Where has the summer gone?

Good question, since today is the first day of fall.

Let’s see…we visited our family in Pittsburgh and went to a very cool museum…

We visited Washington DC for a day…

And the next morning visited Mount Vernon and learned all about George Washington…

We took a brief trip to the Jersey Shore (which the older kids LOVED even though the water was much too cold for my Caribbean sensibilities.  Ben agreed.)…

Meanwhile, Jonny turned six…

Isaac turned nine, and Natey turned one.  Isaac decided on hermit crabs for his birthday present…

Mark had a birthday this summer too, but I forget how old he is! 

Benji had his last home-based Early Intervention sessions with his awesome therapists, and got to visit his new preschool…

…we played too many video games, learned some new piano pieces and read a couple of Narnia stories and Charlotte’s Web and tons of books for the school reading list, cooked with lots of fresh veggies from our local CSA, and before I knew it fall was here, and I hadn’t updated my blog in months!

I hope everyone had as much fun this summer as we did!

One Sunday Afternoon…

We actually had sunshine!  We’ve had so much rain this June that I’ve been wondering if it’s really summer!

We got home from church, had lunch, and decided to have the big boys turn off the video games (after all, they can do that if it rains), and play outside.

First, we got out the bubbles.  We got Jonny a Zome Tool Crazy Bubbles set for his birthday (because I am a chemistry geek at heart), and it really is very cool!  It’s neat to see how the bubbles form within the structures you build, but then the wind takes over and it acts just like a large traditional bubble blower.

Both big boys loved it.  Nate giggled every time  there was a long stream of bubbles.

We got out the Slip ‘n Slide for a bit.  The big boys enjoyed it but the water was frigid!

The babies watched intently.  I know from past experience that Ben doesn’t much care for the cold water.  I tried Nate and got an almost identical reaction.  Can’t say that I blame them.

The big boys practiced their gymnastics.  Mark and Isaac tried to teach Jonny how to do a cartwheel.  I think he almost got it.

Mark and the big boys even washed both vans!  By the end of it all, Ben fell fast asleep in the grass.  He really does like being outside.

I am really hoping that this summer we can spend more time outdoors.  We are actually going house-hunting over the next few days.  We are hoping to find a home with a bigger, safer yard for all our boys to play outside more.  Wish us luck!

Snippets…

On Saturday, Isaac scored his very first goal since he started playing in the AYSO Under-10 division!   He really has been making a good effort, even though it has not been easy for him.  We were so proud, and so was he!

On Tuesday the weather finally cooperated and Jonathan actually got to play soccer!  He was so excited since his last two games were rained out.  He did great, had a blast, and scored a few goals.  When someone asked him if his team won, he replied, “There’s no winner.”  I’m glad that he enjoys the game at this stage without needing to keep score.  And we were thrilled that he was able to burn off some of that extra energy.

Ben has had a few trips to our friendly tertiary care center.  He has been picking and pulling at his MIC-KEY button, so last week we saw his g-tube nurse.  We have determined that the tube size is appropriate, but we think he has a mild yeast infection at the site.  We are treating him with some Mycolog ointment, but I’m not so sure it’s doing much good…he succeeded at PULLING OUT HIS MIC-KEY BUTTON for the very first time a couple days ago.  For now we’re continuing the ointment and keeping his belly bound with an ACE wrap.  Poor Ben.  I hope he stops messing with it so he doesn’t have to sweat all summer.

Today we went to  have Ben’s hearing aids adjusted.  He got new molds, and I told the tech about the severe feedback (whistling) we were getting.  She had a neat device which actually was able to cancel most of the feedback (I’m not exactly sure how it works), but Ben will finally be able to wear his hearing aids again.

Lately, Nate has been doing lots of new things.  He has begun teething, rolling over very well in both directions (finally catching up to big brother Ben with his motor skills), trying to crawl on hands and knees and really wants to learn how to pull to stand.  He has been learning how to feed himself and has been scarfing down those little Gerber fruit puffs like lightning.  But he has also been sooo needy these days and cries if you just stand up…before you even have a chance to leave the room!  He really loves Ben and enjoys playing with Ben’s face, hair, arms, feet, etc.  Ben usually tries to roll out of the way, but this week he really seems to be noticing Nate and interacting directly with him for the first time.

BTW, Mark found these neat shirts for the little boys at Toys ‘R’ Us to help everyone see that they are not twins.

Ben turns three tomorrow, and Nate is 9 months old.  Right now Nate officially outweighs Ben.

I suppose it won’t be long before they won’t seem like twins anymore.

Spring Soccer

I love watching the big boys play soccer!

Isaac is on one of our local AYSO Under-10 teams, and Mark is coaching.  They’ve had two games so far.   Jonny still plays on the Under-6 team but hasn’t had a game yet.  So far, the cold, rainy April weather hasn’t been cooperating too well with practice days or Jonny’ s soccer games.

However, the weather was gorgeous on Saturday, and it was nice to get everyone out for a little fresh air and sunshine.  I loaded Ben and Nate and all their paraphernalia into their double stroller.  Both little boys were fighting colds and Nate wasn’t in the happiest mood.  Ben, however, loves being outside.

Jonathan was all set with his Gameboy and a snack.

It was a little difficult watching three kids under 6 without help (since Mark was coaching), but it was still fun.  Nate got fed up sitting in the stroller and wanted to be held.   Jonny also wanted to sit on my lap along with the baby, and predictably had to go to the bathroom during the game, but he eventually found a friend to play with on the sidelines.  Ben, good little guy that he is,  fell asleep shortly after the game started and slept for hours.

To my surprise, all the kids (except for Ben who was sleeping with the stroller canopy up) got mild sunburns.  I never thought the sun would be strong enough for that!  I’ll be sure to take sunscreen to future soccer games.

I’m really ready for a whole week of warm sunny weather!

Our “Twins”

I haven’t been updating my blog nearly as often as I would like to lately – Nate, Ben and I are all fighting nasty colds.  I’ve actually been running a fever these last 2 days and actually was sent home from work early on Tuesday – something that has NEVER happened to me before!

So I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time cuddling with babies, napping, drinking lots of tea and juice and taking my ibuprofen.  I can’t wait for spring when this cold and flu season will hopefully come to an end.

Nate and Ben are almost like twins these days.  Ben will be 3 soon, and Nate is about 6 months old, and they both weigh around 20 lbs.  They are both in 12-18 month clothes, although they tend to be a little loose on Ben and a little long on Nate.  And they are similar in terms of their development, although Ben is ahead in his gross motor skills (can roll both ways and is starting to ‘army crawl’), and Nate is ahead with oral motor skills.  They can both now sit independently fairly well.

I have noticed that since Nate has been sitting more, Ben seems to have decided that sitting isn’t so bad after all.  Previously, he just enjoyed rolling around on the floor.  Of course, Ben’s better vision with his new glasses could be encouraging him to sit up and look around more too…

Nate hates to be left alone for any period, but he will often play happily if he is sitting with Ben.  That is, until Ben takes away his toys…

We had hoped that Nate would give Ben some positive peer pressure with his development, and I think he has.

I think Ben looks proud that Nate fell over before he did!

Ben’s New Glasses

We all love how Ben looks in them!  Doesn’t he look cute?  The photo above was taken in our church nursery yesterday morning.  I think he’s finally starting to look more like a little boy than a baby.

As I mentioned on my post about Ben’s last ophthomology appointment; we were told that his eyesight had deteriorated considerably over the previous year.  He had become quite nearsighted and would need glasses.  A little over a week ago, we finally got around to taking him to the optometrist to choose some frames.    This optometrist, a very nice lady, specializes in pediatric and special needs eyewear, and is about 45 minutes from our home.  The big boys were in school, and Nate came along.  Ben wasn’t too happy with having several frames put on and taken off in rapid succession, but he was a trooper.

It was a tough decision, but we found some that we liked.  Nate was unusually fussy that day, and when we came home we found he was running a fever.  Fortunately, he ran a temperature for only 3 days, and he seems fine now.

This Saturday we made the trek to pick up his new glasses.  This time we had all 4 boys with us.  It turns out that the optometrist is very busy on Saturdays, so we had to wait a bit.  The boys occupied themselves with the toys…

…and Nate and I just hung out on the couch.  Ben’s glasses needed some final adjustments (the earpieces had to be molded to ensure a snug fit), we fit his hearing aids over them, and finally we were done.

Afterwards, we went out for lunch, went to the mall for a bit:

Ben was VERY interested in looking around at EVERYTHING.  (Yes, Nate was missing a sock so we bought him some new ones!)  When we were sure we had tired everyone out, we came home.  All four boys fell asleep in the car.

So far, Ben’s response to his glasses has been overwhelmingly positive.  He has left them on, and he has been so much more interested in looking at more distant objects.  He even seems to make better eye contact.  I guess his poor vision was more of an impairment than we realized, and it makes us feel a little guilty for not acting on this before.

I really hope he tolerates his glasses for the long haul.

Scotch Pines are Sharp!

Last Saturday we got our Christmas tree, and we decorated it the very next day.   As usual, Isaac and Jonny put the unbreakable “kid” ornaments on the tree.  This year they were a little less than enthusiastic.  The reason?

Usually, we get a Douglas Fir.  This year, most of the Douglas Firs we saw were really, really tall.  So we went with a Scotch Pine instead.  And guess what?  Scotch Pines have really pointy, sharp needles!

The boys kept yelping “Ouch!” with each ornament!  Isaac tried to use his gloves, but that didn’t work.  Finally, Jonny gave up and would just toss his ornaments onto the branches, hoping that they’d stay on.

The tree still looked very nice, but I think next year we’ll go back to Douglas Fir.

Ben lay on the floor playing with one of the ornaments.  Within an hour or so, he had scooted himself under the Christmas tree to see the lights more closely.

And Nate?

December

Thanksgiving weekend was REALLY busy, but fun.   Mark’s sister, brother-in-law and their two sons visited all the way from Pittsburgh.  We really enjoyed having them over.  Our boys were very excited to have their cousins here, and all the kids played well together.  It was nice to spend some time with family getting caught up.  We had our turkey with the usual fixings, and there are LOTS of turkey leftovers to enjoy this week.

On Friday, I did a (very) little Black Friday shopping, and went to work for a few hours.  Nate had his four month well baby check that afternoon.  He is growing well (17 lbs 9 oz) and is developmentally on target.  His eczema was TERRIBLE, though, and the pediatrician prescribed him some triamcinolone cream to use along with the moisturizers we’re already slathering all over him.  He only got 2 shots (Prevnar and Pentacel) as well as an oral vaccine (Rotarix).

On Saturday we made our annual trek out to the Christmas tree farm.  This proved to be a little challenging this year because we now have two babes in arms.  Initially we planned to just pick a pre-cut tree from the barn.  However, once we arrived at the farm, the big boys saw the tractor and really wanted to go on the hay ride.  In the end, we all rode on the tractor, and I waited with the babies at the drop-off point while Mark took Isaac and Jonny to get us a tree.

This worked out well since the weather was fairly warm (around 50 degrees).  Ben loves being outside when it’s not too cold and he was in a great mood, and he smiled and giggled, and even stood up nicely for awhile, leaning back on my legs for support.  And surprisingly, Nate was quiet.

The big boys came back with our tree, and we rode the tractor back.  They wrapped up our tree and we went home.  I’m glad we got the tree on Saturday because the weather has been colder and wetter since then.

Can you believe it’s only 23 days until Christmas???

Winter Already?

Yes, we had our first snowfall of the season on Friday.  Thankfully it was short, and most of the snow melted that same day.  But we live in Pennsylvania, after all, and I know more snow is sure to come.

We had an interesting weekend.  Yesterday we had family photos taken.  Everyone behaved well for the most part, but Jonny was a difficult subject.  He kept doing the opposite of what the photographer wanted him to do!  She kept saying, “Everyone had good smiles but Jonathan!”  We should have an interesting set of proofs to look at tomorrow.

Today after church we decided to take a road trip.  We needed some wine for the holidays, so we visited the Nissley Vineyards in Bainbridge, PA.  We used to go there fairly often years ago when we lived near Harrisburg, but now we average one trip every other year.  It’s a neat place with a self-guided tour of the winery, and in the summertime they’ve got music festivals on their large front lawn.

The big boys had their video games as usual, and Ben and Nate just sort of hung out.

The owners’ dog was very interested in the boys:

It’s so beautiful there, even if it was freezing today.

We didn’t stay long.  We tasted a couple of new wines we’d never seen there before, paid, got our precious bounty into the van, and left.  We really need to come back here when it’s warmer so the boys can run outside.

We made a couple of brief stops for photos on the way home.  The Nissley Winery is only a very short drive from Three Mile Island…

…and we even stopped so I could get a photo of the Star Barn before it is moved to its new location in Lebanon County.

We got home in time to make a quick dinner and get everyone off to bed.  Overall, the kids did well on the trip.  (Unfortunately, Jonny drank an entire container of one of those dreadful Nesquik milkshakes.  It didn’t agree with him and we had to make two emergency pit stops at area bathrooms, but he seems OK now).

I hope that as the kids get older we can take more adventurous day trips with them.

Nate Update 11/08

Nate will be four months old in a few days.  He is growing fast!  He weighs around 17-18 lbs (we think; we haven’t weighed him since his 2 month checkup), and he’s starting to look really chubby.  It won’t be long before he outgrows his carseat/baby carrier.  We used the same carrier for Ben for almost 2 years.

Nate is smiling and cooing a lot.  He has begun to laugh out loud.  If left in a room by himself, he will “call” for someone, and then listens quietly to see if anyone is coming to his aid!  He is a very social baby, and loves to be held all day (or at least entertained by someone!)

He has learned how to grasp objects, and already has started shoving them into his mouth.  Lately he has been looking at the food on the dinner table with real interest, but It will be another month or two before we try him with some baby cereal.  For now he nurses well, and also takes his bottles OK when I’m at work.

He seems to enjoy “tummy time”, at least for short periods.  He is healthy, but has a tendency to develop eczema like his daddy and oldest brother.  We will be keeping him well-moisturized in the winter months.

He is thoroughly entertained by his three older brothers.  He and Ben had their first fight over a toy last week…but you’ll have to wait for Mark’s Twosday Tuesday post to see that. 

After having Ben, I almost forgot how quickly most babies grow and develop.

It makes me appreciate and enjoy Baby Nate since I know he’ll grow up too fast.