Arg!

It seems I always get side tracked when I am determined to update our blog more frequently. In recent news:

*Juliet is doing great! If she's caught the H1N1 virus she shows no signs of it. We know it's been going around in the area, and we've been exposed to it. Either we have not picked it up, or we're rockin' our immune systems.

*Matt has been busy busy busy with work! He's got a lotta deadlines and such this month, so pray for his sanity please!

*We're going to a Halloween party hosted by the HDBA, and an old friend might join us with some of her new friends. Fun fun! Our kiddos may be in the care of my parents if they are feeling better-

*Please pray for my parents, as my dad recovers from neck surgery and my mom is suffering from mysterious sinus symptoms. Her sinuses are causing her a great deal of pain, and the doctors aren't really helping much.

*Joe is up in Island Park until tomorrow! He's having great fun with his Granmom and Granpap (Matt's parents). Hopefully when he gets back we can introduce new forms of discipline to try to get his behavior on track.

*I'm going back to school! I've decided for sure that I am going to major in biology. Once I get my bachelor's I'll go through an accelerated education course to teach secondary education. This was my original goal when I was in high school, and not much has changed in nine years as far as what I think I'd be good at.

At some point soon I plan to finish my previous series of pictures from our trip this summer. After that I shall no doubt have other pictures I can post from Halloween and such.

Semi-Update

I really should post a longer post at some point soon, many many pictures and lots to say! But for now I give you this: Juliet is walking! She's getting so good that I suspect she'll be walking more than crawling within a few days. She's just amazing!

Us, with a dog? CRAZY.

We went out to eat at Dixie's Diner here in IF. The kids loved it :-)







So we have a dog now. I'm not kidding- really, we have a dog!
Her name is Peanut and she belonged to some friends of ours who were not able to keep her when they moved. She's beautiful and does really well on walks!
Here are pictures:

So! My parents gave me a wacom tablet. As you can see I've been trying it out. It takes some getting used to, but I did the above entirely with the wacom and photoshop. I used the basic 'paint' properties of photoshop and layering to do it. I feel I could make that really look good with a bit of time and some filters. So exciting! Thank you Mom and Dad!

Also- our Joseph has a staph infection. Ugh! Of all things, it's MRSA! I guess it's becoming more and more prevalant and it must be because my hubby and I are pretty darn neurotic about germ warfare. I've worked as a CNA before, and in food service. You don't just 'turn off' washing your hands all the time. Matt has always been slightly germaphobic. Even Joseph is a bit of a freak about being clean! That's saying a lot for a 2 1/2 year old! I guess you pick up things from your parents though ;-) In spite of all that he's got MRSA and we've got to have him on antibiotics and be very careful about cross-contamination to our dear Juliet.

Memory Verse of the Day from Godlygals: Psalm 119:18

So one of the things I like to do is create Memory Verse cards. I got this from my Grandma Nancy who makes the most AWESOME memory verse cards.
This particular one uses a picture of Joseph's eye as a background. I'm going to be trying to do this every day, so I'll probably post them once a week, with all the images linked. If you want them, feel free to snag them!

Juliet is doing great today. I think she has a runny nose, but otherwise is doing well. She's watching Joe play with a magazine at the moment, and they're playing with each other through the mesh in her pack n' play. Darling!
Joe adores his 'sissy' so much! She was crying earlier and he ran into the room where she was and said "ooooooooh.... 'Let! 's OK! no owwieee! oooohhh..." Translated it means "Oh, Juliet, you are OK! There's nothing wrong (no owie)! You don't need to cry!"

He's just such an awesome big brother. Aside from the occasional snatching of a toy away from her when he feels it's actually his.

Most recent post from Carepages

New site!

Posted a few seconds ago

I have started a blog at http://slatosky.blogspot.com/

I will post random updates there, possibly pictures at times.
I will post urgent updates here, so that everyone gets an email if something happens and we need immediate prayer.

So far things have been amazingly smooth sailing! Juliet is growing soooo fast! She's learning how to sit up on her own, and enjoying playing with toys. She's particularly fascinated with a big fuzzy cartoon character thing we have that makes strange noises and dances.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boobah

The funny thing is, Joe is scared to DEATH of the thing. Cries when he sees it, screams, etc. Juliet ADORES it. She hugs it and slaps at it and giggles madly. One of our cats wants to eat it. Yes. Eat it.

I will probably be able to post some video to our blog of the various interactions with the crazy purple creature.

Also, serious prayer request.

Two of our dearest friends had their son on the 11th. He passed away a few hours later, and it was totally unexpected. He was a healthy boy, and circumstances surrounding his birth resulted in his being deprived of oxygen, and there was nothing the doctors could do. Please pray for the family of little Joshua David and for continued strength for them. Please also pray for his beautiful mamma as she heals from surgery. His memorial service is coming up soon too, so please pray for extra strength for them on Monday.

Posted Aug 29, 2008 12:07pm

Life has been pretty good, as far as Juliet is concerned. She is blossoming into a beautiful, healthy BIG baby ;-)

I have updated a couple of new pictures that we took- her first bath and some of our 'professional' pictures that we took in our basement and I edited in Photoshop.

Our breastfeeding relationship is absolutely excellent! She gained a pound in a week, and she has been eating very well. She actually prefers to breastfeed over bottlefeeding. Her speech therapist was very happy with her progress. Her pediatrician is also amazed at her progress- whenever we see him he puts his hands on his hips, looks at her, shakes his head and says "Amazing. She just looks so great!"

Our son, Joseph is loving her very much. He's always trying to soothe her if she's upset or wanting to hold her (only if we put her in his lap, monitored). Occasionally he does things he shouldn't, like trying to rock her in her swing faster than it's meant to go. She tends to either want to be held or be in her swing- all totally normal. We do try to hold her as much as we can, but it's hard to cook even if she's in a sling.

One of our cats, Star, has taken a liking to her. She likes to curl up next to us, touching both of us, when I pull Juliet into bed in the morning. She tends to linger wherever Juliet is, but never 'too close'.

For Matt and myself life has been chaotic. I am starting to settle into a routine each day, but something always disturbs it. The other day Matt's battery in his car died while he was out shopping. I had to pile the kiddos in the car really fast to get over there and help him out. Of course we'll have to buy a new battery- which in a Mazda is pretty pricey. Think: Our grocery budget.

Then, yesterday, the sink stopped draining and the dishwasher won't drain. I'm having to wash dishes in the tub, or one at a time very slowly in the sink (it drains monumentally slow). We may have to get disposable dishes until we can figure out what to do. My poor hubby is so stressed out by it all, and feels like we're just having one bad thing happen after another. I guess I see it differently... I mean look at Juliet! It's horrible what has happened with her- but she's doing SO well! And the battery- at least it didn't happen in Pocatello or something! ...the sink... well that pretty much sucks, but we'll figure it out.

Joseph is going to go up and hang out with his Gramom and Grampop for a few days. It'll be nice for us because it will be easier to catch up on a few things, and easier on him because he'll get more outdoors time. When I told him this morning that they are coming and he's going to get to hang out with them for a few days- he was super-excited. He was practically jumping up and down! Hehe... I'm sure he's probably been rather bored with all of his 'unstructured free time'.

Well, that's all I have for now. OH! Another good thing! I'm getting more sleep! Juliet doesn't wake up as frequently in the night anymore. In fact, it's pretty predictable. Usually she goes to sleep around 11-12 and wakes up to eat at 4-4:30. She eats and falls right back asleep. Then at about 6:30-7 she wakes up again. We both doze off a little in the bed and wake up at 9am for good. It's working out well for both of us- and Matt doesn't have to get up in the night anymore to help me, or get up because of her crying. She pretty much falls right back asleep and he snores through the whole feeding. Yay!

Wow... one sure can get busy taking care of two kiddos!
Juliet is now applied for the Katie Beckett program to get medicaid. I sure am hoping that she will qualify, because we've gotten some awesome medical bills. Lessee... One says 110,000. Another, 18,000. Another- 6,000 and yet another 14,000. I'm sure it's just the tip of the iceberg. I saw the 110,000 one and started laughing uncontrollably. It was 15 pages long, small font. 20% of that is still 22,000- so yeah, we definitely need medicaid or else we'll do our best paying $20 a month for the rest of our lives ;-)

We saw Dr. Groberg on Friday (thank you for the recommendation Nathan and Shanna Hardman!) and he was great. He was very informative and nice. We've had a lot of great professionals helping us out- the Infant and Toddler Program folks, the Idaho Falls Home Health and Hospice staff, the Speech Therapist, the staff at Praxair. Everyone has been very nice and informative who've been part of her home care.

Our family and church have been awesome too. The Perrys came over with some of the kids from church and pulled the weeds in our yard. It was such an immense relief, as our yard was looking simply AWFUL after being away in Utah all that time, and we'd never really gotten to spring cleanup since I was in prodromal labor for about a month before Juliet was born. They did SO much! It was such a blessing. The Perrys also brought us dinner last weekend since my hubby winds up helping me out with the kiddos all weekend instead of either of us cooking or getting much done. The Davenports brought us a HUGE lasagna dish last night along with salad and chips and strawberries YUM!
My mother-in-law has been coming over and helping out when Matt is at work, so I've got two helpers during the week- Konni and Nancy. Between the two of them I actually get to sleep in a little in the morning! Very useful after being up every hour all night ;-)

Konni helps entertain Joe, she loves to take him and play in the water in the back yard (though our pool has only just been re-setup since it got gross while we were gone), read to him and play with his toys with him.

Matt's mom helps straighten up and give me pointers on how to maintain things most efficiently and is a pro at helping out with bottle feeds and tube feeds. Between the two of them helping me I manage to spend time with Joseph pretty well so he doesn't feel like I've abandoned him for the "Beebee".

Joseph still has issues about her presence, he thinks I should come running if he cries just as I do for Juliet. He also is picking up other things she does like trying to suck on my arm or shoulder, climbing into her bassinet when it's on the floor.... We try to get him to be a 'helper' and tell him all the time that he's a great big brother (especially when he gives her kisses!) but it will take time for him to adjust.

We've got our visit in SLC on Wednesday. My mom may be able to come over on Monday to help out- but she's got a whole lot to do to get ready for a trip that she and Dad are going on. Boy do they need some time together! She was with me for all that time Juliet was in the hospital and Dad had to work. I'm glad they get time together.

Juliet's crying! Gotta go!

*edit* Weird... It read "m0ther" as a curse word and censored it! I know in some relationships "m0ther in law" is the same thing as a curse word, but not to me!