Ok, my mom was well enough to travel to Vancouver. It hasn't snowed since Monday and I fell off the room so my PMS is over. Whew! Of course, the car is not yet repaired because not only was the radiator broken but so was the water pump (I am trying not to regret the decision to fix it).

Cars is still sick (stomach bug) so he hasn't been to preschool all week. Then he developed pinkeye so off we went to the doctor today for eye drops. I hope he is well enough to go on Friday.

Dex has baseball practice today. As every Wednesday, the ball fields are always in use by others when we get there. I am angry at the league (and coach) for not handling this correctly. The fields are "owned" by the city but on are the school property and the little league has a contract with the city but the school is hosting softball games and tournaments on it every Wednesday it seems. Last week we had to drive across the city to a soccer field to practice. Tonight, we moved to a field across from where we were supposed to play but another team was booked on that field. That coach decided perhaps both teams could have a practice game so it worked out in the end. I hope they have it all straightened out next week.

I have noticed since I had been blahging about Dex's experience with Zyrtec and tics, I have had a lot of hits on my blahg from people searching for it. I believe this is an under reported problem with Zyrtec. I checked out the FDA site to report a problem but you can only report "serious adverse events". Then I decided it was a serious adverse event so I filled in a report. I hope others who are experiencing do the same.

Jax is going to buy lunch tomorrow at school for the first time in...ages. I think he bought lunch the second week of school back in September and that was the last time. Stephen is going to meet him (well, he is meeting Dex at 11:30 and Jax at 12:00) so Jax will feel comfortable having a parent with him. I have been having a hard time arranging for a day to meet Jax when there was food that he liked (very limited range here). So, tomorrow is "Twin Taco" day and he likes that.

Of course with the jalopy out of commission, I have to drive to pick Stephen up from work, bring him here for lunch then take him back to work. Fortunately, he figured out the bus schedule and will take the bus to work in the morning(as he did today). The car should be fixed by the afternoon so he can drive home. We'll see...

Stephen's birthday is on Friday. He has asked for herbs for the garden (they will die because it is too cold), a brush to clean the grill and a shoeshine cloth. OMG. Could his list be any lamer? How can I take the kids to buy something from that list? Seriously. I think I will just take them to Target and let them pick ANYTHING they want as anything they pick will be better than those items. ~eyeroll~

The radiator hose to Stephen's jalopy burst as he drove into the driveway today. He is so lucky that it did not happen on the way home or last night as he was driving back from Seattle. Looks like I am playing chauffeur until we can get to the auto supply store to buy the parts he needs (hopefully sometime tomorrow) else it will have to wait until the weekend.

On a happier note, the allergist called this morning and said she found no instances of Claritin or Allegra causing tics so she thought they would be safe options for Dex. Zyrtec crosses the blood/brain barrier which could be why it affected Dex so.

And, at Kimmer's request, here are some closer shots of my pink blossomed trees:


From the driveway


From the road and look! Pink snow!

I forgot to take photos of all of my tulips chewed down to the nubs by deer. Deer do not apparently eat irises, daffodils or hyacinths.

I had a day similar to Katie's. A non-stay-at-home mom kind of day. First, I headed to the eye doctor to return the contact lenses that were ordered for me since they were the wrong prescription. I could not figure out why the right eye was so blurry and it turns out it is because they would work for someone who is nearly legally blind! OMG they were strong. The funny thing is when I took them back the lady at the office said she would "order them myself so I know we will get you the right ones this time!" yet she was the one who ordered them for me in the first place. :D

Next, we went to swimming lessons for Cars. He is doing a great job and is down to two floaties (from 3) on his swim belt. He worked so hard.

After swimming lessons, it was off to the elementary school to pick up Jax and Dex for a trek into Seattle (across THAT bridge - eep!) to the allergist. After weighing and measuring and blowing into tubes for all three boys, the doctor came in. I told her I wanted to talk about Dex and his tics because caused by Zyrtec. She listened to me and I showed her the medical article that I found. She said that she sees a lot of kids with tics and sometimes it is hard to know if they are "just tics" or allergy tics or caused perhaps from the medicine which is not well documented. Anyway, she was interested in the article and said she would do more research tonight and contact me. And she told me to make sure I give the same info to the neurologist when we go in May. In the meantime, I am to put Dex back on Flonase (and Jax and Cars) for his seasonal allergies.

Next was a drive home and a stop at Safeway then to Jack In The Box for dinner (I swore I would never eat there again but the kids begged - I am a sucker so we went and the "fast food" took nearly 20 minutes again).

Tomorrow, I don't want to leave the house except of course I need to walk the boys to the bus and take Cars to school then pick Jax up from school for a doctor's appointment (wellness check and to talk about his weight loss) then pick everyone else up from school. Then there's Dex's baseball practice. :\

Tics and Zyrtec Revisited

A-ha! I finally found what I have been looking for. Besides references here and there about Zyrtec and tics, tonight I found an article published by the American Academy of Neurology in January 2006 detailing a case of Cetirizine-induced dystonic movements (Zyrtec causes tics in a 4 yr old girl). I will be taking this to the allergist on Tuesday.

(Amazing what changing Zyrtec to Cetirizine and tic to dystonia in the search engine will get you!).

Now, the problem will be to see what else we can get Dex on for his allergies. Poor thing has watery eyes these days. :(

Grass season started up again so the kids have been back on Zyrtec for about two weeks and Dex has started having "tics" again. Hmmm...I am certain there is a correlation. Stephen has noticed too so we have decided to stop Zyrtec and switch to Clairitin to see if it makes a difference. He has bad seasonal allergies and gets sinus infections so there is no way that he can't be on any allergy medication.

*sigh*

Piss and Moan

I found out last week that my cousin (shown here with Ramona and I), will not be coming to visit me this summer. She and her family were going to fly to Edmonton, drive to Vancouver then to Seattle for their summer holidays. They cut out a week though and that week is Seattle. I am so bummed. And I don't know why on earth they want to go to Edmonton then drive *24* hours to Vancouver. I mean Edmonton does have the World's Largest Mall but that's about it. My sister also lives there and I know she will not see my cousin. Seattle, on the other hand, is just a *3* hour drive from Vancouver, we have mountains (vs. flat prairie), lakes, Puget Sounds, shopping, the Space Needle, BigSoftwareCompany, EMP and ME! I am very disappointed and to be quiet honest, a little hurt.

Ok, onto more disappointment...Dex has his throat-clearing thing back again this year. I know it is from allergies. He has been on Zyrtec and Flonase for the last three weeks due to the "blinking" (maybe allergies, maybe a tic but we don't know for sure and he screams like we are putting his eyes out with hot pokers when we try to give him the antihistamine eyedrops that we gave up on them) but now the throat clearing has started. This went on for months last year and it was a sinus infection that would not clear up. So, tomorrow he is going to see the ped but I cannot get him in to see the allergiest until the end of May because he is not a current patient (he has not seen her since he was tested for peanuts and milk allergies when he was an infant). This throat clearing is so annoying for him and for everyone around him. I hope we can get it cleared up more quickly this year. And I hope the eye blinking thing goes away.

I hurt my neck and upper back sleeping funny last week. I slept funny because Cars was sleeping on my head. Yesterday, it hurt so much that I thought I would throw up. It is a little better today but I am so very stiff. Last night, I made Stephen take Cars into the spare bed after he woke up and tried to climb in our bed at 2am. I was finally successful in getting Cars to go to sleep in his own bed but I cannot get him to stay in his own bed all night! It is killing me!

And since I have complained about two-thirds of my children, I will complain about the third and make it complete. Jax loves the watch we bought him for his birthday. He is always telling us the time. "It is 9:47" and "It is 10:01" and "It is 1:32" ad nauseum.

So, yesterday was Easter and we went to 11:30 am Mass (because I still felt sick from my sore neck/back and I could not get to an earlier Mass). Well, before Mass, Jax asked "How long is Mass". I told him it is usually 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes but it will be longer because it is Easter and there will be a gazillion people there. So beginning at the 1 hour mark until Mass ended (blissfully, it was only 1 hour and 25 minutes), I had a minute by minute recap of the time. Jax would say "It has now been 1 hour and 1 minute. Is Mass almsot over?" and "It has been 1 hour and 6 minutes. Is it time to go?". I was so ready to rip that freaking watch off his wrist.

So, combine Mr. Timecheck with Dex's incessant questions about (again) why he does not get to have chips like everyone else, Cars fighting with other kids over the Little Tikes Kitchen (we sat in the crying room) and my throbbing back, it was a very long Easter Mass. Oh, and then it took us 10 minutes to get out of the church parking lot so by the time we arrived home we had been gone "Two hours! We were at church for *two* hours!" Jax complained.

Happy Easter.