A New Year

This post is a little late in coming, but better late then never.

This past year have been quite busy. We welcomed our fourth child, our third son, into our home. Charles (Charlie) George Mizzell was born on April 29th, 2010 giving us our much wanted April baby. April has always been a special month for Chris and me. Now he is an 8.5 month old baby. He can sit unassisted, rolls to get everywhere, says "mama" and "dada", has two teeth, and has begun eating table foods. He loves his mommy and daddy and offers us huge smiles anytime we sees us. He's currently having a little stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, but he's a generally a very happy child.

We celebrated Anthony's 6th birthday this year. Amazing that I have a 6 year old! He's still learning so much, and is now well into the multiplication tables. He's had some issues this year as well that prompted us to pull him out of school and do homeschooling. Homeschooling went very well, but after much thought and discussion as a family, and with his doctors, we agreed to give public school another shot. He just had his first day back a few days ago. He loves first grade a lot and his teacher is amazed by how much he knows. She told Anthony, after he answered all the questions, that he needed to give the others kids a chance too. But it was said very nicely and not at all condescendingly. This may be a good fit for him. Every day he reports that he had an "Excellent" day and that the kids didn't bully him. I'm very proud of him.

We celebrated Anastasia's 4th birthday this year. Four years old already. Four years ago I was dealing with the most high needs baby I have ever met. She was very colicky, refluxy, unbelievable separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. We were confined to our home as venturing out caused her to have, what can only be described as, panic attacks. Having people over also caused such high anxiety that we really didn't have anyone over very often. She was being evaluated for Failure to Thrive, her eating was being evaluated as she'd turn blue every time she ate because she could choke on water. I'd only feed her if Chris was around so he could do the baby Heimlich. Her walking had to be evaluated as one of her legs was much weaker then the other prompting some family friends to nickname her "lefty". I figured if I could handle Anastasia I could handle anything. Now at 4 she is such an EASY child, something I never thought I'd contribute to her. She's very friendly and outgoing, she loves her baby brother and helps him out all the time. She's very girly and sweet. She loves her daddy for different reasons then she loves me, but we don't feel as if she has a favorite. We are both her favorites.

We celebrated David's 2nd birthday this year. David went from being my little baby on an apnea monitor who scared us when he stopped breathing, to being a little stick of dynamite. I mean that as in he destroys my home on a daily basis. He dumps bottles of pop on my new couch, spreads Brad Fasteners to every corner of my home, takes all the clean folded diapers out of their shelves and stuffs them in the dogs cage, gets in the fridge, takes of his diaper a few times a day and poops or pees wherever he wants. He's very much a two year old, more so then any of my other kids at that age. He also has a very sweet disposition. He still loves to cuddle with mommy or daddy and he displays a remarkable amount of empathy for others. He may be the reason you are crying, but at least he feels bad about it. I may be grey, completely, by the time I'm 30 because of him - but the sweet cuddly moments nearly make up for it.

This year we also got our first puppy. Jon Bon Jovi The Greatest Musician Ever (otherwise known as Jovi) came into our house in June. He was born April 19th, 2010 (A mere 10 days before Charlie). I held him in my hands for the first time on April 20th and then every few days after that. He was so tiny when he came to us, and now he's nearly full grown. It took forever to house break him but he's house broken now. He has some awful habits, such as chewing, but he is a puppy and he'll outgrow those. All in all he's a great dog. He sheds like mad, but he IS a dog. In about a year or so we'll be hunting for a breeder to get our second puppy. Jovi could use another playmate.

I also had two major surgeries this year. I had my left wrist fused, and then 4 months later I had my right wrist fused. I don't regret the surgeries at all. I have NO mobility left in my wrists but I also, for the most part, have no pain. Occasionally my wrists ache a little but I think thats to be expected. One day I'll have my elbow worked on and I'll be out of pain - as long as nothing else falls apart.

Chris and I are also trying to get pregnant with Baby number 5! My OB and I spoke the other day. I absolutely love him. He told me I was nuts for wanting more but it was all said in good fun. He's going to contact my high risk doctor to make sure the meds I'm on are okay, otherwise I'll need to switch off my meds prior to pregnancy. The only one they are unsure of is the pain killers. I was on pain killers with Charlie but it was a different kind.

It's about lunch time, but I will be making a post of goals for 2011 here soon!