Extra! Extra! Read all about it (Doctor stats)

Mostly posting this because these are numbers I want to keep and this blog is my way of saving many memories. (Seriously, eventually, this will be printed out as a keepsake memory book for the kids down the road).

The girls had their dual appointment today. It was a bit hectic, since two nurses jumped in and at one point Cadence was in the room having her hearing checked as I answered questions about her allergies and Megan was in the hall being measured while I was trying to assure her I wasn't leaving her behind.

Cadence did worlds better this year, though considering the mess she was last year, she would have really had to try to be worse. She obsessed about the shot, of course, but seemed pretty happy about it in general. She was even happier when the nurse told her she wasn't getting shots this time around. While this was true, she neglected to mention Cadence would be getting a finger prick. Megan covered her ears and shut her eyes every time shots were mentioned, especially once learning she would not be spared like her sister.

All in all, the girls are in great health. They were able to do both the hearing and vision test on both girls. Their eyesight was 20/16 and their hearing test passed. Both are things we want to keep a close eye on as they start to age, thanks to poor family history in both areas, but for now we'll continue to cross fingers and toes they inherited my eyesight and hearing.

Megan surprised me by gaining 6 pounds! (For reference, she only gained 1.5 pounds the year before) She's still a skinny miss, but she's 40" (50-75 percentile) and 31lbs (10-15 percentile). She's more or less the same size Cadence was at age 4, minus 3 pounds.

Cadence is on her usual curve. She gained 4lbs and a couple inches, rounding out at 38lbs (30-35 percentile) and 42 3/4" (50 percentile even). Admittedly, I'm surprised she's so low on the scale, since until all the boys in her class hit their growth spurt last year, she was the biggest and youngest in her primary class. However, they did hit their growth spurts and she's now average sized (and no longer the youngest, due to the population explosion in our ward primary).

The doctor kept asking diet questions and I hesitated. I do try to make sure they eat healthy, but this morning we ran out of milk, so I went to the donut place to pick up donuts and orange juice for breakfast. It's a fight to get them to eat any vegetable other than corn (and currently, Cadence claims to hate it). The only vegetable they eat with a relish is ice berg lettuce coated with ranch dressing. I don't think that's what the doctor meant, but I do try! And milk? Yeah... it's a hit or miss. One day they'll drink the whole cup with breakfast, the other it's untouched.

Do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches count as a balanced diet? Because that's pretty much the only thing I can say for sure they eat on a regular basis. *sigh*

Oh well! They take a multivitamin and I keep trying. Dinner is usually pretty balanced, there's just no guarantee they'll eat it. :-P

Family Pictures!

Thanks to a groupon deal and our upcoming trip, we got some family pictures done the other night. Unfortunately, between Cadence's face smile and James blinking, there was only one that was even really usable as a family picture (and sadly, that one was the only one Connor wasn't grinning in). I will admit, Cadence's fake smile is rather cute (especially in the family picture with the white background), but I didn't want it on my wall, lol. Megan, of course, looks cute in pretty much all of them and Connor is the biggest flirt, so he grinned a lot too.

Birthday Weekend!

In the near future, I might manage to successfully separate the girls' birthdays, but it did not happen this weekend. Both girls anxiously counted down and asked about their birthday since I changed the calendar to November. With our California trip right around the corner and everything, we didn't make a big deal (again) this year, but we had an enjoyable weekend nonetheless.

Saturday morning, Cadence woke Megan up with the news that it was her birthday and they both rushed out to tell me. I was inundated with "whose birthday is it today?" and "whose birthday is it tomorrow?" from both ends.

We went to do family pictures since it's the only weekend that worked out, and then went to Chili's for Megan's birthday dinner (she got to pick the restaurant and chose Chili's based on their picture of pizza). The girls feasted on pepperoni pizzas, salads, and apple juice. Actually, Cadence ate more of her salad than her pizza and Megan picked at both. Unfortunately, I left my camera's memory card at home and my camera has no internal memory, so a bunch of cute pictures were taken and subsequently lost. We topped off the meal with a "skillet cookie", which was basically a small cast iron skilled filled with a chocolate chip cookie and topped off with ice cream. Cadence burned her hand a handful of times and Connor demanded his fair share of the dessert (after filling up on the potatoes and corn from my dinner). Mmm.

At home, Megan got to unwrap her present.

While it wasn't the Barbie she had decided she wanted, upon recognizing the "Sofia the First" design on the box, she was ecstatic. The girls LOVE Sofia the First. I daresay it's overcome My Little Pony as their favorite, mostly because we watch it more often and their love is a fickle thing when it comes to TV shows. Cadence was so excited about Megan's new toy we were constantly hounding her to give Megan her toy back. So, we decided to give her present to her early rather than constantly getting on her case.

Once both girls had new toys, they scampered off to create new adventures with their new characters and even took them to bed with them.

Today, Cadence was thrilled to tell everyone she was 5! She danced with her new Barbie while we got ready for church and couldn't wait to get to primary and tell her teacher all about it. And, sure enough, the moment her teacher sat down, Cadence was chatting her ear off. Her teacher is absolutely amazing and just gushed with the same enthusiasm. When the primary sang to them both, their shy side came out and they both glowered at the floor, and I wished for my camera to capture it. Ah, well...

Cadence's request for dinner was "hot dogs cooked outside by mommy". Alas, our charcoal was old and we were out of lighter fluid, so mommy cooked them inside on the griddle instead while she frosted the cake last minute. It all seemed to be enjoyed, though. Even Connor ate his fill!

So, now they're 4 & 5. Yikes!

There's a very funny story somewhere in there in which James saw a spider on the car and freaked out, or as I describe it "screamed like a girl". I was laughing so hard it's a good thing we were at a red light. Unfortunately, the story ends with me giggling and saying "you just had to be there". So, for now, I'll leave you with the image of my big manly husband screaming and jumping (while buckled) as far from the spider as possible and taking off his shoe to try to squash the thing and demanding I open the window so he can try to brush it out. I got my ab work out from laughing so hard.

She's reading

Shortly after my last update, Cadence made the leap into reading.

It started with "OK". I told her to push the "OK" button and she sounded it out "ah k" before pushing it. Once I heard her do that, it was full-steam ahead, while trying to remain casual about it since she gets overwhelmed with new things and I didn't want to scare her off.

We started with words she already knew by sight, encouraging her to sound them out, and then branched out to words she wanted to know (for example, she began to recognize the word "fox" from 20th Century Fox's logo and has recently become obsessed with the word "fat"). I opened up our copy of "Cat in the Hat" and began pointing to words she knew (cat, bed) and then to a few words she didn't, that I would sound out and she would read (cup, red).

A week later, she's reading. I picked up another Dr. Seuss book the other week and yesterday we sat down and "read" it together. I would read most of the words, point out sight words for Megan to recognize and encourage Cadence to sound out and read some of the CVC words.

I also put magnet letters on our back door and will leave words for her to read and let her spell out her own words. Yesterday, she easily read "fix" and "jump".

She has a little trouble with connecting "stop" beginning sounds (k, d, b, etc.) to the second half of the word, for example reading "cup" as "up" even though she sounded out the /k/ in the word, but we're chugging along.

Just last night she was giggling as we "argued" over the proper way to spell but, in which she fished out the correct magnets but put them together wrong (at one point turning the U sideways, etc.) I commented to James it's a good thing I didn't teach her how to spell the anatomical "butt", because I'm pretty sure she might write "but" on her papers at Church on Sunday...

Trunk or Treat

Our ward's Trunk or Treat was last night. It was a fun night, though a little chaotic, since I was in the presidency in charge of the event and showed up early to help set up and then stayed to help tear down (though we left earlier than most since I had the youngest brood of the group). The girls showed little interest in most of the carnival activities, in fact they protested quite a bit when we attempted to get them to do the hanging donut eating contest. They didn't quite understand the cupcake walk either. Cadence obediently walked in the circle, but Megan walked in a circle to the cupcake table, helped herself to a cupcake and left the game.

Connor refused to wear his entire costume. He grudgingly left the bandanna in place, but attempt to reattach his beard and he knew how to grab and pull. The entire night was off for him. I hadn't fed him in a few hours and rather than fuss about that, he went to sleep in the middle of the crowd of screaming kids at the carnival. He wasn't too happy to wake up when I put him in the stroller for the actual trunk-or-treating portion of the night, but as long as we kept moving he was fine. It was until we attempted to strap him in his carseat that he decided to inform us of how hungry he was.

Unfortunately for us, in the midst of his screaming, we realized I had misplaced my keys somewhere. Though James has his, losing mine was extremely upsetting. Thankfully, I got a phone call tonight from someone who found them. Apparently, when I stopped to help someone pick up some items of theirs that had fallen, I dumped my keys, along with their buttons and thread, into their bag and walked away. After a frantic 24 hours of not knowing where they are, they are secure. Thank goodness, since replacing car keys is a little pricey nowadays and requires a little more work than just driving down to Walmart and having a key cut at the sporting goods desk.

Anyway, we do have a family picture! We're working on getting updated professional pictures in the next month or so, but for now, this is it.

As for little family updates: Cadence is showing an interest in reading. Once I changed gears and worked on sounding out words to write instead of read, she has done well. She still needs a lot of prompting, but she's picking it up. Megan also recognizes words we've worked on and I expect once Cadence is reading, she'll be more interested in learning it herself.

Connor is 7 months and some change. He's learned how to get himself to a sitting position and how to climb (his favorite climbing apparatus is, of course, me). He's talking up a storm (combining consonants, ba-la-ma-ma, into mock-words instead of repetitive consonants, ba-ba-ba-ba) and recently realized the food everyone else eats is far tastier and more interesting than what I've been giving him. He continues to charm everyone he meets. Just the other day he got his 2nd flu shot (infants need to get 2 in one month to be fully vaccinated) and seconds after he had been crying about it, he was flirting with the nurses.

Zoo Boo

Despite some potentially bad weather, the kids and I braved the Zoo for their annual "Zoo Boo", where they have a few extra Halloween-themed activities. It wasn't anything fancy, which is to be expected when there's no additional cost beyond the entrance fee (or your membership fee, in our case), but the girls got to wear their costumes, paint pumpkins, collect a bit of candy, and still see their favorite animals. I had hoped the potential rain would keep most people away, but the place was more crowded than usual for a weekday morning. Still, we had fun.

Connor's costume didn't last long. He kept trying to eat the beard. The pieces ended up in my purse before we even reached the zoo.

Missing Megan's arm and leg warmers, but here's Pinkie Pie and Supergirl!

Hanging out while the girls painted their pumpkins with paint pens.

He was more excited by his reflection than the chimp only a foot away from him.

Brushing the goats.

Megan protested riding the carousel initially, but once we were on it she loved it. (Cadence refused to smile for the picture)

Lunch time. He's mastering his pincer grasp.

  

They had a few photo op places, so I took advantage of one while we were all still in a good mood. :-)

Dewberry Farm 2013

The original plan for Dewberry Farm was to go later in the month, but when James was given today off, we decided to go ahead and move our plans up by 2 weeks. In the end, I think we all wish we had just waited the extra two weeks. It was hot out. Not just hot, but muggy. A storm rolled in this afternoon and the air got nasty real fast and zapped our energy and enjoyment of what should have been a great trip.

It was so warm the girls had no desire to go on the big slid, swing off of the big haystack, run through the Fort DewHickey or any of the other exciting things to do at the farm that our entrance fee gave us access to. Cadence did swing a little and the girls held my hand as I dragged them through the barn to look at the pigs, rabbits and baby chicks. I was looking forward to doing the corn maze this year, but there was no way I wanted to go in there and have even the occasional breeze blocked off. Poor Connor was extremely uncomfortable in the stroller, even though we poured water down the back of his shirt to help him cool off.

In the end, we used a coupon to get the girls rights to 2 souvenir cups they could fill with wildflowers. James walked them through the field to pick out their flowers. Then we opted to walk to the pumpkin field rather than wait for a seat on the overcrowded hay wagon and its mini-tour of the Christmas tree lots. Patience faded quickly as we all got overheated on the short trek and we were back in the car and on the road not much later. We ran into the storm (the source of the mugginess) halfway home, and it lasted long enough for all of us to cool off a bit.

Unfortunately, I left the sunscreen at home, sitting on the counter and it seems Connor has inherited his dad's skin (my fingers are still crossed I got my little freckle-faced redhead after all!) and both boys came home with a mild sunburn. I'll be more vigilant next time (like our zoo boo trip next week)

She's a Writer, not a Reader

Cadence has known her letters since she was 2, so admittedly I'm a little surprised she's nearly 5 and has shown no interest in the reading I've tried to encourage her to do. Try to get her to sound out words and her eyes glaze over.

I recently realized I've been approaching it all wrong with her. This realization came when she brought a piece of paper over to me. It had been covered with drawings and letters. She settled next to me with her pencil and paper and asked me how to spell "lips". I took a closer look at her paper and realized she had written the 4 words we've used in preschool (Each week, we have a simple sight word, "cat", "bed", "ant" and "dog"). She had written each of the words and drawn an appropriate picture. She had also written her own name and a picture. Then written "BRAVE" and "GISNEY" (with lots of loops, just like the Disney logo).

Something suddenly clicked in my head. Cadence doesn't have the patience or motivation to sit and learn how to read words on the page, but she does have the patience to sit down and sound them out with me to write them.

So, I coached her through the word "lips" by sounding it out with her. Then through the word "doll" and a handful of other words before Connor demanded my attention.

I'll make a reader of her yet. But first, I'm going to make a writer out of her.

Cadence's Coloring Book (Megan, too)

Due to Cadence's love of drawing, I tend to actually toss 99% of her art. In my defense, she can (and has) fill a 70-page notebook with drawings and letters in a single weekend if given free reign. However, I do want to preserve and show off her talent, so I scanned in a few of her recent ones, plus one I could find that Megan had drawn (that Cadence didn't take over and "improve"). So, here you go:

My Little Pony. If you're a Brony like me, see if you can name them all!

She drew the tree, then the girl, then the rain. I'm not 100% sure what the multi-colored thing is supposed to be.

A MLP she created herself and a rainbow and sparkly grass, as described by Cadence. She drew this one for Megan and hung it on the wall.

Megan's developing skill. Two princesses. She picks up a lot of ideas (like the skirts) from Cadence's drawing, but makes them her own.

6 month stats- Connor

Half a year and Chunky Charlie has almost doubled his birth weight. He weighed in at a studly 18lbs 3.5oz, which is larger than both of his sisters at 9 months old (and also heavier than his youngest sister at age 1). Just like his sisters, he dropped a percentile group. Now instead of being just over the 75th percentile line for weight, he's under it, though again, just barely, so maybe 70th percentile total. Keep in mind, this is adjusted for breastfed babies, who tend to not gain weight as quickly as babies on formula.

He's also managed to lengthen out. In fact, his height today was 27.5", which put him just under the 90th percentile line, but well over the 75th. At his 4 month check-up, he was just under the 75th percentile line, so he's gone up almost a full percentile group.

Part of me does wonder if he's acquired a new leanness due to his increased activity now that he's mobile. Both girls dropped percentiles around the same age, and were mobile around the same age. In fact, with Connor, at his last few check-ups his weight was a higher percentile than his height, and now it's reversed. Just last week I held up Connor and commented on how much leaner he looked while talking to James. The only explanation I have is that he's fully mobile now (which seemed to surprise his pediatrician at our check-up).

Anyway, getting little reminders that my baby is not a baby for much longer. The doctor gave me permission to give up a few ounces of juice in a cup to help him learn. I'm also supposed to start him on vitamin drops with flouride (at least until he drinks water more regularly). On top of that, I'm now encouraged to give him table foods, rather than being told "well, if you want to, you can start, but..." As if that wasn't enough of a reminder, his new convertible, big-boy carseat is on a FedEx truck to be delivered this afternoon.

*sniffles* He's getting too big.

I should add that the girls got their flu vaccines while we were there. It seemed silly to wait until November when flu season will be here before then and we were already there. The girls weren't exactly thrilled, but Cadence did really well other than some initial nervousness about having something shoved up her nose. Megan hated it and cried while we waited, but once she was there it went more or less okay. Poor Connor had four vaccines and the flu shot (one vaccine was oral, the flu shot was not). So he got four pricks and I've got to take him in next month for a follow-up flu vaccine. So, we'll be going to the doctor once a month for the rest of the year: October for the follow-up flu shot, November for the girls' annual check-ups, and December for Connor's 9 months. Busy, busy, busy!