Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » July 2007 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Tue, Jul 31, 2007 12:21 PM
Caleb was up quite often last night. And fussy while he was at it. He has a bit of a rash from a cracker he got ahold of on Sunday but we bypassed most of that when he pooped in the shower. So it didn't have a chance to sit on his skin. But he still got some rash. We just assumed it was that.

But he just spiked a fever. He was acting pretty out of it this morning and now I know why last night was so rough and why this morning was rough. He's been sleep and drinking a lot. And nursing a lot.

We're headed to Pennsic in just a few days!! Yikes! I'm finishing up some sewing and getting started on packing. Eric suggested this year that we put a tarp in the garage and then anything that needs to go to Pennsic goes out there on the tarp. This is making life a lot easier for me since now as I set things aside to pack, I don't need to worry about them wandering off or being played with. *much* better.

I still need to decide what all we're eating though. And actually write down the list of things I need to buy. Belts... sandals... things like that. Not absolute necessities but they'd sure make life easier on me if I get them.

Conner and Katelyn are so excited about going. Katelyn remembers it from last time that we went. Conner doesn't. But he is just riding on Katelyn's excitement.

Speaking of Pennsic, I was talking last weekend about how many people were at Pennsic and I got it wrong... last year the final census came to 11595 people. So not quite the 14000 that I'd remembered it being. I was a few thousand off. It's still a huge number of people though!

I am about 3 dresses away from being done with the sewing for Katelyn. And two that need to be hemmed. Of those final 3, 2 are cut out and about 1/3 done with the sewing and I ran out of the fabric I was going to use for the last one. But at JoAnn's today (I needed thread for the 2 I'm currently sewing) I found some great fabric on the clearance rack that will make the 3rd dress for her. And maybe another tunic for Caleb. He's just enough bigger then Conner was at Pennsic two years ago that Conner's stuff fits but doesn't cover the legs very well. So if I get done with Katelyn's dresses tonight, then Caleb gets the leftover fabric turned into tunics for him. If I don't finish up, then Caleb will do just fine with what he has.

Comments:
Kimberly: I wish you could too! The kids have so much fun together!

Carolina: I wish I could go with you guys. It sounds like fun!

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Thu, Jul 19, 2007 11:58 PM
Yes, it's late. Caleb is still awake so I'm taking advantage of the time to post.

Caleb's birthday was today. Can you believe it? The year has gone so fast. I commented today to a friend that it feels like we've just jumped from from one complication to another. From the NICU to finding out about Katelyn and gluten, to Eric hitting his head... But the good news is that everything has been stuff that we can deal with.

In March, after Eric hit his head and I realized that I had to keep track of way too many appointments for him, I bought new pages for my planner. As I was putting them in and taking the old pages out, I found a page where I'd written down information so I could be accurate when we went to the OB and found out about the first SCH. I started mentally reviewing the memories of the pregnancy week by week as we discovered complications and then saw them resolve, only to discover that it came back... and I realized that I was approaching today. His birth.

One of the things that has surprised me as today approached was that I found myself focusing on today as the anniversary of him entering the NICU instead of focusing on today as a reminder of God's faithfulness. I've since found out that this is pretty common for NICU parents. The first birthday is particularly hard and it gets easier after that. I wasn't sure how to handle the intensity of those emotions though. I think that if I'd heard about this from a NICU parent before I had Caleb, I'd have thought that it was crazy and a bit overboard.

I found myself starting to dread the first birthday and that bothered me.

But things have worked out surprsingly well. Today has been a very good day with lots of fun.

To start with, we had sponsored a day at WCSG. This is a local christian radio station that we listen to a lot. Caleb's birthday was available so we chose it last fall but we didn't think about it much after that. Then I got a phone call asking me about what they should say for the 60 second spot that they do throughout the day. I wasn't sure so I chatted with the person and he wrote up an idea. As I was reading it though, I realized that I wanted to go a different direction then he'd written. I wanted to mention the reason we chose Caleb's name because it reflected God and all that God had done to keep Caleb safe through everything that happened before he was born.

So the radio spot ended up going:
ERIC AND KIMBERLY LARSON HELP SPONSOR WCSG TODAY AS THEY CELEBRATE THEIR LITTLE SON, CALEB, WHO TURNS A VERY SIGNIFICANT ONE YEAR OLD! CALEB'S ARRIVAL WAS ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL. HE ENTERED THE WORLD ON THE HEELS OF A WHIRLWIND OF HOSPITAL VISITS, BED RESTS FOR MOMMY AND CLOSE CALLS! ERIC AND KIMBERLY SHARE: “Caleb is our miracle. He joined our family six and a half weeks early. Caleb's name means "faithful" and we witnessed God's faithfulness throughout his pregnancy. Caleb's entire arrival was surrounded by prayer and an outpouring of help from our family and friends, as well as our wonderful church family at Oakwood Bible Church. Just as the Biblical Caleb relied on God's faithfulness when he faced giants in the hills of Promised Land, we pray that our Caleb might also learn to rely on God's faithfulness in the face of what “giants” may cross his path in the days to come.” GOD BLESS YOU CALEB, WITH ALL OUR LOVE FROM DAD, MOM, KATELYN AND CONNER. BIRTHDAY WISHES TODAY FOR CALEB LARSON NOW ONE BIG YEAR OLD WITH THANKS TO THE LARSONS TODAY'S DAY SPONSORS HERE ON FAMILY-FRIENDLY 91.3/WCSG.

After I approved the final version, I realized that I wasn't apprehensive about Caleb's birthday anymore. Cool, huh? I suppose it's not really a surprise... when I focus on God, my attitude really improves.

So today... we like to have a big family birthday especially for the first birthday. Usually this is just cake and icecream, sometimes easy food or snacks. It's a fun time to get together and celebrate. But this year, 3 family members wouldn't have been able to attend because of a mission trip so we decided to do a small one today and then do a get together later when everyone can come.

So this afternoon, the kids and I went out and bought a cake mix and a present for Caleb. Conner especially got a kick out of looking for something that Caleb would like. I don't think that he realized that Eric and I had already discussed and decided on what we were getting him and I just had to find it. He picked out a ball (Winnie the Pooh), a toy airplane, some blocks, a stuffed animal, even a babydoll. Katelyn thought we should get some numbers so that Caleb can learn to count.

What we bought was a walk behind toy that converts to a little ride on toy. We used to have a walk behind toy that helped both Katelyn and Conner learn to walk. But the plastic cracked so we threw it away before any of the kids got hurt on it.

While we were driving, we heard the radio spot about Caleb (I'd forgotten about it) and Katelyn cheered becasue the radio knew that it was Caleb's birthday. I cried happy tears because it was such a beautiful reminder for me that this day was about God and what he had done.

We got home and the kids helped me wrap it with white paper and then they decorated it with crayons. They got a kick out of that.

Then we made the cake. Gluten free of course. Katelyn and Caleb both react very strongly to wheat. Eric frosted it (he's really good at that) and we sat down to eat it.

It's tradition in our family to let the birthday person play with the cake on their first birthday. Caleb was excited about this. But as soon as he put his hands in the frosting, he got a huge face of "Ewwww! This is slimy! What do I do???" We just cracked up. He finally got the idea to taste it and then he spent his time trying to get the frosting off his hands and into his mouth. What a mess. He even ended up with the frosting on his eyelashes!

He never did make it through the frosting and into the cake. His first taste of the cake was when Eric took pity on him and gave him a bite from a fork. We cut him his own piece though and then he really dug in.

What a mess. But what fun.

He got a bath right after... no other good way to clean him off. There was just too much chocolate on him.

He opened his gift and we had fun playing with it as a family. Conner *really* likes it. He (Conner) even carried it up to his bedroom to try to sleep with it. I had to remind him that this was Caleb's toy and that it wasn't going to spend the night in Conner's room.

So... in the end, despite the initial apprehension, this has been a really great day. Low stress, lots of fun, pretty last minute, but a wonderful reminder that the focus is on God and all that he did to bring Caleb to us.

For family and local friends... dont' worry. We're still planning to have a birthday party. We're just not sure when! You haven't missed out on it. Afterall... we didn't even have ice cream tonight! And it's just not a birthday party in this family without that!

Comments:
Les: Did you get my phone message wishing him a Happy Birthday??? :)

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Fri, Jul 13, 2007 6:13 PM
Katelyn was just singing the books of the New Testament when she sang:

"Tied up on Philemon!"

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Wed, Jul 4, 2007 11:28 PM
We just got home from fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun. Conner didn't like them at first though. He said that they hurt his eyes. I encouraged him to lay down and put his head on my leg and close his eyes. He did this and they didn't bother him so much (though we did hear him ask a couple more times to go home and "I don't like this"). He fell asleep about halfway through... proof that my son can potentially sleep through anything.

I'd brought the wagon with me and so I put him in it and covered him with the blanket that we'd sat on. He said that was his favorite part of the fireworks... sleeping in the wagon.

Katelyn prefered the "Christmas Fireworks". Aka... the red and green colored ones. Katelyn spent most of the time snuggled in with her Aunt Sandi since my lap was full.

Caleb just enjoyed them all. He didn't like sitting in the wagon alone though so I grabbed him and he spent most of the fireworks snuggled up against the leg that Conner wasn't using. A few times though he crawled off to play with his cousin Sarah. They both really enjoyed having each other there. It's fun to see them interact since gestationally they are basically the same age. It's nice to see how similiar they are in what they can and can't do and in how they want to spend their time.

I laughed at my parking spot this year. Usually we've parked on a side street because the parking close to where they set them off (the football field) is full. This year I decided to go ahead a see if anything was available. It was worth a try. As I drove in, I passed the side of the school and it looked like a driveway into a garage of sorts with a sign that said, "No Parking School Hours". This was definitely not school hours so I went ahead and parked there. It was probably one of the best parking spots I could have found. It was definitely close!

We even saw a family from Katelyn's "Itty Bitty Basketball" class. That was pretty cool to see them.

This afternoon and the evening was spent at my parent's house. They provided Brats and Hot Dogs (and salad) and everyone else provided a dish to pass. It was a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed it. And we made good use of the picnic table that I'd bought in the Smokies. I'll post about the smokies later... when it's not so late at night...

Happy 4th everybody!!

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