Loose teeth!

Kylie has two loose teeth. Both front top ones. She's been watching a few of her friends and classmates lose teeth with eager anticipation. This week she asked me to feel her teeth and they all felt firmly attached. But this evening, she mentioned that she thought her top one was wiggly. So I felt it and it does move a little bit. While I checked that one, I checked her other top tooth as well and noticed that it was wiggly as well. How exciting!!

Oh and school pictures are on Friday. Brett wants the teeth to stay put until after the pictures, I hope she loses one before pictures, just for the cute effect. Stayed tuned for more tooth updates!

Self Portrait Project

Kylie finished her first homework assignment for Kindergarten. She needed to make a self portrait. We were encouraged to be creative! So some brainstorming, a trip to Joann's and supplies from my scrapbook area produced this:


She has a brown dress with cupcakes on it, so she wanted to use that for her dress here. And on hand has a small bandaid on it to cover up where she gets pinched (there is a little girl who has been pinching other girls in her class). And she's holding an American flag in her other hand. Kylie picked out a paper with roses on it since her middle name is Rose. And we spent a good deal of time searching through all the cross-stitch thread to find some that matched her hair perfectly. Not too bad, if I do say so myself!

"Reading is so fun!"

That's what Kylie said this evening to me. My heart soar!! Here's the story:

She has several "beginning reader" books. Books with short, commonly used words such as: the, at, we, us, I, as, can, will, and. She has never shown any interest in these books, she prefers more advanced books that I read to her.

Her school has a reading contest going to encourage kids to read and be read too. She's been coloring a cowboy hat (for the Reading Round Up program) on this paper nearly every day that we read together. Tonight she wanted to color a hat but I told her we needed to read first. I had found this beginner book when I was picking up earlier in the day and asked Kylie if she wanted to try to read this to me. It was called "Popcorn Day". She really expressed interest in reading this book to me.

So we started. Kylie worked hard at sounding out the words she didn't recognize, which were most of them. The vowels were hard for her since it would be a long or short sound and the "sh" and "th" as well as "I" were confusing for her too. She sounded out an H sound for the N's because h and n look alike. But once she would figure out a word, she remembered it. And since the book had lots of repetition, she grew more confident as she recognized the words.

I didn't want to push her so had her stop after 8 pages. But after we re-read those 8 pages, she said "Reading is so fun, let's do some more!" so we read 8 more pages. We stopped once she started getting worn out.

I gave her huge hugs as did Brett. What a special night for us, I watched her read 16 pages!! Woo-hoo for her!

Bees, butterflies and dragons - on my.


What a nice weekend we had. Brett is still busy training for his marathon, he did 19 miles with a 1 mile cool down on Saturday morning. I know he's really ready for the marathon to be done, the time he spends training is really wearing on him. On Saturday he left the house at 8:30, got home about 11:45 and had to rest, eat and shower so he wasn't ready to do anything until 1:30. I don't mind, I want him to do this marathon, but I know he's just tired and bored of the training. One more long run (20 miles on Labor Day weekend) and he'll be ready. His other runs between now and the marathon are all shorter, recovery runs.

Saturday afternoon, we drove up to the Art Museum. Brett had never been and the kids and I have one been once. Their gardens are beautiful. The Museum sits on property that was donated by the Lilly Family, as in Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals, inventor of insulin. We toured their country house, the gardens and went through a few exhibits in the museum.

Saturday evening we had our friends, Coach and Barb over for dinner. It's been a while since we've had people over so we enjoyed that time catching up with them.

Sunday was church. Our church runs 2 services, 8:15 and 11:00 with a Sunday School hour inbetween. We usually go to the 8:15 because we like being home by 11:00 to enjoy most of the rest of the day. Well, the leadership has decided to move the 8:15 service to a 9:30, keep the 11:00 service and run Sunday School during both hours. Research has shown that the most popular time to go to church is 9:30. And by running SS during both services, we can double our space and offer more classes, something we can't do at this time. I think it's a great idea and am proud of our leadership for considering "mixing things up". But our SS class that we love will be meeting at 9:30 now so afterwards we'll go to the 11:00 service. Which means, we won't be finished until 12:15 or so. That means lunch and naps and our day is done. We'll adapt but it will be different. But I won't mind being able to sleep in until 8:00 now!!

After church we went to the zoo. They have a butterfly exhibit as well as a Kimono Dragon exhibit running now, both are finished Labor Day weekend. The dragons were really cool and just plain huge. Would not want to run into one of those in the wild. The butterflies are so fun, you walk around the greenhouse and feel like you're in a tropical rainforest, flowering plants and trees all you and the butterflies just fliting all around. Kylie and I loved it but poor Matthew freaked out whenever one came near him, he thought they were going to sting him. Guess he has some fear after his bee sting this week. Actually he won't go outside much right now because he's afraid of being stung. Poor little guy.

And now it's Monday morning. Kids are up, Kylie is dressed and we're starting a new week.

Good doctors appointment!

Warning - this blog is rambling, it's more for me to write things down to refer back to later then to explain to others.

I had my 3rd appointment with my sports doctor, Dr. Arnold today. I was nervous going into it since I felt like I re-injured my hip 2 weeks ago. I explained it to him, described the pain and frustration. He examined me and said what I experienced was totally normal and common with his patients (athletes who tend to push too hard). He thinks it was a combination of sitting in the chair at work followed by riding the bike and then squatting and sitting on the floor while cleaning the next morning. So Dr. A cleared me to start back at the beginning with my exercise routine - exercise 3x's a week starting with biking, then StairMaster, then elliptical. If that goes well, then I can start back to running!!! Treadmill to start - 15mins at first, building up to 25 mins. And if I'm still feeling good and want to get my lungs back into shape, then I can run for 25 mins and bike for 25 mins. He said it will take time to get my lungs back but it will happen. He thinks the 5k that I'm running in 4 weeks is totally achievable as well as the 10K in 7 weeks. He doesn't anticipate me experiencing soreness again. If I do though, he'll send me in for another MRI without hesitation.

So, very good appointment! I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!!

Kylie Got Caught!


Day 6 of Kindergarten, which I'm going to refer to now as K because I'm tired of typing it out every time. Today was green day. Monday was red, Tuesday blue. Kylie was head to toe in green, including her panties (although when I reminded her to not show her panties, she said "No, that is not appropriate K behavior").

Being Wednesday, I had to work. So it was our first day of having Sharon, Brett's mom who watches the kids on Wednesday's, take Kylie to the bus. Apparently, Kylie forgot that she needed her book bag so she missed the bus while Grandma ran home to get it. Good thing the bus leaves the neighborhood using the same entrance because the driver made an extra stop being leaving to pick Kylie up. I heard about this and felt instant "mommy guilt". Ho-hum.

Kylie's been having a little drama at school. Another girl, Jaden has been sticking her tongue out at Kylie for no apparent reason. Kylie thinks it's because she is becoming friends with Zoe, who is also friends with Jaden and that Jaden is upset about that. Drama, drama, drama.

I was thrilled to hear that Kylie "got caught" today at school, a concept that I didn't understand from Kylie's explanation so I asked the neighbor girl, Marissa to clear it up for me. Apparently, you can earn a "I got caught doing my part" card, which is then entered into a weekly drawing for a tee-shirt. Kylie earned hers for being first to sit on the carpet and was quiet as a mouse. It was the first card that her teacher has given out this year. So proud!! I did explain to Kylie that she might not win the tee-shirt but we were very proud of her. She's so wonderful, just love her, love her, love her!

Attack of the bugs.

Poor little Matthew got stung by a bee this evening, first time either child has been. We were waiting for the ice cream truck and I ran inside to get some money. I came back out and he was screaming hysterically in pain. I grabbed him, he was holding his ear and saying "I got stung" over and over again. A little mud, cold wash cloth, blanket and cuddles from mom helped him settle down. But he's pretty swollen. :-(





And to top it off, his calves are covered with mosquito bites. And they swell, he scratches, they bleed and they scab. He pretty much looks like we slathered him in honey and tied him down in a tropical jungle. (well maybe not that bad but anything on my little baby looks bad to me!).

And that's OK.

Brett and I went to Meet the Teacher night last night. This being our first one, we didn't know really what to expect. First off, I was surprised by the amount of paperwork we got. Now, I've already filled out and turned in probably 15 pages of paperwork for her. So to see a folder, overflowing with more paperwork was surprising. We divided and conquered the pages we had to fill out and turn in that night. The two 1/2 day teachers spoke to the group (we were in the gym) and went over all the expectations, rules and schedules that the kids will have. One of the teachers (not Kylie's, thank goodness) kept talking to us like WE were the kindergartners. She kept saying "and that's OK." As in "sometimes kids have accidents and that's OK." Or "sometimes they have to be put in time-out and that's ok." No joke, she said "and that's OK" 50 times if she said it once. Drove Brett crazy, I just thought it was funny.
The expectations are high for her class. She'll be reading by the end of the year, spelling tests start in January, math skills have already started, she'll have weekly homework assignments. But they make it fun.
And that's ok.

Kylie's first day of Kindergarten


The day finally came. My little girl started kindergarten. And she was so excited.

We went to the school yesterday to meet her teacher and look around her classroom. Mrs. Moore seems very nice and Kylie wasn't shy at all when talking with her. The classroom looked like the perfect kindergarten classroom, bright colors and miniature furniture. They even had a few computers (much different from when I was a kid, I don't think we used computers until I got into 7th grade).

No tears from Kylie and I kept mine in until I looked at her pictures that we took. Just can't believe that she's a school girl now. Our whole schedule now changes, no more sleeping in or lazy pj days! She's only gone from 8:15-11:30 but it's every week day. It will take some getting used to. Although it makes me sad, I'm very excited for her, she's going to have so much fun. My big girl.

Our neighbor, Marissa, walked with us to the bus stop. I think it helped Kylie relax, getting on the bus with her friend.
The bus driver greeted her by name (she was wearing a nametag) and told her where to sit (first seat on the left). Kylie waved to us when she sat down.
Matthew and I waited at the end of our driveway for Kylie. The bus was 10 mins late, I was starting to wonder but figured with it being the first day, it would take longer. I was pretty happy to see this sight:


But even happier to see this sight! The bus driver was very nice, even asked if I got "the shot" of Kylie getting off. First thing Kylie said was that "school was AWESOME! Riding the bus was AWESOME." She said kindergartners were first off the bus and they had to walk in a straight line to their classroom. There was a hook for her to hang her bag and hoodie, but it didn't have her name on it. She could sit where ever she wanted. She played teddy bears with some other girls. One girl was really nice but Kylie didn't ask what her name was. They did not have recess or a snack. And she was pretty disappointed that she didn't learn how to read. But maybe tomorrow. :-)

Kylie's first concert!

I took Kylie to her first real concert last night. Demi Lavoto was performing at the State Fair and I asked Kylie if she wanted to go. Of course she said yes. Demi Lavoto is from the Disney Channel so squeaky clean therefore I wasn't worried at all about what Kylie might see or hear there. We drove over with Lisa and her daughter Sami, who was a big fan. And as a big bonus, a lady saw us standing in line to buy tickets and gave us two of hers for free!
It was hot but nothing that a cold snow cone couldn't fix. Kylie thought it was too loud and got a little bored during songs that she didn't know but really seemed to enjoy herself. What a fun way to finish off the summer for her, since she starts school tomorrow.

I don't know if she was more excited about the concert or because I let her wear a new outfit.

Yeah, the tickets were far away but they were free!

Demi is the one in the middle with the yellow shirt on. Kylie was impressed that she sang, played guitar and the piano.
Kylie and Sami

Kylie and Mommy

Fashion show!!

Kylie loves her new school clothes so much that I told her we should have a fashion show, like I always did as a kid (Sharon said Brett used to also but he denies it). I was her announcer, assistant and loudest clapper. Brett was her #1 fan and photographer and Matthew didn't know what to think. So, without further a due (does anyone actually use that word in any other context???) here's Kylie!


Here is her first day of school outfit. She will not be wearing black shoes though.

She talked Grandma Nabb into this matching purse. Inside is her cotton candy flavored lipgloss and a Polly Pocket. Everything a kindergartner needs.



















Matthew also modeled his first day of school outfit.



















Strike a pose!
Accessories make the outfit.




















Matthew was not impressed by Kylie's matching hair tie.













Her knee socks say "Girls Rock".



















And her shirt says "Future Rock Star".




















Notice the butterflies on her tights. She loves them.

Old friends and good times.
We hosted a playdate today. My friend, Erin, her 3 girls and my friend Sara and her 3 children came over. So we had 8 children ranging from 16 months to 6 years. Erin moved from Indiana to Ohio and then on to Texas last year. Her daughter, Emma, is the same age as Kylie and they were best friends. Erin and her family were in town visiting family and took the time to come by our house. We were so happy to see them! The kids kept themselves busy while we ladies got to catch up. Good girlfriends are hard to come by and these two are very special!

A little sore today. I've been feeling good, hip-wise, so started to increase my time on the stationary bike, which was ok with the dr. But add in the extra things I've been taking on around the house and I'm pretty sore. The chair at work is counter-top height so I have to step up onto it and usually step up using my right leg. But now that my left is feeling better, I was using that leg. Think about it - you have a dominate leg - same leg that you first use to walk up stairs, step up on a ladder, push yourself up off the floor with. Well that dominate leg for me is my left leg which is the injuried one. I adjusted to using my right leg this summer while it was still painful to use the left. But now that the pain has subsided, I'm back to using the left leg. But then I ache in the evenings. :-( I think what did me in yesterday was squating and sitting on the floor a lot yesterday while I was cleaning the kids playroom.
So I was supposed to go to the gym today and use the stairmaster but I'm putting that off until tomorrow morning. And I'm taking it easy today, well, as easy as I can since I'm having 2 of my closest friends and their children over for a playdate today. And having Brett's friends over for a cook-out this evening. Guess I'll rest some day..... ;-)

Rocked and Rolled in Chicago

We traveled to Chicago on Saturday morning for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We went with Lynk, Nancy and Alex. First stop was American Girl Doll store at Watertower - wow - is all I have to say. It was huge, 2 stories and packed with moms and girls from wall to wall. Alex brought her doll and had her (the doll's) hair styled. Kylie walked all around, looking at each of the historical dolls, picking out what one she wants for her b-day or Christmas. She did have some money saved up so she picked out a dress for herself to match her "Bitty Baby's" dress. Bitty Baby is the younger girls version of American Girl, not as expensive or fancy but still very nice and a good starter doll. Mom and dad met us at AG and we arranged for them to take Kylie, Matthew and Alex back to their house to spend the night. This allowed us adults to stay downtown so we would be close to the start line for the race on Sunday morning.
Next we checked into the hotel and headed to the RNR expo to pick up our bibs, goodie bags and whatever else we couldn't live without. The expo was big but well organized. I, of course, couldn't run but I had already signed up so Nancy took my spot since the race was sold out before her and Lynk got signed up.
After the expo, we drove to the south side to one of Brett's friends for a cookout. Everyone there was very friendly so we had a nice time. The food was so good and ask Brett sometime about the corn - easily the best corn on the cob we've ever had in our lives. We stayed longer then we should have but oh well...
Alarm went off at 5:00am. We all got up and ready. Grabbed some breakfast, happy that the Hampton Inn started breakfast early so we could eat before the race. It was a quick walk to the start line and Lynk and I wished Brett and Nancy good luck. I headed for the start line because I really wanted to see the elite runners warm up and start the race. They brought in Kara Goucher, America's best female long distance runner, in for this race. I've been watching her career since reading about her in Runner's World this spring (she finished 3rd for women at Boston this spring, losing by only 8 seconds). It was easy to pick her out of the other runners, first she was a girl and second, she looked fast. She warmed up very close to me, I actually got to wish her good luck. She was very nice, really impressive. The gun went off at 6:30 and they were off! And man, those elite runners were running fast!
Brett was in corral 3 and Nancy in 4 so I cheered them on as they started their race as well. I signed up to receive text messages when they would hit different parts of the race so I would have an idea how they were doing. It paid off so well. But more on that later.
Lynk and I walked up to Michigan Ave and I headed for mile 4, which was close so I wouldn't need to walk far. Lynk went to mile 2. About 21 minutes after the gun went off, Kara and a few other elite runners past me. I kept an eye out for Brett and was happy to see him about 28 minutes into the race. He ran over to me and said he was going too fast, needed to slow his pace down. He needed some more gum, which I had in my purse, gave him a kiss and he wiped some sweat on my cheek -- yuck. :-)
I got a text saying that Nancy had past the 5K mark so I watched for her too. Didn't see her for a long time. I wanted to make sure that I saw Kara finish so when it hit 50 minutes, I left mile 4 and headed to the finish line in Grant Park. I got there just in time to see Kara win the race with a time of 68:05!!! A 5 min, 12 second average! It was amazing and I consider myself really luck to see a possible Olympic Champion race.
Soon after this I got a text saying Brett had past mile 10, so I headed up to mile 13 to try to see him. I also got a text to say that Nancy had past 10K so I texted Lynk to let him know, he never did see her at mile 4. Lynk found me waiting for Brett so we watched and cheered everyone on. Brett came tearing down the road at 1:40, he saw us and waved and kept running. He ended up finishing at 1:40:39!! That's 9 minutes faster then the Mini in May. We were very excited for him but he was disappointed that he didn't finish under 1:40. His medal is really cool but Brett being Brett, he just handed it to me and I put it in my purse.
We hung out and waited for Nancy. We were happy to see her finish at 2:40, 20 minutes faster then in May!! She said that she felt really good but her knee was getting sore. I'm so proud of both of them for setting PR's (personal records).
Since we were so close to the hotel, Brett and Nancy got to shower and cool down in our hotel room. We also had a late check out so we relaxed until noon. Then we drove to the O'hare Oasis where we rendezvoused with my parents to pick up the kiddos. They had a fun time fishing, making s'mores, playing Mario Kart and just having a good time.
The drive home was not fun. Lots of construction and tired people. The 4 hour trip took 5 but we got home safely and are thankful for that.
Fun weekend and a really good practice run-through for our Akron, OH trip for that marathon on September 26th. Looking forward to that!!!! even if I have to watch instead of run...