As of late...

Its been a busy summer. As you know it started off with surgery for Wesley. Happy to report he has recovered fully. He is so much happier and healthier now. It is INCREDIBLE!! His sleeping is much better than it was, but there is still room for improvement. He eats all the time and will try almost anything. Last week he ate fish for dinner which was a surprise. He really is a different kid. He is much happier in general (not that we don't' still have our rough days, but much less often.)

Since then we have vacationed to Utah and the Beach and many fun play dates.

We also have added another sweet puppy to our family. She is a lab mix and is about 12 weeks old.

A few pictures to document our fun.

Che and Penny

Kris whoel family got together for the first time since Carrie was married over two years ago.

My grandparents cabin at Bear Lake. It was fun to share a slice of my childhood with Kris and Wesley

We did a little Rock climbing!

Wesley loved Kenleys four wheeler

We went up to park city and did the alpine slide. 

Cars

Well those of you who know Wesley knows he is obsessed with the cars movie characters. He likes to watch the movies. But he just loves all the different cars and books. We take cars everywhere we go. I always say "have cars, will travel!" He can play with them for hours. Especially bow that his attention span is a little longer from his surgery.

He pushes them around in his big dump truck. He puts them in his car hauler. He lines them up and races them. They are his favorite. And I hope they stay that way for a while. When he is extra good he gets a new character. We have quite the collection although they all can hardly be found at the exact same time.

He has cars sheets and a blanket on his bed. He has cars decals on his wall. We have cars lunch boxes and clothes and pajamas. Cars shoes that light up. And stuffed cars to sleep with. If its cars. We probably have it.

Post-op

Well we are two and a half weeks out! Things are great!  The first few days wetter really rough. He was in pain, didn't want to take meds, didn't talk or eat, and was just grouchy. You can't blame him but it was hard on us all.

Now over two weeks later I am grateful we went through with the surgery! I have already seen a difference in his behavior and his attention span. He still needs to work on sleeping through the night but i am sure it will come. His sleep has improved. He is definitely getting better quality sleep  since the surgery which hopefully mean his apnea has been fixed!

Sleep apnea

Last week Wesley was diagnosed with sleep apnea. One week ago today actually. It was interesting.  The doctor told us that Wesley's breathing tube closes at least 50 percent and more at least four times an hour. Sometimes more. As he watched our sleep study he could visibly see Wesley struggling to breath. He recommended Wesley get his tonsils and adenoids out. He set up with a follow up appt with an ent.

Today we saw the ent. He checked Wesley out. And said he recommended it as well. He gave me some info asked me if it was okay. I said yes. And we scheduled his surgery for next Tuesday!

I am so excited for some answers and hope this really helps Wesley. It will be so nice for him to hopefully sleep good and be well rested. I know he will be much happier and hopefully keep growing like a weed.

A place to call home

Growing up being the daughter of an army soldier I moved a lot. People always asked. Do you like moving? I didn't know any different. So I always assumed I did.

We always were going on an adventure. Road trips between moves always had stops. We had the opportunity to see new places, historical landmarks, visit theme parks, spend a lot of time as a family, and were able to travel to Utah to see family. I loved it. I like change.

I have lived in Alabama now for the greater part of eleven years! And its safe to say I call it home. I love it here. Its beautiful and green. The summers are long and hot. Our winters tend to not be as cold. I don't miss that Utah snow  (except for the snow activities such as snowboarding, skiing, tubing).

It has some not so good parts such as tornadoes and super skinny roads (you get used to that). Some would say the humidity is terrible, I don't mind it. Another con is that all my extended family lives out west, and I have would love to see them more.

So when all is said and done. This place is home. Its familiar and comfortable to me. It holds tons of memories. I have life long friends. Well life long for me, since high school. Its close to various things to visit. Full of excitement with the sports that people surround their lives around.  Kris and I can find stuff to do when we want to, but we both love our home and being there together or with friends.

Questions

1. What's your favorite color?um...orange and red

2. What's your favorite movie? Um..cars 2

3. Who are your friends? Carson and Ava and christian and willow

4. Who is your best buddy?christian my best buddy

5. What is your favorite thing to do? Spies.

6. What do you like to do with daddy? Fight with daddy

7. Where is your favorite place to go? To train depot

8. What do you do with mommy all day? I just play

9. How old are you? I am four no two

10. What's your full name? Wesley Kristofer daddy Driggers.

11. When is your birthday? September 29

At one point he said "mom I am just doing something"

A trip to the zoo.

We met up with some of our best friends from Tuscaloosa on Tuesday at the Birmingham zoo. We have been trying to get together since last fall but things never quite lined up.

Monday Wesley woke up sick but he started doing better so off to the zoo we went. We walked around and saw all the animals and the kids loved it. They were a little shy at first but warmed up fast.

We had tons of animal action. The elephants were playing with each other and got around and splashed in the water. We got to see the lions and giraffes being fed. There was some hilarious monkeys wrestling and laying around in the funniest positions. We saw all sorts of snakes and lizards that they were fascinated by. I think Wesley's favorite part was the farm animals that he was able to pet and be up close with.

Our last adventure was riding the train around the zoo. It was a perfect ending to a fun day with friends.

Self discipline

The other day on the way home from the Birmingham zoo Wesley was sleeping and I was listening to the Dave Ramsey show. I had a little awe inspiring moment.

A couple came on to tell there getting out debt story. It was pretty impressive. A couple my age getting out of debt in three years. The girl went on to say that she boiled it all down to self discipline. It started as a budget thing, but spread out into other areas of her life. This sense of self discipline gave her freedom.

Que awe inspiring moment. The light bulb kicked on. How true it was. Self discipline can affect all areas of your life. Be it budgeting, diet and exercise, cleaning, organizing, spiritually, and scheduling were the main areas I thought of.

If we could master the art of self discipline, we may become free.

Pause...think about it.


So I did. And here are a few things I came up with that go along with these that would make me free if I worked in these areas.

First budgeting. Money is a huge stress area in many relationships. It's not something I worry about a lot. I always feel super blesses. But I am sure many people do. And then I thought we'll just because I don't worry about doesn't mean it isn't an area that could use some work. If we stick to a budget we will know our money is being used wisely. Less wasting it on who knows what. And in a time of crisis we will probably have what we need because we won't waste or extra and we will save it.

Next, diet and exercise. I know that I feel so much better if I get up ,and exercise. Whether its taking the dog for a walk, doing the elliptical, workout video, or maybe some yoga. It feels good and makes you happy. After all we do know the famous line from legally blonde about that! Who knows it? Comment the answer. This portion will play into the scheduling. Another thing I think about this subject is personal appearance. As a stay at home mom. It's hard to get up and get presentable everyday. But when I do this I feel better and I think it should be a priority.

Third. Cleaning and organizing can go in hand and hand. I know I love a clean house.. I am stressed I clean. Mad. I clean. Sad. I clean. To me it's therapy. But that doesn't mean my house is always clean. I know whey house is clean and clutter free I feel better. I can think and relax in a clean house. A dirty house leaves my skin itching and I can't sit still. If you have and organized, clutter free house it is also easier to clean. When I think about clean and organized, this quote always comes to mind: "if every into is organized you waste less time looking for things"! I hate to look for something when I ow I have it somewhere. So it just takes a little self discipline to touch things once, organize something that isn't everyday. And take the time to clean your house. It will benefit you and your family.

Fourth. Spiritually. I don't think this needs much. It's all about having the self discipline to read scriptures daily. Pray daily. Spend time as a family. Fulfill church responsibility. Ewe need to set aside time to "fill our lamps".

Lastly. Scheduling. I struggle with this a lot. Not in the keeping appointments scheduling. But keeping to a routine. As I said a few posts back. I struggle to find a routine that works. It's constantly changing, and maybe that's part of my routine. But it takes self discipline to get up early to eat that workout in and scripture study. It takes self discipline to sit down and read books everyday with my son and try and make learning a priority instead of letting him do his own things. This also plays into having some "me" time to recharge and relax myself. This self discipline of a routine ,wads to freedom to get everything done and being able to do it with as stress.

So how do we learn self discipline? I think it may be simple.

Start small and choose one thing to do today. Whether it is something to stop or something to so

Example. Write a budget. Stop putting off cleaning the bathrooms. Sit down before bed tonight and write a game plan for tomorrow. Set your alarm to get your exercise and scripture reading. Stop piling the mail on the kitchen counter.

What can we do today to increase our self discipline?

Teaching Tuesday

I feel a huge responsibility to teach Wesley all I can. I am always searching for new ways to get him interested in learning and actually want to sit down for more than two seconds. I have tried various different things, and they seem to work for a little while and then he loses interest.

So I always have to try to have something new up my sleeve to pull out for him to get him engaged and learning everyday. I also try to do this with things on hand or very low cost. Thanks to the fabulous Internet world, we have some great things here in our "classroom" at home.

I use "classroom" loosely. We basically have a part of our office/craft/exercise room dedicated to learning. I have two wire shelve units that have very involved learning activities such as puzzles, fake money drawer, easy reader books, my first leap bad, tag junior reading system, lacing activities as well as some other fine motor skills. The other part of the classroom is his own personal desk with a flip flop alphabet block like this

that i found on clearance one day at TJ Maxx. And a set of paper cubes that hang on the wall with each individual letter. As we find small items that start with certain letters we add them to our cubes if they will fit. Some of these items are little wood pieces he has painted or things from 25 cent machines.

Next to his desk is another wire shelf that contains crayons, dry erase books, coloring books, and my binder of different learning activities sorted by letters. Some of these learning activities are flashcards, tracing pages from Thomas the Train given to him by his great grandfather or other tracing books. As well as this ladies awesome home school "Walk Beside Me" curriculum that she has so graciously given for free.

Here is a link to her curriculum. http://confessionsofaslackermom.com/category/preschool-curriculum/walkbesidemepreschoolcurriculum/  (This is so amazing all the work she puts into it. Some of it is a little "old" for Wesley but I use my judgement and we utilize what is on his level.)

All of the curriculum I print from her website, I then laminate and put in this binder. This allows us many uses from each sheet and saves paper. Any worksheets that I have tore out of a workbook I slide into a smooth sheet protector and those can be used with dry erase markers as well to get multiple uses out of each sheet.

Wesley loves to sit at his own desk and paint, color, or do puzzles. Just recently we have tried both of these. Both were a hit and both occupied him for quite some time.

Letter puzzles here: http://tiredneedsleep.blogspot.com/2009/10/build-letter-templates.html

and Pom Pom letters here: http://www.fabnfree.com/2013/03/20/free-printable-alphabet-magnetic-pom-pom-sheets/

What's your child's favorite learning activity? How do you get them to sit down and learn with you?

zZZzzZZZZzz

As some of you know, Wesley is a terrible sleeper. From the time of about nine months he has been a terrible sleeper. In that territory of being a bad sleeper comes poor eating, grouchy, tantrum throwing, sick little Wesley. This no sleep thing has been something that I have been battling for almost two years now. Some days I am not sure how I function because with the amount he wakes up and the time I go to bed I am getting like three hours of sleep.

So Wesley goes to bed. He wakes up and comes to my bed. Then at some point he wants juice. And then he wakes up. And he wants more juice. He snores. Just recently I noticed he quit breathing at random points while he was sleeping. He has to sleep with his head cocked back all the way. He is restless when he does sleep, so therefore he is still not sleeping all that great.

Well I put all this together march some time. I talked to friends and family about what night be going on and if this was "normal" or not. Well I thought something needed to be done or at least checked out. So I called up his pediatrician and next thing ya know we have an appointment with a sleep doctor. Of course, as with any doctor, you have to fill out forms and symptoms and history. Some this is quite difficult for a two and half year old but I did my best. We went to see the doctor. He asked questions. He checked out Wesley and signed us up for a sleep study!

Yep. That's right. A sleep study for a two and half year old who doesn't sleep. I understand it is part of the process but still. I wasn't looking forward to it. So last Thursday. The 18th of April we had Wesley's sleep study. How did it go you ask?

Well we had to be there at 830 pm with no naps after noon that day. We did a lot and visited a lot of friends to stay awake. So we get there. More paperwork. And the. They started to hook Wesley up to all these wires. Wesley was excellent and let her stick wires and stickers all over him. He actually fell asleep while she was doing it. So he was all hooked up and asleep. Until about midnight. He woke up and started ripping wires off. He was screaming and mad. It was heart breaking he was in and out of sleep and screaming for three hours. I just wanted to cry at this point but he finally fell back asleep. They need six hours of data for it to be "successful". The whole time the nurse was like we need more data than this. But there wasn't much I could do. Sometime after four in the morning she told me we only needed ten more minutes. What a relief. I finally fell asleep to be woken up like forty minutes later to be sent home. I am glad we got all the data. I can't imagine doing that again. We find out May sixth what's going on. If anything. I hope we get some answers for this sweet boy.

Prepare to have your heart broken a little by this picture of him with all his "stickers"