He’ll be walking on his own anyday now!

Where to begin?  Let’s start with visitors and events as this is my excitement.  Last weekend was super busy.  The grandparents from Eric’s side were in town for a wedding and stayed with us.  Last Saturday I hosted my BFF’s baby shower and I think everyone had a really good time celebrating that day with her.  Eric took the kids over to our friends’ house, and while they were screaming and crying pulling out of the driveway, they had a blast once they were at M & L’s house.  On Sunday Eric’s family came over for brunch and the kids played with cousin Lane.  Wow!  I can not believe how advanced that little boy is.  He is one month older than P and C and can speak in full sentences.  He can have logical conversations with people.  Big difference between our daily life of saying “huh?  What?  I can’t understand you!”.  Also it was interesting to see how Lane pretty much un-child-proofed our house in a millisecond.  Good indication of what’s to come.  I so wish that everyone lived closer and we could hang out with family more often.  Other than that…we had a play date this past Friday with our NICU nurse’s son at their house.  It took about 5 minutes before everyone was tearing through her toys and roaming her house checking everything out.  It’s always fun to play with new toys and her house was better than Toys R Us.  The best toy which we need to get because even Drew was dying to play…was a Step 2 roller coaster.  They couldn’t get enough of it.  They also loved her cat.  Even Paige was squealing over the kitty.

Please take a close look at Moxie before she has an unfortunate early passing.  She keeps puking on our carpets and I’m sick of her.  Could be because she eats a TON of people food off the kids chairs.  Speaking of chairs….ever since Lane was here and I would say “time to eat”, Paige would jump into the chair that Lane ate at.  I could tell she was over her highchair so we transitioned her to a booster at the table.  She loves it and eats with a plate very well.  I transitioned Cole too even though he wasn’t showing any signs he wanted to eat at the table.  Sometimes I wonder if holding Cole back waiting for him to show he’s ready isn’t detrimental to his development.  But he’s not ready to eat at the table.  He wants out of his chair right away and is constantly spilling his plate/bowl.  He’s just not as advanced in some areas as Paige.

Other developmental issues:  Drew is amazing!!!  He is so smart and advanced.  He eats with a spoon/fork.  He can stack blocks/rings.  He can sit on the ride-on toys and use his legs to move.  He just went downstairs today for the first time on his own without me showing him how to do it.  He just gets things so easily.  I think he’s saying a few words but it may be just wishful thinking.  Our speech therapist commented that Drew is imitating two word phrases comparing him to Cole who just learned that skill.  That gives you an idea of the delays P & C have to deal with.  Drew is so close to walking but alas I don’t know if he’ll figure it out before his birthday.  He’s going to bed slightly awake and he’s okay with it.  He’s sleeping through the night, maybe waking up once or twice, but I don’t go to him and he falls back asleep within 5 minutes of whining.  I love this kid.

We had our haircuts yesterday.  Drew had his first trim and I cried.  Isn’t that dumb?  It just seems like everything baby about him is going away.  He’s over the breast, getting haircut, talking, my baby’s growing up.  I can’t believe it’s been a year already…and in other ways I can’t remember not having him here.  Getting back to getting our haircut….Paige has been sitting on my lap to help her remain calm, but yesterday she sat by herself for the first time.  Okay…I had to hold her hands and it took me a while to get the feeling back in my fingers when she was done with me.  But she did it and I was proud of her. 

Other appointment and other boring news:  we saw the pulmonologist for Cole’s growth as our peed suggested.  We were super late and they almost wouldn’t see us.  I almost had to bring on the tears for a sympathy appointment!  But they were pretty nice about letting us be seen and the pulm dr was like “why are you here?”  me:  I don’t know so you can tell me that we don’t need a g-tube.  him:  I think you do.  me:  bummer.  Basically he said not only would tubing Cole for extra calories help his lungs, but it would help his brain.  Kids need fat for brain development.  The first five years are super important.  Why wouldn’t we want every possible opportunity for Cole’s brain to be great?  Plus I’m tired of watching Cole eat like a bird.  A bird eats more than Cole.  We were supposed to see a  nutritionist at the same time as the pulm dr, but he said that would be a waste of the nutritionist’s time since Cole doesn’t eat.  Made sense to me.

Other boring news:  we got a new OT.  I’m so excited because we love our old OT who’s last day with us is Thursday.  She is moving to another state.  We are going to miss her.  Our speech person told me last week she may have only two more weeks with us because she’s accepting another job.  And our PT is moving us to once a month.  Aagh.  I think I may be going into a panic because summer’s coming and I have nothing for us to do all day long.  I need to talk to my girl J and see if she’s coming back to us.  I want someone in the afternoons so we can get out of the house and take classes or go swimming in the backyard.  I need more hands!!!  Where’s all my volunteers like Jon and Kate plus 8?

We’ve been fighting a 24-hr virus the last five days or so.  Cole had it first, then Drew, then Paige.  When Paige had it, she was up moaning or coming out of her bed every hour.  Uugh.  She was fine last night, no fever, but she still got up every hour.  Uugh.  I’m exhausted, I can’t imagine how she feels.  Speaking of sleeping and Miss Paige…one night I wanted to sleep really good so I took the same dose of melatonin that she would take.  Holy cow.  I was knocked out for about an hour where I didn’t want to move, couldn’t keep my eyes open.  It was too early for me to fall asleep so I made myself stay awake.  Then I got so freakin’ jittery and wired.  No wonder Paige was crazy sleeping.  We took her off it from that night on which was about 2+ weeks ago and we noticed no difference in her sleeping.  (well, except the last two nights with her fever). 

So this whole time I’ve been typing here Paige has been sitting next to me on the sofa singing.  She is so cute.  Drew and Cole have been acting like the cool boys they are playing with balls and their dragon tunnel.  Nikki–we love the tunnel too.  Please send us the tent ASAP if you can!!!!  Okay…got to go.  Drew has been way off Mommy’s ideal nap schedule.  He’s been napping at 10am now a days instead of at noon with P and C.  Not good for Mommy, but I think he does it so we get one on one time.  Anyways, Drew is really tired today so we may be taking an even earlier nap.