RAISING JOEY

Rather than moan and groan about our sick house, I wanted to post some fun pictures from a few weeks back! The kiddos discovered how much fun a simple cooking pot could be…

Well, I appear to be feeling better (I hope), I still have yet to eat. I’m just not hungry, heck, maybe I’ll lose a little weight, LOL!

Joey finally seems to be feeling a little better too. Still coughing but not acting as sick as he was and he hasn’t had a fever in almost 48 hours. I did get him an appointment with his ENT for Monday to have his ear looked at to check for any damage from that dumb pediatrican.

Leah is still feeling pretty crummy. She was still running a fever as of last night so I’ve been alternating tylenol and moltrin. Her cough is still pretty bad too.

Well I guess that’s it for now! Hopefully I’ll post again later!

Well at 4am I woke up feeling like I was going to vomit and like I’d been hit by a truck. So now, I’m sick and my wonderful hubby is taking care of the kiddos. It does appear that my father in law has the same thing…

1. To lose at least 15 pounds, if not more!
2. EXCERSISE! Lord, I’m out of shape! Gotta love Excercise TV on OnDemand!
3. Read at least one book a month.
4. To be a better wife and mother.
5. To get home to Ohio at least 4 times. Even though I just saw my parents, I miss the rest of my family so much!
6. Work on getting The Holland Committee up and running for the CDSC.
7. To be a better advocate for Joey and other’s with Down syndrome. To learn more about disability law and the history surrounding it.
8. To clean our house more and get rid of clutter!
9. Back to #1 & 2, eat healthier foods, snack less!
10. Save money, I need to control my spending habits!
11. To write more blog posts and to read more blogs!

Did I mention that Leah also has Joey’s croupy cruddy cold?! She woke up this morning sounding so awful and now she looks so sick. She currently has a 102 fever. We finally got her to drink some pedialite.

Joey is still feeling yucky but thankfully hasn’t vomited since about 1:00. He still won’t eat or drink.

I need a vacation….

Poor Joe-Joe has vomited numerous times since he woke up this morning. I’m not sure if it’s from all the congestion from his sinus infection draining or a tummy bug on top of everything else. I just paged his doctor…

January started out our year with Joey taking his first steps! What an awesome way to start 2008!

February was a fun filled month, I cut my hair off! We also took a trip to Washington DC to visit my inlaws, Stephanie & Christopher, and also visited one of my dearest friends, Alicia and her family. Also, we celebrated my husband’s 30th birthday!

March was another fun filled month, we celebrated Joey’s 2nd birthday, St. Patrick’s Day at the Irish Club, Easter, and my 27th birthday! I also helped my friend Cecily at Cans For Corey to raise money for the CDSC!

April was a very memorable month for me! Patrick and I joined together with thousands of other Catholics at Yankee Stadium in New York City and saw Pope Benedict XVI. It was truely a life changing experience for me! I also started up my Usborne Books at Home business! And we moved into a much larger house! And Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin and her family welcomed Trig into their lives!

May was a fairly boring yet fun month, we spent a lot of it, unpacking and getting settled into our new house and planting my garden! Patrick and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Aniversary!

June was another interesting month. I got reunited with my half brother, Greg via the telephone for the 1st time in 20 years! He lives out in California so we’re still trying to figure out when we’ll see eachother in person. Pat and I took the kiddos to the North Haven Irish Festival, which was a blast!

July started out by Joey getting his tonsils and adnoids removed. OUCH! I also discovered Melissa’s blog, little did I know it would be the start of a beautiful friendship! We had a 4th of July BBQ with our family and friends! I spent the weekend of July 10th at the NDSC’s National Convention in Boston. I got to meet so many of my online T21 friends that weekend! Also, in July our family suffered the loss of my sister in law’s mother, Carol. I still think about her on a daily basis.

August was another busy month. Leah took her first steps, my parents visited from Ohio, and I started my Etsy Shop. With Tropic Thunder debuting in theaters, my friend Cecily and I got interviewed by one of the local TV Newstations and the CDSC also got national attention for our boycotting of one of the local movie theaters!

September was busy and crazy like most other months. I made the news again, this time about Sarah Palin being chosen as John McCain’s running mate. We celebrated Leah’s 1st birthday, and went to the CDSC’s Buddy Walk.

October was Down Syndrome Awareness month and I managed to post on here EVERYDAY for 31 for 21! I went to the CDSC’s Annual Convention, which was a blast!

November we spent one week in the hospital after Joey had to have surgery to repair an intestinal malrotation.

December was spent preparing for Christmas, and I attended Grand Rounds at CCMC and Hartford Hospital with Dr. Brian Skotko. And then finally, last week was Christmas and a visit from my parents!

I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year and see you all in 2009!!

Ok, what the h@ll else can happen?! I just peed flushed the toliet and a couple minutes later I heard water splashing in the bathroom… the toliet was pouring water out of the tank. Not the toliet bowl but somewhere from the tank. I managed to get the water shut off and now I’m cleaning up the floor.

My wonderful brother in law is on his way to pick up Joey’s ear drops from the pharmacy in his 4×4 truck since we’re having another SNOWSTORM and I’ll have him look at it when he gets here.

Can I have a nervous breakdown yet????

Joey’s pediatrican called a little bit ago very upset about what happened yesterday. He was very apologetic and couldn’t believe what happened. I’m happy that he called and is as upset as we are.

I downloaded a couple pictures from last night, if you don’t like blood, you might not want to look.

Click below to see the pictures…
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We got home close to 1am with not any answers… the doctors said since they would treat it the same if it was either a ruptured ear drum or just a scratched ear canal, they were’t going to chance hurting him anymore. Not to mention the one ER doc who actually did try to look, couldn’t see a thing due to all the blood in his ear…

They could have sedated him, suctioned out his ear and then looked but we weren’t going to put him through that last night. I’m going to call his ENT today and schedule an appointment with him.

They did give us a script for antibodic ear drops to help prevent an infection wherever his ear is hurt.

Unfortunatly, Joey has lost 1/2 pound. They weighed him on the same scale as a few weeks ago, boo….

His ear won’t stop bleeding…

I just took Joey to the pediatrican because he still sounds croupy and has been running a fever. His regular pedi wasn’t in so we saw the one who was filling in for Dr. B.

I gave him a quick history on Joey and told him how his ear canals are extremely small and doctors usually can’t see his ear drum.

He went ahead and tried to look in his ear but couldn’t see anything because of all the wax build up due to his small ears. I then told him how I take Joey every 6 months to the ENT to have his ears cleaned out in the OR while he’s sedated.

This pedi decided he wanted to scrape out some of the wax on his own and WOULDN’T listen to me and needless to say, Joey got upset and started moving all over the place and screaming. The next thing I knew, Joey had blood pouring out of his left ear!

This so called pedi said he didn’t go in far enough to hit his ear drum that he most likely just scratched his ear canal. I can’t believe the amount of blood that came out of my poor baby’s ear!

So needless to say, we left with a script for antibodics and a bloody ear…

I’m so upset!

I’ve felt so blessed this past year that I want to share some of the things I’m grateful for.

1. I feel so extremely blessed to have finally made more friends here in Connecticut thanks to the CDSC & the DS community. I have found lifelong friendships with Melissa and Maureen!

2. I’m grateful that we were able to move to a larger house that has a little yard that I was able to plant a garden in, and that we have such awesome neighbors!

3. I’m extremely grateful to have such a loving and supportive family! My parents came up from Ohio to help when Joey had his surgery. And my in-laws…. they are the best! Whenever I need help with the kiddos, they’re here in a heartbeat!

4. I thank God everyday that Joey’s surgery went so well and that his tummy is doing better!

5. I’m so blessed to have such cute, adorable kiddos! Joey & Leah’s smiles make my heart melt eachtime I look at them!

6. I feel so blessed and grateful that I have such a wonderful husband. I found quite a gem when I met Patrick. He helps me around the house with cleaning, laundry, and changing diapers! I even get back rubs from him! Am I one of the luckiest women on Earth or what?!

7. I’m grateful that I was reconnected with my long lost half brother, Greg. I even found out that I have twin 10 year old nephews!

What are you grateful for this year?

More Than a Mom

This book was one of my Christmas gifts from my mother and so far, I LOVE this book! I can’t wait to read the whole thing! Below is the product description posted by Amazon…

“MORE THAN A MOM explores how women can lead rich, fulfilling personal lives while parenting a child with special needs. The authors’ skillful blend of research, personal experiences, and feedback from over 500 mothers across North America results in a book that is jam-packed with practical strategies, advice, and reassurance for mothers trying to create more manageable and fulfilling lives.

The mothers who were interviewed for the book have diverse backgrounds and family dynamics. Given their differences and the fact that their children have such varied disabilities, it s striking that these mothers face such similar issues. MORE THAN A MOM provides mothers with many voices and solutions that will resonate with their own circumstances. Husbands, extended family, friends, support organizations, and service providers will also want to read this insightful and fact-filled book.”

Stop by Mindy’s blog, Sharp Pointy Sticks and congratulate her on the newest addition to her family!!

Look who we went out to dinner with last night at Buffalo Wild Wings?! Penelope and her family!!

We had such an awesome Christmas! Patrick and Joey had colds but that didn’t stop us from having fun!

“Ma, are you starting with the pictures already?!”

Jenny McCarthy’s book!

Daddy got a Giants Christmas this year!

I got a Pandora bracelet from my wonderful hubby!

“Mommy, I think this book is too advanced for me…”

“Geez, get this thing off my forehead!”

Joey & his PahPaw!

Me & my mom!

The Heeran girls!

Me & my babies!!!

I’ve seen this on several other blogs and wanted to share it too.

He’s sick again, this time a cold. He does seem to be feeling better this morning compared to the past few days. He’s had a very horse voice and a cough at night. Thankfully no fever! We’ve had the vaporizer going 24/7 and I’ve been hiding cold medicine in his juice since he won’t take medicine through a dropper thingy anymore. And of course, lots and lots of fluids.

In other news, we got one heck of a snowstorm on Friday! It was so cool, the snow was falling 1-2 inches per hour! Now we’re all dug out and life is back to normal minus the huge piles of snow everywhere!

My parents got here safe and sound and have been enjoying playing with the kiddos! You should have seen Joey’s face when his beloved “PahPaw” (my father) walked through the door! Joey ran right up to him with open arms for a huge hug! Joey loves my father so much!

For those of you that read this, today’s Holiday Party in North Haven has been canceled but will be rescheduled for a later date due to the ice storm that suppose to hit the southern part of CT including North Haven.

We had one heck of a snowstorm last night! I love it just in time for Christmas! It’s looking like we’ll have a white Christmas here in Connecticut this year!

My parents are currently on their way up here to spend the holiday with us and are driving through Pennsylvania as I write this. Thankfully so far, they’ve had good weather but are driving my mom’s 4×4 truck just in case!

Tomorrow we have the CDSC’s Holiday Party and I’m so excited for that as well. A pasta dinner with music and Santa! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures!

Also, tomorrow evening (I almost forgot to mention), my sister in law and her husband are coming in from Washington DC! I can’t wait to see them too! What an exciting upcoming week!

Today is my dear friend Melissa’s birthday! Go over to her blog and wish her a happy birthday!!!

Hopefully the snow will hold off long enough for her and Dillon to get here for her birthday dinner and sleepover!

Check out what the fine ladies at Mom Generations are giving away on their giveaway blog!

$350 PLAYHOUSE BOUNCER from Playhousebouncers.com!!