Well THAT Was Unexpected!

Today has felt like a looong day. We had a follow-up appointment at Sophia's neurologist this morning and had to get up and leave the house super early this morning (I will do a separate post about this as there is a good bit to report on this topic).
Sophia and I had already planned a play date with my friend Jennifer and her niece Alexa and the doctors appointment was unexpectedly added to the day...so our play date got pushed back a bit. I was keeping in touch by text with Jennifer about when the appointment was ending, when I was heading back towards our house, etc. After a few texts (and between various calls to check on Soph) Jennifer actually gave me a call.
She asked if I would be interested in co-teaching a 2 year class with her at church!! The perk would be that Soph and Alexa (both of whom do not make the September 1st cutoff to be in an actual class of 2 year olds...they JUST miss it...poor Soph misses by only a week) could be in the class! Um, and the perk of getting paid...that too, haha.
Now, I can name half a dozen reasons why this is the most perfect job setup I can think of. First of all, we've been really looking into getting Sophia some type of schooling...she's so ready. But we've run into some issues...if it isn't the cost (depending on the school, it can be quite pricey, even for just a few days a week), it's the fact that her birthday falls after Sept 1. Not to mention the fact that most registrations for pre-schools start very early in the year...and I missed it by a lot! I had no idea when Soph was 16 months where/if we'd want her to start school...I didn't know we'd be moving then either so if I had registered her somewhere, that would all have had to change anyway.
Next, with the move (and still owning our previous home) and all we've been spending lately associated with it, I've been considering different part time job opportunities. This is tricky because I stay home with Sophia...can't just shut the playroom door and hope she fends ok on her own!! So I'd need to make sure Michael could be home from work in time for any evening gigs I might find...and it would be so hard for me to adjust to being away from my family! This way, I'm still taking care of Soph (she'll be in my class!) and can spend evenings and weekends with her and Michael doing family things. Instead of just switching off her care each day. Perfect! And I'm still adding some income to the family pot!
And finally, if you don't know my sister or read her blog (The Watkins Wire...you can find it on the 'blogs I follow' list...check it out, it's really good!), she is actually a pre-school teacher at a church. She teaches a 4 year old class where my nephew Cooper goes to pre-school...and really enjoys it. I've always wished to myself that I could find a great job opportunity like that, but never have been able to. And not having a school aged child (until now!) didn't prompt me to look too hard. But she has found the perfect set up by being near her son and still working at a rewarding job teaching kids. Now I am so excited to be doing the same thing!
Our little class has it's first day on Tuesday, September 11....not too far away!!! It's three days a week (Tues, Wed, and Thurs) and we will have about ten kids. Lots and lots of details to take care of before that day rolls around. I am just very excited and looking forward to being able to still be with my daughter every day, be with my good friend 3 days a week, earn a little money, and most importantly take part in a job that I think I will really enjoy.  Plus the added benefit of Sophia getting much needed socialization.  It's a win-win-win!! 
I know that with a class full of two year olds I'm probably not much more than a glorified babysitter...I know there will be things that we will do to bring some structure and learning to the day...but it will probably be a lot of playing and fun time.  I don't mind this at all, I have a feeling that my days are going to get a lot more interesting!! 
God definitely had a plan today....even though it was the most surprising and unexpected thing...and that means some big positive changes coming up for Sophia and me....and I couldn't be more excited about it! 

Cookies and Cameras

For my birthday (which was the 19th), Michael got me a new camera!  He took me to Best Buy to show me the one he had his eye on...I tested it out and really liked it...so we ordered it online (because, shocker, Best Buy didn't have all the accessories it came with in the bundle in stock) and it only took a few days to arrive.  Here is what I got...

Mine is exactly this one...I picked red (my choices were black or red...I've always had black or silver in the past...and red is my favorite color....soooo) and am so excited to play with it and see all the cool things it can do.  As in, all the cool things it can do better than my old camera. 

The day the camera came, Sophia and I decided to make some Minnie Mouse cookies (they were the pre-made kind with Minnie ears right on the cookies...love how many cute patterns you can find on those ready-to-bake cookies...and they taste good!) so I thought that might be a good time to just try out the new camera and see how things went.  Also, Sophia was very excited to help me "make" the cookies.  I let her put them on the cookie sheet...and had to go back and rearrange a few that were practically on top of each other, haha.  But she did a great job and enjoyed getting to be a part of the process. 

Yes, she is on the floor with a cookie sheet in her lap.  But it was too heavy for her to hold while standing up and I didn't want the whole thing to spill on the floor.  She was pretty impatient the whole 10 minutes it took to cook them.  I had to remind her to NOT touch the oven a couple of times.  Meanwhile, she wanted to show off her new Minnie slippers (if you can't tell, we love some Minnie Mouse around here). 

And finally our cookies were done!  We got our milk and put a couple cookies on a plate ("are they hot? are they hot?"  Yup, they were.  So we had to do a little more waiting until they were cool).  They were delish, as expected!

And then I took a few more shots....to test the camera...and cause my girl is just so cute! ;-)

Well, so far I think the quality of the pictures is very crisp and quite a bit of an upgrade from my last camera...obviously I will have to play with the settings and features to really get the best out of my new camera but so far I am very happy and love my awesome birthday present!  :-)    







Eeek!

Looks like someone is going to be ready for a big-girl bed very soon.  So far we haven't heard a giant thunk coming from her room..... :-)  Glad we already set up said big-girl bed in her new room...probably should just push it up next to the crib, haha!!

All the posts about our big move and our new house are coming....don't worry!! ;-)

Taking My Brother to College

Friday, August 10th, we loaded up the cars (ok, we really only loaded up Dillon's Pontiac Vibe...he didn't have near the stuff either my sister or I took to college!) and drove down to Columbus, GA to drop Dillon off at college.  I could not believe how fast this day got here!!  I feel like I was just typing out the blog about him graduating high school and already we were taking him off to school.  I was very happy to ride with him on the way down. 

 Before we pulled out of the driveway....sure gonna miss this guy!!

Once we got to the campus of Columbus State, we had to find Dillon's dorm.  Ahem.  More like apartment complex.  GA Southern needs to take a note, this place was awesome!!  And it was a legitimate dorm, but just set up totally like an apartment complex...complete with pool and everything!  We had to wait a little bit for him to get checked in and find his room. 

Here is Dillon heading off to find out exactly where he would be spending at least this year of his next four years in Columbus. 

Can you believe this place?!  I didn't take too many pictures of the inside (ok, none) but here is the layout.....you walk into a common living room with a couch and love seat and coffee table.  Dillon's room is the first on the left.  He doesn't even have to share a room with anyone!!!!  He had a bed, a desk, a dresser and a couple shelf units.  And then, attached to the room, is his own bathroom and walk-in closet!!!!!   Upon seeing these things, I was really wishing for a college do-over.  I shared the tiniest space with my roommate and we had to walk down the hall to use a community bathroom.  Yeah, you guessed it, I did a lot of gagging my freshman year of college, haha.  Dillon won't have to walk down the hall in his shower shoes and robe to take a shower....what a lucky guy.  He has 5 other roommates, two of which we met before we left. At the back of the "dorm" there is a common kitchen, complete with fridge and oven/stove and sink, plus a table and chairs.  No dishwasher though, so I can take a small bit of joy in that.  Not like guys probably care about those things.  He even has a cute little back porch off the kitchen.   

After we moved his stuff into the room, we headed over to check out the campus a little bit.  The recreation center seems awesome....the pool is incredible!  The recreation center at GA Southern has a nice pool now, but when I went there, they sure didn't have one at all.  Oh well.  No sense comparing every inch of Columbus St to my college experience....my college days are looonngg past!!  We hit up the bookstore for some CSU gear...more of which will be purchased in the future, I am sure.  :-) 

Great family pic (minus Michael....he had to work half the day and then go and pick up our moving truck for our big move the next day.  We sure did miss him though). 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of my and my siblings.  I am proud to say that I did NOT cry when we dropped him back off at his room and said good-bye for the last time.  I will, however, admit that my throat felt like it was going to explode from how much I wanted to.  Especially when Sophia was giving her uncle a big good-bye hug.  We don't go a day without at least talking about Uncle Dillon, or pretend calling him on the phone....I know she is going to miss seeing him often SO much.  I am too, but I am very very excited for how much fun he is going to have over the next several years.  I am a teensy bit jealous even!!  Not that I really want to hit the books again (which I also hope he will be doing a lot of, haha) but just to maybe experience some of the 'fun' college things.  Ah, well, that time has passed for me.  Very much looking forward to hearing all the fun and entertaining stories and memories that Dillon creates during his time at Columbus State.  I love you, little bro!!

Aquarium with Family

While we had out of town family visiting, we headed down to visit the GA Aquarium.  Michael had to work so he couldn't come with us, but everyone else was able to go, including my sister and her family, my parents, my brother, two aunts, an uncle, two cousins, a cousin in law, and their child.  :-)  So we had a big crew! 
We've taken Sophia to the aquarium a couple other times so I didn't take a ton of pictures.  And after a while, I got tired of taking out my camera, haha.  Plus I knew my Dad and sister would take a ton of good ones.  Here are some of mine....

Sophia stuck to both of her uncles like glue, haha.  Either Uncle Jay or Uncle Dillon was holding her hand or just plain holding her half the time. 

 This pic turned out kinda fuzzy of me and my bro...but I still love it!! :-)

 Best buds!! 

 Soph stuck to Grampa pretty close too. 

 Mommy was NOT going in that tiny space....so Sophia dragged Uncle Dillon in there with her!! :-)

 Having a little rest on a bench with Grammy

Sophia also liked to hold my cousin Katie's hand.  Her son Jack is just a couple months older than Sophia.  They both played pretty well together.  He never said it, but I think Jack thought Sophia talked too much...a couple times it looked like he wanted to tell her to clam it up!! ;-) 

Sophia LOVED the giant glass wall where you can see all the fish and the whale sharks.  She sat with my Dad there for a loooongg time and just stared and pointed at the fish as they swam by. 

Sophia tried to make friends with this random little girl.  I didn't hear what the girl said (if anything) but I heard Sophia say "I'm Sophia, what's your name?"  Then she spelled her name for her, just in case the girl wasn't paying close enough attention, haha.  And spelling your name in a strangers face is the best way to make friends, right?!

Aunt Sara/Ow Ow couldn't handle Sophia's messy hair any longer....you can totally tell Sophia is willing to risk her hair getting pulled out just to get away, ha!!

She loved this wall with all the colorful fish. 

After the aquarium, we went to the World of Coke museum.  I didn't take any pics there because Sophia was pretty tired and I held her most of the time.  Then Michael came down and met us at the CNN center for dinner.  After that, we found our bricks (Sara, Dillon and I all have one) in Centennial Park and the other kids (not mine, she didn't want to get wet...I'm so glad) played in the fountains and we called it a day.  :-)  

Sophia and the Neurologist

About a month ago (I think July 24th, to be exact), I decided I needed to bring Sophia in to see the pediatrician to get checked out.  Actually, let me backtrack a little.  Sophia has pretty much always, at least since she was about a year old, been very fidgety in her high chair or car seat (or in the cart at the grocery store)....she can't ever seem to just sit still, and she constantly is moving her legs or squirming around.  After a while, it seemed like she was kinda just aggravated by anything between her legs and would strain or rub against it.  We never really seemed to think anything of it.  However, this particular week in July, I started to notice that she would straighten her legs and seem to strain and rock a little bit....even with nothing between her legs.  Michael and I both thought it was weird....but we really sort of got freaked out when one night we had her on the changing table and she totally stiffened up...her toes were pointed way down (after taking ballet classes when I was younger I could still never point my toes that much) and her legs were so stiff, it felt like her muscles were kinda like stone, and her arm was bent up and shaking a bit too.  NOT like what we usually observed.  And she would be standing and just start doing the same...and kind of zone out while she was doing it.  I thought maybe she had a really bad rash or infection or something that I couldn't see or had missed....which was why I chose to bring her into the pediatrician.  I have no problem being the mom that takes their child in and it ends up being nothing at all.  If the doctor and nurses laugh at me after I leave for being a hypochondriac on behalf of my daughter, so be it.  There just seems to be so many weird and strange sicknesses, some even life-threatening, that kids can be afflicted with, I don't want to take any chances (and I may possibly read too many blogs about the random thing that has happened to someones child...makes me sad and just a tad paranoid) with my daughter. 
Anyway, the doctor looked Sophia over very carefully.  She said she did not have a rash or any type of infection.  I was able to show her a short video of Sophia and what she was doing....and the doctor admitted it seemed a bit weird.  She offered me one scenario....that maybe it was something that felt good to Sophia and that was why she was doing it.  She said sometimes little girls will strain or even grind against something between their legs because it will feel good to them....they will do it for a while and then just stop doing it altogether.  I was thinking that didn't sound terrible....but the doctor went on to say that she was a little concerned with the arm stiffening and shaking that was going along with it.  She said that sometimes kids can have little seizures and still remain conscious...and so she wanted to just be safe rather than sorry and have me take Sophia to a pediatric neurologist.  Given my own experiences with neurologists (I swear, I hear that word and all I think is MRI...ugh) I started to feel a little upset and nervous and anxious.  The pediatrician said that they would most likely want to do an EEG on Sophia to determine what was going on.  I almost gagged when I asked, but I did ask if they would have to do an MRI....I explained that it was what they made me do at the neurologist....I can't imagine that for my child (even though I know they will put her to sleep for it, there would just be no other way).  She said she didn't think so, unless they found some reason to....but she was quick to say that she felt like Sophia was a normal little girl and that this was all just precautionary, just to be sure we weren't missing anything.  I appreciated that she didn't just dismiss me and send me on my way for being a crazy first time mother.  I was surprised to see that on her list of recommended pediatric neurologists, was the neurologist that I saw.  I could never imagine him treating children.  So, needless to say, I went with the other doc, haha. 
When I called to make my appointment, they couldn't get Sophia in until mid-August.  I called back to the pediatricians office to ask if that was ok....the doctor had mentioned that they would probably see her pretty quickly, like that week.  My sister said that if it was more urgent, they probably would've made an appointment earlier for Sophia.  I hadn't thought of that, so I started to relax a bit.  But then I got a call from the pediatricians office that our appointment was the very next day...and I got a little nervous all over again. 
At the appointment, they very thoroughly looked over Sophia and asked us a LOT of questions.  We met with not one, but two different doctors.  (both of whom had better personalities than my previous encounter with a neurologist!)  Ultimately they decided that we would need to come back for an 8 hour long EEG, in the office.  Eight entire hours in one of their exam rooms while Sophia would be videotaped and monitored.  Sounded like....fun?  They basically said the same as the pediatrician had said, except that they seemed a little more optimistic that nothing terrible would show up in the EEG....but that if anything suspicious did, they would probably then have to do an MRI to further investigate.  Ugh. 
And so, August 1st, we headed back to the neuro for a looong day.  At first it was just Sophia and me (Michael was planning to come stay with us around lunch time).  They had to hook her head up to all these wires....very similar to when she had her sleep study at 9 months.  But this time, she was the BEST girl.  The nurse who was hooking her up knew about some of the shows that Sophia likes (Super Why, Bubble Guppies) and I sort of laid next to and cuddled Sophia while the nurse hooked her up.  She didn't cry at all and only whined a couple times that she wanted to go home.  Then the nurse wrapped up her head and hooked her up to the computer....which was monitoring her brain waves (I think) and also the video camera was on us the whole time.  I had to push this button (kinda like at the hospital when you have an IV drip and can push the button for more medicine....it looked like that) every time Sophia would stiffen up and then write the time on a log and a brief description of what she would do.
All set up and ready to play!

After an hour or so, we set up her sleeping bag on the floor and started to color (I had brought tons of toys and snacks for the day).  Then I noticed a little line of ants on the floor.  Gross.  I let the first person I saw know that we had an ant brigade in the room and then Sophia and I had to sit on a chair for about an hour and a half before someone came in to tell us they were going to spray and we would have to leave the room for a bit.  Try and keep an active toddler in your lap for that long!  I couldn't believe how good Soph was being, but she was getting pretty tired at that point.  They unhooked her and we had to go out in the hall for about half an hour. 
Here she is taking a little yogurt raisin snack break out in the lobby of the building....



Daddy showed up shortly after this to hang out with us.  We went back into the office to get hooked back up and play a little more and eat some lunch.  Michael was able to stay for an hour and a half or so and then he had to go back to work.  Sophia was sooo tired at this point (maybe it was close to 2)...I held her in the chair and rocked her and sang to her until she finally fell asleep.  I ended up falling asleep for about a half an hour too....Soph slept for about an hour total....my neck and back were killing me from slumping in the chair to make it more comfortable for her...and neither of us really got enough of a nap.  Once she woke up we played a little more.  Had some more snacks.  I took some pictures of her....the nurse had called her bandages her "princess hat" and all the wires that came out from behind were her "rapunzel braid".  :-)  Sophia liked that a lot...she loves "Punzel"!!  And of course anything princesses. 

She was still such a happy girl even though she was all wrapped up and tethered to the computer.  When five o'clock finally rolled around, we were SO ready to go home.  Two nurses came in and it took a good half an hour to get Sophia unhooked.  She was a good girl for that too, only crying when they had to pull some tape with one of the electrodes off her back....poor thing, it must've really hurt.  She was SUCH a trooper the whole day.  As of now, we haven't heard what the results of the test are.  They did tell us it would take a long time to go through eight hours of video plus the monitoring that was going on...matching it with what I wrote and when I clicked the button.  It just seems like so much time has passed and still we haven't heard what could be the issue.  I am hoping and praying that it will be nothing out of the ordinary.  And while it was definitely a very long day for both Soph and I, it was not a traumatic day for her....just like her sleep study, she won't be negatively affected by it at all and after a while, won't even remember it (she probably already forgot about it).  Now to just wait on the results....post to come for sure.  Please keep my girl in your thoughts!



Sophia's Joke

Sophia is pretty good at using my and Michael's iphones.  She can look through all the pictures and videos we have taken, can play some games, can find songs on the ipod part of the phone.  She also likes for Michael to find videos for her to watch on YouTube.  (for example, she'll say she wants to see Barney sing something and Michael will just find it on YouTube)  Once she watches one video, there are all sorts of suggestions for "similar" video clips that pop up. 
One day pretty recently, she found this...


She thinks it's the funniest thing in the world.  She really laughs hysterically, like she totally gets the joke.  It's hilarious.  Sometimes, when she senses that we aren't happy about something, she'll just say "I'm a sugar bowl" and start laughing.  It always makes us smile and crack up.  So she seems to also understand how to use a joke.  My silly little comedian girl.  :-) 

Super Why Live!

Obviously I have been awol on the blog....let's just chalk that up to long doc appointments for Sophia, family in from out of town the few days before we moved my little brother to college, packing up our own place to move into our new house the day after we moved Dillon....it's been a pretty busy time.  I am going to attempt to catch everything up as best as I can. 

The day after Aerosmith (which was a late night for me) we had to bring Sophia to a pediatric neurologist (post to come on those details...basically her and I can't seem to stay away from the neuro docs!!) appointment.  It was in the afternoon (our pediatrician had called and moved our mid-August appt up to as soon as possible) and then after we got done there, we had to hurry home for a nap....that evening we had tickets to see Super Why Live at the Cobb Energy Center!

If you don't have a young kid, you might not have ever heard of Super Why.  It's a show on PBS about some 'kids' that turn into super heroes and jump into books...well, you just have to watch it.  Lots of good spelling and alphabet and reading stuff.  Sophia recognizes quite a few letters and can sing her ABCs and I give some credit to this show for that.  She LOVES it.  A couple months ago, my sister saw Super Why Live was going to be in Birmingham.  I was all set to head over there and go see it with her and Cooper and me and Soph....but Coop didn't have any interest in going.  So I googled it and found that it was going to hit the Atlanta area too. 

We had to eat at the Cobb Energy Center and I will say the choices for food were not that great.  There weren't even a lot of choices to begin with but we settled on chicken fingers for Soph (and got the last dish of it...there were a lot of people behind us too, so weird that they ran out) and Michael got a hot dog.  I got a small bag of caramel popcorn...and it was pretty gross.  Oh well.  We weren't allowed to bring the food into the theater (understandable) but there was really nowhere to sit down...so we pulled up a patch of floor and ate as quickly as we could before going to find our seats.  Not the best dining experience, that is for sure. 

Since her first experience with the movie theater didn't go so well, I was interested to see how she would like more of a live theater experience.  I thought it might help that it was a show where she knew all the characters and lots of the songs and phrases they say every show already.  We had to buy a ticket for her (ages 1 and up needed tickets...stupid, if you ask me.  What 1 year old, Sophia included, would be able to see the show sitting in a seat of their own?  In Birmingham it was ages 2 and up needed a ticket...better, but I still think a 2 year old would have to sit on a lap to be able to see.  Whatever, guess they have to make their money some way.) but she only sat in her seat before the show started and was up in my lap when the lights went down.  She seemed pretty scared...she didn't cry but she was holding on to me pretty tight...and her heart was racing so fast I was worried she would have a little baby heart attack!  After a little while though she started to relax and was dancing in my lap and singing and stuff....every single time Super Why left the stage, she would ask me where he was!  I heard the little girl next to me (also on her mother's lap, even though she was probably a couple years older than Soph) ask her mom the very same thing, haha.  One funny part....they pretty much say a few key phrases every single show (and they kept the live show pretty close to the TV show, which I liked)...well at one point, we were all shouting out the answer or completing the phrase or something (Soph included) and Michael totally shouted out the wrong thing.  I was laughing hysterically at him....he said he isn't familiar with every single phrase because he works and doesn't watch the show every single day.  It was still really funny.  Another funny-ish thing...the couple behind us (maybe had two kids with them) was drinking beer or wine or something the whole show.  Actually that one was pretty weird.....A) that they even served alcohol at a show geared to kids and B) that this couple was drinking it up at a show geared towards kids.  I guess I have gotten old.  Or more mature.  Whatever. 

Pig is Sophia's favorite character on the show.  At one point, he was out in the middle of the audience, only a couple rows ahead of us. She freaked out, she was SO excited.  She waved like a maniac to him and he was waving too (generally, to the crowd, not really just to her)....and she STILL talks about how Pig waved to her ("Like this"....complete with crazy arm waving...HA!).

It wasn't a very long show....maybe an hour total of showtime with a 15 minute intermission in between.  Pretty perfect for a little kid.  We took a few pictures in front of the energy center (oh yeah, her Daddy bought her a glowing wand...that might be one of the other ways they make their money, haha) and she was asleep in the car practically before we got out of the parking garage.  :-) 

Sophia LOVED the show.  She still talks about it all the time, and how she wants to see Super Why again when they come back.  Um, I sure hope they come back!!