Lots of company

Birthday visit from Grandad.

Kyle using his water backpack for the first time (and he now likes to take it everywhere with us)!

Reading books with Grammy on our front porch.

Here are just a few pictures I took off the camera last night, however, I have some really cute ones from the zoo today that I want to share with you soon too! We have had lots of visits from Kevin's mom and dad this month, which Kyle has been loving, in addition to my mom's monthly weekend trips, Kyle has seen a lot of grandparents!

Kyle was sick this weekend, totally out of the blue he came down with a fever and was out of commission for a few days. This was a total bummer for Kevin and me, as we were planning on heading to Mexico for a family wedding!

It seems we may have found a non binky option for Kyle to chew on to help him settle in for his sleepy times. We bought a chewy tube yesterday from a local talk/speech therapy clinic in town. We had warned him that the night before last was his last night with binky, as it had a tear in the nipple and was no longer safe to use. Kyle used his chewy tube most of yesterday and then fell right to sleep chewing on it last night. He had no problem using it to get back to sleep when rousing throughout the night either. This is a huge relief for me. Kyle has never attached to any other sort of lovey or sleep comfort item, so to find something that doesn't seem to have the side effects or social stigma of a binky, but still allows him to chew and relax himself is awesome (and cry free!). I think this would only work if your child was a binky biter; Kyle liked to chew on his, more than suck on them, as he got older.

In other news, we were supposed to have our first home visit this morning to get foster/adoption stuff moving along, but our contact had an emergency at another family's home, so we rescheduled for Thursday at 10:30, if you think to pray for that, we'd so appreciate it.

Well, quiet time is almost over, which means I've gotta go!

Is it Fall yet?

Every year, right after Kyle's birthday, all of these things start up: school for Kevin, fall recreation classes for Kyle, and Bible study for me. I feel soooo busy! This year we started something new too: preschool (at home for now).

Kyle and I read a little Bible, some Mother Goose, and sound out/trace the letter of the week while we eat breakfast. Later on during the day we listen to some classical music (Bach this month) and folksongs. Math consists of counting or measuring whatever we need to throughout the day (Kyle, can you count your fingers for me? 12! and your toes? 17!). And we sometimes throw in some art. Additionally, the bulk of our preschool time is spent playing outside for hours and hours and hours, now that it's not so blistering hot here in Tucson.

In order to assist us on our outdoor ventures, Kevin graciously has listened to me bemoan the fact that we don't have a bike trailer and must drive even short distances to have some outside fun. However, just this weekend, we were blessed to find a top of the line trailer on craigslist (Burley Solo) and the family was more than happy to trade it straight for our double jogging stroller (turns out they had twins, but grandpa had bought the single kid bike trailer before they were even pregnant). Yippee! So, Kyle and I have been using the bike trailer every other day for our errands and activities (my legs need at least one day in between to recover).

Which brings me to another topic, not so happy, but yes, WE ONLY NEED A SINGLE CHILD BIKE TRAILER. Looks like our TTC days are over, at least for now. We need to wait and see what kind of fancy job Kevin gets next year and what our health insurance will look like before we commit to producing any summer babies. More exciting is that I can now register for the Tour de Tucson and a couple of 5K races I've been wanting to run!

So what about Kyle? Well, he's doing great! His feet are growing like weeds, literally, he put on a pair of size 9.5 shoes in July when we moved to the new house and now he's a 10. I had thought he wouldn't be in the 9.5's until December (Anyone know of any good shoe sales?!?). At his 3 year old check up appt, he was 33 lbs and 38 1/2 inches tall. Finally, the doctor and I were both thrilled to see he broke the 50th percentile for weight....for the first time in his entire life! It is true, Kyle is eating a lot more different foods, although I don't know that he eats a lot more that he used to (it all just used to be Cheerios). He did receive a shot and didn't even cry, just flinched; and I did equally as well, not having another adult there in case I fainted! See the archives for that story.

Kyle is growing up to be a great encourager (You can do it mommy! Come on, give it a try!). My favorite was after he followed Kevin in to the bathroom and told him "Good job daddy!" after Kevin peed (we've been trying to teach Kyle to stand up to pee, which he does, but only on the trees at the park).

I must go wake Kyle up....he still takes naps! Have a great weekend!