Fall Happenings

We seem to go through spurts of busyness and quiet times. Kian has been in Great Start preschool since second week of September and really enjoys it. Fridays are the more kindergarten type focus for the older kids, and Mondays and Wednesdays they do more group and art work. He's making some friends and loves his teachers. My only complaint is their excessive use of purell on every child all day long. Ugh. Especially at snack time. They've had a field trip to the apple farm and yesterday was the pumpkin patch trip. I left Karter at home with NeeNee for the pumpkin trip. Less for me to watch and easier for Kian to hang with the big kids.

The weather is a constant change, some days 70 and sunny and other days 45 and blowing rain. We get out when we can, and have been utilizing all our craft supplies as well as the library a lot more. Kian can't wait for snow and Christmas, I can definitely hold off on snow for awhile yet! The boys think it's the greatest thing when I let the put on their rubber boots and go stomp in puddles. So do I, actually.

The weather hasn't changed the chicken's laying habits yet though. Despite the creeping darkness earlier eacfh night, they're still laying regularly. I get 6-8 eggs per day. They each lay almost daily, which I keep reading isn't always the norm. I credit their free range ways. Although lately, they've had to be locked up more, as they keep running in neighbors' yards and fly out of their pen! We keep the well fed from the house-their favorites beign squash and watermelon. They also love pasta, beans and grapes. They ate the pumpkin seeds like little cyclone vacuums! Still very sweet and friendly and easy to pick up. Now they will stop and squat down if you come to pick them up, instead of running away. I tell them to run from the boys, but they don't' listen.

Karter now has quite the vocabulary and little running mouth. The downfall is that he has picked up the word stupid (our downfall when yelling at animals or drivers) and constant ignoring it is the only thing that works. Unfortunately he knows how to use it properly. Ugh. He's quite the athlete already, spiraling footballs and catching them, begging to go to Kian's football camp when Kian does not want to go. He loves puzzles and animals and tractors. Oh the tractors. He sleeps with 1-3 each night. Usually I make him park them under his bed. But, sometimes I find them in his bed with him. I love seeing the differences in their likes/dislikes, as Kian was more into trains at this age, maybe because he didn't have any tractors yet, but he didn't form attachments like Karter has. He's been going on some bad sleeping patterns the last couple weeks and now that he can open doors, makes it harder to keep him in bed!

Kian, ever the great sleeper, has been starting to read. Forget that dumb flashcard stuff, we haven't forced him into anything, or pushed him, other than when he asked, and he does well with the phonics type learning. He is reading and sounding out words in all the Dr. Seuss books and is quite proud of himself. He also began reading the bank drive thru signs and other things around town. There goes spelling things and keeping things hidden from him. It's amazing to see these growths and changes and milestones. It's a bittersweet type of thing, because then he's not a baby anymore, and to realize how things change and open up once you become a reader... Craziness.

Kevin's still busy, eye deep into 5linx and training. He's building quite a team of reps under him, which eventually will pay off for him/us. He'll be happy once it does so he can stop getting up at 4:30am. We'll be happy to have him here more often. Last night, he got home early and after dinner he and the boys went to the garage to build a cat tree/stand. Karter insists on playing football with him all the time. Kian just always wants to help him and be wherever he is. The boys spent the past weekend with my mom while we went to a wedding. It was Karter's first time away from me/us for more than a few hours. He did great and enjoyed it, they both didn't want to leave. It was nice to wake up ourselves instead of by jumping children, and to eat breakfast in quiet and hear ourselves talk. We did miss them though. The weekend before, I had a chance to help out a photographer at a wedding. I had so much fun! I don't know if the pictures I took were even good, but it was a learning experience and fun to play around and do something grown up, with all adults all day, and feel like I was working again. =)

We're rounding the bend into the holiday season, and with that comes a lot more changes. There's been a lot of changes in both sides of the families and therefore, changes to holidays were necessary. We're going to host Thanksgiving here with our immediate families, smaller than past years, but for Kevin and I, it will be less stressful and incorporate the immediate families and be easier for us to handle. His working so much and having to worry about animals and such, gets hectic, let alone the boys all over into everything.

Speaking of animals... Finn hates us. He has been banished indefinitely to Kourtney's house. I brought him back to our house last Thursday morning. He and Karter were happy to see each other, but then Finn just laid around and wouldn't play with Windsor. He behaved well, as long as he knew the remote/shock collar was on. I didn't have to use it at all, just put it on. Friday night he was testing me and not listening to come back in the house so I did buzz him. Saturday, right as we were leaving for the wedding he acted like he had to go out, and I had taken the collar off, no big deal I thought. Except, he looked at me and took off. That was that. WE had to leave and my mom was worrying about the boys and car seats, so when the humane society called the house to say they had Finn, AGAIN, he was stuck there. We asked Kourt to go get him, and they gave her some threats about fines and judges, etc. since it was his third (at least) time being there. He just doesn't seem to want to stay here and we have 6 stinking acres for crying out loud! So, for now he's back with his doggy parents and Kourt and Jeremy. I miss him some. It's definitely quieter and more relaxed with just one lazy dog, but Karter can't climb on Windsor like he can with Finn. I mean, he's a couple miles away so it's not like he's gone forever...but more changes.

I have also put away dozens of apple filling, grape filling, grape jam, salsa, pickles, banana peppers, apple butter, and more in my 'canning cellar'. It was a lot of work at times, but worth it. So much cheaper and tastes much, much better than store bought, factory stuff. The grape jam is delicious, but not that thick, jello-y glob stuff, smooth, soft, yumminess. The boys have helped a lot and enjoy making dried apple rings in the dehydrator. We're now moving onto pumpkin baking, and with fresh pumpkin! Then, it's onto Thanksgiving menu planning!

Boys stats

We are loving this summer, the sun, the heat. It's great. The boys can't get enough of water and outdoors. They both have some awesome tans, and have for a month already! Karter's hair is getting blonder by the day, love that too. And both boys have the curliest hair in this heat, it's fantastic.

Karter, 21 mos, just a few short months from his second birthday--already! He was supposed to have a weight check this week, but I didn't feel the need to drive all that far just for a quick sit on the scale. I know he's been growing, taller for sure, still thin though. I weighed him and he's 22.5 lbs, up almost 2 pounds from March. They were happy when I called it in and also that he is growing into the next size clothes. We're up to 18 months now, still a lot of 12 months that he wears, but he can finally wear some of the other things!

We're doing much better with the sleeping. Finally, I can put him in bed and close the door and he might cry for one minute but he goes right back into his bed and goes to sleep. Lately, he doesn't even cry, and half the time doesn't even get out of bed. I couldn't handle anymore sitting in his room or rocking him or trying to lay down with him, etc. So, I am glad he's been able to do this finally. He still might get up once a night, or come in our bed, but I can handle that so much more than the not going to sleep part. Even eating lately is improved. I don't' know if it's because I switched to coconut milk, which he loves and asks for a lot (water is still his main choice) but he's also been chowing like crazy lately. There's a different chain of fatty acids in coconut milk that's easily digestible, so whether or not that's the connection, I don't know, but we'll take it. I'm really not concerned with his weight, just that he is growing; if he's thin or smaller, so be it. We're continuing the enzymes and iron (multivitamins when we remember to buy them) and will keep that up til his 2 year appointment and decide from there.

He's talking up a storm lately, but I wish he was doing more 2 word phrases. He says simple sentences like "mommy jump" and "hop up" (my fave) and "doggy barking". He gets his point across "Jeremy, dada, car, dump" (daddy and Jeremy went to the dump) and I know I have to stop remembering that Kian was the verbal king at this age and saying like 5 word sentences. Karter's definitely more physical than Kian was at this age. I know I say that all the time, it's interesting to see the similarities and differences. A lot of differences, more than similarities I think! He counts 1, 2, 3 and knows his colors! But, he pretends he doesn't and will say 'purple' for everything. He picks out his cloth diapers by telling me which color he wants "ahnge" for orange is super cute, a slight Boston dialect.

He definitely keeps up with Kian for the most part. He doesn't get why Kian isn't napping or going to bed when he does and asks "where Kian" all the time. Loves the trampoline, slides, can maneuver any playground equipment he wants to, all by himself, They are playing together a lot more, blocks and cars and it's great to watch.

Kian still gets frustrated with him at times, but usually there's happy times. Kian was sad about preschool ending and I wasn't able to get contact info for the friends he wanted to hang out with. Half of them are going to kindergarten and he believes he is too, so he was bummed about that. I am going to find some things for him to do over the summer, vacation bible school, sports, etc. He seemed to really like school and he's signed up for 3 mornings in the fall. He is my social one, even at the lake today he was making friends and trunk to keep up with these big boys out in the deeper water. He then told me he wanted to invite his new friend from the beach to his birthday party. Ah yes. The teachers told me he did very well in school, just one day of not being able to listen and such, which he had good reasons for he told me, he wanted to let them know about some things he found exciting but they wouldn't let him talk. =( I struggle with this school thing... I don't really want him to go to full-day kindergarten in a year, ahh!!

Today, on the trampoline I told him he had to the count of 10 to finish jumping before we had to go in. He told me "not to 10" then started counting from 1 all the way to 110! I had no idea he could do that. I'm not obsessed with all these educational things so early. We work on some basic "you have 2 carrots and I gave you 2 more" kind of math. A couple of days ago, we were eating lunch and he randomly started counting backwards from 100, by 10's, to 1. Again, never knew he could do that, I counted up by 10's a few times, and we count backwards from 20, but... hmm, maybe it's those tv shows I let him watch while I put Karter to bed... ALso, why he sings every insurance song ever! Tonight was "we are farmers, dun dun dun dun dun" the other night was nationwide...that's Animal Planet, obviously Disney or PBS does not air those commercials.

The facts this kid remembers about things amaze me too. Sorry, I just don't get this 'flashcard generation' and I don't subject my kids to hours of flashcards just to learn something. So, they memorize a thing on a paper, doesn't mean they know anything about it! Touching, doing, discovering, real life, hands on, makes so much more sense to me. I feel like my kids are going to be the only ones who know about things in 3d instead of just flat paper...oops tangent. My point was, that I don't do that, they do things and so that he picks up all these facts (snakes, dinosaurs, plants, birds, swamps, what things eat, how things are made, etc.) is great because I want to let him forge his own path with his learning, not what I think he should know or want him to know just because... His imagination is amazing, the things he can create in his head, or come up with to build with legos, or the steps and logic behind things...fascinates me.

I decided against a 4 year old check up this year. I mean, really there was no point in the 3 year old one. They weigh him, measure him, ask a few random questions, that I as an Early Intervention service coordinator, know about development and watch anyways. So, it's pointless for me, we have no concerns about Kian in development and I do some checklists here and there. Last I weighed him he ws about 37 lbs, which means he gained 3 lbs in the last year. I'll have to measure height of both of them soon.

He is who he is and although a lot of people don't appreciate his spunk and zest for life, because it equals loudness and boisterous activity most of the time. But, he's independent and mature in a lot of ways and yes, still challenging at times, he's Kian. Every year, it seems from his birthday to Christmas is a good half of the year, and then from Christmas to his birthday again (winter, cabin fever, fun stuff) we have behavioral change and challenges. But, we're figuring it out. He's still the sweetest kid in there, and cares a lot about what you say, do and think about him. Love these boys so much and while they keep me on my toes and challenge me daily, I wouldn't trade them for anything. However, they would like a sister or 2 as well. ;)

So behind---catch up post

Busy, busy, busy. That's us lately. Not necessarily with places to be and go, but here in the house mostly. So, let's get a random update to catch us all up, shall we?

First, chicks! We have baby chicks. They are now about 2 weeks old. We had talked about getting some but never put our order in. When they came in Jeremy (my sister's boyfriend) called and told us to come check them out at Country Max. We went, we saw, we conquered. 12, yes a whole dozen baby chicks. They are still living in our house until they are a few more weeks older and we get a coop built outside. They're tough since the boys handle them a lot, upside down, squished and loved a lot. 2 Plymouth Rock barred (black and white speckled) 4 Rhode island reds, 4 golden comets and 2 'hatchery choice'--this means "a bunch of chickens got together and fertilized these eggs, we don't know what they are". We could have up to 4 dozen eggs a week if they all lay their maximum, but not for a couple months yet. So, there will be quite a bit of chicken posting and updating in the future.

Second, new routines are set up in the house, which we are following through with pretty well. We started with the preschool addition in March (which Kian loves and wishes he could attend more than 2xweek) then we started a new housekeeping/cleaning routine (I am very visual and had tried a few different routines, but found a good one that stuck and is on my fridge) also craft/school/science type stuff for the boys during our new daily routines--also posted on the fridge. Definitely the chicks fall under the "science/life experience/hands-on" category.

Also trying to figure out Kian's preschool situation for the fall. He's in an afternoon class right now and that works well for him as he does not nap. But, the downside is that Karter is now over the 2 naps per day and so that means he either gets a very short nap or a very late one, and neither is desired, by him or us. I think for the fall we will do mornings. He can do up to 5 days/week but, I don't think I want to be running him there and back 5 x each week, every single day, blah. So, we shall start with 3 and see what happens, how it goes, and there might be an opening for more, later on. This has been a great thing for him and I, and it's getting scary that we're getting closer to kindergarten/school age. It's sooooo very different from preschool and daycare. I really am disliking the thoughts of putting my kid on a bus and not seeing or hearing from him for 8+ hours. Yes, I did that when he was in daycare. But, it's just different. I mean I dropped him off and I knew what he was doing and being taught and there was lots of napping and such since he was so young. I'm going to publicly admit, that yes, home school has entered my head...maybe just a year or two? Another post in and of itself eh?

Karter, let's see...finally putting words together-some of my fave: no all done!, no bye bye!, daddy grumpy (repeating me haha). I still am a little paranoid about his sounds and yes you are all rolling your eyes, but I've seen enough speech sessions with 18 month olds to recall what needs to be done. Kevin also pointed out to me that he thinks I probably am not sitting down as much with Karter or we're not making him talk as much as we did with Kian. Realistically, due to time, having more than one child, etc. So, I have been a little more focused and intent on remembering that.

We also got the results from Karter's complex stool analysis back a few days ago. Why do answers just make more questions?
Results:
1. Normal fat digestion
2. Elevated amounts of meat and fiber (may be that Karter is young and just doesn't chew his food well enough)
3. Low stool pH (too acidic) - this may be from malabsorption of sugars in the intestine
4. The good bacteria Lactobacilli is absent from the stool
5. There is 1+ growth of yeast which is considered to be within the normal range
6. The was the presence of fecal lactoferrin which is associated with inflammation in the intestines. Karter had a very normal sedimentation rate on his blood test in December. This normal value would make it seem extremely unlikely that Karter has a significant inflammatory condition in his intestines (such as colitis).
(as per doctor's email report)

So, what does this mean? His morning cocktails just turned into all day cocktails...sigh. First, add a good dose of probiotics to build up that 'good bacteria' and get his gut flora in balance and make sure we don't get yeast overgrowth. Also, on that note, cut back on sugars and carbs (especially white). Second, added in enzymes to aid for digestion. Third, we are still giving him extra vitamin D and iron along with a multivitamin. In the morning, I mix up some enzymes and probiotic powder in his juice/cup, give him a multivitamin chewable and a chewable vitamin D + calcium tablets. Then later on in the day I give him iron drops (can't mix them with calcium or it won't be absorbed by the body). Then, for dinner and lunch I also have to give him some enzymes. Because they are capsules I open them up and dump half the powdered dose into another drink or food. Hemp milk or almond milk, and sometimes an omega 3 chewable. Fun. I need to get him a pill holder for easier dosing. Sheesh, it's a lot to remember. I am also going to focus on getting more alkaline foods in him (fruits, veggies, complex grains-as meats and dairy make the body produce more acid during digestion). And we are going to try a true dairy and egg free diet for 2 weeks to see if that makes a difference. I have been lazy about the dairy especially. But, both of us are feeling the affects of that (thanks gallbladder!).

He was sleeping better, but then was working on those eyeteeth (I call them canines haha) and that along with a 3 week long cold (his first or second, ever) made for some crappy sleep for us all the past couple weeks! Hopefully, with some new additions and changes to diet will help us all get more sleep.

Other things? Steaming and scraping the wallpaper off the upstairs bathroom so we can paint. Maybe some baby goats coming soon. I shampooed/steam cleaned the carpets, the entire downstairs, took me almost 4 hours the other day. Sheesh. I think I might want some more non-carpet flooring! Went to some baby showers this month and more babies coming this spring and summer. It was definitely fun shopping for some girly stuff for Amy. And of course seeing what new boy stuff they have for Robin ;) Perhaps I can convince Kevin to give me a girl of my own soon...everything is blue, green and brown around here. Seriously in need of some pink and polka dots and flowers!

Well, now that Karter is crying upstairs, it's late, I'm exhausted and my computer is telling me it needs to be charged (yes my new laptop! and I scored the new photoshop CS5, going to have to teach myself that!) methinks it's time for bed!