Pictures!

Or links to pictures. Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law who documented birthday fun with cousins. Scroll down to see pictures of Elijah, the birthday boys, and most of the cousins assembled.

Elijah is also 4...

Four months, that is. Friday he weighed in at 13 pounds exactly, 24 inches long, and he smiled, laughed, and babbled at the doctor, right up until the nurse came in and gave him his shots. Our pediatrician tells us that he expects Elijah will meet his developmental milestones on schedule.

Oxygen saturation continues to be a concern and sometimes an annoyance, when different pulse ox monitors show different readings. To be on the safe side, his doctor recommended turning on the oxygen at night, no matter what the monitor says. As I write this, Elijah is sleeping like a rock and his monitor is showing a consistent 83% with .5 liters of oxygen.

Mr. E recognizes his name, constantly has his hands in his mouth, smiles, initiates "conversation," loves to sit up in the Bumbo and see what's going on, and is a generally very happy little boy. He is also sleeping through the night, which makes me a very happy mom.

Jack Jack is 4!

Last Sunday Jack Jack turned 4. We celebrated the Saturday before in Dallas with 10 cousins, 7 aunts and uncles, 3 siblings, 2 parents, and a trampoline. It was awesome. Sunday we celebrated in Waco with a different aunt and uncle, 2 grandparents, a lemon cake with lemon icing, sidewalk chalk and a bubble gun. Also awesome.

And it turns out that in addition to having awesome birthday parties, being 4 is hard work. Jack Jack and Rose had their yearly check ups with the pediatrician on the same day. Rose flew through and lucked out with no shots. Jack Jack was due for 4, and he got all four while screaming about how they hurt. Poor kid. That was in the morning.

By dinner time, so many other things had happened that I had completely forgotten about the shots when I asked Jack to help pick up his blocks and he said he couldn't because "my legs are exhausted." I asked him if exhausted meant really tired. "No. It means they are full of exhaust so you can't move them."

And then to add insult to injury, after dinner when it was time to go upstairs for a bath, he walked over to the stairs and then stood there crying because "I can't lift my legs up!" At this point I finally remembered that he had a good reason for not being able to lift his legs up, and he got a ride up the stairs from Uncle Luke and was perfectly happy to take a quick bath, put on pajamas, and crash into bed.

Welcome to 4 years old!

Elijah

Elijah is growing! He weighed in at 12 lbs. 11 oz. today at his appointment with his pediatrician. Unfortunately, his O2 sats continue to be lower than we want, so we took him home and hooked him up to the good air. He's on .5 liters of oxygen and the O2 monitor.

He'll have his 4 month check up and vaccinations in a week, a synagis shot soon after that, and then a trip to Dallas to see the cardiologist early in March. Elijah's operation day buddy already has his second surgery (the Glenn) scheduled for late April, so we expect Elijah won't be far behind. Except for the low O2, he's doing great!

Happy Birthday, Rose!

My sweet, spunky Rose is 2!!

She stopped taking naps about a month ago when she learned how to climb out of her crib. Bedtime got more exciting, too.

She loves to sit on the toilet and look at magazines. No potty seat. She is not potty-trained. She just likes to think she's a big kid like Ellen and Jack Jack.

She can dress herself, including putting on socks and shoes. And she is quite the fashionista. Some outfits we've seen Rose modeling lately include:

--A long sleeved-shirt and pants with a Sunday dress over that and one of Jack Jack's button-down shirts on top of that. No shoes. Playing in the mud.

--A t-shirt, a bum cover (she thinks it's underwear) over her diaper, leggings, and boots.

--A shirt, pants, leggings under the pants, socks, Sunday shoes, and a princess skirt.

--Anything that belongs to Ellen or Jack Jack, or anyone's shoes.

Here she is with Daddy's gloves and a snowball from when it snowed a few weeks ago.

The week before the snow we had park weather. Rose wanted to climb up and go down the slide.

I told her she could if she could get up there herself. No way was I helping the dare devil up that one.

We didn't know the meaning of "terrible twos" until Rose came along. She can throw a mean tantrum, she's stubborn, and she's fast. She also bites, so Ellen and Jack can only tease and torment so much before the tables are turned and they come wailing to me. Not that I encourage biting.

Rose also loves all things baby. Her favorite colors are blue and yellow. Her favorite song is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." She makes two fists and punches the air when we sing "beam" (and she sings BEE). She loves singing at bedtime with Ellen, Jack, and I. She can cut with scissors. The scissors are all put away now. She loves to say Uncle Luke's name, which she pronounces "blblblbloop!"

There's no need to light a fire under this girl for anything because she's already got it.

Happy birthday to Rose and her two special birthday buddies, cousin Abigail and Uncle Eric!