Some updates

I just thought I would pass along a few updates on the kids.

Lydia is doing well and getting bigger. She'll be 8 weeks on Sunday. Her colickiness is starting to fade somewhat. She still tends to be more fussy in the evenings (aren't all small kids, I know Titus still tends to be?!), but those evenings of intense screaming for an hour or more seem to be lessening. She still has an occasional screaming period, but they're not as regular as before. She is also sleeping a little better as well. She has some good nights and bad nights, but she seems to be stretching out a little. She'll usually have one longer stretch, anywhere from 4-6 hours each night, so we're getting there. Occasionally she'll wake up in the middle of the night and decide she doesn't want to go back to sleep, so that will make for a long night, but we feel like she's making progress. She certainly much better than Titus, who was pretty slow to catch on to the whole stretching out thing. Lydia also smiles a lot more and her eyes are starting to follow things a little more. They change quickly at this age, as Colleen's parents have seen her a couple of times now and each time they see her they comment on how much she has changed in just a couple of weeks.

Titus is our little man. He turned 2 this month, and when we measured him on the growth chart in the kids bedroom, we found that he was over 3 inches shorter than Katelyn was when she turned 2. If you follow those internet growth prediction formulas on the internet and such, he's on pace to be about 5'6" or 5'7"! I guess that's what happens when you are continually in the bottom 10 percent for height and weight. That said, considering his dad is 6'3" and his mom is pushing 5'7", I'm quite confident he'll hit a growth spurt at some point and stretch on up there. But he's definitely on the short side. He's talks a lot, but he's still pretty hard to understand. He's putting words together and so certain words and phrases are identifiable (especially for mom), but for the most part he gets a lot of confused looks (at least from his dad!) when he talks, which only frustrates him. I think I've gotten about a thousand of those "Dad, don't you understand what I'm saying?!" looks so far. He continues to be very affectionate with Lydia and loves to give her lots of kisses. Of course, he's not particularly gentle with her, but he's trying to be very loving. He continues to be all boy and continues to have more bumps, bruises, scrapes, and cuts every month than Katelyn has had in her whole life! He loves big machinery (don't all boys?), and he especially loves tractors (burrooom, burroooommm as he refers to them). Colleen will sometimes take him to a tractor website and just let him click on the pictures of all the different kinds and colors of tractors. He just loves it. And when myself or someone from the church uses the riding mower to cut the lawn, it's a can't miss event for him.

Katelyn, unlike her little brother, continues to stretch right up. She's still hanging around the upper 10th percentile for height. She's taller than almost all of the girls her age, and is even as tall or taller than some boys her same age. She continues to be quite a gentle and loving spirit, eager to help her mom. What a contrast she is from her brother's rambunctuous, rough and tumble nature! She loves to read her books and watch Sesame Street. Even though she doesn't turn 5 until October, we are going to start home schooling her this year. If she was in the public schools, they wouldn't allow her to start kindergarten until she turns 5, but she is clearly ready to start and has already leared a lot of those beginning subjects. We don't know how long we will home school our kids (we certainly aren't planning on going through high school, but maybe through elementary school, we'll see), but we think we'll at least try them the first couple of years at home before we decide when to put them in a more formal setting.

We enjoyed a brief visit from Colleen's folks for a day as they passed through on their way home from Kansas, and are EAGERLY looking forward to a full week up at their place in two weeks (not that we are counting down the days or anything). It will be fair week (a huge deal in their small town). They'll have rides, games, animals, tractors (for Titus!) and good food, plus Colleen's folks' big blueberry patch will be at its peak, so we will load up on those little blue goodies, of which our kids love, and which are good for them! Titus especially loves them, and we envision him wanting to stay up in the patch and eat all day if we let him. Blueberries everywhere!! Colleen's brother and his family will be up for part of that week as well, so that will be fun. Unfortunately her sister's family from Kansas won't be able to make it, but we sure are excited to head up there. It will be the first summer up there for fair week and blueberry week in 3 summers. It's the sort of event that we try to do every year, but the past couple of Augusts we just haven't been able to make it up for.

The magic birthday card

The McCready's (Joel, Shana, and Keegan) sent quite the birthday card (along with a gift, but who really needs a gift with a card like this?!). Not knowing it played music, I wasn't ready with the camera for his initial reaction, but here is a snipet of a little how it went, except with more excitement:

Some birthday pictures

Titus lining up some of the many cars he received.

Titus smiling in front of the fire engine he received from Papa and Nana

Some cars from the Boyles

Think someone enjoyed his cake?

A road-work cake

Birthday balloons with Katelyn

Enjoying the birthday cake batter beaters

More enjoyment!

Birthday videos of Titus

We celebrated Titus' birthday a day early. Saturdays are much easier on our schedules than Sundays, so we did his 2nd birthday today. Here are a few videos. He loved his cake so much that he thought it was one of his toys, and he began to complain quite vehemently when Colleen attempted to cut it up. He just wanted to play in it and drive the cars all over it. Then, when the cake was taken back into the kitchen, it became quite the traumatic moment, complete with big tears and wailing cries. But he quickly got over it.

A few pictures...

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately. We just haven't taken very many lately. Seems things are a bit busier around the house these days. And videos have been even more sparse. But here's at least a few to tide you over.

Lydia's one month now...

Hard to believe. The days are long, but they sure move by quickly ("the days are long, but the years are short" is a saying I've heard that seems quite true). Lydia is a month old now and it seems she just was born. She had her 1 month checkup yesterday and she is doing well. She is up to 10lbs, which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight, and she's in the 60th percentile for length at 21.5 inches.

So she is doing well, although she has become a bit of a colicky baby. Katelyn was that way as well. It doesn't happen every night, but more often than not she has a crying spell for about an hour in the evening, and boy, does she have some lung power. I don't remember Katelyn being so loud when she was colicky, but Lydia flat just screams sometimes. We often wonder if the neighbors are being kept up by her! Katelyn's colicky period lasted about 3 month, so we hope in another month or two, this phase will pass also (hopefully sooner) for Lydia.

She's still pretty consistent in her sleeping. Most of the time she is about 3 hours in between feedings. Occasionally she'll just make it two hours. So she hasn't started to stetch out too much yet, but that will come in time too.

Titus has become quite the affectionate brother with his little sister. He loves to hold her (his holding consists of us laying Lydia on his lap, with pillows supporting her, while he holds his hands behind his back and stares at her with a big smile). He showers her with lots of kisses and hugs, and though he tends to be a little over exuberant in those hugs and kisses, they are very well meant.

And Katelyn of course is a wonderful big sister. She holds Lydia on her own. She still isn't too comfortable yet when she begins to cry, and she's quick to call for help when she starts to fuss, but she's become quite the helper around the home, keeping an extra set of eyes out for things that need done and brothers that need kept off of bookcases, dressers, etc.

We have enjoyed having some of Colleen's family (her father and her brother's family) in town tonight as they pass through on their way to a family reunion in Michigan. We would have liked to attend this reunion also, but decided against it with Lydia so young. We went to the park tonight and it was a beautiful evening. Almost felt a bit cool once the sun went behind the trees. We've been blessed recently with some very nice weather, a little on the cool side for June/July. Tomorrow it is supposed to get into the mid to upper 80s, but most of the days recently have been in the mid to upper 70s. So the kids had fun tonight playing in the park and having a little Sonic food for our picnic at the park. Sonic is a favorite of ours, especially now that they have their dollar menu.