updating on life!

So, the problem with not posting in MONTHS is that so much happens in the time since I've written, that I can't possibly write it all here. And the task becomes this huge thing that I avoid because the thought of trying to write down all of what's been going on is daunting. But here's my attempt...Please know that this has been written over the course of a few weeks, so some of it is outdated. Sorry..

Dare I say...Spring is here! After what feels like the longest, coldest, sickest winter ever, we are READY for some warm weather and sunshine.

JJ is making big moves these days!! He grows up a little more each day. He talks a lot (what he's saying, we don't always know!) and he is still a little copy cat - in a good way! Anything Audrey does, he's right next to her doing it too. All the way down to how she eats her food and how she drinks her milk. He looks up to her so much and wants to be just like her. He's very much his own person too, though. He loves his trains and wants to wear the same train shirt every day. We have two of the same shirt so I have to try to stay up on laundry so he can wear them. He's learning his colors, numbers, shapes, letters, etc. I admit that I haven't been teaching him as much as I used to with Audrey. Partially because I really don't have the time like I used to, and partially because he doesn't really care to look at books and practice that kind of stuff. He loves Nathaniel too. He already tries to wrestle with him and will try to put him in his lap and hold him. He's such a little cuddle bug.

I think my favorite thing about Joshua right now is how he loves to laugh. And even better - he loves to make other people laugh. Sometimes on my worst days he is the only thing that can get a laugh out of me. Such a comedian and such a middle child. Always pleasing and he just wants everyone to be happy. :) He has his temper (oh YES he does!) but for the most part, little baby JJ is such a love bug and always the one I go to when I want some extra cuddles and kisses. I love the way he is with Nathaniel. Sometimes when he wakes up from his nap, JJ will come downstairs and walk right up to Nate and say, "Bebe hug, bebe kiss" and love on him for a minute. He is so affectionate and I love that.

My Nathaniel has grown so much these past couple of months. He has FINALLY outgrown his fussy stage. Josh (sr) and I keep commenting to each other things like, "wow, is this really him?" and "Gosh, Nate is just so HAPPY!" and its true - he is a very happy boy now. He follows the big kids from place to place trying to keep up and play with them. He plays alone pretty well, which is very important when I'm trying to get food on the table or get other chores done.

He still is hanging tight at 8 teeth - more than the other kids had at this age, but he's had these same 8 for a few months already. He is a very hard teether so hopefully we can put of the rest of them for a little while longer. He's crawling super fast, cruising along furniture, and will walk holding our fingers. He's tried standing up without holding on, but only for a moment - once he realizes what he's doing he immediately sits back down. I think he may be walking before his first birthday. Audrey walked at 10 months but JJ didn't until 13 months, so we'll see! So far, Nathaniel resembles Audrey in a lot more ways than he resembles JJ.

He sleeps in our bed still. The good thing is that he will ALSO sleep in a crib, so for naps and "first bedtime" he sleeps in the crib. Then after his first wake up at night (usually 2-3 hours later) he comes into our bed. That's where things get really tough. He tosses and turns sooooo much and wakes us up. Worse, he wakes himself up, and sometimes he's just up. Awake. In our bed, crawling around, laughing..in the middle of the night. This sometimes goes on for an hour, sometimes just a few minutes. I think we need to stop bringing him to our bed but I know from my own experience that its not easy to have will power like that in the middle of the night, several times a night. Its not like we can just lay him back in the crib and he'll go back to sleep (God I wish) so it is more of an effort to stay awake, get him into a deep sleep, and then get him in the crib without waking him again...so yeah. We'll get there. Until then, MORE COFFEE! Audrey slept in our bed until 17 months..JJ until 6 months. I think Thane will be somewhere in the middle.

Audrey is turning into a little girl...outgrowing the baby stuff. We've attended some 5th birthday parties already this year, and I keep thinking "FIVE??" WE ARE TURNING 5??". Sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of her and I'll see that little baby Audrey is still in there somewhere. I love watching her grow but of course I am always sentimental about the days that are past us. She's SO independent. I was just telling Josh last night how I need to accept that she is simply her OWN PERSON. She will go to great lengths to do exactly the opposite of what we've asked of her. Obviously this is irritating in many ways, but also I admire that quality within her. She knows what she wants and that's all there is to it.

I know I've said this too many times to count on this blog, but Audrey is such a joyful little girl. I'm sure people think the opposite because she isn't the most outgoing or social girl around, but when she is in her element, doing her own thing without being bothered, she is so content and happy. Always singing and dancing, so free and easy. Now that the weather is warming up, she's able to do what she loves the most - go outside! We've had lots of outdoors days recently, playing in mud puddles, swinging, looking for worms, picking flowers..all the good stuff.

We will be moving next month to the new house. The good thing is that its more space by almost 1000 sq ft. The not so great thing is that we are going to a townhouse. So while we gain space and a garage, we are giving up our awesome, huge yard. The new place does have a small backyard, and there are some things about the yard that I love. But still, we won't have the luxury of our own playground right outside, and we are going to have to figure out a way to do some urban gardening since we won't have the space to put one in the yard. BUT we are on the same street as the elementary school so we can use their playground after school hours and in the summer, plus we are gaining walking paths, neighborhood pool, neighborhood playground, dog park, and a lot of other amenities. All in all it is a step up for us, but I do think the townhouse living will be tough for us after having all this yard space for 3.5 years.

Audrey's Adenoidectomy and Tonsillectomy

I started to write this post a couple of weeks ago, before the surgery. I decided to keep it here so I could remember/document our thoughts leading up to it..

 Audrey has her surgery in less than two weeks. We can't wait!! I am so ready! We've been talking about it and she seems OK with it but of course she doesn't really know what to expect or what it all means. I am just excited to see the end result - her feeling better, sleeping better, being able to breathe, smell, and taste her food. She's had a sinus infection since December and has been on antibiotics that haven't been able to even make a dent in the infection so I'm curious about what that means for surgery. I hope it doesn't mean they have to delay it, since surgery is actually what's going to clear the infection. **Ok, so that paragraph was obviously written previously...now we are 5 days post-op and here are my thoughts: Overall, the procedure went great. She wasn't scared at all going in, and it wasn't until we actually entered the operating room that she got spooked. I can see why. Its bright, white, cold, and they had us lay her on the table while they strapped her down and put a mask on her face. So while it was scary for her, I really think they did an awesome job of being gentle and easy with her. They let us hold on to her until she was out (they used the general anesthesia through the mask thing). The procedure took about 40 minutes and then the doc came out and said she's all set! He said her tonsils were big but her adenoids were HUGE...so no question about it - in a couple of weeks she'll be feeling like a different child. He took us back to the recovery room where she was just beginning to stir and wake up. She was NOT HAPPY. They had told us that some kids wake up "confused" or "upset". That meant nothing to me...until I saw her waking up. She was in this half awake state, hardly able to hold her eyes open, and was kind of thrashing around and kicking and punching. She was crying and started to get loud, so the nurse gave her something in her IV to calm her down and put her back to sleep a little bit (not so much because she was disturbing anyone, but because it was hard to hold her and we didn't want her straining her voice). We stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours while she woke and then headed home. She was feeling better within hours, and the next day she was seemingly back to her happy, energetic self. This was great (we thought) because it felt like "that's it!" and we could resume normal life quickly. I stupidly allowed her to go outside and play for an hour or so that day...not realizing that she felt great because she was still experiencing pain relief to some extent, from the anesthesia and drugs from the day before. We paid the price that night and the next day. Apparently night terrors are a side effect of the anesthesia and narcotics, so she kept crying out in her sleep and when we'd try to soothe her, she started kicking and thrashing again. It was a little scary, and had us exhausted the next day. PLUS having allowed her to run around outside, she was so tired and in a TON of pain. She also wasn't letting us give her pain meds because it burns when she swallows, AND she wasn't drinking or eating anything. I think she peed twice all day Friday, which was super worrisome - if she becomes dehydrated it can cause nosebleeds and we'd be back at the hospital. We started having to force the tylenol down by sitting on her and prying her mouth open; not ideal but necessary.

 So now that we're nearly a week past, I can say that I think she is getting better day by day. At this point the pain isn't the biggest obstacle, but the boredom. We've all got cabin fever BAD. She can't be in a lot of public places due to risk of infection (a cold can be a serious concern while recovering from this), and I don't want to let her run around outside because she's still healing. And Audrey's a screamer - so when she's playing, she yells - and this is bad for her throat as well. I am really enforcing the "rest rule" all day today (sooooo much TV) and I'm hoping another day will have her really better and the scabs will have fallen off and we can go enjoy our spring break OUTSIDE in this  gorgeous weather.

cranky! Despite tons of ice cream.

The doctor told me the full recovery period is about 6 weeks. But she should be back to playing and eating normally by two weeks. By 6 weeks we should see her really feeling better, sleeping better, no snoring, no mouth breathing, no sleep apnea, etc. I can't wait for week 6. She's got a lot of drainage from her nose still, partially because she had a sinus infection going in to the surgery, and also because drainage is just a part of the recovery. She's on antibiotics to try to ward off any new infections, but I think she's actually resistant to amoxicillan since she's been on it so often in her short 4 years.

I will **Try** to keep updating as she gets better..Can't wait to see the changes in our little girl!