Sleeping means playing

This is why all the blinds are hashed in the corners. The kids play with and bend them like crazy. It's a good thing they are easy to replace! Rydon is having a blast, so that's the best part anyway.

Rydon is one!

Our youngest baby is all grown up! He has two teeth, loves to push away from objects and try to balance, laugh at his siblings, plays peek a boo, bounces when being held and while playing, and he sure loves people smiling and playing with him. He is finally in the 25th percentile for both height and weight, which is awesome! At his nine month doctor visit he was in the fourth percentile and barely 24 inches tall. Since his palate is still open he cannot have birthday cake without aspirating and choking on it. I decided to make dirt and worm dessert for everyone, and he gets the pudding part. That way it's still a fun dessert for the kids and he can have some too. I am very much looking forward to palate surgery being over and healed so he can eat what we are eating. He sure wants too!! We are all excited to celebrate this cute little boy in our family today!!

He got a baby toothbrush, self feeding/teething rings, a ride-on giraffe, a birthday card with money, and a musical toy. As you can see, he loved ripping the paper off. If I remember right, none of our other kids helped unwrap their first birthday presents like that.

I made worms in dirt dessert for his birthday. Rydon just got a bowl of pudding which he loved eating. He finished it off by throwing the bowl on the floor, making pudding fly about four feet. We love having this little guy in our family. It's hard to believe this is the last first birthday in our family. This last year has been full of firsts for Rydon, but they are also the last firsts for Brady and I, which is kind of sad in a way.

Skydiving. Happy birthday to Brady!

I bought Brady a ticket to go sky dive for his birthday. He has wanted to do this for a very, very long time, so I was happy to finally have the opportunity to make a big, fat checkmark on his bucket list of life. He had a blast!! A little while after he landed he was still slightly shaky and nauseous...but he still loved it. I got to watch him land...which is just where I wanted to be.

This is what the ground looks like from 11,300 feet in the air.

He was the second person to land, but fourth out of the plane.

Standing

He started standing up by himself Sunday evening. He is sure proud of himself!

Riding down the stairs

Playing and napping

Gideon's birthday

This cute kid is five today! He is so happy to finally have a birthday. His menu of choice today is strawberry oatmeal for breakfast, grilled cheese for lunch, and breakfast corn dogs with smoothies for dinner. He is taking treat bags to his preschool class today and having cake later tonight with Grammy and Jerry. We are going to have a great day!

He got $5 from Grammy, bow and socks from my parents, two outfits shoes and a bike from us. He rode the bike right away even in the dark. 

Insurance junk

Yesterday I was on the phone for over two hours and transferred five times to try to get someone to tell me what was happening with my baby's next surgery. Today I'm on the phone less than 20 minutes and the first person helps me. Now I have the right numbers to call for next time. Getting things moving for his palate surgery is proving harder than I thought. Today I am thankful for someone being able to take the time to tell me what is going on. And for the record, insurance companies are somewhat ridiculous. I wish we could afford to just pay cash up front and avoid this authorization nonsense.
We have been waiting for preauthorization from insurance for the surgery. This morning Shriner's called me to say they got a denial from our insurance because Shriner's is not in their hospital network. He told me we have to appeal to insurance, and when they come back with a second denial (which they will) then we have to apply for the surgery through Shriner's Charities. UGH! I really wish someone would have told me this when I first started calling about the surgery back in November. We would have had loads of time to get all of this done before his birthday. Originally the surgeon wanted to wait until he turned one year to do the surgery. That is in two weeks!
I think the thing I am most impatient about right now is how much I miss being able to put him in the high chair with a pile of cheerios to munch on while I do things like fold laundry and cook dinner. I have told Brady a few times recently that I would love to give him the same dinner we are having, like clam chowder, spaghetti, and mashed potatoes, but I can't because he would either choke on everything and/or get it all stuck up in his open sinus cavity. Pureed baby food is hard enough to get him to swallow. He will most likely be on formula until about 2-3 weeks after his palate is fixed and then he can have regular people food. My friend, who had a cleft baby, told me she put formula and smoothies in coffee cups for her baby to eat because he wasn't allowed to suck bottles or eat anything solid at all until the stiches healed up. So that is what I have to look forward to in the near future.

Playing outside

With this many kids it looks like we have a plasma car brigade on our street. They sure love these fun cars! They tell me going down the driveway is the funnest part.

 He is loving banging and spinning his toy. It was more of a challenge to put together than I thought. He will love playing with it when he learns to walk too.