What's been happening...

The kids have been keeping me busy.

Ceci.lia is 5 months old now. She's in the throes of teething and is pretty miserable. Tylen.ol and Hyla.nd's Teet.hing Ge.l seem to help some. She's more miserable than Bryce ever was though. Any other suggestions for relief? I'm open to most anything. We do have S.ophie for her to teethe on and Ceci.lia loves her.

Cecil.ia has gotten so big. She can roll over both ways, scoots around in circles on her gym and can scoot forward. She really loves sitting up and can sit up unassisted for a few seconds.

She gets bored very easily though. I constantly have to move her from one toy to the next. Of course, her favorite thing to do is stare at my face and smile up a storm *insert heart melting here*

Cecil.ia has been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks now. It's been great! :) She goes down between 7:15-7:45pm and sleeps straight through until 7-8am. Naps haven't been great though. She only wants to nap in the swing and most of the time doesn't end up napping. I'll put her in the swing and she'll stay content for about 5 minutes for she starts crying. I can only assume it is her teething that is upsetting her nap schedule. I'm lucky if she takes 1 one hour nap.

Bry.ce is such a ham. He's really starting to talk more. He also recognizes letters, colors, and animals. We have a speech appt. on August 9th to see if he needs therapy. Please pray that he is advanced enough so we don't have to return to speech.

Bry.ce is definitely in the middle of the terrible 2's. He's very good most of the time but can throw the mother of all tantrums. Thankfully, time outs appear to work well for him.

Baby Signing Time and other things

Have you ever used the Baby Signing Time dvds? Or anything similar?

We bought a Potty Time app on the ipad for Bry.ce which led us to Rachel and the Baby Signing Time dvds. Bry.ce has been behind on his speech so we thought learning some sign language couldn't hurt.

The videos are better than I could have ever imagined. Within a couple of days, Bryc.e's vocabulary has increased. He's started saying grow, go, help and doing the signs associated with them.

I am SO proud of my sweet boy!

Are there any other dvds you can recommend for speech or general learning for toddlers? I would love suggestions.

In other news, Cec.ilia turned 4 months old yesterday :) She is growing so fast. She loves tummy time and is so good at it. She loves to sit up (assisted of course), talks constantly, smiles and giggles a lot. She melts my heart every day.

My heart is so full with my 2 precious loves.

Of course I have to include pictures of my babies.

Praise God

Praise God!! That is all I can say :)

Today was Bryc.e's appointment with the Urologist. I spent a lot of this past week and a half terrified that the Urologist wouldn't find Br.yce's testicle and would schedule surgery. Our pediatrician was adamant that she couldn't find his testicle descended like it should be or further up in the canal.

I was feeling a lot of Mommy guilt too because his surgery had been scheduled a year ago before our pediatrician said she found it. We called off the surgery based on that. All I could think about was how my poor little boy would have to be aware and suffer from a surgery.

THANK GOD that was not the case. Right away the pediatric Urologist found BOTH of Br.yce's testicles. I was trying so hard not to cry (happy tears). The doctor told us that he was glad we hadn't gone ahead with the surgery a year ago since it was definitely not necessary.

As for now, my sweet boy has a highly retractable testicle that should fix itself as he grows. We go back in a year just to make sure everything is still alright.

Again I just have to say, PRAISE GOD!! My sweet boy is ok and will not need surgery. Thank you Jesus!

New Phone

DH took me out yesterday and got me the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

I LOVE IT! The phone is so slim and the screen is huge. The picture quality is fantastic. I should know since I've taken a bunch of pictures of them today.

I'm still learning it and importing all of my contacts/apps/passwords. It's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to make sure I don't forget anything.

It's not often I get something new. Usually the kids and DH get stuff before I do. Have I mentioned what a great DH I have? Now I'm hoping my old phone sells on craigslist so I can recoup some of the money of this new phone.

Such a wonderful day :D

Bryce's 2 year checkup

Bryce had his 2 year appointment today. He did really well. He got 1 shot, Hep A, and didn't cry at all.

He's really tall and skinny. He weighed in at 25.3 lbs and is 35.1 inches tall.

We have a referral to get his speech evaluated...I'm not really thrilled about that. We've been in speech before and it didn't really do anything. I'm not sure if we'll take him now or wait awhile and have him reevaluated. There's a waiting list for speech so it could be anywhere from this month to 2-3 months out before we get an appointment. He's very smart but stubborn. In other news, his doctor just personally called me. *insert Uh-Oh what's up now face here* She couldn't find one of Bryce's testicles during her exam. We've had this issue before and had been scheduled for surgery. We canceled after this regular doctor found it. Well now his doctor says that she doesn't think the left one was ever found. She thinks it's a dead nub that got twisted before he was born. It'll have to be removed so it doesn't cause infertility or cancer later on (Those were the 2 potential problems she listed) So we have a consult with pediatric urology on June 7th.

Really praying and hoping that it was just a fluke and his testicle really is there. I do not want to see my baby have to endure surgery. Would you pray along with me?

I thought this was over a year ago and now here it is coming up again :(

Happy Birthday Bryce

Happy Birthday Bryce!!

I cannot believe 2 years have passed since the doctor put you in my arms. You were in my heart a lot longer than that though. You are a precious, amazing, funny, sweet, temper-tantrum throwing, wonderful, loveable boy and I'm so proud to be your Mommy.

How did my little 6 lb 1oz baby boy who spent 34 days in the NICU...grow up to be such a wonderful amazing 2 year old. *tears* I love you so much my sweet baby boy.

Tomorrow we will celebrate with Uncle Randy, Aunt Jennifer, and your cousins Nathan and Judah. Today is just a quiet day. We already opened presents from Grammy and Opa. I think Mommy will give you 1 of your presents today so you'll have something special on your birthday.

We ordered you a Thomas cake. You love watching Thomas on tv and playing with your main Thomas and friends trains.

I'll leave you with a pic of my handsome baby boy from yesterday (the last day before turning 2)

Bryce and speech

Bryce turns 2 years old in 8 days. For some background, he was born at 36 weeks and stayed in the NICU for 34 days. He is all caught up after physical and occupational therapy.

He's still not really talking. He says "uh-oh, bubbles, ball, ow, hi, mama, dada" We had him in speech therapy for a little while but all she would do is sit there and go "puh puh puh, p says puh" etc. It seemed easy enough that we could do it.

He understands everything we say and often tries to mimic us. My birthday was last week and I asked him if he could say Happy Birthday. He didn't really get it out but he tried really hard. I could make out "haffy"

Does anyone have experience with speech delays? Should I worry and take him back to speech? or just let him be? He's always caught up in all of his therapies. Took a long time to sit up, crawl, and walk. Each time it was like it clicked overnight.