Lone Star Family

October 2012

Alright, so I'm behind again. My last post talked about how I couldn't wait for all the Fall festivities and now with Thanksgiving next week they are almost over. I use this blog as K's baby book so I can't just skip over our yearly trips to the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating, so here they are!

K's school class met up at the Mckinney Storybook Ranch Pumpkin patch. He was so excited/shocked to see his teacher Mrs. Adams there. I guess it's kinda weird seeing your teacher out of the classroom setting. He followed her around like a puppy dog and almost forgot I was there. She was even able to convince him to ride the pony. This kid is not a fan of animals so this was a big deal. He did it and loved it. I seriously need to learn her tricks!

We had to go back to our favorite Owen's Farm Pumpkin patch to get our yearly "For Sale" picture. It's been four years and we haven't been able to sell him yet!! ;) My old college roommate, Olivia and her daughter Ella join us every year. Hope we can keep this tradition going.

Here we are Halloween night. As usual we meet up at my parents house and go trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. K is really into pirates right now, so he went as Jake from Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates cartoon. Doesn't he make the perfect Jake!? His cousin Nolan went as Bumblebee the Transformer. They both had a blast running door to door getting candy, although they fought over who got to ring the doorbell practically at every door. I guess it's a pretty important job when you are 3 & 4 years old !

The summer of firsts Part 1

Fall is now upon us. Time to put away the pool toys and start enjoying the cooler weather. I'll admit I'm usually sad to see summer go. Summer has always been my favorite season but this year I'm really excited about fall. I can't wait to take Kemper to the pumpkin patch, out trick-or-treating, spend Thanksgiving with the family.... So before get all wrapped up in Fall and I forget, it's time to do our summer recap. It was way too fun to leave out.

It was a summer of many firsts for Kemper. So many special moments and experiences. I think he grew up so much this summer. It's bitter sweet watching my baby grow into a little boy.

K's first airplane ride.
I have a very close family, so soon after my cousin announced she was getting married we booked a flight to Florida. All of our family was going to be there so we decided to extend our tip past the wedding and make it our first family vacation.

Even though this was his first big trip he acted like a a seasoned traveler. Passing his time playing on the iPhone with his girlfriend Minnie on his side. ( she's another story on her own) ;)

We decided to splurge a little, so Kemper also had his first time flying first class.
He loved eating dinner on the plane. He's gonna be in total shock the next time we fly and we are sitting in coach without a hot dinner.

As soon as we landed we headed to the beach. We just left everything in the car and made a run for it. I almost got teary-eyed watching his first time putting his toes in the beach sand.

After a quick trip to the beach we met up with my parents. They had rented a few condos on the beach for the rest of our family. This was K's first time ever to stay at a hotel/Condo. He loved it, he kept calling it our "Florida house" He was so excited that his cousin "lived" next door, and that if he went one more door down he was at his grandmas "house"!

It was wonderful. we could open our front door and see the pool and beach.

Once we unpacked our bags it was time to head to the beach again. K got to build his first sand castle and take his first dip in the ocean. It had taken us about an hour to convince him to go in the water but then it took us two hours to try and get him out!!

Kemper and his cousin digging for buried treasure. They are both really into pirates and treasure so they were excited to find the chest of gold that my sister had buried earlier. ;)

X marks the spot!!
K kept singing the theme song from the cartoon Jake and the Neverland Pirates:
Yo Ho mateys away...!

Just some of the fam. hanging out on the beach.

Father like son. All lubed up in sunscreen and practically covered from head to toe. Those whities don't stand a chance in the sun!

It was so beautiful. Can we go back?!

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!"

Pre K

Kemper just wrapped up his first week of Pre K at our Regional School for the Deaf. I can't say that he was excited about it, but he did really well and is adjusting nicely.

Very first day, with his sweet nervous smile.

I walked him to his class and as I said my goodbye, I saw his big brown eyes fill up with tears. I told him " I love you and you are going to have a great day." He took in a deep breath trying to hold in his tears and just said "okay" with a choked up voice, then he puffed up his chest like he was going into battle and walked in his room. He was so brave! I had to put my sunglasses on to hide my tears.

The Friday before school started Kemper had "meet the teacher". It took us about an hour to get him in the car. He wasn't interested in anything that had to do with school. After we finally arrived at the school his Aunt Maria and his grandmother Wela surprised him by showing up. My sister is the nephew whisperer and she can get this kid to do about anything. Within a few minutes he was all about the school and showing her and Wela around.

K giving his tour, he really likes the "competers"

K with his teacher Mrs. Adams. Showing us his new square with his name on it for circle time.

Checking out the library. He even found a book that he already wants to check out. He loves the Max and Ruby book series.

Each day Kemper's teacher sends home a list of what they did for the day and a brief note on how he is doing. I was so excited to get this note telling me how he's become the leader of the class. She also sent me one telling me how he is beginning to play with the other children and initiate play. This is huge for our extremely shy child. He has been needing a little help with his social skills and this is the perfect place for him to work on them.

Just when we thought school was going off with out a hitch, after school one day I opened up K's backpack to find my husbands Rifleman magazine sitting on top of his folders. My heart sank. I know we live in Texas and the subject of guns is not that uncommon, but a gun magazine is not exactly preschool reading material. I can only imagine what his teacher was thinking when she saw that in his bag. I was so embarrassed. After some investigation it turns out that my husband had left the magazine at my parents house and my sister happened to see it there and decided to put t in K's backpack so that it would make its way back home. Too bad she forgot to mention it to me!

In all I'm so thankful that K had a great first week. There were no meltdowns and even though I know he would have rather stayed home with mommy, he still had a good time. I think he will do well and this is exactly what he needs to get ready to be mainstreamed by Kindergarten.

What Happens in Vegas...

thankfully doesn't always stay in Vegas.

Today we celebrate 5 years of marriage

and seven years since the day we met on an airplane to Vegas.

I am forever thankful to have a husband that loves and supports me.

Good times and bad he's been there, helping me keep the faith that we can do anything together.

Love you.

"You And Me"

Wanna pack your bags, Something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we'll be gone, gone
The moon and the stars can follow the car
and then when we get to the ocean
We gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes

You and I, we're not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed, we're gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky
We gonna ride the blue all the way to the end of the world
To the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes

We can always look back at what we did
All these memories of you and me baby
But right now it's you and me forever girl
And you know we could do better than anything that we did
You know that you and me, we could do anything

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby

-Dave Matthews Band

couldn't help but add this one ;)

School Daze

Yay school is out for the summer!!
No more fighting to go to bed early or rushing to get up in the morning ( at least for a few months ;)

I don't think I have mentioned anything about K's schooling so I thought I would give a brief synopsis on the last three years:

We started receiving services from the state, E.C.I. ( Early Childhood Intervention)shortly after Kemper's hearing loss diagnosis as an infant. We had a deaf education teacher come to our house each week to help us with his hearing aids, teach us sign language, and other ways to communicate with our deaf child. After Kemper received his Cochlear Implants she worked with us on improving his speech and listening skills. We did this along with Audio Verbal Therapy until he turned three years old.

Last August when Kemper was still two I enrolled him in a Mother's Day Out program. It was one day a week 9:30am-2:30pm. I did this mainly to get him use to being without me and to work on his social skills. He had a hard time adjusting to it at first. He cried and cried when I dropped him off. It broke my heart. I somewhat had expected that to be his reaction because he had never been left in the care of someone that was not family. It took him a few weeks, but he was soon having a great time at MDO.

His first "school" picture.
He hates having his picture taken and usually refuses to smile so I was pleasantly surprised when I got this beautiful picture.

Apparently he did better than me. (Age 4)
Can you blame me? look at my hair!!

When Kemper turned three in April he was eligible to start attending an Early Childhood preschool geared towards children with hearing loss. The main purpose of this school is to help him get ready to go to local schools with "normal" hearing peers.

I was very hesitant at starting him right when he turned three. Mainly because there were only a little over two months left in the school year and he was doing so well at MDO. In the end I knew that K was ready to learn and be challenged. He could lean a lot in the remaining 8 weeks. He started full time school a few days after he turned three. I'm not going to lie it was tough. Five days a week, 8:15am-2:15pm. He normally doesn't get up until 8 am so he wasn't excited about the early mornings. It was a long day and he came home exhausted.

First day at the new school. His little nervous tongue hanging out. ;)

The first three days went by fine but by the fourth he realized that this was going to be an everyday thing and the crying started all over again :( He would only cry at drop off and would be fine the rest of the day but it still killed me. And just when he would start getting comfortable he would get sick and have to stay home for a few days. In the 8 weeks he was there he was sick three times! A cold, 1st ever ear infection, and pink eye! I think he spent his days licking all the door knobs at school, because he's never been that sick. Must have been the introduction to all the new germs. Poor kid!

His little locker. Modeling his new school bags. His cubby for his Penguin class.

In all I'm glad that I enrolled him full time. He has learned so much in those 8 weeks. His vocabulary has expanded and he even busted out a 14 word sentence the other day! I can only imagine what a full year will bring.

Now that school is out I'm excited to have my little partner back. I felt a little guilty being at home without him. I guess I'll have to start picking up some more shifts at the hospital come fall.
But for now...

Bring on Summer!!!

Mother's Day 2012

Sleeping in + A massage + Sweet kisses and hugs from my munchkin and hubby + Some time with my mommy + presents + Dinner with the family = perfect Mother's Day!