Birthdays

We've had a string of birthdays. Kenna turned NINE in June...

 Abundantly blessed with gifts and talents, she's our little Renaissance Girl. All she asked for was a heart shaped silver locket with her parents' pics in side. Okay, why don't you just melt our hearts into a puddle right here on the floor. That girl... such a beauty inside and out.

(Being just one year apart in school, Kenna and Will have lots of mutual friends. At times it can be frustrating for one or the other, but I don't think Will minded joining in on the pillow fight...)


Des turned ONE in July...

 Walking at 9 months, this kid has always been on the move. And he's pretty happy about it too. Except when I squelch all his escape artist tendencies and keep every door locked tight.

 (Unfortunately, when you're #5, mom takes advantage of your innocence and concocts some lame healthy "cake" instead of making you a decked out puppy dog cake or something awesome like that.)

Summer turned the magical age of THREE in August...

That was a long time in coming and she was sooo patient.

 Her cuteness and endearing behaviors cannot be put to words. And while she's not the easiest 3 yr old in the world, she makes up for all frustrations by her incredible bottomless affection.

Oh, she's a treasure!!

Her only birthday request was a pink kangaroo cake. Done.

Little Munchkins

Resting up and laying low, but discovered this old post... these two are a tornado of love, destruction and affection.

Des melts our hearts (took 20+ steps yesterday for Kenna's birthday!) and Summer cracks us up. Sure glad they have each other, especially lately.

"But I want to read in the bath!"

Rather than taking out stock in Bandaids, now attempting to make them last longer. (No owie under there, by the way. She sneaks them on any bonk or bruise when she can find my latest hiding place.)

just giving 'em an extra "rinse" Mom!

paintbrush in each hand

his favorite spot in the house

bowling for brekkie

"Why are you taking pictures when it's obvious you should be rescuing me???"

Can't turn your back on this one after 3:00pm or she's sawing logs. Problem is, even if it's just 10 minutes she's bouncing off the walls until midnight. We could all use a bit more sleep 'round here.

But as a friend reminded me after a particularly rough night and 5am beginning "You can sleep when you die." (True that.) Or when your amazing friends offer to take them off your hands so you can sleep like a rock for 4 hours... thank you thank you thank you dear friends!!

Mobile

 Not sure if we've ever had a child get mobile by 6 months, but I'm pretty apprehensive about it. I'm a proud mama, don't get me wrong, but dang - we're in for it. He's moving fast. Within a 48 hour period he cut his first tooth then learned to crawl, unstrap his diaper and pull up on everything in sight. He was so pleased with himself, giving us looks like "Hey, look at me, I can do cool stuff, too!" Then he grins ear to ear and giggles himself right over onto the floor again. I'm not surprised, his legs are super strong from 6 months of non-stop bouncing on every hard surface they touch.


It is all incredibly endearing. He's just so big now. And adorable ~ the kids eat him up about as much as I do. I tell you what, each milestone gets better now that we have all these bigger kids to enjoy them with.

I'm afraid it's the end of sanity for me though - nothing's safe anymore. And neither is he.

Funny thing, with your first you're all about keeping the carpet vacuumed and not buying any toys with small parts. With your fifth, you just count your blessings if they haven't fallen down the stairs by the end of the day. With all the Barbie shoes, Legos and Polly Pockets scattered about - here's hoping his guardian angels are looking sharp.

Tongue Tied

before

after

 A few weeks ago, Desmond had a small surgery to release his tongue. He was born "tongue-tied" or with an "attached tongue" that the nurse noticed on her check up at our home a week later. His frenulum was too tight. What? You don't know that word? Me neither. It's that thin piece of skin under the tongue that attaches it to your mouth - his extended almost to the tip. Nursing was okay, but when he tried to stick out his tongue it would get all forked, not pointed like a normal extended tongue. Not a big deal, but when you can't push your tongue past your bottom lip it means you can't lick an icecream or clean between your teeth properly and sometimes leads to speech impediments. Anyway, we decided to have it clipped.

We waited ages to see the one doc who does them regularly (and then he was over an hour late each of the three times we saw him that day - which royally ticked me off as I tried to soothe a "fasting" nursing baby!) But seven hours and over two grand later*, it was freed! I was sorta ticked when I was told the doc could've done it at a week one or two in 30 (free) seconds during a check up in his office, but you live you learn. The hospital time was actually really nice to have with my little guy. Des and I don't often get to indulge in one on one cuddle time. It actually happened before school resumed so Will even earned a good chunk of his camp $ by babysitting basically all day. Here's the happy little man now.

I have yet to get a shot of him extending it very far, it may be a bit painful still. Funny enough, we've discovered both Annie and Darren also have (less severe) attached tongues. They both always wondered why they couldn't stick out their tongues as far as other kids. It's genetic - go figure. A great little party trick though.

*insurance will reimburse most of it but it would've been nice to avoid the time suck of organizing, copying, filling out and mailing the separate receipts/reimbursal forms for the doctor/hospital/clinic/anesthetist/surgeon, etc. One of the downsides of living overseas...

Growing

Mostly for the grandparents. I came across this draft post of pictures and figured I better publish before they're all obsolete...

always a hit in Primary - huge distraction actually

at least she is "safe" as she chokes on her cheese

apparently determined to never again find my purse empty of snacks

rolling, rolling, rolling

Still one of my favorite photos of these gals