Coburn Kids

Today’s blog is all about Genevieve! Gena is quite the character and loves to make up stories. The cutest part about it is that she doesn’t like anyone watching her when she’s making up these elaborate stories or acting them out. So we have to be sneaky to catch her!

She has a very quick mind and loves to tell knock-knock jokes.

She does not like to perform or show off though. Tell her to show you something she knows and she clamps up. She can be very outgoing and very private all at the same time.

Gena’s obsessions include computer games and the Nintendo Wii. She’s better then her daddy and I at the Wii! Favorite games include Carrie the Caregiver, Zelda and Super Mario Galaxy.

She adores holding Caden and Caden gets so calm and content when Gena has him. He knows his big sister!

Gena is great at reading but actually really doesn’t like to just sit down and read. She’ll read her school books she needs to but would much rather write and leave messages for Daniel and I all over the house. We’re always finding cards or papers with her messages to us or about some story she is pretending.

Gena loves pizza with ham and pineapple but hates rice. She loves “meat, cheese, mustard and mayonnaise” sandwiches and asks for them exactly that way. She would literally have this for lunch every day and be perfectly content.

She looooovvveesss to sing. We wake up in the morning to hear her singing all the time. It’s adorable. She also loves to pose for the camera (see above pic).

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 -

Today I went to pick up Genevieve from her Karate class and I sat there… and sat there… and sat there for an hour. So I’m a bit concerned at this point, it’s not unusual for them to go over by 15 to 20 minutes but an hour?! So Daddy comes and grabs Adessa who has had enough of sitting in the car, I get Caden and go down to see what’s going on. The entire class is completely enthralled and listening to Master West. They did board breaking today! How cool is that, my lil’ 6 year old girl breaking boards with a front kick and her hand. The class was soooo occupied that no one even kept track of the time. They all look at me crazy-like when I walk in. Gena thought I was picking her up early, even though she had been there for 2+ hours.

There’s actually a tournament coming up on April 26th but Gena can’t go to it unfortunately. It’s out in Pleasant Grove but Caden’s surgery is the day before, so I will literally still be up at the hospital with him. It’s just amazing how much she is learning in this class. She’s the youngest in the class but the other range in age from 7-12 year olds and she is keeping up with them! I’m very proud of her and her enthusiasm for it right now.

In other news, I finally finally signed Genevieve up for her horseback riding lessons. I had promised her for her birthday last year that I would, didn’t even get her a birthday present because I knew how expensive they were… and just didn’t ever get the chance with Caden and all. So how sad is that, poor girl didn’t even get a birthday present from mommy and daddy for her 6th birthday. So I’m making good on that promise now and she starts May 10th. Wahoo!

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.

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!

Thursdays are the worst for me. I am pulled in 10 different directions and the day is just non-stop. You would think this would be the first clue that I should STOP scheduling everything for Thursday…

Thursday was Caden’s upper GI at Primary Children’s. He couldn’t eat for 3 hours beforehand, that didn’t bother him at all. He doesn’t like to eat anyway! So they started off by giving him some barium to eat, chalky stuff that he didn’t seem to mind actually. Took a few swallows of that, watched it come up once or twice. Then they feed 3 ounces of it through his NG tube to fill up his belly. He refluxed only once they could see, which we all ready knew he has a mild case of reflux. No aspirating though so that was good. They then took out 1 ounce of the barium (just pulled some up through his NG tube) and told me it was okay to feed him now. So the whole thing took only about 15 minutes and I went to the car to feed Caden. Here’s where I deserve the “bad mom” award. Caden is 7 months old, most babies this age and younger can take 6 ounces in their tummies. Caden can’t, of course, because his meals are only 4 ounces and his stomach is little… I gave him a full feeding. Not thinking that his tummy was all ready 1/2 full with 2 ounces of barium. He promptly and repeatedly threw up everywhere in the carseat.

So we headed home to rescue my mom from my 2 girls. Genevieve had to be in Murray an hour after I got home with Caden so we hurried and got everyone ready. She had her yellow stripe belt test for Karate. By the way, Gena was adorably cute. She’s only 6 and she has been practicing like crazy the last several days for this test. She’s been practicing her forms, her punches, her kicks and blocks. I think she did really well. She did her punches and forms excellent. She lost it a bit with her blocks and attacks but I was so proud of her the entire time as she had worked so hard. That’s her in the picture, put an orange box around her so you can tell where she’s at.

Caden had his OT over on Friday as well, he’s starting to roll and use his left side more so that’s good. He’s such a cutey but was so tired during his therapy. Also, Caden’s been throwing up a lot more lately. Every time I have the doctor ask if it’s just spit up… I can tell you, having 2 other kids, the difference between spit up and having the front of your shirt soaked. With Caden’s cleft (you may want to stop reading if this grosses you out) he also throws up out his nose. Because his soft palate in the back is still open it comes out everywhere… poor little guy.

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: