Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It is neat to see how much more excited Kylie gets for things as she gets older and begins to understand things more. She anxiously awaited Jesus' birthday because she wanted to see what 'Happy Birthday Jesus' gifts Santa would bring her. We have really tried, this year in particular, not to focus on Santa but on Jesus and the nativity. We found a nearby church that put on a live production of the nativity and we went to it. We sat in the car and watched as the church member reenacted the nativity in the snow. Kylie was just mesmerized. We have tried to read at least one book about the true reason of the season for bedtime and her preschool has really focused on the birth of Jesus (One good thing about sending her to a religious preschool). For the last week of the Christmas season, Kylie kept asking "Is it Jesus' birthday yet?' but we were able to keep her busy with cookie baking, bell ringing, and present shopping/wrapping.

On Christmas eve, we went bell ringing in the afternoon and then came home for a relaxing evening in front of the fire, just the four of us. We had a yummy dinner, made Santa's cookies, tracked Santa's whereabouts and watched Christmas movies. We tried really hard to make it to midnight mass as that is Michael's favorite; but Kylie feel asleep around ten and there was no waking her when it was time to leave for mass. We'll try again next year. So, Santa came and it was off to bed for the adults!

Christmas morning started a little late since Kylie and Caleb were up so late the night before. We made our Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate (healthy, I know ) and opened up our presents. Caleb had no interest in opening presents. He just wanted to climb on them and eat the wrapping paper. So Kylie opened all the presents this year; including a wii that Santa brought to our whole family... it is our new family addiction (there should be a warning on it). After cleaning up after ourselves and getting ready to go, it was time to head to my father's for Christmas day festivities. Kylie had lots of fun playing with her cousins and got thoroughly spoiled by everyone there with lots of independent play toys (I love the freedom they brought!)

Our busy weekend continued with Mike's family the day after Christmas. We decorated sugar cookies with the kids, had a wonderful meal, shared gifts and spent some wonderful time together. It was great that everyone was able to be there together, it is really hard to find a day when all the guys are off since they work different shifts. It always seems like someone is missing. But not this year :)

We hope that your Christmas was as great as ours, but hopefully a little less crazy ;) As the new year approaches, we hope that everyone has a great 2010 and we are excited to see what it holds for us.

Where does the time go?

I don't know what is happening this holiday season, but I feel like it was Thanksgiving and then I blinked and it is the week before Christmas! I have no idea why, but adding Caleb into the mix has completely thrown us for a loop and we are not nearly as organized or scheduled as we were before. Oh well, I swear we will get into a groove sooner or later!

Anyway, we have been very busy getting ready for the holiday season, a favorite for our whole family. We went and got our Christmas tree a little later than usual this year because we were waiting to go with Michael's brother and his girlfriend. We had a lot of fun walking around all the trees searching for the right one. Mike and I thought we had found one, until Kylie burst our bubble and decided it was 'too prickly'. So off we went to find another. Mike said we could have stuck with the original instead of letting a three year old dictate our tree choice. But my thinking is the holidays are about the kids and if a different tree would make her happy, then it's a small battle lost! By the end of day we had found our trees and after cutting them down, the boys happily carried them to be bundled!

The day after our tree extravaganza, we went to a Christmas party for my mother's legion. Kylie had a blast playing the games and Caleb ending up sleeping through most of it. Santa and Mrs. Claus came towards the end of the party and Kylie was excited to see Santa....from a distance! She wanted nothing to do with him, but we did convince her to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap for a picture... with a death grip on Grandma. Caleb on the other hand had no problem sitting with Santa. He smiled and talked and blew raspberries for him.

Since that fun weekend, it has been days filled with shopping, present wrapping, playing in the snow, Christmas movies and cookie making. All the trademarks of the holidays. I can't believe that Christmas is just one week away!

Tis the season...

...to ring the bells!

On black friday, while everyone else was out hunting bargains, we were out ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. Caleb stayed behind as we figured his attention span just wasn't there yet, but Kylie hung in there for three hours of ringing the bells and filling the kettle. We signed up through the fire dept who always has a major shift competition to see who can raise the most money for the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army does a lot for the fire dept; when the have fires or major accidents they come out to give them snacks/meals/drinks or assist the families affected by the incident. So, this is the departments way to give back. We had a lot of fun and all the shoppers seemed to enjoy seeing Kylie out there and she enjoyed it as well!

Kylie Turns Three

Our little princess is growing up so fast! Last Thursday was her third birthday! We had her party for her the weekend before and she had a blast. She wanted a princess party with a princess castle cake, so I did my best to make that happen for her. Each year, as she gets older, she seems to have a better understanding of everything and she was so excited as her party day came. It amazes me how even at three she is so creative and decisive. She knew what colors she wanted for her party and what kind of food! It took me three days but by the party I had a fully edible princess castle cake. The look on her face when she saw it made the time and energy well worth it! We had a wonderful party filled with family and friends who spoiled Kylie beyond belief and helped make the day so special for her.






She had her check up on Friday and she is good and healthy. She weighs 36 lbs and is 39 inches tall. Tall and skinny as usual (which explains why none of her pants fit her correctly). She is a fashionista and absolutely has to pick out her own clothes in the morning, which can lead to fights some mornings. Kylie can count up to 12 (20 some days), knows all her colors and shapes, knows her alphabet and recognizes some letters out and about. It's always fun to be driving and to hear her say "look mommy, that is your letter, A!" She is so full of energy; I wish I could bottle some of it to use myself :) She loves to play outside, soccer being one of her favorite games. She has been doing gymnastics for the last month and completely loves it. She is such a sweet child too. The other day at library story time, a mom commented on how impressed she was that Kylie will unprompted share with the other kids. She likes to make sure, everyone is included! What a wonderful girl she is becoming. I can't wait to see what will happen in this next year!

The Halfway Mark

Caleb is finally 6 months old! We have made it halfway to toddlerhood. It is amazing how much faster time flies when you have two kids. I thought Kylie got big fast, but it seems as though I just blinked and Caleb is 6 months old. He is getting to such a fun stage. He is army crawling across the house. The other day he tried to get up on his knees, but gave up and went back to arm crawling. He is such a happy little man. Even though he constantly dealing with reflux, he loves to smile and talk and laugh. He loves his big sister and lights up when she walks into the room. She can make him laugh faster than anyone else in the house. He also has made a unique bond with our cat, Chrissy. Chrissy loves to be by herself and runs away whenever Kylie comes near her, but for some reason she will cross the room to come over by where Caleb is playing and let him pet/pat her for a while. He loves it and smiles and talks to her. Caleb is not a great sleeper, (though, neither was Kylie) he has three short (45min tops) naps during the day and wakes up every 3/4 hrs at night still. We are slowly getting him use to his crib. He will start out there at night and if we're lucky go back into it after he wakes up around 1:00am (this doesn't happen often, but we are working on it). Caleb is eating solid foods and loves his fruits. Vegetables are a little harder to get him to eat and normally involve being served in between bites of a fruit. He is started to eat those little gerber puffs and is getting pretty good ate feeding those to himself; though Kylie loves to help feed him those, so he doesn't get much practice. He is growing great! He now weighs 16 lbs, 2 oz. and is a little over 26 in. long. Who needs a gym, when you walk around carrying a 16 lb baby most of the day. We are very blessed to have him in our lives, he brings so much to our family!

Pumpkins & Leaves

We have taken advantage of some nice days in the last few weeks and had some fall fun. My dad has a huge maple tree in his backyard and he gave us a call last week to see if Kylie would want to jump in the leaves before he cleaned them all up. Of course, she was excited about the idea. My dad blew the leaves into a pile using his leaf blower and even started blowing the leaves at Kylie. She had so much fun. Before we were done, she asked if she could climb the tree and before we knew it; my sister, Kylie, and I were up hanging out in the tree. It was a fun fall day.

We always carve our pumpkins halloween night, it gives us something to do as we wait for trick or treaters without resorting to the television. This year was no exception. My sister came over because she wanted to carve a pumpkin this year but said it was no fun to carve by yourself.... So we had lots of fun scooping, drawing and carving our pumpkins after making our very short neighborhood rounds (up and down the street) and eating dinner. Kylie wanted to make a 'scary' face, so my sister and mike helped her while I was on photo and Caleb duty. It was a lot of laughs and fun!

Fall Fun

I realize that it has been almost two months since I have last updated this blog. Things seem to get so crazy around our house lately and by the time the kids are in bed all I want to do is sleep. Though it gets easier everyday as Caleb gets more alert and mobile (we are crawling!), it also gets more chaotic. One day we will look back and miss these days, or so everyone seem to tell us!

We have been busy enjoying the fall weather, as cold as it may be, around here. We went apple picking back in September. It is something that we have done every year, but Kylie only recently really got into. She was in awe of all the trees and how she could eat the apple as soon as she grabbed it. All the while Caleb was busy sleeping in the stroller until the very end. We filled up our bag and headed home to make some yummy apple pie.

We recently had our family Halloween party. We all had a great time seeing everyone dressed in costumes, playing games and eating tons of food. It is such a wonderful way to see all the kids dressed up without having to drive around northern Illinois Halloween night. Plus it's fun torturing the adults and having them dress up as well.

On my mom's birthday, Wednesday, we went to the pumpkin farm. It was a gorgeous day, the best we have had all October. Kylie had a blast! The added a ton of live 'zoo' animals this year. She was able to walk up and feed a giraffe. She was in heaven, since they are her favorite animal. Mike and I just thought it was neat how gentle and HUGE they are. We rode the wagon and picked our pumpkins and then got some apple cider and donuts before heading back home. It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

Kylie's First School Day

Kylie has officially started Preschool. Even though her birthday isn't until November, we contacted the school to see if she could start even though she wasn't within the age range. She has been asking for a while to 'please, please, pleeeaaassse go to Jesus school' plus she knows her numbers, colors, shapes and some letters. They agreed to meet with us and within 2 minutes said she would fit right into the class. We all went on Tuesday for a meet and greet with the teacher and snack/story for the kids. Kylie did great! She played with the three other children, listened well to the teacher's story and had a wonderful time. Today was her first full day. After a really easy 'See you later alligator' as she walked into school. She was gone for 2 and half hours and I have to admit, it seemed like a really long time and we missed her a lot. But we were able to get some cleaning done and enjoyed the semi-quiet, slower pace in our house (and remember what it was like with only one kid!). Kylie was really excited to show us what she did in school when we picked her up and Ms. Amy, her teacher, told us she did great! What a successful first week of school!

A Relaxing Vacation

Last week, we returned from a wonderful week spent in the Northwoods of Minnesota. I have been vacationing on the Gunflint Trail with my family since I was born. We stopped going when I was in college and then after Kylie was born, I decided that we needed to start again. So three years ago we, joined with my father and sister, made the 12 hr drive up to the northernmost tip of Minnesota. Michael fell in love with the relaxing atmosphere and the beautiful scenery and decided that we had to return year after year. We have been searching since that first trip for a place that lived up to what we expected in a cabin/lodge, (the place we went when I was a child had switched owners and just wasn't the same). This year we fell in love with Golden Eagle Lodge. It is a wonderful family run place that has a great family feeling.

We spent the week hiking and fishing. It was a lot cooler than we expected ( low 60's) and a little rainy but we still managed to get out of the cabin everyday and do something. Kylie caught her first fish and was very excited about it (a 12in bass). Caleb enjoyed hanging out in his carrier while we hiked. We even managed to make leaf print t-shirts on our last night (a tradition that we did when I was a kid). The older Kylie gets, the more fun it is to see how much she enjoys this week of being "unplugged" from the busy everyday life.

Caleb's Baptism

On August 2nd, we celebrated Caleb's baptism into the church. It was a wonderful, simple service done after mass and we were blessed to have our close friends and family attend with us. Caleb wore Michael's old baptismal outfit; or at least part of it, since Michael was baptized in the winter and was given a beautiful cross to wear by his godparents (Michael's sister and brother-in-law).Caleb was as happy as can be during the service and proceeded to smile and stick his tongue out at the priest.(Such a change from Kylie who cried throughout her baptism) Afterwards, we hosted everyone back at our house where we had some wonderful food and hung out for the remainder of the afternoon. We are so thankful to have a wonderful family and great friends who share in all our joyous moments!

So sweet!

While there have been some signs of baby jealous in the last couple weeks. Kylie absolutely adores her little brother. At bedtime, if he is in a good mood, she insists that he lie on her bed and listen to her "read" him a bedtime story. It is the cutest thing to see. What a sweetheart!

Caleb @ 2 months

We have officially survived two months of being parents of two. Caleb is growing so fast! He is weighing 10lbs and 6 ozs now and is 22 inches long (the funny thing is he is 1o ozs and 1 inch behind Kylie at the same age!). He is becoming a much happier baby whether this is due to his reflux meds or because of age doesn't matter to us, we are just happy that he is happier! He is cooing and smiling a lot and is even content to sit alone in his bouncer seat for up to 30 minutes...Yeah!

Kylie is being a great big sister. She loves to help with everything and can make Caleb smile just by walking into his line of sight. I can't wait until he gets older and they can play together and will hopefully be good friends!

Survival

I am surviving the long days alone with the kids. It is not a piece of cake yet and trust me, I am so thankful when bedtime comes, but it is getting easier everyday that Mike goes to work. Plus when I have two healthy, happy kids smiling at me, I can't help but enjoy the little moments

Fun in the sun

To beat the heat these last few weeks, we have been enjoying lots of pool time at my dad's house. Kylie absolutely loves the water and once she gets in, it is hard to get her out! She loves to crawl along the pool sides and jump in and go under the water. Caleb, being too little for swim diapers, hangs out poolside with whomever decides to sit out. This last time, my dad and Michael got into a huge water gun fight with Kylie stuck in the middle for a while. They had a great time and were both laughing harder than I have heard either of them laugh in a while and Kylie enjoyed helping daddy block grandpa's shots!

A hospital visit

We recently spent all day Monday and the majority of Tuesday in the hospital with Caleb. He stopped breathing for about 10 seconds Sunday night and again for 20-30 seconds early Monday morning. Sunday night we just thought he may have aspirated on some spit-up but after the morning, we were worried that there might have been something seriously wrong. So off to the hospital we went via ambulance.
Of course, once we got there Caleb was acting totally normal so the ER doctor, who was annoyed at being woken up (we're assuming), told us he was fine. We finally convinced him to talk to the pediatrician on staff who agreed that he should be tested to see if anything was going on since it was more than a one time thing. She decided to give him a 24 hr apnea test. This test was set up by an outside company, so after waiting 7 hours for the guy to show up, Caleb was hooked up to monitors and had a tube down his throat to check his reflux. We were not allowed to pick him up except to feed him, he had to be placed on his back and if he fussed/cried all we could do was give him a pacifier. It was horrible! After 5 hours of the test, I noticed that the machine said the memory was full; thus leading me to believe it was not recording the data anymore. I had the nurses call the company multiple times and was reassured that it was fine and recorded over itself (sounded silly to me if it was suppose to be a 24 hr test). The next morning, the guy came in early to tell us that there was 'equipment malfunction' and that the memory should not have been full and the test did not record!!!! He wanted to do the test over again...needless to say, we were upset!
So we called our pediatrician and told her what was going on. She agreed that he shouldn't have to repeat the test (he didn't set off any of the apnea alarms so his breathing had been fine for the 24 hrs) and asked that we stay to have an upper GI done to check his reflux. After waiting 4 hours to do the test (he had to be hungry so he would drink the barium), we were told that he has severe reflux. He doesn't spit up that often, but we are thinking that he tries to keep it down which is what was causing him to choke and stop breathing. So, they sent us home with some medicine and now Caleb is doing much better. I just wish that they would have done the GI test first because then we would have been home Monday night!

Zoo trip

We decided since our attention has been focused on Caleb for the last few weeks, we should do some things with Kylie that are special for her before Mike goes back to work. Last week we went to the zoo. We decided to go to Brookfield Zoo, even though we normally choose to go to the Milwaukee zoo ( a little farther but, in our opinion, much nicer). We had a pretty good trip.

Kids wise it was great! Caleb slept the whole time, waking up to eat and then back to sleep (except the car ride home.. but after 8 hours of happy accommodating baby; you can't ask for much more).

Animals wise, the zoo was a let down. There were so many empty exhibits that when you found an area where there were animals, there were so many people crowded around it was so hard to see anything! In fact, there weren't even an elephants out (my favorite and what Kylie had been talking about seeing the whole way there). We were able to be at the seal exhibit while the zoo keepers came out to feed them and had a front row seat for the tricks they put on for the crowd. Kylie learned a new animal sound (seal) and then would make us laugh every time she barked like a seal and clapped, or waved her hands (picture). She also surprised me by falling in love with the giraffes. She sat in front of them for a good twenty minutes or so just watching them stand and eat. Now, we have to take her little giraffe animals everywhere with us and had to get giraffe books at the library.

The nicest part of the trip was the wonderfully nice people we meet on the way in. Two grandparents taking their grandson came up to us in line and offered to get us in with their free guest passes since they were zoo members. How sweet and thoughtful!

Appreciation

I have new appreciation for anyone who has more than one child. I am in awe of how they survived! I feel like I don't have enough time in the day or enough hands to get anything done besides hold our baby, who screams when he is put down and sometimes even when he is held, and entertain our energetic two year old! TV is my new parenting friend even though I know that it isn't the best thing. Mike left me alone with the two of them for 6 hours yesterday and by the time he was home, I was ready for a break (I got to take a shower, yeah!). And all that I had to handle was Kylie's nap time, a little bit of playroom play time, dinner, tv and bath. I wonder how it will go next week when he is back to work and gone for 24 hours straight! Wish me luck.

On the flip side; Kylie is so cute with Caleb. Everytime we go for a car ride, she wants to hold his hand. And the other night she insisted on 'reading' (her favorite, memorized books) to Caleb at bedtime and teach him how to make the sign of the cross for prayers (causing her to get really upset when he would jerk his arm away). The poor little guy is going to be so tortured before he is able to fight back.

Caleb's first few weeks

Since I have a few minutes, I thought I would catch up and write about our last few weeks:

We are so happy to have Caleb home. He went for his two week check-up last week and is weighing 7lbs 7 ozs and is 20 1/2 in long now. He looks great and is doing better than is expected for his age, Yeah!

Kylie is doing great adjusting to sharing the spotlight. She tells me all the time, "Thanks for bringing baby Caleb home, Mom". The hardest thing is her willingness and want to help with everything we do. It's like having a little 'mommy' around. She wants to kiss and hug him, hold his hands, cover him with blankets, and help with diaper changes. It is sweet and much better than we expected her to be.

Mike and I are doing good too. Just adjusting to this new chaos that is our life! We really forgot how hard it is in the beginning, especially going from a semi-independent child back to needy newborn. We are relearning how to function on little sleep and trying to learn how to handle both kids at the same time. I am so thankful that Mike was able to take a while off and am dreading when he goes back to work in a few weeks. But I'm confident we will find our balance and be just fine!

Caleb Jay Lucas

Caleb Jay Lucas was born on April 23rd at 5:51 pm. He weighed 7lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long.

I will post more once things settle down some.....

Lets go fly a kite

Last week during one of our semi-nice, windy days, we decided to take Kylie to the park and fly a kite with her. It took Mike and I a little while to figure out that the kite flew upside down and by that point Kylie had lost a little bit of interest and was sitting in the car playing with whatever she could get her hands on. But once it was up in the air, she loved to look up at her lady-bug kite in the air. I would have to say that Mike had a lot more fun flying it than Kylie, but she managed to stand next to him for a minute or so and 'help'. Now, Mike wants to tackle my old trick kite that my dad and I got way too long ago and were never able to fly. Wish him luck!

Happy Easter

We have filled the last couple weeks with loads of Easter activities. We started with taking Kylie to an Easter Egg hunt at our local park. She had lots of fun finding the eggs that we 'hidden' on the ground but wanted nothing to do with the Easter Bunny that attended. In fact, she wouldn't even walk anywhere near him.

We also spent some time decorating Easter Eggs.. We only did a few since they always seems to go bad before we can eat a whole dozen. Kylie loved drawing on the eggs before the went into the dye, but was a little impatient when it came to waiting for the color to set in.

We also made Rice Krispie Treat Eggs. Mike saw it on the Rice Krispie commercial and being a major lover of Rice Krispie Treat, decided we should try them too. Kylie had a blast with that. Though, I think most of the fun came from eating the sprinkles and marshmellows!

After seeing the Easter Bunny at the egg hunt, Kylie has been fearing his coming. Saturday night she had a complete meltdown and wouldn't go to bed because she was scared that the Easter Bunny was coming and he was scary. She decided that he could drop her basket at the door but was not allowed inside the house... Silly girl. After church Sunday morning, we allowed her to go outside and get her basket. She loved her 'Jesus' books and Dora memory game more than the candy filled eggs!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and was able to celebrate this wonderful season with friends, family and loved ones.

Brother/Sister coming soon

Almost 34 weeks done and I am ready to welcome this new little one home. It has gotten to the point where it is uncomfortable to stand/sit/lay or do much of anything. But, I know that it is all worth it in the end.

Kylie walks around the house saying "Mommy...Brother/Sister coming soon... Still far far away, huh?" It is the cutest thing ever. We have videotaped her doing it and if I can figure out how to post the video I will. She also talks to my belly and tells the baby, "Hurry up and come play with me!" So cute!

We finally got the furniture for the baby's room and have it all set up, which made everything feel more real. Until you see everything come together it all seems so surreal and far off. But it really sneaks up on you fast!

With Kylie I refused to have anyone take pictures of me pregnant. First off, I don't like pictures at all and then to have pictures taken when you have gained a ton of weight and are physically exhausted just doesn't sound like lots of fun filled memories for me. But, this time around, Mike convinced me to allow some since this is our last pregnancy. I did like the idea of having some with Kylie in them, since then it wouldn't be all centered on me. So, a good friend of mine came over and took and few photos. Kylie wasn't too cooperative, but we managed to get some good ones.