A Very Transformers Birthday

Logan turned 4 years old on July 19th! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! Right now Logan is obsessed with Transformers. His friend X introduced him to them and now he can't get enough of them. We found a website that has tons of Transformers cartoon episodes, it even has the old school ones from when I was a kid, so he loves watching those whenever he gets a chance. It will be interesting to see how long this phase lasts!

Make a wish!

"Cool, that's just what I wanted!" said Logan after opening his Transformers sheets.

Logan in his Optimus Prime helmet. The voice changer sounds a little creepy!

Logan was so into Batman for the longest time. He was excited to get the Bat cave.

With all of the excitement of everything going on, we totally forgot that we still had the bike hiding in the garage to give him! He thought it was a cool bike, but he wasn't that excited about riding it. Maybe after he learns how to ride it better he'll like it.

Logan's favorites as told by Logan:

favorite color: white and blue
favorite TV show: Transformers
favorite movie: Scooby-Doo meets Batman
favorite things to do: play with Transformers, look at Transformers on the computer, play with things
favorite food: cereal
favorite drink: apple juice
favorite book: The Night I followed the Dog
favorite place to go: to the store to buy Transformers, Grandma and Grandpa's house
best friend: Exander

The short version

I'm not very good at this blogging thing, I'm way behind on updates again! Life has been busy these last couple of months. Ben reached a lot of milestones. He turned 3 months old and found his hands. At four months he started laughing out loud and rolling over! And about a week before he turned five months he found his feet.
Chris' sister and her family were here over the 4th of July. It was fun seeing them and Logan had a blast playing with his cousins!
July 5th we blessed Ben. Chris gave him a sweet blessing and we enjoyed having our family and friends there.

July 7th Chris and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary!July 11th was Chris' birthday.

And on July 19th Logan turned 4 years old!!! and Ben turned 5 months old!!! It's so cool that both our boys were born on the 19th, makes it easy to remember, as if I could forget! Pictures of Logan's birthday coming soon!

Catch up

Nature Center

Logan's preschool had their last field trip of the year a few weeks ago at the Nature Center. At first Logan didn't want to go. He had been sick the week before and he's still not always thrilled about going to preschool, so he tried to use the "I'm too sick to go to school" excuse. I explained that it was going to be fun and told him all about the things he would get to see on the field trip. I told him that they have lots of birds at the Nature Center and he'd get to see them close up. Well, that convinced him, he then got really excited and said, "I've never seen bird faces." Logan enjoyed seeing all of the different bird houses and animals. It was fun getting to spend some one on one time with Logan.

Logan in his "cool dude" sunglasses

Big Smile

It took me forever to finally get a picture of Ben smiling. He smiles all the time, but whenever the camera comes out he just stares.

Silly boys

3 months old!

Ben turned 3 months old on Tuesday. He is so much fun and has such a sweet personality. He is a very happy baby. He loves to interact with people especially Logan. He smiles at pretty much anything Logan does. Some of Ben's favorite things are watching his mobile and moving his arms and kicking his legs. He's doing good health wise too. He went to the cardiologist and the holes in his heart are getting smaller, so he probably won't need surgery to fix them. He continues to grow and gain weight, we'll have a chubby baby in no time!

Home Sweet Home

Ben came home about two weeks ago after five long weeks in the NICU. We finally have our sweet little baby home and we couldn't be more happy! He came home on Friday, March 27 and we have been enjoying every moment with him. It was a very emotional time for us, having him in the hospital, to say the least. We could not have made it without all of the love and support of all of our family and friends. Thank you all so much! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. We are especially grateful for my parents who took care of Logan almost every day so that I could be with Ben. Logan had so much fun spending time with his grandparents. Logan loved playing "Batman" with Grandpa. I wish I could have seen both of them running around the house in their capes made out of aprons, sounds like they had a blast.

Ben is doing great since he's been home. When he came home from the hospital he weighed 6lbs. 10 oz. We were a little worried that he wasn't eating as much as he should because they said to encourage at least 50 ml every 3 hours and at some feedings he wasn't eating that much. We woke him up every 3 hours day and night feeding him and kept a log of when he ate and how much. When he went to the pediatrician on the following Monday he was up to 6lbs. 15 oz! They want him to gain at least an ounce a day, so we were very excited that he was gaining the weight that he needs to. The doctor had us follow up with him in one week and Ben is up to 7 lbs 7oz. He gained a half a pound in one week! Since he is doing so well the doctor said we can let him sleep longer at night (5 hours at a time) so we can get a little more sleep too.Logan is having to adjust to being more quiet around the house. I never noticed how loud Logan is all of the time until we brought Ben home. Logan is so much fun. He gets so excited about things and is just so full of energy that he can't contain it, so we're working on his "inside" voice.

Life is good at the Kelley house again. We are thrilled to have our little family together. We hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Going HomeGrandparents GrollBig brother LoganGreat-Nana

Be sure to look at the Pixie Pixels blog in the "My Blog List" in the right hand column for more pictures of Ben that Ashley took.

Getting closer...

Ben has really improved lately. He is off all of his heart medications. He has also started eating better. He is still breathing fast, but it doesn't seem to be a problem for him, it won't keep him from coming home. What is keeping him in the hospital is that he isn't taking full feeds (where he finishes his bottle every time without any being fed through the tube). Until he can do that for a couple of days he has to stay there so that they can make sure he isn't going to get dehydrated or lose too much weight. Lately he has been taking over half the amount in his bottles by mouth, so he is getting really close to full feeds.

They started having us do some of the things that we have to do before he can be discharged. We had to watch a couple of videos, infant CPR and PURPLE crying (about shaken baby syndrome). They also need to do a car seat test on Ben to make sure he'll be able to handle the ride home. Hopefully, he'll be coming home really soon!

Here are a few pictures of Ben in his cute little St. Patrick's day outfit. Doesn't he look adorable?

Logan's day at the hospital

On Saturday we took Logan to see Ben at the hospital. He couldn't go in the room to see him, but we thought he might like to see the hospital so he could feel a part of what is going on. Having Ben in the hospital has been hard on all of us and we wanted to have a fun day with Logan and visit with Ben too. We decided to ride FrontRunner and Trax to the hospital. Chris' dad and aunt were here visiting as well, so they came with us to see Ben and we had fun spending time with them. Logan really enjoyed going on the train. The hospital has a playroom where patients and family members can play. It had lots of toys and activities. Logan had so much fun playing he didn't want to leave when it was closing.
















I'll be posting an update about Ben soon!

Small Update

Ben is doing OK. We spoke with the doctors today and were able to find out a few things. The lab work for the chromosome tests came back normal, so thus far they haven't been able to tie any of Ben's problems to genetics. With the help of a diuretic his breathing appears to be improving some, but it is still fast at times (more often than we want). His Jaundice is improving again as well and will probably be out from under the lights again tomorrow. The improvements in breathing and jaundice will both help with how tired he has been, so that is good. The cardiologist says he doesn't need heart surgery right now, but may at some point in the future. It is not life threatening at this point and they want to see how much can be repaired by his body on it's own or possibly with the help of drugs before they go to surgery. Their main goal at this point is to get him to gain some weight. Gaining weight may help the holes in the heart close up, and if he does need surgery they would prefer he gain some weight before that happens as well. Ben also got examined by the physical therapists today and they will be working with us on how we can help him gain some muscle and strength.

After our visit there today, Melissa feels better now about Ben being at Primary Children's. We both feel he is still in need of special care and he is getting it there. We will try to keep everyone posted on his progress and if necessary, but hopefully not, any setbacks.

Logan is doing well. Not quite sure how much all of this is affecting him yet. He has been spending a lot of time with his grandparents Kim & Kaylene, which he really seems to be enjoying. Unfortunately, because it's RSV season Logan can't come visit Ben. And we are hoping Ben comes home before RSV season ends (usually in April). Logan came to Ogden Regional with us last Sunday, so he could at least be a part of it. Him and I played in the Ronald McDonald Room while Melissa visited with Ben. Primary Children's has certian days when they do activities for siblings, so hopefully we can get him down there to be involved in that. Also, Grandpa Larry will be here later next week for a couple of days, so he should enjoy that as well.

Anyhow, I need to get back to work, so until later, bye, & thank you.