Since this is my first blog ever, I'm guessing I'll have a lot to say and I'm going to play around with stuff and see what all I can do :-)
Things around the house have been a bit crazy lately. Kylie just got her second tooth and is finally back on a somewhat normal sleeping schedule. She tends to get pretty crabby and wake up during the night when she's teething, but normally she is an excellent sleeper! Everyday she comes closer and closer to a true crawl.
Right now she is army crawling, and then periodically she will get up on her hands and knees and take one "step", but then its back to her tummy and what she knows best. She is very interested in what all the "big kids" are doing, and she loves it when they try and include her in their playtime.
Drew is growing by leaps and bounds, in every aspect of his life. First of all, his size. I'm discovering that many of his 2T clothes are no longer fitting, and he is wearing some 3T. It is so opposite all of my other children, who are lucky if they are wearing the size that correlates to their age, and he has almost always been ahead of it. I'm very interested to see just how tall he is going to be! Also, I love watching him show so much empathy for characters in cartoons. He tells me when they are sad, scared, happy, etc... and it's like he's feeling what they are. Very cute :-) He is also my little terror. He is always pretending to be some sort of animal or monster and uses that to chase and play with Heidi and Zach. Depending on the day, they may like it, or they may run to me to be "saved". We're working hard on playing nice and understanding that hitting hurts! The only person he is nice to all the time is Kylie. He is quite the big brother :-)
I think he may still have a bit of hearing issues. I'm sure that most of it is wax build up, but its not stuff I can get to, and I wish there was something I could do to help him. It makes disciplining him difficult because I think he can hear me, but then I realize that 9 times out of 10, he can't. That other time he is channeling his father's amazing ability to tune people out!
Then there is Zach. He is so intelligent and surprises me with the things he comes up with. His one liners are amazing! Right now, his favorite past time is transforming into different super heroes or vehicles. He'll turn around in a circle and then become his new identity. I laugh out loud almost every time. Here he is in his transformer costume from Halloween.
Heidi is going through some pretty big changes right now also. I think she is starting to enter a new "phase" of being a little girl. Along with that comes new interests, and new challenges. About a month ago, while we were in Illinois, she learned to swing all by herself. I'm pretty sure it was because her friends or "people" as she likes to call them, all knew how to and she didn't, so she finally figured it out. Here she is at Scott Air Force Base, swinging with Daddy.
On the homefront though, she used to want to play with Zach all the time, but every once in a while, she just wants to do girl things without her little brothers around. It wouldn't be such a big deal if the boys took to it a little better, or she was a tad bit nicer about getting them away from her. She is a big fan of being "the boss" to them, and sometimes she feels the need to carry that over in the way she speaks to me. So, needless to say, she has been spending the majority of her days in trouble. Having me in the role of her disciplinarian is not working, so we're trying to come up with a new angle on parenting her. Wish us luck! Along with her behavior troubles, she has been experiencing A LOT of problems with her allergies. Her poor skin is so rough from eczema that it feels like sandpaper. She is on Zyrtec and Singulair and we have a humidifier in her room, and none of it seems to be helping. Whatever is in the air right now is certainly causes things to be worse at the moment. Whenever she has a bad allergy flair up, her breath starts to smell horrible and her throat starts hurting. Last time we were at the doctor to get her allergy meds refilled, they mentioned it was probably from her adenoids and all the bacteria that was pooling up in them. So, in about two weeks we have an ENT consult, and hopefully they will just decide to take them out and rid us of this problem. It would have been nice if it was all taken care of back when she was 18 months old and had her tubes put in. I guess we shall just wait and see.
That takes care of all the kiddos. I'm busy beginning to get stuff packed for our Thanksgiving get-a-way. We're leaving for St. Louis on Friday afternoon to celebrate my Uncle's 50th birthday (one that we weren't sure a year ago if he'd make it to). Then, on the Wednesday prior to the big holiday, we're headed to Gretna to spend some time with Dan's family. We'll be in town there through the weekend in order to help celebrate in MY GODDAUGHTER's baptism :-) I'm very excited to be a Godmother, and Isla (pronounced eye-lah) is just precious. I can get away with spoiling her and I love it!
All of us are very anxious to see her again, and to play with all of our cousins when we visit.
I supposed I've "blogged" long enough for tonight. I've discovered this is a nice way to feel like I am talking to other adults, even though I'm surrounded by children all day long! You will be hearing a lot more of me in the near future :-)
