Destin, FL

We took a little vacation to Destin, FL to stay with Rosie and Dennis and look who snuck into the van! Looks like Froggie hasn't changed any!

The first morning Nana Rosie showed the boys how to feed the seagulls.

Evan and Dave took a little walk on the beach. It took us until Friday, the last day, to convince Connor that the beach was fun.

This was the view from the balcony. It was awesome! The weather was great most of the week too. But on Thursday this cloud settled on the beach and didn't go away until Fri afternoon.

We went on a dolphine cruise. The excitement was too much for Connor and he passed out. But Evan and I got to see lots of dolphins.

Sunset on the dolphin cruise

All Connor talked about was wanting to drive the boat, but when we tried to wake him up to just that..he wasn't interested.

Dave and Connor went to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola....Evan and I went shopping!

Pilot in training???

We finally convinced Connor the beach was a fun place to play. He decided to dig for buried treasure.

At first, Evan thought it was funny to try and put sand all over Mommy and himself, but then he discovered he was dirty and wasn't so happy.

Filling the bucket so he could make a sand castle.

On Thursday evening, Rosie and Dennis watched the boys and Dave and I went out to dinner. Connor and Dennis made up a game with a blanket, a stool and a potato...who knows..but they were having fun!

Rosie watching them being silly.

We had a nice relaxing week and were sad to be coming home and back to the daily grind. The only good thing was that now it's shorts weather in TX!

Birthday Party

We had a mini birthday party today at Chick-Fil-A with just a few friends. Connor picked this cake from Target since we are going to the beach.

Being silly!

You can "never ever" (Connor's current favorite saying) get everyone looking at the camera.

He was very patient today. He's waiting for everyone to come out of the play area so we can have cake.

Baby brothers are cute too!

Opening presents back at home...he got some games, some books, some new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse dvds, a slinky, an easel and some markers/chalk for the easel. Plus some money/gift cards that he'll probably use on Mickey Mouse stuff. Thanks for all the great presents!

Sophie wants to know if there was anything to eat!

Cupcake Challenge

We had some snow last week along with ice which makes things VERY bad in TX.

Connor finally decided to try out the roller skates Aunt Lydia and Uncle Matt sent. He carries them around more than he wears them, but it's a start.

When we did our family pictures, Dave bribed the boys into cooperating by telling them he'd get donuts afterwards. Glad the pictures were already done!

Evan loves donuts! A few days later he went to the counter where the donuts had been sitting and pointed, obviously wanting more donuts!

I made some pumpkin muffins to try and trick the boys into eating something healthy. So we went to the store and found some fun candy toppers for them.

Evan had an Elmo topper for his muffin but he used it to dip in the frosting and lick it off. It kind of disintegrated in his hand.

Apple, pumpkin & chocolate chip muffin with cream cheese frosting...yummy!

Since the pumpkin muffins were a success I thought I'd attempt red velvet & cheesecake cupcakes for Connor's Valentine's party at school...didn't work out so well. AND, attempt number 2 only looked slightly better than this!

Finally I switched recipes to a little less complicated one and got one that looked better...but it needs some tweaking because it didn't have much taste...therefore I am now in a cupcake challenge and will work on this until I get it to come out right!

On another note, I had a good visit with my OB this week and feel like we have a good plan for when we're ready to try again. It's nice to feel like you're getting the care you think you should. I am going to switch to the other maternal fetal medicine specialist in the practice that I go to because I met a woman on FB that has the same issues as I do and sees the other dr so we feel that this other dr may have more experience. Keeping our fingers crossed!

Connor is still addicted to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Evan has started requesting Backyardigans. Last night Evan dug out a Backyardigan dvd, pointed to the tv, said "Pablo" and signed please! He can definitely get his point across most times!

Fun Times

Evan found this ball that he wanted Dave to blow up, but he wasn't patient enough to let him do it.

I'm too cute!

Evan really liked the cous-cous we had for dinner! If you look hard you can see the new tv in the background.

Cous-cous was ALL over the place! And it just disintegrates when you try to clean it up...but we like it!

Connor wanted his picture taken too but in all 5 of the pics I took he had his right eye closed.

Connor and I did a potty bootcamp yesterday. He got a stamp on a chart each time he peed on the potty (24 times). He got a page from a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book each time too and got to watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show too. Then if he told me he had to go potty and then went he got a MMC book (he got 5)! It was a LONG day, but hopefully he's starting to get it. He sat on the potty twice at school today. I'm not quite convinced that he's ready, but he can't go to his new school in August until he's completely potty trained and can do his clothes back too. We've got a lot of work ahead!

We went to the hematologist today. We got the same basic story...we can't be sure it was this that caused the loss esp since your homocystiene levels aren't high...and it was just one loss (you have to have many heartbreaks for them to be convinced this is the cause...no thanks!) And even though your folic acid levels are high (which is weird because they should be low) that's not a big deal...except that that right there tells you that I'm not processing the folic acid in my system and it's building up!...but we don't really need to do the test that will tell us the actual levels. So that was a bust and not a place I want to go back to...oncology center. We go back to my OB on the 8th so we'll see what she says...meanwhile I can buy the supplements I need on Amazon.com and I'll just have to do the research myself!

Busy

Connor decided last week that he wanted a tent. So Dave put up his old tent for the boys to play in.

As you can see, they were pretty excited. They even played together some!

Connor got out his sleeping bag and insisted on "napping" in it most afternoons last week. It's down now so we can get back to "napping" in his room!

(The tv niche that is too big and too small all at the same time.) We spent a few hours at IKEA on Sat, with a million other people, trying to figure out what we wanted to go in here.

This is what we decided on...now we need a new tv because this looks bad. Evan has a bad habit of messing with the buttons on the tv and now it's even lower! Right this minute he is going through the drawers pulling everything out I put in there last night while he was asleep.

I've spent a lot of time in the last week researching MTHFR and trying to find successful studies and treatment protocols...not a lot out there. It was just discovered in 1995 and they just recently started to do "studies". There are a lot of people out there that say that a certain, very aggressive, treatment protocol for pregnancy works, but they aren't official studies so many doctors are not following it. I am anxious to meet with my hematologist next week and OB the next week to see where they stand. I know that the specialist acted like it was no big deal and yet also seemed to be convinced that it contributed to the loss. I am trying to read all I can so I can be knowledgeable when I go in and ask for a certain treatment.

Evan is saying lots more words these days. He spends much of his day following me around saying "MAMA" and "UP" which gets tiring. He puts all of his toys on his head and says "hat." He says "more" and "all done." One of his favorite games is still chase Sophie..which is pretty funny since she is so annoying. He says "dada" when he hears Dave coming, but still shies away from him most times. His other favorite games is still "make Connor cry" which he does pretty well. NO is another favorite word too!

Connor is hooked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which in turn makes Dave and I crazy because the silly songs get stuck in your head. He likes to sing the songs and when he plays you can hear him repeating things from the show...it is kind of cute.

On Wednesday we are going to look at new school for Connor. We had decided to keep him where he is and then I walked past the older 3 yr old class that was working on letter names/sounds. I know this is too easy for Connor so I talked with his current teacher. She said that she would recommend Connor go into the younger 3s class because she feels he would fit better with that teacher. We don't want him to get bored and turned off or start causing problems..since he's working on spelling works and reading them. (He's starting to have some issues already of wandering away or just doing his own thing.) So we are going to look at a Montessori school that may let him work at his own pace a little more...only problem is he has to be completely potty trained to go to this new school! We've got some work to do!

Answers...Maybe?

We had another appointment with the specialist this week for a follow up of some blood work. We completely expected them to find nothing and to never have any idea of what happened to Sam. BUT...something came back. It turns out that I have a gene mutation called homozygous MTHFR C677T. So both of my parents were at least carriers of this mutated gene since I got two of them. This can cause blood clots and inhibits your body's ability to use folic acid correctly...both things that could have contributed to the loss. It can be treated with folic acid, b vitamins and baby aspirin daily...for the rest of my life. If we choose to get pregnant again then they will monitor me and the placenta.

It is a relief in some ways to have something that definitely supports our thoughts that it was a placenta problem. It's sad that there was nothing wrong with Sam and that he had to die for us to find this problem, but on the other hand he could have saved a lot of people in our family if others have this. And he saved me from possibly having other medical problems during and after pregnancy.

This genetic mutation was only recently discovered and there are varying answers on the best way to treat it. I had some more blood work done yesterday to now see if the mutation is affecting me. I am scheduled to see a hematologist in 2 weeks and then after that have an appointment with my OBGYN to discuss all that we found out and make a plan for the future.

It's been kind of interesting trying to look at both sides of my family and see who may have had it also (anyone with heart attack or stroke because it can cause atherosclerosis). I have strongly encouraged my mother, sister and uncle to be tested to see if they are carriers and therefore at higher risk of these illnesses. I look forward to those results and that will help me put the pieces together too. I'll let you know more as i find it out.

Today

I'm a big boy and I sit at the table now! Still wearing the stethoscope!

Ready to go! Also notice the difference in hair between this pic and the next.

After my hair cut....I did a good job, but my brother cried so hard while he was getting his hair cut that I started to cry too because obviously something was wrong!

Aren't we cute?

Being silly!

So after 2 dr visits and another call to the dr...Evan has been diagnosed with Unilateral Laterothoracic Exanthem...a rash. It is rare and not contagious. Average age of onset is 2 and twice as likely for a girl to have it as a boy. He has a horrible rash on his left side from his elbow to the top of his thigh...and today it started on the other side (hence the phone call to the dr). They have no specific cause but they think it's viral (not sure which one) and on average it takes 5 weeks to heal but can take 4 months! This is his 2nd "rare" condition in his short 15 months. We are going to be at the dr a lot with this one I think!

We got a call from the specialist's office today concerning Sam's testing. They found no chromosomal abnormalities. I had some blood drawn (some = 11 vials!!!) yesterday. Hopefully they will have the results back for my appt next week....one month after the procedure.

Funny...Dave was in Buffalo this past weekend for a family wedding. He got back in late Sunday night. He got up Monday morning as usual and when he got to work he found out that no one else had come in because it was a holiday! Oops!

Sophie and Bodie have discovered that it's ok to play together! We had hoped this would happen but now that it has we are regretting it. Sophie barks her head off the entire time and Bodie jumps around like a lunatic. They run into lamps and kids and leave dog hair all over the place in large quantities! Then sometimes Bodie will turn on Marley..then the game's over because she'll chase him down!