Happy Birthday Pretty Girl!!!

For those who might not know, last Wednesday (24th) was Isabella's 4th birthday. I can't believe she is 4 already! I remember when I was pregnant with her and so many people told me to enjoy her because "it goes by so fast". Boy oh boy were they right! She's getting so big so quickly. She keeps me on my toes everyday and I can't even remember what life was like without her. On Tuesday after school, I took her over to Cold Stone Creamery to pick out a pack of ice cream cupcakes. Since Grammy was coming to our house over the weekend, I thought I would wait until then to make a birthday cake. When we looked in the case Isabella spotted a pink ice cream cake with flowers. She really wanted that instead of cupcakes. I was torn, because of coarse, I had a coupon for the cupcakes and the cake was twice as much. I decided to let Isabella get the flower cake since she has never had an ice cream cake before. For the record, it was yummy! On her birthday, Raymond had a pulmonology appointment (more about that later). Isabella made sure to tell everyone at the office that it was her special day. They graciously made a fuss over her and gave her a lolly pop and several coloring books. After getting home, we walked over to the farmers market. Isabella was also very eager to tell everyone at the market it was her birthday. Before I continue, I want to point out that we are very loyal to the people we buy from at the farmer's market. Every week we go to the same stands so the owners of the stands know us pretty well. With that being said, Isabella got quite a few free treats - 1 lolly pop, a doughnut, 1/4 lb. of hard salami, 2pcs. licorice and an order of french fries. Now that's a lucky girl!

Gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Raymond and the new baby...

Later that night Grandma and Grandpa called to wish Isabella a happy birthday. She loves to talk on the phone. I don't know where she gets that from because neither Chris nor I particularly like talking on the phone. If this is a sign of what's to come, we are in trouble when she's a teenager!

The next day was Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a great day! I would have posted the birthday pictures sooner but when it's a holiday, especially when Chris has off work a few days, I don't like getting on the computer. I don't like to be "distracted" from my family. I normally get on the computer when the kids are sleeping and Chris is walking Sadie. So anyway, I hope you had a wonderful time with your family and/or friends. It was a little messy outside here in the morning so it was nice not having to go anywhere. We played, watched Christmas movies on TV, made dinner and enjoyed each other's company. This year I made a new recipe, Nantucket Cranberry Pie. It was really good! I will definitely be making it again!

Friday was the twins birthday party - her friends from school. Isabella was very excited. It was mostly a girl party, however, Catherine and Elizabeth's brother and 2 cousins were there. At one point they got pretty out of control. Isabella does not like when any kids, especially boys, act like that. On the way home she told me she had lots of fun but didn't like the "crazy boys".

While we were at the birthday party, Daddy got out the Christmas decorations for us. Isabella loves to decorate for any holiday, especially Christmas.

Daddy took a break from decorating with us to give Raymond a breathing treatment. Raymond didn't have anything to play with so he decided to grab the lamp.

On Sunday Grammy came over to visit for Isabella's birthday. Isabella was watching out the window for her and I was finally able to convince her to get dressed.

Once Grammy arrived, Isabella got to open her birthday presents. Isabella was excited!

Then we went to Stoudtburg Village to walk around a little. They were having a Christmas celebration that Sunday. Afterwards we went to the brewery for lunch. This was the first time we've ever eaten there and the food was very good.

We ended the evening by going to Koziar's Christmas Village. It was a nice night to go.

This painting/picture made me think of Grandpa...

Raymond has discovered that he can sit up all by himself! He does it constantly now. He likes playing with his toys upright better then laying flat. He looks so cute sitting up!

He's also starting to scooch forward a little. He'll be crawling in no time!

As I said before, Raymond had a pulmonology appointment last Wednesday. It was the first time we going to Hershey Medical Center to be seen by their pulmonology department. We had a really good experience with them. The doctor he saw was really great. If I met her walking down the street I would have never guessed she was a doctor. I really liked her. She said that Raymond was right on the edge of having pneumonia. This would be nothing new because Raymond goes from being a little sick to being in the hospital for a week. She gave us two steroids for him to knock it out of his system before it got any worse. She also told me that she really is not a fan of prescribing steroids but felt Raymond really needed them. So he has a 14 day does of those. She also changed his breathing treatment medications which has seemed to help. Raymond was feeling better but since Monday he hasn't been himself again. He's had constant diarrhea and just wants to cuddle. Raymond is always ready to cuddle but he's normally very happy playing on the floor with his books and toys. Over these last few days if I lay him on the floor all he does is lay there and not move. Not normal. He has three doctor's appointments tomorrow so hopefully we will figure out what's going on. Even when Raymond doesn't feel good, he still manages to give the cutest little smiles. What a trooper!

Since we have moved, I haven't switched the kids pediatrician. Now that we are having a third baby I figured now would be the time to make the transition. Their current pediatrician knows that I am looking for a new doctor. It's too much to have to drive 45 minutes to and hour every time I need to take Raymond to the doctor. Isabella normally only needs to go for her annual check-ups. My OBGYN gave me a list of local doctor's and circled a few she felt would be able to handle Raymond's extensive medical history. I've made several phone calls and ran into a lot of brick walls. Because Raymond has Down Syndrome he automatically qualifies for insurance through the state. He is covered by Chris' employer coverage then Gateway (state insurance) is his secondary coverage. Three places I called are not currently excepting any new Gateway patients, even though Blue Cross Blue Shield is primary. A fourth office didn't take Gateway at all. I did however find two places that except Gateway and are taking new patients. The first I didn't care for and I haven't even been to the office yet. The person who schedules the appointment said I needed to have the records transferred first, then a doctor would review them and then at that point I can schedule an appointment. I don't want to have any records transferred until I know I like the office. Raymond's file at Dr. Haggerty's is about 3 1/2 inches thick. Dr. Haggerty plans to just give me the file to hand over to the new doctor. They're definitely not getting the original file until I have seen a doctor and asked many questions about what they can do for our son. So that office has already rubbed me the wrong way. They are out. After talking to them, I then called another office. I explained our situation and that I wanted to make an appointment to essentially interview the doctor who would be in charge of Raymond's care. The receptionist told me that Dr. Kimball, who owns the practice, takes care of all the special needs patients. She recommended that I send her an email explaining all of Raymond's past and present medical conditions. Dr. Kimball would then review that email and get back to me about going forward with an appointment and what she could do for our family. I got a very good feeling about this practice while I was on the phone with them. They would then also take care of Isabella and the new baby. I started to draft a letter to the doctor in Word and it's a long one. I have over 21 health items on the list and I keep adding as I realize that I've missed something. My only concern with switching now is that Raymond gets a shot every month this time of year to help prevent him from getting RSV. The shot is normally only given to children under a year old. It takes special approval from the insurance company for this shot because it's very expensive. It's almost $4000 a shot (and that's after what insurance covers). Yes!!! That much!!! Raymond gets it for 5 months. You do the math. We might still have to go to Dr. Haggerty's so she can administer that once a month but have Raymond's other care transferred. We will see. I don't want to throw that out of whack.

There are a few other miscollanous things I'd like to share with you. First of all, can you believe it's December? Holly cow! Grammy bought Isabella an advent calendar on the Jaquie Lawson website. Today was the first day we were able to view it. It's really cute. Isabella enjoyed wathcing the birds decorate the tree in the village square. It's going to be fun looking at it everyday until Christmas to see what's going to happen next. We also recieved an email from Aunt Mary with a picture of her dog "baking" pumpkin pies. I showed it to Isabella and she thought it was funny. She then got a very serious look on her face. I asked her what she was thinking. She told me that a dog should never be allowed to put it's paws up on the kitchen table. It made me laugh. I told Isabella she's very right. I then explained that Aunt Mary doesn't normally let him do that. She was just taking a funny picture. Satisfied with that explaination, Isabella laughed again and said they better keep an eye on the turkey (which was on the kitchen counter). While on the subject of this spunky now 4 year old, she recieved her progress report from preschool right before Thanksgiving. There are three catigories that your child can fall under; Net yet achived, On the way to achieving and Achieved. Isabella's three report pages had "achieved" circled for everything except three things. Those three things were "On the way to achieving". The three things made Chris and I laugh. The first was being able to catch a ball with two hands. This cracked us up because she really isn't good at catching a ball. Isabella will put her arms out in front of her and if it doesn't land right in her arms she doesn't really move to get it. She's getting better but she needs to get over the fear of the ball hitting her in the face. The second was putting her coat on by herself. Isabella is FULLY able to put her coat on by herself but won't. She likes to hold her shirt sleeves with her hands then slip her fists into the coat so the sleeves don't bunch up. Sometimes at home if my hands are full I'll tell her she has to put her coat on by herself. She does then I hear. "Mommy! My sleeves!" Then I fix the bunched up sleeves and we head out. The last thing was being able to unbotton bottons. This was funny because she's not patient enough to unbotton them. If she doesn't slip the botton out the first time she's all but trying to rip the botton off. So we need to work on those things. : )

So again, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Until Next Time!
Lots of Love,

Erica