Roper's Round Up

This weekend Sabrena will be heading out early in the morning for Mal's baby shower. Actually, she'll be putting it together and hosting Mal's baby shower. This means that I will hanging out at home - just me and the guys. Of course, by guys I means the boys plus their cousin Malakai (his mom is . . ..busy this weekend too.)

I know a lot my friends who are dads (and also a lot of dads who aren't friends) who stay at home with their kids always refer to it as babysitting the kids. I used to think that for them to use that term was ridiculous. It was as if when their wife was at home with their kids, its parenting or just being home with them. But if they have to stay at home alone while their wife goes somewhere, its babysitting. I've come to realize that this is probably the best term for them to use because I honestly believe that in their frame of mind, they don't plan on enjoying the time with their kids. Instead, they plan on thinking of all the things they could have planned to do or get done if they didn't have to be home and that frame of mind makes all the difference in the world.

So as I get my morning coffee ready and listen to all the kids (who got up this morning just before 6am) run around and shout, I will not be thinking about how I have to stay home and babysit today. No, instead I will just be hanging out at home with the boys, being dad - and parenting.

No, I'm not pregnant. I'm sure that is everyones first thought. Dawsyn slept in big boy underwear all night and didn't have an accident!! WOO HOO!! I'm a happy momma! Celebrate with us! Donuts for everyone!!

Blessings,
Sabrena

In the last month we have had the excitement of a lot of "firsts." Thanks to Chase's boss at work who did a raffle for Seahawks tickets, Chase and Connor got to experience their first Seahawks game at Qwest field. Connor was beyond excited to go and Chase said he was the best "12th MAN" in the whole area that they were sitting in. Even better the Seahawks won!

DAWSYN is doing well and hyper as ever! That boy keeps us on our feet. He is always jumping off something. Dawsyn's first was going out with big boy underwear on. He is potty trained!! YAY! Although, he does still ask for an occasional diaper to do his "deed" in. For some reason we are struggling with him going in the toilet for that part. And I haven't got up the guts to not put one on him at night. I have so much to do in the mornings that I can't imagine adding in changing sheets and doing bath time with him just yet. But we have yet to have an accident so I think that we are doing quite well. He is always wanting to do what "Big Brother" is doing. Since Connor gets computer time, Dawsyn must have computer time. Recently, my great friend, Anne lead me to the website http://www.starfall.com/ and Dawsyn has been doing his Calender for the day, which teaches him the month, day and year. We have a letter of the day and it is a very kid friendly website, easy for him to do on his own. Noah has even started to sit and watch them sing about the letters. We all enjoy "Calender" timNOAH is making progress! We are feeling the prayers and please keep them coming! "Nonies," my nickname for him, first is signing and words. He is starting to talk a lot more and we are hearing something new almost daily. We found a great signing DVD that we are all learning words from and he is even picking up some of the signs. Is it any surprise that the first one he picked up was "eat?" He runs around pointing to his mouth and saying eat, eat, eat now. We don't get as many fits now either. We think it's because he can communicate more with us. We are especially thankful for that part. We are STILL waiting for his appointment date. We have called several times to be told that we are still on the waiting list. I hate waiting, but am thankful we are making progress on our own. Chase just picked up Jenny McCarthy's new book about Autism for me and we have some what of a plan for action for as long as we feel comfortable planning ahead for. He goes in for his 2 year appointment next week and plan to have him allergy tested, ask about fish oil vitamins, and a few other things that we think will get us going in the right direction for our family.
Gracielyn is growing like a weed! At her last Well Child check up she was 15lbs 10oz. and 25 inches long. She is in the 90% for weight, 75th for height!! No wonder she is already wearing 9-12 month clothing. She is "talking" A LOT(she gets that from her daddy) and wakes us up every morning with the sweet sounds of that little voice. She's a great sleeper, eater, and just all around enjoyable. She LOVES her brothers to death. Has big smiles for any one of them that comes close enough for her to see. We have started letting her get a feel for rice cereal. She recently stopped sleeping through the night and her pediatrician mentioned that it could be because she is hungry. Given her size, it was ok to start with the cereal. I wanted to hold off because of her allergy issues, but we have let her get a taste for it here and there. It's not something she is very fond of. We also heard that avocado is a great starter food and tried that as well. Again, she prefers her booby milk. Gracie's first's were not both happy firsts. Our usual great sleeper/eater turned into the most difficult she's ever been for us not sleeping at all and I new something had to be up, even though at first I thought it was just a stuffy nose. Good thing I took her in, she had a double ear infection and a sore throat. Poor baby! She is on the mend though and is still her happy head self. Her happy first was her FIRST and best friend, Sophie Magdalene Brown came into the world on 9/11/07 weighing 7lbs 14.5 oz. !! We were so excited to meet little Miss Sophie finally. Check out her page for their first picture together!

Well, this post got super long. There's our "Roper's Round UP." Hope you enjoyed reading and come back for more fun stories and updates!!

Many Blessings
Sabrena

Welcome to our family blog. I plan to share updates and the adventures of my life as a wife and mother of 4. Thank you for reading!!