New Friends--a post by Ali

One day there was a new kid in my kindergarten class. His name was Dylan. I asked him to be my friend and he said, “Yes”. And today just before my church class was leaving for Primary, I asked a new girl in our church class if she would be my friend and she said, “Yes”. And now I have two new friends.

Alicyn

As I mentioned in a previous post, our ward had a Primary talent show yesterday. Ali finally decided she wanted to learn a song on the piano. She practiced and practiced (man, am I sick of this song) and learned most of it in just one week. Sadly, she got a sinus infection and was too sick to go to the talent show. So, we decided to have our own little performance.


Ali keeps our lives interesting. I just love her personality and sense of humor! For example, she has decided that she is going to have a "Thoroughly Modern Millie" birthday party. She's figured it all out. We are going to serve Franks, Sauerkraut, Tapioca pudding and Raaazz-berries. I am supposed to dress up in a kimono and say, "Welcome to The Priscilla!" as the guests arrive. She's even picked out a three tiered cake from Albertsons. She wants everyone to bring their tap shoes so that we can recreate the elevator scene and she wants to teach everyone the Tapioca dance. She thinks all the girls should wear Millie or Miss Dorothy dresses and the one boy she's going to invite should wear a blue Jimmy suit. We are currently accepting additional ideas for the party. (Seriously, I need help if I'm going to pull this one off!)

Ali got several new books for Christmas and has read them all at least once. Her favorites have been the Nancy Drew mysteries. She can finish one of those bad boys off in just a few days. She finishes Junie B. Jones books in a few hours. I love that she loves to read. I can't wait for her to be old enough to read Harry Potter so that I can relive all of the fun of reading them for the first time.

Here is a cute picture of Ali and John reading before bed.


John is notorious for falling asleep in the middle of reading and then slurring all the words together. For a long time Ali would just try to wake him up but lately she's just been sighing and taking the book from him to read herself.

Above all else, Ali LOVES being a big sister. She takes such good care of Bubba! She has gotten used to his crying. When he throws up, she is often quicker than I am to wipe him up. I can count on her to "babysit" while I'm in the shower. She knows what his favorite toys are and is very effective at using them to soothe him. I honestly don't think I could maintain my sanity and live this life without her help!
Here are some pictures of the Big Sis in action.
Feeding Bubba

Secrets

Matching sweaters from Great G-ma and G-pa S.


So proud of her baby brother!

Andrew

Andy is knocking on the door of 7 months old and I realized that I hadn't posted his 6 month old picture on this website. Andy had his checkup and immunizations a week or so ago. He is doing great! Though his growth is slow and way behind his peers, he is growing and that is a big accomplishment for him.
(four months)

(five months)

(six months)

You can see that his hair is really coming in strong. I keep wanting to give him a hair cut but am afraid of what the results might be since he sometimes still struggles with holding his head up.
Andy loves laughing and smiling. He can tell when Mom, Dad, or Ali come into the room. He is very good about communicating with us and has a different cry for different issues. He does get tuckered out pretty quickly. I've noticed that he's sort of started panting or taking deep breaths after he's been crying really hard. It's a good reminder of what's going on inside of him since I have a hard time remembering about that little heart condition. ;)
Here are some cute, albeit random, pictures we've taken of Andy recently. Look out ladies, Dr. Love is in town!

Andy is serious about his sleep. When he's tired, there's nothing you can do to keep him awake. He loves sticking his thumbs in his ears, as you can see by this picture. I also put this in because you can see his extra digit really well.
That reminds me of a funny story. A few months ago, some friends were looking at Andy at church. They have two teenage sons. After John told them that we would eventually have the extra digit removed, the younger son said, "You can't take it off- it's too cool to take off." The older brother then said, "Let's just hope he doesn't kill anyone like the six fingered man." (Princess Bride) The Younger brother thought about that for a minute and said, "Yeah- you should definitely get that off."
So, back to the sleep thing. Andy has also started using his bib to block out light when he's tired. It is really remarkable that he does this as it is a big indication of higher level brain activity. It's very encouraging. Here's a pic of that.
Andy has also started to enjoy playing with rattles. Here's a little video that we took tonight of him playing. Notice how he drops it, picks it back up and then a few seconds later changes hands. That's something the doctors never thought would be possible.


Andy is still not eating through his mouth. He was doing well until about 3 months old when the sucking reflex started fading. Now he eats everything through his G-tube. However, we are trying to create a positive oral experience as the feedings start so he associates the feeling of his stomach filling with his mouth. Because of the oral aversion, this is a slow process. We start by playing with his cheeks and move to his lips and eventually I put my finger in his mouth, feeling the inside of his cheeks and gums. Then I put in the bottle. It's really nice that I don't have to worry about him starving and we can just have fun with it.


Andy was evaluated by the Early Intervention people and his strongest area was social skills. He loves to be part of the crowd. He loves music, singing, snuggling, and kisses: (but NOT Mom's wild hair in his face)

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

We got a kick out of this and thought we'd share.
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Talent Show

On Feb 14th there is a Primary Activity day and they are doing a talent show. We've been discussing what Ali might do. Here are some of the things she's suggested:

Gymnastics
rolling her R's (like when you speak Spanish)
"filling the room full of thick, thick fog" and then being able to "look through it"
doing a dance while Mom and Dad play the piano
acting out "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
telling jokes
rolling her eyes (I think she means crossing them but...)
reading a poem
painting a picture

We're still not sure which of these she'll do (if any) but I didn't want to forget all of her ideas.

Christmas 2008

We had a very fun and exciting Christmas. This year it was Grandma and Grandpa King's turn to put up with us. We were a little sad that none of my (Sarah) siblings could come with their families but we had a great time! Grandma and Grandpa do a great job making things magical. It took us twice as long to get to their house as usual due to the snow but it didn't dampen anyone's Christmas spirit. We took turns picking Christmas carols and then everyone sang them. I was surprised and impressed at how many carols Ali knew all of the words to. I guess it pays off to start listening to Christmas music in October. Andy was a gem too- sleeping the whole time.

As soon as we arrived, Grandma had everything ready to decorate cookies for Santa. Ali decided that Santa would "probably be freezing" by the time he got to our house so instead of serving him the traditional glass of milk, she decided to serve hot chocolate. She wrote him a note explaining how to make the hot chocolate. It was so cute! We didn't help her with format or spelling. Here is a picture of the note.
Carrying on the King family tradition of new PJ's on Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of Ali with some of her loot. Santa brought her "Congo drums" (aka Bongo drums), Over The Hedge DVD, a CD case for her room and lots of candy. Andy slept through all of the gift opening. He woke up around 10:00 or so and then we started opening his gifts. Here he is with his haul. Santa brought Andy some rattles, new binkis and new bibs. Ali was really cute as she helped open Andy's gifts. She was excited for him to open her gift first. She gave him a rattle and a little brother bib. She even helped him put it on. I love this picture. The look in Ali's eyes says it all.

This moment of bliss didn't last very long, though. A few minutes later, Andy pulled his feeding tube out and we had to rush to the emergency room to get it put back in. As we were looking over our Christmas pictures/videos, we discovered that John inadvertently got Andy pulling the tube out on video. You can see how he manages to get one hand under it and then a few seconds later has it gripped with the other hand and is pulling. You can tell it's hurting him so he moves his hands toward his mouth for comfort which just makes him pull harder. Sad! Here it is (it's not gory, don't worry):



After our brief detour at the ER, we came back, had a beautiful Christmas dinner and eventually got around to opening Andy's presents again. This time it was much more successful. Andy was pretty sore and tired after all of that. He did get in some good playing time with his new toys before he conked out. The good news is that his Christmases will only get better from here, right?

Ali also got an Easy-Bake oven and was so excited when we were finally able to find the right kind of light bulb for her to bake. She made us a "double decker" yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. She was so proud!

Here are a few other random pics from Christmas:

John got the extended version of Lord of the Rings on DVD. (John- I will remove this picture from our blog for the small price of a 30 min. back massage. The ball is in your court. Hee Hee Hee) He also got a huge book of BYU football facts and memorabilia. Ali trying on Gma's new snowmobile garb. Ali being silly.

December In Review

December was kind of a crazy month for the Love family. Here are some of the goings on:

Grandma and Grandpa Love came for a visit so they could be here with us during Andrew's second open heart surgery. This was the first time they were able to hold him. Ali was thrilled to have them back! Andrew's second open heart surgery went great! He was in ICU for only three days and was home after six. And then it snowed! Ali was so happy to be able to play in the snow. This is how much snow we had on Sunday, Dec. 14th. They cancelled church and school on Monday because of it. And then it snowed some more: (This is after the third time shoveling. The first two times we totally cleared the walkway. The third time we gave up and just did a small path.) School ended up being canceled for a whole week and no church for two. Luckily we have great neighbors and Ali played with Meredith everyday. Ali and I decided to try making some melted chocolate lollipops. It was fun and we learned some tricks for next year. We forgot to take pictures of the finished products but here are some of us having fun with the leftover chocolate. Chocolate lipstick...mmmmm! We had a great December. I'll add the Christmas pictures at a later date.

Andrew's Four Months Old

We can hardly believe how wonderfully our lives have changed over the last four months. We decided to celebrate Andy's four month birthday with a big feast- turkey,stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole...the works. ;)
Andrew seems to be getting so big to us but when we see other babies his age, he's still a little guy. Everyone who passes us asks how old he is. I can tell they are surprised when I say four months rather than four weeks. Here are his current stats:

10.81 lbs (.58 %tile)
23 in (1.58 %tile)
head circumference is 14 in

A lot happened during his fourth month of life. First smile, first cold, first (and hopefully last) bout with pneumonia, first cardiac cath, first Thanksgiving, first Halloween, first trip to the pumpkin patch, first giggle.
Here is the much anticipated video of his giggles. (I had to break it up into three files because it was too long. The third is not so much giggles as it is smiles and a chance to hear his voice.)








He's changed so much-
One Month Old

Two Months Old

Three Months Old

Four Months Old

Curses to Judy Blume

Last night while I was in the middle of a presidency meeting and John was at choir practice, Ali decided she wanted to try something she'd read about in a book. So, after she wrote a letter to Santa, she went into my bathroom, found the supplies she needed and went to work. Here is what John found when he got home and went to give her a kiss goodnight: Don't you love the look on her face? She KNOWS she did something wrong and is just waiting to see how mad we are.
So, after my presidency meeting ended, John told me I needed to look at the pictures he took. He gave no information other than, "They're not good pictures." By this point he'd already washed her face and she was waiting for me to go up and talk to her. (BTW- it's after 10 PM) Here's how the conversation went: Me- "Ali, is there something you need to tell me?"
Ali- "About what?"
Me- "About what happened to my lipstick."
Ali- "OH. [long pause] Well, um... will you forgive me for using your lipstick, I'll try not to do that anymore." (Before you get too impressed, she says this line for everything she does wrong. It's not like she just came up with it. It's a memorized speech.)
Me- "Why did you use my lipstick?"
Ali- "Because I wanted to have freckles."
Me- (Slightly moved thinking she wanted freckles to be more like me)"Why did you want to have freckles?"
Ali- "To be like Andrew in 'Freckle Juice'. I was going to draw them on with a blue pen but then I decided to use lipstick instead. Then I wanted to see what it would look like with blood coming out of my face- but not for real."
I can see that we are going to have to screen her books a lot more closely from here on. What's next? Worms for an after school snack??

Fall on the Farm

This year we tried visiting a different farm to get our pumpkin. So instead of driving for 45 minutes, we drove for 10 and found ourselves at Baggenstos Farm. It was pretty cool. We got to go on a tractor hayride out to a little field with a ton of pumpkins just waiting to be chosen. Ali was excited to show "Bubba" all about picking the best pumpkins.
Here was his response:
As usual, Andy slept the whole time in the sling. This made it a little trickier to get a cute picture of the kids at the pumpkin patch.
It didn't take too long for Ali to find the perfect pumpkin.
It was just a little too heavy for her to carry by herself...
so Dad saved the day and carried it for her.
After a quick round of pumpkin bowling the kids insisted on posing as farm animals.