Wordless Wednesday: too cute

Check out the skull shoes!

Sandy

We survived! We are still feeling the effects of Sandy, but the worst is over.  It started raining Friday and has rained pretty much every minute of every day since then.  If it did stop raining, you wouldn't know it because of the wind. The wind has pushed the rain in every direction. Every window on every side of the house is wet.  The front and back porches are completely soaked.  Parts that have never seen a drop of water...ever are covered with water and leaves.  All the local stations went out just before 10pm. We saw a ton of lightening. We heard sirens all night long. The house shook with the wind, the windows rattled, the power flickered here and apparently the northern half of Lakewood lost power because of downed trees.  

We had no where near this many leaves down before yesterday.  We got pretty lucky though.  Chairs and a basketball hoop seem to be the extent of our clean up.

Ben was not a fan of loosing power for a few seconds. Other than that I don't think the kids even noticed the storm.  I told Sam he gets to enjoy the benefits of Ohio's first ever "hurricane day."  All the schools are cancelled. He said ok and went back to his breakfast!

Pumpkins

We did some pumpkin carving this weekend.  Actually it was all Jon.  The boys were happy to sit back with the pop corn and supervise.

 Um yuck!

 The boys showing their gross faces:

 I realized I never got a picture of the finished product.  Jon carved a Mickey Mouse face.  It looks great and the boys love it.

The scenic route

Help Me Grow was back yesterday to observe Ellie and specifically a tantrum.  Of course the day someone comes in the afternoon, Ellie takes an extra long nap.  When I got her up, she was still tired and was calm.  No tantrums!  It still worked out.  The therapist did a lot of singing, not songs, just what ever we were doing.  Ellie really responded to it.  She even said ish (fish) for the first time.  Thats going to be a weird and hard habit to get into.  She also reminded us that Ellie is almost 2 and we need to consider the power struggle.  We ask Ellie a lot of yes or no questions.  Its natural that she would say no all day long just because shes a toddler.  The therapist recommended either making a statement like the gear goes up and down rather than can you push the gear down.  Or we just sing a gear song.  Along the same lines, we need to watch our commands.  The more we tell her to say drink, say help etc, the less she's going to want to because of the whole stubborn toddler thing.  We are going to work on having the boys ask for something in simple toddler terms like snack mama or help please and see if she'll imitate them (something she does quite a bit of).  We are also going to work on saying a word, giving her just a second or two to repeat and if she doesn't, giving her the item with a sign, when appropriate, and saying the word again in a song. We'll get there, but we are taking a very scenic route to do so.  I was left confused about one thing.  Ellie has a couple 2 word phrases like hi mama or a baby.  The therapist said kids usually don't start 2 word phrases until they have a vocabulary of over 50 words.  She actually thinks Ellie knows a significant number of words, she just wont say them.  She couldn't give an explanation on that one.  Not sure if I'm buying that one though!

Party night

Last night was the big birthday party night.  The kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes and we headed over to Beckys for some backyard fun.  In case you couldn't tell, Ben is Mario.  Sam is Luigi.  Ellie is a dancer and Zach is a Cameron Crazy (a Duke fan).  I think Jon was trying to tell him that Kentucky was better.  It makes me cry too when Jon is so delusional.  

 The Mario Brothers:

 Tiny dancer:

 The Angry Birds cake:

Zach gave Sam and eventually dad blow out power:

 This isn't Ellies cake:

Zach wasn't really interested in his smash cake.  He got some frosting on his hands and spent a lot of time examining them.  This was killing Ellie so she shoved her finger in the cake and stuck it in Zachs mouth:

 This isn't Ellies cake either:

The kids had a great night.  They ran hard, got dirty, ate lots of sugar and crashed when we got home.  I'm ready to be done with birthdays for a while...at least until December.

Check ups

Sam had his 4 year check up today and Zach had his 1 year check up.  They both did great.  Sam got his ears and eyes checked and once again we confirmed that they are able to hear us, they just choose not to!

Heres the break down: Sam is 3' 3.5" (25%) and 39lbs 8oz (50%).  He is right on track in every aspect.

Zach is 2' 4" (25% ) and 18lbs 13oz (5%).  Zach dropped from the 10th % in weight, but at this point in his development that is normal.  We just have to get him drinking real milk and eating some fatty foods so he goes back up at his next visit.  Unfortunately, he is moving very slow with wanting real people food so this might be a rough transition for him.  

The boys got their presents from mom and dad and a couple family members on their actual birthdays.  Sam had a Mario filled birthday and Zachs love of giraffes is well known.  He got one from uncle Dave and aunt Corrie knit him one just like all the other nieces and nephews.  I'm relieved that so far he seems to love them both.  We've been looking for a back up giraffe in case we lost his favorite, but its been a challenge.  They have their friend party this weekend and are looking forward to having an Angry Birds cake with their friends. 
On a side note, we had Ellie weighed today.  Since she dropped off the chart at her last visit, I was curious to see if she had gained in the last three months.  We weighed her with her clothes on (she was wearing jeans) so its not accurate, but we had her at 21lbs.  She finally broke the 20lb mark!  She still isn't on the chart, but she is still on her line so we are happy!

Our last first

My baby is one today.  That seems even more unreal than Sam turning 4 on Monday.  I'm so excited to see him grow up and start interacting with his brothers and sister.  I'm thrilled about getting rid of the baby things he is outgrowing, but I can't believe we wont be doing this again.  No more new baby smell.  No more first smiles or baby cuddles.  No more colic or late night feedings all night long.  No more poo-splosions.  No more teething....maybe this wont be so bad after all!  

2011

2012

Bobcat

Ben joined the Cub Scouts a couple weeks ago.  We gave him some time to see what he thought and he's doing really well.  We got his uniform over the weekend and aunt Corrie did an awesome job of sewing on some patches--we love you!  Ben earned his first badge last night, the Bobcat badge.  This one was just learning the basics of the scouts.

Looking good:

He just received his immediate recognition award and his badge.

Bens pack also did a little skit.  They stood up at the front looking all cute and it ended with them running around like mad men.  He loved it!

Wordless Wednesday: Cupcakes!

4

My (second) baby is four today.  I still remember going to the hospital like it was yesterday.  I remember Jim the PA trying to convince me I didn't need to be nervous.  I remember Jon in the ugly scrubs that were too big.  I remember watching the mirror, waiting for my boy to be born.  I remember seeing him for the first time and holding my breath until I knew he was healthy and didn't have the lung issues that Ben had.  I can't believe it was four years ago.  

Sam woke up with a huge smile on his face and announced to all his school friends that today is his birthday.  We'll have his requested dinner of chocolate chip pancakes tonight and a trip to the park.  I'm sure we'll be visiting Menchies at some point and we'll have a group party on Sunday for Sam and Zach along with two of their friends. Happy birthday little man.

2008

2010

2012

Start the party

We're celebrating two birthdays this week. Samuel turns 4 and Zach turns 1.  That just seems crazy to me.

My parents were in town this weekend so they stopped over for some birthday cookies and presents.

Zach isn't too sure about the whole fire thing.

They were both very excited about the cookies though.

Sam got some train tracks that will add onto a track he already has:

Zach got a toy that neither lights up or makes noise. Awesome!!!

I think these boys are going to have a great week!  Thanks Momo and Papa. 

Help Me Grow....eventually

Help Me Grow was out again yesterday. This is the 5th visit from a HMG person. It seems like we've had a lot of people come out to do the exact same thing over and over again. We fill out paperwork, they ask me a lot of questions, they talk to Ellie, see what she can do and then they are off with a promise of another appointment with the speech therapist.  Finally, yesterday was the therapist appointment.  I was ready to get some exercises to start on with Ellie and get this girl talking.  She came out bright and early, filled out paperwork, asked me a lot of questions, talked to Ellie, observed her then made an appointment to come back in two weeks.  That was it.  Yet another appointment of nothing!  Since Ellies food issues are still such and issue, she wants to come back when Ellie is waking up from her nap and see her when the food issues are at their worst.  If dinner isn't ready to go the minute Ellie wakes up from her nap, we have problems.  The therapist is hoping to see the tantrum in action, evaluate how she reacts and start to incorporate ways to communicate through the tantrum which will help get the talking going.  It didn't seem to matter that I could get a tantrum going right then and there and avoid another 2 week delay.  This is how they roll, slow and steady.  

She was able to tell me that cognitively, Ellie is on a 21-24month level.  She understands everything, follows commands, imitates like a pro and makes all the necessary sounds with good lip movement.  Her actual speech is on a 12-15month level.  For what ever reason she just isn't grasping a lot of real words.  Fortunately, its a small hill to climb and once she's over it she should be talking non-stop just like Ben.....we might be in trouble!

Stripes

Some days they are just too cute!

One more time

Corrie and I ran the Towpath half marathon this morning. I think we finally redeemed ourselves from the Cleveland half! We were out the door by 6am (we got to sleep in for this one!).  It was crazy cold, but it was perfect for running. The downside was that the towpath is a lot like the metro parks, just smaller.  So we had no spectators for about 12 of the 13 miles.  Also, the course turned around on itself so when runners started passing each other, things got tight. We started strong (minus a bathroom break at .4 into the run).  I managed to drop a glass lid on my foot Saturday night so I had some foot pain for the majority of the run, but we managed to keep the normal aches and pains away until about mile 10.  We slowed down at mile 11, but still managed to make our goal.  Jon and the babies met us at the finish line.  It was great to finally have some cheers. I'm so glad we met our goal and I'm so glad its over! We've been training for long runs since January and I'm ready to get my speed back up with some short runs and meet my goal of a 5k in under 30min in December.
Staying warm in the car before the race:

Almost there:

Finished:

They had a long morning:

Thank you to Reid and Stacey for letting the boys tag along with you guys today!

Weird

How is this comfortable?  He totally takes after Sam!

The best part is he woke up, sat up and instead of adjusting himself, he went right back to this position!

Torn

 I can't decide if I love the gap in his front teeth or the chubby thighs more!