Birthday boy and twins milestone

All you need is love!

Its official, we have a 4 year old boy in the house. Austin is becoming more of a preschooler every day. He has been regularly copying sounds and words and has a good grasp of the order of events in his life, this is his newest trick! If I describe the steps we are going to take to get from point A to point B,C and D, he tries his hardest to say them and when one is done he will repeat the remainder of the list.(Very much like the song B-I-N-G-O when a letter is omitted each verse) At his well check-up he was 40 inches tall and weighed 37 pounds which makes him perfectly average around 50% for both.To further grasp an understanding of his needs we are in the process to see a developmental Pediatrician. She is a specialist, our Pediatrician felt she was under-qualified to give Austin a true diagnosis (if one is needed) for his speech and minor tantrums. So far we have filled out the paperwork/survey and then she will get back to us if his needs are strong enough for an office visit or if he just needs a referral to continue speech lessons with an Speech Pathologist. I am hopeful that we are on the right path to get Austin caught up with his peers for kindergarten. This will just give us the tools we need to make sure! There is nothing worse than a child who doesn't receive the right attention when they have a deficiency. I see far too many parents who are ashamed or plain naive that their child needs extra help and so they deprive them of early intervention. I believe any help is worth it so why not!?


Our birthday party for Austin was a success. As I mentioned in the last post, we scaled down our party size this year for the first time. The reason was two-fold. First it became too hard on both my parents and myself to host a large party between all the planning, cleaning and food prep with our hands-full with 3 kids taboot! Second, Austin has gotten increasingly shy in large groups. At the Keller family Christmas he spent the majority of his time hiding in the living room from all the people he doesn't see often. This was the biggest reason we scaled the party down to just our immediate family members. It was the right decision, he didn't clam up and he was happy to see the familiar faces. He even got as bold as to show people his beloved Thomas the Train birthday cake when they came through the door! I am so happy that he was able to be a normal child at his own party, it really warmed my heart to see him interact the way he should!

Opening gifts

Austin and his choo choo Thomas cake, made by mommy this year!

Next, the twins turned 18 months. A photo session was calling my name especially since this milestone falls so close to Valentine's day. I have never done a Valentine's photo shoot so why not try it now! Oh man, was it entertaining and I came out sweating! Logan was a breeze, he was a ham and a half and it didn't take much for him to beam from ear to ear. Miss Kelsey on the other hand, WHAT A TRIP! She was not having anything to do with getting her picture taken. I tried everything to coax her to sit still (balloons, petals, a singing toy, the mini chair, music, her milk, help from other people) she would not look at the camera or make any happy expression at all. Finally, the only thing that worked was Daddy coming home from work. He spun her around on the floor like she was break-dancing and out came the smiles. He also made the flower petals rain on their heads which made it possible to get the two of them in the same picture. It really reaffirmed that I need to stick with children that are 12 months and younger. It's very challenging when they are running away from you and cannot keep their attention on a single object for more than 2 seconds.

Oh that face! Blue steel as Uncle Dylan said!

Daddy makes me happy

Heart breaker in the making for sure!

Impossible to get them to cooperate

Our sweet cherub

 As for the twins development, they had their 18 month check-up this past week and all is well. Logan is 23.10 pounds (21%) and 32 inches (41%). Kelsey is 20 pounds (under 3%) and 31 inches (31%). They are both a little on the small side as is expected for preemies but they aren't too small to deem it an issue! Developmentally, both babies are right on track with their core coordination and motor skills. They are considerably ahead verbally.(more than 10 words) With Austin having speech difficulties, I was quick to make sure the babies get lots of practice talking! Kelsey will be on her Hemangeol full-time for 3 more months, then she will be weened off the drug. We cannot quit the medicine cold turkey due to the fact that it is a blood pressure medication and her pressure could spike otherwise! I have begun the process to ween the twins from their attachment to the pacifier. They are now keeping their pacifiers in their cribs. This will allow them to practice talking more during the day and for me to not be so reliant on it to calm them. They have taken to the transition well. It has made nap and bed time easier because they know they get to have them! The harder task will be to remove them all together. I haven't decided at what age to do this yet (probably by 2.5 years) but it will definitely be after they are potty trained this summer so we can have one transition at a time. I also miraculously have had a couple full nights of sleep in the last couple weeks since I last posted. The first day I woke up stunned to realize I hadn't left my bed to soothe a child and no one was in between us, after the second day I started to get used to it but low and behold it didn't last but let's hope this is the start of a new trend even if it's just once a week!

7 months in- 4 to go!

Mickey mouse and sibling cuddle time

Insanely dry this winter, lots of static

My cute laundry

In other news, my mommies group has decided on the National level to disband. This really breaks my heart. Although it will not change the friendships I have made, the support group we have or the fun activities we do, it may impact finding new members to join us! I have been so lucky to have these women the last handful of years and I want other mom's to be able to have the same opportunity. There are many factors involved to keep a group such as this running in the Cleveland area and we are just starting to formulate a plan to keep our group thriving. To aquire non-profit status takes time, lots of money and legal work. We do a decent amount of fundraising and philanthropy so being non-profit is definitely an important part of what we stand for and one of the reasons I even joined. We shall see what the upcoming months bring for the group but hopefully we can keep everything running smoothly during the transition. I already knew this group was really special but now that we are going through all this, it really drives home how lucky we were to have been apart of such a fantastic organization.

To close this post, I saved the best news for last!  After a very long wait (6+ years) my brother Ryan and his girlfriend LeAnn are engaged!!!!! A year ago we started harassing him a bit but I am sure that had nothing to do with his decision. They snuck away for a very quick trip to Niagara falls and the news reached us late on a Saturday evening with pictures of the colorfully lit falls and a very moving ring photograph! I am just tickled pink! We knew years ago that they were a good match and I have been patiently (and I mean VERY patiently) waiting for the inevitable to happen. They surprised me this week and asked me to be the Matron of Honor!!!! I stood shocked mostly because I didn't expect to hold such a title. I have never been a maid or matron of honor and I couldn't be more excited to help guide the way and ease some of the planning stress! Let the fun begin :)

Best photo EVER!