(Not Really) Wordless Wednesday - Li'l Miss Independent

Brooke is quite independent these days and insists on doing a lot of things herself. One of the biggest things is dressing (and undressing) herself. She does a great job for not even being 3 years old yet (2 months from TODAY my baby will be 3), but there is almost always tears involved and she will cry and cry and cry before (sometimes) allowing someone to help her.

Here she is getting her PJ's on last night. I didn't want to expose her too much on here, so these are just of her getting her top the rest of the way on. She can easily find the right part of the shirt to slip over her head, but usually needs help making sure it's not backwards and she sometimes (as you'll see here) has trouble getting the shirt pulled down if it gets rolled up.

Wordless Wednesday - First Lost Tooth!

He lost it on 12/29 at his dad's. This was taken New Year's Eve at my mom and dad's. The top one right above it is pretty lose and will be the next to go! His other front top one is loose as well as the one next to the tooth that fell out!

How Do You Make a Tissue Dance?

Put a little boogie in it.

How do you get Brooke to stop crying and whining and screaming about boogies in her nose?

I have NO idea!!

She's so cute when she's sleeping....

Okay okay, so she's cute when she's NOT sleeping, too...and also unbelievable funny (and ornery) at times. But if I hear her throw one more tantrum about boogies in her nose, I might just throw a tantrum myself.

I don't even know what started it. She isn't sick and doesn't have a cold. But if she blows through her nose (and she will do it purposely to check) and feels the slightest rattle of a "boogie" (as she calls them) in there, then the crying and whining and eventual all-out-tantrum begins. And I'm sure you know that crying just produces more "boogies", so that then produces more crying and even MORE "boogies", and before you know it she's been tantrum-ing for 30 minutes or more. I'm not even joking, people.

Two nights ago, this went on for an hour at bedtime. An hour. Sixty minutes. Of screaming and crying because of "boogies". She will refuse a tissue and even if I manage to get one close enough to her nose to wipe it, she just cries even more. Yesterday morning she started when we were sitting on the couch. Just out of nowhere I guess she realized there were boogies in her nose and off she went. This evening the kids made their own English muffin or bagel pizzas for dinner and after I helped her with hers, I took it from her to wait for the boys to be done making theirs so they could all go in the oven. She didn't like that. So she started crying, which...you guessed it!...turned in to her crying about boogies. For 30 minutes.

I honest to goodness do not know how to get her to stop once she starts. Maybe there isn't anything I can do and I just need to let her work it out. But it's making me crazy. C-R-A-Z-Y. I will gladly take any suggestions!!

Flashback Friday - Tiny Little Miracle

I've been MIA lately, but I'm back to play along for another week of Flashback Friday

Ryan at 6 days old with my hand resting on his tiny rump. He was 1lb. 6oz. at birth, but dropped to 1lb.

All babies are miracles. But that baby in that picture there - and the little boy he has grown in to - has made me truly 100% believe in miracles

Gosh, I was there and still can't believe how tiny he was....can't even remember it, really. But I remember being scared, especially after losing our firstborn who was born at almost exactly the same gestation (Zachary was 23 weeks 4 days. Ryan "cooked" one day longer.) 14 months earlier. That's what I mostly remember. Being scared. Scared to love him (impossible not to). Scared to get attached (too late). Scared that we would lose him (the odds weren't in his/our favor). We were warned that even if he survived, there was no telling what kind of long term problems he could have, be they physical or cognitive. We were prepared for the worst. Asthma, chronic lung problems, blindness, deafness, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, seizures,....the list went on and on. All we could do was pray. He spent 6 months in the NICU and battled tummy issues (2 surgeries), an open heart valve that required surgery, infection after infection, prolonged time on the vent and possible talk of needing a tracheostomy (didn't happen...he was even off oxygen before discharge), laser surgeries on his eyes. There were just so many obstacles.

But man, did he beat the odds. Wow. I still can't believe it sometimes. Sure, he is probably legally blind in his right eye and he is extremely farsighted in his left eye and wears glasses to correct that. He may never be able to drive. But he is ALIVE. He is healthy. No lung issues. He is smart. He is funny and sweet (when he wants to be) and inquisitive. He loves life. He may not be the most coordinated 7 year old and he still receives physical, occupational, and speech therapies in school. But he is always making progress. He is very close developmentally in most areas when it comes to his peers. Honestly, after expecting the worst I am ecstatic about well he is doing.

He truly, truly is a miracle.

Yep, I Suck

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. :::hanging head in shame::: Not sure what happened there. I guess the holidays screwed me up because I was doing SO well there up until Christmas. Speaking of, Christmas was great! The weather cooperated so my parents were able to come on Christmas Eve and go to church with us and Joe's parents. Then we all went to Joe's parents for dinner and the kids opened their gifts from the grandparents. Then back to our house where the kids opened their PJ's delivered early by "Santa" while we were at church and in to bed with them after putting out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. My parents spent the night (obviously), so they got to be here for the Christmas morning mayhem....which actually turned out not to be nearly as bad as I was expecting. Truthfully, it went WAY better than I thought it would. They each got a few gifts at a time to open at their own pace and when they were all done with those, the paper was gathered up and stuffed in a garbage bag and it was on the next set of gifts. I think they had just enough that they didn't feel overwhelmed and not want to finish unwrapping and just enough that they weren't asking if there were more.

The kids left with my parents around 2:30 to be dropped off at their dad's. They stayed there until New Year's Eve day. That was hard for me. I mean, I was happy for them to be able to spend extra time with him since they only see him every other weekend, but I really missed them. A lot. I think that's where part of my blogging slump came from. And then once I hadn't blogged in like a week, it just became easier and easier to NOT blog. Not to mention, I STILL haven't even uploaded the pictures from Christmas (or since then) to my laptop yet :-X. I know, I know! Slacker. So anyway, we picked the kids up New Years Eve afternoon and headed to my parents house (to spend the night) where we ate dinner and then played the Wii for about 6 hours straight, turning it off just in time for the ball to drop. And then my sister and her hubby went home and we all went to bed (the kids went to bed around 9). Party animals, huh? We had a lot of fun, though.

Not a lot exciting has happened since then, I guess. Except...Brooke is finally almost 100% potty trained! And it only took 3 months. No, I'm not being sarcastic! She still has the occasional pee accident (but usually catches herself and finishes on the toilet), but I no longer have to tell her when to go to the bathroom and she hasn't pooped her pants in WEEKS. ::::happy dance:::: Except...I can't dance, sooooo.....it's an imaginary happy dance :-P.

If I seem a little loopy it's probably because I didn't get much sleep last night. Ryan woke me around 1am to tell me his belly hurt and that he threw up in his bed. I got him and his bed cleaned up and then (since he sleeps on the top bunk) I made him up a bed on the couch (covered it with a sheet and also the floor in front of the couch) and gave him a bucket in case he had to throw up again. He came up 3 hours later, around 4:30, to tell me he threw up again. (In my sleep-hazed state it didn't occur to me to camp out on the couch WITH him...shame on me....but really, it never occurred to me until this morning. That's kind of terrible, huh?) I came down and switched out the sheets because, while he hit the bucket, he also managed to get some on every other surface around him (sheet on the couch, sheet on the floor, AND the pillowcase)...poor kid. I got him settled back on the couch and went to try to get a little more sleep. But Brooke decided to get up about an hour later and kept crying, so in to bed she came with Joe and me. She was extremely restless and I didn't sleep much with her beside me. Ryan came back up at 6:20 to ask for a drink (specifically milk...um, no!) and I told him I'd be down in a little while and he should wait a little bit longer before drinking anything. Brooke woke up around 7 and wanted to go pee, so I took her in the bathroom and thought her lips looked really pale and I got nervous. We went back to lay down for just a bit longer and she started coughing a bit and then kind of gasping like she was trying not to puke and I sat her up a couple times. Finally, the 3rd time I heard her stomach gurgling and I picked her up and raced her to the bathroom where we arrived just in time for her to puke in the toilet (which she surprisingly did without fighting me and didn't cry afterwards.....this is an issue with her when she is congested with a cold and throwing up mucus). I thought for sure she was victim #2 of this tummy bug, but it appears that this was just one of those congestion issues (her nose has been a little stuffy/runny the last few days) because she's been totally fine all day. Ryan has kept down everything he's drank (Sierra Mist....a lot of it) and eaten (some crackers, applesauce, and a couple bites of chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner). He's perky and in a good mood, but he is running a fever now. Hopefully the puking is over and tonight will be a better night. Please. I need some sleep. And I'm tired of washing pukey laundry.

All the Pretty Lights

If you ask Brooke about where we went Friday night or where we saw The Grinch (more on that later), she says "At the pretty lights." So cute. Where we really went was to Overly's Country Christmas at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds. Joe and Cole have been before, but Ryan, Brooke, and I haven't. We were supposed to come out last year and go with them, but the weather was crappy that weekend, plus my van was broken down at the time. It was fun, but C-O-L-D. Brrrrr! Definitely worth it, though.

First you drive around to see the lights and then you can park and walk in and it's like a little village. They have some places to buy food, a building with a train display, a Nativity, a bonfire, horse and carriage/sleigh rides, a train for the kids, and of course Santa! The kids loved driving through and seeing the lights. Then of course we parked and went in to walk around. We went to see the train display and the Nativity and the kids mailed their letters to Santa and went to see him again and they got to ride the train.

Now, how about some pictures? :o)

King Friday and Lady Elaine's castle (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood)

Wish all the pictures had turned out this good!

The horses actually moved up and down...very neat.

Hehe....wish I would've gotten the giant milk jug in the picture, too.

Neato (yes, I really just said that)

Those 3 circular lights in the background were like fireworks. They were definitely the kids' favorite light display.

The fireworks "exploding"

Brooke LOVED the train.

A talking tree....and it's not just a recording. There is a little booth behind it where someone stands and makes the tree talk, so you can have an actual conversation with a tree...haha.

You would think the highlight of the evening would have been Santa Claus.....but no. It was actually.....

The Grinch! (Ok, I just noticed how Ryan is looking at The Grinch...TOO funny.) We were getting ready to walk in to where the train display was right after getting there and The Grinch was on his way out. I spotted him before Brooke did and wondered what she would do because she normally loves anyone in costume. She was a couple feet ahead of me and as soon as she saw him, she turned around and ran to me and wanted up. I wonder if she would have been as freaked out if we hadn't just watched the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas a couple nights before. The boys weren't bothered at all and wanted to talk to him, but as The Grinch got closer Brooke started whining and trying to climb over my shoulder to get away. She did calm down and actually reached out to touch his hand. She kept saying, "Hi, the Grinch" in this trying-to-sound-brave-but-actually-really-freaked-out kind of voice. We saw him several more times while we were there and each time she got braver and braver. The first few times we saw him, she would run to me and want up as soon as she spotted him, but the last time we saw him before we left, she actually walked up to him instead of running to me for safety before talking to him. It was super cute. When we were waiting in line to see Santa, she told me she wanted to see The Grinch. I would say she has a sort of love-hate thing going on there. Joe showed her this picture on the computer this afternoon and she said to me, "I scared of him, Mommy." Hehe.

We came home from Overly's that night and ordered some pizza and wings (which they forgot to send our order to the kitchen and when Joe got there to pick it up, they hadn't even made it yet, so we got it 1/2 off plus two free 2 liters of soda!). Joe's parents came over and we ate and watched the Muppet Christmas Carol movie.

It was another great Christmas-y night!

Flashback Friday - Ornaments

Today I want to share some pictures of some older ornaments that are hanging on our tree and also a couple newer "old" ones that are special.

This one is my My First Christmas Ornament. The drumsticks got broken out of the teddy bear's paws at some point, but other than that it is in great condition. You can even push the train around the track.

Next is my ornament with my baby picture in it. I believe I'm 4 months old in the picture (sorry, it's blurry...I tried) and I was 9 months old for my first Christmas. I had the Rudolph ornament, my sister had a teddy bear, and my brother had a snowman.

And here is Ryan's ornament with his baby picture in. He was still in the NICU then (for going on 4 months at the time). I really wanted a little Santa suit sleeper for him to wear and the smallest I was able to find was 0-3 months. He wasn't even 4lbs. yet, so he needed a preemie size one at best, so he swam in it. But it was still adorable. He was on oxygen at the time, but was able to be without it for a little bit at a time. They let us take him in the NICU hallway and lay him on a pillow under the Christmas tree, so that's where this picture was taken. I believe it was taken one week before Christmas. My best friend, Jess, gave me this ornament and I put the picture in.

And last, but certainly not least is Brooke's baby picture ornament, which also doubles as her Baby's 1st Christmas ornament. She was one day shy of 9 months old. I could not get her to smile for anything. She was probably traumatized by that time. As I was getting ready to change her diaper that morning after she woke up, she was crying and crying and wouldn't move her right arm. She screamed when I would touch it. I had just read about nursemaid elbow online and suspected that was the problem. So her dad took her to the emergency room while I stayed with Ryan. They sent her for x-rays, but everything looked fine. It seems that while they were maneuvering her arm for the x-rays, her arm popped back in to place. I was nervous about it happening again because apparently it can become an issue after the first time, but she luckily hasn't had a problem since!