AlphaBeck Soup

50 updates in 52 weeks

2011-12-30T07:27:00.001-06:00

We have done a pretty poor job of blogging the past few years. By we, I mean me because I'm the only one who blogs. I've been thinking a lot lately about how to motivate myself to do more things, including updating this blog more often.

I've come to a few conclusions lately. The first is that I deal with grief by making traditions, routines, and projects.

For example, Aeryn always wears blue at her birthday party as a way to include her brother. Even now that I don't pick her clothes as often, she chooses to carry on the tradition :)

I'm not going to list all of the things I do but just know there are a lot! I suppose i figured this out because have been going wild with these things since we lost Poppa in November.

The other thing that seems to get me motivated is a challenge. Maybe it is the reinforcement of a reward following the completion of the challenge.

I know that the reason everyone reads this blog is for updates on the kids - no worries, it's also why I blog. So I am not going to waste more cyber space admitting to you just how weird I really am.

What this has made me realize is that I need to make blogging more important to me. So I am giving myself a challenge to blog 50 times in 2012. That's once a week for almost the whole year. I think I can do it! Not sure what the reward will be but as soon as I figure it out, I will put it in writing to hold myself accountable. This weekend you can expect the end of year wrap up so that should make up for reading through all of this boring drivel!

Test post

2011-11-14T20:18:00.001-06:00

Look who has joined the current century! Testing out this iPhone app. If it works easily, expect more updates soon!!

What'cha got Cookin', Good Lookin'?

2011-01-30T17:10:00.004-06:00

In this busy life, we often struggle with balancing evening activities like homework and baths with a good dinner and quality time all before bedtime. We've been trying lots of new and different recipes. In all of the recipes, we make substitutions for what fits our family. We use as many low or fat free ingredients as possible! For instance, if it calls for heavy cream, we use fat free half and half. Sour creams and cream cheeses are always fat free. Most of the time, I leave the onions out of slow cooker recipes because none of us care for the taste of slow-cooker onions.

Our current favorites are listed on the left side of the blog under "What'cha got Cookin', Good Lookin'?" section! Right now we are having lots of warm and filling meals that keep us warm during the Texas version of winter! Just add a few steamed vegetables on the side and a delicious dinner is complete!

Please share your links with us as well - we'd love to try something new that's a favorite at your house!!!

A December to Remember

2011-01-04T18:24:00.005-06:00

We had a fabulous winter break with lots of sleeping in, lazy afternoons, and plenty of fun. Mom finally got well (having been sick with pneumonia and various complications since early September), completed the fall semester with an extremely energetic class, and graduated from Lamar University with a master's degree in teacher leadership. Dad finished up his fifth year working for the state. Aeryn finished the first half of first grade and Derek completed the first half of his first year in pegasus (that's a lot of firsts right there!)

Of course, the highlight of any December is Christmas. We had several celebrations and enjoyed visiting with much of our family!

The kids each opened a present on Christmas Eve to go with their annual Christmas Eve pajamas and book.

Finding matching PJs is becoming more and more difficult as they grow and develop their own tastes. This year, we got monkey Santa jammies for Derek and (pink) monkeys making snowmen jammies for Aeryn. They were both happy, so job well done for us!

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Christmas morning, the kids didn't wake up until after 8:30, so we definitely felt like we got an extra gift from them!!!

Their big gift from us were digital cameras that also record video. They were very excited and have taken dozens of pictures since the packages were opened!

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At lunch time, we headed over to Gramma and Papa's for more! We had a yummy lunch with all the leftovers from our big family dinner the night before. Lots of yummy turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sandwiches for all!

Of course, before lunch, we opened more presents! The kids were completely spoiled by Gramma and Papa, but they assure us that's their job as grandparents. In that case, job well done, Gramma and Papa!

Aeryn got an enormous stuffed dog that she loves to cuddle up with when she is reading! Clothing, games, a barbie car, and lots of other goodies rounded out her gift list.

Derek's wish came true when he opened a Zippity (to stay at their house since we have the Wii at home). He also got a really neat toybox to keep all of the other treasures he received!

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In the afternoon, we headed over to Aunt Brenda and Uncle John's house to celebrate with the Thames side of the family! The kids were spoiled rotten with gifts and love and attention! Aeryn was in heaven getting to play with baby Tylee and getting to hold baby Callie!

Aeryn with Papaw and Tylee

Aeryn holding Callie all on her own (she was so proud)

Watching TV with Memaw, Papaw, Mason, and Aunt Brenda

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On New Year's Day, we went to Oma and Poppa's for our last Christmas celebration. We had so much fun with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and extended family! We are so lucky to live close to so much of our family! Once again, Oma and Poppa clearly lived up to their job description and thoroughly spoiled the kids (as did the aunts and uncles)!

Among the million gifts, Aeryn got an easy-bake oven and Derek got a Leapster. Sadly, there were no pictures taken because everyone was having too much fun opening gifts! But, we did get several other shots throughout the day.

Aunt Amy played a really fun game with the cousins

We attempted to take a picture of all the cousins and Oma and Poppa.. not too bad!

Aeryn even got to give Callie a bottle - such exciting stuff!!

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We hope that 2010 ended as happily for you as it did for us! May everyone be blessed with a happy, healthy, and joyful 2011!

2010 in Review

2010-12-23T07:32:00.006-06:00

After the extreme chaos of the past eighteen months (grad school, the never ending illness,full time jobs, two kids, and a mama bird in our pear tree), life is finally returning to "normal" (as if we ever were). To celebrate, here is the first of what we hope are many blog updates! Without further adieu, ABCD would like to present a quick review of our year!

January

We went to the theater to see the Biscuit Brothers' Christmas show

Aeryn participated in the Kindergarten Alphabet Parade - she chose Pp as her letter!

Aeryn lost her first tooth

February

The kids were invited to a birthday party for one of Derek's preschool pals

Thanks to the Madden Family's generous Christmas gift, all the cousins got to go see Sesame Street Live!

It snowed - and not just Texas snow (ie slushy ice), but real snow

The Beck family grew by one when cousin Graham was born

March

Aeryn participated in the Kindergarten Egg Drop - she had to create a container that would protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped off the roof of the school. Proudly, she saved Humpty from breakage! Hers is the one with the blue lid that's upside down in the very back

We apparently had so much fun in March that we didn't have time to use the camera - this is one of only a handful of pictures

April

Daddy went with Aeryn on a field trip to the Texas Memorial Museum

We participated in Relay 4 Life

Easter at Oma and Poppa's house

Easter at Gramma and Papa's (ready to try to fly kites)

May

Derek played during the baby shower for cousin Tylee (Aeryn was sick and missed the fun)

We walked in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies - thanks again for everyone's generous support of such an important cause!

We went to a baseball game for Mother's Day

They even have a playground!

June

Papa and Daddy took Aeryn to the KidFish event at Pflugerville Lake

Aeryn got the haircut she had wanted for years

The kids took swimming lessons

We went to Momo's house to celebrate Mason's birthday

Oma took Aeryn to Book People to meet Junie B. Jones (thereby officially making her the coolest Oma ever)

July

We helped Maggie celebrate her 5th birthday

Aeryn and daddy celebrated their birthday with a special dinner at Gattiland

Aeryn had a birthday party at the park

We celebrated Bethany's unbirthday at the splash park

We went on a fantastic vacation to Galveston

Granny Janet came for a visit

We had lots of fun spending a month with the Pearce Cousins

The kids had a second round of swimming lessons

August

Daddy and Aunt Amy took the kids to the waterpark

Aeryn lost 2 teeth on the same day

First day of school! Aeryn in first grade and Derek in the pegasus program

September

We got to help Aunt Jill register for baby things

We showered Aunt Jill and Callie with lots of love at the baby shower

October

Derek had a birthday party with cake!

and presents!

Oma had a birthday lunch

Skellerina and Mr. Derek Skeleton went trick-or-treating for Halloween

November

Daddy went with Aeryn on a field trip to the public library and to the park

Aeryn performed in the first grade program. It was a patriotic program to celebrate Veterans Day

We celebrated Thamesgiving

The Adams family grew by one with the birth of sweet baby Callie, our newest cousin

December

We attempted to get a good Christmas card picture...

but the effort was just too much for everyone!

2010 isn't quite over yet, but we will share the excitement of Christmas very soon!!! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good 2011!!

Hey, Kids! What time is it?

2010-09-11T07:58:00.002-05:00

Better late than never, here is a picture from the first day of school. Aeryn started first grade and Derek has started in the Pegasus program. Getting the two of them to take a nice picture together is pretty impossible at this stage, so here's the best we could get :)

Derek wanted to use the same backpack mom made him last year:

And Aeryn wanted to decorate her own, so this is what she designed - mom just helped with the hot glue and paint :)

Toothless Wonder

2010-08-11T07:19:00.002-05:00

So Aeryn came rushing out of the playroom last night. We thought she was hurt, but she had the biggest smile on her face. Turns out she had just pulled out one of her front teeth. About half an hour later (if that) she pulls out the other front tooth. They've been loose since March, so it's about time!! She is now, as Gramma calls her, a "toothless wonder." She thinks that's about the best thing ever! The fact that she pulled them out herself is pretty amazing!

She was even up at 5:45 this morning to check her tooth pillow and tell Dad all about her loot (a two dollar bill to be saved, and two ones to spend. She is just beaming!!

Cousins

2010-08-09T21:04:00.001-05:00

Here are the 'Pearce' cousins all together on their last night together

And here are some the 'Beck' cousins at the water park in Pflugerville

Is it really this impossible for four kids to all look at the camera and smile at the same time?

Swim Lessons, Part Deux

2010-07-31T07:16:00.000-05:00

Aeryn passed Level 2!

Derek passed Preschool 1!

Hooray for our fish!!

Visit with Aunt Granny (otherwise known as Aunt Janet or Granny Janet)

2010-07-26T09:43:00.003-05:00

Oma and her sister (Aunt Janet or Granny Janet, but Derek insists on calling her Aunt Granny) had a little vacation last week and got back home on Thursday evening. Because Aunt Granny was heading home on Saturday, we wanted to get out to see her while she was still in Buda on Friday.

Daddy took a half day off and we headed out just after lunch. We knew it would be a short trip because we needed to be back in Pflugerville for swim lessons at 6:40.

Just because we didn't spend all day there didn't mean we didn't pack a lot of fun into the afternoon!!

There were water balloons, swimming, playing with the cousins, and a yummy hamburger dinner. We were sad we didn't get to see Uncle Dallas, Aunt Sara, Mason or Uncle Brian, but we were happy to see everyone else!!

We had a fabulous afternoon and can't wait to get everyone together again soon!!

Galveston Vacation - Day 5

2010-07-16T21:23:00.002-05:00

We had originally planned to make a trip to the Johnson Space Center, but decided we’d had enough planned excitement for the week and instead opted for some laid back time. Dad and Papa went fishing at Seawolf Island.

(Don't worry - we practice catch and release.. no fish were harmed in the making of this vacation)

Gramma and I took the four kids down to the beach for a bit in the morning. The kids loved building sand castles and tide pools and splashing around in the surf.

After the beach, we had a little lunch and then headed down to the hotel pool. We had it mostly to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. Derek is really getting more confident in the water and is swimming underwater without floaties. Aeryn doesn’t really work on her skills unless we pester her, but she is able to maneuver in the water without difficulty, so we know that she is safe in the water. That’s really all we want anyway – for her to be able to be in water and know how to take care of herself!

After swimming, we changed and hung out a little and then walked several blocks down the seawall for dinner at IHOP. This is most notable because Aeryn had her first ever Shirley Temple with dinner. She was so excited and it was lots of fun to share that with her!

We packed up in the evening and headed out the next morning for home. It was an incredible vacation and we had a wonderful time. We are all refreshed and recharged and ready for whatever adventure comes our way next!!

Here's Derek when we stopped for lunch at Denny's on the way home.

Galveston Vacation - Day 4

2010-07-15T21:21:00.001-05:00

Today we went to Schlitterbahn Galveston. This was our first time ever to go (well, Brian had been when he was a kid so it wasn’t his first time) and I wasn’t sure what to expect. We have friends who go all the time and the parents of one of my students told me she loved taking her kids, so we were optimistic that it would be a fun time. We certainly weren’t disappointed!! The kids loved playing in the beach areas and doing the smaller slides, but their absolute favorite was the lazy river and the rapids sections. Derek’s infectious laugh made everyone around us giggle. He loved being sloshed from side to side. Aeryn’s favorite rides were the water slides – surprisingly, she has a quite adventurous side! We spent all day there and by the time we got home, we were exhausted. We all took showers and rested a bit and then walked down the seawall to a nearby Mexican restaurant. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

No pictures because we were afraid we'd lose the camera or get it wet.. bummer though, because the kids had so much fun!!

Galveston Vacation - Day 3

2010-07-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

I’m not sure we could pack more fun into a single day! We started the day with a really neat IMAX movie called Across the Sea of Time. To borrow the synopsis from IMDB, “A young Russian boy, Thomas Minton, travels to New York as a passenger on a Russian freighter. Close to Ellis Island he gets off and thus starts his journey to America the same way as all immigrants in former times. Thomas is searching for the family of one of his ancestors, who had emigrated decades ago, but once sent a letter home together with a sample of his new profession: 3D-Photography. The boy follows his relative's traces by counter-checking the old 3D-Photographs of New York (using an antique viewer) with the same places and how they look today. This way, the audience gets to see the Big Apple in former times as well as today.” My parents actually own an antique stereoscope like the one in the movie. Pretty neat!

Next we went to a 15 minute version of Happy Feet in 4D. Basically they blew air in the room, splashed water on us, and jiggled the seats at certain strategic points in the film. The kids thought it was really fun, so that’s good. Not that it wasn’t a fun experience, but I don’t think we got quite as much fun out of it as they did!

Then we ate lunch and headed over to the Colonel Paddlewheel Boat which is an authentic replica of an 1800s paddlewheel boat. The cruise was an hour long. It was a nice opportunity to slow down, enjoy the scenery, and reflect on the wonderful time we’re having together.

I got talked into taking Aeryn on a ridefilm ride with her cousins. Derek was too short so Brian stayed with him and Gramma and Papa while we waited in line and went on the ride. It’s a huge screen that wraps around the room. There are roller coaster seats on a big platform and it rocks and rolls around and bumps and jiggles. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and Aeryn did much better than I expected. She was a brave little toaster and only closed her eyes a few times!

We walked through the museum exhibit about Galveston as a port of entry for immigrants in the past as well as current immigrants. It was really neat, although it is clear to us that we haven’t been to many museums because the kids didn’t really know how to behave. I definitely plan on changing it. I remember loving museums as a kid but then, we also went to a lot of museums. They are six and three, though, so we know part of it may just be age.

After that we went over to the waterpark and the kids played in the sprinklers for a bit. We went to the “beach” and pool after that. The kids had a great time and it was a really nice set up. We thought it stayed open as long as the rest of the place but it closed 2 hours earlier, so we didn’t get to stay long. The kids had fun though and that’s what counts! We’re off to Schlitterbahn tomorrow, so they’ll have plenty of opportunities to play in the water!

Galveston Vacation- Day 2

2010-07-13T20:39:00.004-05:00

We spent today at Moody Gardens. It was one of the biggest reasons I was hoping we’d come to Galveston this summer. We’ve never been and it seemed like just the thing our family would enjoy. We started the day with the Aquarium Pyramid. It was amazing and breathtaking. The girls loved the seahorses, penguins, and sea stars (aside: did you know that starfish is not their correct name because they aren’t really fish? Their proper name is a sea star. I learned that today!). Spencer was, of course, enamored with the sharks. Derek thought the seals were hysterical. I loved that there were little ‘experiments’ you could perform throughout the exhibit. They did the ‘blubber’ experiment with Crisco that we did in my class two years ago for Science fair. They even got to touch sea stars and coral in one of the exhibits! There was a fish that kept scooping up sand in its mouth and then spitting it out all over the place – it was pretty funny stuff! Derek got a little whiny towards the end and when we finally figured out he was hungry, we headed over for lunch before we fed him to the sharks!

Not much to say about lunch other than they sure are proud of their food. I know that theme park type places like to charge more for their food, but when an individual-sized bottle of milk costs as much as a gallon, something isn’t right! Anyway, we had lunch and then visited the Gift Shop. Aeryn was very meticulous in choosing just the right souvenir. She didn’t want to spend all of her money at once and she didn’t want to waste it on something like candy that she would eat and then it would be gone (FINALLY, she is learning!!!) – so she settled on a stuffed seahorse she named Sparkles because it is glittery. Granted, she probably didn’t need another stuffed animal either, but it isn’t going to get lost or broken in 30 minutes like half the other overpriced crap in there (and truthfully, it wasn’t too overpriced, so she did good)!

After that, we headed over to wait for the IMAX movie. We saw the 3D movie about Sharks. It was Derek’s first ‘movie theater’ experience and he did a fantastic job. He kept reaching out and trying to grab the 3D images and when the big shark came on screen, he kept scooting back on my lap trying to get further away from it. He was too cute! Aeryn sat between her cousins at the other end of the row and was astonishingly not ever scared during the movie. We know she has it in her to be ‘brave,’ but she’s also got quite a bit of drama queen in her, so sometimes we forget just how grown up she can be!

Next we went to the Rainforest Pyramid. I walked right past the spider exhibit at the entry, so if you want to know more about those, ask someone who likes looking at those creepy suckers! We saw some bugs and lizards and a couple snakes. Then we entered the ‘canopy’ part. Walking around looking at all the plants was amazing. We saw so many kinds of plants we’ve never even heard of before. We even got to see Pitcher Plants – I had no idea they grew on a vine! There were parrots and macaws and turtles in the central part of the canopy. It was fun watching them for awhile. We finished up that pyramid with some more bugs (mainly cockroaches and I didn’t really stop to look at those either, sorry).

Next stop was a drink break and then off to the a-maze-ing butterfly exhibit. The first part was the butterfly garden which was woefully empty due to Alex messing up the suppliers or something like that. Anyway, we did learn two new things.
1. Butterflies lay their eggs on specific plants that the caterpillar will eat when they hatch. A butterfly tastes with its feet, so that’s how it knows it is on the right plant on which to lay the eggs.
2. Butterflies can’t fly if their core temperature goes below eighty-six degrees. So, if they get cold, they will sit in a sunny area and spread their wings to warm themselves up.

After the garden is a maze you go through. There are lots of fun activities to do on the way that teach about butterflies. If you go the ‘wrong’ way in the maze, you learn about one of the butterflies predators. It was really neat. At the end there is a zipline type thing with butterfly wings and you can ‘fly’ from it. The kids all had a lot of fun with it!

We walked around a bit more and got some ideas of the things we hadn’t seen yet and what we want to do when we go back tomorrow. We got a good plan in mind and then headed back to the “cabin” as Aeryn likes to call it. We picked up pizza on the way and had a quiet evening (well as quiet as it can be to have four rowdy kids together in a single room). Now we’re back in our suite and the kids have showered and jammied and we’re almost ready for bed.

Galveston Vacation - Day 1

2010-07-12T23:05:00.004-05:00

We got up this morning and went back to Wal-mart for some stuff that had been forgotten and a fishing license for Brian (well, I didn’t go because I was working on my papers that are due this week for grad school).

After lunch, we headed out to Seawolf Park. When I was a kid and we’d have visitors, we’d always take them to Seawolf Park. It looks a lot like it did when I was a kid, but also very different. Apparently, when Hurricane Ike came through, it really caused some devastation. The restaurant and lookout was boarded up and looked to be in pretty bad shape. There was a tank there when we were kids and you could crawl on it and in it – but that was gone too. The submarine and destroyer are still there, and the cousins took a tour of it. Sounds like they had fun, but I have no desire to stoop and squeeze through the ship, so we skipped it.

The kids fished for a bit although they weren’t really interested – which is a shame because fishing at Galveston is one of my favorite childhood memories! Aeryn caught a fish, Brandy caught a few, and Spencer caught one. Derek was too busy running around the pier to care much about the fishing. We saw some hermit crabs, dolphins, and jellyfish in the water. It was so much fun! We played on the playscape for awhile and then headed back to the hotel.

The kids went swimming while I worked on my paper and then we all met in Grandma and Papa’s suite (right next door) for dinner – Sonic! After dinner, we went swimming again and then called it a night. I stayed up pretty late finishing my grad school assignments so I don’t have to worry anymore during vacation. That feels really good! We are off to get some sleep so we’re ready for whatever adventure tomorrow may bring!!

Galveston Vacation - Arrival

2010-07-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

We left the house around 10:45 and headed over to Grandma and Papa’s house. We finished loading the car, took a final trip to the potty and headed out! We stopped at about 1:45 and had lunch in Brenham and then got back on the road. We were at the hotel a little before 4. We have a cozy little suite at Casa Del Mar. It’s right across the street from the seawall and we have a nice view of the ocean from our balcony. We went over to the Wal-mart to get a few things and then went to dinner at the Golden Corral that’s right next door. We called it a night after that (around 9:30).

Birthday Party

2010-07-10T21:00:00.010-05:00

On her (and her daddy's) actual birthday, we had our second annual dinner at Gattiland! Aeryn loved sharing the evening with lots of family, good food, and GAMES! She really has a blast and she is already talking about going back next year!

Aeryn had a grand birthday party this year! She decided she wanted the theme to be snow and winter.. Of course, mom was happy to oblige, but thinking about snow in July is no easy feat here in Texas! We turned to our old friend, Oriental Trading Company, and the day was saved! Aeryn picked a lot of cute favors and goodies (including hot cocoa lollipops) as well as tablecloths and paper goods. And then mom found special FX snow. Just add water and you'll have a pile of snow.

We went out to the park as usual (this is her third birthday at the park) because it is so much fun. With all the rain, we were a little worried, but other than a little mud, all was well! Most of her cousins and a few friends from mom's class were there (mom didn't get invitations out before school ended to invite her kindergarten class).

The kids ate, drank (chocolate milk, water, and juice), played at the park, and then had a snow fight! Aeryn got a slew of lovely presents and we are thankful for everyone who celebrated with us (in person or from afar) this year!

We had several lovely books brought to the party that will be donated to Aeryn's school library in memory of Andrew. Thanks to all of you for helping us carry his memory on this year.

Swim Lessons

2010-07-05T10:36:00.003-05:00

Both kids took swim lessons this year. Aeryn mastered her skills and is so much more comfortable this year than last. Derek acted like he'd never been in the water before and had a huge freak out at the beginning of the 2 weeks, but by the end, he was participating like a champ! Last year, we started Aeryn at level 2, but this year they revamped their levels, so we placed her in level 1 for the beginning of this year because it was more aligned with her current skillset. She's passed level 1 and will move on to level 2 at the end of the summer when we do another round of swim lessons! Derek will continue in the same class based both on age and his skittishness in the beginning.

All of that said, both kids are little fishes in water in the grandparents' pools. These kids love water!!

We had lessons later in the evening this year, and other than parking, we love it a lot! We can eat an early dinner, go to swim lessons, come home, take baths, snuggle, read, and then go to sleep. Oh summer, how we love you so!

Aeryn with the multicolored eyes

2010-07-05T10:31:00.001-05:00

You can really see how her eyes are 2 different colors in this picture of Aeryn.. pretty cool, huh?

Junie B. Jones

2010-07-05T09:58:00.002-05:00

Aeryn loves to read and she loves for us to read to her. For the past year or so we've been working our way through Barbara Parks' Junie B. Jones series. Aeryn is now reading them (mostly) on her own. So when Oma sent and email and asked if Aeryn would like to go meet Junie B, Aeryn was thrilled! Aeryn carefully picked out one of her favorite dresses and asked to wear "sparkles" in her hair and body spray so she'd smell good (this is serious business, y'all), We got her all dolled up and Oma whisked her away in her chariot (well, truck, but you get the idea). All reports indicated she had a tremendous time listening to Junie B, getting spoiled by Oma, getting Junie's autograph (in stamp form), eating lunch out, and taking a billion pictures. Thanks, Oma, for all the goodies and for showing Aeryn such a good time - she can't wait to spend another afternoon with you doing 'special girl things!'

KidFish

2010-06-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Papa and Daddy took Aeryn to KidFish again this year! She had lots of fun fishing and even caught a few!

School's Out for Summer!

2010-06-06T19:36:00.003-05:00

Here we are at the end of a monumental year. Aeryn has completed kindergarten. She participated in her very first awards assembly where she proudly earned the "Awesome Reader" award for her class. When she went to kindergarten, she was shy, unsure of herself, and only beginning to make a connection between letter sounds and words. Now, she can read fairly fluently for her age. She's started reading her own chapter books (Junie B Jones to start) and will try just about everything else she can get her hands on. While she sometimes gets teary eyed in the face of adversity, her first response isn't to run and cry. She stood up to the "meanies" when needed and has learned to be her own person. She is still very dramatic but she comes by that honestly :). Today she asked for her hair to be cut very short. She's asked for quite awhile (several years in fact) but we didn't want to say yes until we were sure she was mature enough to handle it if she didn't like it. While hair certainly does grow back, it takes time. Turns out we worried for nothing because she LOVES her new haircut. We think she's pretty precious, but we might be a bit biased.

Derek completed his first year of preschool. He got over his terrible separation anxiety and has grown to love school as much as his sister. He continues to be a very spirited and active little boy who loves anything that is loud and messy.

We are going to have so many adventures this summer and can't wait to share them all with you!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T10:03:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we walked in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies with some friends of ours whose son was a preemie (and is now in my class). We had an awesome time and we are so thankful for all the support that you, our friends and family, gave to us again this year.

Mother's Day is bittersweet. It was just before Mother's Day in 2004 that we found out Andrew had only one kidney and that he would need several tests run after their birth. This day is a celebration of the joy of finally "joining the club" of mothers after so many years of not having a child of our own. It is a time to rejoice with the children we have with us as well as sweet Andrew in heaven. For him, we walk. And what an experience it is. From walking through the pillars dedicated to other angel babies to standing next to the thousands of people who walked yesterday, you can't help but be amazed and touched. So many whose tiny babies were saved by the miracles of research and so many whose tiny babies, like ours, were whisked away much too soon. Brian and I recognize that the efforts of MOD likely saved Andrew's life with all of the intervention available from the moment he was born. None of us could have imagined that he would catch such a terrible bacterial infection that is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals. Miracles were truly worked for him and through him because none of us are the same as we were before he came into our lives. Not a day goes by that we don't wonder who he'd be today, but we are always thankful for the days we did get to spend with our sweet boy. And so, we braved the "cold" (what wonderful weather for a walk) and we walked and we rejoiced in the memory of our son and in the hope and promise that someone else may not go through what we did because of advances in research.

After the walk, we had a lovely brunch at Threadgill's and then went to the grocery store. Later, we met up with Gramma and Papa and headed to Round Rock for an Express Game. The kids had a great time and were pretty attentive even though baseball isn't the most action packed sport to watch. We'll definitely be catching more games this summer, though!

Today, the boys went out and bought donuts for breakfast while Aeryn brought me a beautiful picture she'd made in art class. It's hard to reconcile this beautiful young lady and spirited young man with the anticipation that the very first Mother's Day brought. Such tiny babies and high hopes - and now a kindergartener and a preschooler. No more diapers, no more naps, but all the world before us.. what an adventure!

May all of you have as special a day as I am! And to my own mom, thanks for being my hero!

Updates

2010-03-15T19:05:00.002-05:00

So I really had this dream of writing monthly updates forever for my kids. It sounds a little ridiculous when I say it out loud, so I'll concede that it wasn't likely to last forever anyway. I held on to the idea that I would get back to it and resisted posting anything. But here's the thing - we're all so busy living life that it seems ridiculous to think that I'll be able to go back 4 months and write page long updates for the kids. So, I'll attempt a brief summary and then move forward from today.

Christmas was fantastic and everyone was spoiled rotten. We enjoyed having time off and getting to visit with so many of our friends and family.

January was a off to a good start to the new year when Aeryn lost her first tooth. Right after that, though, she got a little flulike virus. She conveniently passed it on to me and I was out of commission for over a week. Thankfully, neither dad nor Derek caught it!

February was full of love and we had a good time spoiling each other with little treats.

March is here and we are so excited to be on Spring Break!! None of us are faring too well with this time change nonsense, but we are slowly getting used to it.

There are a million pictures to upload and I will get right on that. Here's hoping that letting go of the way things were going to go inside my head will lead to writing more in this blog. It's funny how we can hold on so tightly to 'what could/should have been' and forget to enjoy what we DO have.

September October November 2009 Updates

2009-12-27T09:16:00.001-06:00

Since starting grad school this summer, my “free” time has been greatly diminished and our monthly updates have sadly been a victim. We’re going to try a few different things to get back on track in the new year. The first step is that I’m going to recap the last few months so that we’re all caught up. Then, we’re going to try to write short updates more often throughout the month instead of one big update for both kids at the end of each month. Everything changes, and I suppose this is just one more thing that is going to change as our family gets older and we have less time to sit down and recall everything at once. We appreciate all of you who have let us know that you miss our updates and that you want us to start again – we miss writing them and sharing with all of you!

September
We kept busy with lots of back to school transitions. Aeryn had some difficulty adjusting to the new schedule and was tired at the end of the day for quite awhile. She had some trouble with rest time at school and would get teary and tell her teacher she didn’t feel well. We finally solved the problem with a picture of the family and a special kiss on the hand every morning. After the first 12 weeks, they stopped resting and she seems to enjoy that a lot more for whatever reason. Derek started preschool (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and was a little skeptical at first. He would cry for a bit for the first few weeks, but is now asking to go to school on most mornings, so we know he has adjusted well and loves his teachers and friends! September didn’t bring a lot of success on the potty front, but he did become a little more willing to sit for us. We attended Cousin Fox’s Special Agent Oso birthday party in September! It was so much fun – they even had a piñata!!

October
October is like the gateway to all the upcoming holiday festivities! October is a busy month and we all had tremendous fun! First, we went to Concan (near Garner State Park) for our annual camping trip and Beck ‘reunion’ of sorts. We left after school on Friday (which also happened to be Derek’s THIRD birthday). The car trip was mostly uneventful until we hit the hills on the way through Utopia. The sun was at the wrong angle and poor Derek got carsick. We finally made it to the cabin and got him all cleaned up. Luckily, it was just car sickness and not a bug, so the rest of the weekend was a blast! There was swimming in the hot tub, skipping rocks in the river (and finding a really well camouflaged frog), opening presents, playing games, eating, going for walks, and general good times! Derek got a lot of really special presents and he has enjoyed all of them tremendously! He even shares with Aeryn sometimes!  Aeryn had her Kindergarten Nursery Rhyme Parade in October. She dressed up as Little Miss Muffett. Gran’mom and Papa brought Derek and had a grand time watching all the kindergarteners parade around our primary school and up to the elementary next door. Halloween was a lot of fun, even if Derek did refuse to wear his costume! Mom went to the doctor that morning and was diagnosed with bronchitis, so she laid low during most of the festivities. Derek had been really excited to dress up as DJ Lance Rock (from Yo Gabba Gabba), but then was very fussy in his costume. We remedied it by putting on his skeleton jammies. He was the happiest little skeleton, so Halloween was saved! Aeryn had decided on Angelina Ballerina and was the cutest little mouseling in Texas!! We attempted to go to the nursing home as has been our tradition since Aeryn was a few months old, but they had their trick-or-treating on the 30th instead of the 31st. We went over to Gran’mom and Papa’s house and trick-or-treated in the double cul-de-sac where they live. The kids were definitely more into the whole thing this year. Aeryn’s favorite part of Halloween is getting to watch the Charlie Brown special. Mom and Dad feel this is a mark of good parenting – we love that our kids enjoy the same television specials we did as children!

November
What an exciting month! At the beginning of November, Aeryn went on a field trip to Crowe’s Nest Farm – and mom took the day off to go with her! Her favorite part was the hayride (very safe, thank goodness) and walking through the fairy garden. Mom loved having a day to be mom and spend time with Aeryn and her classmates. There was lots of giggling and fun – can’t beat that, for sure! Derek had a bit of a virus for several days, so he missed about two weeks of school – including the Thanksgiving feast at his school. We were all sad for him because he was really looking forward to it. Gran’mom made it up to school for the WPS Family Thanksgiving Lunch and Aeryn was thrilled. We were thankful that Papa stayed home with sickly Derek so that Aeryn could have a special lunch! Aeryn had a fun school project to complete at home with the family. She had to disguise Tom Turkey so he wouldn’t be eaten for Thanksgiving. She wrote an adorable story about it and turned Tom into a giant snowball. We made a video of her reading the story and showing off her turkey on our flickr page. We hope you’ll check it out and enjoy it as much as we did!! We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Thames side of the family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed getting to see that side of the family and play outside at Queenie and Chief’s magnificent house (and playhouse)! Thanksgiving was full of good food and good times with Gran’mom and Papa! We had planned to visit Oma and Poppa too, but they were under the weather, so we didn’t end up going out there. We put the tree up the last weekend in November. The kids were so excited to help. They did a great job decorating for the holidays and we had a lot of fun! Derek still had grabby hands and took too many ornaments off the tree through the month (thankfully only one got broken), but overall he did much better than last year!

Aeryn's August 09 Update

2009-09-19T08:36:00.001-05:00

Due to school starting and getting used to the schedule, our August update got lost in the shuffle and is shorter than usual. We hope you’ll forgive us!

Mom started back to work this month with lots of trainings and days to set up the classroom. Aeryn was a great help in going up to school with mom and helping to put stuff out (Derek was a little bit of help, but mostly enjoyed spreading stuff all over the floor). Of course, that meant that Aeryn got to spend a bunch of time at Gramma and Papa’s house. She loved getting to play and go to the park and probably get more spoiled than necessary – but both sets of grandparents assure us that it’s their job, so who are we to try to stop them?

Right on the heels of mom going back to school was Aeryn’s big debut – KINDERGARTEN! She LOVES her teacher (so do we) and was so excited to meet her at the kindergarten meet the teacher night. She spent the whole weekend after that talking about all the things she was going to do.

We were worried about how the first day would go, but as we approached her classroom that morning, she turned to mom and told her she was fine and could go alone from there. Such a change from even last year – when there were lots of tears. This year, it was just mom’s tears as she left her big girl to be independent in school.

Aeryn loves having homework and has been pretty enthusiastic about doing it during August. She is eager to read at home and to show us all that she has learned. She is delighted to go to music and art and PE. She tells us that Mrs. Chrzanowski (Sha-now-ski) is the best kindergarten teacher she’s ever had and that she loves her very much. She talks about her whole class as if they are a family and we love that she feels that school is such a safe and enjoyable place.

We’ve had a few problems lately with some separation anxiety or perhaps the start of an illness, but we hope to have it figured out and resolved by the time we get to the end of September and write that update (hopefully on time, too)! We can’t believe how quickly time is flying or that our sweet little girl is in kindergarten.. Doesn’t it seem like yesterday that she was just a tiny baby?

Derek's August 09 Update

2009-09-19T08:21:00.001-05:00

August flew by fast and furiously! Derek continues to be a ball of unstoppable energy. He spent most of the month under the weather. We’re not really sure what, if anything, he had, but he was really out of sorts a lot of the time. He was eating very little and something was clearly off in his digestive tract as evidenced by his diapers (we’ll spare you the details).

We got to have a mini reunion of the Beck family at Aunt Rosie’s house this month. It was so much fun to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles! The best part, according to Derek, was getting to go swimming in Aunt Rosie and Uncle Ken’s pool. He loved the diving board. The little daredevil thought that was so much fun!

Being outside still tops Derek’s list of fun. He loves playing in the sandbox or just running wild out back. Papa takes Derek to the park in the mornings on most days, so Derek really enjoys having some Papa time AND getting to play in the park! Papa reports that Derek is even playing with all the toys rather than just wanting to swing all morning!

While potty training has been mostly off this month because of his intestinal issues, he has been getting back into the swing of things. September brings more progress, but we’ll wait to share that news in our next update (along with all of the other fun he’s been having this month)!

We apologize for the tardiness of this update as well as for its brevity. Going back to school and getting into the swing of things meant something had to give and unfortunately, it was this update this month. We’re on track to write a full update for September, so we hope you’ll check back in soon!

2009-09-10T18:00:00.002-05:00

The August updates are long overdue, but they'll have to wait a bit more.. we're all trying to adjust to new schedules!!!

Aeryn on her first day of KINDERGARTEN

Derek is ready for PRESCHOOL
He needed a new backpack and really wanted it to be a Yo Gabba Gabba one.. None in the stores, so mom got crafty and made him one! He had no interest in showing his face, unfortunately

Derek's July 09 Update

2009-08-22T08:32:00.001-05:00

Derek is growing more and more every day and we have a hard time keeping up with him! Every morning he looks a little taller and every evening he seems to be a little harder to pick up. His energy is nonstop - sometimes he just spins in circles to burn some off. We really wish he’d just share with us!!

Derek had fun celebrating lots of birthdays in July! The slip n slide at Maggie’s birthday party was probably his favorite attraction all summer! Eating pizza at Gattiland and playing at the park for Aeryn (and daddy’s) birthday was lots of fun too! He’s already talking about the candles he’ll get to blow out for his own birthday!

We went a few times this summer to the water park in Pflugerville. Derek had a great time playing on the little waterslide, going around the lazy river, and spraying water on mom’s head using the sprinklers in the middle of the park. He’s lucky he’s so cute as mom’s not sure that last part was as much fun as he thought it was!!

Derek wasn’t much for fishing when we went on vacation (although he talked about going quite a bit), but he did love finding rocks, playing with the periscope in the playscape, and checking out the laundry room with Gramma. Swimming in the pool was good too! The whole week was perfect!

He loved getting to spend so much time with Spencer and Brandy this summer. We think it would be hard to squeeze a year’s worth of fun into a month long visit, but the kids seem to make it work every year. We are so excited that they get to spend time together and get to know each other better. Mom and Dad have such fond memories of playing with their cousins, so we love that the kids get to play with the KC cousins and the Kyle cousins so much! We’re very blessed to have so many opportunities to spend time together!

We think Derek had a virus for several weeks this month. He was a little cranky from time to time, had lots of yucky diapers (and lost the momentum we were building up for potty training), wasn’t eating much, and just was “off” in his behavior for awhile. It looks like he’s made a full recovery – although he still isn’t eating much at dinner most nights. Not to worry, though, he often makes up for it by eating enough breakfast or lunch to feed an entire house full of toddlers!

More and more like his dad every day, Derek loves to play on the computer. He is pretty independent and can load programs, navigate the web (with favorites) and entertain himself for long stretches of time! Dad even went so far as to finally set up a computer for the kids to share. They love having their very own computer and are very good at taking turns!

Derek loves to sing, dance, make lots of noise, and be outside! He’d probably live out there if he could! He continues to be headstrong, independent, and a generally happy little boy! He brings so much joy to our lives and we hope that he does to yours as well!

Aeryn's July 09 Update

2009-08-22T08:15:00.001-05:00

July was a whirlwind of activity wherein we definitely made the most of our summer vacation! We had so many adventures, it’s hard to remember them all, but we’ll do our best to share the excitement and memories!

Of course, the best part of July is the birthdays!! First, we celebrated Cousin Maggie’s birthday with a super fun splash party at her house. Aeryn had a great time picking out Maggie’s present all by herself (as she had done with Mason’s last month) and helped make a card to celebrate Maggie’s special day! It was also Daddy’s birthday, so we had lots of fun celebrating him as well!

Aeryn had her first swim lessons in July. She did an excellent job of following directions and trying out all the new strokes she learned! She is resistant to practicing now that lessons are over, but she quickly loses those skills if she isn’t practicing, so mom and dad keep on her to practice those monster arms (freestyle). We’re so proud of her and can’t wait to watch her blossom through lessons next summer!

The KC cousins were in town for all of July and we had a blast playing with them just about every day! Brandy and Spencer have gotten so big (which is to be expected at 8 and 14, but it seems like just yesterday they were born)! It is so special for Aeryn to have the opportunity to spend time with her cousins and we hope that they will get to share this special summer time together for many years to come!

Are you thinking we forgot something? You’re right! The Fourth of July!! We had fun getting to night swim at Gramma and Papa’s house and then watch fireworks in the front yard! That’s not what you were thinking of? Hm.. Let’s see…Another birthday?? Oh, that’s right!

Aeryn had a wonderful 5th birthday! On her birthday (after swim lessons), we went to Gattiland to eat pizza and play games! She was thrilled that Gramma, Poppa, Spencer, and Brandy were able to join in the celebration and ate more pizza than any 5 year old should probably consume in one sitting! The following weekend, she had a wonderful birthday party at the park. Aeryn picked “planting flowers” as her theme this year. We made “dirt” out of cake, oreos, and frosting and then filled the tiny flower pots (ice cream cones) with “dirt” and paper toothpick flowers. She wanted everyone to decorate a pot and take home a plant, so we obliged and the little projects turned out really special! She got spoiled with lots of awesome gifts and we are so thankful that so many people were able to celebrate with her at the park on a HOT Saturday morning in July!

We also had a wonderful vacation at a cabin on Lake Buchanan! There was lots of fishing, running, playing, giggling, and eating - All of the things that summer vacations should be made of!! Words don’t do the trip justice, and we probably didn’t get enough pictures because we were too busy having fun!

August is here and school is right around the corner. Aeryn is ready to be a kindergartner, but mom and dad aren’t sure they’re ready to have one. The years have flown by and as we reflect back on the past 5 years with our beautiful girl and our angel in heaven, we remember just how precious life really is. Hard to believe that the fragile little girl who came home with us is now a tall, thriving 5 year old who is ready to go to school! We can’t wait to share her newest adventures with you!!

Seven Eight Nine

2009-07-08T09:44:00.002-05:00

Today is the birthday of the majority of our little family!

Here are pictures of the birthday from five years ago when our family doubled in size overnight

Daddy and Andrew
Happy birthday, sweet angel Andrew - we miss you.

Daddy and Aeryn

And from this year..

Daddy

Aeryn

Happy Birthday, Daddy and Aeryn! We love you and can't wait to celebrate with you!

Derek's June 09 Update

2009-07-02T11:20:00.001-05:00

Our little night owl is loving summer! He still refuses to nap most days, but is sleeping about 10-11 hours at night now that he doesn’t get woken up early in the morning! If he’d spend that whole 11 hours in his own bed, we’d be even more excited! Unfortunately, Derek has been having a lot of nightmares recently (or that’s the best we can figure) and so after about 4 hours he ends up in our bed. We can put him back in his bed once he’s asleep, but he averages a bad dream an hour, so sometimes it’s just easier to let him sleep between us and pat his back every hour when he has another dream. We’re hopeful that he gets through this phase quickly – and that he doesn’t ever have full on night terrors like his sister did at this age. Those are the worst!!

Daddy took a day off in early June so we could have a family vacation day. We went to the Austin Zoo, Gattiland, and swimming at Gramma’s house. Derek loved the peacocks, the monkeys, and the tiger at the zoo. His real excitement was the train ride, though! He loves trains right now so this was a big treat for him! He thought feeding the animals was hysterical and wasn’t at all shy about sticking his hand out with food in it for the animals to eat. He was, however, mad that he couldn’t feed the tiger and lioness. We tried to explain that they would rather eat him than the little pellets that we had used in the feeding part of the zoo, but he was having none of our explanations!

Derek has gotten to spend a couple of days playing with the Kyle cousins (we can call them that now that they’re all living in Kyle – at least until Aunt Jill starts having babies) at Oma and Poppa’s house. He loves getting into all sorts of things with Mason and Fox! Mostly, though, he just loves to swim and swing at Oma’s house!

This little boy’s personality continues to develop every day. Right now he asserts his ‘independence’ by telling us he doesn’t like just about everything. If he’s determined that X is going to happen, anything else we suggest is met with “I don’t like W,Y,Z!!!” If he wants to read a book, but we have other things to do, he is eager to tell us “I don’t like breakfast. I don’t want to take a bath. I don’t like toys. I don’t like change my diaper. I don’t like wait a minute!!”

Derek also continues the stage of the million whys. He loves to ask why. We play the same game with him that we did with Aeryn. We try to out-answer his whys until he just gives up and stops. That works about 80% of the time and the other 20%; we just start asking him why back.

He’s been saying “This one called” a lot lately. Yesterday, he came up to mom and said “This one called Mama. But... this one called Mommy. I call this one Mommy!” And all day he called mom mommy. Today, mom is back to Mama. Who knows! To Aeryn, he says “This one called Aeryn. This one called sister.” It’s such funny phrasing we can’t help but giggle every time he starts doing it!

Derek has FINALLY decided that using a spoon is a worthwhile endeavor! While he is still being a rather picky eater, he has started tasting more things and it’s nice to see him finally using his utensils!

We haven’t made much progress on the potty training front – other than that he will occasionally ask to sit on the potty. He’s produced two or three times out of the hundred that he’s sat, so he’s not making the connection just yet. We’re patiently nudging him in the direction of big boy undies, but he likes to remind us “It’s okay mommy. I be little boy. I wear diaper.” Someday, right??

Derek has become a little fish in water! Thanks to a new floatie that Aunt Sara found and got for Derek, he is so comfortable in the water. He will even jump in and submerge for a few seconds. He would probably live in the water if he could!

July is going to be full of excitement as well with vacations, birthday parties, cousins, and lots of outdoor fun! We can’t wait to share what the little man gets into over the next month!

Aeryn's June 09 Update

2009-07-02T10:47:00.001-05:00

Aeryn says that her summer has been really, really good and we couldn’t agree more! We all (well all of us but daddy who still has to work) enjoy staying up a little later and sleeping in each morning!

Our first big adventure in June was visiting the Austin Zoo! Aunt Sara and Uncle Dallas (and Mason too) gave us a family pass for Christmas and the kids had been asking to go to the zoo for a long time, so Daddy took the day off and we went to the zoo! Now, for those of you not familiar with the Austin Zoo, let’s pause to offer some information from their website: “Austin Zoo started out as a goat ranch. In 1990, it became the Good Day Ranch, which catered to animals in need. At that time, the animals consisted mostly of goats, pigs, fallow deer, donkeys and ponies... with just a few exotics. Today, the ranch is home to many more exotic animals, as well as domestic animals, that were either rescued from, or unwanted by, their owners.” While there are monkeys, bears, tigers, and lions, there are also a lot of goats, llamas, deer, and sheep as well. We had a great time! At first, Aeryn was a little timid and wasn’t sure she wanted to feed the animals, but once she figured out she could put it on the ground or in a trough, she had a great time calling the animals over and giving them some treats! Aeryn tells us her favorite animals at the zoo were the sleeping bear, the tiger, and everything! One of the animals, a kinkajou, is nocturnal, so it was sleeping in the little house and we couldn’t see it. She was very upset that the zoo would have an animal that didn’t come out until after the zoo had closed at night! She was so indignant! It was so cute, except that we wanted to be supportive, so we had to try really hard not to laugh. She also enjoyed the train ride, but will probably tell you that getting to eat Dippin’ Dots was the best part!

After our zoo trip, we came home to rest a bit and then headed out to Gattiland (think Chuck E Cheese). The kids thought it was really cool to get to eat dinner in the dark and watch cartoons on TWO big TVs! After the kids were thoroughly stuffed (Aeryn is having a huge growth spurt), we took them to the game area. Aeryn had a blast running around and playing games. Her favorite was playing Air Hockey with her Dad and riding on the merry-go-round! To finish the perfect day, we headed to Gramma and Papa’s house (they were in SD visiting family) and went for a swim. It was the perfect beginning to our summer!

Swimming has quickly become Aeryn’s new interest. She started the summer wearing floaties and being a little timid in the water. Flash forward a few weeks, and she no longer uses floaties. She can swim (dog paddle) across the entire pool on her own. She fully submerges and comes back up without trouble – especially when wearing a mask. She tells us that someday she wants to be on a swim team and we don’t doubt that she has the ability to do just that! If she continues to show interest, it’s something we’ll be pursuing for her!

We also got to spend a day at Oma’s pool and visit with all the cousins. Aeryn and Derek love getting to visit with the cousins and Mom loves visiting with the Aunts! We also spent Father’s Day morning out at Oma and Poppa’s house. Aeryn loves swimming there and getting to splash and play with her cousins was a really fun time. Her favorite part was bursting all the water balloons that Oma, Aunt Sara, and Aunt Jill were filling up (mom was on clean-up crew)!

Cousins Brandy and Spencer just got to Gramma and Papa’s house for a month, so Aeryn is thrilled to have even more cousins to play with! July will be a full month as well – swimming lessons, playing with cousins, a week long vacation, and – of course – a birthday (and party)!!

Aeryn's May 09 Update (a month late)

2009-07-01T09:57:00.001-05:00

So the excitement of the end of the year carried us through May and into June and now Aeryn’s May update is a bit late! We hope to remember all of the big things and can’t wait to fill you in on June as well!

We participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies this month. The event was amazing. We were so blessed to be part of a team of coworkers that supports the same things we do. Of course, our primary motivation was walking in memory of Andrew. It was a bittersweet experience seeing others who have experienced loss like we have, but it was also very powerful to see all of the success stories and the gains that MOD has helped to make. Aeryn had a grand adventure with her Daddy when she decided she needed to go potty about a mile into the walk. The route didn’t take us past many open buildings, so Dad eventually took her a few blocks over to a hotel and had her use the lobby restroom. Aeryn was amazed that there were no paper towels in the restroom – there were REAL towels (Can you believe it, mom???). Once we were all reunited, we finished the walk and had a great time hanging out for a bit with our team! We are so thankful for everyone’s support in making our first year successful. We can’t wait to do it again next year!!

The next day was Mother’s Day. Aeryn made Mommy the most beautiful gift. Bath salts in a gorgeously decoupaged mason jar. It was a very special gift that Aeryn worked hard to make. A true treasure! After the gift giving at home, we headed out to Oma and Poppa’s house. Aeryn loves spending time at Oma and Poppa’s. She got to play with some of her cousins and hang out with Oma and play outside. A perfect day! In the afternoon, we headed back to Pflugerville so we could visit Gramma and Papa. Of course, she had to play in the water table. It’s just too much fun getting everything wet!

Deutschenfest was another exciting part of May! The first day, we got rained out, so everyone was a little bummed out. But Sunday was beautiful, so we headed out! Aeryn loved riding on the school bus from the HS to the park. She gets such a kick out of being on the big bus! Once there, we headed right for the pony rides. She’s so different from the timid child who wasn’t sure she wanted to ride last year. Now she is self-assured and confident and went right up to the pony ready for her ride! We are so proud of her!! She also loved the carnival rides. The train (last year’s favorite) and the merry go round were okay, but she really loved soaring on the flying saucer ride! The “Saucer Flyer” (as she and her brother called it) was their favorite and they can’t wait until next year to do it again! Aeryn also loved getting to eat fair food. She enjoyed a hot dog, some roasted corn, fresh lemonade, and cotton candy. The bus ride home was the cherry on the top!

Although it really was the first week of June, it was also the end of Pegasus for Aeryn. We are so sad that she’s leaving Ms. Debbie and her other teachers – much like we were sad when she left Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian (and Ms. Andrea before that). What we do know is that we’ve been very blessed and each new situation has proven to be just as wonderful as the last. So as much as we are sad that Pegasus is over, we look forward to Kindergarten and know that it will be another year full of amazing experiences! We can’t wait to share them with you – but first we have a full summer of fun to share!!

Derek's May 09 Update (Late, late, late)

2009-07-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

The end of May meant we were nearing the end of the school year – which is a busy time for mom and dad. Somehow things just never seemed to slow down enough and so here we are writing the May update a month late!

Derek loves the outdoors. It’s finally warmed up enough, so Gramma and Papa have put out the water table. Derek calls it the splash table. He loves exploring with the water and most of all just getting everything wet, wet, wet! He has been playing with the sandbox at their house too and enjoying it a ton. When it was here, neither kid wanted to play in it. Now that it is over there, it is one of their favorite toys! Big thanks to Oma and Poppa for giving it to us all those years ago and also to Gramma and Papa for keeping it at their house now! We’re going to try a sand table at our house this summer and see how that works out.

Although he’s sleeping much better these days, he still refuses to nap. He ends up in our bed most nights, but is quick to go back to sleep, so it’s not as big of a deal as it once was – unless you’re the one with his feet in your back/stomach/face!

We had a lot of great adventures in May! First, we participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies. Many, many thanks to all of you who supported us for this event!! Mom co-captained a team of walkers from her school district. We had a great time visiting with the buffalo before the walk started! Derek enjoyed blowing bubbles and chasing his sister around. He took a nap in the stroller midway through the walk, and other than the heat really seemed to enjoy himself!

The next day was Mother’s Day, so we made a trip out to Buda to visit Oma and Poppa! It was good fun to play with cousins for a little bit and get to see Oma and Poppa! Derek has such fun wandering around at their house. He especially loves to sit in ALL of the swings and see which fits him the best. We call this Goldilocks Syndrome – he’s always looking for the one that’s “just right!” In the evening, we had dinner with Gramma and Papa and had a great time playing in the splash table and checking the temperature of the pool (almost warm enough for swimming!!)

Our next adventure took us to Pfluger Park for Deutschenfest. Derek loved his first pony ride. He thought that was pretty neat. We’re pretty sure he thought that was the best until we got to the carnival section! Derek thought the Saucer Flyer (flying saucer) was the greatest thing EVER! He probably would have done it over and over all day long if we had let him! He also enjoyed eating hot dogs, roasted corn, and cotton candy. Just like his sister, he thought that riding the bus from the HS to the park was just as fun as anything the festival had to offer! It was definitely a lot of fun and we can’t wait to go again next year!

When Derek makes a mistake, he will look at you with his big, beautiful blue eyes and tell you “Sorry, sorry. It was Axxy!!” (accident). It’s hard to resist his charm, but most often he still gets told that it’s not an accident if you do it on purpose! This one is a little charmer and we’re really going to have to watch it with him! We can tell we’ll be in for trouble sooner rather than later!

He has grown so much over the past month. He looks less like a toddler and more like a little boy every day. We can’t wait to see what adventures our little boy is going to have next month!

34th Annual DeutschenPfest

2009-05-17T18:33:00.003-05:00

This weekend was Pflugerville's annual festival - Deutschenfest! Yesterday, we made it to the parking lot of the high school (where you catch the bus to the park) before the skies opened up. We decided to head home and wait it out - good thing, because the festivities ended up being canceled for the day (and it poured for hours). Today, however, was a perfect day! It was overcast and chilly - no sign of the heat and humidity that had been sweltering just a few days ago!

We walked around all of the booths and enjoyed looking at the handmade goodies for sale. No one bought anything, but it was fun to see the things being offered!

The kids each got to ride a pony!

Then we went to the amusement park/carnival area. Aeryn and Derek took a ride on the "flyer saucer" (as Aeryn likes to call it) and had a great time!

Then it was time for the Merry-go-round. It was made up of cars. The kids had a grand time 'driving' their way in circles. Thank goodness they weren't driving for real -- we'd all be in big trouble!!

The kids wanted to ride the train, so that was our next stop. The carnie (is that what you call them these days?) insisted Brian ride with Derek, so he hopped in and took the express train to nowhere with the kiddos.

The kids loved the flyer saucer best, so we went back for them to ride it one more time. They had so much fun that we were all in stitches watching them every time they came around the turn.

We next decided it was time for lunch! Gyros and sweet corn for mom and dad, hot dogs for the kids, and turkey legs for Gramma and Papa. We finished off our meal with some cotton candy (for the kids) and funnel cake (for the grownups). Yum Yum!!

The kids wanted to go to the park playground after that, so we obliged and headed there to play. They had a great time and we stayed until they were exhausted.

We took the bus back to the cars (riding the bus was exciting for both kids - they thought it was the coolest thing) and then headed home.

Derek's April 09 Update

2009-05-09T05:17:00.000-05:00

Derek has shown us this month that he is definitely his daddy’s boy! His new obsession is the computer! He is able to operate the mouse fairly independently, can open and close programs, and often attempts to put in a new CD when he wants a new game. He loves spending time at the computer and has learned all kinds of new academic skills as a result. He recognizes letters and numbers, can count forwards and backwards, and can even start counting at a number other than 1! He’s such a little sponge and loves soaking up everything he can!

It’s not all indoors and computer games for Derek, of course! And when he is outside, he continues to test all the theories – most notably the theory of gravity by attempting to jump off of things from heights (yes, he still falls) and the theory of relativity which we believe means, to him, testing whether or not he can successfully scare one of his relatives to death with his crazy stunts (he’s nearly succeeded several times)!

He continues to evade sleep at Gramma and Papa’s house, but does a pretty good job napping and sleeping through the night at home. We’ll see what happens once summer gets here. Mom, especially, is hoping that he’ll at least be amenable to a little down time in the afternoons here at home! Everyone needs a break in the afternoon!

Our little singer has added “Row, Row, Row your Boat” and “Take me out to the Ballgame” to his repertoire this month. He loves to sing and dance and be the star of the show. Hard to compete with his sister sometimes, but he holds his own (and often at the top of his lungs!!)

Derek didn’t really get the whole idea of the Easter Bunny – or perhaps, didn’t care, but he did enjoy having new stuff to play with. He got some books, a set of Yo Gabba Gabba cars/characters, and a shopping cart to share with Aeryn. He enjoyed decorating eggs, but then was fairly upset that we didn’t let him carry the eggs around and play with them. He consoled himself with a marshmallow bunny, and life was good again!

He loved going to Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross’ house to play with all his cousins! He didn’t get into the cake decorating, instead busying himself in his cousins’ playroom. His favorite thing is getting to “play” the real piano they have there. Our little Mozart makes up for lack of training and skill with volume. He’s quite a pianist!! Derek loved the trampoline and loved getting to hunt for eggs. He hated the confetti eggs on his head and wasn’t much for putting them on other people either. But when we showed him he could throw them on the slide and they’d crack open, he thought that was hysterical! He had a great time throwing them and watching them crack and roll down the slide. He’s got a pretty good arm, too!

He’s growing and changing so quickly. His features are becoming so grown up – he’s more and more boy and less and less toddler every day. We’re sad that he, too, is changing so quickly, but excited to see what the next adventure will bring!

Aeryn's April 09 Update

2009-05-09T05:03:00.001-05:00

Another month has flown by and we’re that much closer to summer vacation!!

Aeryn had a grand time getting ready for Easter this year! She loved painting eggs (we got a fancy pantsy spin art type thing to make eggs, so it was super fun and decidedly unmessy – win win for all!!!). She helped make dessert and has become an expert sprinkle placer. If your treats need sprinkles, she’s your girl for sure! Easter morning she loved getting into her basket and seeing what the Bunny had left her. She got several books, a “build a bear” with a book, some puzzles, and a shopping basket to share with her brother. She even got to have a chocolate marshmallow bunny for breakfast!! We went down to Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross’ house to spend time with the family. Having time with all the cousins is one of Aeryn’s favorite things!! They loved playing in the backyard together (and especially being on the trampoline)! The kids decorated a bunny cake with Oma and thought that was heaven! Of course, the kiddos hunted eggs (twice!) and had great fun finding them all over the backyard. The second round was confetti eggs, and I wonder if Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross’ backyard will ever be the same!!

The weather was pretty bad the week of Relay for Life, so we ended up having our event inside the high school. Aeryn said she wanted to stay all night with Mom, so we decided to let her. We had a tent in our team site and she brought her sleeping bag. What we didn’t know is that she would stay up until after 5 in the morning!!! She had so much fun, though, it wasn’t hard to see why she was still up. She loved walking with Mom and spending time with her new friends that she met there. She was even brave enough to go to the team site next door and buy her own juice! She went down a few sites and tried to buy this balloon punching ball thing, but they gave her one for free. She was so proud of herself! Every year, there’s a contest for “Ms. Relay” where the guys dress in drag and try to raise the most money so they can win the coveted title. There was a guy there this year in a bathrobe and wig who was carrying around 8 babies.. Well, he had extra little dolls in all his pockets and the “Octomom” was selling them for donations. Aeryn wanted one and Mom told her to go over and get one (the guy was about 15 feet away by then). Aeryn grabbed her money and ran over to buy one. We are so proud of how much she’s grown recently. She used to be so shy and afraid to go do these kinds of things on her own, but now she’s just taking the bull by the horns and getting it done! All in all, we raised a lot of money for R4L (thanks to all of you who supported us!!) and had a great mother/daughter night!

Aeryn’s writing skills are really picking up and she’s copying more and more letters and words as the days go by. She loved picking out patterns in things, exploring nature, finding out how things work, and asking lots of questions! We read our first novel together (a Junie B. Jones book) and she had such great comprehension and recall from night to night when we’d read the next chapter. Her memory is amazing – which is a blessing, but also a curse!!

At the end of the month, Mom officially registered Aeryn for kindergarten. Mom and Dad are still confused about where the time has gone and why our little baby isn’t so little anymore! What we do know is that we’re so proud of her and are excited to see what the future brings for our precious girl!

Getting Ready for Easter

2009-04-11T19:06:00.004-05:00

We had a great time getting ready for the Easter bunny to visit today! First, we finished cleaning up the playroom. Gramma and Papa brought over some bookcases that they didn't need anymore (incidentally, we're the 3rd generation of family to have them in our home, I believe). So we took down the metal shelves, cleaned things out and got reorganized. All that's left to do is to make some labels for the bins, but I will probably do that at work next week!

After naps, the real fun started! Aeryn and I made dessert for Easter dinner at Gramma and Papa's house. We were going to make egg shaped treats, but then I realized the only egg shaped cookie cutter I had was wayyy too big for this project. Aeryn spied the heart shape and said she wanted to use it. That seemed like a good option, so we set out to make our treats!

First, we got out a Sara Lee pound cake.

Then we sliced it.

Then, we cut heart shapes out of it.

Whew, that was lots of heart work!

We got to work on the frosting and decorating. I frosted, Aeryn decorated.

The finished product all ready for tomorrow!

Brian and I had gone back and forth for several weeks about whether or not to dye eggs. We don't want to be party poopers, but didn't really want to mess with cups of dye that our littlest darling wouldn't be able to resist tipping over and spilling all over everything. Enter the Spin an Egg! We set it up and let the kids take turns decorating eggs. There are a lot more pictures on our flickr site, but here are a few:

Now the kids have bathed and are getting ready for bed. Aeryn is thrilled that the bunny is coming in the morning, and Derek is largely unimpressed with promises of large bunnies leaving presents for them. We'll see what he thinks tomorrow when there are actual gifts in sight! We're going to have a fun filled day starting at Aunt Amy's house and ending at Gramma and Papa's house. Brian promises to take lots of pictures, so we should have lots to share soon!

Derek's March 09 Update

2009-04-10T12:08:00.001-05:00

Fearless. Tireless. Reckless. Those three words describe our little boy exceptionally well. He loves testing his limits from moment to moment and never gets tired of testing our reactions.

He runs and plays and is all boy all the time. When he falls, he rarely cries, except if he thinks he’s not going to get to go back to playing. With blood trickling down his leg he just keeps on going! Outside is definitely his favorite place to be and when it rains, he has no problem making everyone around him aware of his displeasure!

We’re thankful that he is sleeping pretty well these days. He sleeps all night in his own bed several nights a week. If he does wake, he is easily consoled and falls back asleep quickly in mom and dad’s bed. If we stayed up with him, he’d probably go back to his own bed, but when you’re tired, it’s sometimes easier just to plop him in our bed and go back to sleep too. This summer when Mom doesn’t have to work, we’ll work on making it routine to get him in his bed all night every night. Unfortunately, he has decided that napping is for sissies and pretty much refuses to nap during the week at Gramma and Papa’s house. For now, he’ll still nap at home on the weekends, so who knows what is up with that!

Derek’s new favorite song this month has been “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.” He loves singing the alphabet as well and twinkle twinkle. He is currently OBSESSED with all things Yo Gabba Gabba – which is a welcome change from the Teletubbies!

We had a lot of fun spending time together over spring break! We spent a lot of time at the playground at Mama’s school which Derek absolutely loved! There were plenty of shopping trips and lazy days at home as well, which Derek really enjoyed. He really loved getting to play with all the cousins at Oma and Poppa’s house too!

During the week, Derek is busy, busy, busy. He loves to play in the playhouse at Gramma and Papa’s house. He turns it into his own little drive-through and “serves” up checkers all day long! He also enjoys going on walks with Papa and running errands with Gramma.

We enrolled him in a preschool program for next year – two days a week. We’re looking forward to him having the opportunity to learn some social skills. Although he is an outgoing and friendly kiddo, he definitely has issues with sharing and playing nicely with others right now. A little structured learning and playing will be good for him. We’re really excited about the program and when Gramma took him for a visit, he absolutely LOVED the place. We can’t wait for him to get started in the fall!

At the end of the month, we went to Queenie and Chief’s house for a little family get together with some out of state relatives. Derek was in heaven getting to play in all the grass, ride his cousins’ power wheels truck/tractor, and attempting to sneak away and get into the pool (thankfully he was unsuccessful at that)! We love getting to visit with family and are so thankful to have continued opportunities to get together. With such a hectic schedule, it’s nice to take a time out and visit with our extended family! We need to make sure and do more of that!!!

April will bring Easter and Relay for Life and lots of other adventures. We hope that the month will bring us more good health, good weather, and good fun – for us as well as all of you!!

Aeryn's March 09 Update

2009-04-10T11:07:00.000-05:00

March was a lot of fun at our house! Aeryn had a great month!

The beginning of the month was fairly uneventful as we trudged through our daily routines. All of us were getting a little tired and needed some down time to recharge and be with each other. Luckily, Spring Break was this month and we all got just what we needed!

We had such a grand time together. Aeryn was thrilled that she was going to have NINE stay home days. We made the most of our time together and got in lots of fun as well as rest! We started the week with a few “stay home” days where we rested, relaxed, and cleaned-cleaned-cleaned. Aeryn did a fabulous job cleaning up her room all by herself! She’s becoming such a big girl!! We took a trip to the ENT on Tuesday (more about that in a bit), and then did some shopping with Gramma. Wednesday brought fun time with daddy and then a trip to Oma and Poppa’s house where we got to visit with all of the cousins! The weather was beautiful, so we got to spend lots of time playing outside! It was a perfect day! We did more shopping towards the end of the week. On Friday, Aeryn went to a birthday party for a classmate at a local bouncy place. We had a ton of fun and couldn’t believe we were there for almost 3 hours!

Since the weather has started warming up, we’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the backyard in the evenings. Aeryn really loves swinging and playing in the backyard. She’s so full of energy all the time and it’s a lot of fun to watch her use her imagination when she’s playing. There is never a dull moment with her around!!

Our visit with the ENT was tentatively good news, although we have to go back this summer and see what our next step will be. Aeryn has had 4 ear infections in the past 5 months, so we were concerned that she needed tubes again. The Dr. feels that she’s right on the cusp of outgrowing the problem, so we’re going to hold off on doing anything right now. If the problems continue, then we’ll probably do tubes this summer. Her ears are pretty consistently filled with fluid, and the ENT felt like it may be months before it drains completely. If we do tubes, it will be closer to when she starts kindergarten (yes, that’s this year.. who else has a hard time believing that) so that they’ll be more likely to stay in for the whole year.

Aeryn continues to excel at all things creative. She loves creating art projects and her room is FULL of her creations! She tells stories, makes up songs, and engages in make believe play all the time.

She’s been having some trouble with her attitude. We can’t believe that our sweet little girl is behaving so much like a teenager already. Thank goodness there wasn’t a manual or we may never have brought her home – starting the eye rolling, talking back, arguing, and defiance at 4.5 is more than we bargained for! She’s responding well to our tactics, so we’re hopeful that our pleasant daughter will emerge again someday! Her teachers report that she’s sweet and helpful at school, so at least she’s behaving herself there and not one of “those” kids!

April will bring lots of exciting adventures – Easter, Relay for Life, Kindergarten Registration, and surely lots of other fun times. We can’t wait to share them with all of you!!

This is so beautiful..

2009-04-04T13:14:00.002-05:00

Spring Break Review

2009-03-22T15:14:00.000-05:00

We had a fabulous Spring Break this year! All the relatives we usually visit have moved to our area, so we didn't have to do any traveling this time. Mom and Dad were especially thankful for not having a 5 hour car or plane trip this year!

Saturday
It was a chilly day, so we didn't do much. Aeryn and mommy went to the grocery store while Daddy and Derek played at home. We went to get a new laptop for Mom because she's applying for a distance learning program to get her Master's degree, so she neede
d one that met the requirements for the software she'll be downloading. We hit Target on the way home and picked up some new stuff to organize the kitchen and create new pantry space. We went over to Gramma and Papa's house for dinner and cards (for the grownups) and movies/playing (for the kids). Of course, since it was Pi Day (3/14 - yes, we're nerds, it's okay - we admit it), we had to have blueberry pie for dessert!

Sunday
We had a "stay home" day and enjoyed each others' company while hanging out around the house. Just the kind of lazy day we needed to charge our batteries and get ready for a really fun week!

Monday
We stayed home and the kids played in the playroom while Mommy gave the house a good spring cleaning. Daddy took the kids to the back yard to play in the afternoon while he grilled some fajita meat for dinner. It was such a gorgeous day out!

Tuesday
Derek went to Gramma and Papa's house while Mom took Aeryn to the ENT. He said to keep an eye on her ears, but at this point he doesn't want to do another set of tubes. She still has a lot of fluid in her ears, so he is not entirely ruling out doing them this summer, but he is hopeful that she'll outgrow this problem by then. We'll make another appointment at the beginning of the summer and see. She's had 4 ear infections in the past 5 months, so we're really trying to be proactive and keep her in as little pain as possible (with as few medical procedures as possible as well). After that, we went back to Gramma and Papa's house. Papa took the kids to the park which was lots of fun for both kiddos. Then Gramma took us to lunch and we went to the new Super Target. That's Mom's favorite place - she's so excited it just opened up practically down the street!

Wednesday
Daddy came home at 11:00 and took care of the kiddos while Mom went out to lunch with a friend from her old school. They got to play outside, play the elephant game, take turns with the Wii, and even have chicken fries (Derek's term for nuggets and fries) for lunch! After mom got home, we headed south to Buda to hang out at Oma and Poppa's house for awhile. We got to see Aunt Amy, Aunt Jill, Uncle Brian, Oma and Poppa (of course), and the cousins - Maggie, Fox, and Mason. We also got to visit with Memaw and Papaw when they stopped by! The kids had a blast playing outside in the beautiful sunshine. It's so much fun now that they play together (mostly) so nicely and independently. They're becoming such good friends and it's so cute to watch them dream up things to do together! We had spaghetti for dinner and the kids really loved it. We said we'd bring dessert, so Mom asked Aeryn what we should have. She said she wanted sprinkles - and LOTS of them - so we picked up ice cream, chocolate syrup, cherries, whipped cream, and a ton of sprinkles. It was so much fun and Aunt Amy said she was going to organize an ice cream social this summer - we are really excited about that! After the kids had played outside until there was not another drop of sunshine in the sky, they got to take a bath at Oma's house. Aeryn thinks this is a really special treat and it was even better because Aunt Jill supervised. Bath time is more fun with Aunt Jill - probably because she lets them get away with lots of splashing and fun! Mom and Dad played dominoes with the other grown ups while Aeryn and Derek played inside. We didn't get home until really late, but it was worth it for all the fun we had!

Thursday
Daddy and Papa went to play golf, so Mom, Gramma, and the kids went shopping! We ate at CiCi's for lunch as Aeryn had been requesting Macaroni & Cheese Pizza (only a kid would beg for that). Then we hit Half Price Books and Big Lots. While at Big Lots, Derek decided to practice his Linda Blair impression and projectile vomitted all over Mom, the cart, the floor, and several other things. We'll spare you the details, but it was pretty nasty. He looked a little queasy for a few hours afterwards, but seemed to make a full recovery by night.

Friday
Aeryn went to a classmate's party at a local bouncy place. She had a great time and got to spend about 3 hours bouncing, sliding, jumping, yelling, and eating with her friends. After that we came home and spent some down time just hanging out around the house and napping. For dinner, we decided to go check out a new restaurant that opened this week called Freddy's Frozen Custard. It was really packed, but we happened to come right at a lull, so we didn't have to wait too long. The food was pretty okay, but the frozen custard was amazing. We should have brought the camera! Derek was COVERED in chocolate and Aeryn was wearing her fair share of vanilla. The "real" Freddy was there too - he came to our table and the kids got to talk to him. He gave them some Freddy bucks, so they were excited to get ice cream too. If the staff continues to be as attentive and friendly as they were tonight, we'll definitely be frequenting them! After we left, we decided to stop by Mom's school and spend some time playing on the little playground. Everything there is just the right size for both kids to play and we were the only ones there. It was the perfect ending to a really fun evening!

Saturday
Daddy and Papa went golfing, so the girls (and Derek) went shopping! This time it was a quick trip to Goodwill for some good finds, lunch at Chili's, and then a trip to Super Target (yes, again). We picked up Mom's car from the mechanic and then went to the park at Mom's school for awhile. We also got to play in Gramma and Papa's backyard for awhile. The weather has been so beautiful and we've had a good time getting to play outside!

Sunday
This has been a lazy day for us while we mourn the end of our vacation. Aeryn and Mom went to the grocery store this morning and had a good time (well, as good a time you can have grocery shopping) and then headed home for a lazy Sunday at home. After dinner, we're planning to take the kids back to the park at Mom's school for dessert, kite flying, and playing on the playground. After that it will be baths and bed so we're ready for an early start tomorrow!

AlphaBeck Blog

2009-03-19T08:06:00.000-05:00

We've decided to join the 21st Century and start a blog. So far, I've imported all the updates that have been emailed out over the years.

It all started when Aeryn was 6 months old and we sent out a quick email to update everyone about what Aeryn was up to at the time. We got such an overhwelming response from our families that we decided to write an update every month. Here we are 4 years later, still writing monthly updates - only now for two kiddos.

We look forward to the blog format because we can post more stories in between updates and can show off more pictures.

We hope you'll enjoy our little blog as much as we enjoy reminiscing and writing up the events of each month!

Aeryn's February 09 Update

2009-03-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

Aeryn has partied her way through February! It seems like it’s been one celebration after another and Aeryn has enjoyed every minute of it!

We started the month by attending a Superbowl party at Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross’ new house. It was so much fun getting to see all the cousins again and to play outside because the weather was so nice! They have a trampoline, so that was where Aeryn spent most of her time. She loved getting to bounce and play and have so much fun with Maggie and Fox and Mason (and even Derek)! We got to meet some of Aunt Amy’s friends’ kiddos too, and they were just as much fun to play with as cousins (or so Aeryn told us).

Next was Valentine’s Day! They had a field trip at school and walked over to the retirement center near her school. They passed out handmade Valentine cards and sang love songs to the residents. We’re working on getting video of her singing the songs it is seriously one of the most precious moments to watch her sing and sign these songs!

Aeryn made Valentines for all her classmates this year. She picked out bookmarks. Then she stamped them with various flowers and hears. Mom printed out labels with all her friends names (in a dotted font) and Aeryn traced them and put them on the bookmark. Last, Aeryn signed her name on all 20 of the valentine cards! We put those in a little baggie with a pink rice krispie treat (those were store bought thanks Little Debbie!) and she was set to go. She really had a great time making them all on her own we’re so proud of her creativity and dedication to making them all on her own.

We had another 3 day weekend this month and had a great time getting to spend some extra time together. We’re really looking forward to Spring Break and the summer when we can spend even more “stay home” days together. Aeryn is already making a list of all the fun things we can do together!

The next two weekends, she attended a birthday party for friends from school. The first party was at her friend’s house, and Austin children’s entertainer Staci Gray brought a dress up trunk for all the kiddos and then put on a fabulous performance. We really had a good time singing and dancing and being silly. We plan on attending one of her local performances next month because it was such a good time! The next weekend, we went to a birthday party at Pfluger Park. They had a “balloon guy” making all kinds of balloon animals, hats, and bracelets. Aeryn picked a really cool flower bracelet and a princess crown. Unfortunately, the princess crown hit the ground after we were home and popped. But she still has on the bracelet today. She was devastated by the popped balloon, but seems to be consoling herself nicely with the remaining balloon pieces she has left! Aeryn wrote her friends’ names in both of their birthday cards we’ve said it before and it bears repeating she’s just growing up SO fast!!

We can’t wait to see what March brings with spring break, we should have lots of fun ahead. (And pictures too we didn’t seem to take many in February, unfortunately)

Derek's February 09 Update

2009-03-01T07:49:00.000-06:00

February flew by and our little boy looks more and more like a big boy. He didn’t make as many developmental changes this month, but he LOOKS so much more grown up. It’s exciting and heartbreaking all at once! Where has mama’s little baby gone and who is this cute little boy who has taken his place?

He continues to make progress in the sleep department at night. Unfortunately, he has decided that taking a nap at Gramma’s house during the week is an unnecessary thing. He generally stays in a good mood and is willing to have a little down time, but he refuses to nap. It’s especially strange because he will nap at home on the weekends. We think it’s because Gramma’s house is so much more exciting and he doesn’t want to miss a thing!

His eating patterns continue to be strange and sporadic, but he seems to get enough as the week averages out, so we just keep offering him good choices and waiting for him to decide that eating is worth his time. He did eat a TON of macaroni and cheese last night which is a first for him he’s never really been into anything cheesy. Looks like it’s time for a growth spurt!

Derek loves to say “we’ll see” and “maybe later” now. He is just so cute. His other FAVORITE phrase, which he uses at least 2 dozen times per day is “Oops, try again!” He has also started to sing the ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We’re going to try to get a video of that because it’s something we would love to be able to share with everyone. He’s just so cute!

We’ve started the very beginning stages of potty training. Really, this just means he sits on the potty for a few minutes and then yells that he’s finished. He hasn’t made the connection between sitting and what he’s supposed to do yet, but we all think that once he does, he won’t take long at all to master the process. He’s asked to sit on the potty several times, so we took it as a sign to start dabbling with the idea. So far, sitting is all he’s done, but we’ll keep working on it!

Derek has been really building with his blocks. He loves to create new things and build really tall towers. Of course, his favorite activity is still “knocky down!!!” But then, what little kid (or big one) doesn’t love to knock down a great tower?!

He enjoys engaging in pretend play as well. He’s gotten really good at being a farmer with his new farm set he got for Christmas. He also cooks treats for us in the play kitchen and takes care of one of his sister’s baby dolls.

At the end of the month, Daddy took Aeryn and Derek down to see Oma and Poppa while Mama took a certification test for work. He had a great time playing with his cousins, but the highlight was surely the Elmo bubble blower. He thought that was just the best thing ever!! Plus, Oma had grapes, and those will always make for a happy Derek!

We’re starting to look at preschools for Derek for next year. He missed the cut off this year since he has an October birthday, but we think he’ll really benefit from 2 or 3 days a week in a structured program with other kids. The year after that, he’ll be old enough to enter into the Pegasus program in Pflugerville ISD (just like Aeryn is in this year and Mama teaches) we can’t believe we’re having to make all these decisions for him already… Where DID our baby go?1??!

Derek's January 09 Update

2009-03-01T07:47:00.001-06:00

Time has gone by so quickly and we’ve had a hard time keeping up with writing down milestones due to all the fun we’ve been having! Mom and dad try hard to remember everything to write down each month, but when an update gets put off another month (big Oops on Mom’s part), then the details get a little less clear. We hope you’ll enjoy the highlights!

Derek started off 2009 with another Christmas this time with Oma, Poppa, and all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins on that side of the family. He had a super time playing with his cousins. He really likes the riding play tractor and 4X4 truck that his cousins got for Christmas. It took him awhile to figure out how to drive it himself, but he laughed uproariously at getting to be a passenger, so it made no difference to him whether drove or rode. He got lots of cool new playthings and has been busy playing, playing, playing all month long!

His change in sleeping habits has been such a blessing to us. He’s starting to sleep through the night (Finally- yes, at almost 2.5) most nights of the week! When he does wake at night, he falls back asleep fairly quickly and then sleeps the rest of the night. He did go through a period of a couple weeks where he was having some bad dreams and that was rough on him (and us because there was little we could do to comfort him), but once that passed, he has been a better sleeper!

Derek has started eating less this month which seems so very strange because he’s always been a bottomless pit! He has gotten pickier about which vegetables he will eat or be willing to take more than one bite of. He turns his nose up at meat a lot of the time (unless it’s a nugget or hot dog), and has even started to refuse fruits that have been his favorites for a long time. It’s not really that he’s becoming a picky eater, though, because even his favorite foods (nuggets, fries, hot dogs, corn) he will refuse to eat at times. It’s more like he’s not interested in slowing down long enough to eat. He usually eats a good breakfast, though, so we just feed him when he’s hungry, make sure he sits with the family and eats what he will of the meal and then turn him loose. This seems like fairly typical toddler behavior, so we’re not too concerned but it sure would be nice not to hear “no, no, no, I finished!!!” at every meal just as soon as we sit down!

Derek’s new favorite phrases are “oookay” and “aaaawww” which are really funny. Derek is using lots of phrases and his vocabulary is skyrocketing. He’s putting together more and more words to make longer sentences, too. Having a conversation with him is such a riot because it’s often like talking to an older kid and then all of a sudden he will start acting so totally TWO.

He loves going to Gramma and Papa’s house during the week while Mom and Dad go to work. He loves getting to run errands with Gramma and taking long walks with Papa (when the weather is nice). He gets to go to the library on Fridays and has a blast no matter where he is or what he’s doing!

Derek has become a little more insistent this month and thinks he should get whatever he asks for “now” and “right away!” He’s quickly learning that telling grown ups you want it NOW will get you NOTHING, so he’s starting to back off from those phrases - he’s a smart kiddo!

We can’t wait to see the exciting changes that happen next month it’s sure to be filled with lots of fun and learning that’s for sure!

Aeryn's January 09 Update

2009-03-01T07:47:00.000-06:00

We’ve been so busy lately that Aeryn’s update kept getting pushed until “tomorrow” well, here we are at the end of February and we’re trying to remember what happened over a month ago! This year is really flying by it’s so hard to comprehend that we’re almost a quarter through with 2009!

January started off with a great celebration at Aunt Sara and Uncle Dallas’ house! All of the cousins, aunts, uncles, Oma and Poppa were there to have a belated Christmas celebration! We had such a good time. The kids love playing together and of course, opening presents is always a big hit. Aeryn loved getting more new things and is so thankful for everything she receives. There are times she forgets her manners, but for the most part, she’s so sweet about saying thank you and is genuinely excited that someone picked out something especially for her!

Aeryn still loves school. She’s learning so much every day and is proud to show off everything she learns. January has been the month for rhyming words. She loves to find words real or nonsense that rhyme. It’s so cute well, until she’s skipping down the hall of her school singing out (loudly, because that’s the only volume she seems to have) “door whore.. door whore.. door whore.. Hey, those rhyme, don’t they mom??” Gotta love kids!!

Midway through the month we got to have a three day weekend at home. She started the weekend with a birthday party for her friend Bethany. That set the tone for the whole weekend and we had a great and festive three day weekend!

Aeryn is also really into creating masterpieces of art right now. She got some glitter glue/paint for Christmas from Aunt Jill and Uncle Brian and has had a ball with them. She names all her creations and makes up elaborate stories for each picture. She has been practicing writing her name and is becoming quite a pro! She enjoys envelopes and letters and is constantly “writing” or drawing pictures for classmates.

Being helpful is something Aeryn really excels at when she feels like it. She’ll clean up her room or the playroom (with a little help) just because it needs to be done and before nagging commences. She loves trying to help Derek learn new things, even if he’s not as excited as she is about whatever it is she’s trying to teach him!

Aeryn LOVES the Wii. She has become a pretty good bowler and golfer. She gets easily frustrated, but always comes back to try again. She enjoys doing the activities on Wii Fit her favorite activities are running and step dancing. She’s so focused when she’s playing! She also got a Dora game for the Wii for Christmas from Oma and Poppa and has enjoyed playing it. She also loves playing games on the computer (Dora Candyland, Peggle, or pbskids.org) and is getting quite good at navigating the games and the computer on her own! Her daddy is so proud!!

She’s getting taller day by day and looks less and less like a little girl. She’s very ready to turn 5 and start kindergarten, but mommy and daddy are ready to have a few more months with a preschooler. Time really does fly!!

Derek's December 08 Update

2009-01-02T07:45:00.000-06:00

If 2009 goes as quickly as 2008 did, we’ll be sending another update for a new year far too soon! December was a busy month, but we had a lot of fun and Derek has grown and changed so much in the last four weeks!

Derek knows most of his letters by sight although he still confuses them often and loves to shout them out whenever he sees a sign. Every stop sign he will say “S T O P” and if you tell him it spells stop, he will correct you “NO! S T O P!!!” He’s also working on his colors and numbers. He’s getting numbers and counting down faster than he is his colors, but is making good progress in figuring out colors. He has even mastered animal sounds! This sounds silly, but it is very exciting to us because for the longest time, he apparently construed that as unnecessary information. When he looked at books by himself, he would say the sounds. But when we asked, it was as if he didn’t want to slow down long enough to answer, so he just said moo! He’s a smart little stinker and we have to keep on our toes around him! He’s started the dreaded “why” phase, but so far is appeased after two or three of them rather than repeating the question for eternity.

Derek loves to watch anyone play the Wii and asks us often if we can play “exercise” right now. He loves to watch the games and laughs hysterically all the time. He likes it when Aeryn goes on a “run” so he can run next to her and play too. When any of us start to exercise with it, he will stand next to us and follow along as best he can. Perhaps he will be the next Tony Little only without the obnoxious attitude and big ponytail!!

He has started entertaining the idea of pretend play. He is “cooking” in the play kitchen and brings us creations to “taste” all the time. Blocks, however, are his very favorite plaything right now. He’s all about building towers and asking you to look at them. Of course, he also enjoys knocking them down and then starting all over.

We had lots of family events this month and got to see lots of relatives and friends! In mid December, we went to Matt and Jennifer’s (dad’s cousin and his wife) house to celebrate the plethora of December birthdays in the Beck family. Derek loved getting to play with all his cousins and Aunts and Uncles! He especially liked attempting to rearrange the Christmas decorations and ornaments at their house just like at ours!

Later in the month, we headed to Dallas for the annual cookie party that our close friends host. Mommy’s roommate from college is now a professional photographer and she offered to take a few pictures of the kids. Derek was not cooperative AT ALL, but Ms. Robin was able to get some really great shots of the little stinker. Much fun and lots of cookies were had by all. Derek did really well on the car trip (about 3-3.5 hours each way) this year last year he screamed the last two hours on the way home and was content to sleep, read a book, play with a toy, or watch a DVD.

Last month was December and December means Christmas! Although he really didn’t understand the whole concept, he was into opening presents when he saw how much fun Aeryn was having. He’d open one present and then want to start playing with it rather than opening a new one. He eventually made it through all the loot and had a good time playing with the discarded wrapping paper (isn’t that always the way it works?) He received lots of books, a big set of duplo blocks, some bristle blocks, clothes, and a basketball hoop for Grandma and Papa’s house. His sister keeps telling him that we get to open more presents when we have Christmas with Oma and Poppa this weekend, but he’s not really impressed by that idea most likely because it’s not right in front of him. Conceptualizing another set of gifts is just beyond his comprehension right now.

We hope all of you had a holiday as bright and merry as ours and that your 2009 will live up to all of your expectations. We can’t wait to see what this year will bring us!

Aeryn's December 08 Update

2009-01-02T07:44:00.000-06:00

December was an exciting month for our precious girl! She was so excited about the idea of Santa and Christmas and Baby Jesus and (of course) presents!

We were hoping to have a sick-free month, but unfortunately that was not to be. Aeryn developed another ear infection the week before Christmas. We’re so thankful that she can tell us when her ear hurts because otherwise things could have been much, much worse. She never ran fever or had any other symptoms of an ear infection other than telling us that her ear hurt. We will be going back to the ENT for a follow-up regarding the nasal spray she’s been taking, so we hope he’ll have some answers about this then. It’s so stressful to worry so much about her ears again for her and for us!

Aeryn was thrilled to have a pajama day at her school in December (just like at daycare with Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian, mom!) and to have Santa visit her class! We didn’t take her to see Santa this year because she’s always been so terrified of him in the past. Apparently she LOVED having him come to her class and we have a great picture from that visit! Maybe next year we’ll brave the mall and let them go see him there!

We got to visit lots of friends and family this month and it was so much fun! We went to Matt and Jennifer’s house this month for a celebration of all the December birthdays. Aeryn loved getting to see their dog BB and hanging out with all her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents! She says the best part of going to Matt and Jennifer’s house was playing hide and seek!

We made our annual trip to Dallas for our friends’ cookie party. Ms. Robin, one time college roommate turned super mom and professional photographer, took some amazing pictures of Aeryn before the party started. Aeryn loved having the attention of Ms. Robin and the camera. She can be such a ham. The pictures are amazing and once the holidays have wound down, we’re going to be ordering some and will share with everyone!

We had a quiet Christmas morning at home well, not so quiet once the kids woke up! Aeryn couldn’t wait to open presents. She was excited that Santa had eaten the cookies and finished the milk (and even left a thank you note on the plate). We had carefully placed the magic key outside our house on Christmas Eve so we’d be sure Santa could get in our house as we have no chimney. Santa did indeed come to visit and left a pile of presents under the tree! Aeryn got lots of books, some clothes, a cd case, a container for all her hair goodies, and some other assorted fun stuff. Her big present from Grandma and Papa was a scooter. They have the perfect street for riding around and she is quickly learning how to propel herself around on the scooter! From mom and dad, her big gift was a digital camera! We have loved getting to see the things she thinks worthy of taking pictures! We’ve set up a special set on our Flickr account so we can share those pictures with you, too. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Daddy spent a night away from home this month when he went to San Antonio to be with Oma and Poppa while Poppa had his surgery. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of daddy being far away at night, but when she realized it meant that she could spend the whole night sleeping in the big bed, she wanted to know when he’d be spending the night away again. Oh, the things that is so important to a four year old! We are so happy that Poppa is doing well and is home from the hospital. It’s been a long few months and although we know there is still far to go in his recovery we are hopeful the worst is over now.

At the end of the month, we went to the Erwin Center to see the Rockettes perform. It was an amazing show and Aeryn did such a good job in the audience. We had nosebleed seats (although they were good seats, they were pretty high up) and had to do the stairs twice in the dark to go to the bathroom. She loved getting dressed up to go to the “theater” and see the dancers. She thought having a girls’ afternoon with Mommy, Aunt Amy, and Maggie was super exciting. The popcorn wasn’t a bad perk either. If you ask her what her favorite part was, she is quick to tell you that there were so many favorite parts she couldn’t possibly tell you just one!

Aeryn is thrilled that she gets to have ANOTHER Christmas this weekend with all of Daddy’s family. She can’t wait to see everyone and play with her cousins and (of course) open more presents. She truly is so giving and caring it only sounds like she’s materialistic with the present opening. She does love presents, but she just as much wants to give as she gets. She points things out all the time and asks if we can get it for someone because they might really like it. We hope she carries this sense of kindness and giving with her throughout her whole life!

2009 is going to be full of surprises and new adventures for Aeryn. We cannot believe that she will go to Kindergarten this year. Doesn’t it seem like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital so full of wonder and hope? May all of you feel that wonder and hope each day of 2009 we wish you the very best now and always!

Derek's November 08 Update

2008-12-14T07:43:00.001-06:00

Derek continues to make it his job to show us just how TWO he can be. He seems to constantly be bumped, bruised, or bloodied but never seems to truly be worse for the wear. He surely identifies with the phrase “rough and tumble” and keeps us on our toes at all times!

He’s talking up a storm these days and uses the most hysterical phrases. One of our favorites is when you ask him to make a choice. He’ll put his finger on the corner of his mouth and say ‘Hmm.. I think.. I want.. (his choice)!” Or, he’ll say “Hmm.. I think.. I try... (his choice)!” Either is hysterical! He’s gotten very good at using full sentences to request things even if we can’t always understand what it is he wants. At Gramma’s house, he often requests “the other one” crackers now because she would give him a choice between “these crackers or the other ones.” He has taken that to heart and loves to tell her he wants the other ones.

Sleep is still a bit of a roller coaster for us. He often still wakes once or twice a night and needs for us to comfort him back to sleep. He is sleeping through the night more often though, so we hope he’s finally going to figure out how night time is supposed to work! It’s been a long battle getting to this point and we’re so glad we’re here!

We’ve had lots of fun this month playing with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents! We had an early Thanksgiving with the Thames family and spent Thanksgiving morning with Gramma and Papa and the afternoon with the Beck relatives and Oma and Poppa. He loves getting to see his cousins and talks constantly about getting to see them again soon. It’s so fun to watch him making connections and starting to build relationships with his cousins!

Derek LOVES the lights and sounds of Christmas. His favorite activity is rearranging the ornaments on the Christmas tree. This usually involves stripping the tree of as many ornaments as possible in under a minute (given two minutes, he can clear off about 2 dozen). He also enjoys screaming “lights” at every light he sees. He gets really upset if they get turned off and seems to think we should live in a bright white winter wonderland all of the time!

Gramma takes Derek to the library most Fridays. He enjoys story time, but picking out books and videos are definitely his favorite part. Then he gets to wander the aisles and ponder (hmm..) each choice! Gramma is looking at taking him to the next story time (he currently goes to the younger age group class because it is less crowded and crazy than the toddler story age) and perhaps even the bilingual story time so he can have the opportunity to interact with other kids. He visited Aeryn’s school for her Thanksgiving feast with Gramma and was very concerned that she was going to leave him there. We’re hopeful this is just a phase of delayed separation anxiety (he never has really gone through it before even last year with Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian he never cried to be left there). We’re looking into preschool for him next year, but may also wait until the next year when he’s eligible to attend a Pegasus class like Aeryn is going to this year. Time will tell…

Speaking of Aeryn, Derek continues to idolize his big sister. He wants to do anything she’s getting to do and copies her every move. He cheers her on when she’s playing games and loves it when she’ll take the time to interact with him. She loves teaching him the things she learns at school, but gets easily frustrated because he’s not a patient student who wants to sit still while she bellows on and on. Overall, though, the two of them get along so very well. They love having each other and we love having them!

Derek is looking forward to “Musmas” (known as Christmas to those with better vocabulary skills) and although he really doesn’t understand what that means, he gets really excited when talking about it and snowmen and reindeer and Santa! Derek brings such excitement with him to everything he does. We could all take lessons and have much happier lives if we’d just embrace things with joy the way he does!

Aeryn's November 08 Update

2008-12-14T07:43:00.000-06:00

November was a busy month for our not so little girl! She continues to love school and can’t seem to learn enough. She’s constantly asking questions and trying to figure things out. It’s amazing to watch her soak in so much information so quickly!

Aeryn’s class went on another field trip last month. They had the opportunity to go to the Shriner’s Circus! Mom and Dad both had to work, so she had to go solo (well, with her teachers and classmates) on this one. She was very nervous about going without us, but she did a great job and had lots of fun! She loved getting to taste cotton candy. She talks all the time about seeing the elephants, ponies, and lions. There was a clown and a dog that she loves to talk about, too!

Health wise, it was a difficult month for Aeryn. We were at the doctor’s office just about every week from the middle of October through the end of November. She had two viral infections followed by an ear infection. During one of the visits, they decided to give her a hearing test because we’d noticed her having some difficulty. She completely failed the test in her left ear. We then had to schedule a follow up with the audiologist and ENT. The complete hearing test with the audiologist showed that she has no hearing loss, but has a great deal of pressure in her ears which is causing her to not hear as well as she could. The ENT thinks that it’s due to a buildup of fluid in her ears. He has put her on a 6 week regimen of nasal allergy spray to see if that will help drain her ears. If that doesn’t work, then we will have to consider doing a second set of tubes. The ENT is hopeful (as are we) that she is outgrowing these difficulties and won’t need further surgical intervention.

We got to go visit with the Thames side of the family twice this past month! First we went to Mamaw’s family reunion at Queenie and Chief’s house! Aeryn had a blast seeing all of the animals at their house and playing with all of the cousins and other kiddos who were there. She took a spill out of the chair she was sitting on, but Cousin Jason was quick to come and rescue her. She still talks about how he came and scooped her up after she fell down! The week before Thanksgiving, we got to visit Aunt Brenda and Uncle John’s house. Aunt Brenda has a “real live little pony” (Aeryn’s description) that Aeryn enjoyed talking to, petting, and playing with during our visit. All the cousins were at that get together as well and she had a blast (as always) with all of the other kids!

Thanksgiving was tons of fun! We spent the morning at Gramma and Papa’s house. We took Aeryn’s bike over to their house since their street is a cul-de-sac at either end (unlike our street which is sometimes pretty busy and the sidewalks are kind of hilly and difficult to navigate). She did a fantastic job! Just a few weeks earlier, she’d been terrified to ride her bike and kept saying she couldn’t make it go. That Thursday, she was all over. She zipped up and down the street, rounding corners, stopping, going, and having tons of fun all over! We are so proud that she’s overcome another of her fears and shown that with a little perseverance she can accomplish anything she wants to do! In the afternoon, we headed out to Rockne to the Beck Family Farm. It was so good to see everyone and spend time with family.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we got to go to Oma and Poppa’s house and visit with Aunt Janet and Uncle Rick. It was so much fun to see them it’s been too long! We ate a big breakfast together and then took some pictures and played with all the cousins. It was such a great break and we loved getting to see all of our family throughout the vacation!

We put our tree up right after Thanksgiving. Aeryn loved looking at all of the ornaments and hearing the stories of when we’d collected each of them. She is enamored with the lights and decorations around the house. She loves moving the mouse on our advent calendar every day and is vigilant about keeping track of the date!

We are looking forward to our next break in just a few weeks. We’re hoping to see lots more family, take some time to rest, and visit lots of friends. Although the road is sometimes rocky, we love the path we’re on and wouldn’t change it for anything. This time of year reminds us to take a moment to remember the loved ones we’ve lost, cherish those we have, and embrace the moments we have with each other. Aeryn helps us to do that each day and we hope that you are able to take a few moments this holiday season to savor the gifts in your life as well.

Derek's 24 Month Update

2008-11-16T07:41:00.000-06:00

Keeping up with Derek and Aeryn leaves little time for writing updates it seems! We’re going to try to write updated at the end of each month rather than on their “due dates.” Some may be late (like this one) but we promise to get them out eventually!!

Derek turned TWO! He is fully TWO now (and yes, it is important to use all caps he’s so TWO his picture is probably in the dictionary next to terrible twos)! His favorite words are “no” and “mine” and “now.” It makes for lots of fun conversations around our house. His volume switch seems to be broken in the HIGH position. Even when he’s pretending to whisper he’s loud!

Not only is his language showing TWO, but his choices reflect this as well. The kid has suddenly become a full fledged climber. He’s on top of tables, chairs, couches anything really faster than you can catch him. He stands up and yells TA-DA and will often attempt to jump off as his next move. We’re not sure if he’s preparing for a future with the circus or as the next Evel Knievel, but we hope he moves out of this phase soon!!

For all this rambunctiousness, he’s still the sweetest little boy. He gives the best kisses and hugs (when you can get him to stop long enough to give you one) and has even started saying “I love you” on rare occasions. Although he sometimes needs reminders, he often remembers to say thank you (Tanks!), please (pweese), and sorry (Orry!) at appropriate times.

Of course, turning two means he had a birthday! For his actual birthday, we had dinner at Gramma and Papa’s house. We ate chocolate cake with jungle sprinkles on top and had fun opening presents. His favorite thing from Amma and Papa was a denim jacket that resembles one his Uncle Steve had as a child! He loves that jacket and now that it’s finally getting cold, he’s excited to get to wear it so much!

Last month we had a lot of fun when we went camping near Garner State Park in Concan, Texas. Although the car trip (About 4 hours each way) wasn’t his thing, he did like getting to watch a video in the car and even eat nuggets on the way home! His camping days were filled the way all boys’ days should be with cousins, dirt, baseballs, food, running, swimming in the river, and as little sleep as possible! We also had a little birthday celebration for Derek there and he enjoyed getting to eat cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting and jungle sprinkles and candles) and open some great presents. He looks at the pictures of himself blowing out the candles and tells us he wants more “whoo whoo” (think blowing candles out sound).

Derek continues to love reading either on his own or when you read to him. He has a Cookie Monster book he loves to read. He sits on the floor and imitates Cookie Monster’s voice. It’s really a riot to listen to the first time we heard him we thought something was wrong until we realized he was just imitating his voice.

Sleep continues to be up and down, but for the most part he takes 2 hour naps during the day and sleeps (mostly) through the night. He’s easy to get back to sleep (mostly) when he does wake up and we are so thankful for that!

Of course, the end of October brought Halloween! Derek had a great time in his frog costume. Aeryn was a bit smaller when she wore it, so he was a much hulkier frog but every bit as adorable! The kids had fun going to the nursing home and trick-or-treating. We didn’t get many photos since they were much more into the whole process this year, but we do have a few shots of the princess and her frog out front. After that, we spent the evening at Gramma and Papa’s house. While Aeryn was a great help handing out candy, Derek preferred to yell “UH OH” every time the doorbell rang!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Name at least 5 or more parts of a dolls body or their own body

· Half of their speech is understandable

· Form three or four word sentences

· Walk down stairs unassisted

· Start asking “why” to everything

· Like to sing and jump

Aeryn's October 08 Update

2008-11-16T07:40:00.000-06:00

Keeping up with Aeryn and Derek leaves little time for writing updates it seems! We’re going to try to write updates at the end of each month rather than on their “due dates.” Some may be late (like this one) but we promise to get them out eventually!!

Aeryn continues to LOVE going to school. She got to go on her first field trip last month to the fire house! She loved learning about the tools fire fighters use to do their jobs. She even got to watch them slide down the pole! After that, the kiddos got to eat lunch at the park and then come back to school. Daddy even got to take the day off and go with her! The best part, according to Aeryn, is getting to ride on the school bus!

Aeryn had a good time dancing at the halftime show of the PHS game following her dance clinic. She danced to the Flintstones Theme Song. Her age group got to shake hoops lined with blue mylar streamers. She was a little timid at first, but once she got started, she was the star of the show (but we may be a little biased)! She said it was a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it again someday!

We went camping near Garner State Park in Concan, Texas last month. Aeryn did a great job on the car trip this year. She really enjoyed watching the scenery change as we travelled the 4 hours to the cabin. Of course, having videos to watch and books to read helped with that quite a bit! Aeryn loved playing with her cousins in the great outdoors! She had the best time taking walks with any adult she could get to go with her! Playing in the freezing cold river was another high point of the trip. She asks at least once a week when we’re going to get together and go camping again!

October means Halloween and Halloween means costumes! This year, Aeryn decided to be a Princess and Derek was her Frog Prince. They made the cutest pair! We took them to the nursing home, as always, and the kids did a great job. We’d been talking to Aeryn a lot about how the people there are Grannies and Granddads who might be missing their own grandchildren and ask for hugs (and sometimes kisses). In years past, Aeryn has gotten a little scared when one of the residents would try to hold her hand or hug her. This year, you could tell she was hesitant, but when asked to give a hug, she threw her arms around the little lady and let herself be hugged tightly! We’re so proud of her for spending a few minutes making someone else’s life just a little brighter!

Once we got back to Gramma and Papa’s house, she had a blast handing out candy with Papa. They had a good time handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters! When we went to leave, we found that someone had stolen the giant pumpkin from their front entry way. Aeryn insisted that we take one of our pumpkins over to Gramma and Papa’s house the next day so that we could share with them. Her heart is so big and she is so giving (well, maybe not when it comes to her brother and sharing her toys, but even then she does a pretty good job)!

The day after Halloween we went to a hot dog roast at Oma and Poppa’s house. Aeryn had a great time playing with her cousins and getting attention from her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. She reports that playing in the sand pile with Maggie was her favorite part of the day!

She still asks about her “old school” teachers and friends, but tells us she loves her new teachers and friends so much! She’s picking up so much and is having so much fun! It’s hard to believe that she’s going to be in kindergarten next year. It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny baby that fit in the space between your finger tips and the crook of your elbow. No longer! At nearly 4 feet tall (just a couple inches shy), she’s not our baby any more! She’s becoming such a sweet young lady, though, and we are so proud that she is our daughter!

Derek's 23 Month Update

2008-09-06T07:39:00.000-05:00

Two is looming nearer every day and Derek is letting us know that he is ready! He is knocking at the door of the terrible twos and is proud to do so.

Mom went back to work this month, so Derek started staying at Maga and Papa’s house. Maga, by the way, Derek now calls Babu unless he’s angry or impatient (which is most of the time) and then he calls her Amma (like Gramma). He LOVES getting to hang out with them during the day and go on lots of fun adventures. We started him in a Mother’s Day Out program at a nearby childcare center, but the hours didn’t work with Derek’s schedule and he was very unhappy. Amma and Papa suggested keeping him at their house full time during the week, so he is in seventh heaven these days!

Derek has started to show interest in Dinah and Rusty lately. He wants to talk to them and pet them and treats them very gently. Rusty was probably happier when all Derek wanted to do is feed him crackers, but this new arrangement is nice too Rusty loves getting petted and talked to by Derek!

Although his vocabulary continues to improve, Derek is entering that stage of being two so he is doing a lot of yelling and fit throwing. So far it is working to just leave the room, but we are hoping to move through this phase of development as quickly as possible.

Derek has started sleeping in his big boy bed for naps and at night. We moved Aeryn’s toddler bed into Derek’s room when she got a new bed for her birthday. He doesn’t seem to sleep any better or worse on it and sleep is still going well, so we’re excited! (And won’t say any more for fear we’ll jinx the good stuff that’s going on sleep-wise)

Derek has a favorite book about a truck that gets stuck in the mud. He asks you to read it to him a million times a day and then will spend a long time reading it to himself. He loves yelling BEEP BEEP and HONK HONK. You’ll hear him yelling HELP HELP and come to see what’s the matter only to find that he’s reading his book and telling the story over and over.

Derek is in a fearless boy stage and wants to climb on EVERYTHING. It’s so cute to watch him try to reason out how to do it, but maddening when he is trying to climb to the top of something not meant for climbing.

He’s had a bit of a bug the past few weeks we think. He’s had some issues with his dirty diapers. We’re trying a variety of strategies to see if we can pinpoint the problem and get him good as new again. He doesn’t ever run fever or seem to have any other symptoms than a few loose and stinky diapers a day, so we’re waiting it out and making some dietary changes as well.

Grapes are Derek’s favorite food. He’d eat his weight in them every day if we’d let him. Of course, this was likely adding to his intestinal problems, so we’re really limiting his intake which really makes him mad. Oh, the plight of a toddler!

He still idolizes Aeryn and attempts to do everything she does. Now that she’s in school and learning lots of new songs, he’s fascinated with all the things she does and follows her around. Until she touches anything, of course, and then he starts a screaming “mine mine mine” tantrum. OH the JOYS of toddlerhood!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Name pictures in books

· Identify their own body parts

· Like puzzles

· Walk down stairs unassisted

Aeryn's 50 Month Update

2008-09-06T07:37:00.000-05:00

This month has been all about school. Aeryn got to pick a lunch bag and backpack as well as get all sorts of new school clothes. Gone are the short shorts and tank tops replaced by Bermuda shorts, tshirts, and pretty new dresses. She loves getting to pick out her own clothes and get herself dressed in the mornings. She’s still not a morning person, but she is much easier to get moving this year than she was last year.

She still talks about how she misses her daycare and wishes all her friends and teachers could come with her to her new school. But mostly, she just talks about her new school and how much she LOVES it! The teachers report that she does well and always does good listening so we are proud that she really does know how to make good choices, even if she doesn’t when she’s at home!

Her new school is a few miles from our house and Gramma’s house and right up the street from mom’s new school. Gramma and Papa drop her off at about 7:30 each morning and dad picks her up around 4:30 each day (Mom is currently working 7-5 in her classroom because of a staffing shortage). She loves centers (especially dressing up in the home center), playing outside, and circle time. She has picked up on all sorts of attention signals and is constantly trying them out at home.

It is so much fun to see her so excited about her new school and new friends. She’s made fast friends with her classmates. Of course, she also has little spats with them and will tell us she’s not friends with one of them anymore, but she changes her mind by the end of the sentence and says she wants to be friends with them again. Oh the fickle nature of a preschooler!

She’s really starting to be able to write her name now. She’s had the A down for a really long time and all of a sudden the other letters are following along. She is so proud of herself as well she should be!

Aeryn has loved getting to play with cousins Maggie, Fox, and Mason at Oma and Poppa’s house. Aeryn and Maggie are thick as thieves when they are together and we all know we’re in for big trouble (and lots of fun) as the two of them get older!

Our only illness this month is a spot of impetigo AND ringworm on her leg that she apparently got from a scratch she got while playing outdoors last week. The poor girl got both infections in the same spot, so we’re applying two different types of cream to it so both will clear up quickly!

This weekend, she’s going to a dance clinic put on by the high school dance team. We can’t wait to share the details of how it goes with everyone! Because she’s doing this dance clinic, she can participate in a half time show at one of the PHS football games. We’ll let everyone know the date and time of the game so anyone local who wants to come can see her dance on the field (if she doesn’t decide to be too shy at the last minute)!

Derek's 22 Month Update

2008-09-06T07:34:00.000-05:00

Derek is growing taller with every blink of an eye. It’s hard to believe he’ll be two so soon!

This month’s big adventure was a trip to San Antonio! We went to several places and had a lot of fun. It was a great way to end our summer before Mom heads back to work!

We visited the Alamo, Sea World, and the San Antonio Zoo! Derek loved riding on the train at the zoo and playing in the Water at Sea World! When we went to the Alamo and Riverwalk, the boat ride was definitely his favorite part!

Derek continues to be fascinated with the potty. He has used it twice so we are very excited that he is taking the first steps towards potty training! He loves to stand outside the door and yell “clap clap” when you come out so we can all clap together and celebrate that anyone has used the potty. The only problem is that it really sounds like Derek is yelling “crap crap!”

His vocabulary and ability to string words together gets more amazing day by day. He is much more able to clearly communicate with us and that makes everyone happy. There’s a lot less screaming when we understand what he wants!

Sleep is an ever changing process, but we’re making serious progress. Derek is going to bed more easily and stays asleep for most nights. He is somewhat a night owl and would rather stay up late and sleep in, but we’re slowly switching him back to a regular routine for the start of school.

Derek will bring us book after book to read to him. And if you can’t read anymore he’s content to sit and read to himself for about ten or fifteen minutes. It is so much fun to watch him reading to himself. He always cracks himself up and ends up rolling on the floor in the giggles every time.

Singing is still a big hit with Derek. If you’re happy and you know it tops the playlist, but he’ll do handmotions with a lot of other songs now, too.

Of course, being outside and getting dirty are still two of his favorite activities. He never seems to tire of either! He has gotten so much better in the pool too. He’s using arm floaties instead of a ring and is figuring out how to paddle himself around with his arms and legs. He doesn’t really like to get his head under water, but will tolerate a little. He does his best swimming away from others when there aren’t waves splashing up over his mouth and face.

He loves watching Cyber Chase and will request it over and over. Dora and Elmo are still huge hits as well. He will stare with rapt attention at the TV for awhile and then always moves on to building, destroying, and otherwise playing. He loves when there is music and dancing on the TV and will often stop to join in while a song is playing.

Of course, he wants to imitate everything Aeryn does which is great in so many ways and maddening in others because he gets really frustrated when he can’t do what she does. He loves getting attention from her and she loves giving it to him!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Follow two step directions

· Imitate others behavior

· Show go

· Like puzzles

· Identify several part of body

· Walk down stairs with some assistance

· Form short but complete and understandable sentences

· Open and close doors

· Pretend to help toys; imitates, such as feeding a doll

· Know when something is wrong

· Run well

· Enjoy helping with things around the house

Aeryn's 49 Month Update

2008-09-06T07:33:00.000-05:00

Our big adventure for the month was visiting San Antonio for four days at the end of July! We went to the Riverwalk, the Alamo, Sea World, and the San Antonio Zoo. Not only that, but we got to stay in a hotel, too! Aeryn had a blast with Derek and Brandy and Spencer! Mom, Dad, Gramma, and Papa were fun too, but not so much as the other kids, of course!

The Alamo, not surprisingly, didn’t really hold Aeryn’s interest. She did enjoy the hospital area and some of the other displays. The big fountain was also a hit, although she was mad she couldn’t swim in it!

At the riverwalk, she wasn’t really impressed until we got to go on the boat tour. Of course, Aeryn wasn’t really interested in the history, the landmarks, or even the scenery but getting to ride on a boat was really cool!

Swimming in the hotel pool was definitely a highlight of the first day. She loved splashing and playing and playing one two three kaboom! (she counts and jumps off the ladder into the water).

On the second day, we went to the zoo. She was fascinated by all of the animals she saw. The hippos held her attention for the longest time. She loved watching them swimming in the water. At the end of our zoo trip, we got to ride on the train. She thought that was a really great experience and asked if we could ride it again several times while we were in San Antonio.

The next two days were spent at SeaWorld. The first day we hit the shows and exhibits and the second day we spent in the water park areas. We sat way down in front for the Shamu show, so we all ended up SOAKED. Aeryn thought it was great until the water actually hit us. Apparently, they keep the water at like 58 degrees. BRR! After it was over and she warmed up, she went back to talking about it like she had fun. At the sea lion and sea otter show, we again got SOAKED. She loved the show and thought that the animals’ antics were hysterical. She, like her cousins, came home to reenact that show in the pool! She also rode a teacups ride, the ferris wheel, and a small roller coaster with Brandy. They had great fun riding on the rides alone together even if standing in line wasn’t their idea of a good time. They did a great job, though, and were extremely patient! We rode the lazy river a couple times and then moved on to the wave pool. They had a great time tromping through the water and splashing and swimming around for the day.

At the end of the fourth day, she was all tuckered out and slept most of the way home. It was a fabulous end to a great summer and we’re so glad to have had the opportunity to give her those experiences. Soon she’ll be starting school and we’ll have so many more adventures to share!

Derek's 21 Month Update

2008-07-18T07:31:00.000-05:00

Derek is definitely a boy of summer! He loves the outdoors and anything rough and tumble he can do! He continues to be fearless and wants to test the limits constantly.

This month, he has been rather obsessed with the potty. Although he sits on it every now and again (with no results so far), he is obsessed for a totally different reason. He has decided it’s really cool to throw things in the potty, play with the toilet brush, and try to drink out of it. He’s even stood in it a time or two. We are all too aware of how DISGUSTING this is, so don’t worry we’re trying to break him of this habit as quickly as possible!

Derek is talking all the time now. He’s stringing words together to make sentences and his vocabulary is expanding by the hour. He still signs a few things consistently, but for the most part has taken to using words to ask for things. Of course, he thinks pointing and screaming is still a great way to communicate, but we’re slowly breaking him of that habit. This is another one we’re trying to get past as quickly as possible. Our ears can’t take much more of that phase!

Sleep is still a roller coaster, but for the most part is really good. He’s sleeping through the night or with a single wake up most of the time. We think he’s working on some molars, so that may be the cause of the occasional sleep disturbances we see.

Books are Derek’s favorite indoor activity still. He reads to himself for twenty or so minutes at a time and then will ask you to read to him and sit for another half hour while you read to him.

He also loves singing and dancing. He isn’t to the point that he really sings whole songs yet, but he loves the hand motions and will sing parts of lots of songs. The wheels on eth bus, the itsy bitsy spider, and if you’re happy and you know it are his most requested songs right now!

Derek had a great time playing with his cousins at Mason’s first birthday party. There were other kids, bubbles, chalk, a wagon, hot dogs, and cake what more could a little boy ask for?! It is always a lot of fun to get the cousins together since they’re all so close in age! Derek has enjoyed having Cousins Brandy and Spencer to spend time with, too, although they’re so much older that he doesn’t interact with them as much.

Derek was all over at Aunt Jill and Uncle Brian’s wedding. He loved that it was outdoors and tried to explore all over the grounds and was most displeased he couldn’t do it even during the middle of the ceremony. He got to run and play and dance (and eat cake), so it was a great day to him!

Derek loves swimming and playing in the sprinkler and anything else that involves water. If you can add some dirt so he has mud, he’s even happier. Derek is 100% boy and we love watching him grow. He is so different from his sister and it’s so much fun to see how they approach new activities. We can’t wait to share the next month with you and hope all is well!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Take off clothes with some help

· Pretend to help toys; imitates, such as feeding a doll

· Know when something is wrong

· Run well

· Say 20 to 50 words

· Enjoy helping with things around the house

· Show better signs of bladder control

· Walk up and down stairs with some assistance

Aeryn's 48 Month Update

2008-07-18T07:30:00.000-05:00

It seems like so much has happened in the last month. We’re probably leaving some of it out, but we’ll do our best to remember everything. Summer has been an exciting time this year and we (mostly) love it!

At the beginning of the month, Daddy and Papa took Aeryn to a Kidfish event at Pflugerville Lake. From the Pflugerville website, here is some information about the event:

The KIDFISH Foundation is an outreach program designed to educate and provide a hands on fishing experiences for children across America. During KIDFISH, children participate in a KIDFISH College presentation teaching them about fishing, conservation, and respect for anglers. Children will receive a “Bachelor of Angling” Degree and are then allowed to fish. KIDFISH generously stocks the ponds prior to fishing to increase the odds of memorable fishing experience. Everything your child needs to catch fish (i.e. Rod, reel, bait, tackle) will be provided on a first come, first serve basis to those who need it. The event is free, although donations are accepted to support the community fishing outreach efforts of the KIDFISH Foundation.

Aeryn caught a half dozen or so fish and had a great time. Thanks to Papa, she even got a trophy! She loved getting to fish and had a great time going on an outing with “the guys!” She says she can’t wait to go fishing again. It’s not quite the same as getting to fish in Maga and Papa’s backyard, but its fun all the same!

Next on our busy social calendar was Cousin Mason’s first birthday party! We had a great time going to see his new house and getting to play at his party. Aeryn says we shouldn’t call him baby Mason anymore it’s time to call him BIG BOY Mason! She’s right, but these kids just keep growing up too quickly!

Aeryn got to be a flower girl along with her cousin Maggie at Aunt Jill and Uncle Brian’s wedding this month. She took the job very seriously when she decided that the flower petals were to show Poppa and Aunt Jill how to get to Uncle Brian. She didn’t want them to get lost, so she said she’d do her best job. When the ceremony was over, she started picking up petals as she went back down the aisle. She really took her job seriously! She had so much fun dancing and playing and running around at the wedding. This is definitely something Aeryn will have fond memories of all her life she got to feel special like a princess (But, mom, Aunt Jill is the real princess since she’s getting married) and spend the day with people who love her who could ask for anything more?

Uncle Steve’s kids have come to spend most of the summer with Maga and Papa. Aeryn really enjoys attention from Cousin Spencer and getting to play with Cousin Brandy. Aeryn and Brandy have become fast friends and are constantly into something when they get together!

Our latest “adventure” was the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy Aeryn had last week. She went through the procedure with flying colors and did a great job. She had some problems with vomiting in the hospital, but thankfully some medication did the trick to get her feeling less nauseous. She spent the night in the hospital so they could observe her and make sure she was adequately hydrated. She has been more able to eat and drink than either mom or dad were following their surgeries and for that we are extremely grateful. Sometimes, if it weren’t for the whining and the circles under her eyes, you’d never know she was sick! The second week has been a lot harder for her so far. She’s experiencing a lot more pain and complaining of it. She’s still not eating much, but has been drinking plenty, so at least we don’t have to worry about dehydration! Thank goodness for the pain medication, it seems to be helping her significantly if only it were easy to get her to take it! She really hates to take medication and especially when her throat is hurting.

The update is a little late because we wanted to be able to update on Aeryn’s progress. She saw the ENT earlier this week and he cleared her for all activity. He says she’s healing remarkably well and can go back to a regular diet and routine. She has to go back in 6 months to make sure the last tube has come out and her eardrum is healed. To add insult to injury, she had her 4 year check up this morning. She got 4 shots which she didn’t care for at all, but did a great job all the same. She is now 40 pounds (75-90th percentile) and 42.25 inches tall (95th percentile).

Aeryn’s birthday was this month, but her party isn’t until tomorrow so she can enjoy herself. It’s hard to believe that it was 4 years ago she was a six pound baby that practically fit in the palm of your hand. It has also been four years since Andrew was with us. Not a day goes by that we don’t talk about him and although we still miss him terribly, we are so glad to have the treasured memories and time that we had with him.

We have one month of summer left and we can’t wait to share our adventures with you!

Derek's 20 Month Update

2008-06-20T07:28:00.000-05:00

Derek finally had his 18 month well check this month. He now weighs 27 lbs 12 ounces (68%ile), 32 inches tall (26%ile), and his head measures a whopping 49.5 cm (86%ile). He has hit the typical toddler “out phase” where he’s developed a big round belly and is just starting to grow into it. It seems he’s growing taller every night in his sleep. He just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We wish he’d slow down just a little. We’re not ready for both kids to be so big already!

Sleep continues to improve around here. He’s pretty regularly sleeping through the night these days. He’s struggling with nap time at home (believing he doesn’t need one), but we know he napped easily at school, so we hope this transition is over soon and everything comes together in regards to sleep – this is one kid who gets super cranky when he doesn’t have enough rest!

Derek is practicing his communication all the time these days. He loves singing, talking, repeating phrases, pointing things out, and is getting much better at telling us things he wants. You can remind him to use his words and nine times out of ten, he’ll stop screaming and use words (or his version) to tell you what he wants. It’s so nice for him to be able to tell us what he wants. It definitely cuts down on EVERYONE’S frustration levels!

Our little daredevil is quite fearless, it seems. From crawling under the picnic table in the house (where he currently is sitting, yelling Stuck! Stuck!) to running around the church hall at daddy’s cousins’ graduation party (where he fell or bumped into things no less than 4 times), he never stops for long. He loves chasing bugs outside and climbing anything that will be still long enough for him to step on. We certainly have our hands full with this kid!

Derek loves books. He has recently started asking us to read to him all the time. He has a few favorite books (My truck is stuck and Dora at the Beach), but he will bring them by the armful if you’ll sit and read them to him. He laughs and points at pictures and names all kinds of things in the stories.

The little stinker still refuses to make animal noises, though. Every animal you ask him about, he will tell you says “moo” – no matter how much coaxing or prompting you do. If he’s sitting by himself and looking at a book, he will point to the animals and make all of the correct sounds. He just refuses to do it for Mama!

Derek’s new love this month has become the Teletubbies. He can’t get enough of the bubbies. The poor kid is so incensed that we won’t let him watch TV all day every day. He will sit mesmerized and watch an entire show. This is good news for Mama who does like to get in a shower in the mornings while knowing that Derek the daredevil won’t be trying to climb out any dog doors or other crazy things!

Learning from his sister, apparently, Derek has become quite independent. He will often refuse our help and then scream and yell when he can’t do something himself. Luckily, he will often accept Aeryn’s help even after refusing to let mom and dad do something. This probably helps keep us all sane!

We’re looking forward to an exciting and adventure filled summer and can’t wait for next month to fill you in on all the details! Hope everyone is having a good time in the sunshine!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Runs
Enjoys climbing
Understands some sentences
Points to nose, eyes and mouth
Walks while carrying toys
Says at least 15 words besides "ma-ma" and "da-da"
Feeds self with a spoon or fork
Begins to join words
Bends over easily to pick up toys
Gains some control over bowel and bladder
Enjoys small riding toys
Shows a preference for certain toys
Finds it difficult to share
Explores away from caregivers

Aeryn's 47 Month Update

2008-06-08T07:29:00.000-05:00

Summer is here and Aeryn couldn’t be more excited! She loves being outside and will spend as much time as you’ll let her outdoors each day. The sandbox, swing set, pool, and her bike top the list of things she wants to play with, but truthfully, she’d run circles in the back yard quite happily if there was nothing else to do! She’s becoming quite a “swimmer” with her arm floats. We’re planning on having her take swim lessons this summer if we can find a class that fits in with our schedules this summer.

Aeryn had her 1 year post-op check up with the ENT this month. It is hard to believe we’ve gone an entire year without a single ear infection! The doctor removed the right tube because it was almost completely out (totally normal). The left one is still firmly in her ear, so it stays for now. Unfortunately, the doctor feels that her tonsils (which touch each other in the back of her throat) have gotten to a point that we need to have them removed. Aeryn snores nightly and is having several episodes of apnea each night, so we definitely agree that this is an important thing to have taken care of. On June 30th, Aeryn will go to the children’s hospital to have them removed. The doctor says she’ll be admitted and spend the night in the hospital due to her age. We’re doing our best to prepare her for the procedure, but it’s hard to know what she understands. What she DOES understand is that she’s going to get to eat all the ice cream and popsicles she can tolerate!

We’re working on learning about “grown up” words. Every once in awhile she’ll repeat one (which usually means we’re stifling hysterical laughter), but totally in context. One day a few weeks ago she dropped her cup and blurted out “oh, shit!” We talked about how that was a grown up word and that she needed to find something else to say instead. She settled on “oh, pickles!” (which is what one of her favorite characters says on Higglytown Heroes). A few days later, she dropped something in the playroom. She shouted “oh pickles!” and then came running out into the living room. She very triumphantly tells me, “Mom! Mom! I did it! I didn’t say oh, shit anymore! After praising her for her good choice of words we had to practically run out of the room so she wouldn’t think we were laughing at her!

She continues to be the best big sister ever. She is (generally) super patient with Derek and loves helping him learn new things. When he falls asleep, she will stroke his forehead and give him tender kisses. She holds his hand and tells him its okay when he’s crying. Her patience and ability to include him in her play is incredible and we feel so blessed to have such a kind and gentle child. On the other hand, Aeryn also loves asserting her independence. She is an adept tantrum thrower, but can usually be redirected fairly easily to a different activity. We’re just lucky that her sweet nature appears more often than her grouchy side!

The end of the school year was bittersweet this year. We are all very sad to be leaving Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian who have taken incredible care of Aeryn for the past several years. Aeryn has been enrolled into a special program in Pflugerville for 3-5 year olds. She’ll be participating in a preschool program at one of the elementary schools. The program is designed as an inclusion model for children with disabilities. She will be one of 10 “role model” children in a classroom with 6 children with disabilities. She’ll benefit from having a full pre-k curriculum. There will be 4 teachers in the classroom with the kids. We’re very excited to have this opportunity for Aeryn. She will definitely thrive in this environment and definitely be ready for kindergarten the following year. This program, called Pegasus, is what mom will be teaching. Aeryn will not be in mom’s class, so she will be at another campus in the district. The following year, when she does go to kinder, she will go to her home school which also happens to be where mom will be teaching! It’s a win-win situation, but we hate that we can’t bring Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian with us!

Derek's 19 Month Update

2008-05-17T07:27:00.000-05:00

Another month has gone by and Derek has grown older and possibly wiser but definitely bigger! This kid is growing and changing so fast that we’re afraid that if we blink twice, he’ll be a teenager!

At least for Mommy, one of the most exciting changes in the past month is Derek’s sleep habits. Except for a brief period before and after he was sick, he pretty routinely goes to bed at normal time and wakes maybe once in the night (and usually that is between 3:30 and 4:30)! It felt like this would never get here and now that we’ve had a chance to sleep again, we’re pretty excited to have a little more energy to keep up with the little daredevil!

Derek is communicating more and more with us each day. He picks up so many words and uses them appropriately. He still generally uses one and two word phrases, but will occasionally string a few more together. He has a funny habit of making a series of noises (in a very serious tone) as if he’s creating a sentence and then using a recognizable word at the end. For instance (and it does no justice on paper), “got-to-got-to-got-to-got-to-BATH!” He continues to like to do things that he shouldn’t and then say what you would tell him while he does it. He is now able to crawl up on the couch and will stand up on it and tell us “sit down, please” while dancing around. It’s good that he’s cute or we’d probably be more exasperated by his shenanigans!

Derek has started to enjoy coloring and will bring us a masterpiece to admire every now and then. He’s also started bringing us play food and wanting us to pretend to eat it. It’s funny how much his play parallels the things Aeryn wants to do. Of course, his favorite activity is probably getting to play outside chasing balls, sliding, swinging, flinging sand in the sandbox, and generally running around like crazy are lots of fun!

This month, Derek had a viral infection which caused some blisters in the back of his throat. On op of that, he got double ear infections and an upper respitory infection. All of the illness prompted us (under the doctor’s advice) to put off his 18 month well check. We’re hoping he stays well for a bit longer so we can get it done soon!

We visited Babu and Poppa a few times this month and had a great time playing at their house. Derek really enjoys getting to visit with Cousin Mason and we can’t wait to have all of the cousins together this summer for Aunt Jill’s wedding. Babu even came to our house to take care of Derek while he was sick. Derek loves getting to be spoiled by his Babu, that’s for sure!

In other grandparent news, Maga and Papa made it here to their new house this month. We are so excited to have them nearby so we can visit much more often than twice a year!! Maga was even able to go with us on the daycare field trip to Ready, Set, Play last month. RSP is a giant place full of inflatable bounce houses, slides, and obstacle courses. Derek showed us that he is nearly fearless by climbing up the stairs to the top of the 18 foot slide and then sliding down all on his own. He probably did that 30 times. We’ll definitely be visiting it again as all the kids had an absolute blast!

Speaking of daycare, we’ve reached a bittersweet milestone. This is the last year the daycare will be on our campus. The new principal has decided not to continue the program on our campus due to a number of factors. Mom has been diligently working on other plans and is hopeful to have a plan for Derek by the end of next month.

We’re 3 weeks away from summer vacation and we couldn’t be more excited! We’re ready to have some time to run and play and just be lazy (hahaha)!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Feed self with spoon and fork

· Run well

· Brush teeth with help

· String more words together to make phrases or puts together pairs of words

· Know when something is wrong

· Say 20 to 50 words

· Form recognizable sentences (two or three words)

· Take off clothes

· Name several part of his or her body

Aeryn's 46 Month Update

2008-05-17T07:25:00.000-05:00

Topping the list of exciting events this month was the daycare field trip. We went to Ready, Set, Play with all of our daycare friends. At first, Aeryn was a little nervous about playing on any of the inflatable pieces, but once she and her friend got together, they were unstoppable. They did all of the obstacle courses (all inflated, of course) over and over again. The 18 foot slide she tackled a couple of times. Of course, she jumped in the bounce houses as well. It was a great way to spend a day with all of her friends and make some great memories. We’re hoping that now the daycare is closing, we’ll be able to have little reunion parties a few times a year so we can keep in touch with all of our friends! It looks like everyone will be all spread out next year and it is going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone especially Ms. Beverly and Ms. Lillian who have taken such good care of the kids all this time!

She had a wonderful time getting to visit Babu and Poppa’s house this month. She loves helping Aunt Jill bake dessert and playing outside with the myriad of toys at their house. She loves getting to visit them and spend time being spoiled by them. We’re so happy to have them close by so we’re able to give her the opportunity to spend lots of time with them! Equally exciting is that Maga and Papa moved here for good this month! Now we’re able to see them all the time as well. The kids are truly blessed to have so much family close by and to grow up with so many good memories! We love making more every day!

Aeryn’s imagination shows in everything she does. From her constant stream-of-conscious running commentary about her day (she seriously never stops talking) to the art work she creates, we’re always being treated to some new idea! Her imaginary daughter hasn’t been as prevalent in conversation lately, so we’re wondering if Aeryn’s past that stage.. Who knows with this kid!

Being outside is Aeryn’s favorite activity. She’s learning how to throw and catch a ball and actually is doing quite well. She doesn’t always want to practice and gets frustrated when she isn’t just good at something the first time she tries it, but that seems pretty typical (especially for this family)! She loves to swing and slide. We have some landscaping timbers in the backyard that she has laid out end to end and uses as a balance beam. She’s definitely ready for summer to be here. In just 3 short weeks, we’ll have all the time in the world to run around both in our backyard and at the park. And, of course, both grandparents have pools that we’ll likely spend a lot of time in this summer!

Plans for Aeryn next year are starting to come together. Yesterday, mom got a call offering her a teaching position at the elementary school where Aeryn will attend kindergarten in 2 years (about a half mile from our house). Because mom will be an employee, Aeryn will be eligible for their “daycare” program which involves utilizing staff children ages 3-5 as typically developing role models to 3-5 year olds with disabilities. It’s a wonderful program that we’re very excited Aeryn is going to have the chance to participate in next fall. In fact, Mom’s new job will be teaching in one of these classrooms. It will give her the opportunity to participate in a prekindergarten program and get her ready for kindergarten the following year. It’s hard to imagine that our little girl is almost going to “big girl school!”

Derek's 18 Month Update

2008-04-20T07:24:00.000-05:00

Derek is now 18 months old and undeniably in the throes of becoming a toddler. He is quite a little charmer and very charismatic these days.

Sleeping is a constant struggle, still. He’ll sleep through the night for a few days in a row and then suddenly go back to waking 3 or 4 times a night. Weather changes are likely to be a part of this as Derek is very warm natured and does not tolerate being warm when he sleeps so we often put him in pajamas based on the weather forecast, but if it doesn’t get that cold, he wakes up sweaty and aggravated. We’re hoping that once it becomes full time short jammies weather, we’ll see even more progress.

Derek has started talking even more than ever this past month. We don’t always (or even generally) know what he is saying, but he sure has a lot to say. He has started saying “Aww, man” when you tell him no (thanks to Swiper from Dora) which is almost too cute. He is stringing words together and using two or three together at a time, especially when asking for something. He suddenly started yelling nana for banana this past month which also started him pointing for things he wants while verbalizing it at the same time. He loves to yell my daddy or my mommy, especially when we’re out shopping. He talks to Aeryn a lot and she pretends to know what he is saying. Watching the two of them talk is really funny.

When Derek does something he knows he shouldn’t, he’ll grin really big and say what you would tell him. For instance, he loves to stand in the middle of Mama and Daddy’s bed and yell “sit down, please” and giggle over and over. Right now, he’s in the kitchen pulling the drawers out and slamming them shut. He’s yelling “Buddy. Buddy. No, buddy.” It’s good that he knows he shouldn’t be doing some things, it would just be nice if he would go ahead and not do them. (but isn’t this true of all kids??)

It’s amazing how different from his sister Derek is. She loved to learn animal sounds and sing songs and have books read to her, but lacked motor skills at this age to do puzzles. Derek, on the other hand, tells you that every animal says moo (even though we’re pretty sure he knows more sounds because he’ll point on his own to pictures of animals and make the correct sounds). He loves to sing songs, but prefers to read by himself. Every once in awhile, he will bring a book for us to read to him, but for the most part will sit in the playroom for a half hour or so reading to himself. Puzzles are Derek’s new favorite activity. He’s able to put big chunky pieces in on his own but still needs a little help if a piece needs rotating. Derek still enjoys taking things apart and dumping things out. Making a mess is still his favorite activity, but he’s started occasionally picking up after himself as well, so we are grateful for that small favor!

He loves being outside and exploring the backyard. Swinging and sliding are his two favorite activities, but he also enjoys finding rocks and bugs and other things to play with outside. There’s not a lot that slows Derek down or scares him, so we’re constantly on the run after him in open spaces. He definitely gives us a good work out, but we wouldn’t imagine it any other way. We can’t wait until summer gets here and Derek can spend more time outside getting to explore the great outdoors!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Draw a scribble well

· Run well

· Say at least 15 or 20 words

· Feed self with spoon

· String more words together to make phrases or puts together pairs of words

· Talk more clearly

· Take apart toys and sometimes puts them back together

· Climb out of high chair

· Understand two part directions

Aeryn's 45 Month Update

2008-04-20T07:22:00.000-05:00

Easter was a blast and Aeryn was really into egg hunting this year. She even stopped long enough to try to teach Derek how to do it, but soon tired of him being too slow and ran on to find her own eggs. She is still hiding eggs around the house and having us go search for them. She loves her ducky game that the bunny brought and has gotten pretty good at matching the shapes and colors. Turn taking still isn’t her strong suit, but we continue to work on that and she is definitely making great improvements!

Aeryn cleaned her room on her own this past month and without even being asked to do so. Just this morning, she cleaned the playroom all on her own. She was frustrated with Derek because he kept taking things out after she had put them away. It was hard not to laugh at her frustration since she often does this to us when we’re trying to clean up. We were so proud of her for doing all this picking up on her own. Just another indication that our little girl is growing up!

Aeryn is becoming a little more girly day by day. She is beginning to choose dresses and skirts over pants and shorts. She wants everything pink and purple. She lives in a world of princesses and castles and all things glittery.

At home, Aeryn tries to convince us she doesn’t need a rest time anymore, but her behavior tells us otherwise. Most days she plays quietly for an hour or so, but then will sleep for anywhere from an hour to two hours. You can definitely tell when she hasn’t gotten enough sleep because our sweet little girl becomes a screaming, fit throwing mess.

Over the past month or so, we’ve had regression in the area of pottying. She decided that it was okay for her to go in her pants because her cousin is still learning and has accidents. The logic doesn’t follow, so don’t even try to figure it out (we have and it still makes our heads hurt trying to make sense of it). At any rate, we’ve now gone nearly two weeks without an accident and we’re hoping that she’s decided to be a big girl again.

Aeryn has become acutely aware of emotions and spends a lot of time telling you how she is feeling. Today, she was very happy because the washer broke (well, that made me sad, mommy) but then we got a new one and now I am very happy. Never mind that all of this happened in January, she’s ecstatic about it today. She was feeling very sad earlier this week because no one would give her chocolate for dinner.

She continues to have never ending stories about her imaginary daughter and at times even has an imaginary baby that she talks about. It is sometimes hard to explain to strangers what she’s talking about when she tries to tell them about her daughter, but that adds to the comedy of the whole thing. She is really into relationships right now, so instead of talking about Babu (who she has started also calling Oma these days) she’ll say something about Daddy’s mom. It’s not Derek any more, it’s your son or my brother.

Aeryn is a constant ball of energy that never stops talking. If we had half the energy she did, we could keep up with both kids, run marathons, and make gourmet dinners every night after work. She’s an amazing little girl who isn’t so little anymore. She gets taller every month and looks less and less like our sweet baby girl and more like our big person. We laugh at how the doctors said she might always be so petite and short. It doesn’t look like that’s the case any more, that’s for sure!

Aeryn is thrilled because Papa and Maga move in less than two weeks. She is constantly busy making plans for the summer. First we’ll visit Papa and Maga’s house and then the next day we can go to Poppa and Oma’s house. Sometimes, she tells me, we can even stay at our house but we need to go to the park a lot too. Oh, and see our friends. And play in the backyard. And the list goes on and on.. She’s developing quite the little social calendar! We’ll have to see if we can keep up with her! Just 8 more weeks until summer vacation and we’re so excited!!

Derek's 17 Month Update

2008-03-11T07:24:00.000-05:00

Derek has caught the growing up syndrome. He definitely no longer looks like a baby and now he is starting to not even look like a toddler. He’s becoming a big boy much too quickly! Something must be done to stop this madness!!

Our only illness this month was an ear infection, and we’re glad that Derek got over it fairly quickly. We’re hoping that warm weather will soon be here to stay so the kids won’t have faucet noses any longer. The poor kids just can’t seem to catch a break with the constant weather changes!

Prior to his ear infection, Derek had started sleeping through the night or only waking once. Now he’s up 2-4 times again, but for shorter and shorter periods, so we’re hoping to having him back to a good routine very soon. He’s become such a snuggler when he does come to nurse at night that it almost makes up for the fact that he’s making mom get up at awful hours of the night!

The word of the month is “applesauce.” Derek loves to holler applesauce as loud as he can over and over. He thinks he’s so hysterical. Probably because he is! He is starting to mimic all sorts of things we say and use new words for everything. He calls Rusty “no no no” because we tell the dog no no when he starts barking. So Derek will stop to share a cracker with Rusty and call out no no no to get his attention. It’s just so cute! He says please when he signs it now, but continues to only sign thank you without any verbalizations. He’s working on the signs for mom and dad, but probably doesn’t really need them since he can shriek both names repeatedly whenever he feels like it, which is generally quite often. Speaking of names, he knows his own but frequently refuses to listen when you call it. We know he hears us because many times he’ll grin, but keeps right on doing whatever it is he is doing which is likely something he isn’t supposed to be doing.

Singing and dancing are two of Derek’s favorite activities. His favorite song is definitely “If you’re happy and you know it.” He will act out all of the motions with you when you sing it. He grins and sings and claps and has a grand old time! His other favorite activity is probably making a mess. He loves to dump things out and throw things around and generally create as much havoc as possible. And then, suddenly, he’ll sit for an hour or more “reading” his books or bringing them to you to read. He’s such a complicated character, this kid. And half the fun is trying to figure him out! Of course, sometimes it’s just trying, but the same can be said for all kids, we’re sure!

Derek is done with teething save for his 2 year molars. We’re almost ready to throw a party, this is such great news! No more cranky, droolie, nonsleepy pants at our house. Now we can have a real boy! We know how excited Gepetto must have felt!

He is really using a spoon well these days. Of course, he often opts to hold the spoon in one hand and feed himself with the other, but one of these days it’s going to all come together and we’ll stop having to practically bathe him after every meal! He continues to be a good eater, both in quantity and variety. There is very little he doesn’t like and nothing that he won’t try. He wants to try everything you have, whether it’s something he can have or not. And he gets very indignant when you don’t share with him.

Derek celebrates everything. Each small victory requires dancing and clapping and much hoopla (another word he really likes to yell). If only we could all remember to celebrate the little things just as much as the big things. Until next month, we hope each of you do just that!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Start to climb and explore

· Respond to simple directions

· Enjoy certain games

· Like to ride toys

· Run well

· Uses certain words regularly

· Talk more clearly

· Kick ball in forward direction

· Like to sort toys

· String more words together to make phrases or puts together pairs of words

· Brush teeth with help

Aeryn's 44 Month Update

2008-03-11T07:21:00.000-05:00

Time has surely been flying these past few weeks. It is amazing to think of how the months are passing and our little girl is getting so big. It sounds so contrived to say, but it’s the honest truth. We just don’t know where our little girl has gone and how this big child got here. Surely she is growing too quickly! There must be a cure for this somewhere!

Aeryn has become an independent dresser lately. She often needs a little assistance here and there, but for the most part she can put her clothes on by herself. This is good because mom had visions of having to go to middle school gym class every day to help Aeryn dress out for PE if she didn’t learn soon! More likely, Aeryn has been able to do it for quite awhile on her own, but has let us do it in the mornings because we’re usually pressed for time. Aeryn will often choose the easy way (letting us help her) until she decides it’s time for her to do it all by herself. Of course, “all by herself” means lots of tantrums when she reaches a hurdle, but at the end of the road, she will be able to do it on her own, so we encourage her as much as possible.

Her speech is becoming clearer and clearer. We are sad that some of the little phrases are no longer in use. No longer do we say “puddie” now, we eat pudding for dessert. Strawbystrobbies are now known as strawberries. We drink chocolate milk instead of chocky mook. Popcorn is consumed rather than pawquan. She even says firefighter instead of “tire-tire” now. The progress is amazing and we’re so proud of her for coming along so quickly. But those nuances of toddlerhood keep disappearing and it is a little bittersweet.

Her favorite TV show is Cyber Chase (a really neat cartoon about math on PBS). It’s above her head conceptually, but Aeryn watches it with rapt attention. Looks like our beauty queen has brains too! She also loves watching full movies these days. She has watched Stuart Little about a half dozen times in the past few weeks. She has a Care Bears movie she got for her 2nd birthday that she watches over and over all of a sudden. She talks about the characters all of the time. In fact, she often relates things going on in the “real world” to things that have happened in the shows she likes to watch. It is amazing how her little brain processes all of these things.

Valentine’s Day was this month, but unfortunately we have no pictures this year. Mom got stuck in a meeting and missed the party at daycare (she still feels guilty about this even though Aeryn assures her it’s no big deal). Easter is coming and Mom promises to do better!

The weather has finally started getting warmer a day or two at a time, so she has been able to get back outside. She can now swing herself, although she will still ask for a starter push and try to sucker you into pushing her the whole time. She loves to make up games in the backyard and encourage Derek to play with her.

We had hoped that the fit throwing was part of the terrible twos and long gone, but they have resurfaced. They are more hysterical and maddening than ever complete with foot stomping and wild gyrations of the head and arms. Pouting is another favorite activity of our sweet little Aeryn. It really is a spectacle. Thank goodness she generally saves it for her home audience and not when we’re out in public.

Aeryn is such an amazing big sister. She nurtures and “teaches” Derek every chance she gets and has such a good time playing with him. He doesn’t always get her games and can’t always keep up with her, but she never minds. The two of them often have their heads together, giggling, in a corner of the room when they’re together. Dangerous times are ahead but filled with so much joy and laughter!

Derek's 16 Month Update

2008-03-11T07:16:00.001-05:00

Another month has flown by in the Beck house. Derek is growing by leaps and bounds and sometimes it seems nearly impossible to keep up with him!

Maga and Papa came back to town and closed on their house. In just a few more months they’ll be here for good. Of course, Derek doesn’t really understand all of that, but he had a great time with all the attention he got while they were here. We are all looking forward to having Maga and Papa here all year long. It’s going to be so nice for Derek to get to spend as much time as he wants with both sets of grandparents!

Derek had a cold this month, so we took him in to see the doctor. He’s now up to just over 26 pounds. Our little piggy is quite the oinker. It’s no surprise that he weighs that much seeing as he’s constantly asking to eat. He never turns down a snack or meal and there’s very little he won’t try.

We finished converting the computer room into a playroom. Derek loves having a place to play and we love having the mess contained. Derek likes to spread things out in as many square feet as possible, so having four walls to contain him in (rather than all over the living room and every room attached to it) has made a huge difference!

We’re also nearly finished converting the guest room into Derek’s room. He’s been sleeping in there for about two weeks with some success. Before the move, he had been sleeping through the night for several nights out of the week. Now, we’re finally improved to the point that he’s only up about twice a night. For a bit in the middle, he was up every hour. Sleep has been an elusive and ongoing battle with Derek since the beginning, so this chapter is not new although it continues to be frustrating.

Derek’s vocabulary is growing daily. His favorite word is definitely “bye!” He will shout it as often as possible to anyone who will listen. He also has taken to the word Waba (water bottle.. a word that we’ve used since Aeryn was about his age) and goes around asking for his Waba all the time. He still signs please and milk as well as thank you quite frequently. He hasn’t mastered any other signs yet, but we’re showing him new ones all the time.

It is hard to tell if Derek has cut any more teeth, but when he opens his mouth, it’s certainly full of white. There doesn’t seem room for many more, so we’re hoping he’s nearly done with the teething. This should surely help with the sleeping through the night.

Derek has become a climber. He still can’t get up on the couch, but that is sure to change soon. He climbs on any surface he can get on the little picnic table in the playroom, step stools, toys, and probably the pets if they’d stand still long enough.

Just today, Mama heard Derek’s voice coming from what sounded like far away. Daddy went to check.. And sure enough, the little escape artist had crawled out the doggie door. He was on the back patio rocking on the rocking horse and singing like he was in heaven. We’ve definitely got our hands full with this one. And we couldn’t be having more fun trying to keep up with him!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

· Turn pages of a book when you read

· Walk well

· Sing and like to sing

· Get upset when frustrated

· Walk backwards

· Start to climb and explore

· Help around the house

· Dance to music

· Trot and prance around

Aeryn's 43 Month Update

2008-03-11T07:16:00.000-05:00

Our baby girl is far from a baby these days and it is getting harder to remember that she was ever a tiny newborn at all! She is as beautiful as ever and just keeps getting more so every single day!

At home, Aeryn spends much of her time drawing, coloring, cutting, and gluing at her new desk. That has definitely been one of her very favorite gifts. Her imagination runs wild whenever she sits down to create a new masterpiece!

Never one to be like everyone else, Aeryn has developed an imaginary counterpart. Nay, our child does not have an imaginary friend! Instead, she has an imaginary daughter. She loves to tell you about how her daughter is being disciplined because of bad choices she makes. Her daughter at any time of the day lives in a different part of the world. She is full of stories about her daughter (whose name changes almost as often as where she lives) which keep us all in laughter.

Aeryn has become quite a helper around the house. She will assist with laundry, dishes, and picking up around the house. The catch is that it has to be her idea. If she wants to help then she is a super cleaner, but if you ask her to pick something up, you would think the world was about to end. We are sure that this behavior will only continue and perhaps even worsen- as we approach those terrifying teen years. Thank goodness we have many more years before those get here!

She’s still ear infection free since having the tubes put in and for that we are exceedingly grateful. Aeryn’s speech has started to improve as well and we are hopeful that all of her difficulties are developmental and not because of any hearing difficulties. She still has a little of a lisp and confuses some sounds, but she is becoming more and more intelligible each day. Good thing, too, since she never seems to quit talking!

Aeryn is getting better about going to bed on her own. She still gets walked back to her room and then will play for a bit (usually at her desk), read a book, and then go to sleep. In the early months, we thought it would be impossible that we’d ever get here. Now, here we are and we can’t believe it. We almost miss our little Aeryn, but the level of independence and pride she shows about everything she does makes us excited to see the next thing she conquers.

While she once wanted everything to happen in two minutes (I go to bed in two minutes. We eat lunch in two minutes, etc etc which likely was her interpretation of “a few minutes”), now everything is five minutes. If you tell her that bedtime is in 10 minutes she will yell and scream and say, NO! IN FIVE minutes. So, bed and brushing teeth, bathing, eating, and watching a movie/tv are all done in “five” minute increments according to Aeryn.

She continues to refer to everything in the past as last week or two weeks ago. Even if it happened earlier during the day, sometimes. It’s so fascinating to watch her language develop as she tries out new phrases and concepts. She never ceases to amaze us with how she assimilates words and phrases that we use (and even tone of voice) into her own vocabulary so quickly!

Aeryn continues to be our little fireball and there’s no chance that’s going to change any time soon. We often wonder what in the world we’ve gotten ourselves into, but one sweet smile and an “I love you, Mommy and Daddy” and we’re once again convinced this is the best thing we’ve ever done.

Derek's 15 Month Update

2008-01-26T07:16:00.001-06:00

This update is exponentially late because we’ve been crazy busy! Of course, Christmas and all the festivities topped the list of keeping us busy. Let’s see if we can recap all the excitement on paper.

The kids had their Christmas Party at Daycare on the 20th. They had a big feast and opened some presents and had a good time (as usual) running around with each other.

On the 22nd, the kids went to Babu and Poppa’s house while Mom and Dad cleaned the garage out. After Mom and Dad finished, they headed down to hang out with the kids and await the much anticipated arrival of cousins Maggie and Fox (as well as Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross). Derek had a grand time playing with all the toys and eating, eating, eating. There was much playing once all the kids got together.

The 23rd, we headed to Aunt Rosie and Uncle Ken’s house for the annual post Trail of Lights party. Only, this year we skipped the Trail of Lights (an outdoor light exhibit at the park, for those of you not in the area) because it was too cold outside. Derek especially loved eating pizza and sausage balls for dinner. Derek would come get one bite and then run the length of the room and back to get another bite. He got to play with all of his cousins in the playroom Aunt Rosie made. It was tons of fun!

The next day, we headed to the farm for our Christmas Eve tradition. We had fun playing in the yard and with all the cousins during the day. Then, we had a great big meal and enjoyed all sorts of yummy foods. There were stockings to be opened and then after the adults had their White Elephant, the kids took turns riding around in the left over boxes. The most excitement came at the end of the night as we tried to leave. We got back to the main road and discovered we had a flat tire. Dad turned us back around and everyone left at the farm pitched in to get the tire changed (Special thanks to Uncle Bill and Matt and Jennifer for their roles in getting us back on the road and home safely)!

Christmas morning we headed down to Babu and Poppa’s house. Once everyone arrived, we ate breakfast donuts and kolaches were Derek’s favorite he’s a smart kid! Then, the presents were opened. Derek got so much new stuff there isn’t room to list everything. He has had so much fun playing with all of it, though! In the afternoon, we went to Queenie and Chief’s house. Derek slept most of the time we were there, but once he woke up he was ready to be the life of the party!

Developmentally, we’ve had a big month as well. Derek continues to learn and use new “words” all the time. His receptive language is phenomenal. If you ask him to bring your shoes, he’ll go find them and bring them to you with the most self satisfied grin.

He now has 14, maybe 15 teeth. No one is willing to stick their finger in his mouth to count for sure, so we’re going on glimpses when he smiles. Luckily, he smiles a lot, so we get to see those beautiful pearly whites often. We’re

Derek has been sleeping longer stretches for which we’re all excited. Next month we’ll be moving him into his own room (his crib is still in Mom and Dad’s room right now). We’re hoping this will help all of us getter a better night’s rest.

There’s so much more that’s happened in the weeks since Christmas, but that will have to wait for the next update which hopefully won’t be so late! Hope all of you are enjoying a happy and healthy 2008!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Stacks two blocks

Responds to one-step verbal commands without gestures

Speaks one to six words other than "ma-ma" and "da-da"

Uses jargoning (sounds like a foreign language)

Drinks from a cup

Scribbles

Points to items wanted

Aeryn's 42 Month Update

2008-01-26T07:16:00.000-06:00

As with her brother’s, Aeryn’s update is a bit late this month. Aeryn really got into the Christmas spirit this year and it was truly a joy to see the season through her eyes.

The kids had their Christmas Party at Daycare on the 20th. They had a big feast and opened some presents and had a good time (as usual) running around with each other. Mama and Aeryn made Chex Mix for Mom and Dad’s work. She had such a good time helping out in the kitchen. She is mastering the measuring cup and mixing spoon like a pro!

On the 22nd, the kids went to Babu and Poppa’s house while Mom and Dad cleaned the garage out. After and Dad finished, they headed down to hang out with the kids and await the much anticipated arrival of cousins Maggie and Fox (as well as Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross). Aunt Jill and Aeryn (and Maggie and Amanda, Amber, and Allison when they got there) made and decorated delicious sugar cookies. Aeryn is still talking about those cookies.

The 23rd, we headed to Aunt Rosie and Uncle Ken’s house for the annual post Trail of Lights party. Only, this year we skipped the Trail of Lights (an outdoor light exhibit at the park, for those of you not in the area) because it was too cold outside. Aeryn enjoyed being the center of attention and playing in the playroom with her cousins.

The next day, we headed to the farm for Christmas Eve. We had fun playing in the yard and with all the cousins during the day. Then, we had a great big meal and enjoyed all sorts of yummy foods. There were stockings to be opened and then after the adults had their White Elephant, the kids took turns riding around in the left over boxes. Aeryn was sad when the evening was over because she wanted to open more presents. We let her know that we’d be opening more the next day and she couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to go to sleep in case she missed something. Luckily, she finally gave in and slept all night long and woke to much excitement.

Christmas morning we headed down to Babu and Poppa’s house. Once everyone arrived, we ate breakfast and then, the presents were opened. Of course, she had to test out just about everything and deemed everything VERY exciting! In the afternoon, we went to Queenie and Chief’s house. We played outside and Aeryn even rode her bike for a bit.

Once we arrived back home, there was another surprise waiting. Maga and Papa were here! We spent the next 3 weeks travelling all over town shopping and playing at the park when it was warm enough. While Maga and Papa were here, they found a new house just a few minutes away from our house. They’re in the process of selling their house and packing up so they can move to Texas. Aeryn can’t wait for Maga and Papa to have a house close by that we can visit often. She’s a little disappointed that we won’t ride in an airplane to get to their house every day, but she’s excited that they will be so close. We were sad when they had to leave, but knew they’d be back soon, so it wasn’t too bad!

Aeryn got a new desk for Christmas and has turned it into quite the Art Center. She enjoys cutting and pasting and creating all sorts of things. It’s really amazing to watch her creativity blossom and grow.

2008 is shaping up to be an amazing year with lots of fun and excitement. We’re hoping that yours is just as fantastic! More soon and in a timely manner as there is so much going on here that we can’t wait to share more fun with everyone!

Aeryn's 41 Month Update

2007-12-24T07:16:00.001-06:00

Not to be outdone by her brother, Aeryn was diagnosed with pneumonia the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. She, however, seemed to recover much more quickly and was bright and cheerful again within days. It was a short lived recovery, however. On the following Monday, she spiked a temperature of nearly 104. Mom rushed her to the after hours clinic where they drew blood and took more chest x-rays. Her pneumonia had, in fact, worsened. She was given an antibiotics shot and started on a second antibiotic as well. We had to give her breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock for quite awhile. In the beginning, they were difficult and we nearly had to hold her down to get through them. By the end, she was holding her own mask and acting like it was (almost) no big deal! We’ve been instructed to watch both kids for any more “wheezing events” because the doctor was concerned they could have asthma. So far, however, we’ve been wheeze free. We hope the trend continues!

She loves to draw, cut, color, and especially use glue. She goes through a few glue sticks a week, but it’s hard to complain since she is so proud of each of her masterpieces. We’ve nearly run out of room to display them at our work places (where Aeryn insists they be taken and shown off).

We’ve had a great time cooking together lately. We made several batches of Chex mix and Aeryn did a great job measuring and pouring the various cereals and other goodies. She helped make cookies for a cookie exchange party we went to in Dallas, too. We made and decorated a giant sugar cookie for their holiday party at daycare. She even helped Aunt Jill make and ice some sugar cookies (complete with a metric ton of sprinkles)!

Aeryn seems to have a good memory for music. We’ll find her singing bits and pieces of songs she hears on the TV or radio just once or twice. Sometimes the words aren’t correct, but the tune and pitch is generally pretty accurate!

She was amazed the other day when presents appeared under the tree. She says she’s looking forward to opening presents and we can’t wait to watch her open them. Aeryn brings so much wonder and joy to the holidays and we’re so pleased to get to see the holidays through her eyes.

We’ll be spending Christmas Eve and Day with Brian’s family which means plenty of Aunts and Uncles and cousins to play with as well as lots and lots of extended family! Brian’s grandfather passed away this month and Aeryn noted the other day that it was going to be sad at the farm without him or Granny this year. Then she told us that it would be okay because they would spend the day with Andrew and Uncle Steve and we would be at the farm with everyone else.

Christmas Day, Maga and Papa will arrive from Florida. We’re all really looking forward to spending a few weeks together with them. Aeryn has double checked the guest room to make sure it is ready for them. We’re looking forward to a very festive holiday and wish all of you could be here to enjoy it with us! Much love to everyone and wishes for a happy and healthy 2008!

Derek's 14 Month Update

2007-12-24T07:16:00.000-06:00

Derek continues to grow and change moment to moment. His independence is a source of both joy and frustration to those of us living with him. He wants to do everything on his own but gets highly vocal when he isn't successful. He is following in his sister's footsteps in the volume department. His switch seems firmly stuck in the LOUD position!

Derek has become fairly tolerant of new foods. His two favorite meals are spaghetti and sloppy joes. More and more, he's only interested in eating the same thing as everyone else. His favorite breakfast is a container of yogurt and a waffle - he's following in his sister's footsteps!

Derek's language is exploding although much of it continues to be unintelligible. He can say milk, I go (down), mama, dada, please, all done, yes, hello (neeno), ball, hungry, and more. There are probably more, but that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

He now has 12 teeth, including 4 molars and is cutting at least 2 more. This has made life quite interesting. There's been lots of drool, lots of uncomfortable whining, crying, and screaming as well as not nearly enough sleep!

Instead of a large family gathering with food, fun, and laughter for Thanksgiving, we spent a quiet few weeks at home. Derek was diagnosed with bilateral ear infections and pneumonia the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We had to return to the doctor the day after because his fever was not going down - even with medication. He ended up getting an antibiotic shot and being on two different antibiotics for two weeks. In addition we did breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock for several days. He was a miserable little tike, but did a great job tolerating all the various medications and treatments.

Unfortunately, when we went back to the doctor after 2 weeks, Derek still had an ear infection. This prompted the doctor to write a referral to the ENT and we will be seeing him next month. We're going to ask the doctor to move forward with tubes sooner rather than later as we've had great success with Aeryn's. This is the same age that she started having near monthly ear infections and we'd rather avoid putting Derek through that if at all possible!

We made a trip to Dallas for our good friends' cookie party this month. Derek had a grand time flirting with the girls and following all the boys around (surely making notes about what kind of trouble he can get into in the future). He was super in the car - spending most of his time either sleeping or asking for snacks.

Derek has a good time playing with everything these days. He loves to put things in and out of containers and to stack and dump things. He thinks picking up is a game and as long as you'll clap for him, he will generally play along! He loves music and dancing and listening to stories. Derek is a fun loving kid who finds fun and wonderment in just about everything!

Our tree is up and presents are wrapped. We're ready for Christmas here - although Derek is pretty much oblivious to the whole hoopla. We look forward to spending lots of time with family and especially Maga and Papa who arrive on Christmas Day! Hope this finds each of you enjoying your holidays with those you love. We're thankful for each of you and wish the best to all!

Derek's mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

" Takes two or three steps unassisted or may walk

" If walking, may be learning to run

" Stands alone well

" Puts an object into a container

" Stacks two blocks

" Responds to one-step verbal commands without gestures

" Speaks one to six words other than "ma-ma" and "da-da"

" Uses jargoning (sounds like a foreign language)

Derek's 13 Month Update

2007-11-21T07:16:00.001-06:00

Our “little” baby is getting so big! At 22 pounds and 29.25 inches, he’s quite a bruiser these days! Percentile-wise, he falls low on the charts (but in line with his growth from the beginning), but compared to his sister at this age, he’s gigantic! It’s so amazing to watch him toddle around. Both Mama and Daddy are still amazed at the sight of him walking around. And he definitely insists on walking more and more. Our snuggly little baby has run away and been replaced with an independent (dare we admit it) toddler!

Derek continues to eat well and try all sorts of new foods. He really liked acorn squash (his mommy’s favorite) this month. The only thing he really seems to dislike that was new to him this month is macaroni and cheese. Considering how much his sister loves it, she likes him even more because he lets her have it all!

Most of Derek’s language is unintelligible, but he sure tries hard to be understood. He can sign three words together (with some modeling) so long as the three words are “more” “milk” and “please!” The kid likes to nurse, that’s for sure. He drinks more cows’ milk lately, but is content to nurse several times in the evening. When he wants you to put him down, he will say “I GO!” He says “dada,” “mama,” “milk” and “bweee” (please). He approximates words for all done, all gone, and lots of other things. He makes the funniest noises and is quite content to jabber at you all day long if you’ll stay interested and talk back to him!

His sleeping has gone from better to worse and is improving again. Turns out, he just cut a molar and is working on another which quite explains the troubles he’s been having. We hope we’re through the worst for awhile so he can get some good sleep and so can the rest of us! He’s now got 9 (and one on the way) teeth. Be sure to keep your hands, feet, and all objects out of his way or he’ll chomp you! He thinks it’s funny, but there’s nothing funny about those chompers!!!

Derek’s started helping when it’s time to get dressed. He’ll stick out his arm and try to get it into the sleeve. He even pushes his head through the top of his shirts. Of course, this is only when he’s in the mood to be helpful. Otherwise, he’s trying to hold himself ramrod straight and screeches when you try to dress him. Either he’s extremely cooperative or extremely not. There’s little gray area with this kid right now!

We’ve gotten a new type of diaper this month for Derek. It’s a diaper with fewer chemicals and is left unbleached. Since making the switch, Derek hasn’t had any diaper rash. We’re still testing out some different natural wipes to see what we like best, but we’re hopeful that the little changes will totally eliminate his diaper rash woes. It’s not that he’s had terrible rashes for the most part; he just has really sensitive skin and tends to get red easily. Aeryn was the same way and we wish we had known to try these with her. Live and learn, we suppose – but thank goodness we’ve found them now!

Derek has started playing with his toys this month. He’s really interacting with them and showing that he knows what different toys do. He can crack himself up so easily these days. Everything is a game (including trying to climb on top of the picnic table in the living room).

Derek is a fearless little boy who loves adventure and enjoys life. Where his sister is sometimes timid, he is clearly not. They’re going to make a good pair balancing out each other. When she’s scared, he rushes forward to protect her (yes, even at 13 months). When he’s upset or scared, she will soothe him and try to make him laugh. They’re so lucky to have each other. And we’re so lucky to have them!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Takes two or three steps unassisted or may walk
If walking, may be learning to run
Stands alone well
Puts an object into a container
Stacks two blocks
Responds to one-step verbal commands without gestures
Speaks one to six words other than "ma-ma" and "da-da"
Uses jargoning (sounds like a foreign language)

Aeryn's 40 Month Update

2007-11-21T07:16:00.000-06:00

Our month started out with quite a bang. Aeryn spent an entire week sick with a nasty virus (or two). She ended up going to the doctor twice and the second visit she got two shots and a round of antibiotics. There was fever (and lots of it), coughing, dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea, and a sore throat. Last month’s monthly pictures were a bit late because she needed some time to recover in order to look as cute as ever! Since then, Aeryn’s had a cough and some sniffles, but nothing major. Thankfully, there haven’t been any ear problems, but she went through quite enough and we hope it’s a long time before she’s that sick again.

Our little artist is hard at work these days. She loves to cut and glue and draw pictures for anyone and everyone she can think of. Playing with the Aquadoodle provides hours of fun as well. She loves to paint and play with playdough, too. She’s always into something and has lots of energy to constantly create!

Aeryn has really become empathetic lately. If she sees someone on TV or in a store that is crying or looks upset, she will ask why. She wants to know how people are feeling all the time and will try to make you feel better when you’re sad. She’s especially responsive to Derek when he gets upset. She acts like she has him figured out and frequently tells us what it is she thinks he needs.

She went to a performance put on by the fourth grade class at our school recently. It was a little program where the kids sang some different patriotic songs. When she got home that night, she was singing Yankee Doddle Dandy. It’s not in her usual repertoire, so it was pretty amazing to have her singing something she’d heard once hours earlier!

Aeryn has lots of funny sayings these days. She told Maga one day “What starts with me? What else starts with me??” when trying to make a list of thing that start with the letter A. Daddy was singing a song and Aeryn was getting frustrated because she wanted to sing. When Daddy started laughing, she indignantly told him to “stop laughing on me!” One day Aeryn was playing with something in the kitchen and turned quickly to see something else. The toy in her hand flew out and fell on the floor. She stopped and exclaimed “That’s not good!” One of the best Aerynisms is “me three!” If you tell her something, such as “I’m ready to read a book,” she’ll say “me too. Wait. Mama/Daddy, I’m three, right? Okay. ME THREE!” Lately if you tell her something, she just tells you ME THREE! It’s so cute!

She continues to make her Christmas list. If we were really writing down everything she’s decided she wants to ask Santa for, we’d have used reams of paper by now! She’s so cute when she gets determined to write down something new for her list. The fun seems to be in the list making rather than the actual wanting of things, so we are enjoying her enthusiasm.

Our little fireball is quite temperamental these days. She can explode at the drop of a hat and change moods faster than the weather has changed around here this month. More often than not, though, she’s the sweet baby (although definitely not a baby anymore) that Mama and Daddy love to pieces!

We’re looking forward to the holiday season and all of the decorating, baking, presents, visitors, and good times it will bring!

Derek's 12 Month Update

2007-10-17T07:17:00.000-05:00

Remember last month when we said we weren’t in any hurry for Derek to start walking? Well, it seems that we may have been the only ones. About the end of September, he decided to walk across the living room (about 8 steps) at Babu and Poppa’s house. A few days later he walked from the kitchen to the office at our house (about 15 steps) and after that there’s been no stopping him! In fact, he’s already started to lower his arms to his side and walk with less of a Frankenstein-ish gait. It’s so hard to believe that just a month ago he was showing little interest in walking around!

Other than a bit of a snotty nose, Derek’s been well this month. We’re crossing our fingers that we can get him through this cold and flu season unscathed.

Derek has been much more willing to eat different foods this month. Many of the things he previously didn’t care for, he has eaten with wild abandon this month. Mainly, the kid likes to eat, eat, eat! He seems to really love meat. Chicken and hamburger are favorites. He loves peas and carrots, applesauce, and pears. He tried yogurt, milk, and cheese just after his first birthday and found them to be delightful. He still prefers nursing to cow’s milk at home, but when out or at daycare, he’s satisfied with a glass of moo juice!

His expressive language is amazing. He “says” all gone, more, yeah, milk, what, whee, and his favorite word (for everything it seems) BOOK. He’s signing eat, more, milk, thank you, and occasionally mama or daddy. We’re working on please, but he just thinks that’s silly! He loves to clap and do anything that will get Aeryn’s attention. If she’s giggling, he’s repeating his performance. It’s so much fun to watch him attempt to interact with her!

Derek waves byebye and blows kisses like a champ. Sometimes, he’ll pretend to be super shy and won’t want to do it, but for the most part, he loves hamming it up and showing off his new skills.

The drooling has increased as has the finger chewing, so we feel certain more teeth are on the way.. of course, when they come is anyone’s guess. We’re hoping for sooner rather than later so we can get it out of the way.

Sleep is the most exciting change! Most days, Derek is only waking 2-3 times a night now. This seems excessive, sure, but compared to last month when it was every hour, we’re very excited! Derek is truly a kid who likes to do things on his own terms and in his own time, and sleeping at night seems to be a perfect reminder of that! We’re hoping his progress will continue and he’ll be sleeping through the night very soon!

Derek celebrated his birthday twice this month in big style! On his actual birthday, he had a great little party at his daycare. All of his daycare friends showered him with fun and love and special gifts. Then they all made a mess eating pasta salad and cupcakes. The next weekend, we had a small birthday party for him at the house. He had fun getting to eat another cupcake and spending time with his friends. He ate his entire cupcake and was screeching for more.. he’s definitely not as refined and dainty as Aeryn was – probably because this kid is all BOY and there’s nothing dainty about him!

We’re looking forward to the next year – it surely holds as many great surprises, if not more, than the ones he’s provided us with this year!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Bangs two cubes together
Puts objects into containers and then takes them out
Voluntarily lets objects go
Shakes head "no"
Has fun opening and closing cabinet doors
Crawls well
"Cruises" furniture
Walks with adult help
Says "ma-ma" and "da-da"
"Dances" to music
Interested in books and may identify some things
May understand some simple commands
Pushes away what he doesn't want
Prefers to push, pull and dump items
Pulls off hat and socks
Understands use of certain objects
Tests parental responses to behavior
Extends arm or leg when getting dressed
Identifies self in mirror

Aeryn's 39 Month Update

2007-10-17T07:15:00.000-05:00

The past month has really flown by. Aeryn’s changes aren’t as easily measurable anymore, but it seems that at least once a week we put her to bed at night only for her to wake up an inch taller the next morning!

Aeryn’s favorite activities include reading and drawing. She’s making pretty good As these days and will occasionally make an E or R or N, but those are likely by accident. She recognizes letters everywhere we go and points them out to us. She’s started memorizing passages from Dr. Seuss books, so it’s fun to have her read along with you during a story. Of course, now we can’t skip pages to get to the end more quickly either! Soon enough, though, she’ll be reading on her own and won’t want us to do it anymore, so we try to savor every moment.

Aeryn’s memory is amazing. We can pass a building and she can tell you the last time we were there and what happened. She remembers people and things from months ago like it was yesterday. It’s so much fun to watch her develop, but a little scary too when you realize she likely remembers everything you’ve ever told her!

She was the perfect big sister at Derek’s birthday parties and enjoyed getting to sing to him and eat cake! She loves playing with Derek and is constantly trying to teach him something new. She loves trying to teach him sign language. It’s very cute to watch, even if it does frustrate Derek at times!

Aeryn weighed 36 pounds and was 40 inches tall at an appointment she had earlier in the week. Our little preemie isn’t so little these days! She’s all leg, too. She got some very cute stripey pants for Halloween, but they make her legs look a mile long. She’s still got a bit of that toddler belly going on, but she’s seriously mostly legs. Her hair is getting mid back length again and is the most beautiful shades of blonde. Her natural highlights are amazing!

She’s already started making her Christmas list. When she sees a toy or book she wants, we tell her to make a list for Santa. So now she’s into remembering all sorts of junk she wants and even “writing” lists for us so we’ll remember. She told Maga that she wants “presents” for Christmas. What can we say, the kid knows what she wants!

The attitude continues to surface every now and again and she definitely likes to assert her independence. We are trying to remember that she is only three and not sell her to the highest (or even lowest) bidder during her “fireball” moments.

Seriously, though, Aeryn is a joy to have in our lives. It’s so much fun to experience the wonder of the world all over again through her eyes. She brings so much to our lives and we only hope we’re giving her the experiences she deserves to have as she discovers the world around her!

Aeryn's 38 Month Update

2007-09-08T07:17:00.001-05:00

Aeryn has had a blast going back to school and being with her friends. She loves circle time and practicing in the writing center. Several days, Mama has seen her on the playground in the morning and been able to spend a few minutes playing with her. Whereas last year, Aeryn would cry at the end of this type of encounter because she didn’t want Mom to leave her, this year she waves and runs off to play when mom goes to pick her kids up.

We’re still ear infection free! Here three month post op visit showed that everything is perfect. We can’t believe what a difference this has made and are so happy that Aeryn is no longer suffering every few weeks.

Although she definitely acts THREE, Aeryn’s behavior has also improved drastically since having her tubes put in. We imagine that not being sick twice a month helps with wanting to be cheerful and fun to be around. We’re dealing with a very headstrong little three year old (or fireball as Papa likes to call her), but it’s worth every second of it when she crawls up beside you, holds your hand, leans over and whispers that she loves you. Of course, right after that, she jumps down and runs around the room screaming at the top of her lungs. So much for the moment, but at least she slows down long enough to let you know she cares!

Books are more and more becoming a favorite activity again. Aeryn will sit through story after story. She loves Dr. Seuss and asks for those to be read again and again.

Aeryn has pretty much mastered going to bed on her own. She gives us a kiss, turns on her nightlight and picks out a CD. Sometimes there’s fussing involved, but she generally does really well once she’s in her room. She filled one sticker sheet and earned a prize of her choosing (a travel sized pillow with Backyardigans on it). We’re currently working on the second sticker sheet. She’s reverted to wanting prizes from the basket (immediate gratification anyone) instead of stickers, but she’s getting the idea gradually.

Aeryn pretty much washes and rinses her own hair in the bathtub anymore. She needs a little help lathering it, but she’s become a very independent bather. In fact, she’s pretty independent in most things she does. She’s dressing herself with less help and picks her own clothes to wear a lot of the time. We’ve put away the potty seats. Aeryn still needs the step stool, but other than that uses the potty all by herself. She had two or three accidents this month and all of them during the time she had a little cold. We’re so proud of her!

Aeryn’s got a bit of sass in her these days. These days if you tell her not to do something (like hit her brother) she'll tell you it was funny. You'll tell her it wasn't. She'll retort with, yes it was a little bit funny! Where does she come up with this stuff?

She’s so big and such an amazing KID. We still have trouble wrapping our minds around the idea that she’s no longer a baby or even a toddler. She’s a full on little kid who is blossoming before our very eyes into a very beautiful little girl.

Derek's 11 Month Update

2007-09-08T07:17:00.000-05:00

We’re sad to announce that sometime during the night someone took away our sweet little baby and replaced him with a big boy! Gone is the sweet little bundle that fit so nicely in the crook of your arms. Now we have this giant kid who stretches out for what seems like miles!

Speed is Derek’s MO these days. He crawls all over quicker than you can blink. He pulls up on everything and cruises really well. Mostly it’s to chase Aeryn. He’s started letting go of things when he gets distracted and stands on his own for a bit. It seems that when he realizes he’s standing, he falls right down. He’s so close though. We’re still not in any hurry to have him walking (or running as is more likely), but we can’t avoid it much longer!

Derek’s had hand, foot, and mouth disease (it’s a virus that causes blisters on the hands, feet, mouth, and diaper area) for the past week. He missed almost a week of daycare, and while he really enjoyed getting to stay home with Daddy, he wishes he could have done it under better circumstances. Derek got weighed at the doctor’s office and he’s now twenty and a half pounds!

Favorite foods this month: black or baked beans, peas, brown rice, plain waffles
Foods he loves: sweet potatoes, pears, squash, avocados, puffs, bread, cheerios, kix, crackers, Aunt Rita’s noodles, turkey, chicken, quinoa, lentils, tomatoes, blueberries, steamed cauliflower
Foods he tolerates: green beans, bananas, watermelon, apricots, apples, carrots, spinach, ham, ground meat, peaches, plain pasta, meat raviolis
Foods he hates: all things baby food

Derek has mastered MAMA!, knows how to say Dada (but still rarely does because he knows it will take him away from mama – Mama is ready to be through this phase), will say YEAH! when you ask him something, shakes his head nonono, and makes a noise approximating aaaah when he wants to tell you something about Aeryn.

Nonverbally, he’s got a lot of communication going on. He loves to point at things and have you name them. He will point at something he wants and wait for you to give it to him. He signs a pretty good approximation of more and is beginning to sign eat.

Separation anxiety seems to be calming down a bit this month and he is happy to spend a little time with other people right now. He’s done great with going back to daycare. He rarely cries when dropped off and every time Mama sees him out and about on campus, he’s having a great time!

Derek didn’t get any new teeth this month, but he’s working on some more. We’re hopeful that it will get a little easier on the poor kid. He’s just so miserable all the time when he’s teething.

Sleep hasn’t really improved much. There really isn’t much more than that to say. He starts out in his own crib (and actually has been going to sleep much easier this month) and wakes up 2-3 hours later. He ends up in our bed to nurse and sometimes to sleep. We’ve started putting him back in his bed after some feedings at night and he’s doing better with it. We’re making changes slowly and that seems to be working well. We can’t wait until he’s in his own bed all night long, but fear he’ll be four before that happens!

Derek claps and “sings” a lot these days. He gives the best baby kisses and has started giving 5. He’s constantly watching Aeryn and trying to figure out all the things she can do. He loves when she encourages him and tries to perform for her all the time. They’re going to be such good friends – so long as he stops taking her stuff!

It’s hard to believe that next month Derek will be a year old! It doesn’t seem like this time last year we were preparing for his arrival. What a whirlwind it’s been, but oh so much fun!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Understands the concept of object permanence
Gets upset if toy is removed
Transfers object from hand to hand
Stands holding onto someone
Pulls to standing

Derek's 10 Month Update

2007-08-15T07:10:00.000-05:00

We should have known from past experiences how quickly the first year flies by, but we stuck our heads in the sand for as long as we could. Now, though, it’s getting more difficult to do so. Our little baby is no longer little and seems less and less like a baby every day.

Derek crawls lightning fast all over the house these days. He pulls up on anything that’s still long enough for him to grab (living or non) and is working on letting go and standing for a few seconds at a time. He cruises around furniture and walls, but hasn’t taken to letting go and trying to walk on his own. Soon enough we’ll be chasing two kids, so we’re not in any hurry for him to start walking. Besides, both Mama and Daddy are worried that he’s going to decide not to walk at all in favor of running.

The results of Derek’s blood work came back and he was, in fact, anemic. We spent the rest of the month pumping him full of iron supplements. A subsequent blood test has shown that his levels are better, so we only have to supplement once a day. We’re glad that he’s doing so much better now. He won’t eat iron fortified baby cereals, so we’re pushing all the iron rich foods we can. He’s doing pretty well with that and we’re glad to be out of the worry zone.

Favorite foods this month: quinoa, lentils, baked beans, steamed cauliflower
Foods he loves: sweet potatoes, pears, squash, avocados, puffs, bread, cheerios, kix, crackers, Aunt Rita’s noodles, turkey, chicken, potato
Foods he tolerates: peas, green beans, bananas, watermelon, apricots, apples, carrots, spinach, ham, ground meat
Foods he hates: peaches, rice cereal, oatmeal

Derek is screeching up a storm these days. He is SO LOUD. Perhaps because he wants to be heard over his sister or perhaps it is because he is a boy; either way, this kid has a great set of lungs. He’s recently figured out that saying Mama means that Mama will pay attention to him, so he shouts Mama nonstop all day. He can say Dada, but he doesn’t often because that results in attention from Daddy, thereby reducing the face to face time with Mama.

This kid is a Mama’s boy. Separation anxiety is at a peak right now and he hates to be away from Mama when she’s near. It makes for interesting times when Mama needs to do things (like showering) on her own. Forget anyone else holding him most of the time, he doesn’t want any part of that. Sometimes he even cries when other people come near him because he worries they will take him away from his beloved Mama. Back in the days pre-chilcren, Mama longed for that bond with her babies. Now in the midst of it, Mama is ready to let Derek be a little less wary of other people in the family and give her a few minutes of solitude!

Derek cut one more tooth – that makes 8 total for all of you counting - this past month (bottom right of center) and it looks like two more on top will be making an appearance soon. He’s got a total of 12 baby teeth to go and we’re ready for them ALL to come in so we can be done with it. We’re convinced that so many of his sleep problems and even some of the separation anxiety are caused by teething.

Sleep hasn’t really improved much. Lately, he’s taken to sleeping about 2-3 hours before he gets up the first time and then is up every 60 to 90 minutes after that. We’re continually trying new techniques, but generally end up reverting to survival mode in order to get sleep. It’s pretty difficult with him right now in regards to sleeping, but we’re muddling through and hoping to come out the other end with a sleeping kid someday!

Derek ran fever this month and had to have lots of lab work done. It turned out to just be a viral infection that passed in about a week and a half. It has left undesirable diapers in its wake, however, and after 3 weeks, we’re finally getting back to normal on that front.

Although he’s been doing it inconsistently for the past two months, Derek has finally mastered clapping and giving kisses. He’s so proud of himself for clapping. He laughs and laughs when he does it. And who doesn’t love big, sloppy, open mouth baby kisses? It’s what makes the world go round!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Reaches for toys
Drops objects and then looks for them
Goes from tummy to sitting by self
Picks up tiny objects
Begins to identify self in a mirror's reflection

Aeryn's 37 Month Update

2007-08-15T07:09:00.000-05:00

Aeryn is a flurry of activity from the moment she gets up in the morning until the moment she passes out in bed (often loudly protesting being there) at night. She is hardly ever still, unless she’s reading a story or watching a few minutes of television.

The big event of the month was Aeryn’s birthday party! We had a small party with a few family friends and our immediate family. Aeryn chose Sesame Street as her theme. Mama made Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Big Bird cupcakes for the party. Aeryn helped Mom make cookies stamped with the letter A and the number 3 (what sesame street party could lack the letter and number of the day?). Goldfish (like Elmo’s friend Dorothy), and ice cream rounded out the menu with juice, lemonade, and iced tea. She got lots of neat stuff for her birthday including a mini trampoline, a little swimming pool, lots of art stuff, some new clothes, and a cool karaoke microphone.

Aeryn also received several gift cards for her birthday. She had a FANTASTIC time picking out her own toys. We must have picked up just about everything in the store at least twice before making a choice. In the end, we’re really glad she chose what she did because just about everything she nearly chose was recalled for containing lead paint a week later! Aeryn chose to get a new doll, some bottles (the ones that the milk disappears from when you tilt it), a “Doll care center,” a veterinarian kit, a new flashlight, and a keyboard on a stand with an attached microphone.

The summer heat has slowed Aeryn down as far as wanting to be outside, but she’s finding ways to compensate in the house. She is often making up exercise and dance routines that Derek and Mommy are supposed to follow. Generally, this is just flailing and running in circles, but she assures us it’s actual exercise. Derek is greatly amused by all the commotion!

We’re still ear infection free so far this summer. The tubes have been a lifesaver. Aeryn’s so good about remembering to ask for her ear plugs when we go swimming and letting us know if they get loose and any water starts getting in her ears.

This past month, Daddy’s Granny went to live in heaven. Aeryn says that she’s there to help Uncle Steve take care of Andrew and to live with God and Jesus in the big house in the clouds. Sometimes the thinking of a three year old puts it all so plainly. She has had more questions about death recently, but we seem to have answered them adequately. We’re so blessed that Granny got to meet our kids and that Aeryn will be old enough to remember her. She was an amazing woman who brought so much love to our family and we treasure her memory.

Reading is one of Aeryn’s continued favorite activities. She loves to have you read to her and then take the book and retell the story on her own. Just yesterday she was reading a story to Derek and using voices for all the characters. Her favorite books are changing. No longer is she reading as many of the board books, now she wants longer stories and even sits to listen to them being read. Dr. Seuss is gaining popularity in our house and Mom and Dad can still practically recite many of them from memory!

Aeryn is developing a lot of “make believe” skills. It’s amazing to see her mind stretch from the literal to the figurative. Her favorite games involve taking care of her babies and taking them on all sorts of adventures. The only thing she has trouble with is made up names for her babies. If you ask her if the baby’s name is, say Cassie or Samantha or Josh or Bill, she’ll quickly tell you NO! That’s boy, that’s girl, that’s baby, that’s doll. It seems she still has some stretching to do before we make that leap!

Aeryn has been earning rewards for going to bed on her own. At first, she got to pick a prize out of the prize basket each day, but now she earns stickers on an incentive chart. Once the chart is full, she gets a prize. She’s very proud that she’s already earned 5 stickers!

We were at the store last weekend and Aeryn was walking (instead of being in the cart) like a “big girl” does. Another lady came around the corner and they sort of bumped into each other. Aeryn immediately told the lady “Excuse me!” The lady seemed so shocked that a little kid had such good manners (we might have been surprised a little as well). We’re so proud of Aeryn!

Aeryn continues to be a terrific big sister. She’s excited that Derek is learning how to walk and is very encouraging. She isn’t excited that he can get into her toys, but she’s been very good about sharing most things with him. At times, she can be a little bossy, but you can really tell she loves him to pieces!

Mom’s moving into a new classroom at school this year because she’s going to be teaching third grade. Aeryn has been “invaluable” in helping set up the room. She tells mom where the tables should go and whether or not the poster looks good. The kid is either going to be a teacher or an interior decorator at this rate!

She and Derek start back to daycare next week. Aeryn is really looking forward to seeing her teachers and all of her friends. Mom has loved being home with her all summer and Aeryn has loved it too, but now she assures us it is time to go back to being with her friends. She’s also quick to remind us that in two years she gets to be in “big school” like her friend Katrina. That’s right, just two short years until kindergarten. How have we come so far so fast?

Aeryn's 36 Month Update

2007-07-11T07:08:00.000-05:00

The inevitable has happened. Aeryn is THREE years old! No longer in the clutches of the terrible twos, we’ve launched ourselves head first into the headstrong and very independent threes. We’re not too worried as we’ve seen glimmers of our sweet baby in this little girl that now lives at our house. It is truly a remarkable journey to raise a child and everything changes far too quickly sometimes!

She loves playing outside, for sure. As soon as she gets up in the morning, she’s quick to point out that the sun has come up (when we’re lucky enough that she sleeps that late) and that she is ready to play outside. She loves the sandbox and drawing with chalk, but close behind that are swinging and sliding. She got a little soccer net and soccer ball, so she’s been learning how to play that. She also got a miniature golf set and a badminton set, but she doesn’t have the patience to learn how to use them correctly yet. In the meantime, it’s fun watching her make up ways to use all the equipment!

The ENT checked Aeryn’s ears at two weeks post op and said everything looked great. She’s not had an ear infection since the beginning of June when she got the tubes put in. This is quite possibly the longest we’ve ever gone (especially during the summer) without an ear infection!

Aeryn continues to be a great big sister. Now that he’s mobile, she’s learning to tell him “I’m playing with that right now, Derek. You can play with this right now.” and then handing him a toy to play with. She still whines and cries sometimes, but overall she gets the idea. She was chastising Daddy the other day because he didn’t make Derek stay where he was when he put him down. “But daddy, you put him down there. You tell him stay there and not bother me!” She delights in hugging him and sharing with him (on her terms). Lately she insists on sharing with Derek whenever she eats a banana.

She’s such a polite little girl. She says please, thank you, excuse me, bless you, and you're welcome about 80% of the time. She even reminds us to use our manners at times when we forget.

Aeryn continues to struggle with the notion of not needing a nap, but on days when she doesn’t she has at least learned that a little quiet time is helpful and necessary. She gets very excited when she wakes up from a nap and nearly always comes running in telling us that she closed her eyes all by herself and then she woke up!

Our grand adventure this past month was taking an airplane (well, two actually) to go and visit Maga and Papa in Florida. She was great on both planes and did really well during the three hour layover in Houston as well. She was so excited to get to watch a movie on the portable DVD player. She slept most of the flight from Houston to Ft. Myers, so she only got to watch for about 20 minutes, but that didn’t bother her at all!

She couldn’t wait to get to Maga (often pronounced Baga these days) and Papa’s house so she could go swimming. Whereas last year Aeryn wore her life vest whenever she was in the water, this year she wants no part of it. A pair of arm floaties is enough for her to be practically on her own. She was a little clingy at first, but by the end of our two weeks in Florida, she was practically swimming the length of the pool on her own as long as someone was nearby just in case she got stuck. She has been learning to float and cup her hands when she swims as well as continuing to work on kicking those legs. It’s not really surprising though, as much of a water baby as she has always been!

Aeryn had a blast playing with her cousins Spencer and Brandy this summer. She loved being with them, whether it was playing a game in the pool, “camping out” in tents in the living room, pulling balls out of the pool table pockets, or just sitting and resting (as if they were ever still). Her favorite thing had to be going to the beach. They built sand castles, covered each other with sand, and romped in the surf. None of them were ready to leave when it was time to go, but everyone took a good nap after that escapade!

She had her three year well child visit this week and is now 38 inches tall (75th percentile) and weighs 34 ½ pounds (75-90th percentile). Holding her in our laps this week (when she will allow it, which isn’t often), it’s hard to remember the 6 pound 5 ounce baby that we welcomed into this world 3 years ago. Aeryn is becoming a beautiful and spirited little girl full of life and compassion that amazes us each and every day. She has taught us about love and life and how to keep living in the face of terrible grief. She leads us down a path that celebrates her twin brother’s short life, rather than mourns his death. Aeryn is a remarkable young girl and we feel honored to be her mother and father.

Derek's 9 Month Update

2007-07-11T07:07:00.000-05:00

Derek is proving to be ALL boy. He is fearless and loves messes, bugs (especially trying to eat them) and destruction. He’s a force to be reckoned with, especially now that he’s mobile.

After deciding to hold off on the standing and running, Derek mastered crawling. He’s probably twice as fast as Aeryn ever was and in the blink of an eye is halfway across the house. Having crawled on tile for two weeks, returning home from Florida meant being on carpet and finding increased speed. He loves to follow Mama all over the house during the day and thinks it’s a great game to try to crawl away and hide from Mama and Aeryn.

He pulls up on anything that will stand still long enough for him to get a grip on. He even tries to stand up without having anything near him. He pushes up on his back legs and can even get one arm out from under him and in the air, but after that he doesn’t know what to do and usually ends up sitting back down.

Derek has found his voice. He has been crawling all around the house singing and babbling and making quite a ruckus. He competes with Aeryn and tries to mimic her a lot.

Derek has shown more interest in foods this past month, but is still pretty picky about what he wants to eat.

Foods he loves: sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, squash, avocados, puffs, bread, cheerios, kix, crackers, Aunt Rita’s noodles
Foods he tolerates: peas, green beans, bananas, watermelon, oatmeal with a splash of apple juice, apricots, mashed beans
Foods he hates: apples, peaches, rice cereal

Derek cut one more tooth this past month (bottom left of center) and is currently working on three more. It looks like the top two will be in soon and the other bottom one keeps playing peekaboo with his gums.

Our little boy was a champ on his first airplane rides. He made it through with little fuss and squirming. He pretty much ate and slept the whole time, but did manage to flirt with a few passengers in between. Of course, everyone thought he was just adorable and had to smile and coo at him.

He loved being at Maga and Papa’s house in Florida! He had a blast playing in the pool with everyone. He’s just as much a water baby as his sister was and maybe even more so if that’s possible! He loves splashing and kicking and twirling around in the water.

We took Derek to the beach for the first time as well. He was fairly nonplussed at first, and then started splashing and giggling. Soon after that he grabbed a handful of wet sand and tried to eat it. He decided he didn’t like the beach after that and howled for a few minutes before deciding to take a nap instead. Mom carried him around in her homemade water wrap and he slept soundly for a couple hours. When he woke up, he had a grand time sticking his feet in the water and feeling the surf come up over his legs.

Derek had his nine month check up this week. Luckily for him, he didn’t get any shots, but he did have to have blood drawn for a routine part of the checkup. He was a real trooper and even though he cried while they were taking blood (understandably), he was quick to calm down once it was all over. That earned him a sticker from the nurse, but he gave it to his sister and everyone was happy! Derek was 18 pounds 4 ounces (10-25^th percentile) and 26 ½ inches tall (10-25^th percentile). His head circumference is a whopping 46 ½ centimeters (75-90^th percentile), proving what we’ve known all along – Derek is a baby fathead! The doctor is pleased with his growth, but said she was surprised he wasn’t 20 pounds – that he looks much bigger than 18 pounds. 18 or 20, we love the little butterball all the same!

Sleep hasn’t really improved much. Lately, he’s taken to sleeping about 2-3 hours before he gets up the first time and then is up every 60 to 90 minutes after that. We’re going to try some different techniques this month and hopefully see some improvement. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Chews on objects
Reaches for utensils when being fed
Turns head away when finished eating
Rolls all the way around
Sits unsupported
Gets on arms and knees in crawling position
Has specific cries for various needs
Babbles enthusiastically
Tests gravity by dropping objects over edge of high chair
Responds to own name
Has different reactions for different family members
Shows some anxiety when removed from parent

Derek's 8 Month Update

2007-06-11T07:06:00.000-05:00

This month has been full of milestones. Derek has continued to grow and change ever day! He’s much more active and loves to interact with everyone around him. He’s a very social little boy!

He has learned to roll over and push up so that he can sit up on his own. He can also get on all fours and rock himself up to a crawling position, but has yet to take more than one or two “steps” that way. He sort of belly crawls, but not really. He prefers to roll where he is going when he needs to get there quickly. Otherwise, his preferred method of transportation is hysterical. Derek will sit himself up, flop over on his side, push with his feet while his weight is on his head so he scoots forward a couple inches, sit himself up and start all over again. It’s a slow method, but he thinks it’s great and it sure is funny to watch!

Derek can also pull himself to standing. He likes to do it when you’re holding his hands most of the time, but he has started pulling up at his toys, the couch, and the crib. We’ve had to adjust the side of the crib so Derek can’t pull up and fall out of it. The little stinker is quite the acrobat!

He has really started to babble and make some sounds, although his favorite remains screeching. If you crow like a rooster, he will belly laugh and then attempt to crow right back. His sister only has a volume of 10, so it seems he is learning to keep his volume even with her. It’s quite loud around our house these days!

Derek continues to nurse a million (give or take a few) times a day and has started showing some interest in solid foods. When he dislikes something, he will clamp his mouth shut and no matter what you try, he will not eat it. When it’s something he loves, he can’t get enough of it fast enough. There’s no guessing with Derek – he’s very straight forward about the foods he enjoys. He loves to eat Gerber puffs and probably would like his diet to exclusively be puffs and nursing if we’d let him!

Foods he loves: sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, squash
Foods he tolerates: peas, green beans, bananas, watermelon, oatmeal, apricots
Foods he hates: apples, peaches, rice cereal

Derek cut two more teeth this past month (his top front teeth) and is currently working on four more (top and bottom either side of the front two teeth). It looks like the top two will be in soon, but the bottom ones keep popping up (but not through) and then retracting. It’s pretty frustrating for Derek and all the rest of us too! We hate for him to be fussy and sleepless because of those darn teeth!

We’re finally out of school and Derek is loving the time at home with Mommy and Aeryn. We’re filling our days with plenty of playing and outdoors and cuddles with just a little cleaning and housework! We’ve had several play dates and Derek enjoys watching the big kids play together. He’s content to just sit back with his own few toys and watch the other kids run and play and laugh.

Derek welcomed his baby cousin, Mason, this month! He wasn’t really sure what to think of the baby, but was happy as always to see his Aunt Sara and Uncle Dallas! We look forward to letting the boys have lots of time together as they grow!

Since summer is here, Derek also got to take his first dip in a swimming pool this month! He is such a water baby! His legs started kicking the minute they hit the water and didn’t stop until he got out. He laughed and splashed and had a great time in the water at his Babu and Poppa’s house!

Sleep is still a frustrating subject around here. Lately, he’s taken to sleeping about 2-3 hours before he gets up the first time and then is up every 60 to 90 minutes after that. He’ll sleep most of the night if we let him nurse and sleep in our bed all night long, but then mommy doesn’t get much sleep. We’re working on finding a compromise that we can all be happy with. We don’t mind having him in the bed with us some of the night, but Mom would really like 4 or 5 hours of sleep in one block! His napping has been crazy lately as well. For awhile he only wanted to take one nap in the afternoon and he was getting overtired by bedtime. This week he’s been taking two or three short naps during the day. Over the weekend, we had a couple of really long days (full of lots of excitement and activity), so his night time routine was out of whack. We’ll see if getting back in routine plus a change in nap habits will make a difference at night.. here’s hoping!!

Next month is going to be just as exciting as this one! First Derek will celebrate his very first Father’s Day with his Daddy and then we will be flying to Florida at the end of the month to spend two weeks with Maga and Papa! We’ll also get to see cousins Brandy and Spencer who are so excited to get to meet baby Derek for the first time!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Can self-feed some finger foods
Makes wet razzing sounds
Turns in the direction of a voice
Plays peekaboo
Imitates many sounds
Distinguishes emotions by tone of voice

Aeryn's 35 Month Update

2007-06-11T07:05:00.000-05:00

It’s hard to believe that Aeryn is nearly THREE years old! We’ve still got a month until that happens, so Daddy and Mama intend to live in denial for as long as possible!

Art and the outdoors are Aeryn’s two favorite things this summer. She spends a lot of time at her little table coloring and writing and creating. She loves to pretend to write her name (she can write the A and sometimes a few other letters) as well as making lists and maps and things for Derek to read. This week she’s been drawing “grown ups” a lot on her paper. “No are kids mama, these are grown ups!” The people she draws are beginning to take shape and it’s been a lot of fun to watch the random marks and squiggles actually become something on the paper! She also delights in drawing and writing on the back patio with chalk. She definitely has a creative streak!

Outside, Aeryn loves to play in the backyard. She spends a lot of time in the sandbox, but gives attention to her swings and slides as well! We recently got her a soccer ball and a little net, and she’s had fun kicking goals. She doesn’t quite understand the concept of “no hands” in soccer, but it’s fun to watch her daddy try to teach her! We also got her a little golf set so she can follow in her Papa’s footsteps. She really is hysterical with the golf clubs because she doesn’t want you to teach her how to hold them, yet she can’t figure out how to swing them on her own. Most of the time, she just plunks the ball in the hole and yells “I did it!!” We got a little badminton set, but she hasn’t really wanted to try it with all the other excitement outside!

Aeryn is a wonderful big sister to Derek! She soothes him when he’s upset and she loves to make him laugh. Whether she’s dancing or singing or building blocks, she always has his rapt attention. The best times are when all four of us are on the bed and she leans over to tickle Derek. We, of course, have to tickle her in return. There’s so much laughing and giggling going on that it’s hard to get calmed down again. But that laughter is music to our ears and we feel so blessed to hear it each and every day!

We had our consultation with the ENT this month and he recommended we go forward with the tubes. Aeryn’s hearing test indicated that she has not yet suffered any hearing loss, which is excellent news! We were able to schedule her surgery for the 6th of June and had to be at the hospital at 6:00. They took Aeryn back a little after 7:00 and by the time we made it to the waiting room and poured a cup of coffee, the doctor was there to tell us that he was done and everything was fine. He said he was very surprised she hadn't suffered hearing loss because both ears were significantly infected and there was a large amount of mucous in them. He said they had to get the next larger size of suction thingy (so technical, I know) to get it out. We waited longer for them to bring us the prescription than we were apart from Aeryn! We were on our way home again before 8:30. In case you’re interested, here’s a link to the type of procedure she had done: http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/surgical_videos/myringotomy.html

We follow up in two weeks to see how it has healed and hopefully we’ll be ear infection free for a long time to come!

It looks like we might be nearing the end of an era with Aeryn. She is slowly deciding that she no longer needs a nap in the afternoon. Her mood and level of whining tell us otherwise come evening, however. She’s content to go play in her room after lunch and has been falling asleep about 3 days out of 5, so it’s not a loss yet! It’s hard to believe she’s getting old enough to decide not to nap!

We’ve had a couple of play dates this summer with friends of Mama’s and their kiddos as well as with Aeryn’s cousins Maggie and Fox. Aeryn loves having friends over to play! She’s slowly learning how to share her toys. She does great in a setting where all the toys are community toys, but it has been harder for her to transfer this skill into our house where the toys are “hers.” She has asked several times today when more people are coming over, so it looks like she’s willing to share to get some kids her age over. It’s fun to watch her become so social with people her own age. She actually interacts with them now and it’s great fun to watch!

We told Aeryn we'd be with her at the hospital as much as we could, but that when the doctor had to do his work she'd be sleeping and Andrew would be looking over her. She asked where Andrew would be and we said in her heart. She said, no mama. Andrew live outside; not in my heart. She then goes on to ask us where Andrew lives. We say in heaven. And she asks, with Uncle Steve? Yes, we tell her. Oh, okay. That's good they're together she tells us. And then starts to sing the ABCs. It is so wonderful that talking about Andrew is as natural as singing the ABCs. Last Thursday, Aeryn asked when we could go see Andrew. So Mama said we could go Friday after the grocery store. Three times in the store she asked when it would be time to visit Andrew. When we get to the cemetery, she starts yelling WHEE and running down the grass straight to him (There is a huge pinwheel there for him, so I am sure that's what she recognized). Then she starts telling him she loves him and mommy loves him and daddy and Derek too. And then she runs off to sit in the chair (a throne in the Masonic part of the cemetery) like a princess. It’s hard to believe that it’s also been almost three years since we lost our precious Andrew, but Aeryn talking about him and wanting to see him helps us keep him a part of our family even if he isn’t here with us now.

On the day Aeryn had her tubes put in, her Aunt Sara and Uncle Dallas were also at the hospital, welcoming baby Mason into the world! We visited them the next day at the hospital and Aeryn loved holding him (with mama’s help). She was so sweet and gentle and kept patting his head and telling him it was okay (Even though he wasn’t crying). She was quick to tell us that she didn’t want another baby at our house right now, but that it was fun to see baby Mason!

Aeryn’s been swimming twice this summer and she absolutely loves it! She is doing a really great job of learning to kick with her legs and “swim” with her arms. She says she wants to go swimming every day because it’s really, really, really fun! Hard to argue with logic like that!

Next month we’ll have visited Maga and Papa in Florida and Aeryn will have had a birthday. How quickly time flies when you’re so in love and having so much fun!!

Derek's 7 Month Update

2007-05-13T07:04:00.000-05:00

Derek is growing up way too fast! Will someone please tell him to slow down? We’re enjoying baby Derek.. he doesn’t need to be a big boy so soon!

Derek is now sitting up for long stretches and has started trying to sit up on his own when lying down. He is scooting across the floor in short spurts, but isn’t really crawling yet (and that’s okay with Mama and Daddy)!

He no longer wants to sit in any “contraption” but much prefers the floor. No more swing, no more bouncy seat.. but he will hang out in the exersaucer when he feels like it. He has lots of fun playing with his toys.

Derek loves to babble and coo. He loves to sing all the time, although Aeryn finds it frustrating that she can’t tell what song he’s singing!

Food has been a slow process for Derek. He’s not very much into solid foods, which is okay because he’s certainly getting enough milk throughout the day. He LOVES sweet potatoes and thinks carrots are good, but other than that he’s not too crazy about anything. For a few days, he liked bananas and peas, but now he doesn’t want anything to do with them. He absolutely hated apples and peaches. This week we’ll try squash and see what he thinks. It seems this boy is destined to turn orange with all the orange foods he’s eating! He loves playing with an empty spoon and attempting to drink water from his sippy cup. We’re working on showing him how to use a straw, but so far he just enjoys chewing on it.

Our only sickness this month was a virus that caused blisters in his mouth. He ran a little fever and was uncomfortable, but it came and went pretty quickly. We are also finding that Derek has very sensitive skin. He’s not liking the pollen that the dog brings in on his fur. He breaks out easily when he comes in contact with things from outdoors. He comes by it honestly, as his Mama had the same problem as a kid (and still does to a lesser extent), so there’s hope he will outgrow it as well!

Sleeping is a joke right now. He sleeps maybe 2 or 3 hours in his crib and then wants to eat. After that he’s up every hour or so. He also hadn’t been napping at all during the day for a couple of weeks. This week, however, he’s started taking two pretty regular naps during the day and we’re hoping that will help his nighttime sleeping habits as well. At this point, we’re kind of on “survival” mode with letting him co-sleep more because there are only two weeks left of school. Once summer starts, we’re going to see if we can’t get him sleeping longer stretches at night. Hopefully, this phase will be done soon since sleep is the one thing Mama really misses right now!

We had quite a fiesta for cinco de mayo! First, we went to a baby shower for Aunt Sara and Baby Mason. All the cousins were together and Derek loved playing near Fox and watching Aeryn and Maggie have a ton of fun together! After that, we went to a shower for Aunt Amy’s best friend Molly and had a blast there too. We ended the day at a party for Aunt Debbie and Uncle Michael (Queenie and Chief) at their beautiful home. All the kids loved seeing all of the animals at their house!
We’re just about to start summer vacation and Mama can’t wait to be home with Aeryn and Derek all summer. Derek is ready to go out and explore the world and we’re going to do our best to give him a great time!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Keeps head level when pulled to sitting position
Makes some vowel-consonant sounds
Sits by self with minimal support
Opens mouth for spoon
Reaches for and grabs objects
Rolls over and back
Drinks from a cup with help
Can hold bottle
Copies some facial expressions
Makes two-syllable sounds

Aeryn's 34 month update

2007-05-13T07:03:00.000-05:00

Month thirty four has flown by and we find it time to write another update! Aeryn has grown bigger, taller, and gotten sassier this month! Probably smarter, too, but sometimes it’s hard to tell with the attitude our little fireball has!

Aeryn loves to sing. Some of her current favorites are Row, row, row your boat (Manny, Manny, Manny… Like a butter dream!) and This old man (which we couldn’t even begin to type out how she sings it.. but it’s pretty hysterical with the knick knack paddywhack and all). Her ABCs are becoming clearer and more words are starting to show up in familiar favorites like Old MacDonald and The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

The warm weather has been cheerily received by Aeryn! She loves getting to play outside and run around. Her knees tell that she still falls down when she’s running around, but it doesn’t seem to bother her much. She is now into playing “red light, green light” and even though she’s only just beginning to understand the concept of the game, she delights in playing it for hours on end. She’s really mastered her tricycle and loves to peddle it up and down the street. Whenever we go to the store and she sees a little bicycle, she always tells us she wants one, so that may be her next big outdoor skill to master.

We took Aeryn back for her follow up to her ear infections from last month. Sure enough, a new one had already started. We started her on antibiotics and three days later she had a nasty allergic reaction to them. So now she’s got double ear infections, no antibiotics, and is on prednisone (steroids). She’s covered head to toe in a red rash that is sometimes itchy. The poor kid can’t catch a break! We have a referral to the ENT and an appointment on May 29th. They’ll do a hearing test and we’ll discuss how to proceed and whether or not tubes will be necessary.

The daycare hosted a little birthday party for Aeryn this months since her birthday falls over the summer. Aeryn requested an Elmo theme, so that’s what we gave her! She picked the menu, so the kids enjoyed lunchmeat, cheese, and crackers along with grapes, bananas and apples. Apple juice rounded out the menu. And, OF COURSE, we had cupcakes (pupcakes as Aeryn called them). Mama made Elmo cupcakes just for the occasion and they were quite a hit! A few presents and a lot of friends later, everyone was tuckered out from the good time!

It’s hard to believe the school year is over in just two weeks and then Mama will be home for a few months with Aeryn. She’s already got all sorts of plans for things she wants to do and Mama thinks they are some great ideas. We’ll spend lots of time at the library, outside, and just being together. We couldn’t think of a better way to spend our summer!

Derek's Six Month Update

2007-04-15T07:01:00.001-05:00

Derek has had a whirlwind month! First he took a 5 hour car trip to the valley to watch his cousin get baptized. He was amazing in the car and did much better than we feared he would do. He didn’t like it and he wasn’t afraid to let us know, but he didn’t scream the entire time either. While in the valley, cousin Fox showed Derek the art of putting his feet in his mouth and how to pull hair. Derek came home and couldn’t wait to show off these new tricks! He’s been doing it ever since!

His two biggest developments have to be his bottom two front teeth. He cut them shortly after he turned 5 months old. One day he had smooth gums and two days later he had two teeth! He did pretty well cutting them. Of course, he had lots of drool, but he didn’t run temperature for more than a day or two. He is clearly trying to be an efficient baby by getting them two at a time, but Mama and Daddy would prefer that he slow down a little. No need to grow up all at once!

Derek also started sitting up this month. At first, he had a hard time sitting up because every time he sat up, he could see his toes. That would make him launch forward to try to grab them and he’d topple over. Once we covered his toes a couple of times with a blanket, he mastered sitting up and hasn’t had any trouble since! Of course, he doesn’t sit up from lying down on his own yet, but he sure is trying!

We decided to give Derek a taste of solid foods since he turned 6 months old. The first tastes of mashed banana he loved. The next night, he acted like he hated it. We tried rice cereal and he spit it out (he clearly wasn’t a big fan). Then we put some banana in his mesh baby feeder (Think pacifier with mesh end that you can put food in). He gnawed on two pieces of banana and thought it was great. The next day? He HATED it. Looks like he’s just not interested in solids right now. We’ll keep offering him a bite every few days, but we’re not going to push it. It’s just so funny how different from Aeryn he is. She couldn’t wait for the next spoonful of food. He’d rather chew on an empty spoon and let someone else have the food!

Derek also tried the sippy cup this month. He mastered it very quickly and loves having a few sips of water now and then. Aeryn thinks it’s really neat that her brother is big enough to have a “big kid” cup.

At his 6 month appointment, Derek was 25.75 inches long, 16 pounds 5 ounces, and his head circumference was 44.5cm. He’s growing right on target and the doctor says he’s perfect! We knew that, it’s just nice to have some validation!

Derek had a little tummy bug this month that he picked up from his sister. He recovered from it quickly, but the virus also gave him a yucky rash all over his body. It only lasted a few days thought, and thankfully he never seemed bothered by it!

Sleeping has been a difficult thing lately. He is starting to want to nap less and less and even at night is waking many times. It seems like it is all related to teething, tummy bugs, and not wanting to miss anything. He’s making progress in the past week and we’re back to sleeping several hours before his first wake up. We’re hoping the trend will continue and he’ll be sleeping through the night in another month or so.

Derek still idolizes Aeryn and wants to see everything she’s doing. He loves to watch her run around and will listen to her talk for hours. It gives her an audience, so they get along quite well right now! We definitely enjoy watching them interact and hearing them laugh together. There is no sweeter sound than the two of them giggling together (except maybe the sound of silence when they nap at the same time)!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Keeps head level when pulled to sitting position
Makes some vowel-consonant sounds
Sits by self with minimal support
Reaches for and grabs objects
Drinks from a cup with help
Can hold bottle

Aeryn's 33 Month Update

2007-04-15T07:01:00.000-05:00

Aeryn had quite a busy month! We went to the valley to visit Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross (and Maggie and Fox) over Spring Break because Fox was being baptized. The Easter Bunny left an early present which made the 5 hour car trip much more bearable. Good ol’ EB left a portable DVD player for us to take with us. Aeryn had a blast getting to watch her movies in the car. While we were there, Aeryn had tons of fun playing with her cousins and all the other relatives that came for the baptism. She came home talking about nothing but how many weeks until she’d see Maggie again for Easter.

The weekend before Easter, two of Mama’s cousins came to visit. Jenny was in town (from SD) for a conference and her sister Meagan (from Houston) brought her kids and came to see everyone. Aeryn loved playing with Meagan’s 3 boys and getting lots of attention from Mama’s cousins. She keeps asking us to tell those cousins to come back and bring those boys to play in the backyard!

The next weekend was Easter! Sadly, Aeryn did not get to wear her beautiful new Easter dress because it was TOO COLD! Temperatures were in the 40s that weekend and her sundress just wasn’t warm enough! That didn’t keep Aeryn from hunting eggs at her daycare party and at two family get-togethers that weekend. She definitely had the hang of it this year and loved searching for eggs. The Easter Bunny brought her a new game (Elefun) which she loves to play. She’s not very good at it, but she loves watching the butterflies come out of the elephant’s trunk and trying to catch them in her net. She also got an aquadoodle coloring book that she loves coloring in during “quiet times” at church.

Aeryn has sat in church for two Sundays in a row without having to leave to go to the children’s nursery. She’s becoming such a big girl! It’s hard to believe she is so grown up these days.

There was a nasty stomach bug going around right after Spring Break that Aeryn was unfortunate enough to catch. She also had a very bad ear infection last week. We go back in two weeks for a follow up appointment for her ear and to get a referral to an ENT. The doctor thinks it is time we pursue tubes. Aeryn’s had 10 or more ear infections in the last 18 months. So far, it doesn’t seem that there has been any hearing loss or developmental delay, but we want to get things checked out before problems arise not to mention the fact that ear infections hurt and we hate for Aeryn to be in pain!

Aeryn is still enjoying the role of big sister. She’s ever so helpful (sometimes too helpful) with Derek. From feeding to changing to playing, Aeryn wants to be involved. She is such a great big sister. She (generally) is nurturing and kind and encourages Derek to do things like sit up and roll over and crawl.

She’s full of life and vibrancy, this kid. She leaves nothing untouched and even less unsaid. If she’s not asleep (and sometimes even when she is), she’s talking and in constant motion. She’s hard to keep up with, but we’re having more fun than we ever imagined we could!

Derek's 5 month update

2007-03-12T11:37:00.000-05:00

Derek has had a month full of exciting new firsts! He had his first Valentine’s Day where he traded cards and presents with his classmates (although he didn’t really care about it much) and got a new floor playmate from mom and dad. It fills with water so when you shift your weight, the fish “swim” from side to side. Derek really gets a kick out of it!

Derek was 15 pounds 9 ounces at his 4 month appointment (which was late due to a cold last month) and less than 2 weeks later when we went back, he was 15 pounds 15 ounces! Mom and dad were concerned with his breathing, but it turned out to be an ear infection. We knew something wasn’t right from the way he was acting, but the congestion turned out to be nothing more than a little cold. So, Derek’s had his first round of oral antibiotics. He wasn’t too keen on it at first and made the most hilarious disgusted faces as we gave him the medicine.

The little stinker loves to roll over, but only as long as you don’t have a camera or video around to try to catch him doing it. He loves playing on the floor and lying under his play mat (something Aeryn never did enjoy). He grabs at all of the toys and giggles when they spring back up when he lets go. Derek is nearly always full of smiles and laughs. He’s such a happy and easygoing baby. Mom and Dad are definitely lucky!

Sleeping is hit and miss at this point. Sometimes he gets up once around 2 or 3, and sometimes he’s up every hour from 11. The cold and the ear infection definitely didn’t help matters. He’s also due for a growth spurt, so he’s eating more and more at night to get caught up.

He loves to blow raspberries and laugh and has even started doing some primitive babbling and cooing. He sits in his bumbo during mealtimes at home and enjoys being the center of attention. He tolerates his swing when needed (like when mom needs a shower and dad isn’t home), but it’s definitely not his favorite. We’re borrowing an exersaucer from Babu and Poppa right now and he loves that. He gets in it several times in the evening between playing on the floor and being cuddled.

Derek continues to dislike the car seat and as an extension of that, the stroller. Since he was born, he’s probably taken 1 trip in the stroller. Otherwise, he always ends up out of it and back in mom or dad’s arms. He hates it. He, however, does love being in the baby carrier on your chest, so it all works out. He will stay in it for as long as you’ll let him. We often go shopping that way – with Aeryn in the basket and Derek strapped in his carrier. It makes things much easier – as long as you don’t have to do a lot of bending or lifting (and forget trying on clothes)!

Derek is working on sitting up. If you cradle his thighs, he generally will wobble around until he sits up on his own for at least a few seconds. We don’t imagine it will be too much longer before he’s mastered that skill too. He’s more interested in scooting along the floor by pulling his legs way under him and then pushing off. He “crawls” a couple of feet at a time that way. He’s been doing it for a couple of months, but he’s gotten pretty fast at it. It’s going to be hard to keep up with this one when he starts really moving!

Derek’s favorite activity is surely Aeryn. She is a constant source of entertainment to him. Whether she’s singing to him, dancing around him, talking to him, or just running past him, he watches her intently. Even when he’s fussing, he’ll stop to give her a laugh when she comes in the room. She loves him just as much. She’s quick to try to soothe him when he’s upset and loves to kiss and hug on him. They’re bonding so quickly now that he’s getting a little older. We fear this will all come undone when he gets mobile and can take (break) her stuff, but for now, they’re the best of friends!

Derek is growing so quickly. It’s hard to believe that very soon he’ll be starting solids (sometime after six months – once he can sit on his own, has developed a pincer grasp, and loses the tongue thrust). It seems like just yesterday he was born and now he’s already mastering milestones. Next month we’ll have stories about his spring break, his first Easter, and much, much more, we’re sure!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

Raises head and chest when lying on stomach
Supports upper body with arms when lying on stomach
Stretches legs out and kicks when lying on stomach or back
Opens and shuts hands
Pushes down on his legs when his feet are placed on a firm surface
Brings hand to mouth
Takes swipes at dangling objects with hands
Grasps and shakes hand toys

Aeryn's 32 Month Update

2007-03-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

As Papa is fond of calling her, Aeryn is quite a fireball. She’s gotten quite independent and quite decisive over the past month (just when we thought she couldn’t get any more of either)! From getting a glass of water to turning on the television, Aeryn wants to do it herself. She doesn’t want help, but will come and tell you to do something for her if she finds she can’t reach it. She’s just very TWO right now and we’re all enjoying it as much as we can (and secretly hoping it won’t last forever).

Aeryn’s had two ear infections in the last month, so that has definitely not helped her mood and attitude. She seems to be getting over the second more quickly, however, and for that the whole family is rejoicing.

She enjoyed Valentine’s Day with her friends and had a great little party at Daycare. She got a special red Elmo baseball cap from Mama and Dad and she gets a kick out of wearing it around the house. She loves to give you a hug and tell you “Happy Valentine’s Day” … even though it’s been several weeks! Now, she’s gearing up for Easter. She’s got a pretty dress and hat and can’t wait to hunt for eggs. She’s already asking Mama to get down the Easter baskets.

Aeryn loves to entertain DeggieLee. She will sing, dance, read, clap, play, and run in circles for him. She has taken to giving him hugs and kisses and telling him “I love you, DeggieLee!” It’s very heartwarming to hear and so cute to watch. They’re going to be best friends, you can tell.. at least until he starts taking her toys!

We’re just about ready to say Aeryn’s officially potty trained. She has maybe one accident per week, and we’re only using pull ups at night (and even those are dry most mornings). It will be awhile before she’s out of them at night because mom and dad don’t want to take any chances. It’s amazing to think of her as grown up enough to use the potty full time. It seems like just yesterday we were laughing at how the newborn diapers swallowed her up. How quickly things change!

Aeryn has started calling us “Mom” and “Dad” instead of “Mama/Mommy” and “Daddy.” This is a change that’s a little hard for Mama. It’s not that we want her to be little forever, it’s just that she doesn’t need to hurry so much! Dad’s not thrilled with the fact that Aeryn has started calling him “Brian” when she wants something. She’s such a character.

Aeryn loves talking on the phone these days and wants to have a turn to listen (she doesn’t always do much talking) every time the phone rings. In the car, she likes to pretend to call people and talk to them. This past month, she’s been “calling” her aunts and uncles a lot. She can’t wait for the chance to see everyone and play with her cousins Maggie and Fox.

Next month is full of spring break, Easter, and visits with lots of family. We can’t wait to share the stories with everyone!

Derek's 4 Month Update

2007-02-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

Derek is turning out to be quite the charmer! He has the daycare ladies wrapped around his finger, for sure! He definitely loves all the attention and has a great time getting loved on while he plays all day. Mama loves seeing him so happy and content while she has to be away from him. Mama has worked it out so she goes twice a day to feed Derek while he’s at daycare and then he gets a bottle at the third feeding. It’s so great to be so close all day!

He got to experience his first ice/”snow” storm last month. Mom and Dad weren’t keen on exposing him to the cold air much since he’d been sick so much before Christmas, but he got to feel the cold when the door opened so Aeryn could go outside. He would pull up his feet and make faces whenever the cold air touched him. He’s just so expressive and cute!

Derek’s had a cold for the last week, so we rescheduled his next doctor’s appointment for the 19th. We want to make sure he’s a “well baby” when he goes in for his well baby appointment and 4 month shots. So, we don’t have exact stats yet, but we can promise that he’s grown bigger and taller and stronger. He certainly never misses a meal!

Derek continues to sleep pretty well. He’s getting up 2-3 times a night, but the first time he gets up is getting later and later, so we’re pleased with his progress. Sometimes he even waits until close to 4:00 before waking up! Most of the time it’s about 1:30, but it’s definitely progress over the 11:30 it was for awhile this month! Being stuffed up with his cold really threw off his sleep schedule, but he seems to be getting back into a good routine now.

Derek continues to enjoy watching the ceiling fan, swinging in his swing, and sitting in his bumbo during mealtimes. He is tolerating tummy time more and more and lifts his head way up these days. He still doesn’t want to roll over, but he gets so close before he stops that Mama thinks he’s just teasing her!

He loves smacking his lips and blowing raspberries any chance he gets. In fact, he even does it in his sleep. He has an infectious belly laugh that we try to hear every chance we get! He’s such a little ham and loves getting attention he’ll laugh and smile and talk for a good long while these days!

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

* Kicks and straightens legs when on back

* Opens and shuts hands

* Pushes down with legs when placed on a hard surface

* Reaches for dangling objects

* Grasps and shakes hand toys

* Tracks moving objects

* Begins to imitate sounds

* Begins to develop hand-eye coordination

* Brings both hands together

* Kicks legs energetically

* Holds head up with control

* Sleeps about six hours at night before waking (total sleep typically 14 to 17 hours)

* Lifts head up 90 degrees

* Can follow a moving object for a 180-degree arc

* Explores objects with his mouth

* Recognizes a bottle or breast

* Responds to a rattle or bell

Aeryn's 31 Month Update

2007-02-11T11:35:00.000-06:00

Aeryn’s continued on her trend of becoming a big girl right in front of our eyes! She’s now 31.5 pounds and 36.5 inches tall. That’s 58th percentile in height and 75th in weight. For the first 18 months, Aeryn was 10th percentile or less in both. So crazy that she’s all caught up these days!

Aeryn’s phrase of the month is “two more minutes.” If you ask her to go to the potty, she’ll tell you “in two more minutes.” Same thing when you ask her to sit at the table, clean up, or go to bed. So funny! She continues to be “spirited” which is just Mama and Daddy’s nice way of saying she’s very much TWO.

She had great fun in the great “ice/snow” storm that hit mid January. She got to play outside and even make a few snowballs. We really enjoyed having 5 days to spend all together as a family. By the end, though, we were all ready to get out of the house we needed a break before we went stir crazy. She definitely liked the ice, but wasn’t too happy that it continued to be cold afterwards and she couldn’t go out and play in it.

Aeryn’s favorite book this month is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She reads it to anyone who will sit still long enough to listen to it (so Derek gets to hear it a lot when he’s eating and therefore so does Mama). She even makes up voices for characters. So cute!

“Counting” in Spanish is one of Aeryn’s new hobbies this month. She will yell UNO! And then want you to say the words so she can repeat them. Invariably, it goes like this: “uno, dos, tles, taco, cinco, says, spaghetti!” Then she gets so proud of herself and walks around beaming. We don’t have the heart to tell her that’s not quite how it goes. Besides, it provides us with a lot of entertainment!

Derek is inundated with sisterly love these days. Especially at daycare, she loves to give attention to her baby brother. She either calls him one of his nicknames (big guy, little man, big strong boy) or Derek Lee. Never just Derek. It’s just so cute!

Aeryn’s taken a keen interest in cooking this month and has been very ‘helpful’ in the kitchen. She loves making cookies and helping get things out of the cabinet. She’s not very patient, so she doesn’t stick with it very long, but it’s fun to have a helper in the kitchen even for just a few minutes!

Aeryn’s been working really hard at potty training. It seems we can have one or the other. We finally got her to make doots on the potty, and now she’s tinkling in her pull-ups again. Hopefully soon, she’ll get it all evened out and do all her business in the potty. The presents that Maga and Papa sent for her to open whenever she uses the potty for her doots have been a great incentive to using the potty at home. At daycare, she has had one accident all month. She definitely knows what to do and when to do it, but she’s just not generalizing it to home very well yet. Maybe next month!

Aeryn had double ear infections this month, so we’re hoping next month will bring a well toddler. Nothing fun about being sick when you’re two, that’s for sure!

Derek's 3 Month Update

2007-01-16T11:34:00.000-06:00

Month 3 was full of all kinds of excitement for Derek Lee! The weekend after his 2 month checkup, Derek had another fever. After attempting to make an appointment with the minor emergency/after hours clinic, we were told to take him directly to the Children’s ER again. So Mom loaded Derek in the car and Dad stayed with Aeryn until Babu and Poppa got to the house and then headed up to the ER. After several hours, four attempts at an IV/blood draw, an antibiotics shot, and a spinal tap, it was determined that he had a virus and would be okay. The tests (including the spinal tap) are standard of practice in an infant Derek’s age because if it had been a bacterial infection, by the time symptoms other than fever present, it’s sometimes too late to do anything. It took another week or so, but Derek is finally back to his charming little self again!

Derek had a great first Christmas! He really enjoyed playing with his cousins and being loved on by the whole family. Maga and Papa were here for a week and he had a blast being loved and spoiled! After that, he spent several days at Babu and Poppa’s and enjoyed being MORE spoiled! He really enjoys the life of luxury, that’s for sure! Naturally, Derek wasn’t much into presents this year, but where he lacked enthusiasm, Aeryn made it up in spades! She opened every present for him this year and loved showing him all his new loot. He, of course, loved her attention and smiled and cooed every time she came close!

Our “Big Guy,” as Aeryn likes to call him, was 13 ½ pounds at the doctor’s office on the 18th of December. He fits into 3-6 month clothes these days and has graduated into a size 3 diaper. Truth be told, he could probably fit into the 2s still, but not for an entire box, so he moved up.

He’s still sleeping well from about 8:30 to 2:30 and 3:00 to 5:00 (when the alarm goes off). We’ve had a couple nights where he’s wanted to nurse all night long, but he’s due a growth spurt, so who can blame him? He starts out in the bassinet each night and sometimes even makes it back after his 2:30 feeding, but most of the time he crashes out in the big bed with Mom and Dad and sleeps there. He’s gotten less cuddly during the night this month, but still loves to be cuddled during the day, so we’re okay with it!

Derek will sit in the swing or bouncy chair, but really prefers lying on the floor (on his back) staring at the ceiling fan, or sitting in his Bumbo chair. He’s not much for tummy time, but will tolerate it long enough to almost roll over (thus getting Mama really excited) and then start fussing.

Derek’s mastered a lot of other developmental skills this month, including:

* Tracks objects with his eyes

* May repeat vowel noises, such as "ah" or "ooh"

* Raises head and chest when put on tummy

* Lifts head up 45 degrees

* Kicks and straightens legs when on back

* Opens and shuts hands

* Pushes down with legs when placed on a hard surface

* Reaches for dangling objects

* Grasps and shakes hand toys

* Tracks moving objects

* Begins to imitate sounds

* Recognizes familiar objects and people, even at a distance

* Begins to develop a social smile

* Begins to develop hand-eye coordination

* Brings both hands together

* Interested in circular and spiral patterns

* Kicks legs energetically

* Holds head up with control

Month four is shaping up to be just as exciting. We can’t wait to share the details!