What We've Been Up To

Since it's been so long since I've updated the blog, I thought I'd try to give a quick review...

In November, Hadley and Grady both had surgery to repair their umbilical hernias.  They both did great and recovered really quickly! 

 At Christmas time, we snapped some family shots at the church.  This was the best we got out of a bunch of tries...I'm trying to decide if it looks like I'm smiling really big or clenching my teeth.

Grady discovered his favorite activity: vacuuming!  We had to hide the vacuum for awhile because he knew which closet we kept it in and would constantly ask for it!

We took a trip down to Nashville in February and had fun with the cousins at a Children's Museum!

 (trying to capture a picture of 3 17 month olds is hard!)

We had a follow-up appointment with Drake's neurologist in March so we stopped off at the zoo while we were in town.  

Hadley, Grady and I have been a part of some fun playdates through the church this winter and spring.  They are usually twice a month and gives the kids some great time to play and moms to chat!  This one was at the Illinois State Museum here in town. 

We re-painted our living room and had the kids add some artwork.  Drake had made a cool fish in art class at school, so we framed that and then had Hadley and Grady paint some canvases to add to it. 

 

Hadley wanted to get her hair cut so she got a super-cute new 'do!

We bought a season pass to our local zoo in town and have already made several trips there.  The kids liked the new wooden bird wing display where you can see how you measure up to the wing-span of different birds. 

This is a perfect picture of Drake's personality with Grady.  Drake is SUCH a good big brother and is such a big helper with Grady.  Drake will even let Gabe and I sleep in sometimes on Saturdays and will get Grady out of his crib and feed him breakfast before we even know he's up.  Yeah, that's pretty much awesome.  

My girl and I enjoying the sunshine this spring watching Drake's soccer practices.  

Hadley had her first swim lessons this spring.  She is not my water-lover so this was a bit (or a lot) out of her comfort zone.  She made little strides of progress but we'll be taking more lessons this summer to try to make more progress.  

Life with 3 kids is busy but oh so fun. Parenting is the most challenging and yet rewarding job.  The challenging seasons are just that, challenging but there are glimpses of the fruit of our labor as well.    Gabe and I have been through a lot of struggles over the last year with medical issues, extra expenses and parenting woes but with it has come spiritual growth that is challenging us to broaden our thinking on a lot of issues.  We're excited to see how God's plan unfolds in our lives and our family over the next weeks, months and years to come. 

20 months

Wow, I've been a real slacker on the blog.  Grady is talking more and more and has such a funny personality.   He's such a little ham with his dancing and prat falling.  He loves to make people laugh and has even started attempting his own knock knock jokes.  He seems to say more words every day, still a lot that only we understand, but I would guess he says at least 50 words now.  His hair is still what gets commented on the most.  It has gotten so curly and is especially curly in the humidity.  He's my solid little man, weighing in a little over 30lbs at his 18 month check-up.  He is a busy-body and loves to be outside kicking a ball, shooting a basket or mowing.  He also still loves the vacuum and general janitorial tools and tasks.  He's our future janitor (or at least a great husband!).  He definitely has an onry streak too and is at the "testing the limits" stage.  He is what you might call an "obvious" pooper, which in some ways is good, because I can usually tell when he is about to go.  So, lately I've been putting him on the potty when I can see it's coming and he loves the attention and applause he gets when he "produces" on the potty.  He is now getting used to sitting on the potty and will almost always go when I put him on it (usually before bath-time).  It almost makes me want to start potty training but he's still so young and since his speech isn't always intelligible by others I'm not sure if that's the best idea, but I do love that he loves to sit on the potty!  I can't believe he will be 2 in a few months, it is going by so fast!!  He is such a fun part of our family. 

Character

We recently had Drake's parent-teacher conference. I was eager to have a chance to talk to the teacher one on one and hear how Drake was doing at school. I knew, from the papers he brings home, that he was doing fairly well academically and Drake will honestly give us his behavior report every day and so we knew that there had not been any major issues (only some chattiness!). However, we struggle at home a lot with Drake. He is a perfectionist when it comes to a lot of things and also very competitive and that leads to frequent issues. So, the time came to get to hear from another adult about how he handles himself at school. His teacher started off the conference by telling us that Drake's character and honesty are very admirable and unusual for this age. Whew, I guess some things we are teaching are sinking in. She was so impressed with his honesty one day because she called several children up to get a treat for not getting any warnings that week (for talking). She called Drake's name. When she was going to give him his treat, he reminded her that he had gotten a warning for talking the day before so he shouldn't get the treat. She was so impressed with his honesty that she pulled him aside later and gave him the treat anyway. She also made the comment that when asked to use the word "believe" in a sentence in front of the class that his sentence was "I believe in God." We have struggled so much over the last few years with private vs. public education and which option is the best for our family. We want to protect him from bad influences but yet want him to be a light to the other kids as well. That was enough assurance, at least for now, that we have made the right decision.

14 months

Things you love:
broccoli and cauliflower
pizza
grapes
your puppy
being outside
seeing dogs from a distance (you aren't too sure of them when they get close)
being put down to go to bed (you are not a cuddler!)

Things you don't love:
riding in the car
green beans
anything made with sour cream or mayonnaise
riding in the car
not getting your way (you are getting the hang of fit-throwing!)
riding in the car
sleeping all night
riding in the car (this makes everything from running errands to visiting family a difficult task)


Things you are starting to say:
mama
dada
ball
uh-oh
tickle
keys
bye bye
woof woof (all animals either say "woof" or "grrrr" with an occasional "baaaa")

You are still taking two naps a day, usually about 1 1/2-2 hours each and generally go down and wake up happy each time. You have 11 teeth through now, with the other bottom molar looking like it could pop through any day. You are not a great night time sleeper. You really would like to have a snack (milk) most nights. Your night time sleep is completely unpredictable, you might sleep all night for several nights and then wake up several nights in row with no seeming pattern. However, if you wake up you have NO desire to be held or cuddled, you simply want a drink and to go back to bed! Hours and hours and weeks and weeks of attempting to make you cry it out seem to have no impact on your desire to sleep all night, every night. I have a feeling you are going to be one strong-willed child. You are wearing 18-24 month pants and 24months-2T shirts. I think you weigh close to 30lbs now. You are signing "please", "all done", "more" and "thank you" now. We are trying really hard to get you to sign all done before you start throwing your food or cup down. You are understanding more and more everyday and are starting to get better about following simple commands like picking things up and throwing things away. You are having surgery in a couple of weeks to fix your hernia, on the same day as your big sister. You love playing with your siblings and try to keep up with them. You also love to try to do the actions to songs that your siblings sing. You have added a lot to our family over the last 14 months!

Fast Update on Drake

The long story short is that Drake went on anti-seizure meds on August 22, after meeting with a neurologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. We really felt good about the doctor and the information she provided. To date, since being on meds he hasn't had any more seizures, yay!

Can I go to Drake's school now?

Hadley had her first day of preschool today, which she has been super excited about. Upon completing her first day she asked, "Can I go to Drake's school now?" Oh dear, preschool does last longer than one day, but once we talked about all the months she would go to preschool before she could start Kindergarten, she was good.

When we got to school, she just walked right in, hung up her bag, washed her hands, found a book and sat down like she had always been doing it. I had to get her attention to even tell me bye. I think preschool looks good on her.

Onederful

My big man turned one! He is walking all over the place! He is so busy and loves to be outside and watching animals. He is weighing in at around 28lbs now and almost 31 inches. He's starting to lose a little hair (which seems odd for 12 months!) and it's starting to look a lot thinner. He's not bald by any means but doesn't have nearly the mop of hair he used to. He's starting to talk more every day. He's babbling with such inflection it sounds like he is talking. He says mama, dada, ball, bye-bye (sometimes) and will answer the question "what does a dog say?" with "woof, woof". He's getting quite a little funny personality too. He giggles and giggles nearly every time I lay him in his bed. He's signing "please" all the time, mostly when he wants food or something anyone has that he wants. He's also starting to learn the art of fit-throwing already. He has been seen throwing himself to the ground a time or two (or three...) when he doesn't get what he wants. He's still taking two great naps a day, about 1 1/2-2 hours each. We've gone to all sippy cups during the day with only a nighttime bottle. (For some reason taking it away from him seems to be the hardest of any of the kids!) Happy Birthday little man!