Wordless Wednesday: Princess K of the Milky Way?

Grief: prayer request

What a day.
I've been surrounded by bad/sad news the past few days. Add that to the knot of tension that I already had in my stomach about going back to work and leaving my baby, well, you can imagine the headache I have tonight. I have that "tight" feeling in my chest, like I want to cry but can't.

My friend Emilie, well, she struggled to get PG with Daniel, her beautiful son who just turned 1 years old. Her blog has been listed on my side for as long as I've had a blog. Her and her husband just found out they are expecting. After years of infertility and dealing with insemination to get PG with Daniel, this one was a "oops", we did it. Emilie also found out yesterday that she has a tumor the size of a cantaloupe inside her body. Cancer. Malignant. I can't imagine the pain she is going through. If you could, please send Emilie and Stephen and Daniel your prayers? I just don't even know what to say, other than I'm praying for something good to come out of this.

Today, at work, I was calling my students' parents, to let them know who I am, and to have them bring their students into work next week, to meet me and see their classroom and acclimate somewhat to the new environment. When I called one family, whom I had met last Spring because we assessed this child and he qualified for service, I was so excited to call them. I was excited because they are two of the most wonderful parents we've come across in many years dealing with families. The father - when he knew I was PG last Spring, he carried my testing bag to the car for me. Who does that? He cried tears of relief when we had our assessment summary meeting, letting them know we would provide service for his son. His mother is beautiful and was so appreciative. I was excited to call them, to let them know I am back and I get to work with their son in my class this Fall.
The mother answered, crying. She lost her husband on Friday. He died in his sleep. There is no reason as of yet as to WHY he passed away, but he just did. This wonderful man, this wonderful, respectful, fantastic person, who was a gem of a father, is dead. The mother said she works overnights, and she spoke with him at 1AM and he was going to bed. She came home at 7 AM and he was dead. The son, my student, he is angry. He is unable to understand WHY this is going on and WHAT is going on. He is telling people awful things about what his mommy did to his daddy (he doesn't know). Needless to say, this is an awful thing to happen to a family, so please, could you send little David's family more prayers.
Thank you. And hug your loved ones.

busy bees

We are here and alive.
Mommy has been VERY busy at work, unpacking boxes and organizing the desk and trying to put together a classroom, meanwhile the paperwork is untouched as of yet.
Keifer is doing well at daycare - she is so -so in the mood department but getting better.
I still am sick to my stomach and am starting to wonder if its 1) nerves? 2) maybe I"m fighting a bug? or 3) maybe something gallbladder related? My friend Leanne (OT) at work did some Reiki on me today - to try and "open" up my chest and stomach, where all my stress is. She could "feel" something in my gallbladder area and when she pushed on where it is, it gave me some slight pain. So now I"m wondering if that is something I need to be thinking about. Plus, she said I am still hormonal (she could sense) and I had 'something on my mind". Yep, I have the whole "I want to stay home with my baby" on my mind. I have her on my mind 99% of the day.
*sigh*
I have some great pictures from the weekend to post on here - of Keif with her Papa and Nana Marge, and a great new cousins picture, but will do that tomorrow or the next day. I need to eat and try to UNWIND after a crazy day.
Hugs to you.

She did it! She rolled over!

Here I go....

...almost over, Tizoo, here I come....
... and I flipped. Whew.

YAY!
After fretting about Keifer's lack of rolling over skills (or "skillz" as we like to say on our mommy message board), she threw me a bone and did it for me yesterday afternoon! She rolled! Our big girl (which was partly why I was worried she wouldn't roll) rolled from her back, to her left side, then onto her stomach. Then, being the first time she ever rolled, she shocked me and flipped BACK onto her back again. Just like that *snaps fingers*. I was estastic! I was whooping and hollering and screaming for joy - which got her ALL giggly and smiley for mommy. Well, OK, I wasn't screaming, but I was very animated and clearly excited. LOL. Then, she did it again, and I managed to catch it on camera (pictures). Of course, when I turned on the video part of our camera, then she was already on her stomach and was stuck, and couldn't repeat the flip back onto her back -- poor girl was pooped out. But she managed to smile nicely for us and give us lots of squeals - I honestly think she was proud of herself!
You GO, girl! Work it, Keifer Lynn!! Now we're off to babyproof the house (already!). Oye. Where did my little, tiny baby girl go?

Here is the dropshot of our girl with her rolling! (the Blogger upload was over 2 hours and still not uploaded, so I gave up!)

The Coughing Cowboy sound

Here is a pic of our girl today - covering her ears in her sleep, after the fur kids' barking bothered her. LOL. Notice her stylin' baby legs? We love them!

You'll recall I just wrote about Keifer's latest sound, the "cough" sound she is making, on a daily basis at this point. I'll hear her in her crib in the morning when she wakes up (after a blessed 12 hour sleep period, hallelujah), and when I go in to get her up, she'll smile and me and start "coughing" that back -of-the-throat sound at me. I wonder if it's because her name is "Keifer" and she hears that "K" sound all the time? *random thought there*.

Anyhoo, I work with speech clinicians at my job - as I am an Early Childhood Special Education teacher, and I work with a LOT of kids that have speech/language issues. After working with them for so many years, I start to sound like them to other people sometime, when I talk about speech development. I asked my friend/co-worker, Mary (hi, Mary!), if this was a "guttural" sound, and she said, yep, I was right. She then reminded me that our other friend/co-worker, Rozanne, would call this the "cowboy" sound in her speech/articulation phonology group. I laughed and emailed Rozanne the news, that my little Keifer, at 4 1/2 months old, is making the wonderful "cowboy" sound, and she wrote back. I giggled my butt off reading her reply, and just had to share it with you (thanks, Roz!).

I'm so happy that Keifer has her cowboy sound as it will be a very important sound for her. I would hate for her to say her name was "Teefer" or that you were "Terry"or her daddy was "Tris" or that her last name was _______. Nice work on stimulating the sound. Be
careful or you'll be a speechie soon!

Is anybody out there? (echo?)

Just curious about who has been reading our updates.

If you can, give us a shout out.

It's nice to know who is loving our girl as much as us (or not!)

*and this AM, after writing this last night, I am such a dork, but when I read "Is anybody out there?", (Allison, you'll love this),I immediately think of the Justin Timberlake song, "Losing My Way", although my life is certainly much better now than the song. Hee hee* But hey, Keif and I saw JT with Allison and Christian in HER belly, so I'm a huge JT fan. And he is on HBO in concert on September 3. Ya'll think I might wanna tape that? *tongue in cheek* For Keifer, of course!

Return to Reality: First day of Daycare

*insert crying face here*

It was Keifer's first day of in-home daycare today. Mommy was a mess. Well, I held it together quite well, considering I hardly slept last night. CJ and I got up this AM, to the sounds of our angel girl talking to herself in her crib - she had miraculously slept 12 hours, around the clock, and was happy to be awake. I dressed her and fed her some bottle, and we packed up for our first trip to daycare.

Lovin' on my girl before we leave for Daycare

We dropped her off with Elaine, and we knew she was in great hands, and she'd be OK.

Of course, that didn't stop the tears from flowing as soon as I pulled out of the driveway and drove back home. *sigh*. But I pulled myself together, and I came home and napped for 2 hours (and proceeded to have nightmares, LOL).

I went into work around noon (unpaid, mind you) and sweated my arse off while unpacking boxes (they moved us back to our old school, but our stuff is all in boxes). I picked up Keifer at 3:45, and was so excited to see my girl, only to have her not give me her typical happy-go-lucky smile. *sad face*. She apparently had a fussy morning, and didn't really want to eat or sleep for Elaine, but she had a better afternoon. It was fun to see the other kids in her daycare, and the best was the 6 year old girl telling me her and her friend played house, and Keifer and the 1 year old, Gracie, were their "babies". Keif will be getting lots of love on her there, which is nice. CJ and I also like that Elaine focuses on manners and respect within her daycare -when I was there, the kids had to request to be excused from the table (even at snack time): "may I be excused?". We really like that, as we want Keifer to grow up learning to respect her elders and the people she's around. Plus, Elaine has been doing daycare for 30 years, and I have faith she knows alot more about infant care than I do!

Keif came home and practiced her side skillz - she still hasn't rolled either way (front to back, back to front) but we'll get there!

We have tomorrow off, and I'm taking her into our school's pancake breakfast (served by our new Principal), to show off my girl to the staff I'll be working with. Of course, I already have her outfit picked out *hee hee*. Then, my dreaded "return to work full-time" officially begins on Monday. To say I am sad about this is an understatement, but I know that Keifer will be fine in daycare, and I also know that I'm doing a job that is serving children and families, and I love doing it. It is stressful much of the time, but I'm learning now to not take that stress back into my home. Now that I have Keifer (and CJ and the fur kids) its a lot easier to drop things at the door and come home, eager to love on my family and just enjoy them, every day.

Treble loves his girl, too. Or maybe he loves something she spit up? LOL

He also loves her dirty burp cloth (yes, he dragged this over with his bone!)

Four Month Check -Up

Keifer had her 4 month check up today and both her AND mommy left the office in tears, as baby was NOT a happy camper from her shots. *sigh*.

She is OK now; we came home and she played on the blanket for awhile, after squealing with delight in her swing (watching the birdies go around). She chugged down 8 ounces , fussed for a bit, and is sleeping soundly. Hopefully this will be true all night, as she has had a hard couple days -due to unexplained fussiness.

The Pediatrician checked her out and declared all was well and sounded great with our monkey. She is definitely a BAB (big ass baby), though. Holy cow:

Her height: 26 3/4 inches -- 100%

Her weight: 17. 10 pounds -- 100%

Her head: 17 inches -- 94%

WHOA! No wonder our girl is quickly filling out and almost out-growing her 9 month clothes, easing her way into 12 month outfits. Mommy is having a heck of a time trying to outfit her in this unseasonably cool weather we've been having! LOL.
Oh, and our girl has a new sound: it somewhat sounds like a cough, its at the back of her throat, and I finally caught it on video! Enjoy!

Here she is Pre-Doctor (and shots) visit:

and after, chillin' on her blanket with Sassy Sager.

Update to "Why did we name her Keifer?" post

A few weeks back, you'll recall, I wrote to the Jacquelyn Mitchard, the author of "A Theory of Relativity", because that is the book I found the name "Keefer" in.

Jackie Mitchard wrote back to me, and surprise of all surprise, she offered me copies of that particular book, signed to Keifer, as well as the collection of the children's books she has written.

They arrived last week! You would've thought we had been visited by the author herself, I was so damn excited! LOL. She is wonderful! She personally signed each book on the inside "to Kiefer", (yes, spelled the backwards way, but who cares! LOL). And best of all, she generously sent a hardcover copy of "A Theory of Relativity", signed "To Kiefer, a real keeper"; this will go in Keifer's book collection, along with the others, and she'll know the story of what a keeper she is in due time.

*sigh*
How cool is this?

On the road again......

Our pretty girl, getting loved on by one of her Papas. Notice her shirt: it says "I love my Papa" , and yes, it means "I love daddy" in Spanish, but we thought it was cute for her "Papas".

Yes, we're still alive.

We've been out of town for most of this past week - well, Keifer, the fur kids and me have been. We did our last summer visit to my parents and squeezed in visits and got many visits from our friends and family, as we're unsure as to when we'll be able to head back up there, now that I go back to work *grimace at the thought of working again*.

Keifer, the fur kids, and I , we drove up on Monday morning last week, and only had one pit stop - for a bottle and some fur kids bathroom action. Keifer usually does OK on car trips, but this time she was not a happy camper on the way up there. So we had our stop and she did OK once we got to Papa and Nana's house

First, we visited my Grandma, so Keifer's Great-Grandma, and then my aunt and uncle. We discussed my cousin's wedding in Charleston in October -(which I'll be attending, but CJ is staying home with the kids). I'm very excited to go, as I've been to Charleston once before, when my friend Katie went to college there. It's so beautiful and it'll be a nice mini-vacation to go on (although I'll miss my girl and family terribly!). That night, my Auntie Barb came over, and we all went out to eat - where Keifer had a mini-meltdown and had to be put to sleep in her sling by mama.

Playing with Nana & Great-Auntie Barb - showing off my new Babylegs (in the cow print) from Nana! Thanks, Nana!

What? I'm crabby and you put me on a table?

The next day, after Keifer got some good naps in, we visited my friend Julie, and her girl, Holland. You'll remember Holland from my previous posts, she is a big fan of baby Keifer, and boy, she had lots to share and tell me at their house.

When we arrived home from their house, Aubrie was waiting with baited breath for baby "Keeser" to come home. Aubrie is Keifer's number one fan, and I've honestly never in my life seen a 2 year old as IN LOVE with a baby as she is. She is constantly showering Keifer with kisses and giving her things, and talking to her. It's amazing to watch in action. Keifer is starting to swipe her hands at Aubrie's hair when it tickles her face (upon receiving kisses) so it was fun to watch them interact and giggle at each other.

Here's the new bucket head, Aubrie!

Cousins, sweet cousins

My friend Taryn brought her 2 year old, Ethan, over that night, and what a hoot he and Aubrie were together in my parent's basement, playing with a pop-up Sesame Street tent. They had fun running around and Ethan enjoyed getting MANY open mouth kisses from Sassy Sager. *gross, huh? LOL*.

The next day, my good friend from high school, Alicia, brought her two beautiful boys up to meet our Keifer girl, and we took a walk. Sorin (age 3, and Keifer's birthday buddy), and Talen (age 11 months), were so much fun! It made me cherish the fact that Keifer is still not mobile, as they are a handful when they are on the go. We had a fun mini-walk, with Sorin helpfully holding the stroller, and then playing in our basement again.

Talen, Sorin, and Keifer: New friends

That night was my mom's birthday, and we joined my brother, Auntie Barb, cousin Becky and Aubrie for dinner out. Aubrie was as attentive as ever to Keifer, and Keifer finally got a little lap time with her Uncle Darren (my brother). He has rarely seen her, so it was good to have him visit his one and only niece.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

It's OK, Keif, he's your Uncle!

Not for a few more years, silly girl!

The next morning, we did a quick visit to my other grandma and grandpa's assisted living home, where they were just being served lunch. Needless to say, Keifer was a HUGE hit with all of the elderly folks there, and my mom got a kick out of walking around and showing our big girl off. My grandparents are very proud of their great-grandchildren. Then it was time for Keifer, the fur kids and I to hit the road, and come back home to our daddy CJ, who was missing his family something fierce.

The rest of our week was a blur, as I honestly can't recall what we've been doing (nothing crazy, obviously!). We spent the past few days grocery shopping, hitting IKEA and Babies R Us, and Sam's Club, and feeling bad for the fur kids, as it has been downpour raining all weekend and they hate going outside in the rain. Who can blame them? It's cold and wet. Yuck.

The countdown to me returning to work is one week officially. However, I'll be bringing Keifer to her first full day of daycare this coming Thursday, as I go in and start to unpack my boxes of classroom items (we were moved from a different site back to our remodeled rooms this year).

Tomorrow is Keifer' s 4 month checkup with our Pediatrician, so I'll be sure to post how big our monkey girl is getting!

Fun times with Family Friends

Yesterday, we spent the whole day up in Sartell, visiting first, my ECSE friends and their families for lunch, then our family friends for dinner. We never knew just how close my friend Kris lived to my family's friend, Bryant, and his wife, Sara and their kids. What a fun day!

Keifer made the rounds. First, we had a great lunch at Kris's house and hung out with all the kids, while the guys discussed fantasy football, golf, and who knows what else that was sports related. Keifer unfortunately had a melt down (we think a tummy ache) for about an hour, so we missed out on some good chat time, but she was better and in good spirits so we could do our photo shoot of our kids. Unfortunately, our fourth pal, Louise, and her family were missing, but we hopefully will see them soon (*no mention of how we gave her crap for not being there, LOL*)

The kids: Natalie, Anna, Allison, Keif, & Jerry (poor only boy!)

and the moms w/kids

Anna checks out Keif's car seat & likes it

Then, it was only 5 minutes up the road to Bryant and Sara's home, where we were greeted with enthusiasm by 3 year old, Cameron, and we got to meet Coooper, almost 7 months, for the first time. What a fun time and the sweetest boys ever! Thanks to Bry, for grilling us some awesome Kabobs out in the god-awful humid weather. We loved laughing at the babies, and sharing stories. Again, hopefully we'll see them soon. I was kidding with Keifer, asking her which brother will she have a crush on in the future? *smiles*

Laughing at this funny 3 year old, Cameron

Cooper wakes up and spies a baby in his house

Going in for cuddles

Cam says, "Cheese!"

Is he cute or what? Babies hangin' out

Happy 4 months, Keifer (part 2)

Hey! So glad you could come and see me! It's my 1/3 birthday! I'm 4 months today! I think I'll eat my dress: yum!
Kickin' back.....

Chillin' out after a hot day in the stroller The funny animal that licks a lot is with meWhat ARE these big, furry things?

Keifer's Firsts: (and happy 4 months, part 1)

Happy 4 months today, Keifer! We'll have our annual "photo shoot" tonight when daddy gets home, but until then, let's show off some of her "firsts".

If you go to dropshots, click here, you'll see some of her firsts: in her jumper -she is learning what to do in this, in her green stroller (Daddy's stroller), her first time at the County Fair, and one of her first belly laughs. *You'll have to scroll down to see each separate video clip. You'll also see her cousins, Abby and Mason, at the fair*

Mason, Abby & Keif, who would rather eat Mr. Whoozit

Mason & his ice cream moustache

In my jumper, trying to figure this thing outMy first babysitter, Tammy, (who watched me while mommy hit the gym in an attempt to shed the weight I helped her gain!)

I love to chew & suck my fingers

And here's good ol' Tboy, going to sleep on my play mat *what a sweetie, huh?*