The results are in...

 This little foolio of mine has sleep apnea. "Mild" sleep apnea they called it, but still, the child does not sleep like he should. I actually started crying when she told me. There's a reason! A REASON!!! Some common symptoms of childhood sleep apnea--daytime hyperactivity (check), moodiness (check), irritability (yes, go on...), etc. We go see the pediatric ENT again on Thursday to hear what she thinks we should do. I'm guessing surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids (which I hear is brutal). We've tried Flonase, but nothing much has changed. This gives me hope that things can change and improve.

My Valentine's Day poem, from Seth

I Remember

If you feel a bit ploughed under

Ground all day by little boys

If you sometimes sigh and wonder

What became of former joys

Close your eyes and picture this

Sunlight gleams on waving corn

Part your lips now for the kiss

Heady summer love reborn

I remember who you are

I have not forgotten

You're the comely cookie jar

This thief's hand was caught in

Sleep Study

 Brice's sleep study took place last week. I knew what an ordeal this might be for him, so I made sure to really prep him and get him super excited--you and me! staying in a hotel together! you're going to look like a superhero! it's going to be so awesome!! And he bit--he was telling his teacher about it, complete strangers got to hear what he was about to do. So on Thursday night, we packed a bag--complete with his favorite smelly blanket and blue bunny--and headed to the pediatric sleep study center. 

 The room was so much "nicer" than I expected. We really were in what appeared to be a hotel room. There were monkeys on the wall and an IKEA leaf canopy over my bed :)  The pediatric nurse was super nice and showed Brice all the wires and he even got to watch Nick Jr. while she hooked him up.

He really champed it and didn't fuss to much. I think he was just fascinated with it all. The sleep part wasn't great. He cried and whimpered and had a hard time. The nurse told him she could see him on the camera and hear him if he cried out, and Brice took full advantage of it.

"Diana?" "yes Brice?" "Wanna hear me count to 900?"

"Diana?" "yes Brice?" "are you nocturnal?"

In the morning, which in Brice's world was 4:40am, they unhooked him and let us get cleaned up. The nurse wasn't allowed to give me any kind of indication of his sleep quality, so we'll have to wait a couple weeks. I can't really capture how TIRED we both were. I am amazed I didn't crash the car on the way home. And poor Brice fell asleep at 4pm the next day, and proceeded to sleep 14 HOURS. Which really puts a dent in my whole "Brice doesn't sleep well" theory. 

February 16th is the follow-up with the dr., so we'll know more then.

A new Etsy shop, by another "Danielle Suzanne.."

My good friend's Etsy Shop! Check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/danielleCrillyArt?ref=seller_info

Sleep

Brice is not a good sleeper. It has not always been like this. He started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. By 3 months, he was up to 11 hours. As he's gotten older, his sleep has gotten progressively worse. As has his behavior--no big surprise there.

First he was getting up closer to 7, then 6am. Now, we force him to stay in his bed until 6am, because (apparently) he gets up long before then. We have found him watching TV in the basement at 3am. Sometimes he'll get up in the morning and tell us he got up at 3, then 4, then 5. And we believe him. He always has dark circles under his eyes. ALWAYS. And he's just so tired all the time. He yawns, he's irritable, he melts down with the slightest provocation. Some of this is his personality. He's intense and emotional. But we just knew that sleep must play a big part in this.

We've tried everything we could think of--melatonin, Benadryl, warm milk. Putting him to bed early, later, blackout curtains. You name it. We had him tested for allergies. Cut out gluten and dairy. Nothing worked. I was googling "black circles under eyes" and saw a common thread--adenoids. So I made an appt. with his pediatrician. Tonsils and adenoids were fine. DANG!!!  But on a hunch, I made an appt. with a pediatric ENT. We went today. She stuck a long scope up his nose and lo and behold...his adenoids are HUGE. As are his tonsils. How did the pediatrician miss this? I don't know.

But apparently he has 90% blockage in his adenoids. So, when he turns 5 in three weeks (knock me over with a feather--FIVE--how did this happen??) we will do a sleep study where they hook up his head and monitor his sleep to see what's really going on. But this is good news. GREAT NEWS. There is a reason! He might start sleeping well and long. No more black circles! We told him this at our celebratory Starbucks stop and do you know what he said?

"Will this help me be good?"

Oh, Brice. Sweet Brice. It's a start, at least :)

Where we've been...

 The boys discover how to climb on the outside of the staircase.

The boys carve a pumpkin with "papa" in his workroom. Notice my father's steady hand while Harry literally hangs on him. 

 Brice is psyched. Harry has zero interest in wearing his Thomas "costume." We told him, "no costume, no candy." He kept the front piece on, but tossed the hat as soon as he hit the sidewalk.

 We told them, "eat as much as you want."--thinking they would tap out at 5 pieces. They did not. It took us about a week to recover from the 14,000 pieces of candy they ate that night. Live and learn...

 Scully. He's huge. He is already ten pounds over the predicted weight. Good thing he's fluffy.

 Brice wore his costume for 5 days in a row. Harry is in his favorite costume, as well. See how many leaves we had? We have a huge gingko tree in our backyard. Seth insisted on doing it old-school, even though I desperately wanted a leaf blower. 

 This is Brice and Ariella. She is Seth's cousin's daughter. She is so lovely and fun. They came over for Thanksgiving and Brice held her hand the whole weekend (and ate her Cheerios snacks; Harry swiped her babydoll).

 Decorating our tree. This is the first year (in seven!!) we've had a proper Christmas tree (various, boring reasons...). And it's real--also a first for me. The kids LOVED decorating it. Of course, there were about 40 ornaments on the bottom. 

 The boys were beside themselves with joy. Good thing i'm not TypeA, because it was pure chaos. 

Harry brushes his teeth before passing out. Such a big boy. He's even potty training now. He has figured out how to go in small increments, thus maximizing the number of M&Ms he gets. They think they're gaming me; I think they're wonderful.

Fall Cookies!

I wanted to make cookies with the boys. I have never actually made cookies with the kids for good reasons--too stressful with two super high-energy, not all that cooperative children. But my parents were coming into town, so I figured mom could help. I found the recipe for the above cookies. Cute, right? I wasn't excited about using three different dyes, but hey, it's festive! So anyway, the above picture is what they were supposed to look like.

My mom and I went to Target to look for cookie cutters in leaf shapes. Can you believe they didn't have them? So we decided to let the kids make circles, and then Brice could draw veins (you know, leaves!) in them with a toothpick (and I didn't have any, so of course I had to buy 300).

This is the boys in their cookie-making-glory. They look happy, right?

I thought I could get some cute pictures, since they were both actually enjoying the cookie-making. But when I said, "smile Harry!!" this is what I got. Classic. Oh well. And i'm telling you--he's my happy-go-lucky kid.

The cookies were actually delicious.