Water: "It makes my tongue different"

We just had chicken soup for lunch. I asked Heidi if she wanted some water to drink with it, but she said "No, it makes my tongue different." I gave her some orange juice instead.

Another Day

Another day at our house... Hannah is napping and Heidi is downstairs coloring some pictures that I printed out from www.cartooncritters.com. She likes to cut the pictures out after she colors them and then her picture characters talk to each other. This entertains her for quite a while. Her voice seems to go up a little when she pretend plays, so it's kind of funny to listen to her. I'm glad that she can have so much fun with just paper, markers/crayons, and scissors! :)

Hannah's Pictures

We recently had Hannah's pictures RE-taken (because they weren't very good the first time Sears took them). I think we might have to stop using Sears. Hannah was tired the day we had these done because I couldn't get her to take a nap. Heidi kept going into the room and making loud noises. So, Hannah was extremely tired and it was difficult getting her to cooperate for these pictures. Her nose is red from crying and putting her face down on the ground so many times (which is what she does a lot now when she is tired and unhappy).

Heidi's School Day

Heidi had show-and-tell today at preschool. She brought her bunny rabbit that she calls Fluffy that she got for her birthday last year at Build-a-Bear. She sleeps with it every night and likes to hold it sometimes while watching movies. It had been quarantined in a plastic bag for just over 4 weeks after we had head lice in our house. We just took her out of quarantine Sunday night. Heidi also wrote in her diary/journal about her day at school today. Here's what she wrote:

• I went to school today. I learned the cookie song. It goes "Mommy stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Who me? It couldn't be." I painted a leaf red and orange and yellow. I learned "C." (She kept making the "K" sound while writing another line of scribbles.) We had popcorn and Tang. I didn't want a gumball. (They usually get one from the machine on their way out the door). I didn't want to. I saved my penny. Miss Cindy gave me my penny. Alicia was gone. Maybe she was at a vacation. Maybe she went on a vacation with Sophie (another girl from church). The end.

I think she has decided that she doesn't like gum. I think she doesn't like it because it is something that she is supposed to chew for a long time, unlike candy (that you can just chew and swallow).

Heidi is thankful for...

At the end of primary today (in church) the kids took turns saying what they were thankful for. It was interesting to hear what they were thankful for. They were thankful for things like: the sunshine, their family, their mom, their dad, their home, Jesus... When it was Heidi's turn, she said that she was thankful for her toys. I thought it was kind of cute and funny. She definitely Does enjoy her toys!

Hannah's Third Tooth

Hannah's third tooth broke through the gums today! Before her afternoon nap today, she had been gnawing on her fingers a lot. Then, I noticed after she woke up that there was a hole in her gums with the top of her new, white tooth to the left (her right) of her two, front, bottom teeth.

Heidi's Chicken

I managed to keep Heidi's peice of chicken WHITE tonight, so she actually WILLINGLY ate it! ... along with her rice and green beans! So, she got chocolate milk for a special treat! :)

* She usually refuses to eat her chicken if there's anything brown on it & she refuses to eat ANYTHING if it has a sauce of any kind (even ketchup).

Hannah's Well-baby Check-up

Today has been a busy day! I was up at 6-something this morning cutting Brian's hair before he went to work. Then, I played with the baby for a while. Heidi even woke up early (around 7 am) and we played in the playroom for a while...

Then, we went to Hannah's 6-month well-baby check-up. She's 7 months old now. We're a little behind on check-ups. Here's how she's growing:

Height: 28 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs 3 oz (90th percentile)
Head: 17 1/2 inches

She's been crawling for a while now and cruises around furniture. Yesterday, she kept trying to get up at the table between Heidi and her friend Alicia (who was over playing). She just wanted to be up at the table with the big girls. It is also hard to keep her hands out of our food! She soooooo badly wants to eat. I haven't really given her much, though. I have given her some mushed up banana a few times and we tried some really watery rice cereal a couple of nights ago (made with breastmilk). The doctor told me that I need to start feeding her some foods now, but I don't know... I think she's okay. She's healthy and growing really well on just breastmilk. I may boil some carrots and mush them up for her... We will see. Heidi was a lot older before I gave her anything but breastmilk and she is fine.

After our appointment, we went to Costco in Puyallup (since we were already in Bonney Lake for the appoitnment) and bought some Huggies diapers. They are So Expensive! ... but they were cheaper than the Kirkland/Costco brand... and cheaper than what I would pay at Fred Meyer... and we Have to have them. Anyway, that was our day. Hannah is napping now and Heidi is watching her FAVORITE show (Word Girl, on PBS).

Heidi's Second Day at School

Today was Heidi's second day at school. She picked a red, tie-died shirt that the Vaughns made for her and her brand new butterfly/rainbow jeans to wear today... and a silver, sparkly barrette.

At school today, the learned about the letter Aa, the color yellow, and the 5 senses. I got there a little early today and saw some of the lesson on the 5 senses. I think Ms. Cindy is a good teacher. She handles the children really well and her class was fun, too. They got to try to guess what was in a paper bag by listening to her make noises (w/o seeing what was inside), by feeling (w/o looking), by tasting, by smelling and tasting(with their eyes closed). They also colored some objects that were supposed to be yellow, like a banana, a sunshine, and I can't remember what else. She also had a piece of paper with some silver glitter in the shape of the letter A with some pictures of things that begin with that letter. I guess they glued the pictures on to this paper. I'm trying to decide if I should make a book with all of the decorated letter papers that she brings home or if I should just hang them on the side of the fridge for a while. Maybe I should just ask Heidi what she wants to do with them.

At her last class meeting... before she left, she got a green gumball at the gumball machine, today when the teacher gave her a penny to put into the machine, Heidi told her teacher that she wanted a pink one this time. Her teacher told her that it is always a surprise (the color), so she should only try it if she wants a surprise. Heidi tried it and she didn't get pink, but she DID get a surprise... she got TWO gumballs instead of one (one orange and the other white). She seemed happy anyway (even though it wasn't pink).

Hannah can climb the stairs

Yesterday, Hannah found the stairs and started to climb up them. She went up about 5 stairs before I picked her up. We are going to put a gate in front of the stairs now.

Heidi's First Day at School

Yesterday, Heidi went to her first day at preschool. A lady from church does preschool in her home, so that's where Heidi is going. She was so excited and seemed to have a good day. She picked out a pretty, stripey dress to wear for her first day. There were also only 2 boys out of a class of ten 3 1/2 to 4 year olds. She made a paper doll that she made to look like herself (colored blonde hair, googly eyes, red dress, drew smile & nose). They also weighed the children and wrote her height and weight on her paperdoll. She is 41 inches tall and weighs 40 lbs. She also wrote in her diary/journal about her day:

• I'm gonna write about school. Jumping on a trampoline and making paper dolls. It looks like me. I mean it is me. It has yellow hair. I singed the snowman song. We had cookies. The weather. Stripey dress. I weared my heart necklace. The teacher gave me a penny and I put it in the gumball machine. Green. I wanted pink. Maybe next time. There was a lot of girls. The end.

(She writes her squiggly lines in her diary/journal and I make notes of what she says as she writes... and then I later translate under what she wrote or on the next page. I always put exactly what she says, so it's not always written in perfect English.)

Lice

On August the 25th, I was getting ready to take Heidi to see a free movie at the theater in Auburn. When I was parting her hair to put her hair into pig tails, I saw two little bugs crawling on her scalp where I had just parted her hair. I immediately got goose bumps and was totally grossed out. I had NEVER seen lice before. We never had it in our house growing up, which I guess is pretty good (considering that we had three girls). We were planning on going to the movies with the Vaughns, so I called and cancelled our movie plans and went right away to the store to buy something to get rid of the lice. I also talked to the pediatric clinic that I have been taking the girls to, and they said that if I get it, that I would have to stop breastfeeding the baby. Before I used the special lice/nit combs that I bought on Heidi, I thought I would comb them through my hair to check myself really quick... and I found one bug! I was again totally grossed out! I was also REALLY upset because I didn't want to have to stop breastfeeding the baby. I tried to pump some milk, but only got 5 ounces that evening (because I was also feeding Hannah that day). So... I had to treat my hair too... and Hannah went the recommended 48 hours w/o breastmilk (because, according to the clinic, it is a pesticide and can cause neurological damage in babies). Hannah went through the 5 ounces that I pumped that next morning and I fed her a little bit of mushed up banana (her first food). She was really NOT happy and wanted some milk, so I had to walk down to the store in our neighborhood and buy some formula for her to use. That was a really exhausting week! I was up soooo late so many nights trying to vacuum and make sure everything was clean, washed in hot water, bagged up in plastic bags (stuffed animals/dolls), and make sure all combs/brushes were sanitized. That was such an awful time that I hope we NEVER, EVER have lice in our home again!