ALICE
Alice is 4 and a half months old! She is still just a tiny little peanut! At her 4 month checkup she weighed in at 11.62lbs (9%), 23in long (9%), and her head circumference 15.5in (9%). She is nice and proportionate! All 9%!!
Some updates about her health...(If you are not aware of what is going on with Alice, see the posts Here and Here) We got her September urine tests back and the levels they look for were normal! YES! GOOD NEWS! Within the next couple of weeks, we will take her for another MRI and a visit with the oncologist at Primary Children's hospital.
I took Alice to the eye doctor for a checkup on her Horner's Syndrome. As far as the doctor can tell, it is not affecting her vision. YAY! More GOOD NEWS! We will just keep an eye on it and get it checked up on every 3 months.
Alice has some torticollis (a condition in which the head is tilted to one side). I took her to physical therapy today for the first time and learned some stretches and positioning to help. I will take her every week for the next 3-4 weeks and then less often after that. They say it will probably take about 4-5 months to totally correct it. Hopefully the therapy helps! Because of the torticollis, she tends to lay on one side of her head, causing flattening. There is a possiblility of putting her in a helmet later on, but we will see where she is at in about 2 months.
Alice is such a happy baby and smiley all the time! She is such a joy to have in our home! She has rolled over a few times from her tummy to her back. She still gets up 1-2 times a night (sometimes 3...Yawn). Merrilee started sleeping straight through the night at 2 months old, so this is new for me. I guess she will sleep through the night when she is ready? I'll give her until she is 6 months old, then I'll start trying "methods" to get her to sleep through the night.
MERRILEE
Tomorrow, Merrilee will be 20 months old! People always tell you how fast your little ones grow up, so enjoy it while you can! I am beginning to understand that now! Merrilee is very much morphing into a very busy toddler. She is always busy, busy, busy and on the move, exploring everything she can get her hands on! She still LOVES books, and is getting more interested in toys. Lately, she really likes babies. She has recently started being more interactive with Alice and acknowledging her presence! She loves pointing out body parts on her baby sister..."Eyes, Noz, Nom (mouth), Does (Toes)" etc. When Alice wiggles during these anatomy lessons, Merrilee giggles in delight and Alice, in turn, gives huge grins. These are the moments we live for as mothers! So precious! Merrilee also loves to talk! She'll talk herself to sleep, keep a running commentary on whats going on throughout the day, and she still reads to herself. Of course only a quarter of what she is saying is understandable to us, but she knows exactly what she is saying! Merrilee also loves to eat! But she is starting to be a pretty picky eater. The only green thing she will eat is peas and any other veggie is totally out of the picture for her. I am planning on learning some fun ways to prepare veggies that Merrilee would actually eat...I think carrot bread (NOT carrot cake) might be on the "To-Do" list this week!
MAURA
These two little babies have been keeping me pretty busy! I love staying home with them everyday and enjoy being a "Stay-at-home mom." I find satisfaction in raising these little ones and finding ways to make our little apartment more cozy for us. I like drawing on my education and teaching skills to do fun things with Merrilee. It will be fun when she is just a little bit older and more coordinated so I can start doing more "preschool" type activities with her. When she's ready, I'll definitely be ready for her!
I got a new calling in church. I am no longer the assistant choir director (*tear), I am now a Sunbeam teacher (3-4 year olds in our church's primary program)! I am sad to be leaving a music calling, but am absolutely thrilled to be in sunbeams! These little ones are so darling! Again, I am glad I have an education background for this class of 9-10 little 3 and 4 year olds! So fun!
Recently, I signed up to be a substitute teacher. I still keep in touch with most of the gals I went through the music program in college with and a few of them were teaching music the same year I taught (but they are mostly all still teaching!). A couple of weeks ago, we had a little reunion with everyone in the UT area that went through the Music Elementary Specialist program together (We missed you Shaunel!). There were only about 9 of us in the class. Man I love these girls! You form a special bond with people you have to treat like children and practice teaching "Rig-a-jig-jig" to! A lot of us are married, some of us have children, but all of us are still involved with music in one way or another. We are all passionate about the power of music! This past week I got to sub for my friend Emily's music classroom while she was at a conference for a couple of days. It felt good to be back in a classroom and it felt so familiar and comfortable teaching those children music!
 |
| The gang with Sis. Kenney (one of our beloved professors) |
Since before graduation, Ben has been searching for jobs. He has had lots of 1st interviews with no offers. Luckily, his internship with Novell has allowed him to stay until he finds a job. Well...GOOD NEWS...he finally got a job offer last week! YAY! He is now the social media director for a company in Springville, UT. (Literally a golf course away from his Novell job!) Its obviously not in the NW (Where we were hoping he'd get something) but it is a job! He got the offer last week on Wed or Thurs and they asked him if he would go to a convention they were holding in Vegas on Sat and Sun! Ben left Saturday morning, and came back Sun evening. It was good for him to get a feel for the company and start helping the company reach out through social media right away. This week is his last week at Novell where he will find a replacement for his internship position. He "officially" starts his new job a week from today. HOORAY! We will most likely be looking to buy a house in the Springville/Spanish Fork area in the near future.
We are looking forward to a festive fall season and hopefully I can keep this thing updated more often so I don't have to do these LONG time-consuming posts all the time! ;)
3 comments:
What a great update! I'm happy to hear Alice's news! And I'm totally jealous of your education...I just got called to teach Sunbeams too and I'm FREAKING OUT! There are only 5 in my class and I feel way outnumbered!
Congrats to Ben! This summer we lived in Spanish Fork and it has such a special place in my heart. Good luck with the move when the time comes!
We've been so happy to hear all the good news! Ethan was a tort baby as well but they didn't catch it until he was 11 mos. Don't ask me how; it was the most obvious case ever and his head was incredibly misshapen at that point. Our pediatric neurosurgeon wasn't a fan of helmets so we never did one and no one ever notices any flattening, although we know his heads not exactly perfectly round. I was amazed at how quickly the stretches helped him overcome the condition. Hopefully you see progress soon! Torticollis felt like a big deal at the time but now it seems so far back in the rear view mirror that I have to be reminded that it ever happened. Hopefully you'll find yourselves in that place before too long. Alice looks so grown up holding her head up high! We miss our sweet Merrilee! I'm dying to see how she Ashlynn would get along now. I can only imagine the noise if we had two non-stop noise makers in the same house! Make it three if singing Ethan was around as well!
Hooray for all the good news about Alice! Hope the news continues to be good for her :) And congrats on the substitute teaching and Ben's new job!!
Cute pictures of your kids, too!
Good luck with the sleep thing, too... Leah started sleeping through the night around 2 months, but Grant woke up every night to eat (at least once) until he turned 11 months old. We "sleep trained" him around 8 months or so (I think) so he went down great, but the fastest and quietest way I could get him back down in the middle of the night was to feed him! Maybe that's why he got so big so fast...
Post a Comment