Ansel's third birthday!

Time is such a funny thing... I can't believe my little guy is three years old.. yet his crazy birth seems like a lifetime ago! It seems like he's been a part of our family forever and it seems weird to think of what life was like before he entered our world :) I'm so grateful things have gone the way they have.

This is such a fun age! I love all the conversations and funny and witty things Ansel comes up with. Oh, and being potty trained.. love that too. Makes life a little easier!

He was so excited to have a Thomas Train cake this year! He woke on his birthday so excited to see it.. (It took awhile to make.. having to mix all the colors!) Just a few minutes after he came across it.. I could hear him playing in the kitchen.. still very excited about it. I went out there and he proudly showed me the additions he had made!! So funny.. He added the other trains (that I was originally going to use.. so atleast they were brand new and washed already!) They were heavy though.. and had magnets in them..so I decided not to use them after all! Well, Ansel fixed the cake up a little by adding them.. and even had them all going the same direction. Funny though.. it looked like a little train wreck with the log that flew off to the side. He definitely had more fun playing in it.. ( and it was more for that than for eating!)

He had his last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor.. who does the developmental appointments until they turn three). Dr. Porte was thrilled with his progress. The only thing he's a little behind on is his gross motor skills that involve the side trunk muscles (like jumping and stuff).. he has low muscle tone there still which is common with little preemies (but it's mild and just improves with time.. so nothing major or to worry about). They changed around some of his medicines to see if that will help him a little (mostly for his asthma and reflux.. he seems to have the whole asthma/allergies/acid reflux trio....) Dr. Porte said his lymph nodes in his neck are pretty good sized and figured he has some type of allergies (but we're not sure what...aside from the typical seasonal ones) Ansel says he has a hurt tummy nearly every day (likely the reflux issue) but he's doing a little better with that now that he's regularly on reflux medicine again. He had to go get a bunch of bloodwork done the other day too.. just to kind of check some things out.. but we're still waiting on that to come back. He's still of course not hitting charts.. but he had gained a little bit! He was almost 24 lbs. and was 35inches tall. Dr. Porte kept saying though how great he's doing.. especially given his start.. and that we should be proud :) And of course we are... I'm happy he's done so well. It's so exciting to see him progress and learn everyday. We're very lucky to have him in our lives.

On another side note.. we also just had our fourth anniversary a few weeks back (November 26th).. Our fifth will actually be on Thanksgiving next year! What a great thing to be grateful for. Cody's so wonderful and (kind of like I mentioned the weird time thing earlier) it's seems like we've been together forever already! I'm grateful I have him... he makes my life so much happier :)

I love this time of year anyway.. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays.. and then to add to that we have such special family memories at this time of year which seem to enhance the richness of those holidays even more!

Halloween

Ansel was a cute little monkey this year and had a lot of fun saying "trick or treat" to everyone! I didn't think he was going to wear the costume at all because he'd never try it on, but he finally did on Halloween day and kept it on pretty much the whole day! (Once he realized it would get him candy... suddenly being a monkey was a lot of fun!) ... Also.. a little flashback at his first two Halloween costumes. I think the Bob one was definitely the best (and was perfect for him).

It was a full day though.. first we went trick or treating at Daddy's work.. then the square (met up with some friends there), then the ward trunk or treat.. and ended at Grandma's house! At Grandma's house Ansel would run to the door every time he'd hear the door bell and greet the trick or treaters.

Hide and seek

Ansel sometimes likes to play hide and seek with Daddy before bedtime. He found a new spot to hide... (although he did need a little bit of help getting it zipped up. The other pictures are of him in his cute new pajamas.

Babying our puppy?

I came out to find this the other day.. I guess she found one of Ansel's really old pacifiers in his toy box. (Didn't know there were any around still!) She's quite fond of it though.






Also, she's a kind of puppy that doesn't maintain their body temperature well. She'll sit there shivering sometimes.. with some of the weather we've had lately. So I gave in a bought her a sweater... (Ansel picked it out because it had the little fuzzy balls on it.) She wasn't sure of it at first.. as in that first picture, but she doesn't mind it at all now if she's cold (usually that's the only time we put it on.. if she's shivering).

My life is a little easier thanks to this product!!

So, I was at Wal-mart the other day when I came across this oh so wonderful thing... Ansel's potty-trained.. but only at home, where he can use his little potty. He has a potty insert seat as well that we can take to places like grandma and grandpa's house, etc. Stores however have been another story. Ansel's still only 23 lbs.. so real potties are quite large to him (and he's still too short to stand up and pee.. with a real potty anyway) Needless to say the toilets in public are quite big for him and he would refuse to even try them (he'd just cling to me and not even try to go.. don't blame him though.. he did look like he could fall in pretty easy!) This thing folds up nice and compact and fits easily in his little mini backpack (with extra clothes of course..just in case.) It doesn't fit great on home ones, but is perfect for the kinds you find in public. Anyway, he finally decided it would be okay to go while we're in public. Not to mention it's nice knowing he's the only one using that thing. One step closer to being fully potty trained! (We still haven't messed with it at night time.. although he is usually dry after nap time, and will take his diaper off when he wakes up to go potty.)

Maple Leaf Parade

A couple of weekends ago was the annual Maple Leaf Festival here in Carthage. We only went to the parade.. which started only a few blocks from our house. Ansel had fun dancing to all the bands in it. He liked the kettle corn too.
















Just for Cody... he works as a recruiter at CFI.. (well, it's actually Conway now)


















Ansel with the kettle corn.. the bag's almost as big as him!


















A view of the parade at the square.. We do have a pretty courthouse.

Ansel locked me outside today!

Well, today was a little crazy. We stopped by the store after our walk (Ansel was out of milk.. so I went ahead and did a little grocery shopping while I was there). After we got home I took the kids in, put Matthew in the exersaucer (he's a fast little crawler!) then went out to get the groceries. LUCKILY I had my phone with me at least, because when I got to the front door, Ansel had shut it! (and apparently also turned the lock in the process) Slight moment of panic...but at least my phone was on me so I called Cody (took me 10 minutes or so to get through to him) and TRIED to walk Ansel through the process of unlocking the door. He was distraught though that I couldn't come inside and after trying to turn the door knob a few times with no luck, I could just hear him screaming on the other side. At this point I was pretty sure I wouldn't get him calmed down enough to figure it out so I called my friend (who's husband works with Cody) and had her get her husband to have Cody call me. (If I call him at work.. he'll only answer if he's not on the phone. If he's on the phone then usually he'll call me back when he gets done... but I couldn't wait for him to get done.. two little ones inside!!!) Anyway.. Cody came and saved the day :) (Although I was out there for 40 minutes or so because he works in Joplin! 40 minutes wouldn't have been bad if the kids were out there with me, because it was a gorgeous day outside.. but knowing they were in there by themselves was a little stressful! Now... had Matthew not been in the exersaucer.. I think I would have completely panicked!!!) It all worked out.. but now I need to remember to ALWAYS have my keys on me just in case.. and maybe we'll have a little family night teaching Ansel how to UNLOCK the front door :)

Improvising

My friends and I have been going walking everyday, only I don't have a double stroller yet since I've been watching Matthew everyday. (I'm not alone though.. one of my friends that goes with us has two small children.. one that's pretty new, and hasn't gotten her double stroller yet either)
Anyway, at first Ansel would ride up top (like a shopping cart), but the other day he decided to climb in the basket at the bottom and that's actually worked out quite well! He and Olivia (the other toddler that comes with us) will also get out and walk sometimes..or look at flowers..or rocks..etc! (It takes much longer that way though!!)

Hide and seek

I was washing Lexi's bedding the other day when I realized Ansel had found a new hide out. (Luckily I'd just cleaned it well) Yes.. both Lexi and Ansel were in there at one point! We couldn't get him to come out... so Daddy decided to get him out.. only his plan didn't quite go as expected. (Daddy didn't realize Ansel was coming out butt first until I grabbed the camera.. not to mention Ansel was gripping the inside of the crate trying to stay in longer!)


The last couple of pictures were some cute ones of Ansel and Lexi after church one day.

Trying to take after Mommy or Daddy?

Let's hope for Daddy on this one! Even little boys raid Mommy's mascara. This happened just a few days after Daddy got his lovely little basketball wound (4 stitches and a black eye.. the black eye part showed up a little later)

Birthday cakes are so much fun...

It was a few weeks back, but here's a couple of pics from Cody's birthday. We had a variety of Thai food (Cody's favorite..mine too actually) for dinner. As soon as Daddy got home from work.. Ansel ran over yelling, "Daddy, birthday cake!!" over and over. He was pretty excited about it and usually is.. as you can see from pictures earlier this summer from my birthday and Aunt Rachel's birthday.( Yes.. it does appear that my cake is going up in flames.. too many candles this year!) I have so many birthday pictures of him on the birthday person's lap.. I think it's been his designated spot since he was a baby!



In the last two pictures.. Ansel decided he really liked Daddy's cycling shirt he got for his birthday.

Cute kids

I liked this picture of Ansel and Matthew. Matthew's the cute little 5 month old we've been babysitting. Ansel's pretty good with him, although he does have his little jealous moments (when he'll yell, "My Mommy!!") I think it's good for him to learn he has to share sometimes!
When he's not being jealous.. he'll talk sweet to him, kiss the top of his head, and he likes to lay down on the ground next to him. I have to sometimes remind him to give Matthew his space! (Which is funny because those of you who know Ansel know he's very particular about people invading his "bubble".. He likes his personal space, unless it's HIS idea to snuggle up to someone or say hi. (He does still love to snuggle though... at least with us) He's not always friendly, however, when people come up and say hi to him and he'll sometimes scream "No, Mine!" (As in his personal space I guess) I'm not sure how to fix that problem! But if he initiates it, he will act sweet as can be. (Giving cheesy grins and waves and kisses.)
Matthew's a strong little guy though and growing up fast. He's already crawling and even got his first tooth about a month ago! (Completely different from when Ansel was a baby! He was a year old when he started crawling (9 months adjusted)! Matthew's also a very good eater when it comes to baby food. (another phase we totally skipped.. Ansel wouldn't touch the stuff! It wasn't until we introduced finger foods that he'd try something other than milk.) Anyway, it's been fun seeing his personality emerge.