Since Ethan had the reaction to medication last week, he has had a lot of trouble sleeping. He’s been waking up after having a nightmare and not going back to sleep. He won’t sleep in his bed anymore. We think that the experience he had with the hallucinations brought back his fear of the dark and it triggers bad dreams and in waking from those dreams, he’s too scared to go back to sleep. Needless to say, we are all tired at our house. Tonight he agreed to sleep in the lower bunk of his bed (he usually sleeps on the top) if I went and bought a nite light that is brighter. So we are trying that now. I told him that all of his lack of sleep is making him too tired and grumpy and that if he doesn’t sleep again tonight, I won’t be taking him to school tomorrow for camp. He plays hard there which will make him even more tired. Hopefully the memory of his experience will soon fade!

I came across an interesting opportunity to write a post about baby formula. I had supplemented with formula with my first child and used it solely with my second. It was the best choice for our family, yet it cost a fortune. From what I’ve learned, Consumer Reports for the past year or so, has been urging parents to purchase store brand formula because it is a significant way to save money over brand name formula. The publisher recently released it’s 10th edition of Consumer Reports Best Baby Products edition. Consumer Reports also recommends that “if you choose or need to use infant formula, buy powdered formula. It costs less than concentrated liquid or liquid formula. And keep in mind that all infant formula sold in the U.S. must meet the same basic nutrient requirements specified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” They found that Walmart’s brand formula costs 50% less than the national leading brand, Enfamil. I used the baby formula savings calculator to see how true that really is. I entered the name of the formula I used with Ian and found that by using Parent’s Choice brand, from Walmart stores, I would have saved over 50%. And in a years time, I would have saved $683! Since all formula marketed in the United States must meet the same nutrient specifications required by the FDA, babies are getting the same nutritional standards, just at a less cost to the consumer. Of course the most economical way to feed a baby is breast feeding and is the best for the baby but for those who need to use formula, it sounds like store brands are the way to go. (I am kind of hoping my husband doesn’t read this post because if we had known how much we could have saved…:)

Ethan woke us up at 4am this morning. George said he had had a bad dream about bugs being in his bed. George talked with him about it and prayed with him and put him back to bed. Not too long later we heard him screaming. George went in and Ethan was crouched in one corner of his bed, trying not to touch any of it (which is difficult since he’s on the top bunk). George brought him back to our room and we tried talking to him about what was wrong. He kept talking about seeing bugs and even saw them in our bed. I told George it looked like Ethan was having visual and tactile hallucinations. It really is horrible to watch anyone experiencing hallucinations and I think even worse when it’s your child. We had all the lamps on in our room so there was plenty of light and encouraged him to rest in our bed. He couldn’t, instead sitting very stiff and on alert, constantly looking all over the bed. My first thought is that it is related to some new medication he is taking. But in the back of both our minds lurks the fact that they have a genetic disposition to metal illness because of my family history. We left the bedroom and he asked to have breakfast and he was fine ever since. I researched a new medication he started called Xyzal which is an antihistamine. Wouldn’t you know it-one of the reported side effects is hallucinations? Obviously we won’t be giving that to him again. Since early this morning Ethan’s been asking “why was my mind playing tricks on me?”

These days we are all looking for ways to save money. I know I’ve been scouring ads for great deals, clipping coupons and searching online for sites with great discounts and free shipping. Remember Kmart Bluelight Specials? I remember them well and they’ve brought it back. Kmart Bluelight Specials are a great way to get the things you need and save lots of money. Kmart is having a one day special sale tomorrow July 25th all day in stores and online. There will be Blue Light special sales all over the store including patio furniture, grills and jewelry. All day, every hour on the hour, throughout the store there will be over 40 Blue Light specials to check out. You can also check out Kmart online for specials all day tomorrow. Kmart is also offering free shipping on all their Christmas Lane items, today and tomorrow. This includes even trees and lights. If you shop all year for Christmas as I do, you’ll definitely want to see what they have online. (yes I do shop all year-less stress and it saves me money!)If you twitter like I do, you can follow Kmart’s updates at Kmartdealsnnews on Twitter. So go tomorrow to Kmart and watch for the Blue Light Specials and save lots of money!

Every mom I know has had the same experiences with taking their kids to the store. One of my friends, her son even bit into a raw egg in the grocery store:)! Periodically, I inform George that I will no longer be taking the kids to the store with me but sometimes I can’t help it. Today I had to run into the grocery store for just one thing-my husband’s addiction to Mt. Dew-and it took half an hour. How does that happen? Since we were just going in for one thing, I thought we didn’t need to do the whole cart thing, but no, I had to argue with Ian about it because he insisted on riding in the car cart (he won). Ethan had to go to the bathroom right away. Then I disinfected the cart before putting them in it and discovered that someone had left their keys in the cart. So we went to customer service to turn them in. I went to get the addictive substance I was there to purchase and then Ian started whining about wanting milk. I stopped by the organic section to get some soy milk for him. Then they needed to have a cookie from the bakery, of course! I go to checkout to pay and Ethan starts having a cow about wanting to help me use the credit card machine (which would involve him getting out of the cart to do so). Ahhhh! Finally back to the car and giving Ian his milk. I feel like I went to battle to get my husband his drug of choice-I should earn a metal!:)

The boys had at least three nights last week where they were up past ten and neither of them have caught up on the sleep they lost. Ethan’s behavior has gradually begun to disintegrate. He gave me a lot of trouble at my doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon and this morning was horrible. I warned him that his behavior would require a consequence. This morning we were going to go to his swim lesson and then go to Starbuck’s for free pastry day. We were also invited to the beach by some friends and I had hoped if they were doing well we could go. He was such a problem for me that I informed him that his behavior required that we would not be able to go to Starbuck’s. He freaked out and could not calm down. So when we arrived at his swim lesson, I had to tell his teacher that he was in no shape to go today:( I then went to George’s office and he talked to Ethan for a while-he has a special gift to get Ethan to calm down. He finally did calm down and we decided to go home and not do anything today. He drew me a nice picture with lots of smiley faces and the words “I’m Sorry.” He’s been great the rest of the day. Hopefully we’ll make swimming tomorrow. As for my free pastry…well maybe next time.

Today Ethan started his stroke class with the swim school. After the class I took him to camp at his preschool and Ian and I went to a park to play with friends. The park is located on the river and has a great playground and a sand box area with a water feature. Ian was covered in sand from head to toe and loved it!

Lately, I’ve been taking more advantage of all the technology available by connecting Twitter to FB and to my blog. I love one stop shopping:) It’s interesting how technology can help us be more connected with friends, yet disconnected at the same time. How is that? I’m sure there are many sociological theories and textbooks to be written on the subject, but my personal experience is this: the more I provide the details of my life through my blog and on social networking sites, the less there is to talk about face to face. I really don’t know who reads my blog, other than the comments I receive. So I may begin to tell someone about an experience I’ve had or something we did and they say, “oh yeah, I read about that on your blog.” So I often hesitate to say anything about my life because I’m not sure if I’m just repeating myself. The same is true of my “friends” on FB or my “followers” on Twitter (the whole definition of how the word friend has changed because of these sites is for another post). Those who are on these sites more often tend to know more about what’s going on in my life than those who rarely check FB or Twitter. Despite these issues, I will continue to participate in technology because I find that there are times when sharing my life with others opens doors for interesting discussions where I learn more about others and also myself. Has anyone had the same thoughts about how technology has changed our interactions with others?

Ethan spent a couple of night’s at Grandma’s house this week. I went to pick him up today. He did not miss us at all! I have to say that Ian didn’t miss him either:) I think he enjoyed the extra attention from us. It was strange having only one child to take care of, I felt like I was forgetting something. I did get to take a nap yesterday afternoon since I didn’t have to entertain Ethan. The boys got right back into bickering and snatching toys from each other as soon as we got home!

I went with a group of friends last night to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was good and as usual much is left out from the book. But I can’t blame the writers because the books are so long it would be impossible to include everything into a 2 1/2 hour movie. I was suprised I didn’t cry when Dumbledore died but I guess I must have processed my grief when I read the book a few years ago. George didn’t come with me, I’ve yet to talk him into seeing any of the movies. So I tagged along with my pastor and his family, some other teens from church and a friend and her husband. Thanks guys for letting me join you all!