Kids Say the Darndest Things

Last night, Karys was doing some crazy things at the dinner table and Ryan asked her if she had a brain like his. I wasn't sure if she even knew what a brain was/where it is, so I asked her. She didn't know. We explained that your brain is where your thoughts come from and that it's in your head.

She then starts shaking her head and says, "It's not shaking."

Me: "What's not shaking?"

Karys: "My brain."

That girl! :)

Guess Who's 20 Months?!

(20 months is, by the way, is the same age as Karys when we found out Zane was coming. I've been getting the itch for another baby the last couple of days...maybe that's why!)

I've been thinking I needed to write down all of the stuff Zane is doing lately so I might as well do it on here! 20 months is the age Karys was when I really started to notice that she was behind in her speech development. At that point I made a list of all of the words that she had and how she said them so that I could show it to the doctor and, eventually, the ECI therapists.

Right now I'm really thankful to have a child that is doing things right on track. Having had one that we worried so much about for so many different things (speech, not gaining much weight at a time, teeth coming in in a crazy order, etc.), it's just a nice relief to not have any concerns. He's doing EVERYTHING pretty much according to schedule. I will say, though, that he probably doesn't have as much going for him academically as Karys did at his age. And there's one reason for it: he's the second kid. It's not that I don't want to teach him stuff. It's that when Karys was his age, she was the only one. And for me, as the mom, there was nothing else to do except read her books and teach her stuff. With Zane, he has Karys. He has a kid playmate, so he doesn't need a grown-up playmate. So within recent months I started realizing he didn't know quite as much as she did at his age. I've been working on it a little more, so we're coming along. :)

I'm going to try to list off all of the words I think he has right now (I'll probably miss a few!):
*bye-bye
*Mommy
*Daddy ("da-da")
*Hi
*Hat ("ha")
*Bird ("bir")
*Hot ("hah")
*Ball ("bah")
*Drink ("dee")
*Here you go ("go!", said while handing you something)
*Thank you (doesn't come out that way, but I can't think of how he says it!)
*Please (something like, "peese")
*Duck ("duh")
*Dog ("dah")
*Cat ("caaa")
*No
*Yes ("yesh"...I love this one!)
*Uh-oh
*Bug ("buh")
*Gotcha! (will point a water gun at you and say something like, "ga-ta!")
*Granddaddy ("da da da")
*Nana

-We listen to Pandora radio a lot and the song "Mahna Mahna" from the Muppets comes on often and that's our favorite song. Zane says, "Mna Mna." :)
-When we hear a song that's from "Mary Poppins" he gets really excited and tries to say "Mary." :)

Body Parts he can identify:
*eyes
*head
*nose
*ears
*hands
*feet
*tongue
*mouth
*belly button

Animal sounds he knows:
*cat ("mah mah")
*dog ("ruh ruh")
*duck ("aah aah")
*monkey ("ah ah ah")
*lion ("raaah!")
(This is where I know he's behind Karys...she knew tons of animal sounds by this age!)

Gross Motor skills:
*climbs onto anything!
*starting to jump with both feet off the ground! Doesn't happen every time, but he's getting there!
*runs and walks without really falling much anymore
*can kick and throw a ball

I know I'm probably missing a lot, but hopefully I got most of it! :)

My Big Girl is 4!!

On Monday, we celebrated Karys's 4th birthday. I cannot even believe that as I type it! She has changed so much in the last year and I am amazed every day at the funny/crazy/wacky things she says/does. When she turned three last year she graduated out of the Speech Therapy she was getting through ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). She was evaluated by the school district to see if she qualified for speech services in the public school, but she was able to produce too many of the sounds on their list to qualify. Even though she graduated out she still had several issues in her speech. As the year progressed she started fixing more and more of those sounds. Now I think the only thing she can't always do is produce an "L" sound (very normal for her age) and her "R" is usually a "W" (also normal). I'm very proud of her!

For her birthday this year we didn't do a big party. There were several reasons. One is that it's costly and the main reason is that I just didn't get anything put together on time! Plus, I'm not really good at party planning. At least not like my other friends do! All of that stuff stresses me out and I don't feel like I do that great of a job at it, so I'll just leave all the cool parties up to them and we'll just attend all of their cool parties! :) But I did want to make sure she got to see her friends for her birthday. We invited several friends to come eat with us at Chick-Fil-A and I brought a cookie cake her us to celebrate with.

The birthday girl!

Getting ready to blow out her candles

Our crew at Chick-Fil-A. (Thanks, friends, for coming to celebrate!)

A mouth of purple icing :)

Zane enjoyed the purple icing too!

For her birthday dinner, we had our family come over and celebrate with us. This included my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and Ryan's sister and brother-in-law and their 4 kids. I had asked Karys what she wanted to eat for her birthday dinner a few days before and she told me, "Macaroni and cheese and apples." Since that's what she wanted, that's what we had! Well, that plus I made a second pasta dish and had a salad. She'd been telling me she wanted a Wonder Pets party, but I couldn't find the stuff for that so I picked out some fun princess stuff at Walmart that I thought she'd like. Thankfully she did! :) I made cupcakes for us to have that evening.

Getting ready to blow out candles

Zane was making a goofy face I thought was funny :)

Zane liked the cupcakes!

Karys decided to wear her princess dress to open presents

Opening presents in the princess dress

My mom found Karys a "Mary Poppins" shirt! As soon as Karys saw it, she said, "That's Mary Poppins!"

After opening presents, I told her to go around and give everyone a hug and tell them, "Thank you." I thought this picture of her and Connor was cute. :)

A cute picture of Karys and Granddaddy

I told her to give me her best 4 year old smile. :)

Zane's trying on Karys's new dress up shoes, much to Ryan's dismay. :)

Happy birthday, Karys! You're a sweet girl and I love you more and more each day! :)

The Story of the Sienna

This is a story about a Sienna. A story about a girl and her gold Sienna...

That was supposed to make you reminisce about the VeggieTales song, "The Song of the Cebu." :)

I can't remember when it was that I decided I would really like to have a minivan. I'm thinking it was probably around the time I got pregnant for the second time. I started thinking about how with 2 kids in the back seat, there would be no room for anyone else! Plus, the new body styles of minivans are less "soccer mom" and more like a big crossover SUV. So having a minivan doesn't really feel like having a minivan.

My old car was a 2004 Toyota 4Runner. Ryan and I have been the only owners of that car and we've taken good care of it (it's the other random people that hit the car that haven't taken care of it for us!! Seriously, 2 times, maybe three, it was hit while sitting in the driveway!!). For a car that is 8 years old, it's very low mileage at only 87,000 miles. And it was paid for. So last summer we started shopping around for used minivans. We knew that a 4Runner was worth more than a minivan so the idea was that we wanted to do an even trade. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. There wasn't a place that was willing to make a deal like that for us.

Now to this summer. Specifically the last week. Ryan told me that my car was in need of new tires, which would cost about $600. He said that before he put that money into the car we should go see if there were any minivans available. The whole family drove around on Friday to all the dealerships here in town and searched for used minivans. We found several, but the only place that actually had the prices on the vehicles was at the Mazda/Volkswagen dealership. We talked to a saleswoman there and she was able to get the keys and let us check out the insides of the vans we liked. Two of them we immediately ruled out, one because it was a little too used, and the other because it was formerly owned by a smoker. We made an appointment with her for the next day to test drive the other two.

Saturday morning we went for our appointment and found out that one of the vans we wanted to see had been sold the previous day. I was so bummed! It was a Honda Odyssey and I was just sure we were going to love it! But we were still able to drive the Nissan Quest that was there. We really considered buying it because it was a nice color, and looked pretty nice on the inside. However, when we drove it to Ryan's sister's house and had her husband check it out, he and Ryan discovered some problems with it. I didn't want to chance it with any of that (plus having that van wasn't sitting quite right with me) so we decided not to do it.

I told Ryan that I wanted him to go to the Toyota dealership while the kids took naps to check out a Sienna that was being offered for $12,900. I knew our 4Runner was worth (trade-in value) about $9500. We were willing to put forth $1500, so I figured if the dealership would come down just a little on their price, we should be good to go. So Ryan and the salesman drove the Sienna over to our house so I could check it out (I couldn't go since kids were sleeping). I loved it from the get-go! It had all of the features that I loved in my 4Runner (things like radio controls on the steering wheel, the button that I can push to tell me how many miles are left on my tank of gas, etc.) plus some of the things I was looking for in a van (one door is power sliding, it was VERY clean--no stains on the carpet at all!, all the space I was wanting to have, plus an extra seat that is removable between the two captain's chairs). The only thing it doesn't have is a DVD player. And it's about 30,000 miles over what was on my 4Runner.

So Ryan and the salesman went back to the dealership and the guy told him that they would give us $9500 for the 4Runner, did he want to finance the rest? Ryan couldn't believe it! He couldn't believe the salesman wasn't even going to let him negotiate! So Ryan told him the deal he wanted to do and the guy told him they were too far off and that he couldn't even take that offer to his finance manager. So Ryan left.

I was so bummed! I thought about that van all weekend and I told Ryan to come back today (Monday) and if that guy didn't want to take the offer to the finance manager to find someone who would. I didn't think it was an unreasonable offer at all. Ryan was hoping not to have to deal with the other salesman today, but unfortunately he got there right at the same time as the salesman! But this time around the salesman was willing to take the offer to the finance manager. He came back and told Ryan that they would do that deal, but that Ryan would have to pay the tax, title, and license, which was another $300. So Ryan tells him that now that's pushing the cost to $1800 which is way over what he could pay. Ryan then asked to drive it to White Oak (about 10 min. away) to test it at a higher speed. He found out that the brakes needed a little work (nothing serious and Ryan knows how to fix it). He came back and told them about the brakes and the finance manager gave him two options: they would fix the brakes and Ryan would pay the TT&L or they would pay the TT&L and Ryan would be the one to do the brakes. He went with the second option. :)

And the thing that excites me the most is being able to put more people in the car! No more having to take two cars just because we couldn't fit two extra people in the car! :)

Shopping Cart Saga

*Disclaimer: Only read this if you promise not to judge me too harshly!!

This story is too long for a Facebook post, so a blog post it is!! So I have one of those "makes you feel terrible as a parent" stories to share with you. Except I wish I didn't! And I neglected to post this on Facebook the day it happened because I was afraid of being chastised for this happening in the first place! Here we go:

A week ago last Friday (so 10 days ago), we made a trip to Walmart. I don't know about you other moms with more than one kid, but ever since Zane was old enough to sit up safely in the shopping cart, he's been the one in the front of the cart and Karys sits in the basket part. If we're there for a lot of stuff, we get the mega cart that has the other section for 2 extra kids to sit. But if I'm only there for a short list of stuff, I really don't like pushing that thing around. Plus, I usually get the kids loaded into the cart at one of those cart stalls in the parking lot and there's rarely a big cart in one of those stalls. And like any normal kid, Karys occasionally tries to stand up in the cart. I never purposefully allow this because I know it's dangerous. If she stands up, I always tell her to sit back down. Except this one time.

We'd just pulled up to the checkout line and were standing still, not moving. Karys stood up and I decided I wasn't going to say anything because we weren't moving. She wasn't trying to do anything...she was just standing there. I turned my head to look at the covers of all the magazines. Literally, I looked away for a few seconds. When I looked back, it was too late. What I think happened was Karys tried to sit on the edge of the cart. What I saw was her falling backward off the side of the cart. She narrowly missed hitting that big display at the checkout with all the candy and snack foods! Of course she immediately started crying. I picked up quickly and tried to comfort her. I noticed that a bump was immediately forming on the back of her head. A woman got in line behind me and asked if she had hit her head. When I said yes, she said she heard her head hit from quite a distance away. She was very nice though, and told me she would put my groceries on the conveyor belt so I could hold Karys.

When we got home I looked up online about kids falling out of shopping carts and found all kinds of blogs that said things about "don't let your kid stand up in the cart!" Not helpful...I already knew that! But I knew that the symptoms of a concussion had to do with throwing up, being dizzy, disoriented, etc. And since she didn't seem to have any of those problems I let her eat lunch and then take her nap.

Fast forward 5 days to last Wednesday. I was giving her a bath and while washing her hair I noticed a decent sized area on her head that was squishy to the touch. I thought it was really weird and when a friend came over later to hang out, I had her feel it and we both decided I should make a call to the doctor's office. I was told by the nurse that as long as it wasn't dented in, it should be fine. She said if it was indented it could possibly be a skull fracture. I couldn't feel anything dented in, so I thought we were probably okay.

Over the weekend the "squishiness" was going down and we noticed that the feel of her head was different. The opposite side was nice and smooth and this side was a little bumpy. I called the doctor's office first thing this morning to get her in for an appointment. They were able to get us in with the nurse practitioner about 45 minutes after I called. She confirmed that her head was definitely bumpy and had some dents but said that everything seemed to be healing fine. I asked her if she thought she might possibly have a skull fracture. She said she didn't know but that she'd send us for an x-ray to find out for sure.

For her x-rays the technician told me that Zane was too little to be in there during the x-rays and she wasn't sure if Karys would be willing to do the x-rays if she was left in the room alone with this woman. I told Karys that Zane and I would be in the hall and she needed to do what the lady told her to do. A couple of times I heard the lady tell her to be still, but when she was finished and opened the door for me and Zane to go back in she told me that Karys did great. She said Karys told her that she likes to watch "Mary Poppins" and asked the woman if she liked Karys's dress. :)

We got a call from the doctor's office this afternoon with the results. She actually does have a skull fracture. But it's healing well on its own so no further action is going to be taken. I really can't believe it. When it happened, I was worried about a concussion and what I've read about those. I didn't even think about the possibility of a fracture! But maybe our story will be a cautionary tale for everyone else out there.

Race Update

My goal was to finish the race in 40 minutes or less. My friend, Jaime, and I finished it in 37 minutes 10 seconds. That impressed us, but what impressed us more was that we never stopped running. I was tracking the run on RunKeeper on my phone and we averaged 11 min. 50 sec. per mile. Granted, this time we weren't pushing strollers or anything, which made it a little easier. But we ran almost 2 minutes per mile faster than we've run all week! :)

A Fitness Journey

WARNING: This post contains potentially embarrassing information about me. Read only if you promise not to make fun of me for it. ;)

First, let me get the embarrassing stuff out of the way. Not sure why I'm divulging this...guess I just feel the need to let it all out in the open. :) But the embarrassing stuff is necessary to make my adult fitness journey make sense. So here goes...

Embarrassing Fact #1: I was a chubby kid. Here's what I remember: In 4th grade during the yearly physical fitness test (where you always get weighed), I remember weighing somewhere around 120. Most of the kids my age? Somewhere around 75 or 80, if my memory serves me correctly. Now, I will give myself that I was one of the tallest kids in the class. But still.

#2: I was a chubby teenager. In the 8th grade, I weighed about 160 and wore a woman's size 16. Seriously.

#3: As a kid/teenager, I HATED physical activity! Really hated it. I hated playing outside. I hated being sweaty/dirty. All of it. Hence why I weighed so much. Well, that and the fact that I loved to eat. :)

#4: Because of said hatred for physical activity, I never learned how to swim or ride a bike. Well, it wasn't only for that reason. I didn't learn the bike thing because I was afraid of falling off. I didn't learn the swimming thing because I have this intense fear of drowning and going underwater puts me in severe panic mode. For real.

I think that's enough embarrassing stuff for now. I think it'll help the rest of this post make sense. In my growing up years, I avoided physical activities at all costs. In fact, every year in elementary school when we had to do those physical fitness tests, I failed them MISERABLY. I could not run well worth a flip and I was so bad at it! I mean, that's what kids are supposed to do, right? Run? And yet to do the 1-mile run we were supposed to do, I walked most of it and felt like I was going to die! But I hated that I was one of the biggest kids in my grade. I didn't want to be, and yet I didn't seem to know how to fix it. 

Fast forward to high school. I joined band and the last two weeks of summer vacation were filled with band camp. Outdoors. Exercising pretty much ALL DAY! At first, it was SO difficult! Not to mention that they started our rehearsals with actual exercises, not just marching. We had to do a mile running or walking. Then we did all of these various arm and leg strength training exercises. When I started my freshman year, I was a size 16. After those 2 weeks, I'd dropped an entire size! I didn't change my eating, but by adding in the exercise, the weight just started falling off! The next year, during band camp, I dropped another size and stayed pretty consistent all through high school. So I wasn't one of the skinniest, definitely, but I didn't feel like I stuck out as one of the biggest either. 

Fast forward again to college. Living on campus meant I got quite a bit of exercise just having to walk around from class to class to the cafeteria to the dorm, etc. My freshman year I actually gained back some weight that I had lost that summer before because I was eating in the cafeteria most of the time. But once I got off campus I actually started to improve my fitness levels because the commuter parking lots were REALLY far away from anything! And since I tend to run late, it meant that I was usually booking it to get to class on time! So my junior year of college I decided to start getting into more of a fitness routine. I worked out regularly (and recorded my days that I worked out on my calendar with smiley face stickers!) in addition to having to walk all over campus. I ended up being the smallest I've ever been in my adult life. 

Starting that workout routine in college started me on a fitness journey that I'm still on and will always be on. When thinking about exercise, I had always thought, "I'll have to do this forever???" But once I'd incorporated it for awhile, it wasn't such a big deal. It makes me feel better about myself and it helps me maintain my weight, even when my eating isn't the best it should be. There are times that I don't do good with my workouts and I might go two weeks without doing anything. Luckily, that hasn't happened in awhile. But I can say that I haven't gone probably more than a month in my adult life without working out in some way. And that feels good. It also feels good to meet goals that I as a kid/teenager, I wouldn't have thought I'd be able to do. One of those is running. As you read above, I've never been a good runner. Even at the time of life when you're supposed to be good at it! But as an adult, I hate thinking that there are things that I can't do. I don't want my answer to challenges to be, "I can't do that." So I work on it. I'm not a good runner. Yet. I'm not a fast runner. Heck, I don't even run the entire time! But I try to do better every time.

And thanks to a former school friend/current facebook friend, I now use the RunKeeper app on my phone to track my mileage, average pace, and calories burned. It really helps me make sure I'm being consistent and not moseying along. Because if I can't burn massive calories, I don't really see the point! :) And knowing my average pace helps me compete with myself and try to do better each time.

And so...I'm doing something that my 12 year old self probably wouldn't have thought to ever be possible: I'm doing a 5K! I'm so excited about this!! Probably a little nerdily excited. :) My goal is to walk/run it in 40 minutes. Really, I'd like to do it in less than 40 minutes. I guess I'll find out this Saturday what I'm really capable of. :)