Do you hear what I hear?

With Andrew's speech blossoming like crazy in the past month (thanks to little brother doing the same), I'm actually starting to hear more than just the little voices in my head talk to me during the day. Andrew is starting to express more frequently what he wants as well as getting my attention to share with me things that he observes...BIG steps for our Andrew!!! He's also starting to try and understand emotions; a complicated area for children with autism as emotions are not concrete things such as numbers, colors, letters,etc.. He gives me a status report on Sam every day as we pick him up from school; "Sam is awake. Sam is happy"
Let's not forget Sammy. His favorite things to say usually involve informing me that something just "fell down" or was dropped. "Uh oh, the melon fell down!", he announces a split second before he launches a piece of his lunch on the floor. He also likes to walk around the house and search for brother calling out, "Andrew, where are you?"
We are all pretty much healthy now as I am now on antibiotics for a sinus infection, but I'm feeling better. Demel is looking forward to a "week off" when the boys and I join grandma for a trip to Wisconsin for cousin Ian's first birthday over an extended Easter weekend. We're looking forward to that very much!

Stayin' Alive!

That about sums up the past weeks in the Gonzalez house and gives me at least a partial excuse for not posting in such a long time. It's amazing how your world can change in a matter of hours. Two weeks ago, the day was starting as usual. We went to church, then out to lunch with friends, then home for Sam's nap before the rest of our day's events. Shortly after returning home from lunch, however, I plopped myself on the bed and told Demel that I didn't feel so good. I thought maybe my lunch wasn't settling well. I then proceeded to take a two-hour nap. (A treat I don't normally enjoy) When I woke up, I felt worse. Sam woke up grumpy and threw up and I did the same. Oh no! Long story shorter...by midnight, all four of us were ill. Sam slept through the night without a peep which was a Godsend since Demel and I were tending to Andrew the vomit launcher while weak and queasy ourselves. This was some nasty virus that we had. My mom came over Monday to help us out, all the while exposing herself to whatever it was that we had. I was starting to feel better by Monday night and was fine enough Tuesday that I even shampooed the family room carpet as it had been on the receiving end of a few"episodes" when the bowl didn't make it to the child in time. (Anyone want to come over for a slumber party on our floor?) Well, things were starting to look better even though we were still having a hard time getting Andrew to drink anything, since he couldn't even keep liquids down on Monday. Wednesday morning started at about 4:15am for Sam and myself as he was having a little relapse and I went in his room to find that he had thrown up but has also, how should I say, exploded from the rear as well. Good old mom came over again to help on Wednesday as I was getting overwhelmed with sick kids and starting to stress out over the fact that Andrew was not eating anything and drinking only about 6 ounces of fluids a day, clearly not enough. In fact it was bad enough that his pediatrician suggested that we take him to the ER to get IV fluids. We spent 4 hours there in total, only to be sent home after they drained his bladder with a catheter and we managed to get him to drink some juice there...that was a waste of $100. This is a long story. Are you all actually still reading this... Okay, Thursday was not better, it was worse. Demel, Sam and I were on the rebound but poor little Andrew was showing no signs of improvement. I nervously took Andrew to the doctor's office that afternoon only to experience the worst possible experience with the pediatrician. While Dr. Karen (a friend of ours, by the way) was checking Andrew's throat, it triggered a gag and he proceeded to throw up all over Karen, himself and me. Sam trotted over to see what all the commotion was about just in time to "catch" the second round of Andrew's stomach contents. So now the two children in the room are both crying and the two adults are trying to calm them down and wipe off the yuck that covered us. Fast forward a few hours...Demel, Andrew and myself arrive at the hospital children's ER once again but this time, Sam is with us because my mom was now at home sick with the virus that she got as a thank you for helping us earlier in the week. Demel and Sam went home to sleep after the nurse told us that we would probably be there for a while. And were we ever. Andrew had two x-rays to make sure there were no blockages anywhere, since it had now been 24 hours since he had peed. They came back okay so it was determined the next step would be to get an IV going. Poor little guy was still pretty strong as it took myself and two nurses to hold him down and still so the third nurse could put in the IV. He was so dehydrated that the first two veins actually collapsed! After a 1000 mL bag of IV fluids he started to be a little alert... even though it was 4:00 in the morning. The doctor wouldn't release us until he peed and drank something. Well, he did finally pee...but it was an uphill battle getting anything in this kid's mouth. After trying for 5 hours to get him to drink I finally put it God's hands. I prayed and cried that he needed the help of his Heavenly Father because his Earthly mother has done all she can and is exhausted. Upon saying "Amen" I offered him his cup once again, and he took it and drank it down...all 10 ounces!!! Prayer answered, miracle performed!!!!! The road to recovery was slow, but we are just about back to normalcy in the Gonzalez house. Back to swinging dining room chandeliers and pushing each other down... ah, life is sweet!

A California Suprise

Since sometime in November, I've been secretly planning a trip to California to suprise Mandy, my best friend of almost 19 years. With the help of her husband, Mike, I pulled it off. I literally hid in the doorway of her daughter's room and stepped out to suprise her as she walked by. Aside from a confused face and a faint "What the he** are you doing here?", she was pretty much speechless for a good minute while the reality that I had made it cross-country and into her house without her knowing sunk in. We had a great time, albeit a short one as I was only there for 72 hours. A trip to the zoo was a fun afternoon with the Lomonoco family, but made me miss my kiddos even more. Below are some cute photos of her kids Lucas (almost 2) and Emily (4 months). I took so many pictures of her kids because they're so darn cute, and Mike took the one photo of the two of us, but I neglected to get one of him, so I found a picture of someone with a striking resemblence to him.

Back at the homefront, Daddy was on duty all weekend, with Grandma's assistance on school days. The house was in one piece upon my late arrival early Tuesday morning (flight gone in at 12:25 a.m.!!!) and all the toys were accounted for when inventory was done Tuesday afternoon.

Okay, the post is finally done and I'll try to get in the blogging groove again soon. Oh, and my eyes are WONDERFUL!!!!! As you can sort of see in the first photo, I no longer look like I've been crying for an hour and the little bit of redness that appeared after surgery is pretty much gone. Talk to you later and sorry, Mike for the picture, but thanks for helping make this trip a success.

The "eyes" have it

I can't believe the first picture of myself that I am posting is as horrible as this one. But, at least there's a good reason why it's so bad.

This lovely photo was snapped literally 20 seconds after my LASIK procedure was completed. Drs. Dempsey and Filutowski (shown with me) and their staff did a wonderful job and as a result of this simple, yet stressful morning, I can see!!! In fact, I can see better than I ever thought possible already. My vision used to be 20/200 and just 24-hours after surgery, I was seeing at 20/20 from both eyes! I think Demel might be getting tired of hearing me comment on how incredible my vision is, or just how doggone happy I am!!! Technology is amazing and I feel so blessed to take part in procedure that has freed me from contacts and glasses. Well, enough about me. This is supposed to be a blog about my boys. Since LASIK, they are as cute and precious as ever. "See" you all later!

Yuck!

Last night, Demel was at the gym so I had to go it alone when it came to bath time. (usually a daddy-and-the-boys activity) As I stepped away to throw out the diapers, I heard a bump and then a little cough. Apparently, Sam had tipped over and taken in a little water. No big deal. He was okay. But then "the cough" started. Yes, I'm talking about the cough that usually triggers his sensitive gag reflex. It had only gone down twenty minutes prior, but within seconds, dinner reappeared and added color (and texture) to the bath water. I quickly grabbed Andrew out and wrapped him in a towel at the side of the tub while I drained the beefaroni and bubbles from around Sam. I really could have used an extra set of hands so that Sam didn't have to sit in his own yuck during the process, but I did what I could. Clean water and more bubbles quickly filled the tub again, and we proceeded as usual. Oh, the joys of boys!

Ouch!

Well, it happened. I got the first phone call from Andrew's teacher yesterday informing me that Andrew was hurt. Apparently, he fell while playing on the playground and bumped his head pretty hard. Ms. VanRees said he had a knot on his head and it was bleeding a little bit. She said Andrew was very upset and wasn't really calming down, so maybe a doctor should look at it. With Sam's lunch half-way heated in the microwave, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. (I grabbed Sam too;) I might have been exceeded the speed limit on the way, but I was so anxious to see my Andrew. What if I had to take him to the doctor? How will I do that if he's still crying and Sam is with us too? Oh, and Sam's probably getting hungry seeing that I was preparing his lunch when I got the phone call. And nap time for Sam is in 30 minutes. He's gonna get cranky! Great, I'll have on cranky, whiny child and one who's crying for more legitimate reasons. I'm only one mommy. How am I going to do this? Red light. Come on, turn green already......turn GREEN!!! We made it to school (without a ticket) to find Andrew and his teacher waiting for us in the front office. A wave of calm came over me. Andrew had stopped crying, but his eyes remained were puffy and red. The knot on his head had gone down a bit and I couldn't even tell where the blood was. Whew!! No doctor needed. A little Tylenol and he's gonna make it. Needless to say, we made it home in time for Sam to have lunch and go down for a nap, giving mommy and Andrew a little quality time.
A day later and, aside from a little scab, Andrew is all better. In fact, as we pulled in to the school driveway this morning, Andrew said he wanted to go to the playground (he has never said this before). I guess all is forgotten and he is ready for another fun day at school!

A few of our favorite things...

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.... are NOT their favorite things!!! These are Gonzalez boys we're talking about. Let's revise those lyrics to fit Andrew and Sam:

Noah's Ark playtime and plants out of their pots;

Video games then upstairs to play the slots;

Jumping off chairs and then landing in balls;

This is why our mommy wants to climb walls.

Now that I'm responsible for keeping this site updated and recent, I've actually found myself taking more photos of everyday events. I'm sure in years to come, these will be the moments that I will look back upon with great fondness. I wish you were all here to join the mayhem, till then, enjoy the pictures!