November

The first part of the month took us to Alabama for a visit with Jaimie's mother and his daughter, Jessi. We hadn't seen Jessi since June of this year and his mother hadn't seen Berik since January 2007. She was really happy to see him again. He loves his sister and insists on laying on top of her whenever possible, especially to watch TV. Jessi is very sweet and tolerate which we love!
When we first started talking about going to Alabama, a 10 hour car ride, I was leary but once I saw the price of airline tickets I decided we could do it. Let me be the first to brag on Berik. He and I sat in the back and he was a SAINT!!!!!!! all the way there and all the way back. Jaimie and I jokingly asked each other who's kid we had with us. Furthermore, he was soooooooo good the entire time we were visiting. He didn't break anything, tear anything up, cry, whine or fuss . We were so so so proud of his behavior. Normally he acts like a typical 2 yr and gets into everything. He is 100% BOY !
We took him to Gulf Shores beach, which was his first trip ever to the beach. Although it was slightly cool he loved it. He could not understand that is was too cold and just had to get in the water. He was one wet sandy boy we he got finished. We hope to visit again during the summer.
Berik is growing up so and each day brings changes here and there but one constant is the cuteness of a sleeping Berik. He can sleep almost anywhere and as you can see in any position, and with any assortment of pillow, blankets and or animals. This months artwork isn't all that fancy but I am sure he is having fun doing it. Jaimie had to work Thanksgiving day so Berik and I went to a good friend of ours to feast. Jaimie did catch up with us as we were starting dessert. Good time to get in on things in my opinion!
Berik had fun playing with this scooter! He had never seen nor riden one and he did very well. I think a scooter may be in his future, ooohhh Santa!!!! The older kids were nice and played roll the ball with him and of course he had lots of fun at that too. All in all a good month and a Happy Thanksgiving!

October- What's for breakfast?

Since Sept.'s blog decided to give me the blues while posting I finally just gave up and ended up leaving off a couple of things I wanted to journal about. One was this really cute bathtub picture I took. To me Berik looks older and it is almost like a sneak peek at what he may look like as a teen. I am probably nuts but that is what it reminds me of.
Secondly, Berik had been pulling his shoes off at daycare alot recently and the staff had been letting me know and had been tying the shoestrings around his ankle in an effort to keep him from taking his shoes off. POOR GUY....his shoes were a little too small. I got him some new ones right away and he is now a size 10W. He finally wears a wide instead of xw width. I felt like a bad mommy but really he had only had the shoes he was wearing for a short time. His feet are going to be huge!

October was just a mixed bag of low key events. We did some more "cat fishing" in the house. Some "redneck" kite flying in the front yard, was a huge hit with Berik ! We live on a small hill where it is really windy but I just couldn't get the kite up high enough and so Jaimie hooked the kite to the end of a fishing rod and stuck it way up in the air and away it went. It was also a lot easier to control to reel it in and out.





















We played outside in the dirt. Jaimie was filing in a hole, left from a tree that he had cut down in our yard.Berik loved all of it from riding atop of the soil in the wagon , to sitting directly in the dirt to throwing it, to raking it. All in all a simple way to entertain the B man. He is pretty much easy to entertain but when he is hungry he wants food right then and there. One Sat. morning Jaimie and I were up and getting breakfast ready when we discovered that Berik had pretty much already helped himself to what I am sure he thought was a fantastic breakfast. See for yourself and count em... five, yep five lollipops, chewed up and consumed in a flash! He left us all the evidence we needed strung out between the kitchen and stopping just before the TV in the living room. We usually don't keep bulk candy around but it being the Halloween season we had some. Plus since his ear tubes fell out in Aug. we are back to having ear infections, which = Dr. which ='s lollipop and sticker after the visit. Sometimes they are out so we have our own supply! We are hoping the ear infections will stop or hoping for tubes again. The Dr. says we need to wait a bit longer. This is infection # 2 so we will see.
Berik is always up to something and currently he is fascinated by putting on my hosies and carrying my purse. He brings not just sticks in the house but more like branches. He continues to be my "monster in training" and looked pretty cute in the shirt I found at the re-sale shop for $1.25. Gotta love a bargain. He and I had a blast at the park and we played a round of secret blog pal. Our blog pal sent B these PJ's and some bath tub flutes etc.. He had fun opening up the package. When he is not busy he is OUT of it, sleeping away in these funny positions and with his pretend food, in the first pic he has a banana. If you look carefully at pic #2 daddy is asleep face down and B is using daddy's behind as a pillow.
One weekend we took Berik to 7 Acre woods, a outdoor play area for kids with a petting zoo. He had a really good time climbing, running and driving! He looks very determined to get going! We manged to get a couple of pics but none of him and the animals because he still won't really have anything to do with them. Jaimie talked or gobbled with a turkey there until the turkey started talking back which was about the highlight of the petting zoo part. For Halloween I thought of a bunch of cute ideas but none that would work for Berik. Since he won't wear a mask, hat a lot of things I thought of like, a scarecrow, a pirate or a train conducter were pretty much out of the question. We ended up with him being a baseball player. I went to the resale shop and got cleats, and a baseball jersey from a former Houston Astro player and got pants from a friend. I also ordered an Oshkosh jersey online. We used one jersey for the daycare trick or treating event and the other jersey for the evening trick or treating.
At the daycare all classes and volunteer parents set out for a mid morning trick or treating outing around the town square. The daycare which is in a church, sits on the corner of town square and they do this each year, visiting the local retailers. The first stop was the church office were Berik got a lollipop and proceeded to eat it just outside the church. As you can see the other kids in his class followed suit. He wasn't really supposed to be into the candy at that point but that's Berik for ya! At the courthouse we got to see the ladies that helped me with his dossier paperwork. The ladies were excited to see him again !
At every shop around the square, that we got candy from, Berik would scope out the bowl for a lollipop, and would then say "lollipop" and then pick it out. He didn't touch any other candy and didn't take anything but lollipops. Some of the people would dump in extra candy and Berik would look at kind of wierd as if he did not want it in his bag. I would have expected him to grab it up by the handfuls but he didn't and I was pleased with his behavior.
After work we took him to a Mimi and Papaws house and then on to a friends house. We didn't end up going anywhere else because Berik was having so much fun answering the door for the other trick or treaters so we just stayed and visited. One tween girl that was in the house even slipped out the back door and pretended to be a new trick or treater, ringing the bell. Berik ran to the door, opened it and then was like, wait a minute? Aren't you in the living room? He pretty much figured it out. He is pretty clever. Here he is showing off his loot and looking pretty happy about it all !! All and all a great halloween!! Until Nov. take care. Gena

September (posting in December) Still trying to catch up!

Well the teacher hasn't gotten any better, in fact worse!

She is overbearing, loud and a know it all.As the days passed by it began to surface that,she put several kids in time out for long periods of time, making them miss outdoor time. She kept my B in TO for 40 mins one day. She told me herself, like she was proud of it. All because he wouldn't say sorry for throwing toys and he and 2 others stayed in and missed outdoor time. What? 40 min? uh.. can you say 1 min for every age of the child?

Come to find out as well she was deliberately staying inside during playtime because she didn't want to go out because it was too hot. She is waking up, one kid in particular, during his nap to go potty. What? In the middle of nap time? What kind of person is this? My child came home with little or no artwork and she was too lazy to decorate the bulletin board and said out loud that she didn't see the big deal in making a bulletin board. This is the piece of work he came home with when they "studied" the family unit.. None of the parents seemed to be able to figure out what our kids were learning.
LONG STORY SHORT, this went on for about 2-3 weeks and it went on for not only my child but plenty of others. Berik had stopped wanting to use the potty and was telling me, no school mommy, no school. Crying as I had to try to get him to go in. Stories and complaints begin to pour in to the director, until they finally moved her.THANK GOD, as it was either us.. or her. She was moved, disciplined and explained the rules and now she only has contact with younger kids from noon-five and since the sleep until 2:30 she only has them for 2.5 hours.

She feels this connection with me because she adopted a Child Protective services kid after supposedly fostering 28 children first. Her story, don't fully believe all of it. She does have a kid though. She takes pictures of Berik and others on the playground, just because and then tells me she did and will give me the pics. No thanks I have enough and stop taking them of my kid. She singles him out to say bye to at the end of the day and doesn't bother the other kids of parents.

She said something fly to Jaimie about him not teaching Berik manners and he called her on it. Jaimie and her had it out and now she doesn't speak to us anymore. I bet that was good, sorry I missed it. So besides the fact the we still have to see her she pretty much stears clear of us.

He loves!!!!! his new teacher, Ms. Erikka and the class is going well now and artwork is picking up, see for yourself. I think this must be the unit on weather with the clouds and lightning and an apple. I bet he had fun shredding up the paper to make it! We took a trip to see my brother and his family and they live about 4 hours from here. As we were riding along on the freeway this maniac came barreling on the freeway and I thought he was going to hit us so I said, Sh?t, and then so did Berik! Great his very first curse word and it came after me, not daddy. Huge surprise. Jaimie didn't let me live it down the whole weekend, which wasn't a surprise. Also while in the car we were listening to childrens songs, specifically , The Wheels on the Bus. When it got to the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish, Jaimie decided to turn on the wipers with the water to enhance the song. Instead, Berik stopped mid sentence and said, "it's raining"! We thought that was really funny!! The kinds of money we could make if we only had a video camera going 24/7.

Check him out, pretending to look through a lego type piece. He says they are his binoculars and he tells me what he sees. It's pretty neat to see what he comes up with. It usually revolves around Dora and Diego.

And he is most proficient about drinking all the milk out of the bowl after his cereal. He is really growing up in a hurry!

About the only other thing that we did this month was go to the duck pond/park. Berik didn't want to have anything to do with the ducks at all! I even brought bread and still not a thing! He played with every stick and dirt that was there and ran and ran to his hearts content! I guess he had enough when he stuck his hand up to me and said, "Momma, no camera!"

I guess he is sick to death of pics but I still took some although he posed for none and managed to get some good ones. See for yourself..Well for now that's all and furthermore the computer has decided to do this silly underlining thing and I can't get it to stop. Some blogger malfunction I suppose. Until Oct's post, take care. Gena

November 13, 2008

Two years ago on 11-13-06 Novemeber 13th we met our little guy. Here is now and then at 7.5 months. We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams!

Thank you SBP!!!

We got a goodie box from our SBP with Diego sunglasses, Rescue truck pj's and bath tub toy flutes!! for Berik and for mommy an organizer, which I promptly put up and filled out for the week. Yeah! One week of organization! but...
Nothing went as planned. I wanted a picture of Berik opening the box, not a camera in sight as he ripped out the contents in a very expeditious manner, like seconds! He went for the sunglasses originally but saw the toy flutes and he was gone in a flash to the table. Once he realized he couldn't open them he returned and became side tracked with the glasses, that he managed NOT to break. As we got the package right at the precise time we were leaving the house we left the other goodies at home and proceeded out with sunglasses in tow. He enjoyed and stills enjoys them much, as the sun bothers him in his eyes. They are packed and ready to go with us this weekend to Alabama. No pics of him sporting the glasses but he sure is cute.
Later we returned and a much needed bath was given and we broke out the flutes and oh my.. did he have a blast with these. I managed to toot out a tune that was recognizable by daddy, but all Berik wanted was for me to quit, "tuning them" and give them back. They all survived the trial run, and then he had to take them all to the table and continued to play them. They are packed and ready to go as well on our trip. I am not sure how Nana will enjoy these but oh well, he will be happy!
The PJ's are very cute and he looks most handsome I must say in them. He has been having lots of nosebleeds lately so the top has gotten less use than the pants thus far, as I haven't wanted him to bleed on the top. Here he is, pushing himself on his truck, (which is not a ride on toy) through the kitchen having a blast!
The organizer was filled out but we all got sick Sunday night so we did nothing that was planned for the week.
Berik had/has an ear infection. I have/had bronchitis and daddy, (Jaimie) has/had a sinus infection. Joy, we all have antibiotics so we are on the mend. This would be the reason for the delay in the post. Sorry. We didn't forget and we do appreciate all the great stuff!!! Thanks so much. Gena, Jaimie and Berik
Blogger seems to have a mind of it's own as I have tried to shrink down the size of this part of the blog but it insists on making the print large. Sorry about that.

Actually August! and no one is sick! Yet. THANK GOD !

So far, so good, no-one is sick! Thank God for that.Berik is back to daycare now and making some fancy artwork I'd say. Take a look for yourself. Finger painting would seem to be right up his alley as he loves to get messy! We love his teacher, Mrs. Kathie, and so does he. She loves Berik, as well and we will really miss her at the end of August when we have to move up a class, to the 2's. There will be two new teachers in that class and right now we don't know who they will be.

Well, wouldn't you know, shortly into this month, Berik comes up with some weird looking rash on his face. It looked like someone had taken a red sharpie pen and dotted his whole face, especially around the eye and temple area. He didn't seem to be bothered with it but it was most obvious and he didn't look good. Off to the doctor, to find out he had Petechiae. That is, small red or purple dots, that don't fade when touched, due to broken capillaries, due to forceful coughing or chocking.We were told by the Dr. that Petechiae doesn't show up the instance the child coughs or chocks we linked it to a coughing/chocking episode at the dinner table a couple of nights before. Whew!! That's all it was. Note.. IF it has fever with it then it could be linked to bacterial sepsis especially with meningococcal disease which is highly contagious and fatal. THANK GOD WE DID NOT HAVE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I pick up Berik from daycare, he is glad to see, comes running, hugs and kisses and then off he goes unless I wrangle him. He loves to run off to the water fountain and drink and play until he is soaking. He loves to play on the stairs and his favorite is the elevator. So, while other moms are picking up their tots and easing on out, I am chasing mine around and pulling him off of the stairs or fountain etc.. I am sure this is amusing to the other mom's/dad's but usually after a long day at work , this would be my last choice of entertainment.

One day, he went up the stairs and the preacher was coming down and I asked him to detain Berik, but Berik was slick and zoomed past him. After the preacher managed to catch him, he chose to ride down the elevator with Berik, rather than taking the stairs. He probably thought he would get away from him again. He delivered him safely to me and I thanked him, only to have Berik, moments later, wriggle loose and fly up the stairs. I went running after him and got there just in time for him to have pushed the button for the elevator, which promptly opened. Berik went in, the door shut and I was too late. NOT GOOD!! The church has 4 floors and doors to both sides on one floor. What could I do except stand there and watch the buttons light up. This was not a good feeling. Moments later, he arrived back downstairs where he had gotten off the first time.Smiling and laughing having himself a big time! THANK GOD, he had pushed the same button as when he and preacher Mark had ridden.
Now, I practically have a death grip on his little wrists when we go somewhere so he can't wriggle away. He doesn't like it but right now I can't afford to take any chances as he is fearless.
He is FEARLESS really UNTIL you get to live fish. He isn't to sure about those. He was really unsure at the moment that daddy dropped the live fish in the bottom of the boat and it was flopping around. LOL! Got love that, Berik was climbing up in the seat to get away. After the fun was over, Jaimie drove out to a friends pond and let the fish loose.
The month that started off fairly uneventful has increased to full speed ahead! We got to the last week in the month and had the most eventful teacher changing affair. Mommy and the teacher cried on the last day. "Berik" gave flowers and a small gift to his teacher, and picture cards and chocolates and balloons to the part time daycare workers.This is Ms. Sarah, she was his favorite part timer! That was on Friday. On Monday, wild horses couldn't drag him into the new class, a whole door away from his old class. He got there, took one look at the lady, she spoke to him and he put on the brakes. Mrs. Kathie, (old teacher) tried to help and he clung to her for dear life. I finally had to leave, him kicking and screaming and crying and was still late to work by a whole hour and I work less than a mile away.
Jaimie, my husband hated the new teacher, from day one, like Berik, but I will try to give her a chance, but she is already awful.

***************FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One day, after church he was in the nursery (same place as daycare) and I went to pick him up and he had two non-clothed dolls, one in each arm. He rushed up to the door and says, look mommy, babies, to which I replied, "Oh, Cool, are those your babies are you having twins?" He immediately threw the both of them to the ground and said "No" . He was pretty sure about his decision and made it in a hurry. He is so cute with real babies and loves to look at the "real" twins in the infant room.
This brings me up into Sept and I am, as usual out of time, so I will leave this here and pick when I can, for Sept. It is Dec. now and I am only on Sept? What? THANK GOD, I have notes about what when on in each month. You all take care! Gena

Hell month! July- Oh My!! Adnoe who? what?

We started the month off with Berik still running high fever like 102.0 as he had been for a few days, so Jaimie took him to the Dr. We were told it was a sinus infection and given meds. We went through the weekend with fever still and some other yucky stuff. Monday, J took him back to Dr. and his meds were changed but still the fever persisted.
Tues morning, B, acted like he felt a speck better so J loaded him up to do some errands and about noon, I get this frantic call from J about B, telling me head for the ER, our child was not really responding to him, just staring off in space and drooling. Like a "bat out of hell" I drove to the ER, to find B, not looking so hot. He was evaluated, but no really diagnosis. They attempted to draw blood,causing B to scream hysterically, causing his eyes began to BLEED, at which time, Jaimie called a halt to that and B was admitted for observation. After a long night in the hospital and doing nothing more than we could do at home, we checked out the next day, still with constant fever and still with no diagnosis. He was, though, a little more perky, so we stayed home all day and rested and then decided we could make it two miles up the road for a burger.
We didn't even get to finish, before B looked like he was going to pass out right then and there, so off the ER in the next town, as we had enough of our local ER the night before. The next town was 30 miles away and having Jessi here we made quick arrangements for her to spend the night with someone, and off we went with B screaming bloody murder all the way, until he finally crashed out. We spent a lovely 4 hours in the ER waiting room where his fever went to 104.4 and we pretty much got some attention then. This being a huge hospital, the ER was packed with people, we tried to understand but by 1am we were growing a little tired. We got a great evaluation and a great blood draw from a Childrens Hospital Dr. and we were admitted, to await the blood results, with about one of three diagnosis. Cat Scratch Fever or Kawasaki's disease or Adnoevirus. None sounded great but hey, finally something.
The next morning the Dr. determined that he had Adnoevirus. Ever heard of it? Woo Hoo, you go Berik, Happy 4th of July! Yep that's how we spent our holiday weekend!Poor baby. He was really dehydrated and wouldn't eat. We learned that it is a viral infection that causes, diarrhea, sore throat, high fever, stomach and muscle ache,and pink eye or eyes! Berik had it all, bless his heart. We stayed 3 nights in the hospital and since Berik had been given a million dollars worth of IV drip, he felt a little better and even though he still had fever, the Dr. felt good releasing him. Since it was viral and they pink eye too there was not any meds that would touch it. So we just had to keep alternating Tylenol and Motrin.
Well , that was just long enough for mommy to catch it! Wonderful. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was down, like a dead horse, laying in bed, one minute putting on more clothes than I did in Kazakhstan to keep warm and the next hour peeling them off sweating to death and Jaimie was left to deal with Berik 24/7 and keep him away from me.
After two weeks for Berik total, he finally went back to daycare, but had missed out on, making mud pies,tie dyeing shirts (red, white and blue), riding on the firetruck, watching the 4th of July parade,all of which he would have loved. The director of daycare did come to visit him in the hospital and got his white shirt and they did make him one and it is so cute! The daycare workers brought him a get well card, a balloon and stuffed ducky. He was happy about that! He did get in on making cinnamon rolls, and making snakes from paper plates, which including finger painting so I am sure he was happy with those activities.
I missed 10 days of work between Berik and I and I didn't tell you the worst part. I got DOUBLE PINK EYES, Berik just had it in the one eye and he was better about it than I was. Just about the time I was getting better and going back to work, Jaimie got it, however no pink eye for him. He was out of it for about a week. We had taken every precaution at home, no sleeping in the same bed, no touching at all, strict hand washing, no double use of the phone, like I really wanted to talk anyway. Jessi never got it, as we had practically banished her to her room.Jessi's summer vacation was up and what a thrilling last 22 days she had. After all that time, and with J still being sick, we opted out of the 20 hour total car ride to Alabama and back and bought her a plane ticket home.
After all was said and done we had about 6 normal days in July. I don't have many pics from "hell month" except some from the hospital and a few from after. Sorry once again to bore you but I am journaling for us as well.
Happy Anniversary, to me and my hubby, 7-6-08, while we were in the hospital with Berik. Not real exciting, but we were together, that's for sure. 7 years of Happiness, thanks babe! Take care and I wish for none of you to catch this yuckiness!
A few more things to add. Daycare is fantastic but we are going to have to move up a class at the end of August, which I already don't like. I love the teacher that we have now, Ms. Kathy and there is not set teacher for the next class up as she is stepping down a room.Here he is modeling his 4th of July shirt and his puppy ears that he made. Berik is making great strides in speech and pretend play, as alot of things are "right there" but only to him. lol! He loves to crunch ice,how cute but annoying too as he wants to dig down in your glass for a piece. Everything liquid is called juice to him. He now loves tacos and rice & beans and is and and always has been quite the hit at the local Mexican restaurant we go to. The waiters comes by and give him pralines and high fives and carry him through the restaurant. He loves it.
He greeted me at the door one day saying, "Mama, mama, and as he is wrapping himself around my legs he turns to Jaimie and looks straight at him and says, "my mama!" I thought that was funny. He is trying to potty train but that is sketchy at best. The reward is one Skittle so at the very least he is learning his colors as he will pick out "the one" and let you know what color it is. He tried one day to diaper the duck, that was cute and he really did quite well. He did a little "cat fishing" which is some real redneck fun! He went through Jessi's purse more than once, and would barge into her bathroom while she was showering and stand in there and play "peeky boo" with the shower curtain. Amusing for us, aggravating for her! Looks like she'd learn to put up her purse and lock the bathroom door. After all she has 3 younger siblings at home, 5, 3 and 2. Berik then got a weird looking rash all over his face. Looked like little reds dots, freckles everywhere. Back to the Dr. and she explained that he must have gotten chocked on something, which he had, a couple of days earlier and it was all the broken capillaries and that is would go away, which it did in about a week. I hope that we aren't sick any next month!!
We finally found out that one boy in B's class had the same symptoms as he did, right before B came down with it. The boys mother got it too but not until weeks later after I was over it. The incubation time on this virus is long! She had it so bad it damaged her eyes and she had to take steroids for he eyes to heal. The boy didn't get it as bad as we did but it sounds like she got worse than anyone. Yucky! I for one am glad this month is over!
Take Care and stay healthy. Gena
Gena