We have taught the boys how to hug and kiss. In the video below, there are several instances where they hug and/or kiss on demand. It is so cute and they seem to enjoy doing it! Now, if we can only get them to do everything else we want! 😉

The newest (favorite) word is “Yes.” The way Ethan says it is so cute, it is as if he is asking a question, “Yes?” When they come down in the morning: “yes?” When the phone rings: “yes?” When it is time to eat: “yes?”

Aiden has started calling Manish, “Dadden.” So, it seems that “daodden” is their version of “dad.” They also call him “didden” and “daddus.” Manish really likes these names!

Ethan and Evan are devising ways to get out of their cribs. Last week around 6:30 AM, we heard a “thump” sound upstairs. A few seconds later, we heard a second “thump.” We thought the twins were banging on the wall but ran up to check. We opened the door and there they were running around – they got out of their cribs within seconds of each other. They were so happy with themselves and giggling as they ran around the room. Since their cribs were only a foot apart, we think they leveraged the other crib and pulled themselves over. Since then, we separated their cribs by at least 2 feet and so far, they have not escaped again yet.

Apparently, Ethan either thinks of himself as a cannibal or thinks of Evan as food (or both). He has learned what a weapon he has in his teeth and has bitten Evan a few times on the arm. We can tell you from personal experience that his bite is worse than his bark! In the video below, Evan puts his fingers in Ethan’s mouth as if to tempt him. Fortunately, Ethan does not get a hold of Evan’s fingers – at least not this time.

Several months ago, we were talking to someone who is a twin and he told us that the boys will have role reversals in their behavior. Apparently, this is very typical among multiples. While it happens less with Aiden, Ethan and Evan seem to trade certain behaviors every couple of months. In recent days, the most obvious is the “bully” factor. In December and January, Evan was a bully and used this size and strength to do whatever he wanted. Whether it was taking toys from his brothers or showing who was boss, he ruled. Lately, Ethan has taken on the “bully” role but instead of using his weight, he utilizes his speed, flexibility and teeth! Maybe in the next round of role reversals, Aiden will be the bully!

We are in the process of working with Children’s Hospital (Boston) to perform some additional testing for Aiden (called manometry) and also to go ahead with the laryngeal cleft surgery for Aiden. Based on our conversation with several physicians, they believe that it would be wise to pursue the surgery and repair the cleft.

Of course, no one can completely predict what the overall impact will be in relation to the vomiting, but our research into similar situations with Type I clefts has indicated that the repair could have huge benefits at very least with relation to the respiratory issues. If the cleft is the primary culprit, then repairing it should help to at least reduce the vomiting (and hopefully) eliminate micro-aspiration into his lungs, eventually allowing us to wean him off the oxygen, helping him eat and sleep better. Thus, there is a potential domino effect. The flip side is that there very well may be something else going on that has not been found and it may have little to no impact on the vomiting. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to work these things out.

Enjoy the video and pictures below.

Ethan, are you tired?

Evan, throw it over here

So big!

His brothers ripped his oxygen cord in two!

So, he enacted revenge by trying to steal food

Ethan, please take your seat

Aiden has been more willing to let us put the spoon (and sometime food) in his mouth

It tastes much better with food on it

A little bear trapped in his cage

Ethan is so cute

The infamous “stethoscope” battle

Dr. Boo to the rescue

Looks like the litte bear is stuck while Ethan looks on

Wrong way, Aiden

Carolina reads the boys a book…they enjoy this very much!

So sweet!

Tongue-action

A couple weeks ago, Grandma and Grandpa came down for the weekend to see the boys. They had such a good time and even cried when their grandparents left 🙁

Aiden is getting mobile and hobbles all over the place. Unfortunately, because of this, we have to strap his feeding bag on his back and it really slows him down. He gets rather frustrated with it and we remind him that as soon as he starts eating, he won’t have to carry his food on his back.

The twins are doing very well and love life like only 17 month old boys can! Please keep them in your prayers, as they came down with runny noses and seem to have caught something. Naturally, the primary concern is that Aiden will catch whatever they have. It was right around this time last year he was sedated, intubated and in the ICU due to a something he caught.

The images below are over the last couple of weeks.

Grandpa and Ethan together

Ethan is trying to be the favorite grandchild

Of course, he will have to battle Aiden

He knows how cute he is

Especially with his little hat

Here comes trouble (and they are bringing the triplets with them)

Evan, don’t be so impatient!

Evan, don’t you like to swing?

You neither Ethan?

Little Boo Bear in his Eskimo outfit

…and there he goes…

Evan, was the slide fun?

Aiden, I know you love to swing

Love the furry little hood

Ethan, don’t just sit around. Go play!

Grandma will help you

Told you he loved it

The twins love to ‘run away’ and go all over the place

Ethan, what are you waving?

Down the slide

Evan, you don’t look very confident

Don’t crash

Aiden, does Grandpa push so fast that it scares you into praying?

What are you boys up to?

Caught in the act!

Swinging with his cords

Ethan, stop putting those wood chips in your mouth

Grandpa is coming to take it away

So much fun

After a long day, it is time to rest

Ethan, you can’t go in there

Poor Aiden has his feeding bag strapped to his back and it makes it hard to get around

Ethan, what is in there?

The little wonder

He is like a poor little Nomad

Time to get your burp cloths and pacifiers and go upstairs

Here we go…the Amazing Race

Ethan is in the lead, but he seems distracted

Never turn your back on a Boo Bear

Evan is the winner

Of course, neither really won because the prize is lockdown in the cage

A little bear and his pear (I didn’t know that bears ate pears)

Oh, I guess they don’t

Hey, it’s still food so I have to eat it

Ethan, the table is for clothes, not little boys

Aidiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Aiden, it was a joke. You are not an actual moviestar (at least not yet)

He wanted a classic photograph

The boys’ level of understanding has increased gradually, but for a while it seemed that they did not say a lot back. Lately, however, they have become quite prolific little chatterboxes! Three of their favorite words are: ‘dodden,’ ‘didden,’ and ‘daddus.’ We *think* it means ‘dad,’ but we are not 100% sure!

They are also very good at trying to repeat things. When we ask Evan, “what does the Turkey say?” he responds “gobba, gobba, gobba” in his soft little voice. Ethan is in love with saying “appesss” (apples) and they are both in love with “cars.” Aiden tried hard to say what his brothers say, but his favorite word is still “mamamama.”

We have learned that Aiden’s name has finally come up on the waiting list, and on March 16th he will being the intensive feeding program in Dallas. It is an all-day program which lasts for 5 weeks but it has a very high success rate. Over the last few weeks, he gained weight and is now much taller. Unfortunately, he continues to vomit bile and seems to be in pain (especially at night). Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

All three of the boys have become very “cuddly.” They will sometimes lie down on the floor or grab each other and try to hug. Ethan is so happy to be with his brothers, he often makes a high pitched little squeal (see the video below which shows a clip of him and Evan).

It was about this time last year that Aiden had to go back to Children’s hospital and ended up in the PICU after coming home from the NICU. Looking back, we thank God for everything He has done for Aiden and His constant mercy and goodness. Enjoy some pics and the video.

Evan walking his toy dog

Evan, that is not a phone!

Ethan, share with your brothers

Here he comes…stalking his prey

Attack!

Look at the eyes

Rosy little cheeks

The boys love these little books that make the animal sounds

Evan, we know you are a monkey…but you don’t have to climb on the toys

No, Ethan, you cannot have Daddy’s camera!

Catch, Aiden!

All three boys love playing with the balls, but Evan believes that they are his personal property.

When the boys want to see the letter video, they will go over by the TV and make their letter sounds

Evan, you are huge!

Here comes Ethan

Hi, Boo Bear

Outside with the ball — Evan, does it get any better than this?

Let’s roll!

Boys, away from the street!

Soccer, anyone?

Not much of a stunt, Evan

Ethan, when have you ever been at a loss for words?

In his recliner

Peek-a-BOO

So cute

Happy AND cute

Awwwww!

Hair, hair everywhere! Look at those wild curls.

Aiden finally gets his hands on one of the boy’s favorite toys.

And he is enjoying it…but he knows that Evan is coming to take it

So, he goes to the window and enjoys the outdoors instead

Evan is such a little boy

And little boys love to eat

Ethan, what are you watching?

A little Evanly bear enjoying his meal

Ethan, don’t play with your food

Pensive

Butt paste! Let me tell you, these little boys’ butts are very, very expen$ive!

The new year has already been incredibly busy; it’s hard to believe that it is nearly February already! Between work, babies, doctors and therapy appointments (and just our crazy life in general), it has been a couple weeks since our last update, so we have a rambling update below.

Ethan and Evan are such little boys now, (sadly) they are definitely not babies anymore. They can consistently repeat their letter sounds from A through H, as well as many others (they have a tough time with ‘Q’, ‘V’, ‘W’ and ‘Y’). All of them are completely enamored with cars and wheels. The twins wake up in the morning talking about cars and go to sleep at night talking about them. On several occasions, we have taken a ride just so they could go in the car–they get so excited! They love looking out the windows at all the other cars on the road and in the parking lot. The entire car ride, they repeatedly “talk” about the other cars that they see.

When Manish is getting ready to leave for work in the morning, they say “Da. Car. Da. Car.” over and over, until he leaves. When he leaves, they stand at the gate that goes out to the garage and repeat over and over again “Da. Car. Da. Car.” with a sad look on their faces.

Aiden is gaining weight and has gotten so tall (he has even developed little cheeks!) but continues to throw up bile and has extended episodes where he seems to be in pain at various times of the day and night. The constant gagging and retching seemed to be getting significantly worse, so we did some re-trials of various meds that we had tried previously at increased doses. Most did not work, but we have found that a significantly increased dose of Zofran (an anti-nausea drug used for chemo patients) has helped some with the gagging and retching. Although it does not seem to have any effect on the vomiting, bringing the gagging and retching back to baseline at least helps to make Aiden more comfortable and helps him to sleep a little bit better. We will be replacing his feeding tube with a smaller “J”-only tube in the next week or so to see if that will help; please pray that this procedure will go more smoothly and be less painful for Aiden than our last experience.

As you may have noticed from previous posts, we (had) a plastic baby gates at each of the entrances to our family room to keep little people in. We had no idea that it was even possible, but somehow the boys broke one of the gates clean off of the hinges. After doing some searching on Craig’s List (and out of sheer desparation!) we were able to find an iron gate that will hopefully thwart the masses for a little longer. Many thanks to our good friend Mike D. for the baby-proof installation!

The majority of the pictures below are of Aiden as Manish was taking pictures primarily late at night to test out his new camera and lens. (For the technophobes, some of the images below range from ISO 4000 to 6400 with no flash and are still clean–rather remarkable!) Since Ethan and Evan are asleep by 7:45, there are only a few images of them to share. This means that Aiden gets the spotlight…which is his favorite place 🙂

Sweet baby

What a ferocious face!

Who needs food? Aiden has found something better…

Let it snow? Aiden, are you kidding?!

It got so cold, the branches froze…

The ice storm also coated the plants….it was beautiful (from inside!)

Definitely the right time for warm beverages

Who knew that getting a clean diaper could be so much fun, Evan?

Aiden also likes anything with wheels–even in books!

The boys destroyed the plastic baby gate, so we installed an iron one…hopefully this one is triplet-proof!

Ethan loves crawling into things. This little basket was in the family room and he decided to crawl in.

Evan decided it was time to retire

Guys, there is no way out of here…it is iron!

Aiden, don’t chew through your oxygen supply

Showing off for the camera

Coming your way…

Ethan and Aiden were having a blast

Laughing it up!

They all have to be in the same spot, doing the same things

Aiden is developing his own form of yoga called “Aiderobics.” This semi-headstand is his favorite move, also called “downward dog”

He LOVES laying his head on your feet (but be careful, sometimes he bites!)