Is He Serious???

Me: Jacob, thank you for putting your plate in the sink when you were done eating, but you did not eat your hotdog. 

Jacob: Big Daddy is full. 

James' Monthly Project

James and I started working on his monthly project today (due at the end of this week :). He has to create a power point presentation. Getting him to sit down to work with me was like pulling teeth. As we are working on it, he says to me "Ugh! This is worse than I thought."

I honestly didn't think it could be ANY worse than he thought it was going to be. He has been dreading it and putting it off the entire month!

Sneaking Food

Jacob told me today he can't stop sneaking food.

Jacob Loses Tooth #4!!

Just 11 days after tooth #3... tooth #4 comes out!

Jacob's Show N Tell

Today Jacob got to bring Show N Tell to school. He chose to bring a two minute timer that the dentist gave him to use when he brushes his teeth. He brought it in a box and his job was to describe what it was so his friends could guess what he brought.

We picked him up from school and I could not wait to hear about how it went. I asked him how he described it. He said he told them it was green and has legs because he wanted to trick them! Josh and I immediately looked at each other and laughed hysterically. I asked him what his teacher said. He told me she guessed a gorilla.

Oh my... we have our hands full with this one.

Of course I did not allow him to end the story there. He had to tell me the rest. He told me he told them it is something you do when you brush your teeth and they guessed a timer.

Jaelyn's 1 Year Old Gymnastics

Jaelyn came to work with me today. Obviously I can't take video of her while in class so here is just a little bit of her playing afterward. She isn't doing much here, but I just had to get her in her cute little leotard :).

Jaelyn Doesn't Want Me to Video Her

Jaelyn's Big Week

Jaelyn had a very big week this week. Tuesday, went to Thunderbird Hospital for her Voiding Cystourethrogram (VCUG). A procedure we have been planning for almost a year. Last year on July 31st, 2010 she was diagnosed with a Grade II Vesicoureteral Reflux or VUR. In layman's terms, this means that her urine travels back up from her bladder to kidney's in the reverse direction that it is supposed to travel. Since July 31st, she has visited a urologist who placed her on a very low dose of prophylactic antibiotics. She takes the antibiotics every evening at bedtime, has ultrasounds every six months to check on the growth of her kidneys and bladder, and finally, as long as she has VUR, she will have the VCUG procedure once a year. Her second VCUG took place on August 16, 2011, Tuesday. The results came back with no change from the previous year. Our hopes were that in the last year she would have outgrown it on her own, but unfortunately that did not happen.

Thursday we met with the Urologist again. He did an ultrasound on her kidneys and they are growing well and normal. He also reviewed the pictures taken during the VCUG. This a picture that was taken. It shows her bladder filled with the dye. It also shows her Ureters which would typically not show up on this type of x-ray. You can see both of her ureters clearly on her x-ray because the dye they inserted into the bladder is able to travel up into the ureters and to the kidneys. This is how they they determine that she has it and also the severeness of the reflux.
The Jaelyn's Urologist discussed three options with us. None in which I really want to choose, but I know we have to. The first option is for Jaelyn to have surgery. It is a medium surgery where she would be put under general anesthesia and they would make an incision in her lower abdomen. It is called Ureteral Reimplantation surgery. The surgery is about 98-99% effective and will correct the VUR.

The second option we were given is called Deflux. Deflux is an endoscopic injection in which they enter through that bladder to insert a gel-like material to fix the valve that is not working properly. This is an outpatient surgery, we would only be at the hospital for a few hours and she would be up walking around the next day, if not the same day. Unfortunately with this option there is only about an 80% success rate. She would remain on antibiotics for 6 weeks after the deflux and then have another VCUG to test for the Reflux.

The last and final option is to continue doing what we have been doing. She would continue to take antibiotics every day for another year, the dosage would increase slightly. She would have an ultrasound in 6 months to check her bladder and kidneys and then a VCUG and ultrasound in one year. There is a 50% chance that she will outgrow it at this point or we would revisit these options once more.

As of right now, Josh and I are leaning more towards keeping her on the antibiotics for another year. As much as I hate that she is on them, she does not seem to have any side effects of the ones that she is taking and they are working to prevent any further infections. Surgery is a sure thing, but at this point we agree with the dr. that it may be a little on the extreme side. The Deflux, as noninvasive as it is, I am not really OK with. I do not like the idea that it is only effective 80% of the time.

We are praying that this time next year she will have outgrown the reflux and we will not have to choose from these choices again.

Jaelyn Gets Her Cast Off

Jacob how was your day?
Bad
How come?
Because I didn't get to see Sam ALL DAY!

Kindergarten Day 5

 Mom, I don't really like school. This as he was getting out of the car in the drop off line. Ugh! This is so hard. I am so grateful James could not wait to get away from me because Jacob keeps breaking my heart.

Good Morning Mom! I Lost My Tooth!!

Jacob came running in this morning with some exciting news. "I just reached in and took it out.". This tooth has been bothering him being loose for quite some time now. I was worried he was going to lose it at school so this worked out perfectly. The same tooth is loose on the other side so we should be seeing that one come out soon too :).

Back to School: Day 4

Jacob just told me if I can go to his school and stay with him all day then I can remind him his snack is in his backpack.

After that, it was a long rough day for me. I missed him so so much. I was a little bit of a mess. Crying after I dropped them off. I went inside to walk them in and they would not let me walk Jacob to class. That made me mad and sad. Oh well. I went home and sat in the garage and shed a few tears before going in to get a water and getting myself to the gym.

Last night he crawled in bed with me and told me that he wished he was still in preschool because the days are so long. He also said, Why didn't you come to lunch with me today? :(. I am thinking I will revisit him tomorrow. I tool them to frozen yogurt tonight as way to spend more time with them and celebrate how well they are doing their first week of school.

Tonight would have been a good night for a glass of wine, but a migraine crept up on me. We will see how tomorrow goes. I think tomorrow might be better than next Monday.

Back to School Day 3

On the way to school this morning...
Jacob: "Mom, you can color the picture I brought home yesterday because you are very good at coloring."
Me: "OK Jacob".
Jacob: "Mom, what do you say?"

I thought all was going to be good today. I am going shopping without the boys! What a great day. Then, Jacob broke my heart when he did not want to get out of the car. He said, "Why can't I just stay with you?" :( I walked him to the gate, he gave me a really tight and would not let go. I told him that I was going to go inside to get his lunchbox he left yesterday so I would see him inside. He let go and James held his hand and promised to help him find the correct place to line up. Once inside he did much better. He took his lunchbox out and put it in the pile outside his classroom, then his green folder and put it on her desk. He hung up his backpack, one more kiss and hug goodbye and we was good. Not sure how long this will last or if dropping him off at kindergarten will break my heart every day this year.

First Day of School 2011

Today Jacob started Kindergarten and James started the 2nd grade.

Jacob was very excited. At 630 he was dressed, got himself breakfast, and was dancing to music. He did very well when we dropped him off. He was smiling non-stop and making friends that sat at his table. Something tells me the teacher is going to have her hands full with him.

James could not wait for me to leave. I was taking lots of pictures and he'd had it.

I was full of tears when I left. Leaving Jacob was very hard. James I am used to, but Jacob is my sweet little helper. I went to work and told all of my preschool kids I was sad because my #2 is in school all day now. They didn't seem to care, but I am pretty sure the parents felt sorry for me :).

After my morning classes I went straight back to their school. It just so happened to be Jacob's lunch time and so I stopped in to see how he was doing. I asked him if he missed me. He said no. Then he told me that he wanted to play with Sam at recess (his girlfriend).

The first day was very successful for both of them. James as usual was uninterested in recounting what happened in his day. Jacob told us that he has a new girlfriend because one of the girls gave him three of her sillybands. However, he did not know her name and he did not care either :). He also told me that Kindergarten and first grade and second and third and fourth and fifth grade are going to be way too much work for him and he does not think he can do it. :)

Day 2: I dropped them both off at the door. I did not cry today, but had a little anxiety about whether or not Jacob made it to class! He is so confident walking through those doors with his brothers. BUT he is five years old and there are over 900 students alone in that school. I am just not ready for him to be that grown up. OF course he made it there just fine. When we picked them up at the end of the day he was VERY happy. He told me he like today better than yesterday and now he has three girlfriends. This boy is girl crazy I tell ya! He also told me that he gave one of his new friends his lucky penny!! He has such a big heart! I love that boy so much and I hope that school does not take that away from him. Now he spends more time at school than he does at home with me and that cannot help but break a mother's heart.

Jaelyn took a three hour nap today. The house was silent. Fortunately the Bachelor Pad Premier was 3 hours - ha!

The house is sound asleep this evening by 7:45. Maybe school is a good thing.

Jacob: Part 40,515

Me: Jacob, do you want to play Soccer, Flag Football or Wrestling?
Jacob: Why do I have to do one of those?
Me: Because you need to exercise to stay healthy. If you stop playing video games and go outside and ride your bike, you don't have to play any sports.
Jacob: Fine, do I get a snow cone after my games?

(I still don't know which sport he wants to play)


And yesterday...
Jacob: I am hungry can I have these crackers?
Me: No, but you can have a banana.
Jacob: ERRRR (like the buzzer when someone answer wrong on a game show).