Check-ups

I took Logan in for his four year check-up yesterday, and Aeris for her six month check-up today. They both checked out beautifully. Their stats are as follows:
Logan...
39 in. tall, 34 lbs.
25th percentile for both

Aeris...
26 in. tall, 13 lbs. 11 oz.
75th percentile for height and just under 20th for weight

The pediatrician assured me that Aeris will indeed be okay if I do NOT continue giving in to her demands to be fed 3 times during the night. Listening to her cry is not going to be easy to say the least, but I'm sure my sleep-deprived body will appreciate it.

She's not really rolling over yet. She has rolled, but just isn't interested in doing it on a regular basis. She has been sitting up briefly on her own.

She's ready to start eating some solid foods. I can't wait to see her reaction.

More Sick

Can't this month end yet? Aeris and Jade came down with Logan's cough/cold over the weekend. I don't know why I continue to try to quarantine my kids from each other when they're sick. They always get sick anyway.

I just hope with Aeris being so little that it doesn't turn into something worse for her. My poor baby. It's breaking my heart listening to her cough and sneeze and gag on all the phlegm. We all stayed home from church on Sunday and with Monday being a holiday, spent yet another day at home, trying to recover and keep from passing on all the germs. It snowed 6 inches Monday morning, so I was glad we didn't have any obligations, but by afternoon it was sunny and beautiful and would have been a perfect sledding day. How depressing to be stuck inside. AGAIN!

Well today before school I asked Jade several times how she was feeling. "Are you okay? Do you think you need to stay home from school. Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you should stay inside from recess today. Are you sure you're really okay?" I took her into class because she is the Star Student this week and had a poster to take and share. I talked to her teacher mentioning that she was coughing and she might want to limit her physical activities. She was pretty understanding, but I just felt so crumby for some reason. I really had to drag myself out of the classroom.

As usual I should have listened to my motherly instincts. Jade called me just after lunch to come and get her. She'd lost her lunch out on the playground. I cancelled my piano lessons AGAIN and we spent the rest of the day at home watching TV AGAIN. I can't believe it. This is a NEW symptom. Does that mean we're all going to come down with this now?

So, that's my update for the week. We've stayed home A LOT. We've been drinking a lot of clear fluids. We're constantly applying antibacterial gel and I've become a Lysol fanatic. We've been camped out on the couch and floor of the family room for practically ten days straight with the occasional trip to the bathroom.

I think I'm going to go crazy.

Piano Recital

Jade played beautifully in her first piano recital on Monday. She announced her piece with a nice loud voice, practically jumped to the bench and played with such confidence. My favorite part was her deep bow at the end. Her smile lit up the room. I was hoping to load the video of it, but apparently when we purchased our new camcorder last year it didn't come with a USB cable. When I find one that's compatible I'll try to load the clip.

The Longest Stinkin' Month of the Year

It's 17 degrees outside. The snow that was so beautiful at Christmas is crusty, and combined with the gray smog layer hovering over the city, is covering all the color in our little part of the world. I'm starting to really dread January.

It seems like every year we are plagued by that cough that never goes away. Every time it comes on I think "okay! This isn't so bad. They're hardly coughing at all and still sleeping fine at night." Then, three or four days later the real cough hits. You know the one, that horrible barking cough that sounds its alarm every other minute. The one that's always worse at night. The one that no medicine can relieve.

Logan started coughing a little Saturday morning. He was fine the rest of the day and slept fine that night. Sunday afternoon he was coughing a little more, but still slept fine. Monday was the same. Yesterday morning the alarm sounded. Jade left for school at 7:15am to have donuts with dad. I thought, "YES! Maybe I can get a little more sleep before the other two wake up." Of course, it wasn't to be. It was five minutes after the garage closed that Logan started coughing. He didn't stop the entire day. I hoped he'd be so worn out by bedtime that he'd sleep great. That too wasn't to be. The barking, gagging, crying and fever came on after he'd been asleep about an hour. We gave him some cold water, dosed him up on Tylenol and sent him back to bed. He woke up every few hours coughing and still has a fever this morning. So, we'll be spending the next few days at home, hoping to recover and hoping not to pass on the dreaded plague to any other innocent families.

Congratulations Jade... Again!

We attended the council level Reflections awards ceremony tonight. Jade received a medal for her song and has moved on to the regional level. She had fun celebrating with Bianca, a friend from her class.

Highlights and Lowlights of 2007

This was an interesting year... full of changes for us. Here are some of our most memorable moments.

January
In order to ensure our son's future success in life, we research preschools in the neighborhood and eventually settle on one for fall. We can only hope this will head him toward the Ivy League.

February
We plan and hold a birthday party for Logan with his friends. We hunt for Mater's Hood, toss bean bags into Luigi's mammoth leaning tower of ONE tire, play a rousing game of Red Light Green Light, and watch Logan inhale cake.

March
An ultrasound technician confirms what I've suspected all along, we are expecting another girl. She provides us with several professional quality photos of our little bundle of joy to mail to my siblings to announce the pregnancy. This results in some very urgent phone messages.

April
We celebrate my birthday with a trip out to eat, then to Best Buy where we upgrade our 7-year old PC to a laptop.

May
I make a trip to our family doctor with questions regarding some plantar warts that have nastily imbedded themselves on the bottoms of my feet. I leave having endured an unplanned freezing treatment. Within 2 hours I am unable to walk. I spend the next three weeks avoiding any trips out, as it takes me about 10 minutes just to walk from one end of the house to the other.

June
Jade completes kindergarten with top marks in all areas and secures a spot in the ALPS program.
We spend 5 days with 26 Rasmussens at a reunion, and survive... even enjoy ourselves!

July
We celebrate our 11th anniversary on the 11th.
We spend a day at Lagoon where I ride the Dinosaur Drop with Logan hoping to induce labor. Jade finds she is tall enough to ride almost all the BIG rides.
I miss out on taking Jade to her first day of first grade, but arrive at the hospital in time to deliver our 3rd baby.

August
We say goodbye to my dear grandpa Shields as he passed away on the 2nd.
We adjust surprisingly well to life as a family of five. Aeris survives and even enjoys being hugged and kissed constantly by her two siblings.

September
We continue a tradition of camping at the Hansen property in Midway, Utah, even with a month-old baby.
Aeris starts sleeping through the night.
Nate takes Jade to Lagoon... again. She talks about nothing else until her birthday on the 27th.

October
Eight shots and 1 thumb surgery. We spent a lot of this month at the doctor's office. Thank goodness for Tylenol.

November
Jade receives a blue ribbon for her Reflections music entry.
Aeris is wakened at 5:30am to shop with me on Black Friday. She spends the whole shopping trip asleep. What a trooper!

December
Riverton City completes a road widening project on 13400 S. For anyone who has driven on this road at rush hour, this is s HUGE improvement!
Aeris stops sleeping through the night.
We spend the final minutes of the year hanging out in our basement watching old episodes of Knight Rider on DVD.