We have talking boys!

I can finally say that I'm no longer worried about the boys talking.  Thing 2 is a chatter box.  Thing 1 is still a little more reserved unless he is by himself, then he will talk more.  Thing 2 is more of the leader when it comes to talking.  He will repeat anything you ask him to and he will really try to talk to you using words.  We don't always understand him, but he really does try to talk more and use his words.  Thing 1 will use his words too, but won't always repeat what you ask him to.  He just isn't a performing monkey.  He does things when he wants to and only when he wants to.  I guess since they usually want the same things at the same time and his brother is always talking about what he wants he doesn't really need to talk.  But don't get me wrong he can say everything his brother can, he just says it when he wants to.  

Things they have been saying lately:

I love you 
Yes (instead of grunting and nodding heads)
Help
Outside
Eat
Crackers
Mac & Cheese
'Nack (for snack)
Ga Abby or sissy for The Girlchick
Time Out
Elmo
Cookie Monster
Flowers
Trash can
Car
Truck

Potty training , already?

A good friend has always told me that the rule of thumb for potty training boys is to wait until they are 3.  I've always been god with that, since I was in no hurry to try and do two at once. 

For maybe the last two weeks they have shown some interest in the potty. I would take their diapers off and put them on the potty. They would just sit there for about a second and then say "all done".  This past weekend they they both dribbled a tiny amount into the potty. It was very exciting. Well today we were sitting at the table eating dinner when all of a sudden I could tell Thing 2 was trying to go. He tells me poo poo potty, potty, poo poo.  And I asked him do you need to go potty? And he did his head nod and grunt that he uses for yes.  So off we go, but I could tell that he had already gone. I take off his diaper and sure enough he has already gone. But I put him on the potty anyway, and I can tell he is trying to go some more, but I didn't think he had actually gone. I get him off the potty and a clean diaper on him and then stand up and look into the potty, and sure enough he has pooped in the potty!  I tell him great job and give him high fives and he says bye bye poo poo!  And we flush the potty. He was so proud!  

Now of course Thing 1 has to try, and he doesn't do anything except want to unroll the TP roll. 

I was really ok with this waiting until they were 3. I'm SO not ready to try potty training right now. So we are just going to go really really slow. Really slow, like drag my feet for a year slow. 

I know, I know, if they are ready then they are ready.  Sigh...... That's what I get for planning, I should know better than to try and make plans with these boys, they never seem to follow them.  I mean come on, I had planned for just ONE more and look how that turned out. 

Immune testing Thing 1

On Friday I took Thing 1 to have his blood work started for his immune testing.  It was a lot of blood.  It was 3 large tubes and one small one.  They use a butterfly and asked me to hold him, then they have a second person come in and actually hold his arm while another one does the stick and does the blood draw.  He was so mad!  I had a hard time hanging on to him and they kept telling me to hold him tighter.  I was like any tighter and he isn't going to be able to breathe!  That little boy is strong!  I felt so bad, all he kept saying was "All done!".  It was horrible for me.  I have issues getting my own blood drawn and have actually passed out before.  So this was not an easy thing for me to do to try and remain calm to help keep him calm.  I had terrible mommy guilt, so we went out for ice cream.  The boys don't really get sugary treats at home, they had it on their birthday and thanksgiving, but that is it.  It was pretty funny - we went to Baskin Robbins and I wasn't sure what he would do, so I got a plain cone and the ice cream in a seperate cup.  He only ate the cone, and spit out the first bite of ice cream.  He then would touch his spoon to the ice cream and put it in his mouth, but never ate any.  It was really cute.

Showing you his BooBoo (you can see the edge of the wrap on his arm)

Eating his ice cream cone and not eating his ice cream

Happy Birthday Uncle Bubby!

Today was Uncle Bubby's birthday and we made the trek out to Grammy's house for the traditional birthday dinner.  Homemade fried chicken!  Hers is the best!

From left to right - Thing 2, Uncle Bubby, The Girlchick, Thing 1 and way back in the back trying to hide - Grammy

Naked Babies!

This past weekend we woke up to naked babies!  Literally.  They can't get out of their cribs anymore since we dropped the mattresses to the floor, so they decided to take out their revenge on us in other ways.  The Girlchick yelled downstairs to us that we had to come quick that the boys are naked, like completely naked with no diapers on.  They had gotten out of their sleep sacks, out of their jammie tops and bottoms and their diapers.  Thing 2 had peed everywhere and Thing 1 had pooped in his diaper, but in the process of getting his diaper off he pulled out a clump of poop and had it all over him and his crib. I ended up just having to put him in the tub.  He was mad!  He was chilly too since we had the fan running and then he got into the warm tub.  You would have thought that he would have liked it since it was warming him up, but no - he just got mad.  So now we are back to the onsie footsie jammies that zip all the way up and have a tag that goes across the top of the zipper so they can't get to it and open it up.  Since we put them back in those we haven't had any more naked babies.  The Girlchick didn't ever take her diaper off.  She would take her jammies off, but never took her diaper off.  Again - something The mellow mild Girlchick never did.  I do realize that this is a normal typical thing that most kids do, but just another example of stuff the boys have done that she never did.  I really wish I had taken a picture.  They were so cute and so proud of themselves, it was really hard to be mad at them.  Actually I was never mad at them.  I just had to laugh and get them cleaned up.  

Go Texan Day

It is a Houston tradition that you have Go Texan Day at the start of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo.  Everyone dresses up in their cowboy finest, boots, hats, belts, they do it all.

The kids dressed up for school and had BBQ for lunch.

We had to get her new boots since she out grew the pink ones from last year, but she had her pink hat and her pink western shirt

I love the smile on Thing 1's face and Thing 2 has his usual smile on.  So cute!  I was only able to find them semi western shirts, I couldn't find boots or hats that would fit them that didn't cost a bunch of money.

Time Out

We have had to start the Time Out process a little earlier with the boys than we did with The Girlchick.  They are crazy!  They beat each other up, hit each other, bite, hit their sister, they have no fear and will just go nuts.  We really didn't have to start that with her until she was over 2 yrs.  She might have only been 2.5, but I know she was over 2.  They boys aren't even 2 yet and we have been putting them in time out for at least 2 months. And they understand the concept since they have watched their sister having to sit in Time Out.  I was't sure they would, but they get it.

It's pretty funny sometimes.  Like the other night Thing 1 was just being pig headed.  I mean extremely pig headed.  Beyond his normal pig headedness.  The usual process is that they hit or do something bad and they have to go sit in time out and then they can get up once they calm down and then they have to say sorry to the person they hit and give them a hug or "luvs" as they call them.  Thing 1 had sat in time out and I told him he could get up but he had to say sorry for hitting me.  He would scream NO!  Then I told him that he had to go sit back down and could get up when he was ready to say sorry.  He got back up and came over to me and I said are you going to say sorry?  He said NO! and then started to scream again, then I told him he had to go sit back down.  He ran over to their time out spot screaming and sat back down.  He got back up again and came back over and did the same thing, I asked are you ready to say sorry?  He said NO!  And this time I didn't even have to tell him to go sit back down, he just went and sat his little hiney in his spot.  This went on for 45 mins!  I told you he was being pig headed!  

Thing 2 has been putting his Elmo doll in time out.  If I didn't think that they understood the concept, any doubts were removed after he started doing this.  In the video I had to prompt him a little to do it so I could get it recorded, but before that he was doing it all on his own.  I would say that he has the concept figured out.  Little stinkers!  At first it took me a few minutes to figure out that he was saying "owie" while he had his finger in Elmo's mouth.  And I would ask him if Elmo was biting him and he would then say "No Biting!", and he would tell Elmo that he has to go sit in time out.  It was hilarious!  

And here we go......

Well Thing 1 has had two ear infections.  We have been able to treat them with just the ear drops and (knock on wood) we haven't needed oral antibiotics.  But that is enough for the dr to want to start the process of immune testing.  So here we go.... off to have a lot of blood drawn.

Thing 2 hasn't had any issues so far.  So for him we are still in wait and see mode.  They both still have a consistent runny nose, but it is off and on during the day and not just running down their faces non stop like a faucet.  And when I say running down their face, I mean really running.  It's not like just a light dampness above their lip, it's like they constantly looked like they had egg whites/thick green snot running into their mouths.  It was gross.  So now it is not as bad.  The pediatrician agrees with the direction that this dr is going in.  

Allergy tests

We had the allergy tests done for both boys today.  Thing 1 had a slight allergy to dust mites, but only at a plus one.  The Dr. wasn't so sure that it was a true reaction since the control was not very robust.  Thing 2 had a robust control and tested negative for all indoor allergies.  Thing 1 did pretty well during the test.  I was the most worried about him and trying to keep him occupied and not touching his back.  I brought a bag full of snacks and toys to try and help during the wait for the test to be complete, but I didn't really need them.  They had a DVD player and put in the Cars movie and he sat on my lap and was pretty happy that way for most of the test.  It wasn't until they came in to clean him up and we waited for the dr did he start to get antsy.  Which is a little odd since he usually isn't the one that will sit down and watch TV.  He is always too busy.

Thing 2 on the other hand was not a happy camper at all.  He was fine until they put the test on his back.  Then it went all down hill from there.  He didn't want to watch the movie, nothing in the bag would keep his attention for more than a minute.  He wanted to sit on my lap, but wanted to lean back against me, which he couldn't do since you can't rub or touch his back.  At one point he got so mad at me that he went across the room faced the exam table with his back to me and stood there and pouted.  I would try to talk to him and he would just yell no at me.  I finally just left him alone to pout by himself.  I really thought he would sit there and watch the movie.  He's the one that will come and sit with you on the couch and sit for a good bit and watch TV.  But not today.  He kept wanting to put his shirt on and his jacket and just was not happy at all.

The dr said that he didn't want to do any of the other allergy tests since the boys are still pretty young and at this point it really wouldn't change his course of treatment.  He really wanted to rule out anything that the daycare might possibly have that we may not have at home.  The outside allergies are assumed to be the same at both places since we don't live that far from the daycare.  

He said that he wants to give the nasal spray 3 months and to see what happens.  He was pretty sure that it wasn't going to be the miracle cure and everything was going to be fixed with a simple nasal spray.  The next steps are to do the immune testing, but he wants to give it that 3 month time frame first.  He said that if we have any other episodes where we have to have antibiotics that we need to call into the office and let him know, that he was going to have a very low threshold for them at this point and was going to be pretty aggressive.  Since the immune testing is pretty involved and requires a good amount a blood and several steps, he didn't want to put them through it right off the bat.  Hence the 3 month waiting, but if we require more antibiotics we will be having the immune tests.  

Now we just wait and see.

Thing 2's allergy test, he was not a happy camper

Allergies maybe?

The boys finally had their appointment with the allergist.  I was really encouraged.  He was very thorough and LISTENED to everything I had to say.  Their whole history.  Starting off as wimpy white boys, having to be pulled out of daycare for being so sick, being pretty much fine while out, and then being so sick again when we had to put them back in.  He listened to the whole struggle that we have had with them and the constant cycle that we can never get out of with them.  The runny nose and cough that never goes away and turns into ear infections, sinus infections and bronchitis.  The constant stream of antibiotics that is just not good for them.  He was the first one to even mention that it might be a weakened immune system and that we can do some test to determine that. He said that there was a process he wanted to follow first and he very thoroughly explained the process to me and made sure I understood it.

He wants to first start with a nasal spray, which I was pretty sure they would do.  He also gave us inhalers for both boys to try first when their coughs get really bad.  We may be able to head off the bronchitis if they can clear their lungs better before it gets to that point.  Or if they start to have a really bad coughing episode then to give them the inhalers to see if it will help settle it down.  He also wants to do some indoor allergy testing.  He said since they are still too young for the full spectrum allergy test and since they really started to have problems "indoors" being at daycare that he wanted to start there.  He said that they may have some outdoor allergies, but at this point it would not change his treatment plan and he didn't want them to have to go through that test.  The indoor allergy test is pretty easy - there are only 6, instead of the almost 30 they do on the full test.  But since they aren't 3 it could change for the outdoor allergies.  

We go back on Monday for the allergy tests.

I also started treating them with some essential oils.  Our friend Devin tuned me onto them (check out his blog here).  He said that The thieves oil blend is thought to be used back during the black plaque era.  That there seemed to be "thieves" that didn't seem to be getting the plaque.  When caught and asked they finally fessed up to using these essential oils.  He has used it and others on his children and had some good results in fighting off illnesses.  He suggested I try the Thieves and Mrtyle first.  So I started them on that yesterday.  Between the oils and the viramist nasal spray there was a noticeable difference in their coughs and runny noses.  I'm very encouraged and hopeful that we might be FINALLY heading in the right direction.  

Update to the Little Climbers

We may have found a temporary solution!!!!  YAY!!!  Let's see if it works.  We dropped the bottoms of the beds to the floors and put the mattresses on top.  Now the sides are up to their chins and they can't fling themselves over the sides or get their feet up on the sides to get over and out!  Hopefully it works!  They were up at 5:30 am and before they made enough noise to wake us up they had torn apart their room and were pulling all of their stuff out of their closet.  

Little climbers

The boys are now climbing out of their cribs.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  It's a right of passage for toddlers. 

We had a scare a few months back with Thing 1 trying to climb out and ended up falling on his face.  He was not happy.  They have since been trying but not able to get very far.  After the scare I went in search of ways to keep them contained.  I thought that the crib tents would be the way to go, but after researching them I found that they had been recalled.  Then I found the sleep sacks.  The idea being that they wouldn't be able to get their foot up on the railing.  That seemed to work for awhile, but now they have conquered those as well.  This weekend Thing 1 was able to actually get out of the crib by pulling the dresser drawer open and then proceeded to have fun sitting in the drawer.  It really was cute and I wish I had gotten a picture of it.  But still not safe.  Yesterday morning around 7:00 am The Girlchick yelled downstairs that both boys were out of their cribs.  They at least stayed in their room.  This morning it was 6:30 am and they got out of their room and were having a grand ole time running around.  They thought it was hilarious!  Dad...... not so much!  Dad is not a morning person and I had to leave for work, so Dad had to deal with it by himself.  He put them back in their cribs, but they were out as soon as he got back downstairs. 

I did find an actual tent that was made for children with autism.  You put the bed inside a slot on the bottom of the tent and the mesh is reinforced so it is not a hazard. I ordered them thinking that they were great!  But they were back ordered until January, and now they are back ordered until March! 

I'm sure you are asking why not just take them out of the cribs and put them in a toddler bed?  They need containment still.  They would tear their room apart!  It would not be safe to leave them in a room unsupervised.  They would go nuts!  The Girlchick - we had to force her out of her crib, she would sit there happily hanging out.  But the boys - they feed off each other and egg each other on.  One does it then the other has to try and do it.  I would have to take everything out of the room and replace all of the outlets with covered plates for their room to be safe for them to be in alone.  Even if I anchored their furniture I would still have to remove their drawers.  If they can get into it they will.  Those baby locks that are supposed to keep kids from opening drawers and cabinets..... they have them figured out in about 10 mins.  This is all new to me and I'm struggling a little bit with it.  The Girlchick was SO mellow in comparison to the boys.  I think some of it is the whole boy thing, but some of it is just because there are two.  Like I said they feed off each other.  Plus they have no fear and are just plain crazy! 

People wonder why we don't take them out much away from the house - this is exactly why.  It is way too much work and stress to take them to a house that is not baby proof.  It is not fun for us to sit there the whole time chasing after them and telling them no, don't touch that, no leave that alone, no don't go in there.......  etc.  Does that sound like a good time to you?  Plus there is The Girlchick, she is only 6 and still requires attention/supervision.  She is pretty good, but still she is only 6, left to her own devices, she will get into stuff and trouble.  You know the saying curiosity killed the cat - especially true for our daughter in a new environment. 

Back to my original post - anyone have any ideas on keeping them in their cribs until their new tent beds get here in March?  March seems like it is SO far away! 

Surgery Update

I really am pulling my hair out!  It's been over a week and I don't see a change or any improvement whatsoever!  It is beyond frustrating.  They have still been running low grade fevers in the 100.2-100.9 range.  Then Thing 2 spiked up to over 102 and has been holding steady at about 101.6.  We took him back in to see the pediatrician and she said his throat and ears looked good but he had the starting of bronchitis.  Really again?  How do you get it when you are already freaking on antibiotics?  They have now been on antibiotics for over 3 weeks!  So now she switches him to another one, one that is supposed to be more aimed at chest infections instead of ear infections.  I'm not buying the kool aid!  Can you see me rolling my eyes?  This was on Thursday of last week, now did you notice I had mentioned that she said his ears looked great?  Well on Friday he had puss running out of them.  So we started him on the ear drops that you are supposed to use when they get ear infections.  I checked Thing 1's ears too and he had drainage too, not puss but it was fluid, coming out like it was supposed to.  I started him on ear drops too.  Right about this time Thing 1's fever finally seemed to go away.  After about 2 1/2 weeks of low grade fevers and two different antibiotics later, finally a change for the good.  But over the weekend his snot changed from clear to nasty thick yellow/green stuff.  I'm waiting for the fever to come back and we will start the whole cycle again.  Doesn't it sound fun?  Wanna come play with us?

We have an appointment with the allergist on Friday, I'm really hoping they can tell us something or help in some way.