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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

interview with Pax

The night that Jeremy and I took Pax to the aquarium, I decided to interview Pax in the car. Ummmm, it was not as productive as I was hoping. But because he is silly and full of personality, I decided to share it anyway. His main concern in the car was "Where's bubba? Where's Honen?" But I tried to continue poking around for a few answers.

Me: What's your name?
Pax: E. Eat (this is what he named my old Cabbage Patch Doll that my mom gave to him.)
Me: no
Pax: Honen
Me: no
Pax: Paxton
Me: How old are you?
Pax: 5
Me: no
Pax: 4
Me: no
Pax: 6
Me: no
Pax: (through lots of giggling) 5
Me: no
Pax: (laughing harder now) 7
(I decide to go ahead and skip this one, knowing he is going to list every number he knows, EXCEPT 2.)
Me: What is your favorite food?
Pax: apple (not true, but this was his answer)
Me: What is your favorite drink?
Pax: water (also not true, but whatever)

And then I attempted some other questions, but honestly he was done with our game and had no interest in continuing. Interview adjourned.

true love


The big brother sharing his icecream with the little brother, who is not supposed to crawl all over the table. For Holden to share his icecream, it HAS to be love.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pax @ age 2

How can I possibly describe who this boy is in a single post! He is pure sweetness! And I am head over heals in love with his little personality. He loves to be held, carried and cuddled. He hasn't crossed the threshold to that independent stage yet. So he is often found sitting in my lap as we read book after book after book. He is the definition of a true bookworm. I think if we removed all toys from our home, he would live perfectly content as long as he had his books. He already has many of his books memorized and will say them with me as I read. Because honestly we read several books every single day. He also loves to sit and work puzzles now and he is very good at them. He is also in love with watching television. Mickey Mouse Club has recently become his favorite. Followed closely by Dora and Sesame Street. While his big brother would prefer to run circles around the house and stay busy doing, Pax is more laid back. He is more content with quiet and calm activities. Not that he doesn't let his voice be heard. Just the other night in a restaurant with friends, he let out a scream that quietened the whole place. That scream was because he didn't get his way with something. We have those occasional moments right now. But honestly, with Pax, they are few and far between. He can go days without being disciplined, because for the most part, he goes with the flow.
Pax is speaking alot and communicating well with us. Today I heard Holden saying in a sing-song sort of way "Bubba, I need you!" Pax was coming up the stairs saying "Honen, what doin'?" I love that his Holden sounds like Honen. It's one of my favorite things he says. As my boys grow, I think the way they speak is one thing I'm going to miss. I love their cute, little language, as flawed as it is. I think it's just perfect! So far Pax can count to 8 and he surprised me this week by recognizing several of his numbers on his wooden blocks. About a week before his birthday we started talking about how he was going to be 2. He cutely wanted to argue with us and tell us, "no, 4." When I would tease and argue back that he was only going to be 2, the number went to 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, then back to 4. He cackled so hard at our little joke. And we're still playing that game today. He will not admit to anyone that he is 2. He has decided that he is any number BUT 2. One of his other favorite games right now is pretending to fall asleep at random places. See for yourself. He's become a master at the game of pretend. :)Pax loves to sing. His favorite songs are the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus and Happy Birthday.

Pax is great sleeper, getting at least 12hours at night. He goes down by 7:30pm and normally wakes between 7:30-8:30am the next morning. It's not completely unusual for him to sleep in close to 9am. He likes his sleep and always wakes with a smile on his face and asking about each family members whereabouts. He goes down for a nap around 1pm and wakes around 3pm. Sometimes he naps longer, but 2 hours is pretty consistent for him. He sleeps with a million little stuffed animals in his bed. And it changes every few weeks which one he is the most attached to.
Pax loves his paci and uses it only for sleep. It never leaves his crib. We plan to take it away in the next 3 months, the same way we did with Holden. Fingers are crossed that Pax will handle it just as well as his big brother did. I'm not looking forward to it. I just have a feeling that it won't go as smoothly. Plus something in me keep saying, "he's just a baby!" :) Deep down I know that he's not, I just haven't full convinced myself of that yet. ;)
Pax loves to play on the swing set outside. He loves to sit and swing and climb and slide. He LOVES to climb. Period. We daily catch him scaling cabinets to turn on water in the sinks, just for sport. It's a sight to see. He's fast. He also loves to climb into his crib, but hasn't tried to climb out yet. Fingers are crossed that we don't have to face that challenge. He thinks he's big enough to ride the red tricycle, but his little legs can't reach the peddals yet. But he's not happy if you remove him from that seat. He wants to ride! He loves to spot airplanes and helicopters in the sky. He loves to see motorcyles out on the road. He loves to play with his wooden train set. He loves to listen to music and do a little dancing and clap his hands to the rhythm. He loves a few sports, like golf and t-ball. Those are 2 things he can play around with in our backyard and he's a pretty accurate aim. He loves to throw and catch balls and he's a great catcher. So far, he is our sporty boy and that is something we have NOT pushed with either of the boys. We just like to sit back and see where their interests naturally fall.Pax is a really great eater. I've mentioned that he kind of sticks to a South Beach type diet. He likes most meats (fish, chicken, ground beef, roast beef, pork chops), eggs, most veggies and fruits. Some of his favorites are steamed broccoli, carrots dipped in hummus, sugar snap peas, green peas, corn, lima beans, watermelon, strawberries, green apples, cantelope, peaches and bananas. He likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, or just plain chicken or turkey. He will avoid crackers, rice, pasta, coucous . . .the things that Holden would prefer to feast on. They are polar opposites in their dietary preferences. Pax would drink milk all day every day if we allowed it. We only give our boys 2 cups of milk a day and then the rest is plain water. No juice. No sweet stuff. They've never really been accustomed to having those things, so they're fine without it. And as a result, Holden LOVES water and asks for it often. Pax is getting better at his water intake, but would choose milk if we always gave the choice. As I've said before, he's not much of a sweets-eater. He would rather have some fruit as a sweet. Such a health nut, right?I do have to admit, that after the parasite, we dropped the ball on potty training. He had been doing pretty well with it. But alot fell on Jeremy's shoulders all at once and potty training was out the window. We lost our momentum during that weekend. And even though I tried to pick back up the following Monday when I was feeling better, he had sort of lost interest. I'm hoping that interest will return soon and we can be diaper free in this house for a while!
Pax is also known as Mister Manners around here. If he accidentally rolls a tonka truck over your foot, he apologizes over and over again until you respond by telling him you're okay. He is quick to say "tankoo mommy" or "tankoo daddy" when he is served in some way. He is sweet to his big brother, checking on him during a meltdown or when he's been hurt. And he is NORMALLY willing to share his toys with Holden. He always wants to kiss a boo-boo to make everything heal properly. :) Including the foot he rolled the truck over.
Yesterday at the doctor Pax had to get 1 vacination. He did the silent scream/cry for a good 10 seconds before he could breath and let any sound out. After I got him dressed and held him for a bit, he was still shaken, but much quieter. After the receptionist gave him a sucker, he was miraculously all better. He was just wearing a tear stained face on his way out. Yesterday Pax weighed in at 28.5lbs (57th %). He is 35.5inches (79th %). And his head circumference was 49.4cm (70th %). Sometimes we think Pax is a shorty because Holden is so tall for his age. But he's not a shorty at all. 79th%. Not short. He just has a big brother that we ought not compare him to.
That is our sweet little Pax at this moment in time. I know it's lengthy, but I wanted to document all that he is and does at the tender age of 2. We love him so and can't imagine our family without him filling the spot of baby. He's the baby for now.


Monday, August 29, 2011

and the party . . .

Saturday morning we celebrated Pax just one more time! We had a little birthday party with family and friends. Oh the theme. I always want a theme. I thought and thought and thought about what I would like to do versus the things that Pax is really into right now. And I went with his interests. And one of his biggest and cutest interests lately have been HATS! So we had a hat birthday party and asked everyone to wear their favorite hat. Cutie Tooley designed us this really fun invitation.
Pax ate up the attention on Saturday. Like Jeremy and I, he's not one that desires to be the center of attention in a large crowd. But he seemed to enjoy the attention that his party brought. I really intended on getting a large group picture with everyone wearing their hats. But I failed. Here are the pictures that I did get. I learned that you can cover a wealth of mistakes with gobs and gobs of sprinkles. :) I tried a new icing for this cake. Tasted delicious, it just didn't cooperate very well for me.
All of the kiddos decorated foam hats with stickers. I tried to get a picture of most of them in their newly decorated hats.
He opened his presents like a champ. And he actually received a good mix of toys, clothes, books and puzzles.Pax is modeling his new Bob the Tomato hat.
And onto the cake. He smiled and stared at his flickering candles as we all sang happy birthday to him. And then he knew exactly what to do as the song ended. He blew out his candles!He only took a few bites of cake and icecream. He's still not much of a sweet-eater. Crazy boy!It was a fun morning celebrating our birthday boy! I still can't believe he is 2!!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Pax!!

Today was Pax's 2nd birthday! He decided he was going to sleep late in true birthday fashion. Sleeping later is actually pretty common for this little mister. He likes to sleep in a bit and then he wakes so happy and smiling ear to ear each morning. So a little after 8am, Jeremy was about to head off to work and we decided we would wake him so we could all sing "Happy Birthday" before Jeremy left. The 3 of us quietly entered his room and Jeremy started rubbing his back to gently wake him. It took a while, but through squinted eyes in his semi-dark room, he looked up at us, a little confused. We sang to him as he stood in his crib just staring back at us. I snapped a quick picture after our song, and this is the face I got. :)
Even his pouty-why-did-you-wake-me-?-face is one of the cutest I've ever seen. :) He quickly perked up when he saw his new present from us. We found a steal on CraigsList for a train table. The boys already LOVE it a little more than I was anticipating. Believe me, there were knock down drag outs all morning to play with this table and train set. Playing referee was not fun. At one point, I wanted to take it back down to the garage.
Pax had a super healthy breakfast of cinnamon rolls from a can, that Holden helped me prepare. We had a fun day at home (minus the constant fighting) and then dinner out as a family. And here they are pretending like the fighting never happened. I'm pretty sure they forget about it 5 minutes later.
Tomorrow morning we'll celebrate this sweet boy just a little bit more with a birthday party, with extended family and a few friends. There is so much to share about Pax at age 2. Coming soon.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Just Pax.

Yesterday evening, we had a special time for Pax. His birthday is tomorrow and we wanted to do something just for him. Jeremy and I decided that we would do an outing with him and leave the big brother with grandparents. This hasn't happened in a very long time. Like, since Pax was 2 months old! Jeremy took off from work a couple of hours early. Pax was STILL napping when Jeremy arrived home. Once he woke, we headed off for a fun evening. Holden stayed back with my parents and they had some fun of their own. We have a brand new aquarium in the area that I've been wanting to check out. Pax LOVES "fishies" so I figured it would be a great place for us to celebrate him. When we got in the car and Holden's car seat was missing, Pax started asking "where's bubba?" And we got that question several more times throughout the evening. He doesn't know life without his big brother. :) I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to give our little guy our undivided attention. Even if it was only for a few hours. He seemed to soak it all up!



Once inside the aquarium, we had to turn off our camera flash (so we didn't disturb the creatures), so our pictures are not the greatest quality, but I'm posting several of them anyways.

Before heading in . . .
Checking out the sting rays.
He was a bit terrified of this glass bottom floor. His legs were shaking as if he might bust through the glass and fall right in if he moved the wrong way.
He's smaller than a baby shark. :) Should have turned the flash back on for this one.
We helped save a turtle with our loose change . . .
And just cute.
The aquarium really was such a fun place. Pax loved seeing the fish, sharks, tiny sea horses, crabs and any ocean life you can imagine. We may even have to get season passes in the near future. I think it might be worth it. After our aquarium tour, we took him to Steak n Shake for dinner. He ate 2 mini cheeseburgers, a plate full of french fries, an onion ring and a few bites of a Butterfinger shake. My goodness, he can eat! And when I snatched a few fries from his plate, while laughing he said "HEY! No, no mommy. No french fries!" He knew I was taking from his plate and that wasn't allowed. Little stinker. :) After a lengthy dinner with our laid back boy, we headed home and called it a night.
Tomorrow, this little stud is going to be 2 years old. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since he came into our lives. We feel completely blessed that miraculously, God made a way for him to join our family. He's definitely another miracle in our eyes. And I'm excited to spend part of our weekend celebrating his little life and the big difference it's made in our family!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

eventful week.

Well, it's been an eventful week. Kind of. Not in the ways that I prefer. Monday we did the usual. We went to the water park. After naps on Monday, a certain little mister was dead set on going potty on the potty. It was ALL his idea. He was telling me when he would start to go in his diaper and then we would rush to the potty to let him finish. On Monday afternoon, I even took both of the boys on a grocery store run in undies. And Pax did great. On Tuesday morning we made a trip to the store, got an extra potty seat and a stool for downstairs, M&Ms for incentive and some other potty necessities. Pax was doing was pretty good. Holden has had less than 10 accidents ever. Because he was almost 3, it was really really easy. Granted, I am admitting to you all that he still refuses to do #2 in the potty. Sorry, I know that was very elementary to write #2. Just not sure I want that word anywhere on my blog. :) So with Holden, there have been challenges, but for the most part I think it's been an easy transition. Now Pax was 2 weeks from 2 years when he decided he was ready. And there have been lots of accidents. Too many to even count in a day. In 2 days he went through 10 pair of undies. But even with the accidents, he was still doing so well in telling me! He was just not telling me quite soon enough and I couldn't quite make him go on command. :) At one point, I was kind of ready to throw in the towel and just break the news to him that he wasn't ready. But he was so determined. Jeremy and I agreed we just needed to push through and let him learn this. He wanted to be a big boy and accomplish this, so who are we stand in his way. So we were doing just that. This is Pax after he went #2 in the potty. Which he has done several times! Goodness, he's a cutie in real undies! He just seems so little. As I said, we were on our way to being diaper free in this house, when the parasite hit. Early Thursday morning I was sick sick sick! So I didn't run back and forth to the potty with Pax. I told him to go in his diaper as I lay on the chair and the boys watched Mickey Mouse Club all morning on the couch. I was miserable. Jeremy came home early Thursday and took me to the doctor. I thought I had the stomach flu and the doctor assumed the same. We started meds immediately. And no improvement. In fact, it got uglier. Back to the doctor yesterday morning and the on-call doctor suspected a parasite. Gross, huh?! I started 2 more antibiotics yesterday. This is my first day to be out of bed for some time and it's kind of nice. It's been a rough few days. I've never experienced anything like it. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Those parasites might be Satan himself in tiny molecular form. I'm not kidding. They're terrible. And would you guess where the doctor thinks I may have caught it? The water park. Nice.

Jeremy has been a rockstar husband and dad this weekend. He has had the boys completely on his own, not even letting them step into our bedroom because we're still confused on whether or not I could pass something to them. And let me just say, having our almost 2 year old and 3 year old several days in a row with no help is hard work. Love them to pieces, but it's exhausting if you never get a little break or some help. He's been up with me most nights while I've been sick. Bringing me meds, drinks, snacks around the clock. Googling for answers to find out if the odd things going on in my body are normal for right now. I know he's tired, but he's never complained. He's normally wearing a smile and being such a servant to us all. I catch myself apologizing to him that I can't help and he finds those apologies ridiculous because he tells me that this is life. And he tells me that I would do the same for him. I am very much in love with this man and feel extremely lucky that he is mine!

I've had alot of thinking time lately and the parasite-thing has opened my eyes to some things. Things that I could easily ignore because they normally don't affect me. This weekend I've dealt with true hunger and a parasite for my first time ever. But people in impoverished countries deal with these things continually. Many people can't comprehend 3 meals a day. So Friday night, in alot pain, I was saying why, why, why. And Sunday morning, with a refreshed spirit, better health and just a sick stomach, I have a new compassion and a new direction. Kind of points back to my thoughts in my last post. I don't want to go through the junk without a lesson.

And potty training round 2 for Pax will begin tomorrow. :) He'll get it soon enough.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Priscilla Shirer

This morning at church Priscilla Shirer sat across the aisle from us and a few rows back. I may have gotten a little starstruck when she was introduced and I first noticed her. I wanted to run up to her after the service, get a picture with my phone and tell her my story and how God had used her work in my journey. I didn't do any of that. Not my personality AT ALL. You see, Priscilla and I go way back even though she doesn't know it. During Jeremy and I's somewhat short struggle of infertility, my former church did a Bible study that Shirer wrote called, He Speaks to Me. At the time, I was working full-time and chose not to participate in the group study. But if I'm being completely honest, me choosing not to participate probably had more to do with not wanting to open myself up to others with what was going on in our lives. But since I'm all about a good read, I did order the book and decided to read it on my own. At that point, I knew that we were facing the beginning of a trial. Trials are never fun, but if I was going to walk through one, I wanted it to be purposeful. In my simple mind, there was no need to endure a pointless, difficult journey. If God was about to walk us through a valley, I wanted to come out more like Jesus on the other side. I wanted to learn from it and grow closer to him through it. My heart was filled with questions for God on why MY plans weren't working out, but I earnestly wanted to trust him and his plans for us. And I wanted to hear his voice and the directions he had for us in building our family. I loved that book! And God used it to help prepare my heart and unclog my ears so that I could hear his voice. So only months later, when we started the adoption process and God told us to pray for April, I actually heard his voice. At that point in the journey, I felt like I hadn't heard from him. It wasn't that he felt distant. It wasn't that at all. I felt him with us the entire time and I had great faith in that. But I felt my prayers had gone nowhere. Looking back on it, I think that I felt his presence, but he still seemed silent to me. Now do you see why my heart went pitter patter when I saw her face just a short distance from me today?

"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1

Friday, August 12, 2011

cuddles.

I'm so thankful that my almost 2 year old took a nap on me for almost 2 hours. It's been a long time since I napped with one of my babes. And I later learned that he had an ear infection. :( So that may have played a part in this sweet nap. But I still enjoyed our cuddle time!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

opposites.

Over the past few months, I've been making little notes about my boys for this specific post. They are different in so many little ways. But their opposite personalities and interests make for a pretty good brotherly relationship.
Pax is . . .
passionate about books and hats * a lover of sports * veggies and meat consumer - he graviates towards a South Beach type diet ;) * a late sleeper * moderate naps (typically 2 hours) * loves to eat, but isn't a big fan of breakfast * would watch television for hours if we allowed it * laid back personality * momma's boy * will not talk, smile or even give notice to friendly strangers
Holden is . . .
passionate about all things water * a lover of cars and trucks * bread/carbs consumer * early riser * long napper (typically 3-4hours) * wakes ready for breakfast * will not sit long for television but would rather be moving (at all times!) * not so laid back * daddy's right hand man * never meets a strangerThey do have a few similarities that stand out in my mind . . .
they love to dance to music * they will sit in a lap and listen to someone read books for HOURS * they both love to cuddle with mommy and daddy * they love to play outside even if it's breaking 100 * they are homebodies

See, in many ways they couldn't be more different. But they have a pretty fun relationship that I love watching develop more and more as they grow. My hope and prayer is that they'll be one another's best friend now and into adulthood.

**I just realized something in the first picture posted, which I just took this morning. Pax is holding a book and a toy remote. Holden is holding matchbox cars in both hands. That was completely unstaged, but pretty perfect for this post. :)