How you doin' ?

How are we doing? Sorry so long for the updates but we have been busy. So busy in fact that I have neglected the blog. Just not enough hours in the day and when I finally have a minute, I just enjoy the peace and quiet. I will post new pics soon. The computer I'm at doesn't have access to the pics - that's another project - to try to sync a XP with a Windows 7 computer - I'm not in the mood to tackle that one anytime soon.

So here's what has been going on:

The boys started school on Aug 23rd with the PPCD program. They go 5 days a week for 3 hours and they love it. Riley wakes up every morning and usually the first words out of his mouth are "Go to School". Seriously??? It's not even 7am and I haven't even made my coffee yet and he is ready to get dressed and go to school and they don't go until 12:15. Makes for a very, very, very long morning. Carter took a little longer to enjoy going to school. He went through the withdrawals of not having mommy at his side 24/7. For a couple of weeks, I had to take him to his classroom and leaving him there crying but learned after about 5 minutes he was happy as a lark. Go figure.

The downside to school is the germs. When you have micropreemies, you become a germaphobe. Someone coughs, sneezes etc. you freak out. It became habit, trying to protect them from any germs due to their lungs. A cold to them could set them back developmentally for weeks. So when school started I knew I could no longer protect them from the germs. Riley loves to hug and kiss everyone and Carter, seeking the oral input since he doesn't eat, puts every toy or whatever to his mouth and proceeds to lick it. All this was good and fine in the confines of our home but public school???? YUK! This leads me to the downside. Since Aug 23rd, Carter has had strep which lead to an ear infection, another ear infection, strep again which lead to another ear infection. Count that as 5 antibiotics since Aug 23rd and it hasn't even been 3 months. Really not looking forward to old man winter. Riley has done fairly well. He does get put on antibiotics each time Carter gets strep and has had one sinus infection. I'm knocking on wood right now because he is not very happy when he is sick. Carter I can handle, Riley another matter entirely.

During all this time, when Carter had his first round of strep, the tip of the gbutton decides to break and we had to keep a feeding tube attached to him since part of it hung the relief valve open. Not fun since we had to endure that for 3 days since it happened while he was still contagious. Dreading the worst, the button has to be changed out at the dr. office since it is one solid piece for his protection and to keep his brother from pulling it out. Turns out, Carter didn't even cry when they took it out. I was shocked! His eyes got a little big when they put the new one in since a little force had to be used but that was it. just a little whimper and he was good to go. No granulation tissue no nothing and it had been great ever since. Now if he would just stop playing with it and tugging at it, things would be great.

Now for the big news. If you have been keeping up with this, you know that Carter was only saying momma when he started school. After about 6 weeks, he started talking! yep - Talking! He can recognize almost every color, numbers 1-10, the alphabet (and sing it) and almost all the flash cards we have in the house. He repeats, asks for a couple of things and is beginning to play with toys appropriately. The biggest thing is that now he knows when i walk into a room. Before going to school, he did not care if I was in the room or not. Well, he probably did, but his house is his safe zone. He now makes eye contact when I come into the room and calls me by name. All this just makes me giddy. He has made so much progress in such a small amount of time, it is amazing. I'm sure he has been soaking up all this info and decided okay yep I can do that too. With Carter, it has to be on his terms and his terms only. If you try to make him do something, forget it. Not gonna do it. Not gonna happen. (Like wear his glasses)!

Riley is doing well in school also. He is starting to talk in sentences and say more and more things. He likes to sing (as well as Carter) and destroy whatever he can in as little time as possible. He learned how to eat cereal with milk the other day which was awesome. He can ask for things he wants (repeatedly) and tell you most things. He greets Kevin at the door when he comes home "How you doin' ", says "delicious" when he eats something good, "your welcome" when we say thank you and "goodness" when someone sneezes. He has a very funny personality that comes out more each day.

They are both parallel playing more and enjoying the other kids in school. This is the most exposure they have had to kids their age and they seem to be adjusting well. I have more to update but I wanted to make sure my family and friends knew what has been going on. I will post some new pics soon.

Happy 3rd Birthday

This post is a little late but we did celebrate with "Jack" on their birthday.

The boys love listening to Jack's Big Music Show show we thought it would be great if they could have a "Jack" cake. A local business makes custom cakes and we took her a picture of Jack and she did a wonderful job and the cake was delicious!

Snow Day and Randomness

Here is a few pics from the snow day and just random pics.

Carter:



Riley & Carter






Dad and Riley

Riley

Carter

Riley

Carter

Riley

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Wow already another decade - where has the time gone. I didn't realize it had been almost a month since my last post. Hopefully in the new year I will make more time to post more often. Note i said... Hopefully! Here is a few pics and such to start off the new year.




Christmas Day 2009 - It has been a long, long time since we have awakened to a White Christmas around these parts and it was so pretty to look out our front door and see this. Just a layer of pure white snow. Too bad the boys were not old enough to truly enjoy this. They were too busy playing with the toys that Santa brought them.



The wind was whipping the snow around so hard that it pilled up on the other side of the house. would have been great to build a snowman.

Ah yes, Santa. This year the boys actually got to meet Santa. Didn't really think too much about it more than, "Who is this bearded man holding me and when I can I eat this Candy Cane?" The boys have been too medically fragile in the past to even think about bringing them out to see Santa, so we were overjoyed when a local hotel got Santa down to our neck of the woods to visit. It saved us from deciding to try the mall or wait til next year senario. We went to meet Santa expecting the worst. You know, the screaming, crying and running for dear life. Well, since we didn't have to wait to see him and listen to a few hundred screaming kids, it went very well. No screaming, no crying and we all got to take plently of pictures to remember this wonderful occasion. I can't thank the local business enough for doing this every year, it saved us a world of time and we actually enjoyed ourselves and so did the kids.

Riley with Santa



Carter with Santa



Note Riley has BOTH candy canes. He took Carter's away from him and decided that he wanted both of them for himself.


Family Pic of 2009 - Hoping one day the boys will actually cooperate for a group photo.



Just couldn't resist posting this pic. Riley on left, Carter on Right.
One day I will be wishing they were this small again! GO COWBOYS!



Riley grillin' up something on his new grill. Love his chef hat. HAT - A new word for Riley.





Riley playing peek a boo through the window in their new toolbench.







Riley on his new slide.
Note the Christmas tree in the background. We actually got to put up a Christmas Tree this year. Riley had to make sure he turned on the lights every morning. I made the house so much more festive this holiday season and I was so glad to be able to put one up this year. The first year they were home, I was not about to put up a tree and last year I wasn't in the christmas spirit so much so I didn't want to put one up. But this year was a different story and I enjoyed decorating the house and putting up the tree. We did "cage" the tree this year so I wouldn't have the "oh no who knocked the tree over this time senario". Next year, I'm sure it will get interesting.



Carter really showing no interest in his new toys. Wubbzy was on the TV. Way more interesting!



Carter loves the new indoor slide. He climbs up and makes sure someone is watching him go down and yells on the way down. Too Cute.



Carter doing something he know he shouldn't be.






This is a pic of the deer at the feeding in front of our house during the snow we had on Tuesday, December 29th. We counted 14 at one time. They were running to feeder as it was going off. They knew what time it was.

We all had a good time this holiday season spending it with family. This was the first winter that we actually got to spend with family and it was nice. Riley was a ham and enjoyed all the attention. Carter not so much but enjoyed leading everyone into the play room to turn on the Mickey snow globe that sings. He just loved it and towards the end of the song he would make noises to the tune of the song. It was so cute.

We did not see the new year in but awoke to a new year with runny noses and they eventually subsided a week later. The cedars here are in full bloom and from what I have heard they are worse this year than in the past. It had all of us sneezing around here at one point. We are glad the temperatures are warming up after the latest Artic Blast. We have seen the coldest temps since 1996 around here and I don't think we are out of the woods yet. Still have some more winter around the corner and hope that we don't see anymore of this kind of weather.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and we are looking forward to a wonderful year!

Holly Jolly

Happy Holidays everyone. Many of you are wondering.......What have we been up too? Well, alot. It's been busy, busy, busy around here and still trying to catch up on lots of stuff so I will try to keep it at a minimum.

October.... The lovely ear infections returned. As always with the start of the winter season, a cold creeps into the house. Riley gets sniffly and sneezy and of course, ear infection. A week later, Carter is at the doctors office with a ear infection as well. As the dr. always reminds us, ear infections are not, I repeat, NOT contagious. Well, they are not but the cold that probably started it all is and it never fails once one gets it the other does too. Of course, that wasn't the half of it.

Kevin was working nights, 6 days, 12 hr shifts during this time and while I taking Riley to the dr., an 18 wheeler was shredding a tire while rounding the corner in the opposite direction and huge pieces were hurling at my SUV. Then I hear a SMACK. I keep driving and inspect the car at the doctors office as no warning lights came on afterwards. I look at the grill, and I see the hole. Oh great. Just what I needed. Luckily, the windshield was not broken but the grill had to be replaced to protect the radiator from any oncoming debris in the future.

November, I thought this would be a calm month but not quite. Riley starting running a fever on a Thursday night so I decided to go ahead and take him in on Friday. I did not want to wait it out over the weekend since I knew something was wrong just didn't know what. Went in and the ears were fine, the throat, a little red. So after a little test, it came back - Strep!?! I couldn't believe it. The kids go nowhere so we must have brought it in and did not know it. So Riley gets his scrip and so does Carter for preventative measures. Carter does not eat but puts every toy, cup and what not in his mouth so more than likely he would of come down with it soon enough. So, another month of sleeping with Riley and keeping Carter calm and in his crib so he can eat at night. The boys managed to get over the strep and stayed well for the remainder of the month to get their 1st dose of the H1N1.

This wasn't the half of it. To keep it short, here's the list: DVR had to be replaced, Microwave stopped working and had to be replaced, coffee maker stopped making coffee (only 2 months old and it happened on a MONDAY!), lost our internet connection for 15 days, carpet cleaner holding tank broke while cleaning carpets and I lost lots of sleep that I desperately needed.

December, has started of relatively calm and it is going to stay that way. I did have to have a tire fixed due to a SLOW leak which took a while to find but thank goodness they did.

The boys had a wonderful Thanksgiving spending it out of the house this year. Of course, we were chasing them all over til the sleep monster finally took over but it was a great day. They are beginning to make alot more sounds and noises. Riley is pointing out things on flash cards and trying to say what they are. Carter is starting to make more noise as well and has been immitating us more which is so awesome. One of the songs I sing to them has a pirate the goes "aaaargh" and everytime I get to the line they both say it. Riley was taking his bottle the other night while I was singing it to Carter and he was pulling his bottle out of his mouth to make the sound. kinda gurgled since he had milk in his mouth but it was so cute.

One of our favorite DVD's is the Leap Frog Letter Factory. They are beginning to repeat sounds of the letters. Every time the A starts and goes " the A says AHHH they both scream AHHH!" It is so cute and love that their little personalities are still as different as night and day. Most of the day I try to keep Riley from beating up on Carter.

We do have to thank Nana and Papa for keeping our little 2 year olds overnight about a week ago. The boys have not spent a night away from the house since they were born. We have been away from them but never in our house with peace a quite for over 2 years. We managed to get most of the christmas shopping done and get some things done around the house the next day. It was a nice, much needed break and we can't thank them enough.

I will post some new pics soon as well as more things that the boys are doing. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and things are going well.

Carter's Big Day

Carter Today

approx. 25 lbs and 33 inches tall

Been a little busy with the boys lately so I did not get a chance to blog about the day Carter came home. Two years ago on November 5th, Carter came home and our world changed forever. It was hard enough just to adjust to Riley coming home and we received a call stating "Carter is ready to come home - uh TOMORROW". We were not prepared for his homecoming as we fully expected him to be in the NICU at least a month after Riley came home. So we were excited when we got the call, as I was so devasted to have left him there, us being over an hour away from the hospital.

Carter at Birth 6/23/07 - My first born. Notice the A on the cap.

1 lb 6 oz and 12 inches

Carter prior to coming home (O2 removed temporarily for pic)

Where's Carter? Taken about 10 days after coming home.

together again. Luckily, they only entangled themselves with all the O2 tubing and apnea wires and not each other but there were days we had to turn off the machine just to get all the wires untangled.


Kevin with the boys - they are not so little anymore.

One of my favorite pics of "my buggy"


It took us a while to get everything together and to set up times to meet everyone at the hospital to make sure we got all of his equipment to go home with. Yep, he came home with all the same equipment Riley did. That meant our house had two of everything - O2 concentrator, apnea monitor, pulse ox, oxygen tanks, etc. I think at one time over the course of everything we had 4 large oxygen tanks and 8 small ones. Why so many? The company that the hospital set us up with forgot we live in the sticks and that the company was in North Dallas. So they made sure we had extras of everything so they did not have to make as many trips for minor things. Good

plan, I just didn't know where to put all of this lovely stuff.

I did finally manage to learn how to load the car and pack their bags for any doctor trips over the course of these few months as there were many. That double stroller can hold alot if you pack it right.....2 babies, check; 2 apnea monitors, check; 2 O2 tanks, check, Carters bag, check, Rileys bag, check; Carters backpack with feeding pump, check; and my sanity - oh I left that at home.

We were never so thankful to be out of the hospital and in our own home. Lack of sleep took its toll on us in the days ahead but we enjoyed every minute of it. Carter adjusted to home life very well. The boys shared a bed in the living room from this time until March of '08. That was when they decided it was not "cool" to sleep together anymore. They were recovering from RSV at the time and waking each other up. Not "cool" for mom either. We were worried with all the moving around that Riley would find Carter's NG tube and yank it out. We had already been down that road with Carter once and I didn't want a repeat performance.

While Carter still does not eat by mouth we are making progress with his sensory issues to put food related items in his mouth. Just the other day he licked the salt off of a McD's french fry! We were so excited considering most of his intake over the past year by mouth has been water. Now just to take a bite would be a wonderful milestone. I don't see it happening anytime soon but who knows. Right now he is teething a 3 year molar which is unusual since Riley cut almost all of his teeth first. I will be soooooo glad when this teething thing ends. It seems like 1 1/2 years of non stop teething. UGH!

Overall, we are so blessed to have them here and to watch them grow each and everyday. The new things they do a true milestones to us as they may be small to others. No milestone for us is too small and we take each day as it comes. Usually a tornado of 2 year olds running through the house with toys in tow and we just SMILE!

2 Years Ago.... Today

Riley Today
approx 23lb and 32 inches






Riley at Birth 6-23-2007


1 lb 7.8 oz. 12 1/4 in.



Our First Photo all together before Riley came Home 10/22/07




Riley's First Photo without any "stuff"
(only removed temporarily for photo)




Riley getting ready to roll out the door.




Riley HOME 5 days later.



Carter and Riley Together

What a day this was. I can still remember some of the details like they were yesterday. After 120 days in the NICU, Riley was ready enough to come home. I remember how excited we were and how terrified we were at the same time. The hardest thing was leaving Carter. I had been at the NICU everyday except for maybe 10 days of the 120 days. Some days were good, some were bad and some we just don't want to think about.

You always hear the "stories" of my baby was a preemie. And yes, many children are born early. Then there are Micropreemies, which my children are. It's hard to think that they were so little when they were born, not knowing if they would even survive the first month. As the months past, the what if factor always remained, especially with Riley. Having 5 surgeries within those 120 days were terrifying.

So here we are, loading up the car with all of Riley's stuff including the o2 tanks, o2 concentrator, pulse oximeter and apnea monitor. I remember thinking in the car on the way home about all the equipment and hoping that nothing would happen. I don't think I slept much his first night home. He still was eating every 3 hours anyway so not much sleep. We kept him confined to the living room since that is where is was easiest to set up all the equipment. All the cords and tubes were long enough to move around the room with ease and lay on the recliner when Riley decided to take a nap.

His first doctor appt... it took me twenty minutes just to load the car. When we travelled, we travelled with most of the equipment - the apnea monitor and o2. That was enough and we also carried spare tanks in the car for emergencies.

To look back at the pictures now, I am truly blessed and fortunate on how far we have come and how much he has grown.