Triple bath

We borrowed this bath chair from a friend of mine to use for Ryan in the bath. We only use it when we're bathing the boys all together since Ryan can't sit totally unassisted yet. The first triple bath took place on Jan. 5th and since then we've done quite a few more. Here's what a Peery Triple Bath looks like!

I love putting their hair in mohawks! :)

Yep, we have some of these moments, too! #keepingitreal

Overdue

The boys are overdue for a haircut. Well, really only William and Ryan are overdue. They're well on their way to the mullet stage. Stokes' hair is a little long on the sides and over his ears, but it's so thin and wispy still that it's not too noticeable that it's long. I promise, we really have been planning to get their hair cut. At first I kept putting it off because I'm scared that once we cut it, the curls won't come back. Then it got long enough that I was ready to go for it, even if it meant the end of the curls (and yes, I'm still scared about losing the curls, but the mullets are even scarier).

On the weekend we had planned to go, everyone was sick and the haircut was postponed. The following weekend was my girls weekend so that was a no-go. Then Thomas had his annual sales kickoff weekend and had to work, so last weekend wasn't going to work either. The first haircut is kind of a big deal, so it's very important that both Thomas and I are there to witness it. Plus, he'll have to make sure everyone is OK and minding their manners while I furiously take 1 million pictures!

In case you haven't noticed how long their hair is and how much they need a haircut, I've taken a few pictures to fill you in.

Stokes -
Just long on the sides and around the ears.

Check out that long piece tucked behind his ear

Now it's hanging OVER the ear

Close-up!

Ryan -
He actually has very curly hair right out of the bath. Once we brush it you can't really tell. Even if we don't brush it, after he sleeps on it all night, most of the curls fall out. I had to capture the beautiful hair before it gets chopped...just in case these gorgeous curls don't come back. *Tear*

Post bath - wild hair!

Looks at how curly it is after it's been wet!

After brushing it, it's much straighter

Still curly (and long) at the end

His sweet curls

William -
His hair is just plain long and it gets crazy. Anytime he sleeps, his hair gets out of control. Bed head city! His hair has been a topic of discussion and a source of comedic relief for some time now. Remember this post? It's really quite beautiful hair, when it's in place.

First two pictures are nighttime pictures, right after his bath so his hair was clean and just brushed.

Post-bath, after I brushed it

Look at those sweet curls

This is what it looked like the next morning!

 

Hair is going in every direction!

It's so long and unruly

Stay tuned for an upcoming haircut post!!

Ryan's therapy update

Ryan has added Speech Therapy to his list of weekly appointments. He has only met with his Speech Therapist, Nikki, a few times now. On the day she came for the evaluation, I was under the weather (you may remember our rough couple of weeks from this Bugging Out post), so I had minimal interaction with her during that appointment. The following week we had to cancel on her because Ryan was sick. Last week, she came and worked with Ryan, but I was out of town for work and missed it altogether. Nikki's focus with Ryan is working on actual speech for the first 30 minutes of each appointment, and then she works with him on feeding. He's still behind from a feeding standpoint and mostly eats pureed baby food from the jar (in case you're wondering...no, I do not make my own baby food and thanks to Pinterest and all sorts of social media, I realize that this is not "optimal" in this day and age...so sue me HA). Slowly, we're introducing very small pieces of real food to Ryan and lately he has been getting much, much better at being able to chew and swallow these small bites. He's doing really well eating Cheerios and Puffs! He's not currently saying any words but he's getting more vocal with sounds. Also he is definitely working on his volume. The dude is getting loud. Haha! But it's a good thing! I'm very hopeful that his speech sessions will steer him in the right direction and he'll be speaking in full sentences before we know it!

From a motor skills standpoint, we are seeing HUGE strides from him. Within the last few weeks, he's gotten significantly better about sitting up. He was sitting before, but had regressed somewhat and for a while wasn't really sitting at all. Then as he was getting stronger, I could prop him up on his hands, but he wasn't able to right himself if he started to lean in any direction. Now he's able to balance a little better and can sit for longer periods of time. His chair and lots of practice are helping him. You probably saw in the recent Bottle time post that he can hold his bottle now and seems to do a little bit of reaching out for toys and objects. In addition, he's now able to pivot himself while he's on tummy time. Another big deal is that he has rolled himself over a few times now. He's getting better and better at it. Last but not least, he will now bear some weigh on his legs and feet. Previously if we would hold him up and his feet on the floor or our lap or wherever, he would immediately bend his legs and would not hold himself up at all. Slowly, slowly he's been allowing a little weigh on those legs and now he's supporting himself at least 50%. I know I must sound like a broken record, but it is seriously a big deal and a major improvement!

It's weird because I realize now that I was starting to think that there were a lot of everyday things that Ryan was not going to be able to do. We were just seeing such minor improvements over such a long period of time. I was trying to steel myself from future disappointment by not expecting huge miracles. I pray and pray and pray every single day that God will keep him safe and free from any more spasms and/or seizures and that He will continue to allow Ryan to grow developmentally and learn more and more. I pray that he will catch up to his brothers someday. The last few weeks have renewed my faith and hope for miracles. I'm seeing big changes in Ryan. It's noticeable. It's what we've been waiting, hoping and praying for. I'm now thinking of all the things he WILL be able to do instead of what he won't be able to do. His therapists have been so encouraging! His PT said the other day that he WILL walk. It may be way later, like years down the road, but she feels good about the fact that it will happen. Amazing. My heart feels like it could seriously burst when I see him do some of the things he's been doing lately that I wasn't sure I'd ever see. Keep it up, Ryan!!!!

His current therapy appointments include...

Physical therapy with Ashley on Monday. Pics taken on 1/19.

Practicing sitting

Working on side sitting

Occupational therapy with Emily on Tuesday. Pics taken on 1/20.

Helping Ryan feed himself Puffs

Celebrating a good bite with claps and smiles

Early intervention with Megan on Tuesday (she's filling in for our regular EI, April, while she's out on maternity leave. April had a sweet baby girl on Christmas Day!!!). Pics taken on 1/20.

Sitting...ON HIS OWN!!!

And having fun doing it :)

Speech therapy with Nikki on Thursday. Pics taken on 1/22.

Early stages of learning how to drink from a sippy cup

 

Physical therapy with Ashley on Friday. Pics taken on 1/23.

He is lifting up entirely by himself

So stinkin' adorable!

Working on reaching and grasping with this light up musical turtle

He has recently started bearing weight
on his legs. This is HUGE!

He cracks himself up ;)

Cruisin' for some babes

The weather lately has been downright terrible. It's been really cold and the rain has been pouring. Not fun. Today the sun decided to come out and it wasn't rainy! It actually wasn't all too cold out either. The boys and I had to get out of the house and they said they wanted to go cruisin' for some babes.

I pulled out their choo choo wagon. Side note: the last time we used our wagon, Ryan wasn't stable enough to sit in it on his own, even with the buckle. You'll notice that all 3 of my boys were hanging out in the wagon today. This makes me very happy. :)

Bottle time

Stokes and William drink solely out of sippy cups, but our little Ryan is still on the bottle. That being said, he's had a little breakthrough recently with it. I'm so proud of my boy! He can hold the bottle by himself. Let me repeat that, RYAN CAN HOLD HIS BOTTLE BY HIMSELF. Yes, ma'am! We pretty much just have to put his hands in position and he holds it. Check it out, people! I love it. :)

Missing my boys!

I had some scheduled business travel from Sunday, Jan. 11 - Thursday, Jan. 15. I was just barely feeling better from the stomach bug (or flu?!?!?) on Sunday morning when I was going to catch my flight. I had been debating the day before about whether to cancel my trip or not, but thankfully I was feeling well enough to get on that plane.

Here's what I left...right before I left for the airport, we got the boys up.

William - this is some SERIOUS bedhead, folks!

Ryan - sweet fella

Stokes - our wild man

So hard to say goodbye to these sweet faces!

I went up to NYC for a big conference. Incidentally, Thomas had to go to this conference as well so we had a tag team of helpers at our house in our absence. Layla, our nanny, was there during the day along with Fifi and Jerry, who were staying at our house all week, and MaSha made a point to come by a lot and spend the night a few days for extra help!

Entering NYC by air

Then after attending the conference for a few days, I went to our office in Buffalo until Thursday. I got to see a lot of snow on the ground in Buffalo. I kid you not, on Wednesday it was -1 degrees F, and felt like -7 with wind chill. It was COLD! Anyway, it was a good trip but I was ready to get home!

I got home around 10 PM on Thursday night and snuck in to see the boys while they were sleeping. I just couldn't stand waiting until the morning to see them! I didn't touch Stokes since he's a finicky sleeper and once he's up, he doesn't want to go back to sleep, but I got to hold and kiss Ryan's hand, and rub William's back and head. It felt great to be home and with my family.

The other thing is that I had a girls weekend scheduled for this weekend with my besties. The timing was a little unfortunate, coming off of being sick and then out of town all week, but it's always good to see my girls! We stayed at Diane's parents' house. We had some delicious meals, good cocktails and lots of great conversation!

5-4-5 selfie after lunch at Bacon Bros.

Pre-dinner cocktail time

Diane and me

I couldn't stand being away from the little guys all weekend, so we came by on Saturday afternoon to hang out with them for a little while. :)

Jacqui, Ryan, Stokes, William and me

He thinks wearing these glasses is so funny!

Now I'm done traveling for a while, girls weekend is over and I'm going back to the regular day to day schedule. I'm glad to get back into my standard routine and spend more time with my family. It's been a busy few weeks so it's nice to get to relax a little.

I've got several more updates to let you know about, so check back in soon! :)