Life

We were excited to finally be getting over all of the illnesses that have plagued our house since July.  No one was having intestinal issues, although Noah is still not drinking milk.  He is drinking lactose free milk because he can't digest regular milk at this point.  Well, we know better than to think it's over.  Now all 3 have a cold.  Oh boys.  It's nothing bad or serious, just an inconvenience.  That means that can't be in the nursery or anything again.  It seems like it's been forever since we've been to church as a family.  I'm trying to be positive and be glad that they all have it at once and aren't passing it around one at a time.

It's been fun to watch the boys learning and growing so much lately.  Noah and Reese are starting to become more confident and letting go of things to take some steps.  Aiden is still not really interested.  He takes one little step and then starts crawling.  They are all good crawlers so it's much faster than trying to walk somewhere.  Aiden has learned how to get onto the couch.  We were keeping the remotes on the back of the couch so they couldn't reach them.  I walked into the living room after being in the kitchen and saw him sitting on the couch holding both remotes.  He also gets the batteries out. Needless to say the remotes have a new home.  Reese has been teaching Aiden how to open the baby gates.  Every day they seem to learn something new, for better or worse.

Today marks the end of Nate working out of town.  He has been working in Wisconsin for 4 weeks.  He has been leaving on Sunday night and coming home on Thursday night.  I have had my mom and cousin stay overnight, just so that I'm not alone.  Today is his last day.  It's not ideal to have him out of town, but it's work.

The next few weeks are very busy for us.  We have a couple of weddings coming up, including my brother!  We're very excited!  I'm also going to be a sub at Highland Christian 2 weeks from today.  Gulp!  This is my first time as a sub.  It's a resource room which is what my job was before.  I'm sure it will be fun to get back into my old job for a day.  I realized how difficult it would be to work though.  Lining up people to watch the boys and thinking about all that I'll have to have ready is exhausting! :)  Anyways, if you don't see much from me in the next few weeks that's why!  We'll be a little crazy around here.  Isn't it always?  

Time out!

It's true.  Time out has started at our house.  There was just no way around it.  Our kids are naughty.  Recently the favorite thing to do is shake a lamp.  They look at me crawl over to the lamp, shake it and then look back at me as if they're saying, "What are you gonna do about it?".  After attempts to tell them, "No", redirect them, scare them by saying something like, "Ow!" they had yet to be phased.  One night I had enough.  I grabbed the offender, I believe it was Noah, and buckled him into a chair.  He was less than thrilled.  It seems to be helping at this point.  They are very clearly testing the limits.  They also throw little fits.  They arch their backs when you hold them, scream, Reese hits his head on the floor or crawls around with his face on the floor and kick their legs.  I remember talking to our pastor about the concept that we are born with sin and how some people just can't believe that.  Have children.  You'll believe it.  I did not teach them how to be naughty, but they most certainly are.  The amount of hitting, pushing, hair pulling and screaming at each other is almost unbelievable at times.  Wow.  I just made them sound awful. They are not always that bad!  They just have moments where they totally melt down...times 3.  It can get a little crazy!

They are also getting teeth by the mouthful these days.  Reese is on his way to 12 teeth.  Noah is holding steady at 6.  Aiden finally got his top 2, which puts him at 3 total.  He has a bottom tooth that is there, but can't seem to cut through the gums.  I'm starting to worry a little because it's been that way for weeks.  Poor kid.  I think we'll keep trying to get it through by chewing on things.  It's just amazing how different they are!

Monkey see, monkey do

There is a lot of monkey see, monkey do going on at our house these days.  The boys are constantly watching us and each other to learn things.  They often teach each other naughty things, like opening a drawer and tearing it apart or pulling cords out of the wall and handing it to the other guy to chew on.  Reese is especially observant.  He has learned how to open the baby gates and take the outlet protectors out of the wall.  He also learned how to get his arm out of a shirt and even started pulling it over his head.  I'm sure I'll walk in a room and find him completely naked soon (he already knows how to take off his diaper).  They also learned how to move things in order to get somewhere.  They move chairs all the time!  Aiden also used a basket, which he turned upside down, to climb on the couch.  I was so worried they would have developmental delays (can't help it, I'm a teach at heart).  I think I can let that fear go now.

We have also been dealing with intestinal illness (to put it nicely) for 5 weeks.  Ugh.  It's been frustrating.  Finally week the Dr. wanted to run some tests on Noah.  He's been the worst, so we brought him in.  The tests showed that he has something called C. Diff.  There is a longer name, but I don't remember it.  You can google it.  :)  He probably got it from being on an antibiotic, which killed all the good bacteria in his gut and caused the bad bacteria to grow out of control.  He also has something called Crypto.  There's a really long name for that as well.  We were told to look it up on the CDC's website.  It's never good when your pediatrician tells you to look something up on the CDC's website.  We did and it turns out it's a parasite.  Awesome.  He either got it from water or from Lue.  Our guess is Lue.  A lot of kids get it from being in a daycare.  While our house looks like a daycare it is not one.  So, he must have contracted it from water or a pet.  It has no treatment other than giving it time to work out of his system.  So, for now they can't be around little kids or a group of kids.  Just when we were starting to have play dates and do fun things, we're essentially stuck!  Oh well, this too shall pass.

Baby steps

I could probably write a novel today I'm so behind in updating our blog.  I'll try not to write quite that much.

I'll start with our incredibly fun trip last weekend.  We went to Indianapolis with my parents.  We went to the zoo, the Children's Museum walked around the city, ate (a lot!) and just had fun.  We even swam, which Aiden wasn't in the mood for and Noah and Reese loved.  The first night was a little rocky.  It took twice as long to get there because of a truck fire.  That totally threw the boys off and they didn't go to bed until 11:00.  The second night the fire alarm went off at 2:00 am and briefly at 3:00 and 4:00 am.  Thank you person who was cooking after a night of drinking.  Luckily the boys slept well despite it.  Other highlights include losing Aiden, who opened the door, which was propped open, and took off in the hallway and Reese learning how to open the door.  He was just tall enough to reach the handle and could pull it down and then pull just hard enough to get it to a point where he could swing it open and crawl out.  They are learning too fast! We also had a chance to go out just the 2 of us.  The whole trip was wonderful.  We really didn't want to come home.

The next exciting (and scary) thing in our house are the first steps.  Reese will take 1 step.  He is not our risk taker, which surprises me, and doesn't want to do more than a step.  Noah took a step last night and then the next time 4 steps.  He pretty much runs instead of walking.  It's so funny to watch his feet move so fast.  Aiden has absolutely no interest in walking.  You can find him climbing on everything all day long.  He can almost get himself up onto the couch.  Stay tuned for the first broken bone or cracked open head.  I'm sure it's just around the corner.

Finally, today is a day of incredible significance in our house.  It's a day of celebration and remembrance of a year ago.  Do you know what it is?  One year ago today I held Reese in my arms and stared at his lifeless face.  He was completely limp with a peaceful smile on his face.  I thought this would be the day we would have to remember losing our child.  I am so thankful that that is not what we remember today.  Today we remember a miracle.  We remember the way 2 police officers quickly jumped into action and discovered the problem.  We remember the way he was rushed by a police escort to the hospital.  We remember the peace we felt when we were transferred back to University of Chicago.  We especially remember the kindness of the surgeon who added Reese onto an already packed day so that our little boy wouldn't have to wait to eat any longer.  It is certain to be a day filled with emotion.  It really started to hit me last night.  This day could be so different.  How do we ever thank those 2 men who were able to think so fast and get him breathing?  We've thought for a year and have come up with nothing.  There is no appropriate way to thank someone for saving your child.  I wrote a letter to them to express our thanks and hope that they understand how special they are to us.  I am so thankful that the Lord saw fit to let us keep our child.  Our crazy, often naughty, little peanut Reese is alive and well.  Say a prayer of thanks today that we're celebrating and not mourning. I know I will.