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!

Waiting

Drake had another seizure on June 23. This one was very similar to the last one, however it took him longer to come out of it. It was about 25-30 minutes before he could talk after this last one. I called the neurologist and he said he would like to start medication but we needed an appointment first. The next available appointment was not until July 25th. I was not ready to start medication because I wanted to make sure we had ruled out all possible causes before starting an anti-seizure medication with all of it's side effects. So, I called back to the neurologist and asked if he would order an MRI and a sleep study (since they have all happened in his sleep). He said these were not necessary at this point. He did order another EEG with total sleep deprivation, meaning keep him up all night and do the EEG and 8:30am. That is scheduled for Monday, July 11th.

In the meantime, we were just waiting...

Then, last week Drake was running a fever for a few days and had a sore throat, just some little virus. Well, while he was running the fever of about 102* he complained that everything out of his left eye looked like a DVD that was skipping. So, we went back to our pediatrician. I asked her to order the MRI and she agreed that it was not "unreasonable". So yesterday we went for the MRI. They tried to do it without sedating him first. We took the ipod for him to listen to but they must not have actually hit the play button because he said he couldn't hear it. Anyway, after a couple of tries they said there was too much movement. Even the slightest movement of his head causes distortion in the pictures, so they decided rather than keep trying it would be easier just to sedate him. He did great with them starting the IV and was "out" within minutes, maybe even seconds. He was to be in recovery for about 30 minutes but his heart rate was pretty low after wards so they kept him in recovery for about 2 hours. By the time he was home, he was his normal, full-of-energy self!

We got the call at 5pm from our doctor's office that they already had the results. They did find two small (3mm) lesions on the front of his brain. They are not sure if these are causing the seizures or not. Our doc just said to follow up with the neurologist at our appointment on the 25th. I was hoping the neurologist would want to cancel the EEG scheduled for Monday so that we can just explore these lesions but after a call to them this morning, he wants to still do it. So, my mom is going to help me split the night up on Sunday night and keep him up all night. Then, we go for the EEG at 8:30am. Gabe will be heading to camp for his week of Jr. Highers on Sunday so he gets to miss out on this experience.

So, for now, we wait...and I take sleeping pills. :)

Happy HOT 4th of July!

We spread out the festivities this year. We headed to a parade in Rochester on Saturday at 5:00. Saying it was hot was an understatement, I think the temp was about 95* with about 90% humidity. Poor Grady was soaked before we even got to the parade. He is one sweaty little dude. The kids loved hanging out with some friends during the parade and then we all had sandwiches together after the parade, thankfully where it was cool!




On the fourth, we headed out to meet some friends to catch the fireworks. Thankfully, my mom came to the house and stayed with sleeping Grady so we could just get the big kids out. It's always nice to be able to spend a little more one-on-one time with them once in awhile.

10 months

Grady is B U S Y! He loves playing peek-a-boo and loves his puppy that he sleeps with. He is still very fond of his paci as well. He's starting to eat a little more table food, but still mostly baby food. I'm still nursing 1-2 times a day and he's taking formula the other times. He's been loving going to the pool this summer and can be quite the daredevil in the water (and on land for that matter: he has the goose-eggs and bruises to prove it!). He's started taking 3-4 steps at a time but prefers his super speed crawling to get where he wants to go. He is just starting signing "all done" when prompted but won't do it on his own yet. He also says "more" which sounds like "ma" and says "ball" frequently. He is generally a fairly easy going kid and puts up with a lot of toting around thanks to his big brother.

8 dancing ballerinas

Hadley greeted her 4th year in style in some of her favorite ballerina friends. Hadley loved being a part of a ballet class this past school year. So, deciding on a ballerina party was a logical theme. This was a really fun party to put together. I had gotten in touch with a dance teacher that goes to our church several weeks before Hadley's birthday asking if she would be willing to come over for about an hour during Hadley's party to teach the girls a dance. She excitedly agreed.

**I was too cheap to actually have her party AT a dance studio because their charges for a party are a lot higher than I wanted to spend on a birthday party, so this turned out to be a MUCH cheaper way to do it!**

Unfortunately, the dance teacher I had recruited had a death in her family the week of the party and ended up being out of town. So, three days before the party I was scrambling to find a dance teacher. Within a few hours of sending out multiple pleas to people I had found one! Whew, disaster averted and party saved!

I enlisted the help of several beauticians (ie, my mom, MIL, sister and SIL) to come help do nails and make-up before the girls devoured some pink-frosted donuts and learned and performed their dance. The party was a hit and I think the girls had a good time.

9 months

Grady weighed in at 24lbs 14 oz and 30.25 inches long, both 96%! He is now starting to make a little more noise with the sounds ba ba and ma ma! His personality it starting to blossom and it's so fun to watch him enjoy his brother and sister so much. He is ON THE MOVE! He crawls super fast, pulls up on everything and cruises all around. He can even stand for a few seconds on his own and has taken a few steps here and there. He is so much fun to have in our family! Here are some pictures from his haircut he got tonight. Haircut #5, but his first time in the professional's chair! He did awesome. Sat up there like a big boy and let her cut off his curly locks!

Clap, clap, clap your hands...

Grady has learned his own version of clapping....

Update

EEG results on Drake came back normal so the doc suggested we just wait and see if he has any more seizures before we would do any further testing...

Medical Drama

I was always a big fan of the show ER and have watched countless episodes of medical shows, however, I really prefer to leave the drama to TV. Unfortunately, though, we have been having some medical drama of our own around here.

A little background...on March 11, Drake woke up very disoriented, couldn't answer our questions like where we lived, etc. and we were concerned for about 40 minutes or so, then as he started becoming more aware we had him take a shower and then he threw up a few times. I took him to the doctor that day but by the time we got in to her office, he was acting completely fine and she thought it was probably just that he wasn't awake yet and had some kind of virus that caused the throwing up. I was fairly annoyed because I knew how he acted that morning was more than just "not being awake" but I didn't have any other proof.

Last Tuesday evening (May 10), Gabe was gone to Chicago for a staff retreat for a few days. I had put the kids to bed and was enjoying some kid-free time to myself on the couch. Drake came out of Hadley's room (where he has been sleeping since he and Grady share a room, but Grady wakes Drake up sometimes so he often sleeps in H's room) and asked to go to sleep in my bed because he was having a hard time falling asleep. I let him go crawl in my bed. I was having a hard time falling asleep that night for some reason and finally went to bed myself at 2am. Around 6:30am I felt the bed shaking and quickly jumped up to see Drake having a seizure in the bed next to me. It probably lasted about a minute but felt like forever at the moment. Once it was over I kept talking to him until he started making some noises like he was trying to talk. Then, I jumped up to grab my phone (and discovered it was OFF! so I had to wait for it to turn on, again seemed like forever in that moment!). I first called my mom... I know, I know..but at the moment I needed another person's opinion of what to do. She told me to hang up and call 911. So, I did. Then, I called a friend (who thankfully was IN her car just leaving a park where she had been doing her devotions) to come over to stay with Hadley and Grady until my mom could get to town. First, a firetruck arrived and they came in and checked Drake's blood sugar, did a quick check over him until the ambulance arrived. After asking several questions to me and Drake, they loaded him up and off we went to the hospital. At this point, Drake was awake and responding but slow to process what was going on. About 1/2 way to the hospital he started crying a little bit when he asked where we were going and the paramedic told him we were going to the hospital. Once in the ER, things happened pretty quickly. The nurse and the doctor we saw were both great. Drake was very brave and didn't even cry when they took blood. He also did a great job holding completely still for a chest xray and CT scan. After several hours in the ER and all the test results coming back normal we were sent home with instructions to follow up with our doctor the next day. Papa and Nana came over and kept us company in the ER and Gabe made it back from Chicago about 20 minutes before we got sent home!

We went to our doc the next day and she ordered an EEG to be done at St. John's. In the meantime, I've been paranoid to let Drake sleep by himself. So, he has either been in our bed or I've been sleeping with him in the basement.
I'm not sure when I'll feel ready to let him sleep alone again...

Today, we went for the EEG. His appointment was at 8:30am but he needed to be able to fall asleep during the test so they said to only let him sleep from 12-4am. Yikes. For a kid that normally sleeps 11 hours every night, I wasn't sure how that would go. He was very excited to stay up until midnight. Gabe took that shift (which he informed me this morning that he fell asleep from 11:20-11:45 while Drake was playing the Wii!). I took the 4am shift. When my alarm went off I felt like I had just gone to sleep, ugh. But I dragged us both out of bed and we first headed over to Walmart to pick out a lego set to work on. After about 30-45 minutes at Walmart we stopped off at Denny's for breakfast. We got back home about 6am and Drake started in on his legos. He worked on those right up until it was time to head to the hospital. He did great for the test. Let her hook him all up with the wires, cooperated for the awake portion of the test, which included heavy breathing (like you just ran a race) for 3 minutes, following commands with his eyes, and having a stobe light on him. Then, she said he could go to sleep, which took him less than 10 minutes to fall asleep. He only had to sleep for about 15-20 minutes and that was it. We were leaving by 10am. Now, we just wait for the results, which could take 3-7 days.

Here is Drake working on his legos this morning:

Hives again...

Hadley has been battling hives off and on for months now. We haven't figured out the culprit but it looks like an allergic reaction to something, we just haven't pinpointed what yet. This time around, they started on Saturday evening with just a few on her trunk and cheeks. Then, Sunday morning they were on her entire body. I had one steroid pill left from the last time, so I gave her that. This morning, they were even worse than yesterday, with a lot of yesterday's hives faded but lots of new ones and she was really itchy! So, I called the doctor again today, thinking they might just call me in another steroid prescription. But, since she had just had them a month ago and they did seem worse this time, they had us come in. The doctor wanted to rule out any autoimmune diseases that can cause your body to react in hives and also do some allergy testing. So, we headed down to the lab. Poor Hadley, she was so cooperative (even though she was crying her head off) while they had a terrible time getting a vein to fill the two tubes of blood they needed. She got rewarded with a milk shake on the way home and promptly crashed on the couch after she drank her milkshake and ate her lunch. We did get a call from the doctor's office this afternoon saying that the initial bloodwork looked fine with no elevated counts, which means we can just look at allergies. So, we wait for the allergy panel to come back and if nothing shows up there, we will get referred to see an allergist who can do more extensive testing. Here are some shots of the hives on Sunday. I should have taken new photos this morning when they had multiplied but I didn't think of it!

8 months!

Grady is already 8 months old and he is changing like crazy. He is pulling up all the time now and is all over the place! He is starting to let go when he is standing but falls down within a couple of seconds when he realizes he's not holding on. He is still very much a mama's boy (to the point of obsession!). He was one tooth in and another peeking up about to come in. He got another haircut recently and looks so cute with his little boy haircut. He still gets lots of comments about his hair everywhere we go and most people think he is older than he is because he's such a chunk. Here's a shot of the little man showing off his standing skills:

Conversations with a 3 year old...

Hadley has been completely cracking me up lately. Here are some of her most recent conversations...

*After getting out of a rather long bath... "Mom, look, I'm wrinkly like a sharpei!"

*While we were outside passing the basketball back and forth..."Mom, you're a terrible thrower, but you're cute!"

*"Ants have montanas." (instead of antennas)

* "Mom, can we have hot chocolate?" Me: "OK", H: "YES!"...second guessing her enthusiasm...."Um, is OK a fancy word for yes?"

* "Mom, I like to rock out. When I'm 5, can you take me to a show to rock out? And, when I'm 5, I don't want to move out yet, I still want to live with you and your husband."


*Singing overheard from the bathtub: "You gotta wash your back and wash your crack..."

*After getting scolded, "Mom, you kinda broke my heart."

7 months

Whew...another month. Some things that are happening for Grady now...

*got to visit with all of his cousins last week and gets to meet his new cousin Jude tomorrow!
*army crawling everything with one arm
*rocking on all fours and lunging but not true crawling yet
*raspy little man again, seems to be very susceptible to colds/wheezing so we now own our own nebulizer!
*weighing in at over 23 lbs now!
*occasionally with give a "ma ma" but never with prompting, only when he feels like it
*starting to wave occasionally
*a huge mama's boy. doesn't like anyone else to hold him if I'm in the room.

Nooooo.....

I can't believe this is happening!!

Cuttin it up

Grady got hair cut #3 this week! This time, I took it a little more seriously and didn't just do one of those little baby trims. I still left a lot of his black, curly locks but cut off the bozo look.

And I apparently also left some carrots on his nose.

Six months

I can not BELIEVE my baby is six months old. It seems to go faster with each one!

Let's look at Gradster's happenings this month:
*ROLLING everywhere, all over the floor and starting to scoot backwards!
*sitting up unsupported for short periods of time before he topples over and starts rolling.
*getting to visit his cousins Lincoln, Fletcher, Zane and Annabeth
*got his second hair cut
(yes, the above picture is AFTER another haircut!)
*no teeth yet, but lots of hand chewing
*eating solids twice a day now

*will drink from a bottle like a champ but has a STRONG dislike of formula

*RSV. Grady had been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks and started wheezing last Friday. Unfortunately, I had been up for several hours during the night fighting a bit of a stomach bug so I was still not feeling great. Thankfully, Gabe was home so he took Grady to the doc on Friday afternoon. They gave him a breathing treatment in the office and also sent us home with the machine to do treatments every 4-6 hours. So, we continued that through the weekend. Sunday night he was really wheezing, even after the breathing treatment so I took him to Prompt Care. They did a chest xray and tested for RSV and Influenza. The RSV came back positive as well as some ear redness. His xray also showed a few spots of early infection so we got sent home with some meds and followed up with our pediatrician on Monday. We had to put off his 6 month check up until he gets well.

**Stats Update** Grady weighed in at 22lbs and is 28inches long. 99% and 96%.

Headin South

We took a fun, whirlwind trip down to Nashville this weekend to visit my sister and family. We celebrated Zane and Annabeth's 5th and 3rd birthdays while we were there and enjoyed some warmer than usual temperatures. It was fun to get all seven kiddos together again. The girls play babies and dress up and tea party amazingly well and the big boys had fun digging up bugs and running around outside. The little boys were quite the charmers. Here are a few shots of the weekend:

SNOW

The snow hit us and we have been snowbound for 2 days. I love it. Staying in jammies all day, hot chocolate, snuggling, movies, games, legos...ahhh. I haven't heard any exact totals of snowfall but I'm sure it's over a foot. Even the church closed today because the parking lot had too much snow to be able to get in! Gabe and I took turns shoveling out the driveway, he lasted longer than I did. (We REALLY want a snowblower now!) Drake came out to "help" too but that mostly resulted in playing and throwing snow at each other.

So, he came in and warmed up with some hot chocolate and started in on his lego project. Here is the finished product:

5 months

Grady is now at the 5 month mark!

Five month facts:

*rolling from back to tummy every single time I lay him on his back but gets frustrated that he can't get back over to his back once on his tummy

*eating cereal twice a day and just tried his first veggie this week: squash! eating it pretty well

*starting to sit up: really well with the boppy around him, for a few seconds without support
*sleeping from 8p-8a with a feeding usually around 5a, but still experimenting with his schedule to try to get rid of those occasional wake-ups for the paci throughout the night.
*taking three naps a day now: after each day time feeding and then we keep him up until bedtime after his dinner time feeding.
*laughs the most for mommy and second-most for Drake
*eyes are still very blue so I'm hoping they will stay that way!
*still has a ridiculous amount of hair, but has a small bald-ish spot on the side but has enough hair for a combover to cover it.
*weighing in at 20lbs 4 oz...holy smokes, this kid is a beast.
*can't get him to drink any formula, not that I need him to but it would be nice to know he would at least take it if necessary, but gags if you try to give him any. even tried mixing it with the real stuff, can't fool him.
*he really is a pretty easy going baby, takes life of keeping up with two big siblings in stride and is very portable and goes with the flow. (example: last week Gabe and I went to a visitation that had a 2 hour line of waiting and we just had Grady with us. He hardly made a peep the whole time! Was content to just chew on his hands and be passed back and forth between us. Several people in the line commented on how amazing he was to last that long, especially since it went past his bedtime!)

Rolling and Reading

It's been a big week around here! Grady is officially rolling and rolls from back to tummy nearly every time he is on the floor. Neither of the older two were big rollers. They didn't really become very mobile until they were crawling at about 8 months. Not sure if I'll be able to say the same about Grady. He hasn't rolled from tummy to back yet though so we're still safe for a while at least. Here he is in action:

***And the sleep update is...Grady is sleeping all night most nights!! It took a few weeks (yeah, those who say it only take a few nights of CIO to get your baby to sleep, they're wrong!) of making the babe s t r e t c h out that night time feeding and trying a few different things but most nights he is sleeping from 8pm-5am (eats at 5) then back to sleep until about 8 or 8:30am. I will take it after the last few months of interrupted sleep! ***



And in other big news...Hadley is catching on to reading. Not that she is ready for books yet, but she is doing great at sounding out small words. This girl amazes me. I can't believe how quickly she catches on to things. Grammy had started working with her last week with some letter cards we have and since then we've been practicing several times a week. She loves doing it and gets so proud of herself! Here are a couple of shots of her in action:

Solids!

I can't believe this little man is old enough already to try solids! Here he is trying some cereal. He eats it up pretty well. Yet another attempt to try to get this turkey to sleep all night...

4 months

chunky monkey. gradester. drooler. hand chewer. thumb sucker. little sleeper. cutie pie. love.

4 month stats: 18 lbs 12 oz (99%)
26 inches long (80%)

We are still struggling with night time sleeping. He does great going to sleep on his own, in his crib but still wants to eat at least once during the night. We are going to do some experimenting this week to try to get him sleeping ALL night...