No excuses! Time to blog!

I didn't get my nap in on Wednesday, no excuse to not blog!

I took all the littles to get their school pictures taken today and we started with Duncan and Dylan. Going to be interesting since it went terribly with Dylan. Bad bad... So we settled. Regardless, it's Dylan either way so we will take it!

I had forgotten it was picture day but it won't be as classic as when my mom forgot it was picture day and I looked like a homeless cowgirl (one of her most favorite pictures ever...). We could have waited until the next day but pictures are stressful so let's just get it over with!

I did want to have Asher and Ian done as well and since I forgot, their hair wasn't done and Asher got up late so he was in his jammies. Fortunately I had a baby holder come visit while the kids were in school and I ran over early get the job done. Holy expensive batman. Wowza! we need to bite the bullet and get them profess ally taken since that was a SUPER painful check to write. Egads. And no Greyson, just the other four!

I mentioned my baby holder came over, Angie came over bearing gifts and wanting a snuggle and we have more than one boy happy to oblige! It was fun to have adult company and her boys are all growing up too fast so we might have to make this a regular weekly thing, it will help me get some things done and Greyson was happy to be held and he slept well all day because of it.


Speaking of growing up too fast, my little stinker was four weeks old on Tuesday and he started smiling on Monday! No, no... He is NOT old enough to start smiling at me yet! He is very advanced! He can hardly hold his head up but with such a social butterfly father I shouldn't be surprised that smiling came first! He is so sweet with his little crooked smiles. Hard to get them on camera when the one he is supposed to be smiling at is hiding behind the camera though!

Duncan has started writing his name... All on his own. A great indication that it's time to start practicing our letters! Matthew as very impressed that he had done it on the magnet board so he told Duncan to write it again for me. So he started, on the lower left, and proceeded to write his name upside down. Upside down! He got a little embarrassed after that so it took a little 'talking in to' to get him to do it again for a picture. I told Ms. Debi and she said kids start all kinds of way, upside down, backwards, letters on top of each other... She seemed quite amused at what kids do with their names!

He has also started with the rock collecting... I need to learn to check his pockets before I run the wash because you would be surprised at what I find in there! Old rusty washers, nails and lots and lots of rocks. As he was getting out of the car he told Debi to wait he "just needed to..." and there he was picking up rocks! I told her I was surprised there were any rocks left on the playground because I was sure he wasn't the only one! She apparently told him a lot needed to stay there too!

We dressed up the door with crepe paper and Duncan asked what I was doing. "I am making a mummy!"
Him "a mommy?"
Me "no a mummy!"
Him "a MOMMY?!?"
I am not sure we got this straightened out. Suffice it to say a mummy will be the newest monster we learn about this Halloween!

Debi brought the kids out to my car and told me the kids were all around the table working on a fine motor skills project and all of a sudden Duncan held his up and said "Holy crap! I did it!" She seemed to think it was hilarious... He got it from me! And the first and second "Holy crap"s are kind of funny but we are borderline on thirtieth and it's really time to reign it in!

I asked Duncan to get a diaper for Greyson and he did and he said "MOM! These diapers SMELL GOOOOOD!" I said "I know, they smell like a baby don't they?" and he goes "No! They smell like SUGAR!!!" and shoved a diaper... Practically up his nose.

I am so excited we got a new nephew in the last week too! Baby Mason is Greyson's new BFF and grandchild number 29 for LouAnn! Very impressive! Michael and Megan had Owen a few weeks after Asher too, two right in a row. I told her the next one she is on her own! Five might break me!

Dylan went to Spina Bifida clinic on Friday, Matthew took her up and she also had a bladder study and a renal ultrasound scheduled. It was crazy trying to schedule the study because we did it with sedation last time and there we a bit of a scheduling conflict with the anesthesiologists. Ultimately they decided to try it not sedated and apparently she is a little champ! Again, I hate not going because according to dad everything went fine and it all looked great which I know is not a direct quote from everyone he spoke to that day! Oh well!

We are upping her seizure meds again because she is still having spasms. She was having them about 4-5 times a week and just yesterday she had them twice. We are going from one pill in the morning and two at night to two and two for a week and then two and three! Lots! We will have to go get labs done on her liver again with the new dose and that is something we are not looking forward to!

We were asked about bladder control meds and opted out again. Not a need right now and we are messing with other meds at the moment.

Dr Neuro actually retired. Like retired retired. No more running the clinic and dolling out his home and cel numbers, he flat out retired and we got a new Dr Neuro! I will meet her someday. It's all good until we lose Paula and then I will freak!

Lots of appointments next week, my meeting a dentist appointment, and the twins' well-child check. Oye! Maybe Angie shouldn't have offered to watch the kids if I needed her to! She might regret that offer! Oh too late! She already text me and we have a standing date every Wednesday! My new cleaning day! Yay!

First attempt at catching that fun, crooked, first smile!

And second attempt, with a real camera, not a cel. Again, photog is also the smile generator so I will take what I can get!

This afternoon, snoozing.

Another adorable gift, it's so cozy, warm and soft... obviously, by how chill he is!

And what did YOU do while they were at Clinic? (What can I say, mama needed a break!) It doesn't last long, that little one looks sweet and innocent but he starts and it all goes down hill from there!)

Duncan's name. This time he tried to write it right side up. backwards D, upside down u, great attempt at a little n, nearly perfect c, PERFECT A, and another n that wouldn't quite fit on the end there... (I think it's backwards!) Isn't it ADORABLE?

Asher and his woobie. He couldn't get it all the way out of the crib so he got out what he could, found a bink and my little cat crawled under the crib to snuggle.

When you are tired, you are tired... doesn't look too uncomfortable except her crazy arm. (She rubs her hands, palms and backs, to get to sleep.)

Again, when you are tired... This would be Asa snuggled into our couch, isn't it cute! His mom was right next to him on the couch when he chose to roll over from his back and snuggle right in! We had to get a few pictures before we interrupted his snooze for an, *ahem* more safe, sleeping position.

My little peanut

Ami loves this face, so this is for her.

I was just trying to make the picture more interesting... 

Why yes, I did give my children a spoon full of peanut butter for a snack... what makes you ask?

They are finally old enough to police themselves when they get up at 6:30 in the morning! Dad just goes out and pops on the TV for a few minutes until we have a chance to rub the sleep out of our eyes. When I came out this is where I found them. Ian, apparently the blanket hog..., is rubbing Duncan's hair.

The "mommy" door. (FYI, those of you who try this... it stays neat for exactly one single night, after that it starts sagging and looking old, more like a "real" mummy!)

Smarty Pants

We had Early Intervention come in to evaluate Ian's speech this last week. Again, I was planning to wait until he was three and have the preschool do it but I was noticing he was getting increasingly frustrated when we couldn't understand what he needed. So, thinking it would be a smoother transition to preschool I called EI. I guess normally they don't even come if it's within three months, so I am not sure why they decided to...

Three women who I have met before came over to the house to play for a little while and ask way too many questions. In fact one of them was the one I mentioned quite some time ago who recognized the picture of my Father in Law as her dentist, she was his patient from when he started his practice until when he was killed and she misses him! She said she has been through many dentist since but had no idea how good she had it with Dr. Bob.

One of the gals pulled out the book that the therapist used at the Neonatal Follow Up clinics to test where a child is cognitively and my little boy wonder did super fabulous. He tested between 42-44 months, he is 33 months.

Another woman had a puzzle of a house where the pieces were different shapes, the roof was a triangle, the sun the circle, the door rectangle and so forth. She was playing with him and told him to put in the tree and he did, the window... And then the roof, thinking there was no way he would get roof. Of course he got roof! But not only that, they caught on he might know the shapes and were super impressed that he knew oval and rectangle among the easier ones, so funny.

Ultimately he doesn't technically qualify for therapy except for the fact that he is getting frustrated. That alone qualifies him. They put that he was 22 months in speech but I think they exaggerated a bit knowing that articulation is more of the problem. They don't test for articulation, but the school does.

So ultimately, because he is wicked smart but behind in speech he doesn't qualify... Semantics.

So the school will have to test him again anyway! Oye. Unless we want to do two month of therapy, we gain nothing really. I called the manager at the school to get her opinion and she had Ian on a wait list for the preschool class knowing that speech might be an issue for him. I thought that was nice of her to have thought that far in advance. She agreed EI would likely not be worth it for such a short period of time but offered her speech therapist to give advice on where to go from here. Whether it be separate therapy, a class setting, things we can do at home etc. We planned to talk about it more on after Dylan's IEP.

Dylan's IEP was on Tuesday, blah.

After speaking with the speech pathologist from the school it sounds like Ian is pretty on track. I think he has actually gotten better too, we have been making him work on sounds and words and it seems it's actually working. We will see about preschool on December. He would LOVE it, but he seems so young. Not sure what to do here. I have two months to decide.

Dylan came home from school with messy pants last week and it made me sad. It was messy that wasn't terrible, but stinky enough, and it was old. So someone didn't change her when they totally should have. I was perplexed... But it wasn't way smelly, like, Maybe someone thought it was gas? So I will just see if it happens again. Shelley would have changed her. (I know I got to let it go... Big sigh). I must mention though, today she had been changed... So hopefully they just didn't notice.

The IEP went fine. I really got the impression that they had each spent a lot of time with Dylan and cared about her, they knew her quirks and stuff and that was actually kind of nice. We will revisit n the Spring, so she won't have to have one so close to the beginning of the year with all new teachers. It helps with the transition to Kindergarten. (Tear)

Our TV went kaput. Hot on the trail of us having purchased a brand new TV for the work out room. (Matt hurt his shoulder playing on the trampoline with the big boys and became mortal all of a sudden... So getting the work out room in tip top shape became the utmost important.) So off the boys went, to Costco for a new TV.

They were there two hours.

No, I am not kidding. And somehow we are surprised it took him six years to land on this sweet deal? And by this sweet deal, I mean THIS deal, ME.

Ultimately they did choose a TV and come home though. Our last iPod broke recently and we were out tunes and TV for a day. It was rather quiet!

Duncan and Matthew spent a bit of time disassembling the broken TV. Duncan was so cute. He was fascinated! He ended up with some cuts and scrapes too! Taking apart a TV is dangerous business!

My little baby Greyson had his first doctor appointment last week. He was still under eight pounds! But barely... Tipping the scale at 7'15.8. Otherwise everything looks great. In just the last couple of days he has decided to come to terms with the evacuation and he has been spending more and more time awake. He makes very pleasant faces and I am sure a smile is coming soon!

Matthew went back to work last Wednesday and I was on my own, just like that. When people asked how it went I just said it wasn't pretty but it was functional! I laid everything I needed for all the kids out the night before. I set my alarm to be able to wake and feed Greyson and have him settled and happy while I kicked in to gear kicking all the others ready to go. We made it in time. Thank goodness for cooperative newborns!
I have been slacking on the once a week blogging but I have been holding a baby and napping with an adorable newborn on my chest every chance possible. I am just trying to soak up every single minute of Greyson being tiny. I have also been making a point of spending one on one time with the other kids and making special moments with them. It's very time consuming, but the best way possible to consume time I think.

No pictures please

Everyone should have a few of these laying around.

One of them is veyr happy and pleased with this situation... one is not so much.

This is called "Three kids, up up"

Taking apart the TV. Notice the wound... Matthew had put the broken TV on the back porch until he could (properly?) dispose of it and Duncan is sometimes far to curious for his own good!

I can't imagine how this would lead to a wound can you?

Asa and Ian, Adorbs. And the helmet has been retired, this was it's final week. He had a gorgeous snugly little head when we saw them last Saturday!

Greyson Michael

Missing: One shriveled, dried up, umbilical stump. Please, oh please, let me be the one who finds it first.

I told Matthew and he is completely disgusted "Really? REALLY?!" like a) I would be joking or b) it's my fault! It was even gauzed on, though obviously not tightly because it slipped right out. But but but, how am I supposed to scrap book it?? Just kidding... *shutter*

And how we got here.

In our typical style we chose to evict our dear sweet baby. It's so much more helpful to be able to plan for sitters since so few know how to care for Dylan. And even fewer can handle all four kids! I think three nearly took my mom down when Asher was born! planning allowed us to farm the big boys off to Melissa and her little mothers all day AND all night! she really took one for the team there! I should probably pay her girls! My mom stayed here at the house with Asher and Dylan and did laundry and cleaned. She didn't see the whites of Matthew's eyes until he got home at 2:30! Long day for grandma!

Knowing our penchant for planning Dr B asked me what I thought about the 11th as an induction date. Funny, I knew the conversation might be coming so I had already asked Matthew and he couldn't care less. Truthfully, with September being SUCH a big month for babies I thought it would be a good day to not get bumped! Interestingly enough, Dr B told me it was becoming a popular day for inductions because people are considering it a patriotic thing! We have come so far. He said he was sure the 11th was booked, he would look at the 12th, but then came back in and said the 12th was booked and the 11th it was! Well, there you have it!

September 11th would be the day we would bring a sweet little angel into the world. There have been a few comments of apprehension here and there, but over all, we are quite pleased with bringing a bright spot on this day! How lucky are we to have an angel on a day when so many were taken away?

And, even more, Aunt Traci's birthday is on the 11th!

So we did get bumped a bit... We finally got the okay to go in around 1:00. Maybe it would be on the 12th! These things take time. Especially because our babies tend to get the relaxed, comfortable patient gene from their dad!

It was great though, I was very comfortable and, unlike the last three labors, I was not having back labor! It was a whole new experience for me and it was GREAT! If I wasn't opposed to unnecessary pain I would have tried to last longer without and epidural... Ha! So in walked my favorite anesthesiologist. No really... When you have babies as frequently as we do you start to have favorites! When he walked in I cheered! I told him he did my last two and had I known it would have asked for him by name! Three in a row! Those are good odds when there are seven of them! He was great and fast and we were set for the long haul.

And then we waited. Beth was working at the hospital and she came to keep us company for a little while which was fun. It was good to catch up, even if I was in waves of pain while she was there, I hadn't seen her in a while! She left right after I got my epi.

Dr B. went home and came back at 10:30 at night. He came in around 11:00 again and said "oh wow, those are good strong contractions! Wow, good..." and then without missing a beat "let's up the Pit!" I think someone wanted to go home before midnight!

After one little push and a slight nudge for shoulders... It's a BOY!! Another boy! Our nameless baby boy was born at 11:27 and I kept saying how little he was! The nurse was like "no, he's a good size baby!" He officially weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz and I was just pleased as punch that he was under 8 pounds! Yes!

He has a full head of long dark hair, more hair than any of our other kids and darker for sure! His eyes even look really dark to me already. Certainly not the fair haired and blue eyed Asher.

He screamed his fool head off for the first 25 minutes of his life and then slept the next 24 hours. He did not have a very cute cry face...

Because of the sleeping he wasn't a very good nurser either. I like to send the babies to the nursery in the second night for one bottle to help with jaundice (ever since Ian was in the light box!) but with this little guy not cooperating on that front I wasn't going to send him off just yet. Well, then he got uncomfortable from a) no food b) no messy or wet diapers. And he wanted to nurse. For an hour. After that I was all to comfortable sending my fussy little munchkin off!

It was 1:00 in the morning went I sent him away and I woke up missing him at 6:00. I think that was probably the first five hour stretch of sleep that I have had in several weeks, and probably the last for a while.

The night of the 12th Shannon and Tracy came over to the hospital to visit in what has become the official naming ceremony. Otherwise known as "pinning us to the wall and forcing us to make a decision on what the name is before they let us out of the hospital with a nameless baby, at which time it will then cost us money to name the baby" ceremony. I must say, this time was one of the more easy times with naming and it went quite smoothly. (Even though Matthew wouldn't even discuss names until I was hooked to the drip and he was über proud of himself for narrowing down half by simply cutting out the girl names when he came out with boy parts.)

Greyson Michael.

Jessica said it was very distinguished! I asked her "Distinguished? Even though he was born into our family?" to which she replied "well, maybe he will be your black sheep." Ahh ha! Funny girl. (Yes, this is the same Jessica that said "FLUKE, she came with a boy" a couple of posts back.)

What do the other kids think? Duncan and Ian go from pure love and infatuation to not being able to care less depending on the minute. Ian doesn't say his name, he just points and says "New baby! New baby!" Dylan looks at him as lovingly and interested as she does everyone else (it's pretty cute) and Asher just wants to bop him on the head like he wants to do to everyone right now.

Our little Greyson fits right in with the rest of our babies, he is very calm, very chill, easy, relaxed and calm. Granted, it's only been a week (a week! Tear!) but he is such a good baby! He doesn't have his days and nights mixed up, he sleeps very well, and he loves his binki enough for it to pacify him for a good little while before he wants to wake and eat (aka, I feel bad for putting him off). He is really yellow, I make them yellow, and has been spending a lot of time in the sun to avoid any problems. We were able to scoot by without Asher having lights and we are hoping to do the same with Greyson.

He is naked while the sun is out. Leading us full circle to how... His nasty gross umbilical stump came to be MIA. *shutter*

Matthew has been off work and I have been getting a good solid "dead to the world" nap with a comfortable new squishy baby laying right square on my chest. *sigh* Happiness. Until the kids stated school again last Monday he also let me sleep in to catch up on the sleep I missed at the hospital. He is such a great husband! He tries to make this new baby thing as easy as possible on me.

We have to find a routine before he goes back to work! Yipes! Only a few more days left!

What's a little bed head amongst friends the day after you have a baby?

 



Looks like we were getting undressed... MAD at mama!

Babies are fascinating.

There's a new big baby in town!

What in the world?

LOTS of hospital visitors! Aunt Melissa had a break in Ian and Duncan duty for a fleeting moment! 

Birthday buddies!

First meeting

Aunt Ami (This picture was sent to Eden to make her jealous!)

But she got her own turn!

Grandma snuggles (I have a nearly identical picture of LouAnn and Ian from the day Ian came home...  Greyson and Ian look a LOT alike!)

Baby furniture is a good idea! A new place to chill!

Tanning

Wrote it, forgot to post it

I wrote this last week! I never did finish all my thoughts but so much has happened that I figured I would just hurry and get this posted just in the name of getting it done! Then we can move on to very exciting things and pictures!

First three days of school! Duncan is having a blast even though he can hardly tell me anything they do and can't tell me any of his friends names. I miss Shelley. :/ I can't wait for the learning how to deal with Dylan is over.
Her new Spec Ed teacher said she is really concerned that she spins in circles and makes herself dizzy. She is worried that she will fall into something. Once Dylan is aware of her surroundings she hardly ever falls into things, dizzy or not. We have a lot of sharp edges at home and unless she trips, she is good to go. She said they are trying to give her the motion stimulation in other ways to get her to stop. Yea... Good luck with that!

Over all she is more interactive than she was last year and they are really noticing. I guess the first day she was really interested in all of the other kids and she was wanting to get close and touch their faces. They had to explain to the kids that it was her way of saying hello. I am sure it acted them to death. Whereas here all the kids are totally used to it and they acknowledge her and maybe give her a kiss (Ian), gently push her out of the way (Duncan) or ruuuuunnn (Asher). Regardless, they are used to it so it's no big deal. Dylan's fascination with the other kids wont last forever, she is just far more interested in other kids when she first meets them.

Ian is disappointed every time Duncan and Dylan go to school and he can't. Poor little guy. Soon, soon.

Last night we asked Ian if he wanted to go downstairs or upstairs to bed and he says downstairs with a P somehow. "powntairs" is about right. So we were saying "duh, duh, duh DOWNstairs" then your turn. "duh, duh, duh POWNstairs!" hmmm... We did it a few times. Then we said, "duh, duh, duh, DOWN!" and he said. "Duh, duh, duh... ... UP!!" and then he goes "hahaha! I said UP!" He thought he was so funny and him cracking up made Matthew and I laugh so hard! Cute little sense of humor!

The boys have been doing as well as can be expected sleeping in their own room together. It takes a bit of time for them to settle down and get to sleep but that's fine as looking as they stay in their beds. Especially a challenge for Duncan since he has a harder time going to sleep anyway. I told Ian to be quiet last night through the intercom thing and he said "no mamma, no mama no, mama no, mamma no" over and over and was saying it when I arrived in his room and scared the crap out of him. I asked if he wanted to come upstairs for bed and he said "noooo" very sadly and I told him he needed to be quiet then. I gave him a kiss and he gave me the tightest hug ever... He kept wiggling his fingers to get tighter, which totally melted my heart.

Ian is such a stinker now as he gets closer and closer to the age of three that it's a good thing he does so many things that are so wicked cute!

Wrestling has officially reached our house. I am not sure how I feel about it even though this is SO just the beginning and it only gets bigger and worse from here! Ian and Duncan wrestle... A lot. And Duncan needs to toughen up. He will wrestle and then start yelling because he has been what sounds like mortally wounded. Then he will chill and go tackle Ian again... Rinse, repeat. I told him he cannot wrestle and then whine, if he want sot wrestle he needs to toughen up and by golly it's working. This is good for general toughen up reasons even aside from wrestling. In the meantime, I imagine increasing frequency of the words "outside or downstairs! " coming out of my mouth.

All the new sheets on! 

Asher and his Woobie

 

First day of school, there were others but this was just awesome.

My cute oral gal looking rather sly.

Labor Day... but not for me!

I know, I KNOW, slacker.

We moved the two big boys downstairs! Finally! Duncan is so easy going and so accommodating. We had a train quilt hanging on his upstairs wall and he kept saying he wanted it to be his new blanket to sleep with. We told him as soon as he moved downstairs he could have it. And well, that's about all it took. It was convenient too because he had a small tied quilt from some random stranger, his bug blanket, that has been his bed blanket since he was tiny. It was definitely time for an upgrade.

Papa Bob came over to help Matthew disassemble the bunk beds and bring them down, we brought the double bed (bottom bunk) and the little toddler bed Ian was sleeping on and left the single (top bunk) upstairs just in case things didn't work out and/or for Asher later. Ian is too little for the bunk beds right now.

The first few nights Ian would come upstairs screaming his head off at 5:30 in the morning and Matthew would get up with him. Matthew is nicer about these sorts of things because I would have stuck him in the single bed up here and let him work it out... So I was hoping that maybe getting him back to sleeping through the night by having him sleep up here, then moving him again would work nicely. So instead of moving him downstairs after he fell asleep, we just moved him to this bed. But alas, he would wake up in the middle of the night and FREAK out. Again, dad would go work with him... I would let him freak out. Well, to be fair, daddy only did this one night and realized how miserable it was.

In the meantime for the last two days we have had him nap in the single bed. He is NOT a fan. And here I thought the upgrade from a pack and play for napping would be nice. So he cries himself to sleep in his big boy bed at nap time.Which is fine...

Last night we got home from Ami's late and I am starting the prep work for Ian to go in his big boy bed and scream himself to sleep and he very clearly tells me "downstairs!". So alas, we have discovered the problem, all along he just wanted to be downstairs... So we put both the big boys to bed at the same time and they went to sleep. He will continue to do the naps and crying bit upstairs though because it's the room we have available for naps! (And, as for today, he hates napping up here... he wants to be downstairs, so he is in there complaining as I type.)

It helped them to peacefully go to sleep that we got a video monitor aiming right on Duncan's bed and he knows it. He had already gotten in trouble on night number one (back when the 5:30 screaming was happening) for going "Ian, Ian, IAN!!" while Ian was staring at the ceiling trying to go to sleep like a very big boy. We were shocked they both went to bed so well last night but it was late and they had big fun at Aunt Ami's so we will see how tonight goes!

The good news is that Ian did not make a 5:30 wake up call this morning, Duncan came up at 7:30 (which is late for him actually) and Ian followed about ten minutes later. No sadness, no crying. Woot woot. One good night down and we shall see! I do love the video monitor though!

Pictures to come as we make the room a little more fun. Right now we just have kind of a big mess down there as we combine the exercise room, office/hobby room and music room. (We combine, haha... Matthew is the one who is doing everything!)

Next step is to move Asher to his own room. Yes, he is still in our room. Once we figure out where Ian will land (peacefully) it will be easy to boot him out. I might miss him though. But, poor guy... can't room with a newborn so out he goes.

Another next step is picking up a twin size bed for Dylan. Likely the top bunk of bunk beds with the railing all the way around. We (again we, haha!) might have to modify it so it is low to the ground since she dives out. She is getting a bit long for her little bed at this point.

Matthew put so much chocolate in the kids milk this morning they didn't drink it, seriously, no one ever listens. (Mini rant.)

Duncan and Dylan start school tomorrow! We went to their orientation to meet their new teachers but Dylan's Special Ed teacher wasn't there. Duncan knew the teachers from last year on the play ground and stuff so it was really no big deal to him. He just ran around the room and played with new toys. Shelley came in to play with Dylan for a minute and talk to her new teachers even though she isn't in that room any more. I have to be honest, the new teachers seemed a bit nervous around Dylan. I guess it's to be expected because people are nervous around new people all the time and her special needs makes things all the more interesting. Shelley sent me a note saying they were excited to have The D's in their class this year because I had shared my thought on them being kind of apprehensive.

Shelley told me that at Ian's age strangers should understand about 60-70% of what he says. I am not sure we understand 60-70% of what he says! Hah! My mom keeps telling me to chill out because all kids are different and I have to be clear, I am not worried!! I just know I have a smart little dude on my hands who is behind on speech and who will LOVE starting preschool when he turns three! We will set something up to have him evaluated in November and see what the deal is.

Duncan is so grown up lately it's really fun. He is coming out of the defiant stage and getting to where you can really have some fun conversations. He told me the other day "that was AWESOME!" and a awesome was in a pitch way up high. Melissa said he will get an opinion next which isn't so fun, but she has girls. Ha! And Duncan is very obedient... It will be Ian we will need to be worried about at 5!

We went to mom's for a Labor Day barbecue on Saturday night and bragged about how we had about 25 delicious peaches on our little tree. Like, melt in your mouth ridiculously yummy peaches and while we were there there was a thundering hailstorm that was insane!!! Pea and marble size hail rained down like snow and, well... There goes our peaches! Noooo!!! Well, it turned out they were okay for the most part but a lot of them have little round bruises just under the skin. Even with the bruises they are seem of the yummiest peaches I have ever had! Matthew really fought me on the fruit tree and he came in and told me how wrong he was. He is loving them and eating them like crazy.

We cashed in on mom's Christmas present and went to Wicked and it was AWESOME! (Think awesome as said really high, winkie!). Really loved it and would so go to it again. It was so amazing you almost feel as if you missed some of it because it was all so stunning. Great girls night out for sure! I bet it was AMAZING on Broadway! (And you can bet those words have never come out of MY mouth before!)

We did labs for Dylan on the new meds and he liver labs came back within range so the new medicine she is on isn't messing with her system which is a good thing. However, she is still having spasms. So we have upped the dose for a week and we will up it again in a couple of days and see if the new higher dose will work. I hate having to give her more medicine but it is what it is. Glad her labs looked good anyway, small blessings.

Duncan and Asher had sore ears, Duncan was complaining and I asked Trina to indulge him because it was so off and on. She took a peek and sure enough she said. It was red. Not infected but probably indeed bugging him. We left and it got better apparently and he is convinced Trina fixed his ear! She is magic. This is a good think for him to believe and I look forward to using her magic powers on him in the future.

People keep asking me if I think this baby is a boy or girl and I have no idea really. No clue. And I am terrible anyway, I was calling Asher a girl name for the last two months he was in my belly. So I fail the 'mother's intuition on baby gender' test. I don't even want to try. I think maybe girl since I am measuring a little smaller, but that doesn't always mean anything. I have been good and not even getting the heart rate from the doctor (which is one thing that lead me to think Asher was a girl). We have lots of cute girl clothes in the family though!

My friend Jessica said something along the lines of "Until you have that cute little boy" and I said "you think it's a boy?" and she said "it's what you have, boys." and I said "I have one girl!" Her response was priceless, she said "Fluke! She came with a boy."

We don't have a short list of names but rather a kind of long one with several that are terrible. Matthew informed me last night that he refuses to look at our name list until I am in labor at the hospital. Since my last labors have taken 12+ hours he seems to think he will have all the time in the world to look things over then. Since this baby is posterior like all of it's siblings were, he might be right.

My very accommodating easy boy in his new bedroom with a freshly laundered new train bed quilt.

\Happiness! (Albeit blurry happiness)

I guess they learn early to eat the middle out of the cookies? I laughed when I looked over and it was Asher and a boatload of cookie carcasses. 

Early morning TV. Asher is a snuggler and, as the most affectionate of our kids, Ian is happy to oblige

Feeling hot hot hot! (And so, SO lazy!)

Big blog slacker! I have been a week bit slacking lately because I usually blog when the kids all go down for their naps and instead I have been napping! Or making an attempt to anyway. Or just laying in a big pile. It's been so nice having everyone on the same nap schedule for this last little while. Well, except Dylan who sets her own schedule, she will hang out with me for a little while and then I will put her in her room where she will play, fall asleep, and then play again. I usually get a quiet hour or two to myself.

And, it's too freaking hot! My word. I thought it was the air conditioner not being able to keep up with the windows in our family room (which it was for a little stretch in there) but now that it's actually keeping up nothing has changed. I ask other people in the house if it's hot and every tells me no, it's just me. For Pete's sake, I move and I break out in a sweat! I have to get all my chores done in the morning (if at all...) and then lay around doing nothing. Cooking is pretty much off the table too. So funny that I thought it was really hot and it's just me. Oh well! Yay for the hottest summer ever!

The weekend before last we went to the cabin and Ami snapped some family pictures for Michael and Megan to take with them. It was the usual plan, 6-8 people jumping up and down, making funny faces and noises, and yelling while Matthew and I tried to hold still with the same silly smiles on our faces. Wouldn't you know, there was one where everyone looked GREAT except for me! I mean really? Not that I expected to look amazing at this particular time but come on! When Matt saw it he said "Awwwe, you ruined Christmas!" so I had to be a pain and get the originals from Ami and fix it up a little. Turned out okay, glad we always have Ami for more opportunities, getting a family picture is kind of a joke!

When in Lake Powell Ian picked up a bracelet of McKell's somehow and bless this kid, he likes to accessorize. He loves hats and bracelets! This thing is kind of bulky and hard to get long sleeve shirts on and off, and a battle for us to take off, so, I went back to high school for a minute and made him his own hemp bracelet that he won't have to take off, ever... Though they are hard to knot so it's not going to last forever. Good thing I have mad friendship bracelet skills.It does look pretty cute on him and if you ask him about it he will point to each bead one at a time and go "blue blue blue". Duncan wants one too but I am so not motivated because I know he won't keep it on longer than ten minutes, and that's being generous.

Dylan is at her full dose of the new med and she is still having occasional spasms. I don't know if it has to build up or what, but it stinks. She doesn't seem to mind, and I suppose that's good. We take her in to the lab on Friday to get a draw. I guess if everything looks good from there we watch for spasms and then wean her off the older med.

Dylan also went to the Ophthalmologist last week. Matthew took off work to take her. I warned him that they are long appointments. The previous doctor always ran late, they would get you in a room and he would come check her out, then they would give her drops to dilate her eyes and send you back into the waiting room. Then you would have to get back in a room! She saw a new doctor this time on account of her last one moving. Matthew called me on the drive home to tell me she recommended glasses for Dyl's wonky eye. So I asked him what I would have asked the doctor... Does she have a significant prescription to have Dylan notice that they glasses are helping? (Hello, Dylan will eat glasses, come on...) and I also asked if she was losing eye sight in her wonky eye. Last appointment the last Dr. Eye and I decided that, since she was working hard to use both eyes and her eye sight wasn't effected we would wait on glasses. Especially since wonky eye only shows up when she is sick or tired.

Matt told me he had no idea, those would have been great things to ask.

So I called and left a message for Dr. Eye and she called me back that night. She was really nice, I liked her. She said her prescription was very very low, and not enough to make a difference. She agreed with the plan to wait on glasses (thank heavens) and said we should follow up in three months. Which will likely be more like 5 or 6 if I have anything to do with it. What is it with Ophthalmologists wanting to becomes BFFs with their patients? The one time I had to see one I swear he wanted to see me (or my money) weekly!

Other than that though, everything looked great, her optic nerves looked swell. Dylan hated every second apparently... Matt said she was very fun and nice and sweet until it came time for the doctor to do her thing and Matthew ended up holding her down. Yay for dads!

Asher had his well-child check and that was completely uneventful. He is pretty darn typical. Short and sweet, just the way we like appointments. He is all set on the flu shot too, first in the family. He was not a fan of the two pokes he got, but he was very tough. He's a mini, around the 40th percentile in height but he was under the 25th last time! We will take it! his weight is 22.2lbs, which is about the 8th percentile, he is so skinny!

Little blond trouble maker

Yup, totally cheated. Look how cute Dylan is in this!

What? Doesn't everyone eat pudding this way?

Finally painting a wooden train Duncan got for Christmas. We have two more where this came from! He did really well and was so worried about his shirt he had me take it off. Not sure what I was so afraid of. Maybe the others will come out sooner rather than later.

Bye Kiko and Meggie!

This week we are saying goodbye (again) to Michael and Megan as they move away for a minimum of 9 months while he goes to Moscow, Idaho for his first year of law school. The name even sounds cold doesn't it?? It's a 10 hour drive from here and I am sure they will have a small apartment, but we might have to plan a little party crasher at some point! I am sure it's beautiful up there. We will miss them! We will miss Ownie (Ian's name for Owen) and we will miss the new baby! Boo hooooo! I am sure it will go faster than we know it. It's been so fun having Owen and Asher only 4 weeks apart and these new babies will be three weeks apart so they better come home soon!

Duncan and Ian went swimming with Aunt Ami last Friday. One of Matthew's cousins has a big hill in their back yard and they pull out a huge tarp looking thing of plastic and make an enormous slip and slide. While Ian was a little reluctant to go, he warmed up quickly in the car (Ben was so cute he said "I will sit next to him and make him happy." Sweet), and was just fine when they got there. Ami sent me a picture to my phone of both boys playing happily on the slide. They love their Aunt Ami, she is a party Aunt!

Last night we went to the cabin and I am not sure what is so exhausting about the cabin but man, I am DONE after a couple of hours. It's small, especially for that many people, so it's a wee bit crowded. It is far from being Asher and Dylan proof too... and the door doesn't lock closed, it just pushes open. It's especially a challenge because of some people's aversion to the spring to keep it closed so its just kind of open half the time. Asher loves being stopped and redirected every time he gets near it, let me tell you!

We did learn Matthew is a terrible shot with a bow and arrow as apparently he asked Brandon nicely to shoot it and an arrow went flying off into the wilderness instead of coming anywhere near the actual (not small...) target they were all aiming for! So he tried again with some help and nope, way off again. Matthew said it solidified that he definitely did not need a bow and arrow (a bone and arrow according to Duncan) like all the rest of the guys. Okay by me because I was in charge of all four of the kids while he was off looking for the random lost arrow! Maybe in a few years when everyone find a new hobby he can pick up that one. As for now, the kids can't be trusted by themselves and apparently neither can Matthew!

Duncan did not go to school at all this last week with Dylan so he missed out on those few summer school days entirely. Bummer! He loves school but I told him if he woke up screaming about his sore throat one single time the night before then he was too sick to go. Man I wanted to send him though. Bad mom? I still didn't!

Wednesday when I got there Ms Debi came to get Dylan and told me that, at three in the morning, she sat straight up in bed wondering where we were going to put another car seat! She is so funny. We have another seat but having it up eliminates access to the three seats in the back row so honestly, we have no idea what we are going to yet! We might have to look at a big old transport van! Each kid with their own row sounds pretty nice when you spend any amount of time in the car with Ian and Duncan let me tell you. Nice of her to think of us though! I told her we may have gotten a ittle ahead of ourselves here! Plenty of time to think about right? Right??

Dylan started her new meds five days ago and I think I can already tell a difference. I was driving in the car and I saw her having the spasms and it appeared that only her eyes were effected. They went all wonky and crazy for a second but I tried to watch her limbs to see if they also jerked and either couldn't tell or it didn't look like it. We up her dose today to the middle amount. She really seemed out of it at the cabin last night, almost tipsy, and I hope it was her having just woken up or something and not the meds. It would be the first time we noticed her being like that in the five days so I am hoping she was just in a weird mood.

She has been funny about getting your attention lately. If you are standing at the counter and she wants you she will try to push half of you away from the counter so you will turn to face her. She will even take both hands and grab you to turn. It's cute... annoyingly awesome. She was actually trying to do it to Duncan the other day and he was telling her no, and getting a little irritated and I told him she was just trying to get him to talk to her. So he looked at her and said "Dylan! BOO!" and she did a huge open mouth grin at him. He was pretty impressed with himself.

That's about all that's fit to print (and even that is qestionable).

Tickle fest with Uncle Kiko

She loved it... it looks a little like torture here, but it was fun, I promise.

Might take zooming in to see how glistening his hands were from his first Tootsie Pop ever! What a mess!

Hello impossible task, how are you? Group picture, fail. 

But this one is cute! (Cuter if it wasn't blurry right?)

We LOVE trains. Someday Duncan is going to work and make lots of money, what is he going to do with the money you ask? Why buy more trains! Of course!