Glasses - Part II

Here she is!  She insisted on wearing her birthday headband and then posing with her sucker....

And then Kayden needed to have her picture taken too!

Glasses

We went to the eye doctor who confirmed that Keeley does, indeed, need glasses.  She was such a trooper and did a great job identifying all the things he showed her (except a phone that must have been from the 70s....), looking in the crazy "binoculars" as he called them, and even getting her eyes dilated.  That part was definitely the worst.  He was great with getting the actual drops in, but she was less than pleased that she couldn't see.  She kept covering up one eye and getting frustrated that we couldn't look at books and she couldn't see the stickers to pick out when she left.  We went to pick out frames and should be getting those soon.  She wanted nothing to do with the plastic frames. As cute as they were with all their colors, I think they were too prominent on her face for her liking.  Unfortunately, there weren't many options for wire rimmed glasses in her size.  She found some she liked that had little sunglasses that clip on.  Hopefully she'll be just as excited when they come in and she actually has to wear them.  They are super cute.  Pictures to come...

Oh Boy!

Monica and Cara gave a wonderful shower for Baby K last week.  We had a great time hanging out with friends and showering Baby K with love.  He received so many fun gifts and it is very clear that he will be well loved.  All my friends that have little boys are so excited that we will be adding one to our family!

The set up - it was ALL boy!  Judah was apparently very concerned that Monica was borrowing his trucks.  He didn't seem to understand why she was taking his toys to a party that she kept telling him was only for mommies!

 

 

 

 

 

The friends....(don't you just love the fashion statement of compression hose...)

 

 

Thank you, everyone.  Baby K and I feel very loved!

Four Years Old

I'm not sure I'll ever get over the shock when my kids turn a year older.  I look at Keeley now and don't really see any baby - just little kid.  She has got to be the sweetest kid I know.  We love her to pieces and couldn't imagine life without her kind spirit.  She's loving school and learning so much lately - not so much the going to school part but the actual in class part (I think she is just sad to have to change from pjs and her spot on the couch watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates!).  The things she are most excited about are her hemispheres map, her even and odd work, and that she is getting closer to reading (she loves working on her sounds).

For her birthday this year, she first wanted to have it at home with just grandparents because, "Happy birthday is too loud and hurts my ears at parties."  After a few weeks of telling me that, however, she decided that she did want a party but only wanted a couple of friends there, "so it won't be too loud in my ears."  So, we decided on Gymboree and had just a few friends to celebrate with her.  It was perfect for her and who she is.  We all had a blast.

New princess bike for her birthday.  She was a little frustrated it is harder to peddle than her other one.

Kite cupcakes.  She wanted a kite party at Gymboree.

Playing with Kayden before her friends arrived.

Keeley, Kayden, and Ella and Lexi (her two best friends from school)

School friends on the boat under the parachute.

Little sister needed in on the action.

Since Disney World, she will not eat cupcakes (she had one early in the day that she got sick).  She said it was okay for her friends to have them, but she only wanted ice cream.  So, we put the candles in the ice cream.

Very serious conversation with Deitra.

Bouncing her headband around.

After the party we opened presents at home.  Her two favorite presents were this TinkerBell outfit and her kite from Grandma.  She immediately wanted to change clothes and go fly the kite.  You see who is doing all the work with the kite...

At her 4 year old check up, her stats were 36.8 lbs (63.72%) and 40 inches (57.71%).  Her BMI, blood pressure, and hearing were all great.  As were her drawing and physical tests (tiptoe walking, heel walking, and hopping on one foot) once she was convinced to do them.  The only concerns the doctor had were her extremely limited food choices (no beans, meat, or veggies) and her left eye showed to be the wrong shape (?) at risk for developing astigmatism.  She has recommended that we see and eye doctor and consider feeding therapy.  She said that I could go to a meeting for parents with children that have picky eating and then decide what I want to do.  However, since I've been concerned for a while and since our life is about to get more chaotic, I'm choosing to do that and then get started with a therapist as soon as we can.  I took her to an eye doctor last year in May when I was concerned about her eyes (she was saying they hurt and rubbing them a lot) and he told me it was allergies.  It will be interesting to see what he says now.


All in all, she is doing great.  She even braved all 4, yes, 4 shots extremely well.  When I asked what special treat she'd like since she had to get shots she requested candy and then chose rolos.  I have to say I think candy after shots is a good deal!  Thankfully we won't have more shots until she is 11! 

Playtime with Oma

This is from an email my mom sent me.

Today when I was playing with Keeley and Kayden.....
Kayden:  "Now we are going to have circle time so we can learn about Jesus."
Me: "Who is Jesus?"
Kayden: "Oma, you know Jesus." (smile)
Keeley: "Oh, he's the guy that had to go to the cross."
Me: "Why did he have to go to the cross?"
Keeley: "Because some men were very grumpy with him."
Me: "What happened to him after he went to the cross?"
Keeley: "He died"
Me: "Does he live in heaven now?"
Keeley: "No, he doesn't live in heaven now.  He is a spirit (emphasis on spirit)
Me: "Oh. Does Jesus live in our hearts?"
Keeley: "Oma, he is a spirit.

 We're getting there...

Disney - The End

Keeley ended her vomiting around 2am and I just hoped and prayed no one else would get sick.  We had brunch at Epcot with the princesses scheduled for 10:30 so we took it SUPER easy that morning and went to breakfast.  I was nervous the whole time any time she said she didn't feel good.  It must have just been residual pain and discomfort though because she didn't throw up again (thank you, thank you!).  We got to Epcot and the girls played at this fountain while I got the stroller.

Discussing what to wish for.

Keeley's ready.  Kayden, not so much.

Such adoring eyes for big sister.

 After the fountain, we loaded up and headed to Norway for the brunch. I was so pleased we were able to make our reservation because Keeley had been so excited about eating with Belle the entire trip!  It was fun to talk to all the princesses.  The girls really seemed to enjoy it.  It made me laugh during the trip how very literal my girls were (and realistic).  Keeley got frustrated when people called her a princess or Belle because, "I'm Keeley Ashlin Culhane.  I'm not Belle.  I'm just wearing her dress!!"

Staring in awe at Cinderella up close!

Snow White kept calling both the girls "Bashful" which was funny to me but the girls haven't seen the movie so they totally didn't get it!

With Ariel.  They were upset she wasn't in mermaid form.

After our brunch, we went on the boat ride in Mexico and then the girls and I headed back to the hotel.  Keeley still wasn't 100% and Kayden and I hadn't slept well since Keeley had been sick so I decided the girls needed to sleep.  Since Kelly had never been to Disney, I told him to stay and enjoy the World Showcase part of Epcot.  Even if the girls were feeling better, that isn't too fun for them and I'd already done it several times.  So he helped me get them all the way to the busses and then we went our separate ways.

March at Epcot is beautiful!!

The girls (all three of us!) had great naps.  I texted Kelly to let him know that we were all doing great and that since they were napping so late I thought we should head to Downtown Disney after he got back instead of trying to tackle another park.  He got back and seemed very tired and the girls wanted to swim so I took them to the pool while he rested.  I was annoyed that he wasn't helping more since I'd had the girls all afternoon while he got to leisurely enjoy the park.  I should have learned my lesson with Keeley.  It wasn't long after I started to feel that way that he started throwing up too.  So, the girls and I did our best to stay away from him and to relax.  I decided that he'd be like Keeley and fine the next day and that the girls and I needed some rest time anyway.  We watched Cinderella and I tried to ready the room for our check out the next morning.  At bedtime, I tried to get the girls to sleep in the same bed (fail) and finally told Kelly he was going to have to sleep on the floor because I didn't want anyone else getting sick.  So, Keeley got a bed to herself and Kayden and I were sharing a bed.  Around midnight, I woke up not feeling well and started throwing up shortly thereafter.  While in the bathroom, I hear Kayden start crying and instantly know that she is sick too.  Sure enough, Kelly shows up minutes later with poor scared Kayden covered in vomit.  My family doesn't get stomach bugs so Kayden was totally freaked out and I felt awful that I was too sick to do a whole lot to help.  We both threw up until about 4 am and no one slept really because we were all in one room. 

They'd wanted these cookies since day 1.  Bad plan to give it to them when I did since that black does not look pretty coming back up.

Around 7 we all woke up.  The girls, of course, felt totally fine and wanted to ride the tea cups of all things.  There was no way I was making the tea cups work or the ride to Magic Kingdom.  Our flight didn't leave until late that day and I felt bad just sitting in our room when the girls were fine so I decided to take them to Hollywood Studios on my own since Kelly was still very sick.  There was a show opening that had Jake and the Neverland Pirates in it and they have a big playground.  Pretty much that trip was a fail because I still didn't feel good and Keeley was mad there weren't any rides.  We got back to the hotel, ate a tiny bit, played until the Magical Express took us to the airport.

Playing in the giant decade numbers outside the hotel.

The flight back was way better than I expected and the girls promptly passed out in the car on the way home.  I was so thankful to get back in our car and not have to worry about vomiting in strange places anymore.  I have never been so glad to be home in my own bed!!

So, all in all we had a great time.  I will always remember how indignant Keeley got when people said "Hi princess" or Hi, Belle" to her, how she hid from the characters but insisted that I get them to sign her book, and how much she loved Big Thunder and the Tea Cups.  In my mind, I will look back on this trip and remember that Kayden insisted on being completely naked every time she had to go to the bathroom (shirt, shoes, socks, everything), how she insisted on being carried if she had to walk more than two feet even though she claimed, "my body just keeps making me run around", and the joy and wonder in her eyes when she interacted with the princesses and characters.  I will try not to remember how sick we all were at the end!!!

Disney - Day 4

Oh my was this a day.  We started the day at 2:30am.  Yes, you read that correctly.  For some bizarre reason, Kayden decided to wake up then and since we were all in one room, it was tough to keep Keeley asleep.  We fought through it until about 5.  At 5 I decided that surely the hotel had the Disney channel, turned it on and hoped in the shower.  Then I frantically looked for something to do with the kids since none of the parks opened until 9.  We were in luck!  Chef Mickey's had a 7:15 opening that had become available overnight.  I called the desk to figure out how we were supposed to get to Chef Mickey's and off we went!

My little early bird.  All decked out and ready to go!

A little concerned about the characters starting to make their way around the room.

Keeley's making progress!!  A smile and just a lean away from the character!!

What?!  Almost a pose here.  It only took 4 days for her to warm up to the characters I guess.

Oh Minnie.  We love you!

Because we started the day so early, we arrived in plenty of time to see the pre-opening show at Magic Kingdom.  It was so cute!  The mayor came out and talked, there were dancers, and then Mickey and the crew arrived on the train.  So fun!

We got inside, got our stroller, and headed straight for Fantasyland where we rode the Winnie the Poo ride, Small World and then, of course, the tea cups again.

This is inside the tea cup.  They loved them so much.  Keeley's favorite ride, followed by Big Thunder!

We happened to be standing right there when the White Rabbit decided to set up for pictures so we were first in line for that.  You can see Keeley is thrilled.

You'll notice I'm wearing a button.  We got "1st time" buttons for everyone else and the button lady thought I needed one so she said, "You're celebrating right?  Celebrating your pregnancy.  You look adorable.  Here's and 'I'm celebrating' button"  I couldn't well turn her down after she was so sweet!

Because we'd started the day so early, we headed back to the hotel where we all took good naps.  Keeley woke up and decided she needed to change clothes.  Into this....

By the time Kayden woke up, however, she decided to wear her regular clothes again to the park.  We headed back to the park, explored a little bit and Keeley rode Big Thunder with Kelly (Kayden was too short).  She loved it.  Her favorite part was, "when my bobo came off the seat!!!"  Unfortunately, by the time Kayden and I met up with her (we'd be playing on the island), Keeley was not feeling very well.  Being the awesome mother I am, I had no sympathy for her.  I figured she wasn't eating well and the ride and just upset her tummy a little bit.  Well, after she threw up on Kelly at the park and then on me on the bus ride home, I'd started to feel bad (both for her and for the fact that I had not been sufficiently concerned).  She threw up for about 6 hours and then stopped.  It was not the most pleasant of nights because, remember, we were all in one room.

Disney - Day 3

Our first full day in Magic Kingdom got off to a bit of a bumpy start.  Keeley's headband had gotten broken on accident the night before.  When Kelly told Keeley in the morning, let's just say it didn't go well.  We had another one (but of course it wouldn't do) and we had pony tail holders and clips.  She insisted on doing it herself but kept getting frustrated that she couldn't make it work.  She wanted our help but told us we couldn't see her while we were doing it.  I quickly tired of this game and told Kelly he'd have to do it.  After 15 minutes of waiting for her to figure out what to do, Kayden and I left for the park on our own. Kayden had already been running around saying, "my body just keeps making me run."  It was time for her to get on the road!  Having us leave apparently motivated Keeley to figure something out and be more pleasant because they arrived at the park just a bus after we did.  We watched a parade by the castle and headed to Fantasyland.  That is a section where the kids could do everything.  We rode the carousel, did the Peter Pan ride, enjoyed It's a Small World (Keeley kept calling it Little World), were scared by Mickey's Philharmonic (3D and too dark in the theater), and fell in love with the tea cups.

This is the only time I got to ride.  Something about being pregnant must make me really motion sensitive because I started feeling so bad I had to close my eyes!  I sat every other ride out and put my feet up in the shade.

We then headed over to our reservations at the Crystal Palace.  I'd heard the food was good so I was willing to deal with the characters - my girls don't really know who the Winnie the Poo characters are and you've seen how the characters were going so far.  I wasn't impressed with the food but we got some really cute pictures of Kayden with the characters.

How cute is her smile here!

She's totally warming up to the characters.

It took forever to get our check taken care of so Kelly took the girls out to head to the tea cups again. They got caught at another show at the castle.

I walked out and spotted them like this.  Too cute.

They have one great daddy!

We played a little at the Tea Cups and then headed back to the hotel for early bedtimes since we'd skipped naps.