4.5 - Happy Half Birthday, Will!

Last week, Will had a half birthday!

He is now officially 4.5!

A few days prior to his half birthday, someone asked him if he was about four and a half.  He insisted he was only four.  We take half birthdays seriously around here.

After a hard few days earlier in the week, it was glorious to just spend a day playing with my kids.

We grabbed Lovie and made a quick zoo trip.

Will got to have a cupcake date with his Great-Mimi & Lovie before his nap

Will has been asking for awhile to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  In our family, we refer to their mascot (namesake?) as "Chuck E. Cheese the Rat."  As far as Will knows, it is a restaurant that centers around a rat.  He had only been there once before - for a birthday several years ago.  We decided to give in and make it a very special treat for his half birthday.  

The number of choices was a bit overwhelming.  He pretty much would start a game, play for 5 seconds, and run to another game.  He had no concept of saving his tickets.

R did have some fun playing against Will at some of the games.

I happen to be a big fan of skeeball and may have set a new pr.

 The next day, the fun continued when we allowed Will to take a friend with us to dinner at McDonald's and to see Veggie Tales Live.

It was a fun night and so exciting for Will.  We typically do things as a family or with other families so inviting a friend and having him ride in the car with us was a big, big deal.

Sweet boys.  What a fun half birthday week it was!  Looking forward to the latter half of age 4!!!

Will at age 4.5:

Height: 37"

Weight: 31 lbs

Favs:

Fav Food: Cookie's Cookies, pizza, asparagus, brussel sprouts, apples, pears, and fish

Will is a great eater.  He doesn't eat much in quantity but he will eat a great variety.

Not a fan of soft textures (except for pudding and ice cream)

He loves movies for special treats and his favorite cartoon is "Kung Fu Panda" (surprise surprise) or "Wild Kratz"

He loves kung fu and swimming and running and hiking.

He loves traveling.

He can play pretend for hours.  He also loves setting up his cars or his superheroes and playing that for hours.

He loves to be outside.

He is a fabulous cuddler.

He sleeps with bunny, gigi, and various animals and toys.

He does not like covers.

He does love a blanket.

He seems to be a leader when it comes to playing with other kids (sometimes is kind of bossy.)  He usually initiates the games they play.  He often creates elaborate scenes with his friends.

He loves plays.

He sings a lot.  

He still naps daily - about 2-2.5 hours!  (I know.  I'm a blessed mama.)

He sleeps at night for 11-11.5 hours.

He is now allowed to come to our room when he wakes up.  Which means sometimes I get a cute little face right in my face.  Love that.

Most mornings, I have to wake him up.  I love his warm little body, and how he snuggles up on me and how concentrated his sleeping breath is - just perfect.

He makes up silly words and silly definitions to go with his words.

He talks constantly and has great questions and observations.

He makes us laugh.  Hard.

He is starting to enjoy coloring.  

He loves to help cook.

He can read very short words and some sight words.  He prides himself on reading "Bob" books.

He does simple math in his head. (not so simple for me.)

He is patient with his sister and very loving.  He recently said she is the "best human on earth."

He has never met a stranger.  Seriously.

He is a great kid and we are so proud of him.  We adore him and are excited for his future!

And the interview with our four and a half year old:

(That part about marrying me? Saving it forever.  And playing it at his rehearsal dinner maybe.  Love.)

(Turn sound to pause on playlist at bottom of blog.)

Interview A:

Interview B:

A Kung Fu Family First

Yesterday, Will completed his second session of Kung Fu.

And he earned his very first belt - 

the white belt.

We all gathered to watch the "test" and made a big deal about how he had to "earn" the belt.

For the test, he demonstrated knowledge of the various blocks and kicks and punches.  He had to recite the disciplines and show various positions.

 At the end of the test, to the sounds of many clapping parents and grandparents, each child was presented with something.  Many children received a certificate.

Those who had completed their second, fourth, or sixth session received a belt.

Personally, I like that the children have to earn the belt and that they have to demonstrate both knowledge and a commitment to the sport in order to earn the belt.  I also like that they are not all earning them at the same time - it was a good motivator for Will this session and I think he was especially proud yesterday since most kiddos received a certificate.

Will adores his instructor, Mr. Brandon.

He has learned so much from him.  Besides all of his "techniques" (a funny word coming from a four year old), I love that he now says "yes ma'am and yes sir" as a part of his natural conversation.

I especially love his confidence in his own body's hidden "superpowers."

 He has been so proud of himself.  He wore his belt all day today too and showed it off to anyone who would listen.

His mommy & daddy are super proud too.

The other night, R realized that no one in either of our families (that we know of) has ever earned a kung fu belt before.  R has been pretty darn proud of his son for this athletic achievement and he has made sure Will knows what a big deal this is.  

Will likes having accomplished something that none of the rest of us have.

Goodness, we are proud of this kid.

Love at First Sight...

I don't remember a single Valentine's Day between ages 0 and 20... except one.

I vividly remember Valentine's Day in 1986.  I was in Kindergarten.  I had the chicken pox and so I had to miss our party at school.

I'm sure this was devastating.

So after school, my mom took me up to the school to get the valentines other children had brought for me.

And I vividly remember being outside when a little boy named Kevin came outside with something special for me.

It was a box of candy message hearts.  You know - the "Call me." version.

But this was no ordinary box.

This was a big red heart shaped box filled with candy hearts.  

Kevin picked out something special for me.  

I have absolutely no idea what Kevin's last name is nor do I have any other memories of him.  

But I remember that moment - the first time a boy gave me something special just for me.

Lately, Will has received several special drawings from sweet little girls.  

Now, I know that this is a "romantic" age - I was told once that at this age, it is normal for boys and girls to begin playing the roles of "mommy" & "daddy" with their friends.  Pretend play is natural and so they naturally fall into these rolls and assign each other characters to play.  

But.   I am not one of those mamas that think talking about boyfriends or girlfriends with a four year old is natural or even appropriate.  I prefer him seeing romantic love in the context of a marriage.  I want him to be a kiddo and enjoy being a kid without pressure to name who is cute or who he "likes."   Goodness - he likes everyone right now!  He's 4!

So when he comes home with special little drawings from girls - we think it is sweet and cute and he loves those drawings and they make him feel special... which is great.  But we don't assign any other feelings or pressure to it.

(As his mama, I love that these girls are making him feel loved and special and someday, when he struggles with a heartbreak, I'll be busting these precious drawings and notes out of their keepsake box to remind him of girls that thought he was special.  And I'll remind him of the little girl who once didn't notice his hands and feet at all but noticed his bottom & informed me, "He has the cutest little bottom cheeks!"  Yes.  Yes she did.  And though I was in shock I thought to myself that THAT is the kind of girl he is going to marry someday!  (Hopefully, she'll keep her hands off his cute little bottom cheeks until then!)

This week, he came home with a special Valentine from a sweet little girl.  It had both of their names on it and he asked me to hang it up where he can always see it & "remember her."

I began to wonder if perhaps he is drawing special things for people in his class and I got the following response,

"Mom, all the girls in my class are big.  The cutest girl I know is Ellie."

Be still my heart.

But wait.  There's more!

"Ellie is the prettiest girl and she's my favorite.  

I'm gonna give her a big hug and kiss when we get home!"

(His special "Will hugs" can be a little tight. ;)) 

I'm going to have to save all these loving, precious comments he makes about his little sister.

I'll print them out and blow them up huge and perhaps have them painted on our walls for when he is 13 and sibling rivalry occurs.  

And then I think I'll read them out loud at his rehearsal dinner someday.

This boy is going to make a great husband!

Winter Wonderland

It might be 75 degrees outside here in Texas but inside Will's preschool recently, it was a chilly winter wonderland!

The kids wore their pjs and had fun winter activities to participate in!

They ate snowcones

played games

dressed up the snowmen

tossed sock snowballs

looked cute with all their classmates

ice skated

played with polar animals in icy water (brrr!)

walked on the "snow" bubbles

laughed a lot

played hockey

and bowled for penguins

How fun to play winter games!

Will Sings the Holidays

I wish you a Happy Anniversary.

I wish you a Merry Christmas.

I wish you a Happy New Year's.

And I wish you a Happy Halloween.

I wish you a Happy New Year's Eve.

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving...

And a happy lemonade.

An Original Holiday Song by Will

100%

He is 100% ALL BOY!

And I love every bit of his muddy little self.

decidedly undecided

He asks me almost every day.  "Mommy, will you lay in bed with me after my surgery?"  "Will you read stories to me after my surgery?"  And every day, I've reassured him.
And I have no idea what to tell him now.
It breaks my heart because I hate the idea of breaking his.

R & I are not decisive people. At all.  We've sought counsel, we've prayed, we've debated, we've waited & finally, finally, we came to a decision.  A little boy's queries to a surgeon, his requests to be able to do more activities like writing and coloring with just one hand - those pushed us over into a decisive yes to the surgery.

We sought three medical opinions from top surgeons all over the country.  There was one opinion I tried to get a year ago and was told "no."  I couldn't get past the nurse as they claimed her opinion would be the same as her colleague's whom we had already seen.

So we've planned and prepared and because we were given hope from the surgeons we began to prepare our little boy.  We thought this was going to be possible.  Soon, he would be able to grasp more objects with one hand.  We believed this to be reality.

Last week, at the hospital in Dallas, the surgeon walked into our pre-op appointment.  Except it wasn't the surgeon we've seen countless times.  It wasn't the one we had chosen to do the surgery.  It was the one I had been denied access to a year ago.

Turns out, she didn't agree with her colleague at all.  In fact, she informed me that doing the surgery was setting him up for failure - that she didn't think it was possible to give him the chance to grasp effectively with one hand this year.

And then I was blindsided with an entirely new surgery, one I had never heard of.  It's complicated and I still haven't fully researched it.  I don't fully understand it but it would be a series of surgeries and bone repositioning and stretching and it's not possible until he is maybe 6 or 7.

He's four.

This means that he would have to wait at least 2-3 years before even the possibility of helping him be able to grasp more objects with one hand.  It means he will be in school and face a lot of absenteeism and missing out on extra curricular activities and possibly face delays in school, not to mention relearning basic skills that we are working on now - like writing.  At age 4, this wasn't such a big deal.  It's big for a 7 year old.  And it means he has to continue struggling to keep up with writing until then.

The whole meeting felt like a huge wreck.  I was blindsided.  And her bedside manner quite frankly, stunk.  But I'll spare my heart the repeating of some of her insensitive comments made while my child was in the room.  (I had heard the rumors about her bedside manner.  I'm sad to say she lived up to them.)

But she is a renowned surgeon so maybe she is the answer for us.

Or maybe not.  Maybe we're going back to Boston soon to talk to that surgeon, yet again.

I felt a peace finally about the first option.

Now I feel a peace about nothing.  In fact, I'm finding myself struggling each day since then - I thought I could do something for my little boy - that this was something we could given to lessen his struggles, to increase his function, to eliminate a difference for him.

I don't know which surgery we should pursue.  I don't know when or if we should pursue it at all.  I don't know which surgeon anymore to trust to do it.

And mostly, I don't know how to tell my little boy that it's not happening anytime soon.  And that maybe it's not ever going to happen like we had thought.

And that breaks me.

Birthday Updates (really, really, really late)

With the craziness of our life and the last two months... I am really behind.  Lately, I feel like I can't catch my breath - two birthdays, company from out of town, starting pre-k, a family vacation, running some tests while we investigate some issues with one kid, talking on the phone to doctors about issues and upcoming surgeries, sick kids, adding in extra therapies for Ellie (who already has a full schedule), steam cleaning my floors (it's what I do when I'm stressed or having an emotional day- my floors have never been so clean as they've been these last 3 weeks), trying to keep up with life in general... it's just been busy.

So - I completely let the ball drop on the birthday updates.

Oops.

Someday, when I get around to printing this thing out & my kids see it (at the rate I'm going, I'll be in a nursing home by then) I hope they forgive me for my tardiness. :)

Ellie at 12 months (8/17/2011):

Height: 27 3/4" (7%)

Weight: 18 lbs, 1 oz (4%)

(tiny thing)

She has 5 teeth.  We think her snaggle tooth is very cute - very Lauren Hutton.

(By thirteen months, she had added 5 more.  She's been busy lately.  She has not been sleeping until this week.)

She rolls everywhere.  She is fast and has figured out how to pivot her rolling somewhat to get toys.

She can sit up but not without assistance to get into the sit yet.  She is so so so close to independently getting to a sit.  (I can't wait!  We've been working out those abs hard!)

She is right hand dominant.

She throws herself gently from a sit to rolling but gets frustrated when she wants to back in a sit.

She tolerates and sometimes enjoys standing in her walker toys or play gym.

She loves baby dolls and I often find her after a nap with her arms wrapped around a baby doll.

She likes a few dolls in bed with her along with a bunny and her pink gigi.

She does not like hair bows.  I'm more of a teeny tiny hair clip kind of mama but she manages to get those little things out of her hair everytime.  I have quite a collection in the console of my car - we rarely make it out of the carseat with the hair clip still in.  How do you mamas of girls keep bows and clips in your baby's hair?

(However - yay that Ellie can get those out of her hair!  With dislocated shoulders, reaching up is always a victory & manipulating her fingers with tiny clips?!  Awesome!)

She takes two naps a day if she can.  On therapy days, this isn't always possible but she's still good natured and does well making it til 2pm for her afternoon nap.  Her morning nap is about an hour and her afternoon nap is 2-3 hours.  She is a very content baby and doesn't seem to mind the irregular days due to therapies or Dallas trips.  She is an awesome napper & goes down quickly and for a long time! I love nap time & am so thankful for two good nappers!

She goes to bed by 8:30 - usually. 

She loves to eat.  She will often eat Will's leftovers!

Ellie loves yogurt, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, peanut butter, birthday cake icing, pears, apples, cantaloupe, watermelon, turkey, ham, cheese, green beans, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, salmon, tilapia, mahi mahi, pork tenderloin, new potatoes, zucchini, crusty bread, macaroni, pasta, spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, oatmeal raisin cookies, and more

She tolerates but does not love and won't eat much of:  asparagus, cheese that is not American or cheddar, russet potatoes, broccoli, oranges, grapes, kiwi, avocado

She loves to feed herself and was very easy to transition to table foods.  (It seemed easier this time around.  Maybe I've forgotten or maybe I just made things a big deal with Will.  Maybe because I held off so long on introducing solid food so she was only it for a little while?  Not sure but goodness this was easy.)

She nurses still 4-5 x/day.  I love breastfeeding this baby & we have no intention of quitting anytime soon.  People ask me lately how long I'll go for - not sure... but I don't see any reason to quit before the next birthday.  It's a good experience for both of us - nothing better than seeing those precious blue eyes looking at me and the way she plays with my hair  - or her own when she can't reach mine.  She often gives herself a Bieber style by the time she is finished.  

Ellie is a fast nurser and for our lifestyle, it's so convenient.  So - yes, still happily nursing.:)

By 12 months, she will drink sips of water from a cup.  She prefers a regular cup rather than a sippy or straw cup. (By 13 months, she will sip milk from a straw cup.)

She has hardly slept through the night since before the spica cast.  Don't know what this is about - routine of cast care during spica season became a habit?  Transition with moving?  Teeth?

Don't know but it seems to be over and yay for better sleep!

She gives kisses and hugs.  Love them.

She says "da da."  She has also said "hi," "all done," & "doggie."

She babbles a lot - especially when her big brother is not around.

She has a very high pitched voice.

She squeals.  Loudly!

She loves bathtime with her big brother.

She adores her big brother.

She loves to play catch.

She loves loves loves to be outside and in her swings.

She cracks us up with her funny faces.

She has lots of nicknames.

She bring us indescribable joy.  We are thankful for every minute we get with our Ellie girl.

Will at age 4 (8/30/2011):

Height: 36" (2%)

Weight: 29 lbs (4%)

Yes, apparently I have tiny kids.

We are concerned about Will's growth - specifically his height - he is off the growth curves.  We've actually been monitoring this for 3 years as we've seen some indicators of slow growth.  We are running tests & investigating to figure out what is going on.

Back to the four year old:

He is very active.  He loves running and soccer and baseball and climbing and bike riding (although technically that didn't happen til he turned four.)

He loves pretend play.  He is most often playing the role of:  Super Will, Batman, Superman, Cowboy Will, Pirate/Captain Will, & Ranger Will.  However, he is sometimes a soldier, a doctor, Buzz Lightyear, or various animals.

When pretending, he takes his character very seriously - changing up his voice, his vocabulary, and his actions to match the character.  It can be high drama in our house.

He loves to read and has mastered a lot of sight words.  He is anxious to read entire books on his own.  (He's memorized a few.)

He loves to be read to and he especially loves stories.  Lately, he's been a bit dictatorial about what the made up stories should be about.

He takes a good nap daily - 2.5 hours.  Ahhhhh - I love nap time.  Mama needs a little bit of quiet every day.
Tantrums.  Definitely saw more of these in the 3's than I ever did in the 2's.  Thankfully, in the 4's it's looking better.

He can play for hours on his own - setting up elaborate cities for his cars or superheroes.  In fact, he spends most of his time setting up the scene.  He also spends a great deal of time rearranging the scene and the characters as he plays.

He changes voices while playing different characters and his pretend conversations crack me up as I eavesdrop.

He has some opinions on clothes now.  (Mostly because he thinks that his shirt might determine his pretend play for the day.)

He can dress himself except for the shirt.
When he is awake, he is talking or singing.  He talks to himself.  He talks to his toys.  He talks to me.  He talks a lot.  I really like talking to him - he is actually a very good conversationalist.
(Admittedly, I do enjoy the pure quiet of naptime, however.)
He is very curious and has lots of questions.  He says "why" a lot.

He loves bathtime & tolerates his sister in the bath.

He loves people and gets excited when he can meet new people.

Still has curly blonde hair - I get nervous with every hair cut but it always comes back curly!  Although it is less tight ringlet now and more big curls in the back and sides.

He has the most contagious laugh I have ever heard.

He loves music - especially his playlist on my ipod.

He sings all the time.  All the time.  He makes up songs and mostly they are really cute.  

Recently, he was singing to Ellie while she was crying in the car - reassuring her that it was okay - he's beside her and he loves her... even though he doesn't get as much attention now that she is here.  Yes, that was part of the song.

He still cuddles with me and I love it.

He eats to survive.  Not a big eater (quantity) but he does love a good variety - crunch asparagus (roasted), green beans, sweet potatoes, new potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, pears, apples, salmon, catfish (yuck), tilapia, mahi mahi, pretzels, watermelon, slushies from Sonic, lemonade (not before nap or else I'll be changing sheets), mac and cheese, cookies, spaghetti, chocolate, ground turkey, and more.

The day he turned four, he got to try bubble gum for the first time.  I went to the candy store and was so prepared for the big day with a variety of gum plus I pulled out a bubble gum machine I'd been saving for years and filled that up.

He hates gum.

He has had a lot of horrible growing pains this year.  Since he is missing some bones to be able to flex feet, it's hard for him to work them out on his own... which means I'm up in the middle of the night with him as he sobs.  It's heartbreaking.  This has been a big year for growing pains it seems.

He loves to fly.

He loves his friends.  He loves his family.

He dances a lot.

He loves Veggie Tales & Wild Kratz.

He gave up his bop.

He still knows a few Spanish words/phrases.

He sleeps with his gigi, his pirate baby sock monkey, his bunny, and an assortment of random stuffed animals, Wally the Green Monster, and a few cars or superheroes

He has a favorite corner of his gigi that he rubs as he falls asleep.  He apparently has a favorite finger too as he recently informed me.

He too is very flexible with his routine (as long as he gets a nap somewhere.)

He prays alot out loud and it is precious - I love listening to his questions to God - usually about Heaven.

He asks a lot of questions about his differences.  

He has an incredible memory.

He has memorized a lot of Bible verses (love our new church's preschool curriculum for Sunday School.)

He loves to play wrestle mania with his daddy.

He loves to cuddle his mommy.

No one has ever made me laugh as hard as he can.  

I love this boy & still can't believe he is FOUR!

(ps- I did an interview with him on his birthday.  But I lost it.  So I'll try to find it soon in my pile of random papers I brought in from the car this weekend and post.) 

(& now - back to life... but at least I've recorded at last where they were at on their birthdays.  I'll hopefully be posting Ellie's 14 mt update soon - & she's changed a lot in the last 2 months.!)

Superhero Birthday!!!

SuperWill had a really fun superbirthday!

I had ordered us family capes last spring... and saved them for this day.

Will thought it was fun that Mommy & Daddy had capes...

and so did baby sister, SuperEllie

Ruby even had a superdog cape.

I don't have a picture of the invitations and am too tired to get up and take one.

However, they looked like comic books.

For like $12, I found a "kit" on etsy that a graphic artist created and emailed to me in a PDF format...

then I plugged in certain words and information and printed it out.

I used a lot of color ink but I loved all the creative things the artist had made.

I love etsy - it makes my life easier (but also more complicated - so many choices!)

Here were the party favors from "SuperWill"

(books, tattoos, and stickers.  Will is loving these "early reader" superhero books.  I keep catching him "reading" by himself.)

When the children arrived at "SuperWill's top secret superhero training camp" we had to transform them into superheroes.

They stopped at the kitchen table to color their superhero nametag, get some silly bandz,  create a mask, and choose a cape.  

I used my sewing machine and very basic sewing skills to sew capes in the party colors a few weeks ago.
Naturally, my child preferred the simple homemade capes to his fancy "W" cape.  

The food table.

This candied popcorn was fun to make and yummy to eat... but I made way too much!  It also has about a bajillion calories.

Carrots were provided for x-ray vision.

(Candied popcorn for super energy & later sugar crashes. :))

The patio-

I ordered some superhero posters from ebay for $1 to hang up - I try to avoid character parties but my superhero loves them... so I hung up posters featuring his favorite superheroes.

I also hung up a SuperWill pennant and I blew up some pictures of SuperWill in his cape & face painted mask  to poster size and mounted them on bright poster boards.

I collected those little "Belly Washers" drinks with various superhero tops, emptied them, and set those out for the kids to choose.  For a special treat, I put out 7UP and lemonade... 7UP is a very special treat for Will!

SuperWill/Batman

I love love love a theme!

I love planning games for parties.

The first game was Silly String Spiderwebs-

For the "training camp" they had to do the slip n slide, crawl through a tunnel to the Batcave (fort) and slide down, then show off their superstrength by breaking a brick (I velcroed two cardboard bricks together so they could break them) & they had to leap over tall buildings (I glued a skycrape scene to cardboard to jump over.

I was surprised at how long this kept the kids occupied.

SuperEllie after her morning nap watching the fun

Have I mentioned I love themes?  Check out her cute hair clip.

The birthday cake -

what drama into creating and last minute shopping for this!

WIll just wanted icing - all that drama for  icing.

Ellie loves icing too - she must think August is the best month ever in this family - all these birthdays and cake and icing!

Naturally, I made cake pops- my current obsession...

I attempted to make cute little superhero cake pops.

Ellie wanted in on some fun and loved watching the superheroes

Our neighbors let us borrow this awesome inflatable slide!  

It was a hit!!!

That's wildthing Will on the orange slide

Two Superheroes

On his real birthday, a few days later, the celebration continued.

He loved his new batcave

For his birthday dinner, he has been requesting catfish for months.
So, I ran thru "Catfish King" after preschool to get him some catfish.
I made yummy homemade spaghetti for the rest of us.  I love fish but not so much catfish.
He loved it & told me it was "delicious."
But, after sitting through dinner, he was anxious to play.
I got a cookie cake for the first time -

he was too excited about new toys to bother eating.
(So we enjoyed it for breakfast the next day.)

Ellie enjoyed it immensely.

R & I gave him a new bike.

He has been trying to ride his balance bike but he's really struggled with fear I think from not feeling balanced - and remember, he wears zancos so it's not really his feet on the pedals - his feet are 4 inches up from the "feet" on the pedals - so that affects your stability and security - like riding a bike in stilts.

His new "lion king impressives" (bike glove prosthetics) arrived about 30 minutes before dinner.  I love God's timing!

It's not a hit...yet.

Pray for us if you think of it - I really really want him to be able to ride something in the cul de sac with the other kids on our street.  It breaks my heart when he just sits in the grass and watches his friends.  But - I know it is a huge struggle for him and a big challenge - wearing bilateral lower prosthetics and upper prosthetics.  Goodness, I admire this kid.  He is my hero.

It's going to take work.  I know that it takes work for any kid.  I had to sit back and watch my mom work with him - I just was struggling with pushing him and doubting myself for wanting to push it.

I believe in him and that he can do it... I just know it is going to be a challenge.

So - the wild month of August & multiple birthdays is over!

(& I'm glad for a break for awhile!)