Memories

Down in our family room we have an archaic computer that hasn't been used in years.  There are things stored on there (files, documents, and pictures) that I want to keep so last night I turned the dinosaur on and started saving things to my flash drive.


While searching through pictures, I found a folder titled 8th Grade.  And this is what was inside.  Oh...the memories, C.J.

This was our first year back in Wisconsin.

Fail

My final words to the doctor on Monday were a playful joke: "we'll leave you alone for awhile."


Well, that was my intention anyway.


Unfortunately, Zack had other ideas after a mis-timed attempt at a rebound in gym class today.  


I got the call to pick him up from school and the little man was being so brave...considering his pinky finger was pretty much sticking out sideways and all. (sorry...no pictures) Well, we had some fun taking pictures with my cell phone but I have no way of transfering them to the computer. Anyway, it looked something like this, but not quite as severe:

But no worries. There was no fracture...just a dislocation.  After numbing the finger and popping it back into place he was as good as new!  


He has to keep the finger splinted for the next week to give the ligaments a chance to strengthen but otherwise is doing just fine.

Jonathan Four to Five

Jon was thriving in school. He was so opposite of C.J...outgoing and loud.  That was very evident at the school Christmas concert where Jon sang loudly and did all the hand gestures with gusto.

That is his little friend Emily next to him in the red pants.  I guess you can tell from the picture there was a significant height difference between him and everyone else.  My poor shorty pie!


For Christmas that year, my parents bought us plane tickets to visit them in Florida.  It was Jon's first ever plane ride...but he was okay as long as Elmo came along for the ride.

Incidently, we left the day after the Packers won the Super Bowl.  That is why we are all wearing our Packer things! 

It's hard to believe now that we were visiting the area we would be calling home in a couple short years.


As the school year came to a close, we had to say goodbye  the wonderful teachers who had helped shape my children for three straight years.  Even though Jon still had a year of preschool left, the school was closing due to consolidation.

That summer we returned to Florida for a vacation with friends.  This time we did the all the Disney Parks.

Also, Jon was so happy to be playing both t-ball

and soccer

In fact, he and C.J. played on the same soccer team.


The next school year marked a big change for us.  Presented with a wonderful opportunity I went from being a stay-at-home-mom to a part-time kindergarten teacher.  C.J. was in my morning kindergarten class and Jon went to Preschool across the hall on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  Tuesday mornings he would spend with my mom and Thursday mornings he would go to the day care in the basement of the school.  This is Jon and his teacher on his first day of school.

If you wanted Jon to fall asleep, all you had to do was put him in a car.

The dangerous days before booster seats were required!


Jon turned 5 in November. This is the cake my grandma had for him when we visited her. I just included it because I love the expression on his face.

For his family party, Carey made him this cool dump truck cake.

The last measurement I have for him is for 4 years and 11 months:
Weight: 32 pounds (less than 3rd%)
Height: 37.5 inches (less than 3%)

Watch Out For My Wings!

First, I must tell you that googling something can put some very disturbing thoughts in your mind...as it did this weekend when I googled "blood in the urine-male."

Stage Set:

The look on the doctor's face as he entered the room yesterday said it all. 

Again?

It was our third trip this week.  My helicopter wings were out in full force as I listened to him explain that it was highly unlikely that a person of Jon's age would have any of the cancers that would cause blood in the urine.  He was in great form...his speech already rehearsed and memorized. 

I appreciated his little speech and if I weren't preparing to send my son 300 miles away for two months, I would have even accepted his speech as truth. But....I, as a mother...with the helicopter wings and all.. was not amused!

So...I pulled out the big guns!!! 
"If this was YOUR child...would you feel comfortable sending him away for two whole months with a wait and see approach?" And "how often does a person just have blood in the urine without a cause being identified?"

I could tell he was speechless because...well...he didn't speak. 

About a minute went by and he finally  turned to Jon and said "can you give us a urine sample today?"

HA!!!  Mother wins again.

But here is the part of the story that is a pip!  THERE WAS NO BLOOD!!! NONE!

Whew!  He has a urology appointment tomorrow and if no blood is present then...hopefully we can consider this matter behind us!

+++note: I do love this doctor.  He is very thorough and has been great through all Jon's issues since January!

Jonathan - Three to Four

Shortly after turning three, Jon "graduated" from the early intervention speech program.  

Much to our amazement, his speech evaluations had him performing at the average to above average level for everything!  This is the child that had a vocabulary of only about 20 words six months ago and was diagnosed with a life lasting disability less than a year ago! 
 Not willing to let go of the help and worried he would slide backwards without the speech therapy, I rallied for continued services.  He was temporarily accepted into a public school preschool program three mornings a week.  That only lasted a month before they decided that his speech skills were too advanced compared to his classmates and they were afraid that he would actually regress if he interacted with them.  It was a long time before I would feel comfortable and think of him as "normal".

In December of that year Jon had an ear infection and was put on amoxicillin.  In a matter of a couple days he had broken out in hives all over his body and face...a sure sign of allergy.  Unfortunately, later, the same thing would happen with Zithromax which left him with few options for antibiotics.


Most of Jon's birthday presents, and most of his Christmas presents too, were trains.  Oh...how he LOVED them!

We even had to bring his trains on our vacation to Arkansas.

Jon could be stubborn at times.  I have no idea what he was so upset about here.  We were on a paddle boat McDonalds in St Louis.

But at least all that crying tired him out!

One of our favorite things to do was drop C.J. off at school and meet grandma at Delta for breakfast.  Jon would get their $.75 piece of french toast and a glass of milk.

Because Jon thrived on social interaction and to keep him exposed to verbal interaction with others, I enrolled him in class on Friday mornings through our rec department.  Jon was never shy around strangers!

When he was about 3.5 we began to notice how intelligent Jon was.  Before that, he was so quiet and just let C.J. answer all the questions or do all the talking.

 That summer, C.J. played t-ball and Jon was jealous but he was still too young to play.  He sure loved anything to do with sports.  So, when we got C.J. his baseball equipment...we got Jon some too.

In September, he started preschool at Sacred Heart Christian Preschool.  As shy and quiet as C.J. was...Jon was every bit as outgoing and excited!

Even at almost four, he still took a nap on most days and preschool seemed to really tire him out.  Although he was trained since February, he still needed pull-ups for nap and night time.  In fact, he was such a sound sleeper, he needed pull-ups until he was 7! Fortunately, he was still small enough to fit in pull-ups that whole time.

I didn't mention this in C.J.'s posts and I don't have any pictures of this...but I need to write it because it was a really big part of their childhood.
One of their absolute favorite things to do was to listen to the Monday Night Football song.  Every Monday night at 8:00, freshly bathed and in their warm pajamas, they would run around in circles and go crazy while that 1 minute song was played! "Are you ready for some football?  A Monday night party."  I will always remember that fondly.

For his fourth birthday we switched gears and Carey made him a great Buzz Lightyear cake.

Both of the boys LOVED that movie and we saw it several times.
And I'm including this picture because I think it's hilarious.  Just don't ask what he's doing...and don't ask what C.J. is doing in the background...because I'm sure I don't know!

Jon's four year stats:
Weight: 30 pounds 2 ounces (5th%)
Height: 36 inches (less than 3%)