My Girl

So yesterday was Lottie's annual vet appointment. I had been dreading it because I knew it wasn't going to be good news. She's been limping for a year. Last year we found out she had a slight tear in her knee. She had some pain medicine for a couple weeks and was doing ok. Now, in our new house the steps are bothering her so she is limping a lot. I got a lot of not so good news about my favorite puppy.
* She has a benign tumor on her eyelid. Needs to be removed because it is irritating her eye. Now I know why that eye is red. It could be surgically removed. Not sure of the cost.
* She has a lot of tartar on her teeth, about time for a teeth cleaning. It's been 3 years since her first one. $160ish
* Dr. D isn't sure if the ACL is torn or not because Lottie was resisting his checkup on her leg. She was nervous and wouldn't relax enough for him to be sure. He recommends sedation to find out if it is torn or not. $250
* Blookwork to see if she can handle pain medicine for a couple months to check her liver etc. This would be done once at the beginning and once halfway through to make sure her body was handling it ok. $200
*Treatment options if she has a torn ACL- rehab, nutritional route (anti inflammatory, joint vitamins etc), surgery $2500, 2 months of pain medicine paired with rehab or the nutrition program, or nothing. He said dogs have 4 legs and they really only need 3.
*Poor thing also had an ear infection. Her left ear was super dirty and had an infection and a yeast infection. Had to get drops for that and he recommends ear cleaning solution.

So, a lot to think about. Dr. D is so great because he is very understanding that she is just a dog. Not a human! He did not apply any pressure, said I know you have 3 kids and life is expensive. He was just laying all the options out there for me. I know we don't have to do all of these things. At this point I'm leaning towards pain med, nutritional program, and surgery to remove the benign tumor. Possibly the teeth cleaning. The ACL surgery would allow her to hike, camp, go on walks with us etc but we don't feel that it's an option for us. Too expensive. She'd have to go to another city to have it done due to her size. She's 7 1/2. She just seems like she's aging so quickly.

If you're still reading I feel kind of like the worst pet owner ever. My dog has been having trouble for a while and I haven't done anything about it. I felt really bad. I knew the news wasn't going to be good. Poor thing hasn't had a bath in I don't know how long. At least I got her nails trimmed while we were there because again, I don't know how long it's been since that happened either. I'm sorry Lottie! We love you!

Tyler has 2 teeth!

Last Thursday Tyler's first bottom tooth broke through the gums! By Saturday the other bottom (middle) tooth had broken through. Now they are both visible! He has his first 2 teeth! Right now he is laying on his back talking up a storm. He woke up happy this morning!

Preschool Graduate!

Friday was Wilson's preschool celebration! I was able to leave school for a little bit to go see the celebration. The kids stood on stage on 4 mini risers to sing songs. Wilson was so embarassed to be on stage that he wouldn't sing. Instead he rolled his eyes during the songs. Occasionally a small smile would sneak out! He walked down the risers when Ms. Kim called his name and even stood front and center long enough for daddy to take a picture. Of course he was rolling his eyes. I'd like to know where he learned this trick...but I was proud of him because he was really nervous about the whole thing!

Thursday he came to the school I work at for Kindergarten Buddy Day! He was there from 9-10am taking a tour and meeting other k's. Andy brought him and went to the parent meeting during the tour. The night before Wilson was so worried about the tour that I had to promise to stay with him while daddy went to the parent meeting. I wanted his first K experience to be positive, not filled with nerves so I just stayed with him. The night before he was crying, couldn't sleep, was worried about a number of things ("all I can write is my name", "I don't like to sit at a desk all day" and "I don't like show and tell"). Can you tell he doesn't like to be the center of attention in public?! I can't believe we'll go to school together next year! Crazy!

Our new furniture!

Really need to start hanging pictures on the walls! The lamp and pillows have floral designs on them. I got the pillows at Kirkland's because I didn't care for the pillows the couch came with.

A couple weeks before we moved we went couch shopping. We looked at 3 furniture stores and finally found a couch we liked! The store had great prices and we ended up getting a couch, love seat, coffee table, 2 end tables, and 2 lamps. The furniture was delivered Tuesday! We are really enjoying having somewhere to sit upstairs. After we bought it we had looked at so much that everything was kind of running together. I couldn't exactly remember what it looked like...once it was delivered we were so pleased with what we had picked out!

Life is so busy I haven't had much time for blogging. I gave up TV months ago. Can't wait for summer! Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on Grey's and Desperate Housewives.

Mother's Day Picture

Me, Mom, and Cara on Mother's Day!

My 8 month old!

Tyler is 8 months old today! He is doing great! He loves to eat- I haven't found a baby fruit or veggie that he doesn't like. He is eating stage 2 foods. He likes rice and oatmeal cereal. Tonight he ate 2 things of food for dinner! He is a piggie. Not that you can't tell that from all of his rolls already :) . He is sitting up well and loves to play with toys. He thinks is big brothers are totally awesome and loves to watch what they are doing. He laughs a lot and is the sweetest thing ever. At his appointment today at CCH for his glaucoma check-up we got all good news! No changes to his eye. Andy ventured to CCH on his own with Ty because I couldn't take a day without pay. Holly came over to keep Wilson and Luke (who had a GREAT day!). Apparently opthamology and dermatology are having a difference of opinion. Last time at CCH we were told glaucoma testing every 3-4 months. Today Dr. Y said he really doesn't think he needs to see him more than twice a year, every 6 months. So we'll just keep going to CCH for those. When I thought we'd be testing every 3-4 months I wanted to do it here. But now we're just going to keep them at CCH. Upcoming appointments:
June- neurology
August- Hemangioma/Vascular Unit (birth mark)
November- opthamology
Tyler is perfect and such a sweet and happy baby boy! We love you Tyler Wade!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! We celebrated Friday night as a family. I chose to eat at Red Robin since we'd never tried been there. It was fun! Then we went to Lowe's and picked out a new stove and hood. On Saturday Andy installed the new stove and hood and I used it to make dinner- chicken enchiladas. I'll have to share that recipe -it's one of our favorites. I love the new stove! I've been wanting a new stove for a couple years. I finally have a smooth top stove! Last night I was reading the owner's manual in bed to learn how to take care of the top. Today I made oven roasted veggies for our mother's day cookout at my sister's and muffins for my mom. So I've definitely broken it in this weekend. We had a great evening at Cara and Jason's and a delicious dinner. Andy just did all of bathtime with the big boys so I got a night off from helping with that. It's been a nice mother's day! Here is a picture of my new stove. I owe Andy some chocolate chip cookies for installing this now!!

Picture Post

This weekend the boys have had a great time playing with the neighbors. They played with several neighbors on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It is so nice to have kids for them to play with on our street! Definitely not something we are used to. Here are some cute pics of the boys taken at our new house!

Starting to feel like home...

We are finally feeling a little bit more settled into our new home. We're continuing to meet neighbors, unpack boxes, and get used to the house. We have ant poison placed as recommended by Cara and Jenn. The upstairs is done except for the living room- our furniture should be arrive in about 2 weeks. So right now the LR is filled with broken down boxes and stuff for the china cabinet. The basement is still a big mess and the garage is a whole different story! I'm hoping Andy can get the washer/dryer hooked up tomorrow so I can do lots o' laundry this weekend to catch up. We'll keep working on the basement a little at a time. I did not realize how hard it would be to adjust to a new home that doesn't feel like home! Thankfully things are getting better. I have lots of pictures to share of the boys in our new house. That will have to happen this weekend. I'm exhausted after a field trip to the zoo with the 2nd graders! Gotta go to bed so I can be ready for 2 more days of school this week! Next year the zoo needs to be on a Friday...!
*Ty goes to CCH on Tuesday for another glaucoma test.

New House

We love our new house! It feels like a mansion. The moving went well and un fortunately we were out of our old house not a minute before we had to be...midnight Friday. Moving took a long time! Andy and Uncle Bill went back at 11 to do a little cleaning for the new owners so it didn't look awful. We've done a lot of unpacking... I would post a picture of the living room filled with empty boxes but at this point that is too much effort! The boys bedrooms are unpacked as is the kitchen. There is plenty left to do. We keep finding things we want to fix or update but the main annoyance is the ants. We keep finding ants in the house. We're going to have to call a bug man. The first two nights in the new house have been great! We made it to Wilson's t-ball game yesterday afternoon and made it to church this morning. It's great having a double driveway to park both cars in. Everyone is doing well with the move except Lottie. She has a torn ACL (I think) and now that we live in a house with stairs it seems to really be hurting her leg. Poor thing. Other than that she is doing well. Off to unpack!