This is a big week....

This week is a BIG week.  The the kids start daycare.  *Gulp*

I tell myself I'm ready.  I'm more worried about getting up earlier to get the kids up & dressed, get us all out the door & dropped off with time enought for me not to be late to work.  And how they will do with getting up early?!  But come that day, I'm doubting that I will still feel ready!  {Bets on how many times I cry that day??  Or how many times I call the daycare to check in??}  I know there will be lots of tears from the kiddos.  Thats what makes it the hardest :(  But it is going to be good for them.  They need that social exposure.  I want that for them.  And is just 1-2 days a week.  I know they will grow to love their time there with people who are there just to play with them, not fold laundry, cook, clean, etc.

When we go each week we are supposed to bring a bag with nap supplies.  A crib sheet, lovie, blankie, etc.  Then take it home each weekend to wash.  To make myself feel a little better about it, I felt like I needed to make some bags (rather than just sending them with the free little tote you get for opening a checking account or stopping by a vendor booth at the fair like the others hanging on the daycare wall).  A 3 pack of totes at Walmart, which just happened to be blue, green & pink, was $5.  Squeeze paint bottle, $0.97.  And I had some felt stashed away.  So for around $6, here are my quick creations.  (Livi's are flowers, hard to tell in the picture)

..... yep I'm a little nervous....

On a side note, Logan & Livi learned a great word this week... "nack" = snack.  Thank you for telling me when you are hungry rather than just whining!

Hayden is saying Olivia... "Lil la" but he says it super-duper fast & it all kinda rolls together.  I can't wait 'til they learn to say eachother's names.  Until tattling starts...

And.... drum roll... Hayden pooped in the potty!  Wasn't totally on purpose.  But he did it!  He was standing in the bathroom grunting.  So I asked him "are you pooping?"  He said "yeah."  "Do you want to poop on the potty."  "Yeah."  So I slipped off the diaper & sat him down, (I think 99% of the work was already done) but sure enough, he finished that 1% & for all intensive purposes, pooped on the pot!  We got excited & clapped & cheered.  He got scared & cried :(  Then he cheered up.  There were lots of high-fives & some fruit snacks afterwards.  We haven't had anyone use the potty for anything but fun since that first day we got them. 

I'm working a TON of days close together coming up.... just fair warning.  Don't expect to see too much from me here. 

Airplanes --> "Wow-Wow-Wow!"

Today after church, we took the kids to the Defenders of Freedom Air Show at the Air Force Base.  The boys are always pointing out airplanes in the sky, so I figured it would be a hit.  And after a few busy weeks, Jeff & I just needed to get out of the house & have a no work day.  And it was definately a hit.  Infact, I even had a great time & could have stayed & watched all day.  We were there for a good 3 1/2 hours.  And we finally left when mom & dad's feet were beat!  It looked as if it was going to storm when we went, we were a little worried, but luckily the clouds cleared & the sun came out.  The weather was perfect! 

Immediately when we got there, the boys were constantly exclaiming "Wow-wow-wow!"  Pointing & yelling.  "Wow-wow-wow!"  Livi wasn't quite as into it all as the boys, but she did have fun too.

 There were a bunch of good food vendors there, so we lunched on the run.  Boys had breadsticks for lunch.... at least they ate.  Too busy watching & pointing to really eat.

" Dat?"  "Wow-wow-wow!"

There were lots of planes out to look at & walk through.  Helicopters too.  And of course, tons of aerial acrobatics to enjoy too!

 Livi inside a big plane.  The boys didn't come in this time, because they cried... they didn't want to go in & miss seeing the planes in the air outside. 

 It was a HUGE plane!

 Lima Lima boys performing

 The planes would fly by, then go out of sight to turn around.  The boys would throw their hands up by their shoulders to "say" where did they go?  (Hayden does this all the time at home too)  Just happened to catch a picture of Logan doing it.  Hayden usually has both his hands, palms up, by his chin.

 Boys!

 Girls!

 We went up in the big plane again later, this time we all went.  With a plane full of people, and 3 kids who want to run... all I got was a picture of Liv. 

 And right before we left we got to watch the Golden Knight's Parachute Team!!

 So cool!

 It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Hayden sings too!

I need to catch it on video... but Hayden is trying to sing "Ba Ba Black Sheep."

Sounds basically like "ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba...."  He does it along with a Sesame Street Video, so I know that is what he is doing. 

However if you ask him what a sheep says he says "Ahhhhh!"

Post op day 3

I think she is on her road to recovery. 

Yesterday afternoon we slowly started turning lights on in the house.  And by evening, we were living like humans again.  Livi is tolerating light just fine.  Her eyes were open 90% of yesterday.  They shut a few times after looking out the window & exposing them to bright outdoor lighting.  And once after a temper tantrum she kept them closed for 15 minutes afterwards.  But otherwise doing great.

I know she is doing great, because she is being ornery.  But I know she doesn't feel 100% either, because she is still kind of irritable.  Temper tantrums at the drop of a hat.  And she still looks like she lost a fight.  But she is doing so much better than 24-48 hours ago. 

She is supposed to go back to wearing her glasses.  Not with the prisms, just normal glasses.   I did finally get her to put them on this evening.  Before that she refused.  Her face is still swollen & the bridge of her tiny, little nose is pretty puffy, so maybe it just isn't comfortable.?  We'll just give it a few days & keep trying I guess. 

Her sleep schedule has been off.  She didn't go to bed until 11:30 last night... BUT... she slept in her own bed.  I did not anticipate that happening.  As everyother time since Friday we have walked into the bedroom she has cried.  She was 1/2 asleep on the couch with me.  So I just picked her up, said its time for you & Elmo to go "night-night."  Put her down & never heard a peep!  She slept until 11 the next morning!  She did go to bed at normal time tonight, in her own bed too.  So hopefully we are on the way to being on a normal schedule.  Kids are so resilliant!

Just a few pictures of us today.

The mask they gave her before surgery to play with.  She likes to breathe through it.

 Giving "Melmo" a "Ri" on the "ta ter"

 Thought she would take a ride too

 New Aquadoodle.  We had not bought a new toy in a long time.  So surgery was a great "excuse" to get some new things.  Especially since it is going to be HOT this week & Livi can't go swimming.  We needed some new indoor goods.

She looks pretty skinny....  Maybe I need an eye surgery diet?!

 Hayden kissing the picture of the pig on the mat.  They are such kissers.  Always kissing & blowing kisses to show their affection to things they like.

 Livi after a successful bath of washing hair & keeping all soap & water out of her eyes (this is going to be a long few weeks of baths!)  Wearing one of the boys' pair of sunglasses.  (Got them all some at Carters when I got Livi some for after surgery.  They were 20% off $2.99, so why not?)

 Logan.  He is obsessed with wearing his towel on his head after baths.  They all like to, but Logan especially.

 And Hayden wearing Livi's fancy glasses.  I got her 2 pair, not knowing what would fit (see price above).  And this is the pair Hayden prefers to wear.  Diva dude!

 Dog pile on daddy to round out the day.  Good Night!

More talkie talkie

Taking a little break from Livi talk.  Remember how I said this week would be Hayden's vocab week?  I think he might actually be in the lead.  However, everybody has picked up a few new things despite our lazy, Livi post-op, bummy days.

Hayden says
"duh" = duck
Knows a bee says "beezzz"
Sometimes says "peas" = please
And everything, I mean everything, is "yeah", when you ask him anything, like "Do you want to ____"
Either that or he throws his arms up to his shoulders as if to ask "where is it?" or "I don't know?"
He knows that in addition to a tiger, a lion & dinosaur say "Arrr.."
He says "beep-beep" = when somebody is in his way.  (I do that to them when I need them to move.)

I think he has another word, though I'm not all that proud to share it.  Sometimes (like when GG drops the peaches on the floor or he drops something) it sounds like he is saying shit.  "Dit."  Oops!  Maybe its a coincidence?

They are all trying to repeat tons of stuff we ask them to say.  They are in the process off adding touchdown & tackle to the word football, which they all learned last week. Mostly right now it is just repeating.  Though I did hear Logan say "Ta-tle"  "boom!" yesterday.  Logan is talking much more frequently this week too.  His newest word is "oh oh" = uh oh!

Livi has mostly added "MY" to her vocab this week.  She also did say "ow" pointing out (while her eyes were still closed) the ID bracelet that was still on her Elmo's leg & his tag.  I think she related that to the ID bracelet she had from surgery & she wanted them off?  Remembered them as owie?  So we cut off his tag & ID. 

Logan & Livi say "No."  Actually Logan says "No, no, no, no, no..."

The school behind our house is doing some work in an open yard.  Not sure what they are doing, but there are all kinds of "trucks" out there.  You would think the boys grew up on a farm.  Or that they had ever even really been to a farm.  They stand by the back door constantly saying "taa-ter" "papa" "bye-bye" (tractor, grandpa, bye-bye) (seriously ONE book where we called the farmer Grandpa, that same book has a man driving a tractor, how did they link that?)

We are still trying to work on learning our Aunts, Uncles & Cousin's names, and Grandma.  Mostly still stuck at Livi knowing "Ah-D."  They boys call her daddy.  We are working on Molly since she has been here a lot to babysit, which mostly confuses Livi & she looks at me saying "mommy?"  Hayden did repeat a pretty good "Ma ye" once or twice.  And he said "Ax" (Alex) in the car once while I was trying to get them to repeat things on a drive to the store.  Livi repeated a really good "Ti Ta" (Tisha) one night.  Otherwise, not getting anywhere.  Anybody know a good book you can buy to put family pictures into so we spend as much time looking at those as we do trucks & animals??

One other fun thing they are doing, well mostly Livi & sometimes Hayden, is if they get an "owie" of some sort, they bring that body part to you & want you to kiss it & make it all better!  I love that!

I like feeling like we are a good upward trend with speech, since thats the preemie-multiple risk thing people have mostly harped to me about.  Hope we keep going!

We have eyes!!!

Two beautiful baby blues are viewing the world just a little better today!

This afternoon, or technically Livi & Mommy's morning, she finally decided to open those peepers.  I have never been so excited to see eyes in my life!   And you should have seen the big grin on her face when she saw her brothers (who are also sporting Elmo jammies) for the first time in 2 days!  Her eyes  are looking pretty darn straight!!  They are blood shot, but less than they were 2 days ago.  Swelling is slowly going down.  And until I took the picture I couldn't see that her face was bruised like it is.  So it must not look as bad in person as it does in pictures.  Looking pretty rough.  But finally looking!!

Neither Livi or mom slept very well last night.  She had a few nightmares & did quite a bit of tossing & turning.  Plus she is a major bed or couch hog!! (we slept on both at some point)  So we didn't get up until shortly after noon.  I kept encouraging her/bribing her to open them, with no success.  But as soon as we got up out of bed, they popped open & she trotted right down the hall.  Then they shut briefly, when she realized the kitchen was too bright with the shades open.  But as soon as we darkened the room, they opened again.  She ate a little lunch.  Watched Elmo, while snuggling with Elmo, driving one of the boys' new cars (wonder if we'll have to go get her a car yet too) & typing away on her new computer.  She tried to go watch daddy mow out the back door & apparently it was too bright, because now she has them locked shut again.  But they were open for a good 1.5 hours.  So today is a great day.  Her eyes are open.  She is seeing well.  A little wobbly on her feet.  But after 2 days of hardly eating, being post-op, & seeing life through a different perspective, who can blame her. 

Livi's first song!!!

Saturday night.  Eyes still closed.  She was sitting on my lap.  She kept saying what sounded to me like "Abby."  I kept correcting her saying "Addie." 

Later I asked her how she felt & she said back to me "Abby."  Jeff said "Happy?"  To which she started clapping, stomping her feet & SINGING.  "Abby"  clap clap.  Da, la, oh, le.  "Abby"  clap clap.

OMG!  She was singing "If you're happy & you know it clap your hands!" 

36 hours post op.  Eyes still too sore to open.  And she is singing about being HAPPY.  I cried.  Then realized we needed to get it on video.  So we caught the end.  Not nearly as good as the beginning.  But amazing none the less.  I told you she was amazing!! 

I wear my sunglasses at night...

Day 2 of recovery.  Last night's sleep went good.  All 3 boys in their beds.  The girls on the couch.  Liv slept better than I anticipated.  Some tossing & turning.  But a solid number of sleep hours.  And she woke up in a good mood.  We have had some touch & go moments of tantrum/fits of terror from her, mostly this evening before & related to getting to sleep or being tired.  I think we are going to have a hard transition back to sleep-trust at bedtime even once this recovery period is over.  But overall, an ok day.

Nevermind how awful I look, this is first thing, 7:15, in the morning.  Can you believe she smiled?!?!

While I think we are slowly on the mending trend, Jeff & I agreed again today that the process has been worse than we expected.  Not that it has been anything horrible or super traumatic, we just heard from the doctors & experienced parents "Its a very easy out patient surgery.  Resume normal activities in 24-48 hours."  Here we are at 36 hours & a far, far cry from normal.  I guess we'll see what the morning brings.  After my call to Dr. Troia last night, he called late this morning to check in on us.  (How many doctors do that, call you at home to check in?)  He said some kids bounce back so fast, are their normal selves that same night.  Lots of kids are back to themselves the next day.  And then there are some kids who take longer, a few days to bounce back.  Olivia apparently falls into that last category.  That is why we expected this to be easier, everyone we talked to, their kids apparently fell into category 1 or 2. 

Despite the fact that this recovery thing is slower than we anticipated, I'm taking nothing away from Miss Liv's spirit.  This girl is a trooper!  We keep joking that, God forbid, she would make a great blind girl.  She wants to get down & walk around, eyes closed.  She feels our faces.  Is chatting up a storm.  Has mastered her new Elmo doll & new interactive talking Elmo book with her eyes closed.  She can eat crackers out of a snack cup without opening her eyes.  She's pretty darn awesome!  Its hard to express it via text, but trust me, you would be amazed at her abilities sans vision.

Thats mostly our "hold up" with recovery.  She isn't ready to open her eyes & see her new world.  She is eating, not meals, but doing a very acceptable job of snacking.  She is taking good naps with mommy or daddy.  She is playing & smiling.  Just not opening her eyes.  Which means at least one parent is tied up 100% of the time.  Very needy & unable to do anything for herself, even walk, because her eyes are closed.  We did get her to peek those baby blues open a few times today.  And when I say that, I mean they were probably open for a cumultive of 2 minutes today.  Not much.  However, I do feel like she is doing some squinting too, opening them just a slice so we can't tell they are open.  And when they were open, she pointed out things like, "papa," a ball & a baby.  So I know she can see when they are open.  We are living like vampires, keeping all the lights off & pulling the blinds, trying to encourage her.  In addition to sore, irritated & swollen, her eyes will also be light sensitive for a while.  I also went out today & found her some sunglasses.  Hence the title of this post. 

My poor Elmo loving baby.  New Elmo jammies, Elmo doll, Elmo interactive book, while new Elmo DVD is playing.  Eyes, still closed.  She just pushed the buttons on the book & giggled hearing Elmo's voice over & over & over.  She got upset one time when one of the boys tried to read it.  I believe I even heard the 2 words "No" & "My."

They boys are doing so amazing.  I am so proud & amazed by them.  They have behaved perfectly.  So independent & grown up.  Not clingy or not needing a mommy or daddy's lap.  No stealing of Livi's toys.  They brought her her sunglasses this evening after she woke up from a nap.  They are always bringing her her "juicy."  Logan looks at her with sad eyes.  You can see it in them that they feel sorry for her.  I don't know how they know, but they know.  It melts my heart beyond words. 

G-ma Candy & G-pa Tom came up today.  Brought us some yummy lunch, did a few loads of laundry & provided a few extra hands to keep us from going insane.  Both them & G-ma GG didn't leave the boys out from the present list.  They've gotten themselves some sweet new cars.  And they got to watch Livi's new Elmo movie, while Livi just listened. 

They boys getting the corn ready for lunch

This evening, while Livi reluctantly took a nap, I took the boys to Target & Walmart.  Not that is a super fun place to go, but I felt bad for them for how their last 24 hours has gone too.  So I wanted to at least get them out of the house & get them something fun too.  I had gotten Livi a little toddler computer, which we got out tonight & she typed away without opening an eye.  While the boys have not bothered her Elmo, we were on the brink of fighting over the computer.  So I took them out to buy 2 more (which I planned on doing eventually anyways.)  So we all "blogged" tonight!  I only got a picture of Livi though.

On to tomorrow......

The long surgery story

Thursday night I finally went to bed, not to sleep, but to bed around 12:15.  Alarm clock went off at 4am Friday.  We were out the door on our way to the hospital at 4:45.  Checking in shortly before 5:30.  Apparently at that time in the morning, neither Liv or I can look at a camera :)

Our pre-op time went well.  We opened Livi's new "Melmo" present from Grandma GG.  He even got a hospital ankle bracelet ID band just like Livi!  Our pre-op nurse was very, very awesome.  Livi loved her.  A few pouty lips, but no tears.  Gave her high fives after things like taking a temperature, or listening to her lungs.  She did things to Elmo like listen to him... then listen to Livi.  Take Elmo's temperature... then take Liv's.  She was so good with her.  Livi even held her hand & went for a walk with her to go find an Elmo sticker. 

We hit up the toy room for a little while.  Talked to the anesthesiologist, the OR nurses.  At 6:30 she got some Tylenol & Versed (to help her get relaxed before surgery).  Dr. Troia came in at 7:05 to talk to us briefly.  He even brought Livi a toy.  A beany baby bear.  We were told to expect about an hour for surgery & the same for recovery.  So we prepared ourselves for a 2 hour wait.  With her prematurity history & reactive airway history for which she had taken steroids for a while, they wanted to do an albuterol treatment during pre-op too.  They gave her a mask to play with in the morning so she was comfortable with it for the "happy gas" she got before surgery.  So during her albuterol treatment she used that mask to give "Melmo" a treatment too!

Livi was getting pretty loopy by this time from the Versed.  She was giggling up a storm.  Throwing her head back.  She got the hiccups.  She was funny.  Everything was ready to go.  At 7:20, they came in with a big warm blanket, scooped Livi up out of my arms.... and away she went.  They did it very, very quick.  Hard for mama & daddy.  But much easier & less traumatic for her.  She took her new Elmo & her lovie to surgery with her.  I heard one "mommy!" and that was it.  Then our tears started.  We just sent our baby off to surgery!  They gave her some "happy gas" to get her sleepy before starting her IV (which they told me took a bunch of pokes).  Then they put her under general & intubated her.  They told us later she never cried & she enjoyed pushing all the buttons on the wall on the way back to the OR to make the automatic doors open. 

At 7:35 they called us from the OR to say they were starting.  Knowing that it was going to be a long day & that neither Jeff nor I had eaten.  I went down to the cafeteria to get us some breakfast & stopped by to say hi to my friend Laura.  At 7:55 they called to say they were half way through already.  I was still out getting breakfast, so Jeff texted me.  At 8:10 I called to ask Jeff what he wanted to drink from the cafeteria & Dr. Troia was in the room, surgery was done.  He did stop back by later since he missed me.  He said he was proud I was comfortable enough to go down & get breakfast, but wondered where his was.  Ha.  {Honestly, it was more like if I just sit here & wait I'm going to go nuts.  I have to get out.  And if I go all day without eating, I'm going to get sick.}  He said her muscles were very tight, so he moved the muscles pretty far back. And that it went well.

She spent her time in the recovery room rocking with one of the recovery nurses, sleeping all sprawled out on her lap.  She also got a present from the OR/recovery nurses.  An Abby Cadabby dolly to go with her Elmo.  I really liked that they carried her to & from & snuggled her so much.  I was worried they would wheel her out & in on a bed or in a crib crying.  They brought Livi back into snuggle with us at 8:45.   So our 2 hours we prepared for was really only 1 hour & 25 mins.  It went very fast.  We were SOOO glad to see her!

She had her eyes open.  Though she was completely in a daze.  She knew it was mommy & daddy, but beyond that she was pretty out of it.  We rocked & snuggled.  Her poor swollen & very blood shot eyes for the brief time we got to see them today looked very straight.  We will follow-up in 6 weeks at which point we will know for sure how accurately aligned Dr. Troia was able to get her eyes. 

She had a whole leg wrapped up for her IV.  And bloody tears.  They said her tears will probably be blood tinged for a few days.  By this evening already they are looking so much less bloody.  And her eyes will look blood shot for 1-2 weeks.  They said sometimes after this surgery kids get nauseous because their vision is different.  Not to mention the anesthesia.  They had given her some apple juice to sip on & within the first hour, both Jeff & I were sitting in apple juice vomit soaked shirts.  Oh well.  (Just an FYI for other parents, pack yourself an extra shirt.)

Her IV leg

My poor sweet baby.  Look at those lips turned down :(  So sad.

Very dilated, very blood shot eyes.  She has not let go of her lovie or her Elmo for 1 second since they took her back for surgery.  To this minute she still has them both.  She also would not let go of the sippy cup they gave her.

They got her some more zofran & she zonked out to sleep.  We all closed our eyes for about 20 minutes.  She was so sleepy & after the nausea, we stuck around for a while because they needed to make sure she would at least keep down some juice or a popsicle.  So Livi had her first popsicle.  Or first lick of one, she wasn't very into it.  Dr. Troia had a clinic in Boys Town that day, so he stopped back up to see her before he left since we were still there.  Otherwise we would have had to go see him in the office on our way home.  He always sees patients later in the day, same day of surgery.  Incase something comes up, I have his office, home & cell numbers.  We will chat next week to check in & then go see him in 6 weeks. 

We got another dose of tylenol, took out the IV (which was pure torture) & were heading home around 12:40.  We didn't have any sunglasses to bring for her, so she got to wear mine home.

Its been a rough afternoon/evening.  Maybe worse than I expected?  When we got home she was sleepy.  She cuddled up nicely on my chest.  But she kept having outbursts of crying fits.  Like nightmares from the day.  Later in the afternoon they got worse.  She would "wake up" and get almost manic.  Kick, hit, flop around.  Want "DOWN!"  Cry, scream.  We tried to console her, but she was unconsolable.  So we just tried to let her have her space but keep her safe.  It would go on for about 1-2 minutes then, just like that, she would be back sound asleep.  She was never really awake for these episodes.  This went on for about 2 hours.  We were starting to get concerned & then finally she slept for an hour straight & woke up over it.

Finally around 6:30, I got her to drink some juice... by bribing her with fruit snacks.  Fruit snacks are a great thing to have for your first "solid" food right?  She drank a whole glass of juice, ate a pack of fruities & kept it all down.  I call that success.  She had a pretty good evening.  Minimally tearful.  I even got a few smiles out of her.  She panics when we trade off holding her between Jeff & myself.  Its pretty brutal.  But its because she is scared, because since that time frame immediately post-op, she has yet to open her eyes.  She is awake.  Ate.  Smiles, with a lot of encouragement.  Talks.  But won't open her eyes.  They are pretty swollen, more so than earlier in the day.  And a little bruised.  I've been trying to put a cold washcloth on them, but she won't let me.  Its not that she can't open them, she isn't trying to.  She just doesn't want to.  I don't blame her.  I'm sure they feel like sandpaper.  And Dr. Troia said she will have some light sensitivities for a while too.  I did call Dr. Troia tonight just to make sure that it was normal for her to still not have opened her eyes.  No one mentioned that to us before discharge & I didn't ask since she had them open in those first hours.  He said it is common not to see them open for 24 or so hours.  We can get her some artificial tears to help moisten her eyes.  And call him tomorrow.  First he said, call me tomorrow if she is still not opening them.  Then changed his mind & said, no go ahead & call me tomorrow either way, I want to know how she is doing. 

Now she is zonked out on the couch with daddy.  I am 99% sure we wouldn't be able to put her down in her bed even if we wanted to.  I feel bad for her I couldn't put her down anyways.  And we have to keep her from rubbing her eyes, which I know she would do if left alone.  So for at least a few days she'll be sleeping with mama & daddy.

No sand, rough play, or swimming for a few weeks.  Otherwise no real restrictions.

Her brothers have been awesome.  They had a good morning/afternoon with GG.  They have talked about Livi's Elmo doll, but to my amazement neither of them has made any attempt to steal it from her.  They bring her drinks.  Sit nicely by me & her.  No jumping on me or trying to lap steal.  I really think they have some ESP & know whats going on.  We've told them Livi has owies in her eyes.  And that she got an Elmo to make them better.  Not sure if they understand any of that, but tonight (knock on wood) it appears they really know something is up.  They were sweet angels.  Thank God!

Thanks for all the love & prayers.
Now we're just praying for a good day tomorrow.  A fast recovery to her old self.  And an awesome check-up in 6 weeks.

Quick surgery update

Surgery went well. Some tears all around. Some puking on mom & dad post-op. But we are all home safe & sound. She is exhausted, sore, bruised & swollen. She is sleeping on my chest & keeps crying in her sleep.  Breaking my heart. But we are home.  You'll get the whole story at some point when I have 2 hands to type. 

Thanks for all your love & prayers.

New this week....

It was apparently Livi's week this week to rattle off some new things after Logan's spurt last week.  (Logan still definately is the quietest, he doesn't talk often, but he is finally showing us he KNOWS & can say the words though he uses them less often)  Hayden's turn must be next week?  Though he had a pretty good week too. (I told you I wasn't tired of keeping track yet!)  There may be things that I'm forgetting to put down, this is just what I can think of off the top of my head.  But its fun to sit down & look at in writing, & see just how much new has actually been said.

Livi:
"coco" - broccoli (says it but won't eat it)
"PEEK!" - playing peek-a-boo
"hello" - when "answering" toy phone
"ouse" - house
"no" - actually says it now sometimes instead of just head shaking
"ride" - in regards to the train we rode at the zoo. 
"peas"- refers to please, peas & corn
"eow" - meow
She makes a monkey noise, a fish noise/face & a elephant noise (hillariously we taught all 3 of them that tonight, comes equipt with arm raising if to immitate a trunk.  But we really needed Uncle Aaron to do it the right way!)
"weee" -when going down slide
"football"
"oot" - shoot, which is said while shooting hoops & when throwing football
"eye"- when pointing out eyes
"teeth" - when pointing out teeth
--> yes we have our first point to & NAME YOUR OWN body part! 

Logan:
"bak-bak" -chicken noise
makes an elephant noise & a fish noise/face
"arr" - noise a tiger, bear & dinosaur make
"duh" -duck
"football"

Hayden:
"football"
"cheese" - when taking a picture
"bak-bak" - chicken noise (even made the noise when Jeff was cooking a beer-butt chicken this week!)
makes an elephant noise, a monkey noise, a fish noise/face & a pig noise (the snorty version of a pig noise vs saying oink... which is awesome!)

They can point out SOO many things in their books lately.  They are just learning so much.  {Though don't expect to ever see it because they are pretty shy}  Thanks to our favorite "Elmo sings country songs" they can even show you a banjo & a fiddle in our picture book.  {I ABSOLUTELY LOVE that they know that by the way!}  Sometimes they can find the harmonica too.  They can differentiate things that go.  Fire truck, school bus, wagon, stroller, train, airplane, tractor, etc.  They are getting pretty good at animals.  We spend SO much time with books playing the "Where is the _____" & seeing who can point it out game.  But it gets a little exhausting {or annoying} as 3 kids point & demand to know "Dis?!"

Since the end of summer is sadly & rapidly approaching, we (along with apparently the rest of the city) decided to take advantage of this beautiful day & take another trip to the zoo.  It was busy.  But it was beautiful out!  We spent most of the time outside this trip, which I think helped avoid some of the crowd.  We're getting braver about letting them out to explore.  {Read they are getting more demanding about wanting out of the strollers, as I pushed Livi around screaming "ALL DONE!" & fighting to get out today}.  And we even took a ride on the "choo choo." 

Running around checkin' out the bears!

The boys hanging with some big kids.  We apparently pick the same outfit for the boys almost everytime we go to the zoo!  Ha!

 Gorillas.  There was a sleeping mama & baby over in the corner.

 More monkeys "Oooohh Oooohh"

 The old school part of the gorilla house, I remember hanging on that carpeted ledge as a kid!

 Lunch time. 

I kept threatening if they didn't sit nice we would have to go home & go night-night.  But if they sat nice & ate their hot dog (or in Logan's case just eat something even if its only popcorn) we would go ride the train.  I must have said "ride" enough times, because then Livi started saying "ride."  Which eventually turned into "Ride peas!"  I think thats our first string of words....

Hayden "Cheese"

"Cheese!"

Logan

 Waiting VERY patiently for our turn to ride the train.  This was the worst part of the zoo being so busy.  We waited a very, very, very long time!  They were SOOO good.  More patient that mama & daddy, thats for sure!

 Logan always gets nervous.  Had to sit on dad's lap.

 Hayd & Liv sat on the seat like big kids! 

Livi pointing out the animals along the way.  "Dat???"

 Hayden enjoyed waving & saying either "Hi" or "Bye bye" to everyone we saw along the way.

This was the end of the day & they were TIRED by the time we got off.  So we headed home.

Reality starts this week.  No longer do we have a stay-at-home-while-in-school daddy to keep our house/groceries/laundry caught up & keep mama's head from spinning.  Ready or not, here we go!