busy busy busy

Wow, be careful what you wish for, for real. That week and a half that we were under house arrest with hand, foot, and mouth disease, all I could think about was going and doing. The past couple of weeks have been nuts.

Good stuff, thankfully. I'm not complaining. I just need a nap!

We visited with AA and H today while their Mom is doing some yoga training. We had a lovely time (and hey ME if you're getting to read this!). I definitely don't know how you moms with 4 or more kiddos do it, though. I am worn out.

We visited with the in-laws this weekend and had a great time then, too.

Let's see...what else? A couple of summer movies - Because of Winn Dixie (have any of y'all seen this? Jackson and I went to it and I cannot believe he was willing to sit through the whole thing. I'm sure it's a great book, but the movie was kind of depressing.) We also saw Wallace and Gromit (Jackson says "grummit") and the Case of the Wererabbit. Cute, funny, but I could not believe the adult humor (mainly sight gags) scattered throughout it. I've become quite the fuddy-duddy in my motherhood, apparently.

Oh and have y'all seen this blog: Steady Mom - I just found it and am really enjoying it. You might check it out - you know if you just don't have enough things to do online. ;)

Totally random - old post from a forum re Kira eating at 7 months

This really is totally random, but I stumbled across an old post of mine over on hotcouponworld and thought I should record it here for posterity. I forgot that I even wrote this! It was in answer to a question regarding how much babyfood to stockpile.

Anyway, from 7/13/07:

Both of my kids started solids at 4 months. My daughter is 7 months now. She eats 3 solid meals a day in addition to breastfeeding about 4 - 6 times a day. She usually has 1/2 jar of stage 1 or 2 fruit for breakfast, with rice cereal and yogurt. She has 1/2 jar of veggies with rice cereal and some finger food like avocado, cheerios broken in half, or gerber veggie puffs for lunch. Pretty much the same thing for dinner. So, like a jar and half to two jars a day, right now. I also try, as much as possible, to modify things the family is already eating for her. Our steamed veggies go into the food processor for her. If I'm doing something with frozen fruit for my son, same thing. She's eating bananas, avocados, peas w/out the skin, etc for finger foods.

I read a great tip in another thread. They suggested stockpiling more stage 2 and 3, because you can always blend them up if your baby is not quite ready for the thicker texture. I thought that was a great idea.

Also, somewhat on topic, I started both of my kids drinking out of a straw at around 4 or 5 months. The suck reflex is strong when they breastfeed, so it's really easy to teach this. My daughter has Down syndrome and she picked it up really quickly. Her speech therapist was amazed. Cup drinking is also easy to teach early. My son barely used sippy cups at all, which meant I never had to wean him from them.

I wish I could remember if she actually picked up and ate the "finger foods" - I think she did with the full fingered scoop-palm it into her mouth method, but I should probably check back in her ECI reports to see if that's true.

I'm going to search through the forum and see if there's anything else I said that I forgot!

Mayme - we're fine - thanks for checking!

Wow, we've been busy! My lovely friend Patty Buzzard Butt (yes that's her name - it pleases me to no end - no pun intended) was worried that I hadn't posted in awhile and called her lovely daughter, Kam, to check on me. I love friends! and the blogosphere! and friends in the blogosphere! So, Patty, we're fine - we've just been crazy busy.



Derek was best man in his friend, Brandon's wedding. I barely have any pictures, though. He was Best Man, so I was Momma Wrangling Two Tired Over-sugared Children. Here are a few pics from the rehearsal dinner:

Portrait of the Groom (by Jackson)

Portrait of Derek and Kira (by Jackson)

Portrait of me and Jackson's arm (by Kira with help from Daddy)

And a couple of pics of the kids on the wedding day. Jackson insisted on wearing "trousers and suspenders" to the ceremony. He spent the whole evening pointing them out to everyone. "Do you like my trousers? They're seersucker! And my suspenders are mint green!" He's snazzy, that one.
My sister visited last week and brought a dress for Kira. It just happened to match the mint green of Jackson's suspenders. I don't have a shot of her that isn't blurry - she was running all over the place! We bought little Stride Rite leather sandals for her to wear and even though they were outrageously expensive, I think they were worth it. They really support her little ankles well and she looked so cute!


The wedding colors were kind of an orange sherbet (sherbert, sorbet?) and mint green - the kids looked like they could have been in the wedding. The bride was GORGEOUS - I wish I had a picture. The wedding was lovely, outside and hot, but lovely.

We went to the zoo with Kam and Vin yesterday. It was a lot of fun, outside and hot, but fun. Again, no pictures. I'm hoping to steal some from Kam. Vin is officially a walker now and is SO cute. He thinks Jackson is just the coolest thing ever.

And speaking of hot - 100 humid nasty degrees up in here today. YUCK!

Pretend like it's still Wednesday

If you would

take a few moments to send some positive energy heading toward California for Michael, Lisa, and their kids. Thank you!

brown dogs, pink dogs, silly dogs...just dogs

Derek was watching old videos with the kids last night and I had to share this one. Jackson is 2 1/2 in this and Kira is 8 months. For about 6 months, anytime Derek pulled out the camera, Jackson would launch into his "I want dogs" conversation. He had been awake maybe 5 minutes here. Even though I obviously lived this, it still blows my mind to hear how he talked at 2 1/2.

Kira has a couple of cameos and I wish I could just scoop her tiny self out of the video and into my arms!

Please ignore the tired mama. Kira was still waking up 3-4 times a night at this point. It's kind of dark, so I hope you can see it!

overheard

"Congratulations Kira! You just won the second game of Candyland. You're Queen Gumball!"

my foodie

He won me over with black beans and fresh mexican cheese on bolillos. My husband is a wizard with good quality fresh ingredients. He likes to combine several recipes to see what he comes up with, and it is always delicious.

He manages to take a limited budget and create amazing meals. The way to this woman's heart was most definitely and continues to be through her stomach.

We had hamburgers tonight. Why? Because a gift of mustard seed inspired him to make homemade mustard. Yum.

From A burger with homemade everything, Gourmet June 2009

Homemade mustard
1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 tsp sugar

Soak mustard seeds in vinegar and water at room temperature 2 days. (If seeds are not submerged, add just enough additional water to cover.) Puree mixture in a food processor with sugar and 1 1/2 tsp salt until almost smooth, about 2 minutes. Thin to desired consistency with additional water and season with salt. Mustard keeps, chilled, 1 month.

Still here

I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. Not much interesting to report, so here's how our week went.

Monday - bopped around the house
Tuesday - Library story time - speech therapy - lovely visit with my dad
Wednesday - took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda in the morning (free movie series) and had a visit with their Aunt Beeka in the evening.
Thursday - stormy day that kept us inside - had to cancel plans with Kam & Vin (missed y'all, btw!)
Friday - play date with Michele and Grace - so much fun!
Saturday - another longer visit with Aunt Beeka - much Candyland and Chutes -n- Ladders

Speech therapy recap:
Kira's therapist thinks we're still ok with once a month - and I agree.
We're working on:

• Pronouns
• Saying her own name. (Note to self: next go-round, give all children names that only use the "b" and "d" sounds.)
• novel commands (like please go to your room and bring mommy Jackson's shoe)
• concepts of "one" vs "all"
• negation (no book, no eat, etc)
• yes & no answers to questions (She's got "no" down, believe me. She usually nods or answers "yes" questions with a noun - like answering "bites" if I ask her if she's hungry.)

Kira sees her speech path and OT once a month. She sees her PT quarterly. I'm happy with that and think she's doing really well. However, because of that, most of our visits involve basically running down checklists to see how she's progressing. I hate that part. There is always some skill or ridiculous task that I never even thought to practice. It's hard to feel like your mothering skills are being tested. And I really don't want Kira to ever feel like she's letting me down, because she SO isn't. Anyway, there's a whole post there, but I don't have the energy right now.

We're looking forward to another busy week - hope y'all have a wonderful one!

Wordless Wednesday - Summer 07

better

It seems like we're all healthy again! Woo-hoo! Now for some random updating-ish stuff.

Derek took the kids to the in-laws all day yesterday. Oh how I love that man. I puttered around the house doing laundry and sorting through clothes to hand-me-down to friends and other stuff to give away. It was a really nice day and the kids had a blast making cookies and playing with their grandparents.

We've been hanging out at the house today. The kids are always wiped out after a day with the grandparents (as are the grandparents, too!). They've been playing in their room and in the backyard - generally getting along which is lovely. They also went down for their naps fairly easily. (one more woo-hoo!)

We've got a big week of play-dates, gym, library, and movie theater planned. I'm so ready to do some going-and-doing with these kiddos!

I'll leave you with some slightly blurry, but still cute pics of the kids from a couple of weeks ago. (Kam - that's what the edge of the tutu looks like.)

Hope y'all have a lovely week!

more Kira speak

beh-boh - Elmo
bih bird - Big Bird

leh-low - yellow - This one is brand spanking new. We were reading last night and she pointed to Big Bird and said, "leh-low". Jackson and I about fell over! It was awesome! Jackson started running all over their room grabbing yellow things to get her to say it again. It was partly 'cause he's such an awesome brother and partly 'cause it extended bedtime.

whe-uw - where (I couldn't figure out how to spell it phonetically - that's close. She says it and does the sign for where).

pa-puh - paper

Sometimes

when your kids are contagious and can't leave the house for a week No TV Summer goes out the window.

And then, sometimes when your kid won't settle down for the nap he desperately needs, you put your foot down and say, "Well then, no more DVDs!"

And then, sometimes said kid still doesn't go to sleep and now you can't put in a DVD to give yourself a frickin' break, because you went and put your foot down.

Don't miss it

I'm tired - Kira finally fell asleep sometime after midnight last night and Jackson had me up at 5:45 this morning. I'm tired (did I already say that?). I tried to take a nap, I really did. My mind is just racing and I can't sleep, even though, Thank the Lord, both kids are.

So, I'm contemplative and a little weepy and here's what I wanted to say.

Y'all - don't miss it. Don't get so caught up in what your sweet baby is doing or not doing. Don't obsess about this step or the next step or the one after that or what is going to happen twenty years down the line. Because one day you'll look at baby pictures and think about how adorable that baby was and how all you can remember is therapy and you can't even remember what her hair smelled like.

So, ENJOY your baby. It doesn't matter when they walk or crawl or talk. It matters that they are here and that you love them and that they know it.

Just don't miss it.

Kira speak

Mainly for posterity, I wanted to write down what Kira is saying these days. I'd say 75% of what she says is conversational babble - dispatches from Kira we call them - lots of syllables with plenty of hand gestures and facial expressions to get her message across. 25% is actual speech.

Her communication is probably split evenly three ways words/signs/word sign combos. I'm still teaching her new signs. It's usually easier for me to figure out that she's saying new words when she does the sign along with them.

The List (at 2 1/2 years):

Mommy
Daddy
Buh-Buh or "acks" for Jackson
Poppy
Da-Da (for NaNa)
Pap or Papaw or Pappy
De-De (for NeNe)
Ted

Bat (for Cat)
Eat
Bites
Peetz (Pizza)
She says bites and does the sign for drink when she wants a drink
Pease (please)
"Day" (this is thank you)
No
"es" (Yes)
"top" (Stop)

ooooh....pih-eee (Oh Pretty!) - she says this EVERY time I put her in a dress or skirt and EVERY time I wear a dress or skirt. She's a fan of girly clothes.

box
ball
baby
"bash" (bath)
"beh ee" (belly)
bird
"bish" (fish)
bear (the "r" sound is really soft - more like bea-wuh)
bed
buh-sh (brush - for brush teeth)

up
down

done
Hi
Bye
bye-bye (She uses this exclusively for night-night. She usually hands me her baby and says "bye-bye" and does a sign the she made up. That means I'm supposed to rock the baby and sing it a lullaby.)
diddle diddle - (tickle)

uh-oh (this is a new one and makes me laugh every time)
toas (toast - also new - also funny)
wow (new - and very cute - her lips pooch way out when she says it)

"Oat - Ot - Oat" - this is what she says when she's counting. We're working on LOTS of counting right now, so hopefully I'll start hearing more number like words soon. I know that she's "counting" when she says it.

She "counts" while squatting down and then says "bat - ot" and jumps up - that's BLAST-OFF!

ide (hide)
BOO!

"moh" - more

eyes
"ose" - nose - sometimes she'll enunciate the "n"
boush (mouth)

urt (hurt)

bants (pants)

tee-tee
poo-poo
and lots of singing about both

"bos" - this is music and has been for a long time. She says it along with the sign for music.

read
books - take most of the "k" sound out, though

"bot" - dog (along with the sign)

"ut" - hug
"tiss" - kiss

"out-ide" - outside

"oh-wee" - swing - along with a sign that she made up. She also uses this when she's trying to get me to let her do outside related play stuff - like sliding or using the riding toys. She's starting to say "ide" for slide and we made up a sign - but "oh-wee" is still her go to for slide.

"i-brah" - Library - she says this when we say "Daddy is at work" or if I ask her if she's going to work. She says it along with the sign for Library.

"ite" - this is, I think, "I talk" - she consistently says this when she's reaching for the phone.
"ice" - this is, I think, "I see" - she consistently says this when you're holding something that she wants a closer look at.

"ooo-ooo-wee" along with the sign for train - she uses this for things that go - trains, cars, motorcycles.

Moo - for cow and for most animal sounds - she does have a hacking/coughing sound that's quacking.

"atch" - watch
Boo-boo - Blue from Blue's clues

ipe - wipe (baby wipe)

That's all of the individual words I can think of right now. She frequently uses two words combos of any of them and is starting to put together some three word combos.

What I really love is that she's so efficient in her word usage. I generally know what she's asking for and she rarely has problems communicating her needs. I am so thankful for that.

She also has her first joke. She likes to look up really fast and say "OH BIRD!" then look slyly out of the corner of her eyes - that's my cue to say, "Kira! There is no bird up there!" Then she laughs and does it again.

I love this kid so much. I don't even have the words.