Why Is It So Hot?

I love winter weather and do not typically mind the cold. However, any one who lives near us knows just how bitterly cold it has been here. So lately I have not enjoyed the Ohio weather and yesterday I voiced my opinion about just that. While I sat bundled up in layers in my living room I watched Nathan who is always hot, run shirtless and bare foot through the house. I asked several times if he was cold and he would simply respond no and continue on his merry way. After a few minutes he returned to the living room and asked me if I was cold. "Yes" I said, "I'm freezing." "Well then turn the heat up" he replied as he rubbed my hand then quickly picked up the remote control and turned off my show so he could watch his. (typical man) I just chuckled as I pretended not to notice the silly little smirk on his face. You could tell that in his eyes he believed that he had just pulled of something quite amazing. His ingenious distraction and then subtle retrieval of the remote control. This was something daddy would truly be proud of! I went to the kitchen and began dinner then several minutes later I began to peel off layers. It was suddenly very warm in our house and I found myself searching for an explanation. "It must be because I'm cooking...... but our kitchen is never this warm!" "Oh man.....maybe I'm getting sick...... but I have felt fine all day!" By the time I was finishing up dinner I was actually sweating while wearing a t-shirt. I had no idea what was going on with me well at least not until Nathan joined me in the kitchen. He pulled a bar stool over to the counter then climbed up on it and very sweetly asked "are you warm now?" Yes, Mommy is very warm, how about you, I asked. "I'm hot" he replied, "I think I need to put on some deodorant cause that's just what happens when you turn the heat up." I stared at him blankly while he climbed down from the stool and walked towards the bathroom. "Mommy never turned the heat up" I told him. He reached the bathroom door then stopped and turned to look at me. At that moment my four year old with as much attitude as he could muster up said "I know so I had to!" I obviously checked the thermostat to find that our house was a not so cozy 84 degrees and climbing right on up to 87 where he had it set!

Milestone after Milestone

Ben and I have been working with our "little flower" trying to get her to roll over. One day we realized that during all this time the only thing we had accomplished was discovering a new way to tick her of. (Now we can add that to an already endless list right next to wiping her nose.) So of course we gave up and left her on the floor next to her mountain of toys why we continued on with our mountain of chores. After a few minutes of cleaning there I stood scrubbing dishes when Nathan comes flying around the corner jumping up and down yelling "MOM YOU HAVE TO COME AND SEE THIS". "What is it Nathanial?" "YOU HAVE TO COME AND SEE!" he says again. So I dry my hands and reluctantly follow him to the living room. Once there I see that Lilli is no longer where we left her playing on the floor she instead is a good three feet across the room. With much excitement in my voice I ask "did she roll all the way over there?" "HER DID MOM HER DID!" he says, again why jumping up and down. At this point I'm both ecstatic she finally rolled over and disappointed that I missed it. So I ask Nathan to tell me how she did it. I wanted a detailed description. So I sat there anxiously waiting to vicariously relive the moment through the words of my 4 year old son. He pondered...................................................... After several seconds (that seemed like hours) his face lit up to reveal that he had finally found the perfect words to describe this amazing moment. He again began to jump up and down as he shouted "HER JUST ROLLED OVER, LIKE A BOWLING BALL!" UH........not exactly the narrative I was hoping for. I will admit though, that is a pretty good analogy for a 4 year old. However something tells me the image in my head and what he actually seen are quite different! Never the less Lilli has rolled over since then and is now pulling herself to a sitting position. This makes putting her to bed when she doesn't want to go really fun! I should also mention that Lilli now has her first tooth it is on the bottom left side. If I had to guess I would say the bottom right is not that far behind!

Update On Nathan

As many of you know on Wednesday Nathan had an appointment with his rheumatologist. Everything went well after we finally found the place! Turns out that new roads our not always able to be found by Map Quest, Google Maps or even a GPS. When this happens your pretty much screwed! So of course you call the Doctors office to try and get directions but instead you'll most likely receive a message saying "I'm sorry we are currently receiving a high volume of calls. Your call is important to us so please stay on the line and we will be with you momentarily." So there I am sitting in a Silver Mountaineer on my cell phone with two young children taking in the scenery at the local gas station in the middle of god knows where! Now, one would think that the classical music playing softly in my ear while I continue to wait on hold would calm and relax anyone right? Not quite the case when you consider the local scenery consist of cars that should be considered illegal to drive due to the fact that they were held together by bondo and duct tape and had trash bags for windows! Every where you looked there were questionable people! I knew nothing about this place except for the fact that me in a silver mountaineer on a cell phone with two young children did not belong there. This whole time in my head all I can think is how this message I have now heard a dozen times should actually read "your call is important to us so please stay on the line and continue to wait unless your about to be car jacked and mugged then please hang up and dial 911". It was SUPER SCARY!

Now that that's out of the way lets get back to Nathan! As I said earlier before the rampage his appointment went well.

• Good news - we finally have an official diagnosis
• Bad news - as we suspected it is juvenile arthritis
• Good news/Bad news - He has a 50% chance of outgrowing it therefor a 50% chance he will continue to have problems as an adult

The naproxen alone was helping some of the inflammation but he is still very stiff and sore mainly in the morning. So Dr. Spalding has decided that the next step would be to start him on sulfasalazine this is a disease modifying anti rheumatic drug. The purpose of this drug is to slow down or even stop the progression of the disease. Nathan will be going back to hydro therapy once a week and then go back to see the doctor in February. If this treatment does not work there is other drugs they can try but right now we our hopeful so we will only cross that bridge if need to.

One more bit of good news-juvenile arthritis is not hereditary so it is very rare for more then one child in a family to have it.

Update on Lilli

Sorry it has taken so long to share Lillis updated info from her 6 month well check this past Tuesday. But here it is.... Yes you are reading it right she is a healthy 20.6 pounds and in the 98th percentile for weight. And 27 1/2 inches long putting her in the 96th percentile for her height! The Doctor said she is doing an amazing job meeting her milestones and is a happy and healthy little girl. However she may have just been trying to butter her up because right after that she gave her a flu shot. (HA HA) Then on Thursday morning the poor thing had to be poked again when she got her 6 month vaccinations! The Nurses love her because given the size of her thighs they say she has great "targets". It's wonderful to know that two days later she has already forgotten about the whole terrible ordeal! Now aside from the second dose of the flu vaccine she will receive on the 5th of February she will not need any more shots until her first birthday! She does not know to be excited about this but I DO! Don't get me wrong Lilli does a great job with very little crying when she gets her shots. And although I feel that we are doing the right thing by protecting her it is still heartbreaking! I just try to remember what a nurse once told me while having Nathan vaccinated- "a few shots now will keep them from having to have dozens later if they come down with one of these potentially fatal illnesses." As much as it makes me cringe I know she is right!

The Modern Day Family Pet

A few days ago Nathan was watching TV and seen a commercial for the new Marley and Me movie. He has asked several times to go see the movie "about the bad dog" and I just tell him maybe, we'll see, hoping that he will just forget about it. Well the commercials keep reminding him and so he just keeps asking. I would love to go and see the movie myself and would not mind taking Nathan but knowing that poor Marley is not immortal and will die at the end, has made me more then hesitant. After much thought I finally decided that this was not going to go away anytime soon and made the decision to just tell Nathan the truth. After all he is 4 1/2 right and we do have pets one of which is... a little on the older side! Thanks impart to the Catholic school he is also starting to understand that there is a heaven where people and animals go when they die. Granted he has his own version of how this works! All I'll say is that it involves Jesus with a parachute and a jet pack. But never the less he is starting to understand death, heaven and earth. I figured we would just have the conversation then he would be able to make his own decision on rather he wanted to see the "bad dog movie." Lets just say the conversation did not go over as smoothly as one would have hoped. It involved allot of tears and hysterics and some mumbling about how he loved Charlie and Maggie and wanted them to be his pets forever. I took a quick analysis of the situation and became panic stricken upon realizing that it was far to late to turn back. In a desperate attempt to spare my son from any more emotional scarring I assured him that when pets die you get to pick out new ones! This may not have been my best mommy moment however it did give his little overactive brain something to ponder other then the death of his beloved pet. He has not since then said anything more about our conversation, until today that is. Today he brought me a picture and with overflowing enthusiasm informed me that when our dog dies this was the new pet he wanted and that it could be purchased at the pet store for only $9.99................

I of course asked him where we would keep an animal like that and he very proudly answered in a cage with a door. But you have to put a stick in it for the bird to sit on and "seagles" like to eat slippery fish. When I asked him where we find slippery fish he stood tall (as if to convey to me that he had already fully thought this through) and confidently said at Pa Pa's!

Oh yeah, for those of you who are wondering NO I did not tell Nathan that having a Bald Eagle for a pet was not even remotely possible. After all he is 4 1/2 right!