OLIVIA'S NEW BEDROOM DESIGN

Olivia has been begging me for months to paint her bedroom blue. Blue and purple are her favorite colors. We redesigned her room and got her a new butterfly comforter, purple curtains and turquoise wall color. My cousin and I painted it this weekend and we surprised Olivia with the completed room. She loves it! I was a little nervous about painting her room at first because her walls are paneling that has never been painted before. I thought it was going to be really hard, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. The most challenging part was getting the paint it the groves between each strip of panelling. It wasn't hard at all to get the paint to stick to the wall. With the new Kiltz paint, it is a much easier process than before. I didn't even have to sand the panelling. I just put on a thin coat of Kiltz water-based primer and then it only took one coat of Kiltz color paint. Here are some pictures of the finished room.

DOCTOR'S REPORT - 2 WEEK FOLLOW UP VISIT AFTER SURGERY

We went for Isaac's two week check up with the urologist after his double surgery. We don't have to go back to the pediatric dentist for another 6 months and that is just to get his teeth cleaned. We had to have a 2 week follow up visit with the urologist though for the circumcision. The doctor said that Isaac is doing great. He said that everything looks and is healing better than he could have every hoped. He even teased us a little and said, "Wow! That is as great looking circumcision! Someone did a great job on that. It looks perfect!" He then said that in all seriousness, it did turn out to great. He said that sometimes you don't know exactly how it is going to look until after all of the bruising and swelling is gone. Isaac's turned out perfect. There was just the right amount of skin cut back. If not enough is cut back, it looks like a half circumcision. It also doesn't look right if too much is cut. He did just the right amount. We are so happy with the doctor. He has great bedside manner and he was great with Isaac. He made us feel at ease and he made himself available at any time if we had any concerns or questions. He is also a great surgeon.

UPDATE ON ISAAC'S RECOVERY

Isaac is recovering very well from his surgery. He hurt very little from the surgery on his mouth. The little pain that he had was eased with Children's Tylenol. Within 3 days he was eating just about everything. The circumcision took a little longer for him to recover from, but he is doing great now from that too. We had to use a little bit stronger pain medicine for that but only for about 3 days. He is doing great now. We go back for our two week check up with the urologist on Wednesday. He just wants to make sure he is healing well. Please pray that we get a good report.

I posted a few pictures below. One is of my husband Eddie and Isaac. They were walking on one of the walking trails at a local park. The other picture is of Isaac and Olivia with Eddie's dad. They call him Poppy.

ISAAC'S SURGERY WENT VERY WELL

I wanted to thank everyone for your prayers for Isaac. His surgery went very well this morning. The pediatric dentist ended up having to do more than he had expected. He had originally thought it would be 7 crowns, 2 fillings, and one extraction. When he came to talk to us after the surgery, he said that the xrays showed that his condition was worse than originally thought. He ended up having 9 crowns, 2 fillings, one extraction, and 3 root canals. The three unexpected root canals were due to the fact that the decay on his back teeth were so deep that they were almost touching the nerves. That is a lot on a 3 year old. He is obviously very sore but he will be feeling much better in a week or so. We are so thankful that God got him to us when He did. God knew where Isaac needed to be to get the medical care that he so desperately needed. Thanks again for all your prayers.

PLAY TIME - 'BOYS VS. GIRLS'

Here are the kids dressed as super heros. Olivia is Batgirl (although she insists that she is "Batman") and Isaac is The Incredible Hulk. They love playing dress up. Olivia always wants to dress up like a super hero or a rock star.

She is definately not a girly girl. She hates wearing dresses and playing with dolls. She had a little girl over one day to play with her and the little girl just wanted to play with baby dolls. Olivia asked her if she wanted to play in her kitchen and cook or to pretend to be animals, but the little girl said no. Olivia came to me and said, "Mommy. I can't play with this little girl. She just want to play dolls. That is for girls." I reminded her that she IS a girl, but she said, "I know I am a girl but this is different. I don't want to play dolls."

She is pretty funny when she and Isaac are playing dress up at home. She thinks it is ok for her to put on girl stuff like bracelets and necklaces on the rare occation she is in the mood for it or boy stuff like a Batman or Spiderman mask, but if she sees Isaac put on a bracelet, she goes balistic. I asked her why she wouldn't let him wear a bracelet and she said, "Because that's girl stuff. I don't like him wearing girl stuff." I told her that boys wear necklaces and bracelets sometimes too, but she didn't believe me. I also asked her why it was ok for her to play with boy stuff but he couldn't play with what she called girl stuff. She said because it was different for her. Oh well. I understand her not wanting Isaac to look "girly", but I don't think we are in any danger of that. HE IS ALL BOY!

In my opinion there is too much stereotype for what boys should play with and what girls should play with. I think it is ok for girls to play with cars and it is ok for boys to play with dolls. Maybe if little boys played with dolls a little more when they were little, they would be better at being a dad and more willing to help their wives with the children. If girls played with cars more when they were little, maybe car dealers would think twice about trying to trick a woman when selling her a car.