Twilight

On Thursday night I think I was doing just about the same thing as about every other woman was doing, attending the twilight premiere, I knew there was a lot of excitement for the movie, but never did I imagine this, I got to Jordan commons and after driving around the parking lot for about 15 minutes I finally found a parking spot, and walking in the theatre was a whole different story, other than Swiss days I don't think I have seen this many woman in one place in my entire life, they were screaming, they were dressed up and then you have me looking at all these woman like they are possessed or something, don't get me wrong, I'm a twilight fan, but I have my limits. My friend Sheri got us tickets to the midnight premiere and I have to say I was expecting more, I liked the movie but I didn't love it, I guess i was just hoping for more between Bella and Edward, and well at times it was just a little to cheesy for me, but i was entertained. So thanks girls for a great night out, it was very much needed!

3 YEARS old!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

After 23 hours of labor Daniel finally entered this world via c-section on November 23, 2005. He came in weighing 5lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long, but as little as he was he brought the most amazing spirit into our home, and I have to say the day he was born was the happiest as well as the hardest day of my life. During my entire pregnancy I had no idea what was in store for me, I probably had 12 ultrasounds and not one of them gave any indication that I was going to be delivery a child with a disability, and even after he was born, we didn't know the fullness of his condition until he was 2 months old. These last 3 years Daniel has brought us more joy than I could ever imagine, I don't always fully understand why I have been given this challenge, but I would never change the way things are in a million years, Daniel is one of the happiest, fun loving little boys I know, and he has a smile that will just melt your heart! As I sat at the computer looking back at all his baby pictures I couldn't just pick a few out, so I put together some collages of my little guy growing up, as I was looking at these it brought so many memories back, from all the surgeries, to dr's visits, to birthdays, to vacations, and all the good and hard times we have had, as I sat here in tears looking at all his pictures I realized how lucky I am, and how fortunate I am to have been trusted with this sweet little spirit. Happy Birthday Daniel, we love you and hope you had a great birthday! (to see the collage better, just click on it to make it bigger!)

First solids!

This is what happens when I don't feed it to her fast enough! She just loves her rice cereal, and if I take to long between bites she gets pretty upset with me!

Miss independant! She kept reaching for the spoon, and wanting to do it herself!


Not quite sure how this spoon works yet

Then to top it off, she thought it would be fun to blow bubbles at mom while she had food in her mouth!

Disney on ice

Last Saturday we took Daniel to Disney on Ice, and he LOVED it, he was dancing, and singing, just doing what kids do best, just having the time of his life. Jason and I were actually very entertained as well, its been years since I have been, and it was a great show for all of us! Plus it was nice to have some one on one time with our little guy and I thinked he loved having our undivided attention the whole evening as well.

4 Months!

as you can see, she has her own way of sitting in her bumbo, she just can't stop reaching for those cute little feet!

My baby girl is already 4 months old! Wow, really where does time go? We had her 4 month check up today and she is seriously growing like a weed, as of today she is weighing in at 15 lbs and 26 inches long! Like I said.....growing like a weed! Well, here are a few things about Brielle at 4 months.
*She is now rolling over both ways, she rolls from her belly more, but just recently she has started rolling from her back to belly as well.
*She has discovered her feet and is constantly trying to shove them in her mouth
*She loves to blow bubbles and making razzing sounds, and she has become very vocal lately
*We are now officially sleeping through the night!
*She is getting real good at reaching for objects and and trying to maneuver them to her mouth

*We just started her on rice cereal and she love it!

And Just because he's so cute I had to add a picture of my handsome little guy!

Spina Bifida Clinic

I'm a little late on this post, but on November 7th we took Daniel to clinic at Primary Childrens. And I am happy to say, we got the green light! They were so amazed with him and how much he has accomplished since our last visit in April. So as each doctor and therapist came in, we got nothing but good news, no surgeries, and no tests! We do have to continue our annual bladder studies and ultrasounds of his kidneys, but those only happen once a year, but really other than that, we are in the clear for now! Once again this little guy is proving to all of us just how strong he is and against all odds he is doing things I never thought he would do! The little things that come so easily to other children Daniel has to work twice as hard to do, and I couldn't be more proud of him and his willingness and motivation to learn and try new things. We love you Daniel and keep up the good work!

Worn out

What always amazes me is how kids can fall asleep in the weirdest positions and places. How do they do it??

This is what happens when Jason is asked to watch Brielle!

The other day I was just exhausted, and I had already put Daniel to bed but little Brielle was just not ready to go down yet, so I asked Jason if he would mind watching her and put her down for me, he said no problem, well after tossing and turning in bed for a bit, I decided to go see how they were doing and this is what I find, Jason on the computer with Brielle in her Bumbo watching daddy play his video games. She was happy as can be sitting there, now why can't she be like this for me during the day when I have a million things to do!

My sweet baby girl!

So I realized today that I have no recordings of my sweet baby Brielle, all I have is a few minutes from when she was in the hospital, I feel terrible! By this time with Daniel I had like 2 video tapes full, but I guess thats what happens when you have more than one to take care of, and a million other things to do, so with that, I finally sat down with little Brielle and got her cute little personality on tape. This video shows Brielle playing on her tummy and then rolling over, she has been rolling over from her belly since about 2 months, but she has yet to roll over the other way, I think its mostly due to being stubborn, she is not a particular fan of her belly, and so she's probably thinking why would I purposely roll over there. Enjoy!

Finally!

Brielle has finally slept through the night! Wahoo.....i'm not totally getting my hopes up, because with her track record it seems we have a couple good nights, then we are back to waking up every 2-3 hours. But we have never had the kind of night we have had these last two nights, and all I can say is it feels good to sleep, I finally hit a breaking point with her, and decided its time to get this girl sleeping through the night consistently, it may seem mean, but I decided to use the "cold turkey" method, neither of my kids have been the type where I can go in there room talk to them, and try soothing them from there bed, they just want to be held, so two nights ago, I fed Brielle her final bottle of the night, and gave her lots of hugs and kisses and told her sorry in advance for doing this to her, but she'll thank me later, it was about 10 p.m when I did this, then off to bed I went, and like clock work I heard her at about 1:00 a.m starting to fuss, and then came the screams, I had to fight every urge to go running in there and pick up my sweet baby. But I stayed strong and just layed there in bed until finally it was silent, it worked, after about half hour of crying she finally gave up and went back to sleep, she finally woke up at about 5:30 a.m, so it was a start, then night two came and I gave her a bath fed her and held her for a bit, then at the same time I put her in crib awake and gave her a million hugs and kisses and left her, but this time no crying at all, I could hear her cooing and moving around a bit, but she finally went to sleep, and at about 1:00 am Jason heard her stirring so he went to see if she was awake and she was, but this time she never started crying, she just eventually went back to sleep, and then we didn't wake up until 7:30! wahoo, so lets hope this keeps up, and I guess this next week I'm going to be a schedule freak, just to make sure I don't ruin this wonderful thing we have going, so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope this is a sign of things to come, SLEEP!

Family time and date nights(yes, thats right 2 date nights!)

Jason and I had our 4 year anniversary last Wed, and with all our crazy schedules we decided we would just hang out as a family and go dinner and that we would celebrate with a date night that weekend, well it turned out we got two date nights(without kids!) and not only were they date nights, but my parents took the kids for the whole weekend! On Friday my parents came down and we had a little Halloween dinner, and just hung out, Daniel was still a little out of it from that morning and all the medication, so we decided with him still having no clue about Halloween, we would spend the night in, well come about 7:00 p.m my parents head on out back home with my two little kiddos, Jason was at work still, but when he got home, we got to spend the whole evening together, without having to worry about diapers, feedings, and just relax, watch some movies, and of course finally get some sleep! I don't think I have slept that well in a long time, Jason still had to work the next morning, but I didn't get up until 9:30 or so, I must say though, as nice as it was to have all this free time, I found myself at times wandering around the house wondering what to do, but I just enjoyed this time I had to myself and relax. That night we met up with some friends at Tepanyaki for dinner(mmmm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water) and then enjoyed another night of lounging on the couch and having another night of uninterrupted sleep! Now I did miss my kids like crazy, but I know for myself and Jasons sanity we needed to do this, now I don't think I could I could do this very often leaving them for an entire weekend, but I must say every so often wouldn't be so bad, plus having this time with Jason, and not always being interrupted by the kids was quite enjoyable! So thank you mom and dad for taking such good care of our little ones so we could have a weekend together!