Breaking

Junior had the chance to break some boards at TKD yesterday.  

His awesome front kick.

And with his knee.  Worked a lot better once Mr. Lopez stood up to hold the board.

And now he's informed us that he wants to enter tournaments just so he can break more things =)

An Eventful Day

Saturday we had planned on having a small party for Girly- girl to celebrate her birthday with her friends.  And of course, it was a princess party...

When did they stop making pinatas that you had to break open?  Pulling a string just isn't as much fun for the kids.

All the candy.  I'm sure the parents appreciated my filling their kids full of sugar ;)

And she made out like a bandit once again.

The cutest Cinderella...

And cake (cupcakes) and ice cream.  Then we kicked them all outside to play in the pool and run through the sprinkler.

Hmm...  what's that in the background?  

Oh, just a wildfire to make things more interesting.  At one point, we could see the flames above the treeline.

The field to the north of us and the field to the east were on fire.  The fire line came within about 600 yrds of our neighborhood.  The neighborhood to the north of us had at least 3 houses damaged by the fires.  

Later that day, we got to see an airshow.  

We just missed getting a picture of this one dropping the fire retardant chemicals on the field.  At this point, we're pretty sure it was just insurance that the fires wouldn't start up again.

And this is how you watch the field across from your house burn.

We are very thankful that the fires didn't come any closer.  And although we appreciated the airshow, I really don't want to see another one like it that close again =)

It's a Luau!

The dojo where Sarge and Junior train had a party to celebrate their 20th year.  And they threw a party.

Three of my monkeys.

Bowling with coconuts. 

He's got mad monkey skills.  Has no problem climbing up the rope or coming down.

Seriously?

Why have all the creepy, crawly critters decided to come out this year?

Not one, not two, but three little lizards stuck to the glue trap in the garage.  And the biggest one was still alive.  Yuck!

I suppose I should be happy that they got stuck to the glue trap, but it doesn't really help, because I keep thinking about all the ones that have avoided the trap.

With all the critters that I've been seeing, I fully expect to see snakes when I'm out running.  Last year all I saw were dead ones, so this might be the year for live ones =(

I wanna move someplace cold!

Found this little critter in my dryer the other day...

Oh yes, it is a scorpion.

Sarge and the kids thought it was really cool (hence it being "mounted" on card stock).  It's only about 2- 2 1/2 inches long,  but still creepy enough for me.

All of a sudden the long, cold MN/ WI winters don't seem so terrible ;)

I See You!

Sweet Pea had an appointment with the eye doctor this morning.  Yes, they can actually tell you a lot of things this young.

Good news is that her eyes look just like any other newborn's eyes look.  The doctor did "confirm" the Downs diagnosis.  In Downs children, there are extra blood vessels in the back of the eye, and Sweet Pea has those.  The extra blood vessels isn't a problem though, it's just one more physical feature that confirms what we already know.

There are a couple things that we need to watch for- goopy eyes past 6 months and cross eyed closer to a yr.  But, from what I understand, those are things that you need to watch for in all infants.

The doctor wants to see her back in about 2 yrs...  But they don't schedule patients out that far lol!

Wrap Me Up

One of my favorite baby accessories has been my wraps.  And I'm always so happy when I can show other mom's how to wear their babies.

One of my good friend's at church is pregnant with twins and wanted a wrap for herself and her daughter.  This is A's wrap, with one of Girly- girl's babies wrapped up in it.

Looks like she has it all figured out =)

One Month Birthday =)

So I missed it by a couple days (June 8), but Sweet Pea is one month old now.  It doesn't seem like she should be that old, but yet it seems like she's always been here =)

She had a check up with the pediatrician on Wednesday.  According to their scales, she's 7lbs 11oz.  Which is good.  It means that she's gained 20oz (about 0.65 oz/ day).  That is a bit above average for Down's babies- they typically gain 0.25- 0.5oz a day.  Yeah for mama's milk!

It also means that I've been exclusively pumping for a month now and have built up a nice little stash.  This is so different for me, as my last two never took bottles.  But, with Sweet Pea's physical features, she was having a hard time nursing (and waking up enough to eat).  I'm hoping that in the next few weeks we can work on getting her to latch and stay on.  Anyone have any advice on how to transition away from bottles?

An Easter Dress

Yes, I know it's been months and I know Easter was awhile ago.  But, this is what I made for my Easter dress... Back when I still had a belly to fill it out lol!

It's a simple tank style dress made with a knit jersey.  The shrug has a twisted "knot" on the front and is made from a tissue weight knit fabric.

One of these days, I may get around to posting about Girly- girl's dress.  Or maybe not.  I have a few wraps in the works that I hope to have posted soon as well.

Promising News

Sweet Pea saw the cardiologist again yesterday.  And things look good =)

Since her last appointment with him (4 weeks ago), she's gained just over a pound (1lb 2oz) and her blood oxygen levels were right around 94%.  He was happy to hear that she's a lot more active and was pleased with the amount of food she's eating in a day. 

We have another appointment with him next month and the plan is to have an ultrasound done on the heart.  If everything continues to look good (weight gain, blood oxygen numbers, activity levels...)  then we can continue to hold off on the surgery.  Right now we're looking at mid to late October.

Deep in thought...

I'm thinking Sweet Pea looks like her big sister at that age...

Randomness

Things have been pretty quiet, but busy, the last couple weeks.  We meet with the cardiologist again today.  Hopefully we'll get some more answers about when they'll schedule the surgery.

But until then, just some randomness from the last couple weeks.

Hmm...  Maybe big bows on little babies really are cute ;)

AWANA awards night.  Girly- girl is moving up to Sparkies and Junior got the Over Achiever Award.

We have a tradition of planting something for each of the kids.  This is Sweet Pea's Owari Satsuma tree.  It produce little oranges that are very sweet.  Just like her- little and sweet =)

He's a ninja superstar. 

Amy, the midwife, at our 2 week check up.

Most of the family.  Girly- girl was at a friend's house- her first sleep over.

Another picture of my girls and me.

Our Sunday School's 2nd annual Memorial Day picnic.

The grill masters

Just hanging out

A tee ball superstar in the making.

Junior- junior thinks Sweet Pea's chair is the perfect size for him.

Hanging out in the back yard.  So glad they all get a long so well.