JB is still sick. Took him back to the doctor and his ears are not any better and still the nasty cough and congestion. They did comment on how much better he looked than the previous week though. He has been on antibiotics for 10 days. They want to see him back early next week. He is starting round two of meds. Not sure what the plan is if he is not better. Just wish I knew why his body was not kicking this or responding to meds.

He went to therapy yesterday. The therapist comes out laughing and says I got a few more sounds out of him. I looked at her and told her she gets more in 45 minutes then I get in 168 hours. She told me I will not get this stuff at home. He only has 45 minutes with her and he knows he has to perform to get something. (Made me feel good for her to validate that the sounds will come last at home) So far her therapy sessions have been divided. The first half she battles the will and the second half he will use some signs. This past week, he started giving her (after the will battle) single sounds for things. B for ball. So starting next week, she is not going to allow him to use many signs but push him for single sounds for things. So there is progress, although I don't see it at home. The whining the past couple of days has been horrible, to the point of where I put him in his crib because I can't listen to it any more.

My niece ended up coming out for a few days. She is a freshman in college and decided to spend part of her spring break with us (how privaleged we feel). The weather did not really cooperate - too warm to sled, ice skate, ski but too wet to get out and hike. One day we dropped B off at school and JB off at a day care and she and I took Jbird to an indoor climbing place. Kelster ended up doing way more climbing than I did - I did most of the belaying. My arm strength needs some work. Jbird loved climbing up about 4 feet (to the same spot) and then wanting to come down (ie float/swing in the air like spiderman......) Here are some pictures that we took.

Since I was on the other end of the rope, Jbird took the Kelster pics. They were either blurry or the totally unflattering shot from right behind her.

Not sure why but this one cracks me up!

Later that day we picked up B and all headed to the mall. My intent was to play indoor mini golf (it really is mini). I had some coupons and figured we would have one adult and one child play. That way we could swap out every other hole - assuming their attention span would not be that long. It was a disaster. One kid kept whining cause he could not play, one was throwing golf balls and hitting people because he was mad and the other was moving so fast through the course no one could keep up, much less switch out clubs. Then we raced cars on this electric track they had. Other than the cars kept coming off the track because they did not grasp the concept of slowing down around turns, they enjoyed it.

The next day we hit some of the local downtown stores. The boys were great until we walked into the stores. No matter how hard I try to get them to use inside voices, my boys are just loud! Their voices carry!

Here is a picture taken of all of them reading one night.

I weighed in tonight. To date I have lost 8 pounds and 5 inches (4 of those pounds were this week). I will take it. Of course I want a 10 pound weight loss one week, but that is not practical. That is the bad thing of watching the Biggest Loser. I have to remember they work out 8, 10, 12 hour days and in a very controlled environment. If I can keep it up at averaging 2 pounds per week, I will be thrilled. I think one thing that is helping is getting to the gym 2 times a day, even if each time is 30 minutes. Gets the metabolism going first thing and just before bed. The first couple of weeks were sluggish but I think I am getting in a good groove!

Off to bed..seems like I have acquired JB's cold and I am wiped out!