Cancer

i just... Yeah.

This is going to be our life now. Doctors and hospitals and medicine and insurance and infections and not knowing from one day to the next.  And it's not even me.  I have to watch my sweet brave little 4 year old boy suffer and know that I can't make him better with a kiss.  In fact, we will have to do things that hurt and make him sick to try and heal him.  And even when (when not if when not if when not if) he is successfully through all of this, the fear will never leave, the tests will be there for the rest of his life, and he will only have one kidney.

Tonight my heart is breaking.

Statistics

In the last 18 days, here are some statistics from our family:

2 people hospitalized for 3 days each (Michelle and Emma for Emma's birth)

14 vomiting episodes (1 for Aidan, the rest for Ethan)

10 or so episodes of diarrhea (all Ethan)

5 blood draws (Emma)

1 ER visit (Emma)

1 EKG (Emma)

10 additional doctor visits (Emma, Ethan, Mike), requiring a total of 27 bodies to be put in and out of coats, boots, cars, etc.

We have had a rough few weeks!  Prayers would be greatly appreciated that we can all be healthy and be done with doctors for a while!

Emma Joy Steele

born Tuesday March 10, 2015

9 lbs 6 oz

21 3/4 inches long

Aidan at 5 1/2

Having missed his birthday entirely, here at least is a picture of Aidan at the moment:

Height:48 inches (several inches above the other kids in his class)

Weight: 50 pounds

LOVES:

art - could create all day long, always chooses the art center at school when given a choice, often comes home and makes up projects for himself

Legos

playing outside in the snow

being read to

playing in ant hills in the summer

playing with Ethan

babies

building forts

pancake day when there's no school

potty words (sometimes this gets out of hand!)

LIKES:

doing math

doing the reading himself

writing

playing science

playing with pretend swords

playing with animals

playing pretend

DOESN'T LIKE:

practicing the piano (we started real lessons at the start of kindergarten)

being interrupted in the middle of something

SKILLS:

is very responsible about cleaning up his things, obeying

dresses himself every morning, likes to brush his teeth and comb his hair (although I often have to touch those up)

getting very good at school skills (reading, writing, math)

SKILLS HE IS MASTERING:

still struggles with the "r" sound - had him evaluated but we need to wait another year before he can qualify for help

still struggles to stay dry at night, although now he wears underwear and is successful about half of the nights (assuming Mike takes him potty around 10:30)

FOODS HE LIKES: 

ice cream, cake, cookies, candy (ALL sweets)

PBJ

chicken nuggets

chicken n stars soup

scrambled eggs

noodles

macaroni and cheese

pretzles

hamburger with just meat and cheese

hot dogs with ketchup

tacos

spaghetti

carrots with ranch

olives

chocolate milk

strawberries

honeycrisp apples

string cheese

gogurt

FOOD HE DOESN'T LIKE: (although Aidan will eat basically anything without complaining)

mushrooms

tomatoes

Overall, some words I would use to describe Aidan are: sensitive, sweet, artistic, responsible, smart, energetic, funny.

I sure love being his mom, and what a wonderful example he is as a big brother!

Ethan at 3

So I have really given up on blogging, and I'm not sure I'm even committing to get back into it.  But I have enjoyed going back through the milestone posts about my boys.  I have missed some, and with another little person's set of milestones coming up soon, I thought I would play a little catch-up.

Ethan turned 3 in December.  At that visit, he was 40.3 inches (putting him in the 96th percentile for height) and 34 lbs (75th percentile).  I had always thought he was short since he hadn't grown tall quite as fast as Aidan... but apparently Ethan is tall, too!

When he turned 3, he still showed no interest in potty training.  However, he did say that he would wear underwear when the baby came, so I decided to try potty training again the last few days of January.  It was really rough - for about 2 weeks I honestly couldn't decide if it was time to quit or keep going forward.  He would make tiny bits of progress, but nothing truly notable.  Luckily he seemed to turn a corner after a few weeks.  So now almost a month later, he wears underwear all day.  He can stay dry for long periods of time, including naps, and will pee on the potty when asked.  However, he still won't tell you that he needs to go and is scared to poop in the toilet.  He has stayed dry through a few complete nights, so I am hoping to keep him in underwear at night soon, too.  We take the ninja turtle backpack full of spare stuff EVERYWHERE!

Ethan joined Primary a few scant weeks after his birthday, and that has been a rough transition, too.  He often asks to go back to nursery, says he doesn't like Primary, etc.  He also has a very difficult time sitting in his chair and is always up and down, walking around, etc.  However, he has an extremely patient, kind teacher and seems to be getting the hang of it now.

Things Ethan LOVES:

the co-op preschool group I help teach

playing

Sands Alive

being read to

helping with grown up things, like cooking

games, especially Pop the Pig and Hungry Hungry Hippos

Thi gs Ethan is mastering:

putting on his own boots and coat

potty training

VERY strong with language - talks clearly, can say all the sounds correctly except for the occasional "L"

obedience - went through a time when it was very difficult, but has made quite a bit of progress over the last few months!

music - can carry tunes very well and remembers lyrics quickly

This Ethan does NOT like:

being woken up when he is sleeping (he still take naps 3-4 times a week)

having someone take a toy or stop him when he is playing

eating new foods at dinner

Overall, I would describe Ethan with words like: sweet, adventurous, independent, kind, funny, ticklish, musical.  He is such a good boy, and I am so glad to be his mom!

Ethan at age 2

So I am beyond awful at updating my blog, but I do enjoy looking back at the boys' birthday information.  Ethan is technically a month past 2, but here's some information about him.

Height: 36 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 26 pounds (50th percentile)

Loves:

Having you read him stories, especially the books My No No No Day and People

Being silly - chase, tickles, teasing

Anything noisy - banging, toys, etc.

Pouring things - flour into the sugar bowl, salt out of the salt shaker, water or milk out of his sippy cup

His binky for naps and bedtime...although we are weaning him this week and it seems to be going well

Talking - he says a lot!  We will get 5 or 6 word sentences at times!

Singing - remembers many songs after only one time!

Helping me unload the dishwasher - he loves to pull out matching items and stack them

HIding in the lockers at the YMCA (he pulls the door shut and won't answer when you call him, so you have to go down the row opening all the lockers to find him!)

He is:

Still taking naps (hooray!)

Climbing stairs up and down only holding a hand rail

Quite adventerous and independent

Running everywhere

Adding extra "s"s to the ends of plural words: oranges becomes orangeses, princesses is princesseseses (not exaggerating!)

He is not:

Super stubborn yet (we aren't getting a lot of "no" or "I do it myself" yet)

At ALL interested in potty training - diapers all the way!

Hitting very much any more - he seems to have learned not to do that!

He is so fun and easy going - he really makes our family better!  We love this little 

guy!

Aidan at age 4

The visiting teaching message this month was about family history.  One of the things it mentioned was keeping your own journal, and it has given me a renewed desire to keep up with this blog.  Even though I feel like no one reads it much any more, I want to keep the records for ME!  So without further ado,

Aidan at age 4:

Height:  44 inches (into a booster seat - hooray!)
Weight: 42.5

Skills he has mastered:

• Writing Aidan, mom, and dad
• Knows all the letters, can write many of them, knows the sounds for most
• Riding a bike with training wheels
• Washing hands independently
• Using a tissue most of the time (we finally got him stop picking his nose!)
• Drawing stick figures
• Counting up to 20 easily (and sometimes into the twenties), with the exception of "thirteen" and "fourteen" which sound the same when he pronounces them, so sometimes he only says one of those numbers instead of two
• Counting given items, including simple addition and subtraction

Skills he is working on:

• A few sounds are still difficult for him to say (r, sh, ch) - shark sounds like soawk, ouch sounds like outs, etc.
• Staying dry all night (he's working on it!)

Things he enjoys:

• Staying awake during the day (naps are rare to never)
• Art!  This kid could do art projects all day long!
• Riding his bike
• Going on walks
• Helping Mom make pizza
• Going fishing with Dad
• Play with Legos
• Play the Where's My Water app on the iPad
• Digging in the dirt and grass to build an "ant hill" with our neighbor David

Overall, Aidan is a very sweet and happy boy!  We feel so blessed to have him in our family!

Ethan at 1

Did you notice that blogging went out the window right when Ethan got mobile?  Coincidence?  I think not! 

In my fantasy world, I would go back and do some catch up posts.  In my reality world?  I just panicked driving home from the grocery store today because I thought, "Did I do a post about Aidan at age 3?  I know I didn't do Ethan at age 1 yet, but I can still remember that.  If I didn't do Aidan at 3, though, there is no hope!"  Luckily, I DID do one for Aidan.  Now I've got to get the other little man while I'm remembering!

Ethan at age 1:

Height: 31.3 inches (87th percentile)
Weight: 22.6 pounds (44th percentile)

Loves:

• eating and drinking real people food
• BANGING!!!  Anything on anything to make a noise - future drummer boy???
• being tickled
• walking - he took his first steps just days after his first birthday, and nothing has kept him down since
• playing with the buttons on the piano
• throwing things through the baby gate and watching them fall down the stairs
• pulling silverware out of the dishwasher as soon as it's opened - taking things out of any drawer, for that matter!
• bath time
• both the toilet paper and the toilet water are irresistible!
• B-I-N-K-Y

Dislikes:

• sleeping through the night (went for about one golden week once, but otherwise it's not uncommon for him to still cry at least once a night)
• being put down (as in not being constantly held) if he is thirsty/hungry/tired
• textures of certain foods, like small noodles

Skills/Development he has mastered:

• has middle four top teeth, 2 molars on the top, and the 2 middle bottom teeth
• excellent pincer grasp - loves to pick up strings, small papers, etc.
• turns pages in books
• crawling, standing, walking
• waves bye bye and night night
• rolls and throws a ball

Skills he is working on:

• starting to try words, especially imitating what we say
• keeping food on his tray rather than throwing it on the floor
• staying out of the trash can
• hasn't started running (yet!)

Personality:

• likes having a routine at home (VERY into his nap and bedtime!) but is very flexible when we are out and about
• pretty easy-going overall - puts up with a LOT of wrestling/carrying/loving from Aidan!
• can be hesitant to try new things that WE introduce (food, expectations, rules, new people), but very happy to explore things independently (toys, kid's care)
• won't smile for strangers (or the family Christmas picture!), but very giggly and happy with family at home

We sure love our little one year old!
(Sorry no pictures yet - I tried several times and can't get any to upload.  I'll have to come back and add some later...)

Ethan Trying to Crawl

So Ethan is very mobile - he rolls everywhere, can get from laying down to sitting up and then back down again, has stood alone several times, is starting to pull himself up on furniture, etc.

But for some reason, he can't quite figure out crawling yet... and I think the poor guy is getting frustrated about it!

My very favorite part is around :20, where he does the downward dog thing.  And I just love all the babble - can't you just HEAR him saying, "Dad, I'm trying to get this and it just isn't working!!"?

Hold your horses, people - once he figures this out, we're in for a wild ride! :)

Ethan in Video

As mentioned, I take more videos of my little guy than pictures.  So here's the good stuff:

Mike is so good at making Ethan laugh.  Adorable!

First solid food - he didn't go for it nearly as much as Aidan did!  It also took Ethan about 2 solid weeks to really get into it (instead of 4.2 seconds like Aidan in the linked video!).

Demo of his mad sitting and banging skills.  Future percussionist, perhaps?

Finally, Aidan had a community ed class in a school building, and there I discovered Ethan's completely irrational fear of public toilet flushing.  Kind of mean on my part, but super hilarious!

Ethan in Pictures and Words

Oh no... second child syndrome!  Not only have I published about Ethan less, but I have fewer pictures, too.  Shhh - don't tell Ethan!  It doesn't mean I love him any less, just that I have less time!

Here are some recent pictures of my cutie.  I regularly call him nicknames that involve the word fat (Fatty Fat, Little Fat Fat, Chubby Fat, etc.) because I just love his cute fat legs!

I promise, my child is usually in clothes.  But really: why bother when he leaves lovely gifts like this?!

And also, he gets quite a few rashes in his fat rolls from sweating, so I figure that going naked can only be good for those, right?

Milestones:

Rolling over - he can, but doesn't often

Sitting - now a champ all by himself

Chewing toes - obviously, yes

Eating solids - total pro

Moving - some pushing and rotating, but no crawling yet (thank goodness!)

Blowing raspberries - one of his new favorite things, especially when he has a mouthful of food!

Seeing, Reaching, Grabbing, Putting in Mouth - um, yes.  He'll get a leaf, my necklaces, his food, YOUR food... you name it!

Teeth - none yet, but I think it will be soon

Sure love this little one!

And part of why I don't have many great pics is because I tend to take more video of him, so look for that post soon.

Three Years Old

People talk about the terrible twos... Aidan really wasn't terrible!
And then all these experienced moms told me that they though 3 was way worse than 2.

While Aidan still is a really wonderful kid, turning three has certainly brought some temper tantrums, especially about "doing it by myself!"  Here are some hilarious videos for you to enjoy!

I can't even remember why he was so mad in the car seat, but I thought the leg kicking was particularly amusing.

(In case you can't tell, he's upset because he got his arm twisted in the shirt when he put in on by himself, but he didn't want me to help him fix it.)

Does it make me a terrible mom that I laugh at these??

Cape

Wow, I'm so slow on blogging lately.  I figure most of you have given up on me by now, but I keep posting every now and then, more for my records than for anything else.

I made Aidan a cape for his birthday.  It was a great experience for me - my friend Lacey helped me learn a lot of basic sewing stuff that I didn't know before.  The cape is reversible so he can wear it to be either Batman or Superman.

He seems to like it!  And I had so much fun making it that I went ahead and made a second one (before I could forget how!) so that Aidan can have one for a friend (or for Ethan when he's older).  Go, superheroes!

Rock Climbing

Mike and I recently celebrated our 6th anniversary.  For his gift, I signed us up for an introductory rock climbing class.  We had lots of fun!  We learned how to tie ourselves in, how to belay properly (Mike is heavier than I am by enough that he sometimes lifts me off the ground while I'm belaying him!), and we got to try a few walls.  Mike is definitely more skilled at it than I am (no surprise, looking at those muscles!), but we both had a great time!  In fact, they gave us passes to come back free in the next 2 weeks (to help cement what we learned), so we will be heading back again soon!

New Patio Door

When we had our home inspection before buying this home, one of the things that came up was that there was some wood rot on the base of the patio door.  Obviously, we didn't want that to spread into the wood of the house.  Also, the door swings in, which took up a lot of space in our (very small) kitchen.  So we decided to replace the old door with a new sliding one.

Here is the old door.

See how much space it took up when it swung in?

Here's the wood rot on the inside corner...

...and the outside corner.

And you can see the gross treads on the base board.

 So we had the Home Depot guy come install it.  (He was a great sport about being in all of these pictures, and he did a great job, too!)

He started by taking off the trim.

He had one very captivated two-year-old watching!

Next, out with the old - part 1

and part 2.

Unfortunately, the rot had already started to spread beyond the door itself, which was one of our concerns.

Luckily, the fix was this simple - a new piece of 2x4.

And now, in with the new - part 1

and part 2!

Batman thought this whole show was absolutely fascinating!
We sure like our new door!

Minneapolis Trip

While I was in Utah at my sister's wedding, Mike decided to do a mini vacation with Aidan.  They went to Minneapolis for two days.  They visited the Mall of America, complete with a trip to the aquarium there, a few rides on the roller coasters there, and a visit to the Lego store. 

Isn't this the most gorgeous photo?  It's completely un-edited... I think Mike should get some kind of prize for it!

I love the backpack!  Aidan hauled around his own spare pants and underwear, just in case... (didn't need them, thankfully!)

Not only are his arms adorable...

But this face is priceless!

Mike said Aidan just wanted to build here forever.

They stayed at a hotel overnight, then went to the Children's Museum the next day.  (I didn't find any pictures from that.)  I'm glad they got to have fun together, even though I wished I could have come, too!

Quick Trip to Utah

I was so excited to have the chance to visit Utah in April for my sister Rebecca's wedding.  I took Ethan with me (since he is free to fly and still needs me for nursing), but Aidan stayed with Mike.  Since I didn't want Mike to have to take too many days off work, it was a super fast trip, but I loved every minute of it. 

I loved getting pedicures with my sisters.

The temple ceremony was absolutely beautiful.

Jacob CREAMED Rebecca at the reception.

And of course, I had to get a picture with the blushing bride. 

Yes, Spencer, we all see your photobomb in the background.  Thanks for that.

Another great part of the trip was getting to meet new members of the family.  I had never met Jacob before the wedding, but he seems like a great guy.  Of course, no one but my mom had met Ethan, so they all got to see him.

I got to meet my new nephew Mason, who was born only weeks before the wedding.

I got to meet another new nephew, Jared, who was born about a month before the wedding.

After the wedding festivities were over, I had half a day before I needed to go back home.  Did we relax?  Of course not!  Instead, we threw a baby shower for Spencer, Whitney, and Mason!

Whitney with Natalie (Mason's birth mother), and of course little Mason, too.

This shows the three newest grandkids in the coordinating blankets, all made with love by Grandma. 
L to R is Mason, Jared, and Ethan.
There is another coordinating blanket just awaiting my nephew that should be coming any day now!

What a wonderful trip!  Congratulations again, Rebecca and Jacob!

Easter 2012

I'm only a LITTLE behind, right?!  I've been meaning to update for a while (translation: lots to come now that I finally found some time to sit down and do it!), and these were too cute not to share.  We did a community hunt again.

Aidan got a lot better at this year's hunt than last year's!

Little Ethan slept through everything.

 We also did a little hunt in our backyard.



Aidan's favorite were the eggs that had loose change inside.  And I love this picture - it really captured his running stride!



So triumphant - I got one!