Maybe I need to start a little earlier than this morning. This year, Kayleigh has learned about Santa, and the gifts that he brings. We were with friends the other night and decorated cookies for him. Last night, she wanted to put out all of the cookies except for one, which she wanted to try and make sure it tasted okay. :) She also wanted to go to bed about 6:30 last night so he would come and deliver her presents. We did get her to go to sleep and she didn't get up until almost 8 this morning. Too bad Brian was up before 7! She was so excited to see that Santa ate the cookies she left out for him and that he left some presents for her. I made muffins this morning, and Kayleigh got up right when I took them out of the oven. Obviously she didn't want to wait to open presents, so we let the muffins cool while we tore open our gifts. And by "our", I mean "their". We did make Kayleigh wait her turn between gifts, so it wouldn't go by too quickly. One thing she wanted was a new sound machine like what Brian has in his room, and she started screaming in delight when she opened it. She also got a scooter from Nana, and a Leapfrog Tag from my parents, along with Tag books from Valerie and Matt. Brian got a dump truck from Nana, smaller toys and some puzzles from us. After presents, we ate and then the kids played with some of their new stuff. Jenna called a little while later and said they were getting ready to go outside. Jack also got a scooter, so he and Kayleigh got to play with them and then run off some of their energy. It's been a good day so far. I need to stop blogging and go make homemade macaroni and cheese to take to Christmas dinner. YUM!
A little over a month ago, Erik and I (mostly me since I do the laundry) were getting fed up with Kayleigh having accidents at nap time. She has a door from her bedroom to the bathroom, and Erik and I had both told her that it would be fine if she went in there. After being completely fed up with it, Erik and I came up with a treat chart for her. We told Kayleigh that for each week she went without an accident, she could get a small treat. At the end of 4 weeks, she could have a big party. Kayleigh wanted to name the chart "Kayleigh's ACCIDENT treat chart". I heard her say "Kayleigh's EXCELLENT treat chart". Oops! Anyway, for her treats, we made cookies, cupcakes, got ice cream, and then the big party was a smoothie/movie party.
After grocery shopping on Monday, I was trying to put everything away, and Brian thought he found the coolest new seat, ever! It took awhile for me to get him to move. I think I pulled him away by bribing him with food. Works every time!
Kayleigh has said she wants two things from Santa. One, a Dora pillow like her cousin, Taylor and two, a sound machine like Brian has. Santa came a little early in the form of Jenna, and Kayleigh got the first thing on her list. Jenna had the fabric already, and even though she had other plans for it, she changed to make Kayleigh's day. She gave it to Kayleigh yesterday, and Kayleigh was so excited to get it on her bed last night! Jenna also made another pillowcase dress and a small, travel pillow. As soon as it warms up again, I have big plans to get Kayleigh in the dress. It's super cute!
Okay, this last thing is hard to explain, but some of you will get it, and others will have to wait until you see Brian again to truly understand. When I was little and would get mad, Mom always said the worst thing I could do to someone is breathe really hard at them. Brian does the same breathing thing, but he just does it randomly, mostly when he's being silly. This picture is to show what he looks like when he does it. It cracks me up!
I decided to do a Gingerbread House with Kayleigh this year after Jenna and Jack made their own. I figured if they could do it, so could we! Kayleigh called it a "Gingerbread Man House", and we just went with it. We bought the kit today and made the house tonight. You can tell that I'm no architect, especially since the house didn't stand up long. Even before we finished, the roof was sliding off the side! It was okay, though, because Kayleigh couldn't wait to dig in. As you can see from the pictures, we enjoyed our Gingerbread Man House a lot! YUM!
Sunday night was the Christmas party for Erik's work. This is the kids party where Santa comes and gives the kids a gift and goodie bucket. They also get to go in all of the bounce houses and be crazy for awhile. After the party, we went to a local park to see their Christmas lights. Kayleigh is really getting into Christmas this year, so that's fun. We're trying to remind her that we also need to remember Jesus' birthday, and the real reason we celebrate Christmas.
Yesterday morning, our church had "Breakfast in Bethlehem" for the little ones. Kayleigh remembers it from seeing pictures of last year and was excited to go back. We had a good breakfast, and then let the kids do some crafts and take pictures at the manger scene. One of Kayleigh's friends was there, and she was dressing up as a shepherd, so that's what Kayleigh wanted to be, too. Then, she wanted to hold baby Jesus (that's a big desire of hers right now), so Shirley got the idea of saying Kayleigh was Mary instead of a shepherd. It's amazing how much more Brian is walking from even a week ago. He wanted to get down on the ground and be with the big kids. He can walk across the room and even turn corners or turn around if he needs to. I'm very excited because 1.) he's heavy and 2.) that means he'll be able to start going to Mother's Morning Out with Kayleigh very soon. Tonight we are going to a Christmas party for Erik's work. This is the kids party, so we'll get to see Santa and play. Kayleigh talks about Santa, and even knows a couple of things that she wants for Christmas this year, but I'm not sure that she'll talk to him when she sees him in person. I'll get pictures of that posted later this week.
After two months of waiting, we finally got to go to Mobile to meet Caroline. Kayleigh loves holding babies, and she couldn't wait to hold her cousin. Unfortunately, when we got there, Caroline was sleeping, so Kayleigh had to wait awhile to get to hold her. Luckily, she had Taylor to play with and keep her mind off of it. Taylor and Kayleigh get along really well, and it's fun watching them run around together. On Saturday, we went to Bass Pro Shops to meet Santa and do some crafts, plus walk around a little bit. We had to get a "Meet Santa" pass, and the earliest one we could have gotten was for 3:00. That's right in the middle of nap time, not to mention it was only noon when we were there, and there was no way we were waiting 3 hours to meet the big guy, not knowing how the girls would react when they got up close and personal. After Bass, we decided to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Yum! Brian was poopy, and when I went to change him he'd had a blow out. OH NO! Luckily, we were in Alabama, so we walked out of the bathroom with Brian in no clothes and our heads held high like we were from there. I don't think anyone looked twice! We had to leave after dinner Saturday night. It was a quicker trip than we would have liked, but everything was so nice!
I went to wake Brian up from his nap this morning because I'm afraid he won't take another one again this afternoon. This is what he looked like when I went up to his room. I quietly backed out and ran downstairs for the camera, crossing my fingers that he wouldn't move or wake up while I was gone. He didn't, and he even stayed asleep for a little while after I took the picture.
We took the kids outside to play today after being cooped up for a couple of days with a stomach bug that's going around. Erik was home today, so I grabbed my camera to take pictures of what was going on. I love taking pictures of Brian since he is still pretty still outside and I can just click away. He doesn'tlike to crawl around in the grass, so he is easy to keep track of. Kayleigh wanted to kick her soccer ball around for a little while and then once Erik started raking leaves, she wanted to jump in his piles. I got some fun shots of her jumping. Thankfully, we were able to get the piles cleaned up right as it started to rain. The rain came at the perfect time, because the kids needed to get inside for naps.
FINALLY! Brian has been pulling up like crazy and will walk all around a room while holding on to something, but yesterday he finally let go. It happened yesterday afternoon while we were in the living room playing. Brian was holding on to something and then let go to take the couple of steps he would need to get to Erik on the couch. Kayleigh wasn't watching, so she got scared when I screamed for joy. I immediately grabbed her so I could tell her why I yelled. Brian has done it quite a few times since then. I have hoped that he would be walking by January so I can start him at Mother's Morning Out with Kayleigh. She goes once a week, and I would love to have those few hours to myself, rather than figure out what I can do with Brian in tow.
Brian has also started saying the word "no" lately, even though it doesn't usually apply to what we're talking about. I think it's hilarious and will try to get him to say it. I know, I know, that's going to come back to haunt me, but for now I get a good laugh out of it. He's not too clear in his words in either video, but they're cute, and he's making some cute faces, so I thought I would go ahead and post them.
Here are a couple of videos of the kids playing last night. The one game of hide and seek was rowdier before I got the camera out. I don't know why it got so much quieter once I came around!
The video of Brian walking is proof that he can do it, but won't do it on his own. Erik and I have been working with him this week, standing him up and then letting him go. Sometimes he'll stand for a couple of seconds before tipping over. When we were outside playing today, Brian was standing up for longer periods, and even took a drink while standing! Jenna was there as a witness!
We went on a play date with some friends today since she had the day off. Last month we were supposed to get together to take the kids to the park, but Valerie went into labor and I had to cancel the plans at the last minute. Today was beautiful, so naturally we were not the only ones with the great idea to go to the park. Thankfully all of the big kids were well behaved and we didn't have any problems. I always get nervous when I see a lot of older kids at the playground because they don't look out for the little ones. The kids had fun running around (those who could!) and Brian hung out and watched from his perch. I was able to get him to slide down a little slide a few times and get him on a swing, but for the most part, Kayleigh was running from place to place too quickly for him to get to sit somewhere and play. Just another reason for him to start walking, I guess. Speaking of walking, my mom asked me this earlier, and I guess others may have the same question. Brian will pull up and cruise around using a walker, or walk along something, so he's on his way to walking, but he doesn't want to let go even to take a teeny tiny step from one thing to another. This week, Erik and I have started standing him up more and then letting go. He can stand for a couple of seconds before he crumbles to the ground. I know everyone says that they regret wanting their kids to walk, but come one! Brian is 13 months old and he weighs 27 pounds! You lug him around for a day and see if you're not begging for him to walk! :) Anyway, here are just a couple of pictures from our day:
Kayleigh had some pretty good stories yesterday. They all cracked me up, even the one she told after getting hurt. Here you go:
Story #1: We were at WalMart and Kayleigh let me give her a kiss on the lips. I guess I shocked her, although I didn't feel it, and she said, "You just poked a hole in my lip!" Sorry!
Story #2: We were outside playing, and Kayleigh wanted to play golf. She has some very interesting rules to her golf game. Here's how it went: One person (either her or me) had to sit on the bricks at the end of the driveway, and the other person had to be across from that person in the grass to hit the ball. The rule was that you had to say, "Ready, set, go" and then hit the golf ball as far as you could. If you hit the ball far enough (which we always did) you got a home run and had to run around the yard. After that, it was your turn to sit in the bricks and "watch tv". I'm not sure what sport Erik has taught her, but it surely wasn't me!
Story #3: Kayleigh was sliding off of our bed and went to get something for Erik behind his night stand. I'm not sure how she did it, but somehow she hurt her thigh and her head. Yes, that was the sad part, but it was sweet when she said, "I never want to do that again!"
We went to Jacksonville so the rest of the family could meet Robbie. I'll say that I'm not sure Brian was aware of him most of the time, and was content to do his own thing. Kayleigh, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get her hands on the baby! You will see a picture in the slide show with Kayleigh's head thrown back telling Aunt Val how excited she was to get to see Robbie. (Look for the picture that says, "story" on it. That's the one I'm talking about. And I'm not sure how Matt got stuck holding Brian's cup!) We got pictures of the kids together Saturday night after Kayleigh and Brian's bath. I don't know why, but Brian decided to initiate Robbie into the family by smacking him in the face. I hope his other cousins are more kind! We mostly hung out at the house while we were there, which is what I expected. Erik and I took the kids to Target Saturday morning because Kayleigh was complaining of a stomach ache. When we were in the car, she said she felt better, so we didn't get any medicine, but we got some other cute things. Someone brought dinner over for us on Friday night, and then Matt made his famous chicken wings Saturday night. YUM! We left around 10 on Sunday morning to make sure we got back here in time for Erik to do a long run and for the kids to play for a little while before having to take naps. It was a fun weekend and we (especially Kayleigh) can't wait for another visit.
I know that back in May, Kayleigh got a medal for finishing this race, but today she actually ran a whole race. We told her beforehand that she was allowed to run or walk, but she couldn't stop. I know we stopped once to put on her sweatshirt, I think she walked for a minute, and one time she sat down, but that was because she had seen some other girls do it. She finished the race in 17 minutes. Wow! The race was at Jack's church (Kayleigh's friend). There was a character there to cheer everyone on. I think people were calling him BB, so that's the name we'll go with. Kayleigh saw him before we started the race (he was at the starting line) and she started to freak out. She's not big on people dressed up in huge constumes like that. We thought she wasn't going to run at first. Erik had to carry her past the starting line before she would let him put her down for her to run. She did so well, and at the end of the race, we had to run through the church's parking lot to get to the finish line. Thankfully, the sun was in Kayleigh's eyes, so she couldn't see BB standing at the finish line. I was behind Kayleigh a couple of feet trying to signal to BB to get out of her line of vision. She made it until about 10 feet before the finish line before she saw him and did an about face to try to run in the opposite direction. I held her hand and got her to go past him. Later, Erik and Kayleigh talked about BB and not being afraid of him. After Erik ran the 5K, she went up to him and gave him a high five. After the two races, the church had a Fall Festival, so we went over there to play for awhile. You need to watch the video of Kayleigh going down the huge slide. Erik and I thought for sure she was going to freak out at the top, but she did great, and then wanted to go again! We were hungry from all of the excitement, so we decided to finish off the morning's fun with lunch at Chick-Fil-A. YUM!
Jenna had an idea to take the kids to a local fire station to see the trucks and talk to some firefighters. Jack is into it, so Jenna asked if I thought Kayleigh would like it as well. Kayleigh likes anything Jack does, so we were definitely up for the outing. Jenna also wanted to make a cookie cake and have the kids decorate it for the firemen as a thank you for letting us come by and for all of their work. When we got to the fire station, a lady firefighter pulled out a truck and showed the kids all of the different parts of the truck. I think most of it went right over their heads, but it was still interesting. She asked if Kayleigh and Jack wanted to climb up in the truck. Kayleigh said yes, and went running for the truck. Then she heard Jack say no, so she changed her mind. Later we were able to get Jack to get in the truck, but I think he didn't like how high it was, so didn't want to stay long. They did like getting into the volunteer fire truck. It was much smaller and less intimidating. Jack wanted to go see the ambulance, so we were able to look inside of it and she told us about all of the tools they keep in it. Kayleigh asked Jack if he wanted to get in it and started marching up to climb in. Unfortunately, they weren't allowed to get in it because the EMTs weren't there to supervise and the lady didn't want to get in trouble. At the end, the kids got Junior Firefighter stickers and coloring books. I know they had fun, and Kayleigh is already asking when we can go back.
We made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. I was frustrated because the kids didn't want to smile AND look at the camera for pictures. I think I got a couple of good ones, though. We ended up staying a little longer than we planned since we ran into some friends, and Kayleigh wanted to stay and play. Once the ponies were unloaded, we had to stay and wait in line for Kayleigh to have her chance to ride one. I don't think she wanted to ride the smallest one, but I had warned her that was a good possibility, and that was the one she ended up on. I knew once the ride started she would be fine, and of course she loved it! Some day we'll have to get her on a horse that does something other than walk around in circles. :)
Brian had his 12 month appointment today and it went well. He's 26.6 pounds, putting him at the 90th percentile for weight. I'm glad that he's gained a couple of pounds because he was 24 pounds at 6 months! He's also 31 inches tall, which is the 80th percentile for height. It looks like he's going to be tall like his Daddy! Thank goodness because I do NOT want him to be short like me! On the plus side, Briand didn't get any immunizations today. On the down side, it's because he has an ear infection. He got a cold this last weekend, and the doctor thinks that the ear infection is a result of that. He'll go back to the doctor in 3 weeks to make sure the medicine worked on his little ear, and if it's all cleared up, he'll get his shots that day. Hopefully this will be a quick fix, unlike Kayleigh who suffered from ear infections for months when she was a baby. Jenna and I took the kids to a state park to watch the Monarch butterfly migration today. We must have really worn them out because it's almost 5:00 PM and both of my kids are still asleep!!! Ahhh!!! Enjoy the quiet! :) P.S. I just checked Kayleigh's growth chart to see when she measured 31 inches. I didn't have any on that in mark, but she was 32 inches at TWO YEARS OLD!!! Brian is almost a whole year ahead of her!
Erik and I decided that we wanted to take a vacation, but not anywhere too far from home. We went to Atlanta last weekend, leaving Thursday before 2PM and returning Sunday around 6. It was the perfect amount of time to be away from home. Kayleigh loved staying in the hotel and sleeping on the pull-out couch. We stayed in a 1 bedroom suite so that Erik and I wouldn't have to go to bed at the same time as the kids, although I think we were all in bed and asleep at the same time on Saturday night! Here's a breakdown of the weekend: Thursday evening: We got to the hotel around 8, checked everything out and got the kids into bed. Not too exciting...
Friday: We took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. Both of them loved seeing the fish. The Aquarium is AMAZING, and I'm so glad we went! I'm just sorry that Brian won't remember it, because I'm sure it's going to be awhile before we make it back there again. My favorite part was the penguins. Kayleigh liked the touch pool with the sharks and stingrays. She also liked watching the scuba diver cleaning one of the tanks! I HIGHLY recommend it if anyone is debating whether or not to go. We got the kids back for naps that afternoon, and that evening just went over to the mall for some quick dinner, because Erik and I were too tired to sit for long at a restaurant. Pitiful, huh? Especially since it was really the one night we could have taken advantage of going to a restaurant that's not local.
Saturday: We weren't really sure what to do in the morning, but finally decided to go to Ikea. Who wouldn't want to spend their Saturday morning there?? My favorite buy was an egg slicer. I've wanted one for awhile, although I've never looked very hard for one. After another round of naps, we took the kids over to Stone Mountain to ride to the top of the mountain and then stay for the laser show. Brian was ready for bed, but couldn't sleep, so he didn't really enjoy it so much. Kayleigh liked the laser show, but didn't like the accompanying fireworks.
Sunday: We ate breakfast at the hotel and then packed up and got ready to leave. Before leaving Atlanta, though, we went over to Centennial Park so the kids could play for awhile and get rid of some energy before the 5 hour drive home. We had kind of decided not to let Kayleigh play in the fountains because we didn't bring any towels with us. Of course, that wouldn't do for her, and eventually we let her play in them in her clothes. She air dried on the way back to the car and we got her into some dry clothes. Erik was brave enough to go in with her, so he also had to change back at the car.
We had a wonderful time away from home, and we are excited to go on another family vacation. I think these shorter vacations are much better for us than longer ones. It's just the right amount of time to be away from home and our responsibilities. I will say that I already miss being somewhere else where people come in and clean my room, cook my meals and wash my dishes!
I realized yesterday that I can download pictures onto this computer, so I can show you pictures from the weekend.
We had family over Saturday night to celebrate Brian's birthday. Kayleigh couldn't understand why Brian got 3 birthday parties. (We celebrated in Jacksonville, had muffins on his actual birthday and then Saturday night.) I told her that she has had multiple birthday parties before, especially when she was in school. Jenna gave me the idea to do tacos for everyone, and it was a hit. Brian did quite a number on his cake, although I think he got some help finding the cake under all of the icing. He let him go at it for a few minutes before I decided I better take it away from him. Amanda helped me wipe him down, so he didn't get a bath until after the party. I realized last night that I can't post pictures yet. We are borrowing a computer from Erik's work because the screen on our laptop is broken. We're shipping it off to get fixed, but in the mean time, I can't pull up pictures from my camera because this computer won't allow you to attach USB cables. So, I hope the description will be enough for now.
It's it really possible that a whole year has gone by since I had my baby boy??? Time flies when you're having fun! Erik and I talked about leaving Brian rear facing until he's a little older, since doctors are recommending that nowadays, but his feet are already starting to touch the back of the seat, so we decided to turn his carseat around. I actually let him ride forward facing last night, because my car was in the shop, and we were trading carseats from one car to another, so I figured doing it a few hours early won't hurt...and it didn't hurt him at all! We took Kayleigh to her play date this morning, and I was telling her that the car ride was the same one she took when she first rode in the car looking forward rather than backward. Here are some changes from last month to this month: --Every time Brian is near something tall, he pulls himself up to a standing position. He still crawls everywhere, but he's working on strengthening his leg muscles so he can walk soon. --Brian will take steps while you're holding his hands, or when he's standing behind a walker. --He learned the sign for "more", and then a few days later conquered the sign for "drink". I think next week he'll be fluent in sign language! (I hope I can keep up!! :) ) --I nursed him for 364 days. Whew! I thought I would try yesterday to see how long I could go without nursing him. I thought one of us would break down and he would get some Mommy milk, but he did fine without it. The time that I worried about it the most was bedtime last night, because it's part of our routine. He did fine. I think he wanted to nurse, but I didn't let him and he went to sleep. --I know he's trying to tell us things, as he's being more and more talkative. We're practicing "Uh oh", but so far he's only gotten "uh". :) One of his favorite words is "do" like the beginning of dog. --After being in 12 month clothing for the last 6 months, he is finally needing to wear 18 month clothes. I'm glad because I'm getting tired of him wearing the same outfits all the time. I'm ready to get sick of some new outfits.
Here are Brian's months pictures from this last year:
After practicing "more" in sign language with Brian since he started eating baby cereal, Brian FINALLY signed it to me this morning. He was eating Cheerios in his high chair while I was in the kitchen getting my breakfast ready. I heard him talking (you can hear it on the video). When I turned around, he was signing "more". I was so excited because we have been practicing the sign forever, and I was afraid he was never going to sign it for me! I thought he figured he saying it with his own words was what he thought would suffice. We're now going to work on "milk"/"drink". Oh, he started drinking cows milk on Sunday. I know it's a little before his first birthday, but he's not nursing much, and he was going crazy drinking water all the time. I figured milk was better than just water.
I have been talking for a couple of weeks about Brian's hair getting long and wanting to cut it. I finally bought some clippers today, and after Erik got home from work this afternoon, we decided to do it. Brian sat really still and took it all in stride. Thank goodness! I would like to be able to clip it for awhile and not have to pay $10-$15 per hair cut! I also need to give Kayleigh's bangs a trim (since two people have said it in the last 24 hours) and Erik is ready for a hair cut as well. I should probably get mine trimmed soon, too, but I'm not ready for that yet. I think I want it to grow a little longer. The slide show wasn't letting me get the code to enter it in this post, so you'll have to click on this link to get it: Brian's first haircut
Brian likes to play Peek-a-boo, but I am never able to catch it on camera. He cooperated the other day during lunch time, so here is a cute video of him playing. Actually, most of the time he plays with his clothes, or some other cloth-type material. This may have been the first time he used his hands, now that I think about it.
Kayleigh has been taking swimming lessons for most of the summer with our friend, Emma. I decided to take the camera today to get a couple of videos of her swimming. She can swim by herself, but not very far. She hasn't gotten down how to swim parallel to the pool so she can keep herself going. Sometimes she looks like she's riding a bicycle and doesn't go anywhere. Emma is great with her, and we have appreciated all of the work that she has done with Kayleigh. We can't believe that she's even able to go a short distance on her own!
In this next video, I only caught the tail end of Kayleigh swimming on her back. I tried to get the whole thing, but I realized halfway through that I had somehow hit the record button before she started swimming, and then when she started, I turned the recording off. Thankfully, she was showing off at the end.
This last video is of Kayleigh jumping in the pool. She has one hand on her hip, and is counting to three with with the fingers on her other hand. Enjoy!
Brian had a good month this month. He is on the move, and has started pulling up every chance he gets. He also: --Eats like a grown man. I can hardly keep up with him! He practically eats full meals with us, and then I can still nurse him. --Got two more teeth this month, for a total of 8. --Sleeps like a champ. He still wakes up during the night a lot of the time, but he takes amazing naps. I don't think he'll be ready to only take one nap a day next month. --Is able to crawl over and up things. It's crazy how quickly he went from crawling just a little bit at the beginning of the month to being able to climb over our legs to get something, or get up on the bricks in front of the fireplace. --Is unlike Kayleigh and likes to get into everything. We have to keep a constant eye on him to make sure he doesn't knock over one of the dog's water bowls. That's a favorite pasttime of his.
I have been bad about blogging this past couple of weeks. I need to get myself back into it, I guess. Two weekends ago, Valerie and I took Kayleigh and Brian to visit Nick and his family. If you would like to read about the weekend, you can check out Valerie's blog or Nick's blog. It was a great weekend, and the girls got along so well. Taylor said she didn't want Kayleigh to leave. It's fun now that all of the nieces are old enough to remember each other.
After that weekend, I watched my friends' son for them while they had pre-planning at their schools. He didn't start day care until this week. We had a blast with him here, and Kayleigh said on Friday that she would miss having him at our house. While I love this little boy, it was a reminder that preschool/day care is not the age I'm suited to be around all the time. The craziest thing was when Kayleigh sat on her little car, and her friend got up behind it and started pushing her around the house!! He just turned one and Kayleigh is 3!!! Of course, Kayleigh loved it, and it's what she wanted him to do every day. The kids had a blast together, and I learned what a good helper Kayleigh is. I took her out for a special treat on Friday to thank her for all of her help that week.
Last Saturday we went down to St. Pete for Valerie's first baby shower and our niece's birthday. Valerie made out like a bandit, and I truly don't think they're going to have to spend any money on this baby!! She'll have another shower next month, and we'll head over to Jacksonville for that one as well. While we were in St. Pete, Mom and Dad had everyone over to celebrate Mia's birthday. Jonathan and Chat brought a princess cake over, and had a princess balloon for Kayleigh to bring home. I didn't bring my camera down, so I don't have any pictures to post.
Brian is moving around like crazy! We went to Story Time at the library this morning, and he was all over the place. First, he tried to steal a lady's drink that was on the floor. Then, he saw a girl eating Cheerios, and it was amazing how he just locked in on her bowl and started crawling for it! Then, he saw another kid's sippy cup in his diaper bag and tried to snag it. He also tried to climb up onto the stage (it's only a few inches off of the floor) and I think he would have succeeded if I hadn't grabbed him. This was his first Story Time he went to where he could crawl, and he was taking full advantage of his mobility.
Here is a link that the church made of the Haiti trip. http://www.vimeo.com/13979557 It was played at the beginning of the service yesterday. I know that one of the pictures shows a pile of 2 x 4s. The group said that it was what they walked up on when they got to the work sites in order to build the shelters. Luckily, the guides that were there to help knew what to do. One story that I was told (this is Lisa writing, by the way) was that there were 2 or 3 Haitians that were there to help each group. Haitian helper #1 might go about building the shelter a little differently than helper #2, and the teams had to adapt to whoever the leader was at that chosen time. Leadership might switch hands part way through the build, and the team would have to readjust their thinking according to how that leader wanted the shelter built. I know the teams were just thankful that someone knew what they were doing, and were glad to adapt their strategies.
Some of you know that I recently went on a mission trip to Haiti with a group from our church. I have been back a week now, and it's been a busy week which has been hard since my thoughts keep going back to Haiti. So I want to finally share a little bit about my trip.
Let's start from the beginning, the flight to Port Au Prince had a different feel. Almost everyone on the flight were going to help. There were at least 5 different large groups with matching colorful shirts like ours from various organizations. There were people coming to work at clinics, teach English classes, people coming to help supply clean water, and there were several soldiers coming to keep security or to work on engineering projects.
Flying in I didn't have a window seat so all I could see out the window was the beautiful landscape of the mountains and ocean. The airport has clues of the earthquake, cracks in walls and an impromptu military base on the air fields. But the amount of destruction doesn't hit you until you step outside of the airport.
I had an idea in my head of what it might be like from the pictures and news reports I had seen, but seeing it in person was a totally different experience. The destruction and living conditions for the people there are indescribable, but I will try anyways. Here are just a few pictures that our group took.
There were buildings toppled including the presidential palace, but the saddest part is all the tent cities and shelters put up wherever they can, including right next to roads or even in medians. It isn't just a few isolated areas, but the whole area. And I believe it would be a catastrophe if a hurricane were to hit there this season.
We stayed in Gressier, Haiti at the Joy House (haitijoyhouse.org). So we had an hour and a half ride in a retired Tampa school bus, even though it was only about 25 miles away. The road conditions and driving are scary.
There were 15 in our group so we divided into 3 teams and worked with pastors in their neighborhoods building Samaratan's purse shelters. They were 12'x12' wood framed shelters with tin roofs and wrapped with a tarp. No creature comforts but there is a waiting list to get them, based on need. The hillsides are dotted with the signature blue shelters. Our teams were able to build 24 in the week.
It was great working with the Haitian teams to build them and we formed some great relationships with them. The families and the neighbors in the areas often chipped in too. It was great having some opportunities to interact with the kids, because they were curious about us outsiders.
Along with building the shelters my team also cleared debris from a home site, so they could start to rebuild. The site could have probably been cleared in half a day with heavy machinery, but we did it the old fashioned way with sledge hammers, shovels, and wheelbarrows. It took us 2 and a half days with lots of help. It was definitely the hardest work we did down there.
This is long enough, so I think I will sum up the experience by saying the biggest thing I took away from the trip is how blessed we are to have homes, plenty of food, and A/C. We take so much for granted, and even complain about any little inconvenience. I was truly affected by what the people of Haiti have been through and the living conditions of so many there now. They need our prayers and our help. If you have the opportunity to contribute in any way, please do so because we have so much and they have so little.
