Steps for Strawberries

It's not a fundraiser... it's what Kiley took on Saturday. Her first couple of consecutive steps. I had gotten a bowl of strawberries for snack and sat down near where she and Martin were playing. I was feeding her little bites of strawberry when she decided she wanted her own whole strawberry. She walked two steps to me to reach in the bowl and get it! She's done it a couple of times since then, but still prefers to crawl. The only other thing I can think that's significant in her development is that we've been working to teach her to go 'feet first' when she gets off the bed or couch and it's been mostly working for awhile. I still hold onto her and ease her way down, but at least she no longer races to the edge and laughs as she lunges head first off the bed!

Our last 'free' weekend before the start of sports turned out to be pretty busy. We had a last-minute but fun pool party for Jake's birthday. Thanks to all of his friends who came out to celebrate on short notice! We went out with my Mom and brother to celebrate with them as well, and we managed to get in a date night! We ate at Pappasito's and went to see the Harry Potter movie. We even had a couple of drinks, which we rarely have a chance to do :) It was nice...

This weekend would have been crazy with the start of the kids' sports, but it's RAINING!! So, all games are cancelled for opening weekend. Sydney still has two birthday parties to go to tomorrow and an adventure guides meeting on Sunday (Daddy/daughter activity). This is one instance where a blended family is a bonus - Martin is in a wedding this weekend, so we have a rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, a volunteer commitment at church and a church retreat this weekend as well!

Back to School

What a busy month it's been. We ended summer with a bang. Since my last post, we spent a family day at Six Flags in San Antonio, part of a weekend at Schlitterbahn with the Crider-Bleil family, and then a long weekend at the Hill Country Hyatt in San Antonio with our three kids and three friends of our kids.

We always enjoy the Hill Country Hyatt and it worked out well even with so many kids :). We watched movies on the lawn, made s'mores, tanked up on the breakfast buffet, enjoyed the lazy river, visited the Long Bar and had a lot of fun visiting with friends from the neighborhood who came in with their families on the last night we were there. On our last night, I awoke in the wee hours with a raging fever and chills. I had developed a kidney infection, without ever having signs of a UTI/bladder infection. Weird, but apparently it happens sometimes. I was no help at all with packing and getting out of the hotel, and in the midst of all of that, we left two envelopes of cash that two of the other kiddos' parents had given us - one of which had $100. What's worse is that since I was so sick when we came home (fever up to 103-104 for three nights in a row) that it wasn't until today that I was sure we had left the envelopes. I called the hotel on a whim because I was just mad at myself and couldn't let it go. I was SHOCKED to have the housekeeping manager tell me that they have our money. Yes, it was the right thing for the employee to turn it in, but even if we called and were SURE we had left it, someone could always have argued that they threw away the envelopes with the papers they were with (schedule of events for the hotel, etc.). Regardless, I am so extremely impressed and just wanted to plug this hotel. It's a blast for the kids. It's pricey, but once you're there you don't have to leave and it's just good fun for the whole family. We actually typically get a rate of less than $200 by booking in advance and using a AAA discount. Be sure to ask for the breakfast coupons if you have AAA; they make a big difference in your overall costs as well - they are supposed to be for two adults but our waitress last year comped all four of us for the breakfast buffet with the coupons.

On Monday we started our first ever bout with lice. Yes, it's a yucky topic but I'm finding it is AMAZINGLY common among our friends. I'm grateful to Sydney's friend's Mom for giving us a heads up and to Martin for having a clue what to look for. I would never have pegged the tiny little dots in her hair for eggs (nits) but that's what they were. It's not unheard of for a first time occurrence within a family to hit every member since people don't know what to look for and don't catch it with the first victim. Thankfully we did and now I know that when your kid says, 'Mom, my head really itches when I sweat' - the appropriate answer is NOT 'Oh yeah, mine does too, I think that's really common...' Doh! If someone could follow me around right now and count the number of times I itch my head in a day it would be comical - it's amazing what the power of suggestion can do! My last word on the subject - I highly recommend Lice, M.D. as an OTC product to treat if you are ever unlucky enough to take on this vermin in your household.

We rounded out the summer with some math tutoring for Sydney at Mathnasium. She went with friends and seemed to enjoy it. She wrapped up her reading tutoring and Jake his keyboarding that they did over the summer. As long as the kids stay up to speed, we won't be doing any outside tutoring this year - fingers crossed!!! Sydney's reading really seemed to take off - Jake has been telling her she needs to be reading chapter books in 3rd grade and she has stepped up to the challenge. She's been capable, but has enjoyed the picture books more. But, I think with the continued tutoring through the summer she's really ready to make the switch to all chapter books - we'll see.

The kids are back in school and Jake is already loaded up with homework. He is NOT happy about it and a little worried that his teacher doesn't like him. She seems nice but a little reserved, and very firm with her rules. Jake is used to having some leeway (in the past teachers have cut him some slack on his behavior, he's sometimes gotten extra time on tests, etc. - in short, he's historically gotten some special treatment at school that he's enjoyed), and he doesn't typically deal well with people who are inflexible or call him out on stuff directly unless he's really sure that they are on his side. It will be interesting to see how things work out for him with his teacher - regardless, I'm sure he'll learn a lot and it will be good for him. I think it's going to be a tough year - lots of writing, which is hard for any kid but esp. for one with his learning challenges, as it involves so much focus to take your thoughts and form them into words and meaningful sentences and paragraphs. Then just the mechanics of writing out those words can be tough for him. I've noticed he still reverses some of his numbers and letters when he's not really focused, and his handwriting isn't great. But, he's overcome amazing hurdles and I don't expect him to stop now.

We LOVED Jake's teacher last year and hoped for her for Sydney this year. She got Mrs. Coughenour instead, but she seems really nice and like a very good fit for Sydney. Sydney is happy; she doesn't have any of her really good friends in her class, but I like that she'll have the chance to get close to a new group of girls and she's got a good attitude about it.

The kids continue in their music lessons - piano for Sydney and guitar for Jake. Sydney has started soccer and Jake has started football as well. Jake may also do some practice/training sessions at Catz to help him learn LaCrosse before the spring season. A group of boys from the neighborhood are taking lessons there and loving it. And, Sydney may do gymnastics with Bria, although I'm skeptical about that being a long-term activity for her (she's not very flexible). But, I love for the kids to try new things and Sydney and Bria would do just about anything they could do together :).

Kiley is standing - today she let go and took a step between a stool and my leg. It was so quick I don't know if we're officially calling it her first step - but she's definitely going to be walking soon. She still drags the front of her foot under when she steps forward - particularly on her right foot, and most of the time she just folds it under and goes down on her knee to crawl.

She's also getting a second tooth on the bottom left (first one was bottom right). We're working on expanding her diet and she's definitely eating more solids. She hadn't gained much weight at all when we had her 9-month appointment - her height and weight were right about 50th percentile - which is way down for her. But, since then her appetite has really picked up. She's no longer nursing, although she will try if she has the opportunity. I went on a weekend away (scrapbooking) and barely got any milk, pumping all weekend. I think her weight gain had stalled because my body just wasn't producing. So, we started her on formula at the first of August. I was going to stop nursing altogether at that point, but she seemed to really want to keep going so I did for a couple of weeks. Now, I've had that kidney infection and had to take wicked strong antibiotics, so I would have had to stop if I hadn't already. I miss that sweet bonding time with her, but I think it was time.

Other highlights of August were having Kiley's child dedication at the church, with my Mom and aunt and Martin's parents in attendance. My aunt was in town to celebrate her 81st Birthday with us! The dedication was a very nice ceremony where we broke into groups and prayed for the little ones individually with the family and a prayer leader. Our friends the Craxtons from church were there with their baby girl Chloe, and I hope that will be a special bond for the two little girls growing up.

I got to go on a girls' night to see Wicked with my Austin Jr. Forum friends (a volunteer group I used to be very active in). It was just as good as when Martin and I saw it in San Antonio in June! My friends have had lots going on - we helped one of them move out of her family home on Saturday and another close friend's husband has filed for divorce as well. At the same time, another good friend has been trying hard for a baby and just found out she's pregnant - what a blessing! And, a friend from church has adopted two elementary age boys. We are hoping to have them over for dinner very soon and meet her sons.

Finally, we celebrated Jake's 10th Birthday on the first day of school. We bought him a remote controlled helicopter at the mall and got take-out from Carino's. His real celebration was the long weekend away with two friends right before back to school. And, we'll have another little party with my family as soon as we can find a night that works for us all.

We haven't been great about taking photos but I know we have some and I will try to get a group together to post soon.

A tooth, a tiny baby step, and temper tantrums - oh my!!!

On Monday, we noticed that Kiley is getting a tooth!! A tiny little nub of a tooth on the bottom. She's been more fussy than usual but not awful. Wednesday, she took the tiniest baby step and then fell on her bottom. It was more like she just accidentally shuffled her foot forward but still... Then yesterday, we noticed something that the kids and I found quite amusing. Jake was playing on the computer and Kiley kept messing with him. He told her very gently and not at all in a stern voice, 'No Kiley you can't mess with that. No.' To which she promptly burst into tears and threw herself backwards onto the ground. This scenario was repeated several times, proving there was a definite pattern between her being told 'No' and her bursting into tears and flinging herself backwards. She is absolutely throwing little baby temper tantrums and it's cracking us up! Sydney found it slightly less amusing when I told her she used to do the exact same thing and get the same reaction.

On the food front, she can't get enough to eat these days. Today, she was so fussy and I'd fed her and nursed her and so finally I got out a bottle and some formula and she sucked down about 12 ounces of that on top of everything else. Now the challenge is to get her to eat at least one green veggie a day and we're getting there. Repeated exposure seems to be key, and sadly I'm hiding veggies in other foods, which is something I really never had to do with Jake & Sydney. She loves these low-fat spinach balls that I make, a broccoli, egg & cheese breakfast casserole, etc. But, she's eating her veggies and still eating food that the rest of us eat (and not her own special Kiley diet) so I'll take it... I've never been one to cook one thing for the adults and another for the kids - if I put one meal a night on the table we're doing really, really well!!

The big kids are doing well. Only four more weeks of summer! Jake has no more camps so he'll be home. I'm going to have to put him to work so he doesn't sit on the computer all day. Sydney is going to VBS this week and then to a drill-team dance camp in August; both are 1/2 day camps. We have their two free Six Flags tickets that expire in early August and will likely take a day trip for that. We have four Schlitterbahn tickets and are planning to maybe stay a night there in the coming weeks - hopefully with the Crider-Bleil family, whose daughter Bria is Sydney's best friend. We will wrap up summer with a long weekend at the Hill Country Hyatt. It's a fun summer with lots of little adventures and plenty of time to play with friends.

Jake Update and Family Reunion Pics

self-portrait of Kiley at family reunion

So, here is the promised Father's Day picture... Don't Martin & Sydney look great? It makes me laugh every time I see it - in case you can't tell, Kiley is screaming bloody murder!

Jake has been at Magic Camp the last two weeks. In past summers he has LOVED the camp, but this time around he's had a rough go of it... He said he was bored, the routines were the same, the classes and demos were all the same and he's seen it four years in a row now. He also had another little boy much like him in his group - and they kept butting heads and causing trouble. When Jake gets bored he has a hard time not stirring things up and it worries me. We've also been struggling with his attitude - calling his sister names and speaking disrespectfully to me. So, for the past week when he wasn't sick we had him doing yardwork each night - raking leaves, trimming bushes, and even picking up dog poop. Very surprisingly, he has tackled the extra chores without any attitude. Nonetheless, it's been hard to pick him up at camp and get pulled aside by the counselors every day.

On Thursday on the way home from camp, I had been on the phone in the car and he was in the back seat playing with his sister. After I hung up, I heard him say to her 'I love you sooo much. Do you have any idea how much I love you? You can't because you're a baby...' I love how sometimes when parenting is a challenge, you get a little glimpse of the adult that you hope for your child to become and it just keeps you going.

I'm posting a few more pictures from reunion. Above are my Mom and Sydney playing jacks. Hopefully the fact that I'm adopted means I can say this without bragging, but I think my Mom is absolutely beautiful and I love that she takes such good care of herself and is so healthy. She will be 79 in December and I think she's amazing.

Lots of Photos!

We have so many great pictures right now that I'm going to let them do a lot of the talking in this post. Left is one of a few pics from Father's Day and below is the watermelon face I mentioned in my last post. Very similar to the 'hey that's anything other than breast milk' face that we saw each time we tried a new solid food. But, we are making great progress on that front and she eats a lot of the foods that we eat now - even with no teeth!

Before the first hair cutDuring - she loved having a personal Dora the Explorer video to watch - she thought it was funny and she's so expressive!And after - with hair so neat and 'big girl'-like In the pool with Papa Uncle Mat came to Austin to run with Papa Just precious... LOVE the gummy grin!!! Into everything - killing time at Jake's guitar recital I love that cute baby!! the sweet sleepy face that looks up at me in the morning... a visit with Grandma,great Grandma,and cousins puppy love the scrunchy face grinfavorite bedheads

We are having fun this summer. It's been SUPER hot in TX - many days in a row above 100 degrees. We've spent a lot of nights at the pool and days at the movies.

Jake performed really well at his guitar recital. He played so badly in practice the day before that I thought it would be a disaster but in the back of my mind wondered if he had my 'pull it off at the last minute' gene and it turns out he does! I'm glad his first recital was a success - we didn't get any really good pictures but will try again next time.

Jake and Sydney had a fun week in Jamaica with their Dad, Felicity and Bryce. You can see Sydney's braided hair to the right. She missed Bria tons, but they were inseparable last week before Bria left this past weekend for a sleepover camp. While they were in Jamaica, Martin booked us a night in San Antonio at a great hotel and arranged for his family to keep Kiley so we could see Wicked. It was a fantastic show and a wonderful getaway - thank you, love!

We had a good Father's Day. We were HOT at Jake's first LaCrosse game, but then got snow cones and had some time to cool off before dinner at Pappasito's with my Mom and brother, and dessert and gifts at Mom's house. I have a hilarious photo that I'll have to scan in for next time.

This past weekend we had our family reunion and it was fun but too dang hot in Blanco TX in an unairconditioned pavillion all day Saturday. None of us felt well on Sunday - truly recovering from the heat on Saturday - but then on Monday, Jake came home from camp in the morning with a 102 degree fever and was diagnosed with the flu. I think that tamiflu is a wonder drug, as he hasn't run a fever since about 5 hours after his first dose and is 100% Jake today when he didn't move most of yesterday.

I will finish this with a Kiley update... she is so totally mobile now and still so much fun. I can't believe how much her face has changed (right is a picture from Feb.) and how much older she looks now. She is standing on her own now for enough seconds that you can count and know she's really standing and it's not just an accident :). She claps with her hands together - she was clapping her fists together weeks ago but now really claps the palms of her hands. She waves; today she was downstairs and the kids were up and she was waving at them and dancing back and forth and laughing. She doesn't really have stranger anxiety, but shows a preference for me - especially when she's tired. She reaches for me when I come in the room and twice she's said something that sounded like 'mom' while reaching, but I think it's coincidence. She does 'talk' quite a bit and often she is silly and giggly. We're trying to feed her when we eat. She likes starches and is not thrilled about green veggies but she has had broccoli, eggplant and green beans. She eats bananas and apple sauce, sweet potatoes, squash and carrots, spaghetti, bell peppers, cherries, pretzels, and crackers.

We'll have more pictures soon - Stephen (Martin's brother) and Sarah are getting married this weekend and then next weekend the kids and I are off to Galveston with my girlfriends (Jill & Kristi) and their kids - three Moms, two teenagers, five elementary kids, and a baby in a condo for three nights. Wish us luck!!!

Summer's Definitely Here

I think we can all agree that, well, it's HOT in Texas. I really need to do a brain dump to this blog more often. The kiddos are having a lot of fun and keeping very busy and Courtney has been the mastermind keeping us all in sync. She's pretty amazing! Jake and Sydney are traveling the tropics with their dad and getting as dark as they possible can before the summer is over. And Kiley, well Kiley is growing up. She's dancing and singing and making the most peculiar sounds. Lots of clicking, giggling and the weird rolling of her vocal chords (that's the only way I can describe it). It's somewhere between a laugh and practicing rolling Rs. Must have been something that my gran taught her while she was in San Antonio for the night.

Jake

He's reading. This is the summer of Lord of the Rings. I made a deal with him that if he reads the books we can watch the pg-13 rated movies. So he finished up the Fellowship and is pretty crazy about it. We got a poster for his room of middle earth and we're tracking the fellowship as they make their way to mordor and mount doom. If you know what I'm talking about youre a total geek. Hey but that's okay cause us geeks need to stick together. I'm raising jake to be just the same. Well as much the same as i possible can. He's been learning the guitar and that's not quite geeky. He had a concert recently and I was pretty impressed. His playing is fine but I was really impressed when he took the stage in front of a bunch of people. He seemed very comfortable. He seems to like that a lot, along with his other hobby which is pretty cool too. He likes to build legos and he's a star wars fanatic. Ha!! like i said i'm trying to make him as geeky as possible. :) But really in spite of my efforts I think jake is way too cool to be a geek. He's even playing what I'm beginning to believe a really cool sport, lacrosse. He's not great now but I think he will be. He missed the first game because he was in jamaica with his father, sister, his father's fiance and his soon to be step brother (who he lovingly refers to as brother). During the game right after he returned he made a catch and tried to score. it was pretty exciting. We need to practice a lot more. it's a new sport for him and for us so we have a lot to learn.

On a side note.....Jake was heard saying to Kiley, "".

Sydney

Yep she had a great start to summertime too. you might agree that the trip to jamaica was an okay start for her (who wouldn't like that, right?) and she's really enjoying her continued time on the water. Last week she spent the week at a camp where she kayaked or swam for a few hours of the day. When she wasn't doing that she was swimming at our neighborhood pool or with her friends in their pool. you could say she enjoys the water.

she's the best at putting games together. She loves to make rules. our latest game involved some very HIGH stakes. The loser had to be a maid for the other person. Now if you have ever played games with Sydney you know that you have no chance of winning. So I had to come up with a plan of my own. This game involved kicking a soccer ball into a fabric covered frisbee thing we take with us to the pool. Well she was winning so I prolonged the game to the following day then distracted her with another project she wants done. She wants to put up a swing. We had to get soft rope because she was going to sit on the rope while swinging (not a board). With Courtney's help I think we've convinced her otherwise. As we were picking out the rope we looked and felt several. I wanted to make sure the rope would support multiple people because she was sure to be using it with her friends, but it had to be soft. We found a think nylon rope that was sure to meet everyone's requirements.

Kiley

she is such a joy!! The kids love to play with her and she is so talkative right now. Most people don't understand her but I do. She says stuff in clicks and daiy daiy daiy....which could be confused with dada but since were calling me papa i know she's not really referring to me. She also says stuff like raRRrrr and snaps her tongue off the top of her mouth making the sound like CLUCK-CLUCK-CLUCK. She loves when you imitate her. And now she's playing peek-a-boo. which is really very entertaining. She loves that game right now. She likes to go on walks and runs and often falls asleep but I know she's dreaming really good dreams. Sometimes on a run she stays awake and talks with me the whole time.

This past week has stood numerous times on her own. not for very long but she's definitely getting her balance. She has the crawling thing down. She does that little thing most babies do where she looks back at you that crawls really fast as if want you to chase her. I do. :)

She's sleeping through the night really well even though she has had difficulty napping during the day. Which might be why she's sleeping 10 to 12 hours through the night. She so tired.

We're working on getting her to eat solid foods much more. At some point we hope to have her completely on solid foods. She like mango, peach, squash, banana, peanut butter sandwiches, watermelon (sometimes), spaghetti (and other pastas) and she's been seen eating green beans and red, yellow and orange peppers.

She's such a happy baby......except when she's not. :)

Summer's Coming

Kiley's first time in the pool - 5.24.09

Kiley went swimming for the first time last weekend at our friend's pool. We all got to stay and enjoy Becca's Birthday party (except Jake, who was off seeing a boy movie). A few snuggles with Mama (below) and the pacifier came in handy at first, but no tears even though it was a little cool compared to her baths. Here she is all suited up and ready to go on our way in...

She's scooting all over the house now and she's fast! It's hard to keep up with her. We bought a few more toys this weekend - one to keep her contained and one to keep her entertained. We've started baby-proofing but still have quite a bit to do. She's not opening cabinets yet so that's a plus! She's splashed in the dog water at least twice and she'll play in the dog food bowls or suck on the edge of our flip flops if we're not careful.

Kiley's sweet face peering over the coffee table after she pulls up

In terms of real food, Kiley will now gnaw on an apple slice, a lemon rind, or a dill pickle. There are only two baby foods she's eaten more than a bite or two of so far - apples and mango. Today for the first time I actually saw her open her mouth for another bite of food instead of us having to try to sneak it in.

Jake and Sydney have three more days of school! I am excited about summer and enjoying less homework and more goofing as we've reached the end of the school year. I'm a little apprehensive about juggling work and a baby along with an 8 and almost 10-year-old this summer. But, I think with Megan's help during the day and Martin's total willingness to walk in the door and jump right in, we'll have a good one. A lot of people have asked how the nanny is working out and she's wonderful!

Part of my stress about summer is not being able to leave Kiley for more than 2-3 hours at a time. I haven't had success with pumping because it's like my body just 'knows' when it's my baby and when it's not, but I may have hit a jackpot this week... Kiley has slept twelve hours through the night - without any parental intervention - for the past three nights!!! This morning I was so full and achy that I pumped on one side and got 5 ounces of milk (sorry if that's too much info for anyone). If I can keep that up and not let my body adjust down to what she will eat then I might be able to have some reserves that give me a bit more freedom. I hadn't worried about it because I thought she'd be well on her way to eating mostly solid food by now but since she's not, it's become more of a concern with summer coming.

On a totally random note, I have been hoping to get a photo of Kiley sucking on her toes. I have one of Sydney at about 4-5 months in an outfit that I saved and that Kiley has worn as well. I wanted to frame the pictures side by side but no luck and now Kiley has outgrown the outfit. However, we did finally catch K's toe-sucking on camera this weekend. I don't know why I find it so funny and fascinating (was I ever that flexible??!!) but I do...

On the camera are pictures of Kiley's reaction to watermelon and of her first hair cut. Check back for those in our next post.

Also exciting to us this month is the fact that we bought a piano and Sydney is taking lessons. She's only had a few, but went to a recital practice this week and played Mary Had a Little Lamb in front of about 40 other kids. She will decide this week whether to play at the recital with the parents. I decided it could be her choice this time only since she just started playing earlier this month and since she did the practice with the other kids. If she performs, we'll be sure to get pictures.

Jake has his first guitar recital in a couple of weeks. He is also signed up for LaCrosse this summer for the first time and is very excited.