Ok so last post was just published now, July 23 2014, but was written back in spring 2013. Obviously I've been slacking in the blogging department. Believe it or not, we are one week from our son Everett's first birthday. In the last post I was only pregnant with the little guy. Crazy how time flies! Ok so updates. We'll start with Maddie since I left off with her last time. Let's see last spring Maddie was 1 1/2. Here's the biggest thing I remember about Maddie then. She learned how to climb out of her crib at 18 months. That's right...18 months! So we had to move her to a big kid bed. The problem was, she wasn't old enough to grasp the concept of staying in bed. We had to battle her/rock her/lay with her/anything most every night for hours, literally, to get her to sleep. She was a...determined little thing. Maddie, mommy and daddy will remind you of this someday when you think we are being unfair to you! Speaking of Maddie, determined is her middle name! She doesn't let anything stand in her way and she wants what she wants! Most days it was/is a battle of wills with her. We love that about her personality though and know it will suit her well someday because of her disability. Maddie's speech continued (and continues) to improve. At that time, she understood more than she could say. We had her evaluated for the Mama Lere Hearing School at Vanderbilt that spring and she could say around 7 - 10 words (or closely approximate the words).
That summer (2013) we closed on our house in Murfreesboro in June and then on our house we sold in Jackson in July. That was hectic to say the least! Once we got moved in, daddy had some time off as he wasn't supposed to start work in Shelbyville until August. Unfortunately the contract in Shelbyville fell through and he had to begin looking for other job opportunities. This was also extremely stressful! Luckily Austin was still contract employed with ER's in West Tennessee and went to work there for a bit while also working on a contract with a local ER staffing agency, Team Health. The contract with Team Health was finalized and Austin was placed full time in a small ER in Carthage, TN. He started that position in January of this year. It is a two year contract and so far he seems to like it there.
Everett William was born the summer of 2013, July 30th. He was born at 9:19 AM. I went to the hospital the night before dilated to 6 cm and Everett decided to just hang out there all night like that while I labored. The AM doctor came on shift, broke my water, and Everett came just about an hour or so later. I didn't have as much pain relief from the epidural this time so I really felt him! It could have been that he was the biggest baby too at 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long. He was the sweetest baby. I would snuggle with him all day long. I think part of that too was knowing that he would probably be our last and I wanted to cherish every baby moment. Daddy got to spend a lot of time snuggling too. Everett was pretty easy overall. He slept through the night around 7 weeks old! However he HATED car rides. He cried nonstop riding in the car. This proved problematic (and irritating) in the fall when we were in the car all the time.
Fall 2013:
Ok so this past fall Abby started preschool at the First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro. Maddie also started at the Mama Lere Hearing School at Vanderbilt two days a week. Abby loved preschool! It was great because it was only 4 hours a day so it wasn't too stressful or tiring for her. The drive was a bit tiring for mommy and daddy though since school was across town. Abby had fabulous teachers, Mrs. Trish and Mrs. Marigrace. They taught her so much! She is definitely prepared for Kindergarten now because of those two special ladies! Maddie started at the Mama Lere hearing school in the Fall and she loved her school as well! Her teachers were Miss Sarah and Mrs. Geniene and they were fabulous as well. There were only 6 kids in Maddie's class. Four had cochlear implants (including Maddie) and two were "typical" peers. They were only there for two and a half hours so mommy and/or daddy waited with Everett in a little room where we could observe the class. It was amazing to be able to witness Maddie Kate blossoming in the class, but also a little tiring sitting in there for two and a half hours twice a week...not to mention challenging once Everett was more alert. For this reason, we chose to enroll Maddie Kate in a local mothers day out program (actually at Abby's preschool) and start her in speech therapy twice a week. We saw Mrs. Suzanne for speech until May of this year when our insurance changed. Mrs. Suzanne was really good with Maddie and Maddie absolutely loved her! Maddie began speaking in two word sentences not long after she turned two...this is pretty typical for any two year old so of course we were ecstatic. The biggest problem Maddie has is being able to pronounce all of the consonants. She currently still struggles with C and G sounds as well as a few others.
Winter/Spring 2014 - Present
I'll start with Everett. So Everett started crawling at 6 1/2 months! We were floored! He was ready to move and chase his big sisters. Around 7 1/2 months he was pulling up. It didn't take him too much longer to get the hang of walking and was taking steps by 10 1/2 months. He is now not even a year old and is walking so well. He still falls some but is pretty steady. He can go so fast sometimes he is almost running! We call him our wild man because he gets into everything! I don't remember the girls being quite this active or getting into things quite this much. Everett loves to be outside and no longer hates car rides. In fact he seems to quite enjoy them. Thank goodness! Right now Everett is at the stage where he puts everything in his mouth so we have really have had to baby proof and watch him constantly. If we forget to put the dog food away, he goes straight for it. If we leave the gate to the stairs open, he makes a beeline for the stairs. If we leave the bathroom door open, he sees that as his opportunity to play in the toilet and unroll all the toilet paper. As you can probably see, he keeps us on our toes! He is definitely a boy! He even ate sand at the beach! The best part about Austin's job is he gets to be home a lot more than he used to. He is realizing now how much he missed with the girl's growing up, but is happy he is getting to watch Everett grow and change now. He is also loving spending time with the girls. Everett is also very loud/vocal when he does not get what he wants. He literally screams in his high chair if you are not giving him food fast enough. We are currently trying to break him of that. Speaking of food, Everett loves to eat. If you are eating, he thinks he should be eating too. I don't know where he puts it though! Oh that's right...he spits it up. Everett has had chronic spit up since he was a baby. We thought at 6 months he would outgrow it, but no. The girls spit up, but nothing like this. We had to start him on solid food at 4 months because he wasn't gaining enough weight. At 6 months he still hadn't gained much weight. At 6 months I stopped nursing and switched him to formula. We tried so many different formulas trying to find one that would help the spit up with no luck. Finally at 9 months we started him on reflux medicine. He had finally gained weight by 9 months even though he was still spitting up. I guess that's because he ate so much! The spit up decreased with meds but was (and is) still present. I'm really hoping that his birthday will be the magic day when he stops spitting up! Anyway. Ok Daddy wanted me to mention that Everett figured out how to blow a duck call at 11 months! Maybe we have a future duck hunter on our hands! Everett loves to talk/babble. We think he is going to be an early talker. He already says the typical mama, dada, bye...but he also has babbled what we think is Abigail, maddie kate, Sergio (he calls go), nana, papaw, and more I'm sure. He loves his memaw because she always takes him for walks outside in his wagon! He also does this Indian call (bababababa) with his hand. Ok enough on Everett...on to Maddie Kate.
Maddie Kate this year has grown tremendously in personality and vocabulary. Except for pronunciation, she talks just as well as any normal developing 2, almost 3, year old. Her personality is awesome. I love it when kids' personalities develop and you can see what they are going to be like years from now. Maddie loves to laugh and make people laugh. She loves to play games that she thinks will make you laugh...such as "Where's Maddie? (she closes her eyes and then opens) Boo! hahaha" Her laugh is infectious and just the sweetest thing. Well all the kids have a sweet laugh! Maddie also loves to play with baby dolls. She has a natural nurturing personality. She loves to change their diapers and they always seem to have "shoo stinky!" diapers. Maddie gets in trouble a lot right now because she is in the dreaded "terrible twos." She hits a lot and has trouble listening when she doesn't want to. The hitting is definitely getting better now that her vocabulary is increasing and you can reason with her more. The funniest thing is Maddie "disciplines" her dolls. She puts her dolls in time out for doing things she, I mean they, are not supposed to do. Maddie is now in speech with Mrs. Hillary. We love Mrs. Hillary and so does Maddie Kate. Maddie's speech has really improved since being with her. Daddy and mommy (but mostly daddy) also work with Maddie on her speech at home. Maddie seems to respond better to Austin so he usually gets that task which is okay with him because he enjoys it. The best thing is when Maddie says a word correctly, her response is an elated "I did it" followed by a necessary high five. Maddie also loves movies. Her favorite movies are "Tangled", "Princess and the Frog", "Lady and the Tramp", and "Totoro." She will ask for these movies and the way she says the names of them are priceless. It's hard to understand her sometimes when she says the names of them, but I think we have them all figured out now. She gets really frustrated when you don't understand what she is trying to say. Maddie is also a little, ahem, OCD. I wonder who she gets that from, ahem, me. She likes things a certain way, whether its a routine, or putting a blanket on a baby a certain way...etc. She also is "Miss Independent" and has to do everything by herself...using the bathroom, putting on clothes, etc. Speaking of using the bathroom, we almost have her potty trained. Memaw initiated an M&M reward system with Maddie. The first thing Maddie says after she goes #2 is "Yay! I get 6 M&M's!" Maddie also likes to help me in the garden and is almost always barefoot in it! One more thing, Maddie loves to hang upside down. If we are holding her, she will hold on to our hands and lean back with her head towards the ground. She calls herself an "upside down bat." Another funny story is the scaredy story. So one day Abby was pretending there were "scaredies" that were chasing them. Well Maddie got really scared because she didn't realize Abby was just pretending. Daddy had to calm her down by telling her he was going to beat those scaredies away. Once she figured out they were pretend, she decided she was going to "pop some scardies. pop pop!" She has us rolling with the scardies. Out of nowhere she will say "uh oh I see scardies! pop pop (and pretend to pop them like a balloon). Ok now to Abby...
Abby turned 5 years old this year! I can't believe our little baby is 5 already and going to start kindergarten soon! Some new activities this year... In the fall her and Maddie did gymnastics. Maddie loved gymnastics but would not listen. Abby did not care for gymnastics. I think it scared her a little. Now she says she wants to do it again though. This spring Abby also did soccer. The soccer season was, shall we say, interesting. Abby can be a little...dreamy...sometimes and that showed up on the soccer field. She did great in practice, but when it came to games, she just stood on the field and watched everyone else play. That is until the last couple of games. Abby finally started running after the ball and even kicked it a couple of times! This was a great improvement for her and coach was so proud. We of course were proud as well. We just wanted her to try! We were so proud of our little soccer player not only because she tried, but also because she memorized her bible verses every week! She was one of the only players who always had them memorized. She also seemed to really get a grasp on the "rules" of soccer. We think this is what held her back at first. She was too busy thinking about the rules and making sure she was doing it right. We finally told her to stop thinking and just start running after the ball! Abby graduated Pre-K this year. She did so well! She can write and recognize all of her upper and lower case ABC's, she can count to 100, she can add some small numbers, she can write her name, she has her phone number memorized, and she is even beginning to read. Hop on Pop is her favorite reading book! The first thing Abby did on her summer break was vacation and then immediately into summer theater camp. She was in theater camp for three weeks where they learned the production of the Little Mermaid, Jr. Abby was a blue fish in the play and did so well! She met some new friends while in camp. Her favorite friend was Clark. They cut up a little too much though. She told us after the camp was over that she never wanted to do camp again. :( We will see what she says next year. Surprisingly she does say she wants to do soccer again next year. Abby speaks pretty well now. She still has a few words she messes up like "restanot" instead of restaurant. She tries to sound (and does sound) so grown up when she speaks now. She loves her baby brother. She loves to carry him around and talk to him in a baby voice. She really mimics what adults do. It's hilarious! She is really sweet and nurturing with him and with Maddie if Maddie is hurt or sad. Tonight at church Abby gave a prayer request in her class that Maddie would be able to hear again someday without her implants. It was so sweet. Some things Abby loves to do now are chores and swinging by herself. She loves to help around the house and thinks chores are just the best thing ever! Her favorite chores are usually dusting or cleaning windows because she gets to spray the dusting polish or windex and that's fun for her. She also likes organizing and decorating. She is constantly rearranging things or hanging decorations on the stairs. She takes after her mommy in that department. We've butted heads some on this though because she wants to rearrange things that I don't want rearranged. I tell her that she can decorate her room and the playroom and that someday she can decorate her own house. As far as swinging, we finally have a swingset of our own and Abby loves to go outside and swing by herself. I think she likes the alone time and likes the fact that she can swing herself. Abby also gets the highlights magazine now and loves the hidden pictures puzzles in it. She will forego a nap and do hidden picture puzzles or play on her leap pad as her "rest time." Sometimes she falls asleep anyway. Abby loves organizing games to play. She will say, "you be the doctor, I'll be the baby who has to go to the doctor because my leg is broke, and Maddie will be the mommy." Then we have to act accordingly. Abby has such a sweet personality. She will make sure she spends equal time with mommy and daddy. If she's been snuggling with mommy a lot, she will say she needs to go snuggle with daddy so he doesn't feel left out and vice versa. Daddy says he loves reading with Abby and hearing her list every family member when she prays at night. I have to say I agree. We also both love snuggling for movie nights with Abby. Maddie doesn't usually sit still long enough to snuggle yet and Everett is usually already in bed. Abby loves movie night because she gets to have popcorn and ice water! ha! Maddie doesn't like popcorn and usually gets goldfish or fruit snacks.
I guess that is all for tonight. I will probably have more to post soon.
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