Well Child and Well Baby Check Up

I got smart again this Dr. visit.  I had Leta's well child check up and Max's well  baby check up at the same time.  Luke knew we were going to the doctor this morning and asked if he had to go.  I replied he did.  The he wanted to know if he had to have shots.  I told him he didn't have an appointment, he was just coming along and assured him he wouldn't have any shots.
Luke: Does Leta have to have shots?
Me: Yes.
Luke: YEA!! That means I'll get a sucker, too!

He's very sympathetic.  I love our doctors visits.  It's so much more than that.  I get all types of parenting tips and advice and he's a Christian so I'm confident on all sorts of levels that we're getting sound advice.  It's always nice.  Leta is very possessive and throws lots of fits and so we talked about that and I learned that I'm to "stay the course".  Keep doing what I'm doing and results will eventually come.  We hope.  He also assured me that the face children put on in public is the face that they eventually grow into.  I hope that's true, because both Luke and Leta are so much more well behaved in public than they are at home.

Isn't this the greatest picture of Max ever? He's just over 5 months in this picture.  But that's still what he looks like today.

Luke at 6 months

Leta at 6 months

Max: 26" long 15lbs 15oz

Luke:26" long  15lbs 8 oz (at 6 months)

Leta: 25" long  15lbs 6oz  (at 6 months)

You could argue that there is more of a "Soper Growth Curve" at this point.  Max had to have 2 shots and an oral vaccine today.  He barely cried at all.  Just the time it took to actually get the shots, then he was all better.

Leta 2 years

Luke: 2 years

Leta: 24lbs 32" tall

Luke: 24lbs 32" tall.

What was I saying about the "Soper Growth Chart"?.....ummm yeah.  Leta had 2 shots and cried at looked at me in disbelief.  She couldn't believe I was allowing this pain to happen to her.  But then she got a sucker.  And so did Luke.

Updates!

Kyle:  Kyle has been busy...as always, but not ridiculously so as he sometimes is.  He has been maintaining his websites and working out. He has basically finished "prepping" our garden until spring.  That is his most recent major project.  He has some new arrangements for future hunting land so he's been busy with that, planning and getting deer feeders, stands, camera's and who knows what else.   But all the essentials for hunting =).  This hunting land is in southeast Oklahoma in the Washita Mountains.


Luke:  Luke is still very much into trains.  He also spends a great deal of time planning "his house".  Sometimes he will get frustrated with us and say, "I just wanna be IN CHARGE!" so one day I responded with that one day he would get to be in charge and that he would be the leader of his own household but that right now he was learning so that he would be a great leader of his home one day.  He has taken that idea and RUN with it.  Multiple times a day he talks about his house.  What he will have in it.  What it will be made out of.  What he will let Leta do.  What he will do.  It is going to be right next to ours with a slide that goes down to daddy's garden.  He will have talking dogs who can do the dishes.  And cats.  And mice. And flies.  IN THE HOUSE!  And he will not kill the flies.  And in his house, whenever Leta asks for candy, he will give it to her.  He could spend his entire day thinking about and planning his future house.  It's very real to him.  He often asks Kyle where the wood is so he can start building.  One day we saw a semi hauling lumber and he KNEW they were bringing it so he could start building his house.  He was disappointed when he got home and there was no lumber. He has taught himself to skip.  He loves hide and go seek and most recently playing "bad guys".  He loves to be a bad guy.  I'm trying not to read to much into this and am going to assume that it's all very normal.  One day he sat down and stared at the TV (which was off) and told me his was watching "bad movies".  Not sure what he thinks those are, exactly, but he sure was having fun watching them.


Leta:  She has become quite the talker and will often ask "Where Daddy at?" and "Coming?"  She also loves kitty cats and horses and asks to see "more 'neighs'" on our drives home from Body and Soul.  She loves to talk on her play cell phone to "Tyle" (Kyle).  Last week we arrived at church and she asked if Emmett would be there.  I told her I thought he would be, to which she replied.  "Tiss Emmett.  Hug Emmett"  She is also very possessive and everything is MY or MINE! And this is cause for many a heated dispute between her and Luke.  She got very upset with Luke the other day when I was holding him (very rare) and she ran up and hit him and yelled, "NO! MY MOMMY!".  She got sent to time out this morning and she hollered, "No want to!" all the way there and then sat in time out screaming and yelling "No like time OOOUUUTTT!"  It was pretty funny.  She is much more snuggly than Luke and is still very much a "momma's girl" where Luke was very definitely a daddy's boy from about 18months on.  She loves to play in her kitchen she got for Christmas and can spend a great deal of time bringing me water or milk or sometimes applesauce.  She also loves her babies (although she frequently says they pinch her and need to be put in time out) and coloring.  She colors just about every day.  She is VERY independent and many times a day we hear, "No! ME do it!"  followed by a complete melt down if she's not allowed to do it.  We're slowly learning to schedule extra time in so she can do things herself.  Luke was not this way.  He couldn't have cared less if he did something or if you did it for him.


Max: Max is now 6 months old.  He has two teeth (which he got before he was 5 months old).  He gets out of his crib at 8am.  He is the happiest, smiley-est  baby ever, although he will definitely let you know when he's had enough. He is eating solids very well, a variety of veggies for lunch and supper.  I haven't progressed to anything else yet (meat is to be next) because he's been having a bit of trouble with constipation and I'd like to get it worked out before moving on to protein.  He and Leta have a well check ups tomorrow so we'll see what the pediatrician says.  He can roll over both ways, but hasn't rolled from his back to his tummy in months.  I wish he'd learn to love this skill a little more as I'm tired of getting up to roll him back to his belly at night. He loves to watch the kids and has only recently begun to show an interest in toys.  He gets up on all fours very well and rocks back and forth and will scoot his knees forward, but doesn't have the arms figured out at all yet.  He's also sitting up pretty well, he still needs to be attended, which means he doesn't get the opportunity to sit up as much as he should since I have to sit right there with him.  I need to work on this skill with him more.


Me:  I'm back to instructing at Body and Soul 3 days/week.  I also do the dishes, fold laundry, change diapers...oh wait?  You don't want to read about all that?  Back in October I decided I wanted to start running again (mostly because at this point the kids aren't fast enough to keep up!) and decided to start training for my first 1/2 marathon.  I just run the roads near our house but recently got a pedestrian pass to Arcadia Lake (just a few miles from us) and ran 10 miles (my farthest run to date) on the trails there this past Saturday.  The half marathon I'm registered for is in Tulsa on February 26th.  I kinda wish it was earlier so I could run my first half while still being 30.  Anyway, it is a "Troad" race, half trail half road.  My planned training run this coming Saturday is a trail race at another nearby lake (45min drive).  I'm to run 12 miles.  We'll see if I survive.  I'm not racing it, just using it as a trail training run.  My official goals for my first half marathon are: 1.  Don't walk.  2. Finish.


And now...some cute pictures of our kids!

Leta's first Haircut! *Official*

Leta got her first official hair cut last Thursday.  And of course, we HAD to go to Chandra since she gave Luke his first haircut.  Leta did really well and sat still.  Kyle has been going to Chandra monthly for several years now and so they all know him at the Cut & Color Lab, but he's always alone.  But not this day.  This day he had all 3 littles with him and they were quite the hit.

Luke was 10 months old at his first haircut.  Leta was 2.  But who's counting?

Leta is TWO!

Can you believe it?  I can't!  My babies are just growing up so fast!  On one hand I just want time to slow down so I can have more time with them when they're small, but on the other hand, the days are sometimes SO LONG!

Leta was very excited for her birthday and her birthday party the next day.  We didn't really do anything special on her actual birthday except talk about her party the next day.  Leta lucked out and Kyle's sister, Bridgette and her husband Danny and their son Kaleb (Madison was missing...we missed you!) were in town for a Thunder basketball game and got to come to Leta's party.

I made her a "Kitty Cat Cake" since she really likes cats and frequently requests that we draw them for her.

I think it turned out really well.  I was quite proud of myself (cake decorating is NOT my forte) and it was very simple to make.  I had red glitter gel on hand left over from our Christmas sugar cookie making and I used raisins for the eyes and mini chocolate chips for the whiskers.  Leta liked it and that's all that really matters.  She kept putting her arms around the cookie sheet and saying, "My cake." or "My kitty cat".  She's got quite the little possessive personality going so I think we're all lucky she let us have some of her cake without throwing a fit.

She was really excited to get to eat her cake but when everyone started singing to her, she looked around and realized everyone was LOOKING at her and singing TO her...well, she wasn't quite as into that and quickly requested that I hold her.  We ate cake and ice cream first.

Next it was time to open presents.  Leta was excited for this and definitely knew what it was all about having just practiced up over Christmas.  However, she was still to slow at opening for Luke's taste.

She had a good day.

New Recipe Page!

When I first started sharing a few recipes I wasn't organized about it at all.  I didn't even label them in the beginning so there was no easy way to find them or search for them.  Then I added the label.  And that helps.  And then later I added "search this website" which helped further, but only if you knew the name of the recipe etc.  So today I finally sat down and made a page with links to most of my recipes that I have posted on my blog.  I'm sure I've missed some due to my lack of organization.  And you'll notice that my recipe page is a mess.  The recipes and their links are just listed randomly as I found them, not even alphabetically.  That may or may not come later.  You shall (or shall not *wink* ) see.

Anyway.  The moral of the story is...go check out my recipe page and see what you've been missing out on!  I have a feeling that my next meal plan will be all repeats because looking over these recipes made me want to make them!  And it made me incredibly happy that I'm already planning on making Creamy Pasta Primavera for supper tonight.

December 2011

We kicked off December with our church's Christmas party.  We all had a great time.  They had the Polar Express playing when we walked in so Luke didn't move until the movie finished.  I spent the evening trying to get Leta to get her face painted and was never able to.  Her bible class teacher, Shelby, was able to however.  Leta got a snowflake and Kelli Mitchell and I were Santa Clause and the Mrs.  I'm shorter, so I was deemed the Mrs.

This was our year to spend Christmas with Kyle's side of the family.  One week before we were set to leave I started having a lot of tooth pain.  I was pretty sure it was my bottom left wisdom tooth that was the causing the problem, and after a few days of pretty decent pain and not much sleep, I went to the dentist hoping I was wrong and it was just a cavity that they'd be able to fill and I'd be on my way.  It was my wisdom tooth.  After arriving home from the dentist I called the oral surgeon to schedule my appointment.  I was able to get in two days later since they'd had a cancellation and I'd already had my initial visit with them (and they still had my paperwork).  I was to have my wisdom teeth out almost 3 years ago now, but in between my initial consultation and my scheduled wisdom tooth removal surgery I found out I was pregnant with Leta and had to cancel the appointment.  I had the further put it off wanting to be done nursing when I had the procedure done.  Well there was no break between that and Max and now I had no choice.  Kyle had a hard time when he had his out and was sick etc. and I was so nervous about caring for and feeding Max after the surgery.  Turns out I didn't need to worry about a thing!  It went great and I recovered very quickly and felt pretty good when I wasn't sleeping.  Side note: Lorotab will make your 4 month old baby nap really well, too ;).

So I had my wisdom teeth out Thursday and we left Monday for Ruidoso, NM.  It was a 9 hour drive.  Kyle's grandma Peggy rode with us. It was her 80th birthday so this was to be a Christmas/Birthday celebration.  We got our own little cabin for sleeping purposes and everyone else was in a larger house about 1/2 mile away.  We didn't have time for anything besides supper and bed Monday night.  Tuesday morning Kyle took Luke, Leta and Kaleb sledding and we mostly hung around.  We also went out to eat at a really nice restaurant at a local casino to help Grandma Peggy celebrate.  Our kids did NOT belong here, but despite the late hour and being overly tired they behaved wonderfully.  Wednesday morning Kyle and Luke met with a ski instructor, Mr. Al, who taught Luke how to ski.  He said Luke was one of the better 4 year olds he's ever taught, mostly because Luke wanted to learn.  I forgot to send the camera with Kyle, so no pictures from this event.  I am SUPER bummed about that.  Luke did awesome and only fell down once.  He started on the bunny slopes and was skiing on the greens by the end of their time.  He knows that you do a big piece of pizza to stop, a small piece of pizza to slow down and french fries to go fast.  Wednesday evening we opened presents and then Thursday we came home.  We were all glad to see our own beds again.  The kids did pretty well sleeping.  Luke did perfect, but I ended up sleeping with Leta every night.  The good news there is, she will actually sleep with you unlike Luke who thinks sharing a bed is PARTY TIME!

We got home from Ruidoso Thursday evening and had a couple of days to decompress and get ready for Santa by making Christmas cookies.  It was nice to have a relaxing Christmas day at home.

Santa did not skip our house and the kids (especially Luke) was very excited for his arrival.