more pics

Long overdo pictures

Here are some recent pics of the family! I got a new-to-me camera and have had a little learning curve with getting the hang of downloading the pics. But, it was worth the wait because the quality if the pics are so much better!

Bye Bye Ba Ba!

Cait and Eli had their appointments with the pediatric ENT this morning at Cardinal Glennon. Eli is ok for now. If he gets strep again we will need to do a 2-4 week round of Augmentin and if that doesn't cure it then his tonsils will need to come out. Cait is another story. I took her last Thursday to her regular Dr and she had another ear infection. Today the Dr. told us that they don't like to do tubes on babies that still take the bottle because the combination of tubes and the bottle cause a lot of ear drainage. So during the next 6 weeks, we are suppose to finish the round of antibiotic she is on and also wean her off the bottle. She goes back June 16th and if she still has fluid in her ears they will do tubes. Overall we were VERY pleased with our experience there. The Drs were much, much nicer than the one we had in Carbondale. We saw a younger Dr first and then saw Dr. Stith for the final recommendation. Both E & C had a blast in the waiting room with all the toys - which is a plus! Getting there was a little tricky with I- 64 being shut down in St. Louis for construction but Shawn has it all figured out now :)

Soooooo Byebye baba!!

I'm back!

On the contrary to what I thought, my trip to Miami was pretty relaxing! In hind-sight, I really needed the break from home!! I came back home a much more patient Mom.

The thing that I liked best about the trip was meeting with like-minded people. The conference was on public health dentistry - in other words, dentistry for the underserved. I met with a bunch of people who were not into dentistry for the money - they were in it to help people. That is the opposite of what I was so burnt out on in private practice - money, money, money....production, production, production. And no matter how much you make, it is never good enough for them.

I did probably have one of the best meals of my life in Miami. We ate at some restaurant on the beach in South Beach. I had jumbo grilled shrimp with rice and veggies...mmmmmmmm. Then the meals that they had at the conference were excellent as well. We had a big dinner/dance on Tuesday night with different cultural foods. Ooooo Tres Leches cake - yummmm!!! I'm going to try and make it sometime!

Yes, I did miss the kids but it was good!

Twas the night before....

my trip to Miami. And all through the house, the kids are asleep, quiet as a mouse.......

I just can't help but to be sad. I'm an emotional person by nature. It's sad because I have rarely left them for overnight and I have only left Cait once. Last time I had an overnight trip that didn't involve the kids was Youth Encounter in December and then before that, I think it was 2004. But then I was only in St.Louis. I know Shawn is a capable father and that he will handle things fine. It's just he's not used to playing Mommy & Daddy like I sometimes have to do when he is gone to ballgames and the such. I feel guilty leaving him with the kids for an evening let alone for 4 days! Plus, he has several events in the evening while I am gone and I am worried about the transitions to babysitter. Ugh....God is gonna take care of all this, right?

I know this will be good for me. But give the choice right now to go or stay home, I would pick stay home in a heartbeat. That isn't an option though. I know the conference will be good and it will be good professional development for me. I'm sure I will learn a lot about public health. It will also be a great time to get to know my collegues better and maybe make some new friends. Just.......I just don't want to leave the kids. My heart is at home.

No closer to deciding...

Well, we are no closer to deciding whether Eli will go to kindergarten even after his registration today. We already knew that he is ready academically. It's the maturity and emotionally that we worry about. Well, we have 3 months to pray about it and think over it.....

My little boy is not so little anymore :(

So tomorrow is kindergarten registration for E. Two months after we had E, we bought our Grand Caravan. I remember thinking that when we have it paid off, Eli will be old enough to go to kindergarten. We paid it off last month. :(

We aren't completely sure that we are sending him. Intellectually, I think he is fine to go. He knows his numbers, letters, how to write his name, etc. It is the emotional and maturity part we worry about. He gets his little feelings hurt so easily. Then when he does something wrong or is hurt - he wants to run and hide. I just don't know. I do know that we would never regret postponing his entrance into kindergarten. This is really shallow and wouldn't be the deciding factor but it sure would be nice to not pay around $85 dollars a week (just for him) for daycare plus an additional $100 a month for preschool! Of course, if we really felt we needed to, we would pay that in a heartbeat if it meant that E would benefit from one more year at home/daycare. Then I think if we do postpone kindergarten, that will be one more year that we get to keep him under our roof before he goes to college - that is appealing. Plus he would have one more year of maturity on him when it comes to dealing with the pressures of middle and high school. Hmmmmm....I guess we will see what they have to say tomorrow!