Young Party of Four

Another year is in the books after midnight tonight. It was another fun, eventful year for the Young Family. We made a lot of new memories and cherished in our time together. We also had our hard time, but those come with the territory. In February we took our first road trip as a family of 4 (plus Nana and Papa but they had their own car). It took us about 16 hours to get to Mississippi for my cousin's wedding, but the kids did amazing and we learned that Will is definitely our calmer child. Even from a few months old, we could tell. The kids were able to meet some of their extended family in Mississippi and we celebrated our first successful trip. In March we celebrated our niece, Evie's, first birthday! We went to Atlanta in early April for her birthday party and the kids had a great time playing together.  In May Will started wearing his cranial helmet. It was adorable... but didn't really mesh well with hot Florida weather. He was a ...

Will (sort of) has a new trick! Technically, Will took his first steps 6 days earlier than Kenzie (she was just 2 days shy of 14 months and Will was 6). However, that being said, Kenzie technically "walked" prior to Will. We are now 4 days into 14 months and Will is still refusing to do much more than stand up, take a few steps, and then sit back down and crawl. What Will CAN do (that his sister didn't do until after she was a pretty solid walker) is stand up unassisted in the middle of the room from a sitting position. The first time I turned and saw him randomly in the middle of the room almost a month ago, I thought he walked there. Turns out, he didn't. He just stood up. Okay, then. He is also a crazy climber. The kids climbs on everything. The day he took his first steps he also gained some confidence and started climbing furniture that prior to that moment he had not yet attempted. He has climbed for months, but it has gotten a bit out of control in the las...

Dear William, Nope. Nope. Nope. I am not sitting here writing your 9 MONTH LETTER! I can't believe it. You are now officially 39 weeks old. That means that you have officially been earthside for exactly as long as you were in utero. That is just mindblowing to me. I love that you are growing into such an amazing little man. We had your official 9 month doctor's visit this morning. That means that for the first time in a few months we have an official height and weight for you. Drumroll please! You are officially 20 pounds, 3 ounces (50th percentile) and 29 inches (76th percentile). You are following the same path as your sister so far. Once you started becoming more mobile, you started slimming. You are tall and slim according to the pediatrician. Despite all that chub on your legs, you are actually fairly thin. I hope that trend keeps up for you throughout your life. We shall see. I have noticed that you are starting to thin out too so this just solidified my thoughts...

Well, today was the day. We experienced what we were informed could be called the "Enlightenment Appointment." Luckily, Steven was able to stay home today and go with us to this appointment. This is actually the first helmet related appointment that he has been able to attend so it was nice having him there. As of today Will has worn his helmet for approximately 5 1/2 weeks. We were initially informed that we could expect him to wear it around 10-12 weeks total. As I have mentioned before, his flattening is minimal. We were more concerned with the alignment of his ears and his forehead being pushed forward. Today we didn't see Ms. Jackie but saw a very nice woman whose name escapes me at the moment. We made it there really early and the kids played together (very nicely might I add) until it was time for our appointment. This appointment took place in a different room than we usually go into. This one had the black box of torture. Gasp! Luckily, Will didn...

Well, it has been exactly one week since we took possession of Will's new "hat" aka his Starband helmet. Last Tuesday we went in to the office to have Will's fitting done. His helmet was ordered using the scans they took at the prior appointment but the helmet needed to be fitted once it was received to make sure it is a perfect fit and ready to start rounding out his little head. As it turns out, Will must have experienced a growth spurt over the prior two weeks because his head was larger than when it was initially measured... significantly larger, actually. It wasn't a huge deal though, and the helmet was able to be cut and shaved down as necessary. I was shown how to put it on and take it off then given a chance to practice before we left. I was also given all the instructions on cleaning and how he should wear it. Then... we were on our own. For the first day he was supposed to wear it for 1 hour on, 1 hour off until about 1pm then we switched to 2 ...