She's so lucky...

I didn't give it to her good. Kiersten had a near brush with death yesterday. The kids' wanted me to set up the tent outside, but is not a job I can manage when they are playing around me while I do it. I say playing around me, but you all know I mean messing with the tent as I am working on it. :) Anyhow, I came back inside to find a bouquet of flowers by the front door- inside. I knew immediately that Kiersten had heard the doorbell and, while I was outside, opened it herself and received the delivery. All three kids' were right there in the living room and could have been taken or hurt or...... the imagination and reality of all that could have happened left me speechless. I didn't know what to do to punish her. I have since put a child proof door handle thing on and she is no longer able to get the mail for me. Needless to say the flowers didn't brighten my day as they were intended to!

My First!!!

I found my first gray hair! :) I have no idea how long it has been there, but I saw it! They tend to blend in a little with my hair, at least for now. I am hoping that I will favor my dad and have lots of gray hair or that I will favor my dad's mom and have that sweet looking 'white' hair. I am not sure if my hair color is dark enough to have that very distinguished look with gray....time will tell. Nevertheless it is a milestone of sorts. One that definitely lets me know I have entered my thirties! :)

Sisterly Love

Kiersten is quite taken with the Katie-girl. Not only does she want to hold her and love on her, except when she is crying, of course, but now she wants a baby doll! Now for those of you who don't know Kiersten all that well she has been extremely adverse to baby dolls. She cried about 2 stuffed ones being in her room last year and wouldn't go back up until I took them away. So, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when she says she wants to play with her baby doll! I had to tell her I gave them all away and she pouted. :) Her birthday is coming up next month and I told her maybe she would get one for a present. I have been looking at those American Girl bitty baby dolls, so we'll see. Anyhow, I found it rather amusing that Katie joins the family and now we have an interest in playing with dolls. That is the power of sisterly love :)

Officially a big girl

Well, it is official. Kiersten is a big girl..... she lost her 1st tooth yesterday. She had to have some help, mind you. When we went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned last week they suggested putting some baby ambesol on her gums before 'wiggling' it out. That worked like a charm. I had to get Kiersten's attention to show her I had pulled the tooth. Her other tooth is already so far up it doesn't even look like she lost a tooth! (It is her bottom left tooth- you can see the bumpy top of the new tooth.)

We had been talking about the tooth fairy and when she went to bed she reminded me we needed to put the tooth under her pillow. A few minutes later I hear her crying up in her bed, so I go to investigate what the problem is. Turns out she doesn't want the tooth fairy to take her tooth! :) I did my best not to laugh - the things that distress when we are little! So, we ended up taking the tooth out from underneath her pillow. I let her know if it wasn't under the pillow the tooth fairy would not be taking it. I also told her that no tooth means no money. I think she wanted to show it to Daddy. He was away at a business dinner last night and didn't return until after she was asleep. We'll have to see how this one plays out. ( She did ask me this morning if the tooth fairy was real or not and I had to say I don't know. I couldn't lie!!! Why do they ask these questions?!)

The deception has begun....

In light of duodenal issues mentioned in the previous post, I decided it was time I took a more serious look at my deceptively delicious cookbook. I had gotten it for Christmas and looked at it then but hadn't been real serious about it. I made a commitment to make 1 meal this week where I incorporated hidden veggies - lasagna. I didn't make the recipe in the book but took the suggestion for the veggies and put them in the lasagna that I normally make. The cauliflower is a little harder to hide taste-wise than the sweet potatoes, but both were masked quite well! Even my husbandry, who knew what was in there, couldn't really taste the difference. :) Yeah.

It was funny too, because I was making the purees earlier today and Kiersten kept asking me what we were having for dinner (she asks early in the day so she has plenty of time to decide she isn't going to have any!). I told her lasagna - one her favorites. She was curious what I was up to though and kept asking me about it. I just told her she need not worry and did everything else behind her back. Ah, the beauty of deception....... well at least the healthy kind! :)

I thought we were past this!

I could have sworn I potty trained Kiersten many a year ago now. I guess we are going around again. Now, just to clarify, Kiersten is potty trained. She took to it well when she first learned but struggled with going poop on the toilet. (Sorry for the bathroom talk, but I just had to write about it!) She would constantly say she didn't 'want' to go. Not she didn't 'have' to go. It was a battle of the wills.

Well, last weekend she as having trouble going - partially because she hasn't been drinking her liquids and partially a diet issue. Nevertheless she became quite scared and couldn't go even after trying. She was sweating and shaking a little so I have to pull out the 'ol hinder medicine, as we call it around here (a.k.a. an enema), to help her out. Sure enough problem solved and a much happier and healthier little girl emerged.

As the week progresses we realize she hasn't gone poop all week- and it is the following Saturday. Knowing we have a potential big problem on our hands we give her the talk and then some time to try and go on the toilet. She refuses because she is scared from last weeks experience. Once again I had to pull out the hinder medicine and things are better. Later on that evening we are at the zoo, my Beloveds company picnic, and she says she isn't feeling so well. Then she tells my husbandry she wants to go home and lay down in bed! (Words she tried that very morning to get out of sitting on the toilet and taking care of business.) My beloved quickly catches on to the fact that she needs to go to the bathroom and just doesn't want to. So she and I proceeded to nearest bathroom where we battled it out- and of course I won. Once again a happy little girl emerges feeling much better.

What is it with the bowel movements?! So here were are 3 years later fighting the same battle we did just after Isaiah was born. I hope this is a quickly passing fear and phase!

Getting too big too fast...

Kiersten is just about to lose her first tooth! I can hardly believe it. It seems like such a big girl thing for such a little girl to be going through :( Oh well, I suppose the baby makes me nostalgic for the days when the KK girl was just as small. It is true that you remember things as if they happened just yesterday. I can clearly recall the day she was born and vividly see the people and details surrounding that day. Anyhow, it isn't only one tooth, it is both her front bottom teeth that are loose. You can already see the other teeth peeking up behind them! Amazing. I'll definitely be posting her first picture without her teeth. I told her to be sure to tell me when she lost them so that I could call up the tooth fairy to let her know she needed to make a stop that night!

Look at all that hair!

The Katie-girl has a nice amount of hair. I had mentioned this to Mom and several other family members but was remiss in getting a picture that showed her mop of hair. Here she is showing off her locks.She is doing really well and is giving me a fair amount of sleep each night. I definitely cannot complain. We are still adjusting to having her here. I haven't ventured out too many times just yet with all three. We are going to try to resume the weekly park dates with the other mom's from church this week as well as school for Kiersten. We'll see how that goes. I am trying to finish up the kindergarten material we have before the Fall so she can begin the 1st grade- this is the jam you are in when you start in January. Lucky for me she doesn't know that she is doing school when all the other kids' aren't! She just doesn't know any better :)

Isaiah is doing O.K. with Katie. He has his moments when he is not happy that I am holding her or feeding her. I did manage to get a picture of him with little sister and smiling.

Time will tell with these two. Whoa to her when she gets to the point she can touch and take his cars!

Well, I need to run. I'll try not to let it get so long in between posts! Have a wonderful day :)