Mandie Loves Christmas

Random Fact #2

We're going to New York!

For Christmas this year, Brian and I decided for forego the traditional gift exchange for one another and go on a trip instead. New York is my dream trip (I've never been) and Christmas time is the best time to go! We leave on Thursday and I'm so excited!

The Final Answer

We have finally gotten back the last genetic test results for both of the kids and the diagnosis is that they both have Pendred Syndrome. Pendred's is a mutation of a gene called the SLC26A4 gene. It is a recessive trait, so BOTH parents must be carriers in order for them to pass it along to their children. Because we are both carriers, any child that we have has a 25% chance of getting the sydrome, 50% chance of being carriers, and a 25% chance of neither carrying it or having it. I'm almost positive that my Dad's father had Pendred Syndrome, and probably two of his sisters as well. So I know where it came from on my side. Brian has a sister with hearing loss also, but it is not Pendreds. I don't know if there is any other history of hearing loss on his side. This is all so fascinating to me!

They estimate that 2 to 3 children out of 1000 have hearing loss in general (lets say 20-30 out of 10,000 for our purposes here) and about half of all hearing loss is genetic. So out of 10,000 kids born, about 10 of them will have genetic hearing loss. Pendred syndrome accounts for 5-10% of all genetic hearing loss, so that means that 1 out of every 10,000 people born will have Pendred. We have two of those kids. Granted, it is genetic so it is more likely to be concentrated in some family lines. When we decide to have more kids it will be interesting to see what happens.

People with Pendred syndrome are expected to lose hearing over time, and about half of all people with it may experience and enlarged thyroid (goiter) and some may even experience balance issues. Much of the other symptoms do not occur until young adulthood, and do not affect their quality of life or life expectancy. It is almost a guarantee that at some point in their life they could lose all or most of their hearing, so we are accepting of the fact that one day they may need cochlear implants.

So life goes on, and nothing has really changed for us with this news. They are happy, fully functioning kids with their hearing aids, and we will continue to be aggressive with hearing testing so we can stay on top of their hearing loss.

I don't know about other people with hearing loss or with kids with hearing loss, but I really enjoy talking to other people about it. I appreciate it when I meet someone new and they are curious about my kids' hearing aids and ask questions. So if you ever have any questions, don't be afraid to ask. And if you ever see another mom with kids with hearing loss, talk to her. She would probably appreciate it too.

If you want to read more, click on the link below.

Pendred Syndrome

Mandie Loves Christmas

Random Fact #1

I LOVE wrapping gifts.

Wrapping presents is one of my most favorite things to do throughout the year, but especially at Christmas. To me, the most exciting thing about giving and receiving a present is how it's presented (hence the name "present"), so I do it with care. Each year I have a theme, and all of my wrapping paper and bows coordinate with each other. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do this year, but bold red and white sounds fun, huh?

If any of you don't like to wrap your gifts, I'll do it for you! Seriously!

Did anyone else see the sunset last night?

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving week. I say week, cause Brian took the whole week off and so we doubled the fun, although our idea of fun was really just relaxing and doing a little bit of nuthin'.

Wednesday night my mom treated the whole family to Disney on Ice. Like 30 of us. We took both of the kids and it was their first time, so we loaded ourselves up with fun snacks before we left. It took Carter a few minutes to realize he couldn't escape, but Abby settled right down and watched the show. I think her facial expressions were the highlight of the whole night. Any time the lights changed or an interesting character came onstage, her jaw would drop and her eyes lit up. It was classic. I really wish I had gotten a picture.

Then Thursday we went to my mom's for dinner. The whole family was there, with the exception of a neice and her family, so it was pretty crowded. The food was great, the cousins loved playing together, the guys enjoyed watching the game, and I was happy to spend time with my sisters and mom.

I stole this pic from Missy.

Friday we put up Christmas decorations. Brian's parents went to Jerusalem this year and we had them get a nativity set for us. My mother-in-law picked out the perfect one for us. I love its clean, simple polished look, and the wood is gorgeous. So of course it has a place of honor on our mantle.

32

Has come too fast.

freedom

This is Abby and Carter's favorite thing to do lately. Carter's a little too small to maneuver well so he doesn't go far, but Abby loves this new form of independence. She takes off and can get down the street in 20 seconds flat. When she takes off like that it freaks me out a little. We don't have a very busy street, but she can't hear well enough to hear me yelling at her to stop, (but I bet if she could hear me she still wouldn't stop,) so I end up picking up Carter and running after her. It drives me crazy.

I've got to teach this girl some boundaries.

bad dream

Have you ever woken up from a bad dream, and realized that it wasn't just a dream?

18 months

Height: 31 3/4 in. - 50%

Weight: 25 lbs. 15 oz. - 50%

Head: 48 cm - 50%

two firsts

Abby did two new things today. She said her first three word sentence! I know this may be a shock to others of you with almost three year olds that have been speaking full sentences, but we've been working so hard on this for a long time. She can get two words down, but when we add a third, she drops one of the other words. So today during speech therapy she said "I want baby" clear as day, and we didn't even need to prompt her. I was so proud!

And then later in therapy she was playing with the magna doodle and drew a full, complete circle, two eyes and a nose (in proportionate places!), and named each body part, so it was definitely intentional. I gushed to Brian about it, telling him how exciting it was that she could do a mid-three-year-old skill, and he said, "Oh, I taught her how to do that last week." Hey, thanks for telling me Dad! Those small things are what a mom LIVES for!

stocking hunt

I really want to get new christmas stockings, and so I've been searching the web trying to find the perfect ones. I had a hard time finding sites that had a good selection of stocking sets, so if you know of a place, let me know. Here are a few that I like, but the top two are my favorites. Which ones do you like the best?

1. personalcreations.com $16.98 each.

I've always wanted knitted stockings, and these are a great price. I love the pom poms!2 .potterybarnkids.com $29.00 each

A little too long, and a little too expensive.

3. personalcreations.com $12.98 each. I love this style!4. personalcreations.com $16.98 each.

These might be a little too traditional for me, but I like that there are six styles to choose from. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be a family of six!

5. personalcreations.com $17.98 each.

I really love the "Rudolph" theme!

6. personalcreations.com $14.98 each.

Hmmm.... too crafty-cutesy?
7. potterybarnkids.com $24.00 each.

I think these are AWESOME, I just don't know if all those colors would clash with the rest of my holiday decor.

8. potterybarnkids.com $19.00 each.

There are seven different styles of these, snowman, santa, reindeer, ballerina,airplane, nutcracker, mouse king.

Twilight

Okay, I've debated whether I should post about this or not, cause most everyone I know has read and loved the Twilight series, so I know I might be mobbed when I give my opinion. But, I really didn't care for it too much.

First, it was really hard for me to get past the fact that it's about vampires. Parts of the book were graphic and a little disturbing to me. I have an overactive imagination, which is bad when reading anything even slightly scary or graphic, so in the end, it left me with kind of a bad feeling. Also, the love story was good at first, I mean, who wouldn't want to fall in love with an inhumanly gorgeous man with super powers? But after a while, the repetitive dialogue, themes, and blatant foreshadowing started to feel so "high school" to me, and at the end, Bella even started to get on my nerves a little.

So anyway, I've decided I'm not going to read the rest of the books. I actually already read the teasers, so at least I know what happens to everyone. I haven't decided if I'm going to see the movie or not.

So that's my opinion about the books. What do you think?

viruses + leak + EpiPen = bad day

Yesterday Carter was throwing up on top of having a cold. As I was cleaning up in the laundry room after he threw up all over me I discovered sitting water behind the washing machine which means a leak. I had already had a bad day with a sick kid so I wasn't looking forward to dealing with that either. Did I mention that Brian is out of town?

THEN I packed up the kids and we went for a walk, then had dinner, and then I put them in the bath tub. It was there that I discovered fresh mosquito bites on Abby. A few on her shoulders and one right smack dab in between her eyes. It wasn't three weeks ago that Abby's eye swelled up to the size of a baseball after getting a bite next to her eye. Why do these durned bugs like Abby's face so much??? Anyway. I noticed about 30 minutes after getting them out of the tub that Abbys face was getting a rash, as well as her whole body. So I gave her some benadryl and an hour and a half later, right before bed, Abby came to me complaining that her throat hurt. I looked her over. She still had hives all over her body, her whole face and ears were swolen (remember the movie Hitch? Well she wasn't THAT bad) and I checked her tongue and it was bright red with little raised bumps. So I called Carrie, my voice of reason, and she told me to call the on-call nurse. So I did and she told me to take her to the ER or call 911. I opted for the ER. But I wasn't about to wake up Carter, so Carrie, then my mother-in-law came over to watch him.

The ER gave her a steroid, epinephrine, and another dose of Benadryl and we waited for the swelling to go down before we went home. He sent us home with a prescription for an Epi-Pen (in case of emergencies. Yikes.) and a charge to put bug spray on Abby every time we go out. We're also going to see an allergist to find out exactly what she's allergic to and what we can do to help the severity of her reactions. I can't believe she's allergic to bug bites. We go outside every day. I hate the fact that we have to be so cautious now!

Our life just keeps getting more and more interesting.

Halloween

A few weeks ago I was getting Carter dressed for the day and Carter brought me a pair of sandals to put on his feet. He already had socks on and so I said, "No, Carter. That's dorky." And then I took a look at his socks and sandals and got a great idea for Halloween. We could be the McNerdy family! So we hit a few Goodwills in search for some nerdy clothes and this is what we came up with:

Scary, huh?

similarities

dear abby,

I'll try to forget that yesterday you learned how to get out of the backyard and led Carter on an escape twice. (by the way, you'll never get very far.)

I'll try to forget that yesterday you wrote on our van's dashboard with black permanent marker.

I'll try to forget that yesterday you used my stamps as stickers and put them all over Carter's body.

I'll try to forget that yesterday you were practicing the fine art of temper tantruming.

I'll try to forget that yesterday I had to put you in time out way too many times.

Cause today you're just so darn sweet and wonderful.

Holly and Hazel

Our neighbors, Pete and Debbie just got two puppies, Holly and Hazel. I think they're Boston Terriers, and ironically, one of them is deaf. So every evening after dinner we go out in the back yard and Abby and Carter run straight to the fence to see if their little friends are there. If they are, Pete usually lifts one of them over the fence and I put the kids on my shoulders and they play over the fence. It's very cute and the kids love it.

Carter 5

1. Carter has 15 words now. "down, ball, doggy, more, baby, uh-oh, milk, water, car, bye-bye, open, stop, go, Abby, and Daddy. These are the ones that he says on his own. It's not counting the words he mimics. Notice Mommy's not on the list yet? Oh well.

2. He is still mr. grouch a lot of the time, except of course when he's around other people and then he is happy and flirty. No one believes me when I tell them that he has a Mr. Hyde side, but it's true people. It's true.

3. I used to think Abby was the most expressive baby in the world, but I think Carter has beat her out.

4. He's wearing his hearing aids more often now, but they are way too small for him so its really time for new ones.

5. He'll be going to nursery in a month! I can't believe it!

i can't help it

I broke out the apple cider candles and Christmas music today. I have the best christmas repertoire, much of it being choral a capella stuff that isn't overly Christmasy so I could listen to it forever. But I won't. For my husband's sake. :)

BYU vs TCU

Last Thursday, Brian and I went to the BYU / TCU game with Scott, Carrie, Eric and Sheena. It was quite a depressing game, but it was fun to be amongst hundreds of crazy cougar fans, my husband being one of them. I didn't go to BYU, so I really missed out on those kind of experiences. Besides a semester at UNT and some junior college, I went to UT Arlington for most of college, which is a commuter school with no football team and not a whole lot of school spirit. It's a great school, just not a place to get the whole college experience. I am very satisified with the education that I got there, but I've always regretted not staying at UNT or even trying to go to BYU. But then again, my life might have turned out completely different and I wouldn't want that, would I?

Anyone else feel the same way? Where did you go to college, and do you have any regrets about school?

stupid camera settings

We were planning on going to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch like we have in years past, but we were tight on time today so we went to a neighborhood pumpkin patch instead. I had the camera on a custom setting and forgot to change it, and so all the pictures turned out filmy and grainy. Grrrrr. Plus the sun was so bright and the shadows were crazy so it wasn't great picture taking conditions anyway. So maybe on an overcast day I'll take the kids out and try again.

Abby spied something.
Ooh! Its a gnarly pumpkin!
"I must have it!"

There were lots of really intersting pumpkins at this patch though. I really wanted to buy this pumpkin cause the stem was so awesome, but I didn't want to spend $12 on it.

hearing update long overdue

HEARING AIDS
Abby is wearing her hearings aids all the time now, which is about 10 hours a day. We have been really aggressive with keeping her hearing aids on, and we can definitely tell a difference. She's happier, she talks more, she's more aware of the world around her, and it even seems like she has a better relationship with us now that we're all living in the same hearing world. Carter has not worn his hearing aids in about a month. His hearing is much better than Abby's and we felt like it would be easier to tackle Abby's hearing aids first and then deal with Carter later. Plus, his mold are getting too small, so they don't stay in very well. I know. Lame excuses, but he's still young so we have time with him. Abby doesn't.

TESTING
We hope to get Abby and Carter's genetic test results back by this week or next. We've gotten back results for 4 of the 5 tests they do, all of which were negative, but its the fifth test, one for Pendred Syndrome, that we think may be what Abby has. Needless to say, we're anxious to get the results.

THERAPY
A few weekends ago Brian and I went to an Auditory Verbal Conference and it completely changed the way we are going to treat Abby and Carter's hearing loss. After seeing the results that children get out of AV therapy, we feel it is definitely the only way to go. BUT now we realize the help that they've been getting through ECI isn't enough. So we did some research, talked to a few people and decided to start driving to Coppell on Monday mornings to take Abby and Carter to The Hearing School of the Southwest, where they will work with a certified auditory verbal therapist. I toured the school and I love it, and wished we lived closer so that Abby could go to the day program there. But since it's a 40 minute drive, a one hour therapy session once a week will have to do until she starts school next year.

SCHOOL
In January, Abby will go to school six hours a day, five days a week at Pearson Elementary in Plano. They have an AV therapy program there and the other day I went and toured the school and talked to some of the teachers. I feel good about her going there, and its only a 20 minute drive. However, I am pretty sad about my THREE YEAR OLD going to real school. I'm gonna miss her, but its what's best.

Some of you were wondering where I found the christmas dresses. I think most of them can be found at Pink Princess and Sophia's Style I found another adorable one while I was at Sophia's Style today. I think this looks like Abby for sure.

dress daydreaming

It all started with this red dress I found for Abby on Gap.com. I loved it, but I wondered if there was a prettier dress out there, so I spent like, the next hour looking at dresses online. I found a few that I really like, but I still think the red one is my favorite, maybe because the bodice is so beautiful. Yeah, it was a total waste of time, cause there's no way I'm going to spend $40-$100 on a holiday dress for Abby, but it doesn't hurt to dream, does it?

So which one would you choose

Red dress number 1?

OR

2
3
4 5
6
7

8

9

10

If you live in Collin County, read on...

Missy is going to be in McKinney soon to take pictures of a family up here. She thought while she was at it she could do a day of shooting to make it a worthwhile trip. If anyone is interested, send her an email. Her prices are insanely reasonable compared to other professional natural light photographers, and she's really good.

photo tagged by Linna

This is the fourth picture in the fourth file in my photos. July 15, 2005. (can you tell I organize them chronologically?) It's a pic of a pretty little stream on a mountain in Colorado that Brian and I hiked when I was pregnant with Abby. I was four months pregnant hiking a 10,000ft mt., so I was dying... but pictures like this make the memories a little sweeter.

Eh, I don't feel like tagging anyone. You're off the hook, I mean, unless you want to do it. Then go right ahead. Fourth file, fourth picture.

in three days...

Carter has:

1. fallen off the front of the chair and knocked the back of his head on the way down, which resulted in a nasty bruise across the base of his head.
2. creamed out on the concrete, biting his top lip on impact. So now he has two teeth marks above his lip, which makes his lips super juicy looking.
3. come to me crying after a mystery accident. The damage is a skinned up nose and a bruise above his right eye.

Mandie has:

1. had a dream that my widowed mother married a sugar daddy and didn't bother to tell her daughters about the wedding.
2. had a dream that one of my close family member's husband wanted a separation.
3. had a dream that I had a terminal illness that made all my teeth fall out.

Abby has:

1. Got bitten by a bug on her eyelid and the side of her face, which caused an allergic reaction and puffed up her eyelid to the size of a golf ball.

What in the world is going on around here?!

GIVEAWAY

Some of you know Molly, creator of My Favorite Things. And some of you know Missy, my graphic design sister. For those of you that don't know either, you need to go to My Favorite Things and see the great new re-design that Missy did for Molly. And while you're there, sign up to win a free blog design package!

VOTE FOR ME

I submitted a photo in a photo contest, and the voting has started! If you have a minute, go to http://mycameraisbiggerthanyours.com/announcements/capture-the-summer-feeling-pho.html , click on page three, and vote for number 82! That's my pic!

I know I'm not going to win, cause there are some great pictures submitted, but I've never submitted a photo in a contest before, so its just kinda fun!

a moment

Don't have much to blog about, except to document a cute Daddy/Carter moment.