My little, which might end up big, update

Well life has sure been one heck of a big rollercoster. Not only is having four children so demanding, but having to deal with making time for all of the school meetings and doctor appointments is so hard.

Lucas is still one big 'ole ball of mystery. Maybe one day we will actually find out what is going on with him, maybe not. We've been able to figure out in the past month that he is far sided with astigmatism and amblyopia. We've also been working closely with the local school district and found out Lucas has a speech and developmental delay. Of course my suspicions about his sensory issues were true - sensory disorder is what is causing a lot of his problems.

We have been seeing a great pediatric neurologist at Mayo. She is working hard, harder than any of the other doctors we have been to, to figure out what Lucas could be suffering from. I'm so thankful that we finally have someone who not only believes what I am saying, but believes they might be able to figure out what is causing these "episodes". We are still only at the beginning of the road though and we probably have a lot more testing to go. So far we know he doesn't suffer from a metabolic disorder. Now we are just waiting to hear back on genetic tests for episodic ataxia.

Our other three children are doing great. Emma just finally started to sit up, Aidan is becoming a little boy (he loves to do everything himself, including making his own sandwiches) and Lily is well, Lily. School is out for the summer and I'm trying my hardest to keep them all busy in between our busy schedule.

Dealing with a disorder

Well tests results have finally come back to show that Emma, now 5 months old, has Galactokinase deficiency, also known as Galactosemia type 2 or GALK deficiency. We've been bouncing back and forth since she was 3 weeks old to see if she did have Galactosemia or not. We were finally told a few weeks back that the initial tests were false positives and that she was fine. We went in for a final blood draw to check her levels and it came back that she has results related to Galactokinase deficiency. We are now waiting to find out more information on it. Luckily it's nothing that can not be managed by a life long diet which isn't anything too bad.

Scholastic $1 sale

http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10002&langId=-1

Over 400 items for just $1 each.

Website of the week - Recipe Matcher

I found this website last night and instantly fell in love. You list the items you have in your cupboards and it helps you to find a recipe using those items. After you do a search, it will show the different recipes, the percentage of the items you already have that are needed and a list of what else you may need for the different recipes.

As you type in different items a list will appear at the bottom so you can specify what it is (type in noodles and a list will come up, you click on what type of noodles you have).

After you submit your different items, a list will come up and show you a lot of different recipes. It will show you user submitted ratings as well as the percentage of the ingredients that you have.

Click on a recipe and it will show you what you already have as well as what you will still need. A lot include photos, user submitted ratings and comments.

My Goals for 2009

I'm hoping that writing them down somewhere will help me to achieve them by the end of 2009.

• Cut back on the clutter and get rid of things I no longer need/want
• Start and hopefully finish writing a book
• Find a way that works for me to give back to my community
• Create a budget for our family
• Lose 15 lbs and tone up my belly area
• Cook from scratch more than I do now
• Try to find myself, outside from the mama I already know I am

What a night!

So now not only is Lucas not eating, but he's vomiting on top of it. We tried out pediasure last night to try to help get some nutrients into him since he hasn't been eating well at all for the last month. Well a few hours go by and he starts to vomit it back up. Four times within one hour. Poor little guy didn't know what to do since he has never been sick like that before. No temperature, still as happy as could be. Today he is doing better but will not touch the pediasure or milk. He has ate four crackers so far today, it's about 2:30 pm, and drank a little bit. Hopefully I can get him to eat a little more come supper time.

Project 365

Project 365 is a way to document your family by taking one photo every day over the span of one year. It's a great way to chronicle your lives, changes in your family and your accomplishments. I made a blog so I can take a picture of the kids every day and journal a little bit about them as well. I'm excited and have made this one of my New Year resolutions to complete this project.

Check out my family's blog at - http://familydays365.blogspot.com/ .

When life gives you lemons....

I've been one busy mom lately, trying to get used to life with four little ones. It's been quite a change around here.

Little Emma, who is almost 2 months now, has been having some medical issues. We found out when she was 3 weeks old that something came back abnormal on her newborn screening. Follow up tests showed that she has a rare disorder called Galactosemia. She's had more blood drawn and sent to Mayo. Right now things look good for her especially after we switched her to soy formula. They haven't given her a definitive diagnosis of this disorder because they are still waiting on more testing that is being ran on her blood over at Mayo.

Lucas, who just turned 2 on December 22, is also having some problems. My little boy "changed" about 4 weeks ago. He went from being the biggest eater in the house to not wanting to eat at all. He's always been one to stumble a lot and run into stuff except now, it's 100% worse. He isn't walking right at all. He has some testing coming up to help to figure out what could possibly be going on with him. His CT Scan is scheduled for this coming Monday.

The kids will be starting daycare this next week so I'll start having a little bit of free time to update my blog. Keep checking back!

I will be MIA

I'm still trying to get into a routine around here, which is hard when both my youngest son and I are sick. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging come this weekend but it might take another week. I will be back though!

My baby girl is here

I'm officially a mom of four children. My little girl, Emma, was born on November 4. She is such a great baby and fits in so well with our family. I'm surprised that she is able to sleep and be so content with all of the noise in the house. My older three are doing great with her and love her to pieces. I'm having some jealousy issues with my youngest son, who was the baby before Emma came. It isn't too bad so hopefully it will end soon. Until then, I'm trying to involve him as much as I can with what I am doing with his little sister and it seems to be helping.

Here's a picture of my little Emma.