Silly Zackie Quotes...

My aunt, who is probably my most avid blog follower, told me she spent a couple hours the other day reading my old blog posts. All the way back to when Zack was a toddler.  She reminded me some of the funny things I had written down that he had said.  I felt guilty and realize how horrible I've been at writing things down lately!  BUT, I have been keeping a little list (no nearly as well as I used to) of some funny things the kids have said.  Today I want to share some of Zackary's silly quotes and later I'll share some of Ben's. It's not the detail I used to write out but it's better than nothing right!? 

The other day we were just driving along in the car and out of no where he says to me "I wish boogers were french fries." Somewhat suprised I asked why, "Because then we could eat french fries whenever we want!"

Just last Saturday I got dressed and asked Zack if I looked ok.  He turns to me and says in a very flattering, sweet voice, "mom you look beautiful!!" Then he looks at me a little bit longer and thinks harder about and adds "You kinda look like a Giraffe." (Had on brown striped shirt.) Right...thanks Zack! I tell him sarcastically that's exactly the look I was going for. He quickly realized that might have been rude to say and tells me "no, mom, I change my mind, you don't look like a Giraffe at all, you look SO pretty!" Nice rebuttal Zack! :)

I asked Zack awhile ago what he wants to be when he grows up. He told me he wants to be a "daddy, so that I never have to leave my kids." What a sweet little daddy's boy I have!

Zack had gotten really sick awhile ago. He was SO grateful once he got antibiotics from the doctor because he started feeling better right away and understood it was the medicine that made him well. Over the day or 2 he kept asking me questions about where the food goes  after we eat it. I let him know we go "potty" and get rid of everything our body didn't need.  Then he started doing the potty dance pretty much all day long. I finally asked him about why he wasn't just going to the bathroom and he told me "I can't go potty because then my medicine will leave my body and I'll get sick again!"  Little sweetie! 

Today I started doing homework with Zack and got distracted and left him to do it on his own for a few minutes. We were doing a house scavenger hunt. I left and came back to his homework all done, all by himself! Here is what he had written:

A Few of my favs: Vacuum-"VAKQM", Bowl-"Bole" (I was proud he added the e at the end to make it the long O like I taught him!), ice cream - "is creem" He writes stories down regularly and they are so cute and funny to see his unique, but very sensible, way of spelling.  He's turning into such a good little reader, which I am VERY proud of because we've definitely spent a good deal of time together working on it! :)

Not only is it helpful that he is learning things on his own but he also spends a great deal of time teaching Ben things.  The other day driving in the car, Zack had a notebook and was reviewing the alphabet with Ben. Ben's been working hard on it with me and knows pretty much every letter, and  the reason I can get him to focus so well? Because he sees Zack doing it all the time! Zack practices counting with him and is even trying to teach Ben our phone number. I love that he can lovingly and patiently work with a little 2 year old! He's such a good big brother! 

 I'm loving this independent, excited stage of life Zack is at. He spends half his day seeing how high he can count and the other half teaching his "apprentice," Ben, to wrestle.  

He is playful, loving, and patient. He's SO great with Paxton! He can hold him, calm his down when he's angry and make him laugh pretty much whenever he wants to!Don't get me wrong, he's not perfect, he definitely has his moments! But who doesn't!?  I am loving every minute with this kid and I just want time to move slowly! I'm loving that he's getting older, more independent, more creative, and more helpful. But I also want to keep him little for awhile longer! :)

It's a POTTY PARTY!

My little Benjamin....

Potty Training...the thing I've always said is my least favorite thing to do as a parent. I dreaded undertaking the process with Ben. In fact I decided I'd probably just wait until he was 3 to hopefully make the process easier.
Ben, however, had his own ideas about it. Mr. Independent would sneak up to his bedroom, take off his diaper and put big boy underwear on.  As unready to potty train as I was, I decided if he insisted on wearing big boy underwear he'd have to learn what to do while in them!

I started showing him the ropes of using the potty, completely uncommitted to the process actually working. A few weeks of messing around with it and suddenly he was insistent on going "all by myself" and wearing his big boy underwear every where we go!
It's been SO easy! The trick with him was unlimited optimism. He's my happy go lucky, always excited about everything little boy.  If I am ever impatient with him when he's going potty he reminds me, "Say yay mommy!"  When he needs to go potty, more often than not, he'll tell me by saying our coined phrase during potty training "it's potty party time!" :)

I can't overlook Zack's role in the process!  He was the initiator in getting Ben to put on big boy underwear. Nearly a year ago I caught him in his bedroom with Ben helping him "sneak" big boy underwear on (as if I wouldn't find out!)  Zack would cheer Ben on, tell him how awesome it is to wear big boy underwear, and even help him go. I am SO happy these boys have each other! Even with all the fights they get into they are best buddies and adore one another SO much! 

I do say YAY, every time I think about Ben being potty trained. I dreaded having to live through potty training again and somehow it happened without me even having to stress about it! Wahoo! Go Ben!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Today Zack started his first day of Kindergarten!

He came into my room at 7:00am sharp fully dressed, shoes and all, asking if he could go to school now! He's in afternoon kindergarten and waiting until 12:30pm to start was pure torture for him!

He spent the afternoon giving me and Paxton "goodbye gifts" since we were going to "miss him so much while he was gone". He walked right by my side the whole was to school telling me he wanted to stay close so to me as long as he could so that I wouldn't be "too sad when he left me." He's such a silly little sweetie!

The biggest suprise of the day for me was that he ASKED me to take his picture today. Not only did he beg for me to take lots of pictures (he usually HATES getting his picture taken) He had his own ideas of where he wanted his picture taken and what poses. For the first time...probably EVER, he wanted to keep taking pictures even after I was done!

After I picked him up from school I asked him if school was as cool as he thought it would be.  His answer, "NO" long pause, "It was WAY better!" As always, he told me vague details and I got very little real details. I do know recess was his favorite part (not surprised!) and he's the most excited about the fact that he gets to have TWO recesses!

I am very proud of how well Zack is doing academically already! It was a BIG battle to get him interested in his letters and counting and honestly I was really worried for awhile. However, after some prodding and lots of time spent trying to make it exciting, he has gotten to the point where he really enjoys doing "homework" with me.  He's an EXCELLENT little reader and can already count to 100  without any struggles.  He catches onto things SO quickly. I can see why they start Kindergarten at this age, I have seen a huge transformation in him over the months into a "big kid" that can follow rules, take care of himself and even his brothers, and finally has the attention span to really start mastering the challenging academic skills.  A lot of mom's say they cry when their little kiddos head to Kindergarten, I honestly am just happy for him. He's SO ready. He's always craving more and more input and BEGGING relentlessly to play with friends.  School will give him both of those things. Best of all, he only leaves while the babies are napping in the afternoon so he still won't have to miss out on any of our fun morning adventures! I think I'll be a lot more sad when I have to give him away for a full day, I'm pretty sure THAT might break my heart! :)

Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy

Just last week we went to Primary Childrens and Ben had his tonsil's and adnoids removed.  I can't even tell you what a blessing it is to have had this done! 

Pretty much since Ben was born we've known he had some health problems but for all we tried we just couldn't pinpoint what was causing it.  During a camping trip earlier this summer we were sharing a trailer with the kids. Trent and I lay there listening to the sleeping kids and realized for the first time that Ben would stop breathing during his sleep.  Often it'd be for 8 or 9 seconds and then he'd wake up and gasp for air-sleep apnea.  We did the rounds to make sure that's what it was and learned he'd need his tonsils/anoids out and that should correct it. 

As we read through the symptoms of sleep apnea - needs more sleep than the average kid, always tired, restless, problems focusing, aggressive behavior, etc. some bells started going off. He's always been a more challenging kid and realizing he's chronically sleep deprived really answered some questions for me! 

Ben's first word was daddy, second word---TISSUE. Yes, tissue.  The poor kid has had a runny nose from the day he was born. I've wondered if it was allergies, constant colds, who knows. Whelp, when the surgeon came back to talk to me after the surgery he said Ben's adnoids were so big they were almost completely blocking his nasal passageway.  Runny noses explained. 

Before we realized he had sleep apnea I had set up for him to come in and get a second hearing test because I was feeling like his hearing may be off. Well, it was.  His tonsils and adnoids were so big they were just making it so he was constantly congested which also affects his hearing. UGGGGHHH. POOR KID! If only I'd had figured this out earlier!!  

We went in early Friday morning for the surgery. Can I just say I LOVE primary children's hospital? They had a "prep" class that I took him too and he was ECSTATIC to go back to that "cool" hospital where they had all the toys and let him play with doctor tools. They are SO good with kids, I seriously love how they do things there!  

 Anyway, we went in Friday morning and waited a few hours, just like we expected to.  He loved playing with all the toys and didn't even notice or complain about missing breakfast.

 Once he was out of the surgery and I got to go see him he was VERY groggy.  He barely woke up at all and was back asleep after about 10 minutes. He was sore and tired and shocked about what he'd just gone through.  He took about a 2 hour nap (it was his normal naptime anyway so I was hoping he'd do that) before he woke up for real.

 When he did wake up he was totally confused!

 The first thing he did is look at the IV dripping fluid and said excitedly "It's raining!!"

 When Trent tried to explain to him that the IV was dripping fliud into HIS body he was completely confused!  He wasn't fully conscience and literally stared at it like this for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how it worked!

 They had an endless buffet of soft and yummy foods for him to try.  He loved the IDEA of eating but, except for the few bites of ice cream he ate directly after the surgery while the heavy pain killers where still working, he didn't eat much at all.  We spent a good amount of time looking over the menu and having him pick what he wanted to eat but once the food arrived he just sat with it on his lap and played with it, but refused to eat.

 This pattern of not eating continued for the next 4 days, today is the first day he's eaten much of ANYTHING and even then it's still tiny bites and tiny portions.  He's lost 5 pounds since the surgery which doesn't sound bad but when you're only 32 lbs to start with 5 pounds is a pretty big portion of your body weight! The poor kid is skin and bones and his ribs are completely showing through is skin! I was really starting to worry on Monday but once we got him drinking fluids and having wet diapers again the doc said the food would come next. SO glad it did before he got any skinnier!

All in all, the surgery went great.  I've already noticed a HUGE change in his sleep pattern and it will only go uphill from here!  He's been starving and sore but still my sweet little Ben.  Can't wait for him to be back to normal and have all of this behind us! I am SOOO glad it didn't take longer to figure this out, it's all thanks to Trent who noticed it in the first place! 

I know I've been a MAJOR blog slacker, I have tons of cute quotes the kids have said written down, ready to blog. Now I just have to stop editing everyone ELSE'S pictures and find some time to do the things I love to do for my own family! :)  I figured I better write this one down before it was too late and I forgot all details...like it "raining.  Love my sweet little guys! :)

First Bites of food today!

Little Paxton is growing WAY too fast for me! He has seemed ready for actual food for a few weeks now but I must admit I've been putting it off, I didn't want to admit he had completely given up all signs of being my little newborn. I'll admit it, I got a little teary eyed watching him gobble down the bites of food that his BROTHER was feeding him, yes, I'm THAT cheesy!

He'd GRAB at Zack's hand to help shovel more food into his mouth, guess he was REALLY ready!

It was avacado and rice cereal, nasty eh? If he thought THAT he's got some big surprises in store for him. :)

I REALLY need to blog more. These 3 boys make me SO happy and they are constantly doing the silliest things that I need to write down so I never forget! I'll try to be better...they do keep me just a tad busier than I used to be though!

Guess who learned to sit all by himself today!?

He's growing up much too fast for me...can't you just stay my brand new baby little Pax!?

Almost 3 months old already!

I took little Paxton in for a well child visit today and I wanted to document his stats and give a little update on what a cutie he is!

Height: 25.26 inches, 93rd percentile

Weight: 14.29 lbs, 80th percentile

Head Circumference: 15.7 inches, 27 percentile

He's kept pretty close to the same size as the other boy's so far, big and cute! :) (Sorry no blog post for Zack at that age, I hadn't started blogging yet! But he was about the same size as the other 2!) I keep little keepsake books for each kid and pregnancy, it's been fun to see how close they all are in size. I keep hearing people tell me "he's definitely a Nelson boy" when they see Paxton for the first time, I LOVE hearing it! I think it's so cute when siblings closely resemble each other and I love that my kids do! :)

Just last weekend Paxton laughed for the first time! It was SOOOOO stinking cute! We keep trying to get him to laugh more often but it's like he tries with ALL his might not to laugh. :) We'll tickle him and he'll wiggle around and smile and hold his breath so he doesn't laugh. It's silly and cute and we love it!

Pax is a VERY happy baby. He needs just a tiny bit of attention (especially from dad or Zack) and he'll break into an instant smile. He loves to coo and talk to us.  

He, unlike the other boys did, LOVES being on his tummy. From the time he was about 2+ weeks he has preferred to be laid down on his tummy. My theory is that it's because his head is significantly smaller than his older brothers so, unlike them, it's not to difficult to hold it up while laying on his belly! :)

He is a GREAT little sleeper! He sleeps THROUGH THE NIGHT from 7pm-7am nearly every night. If he does wake up it's just once between 3:30-4:30 for a quick feeding and goes right back to sleep! Naps are a little sketchier, he's inconsistent with his nap schedule and doesn't regularly take long naps.  However, he's easy to get to sleep and doesn't mind "sleeping on the go" in his carseat or the stroller occasionally which is really nice for me! 

It has only been 2+ months that he's been in our home and I can hardly imagine life without him.  I enjoy every minute of having a baby around and feel spoiled rotten to have 3 healthy, loving, sweet little boys in my home!  

Maximum Cuteness Stage...

At 2 years old Ben has reached what Trent and I have come to call the "maximum cuteness stage." We are loving the age he is at right now.  He says the cutest/most random things ever. His obsessions, interests, and ways of expressing himself pretty much make us laugh all day long! For MONTHS now I have been meaning to write a post to document some of the cute things he is always doing!

First, because it is what Ben would want me to talk about first, Ben LOVES, no is OBSESSED, with jumping on the tramp!  Both set's of Grandparents own a tramp and the first thing Ben says when he wakes up in the morning or after naps, and about every half hour in between is "I wanna JUUUUUMMMP!"  Jump always gets dragged out and followed by the sweetest little puppy dog face ever.  It's pretty much all he thinks of all day long. :) 

When I tell him we can't go to grandpa's house his next automatic response is "I wanna go paaaarrrk." 

If Ben IS stuck indoors I can assure you he'll most likely be wearing this fancy little shirt.  This is his star wars shirt, a hand-me-down from Zack. Ben wants to be wearing it all day every day, when I make him change out of it he carries it around with him.  He loves "nammies" (pajamas) and insists on wearing them until I tell him he HAS to change so we can go somewhere!  If I do get him dressed in the morning before we are about to leave he'll usually go to his jammy drawer, pull everything out, find his favorite PJ's and put them on the second I turn my back!

When I was little my mom used to always call me "silly sister" because I'd laugh at everything and was always wanting to play. Ben always reminds me of this because he is the same way. He's ALWAYS laughing and giggling about the smallest things. He spends most of his day just itching for someone to give him a reason to burst into laughter. I feel like this is a treasured secret about my little Ben, he actually quite timid around other people so this side of his personality only comes out at home and places where he feels exceptionally comfortable. 

Since Ben is so shy when he get's REALLY and truly excited about something his first response is to try and hide it. This face is inevitably the one that will show through. The tongue always comes out to hide his smile and he looks down to hide his face. I adore this silly little face he always makes, it's almost like he's about to burst with excitement and it's all he can do to hold it back. :)

The shy/excited picture above was quite difficult to find because it's NOT one I can ask for on demand. However, if I'm taking pictures of Ben and I simply tell him to smile...this is what I get. Silly crazy boy! :)

Ben ADORES his brothers!  When Zack is not home Ben walks around the whole going "where's Zacky!?"  It really doesn't matter how many times I answer him, Ben will continue to ask me until Zack comes back home.

Zack and Ben pretty much do everything together during the day. They have learned to play together really well and have become the best of buddies, it's SO nice for me! (Not to say they don't fight though, they do their fair share of that too!)

I was worried about how Ben would react to a new little baby around to steal attention away from him.  I shouldn't have worried, Ben adores everything about Paxton. He calls him "Packins" and is always coming over trying to get a sweet little smile out of Paxton, and when he does, it makes Ben's day!  He even tries to be helpful when Paxton is upset...although his attempts are usually more upsetting than helpful for Paxton...afterall Ben is only 2. :)

 The all time most quoted saying of Ben's is the thing he says when I tell him no.  Writing it down definitely doesn't do it justice because his tone is what makes it so funny...but whenever I tell him no he always says, "WHY!? Cause." It used to just be "why" but I guess the fact that I always started my answer with "because" and then he really didn't care about the rest of what I was saying he just decided to answer it himself.

It seems like it's been almost a whole year now that I've felt like Ben has been "on the verge" of fully being able to communicate.  The kid has been speaking in full sentences pretty much since he started talking...the problem is no one can understand them!  He's finally starting to enunciate well enough that I can understand 3 or 4 words out of the sentence and get the gist of what he's trying to say. Every once in awhile though, I'll understand all the words and it makes perfect sense, he'll even get the verb conjugations correct! Behind all the words that just sound like gibberish to the average listener, the poor kid is speaking in perfect sentences and very few people can understand him.  Poor kid, I'm sure his little mouth will start to cooperate with his mind soon enough! :)

Like Zack at his age, Ben has a total obsession with tools!  He loves them and carry's at least one around pretty much all day long. Zack's obsession developed from working with my dad in his yard, Ben's developed from "helping" Trent in the basement.  Ben's favorite tool of Trent's that he is always asking for is the "clippers." I'm guessing it's because we got such a riot out of what he did with them.  Trent was rewiring something in the basement and in a split second Ben walked up, grabbed the wire cutters, and cut the phone cord all before Trent even had a chance to notice what he was about to do. I guess laughing about it was the wrong response since now Ben is always coveting those wire cutters that we now keep very much out of his reach! :)

I can't talk this much about Ben's life right now without at least mentioning the poor kid's runny nose.  It's been so long that he's had a constant runny nose that one of his FIRST words was "tissue."  I'm pretty sure he has allergies but he's too young to get tested for them right now because it requires getting poked by a million different needles.  Until we find out what makes his nose run he's a pretty darn good sport about memorizing every spot we keep the tissues in our house and just bringing them straight to me and asking me to wipe his nose.  (sorry no pics of the runny nose, that's just gross:)

I do believe I could go on all day about how cute my little munchkin is.  I was just telling Trent the other day how I feel like he is my special little secret.  With Zack it was so different at this age, he has older cousins but they all lived out of state and he was the only kid in our home. He got endless amounts of attention from his grandparents and every cute little thing he did got noticed. Ben on the other hand is already mixed in with 9 different cousins and all our friends we spend a lot of time with have multiple children. Unlike Zack, he is rarely in the spotlight and get's quite uncomfortable with it when he is. Being the center of attention in large groups is totally foreign to him and I think because of that he has become more than happy just going off and playing his own little games when things get crazy with lots of kids around.  I love that about him and it's part of the reason I feel like I am one of the few that really gets to see his personality in full! :)

If you haven't noticed yet, I absolutely love and ADORE this little boy of mine.  He's growing WAY too fast for my liking and I don't want to forget a minute of it!