handsful

Okay, I can technically post (otherwise you’d be dreaming about now…), but it’s a total pain. I can only post in HTML, and even then the pictures all end up on top of each other or out of order. Don’t even ask me to write text BETWEEN pictures. We’re working on it, but there is no “customer service” with WordPress – we just have to go on forums and figure it out…fun, fun. I just wanted my handful of faithful readers to know that we’re still here and will post as soon as possible. Otherwise, I might start twitching from withdrawal and nobody wants that…

A few notes on the wee one of the house…

Favorite toy:  Playdoh

Favorite thing to watch on mommy’s computer:  Youtube “Wheels on the Bus”

Favorite chore:  helping to unload the dishwasher

Favorite sign:  help

Favorite trick to play:  Stealing your chair when you get up. 

Favorite annoying habit:  Turning the lights off.  (she’s now tall enough to reach them…lucky us)

Favorite drink:  juice (which she gets sparingly!)

Favorite food:  hard to narrow down, but we’ll go with cheese

Favorite means of transportation:  the boys.  Okay, this one is a joke. 

Favorite outfit:  jeans, tee, barefeet

Favorite treat to eat at a ballgame:  dum dum lollipop

Favorite thing to do:  GO…anywhere.  She’s not a homebody!  Here we are eating out when daddy was in San Fran. 

Favorite color:  green (the first and only color she can ID so far)

Favorite outside activity:  swing (either her swing or the hammock swing with a brother or sister)

Favorite game to play:  pretending to be you (and telling you that you’re HER).  She thinks this is a HOOT! 

There you have it, a few of L’s favs.  She’s definitely our favorite 2 1/2 year old! 

** Sidenote!  I’ll be the mother of a teenager in less than a week.  Stay tuned…

 

 

One of L’s favorite toys is her camera…wonder where she gets THAT from?

Marley makes a great subject for Lainey’s photography :)

I know I look like “Cousin It” in this shot, but wanted to show Lainey’s latest regular request…”baby”.  She signs “baby”, which means she wants me to hold her like this.  She loves it, and just stares up at me, sometimes playing with my hair.  I’ve heard this is quite common with adopted children, who feel like they missed out on the babying stage.  I always comply with her baby requests, I know it’s healthy for her and helps her to catch up on her development. 

So, Abbey rushes in the door today, yelling “Mom!! Get the camera!!”.  Seagulls decided to hang out by the pond behind our house…could have something to do with the bread the girls were feeding them.  This is one part of living in Florida I LOVE.  We get beautiful white and gray egrets in our pond daily…I love watching them make their slow, steady steps through the water, looking for their next meal.  Today’s seagull visitors were a fun surprise :)

With Monday being a holiday, and feeling exactly like a Saturday, I’ve been messed up all week.  Is it Thursday?  Friday?  Not enough time to get a full weeks worth of anything done!  The price you pay for a day off. 

Speaking of Monday, one of our “get it done” goals was to clean up the backyard.  Randy decided the big tree that lovingly deposits all it’s leaves into our pool had to be trimmed up.  He worked feverishly, trying to revive his mostly-dead (catch the reference to Princess Bride?) chain saw.  Come to find out, it was all dead.  So, he resorted to using the pole trimmer. 

Nice shot, the limb in mid-air!  With all the trimming done, we were amazed at how open the pool area looks now.  Once we get the pool looking more like a pool and less like a swamp (hey, it’s winter), we’ll take a picture. 

A glimpse into my future…staring UP at my son.  Abbey says she’s as tall (don’t laugh) as I am, but I haven’t conceded that one yet.  I’m still waiting on the official measurement. 

Lainey is still dealing with her wheezing and coughing.  I ended up taking her back to the doctor yesterday, and now her OTHER ear is infected and in addition to the continued nebs, she can have puffs on the inhaler and she’s on a steroid.  She’s becoming quite the expert on all of this now and runs to the machine when I tell her she needs a “treatment”. 

Even her baby doll needs treatments…

Not to be left out, Ethan felt bad early this week, ranging from a below-grade fever to a fever.  Lainey decided to keep him company for a while.  Thankfully, whatever he had is gone. 

I’m so glad I was able to get this picture…Lainey is SMART and we’re not just being biased.  She figures things out, on a 2 year old level, all the time.  She was trying to get the knot out of her shoe yesterday.  Yes, I’m THAT mom who just willy-nilly pulls her child’s shoe off rather than untying it.  Call me impatient.  Or, just busy.  Anyhow, Lainey decided that a plastic knive would be just the trick to get that knot out.  lol…

I must now go and see what exactly did get done this week, what still needs to be done, and what can be put off till whenever.  :)

I’m gonna squeeze it in anyway :) 

At first, Randy and I had quite the struggle trying to figure out who to pull for in last weekend’s Steelers vs. Chargers game.  As you can see here:

Note the Steelers hat and Chargers jersey. 

Randy has been a Steelers fan ever since playing Pop Warner football as a kid as a Steeler.  But, Phillip Rivers is the Chargers QB, and we LOVE him…he was the quarterback of Randy’s college team NC State, so we always pull for the Chargers, too.  In the end, the team closest to our hearts did win and we’ll just look forward to watching Phillip play again next year. 

I shot this video on Tuesday so Marley could show off a little. It cracks me up to watch Lainey copy Marley.

I took my camera to Lainey’s speech therapy session today.  She loves Ms. Leah!

Shaving cream play…the goal is to have her practice vocalizing while playing, but she was so mesmerized by the stuff, she barely made a sound.  Okay, let’s try something else. 

I forgot what this little thing is called, but the top is soft rubber and it vibrates.  The plan is for her to put it on her mouth, for stimulation.  She sorta likes it and sorta hates it.  We’re working on it. 

That’s the way, girlie!

She tries SO hard to blow bubbles, but she usually ends up blowing from her nose.  I’d love suggestions from anyone with a cleft affected kiddo :)  Her nasal and oral cavities are still somewhat open because of a small fistula in the middle of her palate and her gumline is still open.  I assume that’s making it harder. 

Lainey is such a busy girl, she got a call right before going out to do a little shopping with Payton’s wallet.  And his hat and glasses.  That’s me checking schoolwork in the background.  Don’t tell Randy that Payton had his camera, he wouldn’t like that. 

Fun for a 2 year old.  Sitting under a desk, playing with a tissue.  Good times. 

Here we are today, at her follow-up appointment after having an ear infection last week.  Her ears healed quickly, but her cough came back last night (she had a cough last week, but it never developed into anything…we thought). 

Last night, we heard her wheezing a little and after playing hard she had a long coughing spell.  The pediatrician said she felt very tight, and had us do 2 neb treatments at the office…here, Marley is helping her.  She came with us, after finishing her schoolwork for the week already (you go, girl).  He wants those to continue every 4 hours during the day until the cough goes away.  We’re well versed in this procedure…all 3 of the triplets have varying degrees of asthma already.  Mine as well add one more. 

A little down-time after a stressful day…watching her other favorite “Marlee” on TV with her First Signs Baby Einstein video. 

I can see the light…Friday is coming.  We’re debating on either cleaning out the garage or going to the zoo.  Which do you think we’ll do?

I thought I’d devote a quick post to a few random things…

** I was given the book “Multiple Blessings” for Christmas by my mom-in-law…it’s the story of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their journey in having a set of twin girls and then 3 boys/3 girls sextuplets.  I love their show “Jon and Kate Plus 8”.  I read the book in 3 days, finishing 2/3 of it just on the ride home from NC.  Their faith has been discussed slightly on the show, a little more as the seasons have gone on.  But, the book goes into much more detail…the last chapter goes into detail on 6 of the lessons that God continually teaches her…it was a blessing to me. 

I know she gets a lot of criticism for how she deals with her husband, and there are times that I agree.  But, their solid stance on not selectively reducing (isn’t that a nice way to put it?) any of their sextuplets mirrored our same decision years ago when our doctors also recommended reduction.  God gave them their children, and it would be His decision, not theirs, whether any of them would make it or not. 

Check out their book, and their family website is on our sidebar “Jon and Kate”.  :)

Abbey’s entry for our homeschool co-op’s yearbook – theme “Homeschool is Cool”

Here is Payton’s picture for the yearbook.  They’ll pick a winner and put that chid’s artwork on the cover of the yearbook.  All the other entries will be printed within it.  There are 200+ kids in our co-op, so we’re talking a pretty big yearbook!

** We’ve recently been enjoying the beginnings of a new level of attachment from our Miss Lainey.  Last Tuesday, I took Marley to her new 2-hr. gymnastics class and stayed to watch.  When we arrived home, Lainey was postively giddy to see me, yelling “mama!!”, running up to me, and excitedly telling everyone that mama was home.  It brought tears to my eyes!  I scooped her up and even got spontaneous “squeezes” from her.  The same thing happened when we returned home from homeschool co-op on Friday.  She walked into Randy’s office and just squealed with delight.  Since then, she’s given more spontaneous hugs and just seems to be getting it that we’re hers and she’s ours.  How I love it!! 

Lainey taking her baby out on a stroll..she has her new purse in case she finds something to buy!

** Speaking of Marley and her gymnastics class, she loves advanced!  Her new coach is challenging her more, and encouraged her to take an extra Open Gym class this past Friday night so that she could work on 2 skills that have been eluding her.  She was there for 2 hours, with one-on-one help from one of her previous (and our favorite) coaches.  When we picked her up, she could do both skills!  In case you’re wondering, she can now do a back hip circle and mill circle on the uneven bars.  She also did a back hand spring on the incline mat without assistance for the first time and her cartwheel on the balance beam is a cinch for her now.  We’re proud at how hard she is working at the sport she loves. 

Current gym girl with a future gym girl (might sign her up for a Mommy and Me class this week!)

** Last thought…there is something about the beginning of a new year that I love.  The newness of it all, the “clean slate” feeling that you get once all the Christmas decorations are put up and your house is in order (for however long THAT lasts).  Jumping into school lessons again, getting back into all our activities, winter cleaning (some do this in the spring, for some reason the nesting instinct hits me now!), and just looking ahead into the year at all that’s coming is exciting!  This one might seem a bit lame, but we look forward to all our fav shows returning with NEW episodes…we’ve been waiting forever for a new Burn Notice, lol.  So, 2008 was wonderful – the “Year of Lainey”.  Here we are 2009…let’s see what you bring. 

New shirt from Aunt Gail…she has great taste :)

 

 

Got some extra time between dinner and bedtime?  Why not do what we did tonight, and have a good, old-fashioned in-home field day.  It helps if you have enough contestants to make it interesting. 

Let’s start with some piggy back races…

past the kitchen, through the front room, back through the kitchen, and all feet on the living room carpet…timed by daddy.

Girls won; they had a slight advantage, given Abbey is so much bigger than Marley – and Marley weighs next to nothing soaking wet. 

Lainey was dying to get in on the fun…

She liked it just a little. 

Someone decided that I had to get into the competition, too.  I held on for dear life…

4-legged race maybe?  We had done the traditional 3-legged races before I thought to get the camera. 

They sort-of carried her, laughing hysterically the whole way!

And, let’s end the evening with the boys dragging ME around, and us collapsing in a heap on the living room floor.  Nope, not sharing THAT picture!