Elijah Brandon

Eli!!
So I completely meant to do a post on Eli, but Blogger has been acting up (again) on me so it was put on hold.  I think the problem is fixed now. 

-Bubs is now eleven months old!
-Weight is 20.9 lbs and 27 inches long about 50% and 5%....lol, I have short babies!  However, he is doing GREAT for a heart baby!
-Eli is finally starting to like big people food.  He seems to really enjoy pasta (that IS my boy!).
-Other favorites are Cheerios, Saltines, and he likes Baby Food squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, bananas mixed with berries, applesauce (baby and regular), green beans. 
-Still army crawls, but will get up on all fours, rock and then decide he wants to do it his own way. 
-Pulls up on standing toys and furniture.  He is also starting to try to stand in his crib-we are lowering the mattress this weekend.
-Eli started cutting teeth at nine months (like the girls) and his bottom teeth are completely through.  He is now cutting FOUR top teeth all at the same time and you would never know (like the girls)!  It is funny because of the four middle top teeth, the outer two are coming in first.  I have been trying to get a picture of it, but the little stinker is just too fast for me!!
-Eli loves to clap and bang on things.  From what I hear, he is getting not one, but TWO sets of drums for his birthday.  I have made it very clear to whomever buys the drums, those stays at the perpetrators house.  lol
-Eli claps his hands when you ask where Patty Cake is.  It is a good distraction while I am changing his diaper.
-Eli also will give high fives.  His babysitter taught him that!
-He loves to sit in his Pack N Play and play with his toys.  He is pretty content when you let him do that.
-Flip to 180 degrees and he loves to be held and taken around to see what you are doing.  He is an observer. 
-He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-especially the theme song.
-While he's eating his finger foods in his high chair, he has learned how to tease the dogs with his food.  We are working on breaking that habit, but he finds it hilarious when he does it. 
-He wears twelve month clothes.
-I am finding it harder and harder to part with his smaller clothes.
-He is growing in blonde hair-I love it!
-He says dada, just started saying mama and says a whole lots of consonant sounds....dudududud, babbabababa, etc.
-He smiles all the time still.
-He loves to watch his sisters and I can feel his excitement while they are running around-he wants to join!
-He is such a miracle to me and I cannot believe how much this little guy has grabbed my heart.  He has completed our family and he is loved so very much.

Madelyn Grace

Maddie!
-Maddie is two years old now. 
-Maddie can almost say the alphabet.  L, M, N, O and P are still all one letter when she sings the song :)
-She can count to 5
-She also loves to brush her teeth and take her vitamin.
-She is a snuggler.  She likes to be comforted.
-She usually wakes up very whiney and needy.
-She love baloney.
-I love to make her say "pretty please with a cherry on top" because she says "cheeerry top"
-When you say I love you, she says "too"
-She tells kids they are "bad" all the time-we are working on that!
-She loves baby shows on the baby channel
-She loves Minnie Mouse
-She loves Hello Kitty
-Maddie has to have a baby doll.  She loves to feed it and hold it and then throw it on its bed.
-You cannot open things for her-she has to do it herself.  She is very independent!
-She loves to be tossed around and lifted up.
-She is learning how to ride a tricycle.
-She does everything her sister does.
-Every day when I go to pick her up at the baby-sitter's house, she runs to me and yells "Mommy"
-She wants to jerk her feet away when I try to put her shoes and socks on her.  It's a fight every time!
-She loves to sing One, Two Buckle my shoes.  When she gets to Five, Six, she says "shut the door" and she sings that part over and over again!
-She love to sing Baby Bumblebee and Three Little Monkeys
-She also loves to go to church
-She loves to wear other people's shoes-if I take of my house slippers, they are gone in two seconds.  I am ALWAYS looking for shoes :)
-She loves to help me with the laundry and always pushes start for me.
-We are working on potty training.  She always tells me after the fact of going that she wants to go.  She also will sit on her Dora seat and after about two minutes, she says "I pee, I poop".  Every. Single. Time.  haha
-She also loves her bath and I have some great videos of her playing by herself and talking to her toys!
I am so in love with this child and she is such a funny little thing!  She is amazing!

Emma Catherine

Emma!
-Emma is now four years old-make sure you say four and a half!
-Emma loves anything to do with a princess.  Her favorite ones right now are Cinderella and Rapunzel.  She also loves Tinkerbell. 
-She has a pair of red shoes that she loves to practice ballet in.  She will twist and turn in the living room and show off her moves.  She goes off in her own little world while she does that.
-She always says "Oh Pickles" when something goes wrong.
-If she gets in trouble for not sharing, she will take something else that she is not even interested in and give it to her sister and say, here Maddie, we share things.
-She loves to put chapstick on and then proceeds to eat it when she thinks I am not looking
-She loves for me to sing her You Are My Sunshine and I have to be hugging her when I do it.
-She can do a puzzle faster than I can.
-She can count to 75.
-She knows all her colors.
-She loves her dogs and worries about stray animals.
-She wants to always help Daddy cook supper.
-She loves milk, green peas, peanut butter, Go-gurts, cheese, macaroni and cheese, bread, pudding, french fries, and CANDY!
-Pink is her favorite color
-She is starting to really use her imagination when she plays by herself.  She will have conversations with her baby dolls and Barbies.  She will also make her Barbies have conversations with each other.  I love to sneak up on her and listen to her play.
-She tells us she loves us all the time.
-She loves to brush her teeth and take her vitamin.
-Painting her fingernails is a great treat.
-She is starting to learn the value of doing chores=receiving an allowance.  We are working on the concept of saving money for bigger things she wants.  So far, she wants jelly beans and small dolls :)
-She has not had an accident in her bed overnight for months now! 
-She is in two different preschools and is excelling in each!
-She loves going to church
-Bath time is a favorite-she colors on the walls and paints on herself
I absolutely adore this girl.  She is a wonderful daughter and I can't wait to see what she will do next!!

One of favorite pictures of her.

Realization

Time has gotten away from me.  I wonder why....working a full time job, being away from home at least 12 hours each weekday and then coming home to three adorable, but crazy kids leaves you somewhat in a daze at times.
2012 was a year that I will always remember.  That was the first time I realized that I could really lose a child.  Yes, me.  Why I had not realized that before, I don't know.  I do know that I am not exempt from the harsh reality of losing my child.  No one is. 
This past weekend, a popular poster on Facebook lost her 15 month old son to SIDS.  FIFTEEN MONTHS OLD.  Isn't that past the supposed safe zone?  What a horrible thing to wake up to.  Your child lifeless.  Why does any mother have to go through that?
Does that make me parent my children any different?  You bet it does.  I stayed up with Eli a little longer last night just kissing his head and holding his tiny fat fingers.  I got Maddie out of bed when she started coughing and let her fall back asleep in my lap.  I let Emma get out of bed last night and fall asleep on the couch because she is afraid of the dark.  I know it may spoil them, but they have their whole lives to grow out of habits.  THEIR WHOLE LIVES.  Why should I worry if someone criticizes me for that?  My kids feel safe and I feel as if I made them safe.  What is wrong with that?  Nothing.

Ever since Eli was born and we learned of his heart conditions, I think I have been in a slightly hazy denial.  I knew that he was a sick little boy and he would never fully recover from his illness, but when we left the hospital for the first time when he was almost two months old, I was on cloud 9.  He was fixed and he was going home.  When he had his first ECHO done back in November, I was told of other conditions he has that I didn't realize how significant they are.  Ebstein's Anomaly and an ASD besides his Pulmonary Stenosis.  Not good things to have.  I did some research on these conditions and I won't lie, I was scared.  I was upset.
I talked this over with God first, then my husband, my parents and my co-workers.  Working in a hospital (especially the hospital your child stays in when they are sick) can be a blessing (and a curse!!!).  Eli does not show the typical symptoms of these conditions.  He should not be gaining weight, he should not be making milestones on time.  He doesn't look sick.  That can be deceiving at times, but it also tells me what a fighter I have on my hands.  This kid is not going anywhere anytime soon.  He will be with me for a long, long time.  I remember being in the  hospital when Eli was desatting after his second heart procedure on April 3.  I have never been more scared in my life.  I couldn't do a thing to make my baby get better.  The doctors and nurses that day (and every day) were phenomenal. They were calm as can be and they did what needed to be done.  While I started to panic, I felt this overwhelming sense of calmness come down behind me.  I heard a voice saying that I need to just Be Still.  I know that was my Lord with me while I was in the very worst moment in my life.  Nothing else would have gotten me through that as calm as I was. 

I am not sure what my whole point is of this post, but I am just learning to be thankful that I have my family that I do at this very moment.  I will parent my children the way I feel is best and makes them as happy as possible.  I want my kids to know that I have time for them.  I want them to know that I feel they are the absolute most important people in my life.  I want them know feel the love and pride I have when I look at them or when they tell me about something good happening in their life.  My hope is that other parents do the same.  We may not always agree on how everyone may parent their child, but we have to hope that the parent is doing the best they know how for their child(ren).....(aside from abuse, of course).  For you never know when you last day to parent that child may be; whether it is when they are an adult, or a child.  Let them know they are worth everything. 

Okay my rambling for the day is over.  Happy Monday everyone!

Family Pictures

Here are some Christmas family pictures we had taken on December 1 with my parents.  We have had lots going on with no time to blog!  I need to update very soon....for now enjoy the pictures.

Eli had his surgery on Monday and everything went great!  By the way he was acting, you couldn't even tell he had surgery.  He is such a trooper and I am so proud of him!!

Eight Months

My Bubs is eight months old!  How did this happen??  My little man is becoming so big.  This stage is sooooo much fun.  Why is it so much fun?
-Eli weighs about 17 pounds
-Eli wears 6-9 month clothes
-He looks adorable in hats
-He loves to chew on blankets
-He laughs all the time
-He sits up by himself
-He puts weight on his legs quite well now
-He is not so much into crawling, but we are working on it
-No teeth yet
-He likes squash, banana, and green beans
-We tried regular food at Thanksgiving and he just like cheesy scalloped potatoes
-Takes 8oz formula every five hours, plus baby food
-He is a momma's boy :)))
-He is starting to use consonants on his "words"
-He said Dada on Sunday
-He loves to jump in his bouncers-all the time
-He loves to watch cats
-His sisters are the funniest people around to him
-He now reaches for you when you go to pick him up
-He loves to play with his monkey doll and his little toy truck
-He is just completely 100% adorable and we love him so very much
Eli has urology surgery on December 12 and I am so ready for it to be over!  He is healthy enough to have it, but I am just scared regardless.  His last ECHO revealed some results that weren't the best for the future (he will more than likely need valve transplants throughout his life), but his doctor said he is doing way better than what he is supposed to be doing....which sounds like a good thing :)
One day at a time....God will provide!

So very thankful for this little guy :)

A Couple of Days Off

Last Thursday and Friday, I had the days off because the kids' babysitter took a small vacation.  (Lord knows she needs it!!!)  I had so much fun with my kiddos.  We really had some laid back days.  Not what I was expecting with a four and two year old and a seven month old.
On Thursday, I was able to take Emma to her preschool at 9:00 and at 11:00 we picked her up.  The kids were bathed beforehand, so we packed up and I took them to my mom's school.  Afterwards, we went and ate Chinese food-yea!!  We then went home and crashed for the rest of the evening.  On Friday, we hung out the entire day and just played.  Emma had preschool at noon and she slept until 10:00!  She is just like me when I was that age :)
Here are a couple of pictures of Maddie and Eli that I took while Emma was still asleep.....

Even though this is a cute picture, the one I was going to put on would not download onto Blogger (I have been having this issue for a while now, some pictures are good enough, others aren't) 

My dad came and took Emma to preschool so I wouldn't have to get the other two kids out.  Emma got home about 3:30 and we watched a movie, colored and then went to Emma's school's fall festival.  The girls went with my mom and I.  We played all kinds of games and jumped in the Bouncy House.
Afterwards, we scrambled around the parking lot because my mom was holding my little purse with my debit card, cash, ID, etc in it and dropped it in the dark on the pavement.  Talk about panic!  We found it though-thank God!

That next Wednesday was Halloween!  Emma was Cinderella, Maddie was Boo from Monsters, Inc and Eli was a Teenie Meanie.  They were so cute and had lots of fun!  The weather was yucky, but no one got sick from it!