Shelby's 4 Year Check-Up

Last Friday we had Shelby's 4 year well visit with the doctor. This will definitely go down in the books as one of the most difficult trips we have ever made to see the doctor. It all started when I told Shelby earlier in the day that we were going to get to go tee-tee in a cup at the doctor's office. My sweet girl who isn't too thrilled about new experiences determined that was too much to handle and well, that was the beginning. Thanks to advice from Leslie, I took Shelby alone and left JP with her.

On the way there I loaded Shelby up with fluid. She got to drink a juice box in the car and once we got there I made her drink water every chance I could. It was successful because when it came time to go tee-tee in the cup she really had to go and despite all her protests she nearly filled the whole cup up. Amongst other new experiences for her at this appointment was getting her blood pressure taken. She really did a great job with having that cuff around her arm. They also had to do a finger prick. This isn't the first time she has had that done, but she was just a baby for the first one so as far as she was concerned this was her first. She freaked out more when the nurse tried to put a band-aid on her finger than she did when they pricked it. I don't know what it is about her, but she really, really, really doesn't like to wear band-aids!! After all that we saw the doctor. He checked her all out and she did great. She is growing and doing everything she should be and all her lab work came back good. As the doctor was leaving he gave me that look as he said, "We only have one more thing to do." I gave him that look that says "I know, I know." Anyway, Shelby thought since the doctor was gone that we should leave too at which point I knew I couldn't put off the secret any longer. The time had come that I had to tell her about the shots. The word hardly came out of my mouth and she started screaming and crying and carrying on like you wouldn't believe. As we waited for the nurses to come back it seemed like hours had passed when it was probably not even 5 minutes. They both came in and gave me instruction that I would hold her arms and one nurse would sit on her legs while the other nurse would give her the shots. Really, I think that the anticipation of the shots was the worst for Shelby because she put up a fight, but as soon as they were done that was the end and she really didn't continue to carry on. She survived and I survived and I am glad that is behind us now.

Here are her stats:
weight: 36lbs (50%)
height: 40 1/2 in (75%)
blood pressure: 107/63

My Children Make Me Smile

I think that every parent loves their child, but sometimes I think that there is absolutely no parent out there who loves their child more or gets more joy and laughter from their child as I get from my two sweet blessings. They are just always doing something so undeniably cute or funny that I find myself laughing nearly all day. For instance, JP has really taken to giving the blessing at meal time. It is the cutest thing in the world to hear him try to sing the song that we do and he always throws Shelby's name in there. One day I am going to have to get a little video of it and post it for you to see what I mean. Also, check out this picture of him from this morning. JP loves sunglasses. He wears them all around the house, out of the house, during the day and at night and he just looks so cute and it makes me laugh.

My friend Erin and I have weekly lunch dates at Moe's with the kids because both of our older children love it so much. Everyday I pick Shelby up from school the very first thing she asks me is if we can go to Moe's for lunch. She would eat there everyday if we let her. Anyway, today Erin brought some cupcakes for Shelby's birthday and here is the end result. I have never seen 4 kids get such enjoyment out of eating cupcakes as these 4 got today. It was hilarious, especially sweet Finn. He had his whole face in that cupcake and loved every minute of it!!!

Happy Birthday Shelby!

I can't belive that when Shelby woke up this morning she was 4!!!! I mean, when in the world did that happen? My sweet baby girl is 4. It is almost to hard to bear when I think about it too much. So in effort to prevent a total melt down into depression over the rapid growth of my baby girl I am just going to post some pictures and tell you this quick story....

Monday night as Pratt was leaving the house to go visit Suzy, Patricio and their new baby at the hospital he went to tell Shelby and JP good night. They ran up to him and he hugged them and said good night and told them that he was going to see their new cousin Sebastian and when he got home he would peek in on them. Of course as busy as they are as soon as they got their hugs they were off to play and as Shelby was running, she stopped dead in her tracks, turned around to Pratt and said, "Tell Sebastian that I love him." Oh my gosh!!! My heart just melted!!! It was so sweet and so natural.

Okay, now some pictures from these last four wonderful years....

February 18th, 2005

February 2006

February 2007

February 2008

February 2009

One more thing...Shelby was so impressed with my Nemo cake for JP that she thought that I would be able to make her a princess cake, I told her that we would get a special princess cake from the bakery for her party since I am not that good when it comes to things like that. Then she asked me for a princess castle cake to which I said....how about a pink princess heart cake? She gladly agreed and here it is...

Boca Raton

Last week Pratt got a phone call from a friend in Boca asking him to come down to play golf with him so on Sunday we decided we would go and Tuesday we packed up the kids and the car and made our way down to the Sunshine state. Let me tell you...this was a huge God thing. We really needed to get away, but didn't realize it until the opportunity had come for us to have a little family vacation. He always knows just what we need when we need it!!!

The trip down was great. We left about 8:30am and it took us about 8 hours to get there. Shelby and JP did wonderfully!!! I really wasn't sure what we would get with those two, but they were so patient and good!!! It was great.

(Shelby and JP at the Miami Seaquarium outside the area where the original Flipper show was filmed)

Boca was beautiful. The weather was 80s and sunny the whole time we were there...sure did make coming home to 50s and cloudy hard:) On Wednesday we drove down to Miami and took Shelby and JP to the Miami Seaquarium. It was awesome. We saw a dolphin show, a killer whale show and all kinds of animals. Shelby and JP had a great time. The only time it was questionable was at the killer whale show. We thought that we sat high enough to avoid the splash, but we were just on the edge. I mean hardly any water got on us, but the little bit that did was enough for Shelby to decided that she was done. For the rest of the show she kept asking me, "In one minute, can we go home? I am ready to go home." Of course, at the end she really had a wonderful time. Thursday Cheri and I took her children and mine to Chuck E. Cheese. And oh wow!!! They had the best time!!! Shelby can't wait to go back...except she does express that she doesn't want to see that mouse again. Friday we got up and came home. On the way home we stopped at Daytona for lunch and ate at Cracker Barrel right out side the race track. It is amazing to me how much Shelby remembers and processes these days because when the race came on on Sunday we flipped it on for a minute to see what was happening and Shelby totally got into it. She said that was where we had lunch and when Pratt tried to change the channel she asked us to put it back and continued asking questions about why they were doing whatever they were doing. It was hilarious. I only hope that this isn't some new fascination with her as I don't particularly care to watch NASCAR too much.

Pratt, Shelby and JP waiting for the killer whale show to start...we should have sat one more row back.

JP, Christian, Shelby and Savannah

Shelby, JP, Gabby and Christian