Yara 15 months

Miss Yara had her 15 month check up:

Height 90% at 31 7/8
Weight 25% at 21.9lbs
Head 75% at 46 1/2

About a month after she turned one we stopped nursing; not both of our choices!  My body was shutting down the milk production, I needed to have surgery in the next few months any way for my hernia I developed when I was pregnant with her, and she was only nursing for nap time and night time.  I started by introducing her to milk in the bottle, which is would try to steal her brother's bottle, but after a few days of 2% milk I knew she wasn't going to be sticking to it because she was fussy, spit up, and what not.  So I gave her almond milk like her older brother drinks and the rest is history.  Sure we struggled for about a week maybe a little longer because she wanted me and not the bottle to sleep.  But after a week for taking naps at my moms house so she could give her the bottle to sleep she was fine.  It was night time that was a struggle because of Romulo not being home to help out for bedtime.  But we made it.  I would either lay down in my bed with her like we would do for nursing but have a bottle or I would have to lay her on my chest sitting her up while sitting in the glider to give her the bottle.  At first she barely drank any of the almond milk but soon after she drank all 10oz of it.  It was a pretty fast transiting and lucky too because most babies won't take a milk from their momma after they know they won't be nursing.  It was an emotional ride for the both of us but we have moved on and have found a new way to snuggle and love.

She is kind of sleeping thru the night.  After my surgery and having other hands to care for her she would scream in the middle of the night or not sleep at all unless I held her.  She is getting better because I think the routine has come back to normal and I'm able to care 100% for her now.  Those 4 weeks after surgery was rough; not being able to pick up anything over 10 lbs for 4 weeks. Thank goodness it wasn't longer.  My surgery was easy and a small hernia to repair; 2 internal stitches thank goodness (not sure how many external).

She is so tiny but boy can she eat! She is still in a size 3 diaper (day time and night time diapers).  Clothing is still 18-24months.  She needs length of the 24month but overall size of the 18month.  Shoes went up to 5 1/2.  We went to the outlets to STride rite store the week before my surgery and I was so surprised that she went from a size 4 (her birthday shoes were size 4) to a size 5 1/2 in 3 months.  I know this happens but still shocking.  So we bought two new pairs of shoes!

She eats anything!  Everything actually!  She is not so sure about her highchair anymore.  She wants to sit with brother in his little table and chairs.  So we are trying to let her do this but man is she busy.  Runs around eating others food and walks with her food.  So its a back and forth time at meal time.

She is talking more and more.  She repeats words and is starting to say words while pointing to things.  She always asks "That?".  Its cute. She loves songs, super simple learning songs, and will try to sing along to them.  She will dance too, left leg stays still while the right legs move back and forth!  Its hilarious!

She loves getting her shoes on!  She will sit down anywhere when she sees you have shoes.

Saying goodbye to people is adorable with the kids.  They know when its shoes and coats time they will go and say goodbye to everyone by getting hugs and kisses!

Our Yara loves her brother, Kau'e.  She loves him so much that she will pull his hair and slap him but he does't care.  He smiles, laughs, and says Oh Ya-Ya!  We are trying to teach her not to do so but as of now he is okay with it.

We love you Ya-Ya Girl!

Tidbits about the Kids

I feel like the past month or so the kids have really grown up!  Kau'e has been going through testing for his development and in Dec we will have a sit down and go over what the tests show...basically see what services he qualifies for through the school system.  But through the whole process we have learned so much and how to help him grow and learn.

-He loves to watch the youtube channel "Super Simple Learning" and has a blast watching it.  Its so hard to know if he has learned these things like abc, 123, sing songs, etc by watching these videos or if he has always known them just now learned how to communicate.  He is a smart boy but has learned how to be a non-verbal person in a very verbal world.  And when we ask of him to do something its when his non-verbal self gets frustrated and upset and that's when he gets mad and all is lost. So its trying to challenge him and encourage him to communicate by helping him see that we are happy when he does what we ask him to do. Signing has been a huge help.  Even though we don't know much we know enough to help him "communicate".

-He is also getting much better at play and playing in depth.  He does have a hard time imaginary playing but that will come in time.

-He is getting so big.  Sleeping in his big boy bed; full size.  He eats at his little table and chairs but lately he wants to eat with us at the big table.  We let him.

-He still loves to help me with cooking/baking.  When he sees me pulling stuff out he pulls up a chair to the island and says "me,me" as in I want to help.  So I have to give him something to do otherwise he will take over whatever I'm doing and do whatever!

-Yara!  Oh Yara, Yara!  You are a sweet girl but one with an attitude!  Ha!  SEriously, she will scream at you if you look at her and she doesn't want to be looked at!  She will scream for you during the night and when you go in to comfort her she screams even louder at you. So most nights we let her scream even if its 2 hours straight.  Not sure if this is a learned behavior or a bad streak.

-Yara is very independant and wants to do things herself.  She will help me clean up toys, food, etc off the floor.  Its adorable if she sees a mess on the floor she will just pick it up and find the first bin to place it in.  She will take a wipe and wipe up the table, floor, etc.  She is mommy's little helper.

-She will go after Kau'e's toys and you need to help direct her to something else to play with or help them play together.  Kau'e gets upset if she comes near him so I have to get them excited to play together and help them see that it can be done.  Ha.

-She is a climber and a bad one too!  She is up on everything and wants to get down all by herself.  When you take her down from something she arches her back and screams.  She is a little noodle.

-Yara is little, slim, and pint size.  Even though she is tall for her age she is a little waisted girl.  She is still in a size 3 diaper, clothing 12-24 month clothes even though most of the clothes I put her in is 18 months.  Shoe size is 5 1/2 regular; thank goodness.  Not like Kau'e's extra width.

-I'm thinking about trimming cut her hair because its getting long but I think it could be good to cut it to encourage growth.  Maybe, not sure yet.

End of October 2013

The past weeks and months have flown by! I can't even begin to gather my thoughts about what to blog about but I figured I needed too start somewhere.  I have a computer but hate the fact that its a computer and not a portable laptop because to be honest I would blog during the mornings after breakfast while sitting on the sofa while the kids played around me in the basement.  So now I'm only able to blog during nap time which is a circus or night time like now but I'm frankly too tired to care about anything else besides my bed!

So here we go in no order:

End of October Romulo's parents came to help us while I planned on having hernia surgery.  My hernia surgery was pushed back two weeks because the week before the kids got sick and then I caught it.  Lucky.  Kau'e made two E.R. visits because of croup and then Yara got the same crummy stuff.  The second E.R. visit scared the life out of me.  Kau'e came into our room around midnight we let him in bed with us because well we just couldn't fight how tired we were from the night before's visit to the E.R.  Then I remember waking up at one point and looking at him and he seemed to be struggling to breath and then the next then I know he jumps up and is sucking in so much air but little is coming out.  I yelled at Romulo and told him to find the first pair of pants and put them on because this kid needed to go!  I cried the whole time they were gone, stopping only to hear the words that they made it to the E.R. and he is getting a breathing treatment.  My world was okay again...oh my it scared me.  My sister Ellen was working that night and was given him as a patient even though she works on the adult side of the E.R.  How sweet.  Kau'e loved seeing her!  So after we were all better I finally had my surgery on Nov 8.  The hernia was much smaller than the surgeon thought, only two internal stitches not sure about external.  I wasn't scared about the surgery just didn't want to do it.  Plus the recovery is fast but a slow one too.  I would feel great fast but couldn't do any lifting over 10 lbs for 4-8 weeks; that's why Romulo's parents came to help.  I was out of it for a few days because of the pain meds but after Sunday I was pain med free and loving life again.  I miss my little ones dearly as far as holding them but I can hold them while I'm sitting down.  But to not lift them is hard!!!

Halloween was fun!  We had a lovely night pretty warm for Oct 31st.  Hard to believe that same day we celebrated being here in our home for 1 year!  Crazy.  Anyway, Kau'e was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Yara was Izzy.  Too cute.  We walked around our neighborhood and loved the evening.  Plus the kids loved it and Kau'e was totally cool about walking up and getting candy.  He even said Trick or Treat. Earlier in the day we carved our pumpkin the best we knew how.  Kau'e was way into it!  Love that kid.

September REcap

September was ONE crazy full month!  I loved it!  It was full of everything.  But I'm not liking my lack of posts lately.  My defense is I hate the slowness of my internet and new computer.  New computer fun but its has the bare essentials and therefore all my fun editing picture programs are no longer.  Plus my internet is so slow I can't even post 6 pictures without it taking 30 minutes.  Why?  SO, I'm hoping to either get a booster for our internet or move my computer close to our router.  I do live in a 3 story townhome and have our computer on the top floor with our router in the basement!  Ha!
We topped September off by buying a new car on the last day of the month!  We have been really thinking and pondering hard at just what that new car may be.  Of course I wanted a brand new car that had like 5 miles on it and all the bells and whistles but without a eyes popping price tag!  So what did we do, we bought a 2005 car with more than 100,000 miles on it but for $9,995.  We love our Nissan Armada and think it holds more than we need.  We are trying to live debt free, live with in our means, and not get caught up with the Jones.  I'll try to post pictures of it soon.  But September was one big month!

Marian and James 9/21/2013

Marian and James tied the knot today.  It was a lovely outdoor wedding that was full of romance due to the rain.  Then we had a lovely dinner at Magnolias.

Full September Days

I love September but man has it been 1 crazy crazy month!  My dad's birthday on the 7th; he turned 62.  My mom had her birthday on August 21st (day after Yara's) and she too turned 62.  Easton's birthday was on our anniversary; 3rd. He turned 11.  We had a huge dinner for the mental/physical challenged group homes in Loudoun County on the 12th at our church with the Relief Society.  That was fun but crazy busy.  Then on Saturday the 14th Ellen, Mom and myself thru a bridal shower for Marian.  Romulo took the first week off in September and we painted our main level floor of our townhome.  Saturday Sept 21 Marian is getting married. Then the following Saturday, 28th, we are holding our family reunion, my dad's side Johns'.  Anoter big activity for YW on the 26th.  Kau'e will get evaluated with Loudoun County School's since I don't know if he is where he should be development.  Oh and I've been weaning Yara from nursing!  OH heavens that's been tough!  I've been thinking of doing it some time but didn't think it would come.  Plus this past few weeks my milk has depleted a lot and well why not add something else to September.  As of last week I knew she wasn't liking the Whole Milk because her bottom was raw.  So Thursday I said some fat is better than no fat so I gave her Almond Milk.  It only has 2.5% fat in it but whatever its been than nothing.  Whole milk has 8% fat in it.  She would only take a bottle from Romulo and well since he isn't home much it was hard.  So for nap time she wouldn't get anything and I would either have to have her lay in her crib cry to sleep or my mom would hold her.  But she would only sleep for 1 hour.  When Romulo was home and she would take a bottle of almond milk she would only take 2oz.  Well after a few days of introducing this new way of life to her she took a bottle from me.  All 4oz of warmed up almond milk.  And she fell asleep.  She did this for me at nap time and bedtime last night.  Today during nap time she took 6oz of milk and is sitll asleep 1 hour and 30 minutes later.  Yesterday she only slept for 1 hour before waking up but slept another 1 hour plus when I held her.  We are making progress.  She is now sleeping from 7:30-8:30pm to 5am.  When she wakes up at 5am I am nursing her.  Sunday night was the last night I nursed her to sleep.  It's pretty sad and so different seeing your baby drink from a bottle after a whole year of nursing her.  But its good.  Life is busy in the Fall!

9 Years

9 wonderful years of marriage to my Romulo!  I am so grateful for him!  We didn't do much today since it was the first week back of school for the kids and my parents were busy with that so they couldn't watch the kids. Plus our nephew Easton who we got married on his 2nd birthday turned 11 years old. He had a MindCraft themed birthday party that evening too. But we did spend all day together painting our main level of our house!  It really was perfect.  Then I made a special dinner; crab cakes!

1 Year Stats for Yara

Yara had her 1 year old well check up today!

Height:
30 1/4 (75%)
Weight
20lbs 6oz (25-50%)
Head
46 (50-75%)

Wow, how does this happen?  My baby is a toddler all of a sudden!  She is wearing shoes too!  (Size 4) She loves her shoes.  She loves to put them on and wear them all over the house.  She is so easy going. Doesn't complain much about anything and she eats up a storm!  She is cutting more and more teeth.  She has almost 4 on the top and almost a 3rd on the bottom.  She is still in size 3 diapers wearing 12-18 month clothing.  She has brown hair and brown eyes.  Yara runs and walks everywhere.  Always on the go.  She is still nursing 2x during the day (nap time and bedtime) and 1-2 times in the night.  She likes to lay down when we nurse to sleep.