Oh the sickness

This winter has brought its fair share of sickness into our household. Gabe and I (and half his class at school) had a stomach bug Thurs-Sat. Today Gabe is doing better, but has developed a little cough and is still not wanting to eat. Poor guy. I can't wait for the spring when I can open the windows and air this place out. I hope Gabe is okay to go to school tomorrow....because mama has to go to work. That's right...maternity leave is over as of tomorrow. I think I would totally be fulfilled being a stay at home mom and offering volunteer nursing care somewhere. Oh well, I like my job, we need the insurance, and it's nice having the second income. Alyssa and Justin have escaped the sickness luckily. I have washed and Lysol-ed everything this weekend so hopefully there germs around Alyssa are minimal.
Here's to a good week back at work!
Also, check out Gabe's independent standing. He's able to do it pretty easily now.

Preschool prep

We met with Kenton County School Board this week to discuss Gabe's options for preschool and the transition from First Steps into the school system. In KY, you can start preschool when you turn 3 if you have special needs or are on a food program. We are very fortunate that the public preschool for our neighborhood has a good reputation. Gabe also has the option to stay at Redwood for preschool. We think we would like him to go to public preschool as it will prepare him a little better for kindergarden and be a different feel from just a daycare setting. He will be pushed and it will be good for him. He would attend at afterschool program at Redwood. The IEP process is overwhelming. Gabe riding the bus is overwhelming. The next step is for us to tour the school in March. The good news is they have a nurse there and a teacher and 2 aids in the classroom for 20 students. Hopefully Gabe won't have his gtube then. He is still preferring to take little sips initiated by us instead of big gulps initiated by him. Hopefully Gabe will be walking independently by then. He could walk...he just chooses not to right now. I think it's too much effort at this point and he is just stubborn. Anyway, alot can happen between now and August, so we'll see how it goes.

Alyssa is doing well. She is finally sleeping for longer stretches at night. She's consistently going to bed around 9:30pm, waking up to eat at 2:30am then going back to sleep till 6:30am. Sometimes it is difficult to get her to fall back asleep after the 2:30am feeding, but overall, this is a huge improvement. What was the trick you ask?....sleeping in the bouncer. We'll worry about that later. Gabe loves Alyssa. He is into everything she is doing and wants to "help". Today I was feeding her a bottle and he scooted over to me on his butt and gave me a burp cloth...such a smart boy.

I go back to work in a week. I'm having mixed feelings....

cold and flu season...yuck

After a week of sickness, we are all feeling much better. Gabe and I had the respiratory bug and Alyssa had a slight fever and irritability (luckily no respiratory symptoms for her so far). After 2 trips to the doctor and 3 phone calls to the nurse, we are all much happier.

Poor Gabe was walking holding onto dad with just one hand and fell walking into school the other day. He needs to learn to put his hands down to catch himself...lets just say he's still learning. Justin felt bad, but his other hand couldn't get to him in time...now Gabe looks like rudolph again.