Monday, January 28, 2013

A baby sister

No, I am NOT pregnant.

Just wanted to get that out there first. However, Antonio told everyone at daycare today he (we) are buying him a baby sister. Yup, so then the kids asked him if his Mama was having a baby and he said, "No, we are buying a baby sister." Duh. Then he proceeded to tell us tonight that we were buying him a baby sister for his birthday. Yeah, that is definitely not happening considering his birthday is less 7 months away.

Eek, in less than 7 months my baby will be 4?! Ack! How did that happen? FOUR?!? Whoa...how do I stop time?

Anyways, I digress. Since I am not pregnant and you cant "buy a baby sister" through adoption/foster care in that short of time no matter who you know, it is not happening. Poor Antonio. He has, however, been mentioning how he wants a baby sister for a couple weeks now. When I asked him what we should name her the other day he simply and plainly responded, "Baby Jesus". Of course because if we got him that baby sister for his birthday it would have to be Baby Jesus since I am currently (and yes, for sure. check out While the Doodlebug Sleeps  if you want to know why it's "for sure") not pregnant. Thank you Ms. Rosemary and the Christmas season for that. :)

So I guess we should start really deciding on if we want another baby by means of pregnancy or adoption. Adoption has always casually been mentioned as an option since I was SO sick the first 4-5 months of pregnancy. I am not sure, nor is Albert, I want to "risk" being that way again; it was terrible. They say you forget about it after the baby is born...nope, not me. It is still pretty vivid in my mind. Blech. And the high possibility of having another c-section? I just don't know.

Of course Antonio was worth it, but now being so "aware" of adoption/foster to adopt it is more of a realistic option. So who knows. Regardless, we are getting pressured by Antonio. Or maybe it is God's way (or the universe's) of telling us to figure it out. :)

We'll keep you posted!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Preschool update...kinda

Preschool seems to be the next step for Antonio. We still haven't decided, let alone thought much about it, if we will hold him back a year before starting Kindergarten. I, myself, lean closer to waiting until he is 6 but we will see. I know Antonio is anxious, without even know about it, to go to "school".  I would like to send him to a Preschool for possibly a Pre-K class. However, what I have found out that a huge problem is transportation. I have looked in to a couple Preschools through church's and they have no transportation. And well, unfortunately, I hadn't really thought about that part of it. Would I even want him riding a bus to and from? We, Albert or I would have to drop him and pick him back up. I could make dropping him work but picking him up between 11:30 and noon (depending on the place) 3 days a week is close to impossible with my work schedule and Albert's.

Is preschool only for kids who have a stay-at-home Mom/Dad? Or a parent who has a very flexible work schedule or works very part-time?

I have maybe 3 people that I would feel comfortable picking him up from preschool. Albert or I, my Mom, Rosemary (the awesome daycare lady) and my cousin/her husband. Here is the problem with them. My Mom lives on the other side of the water and that would be a HUGE in convenience, let alone favor, to ask of her. Rosemary, well she'd have to pack up the other kids in the car and pick him up, at lunch time, so not an option considering they typically eat between 11:30-noon. Then my cousin/her husband. They live in Everett, preschool would be in Marysville, they have two kids of their own with their own schedules. That would mean they would have to pack up, drive to Marysville just to pick Antonio to take him to daycare...ummmm, no, not an option.

So what to do? It sucks.

There is always a chance I may find a part-time job by next Fall so I could pick him up, but at this point, there is no guarantee of that. I know he would love it but I am starting to find out it may not be a possibility and that frustrates me (and makes me sad). A lot. His current daycare is fantastic and is/would be very similar to what preschool would be like but I was really hoping he could experience "school". He talks about it a lot and I can tell he wants to go. So the worse case scenario of no Preschool and just daycare would be ok but not preferable, in my opinion.

Sigh....

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Preschool

So it's January and in order to have Antonio in preschool in the Fall we need to get him registered this month. So like...NOW.  Whoa...when did that happen? I (we) have done no research on this. And I mean ZERO research. Antonio would so love to go and I know it would be good for him. As I have mentioned before, his daycare is very much set up like a preschool so I haven't felt "pressured" to get him in to a preschool. I just know he would love the idea and honestly, the idea of "going to school" is what would be so good for him.

Next problem (first being I probably already should have registered him). How do I been begin to research places? We don't go to church. Most of my friends have their kid attend the preschool through the church they attend. Since we don't attend a church I'm not really sure how that would work for us. ;)  So, besides through a church (and Google) where does one start? I all of a sudden feel a bit pressured (by myself) to at least attempt to do some research and check on registering. So please, any ideas, advice or suggestions please let me know here, via Facebook or email. Thanks. :)

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Bronchiloltis

That's what Antonio has and it is not fun.

I suppose it could be worse, a lot worse so for that, I am thankful. Ever since Antonio got his flu shot back on December 14th (nasal spray version) he has been fighting something. He had a cold for about a week and then seemed to get better. Then he got sucker punched New Year's Eve day. He woke up with a congested cough but it seemed to go away later in the day. The next he woke up the same way but we went about our day and I'm still in debate on whether that was a bad idea or not. Every day since, he has gotten progressively worse. We kept him home Thursday and then Friday from daycare after throwing up Wednesday night and having a fever. The cough went from very congested to hardly congested. The cough is pretty aggressive and I can tell when he coughs its a hard cough. His face gets red and coughs for a good 2 min straight. It has to hurt his throat, head, chest and everything else.

Friday we had an appointment to have him checked out but he ended up sleeping well after when we should have left so we canceled it. We planned to take him to the walk-in Saturday but the waits at all of them were anywhere from 1.5 hrs to 3 hrs!  We decided to wait to see how he was doing. Well the cough was consistent and didn't get any better and again kept him up all night. In fact there was a point where he coughed for a good 5 min straight last night. It made my ribs and throat hurt just listening to him. :(. So the plan was to get up and go to the walk-in when they opened. When we got there, we were a good 6 people deep in line at 9am, when the opened. It was about 40m before we were taken back. The dr saw us pretty quickly after we went back, maybe 10m later. She listened to him breathe and noticed a lot of wheezing. She looked in his throat and said it looked pretty red so she took a strep swab, which Antonio hated but rocked! She had him go down to X-ray to have his chest looked at.


My throat has been hurting me for a couple days now so she took a strep test from me too. Happily both our tests came back negative! She came back after she got the results from that and she looked at his X-rays. (That took forever, maybe 30 min!) She said his lungs looked ok, a little fluid in them but that he doesn't have pneumonia but definitely has bronchiolitis. :(.   She said if he didn't get any better in the next couple days to bring him in again. She prescribed him an inhaler to help at night (or day) when he starts coughing a lot. Besides that we just have to wait it out. Make sure he gets enough fluids, use a cool mist vaporizer and give him Tylenol to reduce his fevers and help with "pain", which we have been doing.  Since it is pretty contagious he isn't allowed to go back to daycare until he is better.

I also was diagnosed with the beginning stages of bronchitis and was told to not go to work since I was also contagious. She also said that I should take emercen-c packets which I already do so she suggested that I doubled up on them. The one good thing with not being avle to go to work is that the daycare issue is taken care of. I hope to send Antonio back to daycare and I back to work Thursday. Fingers crossed for that.  Until then, rest, drink fluids and get better! Oh and keep Albert healthy!

On a side note....Antonio is 40 lbs!!!!!!! Holy cow! So turns out we hadn't been giving the right dosage of tylenol, not enough.  So when we got home we gave him some more, the right amount and he napped. Already he seems to be doing better. Maybe the right dosage really is the key?!  Anyways, send  healthy vibes our way, we need them!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Being home

Between holiday days off, daycare being closed and my regular Wednesday's off I have had two weeks in a row with only working 2 days a week so I've been home a lot with Antonio (we've been spoiled). It has been wonderful. It has made that fire inside myself start to burn again to look for a new job. A very part time job. I had taken a big break looking since it turned into mainly seasonal work time and I need one that was a "permanent" job not seasonal. It has been so nice being home with Antonio and feeling like a real Mama! Its been pretty hectic and pretty off schedule with all the get togethers and just pure excitement but a lot of fun. Its fun to be able to get up and have breakfast together on our own time frame. He's been fighting a cold/cough on and off the whole time but it's been nice knowing that we are home and if we need a "slower" day we can take it. There has been zero anxiety on my part with debating on if he should go to daycare or not.

I know he loves daycare and I don't want to take that away from him but I would love to be able to work 2-3 days a week for 6-8 hours a day. I'm not one for "resolutions" but more for "goals". So one of my goals is to find a job I actually like that allows me more time at home with Antonio. It is nice to be home and "learn" him. Learn his personality, his likes/dislikes, his capabilities, etc. I know all that but not really. Does that make sense? When I am home with him for longer periods of time I find I learn a lot about him; good and bad. Which in turn makes me feel like a better, more "equipped", Mama and that makes me feel better! :) So please send good part-time job finding vibes my way. I know I won't find anything right away because I am fairly picky with what I want but because of that I also could use all the help I can get! Thanks in advance! Wish us luck next week when both Antonio and I get forced back into routine.

Christmas.


It's been awhile since I last posted (besides the last potty training post) so I will bombard you with a couple. :) 

Christmas was awesome this year! 

Antonio started to feel the magic and excitement for the first time this year and it was so exciting to watch. As usual I started listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving against most people's thoughts, including Albert's! However, by the 1st week of December Antonio knew every word to Jingle Bells and would request it every time we got in the car. By the second week he not only knew the words to the first part but even the second part:

  Dashing through the snow
  In a one-horse open sleigh
  O'er the fields we go
  Laughing all the way
  Bells on bobtail ring
  Making spirits bright
  What fun it is to ride and sing
  A sleighing song tonight!

By the week before Christmas he was singing it on his on whenever and where ever he wanted. In the swimming pool, in line at Starbucks, in the grocery store...anywhere! He was just doing his duty of spreading holiday cheer! He also knew Frosty the Snowman and started learning Jingle Bell Rock. He still  requests to listen to Jingle Bells in the car; we may be listening to Christmas music into July. :) 


We started asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him early in the month and he held firm with crayons and a boat. This will probably be the easiest year for that! So of course Santa brought him a boat and crayons! 



The boat was/is a HUGE hit! Good job to Papa, err...I mean Santa, for the find on Amazon! It's huge and it even came with a dock. The crayons were pretty much taken care of by our AWESOME daycare lady, Rosemary. He had frequently told her he wanted crayons from Santa so she out did herself and bought him a huge thing of crayons!! 



He LOVED it! So of course the ones we got him (as well as Grammy and Grandpa) were not nearly as exciting but he still seemed excited. ;) I must admit, they are pretty great. I mean it is much better than any crayons I ever got! There are metallic ones and glitter ones as well as regular ones! He is one lucky boy! 

Christmas Eve we had no plans so we watched the Polar Express before going to bed,which is now his favorite movie. We decided it was perfect since it is all about believing (and a train). We have the book and had been reading it every night since Thanksgiving so he was somewhat familiar with the storyline. he sat through the whole thing too. We decided it would be a new tradition every year! We also put out cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph! 

Antonio had so much fun seeing ALL his cousins for the first time. Meaning, in the past, he has been a bit overwhelmed by them all, especially at the Schneidler gathering. This time he thoroughly enjoyed them ALL! Granted when telling him who he was going to see he would be very disappointed when he asked if Shaun and Logan were going to be there and I told him no. :) He would rapidly get over that disappointment once there. He had so much fun playing with them; I wish we got to seem them more! We are already looking forward to next year, Antonio especially! :)





Potty Training update.

Antonio has been doing GREAT! And I am sure since I am blogging about this he will have an accident today because this usually jinxes him! :/ But....I am going to share anyways because I am so proud of him. It has been at least a month, maybe two, since our last accident of any kind! In fact when we are out we still put him in a pull-up just in case but 99.9% of the time we come home and his pull-up is dry! If he has to go while we are out he will usually tell us or asks if that particular place has a potty and then proceeds to go int he potty. He has been great at telling us then holding it until we get to the potty!  At nap-time and bed-time we still put him in a pull-up and he clearly isn't ready for not because it is always wet in the morning and usually has one pee at nap-time. Which in turn means he is not potty trained for daycare. In order for him to be considered potty trained at daycare he has to be able to nap without a pull-up on and have no accidents. That could be awhile. :/ Oh well. While at home, or anyone's home, he wears underwear. It's just when we are out and at bedtime that he wears a pull-up. Even if he wears one at home/someone's (before we change him out of it from being out) house it stays dry.  So besides nap-time/bed-time, he is pretty much trained!

He was a little irregular with the pooping for awhile but is back to being regular! We think while he was having a few accidents awhile back he was holding it/not wanting to go in fear of not making it in time. Now that his confidence is back with it he is back to being a regular pooper! YAY! I know you are glad to know that too! HA!

As far as wearing a pull-up when we go out it is more because I worry he "might" pee while in the car and in turn soaking his carseat. And then what do I do? I have seen some pads on Amazon, "piddle pads" for the car seat but they all haves such mixed reviews. I'm pretty sure he would be fine but it is MY lack of confidence that stops us. I don't mind having to carry extra pants it's the car seat issue I worry about. Do YOU have any suggestions on that? Should we get a piddle pad? Do YOU have one? Suggestions please. Thanks in advance.