week ending oct 4, 2009:

Week ending October 4, 2009: This week Chloe had a follow up with her gastroenterologist, got sent to the principal’s office, and both kids turned 6! We learned Chloe has gained 2 pounds since her last appointment, which is great since she was losing weight over the winter. I reported to the doctor that Chloe had another round of vomiting since her last appointment and complains a few times a week about pain, mostly in the morning. The doctor advised us to stop the Carafate and Nexium, to start giving her Kapidex, and to not let her eat anything within an hour and half of bedtime. We’ve just started the new medicine today, so it will be a while before we know if it works. She also advised us to schedule another endoscopy in a few months.

I try to always do something recreational with the kids after the gastro appointments and it so happened that the appointment was on Yom Kippur which means the schools were closed for the day, so we went to the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton. It was really beautiful and with the price of admission the kids received a scavenger hunt paper and stickers to put on the pictures when they found the items, which made it more exciting for them. Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Ladew2009#

The story about the trip to the principal’s office starts on the school bus. Chloe was sitting next to a friend who is a boy and she couldn’t get his attention, so she tugged on the strap of his backpack and he told her that he was going to hit her. When she got into her classroom, Chloe told the teacher what happened and the teacher sent both of the kids to the principal’s office. At this point Chloe got very worried and started to cry because she thought she was going to get in trouble. At the beginning of the school year I had read the book of rules to the kids and the book stated that it was possible to lose school bus privileges if the rules aren’t followed, so Chloe was just beside herself worrying that she wasn’t going to be allowed to ride the bus. It took me 3 hours to get her to calm down enough that she could explain to me what happened and I could allay her fears.

The birthday party went really well. We’ve been just ridiculously lucky with the weather for our parties and this was no exception. We ended up with about 10 kids and 20 adults which was great. Chloe wanted a Chinese theme and Alex a Star Wars theme, so we found the appropriate paper goods and party favors, and my Mom and I decorated the cakes. As Casey and I gave them good night kisses in bed at the end of the day Alex said “that was my best birthday ever!”. Nice to hear after all the work we put into it! The pictures tell the story: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/BdayParty2009#