Video of Ayla locking us out / No more Pull-Ups YEA!!

Here is the video if you couldn't see it in my last post where I explained how Ayla, my one year old, locked us out of the house the other day;-)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I still don't know how she did it, b/c she can barely reach the deadbolt!! I can't believe how fast that hour and 10 or 15 minutes went by!! Good thing it was 50 out instead of freezing cold;)

Lil' Chris has been doing so well with waking up dry, that I just put him down for a nap with his undies on instead of a pull-up. I sure hope he wakes up dry;-) LOL!! I'm praying for NO MORE PULL-UPS!! YEA!!
M

Ayla locked us out / Bad Night / Potty training

So, my lovely 1 year old locked us out of the house tonight! We were coming home from Oma and Opa's and I took Ayla into the house, put down my purse, and went back out into the garage to get Lil' Chris out of the van. When we went to go back into the house, the door was locked!! Ayla had locked the deadbolt! If I had my purse, I would have had the key, but I took it in when I took her in! Luckily I had my phone in my pocket, so I called Chris to come home. I also called a neighbor to come help us. Thanks Andrea and John for all of your help!!

After about an hour, Ayla was spent and said she wanted to go "night night." Since she didn't have her blankie, she took off her jacket and curled up on the floor with it in front of the front door and started sucking her finger. I tried to get her to get up to continue to help get the door unlocked, but she wasn't having it. She did a good job though the whole time. She stayed in the foyer where I could see her through the front door. She cried a couple of times b/c she wanted me to hold her. So at 9pm, I finally called the fire department and they came and couldn't get it. Then a police officer came and tried it and he was able to get it open!!! YEA!! I gave him a BIG hug and told him I loved him;) LOL!! I was just glad that Ayla was fine and that we didn't have to break a door or window to get in.

As for an update on Lil' Chris...He is still doing great!! One more day of November and still no cold, cough, or antibiotics YEA!!! We officially broke the curse of an antibiotic every other month in 2010 WOO HOO!! Now lets see if we can go all December too;-)

A couple of nights ago, Lil' Chris was up for about 3 hours throwing up off and on. We think he may have had some soy protein, b/c that is what usually happens when he has anything with soy protein in it. He was fine the next day though.

On a good note....Lil' Chris has been doing GREAT with potty training at night and nap time!!! His pull-up was only wet like 2 times all last week!!!!!! That's morning and nap time that he has been waking up dry!!! I can't believe my lil' 3 year old isn't so little anymore...but I sure am glad not to have to change sheets anymore, esp now that he has a full size bed;-) LOL!!!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, we sure did!! Please continue to pray we make it through cold and flu season with no problems!

M

Over 700 Hours on the Vest!!! / CysticLife=Cool Stuff:)

I've been so busy lately, that I didn't realize that Lil' Chris had surpassed the 700 mark!! He pushed the button by accident on the Vest machine yesterday and I was shocked to see 715 Hours!! Time flies, even when it's spent on a shaking Vest 1 hour EVERY day!!

In the pics above, you can see that the velcro straps are tight again! YEA!! So glad we got this 2nd blue Vest! The velcro on it is WAY better!! Plus, it's nice to have a second one for when we wash this one;)

As for a CF Update...Lil' Chris is doing GREAT!! PRAISE GOD!! I was just looking at his cold/cough/antibiotic lists on the right hand side of this blog and noticed that he is due for another cough soon and antibiotic...well, at least that's how it seems to have been going this whole year...every other month he has been on an antibiotic for a bad cough. We are trying REALLY hard to hopefully skip this month;) We went to Vitamin World and bought more chewable Vitamin C's (500mg's) and a new Omega 3. This new one has Vitamin D in it too which is GREAT for trying to prevent colds, so I'm told;-)

We weren't sure if the kids would like the pineapple that they added to this new one, but we bought it anyway and they LOVE it!! They each get one Omega 3+D and one Vitamin C every day to help keep the sniffles away;) Why? Because every time Lil' Chris gets a cold, he ends up with a bad cough, which ends up with antibiotics;( So we gotta keep those colds AWAY!! I was SO glad when one of our sitters told me that she had a cold a few days before she was supposed to come, so that I could find someone else. We LOVE our sitters...they "GET IT"!! :)

Lil' Chris' next CF clinic appointment is on Dec 15th. Please pray that he stays as healthy as possible and that all of us stay as healthy as possible since it seems like once one of us gets sick...ALL of us get sick!! Everyone at work can attest that I always carry my sanitizer;-)Mommy's gotta stay healthy to keep her boy healthy:-) I LOVE YOU LIL' CHRIS!!!!!!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hey, do you guys remember me talking about how AWESOME CysticLife.org is?? Well, it's hard to believe that it's been almost a whole year that Ronnie and Mandi and their friends started CL!! They are doing something fun for their birthday, so here it is in Ronnie's words.... "It's time for the 2011 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE and we're dreaming big. We want 2011 new members to join CysticLife.org by January 11, 2011 (our first birthday). THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY TO NEW MEMBERS: Everyone that joins before 11/22 will be entered to win an iPod Shuffle. (Also, don't forget that everyone that joins during the drive will be entered to win an iPad!!) Join TODAY!!" http://www.CysticLife.org/ (Remember...you don't have to have CF or be a CF mom like myself to join CL. It can be ANYONE!! I love CL, b/c I know that there is always a place I can go to if I have ANY questions about CF or just want to learn more about CF!!)

CysticLife is also up for a Pixel award, isn't that sooooo cool?!?! Please vote and share this with anyone and everyone you know. How cool would it be for CL to win a web award? You can vote everyday!! http://www.pixelawards.com/nom_win_2010.php#Blogs VOTE VOTE VOTE!!

Thanks for everything,

M

Bad Night / Good Day

The kids(meaning Lil' Chris, Ayla, Chris, and our friend Spencer;-) got to meet Sponge Bob the other day at Panera Bread. We LOVE Panera Bread, especially since they supplied a TON of bagels for our walk for CF last year;-)

Lil' Chris didn't have a great night last night. He ended up coming in our room around 1:15am. He came to my side of the bed and wanted me to put him back in his bed. This isn't new, b/c lately he has been doing this b/c we are trying to potty train him at night time. I've been getting up to put him on the potty in the middle of the night, and now he wakes up by himself and comes and gets me, but he sometimes won't go on the potty, he just wants to go back to bed. I think it's b/c it's too late. At least he is waking up though and realizing it!

Anyways....last night I put him back in bed, and then about 5-10 minutes later, he came back to my side of the bed and BAM!! He threw up all over my side of the bed and floor before I could grab the trash can!! I thought he was going to be up all night throwing up like he used to when he was little, but he went back to bed and fell right to sleep for the rest of the night. He has been acting fine today, thankfully. It must have just been something he ate yesterday???? IDK, but today it's 61 degrees and beautiful outside, so we had a lot of fun at the soccer fields running around and kicking the soccer ball!! We were going to go to a Kohl's A-team event, but I didn't think he should go just in case.

The dietitian from BCMH came to our house today and said that Lil' Chris is doing GREAT!! His weight is 35.8 and his height is 40!!! He is in the 95th percentile for height and 75th for weight!! YEA!! She gave me some titles of a couple of children recipe books to order. Hopefully he will start eating more different foods soon, so it's not always just hot dogs or lunch meat or french fries.

More good news....The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has teamed up with Warner Home Video and CVS Pharmacy again this year!! They are donating $5 for every DVD purchase of one of these holiday movies to the CFF:

-"The Polar Express"

-"How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

-"The Year Without a Santa Clause"

-"Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales"

I went to go buy The Polar Express today, but our CVS was all out...hopefully that's a good sign!! Please spread the word!!

Thank you all for all of your prayers!! Please continue to pray that we all have a very healthy Fall and Winter:)

M

Fundraising Award / New Vest and Hoses

Poster at the awards ceremony above...

Close up of Lil' Chris' pic on the poster:)...

New Pipeline chart...

The award I was given at the award ceremony:) YEA!!...

A few nights ago, Chris and I went to an Appreciation Ceremony on behalf of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I was awarded for all my fundraising efforts and for raising the most money for the Wooster walk this past year!! YEA!! It's all thanks to YOU all who donated and to Kohl's for all the $500 grants for most of my fundraiser!!

So THANK YOU to:

• ALL my friends and family who donated
• ALL my awesome neighbors who donated, did a bake sale, and came to the walk:)


• ALL my Kohl's associates who helped out with all my fundraisers


• My boss, Bob, for letting me do Jeans 4 Genes days at work for 4 months and to ALL the associates who participated:)


• EVERYONE from the motorcycle run
  
• CiCi's Pizza for letting me do most of my fundraisers there AND for the 12 or 13 different CiCi's Pizza that did Pin-Ups for CF for the month of May.
• all the other restaurants I did a fundraiser at...Tumbleweed, Applebee's, & Friendly's.


• my MIL for setting up a walk in NJ for Lil' Chris and doing other fundraisers as well


• my sister, D, for setting up a walk in NC and doing fundraisers at her kids school and at a bouncy house.


• and ALL that made the walk a success!!

I couldn't have done it without you ALL!!!! CF WILL STAND FOR CURE FOUND SOON!!!!

In other news....I had to order ANOTHER set of hoses for the Vest!! I think that's the 5th or 6th time since we got the new blue Vest and it hasn't even been a year yet!! YIKES!! Hopefully they improve the new Vests soon. I also told them that the velcro on the shoulder straps are not sticking very well anymore too. They said to just order a new one and when it gets too bad, we can just change it. So we got the 2 new hoses and new blue outer shell the other day. I haven't washed the new shell yet, so here is a pic of what the old one was doing...(we had to keep the straps in the back instead of the front to make it tight, b/c it stuck better back there but would still pop off sometimes)....

Thanks again everybody for all that you do for Lil' Chris!! We love you all!!

M

Carving Pumpkins / New BIG Boy Bed!!!

Last night was soooooo much fun!!! We had a couple of friends over and we had fun carving pumpkins!! YEA!! BTW, Chris won with his spider web;) It was pretty cool looking and it didn't even take him as long as I thought it would! Thanks Andrea and John for bringing your carving kit over and helping us carve the pumpkins:)

After that, John helped Chris put together Lil' Chris' new BIG boy bed!!! I can't believe he's actually big enough for a big boy bed!! He was starting to out grow his toddler bed. Lil' Chris was sooooo excited(pee pants excited;), he even tried helping put it together;-) Once it was all done, we weren't sure if he was going to be able to get up there all by himself or not, but before we could all make it up the stairs to see if he could climb up or not....he was already jumping up and down on it!!! It was great seeing his face light up!! I love watching him reach these kinds of milestones!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We told him that he can't wet the bed in his big boy bed, so we'll see if this helps with his night time potty training. He still wears pull-ups to bed and nap time. Hopefully this does the trick;) We are also hoping that he won't get out of bed so much anymore. Sometimes when we would put him down for nap or bed, he would get up and sneak downstairs and peak around the corner or he would just stand outside his bedroom door waiting to get yelled at. He's too funny, but it was only funny the first few times...if you know what I mean;-) Now with his new bed, maybe he won't want to get out of it since he likes it so much!! I know...wishful thinking:) So far, so good though! He didn't get out at all and went right to sleep, then again...he did have a very busy day and it was pretty late by the time he got into bed:) Only time will tell, I guess!


Although he is having a great night sleeping away in his nice big bed...Mommy lies awake worried that he may fall off or pee through. I was supposed to pick up a water proof mattress cover beforehand and I forgot. So I got up at 2:30 to put him on the potty and, well....here it is 5am and I am still awake! Oh well, who needs sleep anyways;) At least I can get this post done with no interruptions;) LOL!

Thanks again John and Andrea for all of your help carving pumpkins, putting the bed together, and for always watching the kids and being so good with them!!! You guys ROCK!! I don't know what we would do without you guys!!
M

Halloween Pics 2010

Here are the Halloween pics we got taken the other day. So glad Kiddie Candids opened back up! I didn't like Picture People, and I just HAVE to get there pics taken every now and then. Pictures are really important to me when it comes to Lil' Chris, b/c you just never know when this disease is going to flare up.

Lil' Chris is 3 and Ayla is 21 months. Boy time flies!! They are getting soooo big!! You would never know by looking at these pics that Ayla was screaming and crying a minute before;) LOL! She doesn't like her picture being taken....I wonder where she gets that from;-) LOL!!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lil' Chris can't wait to go trick or treating!! He keeps saying "Halloween's coming soon!" :) Since we didn't get anything on our door this year as to when our development was doing trick or treat, another neighbor and I picked a date and time and printed the flyers and then went and passed them around to all the houses in our development! :) Thanks Andrea and Jon for all of your help!!! Our trick or treat is going to be on Halloween night, Sunday 31st from 6pm to 8pm. We can't wait!! Lil' Chris is probably going to go around to all the houses on his motorcycle since his costume is a biker;-) The apartments next to us are doing their trick or treat on Sat from 6-8, so Lil' Chris may be Spiderman for that one;-)

Last night we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins to carve tonight. That was the first time we walked all through the patch to find the perfect pumpkins for each of us. It was so much fun, even though they were all picked over since it's only 1 week before Halloween!! I never realized how different looking pumpkins could be! We saw one that was in the shape of a big apple!! :) Lil' Chris' favorite part was the wagon:) At night time, he said in his prayers, "Thank you for the pumpkins, and thank you for the red wagon!" Too cute!! Here are some pics from our perfect pumpkin hunting....

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

M

CF Update / Vest Question / Halloween Pic

Sorry it's been so long since I have updated this blog. Life has been crazy at work... we had inventory, and we've been hiring like crazy!! When I'm at home, I just want to relax and enjoy the kids:) Also, since watching 7 year old Conner and other young CFers pass away recently...it puts things into perspective that I need to spend as much time with Lil' Chris as I can and savor every moment, not spend it on the computer(no offense;) Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to update, just not as often.

Since I have updated last, I have had to order ANOTHER set of hoses for the Vest!!! Good thing they make it easy and they come the next day, otherwise it would be a HUGE pain! Does anyone else have this problem with the new color washable Vests??? Also, the velcro on the shoulder straps don't stick very well. I know of only one other CF mom who has had the same problem....does anyone else have that problem??? Just curious, b/c the last time I had to order hoses, I asked them if they get a lot of complaints about these 2 things on these new Vests, and they said no.

Last Thursday, Lil' Chris and Ayla got their flu shot. It has the H1N1 in it as well this year instead of them having to get 2 shots, so that was nice. Lil' Chris was complaining about his leg hurting after the shot and would barely walk on it. Once I took the bandaide off he was fine;) LOL! Also, we all 4 got our hair cut too! Yup...that's right...I said ALL 4, including Ayla!! It was her very first hair cut!! Well, to be honest it was more like a bang trim, but it's still cutting some hairs!! ;-) LOL! I didn't want to cut the sides or back, b/c she is a girl and I want it to grow out. Her bangs were getting into her eyes, so those really needed cut! She did a great job! She wouldn't sit by herself, but neither would Lil' Chris his first time;) The girl gave her a lollipop and she was good to go!! :)

No other news to report, which is GREAT!! No one is sick and Lil' Chris' cough went away with that last round of Augmentin, thank God!! Please pray we have a healthy Fall and Winter! If I forgot to mention...his throat culture came back the same as last time, nothing to worry about for now, PTL!!

Lil' Chris can't wait until Halloween!! He keeps talking about it:) We got their pics done the other day, so here is one of them...
Hope you all are doing well!!
M