PSA: If you are looking for a rescue doggie to love.......

A friend of mine emailed me this Information: I thought I would pass it on, since I am a huge advocate for rescuing puppers! As you know, our 2 puppers are rescues and they are the sweetest things to us on earth!





Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha , Wisconsin will be closing on December 31, 2009. 900 Greyhounds will need to be adopted otherwise they will be euthanized, now is a great time to consider adopting a Greyhound. They are very loving and laid back. They don't need the space people think they need. They are great for an active family because they have been crated almost all their lives and they sleep about 18 out of the 24 hours a day. They are just looking for someone to love them and supply them with a warm bed!!!! They test the dogs to see if they are cat friendly and or small dog friendly. They also know if a dog should be a single dog or if they would be great in a 2, 3, or 4 dog house!!! Please help me get the word out; we only have 6 weeks to get this task done.





Joanne KehoeOperations Director


Phone: 312-559-0887 --- or --- Dairyland Race Track Adoption Center direct at (262) 612-8256

Wordless Wednesday: All dressed up and nowhere to go?

Keifer, our Keifer. You so enjoyed putting on Nana Margie's fancy shoes last month when we visited them. I think the click-clack of heels is the most appealing sound to any little girl I know. :)

Snoozing

This was on Sunday morning, around 9:45 AM. Our girl was watching a video on her Ipod and passed out cold, complete with snores. And for the icing on the cake, you'll be able to hear Kyla burping off camera. Hee hee. Daylights savings can do that to a girl!
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Park Day

Last weekend, we were blessed in MN (in NOVEMBER!) to have temperatures in the high 50's, and actually break into the low '60's! Wow! Because we typically are housebound by the cold by this point, we took advantage of the extra time in the outdoors, and took Keifer girl to the park near our house 2 days in a row! Oh my, how this girl loves the park. She talks about going to the park all.the.time, and we hear squeals of delight when we see the park within our visual radar.
Saturday, Daddy took K1 to the park (alone): they walked and K1 ran to her heart's content in the wonderful Fall weather.
On Sunday, Mama and Kyla accompanied Daddy and K1 to the park, and after that, we hit the (very) nearby grosh (aka grocery store) and then we had dinner at our beloved Teresa's. Keifer thought it was the best day, ever, in her little life, as she told me that night before bed, "Mama, we have fun today!". *(bless her heart)*.

Here she is, just a swinging. The girl loves to swing. She could swing for an hour straight!

Kyla girl hung out in Mama's Hot sling: she was content to just sit in there, taking in all the sights and sounds, and chewing on her tiny fingers. Of course, the minute the camera was pushed in her face, she lit up with smiles. Pose much, Kyla Whitney?

*man, she is cute*

Keifer going down the super duper steep slide! Ahhhh!
Daddy's turn!

She just finished climbing the ladder all by herselfI like this point of view of my angel girl #1

Chasing Daddy! He's the coolest daddy around! If there was sound with this, it would be Keifer shrieking with laughter!

My new fave picture of my guy and my K1

Intensely working on climbing the "web" (we call this climbing thing a spider's web!)

Ta-da! She made it to the top (with a little help from Daddy)

A VERY Belated 5 month post: here's Miss Lovely

Hey, mama! I love the camera!

I'm turning out to be just as big of a ham as my Keifer sissy was!

Hmmm....I like to look at the animals on my walls...they are so fun to chat to!

And, look what socks Keifer is wearing in HER 5 month picture: the same ones I had on Kyla for hers! Sissies! Socks! Cuties!

You can also see the tiny resemblence my moon-faced girls have to each other: you can really see it sometimes, and other days, Kyla just looks like, well: KYLA!

So I realize that I'm a slacker lately. Like, the hugest slacker ever- poor Kyla. We do all her "monthly" pictures way later than we should. Granted, she's still 5 months old, but next week she'll be on her way to 6 months, and what kind of mama double spots monthly pictures? Hmm. I feel bad.

Well, this girl is the sunshine of our lives right now. All of us in the Soupy household are charmed by this happy baby, who smiles every time she makes eye contact with you. She is beginning to show signs of adoration for her big sissy- as she cranes her neck in hopes of putting Keifer onto her visual radar every time she hears big sissy's voice. Keifer loves to kiss and hug her and dance to music in front of her. Kyla enjoys joining us for dinner on the table in her Bumbo chair, where she eyes us up when we eat. The puppies are a source of amusement for her, too, and Sage is continuing to thank us for these delicious babies to lick up after.

Kyla has been spitty the past couple weeks. Not sure why: just spitty. The drool factory has begun and she is starting to also CHOMP on the nipple of the bottle, as well as her fingers all the time, so we think that teething might be sooner than later.

We haven't started feeding her oatmeal/rice cereal yet, as she had to work on her sucking skills in order to fully drink her bottles. We are hoping that there won't be any oral motor issues with feeding her, but we're also expecting that there might be some (the whole suck, swallow, reflex thing). If there are, the sweet OT that we worked with told me to call her, and we'll just bring miss Kyla back in for more therapy if need be!

Kyla doesn't have as much hair as big sissy did at this age; however, the peachy fuzz is so soft and mama loves to rub her chin on it. It's lighter in color than K1's was at this age, and I think that the girl is destined to be as fair skinned as her mama (yay!). Keifer is fair, but she tans up really brown like her daddy once her skin is in the sunlight. I think Kyla and mommy will be the sunburn girls (hopefully not, with all the sunscreen we load up on, but still....).

This girl has that one dimple that transforms the twinkle in her eye into one of devilish delight. We once thought she might be a tich quieter than K1 was at this age: now we know this isn't true. Kyla loves to coo and babble to anyone she can, and she appears to enjoy talking to men more so. She loves Papa Joel (Elaine's hubby) and he likes to call her "Gabby". Hee hee. She has the most ticklish neck,and whenever we change her, she still giggles and belly laughs, which makes changing times so sweet. She also really likes to take baths, and I can't wait until she can fully sit up on her own and we can break out the ducky tub for her to kick and splash in to her delight.

Books continue to be a big source of enjoyment for both Keifer and now Kyla. I am so relieved and excited that she appears to enjoy books as much as Mama and Keifer. It means lots of fun activities and learning in the future!

Kyla is a pretty consistent sleeper, usually going down for the night between 6 and 7 PM and maybe getting up once a night for a bottle. On the better nights, she sleeps til about 5:30, which we are so happy for. She now shares a room with sissy,and although Keifer is one of the loudest 2 year olds in our town, (ha), it doesn't appear to faze Kyla. She sleeps through Keifer's bedtime routine, which we are so thankful for. And, we might have a thumb sucker on our hands. The girl loves to suck her fingers, and we know she's tired once she puts her fingers to her mouth and we hear that tell-tale sucking sound. She also is beginning to curl up in her sleep on her left side. It's really so sweet to watch her sleep. Aren't babies so beautiful? We sure think ours is!

Wordless Wednesday: Strollin' on a Sunday afternoon......

*pssst, notice anyone looking back at Daddy?*

Just because .....she's so beautiful

*Sigh* Keifer, our Keifer. How cherished you are. We love you so much. When did you grow out of the baby/toddler stage and into this big girl look that you have lately? Your body is thinning out, your hair is finally thickening (you've always had lots of hair, but finally it's getting thick enough to start growing). Your eyes of blue are always twinkling with curiosity (or drama!) and you love to talk to anyone and everyone, all.the.time. It's so hard to believe that I had you 2 1/2 years ago. My, how the time has gone my in a blink of an eye. Now, you're a big sister, and an excellent one at that. But don't think I don't notice how you revert into baby talk when you are introduced to strangers initially, or how you cower behind mama when somebody you don't know asks you a question, or how you try to claim "you can't do it" right after we've seen you do it, just because the baby can't. You are still my baby, too: a baby in a growing girls body! XXOO

Nasty bed head

It never fails ~ Keifer wakes up every day with that spot- the exact same spot EVERY DAY ~ in a complete bed head mess. On the flip side, isn't the color of her hair just gorgeous (man if I could bottle it and use it!)

Sassafras goes to School

Yep, Monday night here, and me and my Keifer Lynn are attending an Early Childhood "Art Adventures" class tonight, via the school district I work in. It's 4 Monday nights; from ages 30 months and up. Our Keifer girl is going to be 31 months tomorrow, so she fits the bill for this. Plus, she has been loving any and all type of fine motor activities we throw her way, and is dying for peer interactions. She visited my school 2 x this Fall so far, and is always begging me to take her to my work ("I go to school with you, Mama? Please?"), so she should be pretty pumped up.
Her 2 year old buddy Brandt at daycare is only part-time, but the days he is there she arrives with squeals of delight at the play opportunities, and last week I got to witness her and B. running around the yard, playing chase and giggling to their heart's delight. So much fun to watch. I am just as excited to be on the parent side of the class tonight, too. The teachers are co-workers of mine with whom I used to team teach with last year. It'll be interesting to be on the other side of the fence, within the classroom I taught in last year! I'm so excited! I just hope my sassy girl doesn't decide to try and take charge of anything. I'm sure she will! Ha!

We're going to meet Daddy at Elaine's, all go to dinner, and then he is taking Kyla girl home while Mommy and K1 have quality "school time". YAY!

Oh, squeaky puppy of mine

Of course, Kyla was belly laughing away until I grabbed the camera. She giggles here very cutely,but know that it was full-on belly laughs previously, when she first saw squeaky puppy. We were all belly laughing along with her. Sweet girl. This is how we enjoyed our dinner Friday night :)
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Anyone need a spotter?

Because everyone should have a safety spotter (and oh -so-cute in her Elmo Panties....)......right? I'll tell you, this girl was very worried about Daddy up high on this ladder.

"Daddy, be careful!" she kept saying.

And can you see the tape measure? The one Mama has been using to measure her inches lately?) It's suddenly a favorite toy around these parts. It gets drug around from post to pillar in this house, and it also makes a very useful circle on the ground for jumping into! :)

Don't You Cry For Me!

Precocious, much? This girl is Broadway bound......
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Trick or Treat!

Whew. Where to begin. Halloween WEEKEND was a blur of fun around here. Nana and Papa came down (Dale & Di) and we enjoyed a dinner out Friday night. Nana brought Kyla a new pumpkin hat and we paired it with a bib I found in the $1 bin at Target! Perfect! I called this our "Cute Little Pumpkin" dressed in as a "firework". LOL. She is seriously the sweetest, best little baby ever - honestly! It's all Papa Dale could say all weekend!

Saturday AM rolled around, and Mama, Daddy and Papa took K1 to the zoo- where there was a "HallZOOween " fun time to be had. Too bad the weather wasn't so cooperative- it was about 35 degrees and a blistering wind was blowing. We all bundled up, expecting to be outside trick or treating with the animals, but alas, the events were all INSIDE. Mama didn't really need those long undies on, now did she? *sweaty*.

Here is a picture of Keifer the day we bought her frog costume. She was SO excited to put it on and model it for us and show Kyla!

Of course, once we got to the zoo, Keifer adamantly refused to put her froggy costume on (of course), so she trekked around, from treat table to treat table, taking in the sights and sounds of all the kids and adults in costume, as well as checking out her favorite animals (that'll be another post). I'll just say the girl LOVES sharks. She pooped out after we did a little outdoor exploring (a great time to visit the Grizzly bears is when everyone is inside collecting treats!). We got home, ate lunch, and fought with our K1 to nap for over an hour. The girl was PUMPED for trick or treating-it's all she could talk about!

Here she is showing off one of the few tattoos she got from the Zoo- they didn't give out candy: instead, it was fun little Halloween themed toys, color books, and finger puppets. Fun stuff.

After the whole house napped (yep, everyone in the house napped!), we got up and I dressed Kyla in her mini-Froggy costume to be photographed alongside big sister Frog. She loved it. Ahh, I remember the days when Keifer would wear a costume and smile so broadly as well! Keifer refused to put on her hood: the froggy head! We weren't about to fight with her, so we posed our Froggy sisters, and Keifer doted on her baby sissy, Kyla. She loved that she was a frog just like her!

One happy baby!

The Frog sisters!

Keifer even helped show me that Kyla's feet said "ribbit, ribbit'! Aww!
Soon, we had our first batch of neighbor kids at the door-a whole flock of the young ones. We recognized an acquaintance and her girls, and Keifer was thrilled to see all the kids in costume. We were in the midst of leaving, and as we did, she ran out the door, desperate to catch up to "her friends" (as she called them). We caught up with them a block later, and joined their rag-tag group of parents and kids. We taught Keifer that we only go up to the houses that had their lights on. She quickly learned that, and was SO damn adorable.

She would gasp excitedly: *GASP* "Mama, the lights, the lights" - and then take off jogging to the house. She would approach the doors, make various comments about the "jack-o-lanters" (not pumpkins, jack -o-lanterns! LOL), and then quickly scurry down the driveway, eager for the next house.
CJ and I could not contain our laughter. It was like someone had stuck a quarter in the girl. She was so hilarious- all jacked up but yet SWEET about it all. She was very polite and reserved when she requested "trick or treat" and thanked everyone. She even wished a few people "happy Halloween" after she heard other kids do the same thing. At one house, she even tried to go inside to play! LOL. She was so fun, it really warmed our hearts to be with her outside, while Papa and Nana manned our front door and took care of putting Kyla down to bed.

*knock knock knock*

This morning, the girls had fun playing with the witch's hat that I had also found at Target in the $1 bin. Don't you love our baby witch here? Soooo scary, right?

One adorable little witch eating her breakfast

Here's a video clip of Keifer running down the sidewalk to catch up with "her friends" so she could trick or treat. Here are a few more we took- nothing crazy, as it was dark and we were more focused on enjoying our girl.....Enjoy!

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The monster mask?

Sunday of this past weekend, I started getting a really bad headache and had a slight temperature of 99.6. I was nervous that the flu was going to hit me, so I laid down to take a nap and ended up sleeping the entire afternoon away. Monday, I still felt a bit off, but went to work, did my job, and took Keifer to our Ballroom class. That night, as I was feeding Kyla at around 1AM, I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit. I laid down Kyla (luckily she was done with her bottle!) and made it to the bathroom in time to be sick. What? This had hit me out of nowhere, so of course I was nervous that the Swine flu had hit me. Luckily I didn't have a temperature, but I did stay home from work Tuesday, and ended up staying home Wednesday to recover my body as well.

This was me feeding Kyla on Tuesday night. We didn't want our girls to get exposed to any germs that Mama had, even though I'm sure they were already exposed! Keifer really didn't comment on what I was wearing, and Kyla looked at me sort of oddly at first, but then it was happy smiles as usual. I guess a mommy in a mask isn't that uncommon for them! Ha!
I felt it was very appropriate to be wearing the mask a few days before Halloween, right?

Cutest Little Witch & her sissy

Who IS this big girl? Man, my heart just about stopped when I saw these pictures after I took them. Keifer is looking so much more like a "little girl" vs. a toddler! I wish I could slow down time!

Showing off one of her Oscar the Grouch socks that she picked out herself to wear
Showing off both socks! And what post wouldn't be complete without a picture of our angel girl #2? Kyla enjoying a chew on her toy

Little Ballroom Dancer

Our dancer girl is improving her ballroom dancing skills. She loves to pretend to be on the show, and has some pretty dramatic moves. Swinging her hair, doing some drops, rolling around: it's all in the dance routines for her!
This is part 2 of this session right here, and here is her doing some of the jitterbug the other night. She was really doing more jittering but we didn't get too much of it on video! Enjoy!



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Wordless Wednesday: Hey Mister, she's my lovey sister!!!

Exer-saucin' with Kyla

After taking down our Pack & Play (Finally) out of our living room last week, we took out the 'Saucer we had gotten off of Craigslist a few months ago. Kyla really enjoys it at Elaine's house and I know Keifer really loved being in one when she was younger. Kyla was thrilled to be put in this one. She actually giggled really loud and continuously UNTIL: I got the camera out (but of course!). You still get the idea that she was quite thrilled to be in it. And Keifer Lynn, big sissy of the house, she was really digging cleaning the thing off with Mama. I was done,but Keifer insisted on wiping that thing down so NO more germs were on there. Hee hee. I hope she is this clean the rest of her days in my house!
Here is the follow-up clip to this one. I like that Treble is in the background, happy as can be that all his girls are home :)




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Little hands at work

Here is K1 doing some "work" that I brought home from my school. She loves to do any type of fine motor "art" projects at Elaine's house, and I've started bringing home the things I do at work with my kids I teach. She really loves these Do-A-Dot Markers- I encouraged her to "hop hop hop" them for fear of pushing too hard, which didn't matter anyways (as you'll see). I am such a teacher: of course, I was watching her fine motor sequencing: the fact that she is picking it up, twisting the cap off, properly positioning the marker in her hand upside down, and the right siding it up, and twisting the cap on. That is HUGE for a 2 year old to do - it involves multi-steps of motor planning, and I am so proud of my little budding artist. Yeah yeah, be quiet, Mama! :)

Keifer also loves to fill up little notebooks FULL of her name. She really is writing her name- she has gone through quite a few note pads in the past week, and the pen she is holding in this clip here, she has to have THIS pen or writing just isn't the same (apparently). Enjoy.

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Good oral hygiene & chatting with Kyla

A quick clip - many more to be added - from our trip last weekend to visit CJ's parents up North. Keifer was being very good about her oral health, (hee hee), and Kyla was busy entertaining her grandparents with plenty of chatting.
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Cute little ghost

In honor of Halloween approaching, I wanted to share a few simple books that my classes and Keifer have been enjoying. I use these to work on vocabulary, as well as talk about feelings ("is ghost happy or sad?") and labeling. Ghost Eats it All is an adorable, simple book about a ghost gorging on food and the Frankenstein monster is watching and getting hungry (based on visual cues of this). The monster then scares the ghost, who drops all the food, and then monster eats the food all up. Sounds kinda gross, huh? Well, it's really cute and my kids and Keifer love it! There are a few other Ghost books and they too, are simple, cute, bright and fun!

Keifer also adores Where is Baby's Pumpkin, an adorable life-the-flap book that helps search for baby's pumpkin. I also have a few other Baby books (where is her birthday cake, where is her Easter eggs, baby uses the potty, etc.) and they are also very fun for labeling, working on question forms, and generating language. Of course, the element of surprise when she lifts the flap is also fun!

Five Little Pumpkins is a popular finger play that all kids love, and we love this book at our house. Raffi sings this song on one of his CD's which can add a fun audio element to this. We LOVE this Boo Who book, too- it was so amazing to CJ and I last Fall when Keifer was able to find the skeleton, thanks to this book!

Ahhh, how I love to share books that we love! Enjoy!

A Tuesday Tidbit

Baby legs aren't just for babies....as you can see, proudly displayed by the model Keifer Lynn. Oh, was this girl PROUD to be wearing leg warmers under her jumper (borrowed from cousin Aubrie). And no, I was no paid by baby legs to endorse these- this was all on my own! And don't her legs look SOOOO long suddenly? *sigh* My 2 year old is getting so big *sniff*