Year Recap

One only has to go back and read posts from this blog to see how our year has been. It has been quite a year. As the calendar turned to 2011, I was still adjusting to my new job and Latana was getting sick of carrying around twins in her belly. Shortly after the start of the 2011, I got a call from my father that he was again having major surgery. This time it was very serious and while he was recovering in the ICU, I flew out to Maryland to see him. I couldn't stay nearly as long as I would have liked because I had a (very) pregnant wife at home and a 2-year-old boy to take care of. Before the week was over on January 26th, my father passed away and we miss him very much. Two days later, Latana had a regularly scheduled prenatal checkup where she presented with high blood pressure. Her doctor decided that it was time for the twins to come into the world. One week after my father passed away on February 2nd, Jace Eli and Jenner Scott came into our lives. We were very happy to see them, but we had to visit them in the NICU over the next two weeks while they finished developing their lungs. During their stay in the NICU, Chay was not allowed to see his brothers. So we tried to juggle a normal home life for Chay while we spent as much time as we could at the NICU. The twins both came home on February 17th. This meant an adjustment for Chay as he not only had to contend with one infant in the house but two! Chay was a trouper though and showed that he could be a great big brother. The next few months were spent with Latana on maternity leave taking care of the twins with Chay in daycare and me at work. April rolled around and Jace decide to be a colicky baby and spit up his formula every chance he got. Thankfully Jenner was easy-going and didn't need too much attention. Latana's maternity leave ran out, but we did not have anyone to watch the twins yet. So Latana worked half-time from home for a while. The twins would not be able to attend Chay's daycare until October so we had arranged for Latana's cousin Ashely to watch the twins while we worked, but the only catch was we had to wait for her to graduate from high school first. So Latana watched the twins until the end of May when Ashley could start coming to the house during the week. Ashley split time with her mother Michelle and both did a wonderful job watching the twins. The summer went too quickly as everyone started settling into their schedules. Latana & I were working, Chay was still attending daycare and the twins stayed home. I'm not sure how the summer went by so fast, but I guess that's what happens when you're taking care of three kids under the age of 3. Over the summer, the twins had a series of "firsts" including rolling over for the first time, getting their first teeth, and crawling for the first time. Chay had his own "firsts" including his first boat ride and his first baseball game. When the calendar turned to October Chay turned 3 and the twins started attending Chay's daycare. Everyone seems to enjoy it there. Even though I can't get Chay to admit it yet, I think that Chay really likes Jace & Jenner being there. The last two months of the year were as uneventful as you can probably get (compared to the first 10 months) considering we had Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season.

Over the course of the year, we have had a lot of fun watching our three boys grow. Jenner is so much like Chay it can be scary. He shows all of Chay's traits. It's been fun watching twins grow up. These two are nothing alike and don't always do things on the same schedule. Jace is normally the first one to do something. Jace was the first to breath on his own in the NICU. First to eat in the NICU. First to pass his car seat test in the NICU. First to be ready to come home. First to roll over. First to get teeth. First to crawl and first to stand. First to take one tiny step. But I'm not so sure that Jenner is going to let Jace be first for everything in 2012. Jenner is the first one to take multiple steps and start walking, but the past week Jace has started walking too. Now that both are starting to walk, we'll have to see how much trouble they will both get in.

We hope everyone has a great year in 2012!