June 8, 2010

SOO much has happened to my last blog. I don’t know where to start. Things have just been hectic and I haven’t had a chance to get anything posted.
I will start with what I have been doing myself. I managed to get a new sewing machine and the girls have kept me busy with it! They each have a new bag. Cailin’s is purple with designs from Disney’s princess and the frog, Malia’s is purple with Dora and boots and butterflies on them. The girls are using them for library bags. Will get to that later. I also made a bag for my mom and Chris’s mom as well. I thought they made great Mom’s Day gifts. I have made a sun dress and matching hat for Cailin and a shirt and Capri outfit for malia with a matching hat. I have material to make more sundresses and hats for the girls. I made a new bag part of my hamper as well. Oh, and chris gave me a challenge to make him a bag for his soccer flags. I finished all with flying colors. I love my new sewing machine!!!! I’ve also been keeping busy with trying to keep up with house work and then my latest challenge.
We have decided we are definitely going to go forward with out plan to home school our girls. I know there are so many people out there that do not agree with this decision, but for us, it really is the best thing. There are resons that range from our school district, all the way down to health reasons. For those of you who are concerned, please know that this is not a decision we are taking lightly. Lots of thought, lots of research and lots of prayer. We are going to use a curriculum from Calvert School. I like that you can have a certified teacher to evaluate tests or writings and things like that. They also keep records and have an accredited curriculum so If we do decide to return to a regular school, all records are available. I have been researching, and studying to see what I need to be doing. I am going to supplement this curriculum just to have more fun and so I have been making lesson plans to go with it. We are going to have a theme a week… picnics, camping, fall harvest, all about me… you name it. Its been fun planning everything!!
I’ll go from here to Cailin. She is doing wonderful. After her birthday, I am not sure what clicked, but some of her fears have just went poof and disappeared. She now loves to swing. She is getting big enough to use a regular swing and not her toddler swing too. Chris made her a swing out of plywood and some rope. Unfortunately, the rope was old and while she was swinging, the rope broke. Cailin, once she stopped crying, tells Chris, “Daddy, the new swing sucks”. We went to Lowes to get new rope. The man helping us asks Cailin if the rope is for a swing, Cailin says “yes, daddy made one for me but the rope sucks and it broke”. I almost choked. Thank you Joe for teaching this to my little girl!! Some other memorable quotes from Cailin are “gobbles” to wear when swimming to see under water, She likes pizza with cheese and macaroni instead of pepperoni, she always asks “can I be an excuse” when she is done eating. She tells me stories of when she was born, however, she says “long ago, when I was boring…” Oh hunny, you have never been boring!!! Oh, the last and my favorite of all… Cailin and I were talking one day about what we wanted to be when we grow up. (I still haven’t done that either). She tells me she is going to be a farmer. I asked her what kind of farmer, she could be a corn farmer, or an animal farmer, or a hay farmer… what kind of farmer did she want to be? She responds with “I’m going squeeze all the milk out of cows”. Luckily, I know some wonderful people who own a dairy farm and are going to let us come and try it out sometime.
When Cailin got her bike for her birthday, she was afraid to ride it. The first few times, she would hold the handlebars and walk next to the bike around in the garage! It didn’t take her too long to start riding. We went to the park. I thought that I would pull malia in the wagon because Cailin was just getting started riding, we weren’t going to go far and we weren’t going to go fast. I was WRONG on all aspects. She did great. My legs were so tired that evening. The next time, I took my own bike and trailer so malia and I could ride right along with her. There is no stopping this girl. Her training wheels are still flat to the ground, however, I think this is going to change soon and some wobbling is in the future for bike riding. I’m not sure I am ready to take her on a bike ride down lime kiln yet, however, she is doing wonderful!!
Cailin is also taking to this role of a big sister really well still.. She loves to teach malia things. I love when I am driving and I hear Cailin quizzing Malia on what sounds different animals make and giving the appropriate feedback for right or wrong answers. Cailin loved teaching malia how dandilions turn into wishes and you can blow them away. They sat in a field on the side of the driveway for almost an hour picking and blowing wishes together. I love how they play together and interact with each other and and just so loving with each other. They love to dance together. They basically hold hands and spin in circles, but that’s their way to dance and it makes them both so happy. Cailin even taught Malia how to fly a kite at a super windy soccer game of daddy’s.
We have taken many trips to Morse Park as well as Leonard park. We love to feed the ducks. One day malia was so excited to feed them that she fed them her own lunch as well. Cailin and malia both love to climb. Malia has climbed up and went down one particular slide that was so tall and so steep, I was a nervous mess watching her do it. Then once at leonard park, Malia saw how kids were climbing up various things to get to the slides and decided she didn’t want to use the steps any more. I didn’t mind this idea until she started climbing where I couldn’t hold onto her from underneath. She thought it was great, it wasn’t until 2-3 times later that I was brave enough to step away just long enough to snap a photo… but then I ran right back to be ready to catch her. I didn’t need to, but I was afraid I was going to…
Malia is starting to talk more and more. She said Pleeeeeeeesse, thank you, When she eats dinner, she will either tell us that it is ‘good’ or she will spit it out noisily while making raspberries. She LOVES to talk on the phone. If she sees we are calling anyone, she comes over and hells hi, and tries to answer some things with yes and no, and she says LOVE YOU and BYE when hanging up.
Malia gave me a scare around Easter. She wasn’t feeling very well and had a slight fever. The next day, she was okay, fever stayed away as long as I kept motrin on board. The next day, she woke and fever was here. I called the dr and they said I didn’t have to worry till it was still there on Wednesday, or if it went up to 103+ degrees. Okay, I wasn ‘t worried. Of course at 5:30, just after the dr office closed, malia felt warm. I gave her motrin and after a bit it was still high. We went to urgent care and they couldn’t find anything and sent us home. As soon as we got home, she felt hot, not warm but hot… I checked her temp and it was 105+. It was nuts. I called afterhours answering service and they said I needed to take her to ER. I was worried, chris was out of town. I gave her more motrin, gave her a cool bath and ust prayed that her temp would go down. After about 2 hours, her temp was back down… around 97.0 The next morning I called Dr. Hamby’s office right away. He took a look at her and said she had a double ear infection that Urgent Care missed the night before. For the first time, I called and filed a formal complaint and told them I would prefer to not have to pay my $50 co-pay. After a week of investigating, they agreed. She is better now. If she gets another ear infection, we need to get new ear tubes placed in.
To end on a lighter note with Malia, she is doing great on potty training. She wants to do everything on her own. Lately, she poops on her potty, stands up, puts it into the toilet, sits down, poops out one piece, stands up, dumps it in the toilet, and over and over. I guess you have to have a clean potty at all times. She also is starting to tell us when she needs to potty. She uses the same term all the time. Poop’d. I poop’d, I need to poop’d… but at least she tells us!!
I gave chris a project and he has been busy doing an amazing job. We finally pulled the carpet out of the bathroom and chris have been busying putting tile down. It looks amazing. I’m so proud of how well he did!!!!