Ryan, Tiffany, Jayden, Alex and Aliya: November

What a busy month. Everything has been incredibly busy this whole year. I keep waiting for things to calm down, but I think this just may be life with four kids. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

I want to make it a Sunday activity to update on the happenings of the kids. Hopefully if I do it weekly I'll remember the funny, hard, and happy things I want to document about my kids, for now I'll stick to major events.

Kason-

He's two months old!! He has been dealing with a bit of reflux, poor guy, so walking him around and bouncing are his preferred activities. He is a quiet sleeper so he's still in the bedroom with me, and he nurses in under 10 minutes and goes right back to bed. I'm actually feeling pretty good. Going to bed early, I actually make it through a day without HUGE loads of Dr. Pepper :-/ . I was eating out with my mom and I told her that I have never gone to a public place since having him, and haven't had someone stop me to tell me how adorable/cute/precious he is. I think all my kids are beautiful!!! But something about this tiny little baby, with a tiny little head and big eyes... well it just melts hearts. And sure enough, half way through our meal, a couple stopped at our table to say how adorable Kason is. My mom and I laughed. He is the perfect little caboose for our family.

At his two month appt he was 11 lbs. He was in the 60% for height, 25% for weight, and 15% for head circumference (See!? Small head.)

Aliya-

Oh this child. I feel like those are always the first words out of my mouth when talking about Aliya. I may only have one girl out of four children, but her personality makes it feel like I have at least 5. How can so much sass and love fit in such a small frame? Lately she enjoys screaming when she's mad. And not screaming "No" or "Stop" or expressing a thought. But if someone does something she doesn't like, she just stands there and lets out a blood curdling scream. It's like nails on a chalkboard. ::Sigh::

She just finished her first 6 week session of swim lessons. It was her favorite part of the week.

She took the class with her best buddy. my best friend's son, Sawyer. I was going to have her take a break for the holidays, buuuuuuuuut, she wears her swimsuit daily asking if she can go to "swim lessons" she practices her bubbles and arms in the pool. She started being terrified of sticking, even her ears under water, to going under. It was a HUGE thing for her, and I'm super proud.

She got the stomach flu for the first time ever. That was heart breaking, and she doesn't throw up well. I'm pretty sure she watched The Sword and the Stone about 8 times over a two day period :-( I'm glad it's out of her system now. It was a bad one.

Alex-

This guy has been one tough boy. He started an insulin pump. We insert a tiny catheter via needle into his bum and it continuously delivers insulin for 3-4 days until we have to change the site again. No more shots!!! No more tears in the morning after giving him a shot of Lantus (it really stings for him :-( ), such a HUGE blessing. And he's so proud of it. Which make me so happy. I don't know why he was called to be so tough and have so many trials at such a young age. But I admire his attitude about everything, I wish I could give him the world.

He's been doing really well following a gluten free diet, and counting his carbs and inputting them into his pump. Unfortunately we have had a couple of site failures- and they've happened in the middle of the night, so we have had to change his injection side a few more times than normally would be needed. This guys is LOVING kindergarten. He is in a program called SEM which is an advanced class, and is reading very well. He'll also start some speech therapy next month as he's having trouble pronouncing some words that he should be able to pronounce by now. I think it's something he'll grow out of, but I'm glad he'll have some extra help with it. He gets very upset if he ever has to miss school. He has a good buddy who lives down the street from us and goes to his class. That makes my heart happy. I know we have a lot of struggles ahead, but to see him thriving right now brings joy to my soul, he also got the stomach flu and it literally knocked him out for 3 days. Thank goodness he was on the pump and I didn't have to worry about forcing food down his throat to treat low blood sugars. Here's a pic of him, after he fell asleep in the tub... slowly starting to go down. :-D

Jayden-

It has been so nice having Jayden around with Kason. He loves holding his brother. These last few weeks have been the week of sickness so he hasn't been able to hold Kason for a few days and it's breaking his heart. Jayden has such an amazing imagination. And he loves being in charge of all sorts of activities, which is a good and bad thing. One Sunday it was just me and the kids, and I was dreading having to hold

Kason allllll 3 hours. Well no worries there as Jayden had him the entire first meeting. Over an hour. He has been struggling with finding friends. He's a bit young for his grade, and I don't know if that plays a role in it. Sweet guy deals with anxiety at this young age of 8, I'm hoping to find some activities for him to do that will help build his confidence. Now that he's older our method of disciplining isn't effective, and just figuring what's going on with him in general is a whole new ball park. Our poor guinea pig oldest child. I love this guy though. His tender heart, and he tries to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, something we're going to have to figure out how to stop!!! :-O I'm so proud of the growth I've seen in him. I have distinct memories from being 8, and it has been very interesting watching him figuring out life, and doing some of the things I loved to do when I was his age. He's growing TOO fast.

Me-

I'm still thriving in the energy I now have. Being pregnant made me feel completely useless, so I've gone overboard in organizing our house and working on projects. Here's my latest:

And I've just started working on a dresser. Now, I've gotten everything out to organize and sort and I'm feeling quite overwhelmed. Ooops!

I've been slowly working on getting Christmas up. I'll try and post pictures of that next week. The kids were so excited to decorate their tree. This is a blurry picture, but the only one with all 3 of them

I've been playing nurse to sick kids, and that has been exhausting. But I also feel grateful to be able to be there for them, and to be able to have a calming effect on them when they're spewing their guts out ;-) I love being a mom..

We did pictures with mine and my brother's kids. Each year my mom gives us money to buy them Christmas outfits and then we take pictures of all the cousins together. I got to play Santa for these last pictures.

We also got family pictures done a month prior. I hate getting my picture taken lately, but for posterity... ;)

Anyway- I'm hoping when I finish purging my house and get organized I can start getting more accomplished in terms of taking care of myself and helping the kids in their classes.

I can dream, right?

Ryan-

This guy has a lot on his plate right now. He's the process of finishing three bathrooms (only two of them being ours) he's been working 3 10 hour shifts and 2 8, and they're graveyards, so it's been tough on his body. We always joked he was being paid full time and work part-time... but now that he's working so many hours... well, it's been draining for us both. But it's our new reality so hopefully our body's will adjust.

He's been a big help to me, and I'm hoping someday soon we'll be able to afford a nice vacation to be able to relax from it all.