Gavin is NINE!

Oh my goodness....I was looking at old photo's and I don't even remember this little boy..

Gavin is growing up......like I wrote real words in his birthday card and he read them aloud and took them to heart..

He has had such a great year and we are so proud! He had a wonderful year in third grade and is doing awesome so far in 4th grade in Lincoln. He is out playing with neighborhood kids here, zipping around the neighborhood on his bike, or running laps and telling us about everything he sees in the neighborhood (a state trooper lives one street over!)

I can not believe this is the same kid that I was just hoping would breathe on his own nine years ago. 

He's not a perfect kid, we're not a perfect family - I hate blogs that are all roses, all the time. We are normal people that have our moments, and he can be stubborn and hot tempered and grumpy and mean to his brother. 

However, more often than not he is sweet, and kind hearted, and thankful. He works hard, he likes hugs, and would be so great to his little brother if little brother weren't always starting trouble  :)  He is funny, has a quirky sense of style, and wants to be an individual. 

Last night we celebrated with a dinner at home with all his favorites - steak and baked potatoes on the grill, roasted carrots, jello cake. He got some super cool DJ style headphones from us and has a couple more gifts coming in the mail this week - unfortunately I didn't get the order in on Amazon quick enough to make it yesterday! Just Dance 4 and his very own Garmin GPS running watch should be arriving soon.

I hate that the years seem to be flying by! This last year has been pretty amazing....it is so fun now that he is older and we can do more things together, skiing, running, kicking the soccer ball. 

After nine years of parenting, you learn that it's not slowing down any time soon.....so I'm just going to remind myself to stop and appreciate all the good moments. I am so thankful to have this child in my life!

Sam's 4th Birthday Party!

Sam was supposed to celebrate his birthday last weekend, but an icy winter storm led to cancellation. We just didn't want to risk people getting hurt on the roads. So we picked up his Batman birthday cake and took it to Grandma Janet's.

The nice people at Monkey Joe's allowed us to reschedule at the last minute, so yesterday we were at Monkey Joe's with eight wild four year olds. The only casualty was a busted lip (Sam's).

I always hear about all these boys that Sam is friends with at school. His class is pretty much all boys except for one girl who is now his "girlfriend". Every day I hear the tales of their adventures playing Avengers. When I pick him up at school he is always playing and happy, but I have never really seen them in action.

Oh.my.goodness.

It is such a joy to see Sam with his buddies. They are a great little group of kids, and they just ran around the play place in a pack, switching off which kids were buddying up for different bounce houses. They were all just so happy and delighted and excited to be there together. I so much appreciated the sheer childish delight that I saw. It makes me so happy knowing that every day he goes to school he is spending time with kids he really enjoys. And a lot of them will be going to his same elementary school!

We made it through the party without incident. Only upset moment was when his friend who is our neighbor burst into tears. He was at a disadvantage not knowing the other kids besides Sam, so they turned on him as the "bad guy". After trying to get Sam to tell everyone he wasn't the bad guy (at that moment Sam was in tears about his busted lip) poor F broke down crying. I quickly made all the kids at the table tell him he wasn't the bad guy and the tears subsided. Whew. Crisis averted.

Happy Birthday, my Sam. You are such a crazy ray of sunshine, happiness and optimism. You balance out the rest of us in the family that may have a tendency to be a little darker, sensitive and dramatic. You live your life with a constant mischievous twinkle in your eye - and while this is sometimes leading to trouble, I wouldn't change you for anything!

Sam's Birthday Party

We had Sam's birthday party at the Ramada Tropics hotel about 3 weeks after his actual birthday. Because I thought to plan his birthday, oh, about 4 days before his birth date. Oops.


The way it works is you have to get a hotel room, which comes with 4 wrist bands for the water park. Then you add the birthday package, which includes 6 more wristbands, 3 pizzas, 3 pitchers of pop, and a reserved table for an hour and a half.


You can also buy 4 additional wristbands.


Overall, it was a pretty decent deal, and it's nice as it limits the guest list. We needed adults for the little ones, so we just invited our neighbors (they have a 3 yr old, their middle son is Gav's buddy, and a daughter), and we invited KK, the little girl we used to nanny share with and her mom.


When I picked Sam up from school and told him his party was finally here, he was SO excited. I don't think I have ever seen a kid so excited! He sat on the couch with a grin a mile wide, literally shaking with excitement.


We got to the water park and I made the boys snap some pics as I was sure I wouldn't get any once their friends arrived and they were in the water.




Starting to get his front teeth in!



Do not be deceived

The kids swam for about an hour. Gavin went off with his friend, and Sam was just so excited to see KK. He only wanted to be where she was, and he would rush up the stairs of the little slide first, just to let her go down the slide first. Her mom and I talked about how ridiculous it was, the connection those two have. Literally have only had eyes for each other since they were babies.



Then it was dinner time. Sam grudgingly ate some pizza, but all he really wanted was his cupcakes. Or rather, to lick the frosting off the cupcakes.

Gavin with the oldest of the neighbor kids, he rides the bus with them every day

Present time! More NERF guns, thanks Uncle Z

Thomas the Train set from KK - he LOVES this. The trains run on batteries.

"Cars" cars from Finn/the neighbors. Another hit.

After we ate, it was back to the pool. We ended up tackling the big slides, which meant Mommy carrying Sam up three flights of concrete stairs, sliding down with him on my lap, my hand trailing behind to slow us down, and hoisting him up at the entry to the water so that his head wouldn't go under. Fortunately it wasn't too deep (less than 4 ft). We did this numerous times and he loved it so much.

KK left, and I convinced Sam that we were only going down 2 more times. We went to our room to change into dry clothes and to look for the guys. Gavin's neighbor friend stayed to play with him while his family left. We found them with Chad in the arcade, and I could tell it was the witching hour. Sam used up a couple tokens, the kids picked out their prizes, and we headed back to the room to pack up.

Having to take A home was a great excuse not to stay the night in the hotel. We were able to sleep in our own beds couches and wake up in our own place in the morning. Sam is already begging to go back!

Happy 3rd Birthday Samson!

To the boy giving me daily lessons in patience

You still like to sleep like this......on my chest





You want to be just like your big brother, even if you torture him endlessly


 


Your soft baby hair and tender curls are now gone, replaced with coarser, little boy hair
 

Your goofy antics always keep us laughing

 


You give the best kisses, grabbing my face with your two little hands and planting one on me



I love you, sweet boy. You filled a hole in our family that I didn't know existed before you.

Keep up the crazy (and peeing in the potty....please keep that up too!)

Birthday Pics

Here are some birthday pics from Gavin's party at Chuck E Cheese. He had such a blast, and it was great getting to know the kids he invited. I'm proud to say he associates with a good group of kids. I snapped pictures of him with all his friends as well! but didn't want to post them without parent's permission

Gavin Gatsby: 7 Year Old

A post alternately titled: Preemie No More

Gavin turned seven on Saturday! And I'm not even going to go into the walk down memory lane of his prematurity. It's here if you want to relive it. It's just not for this post.

As I thought of all the things I could write on his birthday, there was one glaring theme that's stood out to me over the past year: He's not my little preemie any more.

I'm not sure I will ever be able to say that we CONQUERED prematurity. There are scars, few physical, mostly emotional. Lingering quirks that I will always wonder: did being born too early cause this?

But I've found that over the last year, I haven't qualified Gavin as a preemie in talking to people any more. When we went to the walk in clinic for an illness, I almost forgot to mention it in his medical history. We're moving past it.

This year has been an amazing year for Gavin. First grade brought SUCH growth! We ended Kindergarten still slightly behind - or "progressing towards goal" as they put it. He entered first grade not behind! Over the summer he had somehow caught up to his peers. It was neat to show up at school weekly for my time helping the students needing a little extra help, and NOT have to bring him out in the hall with me.

He struggled with following directions. The teacher would take him aside and talk through the instructions, he would repeat them back, and then he just wouldn't execute them - missing some crucial step, and then not realizing it. She was quite puzzled by it. This led to an ADHD evaluation, which I strongly felt he did not have, but thought this might get us on track to some sort of solution. When meds and a psychologist were recommended, I politely declined. I know my kid. This wasn't the issue, and his teacher wholeheartedly agreed. I asked her if his behavior would be concerning if he were in Kindergarten, and she said not likely. I beat myself up for sending him to school and not holding him back a year to start Kindergarten when his due date would have placed him there.

By the end of first grade, though, he was continuing to make progress. The only area that was "progressing towards goal" was comprehension. There was huge growth from his EOY Kindergarten scores to his EOY First Grade scores. He was catching up!

What else did Gavin accomplish this last year?

He remained a strong and valuable player on his soccer team, and played indoor soccer for the first time. We are looking forward to playing with a new team this season.

He played flag football, and did not enjoy it. This secretly makes mama happy

Another season of baseball this spring - he seems to enjoy it, although it's not an overly dynamic game at this age.

He ran track for the first time. He made consistent improvement on his 400m race time, and qualified to Regionals in the long jump and 400m. He ran on the track that Chad ran in college and shaved another 4.5 seconds off his 400m time. We were SO proud of him! He's also done some fun runs over the summer, getting some longer distances under his belt.

We took a very special road trip to Colorado in January, just the two of us, and met up with my uncles for a ski trip. It was freezing so we only skied two days, but he did an amazing job on the mountain! He was very careful and responsible, with the right amount of fear and bravado. He was getting down blue trails without any problem by the end of the second day. We had such a blast, and he was a terrific road trip partner.

He recently took a "man trip" with Chad and Zach to eastern Iowa where they canoed and hiked.

Last Friday I was in his classroom to help administer spelling tests. I asked the teacher if she wanted me to mark them when they were done. It wasn't a totally selfless act, as I wanted to see how Gavin did in relation to all the other kids.

In Kindergarten, when he was struggling, I always had this thought in my head that I could handle if he struggled, as long as he wasn't the worst one. Isn't that weird?

I graded the tests. He missed a few, as did most kids. It turns out, he was perfectly average. Do we aspire to be better than average? Absolutely, and as parents it's our job to push him to be the best version of himself is possible.

But when I think back to the days leading up to his birth, and those early days in the NICU - faced with such a huge range of outcomes, perfectly average seemed possibly out of reach.

We're closing the chapter on prematurity.

Gavin, you are the light of my soul. Everyone that knows you well - pretty much every teacher and caregiver you've had - always has the same thing to say about you: "Gavin has the BIGGEST heart." We are so proud of you, how good you are to others, how hard you work, how focused and determined you are (when you want to be).

You have had such an amazing year! Happy Birthday.

Gavin's Birthday

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been crazy busy at work.

Gavin's bday party is Sunday 8/28 at 4 pm at chuck e cheese. Family, you are more than welcome to stop by, just realize he will be excited and running around with his friends so you all may not be as cool to him as you usually are :)

We are tentatively doing lunch with my side of the fam Saturday, it's a bit up in the air if we decide to do a race Saturday morning. Can you tell I am a bit out of sorts and unorganized??

We have ordered Gavin a desktop for his gift this year. In terms of other gift ideas....he's getting to the hard to shop for at this age. Gift cards would be good (iTunes, clothing stores, Target), size 8 clothing (especially pants and shorts), and then he's still into cars and that kind of stuff that he's always liked.

Another thing he seems to have found a bit of a fascination with is jewelry - little bracelets and necklaces - the "man" ones that are just a simple string with a little circle pendant on them. He got one woven bracelet with a round pendant with some character on it at kum n go but it wouldn't stay tied. Then he found a neckalce that was basically just a black string with a purplish circle on it that he wore for a while. Yeah, he's pretty much stylish and awesome enough to rock man jewelry!

Sam's Bday Pics

I'm getting further and further behind on picture posts! Here are the pictures from Sam's birthday.



Birthday Presents

Gavin wasso excited to get his Nintendo DS

Gavin is 6!!! (And a monkey...)

I'm sparing you all the sappy post about how much I love this kid and what an impact he has had in our lives. If you really want a sappy post today you can read his birth story here, or last year's post that covered his NICU experience here, or read about the way he has changed my life here. And because I can't help myself I will throw in one note:

Gavin - I love you so much! I am so proud of how hard you work, and of what an amazing older brother you are. You love your family so much! You are kind hearted and would never intentionally be hurtful to anyone. I love your funny and interesting questions. Even though I hate that you are growing up, I'm excited to see you start to mature and become your own little person.

To celebrate this day, I met up with Gavin for lunch at school. I brought cupcakes for the class, topped with gummy worms just like he wanted. I brought Subway for us to eat together in the lunch room. I am so glad to be so close to his school now - it's so much easier to share these special moments!

Tonight we will get Chinese food per Gavin's request and open his present from us (a Ninendo DS!). Chad suggested we look up his Chinese zodiac to read to him tonight. And it turns out to be fairly fitting. At any rate it's interesting - and not surprising, turns out I am a monkey too (I'm a metal monkey, he's a wood monkey).

So I present to you Gavin Sellers, according to the Chinese zodiac:

Personality: Occupying the 9th position on the Chinese Zodiac, the Monkey possesses such character traits as curiosity, mischievousness, and cleverness (check, check, and check). Forever playful, Monkeys are the masters of practical jokes. Even though their intentions are always good, this desire to be a prankster has a tendency to create ill will and hurt feelings.



Although they are inherently intellectual and creative, Monkeys at times have trouble exhibiting these qualities. When that happens, they appear to others to be confused. But nothing could be further from the truth as Monkeys thrive on being challenged. Monkeys prefer urban life to rural, and their favorite pastime is people-watching.


Health: Believing that being sick is a waste of a valuable day, Monkeys very rarely feel ill. Their constantly active lifestyles are likely what helps Monkeys remain in good health. When Monkeys do become ill, such feelings are generally the result of feeling nervous.


Career: When it comes to work, Monkeys can do just about anything. They adapt well to changing environments (I'm hoping he'll grow into this!) and they’re very intelligent. They work quickly, but they’ll frequently charge double for their services. Good career fields for Monkeys are accounting and banking. Other good careers for Monkeys include: scientist, engineer, stock market trader, air traffic controller, dealer, film director, jeweler and sales representative.


Relationships: When it comes to relationships, Monkeys aren’t quick to settle down. In fact, they generally are promiscuous; a tendency that probably has to do with the fact that Monkeys are easily bored. Monkeys will end this type of behavior once they pair up with the perfect partner. In fact, more often than not, they’ll commit to that person in every way for life.

Wood Monkey – Years 1944 and 2004The Wood Monkey’s exceptional communication skills enable them to interact well with others. They’re hard workers who have a keen understanding of the way things operate.

Samson Sellers: 1 yr old

Likes: Food, freedom, big brother, baths, popsicles
Dislikes: being told no, eardrops, diaper changes
Stats: in 18 mo clothes, naked weight just under 25 pounds
Status: a total player. In love with a cute 6 month old that he showers with kisses and affectionate hair pulling. Except on the days she is gone and then he kisses the 2 yr olds.
Moves: A few steps here and there. Can crawl at the speed of light.

Sappy notes from mom: Sam - you are the light of our hearts, and I have no idea how our life was ever complete without you. You are feisty and scrappy and can hold your own against your brother (who tolerates your hair pulling and face slapping extremely well). You are fiercely independent until it comes to bedtime and then you want nothing else but to snuggle up to me. I can't say I mind. Your Dad can't pick you up soon enough when he gets home and you LOVE wrestling with the big boys. You are well on your way to walking, you have about 15 words in your arsenal, and at day care have abandoned your bottle for a sippy cup. Samson, it's going way too fast. I am so excited to see the little boy you will grow into over the next year, but am so sad that we already have one year behind us. We are so proud of you and love you forever and always.

Birth Day. Mom got to hear the words "Do you want to hold your baby? He's stable." Dad followed you to the NICU and spent the night up there with you on a super uncomfortable too small for him pull out "bed"16 days old, passing the car seat test in the NICU. You were calm for about a second, then ripped out your feeding tube as if to say "I'm ready, send me home". 24 hours later, we were in the car.

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

9 months old

10 1/2 months old

Stay tuned for pictures of our big 1 yr old!!