Copying phrases

Today, out of the blue Blake said, “facebook” on the way to school.  I asked him what he said and he said it again and I asked where he heard that word from since it was so out of the blue and he replied, “Chris”.  I said, “Nanny?” because that is Kevin’s mom’s name and he said, “No, you know, Riley’s dad.”  Chris is our neighbor that lives just a few houses down.  It was so out of the blue! 

Yesterday Kevin and I were talking about something in the front of the car, not thinking they were even paying attention and were kind of whispering even, and Blake repeated a part of it he shouldn't word for word.  Oops!  I need to really watch what I say, wasn't a curse word or anything, but I would have rather him not have said it.  Little ears sure hear a lot and little brains are such sponges, they remember everything!

It's amazing how much Blake is talking now.  There is nothing he can't say, he speaks in sentences, uses many adverbs even.  He says "yesterday" a lot, but it might mean yesterday, last week, or even last month.

Is is bringing home info from school and repeating it.  I can have a conversation with him about his day, it's so great!  He is growing up. 

He likes to be around all his cousins, he gets excited about this and other things and refuses to nap some days when there is something going on.  He loves hanging out at the condo with all of them for USC home games, which we have been doing a lot lately.  It takes him hours to go to sleep at night when he's been there and stays at his Nanny's house.  I guess it's just understanding life and excitement.  He used to sleep through everything and go to sleep no matter what, I miss those days.  

A rough day for Delaney

Poor little girl, over the past 24 hours she has not felt good.  About a week ago I put a new diaper rash cream on her (California Baby) and she screamed in pain, it burned her.  I ended up putting her in the bath to get it off.
Yesterday she grabbed at it again like she did that day and said "ow".  We didn't think much about it again until this morning after a poopie she grabbed it saying "ow" over and over and screaming a high pitched pain cry.  I got her cleaned up and we were out the door to school.  I thought at this point the tears were from anticipation of school, so I took her and dropped her off.  They said she did good through pictures but I went back to check on her after handbell practice and they said when she sat down for snack she started crying and pointing with "ow" again.  So I took her with me and we went to the doctor.  The nurse hadn't called me back form an earlier call I put in.  I was scared it could be a bladder infection.
So she cried and screamed and cried as we got checked in and settled, not letting go of me.  She held her clammy head on my shoulder from then until about 4pm today.  She fell asleep on me many times, the first waiting on the doctor.  (She did weigh in over 23 lbs today though, yea!)
He thinks it's an outside issue and just to treat it with AD ointment and not to use wipes on her.  Let her soak in an oatmeal bath, etc.  He took a urine sample and said she needs more liquids, but it looks pretty good.  They are running a culture on it and we'll find out Thursday if there is infection.  He said as long as she doesn't have a fever or is vomiting she is probably fine.  During her nap she sounded like she might vomit and then after her nap she had a 102 fever.  Ahhhh!  I called and I still wait.  Mother instincts are kicking in, she is just not herself.  This is more than a diaper rash.  I need to fix it for her.  She was on me for 75% of the day and didn't want to eat.  Finally the Motron kicked in, my mom brought over some pedialyte and she drank 6 oz with her and then wanted some food.  She still doesn't seem 100%, but the medicine seems to be working.  Hopefully it'll last through the night.  Prayers for my baby.

Where have we been?

I haven't been great on keeping up with the blog lately and I hate that because I love to print these out into books and keep them and have all our memories in one place, I'm going to have to summarize most of the past few weeks, but the trip to the zoo and train ride will be separate and will come soon. We sure have been busy and having lots of fun!

Delaney is really into feeding herself these days, she doesn't want much help, she'll usually refuse to eat if I am helping at all, so this is what she looks like after lunch each day with yogurt.


She has also figured out how to take her own clothes off!!!!  Oh no!  By the way, did you know that a whole load of laundry can be ruined by two crayons (blue and yellow)?  They were in Blake's pocket I guess.  Luckily it's the end of the season and most of it was summer stuff, but there was a few pair of new pants in it!  Ahhh!  With some stain remover, vinegar, and extra detergent I managed to get most of it out still staying toxin free for the most part!


Bath time is fun every other night, the kids aren't going to know what it's like to bathe separate, well they don't like too.  They love having their best friend with them to play in the tub.  Every now and then they get in mommy's big tub, they like that deep water, it's much harder to wash them in that one tough!

The car wash is still a hit.  Blake tells me every day that it's open and the car is dirty.  I know they like us there!

Harris Teeter is a trip I can't avoid and the only way I can get groceries and keep them both contained is the race car cart!  I can't believe I'm that mom with one, but there's not really an option right now.  They love the green one currently!

 We had a neighborhood party in the park on the USC/UGA football game day and had lots of fun with our neighbors and friends (old and new).  

 Delaney has a cute Tarheels cheer leading outfit this year and Blake loves his Gamecock football jersey still.  It'll get a lot of use this year and we travel to Columbia for the home games.

 Kindermusik, Mission Friends, and Wednesday night supper has started back at OBC.  Miss Melinda is a hit in Kindermusik and Ms. Wendy (Dr. Wendy at the Pediatric office) and Ms. Carrie have grabbed Blake's attention in Mission Friends this year after a bit of a fight to get him to go the first few times.

Night bonding

I love this.  At night after their bath they love to drink their milk together and usually read with us, but this night Blake was looking at pictures on Kevin's phone and telling Delaney about them as she rested her tired head on his shoulder.  She goes to sleep about 7pm now, and lately has been sleeping until 6:30-7am, and Blake doesn't go down until 7:30pm, so in between those times he likes to play daddy's ipad or read.

Clapping for Preschool

It's been a crazy couple weeks with preschool starting with both kids, Delaney for the first time, and Blake after a summer home with me and having 2 sets of new teachers.  He goes to one set on Mon/Wed and the others on Tues/Thurs, but has a lot of the same kids in his class.  He's missing Griffin and Walker this year, he doesn't get to see them much.  Delaney cried all last week for 75%-95% of each of the 3 days.  This week on Monday she cried until about 10:30, Tuesday and Wednesday she was done by 9:45, and today?  Today on the way to school Blake was excited, we were talking about it and she started clapping, yesteday she was crying the whole way.  She only cried a little when I left her at early drop off, but was her happy self the rest of the day!!!

So why all of the sudden did she decide she was ok?  Because she has a duck outfit that she loves to wear!  Monday and Tuesday was duck day and I took it so they could use it for their group time.  Once they brought it out she marched over to it, wanted to put it on, and didn't cry again.  It worked the same way the next day, so her teachers said she can be a duck any day, even if it's Lion Day!  So it's staying at school.

A Fun Family Day on the Train

…the light rail train in Charlotte that is!
We got on the train in Pineville, NC and headed up to uptown Charlotte for a day of fun with just the four of us.  I had the time of my life!!!  The kids love trains and they thought this was so cool!  We rode the whole way up, got off, met the conductor and Blake even got to toot the horn in the driving area.  We grabbed a drink at McDonalds, walked around a little, had lunch at the Epicenter and made our way back in time for naps.  A great morning!!

Columbia Zoo Trip

We went to the Columbia zoo with the Davis family on Labor Day for a fun day out.  We go here often since Kevin’s parents have season passes.  All the cousins enjoy it.
The gorilla has run up twice now when we have been there and banged on the glass and ran towards us.  He seems to do this a lot, messing with the people.  Reminding us why he’s behind the glass I guess.  After Delaney finally stopped crying from being scared, she finally went up and touched him.  Blake stayed back.  The next trip he didn’t really want to even walk inside the building.





The birds are always a lot of fun.  This time Blake got pretty close.  Delaney was wide eyed as they sat on my head and picked at my hair.  The lady had to come get them off!

My sweet little fearless 18 month old

 Delaney, you are 18 months old, or 1 and a half as Blake likes to tell people after he says he is 2 and a half.  You have changed so much over the past few months.  you are finally saying "mama" as of a few weeks ago and ever since then you have started mimicking other words, Les, for Leslie your Sunday School teacher, Don Duk for Donald Duck, you say "Minnie" all the time, "this" which you have said forever now it seems, "bye-bye" in your sweet southern voice, more recently, "night-night", "mul" for milk, "Bac" for Blake, "Mac", the cat, "up", "boon" for balloon, "buk" for book, "gandad", "nanny", "eye", "no", "yes", "boo", "peas" for please, and others that sporadically show up.
You know when you're wet and will point to your diaper and sometimes get a diaper and lay on your back. When you poopie you come start to hug on me and climb in my lap.  Usually Blake knows when you do first though.  He'll see the look on your face and say, "Nananey, are you going poopie?"  You'll shake your head yes or no.  Sometimes your yes and no are mixed up though.  You can verbally say "NO" very well and you mean it!
You want to do everything yourself, if we try to help you tell us no, or will refuse it.  One night at supper in a restaurant you HAD to buckle yourself (oh, buckle is another word), and it took about 15 minutes it seems with you keeping on pushing me away as I tried to help.  One time I did it for you and you threw a fit so I had to undo it so you could it it yourself!
You are not very neat feeding yourself, especially with yogurt, but you won't eat it if I get it in your mouth, sometimes you'll even spit it out and put it back in yourself.  You love to play with your brother and want what he has most of the time, you will let him know it to with a push or a hit.  You do share though and are so proud of yourself when you do share or take something that belongs to Blake to him.  You love your baby dolls now, and the other day you stood on the couch and sang her to sleep while rocking her.  Your hair is now longer, we were able to put some cute horn-like pigtails on you recently.  But most of the time it's just everywhere, it won't stay laying down on your head.
You go to bed about 7pm these days, if it's later you get up earlier, if it's earlier you get up earlier, ahhh!  You and I read books (Favorite is "Good night Charleston" right now) together in your sleep sack, say our prayers, and sing the Goodnight Delaney song to the "Where is thumbkin" tune (I have one for Blake too).  You cuddle into my neck and hold on so tight, it's the sweetest moment.  You nuzzle down into your "cold blanket" (silky), as Blake calls it and you usually will sing for a little while or just rearrange your crib and go to sleep within a few minutes.  Some night it takes up to 45 if you're over tired and mom or dad will have to go back in and rock you a little more.  In the mornings you like to grab your blanket and grab your milk right away (after naptime too, you sleep about 2-2.5 hours for nap).
You climb on everything and anything.  You love all your older cousins and playing rough with them.  The rougher the better!  You'll jump on top of Blake and pin him down, laughing your head off.  You do bite some these days, but mainly just mommy.  You'll march right over to the wall and face it putting yourself in timeout and grinning at the same time.  You love being upside down, swimming and going under water, going down big slides, jumping off things, etc.  You're fearless!!!!
you are full of love and compassion for those around you too though.  You give great kisses on the cheek, even to strangers, this morning you gave a hug to an old man at breakfast that had been playing with you the whole time.  It made his day!  You give hugs goodnight each night whether we ask you to or not.  You go get shoes for people when you know it's time for them to leave, you'll even go get Blake a diaper while he's going poopie.  You are you, you are unique, loving, and wonderful!  I love you!

Neighbors vist

The neighbors came down to visit Thursday night and the kids all had a great time together.  Riley and Delaney shared a few kisses, that I only captured on video, and Callie brought Delaney her first leotard!  She had to put it on immediately.  I grabbed her tutu and she watched Callie and learned how to dance around in it.

 After Riley and Delaney went to sleep Callie and Blake laughed their heads off.  They were being so silly.  They went on for 20-30 min saying, "You're Kaite", "No, you're Katie", "Are you Katie", etc and just laughing and laughing.  It was so cute!

I can't wait to show them these pictures when they are 15!