Megan measures up

Today was Megan's 3 year check up with the doctor. Everything is going well just like I know it is. I am so grateful for such great medical care that is available to us. Even though I know she is doing well physically it is so reassuring to hear it from her doctor. Mother's intuition tells me when there is something wrong and I need to take my children in for medical care and my intuition was telling me that Megan was just where she should be health wise but I still love being able to take her to the doctor and have him concur with me. It doesn't hurt that they have the best Pediatrician ever either. I am so glad that I found him. I have been through many Peds doctors over the years...some I liked and some I didn't. This doctor however is fantastic! He was so good with Megan even though she is SUPER shy and didn't want to open up.

I was hoping that she would not have to have any shots this time but unfortunately she did. She was so brave. She tried so hard not to cry but it hurt really bad so she couldn't keep it in any longer. She didn't cry very long though. She did however baby the leg that got the shot. She pulled her shorts up so they didn't touch the shot site and slowly limped out of the office. She looked soooo pathetic. The whole office staff had to see her because it was so funny. She limped around babying her leg for two days. I felt so bad. I know that the shots hit her hard because when she had her six month shots she wasn't able to use her legs for three days. I started to worry but then she slowly began to use them again. She is a tough girl and a super sweet one too. I love my sweet Megan and am so grateful for her good health.

Happy Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

I am going to take a break from blogging for a little while but before I do I wanted to post about four of our summer birthdays.

We start with CJ's birthday in June. The girls baked his cake for him. They have been watching Cake Boss lately so this was their attempt at the fancy cakes they see made and I have to say it was really good. They know that he loves chocolate covered strawberries so they made him a double layer strawberry cake with chocolate and strawberries in the middle and on the top. The strawberry sauce in the middle made the cake so moist and yummy. Their dad really loved the cake too and that is what they wanted. I'd make some joke about how old he is getting but since I am older than he is I am just going to point out how young he still looks.

Next was Rebecca's 12th birthday. Our tradition is for the girls to make and decorate their own cake. This is something they look forward to every year. Since Rebecca has assisted in so many cake bakings I decided it was time to let her fly solo on this one. I wasn't even in the kitchen so that I wouldn't be tempted to help. She did really well. She made a two layer cake and the layers looked and smelled really good when they came out of the oven. When she was ready to put them together she was having trouble getting the cakes out of the pans so I stepped in to assist. I had trouble too and asked if she had greased the pans. "Oops", she said. I did manage to get the cake out of the pans still looking somewhat like a cake and encouraged her to still decorate it. Cake is cake, it tastes the same no matter what it looks like. She did the best she could with the icing and even put Sour Patch candy on as well. I thought she did a great job on her first cake and I love that she didn't give up even though she wanted to. She is growing into such a beautiful young woman. She is so compassionate and helpful in all that she does. I still have a hard time calling her my 12 year old. She is in Young Women's now and is LOVING it. She will be starting Jr. High this year and I am nervous about sending my sweet child into the lion's den. She is excited about school so I am happy for her and can't wait to see her blossom even more.

When the girl's hit certain ages we let them have a party with all their friends. This was one of those ages for Rebecca so she actually got to have two birthdays this year, one with us, and one with her friends. She had soooooo much fun with her friends.

The day after Rebecca's birthday is Elizabeth's birthday. Since we had just had cake she decided to bake a birthday brownie instead. Okay by me since brownies are one of my absolute favorites. We are now officially parents of a teenager. Lizzie is 13...emphasis on the teen. It is great that she is growing and becoming more like the adult she will be one day but I am already missing my little girl. She is almost the same height as me and looks so grown up so sometimes it is hard to believe that she is only 13...sigh. She loves to fix hair and nails and is loving her iPod. She takes Megan and many of the neighborhood kids (Megan's age) to the park often. It is such a nice break for me and the other moms. She is so good with kids. I know she will be a wonderful mother.

With all the talk of birthdays Megan was so excited to hear that it was her turn for a birthday. She asked me if she was going to get to blow out the candles like everyone else. She got a birthday card from my parents that talks and she loves it. She takes it with her everywhere she goes and calls it her "birthday cake". We took her to Toys R Us on her birthday so that she could get the balloon and crown and she had so much fun.

Since there had been so much cake already this month we got her a little cake just big enough for everyone to have one piece. She didn't care as long as she got to put on the candles and blow them out. Our little sweetie is 3. She is so funny. She is still trying to get the hang of this talking thing (there are so many words to remember) and can sometimes say the funniest things. I think it is interesting to watch her little face when she doesn't quite know what word she is trying to say and she searches all the words in her vocabulary for the one she needs. She loves to play outside but not as much as going to her friend's house. Right now she is missing Grandma and Grandpa and keeps asking when she gets to go to their house. Since they live in Arizona it might be a while before she gets to go. She had a fun birthday and I had fun seeing the excitement of a birthday through a child's eyes.

First year is half over :(

I can't believe that it has already been six months since Alex was born. He is on the downward slope of his first year. It has been six incredible months though. What a sweetheart! He is such a happy, busy little guy. He is so fast when he crawls now. I call him lightning because he is already on the other side of the room 2 seconds after I put him down. He is very curious and has to check everything out now that he can. He has finally started sitting too. He won't sit still for long but he can go from crawling to sitting and back to crawling with ease. His big thing he likes to do now is pull himself up. He can get up to a standing position just fine but he still hasn't figured out how to get back down. Sometimes he just falls backwards and goes on with playing but most of the time he will let you know that he is stuck and needs help. He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING but the one that drives me crazy is when he does it in his crib. He is supposed to be going to sleep but he keeps pulling himself up and then calling for me to help him get back down. I lowered his mattress thinking that if he couldn't reach the top rail he wouldn't be able to pull himself up but I was wrong. He just grabs on to the bars and uses them instead. As frustrating as it is though it always makes me smile to see such a little guy standing in such a big bed.

We went to the doctor yesterday and found he is still not gaining as much weight as he should be. He keeps dropping lower and lower on the charts. The doctor thinks that because he is so super active for a kid his age that he is burning calories faster than normal. I have to increase his calorie intake so that he can have all the energy he needs to keep me on my toes. I thought that was pretty funny since he already eats a lot. I guess I know now why he is always so hungry (he has resorted to eating the cat food in between meals whenever he can sneak over there because I don't feed him enough.) I hate to think of his appetite when he starts his teenage growth spurt. Much different than girls, that's for sure.

The one thing that has started in the last few weeks that I am absolutely loving is that he has become a mamma's boy. He gets so excited when he sees me. When someone else is holding him and he sees me coming he will literally jump out of their arms and into mine. He gets so excited at the sound of my voice and will almost always cry if I give him to someone else. I guess I love it so much because I know that all too soon he will be too busy for his mom and I'll have to catch him in between activities to try and get a hug. But not right now. Right now I am the world to him and I want it to last for as long as possible. My favorite time with him is when he is really tired and he just lays in my arms drifting in and out of sleep while I sing to him. After he falls asleep I just stare at him thinking about all the different stages in his life from kindergarten to Boy Scouts to Prom to college to marriage. Then as I marvel at how fast the time flew by and how I wish I could hold my wonderful son in my arms as an infant again I look at my sweet little baby boy and kiss his little head so grateful that I got my wish to have him in my arms again. It's sentimental I know but time really will fly by too fast and this is my way of keeping things in perspective so that I don't miss his baby and childhood because I was too busy myself to stop and smell the baby powder. What a sweet spirit he is and what a joy he is in our lives. I can't wait to see what the next six months will bring.

Megan and Alex have such a special bond. Megan is the only one who can get him laughing this hard. He absolutely adores her and she eats it up. This was taken one morning about two weeks ago.

Shiner

Alex went and got his first shiner. I was sitting in RS on Sunday filling out a paper on a clipboard and he was playing on the floor next to me. He managed to hit his face on the legs of the chair and started screaming. I picked him up and left the room so I could comfort him. I didn't realize just how hard his face hit the chair until I saw the marble sized goose egg just under his eye. That goose egg just seemed to be getting bigger and more purple by the second. I felt so bad for him. I wanted to cry with him. Latter that night the goose egg started to go down but the purple began to spread farther under his eye until it reached his nose. Yesterday his black eye was really dark purple and he looked like we beat him. The picture doesn't show just how dark purple it really was. As you can see though it hasn't dampened his spirits any...he wears his first shiner proudly.

Haircuts

Three years ago Elizabeth and Dakota donated their long hair to Locks of Love. Rebecca wished she could but at the time her hair was too short. They loved the feeling so much that they have been growing their hair since then with the intention of donating it again as soon as it was long enough. With the heat of the summer coming on and a little brother who pulls their hair every chance he gets they decided it was time for a haircut. I got out the scissors and asked them if they were really sure they wanted to do this. They were all so excited and couldn't wait to have hair their hair chopped off.

I put their hair in to a rubber band and measured how many inches (the minimum length to donate is 10 in.) they were about to loose. My cousin Darin was still here and he shaves his head bald so he kept teasing them that he was going to buzz their hair off. They made me promise not to shave them bald.


Dakota donated 12 inches and loves her short hair. She keeps flipping it back and forth saying how much lighter she feels.


Rebecca who had long hair for the first time in her life cut off 13 inches. Her hair ended up with a little bit of a layered look and she loves it so much.


Elizabeth, who has the thickest hair and couldn't wait for relief, donated 14 inches. She loves the fact that it only takes a few seconds to brush her whole head of hair now and not a life time.

Here are my girls now with their new hair (yes, I like to take pictures with one of them seated.) They look so cute with short hair. Rebecca and Elizabeth plan to grow their hair and donate it again but Dakota is still undecided because long hair is a lot of work and she is loving short hair right now.