Kerrspot.com

Life is always more fun when you turn it into a game.  For Kayla, that means she spends much of her life pretending to be Laura Ingalls.  It’s especially fun when we play school.  Laura is an excellent student and will do anything the teacher says—for hours on end!

We’ve almost completed the Little House series.  We read all the “Laura” books, and we’re now reading “Farmer Boy,” the book Laura wrote about her husband Almanzo’s childhood.  Tonight Kayla wanted to be Eliza Jane, one of Almanzo’s sisters.  I was their mother, and the two of us washed dishes together while Madeline and Savannah played.

Madeline and Savannah were playing so nicely; I was pretty impressed.  I always use my ears as a guide to know if I should check on them.  Madeline was giggling constantly, so I knew she was doing fine.  But I couldn’t hear Savannah.  At first I tried to push it out of my mind, but then I realized I really should check on her.  When I opened the door to her room, Savannah had climbed to the top of the changing table and was just hanging out!  I didn’t know she could to that!  I had the “don’t ever do that again” talk with her, which I hope she understood.  Silly girl!

Happy Birthday, Savannah!  Here’s your first bite of cake!  (Carrot cake—mmm!)

And here’s a picture of Savannah yesterday morning.  We took her to Stan’s (a restaurant downtown) for a birthday breakfast.

Here is a day in our life.

Madeline is proud of the picture she drew.

Here is Savannah using sign language to say she wants to nurse.

Savannah fell asleep on the way home from her 12-month check up.  She’s a big girl!  Almost 22 pounds and 30 inches long!  

Savannah received her first birthday card in the mail.  The big girls were excited about it too, and soon all the sisters were having fun together.

I captured this picture of Savannah last week because it reminded us of a library book.  Right now we have a booked checked out called “Books are for Eating.”  In the book the big sister says, “I know books are for reading, but Alex (her baby brother) thinks that books are for eating!”  The book continues with many scenarios.  One that always makes the girls laugh is when the baby brother thinks the clean diapers are for rolling in!  Apparently Savannah thinks the same.  She stood at the coffee table where they were nicely organized, tossed them on the floor and then rolled in them.  

Speaking of cloth diapers, I’m very excited that Fuzzi Bunz now makes a one-size pocket diaper!  We’ve been using Fuzzi Bunz for almost a year and love them!  However, one draw back in recommending them to other people was that they had different sizes.  (You would buy a set of smalls for your newborn and then a number of months later turn around a buy a set of mediums.)  I doubt we’ll invest in any more diapers at this point (we have a good supply), but now I will be even more likely to recommend the Fuzzi Bunz brand to my friends.  

If Savannah looks a little less than happy in this picture, it’s probably because she had a rough week last week.  On Sunday she started a fever which ranged between 102 and 104 and lasted for three full days.  We took her to the doctor and the PA diagnosed her with an ear infection.  Within a half hour of arriving home from the doctor’s office, she started throwing up and had 36 hours of vomiting and diarrhea.  She also broke out in a familiar rash, and I’m now pretty sure she also had roseola!  (I remember the rash from when Kayla and Madeline had it.)  Roseola, an ear infection and a stomach virus all in one week—poor thing.  And without further adieu, here is Savannah rolling!

Here’s Savannah with the twins, Ender (left) and Grey (middle).  The smile on her face gives you a glimpse of her personality.  Though our girls have differences, they really are quite similar–extremely happy and full of spunk!  

This weekend my friend Kylee and I took our babies on a retreat.  Life can be stressful for 9-month-olds, so we thought they needed to get away for some R & R.  Just kidding.  The retreat was for us, and yes, we had a fun time.  We snapped a few photos—of the babies, of course.  

Two weeks ago we vacationed in our back yard.  With temperatures in the upper 60’s, we spent most of the daylight hours playing, having picnics and going for walks.  I put laundry and cleaning on hold, because I knew winter was coming.  Here are the girls, geared up for an afternoon walk:

The summer weather is over, and winter is here.  We don’t quite have enough snow to build a snowman, but the girls are eagerly awaiting a couple more inches of packing snow.

Savannah is nearing 9 months now.  She has been army crawling for about two months and occasionally takes a couple crawling steps on her hands and knees.  She can get where she wants to go pretty quickly!  Savannah’s words so far are “mama,” “dada” and “more,” and she does a little bit of sign language.  Here’s a picture of the pretty girl:

Madeline is our fun-loving middle girl.  She enjoys life, wears ballerina dresses, and carries princesses with her everywhere.  She also likes holding Savannah.  Spending time alone with Madeline is delightful.  I cherish those moments!  

Kayla is the type of child who, if you give her a spare moment, creates some sort of imaginary world for play.  I definitely support and encourage her imagination.  However, I’ve discovered that if I want to do some sort of learning activity with Kayla, I have to be very careful of “transition times.”  Before I know it Kayla has entered her own little world, and it’s tough to bring her back to reality!  She and I work together to find the balance she needs.  She’s super creative, and she’s a great reader, too.  I can’t believe the stories she is already reading as we work on phonics together.  

Stay tuned for more news from our family …