Run!

I helped Denis get the treadmill moved back into the house today. It's in the basement and I have to clean it up. It still works! The caveat is that it's currently in the middle of the basement under the lowest part of the ceiling. If I run on it and bounce, my head will hit the ceiling! He didn't want to move it again, so since I'm just starting out on it again, I'll walk. Then I won't bump my noggin. I'll try to relocate it myself if we don't get to it by next weekend, but it's heavy. I can roll it on wheels, however. My point of mentioning this is that I am going to be FULLY COMMITTED to using that treadmill and do some major cardio for at least a solid month or two. Maybe three. I am SICK of the fat on my body and know that a good cardio workout will hopefully help slim down some corners. I'll worry about weight training later. I am also finishing my last row of Ghihardelli brownies, and determined to keep off the totally junky stuff so I can lose some weight. My plan is to walk briskly for a week, to get the kinks out of my joints and get used to using my heart at a fast pace since I haven't formally exercised in three years. THREE YEARS. YIKES!!! But now's the time, the treadmill's back, and I desperately want to shed 20-25 pounds. It won't be overnight. But it will be AT NIGHT. After the kids are in bed, I will walk, then run for 30-60 minutes, then go shower and then clean up the kitchen. Or a combo of that. I will severely reduce my Facebook presence at night so I can accomplish this goal. And I'm not going to mention this to anyone unless they ask. I'm not trying to be held accountable for it, I just want to try to do this on my own. But Chinny knows, and Denis knows of course. I think it may inspire him to want to work out with me, too, although he already works out but sporadically. I think it's giving him an excuse to buy some weights for the basement. So that I can use them, too. Sure, I will, but for right now it will be about a cardio BLAST. Another incentive is that I truly believe that if I can lighten up my body, it may relieve the pressure on my spine and lower back. I am in pain every single day, for over a year. The chiropractor couldn't save me. The cortisone shot couldn't save me. I knew, deep down, that being physically fit might help. And if it doesn't, then surgery might be the road I'd have to take. So to avoid getting cut open in the back, let me try to lose the weight. I'm very excited about this plan, and have been anxious for the past two weeks for that treadmill to get back into the house from the garage. Starting tomorrow night, I'll clean it up and start a slow walk. I'll shoot for 4 times a week, but won't hold back if 5, 6 and 7 feels good. Hope I don't overdo it and hurt myself in the beginning. Gonna load up the mp3 player and get my groove on!!!

Pondering Flu Shots

Ronin's OT eval was fine. He's doing great as a kid. Some low muscle tone, needs some upper body work, but we knew that since he became sickly with his asthma, plus his food allergies. Classic case. We're still doing speech therapy because Pete says he needs to work on his cognitive and expressive language. OK, fine. I suppose I could call the coordinator and just tell her we're through with speech, but Denis was in favor of continuing it. FIIIIINE, I'll keep going. It doesn't hurt, but I don't want Pete to put any more useless thoughts into my head.

I'm worried every time I hear Ronin cough, and tonight Audrey's been hacking away. I felt her forehead and she's not warm at all, but it could be something viral. I'll have to see how she is in the morning. Ronin had a flu shot at the new allergist's office. They watched his reaction to it, because the flu shot normally has egg in it. He did fine. On Saturday both Nikko and Audrey will get the flu shot at the pediatrician's office. We are going to have to wait until they get the H1N1 vaccine. My friend Alexa stood in line for 7.5 hours to get herself and her daughter vaccinated. I don't know where. But that is a LONG time. There are so many pros and cons to getting the vax, it would make your head spin. There are overall cons for the kids because they are all at risk, Nikko has developmental delays/neurological delays, Ronin has asthma, and Audrey is just one year old. Nikko's autism could also be aggravated by any mercury or thimerasol or anything funky in the vax. Actually, ALL the kids could be affected by something in the vax down the road. I'm slightly nervous about Audrey's future shots because there's a possibility that any vax, flu shot, H1N1 shot or regular ped shot could make her regress. Nikko was pretty much born with his neurological delays in my book, despite his achieving most of his milestones like sitting up and walking, but he was never pointing or waving or clapping his hands when he was a baby. He waved for a very short period of time, but lost the skill. Therefore, I don't believe that vaccines caused his autism. But could they cause it in the other kids? I think Ronin is in the clear, he's over 2 years old, but after shots and sicknesses you never know if he could regress. I've read that it happened to someone on one of the autism boards, the boy Zavier was 28 months when he regressed after getting sick or shots. That is so scary. Especially since Ronin is talking and is so sharp. Guess I should be nicer to him than I was today. LOL! And Audrey seems to be developing quite normally, she can clap, pick up small objects with a pincer grasp, points in a rudimentary way, tries to say words like Cheese (Chssss), Ball (Bah), Pacy (Pah), Ma, Da, Duck (Dah), Pig (Pa)... that's pretty good for a 1 year old, I think! Ronin didn't even crack any real words, or close to them, until almost 20 months. We're still waiting for more from Nikko.

Walking Audrey

On Thursday, Oct. 8, I was waiting for Peter to arrive for Ronin's speech therapy session when I noticed that Audrey was pulling herself up to stand and taking 3-4 steps at a time before falling back on her butt. I saw her pull up onto her feet, then let go and stand alone for a minute at a time. In the back of my mind I said to myself, "OK, she's walking longer today. That's great!" The next day at the in-law's house she was taking 4-5 steps and standing even longer. Each day after that she has been toddling around more and more, and so this week she has truly learned how to walk. It's amazing. She's still doing some crawling, but the majority of the time she's on her feet, walking like Frankenstein. All this before her 1st birthday. YEA!

Ronin is obsessed with the Disney Cars characters. He also watches Finding Nemo, but he is fixated on playing with the matchbox-sized cars and is lamenting that he couldn't take home Doc Hudson from my friend's kid Boon's house. This evening, Pat and Anna found two Doc Hudsons at Babies R Us and dropped them off for me (I owe them moolah and thanks for that!). I'll bring one to church tomorrow and whip it out when Ronin has a meltdown. I'll save the other for when we lose the one he'll open. Ronin's speech is coming along, but not enough that I was able to get us out of another 6 months of speech therapy. Ronin was a late talker, and he's good at repeating what we say, but his spontaneous speech isn't smooth. It's still early, he'll catch up I'm sure. But Peter is making me paranoid about Ronin's behavioral problems i.e. his fixation on Cars, his inability to transition between activities (stuck on cars), and his "perseveration" on cars, according to Pete. He recommended an OT evaluation. I hope Ronin passes it well, if/when it happens, because although he is a difficult-acting child at times, I don't think he has delay or sensory issues. Peter thinks he has sensory issues. Who knows? Doesn't hurt to get the evaluation.

Bed rearranging, and just busy!

Just a quick note. I think I'm going to have to do more during the day in terms of organizing and cleaning instead of trying to fit it in after the kids go to bed. Yeah, we have a dishwasher now, but after loading it and cleaning up the physical kitchen, I go over papers and blog about Nikko, look at websites and end up staying up too late to start any new project. I've got tons of filing to do, papers to sort and put aways, as well as overall JUNK that needs purging and I can't seem to get to it because I'm doing other things after the kids are asleep. We've just been through a busy weekend, transferring kid furniture and now Audrey is sleeping in the 2nd room by herself and the boys share the nursery. Ronin has a new bed which he doesn't want to sleep in at night. Audrey has the crib, which she seems to LOVE. And Nikko is ambivalent about where his bed got moved, showing no signs that it bothers him in the least that he's not alone anymore. Audrey's not Ferberized yet, still sleeps with a paci. In fact, I've replaced it twice tonight, and am thinking that after tonight I should just not go in and let her cry herself back to sleep. Unfortunately it will be at the expense of the boys if they wake up, but I'm hoping she will complly. I HOPE. Anyway, I've got to hit the hay. I have an earlier schedule now that Nikko's in preschool. I set my alarm for 6:45a so I can get the breakfast stuff ready and rolling for Nikko, then go fetch Nikko hopefully around 7:10ish. I'm still working out the morning schedule kinks.

R&A update

It's been about 3 months since I've posted about Ronin and Audrey. I've blended in some of our daily activities into Nikko's blog since Nikko's therapies with Early Intervention ended on his 3rd birthday, July 20th. Ronin gets speech therapy once a week with Pete Lyon on Thursday mornings, 9:20a. Quite honestly, in the week or two before his therapy began, Ronin started saying words and repeating words. He started with Pete and didn't really want to interact with him at first, but later warmed up to him. Within the first two weeks, Ronin's speech snowballed and he was naming things as we pointed to them, repeating what we said, and starting to say two-word phrases. Ronin really got into the movie Cars and it proved to be a good and bad thing during therapy because he was so stuck on playing with Lightning McQueen that he didn't care to read books with Pete. However, he was still repeating phrases prompted by Pete. Ronin is also saying three-word phrases now, and has flashes of spontaneous talking. I still have to ask him questions to get answers, and he still whines and cries when he wants something, but with just a little prompting he can focus on saying something. When he accidentally drops his cars behind the tables and he cries out, I ask him if he needs help, please and he says Help Peas! On two occasions when he wanted something, like juice, he'd say, "I want juice!" Other times it's just "Juice! Juice!" Or he'll say, "I LIKE Cars!" As for the Flovent, I took Ronin off the aerochamber for about two months to see if it was the Flovent that made him all whiny and crazed at times. Well, even though he was drug free, Ronin still whined and cried until I wanted to tear my hair out. I've been screaming because of some resistance with him for the past three days, and only today I noticed that he was actually behaving and I wasn't drawn to scream at him for anything. Ronin is so sharp. He's actually quite adorable lately, but I could really do without his high-pitched screaming.

Audrey is 10 months and crawling really fast. She is drinking less formula and wanting to eat more solid foods. She hates jarred food nowadays. Booo! That means I gotta get her some fresh stuff. She tries to tangle with her brothers, but that means she may learn to walk sooner. Audrey is now sporting one tooth on her upper right gum, to go with the bottom two teeth. She's very animated and loves cuddling with a burp cloth and a pacifier. I'd write more, but it's past 2am and I'm tired! Will catch up another time....

The latest update on R & A

Since my last post, I have been giving Ronin the Flovent via AeroChamber, 2 puffs twice a day. Honestly, he hasn't thrown up and his coughing has disappeared. Is it the Flovent? One day this week I forgot to give it to him at night (and Denis hadn't given it to him when I went to a GNO a few weeks ago) and later that night or the next I swear he had a mini-coughing spell. I don't know if that was the Flovent (or lack of it) or not. I am back on it and don't really want to experiment again by not giving it to him. I think he gets a refill on it when it runs out. I'll have to check the script on that.

Peter Lyon, Nikko's former speech therapist, is going to be Ronin's speech guy. He had an opening for tomorrow at 10:30a so I took it. Ronin's normal speech time will be Mondays at 11:30a, after our playgroup. We are going to have to rush to make it home, but he's easygoing so I shouldn't stress out about it too much. I wonder how Nikko will act in Ronin's therapy. Will he want to be part of the action or will he be aloof and do his own thing? Tomorrow (and the next 2.5 weeks) will be tough because Chinny is in the Philippines and I won't have help taking Ronin away during Nikko's therapies. I fear a lot of distraction, probably frustration on the part of the therapists (mostly Gloria, but Shelly might get annoyed too if Ronin is in the way too much. Bo is very tolerant of Ronin) but they all know we'll have to work with what we've got. I am looking forward to seeing if Peter can give Ronin's language a boost. Ronin is also picking up signs from the Signing Time DVD, but lately he's been jumbling them around a bit. I was so proud of him when we went to Mom's house yesterday because I set him down on the ground, he looked at the neighbor's yard and signed Dog (patting his hip) because he remembers that those two yippity yappity shelties always come running when people are in the front yard. Ronin is such a curious tyke and very smart, but he is also a HUGE WHINER and seems to overact to everything. He is an attention seeker. He is not a bad kid; in fact he is very sweet, but boy does he try to defy me right now. I don't like this stage because I have been screaming my head off at him when he doesn't follow what I say. I have to remind myself daily to calm down and not set a bad example for him. I'm sure he is watching everything I do (so is Nikko) so I have to somehow find a ton of patience and be calm in the eye of the storm.

Audrey is 7 months old and is really blossoming. She's so pretty, she looks like a female Nikko. She's got really chubby legs and her hair is growing in sparsely. Audrey hates tummy time but I force it on her because I don't want her to have low muscle tone in her shoulders and upper back. She sits up really nicely, however, and I can leave her on the living room floor for a long time to play and explore toys from her toy basket. When it's time to nap or she needs a break from sitting, Audrey fusses and lets me know it. She was napping pretty consistently around 11a, 2:30p, and sneaking a 30 min. catnap around 6:30p. But today she started the day with a 2 hour nap that offset everything. I wonder if that was a fluke nap schedule today or if she's decided to nap longer. I wonder if it was a result of yesterday's excitement at my mom's house before they left for the Philippines. She's still not the best solid food eater and I admit that it's easier to plug her with a bottle when she gets fussy during a mealtime since the other boys are pulling at me already. Still, I have to try harder to incorporate solids during at least two of her three mealtimes. Her separation anxiety is in full swing, just like her brothers, and her stranger anxiety is also there, just like her brothers. Today and yesterday she's been moving her mouth as if she is chewing constantly, moving her jaw and her tongue up and down. She's still in our bedroom, sleeping in the pack and play, but I've stressed to Denis that we have to change this really soon because she's not learning how to sleep on her own. I love her dearly, but she needs to get out of our bedroom.

Allergy forums

Looks like I ended up doing my plan as stated in my last blog, with Thursday using plan A. Chinny has been working out, but we had to have a "discussion" because she's been late and it affects me, the kids and the therapists. Yeah, that's pressure.

Ronin is really a curious guy, an explorer and a troublemaker too. He has identified me by saying "Mama" and pointing to me, but he doesn't call me Mama. I don't know when his speech therapy will start, but I hope it helps him hit a boom in his language development. I could really use him being more communicative with words instead of whining. I've joined some online boards on babycenter.com, one on autism, one on asthma and allergies, and the last one on food and environmental allergies. I had posted something last night about which is correct, avoiding an allergen or feeding it in small doses so the person gets used to it. I was surprised that I didn't get an overwhelming response, but the one lady who wrote back said it was a question more suited for the Food allergy group, so I joined that group tonight and reposted my question. I hope I get a few responses. Ronin's been throwing up at will, sometimes triggered by his constant coughing. It's disturbing, but I wonder if I start the Flovent on him will it help lessen his coughing? I gotta clean that AeroChamber and just get started. I'm still chicken to give him the medication.