Just Wanted to Say...

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Jaedyn wanted to know why the flags were up. It was an interesting discussion explaining the "fight" we had for our country. How it was a good thing that people were fighting because bad men wanted to take our country and our freedom. She's big into the choice thing right now... I had to explain that they didn't want to let us make choices. She got that part at least. I'm thankful. And she will be too one day.

4 year old Conversations

Driving home from the babysitters tonight:

Jaedyn: I want to die
Me: (suppressing natural instinct to exclaim "what?!?") Why's that Jaedyn?
Jaedyn: I want to be with Jesus
Me: (What a bittersweet comment) That would be nice, wouldn't it? But you know what?
Jaedyn: What?
Me: Mommy would miss you a lot if you went to be with Jesus
Jaedyn: Would I spend the night?
Me: Yes Jaedyn, if you went to be with Jesus you would be with him for a long time, and Mommy would miss you.
   
Where do they come up with this stuff?!? Just an innocent childish conversation but it seriously caused me some anxiety! How sad it is, that little 4 year olds die! That little children are torn from the arms of their loved ones every day! What a heart-rending experience! I couldn't bare it! My heart and soul ache for those parents. I often catch myself pondering all of the "what ifs" in life. Confession: I'm a little bit afraid of the trials of parenting!

PG-13

(May contain crude humor) 

In my last post I mentioned that Natalie and Jane came along with Valerie and Luis for a little visit. It was so fun to have them. True to fashion... I didn't get many pictures, but I did get some!

Jaedyn and Jane got to have a true sleep over. This was so much fun. Granted, they didn't fall asleep for like an hour and a half after they were put in bed, but they did stay in bed. Victory! And who could shush them? There was so much laughter we just couldn't find it in our hearts, especially when they just don't get to do this sorta thing very often.

 The criminals in bed. Right as I took the picture Jaedyn opened her eyes and asked "mom, why are you checkin on us?" FLASH. "Mom, why are you taking a picture?" "uh.... g'night!"

Saturday morning Natalie and I ran a 5k, Valerie a 10k (sucker!) in Smithfield. It was cooold! But fun. No pix. sorry. Even if I had them, I probably wouldn't post them cuz I'm guessing I'd look more like I was walking than running :)

 Olive and Lilia in the tub. What's a little cousin time without the naked shots?

 Couldn't resist this one. haha I love my little smiley girl! And she looooves the water!

Jaedyn blowing bubbles at the bday party!

Cute family!

More bubbles! (Natalie, I love this picture of Jane!)

Little Olive... what a sweet baby!

The siblings (+2)

Side story: This post wouldn't be complete without a little reference to the dinner time fun that Jane and Jaedyn had the first night. Over a plate of sweet and sour meatballs Jane says "Chicken butt!" So Jaedyn sings "Santa Clause is coming... to fart!" the 2 were busting up. Ok, so were the adults. This talk went on throughout the entire span of dinner. I hardly remember tasting the food due to the entertainment. oh boy.

And Natalie, I told Jaedyn what Jane said to her swim instructor. She thought that was just hilarious! She still will be sitting around and randomly bust up and repeat "Jane said Chicken fart! hahahahahaha"

Drawing... sorta

Since Jaedyn has been a little less than interested in drawing, we tried something new. And a bit messier.

A little flour, a small plate, and a sleeved bib.

Check out her drawing! No really, you have no idea what a huge accomplishment this was for this girl!

We were originally going to practice the letter J but she had other ideas :) oh well.

The point is... she enjoyed drawing something! For maybe the first time ever!

Meanwhile, what was Lilia up to? I had this great idea of having her practice too. Placing magnets in and out of the bowl. She enjoyed the activity for a bit, and then...

Fine motor skills?

What fun is that?

If you watch carefully...

You'll see my new trick!

TADA!!

Look Who's FOUR!

Holy moly! She's growing up faaaaaast! But I have to say, so far I LOVE four! She's been such a sweetheart and so helpful! And man can this kid talk! She's so expressive and it's fun not just to sit and listen to her talk, but to sit and WATCH her talk! hehe. Love this girl!

Jaedyn requested a BUBBLE party this year. And was very specific on the decor... purple frosting and pink bubbles. What the ?!? Luckily a girl from work saved me with a ball pan and I was able to sorta make a "bubble cake" Good thing I added the wand, otherwise you would have been clueless :)

 The cake was supposed to be a surprise but Chad forgot and let Jaedyn get into the fridge before the party.  She overheard my exclamations in the next room when I realized what was happening. So her Daddy explained why Mommy was yelling. hehe. She asked me later if she should act surprised for her cake and covered her eyes with her hands when I took it out for the party. Cute.

 I really can't believe all the things this girl can do now! She loves to sit and have books read to her, ride her trike (she'll ride to the park about a mile away, honk if you think she should be on a bike! - I keep trying to convince Chad). This kid is a maniac in the water and loooooves going to the park, her favorite would be a toss up b/w the tall twisty slide and the baby swings. Ha! yup, she still prefers the baby swings. She's starting to look ginormous in them! 

Jaedyn is an awesome helper around the house with garbages and putting dishes away, has started helping with meals and setting the table, helps a little with folding laundry (she loses interest in this activity pretty quickly- I won't push it), she makes her bed every morning without being asked, and loves to grab things her sister needs (especially the binkie, dang it- I'm really trying to keep it away except for bedtime/naptime). She's really good at cleaning messes up too whether it be toys or spilled food.

Jaedyn has a lot of energy and loves to use it! We're learning healthy ways to get the energy out like clapping, jumping, clasping hands and pushing together really hard til her arms are tired (currently her favorite) especially when she's around Lilia. It helps decrease some of her left over 3 year old aggression :) Having this birthday has provided us some new teaching tools as well. We often tell her, "Jaedyn 4 year olds dont..." or "4 year olds do..." and she listens! It's awesome!

I'm also currently reading Love and Logic for Toddlers on my... wait for it, wait for it... Kindle! That Chad got me for Mother's day (love you Chad!). It is an awesome program that I'm really kicking myself for not familiarizing myself with sooner! I've started implementing a lot of the techniques and it has been a really positive experience! For myself and for Jaedyn... even a bit for Lilia. 

 Uh... so back to the party! We essentially just had a yard party. Jaedyn invited her friends from the babysitters; Milo, Lucas, and Quinny. We also invited her friends Kaden, Luke, and Evan. But the best part was that her cousin Jane got to come  all the way from Colorado! Yay! Aunt Natalie, Aunt Valerie, and Uncle Luis came as well as Grandma and Grandpa Boyd. It was a full yard! We had pizza, trampoline fun, Blew bubbles, had a ball toss (you know, giant bubbles? alright it was a stretch but I wanted decor that could go home with the kids and be used, not streamers or balloons that get trashed), cake and ice-cream and opened presents. 

 These were such a cool gift, little hand painted princesses and princes from Disney movies that fit into the little box shown. She loves them! Thank you Grandma Tina! She got quite the load of gifts this year. I told her we were going to have to pull out some old toys and take them to other kids cuz there's so much now. She was a little confused :)

This is the toy that has currently been out of the toy box the most. This is a little porcelain tea set from her cousin Jane. She literally pulls it out at least 3 times a day and we all take turns playing "tea" with her. She always tells me we're drinking apple juice. Check out the pinky!

All of the gifts really were a perfect fit for her. She also got a magnet wooden doll from Milo (modern day equivalence to paper dolls- where you get to change the outfit), a bucket of popsicles and bubbles from Lucas and Quinny, a big jar of bubbles and wands from Luke and Kaden, Eugene from Mom and Dad, a slushy make from Lilia, various cards from Grandmas/grandpas/aunts/uncles, Princess dominoes and a swimming suit from Uncle Luis and Aunt Valerie, and a beautiful baby picture from Grandma Tina, and a lego girl on a 4 wheeler (also a favorite) from Evan. What fun!

Creepy Crawlies

Check out what I found nesting in my bean sprouts! 

Scared the jeebers outta me!

It's Jaedyn's littlest petshop iguana!

 haha. 

Little goober!

Master Chad

2 Bachelor's and a Master's later...

 The kids did amazing during the graduation. In part due to Grandmas who are entertaining and in part due to snacks. Especially considering... no naps, 2.5 hours long AND it started 30 min late... what??

 She truly is her father's daughter :)

 Jaedyn's souvenir... a tassle!

Chad with his parents

Congratulations Babe! We're so proud of you!

That Girl's Tongue!

Growth Stats

 I took both the girls in for their well child checks today. One of the benefits of having such close birthdays I guess. It was an interesting visit.

I was sure Lilia had been packing on the pounds this time and was interested to see her numbers go up. They didn't. In fact, I got asked if Lilia likes food... I had to laugh. She'll eat anything, edible or not. She's small but she definitely has a healthy amount of pork on her!

Jaedyn is hovering at average. Which really is amazing considering her parents. But the disinterest Jaedyn shows for picking up a pen is no longer "not a big deal". This was something I brought up at her 3 year visit cuz all the other little kids seemed to be fascinated with this activity and Jaedyn just wasn't interested. I was told not to push it. So I haven't.

You know those questionnaires you fill out at the pediatric office? Yeah, the ones that are designed to stress parents out and make them feel like they're a solar system failure so they'll step it up? hehe. Actually I look at some of the questions and think "I don't know if they can do that, I've never tried that with them before. shoot. (great example: "does your child poke at a cheerio inside a clear plastic bottle and try to get it out?" Um... gee... Why didn't I think to try that before I came here today?" Tangent. Sorry.

1/2 the questionnaire this time seemed to be in regards to writing skills. My child has none. zip. zero. She won't look at a pen or crayon, let alone pick one up. She's just not interested. Chad keeps telling me preschool is unnecessary for her. I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea for her. 

Thoughts?

Lilia Karolee 1 year

Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz (5th %)

Height: 27 in (4th %)

Head circ: 47cm (90%) surprising she doesn't weigh more!

I was also told not to even think about a forward facing car seat for a while :)

Wasn't gonna...

Jaedyn Cronin 4 years (almost)

Weight: 35 lbs (50%)

Height: 40 in (50%)

No measurement on the head but this kid has been in 5T hats since she was 2! 

She gets her kindergarten shots next time! Yikes, how time flies!

Stinkin Cute Storytime!

Lilia turns ONE!

What a day of mixed emotions for me! I can't believe how much Lilia has grown! When Jaedyn turned one I was very excited. When Lilia turned one... not so much. Weird. I was stating this very obvious discrepancy and inconsistency in my emotions and was told that maybe it's because NOW I realize how fast it really goes. Maybe.

Lilia has been such a sweet sweet little baby. She is the smiliest thing I've ever seen. She's very laid back and goes with the flow so to speak. She's sweet with her big sister and gives such wonderful loves to her Daddy. She is quite the little kisser and if she feels like it... will blow kisses to anyone... multiple ones! 

She's just discovered a new trick this last week... standing without holding on to anything. Boy is she proud of herself. She'll let go and we'll cheer and she gets the biggest grin on her face. What a trick!

She loves being outdoors and loves the tub. She hates getting out of the tub and hates sippy cups. She loves her bottle and loves anything food. She really will eat anything... even if it's not edible.

She still has her toothless smile that I looooooove so much!

She has sweet, chubby, kissable cheeks.

She melts my heart.

I love her dearly.

 Lilia's cousin, Destiny came to the party, saw the cake and said, "Something is fishy about this party". I had a good laugh.

 Here's my girl with her classic smile. I really can't get enough of it!

 Cake Face! Don't ask me how she got it. Silly girl very daintily picked at the frosting. That was it!

So far, I think Jaedyn has had more fun on Lilia's toy than she has... but I'm sure it won't be long before they're fighting over it!

San Diego, California!

Trip to San Diego- originally planned for March 14-27, though due to some unforseen and unfortunate circumstances, extended through the 29th.

It's actually funny that we ended up in San Diego. My boss took us all to the AAD conference which was one week after Chad finished his externship. Hoo-raw... let's make a vacation of it! So we did. The funny part is that that happens to be where we vacationed right after I finished school 5 years ago. Our family has changed a bit since then.

 We drove to Las Vegas and stayed with my brother before finishing the trip to San Diego. This was the girls favorite game during the trip. They did SO great! We're blessed with good travelers (and a shout out to mobile DVD players!)

I could kick myself. I didn't get many pictures from our time with cousins... except for this ONE, how does that happen?

 This is where Jaedyn and Lilia spent a lot of time together. This stroller has been such a great investment... We love it! The kids do too... most of the time.

 Alright, hilarious story starring this elephant at the San Diego Zoo.

 And this elephant

 And this elephant. Ok they're all the same elephant. Jaedyn was walking under the elephant and looked up at it's underbelly. "Mommy, what's that?" uh...

gosh...

The rest of the zoo trip she was obsessed by the question of gender. She asked me literally every single animal, "Is that one a boy or a girl?"

The worst part was when we were viewing the rhinos and one of them was... happy? It really was embarrassing as she's asking loudly, we're ignoring, and people all around are laughing. Ok, I wasn't really ignoring... I was waiting for Chad to answer and apparently he was waiting for me to. Not our best parenting moment.

Nothing can put you on the spot quite like your child!

 Haha, Chad was watching me blog and pointed out that all our pictures are with the fake animals! Hmmm... why did we go all the way to San Diego? Or did we? 

Nope. The story was definitely about this elephant.

 She left this on until it naturally came off... it was like 4 days!

 The beach... looks beautiful huh?

 Looks warm Huh?

 Don't be fooled

 While Logan was enjoying nice random March temperatures in the 70s... San Diego had dipped to the 40s and 50s! Unbelievably ripped off. That's how we felt.

 Chad had such a fun idea and in preparation for our trip went to the dollar store and picked up some seashells. He then scattered them discretely and haphazardly on the beach and Jaedyn had a delightful time finding shells. She kept asking to go back to the "shell beach". 

 Sea World's Atlantis ride. Jaedyn wanted so badly to ride this one but the booger at the ride said she was too short. Boo. So we had lots of fun playing at the base of the ride and running from the rain.

 The lines at Disneyland were ridiculous! Ugh, Spring break is apparently not the time to go to the parks... which by the way is the entire month of March. But we did get on a few rides.

 And we got to meet a few princesses which Jaedyn was ecstatic about. It was adorable, the first 2 princesses she'd never heard of but she knew they were princesses and was thrilled to get her picture taken with them. She even stood in line for over an hour, very well behaved, just to say hi.

 The grin on her face when she saw who the last princess was, was priceless. This one she knew without a doubt!

 And, my favorite (no line) was walking randomly around and we got to just walk right up and say hello. It was wonderful especially because Jaedyn had been asking to see Arora and poof! There she was. Disneyland really is a magical place :)

A lot of fun... never again in March. As I'm blogging about this in May... Jaedyn is still talking about the trip. I think it was a hit with her.

We left Anaheim Sunday afternoon and drove to Vegas to stay the night once again with my brother. A few hours after arriving is when Chad went from jovial conversation on the couch to writhing in pain on the floor within a matter of minutes. No precipitating symptoms. I did a few tests on him and to his chagrin, mashed on his belly a bit. He began shaking uncontrollably and going pale. We loaded him in the car and took off to the ER suspecting that he had appendicitis.

When we got to the ER, after about 15 minutes, Chad began to feel better. He still walked a bit gingerly but was feeling foolish for the emergency visit. I specifically remember him stating something about "just a gas bubble". HA... that's some explosive gas! I've never seen gas have that impact on someone! But he talked me into taking him back home! Can you believe it? This is why they say "avoid treating family". You're too much involved to make a good call. I asked myself after the fact, looking back on things, if Chad had been my patient and not my husband, and presented with a story like his there's not a shadow of doubt the call I would've made, the testing I would have ordered and the recommendation I would have made. But alas, sigh.

We stayed up for several hours that night monitoring for fevers, which were low grade and gauging the level of pain. 3 am we decided to call it a night. 7 am the kids awoke and I kept my eye on Chad. 7:30 we were headed back to the ER. I'd had enough of him doubting me and making excuses.

The rest of the story is history. Chad had ruptured his appendix and went in for an emergency appendectomy. Some emergency, they finally operated on him at about 12:30. He did well in recovery and we drove home a couple of days later. Thanks for extending the vacation Chad... uh, next time lets do it a little differently :)

Looking back on things I'm very grateful for the timing of everything. Had we been a few short hours earlier he could've been behind the wheel on a highway in the middle of nowhere. A day before we would have been in San Diego, with no clue where the hospital was and hauling our kids around for all the excitement. As it happened, my brother drove us straight to the hospital and my wonderful sister-in-law stayed with the kids. I'm thankful, the timing was a sure blessing! Thank you family for all your help!

But if it's not an emergency, I don't recommend surgery in Las Vegas... talk about inflation! Whew! The grand total for the hospital alone (not including the surgeon's bill) was over $33,000 and that was just a 2 day stay! Thank you insurance for preventing bankruptcy!