Why It's Great To Be A Dad

Mark loves being a dad and this is why:

He comes home from work and gets attacked by two little girls aching for his attention.  They love the weekends because daddy is home.  One day this week Megan woke up when Mark opened the garage.  She came downstairs to see him, but he left before she made it all the way down.  Upon hearing the garage close again Megan began crying saying, "No daddy No!"  I came down, scooped her up, and tried to console her as she cried for her daddy.  She eventually went back to sleep.  Mark felt so bad he didn't get to say good-bye to her.  Most of the time the kids sleep through the garage opening and closing.

I Give Myself Permission To Complain

I have lasted through, what, 10 weeks of morning sickness?  I really try to have a positive happy attitude and be grateful for the opportunity to be pregnant again.  I have come to a point that I'm just tired of being sick.  Don't get me wrong.  I can handle, and am grateful - extremely grateful - for days where I'm only nauseous and can feel better for the most part with gingerale and food.  It's the days where I feel like puking, and nothing takes it away; those are the awful days.  The days when I do very little and joke about needing to be turned so I don't get bed sores.

So I've come to a point where I want to feel better.  Through this experience I gained empathy for people with chronic illnesses.  I know my sickness will go away, hopefully in a couple of weeks, but maybe not until birth - at any rate, I know it will go away.  I can't imagine having a chronic illness and feeling this way everyday.

I Get The Hint

When Kendra was a baby I painted her room to look like this: 

Before I painted it was purple from floor to ceiling and was just too dark.  I thought this was cute and girly.  I loved this room.  It was the first I painted in our home.  I loved holding Kendra at night as I would get a chance to just sit and admire how adorable this space was.


It has since turned to this:

Not so cute anymore.  Kendra apparently gets bored at night and tears what she can.  Sigh.  My girl is getting older and wants an older room.


So now it is in the process of looking like this:

 (Yes, Kendra also drew on the walls).  Bahh.  So much cuter with wallpaper.  I haven't decided if I'm really going to paint the whole room again.   It needs something though.

A New Pet

We found a new friend today.  Megan greatly enjoyed snuggling her new pet. (Kendra's not feeling well and didn't get to enjoy this moment *sniff*, we did have about 6 weeks without any illness which is a record for us.)   It was so cute that now I can't bring myself to kill it.  Maybe I can get Mark to throw them in the arroyo after the kids go to sleep.  I'd keep them but I have two problems: 1. they'll eat my plant and 2. they're a moth - a giant privet moth! 

These babies get huge - probably to match the size they will be when they come out of the cocoon.

There are two friends.  The biggest is on the left top corner and the smaller is down near the bottom right.

Our Decision

After I had Megan I decided I was done.  Her illness caused not only severe sleep deprivation, but a mother on the brink of mental insanity.  I couldn't go through that again.

Then I felt like someone was missing.  I thought about every facet of having another kid and finally decided I had to do it.  I made a promise after Kendra that I would never deny a spirit a chance at life.  It was a leap of faith for me.

I'm about 3 months along.  I have two different due dates so somewhere at the end of January, beginning of February our third one will make an appearance.  It is most likely a girl since our first two are girls.  I don't want to find out what we are having at our ultrasound and want to be surprised, but that decision is killing Mark.

I've had morning sickness and deserve a gold star for swimming with Megan the last month in swim lessons!  I've gained a ton of weight already - a pound a week.  I'm hoping once I feel better and don't have to eat to function that it will go down to 1/2 pound a week.  It really is amazing that I'm as functional as I am.  I'm already showing but refuse to wear prego clothes until I'm 16 weeks.  Does everyone stretch out faster with their third?  And gain more weight?

Yep, We Did It Again

Swim Lessons

The girls had swim lessons for the last month.  Both are more confindent and comfortable in the water. 

Kendra jumped in at 5 feet without holding her teacher's hands!



Her teacher then does a game called washing machine.  This is the spin cycle.  During the rinse cycle they go under water together.



This is Kendra demonstrating the frog.  She jumps into the water with hands out, face in the water, and legs stretched.  When she comes up she says, ribbit!

Megan grabbing a sink toy. 

Here she showed me how to blow bubbles. 



She wanted me to throw her toy for her so she could go dive for it again.  Like a little puppy.

It's amazing how much growth they both have had the last month.  I'm still debating whether or not I should put them in for one more session.  They love it, it's a great skill, and it has given us something to do this summer.

I Win

Megan refuses to poop on the potty.  She use to refuse to poop period and thus we have allowed her to poop in a diaper, just as long as she would poop.  This week she had 4 pullups left.  I told her that when her pullups were gone she'd have to use the potty.  She has complete control over her bowel movements and it's time.

We let her pick out gum as a reward for using the potty, (Don't even comment on how to potty train your child and how we should use charts, stickers, prizes, candy, etc.  None of those things work for this kid!  I can't tell you how many parents have told me how I should be doing it.  One of these days I'll write my book inspired by Megan, 'When All Else Fails').  On Friday she needed to poop but held it in, in fact she held it in for 24 hours until she could no longer hold it.  Thanks to all those prunes and fiber.  She finally gave in and went on the potty!  She was super excited and shared gum with everyone.  Ha!  I win!  Now if only I can get her to do it consistently.  Victory, sweet victory.

Provo

After a short stay in St. George we headed to Provo to see my sister in her show.  We met up with my family and had a picnic then played in the park.  I know, I don't look happy but I had spiders crawling on me!

 This is a spinning thing at the park.  Mark and Rob (my sisters bf) were playing on it.

 Then Shoni and I tried it.  Only problem?  My sister is short and see how the side she is on is tilted up?  She couldn't reach the ground to keep running to keep us spinning.  It was really funny to watch her not reach the ground and I had a hard time holding on because I was laughing.

There was a tree there that was open underneath.  The girls had a fun time playing in there.

 Us at the show.  My cousin joined us.  See Meg with her pacifier?  After we got back we took them away from her (we purposely waited so she'd have a happy restful trip).  She is the most awesome kid sometimes.  She found one I missed and threw it in the trash.  She didn't make a big fuss and has been great without them.

After the show - Shoni all painted up as the wicked witch. 



St. George

We traveled to St. George to see Mark's parents for a couple of days.  Here are some things we did:

They have the neatest spary park downtown.  We have a dinky one in ABQ but it isn't chlorinated and the kids smell something fierce.  This one is very clean and nice and the kids loved it.  Made me want to move to St. George - just to use the spray park!

 They have two areas to this spray park.  One is a little stream that goes down a path and the other is the spray area where water shoots up and all over the place.

 I love this photo.  This is what the girls do in the bathtub.  I think Megan likes to pretend to be a mermaid. 

We took the kids to a wildlife museum.  They give the kids binoculars - how fun is that!

They have a kid play area too - touch and play with everything!

Brain Integration Therapy

BIT, brain integration therapy, first came to my attention when Kendra was 18 months old.  At that time we were trying to help her with her sensory processing disorder.  She made so much progress with OT that I thought we had fixed her brain.  Basically her brain wasn't connecting right and that's why she couldn't handle sensory input.  Her OT told me that we would see SPD come up around age 5, or when she began Kindergarten.  I had anticipated to see SPD in the form we had when she was younger.  Much to my surprise we didn't.  I thought we had made it, she's okay, we're good.  Knowing how the brain needs to connect when reading I thought that she might struggle academically and show signs of dyslexia, but again she was so high in her reading.  We're okay, she's okay.  We did notice a huge spike in anxiety which caused her to have diarrhea all the time.  Then she couldn't keep up with her peers when it came to balance and coordination.  As I read with her at home I saw dyslexic traits but dismissed it because those things are common in kids her age, besides her reading was so high.

Her reading continues to remind me of a girl I taught.  It was my first year teaching, she was in sixth grade and begged me to allow her to be in my writing group.  What kid wants to be in special ed?  I mean, really?  She didn't qualify, but eventually, by mid-year, her writing was slipping (which I thought she did on purpose) so she was tested and qualified for services.  Her parents asked me if I could tutor her on reading.  According to my testing she had average reading and the teacher wasn't concerned, but I couldn't say no so I stayed after school twice a week to work with her.  As I worked with her I noticed some funky stuff.  She added sounds that didn't belong and missed sounds that did belong.  She could sound out each letter, but couldn't put it together right.  After awhile I talked to her parents and we decided that she might have dyslexia.  I was not certified to work with dyslexia and so they found a charter school and a teacher that was and put her with that teacher the following year.

My last year of teaching I taught a 2nd grader that did some of the same funky stuff with her reading.  It turned out that she had dyslexia as well.  I read a book called, 'The Gift of Dyslexia' and began doing the exercises outlined.  It was amazing to see how she had absolutely no balance or coordination, and that is what the book focused on.

Now Kendra.  Her reading is high, but she does the exact same things with her reading as those two did.  I don't want to wait until she's in sixth grade to realize that her brain is not crossing over.  She has terrible balance and coordination and is behind her peers in everyway.  I have done some exercises with her, regarding her balance, but she still struggles.  It is hard to watch her in swim lessons and gymnastics as she tries so hard and is proud of herself for small accomplishments, yet still yards behind the younger kids.

She struggles with anxiety and often has meltdowns because she just can't handle things.  I think meds would help ease the anxiety but I don't want to medicate my kid at such a young age.  There is one more thing we're going to try, and then we'll probably do therapy for anxiety.  First we are taking her to someone who is certfied in brain integration therapy - who just happens to be my neighbor!  Before she became certified the closest place to us that did this was Denver.  So we are going to try to reteach her brain through various exercises, I suppose similar to the ones I did with my 2nd grader.

My kids have issues, and they are expensive.  But on the bright side we are so lucky to live in Albuquerque where every single thing we do is here in town.

Megan Turns 3

Happy Birthday Megan. 

 1 Day Old

 1 Year

 2 Years

3

Megan is our squeaker.  She's always squeaking instead of using her words.  She can use her words she just chooses to squeak.  The first 15 months were a challenge as we tried to figure out why Megan was so sick all the time.  Then it was sleeping and being okay with mommy and daddy, and now it's pooping.  We learned that she's allergic to miralax so we're back to square one.  Poor Megan, such a bad gut and we are constantly puzzled.  She's such a joy and we are so glad she's in our family.