A trip to the dentist tomorrow?

Yesterday Brody tripped on the playground and smashed his face onto the step.  He was bleeding of course and it took about 45min to calm him down.  Thankfully a dose of Tylenol before bed helped and he slept through the night.  Well this morning his lip is still very swollen and earlier I peeked into his mouth again (boy was he PISSED).  His teeth all seem to be in tact as is his frenulum (too bad since it's too tight and between his teeth/keeps him from moving his lip when he talks)....but above one of his front teeth seems to be a little purple--and behind it too.  I would bet that tooth is loose but I was afraid to try and wiggle it.  Today he has eaten mostly soft foods or foods he can put way back into his mouth like Cheerios and hasn't been a huge fan of drinking much today (which has meant terrible poops).  Soooooooo I will be calling Dr. S tomorrow morning to see if they want to see him or.........good times.

This picture was taken about an hour after it happened.  It's already swelling up on the right side and he isn't wearing a shirt because it was covered in blood.  :(

How to make a "Lollipop tree"

Somehow with our trip to Vegas and Evan's surprise 40th birthday party I haven't blogged in over a week,    

I got the idea of a lollipop tree from Pinterest--I know you are shocked. ;)  The original idea that I pinned can be found here.  This craft was SO EASY!  It took me maybe 20 minutes to put it all together.  

You need a styrofoam ball (I got mine at Michael's with a 40% off coupon), some type of pot (mine also came from Michael's) and a large bag of Dum Dums.  My bag of lollipops was the 300 count bag and I used almost all of them.  You could also use Tootsie pops or Blow Pops.

I placed my styrofoam ball on top of my pot and starting from the top I just pushed the lollipops in trying to keep them as close together as possible.  THAT IS IT FOLKS!  How easy is that????  After it was done I also placed a "40" candle in the top with a sign on it that said "sucks".  lol

Brody is "helping" me with the lollipops.  :)

The lollipop tree is finished!

A few missing lollipops already and a few more being taken right now!  (plus you can see the "40 sucks" sign here)

New scrapbook pages

Air hockey- video

The air hockey table at the ice house is ALWAYS broken.  The guy was just fixing it last week but since it was broken yet again Brody and I made our own game last night during Travis' game.  He had found the cap to one of those toy things in the quarter machines and we used that as our puck.  This entertained Brody for over 20 minutes.  SCORE!  lol

Swings and Sports-Videos

Self portraits

He thinks it's funny to take pictures of himself on my phone.  :)  Usually they are of his legs, feet etc but this time he pushed the button that turned the camera around.  lol

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons!

Starting today until the end of the day next Tuesday Harris Teeter will be tripling all coupons that are .99 and below.  So a .50 coupon is now $1.50 and so forth.  SP means the coupon came from the Sunday paper and Web means...well you know.  Google the coupon for the "web" ones to see if they are still available to print.  I went this morning and found some great stuff!  I saved $60 (between the triple coupons and VIC discounts)--and paid $29 which isn't bad considering all of the BOGO items I got!

FREE or a great price:
Betty Crocker cake mix and frosting- priced at $3.36 for both .75 off coupon (SP) = $1.11 for both
French's spicy mustard -$1.50 - .30 off coupon (SP) = .60
Frank's hot sauce- $2 -.75 off coupon (SP) = FREE
Ortega taco seasoning- $1.60 for two - .50 off coupon (SP)= .10 for both
Eggo waffles- $4.58 for both - .75 off coupon (SP) = $2.33 for both boxes
Jello temptations $2.50 each - .90 off coupon (Web) = FREE
Philly cooking creme $2.50 - .75 off coupon (Web) = .25 each
Kraft fresh taste breadcrumb mix $2.99 - .75 off coupon (Web) = .74 each
Yoplait greek yogurt $2.58 for two - .50 off coupon (SP) = $1.08 or .54 each
Yoplait light yogurt with granola $2 - .75 off coupon (SP) = FREE
Land o Lakes eggs $2.99 - .50 off coupon (SP) = $1.49

BOGO items that I found
Goldfish crackers $1.19 each after BOGO
Kraft salad dressing $1.63 each after BOGO
Kraft shredded cheese $1.84 each after BOGO

Travis' "Barter Day" project

It's apparently normal practice for the 2nd grade to learn about bartering and have a project around it.  Basically the kids first come up with something they can make that they think other kids would like.  After the teacher approves it they make whatever it is, complete with a speech and a poster.  Oh and you don't just have to make a few of the item.....you have to make TWENTY!  Ugh.  Travis decided on bookmarks and I saw some super cute monster bookmarks on Pinterest that you can see here.  As of right now we have done about 1/2 and they are due early next week.    They aren't hard to make but the really hard part is getting Travis to willingly help me make them "with him".  This project is going to cost about $1.50 total--I had all of the paper in my scrap booking stash and the google eyes are super cheap at Michael's right now.  There are ways to make them more intricate with different paper etc but we are just sticking to solid ones.  Make a bookmark today......summer reading lists are just around the corner!

Some of our monstrous creations!

Travis is hard at work!  lol

"I love you Mom"

The rumor is out there......

Triple coupons next week at Harris Teeter?  The company won't officially say until late on Tuesday but a bunch of different blogs, websites are hearing that it's happening.  I found this site http://www.southernsavers.com/2012/05/harris-teeter-triples-516-522-list-1/ that lists some of the rules and a few coupon match ups.  I hope there are a lot of coupons under .99 in this week's paper!  :)

Monkey

I must have known Brody would be like this.....I put monkeys on his wall before he was born for goodness sake!  Seriously Brody is 100% monkey boy.  He climbs anything and everything to get whatever it is he wants.  This is why we put him into a toddler bed at 2 years old--he was climbing out of his crib!  This kid is crazy strong!  He breaks the child proof locks off the pantry door all the time now.    The other day I heard him messing with it and then I came around the corner and saw this.....

I wish I could say this was a one time occurrence but nope.  Monkey boy will climb as many shelves as needed to get to his cookies and crackers.  ;)  Crazy boy....

Poor Volvo

As you probably saw Brody and I were in a car accident yesterday.  I was travelling down Cascades Parkway towards the house when this guy was trying to turn left onto Cascades from Costco (by the carpet store).  Folks that drive in this area know that turning left there is dicey since the cars are going fast and the curve there is a little blind.  I saw him coming out right at me and couldn't stop--after we got out of our cars and made sure everyone was OK he said "I didn't even see you coming!".  So the Volvo has a lot of damage to the right side where he "tboned" us.  Most of it was on the passenger side door but there are dents and scratches along the length of the car, the tire was bent in, axle was probably broken and the front corner/hood had some damage too.  Now we wait to see if the car is a total loss or it's fixable.  Thankfully Brody and I walked away with just a little seat belt bruising on myself--he played happily on my iPhone the whole time we were waiting for Evan, the tow truck, the police etc.  Getting in an accident totally sucks doesn't it?  I'm so glad no one was hurt considering the speed we were both travelling etc.  

:(

You can see the scratches along the back side too and most of the stuff on the ground was from his grill but a few pieces were from the under trim on our car.

Close up of what happens when you take a giant can opener to a  car.

Brody is eligible!

We found out the other day that Brody has "been found eligible" to receive services from the county. We find out at the next meeting what that actually entails. It could be anything from speech therapy up to 5 days in the county preschool program.

Why am I telling details about this? I'm doing it in the hope that someone reads it that might need to get help for their child and use some of this as a guide of what to do etc.

As hard as it is to say....they found him to have a developmental delay. This was based on some forms that we filled in and the visits with the social worker, psychologist and the speech/language pathologist. To qualify for this delay they have to show a "significant delay" in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social/emotional development, and/or adaptive development. Brody qualified under 3 of them....communication, social/emotional and adaptive. Communication is obvious since he very behind in his speech for his age. The other two had to do with the way he plays and does things for himself etc. Not sure if I believe the delays in these 2 areas 100% but I think that his lack of communication makes everything else seem different....you know? So we wait to see how this will shake out. I won't be shocked if he qualifies for the preschool program a few days a week based on the social and adaptive piece.

It's all relative I guess because he's talking more and more every day which is awesome! No matter what happens next....I'm just trying to do what is right to keep Brody on track with his peers! Love my monkey!

A late menu for this week.....

I had gotten out of the habit of making an official weekly menu when Evan was travelling so much in the last few months.  So we are back at it.  :)

Tuesday- Cheeseburger Mac Attack (but the recipe in my book has 1 tsp onion powder instead of the regular onion)
Wednesday- Chicken and Sausage Gumbo (this recipe is based on the Hungry Girl one I use....the HG one is what I make and it adds 1 1/2 cups celery and one whole green pepper)
Thursday- Gumbo leftovers
Friday- Cheesy Salsa Tuna Burgers
Saturday-  Dinner at a friends house.....

Equals = giggles

I don't know why but Brody kept getting the giggles when I would say "equals" and he would repeat it.  He has some number flash cards and one of them had an equal sign on it.....he didn't know what it was so I told him "equals".  He repeated it and giggled like crazy--eventually I got some of it on video.  :)

I GOT A GOAL ON VIDEO!!!!

I FINALLY got one of Travis' goals on video this weekend.  FINALLY.  He scored 5 or 6 on Saturday helping his team to victory.  They won 14-12 and are now 4-1 on the season.  Why does it say 5 or 6?  Evan thought he scored 5 and Travis says "I scored 6, maybe 7".  LOL  So I finally caught a score.  He is on the orange team, he's number 75 and he has yellow laces on his skates (good info to figure out which kid he is in the beginning).  You can find the videos here and here.  (they have to be on YouTube since they are too long to directly attach to Blogger) His goal is at the very end of the 2nd video.  Not the prettiest goal but it counts!  :)

Another video of the swingers

New scrapbook pages!

I am still very behind but I am trying so hard to catch up!  Life just always seems to get in the way.  lol

Last page of a book

1st page of the new book

The remainder of the tball season

Number cards on a lazy Saturday morning

He loves numbers! He was reading them to me.....he knows 1-10, 11, 12, and 13-19 are something inaudible teen.  ;)  The funny thing was that 12 was 12 but 21 was 12 too!

Video of Brody labeling people in a picture....

You will hear Brody tell me who is in a picture on the computer......."ah vis, mommeeee, and bo-dee".  He's been saying Travis for weeks now but Mommy just started yesterday and I heard him say "Bo dee" for the very first time today.  Progress!  Yay!

Baked Kale Chips

I mentioned it before but I am now making kale part of my daily diet. Well at least until I get sick of it.  LOL  Almost every day I have made a batch of these "chips".  No they don't taste like chips but it's a filling 50/60 calorie snack, full of vitamins and a great way to eat some greens!  Here is how I make them--preheat the oven to 350 and spread the kale in a thin layer on a cookie sheet.  Lightly spray them with olive oil--I have the spray you see in the picture and put them in the oven for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes are done you can sprinkle them with anything you want.  I use garlic salt but some people use cumin, paprika etc. The sky in the limit.  You can see from the "after" picture they shrink up a lot when you cook them.  Then eat!!!

Field trip to Bull Run = mystery rash

Travis came home from his field trip yesterday with a weird rash on most of his face and parts of both arms/hands.  We thought it could be poison ivy....yikes.  He said it itched and it was pretty red looking but he didn't seem to be too bothered by it once I got him to take a shower and put cortisone on it.  This morning his face is almost 100% and he had a patch on his hand and another on the other arm but......then school called at around 8:30am.  Ugh.  No one wants to see "Loudoun Schools" on their caller ID.  Unless it's winter time and they are telling you school is closed these calls are rarely good ones.  Of course it was the school nurse.  Travis' teacher had sent him to the clinic because he kept scratching his neck.  Apparently it was on his neck too--a little calamine lotion and he was back to class!  The school nurse said it wasn't poison ivy (thank goodness) and it looked to either be the result of a contact allergy (with maybe the grass or something on the grass).  Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that is face stays clear--he has his baseball pictures tomorrow--naturally! :)

Travis' face after his shower--the left side was really red and angry looking--the right side he had the patch on his chin and one on his cheekbone.

A close up of what it looked like on his hand--I get rashes that look like that when I sit in the grass sometimes.  He must have then rubbed it all over his face after getting it on his hands.  ;)

2 for 3 and a HOME RUN!

I didn't get the home run on video of course (though his double was captured below) but Travis whacked the ball deep into center field and into the lacrosse practice that was going on for a HOME RUN!  He was so excited!  He also had a double and made some awesome plays for a few outs.  Baseball is definitely one of his best sports!

Random pics from the past few days

Brody loves to play hockey--or as he calls it "ah-keeeee"

Brody and Annabelle riding a train to who knows where

Travis and Annabelle bonding over the iPad

Hello?

Not the longest video but Brody really likes to pick up the telephone and say "hello?"

Random pics from last week's baseball game

I hope to get pictures of an actual game this week.  ;)  I spent the whole game watching from afar aka way too far for my point and shoot camera to get anything decent.  Oh well.

Travis is playing catch with Grampa before the game

Brody and Annabelle are the audience

Brody loves to pick the flowers

About 1/2 way through the game he discovered this sand pit where these girls were playing.  The good news is that he was occupied and I could watch the game standing right there......the bad news was that he was covered from head to toe with sand when we left.

Travis was 3 for 3 hitting and had an awesome catch/out at first to get the game ball!