Transition Time

So this past week I went back to work officially and Maddox and Kennon both went to Kindercare for the first time together on Tuesday!! It was a BIG day....and since then we've had some ups and downs. Maddox has been experiencing most of the downs and Kennon most of the ups. So I'll start with Kennon. He is doing GREAT at Kindercare. The ladies love him and he is settling in. He is taking all of his bottles and enjoying his new friends. He isn't sleeping much there, but that equates to sleeping through the night for us! He has been going from about 9pm till 4 or 5Am since we started at Kcare. Then it's up to eat and back down again till about 7.30am when I am just getting ready to feed him again to get ready to get out the door. PERFECT! We are so happy. I think there is just too much going on in the room for him to sleep, but that's ok. He appears to be the youngest little guy there right now. He has seemed happy every time we've picked him up this week and the happiness has been continuing on through the night. Knock on wood, but I think we might be out of the colicky phase. He has been SO HAPPY lately...so smiley, kicking, cooing, discovering his hands and all the rattles we put in front of him. He hasn't really had a bout of bad crying for about a week or two. We are so thankful and Eric and I are really enjoying him. He is so FUN right now. Now for the downs. Maddox has been struggling with her adjustment to Kcare. I know it will just take time but her teachers say she is just SAD all day long missing us, and probably her buddies at Kim's. But, they are doing a really good job of trying to integrate her into their classroom routine. Friday all the kids came over the greet her in the AM when Eric and her walked in the door which made her feel welcome. Friday afternoon when Eric picked the kids up the teachers said she had a great day despite the fact that she started crying as soon as Eric walked in the room ( which has been happening since we started going). I'm not sure if she is just so emotional about being there right now that even when we come to 'rescue' her she cries or what. But, I know soon we'll be prying her away from her new friends. The teachers seem sooo attentive to her sensitive side and have reports for us when we pick her up. I can tell she is already learning so much and it is going to be so good for her. Even after just 3 days there she is really using her spoon with so much better coordination. They use real silverware there and open cups. I KNOW she is enjoying playing outside on the great play set they have. And she is counting counting counting. She already knew her numbers to a small degree but since Tuesday she has been counting things out loud on her own. The amount of educational information she is receiving is definitely evident! We are so proud of her. Despite all the good things we are seeing as a result of Kcare, we are also seeing a bit of a rebellion at home. I think she is just upset about us totally changing her life routine. She is throwing a fit about everything, eating, changing diapers, bathing, brushing teeth etc. We have reverted back to the behavior that she displayed when we first brought KTK home....awful. She is just naughty. Eric and I are getting pretty burnt out but we continue to remind ourselves that it is just a phase and pretty soon she'll LOVE Kcare and will be back to her normal, happy, minding child. On top of Maddox's downs I got sick Wednesday night which added to our stress. Luckily Eric has been healthy and has been able to pull us through the last few days. Maddox now has a cold but I am feeling much better thank goodness. Kennon seems to be fine so far too! Maddox and Eric are at the park right now so I'm going to quick upload the pictures before they get home. Wish Maddox a good week at Kindercare and Kennon continued sleepy nights.

Quad City River Bandits Game

Maddox, Eric, Kennon and I had a fantastic family weekend!! We had a nice relaxing Saturday, with Eric and I getting in a workout and Kennon attending his first church service after we enjoyed a family dinner at our favorite Mexican place. Maddox of course went to the nursery at church where she got LOTS of attention, as she was the only kid in the room. We kept Kennon out with us and he only had a small meltdown towards the end of the teaching...but luckily Eric was able to whisk him away to the crying room before he disturbed too many people. Sunday Eric and I both went for a run ( separately), Eric mowed the yard, and then we loaded up both kids and headed down to the Quad City River Bandits game. We all had a great time and it was a beautiful day. Maddox enjoyed eating her first HOT DOG and following Rascal the Raccoon around while Kennon slept in the car seat. She even gave Rascal BUMPS. She kind of looks afraid of him in one of the pictures but she really wasn't. After she met him the first time she just kept saying ' raccoon raccoon raccoon' asking for him to come back! Maddox was pretty oblivious to the actual game but I know she had a good time. We hurried home for nap number two after one last special ballgame treat....a hot fudge brownie sundae that was about the size of Maddox's head! YUM! It is really fun to take her to NEW places and see the excitement on her face. I know she won't remember all these special family outings but she sure is giving Eric and I good memories. Tomorrow is a BIG day. Both kids start at Kindercare!! We have been really trying to get Kennon to nap in his crib, rather than the swing that he has become accustomed to. And I have to say he is starting to transition well. Saturday afternoon he slept for 2 hours in his crib and from then on I have been at least initiating his naps in his crib and he'll usually stay there for at least an hour or so before I move him down to the swing to finish up. Kindercare does not have ANY swings or bouncy seats. Apparently they are not 'developmentally correct' anymore....! So we'll see how he sleeps tomorrow. At night he does fine in his crib still sleeping from about 8 or 9 till 2 or 3, and sometimes 4, and then again till 6 or 7. You can see in one of the pictures he has figured out how to get his leg out of his sleep sack!! He still has to be really drowsy to let you put him in it the correct way otherwise you have to just leave his arms out and he generally figures out a way to get his left leg out. I am so happy he has started napping in his crib though. Hopefully it will make the transition to Kindercare smoother for him. Maddox has discovered the word NO in the last 2 weeks or so.....or well maybe I should say she knew the word but has just recently started USING it with the CORRECT meaning. So that has been 'fun'. We also discovered she loves ketchup. So if there happens to be something she won't eat then we give her a little dollop of ketchup and she'll dip whatever it is and it goes down without a fuss! I figure ketchup is a fruit right?? I'm not sure if it is actually the ketchup or just the dipping activity. She dipped her broccoli ( which is her favorite veggie right now ) in her yogurt yesterday....and she liked it?? Silly girl. The ketchup can't hurt her much and the benefit from the protein that she is usually dipping probably outweighs the extra sugar. Kennon turned 11 weeks last Thursday. He doesn't happen to be smiling in any of these pictures but he does smile a lot. He is turning into a pretty happy baby complete with BLUE eyes ( thusfar) and new little BLONDE hairs that are starting to peep through the brown that he has had since birth. We found a baseball cap that he was able to wear down at the ball field. So cute. Maddox is still pretending to be a great mom, using the boppy to feed her babies. Wish us luck at Kindercare in the coming weeks. I officially go back to working my normal Tuesday Thursday and Friday this week.

Kennon's 2 month check up

Last Thursday Kennon and I went to see Dr. Anderson for his 2 month check up. He passed with flying colors. He is up to 12lbs 1 ounce and is 21 inches long. This puts him at about the 60th percentile for height and the 25th for weight ( I think.....Dr. Anderson tends to mumble and I didn't have time to process the graph that he flashed in front of me with the numbers). All in all he is doing well. I told him Kennon seems to be doing better with his colic. He still has fussy times but they are shorter lasting and less frequent. Dr. Anderson reminded me most babies grow out of colic at about 3 months.....!! We have ONE more chiro appointment and then I think I'm going to call it quits, much to the disappointment of the chiropractor. He is generally sleeping from about 8 or 9 till 2 or 3 ( except for last night for some reason he woke up at midnight). And then he takes 2 pretty good naps, one in the AM and one in the PM during the day. I think we have him on a pretty good schedule already ( not sure how that happened but it did). He is really full of smiles when he is having a good day...and loves to 'talk' to you and hear you talk back. Maddox is still REALLY loving him and is just full of kisses for him lately. She is SOOOO talkative. Everyday she strings more words together! Yesterday she said 'hold this mommy', asking me to hold her sippy cup while she finished her animal crackers. She really likes to feed other people food from her plate so she'll say 'eat it daddy'. She is at Kindercare as I write this. We got a FREE TRIAL day for her to see how it goes. She officially starts next Tuesday. Friday will be our last day at Kim's. They were excited to see her come today and remembered her name. She has her own little cubby with her name on it for extra clothes/shoes etc and her own cubby for diapers ( although I'm hoping with all the little toilets around she won't need those diapers too much longer). Her little eyes were pretty wide when we walked into her CLASSROOM and she saw all the kids....a little overwhelmed. But, she didn't cling on and quickly found a kid sized chair to move about and sit down in. I didn't even say goodbye she was already off playing with the kids. I learned today they don't use sippy cups in her classroom....so I'm pretty certain she is going to come home covered in whatever it is they drink because she really can't use a regular cup yet! But, I'm excited to think about all the cool things she is going to learn in the coming weeks...how to stand in a line, how to use the toilet, how to use her fork and spoon REALLY well ( she does ok now but not perfect), and how to drink from a real cup. Oh....she is getting so big!! So she'll stay at Kindercare until she goes to Kindergarten which will be nice. No more major transitions. I would definitely say the classroom she will be in is a preschool type learning environment even though they don't call it preschool quite yet. She'll move to the 3 year old room next fall and that apparently is their 'preschool'. But, but the looks of the walls in her room ( art projects, numbers, colors, the theme of the day etc)...she is SURELY going to learn a lot! We are very excited. Kennon will start next Tuesday. So it will be the entire Kies family trying to get out of the house next Tuesday AM.....wish us luck!! My picture taking has fallen off the bandwagon....so busy with juggling patients, paperwork, household duties etc. Don't have any new pics but I"ll try to get some soon.

Happy 2 months Kennon

I can't believe it but Kennon turned 2 months old last week. We go for his 2 month check up this Thursday. These pictures were taken on his 'birthday', it has just taken me a few days to get them uploaded to the blog. I would say he has had a slightly more sleepless week this past week as compared to the last few. He was doing well, sleeping 5 to 6 hours at a time but this week it has been more like 4 to 5. Maybe he is protesting my return to work this week. But, he is starting to really smile a lot and he'll stay awake usually an hour or 2 after he eats and play in the bouncy seat or on the activity mat cooing at the toys and batting at the rattles that hang down. He is still eating well and will take about 3 to 3.5 ounces from the bottle from whomever happens to be there to give it to him, even me! His 0 to 3 months clothes are getting too short and I can even put some 3 month outfits on him. We have still been going to the chiro but just 1 time per week and I'm not sure how much longer we'll go. He still has fussy times usually in the afternoon/evening but they are definitely more controllable than they used to be. Happy birthday Kennon...you are getting so big already! Maddox has really turned into a MOM herself this week. She LOVES to play with her dolls now and does just about everything with her dolls that I do with Kennon. It is so cute. In fact I caught her attempting to empty out the wipes box the other day....!! Apparently she thought her babies had really DIRTY diapers. We just shoved them back into the box. She is talking so well...and I mean talking. She says so many phrases now. 'Cookie please mommy'. 'Did you see that'. ' Here ya go Daddy'. There are more but that is all I can remember for now. So cute and it is getting much easier to communicate with her now. Thank goodness. I started back to work this past Thursday. I am just easing my way back into my normal 3 days per week. The grandmas are taking turns watching Kennon here at the house so he doesn't have to go to Kim's. Speaking of Kim's....we are making a switch in a couple of weeks. Maddox and Kennon will BOTH start at Kindercare on August 23rd! Eric and I are excited for both of them to have the benefits of a center rather than a home setting. Cross your fingers it is a smooth transition for Maddox.