SEVEN Months!

Just a slew of pics of my precious girl at 7 months old old!

*****

Clara is SIX MONTHS Old!

Our precious baby is already halfway through her first year! How in the world can it be? Clara is the sweetest baby with the best disposition...Always so happy, with a big smile on her face. She loves her toys, her feet, and is in LOVE with her big brothers. She just lights up when the boys are around! She has the BEST girly, high-pitched giggle that gets every one cracking up. She is so tiny compared to the boys, with a head full of curly hair, and big dark eyes (they haven't settled yet, but I'm thinking they'll be hazel or brown). Sweet girl has been sleeping through the night since she was about 2 months old or so, and wears mainly 3-6 month clothing, and some 6-9 month stuff, too. :) She has her check up next week so I'll know her stats then.  

I took her to the beach yesterday to take her 6 month pictures and she loved watching the ocean, but was not a fan of the sand! :) 

Here are some pictures from the day! 

Happy 6 months Clara! 

The Fog is Clearing

I have 4 kids now. 

Some days I can't even wrap my brain around that. FOUR. We've been a family of six for almost 6 months now (how are we already halfway through Clara's first year?!), and the fog is finally clearing. We are in our groove, our new normal. I'm feeling more and more like myself. 

I hate that I haven't kept up with our little family journal so I'm going to post a bunch of pictures with random captions to catch up on whats been going on over the last several months!

Here goes:

I took this of the kiddos back in March. I wanted a picture of them all together. Holy Cow. I felt like I had wrestled a bear trying to get a picture of all them looking at me, but I managed to snag one. (secret: Carson's eyes were actually closed in this one, so I had to photoshop his eyes.) 

Heres another group pic: I think this was before my mom's birthday dinner at the end of March!

A few pictures from Easter Weekend!

A flood of Clara pictures: aka guilt because I haven't blogged her little life like I did with the boys! ;)

Sweet girl at 5 months!

Dimples

Harp showing off his artwork that was on display at our local Spring Festival! He was super proud (and we were, too!) 

So...I just realized I submitted this post before finishing this post sometime last week...maybe the fog hasn't cleared as much as I had thought, ha!

Continuing...

I can't forget to mention how much progress Grant has made! I decided to get him evaluated for Occupation Therapy right after his 3rd birthday. He definitely qualified for services, so he goes for 1 hour every week. I really think it has been wonderful for him! Apart of OT is feeding therapy and ever since he started, he has been eating SOO much better. I also requested around his 3rd birthday for an extra speech therapy session which was obviously approved. So he goes to speech 2x a week now (once at the office and once at home). After the summer I am going to push for both sessions being at the office...I really think it benefits him SO much more than the sessions at home. Anyways, enough rambling with that!

 Grant always uses 2-4 word phrases now...that doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is HUGE for him. He was evaluated for speech during our annual craniofacial appointment back in March, and the speech pathologist there thinks he has a touch of Apraxia of Speech (which, thanks to my "Medical License" in google, I had already gathered he had, ha!). Anyways, for Grant that means his brain is not being able to put a sentence together, despite being able to say each individual word correctly. For example, if you ask him to say "I love going outside!" he can say each of those words individually "i" "love" "going" "outside" however, when you tell him to say it as a sentence, "I love going" ends up becoming jumbled gibberish and he'll end with "outside". Its confusing and complicated,  but it suits Grant because NOTHING with him is ever easy! :)

Potty training....is not going. We're on a break until schools out for the boys. He understands the concept, he knows what he is suppose to do, he can say the words, recognize when he urinates, stay dry for long periods of time. It is not a battle of the wills, it is 100 percent a sensory issue. I have a game plan in place but honestly its more of a Clara issue at this point-I need her to be a little older so I can devote the time and effort to potty train Grant.

Last but not least...we went back for a repeat hearing test on Friday...they weren't able to get the results (which is very frustrating because I told them on the phone they wouldn't be able to...not getting into that right now, though...), so we are going back for a sedated hearing test next. We will know definitely if there is or is not hearing loss.

 

Carson and Harper are doing so good, as always :) Excelling in school, enjoying their childhood to the fullest extent. Carson is playing tackle football this fall which I'm nervous about, and Harp decided not to and wants to take hip hop dance classes...we are signing him up for summer classes which will be so much fun to watch! :)

They sat on our front steps and waited all week for the ice cream truck to come by...he finally came by while they were outside and were just SO excited!



Well that is definitely all for now...longest post for me in a while and it only took a week to type up, ha! 

Clara at 2 months!

I'm a little behind, but Clara Amelia is 2 months old now! She is so little (especially compared to my boys at this age!). She weighed in at 10lbs 2oz  and was 21in long...I think she is going to be petite! Clara has dark blue/grey eyes and a cute dimple in her right cheek. She is such a sweet baby, although definitely on the fussier side. She has a LOT of gas issues that we are still working through. She smiles so big and coos so sweetly when you talk to her. She's holding her head up pretty good and hates tummy time (typical Trocheman baby!) She loves her brothers and they are absolutely head-over-heels in love with her! They are all so good to her and love to hold her and kiss her. Grant has really come around and walks by her all day long and says, "HI TWARA!" Here are a few pictures of our sweet girl:

All for now!

Catch-up Post...Clara, Christmas, and a New Year.

Wow. 

That's about all I can muster right now, ha!

Life with four kids has been wonderful, but crazy. Transitioning from 2 to 3 was very smooth, very natural. Grant was an easy baby, the boys were 4 and 5 years old...it was simple. This time has been more chaotic. I feel like I wake up and it's Monday and go to bed and its Thursday. My days are packed with school, laundry, school pick-up, dishes, laundry, Grant's therapies, kids' homework, laundry, doctor's appointments. basketball practice, shopping, cleaning the house, making sure Grant doesn't smother Clara 300x a day, cooking...have I mentioned laundry? haha! Not to mention feeding/burping/changing little miss all day and night long...She is definitely one of my more high-maintenance babies. It's a good thing she is cute! 

So that pretty much sums up the last 7/8 weeks. Clara was only 5 days old on Thanksgiving so that day was kind of a blur. To be completely honest, Christmas break was a complete nightmare. The Monday before Christmas, Harper spiked a fever...took him the next day to the doctor and he tested positive for the flu. By Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Grant was sick with the flu, Kane started showing symptoms Christmas night, and Carson ran a low-grade fever all week. By the weekend,  all of their fever had broke...but then Clara got diarrhea that lasted the whole following week and Grant starting vomiting (and had a bad case of diarrhea) that lasted several days...by New Years Eve, Harper was puking  his brains out in the Old Navy parking lot. Y'all.....I was DONE. There were several days during that break that I just wanted to crawl in a hole. BUT, everyone finally got better and life got back to "normal." 

******

Clara is the sweetest thing at almost 8 weeks, the boys are playing youth league basketball, and Grant is still working hard in therapy. Here are a slew of pictures from the last 2 months (in no particular order). 

Christmas Eve. Poor guys are SO pitiful.

Before their Christmas concert at school.

Clara at exactly 1 month. She weighed 8lbs7oz and I think was 20in long. I laugh at how I was able to do monthly updates with Grant...sorry Clara...not going to happen, sweetie!! 

New Years Day...our crew had finally been fever free and everyone was on the mend.

Sweet girl.

The boys at basketball practice last Saturday:

With sissy's paci :)

************

All for now! Back to my beautiful. wonderful, chaotic life! Check back tomorrow for a birthday post!