Strawberry Mountain

Brian's Birthday Weekend

We had a great weekend for Brian's BD.  It was really cold out, which made me really glad I didn't rent the bouncy house after all.  We just had a few kids show up to his party, I don't know if there is a thing about birthday parties at home, because we went to his friend "Bryce's" BD party at the carousal on Sunday and there were a bunch more kids, but needless to say, we had a great time at both, and all that really matters is that Mr. B had a great time.

I also had my knee surgery on Monday.  It went really well as far as I can tell, I'm still on pretty heavy duty pain meds, but I feel like I'm on the mend now.  I can walk around slowly, and even took a shower tonight.  I'm not sure what the rest of the week holds for me work wise, but I'm not going to push it.

I'm going to post some pictures from this weekend.

Happy 5th Birthday Brian!

I can't believe my baby is 5 years old today, I'm not sure where the time went.

He woke up this morning and crawled in my bed and sang Happy Birthday to me.  I thought it was really sweet and cute.  I called in sick today because I managed to hurt my other knee yesterday, so I pretty much spent Brian's birthday sitting in my chair with my leg up.

I did pick him up from school this afternoon though, and right before we left, all the kids in the 4 and 5 year old room sang "Happy Birthday" to him again.  He turned red, and then he was tackled by all the kids running up to give him a hug.

He said he had a good day at school today, and they ate the cupcakes I brought for his class.  When we got home tonight,we have him his 4-wheeler, unfortunately, it was really too cold for him to ride it much.  When we were all throughly frozen,  we came in and let him open all of his other presents, which he really enjoyed.  He was over the moon with the camera his Aunt Rhoda got him, and loved all the spiderman stuff that he got.  Then we sat down to a dinner of homemade Mac and Cheese, which is what Brian requested for his birthday dinner.

On Saturday, he is having his "real" party with all his friends.  We will see what that has in store for us, and on Sunday, we are going to a birthday party for one of the other boys in his class.

Brian's 1st 5 Years!

Rough Morning Today

Well, as much as I'd like to report my little darlings were perfect angels this morning, they weren't.  I woke up to whining and sniveling, and honestly, my knee was killing me, and I was whining and sniveling as well.  Suffice it to say, life in the house on Strawberry Mountain was not pleasant this morning.

Rick got a new job working part time at a small store near our house.  I really wanted him to get this job, and have felt all along that this might be a good place for him to work, and be happy.  He started today, and it sounds like he likes it so far, we will see I guess.

I'm in the middle of trying to plan Brian's BD party, and it is much tougher than I had planned.  I'm trying to figure out age appropriate activities for kids roughly 2-5.  I'm assuming we may have some little siblings in the mix of things as well as the kids we invite.   My mom suggested a book exchange, and I think that might be a great way to avoid the dreaded "party bag" that is so expensive, and full of junk that is either a.) just plain cheap and breakable; b.)  probably made in China, so who knows what the lead content is; and c.) not appropriate for really little kids.  So if anyone can give me some hint's, I'd be glad to read through them, no, not just glad, thrilled...excited...:)

We are in the middle of exchanging all of our incandecsant light bulbs for more energy efficient ones, but we have found one light in the basement that doesn't like them and keeps blowing them out, so I'm guessing we are going to have to go back to the old ones for that lamp.

Spring is coming to Montana, I can feel it, and I can't wait.  I am so tired of snow at this point, that I don't care if we've seen last of it for this winter.

Well, my lunch is over, so I must go back to work.

 Catch ya'll on the flip side!

Our Weekend

Sunday Night.

I don’t have to work tomorrow...yahoo! This is one of the benefits of having a state job...every single holiday off. I’ve never had that before. So I’m going to take Leslie to speech therapy and hopefully get a good idea how soon we are looking at discharge.

Little Miss is definitely on the mend, but definitely still feeling rummy. She has been a whiny mess for day’s. Just nonstop incessant whining. The sort that I haven’t heard since she was a baby and I was having such a hard time of it with her. Poor baby, I’m sure that on top of everything else, she is trying to cut some molars as well.

I cooked a chicken tonight for dinner in my chicken cooker, the Ron Popeil one, and it was once again, perfect, no fuss, no muss. There was hardly any chicken left. I don’t know when I’m ever ever going to get over the magic of this particular little piece of machinery. It just always works perfectly. There is very little to clean, and I get a perfectly roasted chicken every time. I think I’m going on year 3, and it still amazes me at how easy and perfect the chicken comes out.

Can you tell I’m wound up? Only a mom wound up on child whine would be blogging about Ron Popiel “set it and forget it” chicken at almost midnight on a Sunday night.

Rick’s birthday was really nice. I made him homemade shrimp scampi with pasta, on Saturday night with the kids. He opened his gifts and we had the cake, it was really nice. Brian was right up in it all trying to open daddy’s presents.

Friday Night

Well, Leslie definitely has RSV. I took her to Dr. Fritz today and he was sure of it, and just as I thought, he prescribed her a steroid as well as ABX because he thinks she has a sinus infection on top of it all. After a dose of ABX and a day’s worth of Prednisone, she is feeling much better and seems to be sleeping more peacefully than she has all week.

RSV is one of those things that can strike the fear of God into preemie parents.

I know when Leslie and Brian were really little I was terrified.

Brian didn’t meet the criteria for the RSV shots, but poor little Leslie met everyone and then some. She went into RSV season that first year on oxygen still, she was still being seen by the pediatric cardiologist.

Basically Dr. Fritz said she needed the shot’s and that our insurance would pay for it, because if she landed in the hospital with RSV, not only would it be more expensive for them, but that I would have grounds for a lawsuit.

Insurance companies don’t really like to give out Synegis shot’s. The one’s Leslie received for 6 months were $1500.00 a piece and she needed them for 6 months. We had to fight hard for that last month.

But now, 2 years later, RSV is not so scary. When kids get older and stronger, they have the ability to fight it off much more easily. It's more like the flu for kids that are older and stronger.

It’s only when they are tiny babies that the threat is so incredibly great. So now at this point, with her weighing almost 30 lbs, she is in a much better place to fight this off.

In fact, the good news from the Dr. today was when he said to me, “if this is RSV then we are looking good at not having extended respiratory issues with her”.

We really haven’t known how she was going to do on a long term basis because she had such issues that first year, but that was happy happy news for me today.

My little girl is such a fighter, she has such a fighting spirit. Probably because she had to fight so hard from the beginning. She didn’t have an easy time of it, as everyone knows, but she is making up for lost time now.

She is getting stronger and healthier every day. She has barely been sick this year, and after 2 years of her being sick nearly all the time this has been a total relief for both Rick and myself.

So I guess the short story to my long story is, she is doing great, her head is showing no more signs of closing up, it looks normal and we are looking at having a pretty darn healthy little girl.

We went out for dinner tonight with our friends Tony and Diana, Fred and Jacquie and Monica. Had a great time and after dinner we all headed back up the hill to our house for coffee. It really is nice to just relax with friends sometimes.

My friend Karen’s son and his girlfriend watched the kids for us, and that was great, Brian had never met them, but by the time we got ready to leave for dinner, neither he nor Leslie seemed to notice. They just gave us a kiss and said see you later. When we got home I was snuggling in bed with them and Brian told me that Tyler and Sammie were “his favorite”. Brian so loves having a boy to baby-sit him and play with him.

So over and out from Saddle Mountain!

Oh, and if anyone is wondering what “West of Strawberry Mountain” means, it’s because our house is West of Strawberry Mountain. But we live on Saddle Mountain...go figure with all the Montana Names.

Night All!