Harry's three and a half years old

Harry getting his ears checked

Harry had his 3.5 year well baby check up yesterday. It was not a good morning. Usually the boys do really well at appointments together but yesterday was one of those days you don't want to look back on years from now. Harry wouldn't cooperate and William was loud, whined and complained the entire visit. Plus both boys were being so loud that I couldn't hear the doctor and she couldn't hear me. It was just not a good day.

Onto the visit itself. Harry did not do so well with the eye exam but they said he passed. I guess we will worry about that later. We will continue to blame all his bumps and falls on his clumsiness. So I have been really concerned with Harry's ears. His tubes fell out a couple months ago and he has been getting ear infections back to back again. I am concerned because although his speech is cute, he talks like he is under water with some pronunciations. I am sure this is the way he hears things. So I am afraid of permanent damage. Plus back to when he first got his tubes at age one, the ENT told us we waited longer than we needed to and that he would never get rid of his ear infections because his ear drums were concave and held the fluid in them. But our pediatrician wouldn't refer us to an ENT because she is so conservative with that kind of stuff. Anyhow, I don't want to make the same mistake twice. Harry does not have the personality to complain about his ears but I don't want him to be in unnecessary pain. She checked his ears and said he still has his infections but is on the mend. She is more concerned with his speech and wants to wait on the ear issue. California is a bit different. Because Harry is 3, a speech pathologist will not see him until the unified school district screens him. So we have to wait until August to make that appointment.

Onto the next problem (which I also think is related to his ears) is his nutrition. Harry is a horrible eater. He basically only likes breakfast foods and chicken nuggets. Nothing else. And you can't take away snacks in hopes that he will be hungry for dinner. He just won't eat. He will eat one meal a day and that is it. So when he says he is hungry, you take the opportunity to feed him what you can (he woke up at 12:30am last night hungry and we sat down at the table for a meal). But I think because his ears hurt, it probably hurts to chew and swallow. So once we get his ears fixed, hopefully that will help with his speech and nutrition. He is very anemic so he is on iron drops for the next 6 weeks. None of this is a shock but it still sucks. I just want him to be happy and healthy.

He is super tall for his age (just like William). He is in the 95th percentile for height. And he is underweight, the 20th percentile for weight.

So all in all, he has bad ears, a minor speech problem, way too skinny and is anemic. Hoping the next couple months come with answers and resolutions for his health.

Open Wide

Well I put off taking the boys to the dentist for some time now and knew I couldn't get away with it much longer. The problem is that our insurance doesn't cover a pediatric dentist and Scott and I are both not fond of our dentist. But with time ticking, I knew I had to get them in. Everyone there knew this was the boys first visit and they were very nice to them. They blew up gloves as balloons. This poor xray guy made William throw up by sticking a film too far down his throat:) And because so he only xrayed Harry's front teeth. William was super great! The dental hygienist even told me "he is such a great fun kid." He listened and gave good responses. His best response had to be, "my pawpa said he would knock my teeth out and they would go boom, bang, bang, explode! And then he will knock your teeth out too!" Oh Pawpa, thank you for all your goofing around. Who knew that this would be the time William would mock you!

Harry, on the other hand, wasn't very excited to see the dentist! Can you tell?

So we left cavity free for Harrison (not that they could tell because they didn't do xrays of all his teeth or exam them very good) and William has two cavities. He goes back August 5th to get them filled with a little help from some laughing gas! I can't say this was the best experience because Harrison was not having it, William threw up on someone, William has to go back, they took 2.5 hours on us making us wait, and they didn't even give the boys a toothbrush when I promised the dentist always gives their new patients new toothbrushes.

So we went across the street to CVS and bought new electric toothbrushes.

Who knew this would be a big hit. Their game to play last night was dentist. Harry was instructed to put part of the floss container in his mouth as William held the soap box up to his cheek and "clicked" to take a picture (taking xrays). William came up to me last night, "I brushed my teeth with the tickle brush, then my dinosaur brush and then Harry's toothbrush." Who knew one visit would make them want to brush their teeth so much. And it's not like brushing our teeth is something new! But just so you can see the excitement, this is what I found when I checked on the boys before I went to bed...

Sleeping with his toothbrushes.

Church Back Yard Renovation

Scott and I are very involved in helping make our church more kid friendly. Last year we had the nursery renovation. That was a ton of work and it was so rewarding to see the payoff. This year I got bids for our backyard and our council approved the project thankfully. Check out what we had before:
Would you let your kids play on this? Or this?

Or this ground? We wouldn't let anybody in the backyard because it was such a liability.

It had danger written all over it.

I had planned our very first Vacation Bible School (post to come soon) to run after the yard was finished. The very first day of VBS was the day we were allowed to walk on the new sod. And I am so glad it all worked out because check it out now! It is an amazing transformation.

(Kids at VBS)

More kids enjoying the new play structure.

I am so happy and proud to be a part of this change at our church. It is rewarding to see the end result and to see the children enjoy where we are headed and focused.

What happens at Saddle Ranch....

When six adults go out for the night....

We do it up right.

Making friends with Saddle Ranch Manager.

Who, in turn, gave us VIP treatment the entire night. Everything we did was basically free. We even got a $250 VIP table at the dance floor. But not without a little embarrassment. This is him introducing Scott to the ENTIRE establishment!

Have you watched Saddle Ranch on VH1? Well I really haven't. This guy is one of the main cast members.

We all rode the bull but I have to laugh about this one. Do you notice anything wrong with this picture? This is Shawn and her attempt to ride the bull. (She didn't know she got on backwards).

Shawn, Chris and me.

The rest of the many pictures are like the reel at the end of "The Hangover" movie. Now since I was a D.D, I had just as much fun with the pictures and messing with them but I will save them the embarrassment. But seeing that Scott doesn't know how to use our blog, I'm not too shy to at-least post the video of him riding the bull.

Grandpa and Gramma Archer's visit

It's been a few months of Grandbaby withdrawal so it was time for a visit. We picked them up and had lunch at the Junkyard in Simi. It was our first time there and it was yummy! Next up, Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Then of-course as with any other Friday night, Los Torros for dinner. We can't let Fernando (the guitarist) down.

Saturday morning we woke up and Scott and I headed out for an over night date (post coming soon) to Palm Desert. We returned Sunday night in time for dinner. Here is everyone relaxing before bedtime.

And being silly.

Monday was 4th of July. I blogged on that day already. Wednesday it was time to go home but of-course park pictures first as this has become a little tradition of ours.

Bye Bye Gramma and Granpa A

We will see you soon!

Legoland California

So in Utah, we had this great baby group. We got together at-least once a month and the first 5 kids were all within weeks apart in age. This picture was at our going away party that last few weeks we lived in Utah. (William, Me, Harrison, Andrea, Colin, Juliet, Alix, Yen, Kenzo)- a few were missing. This pictrue was our very first get together as a baby group. You can tell the kids were just month's old. (Me, Will, Andrea, Collin, Alix, Juliet, Yen, Kenzo).

And this was one of our last get togethers at a Farmer's Market.

Their first Halloween (Jack, Collin, William, Juliet).

We haven't seen anybody from Utah since we moved. And guess what? This month makes 3 years we have been gone. So when Andrea said she was going to be in San Diego for work and visiting family, we jumped on the opportunity to get together and catch up! Scott and Harry

William, Collin (look how much they have grown up) plus Reece and Harrison.

Legoland is truly amazing. I have never seen so many legos!!!

Yes all legos

Look at all the boys!

It's so crazy to look at those first pictures and now look at them today. Our baby group babies are going to be in Kindergarten next year!! Where did the time go?

Andrea and me.

I never seen Star Wars (yes I know!) but they have a new exhibit of all Star Wars stuff.

I also posted more pictures on Facebook. Afterwards we went to Sea Life Aquarium.

It was so nice to catch up. I'm glad we got together.

What a horrible Blogger I have been

Time to catch up: Lets start with the 4th of July. We went to Ventura Beach for a nice picnic lunch and stroll along the beach. The boardwalk was lined with American flags.

We watched surfers catch their waves.

We came home to grill out hamburgers before heading over to the 41st Annual Simi Valley Fireworks Festival.
The kids played before it got dark.

Then once it went dark (Harry was out)

It was a beautiful show!