Just had to share pictures of Lainie EATING on her own!!

My neighbor gave us a cantelope from her garden last night and we saved it to eat for dessert tonight. Well Lainie just went to town on it, she loved it!! She was holding it and eating it all on her own. Tonight she also had some pieces of tomato at dinner and was holding a roll and taking bites of it and eating it too. What a change just a few weeks can make! I don't know what "switch" finally got turned on but we will take it. We are just so excited that she is eating so well on her own now!!

Ahhhh!!! So much to do...Update of sorts, just so I can keep up with things

Well it has been a week or so since my last entry, thought I better take some time to jot down what is going on now.

Update on Lainie: still eating grapes, oranges, crackers and pizza pretty well. Still reluctant to try some other new things. BUT she is offically night weaned, has been almost 2 weeks since we have nursed in the over night hours. (9pm to 6am is the off limits time). Of course she had a fever for a few days over the past weekend and all she wanted to do was nurse for comfort. Once I get her eating a tad more in her diet I will begin the day time weaning. Probably once the boys are back in school. Potty training is sorta on hold too, I take her if she asks or answers yes when I ask but I am not forcing it on her or putting her in panties just yet. Again, once the boys are in school we will have more time to focus on it with it just being me and her here every morning!!

Boys are doing well, anxious to get to VA this weekend and the beach next week!! And I am looking forward to these trips too.

Nikolas swam the whole width of the pool by himself, no floaties in the deep end last week. Daddy gave him an incentive (endless throwing up in the air if he did it). So he was motivated. He actually did it a few times... my little fish!!

Lainie is now jumping in off the side by herself with her vest and floaties too. She only will do it a few times once her head goes under she stops.

Okay, time to go do laundry so I can pack for our trip to VA this weekend!!

Lainie Eating and Last Speech Therapy Session with Jessica

Well Jessica left a bit ago, it was kinda sad saying good bye to her. I did get her information so I can give her updates by mail and email so that is good. We started off our session with Lainie eating some grapes and bananas to show off her new skill. Then we went out in the living room to do some "work", but it is more like play. Lainie has always enjoyed seeing what Jessica brought to play with each week in her duffle bag. Here are some pictures from our last session followed by some of Lainie eating!!







And here are some of her eating her grapes and bananas this weekend!!

Lots of pictures on the website from the last month

Incase you have not viewed them yet, there are tons of pictures on our website (use the link to your left) of our trip to VA, Lainie's birthday, and just the kids in general!! :)

Kids Update and Catching Up!!

I wanted to use this blog to help me remember things so I need to start documenting better...

A few weeks ago I took the boys in for their annual check ups. Here are their stats:
Alex was 62 lbs and 51 in (both were in the 75% for kids his age)
Nikolas was 39 1/2 lbs and 41 in (both of his were in the 50%) He also got a couple of shots!
Lainie has not gone yet but her last weight was 25 lbs and 33 inches tall.

Alex has enjoyed his summer vacation I believe. He got to go to Swim lessons, go to Boys Scout Camp, Gymnastics Camp, he went to VA for 2 weeks (one week he stayed without Mommy), and now he is in Science Camp (as he calls it) at his old preschool with his former preschool teacher. He is loving it. He wishes he went everyday!! He enjoys playing in the pool and has become a great swimmer this year. We even let him in go into the deep end by himself now to jump and swim with his friends. We leave in just a few weeks for the beach and they are anxiously counting down the days!!


Nikolas also did swim lessons and gymnastic camp all of which he really enjoyed. He also attended Vacation Bible School at his preschool for a week. He loved it once he was there but it was hard every morning to get him going. (I hope school is not like this!!). Their theme this year was "Journey back to Jerusalem" So they got to see how people lived back then and made things like actual bricks and ate bread and juice for snacks. He made some fun crafts too, he made a hammer that Lainie has come to adore. He is also going to his old preschool for 2 days a week with Alex but for him it is more just playing with friends and making crafts.


Now onto little Lainie who turned 2 yrs old a few weeks ago and I feel awful for not posting here with my thoughts that day but we headed off to VA and life has been nuts ever since we got Back!! She is turning into such a little person, not a baby anymore!! I want to bottle her and keep her like this forever. She is my last and I will miss this stage and how big the world seems to them. All the new things she is learning is just amazing to watch. She now has a large vocabulary, I stopped counting words at about 150 a couple of weeks ago and I am sure it is up over 200 now. She repeats everything and tries to say everything she hears. Pretty good for a child who had a word count of 5 words just 6 months ago. She is starting to put 2 words together at times but still not quite to saying sentences yet. Last night she kept repeating "popcorn" over and over. As I posted in my last entry she has finally starting to eat!!! As of writing this she will eat grapes and bananas cut up, cereal bars, and some cheese and pizza dough. Not really sure what changed or why she all of a sudden she is doing it but I will take it! This has been such a long journey to get her here so I am thrilled. Kinda funny that I decided a few weeks ago to end therapy for awhile since we seemed to be getting no where in terms of her eating and then all of a sudden she starts....UM should have done this months ago I guess. Of course I do credit her therapist Jessica for improving her muscle tone in her face and mouth and helping her add to her word count. As well as helping to teach her where food goes...TUMMY!! I will also be thankful for her help. She was by far the best therapist we had for Lainie over the past year. Tomorrow is our last session with her and she will be missed!! Okay on to other new tasks for Lianie...she is starting to potty train. I have not yet jumped into to it full force, I will probably wait until we get back from the beach and the boys are back in school to really work on it but we are following her lead. I have noticed her staying dry longer now so it may be just a matter of time. I have bought some undies and might try her in them one day when I know we are not going out (maybe a rainy day or something). Her latest obsession is Dora, she loves anything Dora and she got a lot a great gifts for her birthday. She is attempting to learn to peddle her trike, still not quite got the hang of it yet. She also loves bubbles and still loves her gym class!!

Oh and I am finally on the getting her to sleep thru the night train AGAIN!! I had her weaned back in March until we thought she might have reflux so I went back to nursing her when she woke up. So I have decided to work hard over the next week to get her back to sleeping and not waking up to nurse!! So far we have made it 2 nights. She did wake but I gave her a cup of milk (just a few swallows) and made her lay back down. She cries and fusses and wails for a few minutes but soon gets the point that I am not backing down. She woke at 1am last night and then again at 6am, I nursed her at 6am since Mr. Sun was up but put her back to bed and she slept until 8am!! This is progress. Usually she was waking at 1am or 2am to nurse and then wanting to be up for the day at 5-6am!! So keep your fingers crossed that this works out!! I would love for her to be sleeping thru the night before we get to the beach. Ah that would be such a nice vacation for me!!

I am fortunate that they all love each other despite how they fight. They are close with one another and seem to really appreciate what they have in each other.

Big Week here in our house!!

Wow, has been a month since I last logged into this... BusyBusyBusy!! Anyway... had to come and document big news in our house...

I have been hesitant to tell the world b/c I was not sure she was actually going to keep this up but she has actually eaten table foods this week!! Woohoo!! She ate one cut up grape earlier this week. When I saw some of it was missing I asked her where it was and she said "TUMMY" and smiled! So the next day I cut up 4-5 grapes and just put them in front of her to see if she would do it again. She did, ate them all. I have been offering her table foods for a year and all she would do was suck on them and spit them out!! Then tonight the boys were eating bananas and she indicated she wanted some. So I cut a few slices up into little bites and she used a fork and ate those all up... then we were having pizza for dinner. She has always loved chewing and sucking on the crusts but has never actually eaten it. Well tonight I started offering her little bites of cheese, sauce and soft crust and she ate it all. Chewed and swallowed!! She gagged a few times but it never came back up and she just kept right on going. I was so excited I was calling everyone in the family to tell them!! I hope this is the beginning of her eating real food!! Keep your fingers crossed!!

Oh and she is trying to potty train herself too. She has been sitting on the potty for a few months but never would do anything. About 2 weeks ago she actually peed a few times over a few days. I don't press the issue but if she indicates it we go thru the whole routine. Most of the time she just wants to sit, wipe, flush and wash hands but never actually does anything. Yesterday I was doing something and she comes to me with just her shirt on and says "Potty" so I say "okay let's go" we head into the bathroom where her little potty seat is and she points. Lo and behold she has stripped and sat on the potty and peed all by herself. So while at Walmart yesterday we bought some Dora undies!! Guess I should at least try to encourage this right?? Ugh! I am so not ready to potty train her but I am ready to be done with diapers after 7 1/2 yrs!! So that has been our big week!!

Alex called a girl friend tonight!! :)

Okay not sure whether to be happy or sad on this one.... Alex's teacher made them little Friend pages before the end of school for them to go around and get their best friends phone numbers and address, find out what their friends like to do, etc. Well tonight Alex decided to pull it out and call some of his friends. He tried to call his 2 best guy friends but they were not home so he called his favorite girl. LOL They talked for about 10 minutes but her parents made her get off b/c we are getting ready to have a Tstorm. It was cute. He was asking her what she has been doing over the past couple of weeks and he was telling her all about his Boy Scout Camp. He had the silliest grin on his face so I asked him if Paisley (yes that is her name, isn't it cute!!) was a special girl friend and he blushed. He likes her He likes her!! They spent alot of time together at the end of school b/c they both had finished all their seat work so they got to go sit in the reading corner and read together for several days. She is the cutest little thing too and so sweet. I totally approve of her

Alex went to Boy Scout Camp this week

Alex started Boy Scout Camp on Monday and he is LOVIN' it!! He has learned some new fishing techinques, he is shooting BB guns with proper instruction and learning archery! He has enjoyed this so much. They are also building bat houses and bird houses this week so I look forward to seeing his work on those when they come home. Thankfully the weather cooled off for the rest of the week and it won't be has hot as it has been. I think he will enjoy it even more now!! We are so proud of him for finding an activity to stick with and grow with as Cub Scouts as been. He really enjoys learning new things and being around all these other boys.

New pictures on website..

check out the kids eating ice cream cones... Our helicopter fly by's on Race Day back on Memorial Day... we had these helicopters flying over our house numerous times as they did manuevers for the Race Fans.
Check out the kids at the pool and swimming lessons this month
Alex's End of First Grade Beach Blast
Lainie's 2 yr old pictures

Summer Vacation has offically began!!

Well school is out, hence one reason I have not added to this blog in a couple of weeks. The last couple of weeks of school were busy in some ways and not busy in others but they flew by!! We had Alex's Beach Blast on June 5th and that was a lot of fun for the kids. I will share some pictures in the next post as well as on the website.

Alex came home on Tuesday afternoon and announced that he was so excited that he has 104 days of summer vacation to get to...Okay, that number about gave me a heart attack so I had to count. It is only 75 days actually but I still prefer 11 weeks or 2 1/2 months. Much smaller numbers.

Now don't get me wrong, I love having my kids home with me for the summer, we don't have to worry about getting homework done every night, or worry about waking up by 7am or have to be in bed by 8 pm BUT still having 3 kids all day every day wears me out!! That is when I say Thank God for Summer Camps!!

Alex is very excited to be attending Boy Scout Day Camp next week. We went this morning and picked up his Tshirt and all the pertinent instructions. He saw the pond he will fish in, and the areas where he will learn to shoot. He is looking forward to this and I hope he has a ball!! We have Gymnastic Camp set up for both boys the following week and they are so excited. All they really want to do is jump into the foam pit but they will try to have fun doing all the other activities too. In July and the beginning of August they are going to go 2 days a week to their old preschool. Alex will be in Ms. Barbara's class (his PreK teacher from when he was 4/5). She does really cool summer activities so he is looking forward to this. Nikolas just wants to have fun so he will be fine with his activities too. He will be in class with a new friend we have made over the last few months named Ethan so they will get to see each other 2 times a week.

Other news: We just finished Swimming Lessons (one of the reasons I am so behind) and they went really well. Nikolas was in Level 2 and he did improve alot over the 2 weeks but did not quite have the ability in the backstroke department to pass this class. Which is just as well as I don't think he was ready to move on anyway. Alex did however pass Level 3 and will move on if we sign up again. I need to check into doing lessons again later this summer. They had fun and it was a great activity for them. It was our 4th year going to the Concord P&R for lessons and the guards remember the kids and it is great to see them each year.

We have also added a new member to our family!! Nikolas is now the proud owner of a new fish named "Bluey". He has mastered his bathroom skills so this was the reward he wanted, so that is what he got. We have had some issues with fall through in the bathroom habits so we made it a goal last month that everytime he went he had to do all the steps by himself without help and he mastered it quickly!!