A Couple of Good Quotes

We were driving to Costco yesterday and chatting.  Blake asked if we saw a police car passing by.  I said that I did, but Michelle had unfortunately missed it.  So not to be the only one that missed the passing police car, Michelle asked if Dylan had seen it.  Blake responds, "Dylan not talks.........he screams." 

BYU played it's bowl game today.  I got a little animated at times.  After one minor yelling-at-the-TV episode, Blake looks at me and says "Daddy, hey Daddy, maybe you should just turn it off." 
A little while later, Michelle takes him upstairs and he looks at her and says, "Daddy needs a hug."  It all ended okay as BYU won the game and I got that hug.  :)

Well, he's growing up

Let me set the stage:

For those that don't know, we try to take a lot of walks during the week.  We try to release some of Blake's energy and get some fresh air in the process.  Now, our community pool has a lock on it.  There's a red light to indicate that the lock is engaged and only turns greens and unlocks with the key. 

As we walked by the pool door this past week, Blake says, "Let's go this way, " pointing to the pool door.  We told Blake that we can't go that way, the door is locked and our key was back at the house.  He says, "No let's go this way."  Instisting that he knew the way we should go. 

He walks over to the door and pulls it right open to our astonishment.  He turns around with the door still open and tells us, "See, guys, told you.  "

Really messes with my parenting skills.  :)


Last night we were sitting on the couch and Blake looks over at me and says "Datti?".  He stops and repeats it to himself "Datti?, Datti?"  Realizing that it wasn't quite right, he says "No, Daddy.  Yes Daddy."

It was pretty funny/interesting to see him realize his small mistake and try and try to correct it. 

Kids say the darndest things.

Fun Being a Boy

There are some benefits of having neighbors close by. One benefit is when they get a new A/C unit, you can see the crane from your room. It isn't everyday you see an A/C unit in the air.

Dylan is smiling now, but it is hard to catch on camera.

Christmas

The family got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and Blake had to test it out.

Aaron got a donut maker, which we all enjoyed.

The cousins had a blast playing with their new toys together.

While Dylan slept.

My cousin, Caryn, drew the dump truck and presents on a shirt for Blake. Pretty awesome huh? Thanks to everyone for the fun presents!

8 weeks

Dylan is already 8 weeks old. We don't go in for his check up until next week, but he sure has been growing (and eating) a lot. He takes after me in that he has midget sized legs and a long torso.

Who thinks Dylan looks like Blake? A lot of people tell us that they look a lot alike.

Christmas Lights

We went to Candy Cane Lane again this year and Blake was even more excited than he was last year.

I love these decorations and love that I don't have to pay their electricity bill.

Who enjoyed the lights more...Blake

or Dylan? (who slept the whole time)

Who's a what?

So, we just finished watching Beauty and the Beast (not for the first time mind you). But I was curious about who they had sing the theme song.  I waited until the end and once it popped up I said, "Oh, Celine Dion sang it."     Blake, who is sitting right next to me, responds with "Daddy, who's a Ding Dong?"

Where goes he get this stuff?

Gingerbread House

Blake made his first gingerbread house. He was pretty focused for awhile, but then the candy was super tempting.

Yes, that is frosting on his face.

He managed to finish the house.

He thought it tasted pretty good too.

Who wants ice cream?

So, tonight after we finished eating dinner, I'm in the kitchen washing dishes and Blake looks over at Michelle and says, "Thanks for dinner mommy."

Michelle says, "Ohhh thanks Blake."

Blake says, "Tomorrow, I'll make dinner--by myself."

Michelle says "Oh that's nice Blakey. What are you going to make?"

Blake responds with, what else..."I'll make ice cream, mommy. With milk, and eggs, and orange juice, and that....cereal. "

So if anyone's open to having Blake's homemade ice cream, with OJ and cereal, just stop on by.

Merry Christmas.

Play With Me

Blake really wants to play with Dylan. After offering Dylan most of his toys and being denied, we brought out a toy that Dylan does play (well, tolerate) with.

It didn't take long for Dylan to be over the whole playing with brother gig.

The Look

This is a typical look that Dylan gives...not going to completely open his eyes to acknowledge you. Of course if Blake is around, then both eyes are wide open.

Church

Here are the guys all ready for church.

Too Cute

He found his thumb...and he kind of likes it.

Grandpa with all the grandkids.

What's your favorite kind of cheesecake?

So we made some cheesecake today and we were asking Blake what kind of fruit topping he wanted on his cheesecake. Blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, boysenberry? We asked.

He said, "I like poison berry."

I guess he found one, we could all agree on.

:)

So this video is a few weeks old. I pulled it from my phone once we were able to bring Dylan home. I call it "Brothers". Hope you like it.

Happy Thanksgiving

The original plan was for Dylan to be born the day before Thanksgiving, but Dylan had other plans. We were able to spend Thanksgiving/my birthday with my family.

Blake was able to get out some energy with his cousins.

Dylan was able to sleep and be held by lots of people.

Great-Grandma had a hard time giving Dylan up to the next person to be held.

The Kids

3 1/2 weeks old

Grandma loves to hold Dylan.

So I know Blake looks like Aaron, but I guess he has to be like Aaron too by using the computer.

He was excited to get out of the house.

Disneyland

My friend asked me if it would be okay if she took Blake to Disneyland for the day. Um, let me think about that...YES. He had a blast with his friends and I was able to get a lot of my Christmas shopping done. Thanks Shaylyn!

First Trip to the Park

A couple weeks ago, Dylan went to the park for the first time. He slept the whole time.

Blake was okay with that because that meant more playing.

Brothers

Blake loves his little brother, maybe a little too much. This is the boys on our way to Dylan's first pediatrician visit (outside the NICU). Blake got his flu shot while we were there. After the shot, he said, "That hurt me." So sad.

Blake hanging out.

This picture makes me laugh. Blake is always wanting to kiss or hug Dylan, but he is working on being soft with Dylan. Dylan doesn't enjoy these kisses or hugs and always has an eye out for Blake, or, tries to turn away from him all together. Blake really wants Dylan to play with him and keeps bringing him toys to play with. Dylan will be old enough before I know it though and they will be causing all sorts of trouble.

Can you tell where Blake was when this picture was taken? Yep, right next to dad who was taking the picture. Usually Dylan does just have one eye open looking for Blake, but this time, two eyes were necessary.

Happy Halloween

The plan was to get a pumpkin last Friday, but Dylan had other plans, so we finally got around to carving a pumpkin today.

Blake had a lot of fun.

Is Aaron an artist or what? Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Discharged

After long visits and discussions with doctors, I agreed that I would sit in the NICU all day and do all the feedings so that Dylan could be released.

This was the last NICU room that he was in. He was in 4 different locations within the NICU.

Here Dylan is waiting to go home.

Blake loves his little brother. He gives him lots of kisses and wants to hold him...for about 30 seconds. Blake reacted a lot better than I thought he would. We will see if that changes, but so far he really likes him. We are really happy and fortunate to be home. So many of the families in the NICU have been there for months and we were there for a week. I learned that while most of the nurses and doctors are great, you have to be really involved during rounds so that you can add your input. One of the doctors had my back the whole time...I liked that doctor. We have so many doctors visits in the near future and we still don't know the results for BWS, but it is nice to be home. He has gone on a couple walks already with the family. We'll see if he likes walks as much as Blake did as a midget. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers!

Tuesday

Tuesday, I was discharged from the hospital. Aaron picked my up and we went over to visit with Dylan before we went home.

We were told that he needed to work on his eating and then he would be discharged.

Back at home, Blake was trying to get over his cold. I kept wondering how he was going to react to Dylan.

Grandpa's Visit

While Grandpa was the first family member to see Dylan, he didn't think he should be the first family member to hold him. After work yesterday, Grandpa finally held Dylan and Dylan smiled at Grandpa. Dylan has Grandpa's toes, which I call flip flop toes because there is a big space between the two toes--perfect fit for wearing flip flops.

The NICU is kind of an interesting place where they test for everything and are super careful about everything. It kind of drives me nuts sometimes, but as long as they are getting Dylan all better and ready to come home, I guess I should not complain.

Update: Dylan gets really, really made when he is hungry and some of the nurses are so schedule based that they won't feed him any earlier than his scheduled feeding. His heart rate sky rockets when they make him wait and the alarms go off. But once he is full, he is such a happy camper. He is having a hard time taking the bottle, so they stuck a feeding tube in him again, which he hated. Who would like it though right? I was there when they put it in and he immediately pulled it out. Once they put some temporary tape on, he pushed his stomach (since the tube goes from his nose to his stomach) which made the tube pop out again. Did I mention that he hates it? I told him that if he starting eating better then he could get the tube out. So he loves food, but has a hard time eating. He breathes through his mouth, so he hasn't figured out how to breathe and eat at the same time. Yesterday, I was able to nurse him and he did fantastic. My guess is because he had control of flow, etc. If he gets this feeding thing down better, then they say he might come home on Friday, but that can change. The other big thing from yesterday was they ran tests on his kidneys because one looked bigger than the other and were concerned that was making some of his urine go in the wrong direction. The results came back and the flow is normal, so he shouldn't have any urinary tract infections like they thought he might. The other concern is that they might need to clip the bottom of his tongue so that he could eat better, but the doctors are debating whether it is necessary or not. We are still waiting on the results from his chromosome test to see if he has BWS (beckwith wiedemann syndrome), but won't get those for another week or so.

Today I get to go home, but as luck would have it, Blake is totally sick. I am sure grateful for my parents who are willing to watch him even though he is sick. We just need to get Blake healthy before Dylan is released.