Little Humanitarian, and her sister

Keeley is still a vegetarian (although she did ask for and eat some of a ham sandwich the other day and even said she liked it) and will tell you she does not eat meat, but that her sister does.  Apparently, this need to protect animals extends to bugs as well.  The other day there was a bug on the floor in our house and she shrieked for me.  I went over, got a tissue, and picked it up while squishing it.  She quickly exclaimed, "HEY!  He was crawling!  You should have put him outside!!!"  I told her I probably should have but that he was already dead so I was going to put him in the trash.


We went to Mom's to swim on Thursday.  As I was about to step into the shallow part I noticed a june bug swimming around.  I told the girls to hold on while I pushed him toward the filter.  Keeley said, "WAIT!!  We need to rescue him."  She stepped in and told Kayden, "Kayden, I need your help. Get me the shark thing."  Kayden quickly complied and handed it to Keeley.  Keeeley scooped the bug up and got him out of the pool.  Both girls walked away from the pool and I started to get things situated for us to get in.

Later that night we were telling Kelly about it at dinner.  I was telling him about how Keeley wanted to rescue the bug and how Kayden had been her helper.  Kayden was eating her pasta and, without even looking up, said, "and then I put him in the filter."  Keeley said, "What?  How did you do that?" To which Kayden responded, "with my hand".  Keeley, horrified expression firmly in place said, "Why?"  Now, the obvious question here is "why did you put the bug we just rescued into the filter?"  Kayden, however, interpreted it as, "Why did you use your hand?"  She responded, again without even pausing from dinner, "because I couldn't with my foot."

I started laughing so hard at the entire scene - Keeley horrified and Kayden so unemotional in her retelling that she couldn't even be bothered to stop eating - that I started to cry.  I hadn't seen any of that transpire when were at the pool.  The girls got out of the water (ie: safe) and I thought they put the bug in the grass.  I guess Keeley thought the bug was safe too.  Poor Keeley.  Traumatized at meal time because we eat meat and now she knows that her mom and sister are both bug killers.

Master Negotiater

So the saga continues with this calendar issue.  Tuesday evening Keeley was upset because her light pink leotard was not clean.  I saw her dark purple one hanging up on the side of some of her furniture and told her she could just wear that one.  She told me she was saving it to wear to Oma's.  I asked when we were going to Oma's and she responded, "tomorrow."  For some reason I thought she might actually forget when Wednesday morning rolled around.  I was so wrong.  She came into my room as soon as her light turned yellow on her clock (I was still sleeping as it was only 6:30) and this was our exchange:

Keeley: "Someone (very accusing and irritated tone) put my purple leotard in the hamper last night"
Me: thinking this is not how I want to start the day "Okay.  Why is that a problem?  You already have other clothes on."
Keeley: "because we are going to Oma's today" (tone: Mom-you don't-know-anything)
Me: "Okay.  Give me a minute."

I get up and we go in the living room where I proceed to tell her that I don't know if we can go to Oma's but that I will send her a text to see if that is okay or not.  It is still not 7am so I certainly don't want to call.  Oma said she would be working at school a little and then had dinner plans.  I could have made it work, but it would have required rescheduling somethings on my calendar (the real calendar) to get us there when she was there so she could watch brother while we went swimming.  That is when this exchange occured:

Me: "Oma says she won't be home a lot today so we probably should go a different day."
Keeley: "Why won't she be home?"
Me: "She has to work and then she has dinner plans."
Keeley: "But did she say no?"
Me: "Well, no, but she won't be there."
Keeley: "But did she say no?"
Me: thinking it is way too early for me to be working this hard at a 4 year old conversation "No"
Keeley: "Because one time we went over there and she wasn't there but we still got to go and went swimming."
Me: "Keeley, we'll go tomorrow.  She'll be home and it will work out much better.  Right now I think that you and me and Kayden need to get my calendar and we can fill in the girls' calendar with things that we have scheduled already." 

We then spent the next 20 minutes filling in the rest of the week.  Perhaps we will not have conversations like this every day now.

Dominoes

The weather has been ridiculously hot so we are exhausting all our play inside activities.  I have this jumbo set of dominoes that I thought the girls would enjoy playing with.  They had a great time matching up the dots.

We had one left over so they put it in the middle and decided it looked like a clock....

So we made numbers and put them around.  Of course the girls were over the activity at that point.

Little Man

Every day Killian is awake a little bit more and showing more of his adorable personality.  We are all so in love!

Playtime on the mat.  It looks like he is looking at the butterflies, but he is really listening to big sisters.

He LOVES his hands.  Doesn't suck his thumb yet to fall asleep all the time, but it looks like that might be where we are headed.

SO cute!

Right after a feeding.  This is how all his meals go.  He is always quite entertained during meal time!

Calendar

Last summer I scheduled a million activities for the girls.  I thought to help them (and me!) keep it all straight I should make a calendar that we could all look at to see where we were in each day and the week and what was left for us to do.  With some brainstorming with my mom, we got it all together.  We loved it all summer and I put it away when school started because our "schedule" was pretty much the same.  While I realized the girls would enjoy it this summer, I wasn't up to tackling the maintenance and taking care of a newborn so I never got it out.  Because we are busting at the seams at the house now that we have no spare room to catch all the "stuff" that you accumulate in 8.5 years of marriage and with 3 kids, our study is currently holding a lot of things - one of them being the calendar.

This weekend the girls found the calendar and were so excited.  They pulled it out and promptly started filling it up with the activities. 


I told the girls when they were preparing the calendar that we had a playdate scheduled for Monday morning so they found the playdate picture.  When they woke up on Monday, I had to tell them the playdate was cancelled because the other kiddo had a cold.  Keeley's response was "well, we'll just have someone else over.  How about Oma?"  She was none too pleased when I told her that Oma was busy too and could not just pop right on over.

One of the activities they have for Tuesday afternoon is this....

It is a picture of my grandparents who live in Houston.

When we reviewed the "schedule" they had created for the week, I told the girls that we probably were not going to be able to go see Grossmama on Tuesday because Houston is really far away.  Keeley's response?  "We'll watch a movie in the car."  I just shook my head.  She then later told Kelly the same thing.  I again reminded her that it was really far away and she again said "We'll watch a movie."

Yesterday (Monday afternoon), I was working out with my trainer and she noticed the calendar on the girl's table.  She asked Keeley about it and Keeley said, "and tomorrow we're going to see Grossmama and Grosspapa.  Well, not Grosspapa because he died."  I promptly interrupted and said, "and, Keeley, remember we probably aren't going to go to Houston because it is really far away."  I swear to you she looked at me like I was crazy and said in the most matter-of-fact or Mom-doesn't-know-anything-voice, "we're going to watch a movie."  I told her I understood that we watch movies on the way to Houston but I still didn't think we'd be able to go.  She turned to me and said, "but it is on the calendar."  I, again, just shook my head and tried really hard not to say, "Four year olds don't make the schedule by themselves!  It is only on the calendar because you put it there!" 

The girls are currently napping.  We'll see what happens when they wake up.  I'm sure they will inform me it is time to go to Houston. I've already warned Grossmama...

Suckers

She got two suckers after swim lessons.  I assumed one for now and one for later.  I assumed incorrectly apparently!

Sister needed to follow suit.

Money Lesson

The girls each have piggy banks.  Some how they have conned my mom.  Every time she comes over they ask for "food" for their piggy banks - i.e. money.  Mom always obliges and gives them handfuls of change from her car.  The other day Keeley came up and asked me, "Do I really need this?" and showed me a dollar.  I said yes and then tried to explain to her what it was worth.  I don't think she really understood so i attempted to show her visually. 

I'm still not sure either of the girls understood, but it was a start at least!

Of course, Kayden needed her money all counted out too.  It wasn't sufficient to just look at Keeley's!

Make-Up

I was touching up my make-up the other day before Kelly got home and the girls wanted to wear some too.  I put the tiniest bit of eye shadow on and the tiniest bit of mascara.  I will not be doing that again for a long time.  I was not happy about how much older they looked instantly!

Sorting

Both the girls love to sort and organize.  During quiet time the other day I gave Keeley this big tub of vehicles.  She sorted them by color and item.  So pleased with her work.

Another day she did this...she also likes patterns.

Everyone at 2 months

Killian is 2 months old and I'll do a post about him soon with pictures and all his stats, but I snapped this picture of him today in the car seat.....

And thought two things instantly: He has this one's eyes...

Keeley at 2 months.

And this one's smile...

Kayden at 2 months.

The more I looked at the picture of him, the more I saw my daddy too.  You can definitely tell the kiddos are related!

Little Man at 2 Months

Killian is already two months old.  He is smiling a lot more (but not when I get my camera out) and I absolutely love the way his entire face crinkles up and he acts like it is the best thing in the world to have you in his line of sight.  He will have "conversations" with you using his sounds and sticking out his tongue.  If you look away he will try to get your attention back to him.

Cutest picture ever, right?  Conversation with Dad.  Pretty serious from the looks of it...

We've started music class and he loves it.  Looks around with big round eyes at all the kids and loves to listen to Ms. Nina.  Of course, it helps that big sisters are right there to love on him the entire time.  He would hold my finger really tight during the class whenever he got excited. Our first lesson ran into when his nap time should have been but, no worries for this laid back guy, he just fell asleep on my shoulder.

He is a great sleeper - goes down with just a minute or two of fussing, sleeps soundly, and consistently gives me a 7-10 hour stretch during the night.  The only time he fusses is if he is hungry or if he is tired or if he is in his car seat (I really think that is an issue more of being lonely in the back of the car).  He really goes to town kicking his legs and feet when he has playtime and will get excited about toys but isn't really swatting at them yet - just following them with his head.  We're working on more tummy time because he was starting to get a little bit of a flat spot from sleeping so much!  During weeks 6-8 he was only awake for about 3 hours total during the day!!

Not too bad, but still not a big fan!

Perhaps the funniest thing to me about his sleep though is that it looks like he's going to be a thumb sucker.  We sure pushed pacis those first few fussy weeks and he wanted nothing to do with them.  He's found his hands now and just goes to town on them.  The other night I heard him on the monitor and went to feed him and he was angry with me.   I guess he'd just gotten frustrated because he can't quite get his thumb to his mouth yet and so it is the entire hand he's sucking on.  We're starting to only use a sleep sack at night for him so he can get to his hands and during the day he is working his hands out of the swaddle so he can suck on them.

He is so not into the pacifiers we tried to force on him!

During his second month of life he attended 3 birthday parties, one cook out, and a week of swim lessons with the girls.  I guess as the third you just have to be a little more go with the flow!  Big sisters are still completely in love with him.  They run in his room when he gets up, love to look at him on the monitor, get his changing pad to the ground so they can help change his diapers, check on him before they get out of the car...basically anything they can do to be around him!  They are also always right in his face loving on him.  So far he's been pretty mellow about it.  I kept thinking the novelty of a little brother would wear off but it does not appear to be!

The pediatrician said that everything looked great at his appointment.  She was pleased that I had seen a GI doctor and was allowed to continue to breastfeed and amazed at how well he was sleeping.  He is quite a healthy boy.  He did have to get three shots and an oral vaccine at the appointment.  The nurse gave him the oral vaccine and then a syringe of sugar water.  Then another nurse came in because they do the shots at the same time.  The new nurse was talking to him and they had just started having a very good "smile" conversation when they did the shots.  The look on his face was one of, "what the heck lady!!  We were talking and then you stuck me!"  He was very angry, very happy to get back in my arms and nurse, and very quickly fell asleep.  Sweet boy.

From the looks of that belly and those arm and leg creases, I'd say he is doing fine for food!

His stats are:
weight: 12 lbs 15.8oz (78.46%) that is a 5 lb gain from birth
length: 25.25 inches (98.4%) plotting right now to be taller than Daddy
head: 15.5 inches (33.92%)

Here are some more cute pictures of the little guy.

Quite the serious face.

First smile just for me - 6 weeks, 2 days.

Checking out Carbo from the princess mat in the playroom.

The girls always have to be on the mat with him if they know he is there.

Some more time with Kayden.

Kayden moving his butterflies for him.

Talking.

Smiling at Mom while Dad takes the picture.

SO cute!  

Sibling Fun

My girls are great friends and they are making sure brother doesn't ever feel left out of that bond!

Conversations with my three year old

Before swim lessons she was nervous about going in and she had to go first today (since Keeley went first yesterday).  Holding Killian I asked if she wanted me to pick her up and carry her or hold her hand.  She turned around and rubbed her little fists into her eyes and said "let me dry my tears first." 

After swim lessons I took them to sonic to get a slush. They are not allowed to drink anything but their waters in the car.  Driving home she said, "Why can you have your drink in the car but we can't." 

Perhaps my favorite from today though...

Conversation from lunch.  You need to know first that "chipmunk cheeks" is stuffing grapes in your mouth until your cheeks puff out.

Me:  Please don't make chipmunk cheeks because you could choke.
Kayden: But I didn't choke this time.

Water Fun

Girls have been doing swim lessons.  I'll post pictures/videos when I can figure out that uploading.  This is the picture of their first day.  SO cute with their hair in three pig tails each.

We purchased a little pool to splash in and a slip and slide in an attempt to have something to do outside in this ridiculous heat.  The girls aren't great at the slip and slide but had so very much fun.

Keeley instructing

Explaining something.

Funniest thing was the running starts the girls would get.  Kayden would run all the way from the furthest fence to build up momentum and then pause right before she tried to slide.  Cracked me up every time but she sure ended the day tired!