new blog??

I'm getting a lot of flack for taking so long to update my blog. Seriously ladies, it hasn't even been a month. I guess what that really means is there hasn't been much to talk about either that or I've been too busy to sit down and do it. We've also had the great pleasure of passing a cold around the house. Madeline started it and then it went full circle and is back to her and I again. I'm going around the house with lysol today to try and kill this bug!



We had Madelines GI appt at Seattle Children's hospital. It went ok. They really didn't do anything, just ordered more tests. They are going to do an xray and an MRI to make sure all of her parts are connected properly. They really think that she's basically not going potty on purpose. Apparently kids can do this to themselves. She gave me some concoctions to try at home but the real answers will come after the test results at the beginning of next month. That same week she'll be having an EEG which is basically a test to make sure she's not have seizures. That should be a really fun week! :( I am looking forward to it though, it's been a long time since I started wondering about these things. It will be great to have a definitive answer. Hopefully these folks at children's will be able to get her to cooperate through the EEG. They have to put all these monitors on her head. Hopefully the room is fun and has a TV or they'll be in big trouble.

We've also been doing some research on dogs and autism. There are many companies out there training dogs for children with autism. They are basically trained to keep and eye on the child. They can get pretty skilled so that they go to school and everything with the child, much like a seeing eye dog but this is not what we'd want. We just want a dog that would be trained to keep an eye on the girls. Especially in places like parks and the beach, etc. Abby is so in love with dogs that she would be the happiest girl ever. We can't do it in this house but maybe in the next one. I just need to find a good local trainer to help us out. I'm looking at golden retriever/poodle mixes. It's called a mini goldendoodle. They are the cutest things ever and they aren't that big. Here is a link http://www.swissridgekennels.com/retrieverpups.html . Here is a link on autism and dogs http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/07/16/heroes.shirk/index.html .