Thai & Tile...

On October 7th, John and I attempted to take the cubs to Color Me Mine so they could work on the ceramic tiles we purchased for their school fundraiser. We purchased 5 tiles -- one for each cub. Their school is creating a tile wall that will basically be there forever.  And you know I can't pass up an opportunity when it comes to creating memories for the cubs! It was pricey to buy 5 6"x6" tiles, but I think the "cool factor" outweighed the cost.

Anyway...we took them to the studio, but for whatever reason the girl working that night couldn't find the tiles. Instead we took the kids to have their first taste of Thai food at Bangkok Garden in Westlake. John was leary about taking them at first (they're picky eaters) but we were pleasantly surprised to discover how much they enjoyed our culinary trip to Thailand. I highly recommend this restaurant. The Pad Thai is a to die for and John said the yellow chicken curry is heaven. I've tried all of their soups (none disappoint your tastebuds) but the Tom Yum Goong and Tom Yum Gai are my favorite. And...the service is outstanding.

Thai BBQ ain't got nothing on this soup!

 Happy.

 Little.

 Cubs.

We went back to Color Me Mine the following day, Friday, October 8th. This time we had success and the guy working that night knew exactly where to look for our tiles. I took Ceramics in high school and for my fine art requirement in college, but I still absolutely hate glazing. The glaze always looks better BEFORE you fire it. (I LOVE throwing on the wheel though.) I'm hoping the tiles turn out okay. Here are a few pictures of the tiles before they were fired. I'll post pictures of the finished product when the tile wall in finally unveiled.

Kevie's tile:

According to Kevin, the black smudge on the upper right side is a "car"

 Boo's tile:

The bottom two are monster trucks. The top orange thing is "a monster truck with covered wheels and a brake". I'm assuming the brake is the line.

Ethan's tile: 

We really didn't have a design for Ethan's tile, but I'm sure you guys understand all the symbols. By the way, the handprint is an replica of Ethan's actual handprint. I traced it.

 Niki's tile:

 Again, no particular design -- just her handprint and some symbols. She didn't want to paint. ;-)

 Noie's tile:

A small VII because she's a carrier. And of course, the lion from Ethan's NICU tag.

 Can you see what it spells????

Now & Then...

Here are two videos that John and I took to share with family and friends. Watch this if you've ever wondered how we did/do Niki's infusions every other day. She had her Broviac catheter (she had surgery to install it when she was 3 days old) removed in July and we've been infusing via port ever since. If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments section or shoot me an e-mail. I'd be more than happy to answer them -- knowledge is power! :)

October 2010: Now (Infusion via Port)

April 2010: Then (Infusion via Broviac)

(Don't mind the song. There are slim pickins' on audio swap when videos are this length.)

My First Post....Sort Of

***10/31/10 EDIT***
My original blog resurrected from the dead -- fourlittlelions.com and emotional-hemophilia blogs were restored by Google.  Yay! I had a few mosts created on my "new blog" thefourlittlelions.blogspot.com that I transferred back onto my orginal fourlittlelions.com blog. The post below is the first I entered in my new blog (now my old blog.) Sorry for the confusion. ****

Hello bloggy-friends! I'm back. I tried WordPress and discovered that I'm not tech-savvy enough to figure it out.  So, I'm starting from scratch...again. I'll be using WordPress to back-up my blogs (thanks to a suggestion from my bloggy friend C), but I've discovered that I can't get over my user-friendly love affair with Blogger.

I'm still hoping for a miracle with my fourlittlelions.com & emotional-hemophilia blogs, but I don't know if it's going to happen anytime soon. (Big thanks to my Twitter-friend "E" from HF Healthcare  for hooking me up with a real live person at Google! You've given me some hope at the end of this dark and dreary tunnel and I'm praying that Google can find a solution to all of this.) If my old blog can't be resurected someday, when I have the time and patience, I'll consolidate everything copy and paste my old blog entries into this account.

Here is the post I wrote about the whole ordeal. It was originally posted on my WordPress account on 10/14/10....

On October 13th at 12:30am, the unthinkable happened...

my blog "died"!

I was trying to cancel an old Google account and somehow a computer glitch caused me to accidentally delete my primary Google account. It looked like I was fully signed out of my primary account, but evidently in "Googleland", I was not. So, my primary Google account, along my fourlittlelions.com blog, vanished into Internet nothingness.

It. Was. Gone.

I was devastated. I started bawling my eyes out when I realized what happened. Seriously guys, I could feel my body having a visceral reaction to my blog's unexpected "death." And, I'm sure my pregnancy exacerbated my emotions too! I was crying so hard in my heartbroken panic that I woke up John. And even he couldn't believe the news. Not only was that blog important to me, but it's important to him too. (John's a little emo sometimes so he likes to read old entries from time to time whenever he feels like reminicing about our cubs.) On top of that, I also used my blog to document Niki's medical history. We both like to think that the cubs will read my blogs someday, and appreciate it for all of its embarassing glory. But alas, Blogger broke my heart.

All of those memories....gone. All of the blood, sweat, and tears I put into writing about our family stories, my grief, and Niki's journey...gone.

I realize that I probably should have kept back-ups if it was that important to me, but I had complete trust in Blogger.  My Myspace and Xanga blogs are still up and I started those over seven years ago! So, I simply never thought something like that would happen to me.

But when it did happen to me? Oh man...I can still feel the ache in my heart.

Once I got over my initial breakdown, I immediately tried to restore my Google account. But...it didn't work. Next I scoured the Internet and Google help forums to find a solution to my problem and still...nothing worked. The situation was hopeless. I could feel tears and desperation welling up inside of me. It was late and I was drained.

All of the help forums basically stated that my blog wasn't going to come back.

But.... I wasn't going to give up yet. My blog may have "died", but I found a way to get the text from my old blog entries. It was  painstaking work, but I utilized "view source" on a cached copy of my blog. From there, I obtained links to my old blog posts for each month and saved those too. Then, I used those individual links to search Bing, Google, and Yahoo to get cached versions of my old blog entries.

From that point on it was all about copying, pasting, organizing, and saving. I'll upload those entries onto Wordpress someday.

I stayed home from work that day because Niki had a horrible tummy ache was up crying all night. (The last time she had a bowel movement was on Friday so she was miserable.) In between taking care of Niki, nursing my emotional wounds, and recouperating from small stress-induced crying jags, I spent my day/evening/late night  safely nestling each and every blog entry I've ever written on my computer's hard drive.
I finished shortly after 1:00 this morning.

I was physically and emotionally exhausted when I finished, but I got the job done. Out of all the blogs I've written since I joined Blogger in 2008, I only lost 10 of them. (And actually, I only cared about 2 out of the 10 posts because they were letters to Ethan and Niki for the 2nd & 1st birthday.) I wasn't able to keep the "photo essay aspect" of my entries -- those went down the drain with my Google Picasa account -- but I have copies of those photos on my back-up drive anyway.

What happened yesterday was a nightmare, but I learned some important lessons from this experience.

1. Back up EVERYTHING.
2. Despite hardly getting comments, I discovered that you guys really DO read my blogs. I was surprised with how many messages I got from people looking for my blog and/or offering help. Even some of you lurkers made it out of the woodwork. ;-)
3. Most importantly of all, I learned just how important this "writing thing" is to me. Sometimes it's feels like another task on my to-do list, but now I realize how much my blog means to me.

I had no idea what I had until I thought it was gone. Now that it's back, I'm cherishing it forever. I'm so happy that things worked ou in the end.

Welcome to my new blog!  I fell, dusted myself off, and started over again. :)

HemAware Wednesday - My Boys

Here is the link to my latest post at HemAware.org 
http://hemaware.org/blogs/diary-hemomom/my-boys

And...I just saw a very sweet comment left by my fave sweet treat-maker "M" from Tiny Treats. If you're a Bay Area local and need some delish teeny, tiny morsels of yumminess for your party, you should definitely check her out. I used her services for Niki's 1st birthday party and our guests gobbled up everything. :)

***10/28/10 Update***
Here is the condensed version of the results of our first parent teacher conferences.
Kevin

Aside from the minor mystery ailment issue I wrote about in my HemAware blog, Kevin's conference went splendidly.

Kevie is ahead of his class. At the END of the school year, most kids can read approximately 51 words per minute. Well my friends, Kevie can read 110 words per minute! Keep in mind that Kev is only 7 years old! The KID is already reading chapter books, and I brought him his first Goosebumps book a few weeks ago. He's still a video game fanatic, but the boy enjoys a good book! Like mother, like son. Kev is the top of his class for reading comprehension, and he is able to derive mature ideas and values from stories. Ms. H was very impressed with his essay on "Tabby and Mr. Putter."  She really gets a kick out of his quirkly little perspective on life, and his passion for paper crafting. Kevie finishes his work early so he can focus on his comic books and paper creatures. Again, like mother, like son.
We (me, John, and Kev's teacher Ms. H) are excited to see how well Kevin performs when STAR testing happens later this year. Unfortunately, the school doesn't have a GATE program any longer, but his teacher has no doubt in her mind that Kevin would have qualified for GATE if the program was still around. Kev has accelerated in all subjects -- language arts, math, and of course, reading. His teacher thinks he's just the swellest little guy ever.
But...don't be fooled because he's still his Daddy's son! Kevin is the sweetest little thing in class, but apparently he has a penchant for using the F-word on the playground. He doesn't say the F-word to people, but he does use it to express his emotions. His teacher wasn't too worried about it, but she wanted us to remind him that adult words are best left for the adults.

Anthony

John and I were worried that Boo's speech and temper issues would resurface once he started school, but Ms. C says that it isn't an issue at all. The psychologist that evaluated him when we were going through his speech evaluation said that Boo would eventually outgrow his mild OCD. (He had an affinity for perfection and would have a tantrum when it wasn't.) It looks like the psychologist was right because Ms. C says Boo doesn't exhibit any issues at all! Boo is one of the brightest and sweetest kids in class. Ms. C says that she wouldn't have even have known that he had severe expressive speech delay if she didn't already known about his history. (We're old friends from high school and she was Kev's kinder teacher.)  Boo does the cutest things at school. He always reminds Ms. C that she and I were friends in high school. :)

Boo has already met the year end standard for number and letter recognition!! He is very social (more social than Kevin was in Kinder) and has tons of friends. He doesn't "verbally clam up" when he's in stressful situations like he does at home. (I think he just wants to be babied more by us.) He needs a little more TLC when he's injured (see the HemAware post above if you want to read more) but he has no other issues. I feel so relieved. I'm happy that his speech therapy helped and gave him the best start possible. It was worth all of the time off, paperwork, evaluations, and appointments we had to go through. He's just a normal kid now, and that's all we ever wanted. :)

Sole Siblings...

Kevin was a very laid-back toddler. I could put him in a dress, and he wouldn't complain. Kev was our first cub so his shoe and clothing collection was quite expansive. It was excessive, but hey, John & I were 21/22 years old -- we didn't know any better! (Of note: Boo and Niki weren't as spoiled.) I'm pretty sure that KID had more clothing/shoes than I did at one point! He was the most adorable single-dimpled, social butterfly so Kev was spoiled rotten my everyone around him, too. Let me give you an example of how spoiled he was. One time I forgot to bring Kevie's shoes to daycare, and his Ninong D took him to the mall and bought him these...

 Nice Ninong, huh?

(Picture shown is not the actual shoe. Those are boxed safely away in storage.)

Perhaps it was my childhood Reebok refurbishing and poor upbringing, but shoes have never been in short supply for my cubs. It has gotten to the point where the boys don't even appreciate the beauty of a good shoe. They totally trash their shoes and then we simply bring out more shoes out to rotate. I buy them too much, and they get tons of shoes during their birthdays and Christmas. To be quite honest, the kids have even outgrown some of their kicks before they had the chance to really wear them out! It's sickening really. But then again...I didn't have very many shoes when I was kid so that should explain it all.

Interestingly enough, our high supply of footwear transformed two of my cubs into "shoe snobs."

It first started with Boo shortly after he turned 2 years old. Boo would absolutely refuse to wear certain shoes. Other times he wanted to wear one of each pair. I thought it was just his terrible twos, but by the time he was three-years-old (and fully capable of using his words to express himself), his contempt for certain pairs of shoes was still running rampant. Getting out of the house turned into an entire ordeal if Boo couldn't wear the shoe of his choice! His argument changed every time...

"These shoes are faster than those shoes."
"That doesn't match my shirt." (It did.)
"I don't wanna o wear those shoes!!" 
"I don't like that one."
"Those feel funny, Mama."
"My socks hurt in those shoes."
"Noooooooo.....WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" (kicking and screaming on the floor)

"The Great Shoe Debates" (as I called them) turned into full on tantrums if it was a matter of needing to wear a certain type of shoe.  Sometimes, we didn't give Boo a choice over what covered his feet. He threw a shit-fit once when we forced him to wear dress shoes to a formal party. There really was no other choice because Boo wanted to wear these instead....

 I say the argument was necessary, don't you?

Some days we had to bring extra shoes for Boo to change into because he couldn't decide. Mr. Stubborn wanted to wear multiple pairs of shoes! I realize now that our "pushover tactic" was definitely a strong case of child-centered parenting, but sometimes it's easier to let the kids be the boss when you're tired or in a rush. (I'll be honest here....I'm not a perfect parent. Shhh, don't tell!) The good news is, Boo's shoe snobbiness has progressively improved as he got a little older. Boo went from having an absolute hatred for certain shoes depending on his mood, to being totally obsessed enamored with one shoe in particular. I call these the "Rainboots of Shame"....

I first mentioned "The Rainboots of Shame" in July 2009 when Boo got a metal ball stuck up his nose. It's hard to believe that I haven't written about them until now. In case you haven't seen them in real life,  "The Rainboots of Shame" are squeaky, clunky, and reminiscent of army boots. Actually, I bought them to go along with an old Halloween costume of Kevin's (the year he was a S.W.A.T. cop). One day Boo did some digging in the closet, found them, and loved the "Rainboots of Shame" from that point forward. Boo would wear these uuuuuggggly things EVERYWHERE. On the days we were able to coax him into wearing other shoes, we still had to bring these shoes as his crutch. (It was almost like his security blanket.) Boo LOVED those shoes. I thought it was hilarious, but John wasn't as thrilled. I'll even admit that I've let Boo wear them to a party or two...or three!

But it's okay, his handsome face made up for the ugliness of the shoes anyway. ;-)

 He tried them on for old times sake...

When Boo finally "outgrew" the Rainboots of Shame, John and I did a little happy dance. Boo still loves those shoes so I never put them in storage. Actually, he tried to wear them the other day (see picture) and that's what prompted me to write this post. He still fits them, but now says "They're not cool enough." He's a little older, a little more rational, and Kindergarten has given us the benefit of explaining "color coordination" to him. Boo can now aesthetically understand that bright orange & silver shoes don't look good with dress clothes.

Boo is finally over his shoe obsession, but now it's Niki's turn.

Niki never exhibited any particular shoe preference before, but she cries and screams whenever we put on shoes that she doesn't like. We first witnessed this behavior with some Uggs that her Daddy bought her for Christmas. Niki never disliked Uggs before (she wore her pink ones all the time when she was a baby), but for some reason Niki freaks out at the mere sight of these Uggs. I've tried everything and nothing helps so, I guess boots with fur aren't her style.

If my daughter could live in sandals and sneakers for the rest of her life, she would have it made. 

 The "Shoe Diva"

I recently brought out a bunch of shoes that Niki got as gifts (because she fits them now) and she throws them on the floor! She kicked and screamed when I tried to put them on her. I figured she simply didn't like how they felt on her feet. But...her Auntie B got Niki some very cute and comfy shoes from Old Navy (matches perfectly with the dress she gave her), but Niki refuses to wear those too.  Evidently, little miss diva isn't a fan of flats or Maryjanes.

From Auntie B...

 From Auntie D...

Yes, they have teeny-tiny heels on them. :)

Soooo....it looks like Boo and Niki are "SOLE SIBLINGS" folks!

I'm really hoping that Noie/Diamond Tiara won't follow Boo and Niki's footsteps. (No pun intended.) Otherwise, I'll be forced to donate all of there super cute shoes. And technically...giving these kicks to Noie doesn't count as a "hand me down" since they're brand new. Right? Right?! I'll feel bad if it counts as a "hand me down" since I was "hand me down child." LOL! Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens when Noie comes.