It’s Picture Time Again :)

Kristopher’s award ceremony where he got a perfect attendance award!  He’s wearing his Busy Bee buttons on a sash.  He gets those for turning in his reading sheet each week. 

 

I just enjoy looking at this… how could you not? :)

 

Such a happy little guy… for the moment :)  He has been spitting up more the last few days because he’s got a runny nose (mucus makes him reflux) so he stayed home with me today.  This pic is from a few days ago.

 

Sweet baby girl.  I should have learned by now that every time she wears that shirt she throws up on it.  Lynae started iron this week and can’t seem to keep it down…

 

One of the sweet smiles I was able to capture on film :)  We are getting them more and more often now!  And… her hair is growing some!

 

NO, he’s not licking his hand :)  He’s blowing me a kiss!  Sweet Micah!

 

Wesley and Brianna are exactly the same size, but Brianna weighs 7 pounds more.  They are the same height, same clothes sizes, same shoe size.  And Wesley is 11 months older  (until his birthday they are both 5!).  They sure do enjoy each other tho!

This picture reminds me of those ‘big head, little body’ pictures they do of cats and dogs… but Emma’s much cuter :)  She enjoys playing with plastic plates.  Round and flat is mesmerizing and she will flip and flap it for hours if left to her own (and no, we don’t let her…)

This is what one bedroom has looked like for a little while.  Yep, 6 beds!  James and Micah moved out of their cribs and into toddler beds!  Except, James lasted in a toddler bed about 3 days before I decided that it was time to adjust a little more than ‘just’ that… Aleksa was on the bottom bunk and James and Micah were in the toddler beds when this pic was taken.

 

This is the other bedroom before our changes…  Kristopher slept up top, Wesley on the bottom, and Brianna on the other mattress.

I’ll share more about bedrooms when they’re done, but now the 4 boys are in one room, Kristopher on top, James on bottom (enclosed!), and Wesley and Micah are in toddler beds.  The dark crib moved to the girls’ room because it’s the crib we will keep for Lynae for now and get rid of the other two cribs.  That crib will change into a toddler bed in a few months as well but since I had two matching beds we put the two boys in them.  The crib was added to the other room, and now the 4 girls have beds in the other room!  I haven’t moved Emma and Lynae over to that room yet though.

For Wesley’s birthday we got him a ‘tiny recliner’.  Why?  Seems like a strange gift for a little boy?  Well, we’re sewing in a small restraint so he can sit in it and watch a movie with all the other ‘big kids’ without having to be in his wheelchair!  Since he can’t sit up independently, this helps him by being reclined a bit, supporting his legs, and still being on kid level! :)

 

I’m thinking my post about this piece of furniture never made it to my blog.  I know I’ve talked about it, but not sure if I’ve shown it or not.  This is my dream.  Come true.  I asked my dad if he could build me a changing table.  I wasn’t thinking anything quite this intricate, or this nice, but he went all out!  I basically drew it all out and handed it to him and he not only made it a reality, but he made it a beautiful one!

  

Here’s the table with Wesley laying on it.  There’s still a LOT of space for him to grow!!

 

Since I have LOTS of kids in diapers (have you been counting?  Seven.  Yep, SEVEN kids in diapers!), I measured the largest diapers I had and then used those sizes to make the drawers the right size to hold everything I needed.  That determined the depth of the table and the size of each drawer.  In the picture below I tried to show all the storage that it provides.  The top left drawer has hair supplies, glasses and their spray to wash them, and gauze, etc for James’ g-tube.   The middle drawer is JUST for clean PJs!  We do new ones on bath nights every-other night and the PJs were always without a home.  Top right drawer is lotions, gloves, diaper creams…  Then  there are 6 identical drawers on the left and middle that are all for DIAPERS :).  The bottom is a HUGE drawer just for SHOES.  So they always go on and get taken off where the clothes are!  The Right hand side in the 2nd slot there is a drawer for extra trash bags and extra wipes, then the bottom is NOT a trash can (though the trash bin can be misleading when empty…) and it is, in fact, a HAMPER.

I LOVE this and it makes life SO MUCH EASIER!  We got rid of the hamper, shoe bin, stack of boxes next to the changing table, and all the ‘stuff’ that always accumulated on top of the table.  Instead, we have a beautiful piece of furniture that holds everything we need!

I have been told my dad needs to change careers and start just building special needs/adaptive furniture, and I must say that he does an AWESOME job at it!  Maybe he just needs to sell the plans to a company that would make them since he doesn’t have the time (or desire) to make them over and over again :).

 

Well, what WAS a picture of James turned into a blur of James with a nice background :)  So I will share anyway!

 

This is what they are watching… tho the lighting is awful, the porch was a nice chaotic mess and the kids were having a BLAST! :)

 

Lynae climbed up on Aleksa’s lap because she wanted to lay on the pillow next to her…

And Aleksa thought it was pretty neat :)

 

After all, she IS the big sister! :)  And I loved this picture because Mr. Happy is also in it, sharing one of his huge grins with his sisters :).

 

This is Brianna tonight.  She and her dolly were getting their nightly breathing treatments.  The penguin next to them?  That’s the nebulizer.  Tonight was our first time using the mask instead of the puffer and it worked pretty well.  Especially after Brianna saw her baby had a mask like her.  She didn’t even dump it on the couch.  Progress is good :)

 

Miss thing sitting and waiting for bed.  I’m still so amazed at the progress she’s made lately.  What a beautiful treasure she is!

 

Micah had looked at me with the BIGGEST EYES because he knew I was going to take a picture and he didn’t want to blink! LOL.  So, instead we have the half-drugged look :)

 

James’ tube is doing funky things (again!) so we were playing on the floor after cleaning it up and he was all giggles.  He’s a sweetheart when you don’t make him mad! :) :)

And Wesley, very unhappy with the idea of being set down.   I missed the full-on pout, but this one’s close.  As soon as I came over to take his sad picture he decides he’s not sad anymore.  All he wants is for me to sit and talk to him all day.  He’s pretty easy to please, yet VERY demanding about it! LOL

That’s all for now, maybe some ‘finished’ bedroom pictures in a few days if I can get it all done.   Today was my second day in January with NO appointments!   All together, we’ve had 48 appointments in the 21 week-days of January (but 2 had no appointments, so 48 in 19 days).  Talk about BUSY!? :)

Tomorrow I’m going to a Bible Study just for ME :) :).  After Micah’s IEP and before school pick-up and parent teacher conferences at night… and youth group. Fun stuff!