Elijah's 5-year well visit

I took Elijah to see our wonderful and beloved Dr. Judy today for his 5-year well visit. I know I have mentioned this about a thousand times before, but we have been so incredibly blessed with the best doctors. We love Dr. Judy!



Elijah's height was exactly equal to his weight! 40 inches tall (3rd percentile) and 40 pounds (44th percentile). At his last visit he wasn't on the chart for height, so I was happy to see that he was on it this time.



We talked at length about his potty training issues, and Dr. J assured me that we are doing everything we can possibly do. She gave me a few suggestions, so we will try those and see what happens! It was nice to hear from her that considering his history (strong will + medical) that this isn't totally unusual.

She also suggested that Elijah start occupational therapy, in addition to his weekly physical therapy. He could use some help with self-care tasks and potty-related tasks, as well. I talked to his PT tonight and she 100% agreed! In fact, she said that she had secretly put him on the OT waiting list about a month ago. So we are going to try to get him on the schedule to receive weekly OT and PT.



There is a little mole on E's back that I have been keeping an eye on. It has started growing, and the center has started to darken. Dr. J thought that we should take care of it immediately. Her thought was that we could piggy-back on his upcoming heart cath and have a general surgeon come in and snip it off quick while he is sedated. Oh, have I mentioned the upcoming heart cath? April 18th is the day. We had to move the date up a bit due to insurance concerns. Hopefully we can get the mole taken care of at that time. I will call Dr. G this week to get his thoughts.



Elijah had to get three vaccinations today, and he was a brave boy. He got three prizes, so that seemed to ease any pain that was caused.

Dr. J was in disbelief about his poor eyesight and recent need for glasses. She showed me the results of his eye exam from one year ago. He had 20/32 vision in both eyes! A month ago, the vision in his left eye was 20/400!

Remember Elijah's fall off of a chair and onto the tile floor about 6 weeks ago? The bump on his head is still there, and still rather large. Dr. J said that was normal for such a trauma. Elijah still complains about pain from that area on occasion, but she said that was normal, as well. Good to know!

Overall it was a great visit, as usual. Our monkey is doing great and we are so very proud of him.

I tried my best to talk Dr. J into skydiving with Dan this summer! She said she would consider it. :)

Waterpark Adventure 2012

We had a blast on our little vacation. We are all exhausted, but it is so worth the memories. There is nothing better than seeing pure joy on my boys' faces and enjoying quality time with them. Spending all of this time at home lately makes me enjoy away-from-home time immensely!

Re-charging on our way to the hotel!





We took this same photo last year when we first got into our room.



And the retro version:



Wrestle time!





Rest time for Sammy.



And for Fox.



Sammy, calling some friends.



And Elijah watching a quick show.



Elijah could not have loved the waterpark any more than he did. He was on cloud 9! For the first time, I can tell you that Elijah was full of adventure and not afraid of anything at the waterpark. This boy was all over the place, and did not stop to rest for even a minute.



At one point while I was sitting with Sammy (more on that in a bit), I watched as Dan chased Elijah from slide to stairs to slide to pool and back and forth and up and down. It was comical! But it also brought happy tears to my eyes. Our boy who has never been much of an explorer is now exploring with confidence! Proud proud proud.







And then there was Sammy. He latched his arms around my neck for almost the entire time we were in the waterpark. We got him to dip his toes in the water a few times, but he always ended up wanting to be held again. He still isn't feeling 100%, so that might have something to do with it. Mostly, I think he is a SHY kid, and he definitely needs to feel certain about his surroundings before being comfortable.





Against Dan's wishes, Elijah and I had jump-on-the-bed time back in our room. :)



We took a cute bath photo of the boys on this same vacation last year, so we decided to do it again. Except, Sam had issues with the bath. You see, our little Sammy is a very particular little guy when it comes to certain things. If his bath water isn't just perfectly the absolute perfectly perfect temperature, he will SCREAM HIS HEAD OFF. So apparently I got the temperature wrong because he would not allow us to put him into the bath. He did want to play with the toys from outside, of course.



And the retro bath photo:



I will close with a few interesting things that came out of Dan's and my mouths over the past few days. :)

"Sammy, please don't run with a knife in your mouth!"

"Elijah, please remove the fox from the microwave!"

"Sam, please stop licking yogurt off of the letter Z!"

"Elijah, please don't cook that man!"

Good words bad words

Sammy is napping, Elijah is having quiet-time with a computer game and Dan is at work, so I am going to write some things down quick! Gotta make the most of my "free" time with a house full of boys!

I cannot BELIEVE Elijah's memory. Lately he has said a few things that make me scratch my head. The craziest one was from the other night while the boys were taking a bath. Elijah was pretending like he was swimming and I said to Dan, "We should get him back in swim lessons." Elijah said, "Oh. With Cindy?" I wondered who the heck Cindy was, and then was distracted by Sammy peeing on the floor. A little while later, it occurred to me. Cindy was the name of Elijah's swim therapist BACK WHEN HE WAS STILL TWO YEARS OLD. I'm not kidding. He only went to four sessions since it was such a traumatic experience, and we have not mentioned her name since. I looked up the posts about it on this blog just to be sure, and I looked up her name on their website. Sure enough, he remembered that detail from way back then! I asked him if he remembered anything else about swim therapy, and he said, "I remember you standing by the side of the pool and watching me. It was a wittle bit scary." Wow. Dan and I are in serious trouble. Someday he will be reminiscing about how his mama lost her cool EVERY SINGLE DAY. Great!

Sammy Jammy is in a language explosion right now! He is saying so many new things. He says "chase" (dees) when he wants to play the chasing game with Elijah through the house. He says "fall" (faa) when he wants to play Ring Around the Rosie with Mama. His newest and cutest word is NO. It sounds so darn cute coming out of his mouth. Ask me what I think of it in a week and I may have a different opinion!

Sam is already WALKING up and down our stairs (holding onto the wall for help). Elijah just started doing this a few months ago! Sam's progress in some areas makes our heads spin. We were so used to Elijah doing everything in Elijah Time. Here's a fun fact: When Elijah was 20 months old (Sammy's current age), he was just starting to crawl!

The "bad" words continue to spew out of our oldest boy's mouth. It's a never-ending battle. If it's not one word, it's another. His latest trick is saying under his breath, "Shush, Mom." UGH, this makes me crazy mad! "Dangit" and "cr*p" are still choice words, as well. For a while, when we would ask him to do something, he would say, "Neh-vah!" Or he would point his finger to his lips as if to say, "Sshh," but not let a single sound come out. Or instead of pointing his finger at me, he will point a pinky or thumb my way. Clever! He's always thinking of new ways to bend those rules! He also does what I call word-testing. He will rattle out a bunch of nonsense sounds until he gets a reaction from us. A-ha! That must be a bad one! Then he will repeat that string of sounds. We have stopped reacting, though, so he's having a tougher time. The other day one of us must have had a slight reaction to something he said that rhymes with "bucket" (I know, lovely, right?), so he has been saying it on occasion when he's playing and reciting his nonsense words. Every single time, he will look up at us to see if we react. It is HARD not to react to that one! I'm hoping it goes away if we continue to act like it's not a big deal.

Sammy is still sick. The poor kid has some sort of cold or cough or runny nose for months (it seems). We are hoping for a reprieve for his little body!

We have a fun hotel-waterpark night coming up, so we are all getting excited!! Thanks for checking in. Have a great weekend.

What is this stuff?

Dan and Elijah were able to play in the snow, you know, for the few hours that it was on the ground. :)



They told me that it was way cooler to build a modern snow sculpture than to build a snowman.



"Snowballs are fun, Mama!"



"Yes they are! Just don't throw one at..." SMASH "..me."



Daddy's turn!

Happy 5th birthday, our beautiful Elijah!

It is nearly impossible to believe that it has been five years since our beautiful oldest boy was born. I remember so vividly the night before Elijah's birth. I had been to a particularly difficult doctor's visit that day. Every doctor's visit was difficult, but this was a tough one. A doctor sat us down and "prepared" Dan and me for the worst-case scenario. She told us that there was a possibility that our baby would either die in my womb or die once he was born. Dan and I got home from that appointment and went straight to bed. I laid in his arms and cried myself to sleep. I remember PLEADING with God. I asked him to please just allow us to be "done" with that particular chapter. If our baby was going to go to heaven right away, fine, please take him! I couldn't take the wondering any longer.

As a total answer to my prayer, literally a few hours later (and exactly five years ago today), Elijah let us know that he was ready to leave my belly. The next few hours were such a strange mixture of excitement and fear and joy and anxiety. We honestly had no idea what to expect. That first day of his life was a crazy wild ride.

And you all know the gist of the rest of the story. We have experienced the journey of a lifetime together, but we are all ok. Our strong and steadfast little boy is just this amazing (strong-willed) little person, and we have managed to come out on the other side intact and stronger than ever. I cannot even put into words how proud I am of Elijah. His strength inspires me!

Elijah, we love you so very much! Happy happy happy birthday, my dear boy. Here's to many more years!



Growing up, my mom always made a big deal out of birthdays. It wasn't necessarily gifts that made me happy, but I always loved feeling special on MY day. I believe that is an important thing for every child to feel on their special day. And so we try to do this very thing for our boys.



We had a special party for Elijah yesterday. I'm telling you, there is NOTHING better in this entire world than seeing your child's face genuinely happy. Every year when we sing Happy Birthday to Elijah, there is a moment when I see pure joy on his face and it makes me so happy I want to cry.



After thoroughly enjoying his party yesterday, we continued to celebrate his actual birthday today. We started the day off with a trip to the zoo (no school today on President's Day, perfect!), and then Dan and I made a delicious chocolate chip-blueberry pancake lunch. For dinner we took a special trip to Applebee's, where I once again got to see the happy face as people sang the Happy Birthday song to him. I won't lie, I had to fight HARD to hold back those tears. I had the thought, I refuse to cry in Applebee's over a birthday song! :) It was tough, though!



For some reason, five years has really made me look back and understand what we have to be thankful for. Five years ago, I would have been beyond happy to know that THIS is where we are today. I am incredibly grateful that everything has fallen into place the way it has. I am even grateful for the tough times because it has shaped who we all are as individuals, and who we are as a family. And I do adore our little family!



This is such a unique time in our lives, with me being home with our boys and Dan not working crazy hours (yet). We are doing our best to take advantage of the time that we have together because for a good chunk of the year "time together" is not something we can claim we have much of. Later in the week we are going to surprise the boys with a trip to a big local water park for a day and night of happy-face fun! I am 100% sure that I am more excited than anyone else in this family (maybe except for Elijah). I love seeing happy faces on my boys!

(Here's that happy face I speak of!)



That's about all we have for now! Enjoy the rest of the photos and thanks for checking in.

Sammy's first haircut!

I can't believe what a big boy our Sammy is! We brought him in for his first official haircut today, and he did not blink an eye. We totally expected flailing and screaming (due to certain experiences with a certain other little boy in our house). He sat emotionless for the entire cut! Unbelievable. He is such a chill little guy, unless he wants food or cannot get a marker cap on the marker by himself.



All day Dan and I have been commenting on how different he looks. Our baby is growing up!



I thought this was super funny. In Target, he was putting his sticker on his eye, like his brother does when he has to wear his eye patch. :)



Tomorrow is Elijah's birthday celebration at our house. We are all excited about it! And Monday is his birthday. It is so much fun making birthdays special for my boys.