Everyone's fine....

I think I forgot to mention that after the tests they did on Lauren they really couldn't find anything wrong. She has been feeling fine since then, though we kept her home all day yesterday just to be sure. She missed her first day of swim lessons. Hopefully today she will be fine as well. I am thinking it was just a case of maybe not drinking enough, so we are keeping her well hydrated.

Reina has finally started really sharing with Alina. And she wants us to know it=) She will give a toy to Alina and tell me "I share Alina!" over and over. I then praise her and give her hugs and kisses which makes her really happy. It is pretty cute to watch. Yesterday I took Abbie to her yoga and swim classes while Quentin stayed home with the kids. Evidently he helped Alina to learn how to climb the slide and go down by herself. She is pretty wobbly so needs someone right there to watch and spot her. I had been reluctant to show her how to climb up because I new as soon as I did she would want to do it over and over again. Sure enough, as I am trying to get dinner ready she is climbing the slide. So I run over to spot her then run back to flip the french toast (yes, we often have breakfast for dinner=) ). I finally moved the slide into our bedroom and shut the door so I wouldn't have burnt french toast that no one would eat.

Life is never boring!

Did I ever mention that I thought that things would get back to "normal" after we finally brought Alina home and Abbie and Lauren started school? I know I have said it several times with a fond remembrance for "normal". I think I must have forgotten what "normal" actually is around here=)

I have been determined to get Reina potty trained. I was determined last week, which turned into this week, and will probably go into the next few weeks before I finally actually start trying to potty train her. Time keeps getting away from me and things happen. This last summer while the girls were in Idaho I moved Reina into a toddler bed. She has been sleeping really great in it except for waking up a few times during the night. Lauren was sharing her room with Reina, but after Reina waking her up to open the door so she could find me several times a night Lauren decided that she wanted her own room again. I don't blame her. So we moved Abbie upstairs into our "guest" room. It is now Abbie's room (and guest's when they visit=) ) and she really likes it. Lauren we moved into Abbie's space downstairs. Reina now has her own room. It was nice for about 3 nights when I could shut her door and know that she couldn't open it. I could hear her on the monitor if she woke up and needed me, but we didn't hear any little feet running into our room in the middle of the night for 3 whole nights . Then, she figured out how to open her door. Now I can't keep her in bed. I gated her in one night and she hated that. I found her asleep on her floor by the door. She had been playing in her room and must have just gotten sleepy and layed down=) So we are back to hearing the little feet at night and trying to get her to actually stay in her bed at bedtime.

Today I got a call from the school nurse at 10:30. Everyone has been really healthy so I didn't know who this was about. Lauren had passed out! Evidently she had complained of a stomach ache and headache and her teacher was taking her to the nurse. On the way there Lauren went white and slumped over. She came to right away and the nurse called me. I took her to the doctor. They did some tests but nothing seems to be wrong. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. If so, we will need to have her heart checked out too. When the nurse called I just packed the kids in the van and left. I forgot to change diapers, Reina still had her jammies on, and I probably looked a mess from rolling around on the floor with the little ones. I did run back into the house for jackets since it was pooring rain outside. The call from the nurse shook me up a bit. I couldn't imagine why a perfectly healthy 7 year old would just pass out. Lauren started to cry when I walked into the nurses office. Made me want to start too. She perked up after I gave her some gatorade in the car on the way to the doctor's. Quentin met us there and stayed for the results of the tests with Lauren while I took 2 crabby and tired toddlers home for their naps.

Alina had her 18 month checkup on Tuesday. She is 22lbs 9 oz and in the 23% for weight! When we started she wasn't even on the chart! Her iron is low so we are working on getting that up with some iron drops. I am supposed to give them to her 1 hour before or 2-3 hours after a meal. That is like impossible. She eats all day! With 4 small meals and 2-3 snacks a day, that doesn't leave me too many options. So this morning she had to wait an hour for her usual milk. She got water (recommended to take with the drops) and cheerios (crackers are okay to eat with the drops so I figured cheerios would work). She was not happy about the water instead of milk. She LOVES her milk. The vanilla carnation instant breakfast is pretty yummy. I will try to give her her next dose this evening before bed. It will be stretching it. Dinner is at 5ish and bedtime is 6:30 for her.

Tomorrow Abbie has yoga and both older girls have swim lessons. Provided Lauren doesn't pass out again. We made it through a whole week at school with everyone on the right bus, or remembering to NOT ride the bus. It helps that Abbie has a huge post it taped to her desk saying "NO BUS ON WEDNESDAY".

First Family Photo!

Our first ever family picture with all 6 of us in it! (Thanks Uncle Dan=) )

Alina actually looking at the camera=)

Everything has been going really well this last week, except for a few bus mishaps. Abbie missed her stop on Monday, but just got off at the next stop around the corner. We caught up with her pretty easily, though I wasn't really happy about the bus driver letting her off at a stop not her own. Then on Tuesday she got on the wrong bus. Lauren got off at her stop, but no Abbie. This time Lauren told the bus driver that her sister wasn't getting off, so he used the intercom to call for her. No Abbie. So we walked back home and called the school. The school called the transportation department and they supposedly checked on all their buses. No Abbie. So by now I am getting really worried and call Quentin at work to come home so he can go out and look for her. The principal and some of the teachers were going to go looking in neighborhoods too, since it appeared that Abbie got off on a stop not her own. Then I get a call saying she was on a bus all along, that the bus driver on that bus apparently didn't check. Abbie says she heard her name on the bus communication system like 4 times but the driver on the bus she was on never asked. She went and told him that she was the "missing kid" they were talking about. The principal and teachers were great through all of this and Abbie got a ride home with the principal.

Now after this you would think Abbie would be extra careful. On Wednesday I picked the girls up from school so we could take Lauren to her first dance class. No Abbie. I checked with the office and found out she forgot and got on the bus for home. I rushed Lauren to her class then headed home to get Abbie from the bus. She looked pretty relieved to see me at the bus stop since she had realized that she wasn't supposed to be on the bus.

By this time I had pretty much decided that we were just going to forget the bus and I would just pick the kids up. End of problems. Abbie had a meltdown when I told her, and declared that made her feel like a "little kiiiiiiiid!" (complete with wail). So we have discussed this and she knows that this is her last chance. Any more forgetting or not paying attention and no more bus. We talked about safety, and that her safety always comes first. That she has to be responsible for herself and make sure she is staying safe. Her comment : " I think about so many things all the time that my personal life just flies right out of my brain!" Her teacher told me that she told her pretty much the same thing but with a "I am so smart and talented that I can't remember my personal life." That sounds like Abbie-LOL!

Lauren loved her dance class on Wednesday despite the fact that I pretty much dropped her off and ran. The parents aren't supposed to stay anyway. She says she got to use her ballet shoes AND her jazz shoes. But they didn't have time for tap. She remedied that when she got home and tapped a bit in the kitchen until I told her it was time to eat.

Reina, Alina and I had a playdate on Monday. We had a friend over and the girls had a good time. Alina was very shy at first, but warmed up after a bit. While I like the snuggles she gives when she is unsure of what's going on, I will be happy when she is more sure of herself and her place in our family and no longer needs to cling to me so much.

We went to Quentin's softball game last night. I packed some snacks and water bottles and we made a picnic out of it. The girls enjoyed getting out and it was nice to just sit and enjoy even though it meant bedtime an hour later. Too often when we get into the routine of school we just don't have time for sitting and enjoying each other. The girls get home at 4:15, we unload backpacks, I fix dinner for them. After we eat they have about an hour before the little ones go to bed and then we start homework. Bedtime at 8. It is even crazier when we have after school activities.

Oh! Too cute! Reina and Alina are dancing in front of the TV with the Fresh Beat Band right now. They love that show!

That's it for now...

Changes!

I was looking at pictures from July yesterday, from when we took Alina from the baby house. She has changed so much! Good and filling meals has had a lot to do with it. She has so much energy now and is walking all the time. She still falls a lot, but she gets right back up to walk again. In another month I am betting she will be running!
16 months old.
The day after we took Alina from the baby house in Taraz. She was about 18 pounds and in a size 9 months clothing.

Almost 18 months old.

Beginning of September at about 22 pounds. She now wears a size 12 months and sometimes 18 months.

On Thursday of last week the girls and I drove to Iowa to visit with family there. On Friday we headed to Moline, IL for a cousin's wedding reception. I have to admit, I was really worried about the car ride. Alina is a long way away from liking her car seat. Thursday we had a 4 hour drive and we stopped a couple times to eat as well. She slept for maybe 15 minutes when we first got into the car and later for another 10 minutes or so. Not good. I left at naptime in the hopes that she and Reina would sleep. Reina didn't sleep much either. For the last hour Alina cried to get out. I stopped a couple times to try to calm her, but all she really wanted was out. We arrived Thursday evening at my mother-in-law's house and despite lack of sleep she was doing great! I was a bit surprised that she wasn't as clingy as I had expected. Sleep that night was difficult and I ended up with her in bed with me. Friday we made the 2 hour drive to Moline, again at naptime. This time she slept for almost an hour. We got to our hotel and she had a great time exploring=)

Sometime during our couple hours at the hotel before Quentin joined us Alina decided she was through crawling and started walking everywhere! She fell a lot but would get right back up and try again. Later, at the reception she was trying to walk all over as well and I got a video of her toddling toward me.

They had dancing at the reception and our girls were having a great time! Reina, Abbie, and Lauren were out on the dance floor for most of the night. Reina made frequent trips to the cookie table to try to grab another cookie so we had to keep our eye on her=) I found a spot out of the way of all the dancers for Alina to walk and dance. She loves music. She starts bouncing up and down and waving her arms. It is really cute. I tried to post a video of the girls dancing but all my videos are too big for blogger. I keep getting an error message.

We are back home now and settling back in. Alina has been fussy and clingy for the last 2 days, but I expected she would have some adjusting to do. I was really worried the trip would mess things up for her. She couldn't know that we would be coming back home soon, the trip only meant new changes for her and I know it made her anxious. I hope, though, that coming back home helped her to understand that this is a permanent place for her. I know we have a ways to go there. It would help so much if she were able to understand me, but of course she is still learning our language and she is only almost 18 months old. We'll just have to show her every day that this is home and we are her family=)

Just Pictures

I can walk!!

Ring Around the Rosy