MRI on Friday

We are bound for Children's Hospital early tomorrow morning for Kay's MRI.  We hope everything goes off with out a hitch.  It's always a little nerve racking to have a little one under anesthesia.  We are hoping to be in and out in a few hours.  Of course, we won't know the results right away, but we aren't anticipating anything.  It's really just to follow up with the TSC, check for tubers and also to see how the seizures affected her brain.  We know she had some slowing in the occipital lobe that was most likely from the IS, but it doesn't seem to be slowing Kaylee down, that's for sure!!

Wish us luck and hope for a quick discharge :)

Awe...little ole us???

Our blog got some pretty special recognition from Kyle's Treehouse, an Autism Awareness site while we were away on our trip to Las Vegas, with our friend Fairfax.

We received an email from Lyndsey Silvesti of Kyle's Treehouse that our blog would be featured in an "Inspiring Sites" post on the Kyle's Treehouse Blog.  Wow, what a great honor.  We have been a fan of Kyle's Treehouse for many years.  It has some wonderful resources and helps by "empowering everyone touched by Autism to make effective choices".

It is a real vindication that we are reaching others that may benefit from reading about our life and our experiences.  There is hope, despite receiving a life altering diagnosis.  We try our hardest to instill in our children that they can do anything they set their mind to achieve and nothing, even their disabilities will stand in there way.  There is no limit on what you can achieve with hope, patience and understanding.

A Very Bunny Visit

Clearly, Fairfax, from Marissasbunny.com  (a site that promotes Infantile Spasms Awareness), was a bunny on the loose! He went from the east coast to the west coast. Now, he's on his way to middle America. Who knows where the wind will blow him next.

We were able to grab a latte with Fairfax, California style. He said he likes his coffee like he likes all the children he visits, SWEET!!



We also took Fairfax out for a Valentine dinner to Cheeburger Cheeburger where he was delighted to take a spin in a convertible.



We took him from San Diego to Los Angeles to pick up Grandma, then to the bright light city of Las Vegas, NV. Wish we could have gotten a night time shot of him on the strip, but we only went out at night once and he said he was so tired from the long drive, he wanted to rest in the stroller (we actually were so excited about the volcano, we forgot to get a shot of him).

Fairfax is enjoying the rare view of California's snow capped mountains.

Fairfax is helping to navigate.

Fairfax, in the middle of downtown Las Vegas

Fairfax had fun at Shark Reef Aquarium in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

We ended our visit with Fairfax with taking him to KIDS Therapy where Kaylee receives her occupational therapy and physical therapy.


We sure had a great time visiting with him!! Hope he has a safe journey!

G5 Weekend Report

This weekend was fairly uneventful because I was sick all weekend, EXCEPT for Kaylee's little stroll!! I did make Chinese food Thursday and Friday night and it came out pretty good. Mark proclaimed my General Tso's chicken was the best Chinese food he had ever tasted and almost ate the entire platter of chicken! Friday night, I made Pepper Beef and Veggie Fried Rice. The flavor was great, but I think next time I will just spend the couple extra dollars on better quality meat. It was a little tough. But hey, what do you want for $3 package of meat!




Saturday, Kaylee and Ethan gave their sick mommy the royal treatment. It was nice to have a relaxing day playing with them. We played beauty shop with Kaylee's Disney Princess Beauty Set.


The kids pretty much entertained themselves for most of the day which was nice. Ethan showed Kaylee how to play Kirby on the DS.


Sunday was another day filled with feeling sick, though I did still manage to get some cleaning done and grocery shop. Then we watched the Oscars and Ethan fell asleep in my lap. I was glad to see that Slumdog Millionaire won so many awards. It was a great movie. Very different from other movies. However, I would still like to see Milk and The Reader, since they also won in the best actor/actress categories. I would also like to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I do look forward to HP and the Half Blood Prince that will make it's debut around Javi, Kaylee & my birthday! Woo hoo!


Hope you all had a great weekend!

SHE WALKS!!!

Though she actually took her first solo steps, two to be exact, on
February 12th. I promised I would not blog about it until she stood in
the middle of the floor unassisted and took three steps, so we could
techically consider it "walking". Yay Kaylee! You're on your way!

Viva Las Vegas!

We had a really great time in Las Vegas with Grandma. We got to see the sites...we went to see the volcano erupt at the Mirage, we saw the Pirate Show at Treasure Island, we went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, we went to Circus Circus to ride the Canyon Blaster roller coaster. We even managed to take care of Grandma's condo biz while we were there, which was the reason for our trip. We ate and ate and ate and ate! We went to buffets, restaurants, it felt like we ate the whole time we were there. We also got pay per view in the room and watched The Four Christmases. It was really good. I even managed to play $2 in a slot machine ;) I actually planned to play $20 either at blackjack or slots, but I got tired the evening I was going to gamble and decided to just hang out in my pj's.

Well, here are the pics. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week and had a wonderful Valentines. I look forward to catching up on my blogs to see what everyone has been up to.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Hope you all had a nice Valentines Day! We are on our way to fabulous Las Vegas! See you on Wednesday in Blogland ;)

Screw you too!! -talking to my tire :)

Four new tires this afternoon. Found 'em for $460. Word to the wise,
shop around. Costco quoted $750!!!

G5 Weekend Report

Rain, rain is here again. We are pretty happy though, because we need it badly! It sure didn't slow us down from indoor activities. Friday afternoon we had a bowling birthday party we attended. It was so much fun!! Javi had only been bowling once before, but he did fantastic. Guess all that Wii bowling is paying off!!



STRIKE!! On the very first frame!!


Kay was my arm jewelry the entire party and Ethan slept in the stroller all the way until it was time to have pizza and cake. He did manage to get to bowl in the game after eating. He bowled one frame right before we left. He hit one pin and was thrilled ;) To bad I couldn't get any pics because I was helping him bowl.

Mom and Dad had a movie night after the kiddos went to bed. It was nice to relax and listen to the rain while we watched our movie.

Saturday, we had another bday party to go to. This time it was at Playtown, which is an indoor play place. We had a really good time and got to meet some new friends. Javi made friends with a boy named Ethan, who is a celeb in the Autism Community. His team won an award for money raised for the San Diego Autism Walk Now. They were like two peas in a pod. I made friends with his mom, Lisa. We plan to get them together to play again really soon.



Our Ethan had a great time too! The big boys included him in there dramatic game of Sonic the Hedgehog, where they each decided to be a different character. Ethan also had fun playing on this motorcycle. He even put some gas in at the play gas station.



Sunday was a lazy day for the kids, but mommy spent a good portion of it cleaning after we made breakfast. The kids played and watched Boomerang Network. Kay helped mommy dust the living room. It was too cute!





We had a pillow fight, which Ethan enjoyed immensely!


Then mommy got a much needed break to go see a movie with a friend. We got to see "He's just not that in to you". OMG, what a cute movie, but definitely a chick flick!! Good thing it was just us girls ;) Can't wait to see it again.

Hope you all had a great weekend too.

Speech Parent Training

The class last night was great. For anyone more interested in learning about it, please visit their website. We have a small group in the class, only about seven families. We will have four visits from the speech pathologist teaching the class to film clips of us using the techniques at home. Tomorrow we film our intro video. I don't know if I will be able to post any of the clips, since the speech therapist will be maintaining all of them, but we'll see.

Sickies Strikes Again and Megameltdowns

My pretty princess and my little middle angel are sick, once again. It started on Friday and has been getting better and then worse all weekend. Yesterday, we finally went to the doc. Kay has an ear infection, or the start of one, so she's on the pink stuff again. She loves it and always signs for more after she takes her dose. Thank goodness she doesn't mind taking meds!! She may be on them for another few years at least, possibly for the rest of her life. ACK! Being sick hasn't slowed her down one bit! No rest for the wicked. We did cancel therapy today.

We had her mid year progress review of the IFSP through the Regional Center. She has made partial progress on all of her goals, so we are happy. They plan to continue all of her services and we have also added the class for me Hannen's It Takes Two to Talk which I will be going to in about an hour. I am really looking forward to the class. Thank goodness daddy will be able to help out with the kids while I go to school ;) Weird to say that again!! Thanks daddy!!

Ethan stayed home from school today. I had sent him yesterday, but his teacher said he was so run down all day that he didn't really participate. I thought it best to keep him home to relax today so he could recoup a little.

Javi is already experiencing the effects of his dad being gone (six months in the CHP academy). These changes are really hard on him (and the rest of us). He had a MAJOR meltdown after school today. He is finally calm now after, breathing exercise, a run around the block and some alone time in his room, but we have gotten NO homework completed, despite trying to work on it for almost an hour...before the melt down really kicked in. He has done the same page twice over and answered all but 2 questions wrong out of 25. UGH!! It's going to be a tough adjustment. Poor baby!! Combine that will us also having more trouble with the school and the bus driver!!! I am sooooooo ready for a glass of vino. It's about time for the mama lion to pounce again. I wrote a long winded post in his comm log today, basically asking for extra patience and understanding during this transitional time for him.

Well, that's all for now. Just another fabulous day in the life...you know you envy me!!! LOL

G5 Weekend Report

Better late than never! I actually had this post ready last night, but had one video that had to be uploaded. I got a migraine and never finished it ;) Hope everyone had a wonderful Superbowl weekend.  Friday and Saturday were pretty uneventful since two out of three kiddos were sick.

Friday, I made some Greek chicken avgolemono soup for Mark and I for lunch.  I had prepared chicken souvlaki (Greek marinated chicken breast) for dinner for ladies' dinner and a movie night on Thursday, so we had a lot of leftovers.  It was d'lish soup!  We also had some leftover pita and tzatki that we munched on with the soup.  

That afternoon, we had a "Superhero Afternoon" boys played a little live action Super Smash Bros with their plushy Sonic and Mario dolls.  We also watched Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer.  I also worked on the football cake a little.  I baked the cake part.  I rested most of the evening and went to bed early, since I too was feeling a little under the weather.

Saturday morning, Ethan and I made the chocolate buttercream for the cake.  Yum!  It smelled heavenly.  Ethan was the official taste tester.  It is so cute to see how interested he is in cooking and baking.  He would rather cook with me in the kitchen than play video games.  He actually shut off Wii when I asked if he wanted to cook with me!!  

Javi went to Bates' Nut Farm with his cousin, Nana and Aitona for the day.  Javi's dad left for the CHP academy in Sacramento on Saturday and will be there for the next six months.  He will be coming home every other weekend, so Javi will still get to see him, but it's definitely going to be a big change for him.  It was a nice distraction for Javi to do something fun with his grandparents for the day.

Daddy brought home some McD's for lunch and a much needed ice coffee for Mama.  It totally hit the spot and I felt recharged to finish off decorating the cake.

I stayed up pretty late on Saturday night preparing food for our party on Superbowl Sunday.  I made all the dips, veg tray, etc.

Sunday the kids woke up early and we played for most of the early morning.  Then it was go time for mama.  I started cleaning, more food prep, and setting up for the party.  I made a much needed coffee run to Starbucks for daddy and I.  Since the kids had gotten up early, I was sooo ready for a cuppa.

Our party kicked off around 2:30.  We served food from just about every ethnic group.  I had made some lumpia, pizza, wings, hot artichoke dip, garlic fries, my famous roasted salsa, asian pineapple teriyaki meatballs, hummus & pita, and of course, cake for dessert.  

We had a really good time.  There was about 15 of us, including the little people.  Even did a little karaoke during half time.  Here are the pics and vid.  Mark & the boys were very elusive and managed to skip out on the pics and the vids.