The Latest!

This past Thursday was a big day here as the stepgranddaughter celebrated her 16th birthday. Ah, yes -now the problems begin big time I suppose as she is taking Driver's Ed, plans on getting her own car with earnings from washing dishes and learning some cook duties at the restaurant in Clearfield where Mandy works (Daniel's Fine Dining.)

Mandy and Bill went together with Katie's great-aunt, Cindy, to get her a digital camera for her big day. So, she now says the camera will be close at hand for at least the next month as she experiments with it. She downloaded the photos she took on Wednesday and Thursday to the computer and I have taken the liberty to steal two of them and post them here. This one is, of course, the little Princess Maya.
I think those couple little dots on Maya's chin were either droplets of chocolate milk or maybe some crumbs left behind of some cookies she had prior to going to bed.

And here is a picture Katie took of Kurtis. He was in his playpen, looking up at her when she took this. I cropped it out and used the "Spotlight" feature on the Kodak easyshare software. You gotta love those big, big blue eyes of his though, don't 'cha now?

He has to be just the snuggliest baby ever! As soon as you pick him up, the first thing he does is to try to burrow his head against your shoulder and just cuddle up to you. Then, while in that position, he scans the area around him until he zeros in on something that apparently looks appealing for him to get into and the squirming begins till you let him down and away he goes -toddling off, looking for trouble!

If you recall, two weeks ago after a trip to see the ear/nose/throat specialist in Dubois, the doctor could not do a hearing test on him because he said his ears had a lot of fluid in there. So he was put on some antibiotics to clear that problem up and also, was sent for an x-ray of the nasal-sinus cavity plus he had to have blood work done to run the first allergy test - just to see where he was on some allergy scale.

Well, yesterday, Mandy had to take him back to the specialist to see if they could do the hearing test. It was you could say at least partially successful -they got it done anyway -but the results weren't all that clear because of difficulty getting him to focus.

The upshot of the visit though was that come Monday morning now - December 17th -Mandy has to have him over at Dubois Hospital around 6 a.m. and they are going to insert tubes now in his ears. According to what the doctor and technician working with Kurtis Friday morning told her, his eardrum is not formed correctly -where it is supposed to be at least rounded or peaked, his is flat and apparently that is what they believe is causing some of his issues with the hearing. And I'm thinking if he has that much problem there with excess fluid in his ears, perhaps that also causes some of his balance issues. He walks, tries to run, and for a little guy, he does fairly well but yet, for as long as he has now been walking -about 4 months - he is still often very bumbly and kind of doddery -if you follow my descriptions there -so perhaps this ear fluid has some bearing on the balance issues he seems to have too.

Let's hope it clears up at least a few things for the poor little guy!

I know one thing for sure, the last prescription for the antibiotics he was given, we noticed a change in his sleeping habits almost immediately. He started falling asleep easier and fewer times throughout the night too where he would wake up - and wake me up too (of course), fussing like crazy. So we've both been sleeping a bit better anyway.

I just wanted to share these pictures Kate took of her two youngest siblings. I thought she did a pretty good job with them considering she'd only had the camera less than 24-hours at the time she played around and took these two photos. Now, if only Santa would bring Grammy a nice digital camera for Christmas too - wouldn't that just be loverly!???

Now I have to go as a certain four-year-old is about to drive me bonkers, getting into all kinds of things in the bathroom from the hair "tangle-free" spray, to body lotion to some kind of glitter stick (I have no clue what that thing is for but it looks capable of making one hell of a big mess) and try to keep her occupied without destroying the first floor of the house between now and when it is time for her to go to bed. If she gets too contrary, she may just find her bedtime hour has changed from 9:30 to 7 p.m.!!!

Later, folks!