This is Aiden

I thought I would take the time to tell you a little bit about each of our children individually.  They are all so different and so unique in their own way.  Today, I give you Aiden.

Aiden was our biggest boy.  He came into this world as a "big" 4 lb., 16.93" baby.  He looked so big compared to what we expected.  He earned himself the nickname "big boy".  Now his nicknames range from Aiden J (his middle name is James) and Ace (Reese's nickname for him).  He loves trucks, trains, singing and reading.

 

He is also our most emotional child.  This particular day (yesterday) he was upset that he couldn't get his shoe on.  I told him to undo the velcro first.  Rather than try he sprawled out on the kitchen floor and cried.  Like any good mother I took a picture.  I worked around him until he was done crying and then reminded him that all he had to do was ask for help.  That's Aiden.  He needs to be left alone and come out of a tantrum on his own.  He sometimes puts himself in his room until he can be calm. 

He also loves to "work like Daddy".  He wears Nate's hats and pretends to go to jobs. 

He lines things up.  Cars or crayons or anything that he can put in a nice straight line.  I suppose he gets that from me.

He's also our child that gets hurt the most.  In less than a year he has hit his eye on his bed causing a deep gash in his eyebrow, bit through his lip twice and scraped up his face at the zoo.  This gem of a picture is the aftermath of falling at the zoo. 

 

He is also our polite child who loves to tell people how something they did was, "so sweet".  He talks to anyone who will give him the time of day.  He can go from happy and sweet to full blown tantrum in 1 second.  If he's hungry or tired there is no reasoning with him.  Again, he gets that from me. 

 

He is also known as the one who repeats things by one of our neighbors.  She's right.  He repeats things.  It's his way of learning.  He remembers things we say and repeats them in conversation.  I love putting him to bed at night because he repeats what I tell him.  Every night he tells me, "I love you. Good night.  Sweep dreams (although I say sweet dreams).  See you in the morning."  He knows exactly what to say to melt my heart. 

 

That's Aiden.  He's sweet and kind and full of emotion. 

A busy end to summer

As summer has come to a close we have been busy trying to squeeze in lots of fun before it's over.  I love summer and wish it would never leave.  These last couple of rainy, chilly days remind me of how long days can feel when we are all stuck inside together.  I miss sending the boys out to play in the backyard and not being following me around, "Mom, mom, mom"; which Devyn has now picked up and joins in.  Here's how we spent our last few weeks.

Labor Day weekend we went to Indianapolis with my family.  We left Friday afternoon and came home Monday afternoon.  We had a blast!  We went to the zoo, swam in the hotel pool, walked along the canal and downtown, mini-golfed (hilarious) and just spent time together.  Reese said his favorite part of vacation was "the hotel room and eating breakfast downstairs".  Kids are so easy to please.  I'll try to post some pictures soon.

We also celebrated 3 years since Reese had his "event" where he stopped breathing and his surgery.  It was last week Sunday.  As I expected I couldn't make it through even the morning without crying a little.  It's always a difficult and joyful day wrapped into one.  It's hard to relive the day, but at the same time a great reminder of how much we have to be thankful for. It could have ended so much worse.

We're now in the process of figuring out what is going on with Devyn (again).  She has been having some tummy issues for about 3 weeks now.  I took in a stool sample yesterday.  The Dr. called this morning and said the initial testing came back negative for things like parasites, c-diff (which the boys all had as babies) and some other things.  She's waiting on 1 test.  She suggested taking her off soy milk because she have developed some type of allergy of intolerance to soy.  So, now I had to switch her to rice milk.  Blah.  Hopefully She'll drink it.  The biggest problem is that I feed her soy butter and jelly for lunch a lot and now I have to rethink that.  She doesn't like sunbutter (made with sunflower seeds), so now I have to try and find another substitute.  I stood in an aisle at the grocery store and wanted to cry.  I don't know if I was just tired or feeling defeated by the fact that we're avoiding another food.  If this doesn't help her I don't know what's next.  I'm really hoping soy isn't the culprit!  Until we hear back from the Dr. and give her the rice milk for a few days we have to assume soy is it.  The good news is she hit 20 lbs.!  She is growing and even took her first step this week!  It was only 1 step and she hasn't done it again, but she wouldn't be Devyn if she wasn't stubborn.