We've Moved!

Check out our new site at

M&M Kids! Stories of parenting, adoption, and life

Read the post below if you haven't already and it will explain everything.

Thanks!

Switching Things Up

I'm going to be switching blogs up a bit. First of all, Maya will be adopted soon so I'm going to combine her private blog (which I haven't been great at updating anyway) into one blog about both kids, adoption, and life in general. I'd like to write more specifically about Mateo's special needs but I want to keep pictures and names out of it to protect his privacy, especially as he gets older and I get more detailed. So I'm going to create a separate blog specifically about that. I won't make it private because I want to be a support for other parents going through the same things. But I'm not going to connect the two blogs so that new readers won't have access to his picture, name, and personal information. My current readers will know who he is and I invite you to read both blogs, but please do not write his real name in any comments. I'm going to move all my posts about his special needs over to the new blog and keep Confessions of a Real Mom light and fun, with plenty of photos of cute kids! Does this make sense?

As soon as I have the new blog set up, I will leave the site information in a comment on your personal blog. If you want me to do so, leave a comment on this post and be sure it connects to your blog or leave your email address. Thanks.

Best Of....Maya's Party!

Photos:











Cake:

It looked beautiful...

It tasted awesome!

And it came with a complimentary smash cake just for Maya

For my Connecticut peeps, you can check out the website where
I got the cake here.

Gifts:

My friend made this dress. Yes, made it. You can see more here.








As you can see, the party was a great success!

Just So You Know....

Talking badly about a people group (race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, country of origin, etc.) whether you are in front of them or not is not okay. Making stereotypical statements about a people group is also not okay. Saying negative things about a people group in front of the parents of a child in that people group is definitely not okay. And then exclaiming the child is "not really" a part of that people group is just plain idiotic. Just so you know.

Seven Pounds Baby!

I went for my first weigh-in at Weight Watchers tonight and guess how much I lost? Hint: it's in the blog title. That's right! Seven pounds!

If I could find a way to type out a victory dance, I totally would. Picture the Cabbage Patch meets the Running Man meets the Macarena. Oh, and I'm singing a song like "Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I did it! Oh yeah!"

Okay, so put that all together and picture me (minus 7 pounds of course) doing that right now. See? Don't you want to rejoice with me? Or at least laugh at me?

Wordless Wednesday

Yes, that is my son eating an entire Carvel ice cream cake that my husband brought home after surgery in order to get him to eat something.

It didn't work. He hasn't been eating well and has had tummy trouble since surgery one week ago. We've been to the doctor and will probably go again tomorrow if it doesn't get any better. Lots of drama, I'll update later when things settle down a bit.

Maya is ONE!!!

Well, she turned 1 almost a week ago but I was preoccupied with Mateo's surgery and recovery. And she's not adopted yet :( I was hoping by the first birthday but alas, DCF moves slow. Who would've guessed? But seriously, I just have to say, Maya's bio mom agreed to consent 9 months ago. Nine months! Does it really have to take this long?

Anyway, here are just some things I love about this one year old girl:

- she's just so dang cute!

- she loves her family

- she laughs whenever anybody else laughs

- she is good-natured

- but she is developing her own little personality

- which has turned a bit towards the dramatic

- like when she throws herself face down on the floor and buries her head in her hands when she's upset

- but overall she is easy-going

- she's very tough, I guess a necessity being Mateo's little sister

- she is social and friendly

- she is happy 93% of the time

- she is hilarious and makes us laugh all the time with her funny facial expressions

- she is so dang cute! (She also may be a bit spoiled because of this)


Since she's having a big party next weekend, we had a small celebration on her actual birthday. And she got one present from Dave and I, and one from Mateo. Here is the push-cart I got her. She LOVED it! And was so freakin' cute pushing it around the house.

The boys putting it together with the screw gun

Doesn't she look too tiny to be walking around like this? She's my little munchkin!

2010 Goes Down in History as the Worst Year Ever! (and it's only March)

First we had the MRSA incident. After that, Mateo started heading downhill with his moods. Then a very close friend of mine died last week unexpectedly. It's been very hard on me and my family. This weekend someone broke into our new house (where we are not living yet) and stole a bunch of my husband's tools that he's been collecting for years and our brand new washer/dryer. They did have the courtesy to take the laundry out of the washer before stealing it. Thankfully I don't have to replace the kids clothes too. But it sucks. We have a $2,000 deductible on our homeowner's insurance so we have to spend at least that much to get the stuff back. Not what we needed at all since our house renovations are far from done and if people didn't already know this, renovating a 1853 house costs money!

Plus, we are behind on all our work. We really need to move in soon so we can stop carrying two mortgages. No one has expressed interest in buying our current house. Maya's adoption isn't even close to happening yet, although her birthday/adoption party is this weekend. Speaking of Maya, she turned one last week. I have a post all ready about how fabulous she is! But I want to add a picture (from behind) and haven't had a chance yet. That will be next.

Anyway, the point is...2010 is officially the worst year ever! I'm hoping by June I'm not saying that anymore.

Surgery Update

Mateo did end up staying overnight. They took out the tonsils, the adenoids (again), and put in ear tubes. The ENT said it was good that we did all three. He really needed it. Surgery went well but after he wasn't breathing as well. Nothing to be alarmed about but his oxygen sats were low at first so they wanted to be sure to monitor him overnight. He is doing just fine today and coming home soon. Dave stayed overnight with him, since he's such a daddy's boy. He had a lot of trouble coming out of anesthesia, which we anticipated based on how he did last time. Since he's pretty much irritable on a daily basis, and normally has trouble going from sleeping to waking, it was no surprise that he had even more trouble after surgery, in a strange environment, with lots of tubes stuck to him. He was so combative, agitated, AND STRONG, that the nurses gave him a dose of Morphine. Fifteen minutes later, another dose. Twenty minutes later they called the anesthesiologist down, who gave him some Valium, "just to calm him down." Yes, thank you! As we were in a wrestling match with him for the last 45 minutes. After the Valium he still tried to take the IV out but was much slower at it so we could catch him. He recovered fine after that. But I have a big gouge taken out of my finger as a war wound.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We are happy there was no excessive bleeding. He should be home today, eating ice cream and popsicles, and hopefully in a good mood.

Oh, and we had the same nurse in the inpatient unit as we did when we were there last month with Maya. And she recognized us! I had to explain that we don't intentionally put our children in the hospital 6 weeks apart, it's just a coincidence. We are a normal family...sort of.

Surgery Day

Today is Mateo's 4th surgery. He's having his tonsils out, ear tubes in, and adenoids checked. He had his adenoids out last year but they sometimes grow back. Sometimes these surgeries can cause complications for children with cleft lip/palate. So we have a bed held for us in case, but we're hoping we don't need to use it. I'd like to go home today. I'll update later about how it went. I'm guessing Mateo won't be very happy after surgery. We're also going to be messing with his medication doses but....he hasn't been stable anyway. I'm also guessing he's going to be pretty irritable and angry due to the heightened level of anxiety the whole event will cause him. He's so sensitive to everything, I'm gearing myself up for a rough couple of days.

I do have a medication update I'll post later.