Trip to Denver

A couple of weeks ago we went to Denver as Jack had an appointment at the children's hospital. We are trying to figure out what is causing his low platelets and low neutrophils, and we decided that it was worth a trip to Denver to get a second opinion. Unfortunately, at this time we don't have any real news from that visit yet as we are waiting to talk to the doctor about the test results, but we feel like the drive was worth it as in the long run it will give us peace of mind to know what is causing Jack's issues (assuming the doctor in Denver can figure it out), and we were able to see friends and family while we were there as well.

The drive from our house to Micah's sister's house is about seven hours, but we decided to go a little out of our way and spend the night at Micah's parents' house as that would break up the drive into two days, and we had a free place to stay. We left Wednesday around 6:00 p.m. after Micah got home from work and we arrived at his parents around 10:00 p.m. The kids did great on the drive as they were able to watch movies the whole drive. The next morning we left Monte Vista a little after 8:00 a.m. and we arrived in Westminster around 12:30 p.m., so we were able to feed Jack lunch and he had a short nap before we left for our appointment. Micah's parents were actually in Westminster as well, so we left the girls with Micah's mom and sister while we went to the appointment.

The kids taking a turn at the wheel (at a rest stop)

A quick lunch with cousins

Overall the appointment went well. Both the doctor and nurse were kind and thorough, and the doctor decided to test for a few specific things. The blood draw went very well as Jack only had to be poked once (usually it takes at least two pokes to actually get the necessary amount of blood from Jack as his veins are difficult).

Jack didn't seem to mind the appointment as he got both Mommy and Daddy to himself for hours, and we got gelato as a treat afterwards

In the evening the kids played with their cousins, which was a definite bonus of our trip to Denver since they have only seen their Denver cousins two other times.

Dinner with all six cousins

The girls playing with the giant blocks in the basement. They definitely felt like "big kids" playing with their older cousins (ages almost 3 to almost 6)

On Friday morning Micah and I decided to take the kids to Boulder, where we went to school. I hadn't been to Boulder in years and I was blown away by how much it has changed! I hardly recognized different areas as there is so much new development in Boulder and the surrounding area. I thought it would be fun to walk around Pearl Street, which is an open air pedestrian mall downtown. I pictured the kids walking / running alongside us and stopping to play at the kid rock structures while I drank a hot beverage. Sadly this did not work as I pictured because as soon as the kids got out of the strollers they decided they wanted to push the strollers. Since we have three kids and only two strollers, multiple meltdowns ensued. They DID NOT want to push a stroller together, even though the double is plenty big enough for two toddlers to push, so whoever wasn't pushing a stroller was screaming, running, and throwing themselves onto the ground. Part of me thought this was humorous as I didn't expect this at all, but the other part was embarrassed as we were causing quite the scene. It didn't take long for us to return to our car as nothing could stop the tantrums.

Faith happily pushing the single stroller while Micah tried to deal with Lexi and Jack fighting over the double stroller

As we were leaving Boulder, it occurred to me that we all might enjoy walking around the trails near the Flatirons at Chautauqua Park, as long as we left the strollers in the car. Luckily, this time I was right! The kids loved "running" up the trails and, although we didn't make it far, it was a lot of fun to be back there as Micah and I spent a lot of time on those trails during the five years that we lived in Boulder. After we walked the trails, the kids spent some time playing on the rock benches at the trailhead and then playing in the leaves in the big grassy park. We were so happy that our morning had been redeemed.

Heading up the trail with the iconic Flations in front of us

It would have been nice to get a family pic, but we didn't want to push the kids too much since they weren't being super cooperative that morning, so I settled for me and the kids.

Playing on the rock benches

Re-discovering leaves as they didn't remember them from last year!

Throwing leaves is so much fun!

After the kids napped on Friday we went to Micah's sister's new house, which is currently being built. The house is amazing. When it is all complete it will have a lot of fun amenities, and there will definitely be room for all of us to spread out when we stay there. Since the house is currently a construction zone, we couldn't let the kids walk freely while we toured the house. Of course they only wanted to be carried by me or Micah, not their aunt or uncle, so it wasn't working out very well. When they realized that their cousins were playing outside they really didn't want to be carried on a tour, so we decided to let them play outside while we walked around the house. We checked on them frequently, but it felt like a big step to let them play outside, at someplace other than our backyard, without an adult right there.

The cousins playing in the dirt piles

On Saturday morning we were able to meet up with a couple of different friends that we hadn't seen in years. First we met Paige and Andy at an outdoor mall so that the adults could have coffee and catch up while the kids played. This worked out really well, and we were so happy to see them again. Then we went to Davin and Trish's house and we got to meet their 17-month-old son and have lunch with them. It always astounds me how easy it is to catch up with friends that you haven't seen in years, even after so many things have happened in all of our lives.

Faith, Jack, and Lexi eating breakfast before we met up with our friends

Jack at the outdoor mall play area

The kids become more coordinated and get stronger every single day

Around 1:00 we started the trek home to ABQ. Overall the kids did great with the drive. We stopped in Trinidad for 1.5 hours to play at a park and eat dinner, and then we pretty much made it the rest of the way without stopping (besides one diaper change in Santa Fe). Although seven hours in the car in one day is not ideal for kids, we were pleased with how well our kids did with it as long as we rotated between Frozen, Cars, and Daniel Tiger.

This slide in Trinidad is the tallest twisty slide I've ever seen! Jack absolutely loved it, and all of the stairs to the top definitely helped wear the kids out for the second half of our car ride.

The kids' first time ever eating at McDonalds (or eating McDonalds food for that matter). They seemed to really enjoy sitting next to us in the booth as it made them feel like big kids.

August Family Photos

When we were in Michigan in August we had photos taken with my family on Lake Michigan in celebration of my parents' 40th anniversary. My parents' friends have a cottage near Lake Michigan, so we used their house as a place to get dressed and then they helped out and took candids during the photo session. Micah's mom also came along to help manage the kids. Here are some of the candids taken by the family friend:   

Lexi and Jack

Adelle, Lexi, and Jack

Emily, Kent, Kyle, and I all wore the same color (on accident). It was really hard to coordinate photos for the entire family!

Micah and Lexi

Jack

Faith

Jack

Lexi

Trying to get a family photo of the five of us. Luckily the professional photographer got some good shots of everyone looking at the camera and smiling as it was no small feat!

Faith

My parents' friend, Barb, and Grammy

Jodi, Adelle, Kyle, and Brayden with "Big Red" in the background

Our photographer worked really hard to keep the kids happy, which meant he got pretty wet!

Micah and the kids

Faith

Faith

All of the grandkids

Here is one of the actual photos from from the photographer! Despite our kids being a little difficult, since they are two-year-olds, we got some great photos.

2 1/4 Years Old

I've been meaning to write a post for a couple of weeks with an update on the kids, but I've been procrastinating as there is always something else I should be doing and I feel like they are doing new things every day so it is hard for me to document it all. Here is a snapshot of our kids at 2 1/4 years old.

Bye-Bye Baby Stuff: I believe the last of our "baby stuff" has finally been put into storage as we no longer have a bottle drying rack in our kitchen! I feel so happy every time I see space on the countertop where the drying rack resided since we moved into our house 18 months ago. Although we haven't used bottles in five months (I can't believe it's only been five months!) we continued to use the drying rack for sippy cup parts, but recently we weren't using it as much so I put it in storage. Sometimes it's the little things that make me happy.

Bottles are becoming a distant memory but all of sudden they kids are asking us to "feed them like a baby" and they want us to hold their sippy cups for them. They also like us to carry them like a baby when I'm taking them out of the car and when we put them to bed at night (especially the girls).

Weight: The kids have continued to steadily gain some weight and I believe their weight gain is "normal" for their age according to my Google search. It might seem strange that we still stress about their weight gain, but I think having preemies that don't eat well makes any parent a bit obsessive about their kids' weight. Their weights as of 9/14/15 were:

Alexis 23 lbs 13 oz (1 lb 3 oz since 5/28/15)
Jack 22 lbs 8 oz (1 lb since 5/28/15)
Faith 23 lbs 6.5 oz (1 lb 1.5 oz since 5/28/15)

Eczema is Gone: I don't know if I ever mentioned this in any previous blog posts, but beginning last summer both girls struggled with eczema behind their legs and sometimes on the inside of their arms. We treated it with an over the counter lotion twice a day and whenever it got really bad we used a steroid cream. When you have three babies or toddlers to change every morning and every night you really don't want one extra thing that you have to do, so putting the lotion on them twice a day was kind of annoying. Thankfully the eczema seems to have disappeared in the last couple of months! We were told that it normally goes away around age 2, and it seems that it went away for Alexis and Faith around their adjusted 24 month date.

Comfort Objects: We gave the girls Beanie Babies as replacements for their pacifiers the day that we threw them all away in the beginning of May, but as it turned out they both became the most attached to stuffed doggies that we already owned. Of course there was no way of knowing that they would be most attached to things that we already had and it was exciting to open something new after throwing out the pacis, and both girls still insist on the sleeping with the Beanie Babies as well, but when we check on them at night they are usually both snuggled up with their stuffed doggies. Alexis sleeps with a stuffed Snoopy and Faith sleeps with a stuffed Husky dog that Micah actually gave to me 15 years ago. We really want Jack to stop sucking his thumb so we decided to buy him a stuffed guitar for a comfort object. I searched high and low for a good one and I found the perfect one on Etsy! Jack loves his stuffed guitar, and during the day it does work to tell him to hug his guitar instead of suck his thumb (or strum it!). Now we need to find a good strategy to get him to stop sucking his thumb when he sleeps.

This particular night the girls were having trouble falling asleep so I let them sit on the couch with me for a little bit. Thankfully this hasn't been happening often. Of course their doggies had to come downstairs with them.

Jack looking pleased with his new stuffed guitar

Complicated Outings: Although Alexis, Jack, and Faith are all very much mobile, they still cannot be trusted in parking lots and stores as they are prone to "2-year-old moments," so I have to plan ahead how to move them all safely from a car into a building before I leave the house if I'm by myself. Recently I had to buy cat food at the pet store and go to Target, and although these two stores are almost in the same parking lot I did have to be strategic since I wanted to use the triple cart in Target but I couldn't use that in the pet store. So when we got to the parking lot I loaded everyone in the triple wagon and we went into the pet store, then we dropped the cat food off at the car and I put everyone's backpacks with leashes on, I then got everyone out of the wagon and put that in the car, and then we all walked into Target (with the leashes on) and got into a triple cart. I explained this whole process to the kids before we did it and during the process, and luckily everyone was extremely cooperative. I look forward to the day when I can run simple errands without having such a strategy in place.

On an evening stop at Trader Joe's Micah and I decided to let the kids walk, but of course then they decided they all actually wanted to be in the cart so this is how we shopped!

Becoming Independent at Home: Although the kids still need a lot of supervision when we are out in public, recently they have begun entertaining themselves so much better at home. Although fights can break out quickly, there have been short periods of time that the kids have played in the backyard alone while I was inside working in the kitchen. Luckily our kitchen window and slider door overlook the yard so I can keep an eye on everyone, and I just use the screen door so that I can hear them and they can easily let themselves in and out of the house. We are having small glimpses of independence like this all of the time and it gives us so much hope that we won't have to commit every moment to our kids when they are awake in the future (Mommy and Daddy have other stuff they need to get done too!).

Cooperative Play: Although we have had glimpses of our kids playing cooperatively with each other in the past year, for the most part they have been doing "parallel play" (playing near each other but not really interacting) and "associative play" (joining in on the same activity, such as building with blocks, but not working together), which is common for young toddlers. Recently, though, we have been seeing more and more "cooperative play" (interactive playing), especially between the girls. They will ask each other if they want to play ball and then they each take a different post in the living room and they throw or kick a ball back and forth (at least, as best as a 2-year old throw and kick). We don't see much cooperative play between the girls and Jack yet as he seems more interested in doing his own thing at this point, but often they will imitate each other and getting each other laughing, which is really cute to see. From what I've read online, this is a bit early to be starting cooperative play, but I believe the girls already have a very special relationship so it is easier for them to interact like with each other than with other two-year-olds.

Usually we see "associative play" like this where they are all doing the same activity but not really interacting, except for the nonstop giggles. In fact, this ended soon after I took the picture as the girls ran straight into each other when going in opposite directions so they both fell into the puddle and got soaking wet.

I don't know who decided to put bubbles on their face first, but it soon looked like fun to everyone!

More copying...both girls have their legs in the air

If one has a toy phone, everyone needs to get theirs out

Pretend Play and Drawing Something: When the kids are playing with buckets and spoons outside I often ask them what they are "making" and almost every time Alexis says donuts, Jack says pancakes, and Faith says pasta. I guess we know what their favorite foods are! The other day Jack was drawing on his Magna Doodle and then he came up to me and excitedly said, "I drew a violin!" It actually looked like a pretty good circle, but to him it was a violin (and then he continued to draw more and more violins as he was quite proud of his accomplishment). Their imaginations are definitely running and soon I'm sure I will hear stuff like this all of the time.

Feats of Strength: Everyone is testing their limits when it comes to climbing, jumping, and other strength activities these days. I'm glad that are kids are strong and that they dare to climb high and try new things, but it does make me a little nervous as I can't be in three places to catch everyone if they fall.

Jack loves to hang on things

Faith thinks it's fun to climb on the railing 

Jack can get to the top of the climbing wall on the play structure in our backyard 

And Jack can climb the entire ladder at our neighborhood park

Climbing up the steps to the slide is obviously for babies. All three are always creating new ways to the top of the slide.

Lexi has abs of steel

People Preferences: Faith is in a stage where she only wants me to do something, or she only wants Daddy to do something, and sometimes she only wants Alexis to do something for her. Although all three kids have had their Mommy or Daddy preferences in the past few months, Faith is the only one who will choose who can push her chair into the table at dinner time (much to our frustration!). It's funny to me, though, when she wants Alexis to buckle her booster seat straps and push her into the table! I guess we know who wants to be in charge around here.

Alexis pushing Faith's chair to the table per her request

Speech: Some days our kids shock me with what they say. One morning Alexis was in bed with us and when we woke up she said, "I have a doggie named Snoopy." First of all, we never talk about the fact that her doggie is named Snoopy and second of all that was definitely a complete sentence. I was shocked. I've heard all of the kids look at something and refer to it as being "cute." The girls love to tell Jack that he needs to take his thumb out of his mouth. I also often hear the girls ask when someone falls, "Are you okay?" Thankfully this seems to have tapered off a bit, but for awhile all three were saying, "I NEED more!" That sounded super bossy to us and we tried to stop that one right away. Jack loves to get my attention by saying, "Hey! Mom!" Does he think he's 10? And the questions have started: What is that? Where are you? What are you doing? Thankfully they are not questioning every move I make yet, but I'm sure this will be happening soon. I am so glad they are talking more and more every day as life is so much easier when one can say what they need or want.

And here are some random photos from the last month:

Alexis trying on Daddy's sunglasses

Alexis just hanging out

Happy Alexis coming down the slide

Alexis' first ponytail, per her request

Jack having fun pouring water over his head

Jack excited about his new (to him) guitar PJ's

Jack proudly showing me a dandelion puff that he found

Faith in the backyard

Faith running in circles at a park

Alexis and Faith hanging out in the backyard

Faith, myself, and Lexi

If we really get around to potty training before next summer we won't have any more cute diaper shots like this one!