Sunday, August 29, 2010

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Zeke's first day of school, granted it is just a "meet the teachers" day but finally school is just around the corner.  I wanted to ask that you also be praying because tomorrow Zeke has his ChildFind speech evaluation.  This is kind of our last stop hope for getting speech therapy.  Please pray that if this is what we are needing that it does come through and that Michael and I are receptive to the changes that will need to take place and will do what is very best for our little man. 

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Crazy Schedule

Today was one of those days that I had to sit back and realize just how crazy busy my schedule is!  I felt like I was running against the clock all day and to top it off was all over town.
Just a quick view of what a day in Andrea's life looks like...
Woke up at 6am to Ki coming into bed with me
Ki fell back asleep and slept while I jumped in the shower
Zeke woke up at 7:45 (this is major sleeping in in our house!)
Ki woke up at 8:05 (big sleeping in for him!)
Breakfast for the boys
Leave the house at 9am
Drop of medical specimen at doctor's office at 9:20
Headed to Sweet Beginnings, in downtown Littleton to get a few cloth diaper supplies
Get Zeke to OT, in Centennial at 11am
While sitting in Zeke's appointment I get a call from my neighbor asking if I could watch her daughter for a half an hour and as payment she wanted to take the boys and I out to lunch
So rush from Zeke's OT appointment and get home to watch the neighbor daughter
Then my neighbor and the three kids head to Golden for lunch
After lunch we come home with hopes of getting the boys down for a nap - no chance so I start laundry
I give my friend a call in regards to CD and then the boys and I head over to Target to get a few things and then over to Vitamin Cottage.
All is said and done and I get home and get dinner for the boys then for myself
Boys play in the basement while I get laundry folded and changed
Shower the boys at 7:15
Ki falls asleep at 7:45
Zeke is trying not to fall asleep right now and I am well - sitting here trying not to fall asleep myself and the one thing I can do to guarantee that is to be on the computer.
So I drove all over the place and ran from one place to another and I am wiped out!

First Day of CDs

Andrea here reporting to all your curious minds on my first day of cloth diapers... I do not hate it, I actually think CDs will work for us.  I will say that I don't necessarily know that Gdiapers are the ones for us.  There are a few reasons for it but before I knock anything I am going to try for another week or two.  The one thing that I am seeing with this system in particular is that Ki just doesn't really fit them - the mediums according to weight are what he should be in and around four this evening I realized that they were cutting his legs a little too much... they had "bruised" his little legs.  So I moved him to the larges and he spent a few hours in them and they seem to be okay.  The other problem I was having is the absorbency of the diapers - so after a little research I read that the lack of absorbency can be due to build up on the diapers.  Thankfully my friend Talia is on speed dial and she gave me a few recommendations and a trip to Vitamin Cottage will hopefully help. 
Thus far my cloth diaper financial investment is up to $45.  Purchases include a wet pail for the house, a wet bag for out and about, re-usable wipes, and detergent/cleaning supplies for the actual diapers.   

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

To CD or Not To CD

This has been the question on my mind since I find out we have number three baking.  
To do cloth diapers or not to do cloth diapers?
One of our friends has been successfully doing cloth diapers with her number three for a few months now and since talking with her I have noticed my closed mind approach to the whole world becoming more open.  I know it is a strange thing... me having a change of mind!  LOL!  I guess being that I am a stay at home mom and there is a part of me that wishes to live the more "whole living" approach I have become more and more open to the CD world. 
Little did I know the amount of people that are a part of this CD world!  In the last month I have let my mind be more open to the possibility and I am blown away at how at this stage I am almost thinking that CD is what we are going to do.  Granted there is the whole environmental aspect that is intriguing to me but just the ease that has come over the decades makes me more prone to the idea as well.  After sitting down and looking at what we spend in money from newborn to potty trained in diapers, wipes and diaper genie refills we have spent a total of $2,376 for Zeke and are at the half way mark for Ki.  That is a total of $3,500 we have spent in the last three years just in diapers alone.  Granted in that total I did not count diaper creams and Aveeno soothing bath - of which we went through our fair share for Zeke! 
With this new open mind to the whole CD world I am meeting with a friend today that is going to give me a lesson on CD and the ones that she used and loved, the ones that she has and doesn't much like and so on.  She has offered to take me to a CD store and help me through the purchasing process if that is what I decide.  So I have been collecting questions for her and a few others over the last few nights.  Late last week I posted a question on Mamapedia in regards to CD and I had 12 women respond... out of those 12 only one said - I must be insane for even thinking of CD... the rest gave much helpful brand names, ideas and solutions to some of the trivial things that I have been contemplating. 
With all that said - I am feeling like by the end of this month I may know whether I am taking the CD plunge.  I figure between my two friends that are CD SAHM I will have the support system that I will need to make a successful experience out of something that I used to swear - Hell No to and really make it work for our family, both financially and logistically. 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Fun Mommy Day

Although this morning I was thinking that I should head back to bed and try again later - today turned out to be a fun day with just my boys! We hung out at home for a little while, waiting for my morning yuck to go away and then we headed to one of our favorite parks where we played for a while and then once our tummies were saying they were hungry we headed to Panda Express for a little lunch treat. Driving home both of the boys fell asleep - which in my book means that as a mom I had a successful day! Here are a few pictures from our fun day...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Goodwill

I can't even remember the last time I stepped foot into a Goodwill. I know that sounds bad, and quite honestly it is because I have become a shopping snob! There it is - I have admitted it. Not that I have the money to be a shopping snob, but I just hate having to pick through clothes to find maybe one thing. I would much rather go to a store pick out one thing from the rack and get out. I think that the fact that I only shop with two little guys always in tow has made my shopping mindset one that requires the littlest time requirement. I know that those are merely excuses for my laziness and pure lack of picking through other people's junk to find the one treasure.
Growing up we would frequent the Goodwill, we knew what day the good tags would be on discount and knew what days they restocked the racks - we were faithful rack hunters for the one or two great steals. Once I got a job I discovered the mall and the pleasure that comes from getting an entire outfit in one store that matches and I didn't have to hunt for weeks. Simply I became spoiled and a shopping snob!
Finances being what they are as a family of four, soon to be five on one income - I have begun to swallow my shopping snobbery pride and have decided that Goodwill can now not only receive our hand-me-downs but maybe even some of our money through items purchased.
Yesterday began the Kulow family Goodwill search. The boys and I hit two Goodwills and I spent a total of $26 and I got Zeke five church/school shirts, Ki two church shirts and me three pairs of maternity pants... two were gap and one was Ann Taylor. I would say that we scored! What started the whole search was the fact that this baby tummy has decided to poke out really early and unfortunately I did not loose all my weight and a lot of my pregnancy clothes don't quite fit. I can't squeeze into my other clothes and I was in need of something to wear. Sun dresses can only be worn for so long and the weather will change soon and I will be without pants that fit. I also wanted to find some shirts... something other than over-sized t-shirts but less than the few button down long sleeves that I have. I will say though that there were no maternity shirts at Goodwill. May have to search the sale racks for some fun/cute shirts.

Gas

Where does all the gas go in my car? The last few weeks I have been having to fill up every week and often don't event make it a whole week. What is up with that? Sakes I know that I love my car and like to drive it but I didn't think that my driving habits have changed that much. I get a few miles less a gallon - from 21 to 19... that is not too drastic. My 4Runner tank could take me 360 miles and the Acadia tank can take me 340 miles. This week I gased up on Monday and as of last night (the last time I drove) I am at 324 miles! Granted we had two trips to the hospital this week and I had to drop Michael off downtown two times this week. But that was just this week... what has happened the last three weeks? I just keep telling myself that once Zeke is back in school our "summer driving" will drop dramatically because I won't have to take the boys places to entertain them. Our schedule will be to and from school and that will be about it. Hopefully after the first week of September I will be able to get two weeks out of a tank again like I used to get with my 4Runner. I guess thankfully too the gas prices haven't been too bad - I filled up on Monday for $2.35 a gallon (granted that was with Safeway's ten cent discount). I wonder when $2.35 a gallon become good, too? LOL!

A Success!

Thank you for those that took some time to say a little prayer for my Ki guy! Wednesday's surgery was a huge success! We got to the hospital at 7:30am, checked in. Got right into the pre-op room. Ki was fine the entire time. Around 8:15, Michael and Zeke left to get some breakfast. The doctor came in at 8:20 to let me know what was going to take place. At 8:27 the nurses came in and had me kiss Ki one last time and then he was whisked off. From in my hands to out and back in my hands again was a total of 21 minutes. The doctor said that the tubes went in quick and well. Ki was not too happy about being put to sleep and kind of fussed at them but was fine after that. The receptionist took me back to see Ki, they were waking him up when I walked in. As I was walking down the hall I could hear him starting to cry, which fastened my pace to him, I walked in and the nurse reminded me that he would be like a newborn, floppy so careful with his head. The minute he was in my arms he settled down and fell back asleep. The nurse continued checking his stats and around nine he woke up drank almost an entire juice cup then snuggled back in for another nap. At 9:20 we were released and told we could hang out in the recovery room or in the waiting area. I chose the waiting area... called Michael to come back and pick us up and we were headed home by 9:40am. Ki spent most of the morning in and out of naps, as was expected by the doctors and nurses. By one in the afternoon however - he was ready to get back to playing. Here we are on Friday and he is doing great!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Say a little prayer

Woke up this morning early for Ki's surgery. We are headed to the hospital in about an hour. Surgery should be at 8:30am and should only last about twenty minutes. I am getting mixed reviews as to the time frame we will be in the post-op/recovery. I have heard as little as a half an hour to as long as six hours. I am hoping that we are at about an hour! Thankfully, both boys are sleeping right now and slept all night through, so we are already off to a great start of our day. Also say a little prayer for Michael - he has been working a ton and in fact last night he did not get home until 12am and we have to leave in a little while, which means very little sleep for him. To top it off, he will most likely head off to work this afternoon post surgery and then we won't see him again until Friday night. (We love his job, we love his job, we love his job...grrr)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Ki Guy

In the last two weeks this little personality in Ki has been coming out. It has been so much fun! I think part of the personality change has been that he has been feeling well. Which is making me even more excited about the fact that he is getting tubes put in this week. Yep, that is right - Ki goes in this morning for his pre-op appointment and then Wednesday morning he will go in for the surgery. The actual surgery should only take a half an hour and depending on how he does when he wakes up we will be at the hospital for one to six hours.
Back to this little personality... Ki has been so happy. He has also learned how much fun it is to climb up on things. If Ki is missing most likely he is sitting in a sink or bathtub playing. His most favorite is to climb into his and Zeke's sink and brush his teeth. Last Friday, I ran upstairs to brush my teeth as we were leaving to go meet up with a friend of mine. I hear Zeke yelling, "Mom, Ki is making a mess." I run down stairs to find Ki sitting in the lower bathroom sink. He had plugged the sink and was filling it up, with himself in it. I guess he thought it was bath time. Needless to say I was a little upset as I had just gotten him dressed in nice clothes to meet my friend and now we had to do a quick outfit change and clean up the mess that was all over the bathroom. Ugh!
While we were out with my friend on Friday we meet them in downtown Denver and then the boys and I took a group of out of towners to Morrison for lunch at a little cafe and then over to the Red Rocks to see. Ki has always been a little more shy. Zeke plays shy but warms up really quick and then everyone is his best friend, which was the case on Friday. Ki on the other hand, I was expecting him to be clingy to me and not even get near anyone else. Boy, was I shocked when he had fast friends with two of the guys and then later another lady. Ki was just as social as Zeke. It was really neat for me to see that Ki IS growing up and becoming a more social little guy. I was starting to think that I have a cling on of a child. Friday proved otherwise and I couldn't be happier.
Ki has also become very fascinated by music. Michael loves to turn on music on his computer and have the boys sit with him and listen to it. Every day my house has music playing... usually through the cable box in the living room. We listen to a variety of music and Ki loves it all. Ki has made out fireplace his own personal stage. He climbs up on the fireplace and then dances till he about falls off, from dancing so much.
My baby Ki is growing up... which I guess is a good thing since in six short months be will no longer be the baby.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Colorado Girls - Laughed my hinney off!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Yet another reason

(Sorry for the feast or famine when it comes to the blog posts lately...)
Tonight was yet another example of why I love my husband... I was making pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and at 4pm I realized that the pork had burned in the crock pot.  I had changed the sauce that I normally use and the new stuff burned.  There was nothing to salvage and so I text Michael and let him know that he may want to just grab dinner for himself and I will try to figure something out for the boys and I.  I get a call minutes later from him asking what happened and I explained.  He somewhat exasperated ended the phone call with - I will take care of it.
A half an hour later Michael is home with a few bags of groceries and a plan!  Over the next hour he prepares a bunch of little ramekins with a variety of toppings and then tells me to get the boys.  Michael helped each boy make their own calzone.  As I watched my husband, a proud father help his boys make their dinner and told them each step my heart was filled with a deep sense of love!  
I was so overcome by pride of what a father Michael is that I had to grab my camera for a few shots.  I wish I would have remembered to take pictures of the finished masterpieces, however my hunger overtook me and the boys and we polished off every last bite before I came to my senses realizing that I had missed a photo opportunity. 

"No Spankin'"

Quick, funny Zeke story...
I am in the kitchen putting somethings away and I hear Ki start to scream and then I stomp into the living room where the two boys are playing and I see Zeke run upstairs to his room.  I stomp up the stairs to see where he is.  He is sitting on his bed, hiding behind a pillow and all I can see are his eyes peaking out.  I ask him why he ran upstairs and he quickly stands on his bed and puts his little hands up in the air and says, "I threw a toy at Ki and it was bad and I know how to go to my room with no spankin'."  I ask him if what he did was okay and he simply said, "No it bad, but no spankin'." 
I have to admit it was hard not to laugh!  He is a smart kid and as you can tell by the little story, spankin's have been passed out rather frequently lately!  Gotta love the kid, but oh - he sure knows how to push my buttons!

Noises

Why is it that at nap time everyone and their brother has to be outside my house?  
Ki is not one to fall asleep easily, well not for me!  And here it was 2:30pm and there was a group of Harley Davidsons driving on our street.  Then the ice cream truck with it's lovely annoying music.  Then of course the delivery truck.  Oh, but that is not all - then the neighbor with the diesel engine comes home and a group of load teenagers decide to hang out in the front yard of our neighbor's house.  At one point my little Ki sat up, put his hands on his ears and started to grunt.  
So after twenty minutes of trying to convince him that it was indeed nap time I got up and closed all the windows and then he laid down and fell fast sleep... until his big brother had to inform me from his room that he had to pee.  Really?  Do you have to shout from your room to mine and inform me of that?  Sakes alive, now it is nearly 4pm and Ki has been sleeping for an house and Zeke, not a wink!  
Tonight will be a fun one... whenever Zeke does not nap the meltdowns begin.  At lunch today Zeke started in on a meltdown over rice cakes, I put four on his plate and he wanted more.  After a big huge fit, a spanking, a timeout and finally cooling down and eating his lunch - the kid did not even touch a single rice cake.  I knew that he was tired or at least over stimulated so he has been sitting in his room reading books, so that I can have some Zeke down time!
Right now the only sounds that I can hear is my air conditioning trying to cool down my house, some classical music playing in the background from the radio and every now and then a page turn from Zeke.  Those are the noises that I like to hear from 2pm until 4pm!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Behavior

How is that two little people can bring out so many varying behaviors in themselves and their caregivers in such a short time frame? 
Seriously, it is only nine in the morning and I am already planning a one way trip for the two of them to spanking land.  I think the most frustrating thing of all is the comment from their father - "They don't act like that for me."  Well then take over at any moment... because the being nice, the screaming, the ignoring, the spanking, the yelling and the crying don't seem to silicate better behavior - I am at my wits end!  
After a rough morning, waking up at 6am with one crying for no reason and another fussing for God only knows why we are here at nine and at this very moment they are nicely playing together.  Yes, they are screaming - but they are chasing each other and having fun.  
How can we go from screaming at each other and throwing fits to playing like two well behaved brothers?  I think the only reason for it is so that as a mother I do not strangle them!  I struggle with at the moment that they start to behave well, thinking maybe we can leave the house and go do something, and then almost at that very second they start back into yelling and screaming at each other in a bad way.  This is exhausting!  
Two little people know how to pull every string emotionally possible, leaving the one in charge utterly drained and feeling like an absolute failure because they behave so differently for the other parent!

Spare pair of hands

The last week or so there have been many times where I have thought, "If only we had family around..."  I think that in the last two years of living out here I have only thought that a handful of times and like I said in the last week there have been multiple times I have thought that.  Just as a spare pair of hands to help with the boys - and to think I have another on the way.  I will say though that in the last year I feel that I have made some friends that I can call on to ask for help.  One being my neighbor, which makes things very handy!  With doctor's appointment I have been able to schedule around her and therefore she has been able to help with the next two appointments.  One thing that makes it hard... however a blessing as well, is that Michael has been crazy busy.  It is hard to be upset about him being gone all the time with work, work is money and this house does not run on my organization and hard work alone!  This morning for instance I was telling Michael that he had me for two more days then he was on his own.  Very quickly Michael said, "I am working on Saturday."  I chuckled and said, "Nice joke."  To which he got a very grim face and said, "It's not a joke."  Well I leave Friday at 4pm and will be gone until Sunday around 2pm - what is my husband going to do with the two boys while he is at work all day?  If only we had family around to call and help out...  I know that it will work out, but things like this seem to be coming up a lot more frequently.  Another one is, Ki's surgery... granted it is not scheduled as of today however while talking with Michael on Monday after the appointment, Michael informed me that I am pretty much on my own for the next month.  I inquired if that meant surgery too, and he simply said, "I sure hope that Zeke behaves for the surgery and six hours post surgery."  Ugh!  A spare pair of hands would be nice every now and then!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Refelctions from an early riser family

Why is it that store do not open until 9am or later?  Granted I know that not everyone is up at 6am with their children, however I am.  Our morning starts early and we spend most of the early morning waiting around for stores and places to open so that we can start our day.  I have to remind Zeke at 7am that most people are just now waking up.  I hate that I spend the morning trying to keep them quiet in the backyard so that neighbors can sleep.  I hate that I have to cool my morning jets for a few hours before we can get our daily errands done.  Yes, I know - rather than complain about it I should be cleaning my house, doing laundry - of which I do most days!  However when Ki takes his morning nap around 9:30... I want to have my stuff done so that while he naps I can get the cleaning items done.  Granted there are a few stores that open before 9am - Target, Walmart, Safeway and Sunflower Market... and to them I thank.  In Andrea's perfect town the town would begin at 8am and would close down around 5pm and honestly that is stretching it further than I ever really need it!  I usually am home by 3pm from anything that I need to do during the day.  Naps in my house usually happen around 2:30 so pretty much after naps... we are home for the rest of the day.  However one thing that I am never so sure about is parks... we have a neighborhood park that we enjoy walking to and playing at - what is too early to head to the park and what is too late to be at the park?  People's yards back up to the park so I try to run the same rules that we have for the backyard for the park - no earlier than 8am and no later than 8pm (that is also kind of my phone guidelines too... I am sure I could apply it to a bunch of events in life but those are the current holdings on those time frames).

Monday, August 2, 2010

To Wait Again

Today was Ki's appointment... and thank you for praying!  The insurance thing was worked out - this morning at 9:45am!  Ki's ears were not totally cleared up but the doctor said that he wasn't worried about it.  He said that with ears they are not too worried about them being totally clear for surgery, he said if that was the case then many people would not be able to have surgery.  Ki had some hearing tests and they all confirmed that he has almost perfect hearing, so the infections are not causing hearing loss - happy about that.  The doctor said that he will submit paperwork for the surgery today.  We will hear back from the office in a week or less to schedule the surgery and pre-op appointment.  So although I have to wait, I am now not worried about possible ear infections holding us back from getting the surgery.  So hopefully in one week I will know when we are having surgery and we will go from there!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Tube Consultation

Please be praying for us tomorrow morning!  After a long wait and way too many ear infections we have a tube consultation tomorrow morning.  How it all happened I am convinced was God's hands.  After Ki's last ear infection the last week of June I had called and made an appointment for tube consultation and the soonest appointment I could get was the 30th of August.  After a little relapse we were back in the doctor the first week of July.  I walked out of that appointment and made another call to the ENT and requested that we be put on a wait list for appointment cancellations.  I was afraid that we would get a call while we were on vacation for an appointment, however we did not. 
Last Wednesday I realized that Ki had another ear infection and took him in Thursday morning - Yep, I was right another double ear infection.  I left that appointment in tears!  Here I have been waiting for our appointment and we have had two double ear infections waiting for our appointment.  Desperation was very much there Thursday post appointment so I called another ENT in our insurance group that is about an hour away and simply said, "Here we are waiting for a tube consult and we are getting ear infections left and right I need something, anything... I am willing to drive anywhere at this point."  The receptionist was very nice and explained that the drive would not be just once but most likely five times, for the consult, surgery, post surgery, and post surgery check up.  I was in tears at this point and said I will take whatever.  She put me on hold and was back in a few seconds and said, "I have an appointment on Monday, August 2nd at 10:10am - with the best pediatric ENT in the group.  Does that work for you?"  Through tears of desperation came tears of gratitude and pure amazement at God's working hand.  I thanked her a million times and got off the phone in amazement. 
Later that day I got a call back from her explaining that Ki cannot have an active ear infection for the consult... oh great!  She said that with the antibiotics we should be good but that I need to be very mindful about giving it to him to eliminate the infection that is present.  She also said that for the surgery to be scheduled that he has to be infection free.  I am a little worried about both of these... so please be praying!  She also informed me that our insurance is not showing that the boys are covered as of July 31st and that if that is the case she will have to cancel the appointment.  Needless to say it is a computer error, however I am a little fearful that I will make the hour drive out there tomorrow morning to be informed that they cannot see him - I know we have insurance, however it was approved on the 28th and so the transfer of information from the subscriber to the insurance had not taken place as of Friday when I called to check... hope it goes through by 10:10am tomorrow morning!  As you can see, there are a few things to be praying about!