The upcoming week and I'll take blenderized diets and babyfood for $100 Alex ...

Well,darn it anyway,it's August already.Seriously?That kickback summer,has just gone poof,right before my very eyes.I intend on packing in a ton over the next 4 weeks and if I had my way that would mean spending the majority of our days at the beach.Unfortunately,life,as always,has other ideas.Yes, we will be doing our weekly beach trips and I might just cram in an extra day here and there but there are a few other things on the agenda here in the Needham household.A few worthy of mentioning:that pesky eye procedure for Miss.Z,major hip surgery for Jess and packing Taylor up and sending her abroad to Switzerland for the upcoming school year.Scattered amongst those little diddies are a hand full of other things and oh,yeah,the everyday "stuff".I was just mentioning to someone the other day that God sure knew what he was doing when he blessed me with the ability to function on very little sleep,as well as my mile a minute,multitasking personality.How I would do all this otherwise,is beyond me.

Lets rundown the upcoming week and leave it at that shall we?The boys continue to take swim lessons everyday and are quite the little fishies.Love their teacher and love,love,love that they enjoy it so much.Zoey is scheduled for PT/OT 2 times this week but as luck would have it,her Wednesday session needs to be cancelled due to her eye procedure.Notice how I call it"luck"?Tells you how much I "love" taking her to therapy.I swear,at this rate,I'll be toting that child around in my front carrier till she is ten!Anyway,praying for an uneventful surgery and praying she actually does HAVE that tear duct.Come on tear duct.Friday the boys are going camping with Mark and Taylor.They are super excited about that and me,lets just say I am not the camping kinda girl.Which, in some ways, is contradictory to the tomboy in me but if there isn't warm running water and an outlet for my hair straightener,I am a no go.I still am holding out for that motor home one day.If only in my dreams.

Last but not least,I have decided to undertake a blenderized diet for Zoey and her g-tube feeds as well as making my own babyfood.Something has got to give and I think,or at least I am hoping,this might be the answer.I have never really gone into specific details on Zoey and all her tummy issues but suffice it to say,I am frustrated.Not at her but FOR her.It is just another instance when I find myself saying,"Does everything need to be a struggle for this child,right down to the ability to preform a natural bodily function more often then every 10 days?"No joke.Nothing works.Mirilax,probiotics,low does antibiotic,colace ... nada,nothing.The absolute kicker of it all,she is NEVER uncomfortable.THAT my friends,blows my mind but I am so grateful at least for that aspect.So,we need to kick this g-tube habit,get back to oral feeds and get some real food in that belly of hers.We have consulted with a nutritionist and under her guidance have dropped 2 bolus feeds of formula from her diet in the hopes of initiating hunger.Yeah right.My child would go all day without eating.She could care less.No lie and all we have manged to do at this point is see my already teeny,tiny girl,become even teeny tinnier.A whopping 22 pounds and she is just shy of 3 1/2.So I have taken matters into my own hands and we are going to rock out this blenderized diet thing and make some yummy tasty food and get back my little oral feeder.That is my story and I'm sticking to it.I'll keep you posted.Wish me luck.

Last week the little ones and I headed to The Getty Museum.This museum is incredible.It is situated high atop a hill in LA.Over looks the entire city and is just amazing.And massive.Our day there only yielded us seeing about 1/8 of the museum.We will be back again before school begins.The boys were so into it.Especially Joe.Which some might find interesting given his "active" personality but remember, he is the very same little guy who proclaimed the Griffith Observatory to be "better than Disneyland!"Go figure.A few pictures.Love the ones of them in their statue poses.Joe informed me he was a sphinx.They just had to roll down the big grassy hill.And,what kid wouldn't want to? And finally, each had me take pictures of their favorite art items.Jake,my engineer chose,this magnificent display cabinet that,when we played an interactive video showed it opened into possibly hundred of little compartments on each 4 sides.He also loved the statue of Mercury.As for Joe,he thought the "Boy with a dragon" was "awesome" but his favorite was "Christ Child".And Zoey .. she liked it all.Good as gold.The entire day.That's my girl.