Lewis turns 5!

This is Lewis smiling as we sang "Happy Birthday" to him after dinner tonight. He kept counting down the days to his birthday and he would say, "I won't have to sing!" But it seems like he meant that everyone else would sing for HIM. And sure enough, he got a cheesy grin when we sang.

Lewis has been having a busy summer, but it's actually pretty laid back compared to life when school is in session. He's been eating a lot of new foods, which is huge for him. He's added corn, pizza and cereal bar to his diet in the last two weeks. He seems to be getting over the fact that he has to eat new foods. He still resists and talks about "deleting" them, but then gives in and eats. We use an iPad or iPhone to reward him (depending on who is around....our BCBA has been helping with this and she has an iPad, thankfully!), and then fade it out as he eats the food multiple times.

He is reading books, and everything he sees. Here is a video of him reading some of our "Baby Jesus" book with Owen and Phoebe the other night. It is one of his current favorites.



Here is Lewis playing some songs from his Miss Lynn cd. He loves her music and loves playing the songs on the piano when he gets a chance. They are longer videos, so be warned!

phoebe's two month stats

We made it to the doctor the other day, and can report Phoebe's official stats:

Weight: 11 lbs. 4.5 oz.
Length: 22.5"

She's in the 50th percentile for weight, and the doctor was super pleased with her growth. She seems to be doing great! We skipped shots for now. I'm trying to figure out what shots and when we want to allow her to have. Otherwise, it was a lovely visit.

Here's Phoebe after her bath the other day. She's a pink monkey! And here's a video of her smiling at about 5-6 weeks.

Owen turns 3!

Today, Owen became a big three year old. Turning 3 has brought about some changes. First, he has moved into a big boy bed. We made the transition about 10 days ago. He was actually very sad to leave his crib, and still asks to sleep there regularly. The first night he cried quite a bit, but now gets into bed just fine.To prepare him that first night, we kept talking about it, and had him write "BED" on his magnadoodle. He is all about writing these days, and spends hours a week writing and spelling on the magnadoodle or outside with chalk.


Here he is in the bed before nap. I tried to get a picture of him that first night, but he was too sad! The funny thing is that when he goes to bed, he is so used to being in a crib, that he stays there without question. He waits for us to come get him after nap and in the morning. We keep expecting him to figure it out, but so far, so good!

This one is to illustrate how active he is. It was hard getting him to cooperate so we could take a picture of ...

his stegosaurus tattoo! Justin got a new tattoo recently, and the boys have been obsessed ever since.

Here's Lewis' first tattoo. Our friend and therapist, Mandy Guss, bought and applied these to the kids and they are both super proud of their body art.

Also with turning three, Owen graduated from First Steps, Kentucky's Early Intervention program. He will head to preschool in August (more on that later), but he will surely miss his speech therapist, Kim Smith. She did a great job with him, and he really loved seeing her each week. His DI, Krista Posey, is kind of a fixture in our home, and also made a huge impact on Owen. Both boys love Krista. She makes learning so much fun. We hope to still see her regularly, but I should still get a new picture! :)

Today Owen had a big time (despite a torrential rain that poured for hours). He started out at Big Red School, then got some frozen yogurt and a visit at the Barnes & Noble train table with Mandy.

After nap, he played some with Lewis and then we had dinner. He chose to eat Mac and Cheese (one of his current faves) and applesauce. After which we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Blowing out his candles.

Finally, he got to open a few gifts. We have more parties coming up with family and friends. Tonight he got a couple of I Spy books, some underwear (which he did not seem at all excited about) to encourage him toward potty training, a car from Aunt Beth, and this tool set. The drill actually works! He seemed to like it, but was hyper due to so much sugar today. We took a walk after dinner to use up some energy before bed.

It was a fun day. Now we get to prepare for Lewis to turn 5 next week!

2 months old!

It's hard to believe Phoebe is 2 months old! She must be going through a growth spurt because she has slept a ton the last couple of days. She is smiling quite a bit now and loving her toy dragonfly. She is also sleeping 7-9 hours just about every night, which is great for us!! She is cooing quite a bit, but still doesn't like laying on her own (to play) so she has spent a lot of time in her bouncy seat the last week or so. She has rolled a couple more times, but only when propped on a pillow, so she needs a bit of gravity to help her, which is age appropriate. :)

It has been fun trying some of her little dresses on her now that she is fitting into more of her 3 month clothes. She has a doctor's appointment this week, so we will have an update of her stats soon.

Just the girls!

summer times

So while Phoebe has been sitting around growing (she's 8 weeks already!), the boys have been out playing quite a bit around town at the various parks Bowling Green has to offer. Aunt Beth took a two week trip to Chicago which gave Justin and I a chance to get out with the kids in the evenings to insure their extreme tiredness at bedtime. It's been working pretty well. Owen even opted to push Lewis on the swings some on this trip.





They are so happy there that the pictures turn out better than usual! It was hard to pick which ones to post, but you can stare longer at the ones you like best. :)

in the zone

So going from 2 to 3 kids has been quite an adjustment. I've always heard that going from 1 to 2 kids is the hardest. In our case, that didn't seem to be the case. When Owen was born, Lewis was still non-verbal, and it seemed like when he got some new toys a week later on his birthday, he was content to "play" while I had long feedings and I could easily manage the two of them on walks and that kind of thing.

Now with 3, it is virtually impossible for me to get anywhere on our own. Lewis has therapy at the hospital twice a week, and I went once with all three and it about killed me. Just getting in and out and through the parking lot about put me over the edge. Our boys do not have a concept of safety and while I try to instill that in them, they find it hilarious to run off into the danger zone and my nerves cannot handle it. We have set up a schedule now that allows for someone to be home with Owen while I go back and forth for these appointments, and I'm so grateful for the resources to do this.

The boys also like to fight with each other while I'm stuck nursing Phoebe. It is hard to get up and discipline them each time, so they are taking advantage of the situation. Now that Phoebe is sleeping a bit longer (5-7 hours depending on the night) I am functioning better and able to deal better with them when they need extra attention.

Still, it has been a big adjustment for all of us. We are enjoying Phoebe, and she is starting to coo, and even rolled over twice today (from belly to back) which surprised me at 6 weeks because the boys were both fairly behind developmentally. She is pretty active already and seems eager to move around.

All of this to say....I won't be going anywhere with the three of them by myself unless I am super desperate. We are so thankful for our providers (Aunt Beth, Mandy Guss, Krista Posey, Katrina Giannini and Aunt Ellen) who give us a break to blog and take great care of the kids so that we don't lose our minds. Lewis has had a rough adjustment to school being out, being a big brother and getting ready for kindergarten. He's been pretty clingy and keeps saying, "Mama is NOT gonna feed baby Phoebe" and things like that because he wants my attention. I welcome it because during the school year my time with him seems so limited. Still, it is hard to balance quality time with each of them. Thank God for the grace he gives and that it is not all up to me to raise these kids. In our case, in definitely takes a village!! :)

A few pics from the last week or so. We went to cousin Ryan's graduation party in Nashville and the boys got to swing with Aunt Monica.

goodbye holly

About a month ago, another one of our caregivers for the boys moved away. We have a trend of running people off/losing people to other great opportunities far away. Holly has worked with Lewis and Owen for about a year and a half. We had a mutual friend (Priscilla Baker) who first introduced us because of her interest in autism therapies. Then she was a student teacher for Krista Posey, our developmental interventionist the next semester and started working with Lewis in her spare time.

Since then she's become a good friend, and the boys have loved her! She's the one who encouraged us to go to camp at the Center for Courageous Kids where she was working at the time. The boys had a blast mostly because she made it so fun for us. We will miss her, but hope she will be coming back to the area to help more kids struggling with disabilities. She's got the perfect personality for it. :)

Here are some pics of her and the boys before she left.

preschool graduation

Thursday, Lewis wrapped up his preschool career at Parker Bennett Curry. The week before, they had a graduation ceremony where they handed out diplomas and acknowledged all the kids moving on to kindergarten. Lewis has had a great two years in Mrs. Brandy's class. It's hard to believe he'll be in a new class next year.

I think this is Lewis getting his diploma.

Aunt Beth and Lewis with his diploma.


Lewis and Mrs. Brandy. She will be Owen's teacher next year!

Lewis and Miss Brittani, the assistant who helped him this year. She'll be moving to Florida soon, and we are sad to see her go! She has done a great job preparing him to move on to kindergarten next year.


Lewis will be in Mrs. Lee's class next year. He's gotten to visit several times. Our friend, Ben, works at the school and took this picture of Lewis observing the class. He seems very excited about Mrs. Lee and what goes on in kindergarten and actually got upset when he had to leave on a couple of different occasions.

the early days from Justin's perspective

Grandma with Phoebe.

Leaving the hospital.


Resting.
One of her first baths.

Owen hoping someone comes to see him soon.

Her first month!

Phoebe survived her first month! She actually went to the doctor for a weight check last week to make she is gaining at a good enough pace. At 1 month she was 8 lbs. 15.3 oz. and since the doctor didn't call us back we are assuming he was happy with it. She was 7 lbs. 11 oz. at her 2 week check up, so she had gained more than a pound in about 2 1/2 weeks. We are not going to worry about too much and see how we are doing at 2 months.

The above picture came from an idea we got from our friend, Whitney Winkler. She has been taken monthly photos of her baby, Ellie, with a stuffed bear each month, and it is really evident how much she has grown over the months! We decided to give it a try with our stuffed lion. Hopefully she will grow and have more happy expressions in the months to come.

Phoebe has gotten into a pretty regular routine of going to sleep between 10:30-11 p.m. and sleeping until 4:30 or 5 a.m. She has slept seven straight hours a couple of times which was great! We took the above pictures after one of those long nights and she was so alert and almost smiling! Since then she has actually given some big smiles a couple of times. Those are hard to capture.

Getting a kiss from Owen (daddy's shot).

Cuddling with daddy in one of her little dresses.

Her big eyed look.
Phoebe has had a lot of visitors in the last few weeks. She got to meet lots of friends we don't see very often, including Corrie Powell (pictured above). We were so happy to see Carrie and Mary Powell too. Corrie was one of Lewis' first friends and he still speaks fondly of all the Powells. He was especially chatty about Brian Powell, but we didn't get to see him this visit, unfortunately!

We also had a visit from my friends and former roommates, Tasha Caruthers and Heather Morozov (and her daughter, Annabella). We somehow made it through the visit with no pictures!! Kinda sad about that one, but it was really nice to see them even in the fog of sleep deprivation at 2 1/2 weeks post delivery.