Quinn, the 3 year old.

Way too many milestones happening around this house, think I will just lock them up so they stay this little forever.....
Mr. Quinn turned 3 on the 23rd! He has been acting way too old for his 2 year old britches for some time now, so 3 (going on 15) seems more like it!
We had a pizza party with the theme of Despicable Me/Dinosaurs/Toy Story all his favorites. He would've also probably liked to have transformers in there too!
He was so excited for his party to start and was quite the poser for pictures.

When it came to opening, he was all business, open one-look at it for a second-put it aside-and on to the next.

Pretty sure we now own enough guns and ammo to outfit the neighborhood!

Yikes!

He also really loved his chain saw (is there a theme here?)

The pizza eaters. Quinn was too busy checking out his gun to eat!

There was no singing quietly for Quinn, he soaked in all the attention! He LOVED his Despicable Me cake. Though the only tastes he got of it were the licks he was sneaking, again too busy with the guns to eat!

Oh Quinner, you are something else! I do believe that you will be the one to give us gray hair, you are just so stinking smart, and also happen to be cute enough to get away with the plans you think up!
You don't have a voice except a yell, and find new loud ways to play with your toys everyday. You also don't think much of bedtime, and continue to come out of your room to tell us "there is a problem" (and you can never think of one when we ask you what the problem is) long after Jack has fallen asleep. You can make up a song about anything and you love to do art projects, especially the ones involving glue. You are Mommy's helper, and don't mind cleaning day one bit. I think you know how to work the dust buster better than I do. Today when we were cleaning, you had just finished wiping off your table and chairs, I was praising you and said "that's great Quinn, you are a good helper" and you said "no Mommy, that's fantastic!" Well Quinn, you using the word fantastic appropriately and in context IS fantastic! And just when I am about to pull my hair out with you, you snuggle right up and give the best loves and kisses ever. You randomly throughout your day stop and say, "I love you Mommy!" Yep, pretty sure we will have our hands full with you-and we wouldn't want it any other way!
And the biggest news in your world this month is that you are potty trained!!!! Yay! We decided on January 2nd that we really should give this a good try as your 3rd birthday loomed closer, and you pretty much did it yourself. I think we took you to the toilet routinely for about 3 days and that was it! You were ready. And now by the end of the month, with a few accidents here and there, you are even staying dry overnight and are also standing to pee (on your little tippy toes!) Good, good job buddy!
Quinner's you are loved more than you will ever know, happy 3rd year!

7 months!

A post of "healthy baby" pictures for the 7th month, because that is what we are so thankful for!

Sick Baby

Oh my sweet baby Clay, you've had a tough month. It all started on the 14th, you had been having a normal day, except that you were sleeping a lot more than usual and something in the back of my brain said "he must be getting a cold or something." Then at midnight you were awake with a fever, nothing terrible, but we gave you tylenol and you went back to sleep. In the morning you continued to have a fever and were fussy, and my Mommy brain thought "just a little virus" until I happened to run my hand over the top of your head and notice that your fontanelle was bulging out and tense, so far in fact that it was noticeable by just looking at you from the side. I freaked out a bit, and knowing that I generally overreact, decided to just take it easy especially since you were not acting that sick. Then you projectile vomited all over me...
The walk-in clinic heard "bulging fontanelle" and we were escorted to the ER. Apparently the Dr heard "bulging fontanelle" too because he came to our room immediately, and was talking CT scans, lumbar punctures and transferring hospitals right away-and I lost it.
There is seriously nothing worse than seeing your child being hurt, awful, awful, awful. Long story short, they didn't really think that he had meningitis, mostly because he wasn't acting terribly ill, but all the symptoms pointed that way so we were off the the Uof I. Clay slept most of the bumpy ride in my arms.

We had to wear masks when leaving his room, because of the threat of meningitis.

They started working on him right away, and said we would be there for 3 days at least to rule/out meningitis. Poor guy had a rough couple of hours as they tried to get IV access, he apparently is chubby enough to hide all of his veins. They took him to a room-o-torture to try to start it, and after him being gone for 15 minutes, and then starting to hear his screams, Scott and I burst into that torture room, to hold him and give him a break as we cried with him. They tried one more time, and after not getting it, Mommy put a stop to that business. There is just never an easy answer, while we knew we wanted to be there and play it safe, seeing him in pain and getting stuck makes you want to pick him up and run. (and this is coming from a nurse who's rational brain knew all this was protocol)

The next morning I could tell that he was feeling better, though that fontanelle was still sticking out there. The resident and attending both said "he is interesting" which I didn't really like-I don't want him to be interesting I want you to figure out what's causing this and let us go home.

He continued to get better, with the fontanelle shrinking little by little, and except for a little concerning set back of him not wanting to hold his head up and fussing like it hurt when he did, he started acting like himself fairly quickly.

Unfortunately they never did find out why the sweling occured, making me a bit nervous about it occuring again, though that didn't stop us from springing his as soon as they said we could, I have NEVER been so happy to carry my healthy child through a set of doors in my life.
Poor Clay is going to grow up with an adversion to people touching his head, as I find myself constantly feeling the top of his head.
And as we celebrated our discharge, my heart ached for those kiddos in that unit who have/had such a much tougher road that us. Count my blessings every day I tell ya...

Jack, the 5 year old!

5 years ago our first little mister was born, I can't believe Jack is 5 and such a big boy, and also can't believe we have been parents for this long-most days I feel like its my first...

Jack had two parties this year (you should get something good for having to have your birthday so close to Christmas!) We celebrated on the 26th at Papa Wayne and Grandma Kaye's.

He had Grandma talked into celebrating at 9am, cake and all!

Of course Quinn got presents too, can't have anyone feeling left out!

 
He was really a professional present opener by this time, and I think that Daddy loves his Hawk outfit as much as Jack. Jack says he is the "football kicker" in this outfit!
He told me that it was ok for everyone to sing to him this year, in quiet voices, though he still covered his ears!

The morning of the 27th our dining room was all about the transformers(the 2nd year in a row!)

And later that evening we went bowling. He had said that this is what he wanted to do since he turned 4, though after just attending a buddy's party at McDonalds with all of his preschool friends, that is the party he really wanted. So sounds like this will be the last "just family" party for him!
They had a great time bowling, of course the shoes and the little air blower for your hands were the best parts, and by the 7th frame or so the arcade games really started to call their names!

We finished up with pizza and cake and dressing up in his iron man costume!

What a great day! Jack you have become such a big guy this year.! You have become a great helper especially when we need help with your brothers. You are learning so much in school, more than I even give you credit for-just today you were playing in the snow and were calling to Quinn for help in Spanish! (yeah in preschool!)You feel with your whole self (so much so that I worry about you getting your feelings hurt on a daily basis), and I can just see those wheels turning in your head. The other night while watching Despicable Me, the sweet bedtime story part, you turned to me and said "Jeez my eyes are wet, like tears! That was kinda sad huh?" And today you told me that you weren't gonna eat anymore food because you did want to grow up and have to kiss! And knowing how all-too-quickly this opinion would change, I assured you that no matter how big you grew you didn't have to kiss anybody that you didn't want to, and then felt your relief as you realized you didn't have to starve!
You love to reason and bargain, and having a choice. Though you generally don't like the options to choose between! You are also a picky dresser-I thought I would have a few more years of picking out coordinating outfits and matching socks (its kinda my favorite part of the day) But you REALLY like to have some sort of number on your clothes so "everyone will know who I am!" And after I had dressed you in an adorable navy/green fleece and slick pants outfit, you informed me that "no one will think I am cool in this!" And so it starts...
We love you big guy, and continue to be amazed at the things you do and say, and also maybe a little amazed that we are the parents of such a great little boy!