February 2012

Birthday Month:
I can't believe the boy are 5. They have changed so much in the last year. They have become little men and I couldn't be happier to be their Mom.
They had a bounce party complete with a Pirate theme.

Joshua:
Another month another round of sickness. Joshua had a stomach bug that only lasted day but wiped him out for a lot longer.

Jared:
Another month another round of sickness. Jared had a stomach bug that seemed to last forever. I feel like he really didn't eat for a week. Everytime we thought he was getting better he relasped.

January 2012

January came and went very fast for the Wothers. The Holidays were busy but fun. We spent lots of time playing with new toys and games. It has been a long time since I have been able to spend the day with my Dad on his Birthday. This year the boys and I were able to do just that. We made a quick weekend up but we were able to spend his Birthday with him. This month at school was one of the boys favorite days, Pajama Day. They were so excited to wear their Pajamas and bring Monkey and Elephant to school.
Our little men are growing up so fast. This week we registered them for Kindergarten and T-ball. They played soccer in the fall and are currently playing basketball but we can't wait for Spring.

Joshua:
Joshua had a 24 hour high fever mid January that we chalked up to just a busy weekend. A week later he was sent home from school with a rash on his cheeks. Turns out he had Fifth Disease (Parvo). Once the rash hits he is not contagious and as we ended the month the rash seems to have disappeared. Joshua also had a repeat hearing test and ENT appointment due to fluid in his ears. The test still showed fluid and pressure in his left ear (his good one) after 6 weeks so the decision was made to replace his tubes. That will all take place soon.

Jared:
Joshua had a 24 hour high fever mid January that we chalked up to just a busy weekend. A week later he was sent home from school with a rash on his cheeks. Turns out he had Fifth Disease (Parvo). Once the rash hits he is not contagious and as we ended the month the rash seems to have disappeared.

4 Cavities and 4 Caps

In the past three weeks we have had 3 dentist appointments and 1 more to go. We found out in October that both boys had 4 cavaties each. WOW, we thought we were brushing really well. Ever since birth the boys have both had really bad gag reflexes and they were reflux babies too. All this along with a great DISLIKE for the dentist in general leads to having to be knocked out to have cavaties filled. Jared went 3 weeks ago and did wonderful. Joshua went today and did well. He is a little more needy when he wakes up but that is what Mommies are for, to curl up in a hospital bed and cuddle.

March of Dimes Walk 2011

What if hardest day of your life was also your first? This is true for the thousands of babies every day who are born too soon or very sick. In newborn intensive care unit (NICUs) across the country, they struggle to survive.
For Dave and I, having our babies hospitalized in the NICU was frightening, confusing and overwhelming. When doctors and nurses are focused on their little patients, the March of Dimes is there for their families.
Babies shouldn’t have to fight for their lives. But, with your help, we can work to improve the health of babies, preventing birth deffects, premature birth and infant mortality.

On April 30th The Wothers family will again be Marching for babies. You are receiving this email because you are either related to Joshua and Jared or you are a close family friend who was there and has continued to be there for our family. If you look at Jared and Joshua today you would not know that they were born at a small 2.11 and 2.12. They have come a long way in the last 4 years.

The following links will take you right to the donation pages. I have one as does Dave. Please help us reach our goals and also help other preemies.


http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=2839507&ct=4&w=4497580&u=joshandjared

http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=3206566&ct=4&w=4757818&u=djw1155


Love, Amy Dave Joshua and Jared

And now they are 4

What a busy month February was. We celebrated the boy’s birthday numerous times. A party at school, a party with friends, a party at home and then a party at church, these little men are very loved and spoiled. This year they decided that they wanted to go bowling with their friends. What a day that was, they loved it. It was complete with How to Train your Dragon party gear (that mind you I had to search high and low for).




Joshua and Jared got big boy bikes. Now all we need is some nice weather so that we can go outside and ride them. They also got hamsters. Our pets now outnumber the humans in the house. We have Bella, Thunder, 2 frogs and now Jesse and Lightning McQueen.




We are constantly changing things up in the playroom. We had to buy more cubbies in order to store all their new toys. It is the first room you see when you enter our house so I am always cleaning and picking up toys.

Jared and Joshua are doing so well in school. They can now write their own names (when they want to). They are also allowing their teachers to separate them for certain parts of their day.

Now that they are 4 we have decided that their room needs a makeover. We are going to paint and then convert their beds into big beds. We have them ordered and now we are just waiting for them to come in. We try to prep the boys about changes as much as we can without going overboard. I told the boys that we were going to paint their room and that they were getting new beds. I pointed to where their beds would be and Jared told me “NO.” I asked him why not and he told me that his bed needs to be next to Joshua’s. Since they were born their beds have always been on the same wall and next to each other. They can touch if they want to. In order for everything to fit we have to put them on opposite walls, with 25 inches in between, we will see how that goes. They have both asked if they can sleep in one bed, they have never been ones to climb into bed with each other so this could be the first.

Goodbye 2010

As I sit here just hours away from the begining of a new year I can only wonder what is in store for the Wothers Family.

The boys have grown so much lately. Sometimes I just want to cuddle them and hold them forever. They are doing wonderful in school. They are even letting their teachers separate them for small parts of their day. Anyone who knows them knows that this is a BIG step for Joshua and Jared. Christmas was amazing. Watching them open presents and get so excited each and every time we saw Santa (another big step for them) was one of the best feelings out there.

Happy New Year from the Wothers Family

School

Summer has come to an end and School has started. Today marks the first day of fall and I can say if you look outside our window it sure does look like fall at our house. The leaves are EVERYWHERE. We can now play outside again without sweating and we love it.
The boys went back to school this week. They seemed to warm up nicely to their new teachers, classroom and even some new friends. They are going 2 days a week this year. I now have 6 hours kid free every week. What did I do with myself this past week, I tagged and tagged and tagged some more. My MOM's clothing sale is coming up soon and I swear that I will be done tagging and things will be separated in time for pre-sales the week of.

August

August is Birthday month for me. This year was a special year as I entered into my 30's. Dave planned a party with the help of his family and mine. I knew about a party but that was all. The details were a surprise. The boys had Sports Camp on Friday (my birthday) so Dave and I took them. While there I received texted messages from my sister Shelby telling me where she and my other sister Courtney were along their journey from NY to PA to help me celebrate my birthday. After camp we came home only to see that my Dad's truck was in my driveway not my sisters car. Dave said surprise, my dad was suppose to be a a training for the State but everyone LIED to me. It was a good lie and I loved having my Dad here for my special day and also for my party. We had a party on Saturday with my family and some of my closest friends. Thank you all for coming out to help me celebrate entering my 30's.

Joshua and Jared could not wait to help Mommy blow out the candles on her cake. Of course Grammy could not just buy a 3 and a 0. No she put 30 candles on my cake. Thanks Mom.





4 days and counting until we return to NY, this time for a wedding and a 1st Birthday party.

July

The Wothers family has not gone anywhere for vacation but we sure have been busy. Aunt Shelby graduated the end of June so we went to spend her special day with her. Then we went back up to be with her for her party. The boys are pretty good on long car rides as long as we have their favorite movies on hand.

1st Trip to the Beach

Dave finally had a day off. We decided to take a day trip to the beach. Now let me set the stage for you. The boys got a sandbox for their birthday. They were so excited, they got toys and buckets, sifters and shovels. Everything needed to play in a sandbox. This is how they play in their sandbox everyday, on the outside while sitting on a blanket.

I knew that the boys would probably sit on a blanket in order to play in the sand and that was ok with me. What I did not expect was the pure hatered for sand. They would walk from the blanket to the water with no problems but sitting in their chairs with sand on their feet was totally not ok with them. Jared spent most of the day sitting in his chair or on the blanket with his feet in the air. He was happy but did not like the sand.

Joshua was a little more daring. He did play in the sand (while sitting on a blanket) and was not so concerned about the sand being on his feet.All in all I think we had an ok day. Not the best but it sure could have gone worse.

They were much happier on the way home.

We will try it again.

Spring

Spring has hit and we are ready (kind of). Depending on the day the boys either love being outside and cry when it is time to go in or they hate it and cry when we try to take them out.

School is done so we will be looking for things to keep us busy. One of the boys favorite parts of school was going to the library and being able to pick out books to bring home and read. We are going to try and make a weekly visit to our local library so that they can continue to get books. The boys are also becoming very interested in their friends, they ask who is coming to play and when we will see certain friends again. Bring on the playdates.

We are officially big boys. Big boys bed-check and they love them. Big boy underwear-check and we are doing really well. An accident here and there but not to bad. Mommy and Daddy are so happy to not have to change diapers anymore. Although we now face different obstacles, making sure whereever we go we are near a potty, potty breaks in the middle of dinner, we having to go potty before we leave the house so we are now back to taking forever to get out of the house. I will take any of these situations instead of diapers though.

Bella and Thunder have turned 5. It is hard to believe that we have had them for 5 years. That means that Dave and I have been married for almost 5 years since we got B & T the week we came home from our honeymoon. WOW how time flies.

Happy Memorial Day.

Birthday Month

Birthday month started out with a great big thumbs down but ended with thumbs up. The beginning of the month started out with Joshua being sick. He had strep throat that we could just not get ahold of. 2 different rounds of antibiotics and what the Dr's think was a touch of Scarlet Fever. WOW, Mommy and Daddy were sure happy when that sickness went away.

The boys were a little spoiled this year when it came to celebrations for their Birthday. In total they had 5 events that revolved around them. A first for them was a their special day at school complete with cupcake cones. A friends/cousins party at Kehlers, a family party complete with a Mickey Mouse cake. Their actual birthday which landed them at the Circus and then an ice cream cake at church. We have ourselves some pretty special little boys.

Jared's favorite part of the Circus

Joshua's favorite part of the Circus

Our Birthday cake for our family party

All this and a visit from Aunt Shelby, Grandpa and Karen. Aunt Shelby stayed all week with us and did all kinds of fun stuff. We went to the Please Touch Museum, we went sledding and we played played played. When Grandpa and Karen got here we went to Pat's (the boys had their first taste of a REAL Cheesesteak).

All and all it was a busy but fun month. The boys have so many new toys to play with in and outside. We have a new Pirate Water Table, a sandbox, a 4 wheeler and more Sesame Street Knex sets to build. We are keeping ourselves very busy. We can't wait until we can take all our new toys into our backyard and set them up to play, for now we are playing with them in the house without the main ingredients (water and sand).

Thank you to everyone who was able to share in some part of our birthday celebrations and for those of you who could not we sure did miss you.

January

Happy New Year, just a little late. I am really going to try and update this blog on a more steady basis. Maybe the end of each month.
January started out well. The aftermath of Christmas and New Years was present until just a few days ago. We have just now started to put some of the new toys downstairs so we can begin to switch them out once a week or so.


Mid-January we took a turn for the bad in health. Joshua woke up one monring with a rash that the Drs told us that could have been due to something he ate. Ok we took that and dealt with it, that is until the next morning when he woke up with a fever. Off to the Drs we went only to find out Joshua had Strep Throat. He was put on antibiotics. 4 days later we ended up in the ER because we could not get Joshua's temp to drop and he now had a bump on his chest. We went to see the Dr the next morning, she told us the rash had turned to Scarlet Fever because even though he was on meds they were not doing their job and he body felt as though it was going untreated. We got a new antibiotic and it worked wonders. The bump went away and slowly but surely the rash is going away too.


January ended with the boys sleeping in their cribs with crib tents for the last time. It is time for big boy beds. We included them in the whole switching process, right up to helping Daddy bolt their dresser to the wall. They were very excited. I am writing this coming up on the completion of Day 1 and so far so good. The boys both slept in their own beds all night long. They even napped for 2 hours (a normal nap for them). It only took them 1/2 of talking before they fell asleep. One of the biggest thing for them is that they can touch again. Their cribs are side by side on one wall and they can reach through the slats and hold hands again. They did this before crib tents. So precious to go in and check on them and see them holding hands fast asleep.

Holidays

The Wothers Family was busy for the Holidays but we had so much fun.

Dave had to work night work for Thanksgiving but he was able to come and join us for a quick bite to eat before he left for the night.

Christmas was so much more fun this year than it has been in the past, the boys seemed to understand what was going on. We had a nice calm morning of opening presents, eating breakfast and then opening more presents and more presents. Dinner was at our house this year for Dave's side of the family. We had a great night with family. Saturday wasanother family day but with my mom's side of the family. Another great day and more presents.















Santa butts and the best present of all. Santa brought Mickey Mouse Choo Choo.

Halloween

Halloween was a great weekend. The boys understood what they needed to do in order to get candy this year. Jared was actaully sneaky too, when one lady turned her back he took more. We spent the weekend with my Dad and sisters. The boys had so much fun with Grandpa. We went on 2 hayrides although the boys probably don't remember the 2nd one since they fell asleep. A trip to the tractor store, playing on the Fire Trucks, a long walk to the playground and then off to the falls.

Saturday we went Trick-or-Treating and the ended up at Aunt Karen's for food and fun. The boys got to hold Ava while they were all in their costumes. So cute.


Sunday was another fun day as we celebrate Dave's birthday in NY complete with 33 candles on a cake. The boys again were thrilled to have Ava around. They each were able to hold her on their own and they were soooooo good with her.

Fall/Halloween

Well here we are at the end of October already. The weather has been on and off good. We got what we think was the last trip of the year in at the Zoo. It was in the 60's so the animals were all moving around which was good for the boys.

If you have ever been to our house you know we have all kinds of leaves. We have been filling pumpkin and ghost bags since the leaves started falling and we have lots of them and many more could bed filled. The boys love playing with the neighboors in the leaves. We have a slide that they can slide down and then land in the leaves. They love it.

The boys have also helped to decorate the house for Halloween. We have pumpkin patches, spider webs (big and small), ghosts and many more. They love when we do "projects." We did a Trunk or Treat at their preschool last weekend. They we able to trick or treat from the trunks of cars and then go inside and play games. We found out that Joshua loves to bowl and Jared is really good at throwing balls into buckets. The loved wearing their costumes. Since they climb everything and if they could they would be swining from the trees I thought is only fitting for them to be Monkies this year. We have a light monkey and a dark monkey and they ask everyday to wear them again. Lucky little boys, they get to wear them to school on Friday and then again on Halloween night.

We are spending Halloween weekend with my Dad and sisters (2/3). The boys are so excited to see Grandpa and go trick or treating with him.

Happy Halloween.

1st day of Preschool

Last Friday was the first day that Jared and Joshua went to Preschool. Dave had to work so I took them and made snack mats with them. The boys picked their paper and then we added shapes, stickers, pictures from home and Pooh Bears (that is their class name).

This Friday was their 1st official day of Preschool since they went without Mommy and Daddy. NO TEARS. That made it easier for Mommy. Dave and I went out for Breakfast, went shopping and then picked up the boys. They were excited to see us and tell us all about their day. Hopefully everyweek will be as good.

Tube/Hearing Check

Today was our 6 month Tube/Hearing check for the boys. Dave got stuck on overtime so my mom went with us. The boys ran around duPont playing with different things until it was our turn and then the tears started. Josh cried for Grammy and Jared while Jared cried for Mommy and Joshua. The boys did an average job for their hearing tests. We still do not like strangers and then when they are in the same room with us and trying to make us stick things in our ears or wear headphones. It does not make us happy. Jared's hearing is still normal and there has been no change for Joshua (yeah, normal hearing still in the left ear).
Next we changed room and met with a Nurse Practitioner. She was looking at the hearing tests and said that Joshua's level were a little high for his right ear and she was unsure as to why. UMMMMMMM maybe because he has a hearing loss in his right ear. And I paid for this visit.

Summer has just about ended. The weather has turned to fall and we are enjoying walks and being outside for longer periods of time since it is not so hot.

The boys start school next week. I will be sure to post onhow their first day goes. Talk to you later.

Summer Pictures