My Little Fish

Zak & Ryder love to swim! They enjoy being in the water when ever possible. Today we met Colleen, Josephine, & Jamison at the pool. The boys love to play with Jo and Jamison and being at the pool just adds to the fun. We have always joked that if we had a set of arm swimmies Zak would love to wear them and not have to be held the whole time because he would always try to push away from us. He also constantly tries to swim with kicking his legs and paddling his hands, it is so cute. Tonight Colleen had a set with her so we put them on Zak and he loved it. A few times he would try to move in an awkward direction and his head would dip under the water, but he didn't mind at all. Of course we were never far away from him, always within an arms reach. Here are some pictures from the pool today.

Family Update

I figured I would take a few minutes to give a family update since there has been lots going on recently.

Zak: He is a busy man, always non-stop and on the go. He has mastered crawling and is now working on walking. The other day he started to walk around the room using his push toy. He has also mastered cruising, aka walking around holding onto anything he can such as the couch and coffee table. He is in the phase of falling over a lot which means lots of crying and bruises. He still only has 2 teeth. Zak LOVES to eat anything you give him and will beg for food from our plates if he sees us eating. He is trying to make friends with Batman, but that is not going great since he is still a little too rough for him. Zak is very vocal and "talks" all day long. He has now graduated out of the bath seat and into the big bathtub without anything holding him down. He loves to crawl around and splash like a maniac. He has completely given up bottles and is using only sippy cups which is nice.

Ryder: He is such a happy baby. He seems to be content no matter what he is doing. He could sit on the floor for hours and play with the same toy. Although, recently he has started to want to move around like his brother which is great since that gives him motivation to try and master new skills. He is now rolling on his own which is awesome! He has also become pretty vocal and started to slowly say dada. He LOVES his green blanky and sleeps with it every night and at nap time. Ryder still has no teeth. He is doing good with eating, but can't chew on harder table foods yet. He is still getting PT once a week and OT and speech periodically through the Early Intervention program in our county. He is no longer using bottles and only drinks form sippy cups which is nice. He has such a funny personality. As for his genetic testing, we have his MRI scheduled for August 18 at 5:30am because he will have to be sedated for it. We still need to get his blood drawn as well, but everything else is done already. His surgery is scheduled for August 25.

Ben: Ben is still working at Dogwood Acres, but is in the search of a new job. He just recently found out he has hit the max for pay and vacation at his current job.

April: Nothing really new to report about me. I am staying home with the boys during the and looking around for a part-time evening job. I have recovered well from my surgery in June and only have back pain once and a while.

Batman: Yes, our little batman. He is doing well after losing his sister and favorite playmate. He has not been eating great, but we are keeping a close eye on him. He loves being the center of attention except for when Zak tries to chase him and play with him. We are working on getting him more used to the boys trying to play with him, but it is a slow process.

We have finished our move into the house with Tracy & Dave in Millersville. It is so nice to be out of the apartment and be able to get in and out of the house without going through all of the dogs. The boys and I have enjoyed taking Batman for walks in the morning. We all miss Sadey so much and it will just take some time to get used to not having her around. It seems so strange to only have Batman, but he is definitely enjoying all of the attention (except from Zak). We will get a call from the vet when Sadey's ashes arrive so that we can pick them up and have her with us forever. It is amazing how much an animal can touch your heart, you don't realize it until they are not here anymore. I can't believe it has almost been a year since the boys were born. We have been through so much with each of them in the last year.

Zak's New Trick

Well, Zak knew I was down today because of Sadey. So he decided to show me a new trick that he has mastered. I was able to get a video of it on my cell phone. He can now walk around the room using the push toy! This is a big step for him since he has never been interested in trying to walk when we hold his hands.

Sad News About Sadey

Looks like she is getting worse and not better. So Ben is going to bring Sadey home tonight. Then in the morning we will have to take her back to the vet and have her put down. I will miss her so much!!

Sadey is Sick

The last few days Sadey has not been feeling well. We thought it was from stress of moving, but then she started to continue going down hill. So pretty much stopped eating and has been having lots of vomiting and diarrhea. Today we took her to the vet because she was not looking good at all. They did a full blood panel, giardia test, and tested for pancreatitis. She was negative for giardia and her bloodwork looked good. The pancreatitis came back positive. The vet is keeping her for the day to give her IV fluids, pain meds, and antibiotics. She should be coming home tonight as long as she shows improvement. Hopefully this is a one-time thing and she should be fine, but it could turn into a chronic condition which would cause her to get very sick. So we will just wait and see how she does.

The Move

Well, we made our big move on Sunday. We are still working on some odds and ends left at the apartment, but in time that will be done as well. The dogs are starting to adjust to the new house. Our biggest issue has been that Sadey and Batman are not used to having to walk on a leash to potty which they have to do here (there is no fenced yard).

The boys are adjusting well. I think once we have stuff unpacked and they are set up in their bedroom things will be fine. For now we are just living with what toys are already unpacked.

Our Crazy Upcoming Week

Well, our crazy week has now officially begun. We made our big move on Sunday which went pretty well (of course took longer than expected). We still have odds and ends left at the apartment, but we are now living at the new house. For those who don't know, we moved in with my best friend and her soon to be husband. An overview of the week to come:

Today: mom flies in, we have lots of shopping and errands to run, lots of things to do at the house, lots of things to do for the wedding

Wednesday: more wedding stuff and probably errands, Zak & Ryder's early 1st b-day party

Thursday: more wedding stuff, set-up the clubhouse for the rehearsal, rehearsal and dinner, Tim (Ben's father) flies in

Friday: the day of the wedding so very crazy

Saturday: Zak & Ryder's baptism and then a little party afterwards

Sunday: we need to take Tracy & Dave to the airport (they leave for a 2 week honeymoon), Tim flies out

Tuesday: mom flies out

Of course Ben will be working this whole week so he is going to be exhausted as will the rest of us.

Ryder's Testing

We are half way done with Ryder's newest testing for the geneticist. He passed his hearing test which is great. He also had his fully body skeletal survey done last week. Now we need to get his bloodwork done and have the MRI of his head. I have the lab slip for the bloodwork so we will hopefully get that done soon. We are still waiting for the geneticist to fax orders to the radiologist so we can schedule his MRI. Unfortunately, they will have to sedate him to do the MRI. We will go back to see the geneticist in January for a follow-up and to hopefully find out a diagnosis. They told us they might not be able to give us an exact diagnosis even with the results of the tests since not all genetic disorders have been completely figured out. We do know he has an extra "X" chromosome, but it is not Klinefelter's (which we were originally told by the PICU at UMD when he was there for pneumonia). So it is just a waiting game.


As for his developmental delays, he is receiving PT/OT/speech through the Infants & Toddlers program in our county. He has showed improvement already with his rolling, sitting, and vocalizations (he is a chatterbox now). We are working on his chewing, but he is doing great and loves to eat table foods. He is getting frustrated not being able to keep up with Zak, but he will catch up to him.

Welcome to our blog

Hi everybody. I am starting this blog so that our friends and family can watch the boys grow and keep up to date with everything we have going on in our crazy lives these days.

Ben: He is still working hard at Dogwood Acres Pet Retreat.

April: I am still a full-time stay at home mom, but looking into possibly getting a part-time evening job in the near future. I had my hernia repair surgery in June and have healed well from that.

Zak: He is a very busy boy and into everything. He is now crawling all over the place and starting to pull up on things in order to stand. We are working on teaching him the meaning of the word "no" since he is into everything including things he should not be into. He has 2 bottom teeth right now. He loves to go swimming in the pool and play peek-a-boo. He is doing great with weaning from the bottle and using the sippy cup and he loves to eat anything you hand to him.

Ryder: He is a very happy boy who is content just watching what is going on around him. He still has no teeth yet. He is getting some therapy (physical, occupational, speech) through the Early Intervention program since he is a little behind developmentally. The therapy seems to be helping because he is now rolling over on his own and much more vocal. He is doing well with weaning from the bottle and using a sippy cup and we are working on his chewing so that he can eat more table foods. He will have his surgery on August 25 to correct the hypospadias & chordee.

Ben and I are both in Tracy & Dave's upcoming wedding so we are looking forward to that. The boys will be coming to the reception, but will not be at the ceremony since we are both in the wedding. We are also in the process of moving out of the apartment at Dogwood and into a house. We will be moving in with Tracy & Dave in Shipley's Choice which is in Millersville. We will be making the big move on Sunday and Monday. The boys are being baptized on July 19 so we are also looking forward to that. I can not believe the boys are already 11 months old!

Zak & Ryder's 1st July 4th

We had a great day yesterday! It was long, it rained on and off, and the boys didn't nap, but it still went well. In the morning we met Tracy & Dave then went to the parade in Severna Park. I got to see some of my high school friends and they got to meet the boys for the first time. The boys enjoyed the parade although Zak was scared of the fire truck noises at first. Then we came home and tried to get the boys to nap, but it didn't work too well. Around 3pm we went into Annapolis and had a cook-out at my grandmother's house. We then went to the parade in Annapolis at 6:30pm. It was short because it started to rain so not many people showed up to participate in the parade. We then walked around and got some ice cream then headed back to my grandmother's for a bit. At 9pm we went back downtown to watch the fireworks. The boys were so good even past their bedtime without napping. I will add pictures in the photo albums.