More posts below

There are three posts below this one, one about each of the boys. This is my journaling and I'm trying to record the things they do so I won't forget.

Austincito

Austin is become more precocious by the day.  He was my angel baby as a baby and while still very sweet, he loves to get into things and do things he knows he's not supposed to.

Some of his latest antics include:

-Climbing up onto the piano and walking on the keys and then eating the little fake berries from the flowers I have and moving everything else. 

-Going into the bathroom and shutting the door thus leaving him in the dark.

-Pulling things out of cupboards and drawers.

-Wrestling Zach.

-Pulling the plugs out and putting them back in.  He's gotten into big trouble for this.  I'm just going to have to put something in the way of the one he likes to go to.

-Opening a door in our dresser and pulling everything out.

-Getting into the toilet paper.

-Waking up at unearthly hours and having a harder time taking naps and going to sleep at night.  There is just too much to see and do.

-Waking up screaming hysterically in the middle of the night because he wants milk and screaming hysterically if you don't take him downstairs with you to go get it.

-Tackling Jaiden, wrestling with Jaiden and otherwise egging him on, just asking for trouble.  He usually ends up getting hurt.  Hmm.

-Jaiden jumps off our bed.  Austin just walks straight off it.  He's going to break a leg if he does it when I'm not there to catch him.  I think he's going to be our child who breaks things as he's not afraid of anything.

The list goes on.  He still loves to eat but has a really hard time staying still to finish a meal.  He follows Jaiden everywhere and does a lot of what he does.  He's starting to say a lot more and repeats what you tell him to.  When asked how old he is, he holds up one finger and says "tres".   We count to three or tres a lot at our house. 

He also loves to give kisses and hugs and loves to read and sing.  He sings many songs and can follow along with a song really well, even if it's the first time he's heard  it.

Getting so big

Zach is now five and a half months old!  He is getting so big (literally!) and learning new things.  I think he probably weighs about 18 pounds now.   Here are some pictures from this month.

This is actually on the day he turned five months.  It shows how well he pulls himself up and stays sitting while in his swing.  He is practicing sitting in lots of different places.

 

Here he is after his first day of physical therapy.  He was exhausted.  The therapist worked on sitting and kneeling and a little bit of tummy time.  It was her first time, so I think it was more of an evaluation visit.

We've had this onesie since Jaiden was born and have a picture of each of the boys in it.  Jaiden and Austin are crying in their pictures, making the shirt funnier but Zach is just so pleasant most of the time and this was the first time I remembered to get a picture.   Here he is sitting so well in his highchair.

 

 

Yesterday I was upstairs for a few minutes with the other boys and left Zach downstairs as I was going to be right back.  He started to fuss for a minute and then was quiet.  He was sound asleep when I got downstairs again.

Fun with Jaiden

This is really long but I need to start writing down the things the kids say and do and I don't keep a journal (Gasp!) so this has got to be it.  It's actually got some really cute things Jaiden has said.

I usually sing some songs to-or with-Jaiden while he's in (currently our bed-don't ask) before he goes to sleep.  He loves Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Lump (from a  My Friends, Tigger and Pooh show).  We also frequently sing Heavenly Father, Are You Really There? and I am a Child of God. 

Tonight's request was Happy Birthday.  He loves to sing the song and give pretend presents (or pillows wrapped in blankets as presents) and pretend cakes.  So we sang Happy Birthday individually to Anna, Mariah, Daniela, Jaiden, Brent, ????, Connor, Spiderman, Superheros, Doggie and Brent (again), in that order.

The other night we tried to get him to sleep in his own bed.  He didn't want to and so I said he could sleep in his bed or on our floor.  He chose our floor.  Not long after I went downstairs, he was calling me.  He said that his back hurt.  I asked why and he said a bug "bite" me.  I looked and didn't see anything so then he said that it was in his ear.  I looked and said, nope, nothing there.  He then proceeded to show me a nostril and said the bug was there.  Upon declaring it bug free, he showed me the other nostril.  All clear.  He still ended up in our bed.  I've just been too exhausted physically and mentally to fight him.  I know I need to just buck up and do it but after a long day and getting all of the boys to bed by myself I just don't have it in me. 

Today he found a cake mix that I had out and was determined to make it.  I told him that after lunch we could make it.  Well, Zach started to demand a diaper change, feeding and nap, so I had to take care of that.  As I was feeding Zach I could hear it get awfully quiet.  I could only imagine what was going on.  Luckily Austin was napping so the damage would at least be limited to what Jaiden could do on his own.  Don't doubt his abilities though.  He is quiet capable of major catastrophes all by himself.  When I got downstairs again, this is what I found:

Okay, so he didn't have the eggs out yet, but he was mixing the cake mix.  He had even added the pudding that I had taken out of the cupboard to add to it.

 

 

 

 

Here he is carefully filling the mini-cupcake/muffin pan.  He really did his best to be very careful.

 

The filled pan.  He later filled every one to overflowing and we had to scrape some off.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture after they were baked...maybe because the camera batteries were dying, and I forgot.

Even though it was messy, it was so cute and he had a lot of fun making the "birthday cake."  He was already so dirty by the time I got there that I didn't bother putting his apron on.  Just one more thing to wash.

 

This was yesterday when I went to make lunch.  No, I can't leave him alone ever.  Oh well.

He was making this face on purpose.  Maybe he's trying to look tough?

And yes, he is still in his pj's even though it's lunch time. 

 

Also, last month was our Primary program and after the first song the kids sang, Jaiden stood up, clapping, and said "Bravo!"  Later that day we went visiting teaching and the sister we visit said that was her favorite part.    I agree.

Who knows what they will be able to do in the future....

For those who don't know, Zachary was born with Spina Bifida.  He has an occupational therapist and a physical therapist coming twice a month each.  So far we haven't needed to use a catheter but it is always a possibility in the future.

Here is a cool article 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27648355/

This is in the beginning stages but imagine how much can be done in the future.  Maybe someday they will even be able to reroute nerves or something so that legs will work like normal.  Who knows.

Have a seat!

 

While upstairs attending to Zachary's needs the other day, I heard noises in the kitchen indicating some form of mischief.  Upon my descent, this is what I discovered:

Pumpkin Carving

Carlos carved his pumpkin the other night.  The boys were kind-of interested, but not as much as I thought they would be.  I personally have no desire to carve a pumpkin.  I wanted to paint mine and have the boys paint theirs.  I don't know if I'll get around to it though. 

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Spina Bifida Halloween Party

Saturday night was the Halloween party for the Intermountain Spina Bifida Foundation.  It was at Primary Children's.  I decided to go but Carlos had to work and I didn't want to go by myself.  Mom and Dad were going to be out working in Grandma Wilkey's yard so Mom was able to go with me that night.  I think the boys had fun and there were a lot of cute activities for the kids even though we didn't get to do everything. 

Afterwards we went to Amber's and they saw us in costume.  They were carving some cool pumpkins.  A very dirty Dad met Mom there and we all went our separate ways.

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not impressed and 10 being very impressed, they kid's reactions are as follows:

I would say Jaiden's reaction was a 9, things were pretty cool.  He even got a pirate painted on his face!

Austin was about a 2.  Not really impressed.  Except for when he dumped his popcorn out onto the carpeted floor (and then tried to eat it off the floor), he was just like, whatever.

Zach was probably a 5.  He didn't really care either way and was his usual pleasant self.

I was maybe a 7.  I wish they would have had some activities more often so that Jaiden could have participated in all of them.  I was disappointed that I really didn't get to meet the other parents like I was hoping to.  But it was still fun.

Renew the Zoo!

After the Spina Bifida Clinic last Friday, we took the boys to the Zoo.  The timing just worked out right for us to go then.  We had to be in Salt Lake later that day and it was easier to just find something fun to do as a family in the in-between-time. 

So we have been putting off going to the Zoo all summer for two main reasons 1) go when it was cooler, 2) avoid the crowds.  Albeit the nice, reasonably cool weather, there was one major problem.  I forgot it was UEA weekend.  Insanity would be a nice way to put it.  I really am a crowd-a-phobic and was freaking out as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.  It was okay in the end, we survived, and the boys had a lot of fun. 

All Jaiden wanted to see were the lions.  Couldn't find 'em.  Anywhere.  Maybe we were just being dumb.  We distracted him with lots of other animals though and he seemed pretty content by the time we left.  I can definitely understand why they want to Renew the Zoo-- in the five years since we were last there, it seems that there were a lot fewer animals and it just wasn't in as great of shape. 

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Welcome to Holland

I don't know if anyone has seen this before and it can apply to so many of life's situations but I just saw it again and I like what it says.  One of the moms on the BabyCenter Spina Bifida Board posted it for a woman who just found out one of her twins has spina bifida. 

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

I like the way it expresses well the way one feels. 

I feel so blessed to have Zachary in our lives.  I feel that he is exactly the way Heavenly Father wants him to be and that he has so much to teach us.  Jaiden and Austin love him (Austin also loves to bite him) and he is such a happy, calm baby.