Day 31 - Phew I made it!

Well, here we are the last day of 31 for 21. I hope you all have enjoyed my posts.....I'm just so glad I made it to the end, (I've tried the last few years but failed!) I have definitely enjoyed reading every one's blogs. I still have a lot of posts that I have wanted to write but haven't gotten around to, guess I'll tackle that soon!

I am writing this early because I know that tonight I will have two children that are on a sugar/excitement high and I will be wrestling them into bed : ) I plan to post trick-or-treat pictures tomorrow!!!

For now enjoy this video that my friend Molly sent to me, it is SO cute!!!

Day 30 - Glasses/Eye help needed!!!!!

Alright, I need your help........ I took Ella back into the eye doctor's office a couple of days ago. Ella has been in her glasses for about 2 1/2 weeks now and I had a few concerns. She has been squinting a lot, not making eye contact instead looking down, pretty quick to cry (I was worried she was having headaches) and her eyes have been crossing A LOT both with her glasses off and on. I have definitely noticed that Ella is doing things up close quicker and more accurate with her glasses on, I was more worried how it was affecting the far away things. So the doctor retested her both with and without her glasses on and assured me that her prescription is correct, which I believe him. But he was very concerned at how much she is crossing. He said typically (approximately 80% of kids) will stop crossing when they have their glasses on and it may appear that they cross more when they take off their glasses. And then there is 20% whose crossing does not respond to glasses and or patching. So what about patching I ask him. Well my girl is crossing BOTH of her eyes equally and you can't really patch both. I told him that before the glasses we noticed her eyes crossing maybe once every few days and now it is A LOT. He said her muscles seem to be breaking down quickly and had done even more in the past 3 weeks since we were last there. So, he said we will very likely be needing surgery but wants to wait 2 months just to make sure the glasses won't correct it. Of course our doctor is leaving town for good, but we are in with another doctor in his practice and have an appt scheduled for Jan 4th. So for now I get to just worry about it. Has anyone else had this happen???? The surgery corrects the crossing but not the vision issue right? Anyone had unsuccessful surgery, complications???

Here are a few pictures where I have caught one of her eyes crossing with her glasses on.....

And without her glasses....the other eye

Yesterday I got to go to Hunter's Halloween party at his school. It was a lot of fun and I am so glad that this year his teacher does the party's in the afternoon so I can attend after work!!! (Last year they were all in the morning and I work until 2 MWF.) I got to make Spider cookies with 25 1st graders. Fun stuff. I love that Hunter is still sweet to me, even in public, and greets me with a big hug and a "I'm so happy you came mommy!" I love my boy!!! He dressed up this year as a SWAT officer, big surprise : )

Day 29 - Ella's School Halloween Party

Yesterday was Ella's Halloween party at her preschool. It was a fun day, I was able to stay for the first hour and then Chris took my spot so I could go to the dentist. Ella was a cheerleader this year, and looked super cute in her costume, really enjoyed shaking her pom-poms!!!

These first two pictures are from when I initially tried the costume on her, they were too cute not to share.

Here she is before school...

At school....notice how much her eye is crossing? Went back to the eye doctor yesterday, he says he is pretty sure she is going to need surgery, both eyes are crossing. We go back in 2 months to decide. Yipee.

Apparently didn't want to be in line with the boys.

Ahhh...much better : )

See food.

Pinata!

One of Ella's wonderful teachers, Mrs Casey, helping her out

Look who filled in as the pinata holder : ) I'm so thankful that Chris' schedule allows him to come to the kids stuff at school, and even more thankful that he likes to do that kind of stuff!

Woohoo candy!!

Day 28 - Cop

Last Friday I left my mom's house, she watched Ella while I worked, and headed to Ella's OT appointment. Well, apparently I was not paying much attention to neither the speed in which my van was traveling down the road nor the posted speed limit and all of a sudden there was a motorcycle behind me with flashing red and blue lights. Crap!!

Ella never saw the flashing lights because she cannot of course turn around in her carseat, he never turned on the siren, and as soon as I saw him I was able to pull over because there was no one else around. So I pull over and immediately get out my stuff....license and registration, yep I know the drill I've been pulled over a time or 4 or 5, though never with Ella in the car (once when Hunter was a little guy.) Anyhow, the officer comes up to my window and Ella yells from the backseat "HI COP!!!" totally excited. The cop starts laughing and says "did someone just say hi cop?" It was cute. And for the record, no I did not get a ticket.

To say there is a "cop" obsession in this house would be a bit of an understatement. Hunter loves all things police....cars, officers, swat teams, shows, costumes, you get the picture. And of course he says he is going to be a police officer when he grows up. Groan. I've been around police work since I was 12, my stepdad was a police officer up in Alaska and I joined the Law Enforcement Explorers when I was 14. I did many a ride alongs and loved it, and I too was going to be a police officer, I just knew it!! I just had to wait to turn 21 and at 19 I became a 911 dispatcher, just waiting out my time. Well, then I got married and moved away. I of course married a military cop and somehow my dreams went away. Instead I dreamt of having children and then once I did I became scared. When I was 17, a senior in high school, one of my Explorer advisors and really someone I totally idolized and rode along with every chance I got, was killed in the line of duty at the age of 25 leaving behind a young son. So once I became a mom I became scared of course, of the danger involved and leaving my children with no mom, scared of two parents working shift work and how hard that would be and so I let go of that dream. Some days I think about the "what if's..." but really I'm glad that is not my life. Now my husband is a city police officer and I hear all the stories of his adventures at night and think, no thanks!

Anyhow, to think of my little boy growing up and becoming a cop scares the crap out of me. Ugh. Of course because Hunter is so obsessed with everything cop, Ella gets to hear a lot about it and whatever Bubba is excited about guess who else is too? Everytime we pass a police car Ella gets all excited and says "a cop a cop!" and she loves to get into Daddy's wallet and take out his drivers license and his work ID (which has a picture of him in uniform) and she will point to the license and say "Daddy" and then the ID and say "Daddy COP!" It's just too cute.

Hunter - Halloween 2008


Ella and Hunter in Daddy's Honor Guard hat.

Hunter sitting with Daddy at the award ceremony where Chris received a life saving medal. Hard not to idiolize that!

Chris reading to Ella's class last year.

Day 27 - messy fun

First......Ella got her new shirt in and I like it! Thanks Amy!!

Tonight we carved pumpkins. I forgot how much of a mess it is. But the kids had fun making a mess.....

Ella just had a little taste....

I decided to be brave and let Hunter carve his own this year (really he begged and begged and I caved) he used one of those little saw things that come in the cheap-o kits. I drew out the "design" and he cut. He did very good and was very careful!

Ella played, no kidding, for almost 2 hours with the pumpkin guts. She was pretending to make pumpkin pie (which she did make in her class at school today,) here she is pretending to eat it : )

Here she is totally annoyed with me because I was asking her to look at my camera!

And then there is Chris.....he takes his carving very seriously. I attempted some own design and accidentally cut off one of it's ears so it looks like....nothing : ) Oh well.