Raising Five Monkeys

So I'll finally post some pictures of us opening presents at the hospital in Ian's room. We opened presents this year the evening of the last day of school - this way the kids have the whole 2 weeks to play with their gifts :-) We opened up presents on Christmas day as well because at the hospital 'Santa' visits and drops off presents for all the children AND their siblings! - those pictures I took on Christmas day were taken with Matthew's cell phone, and I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet... maybe another post lol.

In other news Ian now weighs 8lbs!! We are so excited! He is now officially NOT 1/2 the size of Ryan anymore haha! Ian is on a special amino acid based formula called Neocate, the plan is to leave him on this formula till he is around 6mo (adjusted, so beginning of April) and then if he is at a good size by then we will try a normal formula and see if his body tolerates it. The Neocate formula is very expensive (about $700 a month but I'm sure soon it will be closer to $1000 a month since he is eating more and more). We are trying to get coverage for it, but in the meantime we are SO thankful we have such an amazing church community that has been very helpful in covering this hefty cost! THANK-YOU!

Since Ian has come home we are falling into a bit of a routine, the twins aren't on the same schedule due to the size difference, but at least we have a bit of a routine. The last few days I've only had to get up 1-2x a night (instead of the 5+x Ian was waking when he first came home... *yawn*) Now that I'm able to stay home all day most days, I have started cleaning and organizing. The house has been basically left as it was back in May, besides the bathroom reno that Matthew managed to do this summer. Since May were able to set up the twins crib, take out the baby clothes and things, wash and put them in plastic dresser things, but mostly everything else has just been in a 'get through this' mode around here which results in piles of things that should have been put away long ago, and garbage/unused things in every room. sigh... (Not to mention the water that flooded the basement after getting back from Toronto and having to rip out all the carpet in the basement...So glad that's over! Hoping this year our basement stays dry! ) I'm happy I finally have time to go through things and de-clutter, the house is feeling a little bigger, and it's getting much easier to find things again.

Playing with some of the toys the hospital gave to us.

The SUPER FANCY swing Ian used while in the hospital.

Ian's first room in the pediatric ward. (he moved to a different room a few weeks later)

Miriam is pretty great with the twins.

A gift from one of the teachers... I asked her what she is going to do with all that money - she said 'buy another one of these of course'! haha! Smart girl.

At the hospital waiting to open presents

Dylan LOVES mario!

Special moments.

The sweater Miriam is wearing was a present.

Ryan loving all the activity around him.

After opening the presents we headed to the playroom to use up some energy.

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We made a Train! The kids (and the adults) REALLY loved this playroom!

Watching TV while Dad and Mom pack up and say good -bye to Ian for the evening.

Putting together one of his presents

Lydia wearing her Minnie sweater (the pic of minnie is hiding in this picture)

Opening presents with the DeBoers

These kids were spoiled this year!

Lydia wouldn't have anything to do with Mickey the night before when she opened him, but in the morning she liked him. Silly girl!

Ian is strong enough to sit in the bumbo and bouncer... but he's much too small haha!

Watching the Saturday morning news....

Oops, forgot to rotate this one... Outfits from Uncle Nate and Auntie Lin

My SUPER bit helper! she was holding Ryan, patting and talking to Ian, and giving Lydia leg rides while I made supper.

Just love how helpful she is! And at 6yrs old she's got this down pat!

Its challenging being small in a big world - we just improvise.

Ian doesn't really like laying down all the time... so strapping him securely to a chair results in quite a few smiles.

Always ready to tell a story or sing a song to the twins - a great helper for me, even at 4yrs old!

8lbs today!! Our little superman!

Ian was discharged last week!! Yay!
He came home on a pass early last week. Then last week Thursday we brought Ian back to the hospital to find out he had gained weight and could be officially discharged. We are so excited to have him home!!

Today Ian is 7lbs 6oz (finally around the same weight Miriam, Dylan and Lydia were when they were born. He is 4 1/2 months (3 months corrected))
Ryan is 13lbs 14oz

Pics of a few things happening around here...