Grandpa entertaining the kids outside

Who says you need snow to go sledding? Grandpa just got a piece of cardboard and had the kids slide down the hill in his backyard. Well, actually....it's the slope off the side of the golf course. But, we just had to make sure we got off if we saw golfer's teeing off. Kaeli preferred just rolling down the hill (last picture). We had a neighbor's granddaughter come out and play, too. Carter is the little girl in the 2nd picture on back of the "sled" with AJ and Paige. I told my dad it must be weird when you start getting together with friends to let your GRANDkids have playdates.

Grandpa also made a homemade swing using rope and a wooden board. Here is AJ and Ryan on the swing. Maybe slightly dangerous, but it worked out well. The kids really enjoyed it and there were no injuries.

We took the girls' scooters and they spent a lot of time on those. I didn't think about the fact that Grandpa's driveway slopes downward. It's not a big slope, but it is big enough that I had to stay on the girls about going too fast. Unfortunately, we forgot to take their helmets and I was sooooo nervous watching them fly down the driveway.

I just love this next series of pictures of AJ examining the tree. It shows so many of his expressions that I just love.

Here's his playful expression.

Here he is carefully examining the tree. This is his look of concentration. I can just imagine that he has tons of questions and thoughts running through his mind.

Here he has picked off a piece of the bark and seems very interested in picking it apart. He is such a determined and persistent little boy and you can see that in this picture. He's completely oblivious to everything else going on around him as he experiments with what happens as he picks at the bark.

This is such a fun expression of his. He does it a lot when you call his attention away from something and ask him to show you. It's almost as though he's saying "Look at this!! Isn't it the coolest thing you've ever seen?"
Click here to see the remaining pictures related to this post.

Fishing

Here are the pictures of Ryan, Paige, and Kaeli with each of their fish.

Tuesday, April 25-Children's Museum of Richmond

AJ and Ryan "searching for fossils" in the sandbox.

Look at these adorable dinosaur babies we discovered. They look just like Kaeli and Paige, don't you think?

Paige playing at the water table

Here's Kaeli getting ready to play at the water table

I think, by far, the most popular attraction for all of the kids was the dinosaur slide. The following pictures didn't turn out so great, but it shows them running around to climb back up the slide again. The first picture shows Kaeli at the top of the slide. AJ must have gone up and down that slide 30 or more times.

The museum also had a little theater complete with a stage, dress-up clothes, and props. Here's a pic of Ryan in a hat he chose to wear.

After Ryan got all dressed up we noticed he was just sitting quietly in this chair right in the center of the stage. I guess he was waiting for the show to begin. :)

Here's AJ in his stage outfit

Kaeli closing the curtains on stage. It's amazing to me that she can be so shy and yet do things like this. The little theater room was full of other families. She really wanted to put on a real show, though. The funniest thing is that Kaeli is currently in a "anti-princess" stage. She's much too old for that sort of thing. When she put these clothes on she explained to me that she still doesn't like princesses-she was only wearing this because she couldn't find anything else. when she saw this picture was so mad at me! She didn't know we got a picture of her in the princess clothes. Notice AJ trying to climb up on the stage with her.

Trying to get a picture of all 4 of them.....TAKE I

Trying for a pic of all 4......TAKE II...........We figured this was as close as we'd get so we gave up.

If you would like to see ALL the pictures we took at the museum, click here.

Spring Break Vacation

We just got back yesterday from a little Spring Break vacation. This was our first car trip in quite a while and it wasn't all that bad. It's definitely easier when the youngest is over a year. No doubt there were some moments that Steve and I felt like pulling our hair out, but all in all we had a good time.

Our trip started on Monday afternoon. We spent the morning getting the car packed and doing yard work. At around 3:30 we pulled out of the driveway headed south. We stayed overnight in a hotel in Richmond, VA so the first leg of our drive was only about 3.5 hrs long. With 4 kids we always make reservations ahead of time at a hotel with the most affordable suites. The hotel we stayed at was OK, but not great. It definitely lacked good customer service. But, the room was nice and comfortable. There was a very large bedroom with 2 queen beds and a living room with a pull-out sofa bed. Kaeli and Paige slept in one bed, Ryan and I slept in another bed, AJ slept in a pack-n-play, and Steve slept on the sofa bed. The night was a little rough because AJ woke up screaming at around 3AM. The other 3 kids weren't too happy about being woken up by a screaming baby. Fortunately, he did go back to sleep after I put him in bed with me and Ryan went to get in bed with Steve. Then, of course, AJ woke up bright and early at 6AM the next morning. I can't wait until the day he consistently sleeps past 7AM.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast and went the Children's Museum of Richmond. Overall, I think all the kids really enjoyed the Museum. There was a little something for all of them to enjoy. I'll write more about the Museum under a separate heading with pictures.

We arrived at Grandpa and Grammy's house in NC Tuesday afternoon around 4:30. We mostly just got settled in and played outside the rest of Tue evening.

Wednesday we spent the day just playing outside and at the neighborhood playground. Grammy took the girls to see Horton Hears a Who in the evening.

Thursday morning we spent the day at Pullen Park in Raleigh. That is the best park!! Besides swings and slides, they have a working train and a carousel. We spent all morning there and ended with a picnic before going home to let the boys take naps.

Friday morning Grandpa and Steve took Kaeli, Paige, and Ryan fishing. I stayed home with AJ. But, I did hear that the girls each caught a fish and Rayn spent most of his time hiding from the bugs. :)

Saturday morning we were on the road by 8:30 to head home. We drove straight through (other than a few quick stops for bathroom breaks and lunch) and got home around 4:30. I think the trip could be made in as little at 6 or 6.5 hrs without a car full of kids.

We got a TON of pictures, so I'll make a separate heading for different parts of the trip in hopes of giving more information about each picture.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! We have more pictures to add soon, but for now I'm toooooo tired! Updated to say: Steve just added the Easter Day pictures to the photobucket album. ALL Easter pictures can be viewed from the link in the other "Happy Easter" entry.

We spent the day at Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's house. And, thanks to Aunt Kristen for doing such a great job planning the kids' Easter festivities. Here's a great idea for anyone wondering how to keep the"hunting" even. Kristen hid a different set of eggs for each child. AJ's eggs were all sports-themed, for example. The kids had a lot of fun looking for their special type of egg. THEN, when we got inside the house each child was presented with a special Easter Basket and in the basket was a clue telling them how to find their prize.

As always, Mom-mom did a wonderful job with the food! Everything was great and we appreciated all the hard work Mom-Mom put into the planning, cooking, and cleaning.

Now, here's funny little story! Before we left the house this morning we emptied the Easter baskets onto the dining room table. When we got home we discovered that our black lab, Bailey, had eaten EVERY SINGLE piece of candy. He tried to eat the Burt's Bees chapstick, too, but I guess it didn't taste too good because he left it half-chewed on the floor. Now as we all know, dogs do not possess opposable thumbs-so he was not able to remove the wrapper from his candy before ingesting it. Yep, you guessed it, there was no sign of any of the wrappers from the miniature Reese's cups or miniature chocolate bars. He did manage to rip open the jellybean bags and eat only the jellybeans inside. We had some SERIOUSLY upset kids on our hands! Thankfully, Mr Bunny (or the "big bunny"as Ryan has named him) left a stash of extras in our pantry. Actually, if Kaeli ever mentions it, mommy had some of the SAME candy put away because I had to stuff eggs for Ryan's egg hunt at school. Imagine that!!! Mommy and the Easter Bunny use the SAME candy. No doubt she will figure out who the Easter Bunny really is sooner rather than later.

That last paragraph reminded me of Ryan and his "big bunny" comment. Last night he picked pj's with bugs all over then. Just as I was about to put his pants on he said "big bunny gare". After a little back and forth conversation I realized that he was trying to tell me the Easter Bunny might be afraid of the bugs on his pj's. He wanted to changed, but I assured him the "big bunny" would not get scared away by his pj's. If only you could have seen the expression on his face during all this! He went from having an amazingly serious, concerned look on his face to a very relieved expression. But, that was when I reaized that he only referred to the bunny as "big bunny". I'm guessing Easter is a little too hard for him to say, so he came up with a different descriptive word that would get his point across. He's very smart in that way! If he can't verbally produce a word, he's very good about coming up with a sign or an alternative word.

I'm sure I could come up with a million more things to write about, but I'm so tired and need to get some sleep.

Happy Easter.....

Time to color the chicken eggs and wait for the rabbit to bring candy......

Click here to view pics of kids having a great time coloring eggs.

AJ watching as I help him color his egg

Ryan showing off his eggs

Kaeli and her eggs

Paige with her eggs

Things are never boring around here!

I'm waiting for a call back from the on-call pediatrician this morning. Paige had some minor leg pain yesterday and I just had her rest it all evening. The leg pain then woke her up in the middle of the night and she came to my room limping. I put her back in bed and didn't see her again until this morning. She was still limping and couldn't bear much weight on the leg at all. I wasn't blogging when almost the exact same thing happened with Kaeli back in the fall-except Kaeli's started on Saturday night and I had to call the doc on Sunday morning. As a side note, I wonder if a child's body comes preprogrammed to get strange ailments on days that the Dr's office is closed. Actually, the Dr will see patients today, but I have to drive to Wilmington (almost an hour away). So, back when Kaeli had this problem we ended up spending an entire day and night in the hospital. I REALLY hope it doesn't come that this time. We just don't have time for it and tomorrow is Easter. The good news is that Paige's pain doesn't seem as bad as Kaeli's pain. Paige has a bigger range of movement in her hip joint. Also, I think Kaeli had to stay overnight because her WBC count was high--making them very nervous because it could have been a joint infection. Hopefully, with Paige they'll take a look at her, pat us on the back, and tell us to give her Motrin until the pain is gone. Kaeli's diagnosis ended up being "transient synovitis" which is just a sudden, unexplained case of arthritis in a joint that resolves by itself after a few days. It's completely harmless as long as the more serious conditions are ruled out first. Since Paige appears otherwise healthy and has no fever I feel pretty sure she has the same thing. It's just that it'll likely take most of today get that confirmation.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day feeling worried about Ryan. I took him to the Dr yesterday morning because of a rash that he started getting last Sunday. The Dr said his rash is called "petechiae". Petechiae can be caused by trauma or low platelet count. Since it was pretty obvious trauma could be ruled out we had to assume it was probably a low platelet count. I had to take Ryan to get STAT blood tests to see what was going on. It turned out that his platelets are NOT low and his CBC was entirely normal. So, the Dr said it's good news and bad news. Good news that it doesn't appear to be anything serious. But, bad news because he has no way to explain their presence on Ryan. The Dr just said to call back in a week if the rash is not gone. Then Ryan adds another interesting twist to things at bedtime. He was in bed and started crying. When I went up there he said "room spin" and seemed pretty scared. He felt like his room was spinning. The rest of the night was uneventful and he seems perfectly fine.

I'm sure they are both fine, but it's always a bit unnerving going through the "ruling out" process.

The interesting thing is that I'm getting some good lessons in which seemingly minor complaints need to be looked at immediately. When Kaeli had her hip episode I reluctantly called the on-call Dr thinking he'd tell me to give her Motrin and call him on Monday. Instead he said to immediately take her to the ER. There I found that severe hip pain can be the first sign of some serious illnesses (but can also be no reason for concern). Before yesterday I thought ALL rashes were pretty mundane and could be "watched". Come to find out, I should have had Ryan's rash evaluated immediately because it could be the first sign of pretty serious illnesses (or it could be nothing). Then there was the time that Paige had this big red circle on her arm that was really hot to the touch. She was at the Dr for some other reason and I said "oh, could you look at this and tell me if I should be doing anything for it?". Turns out she had cellulitis-an infection on her skin. If I had let it go much longer it could have become serious by getting into her blood stream. He started her on antibiotics and she was all better a couple of days later. It's somewhat comical because I tend to get all worried over the silly stuff that is almost never cause for concern. Then symptoms that I shrug my shoulders at are the ones that are potentially most serious. Of course, we've been VERY fortunate that all the serious stuff can be ruled out pretty quickly. Hopefully, we'll always keep that streak going.

Looking for the best way to get your kids to sleep?

Send them to the grandparents' house for an entire day!


Kaeli, Paige and Ryan spent the day at Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's house today. Steve just sent me this picture that he took with his cell phone. I laughed so hard when I saw this that I had tears streaming down my eyes! It's so funny how they are all leaned to the same side.

THANKS Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop! I wonder if you two look the same right now?

A poignant moment

I really think it's possible Aaron has the flu. If it's not the flu, it's definitely the most sick he's ever been in his short little life. When he woke up this morning I still needed to dry my hair. I laid him on my bed while I finished. Steve walked in to say goodbye before leaving for work. He commented on how Aaron was just laying there waiting so patiently and we both laughed--assuming he was still waking up. When I finished drying my hair I went over and gave him a little kiss (because he just looked so sweet laying there). I noticed he was pretty warm and then when I looked into his eyes I knew he was sick. Somehow it's just always obvious in the eyes. Sure enough his temperature was 102. I put him in a chair downstairs and he pretty much stayed in that spot until we took the girls to school. He ended sleeping most of the day. When he wasn't sleeping he lay quietly wherever I put him. He did get up and walk around a little, but not much. At one point he even fell asleep in my arms. I have to say, since he's my last, it was a wonderful moment for me. At almost 18 mos he's not often still enough to let me hold him for more than a few minutes--much less long enough to fall asleep in my arms. Fortunately, the girls were at school and Ryan was napping. I sat there rocking him for a long time and savoring the moment. I thought back to when he was a tiny baby and I would get so frustrated because I *HAD* to keep rocking him. He would fight sleep and keep opening his little eyes. I remember feeling so impatient and frustrated because he wouldn't go into a deep enough sleep for me to lay him down. It's been less than a year ago and I already miss those days! Today I sat there and watched him fight sleep just like he did when he was a baby. But, this time tears stung my eyes as I realized what a special moment this was. These are fleeting moments now. The opportunity to hold my baby and watch him drift off to sleep is becoming few and far between. Unfortunately, it only happens now when he's sick. What a way to be hit with reality and realize I don't want him to grow up too fast. He's at an age now that can be very trying. I find myself often wishing he was just a little older. But, I know I'm going to miss these days. I just can't believe how quickly they grow up and how quickly we miss some of the most difficult moments.

I don't medicate for a fever unless it's over 102 so he went most of the day without anything. I do that because I know the body is doing what it's supposed to do when it runs a fever. But, tonight his temp reached 102.3. At that point I decided he could use something just to make him more comfortable. I gave him a dose of Motrin and put him to bed. That was about 4 hours ago. I have this very strong urge to go pick him up and just hold him. There's just something about seeing them so sick at this age---you just want them right next to you.

Paige likes school!!

Yes, that deserves its own headline! Back in December I made a "year in review" scrapbook. I asked Kaeli and Paige what was their favorite thing about school so that I could record it on their page. Paige's response was "nothing". I tried to get her to change her mind, but she wasn't budging. So, I wrote -nothing- in the book for her. For the last week or so I've noticed a little glimmer in her eye when it came to school. Tonight I decided to see if that little glimmer was real. Sure enough, she said yes when I asked if she likes school. I then asked what was her favorite thing about school now. After sitting there for a good minute, deep in thought, she responded with "everything!" WHEW! What a difference 2-3 months can make! Not only that, but tonight I actually caught her reading a book. She can read, but she refuses to let anyone really know that. But, tonight she didn't even hide the fact that she was reading. When she finished the page she looked up and smiled. I said "you were really reading, weren't you?" She said "yes, why do you think I spent so much time on that page?" Mom's can be so annoying sometimes, huh?

I really think this all relates to her award for the essay. Maybe that little boost of confidence was all she needed to feel like she could definitely succeed in school. I've always tried to boost her confidence, but I just don't think it's means as much coming from mom.

But, it's just great to see her enjoying school. I hope this continues. This academics stuff could be a lot more difficult with the boys. I need the girls to glide right through so that I'll have the energy I will need to get the boys through school.

Ryan's homework

Being the often overzealous person that I am (and that I'm very eager for Ryan's speech to improve even more) I recently asked his speech therapist to start sending homework for us to do each night. What was I thinking?

Last week wasn't so bad. The main focus last week was to practice "I want green chip" each time changing the color and object. He's learning to use what the therapist calls "carrier phrases". Things like "I see....", "I have.....", "I want.....", etc. Ryan has gotten really good with the phrases he's practiced most. His two favorites are "I love....." and I see...." It's actually very cute how he uses "I love...." for so many things. I am trying to teach him that you can say "I like...." instead of love. But, for now he just sounds like he's very passionate about everything he sees. ;) So, back to my point. Last week's homework went well because it didn't require much "shifting gears". "I want" stayed the same and I would just have to remind him of the color and object each time.

Then the therapist had to go and send HARD homework this week. He and I split up a bunch of different colored balls. I would say "I have blue ball" and he was supposed to say "you have blue ball". The idea was that we would switch up so that he would learn to use both "I" and "you" instead of always saying "I". Not only were we switching up I and you, we were switching the carrier phrase because then we'd say "I glue blue ball" and "you glue blue ball". For a child with motor planning problems this can be a monumental task. His brain gets stuck on one task and wants to keep doing that. Even if I asked him to say "I have blue ball", he'd accidentally say "I see blue ball" because that's what he's used to saying. Same thing with "you have.....". He's now trained to say "I have....." so that's what comes out. Anyway, we did not finish our homework correctly.

Now, being that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist I was a little stressed this morning when I took him to school. I hunted down his ST to let her know that we did not do the homework like she wrote in the instructions. I'm glad I did. She made me feel so much better. She said it's not important what he says or that he says the wrong color. She just wants him to have the correct order of the words and begin to understand how those words can be used to build a sentence. So, even if he uses the wrong carrier phrase or the wrong color or the wrong object......don't correct him. She said to just keep it low key and fun. She'll worry about correcting his mistakes. She also said that it's just important that he get continuous exposure to switching phrases and pronouns. Whew....that helps. Now maybe we can enjoy his homework next week.

Of course, the good news in this is that he's obviously doing sooooo much better! 2 months ago I wouldn't have guessed that he'd be working on putting words together in sentences. I was just hoping for more words. He can now say most words he wants. His only real problem with words at this point is that he can't say words with 3 syllables or more. But, if it's 1 or 2 syllables, he can either say it perfectly or come up with a very close approximation. I'm THRILLED with his progress!

Seeing his progress makes me worry less about Aaron. He more than likely has the same issues as Ryan. He's having an evaluation next week when he's 18 mos to see if he now qualifies for speech therapy. I haven't decided what I'll do if he does qualify. I might just take a once monthly consultation appointment until he's 2. I have learned so much about how to encourage speech in the younger kids that I sometimes feel like I could be a speech therapist myself. But, I just have to wait and see what happens. I've never been a very patient person, but these kids are teaching me a great deal about patience.

UPDATE: I guess Ryan's ST decided to take it easy on us. His homework now is to just use 2 different colors at a time (red and green) and only say "red ball" or "green ball". I guess she sensed my stress this morning. :)

Pictures and Memorable Moments from Kaeli's Sleepover Party

Clicking on any of the images below will take you to the full-size image.

We started the night off by decorating foam flip flops. They had full-size flip flops for themselves and they had doll-size flip flops for their American Girl dolls. Here they are working really hard on their flip flops.

Kaeli's giving Steve "the look" because the girls are now complaining about all the pictures we're taking. You would think Kaeli would be used to it since we LOVE to take pictures. But, I guess we were embarrassing her.

Two of Kaeli's best friends--Abby on left and Eme (Emelyn) on right. Abby and Eme are sisters. Eme is in Kaeli's 2nd grade class.

To the far right is Savannah. She's also in Kaeli and Eme's class. Kaeli and Eme are always being teased at school that they look like twins. So, then they all got close to each other and said "but we're triplets". So, here's a pic of them saying "TRIPLETS" instead of "cheese".

Paige and Abby now join in and they were supposed to be saying "Quintuplets". Of course, this led way to a funny conversation. What's it called if a mom is pregnant with 10 babies?
They had me stumped--decatuplets? And, no, I've never heard of a mom having 10 babies at one time. But, the girls sure had a great time discussing what she would look like!

Here are some pics of the girls applying makeup and doing hair.

And, finally.......the banana and honey facial. First of all, the smushed bananas with honey looked pretty disgusting. I'm actually surprised all the girls let me put it on their faces. They weren't sure at first, but I think the promise of cucumber slices on their eyes was just too alluring for them to resist. We got the facial recipe from one of the American Girl books, but I think we added too much honey. The stuff was so thin I could hardly get it to stay on their faces. I had a great time with this part. It was just enough "gross" and "cool" to get them all super excited and keep them giggling for a long time. Savannah came up with the idea to poke holes in the cucumbers so they could still see. That was cute seeing them lined up with smushed bananas on their faces peering through little holes in cucumber slices.

Here's Ryan with his headband, newly decorated flip flops, bracelet, and little pink spa bag. He just LOVED being part of everything the girls were doing. I just couldn't paint all his nails, so I agreed to 2 fingernails, and 2 toenails. Doesn't he look so proud of himself?

Aaron loved being included, too. Here he is with his headband. Doesn't he look ready for his make-up?