Month: September 2014

It’s not often I appreciate a baby crying, but I do love to see Kaitlyn’s tears. For the first 9 weeks, both of her tear ducts were blocked. She didn’t cry tears and always had eye goop – sometimes really, really bad. Then overnight it seemed to clear and now real tears form when she cries.

On a side note: It is difficult to get a close-up picture of a tear when the baby is actively crying and thrashing. You have to wait till she stops but before the tear is gone.

I thought I had done all I could with my apples. Then my friend, Krista, posted about canning apple pie filling. I decided I needed to try that too. I used the same recipe she did from Our Best Bites. For my own future reference, the recipe calls for 6 quarts which is about 50 medium-sized apples. I did most of this on Sunday and managed to get all the adults in the house involved (Wade, Granny, and Pop). We canned two batches which is 14 quarts and I had enough left over to bake a pie with dinner.

Alex’s bottom front teeth have been wiggly for weeks but today one of the teeth was REALLY wiggly. Alex was determined to lose his first tooth today. With a little help from Wade, it happened!

Today’s soccer games were not as nicely lined up as last week. Teague had the 8:30 game and Alex had the 10. It didn’t really make sense to go home in-between so we went to the playground and Reid (a new friend from soccer with a brother in Alex’s class) joined us.

Kaitlyn was so excited for Granny and Pop to arrive. She then promptly had a bottle and went to bed.

I have recently been working on my Project Life layouts and had a lot of ideas for photo collages to add more pictures in a single photo space. Wade quickly decided it was time for me to learn how to do these things myself. Below are two of my favorite photo collages:

Kaitlyn had some serious issues with gassiness/fussiness the first two months. Then the craziest thing happened. She turned into a sweetheart who smiles and giggles when awake. She has been a good sleeper from day one and is now sleeping pretty much through the night. When she does wake it is only once between 5-7 am. Then she goes immediately back to sleep till 7:30 or 8. She tends to be awake for about an hour at a time and then goes down for a nap. Most of the time she actually prefers to be put to bed while awake and then drifts off to sleep. (Sometimes she’ll actually cry till I get her to her bed and the minute I lay her down she stops.) She’s also great about interrupted naps and napping on the go – which is a must for a third child!

Teague had his meeting with the oral surgeon today. The clinic obviously doesn’t get many young children. They loved Teague and the dentist brought Teague back from X-rays on his hip. In the end we actually talked to three oral surgeons and they all agreed that the extra teeth weren’t a big deal. We could take them out now, but the recommendation is to wait until his top two teeth are loose and then remove those and the extra teeth above them – definitely before age 6. The only bad news for Teague is this means the cavity in his front tooth has to be filled.

Teague was indifferent to the exam, but he loved the curtain to our room and going up and down in the chair.

At least right now, Kaitlyn definitely has my hair color. It is dark blonde/brown except in certain light. Then it looks red!

We ended up with not one, but two fall festivals planned for this afternoon. We started with the MOPS trip to the pumpkin farm with kittens, hay bales, a corn maze, and pumpkin decorating.

Then it was a mad dash to the church fall festival with food, apple bobbing, and a hay ride.

Look closely because that s’more is not a typical s’more. The fall festival provided marshmallows for roasting but no graham crackers or chocolate. We used chocolate chip cookies to make our own special version of a s’more.

Alex understood enough about Homecoming to know his babysitter (who lives across the street) was a candidate for Queen. He also understood that she didn’t get the crown at the football game. Of course that means Alex made her a crown today and left it for her after dinner (While she was at the dance).

The fun of Homecoming week continues. The students had early dismissal today for the Homecoming parade. Alex didn’t want to participate (meaning dress as a clown) so we just stood on the sidelines and picked up candy (lots and lots of candy).

After dinner we headed back to the school for a football game. The boys loved the atmosphere and the popcorn. (I’m not sure they realized anything was happening on the field.)

Alex is normally my most photogenic child. Last year’s school picture (see here) would have been fantastic if I had remember and had him in a different shirt. This year I remembered but Alex’s eyes are definitely not as open and focused as normal – sigh. Maybe next year.

Alex’s school had a block party tonight as party of the Homecoming week festivities. Alex’s babysitter was there and grabbed him for a turn in the photo booth – which he loved!