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