Major Trouble

I had to post this picture. Any time a dad in Tennessee can put his infant son in camouflage, I think he is obligated by the state to post a picture.
Some friends of ours gave us a bunch of clothes for Owen that their son had outgrown, which was absolutely wonderful. It happens that the dad of the family who gave us these clothes is a Marine. So, we got some fun stuff like this camouflage "Major Trouble" shirt. I think with the hearing aid in, Owen could be special forces. What do you think?

NOTE: Bonus post below. James is on the computer while everyone is sleeping...

A Day In The Park

The Sunday before last the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so after church we packed everyone up in the van and headed to Smoky Mountain National Park. We had a nice pic-nic lunch at the Cade's Cove pic-nic ground followed by a short hike on a nearby trail. We only hiked about a quarter mile probably, but I think everyone had a nice time. Kate was a little disappointed at first because we said we were going to the park, which to her means the local park by the school where there is a play ground. So when we got to the National Park and there were no swings or slides we had a moment of tears and confusion until she understood that you could climb on the rocks, play in the stream and get really dirty hiking. I have to admit though, although this was all fun, we still had to make a short visit to the local park that evening for some swinging and slide time.

A full night's sleep

Owen slept from after his last feeding around 10:30PM until 6:30 this morning. Yeah! I'm not getting my hopes up that it will be a regular occurrence yet, but at least it's a light at the end of the tunnel (I hope!).

So why is it that I'm still so tired?? My two-year-old is wearing me out! It also doesn't help that the kids "tag team" me - that's my term for alternating nap schedules. One goes down and the other gets up, so there's never a break. I guess it could be worse, Kate could not take a nap at all. I'm very thankful that she still naps!

Anyway, here's hoping for another full night's sleep.

Here she is... Miss Miracle?

I know, I know, three posts in two days. You are stunned!

I realize I have gotten away from just posting about fun stuff, and Kate is kind of funny these days, so I thought of a few little things you might enjoy.

Kate loves to sing. She can keep a tune pretty well - though she's no Hero Ha, she is entertaining. Mostly, she likes to sing to Owen by making up songs to the tunes of ABC's and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Her favorite lately is Owey Owey Owey O, Owey O, Owey O (sung to either tune) - you get the picture. It's amusing. Owey is pronounced with a long O, as in Owen and is her nickname for him. She also calls him Owey bub, or Owey child (I don't know where she picked that up, but she's been calling him 'child' this week).

I mentioned that Kate's really been coming out of her shell. The other day we went to Kroger around lunch time. As we were leaving, she noticed a few employees eating lunch together at a table outside. She said something about eating lunch and I said yes, we would be eating when we got home. She said, "No, Mom. I want to eat lunch with them!" and pointed behind us at the group at the table. Just wanted to make a few new friends, I guess.

One more. Yesterday Kate and I were playing in her room and she found some Mardi Gras beads we brought home from Nana's house. She loves these necklaces and was very sad when she put a few of them on Mattie, who broke them trying to get them off with her paw. Anyway, she put one on me and then got this little twinkle in her eye. She smoothed my hair a few times very gently and said, "You Miss Miracle". She's been playing with a few older girls lately who like to dress up, and I imagine they were pretending to be Miss America. Either way, I'd take being Miss America or Miss Miracle in her eyes. I never know what she's going to come up with!

New Territory

James wanted to title this post "Can you hear me now?", but I ignored him.

Owen got his first hearing aid on Monday! He only got one, as they start children off with loaner hearing aids and the loaner bank is evidently running low these days. We received training on how to work the hearing aid, take care of it, and how to put it in - it's taking some practice! When the audiologist put it in his ear and started talking to him for the first time, he opened his eyes wide and looked over at her - you could really tell he was noticing a difference. She said it was definitely a positive response. Although he can hear normal conversation, the hearing aid should make it clearer and easier to hear certain soft sounds.

Right now, he's only wearing it for about 20 minutes, once a day when Kate is napping. You're supposed to start off in a quiet environment with only one person talking, so Kate pretty much has to be gone or sleeping. The guideline is a 4-week process to gradually ease him into wearing it all the time (at least when he's awake). We go back in 2 weeks to see how he's doing with the loaner and they will then write a prescription for his permanent hearing aids. I took some pictures on Tuesday, the day after he got the hearing aid (the audiologist called it his "hearing birthday"). She recommended the blue and white ear molds (which James says is a sign that UNC is going to win the NCAA championship). You can get those in any color. We might try clear next time - or maybe Tennessee orange. The hearing aids also come in any color (though not the loaners).



PS - don't miss the Easter post below.

Easter in Belleville

We spent Easter and the following week in Belleville, Illinois with my parents. James has an annual meeting in St. Louis that we tag along to and make a nice long visit out of. This year it happened to fall on Easter. We got everyone dressed and headed to my parents' church - IN THE SNOW! It snowed much of the morning but didn't accumulate. We put the kids in the nursery and luckily they were in the same room, so Kate got to 'help' with Owen. Later that day we had an easter egg hunt in the basement (it was snowing, after all). We had a tough time getting Kate to leave opening the eggs until after she had found them all. Aunt Becky helped her open all the eggs afterward (and helped eat some chocolate?). It was a very nice visit but it flew by. We got to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law and it was the last time we all got to see my sister before she "deploys" to the UAE. As if you can really call Dubai a deployment, Carrie... (Just kidding!)

It seems like it's really tough to get good pictures these days, as Kate is never in the mood when the camera is out, or we're just doing good to have everyone awake at the same time, let alone smiling or at least not crying. But here are some of the pictures we took.

Check out those socks!

Probably should have taken pictures BEFORE church...

Kate playing Grandpa's 'pi-no'