Here goes,,,, Tucker's first birthday (yes from July)

OK, so I am going to post mostly photos in these first few blogs to catch up a bit. If life is moving as fast for the rest of you, maybe you will understand a bit.

  Tucker was such an easy baby, and then he turned 1.  No I kid (a little) he is still an easy little guy, but he has learned to hold his own and to use his voice. We used to think Jacob was always beating up on him, but have since learned that he beats up on Jacob just as much. 

Josh with his "personalized" haircut

Wow, I am sooo behind

I have not updated in so long, this is the last blog I was working on, but apparently never finished. Boy, oh boy, so much has happened since then, it may take me a few blogs to get updated.

The end of June and beginning of July have been full of fun visits from Rick's Mom, and then our good friends Glenn, Lucy, and their kids We managed to keep them busy with various activities. Rick set his Mom up with our old Real Estate agent and she found some great houses to show her while she was here (she has gotten serious about moving out of Casper, WY and closer to her kids and grand kids).

a little behind

Well, once again I have fallen behind on the posting.  Life just has a way of making it hard to post sometimes (or maybe it is the 3 boys).  Anyway, here are some of the photos from June I was going to post about.

Jacob seemed to have a obsession for a while (he has backed off of it a little now) with always finding Rick's shoes in our closet and wearing them around the house.  For a while, none were safe.

Tucker went more vertical, while he still crawls everywhere (and may I say he is fast), he like to stand up a lot.  I think it will be soon that he will be walking all around the house.

Joshua graduated from Kindergarten, and is now officially a first grader.  He will be moving to a new school next year (public) and will no longer be in the Montessori program.  He had great teachers and we will miss them, but we will have to go and visit them again when we can.

All of us are doing great and are just gearing up for the full swing of Summer. More to come soon.................

Sports Season

Sports season has started, and it has prevented me from keeping up on my blog as often as I have wanted to again.  Rick signed Josh up for both spring soccer and spring baseball, and wouldn't you know it, but they both happen to run at the same time.  Needless to say, we have been very busy with games and practices.  Josh loves doing both sports, but I can tell you, next year he will not be doing both at the same time.

We made a quick trip  to Seattle the end of March, for Jacob's 1 year check up, and came home with a good report and news. They were very happy with how well he was doing (even said he is in the top percent of how well of hemi patients). They also gave us the OK to start tapering his seizure med.  It was a quick taper, and we have been medicine free now for a few weeks.  : ) It is very nice not to have to remember to give him his medicine twice a day. Hopefully we can stay seizure free and medicine free!

Tucker has started to crawl now, and now he is quick at getting around and getting into everything (including trouble).  He especially like to get into the cat food and water. He has even been know to try and eat a bit of it.  He likes to put everything in his mouth, so we have to really watch what is on the floor now.  He is a little guy, but I have a feeling he is going to end up being big trouble.  Good thing he is so cute!

 

A year ago

Well it is hard to believe, but it has been one year since we went to Seattle and handed Jacob over to a highly skilled team of Doctors and Nurses to try and stop his seizure disorder called Infantile Spasms.  So much has happened in this last year, that in some ways it feels like a lifetime ago.  One year ago today, I did not know what the outcome of his surgery would be, I only hoped that it would be for the better.  I knew there was no way he could go on having so many seizures a day, and I knew that even if the surgery did not stop his seizures completely, that they would at least be less than they were.  The first days, even weeks after the surgery when we did not see any seizures, it was almost surreal.  In some ways, we were holding our breath, waiting to see if they would appear, but they never came.  It was not an easy journey, especially those first few weeks, he had to work hard, in fact he still does, but now it does come easier for him.

When Jacob was a baby, before the Infantile Spasms, I had no idea what was in store for us, of course how could I.  I did not know I would ever have the strength to see my baby go through everything he has had to go through.  He started out so happy and healthy, it was hard to imagine that he would ever be anything but.  Fortunately he is strong and resilient!  I can honestly say I am much stronger and maybe even a bit more resilient than I used to be.  I of course don't know what the future holds for any of us, but I do know now, that whatever it throws at us, we can take it.

Jacob is doing so well, and I know that things could have been so much worse.  I am grateful that he came out with the best case scenario from our life changing ordeal, and still truly believe that everything happens for a reason. I may not ever understand completely why we have been taken on this particular path, but I do know I have learned a lot from it. I hope that I may be able to help others faced with similar circumstances from time to.

Maybe when Jacob is older he will be able to tell us how he felt during all of this (and maybe he won't). He will have great experiences to share, even if he does not remember it all. I look forward to his future now, as I do with all my boys, no matter what happens.

Jibber-Jabber and Poo

One of the things that I remember about Jacob's days before and after surgery is being a bit concerned about when Jacob would start talking.  I guess I was afraid he would have trouble telling us what he needed or wanted all of the time.  I asked his neurosurgeon "How will his surgery affect his speech?" to which he told me that he could take a long time to talk, they did not know for sure. I know I had hope that it would not be as long as they thought when a couple weeks after surgery he started making some babble noises and then even woke Rick up one morning in the hospital saying Dada.

Now a days, Jacob is mister Jibber-Jabber. He has never had a problem communicating, so I don't know what I was worried about, and he has always babbled, but lately he is doing so much more.  He seems to say a new word almost every day (and use it regularly too), and some days he will seem to hold a whole conversation with us, with laughing mixed in and all.  Now granted I usually can't understand what the conversation is about, let alone the joke, but it is funny to watch, none the less. It gives me great hope (and maybe even a little proof) that Jacob will being speaking, with many understandable words, very soon!

Now I am sorry, I have to tell you before you get too much farther into this, there will be talk of poop, or poo if you are Jacob (not to be confused with Pooh).  Any one who does not want to hear potty talk, look away, for the rest of you, read on.

OK, now that we have that out,  I have not really thought a lot about potty training Jacob, partly because there are so many other things he focuses on, and partly because from talking to other parents with hemi kids, I knew not to expect him to be able to do it any time soon.  Well, I can tell you now, we have had two successful poops on the potty!  We were so excited (Rick, Josh and I, more so than Jacob) that we had to give him the best treat we could find in the house, chocolate!  We know not to get too far ahead of ourselves just yet though, because two poops does not make a potty training, especially when both times he said he was all done and got off the toilet only to pee on the floor, but baby steps at any rate.  Who knows, maybe we will be trained sooner than we think, and of course I think I have learned not to take him off the potty too soon.

Jacob patting Tucker

Jacob and Tucker hamming it up

Cute Tucker

 In other news Jacob is now officially 3 years old.  We celebrated his birthday on February 18 with some friends and family. We also celebrated Rick's birthday (the 15th) and my sister Shaun's birthday (also the 18th) at the same time.  It is hard to believe Jacob is 3 years old, but I guess we all are getting older.  He is getting to be such a little boy, and so much less a toddler!

Big Boy Bed

I have to admit, I do still think of Jacob as my baby (although a very heavy baby), even though he has a baby brother.  I don't know why, maybe it has been everything that has happened to him since he was a little one.  The poor guy has been through more in his short life than me in my 40 years, but I will say, he has managed to handle it like a champ!  I have had to realize lately, though, that he is growing up to be a little boy.  A couple of weeks ago, shortly after starting his preschool observations,  he got a big boy bed.  We were not sure exactly how it would go, although I guess you never are, but he has done very well with it. When it is time to go to bed at night he happily climbs in and falls asleep pretty quickly.  He even has stayed in bed all night, and sometimes even waits for us to come up and get him before getting out.  The only thing we have had a little problem with is nap time.  Jacob seems to think he does not need to take naps every day any more.  I am just not sure I am ready for him to give them up completely.  He starts preschool oficially on the 21st of February, right after his 3rd birthday on the 18th.  Like I said, he is growing into a little boy, and we don't have much say in the matter.

Everyone is doing pretty good, although I wouldn't say that we are at 100% healthy yet.  Rick ended up getting the dreaded cold after me, and then Tucker came down with it (again? if that is possible).  We are all now almost completely healthy, at least for the time being, but as usual, the cold set off my asthma, so I don't sound too healthy. 

The boys all get along pretty well, but I have a feeling we have another little rebel on our hands with Tucker.  He was leaning over to grab Joshua's milk the other night, and every time Josh told him no, he just laughed and did it again over and over.  I got a bit of it on video for all to see. 

A 6 Month Old

 

Tucker is 6 months old (well technically 6 1/2, but for the sake of this post, let's just go with it)!  It is that time when you document that great 6 month achievement of sitting up with, of course, a photo shoot!  Only for this one, poor little Tucker had a bad eye and (later to find out) ear infection.  He was a good sport for the ones we got, but I will have to do some more of him when we are all feeling a bit better.

We started out his 6th month with his well child check trip to the doctor in perfect health, only to have to go back a week later to get some antibiotics for his ear and eye.  That only started our roller coaster of sickness!  From there, Rick came down with the dreaded stomach flu in the middle of the night that has apparently been going around.  I was just hoping and praying that none of the rest of us got it.  Well, my prayers were answered!  The rest of us avoided it!  We were all doing pretty good, until I started feeling like I had a terrible sore throat and was loosing my voice.  Oh well, I can handle that, no problem.  Then it hit me, I had not seen the worst of it yet.  It snowballed into a terrible head cold, cough, fever, headache, you name it.  Unfortunately, it also hit Tucker.  Neither one of us feels very good and he wakes up every three hours because of it (which does make it a bit hard for myself to get the rest I need to feel better).  Luckily though, it has not hit Rick yet (someone please knock on wood) and it has been pretty minor with Josh and Jacob.

I think he likes his brothers

So hopefully by my next post we will all be better again, sleeping well, and maybe I will have some more happy Tucker photos, and maybe even some with his brothers, to share.

Josh and Jacob being good assistants

Preschool for Jacob

It has been an eventful last couple of weeks for Jacob, especially.  Last week he had another EEG for the Dr.'s to see how his head is doing.  I had to sleep deprive him for a day and a half before so they could be sure to get him sleeping for the EEG.  I kept him up from his nap the day before, put him to bed late, and then woke him up early the morning of the EEG.  I had a feeling it was going to be a miracle to get him there in the car without him falling asleep.  I was doing really good keeping him awake too, until the last mile.  I let my guard down and looked back to see him snoozing away.  I was able to wake him up when I got him out of the car, but boy was he grumpy!  He was, lets just say, less than cooperative while the nurse was trying to put on the leads.  I had to hold his left arm down and try to hold his head still at the same time.  It was quite interesting.  Jacob is a lot stronger than he looks!  She finally got them done though without having to sedate him, then I had to get him to sleep.  I laid with him, rubbed his forehead and sang to him.  It took about 15 minutes or so, but he finally dozed off.  He was asleep for about 5 minutes when she came in and said, "OK, we are all done".  so then he was awake for the rest of the day for us to deal with.  Needless to say, he went to bed right after dinner, messy hair and all. We are still waiting to hear results of the EEG, but I am going to assume that no news is good news for now.

EEG hair

We also had a meeting with the school district at the developmental preschool that Jacob will be attending.  It went pretty good and all of Jacob's therapists came which I thought was very cool.  We met his Teacher, his Principle, school Nurse, Psychologist, and other important people that would be involved in his daily activities.  It was a good meeting and they said he was ready for his 2 week observation which could start this week.  So I dropped him off for his first day this morning.  I thought I would be just fine, and I was, until I started driving out of the parking lot and all of a sudden it hit me, I got all teared up.  This is the first time I have ever left him with anyone that was not family (other than his surgery).  I can say I am watching the clock this morning until pick up time.  I am sure it will get easier every day, at least he seemed to handle it well.

I thought I would post a short video clip for everyone to see him.  He was in the bathtub, but I was able to film without showing anything (I think).  It shows him saying hi, and play, and some of his jabbering that none of us know what means (if anyone can figure it out, let me know).

A New Year

I have one New Years resolution:  to keep up on the blog at least 2 times a month.  I don't know how I let it get so that the last post was in September.  I have been a bad blogger, all I can say is something always came up.  I have sat down to update the blog numerous times, I think I even had a draft waiting for me, but every time I started to write it, something distracted me.  Now I am not making any excuses, I truly believe you can always find time for things you would like to get done (and I did want to do it), but something else always became a priority at the time.  Oh well, that is in the past and it is a New Year! I vow to update more. 

Visiting the firehouse in Utah

going for a ride in the firetruck

Anyway, so much has happened I will not bother to write it all.  We had a great Halloween, a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting with Rick's Family in Utah, and a great Christmas and New Year here at home.  Everyone is happy and healthy (after a bout of colds that hit all of us and lingered around for a while) and Joshua even celebrated his 6th Birthday yesterday.

I started to get Christmas cards out in the mail, but then decided that so much had happened that we should write a Christmas letter (Rick also agreed). I did not get it out yet either, so now we will send out a New Years letter (and I hope to have them in the mail soon). 

Jacob is doing well in his therapies and is saying more and more all of the time.  He has shown that he likes to be mischievous, and all of his therapists know it now.  He is still seizure free and we get closer and closer to that one year mark where we will be able to take him off his last seizure medicine.  (It is hard to believe that this time last year we were still finding out whether or not they even wanted to do surgery, we have come a long way!)  He has been approved to start a developmental preschool when he turns 3, and we have our first observation scheduled for next week.  I am not sure how I will handle having just Tucker 4 (half) days a week, but I am sure we can find something to fill our time.

Tucker is growing bigger, but is not as big as either of his brothers were (I guess because he prefers to sleep a bit more than eating all the time like his brothers did).  He is starting to sit up and is very close to mastering it.  He has held his sitting up position (by himself unsupported) for about 10 seconds now without falling, so I know that soon he will be a pro!  He is still the easiest baby in the world, so I guess the 3 time is the charm ;) He likes both of his brothers a lot, and does not even get scared of Jacob coming at him anymore (Jacob has learned to be more gentle with him though). 

 Joshua is doing quite well in Montessori and is one of the best readers in his class.  I have a feeling he will go into 1st grade at public school next year in the top of his class.  Hopefully he won't get too bored.  He is good with both of his brothers and has even made the comment that we should have another one (to which I laughed out loud and said "are you crazy"). I had to inform him that I made sure already that we would not have any more. 

Josh blowing out his candles in his "Handsome suit"

Josh's Birthday "Handsome Suit" #2

Jacob pushing Tucker while shopping

 Well, this post has been long enough now, so I will just end it by saying I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and have an even better New Year!  We send all our love out to all our friends and family!