Welcome!

Thank you all for sharing in the lives of our three amazing children- Mairead, Jack, and Ben. We hope you visit often!


Friday, April 9, 2010

Easter Videos and more

I posted a few of the short videos we took on Easter Sunday. I apologize for the poor sound- this video camera is really meant for indoor and close-up video.

Anyway, since I use this blog as a sort of 'virtual baby book' instead of trying to fill out three books on a regular basis, I wanted to share a few things that I will want to remember. First, yesterday (April 8) was my due date with the boys. Their birthday party seems so long ago, and they were not really 'supposed' to be born until now! Those 5 weeks were long ones last year, but now they are getting bigger and stronger by the day. They have done so well for being premature male twins. I read that of all preemies, the ones who have the toughest time are male, white, and twins. My guys had a lot of odds to overcome, and they did!

Ben saw a cardiologist at Children's on Wednesday for his heart murmur- she is not concerned about it, figures there MAY be a pin-hole size hole between the two bottom ventricles, and that it should close and go away by the time he is 2-3. He doesn't even have to have an echo at this point, so all good news!

Also, every time I go to Children's, I am all stressed out about what they might tell me, what might be wrong, etc. And every time I walk into the waiting room, I thank God for how good we have it. There are kids there who are suffering from such serious illnesses and whose lives are so much more difficult and probably so much less enjoyable than the lives my kids have. It's heartbreaking to see parents with their teenage son who is non-responsive and in a seemingly vegetative state. Or the 10 year old girl who has no legs and other apparent health problems.

I'm not saying that I'm not frustrated, sad, or scared about Mairead's situation, or that I will stop worrying, complaining, or stressing about it. I'm just saying that I see 'what could have been' for us if things had gone differently after her stroke, and I am reminded of how amazing, healthy, and happy she really is.

She is doing so well in her therapies- we are already seeing great improvements in her speech, eye contact, listening skills, and comprehension. Yesterday, she came home from school and was able to tell us the names of all of her classmates.

Speaking of school- yesterday, Dave was picking Mairead up at school, and for the last 30 minutes of the day, the kids are outside. Dave got there a little early so he was just watching the kids play. He texted me:

"Some little bastard is trying to kiss Mairead. She is driving away in her car."

Just a funny little moment to add into one of our hectic days.

Jack is doing a lot more standing on his own. I think he gets nervous about it, but he is working on it and definitely getting stronger. He has a few words, now, too. Cracker, up, cat, what's that, and truck. He LOVES cars and trucks. He likes to stand and look out windows while running his trucks along the windowsill. Most of the windowsills in the house have one or two cars on them.

Lately, it seems like Jack and Ben have switched personalities in some ways. Jack is just about the easiest baby ever. He sleeps well, naps well, eats just about anything you give him, and is really good at entertaining himself with his cars and trucks. Ben seems to be in the throes of the longest teething bout ever. He doesn't sleep or nap well and is cranky and wants to be held a lot. He is also picky about food- he grabs fistfuls of carrots and chucks them across the kitchen because he doesn't like them. He will also take any food that he doesn't want and just drop it on the floor until he gets something he does like. He is a little tasmanian devil-- into everything and moving from one spot to another with a trail of destruction in his wake. But, he is a total riot. He is just so goofy and smiley (most of the time) that it's really hard to be angry with him. When I have to speak sternly to him and tell him no, I usually have to suppress laughter at whatever he was doing.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings... thanks for checking in!


Egg Hunt

Jack and Lily



Swinky

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter Picture Egg-stravaganza

First- some pictures from last year to see how far we've come!



Hope you all had a fabulous Easter... we did! We had beautiful weather and a great day with our beautiful family. We took a ton of pictures so here are some of my favorites!

There are not a lot of pictures of me with my kids since I am usually behind the camera, so this is a nice one!



Jen and Mike brought a huge tub of sidewalk chalk and Mairead had to try it out immediately.


Since everyone was together, we took a family picture with all of 'the kids'... the big kids...



Mairead is not drinking wine... just juice. Well, maybe a little bit of mimosa...


Either way, she did share it with the bunny.


Ben is in orange.

We were actually able to have an egg hunt OUTside! Something I don't remember happening since I was a kid. Mairead had so much fun collecting all of the eggs. She would gather them up and we would hide them again while she wasn't looking. She did catch on to us eventually, though.










Easter was also Opening Day... Ben was all ready for game time!

How cute are these little bunnies?



Someone left this whole cake here for Mairead to sample...

And, the newest little bunny, Lily!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day. I do have some video and I will post a few in the next couple of days.
In other news, Jack is doing really well with standing unassisted lately- he is getting more confident and more strength, so we are thrilled to see that.
Ben is a crazy person and is in to EVERYthing. Tomorrow, I have to take him to Children's to follow up with a cardiologist about his heart murmur. We are optimistic that it will be innocent and nothing to worry about, but it still causes me a little bit of anxiety.
Mairead is doing really well with all of her therapies- we can definitely see progress already. For example, what Mairead understands has been a mystery to me. I really have no idea what goes on in that little brain of hers and it's hard. Sometimes, I get to a low point and think she has no idea what is happening and no recollection of events.

Last week, though, I posted how she knew some of her classmates' names. Yesterday, I was telling her that Mary (her developmental therapist) was coming. I asked, 'what will we do with Mary today?' Typically, she does not answer questions like that. I can see the wheels turning, but nothing happens.

Anyway, today, she said, "castle.' I thought she was just talking about something else. Then, she said, "Dragon. Jump." It clicked with me that last week, Mary brought a toy in which you put a dragon into a castle and pressed buttons to make him jump out. I was SO happy that she was able to remember, recall, and verbalize that. It just makes me feel so much better to know that she DOES understand things and DOES remember them. I know that she is bright- we just need to find ways to get all of that knowledge out! The next step is to have her evaluated by the school system in the hopes of getting her into a preschool program that will continue to help her. The paperwork has been done to get that in motion, so hopefully they will be able to place her.
Thanks for reading and for keeping up with us!_________


Sunday, April 4, 2010

Preview of Easter 2010

Today is a holy day in our house-- and it's also Easter... Opening Day at Fenway is tonight! Really, we spent the day celebrating Easter as well as birthdays for Brian and Jen. The weather was gorgeous and we had a really great day. I am just now going through all 155 pictures we took today! There is video, too, but I haven't even looked at that yet. So, for now, here is a preview of some of our Easter Fun. Hope you all had a wonderful day!












Happy Birthday to a very special uncle and a very special aunt!