2.12.08 Update

Hello Everyone,



Well, we have figured out that if we do not keep up with the blog then we are in deep trouble. Mom has started three different books filled with updates on the kids, now..where did all the books go. We decided to try and do updates as often as possible to keep everyone posted on how great GOD is, our family is for sure witnesses to this. We have 2-25 weekers in the family, 2-29 weekers and a 39 weeker!

The Spiess boys....Wow, are they getting big and we are doing so many different things now.


Tyler is almost walking. On February 17th we will hit 10 months and so far we have taken 2 steps on our own (Feb 10th was his 1st 2 real steps on his own). We wonder if he will start walking by 10 months or may hold steady at this until he gets closer to 12 months. Hmmmm...either way, Tyler gets wherever he wants to go on his own. He climbs on everything and lately his favorite toy is the rocking horse. Mom continues to try and help him on the horse thinking he wants to rock but no....he lets her know he just wants to climb all over and try to get on the horse himself. He also climbs up the indoor play slide, turns himself around and scoots to slide down it. Again, mom is NOT to help him. Tyler displays his independence by throwing FITS if you do anything he does not like hence try to help him or when you take paper away from him that he wants to eat. We love it. It is now funny since we hear his screaming tantrums so often we just shrug our shoulders and tell him...Well, you can't have that and let him continue with his fit. Jackson is also very used to the fits...not that Jackson isn't displaying his "wonderful" two year old independence. Tyler has 4 teeth now and back to the not wanting any help.....will only eat food if he can feed himself. He literally just started eating baby food after many attempts to get him to eat the food, about 2 weeks ago. We thought he just wanted mom's milk only but have now come to the conclusion that he just wants to feed himself. We are happy to say that Tyler will eat a little if you put it on the spoon and hand him the spoon to feed himself or give him some type of finger food (crackers, etc).



Jackson is also growing so fast. He is talking with sentences more and more (not always very clear but we are working on this). He also is into reading his books to us or Tyler which we love. He makes the stories up to the pictures! Sooooo cute. Jackson's latest thing to do is tell us, "no" and mean it. He also likes to look the other way when we try to explain why he can't do something. Who would have thought keeping a straight face would be so hard when disciplining your child. They are just a riot sometimes. Jackson and his time out chair are starting to become attached to the rear- just kidding. Some days it seems that he just wants to go to time out and sit there all day. Once he told mom that he needed to sit in his time out chair....so we are starting to consider taking a toy away verses time out. We can't believe how tall Jackson is now. He just is getting so big so fast. We are very blessed to be where we are today! Everytime Jackson does something intentionally wrong to test the waters....mom wants to celebrate even though she has to do the parenting thing of time out. When he intentionally tells her no, or purposely waits until she tends to Tyler to dump his milk on his plate (the latest trick) she knows that he is thinking it through! Go Jackson and Tyler!

The boys are having so much fun playing and wrestling together. It is a sight to see...

We pray all is well with you!
Love,
The Spiess Family

We are BACK! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

1-17-09



Dear Family and Friends,


We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying the New Year!


Our family is doing extremely well! We thank God everyday and continue to thank him for each and everyone of you! Today is already January 17th and what have we been up to..........


Well, we enjoyed our Christmas this year with Daddy getting some extra time off with the family which made for some GREAT bonding time with the boys. The time was also needed as we were able to get some things done that we have put off...gosh before Tyler was born. It was nice to go through the house and reorganize as much as we could (still lots to do...but oh well), try to get rid of things we didn't need and get ready for visitors! We already have lots of baby clothes to move out...as Tyler is growing so fast...


Papa and Nana (P&N) were on their way down to visit! Jackson and Tyler couldn't wait to see them. We told Jackson that P&N would be coming down to visit a little bit before they were to leave because you never know what may come up- such as illness or weather. Well, good ole' Michigan weather almost stopped them from coming as Nana called Friday to mention they didn't know if they would make it out on Saturday due to the snow. Then Saturday, we heard they were on the road.



Monday, Dec. 22nd we had doctors visits due to Jackson having a horrible night sleeping or not sleeping to find out that he had an ear infection. We give Papa and Nana the low-down while they are on the road but neither the snow nor Jackson's illness stops them from coming! So we tell Jackson that they will be here and oh boy did he get excited. You definitely wouldn't have been able to tell he had an ear infection by the way he started acting when they arrived...


Monday, right before nap time mom hears a knock on the door. Well, it was Papa and Nana. Oh boy, did Jackson get pumped......needless to say- nap time wasn't needed anymore....well at least not until around 3:30/4 p.m. ish : ) Tyler was already napping.



We would have to say - this was definitely the start of Christmas. Seeing Jackson eyes light up and watching P&N get just as excited...What more can you ask for. Tyler was asleep but was also very excited. He did seem to remember Nana from her September visit. We are sure Tyler knew he would get LOTS of loving and would be able to take naps on Nana now...vs in the crib.


We were very happy to have company and have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus! We pray that those who are in search of a job are finding some success with their search and that you have your health!



Highlights from December were......



This is Tyler's 1st Christmas! Happy 1st Christmas BABY!



Sledding in Llano, Texas and enjoying Coopers BBQ- I think Tyler enjoyed cuddles from
Mrs. Annie the most and Jackson enjoyed rock climbing with Olivia!



Tyler getting to attend Phoebe's birthday party! He loves the inflatable playhouses.



On Saturday, Dec. 21st we checked out the Trail of Lights and it was awesome!

We had a great time and love all the outdoor things we can find during the winter season.


Jackson singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus and BOTH boys enjoying CAKE!

Christmas Lights....we took the boys out to view lights and OH BOY.....Tyler after
a few minutes decided that he had enough lights.....****Thank you to all who light up your houses by the way! ******Jackson was a riot as we went turn to go down a road and all of a sudden you hear "AWESOME!" from the backseat.

Dad and mom finally getting to go to church together (Midnight Mass). Thanks for babysitting Nana and Papa. Mom and Dad typically split up so the other party can be home with the kids. Dad does Saturday night and mom goes on Sunday mornings.

Watching your babies reaction to the season......Jackson is now noticing the difference
between clothes and toys when opening gifts...it is so funny but he LOVED his train sweater. We laughed because all the other clothes went off to the side...but that sweater he had to put on.

Tyler loves everything, especially anything his brother has and trying to eat everything
including wrapping paper.

Putting up Christmas lights! Jackson helped this year and Tyler supervised!



We hope and pray you are doing well and again can't thank everyone enough for their prayers! They sure have and are helping!



With lots of love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

11/15/08- Update from the Spiess Household

Hello Everyone,

Tis the season to give Thanks and this household has lots of thanks to give. We are blessed with two boys whom are doing extremely well.

Next update is going to be a timeline of everything the boys have been doing, but for now we will start with today and .....then highlight some of the past events that went on.

11/15/08...TODAY...

What an awesome weekend so far! Today, we had two birthdays to go to. Originally we were going to send Daddy to the events while mom and J stayed home, but since both events were going to be outside and we wouldn't stay long so we all headed out (late of course)... Well, good ol' Texas weather decided to move the parties inside so we ended up not attending one party really, other than saying Hello and dropping off the gift (daddy running inside real quick). He also does this when we can't stay as mom loves to chat and forgets about time. Then we went to the other party and dropped Tyler and Daddy off while Jackson and mommy headed to the park. WOW what a day. First, Tyler and Daddy had an awesome day socializing and celebrating Addison's 1st birthday while Mom and Jackson found a good place for a picnic -okay an EXCELLENT place for a picnic and then lots of fun. Mom had so much fun she pretty much lost her voice. Mom and J- ran up and down the hill, rolled down the hill, were airplanes and yelling out numbers, ABC's, hide and seek in the trees.....it felt like watching the best football game and cheering so much that you just are on a rush for the rest of the day and of course have very little voice left. We have tons of fun at home and when we do go out but alot of the time mom has to constantly wash Jackson's hands and make sure he doesn't touch certain things so finding this spot was great as she could just let Jackson be a kid and have fun as it was pretty much an open area where Jackson didn't even notice the playground equipment so she didn't have to give an excuse on why we couldn't use it. Then J and mom go to pick up daddy and Tyler and we step in only to say Hello and get the boys. Well, of course mom started to socialize as much as she could with limited voice. It was awesome for mom to see everyone and then to hear about Tyler getting played with when Daddy was there and everyone getting to hold him, etc. It was neat to let Tyler play on the floor with other kids too and be able to let your little one hang out with other kiddos! Jackson loved playing out back with Daddy on a trampoline while Tyler and mom were inside. Jackson decided he needed to use the wakeboard to practice jumps???? Boy they grow up so fast don't they.... Needless to say we ended up staying a little longer than expected but that was okay. Now we are still going strong around 7:50 p.m. at night and having lots of fun. We decided we will go back to this park even though it is a good 45 minute drive, but well worth it.

Update on Mr. T...

Wow, Tyler is getting so big so fast...our little man is now up to 20lbs and army crawling...He will be 7 months in 2 days. He babbles and definitely lets you know what he wants.

Tyler's personality to sum it up is : JOLLY...yes this little guys smiles all the time and is so loving. Tyler currently is loving the fact that he sleeps WITH mom and dad....yes we start in the crib but some how we end up in their bed. Something we NEVER thought we would let happen. When will we break Tyler of this - probably by Christmas. It is hard to break him as he disturbs Jackson's sleep when we try to do this and Jackson adores his brother so much that when Tyler is crying and Jackson hears this...he has to make sure Ty Ty is okay by seeing him. Oh, he doesn't trust mom and dad that Tyler is okay, he himself has to make sure it is okay! Infact last night, everyone was in mom and dad's bed. We came to the conclusion it is going to be time for sleep training with Tyler and we tried to do it but once we found out how much it affected Jackson's sleep we decided when daddy gets some time off we will try it again. Tyler knows what he is doing too as he won't let daddy get him in the middle of the night if mom is the room. He screams until mom takes him and he knows mom is in there even if she hides under the covers...he knows. Kids they are so amazing. Keep in mind we had Jackson upright on us until I think around 9 months...yes we have a chair that we love as we used it for 9 months to sleep in due to all the reflux issues for Jackson so this is a walk in the park.

Update on Jackson:

Jackson is doing extremely well and also very Jolly. He is talking up a storm, graduated from his Early Childhood intervention and is a very happy little boy (still our baby too). His latest thing is now he won't sing songs along with us, he has to sing his songs alone. He knows his ABC's, "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Twinkle Twinkle little star" and "Trucks, Tractors, forklifts and Bulldozer's too" and can count on his own to around 20 and is able to do most of 1-10 in Spanish. He likes to mix up his 7 with green in spanish- verde...we are working on it. Now, mom and dad need to learn more spanish too! Jackson likes to play trains...trains, trains and more trains...which to be honest dad and mom love to play trains too so we hope he stays in this phase a while longer. Infact we make forts in the living room and run our train tracks under them. Sometimes mom get frustrated as the boys want to stop playing trains...yes Ty loves to play too although he takes the tracks apart for Jackson : ) Jackson celebrated his BIG number 2 Birthday (Thank you God) on September 23rd and had a little party on a TRAIN on September 14th!

Jackson has stayed pretty healthy and Ty has been healthy...mom wishes she could have kept Jackson 100% healthy but it didn't happen. He did get sick 2 days before his birthday with Croup...but thankfully he recovered from it. The doctor also said that Jackson handled it like all the other kids which was great news and Big Yeah for J!

We are so blessed and can't thank everyone enough for all their Prayers and support.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

**** November is Prematurity Awareness Month!*****

Summer Time!

8-12-08
Hello Everyone,

We hope that you all are doing absolutely fabulous! We pray that this email finds you in good health and happy.

We want to start the email off thanking everyone for all their prayers and thoughts! The boys are doing well and we pray it continues. Infact, this summer has been a BIG summer for us. We welcomed our blessed little Tyler Jacob into the family who is doing well and Jackson is an awesome big brother.

We also want to thank everyone for their prayers for Allison as they received the news that she will be coming home! She had over 100 day stay in the NICU and her mom and dad are ready for her to be at home. Thank you! (http://www.allisonshepard.blogspot.com/)

First, Jackson was so excited when Tyler first arrived home. Not only did we (dad and mom) expect some jealousy, but we thought Jackson may have at least missed us a little....Yea right! Jackson was living it up with Nana and Papa and then he gleamed when he saw his little brother! Oh, we wish everyone could see how his eye's lite up. Maybe you can in the picture. Then Jackson went on to touch Tyler's toes, etc. Majority of our pictures can be found on the phanfare site at: http://www.spiess-archives.phanfare.com/

The first eight weeks was pretty hectic with lots of newborn duties. Once things started to settle down, we found ourselves filling our days with lots of playing...learning...and then napping. We still are trying to get onto a "schedule" and dare we say that it looks like we may have one started...time will tell.


Jackson's big events this summer have been:

Play dates! We are blessed to have wonderful friends who are very understanding of how we require lots of handwashing and heads-up on when the kids are showing signs of what could be a cold, etc. We also had approval via the physicians office to do these. We love our playdates and are not looking forward to RSV and cold season as we will need to see if the playdates can continue or not.

We talk! We talk! We talk! Yes, Jackson started taking off talking around 20 months and wow has his vocabulary grown. We are so happy to hear him repeat pretty much everything we say. He also likes to tell us what he wants...what a relief. His favorite word is "no". Sometimes this is funny and other times, well....we wish he would use the word YES! But, no complaints....as mentioned at least he is talking. We ask him what he wants for breakfast and he will tell us, "eggs and toast" or "oatmeal", etc..... We LOVE IT!


We have been out and about - A LOT!...Yes parks, walks, Austin zoo, water park with sprinklers, etc....mostly outdoors when the Texas heat isn't too bad. Unfortunately, this summer has had the third most 100+ degree days in history.

Jackson also is counting and working on his ABC's......As parents you quickly find that when your kids hit a milestone it is the biggest and BEST reward in the world.

Jackson also is very infactuated with the television for some reason. He loves to give kisses to his reflection in the tv. He is going through a kissing stage...Watch out Olivia we may have issues during the next playdate.

Tyler's big summer!

Tyler not only has put up with his crazy family for the past four months extremely well but he is getting to be very fond of Belly Time! He has impressed many with his head control and he LOVES to grab things and bring them to his mouth for knawing....okay "exploring".

Tyler at 2 months old traveled up North for Aunt Nicole's shower and saw MANY people at Aunt Nicole's showers/Baby Allison's shower! Yeah! It was so awesome to see everyone we miss them so much. We can't wait until we get to come up North with the entire family.

Tyler also is now 18 lbs! Our little-big 4 month old is eating well and is a happy little man.

Tyler is a very easy going child and he watches his brother all the time. Yes mom has asked Jackson to go and dance or do " Ring around the Rosie" in front of Tyler to entertain him. We are so happy that both the boys adore each other.


Tyler pivots around in circles and can creep forward on belly time. He has rolled from stomach to back a few times so far and honestly acts as though he will crawl before he will roll.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackon "J" and Tyler "Mr. T"

April through May's Blog update....

Hello Everyone,

Well, it has been 4 weeks and 3 days since Tyler’s birth and we have started to surface from the chaos. We have a good start so far on getting the blog up to date- but I need more time for the April to May post. BUT...

I HAVE TO SHOW OFF TYLER!

We hope and pray all is going well with you! I also wanted to email everyone and Thank them for all the prayers, flowers, gifts, cookies and congratulations. We are one very blessed family to have you all in our lives.

Tyler is doing absolutely fabulous and Jackson is loving his brother so much! We are VERY LUCKY….

Tyler did have some reflux issues which since we have been through this before we knew exactly what the issue was and seem to be on top of it- so far.
This time around it didn’t take as long to get on a med that seems to be working and we are so very thankful for that. We also as of today do not have to mix formula with breast milk and mom is happy to not have to do this!

Tyler is now on prevacid and Axid together and after 5 days of prevacid we will no longer need to give him Axid.

How are the boys alike?-
Well, they both had/have reflux but they also both loved to eat. Tyler is starting to look more and more like Jackson did as a baby as he gains weight. Tyler loves to eat which Jackson did too and we are very thankful for this. In fact- Tyler was born at 7 lbs 9 oz- dropped to 7lbs 3 oz and went home on Saturday April 19th at 7lbs 3 oz. Monday was his first pediatrician appointment and he weighed 7lbs 6 oz. Then one week later he had another appointment and was at 8lb 9 oz. The doctor was very impressed. We wonder if some of the reflux issues isn’t from his constant eating : )

How are the boys different?
Well, Jackson never was into a pacifier and Tyler- never leave home without a pacifier.
Jackson didn’t really did need/like to use his swing, Tyler loves his swing.

Difference for mom and dad-
Totally different….
1st managing a house with 2 under the age of 2….HOLY COW! It is busy…but these little guys are the BEST!
Less stress on the medical end! – Phew..

It is very different having a full term baby. We have already taken Tyler to the Domain (favorite for the Spiess as it never is too busy and there are fountains that Jackson LOVES to play in) and to the March of Dimes Walk- mom is so happy we ended up going as we were up in the air on this one due to her not able to walk it and whether it would be too hot for Tyler, etc.

It was great to catch up with friends we saw at the walk! We are so thankful we went and we definitely all wanted to be there to support our family of micropreemies and preemies…yes we have another little one born shortly after Tyler was born- Allison Marie Shepard.

We would like to ask everyone to please keep our niece/cousin in their prayers .
Allison Marie Shepard whom was at 25 weeks gestation just like her cousin Jackson. We know those who have called mom or dad are aware and are praying and I can’t thank you enough..We know the prayers and excellent medical care helped us make it to where we are today with Jackson and continue to help us! Allison is in a great NICU and so far we are very blessed with her progress.
http://www.allisonshepard.blogspot.com/

Again, we can’t thank you enough for all the support everyone has given us.


Love,
Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

Spiess Family's End of February through March Journey

Hello Everyone!

Well, here we are a little behind on the blog but good news! We all are doing really well. We pray you all are too.

Well, we will start where we last left off......

Jackson's end of February went well! It is ironic as I had posted the Valentine's day post and shortly after Jackson ends up catching something. We have no clue how which gets mom very frustrated. We are so careful and have so many "rules" of handwashing and cleanliness when people come over that it just gets frustrating but....as long as Jackson continues to recover from what he gets we are okay. Jackson came down with Roseola virus. Crazy as he doesn't touch other kids yet....Who KNOWS- Ugh...

"Roseola infantum is a common illness in young children in which they generally develop a fever for 3-5 days (worse at night), followed by the appearance of the typical red rash when the fever disappears. The rash may be present on the upper arms, legs, and face, but is most prominent on the neck and trunk. It consists of numerous, red 2-5mm spots that blanch when pressed. The rash typically lasts for 24-48 hours. "

Jackson's fever started on a Sunday at 101 then it climbed to 102....then on Monday he didn't have a fever at all. Tuesday he was burning up at 103 and went to the doctors. Due to Jackson's only symptom being a very high fever the doctor figured it was Roseola Virus however, he too was surprised as Jackson wasn't around any kids. He forewarned us that a rash would break out from this and if the fever continued to Thursday then he would need to come back in. Well, doctor Unite was right on track with the fact that Jackson's fever broke on Wednesday after reaching 104 the night prior and Thursday we had ourselves a little leopard! He was spotted...The great news during this appointment was the doctor wasn't that worried as it wasn't a respiratory and....the doctor mentions that maybe this summer Jackson can play with some kids which shocks mom considering we are in the office for Jackson getting sick even though we keep him some what isolated. Dr. Unite actually wasn't too unhappy about this as he mentioned his immune system is building up so there was a positive side to him getting sick.

We do have to brag that out little man for having such a high fever handled it very well! Kids are amazing. We as adults would have been miserable and cranky with a fever so high but Jackson well up until Wednesday he was a happy go lucky little guy. Wednesday, all he wanted to do was rock, cuddle and sleep which of course we were more than happy to do.

Mom had already resigned from work right after Christmas Break (January 7th) after Jackson caught his first upper respiratory infection which thankfully he recovered from without a hospital stay. She was working on finding her replacement and train them before she left. She can't thank her boss, Frank enough for being so supportive. The fact she was able to work from home while others were taking care of Jackson in the house made things less stressful and the ability to work part-time during isolation when Jackson came home from the hospital really did help out alot...since isolation was difficult. Everyone has been so helpful and we can't thank them enough! We figured the less people in the house then maybe we could keep Jackson from getting sick. We know he is a toddler and has to explore the outdoors but we figured when we were in isolation we managed to keep him healthy. We could do our best to do this again without being in total isolation.

Now Jackson is up and running again....he continues to play and loves seeing Mrs. Michelle and Mrs. Cindy who take care of him during the day while mom works. He gets so excited when then come over and then he takes them to the door when they leave and gets on the couch and waves "bye, bye" to them while blowing them kisses : ) What a prince charming if you ask us...

Developmentally we are working extremely hard on speech. Jackson knows what he wants and is very good at communicating thing without talking through sign language and basically showing us what he wants but we really need him to start chatting.

ECI-Early Childhood Intervention team continues to come to our house once a month. We were focused on his motor skills so we had Mrs. Ginger and on occassionally Mrs. Kathy coming out to our house to evaluate Jackson and to give us advice on ways to work with him to ensure he meets his goals. They have been extremely pleased with his motor skills and are looking to bring out a speech therapist during his next visit.

On March 11th, Jackson gets his ECI evaluation/observation and boy did our little man show off. He showed the ladies that he knew exactly what everyone was saying by retrieving toys they asked for and showing how well he does his puzzles, etc. However, they did mention that we may want to see an ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) doctor to see if there isn't some medical reason Jackson isn't communicating verbally. They also have noticed how much he keeps his mouth open all the time. We can't tell if this is from teething or if this is from something else. We can't thank ECI enough for going through everything with us. It helps a lot to see how Jackson is progressing and where we may have some delays that we need to focus on.

March 21st- Happy GOOD FRIDAY! We hope everyone had a great Good Friday. The Spiess Family sure did. This was mom's last official last day at work which she was able to take off as a vacation day and the family was able to spend some time together as Daddy took the day off too! We went to Mrs. Brooke's birthday party- 1st birthday party Jackson was able to go to as it was at a park and we stayed away from the kids. Jackson couldn't wait as he loved the invite he received (Dora the Explorer) and continuously had to take it off the refrigerator and carry it around. We then prepared for EASTER!

March 23rd, Happy Happy EASTER! The Spiess Family hopes and prays that everyone had a very Happy Easter. What a way to celebrate new life! The Spiess's were extremely happy as Mr. Jackson is doing well and Mr. Tyler is still baking away inside his mommy. This year mom was able to go to church on Easter so Dad went Saturday night to church and Mom went Sunday morning since we can't take Jackson to church. After 7:30 a.m. mass mom comes home to find Jackson awake and having his morning bottle with daddy. She changes and then we go and find what the Easter bunny brought for Jackson. Later on in the day, Ms. Brooke comes over to do a Easter Egg hunt with Jackson. It was so much fun. We wanted to take Jackson to the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt but worried about him being around other kiddos. Brooke's mom and dad know all about Jackson and so they are very careful when the kids are around each other. We decided to go ahead and do an egg hunt with just Jackson and Brooke. Jackson's first hunt went well. He grabbed 4 eggs from the yard and after that decided to play with the eggs. Since Easter...we have been practicing for next year... : ) Then Brooke and Jackson opened up their eggs to see what the Easter Bunny left in them. We then settle down for a good dinner and start our bed time routine to end such a glorious day!

March 25th, we have our appointment with the Allergist. Jackson had an allergic reaction in the latter part of February (February 24th) and therefore, we went to the Pediatricians to get an EpiPen.

Allergic Reaction: What happened?

Well, we were eating dinner and Jackson all of a sudden pushed his food away and started rubbing his eyes. then he wanted out of his chair and kept rubbing his face. Mom told dad to get the Benadryl as she thought he was having an allergic reaction. His face started to get welts on it and we gave Jackson 3/4 tsp of Benadryl and then he wanted down to run around. Again, kids are so funny about how well they handle things. However, we were warned whatever caused this the next time around will probably be more severe and thus the reason we need to keep the EpiPen on us at all times especially since we still do not know what caused this.

At the doctor's we went through what Jackson ate that night and then we had to get a blood draw for a screening on what could have caused the allergic reaction. We also need to do a skin test on Jackson too...which we still haven't scheduled as we know it isn't going to be fun for him but we will be getting him in soon. The doctor's mentioned waiting to do this after Tyler is born. So in the interim, Jackson really isn't being introduced to any "new" foods. He doesn't seem to mind as we already had a great variety of foods introduced that he does well with.

March 27th, we have our 18 month appointment with the pediatrician, Dr. Unite. We are so excited as Jackson has an excellent report! Jackson's stats are:

Weight:

23 lbs and 4 oz! - Wow.....we are pumped: which puts J at 10 to 25 percentile on the growth chart.

Height:

32.5 inches- which puts Jackson at the 50 to 75 percentile

March 28th, We have our big doctor's appointment with Dr. Berry our Perinatologist. At this appointment we have the cerclage removed and we are very nervous that Tyler will come today.

Mom hopes that Tyler holds off as Tyler and mom have a baby shower for Mr. Tyler the next day and she is excited as this time she will have a round belly at the shower. After the cerclage is removed mom does dialate to only 2 cm and is a little effaced.

March 29th, Tyler and mom made it! They get to enoy the wonderful shower that her girlfriend put on for her and catch up so many girlfriends that she hasn't seen in a very long time.

We pray that everyone's February and March went well and that everyone is in good health!

The Spiess family knows how blessed they are and can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers! We appreciate everyone keeping up with how Jackson and Tyler are doing. We can't thank you enough! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler (on the way)

Happy Valentines Day!

2.15.08

Hello Everyone,

We hope everyone is enjoying a very happy Valentines Day. The Spiess household sure did. We all hung out together and loved on our little Valentine- Mr. Jackson.

Jackson received a card from mom and dad that plays music and of course he danced to this card for probably 30 minutes. It was so much fun to watch. He of course had a gift to open which was from his Great Grandma Shepard, which was one of the toddler laptops. However, we do have to chat with our son about not using a Dell Laptop- Ha Ha!

We are happy to announce that we are still healthy. We pray we stay this way and we pray that all of you do too. As you probably know, the flu is horrible this year. We also were updated that they have seen lots of cases of RSV at the area hospitals but at our last doctor's appointment everyone was real concerned about the flu. We were informed Jackson's Synagis shots will continue into April as of right now. This is fine with us as long as long as he keeps getting them.

Well, we have lots to update everyone on as we left out the month of January so we are playing catch up once again.

Jackson was blessed to get some more visitors in January. Nana and Papa came down so we were able to do a late Christmas with them. However, we wish their visit was a relaxing one where we could all just hang out, but Dad had another trip to Taiwan and mom was 25 weeks along with Tyler so.....we utilized our resources. It was so neat though as they were in town close enough to Christmas that we were able to extend the festivities and open Nana and Papa's gifts with them.

Then we get another big surprise.....Jackson's HG's (Honorary Grandma's) were able to pay him a visit from January 10th through the 13th. Of course they received the laundry list of precautions before coming and we can't thank them enough for being soooooo very careful when they were down here. They were so good about changing clothes, showering and washing their hair, and making sure that once they touch something they wash their hands before touching Jackson! Thank you HG's! We can't wait for you to come on down again.

Jackson of course spotted some more gifts under the Christmas tree which mom still hadn't taken down yet. Jackson was lucky as most these gifts were for him from his HG's and Jackson did get his HG's some very nice Crocks to wear in the house since they can't wear their shoes in the house. The best part of this is the little prince helped HG Sara Jo put her slipper on. We like to call him prince charming now. Then Jackson received his tooth fairy pillow from HG Pam and he loved to give Pam gifts to help her open. He just kept bringing her one gift after another. We are glad he is so good about sharing especially since he doesn't get around any kiddos...to share yet.

Nana and Jackson kicking back and having a drink!

Jackson's Nana and HG's took Jackson out to Town Lake for a stroll. All four women (Nana, HG Pam, HG Sara Jo and pregno Mom) all managed Jackson rather well...or maybe we should say, he kept us under control. Then we met up with Papa who saved the day as mom left the house with bottles and diaper bag but forgot the baby food for his dinner-way to go mom..We also walked around the Domain shopping center which is a great place for us as we can stay away from people yet we get out of the house...Parks are also a big hot spot lately. We stay away from others but enjoy our little family party in a secluded area of the park.

Jackson also received the very needed 1st real haircut from Sara Jo. Sara Jo knows what she is doing and did an excellent job. In fact we are about due for another haircut and mom is going to try and tackle it herself. Last time mom and dad did this though...it wasn't a pretty site. Jackson must have just not been in the mood for a haircut when mom and dad made their attempt. Luckily he was pretty good for Sara Jo.

Jackson is big on not having anyone mess with his face. We often wonder if it isn't because he had so much stuck to his face during his NICU days for so long that he wants to keep all hands and objects off the face. I can't blame him one bit. We are glad that he loves kisses though and "fuzzy" face rubs (a daddy and papa treat to J) since they have the facial hair. He likes to brush his teeth and comb his hair and will let you help him with that, but you do not dare wash his face off without a little fight and then back to the haircut...well we need Sara Jo back down here.

Some of nana and papa's new experiences with Jackson included how much Jackson loves his Hokey Pokey-he turns himself around- and while everyone was down here Jackson loved to help them mop the floor. He also showed Nana and Papa how he likes to UNfold clothes : ) We are so thankful that nana and papa took care of Jackson for a few weeks with mom while daddy went to Taiwan for another business trip. It helps out so much.

We sure do miss having people around and enjoyed being able to get visitors. We never know if we are doing what is best for Jackson and the fact that he stayed healthy with visitors made us feel good. We know we can't relax too much but it sure was nice to not be totally isolated from people.

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Development and PROGRESS - ALL Positive! Thank you GOD!

On January 23rd, Jackson gets to visit Treehouse Pediatrics again for a Synagis shot! Although I hate to see him get the shot, I am very thankful for his shot. The poor little guy is much more alert as to what going to the office means so he does get worked up prior to the shot. Immediately following his shot- mom and Jackson cuddle and once the 1/2 juice ; 1/2 water bottle is in site we are good to go...

On January 28th, we have our 15 months visit at 16 months of age...At this visit Jackson weighs in at: 21lbs 13 oz (10% for his real age)!

His Head measures at 46 cm which is 10-25% for his "real" age.

Height: 31 1/4" which is 25/50% for his real age.

Our big boy! Can you believe this 1lb 15 oz; 14 inch long little man is now this big! Thanks to everyone's prayers...

Jackson continues to get more teeth in and is growing. He is running all over the place, riding his tricycle all around, finally eating big boy food- whatever mom and dad are eating (pasta is currently the favorite) and yes, we are getting into some uncharted territory of Jackson showing more of his wonderful personality. The most recent incident was Sunday when Jackson bit his mom after she had to take the cell phone charger away. She asked him to choose another toy and he grabbed her hand and bit it. Needless to say our little angel had to do "time out". He also started dumping of the food over the Highchair move and then laughing. We have to admit...it is so hard not to laugh when he does this. We are doing pretty good at looking away if we think we may laugh or can't keep a "stern" look when trying to discipline, but tonight well, it was a challenge.

We can't thank everyone enough for everything! We are so very thankful to be where we are today. We thank God each and everyday. We also are very thankful that baby Tyler is still happily baking inside mom at 30 weeks along. We pray for 10 more weeks but every day is a blessing.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler