Yet Another Round of Ear Infections

John started January with thick fluid behind his eardrums...and here we are starting April with the 5th round of infected ears in 2011. Once in Feb/Mar, his ears were clear, but for the most part, he's had a rough time. Today, we'll start another round of antibiotics. Oh, and Thomas is on his 3rd round as well. He told the dr. he has something bad in his stomach that comes up and makes him cough, but it was ears again.

We do look for the bright side of all these little issues, so I want to share this funny...

John has been up coughing/screaming in pain from ear and mucus issues for most of the past month. Crying leads to lots of snot, snot leads to tissues, and tired parents holding sleepy, crying babies at 2 a.m. means that lots of tissues land on the couch. Apparently, we didn't have any on the couch this morning (he was in our bed instead) so John went to find a new box of tissues after breakfast. He pulled a whole bunch out and delivered them to the "spot" on the couch where they've collected over the past few weeks. He patted them down to make them look like the pile that's usually there in the morning. The kid does not miss a beat.

Twitter Widget Removed

Dear Blog Readers,

We have decided to make our Tweets private to friends and family. If you'd like to follow them then create a twitter account and follow @voshchev.

Thanks,

Michael and Leslie

See, I told you I needed pedals!

A few weeks ago, we took a longish (3.2 mile) walk to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics for 2 boys who had ear infections. Amelia rode her yellow spider bike, Thomas rode the red pirate balance bike, and John rode in the stroller. Michael managed the two bikers quite well through the different neighborhoods, across the roads, down the bike path, across the highway, etc. Thomas was running as fast as he could, but kept indicated that he had some jeans/bike seat chafing. His little legs were moving so quickly. He kept saying he needed pedals to keep up with his Amelia.

I finally found a 12" Specialized bike from last year on Craigslist. Why was this particular model so important??? Well, last year when we were deciding which model to get Amelia, we would visit the bike shop, try to determine which size would work best for her, which color could be passed down to the brothers, etc. (The mechanic actually cut part of the seat post off so that we could get the 16" bike and her feet could sit flat on the ground. She hopped off the balance bike, onto the new yellow bike with a spider on the frame, and took off down the street. She was 4 years and 2 days old when she mastered it.) Each time we visited the bike shop, Thomas hopped on the smaller green spider bike and rode around the store on the training wheels. He was quite upset that he didn't get to come home with a new bike, but he was happy to have the "motorcycle" he begged out from under his beloved sister.

Recently, he shrieked when we passed the bike shop, then he told me to pull over so those bike guys can put pedals on his (balance) bike. After concluding that we actually do need a small pedal bike for him, I searched for the green spider bike he wanted so much. A red one came up on Craigslist, so I grabbed it as quickly as possible last Wed. We've taken him around the block maybe 4 times during the past week, holding onto his shirt, then just lightly touching his shirt, and this time, just holding onto his hood for starting. Shortly before this video, Thomas told me that Jesus was helping him to ride his new bike and not be afraid. Tomorrow he'll be 40 months old. Yes, that's 3 years, 4 months. Crazy kid.

KX Clothes Sort

This is my experience working the volunteer shift at Kids' Exchange. The two guys in the video are my friends Duff and Sham.

Uncle Luke's Birthday!

Today we're celebrating Uncle Luke's 34th birthday! Since Chapel Hill to Atlanta is a bit of a drive, we're sending our video wishes for a happy day. We usually buy the Uncle Luke's brand syrup from Sam's Club, so our celebration of this special day included "his" syrup, pancakes, and a stubborn candle. We hope you're having a great time today, Luke, whatever you're doing!

With love from your loyal followers... John, Thomas, and Amelia!

All Good!

John's ECHO went well. He was completely still and calm for the procedure. We were not scheduled to see a doctor at this visit, but just to get the images of his heart taken. The doctors will be able to read them and call us back in if something looks questionable, but it did not appear that there were any holes or abnormalities. John just has a normal murmur to be documented. Thanks for your prayers!

Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John

One day this fall, I got fed up trying to figure out what was happening every night. I complained to Michael, "What the heck is happening? Every time I get John out of his sleepsack, he is wearing ONE slipper!" He replied with the old nursery rhyme.

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,

Went to bed with his trousers on;

One shoe off, and one shoe on,

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John!

We've since found that other slipper and tried to keep them on him during his days of toddling around our house.(Yes, he finally started walking right before he turned 18 months old!! So, you know how we have these nicely refinished (well, once upon a time they were) wood floors...and how we have only put down a moisture barrier and not insulation in our crawlspace, right? Well, our floors are freezing. Last week, John's lips turned blue on 3 different occasions. Once he was outside wearing a bunting and no mittens (won't keep them on), and the two other times he was walking around the house, sometimes without his slippers. We're not totally sure that the blue lips are because he was cold or if they are related to something going on with his body.

On Tuesday, he had his 18 month checkup with our beloved Dr. Hosford. She checked him all out and determined that he looks pretty good. Here are the stats taken at 18.5 mos:

Height: 33.5" (75th%ile)

Weight: 23 lb 9 oz (25th %ile)

Oxygen count to check if the blue lips were related to asthma - 100% (right on!)

and for his meds:

continue giving him 15mg Prevacid tablets for his reflux, but after another month, try to gradually wean him from it (over 2 weeks go to 6 pills/wk, then after 2 more weeks, decrease to 5 pills/wk, etc.)

continue giving him .25mL of budesonide (Pulmicort) through the nebulizer daily

AND... she heard a heart murmur again at this visit. After much deliberation about whether or not to get it checked out, she decided that the blue lips earned him an echocardiogram. You'll remember (or maybe not) that our 3rd post on the blog was to share the results of the same procedure with Thomas. Thomas was determined to have a PFO, which should not present many problems for him in the long run.

John will be going to get his ECHO on Fri., Jan 7th in Cary, a mere 35 minutes from our house. Even though we live within biking distance from UNC Children's Hospital, our new High Deductible Health Plan complicates things. We're thankful for insurance, for sure, but this new plan is pretty shocking to our minds and to our cashflow. We are required to pay the first $3000 of our medical bills out of pocket, then we will start having some things covered. The additional cost of being seen at the hospital is about $500, so we are making arrangements (yay, Grandma and Papa!) to get Amelia to preschool and to keep Thomas at home while we take John to his appointment, to delay having to spend the extra $$ this week. Actually, since Michael started his new job this fall, we've had the privilege of paying most of our medical expenses out of pocket. The most shocking call was Medco the mail order prescription drug company calling to say that our bill for 3 months of John's meds exceeded the amount they were able to charge our credit card - $900. We struggled with how to find ways to get him the meds. It has been challenging to pay for all these things out of pocket all Fall, then to turn around and start paying another $3000 starting Jan. 1. Such is life, I guess. We are thankful that God continues to provide for us and love us despite our faults. We pray John's procedure will come back with just normal findings. He's a good little guy! Hope you enjoy the picture of him taking a break from saying his few words (mama, dada, cheers, ball, stool, shoes, thank you, and a host of grunting, growling, squealing, screaming, and screeching noises) to get what he wants. Today he's wearing a backpack for the first time, and he allowed me the privilege of putting it on his arms instead of around his neck like he prefers to wear things (costumes, sleepsack, my pj's, etc).