Feliz Navidad!

K has really enjoyed this holiday season, so many things to see and do.  He's even added a few new words and phrases to his vocabulary:  snowman, ho ho ho, Santa, tree, choo choo train, and even "don't touch!" (  I guess he has heard it a few times) My favorite is when he sees something exciting like Christmas lights on a house he will say "oh wow!" I cringe to think how we will keep him entertained once all the lights and decorations get taken down and all the festivities come to an end.

 Here's a little recap of some of our 2010 Christmas activities:
 
Santa's Village

I was so excited to take Kemper to Santa's Village. It is the same little village that went to as a child and it was just as neat and exciting as I remembered. K loved all the little buildings that were just his size.

K writing his letter to Santa.

 Visit to Santa's Safety Station. He was fascinated with the Fire dog and Safety fox, as long as they didn't get too close! We also had a visit with the police officer to check out K's record to see if he has been naughty or nice this year ;)

Then we were off to the Polar Bear Bank, to get money from the ATM. K was very entertained with the ATM, he kept wanting to put his money in and take it out over and over. I was entertained by watching my 6"3 husband try to fit in the tiny little buildings.

Our final stops were at the ornament factory and the music shop. My little drummer boy had a blast.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a visit to Santa. We were not wanting to deal with all the people and the line, so we went and saw Santa on a Wednesday as soon as the mall opened. It turned out great. There was no line, so no wait and K was a happy camper. We even had a little time to chat with Santa. He was curious about Kemper's cochlear implants, so we got to tell him all about them. Even Santa has a few things to learn!

 Finally, I leave you with an and adorable video of K dancing to his favorite ornament that plays the song "Feliz Navidad."

Merry Christmas!!!



Party in my city! Yo Gabba Gabba Live!!

It's been a while since I last posted. I have tons of draft posts, but I just can never get around to finishing them. I swear it was just Thanksgiving yesterday! Anyway to get caught up I guess I will just work my way backwards from last weekend when I took K to see YO GABBA GABBA LIVE!

via

Ok, so if you don't have children or live under a rock and you don't know what Yo Gabba Gabba is, let me explain...  Yo Gabba Gabba is a children's TV show on Nick Jr. It consists of six of the weirdest characters you will ever see singing and dancing  in a crazy, retro, almost psychedelic, 80's Atari video game style. I guess its the latest version on the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, that I grew up on. It too teaches valuable lessons such as "All my friends are different", "Don't bite your friends" "There's a party in my tummy" (eat your veggies). I don't quite get it, but K loves it!

K and his cousin Nolan on the way to see "Abba Abba" ( as K calls it). They were so excited just to be sitting next to each other in the car.

 We had great seats, no one blocking our view!

Olivia, my old college roommate joined us with her little girl Ella.

 There were bubbles, balloons, singing, and dancing. They were in toddler heaven.

 To tell you the truth I was very worried about taking K to this live show. I knew it would be loud and a possible sensory overload, but he did great. He really liked it. As soon as he saw the characters come on the stage he had a huge smile on his face. He recognized the songs and started to do a little shimmy like dance. He would clap his hands and I would even catch him patting his hand on his lap to the beat. It was awesome!  I'll admit it, tears came to my eyes because he was having such a great time. He could hear and understand the music and loved it!

My child, who does not have an attention span at all, watched the entire show in fascination. There was no whining, crying, asking for his paci. I couldn't believe it.

A must see show!

Sounds of the Season

Sounds of the Season info

Dallas Hearing Foundation

Wordless Wednesday

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's Superman!!

and his sidekick Spiderman!

 cousins, always there for each other.

 

 Highlights Halloween 2010

 Kemper couldn't quite say "trick-or-treat", but he's got "knock! knock!" down.

The neighbor down the street had a microphone that made your voice sound silly when you talked into it, the boys loved it.

Some things never change!

Yummy!

My husband and I decided to join in on the fun this year. May the force be with you!!

Our pumpkin Happy Hal

Look how much my pumpkin has grown!!

As you can tell it's pumpkin patch time again! We took K last year but he was only six months old. The poor kid couldn't even sit up alone. He had his hearing aids at the time but was not receiving any benefit from them. So I guess you can say last years trip to the pumpkin patch was for mommy and daddy.This year he's a walking, talking, hearing little boy and the trip was for him!

He had a blast, so much to see and do as a big boy! It's amazing how much difference a year makes ( and 8 months of hearing!!)

A visit from Pumpkin Patch past and present:

                                 2010                                                2009

Where did my baby go?

2010                                                     2009

Once again he loved the barrel ride. Each time we passed his father he would shout out "Hi daddy, hi daddy!!!

He was still interested in all the animals, as long as they didn't get too close!

2010                                                         2009

I  kinda miss those sweet cheeks and double chin!

and we thought we had no energy then...

Kemper and his cousin Nolan, no more babies here!

Best Buds! Nolan is almost exactly 1 year older than K. My sister and I love having them so close in age.

Can you tell the difference in these two pictures?

Apparently K  is NOT a fan of goats!

 Not quite sure what was so funny, but I bet it had to do with daddy.

He wanted on the tractor, but he didn't want me to take his picture.

"I'm gonna huff and puff..."

The boys with my oldest sister Maria. We call her the "Nephew Whisperer" because she's the only one who can keep these boys in line!

Hey ride!

I still can't get over how much my pumpkin has grown!!

Woo Hoo!

Our Texas Rangers

are going to the World Series!!

I'm an idiot!

Why is there a fireman trying to get into my car you ask? Because I'm an idiot that locked my 18mo old son in the car. I probably shouldn't be making this post because CPS might be banging on my door soon.

 Here's the story so you don't make the same stupid mistake:

We had just left K's Gymboree class and K was whining to carry my keys, so um yeah I let him.(red flag #1) I showed him the button to unlock the doors and he did.(red flag #2) I then loaded him up in his car seat but forgot to get the keys from him. (red flag #3) I got out of the car and shut the door and right as I put my hand on the drivers door I heard the click of the doors locking. K had pushed the lock button. My heart sank.

I pleaded with him to push the unlock button, and bless his heart he tried to do what mommy said, but he just kept pushing the lock button. Then he would try to hand them to me.  Luckily it was 72 degrees outside and not 100, but I still didn't know how long it would take for the car to heat up so I called 911.

They arrived within five minutes, but they could not jimmy my car to get the locks open. Apparently BMW has succeeded in making my car impossible to break into. While the four firemen tried every which way to unlock my car K sat there patiently watching them.  Although he soon grew bored with them and he decided to entertain himself. He took off his shoes, next his socks, and then one of his hearing processors.( unfortunately the other processor had fallen off earlier) Then the following conversation occurred :

Fireman: " Do you think you can try talking him into pushing the unlock button again?"

Me : "I can try but he can't hear me anymore."

FM : very confused look on his face." He can't hear anymore?"

Me: " He's deaf, but he has cochlear implants that allow him to hear, but they have fallen off."

FM:  still confused look on his face "Oh."

"

I don't think he had a clue as to what I was talking about.

Finally after what felt like forever they finally unlocked my car.They had to break my passenger side window.

 Good times.

I then pulled my happy but very sweaty toddler out of the car. His Gymboree teacher gave him a bottle of water and  some animal crackers. He was in hog heaven, no clue as to what just happened. He loved the attention he got from the fireman as they asked all about his cochlear implants. After a brief in-service on C.I's we were on our way.

 Lesson Learned.

Do not let your child play with your car keys. Stop trying to multitask all the time. Focus on the one task at hand. You have very precious cargo.

18 months!!

Sweet Toddler K you are 18 months old!! 10/07/2010

• You weigh 25lbs, you are what momma calls a "solid kid" because you feel way heavier than that!!
• You wear some 18 month old clothing but mainly 24mo old clothing fits you best.
• You wear size 6 shoes.
• You have full mouth of teeth , too dangerous to count!
• You wear size 4 diaper, 5's at night.

• You usually nap 1-3 hrs a day.
• You go to bed around 8:30pm and wake up around 7:30am.
• You never sleep past 8:30am , no matter how late you go to bed.
• You are a bear when you wake up, not a morning person.

• You are a pretty good eater, except you do not really care for meat.
• Your favorite foods: strawberries, bananas, avocados, rice, beans, cheese, crackers, macaroni
• You still will not drink cows milk from a cup, must be from a bottle and warm. ( I know, I know, we need to get rid of the bottle...)
• You have a bottle of milk sometimes in the morning and always one after bath.
• You love to brush your teeth. You will grab mommy's hand and lead her to the bathroom and ask to brush your teeth.

• You love to take a bath. When mommy or daddy says "bath" you will sign and say "ath"  and immediately  head up the stairs, to your room, then bathroom and start taking off your clothes and processors.
• You do not like to be dirty, if you get something on your hands you get upset and want mommy to clean them off.
• You love real car keys, fake ones will not do. You like to press the car alarm button and imitate the sound.
• You still love your paci, but now you have a favorite blankie (your old burp cloths)

•  You  love to hear.
• Your will try to put your processors back on when they fall off.
• You have over 40spontaneous words!!!
• You AVT therapist says you are a poster child for Cochlear implants because you are doing so well.
• You say "hello" when you hear the phone ring.

• You are very polite and say "hi" and "bye" to everyone you see.
• You try to sing songs from your gymboree class and Baby Signing Time videos.
• You loved to be chased and play peek-a-boo, and you say it so cute "A-boo!"
• You say "Ria" each time we get in the car because you want to visit your aunt Maria all the time.

• You are an observer, always watching everything first before trying it yourself.
• You love your dog Raider, you may hug him to death if we are not watching.
•  You get into everything!! and you want to open everything "O tay"  for "open it"
• You are a stubborn little boy, and have no problem with saying the word "NO!"
• You are also a very sweet boy that  gives hugs and kisses and even says "Ahhh" when you give them.
• You now hate to have your picture or video taken. As soon as you see the camera you start whining.

•  You make ALL the rules!!

• Photo shoot over!!



“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable”

                                                                                         -Plato