1,000 Miles a Minute

It’s hard to believe and explain how quickly Skyler is growing up. Her awareness, interaction, and vocabulary are exploding right now. And her personality…GEEZ her adorable, hilarious, obnoxious, headstrong personality! I see so much of her dad and myself in her unique little ways.

I’ve never seen a child as busy as she is. She builds the blocks up tall and knocks them down, cracking up hysterically when they scatter across the floor on impact, and then she does it again. And again. It cracks her up more and more each time. And lately she insists on my involvement. “Mommy pay bocks! Mommy pay bocks!” And if I don’t immediately stop what I’m doing to sit on the floor and play blocks with her, I am in TROUBLE! Whines, squeals, and a meltdown of disastrous proportions. So I’ve been playing a LOT of blocks lately!

I love her interpretations of language these days. Recently she was pointing at the floor next to her, and adamantly telling me what sounded like “Mommy, bayou! BAYOU!” I’m thinking where the heck does she get this word for the swamps in Louisiana?!?! We visited there while she was in my belly, but this makes no sense! It took me a few episodes of this conversation to realize she was trying to say “Mommy, sit by me! Sit by me!” But she hears me say so often “Want Mommy to come sit BY YOU?” Proper use of pronouns is so overrated!

We were also looking at a book recently, and there was an old looking camera, that she pointed to and said “Mimix!” which is her word for music. She must have thought it looked like the music box in her crib. I said “It’s actually a camera,” and from then on, when she sees that picture in the book, she points and says “Ashlee camma!”

She’s also perfecting her slang. When we ask her a question, she almost always answers with “Ummm…” while she thinks of the real answer. If she doesn’t know the answer she even looks like she’s thinking really hard and answers with “Ummm…?” And she’s moved on from answering “yes” when appropriate. Now she says “Yep!” or “Kay!”

Today at daycare I witnessed a side of her that I wondered if it existed. I was squatted down on the floor while she showed me a toy that she’s been especially infatuated with lately. Riley, who is a sweet little boy around 18 months, walked over next to me and started leaning in to me for what I thought might be a friendly kiss or hug. Skyler looked up and immediately shoved him away from me! He and I both were shocked! I scolded her to be nice, at which point she grabbed Pink Bear, and sternly told Pink Bear to “BE NICE!”

Finally, though I could go on and on about her antics these days, I’ll finish with this lovely note. She and I were playing around in my bed the other night, just the standard peekaboo and goofing around, when she stopped and turned to me rather seriously and out of the blue said “I wan baby brudder.”

!!!!!!!

No More!

I am in no hurry to have another child. Nothing about pregnancy excites me, even though I had an easy one with Skyler. And Ronnie works such long hours, that I can’t imagine looking after two kids every morning and evening, especially in the current phase Skyler is in.

And then there are nights like last night and days like today, that I’m pretty sure that I have no desire to have another child. Ever.

Last night I picked Skyler up from daycare, where she cried when we left, as usual, screaming the most dramatically broken-hearted “byyyyye-byyyyyyyye” after her teacher and the other kids, who she asks for by name on the hour when we’re at home. She loves going there, and hates when I make her leave. Our evenings have begun oh-so-pleasantly like this for quite some time now.

But when we got home and I picked her up out of her carseat (she had fallen asleep), she stiffened and cried out in pain. I was caught off guard but thought – diaper rash, maybe? But the evening got worse – she didn’t want to walk around or do anything but lay on me or Ronnie, and screamed in pain anytime we picked her up under her arms. I felt around all her joints, pressing and bending them, but nothing seemed out of place or caused her to react. We finally re-treated some moderate diaper rash and she calmed down and went to bed easily.

Though she slept very soundly last night and woke up in smiles, she winced in pain again when trying to stand up in her crib, and screamed when I picked her up out of it.

So enough was enough – we headed to Children’s Mercy ER. This was just too weird. After a long morning of poking and prodding and even one resident that had the nerve to say “I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the bottom of this,” they finally did some X-Rays and found she had a fractured collar bone! They said it happens with little kids a lot and could just have been from that fall in the backyard. She now has a sling that’s entirely too big for her and doesn’t really hold anything secure, and is on Motrin to manage the pain.

We got home and she was running around the house, playing and using both arms as usual. I just don’t get it? Last night she wouldn’t even walk.

So while it was nothing serious, I just don’t know if I can take more of sick/injured kids and trips to Childrens Mercy. I think I wore out my welcome there last year, and I just can hardly handle going back! Today I could hear the familiar tone of heart/blood pressure monitors’ warning beeps in a room down the hall, and it brought me weird chills of memory. I just hate this kind of stress!

So while I can’t predict that Skyler’s future will be sickness/injury-free from here on out (not likely for any child), I can predict that right now, I can’t imagine choosing to have another bundle of joy to add to this crazy life. I know with the hard times come so many more happy times, but right now, I really think our happy times with Skyler are enough! This mama can’t handle any more stress!

Skyler using her injured left arm in the sling. I don't get it.

Again, using the injured arm to scratch her butt. A lot of good the sling is...

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Fun!

Yesterday we hosted a rather impromptu cookout with some friends & their kiddos. Just the day before, Ronnie had mentioned wanting to get the smoker out and put it to use, so we called a few friends and invited them over, hoping they didn’t already have big weekend plans. And, it happened to workout! Ronnie smoked a brisket, grilled some wings, and our friends brought side items and dessert. The best part (besides the perfect weather), was all the kids are at an age where they can play together and require little interference on the parents’ part, so we could relax and enjoy adult company while the kids played.

I had my camera out, thinking there might be a few fun Kodak moments, and I ended up with over 350 of them on my memory card. Some of that was thanks to accidentally hitting the multiple shot setting so it was taking 3 for every one shutter click! Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from yesterday, but there are more than 50 more that I uploaded to the Flickr stream, so there’s lots more if you click on that!

Nick & Sisarea, Ronnie & Skyler, Jay & Caiden

Skyler & Sisarea

Sisarea & her Mommy, Deborah

The Mommy's - Deborah, me, Jenni

Caiden wearing Skyler's sunglasses

Sisarea & Skyler kissing

Play Date

On Sunday, Skyler and I went to meet two other mommies and their kiddos at my all-time favorite park, Antioch Park. I’m so glad that it hasn’t changed much in all the years since I’ve been there! We used to go there as children, and the things that were my favorite, like the “town” and the awesome lake that you can walk across on unique bridges, are all still there!

Skyler was the youngest of the kids, with Braden at 15 months and Caiden at around 20 months. They were both such big boys! They were all over the place, and poor Heather had to go find Braden several times as he took off for the food at the private bbq going on at one of the shelters, or see him disappearing behind the bushes at the edge of the park. It was a riot! Obviously, with Skyler not being very mobile, there wasn’t much for her to actually do, but she loved watching all the other kids playing, and naturally, the swing was her favorite! We had such an enjoyable time and it was great to hang out with these mommies & their kids that I don’t see very often! Here are some pics from the day (Jenni, hope you don’t mind I borrowed a couple of yours as I didn’t have very great shots of the boys).

Here’s the kiddos sitting down for lunch together (from left to right, Caiden, Skyler, Braden)

Braden trying to give Skyler a kiss

Aw, what a sweetie

“My future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!”

Caiden & Braden at the bank

Just a nice photo opp

Love swinging!

And finally, one of my new favorite pics of Skyler. I even played with a lighting filter a bit to get if some extra oomph! Here’s my little movie star -

A beautiful Sunday afternoon

Today we went to celebrate the baptism of Sisarea, our friend Deborah & Nick’s 7 month old daughter. They had quite the shindig setup at their house, with tons of people and tons of food and tons of kids. They actually had a whole pig on the food table! I took a few pics of the activity, and following are a few of my favorites from the afternoon. I somehow managed not to get any pics of the star of the show, Sisarea, but she was always busy being passed around all the relatives. Deborah & Nick hired Rebecca to photograph the event, so once the pics are posted, I’ll be sure to link to those, as I’m sure they will be beautiful and Sisarea will have lots of adorable pictures!

Jesse and her 10 month old, Sydney. She was loving clapping her hands!

This is Logan (left) and Landon (right), my friends Michelle’s and Miranda’s boys, born one day apart in August 2006. Don’t they look handsome?

And now Skyler’s turn. Here she is with Daddy, still not sure yet about this whole party thing.

And one of my new favorites – It might be a framer!