January and February

I'm going to try and post at least once a month...we'll see.

In late December Tobias went to give blood, like he does every 56 days. He has done this for years with no problem. The lady said, "you can't donate today." "WHAT?" "You're anemic." "WHAT?" So he went down to the lab and had his blood drawn to see if anything else was low. He was anemic and his red blood cells were small.....whatever that means. Everything else was fine. After a week of vitamins with iron, his iron continued to drop. So we started out on a long journey to find the problem. He had a colonoscopy and a egd all in one day. Not to bad, except for the prep. Everything came back normal, no signs of bleeding, polyps, ulcers...nothing. So after that they decided to do a pill camera a couple of days later. It's pretty cool you where this pack that records 2 pictures every second, while this little pill is traveling through your system. It's the only way to look at your small intestines. Once again, nothing. They gave up on what else it could be and started him on iv iron once a month. We'll see how that goes. I have no idea what's next.

In February Bransen started walking around the house closing one eye(he would switch eyes) saying he was seeing 2 of me. Just thinking he was being his crazy funny self, I didn't think much of it. Then I started noticing that he was turning his head to the side to look straight. His one eye was pulled all the way into the center and wouldn't go back out. I took him to the eye doctor the next day. He is 200 farsighted...whatever that means. He now has adorable glasses and is doing so much better! Don't think that just because you and your spouse don't have glasses that your kids won't. We're 2 for 3 already.

In January Beau earned him religious knot in scouts. He can't wait to be a Webelos next month. He is so big and I can't believe he's almost 10. He is a wonderful friend, people tell me this all the time. Our neighbor boy has autism and his mom wrote me a beautiful note telling me how thankful she was for Beau's friendship and patience with her son. I'm so thankful for the kind and giving young man he is!

Brevan is trouble! He's almost 3 and talks nonstop! It's just been since about January that you can really understand what he's saying. We've had big problems with him saying "shut up" and "jerk." If you tell him no or take something away, he comes right back with 1 of the 2 words. It's hard not to laugh because it sounds so funny when he says it. I started putting him in his room for timeouts and that really seemed to help. He tells me funny things all the time like, "Just a minute ma" or "Just a second ma." He also told Tobias that he was "very naughty" for eating the last piece of licorice. He's very bossy and it's funny to see him yell at his brothers. He also loves his brothers tons! He always want to give hugs and kisses!

As for me....I'm just glad to be here. I've started a new chore system that really seems to be working and I'm teaching the boys to be independent. It always easier to just do it yourself but what do they learn...nothing.