Happy Birthday Uncle Jason

MN Visit

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

Pictures before church

Baby Natalie

Baby Natalie was born today! We are so excited to have a niece/cousin in our family. Congratulations to Kyle and Amanda.

Sitting Up

We are working on Diana learning how to sit up. GB and Daddy have been working especially hard.

Diana NICU Followup

Diana had her NICU followup today. I had no idea it was going to be this involved. She had an audiologist test her hearing, all checked out okay. Then she was observed by a speech pathologist, occupational therapist and a physical therapist while the neonetalogist observed from behind a mirrored window. Just for clarification, she is 7 months old but her adjusted age would be 5 1/2 months old. Here are their findings:

Her weight was 16.8 pounds, which is at the 90th percentile for a 5 month old. Her head circumference of 42.5 cm is at the 75th percentile. Her fine motor skills place her at 7 to 8 months with a developmental quotient of 115 and a percentile of 84. Diana's speech/language skills place her at 5 to 6 months. She is vocalizing, but not babbling. She does recognize her own name. Diana's gross motor skills place her at 5 to 6 months with a motor quotient of 102 and a percentile of 55. Diana remains tight at he ankles and resists stretching of her heel cords. Diana loves to be in extension, as she is in a jumperoo or exersaucer*. She tries to move on her head, although she can flex nicely from her abdomen.

*Because Diana has been placed in a jumperoo or exersaucer, she has developed her back and leg muscles too much and not enough of her core muscles. The team was worried about her ability to crawl and have suggested discontinuation of the jumperoo or exersaucer. This is the first time that I had heard these toys were bad for kids but apparently they are. Since I had this appointment a couple other people have told me this as well, namely occupational therapists. So for all of you other parents out there who use these and whose kids LOVE them, my suggestion would be to use them on a limited basis.

Our Little Fish

Jonathan loved to swim again this year in Florida, I didn't really expect anything less but I was amazed at the progress he made throughout the week. He went from swimming with his water wings on, to discovering he could touch in the shallow end, to placing his face underwater and holding his breath, to jumping in off the side and allowing himself to go under water, to swimming without his water wings with a little support (i.e, someone holding him slightly by his swim trunks). Look for some videos I posted on each day I took them. He is quite a little fish! We definitely have GB to thank for all of the personal swim lessons!

Sick Jonathan

Jonathan woke up Monday with a really bad cough so I decided to keep him home from school that day. Today, he woke up fine with a little bit of a cough but after he acted yesterday (totally fine, full of energy and no fever) I decided to send him to school today. He was fine until about 3 pm today when all of a sudden he said my ear hurts. I didn't think much of it until he kept saying it over and over again. He had a low grade fever at this point so I asked if he wanted to go to the doctor and he said yes, I knew we were in trouble then. So off we went and sure enough he has an ear infection. This is only his second treated ear infection since he has been born and thank goodness because his medicine was $50. Thanks to being allergic to amoxicillin. The doctor said on a scale of 1-10, this ear infection is an 8. I think Jonathan got my threshold for pain. Poor kid!!!

Diana Discovered Christmas Tree

Diana discovered the Christmas tree today. Apparently I put her down on her activity mat too close to the tree for her to resist...she scooted herself all the way to the tree and was pulling ornaments off the tree. I had walked out of the room and came back and couldn't believe it so I moved her back to her activity mat, stayed in there to watch and sure enough she did it again. This gave me a little insight as to what my life will be like when she does start to crawl. For the time being though, I thought it was really cute. She was so proud of herself.

Santa Again

Jonathan got to see Santa again today at the church holiday party. Once again it was a light sabre on his list. It is safe to say that Jonathan is not afraid of Santa...he was second in line for this picture and kept waving and saying hi to Santa. Diana on the other hand, was asleep for both of her Santa opportunities, I guess there is always next year. We also went to a Holiday Follies play today with Alex and Evan (as Shonda invited us to go with them) and the boys got to see Santa again in the play. Seeing Santa three times in one weekend, WOW!
Unplanned, Evan, Rocco, Alex and Jonathan were dressed similar...

Photographers suggestion, a silly picture as a reward for getting the boys to cooperate, sort of. I love how kids admire Santa

Story time with Father Ken

HPPE Holiday Party

We had my mom's group (HPPE) holiday party today and as I was busy being Santa's helper, Jonathan had a great time running around and playing with his friends. I found out later that he had several conversations with some of the other mom's, what a social butterfly. He was very excited to see Santa and told him he wanted a light sabre for Christmas.
After the kid party, I had another holiday party to go to and when I came home, I found my whole family laying on the floor in the family room by the tree. Jonathan ended up taking over a two hour nap by the Christmas tree with the fire going. I melted my heart I thought it was so cute. Brad said he was waiting for Santa.

Diana Rolling Over in Bed

Well the fun may have just begun, Diana rolled over today at nap time after only sleeping for an hour and now she is on her belly and getting mad...what to do. Do I go in and rescue her? She also turned her "show" (crib toy) on for the first time, but now that it is over she is crying and stuck.

Diana Foot Update

Good news! Diana had her ortho follow-up appointment today and after 3 months of wearing her shoes 23 hours (well sort of) a day, the doctor is very pleased with her progress. He said she could just wear the shoes at night (12 hours a day) and only until she outgrows this pair. Originally I was told she would need to wear shoes until 3 years of age, I guess they just tell you worst case scenario upfront. I am so happy!!! I have no idea what I will do with all my time during the day now that I am not putting shoes back on constantly.

Daddy Working Out

Brad is really into Crossfit workouts these days and Jonathan likes to work out with him, when he is allowed. Today he was helping hold down Daddy's feet while Daddy did situps.

We had a costume change...

I love how he was watching himself in the glass doors.

Dance Party

Jonathan loves to dance and be "crazy." Today we had a dance party out by the pool, or I should say Jonathan had a dance party. For some reason he is drawn to Latin music...he would ask Brad to turn it on that station on his way to the hospital to visit me...strange.

Typical Day

Our typical day includes swimming and relaxing by the pool. The kids are loving it and I think so is Brad. I went inside for a second to get my camera to take this picture...Brad relaxing and kids playing.
Jonathan LOVES his baby sister and loves to give her kisses, show her how to do things and play with her. Her Jonathan is showing Diana how to roll over to her back and she is making her new face that just started this week.

Baby Doll

Diana is getting better about rolling over and being on her belly, although she doesn't last long on her belly and hasn't figured out how to roll back over to her back. GB also bought Diana a little baby doll to play with down here and she loves it. Mid-squeal (still thinking she didn't need the two rounds of steroid shots for her lungs. This girl can scream!)

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been having a wonderful week down in Naples, spending quality time as a family, enjoying the outdoors and our visit with Grandma Long and Grandpa Mike. My kids are getting spoiled with the attention and treats. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

Techie Guys

Jonathan immediately took to Grandpa Mike and was his little sidekick all week. Jonathan really enjoyed looking at Mike's IPad and all of the COOL pictures he had on it, so much so that Mike had to email me some of the pictures to have on our IPad. They even compared IPad's to see who had better things on it. Looking at Grandpa Mike's IPad was a daily activity,

Jumping In

More Swimming

We did some more swimming today. This time we let Diana go swimming. She enjoyed it and loved the attention from Daddy and Jonathan. Her swimsuit is very adorable but I didn't get a good picture of it. Grandpa pulling Jonathan around on his big boy raft.

Fat Rolls

We are loving the beautiful warm Florida weather. We have already been swimming again today and now while GB, Grandpa, and Daddy are golfing we took a walk. Jonathan rode his bike and it broke down. He had to fix it and fill it up with gas. I LOVE his imagination. I must admit, I am having fun dressing Diana in dresses and seeing her fat rolls on her legs. She will probably hate this picture when she gets older.
On our walk today, we saw landscaping guys and they were spraying for weeds and bugs. When we got home Jonathan picked up his golf clubs, tucked him into his pants and was walking around. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was killing weeds and bugs. He doesn't miss a thing.

Going Under Water

Florida Relaxing

We are having a lazy Sunday by the pool today. Jonathan is really enjoying his time with his Daddy and is Daddy's little shadow. Too Cute!

Diana gets startled by the camera flash, I swear she was smiling and very happy.

Touch the Bottom

Rolling Over

Diana is rolling over a lot today...here is one picture I got of her in action.

Drooly Mess

Diana is drooling like crazy these days...can you see how wet her She loves her dress is? She loves her activity center/exersaucer.

Fixing with Doug

Jonathan was so excited that Doug came to our house today to start building our bookcase. He even got to fix with Doug. Doug loved that Jonathan just crawled right into the cabinent...he said "way to get into your work." We had a very happy Jonathan today after he got to see his buddy Doug.