I owe you so many blogs...back from the holidays even...but I figured I'd go ahead and give you an update on the Strazz household first.
The kids are doing great. Gracie turned 8 months old on New Year's Day. Here are her 8 month pictures...
She's doing really great - loves standing up and just a happy, smiley girl. I've finally given in and started putting her in her crib for naps. We had a few days of crying, but now she's a champ. My kids are both fairly late risers - 8AM is usually the earliest they get up - so I've now gotten them on the same schedule of a roughly 1PM nap. She's so far OK with only 1 long nap. So she gets up, has a bottle, about an hour or so later solid food (we are changing her eating routine a bit due to Drs. orders, she hasn't been drinking a lot of formula), a small bottle before her nap, solid dinner with Bentley between 4:30-5PM usually, and a bottle before bed w/a 7PM bedtime. At her appointment she was 18.3 lbs / 54th percentile; 27 & 1/4 inches / 41st percentile; head measurement of 17 inches / 35th percentile. So she's doing great! She loves to stand ~ if I prop her up in the crib or against a piece of furniture she will stand up for awhile. And she just pulled herself up in her crib for the first time on Friday!
Kids at the doctor:
Bentley has given up his binkies (after Clarence took them to Santa) and moved into his big boy bed. He LOVES it! One of his favorite things to do now is sit in his bed and look at books. I hear him a lot during "naptime" playing in his room, but usually he eventually falls asleep; at night we read books in bed and he is usually quiet right away. In the morning it looks like a bomb went off in his room though ~ books and his "guys" everywhere, even playing with blocks in his bed. He turned 2 & 1/2 on Jan 17th. At his Drs. appointment he weighed 28.8 lbs / 34th percentile and was 2 ft 11 inches tall / 28th percentile. I can't believe it, but I've already started looking into preschools for him. I am not happy with the selection of Grafton town preschool. We would have the choice of morning or afternoon session but 1) they require 4 days a week, 2) the price for the 4 days is comparable to the 2 day options at other private places (where he'll get more attention, one-on-one, smaller classes), which is what I believe most people do in their first year, 3) when I asked Grafton N. & S. Elementary for some kind of tour or if I could see the rooms/classees I got an attitude and a swift "no." The schools are primarily designed for special needs kids and there is a lottery for town kids - so if he didn't get in I'd have to go private anyways but if he did get in I would be very uncomfortable sending him 4 days a week to start, in an environment I know nothing about, with (not to be insensitive) special needs kids so I do not know the level of attention he would actually get. SO, last week I toured Sunshine Preschool in Hopkinton, where Chris and I both went. This week we have tours at 3 local Grafton preschools. I've decided not even to bother entering him in the town lottery so we should have a school decision after this week's tours. He's doing a little basketball session at the local community center - he's the smallest kid there. He loved it! But, was so overwhelmed the first day that he basically just stood around holding the ball and watching all of the other kids; and all he really wanted to do was shoot baskets, since he got a little hoop for inside from Gammy & Gampy. We're also starting art class once-weekly with Ty and Ava. And he's signed up for a "munchkin" sports program at John Smith in Milford starting late Feb - April. Every week they work on different sports.
Here are Bentley's 2 & 1/2 year pictures...
Big boy room:
Basketball with his cousins:
I wanted to have them both in swim this session, but I need another set of hands with 2 kids now - so maybe we'll get into the next session if DeDe is available to help. Otherwise, I can try to take one at a time to open swim. Mainly I just want to get Gracie used to the water.
The hubby has been working a lot and will finish his Electrical Master's class in mid-Feb. As painful as it has been for both of us having him gone 2 nights a week, it has actually gone by pretty quickly.
Hope *should* be here soon. I have been very diligent about trying to follow state laws, so we were going to have her "surrendered" from the GA rescue to a MA rescue that was willing to transport her, quarrantine her, and adopt her out to me. She was scheduled for her spay last Tuesday and I should have known because nothing has gone according to plan for her ~ once at the vet her blood sugar was over 500!!!! That is the highest its ever been. The glucometer the boarding facility was using broke and since my rescue contact just had surgery they didn't want to bother her for a new one, so for about a week before surgery none of her bs counts were taken/recorded. That made the vet uncomfortable doing her surgery because he didn't know if it was just a random spike or if her bs had been that high for awhile now ~ so surgery would risk her life. Additionally, the vet looked at her left/ruptured eye and she has developed glaucoma in it. They were talking about removing her eye bc pressure is at 68 and should be 15 - which means she is probably in pain from it now. With her high blood sugar the vet was not comfortable spaying or removing her eye due to the stress/recovery as well as anesthesia. So I've had discussions with her GA vet, my local vet, and the GA rescue and we all agreed that the best course of action is to have her driven up privately and get to our vet right away for an eval. We will go from there in terms of regulating her blood sugar and treating her glaucoma. The good news is that the vet believes she does have some vision in her right eye. So, the short term plan is 3 meds to help with the glaucoma pressure and pain, and a slight up to her insulin - just to hold her off until we get her here, where she'll be re-evaluated by my vet. I've already gone over everything with our vet and the GA vet will be calling her to review case as well as faxing medical records. I have a lead on transport and again, *if all works out according to plan* (which nothing has so far....) she should be here on the 10th or 11th.
I briefly mentioned, but I have not been feeling well. I've definitely gotten into a funk with my anxiety/depression. After seeing the doctor recently, we are changing my medications. I am actually slowly starting to feel better, baby steps. I'm just trying to make sure I have/make plans for the kids and I to get out of the house, and I'm trying to do small things around the house daily so I don't get overwhelmed - when that happens, I do NOTHING. So over the next 4-6 weeks I am REALLY hoping to get back to normal.
The Etsy shop and The Mix are doing OK. Nothing major. Sales on Etsy slowed down over the holidays but are picking up again to where I have a few orders a week.
I just booked a weekend trip to San Antonio in March to visit my girlfriend that moved there from Mexico.
Otherwise, we are finally all healthy - for the time being!
~E
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