Zaaapppp

Ok folks - our doggies are now zapped. As guilty as I feel, it is really nice to finally have some serious control of our dogs. Both Carson and Sydney are fantastic dogs - they are mostly well mannered and very loving dogs. We have really enjoyed them and really couldn't complain too much about them. The quirky behaviors were just that - quirky - and didn't have a large impact on our daily lives. Carson LOVES to jump and steal and Sydney is the barker.

But in the last year, their quirky behaviors became more of an annoyance than anything and Jim and I finally gave up. Carson was stealing and chewing up Reagan's toys on a regular basis AND jumping on folks plus we were having trouble controlling Sydney's barking more often. Because of us both working and two kids, we decided to hire a local group to train them and sent them off to "boot camp" three days after my surgery.

Today was the BIG DAY! Carson and Sydney had been trained Thursday and Friday of last week, gotten the weekend off and then back in every day this week. Seven days! We met the trainers over at the Erlanger Day Care for some indoor demonstrations and to review how to work with them both. Because we had them "zap" trained, we had to know how to operate the collars and know the new commands.

At first, both dogs tried to come to "mommy" and "daddy" for rescuing. When that didn't work (over and over again), they settled down and into the mode of "training". Both dogs were impressive. Carson actually reminded me of how he was after he went through his advanced training years ago. Just so easy. Sydney struggled some, but she has some separation anxiety with Carson. (And I thought that only was a Reagan thing).

Once we went to the park, we were completely wowed! They now can walk completely off leash. Impressive. They didn't even try to "not" do it. They were trained. Sydney is definetly our stubborn girl. She does NOT want to do what you want her to do - she's bull headed. Carson gets it and just wants to please us.

So now we have some tools and we are to work with them this week. I don't think they are perfect. I still think that they will do some things we don't like, but we hope over time that they get mucho bettero!

I think the best is zapping Carson now when he tries to steal Reagan's toys. Poor thing.

What does a cow sound like...

We have a couple large picture books that we got over the holidays. Reagan absolutely loves them. When I ask her to get me a book to read to her, she almost always goes and picks one of them up. It just cracks me up because the book itself is actually bigger than she is. LOL.

So when you ask her to point to a bunch of stuff she does. She is such a sponge. She knows egg, duck, dog, cat, pizza (yes pizza), bear, ball, boy, girl, truck, and a bunch of others. Every day the list expands.

The other really cool thing are the sounds. We love to ask her "what does a xxx sound like?" Up until the last few days, she's been assigning the "grrrrr" sound that we taught her with the bear to everything. So a cow would sound like a bear, a horse, everything.

But this weekend, so things seemed to click. Now we can ask her what a cow sounds like (mmmoooooo), a duck, a chicken (ba, ba, ba, ba), a bear and a dog.

I can't wait until tomorrow to see what she comes up with next.

Twist and Shout

She's twisting... I can't wait to get it on video.

What is it about the blocks?

Reagan is absolutly obsessed with her blocks. She likes to pick up the blue ones and smack them together while walking around the house. Her favorite is when Jordan follows her around. Tonight, all three of us actually sat in a circle in the living room smacking our blocks together. Reagan was completely amused, as were Jordan and I. :)

New words and new stuff

Tonight, I heard her say a couple new words.
Apple or "aaaa-lllll" and Bear or "bbawwwww" followed by a huge GRRRRRRRRR.

Not only that, but Jim taught her where her fingers and toes are. She's pointing at fingers and her head now too. When the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" played, she pointed at her head. How cute is that?

Does anyone want soup?

Tonight, in an effort to keep Reagan busy, I opened up the tupperware door. She loves that. She immediately went for this huge plastic cup and serving spoon. She makes soup.

She walked around the house all evening stirring soup, serving soup and eating soup.
She would actually pretend to stir the soup in the cup, serve it to one of us and then wait for us to eat off the spoon.

How cool is that - pretend play is awesome to watch!

Achilles update - totally bummed

Today I went to the doctor to "check on things". He had said the day after surgery that I would either get a cast today or a walking boot. Well, I don't have a boot!!! I have a nice RED cast. :) My stitches look gross - like frankenstein. My calf looked so weak... and really hairy. :) (even grosser). LOL I'm so vain.

Doc said the wound looked really good and he could probably take the stitches out, but that he wanted to play it safe. So they actually put my foot into a position about 10-15 degrees away from full flex so my ankle wouldn't get stuck in the down position. That process wasn't too fun. I was, however, able to use my wonderful breathing techniques that I picked up from my labor training. :) Nice huh.

I did find out how they "transfered" a tendon to add support to my achilles. When I find a good picture, I'll post it. Anyway, there is a tendon that runs from the top part of the calf muscle, all the way around and through the bones in and around your heel, and then down to the big toe. What they do is the cut it near the heel area and drill into your heel and fasten it there. Hmmm... guess that's why I had sharp stabbing pain in my heel and why my calf was spasming. Good to know - doesn't help the pain though. LOL. Still it is very cool what they can do.

Anyway, I go back next week to get the cast off, stitches out and a walking boot. Yea! He said I should be good to go at that point.

In the meantime, I'm in a bit of pain. The spasms that I was dealing with are starting again because they flexed my foot when they put it in the cast. So I've now taken a pain pill and plan to go pass out on the couch.

Sweet dreams are made of these...

Good morning

This morning, Jordan and I were on the couches in the living room when Jim brought Reagan down from her room. Jim plopped Reagan on my lap and the first thing she did was say "Hi" and wave at Jordan. (Yes she really said Hi!). It was way too cute. It shocked me because you could tell she was saying Hi to Jordan specifically.

After her bottle, I said "do you want to play with your ball?". She got off my lap, walked to the ball picked it up and went over to Jordan. Jordan got down on the floor and she said "okay sit down". Reagan did and started rolling the ball back and forth with her. Awwwwww.

Reagan is weird

She LOVES her medicine. We took her to the doctor today and found out that our little girl had a sinus infection. So Jim went to the pharmacy and got her meds which was bubblegum flavored. SHE LOVES IT! She sees the bottle and goes NUTS! MMMMM.

Update on Achilles Surgery and Recovery

Ok. I haven't written in a while, so I thought I'd better get caught up on some stuff. Friday, I figured out that my pain medicine would run out on Saturday. So I called the doctor's office and they phoned in a refill to my prescription. Jim picked it up and brought it home during his many errands on Friday. So I started taking it Friday night and by Saturday morning about 2am, I had shooting pains in my heel. GREAT! Just GREAT! The stuff didn't work. Needless to say, I called to ask for something better and they said "too bad". The couldn't call in a narcotic. I'd have to wait it out. UGH!

So by Monday, when I could talk to my doctor's assistant I was kinda over it all. Yes, I was waking up every night with shooting pains, but at the same time I was totally awake and coherent. It's a hard trade off. So now I'm debating do I really want to take the stuff. My leg is numb/sore all day... but.... ugh Oh well.

Anyway. Keep up the prayers! I'm doing well. Jim is too. He is busting his butt - working hard. I'm grateful!

Achilles updates

1/26
Surgery Day - ugh

1/27
feeling good. leg block still working. didn't start to wear off until 24 hour mark
fell in garage after home from dr appt. hurt all night

1/28
still feeling ok. need to sit more. pain meds good

1/29
same as wed. getting frustrated with sitting all day and can't play with reagan

1/30
pain meds are running out. starting to feel some pain. can't cut back yet.

1/31
got new meds. not oxycodone. didn't work at all.
woke up in the middle of the night several times with a sharp stabbing pain in my heel. nothing seemed to help dispite all my efforts.

to be continued...

Cincinnati Bengals

Last night, after Reagan had a bottle, Jim showed her the Bengal tiger on his Cinci Bengals tshirt and then also showed her the one on her tshirt. She was mesmerized by it. She kept pointing at his and then would look at hers. She would pull her shirt away from her body in order to see the tiger print on her shirt over and over again. A few times, she actually would look on the inside of her tshirt. Over the course of the evening, she would point again at Jim's and then look at hers. All the while, we'd say "tiger".

This morning, I had on my Bengals sweatshirt. After her morning bottle, Reagan turned over and looked at my chest and just smiled. She pointed at it and then pointed at me. I said "Tiger". She then looked down at her shirt and got a confused look on her face - almost like "where's mine?"

I'm impressed she kept that in her brain.

Stay away

Today, after school, Reagan saw her pink and brown blanket hanging on the back of the couch. She grabbed it. Then she saw her big giraffe snuggly. She grabbed that too and started walking around with both of them. While going around the table in the kitchen, Sydney got a little to close to her and ended up stepping on her blanket. Of course, this made her mad as anything. She turned around, stopped and SCREAMED (AHHHHHHHHHHHH) at Sydney, stopped and then kept walking. Just that simple. WOW! Jim and I laughed so hard. It was unexpected. We guess she didn't like Sydney stepping on her blanket huh?

I want my Goldfish

Reagan LOVES Goldfish. Not fish, but the snack. I am sure every kid does at this age, but to watch her "go after" them like she does is just amusing as heck. Jim bought a huge thing of goldfish at the store this weekend. Once Reagan figured out that the goldfish she loves to eat came out of that container, she was all over it. I left it out on the end table yesterday. She saw that after school and made a bee-line for it. She then proceeded to pick it up and carry it to me. Wow. She picked it up a bit later and carried it to Jim and made noises until Jim got some out for her. he he

Ate it up

Jim made a roast today for dinner. The smell was throughout the entire house all day (I couldn't smell it, but he said it was - LOL). Mom and Dad came over to help us out in the evening and to also enjoy a bit of dinner with us. They helped chase Reagan around while Jim actually sat for the first time in two days. ha ha.

Anyway, we all sat down for dinner and it was wonderful. The best part - Reagan ate it ALL up. She was hysterical about the risotto. Why? I'm not really sure, but she LOVED it. She wanted more and more and more and told us with her sign language. She ate the roast, risotto, peas (oh my), carrots and also TWO fruit and yogurt cups. Geez. She was a little hungry thing. She just couldn't get enough. When we thought she was done with the risotto on her spoon, she'd cry out for the dish. And oh yea, she was feeding herself. WOW! Note to self - she likes risotto.