Today was Ryder's NyICU reunion for ST Joe's. It was so cool to see some of Ryders medical staff...Esp Claire! She was his nurse pretty much from the beginning to end. The CUTEST moment was seeing Jesus and Ryder hugging. Jesus is the lil guy photo'd with Ryder below. They were lil 2 lbs buddies in the NyICU. I guess there was another little baby in there that was just 13 ounces!!! yes JUST 13 ounces! her nick name was polly pocket, and was the length of a dollar bill!!! she lived and is totally fine, running around! Im bummed I didnt get a picture of her. SO COOL! Yeah thats why I love St Joes they kick major butt.

Ryder had a Halloween Party at school today....here are his pictures before he headed off. We have 2 costumes for him...At first he wanted to be a monkey...then last minute wanted to change into his cool dragon costume. He wanted to be Elmo....but the store was out of the cool Elmo costumes.

dimples...the chubbier she gets...the smaller they get : (
she is so much fun....

talking to mommy....
Ruby in her almost finished Halloween Outfit...

Such a cool kid.

first day to ride the bus!

Yes, it has been a while! goodness. Sorry! Life has been good here at the Page house. Busy, but good.

Ruby is about 13 lbs now, and a great baby! we are so blessed to have this little sweetie in our family. She is doing wonderful and developing fine. She loves kicking! And laying by Ryder and plays with him. She will smile at her big brother, at times even laugh.

Ryder is being Ryder.....AwEsOmE! He is such a wonderful kid. He is so loving, and sweet. Ryder started preschool last week. He rides the bus. He loves school. Today he got home and said, "mom! school was so fun!" He talks all of the time. He was evaluated by the school district...Bragging moment here for me...he scored 106% in cognitive, and the same in communication, 96% in speech (minor problems understanding things). In physical he scored 50%, that actually was surprising. Good job Ryder.

Everywhere we go this is Ryder.... "oooh look mom, that light is a rectangle!" Or "mom that table is kinda like a cylinder!" He's getting down octagon...he knows that the stop signs are octagons.
He knows his colors, shapes, and recognizes many letters. Almost 3 years ago, we were not sure he'd do anything like this! After his brain problems in the NICU, noone really knew what he would do. Well look at Ryder now! We are SSSSOOOOOOO proud of this kid!
Oh another story...the other day while playing a game with him....he smiled to big and said "mom! I have options!!" I laughed, and thought where did he learn that one?

Kiralee is well. I have had a crazy 3 months of ear infections....like 4! I hope to get tubes in my ears...yes like a kid! I am just so sick of getting high fevers and achy ears.

Greg is BUSY~ with work, school, and his band. He got called to be assistant scout leader to the 11 year olds. He is busy busy....he always makes time to hang out with Ryder though. Ryder sure loves his dad!

Today is one of those days, I sit back and am so grateful to have a special son with cerebral palsy. Ryder is such a sweet loving kid. He teaches Greg and I so much.
I am filled with much emotion today because of his struggles. We get so caught up in our busy life with Ryder we tend to forget he's a "different" kid. Now that Ryder talks (alot!). He is now realizing his differences from his cousins or buddies.
He asks to run, walk...today he really wanted to sit by himself.
Ryder was playing basketball in his playroom, and really wanted to sit to shoot the ball into basket... I had to help Ruby at the same time. Ryder cried to sit, it wasn't an anger thing it was a sad thing....I could see in his eyes he knew... he wanted to sit like the other kids his age....we kind of just stared at each other and emotionally just felt each other.
At that point I knew I could explain his disability... I told him about when he was born really early and got hurt inside his brain....and it hurt his legs, and muscles... Ryder laid in my arms listening, and thinking deeply about it. He told me "Kiwa I want to sit." I knew it wasn't a "help me sit" it was a "I want to sit by myself sit". Yeah, that tore my heart up.
He sees kids playing sports and he wants to do it...he wants to be independent... Greg and I dreaded the day Ryder would notice his cerebral palsy....well today was that day... It breaks our hearts....
moments like today I just grab Ryder and hold him in my arms for a long time and tell him how much I love him, and what a cool kid he is...I could hug him all day.
I told Ryder today that he will sit all by himself someday, and walk by himself. His smile was priceless. I could see in his smile that he is determined, and he will do anything he puts his mind to... like walking : )
Ryder is my Hero. I love him.

Labor Day weekend was an interesting one.... started off rocky ended great.
We had been planning to go up to grandpa Jones's cabin for Labor day for a while, but Friday morning Kira woke up with a fever. She was pretty mad because she hadn't had one since high school. She saw the Dr. it was another ear infection. Kira's fever got pretty high, but she was set on getting out of HOT Mesa.
So we were about to pack up the jeep (we got a new car Jeep Liberty) but something was going wrong with the clutch. Thank goodness we were able to catch rides up!
So we went to cabin...got there....found out we were going to be locked out of cabin for 4 hours while they "bug bombed" the place. The cabin gets nasty Spiders!!! eeeew.
In the meantime Kira's fever went up to 102.3...she was miserable....but happy to be in the beautiful mountains.
It was nice that we were trapped out of the cabin....it forced everyone to be outside in the pines. Then came a thunderstorm...that was a good thing....thunderstorms at the cabin are beautiful.
Also Ryder went fishing for the first time. He caught 3 fish. Kissed a fish. Yes, kissed a fish. haha. Ryder also got to play all weekend with kids! he loved that!!!
Greg got a nasty migraine, while Kira had her fever....we were so lucky to have people helping with the kiddos!!
I love the cabin...minus the spiders....it's one of my favorite places to be.
That was our crazy weekend.

A few months ago while driving in the car, a 'Red Hot Chili Pepper" song came on the radio. The song was 'Snow" aka "hey o listen what I say yo...."etc....well Ryder instantly started singing it...and ALWAYS sings it. He watches many music videos on you tube...and he asks all the time to watch the 'Hey o song". So these are pics of that.

.My phone is not working...Sorry to those...especially Ryder's therapists who may have tried calling!or texting Hopefully I will get to store today or tomorrow to fix it! If not you can reach me at home or on Greg's cell... email me at kiraboo_82@yahoo.com for the numbers.

Long story short... Through all this craziness the past 3 weeks my debit card info was stolen. Some moron tried to spend $300 at a Walmart in Illinois.... what a loser. Anyways, I forgot which bills were auto paid off that card... found out last night ooooops! my cell phone was one of those bills! DANG! So apparently I have to go in to fix it... so in the mean time... I guess its quieter for me with out my cell ringing all day! haha.

Sorry for the inconvenience to everyone!!

Life as expected, has been very busy after a new little addition to the family. Kira now has to balance between 2 kids that need her constant attention. It gets a bit tricky with Ryder's disabilities. Since Ryder is unable to sit, walk, crawl....it is sometimes a crazy moment trying to take care of a newborn, and a 34 lb 2 1/2 year old, but we manage.

The craziest was Friday when I went out in what 108?? temps while pushing Ryder in his wheelchair and carrying Ruby in a carseat. People kept giving me crazy looks, and many offered help. I assured them I was ok and "got it down." I must say Greg and I are becoming pros at the wheelchair thing! Greg can grocery shop with a wheelchair and a cart! Crazy I know!

Anyways...Ryder enjoys being a big brother. It took him a bit to get over the trauma of mommy being at hospital when she had Ruby. Ryder does not do well with hospitals... poor kiddo.

About the kids:
Ruby is great....super easy baby. We are very grateful for that!

Ryder is alright. He is getting over Pneumonia. He aspirated while I was in hospital after having Ruby, and that caused the pneumonia. On top of that he got a horrible ear infection. We feel so bad for him when he gets so sick, and of course it is scary.

It was also in a weird way a blessing he got pneumonia. They had to x-ray his lungs to see what was going on with his lungs. In the x-ray they found a spot on his lungs. From this point out they have to watch it every few months to make sure it doesnt do anything...like grow. The specialist thinks it is possibly just scaring from past infections. He said in adults, its almost always cancer, but in a child, usually just scaring from infections, and we all know Ryder has had much of that!!! The DR. also said in 30 years of experience, he was only seen a hand full of kids that it was cancerous. That was a relief to hear! We of course still in the back of our minds worry...but in 2 months after a good x-ray we will be even more relieved.

That is how the Page family is doing!

Oh side note... We were planning on going to Idaho in September to bless Ruby, and visit family and friends....but with recent changes at Greg's work...that probably won't happen til later in the year.