Remembering...

A special thank you to all who have served or are serving their country. Thank you to both of my Grandpa's who served during WWII. Thank you to my dad and my uncles who have served in the military. Thank you to my cousin Mark who is currently serving in the Air Force and just recently returned from his year long deployment to Iraq. Thank you to friends who are also serving. Your sacrifices are greatly appreciated.

I can't say thanks to the above people without also saying thanks to those who "served" behind them. To my Grandma's, who loved their soldiers and kept the home fires burning. To my mom who put up with me and my sister while my dad was out to sea :) (mostly having to put up with my sister...love ya Shea!!!) To my aunts who sacrificed as well. To Mark's wife Theresa for being a "single mom" while Mark was away. To all the spouses/significant others and the families. Thanks for sharing your loved ones with us.

Remembering on this Memorial Day...

90 Years in the Making...

Today is a very special day for our family...

My Granny (my mom's mom) is celebrating her 90th birthday today!!!!!

She is such a special lady. She loves fiercely and is loved fiercely, without reservation. She worked hard all her life as a mom, wife, and factory worker. She makes (well, she doesn't make it anymore but used to) the BEST chili!

She also used to make the best fried chicken dinners on Sundays...(so the dog would know what day it was...HA!).

She delivered 9 children and raised 5 of them. The other 4 babies went home to be with God soon after birth (premature). She was married for 59 years to my Grandpa.

She was born to Irish parents (Kavanaugh) and raised a Catholic. She continues to be strong in her faith and prays daily for those in need.

Abby's middle name is Kavanaugh...after her great Granny.

Mary Kleeman is an amazing woman and I am proud to call her Granny :)

Happy Birthday Granny! I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait to see you next month!!!!!

It's All About the Boy...

Well now it's time for the much anticipated and now seriously belated birthday post!

Our first born, only son, first person to ever call me "mommy", turned 7 years old earlier this month. May 5th to be exact. Yes, he is our Cinco de Mayo baby and he loves the fact he has his birthday on that day. He has informed me that he has to like tacos more than anyone else in our family because of it...ahem...he pretty much eats more of them than anyone else in our family...but I digress.

On his special day I arranged for Abby to have a playdate with a friend from her class after school so I could take Max a special lunch at school. I also arranged for a sitter for Lucy and Ruby so I could have some special mommy-son time with my little (yeah right) guy.

His request for lunch was...of course...Taco Bell! He ordered...and ate...the following:

2 hard taco supremes, 2 chicken soft tacos, an order of nachos with cheese sauce, and cinnamon twists. I also figured I'd better bring him some fruit so I picked up some strawberries from the store and he had about 6 or 7.

For dinner he picked another favorite place of his to go to...Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries! I think he has picked that place for his birthday dinner for the past 3 years! Nana and Papa joined us again as well :) Max ate some peanuts while he waited then proceeded to polish off his bacon cheeseburger with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and pickles as well as his share of french fries dipped in malt vinegar. I don't know why we were shocked but my mouth about dropped to the floor when Max came up to us and requested ANOTHER BURGER!!!!! We got it thinking he wouldn't finish it and I'd put the rest in his lunchbox the next day...nope...ate.every.bite!

Then he came home and ate a cupcake :p

My boy must have hit a growth spurt on his birthday.

He went today for his 7 year checkup.

He measured 52 1/2 inches (4 feet 4 1/2 inches) tall.

He weighed 69 pounds (he was 8 lbs 13 ounces at birth).

His Dr. said he was in the 95th percentile for height and weight. The dr. also said Max has the height age of a 9 year old and the weight age of a 10 year old. Look at this kid...he may be a "big boy" but he looks like a string bean. He is all muscle and bone.

No wonder he's always moving (and eating!) ..his metabolism has a life of it's own :)

There is a "height predictor" calculator on the Baby Center website. I plugged in Max's info and it is predicting that at age 18 he will be 6 ft. 3 in. tall.

The website says that it is within 50% that he will be within .8 inches of that measurement and within 90% that he will be within 2.1 inches of that measurement.

We had his birthday party the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend...that';s another post coming soon.

Birthday Post...Coming Soon to a Blog Near You!

I have started a blog post about Max's birthday (my sweet firstborn/only son turned 7 on Wednesday!) His party is tomorrow and it's a whirlwind of activity around here getting ready for that, praying it doesn't rain so we don't have to have it here at the house, and I have to be away from the house today (unparty related). Hopefully I can get some good pics at the party and post about it on Sunday. One of these days I'll get my life/schedule untangled and get things running smoother again...HA!

What Have You Been Up To Abby?????

Guess what I did a couple of weeks ago? Signed my first born daughter up for Kindergarten...that's what! I can not believe this child will be going to Kindergarten in August! When did she grow up?

She'll be done with preschool in May and I am sad that she will be going to "regular school". I know they have to grow up but I keep looking at Lucy and remembering that it wasn't that long ago that Abby was that age and size. *sigh*

Well, besides getting ready to enter Kindergarten and turn 5 in July, the biggest event in Abby's life recently has been GETTING HER EARS PIERCED!!!!!

Her cousin Molly and another friend had gotten theirs pierced which gave Abby the idea. I was all for it but Daddy took quite a bit of convincing. I think he thought it would mean she was all grown up...well her fits remind us that she is a long way off from being grown up :) I had my ears pierced when I was in first grade and when I had Abby I had decided that we'd wait until she asked to do then explain the process to her and if she still wanted to then it would be fine.

I had NO IDEA her daddy was going to hold onto her hole-less earlobes for dear life! She tried for a couple of months to talk him into it...batting her eyelashes, giving extra kisses and hugs, even saying she'd do something (usually clean her room) when he asked...IF he would let her get her ears pierced...it was funny to watch.

Well, Daddy finally broke down and said okay but he didn't want to be there...chicken. The man can watch a dr. stick an epidural needle in my back but can't watch his daughter get her ears pierced ? :) Anyway, we were going to wait until right before preschool was over but when John went out of town a couple of weekends ago I texted him to see if we could do it. He called me within seconds of the text being sent, all concerned about whether or not I was going to do both at the same time...uh, yeah! As a matter of fact I called ahead to make sure 2 people were working so they could do both ears simultaneously (I wasn't taking any chances that she'd chicken out on #2 and walk around with 1 pierced ear).

We went, she did it, and COMPLETELY shocked me with how brave she was when it happened. I had explained it to her beforehand but I was still expecting tears, screaming, fit (typical Abby stuff). NOTHING folks! She flinched but no sound came out. She did AWESOME!!!!! I was so proud :) She loves having her ears pierced and had to show everyone.

Her daddy????? Said she looks like a teenager...ummmm, not quite.

Excited :)

Marking her ears...don't pierce the freckle!

Ready...aim...fire! Actually 1,2,3...click.

Cleaning and turning the ear rings for the first time.

All better now!

So Now the Detective Work Begins...

After thinking about it I decided not to use Aquaphor on Ruby 8 times a day. The dr. had mentioned Cetaphil lotion as being really good and I already had it at home so this is what I decided to do. I cover her head to toe (skipping the fingers because she likes to suck on them and that would taste yucky) in Cetaphil lotion. If she has any areas of eczema I will also apply some aquaphor to those. I am also still using the hydrocortisone but mainly just on her most itchy areas (head and legs).

I put another call in to the pediatrician this morning because now Ruby has another issue which has pretty much validated my thinking that there is an allergy issue going on here. The poor baby has a nasty cough. Her coughing jags usually end with about 2-3 sneezes. Her nose has started running and her eyes are red rimmed and so watery and itchy that she can barely keep them open at times. When she is drinking her bottle she has to keep stopping to cough so yesterday she didn't even finish 4 out of the 6 bottles she had. I have been giving her the Benadryl that the dr. told me I could give her for her itching but it doesn't seem to be doing the trick (or at least it doesn't last very long with the relief it does provide).

The dr. called me back and said I could increase the Benadryl to 1/2 tsp. but that it may not work either. He said between her skin issues and now this we are dealing with an allergy to something but we don't know what. I've been saying that for weeks...it's nice to finally hear the doctor say it so certain people will stop telling me I am just worrying too much (ahem...my husband). Don't get me wrong, the last thing I wanted was to be right about her having any kind of allergy but I've been feeling like I'm spinning my wheels trying to find out what is going on with her when something very obviously IS going on. Now that the dr. has made this determination, I feel like I will finally have some help in finding the culprit of my poor baby's misery. This is where I start using my detective skills (from my P.I. days) to figure out what to do. Hopefully we won't have to say goodbye to the cats!

Ruby is napping right now but I'll post a picture later of her poor pitiful self so you can see what I mean about her eyes.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my sister Shea and her husband John. They are celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary but they have been together forever :)

I hope you have been having a wonderful day guys...we love you!