Brief update-continued

Drew has had speech class once a week at the same school as Ivy & Collin. That will change this fall, thanks to the school disctrict's reorganization. He is starting to learn to recognize letters & Tom frequently does magnet letters on the fridge to help him to learn rhyming words. He took a swimming class this summer too, just one session. From my experience, kids either love or hate being in beginner swim class (with no parents), there is no in between. Since I didn't know which way he'd go, I just signed him up for one. Apparently he really likes it. He's terrible, but he enjoys himself and that's all that matters. He's starting to get a little bored at home, even with Brent. I may look into a 2 or 3 days per week preschool for him once school starts back up.

Collin has made language progress this year, learning to comment about things he sees. He did a mommy & me swim class this summer--I signed him up after he was jealous of Drew having class, but not him. He's used to doing pretty much everything with Drew. The class is only meant for 6 month olds to 4 years old, but we inherently don't trust Collin in the typical swim class--for the second half of each class, they go to the deep water. I'm afraid of Collin not listening & letting go of the wall. We may try to work something out with the instructors next year to just have him do the 1st half and I take him out the second half. He is now 46" tall and 49.5 lbs--he was really giving me quite the workout in the Mommy & Me class.

Collin's got an excellent memory, but sometimes doesn't know when to stop telling you something. Example, the kids(minus Brent, of course) are currently in ice skating lessons. Last week, Tom took them. Ivy fell 30+ times, Drew quite a few, and Collin only once--while Tom was holding his hands during the free-skate/practice. So, all week, Collin has told me "Drew slipped down 2 times," multiple times per day. He is wanting more independence which is good, but I'm having a hard time letting go because I worry about him a lot. Still lagging in other areas. Case in point, yesterday Brent woke me up at 6:30 a.m., went back to sleep, and I didn't get back to bed till 7:30. Well, sometime between 7:30 & 9:30, Collin got a movie out for himself and put it in the portable dvd player. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but Tom had just started watching a Netflix dvd the night before. We spent all morning, and a good part of the afternoon trying to find it. I was thankful it didn't end up in the trash or any of the bathrooms. But it was soo frustrating when I'd ask Collin where he put the movie, he couldn't answer me. If I asked him if it was in any number of spots, he'd just answer "yes."

Tom & I. Well, we are FINALLY able to start having regular date nights again, and Brent is starting to be babysat with the other kids instead of being taken with us. Thanks to many friends & family's suggestions we found a website called http://www.thedatingdivas.com/ that has TONS of ideas--which was one of our biggest struggles. Tom seems to be enjoying it. So far, we've made a couple's journal, origami night, dollar store night, a walk on the beach at night(for our 11th anniversary, July 8th--by the way, even though it was a hot day, it was totally freezing!! We had a head-on wind), and writing candy bar love notes(first time I'd done that).

I will be going in at the end of the month for outpatient surgery. The short of it is that my body functions are not what they were after the other 3 kids, and it's been destroying my quality of life. I've been meeting with a urologist and doing testing off & on the past couple months. We both agree that this surgery is the best solution. A 30 year old should not be dealing with an 80 year old's problems. Hard part will be that I won't be able to lift Brent for 6 weeks! This is the kid who wants up & down ALL day long. I had tried to schedule for the beginning of this month, and then thought Ivy could help me out for the 1st 3 weeks before school starts. But no, the hospital didn't have any openings until the end of the month, 2 days after school starts. So, half the day I will be on my own until school is out.

Brief Update

It's been a whirlwind since I last posted. So many months, and gone in the blink of an eye.

Brent started crawling in time for Valentines Day(7.5 months old), and started walking at 10 months old(May). He didn't waste any time there. He also hasn't touched many baby toys since February either--why should he? The "big kid" stuff looks so much more fun! Brent is also climbing stuff. His latest obsession is to have us stack some really big foam blocks taller than he is & he comes charging them down. Last night, when the other kids were asleep this was going on for at least 10 minutes. Maybe the makings of a football player or wrestler? ;) His favorite word is "meh(more)," but he also says mama, dada, woo(imitating a vaccuum that's on) and nana(no-no, something he hears a lot!), and signs want, up & all done. He's just barely started taking a bottle & cup in the past few weeks--just in time to be weaned.

Let's see, Ivy did Girl Scouts from December thru June. She really enjoys being around other girls--obviously doesn't get much of that at home. She's also done swim lessons for 6 weeks this summer and can now swim short distances by herself. She's hit a whiny, lazy age and it bugs us, but honestly, I don't know if I could've made it thru this past year without her. She helps so much with Brent, almost from the get-go. She always has her nose in a book, and got the only "reading comprehension" award in her class at a special 2nd grade assembly I was invited to this spring.

Will finish posting about other things tomorrow, it's bedtime.

1st Laughs

Brent started his first "awake" laughs, not just the sleeping belly laughs anymore. It happened during this conference weekend.

Here's a video I was able to get of it a few days ago.

Two teething boys!

Who'd have thought both Brent & Collin would be teething at the same time?? Brent started teething on Sept. 23rd, and Collin--just discovered it 2 days ago. We've been waiting for what feels like forever for when Collin would start to get his "grown up" teeth, especially since he had to have one of the top front teeth pulled a couple years ago. His new grown up tooth is coming in on the bottom(in the front) right behind his baby teeth. The tooth it's replacing hasn't come out yet, it's wiggly but Collin doesn't want to have anything to do with wiggling it.

I'll try to get pics up of both boys. Collin you can definitely see the tooth has pushed up, and on Brent's gum you can see the lines of where the tooth/teeth will be.

Kids have been back in school for almost a month now. Thank goodness. So far, so good. Ivy's doing pretty well in her class, no surprise there but we're both feeling 'eh' about her teacher. The other day, they were supposed to get out early. Five minutes before that, the teacher always sends the kids out, 2-3 at a time to go get their stuff(backpack, lunchbox, jacket, etc.) from outside the class. Well, 10 minutes after they are supposed to be out comes & goes. Apparently 2 kids forgot 1 item each of theirs and the teacher held all 30 kids back. Thank goodness for the kids who ride the bus that the buses were still there--the rest of the school was already out, even the upper grades who get out later. Thank goodness that wasn't a therapy day for us. Why she didn't just have those 2 kids go last and everyone else go at the normal time, is beyond me.

Therapy--well, it's still going for Collin. He's having a language explosion, and starting to comment on everything, but he's getting stuck on certain phrases again & starting a rebellious streak. Hopefully it's just a phase. With him, you just never know.

Drew misses Ivy & Collin like crazy while they're at school, which is odd because he & Ivy had started up the "he's touching me," etc. sibling issues about a month ago. Calling tomorrow to get his speech evaluated by the school district. Regional center cut off speech therapy 18 months ago, but the school district never contacted us about him when he turned 3(when school district takes over).

Brent has put me on a dairy-free diet. It is sooo hard, and I've only been on it about a week. I'm trying to narrow down exactly what it is, so I feel like I can eat more than oatmeal, plain meat, and veggies. Looking like the offenders likely are whey--no protein bars or protein powder for me. Those were a big staple in my diet, especially on busy days :( --and cheese. Need to do more investigation to check on yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, and plain milk.

Took him to the doctor's a week ago. I was on the verge of another major breakdown. He was eating at least 40 minutes or so for one feeding, and an hour or two(if I was lucky) would be hungry again. Two weeks before this, I had taken him in for his 2 month visit to see about pushing back feedings to every 3 hours since his weight was 90 percentile for 2 month old boys. When I took him last week, the lactation consultant in the office said only 20 minutes at 1 feeding and the 2.5-3 hrs between the end of a feeding & start of the next one. What else? He just outgrew his portable swing--too narrow for his 14-14.5 lb body. Today, I traded it in and got him a used cradle swing. Hopefully, that takes care of the last of the colic. Only kid of ours whose had it.

Have a 4 week goal to get this last little bit of weight off me. I'm just 1-2 pant sizes away from where I was pre-preggo with him.

A Dare & A Goal

Thanks to my friend Michelle for the new header image for the blog. She had dared people to leave comments on her blog, just to make sure people were reading it, and this was the prize(of course, nobody knew what the prize was at the time).

When the older kids(Ivy & Collin) go back to school, starting next week, I need to put Photoshop Elements on Tom's laptop--the main computer kicked the bucket back in March/April--and also the instruction manual for our digital camera (to learn more features on it).

Family Pics

We got family pictures taken July 31st over at El Dorado Nature Center. These are the first we've had with everyone since Brent's been born. We got a cd with almot 200 pictures on it. Not going to post all the pics, but here are my favorites. The rest can be seen here(click on the word 'here').