A Summer in Pictures

We have had one busy summer so far, which is why I have not updated. I'm going to give an update using some of our favorite pictures of big events from this summer!!

Micah's first trip to the beach. We went to Maumee Bay as our first official spontaneous outing of the summer! That's Ethan in the back right of the picture.

"Dream Night" at the Toledo Zoo. It was a totally free invitation only night that Ethan was invited to. He had such a great time being treated so special and he got to see and do a lot of things that we normally don't get to. It was awesome!

We spent a couple of days in Marblehead and Lakeside, OH for Matt's step-family reunion. This is the view of Lake Erie from our hotel room.

Ethan wanted to play in the kiddie pool before we left. It was 1 of 3 pools at the resort. We decided that the next time, we would stay more than one night, so that we can take better advantage of all of the pools :)

Chillin' by the pool, watching Ethan play.

Matt's brothers Taylor (left) and Alex (right) came into town for the reunion with their mom. This was at Zia's the night before they left to return to San Diego.

Matt and I went with my brother-in-law and nephew to a Detroit Tigers game. It turned out to be the longest night and game! It started to rain, which ended up causing a 2 hour rain delay. The game ended just before it began to pour again! We got completely soaked when we were trying to get to the car, which made for a very cold car ride. It didn't help that we ended up circling Detroit for an hour due to the non-existent detours. In the end, we finally got to our house around 3 a.m.

Matt was installing a new attic ladder, which had styrofoam in the box. Ethan found it really interesting and snuck down to his playroom (which I had just spent a week organizing and cleaning) and proceeded to make snow ALL OVER his playroom! This picture was taken shortly after he was crying, because he was already told not to shred it and he was now in trouble for doing it secretly in his room!! Of course, I couldn't help but laugh and hug the poor little guy who only wanted to have some snow in the summertime.

Testing out his big kid bike. It is still a bit difficult for him to pedal, but he is learning and keeps trying.

When Matt had his guys weekend at our house, Ethan, Micah, my mom and I headed up to Frankenmuth for the weekend. We were only going to stay one night, but we were so exhausted that we ended up calling Matt to book us another night at a hotel! It was a really fun weekend.

Our biker dude! His shirt says Heavy Pedal and has a picture of his tricycle. He loves his trike. So, while he is still learning how to ride the big bike, he is happy to ride his trike!

Micah turned 8 months old in June.

This is Ethan's first experience with sparklers. Micah was in bed and Ethan and I were home alone on the 4th, so I pulled out the sparklers. His scared face is real and it is because he was afraid of the fireworks that were going on in the background. He began to cry just after I took this and insisted that we had to get inside and shut all of the windows, shades and curtains. He loves fireworks, but HATES the noise they make.

Matt's dad and brother Chris came in from San Diego for a week long visit. One of the first events was going to the Mud Hens game, which included some more fireworks. We all had a great time!

This is Micah's first time on the zoo safari train. That's his uncle Chris in the background. This was Micah's 3rd time to the zoo, but the first time he was awake. The other two times he fell asleep in the car and slept the entire time we were at the zoo!

This is at the rock beds on the Maumee River. We had a really great time discovering this little gem. Matt's been there before, but it was all new to me and I loved it. This is a picture of Matt skipping some stones.

3 generations of Young men. That's Maggie down at the bottom of the picture, she is constantly at Grandpa Young's side when he is here. It is amazing that she remembers him so well after 4 years!

Our tiny miracle turned 5! He had so many birthday celebrations, but he really had a great time at this one. It was a luau for his Aunt Gail's 50th and since it was on his actual birthday we celebrated his also! He loved it. He was dancing most of the night and he loved the attention. He was stuck to his birthday buddy Aunt Gail for most of the night.

Micah had a great time hanging out with his cousin Madison. Can you believe he is only 6 months older than her? He looks huge!

A family picture at the luau! Gotta love the attention span of a 9 month old!

Ethan's yearly picture on the recliner with his bear and preemie doll. I still can't believe he was ever that tiny. I remember when he was about the same size as that teddy bear when we first started the pictures with it. His 5 year doctor appointment went really well and he is looking forward to going to kindergarten.

Micah turned 9 months in July. He was 22 lbs 7 oz at his doctor's appointment. He is in the 75th %tile in weight, height and head circumference. He is doing great and it has been wonderful!

Our big boys with their picture bears! Micah has such a long torso that he is getting so close to Ethan when they are sitting together. They are really having a great time playing together and we are so proud of them. My favorite thing about being in the car with them is when they make each other laugh. It is the sweetest sound and it happens more and more now.

This is just too cute not to share! He was jumping and looked like a boxer about to get into the ring.

In other news, Matt and I just celebrated 10 years of marriage. We have been together for 16 1/2 years now. Matt has been playing volleyball 2 times a week, with one of them as part of a volleyball league in Perrysburg. He loves playing and seems to be really enjoying that time each week. I have been working out with a trainer 2 times a week and I am really starting to see the changes. I'm really excited about the fact that I have been sticking with this and this is the most weight I have been able to lose at one time. I still have a long way to go, but I know that I can do it and that I will do it. In a few weeks Ethan and I will head back to school. It will be hard to give up our summer, but at least we will have a lot of great things to look back on. It has been an awesome summer and I know it will continue for the rest of the summer!

Big News All Around

We have had so many things happening in the past few weeks. I am trying to remember everything that has happened!

Ethan graduated from preschool and we were so proud of him. He really did a great job this year. He will be moving on to Kindergarten in the fall at the same school he has been attending for the past two years. The day after his graduation, we had his IEP meeting. Ethan will continue to receive speech services, but doesn't need any academic services as of now. He will also have an aide in the classroom that he will share with at least one other student, maybe more. We found out that academically, he is doing very well, even better than we thought, so again we were very proud of him. This summer, he will be involved in several different things. He will be in a therapy group called Social Butterflies, which will help him with his social skills. It is an 8 week program, but only once a week. At the end of the month, he will go to Safety-Town for 9 days. It will be great, because he will be with some of the kids he will be going to school with. He will also likely be with some of the kids that he was in preschool with. He will also attend the VBS at our church. I am also working on planning some little field trips that he will be allowed to take some of his cousins to. We really want to immerse him in a lot of fun activities that include other kids, to help him to continue to grow socially and help him prepare for kindergarten. Another big piece of news for him is that he was able to graduate from private speech therapy. He has gone as far as he can with private sessions. He will now have group sessions at school, which will help him with his conversational skills.

Micah turned 7 months and is now headed towards 8 months. He has been sitting like a pro now and has even been working on standing. His favorite position is standing and jumping. He loves to jump in any way possible. We have yet to see him consitently roll over and he seems to have no desire to crawl, since he screams when we put him on his tummy. We are now sure that he will probably bypass crawling and go straight to walking. I know that for the best physical growth, he needs to crawl, so we will continue to push him to crawl. He does scoot himself around pretty well now. When on the floor, he will scoot backwards on his back or if he is sitting he will just hop himself from place to place. He really wants to move, but in the upright position if possible!! Micah finally has some teeth popping out. We have been waiting months for them to finally pop out and now he has two of his bottom teeth coming in. So, we've been dealing with a lot of ups and downs with him, but at least they are finally coming through. He has really been learning about his voice, of course, he tries to really show his voice in the quietest moments at church! He seems to feel that the pastor should not be the center of attention. In today's sermon, the pastor said "the prophet Micah said..." and continued into a quote and in that moment it was like Micah heard it and started talking even louder. He can say "a ba ba ba" really well and very loud!!

Matt has ended wallyball, which is his winter sport. He travels down to BGSU each week for that during the school year. He was really happy when beach volleyball started up again. He drives to BG each Sunday to play. He has also started to play on Tuesday's at his former boss' house. That is another long drive, but he doesn't care as long as he gets to play. He has been in a weight loss program at work and has been doing very well, losing about 6 lbs so far. It definitely helps when several people at work are all doing the same thing.

I finished work last week, but I will still have to go in tomorrow to finish closing my room for the summer. I'm excited to be home with the boys and actually enjoy this summer. I feel like doing so many things that I couldn't do last year! I really do feel like a new person this year, because of what I went through last year. Last week, I started working with a personal trainer. I am currently doing it with a friend and my sister and niece may start coming also. I'm really excited to get this going. The exercise part is great, but I really need to work hard on the food part. It will take me a little longer to get myself eating better, but with the summer, it should hopefully not be too hard. It helps to have better fresh fruits and vegetables available. I really hope to make it all work for me so that I can reach some big goals by the end of the summer. Now that I'm out of school, I should be able to update more regularly instead of once every few weeks!

Here are a couple of pictures...

Update on the Family

It seems like forever since I posted. I will work on being better about this, things have just been busy lately. Here goes...

Micah is now about 6 1/2 months old. He will be 7 months old on May 13th. He is growing like crazy lately. I took him to the doctor today and he is 20 lbs 6 oz! He is also 27 inches long. He actually grew 1 1/2 inches in one month. Micah is currently wearing a lot of 12 month clothing. He started to eat solids at the beginning of March and has been doing great. We just started fruits this weekend and he is starting to like it. He started to sit up at 5 months old and is sitting like a pro now. We have been working to get him to roll over, but he is not really wanting to do it. He has done it a couple of times, but not consistently. We really think he will be more mobile soon. He is showing signs of wanting to just go, however it may be! He loves jumping in whatever way he can. We have a stationary exersaucer and he jumps like crazy in it. We also have a johnny jump-up that he also loves. If you stand him up, he starts jumping like crazy. His legs are nice and strong. Overall, he is a happy baby, you just can't let him get hungry :) It is clear that he really wants to play with his big brother. Ethan is great at making him laugh.

Ethan has been sick once again. We will be so happy once the summer gets here, as he always does better then. I'm really thinking he needs ear tubes again. This was the first winter without tubes and it was his worst winter yet. I am going to set up an appointment with the ENT once both of us are out of school. We are hoping his hearing has not been too affected. Last week, he went to his kindergarten screening and he did awesome! I was so proud of him. He knew 25/26 capital letters, 20/26 lowercase letters, 9/11 numbers, all of his shapes and colors and wrote his first name. The teacher thought he did a great job and told us what things to work on over the summer. We go to his MFE/IEP review at the end of May to see what services he may have in kindergarten. He is getting close to being discharged from private speech. We will know more once we have his IEP meeting and we know if he will be having speech therapy at school. We are signing him up for Safety Town and for Social Butterflies this summer. Social Butterflies will give him speech and occupational therapy, specifically in social skills. He was in a similar program last summer and it really helped him, so we think this will be really good for him too.

Matt and I are both keeping pretty busy with work. I have a little over a month left. I go to camp with my students at the end of May, so we started to get me prepared for that this weekend. The first step was having him stay the night with grandma on Friday. It was nice because it gave us the opportunity to take Ethan to dinner, a movie and Learning Express. It was the first night I was away from him, since he was born. We also moved him to his own room on Saturday night. Prior to that, he had still been in the co-sleeping bassinet right next to me. He looked so huge in the bassinet and now looks so tiny in the crib! Both of us have done very well with it, so it is all good. We had our March for Babies walk last weekend and it went very well. We had a great time and raised around $2500!! Thank you to all of you that donated to us.

Here are a few pictures...

Stripped to his diaper at March for Babies!

Team Ethan Riley

Happy Easter!

Our Little Model

6 months old

Having fun at Aunt Joyce's house.

Having fun with their new baby cousin Madison.

What means....and why?

Those are two of Ethan's favorite phrases lately. He has become very curious about everything, especially the meaning of things. So, when he wants to know what something means, he says, "what means..." Sometimes he says it just to say it, but most of the time he sincerely wants to know what something means. I love it, because he is such a sponge and actually remembers most things. He will even ask what some big words are and then he tries to use them later.

Why? has also become a favorite. Everything is "why?" I can remember back when my nephew Justin was going through the "why" phase and I let my sister borrow my big book of why. I'm thinking I may have bring it home from school, so that I can use it! He really does think things through when he asks and it is so great.

Ethan is growing so fast and is amazing me every day with all of the new things he is learning. Over the past few days, he has nearly shocked me. Those who know Ethan really well know he is very shy. He tends to get really quiet in large groups and barely talks. On Saturday, we were out to dinner with my entire family for Easter. When we all get together there are 23 people. Over the years, Ethan has taken baby steps with his feeling comfortable with the family. He is now at the point that he will play a little with his cousins when they are all together. He is really comfortable with all of his aunts and uncles now. I had told Ethan to go to my mom and tell her Happy Easter, so he said "ok" and did it. On his own he chose to go up to every single person at the table and say "Happy Easter". It was amazing!! He did so well. Matt and I couldn't believe he did it all on his own. He was even disappointed that he couldn't say it to some of the cousins he couldn't get to, so we showed him a way to do it and he was so happy.

On Tuesday, we were driving home from my mom's house after school. We always talk in the car and it is usually the same basic conversation each day. I ask him what he did at school and most of the time he answers "I don't know" or "no anything". Then I ask him "what sounds good for dinner" and we discuss possible ideas and try to decide on something. But, on Tuesday, out of no where he asked me "what sounds good for dinner?" So, we talked about it a little and came to a decision. I was shocked he asked it himself. Then I asked him about his day and at first said "I don't know", then I said "yes you do, tell me one thing that was fun". Before I knew it, he was giving me every detail of what he did in the day!! I was so excited about it. I really couldn't believe it and I was amazed. It was so great!

Last week, he even asked me "how was school mommy? I was so excited he asked and made sure that I answered him. We have been watching him just bloom and it has been so much fun. We are looking forward to what the next few months will bring for him. Everyday is really fun and interesting with him and we always look forward to the next one!

March for Babies 2009

Happy weekend everyone!!

We are about ready to walk in this year's March of Dimes March for Babies walk, here in Toledo. I am writing today to ask for your help in reaching our goal. As you may know, the March of Dimes has helped our family many times in the past several years. We were first helped almost 5 years ago, when Ethan was born. He was born at 25 weeks and was unable to breathe on his own, due to his underdeveloped lungs. While he was in the hospital, he was given surfactant, which helped his lungs to mature and grow enough so that he could breathe on his own. A March of Dimes grantee developed surfactant, and it has now saved the lives of thousands and thousands of babies, including Ethan. We have been so blessed with Ethan in our lives and we are so thankful that the March of Dimes was able to grant money to researchers that developed surfactant, amongst other things, to save his life.

We have watched Ethan grow into the strong, little boy that he is today. It is sometimes hard to think that there was a time when we could not just pick him up and hold him. I can still remember the many days where we would go in prepared to finally hold him, just to be told that he was too sick that day. I can remember the days when we saw him stop breathing and had to watch nurses work to get him breathing again. When I look at him today, it is amazing to think about what he has endured in such a short time. Ethan has such a strength that only those who have endured such difficulties can have. He is a true miracle and I am reminded of that miracle every single day.

We were blessed in this past year with another miracle in Micah. I was very close to losing that pregnancy also, except this time, it was much earlier. I was put on bedrest, had a cerclage placed and took progesterone, in order to keep the pregnancy viable. I can remember celebrating the day where I reached the point that I had Ethan and being thankful to have made it, even a minute longer in the pregnancy. I fought to remain pregnant as long as possible and thankfully, made it to 39 weeks! I am so thankful to the March of Dimes for Micah also. With his pregnancy, I was armed with a lot more information going into and throughout the pregnancy. The March of Dimes website helped me through the days where I was filled with questions and it even helped me to connect with several women going through a similar pregnancy. The March of Dimes provides information to pregnant women, and even to those who want to become pregnant.

Watching Micah, a full-term infant, grow, has been amazing also. I am so amazed at how quickly he picks up on new things. He is such a fighter and has a strong personality, which I know helped him to get to 39 weeks. He loves his big brother Ethan. When I look at the two of them playing together, I know I am blessed to have been able to have two wonderful little boys.

I realized that if each person were to give at least $15 to our team, we will be able to reach our goal. I ask that you consider helping other moms experience 9 months of pregnancy. If you have had a healthy baby or babies, please know that it was partly because of the research that has been done to give all babies a healthy start.

You can help in several ways...
1. Donate to our team, by clicking on the banner at the right of this page.
2. Join our team, we would love to have you walk with us.
3. Form a team in honor of a child or in memory of a child. It is never too late to start a team. You can do that at www.marchforbabies.org

We thank you in advance for any donation you may be able to give. I am attaching the link to the video that I made last year.


Ethan's Amazing Story

Thank you so much!
Matt, Lina, Ethan and Micah Young

5 months and a family update!!

On March 13, Micah turned 5 months old. We have not been to the doctor yet, so I don't have any stats. We go next Monday, so I'll update after that. But, we do have some news about him that has been very exciting. On March 8, Micah began to eat cereal. He did really well right from the start. Each day we worked on him not putting his hands in his mouth while eating and now almost 2 1/2 weeks later, he is doing a great job! He is opening his mouth for the food and his hands are staying away from his mouth through most of the meal. He loves eating his cereal. On March 21, Micah began to sit up on his own. For several months, he has been wanting to sit up and he finally did it on Saturday! He is sitting for quite awhile before he begins to fall over. We are still amazed at how quickly he did it. Of course, he has yet to roll over, which usually comes first. Hopefully, he'll do it soon. We have a feeling he will go straight to walking next. Having been through physical therapy with Ethan, we know how important crawling will be for him, so we are going to work hard to get him to crawl first (I remember Jen!!). Overall, he is doing so great and is really getting quite the personality. We are loving watching him grow and change.

Ethan has been doing really great too! He went to the dentist this week and has no cavities! He was amazing at the dentist, the hygenist said that she would love to have Ethan as a patient all day! Ethan does so great everytime we go to a doctor or the dentist and he never ceases to amaze me with his behavior. We have also been getting him ready for kindergarten. We went to visit his future kindergarten classes today and we are getting more and more excited about it. As scary as it is to send him to kindergarten, we think he will really enjoy it and get a lot from it. He has been working on writing his name and has improved so much. He is even drawing pictures of people really well. His coloring has also improved greatly. He still colors in one color, but he is staying in the lines really well. Ethan is a determined little boy and he works hard at everything he tries to do. His vocabulary is growing so much each day and we have loved hearing how much he tries to use his new words.

Matt and I have been really busy lately. It has been a pretty crazy life. Between work and other committments, we have both been pretty bogged down at times. Being back at work has been overwhelming at times. It is really hard to come in halfway through the year. I feel at times as if I'm just swimming along and hoping not to drown. Catching up on things I have missed, learning all of the new things that have been implemented, and keeping up with daily lessons and routines has been difficult. The actual teaching has been great. We have a good group of students, so that part is fine. It is just all of the other stuff that adds up. The second semester of the year is always very busy and difficult, but it is even harder when you are also trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm really looking forward to next year and being able to start fresh at the beginning of the year, especially with routines that I have established. Like I said, luckily I have a good group of students, so that has really helped me to get through things a little easier. Every day gets better and each week gets a little easier. I am finally getting to the point where I feel a little ahead at times on my lesson planning, so everything else will begin to fall into place.

Here are some pictures of our little guys...

5 months! The bear is getting smaller!

My boys and Me!

The brothers at their monthly picture.

Lounging in his bath robe.

Look at all those rolls! And he is sitting up by himself!

Enjoying the weather at the park.

Interview with Ethan

Here is an interview that I conducted with Ethan. One of Matt's cousins did this with her son and I thought it would be fun to do with Ethan. I found his answers to be very interesting. I didn't change any of his answers, I typed as he said them. My favorite is #10, I really couldn't believe he said it! He amazes me everyday :) #1 right now, especially, makes me really sad, but I also know that he probably didn't mean it the way I'm taking it. He did a great job and was so patient through it all. Enjoy...

1. What is something mom always says to you? good-bye
2. What makes mom happy? when you sit down
3. What makes mom sad? when you lay down
4. How does your mom make you laugh? when I’m funny
5. What was your mom like as a child? she was a baby
6. How old is your mom? 4
7. How tall is your mom? shorter
8. What is her favorite thing to do? play
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? go to church
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will that be for? for saving Micah
11. What is your mom really good at? at Micah and me
12. What is your mom not very good at? being sad
13. What does your mom do for a job? to work
14.What is your mom's favorite food? pasta
15. What makes you proud of your mom? daddy
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? pingu
17. What do you and your mom do together? Play with blocks and legos
18. How are you and your mom the same? Micah and me
19. How are you and your mom different? I don’t know
20. How do you know your mom loves you? you hug and kiss me
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? hugging daddy
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? to a restaurant

Pink Medicine

Pink Medicine is bad, but Orange Medicine is good!!

This is Ethan's thinking. Unfortunately, in his 4 1/2 years of life, he has had to endure a lot of different medicines. So, he has become really good at distinguishing between the "good" and the "bad". Orange medicine is the Motrin or Ibuprofin. We must buy the orange, because that is the one he will take without too much of an issue. But, you try to give him pink or red and you are in for a fight. Well, they only make his antibiotics in pink and cherry flavored. He hates it!! We have had to give him pink medicine several times in the last three months and each time has been a challenge. The first couple of times he was on Zithromax, which is only once a day for 5 days. It's a challenge, but not too bad. This time he's on Bactrin and it is twice a day for 10 days! Not so much fun.

He comes up with every excuse not to take it when he sees it coming. It is pretty funny, he'll turn his head away as if that will change the fact that he will have to take it :) 2 tsp is not that much, unless you are trying to give it to a kid that doesn't want it.

When we would give him cough syrup, he really hated that! He would literally shake after drinking it. Of course, I can't say that I don't do the same. I really hate cough syrup and it probably has to do with the fact that I had to take a lot of it as a kid. I try to avoid it at all costs, but when it is my only option, I literally have to rinse my mouth out immediately after or else it doesn't stay down. So, him having these aversions to medicine is not too surprising given what I do with medicine :) At least it helps him to feel better and I think he knows that, but he sometimes has to be reminded about it :)

So just remember, pink is bad, orange is good :)

Sick of Sickness!!

This winter has been awful for Ethan. Since he was born, this is by far his worst winter yet. When we were in the hospital with him, they kept telling us that the first winter would be the worst and to expect that he could get sick. We did what they said and we kept him in until Easter. It was his best winter and ours too! The next year, he did pretty well, but at the end of the winter ended up with asthma. The year after that we were dealing with ear tubes and reflux, which caused him to cough for 3 months. Last year, he had a pretty good winter and only picked up colds here and there from school.

This year, however, has been awful. The other years had their moments, but this has been non-stop. I've starting thinking that everyone is going to think we have been lying about his sickness to get out of going to stuff. I wish we were! Since he started school in Sept., he has been sick every 2-4 weeks. Some of it has to do with the fact that he is with other kids that also have low immune systems, so they easily pass things to each other. But, I also think his ears may have something to do with it also. He has had 3-4 ear infections since mid-Dec, which means antibiotics each time. For the last 3 or 4 times he has had a cold, he has also needed to go on prednosone, which is never fun. Thankfully, we have possibly avoided it this time though.

Unfortunately, we did not avoid the antibiotic. Matt took Ethan to the doctor today to find out why he was having so many fevers this weekend. The doctor confirmed what we were thinking, that it was another ear infection. He also told us that Ethan's lungs sounded good even though he has been coughing like crazy. The poor little guy just looks sick and has for much of the last several months. We are hoping that we will finally get him past all of this.

Both Matt and I have suffered at different points with colds that we have probably caught from Ethan, but luckily Micah has not really had too many problems. He has had a stuffy/runny nose off and on for a few weeks now, and he has coughed and sneezed. We are thinking some of it has to do with his teething, but he may also be getting little colds too. It is such an amazing thing to have a kid that actually makes it through a cold without much assistance! We just hope it stays that way :)

Matt and I both feel like we have been so busy lately and we could really use a break. Of course, that won't be coming anytime soon. It would be great to just get away, but we know it would mean more work when we come back. For me, school has been stressful. There is just a lot going on and it doesn't help that I have not been able to dig myself out of the piles of work I have. Everytime I seem to get a little ahead, there are about 5 emails/memos/students/parents, etc. giving me more work to do. I know it is part of the job and it really wouldn't be bad, if I didn't have all of this other stuff to do on top of it. Hopefully, someday I will be back on track with my daily routine.

With school giving me so much work, I barely have time to spend at home with the kids. I get home, we rush a dinner and I get right back to work. I don't have time to exercise, which I know would help me to feel less stressed. I have also had a lot of pain in my back and my feet, so I know the exercise would really help that too. Hopefully, if Matt and I can get Ethan on track and get ourselves feeling better, everything else will start to get better! I really hope that will be true :) We are all feeling so run down that we need some good, positive things happening at home and outside of home :) Please join us in praying that Ethan starts to feel better and gets back to normal (well, normal for him).

Busy Week!

We had quite a big week! On Saturday, my lease on my car was up, which meant we had to get a new car. For several weeks, we have been researching the best cars for our needs. Several weeks ago, we drove to several dealerships to just look at the cars we thought would be possible. We went when they were closed, so that we could just look without getting forced into something. We wrote down all of the possibilities and then we signed up for consumer reports. We looked everything up and then narrowed down our list to two cars that fit all of our needs. So, we test drove the Toyota Sienna and the Ford Taurus X. While at Ford, we also drove the Ford Flex. After driving the cars, we decided to eliminate the Taurus and add the Flex.

So, last week, we talked to both Toyota and Ford and ended up with a better deal on the Flex. It had all of the features we wanted, plus a few extras and the bonus was that it was in Red!! My favorite color! On Saturday, we packed up the boys and headed to Ford to buy my Flex! We love it and it has been fun getting used to all of the new little features. We are so excited about it and Ethan loves it!!

Then on Sunday, we celebrated Micah's baptism. Our friends Andy and Becky were his Godparents. We all headed to lunch afterwards, and it was fun to get a chance to catch up with friends and family. Micah did such a great job at his baptism, everyone was impressed. My pastor walks the babies down the aisle a little so that everyone can see the newest member of the church. Micah seemed to just take it all in. He sat there just looking at everyone, which was so cute. We were so happy to finally celebrate his birth and his being a child of God. It was a pretty busy weekend, but we had such a great time with everything.
I will post some pictures of the baptism and my new car as soon as I have them :)

On a sadder note, we lost a young boy in our church congregation on Sunday. He was 11 years old and passed away unexpectedly. I would like to ask you to pray for his family. His name was Larry and he was such a bright spot in our church. His family is obviously having a difficult time dealing with the loss of Larry. It has been a shock to all who knew him. Today was the funeral. Please pray for all who knew Larry, especially his parents and sister.

4 Months!!

Micah turned 4 months old last Friday. I took him to the doctor this past Monday for his well baby check. He weighed 15lbs 15oz and was 25 inches long!! He moved back to the 50th percentile. At his 3 month appointment he was in the 90th, but during the last month he must have evened out again and is now exactly where he should be :) He looks huge though and even feels huge. Micah is starting to learn more about his voice and is making sure we know it too. We hear more "yelling" now as he is trying to talk.

We still think he has some teeth that are trying to work their way in, but they haven't shown yet. We will start solids next month, so that will be a fun experience. I'm sure he will be such a happy baby to get something other than liquid. He practically drools over the food we eat. It is so funny the way he watches us eat, as if he is about grab the food right out of our hand.

Micah is now start to grab for what he wants, which has been interesting. The other day, I went to pick him up after a very long day at work and he grabbed my face and started licking and sucking on my cheek! Apparently, he thought I was his bottle. He is also starting to grab my hands and pulling them to his mouth to suck on them. It is weird to see him in this stage. Ethan didn't like to put anything in his mouth, but Micah seems to love it. I remember prying Ethan's mouth open, just to get him to suck on something for teething! We have no problem this time, I think, instead, we will have to take things out of his mouth.

Overall, he seems to be growing and developing very well. He had a couple of vaccines on Monday and he was such a trooper. I was always proud of the way Ethan handled shots. He would just cry for a few seconds, then look at my face and calm down. Micah does the same thing. He cried for just a few seconds, found my face and calmed down. I was so proud of him. He seems to have a pretty similar temperament as Ethan, which will mean good things if it stays that way. We have been really lucky with Ethan being such a good boy, and we hope that we have the same thing with Micah. So far he seems to be very similar to Ethan in that respect.

Ethan will be going to kindergarten next year, so Matt went to an introductory meeting for that last Friday. He will go to the same school that he is currently attending, which will be great for his transition. We have already started to prep him for the fact that he will have a different teacher and a lot more friends in his class. He seems to understand now, because he will tell us how it will be different. In March, we get to go to the open house for kindergarten. I've subbed in the kindergarten at his school, so I know a little bit about it already, but it has been something like 8 years since I subbed there. I talked with his teacher yesterday and we were able to discuss some of the plans for Ethan. We will finalize the plans for him sometime in May. At that time, it will be decided if he will stay on the IEP and then what kind of services he will need. It sounds like he will probably have the IEP, but as a team we'll have to discuss what will be the best situation for him. Our biggest concern is that he doesn't fall through the cracks and just slip by each year. Thankfully, his district has a good special eduction program, so we are really happy about that.

Here are some pictures of my big boys!!

The monthly picture with the bear!

Big Brother wanted to hop into the picture!

Proud of his trains that he was playing with.

Huh??? What do you want now?

This is what I get to see everyday! It makes me so happy!

Emotional times...

I wasn't sure if I would post about this or not, but it seems to keep coming up in different conversations I have had recently. 2 weeks ago, I finally began to pack up the maternity clothes I had left and the 0-3 month clothes that Micah had outgrown. It needed to be done for weeks, but something kept making me put it off. I finally decided that it had to be done in order for other things to get organized.

As I was packing things up I found myself getting more and more upset. I sat there holding the baby clothes and remembering Ethan wearing some of them. I also remembered how Ethan never got to wear a lot of them because of his oxygen and monitor wires and tubing. Micah grew so fast that he was also not able to wear some of the clothing more than one time. As I sat there remembering, I realized that none of my children would ever wear the clothing again. I also realized that I was not ready to give away or sell the clothes.

Matt came upstairs as I was finishing and saw that I was upset. In that moment, I finally broke down and cried. I didn't realize how hard it would be to deal with this. During the pregnancy, both Matt and I knew that we didn't want to go through another pregnancy because of the risk to any future child and to me. I never really had time to let it sink in, so it hit me that day when I was packing things up. It hit me that I would never be pregnant again and would never wear my maternity clothes again. It hit me that I would never have another baby to wear all of the cute little outfits that we have. It hit me that I HAD to make a decision that I didn't really want to make.

After having Ethan, I realized how much I loved being a mom and had said that if I had a good second pregnancy I would want to try for a 3rd. But, after Micah's pregnancy turned out to be difficult in a whole new way, I knew that I couldn't go through it again. I still wanted another child, but I knew I couldn't. So, on that day, I realized how much it hurt that I had to make that decision. I know that some people would say that no one made me get my tubes tied, but I made me. So, I am fighting against myself in this. I stand behind my decision to not put a future child at risk, but I am still saddened by the fact that I won't have any more children. I am so blessed to have the two children I have. I could have easily lost both and I know that the chances are too high that I would lose the next one.

I have talked about it with several people recently, because I have been asked if I will have any other children. It has made me realize that I am not crazy for feeling the way I do, or for making the decision I made. Everyone has said that they would have probably made the same decision, but would have also felt the same kind of sadness. I am so happy with my two children and I really do feel that my family is complete, but I still need to work my way through this decision.

Every day that goes by, I feel more and more comfortable with my decision. Every day that I deal with the pain from the bedrest, I remind myself how hard I had to work to bring life to my child Micah. Every day that I watch Ethan grow and learn, I remind myself of the 88 days I held his hands and willed him to live, I remind myself of all of the years of specialists and therapist appointments. It is in those moments I remind myself why I HAD to make the decision I did. I didn't want to risk the life of a child, my child. I couldn't go through the stress of having a high-risk pregnancy again and deal with being scared every single day of the pregnancy.

My brain tells me all of those things and helps me to see the intelligence behind this choice. My heart on the other hand is not as logical. My heart is the heart of a mommy and it will take it a little longer to become as logical, but we are almost there! Everyday, my heart fills even more with the love for my children. I now understand why, even though you have made a choice, you may still be sad. I thank all of the people that have been so supportive with our decision and helping us to feel like we made the right choice.

Sickness and more...

The last time I wrote, I mentioned that Ethan was getting sick. He ended up with an ear infection along with all of the asthma/cold stuff. In the end, we were giving him 4 different medications. Unfortunately, because he was on prednosone along with his albuterol, we ended up with many sleepless nights. One morning he woke up at 1:30 am and never went back to sleep until about 8pm that night!! Then that night he woke up at 3:30am and didn't go back to sleep until that evening. It was not a fun couple of nights, but somehow we made it through. He is still coming out of it all, but is doing a lot better overall. Micah seems to have avoided this mess, but he has had a runny nose off and on, which could be from the teething we think he is doing right now. Matt and I have not done as well as Micah though. Matt got sick toward the end of the week and I am now getting sick. Hopefully, we will all be healthier soon, because we are sick of being sick! I just wish things would be easier with Ethan and sickness, but I guess we'll just have to wait that out and hope we will someday be able to get through a cold without being worried about his asthma and lungs in general.

Other than that, we are surviving me being back at work. It has been difficult at times, but we are making it. I'm trying not to bring home a lot of work, but that doesn't seem to be working too well. I'd really like to get to a point where I don't have to bring home anything. I'm hoping to get myself a couple of weeks ahead if possible, so that I can spend more time with the kids in the evening. Its funny because I have brought home stuff each night and most nights I am so exhausted and end up hanging out with Ethan and Micah, then going to bed. Tonight is one of those nights. As soon as I finish this I'm headed to bed, because I am really beginning to feel quite sick. Plus, I have Micah cuddled up on me right now and he needs to cuddle up in his bed :)

Hopefully, in the next week or so I'll have some pictures of my new car! We are in the process of looking right now, since my car lease is about to be up. I think we are down to 2 or 3 cars and are just trying to decide which will give us the most features! It is hard with all of the high-tech stuff available now :)

Here are some recent pictures of Micah and Ethan...