The Rosy One

So this is the post I mentioned the other day, the more rosy one i started before I got pulled over before our car battery died. I started it a while ago and never finished because I was having trouble uploading pictures to Blogger. It's a nice happy update that started as an update about Bennett, but it also includes some info and pictures of everyone else too.

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I am in such a good place right now. I've lost 20 pounds since November (!), our family is happy and healthy (!), and our children are all blossoming. The love they have and show for each other is so beautiful, and Jim and I find ourselves sitting back and just watching them play together and giggling to ourselves listening to some of the stuff they come up with!


Look at these two before Lily's ballet class this week. I could just eat them up with a spoon!

These two little cuties, who are now 2 1/2 and 3, have the greatest imaginations, and they love to act out scenes with Owen (circus, train rides, gymnastics class, school, restaurant, soccer, etc). Bennett thinks he is just as big as they are and imitates everything he can that they do. They love to get the little red chairs that go with their children's size table and make a train with them and pretend to be a conductor and passengers. Bennett takes a chair, holds it and stands, and pushes it right along with the older 3, pretending he is on the train too. He also loves to "play" trains with Owen. Owen lets him until he starts picking up the tracks! He usually asks me to move Bennett away then!

He also loves to jump "with" them on the trampoline. They jump in the trampoline while he jumps outside of it in the stationary jumperoo or tries to climb into the trampoline. He giggles the whole time. :)

They also love singing and playing instruments together. For Christmas, they got guitars and drums and a karaoke machine with microphones. Bennett grabs his little plastic mic and sings "La La La!" while the bigger kids sing songs. He loves to play the big instruments too. All 4 kids love music and singing. I have always loved music and considered a music education major in college before choosing speech pathology so it's so special for me to see them loving it too! I just realized I didn't post these pictures from Christmas so there may be quite a few Christmas morning pics in this post!

My little man (2 1/2) loves to make up his own songs and sings all day long. He likes to ask me to make up songs at bedtime too. Last night, he asked me to sing about dirt and bulldozers and dump trucks! Some of his favorite things ;-)  Lily asked for a ballerina song, and Owen asked for a song about trains! It makes our bedtime routine longer, but it's fun, and they usually go right to sleep afterward.

Bennett has gone without oxygen the past TWO WEEKS, both days and nights, and is doing great! his oxygen saturation level is 98-100 during the day and 94-98 while asleep at night!  We are SO HAPPY and SO THANKFUL!! We weaned him off of his three diuretic medications first, and then we tried seeing if he could breathe well and have good oxygen saturation levels on his monitor without oxygen. He was down to such a tiny whiff, and he often did his own room air tests by taking out his oxygen at bedtime, while playing, and in the car and breathed fine so we thought he might be ready. The problem getting him off completely before now was when he gets any nasal congestion. Then he needed that little whiff of oxygen again! So, for now, he is still "on oxygen" but hasn't needed it in over two weeks!

Bennett is eating so much more by mouth! We decreased his tube feelings from 4 to 2-3 a day, and he eats 3-5 times by mouth as well. He looooves Multi Grain Cheerios, Yo Baby Yogurt, pizza (!), french fries (!), ice cream (!), chicken casseroles, veggie straws and apple straws, Gerber and Happy Baby puffs and yogurt melts, avocado, all baby food fruit and veggie purées, cheese, turkey, and ham, and he will taste just about anything at least once. He weighs 17 1/2 lbs and is between 28 and 29" tall. We are packing in the calories with food and high calorie formula, and he's growing, just skinny ;) His head circumference is on the growth chart and his height to weight ratio is good which is fantastic!

Developmentally, gross motor-wise, Bennett is crawling, climbing up stairs (crawling up but not down), pulling up to stand with one hand, cruising/side-stepping around toys/furniture, walking while pushing a wooden walker wagon, baby doll stroller, chair, ride-on train, or toy shopping cart, walking holding both our hands, and almost standing on his own without holding onto anything. He is so cautious, lowering himself to the floor slowly if he is standing and needs to reach something a little out of his reach. He does turn and let go to reach objects of similar height (like from the couch to his music table toy)! I put him on his riding train last night, and he actually got off by himself the correct way without any help! It was only his second time on it (his feet still barely touch the ground) so I was shocked he got off the right way but so excited he could too!

Because he's so small for his chronological age, people seem surprised sometimes by what he understands and says.  He is using about 25+ words and understanding a lot, saying and understanding more every day. Last week, he started pretending to talk on my phone. He also crawled over to Lily and patted her when she got upset about not being able to play with a toy that her brother had for the moment. Bennett imitates me showing him things like feeding a bottle to a baby doll, putting blocks in a box, stacking 2 blocks, and more. He understands things like take a bath, go to sleep/bed, Time to eat, cook, stir, jump, sit down, stand up, Are you hungry?, Come back here, names of siblings, Mommy and Daddy, a few body parts, "get the..." (block, ball, door, box, train, car, baby doll, book, etc), put it in, go bye-bye, say hi, more, out, up, down, on, off, stir, open, close, and much more.

Bennett LOOOOVES Jim. He would run to him if he could as soon as Jim walks in the door from being anywhere but home. He crawls to him soooo fast yelling, "UP!" as soon as he hears the door open. Yesterday, while Jim was at work, Bennett stood at the gate at the bottom of the stairs and yelled out, "Daaaa-yeeee!" He thought Daddy was upstairs, and it was the first time he'd called him. It was so cute! I love how when Jim picks Bennett up, he pats Jim on the chest, beaming ear to ear.

These two just make me smile and laugh all day long. Just look at them. They are constantly doing or saying something hilarious!

My little big boy Owen is SO into Legos. He loves to follow the instructions to build complicated airplanes, space shuttles, cars, etc. It amazes me to see him sit and focus for so long so calmly and patiently with Legos, but at the same time I love seeing him do it. He especially loves when Jim helps him build things. The picture below was the day after Christmas I believe, when he and Jim were building his new Francesco car from the movie CARS that his Meme gave him.

Look at this silly girl. She can make some hilarious facial expressions. She is a Mama's girl but she also is pretty smitten with her Daddy! They are both pretty good at being goofy! haha ;)

And speaking of the guy in the hat... well, you probably know by now how I feel about him. He is just the best husband, friend, and father I've ever known. I love him more than anything in the world and appreciate how hard he works so that I can be with our kids all the time.  He works hard, plays hard, and loves us with all his heart. He's one of a kind ;) I thank God every single day for bringing us together 15 years ago for our first date and last date with anyone else! He definitely knew what he was doing bringing us together.


This picture is one of maybe two I have of Jim with all 4 kids. It was taken on Christmas, and I just love it and them so much.

I'm feeling thankful tonight that even in the midst of crazy things like getting pulled over for and ordered to court for an expired driver's license and tag, my car battery dying, washing machines and dryers breaking, feeling like a single mom at times because Jim works so much ---I have a new appreciation this past year and admire single moms so much!!!, I have these 5 people to love and be loved by. Life is good.


Another reason to be thankful, even if it is trivial compared to others, I got a haircut this week! I get 3, sometimes 4, a year so it's such a treat for me when I do. I'm loving the slightly shorter length and layers and richer red color! Having 4 young kids has given me some gray white hairs so I had to start adding a little color at 31!  I took this with my phone so it's not great, but you can still see my hair. 

I saw this verse this morning somewhere on F@cebook, and when I started working on this post again tonight, I knew I'd read it for a reason today. It goes great with this post!

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 
1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV>