A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Okay, I had to put a more upbeat post after the last one. The story behind the picture is that Regan got out of the bath, came in my room and destroyed the bed in a frenzy of dancing. Her bedtime is still not ideal and she was up to watch "Dancing with the Stars". She LOVED it! She then started twirling and trying to dip herself on the bed! I had helped her with her dipping technique in the living room, but obviously she hadn't gotten all the boogie out of her system.

So, back on the picture. I turn around and pull her pajamas out of the drawer. A SPLIT second! I turn around and she is up on my very high headboard shaking her purples, dancing and waving her arms. Have I mentioned a time or two that she is very quick and very mobile?!?!?!?

Health Scare - Warning: Long, Rambling Post

About three hours after the steroid. She is feeling pretty good! She loves to collect stuff and hide it in different places. It makes living with her a little more interesting. She just up and decided to try and do gymnastics in one of the cabinets. Of course I let her for awhile because I was just so darn happy she was feeling good!

This week with Regan started off pretty rough. She had been waking in the night again. Not nightmares, just waking up off and on through the night. It culminated on Wednesday night with her waking and just crying and crying and crying. Not scared crying, just crying. I had no idea what was wrong. I tried everything. We finally ended up getting out of bed and meandering the house and then got back in bed and watched The Amazing Race for one and 1/2 hours. This is when I feel exhausted being single. What I wouldn't have given on one of those nights to be able to just let her visit someone else one of those afternoons so that I could nap. Anyway, I took her to daycare on Thursday and was sure I would get a phone call that morning to come pick her up because she was so tired, I thought she would give them a rough time. By noon, I thought I was home free because I hadn't gotten a call and they go down for a nap at 12:00. I had to go to work that morning because I had a scheduled meeting with the wheelchair vendor to make modifications to several children's chairs. At 12:37 I got two phone calls right in a row. One from the downtown ESE office, the other from the daycare. I knew it couldn't be good. The daycare was calling all my contact numbers to get a hold of me to tell me that Regan had severe rashes on her feet and hands and was screaming and scratching herself like crazy. The ESE secretary called my mom and told her the daycare had called and couldn't get ahold of me. My mom works in the downtown school building and so the when Karen, the ESE secretary, heard that the daycare had a "serious" concern, she called my mom. I travel to 14 different schools and so they don't always know what school I am at. Calling my cell phone is the most direct way of getting ahold of me, but they tried that number second. I immediately went to the daycare. I couldn't get ahold of my mom, her secretary told me she was out looking for me and Regan. We ended up pulling into the daycare at the same time. We went in and Ms. Barb, the daycare director met us and was very worried. She said Regan had been itching and screaming and she had a severe rash on her hands and feet and they were starting to swell. She had read what I wrote in her medical information and I had said to call immediately if she developed a rash and she knew some of her medical history and she was concerned. I got Regan and we called the doctor who said to come in right away.

We arrived at the doctor and one of the things they did was a strep test. I won't bore you with all the details, but basically they were not sure if it was a definite positive. Dr. Jones threw out several possibilities, Kawasaki syndrome being the one he thought it looked like the most. She didn't have a fever though and so he was ruling that out for now. He said that Dr. MacKoul said many asians get a rash on the hands and feet with strep so we were treating it like strep for now. He pointed out one patch of redness, not rash, on the calf of her leg. He said it looked like the beginning of a skin infection and if it changed at all to call the office or get to the ER immediately. He said it was probably just a no name skin infection, but to get it looked at if it got worse because of the word I am getting so sick of hearing: MRSA. His indecision about her diagnosis did not make me feel comfortable. After the visit there were still unanswered questions that made me worry. His worry about the redness increased my worry.





That night, we were up for hours with her screaming and itching her feet. The next morning I thought things looked better. I had a flat tire, had to walk Konnor to school (he was late, of course) and get my brother to drive me to my mom's work so that I could borrow her van. This took a couple of hours and by the time we got to my mom's Regan had the same redness on her calf showing up on her underarm. Her axillary lymph nodes were also very swollen. Her calf looked worse. I called the doctor they said to come in immediately. By this time, I am panicked and managed to be a crybaby when I called my work to tell them I wouldn't be in.





We got in right away and saw Dr. MacKoul. I LOVE her. Can I say it one more time: I love her! She is awesome. She peeks in the door and shakes her finger at Regan and says, "You're going to be the death of me little girl!". I said, "You!" and she laughed and said she has nothing on me! I will say, I have so much more appreciation for parents who have chronically ill children. It will break you if you let it. I don't know how they are so strong. The mental strain is unreal. I can deal with chronic health issues. I just am terrified of it being life threatening again.





Dr. MacKoul examined Regan and said that the redness is not connected to any skin opening. She had several massive mosquito bites on her legs that were healing and I was so scared that had provided a skin opening, but the redness was not around them. She said the redness on the arm also did not have an opening it was surrounding. It looked exactly like the MRSA did when she was in the hospital. Dr. MacKoul said she didn't think it was and we were going to put her on a steroid to treat the redness and provide her some relief from the itching. She did say if it got worse, she would be on stand by this weekend for me to call. She said she would let her husband (who was on call this weekend) to tell her if I called and she would meet me at the office to personally look at Regan. That is a great doctor! We had a joking conversation about me just needing to make a standing appointment every month, and Dr. MacKoul mentioned that there were about five patients in her practice who the office staff know are to get immediately seen if they call. We had the dubious honor of being one of them! While I was there, I got to meet the triage nurse, Betsy who I have had many conversations with on the phone, but hadn't gotten to meet. Dr. MacKoul tracked her down when I casually mentioned that one day I wanted to meet her. Betsy and I had a nice little conversation and it was nice to put a face to a voice! It is just a great office. I feel confident in Dr. MacKoul's clinical judgment and she put my mind to ease once she examined Regan.





The concern with Regan's MRSA is that there are only two drugs that it is responsive to. You can't treat it with the regular protocol because it is an unusual strain. MRSA is very common, her strain of MRSA is not. The infectious disease doctors said they had only seen one other case so resistant to all meds. That is why they feel it came from China, because it is such an unusual strain. The only effective drugs must be administered through IV and that means staying in the hospital. The second concern is how it went systemic and began spreading up her body. My constant fear is, if it comes back I don't want it to become resistant to the two drugs it responds to now.





The other great thing about Dr. MacKoul is that she has such great clinical judgment and the steroid gave Regan almost instant relief. She was happy within one hour. After not sleeping for about a week (she must have been getting sick and feeling the beginnings of illness), we slept in that night until 9:30 the next morning!!!!! Sleep has never felt so good! I was a walking zombie all week and so I felt so refreshed! Her arm and leg look no worse and so we feel it isn't MRSA, but just a viral skin thing like Dr. MacKoul said. I am so glad all my fears were unfounded!

Four Day Weekend

Library event, you can click on any picture to make it bigger.
Playing hide and seek with her cousin! She had undressed herself trying to get me to let her shower!

This weekend was a four day weekend for me.....the school district had a holiday on Thursday celebrating the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah and then on Friday was a Hurricane Make-Up day which we very fortunately did not have to use this school year. It certainly didn't feel like a four day weekend, where did it go?

On Thursday, we threw papers, ate lunch with Framma and spent a half an hour or so at the Calusa Nature Center. Marmie was supposed to have his first day of obedience school, but it got rained out. He missed last week because I went to Tyler's memorial service. I hope he isn't a obedience school drop-out before he even attends his first class!!

Friday afternoon was spent at the library at a very neat science show. I love the Cape Coral library and all the good events that present. They are all for free and really have had a wide variety of events. All of them have been great! Regan was learning to sit still for more than 1 minute and Konnor loved watching them make exploding lava, slime, a soda bottle powered rocket, and other things. They then have a ton of books to encourage the kids to read about the topic that was presented. Next week is Aesop, one of my favorites!

I had to take another continuing ed course on Saturday. 101 Things to Do with a Gait Belt. It was interesting, but I would rather have been home! I now have to take a few more hours on the internet and I am done! Saturday evening, my mom and I began working on the church nursery. We are in charge of painting, renovating and cleaning, and it is quite the project!

Regan is really coming along with feeding herself and dressing herself. She really tries so hard to get dressed. She can almost do most of her shorts and skorts, but can't figure out the shirts! She has now decided she loves showers and will start undressing and lead me to the shower and try to convince me to turn it on. She is still needing to be convinced she is not going to shower two or three times a day! I love that she is into hygiene, but that is overdoing it! ;)

She has also had a growth spurt.....in her feet! She has been able to wear the same pair of squeaky shoes that I brought home from China. She has been in size 3 shoes since she came home. I had bought her a couple of size 4s, but they had been too big and she would walk right out of them. She is now officially in size 4. Another interesting, but totally useless bit of trivia: her shoe size and her diaper size coincide. She used to be in size 3 diapers (purples as she calls them!) and has now moved into 4s.

The charming thing she learned in daycare was to scream "mine!" whenever she wants something. Not the most wonderful lesson to bring home. We are working on cutting that out of her repertoire!

More Beach Pictures

Regan is just so darned cute that I had to post new pictures!! I also had to say a few more things that I have forgotten to post.

1. Regan's favorite movie is "You've Got Mail". I have absolutely no idea why. It isn't very exciting or flashy, but for whatever reason if I put that movie in she is entranced. We put it in sometimes when I am cleaning house or cooking dinner because it is one of my favorites and yet I don't have to sit down to follow the plot. As soon as she hears the theme music she will literally come running from wherever she is to watch.

2. Regan loves music and activity and I had posted earlier about how she will copy people and mimic their poses. She does this all the time with whatever is going on the tv also. I was flipping through channels and a Justin Timberlake concert was on the tv. She tried mimicking all of his dance moves and arm movements! She will also do this with commercials or random tv series. Just pick up and mimic how they are standing or what they are doing with their arms....things like that.

When I have more time I'll have to remember to post about this new things she has learned from daycare!

Beach Time and Konnor's Tooth Loss

This Friday, my mom and I took Regan to the beach. We got there about sunset time and watched the sun go down. This was Regan's first trip to the beach and she loved it! She loved wading in the water and playing in the sand. She kept wrinkling her toes back and forth. She would have taken off and tried to swim if we didn't keep reeling her back to shore! I love watching her experience and discover new things....it is an awesome feeling!

Konnor had a big night last night, he lost his first tooth! My mom is going to make his tooth pillow and then the tooth fairy will come visit! He was EXTREMELY excited!!!

Konnor is the Big 6!!

I finally had had enough of Regan's hair hanging in her face. I took a pair of scissors and decided that if I totally butchered her hair, it would as least grow back. Not an easy task to cut the hair of a 19 month old who never sits still. My strategy was to cut a piece everytime she would walk by me! My mom is always trying to convince me to leave it down. She likes it better down, I like it better in pigtails. At least now, she can have it down without looking like a ragmuffin!
Konnor and Jason in their fishing outfits.
Fishing off the pier. You can't really see it, but Regan is crying hysterically! She hates these giant people and critters who always want to take their picture with her!
Regan doing one of the things that she does best...... talking on the phone! (Please ignore the mismatched outfit, we were "bumming around" at home! ) Notice she is all dolled up with her "bracelet" on.

We had a very busy week this past week. On Saturday, Jason (my brother) signed he and Konnor up for a fishing tournament being hosted by McDonald's. All proceeds go to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. It was an awesome event! It was a $20 dollar registration fee and it included a fishing rod, tackle box, t-shirt, trophey and lunch. Konnor had a great time! It was the beginning of his birthday celebration.

On Sunday, we had a cake that my brother made and then Konnor's mom picked him up because she wanted to have him for his birthday. We don't mind, because we almost never celebrate on the official day. Regan's birthday was celebrated 6 months late! The birthday celebration justs keeps going!

On Monday September 3rd, Konnor turned 6!!!!!

On Wednesday, I had an appointment with our adoption social worker to complete Regan's second post placement visit. I tried mowing the lawn on Tuesday, but of course my lawnmower broke a belt. I told Jennifer my disclaimer was that I tried, but don't judge me on the grass! I hate yardwork. Despite the yard tribulations, it was nice to catch up with Jennifer. She had a new referral to deliver to a family and she was driving to meet them after our appointment. How exciting! I will never, ever forget the excitement of Regan's referral and I am so happy for everyone experiencing that wonderful emotion! Jennifer and I sat and talked while we completed Regan's paperwork and we did some extra paperwork while Jennifer was here ;)

Thursday was not such a good day. I attended a memorial funeral for a little 5 year old little boy. Please keep Amy, Jimmy, and their family in your prayers as they mourn the loss of their five year old son. As unbelievable as it is, this is the second child that they have lost. I am devastated. I saw him for therapy from the time he was 8 months old until he was almost 4. For over two years, I was at their house 2-3 times per week. Tyler was the most awesome little boy. He would smile at the sound of your voice and even when he was fighting seizures, aspiration fears, and various other medical concerns, he would give the most amazing smile and laugh. It makes you come home and hug your own baby that much tighter.

Girly Girl

Have I ever mentioned that my little girl is quite a contradiction? She is both a tomboy and a girly girl. She has no fear and will dive into any situation that strikes her fancy (usually something totally inappropriate!!!). On the other hand, she is such a girl girl and loves to play dress up, get new clothes, she LOVES shoes, and likes getting into my make-up and putting it on. I had mentioned that she loves to put on Konnor's underwear and wearing it around and last night she put on my bra (sorry if that is too much information!!!). I was impressed that she had it on correctly!!! She just needed a little assistance with hooking the back :) Her new thing is to put my hair things on her arms as "bracelets". She got into the bathroom cabinet and hit pay dirt. She found an entire package of ponytail holders and voila! Instant glamour girl! Now, if only I could get her to sit still so that I could give her a nice haircut that frames her face instead of hanging all over the front of it!

On another note, Konnor is loving school. I am amazed at the amount of homework that is required. I don't know if it is because he is in the advanced class or if this is typical. They are already doing AR and homework pages everynight as well as extra stuff. I'm not sure I agree with the amount of homework and I am fearful that if it gets difficult Konnor will shut down. He has no self esteem and if he thinks he isn't going to be successful at something, he won't try. It is good he is one of the older in the class with a September 3rd birthday (two days past the cut-off), he did alot of maturing last year and so far it is working for him. He loves to learn and he is his usual enthusiastic self!

Regan is doing well in daycare. The first few days were a breeze. She waltzed in without a whimper and pretty much had nothing to do with me, she was busy playing. On Thursday, it hit home. She has been crying every time I have to drop her off. Ms. Vivian assures me it doesn't last too long and it probably doesn't. She is very excited to go to school and jumps and waves and claps, but when I get ready to go it is a different story. I should have known she would have this delayed reaction. She was like this in China. The first couple of days were a breeze. I was patting myself on the back and thinking how easy it was all going. She was smiling from the moment they put her in my arms. She was so happy to get attention. About four days after Gotcha Day, it all hit the fan! It's like she gets it that this isn't just a small interlude, but is going to repeat itself everyday! I am pleased that she loves the kids and the toys and she waves bye to the playground everyday! I'm sure she'll grow to absolutely love it!

Mentally Tired

Do you ever have those periods where you are just mentally beat? The past few months have done that to me. I just came back from the vet where I had to have my cat, Chichen, put to sleep. It still seems surreal.

He has been acting slightly funny for 3 or so days, but some of the funny was good funny. What I will now always remember was that for the past two nights, I woke up to find him sleeping next to me. He never would do that. He hasn't eaten for the last day and he started looking very dull and yellow. The vet thinks he had systemic cancer. He blood tests came back as several of his systems were failing. I didn't want him to suffer. It was absolutely horrible.

Between Regan's illness, Joel's judging me on all aspects of my life and just the general combativeness of the atmosphere, his lack of support when we didn't know if Regan was going to make it, Allison and Elizabeth no longer here, getting through the summer and worrying about money, and now Chichen being gone, I'm just mentally worn out.

I'm sorry for whining, it has just been an unexpectedly bad day. I just need to think of all my blessings....of which there are many. Regan did make it and is the biggest joy in my life. I have the best and most supportive family in the whole world. I have the love and companionship of my animals (Although, when I spent 20 minutes this morning running the neighborhood after Daisy, who hasn't gotten loose in a long time, I wasn't blessing her!!!!!! I thought I would have a coronary after running in and out of yards, up and down ditches, one yard had their sprinkler going full blast, just generally trying to keep her away from Surfside Blvd (busy road) !!!) Many other blessings, too many to count and that is a good thing.

Chichen was the best cat in the world. I worked at the vet's office and he was brought in as a stray kitten. He had been brought in by a woman who was scared her boyfriend was going to kill him. He was beaten and left on a pile of trash. I heard about him and went to the satellite office to take a peek. He was a white cat and then when he turned around, his entire tail was gray. I was hooked! I worked kennels that weekend and took him home when I went home. Poor thing was never sharp as a tack! I really do think the beatings caused a little brain damage. It took him several years to learn to jump. My other cat, Obie, used to have to clean him because he didn't know how. He also never meowed. I thought for the longest time he didn't know how! What he did have was the most wonderful personality. He was the nicest cat ----my Mute Man.

I Spoke Too Soon

I spoke too soon about not having a doctor's visit for more months, but I'll get to that in a second.

Konnor had a great first day at school! He loved every minute! He went into his classroom, found his desk and sat down to start the morning work that was on the desk. He is such a big boy! He talked on and on about his day, he loves his new school. My brother picked him up from school and after work I picked up Yunnie. We then met to take the kids out for ice cream as a celebration of their first day of school/daycare.

Regan headed to daycare and loved that she had her own backpack. It is on wheels and she enjoyed walking to her classroom pulling her backpack. She is so cute! On Regan's first day, the teacher said she cried just a little when she had to sit down for lunch. She also had difficulty sleeping (go figure!) and Ms. Vivian rocked her to sleep. When I picked her up, she wasn't crying and she waved and said good-bye to Ms. Vivian and Ms. Tammy (the assistant). The only bad part of her day was that she got scratched on the face by one of her classmates. It broke the skin and had bled so when I got home I called the doctor. I asked them to call in another prescription for her topical antibiotic so that I could leave it at the daycare. The nurse talked to Dr. MacKoul who said she wanted Regan to come in so that she could look at her scratch and see if she needed antibiotics. I didn't think we'd be going to the doctor over a scratch, but I'm glad Dr. MacKoul doesn't blow these things off.

We got to the office around 6:30 and got right back in the room. Dr. MacKoul looked at the scratch and said with her history she wasn't taking any chances she could get another infection and she was prescribing oral and topical antibiotics. I knew when she went into daycare we were going to have to worry about dirty fingernail scratches and dirty mouths biting, I just didn't think it would be on the first day!

Dr. MacKoul is awesome! I have a friend who has medical concerns with her newly adopted daughter and her doctor keeps blowing off her concerns and won't do anything about them. I am so glad that Dr. MacKoul isn't like that. I know the daycare doesn't understand why she has to have prescription antibiotics for a small scratch, but they don't understand how sick she was. There is always the fear that another skin wound will cause another flare up of the infection. I'm just now in the habit of everynight looking for scratches and bug bites and putting on the antiobiotic. It is just routine. Today, the daycare was very good about her antibiotics and her face was covered with it when I picked her up!

Today when I picked up Regan she didn't want to leave! They were blowing bubbles and she was having a blast. I thought for sure she would have such a problem with daycare, but knock on wood, she seems to really be enjoying the last two days. She waves bye to the playground when we leave and laughs and points and makes sure I "shee" it. I hope her enjoyment continues!

A New School Year

This week started a new school year for me ;( Something unexpectedly happened this week ---- Regan was signed up for daycare. School personnel start a week before the students come back to school. My brother started coming during the day to watch Yunnie. He is working nights as a nurse and was staying up to watch her and napping when she naps. Unfortunately, I think it was asking too much of him to continue doing this again for this school year. When I realized it was going to be taking a toll on him and he was not getting enough sleep, I started frantically looking for daycare. As much as I hate to put her in daycare, I'm hoping she will like the socialization and playing she will get to do during the day.

I found two daycares that I liked. I thought we were fortunate they both had openings. The decision was between two very different philosophies on routines and such and I had to try to look into a crystal ball to try and figure out which would be a better fit for Yunnie. We chose the less structured, little academics setting. I just want her to be happy and loved. I'm not worried if she learns anything "academic". I think she will enjoy all the play time and playing outside that this daycare allows. I hope. Unfortunately, you can't really tell how something is going to work until you are in the situation!

It just so happens, Regan is in The Panda Room. I thought that was fitting! Her teacher seems loving and very nice. I stopped in five times at various times to "peek" in the classroom. The teacher was engaging with the students each time. I know Regan is going to have some initial adjustment issues, but hopefully these will resolve quickly and she'll enjoy herself. We had Open House last night and she had a mild fit when we had to leave. She didn't want to leave the toys!

Konnor starts public kindergarten this year. We are so excited that he has an awesome teacher! I'm the physical therapist at his school and only go once a week for an hour or so, and yet I know of this teacher's reputation. I have heard nothing but how wonderful she is. He loved her and we are so excited! He'll have to really work hard this year as he got placed in the "High" progressive placement class. Ultimately, we hope he enjoys himself and really likes kindergarten. He was such a gentleman last night at his Open House talking with Mrs. Wincel. I was so proud! He has done nothing but talk about his new teacher and how much he likes her! He is counting down the days until Monday!

The 5 Second Rule

Marmie helping himself to a drink from the sink. Now, that's a big boy! He has been awesome for helping Regan work on her coordination. She can really do quite the acrobats to get out of his way when he is coming towards her ;)

Okay, you know the "five second rule" for food? I have now applied it to Regan. In Yunnie's case, it goes like this: If you turn your back for 5 seconds/Regan is quiet for 5 seconds/you don't have her in your direct line of sight for five seconds/etc you know Regan is into or upto something! I made the mistake of cleaning the bathroom where she could see me. The mistake wasn't necessarily cleaning the bathroom, it was standing on the toilet to reach the top of the cupboard above the toilet. Now, everytime Regan is in the bathroom, she is getting on the toilet. She left the bedroom for five seconds and when I turned the corner, there she was on the toilet!

Her biggest accomplishment this week was getting a "big girl" bed! As everyone knows, sleeping is a HUGE problem! Every night she still gets up crying 1-6 times. I then have to hold her and talk to her and she'll go back to sleep (unless she is having her numerous nightmares and then it might be several hours before she goes back to sleep!). Needless to say quality of sleep is not happening in our house. The big news is that she is now taking her naps in her toddler bed! Yeah! This is a huge step from where I would have to lie down with her to get her to take a nap. The bed is in my room and she has to see me and as long as I"m not doing anything too exciting, she'll nap. I usually go sit on the couch and she can see me from her bed. I don't think one more piece of furniture can fit in my bedroom! Oh, well, she is sleeping and that is what counts. Like I say, it is not the end of the world if she has to sleep with me. The world isn't going to fall off of it's axis despite what people will try to tell you about letting kids sleep in your bed. They haven't met Yunnie and all of her issues! I'm just so pleased she has relaxed enough to take a nap without me there! On Monday, I go back to work in the schools, so we'll see how that throws things.

Regan is now saying a couple more words. She will call "where are you"? That comes from hearing it directed at her about 50 times a day when I don't see her in my direct line of sight (refer to above ; ) ). She tells the dogs to "move" or "go". She calls Konnor, KaKa. If she wants attention drawn to herself she'll yell her own name "Yun Cakie". Usually this is when I am eating something and she wants it . She is like a bloodhound when it comes to food and she'll come from the other side of the house when she catches a scent! She'll say "oh, really". She says, "I don't know" and shrug her shoulders. She now knows what fingers are. So, in body parts she knows feet, bellybutton, fingers, teeth, and rear end. She'll say "ahhh" and open her mouth to show teeth. She now has four more coming in. She tries to snap her fingers. I wish I had a picture of this, but we went out to eat last night and we had to wait a few minutes. We were outside and there was a man leaning against the wall. Regan went up to him, studied him and copied his exact pose. Leaning on the wall, arms out on a ledge and feet crossed. It was the funniest thing. Everytime he would move, she would copy him. He didn't even know she was there which made it even funnier. I was so bummed I didn't have my camera!

I got my first Squish. Click on the 100 Good Wishes Link to see them!

100 Good Wishes Quilt

The cutest feet ever!
When we tell Regan to "shhh" and put our fingers up to our mouths, she copies. Well, almost! She kind of misses the mark! This is Regan telling us to "shhhh"!

I've started a new adventure. I am going to attempt to make a 100 Good Wishes Quilt for Regan. The tradition of making a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt began in northern China. As a welcome and to celebrate the coming of a new life they would invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth and a wish for the baby. Part of the cloth is sewn into the quilt for the baby and a small scrap of the cloth goes into a memory book along with it's corresponding wish. The quilt contains all the blessings and wishes for families and friends who contributed a fabric and a wish to welcome the new baby.

Together, the square of fabric and the wish are called a squish. I've joined a 100 Good Wishes Message board and have already signed up for two swaps. The swap is where ladies from all over send squishes to each other. The themes I have signed up for are flowers and American Culture. I'm very excited to learn ho to do this, although I have absolutely no clue as to how to put together a quilt. Luckily, I've requested the book, Quilting for Dummies, from the local library so hopefully that will help! I'll be posting the squishes on a new blog, www.100goodwishessquishes.blogspot.com/ Feel free to send me any squishes you may want! You can click on the "comments" section, email, or call and I can get back with you!

On another note, I have lost the battery charger to my camera and so I have not been able to take any pictures in about a week! I'm posting some oldies but goodies!

On yet another note, I have to update on some of Regan's dubious "accomplishments". I now know when she wants a snack or she is hungry. If I'm not feeding her in a timely fashion (meaning whenever she wants food, no matter if she just ate three seconds ago!), she just pulls a chair up to her highchair and climbs in! The first time I turned around and she was sitting in the highchair calling my name I about fell on the floor!

Regan also has learned to roll her eyes. She first did it to my mom. She was pouting about something and my mom was asking her a question and she turned to my mom, rolled her eyes, shook her head and turned her head away! I thought rolling of the eyes was a learned behavior usually acquired in the teenage years. I guess it is an innate behavior used to show disgust! I don't know where she learned eye rolling because we don't do it in my house! If I had rolled my eyes at my mom they would have been knocked out of my head ; ) ! She has since done it a couple of times, and it has all been at "appropriate" times. Mainly when she is irritated with us and we are asking her questions. Lovely skill to have acquired!

A good skill is that she is now really into kissing. She would usually kiss when she wanted something or was trying to get away with something. Now she is kissing just to kiss. Yeah! She come up to you with her lips clamped tight (a huge improvement from the gaping mouth kiss!) and say mmmmmmm. Don't get me wrong, when she is trying to distract or get out of trouble she still will kiss, make her "scrunchy face", or show her bellybutton. In her mind, who can resist a cute bellybutton?!?!?

So she will now kiss when asked, most of the time, and she can "shake her purples". She does this all the time on command. It is too cute!!! Just say, "shake your purples, Yunnie" and she'll start shaking her bottom! I have to learn how to post videos on this sight so that everyone can enjoy The Shaking of the Purples! ;)

1-2-3 Sign with Me

I just had to tell everyone about this awesome program. It is being taught by my friend, Tricia. Tricia works at one of the elementary schools that I work with and she is an AWESOME teacher! It just so happens, we met while we were both waiting for The Call! Her daughter Maia is just the cutest thing! You have to check out Maia's dimples! We ended up in China at overlapping times, but didn't get to see each other :( . Anyway, she has started teaching classes in KinderSigns. I think it is an awesome idea. Working as a physical therapist in the school system, I hear speech therapists encouraging the use of sign language in conjunction with the spoken word. Among many other benefits, it decreases the toddler's frustration with getting their wants and needs across to adults. Before they are developmentally ready to talk, they can begin using signs to communicate! Anyway, please visit her website and she can tell you a whole lot more about KinderSigns!

http://www.freewebs.com/123signwithme/

I'll also have the website listed under my "links" section!

A Great Couple of Days

I LOVE my milkshake!
The picture is fuzzy, but look at that smile!
Worn out from all the excitement!
The newest member of the Newton family.

It has been a busy couple of days! I feel like between working summer school, VBS, and doctor stuff, that we haven't really had a summer break. We have been making up for lost time!

On Sunday, we headed up to Marion County to visit their humane society. My mom had seen a dog on their website that she really liked and wanted to see. Marion County is about 3 1/2 hours north of us! We decided just to make a road trip and have a good time. We left about one hour later than we wanted to, because Regan had a rough night on Saturday with more nightmares and hysteria. I had two hours of sleep and she had four. My brother and his girlfriend tagged along behind us. We made it to the humane society and my mom ended up taking home a completely different dog than she had originally been interested in. His name is Bosley, and he was born at the shelter. He is now four months old and just the cutest thing! His hair is hysterical! It sticks up from the top of his head and is curly all down his back. He is quite a mix!

We finished the adoption and it was about 12:30. My grandparents only live about 45 more minutes north (around Gainesville) and so we called them and told them we were coming for a surprise visit! We stayed at their house for almost two hours and then had to head home. On the way home, my mom, Konnor, Yunnie, Bosley and I had a Cracker Barrel take out picnic at a rest area. It was so much fun to get out and do something different. This is the kind of activity we used to do more often and we have been so busy it has falled by the wayside.

W e headed home and besides one unpleasant episode where Bosley lost his lunch in my car (ewwwww!), it was uneventful. I was happy to get home and get some sleep!

Monday and Tuesday were busy dealing with paper route stuff. They are so mixed up over there and have no idea how to run a business. I'm hoping that once school starts back I can stop the second job. It is quite aggravating to deal with them.

On Wednesday, Konnor and I worked on some crafts. My mom and I then took him to a juggling show that was being held at the Cape Coral Library. It was a free event and Konnor had a great time. He loves all that kind of stuff. That night, we got a milkshake treat at Steak N Shake. Regan was fussing in the back seat because she wanted a milkshake. Mine was way too large and so I let her drink from it. She was so cute! She LOVED the milkshake. I think she was just as happy because she was drinking like a big girl and was allowed to hold the big girl cup! She was smiling and laughing and just getting such pleasure out of such a little thing. Of course by the time we got home she had taken off the lid and dumped the remainder of the shake all over my car! I knew I shouldn't have let her hold it for so long, but she was having such a good time!

This morning, we saw Happy Feet at Free Movie Thursday. I let Konnor splurge on a Kid's Kit. He loved having his own popcorn, drink, and Skittles.

This is the life! Having kids and seeing them enjoy the little things.

No More Doctors for 5 Months!!!!

This week was another busy week and we are taking today to clean up the disaster of a house that has been neglected!

Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on our paper route. On Wednesday morning, I spent a couple of hours on the phone with various doctors trying to figure out what the results were of Regan's immune system bloodwork. We had completed the final bloodwork a couple of months ago and hadn't heard anything. I figured "no news is good news" and I was never really worried about her bloodwork anyway so I hadn't really pursued calling doctors. I had forgotten that she was scheduled for more immunizations on Wednesday and couldn't have them if her bloodwork came back screwy. Finally, the Infectious Disease doctor, Dr. Gonzalez called me back to personally talk alot of gibberish of which the end result was that she could get all her immunizations. After she told me all about this blood count and that blood count she said that some of her levels were slightly off, but that was probably because it was so soon after her hospitilization and that they were probably residual results of the huge infection. She wants to repeat the bloodwork in two months (I'm thinking no). If it was too soon after her illness and that is what they are saying caused her bloodlevels to be slightly off why did they rush me so fast to get the bloodwork done? We should have waited a month or two.

My other huge fear is having Regan receive the MMR. Working in the school system, there are alot of worries that the MMR is linked to autism. It has not yet been proven, but it is a scary thought. I have talked it over with people and done some research, but depending on where you look depends on what results you find. Dr. Gonzalez told me alot of stuff and about various research articles, but the bottom line was that she gave her son the final MMR yesterday and that is is completely safe.

I got off the phone and still was not comfortable with giving Regan the MMR. I decided I wasn't going to let her receive the MMR until I talked to Dr. M, her pediatrician. Unfortunately, we were only scheduled to see a nurse. I figured Regan could receive her hepatitis and we would reschedule an appointment to talk to Dr. M and decide about the MMR at this later date. When we got to Dr. M's office, we were heading to the back and Dr. M was heading towards us. She had seen that we were on the schedule for today and told me she was stopping by to see if I had any questions about her immunity tests. I told her yes and she came in and sat down to talk. I explained my fears about the MMR and she relieved them. Told me about various research and about Regan being older and her immune system being fine. She said her immune system tests showed nothing to be worried about. That is why I love her being Regan's doctor. She anticipated I would have questions and even though we weren't on her schedule, she came to find us to make any questions I had were answered. We are now done with doctor's visits until January!

On Thursday, Konnor, Regan, and I went to the free movie at Bell Tower Theatres. Regan did pretty good. We met four of our friends from Vacation Bible School. That was fun running into them. We then ate lunch with my mom and headed for another doctor's appointment. She had her follow up audiogram and her ENT doctor visit. Her last audiogram showed increased pressure and fluid in her ears, possibly decreased hearing in her right. Since then, I have seen no concerns, but we were doing a follow up. Regan was being REALLY difficult and we went outside because she started pitching a temper tantrum. I told the receptionist we would be outside and she said she would let them know. Well, she didn't. We sweltered outside for about 30 minutes (after 30 minutes of wait inside) and they finally came and got us. They had forgotten we were outside! Anyway, everything is fine. This test result showed no concerns. The increased fluid resolved itself, her hearing is normal, and we have no more appointments with the ENT. In the meantime, Regan was acting up more than she has in a long time and we headed home.

Friday, we took Marmaduke back to the vets. He opened his incision and needed a distemper and parvo booster shot. He did well and loved on everyone and we just have to clean out his incision. In the meantime, I am so thankful I have tile as he has bled drops of blood everywhere! So nice!

In the afternoon, we headed to the social security office where I FINALLY applied for Regan's social security card! The waiting room was packed and I was so worried we were going to be there forever, but 30 minutes later we were in and out! I hope everything is correct, because I found several errors on the printout the lady had made to submit to the social security administration. Hopefully, they were all caught!

We are happy to be done with doctors! Regan has had every part of her body poked and prodded! Her heart has had an echocardiogram and EKG, her kidneys have been xrayed and had a VCOG, every drop of blood has been examined! I think the doctors are finally satisfied that she is okay! Yeah!

My Big Boy

I want my mommy!





Yep, my new man is a dog. A BIG dog! This all started with my mom! My mom has been ready to get a new dog and so we started looking at the adoption areas at PetCo and PetSmart. I also found the best websites; http://www.petfinder.com/ and 1-800-save-a-pet.com. These websites list rescue groups, pet shelters, humane societies, etc. I'm not into buying a dog from a breeder or pet store and all my animals have either been given to me or are strays. It was really hard when I worked at the vet's office saying "no" to taking home all of the strays that would come in. Anyway, when researching rescue groups for my mom I found a few Great Dane rescue groups. I applied to one group and got approved and was supposed to go out there yesterday to look at their dogs. In the meantime, I kept checking the websites and 6 Great Dane Mix puppies were listed at the Collier County Humane Society. This was on Sunday. My mom had Monday off and so we made plans to go on Monday and be there when they opened. I hate animal shelters and I was nervous about going......I hate to think of all the animals that don't find homes.


Monday morning we got to the shelter and we headed towards the dog kennels. I walked in and immediately saw the hugest dog. He was an adult Great Dane. I looked at his information and he is listed as being 6 years old. That is very old for a Great Dane and so I went down to look at the puppies. They were very cute. Another lady was there looking at them and ended up taking two of them home. I just didn't click with the puppies. There were actually two adult Great Danes. The other Dane was listed as being 4 years old. He was very aloof and didn't want anything to do with me. I went back and looked at the 6 year old Great Dane. He had been picked up as a stray. He was soooooo skinny. He was just the biggest dork. He kept licking my fingers and wagging his tail and just generally being a doofus. I asked the kennel worker if I could take him in the visiting pen. As soon as we got in the visiting pen I knew he was going to be mine. He was this big, lumbering doof ball with the sweetest personality. He about knocked me over as he loves to lean into you. He loved Yunnie and kept trying to smell her pants. Lovely! All my reservations about his age went out the window and I couldn't not take him home. I know my heart will be broken when I don't have as much time with him as I would like, but I couldn't leave him at a kill shelter when he was so obviously a loving, sweet dog.


The adoption fee was fifty dollars and included shots, microchipping, and neutering. I thought that was dirt cheap! You also get a collar, a bag, dog food, etc in a goody bag. I had to leave him there so he could be neutered the next day and I felt bad taking him back to the kennel. Yesterday, I checked on the puppies and they were all adopted. I figured since they were puppies they wouldn't be there long and I was right.


On Tuesday, the shelter had to send him to an outside vet to be neutered. They couldn't accomodate a dog of his size. He actually ended staying at the vet until Wednesday as they didn't get him neutered on schedule. My brother's girlfriend, Jean, picked him up for me since she works in Naples and I was in the middle of Vacation Bible School at the time he was ready.


Friday, we took an emergency trip to the my vets because he kept bleeding at his surgery site. Luckily, the bleeding stopped and it all looks good. I can't fully explain what a nice dog he is. He is already so attached to me. I'm surprised after just a few short days. He cries if he can't be near me. My mom has taken him for two walks around the block for me and he keeps turning around and crying to come back to see me. He also tries to sit on my lap. I like to breathe, so that doesn't work out so well for me! Daisy is a little jealous so I have some making up to do to her! He is so well trained he obviously belonged to someone. He is completely housebroken (thank goodness, he has the bladder of a pony!). I don't think about food on the counters having only had small dogs and he hasn't touched it. He does need to learn basic manners and being so big, I am going to take him to obedience class. The pictures don't do it justice, but with his head up, he stands taller than Konnor. He weighs 114.6 pounds and he is extremely underweight. His name at the shelter was AO78262. I didn't think that was very fitting;) Jean came up with the name Marmaduke and that he is! He is the biggest, most loveable, big baby!