Cutest kid on the planet!!!

Well, Kaysen is officially the cutest kid on the planet...according to his Mom, of course! He is finally saying "Daddy", although it's more like 'Daaaa-Deeee'. At the first of the video, he is saying "EEEEEE", but I'm pretty sure he was trying to say "Cheese!". What a funny kid, but at least he is starting to try to talk!
When Bretten is in pre-school on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and Jaylee is at kindergarten every morning now, it is kinda quiet around here, but it is nice to have some one-on-one time with Kaysen! We've never really had that with him, so he doesn't quite know what to think either, but I can tell he enjoys having Mom's full attention!

My only girl!!!

Jaylee and her 'not-so-royal' brothers!



Ever since the ultrasound, Jaylee will not drop the subject of why we are having another boy. I've been trying to help her look on the upside of it by telling her she'll always get her own room, and she'll always get to have "girls day out" with me, and so on. I have to say that I am also glad that she'll have 3 little brothers to practice kicking off her, so she'll know how to handle the boys when she's older...haha! At the same time I definitely am a little sad for her because I can't imagine life without my sisters!
Anyways, the other day we had a mini girls day! We dressed her up as a princess and took some pictures. I was going to do her hair like I usually do, but she informed me she wanted a pretty princess hairstyle! We had to take some pretty pictures of her afterwards. After she was done playing princess, we went shopping for some new clothes for her (and a few maternity ones for me) and then we ate at Gandolfos, her favorite! She later told me that maybe it would be alright if she was my only girl! :) She also told me that Next Time she wanted to go get her hair done again with me (she really liked when we did that!).
I have to say that I'm very happy and lucky that I got at least one girl and am also glad that she's 100% girly!

Middle Ear Fluid = Ear Tubes!!!

Kaysen was so cute in the waiting area. He kept peeking around the curtain to see the other little boy that was there.


The nurse gave Kaysen this cute little stuffed lion before he went back for surgery!


Just waiting for our turn!


Playing with his new favorite toy! He loves lions and he loves stuffed animals, so this was the perfect toy for him!


Waiting for Kaysen to wake up from the anesthesia. We're so glad everything went well! :)


A few hours later, he was completely back to normal!

I started to notice some speech delay in Kaysen at around 15 months when he still wasn't saying simple words like 'mama', 'dada', 'ball', etc. I asked the doctor about it at his 15 month check-up in April, but she said it was common for babies with older siblings to have speech delays. I knew that sometimes they took longer to talk, but I was concerned because he wasn't even saying those basic simple words. To ease my mind, his pediatrician did a hearing test on him and found out that he had ­Middle Ear Fluid. I asked more about it and why that could delay his speech and she told me that the sounds that go in his eardrum can't vibrate correctly when fluid is in there, so he doesn't hear correctly and that it can also cause permanent hearing damage and developmental delays if left untreated. She said that what Kaysen was hearing was like having ear plugs in or having his hands over his ears when somebody was talking to him. Since I was already worrying about his speech delay, this worried me even more, but she said they needed to wait 3 more months and check him again and that if it hadn't cleared up (because sometimes it clears up on its own), then he would need tubes put in his ears. This surprised me because I thought ear tubes were only for kids who had frequent ear infections and Kaysen had never even been treated for an ear infection! That is not always the case though. Anyways, Kaysen was tested again at his 18 month check-up and he still showed fluid in his ears, so we scheduled an appointment with an ENT specialist and this doctor was also conerned that at 19 months Kaysen wasn't saying anything, so we scheduled the surgery for 2 days later, which was today! I had already done a lot of reserach on ear tubes after Kaysen's first check-up that alerted us of the middle ear fluid, so I was trying not to be too worried, but it's always a little scary to have your baby put under anesthesia! I'm glad they scheduled the surgery so quick because that didn't leave me a lot of time to dwell on it. We went in at 7:15 this morning (they do it early in the morning for babies since they can't eat or drink anything for many hours before the anesthesia). Kaysen was a little surprised to have us wake him up so early and when we got to the hospital I could tell he was wondering what in the world was going on. He had to change into a cute little hospital gown and then the nurse anesthetist played with him for a minute to help him not be so scared and then I gave him a kiss goodbye before they took him back in the Operating Room. They put him right under the gas mask and went to work. They came and got me about 8 minutes later and let me go wait with him in the recovery room (it's a very quick procedure). It took him a little while to wake up from the gas and when he did, he was pretty mad at me and a little disoriented and confused. I hade a sippy cup and some gold fish crackers waiting for him though, so he coudln't stay too mad at me! Kaysen was a brave little trooper and he did great! We got to go home about a half hour later, and a few hours later he was his happy playful self! So, it wasn't that bad at all and hopefully this will help him hear better. We still have to go in for regular check-ups to have his speech followed, to make sure he is making progress so that we know if the tubes helped, or if it's something else.

First Day of School!!!

All Ready to Go!


Excited to be home and tell Mom all about her day!


Bretten trying to be excited about getting ready for his first day of preschool!

Wednesday was Jaylee's first day of kindergarten and Bretten's first day of preschool! Luckily, they both got morning schedules (not so lucky for me because I'm not a morning person, but lucky in the sense that one isn't on a afternoon schedule and one on morning).
One thing they do at Bretten's preschool is they send a paper home that lets the parents know what he did that day, so here is what his first "My School Day" note said:
"Today I played with the cash register. I played in purple sand. I laughed when we sang the freeze song. I played with a pirate ship."

Bretten isn't terribly shy, but he definitely has a little bit of anxiety about new people and new situations. Last week at his back to school night he had to keep asking me if I was going to be there the whole time with him because he wasn't ready to go by himself. I kept reassuring him that I would be there, but that next week when he started preschool, he would have to go by himself. He would say that was okay because he was going to be a big boy next week. I could tell from the way he said his response that he was trying to talk himself into believing it though. When we woke him up on Wednesday morning for school, he started sobbing first thing, before we could even say anything. He knew it was the big day and he couldn't hold his fears in any longer! So, I told him it was going to be okay and that I would go with him and stay with him until he felt comfortable. That made him feel a little better. Since Jaylee's school starts 10 minutes earlier than preschool, we took her first and he saw that she was excited and fine with going to school, so I think that helped. I was a little anxious to leave Jaylee and trying to decide how I felt about the whole thing, but she is so independent and was telling me I could leave now, so I didn't worry too much about her and was happy that she was so excited to be starting kindergarten. When we got to Bretten's school, he was excited and all the teachers and staff were really friendly and welcoming. I helped him find his name tag and he hung his backpack up and then he immediately ran over to the tables where there were other kids doing puzzles. He jumped right in on the fun and forgot all about being scared. So, I told him I was leaving and that I loved him and he didn't even stop to look up as he said "Bye Mom! Love you!". That was a relief because I was kind of worried he wouldn't let me leave. (And yes, I'll enjoy the days that he isn't embarrassed to say "I love you!" in front of his whole class!). When I picked Bretten up, he couldn't stop talking about all the fun things he did. He especially liked the 'purple sand' that he got to play with. When Jaylee got home, she was anxious to tell me all about her day too and told me they got recess and that it was her favorite part of school! Go figure! Since Bretten got home before her and had already told me all about his day, Jaylee was really cute and made Bretten tell her all over again about everything he did at preschool. She was excited for him to start school too. She is such a great big sister!