Belated birthday painting

We let Emerald put the first paint on the wall.

Pretend painting while we were preparing the room

This is the before shot

Daddy and Emerald pouring paint.

We started "slinging paint" this weekend in Emerald's room. It is sadly overdue and we decided that her birthday present from us would be to paint her room. After completing Calvin's room last summer, she has been patiently waiting, asking occasionally, and so ready to have her room with color also. When we moved into the house there was a wall of wallpaper with a look of log cabin/barn type look. We are using that in her horse room to stand for the horse barn. We are now in the process of putting a lot of color in the room--blue, orange, pink, and green. Look for "after" pics to come soon. It will look like a little girl's room with a lot of fun, vibrant colors, and of course her beloved horsies, too! Some quotes from the day, "this is the best birthday present ever!" and "I want to be a painter girl when I grow up. I love painting!" While she didn't get to help much, we did let Emerald paint the first few brush strokes of the blue paint. That was enough to inspire her. She just couldn't understand why she couldn't use the roller like we were doing. Hmmmmmm, wonder why??!! Then, as she watched us paint we were told by supervisor Emerald, "you missed a spot" over and over again. Then we got "this is going to take forever, isn't it?" Ahhh, the patience of a 4 year old!

We are excited to finally be in a place in life where we can start to re-focus on getting this house to be more representative of our home, and to reflect our spirit. Sad, we've been here a year and it is still so bare in so many ways. We did get a day bed purchased and set up in the basement for our guests. Since we kicked them out of the guest room to make room for Zachary, we didn't really have a suitable place for guests. Now we are ready, and invite any of you to feel free to use Hotel Pankewich if you are coming near the Kansas City area!

Visitors

Zachary meeting Great-Grandma Konicek for the first time

Zachary and Aunt Caroline having a serious conversation

My sweet munchkins showing off for the camera

We had the honor of having Skip's grandmother and aunt visit this week. It was Zachary's first time to meet Great-Grandma K. He was in such a smiley/chatty mood with her. The big kids showed off their vocal abilities by screaming and running wild around the house while they were here. We have really enjoyed being able to visit with family more often now that we are back in Kansas.

15 weeks old today

Today Zachary is 15 weeks old. He is growing up. He wore his first 0-3 month outfit today, but mostly still wears his newborn clothes. When we went to the doctor Tuesday (for his Synagis shot) he weighed in at a hefty 9 lb 3.2 oz! Can't believe how fast they grow. He is still an angel baby, sleeping well and rarely crying.

I went up to the NICU yesterday to take some Easter baskets for the parent room. It was mostly filled with "real" food (and a few chocolates). I remember well the days spent at the hospital w/o food. It was a bitter-sweet time being back in the NICU. The smell of the soap, the sounds of the monitors, it all brought back so many memories. I was able to go up there with another NICU mommy and we had a good time together. It did feel good telling the secretary that we were "graduates". The best feeling of all, being able to come home and hug my 3 healthy kids! I pray that we won't have to go through that experience again.

Zach's original coming home outfit and update

A little smile for the camera. Still hard to capture those full-faced light up the room smiles yet.

Zachary is getting pretty big compared to Rocky.

These pics represent even more of the last post, Sibling Love.

I originally bought this outfit as the "coming home" outfit in case I had a boy (it's so weird to think that 4 months ago we didn't know Zachary was a boy). Needless to say, he didn't fit in it to come home in--it was a little big. I didn't end up finding a girl "coming home" outfit, I sort of ran out of time before our little one got here. Zachary is finally really filling out his newborn size clothes and I thought I'd post these pics. Emerald kept asking if we could pet him, since he looked like a puppy dog. She especially loved the hat. I had to post pics of more "lovin' on Zach-y time". They really do love each other and continue to prove it day after day.

We now have his MRI scheduled for early June. Poor little guy can't eat for several hours before the MRI occurs. That is going to be so hard to explain to him. We will then have to wait a couple of weeks to see the neurosurgeon to get the results from the MRI. I am so nervous about this, even though the doctor and nurse have both told me not to worry. Yeah, right!! As a reminder, this MRI is to read something more clearly on his spine. He had an ultrasound about a month ago now and there was a spot, or tag, that looked unclear to the pediatrician and neurosurgeon.

Because of the MRI, Zach's 4 month well-child check/shots has been pushed back a few weeks. He needs to have had a doc appointment w/in 30 days of the MRI. So, I won't have an official weigh-in until mid-May at this point. We do go in this week for another Synagis shot (RSV protection). Maybe I can convince the nurse to weigh him then.

We also scheduled a follow-up eye appointment for Zachary in June. Children's Mercy is going to love us this summer. We have 5 appointments scheduled so far! And that is with a healthy baby!! The eye appointment will not be fun. Preemies are at high-risk for having serious eye issues. His original eye appointment in the NICU came back just fine, but they like to re-check at 6 months of age. A friend told me that she could hear her son screaming from the waiting room. It is an unpleasant procedure, but necessary. I am not looking forward to that appointment, either. Even with all this going on we feel pretty lucky to have our healthy little Z-man at home with us.

Zachary smiling and talking video

I finally got a video of our little Z-man smiling and talking on video. He really is growing and changing each day.

Sibling Love

Zachary getting some love from the big kids

Looking back and remembering when Emerald wanted to love on Calvin as a baby. Notice the outfit!!

I couldn't help but take a pic of Zachary on the counter. I had done the same thing with each child in this outfit. I can't find the one of Emerald right now (we took a bunch of our pics off our hard-drive and put them on CD's). This was taken in April 2007 and April 2009 of my boys.

These big kids make me tired!

I just had to post some pics showing how things stay the same, and how much things have changed. Same outfit, same sibling poses, same sibling love, but seeing Calvin at Zachary's age makes me a little sad that my "big" little man is growing up so fast. The kids all have such love for one another. We just have to watch how much love they decide to share with Zachary at times. :) Now that Zachary is smiling more, all we hear is "I want to see Zach-y" and then 2 kids running over trying their hardest to catch his smile or make him smile again. I love how much they love each other. Even in that early picture of Emerald and Calvin you can see the look of awe that he has for his big sister. It is still present every day. I'm sure Zachary will develop this same thing. The other night we were praying together as a family before bed. Emerald took one of Zach's hands, Calvin grabbed the other, and there we prayed together. Skip and I have been exchanging a lot of glances lately--happy, how wonderful is our life, glances. We really are blessed in so many ways!!

Easter egg hunt

Oh so patiently waiting for the hunt to begin

Emerald on the hunt

Calvin was a pro this year. Poor Zachary was bundled tight.

They couldn't wait to eat their candy, they dove right in.

Today we went to Garmin's annual Easter egg hunt. It was fun, but the wind was terrible! The thermometer may have read 65 degrees, but with the wind it was cold and horribly windy. Of course, that didn't seem to bother Emerald and Calvin. There must have been 300 children there. The eggs were hidden in the bottom level of the parking garage (it had rained about 2 hours earlier) and the entire garage floor was cleared in a matter of 10 minutes! Calvin acted just like a pro, and we obviously didn't have to explain to Emerald what to do. As soon as we were finished, we were told to look through our eggs and see if there was a paper inside, saying we had won a surprise. The kids thought that meant to sit and begin eating all the chocolate. Before we could count to 5 both kids had the first chocolate in their mouth and were working on their second! No special surprise for us, just lots of yummy goodies. I was impressed because both kids shared their eggs with a family of kids who got there a little too late and didn't find any eggs at all. Both kids happily took eggs out of their baskets and gave to the other family. It's moments like these that make a mommy's heart grow big. We are so thankful that Garmin is a family-friendly environment and does such wonderful things for their families.

Zachary didn't much enjoy his first hunt. The wind was so awful. I kept him tucked inside our carrier covered tightly with his blanket. He got a little upset, but I didn't want to risk him getting sick. Emerald wanted to share her candy with him, sweet, so sweet. Maybe this time next year he might be trying to keep up with his big brother and sister as they run after eggs.

Sleeping with monkeys

I have to write that I love our little monkey-lovers!! Each night Skip and I sneak into the kids' rooms doing the nightly routine--pull off all the books from Emerald's bed, step over all her little piles of stuffed animals sleeping on their Emerald-made beds, turn off lamps, cover up Calvin with his Frosty blanket (what are we going to do when it gets warmer weather?), kiss their sweet little foreheads. The thing that always makes us both smile--seeing them clutching tightly their little monkeys. No matter how many things are in our out of their beds, or what the extra thing of the night happens to be, Mango and BoBo are both always tucked neatly under the arm of their keeper. It is so sweet to see the love they show for their monkeys. Calvin has even been clinging to the wall painting in the bathroom lately telling us "I love MY BoBo". He can't ever call BoBo by name without adding the "my" to the front of it. Mango and BoBo, I hope you know just how much you are loved. Now, who or what, will become the "it" for Zachary? Will it be Rocky the Lobster? George, the monkey?? Or will it be another thing we don't even know exists yet? Each kid does decide for them self what is important for them. I guess we will just have to wait and see. I wish I could take a picture of this, but I fear that I will mess with the sleep that means WAY to much to us these days. I can just have you use your imagination. Now I'm off to take part in that nightly ritual.

Happy Calvin Day!

The kids and Laney resting watching the snow melt.

We are celebrating Calvin Day today in our household, aka "Gotcha Day". 2 years ago today we were given a precious gift named Calvin Charles Pankewich (at the time he was actually being called Greyson Gladney by his transitional care family). We love our little Calvinator and can't believe how much he has changed in the last 2 years. On this day especially we give a thanksgiving prayer for Leticia for giving us this wonderful gift.

A funny little note about Calvin--he is scared of the owl! There is an owl that lives in the woods beside our house. You can hear it at times. For some reason Calvin thinks the owl is going to get him. Every nap time and every bed time we have to go over the fact that the owl lives outside and is taking a nap and won't come and get him. "Owl get me, owl get me." Poor little guy.

We celebrated this weekend by spending time in the snow. We had about 4-5" of snow here and it was perfect "Frosty Snowman" weather. Daddy and Calvin worked hard on making this BIG snowman, or as Calvin said, "it's as big as daddy." The flakes were huge when they were falling down. Of course today most of the snow is gone on our lawns, but Frosty is still standing.

3 months old today

Zachary is 3 months old today. On Wednesday, with our Home Health nurse, Joan, he weighed in at a hefty 8 lb 8 oz. What a big, growing boy! Zach is smiling so much more these days. I tried to capture it on camera, but it is so hard to get for now. Zach's little pudgy legs are trying to push him out of his newborn sized diapers, but we have a few left at home that we are going to squeeze him into. Zachary has slept through the night twice this week and it was heavenly. Though, I really can't complain because even when he wakes up, he eats and goes right back to sleep. Our Home Health nurse agreed that we could let him sleep as much as he was able and to let him wake us up, which is so much easier to get up with than an alarm. He is gaining weight just like she likes to see and is such a healthy, happy, laid back little boy. We feel so blessed to have our little Z-man staying so healthy.