We had an amazing Christmas.  Avery's birthday is on the 21st so that kind of kicks off the festivities..She had a great birthday. Her grandparents came over for dinner, it was really nice.  Unfortunately after everyone left I got sick and it kind of had the domino effect in our house.  I started and then Benjamin, then Avery...Mackenzie had the mildest case..just a slight upset tummy.  It was a rough few days, but everyone was well enough by Christmas Eve to continue the celebrations.  I was very happy with how Benjamin fared his first G.I. bug.  It was one of my biggest fears.  His bowels don't function properly as it is so I was always so worried any bug would send him directly to the hospital.  Thankfully that wasn't the case and he was a champ.  I am so thankful that he is still nursing.  My milk was the only thing his little tummy could handle and that's why he didn't get dehydrated.  

Christmas eve we spent with Jon's family.  We had a great time and the kids were spoiled as usual.   We were home fairly early and had a nice quiet night at home prepping for the morning.  Christmas morning was so exciting. Benjamin really loved opening gifts...he LOVED it.   We always read the Christmas story and have cinnabons for breakfast.  I love those little traditions.  It makes the day even more special.  After that we went to my parents and spent some time with my family and my dad's family.  We have a huge family, but are very close and I love being able to get together with my cousins and their children.  My grandmother is 93 so I want to cherish these occasions.

Today we went out skating with Jon's family which was also a great time.  Ben got to skate for the first time on real skates.  He seemed to really like it...so we'll be taking him more.   He has really developed a love for playing hockey in the kitchen at home...do we have a future hockey star on our hands???

Anyways..this past week has been incredible.  I hope you have been able to spend time and cherish your loved ones the way I have...simply amazing.

Busy, busy, busy.  I have been working more and more lately, which is a good thing, but makes for craziness around here.  We are ready for Christmas and things are looking really festive.  I've made an extra special advent calender for the kids and we've been having a great time spending extra quality time together.
    The kids are great.  Mackenzie is being tested for the gifted program which is super exciting ...we knew all along that she was way of ahead of her peers, but having the teachers confirm that is pretty special.  I'm so happy we chose the French Immersion route for the girls and English school would have been even easier for her.  Avery is great.  She turns 8 on Friday.  We're planning a little party for her.   We try to make sure its extra special as she kind of gets lost in the Christmas rush.  I hate that.  Benjamin is doing fantastic.  He is growing by leaps and bounds.  He is talking up a storm and I think the Christmas is going to be so fun with him.  
  That is about all that's happening around here.  I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

I feel so bad for not posting sooner.  Life has been busy as usual, but things are so good.   The girls are doing fantastic in school.  I am so proud of them. They are working on a Christmas musical with their after school program at a neighbourhood church.  Benjamin is doing great to.  He's been healthy so far, which we are so thankful for.   I hope this is a preview to what our winter is going to be like.  He's talking more and more every day.  He makes me laugh.  Right now he is obsessed with Eric Carle and we spend a lot of time reading books.  He asks me almost everyday to go to chapters.  He loves it there, he gets to read all the books and play with the toys, its great.  Needless to say, I have a stack of Eric Carle books sitting in my closet ready for Christmas.   He'll love them.   We have nothing else going on around here...we're just gearing up for the holiday season.  I love this time of year.  Its a fantastic time for family, friends, reflection and thankfulness.   Its going to be a good Christmas.

Here are a few pictures from our family photo shoot. They are amazing!!

I know its been a while. Things have been busy around here.  The girls are busy with their extra curricular activities and Benjamin happily tags along.  Its getting harder as fall has arrived and winter in pending...I hate dragging him in and out in the cooler rainy weather for fear that he'll get sick.  But I have no choice and I just have to trust that whatever comes our way this winter we'll be find and be able to handle it.  He's getting his flu shot this week and that will make me feel a bit better.  I still feel like keeping him home and not interacting with other kids much, but that's getting harder too.  Benjamin is starting to show that I'm boring and he needs more stimulation.  You can only read so many books and build so many towers.   I think we'll do some swimming but I'm not sure what else.  He has started staying in the nursery Sunday mornings at church which is such a nice break for me.  That hour is very refreshing. 

We don't have any appointments on the horizon.  Benjamin had a dentist appointment a couple weeks ago and so far so good.   The dentist doesn't really push him to much, she doesn't want to make it a bad experience for him, but from what she can tell all is will.  He used to put up such a fuss to brush his teeth, but with a new flavor of toothpaste and a fancy Thomas the tank tooth brush he's doing much better.

Other then that things are good.  We had family pictures done this past weekend.  I only have 1 to show right now, but I'll have more soon.

Things have been busy as school is in full swing along with the extracurricular activities that come with it.  The girls are loving school so far. Both have great teachers and are settling in quite well. They both have several after school activities which are keeping us moving.  Benjamin misses his sisters so much though, he spends a lot of his day talking about them and when they're coming home.  Its very sweet, I just feel bad that I can't entertain him enough for his liking.

We had a couple appointments in the past few weeks. The first was with his surgeon.  She was very happy to see Benjamin, as it had been a year since his last appointment.  She seemed happy with how his scars were looking and said we could pursue deep tissue massage to help loosen up the tissue.  She also gave us some recipes to try to help get Benjamin's bowels to function better in a more natural, unfortunately so far his hasn't liked what I made.  So he's still on the medication.  She was happy that we had started him on something though as chronic constipation can cause long term issues.  So we're still searching for a more natural way to solve the problem...but the medication is a good temporary fix.

Benjamin also had a dentist appointment.  It went as well as can be expected.  He hates having his teeth brushed let alone having a stranger in a mask pry his mouth open.  She didn't do much, she doesn't want to force him and make it a scary thing.  So I held his mouth open and she got a good look. She said everything looked great and she had no concerns.  Yay!

Other then that all is well.  Fall is definitely in the air which is a nice relief, but the impending winter still makes me very nervous.  We started Benjamin on his inhalers already as he had a few nights of coughing start...With the girls in school again they bring home all sorts of things.  Whooping cough is also going around like crazy so that is also worrisome.  With him still nursing and on his asthma meds I hope we can avoid any major issues this winter.

We have a family photo shoot coming up in a few weeks which I am really looking forward too.  We haven't had pictures done together since Benjamin came home from the hospital 2 years ago.  I hope he cooperates and we can get some fantastic pictures.

That's about all that's happening here.  

Benjamin with his beads of courage.  Each bed represents a procedure/medication/doctor or specialist etc that he had when he was sick.  You can find more information about them at www.beadofcourage.org .

We've been making the best out of the last week of summer holidays.  We've been playing outside and going to the park.  Today we went to the butterfly conservatory, which was pretty cool.  The kids loved it.  This weekend we're just hanging around the house with the kids plus my nephew so I'm sure we'll come up with some creative ways to say good-bye to summer holidays.  As we speak the kids are on the trampoline with the hose and some dish liquid.  Hopefully no one breaks anything...no Jon is supervising.

I am definitely looking forward to next week. I'm looking forward to routine again.  The kids are getting bored and need to go back.  They are super nervous as am I.  I don't think it gets any easier as they get older.  Benjamin will probably need some time to adjust to life with just mommy during the days again.  I'm sure it will good.

We have an appointment with the Benjamin's surgeon on Tuesday.  We've been discharged, but I wanted to talk to her about Benjamin's scar and the possibility of deep tissue massage to help it and also the fact that he does still have some minor bowel issues.   She was happy to get us in and we're looking forward to seeing her.  Its been over a year since our last appointment. We'll also pop in and visit our social worker from the NICU whom we have kept in contact with and is just a fantastic lady.

Benjamin also has a dentist appointment next and that always causes me some anxiety.  He is prone to issues so we're watching them closely.  He hates brushing his teeth too, which makes things even more difficult. I'm praying that all is well still.

Anyways, that's about it around here.  I hope everyone has had  a great summer and will transition smoothly into the new fall routines.

I feel bad because I haven't posted in so long...but nothing has really been going on.  Benjamin is having a great summer.  We've been busy doing lots of little things.  We went camping again for a couple days which was great.   We went just with the kids which was really nice.

Summer is slowly winding down and I think Benjamin is going to have the hardest time with the adjustment of the girls going back to school.  He loves them so much and looks for them when they aren't around.  I think he'll be bored.  

Benjamin has no appointments coming up anytime soon, which is great.  We're still working on getting him to wear his glasses more often.  He does great sometimes and other times he refuses to wear them at all.  They got pretty banged up while camping so I know I'll have to replace them sooner then later...which sucks, but I'm sure it will be that way for a few years.  Anyways...that's about all for now.

We've had a busy few weeks.  Summer is flying by and we're having a great time.  We went camping last week which was great.  We had one day of rain, but we made the best of it.  Benjamin had a riot.  It was so much fun this year, as last year he wasn't even walking yet.  He played hard.  Had a great time with his cousins and my cousin's kids.  Its a great tradition that we have started.  I have a large extended family whom I grew up with and am still fairly close to.  We all "family" camped and I'm happy to start that with my own family.   We booked another week of camping in a couple of weeks again so that's awesome.   We still want to do a few day trips.  I bought tickets for the butterfly conservatory which we have never been to.  I think that will be really neat.

Benjamin is doing great!  Its taken off so much.  Today he turned on a lamp and said "I did it!".  One of his first full sentences.  So exciting. He's just growing and changing everyday.  He's such a sweet heart.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and spending every minute enjoying their loved ones.

So I forgot to update about Benjamin's tyke talk evaluation.  He did great and actually spoke a few works while there.  He's so shy that I was worried he wouldn't say a thing.  But he played and he showed the pathologist that he did know some words.  She was pretty happy with how Benjamin's speech has been developing over that past couple months, since he hardly had any words in May and now he has more then we can count.   So we got some ideas of how to encourage Benjamin's speech.  We are trying to get him to put 2 words together now.  He's doing well.  We will have another evaluation  in 6 months unless he stalls in his language development and can't seem to get putting two words together.

Things have been good.  Yesterday we went to the park and had a picnic and then went out to West Lorne for a birthday party.  It was a good day.  Its been so incredibly hot here it has been hard to spend any time outside.  So we've been kind of bored.   So the past couple days have been a little cooler which is nice.  I really hope the super humid weather stays away so we can enjoy the outdoors.

Things have been going well with Benjamin's glasses. We got a second pair that he can't break.  Now I don't have to worry so much about him breaking them.  The other ones he could bend and break easily, these ones are made of flexibly plastic so there is no problem when he sits on them or throws them.  

Next week we're camping !  We're really looking forward to it.  Last year Benjamin wasn't even walking yet so this year will be extra fun...and extra busy.

Happy Birthday Canada

Yesterday we celebrated Canada Day.  Jon had to work all day so we went to church and just relaxed at home.  But after supper we headed out to watch fireworks.  Keeping Benjamin up until 10pm wasn't to much of a challenge, but he crashed hard on the way home.  He LOVED the fireworks.  When they first started he looked a little shocked and I thought he was going to cry, but then he started laughing and jumping up and down.   It was super cute.  It was more fun watching him experience fireworks for the first time then watching the fireworks.  I love firsts like this.  He was just so thrilled.    It was great.  

Well this past week has been full of excitement around here.  Benjamin had his big eye appointment.  He cooperated extraordinarily well.  The disappointing thing is there was no real change in his vision.  So he now has glasses.  He refused to try them on...and I had a hard time picking out frames. Luckily the ones I chose look good.  I was nervous because the only time he tried them on he was flopping around on the ground.  He wouldn't put them on in the office when they were ready either...he screamed every time I tried to put them on.  So we couldn't  make sure they fit properly.  But..today he's done really well.  He's probably worn them for a total of 50 min throughout the day.  If he wants something I usually make him put them on.  I don't force it though, I don't want them to become a bad thing for him.  I ordered a pair of indestructible frames because I know he'll wreck them.  They'll be in next week.   Anyways, he looks super cute and I hope it just easier for him. They are pretty strong, I was surprised.

Anyways tomorrow we have our first tyke talk appointment tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure things are fine.  Since we booked that appointment his speech has gone through the roof.  He's not putting two words together yet, but he's definitely got a ton of words.  So we'll see what they have to say.  Any tips to help him improve are great.   That's about it.  The last day of school is tomorrow so Friday we're full on into summer holidays.  Yay.