Welcome to Our Family!: Where has the year gone??

It's July??? Really??? When did that happen?

I'm pretty sure I am not the only one thinking that, but boy is time flying by. The best quote I have heard in regard to parenting is that it "consists of long days and short years" - and how true it is. At times the days seem to never end, and there are weeks such as this one where one day seems to melt into the other due to foggy sleepless nights and by Friday I have no idea what we did or when - it's all a blur!

Poor Daniel is teething, he cut his first two teeth at the exact same time June 21st, and his top two will be following soon, if they haven't broken through already. I don't remember ever seeing such red and swollen gums with the other kids... not to mention the fact that the teeth themselves look absolutely huge! He must be miserable. He's never been a good sleeper, or even a decent one, but throw teething into the mix and it's just not fun. We started what is another round of testing for him this week which consisted of a gastric emptying test to see how well his stomach is emptying. Not results yet, but let me just say that boy was a trooper! He did awesome. He had to drink some RADIOACTIVE medicine (a low dose, but still, freaks me out a little) then sit under a camera for an hour followed by 4 more scans for 1 minute each over the course of 3 hours. She saw some reflux episodes which isn't surprising, but thankfully he never threw up since he had a very small amount to eat compared to usual. Next week we have a follow up swallow study to see if he's aspirating at all when he eats. When we had the first one done 4 months ago the therapist said that as long as he's coughing, choking, sputtering that he should be fine b/c that means the nerves are still working... it's when he stops that there is a problem. Well, he stopped :( Now he just squirms a bit and his eyes water, supposedly classic signs, but we'll see what they say. So far any assumptions made about him he proves to be wrong, keeping everyone on their toes.

We also have some other milestones to note for the rest of the family. We are starting our second year of homeschooling with Joah and taking the first half of first grade slow (he's not quite 6, but definitely beyond kindergarten material... I don't want to take it too fast though b/c the curriculum we are using tends to speed up rather quickly as you work through the guides so what is right on target, if not a little simple for him now is just building blocks for the rest of his time schooling. These are the beginning stages of many skills that will carry on through the rest of elementary school and into middle and high). His reading is taking off and we have started doing his phonics program two lessons at a time. So exciting! He's also quite the fisherman, it's crazy really! It will be interesting to see where he goes with it, b/c there is definitely a LOT of potential for him there. We're letting him call the shots though, but at this point even after getting up at 4 AM and fishing a tournament with Kevin for 8 hours he's still upset when he doesn't get to go to a pond when he gets home. The kid's addicted!

Morgan is in the beginning stages of Hooked and Phonics and working her way through the preschool curriculum book. Just some gentle lessons that she begs to do! They argue over who gets to do school first each day. It's so interesting to see her be the middle child with Joah and Lillian, trying to balance her role and both big and little sister. Sounds funny, but it's true! Her and Joah are attached at the hip, and many times we forget that she did just turn 4 b/c she seems to mature for her age because she is doing her best to keep up with him. With each of my pregnancies I had dreams of boy/girl twins and I think they are it! Ever since she was just a year old or so they have been mistaken for twins. She is doing more with Lillian which is good, but boy oh boy, those two sure can battle it out! Poor Morgan gets the brunt of it, but she is amazingly patient and rarely, if ever, retaliates which absolutely amazes me.

Lillian is every bit of two years old. That little girl has more personality bottled up than I could have ever imagined! She's "strong willed" (only a slight understatement), which is frustrating now, but I am curious to see where that takes her in life. Time will tell I guess. Her version of school comes in the form of Signing Time DVDs (which has been awesome for her!) - a lot of her aggression seems to stem from frustration that she can't communicate to us. It's getting better, but her speech is still very difficult to understand. We are slowly getting her allergies fine tuned and have started seeing a new allergist thinking maybe she was just so uncomfortable from eczema that she was lashing out. It's interesting to see just how different his theories and methods are from the other guy! They changed up her medicines and are actually treating her for asthma now. There is no test for a child her age, it's purely based on symptoms. The biggest red flag was her recurring croup and "bronchitis." So far so good! I don't hear her coughing nearly as much at night compared to before. We also had tomatoes added to her allergen list which seems to have been the source of the constant rashes, congestion and watery eyes. It's been tough cutting out another large chunk of her diet, but we are making it work. She did pass her first of many food challenges (to eggs) which means it is not a life threatening allergy and gives us the option to start incorporating it into her diet in small amounts - yay!

Oh, and we are down to only one child in diapers... WHOO HOOO! Well, except now it makes going out in public that much more fun.

That sums up the kids in a nutshell.... I really do need to update more often ;)

And now for some pics, b/c that's always the fun part anyway.

Under the cameras during the first one hour stretch.

He is such a happy baby! He wasn't all smiles the whole time, but he was a trooper.

Ummmm... yeah... that's comforting. (The medicine came in the room in a small insulated thermos, and was being handled very carefully. Even more comforting!)

We had talked about getting him a lion stuffed animal (for the Bible story) and so I checked the gift shop during one of our breaks and they only had one available. Sold! Seemed fitting for him to have a souvenir. It was love at first... bite?

Our very mobile little boy is now army crawling and getting into everything! Hence the magnets moved up high. Just imagine the grunting noises he was making while hitting the fridge trying to get at them!

Pulled out the Exersaucer so we could at least attempt to contain him. As you can tell, he attacked it.

Watching the swallow tail butterflies.

Doing what he loves most.

First day of school! We are trying out a year round schedule so we can work during the yucky times of year (summer and winter) and take time off to play when it's nice (fall and spring).

Kevin's Father's Day picture...

A music wall - gotta love Pinterest ;)

Morgan was our caboose on the sickie train. Some short lived high fever virus... the kids don't like to be by themselves, even when they are sick (and it's not like the other's aren't exposed at that point anyway) so I just let her camp out in the living room - of course Lillian wanted a bed too).

Daniel's new nightly get up. He has to wear the cannula full time now b/c he was being such a pistol leaving it on when he slept and his skin couldn't handle taking tape on and off multiple times a day (plus it gets him used to it). The hat helps keep him from pulling it off, and takes the pressure off his ears, the socks on his hands gives him less fine motor function and grip to actually grab the tubing.

Joah loves his little brother.

Such a sweet face.

His testing this week was an all day affair so a lady from church watched the other three for us. We (well, Kevin) made a maze on the floor that night at 11:00 or something crazy so that there would be something new and fun to do in the morning. Again, thank you Pinterest. It's actually still there, and I'm kind of sad that pieces of it are starting to come up.

Joah's bear Henry needed oxygen as well. He put one of Daniel's old cannulas on it, stuck him in his backpack, and was breathing through the other end for him.