Pack Rat

I must admit I have the worst habit of being a pack rat. When I graduated High School, my dad made fun of the fact that I had saved every Valentine I'd gotten since 2nd grade. I just figured if it was organized it was fair game. So now that you know part of my history, I married Jake. He keeps nothing. I have to ask if I want something saved. SO... to lighten our load for our upcoming move we cleaned out our clothes yesterday. Jake was throwing out EVERYTHING! Pants he had barely worn, shirts and ties I had given him, not even a year old! He's not planning on wearing a shirt and tie to his next job (scrubs instead) so to make me happy he said he'd keep 10 shirts. So in the middle of all this to keep me from crying (because my feeling were already hurt) I decided to call my mom and tell her Jake had the gall to throw out a polo shirt my dad gave him 6 years ago that said Coastal Bend College, (my hygiene school 10 years ago!). I knew it was pathetic but I needed something.

Well, the funniest moment happened when Reesa said to me, "Do you want to keep that because your mom gave that to you?" I must have used that reasoning in most of my desperate pleas. I realized my daughter was starting to emulate me and my own bad habits when close to tears she started yelling at Jake holding some random tie, "can't we just keep this one? I don't want to donate it!"

Jake asked Reesa if she wanted to give away some of her own clothes to other people who needed them, and would wear them. So off she dashed and later I found her 2 boxes packed (clothes folded) and in the hall next to ours. She told me, "someone better take these boxes too!"
Don't worry I went in her room and checked, she did leave a few clothes for herself!
Yes I did give away my 3 remaining hygiene school shirts, and my t-shirt from the only marathon I think I'll ever run (can't you see my dilemma!!!).

What can't you give up? ...but you know you should?

Dental Health Month

Since February is Dental Health Month, our preschool asked Jake to come in and do a little presentation in each of the kids classes. It was so fun to see our kids at school. They got to learn about keeping their teeth clean, brush "Danny the Dino's" teeth and learn a fun little song with hand actions. (I would have never guessed all those songs I learned in community class in hygiene school would come in handy! ha ha)

Reesa was cheering when she saw us, SO FUNNY!

Here's Reesa with "Kevin the Kangaroo"

Later that day... Jansen has learned how to open the refrigerator. Although he RARELY does anything with out some help, Reesa and I found him at the table chowing down on strawberries. He LOVES them. He thought he was so clever and very happy.
So I gave him two more and put the rest in the fridge, and later came back into the kitchen to find this... He had lined up 21 strawberry stems, either to mark his territory, or maybe just a little OCD.

Aunt Laura visits

Oh we are so lucky!!! Aunt Laura came to visit us, and we had her ALL TO OURSELVES! It was crazy since she came in the middle of a snow storm and had to stay inside with us most days. (AND her trip was extended by TWO days!) We made lots of yummy food like nachos,
and homemade french fires...
we did a 500 piece Quizzle puzzle, with the help of two of my kids.
When I asked Jake what I did the whole time with Laura, he said "are you kidding? you made cards every 10 minutes!" He're's two of the cards we made with Chelsey.
and the other reason for Laura's visit, some free dental work. SO... If you have any work that needs to be done, come stay for a visit and Jake will do it for free, (okay Jake?) and we will LOVE having a guest! I found this picture on my camera, who took it? Jansen?

Thanks for coming Laura, it was SO FUN! Sorry we couldn't show you more of Richmond, but I LOVED having you!!!

Snowed in

I'm sure you've heard how we've been up to our ears in snow... church was canceled for 2 weeks in a row! We have a total of 27 inches of snow this year, which is very unlike Richmond. So Jake built another fort, this time in the front yard, so if the neighbors came over they could play. (Last time it was in the back yard, not so inviting.)

You can see how deep the snow is on Jansen. Notice he sticks out his tongue to concentrate, just like dad.

He finally made it up the stairs to try and get me to come out.

As I was looking through the pictures I took, I probably had 70 of just Jansen. I think Jake and I feel a little guilty about him being the middle child, ya think?

Adam and Stacie came over to help get rid of some cabin fever. And yes, that is me in the snow fort with Reesa!

We even let Mitchell come out for a little tiny bit. I think he loved it!

Reesa

I just had to share... we've been working with Jansen to try get him to make ANY sound. ie. "ba, ba, ba, BALL" before we throw him a ball, get it? So Reesa thinks she should help, and says things like, "Jansen do you want to watch ta, ta, ta, T.V?"

Jansen's main sound he'll make is duh. The D says duh, and Reesa will sing all the time "Jansen says duh."

Well today I heard her say "duh, duh, duh, heart Jansen, good job." I think she's getting a little confused!

Mitchell is 8 months today!

Mitchell still loves to act like a newborn. Here's a rare photo where he's kind of holding his own head up, so I'm posting it, drool and all!!! Below is what he normally looks like.
We started M on baby food 2 weeks ago. We've been waiting til he had more head control, but he still has been having so many problems with reflux, the docs thought it would be good to have the heavier food along with gravity keep things down. I think he's loving food, but you can't really tell, since he can't use his arms to push it away, he can't really turn his head away, and he's practically laying down when I feed him, but he's not screaming, so I'll take that as a "this is the best treat of my life!"

We still can't get his bowels under control, so he's only eating pears and prunes, along with 4 other medications. We've had to change his meds about once a week because we can't seem to get the right combo, and the poor kid is just miserable!

Mitchell weighed in at 13 lbs. 4 oz and is under the 3% for weight now. I'm thinking solids will change that. We also increased his feeding to every 3 hours to bulk him up.

Major accomplishments,
Mitchell reached for Jake's face on Sunday. Twice. He still holds his arms in as tight as he can, so we've been playing "Rocky theme song" and helping M stretch those arms 5 x a day. Reesa started asking if he's going to be an "exer boxer." We call it his boxing exercises.

If he's in a good mood, with a lot of work, you can get a smile. It's still not the same light up the room smile most babies have, but it's definitely a happy look.

He's rolled over from his front to his back 5 times.

He got his first THREE teeth in last week. ALL on top! It kind of scared me that he has an irregular eruption pattern (the bottom should have come in first), but Jake says it can still be variable for another 3 months or so, and he can't think of any disease associated with this pattern. So who knows???

He makes good eye contact, and will turn his head up to see me if he's sitting on my lap. He also likes to mimic sounds, and is getting pretty good at it.

The nights are not his strong point. He will go 4 hours, once in a while it's 6. He was out growing his wedge, so doc told us to prop his mattress so his head is 6 inches above his feet. I can't really seem to get him to sleep in this new bedding, but Jake's a pro! It seems like once you get comfortable in a routine, everything changes. Sound familiar? I think that happens to all of us especially with babies.

Well we love little Mitchell, we're so happy he's home, and he's growing. Our developmental doctor told us he thinks Mitchell will be able to walk one day, he's just going to be delayed a little. He no longer thinks he has cerebral palsy. He is still wondering why M is not making a lot of the connections he should be, and is just a little worried about his "internal wiring." He wants another MRI in 6 months or so... until then love him!