Pink or Blue?

Guesses anyone?

They told us a few weeks ago what they thought we were having, but went back and forth. It's nice having an ultrasound every week because we can be like, "ok look again."

After 3 ultrasounds and all 3 technicians saying the same thing, we are excited to announce that we are expecting 2 MORE GIRLS!

Now now, I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing. "Oh, poor Troy." Yeah right, he was so excited. I mean, he was hoping that one of them would be a boy, but really, who does he have to blame but himself? AND after everything we've been through, he was THRILLED that they're healthy and we're having more...and he has Optimus. He totally counts as another boy in the house to balance all the estrogen. So he's not completely alone, right?

So good news, we already have girl clothes :) YES! I was so worried about not being able to reuse some of Avery's clothes if we had a bunch of boys. But that was just nonsense. I started pulling out all of Avery's newborn stuff. O. M. G. You forget SO quickly how little they are when they are born. Crazy.

My last appointment went great on tuesday and the hemorrhage is SMALLER! YAY! I am on the "regular" high risk appointment schedule now, which is an appointment every 2 weeks instead of every week. My big anatomy scan is in 4 weeks.

AND AVERY COMES HOME ON WEDNESDAY! I'm going to try and get a video at the airport to post of this. Kind of like a coming home from a deployment video. Except Avery is coming home from Grandma's. So not really the same thing. I hope she remembers us...she should. We skype all the time and she knows us. I'm just being paranoid.

I'm also nesting in anticipation of her return home. Her big girl room and big girl bed is all ready for her. We also changed her door knob from a lever to a knob in hopes that she won't be able to open it. I think that's wishful thinking. Haha.

Optimus Gets Pretty. And Avery Gets Sad.

It's starting to warm up here again. Fall/Winter/Spring lasted about 4 months. It's been 70 the past 3 days. CRAAAAZY. As a result, poor Optimus is VERY confused about what his fur is supposed to be doing. If you remember, he went through a stressful fall, which involved the crazy shedding and medical testing. So to avoid him getting too hot, we decided to be proactive and went ahead and shaved him down.

Here's Sir Optimus and his mane before and after getting cut:



Avery thought that he wasn't coming back when we dropped him off at the groomers. I didn't realize how many nicknames we had for Optimus until this happened. We started walking out the doors without his and she was like "NOOOOOO PUPPERS!! PUPPERS!! PUPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEERS!!!!"

And instead of comforting her, what did I do? I did what any good blogger does!! I taped it.



She's SO melodramatic. Apparently it's a girl thing. But she wasn't upset enough to stop shoving crackers in her mouth....

Alopecia and Internal Affairs

#1: Alopecia - Optimus Style

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about our dear first-born, Optimus. His hair was falling out for no reason that we could see.

We took him to the vet. And in this post, I outlined all of the choices that she gave us regarding how to deal with his balding issue. We decided to have the blood panel done to see if there was anything abnormal going on with his hormones or enzymes and make sure there was nothing systemic going on. Well she called us the following week and all was well with his blood work.

Fortunately, his hair is growing back in. Unfortunately, it is continuing to thin in other areas. The whole right side of his body looks like a cheetah. He's mostly red and then where it is thinning, the fur is very blonde. So he's kinda polka dotted looking on his side. Poor baby.

Our policy for dealing with it is, if it doesn't bother him, it doesn't bother us. The highs here are in the low 70s. You read that right. He isn't used to that kind of heat year round, so for now we are assuming that his beastly self isn't used to the weather. He's adjusting. Like us. But he's eating and pooping fine. He's acting like his normal self so we are letting it go for now.

#2: My Speeding Ticket

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the asshole cop that pulled me over and gave me a ticket. He wasn't an asshole for pulling me over, but for the unprofessional way in which he conducted himself when he pulled me over. You can read more about that with direct quotes here.

I did file an online complaint through their official site on monday afternoon. I received a phone call regarding my complaint from the internal affairs office on wednesday, 2 days later. The officer took a statement from me over the phone and asked me a lot of questions regarding what happened when.

He also asked me what I would like to see happen to rectify the situation and laid out all of my options.

1. He could inform the officers boss and make sure he is not a repeat offender or have any other complaints of this nature against him.

2. I could file an official complaint and a file on the officer would be opened. This would entail me going down to the station for a tape recorded session and there could be court charges filed against him if it was shown that he violated the code of conduct.

I told him that what I REALLY wanted was for the officer to apologize to me. I told him that even though I knew it was unreasonable, I wanted an apology and an acknowledgement that the officer knew his behavior was wrong. I expected the investigator to be like, "Ma'am that is never going to happen." But instead, he was like, "Okay, well let me see when your court date is. It should be on your ticket that you were issued. Let me pull it up."

Troy had noticed it on monday, but the officer had put TROY'S name under the driver line (the car is insured and registered in Troy's name) and put the vehicle vin number under the license number AS WELL AS putting the wrong car color. The officer said that he would have to look into that and get back to me regarding the validity of the ticket, considering it was improperly filled out.

However, I was encouraged by the fact that the officer was like, "Oh let me see when your court date is" when I told him I wanted an apology. I felt like he ACKNOWLEDGED that I had been mistreated and was deserving of an apology after I told him my story. And I was glad that it seemed like he believed me. I felt SO much better just having someone who would be considered a co-worker of that jerk make it seem like he also thought I was owed an apology.

I told him that I wanted to go with option 1. I just wanted this officer's supervisor to know that he had acted unprofessionally. I am not sure if he was having a bad day or what. I would hope that this is an isolated incident, but if not, his supervisor would be made aware and could reprimand him in whichever way he deemed appropriate.

We hung up with him saying that he would get back to me regarding the ticket. We'll see. I have the number of a law group that one of my co-workers recommended. I haven't heard back from the internal affairs officer and it's been about 2 weeks. So I'm thinking I'll give the law office a call and figure out what I'm supposed to do now. Because I am certainly not going to just PAY the penalty, when it appears the points and fines would go towards Troy's license. So I guess I owe you guys another update about this. Especially if I wind up in court face to face with this guy...

My Puppy has Alopecia...Maybe. Probably Not. But He is Balding.

I haven't talked about our first child as much on the blog as I probably should. He is kind of a lurker in pictures. He sneaks in looking all cute but isn't normally the star of the show.

How handsome is this boy?

He's been through a lot this past year. We were living in Dover for about 4 years and got him 6 months in as a puppy in May of 2008. Avery was born in May of 2011. We moved to San Antonio in September of 2001 and lived there for 6 months. Then we drove from San Antonio to Virginia where I lived with Troy's parents and their dog for 3 months. Troy was living in New Mexico for training in a hotel room starting in March.

About mid April, Troy decided he was too lonely to go on alone until Avery and I got there in June. Troy's dad was planning to drive our car and Optimus to New Mexico for Troy's graduation and we would get him then. But then we mailed him from DC to El Paso. And Optimus was traumatized in the plane, but SO happy to be with Troy.

So then Avery and I arrived in June and the 4 of us lived like sardines until mid August when we moved into our house in Vegas. And Troy started working full time. And I got a job. And we hired a nanny. And she brought her 20 month old into the picture. Sounds like a lot right?

So then we noticed Optimus losing hair. OH THE STRESS OF IT ALL! New people, new schedule, new weather, new house. I thought it was just stress.

But it started as just a thinning of the hair. And then went to full blown balding! Okay so maybe he was rubbing on something. We watched him close and nothing. It went from normal to full bald spot in about a week. I googled it and BIG MISTAKE. I had no idea there was a petMD. And then I found a slideshow with pictures. I was like "hormone imbalance? But you're a dude! That sounds like you're going through menopause!! What's wrong with you??" Or "OMG YOU HAVE MANGE!!!" Or "YOU'RE ALLERGIC TO DIRT! DAMN YOU DESERT LAS VEGAS!!!" After freaking out, Troy made a vet appointment!

The vet said that if it was "over grooming" it would be red, inflamed, and bleeding. His skin is normally black, but the skin where the hair fell out was white. Okay, so maybe he got bit by something on one of our hiking trips? The vet said the same thing about the condition of the skin. It would have been raised, red, and he would have been biting or scratching. Well maybe he was having a reaction to the flea/tick guard. The vet said that normally, reactions to that are RIGHT where you put the medicine and this bald spot is lower and off to the side.

Basically, he was a mystery. They brought in the other vet too. No solutions or ideas. They took a skin scraping sample with a small razor and some hair from the spot and looked at it under the microscope to rule out mites, mange, and a fungal infection. Nothing. He has had no change in eating, personality, energy, or pooping. All is well except for the overshedding ALL OVER and the bald spot that emerged in about a week. They told me I had 3 options:

1. Wait it out and see if it fills back in. It might be nothing.

2. Wait it out and if it doesn't fill in, bring him back in for a blood panel to see if something systemic is going on. Or I could do that now. It all depended on how aggressive I wanted to be.

3. Do the blood panel and see what comes out of it. Depending on the results they could do a biopsy (involving anesthesia) and see what is up with the skin where the hair is falling out.

I decided on option 2 for a couple reasons. It was only 85$ for piece of mind. They really think it's nothing and if it fills back in, great. If not, then I'll already know what is going on without bringing him all the way back to Nellis and paying visit fees and such again. Also then I won't be wondering what if? He is our first baby and I want to make sure he is as healthy as can be. He is only 4. Just like with humans, if you go to your regular physicals and catch things early, it's preventative medicine and can save you lots of money and time later.

Our policy with our kids (dog and child) is that something weird might be going on, but it they don't seem bothered by it, we try not to be bothered by it. Meaning, no pain, eating, sleeping, pottying normal - don't worry about it too much, it will probably pass. Get it checked out but don't lose sleep over it until a doctor tells you otherwise. The good Lord is watching out for us and won't give us more than we can handle.

Here's my sweet baby boy :) I'll be back with blood results when they come in! Hopefully it's not menopause!! I kid, I kid.

Avery vs Optimus Tug of War

Playing tug of war with the rope :) How cute is my baby and my furry baby? The answer: SUPER CUTE!! I love it when they play together. In general, he is less than impressed with her. Like avoids her. I think she's too unpredictable and flails too much.

Avery the Multitasker

I caught this video of Avery the other morning. There are several things going on here. She is watching Sesame Street. She is helping herself to some Cheerios. She is feeding Optimus Cheerios. She is letting Optimus lick all over her Cheerios hand and then eating them. Eh, they say that a dogs mouth is cleaner than a humans mouth. Now I don't know who "they" are, but that's what "they" say. I'm going to go with it. Also, take note of Avery saying "hi" to all of her adoring fans :) She is so cute. And smart.




Here is the youtube link if the video isn't working for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5paUWLi2biE&feature=g-upl