Birthday Visit to the Museum

We celebrated Jacoby's birthday as a family by going for a visit to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We spent time in the prehistoric area to see all of the dinosaurs and even got to see paleontologists working on projects (Jacoby wore his paleontologist vest for the occasion). The boys loved it and we had a great time. We finished celebrating with an ice cream cookie cake. We're so proud to have a 4-year old!

The next week is going to be busy as we get ready for Morgan and Justin's birthdays and the arrival of Grandma Pam, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Megan, and Uncle Mark. Morgan also has a field trip with his class to a horse training facility, which he informed his teachers that he would be riding the horses during their visit!

Notable quotes from the week:
Jacoby on the way home from school: "When I'm 5, I can drive the car."
And after I told him that would definitely not be the case: "When I'm 34, I will ride a really big bike!"
Jacoby talking about our visitors: "Is Uncle Mark a nice guy?" M: "Yes, but I bet he'll want to play with your dinosaurs." J: "I want to play dinosaurs with Aunt Megan."

Very excited to be at the museum

T-Rex--our favorite dinosaur right now

Some sort of nasty ancient sea creature

More prehistoric creatures

Mammoth--another one of our favorites

Jacoby knew the names of many of the dinosaurs we saw

Watching the paleontologists working

Visiting the wildlife exhibits

Digging for dinosaur bones in the Discovery Zone

Diplodocus

Allosaurus trying to eat a Stegosaurus and her babies

Jacoby's cake: giant chocolate chip cookies with homemade mint ice cream

Yummy!

Jacoby's 4th Birthday

It has been a wonderful day of celebration for Jacoby. The festivities began at preschool with a fun dinosaur treat, followed by a classroom full of very scary, LOUD, dinosaurs. Jacoby's classmates sang him Happy Birthday and had a great time together.

We came home and had pigs-in-a-blanket (birthday boy's choice) for supper and more dinosaur treats. And then it was finally present time! Jacoby received many dinosaurs and accessories which will give him many hours of prehistoric fun and play. He also received many messages and phone calls throughout the day--he's truly a very blessed little boy!

Things we love about Jacoby...

Daddy
1. I love Jacoby's boisterous, loud playfulness.
2. I love Jacoby's sweet, caring side, which he exposes more and more frequently.
3. I love how well Jacoby has managed the countless pokes, tests, and doctor's appointments that he has endured over the last year.
4. I love how Jacoby plays the guitar with me.
5. I love how Jacoby challenges adult paradigms. His challenges to these paradigms have caused me to reconsider the peculiarity of many of our social customs before mindlessly forcing him to fall in line with them. (Why can't we have left-over meatloaf for breakfast?)

Mommy

I love Jacoby’s handsome smile, his laugh, the way he plays with Morgan, and his imagination. I love his curiosity and creativity. I love to watch him play and learn. This past year held lots of challenges for Jacoby, but he handled every medical appointment and every test so bravely. I will always be proud of how well Jacoby has handled the medical challenges, how he’s learned about his allergies and medications, and how well he interacts with all of his physicians and specialists. The bumps in the road last year did not slow him down, and he continues to be very bright, smart, observant, and insightful. I heart you a whole bunch, Jacoby!

Enjoying his birthday treat

A class full of dinosaurs!

Scary dinosaur #1

Scary dinosaur #2

Morgan-o-saurus

Jacoby-o-saurus

Morgan-o-saurus and his dino feet...which he found to be especially challenging to walk in!

Birthday supper: pigs-in-a-blanket

Special gift from Aunt Megan & Uncle Mark

Finding dinosaurs in the box

Finding more dinosaurs

Dino footprints

Special birthday decorations. Yes, I'm probably going to be the crazy diorama mom when my boys get into school. But I'm ok with that. (: I had a lot of fun making these!

Dinosaur Dirt Cups (dinosaur fruit snacks buried in chocolate pudding and Oreo cookies). Yummy! The kids had a great time "digging" for their dinosaurs.

We are very excited about celebrating Jacoby's birthday this week. I can't believe he's going to be 4 years old! We are bringing dinosaur-themed treats to his preschool class and then have a fun trip to the Museum of Nature and Science planned for this coming weekend. I've been working my fool dinosaur tail off this weekend getting birthday preparations ready and some tidying up done for upcoming visitors. Luckily, I have today off so I had plenty of time and am very excited about our upcoming birthdays.

The boys enjoyed a fun Valentine's Day at school this week despite coming down with colds. I brought cookies to decorate with Jacoby's class, and that was a really fun time. All of his preschool-mates are bright, inquisitive, and very funny. We had a good time and they loved the frosting and decorating candies!

The boys seemed to recover quickly from their germs, but Morgan went downhill again this weekend, so he and I ran in to see our pediatrician today. The poor kid has a double-ear infection (or elephants in his ears, as she says) and pink eye! So, he's going on medicine to take care of all of that. His germs didn't stop him from full-on flirting with the pediatrician, and as we were leaving she asked if she could "rent" Morgan. (: Oh, and the other major news from this is that he weighs a whopping 30 pounds now, just 10 pounds shy of Jacoby!

Justin took Jacoby up skiing at Winter Park yesterday. They put in nearly a full day and Jacoby got to go all the way to the top of the mountain on the Eskimo lift and ski down all of the green runs. Justin said he's definitely improving, is starting to snow-plow, and has a great time. Morgan and I enjoyed time together, but it was clear that he missed his brother and was not keen on being left behind.

We got Jacoby scheduled for a feeding and development evaluation with an Occupational Therapist at Children's Hospital in mid-March. The feeding evaluation is part of his treatment for EE, as many of those kids have difficulty with swallowing, choking, and food impaction. We don't necessarily see this with Jacoby, but a trained eye might be able to spot something that we're missing. The developmental eval will be to look at some things that his preschool teachers are concerned about and to make sure he's not behind in anything as sometimes is the case with kiddos who have chronic illness. The very bright side right now is that Jacoby seems to be feeling exceptionally well. He's got lots of energy and his stamina for physical activity seems to have increased a whole lot. We're very thankful for this and for signs of healing and getting better.

I expect to be busy at work this week as the officers of our board are coming in for a retreat at our office tomorrow and Wednesday and we've got a call with our Executive Committee. I'm also ankle-deep in meeting planning for both the spring board meeting in San Fran and our fall meeting in Hawaii, which is causing me a bit of anxiety due to some logistical concerns that have already popped up. But I'm hoping to tackle those this week.

This is Jacoby's friend A. She likes to steal kisses. (:

Busy decorating his cookies

Soaking up some Vitamin D and playing on the bridge at the lake

Hanging out under the bridge

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're finishing up a really great weekend. We did chores yesterday and enjoyed our beautiful weather. This warm-up is giving me spring fever, but I know better not to get my hopes up. Today we went over to see our friends and have lunch. The kids did a Valentine craft while the big boys enjoyed playing Wii. In fact, as I write this the big boy is still not home. We left him there so we could get naps. It was a really nice time and all of the kids seemed to enjoy each other.

Our week was busy. Justin met with his adviser and has a plan for the next two comprehensive exams, his dissertation proposal, and dissertation. His next exam will likely be March 24 and the last one sometime during the end of May. They narrowed down quite a few things, so this next exam is feeling much more manageable. Justin will defend his dissertation proposal in the fall and will then have a year to finish it up.

Jacoby's class had a field trip to the zoo on Friday. They had a great time, but in the end Jacoby was quite disappointed that he didn't get to see all of his favorite animals. Maybe we're the only crazy ones that see the entire place each time we go! (: I'm decorating Valentine's cookies with his class tomorrow and looking forward to hanging out with his friends. Morgan is busy and talking almost non-stop. A dad interviewed him for his class newsletter, and it was hysterical to see a conversation with Morgan in writing. (: He is my go-to guy for clean-up projects--he loves to help and put things away!

I went skiing with a few friends from work on Thursday. Despite it being 15 degrees with 30-mile per hour winds, we had a good time. I managed to get my ski legs back, but there were several times (including the double black diamond I attempted on my second run) when getting down the hill did not look very pretty. But it's nice to be skiing again and I hope to make it up a few more times before the season ends.

Here are a few notable quotes from the week:
Jacoby to Daddy: "Do you love me even when I'm naughty?"
Morgan, while carrying the visual dictionary: "Momo is big and strong!"
Jacoby, after finding out Mommy was frustrated: J: "Are you happy right now?" M: "No, Mommy is frustrated right now." J: "Are you sad right now?" M: "No, I'm frustrated right now." J: "Are you frustrated right now?" M: "Yes, I'm frustrated right now." J: "Mommy, Other Pooh gets frustrated sometimes."
Morgan, on his way to a nap today: "Momo likes M."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Morgan decided to dot paint on his forehead this week at school

Playing in the rice bin

Tucking Mommy in and bringing her books

The big boys playing Wii

Jacoby and A.

Morgan, M., and Jacoby

Snow and Cold

Our frigid weather kept life very interesting this week. They closed preschool Tuesday and Wednesday (they follow Boulder Valley School District closures), so the boys had an extra day at home. They were eager to see their friends and have music with Miss Amy yesterday. We still managed to be productive and got several big chores checked off the list: taxes, both cars in for general maintenance, etc.

I had a wonderful birthday, despite the crazy weather and school closures messing up some plans Justin and I had made. But I received many cards, emails, phone calls, and birthday wishes from my boys, so it was a great day. Justin asked me a few weeks ago what I wanted for my birthday, and after thinking about it for awhile I told him I wanted to come up with a plan for a 10-year anniversary, kid-free (and comprehensive exam-free) trip. And he helped pull it all together by my birthday, so we have dates, lodging booked (taking advantage of a really great special offer), airline tickets purchased, and childcare arranged (you wouldn't believe the arm-twisting we had to do!! (: ). Can you guess where we're going? Hawaii? Nope--it felt like a bit of a stretch for us financially and we just weren't comfortable going that far away from the boys. So, we are spending several days on the Oregon Coast at the bed and breakfast where we honeymooned 10 years ago! I am beyond excited and wish June was next month, but it's a lovely thing to be looking forward to and we feel really comfortable with the plan for leaving the boys for the first time.

Jacoby started a steroid last week that's supposed to help the inflammation in his esophagus. We received detailed reports in the mail from our allergist and gastroenterologist this week. The short-term plan is to use the steroid to tame the inflammation, work with the allergist to figure out if there are any other foods that might be troublesome for Jacoby, and have another endoscopy in a few months to see how his esophagus is doing. So, we feel good about where we're headed. We're watching Jacoby closely because he's had no appetite this week and has been complaining about his tummy hurting, so we're hoping this will work itself out and isn't a side-effect of the new medicine.

We're back to snow and cold today...I think winter is going to be extra long this year. Sigh. The boys and I went to the library today for new books and story-time. Other than that we're just enjoying a quiet weekend at home.

Have a great week everyone!