Fries are done: It all makes sense now

Several years ago, I found myself wondering, "Did I do something wrong?" "Why don't I ever hear from my good friends anymore?" Now I get it. Completely. They had young children and worked. Now I know that I didn't do anything wrong, it's just near impossible to keep up with everything you used to when you have 2 kids and are working full-time. I mostly talk to the people who care for my kids. I think about everyone and have been dying to update the blog, but by the time they are in bed and I get ready for the next day, it is not the top priority.

So, suffice it to say, if we had super big news - you would have heard from us sooner. Mostly, things are just moving along as it does with a 3 year old and a 21 month old. Do I need to fill in the blanks? :)

Dante now wears his hearing aids daily. As a matter of fact, he was using it as something else to fight about last week when he refused to remove them. He's had 5 months of almost non-stop congestion, cough and fluid in his ears. I went to a very helpful ENT doctor last month who said the tubes in his ears weren't right for him. He gave him some nasal spray and a device that is supposed to help you pop your ears, by blowing a balloon up - with your nose! It is very difficult to do and even I had trouble demonstrating...talk about a head rush. We aren't having much success getting him to use the nose spray or the balloon, but we're trying.

School is going well, still fighting us every morning about it, but having good days. He is reading so much now that it just leaves me speechless. He picks up books that I would never have him read and just goes at it. We have had several battles now, because he wants to stay up past his bedtime reading to himself (!). I took him to the library yesterday and we left with a pile. I always remember doing that with my mom, wondering just how many I could take with me.

Carina is doing great. She is very verbal and excited about all her new words. She has started singing on her own lately and saying "love vu!" all the time. She is trying to count to ten and wants to know her colors, but the only one she always gets right is purple. I had to finally break down and put her hair up out of her face and just couldn't resist the pig tails. Of course, then that meant that we all needed pig tails...

The update on the hearing aid purchase: North East Park Preschool had a very successful fundraiser and we were able to make the down payment on the aids with that. We now have monthly payments to make, but they are much smaller. Dr. Patranella and Melissa are trying to coerce the school board/insurance company to help cover some of the costs. Melissa tried the first step and that didn't work. The second step was for Dr. P to write a letter detailing everything. That was sent off more than a week ago, so we are waiting to hear back. If that gets denied, we have one last step to try and that is a phone conference with all parties present that we wish to plead our case. Even if they would cover all the adjustments and supplies and not the actual appliance, I would be happy, as that is half the cost.

We are looking ahead to May and our next CT scan and then planning to have his mediport removed if all goes well.

In the meantime, we will leave you with some pictures of what we have been keeping busy with!