A Monkey Trade

Last night Ryan traded his green cuddly monkey, that he has slept with since he was 6 months old, into the box and got a stuffed monkey. The neck on the monkey cuddly was stretching off of the blanket part, and it was about to fall apart. Plus, as he gets older I didn't want his special thing to look so babyish, so I thought it was time to trade it in.

Here he goes putting the green monkey cuddly into the box.

His new monkey (actually a chimp as Barry has informed us) looks like Curious George. I convinced Ryan not to call him George because he has a friend named George that we play with. So his name is Bongo. Ryan loves that he's a full monkey with arms and legs... but no tail because he's a chimp. 

His was really excited about it, and ready to sleep with it, until time for sleep actually came. Then he wanted the green monkey, but he was gone into the box "because he was old" Ryan said.

Bongo ended up sleeping at the end of the bed which was actually a blessing when Ryan woke up at 2 am throwing up.  Yes, our Thanksgiving feast will be greatly pared down because not only is Ryan sick but so is his dad today.

But even though Ryan is sick this morning he hasn't cried for green monkey like I thought he would. That's a good thing because he's already in the trash can in the alley.

It went so well, that we let Alyna pick an animal this morning on Amazon.com to trade for her bear cuddly. She picked a plush white dog. I'll let you know next week how that trade goes.

littlest singer

Alyna sang her first recognizable lyrics to a song when she was 15 months old... I thought is was remarkably cute and smart of her to sing "row row row bo" over and over again.

But Kellyn, who is very verbal already, is only 13 months old and sings multiple lines of multiple songs.

"buh rou rou rou" (while rolling her arms in a circle)- wheels on the bus go round and round
"bee bee bee" - horn goes beep beep beep

"row row row bo" - row row row your boat

"upa buh buh wa" (while opening and closing her hands) - up above the world so high (from Twinkle Twinkle)

"a face, ooray" - face will surely show it, if you're happy and you know it shout hooray

:E-I-E-I, ah ah"  - E-I-E-I-O, and a dog says "ah"

She also knows where her eyes, ears, mouth, belly button, hands, and feet are. She's a sweety too, and loves to laugh and be tickled.

It's amazing to watch God's development plans for each child as they differ. Each child seems to have talents that also compliment their personalities. I look forward to seeing all their talents develop further over the years.

fall clothes

Grandma may remember an outfit Alyna wore at Christmas when she was 15 months old, playing on the slides outside... it's a long sleeve white shirt with pink and green hearts all over it, and a green fuzzy hooded vest over it.  Kellyn wore it today and looked so cute.

I also realized on Monday that the capri pants Alyna was wearing were starting to look more like bermuda shorts.  I looked at the tag, and they were 18 month size (she's so skinny). So after washing them they became Kellyn's and she wore them yesterday. Alyna had a little trouble with that at first but finally relinquished them to her sister's wardrobe when I told her she had lots of capris but Kellyn needed them.
 
Kellyn is also about to outgrow the really cute shoes I just bought for her 2 weeks ago in Austin... I guess I should have gone up a size, but she needed some to wear right now.

We're having a gorgeous fall day today with a high of about 70 degrees, a cool wind, and lots of cloud cover.  I love when seasons change and the kids get to wear things for the first time. Ryan and Alyna looked super cute this morning in their new light-weight zip-up hoodies I found on clearance at Target earlier this summer. Alyna's is chocolate brown with a pink sparkly stripe down each sleeve. Ryan's is royal blue with a yellow car on the left side.  

I feel very blessed for the clothing choices we have for our children.

big kids now

It's very different only having one toddler, even though I still have twin 3 year olds. With Ryan and Alyna I always worried they would take off in different directions and one would get hurt. With just one toddler I can keep an eye on her more closely, and her siblings are now old enough to know what they should and shouldn't do. That doesn't mean they don't often need assistance or supervision, but it's at a different level.

Kellyn is walking all over the place, and falling often right now. She's testing her balance and strength daily. She now giggles and eagerly complies when I put her shoes on because she knows we're going outside or away from home. She's always eager to go out that door. S

Alyna and Ryan are acting a lot more like preschoolers now and have lost that toddler look altogether. I'm working with them a few times a week with worksheet pages on colors, shapes, patterns, etc. They love when Mommy is the teacher and we do "school" at the big table. Last week we got out a bucket of coins and counted pennies and quarters. They liked playing with the "moneys".  We also use some online educational tools for preschoolers. I also use their toys to have them find things of certain colors and shapes. Their newest favorite activity is painting with water colors. They actually don't make as many messes with it as I was expecting, aside from the occasional spilled water cup.

We recently visited my cousin's family in Keller, TX, and my brother's family in Austin, TX. It was a wonderful trip, and also very tiring. The kids loved playing with their cousins all week, and Ryan didn't even want to come home.

The smell of fall is in the air as the temperatures are finally starting to cool off, at least at night. It's wonderful to be able to play outside with the kids without worrying so much about the heat. I'm looking forward to the fall as it gets physically easier to take the 3 on outings since Kellyn is walking now. It is such a blessing to watch my kids grow and explore their world.

Road Trip TIme

We leave tomorrow for Kellyn's first road trip.  We flew with her to Tennessee in March, but she's never done a trip more than a 2 hour drive away for shopping or appointments in Lubbock or Midland.  I suspect she'll be as good a traveller as her siblings who love to go places, and only occasionally get so tired of their car seats that they start screaming about it.

I took some of toys over to a friend's house this morning and brought some of their toys home with us to take on the trip. With those "new toys", and the DVD player in the van, hopefully the trip will pass quickly.

We're off to the Dallas/Ft Worth area first (about 6 hours away) to visit my cousins, aunt and uncle, and some old friends for a few days. Alyna's been asking to go to the zoo all summer so, weather permitting, we will go to the Ft. Worth zoo on Tuesday. After that we'll have nap time in the car as we drive the 3 1/2 hours south to Austin. We're staying with my brother and his family through the weekend, and plan to also spend some time with  Barry's brother and his wife while we're there.

Ryan and Alyna are very excited about spending time with their cousins, and that includes my cousins' kids whom they've never met before.  We also plan to have their 3rd birthday party while we're in Austin, it'll just be a few days early.

Pictures and more descriptions are sure to follow after the trip...

Other News:

Now 1 year old Kellyn is walking all over the place, except when I put shoes on her. And she's gotten her 4 front teeth in last 4 weeks.  Fun times...

Alyna is starting to understand math concepts like that a $20 bill is bigger than $1 bill. So smart.

Ryan is still not pooping in the potty very often despite being pantless all week at the house... not sure what to try next.

Happy 1st Birthday Kellyn!

Kellyn loves singing, especially "Happy and You Know It" and "God Made the Big Round Sun". She even does most of the motions along with Mommy, except when other people are watching of course. She loves reading books, but is very picky about which one to read next. She also loves to play with her brother's cars much to his dismay. Kellyn loves to play outside, and cries when you take her out of a swing.

She's toddling around, but still working on being able to walk everywhere. She loves visitors, and has some speical friends at church that she goes to immediately and never wants to leave.  

We love her more than any other 1 year old girl in the whole world.

This is serious

I was on duty in the nursery during the worship service the week before last and was talking to Kellyn who was playing a toy. Alyna, who was playing with a baby doll, came around from behind my chair and said, "You're waking my baby up." Then she balled her fists in front of her and said in a stern, serious voice, "This is serious."

I laughed and played along with her, hushing Kellyn. And the scene repeated itself several times as Kellyn wouldn't stop making loud, happy noises playing with her toy.

Tonight I finally remembered at dinner to tell Barry about it, and he laughed and asked her, "What does serious mean?"

Alyna replied, "Mommy was waking my baby up, and that was serious." Again she balled her fists in front of her and used that stern voice, and we just laughed.


She's quite the little drama queen, and loves to dress up in her fairy dress and princess tiara.

Baby's Name

Alyna's baby finally has a name, instead of just being "baby".

Meet "Amy".

Amy... as in "A for me" which is what Alyna always says when she sees the letter A somewhere because A is the first letter in her name. 

I kept asking her what her babies name was and what her favorite name for a baby was, and she just kept saying "A for me". So we decided A-Me was a good name.

Chichen Itza

Our tour of the Mayan Ruins at Chichen Itza picked us up on our hotel early on Tuesday morning. It was a nice big chartered bus and wasn't close to full. It was about a 2 hour drive inland to the ruins. Our tour guide was Rafael. He was witty and knowledgable, and we learned a lot about the Mayan culture and ruins from him. 

Chichen Itza actually means "at the mouth of the well of the wizard". You can imagine that any source of water in that area would be a valuable asset to the people who controlled it.

The large temple is the centerpiece of the area, surrounded by other platforms buildings, and structures to create a wide city center. The temple has 4 sides representing the 4 seasons. Each corner has 9 platforms corresponding to the 9 months of gestation in the birth of  a child. Each side has 90 steps, with the 91st step being the top platform, to represent the days in each season. Each side is also aligned perfectly north, south, east, and west, according to the poles of the earth. And all this was built without use of any modern tools. In fact, scholars have no idea how they managed to build it.

When our guide was asked about the Mayan calendar ending in our year 2012, he responded that the Mayan people didn't mean for that to indicate the end of the world. They understood that life comes in cycles and seasons. Mathematically they came up with some 5000 plus years when creating their calendar. That signaled a changing in life cycles, or a significant event in the life of the people after that. It didn't mean the end of the whole world. Phew.... I was scared there for a moment.

The serpent head and jaguar appear as symbols on the structures and in their writings.

The skulls in the picture above are on the walls of a large platform. This platform is wear the king would display the decapitated heads (impaled on sticks) of enemies or slaves as a warning to any who would try to cross him. He would do this at times when visiting peoples were coming for trade or for games.

Yes, games. The ring in the picture above is in a large rectangular field with a high wall and ring on an opposite wall as well. The object was for the two teams of men to get the ball made from a rubber tree through that ring without using their hands. The legend has it that the winning team would then be given the "honor" of being sacrificed to the gods. I'll take the losing team any day...

The acoustics were amazing in there. Each sound echoed off the four walls bouncing around and around. And you could whisper at one end and be heard clearly all around.

These are some well preserved hieroglyphs under a ledge on one of the walls in the games arena.

Much of the Mayan culture, religion, science, mathematics, and architectural knowledge is lost to us today because the Catholic church burned many of their manuscripts in an attempt to wipe out the paganism. I think that's why much of what we see and hear about them is just the savagery that was part of their survival as a strong people. They are a people of peace now, and the crime is very low where the Mayan descendants live.

nuestros excelentes vacaciones

Barry and I just returned from a 5 day trip to the Mayan Riviera (near Cancun, Mexico). We left a little after 7 am on Sunday and arrived in Cancun at 7:30 pm. It was so much less stressful traveling without our kids. Bathroom stops took only a few minutes as opposed to 20. We were very tired and both had headaches by the time we arrived at our hotel.

Our room was luxurious, and there was even a couch on the balcony that was great for enjoying our ocean view.

The shower was a rainfall shower dropping from above you in the middle of the large walk-in area. Our only complaint of the room at all was that it took a long time to get any hot water to the shower, but it wasn't a big deal because once it heated up it felt great and never ran out.

We spent a lot of our relaxation time on the private beach, just reading and enjoying the sounds of the waves. We even received wonderful massages in a hut on the beach where no noise machines or cds were needed to induce the relaxing atmosphere.

The picture below is of us inside a cabana (Bali bed) on the beach one morning. It was only about 80 degrees but the humidity made us sweat because we aren't used to it where we live. There was a nice breeze the whole time we were there though.

I just had to take a picture of the sand tractor for our son Ryan. It went by a couple times a day raking the sand and collecting the seaweed. 

It was a beautiful All-Inclusive resort called Azul Sensatori, and we didn't have any bad experiences or bad food while we were there.  We did learn quickly that you have to be on guard because it is such a high tourist area and everyone has a "deal" for you. You just have to learn when to take advantage of it and when to walk on by.

The building our room was in was adults-only which was nice because there weren't any kids running up and down the walkways, and there was one whole pool that was adults only too... but every time we saw a family out at the beach or in the restaurants we always said how much fun our own kids would be having. They have a kid pool with shallow area, water slide, and other water squirting apartuses, as well as an indoor playground building with toys for all ages, and playground on the beach. So we definitely will be going back with our kids, hopefully next year.

(Note: On Tuesday, we visited the Mayan ruins at Chichan Itza, but that deserves it's own post in a couple days)

And We're Off

Grandma and Grandpa are here... and Barry and I leave in the morning for a resort outside Cancun, Mexico for the next 5 days. We're very excited, already tired, and ready to go... hopefully.

The morning will not be fun since the kids don't know we're leaving yet... but they are in loving and capable hands while we're gone.

Circus Day!!!

On Saturday we drove to Lubbock, TX to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus. It was lots of fun, and very tiring.

We left our house at 8 am to drop Kellyn and all her pariphanalia off at a friend's house for the day. Mrs. Paul and Mr. John were happy to play grandparents to our "perfect" baby girl for the day (their words, not mine). I think she had lots of fun, and she was sound asleep in her crib at our house when we got home last night.

We left our city at 8:30 and made the almost 2 hour drive to Lubbock with one potty break stop. I'll say right now that Alyna and Ryan both did very well using the potty all day long, with the exception of Ryan's two poopy episodes. He still won't do that on the potty most days. But even on the long drives they stayed dry.

Our first stop in Lubbock was their favorite park. It has a big fortress with winding staircases, ramps, and slides. Of course Ryan and Alyna both spent about 20 minutes on the swings as well. By the time we left the park at 11:30 (our time) for lunch, it was already 90 degrees, so I was glad we had done that first.

We ate at our favorite place to eat with the kids, Rosa's Tortilla Factory. It's our favorite because it's fast, naturally loud, and our kids will actually eat the food.

After that we went to a used tool store for Daddy to buy a new router he needs for building his very own arcade cabinet in the next few months. Then we killed 20 minutes at Barnes & Noble where Mommy visited the bathroom with assorted company 4 different times.

Finally we made our way to Texas Tech's campus arena for the circus show. Alyna and Ryan were both very excited to see the elephants.

At the pre-show, we watched the clowns jump ropes, dance, etc. The kids got circus temporary tatoos on their arms and tried on some glittery costumes.

We found our seats and Ryan looked through the program. They had never been in a big arena before, so just watching all the people was enough to keep them busy until the show started.

We enjoyed the usual circus snacks... cotton candy, popcorn, and fresh squeezed lemonade. All outrageously priced of course.

Ryan actually fell asleep in my lap just before the part he'd been waiting for... the motorcycles. It was also the loudest part of the show just before the finale. I was very glad we hadn't brought Kellyn with us.

We decided against fast food for dinner, and ate at Johnny Carino's, bringing 3 boxes of leftovers home with us to eat for Sunday lunch. Yummy! The 2 hour drive home was uneventful, especially since the kids were engrosed in finishing watching "Monsters Inc." and then "Cars".

I was very proud of the kids' behavior all day. It was an exciting adventure for us.

Just an update...

I haven't posted in a while, but everything here is going fine. We had a long weekend visit from Nana and Aunt Robyn, and a visit the next weekend from Uncle Joel. The kids all love when people come to visit because they get special attention during that time.

As the school year finishes for many families, our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group is also finishing up it meetings. We've got just as many activities planned for the summer though. There's a music class on Tuesdays and a story and play time on Thursdays. Fridays will still be park days when the weather permits.

We're super excited about plans to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus show in Lubbock in a couple weeks.

This weekend I've been working on photo books on Snapfish.com. I finally finished the one for Kellyn's first 2 months, and now I'm going back and doing books for our Europe travels from 2007.

It's fun to look back at pictures and remember the good times. It helps me remember to photograph as many of these precious moments with my children as I can.

Some Spring Pictures

Happy Easter!






We had an easter egg hunt with some friends at the park on Good Friday. Ryan is the kid at the top of the photo (above) standing by the stroller. He had absolutely no interest in picking up the eggs. Alyna picked up about 6, and then she was done even though there were several just lying at her feet.



Kellyn's first time in the big bathtub... 8 months old. Right after I took this picture both Ryan and Alyna joined her in the tub. They actually saved their splashing and wrestling for when Kellyn got out.



Splish, splash... we've already had some 90 degree days...




Kellyn gets her own little pool this year... she loves to sit in it and play with her toys.

Picnic Fail... but it was fun anyway

Yesterday we called a service to have our yard sprayed for weeds (because they get so bad in our area). They said it would be 2 weeks... and then the guy shows up at 9:30 this morning. The spray is animal and kid safe once it dries, but I still don't like the kids to play in it for a couple days after the spray because Ryan still puts things in his mouth that he shouldn't.

The kids had been playing outside for a while and didn't like it when I picked up all their outside toys and made them come inside. So I figured we better go have lunch at a park so they could run off some of that 2 year old energy.

We go to the park on Fridays at lunch time a lot, and I usually just hit the Wendy's drive thru and put some chicken nuggets and fries in their cup holders to eat while we drive to the park. Then when we get there they play while I eat my lunch and feed Kellyn hers.

But since we ate at McDonald's yesterday, I didn't want to do yucky fast food again. So I took a container with ham, turkey, and chunks of cheddar cheese, and another container with strawberries and bananas slices.

It was the perfect spring day weather for the outing. Warm and sunny with a nice soft breeze blowing through the trees.

The kids immediately went to the swings, and I put Kellyn on a big blanket with some toys in the shade of a large tree nearby. A school group had left just as we pulled up, and we were the only ones at the park. I pushed them on the swings for a while, and then went to feed Kellyn her bottle while they played on the slides.

The picnic part didn't work out so well. Ryan only wanted to eat the cheerios that are Kellyn's little finger food snack. Then at one point while I was looking over at Kellyn, ALyna tried to step over the container of meat to reach for a strawberry, and she tipped all the meat onto the blanket. When I had laid the blanket out I realized that it had dog hair all over it, and then our meat did too. The kids all kept fussing because the bugs were buzzing around their heads if they stayed still for too long.

Then some friends showed up. I had put out on Facebook right before we left that we were going to the Harry McAdams state park, but I didn't really expect anyone else to meet us there on such short notice. I've met Kelly and son George through the MOPS program and also the Friday park playdates. George is just a couple months younger than the twins, and they seem to get along really well. Ryan always comes home from MOPS talking about playing with him.

So the kids played for a while, and then we all walked over to the pond to throw some bread to the ducks. We did that until the kids started wandering too far away from us and then we headed back to the playground.

Alyna and Ryan were exhausted and cranky by the time we got home which was right at their normal nap time. After quick potty stops they both climbed in bed. Kellyn had fallen asleep in her car seat, so I just brought the carrier inside the house and put it in her room. She woke up just a few minutes ago and I moved her to her bed.

I sit here under the cool breeze of a ceiling fan, looking out the big window at the red flowers, pink roses, and green trees. I can faintly hear sound from the lullabies playing in the kids room, and I feel supremely blessed by God.

Doing well so far...

Note: We currently only have 3 pair of underwear in the 18 month size that will stay up on Ryan's hips. The Cars underwear I bought to entice him are size 2T and just fall right off. I've ordered more of the 18 month size, but they aren't here yet, so I'm working with 3 pair for this week.

Monday: quickly went through all 3 pair of underwear and went to pullups the rest of the day, no successful potty trips

Tuesday: our outings day with Ladies Bible Class and lunch, so I put him on the potty several times but we just used Pull-Ups

Wednesday: peed all over underwear and the floor mid-morning, peed in his Pull-Up at nap time, mid-afternoon I saw him start to wiggle and put him on the potty... success. Wore Pull-Up to church and stayed dry. Peed at home before bedtime. = 2 pees in the potty

Thursday (today): woke up wet, put on "dinosaur" underwear, saw him start to dance around snack time... Success again. He had peed the slightest amount before making it to the potty, but at least it didn't end up as a mess on the floor.

It's working. Of course, then there's the pooping issue...

We did it, Hooray!

I'm calling Alyna officially potty trained.

She wore panties all weekend, except for overnight, and didn't have any accidents. And the only accidents she's had in the last 2 weeks were when we were out and couldn't make it to the potty in time, but she had told us before-hand.

At Opryland hotel she told us she had to go potty, and I started following signs to the restroom. We got in there, pulled down her pants and her pull-up, and oops there she went. She held it while we were looking, but I just couldn't get her up on the toilet in time.

The nice thing is that she only pees in her pull-up overnight probably 2 nights a week. The rest of the time she wakes up to use the potty in the early morning and then goes back to sleep.

This week I'm really starting on Ryan.

beautiful spring day

It's 82 degrees outside, and the first beautiful rose just opened up this morning on the bush outside my picture window. We had a playdate at the church this morning with 3 year old Cole so that his mom and I could work on the upcoming ladies day ToDo list. I took the 3 kids at Wendy's, and then to the park for more playtime with lots of other moms and babies/kids.

Kellyn conked out on the way home from the park, and the twins have finally given in to nap time. I didn't get much sleep last night but the sunshine energized me so I don't want to go take a nap now. I'm going to have some "Me" time, and stream the Dave Ramsey show on the internet.

Home again...

Home is such a great place to be...

We were all very glad to be back in our own beds on Monday night after flying all day. The kids had fallen asleep on the way home from the airport, and went straight to bed. They even slept in past 7 am in the morning which was wonderful since they had been waking up at 6:45 central time all week.

We had a wonderful time in my parents full house. 3 infants, 4 bigger kids, and 8 to 14 adults made for a noisy but wonderful family reunion.

We had planned to the Nashville zoo on Friday, but the weather didn't cooperate. Instead, we had lunch at a Japanese steakhouse where they cook in front of you, and then we went to the Opryland hotel. When we walked in the door Alyna said, "a jungle," as she pointed ahead of us. She did figure out quickly that it was a jungle without animals and was quite disappointed by that. Ryan just wanted to climb every set of stairs we came to, and there were a lot of them.

Friday night Barry and I went to dinner and the bookstore by ourselves. It's always enjoyable to finish a meal without having to share it, or get up to change a diaper.

On Saturday we did a photo shoot to get pictures of the whole family, the individual families, me with my siblings, the cousins, and the cousins with the grandparents. Of all the children to meltdown we never would have suspected it would be the 2 year old girl who loves to pose for the camera. Alyna just did not want to be there that day, and threw fits the whole time. I had to be the one holding her and forcing her to face the camera in the family photos. Candy was the only thing keeping her in place during the pictures with just the kids. After we said we were all done, she was perfectly fine again.

Saturday night my siblings and I and all our spouses went to dinner at O'Charley's. We don't see each other very often as adults, and it was a nice time to renew our adult friendships with each other.

Sunday for lunch we had a room reserved at Christy's 6th Street Restaurant and Cafe in Columbia. It was a wonderful place for the occasion, and they had a great home-style cooking buffet with roast, mac 'n cheese, mashed potatoes, salads, and more.

I was also able to do some shopping on a couple occasions and returned home with much needed new dress clothes.

We're still exhausted from the trip and the overcast skies here on Tuesday didn't help that, but the sunshine today is encouraging me to get things done.

To grandma's house we go...

We fly out on Wednesday morning for Grandma and Grandpa's house in Tennessee (my parents). It's supposed to rain most of the week, so some of our plans may change, but it will still be a good time of our family all being together.

Grandma and Grandpa
My older brother, his wife, and 2 boys (11 and 8)
Our family of five
My sister, her husband, and their 6 week old baby girl
My brother, his wife, and their 5 month old baby boy
2 of my aunts and their husbands

That's 14 adults, and 7 kids (3 of which are infants).

Many of us are actually staying at the grandparents house... at least until we decide we need to do otherwise.

Grandpa is saying it's an invasion, but of the best kind.

You know a kid is sick...

You know a kid is sick when they won't eat anything and they don't argue with taking another long nap.

Kellyn had a stomach bug on Tuesday, throwing up several times and having stomach cramps throughout the night. Wednesday she was feeling better except that she hadn't slept or eaten like normal, so she was just out of sorts. She seems all better today except for the diarrhea hanging on.

Alyna didn't eat dinner last night, didn't want a bedtime snack, and went to sleep saying her tummy hurt. She talked in her sleep last night, which is something I do when I'm stressed or not feeling well. She woke up with a 100.5 degree fever still saying her tummy hurt. She laid on the couch watching TV all morning. At 10:30 am she finally ate some mandarin oranges, but I think that gave her some stomach cramps. She fell asleep on the couch during a movie and I moved her to her own bed around 11. She woke up at 12:15 and cuddled with me in a chair. I moved her to the couch at 12:45 so I could put Kellyn and Ryan down for a nap. As I took Ryan to bed, I saw her eyes drooping, so I carried her to her bed again for another nap. She didn't fuss at all about it. I did make her drink some water before laying down because I'm worried she's getting dehydrated. Poor thing...

Better this week than next, and at least I got some sleep last night. Tuesday night with Kellyn I didn't sleep much at all and never for more than an hour at a time. And of course this week is the one that's important for Barry to work overtime and even work the weekend because he's in charge of the big software turnover at the plant.

I just pray it runs its course through everyone before Tuesday, because we fly to Tennessee on Wednesday.

Sunbeams from Heaven

Today is definitely a day to play outside. There's blue skies, lots of sunshine, a slightly cool breeze, and a high of 76 degrees. Being at an elevation of 3500 feet above sea level, our sunshine is very direct and hot year round. I realized this morning when we were outside at 9:30 am in shorts and t-shirts that I didn't have any sunscreen to put on us. We stayed outside for about 45 minutes.

When Kellyn woke from her nap we trekked to the grocery store to buy items for our congregation's food pantry. We took them up to the church, changed diapers and made a potty stop, and headed off again for lunch at the park.

In the drive-thru I ordered a burger for myself with no onions and no pickles, and Alyna said, "I don't like tickles." 2 year olds are so funny.

We met several other local moms and their young kids at the playground. I pushed Alyna in the swing for probably 20 minutes, while Ryan ran around and played in the bark/dirt with his new friend "George".

I borrowed sunscreen from one of the moms, and I'm hoping the kids didn't get burned, especially Kellyn. I had her in the umbrella stroller facing away from the sun with a hat on, but her legs were in the sunshine the whole time. I actually think that if anyone is sunburned, it's me.

tough stuff

It's hard to wait on things to go your way especially when you are 2 years old, and especially when you're always waiting on your baby sister.

Ryan had several melt-downs this morning as he repeatedly had to wait for Mommy to finish something with Kellyn before doing something "very important" for him. During her morning bottle he wanted a rice rusk for a snack. During her lunch time bottle I made the mistake of saying that when she was done I would fix their lunch. So he stood beside me and whined that she was done for the whole time. Then during Kellyn's baby food lunch he dropped one of his cars into a hole in a taped up diaper box. He had to wait until she was done so that I could get the scissors to open the box. Ryan was not happy at all about that.

I know these are actually good lessons for him to learn about delayed gratification, but having a constantly screaming 2 year old today is wearing my nerves thin.

"Teach me LORD to wait, down on my knees, 'till in Your own good time, You answer my pleas..."

getting close

We're all well again after a long month of one person being sick after the other. Kellyn is eating even more than before her RSV, and back to only waking up once at night. I think she's in another growth spurt which means by the end of this month she could be a 7 month old in 12 month clothing. She's already wearing the clothes from when Alyna was learning to crawl and pull up on things.

2 weeks from tomorrow we fly out to Tennessee to see my parents. All of my siblings and their families will be there for that weekend. There will be 10 adults, 4 children ages 2-11, and 3 babies (1 to 6 months old). Fun times. 2 of my aunts and their husbands, and 1 of my cousins are also joining us for family time that weekend. It will seem really quiet at home after having all those people in an 1800 square foot house. 13 of us are actually sleeping at that house for 4-5 nights too. We'll see how that works...

I've got my packing list mostly done, but the time is approaching quickly. We bought the kids their own adjustable size headphones for this trip so they can more easily watch videos on our video MP3 players. At least I'm not flying by myself with the 3 kids this time.

barefoot in the back yard

Yesterday morning I could not persuade Ryan or Alyna to put shoes on to go outside to play. Apparently if the temperature is over 65 degrees and the sun is shining, shoes are a burden even though the dead brown grass is prickly. In fact, this morning while it was still about 40 degrees, Ryan had to stand on the porch for a couple minutes barefoot and without a jacket before he would agree to put them on. Now he's happily playing outside in the sunshine, without shoes on, while he waits for Alyna to wake up from her extended nap. They are definitely kin to their grandma who grew up on a farm in Missouri, and still prefers to go barefoot.

Kellyn is mostly feeling better from her RSV. She's developing her jumping skills in the jumperoo, and reaching to play with more toys each day. Her breathing still rattles in her chest some, and she still coughs after drinking fluids. We're keeping her home for a couple more days.

Her 6 month stats from last week's dr. visit: 17 lbs and 7 oz, 25 1/2 inches. She's getting to be a hefty weight to carry around for long periods.

stuff and RSV (edited)

Our keyboard was broken, but the new one arrived today. The few Facebook status updates I'd done this week were in the Kylo web browser with a keyboard you use the mouse to point and click. It was painful to click every letter in even a few sentences or to log into a site.

Please pray for Kellyn. She has RSV which is a respiratory infection that is serious in babies. At this point she doesn't need the hospital.

It started with the same cold Ryan and Alyna had last week, but they got better in about 3 days, and hers had hung on for 5. She started wheezing and not eating as much on Wednesday which is what worried me. I took her to the doctor, and sure enough, it's RSV.

The doctor said that as long as she can breathe and is drinking enough to have a wet diaper she is fine to stay at home. If she goes more than 6 hours without a wet diaper we have to go to the hospital for fluids. Right now she seems content to drink about 2-3 oz (half her normal bottle) at a time. So we've been giving her half a bottle every couple hours instead of her normal feeding schedule.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights she had woken up every hour or two, and she didn't nap well during the day either. After just one dose of medicine and one breathing machine treatment, she only woke up 2 times Thursday night. I changed her wet diaper and fed her a few ounces each time and she would go right back to sleep. She has also taken long naps today which I know will help her body fight this off quickly.

Ryan and Alyna are being their normal 2 year old selves. They start whining when I have to pay so much attention to "baby sister", but they love her long naptime in the morning because Mommy plays with them. This morning we played hide and seek. Alyna especially liked to count and then seek, and Ryan liked to hide with me. They were taught this game by their older friends Madison and Casey who come over to play frequently. Ryan and I would crouch behind a big chair or the ottoman and there were lots of screaming giggles when Alyna finally found us. It's a good thing Kellyn is a sound sleeper back in her room.

Alyna has started to protest her afternoon nap... yet she sleeps for an hour and a half to two hours. Ryan is always ready to go down, but only sleeps a little over an hour, and when he wakes up and sneaks out of the room he gets some precious Mommy cuddle time all by himself.

Kellyn's big new thing is to give kisses... (germs and all)... She grabs my face with both hands and plants her open mouth on my cheek and says "ahhhh". Then I turn and kiss her cheek and say "ahhh". She does it repeatedly until something else distracts her. Such a sweet girl...

I should also mention that 2 weeks of waiting on a part for a dishwasher (because they ordered the wrong part the first time) is really killing my motivation to cook. I just want to eat out and not have constant pile of dishes to wash, but I can't even do that because of sick kids...

I thank God for all my blessings and hope to persevere through the trials.

too much at once

Sometimes too many things happen at one time and chaos reigns for a few minutes.

It's 8:30 am and Kellyn is crying because she's hungry. She is also because she is tired from waking up an hour earlier than normal after going to bed half an hour late. Her crying escalates as I prepare her food.

Just as I pick her up to go eat, Alyna informs me she needs to poop. So I put Kellyn back down and take Alyna to the bathroom and get her situated. Since there's no telling how long it will take, I go ahead and take Kellyn to her high chair. She's crying so much though that she won't eat.

So Kellyn is now crying very loudly, Alyna shouts that she pooped in the potty and needs me to come wipe her, and Ryan walks up and says "yuck" showing me his messy hands. Apparently a toy ball mysteriously landed in the bowl of yogurt and he got yogurt all over his hand during its retrieval.

UGH!!!

So I leave the crying baby, and take Ryan to the bathroom with me. I turn the water on for him to rinse his hands off while I wipe Alyna's bottom and get her situated. I finish washing Ryan's hands, give Alyna her sticker, and finally return to a screaming Kellyn.

It takes a pacifier, diaper change, and some songs to calm Kellyn down enough that she would actually eat something. Then she went down for her nap without much of a fuss. Poor girl...

new (old) toys

It's lots of fun every time I pull out a toy from the twins days as babies and get to see Kellyn learn to play with it too. This walk-around table was one of their favoites, and will definitely be one of Kellyn's favorites too.

Her first time in it... and she's up on her tip toes trying to move around.






And of course the twins found a way to make it fun for everyone...

Long night

Last night was one of many long nights we've had juggling 3 kids under the age of 3. At least when a child is sick I can understand it... not that it's any easier on my body.

We've all had colds this week, and I thought we were all getting over it, but Ryan's cough became progressively worse throughout the day yesterday.

Last night he coughed a lot at bedtime of 7:45, and went to sleep only to wake up again at: 9:30, 11:10, and 12:09. When he didn't stop coughing by 12:30 Barry moved to the couch in the living room and I brought Ryan into our bed so I didn't have to get up every time he needed to sit up and cough or take a drink.

We had a humidifier running right beside the bed, rubbed vapoRub on his chest, and let him eat spoonfuls of raw honey at regular intervals. He didn't have any fever, but we did give him a little tylenol to help with the pain in his throat. The poor kid just kept coughing until after 2:15 am.

He finally fell asleep for real around 2:30, and Kellyn woke up at 2:40. It took Barry 20 minutes to put her back to sleep, only for her to wake up again at 3:40. I fed her and then she seemed wide awake and just wouldn't fall asleep until 4:30. She wasn't really crying, just fussing enough for me to have to keep going in to sooth her a bit every 5-10 minutes.

Then I got to sleep until 5:19 when Ryan woke up coughing again. He coughed off and on until Alyna and Kellyn both woke up at 6:30 am.

Kellyn Sits Up

I can't believe that at only 5 months and 3 weeks old Kellyn has started sitting up on her own. She's still learning how to lean toward things without falling, but she's made great progress just since yesterday. She seems so ready to go run and play with her older siblings. I don't want her to grow up too fast, but it's exciting every time they hit a new developmental milestone.

Alyna thinks it is pretty cool that the baby is sitting up... just wait until Kellyn starts crawling.

School zone

Kellyn's toys are fast taking up space in the living room... see...



The big kids needed more space for their big kid activities. Since we plan on doing preschool and at least the first few years at home, I decided to create a "school zone" early.



The cabinet keeps art supplies and play-do out of reach on the top shelves, and other activities like hand puppets put away from sight.

The sling bookshelf is easily accessable to the little hands, and the other bookshelf is nice for placing preschool activity toys like puzzles, shapes buckets, stacking toys, and alphabet toys.

The table is just their size and great for all their activities. We still need to purchase little chairs for it, but for now they are at the right height to stand for the activiites anyway.



Today's preschool activities during Kellyn's morning nap included puzzles, coloring, naming shapes and colors, and finally playing with balloons. I always have to give them the exact same color balloons or they'll end up fighting over the same one.



After those activities I did my 22 minute pilates workout. Barry and I are wanting to take a beach vacation by ourselves this summer which means I've really got to get working on getting back into shape. It's really good motivation...