Happy Birthday Michael!!

Michael turns 7 today!!

I will post photos of his birthday party at (ugh) Chuck-e-Cheese later this evening. What he doesn't know is that he has a new bicycle hidden in the shed in the backyard for his birthday. He learned how to ride without training wheels quite easily a few weeks ago (we should have taken them off long ago, but we hadn't). When we looked at his bicycle yesterday, we realized it was a 16" bicycle and he needs at least at 20" bicycle. I think he'll be pretty excited when he sees it.

Samantha also picked out a present for him - a baseball hitting machine for him to practice hitting. She mentioned that was what she wanted to get him, so we made sure!!

7 years ago, it was raining on Saturday morning at 6am when I called the doctor in labor. We spent most of the day in the L&D room at Fair Oaks Hospital and at 5:21pm, Michael was born. That is probably about the time we will be singing Happy Birthday to him at Chuck-e-Cheese!!

Home Run!!

Yep, you read the title right. Michael had a home run today in his baseball game!! An in-the-park home run.

It was the bottom of the 6th inning. In his league, the rules for the 6th inning are you bat until there are 3 outs or you bat around once. Michael's team was up in the bottom of the 6th and he had been the LAST one to bat in the 5th, so we doubted that we would get around to him again.

But, we did. So, Michael comes up with at least 2 runners on base. His coach pitches the ball to him and crack, he takes a big swing at it. The ball flies in the air over the head of the 2nd baseman and the outfielders (who play about 10 feet behind the infielders). So, they start running after the ball and Michael starts rounding the bases. He rounds 2nd and then 3rd, as the ball starts coming in from the outfield. The other team DOES get the ball back towards home plate but Michael crossed the plate before the ball got there - HOME RUN!!!

He was quite pleased with himself!! And we were quite proud!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading!

I had a good Mother's Day. I was served breakfast in bed with cards from everyone. I loved the Disney themed cards from the kids and Mike has given me a "night away at a spa from the Anderby asylum for the insane!"

Then, I got a GREAT gift. Everyone in the family (including me) spent the day cleaning the main floor. This is deep cleaning. Yeah, the putting away the clutter was done, but then sweeping, and wiping down the fingerprints and windexing the glass and mopping the floor. Its so nice and clean right now. Wonder how long that will last?

Many will say that it was my day to relax - but cleaning is actually relaxing for me. What is stressful to me is when I don't have enough time to clean. So, this was great!!

Spring Fever

I don't envy public school teachers right now! I only have 2 kids (and one adult!) that have Spring Fever. They have a classroom full! It has finally gotten warm here and the motivation to get any work done is just going out the window.

I do have some things I'd like to finish up before the middle of June - which is a LONG SIX WEEKS away. I can remember growing up when the end of the year felt so far away. It does for me right now. But the "box checker" type-A personality in me won't let us just NOT finish what we are scheduled to do this year. Besides, I still have to do testing yet and send that in to the county. That has to be submitted by August 1st but I'm not one to put that off to the last minute. I have the test scheduled for the first week in June knowing that it takes about 2 weeks for the results to be returned. I scheduled it that late in case we have trouble completing ANYTHING after that - because we will be close enough that I might feel ok "declaring victory" and being done with our year!

But, for today, we are enjoying the sunny, warm weather outside!

Early morning

There are goods and bads to living close to DC. Good: You have a lot to see and its so accessible. Bad: Everyone ELSE wants to see it to. So, often in order to see an exhibit or have a tour, you have to get to DC early.

Its difficult to get anywhere in DC quickly - and we live 30 miles out - adding to the delays.

I arranged months ago for us with our congressional office to have a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing - where they print money! The kicker: The tour was at 8:45. In order for us to GUARANTEE that we would be in DC in time for 8:45, we left the house just after 6:30AM. That is MIGHTY EARLY for us! On a bad traffic day, it can take that entire time to get into the city. On a good day, not so much. Today was a good day. We drove across the bridge into the city at 7:30 and found a parking lot by 7:45. At least there weren't lines at the BEP.

It was fascinating to see the steps that the paper goes through to become money. Its a multi-step process done on a HUGE scale - for example, one pallate of paper going through one machine was printing $32,000,000. They were having a rough day though - one machine jammed in 3 different places while we were watching and in another room, they had the huge magnifying glass out and a supervisor on the floor and they were scrutizing a sheet of bills.

All in all, a nice tour. We drove around a few streets in DC after our tour, and saw the Supreme Court building and the Library of Congress. We checked out a couple of other buildings that we were curious to their purpose. We then headed out to take Mike to the airport for what I hope is his last trip / conference for a while! Then we all came home and napped!

Been Busy!

Every time I think I'm ready to sit down and put up a post, something else always comes up (often Emma) that prevents me. I realized when replying to an email to Mom last night that I'm just busy. Every time I think I'm getting ahead of the busy curve, it tackles me again.

May and June are going to be a busy month:
- Piano rehearsal
- Drama production
- Another trip to DC for diabetic education
- Dance pictures
- Dance competition
- Regular soccer and baseball games
- Piano recital
- Dance recital
- Finishing up lessons for the year
- JDRF walk

And those are just the major events. There are still a bunch of "things" I need to do (like register the kids for some summer camps, work on some scrapbooking borders for a swap, finishing up plans for a scrapbook retreat in Sept, etc) that are taking up time. And you notice I haven't mentioned the "regular" things such as taking care of the house, doing laundry, and grocery shopping. Those seem to be the things that get pushed to the back when everything else gets busy.

I am looking forward to a little more free time this summer. We aren't going to completely take off of school - the kids do better if I keep their brains working a little - but it will definitely be pared way back and I will have more time to keep up with the regular things I have to do.

So, I'm feeling quite busy right now.

Successful Yard Sale

We had our yard sale out in front of the house yesterday. This has become an annual event - a few weeks before the neighborhood-wide yard sale - so much so that one of the customers yesterday remarked that he looks each year for our yard sale because we always have good stuff!!

Well, this was my big "clean out the baby stuff" yard sale. I had about 10 boxes of clothes too small for Emma and Michael and an equal number of boxes of toys.

I sold a lot and brought some home, still. I was surprised that I didn't sell MORE of the baby clothes than I did, but I got a lot of old toys out of the house!

The even better news. There is an annual "consignment" sale for Baby stuff at the conference center around the corner - THIS WEEKEND. So, if I can get my remaining baby clothes onto hangers and labelled before Wednesday, I can take them over and consign them. The company does a 50/50 split, which is pretty good - and this sale is HUGE. They bring in a TON of customers. So, just when I thought I was done "organizing" for a yard sale, I'm gonna pull my remaining boxes out of the back of the van and put everything on hangers and try again!

And so it begins....

Today was Opening Day for the Loudoun South Little League. This is Michael's 3rd season playing t-ball/baseball. It is his first season getting "pitched to".

The Opening Day was nice. Each team marched in with a banner (I made ours - I'm quite proud of it) and they were announced as they entered the field. The league provided had a batting cage, pitching cage, and moon bounce - Michael tried them ALL out. They also brought in a t-shirt vendor who did silk screening on-site. We were all pretty fascinated by the process of applying inks in a certain order and then using heat to seal it in. Samantha, Michael, and I each got a Tye-dyed shirt with the Opening Day logo on it.

(Michael is on the far right - I know its hard to tell with all of their hats pulled so low!)


We then headed over to Samantha's first soccer game. Yes, we spent many a Saturday during sports season at a variety of venues. Samantha's team only had 6 players there, so they all played the entire game. Samantha played 3 quarters on offense and then one as goalie (she was tired of running)! Samantha's team won 2-0. It was actually a pretty good game - good offense and defense on both sides and decently hustling by everyone!

I didn't actually attend Michael's game today. It was at 5pm and it was cold and damp (it had been drizzling off and on all day). They played almost all of the 6 innings until they called it. Michael played pitcher, 2nd base, and center field. He also had a couple of really strong hits.

So, spring sports have started for us! Is it too awful to start the countdown until they are over?

Highs and Lows (again)

I've used that title before, but its still so appropriate I'm using it again.

It is the best way to explain Emma's week.

We are still on a roller coaster with her readings, although not as dramatic as we were. Starting last Sunday at lunchtime, Emma's readings went over 300 and they stayed there for 24 hours, despite giving her multiple insulin injections. They just didn't want to come down. It got as high as 475, which doesn't scare us nearly as much as it used to!! Anyway, after 24 hours, I went ahead and called into the nurse who told me to give her until she got through another meal and see how she was doing. I tested her right before lunch on Monday and she had come down - to TWENTY-NINE. That is NOT a typo - she was at 29. Many people would be unconscious at that reading - she was running around giggling as I corralled her into her high chair. Needless to say, we were a little freaked out by that reading and couldn't explain it - the nurses are baffled.

That started a period, however, with few highs. She had one high overnight that we treated but then the nurse said not to bother. It seems that children this age often excrete a growth hormone while they are sleeping - and its often around 3am - and it makes their blood sugar increase. So, when you swear that you think your children grew overnight, they did!

Anyway, her growth spurt subsided. We haven't had a reading over 250 since then. Her readings have been in the 60s and 70s most times. This is a little low for our liking (we want her over 100). And, she has decided she doesn't want to eat - which is often typical after a growth spurt too. So, between Emma's low blood glucose readings and her reduced eating, we have actually had several meals where we haven't even had to give her insulin. It was a nice break to give her poor arms and legs a break from all of the poking.

She's tired though because I have to keep waking her up at night to give her juice to keep her readings up - seems backwards to us!!

But, the nurses have changed around her treatment a little and we are trying a couple of things a little different to see how she does. We'll give that the weekend and see.

But, as I tell other folks - Emma seems no worse for the wear. Other than fussing about her shots right now, she's running around perfectly normal (like any normal 2 year old that is testing her boundaries and getting into EVERYTHING!)

Happy Easter!

I have a few quick minutes before I KNOW that Emma will be awake, asking to get out of her bed.

We had a nice Easter weekend. Mike had been out of town all week and returned just after midnight on Sat morning. Just after lunch on Saturday, my brother Larry and his family arrived. They had been touring DC for a few days and spent Sat night out with us (in the boonies!)



The kids colored their Easter eggs. We learned something new this year. You can color an egg, write on it with the crayon AFTER that and then dip it in another color- the words are exposed in the original base color. This caused the kids to want to dip their eggs in a variety of colors over, and over, and over again. We finally just had to say STOP!!

The Easter Bunny visited our house. He had a little tougher job this year as we were striving to limit the sugar content because of Emma's diabetes. The kids got some cute toys in their baskets, some sugar-free jelly beans, sugar-free life savers, a sugar free bunny and a few sugar-full candies too.








After our annual Easter Egg Hunt in the front yard (in sub-freezing temperatures), we all got gussied up and got in the cars for the 2 hour drive to Charlottesville. We met my parents and older brother Bruce at the Boars Head Inn in Charlottesville for Easter Brunch. We had a nice time - would have been nicer had we actually been able to sit outside and visit but, alas, 40 degrees is just TOO COLD!!!






All of the kids slept on the way home - we're not exactly sure how much Michael slept the night before since he had a roommate (Gavin, my nephew) who seemed quite excited of the prospect of sleeping in the room with Michael!!

Here are some photos I took of the kids in the front yard. I may take these again in a week or so when its warmer and the grass is a little greener. I plan to update my blog with new spring colors and incorporate these photos into the design, so that you can see these smiling faces every time you open the page!! (I don't know why the last picture isn't rotated - I'll figure that out later)

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

I went into Emma's room to get her out of her crib - she was resting because she's got a little bug. Anyway, when I walked in she said "horsey". I wasn't sure why. Then I figured it out.

She took her pillow, stood it up on the long edge, put her hand on the railing and climbed on her pillow like a horse. Then, she jumped up and down like one of those "bucking bronco" rides. It was really quite funny and she's laughing and saying horsie the entire time!

Couldn't get my camera fast enough to have photos - maybe she'll do it again.

You really can find out almost anything on the Internet

I do believe that we are fortunate that Emma has developed Diabetes during this time of information technology. It makes it much easier for us to do Carb counting for her meals.

I haven't been feeling well today and decided that I was ordering pizza for dinner since Mike was leaving town. So, off to the Pizza Hut web site I go. I can put in the kind of pizza, toppings, and crust, and how many pieces of pizza Emma might eat, and it will give me a complete dietary breakdown, including carb count.

Did you know that 1 piece of Pizza Hut thin crust pizza with just cheese has 30 carbs!!

I have also been able to find out that a Chicken Nuggett Happy meal has 40 carbs - 10 for the nuggets and 30 for the french fries.

This is good information to know as we desire flexibility with when and where we eat!

A quick update

I've been meaning to provide a quick update for a few days and just haven't gotten around to it.

We are settling into a good routine here. Emma's new insulin regimen works much better. Now if she doesn't eat enough, we can just adjust her insulin down. If she wants seconds, we can just adjust her dose up.

Her blood glucose levels aren't swinging as much as they were, but still swinging some. She has been going low at night, which is intriguing, but we may just adjust by giving her a little snack before bed (we cut that out just because it keeps her awake to eat at 8pm). She also seems to be a little high before dinner, but that is most likely from her afternoon snack, so we'll probably start giving her insulin after that.

She has adjusted beautifully. When we tell her we need to poke her finger, she always says "pinkie one". Then she asks if we have to "pokie leg?" She has now chosen to sit in her rocking chair in front of the TV for her injection and its just gotten so easy because she doesn't even say anything most times now when we give it to her.

Had a little scare earlier this week when the sleep-deprived Mommy gave Emma the wrong insulin in the morning. I realized it about 1 hour into its 2 hour effectiveness - it was her "short acting" insulin. So, she got about another meal's worth of carbohydrates in the form of juice and granola bars to offset the insulin and I was very happy when her readings came back up. The nurse said that is actually a pretty common mistake - didn't feel too common to me. At least it was a short-acting insulin and in 3 hours I knew it was completely back to normal.

So, outside of feeling like we have a newborn that has to eat every 3 hours all night, things are pretty normal. I have gotten Samantha and Michael back into school, although not the full routine that I'd like. We won't be having "Spring Break" per se this week, as I have assignments for them to do, but I'm sure if one of their friends comes knocking on the door to play, I'll let them go out! Is it awful to pray for rain! It's gonna be a tough week regardless as Mike leaves in about 2 hours for a week in San Francisco.

Anyway, looking forward to Easter. Larry (my brother) and his family will be here Sat night after spending a few days in the city and then on Sunday we are driving to Charlottesville to eat brunch at the Boars Head Inn with my parents and my older brother, who I haven't seen in 15 years!

As I hear Emma talking from her bed upstairs, I'll wrap it up and go retrieve her for a snack - anyone want to predict how many of her things are thrown out of the crib and onto the floor? I guess all of them!

New Doctor, New Regimen - seems to be working

So we saw the doctor who will be our permanent endocrinologist yesterday. It was a crazy, hectic appointment because we had to go to Children's Hospital in DC; AND, it was the Doctor's day "on call" which is the only way she was able to actually see us.

She was frustruated with the regimen that the doctor in the hospital had put Emma on; as we were since her levels hadn't stabilized over the week and a half we'd been out of the hospital.

She started a new regimen yesterday. We like it for a variety of reasons:
- We increased her "long lasting" dose (her Basel). This is supposed to be the insulin that manages her throughout the day.
- We changed to a fast-acting "after meal" insulin for adjustments(Bolas). This is great because its based on her level before eating AND how much she eats. If she wants more carbs at a certain meal, we can increase her dose to adjust. If we can't seem to force the food in her mouth (which is often the case), we just decrease her dose. This is GREAT for a child who isn't in a position to understand the need for a certain amount of food.

In the past 24 hours, she hasn't gone above 250 (whereas she had been averaging higher than that most days). She has been staying mostly between 80 and 150 - and our target is 180!! So, for us, we are thrilled with the way her body is reacting. Of course, this could also mean her pancreas has kicked back in for a last hurrah, but either way, she isn't swinging and that makes us happy.

Zoo News!!

Last Wednesday, the day before Emma was admitted to the hospital, we took a day trip to the National Zoo. Sometimes, the downside of living CLOSE to the capital is that you feel that "it will always be there" and don't work it into your schedule.

Last Tuesday night, I heard the weather forecast was going to be great, nice and warm but overcast, and I decided to forego lessons for the today and have a field trip to the zoo.

We started with our favorite attraction - the Pandas. There are 3 Pandas at the zoo now - Mom, Dad, and Baby. While we were there, they had Mom and Dad in the same yard because its "that time of the season", but Mom didn't want anything to do with Dad - and as a matter of fact, she growled quite loudly at him when he came by.


One of my favorite areas is the Lion/Tiger display. There were two tigers sleeping away the morning on one side, but then this very alert lioness on the other. The other area I saw that was new to me was the invertebrate house - we saw lots of coral and sea life (unfortunately, the octopus wasn't there, which is what Michael wanted to see). At the end of that house, they have a butterfly house and you are able to walk through their garden as they flew around you.

The kids LOVE watching the Otters, because they have a great display with a clear window looking into their pool so you can really see the otters playing. I think Samantha and Michael would have watched them for a REALLY LONG TIME had I let them.



We saw almost all of the areas of the zoo, including an area I'm not sure I'd seen before - the bird house. As a point of background, the National Zoo is built on a huge hill. In order to see the entire zoo, you WILL take a trip DOWN and a trip UP the hill. The uphill is brutal!! But, that was the way to the Bird House, so we CLIMBED our way up a steep incline pushing Emma in the stroller. But, it was a neat attraction and Samantha saw what she had been asking about all day - the Flamingos. This is a video of the Flamingo dance that they do - its quite humorous.

Baffling Body Chemistry

I assure you, after we get through this initial phase with Emma, it won't all be about her Diabetes. But for now...

Emma had a pretty good day yesterday. He numbers were getting more normal and the night before when I felt certain she was going to drop really low (because of her evening numbers), she stayed right on track. The one nurse I talked to said that her pancrease could even be beginning the "honeymoon phase" (after a person's sugars get back under control, their pancreas will often begin secreting insulin again. It's not much and it doesn't last forever - its sort of a "swan song" for your pancreas.

Well, Emma's body chemistry said "ha".

She was high over night (over 300). High enough for me to page the doctor, which I'm sure she loves at 3:15am! The Doctor had us give her an extra little dose of insulin overnight. But, her breakfast reading, morning snack, AND lunch readings were ALL over 300. It just doesn't make sense with the amount of insulin she had. It even baffled the nurse on the phone at lunch when she was deciding what to do. Both the doctor and the nurse made a comment "maybe she's coming down with something" (at which point I just wanted to pull out the gun and shoot myself). Getting a bug evidentally messes up your sugars too. Well, the nurse said to do Emma's normal dose and then check it about 3 hours later, when it should have been in effect (and the morning dose should still be working, since they overlap).

She was 150.

It just makes no sense, after being close to 400 for 12 hours, for a drop to 150 just 3 hours later!!

Baffling disease.

But hey, we got in with the new Endocrinologist on Monday. We have to drive all the way to DC for the initial visit BUT she got us a 10:30 appt, instead of the originally proposed 9am (which would have meant a 7am departure!)

The simple things

When you have stress in life, sometimes the simple things can give you the most pleasure.

One of the homeschool curriculums that I am using this year is Sonlight. I actually wanted to use more of it than I did, but it just didn't fit in with the kids this year. I have been reading on their message boards about a completely re-designed language arts program, assisted by a well-known and well-respected home educator. I have been getting excited about the possibility of actually using more of the curriculum next year, which is my objective.

I received my new catalog today. I had heard they were mailed last week and many people on the message boards were talking about already having theirs. So, I was so excited when mine came today that I stopped what I was doing and sat down to look at the new areas. It is definitely exciting for me and makes me excited to finish some things this year so we can start some things next year - if only the kids were as excited about it as us parents!

The kind of post you wish you didn't have to post

For those in our immediate family and close friends, this is not new information. For others, it is.

Last Wednesday night at 10pm, I took Emma (our 2 year old) to the Emergency Room with extremely high blood glucose levels (a normal person would be between 80 and 130 and she was at 580). She was immediately admitted to the ICU and diagnosed with Type I (insulin dependent) Diabetes.

She stayed in the hospital until Saturday when she returned home and we began the processing of testing, and insulin shots on our own. I have spoken to the Doctor no fewer than 2 times a day since we have returned, and we have constantly been tweaking and modifying her injections until her body adjusts to the insulin and stabailizes.

I am happy to say that she has been "almost" stable for 24 hours. She had one "higher than normal" reading overnight, but the Doctor is fairly confident as to why this is happening and after leaving things alone today, she may make one more adjustment tomorrow that will probably address that reading.

But that's not the end of it. She will always have to monitor her sugar levels, and watch what she is eating. Right now, the struggles are making sure a 2-year-old eats what she needs to eat based on our injections. As she gets older, it will be more a "defiance" that will cause our challenges. And each growth spurt, and illness will be cause for adjustments.

But for now, we are just happy she is home and acting as though nothing has changed. She acts like nothing has happened and right now, she is currently transferring crayons back and forth from a lunch box to a Ziploc and back again (I think she has done this about 10 times now).

So for us, we have a goal of this having the least impact possible and being able to do things just as we normally have done. I do expect, however, that she will be eating more than one meal fed from tupperware at the soccer or baseball field so that she doesn't get off schedule.

From time to time, I will provide updates here, as its easier to cover everyone here than remembering all the emails I need to send!

Another tooth bites the dust!

Michael had another tooth pulled today. He had a tooth pulled out last month because his permanent tooth was coming in behind it. After pulling the baby tooth, the permanent tooth was moving nicely into place. The Dentist had warned me that his other front tooth was going to have the same problem and to watch it. I expected that by the time their regularly scheduled checkup came around in April that it would need to be removed. Little did I expect when I checked his first removed tooth on Monday that I found his other permanent tooth growing quickly in his mouth.

The Dentist said to not even bother with an assessment - we just scheduled for it to be taken out. It came out as easily this morning as his other one did last month - and the permanent tooth has almost come in as far as the other one - so it hardly looks like a tooth is even gone!

Photos to come soon - guess the Tooth Fairy is making another visit tonight!

I guess I've started potty training

I bought a potty seat for Emma a while back - one that sits on top of the main seat. She has been carrying it around the house for a while, and Dora has had her turns with the seat. I've also sat Emma on it a couple of times just to get the feel.

She has started asking to go potty. I think most times she has already gone, but its a start. AND, she has gone a few times in the potty over the past few days.

So, I guess we are starting potty training. With the other two, I had the benefit that day care did most of the training for me, and the kids were around other kids their age who were learning, so this is a new environment for us. I guess I'll just get out the timer and start our "every 20 minute" trips to the bathroom!