Merry Christmas!

Neglecting this again!

Gyven turned 6, and we had the first snowfall of the year since the last time I posted! The kids have been FASCINATED by the snow. Gyven and Kyra keep asking if the snow means it's Christmas, or at least time to put up the tree (the answer to both questions is a very solid 'no'). Sidney is both fascinated with, amused by and terrified of the snow. We took him and Kyra outside today while Gyven was in school, and Sidney would laugh and run around, having a great time, until he actually touched the snow. Then he was absolutely horrified. "Wet!!!!!!" He doesn't yet say 'cold' or I assume he would have said that, instead! Instead of pulling himself up when he fell in it, he just laid there and cried "Wet!" until Patrick or I would pick him up and brush him off, and then he wanted nothing more than to go inside. Then as soon as he warmed up, he was desperate to go back outside. So much so, that when Patrick opened the door, Sidney dashed out with his jacket and gear still off, and promptly fell into the snow again, with yet more wails of "Wet!"

Happy Halloween!

Look, a family picture!

Patrick is home and we're enjoying every minute of it! This photo was taken after hiking some of the trails at Fort Flagler overlooking the Puget Sound. We're all really happy to have him home and are enjoying the last of the summer weather and the chances to get out as a family. School starts soon and we'll be very busy this fall, so we're going to soak up the opportunities while they last!

Summer is winding down

And not only summer, we're nearly done with this deployment! We're so ready for Patrick to be home with us again, especially Gyven, who has made everyone promise him that his daddy will take him bowling at the first opportunity, and he reminds us of this promise daily!

Summer is in full swing

It's been hot this last week and we've been doing anything to beat the heat! We've spent quite a bit of time at the new splash pad on post and eating lots of frozen pops or ice cream and cold fruit. The weather finally dropped back down to more reasonable temps today and we're loving the change. The kids and I are so much more comfortable. Anything over 80 degrees Fahrenheit when you don't have air conditioning is just brutal!

The past few days we've enjoyed seeing friends who were visiting from out of town or who just got back to the area after a time away. Then today the kids were invited to the birthday party for one of the kids who lives on our street and they had a wonderful time. It's shaping up to be a much busier month than I had planned!

Happy Birthday Kyra!

Kyra turned four yesterday and demanded a pink princess birthday! She got it complete with pink cupcakes, a new pink outfit and nearly all her presents were pink or princess themed! It was also the kids' last day of preschool, and we made sure Gyven was registered for Kindergarten in the fall.

Today Sidney had a few cavities filled just like his older brother did last week. The kids did not get good teeth like their dad's. We brush and brush and it makes no difference. Hopefully their adult teeth will be better.

The weather has finally gotten warm here in Washington, after a very cool and wet June so far. To be honest I'd prefer a cool and wet summer, but the kids would be pretty miffed to miss out on all the pool and park time! We'll see what happens.

Long time no post.

Mostly because it's been one thing after another since Patrick left. First I was sick. Then the kids passed a virus around. Then Gyven scratched his cornea with a fork 2 weeks ago (he's fine now, the doctor says he'll have no lingering problems and zero permanent damage, but it was pretty ugly when it happened).



After it healed we went to the zoo with some friends and had a few play dates. Now this week I think Kyra and Sidney have rotavirus or a similar GI upset. It's been pretty unpleasant for all involved.



Hopefully they'll all be better soon!

We had a wonderful R&R! The kids had so much fun with their dad and we were all thrilled to see him. He's now back overseas, and we'll be without him until the deployment is over. We're all hoping these last few months we have left go quickly!

Real fast...

Patrick just texted me. He is stateside!

Sidney's cardiology appointment last week went well, his heart is great and he's been cleared until the fall, tho we'd have been cleared for the year if we weren't going to move before then (doc wanted him seen one last time by their clinic so we wouldn't come up to his next appointment time in the middle of getting settled after we ETS). The only thing we saw that wasn't so good is Sidney has poor drainage from his ears, so we're being referred for an ENT specialist appointment to see if we should do anything about that.

Less than a week until Patrick should be on his way home for R&R!

Nothing too exciting

Nothing too much going on around these parts. The kids are doing okay, both Gyven and Kyra got positive quarterly IEP progress reviews from their teachers at school, and Sidney is growing and learning more and more everyday. It's more and more apparent all the time that he is not a little baby anymore, but a big and smart toddler. He has a cardiology appointment on Thursday and I expect it to be as uneventful as those have been since last summer.

Sewing and vacation

I think the eyepatch really completes this outfit, don't you? This is the third dress I made for Kyra for this summer. I have been so frustrated with what is available in stores. Either it's too short, too revealing (I don't do halter tops or spaghetti straps) or just plain ugly. So this is plan B. I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out.

We're getting very excited for R&R, as Patrick should be home for it in just a few weeks. We've planned a short vacation to the Oregon coast, and have reserved a room with a gorgeous ocean view. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the kids can enjoy the beach!

Teeth and other things

Gyven lost his first tooth this weekend! When he woke up Saturday morning and found the quarter the tooth fairy left him under his pillow he ran around excitedly yelling "I got a money!" for quite a while. I took him to the toy store to pick out a small something later on (mommy made up the difference between the 25 cents and the $5 lego set he wanted, which was my plan all along, I wasn't leaving a $5 bill under his pillow!). After that we ran to the fabric store to buy patterns and fabric to make Kyra some summer dresses, since I'm not liking anything I've seen in the stores this year. I've got one finished, and the pieces cut out for a second.

Tomorrow the older two go back to school after way too much time off, and we are all excited to go back to our usual routines!

Zoo

We went to the zoo on Sunday, just to get out of the house. The kids were a little stir crazy after all the time at home last week. Gyven and Kyra always love the zoo, and this was Sidney's first time going when he was awake and alert and old enough to really see the animals, and he got a kick out of it! He made a point of pointing out every animal to me as though he were showing me the zoo for the first time, not the other way round!

I've started working out, I'm getting in a "30 Day Shred" workout once a day, and while I haven't lost more than 5 pounds, I am definitely feeling stronger (I went from being able to do 2 push ups to doing 12 at a time in just a week!). It's hard and when I can't squeeze it in during Sidney's nap I inevitably get interrupted mid-movement and have to pause the DVD. Not ideal, but better than nothing, right? I'm hoping that if I'm not through the whole 30 days before R&R that Patrick will play child wrangler for me and make those days easier. I definitely feel better after each day and I'm not dragging so much in those last 60 minutes before the kids go to bed, even if I'm not always able to get the full workout in uninterrupted.

Still no tooth for Gyven, it seems he finds wiggling the tooth to be too uncomfortable to be worth it, so I am waiting for just eating to loosen it enough for it to come out easily with a little tug. It's a shame he doesn't like apples.

Not a whole lot going on lately. The kids have a lot of time off of school in the next few weeks for conferences and then Spring Break, so we're planning to hit up the zoo sometime while they are off. Gyven has decided his wiggly tooth cannot be wiggled at all, so it's still hanging in there. I guess my shooting down the dog idea as a tooth fairy reward lessened the appeal of getting it out!

Still trudging along, not too much going on besides all that time off coming up. We're just keeping busy and doing our thing. Still very excited to see Patrick on R&R, whenever that happens.

I've been neglecting the blog again!

Things have been rolling along here. Gyven has his first loose tooth! He's declared that he wants the tooth fairy to bring him a puppy when it comes out, and I'm trying to encourage him to think of something else he wants! I don't need the extra work! Kyra and Sidney have been battling a nasty virus, Kyra ended up spending a day home from school, and Sidney it seems got another double ear infection. Because he had this one so soon after the last, his ped wants his ears looked at when he is totally well, and may refer us to an ENT depending on what he sees. Otherwise Sidney is doing great. At his 15 month well check he weighed in at just a smidge over 29 pounds, 32 inches tall. This actually makes him the shortest and lightest of all three kids at this age despite still being near the top of the charts! He's doing well developmentally, he is on track for physical milestones, and he says mama, dada, hi, nose and up. He's very chatty.

We're still waiting to find out when R&R will be. Patrick, the kids and I are all very impatient to spend our two weeks together! We're not planning on any big things, but we're looking forward to our family time.

2 hours in the ER later...

Gyven's left eyebrow has a lovely gash sealed with liquid stitches. I still don't know what he did (there's no blood anywhere or damage to any furniture, and he can't seem to articulate what he did), but he sure did jolt me into action when he came up to me with his face covered in blood (and said very quietly "I need a dand-daid")! He was very brave, too, and we went to McDonald's after he was discharged because he asked so nicely.

Spring Cleaning and Being Busy

We had a home inspection yesterday so we started spring cleaning a little early this year. I took a lot of things to the thrift store and put a lot of things we don't need laying about into boxes in the garage. It really opened up the space! I also bought a steam cleaner because the carpet was in sorry shape. It looks much better now! Of course this morning I noticed someone had scrubbed a little graham cracker into one of the spots I worked really hard to get a different stain out of. Kids make you wish you could just pull up the carpet and throw it in the washing machine.

Sidney is bursting with excitement over words. The fact that everything has names is endlessly interesting for him. I spend a lot of time naming things as he points to them.

Gyven's ophthalmologist prescribed some eye drops which will blur his vision and encourage him to look through his glasses instead of over them. We're still hoping the glasses will treat the lazy eye without needing more invasive procedures, but if he won't look through them they won't work. When we go back for a followup we'll decide if they've started working or if we'll need to try something else.

Sidney loves this stroller just as much as he loves cars and trucks and anything that makes noise. I love how pure and innocent childhood is. No one has told him he can't or shouldn't because he's a boy. And I hope no one ever does. Besides, he obviously needs the practice with the stroller pushing or his first child will end up dangling upside down as he flips the stroller over...

This was Kyra on her first day of school. So far she seems to really enjoy it, and she loves riding the bus with her big brother. Hopefully that lasts beyond preschool! Gyven has learned so much in the short time he has been in school and just the frequent interaction with others is helping him on many levels. I'm hoping the trend continues for the remainder of the school year and extends to Kyra as well.

Kyra starts preschool this coming week. She'll be going at the same time as Gyven, just to a different class, so I'll have a few hours each day where it's just me and Sidney. Almost two weeks ago my mom and her husband visited and the kids had a blast with them. It's a shame we don't get to see their grandparents more often as the older kids really have fun with them.

Gyven is still loving school and is turning into a puzzle fiend, Sidney's been soaking up knowledge like a sponge (he now can point at and say 'nose' tho it sounds like 'nah' and he loves pointing at anything he knows a word for), and Kyra is really blossoming socially (she's overcome her shyness and is speaking much more openly, where before she was timid and afraid to say more than a few words to anyone).

I have been so slack at updating this blog, I just keep getting sidetracked by other demands on my time (namely three demands with the names Gyven, Kyra and Sidney!).

Oh yea, I'm supposed to use this thingy.

Gyven needed a haircut, so I did it myself. He looks much better without that mop on his head. I keep forgetting to post, I keep forgetting to do a lot of things! We've been keeping it low key, Christmas was a lot and very exciting and we need a low-key time to get back in a routine. I need it as much as they do. I've been a total scatter brain!