C-Man is 6 Months

Oh, how I love this little guy. Coleman is like a little piece of heaven in our house. He is always, yes always, sweet, cuddly, and smiley. He has my eyes and his dad's... everything else. He loves his brother, is very curious, and eats anything and everything, including his hearing aids. Coleman weighs 16 lbs and 6 oz (30th percentile) and is 26.3 inches (50th percentile). This month he started eating his toes, squealing, sitting (tripod style, just for a few seconds at a time), and is just starting to scoot around (mostly backwards and in circles).

Coleman is a very special little boy who has had some big obstacles in his 6 months of life, the biggest of which is his hearing loss. Where there are trials, there are blessings, and lots of lessons to learn. I think that the biggest thing that I've learned is that people are inherently kind. Wherever we are, there is always someone I don't know who comes up to talk with me about Coleman. Lots of those people have experience with hearing loss themselves, and ask about his situation and offer tips and tricks that they've come across. There are also many others who go out of their way to talk to me about how cute Coleman is. I can tell that these people don't comment on his hearing loss because maybe they think I would be offended if they did (I wouldn't... I love to talk about my baby :), but I do appreciate their concern). There are many many kind people out there.

We are so glad that Coleman is a part of our family. He adds another whole dimension of happiness to our lives.

Calling All Angels 2

My friend Angie is doing a service project collecting blankets for a hospital in memory of her newborn son who passed away almost two years ago. Please take a minute to watch the video, their faith and love is inspiring. This is such a great cause, please help if you can. If you live near me, let me know if you want to participate and I will pick up and mail your blankets for you.

Jumpin

If you know Cade, you know that he likes to run, jump, and crash things. We went to Kangaroo Zoo in PG, and Cade loved it. Like LOVED it. He burned off so much energy and had so much fun, that we thought we would all be happier if we had some of that in our basement.... probably one of the smartest things I've ever done (but I do have to give Russ the credit for the idea and finding the stellar deal on Ebay). Cade gets 10 minutes of jumping time every time that he does 5 nice things for Coleman. It's hilarious (and oh so refreshing) to watch him give Coleman every toy in his room, his favorite blanket, all of his treats, and plenty of kisses.

The first couple of pictures are from Kangaroo Zoo, the others are in our basement (it's more fun with friends! Come over!)





And one more picture just because this moment was too cute to forget...

1 Month With Hearing Aids!

Coleman is 5 months old now... and I can't believe how much he has changed over the past month. Since he got his hearing aids, he is soooo much more social. He likes to play games, he laughs and squeals, and he "talks" to us all day long. The difference the hearing aids have made is astounding. Coleman is all set up with Early Intervention and PIP/USDB, and we have met some truely amazing people through the whole process. They have even inspired me to go back to school to be a SLP, and my application is in! It's going to be a looooong road, but I am 100% sure that it's where I need to be. I am so excited to be able to give other families like mine the hope and help that all our JCDC friends have given to us.

Little Gym Graduation!

I am so proud of my Cade-o!! He finished his first semester at The Little Gym. They had their "show" last night. We had so much fun watching him. That's the best money I spend all month... Cade absolutely loves it. He can run as much as he wants to, and whenever he crashes into a mat it doesn't hurt! When he gets home from class, he is absolutely exhausted, and sleeps like a log. It's a win-win!

Mommy's Juice

I dropped Cade off at his preschool class this morning, when his teacher walked in with a Diet Dr. Pepper in hand. Cade pointed to it and said, "mommy's juice!" He pretty much nailed it.

Turn Those Ears On!!

We got Coleman's hearing aids yesterday. Russ wasn't feeling well, so I went into Coleman's appointment and we made sure that they fit and were working right, but we didn't turn them on so that Russ could be a part of Coleman hearing for the first time. Primary Childrens has been awesome to work with. They gave Cade a little stuffed animal with mock hearing aids so that he wouldn't feel left out. We gave the stuffed animal to Cade and explained to him that Coleman was getting some "special ears". Cade kept taking the mock hearing aids off the animal and gave them to me saying "more baby's ears! more baby's ears!".

Once we turned the hearing aids on, Coleman was very nervous. Every little sound made him jump, and he was really tense all night, but he didn't really cry or fuss. Today he seems to be doing a lot better with them. I was talking to him in a silly voice and making faces at him, and he laughed... that was really touching, he's never done that before. I'm so excited for him that he has so many more opportunities and experiences ahead of him now. I'm also so thankful for the technology that's available. It's really amazing when you stop and think about it.

Christmas 2010

We went to a Christmas Festival at Cade's school a couple of days before Christmas. Cade tolerated Santa's lap much better this year than last. Coleman was just happy to be there, like usual...

Christmas Eve was awesome. I had all of these plans.... we would see the lights on temple square, build a ginger bread house, and then read Christmas stories and act out the nativity... but Cade of course had his own plans. I didn't want to fight the kids and stress over it, so I asked Cade what he wanted to do. He said "mowee! mowee!" So we watched a movie. We watched Toy Story 3 (loved it!). Cade and Russ ordered pizza for dinner, and Russ kindly picked up a Diet Coke, fries, and fry sauce for me since I can't eat pizza. Coleman was spent by that point and ducked out of the party...


Russ picked up a buid-your-own wood car kit from Lowes, and put it together with Cade. I don't think Cade has ever had so much fun. He laughed and laughed while they built it, and then carried the car around like it was his life's work. He kept pointing to it and saying, "Dada did it! Dada did it!" It was really cute to see Cade having so much fun with his dad.

Once the car was complete, we all played cars together and built garages for them... Cade's favorite activity.

Then we all read the Christmas Story and sang "Away in a Manger". Cade went to bed with his usual truck book in place, but also with his new wooden car...

Christmas morning, Coleman had to wait for Cade to wake up before he could open his presents... I think the anticipation was almost more than he could handle :) ...

Neither of the boys knew that all of this new stuff was from Santa, but they did know that it was new, and that it was theirs!!

Christmas afternoon, we headed up to Idaho to spend some time with my family.


I got to see my grandma and grandpa while we were there too. We even got a 4-generation picture :)

What a great Christmas. Lots of good memories!!

Coleman at 4 Months

Coleman is four months old now! He weighed in at 14 lbs 8 oz (55th percentile), is 24.5 inches long (50th percentile) and his head is 42.7 cm (60th percentile). He started rice cereal, and he is a big fan! Whenever I feed it to him, he sticks his arms and legs straight out and just shakes with excitement. He was finally diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss bilaterally. We're glad that we're at last to the point where we're done with tests and we can start helping him. His hearing aids have been ordered, and he will be getting them this week. I can't wait to see his reaction when he has them in for the first time!

Oh yeah, this is why I rarely blog...

So I was feeling guilty that I'm so behind on my blog. I took 10 minutes to update it, walked into the living room, and found my darling 2 year old in the middle of an entire box of cereal. This is why I never get anything done people!

Coleman's Blessing

Coleman was blessed on November 28th, by his dad. It was a beautiful blessing. Coleman is a very special little spirit and he has brought our family so much joy. We were very lucky that almost all of both of our families were able to be there (we were just missing Dan and his family who are in Oklahoma, and Michelle who is on a mission). Cade doesn't EVER sit still long enough for a good picture, but we sure made a lot of attempts.

Thanksgiving with the Murphys

We were lucky to have the Murphys out to our house for a week over Thanksgiving. Coleman got to meet his Papa for the first time. Of course, we fried a turkey :) Conrad also spoiled us with some creole, and I thoroughly enjoyed having on-call babysitters! Russ and Conrad also went to the Utah/BYU game, it seems that football always has a place in Murphy get togethers!
Cade wanted no part in having his picture taken, so here's our best shot!

Our Crazy Happy Lives

Wow, 2010 has been a whirlwind. It's been my happiest and toughest year on record. I have to laugh at myself when I think of my "best laid plans" that are now pretty much out the window. It's funny to think of what I thought was important 10 years ago, vs. what's important now. This year we've learned a lot about what really matters.

So... Here's to 2010! We've had some highs, and we've had some lows, but all-in-all, we've shared a lot of laughs, we've made some new friends and had fun with lots of old ones, made happy memories with family, we were blessed with our sweet Coleman, we've been able to watch Cade grow and learn, I've spent one more happy year with my amazing husband, and we've grown closer to our Savior.

I think that this talk by Elder Wirthlin "Come What May and Love It", has really been sort of a theme of my life this year. It has helped me so much; I want to share it so that maybe it can help someone else who might need it also.

Kiddo Update

Cade is now 2 1/2! Cade started preschool this month. He hates it. He does love his Miss Lisa though, so I think that after he gets the swing of things he will have fun. His favorite expressions are "Ooooohhhh Booooooo!!!" (Oh no) and "Hi Beebee, Hi!" (Hi Baby, Hi). He is learning new words every day, and I am so proud of the progress that he's made. He loves Coleman so much, and tries to hug and kiss him all of the time. He loves loves loves everything about cars and trucks. He has also started to love buiding "ouff"s (houses) out of his lincoln logs and legos.

Coleman is three months old! I can't believe how fast he is growing. I love this picture with his belly hanging over his belt. He's becoming quite the little chub. He started laughing this month, but it sounds more like an excited grunt than a laugh. He is a very smiley and happy baby. He hates being by himself, but loves to sit and watch Cade play.

Coleman gave us quite the scare the other day. He woke up with his soft spot bulging out. We went in to the pediatrician, who told us that it could be a sign of hydrocephalus or a brain tumor (which would explain his hearing loss as well), so we ran to the hospital for a CT scan. Thank Heaven that his scan was perfectly normal. This little guy is giving me gray hairs already. Good thing he's so darn cute. Coleman is such a sweet baby. We feel so lucky that he is ours.