Connor's Progress

Well it has been a week since Connor's surgery and we are home and he is on the road to recovery.  According to the doctor everying went really smoothly during the surgery.  Since being home Connor has been dealing with some paid from headaches, which they say is typical for this kind of surgery. 

This is a picture of Connor on Christmas Day, our first day out of bed sitting up watching some cartoons. He was a brave little guy!

Here is the area where he had surgery at.  Once the hair grows back he should only have about a one inch scar that will show.

Connor was so happy to have Keith come and visit him in the hospital on Christmas Day!

Connor goes next week to have his stitches out.  They may have to give him some medicine to help him relax in order to get this accomplished, he is very sensitive to being touched.  We have been very blessed this week by our church family that have provided several meals for our family. That has been so very nice as we have been extra busy taking care of Connor and the boys.  Looking forward to Connor recovering quickly and catching up to where he should be developmentally!  More updates to come! 

Connor

This is ust a little update on what is going on with our family right now in regards to Connor in particular. Connor had a second MRI this past Friday 12/11/09.  The neurosurgeon is recomending at this point that we go ahead with the Chiari Decompression surgery.  Juan and I have talked and prayed about it and debates the pros and cons.  We have made the hard decision to go ahead and have the surgery for Connor.  He is scheduled for surgery on 12/23, and he will be in the hospital for 4-5 days.  This will be a hard Christmas with us all separated for for Christmas but we are praying that this is what will be best for Connor and that this will help him so much!  I will try to keep everyone updated via Facebook and occasionally on here too.  That is if I can remember to take the time to sit down and write it all down.  Everyone's prayers would be greatly appreciated!!

I thougth I was going to do better.....

Well, as I am just now reading my last post I realized that I did not do what I said I was going to do. I have not been on here updating things the way that I should. What can I say....it is life. Things have been busy. Most recently this past month, I have been ill. I somehow got viral meningitis that then went into pneumonia. It was horrible. I can't remember ever feeling so bad and being so sick. Well about 5 days after finishing my antibiotics I started getting symptoms again and running a low fever. Today I called the doctor and she sent me back to get another chest x-ray to make sure that the pneumonia is gone. I am right now waiting for the results. I am praying that I can get on some medication that can make me better soon, because I am so very tired of being sick!

A quick update on the kids....

Keith has started Kindergarten and he is loving it. He is doing well with going to school all day but his brothers do miss him. Connor is continuing in all this therapies and he is making improvements. We go next week to see a Neurosurgeon regarding Connor and we are hoping for some direction on which way to proceed with him. Alex is doing well too, and is as cute as ever. We are going to be getting him evaluated with First Steps just because I am seeing him repeat alot of words that Connor tries to say the incorrect way. I want to make sure we get him on the right track!

Thru all my sickness, I am so very thankful that all three kids have stayed healthy. Not so much as a small cold for any of them! That is a pure blessing from God. I pray that I can recover quickly and we can all stay healthy as we head into the holiday season!

I will try to post some more recent pictures soon!

I have been a slacker.....

Wow.....just thought about this today, but I have been a total slacker in making sure I write on this blog. That is horrible....but I have been super busy. I have really been kicking into gear my Mary Kay business, which has been great for me and for my family! This is a business that I love and I am learning that I can really do this and work it around my family needs, and that is a wonderful blessing. So hence, that is why I have not been on here as much making sure to keep this updated with our family happenings. I am hopefully going to try to remedy that and figure out a way to do both....I just have to remember that would be the first step.

I have taken some great pictures of the boys since summer has started so I will plan on getting those downloaded later on today and I will be back to post some pictures. The boys are really enjoying their summer and it as been so much fun spending time with them. They are growing up so fast! Connor is progressing with his therapy thru First Steps and has been able to add a few words to his vocabulary. He started with a new Occupational Therapist last week, and I know that she is going to make a big difference, she was great! Alex, is walking everywhere now, and thinks he is just as big as his brothers. He imitates everything that they do....he is so cute. However, he is a bit of a cry baby. If he doesn't get his way, he cries about everything! But he is still my baby. Keith is growing like a weed and is turning into a brown little Indian...he is outside all day long playing with friends and in the back yard.

Well, that is a little update...I have more to come soon!

Why a 5 year old should dress himself....

Tonight as I was trying to get the boys into bed. I tell Keith to please take off his clothes and I will get him some pajamas to put on so we can get into bed soon, because it was already past his bedtime. He says okay and I head down to Alex's room to change Alex's diaper and put his pajamas on him. I am in mid diaper change and I hear Keith yell down the hall way....

"Mommy....come here!"

"What is it Keith? I am changing your brother's diaper."

"LOOK you have to see this!"

"What is wrong Keith?"

"Mommy....I have two pairs of underwear on!"

By now I am chuckling to myself because I think that he is just being silly because he wants some attention which is something normal for him to want. So I continue....

"Keith...you don't have two pairs of underwear on, I will be right there to help you get your pajamas on"

"MOMMY, YES I DO! LOOK!"

By now I am walking down the hallway with Alex all clean and changed and I get to the livingroom and I see him bending over pulling down his underwear only to reveal another pair of underwear!

"Keith, what did you do?"

"I didn't do it Mommy....this is your fault! You got me dressed this morning for school!"

By now....I am laughing so hard! This is why a very tired, sleepy Mommy should not dress a 5 year old for school because she cannot be trusted to know to take one pair of underwear off before she puts another pair on!

Okay....everyone you may laugh at me....it was so very funny!

Worms....

A couple of days ago Keith and I were talking about animals. He was asking questions about animals and how we eat them. We were talking about how we only kill animals when we need to eat them for food. I explained that God gave us animals and we should take good care of them but we can use them for food only when we need to eat and that is the only time that we should kill them. In most cases we should not be killing animals unless we are going to eat them.

On to today's conversation. Keith was sitting at the kitchen table as I was fixing his lunch and it goes like this.

"Mommy, you know that Wyatt, well I made him go home yesterday." (Wyatt is the boy that lives across the street)

I say, "Keith, why would you make Wyatt go home, you like to play with Wyatt?"

He responds, "Well, Mommy, that Wyatt killed a big old worm and I told him he had to eat it since he killed it and he wouldn't do it. So I told him he needed to go home."

Let me say....I just about peed my pants I was laughing so hard! Kids say some really funny things!!

My child who can think quickly....

Keith has been learning at school about God & Jesus and how doing good things make God and Jesus happy and when you do bad things it makes Satan happy, and we do not want that to happen. He is just in K4 so this is a early learning situation and I know that his teachers have been doing a great job at explaining things to him. Well, last week I pick him up from school and for about 10 minutes in the car he goes over with me how doing good things makes God and Jesus happy but doing bad things makes Satan happy. When we arrived at our destination, I am getting the younger boys out of the car and I ask Keith to put his coat on. I had to ask him 3 times to put his coat on before I finally said "Keith you are not listening"....he shoots back, "Well, I am making Satan happy!". It was all I could do to not just laugh out loud right there! He is so smart sometimes!

Alot going on...

Okay, it has been a long time again since I have posted anything out here. Things have been busy here with my family. My Dad has been ill and has just gotten out of the hospital. He was having some problems with bleeding internally and they had to find the cause of the bleeding. In the mean time because his blood counts were dropping to much he did have to have two blood transfusions. They discovered that it was a bleeding ulcer and they think that they have it under control with changing some of his medications. In addition to this they have also discovered that his blood sugar was really too high, and continued to be too high. So now he in going to have to take additional medication to help regulate along with going on a diabetic diet. He is not happy about that but he will adjust I pray. The doctors are going to closely monitor him and he is going back to the cardiologist for a follow up this next Tuesday. I am going to go along to ask some questions of the doctor...that I know that my Dad will forget or doesn't really care to ask. I am just the pushy oldest child.... :-)

Cousin Margaret Ann will be missed....

It has been another stretch since I have been on here updating what has been going on in the Alcala Family. Juan and I took a 4 night cruise to Mexico here just last week, and it was great! I will post about that and put some of the great pictures out here on that later. Then just this past Thursday we got some bad news that my cousin Margaret Ann passed away on Thursday morning.

Margaret Ann was really technically my third cousin, but she was more of an Aunt to me as I am closer to her and her family than I am to my own Aunts & Uncles in my family right now. My Dad is very close to her and lived with her and her family for awhile while he was going to college down in Mississippi.

The boys and I and my Mom and Dad just went down to Mississippi this past August to visit Margaret Ann and her family, and we stayed for a week with her and had a wonderful time. I am so glad that we were able to make the trip and spend this great time with her and she was able to see my boys and enjoy getting to know them.

This picture was one of Margaret Ann and my Mom & Dad and the boys from this past summer. We were at the Jackson zoo, and boy was it hot that day! We had a great time!

When we got the news on Thursday of course my Dad knew that he had to come to the funeral. I tried to talk him into flying as it is such a very long 12 hour drive down here but he would not hear of it. He DID NOT want to fly. So, Mom and I made the decision that it would be best for me to go with Dad on the drive down to Mississippi as I would be able to help Dad drive more than she would. Plus Mom was not feeling that great, so she stayed home and watched the boys on Friday while Juan worked. Thankfully Juan was off on Saturday and Sunday, so he was able to keep the boys. So Dad and I started out on Friday morning and the drive was long and exhausting but we got down here about 10pm on Friday night. We went to the funeral yesterday and it was a very nice service. Margaret Ann was one of the nicest most Godly women that I have ever know. She reminded me so much of my own Grandmother (who was her first cousin), and I just loved her so much. She will be greatly missed!

As sad as it may be for the reason for the gathering the only one upside to a funeral is that you get to meet up and see the whole family and extended family all together. This was the case with this trip and my Dad and I were able to see lots of family that we haven't seen in awhile.

It is now Sunday and we are up and getting ready to head out on the long drive home. Dad is slow in getting ready to leave, so I am sitting here typing this out while it is on my heart. Hopefully we will be on the road soon, and back to good old Indiana!

More to come later....

Alex's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated Alex's 1st Birthday back on January 18th. He is such a big boy! He did not like the cake at all, as you can see and cried when we tried to get him to eat it. That is the first child of mine, not to like cake! He just doesn't know what is good....but he will. I made the cake a little bear to match the 1st birthday decorations that I bought. It turned out well I thought. He got to wear a very cute 1st Birthday outfit that his Aunt Amy bought him...he did look cute! His brothers enjoyed getting to help him open his presents and we enjoyed getting to see everyone that could come and celebrate with us!


Connor really liked the cake even if Alex didn't. I guess you learn to eat cake by the time you are 2!

We thought it looked like he would like the cake....but not so much.

It was a cute cake I thought!

Such a happy boy with his Mommy!

Sick Family

Wow...it has been awhile since I have posted but this family has been sick! All the boys have been on a round of antibiotics for sinus infections, and once that was over they got sick again. I think Connor and Keith have gotten over it by themselves but poor little Alex is still running a fever and feeling really bad. He is going to the doctor tomorrow as I think he may have an ear infection, but we will let the doctor check him out and we will see.

In addition to the kids I am sick too, which has really been no fun but I am going to try to get in to the doctor tomorrow as well. I really want to get well as we are leaving on Thursday for our cruise and I really don't want to be sick on the vacation! My poor husband has been sickest of us all with being in the hospital last week for chest pain and having to have a heart catherization done and then finding out this past Thursday that he has pneumonia. Poor guy has been so sick...but he is on some strong antibiotics and is slowly getting better. I am hoping he is also feeling better by this Thursday so he will feel well for our cruise.

I am going to try to get some pictures posted of Alex's 1st birthday on here too...it was good time.

Why all moms should be able to grocery shop alone....

I know that it is late and I should be in bed but this was just one more thing that I had to share before I end my day. Tonight after I took Keith to church for Awana's, Connor, Alex and I went to Walmart to only grab a few things to get us thru until the next BIG shopping trip. So on my list was just the staples, bread, milk, flour, eggs, juice, bananas, you get the idea, just a few things. Well, I get to Walmart and put Alex in the cart (the part where the seat is) and then arrange my coat and a blanket in the basket part of the cart for Connor to sit on. Now please remember Connor has just now turned 2 years old and sitting in this part of the cart is still very new for him, but he was doing very well. He had to be reminded several times to sit back down, but he did good for the most part. I was watching him as much as I could while looking down the isles for what I needed. I had almost everything on my list and as I was looking for just that last item, I glance over at the cart to check on Connor and what do I see? He has ripped open the top of bag of flour and is EATING it by the handful!!! It was EVERYWHERE! I was so embarrassed!! I grabbed it away from in and in the process it puffs out at me, and now I have it all down the front of my shirt as well. I couldn't have been more humiliated! Needless to say, I busted my butt and got to the checkout lane and got out of there as fast as I could.

So....I love my dear sweet son...and I will predict that he will always keep it interesting and will continue to surprise me his entire life!

Brownies for the kids....

Who doesn't like brownies? Everyone that I know including myself. Well, I wanted to pass along some brownies that I have been feeding my kids this week. Connor has sensory issues so he will only eat certain things because of textures. So I have been trying to get creative on how to get some more 'healthy' items into his diet in something that I know he will already eat. So here you go.....

1 Box of Brownie Mix

1 Can of Black Kidney Beans

You put the black kidney beans in the blender (everything in the can juice and all) and puree them until they are a liquid form. Add this to the brownie mix and mix well. Add to your normal brownie pan and cook as normal. They come out as a nice fudgy brownie.

My kids eat them without blinking and eye! They are very low in fat, and high in fiber and protein. I love it!

Try it you might like it too!

Cold weather and sick kids...

Not many fun updates to post here. Our family has been busy with sick kids. Keith was at the doctor last week for a sinus infection and we were praying the Connor and Alex would stay healthy. However when it comes to sharing they don't want to share toys but they will gladly share their illnesses. So yesterday we were back at the doctor with Connor and Alex both with the same things. Being so much younger they are just fussy and really grumpy and cranky, so it has been fun here. However we are all now on antibiotics and hoping that this too will pass quickly. So far, I am feeling well, Juan on the other hand feels like he is catching it but hopefully he can fight it off without getting too sick. He works so hard and being sick just makes him miserable. So I am saying prayers that he stays well.

Boys are gross....

So tonight, as the boys and I sit around the dinner table eating dinner (Juan is working tonight), Connor, it trying to talk (many of you know he is still really trying to learn how to say...well everything). It comes out like "AHHH", well Keith thought it was just like a scream, so then he does it because he thinks he is funny. Then Alex sees the big brothers doing it so he follows suit. Well, next thing I know they are all doing it together and it is getting loud, plus I really don't like them yelling at the table (I am trying to teach them some manners). So I say okay boys, lets quiet down now we are trying to eat our dinner. Keith chimes in "Everyone Be Quiet!"....they all stop talking.........and then....Connor lets out the loudest fart I have ever heard come out of such a small body....and they all crack up laughing!!!

I have a feeling no matter how hard I try, I am in for YEARS of this kind of stuff! Help me I NEED another girl in this home with me!

Back to school....

Today was our first day back to school from Christmas break. YEAH! Keith really does love going to school so much but man was it hard to get all the kids up this morning and going. Connor and Alex had really gotten use to sleeping in more, so we were off our schedule all day and everyone was tired and cranky. Add to that a Mommy, that had two fillings done today and a really bad head ache all afternoon, and now I am just happy we made it thru the day and everyone is sleeping well in bed right now. Looking forward to getting back onto our normal schedule for the kids sake and for mine! :-)

When he gets a wife....

Yesterday afternoon I was baking cookies and doing dishes. As I was emptying the dishwasher I asked Keith if he would like to help me. He had been sitting at the kitchen table having a snack. Well, when I ask him he says "No". I tell him that you are going to have to learn soon how to do this soon and this might be a good time to start. He says "I don't have to learn how to do that Mommy". I ask him why he doesn't think he needs to learn how do this and he says to me..."well, mommy that is what my wife will do when we get married!" LOL!