Sorry

Okay - so I am sorry I forgot to blog last night. I wasn't even doing anything important! I just forgot it was Saturday. Sigh. I got thrown off because Arlington didn't have school Friday (it is the start of spring break for the public schools here) and so I was thrown!

Anyway, things are going well. Most of the blood around Cainan's nose is gone and he just has a few remaining stitches. He still is just as crooked as he was pre-surgery, and I plan on complaining when I see the doctor in a few weeks. Not that anything can/will be done, but I am going to voice my frustration anyway. But he is healing nicely, and that is all that matters.

The weather has been really nice this week so we have been playing outside a lot. It has been warm, but not too hot. The kids get stir crazy in the house, and so it is nice to have an outlet for their energy. Arlington is into blowing bubbles for the little ones and they love it.

We had a playdate on Friday with our friend Tracy and her little girl that she adopted from China. It was fun as always! We had them here at our house this time, which was nice. Since Arlington didn't have school we didn't have to rush off to go and pick her up so we had a nice long visit. The kids all had a good time.

Saturday Arlington had a birthday party at lunch time and then went in the afternoon to her little best friends house to play and go to a fair. Her parents took Arlington along with them to a school fair they were having near their house and she had a blast. We picked her up around dinner time and then went out to dinner at Applebee's. Yum. I have to say, we have three well behaved kids when we go out to dinner. They love to eat out for some reason. Maybe it is because mommy doesn't cook much, so this is their chance to store up for awhile.......

Arlington decided this week that fairies aren't real - except for Tinkerbell. We are reading a fairy book series and she says, "these fairies aren't real. But Tinkerbell, she is real. I saw her at Disneyworld with Aunt Betty.". Every night we read this book series and she makes the same announcement. She is funny.

Cainan's language skills are really picking up. He is continuing to babble and he also is getting better with "s" sounds. He will be talking as well as Finley soon enough! His favorite game lately is to spin in a circle until he is dizzy. He will just start doing it for no apparent reason!

Finley's new favorite activity is to eat constantly, but just small amounts. She gets bored easily, so she asks for food. Her favorite thing to munch on is wheat bread! One day I think she ate 6 slices! I went through a whole bag of bread in one week! It is strange. She will stand at the fridge and say "bread" 100 times in a row until I get it for her. She is a goof.

Here are just a few pictures

Playing outside
Arlington working on a workbook

Healing stages
Finley being cute

Arlington dancing around - don't you love the outfit?

Change/no change

Okay - so Mat and I are really mad with the surgeon that we put Cainan through all of that surgery for basically no change in his nose at all. Poor little guy. I am so fed up with lousy health care and doctors who think they are gods but won't take the time to make sure the surgery is done correctly. Cainan had a very wide cleft lip and palate, so we know he will need several surgeries, but the way the surgeon explained it is that this would really make his nose look corrected. Wrong! It is almost as crooked as before. We think he is just the cutest little guy in the world- don't get me wrong - I don't care what it looks like. But this revision was necessary so that they could also get rid of some scar tissue and pull his lip down and do a botox injection because he had to have that extra surgery do to the infection. Ugh!
Anyway, I know this isn't my normal post day, but I wanted to share with you a before and after photo of our beautiful boy and you be the judge. Worth the suffering?

Before

After

Happy Belated Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Since this is my regular post day, I saved posting our Easter pictures until today. We had a nice Easter - especially as a complete family with Cainan. He was really into looking for the egss, but he and Finley just kind of wondered around! It was cute. Finley said "egg" over and over again. She just wanted to open and close them a hundred times. Arlington had a great time helping the babies find eggs all over the house. The Easter bunny marked the ones for Finley and Cainan and Arlington because they each held special surprised for each child! It was fun.

Not much else going on. Cainan continues to recover well. It looks like his nose is slipping a little. It isn't a perfect fix. I can't decide if I am mad at the surgeon or not. It may just be inevitable that he is going to take several surgeries to get his nose and lip in order and we just have to be patient. I just hate having to put him through so much. But no matter what, we are done with surgeries for a few years. He is perfect to us. I am done torturing him until he gets older. Poor little guy. But he has recovered well and in two days we can take the bandages off and we can clean him up and move on.

Finley is doing well. She is just so talkative. She says more and more sentences a day and is really getting her thoughts across. She is so cute! I love this stage when their little sentences are broken but they are so excited when they are understood. She is still very high maintenance and I think she always will be!

Arlington is doing great. She said something funny today in the car on the way home from school. We were getting ready to make a right hand turn and the light was turning red. I knew I had time because of making the right, so I went. Arlington was talking to me about school at the time, and she stopped mid-sentence and said,
(exact words) "Mommy, did you even look at the color of that light before you turned?" Ah, spoken like a future back seat driver.

Enjoy our pictures!

Surgery is all done!

Well, what we hope to be Cainan's last surgery for a long time is finished. We only had to stay one night in the hospital and we were very very happy about that. The surgery was Thursday morning and only lasted 45 minutes. It was a little shorter than the doctor had anticipated and that was good - not so much anesthesia. What the surgeon did was bring his nose over the best he could, give him a botox injection in his lip to loosen the scar tissue and then remove some excess scar tissue around his nose. I think he looks pretty good! The nose isn't perfect - it has already started to relax. But Cainan's cleft was so wide, that it is going to take more reconstructive surgeries as he gets older to get it just right. But he looks great. It definitely is better than it was before this surgery. We are just hoping he can stay infection free, and that everything will heal quickly. We can take out the nose plugs and the steri strips off next Thursday, so that isn't bad. He has to wear arm restraints, but only when he sleeps. He only has a few little stitches, so no biggie. The worse thing is that he seems to have caught a cold. He is sneezing non-stop and has a runny nose. I had to change his steri strips because I don't want all of that to sit on top of his incision, but I don't really WANT to change them in case something gets damaged in the process. But I am trying to be very careful. Poor guy. He can't breathe out of his nose at all due to the cold and nose plugs. But he isn't complaining. He is just drooling everywhere. I am having flash backs to the time right before his palate surgery where we had to change his bib 3-4 times a day due to drool. But he has been "drool free" since November. Ah well - it is only for a week.

So he is doing well. The hospital stay was relatively painless. We didn't have to stay in the ICU which was a great gift! But the best gift was that Cainan can eat a REGULAR diet! After each surgery he has been restricted to liquids/full liquids for two weeks. This time, since it didn't involve the lip - he was eating chicken nuggets by Thursday night. That has helped a TON. And he doesn't have any real pain. Just a little discomfort when the area is touched (of course). He hasn't required anything more than Tylenol and that was just once in the hospital. He does have a very high pain tolerance. He has been sleeping well, and is on a strong antibiotic for 5 days, and then by Thursday - he will be back to normal. Yeah!

The only thing that didn't get done while we were at the hospital was the CT scan. He has had one after each surgery and this time he just wasn't having it. It is a long story, but we will be doing it outpatient. Mommy had to pull out her "I am a nurse AND his mom, so go away" bit and we left without doing it. It is fine - it didn't have anything to do with this surgery. They just want to look at his palate to make sure the bone is growing. So I am going to schedule it outpatient where he can get anesthesia - which is what he really needs. He is SO afraid that all of the medicine in the world wasn't going to put him to sleep.

Today we did an Easter egg hunt this morning with Arlington. Finley wasn't into it, and Cainan couldn't do it, so just Arlington participated. It was at our local community center. There were about a million kids there, but it is always nice to do with the kids. Arlington got some eggs and bounced in one of the bounce houses. They had about 5 bounce houses and some face painting and games, and the Easter Bunny. We didn't stay very long, but the kids had fun.

This afternoon Arlington played at her best little girlfriends house. She hasn't seen her in a little while so they were very happy to see each other! They had a lot of fun. When I went to pick her up I had a chance to visit with her mom and the little girls twin brother and sister who are the same age as our two little ones. They are so much fun - also a boy and a girl - and we love getting our 6 kids together!

The kids are doing well. Finley is going through a whiny stage. It started the day she was born (no just kidding). She whines constantly for things. But she is getting teeth and I think she is going through a growth spurt. Today she constantly wanted to eat. And, no kidding, the girl at 5 pieces of wheat bread in a row! Isn't that nuts? She just kept asking "more bread" and just kept eating it! I finally cut her off. But she ate really well today. But the bad baby got a hold of a pencil while I was gone picking up Arlington and drew big circles all over our tile floor. That was fun for Mat to clean up. She is such a little bugger.

Arlington and the babies decorated marshmallow eggs tonight. Since Arlington and Finley are allergic to eggs, we can never dye the real thing. Mat's aunt Betty found this Marshmallow shaped eggs that came with food dye pens that the kids could color on and then eat. Finley and Arlington liked the marshmallow, but Cainan wasn't having it. He doesn't really like sweets. But all three liked decorating the eggs. Finley just kept stabbing hers with the pen. It has holes all through it. Hopefully they will grow out of their egg allergy and can dye the real thing one year.

So tomorrow the Easter bunny comes and Arlington is very excited. The babies have no idea what is going on so that should be interesting egg hunt in the morning. Arlington was quizzing me on the Easter bunny tonight. First she said, "I don't think the Easter bunny is small like a bunny - I think he is big like daddy." Then she said, "where does the Easter bunny get the candy and gifts that he leaves?" I told her I wasn't sure, so her conclusion was "I think he gets them at a special Easter bunny store where only he can shop because I don't think he has elves like Santa to help him make anything". Then she wanted to know where the Easter bunny lived and who lived with him, and what he did the rest of the year. She is too much.

Here are a few pictures! Happy Easter everyone!

so sorry!

I forgot to post last night! I am such a weirdo. I don't know where my mind is lately. My parents are in visiting and we were watching Gilmore Girls (a taped marathon!) and I completely forgot. Sorry about that!

Not much to report. No pictures from today because I just don't have the time, but I promise Saturday's post - as long as we are back from the hospital I will post then.

Everyone is doing fine! Cainan's surgery is tomorrow. We don't know what time we have to be there yet. We will know by this evening - it is usually very early. We are hoping we only have to spend one night. That would be the best. So we would be home by Friday afternoon. That way we are home before Easter weekend.

My parents leave today and I know the kids will miss them! Heck, I will miss them because it is a nice break from managing all the kids when they are here!

Here is a little thing I just wanted to post since I don't have any pictures!

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's 'real' parents.
7. You have ever been 'pregnant' with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth. (2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word 'Dossier' means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

Author unknown

The weekend came so fast!

This week flew by for us - and I am glad! I love getting to the weekend. We don't have to get up or rush to school, or appointments, etc. It WOULD be better, though, if the kids would sleep a little longer - realize that it is Saturday and sleep PAST 6:30-7am! Ah well.

Thursday Cainan had speech therapy and it went pretty well. Finley and I stayed out of the room for most of the session and Cainan actually TALKED to the therapist. It was nice to see! So we will be doing that from now on. Since I have to take Finley, she answers most of the questions before Cainan gets a chance, so Cainan stays quiet. So he just needed to be alone. I was always afraid to ask if we should step out so I finally did and Cainan goes often enough now that he knows the therapist, so it went fine.

Friday Arlington went to a ballgame with Mat. He had gotten some free spring training tickets, and we have the spring training field about 6 miles from our house for the Mets and the Marlins. So it is our chance to see two professional teams in a quiet setting having fun and for free! We have tried to go to at least one game each year. They had a great time and Arlington spent the time with a little friend of hers from school who was also there, ate a hot dog, cotton candy and ice cream, and got a fair amount of sun. When they came home we were all outside doing yard work and playing until the sun went down. A good day.

Mat left this morning for a meeting, so we are missing him right now. He will be back late Wednesday night, so we will be looking forward to that! My parents flew in to stay with me and the kids while he is gone. I can manage 1-2 nights by myself, but after that we get a little nuts. So it is nice to have the company, especially in the evenings getting everyone to bed. I kept myself and the kids busy all day until my parents got here this evening and we did pretty good! But I do miss Mat when he is gone, and especially on the weekends when it is really the only time we get to spend whole days together. I will be glad when he is home.

Everyone is doing fine. Arlington got invited to two birthday parties this week, so she was very excited about that! I think the majority of her class was born in the late winter, early spring, because we have been hitting the birthday circuit lately! But it is fun.

Cainan is doing well. He has his surgery coming up on Thursday, so I am beefing him up on all kinds of fatty foods knowing he will be losing a little weight during the two weeks he needs to eat mostly liquids. He is saying the word "truck" pretty well now, and will say "moon" and "plane" and "flower".

Finley is her old self. Still boycotting eating for the most part unless we put the food in her mouth. But it is getting better each day. The tooth broke through the skin and I am sure that helps. Yesterday she did the funniest thing. She and Cainan were sitting at the little kids table eating some chicken nuggets. Cainan didn't have any food in his mouth, so Finley got up, walked over, said "eat" and put a chicken nugget in his mouth! And Cainan just ate it without saying a word! She is too funny.

Here are a few little pictures

Rainy Tuesday

Yes, it is raining - again. It has been raining a lot this last week and I am about sick of it! And it waits to start raining until AFTER the kids get up from nap, so we are trapped inside. No fun. The kids get a little crazy then! Even mommy gets a little crazy.

We had a nice weekend. On Sunday we decided to take the kids to the Miami Children's Museum. We looked at the one closer to our house, but it wasn't as nice. Miami is only 1 1/2 hours away, so we decided to make a day of it and just go. I am so glad we did! All the kids had a blast, but especially Arlington. It was huge and full of stuff for kids of all ages. The babies could run and jump and play just as easy as Arlington. No one wanted to leave! We stayed from 11:30-3:30, and could have stayed longer, but we wanted to get home and get back for the evening. Arlington really cried when we left! The babies even took a nap while we were there for about 1-1 1/2 hours. That gave Arlington a chance to play with Mat and I without distraction. It was a fun day. We stopped at the Olive Garden for dinner and that was a nice ending to our day.

Monday was uneventful. We were all thrown by the time change. Mat set the alarm for 6:15, but turned it off and went back to sleep and we didn't get up until 7:30! Yikes! We had to rush to get Arlington to school in time that is for sure! Mat ended up taking her so I wouldn't have to rush the babies.

Today we had a fun day. We started with a playdate with our friend Tracy and her little girl that she adopted from China. That was fun. Then all together we went to our local library for story time. The babies loved it! They read some books to the kids and played some music and games and even did a little art project. It was fun and we had a great time. Then after that we picked up Arlington at school and met Mat for lunch. That was a nice treat! Cainan ate really well, but not Finley! She has been such a bear about eating due to getting some new teeth. She ate a few pieces of pizza, but ended up eating a lot of olives and raisins. Silly girl. I will be glad when this stage is over. Cainan loves to eat out so he ate everything on his plate! This evening after naps it rained, but finally let up around 6:30pm, so we went for a much needed walk as a family. We went around the blocks -the babies walked the whole way. Finley pushed a little baby stroller and Cainan pulled the wagon. It was fun.

That is the happenings! All the kids are doing well. Not much to report.

Finley and Cainan have decided they are boycotting learning shapes. They say forget it. It is so frustrating! But Cainan has learned "A" and "B". Finley has decided she will learn things a little non-traditional. She knows the letter "W" and the color pink. Weirdo. Ah, second (and third) kids -not going as fast as the first. Oh well.

So that's the happenings! Enjoy the pictures from the day at the museum and a few others.

Saturday at last

Ah, the weekend. Who doesn't love a good weekend? After a long week with the kids and much rain which kept us in doors, I was happy to have "co-parenting" today. The kids were really starting to wear on my nerves after being inside all those days. We are outdoor folks, and we try to get everyone out at least once a day. But for a few days, nothing and that was BAD! So today was a nice day and we were out a lot. Mat decided that because I had been with the kids all week, he would take them off my hands for a few hours this morning and that was wonderful! I got a lot done and it was so peaceful.

Mat took the kids to the natural sand dunes that are near our local beach. IT is only a few minutes from the house (the beach and sand dunes) so they didn't have to go far. They loved it. It is a trail, so he was able to keep them contained on the trail, and they loved just walking around. I think they were happy to be outside. It was in the low 70's so perfect weather to be outside. Not too hot! They were gone for awhile and they were hungry when they came home.

Once home I fed the babies and Mat took Arlington to get us some lunch and to the comic book store. She has always been very interested in Mat's comics, and loves super heros, so he got her a few basic ones to look at. She loves to look at the pictures. Her favorite is Super Girl. So she came home with some comics that she has been looking at this afternoon.

After naps, I took Arlington get get some groceries and some movies and then after dinner we all went outside to do a little yard work. Just a little weeding and such, so the kids go to play outside a little more! They have had a full day!

That is about it. A rainy week means not much to report! We were just stuck inside trying to entertain ourselves.

Arlington is doing great. We are working on "rhyming words". This is a harder concept than I realized. But she is getting the idea. She and Mat finished reading Tom Sawyer and now we are reading "Junie B Jones" books. If you aren't familiar with these, this is a book series about a little girl who is in Kindergarten and she is Arlington to a T! Well, for the most part. This little girl is kind of mean, (which Arlington isn't at all), but the words she uses are right on. It is fun.

Arlington said something funny. The name of our housing development is Mirabella. She has a friend named Bella. One day she was looking at the sign and saw the "Bella" part and wanted to know what the rest said, so I told her and she said, "Mirabella - Bella has a development named after her? Do you think there is a MiraArlington?" She is such a goof.

She also wanted to know about who controlled the weather. With all the rain and thunder, she wanted to know who caused that. I told her "God and Mother Nature". But then she reported to teachers and friends, "Hey guess what? Did you know Jesus makes the weather?"

Finley is going through a phase. She has not been napping as long as she used to nor eating very well. I think she is growing some AND getting some new teeth. She is still missing quite a few bottom teeth, so I am sure they are coming in soon! So she doesn't want to eat much. Each meal is a fight. All she wants is milk. And the last week or so, she hasn't been falling asleep until around 2pm. Usually my kids nap from 1-4, but this week she has changed her mind! And then she is a little grouchy when she wakes up because she hasn't gotten enough rest. Hopefully the phase will pass soon. She is sleeping great at night, just not during the day. Her new word is "Barbie".

Cainan is doing well. He had speech therapy on Thursday. The speech therapist wanted us to make a list of all the words he knows and we came up with 24! I didn't realize it was that many. I was happy to see that. Some of them are definitely things that only we understand, but he is coming along. He seems to have a weak soft palate which hinders him from saying difficult things, but hopefully that will strengthen in time. He said "hi papa" this week - a two word sentence. Yeah!

Here are some pictures! Enjoy!

Universal studios

Yes people, Arlington went to Universal Studios this weekend with Mat. The one thing we do like about Florida is being close to Disney and Universal. Can't beat that! She rode every ride she was big enough for about 100 times, and even did some little kid rides (as she now refers to them). She is 5 going on 20, but she still admits to loving Curious George and will sing along to Barney songs. She and Mat had a great time. If she grows just ONE more inch, she will be able to ride a whole new set of rides and she can't wait. She watches those roller coasters and just wishes she could be in one of those seats. Mat can't wait either. I will be waiting on the side lines to hold her hair back after she pukes. No big rides for me!

But fun was had by all. The only ride she didn't like was Jaws. Now, I told her dad NOT to take her on that ride, but she wanted to, and apparently Arlington is now the parent, so they went. And she was not thrilled. She was sitting on the outside and kind of freaked, so Mat moved her to the inside of the boat and she did better. She knows it is pretend, but that ride even freaks me out - I hate having something jump out at me. But she loved everything else she rode that day including a ride called "Twister". They stayed at the park the whole day until it closed, ate dinner out, had a giant ice cream sundae, and then she crashed about 10 minutes into the ride home.

Finley and Cainan are doing well. We are working STILL on colors. These babies just aren't interested in learning. Finley can SAY all the color names, but other than that, she just doesn't care. I say, "what color is it?" and she walks away and says "no". Cainan seems to have "yellow" down. Not the word, but he can pick it out. They are funny.

We had a playdate today with our friend Tracy and her little girl that she adopted from China. We always have fun together and we are becoming good friends! I love having someone to talk to about parenting and just general stuff. The adult conversation is great, especially since I am not working any more. I love being able to look forward to our weekly gathering just to chat and have fun. It is great. We have made it a regular thing and I am so glad. Our kids are having fun and so are we!

Nothing much else happening. Tomorrow no plans! We are going to stay home the whole day. We have been taking daily walks around our neighborhood because it has been beautiful weather and it breaks up the day. The babies like riding in the stroller or wagon and getting some fresh air. And it gives me a chance to look around the neighborhood at everyone's flowers to see what I want to plant!

Enjoy some pictures! Sorry no pictures of the babies today - just Arlington at Universal.

21 months old today!

Just a little extra post. Our little man is 21 months old today! And Finley will be 20 months old on Wednesday! Our babies are growing so fast. Soon it will be time to turn 2!! Sigh - time flies. And we are approaching our 7 month anniversary since we brought Cainan home to our family. Wow!

Ah, weekend

So glad it is the weekend! We had a busy week, and it was nice to see it come to an end.

Thursday Cainan had speech therapy. We talked about all of his little quirks. He seems to be going backwards a little, but we think it is because he is learning new things and becoming a little more adventurous. We have noticed his tongue being out more, but both the OT and ST think that is due to him trying new things. We just have to constantly remind him to put it back into his mouth. And he forgot how to drink from a straw. That has been very frustrating! But today (Saturday) I got him to drink from it again using a plastic hard straw. At first I needed to close off his nose to get him to suck air in through his mouth and then he remembered. I was glad about that! We just need to practice more! He is very nasal - his soft palate is very weak. But we are working through it. I am hoping the surgeon can take a look at it while Cainan is under for his surgery and give me an idea if it is something that might require surgical repair or just time to strengthen. We were told it could go either way. So we will see!

Friday we had a great playdate with our friend Tracy and her little girl that she adopted from China. It is always fun to have them over. It gives Tracy and I a chance to have adult talk and talk about the kids and the kids have fun together! Her little girl and Finley get along really great - they are really cute together! I am glad to see Finley have a little playmate around her age.

Today Arlington had a birthday party for one of her best little friends. She had a really great time. It was at a place called My Gym. Great place for parties! The people at My Gym run the WHOLE party and all the parents have to do is sit back and watch. It was nice. Mat stayed home with the babies because it was during their nap time and I went and hung out with the other mommies while Arlington had fun for 2 hours with her friends. She should sleep good tonight! My Gym runs them around the whole time and it was PERFECT!

We also had a chance to talk to Mat's parents, Mat's sister Jess and her husband Tom, and Mat's brother Zac on Skype tonight. It was nice for the kids to get to see them on the computer and visa versa. I am so glad that we are able to visit that way since we live so far away from each other. Plus we got a chance to use Skype with Mat's sister Carrie who lives in Jacksonville so that we could see our niece and nephew! That was a great treat! We don't get to see them as often as we would like, and now we can see them over the computer when we want to. Yeah! I love technology.

Tomorrow Mat is taking Arlington to Universal Studios. She is so excited - so is he for that matter! They are going to leave bright and early tomorrow - it is about a 2 hour drive. The park is open from 9-7 so I am sure they will stay the whole time. The babies and I are probably are going to hit church and just hang out for the rest of the day. It will be fun! I am sure they will have a good time.

Arlington is doing well. Worked hard on her workbook pages Gramma sent her this week. She loves cutting, so she did a ton of the pages where you needed to cut out the pictures and glue them together. She is becoming such a big girl. She also wrote her first "letter" to her best little friend. We watched a show the other day that talked about writing letters and she wanted to send one. So she got some paper and an envelope and wrote a little letter! It was cute.

Arlington is also very into Webkinz. For those of you who don't know this, this was a wonderful invention! She loves it. You buy a stuffed animal that comes with a code that you use on a website Webkinz.com. Once you type in the code, it gives you access to this site full of games and challenges, and the stuffed animal you have comes up on the screen and that is the animal you now take care of in a virtual world. She has to feed it, and give it a place to live and give it clothes, etc. It is so fun. You would be amazed at the computer skills she has picked up using this site. She knows exactly what she is doing - I don't have to help her anymore. One of the things they said they would need in Kindergarten would be computer skills, so a friend of ours recommended Webkinz last year at this time. And she plays it all the time - I would say a couple of times a week. I call this a great buy. (and inexpensive too!)

Finley has some new words - she has new ones all the time that I can't keep up. This week I taught her "school bus" and she says "school butt". She will see a bus on our way somewhere and she will say "bye bye butt". What a goofball. She can say "Jess", "button", "cookie", "penguin" (although penguin sounds like pen-gin)

We were looking at a book the other day and it had a picture of cookie monster holding a large plate of cookies. Now, my grandmother (who my kids call GiGi) makes tons and tons of cookies. She makes my girls cookies without eggs in them so that they have a treat to eat. (since they have the allergy to eggs). Anyway, Finley say the cookies and I said, "look at cookie monster and the cookies". She said "Gigi, go?" She associated my grandma with cookies.

Cainan is doing well. He is working on "Papa" He has it pretty good. "P" is so hard for him. "S" too. If I pinch his nose closed, he can make the "S" sound. But because of his soft palate, it won't come out otherwise. He is getting more active, which is nice to see. He isn't crazy about rough housing, still, but he is more willing to climb and slide and goof around. Little by little.

Anyway, here are just a few pictures. The few pictures of Arlington at the gym are from the party from today. Also, the picture of Finley lining up the books -Arlington used to do that. Instead of playing with something, she puts it in a line! It is funny! Yeah, I caught her taking the books off the shelf one at a time and lining them up. At least she wasn't ripping them up!