he stopped asking and just took candy stating "I do it myself!" He even walked on into one woman's house while she was yelling at an elderly Hispanic woman collecting candy in a grocery sack. Of course we traded it all out at the end of the night for a bucket full or Smarties, but he likes that they are his treats in his bucket. I gave in and let him have Nerds that he promptly dumped down the steps then tried to save from under the feet of oncoming trick-or-treaters.
Daniel had me carry his mask and light saber all night and ran ahead with Johnny because he thought Jaxon was too slow. Really we only hit one block but it was madness. Kids were being bused in from all over. I bet there were at least 1000 kids who came by my sister's house. Crazy! After we got back Daniel helped pass out candy on the porch. He was yelling "we have candy" to make sure no one missed out. It was so cute.
Little Wesley hung out in the carrier with Daddy. This picture is with Fabulous Uncle Eric testing out Diana's new baby carrier. I went to get Wesley from his nap and he was gone. My little sister Diana had stole him and was testing out her baby shower gifts.
Little Wesley crashed on Jeanine shortly after returning home but he was oh so cute!
Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen!