Weekend Visit

On Friday my sister and her growing family came to visit. Yes, if you don't know yet, my sister Emily AND my sister-in-law Cara are both having babies and are due in July, just a couple weeks apart. Yay! Love having new babies in the family!



Kendalyn got right to work covering every square inch of carpet with toys. That is a baby's job, right?! ;-) I think she really had fun with all the "new" stuff we had to offer. Didn't hurt that my kids loved getting out tons of toys with her.

I tried to take my camera on Fri night when we went out for dinner, but forgot it at the last minute, but it was really yummy and we had a fun time! On Sat, we had a little girls' shopping adventure by taking Madie and Kendalyn with me and Em to go to some of the downtown shops. While we were gone Pete and Jeff played almost the entire game of Super Mario Bros. That's 8 levels with like a dozen stops at each level. Guess that's what happens when you leave them for 3 hours and shop. ;-) Madie enjoyed pushing Keni in the stroller on our walk.

We hit lots of shops and Em was getting tired, especially trying to push Keni around and carry her pregnant self all over the downtown area. The last place we stopped was my favorite bookstore. Keni and Madie got quite comfy there. :-)

We thought about doing a family night and pop some popcorn, but I found a cool puzzle instead at one of the shops, so we worked on that together that night.

Pete and Jeff worked together to finish it after the kids went to bed, but it was a lot of fun! The kids were excited to do a puzzle that had characters they love on it.

We had a fantastic time at church on Sunday, because not only did they have a breakfast that morning for the congregation, but the Chicago Salvation Army band came and played for us. Wow! Were they amazing!!!! What an honor for them to come and join us. They are 1 of only 2 S.A bands in the US! Just perfection. Not a better way to worship, if you ask me! We went out again that evening to Cracker Barrell for dinner, thanks to the kindness of a friend of mine who gave us a gift card. We even got front row seats to the fireplace, which was wonderful on the increasingly cold day we had. We ended our night with some reading time and play time with the kids, before having an "adult movie night" instead of the family one we had thought about the night before. We rented "Grown-ups" with Adam Sandler and it was hilarious! Totally laughed through the entire thing. So much fun!

Em and Jeff had to head back today, so we just enjoyed a quiet morning together. Jeff helped Madie with her math homework, since I suck royally at that. It made it so simple for her. It was great!

Then we gave Kendalyn hugs goodbye and saw them off. We had a really fun time and can't wait to get together again sometime soon - when the weather is better!

Off to the Hospital...For FUN this time

On Friday, Livie had another fun field trip. This month is packed full of 'em! From the firehouse to the post office, and now the hospital. FINALLY! A chance to go there for fun and not because of an illness!



Livie and her friend Calie sat together and chatted their way to our destination. Livie was very excited!

We headed up to my very favorite floor first. The baby floor!! There were 2 day-old baby girls there. Just precious as can be. One of the moms brought her baby out to show the kids and she looked amazing. Aren't all moms supposed to look awful a day after they have their babies? I know I sure as heck did! It was fun for the kids to see the babies up close like that. :-)

Then they went downstairs to check out the x-ray room. Noah wasn't in this one, so I didn't have flashbacks. But, we were on the same floor as he was, just around the corner from his room, at one point. Livie kept whispering to me about the fact that she was just there! ;-)

After hitting the x-ray room, why, we just had to look at some real xrays! They were really cool to look at.

We went to a lot of different areas there, finally finishing up in the cafeteria and checking out the HUGE refrigerators and freezers. They look fantastic in their hairnets, don't they? ;-) Anyway, we had a fun time on our field trip and got a big bag of goodies to take home with us too. What a fun afternoon!

The Spoiling Continues

Well, the 3 week-long present extravaganza has continued. It's not been enough to get spoiled rotten with presents, because he was in the hospital, but add in a birthday and he's been overwhelmed with gifts! Today he got a couple more. :-)




My besties - Michelle and Teresa - sent him a giant box full of sugar-free candy! He's holding the bar he ate part of tonight within minutes of opening it. ;-) He also got that cool blue t-shirt and a bunch of tatoos! Yes, they have hooked him up with every conceivable thing that a kid with Type 1 could need!

Then, our special gift finally came for him. :-) The infamous, which to quote the Three Amigos means MORE THAN FAMOUS, sock monkey tennis shoes came today. These things were custom made just for him from a company in China. They are Keds with sock monkeys on them.

He is now officially the coolest kid ever!!

I mean, just look at those thing. Any Sock Monkey enthusiast needs a pair of these. They'll be perfect for our trip to the Fest in a couple weeks. :-) So, if I haven't said it before, I'll say it now, THANK YOU to everyone who sent Noah something either for his birthday or for a get well or for both! He is much loved!

Peoria Visit

Since Noah's diagnosis, we've been having to make trips to the Peoria Pediatric Diabetes Center to not only meet with his doctor there, but also to have education classes on how to manage this disease. Our first trip down there was the day after he came home from the hospital. We had to leave at 5:30am to make it for our 8am appt. It was a very helpful, very needed education class and they introduced us to the early care of Noah. We were supposed to go back on Tuesday, the 1st, but that's when the blizzaster came, so we finally made our second appt yesterday. This was at 1pm, instead of the crazy 8am one, thankfully. It's an hour and a half to two hour long trip each way, so when we go, we're gone all day.



We took all the kids with us this time, because having Livie stay with a babysitter last time was hard on her. Especially because it is an all-day process. Plus, it's not a bad thing for them to hear about what's going on with Noah, so they can be educated too. Though, Livie was less than interested. Madie, however, was VERY interested and listened quite closely. Noah is also, obviously, very interested. He was excited to be there in a lot of ways, because he enjoys the science and math that comes with it. He's read up a lot on diabetes since his diagnosis 3 weeks ago.

We meet in this little room and talk for about an hour with 3 different gals - a nurse, a dietition, and a social worker. The nurse educated us last time on how to give him insulin and care for him physically. This time she talked to us about low blood sugar and the "Rule of 15", which talks about what we do if we see signs of hypoglascimia. I think this scared Noah a bit, because we had to talk about what happens if he goes into convulsions or passes out. I told him he just needs to make sure he tells us if he's feeling weird and we can catch it before it gets low enough to have those things happen to him. We've been so focused for the past 3 weeks on bringing his levels to a normal range that we haven't really considered low blood sugars to be a problem. Sounds a little intimidating honestly, but I'm sure we'll be able to tackle that one too. :-) Next came he dietician to educate us on carb counting. She talked to us about that last time too, only she was more specific about how to measure properly and even used rubber veggies as a tool with the kids. They had to measure it on the scale and multiply it with the number of carbs per ounces. She showed us with rubber broccoli, which started a whole debate about how we think it's evil and she (and Madie) think it's the "super-food of all mankind". It was entertaining. ;-) Lastly, we met with the social worker. She works with Noah and our whole family on how we're feeling about all this. Noah was so cool about it. She asked him if he felt ok with everything and if he thought the shots were ok and he said, "Uh...totally." It was really funny. And, Madie talked about how she was scared Noah wasn't going to be the same, but that he's still really funny and still talks about inappropriate stuff at the dinner table, so she knew he was fine. Cracked us (and the social worker) up!

We didn't meet with the doctor this time, because it was strictly educational stuff. We met with him last time and will meet with him again in April. So, we scheduled our last educational class for March, then we'll meet in April with the doc and hopefully then our appts will only be every 2-3 months. It's hard to have Pete miss an entire day of work every time we have to go down. Not to mention pulling the kids out of school for the day. The gal behind the desk is Heather our social worker. Very nice gal!

So, we tackled another appt! Livie the Yeti, Noah the Superhero, and Madie the Diva made it out of there in 3 hours energized and ready to take on the world!

Time to get back home and back to our routine. :-)

Noah's Birthday!

The day has come. Noah Paul Sock Monkey is 8 yrs old! Hooray!! (insert applause) We were so excited to celebrate Noah's birthday today. Now, we opted to throw a simple party just with the 5 of us, because in 3 weeks we're headed to Rockford, IL to go to the annual Sock Monkey Festival! Yes. There is indeed a SMFest, so that will be where he has his "real" party. :-)

As is our custom, we decorated after he went to bed on Sunday night, so he could wake up to a fully decorated dining room. The kids look forward to this every year. I, once again, was worried about whether or not I had enough stuff to decorate with. Thank goodness for printers and leftover lanterns! Oh, and of course, an ample supply of sock monkeys with which to decorate. :-)

When Noah woke up, he was super-duper excited! Can you tell?? When I asked him what he wanted for a cake this year he said he wanted a cinnamon pancake cake. Noah doesn't like regular cake, which I guess, given his new diagnosis, this works in our favor! In years past we've done the infamous crescent roll cake and ginormous donut cake. So, a pancake cake was a fun idea!

This was taken after some of the candles had been taken out, but it's a tall stack with bacon trim, covered in butter and syrup. And, guess what? He got to eat the whole upper layer without a worry about carb intake. Yay!

He really wanted his cake for breakfast. Guess that's why he chose pancakes. So, we all sat around and enjoyed a morning breakfast, which doesn't happen ever during the week, because Pete's always off to work by 7. What a special treat!

Of course, letting him go to school without opening a present wouldn't be fair, so we let him have just one.

He was very happy to see a sock monkey travel mug! He kind of already knew he was getting it, because I promised it to him in the hospital. Told him I'd get him a sock monkey cup to take to school to hold his water. :-)

When he got home from school, he sorted through valentines and built his lego present from Keeden, as he waited for daddy to get off work. Once Pete got home, we had him open his presents, so we could head off to Cracker Barrell for dinner. Wow! Check out those presents! Nana and Papa T. got him a gift card to Walmart. Nana and Papa D. got him a Phineus and Ferb DS game. My brother actually sent him a birthday card, which, if you knew my brother, is very, very exciting! Noah won the bday card lotto this year by getting that card. ;-) Then we got him the sock monkey, the sock monkey shirt, and the Mario Yahtzee game. He'll get another present the day we go up for the sock monkey fest. It's a custom order, so it won't get here for another week or two.

Anyway, after his presents were opened, we headed out the door for some supper. Yum! I love the kids' birthdays almost as much as they do, because it means I get out of cooking and doing dishes for the evening. Happy Birthday to me!

Noah ordered like 3 plates full of food and went to town. He is soooo like his father. Pete will take gravy and literally cover everything on his plate in it. Basically making a giant gravy lake. Noah has taken to doing the same thing, only with syrup. So, he got himself some sugar-free syrup and drenched his bacon, his eggs, and his chicken. Ugh. Didn't sound appetizing to me, but hey...

... looks like it wasn't a problem for him! ;-) So, once again we celebrate a birthday of one of my amazing kids. Every year they get older, I find I love them even more. They are pretty amazing and I think, without a doubt, we've seen just how AMAZING Noah can be after these 2 1/2 weeks of change. Love you, m'boy. You are a one-of-a-kind, sock monkey lovin' kid and we love you to pieces. Happy Birthday, Noah!

Here's a little video of his birthday song and candle blowing. :-)

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Valentine's Day

Since we've finished with the parties, I figured I could post about them now and post about his birthday once he's in bed and the celebrations have ended. :-)



It's such a beautiful day outside, that the kids seemed to be in especially good moods, as were we parents! They were ready to get the party started! This is Noah with his friend Bianca. She's been in his class since kindergarten. She is so sweet and since Noah's diagnosis, she seems to be taking extra special care of him. He even has another friend Madison, that's been in his class since kindergarten, that brought him a bag of candy for V-Day today of all sugar-free stuff! He's got some great classmates!

Noah sits in the back. Can you see him there? We were playing a rousing game of JINGO - which is BINGO, but with pictures and clues. Everyone won a game and were excited to get prizes. :-) I spent most of the partytime down in Noah's classroom. The room parent bought the kids pizza from Pizza Hut! Sweet!! Noah doesn't like pizza, so he stuck with strawberries that I brought for the class instead. :-)

I joined Madie a little later in the hour. I dropped off her snack, though, beforehand. The kids were all reading, just waiting for all the snacks and parents to arrive. We brought in some cinnamon popcorn as a treat.

The teacher had this great Bozo the Clown game, where you toss the ball into buckets. The kids LOVED it! Look at my tiny little 4th grader! She's a peanut!

When we got home, Noah opened up his Harry Potter legos, which his best friend Keeden got him for his bday.

Livie and Olive decided to look through all her V-day cards. She got lots of candy too, which thrilled her to no end!

Madie got some really cute V-day cards too. Another Valentine's Day success!