15 months or 65 weeks old

My babies are 15 months old. Holy cow how time has flied.There are so many things the two of you do that amaze me so I thought I'd try to write some of them down.

Cole, King Cole, Colerbear, Coley. you are a happy baby. You share your smiles and giggles freely, and I love to hear you laugh. You are very interested in what is happening around you, and like to watch what is going on. You are my little cuddle buddy. You always have a hug and kiss for me and it makes my day.

You are an absolute delight. When I think back at where you started, I am overwhelmed by the tender mercies we have experienced in your growth process. You are so handsome. You have a full head of blonde curly hair. I love how it has a mind of its own. It likes to poke out of the holes in your helmet, and you seem to have a natural coulic on top of your head that makes your hair stand straight up on top in a mohawk. I LOVE it!!

You have a soft way about you. You are content to watch your surroundings and take them all in. You like to be apart of everything without being the center of attention.

You like to swing. You do not seem to be particular about which swing I put you in you just like the movement.

You have moments when you start to laugh out loud and there does not seem to be any reason why. In fact, most of the time you start to laugh and there is no one around. It makes me smile every time. I find it so comforting to know that you are happy and thinking about fun things.

You are learning to sit and enjoy being in your new reclining high chair. We love that you can now be a part of the family at dinnertime. It makes all the difference.

You still think your hands are pretty awesome. I love to watch you explore them and look at them with such amazement. I wish that I knew exactly what you were thinking. You like to hold onto small toys and bring them to your mouth.

Speaking of your mouth. You have 4 of the cutest chicklets I have ever seen, with three more coming in even as I write this. You have been a champion teether. You constantly chew on your fingers and your elephant snuggies' ears, but rarely fuss.

Your favorite toys are your rattles, balls with the holes in them, rainbow worm, and small sized balls. You have little hands unlike your brother so the toys we have for you are much smaller.

You have never been a nummy/pacifier user. I have tried repeatedly to teach you, but you have no interest. You do however love your snuggie. I never put you to bed without it. You like to sleep on your side and snuggle it between your arms.

Baby Signing Time always makes you coo. I have yet to catch you doing an actual sign, but I have seen you on more than one occasion chatting at the TV.

Catnaps are your forte. You sleep great at night, but like to sleep here and there

during the day. This suits me just fine as it gives me time with you one on one while sleepy pants Gavin rests.

You love to snuggle with Papa. In fact, when we go over there, you always disappear with him. He loves you and you love him.

You have giggle fits and they are infectious. I don't think there is anyone who could see you laughing, entire body convulsing with giggles, and not be moved to laugh. I am smiling just thinking about it.

Bath time is enjoyable, but lotion time is your favorite. You love to have your legs and feet massaged.

You laughs and giggles are always delayed. I tickle and wait a moment to see if you are going to laugh or cry. When I get a laugh, its time for more...tickle time begins!!

You enjoy the stroller and are always happy to be outside in the fresh air. You are also a great car seat traveller. You never complain or fuss about all of our trips to Salt Lake and back.

Cole, you are a wonder to me. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that I get to be your mother. You are filled with so much love and have such a positive influence on our family. You are the calm force in our family. I wake up each morning and look forward to the fun and amazing times we will have that day. Despite your challenges, you wake up happy each day. I love you Cole and think you are my special, amazing, remarkable, gift from heaven.

King Cole

Gavin the Great

Gavin, you are crawling and walking(assisted) all over the place. You are happy and love to smile and play with other kids. You are an extremely social boy. You especially love your daddy with Joshie and Nana as close seconds. It is fun to watch you interact with them. I am pretty sure I come after that!!

You can walk around and stand up against anything now.

You are pushing toys, stools, and chairs, anything that will slide around the room, as if they are walkers.

You see other kids walking and I can see it in your eyes..jealousy.

You started clapping! If anyone cheers or if you hear clapping you give us a big toothy grin, bounce and clap along. You are sure that every clap is for you!

You also started waving. We wave goodnight to dad before we go in your room or when one of us has to leave. Sometimes it is a delayed reaction wave that doesn’t happen until we are already out of sight.

You are our big eater!! Rice, carrots, peas, avocado, bananas, puffs, yogurt melts..veggies and fruit galore. It’s amazing to be able to sit at the table as a family and all eat together. Now that Cole has his new chair, it is so fun to all eat together. You can pick things up with your little fingers and place them in your own mouth. In fact, you can do everything with just your pointer finger and thumb!

You also don’t mind sour foods. Lemon wedge..no big deal. Dad loves to feed you clementine slices and you like to bite them and suck out all the juice.

I love watching your little pointer finger explore all the little things..A crumb on the floor, whatever jewelry I am wearing, an eye on a stuffed animal. We are constantly amazed at your hand coordination. We didn’t teach you these things!! You just knew.

You talk a lot. I am pretty sure your first word was dada. If you want me or food, you definitely say “ma” or “mama”. When that happens you get whatever you want immediately! I am not sure if your sounds mean anything yet, but there are definitely a lot of them to choose from. You are a constant chatter box.

You love to climb up on something higher than you and pound on the object(usually my head) and you shriek and bounce.

You love musical toys. Poppity Dino and your music machine from Josh are favorites. You crawl around with the music machine and put it into whatever toy you decide to play with.

You love to crawl around the house with a ball or two in your hands. You are like a little piece of ball and claw furniture! when you get to wherever you are going, you sit and put the ball directly into your mouth. It is not exactly a clean habit, but is super cute!

You also started backing yourself off of things when you want to get down…stairs, beds, chairs, couches. It’s awesome but scary. And sometimes you decide head first is best...it's NOT.

The amount of twisting and squirming you do while having your diaper changed or clothes put on is out of control. We’ve actually resorted to... well everything to make you lay still. You seem to have places to be because you are not interested in laying still anymore.

Your 1st Christmas!! You were really not that into the tree..although you did enjoy the cranberry garland, and the balls on Nana's tree. You dodged Santa’s lap this year. We will tell you it was RSV and we were being protective, but really....we didn't want to wait in line and have some creepy bearded guy make you cry.

You love to go to nana's house because you have free reign and rule the roost! And, it's where Josh lives.

You still love the stroller and will let me take you all over the place. You sit still and quiet for hours just enjoying the outdoors. It makes for a good release of stress for all three of us. You are getting heavier though and it is getting harder for mom to push you up the big hills.

Favorite toys: balls, cell phones, Cole's rattles, books, musical toys, the bathtub and all its stuff, the bottle drawer in the kitchen, Coles bottles and lids, tampons, any kind of paper and your giraffe.

You finally have a head full of light brown hair. It is so handsome.

You love the fireplaces....especially when lit.

You are forming all sorts of new expressions and ticks…gritty face, grinding your teeth (hoping you outgrow this soon), tipping your head from side to side..

You are becoming a little boy so full of wonder and expression and imagination.

You play so well with others and by yourself.

You love your crib and sleep like its an olympic sport. A gene I am fairly certain you inherited from me. One nap is doable, but two is better, with 12 hours at night.

How did I get so lucky with two great sleepers?! ( I know that I am blessed! I saythank you for this particular blessing everyday.)

You love to play chase with dad. You laugh and squeal as he chases you around

the house. You look forward to his arrival home from work at night and love to talk to him on the phone. Given a choice, most of the time, you will reach for him to hold and cuddle you.

Tickle time is always fun. Your little body tenses up as we go in for a tickle. You let out a loud giggle and look to us to do it again!

If you hear another baby crying you are always so concerned and I have to talk to you about what is happening and how it will be OK.You are complete joy and absolute perfection. We couldn’t love you more. We cherish every last inch of you. I am so proud of the loving, aware, sensitive soul you are. I love how close you want to stay to your dad and me. I hope that never changes.

My sweet baby. You and Cole have made this the best, most fulling 15 months of my life.

I love you both, xoxo

Mom

a little late...

it's a little late, but Santa and his reindeer wanted to say hi!

(this was just two days after surgery, so King Cole's eye is still pretty red.)

(Gavin the Great was not so sure about his antlers)

my first helicopter ride

At UVRMC before being transferred to PCMC

at PCMC in the ICU.

That toy you can see at the bottom of the picture is a new favorite.

To watch your child being strapped onto a gurney and loaded into a medical helicopter is a surreal experience. As I watched it take-off, all I could think was, that is my baby up there. Please, please let him be OK. He is afraid of loud noises, and has stranger anxiety. I am sure he was experiencing both. I knew the Life flight crew would take great care of him, but still felt a little helpless to see my little guy like that.

Cole continued to get worse at Utah Valley and was eventually Life flighted up here to Primary Children's on Friday. After a day in the ICU, he had made some great progress and was able to be transferred to the floor. He continues to make slow, but steady progress. We treat one thing and seem to get that under control and then another something comes up that is a bit of a setback. I guess that is always the way it is.

He is resting well...finally. I am very busy. I stare at him, stare at my computer, stare at my book, stare at the parking garage(my view), stare at the room across the hall, etc...you get the point!! It actually has not been bad. It had given me a lot of time to reflect on the last 14 months with King Cole. As I look out the window, there is finally snow coming down. I think it is a good sign!

Mike and I have been blessed with amazing families and friends. Thank you for all of the well wishes, offers of help and especially prayers.

a mask a day

King Cole is back in the hospital.

A real bummer.

We were doing so well too.

Oh, well here we are.

I took him for a walk today around the unit and had to mask him up because of his cough. He is too cute in his mask.

He developed a dry cough that morphed into a very productive and

dangerous cough for him.

After treating him at home for a couple days, he was

not doing any better and was

laboring so much to breath.

I took him in to the clinic on Sunday and ran some tests.

Sunday night was rough, and I had a hard time keeping his sats above 88.

I took him in to the doc on Monday morning and after

we talked, it was determined that the best place for him was the hospital.

Since being here, he has had all of the same issues I was battling at home. He is on even more medications and has a double ear infection.

Needless to say, the little guy has been a champ.

He has been poked, and prodded, and sucked out more times than I can

tell you.

He seems to be feeling a bit better today..day 3 in hospital...and I am

hopeful that we can go home tomorrow or Friday.

He is such an amazing baby who has the sweetest way about him.

I know that all moms probably think and say this about their babies,

but King Cole is a dream.

As terrible as it is to have a baby so sick, it has been fun for me to climb up in his crib and just spend time with him. I had him Skype last night with Gavin, and he had the biggest smile on his face and was cooing. It was nice to see him have a positive reaction after having a tough couple of days.

hugs and kisses my sweet King!

Discovery

As a mother I want my kids to explore, and discover all the

amazing things this planet has to offer. I hope they get the chance to travel.

(I think with Mike and I as their parents, this should not be a problem!)

I hope they are able to see and enjoy different cultures,

and toys and rocks and sticks, and everything else out there.

I have not ever, at any time, wished for my children to discover

and LOVE to play with tampons. However, Gavin has discovered them

and will not let this one go. He thinks it is just the right size.

He can hold it, chew it, and best of all, crawl with it in his mouth.

I am not sure if I should be proud that he made a toy out of nothing,

or horrified at what he made a toy out of.

He was very pleased to show me his new toy!

I tried to take the "toy" away.

How could I deny this face?

I let him play with it until he lost interest....the love of a mother!!

Christmas made me tired...

This christmas we read lots and lots of christmas stories.

Gavin loves when you make all the sounds of the animals, etc.

Cole likes the books that have music.

I was cleaning the house and went into the kitchen to load something in the dishwasher and this is what I returned to...

My sleeping, exhausted, little candy canes!!

(the view when I left for the kitchen)

King Cole with Aunt Jen

(he likes her!)

Overall, we had a great holiday season.

We had fun with friends and family, and loved our time together as a foursome.

We look forward to many, many Christmases in the future.

Making sugar cookies, and neighbor treats, and all the other fun things of Christmas was fun, but will be so much better when the boys can participate!

I will post more actual Christmas pictures tomorrow, but for now...

We hope you had a fun filled holiday like we did.

wishing you a Merry Christmas from Keller Kingdom!

We are excited to celebrate our first Christmas outside the confines of the hospital!

We look forward to the start of great traditions and incorporating

Gavin + Cole into the ones Mike and I have already begun.

Tomorrow King Cole goes to Primary Children's for surgery.

We are hoping it goes really well and he recovers quickly.

We love our little Colerbear and hate to see him in the hospital.

Even when its only a day or two!

He continues to make all sorts of progress.

He has an infectious laugh and smile.

He likes to play with his toys and has started to eat baby food.

Bananas are his favorite!

Gavin the Great continues to crawl and walk around everything.

He puts everything in his mouth and thinks he is very funny.

He likes to chew on furniture, or anything else.

He does not seem to have a very discerning palate!

He loves to laugh and smile and always makes me laugh.

He loves to play with his dad, and looks forward to his return everyday!

To all of our friends, family, acquaintances and blog stalkers out there..

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!!

Birthday/Halloween weekend

This past weekend was a bit crazy

at our house.

We started off on Thursday by wishing King Cole + Gavin the Great

a Happy Birthday.

Mike was out of town, so the boys and I went to Nana + Papa's house.

Mike and I had planned a party for the boys on Sunday,

so I was busy planning for that.

I spent friday and saturday cooking and baking.

My sister Stacey(the REAL baker) came over and

we got to work.

We made a pumpkin cake for the birthday cake,

ghost and pumpkin cake pops, caramel snickers popcorn,

and caramel apples.

And that was just on friday!!

Our caramel apples

I really wanted the boys to be in costume for their party. After all, it was the night before Halloween. My mom made them the cutest clown costumes for their party.

The ghost pops

the pumpkin cake

King COle in his clown costume. He was so handsome.

Aunt Stacey holding the boys at their birthday "spook"tacular.

We had family and friends over for dinner and treats. It was a lot of fun,

and we hope the boys felt loved.

The next day was Halloween and the boys were ready to hit the streets!!

We went to visit a few neighbors and called it a night. Seeing as neither Gavin nor Cole eat candy, it made trick-or-treating a quick endeavor.

Gavin the Great as "Tigger the Tiger"

King COLE was "Puff the Magic Dragon"

All in all, it was a busy, great, fun filled weekend.

We spent time with family and close friends and best of all,

celebrated our amazing little rulers!!

we are ONE

Today my babies are ONE.

When I think back on all that has happened over the past

year, it seems amazing that we are all here.

Delivering 12 weeks early was a surprise for all of us.

The ups and downs, the laughter and tears have all been worth it to have these little kings

as a part of our family.

Mike & I feel blessed everyday to be their parents and we would not trade

any of our experiences over the past year.

After all, they have made us a stronger family and given us a perspective that

allows us to just enjoy them.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to King COLE and GAVIN the Great!

This is a favorite picture of King Cole. He looks so serious.

King Cole on a happier note.

Gavin the Great

He is always willing to be photographed!

Gavin loves to interact with Cole. Cole, not sure he loves his interaction with Gavin!

Most of the time the interaction consists of Gavin pulling at Cole's oxygen, g-tube, helmet, or poking his eyes! Gavin just wants to play!!

Gavin the Great with a finger close to his mouth, or in his mouth, is a staple around here. Teething is well underway.

In TWO days...

I can hardly believe that in two days my babies will be ONE.

It does not seem possible!

I decided that they needed an advent calendar to count down their birthday each October.

With their birthday being so close to Halloween, I set out to make them something fun.

This is my final result...

There is a little witch that is attached and moves from pocket to pocket.

I made it rather large so I could put little dollar store items and treats in the pockets in future years. For now it is just me moving the witch each day!