Balch Family Blog

Carsten is growing like a weed at 23 lbs 14 oz and a whopping 34 inches tall! He has 2 oz and 3 1/2 inches on Camden at the same age.

Camden is also growing despite his limited food intake. He weighs 38 1/2 lbs and is 41 1/4 inches tall. He is just about average when compared to others.

8 actually were just taken by Mr. Carsten Lee Balch!

We have a fun day planned, well fun to a 4 yr old!  Breakfast with his play mate Brielle at McDonald’s then lunch with Dad at Camden’s choice…Chick-Fil-A!  Tonight we have our last night of VBS and we might bring cupcakes for our special birthday picnic.

Camden will be turning 4 in just a few short days. It is so hard to believe. We are having a cowboy party, complete with a horse pinata and a horse saddle on a hay bale. We are having a giant cookie instead of cake and root beer floats. I hope he has lots of fun!

We are going for family pictures today, Camden’s 4 yr old and Carsten 15 (almost 16) month pictures. I hope they turn out well.

Both boys go for a check up on Monday. I am really interested in how big Carsten is compared to other kids. He has yet to take his real first steps. He did a shuffle step before sitting down the other day, but I don’t consider that walking. I am fine with it, it won’t be long before I am running after him. Camden was a slower walker too (17 months), and he just fine now. He is also following in his brothers steps with not talking. He has a couple words he has used a few times (all done, mama, dog) the only one he uses all the time is dada. He does have 12-15 signs he is using and he understands even complex directions so I am sure it is just a matter of time. It figures that the speech and physical therapist parents would have delayed walkers/talkers! 🙂

Enjoy the rest of the month!

Wow is our June busy!  We started it off by celebrating my Grandmother’s 83rd birthday.  It was really nice to spend some time with family.  Mark and I start a rotation in the nursery.  We work every Sunday this month.  This was a solution to help have consistency in our nursery.  I am attending 2 conferences this month, one is on teaching the preschool child with Autism, and the other is the Early Learning Institute put on by the State Board of Education.  I am excited about both.  I am still doing some private therapy, and working for the school district this summer as well.  Mark starts playing softball next week.  He really enjoys it, and his team did well last season, so that makes it even better.  Camden starts Pee Wee Sports tomorrow.  He will learn the basics for soccer, basketball, and T-Ball over the next 8 weeks.  I hope he enjoys it.  Camden will turn 4 at the end of the month! They didn’t have a class for Carsten and since his music class fell through last semester we need to look for something.  He enjoys pushing things while walking, but has yet to take those First Steps.

I guess that brings us up to date.  Enjoy your summer and keep safe!

Yesterday we drove to Williams, AZ to spend a day with Thomas the Tank Engine. We did this last year, but this year Camden REALLY enjoyed it. He loved the train ride and really got into all that they had for the kids to do. Carsten enjoyed the train ride as well. He stood for most of it, looking out the window.

As a parent, I get more joy out of doing something for my children and seeing their joy they I do when I do something for myself. Just another notch in the parenting belt! I love being a mom!

Here are some pictures of our adventurous weekend.

Here is Thomas:

We are standing in front of an ambulance:

Mark and Camden on the train:

Heather and Carsten on the train:

I have been meaning to write, but I have been busy since we got back. We had a good time in Las Vegas. Andrea’s wedding was beautiful and her cake was delicious! I have some cute pictures of the boys that I will get up later. While in Vegas, Mark took me out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. We took the boys to the Adventure Dome in Circus Circus. Camden enjoyed flying on a plane ride. Carsten stood alone for a fearful 5 seconds and won’t try it again. Our boys were happy to be home and in their own beds. Camden got a new (used) bed. It is a bunk bed with a full on the bottom. He loves it!! He plays in his room now, and he sleeps all night in there which, is great for mom and dad!

 

For Mother’s Day, my boys made me an adorable card complete with an airplane, car and 2 bullet trains. It really reflects my boys! In the afternoon we will be headed over to Mark’s parents house. Mark’s relatives from England are still here so we will go swimming and BBQ hot dogs. It should be nice.

For all of the mother’s that read this, have a wonderful day! You deserve it!

We just returned from Tucson. I went down and took the boys along. I had a conference on Aspergers and High Functioning Autism. My mom watched the boys while I went. It worked out quite well. Next week we are off to Las Vegas to celebrate Andrea’s Wedding. It should be a lot of fun.

I am in the process of registering Camden for Preschool. He will actually attend the special needs preschool where I used to work and her will be a Peer Pal. I will be going to work 2 days a week next school year. I am excited about it. I think it will be the perfect balance of working and staying home. I get employee preference which is nice, so I picked his class and teacher! Camden starts a sports class in June that will teach him the basics of soccer, t-ball, and basketball.
Carsten is learning new things everyday. He is cruising around furniture and getting into everything. Nothing is safe! He is picking up new signs as I teach them to him, his latest include “cookie” and “pacie”. He is quite quick! This morning he used signs to ask for his milk. This was the first completely unprompted request he has made with signs! He also broke his first REAL tooth. The nub that poked through at 6 months never did anything else. This one is through and you can see and feel it!

Mark is still working hard. He is looking forward to getting away for a short time. We also have relatives coming in from England, so our next 3 weeks will be very busy! I will try to write again after the wedding.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We went to an allergist yesterday for Camden.  I will start from the beginning as it seems I never posted on it.  In March, Camden licked the beaters of his brother’s birthday cake batter.  After that he had hives around his mouth.  I notified his doctor and she had a RAST completed.  That is a blood test to see if you are allergic to something.  Results showed he was severely allergic to eggs (The cut off is <0.35 and Camden results were 36.09).  We were prescribed an EPI-pen and sent off to see an allergist.

Well we got in to see him yesterday.  They completed a skin scratch test and the results were negative.  The doctor was quite surprised that Camden had such a high result on the blood test but no reaction to the skin test or to eggs cooked within foods.  After much discussion, it was determined that for the next 6 months we won’t feed him eggs, but it is fine if it is in something that has been cooked.  I have already figured out that he can never eat the LAFFERTY CHOCOLATE PIE!!!  Oh my!  But if that is the worst of it, no big deal!  We will carry an epi-pen, benadryl, and oral steroid with us wherever he is and just closely watch him around new foods.  After the 6 months we will have everything completed again to see where he is.  The doctor said he should out grow it all by the age of 5 or so.

We had a great day last Sunday. It was very relaxed and enjoyable. We went to church in the morning and then hung out at home until the afternoon. Mark’s parents came over and we had an egg hunt. Mark BBQ’d some chickens and they were quite good!

Here are the boys with their baskets.

The boys after church.

 

I have added pictures into our gallery under Our Boys and Easter 2007.  There are more, but it was a pain to get these in, so you will have to settle with what I got in there.