Catching up finally?!

A lot has happened since my last post.  So, I left off with Mother's Day and Heidi's first friend birthday party.  What has happened since then?

• At the end of June we went with my parents to Holiday World for Mr's work's family day. The boys had a great time on the water slides and some of the rides, but they didn't ride enough roller coasters to suit me.  I really like roller coasters.  I think we all enjoyed watching the shows at the park.  Heidi took several naps in her stroller.  It was a nice weekend.

• July 1st was Heidi's first birthday!  We celebrated at home with hamburgers, cupcakes and presents.  My parents came over and it was a nice small celebration.

• July 3rd my wonderful Mr. decided to try to light a fire in our back yard when he got home from work.  As I was getting into the shower that morning I heard a loud bang.  When I looked out the window he was laying on the ground rolling around and taking his work clothes off.  It was a very strange and confusing sight.  By the time I got outside to see what was going on I figured out that the loud bang I heard was the gas can he was holding exploding.  He was rolling around on the ground to try to put the fire out.  The blue flamed fire caused by the remote control car gas that he was using was difficult to see and therefore took too long to put out.  When he first got inside I didn't realize the burns were so bad.  After he covered himself in mustard to try to draw the heat out, we discovered how badly he was really burned.  So, we cleaned him up and I took him to the ER.  Long story short, he spent the next six weeks under the care of the Vanderbilt Burn Clinic.  He was never admitted to the hospital, but he was seen at the clinic once a week over those six weeks.  His burns were mostly second degree and didn't require any skin grafts.  After taking care of him for six weeks, I can say I can honestly probably do almost anything.  Burns are a tough thing to take care of.  The risk of infection is high, so I was super careful to make sure everything was clean for him.  I immediately cleaned our bathroom so that everything he touched would be clean.  Lysol was my constant friend.  I changed our sheets daily for the first several weeks since he was spending most of his time in the bed. His bandages had to be removed daily and the burns cleaned and re-bandaged.  The first time I had to change them, the whole process took three hours.  It took less time as more of the burns started to heal.  The whole time though, I was so thankful that I was the one able to take care of him and that he was not in the hospital having to be cared for by nurses and doctors.  The whole situation could have gone so differently and ended up so much worse.  I am so thankful that he is still here with only minor evidence of what he has been through.  Although, I don't think it is an experience that either of us will forget for the rest of our lives.
• July 5th we (I say we... Mr. barely remembers it due to the medication he was on) celebrated Heidi's first birthday with our family and friends.  It was a nice gathering but sort of a blur to me.  Having to get everything together for her party and take care of Mr. at the same time was a lot to do.  I couldn't have done it though without the help of my parents.  The party was at their house and my mother prepared most of the food.  I am thankful for the pictures I took so I can look back on it and remember.  Heidi wasn't really into her cake.  She definitely didn't destroy it like her brothers did.  She seemed to enjoy the cupcake that we gave her on her birthday more than the cake that she had at her party.  She got a lot of cool presents and her first pair of diamond earrings.  Heidi might be just a little spoiled. 

• July 21st Heidi started a new daycare closer to our home.  She has been there for a month now, and she is doing great.  It has been an adjustment for her moving up to a toddler room.  She was ready though.  She no longer takes a bottle, she eats anything you feed her and she naps well.  She would still like to take two or three naps a day though if you let her.  She likes to sleep.
• August 1st the boys started a new school year.  Isaac is in the 6th grade and Alex is in the 3rd.  They have both done really well these first few weeks.  Isaac is playing in the band at his new school again this year.  He is trying the trumpet this time though instead of the saxophone.  He was really excited to find out that he can take band and PE because at his last school he couldn't take PE if he was in the band.  Alex has a girl friend at school which has been his motivation most mornings to go to school. We have told him that it is ok to have friends that are girls, but he needs to remember that learning is the most important reason he goes to school.  

We have signed the boys up to play soccer this fall, but I haven't heard from their coaches yet, so I'm not sure when that will start.  We are really enjoying our new home and are adjusting to being out in the country. We have ventured out a few times to learn more about our new town.  I think it's going to be a really nice place to raise our children.  I have found some peace in knowing this could be where we'll be for at least the next 17 years until our baby girl goes off to college.

changes

Back on April 10th we celebrated Isaac's 11th birthday.  He wanted to go to Cheddar's for dinner, so that's what we did.  Afterwards we went back to the apartment for cake.  Although, I think I was the only one who ate a piece.  So, I think next year we may do something different.

We bought a new home at the end of March, so we spent about six weeks in the apartment before we moved to the new house.  We wanted to let Isaac take his TCAP tests at a school where he was familiar.  So, the boys' last day at their old schools was May 9th.  They started their new school on May 12th.  Isaac had already moved up to middle school, but in his new school, the 5th grade is included in the elementary school.  I am thankful that the boys went to the same school again for two weeks because I think it made the transition easier for both of them.  Isaac will be starting a new middle school in August.

The last week that Isaac was at his old school, he had a band concert.  We were pleasantly surprised at how great he and the rest of the 5th grade band sounded.  It is amazing to me how well their band director worked with them.  Isaac apparently learned a whole lot more about playing the saxophone than we realized.  Isaac wants to continue being in a band, but I am not sure if he will continue to play the saxophone.  Hopefully he will have an easy transition to a new band at his new middle school.

Alex recently got a couple of brackets placed on his teeth to start straightening them now that his palate has been expanded.  He was so excited.  He and Isaac both go back to the orthdontist in a few days to have everything checked out.  Isaac may be getting braces soon too.

We have done a lot of work painting the new house since we closed on it.  The previous owners liked much bolder colors than we do, we have repainted half of the rooms in the house.  The rest of them are pretty neutral colors that can wait a while to be painted.  The next rooms we'll paint will probably be the boys' bedrooms.  I took before pictures, so now that almost everything is in order, I'll take after ones and document the comparison.

Until then, here are some random pictures that I have taken over the past few months.

the boys' first day that their new school

Heidi's first Easter

the boys loving our new pool

diving for rings

Heidi and her teacher, Ms. Danni

Heidi and another teacher at her school, Mrs. Tamia

She's a climber! This chair was made for me by my Daddy, and I, a family friend, Isaac, Alex and now Heidi have all enjoyed it.

Heidi and her best buddy at school, Sammie

Cool shades

Heidi's new bed in her new room.  Before this, she was in a pack n play in our room.

Heidi's first time to wear a bathing suit

Helping Momma unpack

Excited for the OKC playoff game

Mother's Day

Mother's Day

Mother's Day

Mother's Day

 

Heidi months 10 and 11

 Heidi started walking at nine and a half months, and she hasn't slowed down since.  She is now 11 months old and all over the place!  She is walking very well now and has started climbing on everything.  We definitely have to keep our eyes on her around a set of stairs.  She has no fear and will climb them without hesitation.  She has four teeth that have broken through: three on the bottom and one on top.  She has another one on the top that is starting to come through too.  She is still wearing size 3 diapers, mostly 12 month clothes and a size 3 shoe. I'm guessing she probably weighs at least 20 pounds by now.  She is down to one bottle a day, first thing in the morning, and the rest of the day she is drinking from a sippy cup.  She is drinking about as much whole milk as she is formula now, and once all of the formula we have is gone, she will drink only whole milk.  She eats most of her meals when we do, and doesn't eat much baby food anymore.  Even with her limited number of teeth, she can eat almost anything.  She has breakfast, lunch and a snack now at school, and she is starting to transition to the toddler schedule.  She will be ready to move up to the toddler class as soon as she turns one.  Heidi has started talking a lot more, and last night when her daddy went to work, she put her first two words together, "bye bye dada".  It was so cute!

Heidi 10 months old - blurry because she won't stand still



Heidi 11 months



Heidi loves her little pool




Sometimes she likes her float in the big pool



Heidi months 8 and 9

Over the past two months Heidi has gone from crawling to walking.  It is amazing to me how quickly she has developed in her mobility.  She weighed almost 19 pounds at her 9 month check up.  She measured 26 inches in height.  She is now taking 4 bottles a day and eating table food almost every day.  Her daycare has started giving her table food in addition to the table food we give her at home.  In the last week we have started giving Heidi her sippy cup more often and she seems to be very comfortable with it now.  Her doctor told us that we can go ahead and introduce whole milk, so we have done that in addition to the sippy cup.  Her 3:00 bottle has now been substituted with a sippy cup of whole milk.  We will continue to substitute each bottle with a sippy cup over the next couple of months so that by the time she is a year old, she will no longer take a bottle.  This method worked with her brothers, and it seems to be working with her as well. 

11 things about Isaac

It has been a while since I last posted, and I have two months to catch up on for Heidi.  But first, I want to post about my first child.  Today is Isaac's 11th birthday.  I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday, and I hope that I always will.  We are not having a birthday party for Isaac this year.  I feel like he is too old to have a party.  But, we are going to take him to his favorite restaurant for dinner and have cake and ice cream tonight.  Then, on Friday we are taking him to see the new Captain America movie.  And finally, on Saturday we will celebrate with my parents as they are unable to join us tonight.

So, on Isaac's 11th birthday, here are 11 things about him I want to remember:

1. He still really enjoys reading and Rick Riordan is his favorite author.
2. Silas and Paul are his best school friends, and I think they are a good influence on him.
3. He sings in the chorus at school.  He enjoys singing but is having a difficult time adjusting to being one of the only males in the predominantly female chorus.
4. He is in the 5th grade and in middle school and has band 3rd period.  He is learning to play the saxophone.
5. He is almost as tall as I am and wears a size 14/16 shirt, 14 pants and size 7 shoes.  I can now wear his shoes!
6. He is not a big sweets person, but he does enjoy dessert occasionally.
7. He wears glasses all the time and has talked about wanting to try contacts.
8. He likes baseball and basketball but hasn't played either sport in the most recent season.  He is also thinking about playing football.
9. He likes watching movies as a family.
10. He often argues with his brother, but he loves him still and wants to take care of him too.
11. He loves his baby sister and likes to read to her.

heidi at 7 months, alex and the expander, isaac and growing

Heidi is seven months old now, but I think she thinks she's much older than that.  She seemed to go from sitting to crawling to pulling up on things overnight.  She is all over the place now and wants to walk so badly.  She crawls quickly but really only crawls on one knee and steps on one foot.  She has such a personality and is very vocal when she wants to be.  She eats solid food 3 times a day now and takes 4 bottles.  She dropped the one she used to take right before bed.  Now she sleeps from around 7:30 to 7:00 or 8:00 the next morning.  It's wonderful.  She is wearing a size 2 diaper now, but since I weighed her and she weighs 17.2 pounds, I bought a box of size 3 for when she's finished with her 2s.  She is so much fun to watch.  She pays attention to everything and will get into anything she can get her little hands on.  She loves her brothers and wants to be right in the middle of whatever they are doing.

 

 

Alex went to the orthodontist the week after Christmas and had a rapid palatal expander placed in the roof of his mouth.  His upper jaw is narrower than his lower jaw, and it caused a cross bite. The expander was placed in order to widen his jaw and correct the bite.  For the first 20 days that he had the expander, we had to turn the screw in the middle of it once a day.  For the first eight days it was complete torture for him and for us.  He was so afraid I was going to gag him, and my patience was so thin that we both ended up getting very upset about the whole situation.  But, miraculously, from one day to the next, he decided that he was going to toughen up.  He and I came up with a plan for how he could tell me when he wanted me to slow down or stop turning the key, and it seemed to work well.  We eventually got to where I could turn the screw with one attempt and what used to take hours (in the very beginning) now only took less than a minute.  He went back to the orthodontist on the 21st day, and everything is looking great.  He goes back at the first of March to be evaluated again.  The next step in the process will be for him to have braces placed on his top teeth.  He's actually kind of excited about it because he'll be able to choose what color bands he has put on with the brackets.

 

Isaac seemed to have grown two inches overnight.  I just noticed in what seems like one day to the next that his pants were too small in the waist and too short.  He is getting so tall now and looking so grown up.  He is doing well in school overall but seems to be challenged in English class.  It is his least favorite, and he seems to be distracted very easily in that class.  He is very capable, so we are encouraging him to pay better attention and to try harder.  If he doesn't, there will be consequences.  But, overall, we are very pleased with how he is doing in middle school.  He wants to play baseball again this spring, but we have yet to figure out how we're going to make that work since Alex also wants to play soccer and we have a baby girl who has a schedule to work around.  It has been a dilemma that I have been thinking a lot about, because I think all of my children should have the opportunity to do some of the things they want to do.  I know everyone can't do everything they want to do all the time, so we just have to  figure out how to balance it all.