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!