Milo's 4th Birthday

We celebrated Milo's 4th birthday over the weekend. Our future marine biologist wanted to go to the aquarium at the Mall of America, so we rounded up the cousins and a couple friends from school for a behind-the-scenes tour. It was pretty cool to see the kitchen where they feed all of the animals and the lab where they test water and sick animals, and also to get a different view of the tanks. The aquarium has a glass tunnel with a moving walkway that goes right through the bottom of the tanks, but on the behind-the-scenes tour we were able to see the tanks from above and look down on all of the people going through the tunnel - pretty cool! Happy Birthday Milo!

Birthday Boy!

We're sick of Milo asking to play Angry Birds on our

cell phones, so he got his own Leapfrog video game player.

Hockey skates! We start lessons in January.

The kitchen at the aquarium was stinky!

Touching the star fish and sea urchins

Porter, Cali and Milo being silly in the aquarium tunnel

More silliness

Meg and Al got him a punching bag Viking

Blowing out the candles with some help from Cali

And a cute one of the little brother for good measure :)

Breakfast With Santa

We took the boys to Rush Creek Golf Club yesterday for breakfast with Santa. We were expecting some hesitation when it came to actually meeting Santa, but Milo jumped right on his lap! And Brooks didn't seem to mind him, either.

Interestingly, in the days leading up to the breakfast, we asked Milo what he was going ask Santa to bring him for Christmas. He refused to tell us, insisting that it was a secret. And even after he had his heart to heart with Santa yesterday, he is still refusing to tell us what they talked about!

And here's one of Brooks with cousin Sydney, who absolutely LOVES holding him!

Growing Fast!

At Brooks' 2-month check-up last week, he weighed 9 pounds, 6.5 ounces. He's still only in the 10th percentile for his age (3rd percentile for height), but the doctor was thrilled with his progress. He's growing so fast!

Nice and clean after bathtime!

Finding his voice.

Look at those chubby cheeks!

Talk about growing fast, Milo is 3 going on 8!

Such a handsome, sweet boy!

Happy Halloween!

Little punkin'

Cutest shark EVER!

Trick or Treating!

Boo!

Graduation

When Brooks was first born, he would have "spells" where he would forget to breathe and his heart rate would drop. He was always able to correct it himself by finally breathing (usually in response to the extremely loud alarm that went off in the NICU when his heart rate when down), but not having ever experienced anything like this, it was always very scary for us. The condition is common in preemies - the connection between the brain and the lungs just isn't quite mature. The technical term is called "Apnea of Prematurity," and it goes away as a baby matures and reaches full term.

As the days went by in the NICU, and with the help of a daily dose of caffeine to stimulate him to keep breathing, the number of "spells" he had on a daily basis decreased significantly. Out of an abundance of caution, however, when he was discharged from the hospital, he was sent home on an apnea monitor. He was supposed to be connected to it whenever he was sleeping and any time we weren't watching him closely i.e. when we were in the car, in another room, etc. So pretty much anytime other than when he was being fed or held.

I could not have taken him home without it - I honestly would have NEVER slept because I would have been watching him like a hawk 24/7 to make sure he was breathing. But after about 2 weeks on the monitor and no alarms (even after stopping the caffeine!), it started really becoming a pain, especially in the middle of the night when we'd wake up to feed him and forget to turn the monitor off, resulting in a ear piercing alarm that woke the whole house. And those darn leads (electrodes attached to each side of his chest that had wires coming from them) were in the way every time we changed or bathed him!

I'm happy to say that after the 4-week long Children's Hospital Apnea Program "protocol," Brooks graduated from the apnea monitor today! We could NOT get those leads off fast enough! He's finally just a regular baby. And he is growing like a weed - he weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce earlier this week. Tomorrow is the 40 week mark (my original due date!) and he is right on par with what Milo was when he was born (7 pounds, 4 ounces). Life is good!

Smell ya!

The Un-Birthday

It is crazy to think that had things gone according to plan, Brooks would have made his arrival today. Instead, he turned 5 weeks old yesterday! He is a little peanut, but he is doing very well and continuing to grow. At his last weigh-in earlier this week, he tipped the scales at 6 pounds, 7.5 ounces!

We were certainly thrown a curveball with this one, but we are so in love with this little guy and so happy he decided to join us when he did!

Our little peanut

Rocket Superstar

Brooksie

Milo and his new coon skin hat from Alicia and Bill

Me and 2 of my boys (3 if you count Guinness, who is in his usual

spot on the top of the couch above Milo's left shoulder)

Milo's Field Trip and Brooks' Crazy Hair

On Friday, Milo went on his first ever class field trip. Tod's parents were kind enough to take care of Brooks so I could join the fun - we visited Minnetonka Orchards. It was a beautiful fall day and everyone had a great time!

And here are a couple recent pictures of Brooks. He had just had a bath and had some crazy hair!