So Proud...

Jacoby had his growth hormone stimulation test this week. I'm very happy to report that he did exceptionally well throughout the entire ordeal. Getting the IV was the most stressful, especially when they couldn't get it on the first try. But once that was taken care of, Jacoby turned our small lab room into a place of his own with trucks, books, and videos. He carried on throughout the hours with hardly any complaint, retained a good sense of humor, stood by himself to have an xray of his hand, delighted his nurse and was very helpful to her when she visited every 30 minutes to draw blood from his special "button". I couldn't have wished it to go any better and both Justin and I were very proud of him. Once the four hours were finally up, Jacoby ate lunch there (and proceeded to eat all afternoon) and then fell asleep as soon as we started our trek back home. We were all worn out by the end of the day, but so thankful and relieved to have this behind us.

We won't have any results for another 10-14 days, but what we did find out is that he doesn't seem to have any blood sugar issues. His last lab results indicated low blood sugar, and a lot of factors could have played into this, but they wanted to check to make sure he was keeping normal blood sugar levels and he was! Next steps will be to have blood work done on April 29 and then a follow up appointment with the allergist on May 6.

The boys are doing great! Morgan's main project these days is figuring out how to eat with utensils...and sheesh it's a messy process! But he is so determined and actually getting quite good at it. Jacoby has begun the "But why, Mommy?" questions...I was thinking I might have another year or two before this started. He's also completely enamored with a new special garbage truck that Grandpa Michael gave him last weekend, complete with garbage bins that he has filled with all sorts of things.

Justin is busy working on his dissertation proposal. I'm trying to get him to send it out to everyone, well not everyone, but our families at least so they can see what he's going to be writing on because I think it's quite interesting. His TA responsibilities are keeping him really busy too.

We really had a good time with Grandmanette and Grandpa Michael last weekend. We enjoyed beautiful, sunny weather while they were here. The boys loved their company, and Jacoby was thrilled to be able to try out Grandpa's new iPad. Aunt Linda arrived on Tuesday from Arizona in her great big motorhome, so we've been enjoying her company in the evenings. Jacoby keeps her busy with books and trucks. Morgan is pretending to be shy and have stranger fear.

I'm trying to keep my head above water--I can't believe how much time and energy the medical stuff takes! I'm so far behind with things at home, not to mention the board meeting coming up in less than a month...insert reminder to breathe here. So I just keep trekking along. I had jury duty for a few hours this week and then thankfully got excused. We were very saddened at work when we got news last week that the spouse of a colleague passed away after a long fight with cancer, so several of us attended his memorial service. I also received a call from the manager of all of the Boulder Medical Center labs wanting to hear more about our unpleasant experience with Jacoby's first blood draw, so I had a very good conversation with her. We're looking forward to trying out a different lab next week that might be slightly more kid-friendly.

The boys' school did a lot of special things this week in honor of Earth Day yesterday, planting a new tree out by the new playground, learning how things grow and how we can take care of the earth. In Jacoby's class, they asked each child what they wanted to do to take care of our environment and Jacoby told his class that he was going to keep using his water bottle for drinking! I think we're going to plant some strawberries this weekend to continue the conversation.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Abundant Blessings...Abundant Busy-ness!

**The settings on the YouTube videos have been adjusted so they won't say that they're private now!**

Oh my, where to even begin with all that's been going on around here! We had a wonderful time celebrating Morgan's first birthday last week and happily welcomed Grandma Pam & Grandpa Bill for the weekend. We celebrated Justin's birthday on Friday. He enjoyed skiing up in the Colorado high country with Grandpa Bill for the day and they fortunately came back in one piece.

Now that I've been parenting a whole three years and am truly seasoned (just kidding), you would think I would have learned a thing or two by now about scheduling with children. However, I managed to schedule the boys' picture session to document years 1 and 3 in the morning on Friday and their well-checks with Dr. Booth later that same afternoon! I do not recommend this. It was total craziness and Grandma Pam and I were completely worn out by the end of the day. But we did manage to celebrate Daddy's birthday with homemade pizzas and a banana split cake. I also had one of his high school basketball videos converted to a DVD which turned out pretty cool.

On Saturday, we headed to the zoo for Morgan's special day. It was a lovely day to be outside in Colorado and we enjoyed seeing many of the animals. The gorillas were of particular interest to Jacoby and they were outside where we could watch them for awhile. During naps Grandma Pam and I put Morgan's Elmo cake together which was a lot of fun. I got brave and decided to try out using fondant for a new experiment. It's really fun to work with! When the boys got up we played with some new presents, enjoyed a spaghetti dinner (which both boys love), and then had our big sing-along and cake feast. All Morgan wanted was to get his paws on the cute Elmo on his cake, so he was very happy when that time finally came and he also seemed to enjoy trying out the cake. Then it was off to baths and bedtime! We officially have a preschooler and a toddler in the house now!

Along with our birthday extravaganza, we've also had to fit in two allergy appointments, our first blood draw, and a well-check appointment for both boys with the pediatrician! So here's the medical side note of this post. Both boys are healthy and made it through their well check with flying colors. Dr. Booth did notice that Jacoby hasn't grown in height since the beginning of December. Since we were going to be getting blood drawn for his allergies, she added more lab work to the order so we could check for insulin and thyroid issues. So, Monday morning we headed to the lab for our first blood draw. The phlebotomists were not friendly or even remotely pleased that they had to work with us, but I just kept my fingers crossed that they would be successful--I'll take competent over friendliness at this point! And fortunately, they only had to poke him once and were quite speedy considering they needed 6 tubes worth (that's probably kind of gross for readers...sorry). Jacoby did extremely well for his first time (and so did Mommy, just in case any of you were wondering about the family fainter) and was particularly excited about the apple juice he got to have after the ordeal was over. We heard on Tuesday that Jacoby's lab work came back normal which is a huge blessing. We're just waiting to hear back on the allergy portion of the tests.

Morgan was tested for allergies on Monday and he tested positive for egg and cat/dog allergies. So far, peanuts, nuts, and seeds are negative but he'll be retested at 2 years to see if anything has changed. So, that's another blessing for us and I've been working with the school yet again to make sure he's going to be safe during meal times. I've quickly learned that avoiding foods by far takes the least amount of effort--the communication piece with those who have to interact with our boys is no doubt the most time-consuming and exhausting for me. But the school has been wonderful in working with us and our allergy situation. And I thought I'd share a couple of cute quotes from Jacoby that we've heard recently regarding his allergies. We were in Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and Jacoby says "Mommy, I'm not allergic to Easter eggs" as we stroll down the Easter aisle--this coming from a little boy who loved hunting for Easter eggs last year. On a different occasion, Mommy calls Morgan a "little nut" and Jacoby replies "Mommy, I'm not allergic to Morgan nuts" (note to self...find a new nickname for the second child!). (:

The boys had a terrific time with Grandma Pam this week. They spent a lot of time playing outside since we've been having beautiful weather, went on walks, worked on projects in the house, watched garbage trucks, played trains and trucks, and a host of other activities. We're really going to miss her! The boys enjoyed an early morning ride to the airport at 6:15 am today! Its been a huge blessing to have an extra pair of hands around this past week for all of the appointments we've had and to give Justin extra study time to finish up finals.

Morgan's 1st Birthday Cake

A Very Happy Birthday Boy

Reading the visual dictionary with Grandma Pam

Hanging out with Grandma Pam

Our new calendar! We're learning the days of the week, the date and month, and talking about the weather and different holidays. It's felt and completely old school which I like...it reminds me of Sunday school!