Cody's Birthday Celebration

I went back and forth on whether or not to have an organized party for Cody and decided that he just wasn't quite ready for that this year. We have worked to get him excited about his birthday and although we still aren't sure he gets that he is 4now we think he had fun last night. We ordered pizza and Zach decorated the cake. I can bake and frost the cake, but when it comes to designing and all that is up to Zach! He is the artist in our family. We ran into some snags along the way, but it turned out pretty good. The Terry's ended up hanging out and helping us eat cake. of course the kids weren't passing up that opportunity! It was a lot of fun! Now time to get cookies baked for school parties tomorrow, trunk or treat food going and more Halloween jigglers!

What Kind of blogger are you?

I saw this on my friend Jody's site and thought it looked like fun!

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Happy Birthday Cody!

 

We had so many pictures of Cody that I just decided a collage was the way to go. The one of me and Cody is right after he was born and weighed. The boys came in that day as well, but I think the ones of them are the day after Cody was born. Then I added in Cody's 5 week photo in the little red wings outfit. No one ever believes he is 5 weeks old! And to calrify we were not trying for a girl, in fact I was done with babies. Zach felt we had one more little person to complete our family and had to do quite a bit of convincing to get me to go along.

Oaky so now for my little blurb about Cody. As the post before says he was not a normal pregnancy. I honestly can't say anything could have been done to prevent it, but at Elmendorf AFB there were so many babies due that the philosphy was a healthy, non smoker, non drinker, etc. type patient didn't need to be seen every month. Well I fit right in that catagory so they saw me every 6-8 weeks! At 27 weeks I had not gained any weight and my belly was not really getting bigger so they did an ultrasound. I really learned how inaccurate ultrasounds can be! That particular one said I had little to no water! They didnt't tell me this until I had been home a few hours! So I was called and told to get to labor and delivery immediately. That was really noT fun call to get! Well I had water, that was not the big issue. Cody was just really really small. So doctors went back and forth. First it was send her downtown, deliver and we'll see if he lives. Oh that was nice! Then it was no lets see how things lookes like in a week or two. Finally the only civilian doctor the clinic had was asked to do an ultrasound and see what he thought. He determined that I was healthy and Cody was healthy so leave things alone. Every week this doctor did an ultrasound and if he saw any gain on weight, then things were fine. Well the day of my due date, Oct 27, the ultrasound showed Cody was about 6 1/2 pounds, but the doctor said it could be a pound or so off either way. The next day Cody was born weighing in at 5 pounds 12 ounces! By the time we left the hospital he was just over 5 pounds. The civilian doctor ended up delivering me becuase the one working in L&D went to a meeting downtown! I told her I wasn't going to be there long enough for her to go to the meeting, but she said she thought I would be a while. Within the hour they were cancelling all of the other doctor's appts and calling him in!

Cody was much smaller than the doctor had hoped and initially had trouble breathing, but all in all he was fine. The doctor said that my placenta wasn't near the size it should have been and for Cody to survive was really amazing. Zach was funny becuase after Cody was out he said "Can you believe this is the third baby with no pain killers!" He always said he was proud of me for that. I did argue over the IV, but lost again. I am RH negative so really don't have a choice in the matter and of course I am pale so they assume I will be anemic. Everyone that saw Cody thought for sure he was a premie, but nope, he was day late! It was really funny becuase the same day an almost 11 pound boy was born! So the nurses would go do his vitals and then come to us and always say "holy cow he is small!" One nurse was afraid to do much with Cody, it was pretty funny. Cody did have to be on the warmer the whole stay becuase he was not holding his temperature and we almost didn't get to go home on time. Instead of keeping him, they decided to do weighins frequently. That was fun in the cold winter of Alaska!

Zach and I were both relieved that Cody came out fine. Zach was gone for just about all the drama of the last 8 weeks so sat in Japan worrying his baby would be born without him and not be healthy. I tried to downplay it to people and somewhat to Zach beucase I felt it was my responsibility that Cody was not growing fast enough. We love our little Cody and although he has brought extra stress and drama from the beginning we wouldn't trade him for anything. He has come a long way since the doctor told me at 27 weeks pregnant he may not make it and even further since the doctor told us he has autism and may not talk until Kindergarten! He has continually proved everyone wrong and like Ms Letnes said he may end up being a famous rocket scientist or something one day. Nothing can stop him now!

Happy Birthday Cody! We love you and all you bring to our family. Zach said within minutes after you were born "That's it, he's what we've been waiting for, now our family is complete." and I couldn't agree more!

Pre Cody......

Many know the story of Cody or should I say pre Cody. When I was pregnant things didn't go horribly wrong, but he wasn't really growing like babies should. At 28 weeks a doctor wanted to send me downtown to deliver and hope the baby survived. I was then referred to the only civilian doctor the clinic had who said becuase I was healthy and all that he felt Cody would do better inside me than in an artificial incubator. So long story short Cody came one day passed his due date (which another doctor tried to bump an entire month!) and he was a lot smaller than they had hoped. The picture of Ryan and I is about a month before Cody was born, the carving pumpkins pictures are 5 days before I had him. So just for fun I put these on for everyone to see!

Carving Pumpkins

For days now Ryan has asked when we were going to carve the pumpkins. Last year we did it too early so they didn't make it to Halloween before becoming a science project. Finally tonight we caved the pumpkins! Cody did use a spoon to dig in the pumpkin, but would not touch it with his hands. That is a lot of progress from last year considering he wouldn't even be in the room when we carved them! The kids had a good time so that is all that matters!

ABA Conference

Some of you know that for almost two years now we have been trying to go to an ABA conference. It was highly reccomended when Cody was first diagnosed with autism in January of 2007, but with Zach being gone, it was just impossible to get to one! A few months back I heard that there was going to be a special conference scheduled for military families in the Ktown area so I was really excited and immediately started finding out how to get two seats! Zach has not been too convinced on the whole thing, but there was really no way of getting out of it this time! I arranged for my babysitter Hannah (who went and got married and left me!) to come back for the weekend, with her new hubby of course, so all the big obstacles were out of the way.

ABA is applied behavior analysis. Cody does have some behavioral issues that the school has tried working through and we even went to a psychologist all summer to help them, but nothing has worked. So my hope is that when home visits start in January we can get a good program going in our home that fits our lifestyle and need to help not only Cody, but everyone. The psychologist saw some things in Ryan that he felt would benefit being addressed as well. Not to say Ryan has autism or is anywhere near, just some very strong similarities to Cody and behavior issues we are having. So anyway I am so excited for our home program to start!

I am sad I missed the kids in the primary program. I heard Cody did a great job saying his part so I am very happy Zach was there to see it. I have had to learn over the past 6 weeks or so what it is like to miss out on things with the kids and let me tell you, it has been very hard! You wouldn't think missing a soccer game after Tyler playing all these years was hard, but as soon as I could I got the full game report when I missed one! Now I missed Cody's first speaking part in front of people! I now know what Zach feels when he spends months away and misses little things that I have always taken for granted!

A big thank you to Hannah and Steven for driving back and staying with the boys! Our only other option was to split them up among friends which is very hard on Cody. The boys had so much fun that they want to know when Zach and I are going away for a weekend so Hannah and Steven can come back! I suppose that's one way to convince a newly married couple to avoid having kids for a few years! Cody's teachers don't have this blog address, but I want to say thank you to them as well. Sitting in this conference for two days, seeing and hearing others experiences, made me so happy to have the team of people on my side so to speak. So many parents are struggling to get teachers to work with them and thier child. We have been so fortunate to have not only great teachers, but people that honestly care and love Cody for who he is and sees so much more in him. Ms. Letnes has been a great support for me and takes time to listen to my silly questions or pleads for help. She goes so far above and beyong for "her kids" and you know by watching her that she sees them as her own. I guess I had better end this. I think I am on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster since Cody's birthday is about here and the road with him as been so hard at times, but so rewarding as well. On tuesday when I do his official post you'll hear more, although I have told myself I will be brief! We'll see!

It's a great day when your nine year old says....

"Mom, can you teach me to do my own laundry?" I started doing laundry at a very young age, but part of that was due to three sisters constantly taking my stuff. And my mom and dad both worked, went to school so there was never any clean clothes if I didn't do it myself! I knew at some point I would teach my boys to do thier laundry so was a little shocked when Tyler asked me if he could start doing his own. Of course I said yes! So he has been filling up his hamper then comes to me to have me watch and make sure he is doing it all right. I talked to him about how jerseys don't go in the dryer and things like that so he hangs them on the drying rack. He just doens't have enough whites to do that on his own so he throws his socks and shirts in the main basket, but it is nice to have less to wash!

I've been tagged!

I am so excited that I was tagged! Now let's see if I can come up with some good things about me to shock you all!

Rules
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2.Write six random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.

6 random things about me

1. I am a control freak! (Zach will be very proud I admitted that.) I have a really hard time when things are planned and don't go well. With three boys you would think I had let go of this particular issue, but no. However I am better at "hiding" my frustration when things are chaotic!

2. I daydream.....a lot! Our treadmill is in the garage right now so other than my MP3 player I have nothing to do when I run so I day dream. I picture myself as a special needs teacher (my ultimate goal in life) and then stress whether I will be good enough or prepared enough! I know very silly, but hey 2 miles goes by fast when you worry about things that aren't even in the near future!

3. I am pretty competitive (not necessarily in sports) and when told I can't do something tend to try and prove you wrong. This is not always a good thing, but I have accomplished quite a few things by trying to prove everyone wrong!

4. I love to eat apple or pumppkin pie for breakfast! We even had apple pie and ice cream for dinner one night! The kids thought it was the best thing ever and Zach, well just thought another screw was loose in my head!

5. I can honestly say that I never thought or had the urge to have a girl. I have always pictured myself as a mother of boys and when we didn't know if Ryan was a boy or girl I panicked at the thought of a girl! People tried to get me to buy a few girl outfits just in case and I couldn't do it! I love shopping for others though and playing with thier little girls, just don't think I would have been a good mom to one myself.

6. And the last random thing about me is..........I cried on the plane when we left Alaska. I never had close friends growing up so when we moved to Alaska it was my first experience to have real best friends and I had several (still have I hope)! I wish I could go back to that time and be with them again! I miss them all very much even two years later! I also fell in love with Alaska and leaving it was one of the hardest things I ever did. No words can describe the beuaty and wonder of that place! I feel like I found myself there and changed a lot!

So now I get to tag 6 people. Hmmmm let's see.....I tag

Melinda (no rush, just when you get time)
Linda (when you are settled)
Kari
Jody
Sara
Katherine

So let's see what you ladies got!

A compliment or not?????

Kids are funny and when it comes to Ryan......well he has some very interesting things he says. This morning I had finished my 2 mile run and saw Cody and Ryan playing with the scale. Ryan announced he was 635 pounds! I said well I am pretty sure there is a dot between the 3 and 5 so you are 63 and a half pounds. He says "oh okay so you get on the scale mom and lets see what you weigh!" I have never really been one to worry about weight, but after three kids was really not anxious to know the number so I declined. Ryan then says "Mom you don't look as fat as you did yesterday!" I am taking it as a compliment, but am really concerned now, how fat was I yesterday?

Ryan's birthday party!

As if we didn't have enough going on today we added Ryan's birthday party! When I scheduled the skating rink about a week and a half ago they didn't have any parties scheduled so I thought it was going to be a nice laid back easy time. Well we got there and two parties were just finishing and the place was packed! It took 30 minutes to get all the kids skates! A football team came in as we were trying to get skates and made things an even bigger mess! There were only two employees to run the register, snack bar and skate counter! When I paid for the party the manager said four other people were scheduled to come in, but there was a big game in Ktown or something so they called in. And to top it off with sports ending temas had decided to do last minute parties at the skating rink so instead of being the only one scheduled we were crammed in between team after team! All in all the party went fine. I didn't like that the lights were off. Every other time we had been skating they waitited till 6 or 7 to do that, but today it was dark so most of the pictures didn't come out too good. Ryan had a good time though so that is what mattered. He hit the motherload on Bionicles and can you beleive we didn't get any duplicates! He got a total of 5 and they were all different even from the ones we had at home! He got some other cool toys too and has had a blast building and checking everything out since the party. He has some spending money that I am sure will be burning a hole in his pocket next week! Hopefully tomorrow will be a much quieter and relaxing day!

I just had to post this real quick!

(Melinda I will email all the pics I have, but for now want to blog these cute ones!)

This is Maddy! Isn't she a doll? At two years old she keeps things very interesting all the time! At the soccer party she was enjoying a yummy cupcake, Maddy style! The other picture is Cody and Maddy. Cody thinks he has to be her guardian always telling her where she can and can't go. They play so cute together at times, but then you hear Cody yell "No Maddy" Of course be the girl she is, she usually just ignores him and goes about her business! Cody talks about Maddy all the time and gets so excited when we see her!

It has been a busy day!

Between soccer, flag football and a team party we have been very busy and this was all before 1 today! When we got home the kids went out with the neighbors to play in the leaves across the street. I love this time of year in Germany. The colors are beautiful and leaves are so much fun to play in. They kids made a pile and then had fun throwing them at each other, burying the only girl out there and riding bikes through the leaves. Cody came in and went to sleep so guess that took the last of his energy. We still have Ryan's birthday party this afternoon so hopefully later I will get that post done and tomorrow I can relax! I just hope Zach gets done with work in time now!

Tyler finishes a great season!

Zach didn't take the camera so I don't have any pictures of Tyler at his last game, but I did take one of him getting his trophy and medal at the team party. His coach said some very nice things about him which I know made Tyler feel really good. He played goalie most of the time and really improved on that. His coach was really good and we hope to get him again in the Spring. I think they said the team had 7 wins and two losses so all in all it was a good season!

Soccer ends for Cody!

Another great season of soccer for Cody has ended. They had a little Start Smart Jamboree, but not too many kids came out. So instead of playing team against team we just sent them all out. Cody ran up and down the field after the ball and made several goals. A couple of the parents joked how it was the one man Cody team out there. He was the only one that didn't get tired, bored or anything. He definately made Uncle Shawn proud today! After every goal he would cheer then say "mama you watch I make more goals." It was so funny. It amazes me how far he has come since I first put him in soccer last fall. We spent every practice with him crying and clining to my leg. Now he is one of the few kids who actually plays! It was a cold morning, but we had so much fun and a great end to our season as each child was presented a certificate and medal.

Patriots are 7-0!

Ryan has his last flag football game today ending his season with the Patriots with a 7-0 record! It was an awesome game complete with an interception and 4 touchdowns, one in the last minute! Ryan got one tackle and almost a second, but got knocked over trying to get the flags. The kids played really well all season and I think Ryan improved. He had an awesome coach to thank for that! Congratulations Patriots on an undefeated season!!!

PS. Cody took this picture of Ryan.

Cody's class and the farm

 

Not too many came out for this muddy adventure, but it was still a lot of fun. Today was the big day for the pumpkin patch and farm! We started out waiting for the farmer by looking at the big cows in the field by the pumpkins. Now the hard job....finding the right pumpkin! There were a lot of small ones that were perfectly round and a nice orange color, but this was for Cody so I had to use self control and let him choose. Well he couldn't settle for one, he had to have two. For 5 euro I didn't think that was a bad deal at all! he was very proud of his choices and now they are displayed on our front porch! After searching for the perfect pumpkin the tractor came and we went on a ride to the farm. We saw cows, horses, chickens, baby cows and pigs. The funniest part of the afternoon was when we were with the chickens. They were running from the kids of course when Cody throws his hands in the air and says "They not like me mama. They just run fast away!" We all about died of laughter. It was fun afteroon and we can't wait to go back with the family to pick out more pumpkins to carve!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!

Eight years ago today Ryan joined our family! It was definately an interesting morning! The friend that was going to watch Tyler had gone out of town so the single guys at work volunteerd to be on call. Now this would not be a problem if I had Ryan during the week, but unfortunately he came Saturday morning so trying to track one of these guys down made the morning even more eventful. Finally our friend Kevin answered the phone and as soon as we said baby he was on his way! He had not gone to bed yet at 5am! so we put on Blues Clues for Tyler, made his bowl of favorite cereal and left for the hospital.

The hospitl was very busy and had delivered over 20 babies that night so when I came in they were scambling to find a room. The doctor that had seen me earlier in the week was there and already passed her shift, but wanted to stay to deliver me. I was already a 10 so she told me to hang on while she checked on a patient. Not the best thing to tell a woman in labor! I tried, but soon realized that either Zach was catching the baby or he had better book it to the hall to find someone else to! The doctors scrambled to set things up while a technician totally screwed up my IV. I am not sure what he was doing, but I looked over and my hand was covered in blood! And then he had the nerve to tell me to quit balling my hand into a fist, another bad thing to tell a woman in labor! For those that know me well know I hate and I mean HATE needles so always try to get out of the IV to begin with so to see my hand covered in blood did no good at all! They finally had another person get the IV in and then told me the first guy was in training and they were sorry.

Within an hour of getting to the hostpital Ryan was born. All of my babies have been given directly to me, but Ryan was even more special. The doctor had Zach finish delivering him and give him to me. We hadn't had an ultrasound to know if we were having a boy or girl so I kept having to ask what the baby was! I was not surprised when they said a boy. Ryan weighed 7 lbs .7 ounces and was healthy and screaming! Because there were so many babies being born there was not a recovery room for me. Zach went home to get Tyler and let our friend go home to sleep. Tyler saw Ryan just hours after being born and was so good with him. Only a few pokes in the eye just to see what Ryan would do, lots of hugs and no one else could hold him! After about 6 hours they finally had a recovery room so I was transferred. At this hospital you didn't have a bathroom of your own, no private shower and no nursery so it was completely different from having Tyler. And it was my first military experience as well.

Ryan is such a funny kids, always making us laugh! He is so much like Zach and very stubborn like me. Without him our family would not be as interesting or fun! So Happy 8th Birthday Ryan! We have loved every minute (okay not every minute, but most) with you and can't wait to see you grow more!

The Black Forest

Saturday we decided to take a little trip to the Black Forest and what a beautiful time of year to do that! We drug our friend David along who is here TDY for 4 months. We saw the world's biggest coo coo clock, Germany's tallest waterfall and had black forest cake! It was a nice day, not too hot, not too cold and the kids did great. We also found a castle along the way that is now a youth hostel, but stil a very pretty sight! We didn't make it to mermaid lake, but we can do that another time. The town of Triberg is a nice little place with lots of shopping and friendly people. No McDonalds for Cody though so he had to settle for pizza at the restaraunt we found. It was a fun day and nice to get out for a little bit. Driving in Germnay this time of year is so pretty. The leaves are changing and the colors are just amazing. It is something I will definately miss when we leave!

We knew it wouldn't last......

Zach got the final word Friday the he isn't going to keep this current job until we move like we had hoped. It's good and bad. He doens't really like his job, he's used to a fast paced busy day and this job is really boring! However the options are to send him to the flight office or back on the line. I told him I would rather he go back to the line because the flight office is basically where all the crap gets dumped. Anything that goes wrong someone in the flight office takes the fall for and he would be the lowest ranking so I don't want that. He doesn't want it either! He was hoping for a production job, but that isn't going to happen.

So in January it's back to the flight line for him which means no more steady schedule. He will be working 3-2-2-3's and 12 hour shifts hopefully not midshift! He will get to do more TDY's which is nice. It is really hard for him to watch all the guys come and go knowing he can't go too. That also puts him higher on the list for deploying in January. The good part is he will be back to doing what he loves. He has learned he is not cut out for a desk job. We have enjoyed the time we have had with him being on a regular schedule, but we always knew it wouldn't last forever!

Hooray for Ryan!!!!

For those of that I have tortured with my venting over Ryan and his struggles at school.....this is for you! I am not sure how good my scan will work, but Ryan finally passed a spelling test! I realize it's early in the year, but Ryan has really struggled and I suspected last year he was, but he had a pretty laid back teacher that always assured me he was doing great. The start of this year was very rough! He was put in the German immersion class so I worried from day 1. The first week of school went okay, but the second week he had a note home about not completeing work in class so he had extra home work. Then came more emails and notes. The teacher asked for help in the classroom so I volunteered. I needed hours for my class (that I just finished) and I really wanted to see Ryan at school. Sure enough all my fears were true. He sat very quietly in class not listening to a word the teacher said and refused to read when she asked him to. Everyday after school homework is a fight and it was last year too. I finally told Zach that I had to do something so he would not fail 2nd grade and the fighting had to stop. We tried talking with him, taking things away, everything!

Finally I decided it was time to make up my own homework for him starting with spelling. He was getting maybe 3 words right a week and mispelling half of the others words in the sentence (the teacher makes up silly sentences with their spelling words to work on the site words they should already know).

Well after the first week of "mom's homework" Ryan got a 100% on his test. And this was not the end. The next day he took his pre-test for the new list of words. The night before he had written each 5 times for me and the sentences 3 times each. It paid off because he got a 100% on the pre-test which means he doens't have to take the post test! He was so excited and said "Mom I just have to say thank you for my homework. I didn't like it, but I am so happy I got all my words right. It makes me feel good." I am so proud of Ryan. I knew he could do it, he just needed a little more help. I bought him workbooks a the BX to help him with math and a few other areas and he has really had fun with them. We will keep writing the words out each week until he thinks we can do a practice test like the teacher gives to study them.