School

On Friday we visited my sister's 2nd grade classroom.

Kendra stood in front of the class and named movies. If the students had seen that movie they raised their hand.

The children obviously loved Megan and bombarded her with their stuffed animals.

This little girl that Kendra is with is a little ball of fire. Wow, her energy definitely needs channeling. She was really sweet to show Kendra the books and read her a story.

That night (and the whole purpose of our trip) Shoni had a show with her elementary school. She and two others do a play each year. This year they did Aladdin and it was amazing.

BYU

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

That is why we visit BYU Campus whenever possible.

This is the museum of paleontology. a.k.a. dinosaur museum at BYU. Kendra was scared to death of the T-Rex because in the movie, "The Night at the Museum" it comes to life.

This was Mark's favorite exhibit. The giant crocodile.

Megan was very excited she got to buy BYU socks.

The BYU food court. We each got a donut at the Sugar and Spice shop.

Refiner's Fire

The last few months have been tough. It began when Kendra and Megan got croup. It took Kendra 2 1/2 weeks before improving and Megan 4 weeks. Megan never really got over it and became ill again after 2 weeks of her recovery. 2 weeks ago (after being sick for 2 weeks) I finally caved and took her to the doctor...again. She has had a persistent cough since croup and I wanted her lungs to get checked. Her lungs were fine but she had a horrible ear infection. I reluctantly took the antibiotic because, by this time, I was so desperate for her to be well again.


After croup I said, "no more sickness until the fall!" I was tired from holding Megan night after night so she could breathe and was pretty much up all night. Then she got sick again. "This is it," I said, "surely this will be our last sickness until fall." I was wrong again. We went to Utah this past weekend to visit family and Meggers got the flu. Now I just expect we will continue to get ill with whatever is in the air. I must say that I am very tired of her being sick. I'm sure she feels the same way.

And as it continues Megan IS sick again. She has a cold and cough. Sometimes she coughs so hard she vomits. It's fine. I'm use to it. Sometimes she eats too much and pukes. I'm use to that too. She even will gag on her food and vomit. That is just how life is.

I'm very sleep deprived and wonder how moms of chronically ill children do this year after year. One of my students (way back when) had restricted lung capacity. This made it very difficult for him to breathe but particularly difficult at night. For years she and her husband took turns sleeping next to their son to help him during those nights. Or another mom whose son I also worked with had severe but high functioning autism and he had bi-polar disorder. He had the most severe behavior of any student I had ever worked with. Due to his bi-polar disorder he would also not sleep for days. His mom put all of her life aside to take care of her son. She rarely gets a break from him because no one can handle him like she can. Amazing. How do they do it?

Today is the first day this week (Friday, May 14th) Megan has not insisted I hold her all day long. It drove me crazy not to have a break from her. Even when Mark would come home she didn't want her daddy, just her mommy.

The Gag Reflex

I'm so grateful Megan has such a wonderful gag reflex. I hate scrubbing my carpet, but hey, at least I've been able to avoid an ambulance call. It doesn't matter how hard I try to keep the floor clean, Megan can find anything. Kendra left a small toy in Megan's little peoples barn. I didn't notice it, but she gagged it out. whew! Megan has also found leaves that have been tracked in from outside and has puked them out each time too. The gag reflex only works against me when it comes to her food.

Kendra thinks she is big enough to pick up and carry Megan. She is a very sweet older sister but I have to watch her a little more closely.

Megan looked like a little sucker fish as she mauled the bowl. She is very messy and loves to feed herself.

After Easter I noticed a graham cracker bunny house. Kendra loves these things so I waited until it was 75% off and to our luck - it was still there! She had a great time decorating it.

Family Pictures

We had our pictures taken a couple of weeks ago and bought the CD so we could print what we wanted. Here are some of the highlights:

I was surprised at how uncooperative Megan was. Even though Kendra never enjoyed having pictures taken, she was a much easier baby to photograph!

Easter Weekend

We enjoyed our Easter weekend. Mark was home for the entire weekend (minus the priesthood session of conference) which doesn't happen very often.

For FHE on the Monday before Easter the girls decorated eggs.

Megan had a great time banging her egg on the table until it cracked.

We had an "after Easter egg hunt" this past week. Kendra and her friend hid the eggs in the backyard. This is how they were hidden:

For conference we printed a conference booklet, puzzle, and apostle cards for Kendra. We then built a tent so she could face the prophet - like they did for King Benjamin. She loved it.

For the first Sunday session of conference we have a tradition of eating monkey bread for breakfast. This year I added a whipped cream cheese frosting to it, and wow! It's so yummy!

I began teaching sign language to Megan about two weeks ago. I was surprised to see how quickly she picked up on it. She can already do two signs.

Kendra's favorite thing to play is Candyland and we play it everyday when Megan takes her afternoon nap. She also enjoys saying words, the first sound she hears, and what letter makes that sound. So glad the academics are coming along!

Vickers Idol

Kendra is our little singer. She sings at the top of her lungs everywhere we go - the airport, store, outside, etc. The people around don't seem to bother her until someone comments on her singing - then she stops....almost embarrassed.

She usually doesn't let us tape her, but this is what we got.

Peas Me No Likey

I don't remember Kendra ever making these faces while eating...

Blizzard Conditions

This picture is from Saturday. Can you believe it?!?! I never thought I'd see snow in New Mexico in the spring!

The girls in their sunglasses.

Food is not for eating - it's for playing with! Instead of eating her alphabet cereal she made words with it. She had fun reading that long sentence over and over to us.

Kendra moment:

Sometimes Kendra doesn't cooperate when getting dressed. She'll pretend that her foot has a mind of it's own and it won't go into her underwear. She says, "get in foot!" and then tells us that her foot won't go in. The other night as she sat on the floor Mark tried to pull her underpants on to her feet. She said her foot was being bad and wouldn't go into the leg hole. Mark then put out his hand underneath the leg hole as if he were holding something and told Kendra he had a cookie for her foot. She slowly brought her foot towards Mark's hand and it quickly grabbed the pretend cookie, ate it, and then pulled back. Mark continued to give her foot more and more cookies until her foot was lured out. Kendra then told Mark that her other foot, which was already through the leg hole, wanted a cookie too.

Shopping

Shopping with my two girls is usually an uneventful trip. They are very good; they never cry, fuss, or tantrum. They were still wonderful on our trip this week, but we had a couple of bloopers. Megan as I hold her into the store likes to play with the cell phone velcro closure on my backpack, (it's on the strap). I didn't realize she actually opened it so when I shifted my backpack my cell phone spilled it's contents on the hard store floor. I was able to put it back together - and it works - it's just a little slow and the back panel doesn't quite fit right. I'm debating wether to duct tape it or not. Then Kendra wanted to hang onto the side of the cart after she got her cookie (sample cookies - free and they keep Kendra happy for the first 5 minutes). As we passed the bakery section with all the donuts and cookies Kendra leaned back and the bakery goods fell ALL OVER the floor! Seriously? All but one package were just fine. But ofcourse the one package that opened and flung donut holes all over was the largest and most expensive...and ofcourse that would be the one I would have to purchase after I picked all the donut holes up. AND I never buy donuts. Not even at Krispy Kreme.


This week the weather has been gorgeous. It has been such a treat to finally play outside. We went to the park yesterday which we haven't done in months! The girls and I also began to trim our overgrown bushes and plants.


My sister came to visit last weekend. It's too bad that we live so far away from all of our family members and that we can't see them more often.

While she was here we played basketball. This is how Kendra likes to play. We chase the person who has the ball. Then she would say, "okay drop it!" She would then run after the ball and grab it before we could.

This is Kendra pouting. She doesn't tantrum anymore - just pouts. I love her face.

Getting Through

The last few weeks have been tough. It seemed that it wasn't just croup that affected them. It was all viruses rolled into one. Croup, flu, stomach bug, cold, etc. Kendra, after 2 1/2 weeks finally began to do well while Megan still has green snot. Megan was so congested that I had to suction her nose constantly. She couldn't eat or breathe without this being done. I hated doing this in the middle of the night. Well, last week I suctioned one to many times and she got a bloody nose! Scared me half to death. So it was just saline solution from then on out.

This was Kendra. She laid on the couch for three days and didn't want to eat or drink anything. This is very unlike Kendra. I know she's REALLY sick when all she wants to do is lay on the couch.


Here's Kendra when she felt better! She wanted to put makeup on. I really missed her.

Neither child has slept well since. Kendra woke up crying one night and Mark went in there to take care of her. She cried so loud and hard that she woke Megan up. So I went in with Megan. Now, when Kendra cries she makes herself vomit. I am always the one who cleans the mess. Well, I didn't think she actually threw up this time so when I was done with Megan I checked on Kendra and went back to bed. The next morning Mark called me from work...

"Kendra threw up last night."

"Oh she did? Did you get it in the bucket?"

"Yeah (pause) I didn't clean it though."

Gross. The bucket had dried up chodes in it. So Gross!!

Yesterday the weinermobile came to Smiths just a few miles from our house. Kendra wanted to see the giant hot dog car so we went. Then she cried when we got up to it because her shoe fell off. Then she wouldn't go inside although she had begged me to be able to on the car ride there.

I took a picture with our phone, but don't know how to download it. This picture is from the last time it came when Kendra was 3-4 months old.

Kendra did get a weinee whistle and sticker which made the trip worthwhile for her.

It Could Be Worse

There is an old children's book titled, "It Could Be Worse." It is about a man who is very unhappy when he comes home after a hard days work to a small, noisy home. He finally says that he can't take it anymore and goes to see the wise man. The wise man tells him to put more and more animals into his home until it is so chaotic he really can't take it anymore. Then the wise man tells him to put all the animals back outside where they belong. The next night when he comes home he sits in his rocking chair grateful for the peace.

This is so my life. A week ago as Mark and I went to bed I complained that I couldn't go on like this. I have been so tired with Megan. She still wakes up every two hours...sometimes she'll give me a 3 or 4 hour stretch, but mostly it's 45 minutes to 2 hours. I'm exhausted and last week I just felt I was at the end of my rope. And then that night Kendra woke up coughing and puked. (This is a common occurrence with Kendra, thus the bucket is permanently in her room). The coughing continued all night and for the next 3 days she laid on the couch not wanting to eat anything and fighting me on keeping her hydrated. Finally on Thursday she wanted to eat something. On Tuesday Megan got sick. By Friday I took both girls to the doctor. Kendra is finally on the tail end, although she still has coughing attacks day and night, tons of snot, and still sounds congested. Megan had a double ear infection. That would be why she woke up crying every 20 minutes on Thursday night! So, now I realize, like the book, that it can be worse. And I look forward to sleeping a full 2 hours before being awaken. I thought the kiddos would be better by today and am disappointed that I probably have another week.

Megan has an extremely sensitive gut. When we gave her the antibiotic for her ear infections the pharmacist told us to give it to her with food if it caused stomach upset. Well, with Megan that means give it to her with food. It didn't help as an hour later she continued to throw up until finally she puked bile. She then lay lifeless on my shoulder. So now we have another antibiotic that causes "diarrhea" and yes, Megan has that now. She is so full of snot that she throws up sometimes. But it could be worse. It definitely could be worse.