Short Stature

At Campbell's well-baby appointment this month the doctor was slightly concerned about her height. It seems that she has only grown an inch this last year. They worry if kids don't grow at least 2 inches per year. The doctor gave us a referral to the endocrinologist.

Today we had that appointment. The endocrinologist said that there could be any number of reasons or no reason at all. The least likely is Turner's Syndrome. He doesn't see any other markers besides the short stature for TS. Other reasons include thyroid problems, growth hormone deficiency or slowed bone age. We are hoping for the slowed bone age. That would mean that she is just a late bloomer.

We had a series of test done today. She had 5 tubes of blood drawn. She was not thrilled with this. She also had an x-ray of her hand done. This is for the bone age test. We should have all results (except the TS kareotype test) back within 10 days. We are all hoping that the bone age test shows that her bones are only 7-8 years of age and not 10 years of age.

As an aside, the little girl who had an appointment right before us was named Lenna. That's Campbell's middle name. Campbell found that to be very cool.

Pre-School

Yesterday, Caleb became a pre-schooler. He will be going to a Luthern church down the street from us. He attends Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 8-12:30.

He was excited to go play yesterday. Although, he did say that he was excited to "dance like a monkey so my friends will laugh at me". Yes, he is always a clown. He takes after his father for sure.

He had a terrific first day. The teachers said he did very well. They commented on how well he speaks and that he didn't let any of the other kids bully him around. He gets a hot lunch there and ate all of his lunch yesterday. He did, however, refuse to use the potty at school. At least he didn't wet his pants. He just waited until he got home.

Hopefully the rest of the week goes just as well.

Ten

It's hard to believe that she surprised us with her early arrival ten years ago. It feels like yesterday.

The Delight

Last week we had Campbell's parent/teacher conference. Both her regular classroom teacher and her Gifted and Talented teacher said that she is The Delight of the classroom. They could not say enough good things about her. They don't use the A, B, C, D, F scale here. But if they did, she would have received straight A's. We also learned that she is not only one of the top students in reading but that she is also one of the top students in math. We are so very proud of her accomplishments. She has worked really hard to catch up with the math standards here in Colorado. She is definitely our smarty-smart girl.

Weekend Before Last

Weekend before last, we found ourselves in an unusual position. Aaron was off work and Campbell was out of school. I was able to take the day off from work. With all of that, we decided to take a mini-vacation. Friday morning, we got up early and headed for Mesa Verda in southern Colorado.

We made it to Durango at about noon. We were going to take the kids on a train ride but discovered that the train rides started at 9am and lasted all day. We decided instead to tour the train yard. The tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours and we got to walk through the train yard and the workshops. By the time we finished walking through all of this, Caleb was filthy! His hands were black. He also managed to ruin my khaki pants with the black. Take my advice, if you ever go to a train yard do not wear khaki!

After the tour we headed to Cortez to our hotel. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Mesa Verde to walk through the ruins. We spent the morning walking through these ruins. The two hikes we went on we had to climb ladders to get to. It was an amazing place and if you ever get a chance to go, Go. We ended our morning there with a picnic lunch.

That afternoon we headed down to Four Corners Monument. At this place Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all meet at this one spot. All four of us were able to stand in a different state at the same time. We expected more, but alas it was just the little monument. We spent about 30 minutes there before we headed back to Cortez.

On our way back we saw a sign for a winery. We followed the sign and made our way to this cute little winery. We spent about an hour tasting wines while the kiddos played in the gardens. We've never done this before but we had a good time. We were worried the kids would get bored while we were there, but they seemed to have a good time as well.

We made it back to Cortez for dinner. Aaron took Caleb to the potty and made a horrible mistake. He decided to hold him up to the urinal rather than sit him on the potty. Let's just say that Caleb needed to more than just pee.

We ended the evening by watching a documentary on Former President Carter and eating ice cream. Hey, we make learning fun! We headed home Sunday morning with sick child. Campbell woke up at 4 in the morning vomiting. We had to stop more than once on the way home to let her empty her stomach. Poor kid.

Marathon, Party, & Maze

Saturday was a very busy day for us. We started the morning with Campbell's marathon mile. We had to be to Denver by 8am which meant leaving here by 7am. We are normally not up this early on a Saturday morning so that was a stretch, but we left here at 20 minutes until 7. So we did good.

We got Campbell all checked in and then had to wait for her to run. The race didn't start until 10 so we just did some walking downtown. She ran her race and ran it in 9:25. That was pretty good considering the number of people in the race. There were so many kids. Next year I think they need to seperate the race into age groups. It would prevent kids from being blocked in by the 500 kids in front of them.

We also did a birthday party for the kids on Saturday. Most of our friends are up in Denver so we decided to do a bowling party up there. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time! We had a lot of good friends show up and we enjoyed their company.

I think something was working against poor Caleb though. He has talked about having a baseball party for months now. Last week I ordered the cake for him. It was a baseball field with a baseball on it. The perfect cake. When I went to pick up the cake Friday evening, we instead got a basketball cake. The decorator was already gone so we had to take what we got. (Although, I threw a fit and got the cake for half off.) Then, on Saturday we went and got the kid a balloon with a baseball on it. Just as we walked out of the store the balloon popped. We got a new balloon and headed to the bowling alley. As soon as we go there the new balloon popped. At least the baseball decorations I go worked out well.

After the part we headed over to the corn maze. It was fantastic to walk through the maze in the evening with the sun setting. By the time we left it was dark. It was a really nice way to end our busy day.

Annual Updates

Today the kids had their yearly well-baby appointments. All went well. They are both small but healthy. The doctor is sending Campbell to an endocrinologist (sp?) to make sure that everything is good with her. She is very tiny so the doctor just wants to make sure that all is good. She also wants us to try to break Caleb of his "W" sit and get him to sit criss-cross style.

Campbell's Stats
47 1/2 "
49 lbs 4 oz.
BMI 15 1/4

Caleb's Stats
35 1/2 "
27 lbs.
BMI 15

Three!!

Phone Call from the Teacher

On Tuesday, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was the school. My first thought was that Campbell had another headache and needed me to bring her some medicine. (This has happened twice this year. I'm thinking it's time to get her eyes checked again.)

When I answered the phone it was actually her teacher. She told me she was calling about Campbell. Now, my first reaction is "but she's a good kid. What could she have done?" Turns out she did nothing wrong. Instead she was calling to inform me that Campbell had received a 100 percent on her math test last week. She got to go to the office to get a high five. This school is definitely all about the positive reinforcement and making sure that parents know the good as well as the bad.

Campbell's goal this year has been to do well enough in math to possibly get into Gifted and Talented for math next year. She is well on her way!!

233 Years of Tradition

October 13 marks the 233rd birthday of the United States Navy. To mark this birthday we at the Brown household had ourselves a Very Navy Weekend.

Friday evening Aaron and I got ourselves all gussied up. We then dropped the kids off with family for a sleepover with Cousin Anna. We then headed to downtown for the Navy Day Ball. The venue was decorated nicely to include an ice sculpture of the Navy Ram with falcon feathers in his mouth. There were also blue and gold M & M packets. It was all very cute.

There was a huge turnout at this party. There were 68 men from the 1951 Naval Academy class in attendance. As is tradition, the oldest and the youngest Navy member in attendance cut the birthday cake. This year, the oldest was a 90 year old man who survived Pearl Harbor. The youngest was an (barely) 18 year old girl on the Naval Academy cheerleading squad.

After the cake cutting, the Naval Academy cheerleaders held a pep rally for us. (The Navy vs. Airforce football game was on Saturday.) It was very cool to have them show up there. They took time out of their evening to come do some cheers. It was also really nice for them to see a great mix of Navy personnel (i.e. retired, active, reserve, enlisted and officer). I think they had as much fun as the rest of us.

We ended the evening by going out for sushi with some friends. We had dinner at the ball, but there just wasn't enough on the plates for any of us.

Saturday morning there was no time to sleep in. We had to be up by 8 even with our slight hang overs. (Note to self: Don't drink champaign after drinking wine.) Aaron made breakfast for the two of us and two of our friends who had stayed over. As soon as breakfast was over, I went to get the kids while Aaron started packing the truck.

We attended the Navy vs. Air Force football game Saturday afternoon. Before the game, though, we did some tailgating with a bunch of our Navy friends. We grilled hot dogs in the back of the truck. After filling our tummies, we headed in for the game.

Aaron and I lived in Baltimore for three years. During that time we never once went to a Navy football game despite the fact that Annapolis was only 30 minutes away. This was our first game and we had a blast. Caleb did not like all the noise, although, he was able to take a short nap even with the noise. The game ended with Navy on top! Yeah!

Contractor Layoff Pros and Cons

Aaron spent the last two weeks in Rhode Island. He was doing his Officer Training School. About halfway through the second week of OCS, his boss here in Colorado sent him an e-mail. The e-mail basically told him that when he returned from RI he would be out of work for at least a week and most likely two weeks. This sucks because it means he will not be earning a paycheck during that time. That means that for the next two weeks I am the primary breadwinner for the family. Now, my paycheck means we can pay rent and eat for two weeks but that is about it. Lucky for us we thought ahead and put money in savings for just these cases.

Being the analyst I am I decided to put together a pro/con list for this layoff. So, here we go...

Pros:
1. I have a manservant. (He has already done the grocery shopping for me.)
2. I don't have to get dressed until noon. (Usually I have to be dressed to take Campbell to school.)
3. I have someone here to help entertain the boy child.
4. I can actually go get my eyebrows waxed by myself.
5. He will have time to build some holiday gifts for the kids.

Cons:
1. We will be together all day everyday during this time.
2. I will watch more than my share of shoot 'em up and/or alien movies.
3. I'm sure my schedule will be adjusted and readjusted.
4. Oh, and he won't be earning a paycheck!

As you can see, we are trying to remain calm and humerous through this time. It is always stressful to have the main breadwinner lose his/her job, if even for just a couple of weeks. We (and his bosses) are optimistic that he will be back to work as early as Oct 6 or as late as Oct 16. These are the things you deal with as a contractor.