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Monday, November 03, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
September videos
Here's a clip of an attempt to get Lily and/or Addison to sing the Notre Dame fight song. Apparently it brings out a lot of affection between sisters.
We had a nice little jumper for the girls. It was one that just inflated and sat in the corner of the basement play area. I'm sure we've posted videos of that. Well, unfortunately it sprung a leak. So Mike purchased a new bouncer. This one is like those giant bouncers that have a fan constantly blowing air into them. It is a nice size and inflates really quickly. The only problem was the fan was REALLY LOUD. So we've now got it hidden away behind a wall which helps. Here's a quick video.
Folks who live down the street from us have two horses. A regular event for Addison and Lily over this summer was a walk down to see the horses. One is rarely out in its paddock. The other almost always is. That horse is named Cassie. Addison and Lily love to feed Cassie grass and sometimes carrots. When they are not visiting Cassie they still sometimes pretend to feed her. They will pick grass, walk to the far side of our driveway, and call out "Cassie, come here please." Here's a video when they were feeding Cassie for real.
Here's the video I mentioned in my last post. Kelsey with her first try of cereal. Now, at one week shy of 6 months she is getting oat and rice cereal once a day around lunchtime. She eats 2 heaping tablespoons pretty easily. Next week she has her 6 month appointment and I expect the doctor will say she is ready for more solid food and more variety.
The following video is just some random footage from Sept 28, an afternoon with the girls and the dogs. The end has some good footage of Kelsey sitting up on her own and Lily wearing her potty seat.
A few months ago we had some new neighbors move in 2 doors down from us. Ryan is the new Ohio University Women's Volleyball coach. Jen is the volunteer coach. She is a former All American from Florida and she's played professionally in Greece and St. Louis. Carter is their 7 1/2 month old son. Jen and I have had a few opportunities to get out for walks with Kelsey and Carter. Today we had a short walk, then hung out for a while at their house for a little while. You should see the crazy contrast between these two babies. Carter is ALL OVER THE PLACE. He's semi-crawling and pulling up on everything. Kelsey is sitting. Sitting. And sitting some more. The big excitement was when Carter got a hold of a bit of Kelsey's hair and managed to knock her over from her pretty sitting position. Needless to say this didn't make Kelsey very happy. So she cried. Then Carter cried because she cried. All in all it was a fun time. But this afternoon I was explaining to Kelsey she needed to get on the ball and start getting more active. Her new trick these days is if you try to roll her over from her back to her tummy. Not only doesn't she cooperate, but she throws her arm out to prevent you from rolling her over. And for some reason she doesn't want to put her arms under her chest when she is on her tummy. Most of the time she just looks like an airplane with her arms back and out to the side, but lifted off of the floor. And her head and legs up off the floor. So the only thing on the ground is her tummy. Maybe she is taking the term tummy time a little too literally.
We had a nice little jumper for the girls. It was one that just inflated and sat in the corner of the basement play area. I'm sure we've posted videos of that. Well, unfortunately it sprung a leak. So Mike purchased a new bouncer. This one is like those giant bouncers that have a fan constantly blowing air into them. It is a nice size and inflates really quickly. The only problem was the fan was REALLY LOUD. So we've now got it hidden away behind a wall which helps. Here's a quick video.
Folks who live down the street from us have two horses. A regular event for Addison and Lily over this summer was a walk down to see the horses. One is rarely out in its paddock. The other almost always is. That horse is named Cassie. Addison and Lily love to feed Cassie grass and sometimes carrots. When they are not visiting Cassie they still sometimes pretend to feed her. They will pick grass, walk to the far side of our driveway, and call out "Cassie, come here please." Here's a video when they were feeding Cassie for real.
Here's the video I mentioned in my last post. Kelsey with her first try of cereal. Now, at one week shy of 6 months she is getting oat and rice cereal once a day around lunchtime. She eats 2 heaping tablespoons pretty easily. Next week she has her 6 month appointment and I expect the doctor will say she is ready for more solid food and more variety.
The following video is just some random footage from Sept 28, an afternoon with the girls and the dogs. The end has some good footage of Kelsey sitting up on her own and Lily wearing her potty seat.
A few months ago we had some new neighbors move in 2 doors down from us. Ryan is the new Ohio University Women's Volleyball coach. Jen is the volunteer coach. She is a former All American from Florida and she's played professionally in Greece and St. Louis. Carter is their 7 1/2 month old son. Jen and I have had a few opportunities to get out for walks with Kelsey and Carter. Today we had a short walk, then hung out for a while at their house for a little while. You should see the crazy contrast between these two babies. Carter is ALL OVER THE PLACE. He's semi-crawling and pulling up on everything. Kelsey is sitting. Sitting. And sitting some more. The big excitement was when Carter got a hold of a bit of Kelsey's hair and managed to knock her over from her pretty sitting position. Needless to say this didn't make Kelsey very happy. So she cried. Then Carter cried because she cried. All in all it was a fun time. But this afternoon I was explaining to Kelsey she needed to get on the ball and start getting more active. Her new trick these days is if you try to roll her over from her back to her tummy. Not only doesn't she cooperate, but she throws her arm out to prevent you from rolling her over. And for some reason she doesn't want to put her arms under her chest when she is on her tummy. Most of the time she just looks like an airplane with her arms back and out to the side, but lifted off of the floor. And her head and legs up off the floor. So the only thing on the ground is her tummy. Maybe she is taking the term tummy time a little too literally.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Life is funny
Hi all. Teresa here.
We just survived a week of the common cold. Addison showed the first signs, but she never got a really runny nose. Lily and Kelsey took care of getting the really runny/stuffy noses. Jessi and I both got scratchy throats, but avoided the runny nose. Lily did pretty well with the cold and is getting better at blowing her nose. Kelsey tolerated a lot of nasal aspirator activity, but required a number of naps and nighttime sleeping being held. Fortunately both girls seem to have the worst behind them.
Kelsey rolled from her back to her tummy a few nights ago. But she is in no hurry to become over active. She has yet to roll in any direction in front of anyone but me. I'm sure it will happen one day.
Today we gave Kelsey her first solid food. It was a bit of very milky rice cereal. She tolerated the spoon just fine and seemed to get at least some of the food to the back of her mouth and swallowed. We'll continue to take it slow with her...offer her a little bit once a day. It won't be long though before we get the blender going to make her more real food. Oh, we did record a video of Kelsey's first solid food experience. And we'll post it here...someday.
Much to their parents' joy, Addison and Lily have taken to singing the Notre Dame Victory March...or as Addison says "Odor Dame". Apparently she caught a whiff of ethanol at the reunion. We tried to get a video of this, but mostly we have just bits of Addison singing "cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame. Wake up the echoes cheering her name. Happy Birthday to you. ..."
The other morning I was spending a peaceful early morning with Kelsey. We were sitting in the living room. Jack was sleeping on the chair. Then Peoopee joined us and laid down on the floor. Peoopee evidently had an itch because he rolled on his back and wriggled to scratch it. Then he lay still for a minute. Rolled on his back and scratched. Lay still. Rolled on his back and scratched and suddenly there was a little "Ha ha ha". Kelsey apparently found Peoopee's antics kind of funny.
We just survived a week of the common cold. Addison showed the first signs, but she never got a really runny nose. Lily and Kelsey took care of getting the really runny/stuffy noses. Jessi and I both got scratchy throats, but avoided the runny nose. Lily did pretty well with the cold and is getting better at blowing her nose. Kelsey tolerated a lot of nasal aspirator activity, but required a number of naps and nighttime sleeping being held. Fortunately both girls seem to have the worst behind them.
Kelsey rolled from her back to her tummy a few nights ago. But she is in no hurry to become over active. She has yet to roll in any direction in front of anyone but me. I'm sure it will happen one day.
Today we gave Kelsey her first solid food. It was a bit of very milky rice cereal. She tolerated the spoon just fine and seemed to get at least some of the food to the back of her mouth and swallowed. We'll continue to take it slow with her...offer her a little bit once a day. It won't be long though before we get the blender going to make her more real food. Oh, we did record a video of Kelsey's first solid food experience. And we'll post it here...someday.
Much to their parents' joy, Addison and Lily have taken to singing the Notre Dame Victory March...or as Addison says "Odor Dame". Apparently she caught a whiff of ethanol at the reunion. We tried to get a video of this, but mostly we have just bits of Addison singing "cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame. Wake up the echoes cheering her name. Happy Birthday to you. ..."
The other morning I was spending a peaceful early morning with Kelsey. We were sitting in the living room. Jack was sleeping on the chair. Then Peoopee joined us and laid down on the floor. Peoopee evidently had an itch because he rolled on his back and wriggled to scratch it. Then he lay still for a minute. Rolled on his back and scratched. Lay still. Rolled on his back and scratched and suddenly there was a little "Ha ha ha". Kelsey apparently found Peoopee's antics kind of funny.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Kelsey is Rollin'
I am reminded of a little nursery rhyme:
There once was a little girl
With a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very very good;
When she was bad,
She was horrid.
So, with Kelsey, over the past few days we have had great strides. Twice she slept through the night for about 9 hours. Then there was last night, where she woke up every few hours and did not want to go back to sleep (gas, we think).
Then, just when we are considering shipping her off to the gypsies, she goes ahead and rolls over from front to back. We hope to get her to do this on command so that we can video it and post it. As for now, Teresa is happy and proud and very very tired.
Everything else with Lily and Addison is great. We hope to get some pictures posted soon. As for now, I have to poke Kelsey to try and get her to perform for me.
There once was a little girl
With a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very very good;
When she was bad,
She was horrid.
So, with Kelsey, over the past few days we have had great strides. Twice she slept through the night for about 9 hours. Then there was last night, where she woke up every few hours and did not want to go back to sleep (gas, we think).
Then, just when we are considering shipping her off to the gypsies, she goes ahead and rolls over from front to back. We hope to get her to do this on command so that we can video it and post it. As for now, Teresa is happy and proud and very very tired.
Everything else with Lily and Addison is great. We hope to get some pictures posted soon. As for now, I have to poke Kelsey to try and get her to perform for me.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Georgia visit
Hi All,
The video below is from our trip to Atlanta for Teresa's parents 50th wedding anniversary. We left on a Thursday afternoon after Mike finished teaching. Our first stop was in Knoxville, TN, where we stayed in a hotel, all six of us: Teresa, Mike, Jessi, Addison, Lily and Kelsey. I am glad to report very few problems with the first leg of the trip. On Friday morning we left for Brasstown Resort in the mountains of Northern Georgia. The highlight of the trip was the last 30 minutes of which Addison kept repeating "get out" over and over and over and over...yarg!
The Anniversary was great, the girls wore dresses made by Gram and were the hit of the party, from my perspective. The drive from North Georgia to Atlanta was Sunday's event. I chose to go through the mountains and was able to get everyone car sick, some more than others. The highlight must have been pulling over after Lily threw up. Go Dad!
We stayed in Atlanta, at Teresa's brother's house. This allowed the girls to spend lots of time with their 3-year old cousin, Coleman. On Monday, we went to the Atlanta Zoo with their cousin Coleman. It was a great time and all the girls loved it. Atlanta Zoo has a petting zoo, like the Columbus Zoo, and the girls enjoyed petting the goats, sheep and pigs.
On Tuesday, we went to Stone Mountain. The video of some of our events is below. The events include a trip to the top of Stone Mountain, a duck boat ride (the girls got to drive the boat), and lunch with Gram and Pop.
On Wednesday, we went to the Atlanta Children's Museum. It was absolutely incredible. I know Teresa took some pictures, but the pictures do not give justice to the absolute unbridled joy that the girls experienced for several hours. They were running around, wide-eyed, laughing, learning, and playing. What a great day.
On Thursday at 10am , we got back in the car, packed up and headed for home. Teresa had planned the trip to allow for some stops along the way to keep from 12 hours of "get out." Our first stop was about 1 hour north of Atlanta at a Chick-fil-a that had a playground. The second stop was at our dear Notre Dame friends who live in Charlotte, NC: Jim and Amy Berger. They have two children and a house full of toys. The girls played and ran around Jim and Amy's house for an hour or so. Jim and Amy fed our family. And we finally got back in the car for the final 6 hours. The last three, the girls finally fell asleep.
And so, our last trip of the summer comes to an end. If you are keeping score, of the eight days, we were in the car driving somewhere seven of those days. Yeah, I am tired.
The video below is from our trip to Atlanta for Teresa's parents 50th wedding anniversary. We left on a Thursday afternoon after Mike finished teaching. Our first stop was in Knoxville, TN, where we stayed in a hotel, all six of us: Teresa, Mike, Jessi, Addison, Lily and Kelsey. I am glad to report very few problems with the first leg of the trip. On Friday morning we left for Brasstown Resort in the mountains of Northern Georgia. The highlight of the trip was the last 30 minutes of which Addison kept repeating "get out" over and over and over and over...yarg!
The Anniversary was great, the girls wore dresses made by Gram and were the hit of the party, from my perspective. The drive from North Georgia to Atlanta was Sunday's event. I chose to go through the mountains and was able to get everyone car sick, some more than others. The highlight must have been pulling over after Lily threw up. Go Dad!
We stayed in Atlanta, at Teresa's brother's house. This allowed the girls to spend lots of time with their 3-year old cousin, Coleman. On Monday, we went to the Atlanta Zoo with their cousin Coleman. It was a great time and all the girls loved it. Atlanta Zoo has a petting zoo, like the Columbus Zoo, and the girls enjoyed petting the goats, sheep and pigs.
On Tuesday, we went to Stone Mountain. The video of some of our events is below. The events include a trip to the top of Stone Mountain, a duck boat ride (the girls got to drive the boat), and lunch with Gram and Pop.
On Wednesday, we went to the Atlanta Children's Museum. It was absolutely incredible. I know Teresa took some pictures, but the pictures do not give justice to the absolute unbridled joy that the girls experienced for several hours. They were running around, wide-eyed, laughing, learning, and playing. What a great day.
On Thursday at 10am , we got back in the car, packed up and headed for home. Teresa had planned the trip to allow for some stops along the way to keep from 12 hours of "get out." Our first stop was about 1 hour north of Atlanta at a Chick-fil-a that had a playground. The second stop was at our dear Notre Dame friends who live in Charlotte, NC: Jim and Amy Berger. They have two children and a house full of toys. The girls played and ran around Jim and Amy's house for an hour or so. Jim and Amy fed our family. And we finally got back in the car for the final 6 hours. The last three, the girls finally fell asleep.
And so, our last trip of the summer comes to an end. If you are keeping score, of the eight days, we were in the car driving somewhere seven of those days. Yeah, I am tired.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
2nd birthday, OC, and more?
Addison and Lily Happy Birthday
Kelsey at 2 and a half months
Beach Bums
Kelsey's Skills at 3 and a half months
Daddy makes Kelsey laugh
Kelsey at 2 and a half months
Beach Bums
Kelsey's Skills at 3 and a half months
Daddy makes Kelsey laugh
Friday, July 25, 2008
Where have you been?
Hello all.
How quickly 4 1/2 weeks can fly by.
Addison and Lily successfully turned 2. We had a nice little party with much of the Snow family, Gerry and Brenda, and our neighbors Julie and Rachel. The biggest hit were the 2 birthday cakes. Baked by Teresa and fabulously decorated by Jessi. Elmo and Cookie Monster were the themes. Addison and Lily received many wonderful gifts, but their day was made when they discovered pink balloons first thing in the morning.
Kelsey continues to grow and develop. She weighs over 14 lbs now. She also is a bit more willing to spend time on her tummy and holds her head up 90 degrees. This morning it looked like she might figure out how to flip herself over in a short while. Kelsey also gives us a few chuckles here and there. And she loves to talk...especially right after she has finished nursing and when she is tired and has been in the bouncy seat too long.
Shortly after A & L's birthday Jessi took off for a 2 week vacation. She and her boyfriend Sascha met in NY and flew to Orlando. They spent a lot of time at the parks and the outlet malls (our economy thanks you).
On July 10 Mike and I drove with the three girls to Potomac, MD where we shared in the 50th anniversary celebration of Gerry and Brenda's wedding. Gerry and Brenda were married on Aug 9, 1958, the same day as Ella and Ed, but celebrated on July 12 so the whole clan could be gathered together.
On July 14 Mike, Teresa and the three girls picked Jessi up at National airport at 11pm. We were all heading to Ocean City, MD to spend a few days at Gerry and Brenda's home there. About 10 minutes away from the airport, I heard a terrible sound coming from Lily. Yep, she vomited. A lot. And unfortunately we need to get her change of clothes from a suitcase packed at the bottom of a lot of other stuff in the Suburban. So we had to unpack all of our stuff onto the side of the road. Jessi was holding Lily, I was holding Kelsey, Mike was cleaning up Lily's car seat and Addison was content watching a DVD still in her car seat. We were quite a site with our stuff strewn on the side of the road and holding babies.
In Ocean City we had fun feeding ducks, spending time at the beach and swimming in the pool. Addison really enjoyed playing in the waves. Lily enjoyed sitting under the umbrella eating. Kelsey screamed bloody murder when I dipped her feet in the cold Atlantic. Hopefully she and Lily will enjoy the beach as much as Addison next year.
And now we are back at home. Our dear friends Jon and Tasha and their children Breanna and Brendan made the long trek from Atlanta to Athens. The children are all getting along well and the adults are getting in some relaxation.
I'll post some pictures and videos soon.
How quickly 4 1/2 weeks can fly by.
Addison and Lily successfully turned 2. We had a nice little party with much of the Snow family, Gerry and Brenda, and our neighbors Julie and Rachel. The biggest hit were the 2 birthday cakes. Baked by Teresa and fabulously decorated by Jessi. Elmo and Cookie Monster were the themes. Addison and Lily received many wonderful gifts, but their day was made when they discovered pink balloons first thing in the morning.
Kelsey continues to grow and develop. She weighs over 14 lbs now. She also is a bit more willing to spend time on her tummy and holds her head up 90 degrees. This morning it looked like she might figure out how to flip herself over in a short while. Kelsey also gives us a few chuckles here and there. And she loves to talk...especially right after she has finished nursing and when she is tired and has been in the bouncy seat too long.
Shortly after A & L's birthday Jessi took off for a 2 week vacation. She and her boyfriend Sascha met in NY and flew to Orlando. They spent a lot of time at the parks and the outlet malls (our economy thanks you).
On July 10 Mike and I drove with the three girls to Potomac, MD where we shared in the 50th anniversary celebration of Gerry and Brenda's wedding. Gerry and Brenda were married on Aug 9, 1958, the same day as Ella and Ed, but celebrated on July 12 so the whole clan could be gathered together.
On July 14 Mike, Teresa and the three girls picked Jessi up at National airport at 11pm. We were all heading to Ocean City, MD to spend a few days at Gerry and Brenda's home there. About 10 minutes away from the airport, I heard a terrible sound coming from Lily. Yep, she vomited. A lot. And unfortunately we need to get her change of clothes from a suitcase packed at the bottom of a lot of other stuff in the Suburban. So we had to unpack all of our stuff onto the side of the road. Jessi was holding Lily, I was holding Kelsey, Mike was cleaning up Lily's car seat and Addison was content watching a DVD still in her car seat. We were quite a site with our stuff strewn on the side of the road and holding babies.
In Ocean City we had fun feeding ducks, spending time at the beach and swimming in the pool. Addison really enjoyed playing in the waves. Lily enjoyed sitting under the umbrella eating. Kelsey screamed bloody murder when I dipped her feet in the cold Atlantic. Hopefully she and Lily will enjoy the beach as much as Addison next year.
And now we are back at home. Our dear friends Jon and Tasha and their children Breanna and Brendan made the long trek from Atlanta to Athens. The children are all getting along well and the adults are getting in some relaxation.
I'll post some pictures and videos soon.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Brilliant children
Kelsey turns 10 weeks old today. Addison and Lily will turn 2 on Saturday. Wow.
Here are some notes on what our brilliant children are doing.
Kelsey: she has had 2 nights of really lengthy sleep. One night she went 8 hours and another she went 10 hours. But alas, most nights she sleeps 6 hours straight followed by another 4 hours straight. Her schedule during the day has not gotten straightened out. We'll have a couple of days that seem like she is establishing a pattern (short nap, long nap, short nap) then we'll have a day like today...wake up, eat, stay awake for 1 hour, sleep for 45 minutes, wake up, eat, stay awake for 1 hour, sleep 45 minutes, and repeat all day long. Kelsey generally goes right to sleep for her naps, but for the past week has a hard time going to sleep at night. Well, she'll go to sleep while Mike or I are holding her, and seems asleep when we put her into her bed, but 5-20 minutes later she is back awake again.
Kelsey is starting to tolerate tummy time more. And she is getting pretty good at lifting her head about 45 degrees. She can hold her head up pretty well when she is sitting, but she's not quite ready for the bumbo chair. She's starting to find the fish and bubbles on the bouncy seat interesting and is quite good at kicking the fish to keep the music going. She LOVES being on her exercise mat and looking at the black and white stripes and polka dots.
Kelsey has been giving us big smiles for a couple of weeks now. And in the past few days we have caught her giving us a chuckle or two.
Lily continues to love singing. She's been singing the ABCs for over a month now. She also sings twinkle twinkle little star and several other favorites. Lily is starting to understand that language is a powerful thing. Just a few weeks ago if Addison would try to "trade" a toy with her and Lily didn't want to trade, Lily would just start crying. We've explained to her that she should just say "No thank you, Addison." Some of that crying has stopped, but Lily still seems to get her feelings hurt quite easily. About a month ago, Mike made a loud elephant sound. It scared Lily quite a bit and she still talks about Daddy's scary elephant sound. Mike, Jessi and I are sure that Lily's pronounciation is improving. We are hearing more intelligible D, L and S sounds.
Addison is quite the avid reader these days. And apparently all books begin "One day..." Addison is beginning to read the letters in words correctly from left to right (Lily tends to go right to left), but all words still tend to be spell Addison. Yesterday Addison introduced us to a new species of animal...the kangaloupe. Apparently a cantaloupe is really a cross between a kangaroo and an antelope. Addison is discovering a love of singing as well. But she tends to combine all songs into one. It is something like ABCD...Baby Baluga...Hello, Hello.
Addison and Lily have started really playing together. They play ring around the rosies. When they sing, it goes something like this "Ring nnnnround rosies. Ashes. Ashes. Wiff wiff down." When they finish singing they see who can push or pull the other down first. They also have created their own game. We still are not sure what it is called...something like Sackorilla. Basically each grabs a hold of the end of Lily's sleep sack and they pull one another around. Unfortunately they tend to pull each other into other objects. Lily has collided with our bed and Addison the chest at the foot of our bed.
Addison and Lily have a daily trip to see the horsies. Two different people have horses down at the end of our street, so A & L get a stroller ride to see them. They will also see an occasional deer. It is always interesting to ask what color the deer was. Red seems to be the popular choice. Lily always seems sad when she has to say that the "deer ran away".
Since Kelsey has joined our family, Addison and Lily have become quite maternal. For at least a month they have both occasionally gently rocked and/or bounced their babies. Just today they both started breastfeeding their ND tigers. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery...
I'm also proud to say that both Lily and Addison can correctly answer the question "How old are you?" Lily will very quickly say "two". Addison is a bit slower to respond and her answer goes something like this: "How old are you, Addison?" (pause) "TWOOO-OOO". "Very good Addison" (brief pause) "THREEEE-EEE" "FOOOOURRR"
Here are a couple videos of Kelsey and Lily to show how brilliant our children are:
Kelsey "Talking"
Lily Spelling
Here are some notes on what our brilliant children are doing.
Kelsey: she has had 2 nights of really lengthy sleep. One night she went 8 hours and another she went 10 hours. But alas, most nights she sleeps 6 hours straight followed by another 4 hours straight. Her schedule during the day has not gotten straightened out. We'll have a couple of days that seem like she is establishing a pattern (short nap, long nap, short nap) then we'll have a day like today...wake up, eat, stay awake for 1 hour, sleep for 45 minutes, wake up, eat, stay awake for 1 hour, sleep 45 minutes, and repeat all day long. Kelsey generally goes right to sleep for her naps, but for the past week has a hard time going to sleep at night. Well, she'll go to sleep while Mike or I are holding her, and seems asleep when we put her into her bed, but 5-20 minutes later she is back awake again.
Kelsey is starting to tolerate tummy time more. And she is getting pretty good at lifting her head about 45 degrees. She can hold her head up pretty well when she is sitting, but she's not quite ready for the bumbo chair. She's starting to find the fish and bubbles on the bouncy seat interesting and is quite good at kicking the fish to keep the music going. She LOVES being on her exercise mat and looking at the black and white stripes and polka dots.
Kelsey has been giving us big smiles for a couple of weeks now. And in the past few days we have caught her giving us a chuckle or two.
Lily continues to love singing. She's been singing the ABCs for over a month now. She also sings twinkle twinkle little star and several other favorites. Lily is starting to understand that language is a powerful thing. Just a few weeks ago if Addison would try to "trade" a toy with her and Lily didn't want to trade, Lily would just start crying. We've explained to her that she should just say "No thank you, Addison." Some of that crying has stopped, but Lily still seems to get her feelings hurt quite easily. About a month ago, Mike made a loud elephant sound. It scared Lily quite a bit and she still talks about Daddy's scary elephant sound. Mike, Jessi and I are sure that Lily's pronounciation is improving. We are hearing more intelligible D, L and S sounds.
Addison is quite the avid reader these days. And apparently all books begin "One day..." Addison is beginning to read the letters in words correctly from left to right (Lily tends to go right to left), but all words still tend to be spell Addison. Yesterday Addison introduced us to a new species of animal...the kangaloupe. Apparently a cantaloupe is really a cross between a kangaroo and an antelope. Addison is discovering a love of singing as well. But she tends to combine all songs into one. It is something like ABCD...Baby Baluga...Hello, Hello.
Addison and Lily have started really playing together. They play ring around the rosies. When they sing, it goes something like this "Ring nnnnround rosies. Ashes. Ashes. Wiff wiff down." When they finish singing they see who can push or pull the other down first. They also have created their own game. We still are not sure what it is called...something like Sackorilla. Basically each grabs a hold of the end of Lily's sleep sack and they pull one another around. Unfortunately they tend to pull each other into other objects. Lily has collided with our bed and Addison the chest at the foot of our bed.
Addison and Lily have a daily trip to see the horsies. Two different people have horses down at the end of our street, so A & L get a stroller ride to see them. They will also see an occasional deer. It is always interesting to ask what color the deer was. Red seems to be the popular choice. Lily always seems sad when she has to say that the "deer ran away".
Since Kelsey has joined our family, Addison and Lily have become quite maternal. For at least a month they have both occasionally gently rocked and/or bounced their babies. Just today they both started breastfeeding their ND tigers. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery...
I'm also proud to say that both Lily and Addison can correctly answer the question "How old are you?" Lily will very quickly say "two". Addison is a bit slower to respond and her answer goes something like this: "How old are you, Addison?" (pause) "TWOOO-OOO". "Very good Addison" (brief pause) "THREEEE-EEE" "FOOOOURRR"
Here are a couple videos of Kelsey and Lily to show how brilliant our children are:
Kelsey "Talking"
Lily Spelling
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Reunion and stuff
We survived our family trip to Notre Dame. Our 6 hour drive took 7 1/2 hours on the way to Notre Dame and 9 on the way home. Such is the unpredictable nature of travelling with 2 year olds.
We had a great time and enjoyed seeing friends once again. Some thoughts from the weekend... The rooms in Walsh Hall are pretty shabby. Were the rooms in BP and Zahm this bad when we lived there? Surely not! But we were quite thankful that we were given 3 adjoining rooms with our own bathroom including a bathtub.
Most of our friends and us are not where we thought we'd be at the ripe old age of 42. Teresa would never have expected to be married to Coma or having a new baby at this age!
We had a great time and enjoyed seeing friends once again. Some thoughts from the weekend... The rooms in Walsh Hall are pretty shabby. Were the rooms in BP and Zahm this bad when we lived there? Surely not! But we were quite thankful that we were given 3 adjoining rooms with our own bathroom including a bathtub.
Most of our friends and us are not where we thought we'd be at the ripe old age of 42. Teresa would never have expected to be married to Coma or having a new baby at this age!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sleeping 6 straight hours
Kelsey has managed to sleep 6 hours in a row the past 2 nights. Can we call it a trend? One can only hope.
Other news from Athens, Lily has graduated from Speech Therapy. She's been going to speech therapy for the past 6 months. During that time she has gone from saying no words to having a vocabulary well over 300 words and many 2-5 word phrases and sentences. The big challenge now is improving her pronounciation. Unfortunately the therapists she's been seeing don't believe they can help with that until she is old enough to comprehend the physical way sounds are produced (around 4 years of age). This Tuesday we return to Children's Hospital in Columbus to meet with the Cleft Team. One of the team members is a speech therapist and we plan to ask many questions about what we can do to help Lily with her pronounciation and what we should expect. About 30% of children with cleft palates require additional surgery to make it easier for them to produce certain sounds. We're hopeful Lily speech will be OK without additional surgery, but we plan to get an opinion from the therapist at the Cleft Clinic.
Addison and Lily have discovered a love for the playground. As a result their Daddy has turned our house into a playground. We now have a seesaw in the living room, a slide in the basement, and two swings hanging from our deck. Needless to say, Addison and Lily have taken to asking to go to the basement to "SLIDE!" or "SWING!" beginning very early in the morning. Mike does his best to keep them upstairs until at least 8:15a, but the slide has been used as early as 8am (much to Jessi's dismay).
This Thursday we are packing up the entire family and heading to South Bend for Mike and Teresa's 20th college reunion. We'll have an 8 hour drive (or at least we hope it is only 8 hours!) and we are staying in a dorm that has been designated as the Family dorm. Let's hope our neighbors are OK with Kelsey's middle of the night wake up call. And that the dorm is quiet enough for Addison and Lily to get their afternoon naps.
Other news from Athens, Lily has graduated from Speech Therapy. She's been going to speech therapy for the past 6 months. During that time she has gone from saying no words to having a vocabulary well over 300 words and many 2-5 word phrases and sentences. The big challenge now is improving her pronounciation. Unfortunately the therapists she's been seeing don't believe they can help with that until she is old enough to comprehend the physical way sounds are produced (around 4 years of age). This Tuesday we return to Children's Hospital in Columbus to meet with the Cleft Team. One of the team members is a speech therapist and we plan to ask many questions about what we can do to help Lily with her pronounciation and what we should expect. About 30% of children with cleft palates require additional surgery to make it easier for them to produce certain sounds. We're hopeful Lily speech will be OK without additional surgery, but we plan to get an opinion from the therapist at the Cleft Clinic.
Addison and Lily have discovered a love for the playground. As a result their Daddy has turned our house into a playground. We now have a seesaw in the living room, a slide in the basement, and two swings hanging from our deck. Needless to say, Addison and Lily have taken to asking to go to the basement to "SLIDE!" or "SWING!" beginning very early in the morning. Mike does his best to keep them upstairs until at least 8:15a, but the slide has been used as early as 8am (much to Jessi's dismay).
This Thursday we are packing up the entire family and heading to South Bend for Mike and Teresa's 20th college reunion. We'll have an 8 hour drive (or at least we hope it is only 8 hours!) and we are staying in a dorm that has been designated as the Family dorm. Let's hope our neighbors are OK with Kelsey's middle of the night wake up call. And that the dorm is quiet enough for Addison and Lily to get their afternoon naps.
Kelsey's Room
Lily giving Kelsey a kiss
Lily being Cool in Daddy's sunglasses 
Addison Being Cool in her own Sunglasses with Lily looking on
Kelsey pondering
Lily Swinging at the Park (note the ND Sesame Street t-shirt)
Addison Swinging at the Park (Same cool Notre Dame t-shirt)
Addison and Lily at the slide
Kelsey in Addison's lap with Lily looking on (outfits courtesy of Ted and Kate Smith)
Silly Goose Aunt Kathleen and Kelsey
Lily and Blue Dog outside on the deck
Silly Goose Aunt Kathleen and Addison
Silly Goose Aunt Kathleen and Lily
Kelsey after a hard day
Thursday, May 08, 2008
A day in the life...
Some days are harder than others. Case in point, today. Let us start with Kelsey last night. Starting around 1:30am, she simply refused to stay asleep. She awoke every 30 minutes crying, loud crying, until around 6am. So Mommy and a lesser degree Daddy were a bit tired today. But, alas, our twin angels awoke around 7am with Addison calling out "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, etc." until I got her and her sister.
Usually in the mornings, I get the girls to myself for some good Daddy time. First there is the distribution of bananas, one to Lily and one to Addison. One must not "open" the banana before the owner is ready. Usually there is a chorus of "hold it, hold it, ..." (meaning they simply wish to hold the banana) until finally I get the green light "open it, open it, ..." (meaning, peel it). One must be very careful, because Addison is prone to say "open it" when she means "hold it" and, if you open it when she still wanted to hold it, her entire morning is shot and she remains in a bad mood until after her nap. You only make this mistake a couple of times before you realize you need to ask for clarification before opening the banana.
After banana time, comes milk time which has also morphed into cereal time. Usually the girls choose their seat, rarely wanting the same seat. And they are usually eating their breakfast when Jessi comes up to save me. Such was the case this morning. Other than it raining, all was going well with Lily and Addison.
Since it was Thursday, Lily has speech therapy on Thursday mornings, so I packed her up (actually, Jessi did all of the work) and put her in the car. Jessi took Addison downstairs to play. We got an assignment at speech therapy to count the words Lily uses since the supervisor at the speech therapy clinic was quite impressed with the number of words Lily has been using. So after putting the girls to bed for naptime (I had Kelsey, Teresa had Addison, and Jessi had Lily), I tallied up the words that I knew Lily was able to say, though some of them she does not exactly get the correct pronunciation (we had a list of words from the therapist as a starting point). I am proud to say that Lily has over 300 words.
The afternoon came and went without much of a problem. I got to feed Kelsey, did some work, and helped get dinner going. Even post-dinner seemed to be going well. The girls were laughing, chasing Jack, running around upstairs. Teresa was tending to Kelsey as I got the girls' bath together.
I must say that today was one of the few days where I actually needed to be someplace after the girls went to bed. The School of Accountancy at Ohio University had their annual awards banquet this evening. So, I had been mentally prepared to rush out the door as soon as the girls were asleep. But, alas, the girls had a different agenda. To help expedite my departure, Teresa put me in charge of Kelsey who only needed to be put to bed. So I did that, got her asleep, and changed into my suit for the banquet. As soon as I had my tie on, Kelsey woke up...crap. I could hear down the hall Teresa dealing with her own set of issues. Both Addison and Lily wanted to sit on the potty before going to bed. So she had them out of their beds and in the bathroom. In the meantime, I got Kelsey asleep again. So I went to check on Teresa, and Addison had, in fact, gone weewee in the potty for the first time. She was very proud, as were her parents. Not to be outdone, Lily refused to go to sleep and threw a fit when put into bed, yelling "Mommy, Mommy, weewee, poopoo..." In the meantime, Kelsey has awoken again, so I went to handle her and Teresa went in with Lily and Addison. Kelsey refused to sleep this time, so Teresa and I switched. I sat on the floor with Lily on the potty and Addison sleepy in my arms waiting for Lily to give up, as she often does. But alas after a long time of singing songs, I looked under her and saw a big poop! She was very proud. I was very late.
Lily seemed to want to bask in her glory because she did not want to go to sleep and cried until she was tired of hearing me sing the same song over and over and over again. So now it is 8:30 and the banquet was over. Teresa was back tending to Kelsey and finally around 9:00 we ate dinner. I went back to do some work (write a test). Now it is midnight, the test is half written, and Kelsey is back crying. Teresa had just gone to bed at 11:30.
If you are keeping score:
Good things that happened today: Lots! Including two for two on the potty.
Bad things that happened today: Enough to appreciate the good things.
Usually in the mornings, I get the girls to myself for some good Daddy time. First there is the distribution of bananas, one to Lily and one to Addison. One must not "open" the banana before the owner is ready. Usually there is a chorus of "hold it, hold it, ..." (meaning they simply wish to hold the banana) until finally I get the green light "open it, open it, ..." (meaning, peel it). One must be very careful, because Addison is prone to say "open it" when she means "hold it" and, if you open it when she still wanted to hold it, her entire morning is shot and she remains in a bad mood until after her nap. You only make this mistake a couple of times before you realize you need to ask for clarification before opening the banana.
After banana time, comes milk time which has also morphed into cereal time. Usually the girls choose their seat, rarely wanting the same seat. And they are usually eating their breakfast when Jessi comes up to save me. Such was the case this morning. Other than it raining, all was going well with Lily and Addison.
Since it was Thursday, Lily has speech therapy on Thursday mornings, so I packed her up (actually, Jessi did all of the work) and put her in the car. Jessi took Addison downstairs to play. We got an assignment at speech therapy to count the words Lily uses since the supervisor at the speech therapy clinic was quite impressed with the number of words Lily has been using. So after putting the girls to bed for naptime (I had Kelsey, Teresa had Addison, and Jessi had Lily), I tallied up the words that I knew Lily was able to say, though some of them she does not exactly get the correct pronunciation (we had a list of words from the therapist as a starting point). I am proud to say that Lily has over 300 words.
The afternoon came and went without much of a problem. I got to feed Kelsey, did some work, and helped get dinner going. Even post-dinner seemed to be going well. The girls were laughing, chasing Jack, running around upstairs. Teresa was tending to Kelsey as I got the girls' bath together.
I must say that today was one of the few days where I actually needed to be someplace after the girls went to bed. The School of Accountancy at Ohio University had their annual awards banquet this evening. So, I had been mentally prepared to rush out the door as soon as the girls were asleep. But, alas, the girls had a different agenda. To help expedite my departure, Teresa put me in charge of Kelsey who only needed to be put to bed. So I did that, got her asleep, and changed into my suit for the banquet. As soon as I had my tie on, Kelsey woke up...crap. I could hear down the hall Teresa dealing with her own set of issues. Both Addison and Lily wanted to sit on the potty before going to bed. So she had them out of their beds and in the bathroom. In the meantime, I got Kelsey asleep again. So I went to check on Teresa, and Addison had, in fact, gone weewee in the potty for the first time. She was very proud, as were her parents. Not to be outdone, Lily refused to go to sleep and threw a fit when put into bed, yelling "Mommy, Mommy, weewee, poopoo..." In the meantime, Kelsey has awoken again, so I went to handle her and Teresa went in with Lily and Addison. Kelsey refused to sleep this time, so Teresa and I switched. I sat on the floor with Lily on the potty and Addison sleepy in my arms waiting for Lily to give up, as she often does. But alas after a long time of singing songs, I looked under her and saw a big poop! She was very proud. I was very late.
Lily seemed to want to bask in her glory because she did not want to go to sleep and cried until she was tired of hearing me sing the same song over and over and over again. So now it is 8:30 and the banquet was over. Teresa was back tending to Kelsey and finally around 9:00 we ate dinner. I went back to do some work (write a test). Now it is midnight, the test is half written, and Kelsey is back crying. Teresa had just gone to bed at 11:30.
If you are keeping score:
Good things that happened today: Lots! Including two for two on the potty.
Bad things that happened today: Enough to appreciate the good things.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
2 weeks and counting
Kelsey turned 2 weeks old yesterday. Funny how 2 weeks can seem like 2 years.
So here is some of the news about Kelsey, Addison and Lily from the past few weeks. Kelsey and I were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday April 16. Kelsey had a bit of jaundice so I was instructed to nurse her every 2 hours. She had blood tests every 2 days for the next 6 days. She never had a bad case of jaundice and by the 6th day, the tests showed the problem was going away.
Our first night at home was a tough one for mommy and daddy. Kelsey was awake and eating from about 1a to 5a. The next few days while we were fighting the jaundice, she really was not into being awakened every 2 hours to eat. We did our best though.
On Friday April 18, Pop came to Athens for the weekend. He and Gram stayed until the following Tuesday. Gram, of course, spent most of her time helping with Addison and Lily and sewing. Before she left Athens, Gram took measurements of Lily and Addison for future outfits. A & L now see the measuring tape and say "Gram".
Kelsey's room is quite cute. I'll post pictures once a few finishing touches are done.
Addison and Lily quickly warmed up to Kelsey. Lily was immediately OK with touching her and pointing to her "eyes". Addison took a day to actually touch her, but now loves giving her kisses all over her face. Lily's kisses are still given at a 6 inch distance.
Although Kelsey lost more than 10% of her birth weight before we left the hospital, yesterday on her 2 week birthday she weighed 9lbs 3oz. She's back to her birth weight and then some.
At this point we're working on keeping Kelsey on a 3 hour schedule eating schedule. But at night I don't wake her up. So far she's waking up 2 times at night to eat. I'm hopeful that it won't be long before she extends her night time sleeping.
Our first couple of nights at home, Mike got up with Kelsey and I for the night time feedings. But we quickly realized that we were needlessly interupting both of our sleep. So now, I get up and deal with Kelsey during the night and Mike gets up at 6:45a with Addison and Lily. Some mornings Kelsey and I join them for a bit of family time.
Our most hectic time of the day is bath/bedtime for Addison and Lily. Out of about 10 days, only 2 days has Kelsey allowed both Mike and I full time for bath and bedtime. Hopefully over the next week Kelsey will fall into a more regular schedule and we'll be able to plan A & L bath and bedtime better.
Exciting news from this morning. Lily went wee wee on the potty. Apparently she's now decided it is uncomfortable to have wee wee in her diaper. She walked around this morning like her diaper was full and very uncomfortable. Maybe this is a start to potty success!
Addison and Lily are both starting to read books to themselves. They will flip through the book and talk about what is going on in the book. Lily did this last night with Once Upon a Potty and Addison did it with Dr Zeuss' ABC book.
Many thanks to our friends Sue and Dave and Jon and Tasha who recommended the Leap Frog Letter Factory video. A & L have been watching it in the car when we go anywhere for about 2 months. They know all of the letters and love reading letters on signs, books, etc. It is especially exciting when a sign has a big letter on it. A realtor down the street has a sign up with a big "G" and it has been a source of excitement for a while now. Addison loves reading the letters in the Elmo Balls book where he dunks a basketball. The word is SWOOSH and she can read each letter in order. A & L also like playing the game of naming words that start with certain letters. Like J is for Jessi and Jack. T is for turtle. B is for baby and ball. And most importantly "Whose name starts with M?" --- MOMMY!
So here is some of the news about Kelsey, Addison and Lily from the past few weeks. Kelsey and I were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday April 16. Kelsey had a bit of jaundice so I was instructed to nurse her every 2 hours. She had blood tests every 2 days for the next 6 days. She never had a bad case of jaundice and by the 6th day, the tests showed the problem was going away.
Our first night at home was a tough one for mommy and daddy. Kelsey was awake and eating from about 1a to 5a. The next few days while we were fighting the jaundice, she really was not into being awakened every 2 hours to eat. We did our best though.
On Friday April 18, Pop came to Athens for the weekend. He and Gram stayed until the following Tuesday. Gram, of course, spent most of her time helping with Addison and Lily and sewing. Before she left Athens, Gram took measurements of Lily and Addison for future outfits. A & L now see the measuring tape and say "Gram".
Kelsey's room is quite cute. I'll post pictures once a few finishing touches are done.
Addison and Lily quickly warmed up to Kelsey. Lily was immediately OK with touching her and pointing to her "eyes". Addison took a day to actually touch her, but now loves giving her kisses all over her face. Lily's kisses are still given at a 6 inch distance.
Although Kelsey lost more than 10% of her birth weight before we left the hospital, yesterday on her 2 week birthday she weighed 9lbs 3oz. She's back to her birth weight and then some.
At this point we're working on keeping Kelsey on a 3 hour schedule eating schedule. But at night I don't wake her up. So far she's waking up 2 times at night to eat. I'm hopeful that it won't be long before she extends her night time sleeping.
Our first couple of nights at home, Mike got up with Kelsey and I for the night time feedings. But we quickly realized that we were needlessly interupting both of our sleep. So now, I get up and deal with Kelsey during the night and Mike gets up at 6:45a with Addison and Lily. Some mornings Kelsey and I join them for a bit of family time.
Our most hectic time of the day is bath/bedtime for Addison and Lily. Out of about 10 days, only 2 days has Kelsey allowed both Mike and I full time for bath and bedtime. Hopefully over the next week Kelsey will fall into a more regular schedule and we'll be able to plan A & L bath and bedtime better.
Exciting news from this morning. Lily went wee wee on the potty. Apparently she's now decided it is uncomfortable to have wee wee in her diaper. She walked around this morning like her diaper was full and very uncomfortable. Maybe this is a start to potty success!
Addison and Lily are both starting to read books to themselves. They will flip through the book and talk about what is going on in the book. Lily did this last night with Once Upon a Potty and Addison did it with Dr Zeuss' ABC book.
Many thanks to our friends Sue and Dave and Jon and Tasha who recommended the Leap Frog Letter Factory video. A & L have been watching it in the car when we go anywhere for about 2 months. They know all of the letters and love reading letters on signs, books, etc. It is especially exciting when a sign has a big letter on it. A realtor down the street has a sign up with a big "G" and it has been a source of excitement for a while now. Addison loves reading the letters in the Elmo Balls book where he dunks a basketball. The word is SWOOSH and she can read each letter in order. A & L also like playing the game of naming words that start with certain letters. Like J is for Jessi and Jack. T is for turtle. B is for baby and ball. And most importantly "Whose name starts with M?" --- MOMMY!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Rest in Peace Denuen
The circle of life. It is with great sadness that on Sunday April 20, Denuen passed away. She was as happy as ever during the day, chasing Jack up and down the stairs and at the front of the line for her 3:00 treat. All in all, pretty amazing for a 13 year old dog. But around 4:00 Teresa's mom noticed that Denuen was having a seizure of some sorts. She then could not stand and was panting very hard, refusing water. I carried her downstairs and she walked to her favorite spot on a dog bed in the living room. It was there, in her favorite spot, that she died. I will post a much happier update on Kelsey, Addison and Lily tomorrow, but for now, Denuen deserves her spotlight. She was faithful, caring, protective and loving. Before I knew Denuen, she and Teresa shared a common bond and trust. She had one litter of seven puppies, one of which lives with us (Peoopee) and two who live with Teresa's parents (Shelby and Nuttin'). In all the chaos that is our life right now, the house seems a bit empty without her.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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