Pony Pandemonium

October 17, 2012

My beautiful Keira turned 4 years old on October 19th! We took the girls to the zoo as an early birthday present on the 18th, then had her party the next day on her actual birthday. When I asked her what theme she wanted for her birthday party, I was not surprised when she insisted on a My Little Pony party. This would have been an easy task if she was into the old-school My Little Pony, but she likes the new My Little Pony (which is way more awesome anyway) but they don't make party decorations for the new MLP. So I decided to make my own decorations, and I will just admit that I got a little carried away. I printed out just about every character from the show as large as I could and cut out each character to put on the walls. I designed her some MLP birthday invitations, and also made her a Happy Birthday banner featuring the Cutie Mark Crusaders from the show. I even created Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom across my living room. All these decorations took HOURS and HOURS to make, and left my house covered in glitter for about a week, but it was SO worth it. You can see from the look on her face how excited she was!

Fluttershy and Applejack decorations in the living room.

Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia, and Twilight Sparkle above the cake table.

Spike and Rarity in the living room.

The Sonic Rainboom across my living room.

The Sonic Rainboom- When Rainbow Dash flies so fast she breaks the sound barrier and creates a rainbow at the same time.

 

 I added a Rainbow Dash to the cake to make it into a Sonic Rainboom cake. :)

Uncle Brenty, Baby Braden, and Grandma

Grandma Suzy, Liana, Daddy, Auntie Sophia, Baby Elani, and Keira

My amazing birthday banner and a big pile of presents!

 

The Pony Wedding Castle - a wonderful addition to her massive MLP collection!

Playdough Factory from Uncle Brenty and Auntie Vivian - She LOVES this.

Blowing out her FOUR candles!

 

Keira's Pony Collection

Keira is such an amazing girl. She is STUNNINGLY beautiful, EXTREMELY bright, CARING and CONSIDERATE, and always QUESTIONING and learning instead of just going with the flow. She has a very unique personality that I'm sure will give her advantage in life. Just watching Keira open her birthday presents, you can learn a lot about her... She opens them carefully, one at a time, taking time to examine each present and hug and thank the person who gave it to her. She has always been this way. I'm so proud to call Keira my daughter.

Sweet September

Arthur and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on September 9th, which was also the one year anniversary of our temple sealing. We were particularly broke, me being out of a job still, so we hadn't planned on going anywhere and thought we might just go out to dinner. Upon hearing of our lack of anniversary plans, my dear brother and his wife gifted us some funds to go on a modest trip out of town. We gratefully accepted their offer and booked a cheap motel in one of our favorite places, San Luis Obispo. At $50 a night I was a little afraid of what this place might look like, but the Sunbeam Motel in downtown SLO was perfect for an overnight crash and was located right next to the more expensive motels in the area. We drove down on a Sunday evening and got there about 9 pm. We found a place to eat that was still open and had our dinner at Woodstock Pizza. In the morning, we had breakfast at The Splash Cafe and took a walk around the downtown shopping area and strolled the mission grounds. After having tri-tip sandwiches at Firestone Grill, we drove about 40 minutes to my favorite beach Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro State Park where I have gone camping all my life. On our way home, we stopped for dinner at F. McLintock's in Paso Robles, but this was the worst McLintock's experience we had ever had. We made a "note to self" to not go to that one again, but it didn't put too much of a damper on our enjoyable getaway.

Dinner at Woodstock's

 Mission Plaza

 

 Montana De Oro

I took Liana to her 4 month checkup on the 13th and she weighed 15 lb 10 oz (90th percentile) and 24.5 inches tall (50th percentile). At the same age Keira was 12 lb 9 oz (25th percentile) and 24 inches tall (50th percentile). Liana is such a chubby baby compared to Keira. We keep asking Dr. Jones to be honest with us and tell us if she is getting to chubby, but he ensures us that she is well within healthy parameters. lol She also has a very big head like Keira did, but it's even an inch bigger than Keira's was at the same age. I don't look at my kids and think they have big heads, but they are over 100th percentile. Pretty crazy. So being 4 months old, we got to start spoon feeding Sister. She took a liking to it very quickly and is a very good eater. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, and applesauce. She also likes carrots, squash, bananas... pretty much everything she has tried except for peas. :)

Beautiful 4 Month Old

 

First Taste of Baby Food. Not sure how I feel about this!

A visit from baby cousin, Elani.

Since I was laid off while on maternity leave from my last housekeeping job, I had been desperately looking for a job with no luck. I got dressed up nicely and dropped my resume off in person whenever possible, but I just wasn't getting any bites. I had spoken with a woman in my ward named Mary Spano who cleans houses for a living a few weeks prior about working with her but she didn't need anyone at the time, then she called me saying she needed help and had me start working with her cleaning 2 houses, alternating each week. She also set me up with a house to clean by myself every week. So, I am cleaning 3 houses, working 2 days a week for a total of about 5 hours a week but the pay per hour is much better than I was making before. Every time Mary would call me to ask if I was ready for a job or to ask if I had purchased the cleaning supplies I needed to start cleaning on my own, she sounded pleasantly surprised that my answer would be yes every time. One day, after finishing our cleaning job together, she thanked me for my work and I pointed out that she seems surprised by my level of responsibility and dependability. Her eyes filled with tears as she expressed her gratitude for be and her happiness with being able to depend on me. These traits come naturally to me, and I would never treat a job any other way, but apparently not all people share my work ethic. I told her, as grateful as she is for me, I am grateful to have her. She provided me with good steady work in my time of need, when I had nothing else. Even though I was trying to get back into administrative work, I am glad to be making enough to make ends meet in my home and I know I am right where Heavenly Father wants me to be right now. And still so grateful for Art's steady job that allows me to work so little. What a blessing it is that work is just a footnote in my life and my family can be my main focus. I am truly blessed.

Sisters

Keira has loved her little Sister since the day they met. On many occasions she has been heard saying, "Sister is my best friend." And it's true... these two are inseparable. They light up at the very sight of each other. Keira derives no greater comfort than when she buries her nose in her sister's fuzzy hair. Keira has never been resentful of her baby sister and always treats her with an outpouring of love. There is nothing that Keira withholds from her sister. Even her most prized possessions are offered freely, which tells me she loves Liana as much as she loves herself.

  Here she is sharing her favorite blankee with Sister.

Here she is sharing her favorite kitty toy.

I believe Keira's love of Liana is best summarized by this last selfless act... Keira has a shirt that she calls "Favorite Shirt" so named, because it is her absolute favorite shirt. She wore it ALL THE TIME for almost 2 years. If I didn't want her to wear it, I had to hide it or else she would disappear to her room and emerge wearing Favorite Shirt. One day, I was discussing with Keira the fact that Favorite Shirt was getting too small, expecting her to not give it up easily. A few days later, I noticed Keira had placed her precious shirt in Sister's dresser drawer. When I asked her about it, she proudly stated that it's too small for her now so Sister can have it. I know Keira is going to be the best big sister anyone could ask for.

Having a sister is like having
a best friend you can't get rid of. 

You know whatever you do,
they'll still be there.   

Sweet Liana - 4 months old

Relief

Well, after a total of 4 visits to Children's Hospital, Keira has been deemed free of any physical defects. The MRI showed absolutely no trace of the spinal cyst she had as a baby and no problem in her brain. The kidney and bladder tests showed no problems with her anatomy in those areas. So the original diagnosis of a neurogenic bladder has been retracted and her official diagnosis is voiding dysfunction and they said that her problem can be resolved by "re-training" her bladder to function properly. This is a good article about voiding dysfunction... Click Here

The doctor said that her problem of frequent urination and leaking should be resolved by teaching her to empty her bladder completely. He believes that she is just emptying her bladder to the point of relieving the urge to pee, so it is always over-full leading to frequent trips to the potty and lots of leaks. He said it will be a slow process, but in time she should be able to get her down to only going pee 6-7 times a day instead of the 10-15 she is at now and not by making her hold it longer, but by teaching her to get it all out at once. He believes that the sensitivity she is experiencing is most likely due to skin burn from the urine leakage. Dr. Jones is having her add baking soda to her bathwater and use a cream to help with the irritation so hopefully she can feel better and stop wearing her underwear around her knees.

We are very happy to know that she doesn't have to have any surgery. We were so worried that she still had that cyst on her spinal cord and it's such a relief to know that it's gone. I read some information about the effects on A.D.D. on bladder function and it turns out there is a high concentration of bladder issues amongst children with A.D.D. because of the difference in neurology in the brain and probably just their flat-out inability to sit still on the potty. lol We are hoping to work with her on her bladder "re-training" enough this year to where she doesn't have a problem when she starts school next year, but the doctor said that we can always get a doctor's note to allow her to use the potty as much as she needs to in school if we have to.

Let's just say, for now, I am one relieved Mommy.

A Glimmer of Hope

Keira's testing is next week and the tension is growing. I took her to see Dr. Jones yesterday, because she had been having an extreme sensitivity in her lady areas to the point she didn't even want her underwear touching her. She was wearing them literally around her knees. I thought maybe she had a yeast infection, but Dr. Jones told me that what he believes is happening is that she has a bend in her urethra. He said sometimes as girls grow the urethra gets bent then as they grow is straightens out. He said that it causes urine leakage and discomfort.

I told him that Childrens hospital said she has a neurogenic bladder and he said she doesn't think that she is neurogenic. He said he wouldn't be surprised if her test results come back normal, but he wants to see the results after the tests are done. We'll see... it's nice to have a glimmer of hope right now but she has been having urninary problems for like 2 years. I'm not sure if what he is describing can account for the extent of problems she has had. My biggest concern is about the spinal column cyst she had as a baby and the possibility that it is still there and causing problems.

So anyway... please continue your prayers for Keira and I will let you all know what the test results reveal in the next couple weeks.

Stress on a Stick

Well, I was supposed to go back to my housekeeping last week and instead I got laid off. My boss had given me the impression that the other housekeeper she employs would be phased out eventually because she's going to school to do something else but as it turns out I was the one who got phased out. I guess I can't blame her considering I have been on maternity leave nearly half of the year I worked for her. So on top of the stress of Keira's health issues I have the stress of finding a new job. When it rains it pours, right?

Although housekeeping is not my career of choice, it allowed me to work the minimal hours I needed to be able to connect the dots between Art's paychecks while still being a stay at home mom 99% of the time. I really liked my job and had nothing but good things to say about my boss. I definitely learned a thing or two about myself during that time too. Mostly that I enjoy a simple life and a comfortable home. I spent hours cleaning chandeliers and polishing silver... ironing hand towels for the guest bathroom that look so crisp and perfect that you would be frightened to actually dry your hands on them. As rich as I ever become, I vow never to own a chandelier, anything made of real silver, or ever have a towel or anything else in my house that would make people afraid to touch it. Those things can be beautiful, but if they take time away from more important things to meticulously clean or polish or make guests uncomfortable, I can certainly do without.