BLESSINGS

BLESSINGS

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

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.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

I think I need a laser light!

Grandpa Miller had a red laser light that seemed to keep both Ansel and Lexi entertained! 

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mommy's "helper"

It's no secret that Ansel likes to be Daddy's helper when it comes to tool time.. but he likes to help in the kitchen too. Anytime I'm cooking he has to pull a chair over to see what's going on. Here he's helping make waffles and "stirring" up the dry ingredients with the teaspoon. Most of it stayed in the bowl!

Buddies

Ansel really likes his puppy... (still a little too much at times, but they're getting a little better around each other!) Ansel really likes to be the one to hold her leash when we take her on walks. They pretty much take turns pulling each other along. She'll start running when we're getting close to home, which nearly takes Ansel out even though she's 6lbs. 6 oz.(went to the vet yesterday for shots) and he's 22lbs! Yeah, that makes it hard to teach her how to "heel", but they have fun. She's very good at sitting when told, but we're still working on the other ones!
Another way I can tell Ansel likes Lexi is that he'll let her sit in his Thomas the Train chair without moving her. Even if we just lay our head on the chair he'll try to push us off.. (and he really gets possessive with it if another kid tries to sit in it) but he hasn't seemed to mind her sitting there. Lexi will sometimes sit there patiently while Ansel's holding her, but sometimes she'll give us the "please rescue me" look (As seen in the picture above). Despite that though, I think she likes him too. When she wakes up in the morning she'll run to his room door to see if he's up yet. Speaking of sleeping.. quite often I'll find her sleeping on her back! ( shown below....looks kind of funny!)

The whole vet experience was a little new for me. The weirdest part was that Lexi was suddenly my "baby" that everyone was going crazy about and the people there hardly seemed to notice Ansel at all (which was completely different from usual!) They'd even tell her "wait for momma" (again.. referring to Lexi, not Ansel.) I know this is quite common in the pet owner world.. but I guess I'm just not used to some aspects of it yet! The funniest part about the trip though was the huge red dog who was terrified of Lexi, and would whimper and scurry under the chair trying to further their distance from each other! (Lexi was just sitting there, not barking at all or anything. The dog's owner said she's just scared of little dogs for some reason!)

In this picture.. I thought it was kind of funny how Ansel and Lexi are pretty much making the same face. They definitely have some similarities going on : she was a runt.. he was a little 2 pounder; they both are potty training (and doing pretty well with it); they both beg for junk food but don't want to eat their real food; they both get overly excited when they're playing together (and learning boundaries and proper behavior!); and I think they both get jealous of each other when it comes to getting attention! I think in the long run though they'll grow up to be good buddies!

*A note about the umbrella picture: it was raining on our walk the other day, so Ansel lost interest in holding the leash and decided he wanted the umbrella. It looked so funny.. All you could see was this blue umbrella walking around (and sometimes at the right angle you could see little blue shoes to go with it!



Monday, August 11, 2008

Our first family pet

Well, it was kind of random (we weren't out looking around or even thinking about getting any dogs), but I came across this one through a good friend. We named her Lexi, and she's half Boston Terrier half Pug (the mix is known as bugg dogs! Kind of funny..) She's about 9 weeks old. Ansel's pretty excited about her.. although they both get a little too excited sometimes and clash a little. I think it'll be good for him once they adjust to each other a little better!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Let's pray little Alexa safely home!

Well, I'd briefly mentioned on a post awhile back that we had some friends who had a little preemie girl. The time has come where they hopefully are not too far away from getting to take her home.. actually they've had plans to go home several times over the past couple of weeks. However, new challenges keep arising, and the date keeps getting pushed back further.

I remember being in their place.. it seemed like Ansel's departure date always seemed to get pushed back a little for one reason or another. Then, just a couple of days after we got home with him, he and I both got the flu.. very scary for a little guy who's already dependent on oxygen. He had a few spells where he'd go limp and blue (even on the oxygen) so we rushed him back to the hospital where he spent another three weeks (back in the NICU) trying to recover so we could try to go home again. At that time when all those things were happening for us, I really believe that the prayers of so many people in our behalf helped give us the strength and patience we needed (and the help Ansel needed to get stronger!) I read comments from people I'd never even met (friends of friends and friends of family members all over the country) and it amazed me how intently people who didn't even know us would pray for us and give us their support.

So, I wanted to ask all my friends and family who might read this (I know some of you know Trevor and Melissa and have them in your prayers already!) but for those who don't... if you could remember this little family in your prayers tonight, that'd be great. We've also been praying that the doctors can figure out what is the cause of Alexa's breathing and heart rate episodes so she can be treated correctly and that when she does go home, she'll be strong and ready for it! I'm sure they'll greatly appreciate any extra support! If you want to check out cute little Alexa, her blog is: http://alexapetersen.blogspot.com. Thanks everyone!