Nine Months

Last week (27th), Colby turned nine months which meant it was time for a well visit to check in on how things are going.  It also worked out nicely since we had been in exactly one week previously for his ear infection and pink eye so now the doc could check to see if the ear infection was gone (it was).  I had made an attempt to combine his sick visit and well visit into one visit when he was sick but the blasted insurance wouldn't cover it because it would be five days before he turned nine months.  Somehow computers just aren't smart enough to figure out,  "Gee, I see this baby is about to turn nine months in a few days and here he is at the doctor's getting a well visit.  I think we can go ahead and count this as his nine month well visit." But, I guess we at least have insurance so I shouldn't complain.  Or wait, doesn't everyone have it now so I that argument wouldn't hold up.  At any rate, I was trying to save myself a trip back and forth but it wasn't meant to be.

Everything went great.  I have noticed for several months that he's had a little mole type spot in a private spot (not his boy parts) but the doctor said it was fine.  His weight percentile has dropped a little but he's still on a nice upward slope for himself so all is well.  Most importantly, it seems very likely he will be at the magical weight of 20 pounds (at least) when he hits one year of age so I can switch his car seat forward.  I am not one of those people who holds out until two years of age and frankly, I don't know how people manage it!  I would go insane.  But then, Colby isn't that great of a car seat kid anyway which is probably why I'm counting down the days.  

               Colby                         Brady                            Aubree                         Calleigh

W            18 lbs, 14 oz (25th)   15 lbs, 13 oz (0th)          16 lbs, 10 oz (15th)      Too much

H             28.5 inch (50th)         26 3/4 inch (10th)           27.5 inch (50th)            work to 

Hd           18 inch (50 - 75th)     17.5 inch (25th)              17.5 (75th)                    find

Going back to the beginning of last week, it was Memorial Day.  Duncan, of course, had the day off work.  In the morning he took Calaubra blueberry picking which may have been the last hurrah of the season.  I think it's about to close any day now which will be devastating.  It's been so nice having fresh berries every day.  After that we headed over to Babies R Us to get a new car seat for Colby.  He will need a new car seat once we turn him around so we figured we might as well just get it now and keep it rear facing.  We got a Chicco and it is really easy to install and tighten and untighten.  It's nice to see that they're making improvements in that area since one of the things I hate is trying to move car seats from one car to another. While we were looking around, Duncan and Calleigh spotted a nice booster seat that we ended up getting for her.  She's still been in a five-point harness car seat although she's very annoyed at that fact.  But I've wanted that for the ability to recline it when we travel overnight (plus, it's safer).  In the end, we decided to let her have the booster but we would keep the car seat for trips.  We'll put the car seat in Duncan's car so that when he wants to take Brady somewhere, they can go in Duncan's car and not have to move Brady's car seat over.  So now everyone is happy.  

Calleigh reported that she picked as many blueberries as Aubree this time.  Wow.  She worked as hard as Aubree.  Unheard of!

Babies R Us in their red/white/blue for Memorial Day.

The new car seat.

Seems to be a hit.

Wednesday was kind of a downer of a day.  We got several pieces of crummy news (nobody dying or anything fortunately) and then it was all topped off with losing our baby monitor.  Ricky and Ana had come over for a Spanish lesson and then were playing with the kids upstairs.  I put Colby to bed and went into the school room to get the monitor and it was nowhere to be seen.  I always have it in there because I bring it in with me during school while the boys are napping.  I was POSITIVE I had left it in there.  The kids were already in bed (but not asleep) so I went to question them and the girls and Brady seemed to recall that Brady had been playing with it in the school room.  Of course, you can never really trust their memories because for all we knew, that could have been three days ago but it felt like that day.  But, this did seem the most likely scenario.  I called Duncan, Ricky, and Ana up and we seriously must have looked for at least 30 minutes in every possible spot we could think of upstairs including Colby's room three times, trying to be very quiet not to wake him up.  I was certain it wasn't downstairs but I looked down there too just to be sure.  I was so disgusted because it meant I would have to sleep in the guest room that night not to mention that we were having company staying over for the weekend which meant I wouldn't be able to sleep in the guest room starting Friday night.  We would either have to find it by then or buy a new one (or suffer through Colby sleeping in our room in a pack-n-play which I did not want to do).  Prayers were said many times but to no avail.  We did offer a reward of $10 in the hopes that the kids would keep looking for it the next day.

I checked a bunch more places on Thursday morning and kept asking Brady if he remembered anything.  I tried walking him through things but he would just laugh and say "no" every time I would ask "Did you bring it into the beach room?" or wherever.  We had school as usual and Brady woke up a little early and came into the school room while we were still having school.  About five minutes later, he shouts, "There's the monitor!" Sure enough, that stinking thing was in the white caddy we have sitting on the table.  Yes, right there in front of our eyes.  I'm sure I looked in there but I think because the back of the monitor is white, it somehow blended in.  I asked Brady if he put it in there and he said "Yup."  Then, to top it all off, we had to give him the $10 reward.  So the person who put it in there and lost it, gets to find it and collect $10.  What a country!  I guess when you're two, you can get away with that.  But really, the worst thing about it all was when I texted Duncan the good news and he texted back "Do you remember putting it there?"  I'm pretty sure he thought I was the one who really lost it and was trying to blame it on Brady.  

The aforementioned company we had coming for the weekend was Cory and Amanda Reeves.  Cory had some meetings at corporate so he brought the family with him.  They were supposed to get here Friday evening but they were in the process of moving out of their house and didn't end up leaving until really late in the day.  Hence, they met us at church and then came over afterwards.  The kids were just thrilled to have them here and had a great time playing in the backyard and then later we went over to Chapin Station. There is a huge sandbox there and even though we didn't bring any shovels or buckets or anything with us, they spent most of time in there building castles, walls, and moats.  Just as they had finished, a little boy, maybe barely two, chased a ball that landed near all their castles, etc and started running through everything and stepping on it all.  I'm sure he didn't realize what he was doing and he was too little to really understand when we told him to stop.  So I ran after him and quickly picked him up and moved him out of the way.  Then, in hindsight I was wondering if that was appropriate.  I don't think his mom was nearby so I'm not sure if she saw me pick him up but I don't know if I should have asked first or what.  Obviously it happened very quickly.  At any rate, they had to rebuild a bunch of stuff but they didn't seem too upset fortunately.

It's hard to see but this is where they built all their creations.

They left Sunday morning to go to Legoland.  I was tempted to join them as they had some Buy One, Get One coupons but A) I couldn't see myself going on a Sunday when it would be horribly busy and B) It was still cost a whole bunch more than it would cost if we just went on a homeschool day like we usually do.  So in the end, we didn't join them.  Cory texted us later to say that it was rainy and they were soaked but there were hardly any lines and they had a blast.  I guess we should have gone.  Oh well!  Incidentally, when I was at the homeschool convention, they had a Legoland booth there which is when I found out that weekends are very busy and that you actually can go just about any Monday of the year and show some identification that you homeschool, and you can get the homeschool rate ($25 for adults and $10 for kids).  You do not need to go with a group.  That was nice to discover.  Maybe in the fall Duncan can take a Monday off and we'll all go.

Here are some pictures of other things going on:

 

Memorial Day evening we had a goodbye supper at the pool for our neighbors, the Neumans, who are moving back to North Carolina.  We didn't know them long but they and their six kids were fun!

Colby went in the pool for the first time and loved it.  He may only last two minutes, if that, in an exersaucer or Johnny Jump Up, but he stayed in this floaty for at least 30 minutes and we only took him out because he was getting cold.

Very excited that a new breakfast joint is opening right next to our Publix.  Could this be our new First Watch?  It's called "The Breakfast Club" but it looks like they need to trim that tree back.  

I thought it was cute when I found all four kids playing together with this birthday cake toy.

We've been studying coins/money in school which prompted us to start a state quarter collection and also the new one on national parks.   

Founds some new rain boots and rain jacket for Brady at the consignment store.  Getting ready for campmeeting.  Prayiing we won't need this stuff!  Calleigh was excited to do a photo bomb.  

Calleigh reading the bedtime story.  I shamed her into it by showing her a picture of Braelyn reading a bedtime story to the twins.  Thanks for posting that picture Allen!

Colby enjoying the bells at Sabbath School.  I'm sure the germs from the kid that did this last week died off in the seven intermittent days.  

I guess if you have a bunch of kids, Allegiant Air isn't for you.  

We went to Costo yesterday and Calleigh somehow tried a sample of pasta with tomato sauce on it which she hasn't eaten in YEARS (the sauce, that is)...steadfastly claiming she doesn't like it.  Surprise, surprise!  She actually does and requested it for supper tonight.  Thank you Lord!

That's the news from here.  Have a great week!