Happy Birthday, Ian!

Ian turned 6 today! Happy birthday! He was really excited, and says just about every day that he's almost in first grade :) We had a family party on Sunday, also celebrating his cousin and his uncle's birthdays. Then on his actual birthday he took treats to school (he wanted fruit snacks - easy!) and we had some "6"-shaped pancakes, brownies, and presents. Somehow the picture turned, and I can't turn or delete it - sorry!

Since this is his first birthday since I started this blog, I should write some about his life.....

Ian was born at 41 weeks, weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

Soon after birth it was apparent there was something wrong; after the cardiologist visited him he found out Ian needed heart surgery - the veins going to his heart weren't actually connected to his heart. So he was flown to a hospital in another state (John going with him), and had open heart surgery performed before he was even 24 hours old. He recovered well, and came home 3 weeks later, only on oxygen.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him, he was 3 or 4 weeks old (we had no digital camera then, and I threw away all my negatives after making his scrapbook, so this is scanned and "cut out"; not very well, but better than nothing!).

After Ian came home from the hospital, he's done great ever since! His doctor has always worried about how small he is, but he doesn't lack energy! He learned about the alphabet when he was 2.5, on an extended visit to his cousin's house, and after that was obsessed with letters for a really long time. By the time he started kindergarten, he knew how to read many words.
When he was about 4 he started liking trains - I'm not even sure how that started! He was really interested in everything about trains, and can draw them in detail.
Now it's race cars - he likes the movie "Cars" and talks about race cars all the time. He loves kindergarten, loves his brothers, and loves to make them laugh most especially. His life hasn't been the easiest because of his younger brothers, he has spent many nights at Grandma's and many hours at people's houses when I've had to do something with a brother (or two), but he's done well with it all and likes his role as big brother. He's mostly patient with his brothers and really good about playing with them. We're sure glad Ian is part of our family!!

It's hard to choose pictures from the past 6 years! So now that I've sort of figured out this collage idea, I'll try to make a few collages of his life.

And, photos of his 6 birthdays (not in order, of course :) )!

Long time, no post

Okay, so it's been a really long time! But really, not all that much has happened since Christmas-time that's very interesting. Just everyday life. But I thought I'd better write something before the next exciting event occurs (hint: Ian's counting down the days, there's only 12 left!). So here's a little recap of our lives....

John: this is what he spends his time doing - writing!

When he's not at work or at scouts, of course. But, he's almost done! His project paper presentation will be done by Spring Break, and that's it! He just has to finish writing the paper before then :) He works in the living room, with only a baby gate to keep others out. So he wears those huge headphones to try and ignore Levi coming to the gate 10 times a day asking, "Daddy, are you doing homework?"

Cathy: I'm still the chief cook and bottle washer, although I don't wash bottles anymore....I finally put them away around Christmas :( I guess at 2.5 Levi should be done with them.
They may not be playing with my pans in the mud, but I often have to search the house for pans and pitchers these days - Caleb's new favorite is the hand mixer he's played with ever since going to a friend's house (thanks Laurie :) ).

After it snowed a few times weeks ago, and the front entry way was covered with wet coats, mittens, boots, and snow pants, I had to take a picture - it made me so happy to have the floor covered with little boy clothes! Even though there's a lot of work, it's wonderful to have such sweet little boys with me every day. Every time I take them somewhere (which really isn't too often) I hear several times, "boy, you have your hands full!" and I do, but it's great! It's kind of funny taking them to the store, first people notice their hair, "look at all that red hair!" and then usually say, "are they twins?" I've seriously had at least 2 (possibly 3) people ask if they're triplets, and many more saying they could be triplets if Ian were younger.

Ian:

Lost tooth #3! His bottom two are already in, and he lost his first top tooth. He still loves school and is a great help to me!

Ian got all his blankets out for his brothers and tucked them in and then read them a few stories :)

Caleb: He's very resourceful, using whatever he can to reach the light switches - he loves them! His molars, two months later, are STILL coming in! He's not eating too much and is joining Levi in a feeding group to try and help with trying new foods. He likes to use a screwdriver to "fix" things and "change the batteries". One day he spent a full hour with a screwdriver and various toys. He can't really open the screws (thankfully!) but it still holds his interest.

I have no idea how his hair got like this, but it must have been one good nap!

Levi: Levi is so talkative and friendly, he likes to talk on the phone and sing. He looks like he's making some undercover secret phone call here, with the electric skillet cord :)

Caleb and Levi: I realized that together they are almost 50 pounds - at birth they were almost 5 pounds. They're just about 10 times their birth weights right now. Levi was 2.5, he's now almost 25. Caleb was 2.3, and is about 23. Interesting! I finally let them sit at the table, they still use the high chairs sometimes, but sit in chairs most of the time. I'm not sure it's improved their eating, but they like it.

Levi and Caleb reading on the couch, mirror images.

Levi and Caleb reading in the closet, of all places.

Happy birthday, Grandma!

All I Want for Christmas.....

.....are my 4 big molars! Four molars times three boys....that's a lot of teeth coming in! Ian is getting all of his 6 year molars, and Caleb and Levi are both getting at least their bottom two (I can't get a good enough look to see the top). They don't seem to be bothering Ian, but Caleb and Levi haven't been eating much and Caleb has been pretty grumpy - his tooth has been red and bothering him. But maybe they'll get them all at once and be done!

The NICU has a Christmas party every year and this is how much Caleb and Levi liked it! They didn't even want to sit on the chair by Santa. Ian, on the other hand, was very excited to see him and gave Santa a letter he wrote him and had a nice little visit. They also had some crafts at the party and everyone was happier by the time we left.

I just like this one :)

Caleb loves the vacuum attachment - he uses it to take pictures - with his nose :)

We decorated "trees" - a lot of fun!

Caleb was watching Ian and Daddy shovel snow - we've had enough snow and cold temperatures that the snow has stuck around for over a week!

Ian was a shepherd one day (he has three blankets tied around him), and Levi saw, and for days afterward needed his blanket tied around his head too.





Just thought it was cute! Caleb likes the antlers around his waist, since they won't stay on his head :)

I love how versatile toys are for toddlers! The missionaries can drive/ride in the tractor, and the wise man can catch the bus driven by the angel, with Joseph, Mary, and another wise man as passengers :)

November 2008

Looking back at pictures I took last month, I'm actually surprised at all that happened during November! Really all I remember is sickness and recovery. Levi had a hard recovery from getting his tonsils out, we all had the stomach flu (John even missed two days of work - the first sick days he's taken since I've known him!), and I had the real flu over Thanksgiving. But we're all back to normal, and we did actually do a few fun things along the way.

It took Levi until the 11th day after surgery that he finally looked like he might return to normal. The 12th day I tried to get him to eat but he wouldn't; we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house that night and they had ice cream...Levi went running into the kitchen, sat down, and ate more than his brothers did! So after that he slowly ate more and more until now he's back to eating what he was before (still mushy food) but he's eating much more of it! It took him 2 weeks before he drank anything on his own (so for 2 weeks he was force fed with a syringe, while watching hours and hours of Winnie the Pooh!). He lost at least 2 pounds (10% of his body weight) but now, 5 weeks after surgery, 3 weeks after starting eating again, he's gained back those 2 plus 2 more!! He's passed up Caleb on weight by about a pound (it's easier to add higher calorie things to his mushy food than it is to Caleb's "real people" food).

Here's Levi about 1.5 weeks after surgery, when he wasn't eating yet, and then a picture of him at the end of November, much happier!

Levi did feel good enough to play a little, he and Caleb took turns giving each other hair cuts :)

Enjoying a little "snack" - they usually pretend to eat ice cream....could it be because daily ice cream is what is helping them gain their weight??

I'm not sure how Aunt Deb knew when she made these blankets (before they were born) that they would be Winnie the Pooh fans....notice the blankets, toys, and book.....Winnie the Pooh and friends are all they talk about!

Since I was sick, we didn't go out of town for Thanksgiving. But that gave some time to work and play with Daddy! Ian loved being on the roof helping him clean out the gutters.

In their "one-horse open sleigh, singing "Jingle Bells", their favorite song.

Of course, as soon as Thanksgiving was over Ian was ready to put up the tree! There was a lot of help this year, and the tree is heavily decorated on the bottom few feet :)

Caleb with his hat and antlers.

And, I can't get it to let me write below the picture, but Ian made this belt out of paper and found his boots to be Santa. He was a little sad he didn't have a red coat. Last year, he didn't like the idea that Santa came to people's houses. For some reason, this year he's all excited about Santa coming.