Kimber's Navy Family

Our toddler has reactive airway disease. I did some online research and was unsure as to what kind of medical ID I should buy for a 17-month old (see my blog " Life still goes on "). We knew that we wanted all of his information to be available in whatever situation arises (drop-in childcare, baby-sitter, or even an accident) if one of us could not provide the information when needed. My husband came up with this wonderful idea: clear ID badges. We ran with it. Today we stopped at Office Depot and bought the Office Depot brand adhesive name badges with the red label 100 count (compare to Avery self adhesive name badges item number 5143 ), Office Depot brand plastic badge holders 12 pack , a 10 pack of Office Depot brand black lanyards , and an Office Depot brand credential holder. (The credential holder hung with all the other name badge accessories; I just can't find a link online. The item number is 313-412.) All of this cost around $25. Our first decision was what ...

Our toddler old was diagnosed with reactive airways disease last spring and we recently wrote an action plan for him with our pediatrician. Looking online, the blogs and medical sites use the acronym RAD (Reactive Airway Disease). There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding whether or not a toddler can be definitely told he has asthma. Medscape Reference states that a child needs to be "at least 5 years of age" before he can diagnosed with asthma in their December 2011 article " Pediatric Reactive Airway Disease ." Expert Advice in the " Asthma: Difference Between it and RAD " Q&A, February 2002, says the diagnosis can't be made in "children under two years of age." Both pediatricians we saw as well as our CPNP and asthma/allergy specialist told us that O has reactive airways with a high probability of it later being diagnosed as asthma, considering our family history and O's personal medical history. While he does n...

Here we are... Asthma Management Plan in hand for one of our toddlers. Last February, O had a severe case of RSV that put him in the PICU for four days. Shortly afterwards, we were seen by an asthma/allergy doctor who told us that O has "reactive airways." We actually had not noticed his retractions , induced by simply walking around the room. She asked, "Does he always breathe like that?" She was very helpful and put him on Singulair, but I left that appointment feeling like a horrible mother . The big question running over and over again through my mind, "How did I miss that?" He stayed on Singulair for a couple months, into the summer. We-- thank the Lord!-- managed to avoid catching any summer colds. The summer passed easily and O finished his prescription on Singulair. I watched his breathing and didn't feel that it was "out of control." I still noticed those retractions, but they didn't seem that bad. Maybe he was doing fine? Sept...

“It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.” ― Norton Juster , The Phantom Tollbooth  Preschool... wow. In all honesty, I was really looking forward to the one-on-two time with my toddlers that preschool would give me, since my four-year old would be there for half a day. Now that we've been on the "preschool schedule" for the past couple weeks, I am looking back slightly longingly at the easy-breezy summer days! Considering driving time, I essentially have a little over two hours while our oldest is in school. So, if I run one errand and it takes me an hour and fifteen minutes--our usual Target time-- I have 45 minutes left to... do what? I can't grocery shop in 45 minutes. I can't go home and let the toddlers nap in 45 minutes. Wherever I drive to, it will take about 10 minutes to unload and 10 minutes to reload, leaving 25 minutes to do something with two toddlers. Some days I do this accelerated shopping trip where I give myself 45 minutes i...

This blog post on our bedtime routine was inspired by a post I read last night on "Mel's 2 Belles" called Bad Habits . Bedtime is probably the most challenging time of day. By the time bedtime rolls around, your mind is wandering to the bottle of wine you have chilling in the fridge and your body longs to collapse on the couch (with chocolate). Here was our old bedtime routine: Dinnertime sometime between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm, depending on when I started cooking. After dinner, playing outdoors with the boys. 7:00 pm: bring the toddlers in for bath and pajama time (pajama to the left, pajama to the right, jamma, jamma, jamma, jamma, P! J!) Toddlers then meltdown through entire pajama routine. 7:15-7:30 pm: Toddlers go to bed early because Momma is done listening to meltdowns. 7:45 pm: Momma hollering outside to Husband and preschooler that it is probably time to possibly think about coming inside, maybe? 8:00 pm: Husband wrestles with preschooler through b...

My own list of "You know you are a mother to twins when..." 1. You automatically start calculating how long something will last. Example 1: "A bag of 6 apples will last the toddlers 3 days, throw in the preschooler and the husband and it will last one day with two remaining apples... Okay, 2 bags for 2 days." Example 2: "I want to buy this shirt for me, but it has sequins (aka baby magnets) and must hang dry... I could probably wear it twice. Let's go with this one. I wanted another plain, washable t-shirt anyways..." 2. You buy two of everything. Two loaves of bread (which lasts about a week), two bunches of bananas (four days), two gallons of milk (almost a day and a half), two bottles of Ibuprofen (for the momma who is carrying around two 25 lb toddlers)... 3. You are always hungry. You sit down with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of yogurt for the toddlers along with a yogurt and piece of toast for yourself. The toddlers wolf do...

"I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Acts 9:16   Okay, maybe a bit dramatic. But we have had a heck of a week. It's just been one thing after another. We've had our cat for two years and he has always been mean, attacking mainly me. He did attack our oldest a few times. But then his aggression escalated (even attacking the toddlers!). Combined with his other behavior issues, we worked with the vet for over the last month trying to get him under control. Over Labor Day weekend, we had our final straw. He viciously attacked me and we had to put him in the bathroom. Monday night at dinner, dishwasher humming away, our preschooler pointed out the "lake" in our kitchen. Lake? What lake? The dishwasher leaked out into our kitchen! The sinks were both filled up with water. Of course this was the night that I did not wash dishes before sitting down to eat. Ugh. My husband did everything he could, but he didn't have all the tools for th...

Listening to an audio book while flipping through a library book North Carolina September 2012 Preschool has started. My four-year old comes home every day happy, exhausted, and over-stimulated. I've been letting him watch one movie for a little quiet time, but that leaves the entire rest of the afternoon for us to figure out what to do next. This past week was a little rough. Not only did our family just have a stressful week in general (I think everything that could break, did break), I also have realized that our afternoon schedule was not working well for a tired preschooler that does not nap. What to do? Well, I started by figuring out what his body needs. For some reason, he doesn't finish his lunch at school. His brothers have been eating lunch after we pick D up from school, so I have D come home and finish his lunch while his brothers eat. Following the preschool lingo, D likes to call this "snack time." After snack time and toddler lunchtime, we have...

TwinBug Photography at twinbugphotography@yahoo.com Woo hoo! Kimber's Navy Family's Facebook page has reached OVER 50 LIKES!!! As a way to say thank you for all the support, I am hosting our first giveaway! To be eligible to win the giveaway, you must "like" Kimber's Facebook page. If you have yet to like the Facebook page, go to the following link: Kimber's Navy Family on Facebook . How do you win? Just leave a comment on a blog post-- any blog post! I just added a new "Popular posts" page. Here is the link: Kimber's Navy Family Popular posts . You can follow the link or go to your own favorite post. I love to hear your feedback. Have you used a baby product I've reviewed? Did you have a different opinion of the product? Are you also struggling with the toddlers years? Do you have a suggestion for me? Would you like me to write more on a certain subject? Or just leave me a comment saying, "I'd love to win the giveaway!...

Parenting a four-year old-- a preschooler-- is an entirely different ballgame than parenting a toddler, not in a slow evolution of parenting sort of way, but a must-completely-refigure-our-parenting-NOW way. I was chatting with a friend of mine a couple weeks ago about parenting and how sometimes-- okay, all the time-- parenting our preschooler is much more work than parenting two toddlers. Yes, our preschooler does have a very "high maintenance" personality. He internalizes everything around him; he absorbs everything-- I mean, everything -- he hears. He strives and longs from the very core of his being to be pleasing, yet can't help but do something for attention or test his boundaries. I wrote a blog about him in July . My love for him has also grown from simply maternal to a fascination; I can't wait to hear what he is going to say next and I love his little quirks, like the way he tells a joke or the silly faces he will pull in the middle of story. I long to hea...