I thought it would be fun to see a progression of Caden over the past few months:
Caden the day he was born. All 1 lb. 11 oz. of him -
Caden at 4 months old. 120 days in the NICU, and his first day out. 8 lb. 1 oz. -
Caden at 8 months old taken yesterday. 14 lb. 5 oz. -
And then with his 2 sisters! He wouldn’t smile for anything at the camera -
Just a mini update on Adessa, she DID go to preschool today. Daniel went early with her and they had a talk with the teacher. Apparently it’s the latest “fad” in her preschool class to want to go home or call Mommy. I’m hoping this is all it is. Kids follow any and all examples 
She was such a good girl today going to preschool and even taking her nap that we went out for ice cream tonight. Naps are getting harder as she’s approaching 4 years old in 2 months. So it’s about every-other-day that we can get her down for one.
Caden is doing a bit better on his feedings. He’ll take about 90 ml’s now or 3 oz.’s. Which is good! But not enough, the stinker. When there’s about 40 or 50 ml’s left in his bottle he just stops. Completely. But it’s an improvement so I’ll take it.
My girls did something so cute yesterday with their Daddy. The decided to play church since General Conference was on. So Genevieve wanted to make a ‘program’ like we have at church so that they could do it properly. You can see the pic’s of the program to the left. The first picture is the front, that’s a picture of the temple on it. Then inside she made the program to follow:
1……. I am a Child of God (song)
2……. Testumoney (testimony)
3…… Bred (bread)
4….. Whater (water)
5….. Panr (prayer)
6…… Thak you for the earh (thank you for the earth, a song she made up)
7….. class
(I promise she can spell better if she really puts her mind to it, but I’m not one to hinder creativity here!) It was adorable. At the top she has that we are the 2nd Ward.
Daddy conducted, Adessa passed the sacrament and Gena sang her solo. There were no talks, which I’m just assuming she wanted to skip the most “boring” part of church for her. It’s amazing though watching them play and seeing though just how much they pick up. What they notice and how they perceive something is supposed to be. There are times where you wonder if they listen, and this is in regards to any activity really. Are they learning anything at school? Are they really paying attention in church? Do they actually pay attention to the activities we do for them. I tell you, it can be quite the eye-opener when they play house and if one of them is the mommy how they act. Like seeing yourself through your kids eyes. I’ve cringed once or twice.
So I’m having a problem with my 3 year old. Ms. Independent has suddenly, and quite drastically I might add, become clingy. Now this isn’t unusual for a child of course, but it is unusual for someone who has been such an extreme opposite to fling herself to the other side so quickly. It started on Sunday. She had a part in primary and wanted her Daddy to take her to do it so I took Caden to class with me. Well… Adessa didn’t want to sit with her class, she wanted Daddy. Then she wouldn’t even GO to class. I took over at this point and used every tactic in the book from telling her how fun it would be, she can make friends, bribery and even small threats and nothing worked. I decided to make NOT going to class as unfun as possible and she stood in the hall with me against the wall the entire time. I was thinking this was just a 1 time thing. She usually loves primary and doesn’t mind going to class at all.
Then today, Adessa had a complete meltdown saying she didn’t want to go to preschool. This girl adores preschool. She loves her teacher, she loves her class, she loves the activities… you get the point. She would not get out of the car. She was bawling telling me she wanted to go home. That she now hates her teacher. It was a repeat of Sunday. I again tried everything. Genevieve and I spent a good 10 minutes telling her how much we loved preschool, all the fun activities she gets to do, Gena telling her she wishes she was in preschool again. It distracted her on the ride there. She was in complete melt-down mode. So now I have to start telling her she won’t be able to go to Karate tonight (again, she adores Karate) and it doesn’t phase her. I up the consequence, I won’t sign her up for dance class. She cries but doesn’t budge. You can all criticize me for my poor parenting skills later.
I tell her if I have to leave preschool with her right now then she will stay in her room for 2 hours when she comes home. Again, trying the “making it as UNFUN as possible”. She just agrees and cries that she wants to go home. She’s currently in her room on her bed.
I thought Sunday was because of something maybe going on in class she couldn’t express, but now preschool?! This is a sudden change and I’m not sure how to handle it. It’s not the idea of being away from her mommy and daddy from what I can see, so much as that she just doesn’t want to go and do these things she once loved. I have no idea what to do here. Trying to get information out of a 3 year old is difficult, the expression just isn’t there. When I ask her why she doesn’t want to do these things she only responds “I’m just having problems” but won’t clarify. I don’t believe she’s being picked on or bullied, so that’s not the problem. I just have no idea why my once independent 3 year old doesn’t want to go and do anything anymore.
Please, if any of you have any words of advice or methods to try to get her to go to school and sunday class share!!
First, Caden’s eye test was today at Primary Children’s. He was fussy, not sure why… he’s been a bit fussy the last 2 days. But he passed and doesn’t need glasses! The doctor said that if he had the laser surgery done on his eyes (which Caden didn’t) he would almost for sure by now need glasses. The next risk factor is Stage 3 ROP (which Caden had in both eyes) so we’ll be going back every 6 months to check. The next risk factor after that is prematurity in general (introduce Gena here and her near-sightedness) and then genetics. So that was interesting.
Gena’s also been having a lot of problems with her ears lately. From random pain to feeling like she can’t hear out of them. Gena has had problems with her ears since she was a baby. Starting at 4 weeks old when she got her first double ear infection. As a baby she would go through 3 rounds of antibiotics each time for it. I can’t even count how many ear infections she’s had. Even last year we had to take her to a Kid’s after hours clinic because her ear was hurting so bad. The Doctor at that time stated her eardrum was about to burst from the infection. I don’t know why none of Gena’s pediatricians over the years haven’t suggested an ENT for her but with the random ear pain and trouble hearing I’m thinking I need to ask for an ENT appointment for her just to be safe.
On to Karate. GENA GOT HER YELLOW STRIPE BELT! I put emphasis on that because Gena is so proud of herself and she worked so hard. Adessa also had a good day at Karate and got her first black bit of tape on her white belt for leadership. Their Master puts different colored electrical tape on their belts so that the kids can see how they are progressing.
So tomorrow Caden has his appointment with the OT in the morning and then all the kids are having a sleep over at Grandma’s house that night. (Well Caden is just a 1/2 sleep over). So Mommy and Daddy are very excited to be able to go out ALONE for the first time in… I can’t even remember. 
Today was crazy. First off, Daniel had to take off work because I had a 10 AM appointment up at Primary Children’s with Dr. Jackson who is a GI specialist. So Daniel took the girl’s out for breakfast, the mall and then a visit to Grandma’s work while I took Caden. The appointment went well, they believe he needs a G-tube and we are going to schedule his surgery in the next couple of days. Dr. Jackson took the time to draw me a good detailed picture of what they do and what’s involved so that was especially nice.
I met Daniel and the girls for lunch then we headed home. Genevieve had her eye doctor appointment at 4:00 so Daniel took both girls to that. Genevieve is near-sighted and because they closed at 5pm we then headed to another mall to LensCrafters. We found Genevieve a cute pair of Barbie glasses. She loves the black case they come in, it’s like a purse with a wrist strap and she’s very excited about it all. She must have tried on 2 dozen eyeglasses before settling on the pair she got. Nothing was off limits to her.
While this was happening Daniel took Caden and Adessa through the mall. They passed a window outside a jewelery shop and Adessa saw the tall chair just inside. She asked Daddy what it was for and Daddy replied “it’s where you sit to get your ear’s pierced.” That’s all it took. The rest of the time was Adessa BEGGING to get her ear’s pierced. We tried to talk her out of it, told her point blank it’s like “shoving a nail through your ear, it’s going to hurt.” Her response? “I promise I’ll be extra brave.” It was heart breaking. We even had the store employees come over and explain to her how it was done and what was involved. She was persistent. I always said that I would get my girl’s ear’s pierced when they asked for it but c’mon… SHE’S 3!
And…. Adessa now has pierced ears. I can’t believe I let my 3 year old pierce her ears. I’m still shaking my head over it. She wanted it even after every explanation and she didn’t even cry when they did it. She didn’t even flinch!! She picked out pretty pink flowers and she is just in love with them. She was so proud she went around telling every single person who would even glance at her how brave she was and that she got her ear’s pierced. I was about to have a heart attack when they did it and she just sat there and was the bravest little girl. We asked Gena if she wanted her’s pierced and her response “No Way!” Do I even need to mention that Adessa is very independent? She’ll be ready to move out by 12 at this rate. But we are teaching her how to take good care of them, that she can’t take them out for 6-8 weeks and how to twist them. She’s on board with everything.
Just a quick picture of the girls with the Easter Bunny before their Easter Egg hunt! Grandma went with us to help out. The girls had a blast and Caden slept in his carseat until the cold woke him up.
We’re all going out to church for the first time tomorrow together! Have a cute lil’ outfit for Caden then over to Grandma’s for dinner.
Happy Easter!
We went to the Grizzlies hockey game last night and the girls had a blast. That’s a pic of them to the left with Daniel, sorry about the quality. It was taken with Daniel’s cell phone and I have no idea why Adessa looks sad in here as she was having fun.
We found out how badly Genevieve needs glasses. She couldn’t see the scoreboard… I had no idea her vision might be that bad. She’s only 6!! We had her try on Daniel’s glasses and she could suddenly see the score that much better. So optometrist appointment will be made this week for her. I feel really bad for some reason. I remember getting glasses at 8, and Gena is worried she’ll look ugly. I told her we’ll get her the prettiest and cutest glasses we could. A 6 year old should not feel that she’s going to look ugly!
Adessa was cute at the game, she insisted we were supporting the “Lambs” and every time the grizzlies got the puck she would call out “Go Lambs!” Gena was making up cheers for the teams the entire time. We didn’t get to stay the entire game, we left about a 1/2 hour before the game was supposed to be over because they were just getting too tired.
Grandma and Grandpa had a blast babysitting Caden though. Caden was his proper smiley self and fell asleep in Grandma’s arms while she was feeding him. I love that lil’ smile of his.
And the girls had a Primary Activity today for Easter, Adessa’s first primary activity so she was quite excited. Tomorrow, Sunday the 9th, is Caden’s blessing. I’ll put down the address for those that are coming.
11685 S. Kestrel Rise Rd (4510 W.)
South Jordan UT
Sacrament Meeting starts at 11:00 am
Afterwards we’ll have those that came over for lunch. Hope to see you there!
We went to the Zoo on Saturday, which turned out to be perfect. We were afraid it might rain but it turned out to be in the 50′s and was wonderful. March is definitely the time to go, it’s cool, ALL the animals are out. We saw everything walking around and moving, versus when you go in the summer and the animals are hidden in the shade and just lying there. The bears, the tigers, elephant’s, penguins, zebra’s, monkey, the puma’s. Adessa had begged to see the puma’s and I didn’t realize that cougars went by so many other names like mountain lions, puma’s, etc. So it was a blast. It was Caden’s first trip to the zoo, which he celebrated by sleeping the entire time.
After that the kid’s were just exhausted so while they slept in the car with Daniel, I ran in and got Caden’s blessing outfit at the store. It’s adorable, very comfy and he’ll look dashing in it I’m sure. Fits him just perfect as well, he’s in size 0-3 months with certain 3-6 months fitting him. Anything labeled just 6 months drown him still. Caden is 7 months old now (4 months adjusted) and a solid 13 pounds.
Caden’s Nurse came on Tuesday to play with him. Also some exciting news, Caden rolled over for the first time! He was so proud of himself and all smiles and giggles. We have an upper GI study next Thursday at Primary Children’s for him to see if everything is all right since Caden’s eating is getting progressively worse. I don’t really think it will tell us much since I believe the problem is with his coordination and muscles in the mouth more then something with his digestion but you never know.
Below you can see another pic of the girls and Caden sleeping at the zoo:
Yes, it was only a matter of time but Caden is now sick too. I think, no I should say I’m sure, we all have the flu. The antiobiotics have done nothing for the girls. Genevieve didn’t seem to come down as hard as everyone else… I attribute this to her great antibodies and getting sick 15 times a year. Going to the doctor 40+ times by the time she was 2. But mommy, Adessa and now Caden are all miserable. Caden was running a high fever last night, I considered what to do. He’s 6 1/2 months old (3 1/2 months adjusted) and with the fever and all of us sick I think it’s pretty obvious what he has. There’s nothing really to ‘give’ for the flu. So I’m giving him Tylenol but if his fever comes up again I’ll trek us out to the Doctor.
I had to cancel his ultrasound of his spine today though. I was not going to drag a sick kid up to a children’s hospital! We rescheduled for next week. Later on I’ll also call Caden’s OT and reschedule that appointment for tomorrow as well. Adessa is also staying home from preschool as she’s not close to being better yet. Daniel seems to have escaped being sick. But I heard my mom is sick, my brother and sister-in-law are sick too. This flu is nasty. I would feel bad about not getting the flu shot this year (and Caden was too young for one) but I’ve heard there’s one strain of flu going around that’s not even covered by this year’s flu shot, and the other strain has mutated so the flu shot isn’t “optimal” for it either. That and some of the people I know who have the flu right now got their shots. (I know, I know… I’m justifying it!)
Also, Gena has her Parent/Teacher Conference at school tonight. I get so nervous for these! I mean, she’s a great kid. She does well in school. I haven’t been called by the school yet for any problems… so that’s a good sign right?