2015 - In Review

I always love to look back on my previous year and reflect on the ups and downs. When I think back on 2015 all the things that pop into my head are "Difficult pregnancy and baby with a hear defect." And obviously, that was a huge part of my year. But I did not just sit around twiddling my thumbs while waiting for Trixie's arrival. Life was lived!

Of course, the biggest highlight was having Trixie. Her heart defect threw us for a loop, but it also blessed our family in many ways. We are so grateful to have her in our family, and we have felt the love of God in countless ways since learning of her diagnosis and welcoming her to our family.

I counted 36 medical and dental appointments on my 2015 calendar, and I know there were a few I missed. Many of those were pregnancy-related checkups, but it still adds up to a lot of time in doctors' offices. I'm crossing my fingers for fewer appointments in 2016.

Places in 2016:

• Utah
• Hawaii (No kids!)
• Nevada (just drove through)
• California
• Oregon
• Washington (just drove through)
• Idaho
• Montana
• Wyoming

Fun activities:

• Camping! And lots of it. We camped in Utah, California, Oregon, and Wyoming.
• Biked the Hiawatha Trail. It was challenging and fun. We'd like to do it again one day when the kids are bigger.
• Swimming in the ocean, both in Hawaii, and a little bit off the Oregon coast.
• Canoeing! So much canoeing! Rivers included:
• Trinity River in Northern California
• Smith River in Northern California
• Rogue River in Oregon
• Nehalem River in Oregon
• Spokane River in Idaho
• Snake River in Wyoming
• Jordan River
• Provo River (But I had just had a baby, so I was absent for this one. The boys had fun though.)
• Colorado River (But I had just had a baby, so I was absent for this one too.)
• Clark Fork River in Montana

Other noteworthy things for 2015:

• Felix became potty trained at two years and three months old.
• Ike cracked his head open and got four staples.
• Then he broke his wrist and got a cast.
• I started teaching Ike to read. (Everyone remind me of this if I ever consider homeschooling.)
• The boys got moved into the same room, which means Felix doesn't get enough sleep.
• We bought a new dresser for the boys, and they now do the bulk of putting their own clothes away. (Lazy Mother of the Year!)
• Had our second shepherds' meal the Monday before Christmas. Ike astounded us with everything he could remember about the angels visiting the shepherds.
• Lots of trips and picnics at the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. We love that place.

Birthdays:

• I turned 31. Eric and I went out for burgers at Five Guys, and then we did a little shopping.
• Our family birthdays are now August, September, October, November, and December, with Trixie being in August. The farther away we got from her actual day of birth, the more capable we were of doing fun things for the other birthdays. Eric's birthday in September was an afterthought. Sorry, dude.
• We started going to Cold Stone to use our buy-one-get-one coupons. Best tradition ever.
• Ike had a his first-ever birthday party with friends, and it was a lot of fun. Eric was a terrific party entertainer.

Goals for 2016:

• Keep Trixie healthy for the remainder of flu/cold/RSV season.
• Resume making bread for the family. (Totally stopped that early in 2015 and haven't been able to get going again.)
• Read all the books for book group. (I read most for 2015. I think I skipped out on the months when I knew I couldn't attend.)
• Host a meal for parents and families at the Ronald McDonald Family Room in Primary Children's Hospital.

Ike is Five

It happened on Sunday: Ike turned five. I've tried not to spend too much time wondering how this happened.

At five years old, Ike is sometimes a pill, but I'm not going to focus on the negative things in this post.

Ike is a great older brother, especially to his baby sister. He loves her so much, and it is adorable to watch. He also loves Felix, and they usually play incredibly well together. I recently heard him negotiating with Felix to take turns with something, and I was really impressed and pleased that he is learning to work things out when they disagree rather than fight or bring their issue to me.

Ike's favorite thing to do is play with friends. He will go from one house to the next, to the next, to the next, all day long, if I let him. From his friends, he has learned about a lot of pop culture things like Star Wars, Avengers, zombies, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and ninjas. We don't watch many shows, and we heavily sensor what few shows the kids see on Netflix, so some of the things he tells us about those shows and their characters has been surprising. One day we'll happily watch Star Wars with him, but right now we think he is too little.

His favorite toys are his dinosaurs, and I enjoyed putting the dimetrodon puzzle (pictured above) together with him. (Eric picked it up, brand new and unopened at a yard sale several months ago. Woot!) He also loves his Hot Wheels race track and his wooden trains.

All of Ike's teachers (at Primary, tumbling class, and pre-school) tell me that he is exceptionally well-behaved and polite. Other parents also have commented on how polite he is. This is both thrilling and baffling to me. Thrilling for obvious reasons, and baffling because he can be such a stinker with us sometimes!

I sure do love this little boy of mine. He is so fun and such a good helper. I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops over the next year as he starts public school.

Trixie: Three Months

I feel like I could copy and paste from the two month summary with very little changes.

One big update is that her heart is improving. The cardiologist was really impressed with how her heart is working right now, and we anticipate that it will continue to gradually improve for a while. At some point she will need more procedures (like a valve replacement), but right now that appears to be years down the road rather than months. We are incredibly grateful for that.

Trixie is still a night owl, but once she is finally down for the night, she usually sleeps for about 8 hours, give or take an hour.

This month she has started smiling more frequently, and we all enjoy that. She still loves the ceiling fan and flails with excitement when we turn it on. When it is not on it she stares at it with anticipation.

Ike is still Trixie's biggest fan. He adores her and is constantly in her face trying to amuse her or something - I'm not really sure what his deal is. Felix likes her well enough, but he has ordered me to put her in a her bed a handful of times this past month. At the same time, he is protective of her and does not like her to get shots (which we do at least once a month because she gets extra vaccinations), and he regularly tells me that our baby is the cutest or best baby in the world. (His neighbor friend across the street, Charlotte, has the second cutest baby.)

Yesterday was her blessing day, and Eric gave her a beautiful baby blessing. She wore the dress that I wore nearly 31 years ago, and which my mom made for me. My mom couldn't be there, so it was nice to have this little heirloom.

Anyone who can get my kids to cooperate for pictures deserves their weight in gold. 

Trixie: Two Months

With my first two babies, I've felt like 6 weeks is the magical time when I've adjusted to the new baby and life has reached a level of normalcy. Somehow, miraculously, I've felt like that with Trixie for about the last month.

Though she doesn't like to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, once she does go to sleep, she usually sleeps well, and that has been a great blessing for us. Most nights I get at least a six-hour stretch. We've had a few rough nights where she doesn't settle down until after midnight, but by and large, Trixie is a pretty good sleeper.

Trixie loves to eat and weighed 11 pounds and 12 ounces at her checkup last week. She turned beet red with anger when she got her shots. I nursed her for a couple of minutes afterwards, and all was well. Nursing solves nearly all her problems.

She started smiling this month, which has been delightful for everyone, especially Ike. He really adores his baby sister and loves to take any opportunity to touch her, cuddle her, and try to get her attention. Felix likes her too, but not quite as much as Ike does. On Sunday our bishop asked Felix if he would teach his baby sister about Jesus, and Felix talked to her for a few minutes about Jesus when we got home. It was really sweet.

Trixie is still on oxygen all the time (except I took it off for a few minutes to get a couple of pictures). I've taken her off her oxygen for short periods of time to see check her saturation levels without it, and she definitely needs it. Our next follow-up with a cardiologist is this month, and I think he'll confirm my suspicion that she will be on oxygen for several months. Having to haul an oxygen tank around when we go out is a bit of a pain, but it's become our routine, and I hardly notice it anymore. Having Trixie hooked up to the oxygen concentrator at home is also such a part of our lives that I don't notice the sound anymore.

Felix Is Three

He is smaller than most two-year-olds, but he's definitely three. Felix loves:

• Cooking and baking with me, especially when he gets to taste things. He is an adventurous eater and loves vegetables. He had a picky phase around two, but he is now probably the best three-year-old in the world when it comes to eating . For example, he loves to eat onions as I slice them.
• His blue blanket. I have to be sneaky to get it washed.
• Playing with his brother and other neighborhood kids.
• Singing.
• Potty humor.
• Repeating everything his brother says.
• Taking baths, unless we want to wash is hair.
• Most things dealing with personal grooming, especially putting on lotion.
• Loading his own clothes into the washer.
• Going places as a family, especially the Thanksgiving Point Gardens and the aquarium.
• Nursery.

Felix tends to be fairly shy, but sometimes he surprises me with how willing he is to engage with new people. He is, for a three-year-old boy, quite sensitive to other people's feelings. He cried more at watching Ike's reaction to his flu shot than he did for his own shot.

He loves to dress himself and usually has an article of clothing on inside out or backwards. (In the picture above his flip flops are on the wrong feet.) He has the capability to be a good helper but usually insists that he cannot help because he's "busy," or because, "that might be weird." He gets lots of his prepositions and pronouns mixed up. (The other day, when I called his sister "chubby baby" he said, "She's name is not Chubby Baby! She's name is Trixie!")

We love this little boy and feel lucky to have him in our family.

Trixie: One Month

This month has flown by. Trixie is a sweet and cuddly baby. She loves breastfeeding (and bottles too, occasionally), which explains why she is getting so chubby. Trixie also loves sleeping (we've gotten a few stretches of 5+ hours, and one that was about 7) and watching the ceiling fan. She is still on oxygen, but I had to replace her grippers recently and took the opportunity to get some cannula-free pictures. She is such a doll. Our whole family loves her.