We are back.....

I took quite a break from the "blog world" if that's what you want to call it! Things have been CRAZY to say the least. Here are a few things that have changed in our lives since my last post!
-Baby Cruz was born on July 7, 2010. He is now 4 months old and is weighing in at 15.5 lbs and is 25 1/2 inches long. He is still not sleeping through the night, however he does have a relatively early bed time. He reminds us between 8 and 8:30 that he is ready for bed. We lay him in his crib and he sings himself to sleep! It is so cute!! We can count on him waking up between 3 and 4:30. I have thought to myself if we keep him up later, maybe he will sleep later? But he just gets so tired. He smiles and laughs at anyone who looks at him! He wakes up talking and when you get him out of the crib he is so happy! Cruz loves taking naps, he will have a morning and afternoon nap that usually last between 2 and 3 hours! He is grabbing things, putting things in his mouth, sucking his thumb (uh-oh), hates his paci, drinks 7 oz of milk every 3 hours, loves belly time, he sequels and screams when he is so excited. He is trying to sit up, and tries so hard to roll over, we are good at rolling from our back to our tummy, but cannot quite get the arm out of our way to roll from our belly to back. We are starting cereal and so far he is loving it! Unlike my other two boys Cruz was able to "latch" and I was able to both nurse and pump and give it to him in a bottle! However, unfortunately last week, due to an infection I had to stop everything all together and he is now on formula. The pain was excruciating for me and I just could not do it anymore. Oh and he LOVES his brother Degan, and I know he loves Prestyn too, its just Prestyn is not around him much, although it is getting better! Degan sings to him and they talk it is so cute! When Degan and Prestyn are chasing each other throughout the house Cruz gets so excited, he does his squeal and even tries to jump out of Amos or my arms!
-Prestyn started pre-school at Shining Stars in Rio Rancho. This was tough for all of us at first. We had so many days when we had to sneak out and watch him have a huge "meltdown," until we found our saving grace. The BUS!! From the first day he got on the bus he has never cried about going to school! His teachers get him off the bus and tell us EVERY morning he welcomes them with a huge HHHEEELLLLLOOOOO!! In 2 months Prestyn has expanded his vocabulary and now makes complete sentences. He repeats anything you say. You ask him, "Prestyn do you want to take a shower" and he says just that..."Prestyn do you want to take a shower?" It is so funny. His teachers are working so hard with him. He went from asking for things with a "nahh" like scream to saying, "I want......" We are so lucky to have Prestyn in this school. UNM-Health Science Center is actually working directly with Prestyn's class on a study and project, and are using them as models to teach other teachers how to interact and teach Autistic children. Prestyn is beginning to warm up to his baby brother. He went from barely looking at him, to kissing him on his head, to last week singing him a song! Every day is a better day for Prestyn and although we have a long road ahead of us we are doing everything we can to get Prestyn the help he needs to fight this disorder.
-Degan....haha this little boy never ceases to amaze us! He is in a pre-school 3 days a week. Sometimes he goes half-days, sometimes full. It is all dependent on if he eats his lunch. Let me preface this by saying, Amos and I are generally not picky eaters, Degan, well he is very picky. He hates cheese, he likes fruit and some veggies, yogurt, and of all things, he likes spam. If we let him live off nuggets and fries he would oh and lets not forget Lays Limon chips, he loves those. Well the preschool cannot plan a menu according to Degan, however if they are making something that has cheese, they leave it off for him. If there is a veggie he wont eat they will give him 2 servings of fruit. And then there are days when he will just not eat anything and these are the days my dad has to pick him up after a half day! Sometimes if Amos or I are getting mad about something either at him or his brother, he says...."mom, it really isn't a big deal!"
Well that is my recap in somewhat of a nutshell! There is never a dull moment in our household, not even when we all should be sleeping! I'll save this for another post!