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).