Baby Genius...

I guessed right in the below post...

So Tommy was playing in his cup drawer in the kitchen this afternoon, it started as the bottle drawer and now holds his straw cups. He ALWAYS is taking items out and what not. Today he took a few things out and THEN climbed in....this is gettin' good I thought and grabbed the camera...notice the white measuring cup in his hand and the thinking looks he has. See I started putting miscellaneous items in the drawer since our kitchen lacks in storage space. He also watched me put stuff away during meals where I feed him in between doing my kitchen chores. He also likes to play in our silverware drawer which is in perfect position to him when he's in his highchair- it's an over sized drawer and ALSO houses some measuring cups like the one he found. After I did the pictures I realize he was holding this cup the entire time he was climbing out of the drawer. I put the camera up before realizing he was headed over to the silverware drawer. he just banged on the drawer and grunted for me to open it, I did and he threw the cup in the drawer and slammed it closed....what a boy?!?!? Goodness, I can't even explain how proud and shocked I was at this.

P.S. Yes markers are a part of his art time. He has "art" about 10 times a day! Notice his leg, our floors, our walls and his face in future pics ;)

First Day of School, August 26

Robby and Kaitlyn out in the chilly, fresh morning air at 7am waiting for the bus this past Tuesday!

They have their same bus driver, Mr. Bill from last year and are excited.

They both have great teachers. Robby's teacher is younger, hopefully she still thinks kids in elementary school should have neat handwriting! Seems both of Kaitlyn and Robby's teachers in the past don't seem to be bothered with chicken scratch and it's driving me nuts!

I was touched today when Kaitlyn's teacher pulled me aside while I was up visiting for lunch. She said she almost cried reading the letter we wrote. I must clarify, Larry wrote it and signed both of our names. She had requested a note to her about our child to help her get to know the children. I'd probably written "She's a great help when she wants to be, she can be the sassiest girl God made at times. She will kiss up to any teacher, so you are fine." Instead Larry wrote the most sweet, sincere thing ever. I teared up reading it myself! I made a copy of it for her babybook. He just saw past her sassy pants and wrote about her. he mentioned her being a young Christian and her love of singing church songs....that she was taking piano lessons but her true passion is riding horses and how she just recently had her first show. Her teacher was touched to know she was a Christian as she is one too. God is good and with so many speaking of how God is being kicked out of school, I'm glad to know that at least one of our kids has a Christian role model in the classroom.

Kimberlyn had her kindergarten testing today. Her teacher was thrilled at how well she did. She actually talked too! She is one shy girl... There was a part during the testing that most are having troubles with and Kimberlyn did it well. She knows all but a few letters when having to recognize them in upper case and lower case. She starts school on Thursday! And will join the other two on the bus! YIKES...not sure I'm ready for this!

While she's at school I'll try to get going on back tracking...have a handful of cool pictures and things we've done....oh, wait I'll barely have time to shower after she catches the bus. Silly me I forgot...she's in school less than 3 hours, less tha she was in Pre-K....AM Kindergarten is 7:45am to 10:20am ---

Oh, oh....boy, oh boy...I'm behind. Last thing before I try to catch a nap. Tommy is definitely a handful. I love every second- but on teh kids' first day of school he explained (through actions) that we MUST use baby gates in our home. I'll leave it at that. My fingers would be too sore from typing if I typed out every thing Trouble T (known better lately as Bruiser) gets into!

BUT....you may be interested in his Speech Evaluation...it was on Wednesday and he did great. First thing the lady asked me was what was my main concern? Um, if you know me, you won't be shocked at this...I told her honestly I shouldn't say this, BUT I HAVE NO CONCERN AT ALL! She is the first person in the medical so to speak community to not look at me like I had two heads when I explained WHY I have no concerns.

They scored him in like 5 or 6 categories and the last category being actual language. All but the last he scored at his adgusted age to a two year old level. What a baby genius we have! For language he scored at below a one year old level...didn't you all know every one year old should be speaking?!?!?! RIGHT!

The end result is yes, he needs therapy. She told me sometimes they just know the child will catch up in a few months w/o therapy, or they know the child needs therapy. For Tommy she said she wasn't sure and we'll never know if the therapy is what helped. BUT she did agree with our pediatrician's recommendation based on him being so at risk for speech delays from being a 28-weeker AND having ear infection/tube issues. It can't hurt and costs us nothing but time. We can handle it. He's on the waiting list and I'm waiting to hear WHEN they think he'll be starting therapy. The list is long and is based on the need of each child. We're blessed he's not needing it so badly that he's bumped to the top of the list!

Ohio Caverns

August 7, 2008
We went to the Ohio Caverns with a group from church. ON the way home we stopped at Young's Jersey Dairy Farm...yes, YUMMY!

Tommy did fine on the mile long tour through the cavern, well fine as long as we weren't stopped. He had no desire to be still and listen, yep he's a typical 1 1/2 year old kid! He did enjoy it much when we were walking, until so close calls with teh ceiling, he was VERY interested in touching it. It's bad for it to be touched, quite honestly I didn't absorb half the cool infor our tour guide offered up....something about it'll damage it.

The kids had fun there. We had a picnic lunch after mining some rocks. ANd on the wya home we pulle doff at Youngs DAiry for ice cream and goat feeding. Tommy is an animal freak and adores all animals. When I get the next batch of pictures uploaded you;ll see the beautiful scrape on his head. He was anxious to get to on of the animals in the barn and was looking at me while getting there....yep head first into the fence of the animal....don't even recall which one....minor details :)

Enjoy! The Caverns




The mining...




Kimberlyn and Tommy could not wait until picnic time to start eating lunch :)


The goats....yes, I do believe the last goat picture the goat was deciding if Tommy would taste good or not!




The tractor playground....Tommy loves any steering wheel...this one hit the spot well!

Random Ramblings....

Just Today:
Tommy finished his 1/2 gallon of whole milk before it expired for the first time!

Tommy allowed me to shower while he was awake and didn't scream bloody murder!
-PLUS he found my lint brush and pedicure file thing as he rummaged through my room.
-AND he attempted to block me in the shower with the plastic storage drawers in the bathroom.

Tommy ventured upstairs and played nicely with his brother and sisters in their rooms. He's not been allowed to venture uptairs alone as of yet...I guess he thinks he's good to go now!

Tommy again refused to eat breakfast from Mom, he is more than happy to feed himself when he spots his cool spoon...this is a new habit that Mom is not quite ready to welcome yet!

Nice change of pace compared to the screaming I'm accustomed to hearing. He had fun and found misplaced items for me!

Picture Overload

Over the hills and through the woods to Grandma's house we go....

'Bout time for some pictures from our visit in Omaha last month. Yes, this is JUST SOME of them ;)

Cool effect...Kimberlyn under the pontoon at the opposite end as me.


Three crazy kids wearing Tucker out!


Kaitlyn having a blast with Tucker....may even be fitting to say Tucker having a blast with Kaitlyn!


Poor Tommy!!! Tucker just shook off all that lake water onto TOMMY!


Tommy trying out this getting wet business...basically whenever he wore his swim suit he didn't get wet. So, I gave up on him wearing a swimsuit and he had a blst soaking his clothes!


Three Nance fish in a train....no fear...they were out far and as one may expect, Kimberlyn is officially swimming now! Didn't catch a good picture of that w/o her lifevest on.

What would the trip be w/o a toad??
Toad with Robby...

Toad with Kaitlyn...

Girls decked out with leftover 4th of July party favors...

Mom decked out too...

4-wheeler rides from Grandma...

Kimberlyn sportin' cute googles...

Proud mama here...Tommy actually making his "brum-brum" sound while making the car GO!

We took the boat out to the middle of the lake a few times and let the kids jump overboard! They loved it!
Robby...

Kimberlyn...

Kaitlyn....

and Tommy...








NOT!!! Sorry although he desired to go overboard, I put my foot down and said no! Tommy wishing he could jump too.


4 Nances on the beach! I loved this, it was fun to catch as I told the older ones to look at me and smile, to let Tommy be...that was hard, BUT boy did the picture turn out cute!

The older kids tried everything to make Tommy understand that floaties are fun, he didn't buy it! In fact when the floatie was on the beach he'd walk by/around it as if it'd come to life and attack him if he blinked!

Mommy and Tommy out on the lake!

Neat picture of the girls and Grandpa Nance

Robby and Kaitlyn being silly while Grandma drove the boat

Tommy DIGGING...he watched Kaitlyn and decided to give digging a try, but oh, my did it leave his hands a bit sandy :)

Last day at Grandma's house....actually LAST MORNING! Kaitlyn insisted on swimming before heading out. It was a slightly chilly as it was barely 8am! So, yes Tommy is yawning!

The kids enjoying a last snack while I packed the last few things into the van!

Tommy the head dunker...
Tommy has been dunking his head in the water in his baths for a while now, but I didn't expect him to do it at the lake...he was doing this over and over and I couldn't help posting the progression! He was having so much fun.

Check this out...help support a great cause! Click link below picture...

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2008/08/cfhusband-goes-bald.html

Grapes, anyone?

July 9, 2008
Seriously...Day one on the road to Grandma's house in Omaha, NE. I washed the grapes at home a couple days before leaving. We put them into a ziploc baggy and took them in our cooler for a snack on the road. Kaitlyn was munching on them in the hotel room when she alerted me to a lady bug. I htought she was nuts...as this hardy guy had to have spent 3-4 days in a fridge or on ice! No, kidding, here's her snack buddy?!?!?

After releasing him, we washed teh grapes again and continued to eat them...we figured they were tasting fine to begin with and God only knows how long the ladybug had been hanging out in there!