HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

All done trick or treating....now tasting some candy!!!

Wow....what a fun night we had last night....it's called Begger's Night, how crazy!?!??! The kids had fun anyhow! At the last minute Kimberlyn (who is sick with a fever) decided she didn't want to be Minnie Mouse! She was Minnie for the school party and then TIGGER for trick-or-treating last night. This behavior should not surprise you!





Kimberlyn from her class party...



Tommy 10 months old!



Yesterday Tommy had his Early Intervention (EI) Evaluation....he is at risk for developmental delays/issues from being so premature. I got the coolest, most unique compliment on him. Every one from strangers to docotrs are AMAZED at how well Tommy is doing for being a 28-weeker. It was a great visit with specialist who deal with and offer therapy to preemie babies on a daily basis. They too think he is amazing :) I explained how enlightening it was to have this evaluation and visit with these specialists (5 different ladies/therapists)---the Physical therapist said outright "he [a 28-weeker] SHOULDN'T be doing this well" referring to Tommy! Now when you have a developmental specialist raving over your preemie...THAT is COOL!

Tommy's evaluation results will be explained in more detail next Wednesday. They told me he is "tight" and tense. They will be helping me learn how to help loosen him up.

On Monday Tommy cut his 4th tooth....it's one of his "i" teeth!?!?? Normally they get their bottom front two, top front two and so on....Tommy only has one top front tooth in...EI told me all babies are different, which is no news to me!

Did some one say C-R-A-W-L-E-R?!?!? yes, I have me one of those!!! I suspected the other dya that Tommy was crawling instead of just rolling from place to place....BUT with all my busy hast, I hadn't seen for sure until his evaluation...how embarrassing! He indeed crawls...the "army" crawl, slow still but I'm sure I'll be wishing he was still slow in another week or so. The therapists were floored and shaking their heads in disbelief! It was so fun and such a proud feeling for a preemie mother to have! We are so thankful for all our blessings!

Before church last Sunday...brotherly love!!


Now if he'd just let me get and eat those cool glasses!!

Our pumpkin....

IS 10 MONTHS OLD TODAY!!!!



Our Sleeping Beauty....



and our Fire Chief...



Although these pictures of Tommy here are from a couple weeks ago....he pretty much looks the same :) He's really getting close to crawling and loves to stand up now. he's gone back and forth with having a cough or runny nose for a few weeks and I think is finally over it. UNfortunately we found out the criteria for the RSV shot has been changed and he DOES NOT qualify for it. Not good news...we'll be really washing germy hands a lot!

I weighed him this morning here at home and he weighed 16 lbs 6 ozs....according to our scale. Hoping it's wrong as that means he lost weight from last month. I will reweigh him next week and if no weight gain....we'll call the doc. We just switched his formula, so he could need to be back on his preemie formula....I don't know! He acts totally healthy and happy....sleeping 10-12 hours each night....ah, the good life :)

Excuse me....

While I take a nap?!?!? Kimberlyn sleeping on the pot!!
View from below, looking up.

CUTE SISTERS!

Kaitlyn and Kimberlyn being sweet....rare occasions here lately!

Kimberlyn's first real field trip...

To the Pumpkin Patch...October 19, 2007....FBC WEE School Pre-K Class (Kimberlyn is wearing the pink jacket)



This is Kimberlyn in this cool Corn stalk maze....made for little ones!




Here she is jumping into the hay pit....man to be a kid again!




Now we have Tommy in the "Corn Box" instead of sand it was a box of corn...totally cool! Then we have Kimberlyn and Tommy and last Mommy, Kimberlyn and Tommy. This was a day of blurred pictures, closed eye pictures and so on....so I apologize for the out of focus pics, but they were too cute sitting together!

Fun at the Zoo!!

October 20, 2007
Here we have a beautiful Fall day at the Columbus Zoo. So glad we bought the membership. This place is so big and we have such fun there. We got there around 1pm and it felt chilly with the wind, after walking a bit it was almost hot in long sleeves! It was "Boo at the Zoo" with trick or treating stations for the kids. Really was a fun time!


They had Pumpkin Smash going on where they had set up times to give the animals pumpkins in while the crowds watched....we chose to see the tigers. We heard they put meat treats inside the pumpkin as they also carved a cute face on it. This tiger knocked the pumpking into the water and wasn't going to let it get away! It was fun to watch...

Now, here we have....umm, I believe one bad MAMA!!! Yes, this is Mom's hand letting Tommy try a cherry tootsie pop!! He loved it as you can tell by the next picture...he was quite ready for Kimberlyn to hand over the reins :) Must be so nice to be the fourth kid....

pictures....

Here's a few pics from when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit...





Here are some pics from the maze in Lebanon, OH that we went to.




Robby and Kaitlyn lost in the maze :)

Past due update....

Tommy NOW! 9 months old. 16 lbs, 8 ozs! Eating GREAT!























Tommy THEN! 3 weeks old. 2 lbs, 12.5 ozs -just 44 grams more than birth weight. And eating just 13mL's (2 1/2 teaspoons)every 3 hours!

















Sorry for the long wait on an update-- we're alive and well. Just busy, what's new?!?!?

So Tommy was stuffy at his 9 month check up almost 3 wks ago.....then he got so congested and bad that the snot was causing him to puke and he could only sleep for about 45 minutes at a time (even at night). I drew the line there (around the 1st of Oct)...called the doc. This is when I learned that there was all the OTC cold meds in the news saying how they are bad and dangerous...okay...I don't watch the news in my limited free time so had to google it online to learn more. Anyhow, as always they claim the cold meds don't work and the doc wouldn't have me give any to Tommy the nurse told me. Okay, I just disagree...the meds do on occassion work...just got to find one that does. I only use them when the kids get real sick anyhow...I asked the nurse to see if these nose drops with a decongestant in them were okay to use. He okay'd them and we used them for two nights, Tommy got sleep and mom and dad did too. Was great. On Friday (the 5th) I took him in to be check out. He did have a mild fever with this too...wanted to be sure all was okay. Doc was a little concerned and gave Tommy a breathing treatment with meds. There was no big difference, and he was pretty certain Tommy was in the tail end of the cold. Turned out he was...He's pretty much all better now, BUT he did puke today during a nap?? No idea why. Life has been good, Tommy has been sleeping 12+hours long for the past few nights. He's napping again...hopefully it's (the puking) nothing but a fluke today.

I guess now they have pulled some cold meds for infants off the shelves....sad as the problems and deaths are due to mis-use and overdosing. Most agree they don't work...but somehow I can tell you on deperate occasions...we've gotten more sleep when using cold meds (so the baby/child can breathe and sleep too)---

Larry's Mom and dad came for a visit last weekend. We went to the USAF Museum and the boys definitely enjoyed it more than the girls! grandma and Grandpa got to go to one of Robby's football games which was fun for all. Tommy and mom tend to be whimps and opt to stay home for some games. 5pm games are hard as that's Tommy's dinner time. Then the freezing cold games....um, we'll just stay put in the house.

I need to down load the pics from the camera....but for now here are Tommy's 9 month old pictures!

TOMMY 9 months old, 16 lbs, 8 ozs and 27 inches.....






















ROBBY 6 months old, 16 lbs, 4ozs and 26 1/2 inches!










These oufits are slightly different...I had gotten rid of Robby's outfit and by chance came a cross Tommy's outfit while surfing ebay one night!! Tommy's car is new as Robby's was ahand me down and went through the first two kids and all the years of sun dammage. Pretty certain Tommy's car sits higher as you'd think Tommy's feet would hit the ground as he's longer than Robby was in the pic....





Tommy's absolute FIRST time to ever "pull-up" caught at the portrait studio!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!? What a show off?!?! The bottom left pic is seriously the first time he stood up!






Can't believe I forgot...we went to a cool maze last weekend too. The had "Corn Cops" that kept watch of the maze and had fun watching us with a baby, three kids and two old people. I heard one talking on a radio to another about the gorup with a stroller...I asked the "Corn Cop" if he was having good laughs laughing at us. We went over stroller track enough to think there were at least two other strollers in the maze....hehehe Larry's mom believes they were watching us closely cause they worry worried about them being older with the heat...it was HOT...like 91 that afternoon. We have more pics...will get to them soon, hopefully!