Happy Easter!

Just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Here are some photos of my handsome little ones. Who says you can't dress up boys? They had fun at the neighborhood Egg Hunt. Rex ran around grabbing as many eggs as he could, while Sean just stood there watching all of the chaos. He did manage to snag a few eggs for his basket before it was all over. As I think I may have mentioned before, Sean is not exactly a good sleeper, but something wore him out today. He fell asleep as he was playing with his garbage truck! I guess he was just "eggs"-tra tired from all of his crying at 2 a.m.!

Little Leprechaun

Okay, so as a mom, I try to keep things as even as possible between my kids, but as I was looking through the past few posts, I realized that there are no recent pictures of Sean. So this blog is dedicated to my "middle" child, the one and only Sean-Sean. There is so much to tell, I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe that's why I haven't written about him. Sean is twenty months old today. He is an amazing little creature. As some of you know, we have been concerned about Sean's development. He always seems to hit milestones, but he consistently hits them very late. At his 18 month check-up, the pediatrician was very concerned because Sean was underweight. He has always been small, but he dropped from the 5th percentile down to the third percentile, and basically had not gained any weight in the past few months. I had already planned to contact the local Infant and Toddler Program because Sean was not talking at all and was not even trying to communicate with pointing or gestures. With his cleft issues, we knew he was prone to speech problems/delays, and we wanted to get him help asap. But now with his feeding issues causing such alarm, I called them as soon as I got home that day. Sean was first evaluated by a four member team consisting of a Speech Therapist, an Occupational Therapist, a Physical Therapist, and a Developmental Specialist. He was then referred to see a Developmental Pediatrician. In the end, they found that Sean has a developmental delay. His speech is almost a full year behind, and cognitively, he measures around a 13 month old. His physical development was a little behind, but still on target. He will receive speech therapy once a week for the next six months, and then he will be re-evaluated. We are very lucky to have a speech therapist who is very knowledgeable about cleft lip and sub-mucous cleft palate. I have very high hopes for her ability to help Sean. It seems like ever since I made the phone call to have him evaluated, Sean has been improving by leaps and bounds. I began using sign language with him, and he can now do 7 different signs. He has begun pointing to everything, and even says a few words. We still have a long way to go, but we are very optimistic. The developmental pediatrician understood our fears about autism, and saw the same red flags that we see, but reassured us that she did not feel that Sean was autistic. We do have an appt. in May to meet with a Genetics doctor to have Sean tested for any genetic problems that could be contributing to his delays. Right now, the doctor thinks that the delays could be a combo of personality (Sean doesn't want to communicate), heredity (Michael was a late talker- imagine that!), and his sub-mucous cleft palate (he may not have the mouth muscles needed to produce certain sounds). And with speech delays come cognitive delays. Everything is intertwined at this age. You can't learn about something if you don't have a name for it.

Now let me move on to his ear problems. (I warned you- there is a lot to tell!) Sean had tubes put in in August. He developed an ear infection in October. The tubes were not able to drain the infection because the drainage kept crusting up and blocking the tubes. We got that mess cleared up in November, and in December, his ears started draining again. At least the tubes were working now! The problem is, it is now March and his ears are still draining. They never stopped. We have tried four different drops in his ears, and a mega-dose of oral antibiotics, and nothing seems to clear up the drainage. So at Sean's appointment with the ENT today, it was decided that he would need another surgery to go in, clean out the ears, possibly take out the tubes, and see what the heck's going on in there. I feel so conflicted about this. I want to get his ears cleared up- but surgery! This will be his third surgery in less than two years. I'm trying to get an appointment with another ENT that I have heard good things about for a second opinion. Right now, it's a one month wait to see him, and his surgery is scheduled for two weeks from now. Poor little fella.

So here are some photos of my little leprechaun from St. Pat's day. As I said, he is amazing. Through all of this, he has remained such a sweet little boy. He melts the hearts of all who meet him. He loves to play and loves to cuddle. He will babble out a sentence without a single recognizable word, and yet I can't help answer him because he's just so excited about something. People always say the middle child gets ignored. And yes, come October, he will have a lot of competition for my attention, but there is a space in my heart carved out just for him that no one else could ever fill. Just look at this face and you'll understand....

Happy Birthday Rex!

Rex turned four years old this week. My, how time is flying by. I've learned something about four year olds in the past week. They ask even more questions than three year olds. And they don't take, "I don't know" for an answer. They want to know everything about everything. Rex overheard Michael and I talking about a satellite that the Navy was going to shoot down. From that moment , he was obsessed with satellites. "What is it?" "What does it do?" "Where is it?" "Can I have one?" This is right up Michael's alley- he loves to talk technical. Now Rex knows all about solar panels and high/low gain antennas. They took a trip to DC, and Rex got to see a real satellite at the Air and Space Museum. Talk about fueling the fire. Now he wants Michael to build one with him. Something tells me it won't be made out of dixie cups and chop sticks, either. His obsession this week is tornadoes. He loves to watch video clips of tornadoes on YouTube. Every time the wind blows, he swears a tornado is coming. And he is actually disappointed when one doesn't! He'd better not ask to make one of those...

Here are some pics of the inquisitive birthday boy from his birthday party. We invited his entire preschool class (all 22 of them!) to a local kids gym, and they had a blast! Gotta love that smile!

Good News!

The house is done! Okay, no, not even close, but a girl can dream. But it better be done by October, 'cause we've got a new resident moving in. That's right, the McAllister Clan is growing, (and so is my belly!). We are proud to announce that Baby #3 is due on October 4th! We are very excited, and we have a lot of work to get done before then! More news on the house later...for now, here is a photo of the newest addition:

The House

Okay, so I'm finally posting pictures of the house. The first one is what the house looked like when we bought it eight years ago. It was a "cozy" two bedroom cape cod. It was great for just Michael and me, and when Rex came along, it got a little tight, but we managed. When Sean came along, he and Rex shared a room, and it got even "cozier". We do plan to have more children at some point, but we were out of corners for them to live in. We had two choices- add on to the house, or move. We seriously considered both, but we love our neighborhood and our neighbors, and we love living so close to downtown. As I told Michael, you can buy a house anywhere, but you can't choose your neighbors. We are very lucky to have such good friends living around us. So we decided to stay and add on. We tore off the roof, added a second floor with four bedrooms, two baths, and a laundry room, and a full attic on top. We should have moved. I know I will feel differently once everything is done and we have our lives back, but I'll be honest- these last few months have been hell. Everything that could go wrong did. We had a three month drought before construction began. Once they tore the roof off, it poured for three nights straight. Michael nearly killed himself when he was walking around on top doing some work and he fell through the ceiling. (he's okay now) The steps that were supposed to take 3 to 5 days to come in took about 5 weeks. You see where I'm going with this. Our one month project dragged out into nearly three months, and that was just until the kids and I could move back home. We've been living in our basement for almost another month now while Michael gets the first level livable again. (It will be several months before the new level is ready.) This is after the boys and I had been living in our neighbor's parents' house for two and a half months. God Bless Them. They are such wonderful people to put up with us for so long. They are retired. They have their nice, quiet lives. She sews, he golfs. And here I come with one year old and three year old little boys. Wham. We must have felt like a mack truck moving in. Rex was like a pinball bouncing from wall to wall, and Sean cried. and cried. and cried. On our third day there, Rex decided to sing a song at the dinner table. "Old McDonald had a penis...." I froze. I literally could not move. I had two thoughts- 1. How fast can I pack my bags? and 2. Where are we going to go? But they did not kick us out. They snickered quietly as I gave Rex the "shut up or die" look, and listened intently as I tried to explain why that was not an appropriate song even though, as Rex so quickly pointed out, it was true. It was a rough couple of months, and Michael and I were beginning to feel like a divorced couple. I got the truck and the kids, he had the house and the dog. I would bring the boys by the house in the afternoon sometimes for visitation. But we are home now, and things are a mess, but we're all together (*very* close together in the basement), and that makes it bearable. I don't know when (if ever) this house will finally be done on the inside, but the outside is finished, so here is the photo you have been waiting for. Hope you like it!

We're Back!

Finally. The boys and I moved back into the house one week ago today. We had been living in Crofton, MD with our neighbor's parents for the past two and a half months. I could spend the rest of the year (literally) going over all of the details and drama of our home renovation, but since it's Christmas- I'll spare you and save it for another day. There's lots to tell. But for now, I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Here is a video of Rex singing one of his favorite Christmas carols. (FYI- the brown thing on Rex's head is a balloon hat of Rudolph that he got from a clown at Ledo's Pizza the other day.) I'll try to post the other songs later. Merry Christmas!!!!

Destruction

Sorry, no new pics right now. We've been busy getting the house ready for our renovation. The crew is expected to arrive at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to begin taking the roof off. We'll keep you posted as we can, and I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon!

How Many Is That?

That's the question Rex asked me a few weeks ago when it was my birthday. He asked "how many" I was. I told him I was thirty. He looked at his fingers quizzically and asked me, "How many is that?" I told him it was all of his fingers, all of my fingers, and all of his toes. He thought I was kidding! He just said, "Silly mommy, that's too many!" Ha! Honestly, aging doesn't bother me. It's better than the alternative. But I have to admit- I was a little taken aback at the makeup counter in Nordstrom recently when the make-up technician told me she was adding a free sample of eye wrinkle cream into my bag for me to try. Wrinkle cream!?! Are you kidding me!?! I'm not sure which upset me more- the fact that she thinks I need wrinkle cream, or the fact that no amount of wrinkle cream is going to help me. At least, not while I still have two small boys at home. Each wrinkle, I'm certain, is a direct result of either a sleepless night, or some heart-stopping moment that one of my boys has graced me with. Like Rex going head-over-heels down the steps. Twice. Or Sean climbing up onto his bouncy chair backwards and bouncing up and down like a kangaroo. On the hardwood floors. And now that Sean is walking EVERYWHERE, well, I shudder to think what the make-up lady will offer me next time! (Botox?) It doesn't matter, no amount of wrinkles could make me give up these faces:

And here are some photos from the surprise party my hubby threw for me for my 30th!:

Strolling Around

Here's a video of the newest walker in the family. Sean has been toddling around here and there, but last night, just before bedtime, he was walking all over his bedroom! He sort of looks like his daddy after one too many pitchers of beer! He also plays the role of pesky little brother very well, as you can see. I think Rex liked Sean better when he just laid around all day. But he's going to love having a playmate when Sean gets older! I imagine the two of them could find plenty of trouble to get into together.

Here are some photos from last night, also.

Goodbye Summer

I know that technically there are still about two weeks of summer left, but as far as I'm concerned, summer ends with Labor Day. School has started, the pool is closed, and its getting dark earlier and earlier. The only good thing about this time of year is football. How 'bout those Mountaineers!?! And Go Steelers! There is something about the cool, crisp air of early September that smells like football. I love it. Okay, enough rambling. I don't have any new pictures to share, so I thought I would share this video of Sean I took a few weeks ago. He really is having a good time- despite the lack of expression on his face. He is so serious sometimes! As for his crying marathon at school on his first day, it seems that he is over it. I learned to NOT hand him over to someone (this immediately results in tears). Instead, I just put him down on the floor to play, kiss his head and leave. He does much better this way, and is actually having a lot of fun. Rex is still enjoying his new classroom. He's a bit baffled that we go to school five days a week now (we only did three days over the summer), but he's having lots of fun as well. That's it for now. I'll try to get some new photos up sometime this week!