Family Events

This past weekend we had an Open House Baby Celebration! Basically we threw a little party to make sure people had an opportunity to meet baby Shilo and congratulate Kayley on becoming a big sister. We felt so blessed by all the family and friends that stopped by to say hi and celebrate with us. I love seeing how those close to us care for our girls and love on them. It was super fun to see Kayley play with all her little friends who were able to stop by too. One day Shilo will join that high energy group and also laugh with delight while playing with toys and pulling books of the shelf. 

We dressed the girls up as twins for the party

I love our family and friends

So many people celebrating

Maimie and Tanta Gail making faces at Shilo

Shilo meeting new friends

Shilo was able to meet future friend and their parents

A cute diaper cake made by Sherry

Monday we had our first big family outing and took the girls to the zoo. Shilo slept during our whole visit, but I’m sure she enjoyed listening to everything while she dreamed. We actually had quite an eventful visit. Kayley got to be inches away from a gorilla, only divided by glass. At first she was mesmerized, but then the gorilla moved a little closer and was just watching her, and she kind of freaked out. When we went to see the lion, he wasn’t close to the glass, but we did get to hear him roar a few times as he walked around. We think he was hungry or saying he wanted his female friend to come out and play. Kayley also got to be close to two jaguars at the same time while the jaguars gave each other baths. Plus, while in the farm area, the donkey came right up to Kayley to say hello. So you can see why I say we had quite an eventful visit. 

Shilo slept the whole time

Super close to a gorilla

The lion roared for us!

Getting clean

Saying hi to a donkey

Andrew using the double stroller

K's 18 Month and S's 1 Week Check-Up

A week after Shilo was born, both girls had a doctor appointment; Kayley her 18 month check-up, and Shilo her one week. Andrew and I were both able to go to this appointment (the girls were combined to see Z). Interestingly, Kayley seemed excited to walk back to the room. Maybe because she was proud she knew where she was going without following someone, or for some other reason. She liked playing with the toys in the room, looking in the mirror, and crunching the paper. But as soon as the nurse came in to get height and weight (which clothes needed to be taken off for), Kayley started freaking out a little bit. I’m thinking that’s when she remembered she gets shots at this place when clothes are off. Kayley just had a flu shot this time, and here are her stats:

Weight: 22lbs 14oz (25-50 percentile)

Height: 33.5 inches (95 percentile)

Head circumference: 18.8 inches (75-90 percentile)

As for Shilo, she got a prick for her 2^nd PKU test, but no shots this visit. She did really well for the foot prick. I gave her her paci right before the prick, so she ended up just whining a bit and then sucking harder on the paci. Shilo’s stats were:

Weight: 8lbs 15oz (90 percentile) ~ Whooohooo! She’s back to her birth weight!

Height: 21.2 inches (95 percentile) ~ I really don’t think she grew a whole inch since she was born. But of course, at this age, the height is more guesswork than the actual height.

Head circumference: 14.2 inches (75 percentile)

I guess we make tall girls!

Along with Shilo’s 1 week check-up, she also had a special doctor appointment at Children’s Hospital to follow up on the leaky valve that was detected when she was in the womb. When they took us back to the room for her cardiovascular echo, the first thing they asked us is what we wanted to watch while we watched for the technician and during the echo since it could take a while. So, we watched the first half of Toy Story 3 before and during her appointment. 

Getting her cardiovascular echo done

Shilo also had an EKG done to check the electrical activity level of her heart. She did a great job for having to be so still for both tests. The end result? Looks like Shilo’s leaky valve became a lot less of an issue after she was born. This is due to her lungs expanding and everything else getting moved around a bit for life out of the womb. The doctor we saw would like to see Shilo again in a year just to make sure nothing has changed, but the doctor was pretty confident that Shilo’s very minor murmur would not be an issue, and that if we didn’t have that extra special ultrasound done, we probably would never have known she had a slight murmur. Z and the cardiovascular doctor both couldn’t really hear the murmur with their stethoscope. 

Shilo's EKG

And there you have it. Both girls are doing well and are healthy. Praise God!

A Visit From the Grand Vs

This last week, Andrew’s folks were able to come visit us. They were so thrilled to be able to meet Shilo when she was only a week old and excited to spend so much time with Kayley. What was awesome is Kayley recognized who they were (we video chat from time to time, and I show her pictures of them). Kayley was able to spend quite a bit of playtime with her Grandpa and Grandma V while Andrew and I took care of Shilo and took her to a few appointments. Here’s a glimpse of part of the week.

Meeting Shilo.

Meeting Shilo for the first time

Proud grandma

Excited grandpa with his granddaughters

Imaginary play: Kayley’s imaginary play has sure blossomed over the past month! She had a tea party with her grandparents (with the play tea set she got for becoming a big sister), and loved playing in the kitchen section at the Kid’s Quest Children’s Museum.

Tea party time!

Enjoying Kayley explore the play kitchen

Kayley got really into it

Dancing and singing: We had a fun family evening of singing worship songs, and enjoying Kayley dancing to them.

The whole family together worshiping God

 Grandparent dinner (which Shilo slept through)

The grandparents with Kayley

And of course the Harvest Carnival I mentioned in the previous post.

It was great having them come and visit. Especially since they spent so much time with Kayley so I could focus on resting and recovering, and of course tend to Shilo. Thanks for visiting!

Halloween

Last year was Kayley’s first Halloween, but she was too young to take to any special events or trick-or-treating. This year though we dressed her up as a little duck and took her to a Harvest Carnival and Trunk-or-Treating.

The Harvest Carnival was at the church my MOPS group meets at. They had games and a play area set up for the little kids. Andrew wasn’t able to go with us, but my mom joined us and so did Andrew’s folks (they came to visit a few days after Shilo was born). It was actually the first time I had the girls by myself and had a set time to meet people somewhere. I’m am proud to say the three of us got to the Harvest Carnival right when I said we would, though I doubt I will always have such luck. Kayley was excited to be dressed up as a duck and was quack, quack, quacking everywhere. She was also excited she got to spend time with all three of her grandparents. Shilo was fast asleep in the bjorn the whole time.

Tossing a ping pong ball into little vases

Throw the ball to hit the target

Toilet paper toss

Going fishing for treasure

Frosting a cookie

The grandparents really got into Kayley's cookie decorating

First time in a bounce house

Crazy hair from playing in the blow up fire station

Arts and craft time

Me and my girls: 80s girl, little duck, and baby bear.

We didn’t actually have any plans for Halloween day, but I got a call from my sister saying my niece, Katie, wanted to take Kayley trick-or-treating if we were okay with that (Kayley had spent the day up at the farm so I could have a bit of a break and take it easy with just Shilo at home). So, when Andrew got home from work, we talked about it and decided to go up to the farm for dinner and that he would join Katie and Kayley trick-or-treating. I actually ended up going with them too since Shilo ate right before they were going to leave. The four of us went trunk-or-treating at a church near the farm. Kayley wasn’t so sure about everyone being dressed up and being in a completely new place, but she did play a few games and slowly got the hang of trick-or-treating. Most the time she would sign please before picking out a piece of candy, but she always signed thank you and many times said goodbye as we moved to the next decorated trunk. It was pretty cute, and my goodness did she get a lot of candy! Little does she know that the candy is mostly for mommy and daddy. I did split a fun size bag of M&Ms with her last night (her first candy experience) and she thought those were pretty good.

Anime girl, little duck, 70s man

Meeting a lion! Kayley was excited and roaring.

Inside a fire truck

Getting candy from Winnie the Pooh

Bean bag toss

70s man, little duck, monkey

Kayley seems to be enjoying imaginary play a lot lately, so I think the duck outfit will have to come out again just to have fun around the house!

Quack! Quack! Quack!