"Preschool Home"

We are loving getting back into the routine of school around here. As I did with Malakai I am homeschooling Desmond for his Pre-Kindergarten year. He lovingly calls it "preschool home".

If you're looking at homeschool curriculum options I'd encourage you to consider Sonlight. This is my first year using it and we love it already. I'm so glad that friends of ours were able to share it with us and that we went with their recommendation. I wanted to pass along some of my favorite reasons why it really works for us.

* My children are getting a great education and loving it! Sonlight is a literature-based curriculum, so we read tons of great books out loud together. The kids devour plenty of books on their own, too. We stay away from boring textbooks and really engage in what we're learning. Desmond is currently using the Pre-K curriculum and Malakai (in 1st grade) is always begging to join us or save lessons for when he's home.

* That time spent reading together on the couch is creating some great memories--we learn so much about each other as we discuss the events, ideas and characters we discover.

* With the Instructor's Guides Sonlight provides, we can just open up the guide and do school every day without me spending much time planning. This is by far my favorite part about buying a homeschool curriculum. 2 years ago with Malakai I used a free curriculum but had to do all the purchasing and lesson planning weekly, it was like having a part time job! This way I can spend my evenings hanging out with my husband after the kids are in bed!

{our little school area}

* Sonlight prepares my kids to engage with the world around them. We study lots of different cultures and don't just focus on US history. My kids know that not everyone is like us, and they're learning to care about those around them with an intelligent and Christ-centered love.

* Sonlight offers the best risk-free offer of anyone. You can take a whole year to use 18-weeks of a curriculum package or Instructor's Guide. If you don't love it, send it all back (used books and all) and receive a full refund of every penny you paid.

* I get all the help I need from Sonlight's online forums, their curriculum advisors (who can help me choose which products will fit my family best) and their customer relations team.

I should also mention that on top of that, Sonlight has a Rewards Program I enjoy. If you decide to purchase from Sonlight, enter my Rewards ID when you register an account on their site and you'll get $5 off your first order ($50 or more).

My Rewards ID: SP20422761

Or just use this link:

http://www.sonlight.com/rewards/SP20422761

Check out the "Why Sonlight" page for some great articles about Sonlight that may help.

First Day of School, 2015

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around both of my boys starting school today. Desmond for the very first time. So far we have homeschooled the "Pre-K" year and then our kids go to a local school for Kindergarten on up. This saves us money on those Preschool years and gets me using my teaching degree. It was a challenge when I first homeschooled Malakai because I was doing all the lesson planning while juggling everything else and halfway through the year I was pretty sick while newly expecting Aurelia.  We've lived and learned and are trying something new this year with Desmond. We are using a homeschool curriculum called Sonlight recommended by a handful of friends. Everything is planned out for me and it's largely book-based, which we love. I didn't have to do any late night planning while the kids slept, I didn't have to stress when Aurelia was a challenge at nap time and only napped half an hour because everything was ready for us when we were able to get to it.

My plan of action for having a kiddo in full-day school away from home is to prep as much as possible the night before. Malakai has his routines written out and posted (I started this to motivate him to wear clothing when he was a 3 year old and it just stuck). His clothes are put out, his lunch and snack for the next day (or two) are packed and ready, his backpack is stocked and set out and we are ready to roll for the following morning.

The hardest part is waking up at 6am after being up several times the night before. Aurelia's constant teething (she's working on her 8th) and frequent ear infections have trained her to frequently wake and need comforted back to sleep. However, even with a lack of good solid sleep, waking up before the kids really feels great in terms of being able to get myself ready for the day before needing to help them get breakfast and move forward with their to-do's.

It was so nice feeling like we got ready on time and even out the door early. We took some pictures with our cute little signs and loaded up the beloved mini-van. All of my good feelings unraveled when I had to navigate walking 3 kids 2 blocks with a vase full of flowers in one hand and a heavy bag of school supplies in the other while pushing a stroller and making sure the boys didn't get hit by a car because there were no sidewalks. Thankfully I kept my composure and we all lived to see the 1st grade. Malakai sorted out his supplies into the marked boxes (I'm so thankful he loves stuff like that) and disappeared into his classroom. Desmond gave the flowers to Kai's teacher because Malakai was too shy and then I lost him. I figured he was fine for a moment so I could at least say goodbye to Malakai, who didn't want a hug. Des was getting in to the toys, of course, and I'm just ever so thankful he didn't tantrum about not getting to stay and play with them.

We made it out the door, chatted with some friends on our way and headed home. Desmond said he didn't want to do "preschool home" yet which was fine because it was 9 am and I hadn't even had coffee yet. He played sweetly while I got Aurelia down for a late morning nap and we had 30 minutes to ourselves to go over our memory verse, days of the week, a few stories and work book time before she woke up again. By then he was asking for more and more school work. Thankfully I have a few extra workbooks that are only 90% colored by Malakai so he was able to hunt for some pages to finish while I prepared lunch.

It was odd to have Malakai gone for so many hours, but somehow they just flew by and it was nearly time to pick him up. We played together, the 3 of us and the house was eerily quiet for early afternoon.

Ben came home early so he could greet Kai at pick up since he wasn't able to make drop off. When we saw him he looked a little pale and a lot tired. He said he didn't feel well because he went in circles too fast on the tire swing. We sat in the shade for a bit while Des played on the play ground. I chatted with his teacher and he perked up enough to play a bit and cooperate for a few more first-day photos before we headed home and vegged out for their daily ration of screen-time.

{not feeling so hot}

 {got his groove back}

{annual photo by the pillars}

All in all, first day of school conquered. Hope yours went well too!

Desmond Lee: 3 1/2

Desmond is officially halfway through being a three year old. He's sweet, I'll give him that, but I must admit that we are 2 for 2 in the challenging 3-year-olds department. Maybe Aurelia will give us a break when she turns 3- but I won't be placing any bets on it! It seems that 2 year olds get the worst reputation but 3 year olds are more difficult in my opinion. They're bigger, more opinionated and more capable of mischief than 2 year olds for sure. Maybe it's just my boys, but they are quite strong-willed and it seems to culminate at this age.

All that said, we sure do love our Desmond at any age. At his best he is sweet and hysterical and imaginative. He loves to follow around his big brother, but when he feels wronged by Malakai, Desmond doesn't take it lightly. Lately we've been working on getting him to talk about his feelings with Malakai rather than running to Ben or I for help or just to give us a play by play of what's going on. 

Des is still learning how to be gentle with Aurelia, but he really adores his little sister. He has taken to calling her "Sis-tie" which I do not understand, but it's mostly adorable (except when he yells it in her face or when she's trying to sleep). He likes to make her smile (who doesn't) and whenever she cries he will run to her room to find a toy to bring her.

Desmond knows colors and variations on colors. He even problem solved an issue of he and Malakai both having the favorite color green by saying one of them could be dark green and the other light green. He caught on to that and shapes long ago but isn't as interested in numbers and letters yet. He sings about half the alphabet before making up his own words or just ending the song, but to my surprise he knows most of the letters by sight. He counts to 5 easily and to 10 accurately most of the time. He's great with one-to-one correspondence and much to my relief he is great at using his manners when out in public (I've heard this several times from his sweet Sunday school teachers). Just the other day I tried to give him a cuddle and he said "No thank you mama, we keep our hands to ourselves." Who can argue with that?

He sure does love to do whatever Malakai is doing much of the time. We often have to find him something to distract him to get Kai the alone time he craves. It sure is sweet when Malakai reads to him though. I can't help but snap a picture of them huddled up over a book every single time.

The two of them are getting more rough in their play, which I don't mind most of the time except when it becomes one sided and someone stops respecting boundaries. I'm sure that will only get more extreme as they grow, but I hope they always play together.

Desmond loves to play pretend and pulls anyone around into his world of make believe. He will assign you a character and expect you to act accordingly, which can be especially difficult if you aren't familiar with what he wants you to do or say.

The most recently developments have been his ability to completely tune out the entire world around him. I could be in his face saying his name and he's still focused on something else. He's mastered the art of selective hearing.

Desmond is a total bruiser. Literally 5 minutes after I took most of these photos he ran from the grass to the aggregate driveway and tripped, landing on his face. His poor head has endured quite a few dings (including stitches already) and my poor heart has been through the wringer!

He has also started needing less help at bed time over the last few weeks. This has been a LONG time coming. For the past year and a half he has needed Ben to put him to bed and lay with him until he fell asleep. While he was still napping it could take him up to an hour to fall asleep, and if you got up before he was out you'd be starting the process all over. He wouldn't let me put him to sleep except for very rare occasions, which meant that Ben didn't get to go anywhere in the evenings. Whenever we tried Des would just stay up and torture me until Ben came home. Now Ben will lay down with him for 2 minutes, say goodnight and shut the door and Desmond will be fast asleep in a matter of minutes. It's a small miracle that we are thoroughly enjoying.

We absolutely love our creative and rambunctious little Desmond and can hardly believe he'll be 4 in just 6 short months!

Mystery Ailment: Part 3

This is the last post of updates on Desmond's illness. Click through to read part 1 and part 2. 

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Once we found out all that was supposed to happen at the hospital, we prepared ourselves for the onslaught of tests that our little Desmond would have to endure.

We hadn't eaten dinner yet and the cafeteria closes at 7:15 so Ben ran down to grab us some food while we waited on x-ray. We took turns eating and being by Desmond's side. Thankfully x-ray was done in the room and was rather quick. 

After that Des was wheeled down for his ultrasound. By then he was really tired and ready to be done, sadly we were just getting started. The ultrasound took a long time and he had to lay on Ben to stay still. He got so upset that the tech wasn't able to find his appendix as you have to push rather hard to get the equipment in position to see it. We were informed that this was actually good as the appendix would be inflamed and easy to find if he had appendicitis. 

When we got back to his room we finished eating and turned on the tv to keep him preoccupied until the nurses came to put his IV in. Sadly, the first two attempts failed because he was slightly dehydrated, making his veins harder to get to. They gave him a break before another nurse came and tried again. It was quite the ordeal, and once it was taped on it actually leaked so they had to untape and retape which was painful. It was misery watching him go through all of this and not being able to help.

They started him on IV fluids and thankfully let us wait a while after that to see if we could get him to pee in a cup on his own so we could avoid a 2nd catheter. He had been complaining of pain all day since his catheter that morning. I cheered when we were able to get him to go in the cup, knowing that was one less painful ordeal he would have to endure. 

In between tests and exams I was able to update family and friends on our situation. We immediately had people offering to brave the icey roads to bring us anything we needed. People all over were praying for our sweet boy, we felt very loved amidst a scary situation. 

Ben + I took turns sleeping with Desmond in his bed, the other in the "day bed" that felt more like sleeping on a concrete slab. After a round of fluids they started his antibiotics and we got a few chunks of sleep here and there. There are a LOT of noises in the hospital so none of us could get much sleep. Children have a security monitor on their leg and Desmond's kept coming unstuck, setting off an alarm in the hallway. The IV can only be set for 2 hour increments so that would beep every time it needed to be reset. His bed was an air bed so it would whoosh and groan to adjust the pressure every time you moved and there was a constant rush of air from the ceiling. The nurses also took vitals every 2-4 hours and the nurse he had that first night came in at 2am with way too much pep in her step. She told me he could just sleep through what she was doing, which he was, but then she started to talk to him and woke him up. I was not a happy mama bear. 

4am they started his 2nd dose of antibiotics and I was awake for the day by 6:30. At that point, Ben was in bed with Des and they slept another 2 hours while I sat and prayed and updated friends on Facebook.

{keeping a 2 year old in bed for 15 hours is not an easy task}

That morning we got to FaceTime with Malakai while he was still at Amy's. The boys were pretty excited to see each other.

Dr. R from our pediatrician's office came in that morning to check on Desmond. She said she'd like to see him off fluids to get him to drink on his own. Having him off fluids meant he only had to be attached to the tubes every 8 hours for 30 minutes to administer the antibiotics. This was so great for how stir crazy the poor kiddo was getting. We were able to take him out in the hallway for a walk and in to the play room across the hall. 

Ben's parents were able to come visit and his dad took Ben over to pick up Malakai and to our house for a few things for us as we didn't have time to pack our own bags. Malakai came to visit and was so excited to see us, but more so to see Desmond. They greeted each other with an enthusiastic "Hi, Brother!" Kai was able to go with Des for his first walk around the unit, check out the playroom with us and eat lunch. Ben's parents took Kai back to their place for the 2nd night and he got to play in the snow before it turned into freezing rain.

My parents weren't able to come visit because my mom had a fever plus they live much further away so it wasn't a good idea for them to drive in the snow and ice. I updated them by phone and text when I could.

Des napped and we watched a lot of Disney Jr. Ben's mom left her iPad for him to play with as well. We watched the snow fall non stop outside our window, we were thankful for such a beautiful view.

We did all that we could to pass the time and keep Desmond comfortable and happy. He started to eat better and was drinking a ton by Friday evening. We were still waiting on a culture from the blood they took when they started his IV to see what kind of bacteria he was fighting. That night we all slept much better. It helped that our overnight nurse was as quiet as a mouse when going about taking vitals and hooking/unhooking tubes for his meds.

Unfortunately Malakai + Grandma didn't sleep so well. Kai was complaining of ear pain and couldn't sleep. He was pretty miserable so they brought him to the hospital and Debbie and I walked him down to urgent care on the other side of the hospital while Ben and Grandpa stayed with Des. After a bit of a wait we found out Kai had a fever of 103 when we got back to see the nurse. Of course I immediately had visions of both of my boys being admitted to the hospital with mysterious infections. I was overwhelmed on top of being overwhelmed. During the 45 minute wait in the exam room, Kai fell asleep on my lap.

After being examined by the doctor (who was really great with Kai and even made him laugh) he was diagnosed with another double ear infection. Although an ear infection doesn't cause fever, so he also though Kai might be fighting off a virus as well. We got a new prescription for antibiotics and headed back upstairs to Desmond's room. He had just finished up his last dose of antibiotics.

We ate lunch (thanks to a generous delivery called in by a friend) and waited for Dr. R to come check on Des and let us know if we could take him home. She came shortly and told us his 48 hour cultures were negative and that his most recent labs were much better. His white blood cell count came down from 39,000 to a normal 10,000. Since no bacteria grew on the cultures the diagnosis was vague. We were discharged with a diagnosis of "fever of unknown cause" which is frustrating, but I knew I could discuss it further with his doctor at our follow up appointment. All I cared about was that my baby is well and I get to take him home. We got a prescription for antibiotics and Grandpa went to pick up both the boys' meds and was back just before Des was discharged.

{goodbye snowy hospital}

We got home safely through the snow that was under a thick layer of ice from a storm the day before. Ben carried each of us in the house because there was no clear path through the ice. We settled in and relaxed as best we could.

{Can you tell Kai missed his Desmond?}

On Sunday we were looking forward to a full day at home to recover from all these events when I got a nasty headache. My mom encouraged me to take my temperate and I had a fever. I took some tylenol and waited it out, but felt miserable all day. I went to the doctor on Monday for a flu test and it came back negative. My doctor did say he thinks I have a stomach virus and I'd probably feel bad for a few days. Just what we needed, another illness.

On the bright side, we have amazing family and friends. They've all rallied around us in prayer. Some braved the storms and brought us food to the hospital, and other have started a meal train to bring us dinner while we settle back in at home and recover now that I'm sick as well. It's so humbling to receive so much and be able to give nothing back (at least at the moment), and I'm doing my best to let it be and just feel the blessings overflow as we heal. I know there will be an end to these miserable sicknesses even though it's hard to see through it.

Yesterday morning we had a follow up appointment for both boys. Malakai's exam was simple, his ears looked great! We were also informed that about half of ear infection patients do develop a fever, like Kai had. I was so thankful that he would finally be back to himself.

We originally scheduled with Dr. R because Dr. B didn't have any openings but when she saw that we were there Dr. B "stole" us- which was very sweet and I really appreciated that she wanted to follow through with Desmond's care and give us the information she'd gathered directly.

She confirmed again that nothing grew on the cultures, but she explained that it's actually quite normal to not be able to grow bacteria, even when it's present. Due to the volume of blood you'd have to use to get enough bacteria to grow in a petri dish, it's common to get no growth. So her diagnosis is that he did have bacterial sepsis based on all of his symptoms and his response to the antibiotics. She had even called an infectious disease specialist at Dornbecker Children's hospital to confirm her diagnosis.

It was nice to get information but it was also scary to think that Desmond had such a serious condition. I'm even more thankful for a pediatrician that took the right steps and got our boy well without any complications. What a blessing that Desmond is already so healthy after being in the hospital less than a week ago!

We so appreciate our beloved Dr. B and all the caregivers at Eugene Pediatrics. Malakai especially likes it there because they always let him play with their tools. His favorite is the otoscope and even Desmond got into it and played with the stethoscope.

We came home and had popsicles with our lunch to celebrate a clean bill of health!

Now, after nearly 6 weeks of illness, we are on to getting me healthy and keeping everyone else healthy as best we can in this doozy of a season. Once again, thank you for all your support and prayers!

Mystery Ailment: Part 2

Due to overwhelming amounts of detailed information in these updates, 

I've split them into separate posts. Find Part 1 here + 3 here.

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Wednesday Des was acting like he felt better, but usually only when he had a good dose of tylenol or ibuprofen in his system. He'd start to crash again an hour or two before we could give him another dose. The on call doctor gave us permission to switch by and forth between ibu and tylenol to help with that. We decided that if he felt sick in the morning we'd call again to have him seen by his main pediatrician as he was seen by another doctor in their practice and a nurse the last couple of times. 

Come Thursday morning he started vomiting at 5am. After cleaning him up and getting him back to sleep for a couple hours Desmond woke with a fever and it was getting higher. His temp hit 105 at 8am and I immediately gave him tylenol to try to lower it. He was still complaining of belly pain, as he has been since Monday night. I called his pediatricians office as soon as they opened to make an appointment. They got us in on a cancellation with our beloved Dr. B so I rushed us out of the house to drop Kai off at Grandma + Grandpa's and headed to Eugene Peds...in the snow.

That morning it had started snowing just before sunrise. It wasn't too bad so Ben went ahead and drove to work. He goes really early so this was before Des' fever got real high. By the time I left there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and I don't really drive in snow. I took my time driving slowly and cautiously. I only had slight trouble at a couple stops when I tried to go again and slid a bit, but was able to correct it quickly with no problems. 

We got to Dr. B's office at 9:40am and due to his fever and slight cough Des got to wear a lovely little mask. He was amazing about it, he just wanted to play trains. He didn't have a lot of energy and he'd been breathing heavily, but he was talkative- narrating what he was doing while playing.

It was such a relief to see his primary care physician. I trust all the other doctors and nurses at their office, but there is a deeper trust with your main doctor that gets built over having them care for your children over time. 

She poked at his belly and listened to his lungs as she did a thorough examination to figure out what was going on. She mentioned that if this had been accompanied by diarrhea she would have thought it was the stomach flu for sure, but quite the opposite, Desmond hadn't been going poo very often at all. 

She assured me (but I already know) that she would make decisions for Desmond like she would if he were her own son and said we needed to get a urine sample and go in for blood work. My heart sank. I've overcome a fear of needles over all the blood draws and such that they do during pregnancy, but I didn't want my little guy to have to go through any of that. Sadly, to get the best result they wanted to do a catheter for the urine sample. 

The catheter failed miserably and was extremely painful. He must have just emptied his bladder, so they put a bag in his diaper to catch the urine next time he peed between then and our going over to the lab for the blood draw. I called Ben and he met me at the labs. I knew I wasn't brave enough to hold Desmond through it. I'm so thankful he was there, I got light headed and had to sit down. Des whimpered and cried a little, but was really brave. 

It was nearly noon and due to the snow I wanted to drive as little as possible. It hadn't stopped all morning so the roads were covered and it was still coming down. The lab was close by to Grandma's so I drove to pick up Kai and met Ben at home. We fed the boys lunch and Ben worked from home while Des napped and Kai + I played a bit. We expected to hear back on Desmond's labs by 4 at the latest as they put a rush on the results and would page Dr. B directly. 

Just before 5pm I decided to call in, but the pediatrician's office had closed early due to the snow storm so I got the answering service. They took a message and paged Dr. B because thankfully she was the doctor on call at the time. They tell you to call back if you don't hear in 20 minutes, which I hadn't so I did. They said they'd been paging her and would try again. I was worried that perhaps she had trouble in the snow. Turns out she was still in the office catching up on things, she called me back just before 5:30 as Ben waking dinner. 

During all of this I wasn't too worried about hearing back because Desmond woke up from his nap a couple hours earlier in a great mood and no fever. The tylenol had even worn off by then and he was acting himself. 

The first thing Dr. B said was that she knew I wouldn't be expecting this, but Desmond's results were not good. She said was really sorry but if he were her son, she'd take him directly to the hospital. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My voice started to crack and Ben looked at me from the kitchen with wide eyes trying to figure out what was going on. He was just about to toss some spaghetti into boiling water when I waved him off while listening to Dr. B explain the results. 

Desmond's white blood cell count was much too high and his other results were not great either. I explained that his fever had gone and he was acting fine, but she insisted that even so she felt in her gut that he needed to be in the hospital. I told her I trusted her opinion completely and we'd pack up to go. She asked if we'd be able to meet her at the hospital in all this snow, that had now turned to thick sheets of ice, or if she should call an ambulance. Ben was sure we could brave the weather. 

Ben dropped the noodles on the counter and turned off the stove and we started to make preparations. I called Amy, who lives a block away, and I burst into tears. All I could manage was a shaky "We have to take Desmond to the hospital" and she immediately told me "Bring Kai right over!" So I ran outside to start the van to thaw and  we packed both boys a bag quickly, I grabbed a couple snacks for us since we were missing dinner. I backed Ben's car out of the driveway blindly, it was covered in such a thick layer of ice and snow I didn't have time to thaw it out. I attacked the ice on the van until Ben came out to take over. It was so thick after just 5 hours that it broke the scraper in half. 

Ben grabbed Kai out of the car and carried him up to Amy's house. Malakai was thrilled for his very first sleepover at a friend's house (Amy's son Nate is just a little younger than Kai + she has a baby, Luke who Kai also adores). Thankfully he wasn't scared and didn't know to worry about Desmond, as worried as Ben + I were. I texted Amy directions for bed time and such on our way to the hospital. 

Desmond was still in a great mood and asked us where we were going. When we said the hospital, he said "OK!" as we had just been there for x-rays 2 days earlier and he seemed to enjoy the adventure. We slid at an intersection once as we tried to start from a stop light, but we made it safely in the terrible weather. I did NOT enjoy that drive!

We grabbed his bag and headed to the front desk in the lobby at Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend where both boys were born and where Malakai had his hernia surgery a couple years earlier. We were led upstairs to the pediatric floor and immediately admitted. Dr. B met us in Desmond's room and explained his results more thoroughly. His white blood cell count should normally be less than 15,000 was elevated to 39,000. He also tested as anemic and low blood sugar. His crp levels (which I don't really understand) were elevated, which apparently isn't good either. All of these things indicate a dangerous infection somewhere in his body. Her plan to rule out Bacterial Sepsis was to get a follow up chest x-ray to make sure the pneumonia hadn't become visible after the last one. Then have an ultrasound on his abdomen to see if there were any abnormalities and to check on his appendix. Third, was to recheck his urine and lastly was to administer IV antibiotics for 48 hours. That's when we realized we were in for a long stay.

Mystery Ailment: Part 1

I wrote the following post on Wednesday Feb 5th before things took a turn for the worse the next day. 

____________________________

My poor sweet family can't catch a break from sickness lately. At least 2 of us have been sick at any given time for the past month and not one of us has been spared. Thankfully, we did have a small reprieve for Ben's birthday this past Sunday, but it didn't last long.

Yesterday I went to the doctor after a month of coughing my life away and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. What a pain, but I am glad to have some medicine now and that there is an end in sight to this suffering. 

Desmond came down with a high fever suddenly on Monday. He was his happy unruly self and then suddenly he said his tummy hurt and he was burning up. That night he and Ben were up all night and Des threw up so we thought it must be (ANOTHER) stomach virus. Until the next morning when his fever shot back up and he was breathing erratically.

 Since I am still feeling miserable, Ben took Desmond to the doctor. He saw a nurse practitioner who called in one of the doctors and they couldn't quite figure out what was bothering his tummy. Thankfully they ruled out all sorts of serious conditions like appendicitis, he also tested negative for flu. Due to his shallow breathing they sent him in for a chest X-ray. No matter how bad I felt I had to be there for that.

{waiting sweetly for his x-ray}

My angel-neighbor Amy took Kai so I could go to the hospital with Ben and Des. By that point the ibuprofen they gave him at the pediatrician kicked in and he was talking up a storm. He breezed through the x-ray and we headed home. 

By the time we got home he was exhausted and hungry. We were thrilled that he had an appetite again, he hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. I went down the street to bring Malakai back home and by the time I got back Ben and Desmond were both asleep. Ben has been my rock through all of this, even when he was sick a couple weeks ago he still took care of all of us, sacrificing the rest he needed so the rest of us could get healthy.

We later found out that Desmond's chest x-ray was clear for pneumonia so our instructions are to keep an eye on him and call back if he vomits again or his fever gets worse. 

It has been so hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel. We struggle to get through each bout of sickness only to get hit again and harder. I know this is normal with small children, but this has been the worst season for us by far. I'm so glad to have a handful of people in my phone that I can text at any time to lift up a prayer or run an errand for us. My father in law, Ron picked up dinner and my antibiotics last night so we can focus on keeping Des comfortable. Amy has been dousing my children and I in essential oils to relieve symptoms here and there. Ben's work has been extremely understanding of his need to care for family (it helps that he is such a hard worker, he always catches up).  I know that God is reaching down through all these people to bless our family in this needy time. My incessant prayer now is for a total healing over all of us and a nice LONG reprieve from all that has been ailing us physically.

____________________________

Due to the content of these posts being drawn out and detailed, I've split this update into separate posts.
Find Part 2 here + 3 here.  

and now to compare...

I love comparing my boys, mostly in looks. I try not to compare them to each other developmentally, but I can't help but look back at photos of Kai when he was Desmond's age.

Here are some comparison photos of them on their 2nd birthdays, wearing the same shirt thanks to daddy :)

<<< Malakai + Desmond >>>

People are always saying they look like twins, or those who knew Kai at a younger age are marveling at how Desmond looks like he did. While I think they have similarities, I mostly see their differences. I can definitely see more of Ben in Malakai and more of me in Desmond. While my husband's genes are strong and also pretty prevalent in Desmond, Des has my nose and dimples and strongly resembles the men on my side of the family when they were boys. Kai just has my chin dimple, much cuter on him than me!

Watching these boys grow is such a joy!

Dear Desmond, on your 2nd birthday.

{traditional birthday breakfast at Original Pancake House}

Dear precious Desmond,

You have grown from my baby into my little boy very quickly over the last 2 years! You've worked hard to keep up with your big brother and are always found by his side, usually mimicking his every move and word. You've picked up on a lot language over the past year and I'm still in awe over the full blown conversations we've been having over the last few months. I love that you can easily tell me how you are feeling and even why. Your verbal skills have surely come in handy in holding your own when your brother gets a bit bossy. 

You've always been our little climber, before you were walking you were climbing. Just the other day I caught you climbing your chair to reach something on the table, you waved me off and said "no problem, no problem." Sadly you're starting to tune me out when you're intent on doing something that you know you shouldn't. I see the same fierce independence Malakai had at this age coming through in you as well. 

I love watching you learn and grow. You love numbers and shapes and devour books by the dozens. We have to go to the library once a week to keep up with your appetite for reading both with someone or thumbing through picture books on your own. 

Your favorite things are animals, especially those that say "ROAR", like lions, tigers, bears and dinosaurs. You love to say chomp like a crocodile as well. You are obsessed with trucks, trains, planes and pretty much anything that goes "vroom". Your party theme was modeled after this, "things that go". You remember the different sounds that fire trucks, dump trucks, trains and other automobiles make and you've memorized a few of your favorite books. 

Running and hopping come easy to you. I'm sure you'll be pedaling a bike with ease by next spring. You are a phenomenal eater, trying almost anything and going back to try several times even when you've decided "I don't wike it!"I'm so thankful you haven't started to mimick your older brother in this regard. You have always grown fast and are now growing into Kai's clothes almost immediately after he grows out of them. 

Sleep has been a struggle for the past 10 months or so. You did well as a baby, but since last December you haven't been able to go to bed for anyone but daddy at night. The last few months have been rough even with daddy by your side. Thankfully you nap pretty consistently, although that tide is changing as well. I'm praying hard you hold on to your afternoon nap for at least another year, I know you need that rest because you get VERY cranky at dinner time without it. 

Your favorite places to go are Grandma's, Mima's and church. Whenever we get in the car you say, "go to church!" and half the time, that's exactly where we are headed. You've learned the look of our neighborhood and shout "we're home!" when we turn onto our street. 

Sweet Des, you are very social and love to play with bigger kids. You shout hello to the neighbor boys whenever the front door opens and run to greet your daddy each afternoon when he arrives home from work. You transition to new environments quickly, even when you shed a few tears of protest they dry quickly and you have a great time making friends wherever you go. 

My good natured boy, I love you dearly and am so proud to be your mama. Let's continue on this adventure and keep on growing together. Happy Birthday Desmond!

Yours, mama.

_______ ___ _______ ___ _______ ___ _______

On Desmond's 2nd birthday we woke him up and whisked away, just the 4 of us, for an early breakfast at Original Pancake House. This is a tradition we started on Malakai's 2nd birthday. It's easily one of my favorites. 

Desmond was very excited for pancakes and especially blowing out his candle. He blew it out as soon as the plate was set in front of him. We clearly needed a do-over, so the waitress came back to re-light the candle so we could sing to him and I could capture the obligatory photo. That scrunchy face didn't disappoint. Oh how I love a good 2 year old facial expression

{waiting is more bearable with a bendy-straw}

Both boys were on their best behavior and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as usual. Taking kids out to breakfast is much more preferable than dinner!

Just before we headed out we got a quick family "selfie" and by some miracle Ben captured all of us smiling (albeit Kai's is quite goofy, but it's still a smile). 

Ben headed off to work and I took the boys to play indoors at the mall (it was freezing cold and windy that morning so the park was not a great option). They had a great time and walked hand in hand so sweetly. 

{Des LOVES trains!}

Before lunch we headed to the downtown library, which is much bigger than the little branch on our side of town. Malakai was looking forward to the elevators and Desmond enjoyed running around the aisles. I grabbed a ton of books to keep them happy later that afternoon. 

We headed home for lunch, Des took a nice little nap and once Ben got home we had dinner, cupcakes and gave Desmond one of his presents. Then off to bed! It was a whirlwind of a day but Desmond had a great 2nd birthday and we still have his party to look forward to!

Desmond Lee: 18 months

Desmond is officially a year and a half old as of April 10th. He's such a big boy in so many ways! I thought it would be fun to do a comparison with Kai at this age (since I haven't done one in a while).

In these photos the boys are wearing the same hoodie, jeans, and boots. Des is slightly bigger than Kai was at this age, but not by a ton. I can't find Kai's 18 month stats to compare though. Malakai is on the left and Desmond on the right. I didn't pose Des, I just snapped pictures and then found the ones of Kai that looked the most similar in pose...

{picking up things and investigating them}

{walking around on the deck}

{squatting to reach things: not easy to do in boots}

{carrying things around and loving it}

Desmond is 33 inches tall (62%), 26lbs 11.5oz (63%). From memory I'm pretty sure Kai was not in the 60th percentile for height at this age. We often wonder if Des will surpass Kai in height, much like Ben and his younger brother.

One of the most notable things about Desmond's development is his speech and comprehension. (I'm in no way bragging here, just documenting). When the pediatrician asked how many words he could say, we had a really hard time answering. I explained that he can say almost any word you ask him to. She asked how many words he is not just repeating, but comprehends. What's funny, is that it's often evident that he comprehends them almost instantly based on his use of them again in reference to the object not only right then but in the future. I'm totally crediting Ben with handing down these skills as he is able to understand things quickly as well. Me? I am super visual and pretty hands on so I need examples and trial + error to really learn most things.

So- his most common used words and phrases are:

"Malakai" or "Kai"
"Mama"
"Daddy"
"nana" (banana"
"bagel"
"milk"
"cup"
"water"
"cookie"
"cracker"
"snack"
"pizza"
"sammich" (sandwich)
...noticing a trend here? Our boy likes to eat.
"up"
"hold you"
"help you?"
"no"
"yeah" or "yes"
"Cooz, Cooz" (Blue's Clues)
"ponies"
....just about every animal and their sound.
"my turn"
"thank you"
"welcome"(often said as "thank you- welcome")
"peez" (please)
"all done"
"more"
"cereal"
"I want it"
"I need it"
"have it"
"nuggle" (snuggle)
"read it"
"legos"
"wub you" (love you)
"happy" (how he refers to the "You are my sunshine" song/book)
"window"
"i-pod"
"cuh-yuh" (color)
"baff" (bath"
"nuh-night"
"cars"
"truck"
"Bye-bye"

and the list goes on.

He's becoming more and more independent, which has caused some obvious problems when it comes to playing with his brother. They start off okay at sharing most of the time, but it always turns into a struggle or a fight.

He is still enamored with climbing (as he has been since 6 months of age). He is obviously much better at it. We had to start using a sleep sack at 15 months old because he was climbing out of his crib on it's lowest setting. The sleep sack has already bought us 3 month and we're hoping for 2-6 more before we have to make the toddler bed transition. He often climbs to the top of our dining room table, always in 2 seconds flat.

He is super interested in potty learning. I'm sure it's from watching Malakai learn. He has actually used the toilet a handful of times. One day he went 3 times. We have him go every night before bath but we aren't putting any pressure on him, we've learned (the hard way) to be laid back about it.

We started cloth diapering really recently and I'll be sharing more on that soon. So far Desmond hasn't even seemed to notice a difference, thankfully!

Des is our snuggler. He loves the song/book "You Are My Sunshine" and asks for it by saying "happy?". He blows kisses whenever anyone says loves you or kisses.  He miraculously puts himself to sleep for 2-3 hours at nap time but struggles to do so at bed time. So much so that over the last 3 months he refuses to let me put him to bed at night, and will only sleep if Ben cradles him to sleep. He adamantly refuses to go down "drowsy but awake" and often struggles to soothe himself when he wakes in the middle of the night, although that's improving.

He loves pointing out animals and saying their names and the sounds they make. He is obsessed with Kai's room and trying to stand on the bed to look out the window. He loves to "read" and be read to. He's mastered the art of building a lego tower and he loves to color with crayons and markers. He knows a handful of signs, and always says the phrase while doing the signs.

Like I mentioned before, he LOVES to eat. His favorite is bananas. He will often ask for cookies because I shared one with him ONCE. He gets super cranky if we are late on snacks or meals and then is instantly happy again when he gets to eat. The only foods he isn't fond of lately are meats, which I think are a texture thing. If he's anything like Kai in this regard, I don't know if he'll ever eat chicken.

He's fairly mellow but is starting to exert himself when he wants something. He's been known to throw his weight around when throwing a fit, which is not a pretty sight. Otherwise he's super sweet, and I can't get enough of watching him grow.

brothers and playmates

Over the past couple weeks Desmond has made leaps and bounds developmentally. It's like he morphed into a toddler overnight. Not only does he act bigger, but he looks bigger. Walking around with confidence, doing big boy stuff. It is killing Ben + I that he's not a baby anymore (and no, that doesn't mean it's time for another one!).

Desmond has now mastered climbing on the couch and in the same day he walked across the couch and straight onto the end table. YIKES!

One of the best parts of watching Desmond grow up is his ability to play with Malakai. Until very recently they could play near each other, but rarely with each other. When Kai did try to play with Des, it didn't usually turn out so well for the little guy.

On Sundays after church services we feed the boys lunch in the nursery so that when they fall asleep on the drive home we don't have to wake them to feed them. We've done this since Kai was a baby. This past weekend it was just the boys and I as Ben had a meeting. Once they finished eating they played
while I cleaned up.

Kai climbed onto a rocking horse and then said he had to find one for Desmond. He grabbed the other from an adjoining room and pulled it next to his. For the next 10 minutes they were singing "ride, ride, ride, riiiiiiide!" while giggling and rocking on the horses side-by-side:

 {killer smiles}

Later that evening Kai asked to play with his spider-man car. When I brought it in I expected to have to put it away within a few minutes because he tends to get too rowdy with big toys. Instead, while he was sitting on it Desmond came up behind him and started pushing. They were both laughing so hard and spent quite some time going back and forth in the living room.

I love watching them create a bond as playmates. Malakai has finally grasped the concept of taking care of (rather than destroying) his little brother. On Monday when Des was fussing in his crib (because I was moving laundry and he's obsessed with following me into the garage), Kai sat next to him and said "It's okay, I'm here." Melt.My.Heart.