Don't be an angry bird

Since it is summer and Dan is working so often, we have designated Mondays and Tuesdays (Dan's days off) as family days. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I do not typically do much work. That leaves me with little to no time to get my work done! Soooo...I have been bringing the boys to daycare (their favorite place in the world) one day every week. 

Today was Daycare Day! The boys came home dirty and tired, and I got about a million things accomplished. I have approximately 200 hours left of things I wish to accomplish, but I am happy with what I was able to get done today. 

Last night the boys and I made Angry Birds pizzas! Elijah was sooo excited about this. We were happy with how the pizzas turned out. It was a little bit sad to eat them. The recipe will be coming soon on my food blog.

Elijah's potty business is going well. Much improvement has been made, although we still do have setbacks (umm, today). "Setbacks" now, though, are much less of a hassle than they were a month ago. Progress is definitely (slowly) being made.

We have had issues lately with Elijah being unkind to people, including his friends at daycare. Please pray with us about this! It makes me sad to try to understand why he would think to be unkind to his friends and family. :( We have done a lot of talking about it, but it just doesn't ever seem to sink in.

We will be heading to the dropzone tomorrow for the weekend. My kind friend Jess has offered to watch the boys in the afternoon as an early birthday gift so that I can skydive! That will make two weekends in a row! Thank you, Jess!

Thanks for checking in! Have a great weekend!

Work Week #1 almost done

Sam loves to have his little fists up under his chin. So cute.



Up until a few days ago, Elijah has basically ignored Samson. He would occasionally acknowledge his presence (especially at first), but for the most part pretended Sam didn't exist. Then the other day I came into the living room to see Elijah down on the ground with Sam, talking to him and rubbing his legs and kissing him. "Sammy so cute! So soft! Hi Sam! I 'ove you!" Then he tried to snuggle right up next to him, but I had to remind him that babies can't be squished.



Going back to work has been difficult/sad/tearful/yucky. I miss my boys like crazy and I can't seem to concentrate on anything but them. At 4:00 on the dot, I run to my car and speed home and practically maul those boys. It feels unnatural to be away from them so much, but I know with time I will start feeling better about it. In a sad and desperate state, I bought a powerball ticket yesterday. I looked up the numbers right away this morning and apparently we aren't meant to be millionaires. At least not now.

Sammy's first day at daycare went well. He did a lot of smiling at the other kids. It makes me feel good that he was happy. By the time I get home from work in the evenings, he is no longer happy (ready to eat and ready to sleep) and that is a little bit hard for me. I actually look forward to getting up to feed him in the middle of the night because it is our peaceful, happy time together.

Well, the week is almost done, and that means a weekend with my munchkins is drawing near!

Back from vacation

We had a great vacation. I must say that I worried about the wrong child misbehaving. Samson was a breeze! Elijah had his moments in the car during our 6-hour drive (each way). Ugh, Dan and I certainly exercised our patience. All in all, we had a wonderful weekend away. It was great to see family and stay in a hotel and just get away from home for a few days. I am so in love with all of my boys. I have the best boys in the world, I am completely convinced.

Photos of the weekend will come soon! Dan and I have an exciting day scheduled tomorrow. Sam is spending a "trial day" at daycare. Please pray that it goes well for him!

Jackpot

Elijah hit the toy jackpot this week! Dan's mom gave him a wooden train set and some new books (one of which is being held by The Lounger in the previous post), and then our friend Cara gave him her daughter's old toy barn and animals, which are just awesome. He adores every bit of it. He has been in a toy daze all week. That is, in between being in a Thomas the Train daze and an I-need-to-be-outside-RIGHT-NOW-or-else-I'll-start-flopping-like-a-fish daze.



We have had a quiet week, which has been really nice in comparison to the past few. Elijah re-entered the world of daycare, and he didn't necessarily love that. It had been three weeks since he was there, so he cried giant, dramatic tears of sadness when Dan dropped him off each morning. We feel it is really important for Elijah to be around other children on a regular basis. He naturally stays close to whatever and whoever is safe (us), so it is good for him to regularly interact with other people without us around. Hopefully we are done with surgeries and the hospital for a while so we can get him back into a steady, tear-free daycare routine.

We are hoping Dan can get some work this weekend (why can't money start falling from the sky?), and we have a few fun things planned, too. I don't have to work tomorrow, so I have an extra bounce in my step tonight.

Elijah's incision still looks great and his rash hasn't come back. He has continued to recover amazingly well after his recent surgery. We are anxious to see what the future holds for his gross motor development now that his spinal cord has been set free!

Have a fun, safe weekend, everyone! Thanks for checking in.


p.s. For those of you who have read the Harry Potter books.. I just finished Book 6 and I was devastated about what happened at the end! (Don't say anything about specifics because Dan doesn't know what happens yet.) How, why, HOW, WHYYY?? (Have you noticed yet that I get a little bit caught up in the books I read?)

Elijah cures my ickies

I felt pretty uneasy and anxious all day today for a few reasons..

- The awful, fatal traffic accident that occurred last night on the freeway I drive home on every day. It happened just before I would have been driving that same stretch of road. Someone from the northbound lane drove right across the grass median at 70 mph and into a car in the southbound lane.

- I found out today that my friend's mom died on May 11th (So sorry for your loss, Pammy. I love you.) and I feel like a horrible friend for not knowing this sooner.

- Elijah was back at daycare after many days of being sick and at home. I was a little bit extra anxious having him out of our care for the first time in a while. (I wonder if his dc provider was annoyed by all the emails?)

- This story, that I read over the weekend, has been constantly on my heart this week.


The look on my little boy's face when I picked him up from daycare wiped it all away, though. Could someone really be that excited to see me? Sometime I will record video of Elijah when he first sees me after I have been at work all day. Actually, I will have Dan record both of us. We act like we are being reunited after being apart for 50 years, kissing (both), squeezing (me), squealing (both), arm flapping (him), leg kicking (him), laughing (both). I love it. I love him.

Elijah has been extra clingy lately, which is probably a result of his recent nasty neverending sickness coupled with fact that he is naturally a pretty clingy kid. If he could have his way, he would be right next to one of us at all times, preferably making some sort of body contact. Sometimes this is tough, like when we need to do things that don't involve holding a 27-lb toddler, but most of the time I eat it up. He likes to crawl over to us and say UP, UP. We have learned that UP, UP has a very specific meaning. It means that he has to be sitting on one of our laps (with us sitting cross-legged) facing out, with our arms wrapped around his belly or maybe our hands holding onto his arms, as we watch a show or read books or play with toys. He most definitely loves closeness and feeling secured by a safe person, or sometimes an object. We often see him surrounding himself with blankets, chairs, toys, pillows, anything really. I think he has the opposite fear of claustrophobia. Would that be agoraphobia?

As I have mentioned, he is starting to say many new words. We have recently noticed how much he uses his nasal passage to say a lot of these words. Many things he says don't come out of his mouth. For example, when he says TWO and THREE, he moves his lips appropriately but he blocks the back of his mouth off with his tongue and is really just saying OO and EE very nasally. He does this with a lot of his sounds. We have started having him blow into a kazoo to get used to blowing air through his mouth, so hopefully that will help. Have any of you dealt with anything like this? We have speech therapy tomorrow night, so hopefully we will get some ideas there, too.

The sweet, still-coughing boy is asleep and I am headed to the couch to plant my bum there for a while. I hope you are having a nice week!

p.s. So yes, progress is being made with The Sickness Of The Year. Cough, still present (didn't he get this message?). Eyes, all better but still doing drops (which he still giggles through). Ears, still some grabbing but we have another round of antibiotics to get through. Fever, gone. Appetite, slowly improving.

Progress, sweet progress

I am so happy to report that this was one of Elijah's best weeks ever as far as development and health go. YAY!

He is pulling himself up into a kneeling position now. A week ago at physical therapy, he totally refused to be put into a kneeling position. Now he is eager to do it and he is doing it often. He likes to scoot over to the stairs and pull himself up and play with his toys as he kneels at the bottom of them. On Sunday, when he first started doing it, he was a little wobbly, but the wobbliness is already gone! This must be really helping his core muscles to get stronger quickly.

He is finally willing to move between rooms on his own, which is something he didn't seem to know was possible a short time ago. For the past few days he has been all over the place. He scoots into the kitchen and checks out all the cupboards. Then he scoots into the dining room to play trucks underneath the table/chairs. Then it's back to the living room to check some things out in there. Then it's over to the stairs to kneel for a bit.

This week, for the first time in Elijah's life, he went to daycare every single day! He did great! Not too much fussiness, ate well, napped ok and stayed healthy. The most exciting part for me is that he has started interacting with the other kids a bit more. This makes me so happy!

Another new development is that he has started coloring (well, scribbling). We have paper and crayons all over the house and he seems to be drawn to them whenever he sees them. I get really excited when he does it because we have been working with him on this for a while now. So when he does it, he looks at me like, I'm pretty cool, huh, Mama? I do my clapping and excited yelling and then he looks back down and keeps coloring.

Elijah's physical therapists and speech therapist were amazed at his progress in the past week. It is crazy how quickly he can develop when everything in his mind and body are aligned like they seem to be right now. There were many times this week when I would watch him blossom before my eyes and I would take a moment to appreciate it. To appreciate him, and his strength. To just soak it in and sincerely thank God for where we are at right now. God has been so faithful and good to us.

Cuteness and scares

Look at my big boy PJs!


Here's my belly button and my cheesy smile


Still got my belly button


Even when I'm on all fours, or threes

Every night since Elijah has had his very scary episode, I have been on my toes. I go into his room constantly to check on his breathing. Every time he cries, I hold the baby monitor up to my ear and listen as closely as possible. He has slept well all week, but tonight I had another scare. I heard him cry so I listened to the monitor and heard him struggling to breathe a bit. I though, OH GREAT, here we go again. Dan and I ran to his room and scrunched down by his bed to get a closer listen. Once he stopped crying, he sounded fine. So, now I'm wondering, is he fine or isn't he? What do I do? Stay up all night listening to him? The thought of experiencing another night like Sunday night is awful, so all I have been doing is crying.

I called Elijah's pediatrician today and asked the nurse what she thought of this whole situation. She seemed a bit worried and thought we should either take him into the clinic to get his lungs checked out, or maybe even bring him in to see his pulmonologist. She's going to call me back in the morning.

I am praying very hard for an eventless night. I am considering camping out in Elijah's room and sleeping on the floor.

A few fun things... We had Elijah's speech/physical therapy tonight and he did really well. He worked really hard. His PT (who is awesome) got him to use his core muscles and legs a lot, and that is a huge feat. His speech therapist was working on doing the sign for MORE. He has done it once or twice in front of Dan and me, but nothing more than that. She kept blowing bubbles and then asked him to let her know that he wanted more of them. At first he just grunted and pointed, but then he started taking HER hands and pushing them together into the more sign. So, he wouldn't sign it himself, but he would force her to sign it. He had us all rolling on the floor laughing.

This morning before I left for work, I sat down with him as I always do to play for a few minutes. He scooted over to me and grabbed my hand. I had no idea what he was going to do with it. He placed it on his cheek and held it there and then laid his head down on my leg, with my hand still cupped between his hand and cheek. It was the sweetest thing.

Elijah started a new daycare today and it seemed to go very well. I was a nervous wreck all day because this is such a huge change for all of us. It was all fine, though, and I think this is going to end up being a really positive thing for him.

I'm going to go try to sleep. I'm not sure how restful it will be, with me worrying about my sweet boy, but at least tomorrow is Friday, right?

new opportunities

We have some news! We have recently decided to switch daycare providers. Carrie and Mike have done a great job with Elijah. We know they care about him and we are definitely leaving on good terms.
 
We have two main needs in mind: that Elijah gets the extra tlc he needs when he's not with us, since he needs a little more than the average baby, and that he doesn't continue to get sick this winter. He has a few surgeries coming up and we need him to stay as healthy as possible for those. Last week, a new opportunity fell into our laps. I found out about a friend of a friend who currently cares for one baby in her home in Eden Prairie (Right next to the high school...perfect for us! More on that below.) and how she may be willing to take one more baby. She doesn't typically seek out business, but if it finds her she figures it's meant to be. We met with her and immediately knew this is where we want Elijah to be. She is very flexible, nurturing, kind and safety-conscious. She has 20+ years of experience and is willing to work with Elijah on his physical therapy, which is great. Since she only cares for one other baby, she has the time to give our man some extra attention and he will not be exposed to a plethora of kiddie germs. We're so excited about finding Carrie (yes, her name is Carrie, too). Elijah's first day with her will be October 25th.
 
So far this school year, Dan has been substitute teaching whenever he's been able to. Having this flexibility has been convenient for us, but Dan would really like to get another full-time teaching job...and we could really use the money. A social studies position has recently opened up at Eden Prairie High School (Dan's alma mater), which is pretty rare, so he applied for the job and has an interview Monday morning. Yay Hubby! He's going to give it his best and see where the road leads. The thought of our flexibility being gone totally scares me, but on the other hand the thought of having a fulfilled husband and not having to pinch pennies makes me elated! We know that God will lead us to whatever is right for us, so we really aren't fretting about this. Either way, we found a flexible, caring woman who is ready to care for Elijah in a secluded environment.

The decision is....

Yes! We will have a little helmethead rolling around here for the next few months. We did a lot of thinking about this and it feels right in our hearts to keep going with the helmet. While we had serious doubts and concerns about going forward with it, it just doesn't feel right to stop. We may have to work harder to get him the physical therapy he needs, but we're up for that challenge. And besides, how could we say no to something that looks soooo cute on him?

Tonight we took Elijah to his physical therapy visit and he worked on rolling. He rolled over for us the other day, but hasn't done it since. That's going to be our main goal for this next week--training his muscles to roll roll roll. He's so close so much of the time, so I give it just a few more weeks till he's doing it regularly. Now that he has his helmet, putting him on his back isn't such a no-no (no more flat spot management! yay!). His sitting is getting a lot better, too. He sits very well supported now (no more bobblehead), but if we let go of him he plops forward. His tummy time has been great and he's lifting his head and chest comfortably now, but doesn't have much longevity. He'll hold himself up for a few seconds and then he'll just lie down and chill. Silly boy.

Eli is still quite squeaky and wheezy, which is a concern to Mommy, but none of his doctors have seemed worried at all about it. His heart cath on 10/3 may tell us something....at least I hope so. It would be nice to have a reason for it all, instead of just hearing the standard, "I'm not sure of the cause. Maybe he'll grow out of it?"

Elijah has been introduced to the world of daycare this week! It's a bit strange for me being back at work, but in a way, it's kind of nice having a routine again. Dan has been able to be home with him a few days this week, but the other days Elijah has gone to Carrie and Mike's and he seems to do great there! He definitely loves people, so that helps out a lot with this transition. Slowly we'll get into even more of a routine and as subbing picks up for Dan, Elijah will get to spend more time with Carrie and Mike and will get to know the eight other kids that they watch (there's a total of 8 boys there! yikes!). It'll be fun watching him progress, as he interacts with the other kids and watches them crawling and walking. He's the youngest one there, so we're hoping he'll be motivated to keep up!