Monday, June 16, 2008

It will be well worth the wait!

I do apologize for being so long since my last post, but we have been super busy. Matthew began his summer vacation (two weeks long) on May 16th, and off we headed for Elkhart, IN. We had a great visit with the Northern folk. Matthew and I did some "yard saling" on Saturday just the two of us; it was the closest we've come to a date since before Sydney was born, and it was fun. Of course, we only came home with stuff for the girls! Sunday we had a great day of worship and fellowship at the Willowdale chruch of Christ. There was a fellowship meal after the morning service so we had some extra time to visit with friends and family. Then, after the evening worship we reunited with our former Sunday night family, Mike and Jeanne and the girls, for some marvelous chili. On Monday we took the girls to the park and had a picnic and played on a playground. Kaylee had a blast! Which is was good because we took her to Chuck E Cheese on Tuesday to celebrate her birthday and she did not have a blast. Every ride I would buckle her in, drop a token, and away she went of wailing and gnashing of teeth, "I want off. Get me out! Make it stop." Now, I know I am known for exaggerating, but folks, I am not being liberal with how much Kaylee detested the rides at Chuck E Cheese! We finally found some game where she tried to catch fish that she enjoyed but otherwise she played in the toddler area where things did not move around and seat belts were not necessary. She did get some lovely gifts and thoroughly enjoyed the pizza and cupcakes! Then on Wednesday, we made the trip back to Indy, where we did some laundry and tried to rest up for our next trip. On Thursday, Matthew met with his advisor and discussed his future, which apparently looks bright! Who knew? I spent the day repacking and on Friday morning we headed to Hohenwald, TN for the Memorial Day Weekend. We arrived in the early afternoon and enjoyed eating dinner with everyone. My sister and her husband came in as well as my brother's girlfriend, Ashley. It's always so nice to have everyone home. On Saturday, we spent a large part of the day with my dad's family, getting time to visit my grandparents. Sunday we enjoyed worshipping with the Lomax congregation, even getting to see some very old friends, which was great! Kaylee of course, opened some more gifts and may now be convince that her birthday is like Hanukkah and goes on for several weeks. On Memorial Day, we enjoyed some more visiting with the Salisbury family and even played some tennis. Then, on Tuesday, we had to head back to Indy to spend a few days at home before Matthew returned to work.
It was so great to have extended visits with our family. Our trips north and south are always so much nicer when there's no rush to return home. We were so grateful for the showing of hospitality at both homes and thrilled to spend so much time with family.
On Wednesday, we took Kaylee back to her eye doctor for a check up. Her prescription was the same, so no improvement but no change for the worse either. She did participate much better with the doctor and what he asked her to do, so he was pleased. He thinks that the way her eye turns in without her glasses may one day go away forever but before that happens he did warn us that the problem and/or her prescription may get worse, but the hope of Kaylee one day not having to have glasses is a welcomed one.
On Thursday, we went downtown to the White River Gardens and had a picnic. We were able to walk all up and down the White River. Indianpolis really has made it lovely down there. We saw the new stadium right next to the old one and made some pictures of it all. It was really pretty and the weather was just beautiful. I spent the day Friday preparing for Kaylee's first non-family birthday party. We had her a Dora party on Friday night and she had a great time. We "borrowed" our friends, Michael and Lisa Birdwell's, backyard for the festivity and Kaylee had a great time playing on their "playground." We all enjoyed Matthew's grilled burgers and some chocolate cake!
Matthew returned back to work on the following Monday, June 2. He's now doing Rheumatology at the Indiana University Medical Hospital. He says, "It's alright, I guess." (direct quote taken moments ago...very exciting!) He'll finish this one up on June 30 and move on to his speciality of choice, PMand R (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) for the month of July. He's looking forward to that for one more opportunity to confirm his feelings for this area of medicine.
The girls are good. Kaylee is just as the limerick says, "once there was a girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead, when she was good she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid." She has moments that make me laugh until I cry and then there are these other moments when I make her cry. She told me last week this one..."Mama, I am so funny, I scare myself." Not totally sure where she got that one! She loves to tell all the ladies at church that they are beautiful and she thinks it's hilarious to tell Matthew, "you're a big girl." She tells me, "Sydney doesn't need that." or "Sydney doesn't want that." when Sydney attempts to take a toy that Kaylee has or wants. Mostly Kaylee just talks all of the time which you won't know if you call here and try to talk to her because that is the only time she whispers! Kaylee loves to go to the library and to the store or post office. She bought a new pool with some of her birthday money and loves to hang out in it. Sometime, somewhere, she stopped being a toddler and became a little girl with an incredible memory and off the wall sense of humor; I suppose that makes her a fun combination of Matthew and me. I did take her to the doctor for her four year old check up and she came in weighing 45 lbs and is 44 1/2 inches tall, so if she looks big in the pictures; it's because she is! She is still not potty trained which we extensively discussed with her doctor and we both feel that it's time to take the next step and visit a pediatric urologist just to make sure that everything is working alright. She does seem to think that since there are other parts of her body which seem to get a delayed message from her brain (the reason for many of her falls and stumbles, general lack of coordination) that there may also be a delay between her brain and her potty parts. She still doesn't seem to know when she has an urge to go, but she is now aware of when she is dirty, but not wet, but at this point we'll take what we can get. She doesn't mind to be soiled at all but does get upset if she has an accident on her clothes or anywhere else (couch, floor, booster seat, etc.), so the fact that she's starting to care does bring us hope and perhaps our appointment on July 28 will bring us some answers from the urologist.
Sydney is also coming along becoming her own person. She has demands and demands that those be met asap! She just today really crawled though she isn't fast yet. She's figured out how to crawl and then roll to where she wants to be, so she can crawl but for now still prefers rolling to her destination. Last week I found her pulling up on the coffee table to her knees and she has also learned to sit up on her changing table, so quickly we are scrambling to save Sydney as much as possible but disasters still happen. Today, she rolled into the bottom of the coffee table and that hurt a bit or a lot according to the wailing noise she made! But my four year old pulled a elephant on wheels off the table today not once, not twice, but three times onto herself, so I so much didn't notice Sydney rolling into the coffee table.
In other news, Sydney still only has two teeth but loves to feed herself anything I put in front of her. Both of my girls are great eaters and for that I am thankful! The girls love to take a bath together and get a kick out of getting the entire bathroom floor wet! I know there will be struggles ahead for years to come, but I am loving watching their relationship blossom and think of my own sister often remembering many great times together.
Life is sweet. As for me, I somehow stay as busy as ever and still have to find time to do laundry and cook supper. I really thought that when I quit working outside of the home, that I'd have all this extra time for scrapbooking and reading and cooking exquisite meals. Who was I really fooling? It's just not happening. A good day is if only one child has a new scratch and everybody has received at least three meals and three diaper changes.
We are still loving living in Indy. Ideally, we'd love to be close to both families but for now, we are so grateful for our Christian friends and our current circumstances. Again, life is sweet.
To those of you who we saw on our trips: it was great to come home and visit and hopefully, we'll be back again soon. Until then, take care and God bless.
And I'll try not to be so long in posting again. Sorry j and k. Love you all.