Happy Valentines!!

Happy Valentines Day!

My sweet boy is finally feeling better! We have been back to the allergist and I will be updating very soon!

But today, today was all about the love. Our love! He lights up our world.

Today wasn't very romantic, but it was absolutely perfect! Exactly how we wanted it to be!

This morning L woke up and coloured some valentines crafts, Toy Story of course!

This is his new favourite thing!

At breakfast I asked what he wanted and his answer was cake! Oh my! This boy has his mama's sweet tooth! He settled for yogurt, bananas and a peanut butter bagel, but never forgot about the cake! ha! SO after lunch he got his valentine treat, a chocolate cupcake! Look at that smile!
And then we dressed in red and headed out, just a nice afternoon. We got starbucks and walked the mall, and let L play for a bit in the play area. Then we went to dinner just the three of us.
We went to a chinese buffet and apparently L likes sushi (vegetarian, no raw fish of course) he ate 3 peices of cucumber rolls! And a bunch of Low mein noodles and veggies!

Then we all came home and snuggled together, what a wonderful day with my boys!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines as well!

Rough Week

We have had a VERY rough week. The few pictures I have to prove it are on my iphone, which in coordination with the rest of my week I have lost my USB cable (AKA charger), so I have a very useful paper weight until I find it!

My poor sweet boy is very sick, he is finally feeling a bit better after 4 long days in the hospital. He has RSV ( a common virus that just hit him HARD) as well as pnuemonia. When I brrought him in ( I feel so so guilty) he was so dehydrated and his oxygen saturation was low. He was immediatly admitted, put on IV fluids, antibiotics and oxygen therapy. After 2 full days of sleeping in hospital, after lots of sleep at home (he slept almost stright thru from Wed-Saturday) he finally started ot come around Saturday night, and Sunday morning he finally ate and drank, and sat up!

He is home now, and still not himself. He is eating and drinking with lots of coaxing, he is still very weak and having trouble walking. Its completely heart breaking. It was so scary how fast he got so sick.

His fever started Sunday afternoon, Sunday night he threw up once. Monday his fever continued, he was still drinking at that point but was breathing very very fast, almost struggling. We went to our family doctor. He said it was a virus (most likely stomach flu since he vomited) and the breathing was due to the temp. Sent us home with an antibiotic to only start using if the fever pesisted for 48 more hours AND other signs of a respiratory illness showed up). Tuesday he started with a slight cough, the fever persisted and he stopped drinking, he didn't pee for 12 hrs and I almost took him in. Then Les got him to drink a little and he peed so I went in for midnights. Wednesday he drank a little, his fever continued and his breathing was still fast and his cough was worse so we started the antibiotic. He went to my mom's because Les & I both worked midnights. Thursday monring my mom called me, woke me up after only 2-3 hours sleep and told me she felt I needed to take him to the emergency room, that he was very ill. He hadn't peed since the previous night and although Wed PM he let her feed him and drank a little it had been over 12 horus and he was just sleeping and seemed to be having trouble breathing. I headed straight there and called our doc on the way, he wanted us to go in his office, he had been on the antibiotics for over 24 hrs at this point, fever was high and more concerning he was so lethargic. He took one look, listened to his chest and told me to go straight to the pediatric unit of the hospital, he woudl call and make the necessary arrangements, he believed it was pnuemonia. He told me to drive straight to the hospital, not to stop. When I got there they did a chest xray, listened to his chest and could see how sick he was just by how he was laying inmy arms, we were admitted and the IV was started.

It was a long rough four days, but was what he needed. I was so scared to see him that sick. It broke my heart. Thank God he is starting to feel better.

modern baby shower! (and something exciting!!) **video included**

On Friday my little sister got engaged!! On Sunday she left me this card, how adorable is it? I am so excited for her and my future brother and law! And since they set a date of

November 19, 2011 I think we aer going to have a very busy year!

I have been SUPER busy lately helping plan and organize a baby shower for one of my best friends, I am just thrilled with how it all turned out!

This is the invitation I designed in photoshop, we prrinted it on cardstock and sent them

out in lime green envelopes.

When she told me she wanted to incorporate black and have a modern theme I was thrown off but I think it turned out awesome!

We had it at a local restaurant, I am so happy with it that I am considering having my sisters bridal shower there! This is one half of the room, we kept it simple, modern and chic. Black and white table cloths with pops of lime green & silver!

This is the diaper cake that I made for them, we put it in the entry way as part of the decor.

Hand made banner above the head table.

The head table with the banner above it, centrepiecce and flowers.

Beautiful maternity photo framed for guests to sign, will look awesome in the nursery!

flower arrangement we did, just bought the flowers from costco and assembled in vases.

Centrepieces, they are sugar cookie bouqets. My mom & I made the cookies, just bake your favourite sugar cookies on a stick (skewer) dip the skewers in egg whites to help the cookies stick. We did most of them with sugar before baking and about 1/3 of them icing after. We added chocolate molds a friend made and silver twisty sticks from Michaels to make them look more polished. These are about $5-6 dollars each to make!

Water bottles I made to coordinate with the theme.

cloe up of the water bottles. I think these are an easy way to add a really chic and

personal touch to any event!

Candy bar in matching colours. This was the favour, it went over really well. I had all these glass containers from my wedding, this is the 3rd candy bar they have been used for! I love the look of this one!

close up of the candy bar. This went with the "sweet baby" theme.

Sweet room! The cake, water bottles, fruit platters, candy buffer and coffee/tea service looked great set up in here!

Some of the prizes for guests all wrapped in coordinating ribbon.

The tables. On each place setting was a lime green envelope for the custom thank yous I am making, it added a great pop to each place setting!

Head table from another angle!
THE cake! Once cut it woudl reveal whether there was a boy or girl to

be expected. This was absolutely the BEST element of the shower.

No one knew what the gender of the baby was not even the parents to be!

They had the ultrasound tech seal it in an envelope back in October, and it then went

to the cake decorator who didn't open it until 2 days before the shower!

Beautiful bump and THE cake...

Mommy and Daddy to be cutting the cake for the big reveal!

I LOVE this she was SHOCKED!!

Pink!!! Its a girl!

Here is a short video of the cake cutting, the mama to be was sure it was a boy

and is still shocked and thrilled to learn she is having a little princess!

Allergist update & Big changes!

The allergist appointment went very well, and there is good news for this fur baby above! Logan has NO allergies, including cats! We were very relieved to find this out!

The doctor thinks that most of Logan's troubles are related to post nasal drip. His nose is the problem! So we are doign sinus rinses daily (he is actually doing really really well with this) as well as Nasonex spray twice daily. We will see, hopefully this helps a lot!

Logan will be 18 months later this month and I just can't believe the changes we are seeing in him all of a sudden! He is really acting like a boy these days!

He is talking more and he understands everything we tell him. He is even able to follow a two step command. Such as "Go and get your cup and give it to daddy".

I will update on all of his current and stats after his appointment on the 24th

But we have had 2 big changes that can't wait till then! We decided to get rid of the high chair. I have always hated it and was just done with it in my kitchen and so I used our portable booster as a trial at the table and its been great! We are going to buy a permanent booster so that this one can remain in the car, its too much trouble to bring it back and forth!

And the other big news!? NO MORE BOTTLES! I can't believe how easy this transition was! I have to give Mr.Logan all the credit! He was down to 2 bottles a day, first thing in the AM and in the evening before bed. Well one night I gave him his bottle and he just kinda played with it and chewed on it, I even checked the nipple to see if it was working, and it was. Then he handed it back to me and asked for a cup. I poured it into a cup and he drank it. He did that twice more before I said to Les OK thats it lets pack up the bottles. And we haven't looked back, that was about 5 days ago! I am so proud of him! Lets hope getting rid of his guck goes as smoothly (soemthing tells me it won't!!)

Finally, a photo that made daddy's heart soar! A friend gave Logan a golf set for Christmas and Logan LOVES it, he does really well with it, except he is left handed it appears so he is holding it backwards. Les took out his putter, and they were playing together in the living room, then later this morning Les went into our room to find this!:

haha I guess Logan thought his club belonged with daddy's! melts my heart!

Updates

I feel like I am always saying this, but we are busy! Logan is so much fun these days!

He is developing quite the little personality, he loves to make us laugh,

and is such a little ham!

Things are good on the home front, the organized (somewhat) chaos of everyday life. I *think I have made soem school/career decisions and I have applications in the works. I will share more once I have confirmation of acceptance or any other news!

Here is Logan being a little monkey, he loves playing with stickers and putting them all over his face! He thinks he is hilarious! He got very upset with me when I made him take them off before we went out for the day.
Here he is with 2 "gucks" as we call them. I decided to start trying to wean him from the paci, oh boy does he love his paci! I try to limit it to bed & in the car but when he's not feeling well, which is often I let him have it in between. Well I noticed when I limit his time with it he starts sucking his thumb, and with the cold and his (suspected) eczema he now has a very raw cracked bleeding thumb. And so, he got the guck back, with no limits. We will tackle that battle at a further date!

I am not sure how much i have talked about Logan's breathing issues on here. But we have been struggle with a cough and runny nose as well as sneezing for 9 months. I am exhausted. He coughs so hard that he vomits several times a week (twice today already). I suspect asthma/allergies. We have been treating him with meds as it were this but at my request (insistence) we are going for allergy testing. The referal was sent November 24th, the appointment we got was for June 30th! I am serious. How awful is that! Thank God that he sent a friend to intervene, who knows someone in the office and made a call. We are going TOMORROW! I can't wait to get some answers!!

On a very sad note, Les' "Tatay" (Grandpa) passed away this morning in the Philippines. He woudl have been 98 in March. He had been sick since New Years Eve when he had a heart attack, he was ready to go to Heaven and be reunited with his wife.
Les' parents are on their way to the Philippines now for the funeral. We are not going, we will be holding a mass in his honour next week, and just spending some family time together. Les & his grandfather were very close, he lived with them thru Les' childhood. Please keep his family in your prayers. I am so thankful that we made a trip to the Philippines 2 years ago and visited him. What a wonderful memory, I was just pregnant in this photo and he was so excited to hear that news!

Big Decision-advice please?

I'm not sure there aer too many of you still reading, if your there please give me your 2 cents here, it woudl be greatly appreciated.

Recently I have made some comments about my job, thats its taking away from our family, that I feel perhaps its not my forever job.
In my heart I would love to be a SAHM, however for many reasons I cannot. I am still paying off my student loan, I at least have to continue working until that is done. Also we use my income for the extras, trips, eating out, gift buying, things of course that are not necessities but things we believe enrich Logan's life.

I am so blessed that I work part time, this ends of being 2-4 12 hour shifts a week. These are LONG days away from my boy. I do a variety of shifts at no set rotation and am expected to work at least every other weekend, as well as rotating holidays. This is hard, but since Les is a nurse as well it works for us, for now at least.

We have been doing a lot of soul searching, Les too feels a change is in his heart. However the change he is considering, which I may talk abotu more when we have more of a timeline, would still entail shift work and holidays.

As I talked about before I am working toward my Lactation Counsultant certification, I will be writing an exam in July that will certify me internationally. Breastfeeding is a truw passion of mine, my direction with this however is unclear. While there is a need for LCs in our area, even our hospital there is no funding and therefore no jobs, at least not currently.

And so I have been strongly considering going back to school. I was accepted to the Master's program when I finsihed my BScN almost 5 years ago. At the time i decided to defer my acceptance in favour of focusing on my bedside skill set and I am glad I did I have grown so much as a nurse.

I am not so sure thats the direction I want to take, havign my Masters Degree would open doors in teaching and perhaps middle management positions, I am not confident this is where I want to be either. And so I have been thinking about the Nurse Practitioner Program. It would be one year full time, a full year from September to the following August. I woudl also need to continue working part time. And you know of course be a wife and mother in my spare time. This is so daunting to me. The cost will be great, both financially (the tuition plus I will have to cut back my hours a bit) and of course on our family. I will be in school and studying a lot.

This breaks my heart. Logan will only be this age this once. School or the option of it, will always be there. Perhaps I should spend these yers focusing on our home and our family, continue working part time and re explore my options later. Perhaps in the meantime the LC thing will open up some doors. I am just so torn. I do love what I do, however there are a lot of other politics type issues, and just mean cattyness that I could do without.

I want to do what is best for all of us, I just keep debating on what the right decision is. I have to decide very very soon. Like this week if I am going to apply in time, should I chose to do that.

My other fears are that I will make all of these sacrifices and then there won't be funding for NP jobs either, or that I will have to work in an area I don't love as much as I so women's health.

Back ot my husband for just a moment-when he graduated he took a full time job in an area he did not like, so that I could continue working part time in an area I loved. I now he is considering finally making some changes to make himself happier and I decide I am unhappy as well? Perhaps its my time to sacrifice to dedicate myself to my work, my home and helping him reach his goals, because if those are met perhaps other doors will be opened as well....

I am praying on this issue and ask for your prayers too, and honestly I know this was long and probably chaotic but your thoughts and advice are so so needed.

Christmas Eve at our house

This year Christmas Eve was a little different, Les and I both had to work this Christmas (we aer strongly exploring career changes of different sorts in hopes that perhaps it won't always be this way). However we worked around it and had a wonderful holiday!

This year we celebrated Christmas Eve on December 23rd, this meant no mass, which is

usually a very important part of our tradition, along with visiting the grandparents. Instead we stayed in and did our traiditons slowly and enjoyed every moment of just the 3 of us!

Logan helped put the last few "special" ornaments on the tree. We have a tradition of getting a family keepsake each year from Bronners Christmas Village, as well as one for Logan. We add this years to the tree on Christmas Eve!

Its hard to see but Logan is holding his ornament in this pictures, its a train that says

"The Logan Express 2010" on it.
Each year I pick our a Hallmark ornament for Logan. I will try to chose an ornament that symbolizes that year. I have a special book that I write a letter to him in each year explaining why I picked that years ornament.

Logan gets to open his ornament on Christmas Eve! Along with his new Christmas PJs

This year his ornament was a mickey mouse riding a train. This represents his first trip to Disney in March as well as his current love of trains.

Another tradition my mom started with us was to decorate a birthday cake for jesus. I really want Logan to understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Here we are, Logan's ready to work in his elf hat & apron set!

Sprinkles on the cake!

The final product!

Logan was just interested in eating it! I try to limit his sugar/candy but this boy has a

serious sweet tooth!

After a bath and he gets into his new christmas pjs

daddy reads the night before christmas

Then of course we leave out milk & cookies for Santa

Can I try just one mama? Santa won't mind!

He is my joy. I love this boy with such a force its breath taking. This holiday season

has been magical. He has been amazing, despite having a nasty christmas cold, complete

with dried out snotty nose, chapped cheeks and a horrible cough he has been in am amazing

mood. He has been loving and sweet, and just so enjoyable.

He has been sleeping pretty good and I think has finally got his nap thing worked out, sleeping about 12-3pm and going to bed like a charm.

Watch for our Christmas Day post to come soon!

I hope all of your holidays were magical as well!