All aboard the Potty Train...choo choo!!

Ahhh....it's almost 8pm on Saturday night and our first diaperless day has finally come to a close. We decided to go all out and do no diapers/pullups on a day when we had a birthday party to celebrate - at a bouncy house, no less! I give Jason all the props for taking him to the potty every thirty minutes or so while we were out to ensure a good result. It worked! We were a little more lax with him this afternoon at home, but I'm thrilled to say that he wore his underwear ALL day and never had an accident. After a full day of dry unders, he earned back the train that he lost yesterday after willfully peeing in his pants as we played outside. That was quite the downer. Man, do I hate disciplining my kid. I mean, I HATE it. I do not know how my parents did it. I know now that it was hard on them, but growing up I would never have known that! How is it exactly that the older you get, the smarter your parents seem? My dad told me that a few years ago, and he was absolutely right.

I can only hope that tomorrow goes as well. I know that we'll have some setbacks, I just have to be as tough as I can with Will in the meantime. Ugh. Pics from the party will be up tomorrow, hopefully. AND....hopefully I'll be able to unveil the awesome crafty project that Jay and I have been working on - new cornice boards for our bedroom. I'm crossing my fingers they turn out!

Hey, how about some new-ish pics?

So, as the snow begins to fall tonight, I thought I'd put up some pictures from the last snow storm that we had a few weeks here in NC. But seriously....I moved here from MICHIGAN. I don't need snow! Mother Nature, please take note. Thanks!

Is this not the cutest pic of my sweetie and his "other" lady?? I think so.

Adios Gigi & Papa, Hello Potty Training!

Well, mom and dad left for Michigan today. Will did amazingly well when they left, particularly surprising since he told BOTH of them that he really didn't want them to go in the last 24 hours. I'm hoping that he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night asking for them. That could be dicey.

Tomorrow, I'll have some kinda bad news for the little man. With Gigi and Papa back home, I think that it's time to get really serious about the potty training. I feel like he's going backward right now, and I'm not having that. He'll be 3 and a 1/2 in six weeks. I want him in underwear during the day and THAT IS IT! I'm ready, and well, it's time for him to be ready. This might hurt a little. Not sure who it's going to hurt more...me or him. Updates to come. Wish me luck.

Putting it down for posterity...

I thought maybe I should write out all that we've been going through the last month, at least next time someone asks me about it, I can cut and paste from here. I've been super sick for almost a month now. It all started with a normal, yearly eye appointment. They found out that my optic nerve was swollen in both eyes. The eye doc that I saw did not have the best bedside manner and began to tell me that there were many things that it could be....one being a brain tumor. Well, that's all I heard and I completely freaked out. I was sent to a Optho-neurologist, who assured me that I most likely if NOT have a tumor. However, to diagnose what exactly was creating all this extra pressure in my head, we needed to do some test.

Tests #1 & #2: MRI and MRI-V

Good times. We had to go at 8pm on a Thursday night, so we put Will to bed and out awesome neighbors just came and hung out over here. They gave me Ativan to chill out before the MRI, but yeah, apparently I need something a tad stronger?? I've never had an MRI and it drove me crazy!! I really had to focus on staying relaxing. The MRI-V was to check the veins and arteries in the head since I have Factor V Leiden. They had a small concern that there might have been a blood clot. There wasn't. Nor was there anything else. Thank God.

Tests #2 & #3: CSF pressure and LP

So now that my brain was clear, it was time to check the actual pressure in my head. They suspected that it would be higher than normal. To do this, they have to do a Lumbar Puncture. This didn't really phase me much since I had an epidural with Will. It wasn't any big deal then, so why would it be now? Yeah, famous last words. The Neuro guy that did the LP had a really hard time with it for whatever reason and it took him three tries to get the catheter situated correctly in my back, and it was terribly painful....I'm not a wimp. And this guy made me cry. Seriously.

So, the pressure of the CSF came back just a little higher than normal. This means that I have something called pseudotumor cerebri. Definitely not the end of the world. It is treated with diruretics and losing weight. The weight thing is definitely something I have to work for.

But here's the problem. Remember how the LP didn't go so well? The guy who mistook me for a pincushion put so many holes in my spinal cord that I developed a horrible spinal headache. I know that migraines are bad and headaches suck, but this is in a whole other league. I literally could not lift my head from the pillow, it was that severe. It scared the crap out me. The Rex Pain clinic had me come in on Thursday morning for a blood patch. Basically, it's another LP where they inject your own blood to help clot up the little holes. It was easy and almost painless, compared to the original LP. For some people this heals their spinal headache completely. Not me. It brought down the pain by about 50%, which allowed me to actually sit up for about 30 minutes at a time. It was something at least! Everyday I got a little better, and after a week I was feeling like a human again. In the midst of all this, my dad was able to drive down early (mom and dad had a trip here planned for this week). It was my saving grace, as I couldn't lift Will, or clean, or drive.

So, Pseudotumor Cerebri is what I have. We'll be checking my eyes every 3 months, and that's about it. I'm lucky that it's not giving me any physical symptoms. Man, am I glad that's over!

Seriously, can I stick with anything??

Soooo, back in October of LAST year, I had all these great intentions. I would blog everyday. It would be so great...it would help me keep up with everything. Yeah, right.

The holidays happened. They were FANTASTIC. But now it's the day before March and I have not done anything with this bog. Lame-o, Dene', just plain lame-o. But here's re-start, take 2. We'll see. This time I'm not promising myself anything.

Congratulations Courtney & Andy!!

We spent last weekend making a quickie trip back to Michigan to attend my cousin Courtney's wedding on Friday evening. Court & Andy has asked Will to be the ring bearer (or ring bear, if you ask Will), so he had the sweetest little white eton suit to wear! He cried the WHOLE WAY DOWN THE AISLE. No joke. It wasn't the best scene. However, he recovered and partied with us till the wee hours! Ok, it was 10pm when he passed out on the dance floor, but still. It was great to see lots of Benore relatives that I ususally only get the chance to see on Christmas Eve or chat with on Facebook. The best part of the weekend was that Aaron came all the way from L.A. to hang out with us!! Will was over the moon excited to be with Uncle Bubby for a couple days!

Some great summer shots!

Just a few shots from our summer of fun....

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