peter parker

We are so happy to have gotten two new nephews this week!

Peter Gonda (parents are Mark and Nicole Gonda)

and Parker Dahlquist (parents are pete and jessica dahlquist)

It is not that we love Parker more and thus have a bigger picture of him, we just happened to have an easier time stealing a photo off of blogger than facebook!

Parker was born on FEB 24th as a birthday buddy for Dave! Dave tried his hardest to get his parents to change his name to David but to no avail!!

We are so happy for the parents of these two sweet boys and can't wait to meet them.

Here are a few pics of Dave's b-day. We had dinner and jello cake with friends.pretending to blow out candleshref="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq97mAxBwBEPnTD38wgEC55LpE75Mqz7XQ0i-V6aOb2OAbitmMwa59SMHU5lVC1HqY7hGUzDEwNLK2vLsnL-q7oxxS0L5VZyIwE_vmLjaekJUKyyDe1CN4rKAbS_26p-ffyz8CTYRgA49x/s1600-h/022.JPG">

Then dave opened his presents.
For his present this year I bought a ticket for Dave's mom to come visit next week. Dave and Calvin were very excited! I had actually told Calvin a few days before about the surprise and was glad he was able to keep the secret.

And to round off the post, here are a few pics of Clare and her puppy. After a bath one day she went out to lay by him and get warmed by the sun. She really loves that dog!

Calvin went to bed at 4:30 yesterday

and that, my friends, is (in part) why the tonsils/adenoids are coming out on Monday.

We have been having the same sleep issues w/ Calvin for years. Remember when I used to post Calvin's wake up time on the side of the blog and you all used to thing it was amazing and super funny?!! Well, he is still waking up around 4am each day and not really having enough energy to make it through the day. At home on the weekends or days off he will nap, at school he just shuts down and quits doing work. His teacher says he will, on occasion, fall asleep during rug time (around 9am)!! The kid needs more sleep.

When we did the sleep study last summer the Dr. told me that if there is snoring/apnea they will recommend the tonsil/adenoids come out and that 90% of the time that cures all sleep problems w/o any other intervention needed. When that study came back as "normal" I was devestated and surprised. 6 months later I went to a different sleep dr., recorded more sleep, observed him more closly when he is alseep, had dave sleep w/ him and learn that he wakes up at other points in the night for hours at a time and is kind enough to be quiet and not wake us all up........

Our new sleep Dr. got the results from Children's hospital from his sleep study last summer and went over some of the details w/ us. Those results weren't "normal" but perhaps just fell below the threshold for Children's hospital to do anything. And since he only slep 4 hours in that study it was recommended that we do another to be sure there is enough data to understand what is going. We have another sleep study schedule for mid-April.

In preparation for the sleep study coming up, the sleep dr. asked me to ask the ENT to check on the tonsils and adenoids since we were already scheduled to have a second set of ear tubes put in.

At our most recent check up with the ENT, who wanted one last look at Calvin's ears (which cleared up completely and tubes were cancelled), we asked him about the tonsils/adenoids and sleep. He said that if Calvin is showing so many symptoms that he would recommend the tonsils/adenoids come out, even w/o a difinitive sleep study. (95% of ton/ad that come out for sleep related issues do NOT have a sleep study. Also 75% of ton/ad surgeries in kids are for sleep issues, so Calvin is an ideal canidate).


In case you are intersted, here are some symptoms of Obostructive sleep apnea -Calvin has many of these symptoms and consequences.

Nighttime snoring with occasional pauses
Gasping or choking
Sleep disruption

Sleep apnea is associated with the following consequences:

Abnormal growth and development
Bedwetting
Behavioral and learning problems
Daytime sleepiness
Hyperactivity or ADHD (often this is a mis-diagnosis for kids w/ apnea. They are tired and can't focus at school and get diagnosed w/ an attention deficit disorder instead of the sleep disorder. Calvin hasn't been diagnosed w/ one of these but doesn't stay on task at school).

So, surg. is Monday morning. I'm not going to lie. I do have high hopes that this will be a "cure-all" for Calvin. For us. For me. I have been waiting 7 years for Calvin to sleep through the night!

one of the most beautiful places in SD

Even though I have lived most of my life in San Diego (a total of 18 years) I still have much to discover. I am very familiar with the suburb I live in and the surrounding towns but I am not familiar with all of the different areas of San Deigo and the great sites to visit for locals and tourists alike. It is fun to discover some place new every once in a while, espeically in such a beatufiul place!

Last weekend we went to Cabrillo National Monument in Pt. Loma with views of downtown San Diego, Coronado and the surrounding coastal/bay areas. It was amazing. I didn't get a lot of pics 'cuz I was too busy being a spaz about kids falling over the edges but here are a few.



The kids had fun working on their little packets to get the jr. park ranger badges.

There is a national cemetary that runs for miles as you reach the tip of the pininsula that makes the park. Most of the land is owned by the military. In SD the military owns a lot of the most amazing sites.

(how did I get these sweet smiles out of the kids....say "I LOVE DADDY!" and that's what you get!)
id

ps.

dave beat force unleashed.

clare at lexies age


They do look a little alike but also very different.Also Alexey has no need to wear the big sis. shirt at this age whereas Clare did.

some pics form our most recent beach trip. We went down to beautiful Coronado. Someplace I haven't been for years. It was more beautiful than I remember. It is an island across the bay from SAn Diego





You can see how big Tressel is compared to Alexey. He like a horse to her!



Here are a bunch of pics of the puppy. Consider it his one year photo shoot!

You can see the ridge and why these dogs are called ridgeback.
.
I get a lot of comments wherever I go with Tressel about 1. how beautiful he is and 2. how big he is

kid stats and other stuff

Calvin - 7 years - 46 in. 46 lbs.

Clare - 4 years - 40 in. 32 lbs.

Alexey - almost 2 years - 32 in 23 lbs.

Tressel -- 1 year - 100 lbs! Our puppy had a b-day this weekend!

My kids are all on the small side but growing well and are healthy.

We scheduled Calvin to have a tonsil/adenoidectomy in 10 days. This news deserves a full post sometime soon.

We are enjoying a week off of school and a week of BEAUTIFUL San Diego weather. Most of Dave's attendings are out of town so he has actually had a pretty light week as well. He is studying for the boards (and playing a ton of Wii). The only downside is that all three kids have a terrible cough/cold which slows us down a little. The kids have had fun playing together and we've gone to the playground or beach or a dr appointment every day.





We went on a quick family outing to Costco last night. (the only store dave will go in to). I loved these quirky shots of the kids.




Dave and I had a valentine party at one of the attending dr.'s house last weekend.
(I look terrible in that one so I'll post an extra one of me and Chiazo -- the other 3rd year).

Lex and I getting ready for church one day. SHe always wants to hold the camera, and taking pics of ourselves is a good compromise.

Dear Scott,

Thank you so much for the wii games you gave me for my birthday. They are awesome! I especially love the Star Wars Force Unleashed game. So does daddy.


Dad completed the Jedi training Wednesday night and continues to play each day to unlock more forces. We have unlocked Darth Mahl and Count Duku and some others so far. One of the coolest things about it is that we get to play together for such a long time every day!

One day daddy came home from work at 10am to do his homework but first played wii for about 2 hours. Unfortunately I wasn't there to play with him, but mommy told me about it.

Last night on our way to the beach we even drove by the jedi training temple.

Did you know Mommmy and Daddy got married there? Maybe Daddy is a real jedi.

Love, Calvin

PS. this is a joke! Calvin didn't write it.

Happy 7th Calvin! --now with pictures!

My boy is 7 today! Hard to believe.

He took some M&M cookies to school today to share with the class and then this afternoon he's taking a friend to nickel city (arcade).

At home having cake.

7 things I love about Calvin

1. He is sweet. very tender. very affectionate. loves to give hugs and kisses.

2. Is funny. Likes funny things. Lately he's started reading Calvin and Hobbes and that is really fun!

3. He is a good big brother. especially to alexey. He still talks to her in a sweet voice (unless she is bugging him). It'll be fun someday to have another baby and he'll be a big big helper. This is not an announcement...

4. He still likes to cuddle.

5. He is very good with computers and all electronics. I'm sure he can already out perform me on almost all things in that category!

6. He thinks his new nike shoes make him run faster!

7. He is still a little boy. He hasn't made that transition yet from being anything but a momma's boy and though some days I think, "why can't this child grow up?" I know I will be sorry when he does. He is great! We all love him!

This cracked me up! Both feel asleep on the couch (bad dog!) after a fun day!