A time of growth

It's not always easy...

Jaden:

Let's start with Jaden. Since he's in the middle there probably won't be too many times when he gets to go first!

Washing the car

The mind of a toddler (at least what I think he's thinking):

Hmmm...this driveway is looking a little dirty...

Look at that tree...It's needs some water too!

Talking. He is doing much better. It seems like it is almost overnight. I swear last week when the Speech Therapist came he barely uttered one word. I figured he might have regressed a little since we were gone so long over the summer, then we started things up again and "Ike" hit and that set us back again. But, now we're back on track! I wanted to keep a record for myself of the things he is saying at least up until this point. I'm hoping to be able to add to my list at least every week until there are just too many to remember! Here's his words right now, in no particular order:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. baby
4. ball
5. dog
6. please
7. up
8. read
9. teeth
10. shoe
11. mouse
12. cookie
13. "yeah"
14. night, night
15. me
16. bye
17. cheese
18. stuck
19. broke
20. go
21. bath
22. butt
23. ouch
24. "all gone"
25. kitty
26. "Buzz" (as in Buzz Lightyear)
    

*I've actually noticed him say more over the weekend since I put this list together. I've got to start writing them down. Yay!

(Just FMI) Animal sounds: cow, monkey, chicken, duck, horse, cat

Last night (10-1-08) he said "Dada shoe" (he was wearing Chris' shoes). And the other day he said, "Yaya (his "word" for Anna) - something I couldn't undertand - me". He was trying to tell me Anna did something to him. I know that must sound like small potatoes to most of you Mothers but trust me - this is a big deal for us. I really took it for granted that Anna was able to learn to talk without any problems. Fortunately for Jaden he doesn't really seem too bothered with it. He's too busy running, jumping, throwing, climbing. That's pretty much the reason for the speech delay - he's too busy "doing" to pay enough attention and use his mouth for talking. But, we're definitely working on that and we'll get there!

Also, today I tried a pull up on him for the first time. While the Speech Therapist was here he went to the bathroom and told her he needed to go. I went ahead and put him on the potty and he went! The SLP was impressed with him today.

Luke:

He is working on pulling up and crawling. He can pull himself up in his crib if I set him in there in a sitting position. He's not quite able to get himself to sitting from lying down - he's working on that too.

He's very good at getting down to his belly if he's sitting up to try to get something that he wants. He can easily get up on all fours and do all sorts of things with his legs (move them back and forth, straighten them out with his bum in the air) but his arms aren't ready to cooperate yet!

I actually saw Luke get himself to a sitting position from lying down. He's definitely making progress.

Anna:

Anna is working on learning sight words. Her teacher has told us how important the sight words are for reading. Along with learning phonics, of course.

On Monday night Anna had Chris take off her training wheels so she could learn to ride her bike without them. On Tuesday Chris came in to get me so I could see her ride her bike all by herself without training wheels!! We're so proud of her.

Riding around

This green 4-wheeler (the kids call it their "motorcycle") was a hand-me-down from my nephews and the kids loooove it! I bought Jaden a little Spiderman one that I thought was more his size but he's so over it. He wants the big one and only the big one! Luke will gladly take the little one - of course, he needs some help.

Jaden has actually gotten pretty good at steering ....when he's paying attention. That's the main problem. He gets distracted watching the other kids and runs up on the curb and onto the woody, grassy lots and eventually gets stuck. He doesn't know how to use the reverse and he doesn't like to stop. And sometimes he takes off down the road and doesn't seem to hear his name being called...
It's been wonderful the past 2-3 days down here. We can actually get out of the house! The temperature is nice - still hot but definitely bearable- and NO MOSQUITOS!!!!

Some pictures of #3

#1 and #2

I'm working on getting a picture of #3...

Getting back to normal

Chris actually didn't have to go into work today so I've got some help at home. It's really nice to have him here and have someone to talk with - not that the little ones aren't nice to talk to but you know what I mean...
While he was playing with Anna and Jaden I got to steal Luke away and take some pictures. I am trying out a new photo editing program that I'm thinking of buying. I like the different looks you can give to photos. I still think the basic color (who doesn't love that creamy baby skin, the beautiful color of their eyes, and all the wonderful colors nature give us) and black & whites but its fun to change it up once in a while too!

Ike spared us

Can't say the same for the little lime tree...

I think my Mom might have "discovered" this tree on one of her walks when we first moved down here. Or maybe it was Chris? Anyway, this little tree became a special symbol of Texas to my family - especially extended family. So, I'm sure they will be sad when they see this picture. It was fun to look for limes when we were out on walks. I used them to make salsa, Chris liked to add them to lemonade to make "lemon-lime-ade", my Mom and Aunt took a whole bagful back to my Uncle this summer.This tree fell on our neighbor's house. This was one of the homes we had considered when we were on our house hunting trip. At first I thought they were lucky that the tree was just lying on the roof but later when we talked to the owner we learned he actually has a hole in the roof! That stinks!
This is a tree and a street sign (if you can see that it's sort of laid out flat). They are on the corner right by Anna's school. There were a bunch of trees down on the side of her school next to the road. A bunch of trees were also down on the other side of the street as well. I'm wondering if maybe a tornado headed down this path. It looks like more than wind. The trees down aren't little and several are completely uprooted.

And here's our backyard... Our main problem came from a stupid old tree on the other side of our privacy fence. It fell on the playhouse and busted up the fence a bit. This is the 2nd time we've had a problem because of that tree! The trampoline is another story. I think the wind must have gotten that. Chris had tied it to one of our trees and the rope is still there but there are parts of the trampoline all over the yard. The actual trampoline ended up on the other side of our fence. It looked a mess but Chris thinks it can be put back together. We'll have to see. We'll definitely need a new safety net.

There are sooo many people in this area without power. There are so many people with serious damages to their homes and many lost their homes. Our power was restored within 24 hours, we were able to return home with all of our normal comforts, we are so lucky. We do not understand why we were spared while so many around us have suffered but we are thankful for our blessing. We hope that we can be a blessing to others who were not as fortunate. Please continue to pray for those affected by Hurricane Ike. It has caused serious damage to this area of Texas. We are reminded of it daily. You cannot turn on the TV without seeing images of the damages and hearing about where to get aid or gas or how many people still do not have power. The crews seem to be doing such a great job. It's just such a HUGE job to do. We saw a truck today from Kent, OH (for electricity or tree trimming/removal). Thank God for these people!

We've made it so far

Last night was scary to say the least and we were pretty far from the coast. My brother-in-law said that the winds had gotten up to around 80 mph! I was worried because the wind was blowing really hard and it was raining and it sounded like the windows might break. My brother-in-law said during one time when he checked the windows on the back side of the house he actually saw the glass bow a little in the middle. Then, around 3:45 a.m. we lost power. This didn't turn out to be as bad as I had thought. It did start to get a little warm around 11:00 a.m. The Tilston's were well prepared. We had flashlights ready to go, propane lanterns with several extra tanks of propane, and the best was a little battery-powered TV. It was color and everything! We were able to tune into the news to see what was going on. Note to self: I definitely need to get some propane lanterns + tanks and a battery powered color TV.

This is going to sound weird, I know, but the best part was lunch because we were able to eat spaghetti with meat sauce and the kids had macaroni and cheese! I completely forgot that they had a gas stove and we could still use it! We were also very lucky that we didn't have to go without water. The power came back on around 12 or so.

We still aren't sure what things are like down in our neck of the woods. We've heard reports that the damage isn't too bad - no flooding anyway. I think some of the neighboring towns may not have been so lucky. Houston and Galveston certainly weren't. Our power went out around 6:40 p.m. and I'm guessing it isn't back up yet. We still aren't allowed to go back home. We'll be watching for reports to give us the green light. I'll be sure to report what we find.

Chris has been staying in a shelter in Brenham, TX. They never lost power so that was good. But I think he is anxious to get home and back to work. I'm sure he's got lots of work ahead of him. And I know he's been worried about us. I can't even imagine being away from these kiddos (even as crazy as they have made me the past few days) during a natural disaster like this. He's been strong because he knows its just what he's got to do right now. I hope his company knows what a great employee they have in him.

Luke is 6 months old!

My little Angel In the midst of all this hurricane madness my little Luke turned 6 months old. It's been hard to take pictures because our world has sort of been knocked off kilter the past few days and we are all adjusting to being away from home. This is particularly hard for Luke and Jaden. I haven't been able to get Jaden to take a nap and both he and Luke were up all through the night (which means so was Mommy!) We are all tired and suffering from a little cabin fever.
He's been doing wonderful this month. We are exploring new foods. He seems kinda picky when it comes to eating. I wouldn't have expected that from such a fat baby! He tends to eat a little better for Dad than Mom. He loooooves bananas and tends to prefer the green veggies to the yellow/orange. Maybe he won't end up looking yellow like his big Sis. She has something called carotenemia - no big deal - it just means the skin turns yellow from eating too many yellow veggies like carrots. She doesn't actually eat many carrots but eats more than her weight in ketchup and spaghetti with tomato sauce, OJ, etc... I think this will be getting better because she has been eating more broccolli, some cauliflower, corn, and is developing quite a taste for peas!
He is pushing himself back onto his knees some while he's lying on the floor. (a precursor to crawling) He can get his belly up off the floor pretty well. Everyday he's getting stronger. I'm afraid it won't be too long before he figures out how to get those knees moving. It will be time to get out the baby gates once more.
We've been focusing more on healthy sleep habits for Luke and then, maybe for Mom. I finally read "On becoming Babywise" (almost too late) with a fire lit under me. I was on the verge of becoming delerious from not getting enough sleep. About two weeks ago I took him to the doctor to see if he had an ear infection. He not been sleeping well and was crying what felt like "all the time". I had seriously seen every hour on the clock for a couple of days. My friend Dana called me and as I was listening to her message I could not place the voice. This is someone I talk to about every day and for those of you who know Dana- she's got a strong Southern accent (she's from Alabama). Later, my eyes started playing tricks on me. I was getting to be a safety hazard. So, anyway, we went to the doctor. I was so embarrassed when we got the diagnosis. Dx: teething! How embarrassing! How could I have missed that? I must have been through at least 30 teeth coming through between Anna and Jaden! You can see why getting this under control became top priority. He actually responded very well. They said to give it 4-5 days focusing on the day time routine for the late starters (eat, waketime, sleep pretty much) and sure enough about the 3rd or 4th day he slept pretty well through the night. I didn't know what to do with myself. I was still waking up! Then, Ike started becoming more prominent and caused us to be uprooted. You know how that can throw a wrench in things. But, I think we'll get it back in sync soon. I'm going to keep on trucking with it like I would be if we were at home. Luke has been doing okay sleeping during the day in his pack and play so, I have hope :).

These are some really cute t's I found last night for the boys -

Jaden actually just fell asleep sitting up next to me as I started typing this post-

A rare moment caught on film - Jaden loving his brother. He really fought me hard to be able to hold the baby and when I got my camera to take their picture he gave me the biggest smile! Luke wasn't as into it... Hurricane update: not much has changed as far as I know. They are still expecting Ike to make land tomorrow night as at least a category 3 storm. And so far it's still got a good chance of hitting the Freeport area. We'll be keeping a close eye.

The evacuation

Chris and I woke up bright and early this morning to get a start on getting things ready to go. Things sure do change fast when a hurricane is on its way we are learning. When we went to bed everyone was talking about where Ike might be heading but still talked with a lot of uncertainty then, this morning schools were closed in our county until Monday and there was a voluntary evacuation. A little while later there was a mandatory evacuation for some of the towns right on the coast. Rather than wait for the crowd Chris and I decided that I should leave as soon as we could get everything together. The thought of being stuck in traffic with 3 little ones and 2 dogs was just not appealing. I left around 12:30pm. On my way to my brother and sister-in-law's home (about 1 hour 15 min. away) I got a call from Chris that they had issued a mandatory evacuation for our town. Good thing we left when we did!
So far, they are thinking Ike will be up to a Category 4 storm when it makes land and unfortunately that is still predicted to be uncomfortably close to our neck of woods. I guess even it if doesn't hit us directly but falls in the area a little further down the coast things could still be pretty bad for us since we'd be on the "dirty" side of the storm - not sure I understand exactly what this means but I'm pretty sure I'd rather not find out! Things change a little every time I watch the news so we'll see what they have to say in the morning. For now we are all safe and sound (and dry!). We are thankful to have a comfortable place to stay and hope this will all be over soon. Please pray for Chris who is a "necessary" staff and also part of the hurricane crew. I'm sure the company will take all the precautions to ensure everyone is safe but I'd still rather him be here with us. We'll give you another update tomorrow :)
Oh and "Happy Birthday Mom!" Wish we were there. Really!

Getting ready for Ike

It still isn't certain where exactly Ike will hit but we are getting ourselves prepared nonetheless. We're still very new to this whole "hurricane" business so, I'll have to post more as I learn. Right now we've gathered all of our non-perishable foods and water. I'm working on making sure I have enough: baby food, formula, diapers, wipes, blankets, pillows, things to keep the kids occupied, clothes, towels, toiletries, important papers and things I don't want to leave behind - just in case- and the list goes on. Thank goodness I've got a mini-van! Not only do I have all of these things plus me and the kiddos to fit in the van but I can't forget Leo and I'm taking care of our friends' dog, Scout. Chris has to stay behind to take care of his duties at the plant so, I'm on my own. If we have to leave I pray everyone will be in good spirits. At least I know my two canine boys will be! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I'll take all the prayers that I maintain my sanity that I can get!
I will try to update my blog as much as I can to keep everyone posted. I'm sure everything will be fine. It's just that the uncertain is so scary. A few more seasons of this and we'll be veterans and probably won't even flinch at the news of a storm. Right now, I'm a little freaked out.

Isn't he so pretty?

Lukie-Wookis

This is the nickname Anna came up with for Luke. She worked on it for a long time. She kept calling him "Luke Tilston" for a nickname and couldn't understand why that wasn't a good one. I tried to explain that if someone heard her call him that they would think he was Aunt Kelli and Uncle Mike's baby instead of ours. But, she finally came up with a good one.Teething...gotta rub those gums on everything he can get in his mouth!

Just having a little fun.

Wondered what it would be like to put Luke in the back of this toy dump truck. It was cute. He sat there and played with some toy keys for a little while. And then...

And just a little Jaden thrown in...

Kindergarten update

We made it through the first week of Kindergarten. All of us! Here's a little run through of a few of the highlights from this week:
Monday: She tried to talk me into letting her walk to school by herself. Her argument involved something about learning how to find her way home???
She was so sweet when she first got home. She told me how much she liked school and said that Kindergarten was fun. She waited until Daddy got home for supper to tell us both all the details of her day. She wanted to know what we did while she was at school and if Jaden and Luke missed her. She assured them it was okay and she would be home soon. Then, I don't know how things changed but we were sitting in the living room and she told me she wanted a girl. I told her I was sorry but we had two boys and we weren't going to have any more babies. Besides, even if I did have another baby I told her we wouldn't get a guarantee it would be a girl. She kept repeating that she wanted a girl. I just said, "sorry".
Then she told me she was going to drop Lukey and break him so she could get a girl. Guess who won't be left alone around her brothers - especially Luke???
Tuesday: Today she kept asking me why she couldn't go to the Boys and igrls club? (the Boys and Girls club is an after school program.) I think she likes being at school and isn't too upset to be away from me.
Another disturbing incident: I laid down for a little while and sometime while Chris was occupied for a minute she managed to scratch Jaden all down the side of his face. We aren't really sure about why she did this but it looked bad!
Friday: We got the "notebook". This contains all the information we need from the teacher to communicate back and forth- meetings, behavior reports, homework, etc... Anna had excellent behavior all week with a wee bit of trouble today. Guess she's warmed up now. She got a mark for "excessive talking" (hmmm...brings back some memories) and "not keeping her hands to herself". I'm not advocating misbehavior but I'm a little concerned that we may see more because all of the material they will be working on this first nine weeks she has known for a while (the 4 basic shapes, counting to 25, recognizing and writing her name, 11 colors). I'm worried she may be a little bored. We'll just have to see.

Oh, and she learned the "Eagle walk" (I think that's their school mascot and it entails walking in a straight line, lips closed, and hands to yourself) and this "handshake":

Then, you're supposed to say, "Dude You're Awesome!" and give "thumbs up".