Guess Who Is Walking?!

Run, kitties, run!!!! Ian is on the move!!! It's still faster and easier to crawl, but Ian is taking a few steps (when he doesn't think about it)! Way to go, munchkin!!!!

New Favorite Saying

"Life is drawing, without an eraser."

Kieren

(Photo of Kieren during our trip to Lancaster, PA. I was just washing her feet off when she decided it would be more fun to sit in the sink. Of course she was dressed at the time! Since she never took a bath in a sink before, why not! Man! That was a big sink!!!)
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Kieren is amazing! We are starting to see actual progress with her speech. It's slow, but we are finally moving forward. I'm the Mean Mommy. I won't pick Kieren up unless she says "up". I make her say "sorry" (schwahwee) when she does something wrong. I am the "enforcer". I am making this child talk if it kills me!!! Really, it's not that bad. Just a lot of repetition is required. And a lot of patience. We will get through this, but it's going to take a LONG time.
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Kieren is finally growing her vocabulary. Yesterday she started saying "please" when she wants something (or I tell her she has to). It is so stinkin' funny!!! She takes a big breath, pats her tummy with both hands (don't ask me! I have no idea why she does this!!!), and says in a very long, drawn-out, high squealing voice "pppplllllllllleeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzz". OMG!!! We laugh every time! Today, Kieren walked over to the disaster area that used to be her nice neat book area, stomped on a book, and yelled "book". We haven't worked on that word yet! Yay, new word!!! Boo, stomping on book!!! Well, we'll work on destruction of property later. Another shocker happened on Saturday morning. Kieren-the-climber was standing on a bar stool in the middle of the kitchen while I was cooking. (Yeah, I know...) I went to step into the family room when Kieren started squeaking "help! help! help!" in that funny high voice! She wanted help getting off the stool. Wow!!! We couldn't believe it! She's asked for help a couple of times this weekend. It's such a relief seeing some progress.
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Some of Kieren's favorite words:
"bad Bob" - always directed at my Mom's cat, Bob. Yes, Bob is a bad kitty most of the time!
"no" - yeah. Always a favorite of any two-year-old.
"hi"
"bye-bye"
"see ya" - when waving good-bye.
"love you"
"night" - for good night.
"dee" - for her stuffed duck.
"duck"
"Cullen" - Kieren's favorite person.
"EEEN" - for Ian.
"Go!" - usually directed at my Mom when Pops is around. She doesn't want my Mom, only my Dad.
"Nanny" - hmmm...usually yelling for my Mom when Pops isn't around.
"Pops" - yelling for my Dad, in hopes that he will take her for a motorcycle ride.
"Dah-Ye" - Kieren's version of Daddy.
"Mama" - Hey! At least I'm finally hearing it again!
"kitty" - usually she just says "meow", but she will say kitty.
"dog-dog" - most of the time she just says "arf".
"bah" - her sippy cup of milk.
Animal sounds: moo, arf, bock-bock-bock, baaa-baaa, clip-clop sound with tongue (for a horse), cheep-cheep, quack, meow, snorting sound through nose (for pig), and growling for bears, tigers, and monsters.
And Kieren's favorite all-time word: "SHOES!!!!" - Aunt Heather's influence!
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Kieren has speech therapy again this Tuesday. I wonder what she will do next?!

Harry The Cat

The big fat orange kitty is Harry. He is the oldest and most laid-back of all my children. (He still out-weighs Kieren!) On July 4th, we noticed Harry was leaving blood wherever he walked or layed. So we rolled the beast over and discovered he had cut open the pad on his foot. YUCK!!! Being a holiday, we were NOT going to go the emergency vet and spend $500 to have him seen and bandaged. So we gave him a patriotic cast made of, what else, duct tape!!! Click here for the photos and post.


You can tell from the photo that Harry is the most mellow of all patients. (Note that he is smiling!) He lays quietly on the changing table every day while we clean his foot and change his bandage. The foot was healing really well so we took the cast off and kept an eye on him. Then Harry decided he wanted to lick and chew on the foot until we were back to square one! UGH!!! So we keep the foot clean and wrapped. (Poor Heather had to come over and change bandages for us while we were in Lancaster!!! Thanks, Heather!!! I'm glad you didn't put your back out lifting the beast!)

The foot is looking a lot better. He is healing, but being an old and probably diabetic kitty, it takes time. (The moisture in the photo is hydrogen peroxide. We just cleaned and massaged the paw and pad. The dark edge at the pad/hairline is where he cut the pad open.)

Harry - all bandaged and ready to play. If you ever have to bandage an animal and need them to leave the wrapping along, there is a wonderful product you can get from the vet called Bandguard!!!! It looks like diaper cream, but dries quickly. We can't smell it, but I'm not sure if the animals can. Harry won't touch the stuff!!! Just do not use it on the animal's fur or skin. Not sure why, but that's what it says.

Close-up. We usually cover the bandage with one of Kieren's old socks to keep the cat litter out, but we ran out of old socks. This is a piece of fabric with Chinese characters all over it! Too funny!!! I wonder what it says?

Silly Sunday

Mmmm...Cake...

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you're not super cutting edge, you're high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Well DUH!!!! Of course I'm a chocolate cake!!!! You mean there are other types of cakes? Not in my little world! Okay. So let's hear it. What kind of cake are you?

Working on The Climbing Wall

The kids have wanted a climbing wall on the tree house for a while now. Since we are frugal (broke!), we are recycling wood from an old shed Andy tore down. It's a family act. Even Kieren was put to work pulling and pounding old nails.

Hammering takes lots of concentration.

Maybe Kieren should've concentrated a bit more!!!! This is the actual photo of Kieren hitting Cullen's hand. We did NOT stage this!!!! Some days it pays to be on this side of the camera!! (Cullen was not injured. Kieren only taps the hammer on things.) Kieren's apology ("Schwahwee!") is posted two post ago.

A Girl & Her Hammer

Kieren and her hammer ready for action!
"Let's work on this tree house! We NEED that climbing wall!"

"See. This is a real hammer."

"MWAHAHAHA!!!! My foolish parents gave me a REAL hammer to play with!!!!!!!"

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing! Well, most of the time anyway."

Cute Moment...

Kieren accidentally hit Cullen's hand with the hammer tonight. Oops!!!! She did tell him "sorry" and gave him a kiss!

CHERRIES!!!!

Driving Home From Lancaster

Okay, these are the last of the vacation photos that I will bore you with for now! I didn't post the photos of Cullen with the trains in Strasburg or the cute photos of Kieren's impromptu sink-bath or Cullen and Kieren playing. I will post them at a later date. I need to move the blog forward now.

I'm tired from posting all of these vacation photos! Why did I post them all? This blog is for the kids to have later in life. It's not for me or you (no offense!), but a journal for them. I want them to read through and remember.

I really hadn't planned to do so many slide shows, but Blogger won't let me post photos most of the time. So here is the slide show of what I saw on the drive home. We drove through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. It was all beautiful!

Sunday - Hershey's Chocolate World & Home

Sunday in PA started with a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. Most of the families meandered in and had a lazy meal. It was great! We then hauled butt back to our room and finished loading the car. We were packed, loaded, and waiting by 9:30am!!! (Man, we are good!) We joined the JC caravan for Hershey that was waiting out front and followed April (Lauren's amazing Mommy) to Chocolate World. It was a pretty drive and we really enjoyed the scenery. Parking was a snap for some reason and I'm grateful for that!

Let me state now that Kieren and I don't do crowds. I can feel my nerves tighten and I get so frustrated and tense (okay, short-tempered!). Kieren shuts-down in crowds. I always have to carry her and she doesn't like all the people and noise. She has always been this way. (In China, it was MUCH worse!!!!) We had lost a couple of families from our group so we ended up standing in the middle of the main hall and waiting. It wasn't a huge deal, but the crowds... Anyway, once we were all together, we headed into the factory tour. This is actually a ride like you would find at any nice amusement park. Trying to keep our group together and keep Cullen in sight was a challenge. He ended up riding with another family with a daughter his age. To get to the ride you have to go up a big ramp that winds around in a dark hallway decorated like a rainforest. This didn't help the nerves any. Then you end up going down one of the narrow and steep staircases to a rotating platform (while carrying a velcro-toddler). The "cars" actually have two rows of bench seats. The back sits higher than the front. Ginny, Hock, and Grace sat in front of Andy, Kieren and me. The ride was really cute and lots of fun, but Kieren wasn't too crazy about it. She didn't freak or anything, but she never relaxed.

After the "tour", you have to climb back up the steep, narrow steps and they try to sell you a photo of your car that they took during the last minutes of your ride. Sounds like Kings Island or Disney, huh? Then you get FREE CHOCOLATE! Next you are dumped into the shopping area. Hmmm... Sounds like they planned it this way! Our group did the last photos together and said our good-byes. We then went shopping. No, we didn't buy much. The kids each got a momento, we bought candy for the house/pet sitters, and a cute little stuffed kiss for Ian. We were kinda "done" with the whole vacation-thing at this point and just wanted to head home.

We really enjoyed our time in Pennsylvania. We met some wonderful friends! I plan on going back again to visit and to see the places we just didn't have time to go. My biggest disappointment of the trip??? I never got a real Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Major bummer! Now I HAVE to go back!



Hershey's Chocolate World factory tour & the aftermath - I mean photos!

*sigh* We are headed home! Kieren was very content in the car. She had her slave - I mean brother - and lots of movies and toys to entertain her. She even took a 2.5 hour nap!!!!

Who is this teenager in my car?!?!?!?! Kieren was napping so Cullen was watching "his" movies while playing Gameboy games. When did he grow up? I think I need a tissue...

I think this says it all!

Why-Is-It Wednesday

No, I didn't forget! I've been B-U-S-Y!!!! YIKES!!! So, here we go:

• Why is it vacations are so exhausting? I thought the idea was to relax!
• Why is it my dog turns into a beast the minute we leave town? He ATE the baby gate at my folks, peed repeatedly on my Mom's bedroom carpet, whined and yipped all night. Normally, he is a lump. Even when we take him to my folks house with us.
• Why is it I can't get caught up on the laundry?
• Why is it I suddenly get swamped with work now when I've needed it for the past 4 weeks to afford our vacation?
• Why is it I'm the only one who can hear the dog scratching the door to go out?

Anyone want to chime in here today? Let's hear your "why is it" questions!

Saturday Night Pool Party

Saturday Morning at Dutch Wonderland

Empress Kieren On Vacation

New Nora Roberts mystery/romance...cup full of chips...ice cold can of Diet Pepsi...new Amish doll...TV remote...mountain of fluffy pillows...soft clean bedding...big comfy bed...and Shrek on the TV! Vacations just don't get any better than this! (Please note extended pinkie finger!) BTW, Kieren did all of this herself except for putting the book on her lap!

Friday Night Concert In The Park

Oh! More photos from our JiangCheng Girl Reunion!!!! This will complete Thursday and Friday!

After dinner on Friday, we walked down to a park. There was a free concert so we listened while the girls played. As you can see the girls were always in motion! Not easy to get 6 wild girls to pose at once!!!! From the left: Zoe, Kieren, Lauren, Grace, and Maizie. Not sure what happened to Stephanie. Lili Ann's family wasn't there yet and Abby's family was still on the road. (Photo by Cullen)

Yeah. It's like herding cats! Too funny!!!! (Photo by Cullen)

Adorable Grace. She is so sweet!!!

Spunky Zoe (on right of course). She has more personality stuffed in that little body than is conceivable! Not sure who that other kid is. She wasn't with our group.