First Sentence

The 4 year old big sister wrote her first independent sentence! (not sure when this is supposed to happen, but I wasn't expecting it this soon!)

Here's what she wrote, can you decipher it?

She had her name first (I cut it out for privacy issues) and then it says, "ROT U LITL BIT DADDY ROT SUM" Can you figure it out?

She and daddy were coloring pictures and taping them up in the living room and she was hard at work writing......."{her name} wrote a little bit, daddy wrote some". Creative spelling huh? It's the phonemic way.

I started laughing when my husband showed me this (the big sister was already in bed when I got home from a meeting) and I said, "oh you helped her sound out the words?". He said, "no, she just asked me how to spell 'wrote' and I told her 'w' and she got all mad and said 'no daddy, it starts with an 'r' and then she just was working on her own and didn't want help"

Her first sentence, for all the world to read!

Little Jerry

Prayers are needed for a little guy who has a failing heart. He is just over 1 year old and is a good friend of our family. Please check out his new website and please say a prayer for little Jerry!

http://www.jerryjohnsacco.blogspot.com/

Summer 2009

A "beginning-of-summer" update -- I'll try to update frequently, but it's hard when we're having SO much fun this summer!

Big Sister: she's now 4 years old and has a personality extraordinaire, to say the least. She knows what she wants and doesn't want and she'll make sure you know too! We've been having some struggles with her attitude -- she's still trying to figure out how she fits into life now having another little person at home and not ruling the roost at the new babysitter's house. I tell people that she used to be the 'queen bee' (at home and at the old babysitters), and now she's a 'worker bee' and she's NOT liking it!

She loves her daddy and whenever she gets hurt or is sad, she asks for her daddy, "I neeeeeed my daddy!"

We just set up this little pool and she has figured out that she LOVES the water! I had to drag her out of it today to come inside and rest....I'm sure there will be lots of water/pool pictures this summer.

Little Brother: 3.5 months old now. He has just figured out how to roll over and he doesn't care to be on his back much anymore. He sleeps on his side or on his belly and LOVES to suck his thumb (just like big sister). He will spit out his pacifier in order to suck his thumb. He just received some little 'blankies' (thanks to Grammy) and he likes to put a blankie near his face and suck his thumb -- he'll be asleep in under 30 seconds! He's my cuddle bunny -- loves to be held, loves to watch his big sister, loves to stand up (doesn't care to sit down much -- uh oh!). I suspect he'll be crawling soon -- doesn't talk too much (a little worrisome for a speech therapist mom, huh?), but he'll have is motor skills down to a science before he speaks, I'm sure!

He likes to either be standing or sitting up -- he really likes to be in his exersaucer, that way he can spin around where his big sister is and he can still see her -- always keeping an eye on her!

Learned to roll over in under 1 hour and hasn't stopped! Here in the picture, you can see the 'after' effects of his laser treatment on the right side of his chest. These little marks will go away in ~2 weeks and then every 2 months we do it all over again. The purpose is to lighten his birthmark, not take it away completely (impossible to do), so we'll know more after the 2 weeks are up and we can see how it has lightened.

Happy Father's Day, 2009

Papa Bob, Mae-Mae, Daddy

Little brother, Big Sister

The birthmark...

My 2nd born, my little bubber of a son, was born with a port wine stain along the right side of his neck all the way down his right arm to his finger tips. After evaluation by a pediatric dermatologist, it was determined that we would proceed with pulsed-dye laser treatment. Today was his first treatment. He was awake, swaddled and pulsed 430 times!!! My husband and I choose to not be in the room during the procedure (we had the choice). I was glad I wasn't there. The doctor said this little guy is a strong one and he was really pushing them away. After the procedure they brought him back to us (about 15 minutes total time he was gone) and this was his response:

Look at that smiley face! Those little purple polka-dots on his arm are the locations where the doctor pulsed his skin -- to break up the blood vessels forming the 'stain'

A little Eskimo kiss with daddy!

A new swingset

So, we bought a mammoth of a swing set -- more like a playground this summer. The plan was to have it up by Mother's Day (my gift), but for various reasons, it hasn't been put together yet. This weekend the hubby and my father started building (with some help from a couple of neighbors too!)

Grammy and the little brother watched on...

Little brother can't wait to go in his new swing!

Big sister pushing me

Pushing daddy...

Hooking the swing up (I know, the picture is out of order....don't have time today to fix it!)

We LOVE that we at least have our swings set up - the slides, climbing walls and 'towers' will take some time...but, at least we have some swings in our yard!

Silly 4 year olds....

I didn't know 4 year olds could be so silly!

Little hams for the camera...

Cousins

Nothing says "summer fun" like eating Popsicles with your cousins!

A seriously flat tire

Yes, this is my vehicle. But, don't fret, we have AAA -- they came and fixed it in no time!

Door County, 2009

Sorry, it's taken me a while to get our vacation pictures up -- I decided to make them into a 'movie', since I couldn't choose just a couple to post. We had a really good time in Door County. The big sister was a bit much -- needing lots of attention, I think she was starting to feel the anxiety of me going back to work. I've noticed her acting up and needing extra attention at pivotal moments -- before the little brother was born, starting school/new daycare, me going back to work. I think she has a little bit of anxiety....

Anyway, we had a GREAT time!

Last Day

The last day of school:

This is Miss H. -- not my daughter's teacher, but one of the teachers that helps with getting the kids out of the car in the morning (the teachers get the kids out from the drop off line) -- at the beginning of the school year, my daughter would cry if Miss H. didn't get her out of the car!

This is the aide in my daughter's class -- she has more energy than kids!! :)

This is my daughter's teacher -- the wonderful Mrs. F. She was a God-send to us this year -- she practices 'tough love' with the kids and really tries to make the kids learn responsibility and doing things for themselves -- it was a great experience for us!

playing 'bozo buckets'

One parent was allowed to come for the last day of school -- little brother was invited too!

Making the call...

You learn in school and through various media outlets to call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency. But, when do you decide to call 9-1-1 if it isn't a true 'emergency'? That happened to us last night. It was 11PM and I was getting ready to head up to bed, my husband was in the office working -- so, there were several lights on still in our house. (we are usually in bed with lights out by 10:30PM).

Then it happened: the doorbell rang. Now, if you know who I am and where I live, you know that we live 'sort-of' in the country - no sidewalks, no numbers on the houses, fire numbers on the side of the road, dark, dark, DARK at night! So, to hear that ring of the doorbell at that time of the night made our hearts stop, to say the least!

Then, the doorbell rang again. My husband started searching for a 'weapon' and I turned on all the lights in the house. Then, the person started pounding (and I mean POUNDING) on our door! We (or at least I) were started to freak out! I whispered to my husband, "should I call 9-1-1?"

Then the doorbell rang and rang and rang and the pounding and pounding on the door started. The girl started peering in our front door window and yelled, "Help, there are people trying to beat me up. What's your address?"

Surprisingly, I kept my cool at this point and yelled back at her through the door, "Do you want me to call 9-1-1- for you?" She replied, "I'm on the phone with them, I just need to know your address."

This is the point where adrenaline kicks in and your instincts just lead the way. I yelled back, "No, I will NOT give you my address." (like she couldn't just go to the front of my driveway and read the fire sign?!) I quickly dialed 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher the above story.

The dispatcher said they had someone on another line that was lost and didn't know her location and was claiming that people were chasing her. The girl then proceeded to head west to our neighbor's house. We called them, woke them up and told them not to answer their door.

After about 45 minutes, the local county police came to our door and proceeded to tell us that 4 doors down from us there is a young man who is into buying and selling drugs and has been in and out of jail and is the suspect of many break-ins and a murder in another neighboring town! (WHAT?????)

The girl was in fact lost, got to the house 4 doors down somehow, needed to leave and started out on foot trying to find out where she was....she was not from 'these parts', so to say.

Nothing like a jolt like that before going to bed, huh? I told my husband now was the time to invest in a home security system -- or at least a security system sign to put on our front window!