Gestational Age of Baby T: 29 weeks, 5 days
Family,
And a good evening to you from the Queen City, where the Bull is LATE getting started on the September post. But time waits for no man, so let's get amongst it, shall we?
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| My mom dubbed this one: "The Princess and the Pee." |
9/2 - I was in Denver on this day visiting Tait (and meeting Beth!), but the biggest news was that Baby T rolled 24 weeks on this day! Growing like a weed!9/5 - So K started a new ritual on this day (which has since already passed). Basically, after we'd say good night, she'd take every one of her considerable number of animals (call it 40) and stack them up in a MOUNTAIN on the bed. The first time she did this was when Sara Beth babysat for us, and then it continued for probably a good 1-2 weeks. It was hilarious (and impressive), but it basically rendered the video camera obsolete.
9/6 - And just like that, we're back in pre-school! This year it's 3 days a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Ms. Cindy is her teacher, with Ms. Tara (last year's teacher) serving as an assistant to a couple of classrooms (which means K still gets to see her some). I have only dropped K one time at pre-school (and she was the first one there on that day), but Jenny has confirmed there are 9 kids in the class: 8 Indians and K! K seems to be really enjoying it...when we can actually get a word out of her as to what they do all day. We do know that Wednesday is show and tell, and Thursday is still Chapel. And when we asked K what she wanted to be, at first it was a firemen. That instantly changed to a dentist, so I think the jury's still out on her target profession.
Also, I watched K do a full blown somersault today! It was incredible - GREAT FORM! Apparently she just started doing it while I was in Denver, and this was the first time I'd seen it in action. Too cute!
Lastly, Jenny had been reading a Sleeping Beauty Golden book to K for the previous week or so, and on this night she basically recited the ENTIRE THING. And funnily enough, she LOVES Maleficent. I'm pretty sure it's her favorite Disney villain, as she finds her way into every story we tell!9/7 - WhileI do think things are better now, on this day Jenny expressed some concerns to me about K's pre-school. True, we never expected it to be Primrose, but the class size (teacher:pupil ratio), lack of space for the children (she said the room felt very cramped), and the overall communication from the school (which admittedly was pretty shoddy last year) just left her feeling like K wasn't in a completely comfortable learning environment. K didn't seem phased after the first two days, but I am super proud of Jenny for raising this up. We have since started looking at other options (everywhere is full at the moment), and truth be told things do appear fine for now. However, if we get the chance to switch, then we will consider it come January.
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| GO HORNETS!!!!!! |
The highlight of the day - K had a GREAT swim lesson. She really did backstroke for the first time ever - they were definitely her best strokes to date. Little Ledecky, comin' at ya!
9/8 - "Sing the meningning song!" So...don't judge me. :-) Bottom line, I was bathing K the other
day and just started talking about cleaning her arm, leg, bummy bummy, and everything else she's got, which eventually led to me singing about cleaning her meningning. Well, as fate would have it, she actually REMEMBERED IT, and then when Jenny and I were putting lotion on her, she said, "Dada, sing the meningning song!" the look on Jenny's face was...well, PRICELESS. And the funniest part - I couldn't remember what I'd just sang, so I had to make up ANOTHER "meningning song" on the spot! I know, I know - #ParentoftheYear.
Something else that's fun - K is working on being able to show numbers on her fingers. It take some work, but she's getting to where she can show 2, 3, 4, etc. This has really improved over the last month!
9/9 - Baby T rolled 256 weeks today: the she of a rutabaga (whatever that is)! JT took K to North Meck park for a mommy Life Group event during the day, and then we had a cookout with the Williams clan here at the house in the evening. The kids had a BLAST, and it was great to just sit and chill with the Williams clan. They are good people, and I feel truly blessed to have them in our lives.
9/12 - So K and JT left for "mommy and me" coffee at CFA this morning. As per standard, JT and I did our ritual "4 quick kisses." What was NOT standard, however, was that, after we did that, K then came over and gave me 4 quick kisses on the cheek. TOO CUTE! Honestly, it was adorable. Love that kid!
The other big event for the day - Soccer Shots! So a little back story: This is a 12 week program to teach very young kids the basics of soccer. It's 30 minutes a week throughout the fall, and the kids learn new skills and scrimmage each week. This was K's first practice, and it was THE CUTEST thing I'd ever seen. Honestly, it was worth it to see how excited she was wearing her jersey. It was DOUBLY worth it to watch them in their first scrimmage - HILARIOUS! K didn't really understand the concepts out of the gate (kept picking up the ball with both hands - pretty cute), and she definitely has her father's speed on the soccer field (aka - a definite lack thereof). But the good news - she had a blast, got some exercise, and even scored her first goal! I was constantly filming this, as I was desperate to preserve it for all time. I've only missed one practice so far, as they are just too much fun to watch. Originally it was supposed to have been on Friday mornings, and I would have missed it. This way I get to see them all, and she's in class with three of her friends (Claire, Emmy, and Mary Ladson). Jackpot!
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| #GAMER. Just sayin'... |
9/14 - K had a swim lesson today, and she did AMAZING diving! It was the best I'd ever seen - really leaping out and getting her head down! Way to go, my fearless little munchkin! She was even practicing freestyle on her own while the teacher was focused on helping another student. That was a first, and VERY cool to see!
On thing to note on this day - K actually peed through a pull-up! How crazy is that!
9/15 - Struggles with potty training continued, as K actually took off her panties and slept bottomless on this night. Needless to say, she peed the bed. In fact, she SOAKED it, and it got into the mattress. Good times. Honestly - Jenny and I were shocked, as this seemed to come out of nowhere. K had gone virtually a month with waking up dry, and so we just thought this was the logical next step. I will give JT a lot of credit - she was very, very calm through the whole thing. It obviously disrupted everyone's sleep (K included, as it was taking her awhile to fall back to sleep), and it did make for a challenging period. The interesting (and sweet) part - K was THRILLED to see us when we came in the room. Her smile was a mile wide, and she kept trying to help us change the sheets and take them downstairs. And so while we weren't sure what was going on, we were at least happy that a) she wasn't shivering, b) she did try to help, and c) she went right back to sleep as soon as we left the room.
Side note - it's funny to actually try and recreate/represent this period now that I'm writing one month later. For some reason, I have almost no notes about it (perhaps I was trying to block it out), and what I do have is jumbled all over the place. The salient point - it was tough and we were surprised, but we're hoping it was just a little blip in the developmental radar.
9/16 - Baby T was 26 weeks on this day - the size of a scallion! I was in Chapel Hill, so K and JT headed down to spend the night with Mindy and Craig - which meant another sleepover for K and Hayden! The girls must have had a blast once again, as they didn't go to sleep until 11 PM! And needless to say, we kept her in nighttime diapers this evening. :-)
9/17 - So I was out of town this weekend, but JT and K watched all of Brave. K loved it! Side note - we've listened to "Learn Me Right" from the ending credits a lot while doing lotion, and she's even learned most of the words! Let me tell you - there are few things sweeter than singing Disney songs with your daughter. Too cute (plus I love the bag pipes). She also hit My Gym with Hayden and loved it. This girl gets around!
Highlights from My Gym:
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| Monkeys... |
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| Next step - LIFTOFF! |
9/18 - Great swim lesson today!
9/19 - Perhaps K's best line EVER!. So we were at Soccer Shots, and the practice had gone ok for the first 20-25 minutes. An interesting tidbit is that K normally won't pee before soccer, and then she's either needing to be, asking to pee, or has to be taken to pee during the practice (at least that was the case for the first 3 weeks). Well, on this day, they were doing the normal scrimmage prep - every kid gets a jersey (either orange or gray), and then the kids run over for a sip of water before we kick it off. The convo:
Daddy: "Are you ready to scrimmage?"
Kaitlyn: "I just started to pee."
Daddy: "So that's a no."
HILARIOUS!!!!! Seriously, I was cackling. But we did get her taken care of (she held it if memory
serves), and then we took her to the bathroom after practice (it's only 30 min). We've actually established a great little routine, as Jenny gets a chance to visit with Renee, Jill, and Jane during the practice, and then K gets to play with her friends on the playground as soon as it's over. Also, we decided on this day that we'd try again to go back to panties. Operating on the assumption that the previous week represented just a few hiccups, we decided to try panties only for a second night. In retrospect, it was a BIG mistake, as it was hot at practice and K was CHUGGING water. She peed twice before bed, but still she wet it (at least that's my memory of it, but yet again I don't have it documented!). Wow - I think I really did try to block it out...
9/20 - Today was a day to get a few animals out of jail (aka my closet), and so we did the usual routine of "visiting the ATM and paying the bail bondsman." Today had a unique twist, as K greeted the invisible gate keeper when she said, "Hello, Bail Bondsman!" That's my girl!
Also, her imagination is in full swing right now. We are talking full-on stories with character introductions, a plot, a climax, and even some coherence. This night in the bath was all about the ducky who went to pre-school. We also baked "ducky pie" using our rubber duckies and the wash cloth - tasty...
Oh, and before I hung up with JT that evening, K called out "I love you, mommy!" That was standard, but the next line was not: "I love you, Baby T!" About 30 seconds after we hung up, K looked at me (we were at the dinner table) and asked, "Daddy, can I hold Baby T?" I told her of course she could, and she followed it up with: "I will hold him and not drop him. I will rock him to sleep. He can't walk up the stairs but I can. He has legs, but they are little." I mean, first off, is that not the sweetest thing EVER? Secondly, so funny that she thinks it's a boy. Craziness!
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| I mean, just LOOK at those animals. No words. |
But the highlight of the day: so earlier in the day, JT told me that she wanted to buy a basket so she could keep K's room clean. Essentially, she wanted K to start putting animals into the basket at night (vs. having them in her bed). Full disclosure - I thought this was A COLOSSAL WASTE OF MONEY, as I didn't see ANY WAY K was going to give up on having 40 of her closest friends in bed with her. Ohhhhhhhhh, little did I know...
So that night before bed, I casually said to K: "Do you know what mommy would love? She would love it if you put all your animals in these baskets (there were already 2 purple boxes in there)." Her response? "Okay, daddy - I don't want my friends anymore. They can sleep in these boxes. That is their bed so I'll see them in the morning." And then, without missing a beat, SHE ACTUALLY STARTED PUTTING THEM ALL AWAY (only 6 made it to bed with her that night, roughly an 82% reduction in force). I was in SHOCK. Humble pie, crow, whatever you want to call it - consider it eaten. And yes, I told JT when she got home. HILARIOUS! And at time of writing (1 month later, as it's 14 October right now), by and large all the animals are still in the boxes. How did that happen?
9/21 - So this was a cool experience: K was at a swim lesson, and at one point Ms. Donna (her teacher) stopped her in the middle of a swim and spoke to her. We assumed that it was because she wasn't listening, and we asked Donna after class if she was misbehaving. Donna actually said quite the opposite - she stopped K to tell her that she was a leader! She said she was a leader because she listens so good. Now that makes a parent proud! It is cool when you hear kids in the class say they are 6 and 8, and then Donna says, "well, she's THREE!" PROUD OF THAT KID!
9/22 - Another neat milestone today, as K colored apples and really did a GREAT job staying inside the lines! JT and I were really impressed - needless to say we kept that artwork! So was super polite today, and another note - she is getting SO STRONG holding the car door (she holds it when I come to open the door, and I act like I am struggling and have to pull it a few times). Crazy how quickly she's growing. When she hung up the phone with JT this evening, she again said, "I love you, Baby T." But this time, she told me that "Baby T is a sister and she wants to call her Cora." :-)
9/23 - So Baby T hit 27 weeks on this day: the size of a head of cauliflower!!! The app says that Baby T is 14.5 inches and almost 2 pounds at this point - insanity! It's definitely starting to feel more real now (and even moreso now that we've passed 30 weeks at time of writing, but more on that in the October post :-)).
Side note on this day, as it was very emotional. One of Jenny's Life Group friends, Katie Rivera, was taken in on this day for emergency surgery with her their at the time unborn child. Katie was 2 weeks in front of Jenny (she was 29 weeks on this day), and the pregnancy had been fraught with complications (it's not my story to tell, so I will refrain from a lot of the details here). Suffice it to say, Katie and Jenny had formed an almost immediate bond given how closely aligned their pregnancies were, and hearing about the emergency surgery was obviously an emotional and spiritual shock. Little Brenleigh was taken to NICU immediately after surgery, and the rest of the day was a flood and flurry of prayers. As we went to bed that night, Brenleigh was having trouble breathing, but obviously we were praying for healing and a miracle.On 9/24, we awoke to find a text, letting us know that sweet little child had been called home to Heaven and was now in the arms of the Father, the angels, and the saints. We were obviously shocked, and I'm teary-eyed just typing this now. As a father already with another one on the way (I just can't imagine the pain and the heartbreak). We spent the day at Dupont State Park, and being out there in the sunshine, listening to the waterfalls, and just being in God's splendor certainly helped us to just simplify, focus, pray, and be thankful for all the blessings we have in our lives. I have more to say about the impact the experience has had on us below, but suffice it to say that it was a tough, emotional day for all the members of the Freedom House family.
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| This was the fallout of the visit. I mean...yeah... |
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| "Elena, Elena, of Avalor!" In the Merida dress. Details. |
But what I will say - K is getting much, much better about some things. She really does love helping, and she's been great lately about taking her plate (and whatever else we ask) to the sink and washing it off. She is always good to help us unpack, unload groceries, and in general really does want to participate. I have to do a better job of including her in the mix, so I have the to-do to ensure there are always some simpler, lighter weight tasks that she can help with. At a minimum, she can help "supervise" the operation. :-)
9/26 - K slept 13 hours this day! So tired! She was still a monster, and we ended up striping her 4 times with the "Rod of Love" also known as a ruler. So some side commentary on this one - our church was running a series about family during September, and two things they said really stuck with us. First off - STOP COUNTING! Ask the kid to do something, and then they better do it. Secondly, don't whip with your hand, but rather with an instrument, as hands should only love. Full disclosure, we have not implemented this with complete success yet, but we do now have a ruler in the house (it's what we used on this day) and have 3 more on order from Amazon. Our pastors used a ruler and called it "the Rod of Love," so we are trying (and I emphasize trying) to emulate that. Stay tuned for progress on that one (but spoiler alert - still not implemented 4 weeks from this dated entry).Other note on this day - as K wet the bed 4 times in the week previous, we decided to make the move back to pull-ups on this night. What was interesting - she didn't fight it AT ALL, and a month later is still in pull-ups (and without accident for almost a month at this point!). Truth be told, it's almost like she knows those are a security blanket to keep her warm and let her sleep through the night (even if truthfully she doesn't need it). We're also being much more mindful of her water intake from dinnertime on and making sure she goes potty, which is obviously having a huge impact as well. So we're not there just yet, but I do think we're close to making a return to panties at some point in November. Stay tuned.
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| Let's just say this experience made shopping with K more than a little difficult for a few days. |
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| Our little pumpkin - courtesy of Vol Nana and Grand Pooh (and what K said she wanted to be for Halloween!). |
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| My girls and TBD at the Maternal and Fetal Medicine center at Presby - Main. |
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| Lunch with friends. :-) |
crazy world we live in. Once again, I love Freedom House!
9/28 - "I'm gonna show mommy this. It's pretty adorable" that was K's quote as she carried her animals from her room to the bonus room (or somewhere). Also on this day - the official end of the high chair! That's right, folks. Just like that - K is now sitting on a chair on her own. Truth be told, she's been doing it at restaurants for quite some time, so it wasn't really a shock. If anything, it was just another milestone to note that she's growing up. She's also eating 100% of the time without a bib at this point, another sign of her maturity and development. In fact, looking back over September - better brushing, better speaking, cleaning the table, no bib, flirting with the end of diapers, no more high chair - you can see a string of milestones that have toppled, all pointing to a strong, healthy girl (in whom we are well pleased). This is another reason I'm so glad we're keeping the blog. while some of these moments aren't all that momentous, the reality is that the changes are subtle while having the cumulative effect of being enormous from an overall growth and development perspective. Craziness!
9/29 - Speaking of milestones, K opened her bedroom door by herself today! That's right, sports fans - those "child proof locks" are no longer child proof! I mean, I even had DUCT TAPE on their, but she took that off like it was nothing. To be fair, the guy who child proofed the house said, "these will likely last until she's about 4" - turns out he wasn't kidding and actually knows what he's talking about. :-) And just like that, the goose is FREE! K has also started wiping herself when she uses the bathroom. Now admittedly we have to keep an eye on this, but that's definitely another big milestone to record. On this day I noticed that she was continuing to do more chores, like trying to help JT sweep around the table after meals.
Also, K's stories are starting to become AWESOME. When she's in the backseat, she's often playing with her animals now and starting to tell stories (or flip through books and put words to the pages based on what she thinks is happening). Today she found the photo album from Primrose and started telling "the story of the babies." What she didn't realize is that she was one of those babies (along with Grace, Avery, and Gaby). She kept saying, "they were enormous and adorable" on pretty much every page. I was cackling.
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| And K doing her "Bumpie pose" as well. |
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| JT at 28 weeks! |
Okay, so that's all the news that's fit to print! Glad to have this one in the books - especially since October is right on my heels!
Speak soon!
Love,
Sam and Jenny
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