Finley was admitted to the hospital this evening.  I've spent the last 7 hours in the emergency room.  She had this nasty cough crop up yesterday afternoon.  A horrible, face turning red, gagging, choking, gasping type cough that made her seem like she was laboring to breathe.  It went on for the better part of the night and most of the today, although it was more intermittent today.  I took her to the doctor this afternoon to have her checked out - and Finley being Finley - she was in a great mood and if you had just walked up to her you would never know she was sick.  It turned out her oxygen saturations were a little low - post repair she should be around 100% - she was statting around 94-95.  The pediatrician wanted us to go to the ER and asked if we preferred Northwest Community or Children's.  It was the start of rush hour.  Guess where we went?  Children's!!!  You are damn right I sat in traffic for nearly two hours - and now I am very happy I did! 

Its official.  Both of the kiddos have colds.  Well, Finley has had one for a while, hers has just gone boogery.  Which honestly doesn't usually happen with her - she normally just has a lot of coughing and congestion and it takes her longer to get over a cold because she has trouble effectively clearing her throat because of the airway issue she has.  Her nose however, has been running like a faucet and any attempts to suction - either with the bulb syringe or the machine - has been met with fierce competition.  My girl surely knows how to tell you when she doesn't like something and her techniques are VERY effective in not allowing me to get the job done.  To be honest - its frustrating - but I love it - all at the same time.  I love seeing the fight she has in her!

Nate on the other hand - he's funny because this is the first time he has been very vocal about his stuffy nose. He's even gone so far as to hit his nose over and over and say, "I don't want this stuffy nose!"  As though if he were given another option, he would like to trade it in thankyouverymuch.  And I have been battling the bug myself - feeling several times now that I have been coming down with it - but then hitting the zinc melts like its my job and that seems to hold it off for a while.  Until the scratchiness in my throat comes back...then its back to the zinc melts.

Last week we visited the pumpkin patch and much to our surprise, Nate was very much in to having his picture taken!  He's very hot and cold with the camera these days but it seemed like even when I didn't have the camera ready to take his picture - he had a big smile on his face and he was saying "Cheese" trying carefully not to move his mouth while he said it and ruin his smile!

The pumpkin patch was full of beautiful pumpkins and was a ton of fun!  Nate chose a red (yes red) pumpkin whose skin was tough and mottled with masses of bumps all over it.  We attempted to carve it last night - but said skin was a little too tough for mommy to get the carver in to - daddy is going to again tonight (because of course Mike doesn't want to have to BUY Nate a new pumpkin!)  Finley's pumpkin turned out cute.  A few more finishing touches are needed and then I will post pics.  In the meantime, I am going to try my hand at toasting pumpkin seeds for the first time because Nate SWEARS he loves them - even though he has never had them!

This was our attempt at a family picture - this is the best we could do.

I have to say, I am already getting in to the Christmas spirit too!  That's right.  I can't wait to put up the tree.  I've already purchased my first Christmas present.  AND I've even purchased my sister's birthday gift (her birthday is January 4th).  I don't know if its the fact that things just seem a lot more holiday like this year since Finley's health seems to have stabilized (at least for now) and we've got that "normal" feeling back at the Roth household.  For someone who loves the holidays, it was really hard to enjoy them last year because it seemed like we were constantly on edge with Finley's health. Never knowing when the next ER visit or hospitalization would occur.  We spent the holidays at home and now with our extended families because we just couldn't risk having Finley get sick - and have that potentially result in a hospitalization.  This year, I really look forward to being with the ones with love and enjoying every moment of the season!

The aftermath of the bath tub crayons...I knew I had hidden these away for a reason.  Clearly I didn't hide them well enough!

Finley trying to sit in Nate's little chair.

Finley LOVES this blanket.  She puts her fingers through the holes and gets herself all wrapped up.

Nate and Finley acting silly.

Finley modeling her new winter coat.  I got her a furry one because I knew she'd love  the texture.

This last picture, this is a picture of what happens when mommy leaves daddy in charge of breakfast.  In fact, Nate is sitting here as I type saying, "see how messy I was?  That was a bad idea for daddy".   Yes Nate, you're right.  That was a bad idea.  You see, for a long time, Nate asked me to make him sprinkle pancakes every morning.  They are simply regular pancakes with sprinkles in the batter.  Well Nate wanted some yesterday as I was walking out to go to my Weight Watchers meeting.  He was upset when I told him I couldn't make them until I got back - and I suggested, half-heartedly, that his daddy could make them.  Well, this is what I came home to.  Nate told me that daddy made him "sprinkle waffles".  Which consisted of two frozen waffles and a bowl of BLACK sprinkles that ere sitting on my counter top - which were going to be used for the Halloween cupcakes we were making yesterday.  Never mind that sprinkle pancakes are NOT made with BLACK sprinkles, nor do I consider sprinkles to be a good source of nutrition for my children - but Nate knows that when I leave, its always a bit of a crap shoot as to what daddy will fix him to eat.  Needless to say, when we did make the cupcakes yesterday, Nate told me he didn't want any sprinkles on his - that he'd had enough!

Anyway - I was down another 1.2 lbs this week - 4.4 lbs in total.  For two weeks in - I will take it!  Oh, and my thyroid test came back normal.

We are very excited for the weekend. Not much to do - except a little relaxing.  I will fight the urge to do anything that is un-necessary.  Our plans will include raking up a large pile of leaves in the backyard so Nate can continue this:

He's very much in to the leave this year - Mike actually raked up this pile with our garage broom - given that our rake is still sitting our storage unit which is well overdue for being unloaded.  We coulda/shoulda/woulda unloaded that today - but chillaxin' calls.

My day started out a little something like this:  Roll out of bed at 6 am so I can go have my follow up blood work done.  I had some abnormal results on my thyroid levels when I went for my physical in July, and a low white cell count, so today I had to go for me retest.  I shuffled in to the bathroom, eyes half closed and definitely not completely with it. I opened the medicine cabinet to get my toothbrush and at that point, the center panel mirror became unhinged and fell - breaking in to a million little pieces.  6 am folks.  A giant piece of glass falling inches from my head and body.  I guess I don't need to workout today - I sufficiently got my heart pumping within the first 3 minutes I was awake.  And although I am/was trying to choose not to be deathly afraid of having 7 years of bad luck - i was feeling pretty lucky the damn thing didn't fall on ME - I later found that the mirror must have hit my Blackberry square on (it was on the counter) because the screen of my Blackberry is shattered.  I didn't even know that could happen.  And so while my luck still hangs in the balance - I actually did end up losing 3.2 lbs at Weight Watchers this week.  And as much as I had no intention of telling the world I had re-joined WW - I am hoping the fact that I have put it out there for the world will help me stick to plan!

The world's cutest Sox fan!

This week we had to say goodbye to Mike's grandma who passed away unexpectedly last weekend.  I lost my last grandparent, my grandma, when I was in college.  I never had the pleasure of knowing my grandparents on my dad's side and my grandpa on my mom's side was killed by a drunk driver when my mom was pregnant with me.  Mike's grandma, Nana, was a beautiful woman in so many ways.  We are going to miss her so much.

My view from the top

I finally had an opportunity last weekend to fill the tired on my jogging stroller with air and I took Finley for her first jogging excursion.  she absolutely loved it.  I had concerns about her ability to sit up on her own in the jogging stroller but she did great and it was a ton of fun (and a ton of work!).

I am hoping that you have as good of a weekend as I am planning on having!

You were extraordinary in every way.  Sharp. Classy. Loving. Kind. Generous. Caring. Thank you for treating me like I was your own granddaughter.  We are so happy that Nate and Finley had the opportunity to know you and to feel your love.  We will miss you!

The excitement in the Roth household last weekend was Finley's first haircut!    I was nervous as all get out and have been putting this off for a long time.  But it was time.  She was rocking this crazy little mullet thing where the hair in the back had grown quite long and was just plain, well...crazy.  And no matter or conditioning, blow drying, putting back - nothing really helped it.  So between the mullet in the back - she also has some really short hair at the crown of her head that is just growing back - it broke off from her laying down on her back so much.  That hair is only about an inch long BUT its covered by all of the long hair on top.




And while I am probably THE only mom that takes her child to Mario Tricoci for their first haircut - at $25 a pop at that - I was too nervous to take her just anywhere.  The gal who cuts my hair knows all about Finley and I knew she'd be comfortable working with the situation because after all - Finley can't sit on her own yet - she's constantly connected to her feeding pump, etc.  It ended up working out really good.  All of us went (Mike and Nate too!) and Finley did a great job and while she did get a little frustrated that I was holding her head up for her - she cooperated well and per my strict instructions - she only ended up getting about and inch off the back.  That little inch was just enough to lighten up that load and now all of her hair in the back has sprung up in to a giant mass of curls!  It looks like she has a little bob!


We have a couple of big things coming up in November - Finley is scheduled for a sedated ABR (hearing test) and a bronchoscopy on November 3rd.  She will need to be admitted for those tests so since we are going in the day before (because of her blood sugar issues) we got her scheduled for a swallow study.  I am so psyched about this because she hasn't had one since April 19th and her progress is 100% night and day since then.  She has been eating baby food 3-4 times a day now for a couple of months and this week her feeding therapist brought some stuff we can mix with juice called Thick It and it makes her juice the consistency of honey.  We have been trying that a little at a time and she is doing great.  I can't wait to show the speech therapist what Finley can do!  She has come SO far!


Today we are enjoying a nice family day off.  I took a vacation day today because Gigi needed to have a medical procedure done (we are thinking about you Gigi!) and so I had Nate stay home from daycare as well.  This afternoon I am going to be making good on my promise to take him to the park - he wanted to go SO bad last weekend but we never had a chance.  Today is an absolutely perfect day for the park as far as I am concerned too - if you asked me to describe my idea of perfect weather - today is the day (and yesterday was too)!

More exciting news on the fundraising front.  I am proud to say that we ended up meeting our $6000 fundraising goal after all thanks to my dear friend Melissa Dylo who contributed to our campaign on the very last day!  Thanks Melissa!  The Third Annual Charge it for Charge campaign kicked off on Friday, October first and I invite you all to take a gander who made it to the Charge it for CHARGE fundraiser homepage: Third Annual Charge if for CHARGE.  That's right...our girl is a star!  More exciting stuff coming on that at the end of the month!  Additionally, I am so grateful because a girl that I work with, Colleen Creedon, asked if I would be interested in coming to talk to a group she is affiliated with, The Arlington Heights Junior Ladies Club.  This club hosts an extremely successful benefit each year and they invite different groups to come and present to them about their charity and then the group votes on the charity that will receive the bulk of the proceeds from their benefit.  Last year their benefit raised $14,000!  She has sort of given me the heads up that it might be a tough one this year because there is a local gal coming to talk about her twin boys who need liver transplants.  I actually know of this family because they are treated at Children's and I have read articles in the paper about them, etc.  But that is okay - I would be so very happy for their charity to receive the donation, I am simply grateful to have the opportunity to raise awareness about CHARGE Syndrome.  I will be speaking to the group on October 20th at 7:30pm.  Personally I think might little princess might just win them over : o ).

Finally, this was the site outside Nate's bedroom this morning:

He and daddy were in cahoots this morning on this "No Gurlz Allowed" sign which both of them thought was pretty cute.  And to think, this is only the beginning.  I am sure the two of them will be ganging up on us gals many, many more times to come!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!  We will be heading over to the Arlington Heights Fire Department Open House and then Mike is finally going to do our taxes.  That's right, our 2009 taxes.  Because the final due date is October 15th after all! (Don't even get me started!)