Kyle at 8 1/2 Months

This boy spends most of the day standing up. He can already take a couple of steps while holding onto something. I used to keep him in his footed pajamas all day. Not only was it to keep his feet warm, but it was kind of a modern form of foot-binding. It made it harder for him to stand up on our wood floors in hopes of delaying his ability to start walking. I don't want another early walker!

He is always on the move and getting into stuff! Karis always calls out, "Mom, move Kyle!"

Everything in the mouth! Such a challenge with two older sisters with small toys, crayons, hair clips, etc. 

Curious. I love watching his eyes as he observes people and things around him. 

 He talks a lot!

Mama's Helper

Karis always wants to feed Kyle for me. I let her try it awhile back and the food on the spoon never made it into Kyle's mouth. She asked again today so I gave her one more try. She actually did a good job and I let her feed him his entire lunch. 

Now if I could just teach her how to change a diaper and make my morning coffee! 

Noodles

I've been trying to find new things for the girls to do indoors. Thanks to preschool, Karis always wants to work on some kind of craft project. And because Makena doesn't go to preschool, I'm trying to do more learning activities with her. The other day I colored some noodles, gave them some kitchen utensils and let them use their imaginations.

Today's Pics

When we go to the park, Kyle is usually content staying in his car seat/stroller. Today we went to a park without sand or wood chips so I let him out to explore. He was excited to be let loose and his sisters had fun taking care of him.

     

    

45 plus days in Texas...

While that title could be referring to the high temperature as of late, it is not. The first month and a half has passed quickly here in Texas.

 Karis has adjusted quite well to the new kids and teachers at her new pre-school. I think she also likes that it is at daddy's office so on occasion we have driven together with just the two of us (compared to mommy hauling all the kids to drop off one).

 I have to admit that I underestimated the effort required to get the everyday life things squared away (auto insurance, inspection, and registration; utilities; finding doctor; pharmacy; barber; good motorcycle mechanic; etc.). In a misunderstanding with our landlord (changing name versus removing name), we lost electricity for a couple of hours during a cold spell while I was at a retreat. And then we went without gas appliances for 3 and a half days (namely furnace) because of the same. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 January has been a month of sickness. First Karis with a 12-hr vomiting. Then Kyle had diarrhea and vomiting over a week's time. I had an upper respiratory infection coincident with Kyle's sickness. Then Lena was under the weather for about a week. Now I'm fighting the chills, weakness, and sinus infection. And Karis has the croup. Makena has been the only one to stay healthy.

 Otherwise, Texas has been great. I forgot how much time it takes to build new friendships. Glad that I have a couple of former co-workers on the church staff as well as a few good friends relatively close (30 minutes and another 2.5 hours). Then I have a niece and others about 4.5 hours away.

 This is Derek writing if you didn't notice the lack of photos to complement the text.

Recent Pics

Soon after Karis got better, Kyle caught the stomach flu. He is just getting better after battling it for about seven days. Derek got a sinus infection but is now better after a round of antibiotics. I now have a cold.  Good 'ole Makena is the only one who has stayed healthy through it all (tho today she sounds a little congested). 

I think the biggest adjustment for the kids so far is not being able to go outside to play. We've had to find other alternatives like Chik-fil-A, the mall's play area and our church's  indoor play structure. The other day we went to McDonald's. The kids loved the play structure that they had all to themselves on a rainy day.

The kids wanted to go back the next day. After running a couple errands, we had a picnic lunch in the car before going back to McDonald's (I couldn't feed my kids mystery nuggets two days in a row).  The girls thought a picnic in the van was the best thing ever!

We finally got a warm day last Friday so we headed to a park. It was huge and had lots of different stuff. The kids loved it all.  

  

  

On Tuesday, we were surprised to wake up to snow!  It snowed about an inch and then it melted away by the afternoon. The weather here is so crazy -- it's always changing!

After we dropped Karis off at preschool on that snowy day, the other two kiddos and I went to a grocery store. As we were walking to the van, Makena was calling out every place she saw snow. 

"Mommy, there's snow on the street." 

"Mommy, there's snow on the car." 

An older gentleman came out of the car and Makena said, "Mommy, there's snow on his head! There's snow on his head!" 

By this time, I was busy unloading the car and wasn't really paying attention to Makena. She kept repeating "There's snow on his head!"

I finally realized what she was saying and looked over to see a man with a short salt-and-pepper afro. He was just two parking spots away and definitely heard what Makena was saying. I was so embarrassed but as he walked away I was laughing so hard I could barely lift Makena out of the shopping cart. Sorry Sir, we're not from around here!  

A Long Weekend

Not a long holiday weekend, but a weekend where time seemed to pass very slowly. It started on Thursday night. After we put the kids down, Derek and I were downstairs and noticed that the furnace was blowing cold air. We thought it had to do with a fuse that was blown earlier and perhaps just the pilot light went out. We found out the next day that our gas had been turned off and it wouldn't get turned on until Monday (It's been a bit of a mess with our utilities at our new place. Our landlord had everything in her name and there's been confusion/miscommunication as to transferring vs. shutting off and dates of when it would happen).

On Friday, I thought three days without heat and hot water wouldn't be that bad. We're so spoiled with the comforts of living and a little roughin' it wouldnt' be so bad. We have portable heaters and we could go to a friend's house on Saturday to shower before church.  We spent the next three days being cold, especially in the mornings when it got down to 57 degrees downstairs, washing our hands and faces with frigid cold water and boiling water to wash dishes. Thankfully our stove/oven is electric and we were able to eat! If that was the worst of it, it wouldn't have been that bad...

On Friday night at about 11 pm, we heard Karis whine a little, cough and than cry. I ran up to her bedroom and when I opened the door I could smell what was going on. Karis had thrown up and she was struggling as she was still lying down and more was coming up. She had no idea what was happening. Derek took her to the bathroom and I tried to clean up the mess. I slept next to her that night and she ended up throwing up almost every hour until 7 o'clock. She did sleep from 4 to 7 which gave me time to run to Kyle's room and feed him and stay with him for an hour. Are you getting the idea of why this weekend felt so long??

The next day (Saturday) Karis was feeling a little better but she was wiped out. She ate a little throughout the day and thankfully kept everything down. She was on the couch pretty much the whole day, something she's never done before. When the girls get sick, they still eat and run around. I wiped down everything I could in the house and washed a bunch of toys with hopes that the other two wouldn't get sick too. I couldn't bear to watch another one go through what Karis did. Like most of us, she dreaded throwing up. She cried and screamed and tried to fight it. When she went to bed Saturday, she was so scared. She thought she was going to be throwing up all night again.

We stayed home from church on Sunday. The house was cold in the morning, but when it finally warmed up, Karis was up and about.  

By the afternoon, I couldn't take it anymore and I took a (very) cold shower and got out of my frumpy thick clothes I had been in all weekend. I put a little make-up on and went to a grocery store. It felt good to finally get out of the house. By Sunday evening, the girls were pretty rowdy as they had been in the house for three days straight!

But now it's Monday morning and the gentleman from the gas company just left. We now have hot water and warm air! I'm going to run a load of laundry, start the dishwasher and give the girls a bath.  I'm glad we made it through this weekend and soon it'll be just a distant memory!

Update on the Sisterhood

It's been awhile since I've talked about the girls' relationship with each other. I think it'll be neat for them when they get older to read about it so I hope to do it more regularly. Since we've been in Texas, they have definitely gotten closer to each other. We didn't have a lot of toys out when we first moved in so they basically just had each other to play with. The age gap seems to be shrinking as Makena is catching up in motor skills, speech and understanding. That definitely makes it more fun for Karis to play with her. 

Their favorite thing to play is "Mommy-Baby." It usually starts by Karis saying, "Let's play Mommy-Baby. I'm the baby. You be the Mommy." And then Makena will respond excitedly with "Yeah!" They make up all kinds of scenarios -- the "baby" cries or crawls around and the Mommy takes care of her or the baby will crawl up onto the loft and be scared and the Mommy will help her down. The best is when Karis tells me, "Being the Mommy is a lot of work." Yeah, you're telling me!  =)

When they're in their room, one person will close the door and whoever is out in the hallway has to say the magic words for the door to open. The magic words are "I love you, sissy!" Derek and I don't let the girls play with doors because there has been too many smashed fingers, but I let them play this game. How can I keep them from calling out, "I love you, sissy!" to each other.

I love when they call themselves best friends. When we first started going to our new church, Makena didn't like going to Sunday School. Thankfully, for half the class period they combine the two classes and play in the indoor play area. Karis will hold Makena's hand or put her arms around her as they walk through the hallway. Teachers tell me they always stick close to each other. Karis has told me that she worries about her in Sunday school. What a great big sis!

When Karis started preschool, it was obvious that Makena missed having Karis around the house. But to my surprise, Karis came home from preschool one day and told me she missed Makena. That surprised me because Karis loves going to preschool and her day is filled with all kinds of fun activities but she still thinks about her little sis. 

There are plenty of tattle-telling, unwillingness to share and an occasional "You're not my best friend anymore" but we won't talk about that right now. For the most part, they play well and enjoy being together. 

"Hey Makena, how are you?"

If you've talked to Makena in the last week or two, you already know this story. She has told anyone and everyone who asks her "How are you?" She'll tell anyone who will listen, even Kyle. 

Yes, she fell into the duck pond. After church last week, I took the kids to the duck pond. They love to feed ducks and it was a quick thing we could do on a cold day. I gave them each a supply of bread and then took a few pictures. As I was watching Karis, all the ducks suddenly took off in flight. On the edge was Makena, screaming with a look of terror on her face as her body slid in the water and she was grabbing the edge of the pond. I didn't even see her fall in. I guess she just got too close. Thankfully her head didn't go under but her whole body was soaked in dirty duck pond water. I feel like I should get Mom of the Year award for this one.