Updates on the man

 Daniel has started Speech therapy and Feeding therapy. We haven't been going very long and I can already see a huge improvement with Daniel. We had an evaluation a couple of weeks ago and the therapist told me input wise he is above average but output wise he is definitely below average. I knew that already, because I can see how much he understands when I talk to him or give him directions.

This picture was taken right before his surgery for his tubes and his tongue being clipped. As you can see his tongue is heart shaped at the tip and that is as far as he could stick it out. Because his tongue was tied he didn't know how to use his tongue properly to speak or eat. (maneuver food in his mouth)
I waited to see if he would pick it up himself but months have gone by and he still doesn't know how to use it. He cannot say his favorite word (and person) Da Da. He cannot move his tongue to the roof of his mouth. So he calls him Ga Ga.
So because he couldn't move the food around in his mouth for so long he is now scared to try new foods. I am not just talking about a picky eater here. I am talking about immense fear overcomes him as I place something new like cheese or a piece of bread in front of him. He is on stage 2 baby food that I normally mix into oatmeal for his meals. He eats crackers and has been open to trying most fruits. We tried cantaloupe and honeydew melons the other day and he will not have it!
So here are a list of words he can say....just for me to track his progress
What he should say...what he says....and what is stands for....
Da Da--Ga Ga---Daddy
Jo Jo-- Go Go----Joseph
Ma ma------Momma
Mo--More---More
Cracker----Cracker
Pup Pup-----Puppy
Bu------Bus
Yeah-------Yes
ooo---(shakes head)---No
ro owwh ro owwh----sings Roll Over Roll Over! {{sooo cute}}
Boo----When playing peak a boo
poon--------Spoon
Wa Wa------water
Ame-------Amen
Signs: some he does the correct signs for...others he adapted to what he wanted to use.
All done
Sticks his finger in his mouth to show he wants his drink
Folds his arms when he wants to pray


Most of the time I hear those words along with ahh..uhhh..aahhh..
He tries to talk he just cannot.
Today he wanted to say the prayer. Normally when he wants to I whisper it and we all pretend he tried to copy me. Today I asked if he wanted to and he said yeah.
Then he held up his hand and shook his head saying nooooo! I said do you want to say it? He said yeah.

So we all waited

He folded his arms and said....
Ahh..ehhhh. ahhhh ahhhh. Ehhh.
Ame!!!

I almost died from his cuteness.

Our Happy Easter

 Believe it or not but we had a happy Easter. Joseph's face may sway you to believe otherwise but it was really nice. I hosted at my house this year and when we arrived home from church I pushed Jason outside the door with the boys and told him to take Easter pictures.  I wanted to do some last minute cleaning and prepping so I thought he could handle it. After about 10 minutes Jason came back in obviously flustered telling me he didn't get a single good one....I however adore each and everyone of them!

 First off Joseph never really smiles for the camera and for him to catch this real (and I will add sweet) smile was pretty darn good skills.

 He just adores his little brother.

Hope you had a nice Easter Sunday too!

way behind.

(insert laugh here)

I came across this gem today and couldn't believe I forgot to post it. 

Want to know whats going on with Daniel??

I suppose it is time to let everyone know what has been going on with Daniel.

Most of you know this story but if not...here I go anyways and I will try to make it short.

Daniel has been sick since he was about 5-6 months old. He has always had a 90 year old man cough and nasal congestion. I had been seeing a family doctor (silly me) and he would always tell me he had something viral. Eventually we put him on some allergy medications and that did nothing for my baby. He started becoming a terribly unhappy baby over the last 4 months. He stopped saying any words he had been attempting to say and just said AHHHHHH ahhh AHHHH ahhhh.

All.   Day.    Long.

Recently he broke out with a full rash on his whole belly,chest and back. We went to see the good ol' family doctor who checked everything out and found nothing.

The next  day I switched to a pediatrician and she found..get this...two fully blown ear infections. AFTER THE FAMILY DOCTOR JUST LOOKED IN BOTH EARS AND SAW NOTHING!!!!!

lets sum this story up....we saw a ENT and he had slight hearing loss in one ear due to the infections never noticed...
He needed tubes.
He needed his tongue re clipped
and he needed to see a allergy specialist.

We found out he has asthma and the breathing treatments have done wonders for our boy. He said my name again for the first time in months the day he started the breathing treatments.
He got tubes in about 2 weeks ago.
His tongue was so bad the doc had to cut it 3 times.
He is being tested for all kinds of others issues just to be on the safe side. We can officially rule out Cystic Fibrosis. Yay!!

Daniel is learning how to use his tongue again and we are learning patience for the louder noises he can now make due to the clippings :)

He is doing wonderful during the day time with all the new changes going however he has started to have night terrors. I have found through google that many other children also developed night terrors after surgery. I had never seen Daniel so crazy as when he was coming off after the surgery. Now I get to see it every single night. I hope it ends soon.

randomness at it's best.

All my random thoughts at the moment.

Yes. This is a family picture you are looking at. I am about the biggest procrastinator you will ever meet. My mother was desperate for a picture of the family and made us sit down when we went to visit. I am happy to have a picture!

For those of you who do not know. Daniel will be getting his tubes in his ears and his tongue re clipped in the morning. Please keep him and his mama in your prayers. :) Also he has asthma and we feel like we are finially getting some answers to why our poor baby has been misrable for the majority of his young life.

I didn't realize I planned a babyshower and surgery for the same week. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. What the heck should I make food wise?

I am however very excited about the game I will play at the shower. I cannot tell you just in case someone wanted to cheat.hahaha...but I will in another post.

There are certain people who come into your life and are only there for a brief moment. But they taught you how to be a better person. For me that was my friend Hannah. She helped me out while I adjusted to motherhood. She probably has no idea how much her friendship meant to me back then. I hope she knows now :)

I am going to re read the Book Of Mormon again this year.

if you want to join me...it will change your life forever

Brothers.

Sometimes being a brother is better than being a superhero.

These two are just starting to get along. Daniel has been scared of Joseph for a long time. Not because Joseph is mean to D, but because he loves on him too much and too hard.
Now they have started to play and Joseph will chase Daniel around and Daniel just LOVES it. They laugh a lot more and get into trouble together too. Like last night they both threw about a billion items of clothes into a tub filled with water and when I got on to them they ran away laughing.....hmmm. I think they are going to be gaining up on me

We did the usual pumpkin festivals for the season and you can always guarantee that Daniel with cheese it up for you....

This is how Joseph likes to pose for my camera. We are making Halloween cookies using my all natural food coloring. (That will be a entirely different post)

Another fab pose from Joseph. Trust me we were begging him to smile forever and this is the best we got! Crazy boy.

They both love love love the water. We take baths every night because it calms them both down a ton.

This picture sums up the past few months of the boys relationship. Joseph trying to get D's attention and Daniel not caring at all. I am glad it seems to be changing a bit and they are enjoying being brothers. Because as I know....siblings ROCK!

Daniel

This is his first smile on camera EVER!! His first time with a banana too.

This is his face he makes...all the time.

Go ahead. Eat him up.

Daniel turned One.

We had a party and he got lots of fun toys. He was an awesome infant. Just a dream. Then he started to get fussy for a while and only said "Aaaaaaaaaaa" All. The. Time.

Seriously. It was driving me crazy. It was like water tourcher....then the heavens opened and he started to communicate with me through sign language. It really is awesome.

He is a  behind in his language skills when I compare him to Joseph. That is okay.

He can say.......

mama

dada

ba -banana

bye bye

bath

giggles for yes

roars-every animal he sees

barks when he hears a dog

pumm en- pumpkin

ba-bottle (working on signing milk)

uuuu-up

awwww- when he hugs you

tries to say gentle

signs:

more

please

all done

I am in the process of finding a doctor to make sure everything is okay with my tike. I have a family doctor but want a pediatrician now.

I think he may be lactose intolerant. When I stopped breastfeeding (because he didn't want it) I used formula. He had an upset stomach forever and barely wanted anything to drink. We switched to Soy formula and it got better. Now I have him on Almond milk and he has never drank so much 'milk' in his life. Whenever he does get dairy his stomach gets upset.

He does not sleep through the night. I am lucky if he sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time. I curse the Hemsley genes and their poor sleep habits. Everyone of them have sleep issues.

He loves to hug me and be held by me. He is my snuggler. He wants to be outside 90% of the day. He loves walks and going down slides.

Square head, sponge pants.

That is the nickname Jason has lovingly given to our son. Why? Because he has a huge square head and wears diapers. Seriously, I have people comment on how big his head is all the time. At the last Dr. appointment Dr. Huff told me that he has always been measuring in the 95% on his head. It had moved up a bit and he wanted to remeasure to make sure they did it right. They had. He asked if anyone in the family has a large head, maybe his dad? I laughed and said yes his sisters say he has a big head ;) He told me I shouldn't worry because he is doing great on everything.
Well last night I woke up in bed and felt a tiny body next to me. I looked and it was Daniel. I had no clue how he got there. So I woke up Jason and asked him when and why he put Daniel in our bed. Jason said he never did. I was like well he is in our bed and I have no clue how he got here. Jason asked me if Daniel was crawling around.....okay, Jason must still be asleep. I'll give him another minute. Then I started to question if he was awake. Yes he told me. Then he sat up and looked down and said..."that's Joseph Rebecca, NOT Daniel"

Geeze, he must really have a big head for me to confuse him with a almost 3 year old.

We were the last house on the street...

To rake up our leaves. It has been a bad sight to see. Since Jason was going out to do it I bundled up the boys and we went out side to "help" dad.

As you can see we did a lot of helping. All tuckered out after a hard days work.

Daniels blessing.

I finally got around to doing Daniels blessing at church a couple of weeks ago. It was perfect and sweet. Thanks to all the family who traveled to attend. It meant so very much to us.
My mother bought his outfit that I absolutely adore. Thanks Mom!!

So because I forgot to do his stats. Here are both his one month and two month check ups.

ONE month.

10lbs 4.5 oz-----62%

Ht- 22 1/2 inches----76%

Head ----15 1/2-----72 %

TWO months

12lbs 11 oz-----61%

Ht-24inches-----75%

Head16 1/2 ----83%

one thing is for sure. he has a big head!!

he is a better sleeper than Joseph.

he goes down every night around 6:30-7 and sleeps for at least 5 hours. Just the other night he went from 6:30 to 4:30..... talk about a happy momma.

He will smile at anyone who looks at him.

He has discovered his hands.

He is not that much of a paci baby.

He loves to snuggle us and I can already tell he is a mamma boy. I don't mind it one bit. :)

Joseph

Joseph is just becoming such a cute little boy. I still refer to him as my baby which throws people off. It's just hard to break that habit. He is such a great big brother and a little comic in our house. A friend of mine made matching hats for the boys. I love them. Miss you all. Now off to my busy life.

More Pictures in next post.

Our little baby

I have been wanting to post more pictures of Daniel for a while now and just never got around to it. Enjoy him like we do!

I finally have time to update....

Here is my last picture of my pregnant self. We took it right before we walked into the hospital. Question: How old do I look to all of you in this picture.
I was treated like a 16 year old knocked up teen the entire stay at the hospital. I hated it..... that will be a entire different post. Now on to the cuteness..

Joseph has taken to his little brother. He is so sweet to him and kisses him and tells him all kinds of sweet words. However he has not been so kind to mama. He has taken all the anger out on me and has been on Jason like white on rice. No lie the kid is obsessed with his father right now. I had lot of my sisters telling me that he would become a daddy's boy and I was looking forward to their bonding moment. I just didn't know it would also break my heart at the same time. He no longer ran to me when he got hurt. He no longer came to my side of the bed when he woke up. I missed the things that he and I shared.

But I adore my new family. The one where I have 3 boys in my life now, to care for and watch over. Now Joseph and I get to share a new and different life together and that includes Daniel. I hope the two will grow up to be best friends like me and my siblings. That they can share inside jokes and memories together as they grow.

I realize it will be a while before they really get to play together and enjoy each other the way brothers should enjoy each other. Until that happens they can start by sharing a good snuggle on the couch.

Daniel Richard

Little Daniel arrived to our family as promised on Sep 24Th at 8 am. He surprised us when he weighed 8lbs and 5oz and was a week early. He weighed more than Joseph did and he was only a day early. Recovery has been a bit more painful than last time and I have loved being home again. Just a warning but viewer discretion advised for the next couple of pictures......... He has been such a wonderful little baby. He is so calm and cuddles us so much. We just adore this little guy. Last night he let me sleep for 3 hour stretches and that was the best ever.
Off to bed now!!