Life as a Leach

Only doctors call Abby Abigail.   Because of that, it has developed a bit of a negative stigma for her.  I think she equates Abigail  to doctors and everything that comes with it...hospitals, needles, long car rides, blood, pain, etc.  She has recently chosen to completely disregard anyone who calls her Abigail. Don't get me wrong--I love the name Abigail!  I chose it, after all!!  It was actually my intention to most often use that as her name and not call her Abby exclusively, but when she came out so tiny and frail, yet so full of spunk, Abby just fit.  She will forever be my Abby Joy! So, at a recent visit to the pulmonologist (who, out of all of her specialists, is probably the best with Abby), she came in and greeted her with a cheery, "Well, hi, Abigail!"  To which, Abby turned her head, glared at her, and stated just as clear as day, "My name is Abby !" Thankfully, our pulmonologist has a good sense of humor and just laughed, saying,...

 It's going to take a few posts in order to fully blog about Caleb's Star Wars party.  I'm separating it into a couple of different sections, but the Jedi training definitely deserves its own post!! I got most of my ideas from Pinterest.  You can see my Star Wars board here .  As usual, I take the ideas and put my own twist on them.  I do love going to Pinterest to get the ideas flowing though, and it's fun to see how others do their parties. We did the party a bit backwards, having kids eat as soon as they came in, then sing Happy Birthday and do cake, and then do presents....all before the activities.  That's because the activity was Jedi Training, and I wanted to push all of the tables back to give as much room as possible.  (Reason #237 why this party was not at my house!) So here's the overall look of the food table... I found these toothpicks at the dollar store.  I thought they looked like light sabers, but apparently I ...

Happy 6th birthday to my sweet, caring, selfless little boy.   Here are just a few things I love about you! *  You greet me every morning with a big hug and ask, "How was your good night's sleep?" *  You are absolutely obsessed with Star Wars...and Momma knows absolutely nothing about it! *  You are always worried about those around you and have more compassion than a lot of other kids your age. *  You love to get your head rubbed. *  You understand the love languages and not only express how you like to be shown love, but try to show others love using their love language too.  (Isn't this kid amazing?!) *  You have such a heart for the Ronald McDonald House and are so great at collecting soda tabs! *  You have great taste in music! I love you, Caleb Boy!  I can't believe you are 6 already!

If you're wondering if the kids had a good time at Caleb's Star Wars party, just watch this video of Darth Vader getting attacked by a bunch of young Jedis! There are many more pictures and videos to show!  :)

I discovered last night that Abby loves Doritos and Cheetos! Now, I have to say that we do not normally have these types of foods in our house...like, ever!  But I had bought one of the big containers of snack mix for Caleb's party and Doritos and Cheetos were part of it.  She pointed to it and said, "Want some!" so I figured I would try it.   Low and behold, she ate about 20 Doritos and maybe 10 Cheetos!!!!!  Like, bit, chewed, and swallowed them!!  It was amazing to see her munching away at real  food!  I don't care that these weren't the healthiest food choices in the world--she's eating!!!!

We aren't sure what Abby has/had yet, but we do know that it is NOT C-DIFF!!! The only culture that has come back so far is C-Diff, so we are still waiting for the other parasite testing and blood work.  Regardless, this is good news!!! Now maybe I can stop obsessively cleaning everything Abby touches with bleach. Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayers.  And thank you, my prayer warriors! Now if only we can get our dryer fixed...Sears said they won't be able to come out for a week and a half!  Most of the stuff waiting to be washed is now stuff that wasn't necessarily "dirty," (coats, gloves, hats, etc.) but they are now since they've been in baskets with other dirty stuff!  Oh well.

I feel like pretty  much every blog recently starts with an apology for a delay in posting.  But, such is life when your life is busy like mine! This time, my excuse for not writing sooner revolves around bleach, disinfectant, and laundry. But let me back up a bit. I took Abby to the GI on Friday, and she feels like it is C-Diff.  Boo.  She had Abby do blood work while we were there, and we should get all of the results for the tests they've run either Monday or Tuesday  I'm hoping for Monday! Since she did feel like it was C-Diff, our GI went ahead and put us on precautions.  Basically, that means that Abby isn't going anywhere for a while, we wear gloves when changing her diaper, giving her a bath, etc., we are washing our hands with antibacterial soap and hot water very, very often (C-Diff is alcohol resistant, so hand sanitizer doesn't work), and we are cleaning everything with bleach.  When I say everything, I mean everything.   It is...