The Kason Post

Time to brag on my most amazing little guy! As you all know, he has a BIG personality! He still love, love, LOVES to dance and knows all the moves to all the songs in his Barney videos. He is also still addicted to Barney, btw. Now, he has added some Thomas and Chuggington into the mix as well.

In case you are wondering now, no, he doesn't watch tv all day long. He gets a few shows a day, reads TONS of books, and runs around the house like a crazy person all day. He is a little ball of energy.

He also loves to sing. We sing songs and dance around the house several times a day. Emily likes that, too. I throw her in the carrier and she falls right asleep while Kason and I have a ball.

He's learning new things so quickly. People have always been impressed with his vocabulary for his age. He is quite the talker (definitely gets that from his daddy). He understands everything we say to him and repeats. So, we have to be very careful and have to spell a lot of things.

Letters, numbers, and shapes are some of Kason's favorite things to play with. He has three Dr. Seuss ABC books and wants to read them all several times a day (they all vary slightly). He also loves his alphabet puzzle. He knows the name of each letter and points them out everywhere. He can almost count to ten and knows several of his shapes: circle, square, triangle (his favorite!), rectangle, oval, heart, and star.

Unforunately, I can only take some of the credit for all of this learning. We do work a little on letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, but he really likes them so much because they are entertainment to him. He loves books, puzzles, Barney (which is surprisingly one of the most educational things he ever could have gotten addicted to), and Fisher Price online games (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=30&e=playandlearn&ccat=play_and_learn). It is a combination of all of these things that has helped him learn these things so quickly.

Some other things Kason enjoys are playing on his swingset, kicking/throwing balls, all things cars/trains/trucks/planes, and wrestling with daddy and Maggie. Unfortunately, Maggie doesn't like that as much as Kason. He is also a little sweetie and my little snuggle buddy. He loves to cuddle with mommy on the couch or in bed and I love every minute of it. And, he is so sweet to his little sister (well, most of the time). He likes to make his Emmy smile and to give her hugs and kisses. He is so good with her - better than we could have ever hoped for.

So, basically, my little guy is the cutest, happiest, smartest, funniest, silliest, sweetest little guy ever (at least in my expert Mommy opinion!).

Being a stay at home mom is the best decision we ever made for our family. I am so lucky to get to be home with my two wonderful kiddos to nurture them and watch them grow everyday!

And, to end with a video for your viewing pleasure!

The Emily Post

Emily just went in for her 2 month appointment. She is a tiny little thing, weighing only 10lb 15.5oz (34%) and only 22.75 in long (45%). She is gaining appropriately, but somewhat slower than I would personally like to see. This is probably because she is a constant waterflow, overflowing with spitup. It doesn't seem to bother her, though, so no reflux meds needed. For my own piece of mind, we will be taking her back in a couple of weeks to make sure the spitup is not affecting her weight gain too much. Aside from that, she received her shots...poor girlie! She screamed her head off, but was calmed easily once I picked her up. The afternoon, though, was miserable. She screamed and refused to eat for about 4 hours off and on. Once I finally got her to nurse, all was right with the world again. Definitely not looking forward to that next set of shots, though.

Emily is such a happy baby! We thought Kason was happy, but I think Emily has him beat. She smiles almost every waking minute of the day, if she is not eating. All you have to do is look at her and she gives the biggest smile!

She has also easily gotten the hang of a night time routine and gets pretty fussy if things don't go as she expects them to. She gets a bath (on bath nights), diaper, lotion, jammies, sound machine, food, swaddle, story, prayers, song, and bed. It seems like a lot, but is really pretty quick and she goes down very easily. Some nights she is asleep after all of that and others, she falls asleep on her own in her crib. I still cannot believe that she has been sleeping in her crib since 3 weeks old. She has been a great sleeper since birth and the swaddle really does the trick. She just recently went from a 5 to a 6 to most nights, an 8 hour stretch, followed by another 3 to 5 hour stretch. I don't know if this will continue, but we are definitely enjoying it while it lasts. I am fully convinced now that I did not take enough time finding the right blankets and the right swaddling techniques for Kason. We were convinced he he hated it and gave up too easily. Emily also seemed to hate it until we got it just right. Still, if she can wiggle her arms AT ALL, she wakes right up. Any unscheduled nighttime wakings can almost always be attributed to a poor swaddle with her.

We are taking a trip this weekend that I really hope doesn't mess up this wonderful routine we have. We will be going to College Station, home of our alma mater, Texas A&M, to get Emily baptized at the same church Kason was baptized in, and to catch some Aggie baseball. The weather should be beautiful, so we should have a great time!

See below for the happenings of the past month and for LOTS more pictures!

What's Happened in the Past Month?

I'm so glad you asked! We have had a busy month. We have had several bouts of illness and allergies around here. I'd like to say we are all getting over it, but I'm not so sure. Kason's nose is running like a faucet and Kyle is still feeling generally yucky. Pretty sure it's all just allergies this time, though. So, hopefully, we can get it under control soon.

We finally have warm weather and have been enjoying every bit of it! We picked the very best street ever to live on with 2 small children. First of all, our street is a culdesac, so there is very little traffic. Then, we have the added bonus of 8 children, ages 5 and under on our street. Many evenings and almost every weekend, we gather the children at the end of the street. They play and generally, have a blast, while we adults get to socialize. Kason loves his new friends and asks for them every day, several times a day! It seems every house has some sort of car toy...a Cozy Coupe or push car, etc. Kason loves them and it is impossible to get him out of them to come home, so we broke down and got him his very own. He calls it his "school bus". He loves school buses and points them out everywhere we go. So, here he is playing with his school bus.


Kason with his cousins, Alex and Kolby



Earlier in the month, Kyle's sister, Samantha came to visit with her boyfriend, whose name is also Kyle. We took the kids to the zoo. Kason had a blast and Emily slept in the Moby the whole time.


Kason especially loved this bull



The next weekend, we got together with our friends, Lee and Lindsey and Randy, Bailey, Gabriel, and Blaise. Gabriel and Kason were instant buddies when they met over the summer and hopefully, Emily and Blaise will be as they grow up. Blaise is 3 weeks younger than Emily.





Lee & Lindsey with Emily



The weekend after that, my brother came with his family. We always put my brother to work when he's here. This time, he helped Kyle fix our sprinklers and fix the lawnmower. They were also kind enough to babysit so Kyle and I could go out for an early anniversary dinner. Of course, a grand time was once again had by all the kiddos.








Now, for the times in between all these visits. We spent lots of time at the doctor for sick visits and well visits. Kason had to go back for an ear check and to get the vaccine that he missed at his 18 month visit. After being sick with a stomach virus, he put on 1.5 lbs in one week and was up to 28lb 9oz at his last visit. Emily news will follow in a separate post.

And, for the 'in between' pictures.