Kemper turns 5

 Kemper turns 5!!!

April 7th 2014

• You wear 3T, 4T &5T clothing.  You are a skinny yet tall little boy. You need the waist of a 3T-4T but need the length of a 5T.  Finding clothes that fit is a challenge.
• You don't eat much, we joke that you are on an air diet. Playing is more important I guess.
• Your favorite food is pizza with TONS of parmesan cheese.
• You love to watch Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, any Disney movies, and the Despicable Me movies.
• You are amazing when it comes to electronics.
  

• You have the best sense of humor, you even crack your own jokes.
• You are the best big brother, you protect your sister at all times.
•  You love to read books and are excited about learning to read.
•  You are right on track for starting Kindergarten in the Fall.

This year Kemper wanted to have his party at Bounce U with a Peter Pan theme. While I love Peter Pan it's almost impossible to find Peter Pan party supplies.

Kemper has never been the type of child to stray from his parents side. The only time he takes off at lightning speed is when we have his birthday at Bounce U. He's nowhere to be found!

Kendall in her Tinkerbell outfit had a blast at her brothers party.

The "spider web" was a hit.

Kemper's beautiful cake.
 It was almost too pretty to eat. Like I said, it was almost impossible to find Peter Pan themed party supplies so I had to hunt for a baker that could make me a cake that had Captain Hook on it per K's request. Luckily Piece Of Cake Bakery was able to do that for me.

I didn't want to spend a fortune on a cake, so I just ordered K a smaller personal cake and had cupcakes with Peter Pan toppers I found on Etsy.

We put trick candles on the cake, so K needed some help when it came to blowing them out.

I think the cup cakes were a hit.
All the kids turned into tiny Incredible Hulks hyped up on sugar!

It was such a wonderful day. We are so thankful or all the friends and family that came out to celebrate with us.

Goody bags filled with candy for all the kids.

Play Ball!!

This summer we decided it was a good time to sign Kemper up for T-Ball. He's five, a perfect age to start right? Apparently I didn't get the memo that you're supposed to sign your kid up for sports while still in utero. Turns out K was the only kid on the team that had not previously played before. Most of the others had been playing for at least two years! This was going to be his first time in a group sport activity, so naturally we were a little nervous.  Kemper has always been a homebody, keep to himself kinda kid so we weren't exactly sure how it would go. Luckily it all turned out for the best!

We took him to the park down the street to test out his batting skills. He was a natural with a really good swing!! Nothing like Daddy/son moments to melt your heart.

Baby sister loved getting outside to watch her brother practice. We had to give her her own ball because she insisted on practicing herself. Softball may be in her future, she has a great arm!

We decided to have Kemper try T-ball first, mainly because it is a non contact sport (for the most part) When you have cochlear implants it's just something you think about. I know other CI recipients have done/do contact sports, but this being our first time doing any type of sports we didn't want the extra worry of him hitting his head. Although, in the planning process it didn't even cross our minds that the children are required to wear batting helmets while at bat. Cochlear implants and helmets really don't make the best combination. I think we tried every helmet out there to find one that would fit comfortably over his CI's without knocking them off. We originally tried the Adidas Incite batting helmet . It was a helmet that you could put on and then turn a dial that would tighten the helmet to your head for a more custom fit. We loved it and the idea. The only problem we had was that K has a tiny pea head like his mother and we could not get the helmet tight enough. I was just loose enough to knock his coils off his head when he moved. Total bummer. Next we moved onto a regular Rawlings T-ball Helmet   We were able to get a tighter fit with this one but his processors and coils did not have enough room. To help with this my husband cut off a small portion of the 1st foam layer of padding around his ear and where the coils would go. While I don't recommend removing padding from a safety helmet, I was okay with this because very little was removed and  this is T-ball not the major leagues. I think we will be okay!!

PIRATES!!
Kemper still loves anything that has to do with Pirates so I found it so fitting that his team name was the Pirates.
My skinny little thing, I think his uniform wore him.

Kemper had a great coach this season. He challenged the boys and was very patient them. He also made them work as a team and encourage each other. I loved that when a player would make it to home plate all the boys in the dugout would yell like a pirate ARRRRGGGGHHH!!

 A few games into the season Kemper's coach was looking for a little help so my husband stepped in as an assistant coach. K loved having his Dad on the field and having someone there to help him with his batting helmet.

I had a crush on the assistant coach.

This is what 5year old T-ball looks like.
I love Kemper's clueless facial expression, the coaches all pointing in different directions, kids playing in the dirt... It's not the easiest sport to teach or learn for sure!!

Pirates!!
So thankful for such a great group of boys and coaches.

My sister made Kendall her own Pirate uniform. It had a Pirate skull on her shorts and a number 7 on the back of her shirt. She was an adorable little cheerleader on the sidelines. She would clap and get so excited when she would see her brother at bat.

 His first season of T-ball was a great learning time for him. He made a lot of progress with his catching, fielding, and hitting. Kemper was so proud of the patch he earned for making a great catch during a game.

I never thought I say this but I kinda miss our 8am Saturday morning games.
Good times, Great memories!!!

Hearing birthday #4

February 11th we celebrated Kemper's 4th hearing birthday!

We like to take this day every year to thank our family, friends, doctors, therapists, teachers, and all those that have been with us throughout this journey. It really does take a village. When K was first activated I would watch tons of YouTube videos of other children with cochlear implants and I was amazed to see them listening and speaking so well. It was so hard to imagine that K would be doing the same one day. I'm so proud of how far he has come.

 K's hearing birthday celebration started off at school where his awesome teacher made him a happy hearing birthday hat to wear at school. He just loved it and even wore it the rest of the day.

 At home I can't get this boy to be quiet. He's a talker. He has no problem telling us what he likes and doesn't like, but put a camera in from of him and ask him a few little questions and he turns into a silly ham that can't remember anything. Here's my attempt at an interview with him.

Later that night we did our annual family celebration over at my parents house. Kemper had the privilege once again of deciding on the menu:  pizza and cupcakes. Surprised?
 My older sister can never resist getting K a present. This year she bought him the soundtrack to the movie Frozen. If you don't know the movie Frozen A. You must not have small children. B. You live under a rock.
 We Kemper has now memorized every song on this album.

Pretty much everyday after school K goes to his playroom upstairs and plays his CD's. We bought him a karaoke machine for Christmas so he loves to sing with the microphone. Its amazing how much he loves music. He's always asking for some type of instrument or CD. How ironic is that?!!
Like I said before Kemper is not a huge fan of being filmed so he would never agree to me video taping him singing. I had to get a little sneaky and hide the camera behind his toys to get this shot of him singing "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen. Keep watching and you can see him really get into it.

Thank you Cochlear Implants for our happy boy!!

Thanksgiving Christmas

I know I'm about 3-4 months late but oh well this is my memory book and I can't go without documenting, especially since it was Kendall's first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2013

We did our annual trip down to San Angelo to see my husbands side of the family.We love getting away from the craziness of Dallas to enjoy a little quiet family time in this small town. We don't do much while we are there and that's what we love about it.

 It's been a tradition to eat Thanksgiving dinner over at my husbands grandmother's house.  She's 100 years old (ssshhh I didn't tell you that) and still makes dinner for the entire family!! Kemper was such a ham making us laugh through out dinner. I'm thinking part of it may have been  because I treated him to a little of my soda from a wine glass ;). I think he really enjoyed the perks of sitting at the adult table. Do you see little Kendall in the background sucking on a chicken bone? When her brother was around the same age his great grandmother gave one to him on Thanksgiving and he was in heaven sucking away. She went out of her way to make one for Kendall this year, and just like her brother it kept her quiet long enough for all of us to enjoy our dinner.

Spending time with the family playing pass the baby.

The kids with their grandparents. I still can't believe that 100 years separate Kendall and her Great Grandmother. It's a blessing that we get to spend another Thanksgiving with her.

On one of our few outings we took Kemper to bowl for his first time. He had a great time. He would knock down those pins and then come back strutting to his seat like he owned the place.

Like I said we didn't do much over thanksgiving besides eat lots of  great food and hang out with the family enjoying a simple life. Why would you want to do anything else??



Christmas 2013

We did our traditional  Christmas celebration back home in Dallas.

We did a better job at taking the kids to see Santa this year than we did last year.  There was no wait to see Santa ( three hour wait last year) and I didn't lose the pictures afterward!! Yay!!

Both of them smiling and looking at the camera!!  It's a hard thing to do especially when one of them can't hear and you have to jump up and down like a fool to get her attention!

Some of our Christmas decorations. Yes, we have two trees. Our big show off tree and our smaller sentimental tree. We had a full mantle with two extra stockings this year. One for our sweet new addition to the family, Kendy, and the other for my father-in-law, Jim, that came to stay with us this Christmas.

 The tradition of making homemade cookies for Santa  has evolved into baking store bought cookies. Please don't judge ;) Although we did go over to a friends house and bake and decorate real gingerbread houses. It was so much fun I hope to start making that a tradition.

I can't say that The Elf on the Shelf is my favorite tradition but K is obsessed with it. He would wake up sooo early just to see what his elf Lucky did. UGH!  He also begged us to ask Santa to send a girl elf for Kendall. So Snowflake the girl elf is now part of our family.

I'll admit having a little girl is so fun when it comes to dressing for the holidays. She was so stylish in her festive gear.

Happy 4th Birthday!!!

 

• You weigh about 34lbs.
•  You are tall for your age, so it makes you look like a skinny little thing. ( Don't worry mommy an Daddy were the same way)
•  You wear a size 10 shoe.
•  You wear size 3T-4T clothes. (3T fits better but you need the length of 4T clothes)
•  You rarely nap.
•  You rarely sleep through the night, but luckily most of the time you wake up it's because you have to potty, and then you go right back to sleep.
•  You have to use Monster Spray in your room every night to keep out the "scaries".
•  You have a thing with making sure that all doors in the house are closed, especially closet doors!
•  You like to eat the same things, it's pretty difficult to get you to try new things.
•  You are a perfectionist, everything has it's place. You even make your bed everyday and will refill the toilet paper rolls in the bathroom on your own!!
• You are a creature of habit. Love to have the same routine.
•  You still hate to be dirty, you will always ask for a napkin when you eat.
•  You hate to have "crazy" hair so you always let mommy fix it, you love to "spike it up"
•  You still love Mexican food, it's your favorite.
•  You are still  are not a fan of ice cream, but love cookies and cake.

• You love the color red.
• You love to draw and color. You have an easel that you love to color and write on EVERYDAY.
• You love to read books with your Daddy before bed.
• You still have a love for music, you even asked for CD's for your birthday.
•  You are amazing when it comes to electronics, you know how to turn on the computer and go to You Tube so you can watch cartoons. You know how to work your CD player without any help. You have also figured out how to work the DVR player and love to turn your movies on all by yourself. You have mastered the iPhone, it's amazing to see you use it.
• You have a great imagination.
• You have the best memory, you never forget a thing!!

•  You love your house, you are such a homebody always wanting to be at home with your  parents.
•  Your favorite cartoons to watch are: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Max and Ruby, and Peppa Pig.
• You love the movies Peter pan, Beauty and the Beast, UP, ET, Lady and the Tramp. You also still like to watch your old Signing Time videos.
• You are obsessed with Pirates. Captain Hook is your favorite.
•  You are so silly and have a great sense of humor. Two days after you turned 4 you made your first fart joke. Mommy couldn't help but laugh.
• You are the best behaved preschooler around, and you are so polite.
• You are definitely a rule follower.

• You love your dog Raider. You always want to know where he is at all times.
• You have a daily chore of feeding the dog and you do a great job at it and take so much pride in it.
• You are still not a fan of animals, but are getting better when it comes to dogs other than your own.
• You are a pretty shy boy. It takes you a bit to warm up, but after you do watch out!!
•  You go to a school for children with hearing loss 5 days a week and  you enjoy it.
•  You are said to be "the leader of the class" from your teachers.
•  You are going to be the best big brother, you love your sister so much already.

Celebrating his birthday at school.

Happy Birthday my "Sweet  Baby K"!!!!

Happy 3rd hearing birthday!!

February 11, 2013 

Three years ago today my baby boy heard his  first sounds  ever through the use of cochlear implants. We always take this day to say thanks to our family, friends, doctors, therapists, and teachers that have helped us along the way. K is doing awesome, far better than we could have ever imagined. If you didn't see his C.I.'s behind his ears you would never think this child was born profoundly deaf. While our journey is still not over, we are forever grateful for the love and support we continue to receive.

To continue his traditional hearing birthday we did our usual big family dinner followed by cake and ice cream.

Kemper insisted on going to the store and picking out his own cupcakes for his "ears"
He also insisted on having his own grocery cart. Thank you Kroger for supplying mini carts, they make shopping so much easier :) When we got to the cashier to checkout I asked him how he was going to pay for them and he replied "With the money in your purse!"

Time to blow out the candles with a little help from his cousin Nolan.

Enjoying his cupcakes and being silly with his cousin Nolan.

My husband and I try and keep it simple just dinner and dessert, but his grandparents can never resist getting him a present.They got him a garbage truck with all the lights and sounds of a real one. It even picks up trash and dumps it! It's such a boy toy & he loved it.

Cheers to many more hearing birthdays!!

potty humor

 Potty training- The good, the bad, and the funny...        oh and the TMI ;)

The one thing I know for certain is that my child has a mind of his own. He is a stubborn little guy and everything is done on his terms.  Sitting up, crawling, walking, talking, eating, you name it.  He does things when the timing is right for him, not for me or anyone else. So when it came to potty training I decided to take the laid back approach. I waited for him to tell me. Besides I'm kinda sick of all the "mompetition" out there and I didn't feel the need to have my child completely potty  trained by age two.

Around 2.5 K started showing signs that he was ready. He would go for hours and hours with a dry diaper and he would wake up in the morning and naps with a dry diaper. I knew this was our chance. Time for the reward system. I immediately sent my husband on a hunt for a small candy machine and some Pull Ups.  He came back with a really nice candy machine courtesy of Craigslist. I filled them up with M&M's and the rest was history. He was all about using the potty and getting a penny to put in the machine to get his candy. It didn't take him long to start asking to go on his own and now most of the time he doesn't even ask for a penny afterwards.

Here area few Quotes from Kemper during his potty training that had us laughing:

- While helping K use a public restroom K yells out to me " Momma thanks for holding my penis!"

- " Watch me turn the water on." as he turns a pretend knob with his hand, and you know the rest. Such a boy.

-  Upon seeing his daddy in boxer briefs  "oh daddy I like your pull ups!!"

So just when we thought this potty training stuff was going to be easy we got to the poo poo department. K has no interest in this area at all. M&M's are a joke when it comes to poo poo in the potty.  I needed a better bribe so I had to bring out the toys. Dollar store toys taped to the bathroom mirror, but unfortunately  they didn't work. He wasn't impressed. I even busted out the big dogs and got him a Jake and the Neverland Pirate ship. No go, but I did over hear him tell his father "Daddy if you go poo poo in the potty I'll give you a big surprise!" I can just see the wheels turning in his head "I'll just make daddy go and then he will get the toy and I can play with it too!" Smart kid.

 The poor kid is so conflicted. He knows he's not supposed to go in his pants but is too scared to go in the potty. He just holds it resulting in a serious poo traffic jam. Just for the record 6 days no poop +Miralax +prunes + warm bathtub = disaster!!  We have tried just about everything to convince him not to be scared. He will sit on the potty for what feels like forever just struggling and crying to hold it in. He eventually loses the battle due to the Miralax I've spiked in all his drinks. The whole process has been torture for us both.   If anyone has any suggestions on how to ease my child's fear of poopin' in the potty please share!!

A few more K  quotes during our experience:

Not sure why my child feels the need to use every public toilet while we are out but he likes to label them all too..
"Oh I like the restaurant potty! Oh this is the Target potty. Oh this is the Circus potty...

Once I could tell that he had not  finished doing his business he told me "It's a little poo poo, like Kemper. I'll do a big one for you later. "

And the one that all mothers want to hear:
"Momma I went poo poo, now clean my butt!"