Thank you Summer Olympics 2012

We had actually been thinking about enrolling Raelyn in a gymnastics class before the Olympics, but watching those girls on tv and realizing that in 14 years (and 3 summer Olympics) Raelyn will be eligible we decided to get on it! ;-)

Thanks to a recommendation, I decided to try out Rec Room Gymnastics (a non-competitive gym). My decision was made when I called to inquire and the gal who answered was so much fun to chat with about the Olympics. 

After enrollment we went shopping for her first leotard. Oh.My.Word.  How stinkin' cute is she in her leotard?!?!

If you think she's cute just sitting around our house in her pink leotard, just wait until you see her wearing her serious black leotard in class! Again. Oh.My.Word. A gymnastics class of 2 year olds just oozes cuteness.

At this point Raelyn has attended 3 classes (once a week on Thursday morning) with her 4th tomorrow.    She is having a blast and I love to watch her. Her exuberance for life brings me so much joy! 

Max’s First Haircut

Max’s hair was getting a little too long and wispy for a boy so we took him in for his first cut. There is a Cookie Cutter (kids salon) nearby so we decided to give them a whirl.

They have these cool car, train, and airplane seats. Max sat in the red car and just looked around the salon the whole time.

Before:

Getting started:

Almost finished:

“Yay, I’m done!”:

He was such a good boy the whole time! He never once complained.

One final shot with Daddy at home:

Max went from baby to toddler in the 15 minutes it took to cut his hair. He’s such a handsome boy and I love him to pieces!!

Raelyn is 2.5 (30 months old)

Little Raelyn, our girl full of spunk and energy, turned 2.5 this past Monday, July 9th. I know! It’s hard to believe. :)

Raelyn’s stats (appt actually at 29 months old):

• Weight: 25 lb (11%)
• Height: 33 1/2 inches (8%)

Fun Facts about Raelyn at 2.5 years old:

• Beginning to wear size 2T.
• Is doing really, really well with potty training! She wears big girl underpants most of the day and tells me when she needs to go. I’m not brave enough yet to go sans diaper for outings, naps, or nighttime yet.
• Is sleeping in a big girl bed. We moved her into a twin size bed in mid-June. It does take her a little longer to fall asleep.
• Continues to improve with her speech therapy.
• Calls Max “Baby” or “B”. Sometimes she’ll say, “Mah” (Max without the x/ks sound).
• Is a great eater! She loves her milk (all.day.long.). She also loves hamburgers, steak, bbq chicken, asparagus, broccoli, potatoes, strawberries, raspberries… Oh she isn’t picky!
• Likes making a “nest” for herself and her “babies” (animals & dolls) to sit in. She uses blankets and pillows in a small space and piles all the babies in.
• Must have blankie & lamb chop (AKA “baa”) to sleep. She likes to have all of her animals piled into the bed with her though.
• Loves the water! Big pool, baby pool, water table, tub… she loves them all.
• Is so happy to see “Baby” each morning and kisses him “nigh nigh” before bed each night.
• Asks for lotion and deodorant in the mornings when she watches me getting ready. (She asks by mimicking my motions. i.e., rubbing her arms)
• Either naps 3-4 hours in the afternoon or stays  in her room for 2 hours talking to herself.
• Insists on washing her own hair during baths and also likes to wash Max’s hair. (Always the helper!)
• Runs to the door each evening when Mark gets home from work.

 

  First night sleeping in  bed. (6/11/12)

 

She’s our “favorite girl in the whole world.”

Remembering Grandma Bones

July 3rd my Grandmother passed away. I just want to take a moment to document a few of my memories of and with her.

• I dubbed her “Grandma Bones” when I was in high school. She came to our house every Saturday and in the summer we would turn off the a/c or turn it high enough it wouldn’t kick on before she arrived. I asked why we had to do that and my mom said it was because Grandma had arthritis and the cold air hurt her bones. From them on I called her Grandma Bones.
• Lunches and peppermint ice cream at Johnny’s Round the Clock. I remember going to this restaurant often with Grandma and usually saying I had a tummy ache at the end of my meal. She would promptly say, “We better get some peppermint ice cream to settle it then.”
• Chinese food and hot tea. I acquired my love of hot tea from all of the times we ate at a Chinese restaurant and I ordered hot tea to accompany the food. You will often find me sipping hot tea in the evenings.
• Spicy cabinets. Her cabinets have a certain spice smell. I think it’s a combination of all her spices. I hope someday to be in a home long enough that when you open my cabinets you can smell my spices. A few years ago my aunts redid grandma’s kitchen and the first thing I checked was that the smell was still there. It was.
• Baked chicken and rice. If grandma was babysitting or staying with us kids for the weekend I always requested that she make her baked chicken and rice recipe. I made this Friday, July 6th and cried as I took it out of the oven.
• Bells. I have no idea why, but for many years I bought her a bell for  Christmas or if I went on a trip. She has them all displayed in her kitchen by her sink.

My new kitchen art (Kifli & Nut Roll recipes in Grandma’s handwriting):

Four generations (from Raelyn’s baby shower January 2010):

1st birthday party

Max’s first party was the Saturday after his birthday.  He had a great time!

Here are a few details from his party...

Invite:

I went with a balloon theme in light blue with a dash of red. ;)

Cake: I decided to make his cake myself and used a fabulous recipe passed to me from a friend several years ago (thanks, Angel!). I tweaked the icing to incorporate cream cheese because who doesn’t love cream cheese frosting?!? Please don’t admit it here if you don’t.  I used sugar sheets and a round cookie cutter for the balloons (I wouldn’t suggest this method as sugar sheets are intended to be cut with a special machine and I may have permanent circle indentations on my hands from my cookie cutter).

Other food: BBQ ribs, hamburgers, pasta salad, watermelon (cut in circles AKA: balloons), potato salad (made by Grandma Repko), and chips.

 

Birthday Banner: I used the monthly photos and created a banner to hang for the party. I think it turned out super cute!

Birthday “games”: A pool! Nothing else required. ;)

The birthday boy: Max had fun watching the other kids run around and splash in the water, playing in the water table, eating cake, and opening gifts. He says thank you for being there and loving him!

   

Happy Birthday to You:

12 month stats

Max had his 12 month checkup a few days after his 1st birthday.

Max’s stats:

Weight: 21 lb 6 oz (26%)

Height: 31 1/4 inches (87%)

Head circumference: 18 1/4 inches (48%)

Just for fun, let’s take a look at all of his stats for the past year (weight | height | head circumference).

Birth: 6 lbs 5oz | 19.5"
1 week: 6 lbs 7 oz (8%) | 19.75" (30%) | 13 3/4" (20%)
2 weeks: 7 lbs 4 oz (13%)

1 month: 8 lbs 11 oz (26%)| 21.25" (41%) | 14.75" (35%)
2 months: 11 lbs (36%) | 23.25" (61%) |15.5" (37%)
4 months: 14 lbs 10 oz (43%) | 25.5" (68%) | 16.5" (39%)
6 months: 16 lbs 13 oz (34%) | 27.25" (74%) | 17" (31%)
9 months: 19 lbs 10 oz (32%) | 29" (72%) |17.75" (41%)
12 months: 21 lbs 612 oz (262%) | 31.25” (87%) | 18.25" (48%)

How to get your kids to eat chicken

Enjoy watching Battle Chicken Supreme:

12 months

How can my baby be one? It seems like he’s always been here but at the same time like we brought him home from the hospital just last week. I know that doesn’t make sense.

Somehow we’ve reached our final month circle and Max wears it so well!

Since I compared Raelyn from birth to one in her 12 month post, I’ll do the same for Max.

So much changes in one year!

Max is a little bit mischievous. He likes to find cords and outlets, much to my dismay. He also loves crawling over to Sheba’s bowls and pulling himself up to stand so he can clang on them. He pulls open drawers and throws random utensils around when I am working in the kitchen.

 

He cruises around the house going from one piece of furniture to another and using the walls to keep himself steady. He also loves pushing Raelyn’s stroller around. He’ll be walking unassisted any day now.

Max’s favorite toys are his fire truck and dump truck. Really he enjoys anything with wheels. He loves pushing those trucks around!

He still only has his 2 bottom front teeth. He is pretty good at gumming his foods though and loves anything he can put in his mouth by himself. His favorite foods are those that come from mama’s plate!

He hasn’t quite mastered the sippy cup yet. We have tried hard spouts, soft spouts, and straw spouts. Every once in awhile he’ll get a sip to drink but mostly he just chews on the spouts or straws.

Max easily made the transition from formula to milk. Someday we hope to get rid of the bottles!

He has definitely been my easy-going baby. Max is quick to flash a smile and happy to relax in mama’s lap. He is the sweetest boy I’ve ever met!

 

Max, we couldn’t be more proud of you! You are a gift from God and are loved more than words can express.

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Speech Therapy

Several of you have asked, so I thought I would post a little update on Raelyn’s speech progress.

She’s been receiving speech therapy for almost 4 months now. Miss Julie, her SLP, comes to our home once a week for 45 minutes. Raelyn thinks Julie is here for some play time. She brings in a big bag of toys and they play. Julie often asks her to say something before they can move on to the next activity or pull out a new toy.

The notes from her first session are something like, “Raelyn attempts only a few sounds: d, b, m.” “Raelyn will imitate a few signs.”

Fast forward to her notes from yesterday’s session, “Raelyn is demonstrating great progress. Her imitation skills are more accurate and she is attempting new words frequently. Today we worked on animal names and sounds as well as using words to request.”

When we began Raelyn would speak about 5-10 words in addition to animal sounds, like “baa” and “moo”. She would sign “more” and “all done” on her own and “please”, “thank you”, and “I love you” if asked. Other than that she basically grunted or whined if she wanted something or our attention.

Today she uses words, signs, or a combination of words and signs to communicate with us. She still grunts or whines on occasion but mostly if she doesn’t know what word to use or if she is frustrated or tired. She readily tries new sounds or words. We are happy if she gets 1/2 of the word. She has quite a way to go, but we are pleased with her progress!

She has recently started putting two word phrases together. Like: “Eeea dada” (eat daddy) And sometimes she creates a two word phrase by speaking one word and signing the other. Like: Sign for cracker + “peas” (cracker please)

Words she easily says/attempts to say:

• mama
• dada
• baby
• dog
• me
• no
• yeah (yes)
• menen (amen)
• moo moo (milk)
• eeeea (eat)
• peas (please)
• uh-oh!
• buh buh (Sheba)
• buhd (bird)
• Mah (Max) – but she generally calls him “baby” or “b”
• bu bye
• puple (apple)
• mohr (more)
• doodoo (cereal)
• nana (banana)
• bobos (bubbles)
• ball
• dee dee (tv)

Animal sounds:

• baa baa
• moo
• snorts w/nose for pig
• tee tee (tweet)
• meow
• odu doo (cock a doodle doo)
• neigh neigh
• woo (woof)

Words she signs:

• more
• eat
• milk
• cracker
• cereal
• banana
• baby
• water
• dog
• horse
• cow
• cat
• bird
• frog
• fish
• apple
• please
• thank you
• I love you
• all done
• Mom
• Dad

(I’ve probably left off several in each section.)

The goal with First Steps is that she’ll be caught up with her peers (in speech) by age 3.

Raelyn we are so very proud of you! You started off unsure if you wanted to even try and now you are attempting new sounds and words like a pro. We love you so much and only want the very best for you in every aspect of your development. You may have had a slow start to speech but you could probably out run an Olympian (both in speed & distance)! :) We love you!

Our First Science Project

Mark was out working in the yard on the last day of April and found, what he thought, was an interesting caterpillar.

After a bit of research (google searching & consulting our caterpillar expert, Peeper) we came to the conclusion that it was a Great Leopard Moth caterpillar. Mark decided this would be a great science lesson for Raelyn so we brought him inside and gave him a home.

After a day or so, Mark gave him a name: Frank. (Which is a bit odd since that is our nephew’s name but we went with it.)

Frank munched on leaves and sipped on drops of water for several days. And then he began spinning his cocoon. Either Frank was weak or he was lazy because he built a see-through cocoon.

Several more days went by and he began changing. (I will spare you the photo because it isn’t pretty.)

We returned from vacation and Frank remained unchanged. We were sure he had not survived.

But alas, on May 29th he emerged from his cocoon as a Leopard Moth!

That evening, the kids and I let him go into the “wild”. We were hoping to see him fly off but he just crawled away.

Crawler

Max has been scooting around slowly for a little while. Before our trip he would crawl about two lengths and quit. When we arrived in Georgia he just took off and hasn’t stopped since! :)

St. Simons Island Part III (final)

We woke up Thursday knowing it was our final morning on the island. We took full advantage of the hours we had before checkout: another morning walk along the beach, some daddy-daughter pool time, and some mommy-daughter beach time. Since Max also had a little heat rash on his back, we kept him out of the sun on our final day.

Our villa balcony view

We spent the afternoon driving to Atlanta and flew home Friday morning. We enjoyed some sweet family time on our vacation and learned a few traveling with two children tips and tricks along the way. Our next vacation should be a little smoother sailing. ;)

St. Simons Island Part II

Tuesday morning we were sure we would only have part of the day to enjoy before rain hit so we decided to explore a little of Jekyll Island. (And yes, I jokingly asked Mark if Hyde had his own island as well.)

Jekyll Island is actually considered a state park, which we found interesting since there are a lot of residences, stores, the convention center, etc located on this island. After looking at a map we decided to head to the farthest point and take a look around driftwood beach.

 

We stopped to meet a horse before we left Jekyll Island. Raelyn gave him a hearty, “neigh neigh!”

Wednesday we started off the day with a gorgeous morning walk on the beach.

And then we spent most of the afternoon on the beach. Playing in the sand and sitting in the surf.

  

{A special note to all my “adoring fans”, this is my backup swimsuit and about as full body of a pic as you’ll ever see. Also, please excuse my crazy frizzed out beach hair. :) }

Although there are no photos, I should also note that on Wednesday evening before dinner at the Crab Trap we took a detour to Immediate Care. It’s not a Repko vacation if we don’t visit a doctor regarding someone’s ears. Turned out that Max needed antibiotics for a right ear infection. Poor dude!