Holt Turns THREE

THREE.

Y'all. My mama heart can't handle the fact that it's been three years since I first laid eyes on this beautiful child of mine. The one who made me a mama.

1095 days and 26, 280 precious (and let's be honest, some not so precious) hours with him. He has taught me more in the last three years than just about any other human being has in my 28 years on this earth. Because of him, I have a greater understanding of God's unconditional love for me as His child (and how His heart must hurt when I disobey or make bad choices).  Because of him, I have a better understanding of how selfish I am as a human, and I have learned what it truly means to have a servant heart--to put someone else's needs before my own (pretty much all the time).

Motherhood is a calling. It is THE HARDEST thing I have ever done. But it's also the most JOYFUL and REWARDING thing I've ever done too. Motherhood is having your heart walking around outside your body. And this one right here started it all. From the moment I heard his tiny heart beating on that very first ultrasound to the moment I heard his first cry to the moment of tucking him into his big boy bed.

ALL. THE. FEELS.

So what is Holt up to at three years old?

He has a big heart--he is seriously one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. He is very in tune with people's emotions and will say, "Mama, you mad?" or "Mama, you happy?" Or he will notice others and ask why they are mad or sad.

He is extremely inquisitive. I know most 3 years olds ask lots of questions because that's just their brain exploding with learning a whole bunch of things at once. But, my word! Not only is Holt a typical 3 year old, but he is his daddy's child. Meaning, it's like questions on questions on questions. ALL. DAY. LONG. "Mama, what is this?" "It's a bug Holt." "What kind of bug?" "A locust." "Why is it a locust?" "Because that's how God made it." "Why is that how God made it?" Etc, Etc, Etc....
Sometimes I just have to go in my closet and close the door to just breathe for a second.

He has started showing physical affection. He will consciously come give me a hug or want to cuddle on the couch. And at least once a day (but usually much more) he'll say "Mama, I give you a kiss?" And then, "Mama, I give you a butterfly kiss?" And then, "Mama, I give you an eskimo kiss?" Gah, it just absolutely melts me. Everytime.

He definitely thrives on routine and everything being in its place. He is not very keen on change. We have had LOTS of change this year, but he has handled it like a champ. Daniel got a new job and we moved to a new church with new people, we moved to a new house (back into Fort Smith), he got his tonsils and adenoids taken out, and he moved out of his crib into a big boy bed. That's a lot for a little kid to handle and I have to say I have been so proud of him.

He still loves lawnmowers. Everytime we go to Lowe's, we stop and let him "ride" every single one. He has started expanding his love for trucks though--dump trucks, cement trucks, fire trucks, semi trucks, you name it. Oh, and airplanes and helicopters. We live close to a military base so we typically have fly overs by our house and he always tells me, "Mama, some day I want to drive an airplane."

We have started working on memorizing Bible verses with him. Since January, he has memorized three verses and we are working on the fourth. This has been such a sweet time with him! And it helps me memorize them too.

He loves to watch TV. During the summer, it's more of a struggle to fill our time with other things (mainly because Evie makes it harder to get out of the house) but once the school year gets going we stay busy with Mother's Day Out and BSF and playdates. He still loves Daniel Tiger, but is slowly expanding to Bubble Guppies and a few educational shows on Amazon Prime. He also loves Trolls and Moana. And still loves 101 Dalmatians and Lady & the Tramp.

Probably the biggest news this year is that he is potty trained!! We still put on pull-ups for nap and nighttime but other than that, he is in underwear and fully goes to the potty without prompting! Also, he 's a little obsessed with going in the urinal (LOL).

He still takes one nap a day from 12/12:30pm-3:00pm. I usually have to wake him up! Bedtime is till 7:30pm and he normally sleeps til 7:30/8am. He is a really good sleeper!

I have started writing down some of the funny things Holt says! Enjoy!
 "Mama/Daddy, you hur (hear) me?"
"Daddy how you make that fire? Because daddy is a man, son. Holt is a man."
"How you doin dad?"
"Don't worry it bout it mama"
"I need to put on my swim-soup (swimsuit)"
"Mama is drinking out of the toilet daddy" (referring to when I had a stomach virus)

His vocabulary and understanding of what is happening around him is astonishing to me. He is to the point now that I can have little conversations with him which is crazy! I cherish those little moments of asking about what he learned at church or Vacation Bible School or what all he did on his latest adventures with Melly and RoRo.

Weight: 36 lbs. (85th percentile)
Height: 38 1/4 inches (75th percentile)

Holt Parker,

I am so proud of you. You have handled this last year so incredibly well! You are a great big brother to Evie and have started trying to "play" with her in the playroom. You love to have tickle fights with her and chase her around the house. You love to spend time with me and daddy but you also are so brave in doing things by yourself or with new friends. You are so smart and I can't wait to see how much you learn in "school" this year! You fit so perfectly into our family and we are so glad you're ours! Love you to the moon and back little man!

Love, Mama

Photo dump (from the last 6 months):

Holt's Tonsil Surgery

If you have been following the blog, I mentioned a few months ago that Holt has been having night terrors ever since Evie was born (yes, for a whole year now). At first we just thought it was the transition to having a new sibling, but it kept going and kept going. And then he started snoring really bad around Thanksgiving. Finally in February at his 2.5 year checkup, we mentioned it to the pediatrician. He said a lot of times, night terrors can be caused by sleep apnea (where you quit breathing for little moments at a time while sleeping, reducing oxygen to the brain). Sleep apnea can be caused by large tonsils and adenoids. After examining Holt's throat, he said on a scale of 1-4, Holt's were a 3. We tried some steroid nose spray for a month and when that didn't change anything, he referred us to an ENT, Dr. Stinson at Cooper Clinic here in Fort Smith.

We met with her on April 12 and after one look she said, "yeah, those are rather large. he definitely needs surgery." SO, last Friday, May 5th, we checked into Outpatient Surgery Center at Mercy Hospital for Holt to undergo his first ever surgery.


--6:30AM: check-in
*the kids played and watched stuff on the iPad. Holt couldn't have anything to eat or drink since midnight, so we tried to limit Evie's eating breakfast until after he was back in pre-op. Mom, Dad, and Gran were with us to help with Evie and offer love and support. And coffee.
--7:30AM: head back to pre-op
*Daniel and I took Holt back where they weighed him and measured his height (31.8 pounds and 37.5 in tall). Then we changed him into the hospital gown and the anesthesiologist came by. He introduced himself and gave Holt a TY beanie baby bunny to hold onto. The nurse came back in and checked Holt's vitals and gave him a dose of Versed to help him relax and start getting a little loopy. It was hilarious once it started kicking in! Our pastor, Russ, came in to see Holt and he let him play with his FitBit watch--which entertained him for the next 30 minutes until time for the surgery. In his loopy state, Holt kept asking "what time it is?"
--8:30AM: Dr. Stinson came by and explained the procedure and what to expect afterwards again. Then she asked Holt if he wanted her to carry him or if he wanted to ride the "choo choo train" (hospital bed). Much to my surprise he chose to be wheeled back in the bed and the whole way he and Dr. Stinson said "choo choo!!" Y'all. She is the best. That was when I teared up. But thankfully, the meds kicked in and I don't think Holt even noticed I wasn't going with him.
--9:30AM: I start getting nervous because what only should've taken 20-30 minutes was taking over an hour. FINALLY Dr. Stinson came out to the waiting room to talk with us. She said they had trouble intubating him because of how large his tonsils were and it took him a little while to breathe off the anesthesia. She also told us his adenoids were just as large as his tonsils and she was 100% confident that he needed this surgery. It could have been bad if we had waited. She said everything went very well and that shortly we could go back and see him.
--10AM: They called our name to head back to post-op. He was hysterical, bothered by the IV in his foot and asking for "mama" which is to be expected coming out of anesthesia. I grabbed him and cuddled with him, telling him how proud I was. He asked for daddy and RoRo and as soon as my dad got back there he fell asleep on my chest. He hasn't done that since he was a baby--my heart was mush. We had to wait until 10:30AM to be dismissed. About 10:20AM the nurse came to take out his IV, gave us the discharge papers, and explained all the home recovery info we needed to know. We put his PJ's back on and carried him out to the car. He was literally the only child not screaming and crying leaving the hospital.
--10:45AM: We made it back home (so nice to only live 3 minutes from the hospital now!). He asked for a popsicle outside with RoRo.

Throughout the rest of that day he was very tired. We rotated his meds every 3 hours and he slept a lot. I had to check on him several times to make sure he was breathing because for the first time in a year, he wasn't snoring or making noise while sleeping! That night, he slept 10 hours before waking and needing medicine again. He did really good eating popsicles and applesauce and drinking fluids for the most part.

Things didn't get super hard until Sunday night, into Monday and then Tuesday. He did not want to drink at all and he was starting to get severely dehydrated. I came very close to taking him to the ER for fluids because no matter what we tried, he wasn't drinking enough. The highest his fever got was 103.5, but it hovered around 101-101.5 for several days. I am SO SO SO thankful my mom came to help! I probably could've done it by myself but I would've been absolutely miserable. I had to tough love him several times and often it would take 2 hours for him to drink 3 oz of fluid. It got to the point I didnt' let him do anything until he drank. It was awful.

Finally, Wednesday was the turning point. He started acting more himself and actually asked for a drink. He consistently drank water, gatorade, milk, and PediaSure chocolate shakes and actually had an appetite. He woke up hungry for breakfast and then had a big lunch too. My mom had to head home early Wednesday morning so I am very grateful things started turning around.

I am very, very thankful we had this surgery done. And I am very, very thankful God provided the finances to pay for it and that we had so many people lifting us up in prayer and checking on us to see how we were doing. It's never easy to make decisions like that when it concerns your child, but it helps when you know it's the best thing for them. Hopefully this will help his night terrors go away completely and he will start sleeping better from here on out. He has basically been exhausted 24/7 for the last year because even though he slept a lot, his quality of sleep was terrible. Thankful for modern medicine and a relatively quick recovery!


Photo Documentation:

Right before they gave him the Versed medicine--he loved Russ' watch!

Meds were kicking in pretty good at this point. 

He kept asking "what time it is?" 

Our super sweet nurse, Kathy, prepping him to go back

riding the "choo choo train" to the OR

Evie was loving her newfound freedom of walking in the waiting room

part of our support team!

back home with popsicles

feeling good enough to color with RoRo

About 5 days post-op. Finally drinking more fluids

He was so proud and wanted to show daddy he was drinking juice

Now that we are 10 days post-op, Holt is finally back to himself and drinking his normal amount of fluid. He does still have some pain--sometimes he tells me his ear hurts, but that's just residual pain shooting up to his ears--but he really only needs tylenol or ibuprofen once or twice a day. It was tough, surgery usually is, but I am extremely grateful to our pediatrician for taking our concerns seriously and referring us to Dr. Stinson. I have no doubt things could've gotten pretty bad in the near future had we not taken action now. Thankful to have my healthy boy back!