Wow!

Ok, it had been so long since I had signed in to my blog that I had to reverify my email address! Also I forgot my own website address too! :) I do want to keep blogging though just so my kids can have something to look back on to see what they were like when they were little in a more detailed way than I'll probably remember things years from now. So I'll get right to the kid updates.

Riley has started first grade! I can't remember if that had happened yet the last time I blogged but she is now going to school all day instead of half a day like she did last year. She is doing excellent in school. At her parent teacher conference, her teacher couldn't say enough good things about how she is doing both with her school work and from a social perspective too. She is now reading easy chapter books and loves to read, especially if I'm reading too. She amazes me with how well she is reading. Her teacher said she is reading on at least a second grade level, but could be higher than that, she just doesn't let her go farther than that in an effort to keep her in first grade work. She loves to draw pictures and write stories and does a really good job with both. She turned seven years old last Saturday and I can't even believe my baby girl is seven! She is just three years away from turning 10! She has now lost her two bottom front teeth and her top front teeth are loose, although the loosening process is taking awhile since she refuses to eat with those teeth now. They'll be out eventually though and she'll look so much different!!

Jake is now in preschool and has been doing so well there! He typically will come out of school saying he had a "great day"! He did barely avoid getting kicked out though but not for behavior. When school first started, he still was not pooping on the toilet yet (I'm sure you'll remember that issue from previous posts) and he had two accidents at school (his poor teachers!). The school's policy is if they have three accidents they have to withdraw since the kids must be potty trained to go there. Of course I understand the policy completely, I just never thought Jake would poop in his pants at school!! And how embarrassing that was for his teacher to inform me that he had had another "BM accident" and if it happened again he would be withdrawn. He just happened to get sick right after that happened (for real he did, but can I say I was relieved at not having to face his teachers again right away without sounding like I was hoping he would get sick?) and was out of school for like two weeks. And what happened during those two weeks? He learned to poop on the toilet! YES!!! That's what I said people!!! All it took was 15 Hot Wheels cars - one for every time he pooped on the toilet. He is now a professional toilet goer! I haven't bought pull ups even for him to sleep in in probably two or three months! He's had a few night time accidents but I can live with those as long as they aren't constant (and if they became that way we'd go back to night time pull ups) and it seems that if I take him potty right before I go to bed, he does fine the rest of the night. Though I don't even do that every night. Ok, Jake, off the toilet subject. If you are reading this as a teenager or adult you are currently hating me, I know, I'm sorry. When you have a child of your own you'll understand the need to celebrate the completion of potty training (though probably not as much as your wife will :)). Jake is currently car crazy and his favorite car is the PT Cruiser of all things. Apparently those cars look like they are smiling at him because he calls them Smile Cars and will yell that out every time he sees one. He has also been known to make kissing sounds at them. The little weirdo. :) I say that with all affection. He does know that a smile car is called a PT Cruiser and he recognizes Cameros (even the new ones) and knows our car is called a Rendezvous.

Tyler is now just days away from turning 8 months old. Unbelievable! He was a tiny baby just a few hours ago! Now he sits alone completely, can almost sit himself up from laying down, rolls around everywhere, can get onto his hands and knees and rock (usually with his head still resting on the floor leaving him with a rug burn spot on his forehead), and reaches like he wants to pull up on the coffee table. I don't know how long crawling will still be in coming, but he wants to really badly so I'm hoping it's soon even though I can see the mischief on his face and I know he'll be into everything once he's really mobile. He is my smile child. The boy doesn't seem to know when to stop smiling. He recognizes the camera as something he should smile at even. Everyone comments on what a good/content/happy/quiet baby he is and he really is all of those things, I was extremely blessed to have three kids who were basically good babies with no colic or anything like that. But I also recognize the need to be into everything in Tyler even though he hasn't been able to even attempt to fulfill that urge yet. I'm afraid that while he might be a happy and content toddler, he'll also be quietly destroying my house! I might have to put a bell on him or something so I'll always know where he is even when he's being suspiciously quiet. He has started displaying a temper when you take away a toy he was really into playing with (or the car keys). His one point of stress for me recently has been his eating. He started out doing really great with baby food but a few weeks ago he started refusing veggies. So I bought individual cups of whole carrots, green beans, and peas that you can buy at Wal-Mart and tried those out on him. That worked at first but not for the past couple of weeks. In fact the only kind of baby food I can currently get him to eat is cereal and some fruits. I have finally given in and decided to just let him have table food. It's what he wants so why not? He still isn't crazy about veggies but if I'm giving him something else with them he'll eat them. And he likes vegetable soup. Today he ate an entire chicken leg by himself! I just have to make sure I'm cutting everything up into tiny pieces because he is still toothless and that condition doesn't show signs of changing anytime soon (despite all the drooling he still does). He also is showing less and less interest in his bottles. He always is excited about them initially but after one or two ounces, he just fizzles out on them. Then its somewhat of a chore to get him to take more. One problem is a desire to be in on whatever is going on around him. But another is I think he just doesn't like them that much anymore. I've given some serious thought to just giving him formula in sippee cups but my fear is he would take even less in a cup than he does from a bottle and I wouldn't know it for a lack of a way to measure what he drank short of pouring it into a measuring cup afterward. I might just have to give it a try and see what he does with it though. He loves to drink juice from a cup (part juice, part water) and will just drink and drink it if I let him so maybe it's not really the formula but the bottle he doesn't like. He is still doing great with sleeping, sleeps 12 hours at night and has two good naps during the day, one at around 10am till 11:30 or 12 and the second from 2 till sometimes almost 5.

We made a trip to Texas to visit Paul's family for Thanksgiving and we had a nice time down there. But I now have even greater appreciation for my kids all having their own rooms and for our room having at least a little distance from their rooms. I also am grateful for how much bigger a crib is compared to a pack 'n play. Tyler has just been wallowing in his crib after a week of sleeping in what must have felt like a shoe box. I've been doing a little wallowing in my bed myself. :) After a week of sleeping on queen sized beds that felt like cardboard with some foam over them, my king sized bed felt like a cloud even with the body imprints Paul and I have put into the springs. :) I won't be complaining about my bed for quite awhile. And speaking of it, I now wish to lay in it. I hope you all have electric blankets. This is our first year to have one and I so love getting into a prewarmed bed. That is just the best, like climbing into a warm bath. Even if you live where it's warmer, I think it would still feel nice on cooler nights. :) That's my plug for the electric blanket companies.