Merry Christmas

Tonight at Mass, Father talked in his homily of Jesus at about a year old just starting to walk and how wobbly he would have walked.  He wanted us to think about how crazy it was that the God who created the universe, and the gravitational pull that makes babies wobble, would enter this world in that humble way.  I found that to be a very timely observation for me for two reasons.  First, we've been following the Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar; on each day in December leading up to Christmas, they showed a different picture from the Hubble Telescope.  Owen looked forward to it each day and always wanted us to read the description of what it was.  I know Owen doesn't grasp the true meaning of what he was looking at; for me as an adult with a small understanding of astronomy it is mind boggling to try and understand the science behind the pictures and the vastness of subjects pictured.  God's creation is simply amazing.

Second, the big news around here is that Sophie is now walking!  One night three weeks ago I was playing with Owen when Sophie was grabbing my hands, motioning that she wanted me to walk her around (she likes holding on to one finger).  I wanted to give Owen some attention, so I told her, "You know, you can walk yourself."  So she did!  She took about 3 steps into my arms.  I figured that's about all she would do that night, but then she was so proud of herself and happy with our reaction that she did a good amount of walking that night. You can see the video here. Her walk is still that wobbly baby walk, but she still gets a kick out of it and is doing it more and more.

Last week we went to see Owen's Christmas play at his school (here's a wobbly video of that; he is the angel in the front row in the middle, wearing a blue shirt).  For some reason the play made me teary-eyed.  Partly I think it was remembering that there are parents who will no longer be able to see their kids perform here on earth and partly because the play brought a special innocence (and non-commercialism) to the Christmas story.  I love that Owen has gone to a Christian preschool the last few years.  He shows more awareness and interest in religious things (such as the Christmas story) than I expected.  As we look at schools to put Owen into next year for Kindergarten, I know we aren't going to continue paying for his schooling, so I know he won't get that kind of exposure to religion at school.  I just pray that I will be able to continue that interest in him, although I know that will be difficult as he gets older.

As we get together with friends and family this season I feel very blessed.  May you and yours have a blessed holiday season as well!

From O So December 2012

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

...then I just published a novel.  I finally got around to posting the pictures we have taken since August.  It includes our recent trips to Sedona and Lost Dutchman State Park.  Here's a few of my favorites.  All of the pics can be found on my Picasa Album.  Enjoy!

From O So August 2012

From Pancake Breakfast Sept 2012

From O So September 2012

From O So September 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From O So October 2012

From LPSC Ice Cream Social

From O So November 2012

From O So November 2012

From O So November 2012

From O So November 2012

From O So November 2012

From Trip to Sedona November 2012

From Trip to Sedona November 2012

From Trip to Sedona November 2012

From Trip to Sedona November 2012

From Lost Dutchman State Park November 2012

From Lost Dutchman State Park November 2012

From Lost Dutchman State Park November 2012

From Lost Dutchman State Park November 2012

Passing It On

Growing up my family did a lot of boating on the weekends.  The sailing (and swimming) during the day was, of course, great, but one of my favorite parts was hanging out on deck after dark.  The lakes we went to were outside the city enough to see a lot more stars than at home.  We would all get excited when someone pointed out a satellite and we could find it, and likewise we would be jealous of anyone who saw a shooting star that we did not get to see.  My parents taught my brother and I a few constellations, so we would always find them if they were up.  I will never forget the absolutely amazing view we saw of the Milky Way on one moonless trip to Lake Powell.  My mind was blown by the sheer number of stars we could see and how it actually looked like a galaxy.

Astronomy is a mind-blowing science.  I know all of science can be extremely interesting, but to me, at least, every fact that we know about space stretches my imagination in wonderful ways.  As a business major in college, I was lucky enough to avoid those boring/daunting science classes like biology or chemistry, and took astronomy.  Yeah, the lab was at night, which seemed like a hassle at first, but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes.  Most of what I learned from  that year is removed from my memory, but the wonder (and interest) is still there.

Tonight brought back memories of that class and of the many nights out on the water looking upward.  But let me go backward a few weeks.  When first asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, Owen said he wanted to wear a gray sheet.  He said he could be night.  I was a little confused at first, but then figured out where he got that from.  Owen has been watching and reading Peanuts cartoons lately; in the Halloween TV special, all of the kids were ghosts, wearing white sheets over their heads.  (Poor Charlie Brown had trouble with the scissors and instead of having two eye holes had holes all over his sheet.)  I thought that Owen's costume choice was a little odd at first, but I went with it, figuring he would want to change it a couple of days later.  I told him we could get glow in the dark star stickers and put them on the sheet, an idea which he liked.  Well, he hasn't changed his mind, and despite not wanting to go shopping with me to get the stars, he seems excited about it.

I can't remember where I saw it, but when I realized there was a meteor shower this weekend, I started thinking about how I could manage to get away from the city lights to see it.  Since the prime time to see the shower is after midnight I knew it wouldn't involve the kids.  But maybe some of my parent friends and I could sneak out of town after the kids went to bed and see some of the shower and then come home.  Or maybe we could camp somewhere close with the older kids and the adults could stay up late.  I started researching locations and came across the Lost Dutchman website advertising a Star Party.  Camping didn't work out, so I knew I wouldn't be able to see the shower, but the Party looked interesting.  So we went.

Owen has the "Here Comes Science" CD/DVD by They Might Be Giants, which has several space-themed songs.  His favorite is "How Many Planets?", and he also likes "What is a Shooting Star?".  We told him there was a meteor shower this weekend, and sold the Star Party to him by saying he would see Jupiter.  So he seemed excited, but when we got in the car to go to Lost Dutchman (about a 40 minute drive from our house), he started falling asleep.  I was worried he was going to be cranky and uninterested (and/or afraid of the dark).  But he did fine.  Our friends Nate and Beck ended up going, which I think helped Owen's enjoyment level (I know it did ours).  [A big thanks to Nate for giving up his winning raffle ticket so Owen could win a small toy airplane (the guy doing the presentation was also some kind of plane expert).]  Despite the presentation being long and above his head (both literally and figuratively), Owen didn't really complain the whole night.  They had a neat telescope that they were able to hook up to the video screen and showed us some amazing views of the craters on the moon.  They used (really expensive; I think he said $700) laser pointers that you could see 50 miles into the sky with to point out different stars and constellations.  I was busy keeping an eye on Sophie (who constantly wanted to move around); several times I looked over at Owen in Keith's arms, expecting him to be falling asleep.  Instead he was looking upward into the sky.  Keith said Owen wanted him to hold him laying back so he could see up easier.  At one point during the presentation I took Sophie into the parking lot because she was being noisy and came across someone looking through powerful binoculars on a tripod, so I started talking to him.  It turns out he was scoping out the "competition" because he was doing similar presentations once a month starting in November at Lost Dutchman.  He showed me several things through the binoculars and then I brought Owen over to see.  Owen seemed genuinely interested, at least for a little while.  Jupiter didn't come up over the horizon until 8:30pm, and since seeing Jupiter was the main reason we came, we had to wait to see it.  Actually that was a bit disappointing because the view through the telescope wasn't that much different than with the naked eye.  But Owen didn't seem upset about that.

What kind of effect tonight will have on Owen remains to be seen.  Maybe it's just a better understanding of what his Halloween costume is.  But we will definitely be heading back to Lost Dutchman for more presentations.  One of the awesome things about being a parent is passing on things that interest you to your kids.  If I can pass on even a small portion of my wonderment about the night sky, then I will have done my job.

Vacation Jumps

As I mentioned in my last email, this has been a busy travelling summer.  Which has been great.  It's been good for me to get out of town with my frisbee team and have some time without the kids (thanks Keith!).  It's also been good for the kids.  It seems that when we take the kids travelling, Sophie comes back and shows a jump in her development.  This summer was no exception.

In June we went to visit my brother and his family in San Diego.  I can't remember a specific "jump" that Sophie made, but overall it helped with her speech, physical therapy and eating.  Her GI doc has been slowly weaning her off the G-tube; she currently gets about half her liquids from the G-tube and half by mouth.  It's a slow process, but she is showing improvement.

In July I took the kids to New York to see Keith's side of the family.  Keith didn't go, but my mother-in-law Peggy travelled with us, which was a big help.  Owen actually showed some development on this trip.  One afternoon we were at Peggy's cousin's house when it was raining.  Owen was of course shy at first, but Steve  convinced him to go feed the fish in the pond; and then count the fish.  Owen had a ball going back and forth from the patio to the pond counting different kind of "fish" in the pond - sharks, sea horses, octopus, etc.  All of this while getting wet in the rain!  Before the trip Owen hated getting wet ("except in the pool or in the bath").  Then, after years of refusing ice cream and popsicles because they were too cold, he tried, and ate, frozen yogurt.

In August we went up to Flagstaff with my parents to stay in a time share resort.  It was a very relaxing week for me.  It rained every day, but we didn't really care; we did our outdoorsy stuff in the morning and then came back to the condo (which was beautiful!) in the afternoon for naps and movies.  The biggest thing to come out of this trip was that Sophie started standing on her own!  At first she just let go and didn't realize she was doing it; now she does it on purpose and gets a big kick out of it.  The longest I've seen her stand is for about 6 seconds; she still has her feet kind of wide, so she still has a ways to go, but I like that she is motivated to try it herself.

Our family trips are over for the summer, but it's starting to finally cool off here, so we can get out and about around town, which is good for everyone!

Here are some pics from the trips.  A lot more are on my Picasa page.

From San Diego May 31 - June 4

From San Diego May 31 - June 4

From San Diego May 31 - June 4

From New York July 2012

From New York July 2012

From Flagstaff August 2012

From Flagstaff August 2012

From Flagstaff August 2012

Things to remember next time we go camping

Yep, a couple of months have gone by again without a post.  Sorry.  I've been travelling so much the past few months that it seems like I am in a constant state of packing and unpacking.  I've been gone (at least part of) the past 3 weekends, and of the past 11 weekends, I've been travelling for 6 of them.  And I'm not done with all of my travelling for the summer yet.  A lot of the travelling is for my Ultimate Frisbee team, but not all of it.  I'll post pictures soon of my trip to New York & Sophie's birthday, but I wanted to post about our family camping trip before I forget about the details.

Last weekend we took the kids on their first tent camping adventure.  We went to the rim, near Blue Ridge Reservoir.  Owen has gone camping with Grandma & Grandpa in their motorhome, but obviously this is a different experience.  For him & us.  As I mentioned, I've done a lot of packing lately - week long trips to CA & NY - but it's been a long time since I've camped, and adding kids to that makes packing even harder.  We somehow managed to bring just about everything we could possibly need (read:  too much) and still have room for the kids.  It'll probably be a year until we go camping again, so to remind myself then what I know now, here are the things I want to remember next time.

1.  Go super easy with the food. We went with some friends who brought the main course for the dinner (hamburgers).  We brought corn and bacon.  For breakfast I cut up potatoes and brought eggs, cheese & green onions to go along with the leftover bacon.  I figured we would enjoy some good food while "roughing" it.  Even though I cut up everything ahead of time, it still seemed like everything took too long.  I would have rather rolled out of bed and had a pre-made muffin that cleaned up easy and had more time to spend with the kids.  Same with the dishes; this trip I was attempting to clean the dishes in the dying light.  Disposable is probably the way to go, but if I'm feeling environmentally conscious, I could bring enough plates/silverware to not have to do dishes.

That being said, don't skimp on the s'mores.  Our friend had the idea of trying different chocolates (kit kat, crackle, etc.).  We'll have to try that next time.

2.  I don't need to pack so much.  I brought a bag of toys/activities for the kids that never even got opened.  Sophie was (mostly) content to just crawl around and explore.  Owen played with the other kids and their stuff.  And I need to make a rule for next time.  No electronics once we are there.  Yep, I'm looking at you, Keith.  No music and no movies on the Nook (although I will admit having the movies makes the car ride a lot easier).

3.  Except, of course, for the camera.  I don't have many pictures this time cause we've been having trouble with our batteries, which of course died in the middle of the trip.  I find taking pictures is therapeutic, so this was a source of frustration for me.

4.  The other exception would be flashlights.  When my family went camping growing up, we usually went for a walk after dinner.  So this time I sold it to the kids as a "flashlight walk".  Everyone had their own, which Owen really liked.  It was a very small campground (only 10 spots), so the walk was short, but hopefully as the kids get older we can extend it and make it a tradition.

5.  One other thing not to forget is water shoes.  Probably the best part of the trip was when we went to the creek (East Clear Creek on FR 95) and walked around in it.  Sophie of course crawled right in.  Owen, expanding on the courage he gained playing in the rain and swimming in the lake in NY, got his clothes wet.  And didn't even complain about it!

6.  Make room for the wine.  That was a good call, if I may say so myself.

7.  Not only do I need to pack less, but I need to pack *better*.  Living out of the back of a car is not easy when nothing is in easy reach and mixed in with a bunch of other stuff.  For our car trips to CA we started using big bins to put our stuff and clothes in.  It works great when you have a place to go where you can take stuff out of the bins and organize them.  However, digging through a bin of the whole family's clothes, in the dark, to find one specific piece of clothing, was frustrating.

8.  The middle of the night is probably not the best time to form a plan on what to do if a bear attacks your tent/car.  Sophie did not sleep well that night.  She went to bed fine, but then when we came back in the tent to put Owen to sleep, she woke up.  And stayed awake for 3.5 hours.  Which left me half asleep/half awake, listening to the sounds in the campground.  I definitely heard animals in the distance (supposedly cows, but I'm not so sure).  Combine that with my parents telling me the week before that some campgrounds near the rim were closed due to bears attacking tents, and my mind was playing tricks on me.  At one point I was convinced a bear had his paws up on a car and was pounding on it.  Turns out it was just our friends getting in their car to get their mattress pump.  Hmmm, maybe the wine wasn't such a good idea.

9.  Give Sophie the Tylenol at the first sign that she is going to be awake, don't wait 3.5 hours.  That usually puts her back to sleep, so I'm not sure why I wait so long.  Guess I was too busy thinking about bears.  

10.  Spend more than one night.  Camping is a *ton* of work.  We couldn't go Friday night, so we arrived Saturday around noon.  By the time we made lunch, cleaned up from lunch, put up our tents, organized things a bit, we only had a short time to do things like hike and go to the lake before we had to get dinner ready.  Then clean up from dinner.  Then get ready for bed.  Sleep, then get breakfast ready, then clean up, then take down the tents, then...  Well, you get the idea.  At one point Owen asked who was going to play with him and Keith and I couldn't - we had too much work to do.  I felt a wave of guilt come over me.  The idea of camping is to have family time, and we didn't have enough of that this camping trip.

Overall we did have fun.  I'm not sure if it was worth all of the work, but you never can tell for sure.  Each new experience for the kids helps them grow.  I've been told it gets easier as the kids get older, and hopefully I'll know how to pack/organize better next time.

And, in case you are wondering, I just looked up how to deal with a bear.  If there is a bear outside of your tent, make sure it is aware there is a human inside by using a firm monotone voice, turn on a flashlight, and if the bears enters the tent, fight back and yell.   

Ok, I'm ready for next time.



The group hiking.  Owen called it an "Explore" (from Winnie the Pooh).  Whatever you call it, it didn't last long, as it started raining and thundering, so we headed back.  Pictured:  Megan with Maya, Rob with Kayan, Tina (with ??), Bryan with Finn, Keith, and Owen.  I had Sophie on my back.

From O So August 2012

Owen was a little cranky at the start of the hike and refused to walk.  Then five minutes later he was running up and down the trail chasing people.  That's Owen for you.

From O So August 2012

The Blue Ridge Reservoir.  Our friends brought kayaks, but the lake itself was only accessible at the boat ramp, which was crowded, so we didn't end up going in because it wasn't very kid friendly (and the kids all fell asleep on the bumpy dirt road to the lake).  But it was very pretty!

From O So August 2012

Sophie enjoying the campground (Blue Ridge Campground).

From O So August 2012

Trip to Holland

For my birthday last September, Owen (and Daddy) made me the following card, which of course, made me cry (the happy kind):

From O So September 2011

So it was no surprise to hear that Owen was working on another card for Mother's Day.  Come MD morning, he wasn't finished with it, so Daddy and Owen were working on it while I was doing various things around the house.  I could hear a few of the things they were writing on it, so I was wondering if I was going to get emotional when I read it.  I think I held myself together until I read # 6:

If you can't read it, #6 says "Appreciating our trip to Holland".  I totally lost it at that point. 

If you're wondering how you missed my post and pictures from our trip to Holland, don't worry, we haven't gone anywhere.  Keith is referring to this story, which a friend of ours sent us when Sophie received her diagnosis in August. First, I was surprised that Keith remembered the story.  Second, I appreciated the fact that he noticed my acceptance of the revised "trip" that our lives have become. 

And I have come to a greater acceptance.  When I first read the Holland story I didn't think it was the best analogy.  I think my biggest disagreement with it was that it didn't really admit that taking care of a special needs child was not just different - it was harder.  There isn't just developmental issues to deal with; there are medical issues that can cause suffering.  We have been incredibly lucky that Sophie has been healthy and I thank God often for that.  But I now realize that along with the difficulties there are blessings.  You appreciate the little things.  You learn things you would never have learned.  As the story mentions, you meet new people you would never have met otherwise.  On Monday Sophie and I went to a BBQ at our church for families with special needs children.  I was struck by how different some of the people in the group are.  I wasn't sure if I would fit in.  But then you start talking and you realize how much you have in common.  There is an instant bond when you meet someone with shared experiences.  I feel that bond with all mothers/parents to a certain extent, but especially with those with special needs kids. 

Did I say that I held it together until #6?  Ok, I probably lied.  #4 probably holds the most value for me, because it is the truest of them all. 

Happy late Mother's Day!

I've been remiss in posting lately, so here are some pictures to get you (almost) caught up.

Owen and the Bean Stalk

This is a mashup of monsters and green beans. You've been warned.

Coming home from school two weeks ago, Owen announced that he wanted to break his green bean eating record. He wanted to confirm the number, and I told him it was 38.

"So I have to eat 39?"
"At least"
"Just 39. I'll do 40 next time."

Got to admire his awareness of not overextending himself.

With our vegetable set, we went with pasta as the side dish. I suggested to him that it might be best to start with green beans, and to use the pasta as a break.  But if pasta is on the plate, he eats it first. While I'd prefer he engage in circle eating, he has learned to eat all of one thing before moving on to the next at school, as that is their control mechanism to keep them on track. Fortunately, I only gave him a small amount of rotini before he got started on a record setting performance*. Here's the conclusion. If you're not a grandparent, I am fairly certain it is a waste of four minutes, so don't feel obligated to watch:

*although he set a record with 39, topping his record of 38,  the 36 he ate just before the 38 is still the most impressive performance, based on size of the green beans in that sitting.  And really this green bean thing may not be all that impressive from a quantity amount. I really should weigh it. It's not uncommon for him to eat gobs of fruit for dessert, such as a recent small bowl of grapes, tangelo, banana effort, or a big bowl of tropical fruit (strawberry, papaya, mango, pineapple).

All this makes other people think he's a good eater. But really he's just OK there. What he has is a good diet. I do worry about being too restrictive in that he's not getting the opportunity to figure out for himself a proper balance, but maybe four year olds weren't meant to do that. I've tried to lighten up a little when he gets things that he doesn't get in the house. (Really Mom, I am trying!). Last Sunday, we went to a Derby party in which we were served the traditional Derby Pie, following the hosts' 7 year old and 4 year old chanting "we want pie, we want pie..."  On Monday, Owen asked if I liked their "pie song." So it goes...

And in completely unrelated news but relevant due to post title, Owen really does not like my favorite kids book to read--The Monster at the End of this Book. I vaguely remembered it from when I was a kid, figured out what book it was and purchased maybe 2 years ago. The initial readings went OK, but Owen didn't really comprehend everything, and I wasn't quite pushing the boundaries of its performance. But on last year's trip to San Diego, I perhaps embellished too much in Grover's pleading the reader  not to turn the page, and Owen thought I was mad at him and started crying. Ever since then, he's been afraid of it.   I try every few months, but to no avail.

On recent attempts, his reasons for not wanting to read have become more... rational, if you will: we NEED to listen to Grover. Despite Owen knowing the monster at the end of the book is in fact Grover, he absolutely does not want me to turn any pages. Last week, Joanne recorded part of this attempt (please excuse the very questionable parenting going on as well as my hair):

Last Monday (May 7), Owen brought the book to me and asked if it was my favorite book (I do think it's great and I'm hoping that if I like it that much, he'll let me read it again) and I said yes, it is my favorite book to read to him. We then negotiated terms of a prospective reading, and that was to not read it, but to just turn the pages. Alas, that lasted two turns and then I had to keep the book away from him as I turned the pages.  We got the end and he completely relaxed and let me read the last page. He then said "Daddy, you should really listen to Grover."    

What a difference a year makes

Editor's note:  I started this about three weeks ago, but didn't quite finish, then came the bout of rhabdo.

As you might recall, Owen's bedtime routine/sleep habits after Sophie came home left something to be desired. It all started with quite possibly our most horrid parenting decision--moving Owen to a regular mattress within days of Sophie coming home. Stupid. Looking back, I can't think of any reason we did that, and I'm pretty sure I advocated for it. So this led to months of Owen not falling asleep by himself--him needed us by his side, him getting up to find us, etc., as we could not bring ourselves to lock him in his room.

Right around the time he turned 3, he really started to improve, with some help from the Good-Nite Light (a moon night light that changes into a sun when it's time to get up and out of the room) and some rewards (Cars of course) for staying in bed all night. It still wasn't the fastest bedtime routine, but we were fairly certain that when we left the room, he would stay there. That went well for about 3 months, then we went to San Diego for a week in June and he spent that week between us in a King bed. After returning home, there was some diminished sleep skills, but nothing that bad. That came at the end of August after Joanne took the kids up to Pinetop with her parents at the end of August. After that we were almost back to where we were 7 months earlier, but worse. Not only did we need to linger outside his room, but then he started to wake up every 2 hours or so after completing a full round of his sleep cycle. The first time wasn't that bad, as we were still up and he'd go the bathroom (I don't recall any accidents he had in bed after switching to underwear at night). The second time, I'd generally still be up or at least awake. But the third time... the third time he'd get into our bed and most times stay there the rest of the night.

His pattern was very regular. The first time he'd be agitated and crying until one of us got to him. The second time, a little loud but not crying. The third time, silent and stealthy and he'd be between us in bed. The Good Nite Lite, which worked well for a few months, still worked... kind of. He'd ask us, while laying in our bed if the sun was up. What's odd is that he had learned to stay in his room while Sophie was still in our room, but when she finally moved to her own room after the Pinetop trip, that's when Owen really regressed.

Joanne and I talked about the family bed, but didn't really look into any studies about it, or negative consequences of what he was doing (coming into our room) or not doing (self soothing, sleeping independently). I read justifications of the family bed--that humans are the only mammals that don't sleep as families, and what not, but I think we both felt like we shouldn't do that because you're not supposed to do that.

It came to the point that we were both frustrated by the middle of the night wakeups, but we were not really opposed to the early morning snuggling. Right after Christmas, Owen began sleeping on the floor in his room in his "tent" (a sheet stretched between his dresser and chairs near his bed. That improved the falling asleep routine for a few weeks, but I ended up going into his room and sleeping on the floor as well after he woke up. When we moved him back to his bed, we really started talking to him about how it was important for him to stay in his room all night. We didn't have any good 3 going on 4 year old justifications, but Owen was agreeable to it, but not until he turned 4. Joanne and I were skeptical he meant it. Owen's star system was 10 stars meant he got a car. A year ago he got a car for staying in bed all night and we weaned down the reward. To induce a good start when he turned four, we offered him the same deal. The first night, if he stayed in bed he would get a car. We also started experimenting with an music alarm in addition to the good night lite. And we did say he was allowed to get up once to go to the bathroom.

Owen turned four less than three weeks ago. The Sunday after his birthday... he stayed in bed all night! He was proud. We were thrilled. I was optimistic. Joanne wasn't so sure it would be that easy.

And it wasn't. Kind of. The next two night he got up multiple times but... BUT... he never came into our room. That second nigh he kept getting up to go potty (three times). He also wanted to watch the clock, waiting for the music to start, so I sat with him in his room for about an hour until the music started. The third, a little more of the same, and I think that was the night he opened our door, but talked to us from the doorway. We talked to him more about he was improving but had to do a little more, and that it would be easier if he stayed in bed and slept, as time would go faster.

Since the fourth night, though, he's been very good for the most part. He's gotten cars the last two weekends for the good job he's done staying in bed. We've been able to leave his room more easily at night, he's gotten over waking up every two hours (he has had I think two nights of waking up at 2:30 or so for the bathroom break), and he responds well to the music and sunrise. This past weekend, he got up about 20 minutes early, opened our door (and didn't come in), and I asked him if the sun was up. He looked into his room, saw that it wasn't and went back in. SUCCESS!

As I finish this post now three weeks later, Owen's still doing great at this. With league and some other night events, he's getting to bed later than we'd like a few times a week, but as far as we can tell he's sleeping through and asleep until at least 6:30. This has produced what seems like a not insignificant increase in energy, which is mostly a positive.

Owen getting Lewis Hamilton almost 3 weeks ago (excuse my early morning grogginess):

While this was the biggest deal we made about things he would start doing, it wasn't the only thing. Things a four year old Owen does willingly that a three year old Owen resisted:

• Drinking a cup without a top (young Owen would do up to 20 sips then get the top; old Owen doesn't ask for a top, but also doesn't drink as much)
• More effort in getting his shirts on by himself (I blame myself for going back and forth between headfirst and arms first)
• Wiping after #2 (skill is still not proficient)
• Flossing (to be fair, this was not introduced as a three year old)
• Ignore us when we repeatedly ask him a question (more proof of his precocity--he's at least 10 years ahead of schedule
• Eating his cereal all by himself.
• Finally started to pedal on his own for a modest distance oh his trike (this one we hadn't really consistently practiced, and we have a trike that while very sturdy and high quality, is simply to heavy and cumbersome for Owen)

Happy 4th Birthday Owen!

Saturday was Owen's 4th Birthday.  We had a party at our house, which meant that the last few weeks were spent planning/cleaning/buying for that.  I was so busy with preparations that the normal nostalgia didn't hit me until Friday night when Keith played a song that he played while I was pregnant with Owen ("Miracle" by the Foo Fighters).  I had forgotten that this wasn't just a day to have a party; it was the day my water broke 6 weeks before it was supposed to.  It was the day they induced me into labor.  It was the day Keith kept saying "You're almost there!" 100 times in the 45 minutes that I pushed.  It was the day that at 6:56pm our lives were changed forever.  And now that 5lb 12oz baby is 30+lbs; he's walking, talking, reading (some), doing math, learning how to swim, enjoying gymnastics, organizing his cars, and making us laugh and smile more than ever.

Owen woke up at 5:30am, so excited he couldn't go back to sleep.  We (tried to) spread out his gift openings to every 30-45 minutes that morning.  He kept dancing around, trying to set the timer so he knew how long until the next gift (we've been using the timer a lot lately to help with his sense of time).  We once again had too many people over for his party, so since he was already tired to begin with, it was a bit overwhelming for him.  He was completely wiped out by the time everyone left, and fell asleep before Keith got to the end of one book.  But he (and everyone) seemed to have a good time overall, so I would call it a success.  And our house is almost cleaned up from the party.  Which means it's actually cleaner than it's normal state.  :-)

We are taking advantage of Owen's birthday by making several "Now that you're four..." rules.  No more sleeping in our bed; milk is now drunk from a cup without a top; he puts his shirts on by himself; we now floss his teeth.  So far that trick has worked better than I thought it would.  I think he even made one up himself.  He is also trying to take advantage by saying he wants four of things (scenes on the computer, etc.) when before he would say three ("Because I'm three!")

Pictures from the party (it was a dress-up party, hence the costumes):
 

I'd say I haven't written in such a long time because we've been so busy, but I know that's a lousy excuse. And we haven't been anymore busy than we usually are. In January we took a trip to Santa Monica for a beach Ultimate Frisbee tournament. We created the team by inviting a bunch of parents, and then some "babysitters" to fill in the roster. We were quite a sight on the sidelines with 10 kids and several tents. We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa come along as well. We decided to forgo hotels this year and rented some beach houses; one of our best decisions ever. We were in one of the houses with our good friends Megan, Bryan, Finn & Maya.  We had a ton of fun!

Pictures from the trip, mainly in the beach house:


 I had the fun of breaking my nose playing frisbee in February. It was kind of funny to see it crooked. Surgery and a few not-so-fun days later, and the nose is looking good (well, as good as it did before)! Sophie was in the hospital overnight a couple weeks ago after her g-tube wouldn't stop bleeding after the doctor burned off some granulation tissue. Her blood clotting times were tested as too high. She is now on a Vitamin K prescription for it, and feeling good. Spending a night in the hospital with Sophie is never fun, but has so far always been an interesting experience.

 Sophie has changed a lot in the last couple of months. She is now cruising and getting stronger. She's no where close to walking, but I can see her progressing to that, perhaps this summer. She is not talking, but is communicating more, pointing, makings sounds, and using sign language (so far only "more"). She is showing more preferences for certain books and certain foods. She is still a very social baby, giving smiles to anyone who gives her attention. She's becoming more of a toddler, so I guess I can't call her "baby" too much longer. But with Owen now so grown up, I'm going to hold on to "baby" as long as I can!

Other pictures from January and February:

Happy New Year!

Looks like I haven't posted since Thanksgiving, so I've got some work to do to get you caught up. Here's what happened in December for us.

 First, the bad: Sophie spent a few days in the hospital the week between Christmas and New Years. About a week before Christmas, Sophie was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection (UTI). She slept a lot and didn't eat much, but felt much better once she got on antibiotics. But then she started getting sick again the night of Christmas. A trip to urgent care the next day, and she was on a different antibiotic. But then that night she got even worse, and after vomiting 4 times in an hour and with a 105 fever, I took her to the emergency room. They admitted her to the hospital to get some IV antibiotics and some IV fluids, and to do some tests. The culture for UTI came back negative, but her doctor still thinks that was what was causing her fever.  Sophie wouldn't let me put her in the crib to sleep, so we slept together in the rocker or on the couch. We were at Cardon's, which is nice and new and accomodating to kids, but I wasn't terribly happy with the service or the lack of updates from our doctor (our pediatrician, not the hospital doctor). Overall not a very restful or fun experience for either Sophie or me. Sophie was still not feeling well for a couple of days after we got home, but this week is immensely better and back to her happy self.

 Other than that, our Christmas was good. Sophie wasn't that into the presents thing, probably partly because she wasn't feeling well. We tried not to go overboard with gifts for Owen, but the grandparent's could not be contained! Owen was most excited about his Cars (and in fact probably would have been just as happy if that's all he got). He's still obsessed with acting out "scenes" from the movie. Sophie got some great toys that her therapists recommended.

 And we really enjoyed seeing family. Keith's aunt and uncle visited earlier in December, and Keith's brother and my brother and his family were here for Christmas. Owen enjoyed playing with his cousin.

He also enjoys playing with his new neighborhood friends. There's a cute 2nd grade girl that lives down the street that keeps coming to our house to see if Owen can play. He's usually at school when she comes by, so she acts all disappointed when I tell her he's not home. Owen's too young to play outside by himself, but when we get a chance, one of us goes out with him. It's fun to see what kinds of games the kid's come up with and what they talk about. Why they have such an interest in having Owen play with them (since he's so much younger than them), I don't know, but it's cute.

Now that Sophie's feeling better, she's been moving around a lot.  She likes crawling over things.  If we play outside she likes climbing up, and then sliding down, the cornhole boards we got for Christmas.  She can go down the stairs now if she already has her feet at the top stair, but hasn't quite figured out how to turn around when approaching from the top.  She knows that she has to go backwards, but since she doesn't turn, she just gets farther from the steps when she backs up.  This frustrates her, but is funny to me.  She'll eventually get it, but I can tell these things come slower to her because of her syndrome.

 So now it's January and we put away the decorations, and attempt to pack up some of the old toys (and our stuff!) to either keep for Sophie or give away. Keith convinced Owen to go through his Cars 1 cars to sell the ones he doesn't play with anymore (the stores only sell Cars 2 cars now, so there is a good market online for the old ones). It took him a while to understand the concept. Keith kept telling him that he wouldn't see them again, but Owen kept responding with "But we'll be able to play with them at their house!" So we'll hold on to them for a while before we actually get rid of them, but he's so busy with his new cars that I don't think he'll miss them. I also want to instill empathy in Owen and get him involved in giving away toys to those less fortunate, but I'm not sure he's quite old enough to understand that. Nor do I *want* him to understand that yet; I want to keep him in his happy little world forever!