And again...

And onto the next kid...Kate woke up early Monday morning throwing up. She threw up for 24 hrs before finally keeping anything down including water. It was awful for her. She looked miserable and was definitely not her normal self- she's normally dancing around and very active. On the other hand Preston was busy getting into everything and trying to tease Kate by taking away her blanket. Kate wasn't happy with that. Other neighbor kids have been sick with this nasty stomach flu too.

At least Kate knows to throw up into a bowl. That made things nice. But she would drink water and throw up 15-30 minutes later. Poor girl. She missed out on a preschool field trip to the Fire Station too. I felt bad for her. She was sad to miss it.

Kyle and I met with the people from UW on Monday afternoon for Preston's evaluation for a feedback and had to find a babysitter to come watch Preston and Kate (and basically watch her throw up- the babysitter was so nice to do that!!!). I wish we had family nearby to help out in times like these. Kyle and I met with the people from UW for our final meeting/appointment. They basically said that Preston is developmentally delayed in speech and some social skills. They suggested to keep up with the speech therapist and early preschool he's in and then come back in a year for another evaluation at UW. They don't think he has Austism. He may or may not qualify for preschool through the school district after he turns 3 in October. We won't know for a while. Right now we are working with him on pronouncing his 2 syllable words better (he usually says the last syllable of the word which the SLP was unusual), but then some 2 syllable words he says just fine. We don't get it. :) But overall we are glad to be done with all the testing and have a plan to move forward with.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

My Mom and Dad came over on Monday for a Mariner's game (my Dad is a diehard fan and it was the first home game). Marci, Kyle and I all met up with them after the game at Famous Dave's (my Dad's favorite place) for dinner. His brother Larry and his family met us there too. My Dad is the best though! He does a lot for us as kids. I love how playful he is with us (still!) and the grandkids. He is a teenager still at heart. Thanks Dad for all you do and your wonderful example to all of us!

My Dad opening his loot of gifts (he got a bunch of spring shirts- that's what he wanted)

My Mom with Preston. The kids were really good at the restaurant. I was nervous because it was so late that we met up with them, but they were both good. Preston wanted to sit with my Mom and play with her, but he kept pulling off her glasses! Stinker.

The next morning...Preston woke up like this!!! He got sick and it hit him HARD. He's been laying around since Tuesday barely eating a ritz cracker and some juice before throwing up. He finally kept some food down last night and again today. He hasn't thrown up today at all and we even braved it and gave him milk- he was asking for it since he woke up. We gave it to him a couple days ago and it didn't go over well with his tummy so we banned it for a couple days. Poor kid. He's just not been the same- doesn't play, sleeps a lot, has a fever and wants to be held all the time. His eyes are even sad. I went to give him a drink Thursday morning before I left for work and it made me cry seeing how anxious he was to get a drink. He was shaking when taking the cup from me and then gulped it down like none other. I wanted to stay home and hold him.

Since Preston wasn't showing signs of improvement on Thursday (he threw up the water I gave him before I left for work) Kyle took him to the doctor. They found out that Preston's right tube in his ear fell out and he has an ear infection. Great. Now we have to go back to the ENT to find out if it's worth it to put it back in. He's only had tubes since last September. We had to wait until he stopped throwing up before we could give him his antibiotic so tonight we gave it to him. Poor boy. I hope tomorrow he perks up.

New Jeans

For family night this week, we went to the mall because I had to pick up some things at Gymboree and then we let the kids play at the play area. Afterwards we were going to Red Robin for dinner. Well, when we got to the play area I went to get Preston out of his stroller and he was soaking wet. He had peed threw his diaper and his pants were wet. I forgot to change to him after his nap! I grabbed him and went to change his diaper, luckily he didn't throw a fit when I took him away from the play area. Then I remembered I had a $10 off coupon to Gap and Gap Kids was right next to the play area. I went in there and had to buy him some new jeans. Kyle thought this was an expensive playdate. I would have to agree, but the jeans are cute!

Easter Sunday and General Conference

We went back over to my parent's house for Easter weekend. It happened to also be General Conference (where the prophet and leaders of our church speak to the church members throughout the entire world). We watched it on T.V which makes it nice not having to get ready for Church, but it was weird for it being on Easter Sunday because normally you get all dressed up in your new Easter church clothes and we didn't this year. We also came over this weekend so we could see Dee Ann again before she flew back home. She was up visiting during her spring break.

We dyed easter eggs on Friday night when we got to my parent's house. Kate was doing it on her own, but then Preston came in at the end to join in and he made a mess! He would grab the eggs out of the cups with his hands and then throw them back into the cup making the dye splash everywhere. It was funny, but messy so he was asked to leave. :) And yes, those are homemade cinnamon rolls rising in the background. They were divine!

The kids ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!

On Saturday my Mom had a Easter Party for the kids. Dee Ann, Melanie, Milo and their kids came out for it too. It had snowed the day before then melted so we were glad it wasn't snowing. It was just really windy.

Kate with her loot.

My Mom planned some games for the kids. They were doing the Easter Bunny Jump in this picture. They also did the Bunny Hop dance and a bunny craft using a plastic easter egg.

Preston with his loot.

The kids were doing bubbles outside and they didn't even have to blow. They would hold the wand in the wind and the wind blew the bubbles. One way to use the crazy Mattawa wind!

Preston loves playing on the piano at my Mom's house. He sure loves music!

After the first session of Conference on Sunday we went into Tri-Cities and had Easter dinner at Melanie and Milo's. Dee Ann flew out that night to go back to Vegas. We left in the late afternoon to come home and we weren't even on the road very long when Preston threw up! It was a nasty, stinky mess. He threw up curdled milk and pickles!!! Gross combination. It got all over him, the car seat, the car. We pulled over on the side of the freeway and we didn't have much room on the side so it was tricky trying to clean him up. We were glad to be home. The last couple weeks of traveling have done me in for a while. It will be nice to be home for a bit.

Easter Playgroup

My Ward still does a playgroup. It got started soon after we moved into the Ward and it works out well because we take turns planning 3 months at a time. We have a playgroup once a week, usually Thursdays. They are usually free and/or low cost activities. We will go to parks, people's homes or various museums/zoos/pools/beaches. I haven't been able to make it for a while because I have been working, but last week I didn't have to work so I got to go. It was even better because they were having an Easter party/egg hunt for the kids.

All the kids with their Easter bunny ears on! A cute a simple craft they did.

Erin doing an Easter story with them. Erin is the one who planned the activity and she did a great job! After the story, the kids ran around for an Easter egg hunt. The activity was held at the clubhouse of a condo association (people in the ward live there) and it was a nice big place.

Decorating cupcakes- yum, yum

Utah- Family, Shopping and Eating!

I went to Utah with my parents and a few of my siblings a couple weekends ago for my cousin, Austin's wedding to Giselle. They make an adorable couple. It was fun to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins. They got married in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple and it was beautiful weather- clear blue skies, but cold! The day before when we were coming into Salt Lake City it was snowing! So it was a perfect day for a wedding. The reception was right after the wedding and it was at a golf course club house. Kyle stayed behind at my parent's house with the kids so it was a nice trip for me since I didn't have to worry about any kids! Dee Ann was visiting for her spring break so she was staying with Melanie in Tri-Cities. Kyle and the kids went and hung out with them for a couple days so he wasn't all alone the whole weekend. But it was sure nice of him to stay behind!

Giselle and Austin

The whole gang of us who went to the wedding. Jeni and Kevin came with their kids. They stayed an extra day longer to see some sites and friends/family.

L-R: Nicole (Shar's twin sis), Stephanie, Shar, me and Kisha

I was able to meet up with some of my roommates from my days at Ricks College who live in Utah! It was fun to chat and visit with them. We went to this chocolate cafe where you ordered desserts and ate in these random rooms. We stayed for almost 2 hours chatting! Thanks girls for meeting up with me! A couple of them are moving out of state so I'm glad we got together before we are even more scattered.

On Sunday after church, my parents, Sara, Marci, Jared and I went to Temple Square. My Mom's brother and some of his family came with us too. Jared hadn't been to Temple Square since he was little. It was a nice day and we took our time walking around. I want to take my kids there someday. Kate would love seeing the Temple and the Christ statue.

The Conference Center with the beautiful waterfall. It's amazing the difference between this building and the small Tabernacle. The architecture is incredible. They have waterfalls and plants on the roof!

And of course, we went to our favorite places to eat and shop. We had a list of places we wanted to go. We ate at Kneader's (delish sandwiches), Texas Roadhouse Grill (it was new for all of us and the rolls were quite amazing as well as my steak. I got sick though the next day. I think I ate one too many rolls!), at Bajio's on the way to Utah for Jeni's birthday and BYU creamery. We shopped at Rod Works and Tai Pan (never been there and loved it!). I bought some cute new decorations for my house. It was fun.

Testing and More Testing

I have so much to update! It's been busy around here lately. I just got back from Utah on Monday night and then worked Tuesday and Wednesday. I will post about our fun trip soon. :)

I wanted to post about Preston though. Kyle and I took him to the University of Washington Childhood Development Center for an evaluation. We signed up with them back in January (b/c of our concerns with his development/behavior and his physician referred us to them). It's normally a 6-9 month wait to get it, but luckily we got in in just a couple of months. It will take 4 different Monday's of testing/evaluating/questioning before we are finished. Our first visit was last Monday and it was from 8:20am until 12:30! Long day. Preston wanted to go home. He kept saying "done" and "bye" to leave. They first had a psychologist evaluate him. I was in the room with him filling out this ginormous questionnaire and survey. Kyle was behind a 2-way window with another lady observing. They would just have Preston complete simple tasks and time him on how long it took him to do it. They would see if he could point out the right pictures when named, play with different items (like imitate play) and other things. They even gave him a snack to see how he did with that. It was interesting to see what they asked him to do. I thought he did fine. We don't find out what the results are until a few more weeks.

Then we waited for over an hour before our next appt for a medical evaluation. (They had a lame play area for the kids. Maybe Children's hospital would be better...I don't know, but we were itching to go.) There were two doctors and a premed student that visited with us (in this tiny, tiny room- we were squished!). One doctor went into another room behind a 2-way window and observed Preston. The other doctor asked us a million questions about Preston from birth until now, all our parents, siblings, etc and their health/learning abilities. We later found out that the doctor working with us is LDS. We were glad to know that. He was very nice. The premed student "tried" playing with Preston. He was tired and wanted to leave so at first he clung to me and didn't want to play. Then he perked up and they were playing and reading books together. After all the questions, they checked Preston out and watched him run, climb stairs, walk on a balance beam and other things. The other doctor came back from the other room and they talked to us about what they thought. They didn't see signs of Autism and thought his movements were within normal (Preston is pretty stiff with some of his movements). They agreed that he had a speech delay, but thought cognitively he is fine (he already knows all his ABC's and numbers and can count!) They thought he was a bit uncoordinated, but still within normal for his age and that would improve over time. This was promising to hear. We go back next week for a parent interview, then the next week for a speech pathologist evaluation and then the following week for an overall review from all their findings. We'll be glad to have this over with, but I think we are both glad we are doing it now. We live in a good area for this kind of help and our school district we live in is also has great resources. Preston may qualify for preschool through the school district and if he does then he will start that in the fall after he turns 3 yrs old. Until then, we still have the speech pathologist come to our house weekly and work with him. We also are now taking Preston to a preschool once a week to get more social interaction with other kids. And so far he loves it. It's a preschool through The Little Red Schoolhouse- that is where the speech pathologist comes from so that is how we found out about it. I had a hard time with all of this a couple weeks ago. I was probably in denial about it thinking he would snap out of it. But then the SLP said it could take a while and that got me all depressed. I didn't want to deal with it anymore and wanted a "normal" child, but I have to think of what is best for Preston and try to get him what he needs.