Khyah-Kins

My friend suggested I put more Khyah on my blog, and I thought "Great suggestion!" So here we are.

There is not a lot to say about her, per se. She tends to do the same things day-in and day-out: eat, sleep,

cry (though she has pretty good reason here---Brandt is putting a diaper on her head. It's clean, though!),

spit up,

poop, . . . well, you get the picture. She does, however, throw in a few well-timed smiles and coos to keep us all a captive audience.

London gets mad if I'm trying to rush us off someplace, and he's not done admiring her: "Mom, Wait! I want to look at her!"

I gave her a bath in the big bathtub for the first time and she loved it! I let her float in the water (holding her head up, of course, lest any looks of horror have crossed your faces), and she just grinned and grinned. She loved it. I felt bad ending her first swimming session so quickly.

Unfortunately, since her first round of vaccinations, her sleep habits have gotten worse, but how do you complain when she looks up at you with those big, blue, tear-filled eyes, and then throws a smile at you? You can't.

She has recently discovered the joys of hanging toys. She's always surprised when she bumps one with her hand, but she stares in fascination and smiles wide when you shake them . . . especially if they make noise.

And we have long-since learned that Khyah is going to be a social butterfly like her brothers. She wants to be where the action is. Even if she's in a bouncer, or on the floor . . . that doesn't matter. As long as there are people around.

As I've said before, Khyah is a charmer. And boy do we love her!

Musings on a hectic life

This week has been a doozy. Rick has had two days of call (i.e. two 30-hour work days), and no days off. Brandt and Khyah have been sick with colds (i.e. uber-crabby in Brandt's case, and waking up every 2 hours in Khyah's), so we haven't been able to get out and do much. Then, to add to the chaos, I received a mountain-load of work (i.e. a HUGE blessing, but blessings aren't always easy, are they?).

And while I have been so sorely tempted to go hide in the bathroom and cry (or scream at the top of my lungs) more than once, all my wanna-be complaints were put into perspective when the 14-month old son of a family from church was scalded in the bathtub this week (3rd degree burns over 60% of his body), and shipped off to a distant hospital to undergo several surgeries over the course of the next few months.

Suddenly all my "overwhelming" challenges didn't seem quite as hard as I thought they were. So in that light, I wanted to give my top ten things I love about my life this week.

10. Brandt singing "slippery fish" whenever he hears the word "fish."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTQZhPL3qtI

9. Sugar-free fudgsicles.

8. Khyah-smiles. She's a little charmer.

7. Boys dancing to music in the living room.
6. London and Brandt showing me how they can dive off the diving board (i.e. couch) and do flips and twists just like they saw on TV.
5. London finding a large strawberry, and telling me to hurry and get the camera (he knows that pictures of him eating strawberries are worth something!).

4. Khyah getting a clean bill of health at her well-check this week. (And being told that she is an "exceptionally well-proportioned baby").
3. Daddy leading the kids in a silly face-making contest.
2. Big hugs from my boys and London telling me: "You're the best mama."
1. Rick surprising us at the pool (even though we had left specifically so he could get some sleep).

Not a bad life.

A Day at the Beach

Let's go to the beach! We'd been told it took 3.5 hours to get there, which sounded like a reasonable day-trip.

No one mentioned traffic.

We left at 9:30 am and arrived at 3:30 pm. We seriously considered turning around before we got there. But in the end, we're glad we didn't. We have two future beach bums on our hands.

On the boardwalk . . . [let song filter through your head]

First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The boys had a great time burying daddy. Did daddy mind? As London would say, 'Are you kidding me?' It was his idea.

Rick and I had a great time, too.

Khyah even seemed to love it.

London and Brandt tried so hard to make a sand castle. London brought bucketfuls of "gravity" from the surf just for the job.

London loved sitting in the water, and letting the waves throw him back.

Brandt didn't like going in very far, but found the moving water fascinating. Usually he would run back when a wave hit, with a big grin on his face.