Keeping Busy

I know I haven't blogged Halloween yet, but I still haven't even gotten the pictures off the camera! I know, mom of the year here. But I thought I would do a little catch up on the kids.

They are busy busy and keep me on my toes. They are loving school and always catch me off guard by how much they know. Ella was creating "art" out of the computer zip cords and she told me she was an architect.

We have been spending a lot of time between doctors offices with Audrey. Right after we got back from our cruise we went to see Dr. Hart, Audrey's neurologist/sleep doctor. She went over all the sleep study results with us. Audrey does really well sleeping her first few hours and goes through all the stages of sleep regularly. After a couple hours though she wakes up continually and doesn't go into the deeper stages of sleep either at all or long enough. She also moves a lot in her sleep. She was diagnoised with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. The high average is 4 limb movements an hour. Audrey had 7.4. It is like restless leg syndrome in adults but kids can't tell the doctor if they are having some of the itching/burning/etc that goes with RLS. The doctor said that it CAN turn into RLS but not necessarily. She may just outgrow it. Low ferratin levels can cause this which iron supplements may be able to help but they probably won't fix her symptoms so Dr. Hart prescribes Gabapentin. The first week we only gave her 1 ml. She was still a little sick and instead of waking up 2-3 times a night she was up 8-10 times. We were dying. The second week you up the dosage to 2ml. She has been pretty much sleeping through the night ever since. In two weeks she has gotten up 3 times. That was her average a night so I will take it! I feel like I have a new lease on life.


Ella has taken up a new hobby. She has started taking pictures. I actually really like most of the pictures she takes. Most of her shots have perspective, a subject and interesting angles. Very few of them are blurry and she isn't just snapping randomly. She really looks at the shot before taking them. Audrey tries too, but most of her shots are of her own fingers at this point. Here is some of her work. I pretty much have "given" her Tom's old digital camera. She can't open it or close it on her own though, so we are considering getting her a kids camera for Christmas.

Here's a few gems from the little ones lately. (You may have already seen them on Facebook)

Birkdale has been putting up their Christmas decorations and Ella has been getting excited and asking a lot about when Christmas is and what she wants.

Me: Ella, do you remember what Christmas is for? Ella: Getting presents. Me: No it is Jesus' birthday. Ella thinks a little then: Mom, how old is he going to be?

Audrey cannot say restaurant. She calls it a rest-ar-not. When Tom's family was here we went out to dinner and Audrey went around dancing and singing. "We're going to a rest-ar-not, we're going to a rest-ar-not".

Out of nowhere Ella came up to me and asked Mom what are you good at? Me: Well, um cleaning the house and being a good mom. Ella:AND you are good at making me lunch. Dad isn't so good at that. He gets distracted.

Audrey can't say love right. She lu-ths you. Tells you this a lot. She loves giving out hugs (rarely kisses though). On Sundays before she can leave Nursery she has to hug both her teachers and tell them she lu-ths them. She also frequently tells me, Tom, Ella and Miss Meagan that we are her BEST FWENDS.

On Saturday we got Ella a couple new dresses and there was one that she absolutely loves. She waited as patiently as she could all Saturday to be able to wear it on Sunday. It was the first thing she asked to do when she woke up was to get dressed in her new black dress. When she put it on she asked "Do you like my new dress? I am a beautiful princess" (as she was twirling and prancing) Me: yes you are. Ella: Do you know what I am missing? Me: No (but I was thinking she was going to say a crown, a necklace or her newest favorite- makeup) Ella: A prince.