Holiday Parties and Snow!

I don’t even know how the week goes by so fast.  Alas, it’s Sunday night and time to write about last week.

Last Monday we did a parent session with Lindy’s teacher.  It was a short session as she was not much into working.  I think she was still on Thanksgiving vacation.  She fell asleep on the way home from school on Monday and Tuesday.  She hasn’t done that since she started school!

Wednesday was a busy but good day.  The kids had music class which they always have fun at.  Then I had to go meet with Will’s speech teacher to go over his test scores and EXIT him from speech therapy!  He had above average scores in each category so he definitely did not qualify for speech anymore!  It’s amazing to think that less than a year ago he had maybe 25 words.  He will miss Ms. Pons.  He always had fun playing with her.

Thursday was the biggest day in our house, for it was time for Lindy’s yearly kidney testing.  It was time for the dreaded VCUG.  ugggggggggg.  We started the morning off with a renal ultrasound to check out her kidneys.  She was initially pretty hesitant but I eventually talked her into laying down and then she did awesome.  The radiologist that did the ultrasound has been doing ultrasounds on Lindy since she was in the NICU!  I think it’s neat to see the same people we’ve seen since they were babies! Her right kidney has always been smaller than her left kidney.  It is still smaller, but it did grow in the last year so we’ll take it!  After the ultrasound we went for our least favorite thing Lindy has to do, the VCUG (voiding cystourethrogram) .  They strap her to a board with her hands up by her ears and they put a catheter up her.  She is a strong little thing, it took two of  us to hold her legs to get the catheter up there.  They drain her bladder and then they fill her bladder up with a dye and they watch with x-rays to see where it flows.  In December 2009 she had grade 2 reflux on the left side (out of 5 stages, 5 being the worst).  This year she had the same – grade 2 on the left side.  The radiologist said it may have gotten marginally better compared to last year but  it was still considered stage 2.  After the VCUG we met with the nephrologist and she felt everything was going well.  Stage 2 is still considered mild and almost all kids will outgrow stage 2 kidney reflux.  Lindy will continue her daily antibiotic to prevent a urinary tract infection (which could hurt her kidneys if she got one) and we will check her again in December 2011.  It could be years before she outgrows the kidney reflux.  The alternative is  surgery, so we’ll just wait for her to outgrow it.

We left the hospital after a long morning and I treated my girl to a Krispy Kreme donut.  She deserved it after her morning!  The rest of the day she was acting kind of funny.  Right after the VCUG she peed and she cried really hard and told me she needed a diaper.  The rest of the day she kept telling me she needed a diaper but there wasn’t pee in there.  I think she must have been having the sensation to go but couldn’t.  She woke up from her nap early and I wonder if it was when she did go pee.

Thursday evening we had a first for our family.  I won free tickets to Disney on Ice Toy Story 3 and it was Thursday night.  I thought it would be a good treat for Lindy after her morning.  We headed to Greensboro for dinner and the show.  It turned out okay.  Drew and I enjoyed it and I think Will enjoyed it.  Although he kept asking where Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy went.  They came out and talked for a few minutes and then Toy Story 3 started.  Lindy on the other hand did not enjoy it.  She couldn’t see much because we weren’t close enough and she was really uncomfortable and almost in pain from the peeing thing.  We ended up leaving early because she was so miserable and Will was getting tired and said he wanted to go home.   We got Lindy a big glass of water for the way home and the next morning she had a monstrous wet diaper.  She told me she needed a diaper one time Friday morning but was otherwise fine. 

Friday Lindy had a holiday party with all the hearing impaired students in the school system.  They said it was about 90 kids.  From Lindy’s preschool class through high school.  They met at the library and each class performed a skit or song, they had a bunch of crafts, visits with Santa, and a pizza lunch.  Lindy’s teacher told us that we were invited and that Will was more than welcome to come along and do the crafts.  We all ended up going and it was a fun, but tiring morning.  Lindy’s class did the reindeer pokey and it was so cute!  She started off actually doing it and was so cute, but somewhere she stopped dancing.  It was really interesting to see the older hearing impaired kids.  Some kids had noticeably deaf voices and others sounded normal.  Most of the high school kids all signed. 

Saturday we had a birthday party for Jesus at our church at 11am.  Around 12pm we looked out and it was snowing!  Snow in NC in early December is almost unheard of!  The kids were so excited!  Lindy immediately started eating any little pile she found on the ground, something she LOVED doing last winter.  That was fun until her hands got really cold and she didn’t like that!  It ended up snowing all day and evening.  It was really pretty and a great afternoon to stay inside and decorate our Christmas trees.

Finally today we had church and then Will had a birthday party at Bounce U.  We’d never been there before but he had a great time.  Some things he was a little too small to do but he still had fun.  I got stuck in one of the play things helping all the kids up this one part so they could slide down a slide.  I got a workout helping those kids! 

Here are some pictures from the week.  I finally got my camera back – but unfortunately they didn’t fix the problem.  urrrrr.  Not happy.  I’m going to send it in again after the holidays I guess.

In the beginning of the week we raked leaves.  The kids had a blast playing in them.Tuesday the kids got to decorate their own little trees.  Will had a blast putting ornaments on his tree.  Lindy would pick them out but mommy had to put them on.Lindy was more interested in her belly than putting ornaments on the tree.Will grouped all his ornaments!Toy Story 3 Disney on Ice!Lindy’s class performing their song.  Two kids weren’t there and one wouldn’t go on stage.First Santa sighting of the weekend at her holiday party.Will actually sat on his lap and told him he wanted “cars and trucks.”Christmas pajamas!At the birthday party for Jesus.  Lindy’s shirt said “I’m on the Nice list.”  Will’s shirt said, “I’m 80% Naughty and 20% Nice”Checking out the snow.Second Santa for the weekend!Playing in the snow!Our house last night with the Christmas decorations and a little bit of snow!First of many Christmas church outfits this year!