Still sick

Yes, Jesse is still sick. His fever got up to 104.7 in the middle of the night Friday. And then again on Saturday morning when it was that high again. I keep getting the same answer--as long as he is drinking fluids, having wet diapers, and acting fairly "normal", then this will run it's course. Fine by me...I'd rather hear that on the phone than $500 later after going to the ER and hearing the same thing. Although I would MOST prefer that this little virus just pass on by. We've been told it will last 3 days--yesterday was day 5. Ugh. Hear's to hoping this day is "fever free"!

I hosted a briday shower for one of my best friends yesterday at my mom's house. I took Joel and Zac stayed home to play nurse for Jesse. It was a great time and I think everyone had fun. Joel was in full force--making everyone laugh and going around asking people if he could wear their jewelry. It's a phase...the jewelry thing. I think he was just showing off and wanted to demonstrate to people why Lindsay asked him to be her ringbearer...now if he will just be that cute for the wedding, we'll be in business.

Funny

We still have a man down here. 103 this morning at 6 am. So sad. But Jesse is really a trooper. That's not why I titled this blog funny, either.

Yesterday we bought a car seat for the new baby. It's weird because although this is our 3rd child, there are a lot of things we don't have. The last two times we either borrowed things that have since been returned, or stuff was handed down from families and has been used for 4-5 children by now and has no more life. I know we'll eventually get everything that we need, but the process is sort of overwhelming.

Anyway...Joel has been very interested in the idea of the baby in mommy's tummy lately. He likes to look into my belly button and telly me the baby is in there. On the way home from getting the car seat, he informed me that his baby in his tummy was growing bigger too, and when it got big enough, it would come out--probably on his birthday. Jesse also has a baby in his tummy, Joel told me. Their babies will be sisters (girls) like their friend Nikayla. Too funny. He also glanced at me several different times yesterday and said, "Mommy, your tummy is really getting bumpy!"

Man down...

I think I was in denial yesterday because I'm convinced that kids don't get sick in the summer (it's God's special blessing for moms and kids). However, something about Jesse's eyes just didn't look right to me. That and the fact that he only wanted to be held. Duh, Mom.

Well, he's down for the count. When I went to check on him before I went to bed last night he felt unusually hot to me. After scrounging around for the thermometer, I discovered his temp was 102.7. Motrin time. Better this morning, only 101.8. More Motrtin. Worse now, 103.5. Oh, dear. Strange though, because he has absolutely no other symptoms of sickness. Poor guy. He really is such a compliant and relatively happy little sick person that I have to watch him kind of carefully to monitor how sick he really is. He is sleeping quietly in his room and I hope he feels better soon. We've got another big weekend ahead of us!

Moving along...

The summer is moving along and our busy "week" continues into week 2. A good friend of mine is in town visiting until tonight so I have gotten to do a lot of fun girl things with her! She has two kids at home close to Joel and Jesse's ages and so she's really enjoying a little break from the daily rigor of motherhood too!

Each day I'm adjusting more to the little boy that will enter our lives soon. I know this last half of the pregnancy will go quickly and I'm trying to cherish time with the family just the way it is now, before things radically change for us. :) I feel so blessed right now--we have wonderful children, great friends and family, a job Zac loves, a perfect home for us, and I am appearingly very healthy (cancer-wise). We praise the Lord for this season of blessing and goodness and are trying to absorb all that comes along with it!

Happy Birthday!

That's what Joel was saying to me all day long, and then Jesse would echo, "Birthday, Mommy!". It was quite sweet. We also wrapped up a long week of VBS this morning and everything seemed to be a great success.

A special part of my birthday was having the ultrasound this morning. I think I was in such shock (and focused on getting to church for VBS) that Zac and I left the doctor after the ultrasound but then got a call while we were in the car telling us that we still had to meet with the doctor. Oops! We turned around and did the second part of our visit. I thought the ultrasound tech told us we could go... :) There was one view of the baby's heart we couldn't see (he is quite the mover and shaker) so I'll have a repeat ultrasound next month just to check it out, but they aren't concerned. I will be a fun memory to have received the knowledge that we're having another little guy on my b-day.

I would like to officially note that Zac was super dad today (a very wonderful present for me). He held my hand through the ultrasound, let me go out shopping with my mom, installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom (I told him that was the gift that will keep on giving), fixed our bathroom door, and lastly, did major potty duty today.

Potty duty, you ask? Well, we had a difficult afternoon around here. Joel wet his bed, for the first time ever, during his nap (it was our fault, we forgot to remind him to go beforehand). Zac was here when he woke up and did the whole mattress, sheet, clothing cleaning. Then Jesse went pee on the floor while I was running their bath water. Then after the bath, while I was getting his diaper out, he pooped on the floor in two places in Joel's room (also not his fault, he must have had an upset tummy because it was the 3rd time he pooped today--and we aren't talking little, hard pieces). My dear husband cleaned everything up, with very little drama, I might add. What a guy!!

Joel served me birthday cake, the boys helped me blow out the candles, and I received some wonderful presents for myself and our new little baby! My parents, and bro and sister-in-law came up with little Stella, too. That's here in the pics with me. A great day, indeed!

Drumroll please...

It's a boy!!!

I actually must say I am a bit surprised by this. Although I have been telling myself in my mind all along that it's probably a boy, somewhere deep inside I truly felt like it was a girl. My intuition is officially wrong in this department because I have been wrong with each one of my kids.

This marks the beginning of chaos in the Hicks' household (as if we weren't really there already). Things on the ultrasound looked good and we are so thankful to have what looks like a healthy baby so far. Plus, we know how to do boys already, right?

My deep heart's desire is to still have a girl one day but we will take it one child at a time. Who knows, if we try again maybe we'll have boy #4! Our doctor told us about a family she worked with during her residency who had 3 boys and were going to try one more time for a girl. In God's great irony, they ended up having identical, triplet boys!!! Not only did they not get their girl, they doubled their boy population :).

Here are some pics of the little guy...his profile looks just like the other two boys in their ultrasound pics (but secretly I think almost all ultrasounds look alike). In the first picture he is waving (you can see his little hand). And sorry to be offensive, but you can see how "clearly" we knew that it was a boy. This was actually the first thing that popped up on the ultrasound screen!

Crazy days...

This will be a really crazy week for us...VBS at church every day (I'm in charge of snacks for 325 people each day), swimming lesson for Joel, big ultrasound for me, my birthday and party, a girl's night out, a doctor's appt for Joel, plus all the regular "stuff" we need to do!

Oh, and while Zac was gone last weekend, I cut all of my hair off! I really and enjoying the ease of the new "do" and it's nice and cool for summer. I'll post a pic whenever I get one!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a crazy day around here--at least one of us was at church from 7:30 in the morning until 8:30 last night. Not too much celebrating, but we did that the day before. I got Zac some large pictures of the boys individually and of us as a couple that are framed for his office. He recently got a "new" office space and so this was the final touch! A friend from church who also does graphic design (and photography on the side) took an incredible picture of Joel and Zac last week at the church picnic. Joel is crying because he hit his head and Zac is holding him. The friend put the text of a verse about God's comfort around the picture and framed it for Zac. It's really amazing...maybe I can take a picture of it and post it on the blog. Zac is keeping it at his office and it's funny because when the boys saw it they were both quite concerned that Joel was crying and you could tell they were wondering why we would want a picture of that :).

Since we are talking about Father's day, I'd like to take a minute to say what a WONDERFUL father I have. I really could go on and on about that. But I also wanted to say what an amazing father Zac is becoming. He and I have talked about this before (he doesn't care if I share this) but he's never really been a kid person. Not interested in holding other people's babies, babysitting, or hanging out with kids too much. Then we started having kids (and he was still sort of a kid himself at age 24). It was a huge adjustment for him and something that he has been growing in ever since. We've had some extra challenges parenting a special needs child, and then having two kids a year and a half apart, but just in the last year, Zac has truly blossomed. It's like he is hitting his stride with the boys and feeling pride about his role and abilities in fatherhood (especially since he is used to excelling in everything else that he does). The love him so much and I cannot wait to see him with the new baby. He was out of town this weekend and the boys kept asking me where he was! He is so missed when he's not around and hoepfully he feels deeply loved all of the time.

Answer to prayer.

I went to see my retinal specialist on Monday for a regular check-up. Although at this point, I should probably only be seeing him every 6-8 months, I've been 3 times in the past six months. My vision has been deteriorating rapidly in my eye, thankfully not because of the tumor (which still appears to be dead), but because of residual damage that is occurring from the radiation. I knew this was a possibility but still seemed worth the risk since my alternative was just to remove the eye entirely. Each time I've gone to the doctor lately my vision has been worse, to the point that I am now legally blind in that eye and there is fluid that has accumulated.

However, things has not gotten any worse in the past 3 months so it looks like hopefully my eye may be stabilizing. This is really good news because sometimes pregnancy can have an adverse effect on the eye--especially with my situation. So, we will just continue to watch and wait. I will receive an injection of a new, somewhat experimental medication into my eyeball after the baby is born (they don't want to take the risk during pregnancy). It is supposed to help remove some of the fluid and there's a small chance I could get a little vision back. Either way, it will most likely help the overall "health" of my eye which is our new priority, since the tumor is under control. The goal is to be able to keep my eye for a long, long time--decent vision or not.

So, we are thanking God and have been so blessed by the MANY of you that are praying for us!

An evening at the park.

The ballpark that is. Thanks to some very generous people at church (and some other very generous people for babysitting the boys), Zac and I enjoyed a great baseball game at Coors Field last night. We were given four tickets and so we invited Phil and Kelley (brother and sis-in-law) along. It was a BEAUTIFUL night outside and they actually won! After being in the World Series last year, the Rockies haven't quite lived up to expectations this year but we were lucky to attend a really good game. It's always fun to do something different and we enjoyed it!

Did I mention our seats were only 14 rows from the field, right off of 1st base?!?! And I tried to take a picture of us but I was reminded where the kids get their difficulty with being serious for pics. We had to do a take #2.

Church picnic

Sunday our church had a service outside at an amphitheatre and park, and then had an all-church picnic afterward. It was a really great time and the weather was perfect--not too hot or too cold. God answered some prayers because it rained a bit overnight and was overcast when we woke up.

Here are the boys, in their booster seats on the lawn, waiting for the service to start. I was wondering how long they would last in sitting through the service. About 25 minutes. Joel could have made it longer but Jesse was being a negative influence :). It didn't help that they saw Zac on the stage and continually asked to go see him. During a time of silent prayer, Jesse yelled out how cute he looked in his own sunglasses (yes, still the glasses) and Joel loudly asked if it was time to go in the inflatable bounce house...I tried to be stern but inside I was laughing...these days will go by so quickly.

And yes, if anyone is especially observant, Joel's booster seat is pink. We just got another one since Jesse decided he's too old for a highchair now and when I picked up the blue one at the store, they both insisted they wanted the pink. Zac tried to protest but I told him we could sure use a little pink around our house. Plus, maybe a little Hicks' girl will get to use it some day!

Jet pops

While I was at Bible study on Friday, Zac took the boys to an outdoor mall that has what they call "jet pops". Little fountains that randomly pop up and are quite fun for little people to run around in. On a side note, I would like to say how much I appreciate Zac's willingness to take them on special little outings. I know it's a lot of work to do by yourself--especially when your not used to the "routine"--but it is really special for them to have that time together (and for me to get a little time to myself).

And here's a little picture of Jesse from when I took the boys swimming last week. Does he look like a 75 year old florida sunbird or what (well, except for the pacifier). I love summer and the ability to do lots of fun things outside...it really opens up a world of new activities for us! And yes, as you can see he is still into the sunglasses (see previous post :).

This kid cracks me up.

So Jesse is in a glasses wearing phase. He's transferred his love of wearing hats in the winter to sunglasses now. I'm actually surprised it was Joel who broke my glasses last week since Jesse is the one who's so into them. I got him a new pair of sunglasses to wear to the pool and he's been wearing them non-stop. He takes them to bed with him, wears them in the car, and wears them while playing. It's hilarious. When Zac went to get him out of bed the other morning, I heard him start laughing and he said Jesse was just standing there holding his blankie and wearing his sunglasses. If he doesn't have his glasses, he'll settle for mine or my mom's (see above pics).

Jesse is really a pretty reserved, laid back child (but he does have a fiery streak--that would only make sense coming from us). When we are outside of the home, he's really quite quiet. I have people ask me all of the time if he's talking yet. I say sort of quietly, "Um, yes, he's speaking in full sentences" and I know they are thinking I'm a liar. But when we are home, he can certainly be a little chatterbox. It's fun for me to spend time with him alone because his personality really comes alive. Joel's personality tends to overshadow Jesse at times so when I get a glimpse of Jesse alone, it's really special. Yesterday he decided not to take a nap and so we spent the afternoon alone while Joel rested--so fun.

Can I have a little cooperation, please?

It is difficult for me to get ready in the mornings even though I have hastened my routine (shower, dry and curl hair, make-up, and dress) to a mere 30 minutes. You should see me flying around the bathroom. The problem is, I spend almost as much time refereeing fights, finding toys, getting drinks of water, distributing snacks, and starting little movies for the boys during that time. It truly hinders my progress. So this morning, I had a chat with the boys at breakfast about how I needed to hurry and get ready and how wonderful it would be if they could just play quietly in the playroom until I was finished. Inside I was rolling my eyes.

However, they surprised me and not one fight or bout of tears did I have to attend to. Eventually they found me in the bathroom and fiddled around in my bedroom until I was ready. Joel called out that they were "sure doing such a good job playing nicely". And yes, they were! This is how I found them when I was done--sitting on my comforter just staring at the dresser and chatting...so cute. I had to document it.

Success.

Well, the hike that Zac took Joel on went well. He hiked up hill for over a mile and then Zac carried him back down on his shoulders. Zac thinks his feet fell asleep while riding because he kept telling Zac that he had pokey rocks in his shoes and wanted to get them out. Cute. :) The last picture is them at the top of the hill.

This little man also had a big developmental evaluation today. We are taking part in a study done by the CDC looking for possible indicators of autism. It's been a several month long process and today was our evaluation at Children's Hospital. The CDC is partnering with 6 Children's Hospitals across the nation to do the testing and research and today Joel just happened to be evaluated by the same psychologist who did his orginial evaluation and autism diagnosis a year and a half ago. It was really nice for her to be able to compare him then and now and to see the changes. She was so encouraged by his growth and development and really thinks that he is on the right track. It was great for me to hear so we will just stay the course and continue to do what we have been doing. I was able to sit in on the eval (4 hours) and so I could see firsthand the things that Joel still needs to work on so we can tweak some the things we have been doing accordingly. Overall, it was a good experience and we will await the official results (she has to tally scores and do evaluation summaries). We are so grateful that God is continuing to work a miracle in this little boy!!