A blog about a little bit of everything...

My life has been so crazy busy lately that I am not always sure what side is up..  Between launching a new company (Welcome to the world RE/MAX Mosaic Properties!), raising 3 kids who have the longest Summer break ever, waking up at the crack of dawn to be ready for Ella's therapies, a new nanny and doing laundry, I don't even have time for a glass of wine or reading People these days!

Ella had her evaluation with the Occupational Therapist.  She was a little odd (and showed up 10 minutes late...). She asked me questions (and expected a serious answer) like: Does Ella like it when you rub her face with a feather? Now, I get the point of occupational therapy, it is for sensory integration, helping with tasks of daily living, etc, but Ella is 5 months old. Do you think I have plucked a feather out of a pigeon in the backyard and rubbed her face with it? I haven't.  She didn't seem pleased that I didn't know how Ella reacted to feathers. I asked her if she had one we could test out and she didn't.  If the feather test is so important, bring your own damn feather. She also wanted to know if Ella has issues with tags or seams.  She doesn't, but it got me realizing that the rest of my family might need some occupational therapy. Mike has  issues with tags and seams and has passed that down to the rest of the children (Ella takes after me so she is pretty much perfect). You should see Mike, Ryan and Reed putting on shoes and socks. It's like a 10 minute ordeal to line the seams up right so you don't feel them when the shoe is on. I told the therapist Ella was OK with seams, but if she had any tips for a 31 year old I would be happy to hear them.  She was not amused....  I guess the good thing is that Ella  needed OT so we add another therapist to the vacuuming rotation. Yes, I said it was a good thing she needs OT.  I know it sounds odd that it is a good thing to need therapy, but I want Ella to get all the extra help she can so as she gets older she might be able to master skills faster than if she didn't have extra help. I worried about her not getting OT for a month and I am so happy the eval is done and she qualifies! I will let you all know how she reacts to feathers.

Ella has a new trick. She learned how to click her tongue and she has started doing it at the most odd times. Like ALL night. I already don't sleep as I am terrified she will stop breathing (no medical issues, I'm just neurotic) so now on top of waking up to check her breathing, I am woken up to a sound that sounds like my 5 month old is chewing on something. Last night I jumped out of bed because I thought she was chewing. She was sound asleep clicking her tongue. I am a little annoyed by yet another reason not to sleep, but ecstatic that she is doing it.  This is a big step in language development and since that can come much slower for Down syndrome babies, the fact that she has the tongue strength to click it is awesome.  She is in her bassinet clicking away right now.

I have been fortunate to meet with a few moms of babies with Down syndrome in the past few weeks. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing these adorable babies and sharing stories with their parents. I am really trying to figure out a way to make a network somehow to reach out to these parents on a more organized level. I don't know how yet, but I feel strongly about my want to be there for them and share and cry and laugh together. Not to knock what is in place, they are a great resource and have great support, but I dunno, I want a different vibe than what I have found so far.

We have had our new nanny for about a month now. This is her second week working on her own. She is awesome beyond words. She organized Ella's room so perfectly that I wanted to cry when she showed me. She just comes in and jumps into whatever the kids need and still finds time to do laundry for the kids, make them clean up, read to them, play 20 games a day. She is British and I secretly wish I had a British accent.  Makes you sound so much nicer when you are yelling at the kids (yes, I tried it out). When our last nanny quit (by text, no notice) I was a little crazy with trying to figure out what to do. It seems there was a master plan out there for us as now we have Roxie and it is going great.

What else is keeping me busy.. Oh, Mike's extreme reaction to an antibiotic..  I have no idea how you can make it to age 31 and not know you are allergic to a drug. I am sure it means you are a healthy person and all that, but hey, there is something to be said for knowing you will get some crazy blood vessel damaging disorder if you take 1 pill...  He didn't know. He also didn't pay attention to it for the first day. It wasn't until his face swelled up, he started to feel loopy and his body was covered in a red rash looking thing that he thought he should bring it to someones attention.  Men.... He stopped the antibiotic and it still didn't go away (the rash, thank god his faced stop swelling). He went to the Dr. yesterday and it wasn't a rash at all. It is Vasculitis which is an inflammation of the blood vessels. Only reversible by steroids. Poor guy. This morning he is starting to look a little better but has 4 more days of steroids to go.

I will be out of town for the boys first day of school.  I am not normally a sentimental person, but this is making me pretty sad. I have them all ready to go minus water bottles. For some reason the only type of water bottle I can find are the ones made out of stainless steel.  One of them would knock somebody out with their water bottle and it would be very embarrassing for us. Especially considering their Aunt is a teacher at the school and would probably be the one to have to face the principal first on our behalf. So, my quest for plastic water bottles continues. I get the point behind the steel ones, but they didn't come up with that idea with little boys in mind. I am a little nervous at the thought of Mike getting both boys ready, remembering to take their first day of school picture and then getting them to the right classes, but I have to be in Denver so as long as his steroid regimen doesn't turn him into the Incredible Hulk, he is on his own.

I mentioned I have been busy with work. I have. I hate to talk about work to much on this blog but I am SO excited that our big idea has finally come to life. We purchased a RE/MAX franchise and just yesterday had our "soft" launch. We are officially RE/MAX Mosaic Properties. There is a lot to do now to get us ready for agents and all the big plans we have, but I am ready and so thankful for my husband and business partners. We all share the same vision and goals to be the best and well, it makes it easier when we are all on the same page.

Well, off to make waffles for the boys and start day 2 of my only chicken and yogurt diet.