Too Lazy to Load Pictures

*Jacob has had two soccer games already. He's doing a really good job for a four-year-old and scored 4 goals in the first game and 2 in the second. In the second game of the season, he was passing the ball to players on his team. This weekend is going to be a killer though, with two games on Saturday, one on Sunday, and one on Monday.
*Joshua is really excelling in Gymboree. He listens to directions unbelievably well, and loves showing off what he can do. He is so fast for his age that the teachers and his doctors are amazed when they see him run. Every week at Gymboree he insists that when the teacher has Gymbo give all the kids kisses, that I get kisses too. He pulls the teacher's hand with the Gymbo puppet over to me saying, "Mama kiss, mama kiss." Love that he's looking out for his mama!
*Jacob is learning about creation at school again this year. They taught him about God creating light today. I wish I recorded him explaining light and dark to me when I was tucking him in for his nap. Jacob always refers to God and Jesus as women. He told me today, "She is powerful. So powerful, she's invisible." He was amazed that the world was dark, and we didn't live here, so God decided to make light so we could see. I love how he is processing what the teachers are telling him at school. From the way he explains God and Jesus to me, I think he pictures them as super heroes. He does his little super hero hand motions when he explains them to me.
*Both boys had their well visit on Monday, and both are in the 98-99 percentile for height. They are going to outgrow me way earlier than I will want them to.
*Jacob was always interested in books as a toddler, but Joshua rarely will sit still for an entire story. But, lately, he has been bringing books to us and we are getting better at him sitting through stories. He just likes to run so much that it's hard for him to want to sit still and look at the book for a long time.
*Jacob's handwriting is getting really great. He is writing letters now without anyone showing him how to do them. Today he wrote a "B" even though he hasn't worked on it before at home or school. He wrote his name, Mom, Dad and JosHua the other day on his paper (yes, capital H and lowercase everything else, haha).
*Jacob is drawing people so well now. No more stick figures. He draws a body and colors it in - so cute.
*Joshua's speech is really taking off. He is really starting to form sentences, and he just has the cutest little voice. I love listening to what he has to say. He figures out how to say long words, like lemonade. He won't say "thank you" very often, but after he gets his stamps at Gymboree, he'll turn and say "please" to the teacher, haha.

Asthma...or not

Joshua has been hospitalized twice in the past six months for difficulty breathing. Lots of steroids, tears, frustrations, late nights, bags under the eyes later, we saw a pediatric pulmonologist.

He was amazing. Explained everything. And said Joshua could have asthma, and very well could not. The best idea is to treat him now and wait and see how he does.

So, we are now on a controller medication, an inhaler, so we can try to stay on top of his episodes and make sure he doesn't end up in the hospital again. We will give him two puffs in the morning and two in the evening until the spring, and then reevaluate.

It seems his only triggers at this point is when he has a cold/virus, he isn't able to fight it without it getting into his lungs and causing him some breathing difficulty.

Asthma is so common, and yet still shocking at the same time. No one in our families has asthma. No one has any breathing issues. We have never dealt with a daily medication before. But, Joshua doesn't really like to follow a certain path, so it's kind of fitting.

We are desperately hoping he outgrows it, as predicted from the doctor. With no history, and only 2 episodes in his almost 2 years of life, the chances he outgrows this problem by the time he is four or five years old are high. So, for now, we will do the inhaler and cross our fingers that we will be through this in a few years, and he won't have to be on medication for the rest of his life.

And, for now, we are thankful we are headed into the winter and terrible cold/virus season with a plan, and with a way to protect our little guy and give him a chance to fight things off without a trip to the hospital.

Interview with Jacob

We let Jacob stay up "super late" tonight (9 p.m.) and just started asking him questions after he was done watching his show and finishing up his snack. Here are his awesome answers at the age of 4 (not yet 4 and a half for a few months).

Favorite TV show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Favorite toy: Cliff Jumper and Wheeljack (Transformers)
Favorite restaurant: Chik-Fil-A (later he added Moe's when I asked him if it was one of his favorites)
Favorite food: Chicken
Favorite snack: Jake fruit snacks (Jake and the Neverland Pirates)
Best friend: Maddox
Favorite thing to do outside: ride my bike and my fire truck
Favorite dessert: chocolate cake and vanilla
Favorite book: Transformer book
Favorite movie: Transformers Prime (Season 1...anything we have on DVD is a movie to him)
Favorite Transformer: Optimus and Bumblebee and Cliff Jumper
Favorite thing you do with your brother: play dump trucks, because there's two dump trucks
Favorite thing you do with Mommy: twirl your hair
Favorite thing you do with Daddy: play with him...play dump trucks and Scooby
Favorite thing to do at school: play with cars, because there's an airplane and jet there
Favorite drink: Gatorade and milk and juice
Favorite vacation: camping
Favorite animal: hippos
Favorite color: purple...GREEN
Favorite music: Michael Jackson. I like it because it has a wolf in it...stomp stomp AWHOOO (Thriller)
Favorite bath toy: Daisy Duck
Favorite shirt: Purple shirt
Favorite place to sleep: in a tent
Favorite holiday: Trick-or-treating day
Favorite thing to dream about: Boats, because I like boats
What color are your eyes: Brown
What color is your hair: camouflaged
Favorite time of the day: the end of the day. The middle of the day some days where we get music rockin
What do you want to be when you grow up? A daddy
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? To G.G.'s house, because I love G.G. (his great-grandma)
Favorite season: Spring, because I like spring a lot. I like fall when leaves fall off the trees and I can jump in the leaf pile.