The Decision Has Been Made

Quinn threw is all for a loop, but we think he's made his decision:

Sunday afternoon, his Daddy declared him an official thumb sucker. Particularly the right one. Check out the tough guy here:
He seems quite pleased with his choice.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Though he's only 4 months old, Quinn has been trying to make a really difficult, complicated, life long (ok...hopefully not....maybe just a year or two) decision.

The "6 shooter" thumb and finger?

The Contemplative pointer finger

Classic double fingers...(don't take the scowl personally, he always furrows his brows!)
"Ahhhhhh!!!! I'm STRESSED about this!!!! How will I ever decide??!!"

Full on fist (pardon the underlining)

Maybe less is more
2 fingers and PEACE

I don't really care what he chooses as long as he's happy!

Quinn's Turn

All of this talk about Kanyon the last week has made Quinn a little jealous. He has a little somethin' to say about it!





This was taken several weeks ago, but just now posting it.

Kanyon age 3: Eating

I felt like eating required a post of its own. Obviously, the breakthrough with the Cheetos has been AWESOME and we are hoping there is more to come.

I am still blending all of Kanyon's food. It is amazing what will blend with a little whole milk and butter (we're having to count calories, so the more the merrier!). I could list some of the foods, but I'm afraid people would be gagging while they read. The magic bullet is going strong, but one of my blade parts broke, so Mindi had to come to my rescue and let me borrow hers.

We weigh all the food and how much he eats of each thing and I send it to the Dietitian at Our Children's House at Baylor and they count up the calories to make sure he's getting enough. His goal is about 1000 a day.

At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he is offered 2 foods. One "main dish" and a side. He eats about 130-140 grams of the main food and about 50-60 grams of the side for a grand total of 180-200 grams per meal. He has a snack in the afternoon that is usually about 110-120 grams of something like pudding, applesause, or maybe fruit/cottage cheese. This is the toughest for me to find a variety of things for him.

He drinks at each meal, but this isn't going so well. We've tried EVERY SINGLE cup on the planet and even an open cup and we're back to the Honey Bear. He just blocks everything with his tongue or teeth. Ughh!! He will get about 15-30 ml per meal from the bear, but that is obviously not enough fluids. He gets drinks throughout the day out of his bottle. He will take anything at anytime out of the bottle. Can you believe I'm saying that. 2 years ago I couldn't even get him to open his mouth for that thing!!! Obviously our goal is to get on some type of cup or straw, but we're having to be very patient. We'll get there one day (at least that's what I keep telling myself!). He is usually fairly pleasant during his meals and will play and be distracted while he eats. Some meals are a little tougher, but all in all, he is pretty agreeable. The most annoying thing about it is that I have to be there the whole time and be 100% engaged in it. I can't just feed him and walk away or do something else at the same time. It is quite draining and I have to say that the second I finish his supper I feel very relieved because I'm through feeding him for the day!

He still gets 8 oz. of Pediasure at night before bed. Mostly for the fluid, but the extra boost of calories help too. Not sure how long we'll do this, but I figure we'll have Pediasure on hand for a long time to come.

This isn't totally food related, but sort of. He's always been so aversive to people putting things in his mouth that we've never been able to brush his teeth. We couldn't push it because it would interfere with what we were trying to accomplish with feeding. Well, I'm happy to say that now we can brush his teeth!!! He does pretty good (some days better than others) and even on the bad days, we can still get it done. We don't do toothpaste....baby steps people...but we'll work our way to that. We are just glad because SHEESH we break every single tooth rule in the world. 8 oz. of Pediausre from a BOTTLE right before bed. Yikes! At least now we can wash off some with the toothbrush. And we still use some sealer stuff that we put on his teeth every 3 months for extra protection.

Since the Cheeto thing happened, we are happy to report that here has been even more improvement with eating real food. He is WAY WAY WAY more tolerant of things being in his mouth that aren't pureed. He used to gag instantly and usually ended up throwing up because he just couldn't handle it. Now he rarely gags and if he does he can recover 9 times out of 10. Even when he's eating a blended meal and a stray chunk catches him off guard (even the Magic Bullet misses some every now and then) he will sometimes figure out how to chew or will just get over it! We are so happy about this because that gives us a little more freedom to let him try things without fear of him throwing up! So we just keep on trying new things.

Here are some things he will eat:

Goldfish

Cheez its

Animal Crackers

Ritz crackers

Cheetos

chips

apple

grapes

Bread with a little sloppy joe on it (this just happened the other night!)

That is all I can think of right now.

The eating thing is nothing short of MADDENING but we are so much further than we were. I have to remind myself of that often. We're still in a very restricting routine now and I feel the "NEEDED" feeling like I'm nursing 2 kids since I pretty much have to be there to feed them and revolve our schedules around when Kanyon eats. When we go somewhere we have to plan around meals. If someone is going to watch him while I go somewhere I have to feed him first or be back in time to feed him again. I'm glad that Kory (and our moms) can feed him its a huge help. This is a marathon thing though, so we don't expect to just be through with it and be a normal eater anytime soon. I would LOVE to be and hope I'm wrong. But for now, it still pretty much runs our lives. I am constantly trying to be patient and not get frustrated but, as with most things, some days are better than others. So far, we've reached our goals, its just taken us a while. So we will expect to reach our goal of eating real food!!!

On a side note. Kory and I agree that watching him chew on food is about the best feeling in the world. We just smile from ear to ear watching him. Partly because I think he looks funny chewing. Kinda like someone who always wears glasses and then they take them off. You're just not used to seeing them like that. I'm just not used to seeing Kanyon chew!! The other side is just that we can't believe he's chewing. We wondered if he'd ever do it and he's doing it!!! Now our job is to patiently work on getting better and better!

We had an exciting afternoon the other day. I chopped up some apples and grapes and put them on his tray. He was DEVOURING THEM!!! I was so happy. He ended up eating a total of 2 apple slices, 3 grapes, half of a strawberry and 5 goldfish. Then I think he got tired or full but I was VERY happy with that. So happy in fact that I got him on video. This is the first healthy thing he's ever eaten.

This one is for all you health nuts out there:

{side note. I'm obsessed with donuts and dream of the day I can order him one when I can't help but drive through and get me one (or 3) on our way to Windridge. I gave him a bite of one while he was eating his fruit. You'll see how much he liked it.}

Thus ends my self indulgent novel of Kanyon's stuff at 3 years. To those of you that read I hope you don't wish you got those 20 min. (or more!) of your life back. For those of you who didn't. I don't blame you one bit. Happy Weekend!

Kanyon age 3: Physical

So much of Kanyon's little life has revolved around working towards goals in his physical development. He literally started 2 times a week 45 min. Physical Therapy (PT) the week he got home from the hospital and we've never stopped. He also began the same routine with Occupational Therapy (OT) then too. Both have been non-stop and a permanent fixture in our daily lives. We've watched klp go from a blob of a baby to a lanky strong boy scooting all over the place. Our friends and family (including blog world) have been so faithful in cheering Kanyon on and being so happy when he reaches a new milestone. Kory and I were talking about it the other night and we feel so blessed by how many people love Kanyon. He has SOOOOOO many people that are proud of him when he does something great! We know this is shaping him as a person and we are so thankful! klp is doing great things right now and while none of them have happened quickly, we learned a long time ago to let go of deadlines and just work hard! We never have known what to expect as far as how much klp will be able to do and we still don't....we are learning as we go. We are thrilled with where we are and know that none of this was guaranteed. Here is what he's doing now.

Crawling is mastered but still not really used much. However he will get up on all fours to climb over things (i.e. US on the floor....ouch). We like for him to do this because he needs the weight bearing on his arms, especially his left one, but he will probably never CHOOSE to crawl. When he does crawl, it is pretty symmetrical which is good for him!

Scooting is obviously his preferred mode of transportation and he's quite good at it. We are glad that he figured this out, but it is almost too good. Now he doesn't want to do anything else. It has caused him to develop some bad habits that we are now working on getting rid of. He keeps his right leg straight when he scoots and therefore wants to keep it strait all the time. This is affecting his walking as well as squatting, climbing or anything else where he needs to bend his knee. We need this right leg to perform at its best because that leg is where most of his strength is so he's going to need to depend on it a little more. While he scoots, he keeps his left leg bent which we're constantly trying to straighten out! That has a lot to do with muscle tone. His CP plays out in his body with tight muscles (mostly on his left side). The muscles behind his knee are particularly tight and don't want to let his leg get all the way straight. So while we're trying to bend the right knee, we're trying to straighten the left one!! Confused yet?

He can roll over to all 4's then reach up and climb onto things if they aren't too high. There are some chairs in our house that he can get up on without help. He can sometimes even pull himself up to standing going from all fours to one knee, to standing and holding on. (this is usually followed by a *lovely* noise asking us to help him get all the way up). He uses a lot of his upper body strength to pull himself up. He can climb down from most things and does it really great. He is so good about rolling over and going backwards. He would even do it out of his little kid sided chair and its not even 6 in. off the ground. He finally realized he could probably safely scoot off the edge of that one without turning around! Sometimes he gets "stuck" trying to get down because he doesn't want to bend his right knee so he can't sit down. Enter *lovely* noise asking for help with that too.

His newest thing is that he can cruise the length of our couch independently. Its just the right height that allows him to lean a lot of his weight over onto the couch while he takes his steps sideways. Again, he compensates for his weaker legs by leaning over onto the couch and using his upper body to pull himself along. We are now working on cruising and holding on to things that are higher to encourage less use of his upper body and more of his legs.

He can walk if you're holding his hands or his body. He can move his gait trainer on his own (quite fast I might add....we had to put some resistance on it to slow him down) and he can even move his Amtryke forward on his own (a little bit).

He can climb stairs on all fours very good now. He loves to do it and its great exercise because he's using all 4 limbs! He can also control himself while he bumps down them too.

For a long time his PT was focused on crawling now we're pretty much 100% working towards walking, posture, building trunk strength, etc.

The OT spends more of her time with weight bearing things for his arms and upper body. This is good for his left side especially as it builds awareness, helps muscle tone, and builds strength. We are working towards getting that left arm and hand more functional. As of right now, it can't really do anything. He has gotten much better about moving it and just recently has started raising it up over his head (like to say YEAH!) or sign "drive" or even clap over his head when he's really excited! So that is great for his range of motion. His hand is fisted very tightly and that is the main thing that keeps it from being functional. He's getting better at opening it and with assistance can grasp things and then let go of them. That left hand is work work work, but we're not going to give up on it! Our OT uses taping to stimulate his arm/hand muscles and he also has a new brace that just holds out his thumb (if your thumb is out, the rest of your fingers will usually open better).

Another thing the OT "plays with" is his eyes. We work on tracking objects up and down and left to right working to build strength in those muscles. Particularly to try to get him to look straight on at things. She told me that its hardest to look straight ahead because that requires all of the eye muscles to work together and that is hard work!! You never think about moving your eyes as hard, but it is!

We do hippotherapy once a week and that is still going great. We've switched horses to Brandy now and they seem to get along just great. They do lots of weight bearing while on the horse too and with the added movement of the horse, he's constantly having to balance that alone builds strength no matter what position they have him riding in. They trot and he's getting so much better at sitting up big and tall even while they trot (a squeal and giggle can usually be heard across the arena when the trotting is going on!). He's less floppy and able to hold himself steady much better.

Something that encourages me a lot is that all of the things that we are working on, including walking, his body knows how to do. I'm glad we aren't having to tell his body what to do. Well, we are tweaking some things, but for the most part, he knows how to do it. We are just working on getting strong enough to do it independently. Strength Strength Strength.

I will now get on somewhat of a soap box. NOT AT ALL to be taken as negatively spoken, but just a thought. Any time you have a child with disabilities, it seems like all questions (from day 1 forward) are about walking. Will my child walk? Can he walk? When is he going to walk? Is your kid walking? etc. etc. etc. Don't get me wrong. I want Kanyon to walk. I want Kanyon to RUN! BUT walking is not the be-all-end-all of everything. I think I might have placed more value on it before all of this, but I quickly realized that its not that big of a deal. There are way more things other than walking that I hope Kanyon develops. No one wants their child to never walk, but it happens to a lot of people and it might happen to us, who knows. My point is I am not narrowly focused on this. I want him to have a strong mind, communicate, build relationships with the people around him and of course grow to be confident, kind, hard working, and Christ-like.

Ok Thats it! :)

We are so proud of him. SO PROUD. One of the hardest things for me is having to watch everything.......EVERYTHING be so hard for my boy. He doesn't know any different and I hate that for him. He has to spend so much energy and strength doing the smallest things and there are so many things he can't do. It makes his life (and ours) significantly more "tricky" but more than anything, its just so hard to watch everything be so hard. I would do anything to make it easier for him. That is why we work so hard in therapy and that is why I will stop at nothing to give him the best chance at doing the things he wants to do. I don't want klp to ever think our love for him is based on how much he learns to do. We are so proud of him with each new thing and can't wait to see what he's gonna keep learning!

Kanyon age 3: Fun & Games

Kanyon has always been easy to please when it comes to entertaining him. He has been so good playing alone and playing with toys for a LONG TIME. Now that he's a little older, he's not as easy to please, requires a little more attention, and his attention span has taken a hit! All of this just means he's growing up!!

He LOVES to be outside and would rather be there than anywhere else. He loves going for walks in the stroller (I really think that stroller has easily gone a million miles in the last 3 years!), riding his amtryke, swinging in the backyard while we play fetch with Ollie, scooting all over the driveway, front yard, and over to the retaining wall to try and climb it! A while back he saw my watering can outside and proceeded to take it over to the flower bed and pour it over the flowers. This was before I had my spring flowers planted, so it had been a LONG times since he'd seen me do that. It was pretty cute. He has learned to "smell the flowers" (though its more like blowing snot on the flowers). When riding in the stroller or on his bike, he points to our neighbors' driveways so that we will go there so he can knock on the door. (Both of our neighbors have moved so the houses are empty). Speaking of knocking, he loves to knock on doors. He also loves to close doors. He reaches under the door with his fingers to swing it closed then pushes it until its all the way closed. Then he knocks for you to come open it. Fun game....kinda. Kinda not. ****this section keeps showing up huge and I can't get it to shrink to normal size. sorry***

Her he is with my mom the other day about 5 min. after he woke up. Life is good when you have a play slave here to take you outside instantly.

He loves to take a bath and would stay in there for hours if we'd let him. He still loves the recliner and its the first place we go in the mornings when he wakes up. He'll cuddle with us for a minute or two then usually ends up pushing us out of the chair. Thanks. He also likes to sit on the couch and always sits in the same corner and makes sure there are NO pillows. Though this obsession has lessened over the last few months, he still likes to play on the beds. One of our favorite things is when he's playing in a bed or the couch, he will point to a spot on the couch beside him and sign "please". He's asking us to sit by him. Now THAT is hard to resist. Just be prepared if you're ever asked to sit by him that you'd better sit exactly where he's pointing. The boy knows what he wants. I'm not surprised by this, he's always loved being close to people. I always say he loves a warm body. He's not usually too picky about who it is, he just likes to be close to people. He's a people person and I feel like he always will be. I hope he keeps his magnetic, warm, cuddly personality (well, maybe he can outgrow the cuddly thing, but you know what I mean). I really feel like this is one of the best things that GOD created in him.

Taking a bath and playing with his bath crayons. These things are amazing. He loves them so much!

He is 100% into LIGHTS right now. He will find every lamp in the house in a matter of seconds and ask you to turn them on. Take him to a new place and he'll have all the lights spotted in no time. His fingers look so cute flipping the light switches up and down (he now can do it both ways, it took him a while to figure out how to flip them up). When you flip the light on he squeals and shakes with excitement! Any toy that lights up he's going to love and want to look at very closely.

Here he is with a lamp my aunt Nancye gave him when he was tiny. He's been loving it lately.

Speaking of light, my mom taught him "This little light of mine" and he is very good at holding up his light and shining it all around. We're still working on "blowing it out and hiding it under a bushel" part. In fact, he's so good at it that he pretty much holds up his light any time you sing a song. One day in the car "Baby's got her bluejeans on" came on the radio and I said, "oooh Kanyon good song" and started to sing it. He immediately put up his little light! :) It crack us up every time we sing along to a song and look in the rear view mirror and see his little light just a' shinin'!! He really likes music (we give Kasey all the credit for that) and has recently started taking his dancing a little more serious. He used to calmly and gently rock to the beat, not its a more violent rock/head banging/all over JAM!

Fake things are no longer good enough for him. He doesn't want the remote we let him play with that doesn't have any batteries...he wants the one that actually changes the channels. He doesn't want the keyboard from our old computer that we kept just for him...he wants the one attached to the computer. He isn't satisfied with a bowl and spoon and pretend food, he wants food in HIS bowl that he can eat with HIS spoon. He asks for the actual bowl of food I'm feeding him out of, but there is no way I'm giving him that.

He has a few favorite toys: Barrel of Monkeys, his cars (he will now make car sounds and actually roll them instead of sitting there licking the wheels while he spins them), this monkey thing you push and its harms bang a cymbal, putting cars (or anything else) down the his car ramp thing, throwing any ball (he's got quite an arm, but watch out..he's got NO control), anything that lights up and sings. In the car he chews on the strap protector thing that has never stayed on his straps because he pulls them off and chews on them. This has now been replaced by crackers. Whooda thunk it? His very very very very favorite toy is the gear toy that the Corbitts gave him for his first birthday. He will play with this FOREVER and it never gets old. I'm a toy rotater, but this one never gets old, so I don't ever have to rotate it out. Its especially useful when I'm nursing Quinn or something and he's wanting me to play or pick him up. All I have to do is ask him where his gear toy is and he goes to it and plays and plays and plays. He licks it a lot and moves the gears all over without even looking. Pretty funny. He loves anything that spins and he will find a way to make things spin so that he can lick it too. He can find a spinning part on just about anything!

Here is the gear toy/life saver/ be-all-end all toy. Obviously he was eating while he played with it. It may be obvious too that this was taken during lunch after school. You can tell he's SOOOOOOOOOOOO tired! He can barely stay awake after a busy 2 hours at school! :)

We are trying to teach animal sounds to work on sounds for his language development. He copies these sounds:-roar, bark, meow, ssssssss, horse (I don't know how to spell the sound that you make when you blow out like a horse), The lion's roar was his first sound and when he plays with his lion he makes the sound a lot. Unfortunately he also makes that sound when he plays with his horse. Oh well.

He gives high fives now (along with the low 5) and thinks its HILARIOUS when you give him 5!

He LOVES LOVES LOVES water and anything to do with it. I really really really really really hope he can learn to swim someday.

His favorite person in the world is Daddy and his least favorite is probably Quinn. I'm just bein' honest here. I'm sure that will change, but for now he's not too high on the baby brother thing.

He loves it when he gets to trot on his horse during therapy and you can usually hear his happy laugh all the way across the arena.

He has the most contagious laugh I've ever heard and I am so glad I get to hear it. He's full of fun and despite his current "stage" of behavior, I am having a blast being his mommy! Its fun for me to record these things he loves at this age so that I can remember them, maybe not as fun for my readers, but if you made it this far, I'm impressed.

Kanyon age 3: Language

What is it about 3 that seems so old. Like its the next level of life or something. This is late, but I still want to record some things. I feel like this year, and particularly the last 3-4 months klp has really started learning so much more and making progress a little faster. We are proud of our boy NO MATTER WHAT but watching him learn new things warms my heart like nothing I've ever known. I have so many things to document that I decided to break it up. You'll thank me for it. Today I'll start with his language. This will probably be the longest post, so maybe if you can survive this, you can survive the rest. Or just skip it. I'll never know.

Language

We feel like Kanyon has shown really great progress with his language. It might look like more of a Black Cat firecracker to others, but to us its a SONIC BOOM! These things have happened over time for sure, but that makes us appreciate it so much. We feel like the whole school thing is coming at a perfect time for this. He's naturally having a "language explosion" so now is the time to pour it on him and that is what happens at school!

He "talks" non stop. The Speech Therapist calls it Jargon (however you spell it) because it sounds like he's actually talking (we just don't speak the language). His tone and inflection are appropriate he's just making up his own words! Its pretty cute.

To say we are in a whining/begging/fussing stage would be an understatement so we are really really working on TALKING instead of WHINING. He will grunt or yell for attention or to ask for something and we tell him to TALK to us instead and he will immediately change his tone and start in on his sweet jargon speak. Too bad we can't understand a word! But we are glad he knows the difference. Now if we can just get him to use it instead of his whining!

There are lots of things that he can say when we tell him to...Dad "Daaaaaaa!", Mama, Paw Paw, Bubu, Bed "bbbb", Go "naaaaaa" it may not sound like our "go" but its the same sound every time. He learned this at Windridge riding his horse. He has to tell his horse to go. The therapists told me that now he does it without them telling him too. I can't hear him from where I sit, but I believe it!!

Some signs that he knows when we prompt him are dog, horse, help, yes, no, stop, drink/thirsty, eat, thank you,....that's all I can think of now.

There are a few things that he will say without us telling him to (this is particularly exciting!)

Cracker "ca-ker" or "cookeeeee" he rotates between these two. I'm pretty sure he things that means any type of food. When he wants something that we are eating that's what he says.

Light "Liiiiiiiii!" he LOVES to turn lights on so that's how he asks us (oh wait....maybe DEMANDS) to turn on a light.

Bye Bye he says this one well and a lot of times can pick up on the situation and know when to say it. He also says this anytime he's done playing with something or ready for something to stop...(or ready for his therapists to leave...he loves them, he just gets tired of working!)

Night Night "niii niii" when he's going to sleep. When I get him out of his high chair after lunch, he will say "nii nii" because he knows we are headed to take a nap. Smarty pants. This started when we were at eating camp and played on the bed a lot. I would say "night night" and we'd lay down like we were sleeping. He still loves this game.

Dad "Daaaaa!" We aren't 100%, but we're pretty sure he says that when he sees Kory. Its confusing because he loves to make this sound so he says it for lots of things, but he is pretty consistent with it when he's referring to his daddy.

Car "c" He just makes the c sound. That means he wants to drive. Unfortunately we don't hear this one as much because when we taught him the sign for car, he stopped saying the word as much. We make him say it but he usually uses the sign on his own.

Up "p" He just makes the p sound. This is when he wants us to pick him up or put him up on something...chair, bed, etc.

Bath "baaaaa!" He loves taking baths and will ask for them!

Jeopardy "Beee Beee!!!" Ok, this happened about 2 weeks ago and has happened a couple of times since then. One day he heard the music and said "beee beee" and scooted into the other room in front of the TV. I wasn't sure if thats what he really said, so I said, "What are you watching?" and he said "beee beee!!!" Haha!

If we whisper, he'll whisper and if any light gets turned off, he whispers too. His preferred volume is LOUD so we have to tell him to whisper a lot.

he signs "Please" a lot. That is his way of asking for anything or more of anything. He's good at this and it was the first one he did on his own. We see it at least 6 million times a day.

He signs "swing" and points to the back door when he wants to go outside and swing.

He recently started signing (well, his version of the sign) "movie" when he wants to watch the portable DVD player when he's eating (its a part of our protocol believe it or not).

Speaking of "his version" of a sign, most of them aren't exactly right. Pretty much any sign he is going to do is going to have to be one handed and since lots involve 2 hands, we have to improvise. He can use his other hand if it is needed to be a fist, so that works for us sometimes. We just use a sign that makes sense for klp.

There are patterns here. For one, almost all of his words have to do with telling/asking/demanding/begging us to DO something for him. Not so much identifying things, but being bossy!!!

Also, if you've heard him, you know the tone most of these words have. Its a LOUD excited tone with great inflection at the end.

We are teaching signs and words and just letting him pick up whichever one he picks up. Its funny how some signs he really seems to "get" and others he doesn't bother with. Talking is our goal, so we always make him SAY all words....at least attempt them. He usually is pretty lazy with that, but at least he's learning that he has to say something to get his point across. Even if it usually is the "t" sound or something like that. He's getting better at attempting the words we say.

He understands SOOOOO much and it seems like everyday he does something else that makes me laugh and say "wow...didn't know he knew that". You don't realize how much you base what a child knows on what they say. Since his verbal skills are so delayed, we are just waiting and watching as he SHOWS us what he knows. It may take longer and leave us in the dark a little more, but its fun to see those new things.

Like when he picked up a hair clip of mine and tried to put it in his hair, spit in the sink (he'd "helped" Daddy brush his teeth the night before and remembered that), points to the keys on the wall when he wants to go drive the car...I could really go on and on about those there are so many fun little things that he knows. He can point to people when you ask "Where's ____" and can do this with lots of pictures of different objects. When he gets to "drive" he buckles and unbuckles the seat belt (the big one, not his car seat one) and we think he can tell when we're on our street because that is when he starts asking to drive. I put duck tape over the speaker of one of his toys (it was TOOOOOO loud). He watched me do it and didn't like it. Since then (and its been several weeks) when he finds that toy, he tries to pull the tape off and points to the drawer where the duck tape is and signs "please". Translated: Put this stuff back in that drawer where it came from...I don't like it!!

He follows directions pretty well. I can tell him to go get a diaper and he will, I can tell him to where to go and he'll go, Ask him to go get a certain toy or item, etc. Not that he actually follows them all the time, but he is very capable of following directions.

He is just showing how many things he's caught on to that he watches us do. His little mind is soaking it up (and has been all along) and now he's able to show us a little more and its so fun to watch. We are constantly talking to him, identifying things, and I pretty much narrate our entire day in hopes of just drenching him in language so that he has lots to soak up.

We're having lots of fun with this aspect of his life right now and can't wait for him to just talk our ears off (in English....he already talks our ear off in his own language!).

How Do I Love Thee....

How do I love thee? Let me count the rolls.

Why isn't my muffin top that cute?

Kanyon's first school award!

Yep Kayon fans, that's right....perfect attendance. So what if that a total of 3 days for him in the 5ht six weeks. This makes me laugh so much.

Quinn at 4 months

Our big boy is 4 months old. I was prompt with the picture taking, but not so prompt with the blogging. So, you can bet he's put on at least 6 rolls per leg since these pics were taken!! :)

Hmmm..... lets see what I should say about him at 4 months.....

He smiles so easily and it usually makes his eyes squint!

He rarely fusses, but every now and then he will just flip a switch and FREAK OUT. It doesn't happen often and boy and I'm glad. Its loud and fierce! Other than that, he's pretty much happy.

Just like his big brother, he loves the bouncy seat and is very happy sitting in it. The last couple of weeks, he's discovered the toys that hang down from the bar on it and will try to reach out and touch them. He talks to the giraffe a lot.

He talks a lot. Sweet coos and lots of squeals!

He is fantastic at night. Sleeps at least 9 hours with no trouble. He isn't the night owl his big bro was. He sleeps best when fed and put down around 9:30.

He is still in the bassinet by my bed. I thought I'd put him in his room when he wasn't getting up at night anymore, but I don't want to. I like having him by me. Maybe by the time he goes to Kindergarten I'll move him to his own room.

He's in and out of being a good napper. The schedule thing is awesome when it works, but lately he's not been taking naps as well. We're hoping that gets better and in the mean time I'm trying to go with it.

He goes to sleep on his own. I sometimes rock him (for me) but he is fine to be put down awake. That's nice.

He wants so so so so so so so bad to suck his 2 fingers, but he can't quite figure it out. He's found his thumb a couple of times. Still not too good with the thumby so I've pretty much resigned to the fact that he will be a finger sucker. Now I'm just ready for him to figure it out so he can make him self happy with it!

My hands don't even come CLOSE to fitting around his thighs.

He eats during the day about every 3 1/2 hrs. So far he will still take a bottle so I can pump and give it to him in a bottle if I need to.

He has one of those hemangioma birth mark red things on his nose. It looks like a scratch so at least 3 million people have asked if he scratched himself. I sometimes just say yes because I don't want them to feel weird. I thought it was a scratch at first too. It didn't show up til about 2 months. My camera treats it like a red eye and tries to black it out.

His well check got canceled, so we'll have to wait for his stats.

His hair is still falling out, but its also coming back in. Whatev.

I love him!

He's cute.

"duh....what?"

...and things start heading down hill....
pouty lip...and..
GONE!!! Lost it. Totally.
I am now officially a mom that says "he's growing too fast" (klp's situation didn't really lend itself to me feeling like anything was happening too fast). We thank GOD for Quinn Spencer Phillips!

Easter Pics

Confession: This is the first time we've really done anything with Kanyon for Easter and while he still doesn't really get it, it was fun to give it a shot for the first time.

Here he is minutes after he woke up ready for his first hunt.

He scooted outside and just stared into space (he's not a morning person remember?)
With LOTS of assistance from Dad, he casually noticed the egg right in front of him.
He DID get the idea of putting them in his basket!
I hid the token "egg on the car tire" and then all he wanted to do was get in the car and "drive" it.
Standing up big and tall with his eggs.
My two handsome devils
In between was a series of pictures of klp having a "problem" you can see the tear stained eyes left over from that "problem". qsp is pretty much not phased by any of it.
This is the only picture I have of me and the 2 boys!! HAHA!!
Easter has been a day of first several times for us. Easter '07 was the first time Kory and I went to church after the twins were born. Memorable and emotional. Easter '08 funny thing...I don't really remember it. I think we might've been at eating camp. No wonder I blocked it out. That was a rough time. Easter '09 klp's first day in the church nursery!! He's had lots of fun since then with his friends at church! Easter 2010????

Quinn wears his first pair of Chucks!!!

Kasey brought these to us in the hospital and I couldn't wait for him to wear them. They are so amazingly cute!! Thanks Kasey.

The Easter Bunny brought klp a basket with a few little goodies in it.

Our friends and the boys' "adopted grandparents" gave the boys these ears. How funny is this pic??!!

" I'll get you back for this."
and once again just for fun...Quinn the Eater Bunny

Better Late than Never...

Well, I didn't send out very many birth announcements because by the time I got them printed, it was super late. But I did want to share it because its AMAZING. Obviously its amazing because of the sweet boy but it is also amazing because of the DESIGN!!! My great friend Sharon has a business called Redbud Designs and she's AWESOME! She does announcements, invitations, Tshirts, blog headers, web pages, stationary, etc. She's so creative, unique, fun, and prompt. She did this thing in no time flat!!! Head on over to www.redbuddesigns.blogspot.com and check out her stuff. Next time you need ANYTHING like this done make her your first stop. You will be so happy!! If you like giving your business to hardworking, patient, awesome mothers, loyal, Godly, all around incredible people, Sharon is the gal for you!!! Thanks Sharon!

Announcing.....................

Recent Pics

Well, now that klp has decided to eat (Cheetos and Goldfish) there is a whole new world out there to explore. And a lot for his mom to learn. We were out of town a couple of weekends ago, so we had a friend feed Ollie. We put the dog food by the back door so he didn't have to go to the garage to get it. So, I say that to defend myself since we don't usually have dog food in the house it wasn't on my radar. Ok??!?!! Ok. Here is the story. I was on the phone with my mom and Kanyon was playing so good over by the back door. I can't see him because the couch is in the way, but he plays back there a lot and looks at Ollie or whatever. Well, when I got off the phone and walked over there, there was something all over his mouth, in his mouth and he held up this:

Yep dog food. He was eating it. I don't know how much he ate, but I guess it wasn't that bad. You can see Ollie through the window in his dog house. He was probably getting angry watching klp eat his food!
Quinn adds at least a roll a day. We are loving it. He's a happy boy and an easy smile! Here is mom laughing at his chubbyness and getting a smile from the q boy!!
This paper from a package we got in the mail was the BEST toy for eating! klp loved it!
Of course we've been enjoying March Maddness around here. Kanyon assuming his TV watching position. Very close to the TV, sock off, sock in mouth.
I love kissing qsp on the cheeks because it makes his face squish. Kory took this one night when I couldn't stop kissing him. That happens a lot.
I can't remember if I have posted this little set of pictures or not. This was spontaneous and I just happened to snap a few pics:

I was so proud because klp was kissing his feet. I try to get him to touch his feet...its the safest place for everyone!

And a little kiss to end the encounter
This was taken several weeks ago. We don't really have these moments anymore. In the last week or 2 klp has decided that he doesn't like having a little brother after all. He has been VERY rough with him and has said "bye bye" to him MANY MANY MANY times. The other day I was feeding qsp and klp wanted in my lap too. I pulled him up in my lap and then he proceeded to try and push qsp out and said "bye bye". I'm sure the tender moments will return, but for now, we keep a close eye on big brother!! haha!!