Nathan needs tubes in his ears

Today Nathan had his follow up appointment with the ENT doctor. Unfortunately, the antibiotics didn't work and it didn't drain the fluids in his middle ear. The only solution is surgery to put tubes in his ears. Because of a ruptured ear drum and the fluids, he has some minor hearing lost in his left ear. This also contributed to his articulation delay. He is taking speech class to help him with that. So in three weeks he will get the tubes placed in his ears. The doctor suggested to put it in both ears even though the right one is fine since he will be under anesthesia anyways. Then he'll have a follow up appointment after three weeks of surgery then every six months after that. I think the most difficult part is that he can't get his ears wet which means swimming is limited for the next couple of years. He loves the water (just like his dad) so that'll be hard for him. I know this surgery is pretty common but just the thought of surgery and putting him to sleep is a scary thought for me. I'll try to calm my nerves so he doesn't get scared. More details to follow...

Nicolas is two months old!

Nicolas is now eight weeks old. He is 10 lbs and 1 oz and 21 inches long. He loves to smile and giggle. He is also a squirmer. We are not able to leave him alone (I know you're not suppose to anyways) because he squirms around and moves too much. Here's pics of Nico with his cupcakes. As you see he wasn't too happy! His mother went a bit overboard with the cupcakes. She couldn't resist. She was crazy enough to wait in line for half an hour for Sprinkles cupcake. It was worth the wait!

Fall festival

St. Cyprian had their fall festival on Sunday. Every parent who has a student at the school must work 5 hours during the festival. I ran the baseball booth and it was a popular game. I was tired of picking up the ball and the bottles that kept being knocked over. It worked out well...Erdy and I were able to switch off so we had time for a much needed break. The boys had fun playing games and hanging out. Here's a pic of Nate going down the huge slide. I was pretty nervous when he went down the slide. It was so high but of course fearless Nathan had no problem with it!

Lola celebrates her 97th birthday!

Yup, it's not a typo. My grandmother turned 97 years old on Saturday. Can you believe it? She's as strong as ever. She carries Nicolas without a problem (I, of course is a nervous wreck). Here's some pictures from the celebration.

Dad is back!

My dad flew in on Monday from the Philippines with a whole lot of goodies. My mom must have packed a whole luggage full of sweets and snacks. All the good stuff that I love. I'll never be able to lose weight at this rate. I have no self control! It's nice to have a third set of hands again. Of course, it's not the same as having Mom around. Mom can anticipate what I need and gets it done. Dad is willing to do anything but I need to ask him. I'm back to doing the cooking which is a huge task when there are three boys who needs my attention. It's also been a grueling week. I have this bad cold and it's miserable when you still have to function and do your everyday chores. Erdy has been on call at work so he's up at all hours working. We're both just tired and would love to collapse and just sleep. Okay enough complaining. Time to get back to work!

Sunday dinners are back!

Sunday dinners are back at my sister's. Thank heaven for that! My sister started this tradition when I had Nathan. To give me a break, she invited us every Sunday to have dinner at her place. We always looked forward to Sunday dinners. She always made these elaborate and lavish meals. Then Mom came and she always cooked so my sister ended up coming over. Now that mom left, it's time again for Sunday dinners. It's so nice not to have to cook. It gives me something to look forward to!

Noah went to the ER

We just got back from a nice walk and Noah walked inside the house. He tripped over our welcome mat and he fell right into the corner of our futon. He started crying pretty hard so I rushed over to pick him up and all I saw was blood gushing from his mouth. He has a high tolerance for pain (thanks to Nathan) so when he cried like that I knew he was badly hurt. Meanwhile, Erdy was on the phone with work stuff since he is on call this week. I yell for his help to get me ice pack and napkins.

When I took the napkin off, I saw a huge gape. I felt sick to my stomach. It looked so scary. His bottom lip was completely cut open. I had Erdy call Kaiser to talk to the advice nurse. Noah was crying so hard that Nico woke up and they were both crying. Erdy's phone was ringing off the hook. I couldn't even hear the nurse on the phone! Erdy and I were in panic mode. Talk about chaos.

We took him to the emergency room with the advice of the nurse. The first doctor that looked at it said he definitely needed stitches and that they would need to sedate him. We were brought to a room and a resident doctor took another look at it and said the same thing. Finally, the "real" doctor came in and examined him well.

We were really lucky. He had a very very tiny space that wasn't cut so it didn't run pass his lip. Had it been cut all the way, it would have been more serious. The doctor would have liked to give him a couple of stitches but given the situation and his age, we all decided against it. He said it would heal on its own in a couple of days even though it looked horrible. Sedating him was too complicated.

Through all this Noah was well behaved and fully cooperated with the doctors and nurses. You wouldn't think anything was wrong with him until you looked at his face. He is such a trooper. I thought this would be the end of thumb sucking since it would hurt...apparently not. He continues to suck his thumb and it hasn't affected his eating habits! All is well.

What a fun weekend!

What started out as a day excursion turned out to be a weekend trip! We went to Monterey/Carmel on Saturday. We were at Carmel hanging out at the beach (surprise surprise) and this nice couple came up to Erdy and gave him two tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They had a two day pass and only went once.

At that point, it was already 3pm and the kids were enjoying the beach too much to leave. Erdy didn't want to waste another 3 hours roundtrip to come back the next day so he suggested to spend the night there. Luckily, we all had extra clothes in the car. In fact, I packed so much stuff for the kids that we could have stayed there for four days!

The weather was so nice. We went to lover's point to watch the sunset and have a little picnic. Then the next day we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The kids had a great time. We haven't been there in awhile so it was a nice treat for them. It was a fun spontaneous family trip! Unfortunately, our camera broke so I can't post any pics! = (

Chaos has officially arrived!

So now that my mom has gone back to the Philippines, chaos has arrived in the Barlahan household. Having an extra person sure has helped and we miss her soarly. Lucky for us, she made us a whole bunch of food and froze it so dinner is a little easier. Mornings are a challenge because Nate's school starts at 7:55am. If Erdy's schedule doesn't work, I have to take Nate to school which means I have to drag Noah and Nico with me. We all need to be out the door by 7:30am. It's a mad rush. It's even worst once we arrive at Nate's school because I have to take them all out of the van to walk Nathan to class and sign him in.

I try to get a lot of things set up the night before. I lay out all their clothes and if Nate is bringing lunch to school, I set up his lunchbox. I can't do much more. I just cross my fingers that all the kids cooperate. My sister said it's organized chaos. I'll take that as a compliment!

More pics of Nicolas