Brother Bonding Time

The Joy of the Thumb!

On Tuesday night, July 26, Ryan found his thumb. It was a joyous occasion for us both! I thought this picture of him was so sweet. I love my little Shnook!

My Little Reader, Joshua Bean

Yesterday, the Bean & I worked a little bit on sounding out the words in books. Today, Joshua read his first book all by himself.

The book is called "Me Too, Woody!" and is about Buzz & Woody being "good buddies" and Jessie wanting to play along as well.

While it's an "easy reader," Joshua read it cover to cover. We started working on his Nemo book today as well. 

I'm proud of you, my little Bean! You are growing up so fast!

Ryan's 1-month well-check

On Tuesday, July 12, Ryan had a doctor's appointment at 9:40 am with Dr. Krak. Grandpa Georgia agreed to come and watch the older two boys, thankfully. I waited in the 'well' room for over 45 minutes before complaining that it was almost time for him to eat again, so they took us back into a room. But, Dr. Krak didn't come for almost another half an hour. He explained he had a complicated patient, and the nurse told me that he was delivering EKG results before coming into me. So, I must say that I'm glad it wasn't us with the emergency. On the other hand, I'm baffled that an operation as large as Roseville Pediatrics doesn't have other doctors step in when patients have been waiting that long. I specifically said I didn't care who we saw - I just wanted to be seen! Ryan was all but eating his arm off until the doctor showed up. Grrr... And I live less than two minutes from there. If they would have called (or even told me when I arrived) that it would have been well over an hour, I would have gone later. But, eventually we got seen by the doctor. And Ryan isn't my first child but this is the first time we've ever waited that long.

Ryan's STATS are as follows:
Height: 22" - 77.08%
Weight: 10 lbs 12 oz - 67.84%
BMI: 14.93
Head Circumference: 14.65"

The doctor said the lump on Ryan's body is simply from my pregnancy hormones and will go away - praise God! However, he also looked at Ryan's eyesight for well over 20 minutes (and I knew that he was already running late). I explained that I'm not sure our little guy focuses well. He turned off the lights and moved a flashlight around to see if Ryan would follow the light. He did sometimes but not many of the times. He turned the lights back on and continued to move around. Then all he said was "I think you'll see vast improvement within the next month." My heart sank that I wasn't sure that was a great diagnosis; on the other hand, he didn't send us for more tests and seemed to think the baby was okay. Please pray that Ryan's vision is amazing! He's still not focusing, but he will follow us at times and smiles at us. But I wonder if it's at sounds or the actual picture of us. Shawn says I worry too much. Trust me, if there was ever a time that I hope that I'm wrong about something, this is it.

Ryan slept in his crib for the first time that night. And he did well - praise God! We've moved him back to our room after I got injured, but that's for another post. I was so proud of him for sleeping in between feedings in his big boy crib - he loves the new little frog that makes noise and lights up the room with stars and a moon (thanks, Chris & Lisa!). His big brothers love it, too! They want one for their room, and they want to play with Ryan's toy all the time. But, having something so sweet gave me the confidence to leave him in his room by himself. Hopefully we can get back to that routine.

Ryan has been eating every two hours on the dot, but I've been working on stretching it out. Now he'll go 2.5 hours between feedings and 3 hours between eating overnight (with me holding him off). He's obviously gaining weight and doing well. I love my little guy! And isn't this robe he's wearing in the pictures adorable? I know I already posted about his first smile, but that afternoon (Wednesday, July 13) my friend Valerie (yes, spelled just like my name) came with her kids Ethan, Allana and Everett and brought over a lasagna to eat and presents for the baby included a frog hooded towel set, this adorable robe and a changing pad cover that matches our nursery. We had a fun time visiting and the kids enjoyed playing together. I thought the gifts for the baby were also sweet. I am thankful for the dear friends who have blessed us after the birth of our final son. I think he looks so cute in this little robe after his bath. :)

Faithful Friends

My friend Suzanne had asked if we were going to be around the morning of Monday, July 11, because she was in town and wanted to hang out. I told her that I had Caleb's well check-up that morning at 9 am but we could get together afterward. She graciously offered to watch Joshua while I took Caleb in. She even said that her mom could hold Ryan if I wanted to leave him behind, but I said because of him nursing and being a little fussy, I'd rather take him along. But, I took her up on her offer to come over before our appointment and stay with Joshua - letting him and her son Ian play together. The Bean loves little guys (he's about 17 months, I think) and he enjoys Miss Suzy, too. The picture of her and Ian below was borrowed from facebook since I didn't think to take out my camera that morning - doh!

In thinking about my friend, I remember distinctly having her over for a sleepover in the 2nd grade because we had the same teacher. That's the first year I remember her from. And we've been close ever since. I saw my first Michael W. Smith concert with her, we had lots of "Val/Suz" nights in high school, we went to the beach and Creation together, and we even roomed together in college. We took part in one another's weddings, and even though she's moved states, we still touch base via email and phone with each other. Now our boys were playing together. I am so blessed to have such a faithful friend! I pray each of my son's finds a close friend like Suz has been to me.

I already posted about Caleb's doctor's appointment, but it didn't take very long and then we were home to visit with our friends. :)

Last night Caleb told me I was his best friend, but typically he'll say Joshua and Joshua will say Caleb. I hope Ryan will join right into that mix of closeness as well!

Brothers, Baby!

When I took this picture of Ryan (above) today on 7/24/11 at six weeks old, it reminded me of pictures of Joshua as a baby. Here's older brother Bean (the other two) on 1/31/07 - he would have been 4.5 months old at this point. Same outfit, same chair, same bald head and round cheeks! And they are both in the middle of a smile (only I didn't flash the camera quickly enough to fully capture Ryan's today!).

Inspector Gadget

Boxes of all varieties are fun in our houses! And we found Shawn's other pair of safety goggles, which Caleb LOVES to put on. I think they are intrigued by glasses since Daddy wears them. I loved the above picture of Caleb Luke. Too funny!

And Caleb finally could keep on the bigger ones for a few moments! Who do you think he takes after? Lately I've heard lots of folks say that Caleb looks like Shawn. Indeed, Shawn's mom brought a picture of him on his third birthday, and I agreed that there was a distinct resemblance! You don't realize how much you have in common with your spouse features-wise until you have children and try to determine which one they look like. I think our kids are a good mix.

Caleb's 3rd Birthday Party

After much discussion, Shawn & I agreed to have Caleb's party the night of his birthday, Friday, July 8. We planned on birthday cake and 'create-your-own ice cream sundaes' with basic backyard fun. At first there was no theme for the party, but when I was ordering the birthday cake at Oregon Dairy, I saw one with Lightning McQueen and Mater (who Caleb LOVES!) and went with it. Then Shawn saw some paper plates and cups on sale that had the Cars theme. I asked him to pick up a "Happy Birthday" border while he was out, too. And I went the day of his party and bought helium balloons, a few more decorations and the party favors and it was an all out Cars-kinda-party.

Since Caleb's favorite color is blue, and Lighting is red, we had our color scheme. We even have a blue cooler for drinks while Mamaw's ended up being red! I printed out basic signs to match our theme to label what was in each one.

Mamaw had come over the day before to hold my little schnookie so I could clean the house. I wanted most everything to be ready before Caleb's birthday so I could spend time with him on his special day. Daddy had already bought the ice cream and ingredients, and he also took a half day off work to help so I could run and grab the cake & balloons and decorate, etc. Caleb LOVED the big Lightning McQueen balloon, which saw lots of play time after the party.

I had planned "races" for outside and other games. But, while we had not had rain in months, that day the heavens let loose and it POURED! So, we changed up our plans and decorated inside the house, knowing that we'd be inside. While we had invited just immediate family and a few friends, we still had over 30 people coming, so I knew it would be tight in our house. Such is life! It rained last year on Caleb's birthday, too, I remember but stopped in time to go back outside. This year, no such luck!

Before the party, we took the boys out to Burger King and actually ate there. Caleb loves their chicken nuggets and fries and a chocolate shake is a special treat for them. They also wore their little crowns, and I could have kicked myself for not taking the camera along - they both looked SO adorable in them! We said Caleb was the birthday king and Joshua was the burger king. When we got home, I quickly fed Ryan and let him eat up until guests started to arrive since he's been eating every two hours like clock-work. I figured that gave us just enough time for the party, hopefully! The first guest to arrive was Great Grandma Good. She got to meet Ryan for the first time that night! Later that evening when I asked Caleb, "who were you excited to see at your party?" she was the first person he mentioned. :)

The next family to arrive was our friends Chris & Lisa with their daughter Isabella. In the picture below, I'm laughing at the interaction between Izzy & Joshua that is taking place in our dining room. Below that photo is a picture of Shawn & Chris.

I honestly can't remember the order of guests arriving thereafter, but here's who else came besides those just mentioned in the order I think they may have arrived: my mom & her husband Ken with my niece Faith who was staying with them for the weekend while my sister was away, the Durling family (my friend Rebecca, her husband Micah and their kids Noah, Josiah & Chloe), Shawn's sister Missy & her husband Kevin, Shawn's brother Brian & his wife Gayle with their kids Grant & Jenaieve, my dad & his girlfriend Robin, the Buckwalter family (our friends Seth & Karisten with their kids Kyler & Sophi), Nonie & Poppy with our nephew Jordon, and my sister Becky & her husband Tim.

In the above picture, I'm talking with Lisa (in blue) from our old life group and Karisten, who is expecting their third child (a boy), from our new life group. After a majority had arrived, I asked everyone to introduce themselves and how they know Caleb, so we kind of ended up in a circle. Then I told the kids that we had posters of Cars themed pictures for them to color. Here are Caleb coloring, Joshua & our niece Jenavieve also at the table for the activity and a picture of our niece Faith, who colored the best picture.

After the picture coloring, we set out the food, got the ice cream out of the freezer, and lit the candles for the cake to sing to Caleb. I thought the cake was adorable (and tasty)!

My little Caleb Luke gets a little overwhelmed at the chaos of parties. While this would not have been an overly large group for outside, inside our house it was noisy with the laughter of kids and chatting of parents, etc. He likes quieter one-on-one atmospheres at this age, I think. His big brother was life of the party, while Caleb wanted to be held.

I led the singing, as you can see my about to say "happy" in the picture below:

And Daddy helped Caleb blow out the candles:

After we sang, we allowed people to go through the "assembly line" to get their dessert & snacks. We offered cake (obviously) and ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, chocolate chip cookie dough or party cake). Sundae toppings included Magic Shell, Hershey's chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, caramel, bananas, sprinkles, peanuts, M&M's, whip cream, and cherries (we had also bought strawberries & blueberries and forgot to put them out - whoops!). For snacks, we had pretzels, Doritos and goldfish, knowing plates & bowls would be already pretty full at this point.

To do over again, we would have left some of the ice cream in the freezer and rotated since it got pretty soft quickly! We put it away after everyone had gone through the line, but if we would have rotated, we could have ensured that people took seconds. :)

When we were done cleaning up, we played another game with all the children. I had collected all our Cars themed toys and had them in Caleb's bucket from Grandma Good (we LOVE these buckets! they are SO useful!). I told all children under age 12 to come to me to explain the game. I had them look at all the different cars we had (Mater(s), Chickhix(es), the King(s), Lightning McQueen(s), Sally, Doc, the Sheriff, Mac, the Fire engine, Louigi and more! Then I told them that we were going to hide them in our family room, similar to an Easter egg hunt. It was important that each kid got at least one car (we had 28 different items and 12 children present), we told them, but then they could find as many as they could. We said there were prizes involved. Shawn & I went to hide the cars, and Micah came down along to help (I was impressed since this was the first time he & Shawn had even met), and then Jordon asked if he could help hide instead of hunt and we agreed. Soon the cars were hidden and I said "GO!" They had to bring the cars back to the bucket to get counted for their prize. All kids came up with at least one car. Faith said she only had five but had given the rest of hers to the little ones, which is exactly what we were looking for. Then we handed out "prizes" to each kid.


Shawn had gone to Kmart earlier that week and saw toys marked down half price. So, he bought a bunch - more than enough for the kids that we had coming. He remembered girls as well as the boys, and he also picked a couple "older" things hoping that he would please a majority. The original price of the toys were far more than we would normally spend on a giveaway 'thank you for coming' gift, but with the sale price, it worked out that kids got something nicer for the money. We had Lightning McQueen, Toy Story toys, Jordon picked a Transformer, Faith got a princess set with sidewalk chalk, Isabella picked out a little girl hair dryer, we even had little bath tub squirty toys for little Chloe (who's 15-months, I think), helicopters, silly bands, etc. Each kid got to choose one from the basket to open and play with. This part was Shawn's idea (I told him we needed something to give away at the end as a thank you, and I had suggested a bag of M&M's each since they are Caleb's favorite, but when Shawn saw the clearance on toys, he thought these were much better).

The toy give away went great. Each child was playing with something new when Caleb opened his gifts, so we didn't feel bad that he was getting new things that other kids wanted to play with. They were already having a great time. We did gifts next then, and Caleb began to open them in the middle of the living room while the rest of the party goers watched.

Faith helped bring presents over and take them away. It was nice! In the above picture, you can see my Dad and my mom, and little Chloe in the bottom right-hand corner. I didn't have any pictures of the Durling family, I realized. Whoops! I didn't take any pictures at all as I was trying to host. A majority of these photos were taken by my mom and emailed to me (thanks, Mamaw!).

Caleb got a lot of nice presents that night. Among his favorites he liked the singing card from Great Grandma Good. He still says "what's inside this?" [mischievous grin] and opens it to Tigger saying "the wonderful thing about Tiggers are that Tiggers are wonderful things..." [repeat process]. He loves his Toy Story chair, his car Ramone, his new bulldozer that plays music, his Mater bubble mower & golf putter, his baby doll, Toy Story Yahtzee game, monkey PJs, talking Lightning McQueen, Hermie & Wormie DVD, Big Brother book, stickers, and so much more. Every new gift he would open, he would say "WOW!" And he meant it! He has played and played and played with all his new toys. Thank you to everyone!

Knowing that I needed to feed the baby, Mamaw & Ken were the first to make their exit, followed shortly by Great Grandma Good and Grandpa Georgia & Robin. People started trickling out thereafter. It was after 9 pm until everyone was gone, but Ryan had been a gem the entire party. He slept like a baby! (Go figure!) I was impressed and grateful.

The boys were SO wound up from all the excitement that they ended up staying awake past 11 pm. We had put them to bed almost right away, but with the sugar of juice, ice cream & cake, along with the fun of the party with friends, they were wide awake.

When I walked through my kitchen floor, my feet literally stuck to it like glue. I found cake, icing and ice cream everywhere; but we only put away what was necessary that night because we were tired. The next day we finished cleaning everything. Bummer that it had rained! But, I think Caleb still had a nice birthday and we were blessed by the family and friends who made the time to come and show Caleb that they love him.

We have had a blast in the last week playing with all the new things. It has been great!

Happy birthday, my little man. I hope you enjoyed your party and know how special you are to each person and family who came to take part in the fun. We love you! You have blessed us beyond measure.