Happy Birthday John

In honor of John turning 5 years old today I thought I'd share a few pictures and stories of him over the years. He has been our most unpredictable child from before he was born. With both his older sisters we did not find out what sex they were until they were born. But with John I decided I was older, more tired, and more busy, so I wanted to be prepared. The doctor did two ultrasounds and both times told us it was a girl. So I bought a cute butterfly outfit to come home from the hospital in. SURPRISE to all of us when out came a BOY! He was born in the evening and my mom had the girls and Mark's parents were not planning to come up that night. But once the news got out there was no stopping Grandpa Jim from coming. That was after he convinced Grandma Neva he was telling the truth.


Lucky for him we upgraded to the world of digital photography a few months after he was born. Here he is just a week after he was born. That first year and a half was really tough. He came home from the hospital with jaundice and had to sleep in the blue suitcase for at least a week. Thanks to Chris W she showed us the joy of sugar water with a newborn. I'm not sure we would have made it that first night without it. I let Mark have the fun of taking him to the hospital daily to get his foot pricked to find out the levels in his blood.

I think it took a few weeks, but we finally realized the painful way he was allergic to milk. The first 2 days in the hospital he had been a wonderful baby and slept all the time. Then the last day we were there while I was in the shower he started crying while at the nursery. And the crying didn't seem to stop for years (or has it stopped?) We tried all the colicky suggestions and nothing seemed to help. Then I decided to brave it and stop eating chocolate because I'd heard that could be a problem. To compensate for not eating chocolate I enjoyed some root beer floats. I think after the 2nd or 3rd night of doing this I realized the connection of his misery and my treat. So I stopped eating milk products and things improved greatly.

But there still seemed to be some problems. Our kids had always slept good and John was definitely NOT a good sleeper. Someone suggested I try putting him on Prevacid to see if he had acid reflux. This is after numerous times of having him throw up in the middle of nursing all over me and him where we both had to shower and change afterwards. So our doctor was nice enough to let us try it and it was amazing the difference.

This picture is just before his first birthday. He was getting ready for his first swim at a hotel we were staying at. That face is so full of excitement and fun. Hard to believe we were just beginning the Ear Infection stage. More sleepless nights for the next year and finally tubes in his ears.

Thanks to my Pampered Chef business he got to go to DisneyWorld right after his 2nd birthday in 2005. Not so good for us since we had to buy a plane ticket. But it was a trip we will always remember.

Here is the three year old John getting ready to go swimming once again. I guess that is what happens when your birthday is in the summer. In fact we are heading to Scera Pool for his birthday today too!
And the four year old John getting bigger and bigger. He is in Grandma Pat's backyard by the ditch. He looks like he is ready to conquer the world.

And if you want to see him at 5, just scroll down to see the last several posts. John is turning into such a cute adorable smart kid. He says some of the most prophetic things at times. We sure love him and am so glad he is part of our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY