1 Year Appointment

Baby boy had his one year appointment last week.  He's so sweet and they gave him a clean bill of health.  20 pounds, 6oz and 26 inches long (but I don't know how accurate that is because he was very squirmy!).  He has stayed in the 20-30th percentiles... but he's growing!  He's right on par with where he should be as far as milestones, but he's still not walking.  Doc said he would like him to be walking by 15 mos old (can't imagine him not!). He's switched to whole milk and drinks from the straw sippy on his own. He babbles, but mostly he will say "Dad" or "Done" and I've even gotten an "All Done" before... Occasionally, he will say "Momma" but not often. He can stack blocks, roll the ball back and forth, and loves to destroy anything his brothers build up.. Just normal baby brother stuff. Up until this appointment, he was eating everything in sight.  You name it, he loved it.  He could eat 2 pieces of pizza, an entire grilled cheese sandwich, 5 chicken nuggets, cereal bar and yogurt... just a great little eater... which is so nice for a change.  He was still a bit fussy from his recent ear infection two weeks before, but was doing well.  Let's just say everything changed after these shots.  He got a "doozy" of shots - including chicken pox and MMR - 4 in total. Well, they warned me he may have a runny nose, rash or slight fever after the shots.  Well, today is 8 days after his shots and he's sick. :(  2 days of fever of 101.4, a week of not eating hardly anything and just sad baby - crying baby - whiny baby... I don't know what to think.  I think he got a bug there..?  I don't know.  Yesterday, he slept almost the whole day long and only woke to get a drink of juice, and some more Tylenol for the fever. Poor baby boy.  Hope he gets better asap. 

Monkey see, monkey do...

When the boys fight, like, really fight... I put them in Time-Out.  For the last few weeks, they've spent quite a bit of time in Time Out because they're like oil and water lately.... Well, C doesn't like when they go to Time Out.  Sometimes he even finds a corner and puts his little head into it too!  It's so cute!!!

my beautifiul grandma...

I got to go visit this sweet lady the last day of Spring Break!  It was so wonderful getting to visit with her... 

She's pretty much the coolest grandma ever.

3rd time's a charm...?

Ethan got his 3rd set of tubes - called T-Tubes put in on Friday.  He did amazing.  He had to be there at 630am and Ryan took him. He knew exactly what to expect.. he's a pro now. He was happy that his ears "will be fixed."  He was being a little silly in the waiting room... Ryan took some pics for me. Afterward, he was a little grumpy coming out of anesthesia... but then he was happy-go-lucky.  :) He was bubbly, happy... running around like a giddy little guy the rest of the day!  And best news ever... He can hear again!!  YAY!  

We're pretty thankful.

 

 

March Instagram Pics!

 In Jackson's leadership class, he has to lead the class in one short "exercise" each time.  

It's so good for confidence building!!

 Wah.... and smiles.

We got to keep Lily for a little while and she's my sweet little helper.  She loves to watch anything involving Christian, and then she wants to help.  Christian loves the attention!

We're staaaaaanding.....

This kid is just in NO hurry to walk... but he did recently discover that he can stand and has perfect balance.. so when he does it, he laughs.  He even started a little bounce while he's standing... Ryan thinks he'll start walking any day now.  He's just making me laugh.  I could care less that he's not walking... He can be my baby boy as long as he wants... I don't mind to hold him.  :)

Happiness.

Just a normal conversation with Ethan....

Tonight, when I was putting Ethan to bed, I explained to him that if he slept really well and got a lot of rest, Lily Kate would get to come over to play tomorrow...
Ethan: "YAY!"
Me: "But you have to sleep well, and don't cry or scream when mommy has to leave the room, ok?"
Ethan: "But what if I get scared?"
Me: "Why would you be scared?"
Ethan: "What if I hear a 'roar' from a bear?"
Me: "Ethan, if you hear a 'roar' from a bear, you tell that bear that he needs to go back to the forest."
Ethan: "I'll say, 'Hey bear! What are you doing?' and the bear will say 'Hey! Can I 'roar' at you?' and then I will say 'NO! you can't roar at me' and the bear will say 'is this the forest?' and I will say 'no, it's not the forest, it's a house!' and then the bear will say 'oh i thought it was the forest' and then I will say 'it's a house! and if you don't leave right now, you will have to go to time-out and i will tell my mommy on you!' and then the bear will say 'okay.... goodbye then' and the bear will leave."
Me: "okay Ethan... sounds good.  Good night."

Love my boy so much.  I never want to forget how even at 3 years old, he always has been this awesome.

Sleepover Spring Break!

Over Spring Break, Jackson wanted Cole to spend the night so that sounded like a good idea!  These boys play so incredibly well together... It's so sweet.  Well, even tho they're only 4 months apart, Cole started Kindergarten and Jackson's in Bridge, so they're a little different right now when it comes to reading ability.  I had a baby monitor on to spy on what these boys were up to in Jackson's room and at one point, Cole picked up a Children's Bible Story book and started reading out of it to Jackson!!  It was the sweetest thing ever!!!  I couldn't help but take a picture of it... Especially since they didn't know I was listening.  When Ryan got home, he built a Spiderman Lego set with them, and Cole talked me into letting them all watch Pokemon on Netflix at bedtime... These boys are a blast!  We love having Cole (and Lily) over.... Just like family.  :)

Grandparents Day!

Couple weeks ago was grandparents day at the boys' school.  Jackson and Ethan reminded me daily for about a week prior.  They were so excited about Poppy coming to their school!  The school set up donuts, muffins, juice and coffee and my daddy was at their school promptly at 715am to take them.  He didn't want me to go help - he said "I've got this."  So he took both boys to the fun and then he took them downstairs to the book fair.  I gave my dad strict instructions that each boy could have ONE book.... Then my dad safely escorted each boy their classrooms and waved goodbyes.  I was so proud of my dad!  That's a big job!  However, when the boys got home, Jackson had 7 books and Ethan had 2... and one of the books Ethan had was a duplicate of one that Jackson had because Jackson said "we both wanted it."  POPPY!!!!  I called my dad and asked what the heck!  He said... "They just picked out what they wanted... I'm new at this... they knew I wouldn't say no." No wonder my very spoiled boys were so anxious for grandparents day!  They sure do love their Poppy!  Thanks Daddy!

Is he growing?

I made Jackson try on his shorts to see what clothes we needed this summer...  He still fits perfectly in ALL of his shorts.  They're 4T!!!!!  He's going to be 6 in May!  Sassy boy built just like his Uncle Ray - short legged and skinny.  I think Ethan will catch up to him soon.  Should be interesting when I'm buying 5T shorts for both boys.

Ethan's Soccer Fun!

Ethan started soccer again.... He's an orange lion now. On his team is Lily Kate Searcy and Jasper Stephenson.... So it's basically a really fun playdate for Ethan. I don't think he fully understands what he's supposed to do yet, but he's having fun with Lily.  He has a fancy Spiderman soccer ball that he's so very proud of and I just bought him a soccer goal to practice in the backyard.  At the game, LK and Ethan spent the whole time hooked to each other's side like this.  Pretty cute.  When it was time to charge the field, they just ran straight to the goal, bypassing the ball altogether.  I'm pretty sure they just thought it was a race to the goal.  Adorable, I know.  :)  My friend Sarah took these awesome pictures!  I love the one here where Ethan is antagonizing the other team!  That's SO Ethan!!!

Anson and Christian

6 weeks apart... and their siblings are destined to get married... so they're destined to be buds.  

Oh... and they like each others' cups.  So sweet.

Ethan's hearing test.

 

Yesterday, I took Ethan into the ENT to see how bad the damage is of 6 months of fluid in his ears has had on his hearing.  Turns out, it could be much better, and it could be worse.  Ms. Lori was amazing with Ethan and he really loved her.  I am super impressed with the way they do hearing tests for children this age... Ethan wore these headphones and Lori could talk to him thru them.  She set behind the glass and they "played a game."  When he heard the beep, he put a toy into the basket.  He loved it.  He listened and listened til she turned it up loud enough that he heard the beep, and then he tossed it hard into the basket.  He thought it was way cool.  She did a series of tests like this and at the end, we found out his permanent hearing was good, but he definitely has mild hearing loss due to the fluid.  His number was around 35 and Dr. Lee said at 40, they call it "moderate" hearing loss so he was on the border.  So we've decided to schedule the t-tubes for Ethan and get all that fluid drained out.  I'm so grateful he's finally going to feel normal again.  As it stands now, he says he feels ear pain - especially when he blows his nose, loss of balance, loss of appetite, cannot hear when we talk to him.... I don't know the long term effects of having that fluid in his ears this long will be, but I'm hoping these bigger T-Tubes will keep the fluid from building up in there anymore.  Fingers crossed for our baby boy. 

Attention Walmart Shoppers....

My baby boy says hello!!  He's going to be in every WalMart soon!  This pic was taken in the OKC Walmart!!  YAY!!!

me and my 1 year old.

It's a party!

 So my baby boy turned one!  In the past, we've had these enormous parties for them on their 1st birthday, and feel so crazy running around trying to greet everyone and this time, we opted to do a family only birthday party.  We have several people in our family who have birthdays in March.  My brother's birthday is the 5th... but closer to Christian's is my uncle Roy, my cousin's boy Mason (who turned 6), my cousin Courtney (who turned 20!) and Christian... So we decided to celebrate everyone's party!  It was a good plan with Christian still not walking cuz he could just roam around in the living room, hanging out and it was totally non-stressful.  So nice. We ordered pizza, had tons of dessert and watched a slideshow of Christian's 1st year... And the pizza... it was great.  I took over 400 pictures for Christian's birthday weekend... so I'm just putting a few on here and I'll make his Shutterfly book with the other pics.  It was a great party celebrating my baby angel and these awesome peeps!

A big day and More ear issues.

Happy Birthday to Christian! But....

Ethan woke up this morning at midnight, crying loudly.  I go upstairs and he is crying that his ears hurt.  I wasn't too surprised considering his ear history and the fact that most times, his ear infections never fully clear up so tubes are inevitable.  I gave him some IBU and he reluctantly went back to sleep after some coaching.  I took him in this morning... He is a champ.  He knows the drill at this point.  Walked over for the measurement  - 3'3" (55th percentile) and scale - 36 pounds (66th percentile), did bp, temp, etc.  He is a pro.  He sat in the room, playing my iPad, acting like nothing is wrong.  Doc looked in his ears and said they aren't necessarily "infected" but they are red and "his ear drums do NOT look good." As I already knew, doc said he has tons of yucky fluid in there and that it's probably a good idea to consider the t-tubes.  Anyway, he opted to treat what looks like "an inevitable infection" meaning it would've turned into that because of how red it is.  So we are on another round of antibiotics - this time Omnicef (Amox last time).  I think Ryan and I have just decided to go ahead and schedule those tubes.  Ethan will feel so much better.  Poor baby and those crazy ears!

I felt bad having to take C to the doc on his birthday - not even for him!  But Christian didn't mind... :)

And now HE has an ear infection!

This is his birthday week!  He's not supposed to get sick!?  But he woke up yesterday morning with 102.2 fever... very whiny and cranky and wouldn't eat.  I immediately got him an appointment with the doc.  He fell asleep on me at the doc office (totally unusual for Christian!) and doc had to use two different utincils to clean all the wax out of his ears - but said his ear is, in fact, infected.  Just as Ethan got off antibiotics, Christian got on.  He has been an AWFUL patient... like just wants to cry.  Not wanting to eat, sleep, drink, rest, play or walk around... Just wants to scream.  Pretty bad day.  :(  But today is a new day....

Zzzz's....

It was so pretty the other day... Went for a walk on the trail.. good exercise I thought.  Well, C loved it.. Zonked right out.  How cute is he!?