Our Little Photographer

Santa brought Ethan a digital camera, which has proved to be one of his favorite gifts. I thought I would share a few of his pictures. I thought some of them were somewhat artsy looking and some were just cute :) He took all of these on his own.

I liked the way the coloring and lighting came out.

A nice picture of daddy!

I just really liked this picture of my niece Alex.

I also thought this was a sweet picture of my niece Lilliana.

This is just a really cool shot, it's my brother-in-law Anthony.

This is my nephew Ian, I thought Yoda looked really cool here.

This almost looks like he set it up and I thought it looked neat.

Just a cute picture of Micah.

This is a self-portrait of his feet :) Very cute!!

I think the lighting in this shot is really cool.

This is our cat Shadow. Again the lighting is really cool here.

Rollovers, Elves & Stuff

Just a mish mash of stuff here...

So, a few weeks ago, Matt and I had a car roll over into our yard for the 2nd time! Several years ago at our old house, we had a car roll over into our front yard on a snowy night. Luckily, the guy was stopped by the pine tree in our front yard and missed our house. He was fine after the accident. Matt and I were both pretty scared thinking about the fact that he could have easily slid right into our house. In the end we were thankful that nothing bad happened other than that car being totalled and we hoped to never see something like this again.

So, fast forward to about 1:00 am on Dec. 6. Matt was just bringing Micah up to bed after his feeding, which woke me up. All of a sudden, we heard a screech and then thud, thud, thud. At that point we knew that a car must have just flipped over, we just didn't know where. So, Matt ran to one of the front windows and found a truck flipped over in a pine tree off the corner of our house. So, he called 911 and while he was doing that, I saw the driver running from the car and then down the road. Come to find out the guy was probably drunk, skidded on the snowy road, over corrected, blew through our neighbors mailbox, then rolled over in our yard and landed in the tree. He ran, probably because he was scared to be caught drunk driving. He was later brought back by his friends, after the police quickly identified who the car belonged to (shows he was most definitely drunk). We had about 6 various police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck and 2 news channels out in front of our house. It made the first story on the news that morning on both channels and our house was even on one of the channels' news story! We were lucky again that he missed my car which was parked in the front yard, our house and that the mailbox that flew into our yard missed both my car and our house. The only damage was that the car was totalled, the neighbors mail box was blown apart, our yard was pretty torn up and the pine tree had all of its bottom front branches torn off.

This accident, only gave us more reason to someday move off of a busy road. Our first house is on a 50mph road and this one is on a 35mph road. But, our road goes from 50mph to 35 in front of our house, then to 45mph all in about a 1-2 mile stretch. We really never thought we would see this happen twice in our front yards and we really hope we will not see it a third time!

I had my diabetes blood test a week ago and all is good! The levels were all normal, so I will just get tested every 1-2 years to make sure it stays that way.

We recently got a Wii and Wii fit for Christmas. Matt found a great deal on Black Friday. This is basically the only present for Matt and I, but that's ok because we really enjoy it. If any of our friends have a Wii, we would love to have our Mii's visit you and we would love for yours to visit ours. It really does make it more fun to see our friends on our Wii games. So email us and let us know if you'd like to share. You can reach me at the email on the right or if you know my other email address.

Also, if you have a blog and I don't have you on our list (which is really short), I would love to add you. I love reading blogs, even of people I don't know. It is just fun to see what others have to say about stuff and what kinds of things they post. Again, you can just email me your blog address and I'll add it here :)

I had some fun making this little Elf card, so I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas from all of us!! If the video doesn't work, here is the address for it... http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/krJohEt3h0qXYHmEthtL

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Just some pictures!!

Thought I would share some pictures...

Micah finally calmed down when I put this cloth on his head, he then slept like this for awhile!!

Finally got him smiling!!

I love how he is smiling with his left eye.


Ethan was just laying around on his bean bag chair.

He loves posing for pictures!

So excited waiting in line for the train ride at Children's Wonderland.

Ethan loves to organize things in a line, it is amazing how perfect he can get things lined up. When we were in Cleveland, Aunt Joyce let him play with her nativity characters and I told her to watch, because in a few minutes he'll have them all lined up and sure enough he did. Here are two examples of his lining up of toys. He has also lined up all of his trains from his train set before, I just didn't get a picture of those.

These are some of his bath toys and letters,

along with some of the "buildings" he created.

I went into his old playroom to find his hot wheels all lined up, the few that are not in line are because it was the middle of the night when I found them and I accidently kicked a couple.

2 Months Old!

It is official, Micah is now 2 months old. I can't even believe how fast time has gone. It seemed like it took forever to get Micah here and now that he is, time is flying by. I took him to the doctor on the 8th and he weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs. 7 oz. and he measured 22 1/2 inches. It turns out that he is in the 50th percentile in both weight and height! So, he is growing at a great rate and we couldn't be happier. The doctor once again said that he looked perfect and very alert, so that was definitely more good news. He had a shot and was such a trooper and only cried briefly. It was very loud, but brief :)

Ethan and I have both been pretty sick this week, so we have been trying to keep Micah healthy. Matt has been very sleep deprived, since he has been getting up with Ethan and one night he also got up with Micah, because I was so sick. Matt never really got over his cold from a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully, that will keep him from our sicknesses! Ironically, this is the first week that I have felt good physically, since having Micah! What a week to get sick!

Here is Micah's 2 month pic, isn't he just the cutest little Santa??

The Wonders of Christmas

Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old is such a wonderful experience. Lights are the most amazing thing, Christmas trees are an amazing sight and Santa is the guy in the red suit! Ethan is so excited about the Christmas season and it has been so much fun watching him get so into everything. As we drive around at night, we hear things like "wow!!" or "look!!" with each new set of lights he sees.

We finally had a chance to put up our tree on Sunday night. When we plugged it in, we heard this little gasp as he saw it all lit up. He was so excited to help me decorate the tree. That has always been my favorite thing to do at Christmas, I love putting decorations on the tree. I can remember decorating the tree as a kid, many times on Christmas Eve. I also remember when my mom started to go to a themed tree and wouldn't let us help decorate anymore. It really upset me when I couldn't help to decorate, so when I got married, I became the official decorator and I promised that I would never to a plain and simple tree with a theme.

I love putting all kinds of decorations on the tree. Over the years, we have acquired a lot of decorations. I have bought some, Matt's mom gave us some from when Matt was a kid, we have received a lot as gifts also. There is such a variety of decorations on our tree and I love it! Ethan has acquired my taste for having a variety of decorations on the tree. When we decorated on Sunday night, he was in charge of the bottom of the tree and I was in charge of the top. He did such a great job this year! Of course, this is the first year that every single decoration made it on the tree. Our tree is covered and it has never looked better, I just love it and so does Ethan.

While decorating, he dropped two ornaments that broke. One can be fixed, but the other was glass and shattered. He got so upset about it, because he really wanted to put it on the tree. We had to explain that sometimes that happens and it's ok and that we still had a lot of other decorations, but he said he was still sad. Then after the tree was decorated, Chloe, our cat, knocked a decoration down and out came a burst of tears. He got so upset that she knocked down a decoration. As you can see, he really loves decorations and our Christmas tree. He has been asking us to put it up for months now :)

Matt put some lights on our stair rail and Ethan just said "Wow!!", when he saw it all turned on. Last night, I pulled up to the house with Ethan and he said "Look!!", when he saw the brand new lights that Matt put on our bushes while we were gone. He was so excited about it.

I took him to the Manor House, that we have named the Christmas House. The house is a mansion in a local metropark and it gets decorated each year by different people and organizations. Each room is unique and never the same from year to year. Ethan loved it and especially loved the trains at the end of the tour. I'm taking him to Children's Wonderland on Wed. night, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is a lot of fun and they even have Santa there. We'll eventually take him to the zoo for the lights at the zoo and I'm even working to plan a trip to Frankenmuth, MI, which is a great place to go at Christmas time. I'm having such a great time watching Ethan enjoy the different aspects of Christmas.

I have to charge my camera and then I will try and add some pictures of our tree, especially some of the parts Ethan decorated. It really is cute to see how he decorated the tree :)

Thanksgiving Fun

We had an extremely busy, but fun Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving day with Matt's mom, uncle, aunt and grandpa. While there, we were looking through some baby pictures of Matt's brother Adam.  We realized, that even though most of you voted that Micah looks like Matt, that he actually looks a lot like his Uncle Adam!  Some of the pictures were like looking at Micah, it was pretty strange.  If we get a chance to scan some I'll try and show you :)  

Then on Friday, Matt got up at about 3am to head out with his friend Jim to go shopping. They had such great luck in all of the stores, that they were back by 8:30! Most years, Matt doesn't get back until closer to noon. That afternoon we headed to Cleveland to visit with Matt's aunt, uncle and cousins that live there. We spent the night and stayed all day on Saturday.

While there, Ethan was able to finally play in the snow and go sledding for the very first time! Aunt Joyce pulled him around the yard and pushed him down a small hill in their yard. After that, Uncle Gary came out with his skis and pulled Ethan around the yard, they even went down the hill a couple of times!! Ethan had such a blast with them! He loved sledding and I can't wait to take him again when we have a good enough snow here.

On Sunday, we celebrated with my family. We had about 6 people missing from the get together, because my sister Erika and her family were out of town and my mom was in Italy. My mom actually comes back today and I can't wait for her to see how big Micah has gotten in the past 4 weeks! He looks so different already :)

I hope that you enjoy the pictures and the video of Ethan sledding down the hill.

We are Thankful for...

There are so many things that we are thankful for this year. I can remember the Thanksgiving 4 years ago and thinking I would never be so thankful as to have Ethan home from the hospital and doing well. I was wrong...we added to it this year when we had Micah. We are so thankful that Micah was born a strong, healthy, full-term baby! Being parents has been the best experience we could ask for and we are so thankful that we have been given the opportunity to become parents twice.

Not only am I thankful for my children, but I am incredibly thankful for Matt. I would have never made it through the pregnancy without him. He was so supportive the entire time in so many ways. He is such a strong partner in this marriage and I am so thankful for that.

I am also thankful for all of our family and friends. The last time we had so much support was when Ethan was in the hospital and we saw even more support this time. We are so thankful for everyone's kind words, acts and love. We would not have made it through such a difficult time without all of you.

I am most thankful for family in general. We both have the most supportive families and we are so lucky that we are spending every single day this weekend with family. So many people don't have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with and we have been blessed with large enough families to celebrate multiple times.

While the year 2004 and the year 2008 were the most trying years for us, we are always going to be thankful for those years, as they made us a family and made us a strong family.

We wish all of you the best this holiday season and are thankful for all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Memories and Pictures

I am constantly amazed how certain things can spark memories of Ethan's birth. Just the other day I was in a discussion online with some women about how the soap at the hospital brings back a flood of memories for each of us. In my case, it includes the time both Ethan and I were in the hospital. Every memory of being there floods back every time I have to go to the hospital and have washed my hands. It's funny how something as simple as soap can bring back so many memories.

Another example is actually from yesterday. I was watching an old episode of Roseanne, where Darlene brings home her premature baby. The scene where she walks into the house with the baby really got to me. Something as simple as a t.v. show made me break down into tears. It made me remember the feeling of bringing home both Ethan and Micah. It also reminded me of being up in the middle of the night watching the episode where she has the baby, while I was pumping milk for Ethan when he was in the hospital. I still can't believe it made me break down the way it did.

You would think that having a full-term baby would have helped some of those feelings to subside a bit, but obviously it didn't. I can't just forget all of the things we went through with Ethan, just as I will never forget what I went through to get Micah here. One thing I do know is that the memories of what happened with Ethan are getting easier to deal with. At one time, I would have cried for much longer than a couple of minutes. Now, I can shed some tears and move on with whatever I was doing. All I have to do now is look at my two wonderful boys and know that everything we went through was completely worth it. That's where the pictures come in...

Who do they look like??

That is a question that comes up often when it comes to a new baby. We have heard by a lot of people that Micah looks just like Ethan. We've also heard that Ethan looks just like Matt, so therefore that must mean that Micah looks just like Matt. Hmmm...I beg to differ on this one. I really think that Ethan does look like Matt, but at times can look like me. I also think that at times Micah can look just like Ethan or Matt, but he also looks like me. Over the years, I have accepted the fact that Matt cannot deny Ethan, because Ethan does look a lot like Matt. When it comes to Micah, I must say that he does remind me of pictures of me. Is it me just wanting one of our kids to take after me a little more? Or, is it that Micah does look a little more like me? Maybe, Ethan just looks like Ethan and Micah just looks like Micah...who knows??

Well, I thought I would have a little fun with this post and show you some comparisons. First, I have a picture of what Ethan looked like at 4 months old, which is one month adjusted age and I have a picture of Micah at one month old. I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures that Ethan and Micah were wearing the exact same outfit in their picture and that both pictures took place in November!!

Micah - 1 month old

Ethan - 4 mos. old, 1 mo. adjusted.

Micah

Ethan

Here are a couple of pictures of Matt when he was a baby. In the one on the left he was 1 month old and in the one on the right he was 10 weeks old.

Here are some pictures of me when I was a baby. In the one on the left, I was probably about a month or two old and in the one on the right was from when I was born. Sorry, I don't have any close ups of me, my mom and dad have those!

Recently, I was shown this picture of my dad when he was younger and told that Ethan looks like him. So, I thought I would include that one here with a recent picture of Ethan.
So, you decide who looks like who and have some fun :) I think they look like both of us and we certainly cannot deny our children!! Let us know what you think by voting in the poll on the right side of the screen.

I finally did it...

I worked out for the first time today!! I actually just finished about 45 minutes ago and so far I'm feeling ok. I did a 20 minute, 1 mile workout. I took it easier than I normally would, but I was able to still keep up. I chose not to use weights today, but I will add them in as the week goes on. I'm hoping to at least do it every other day to begin with and then try to do it everyday. I'm using the Walk Away the Pounds program, so I hope to be at the 2 mile in December and then add in the 3 mile in January.

I decided to start small and work to lose at least 15 lbs by January 23, which is the day I go back to work. It would be nice to lose more than that, but I know it will be hard to lose more than that it such a small amount of time. I weighed myself today and even took some pictures of myself so that I can track my own progress. Don't expect to see those pictures anywhere on here! I don't plan to share them :) They are not what I would call attractive.

I'll keep you updated on my progress every once in awhile!

One Month Old Already!!

Micah turned a month old today! I can't believe it has already been a month. It seems like the months took forever while I was pregnant and now a month has just flown by! Micah is growing like a weed, he hasn't gained any length, but as of Monday he is 10lbs 2oz. It took some time, but we got his weight up and he is now gaining at a good pace. He is a pretty good baby, but you better move fast when he is hungry! He is already up to 4 oz in a feeding, so he usually get 50% breastmilk and 50% formula. Ethan is enjoying his new little brother, although he has said that it is annoying that everyone asks "is that your brother? and do you like your brother?" I can see that getting old for him :) Ethan has learned very quickly how nicely the "pacingfier" works. He wants to give it to Micah whenever he starts into a fit when he is hungry! Ethan even gets frustrated when he can't get it into Micah's mouth fast enough :) But, Ethan has been great with him and loves to kiss and hug him and even comfort him. He especially loves rubbing Micah's head, it is really cute and he loves giving him a toy to look at.

We had a conference with Ethan's teacher and therapy team at school last week. All is well and Ethan even has a lot of his kindergarten readiness skills going. He still has a few things that need extra work, but he is moving forward in everything and has consistently improved since last year, which is all that matters. Matt and I both felt really good about how Ethan has progressed and we are so proud of how hard he works. We figured out that Ethan is absorbing everything and even doing some of the things at home, but he is not necessarily ready to show he can do it at school. His teacher was happy to hear that he does some of the stuff at home, because she knows it will come to him at school soon enough. Ethan has also been getting tested at his private speech therapy and he is doing really well! She said he doesn't have much more to go before she can release him, so that was also really good news. So between private speech and his speech and occupational therapy at school, Ethan has made some great strides!

I am continuing to heal and I have been able to do more and more each day. I still feel like my legs are made of cement whenever I walk up the stairs, but everything else is getting better. I'm hoping to start a small workout in the next few days to help continue to build strength in my legs. I have a hard time standing for long periods of time, but I am able to sit up for longer periods of time without feeling a lot of back pain. I know the standing will also get better, but since I've been doing that for less time than sitting, it will still take awhile. I'm hoping that sometime in December I will start to feel a little more normal. I go back to the doctor the week of Thanksgiving, so we'll see if he suggests anything else to help me get my strength back from the bedrest.

Here are some more pictures of our little men!!

Micah's first water bath!!

He can be very serious!

I think this is just funny!!

Look at how he posed for the picture :)

My miracles...

Everyday that I look at my two children, I am reminded that we have been given two very special miracles. I find myself in tears out of pure happiness at being given the opportunity to raise two boys. I think back to all that we have been through with Ethan and how many times we came close to losing him and how close we came to losing Micah so early on and I remind myself of how thankful I am to have both of them home with me. Matt and I made the decision on the day my cerclage was placed with this pregnancy that we were done having children regardless of the outcome. As the pregnancy progressed, I wondered many times if we were making the right decision and I would think that maybe we could have one more. But, each time I thought that, I remembered how lucky we were to have the two children we had and how difficult is was to have these two children.

The Friday before we had Micah, I talked to the doctor about getting a tubal ligation if I would have a c-section. He made sure that we were sure and he even said that he didn't blame us for coming to that decision. When it came down to having a c-section, he asked me again if it was what we wanted and we both said yes, and he even asked again during the c-section. Matt and I would not mind having more children if it didn't mean that I would be stuck in bed for 6 months and then deal with long-term recovery afterwards. There are no guarantees about what would happen with a 3rd pregnancy, but we decided that we came way too close to losing both of our children that we did not want to test it. We are happy with our decision and we feel that our family is complete. I only tell this because I have been asked by a lot of people if we are going to have any more children. So, take a look at our little miracles and know that we are so thankful for these two boys that we have been given...

The Ninja and Superman

This year for Halloween Ethan was a ninja. We chose that because of the way he acts so much like a ninja. Matt and I will be downstairs thinking that Ethan is up in bed and he will silently come downstairs and before we know it he is standing next to us and we never heard a single step! The only problem with his ninja costume was that the mask was never in the bag! We were disappointed, but he still looked great :) Micah was superman and he was the cutest little superman ever! We finally found our camera, it was in a bag that seems to have a million pockets and in the several times that bag was checked we kept missing the one pocket with the camera! Matt gave one last check over the weekend and he found it! We are so excited about it. So, here are a few pictures, sorry that superman was so sleepy! I'll add some more pictures of Micah later this week.

My first outing with the kids!

Yesterday, I became very brave and went out with both boys! There were some challenges, like Micah screaming for the first five minutes of the car ride and the stroller refusing to open, but we made it!!

I had to go pick up some stuff at the March of Dimes office and decided that I would stop over at my mom's house afterwards so that she could spend some time with Micah, before she goes to Italy next week. The hour before leaving was interesting as I was trying to get all three of us ready to go, which included putting the kids in their costumes for my mom to see. Luckily, Matt was home for lunch and he was able to get Ethan ready, but my impatient little Ethan ended up asking every couple of minutes "can we go now?". That of course did not help things while I was getting Micah and I ready to go :)

We finally got on our way and ended up spending some time visiting with Jodi at the MOD office and my mom was able to spend some quality time with Micah. We even got out for dinner at a restaurant :) Of course, today I'm exhausted and incredibly sore, but I'm happy we were able to get out yesterday.

I am still surprised about how some of the soreness just sneaks up on me. It is mostly my sciadic that hurts today and I'm thinking it is because I did a lot of standing and sitting in hard chairs yesterday. I'm hoping the pain will ease up a bit today. I was talking to Matt and he reminded me that this is all part of the process, but I will be so happy to have it all over! I'm hoping it will be soon, but I have nearly 6 months of bedrest to recover from, which means a lot of unused muscles need to wake up! Yet another reason why we have decided not to venture into another pregnancy!

Tonight we are going to get them dressed up to visit Matt's mom, uncle, aunt and grandpa. I think Ethan will enjoy it now that he understands what candy is!! I'm guessing one of them will take some pictures for us tonight so that you can see our little ninja (Ethan) and superman (Micah). In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Micah and Ethan from Monday night with grandma.

Gaining Independence!

On Monday, we had an appointment for me and an appointment for Micah. My appointment was to check my incision and its healing process. It was funny, because as the doctor walked in, he had a huge smile on his face and said "we don't care about you anymore", and went right to Micah. He loved seeing him again :) He then checked me and said that my incision is healing well, so that was good to hear. He also told me that I can slowly start to increase my activity and even drive!!! That is where the independence is coming in. I have had to depend on other people to drive me around since April 22!! It was such a relief to hear that I could finally drive. After the appointment, Matt told me, "so I guess you are driving home" and I did. It felt great to finally drive again. I actually found it a lot easier than when I started driving after 3 weeks of hospital bedrest. It helps that I have been able to walk around more in the last 6 weeks or so. I was able to build up some muscle strength in my legs, which was good.

Right after my appointment, we went across the hall to Micah's appointment. He weighed in at 8lbs 6oz. The doctor said that was not good and that he really should be at his birth weight by now, but he was not too concerned. The reason he was not concerned right now is because everything else about Micah looks great. The dr. was amazed with how alert Micah is and how strong he is. He said that if he didn't see such strength, he would be concerned about the weight. So, we are going to continue working to get his weight up and I will need to take him in next Monday morning for a quick weight check. I have decided at this point to not try and breastfeed. Because, we are still having issues with weight gain, I feel like I can better control what he is eating through a bottle. It was when I was breastfeeding that he had the biggest weight loss, so I feel that this is the best decision. I am continuing to pump milk so that he can at least have breast milk and we are supplementing with formula when needed. I hope that I can keep doing it for awhile, but I am just going day by day right now.

As a family, we are starting to adjust to our new life. Things get better each day as our routine settles in and as I feel better and better. Right now, the big problem for me is my back. That seems to be the one lingering problem from bedrest. If it continues to be an issue, I will talk to my doc at my 6 week appointment about possible therapy for my back. Hopefully, it will resolve itself in the next few weeks.

Matt and I got out for a few hours last night when we went to the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. It was a lot of fun and it was good to do something normal and just the two of us. We have not done anything by ourselves in months, so it was nice to have that little break, even though it was only a couple of hours.

Driving and getting out gave me a small sense of what my life was like before bedrest :) It is great to finally get some of this independence back and to get some of our normal life back! We are so happy to have our family together and complete. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Some Pictures

A few pics from before Micah came along...

The weekend before we visited a pumpkin farm.

Waiting for the hay ride!

Yes, he is on a donkey!

Feeding the cows.

Visiting all of the little Wilburs!

This is what I looked like the morning of Micah's birth!

38 weeks 6 days!