And John Journeyed Forth... To the Endocrinologist

                                   Photo Credit: MentalFloss.com
                                          © Bettmann/CORBIS

Since the black mold problem we have all been sick.  So much coughing, sneezing, runny noses, and more coughing!  I've been coughing and having issues until my asthma has acted back up.  It's been bad.  This is the most we have all been sick over a winter since their birth.

We thought this last round of illness was due to heavy black mold exposure but now we are not sure.  After two weeks of being sick and LOTS of OTC medication we are all starting to feel better.



Today Margaret and Joseph had an appointment with a new endocrinologist.  They are both SO small that we need to monitor them closely.  Plus Joseph has Hashimoto's thyroiditis so we need to check his thyroid levels.  After seeking some recommendations from other moms of multiples in the area I settled on a doctor.  John had to go to the appointment by himself since I have very little time off left at work from the holidays.

Everyone dropped me off in the morning.  John took the kids to the doctor office.  He called me later and told me about their day.  They saw the doctor and agreed that Joseph is a candidate for growth hormone.  John explained why we were interested in growth hormone for Joseph with included having my grown so his teeth can fit in his jaw (because the two bottom teeth he has coming in are NOT fitting at all!) and because we want his to grow so he trachea will growth and less his breathing issues.  The doctor agreed that those were good reasons and Margaret also needed to be monitored because she is also quite small.  Joseph weighed 33 pounds and was 41.5 inches tall.  Joseph is not on the chart for height or weight at all.  Margaret was 41 pounds and is 45.6 inches tall roughly.  James is basically 53 pounds and about 55 inches tall.    You can see the BIG difference in height and weight between them all.  That is one of the main reasons that no one asks me if they are all the same age any more.  They look SO different that it looks like I had one child per year versus all the same time.  LOL

You can see how people would be confused!

Joseph recently had a bone age x-ray completed and it was considered normal. Margaret was sent for a bone scan x-ray today.  We will get the results back in a few days.  Joseph also had his blood drawn to check thyroid levels.  John said the kids were SUPER good at the doctor's office.  A nurse even complimented John and how great our kids were.  LOL

John left the doctor's office and took the kids to the Target we got our Christmas pictures redone but they had just closed for lunch.  He went driving around a bit and found Freedom Park.  He let the kids out to play for about 15 minutes before taking them back to the Target to get the pictures.

I'm not sure what else he did but I know it involved lunch, taking my car to get my tires looked at and filled, going to another Target and picking up my prescriptions, then heading to the house for a bit and feed the children dinner, load everyone back up to get me from work.  When they arrived I get into the car and James was in the back sleeping.  John said he tried to keep him awake but James said, "My eyes are just too tired."  LOL   We got home, unloaded everyone one last time.  I got them into the house and it was about 7:00pm.  I got the kids ready for bed while John took a break for a bit.  By 8:15pm we were basically back on track for bedtime.  Not too bad of a day for the kids but I am sure John is exhausted!

I will try and post the new pictures tomorrow.  :)

Picture Day at Target

  I had to wait a bit before I could most thing because I wanted to use the new pictures we got from Target.

I belong to a group of high order multiple (HOM) moms.  We do a Christmas card exchange.  I LOVE the participating!  I have NEVER gotten SO many Christmas cards at one time! Ever!  Plus it so fun to see all the other families with multiples.

With members overseas we have to get the Christmas pictures done early.  We went and got some pictures done at the end of October.  It was still too hot in Phoenix and the pictures did not feel like Christmas pictures to me.

As I was checking my inbox I found a coupon for pictures at Target for the kids birthday. It was the week of Christmas so I made the appointment with the studio the day after Christmas.

We went to the portrait studio and the kids were in a good mood.  Just to show you how long I hold on to things... the sweater that Joseph is wearing is was Jerrin's, my oldest son who is now 22, and the blue velvet dress Margaret is wearing was Caitlin's (20 years old). I remember when they wore those pieces of clothing.  It brought back so many memories for me. I remember, in particular, the sweater and fitting it over Jerrin's hear when he was four.  The sweater is a 4T but when I put it on Joseph (who is 7 now) it fit great.   Jerrin had a large head at 4 and I remember having to pull the sweater over his head.  It was so tight he hated wearing it but he looked so nice!





The pictures, overall, came out so nice!  Margaret was a bit apprehensive at first but quickly warmed up.

 Sadly, I had showed her some pictures we had done at Portrait Innovations when she was three.  I showed her these pictures.  I asked her if she looked happy or sad.  She said sad.  So I asked her what was wrong.  I did not expect an answer.  This was four years ago at this point and I was not sure she remembered.  She told me that there were too many people.  Wow!  I was floored!  There were a TON of  people there and I looking back in retrospect I know she was experiencing a sensory meltdown.  I mean she was SCREAMING, pulling her hair, pinching and just in overall disarray.  I did not know why at the time.  I just thought she was tired.  Little did I know it was because there were too many people and noise.  I know now Margaret is very sensitive to noise and she can be pushed over the line with too much noise.






Here are our pictures from Target....

Where's Your Nose?

To get three children to be doing ANYTHING at the same time in the same way is practically a miracle!  LOL    I got a few good shots of the children I will share.  It probably will be the last pictures I get of the three of them together in Henderson, Nevada home.  I will miss this place!

In this one at least EVERYONE has their eyes closed...lol.  It is rather sweet!                                                















This one COULD have been cute except for Joseph's expression...lol.  Otherwise it is a good picture of Margaret and James.

It's My Birthday!

Yea!  It's my birthday!!!  It is not everyday that one turns 40!  In some ways I am sad I am 40.  I would love to turn back time and be celebrating my 30th birthday instead today.  On the other hand I will not grieve for the time I have lost.  Some decisions in my life I have made and they turned out GREAT and others have been an unmitigated mess but I cannot say I am sad or sorry for my choices.  I have five wonderful children and one little angel.  I love them all!

I have two older children.  I do not talk about them a lot here because I am not sure they would appreciate it.  My oldest son, Jerrin, will be 20 at the end of October.  He and his fiance are expecting a child in February.  This will be my first grandchild!  I have been trying to contact my son for over a week now and he finally called today.  It was SO nice to hear from him.  I had been worried since no one had heard from him in at least a couple of weeks.

Then my oldest daughter, Caitlin, I had spoken to yesterday.  She celebrated her 18th birthday on the 2nd.  She told me Happy Birthday and said she had even read my blog.  She is a sweet kid, for the most part...lol, but I do enjoy talking her since we seem to have the same sense of humor.  She is working hard in college and this is her first year here.  I am proud she is doing such a good job!

The  little children were excited.  They were happy and excited to celebrate my birthday with me.  :)  We went out and I let them pick my birthday cake and ice cream. We had a good time.  I got a chocolate mousse cake.  Yum!  Then we got two small containers of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  We got Cherry Garcia and American Dream. We ate half of the small container of Cherry Garcia tonight.  James and I thought it was delicious!  Poor Margaret on the other hand was NOT happy. She seems to be rather sensitive to cold stuff and she has a bad habit of holding the cold stuff in her mouth.  She took two bites of ice cream and on the third bite she screamed. She had BIG fat tears in her eyes and her mouth was hanging open with ice cream in it.  I had her spit it out and I knew she must be experiencing an ice cream headache or brain freeze.  My POOR baby!  I held her and dried her eyes.  I asked her if she was better now and she said, "Yep" and took off to play...lol.  You have to give her an A+ for resilience.  : )

When I got the cake out the kids were buzzing around.  I put candles on it and let James, Margaret and Joseph blow them out.  James and Margaret were having a blast but Joseph seemed scared of the fire on the candles.  He did not want to get too close. Over the holiday weekend my whatever (husband, soon-to-be-ex, or something) had the children.  When he dropped them off yesterday he told me Joseph had fallen down four stairs at his place.  OMG, you should see the damage done to his lip and chin!!!  It was awful!  Joseph really has no business on stairs and that worries me.  I have all ready had to pull his two front teeth  because they keep getting banged up when he fell but now the next two teeth are getting the brunt of the damage.  At this rate I am going to be told those must be pulled too.

I am too exhausted tonight but I will post pictures tomorrow.  I don't know why I am so tired but while I am sleepy I want to take advantage of it and actually sleep.   I tend to be an insomniac and can't ever get sleep.  This has worsened with the break-in of my house.  So now I am going to head off to bed and I will get pictures up tomorrow.  I am looking forward to scanning  in a bunch of old pictures and I will post several of them online.