Veteran's Day

Yesterday, we paused to remember all of the men and women who have in the past and are currently fighting to keep our country free. Thank you to all of you.
If Byron's father had not passed away last month, yesterday, he would have celebrated his 92nd birthday. Yes, on Veteran's Day. Fred served in WWII-- through five major campaigns. He worked as the crew chief for a P51 Mustang Unit. The first pilot he served under was shot down. The second pilot, was a well known General-- General Kepner, who was over the 8th Air Force. I always enjoyed hearing Fred's stories of his time during the war. I don't think they realized they were doing anything spectacularly brave-- they were just doing what needed to be done.
One final, very interesting fact-- Fred was born in 1918 on the day of what became the very first "Veterans Day"--- Armistice Day, the end of WWI.

A World of Wonder

Reese bounced back to her fine form. Here's a snippet of tonight's conversation:
Reese: "How long will it take me to grow up?"
Me: "A long, long time."
Reese: "Oh, so about 8 days?"
Me: "No a lot longer than that."
Reese: "Oh, okay, about 16 days."

Reesey, by the way, had quite the exciting day at preschool. She has told just about everyone who will listen. They are studying the letter G. And today (Wednesdays are cooking days), they made gingerbread men. So while the "boys" were cooking, the kids had playtime. When they came in to get them out of the oven... oh no, guess what? The boys were gone. They had run away and left a note saying something about "catch me as fast as you can"! The note led them on a scavenger hunt from room to room, until they finally found their gingerbread men waiting for them to decorate them and then, dare I say... to eat them!
She has spent much of the evening trying to figure out how they got themselves out of the oven.
Don't ya just love how gullible and innocent and full of wonder little kids are?

Prayers

Today turned out to be a rough one for little Reese. We got up this morning and her brand new goldfish (we just bought it 3 days ago) was floating in the bowl. So we had an impromptu funeral around the bigger bowl (the toilet) before school. After each of us talked about what a good fish Sparkle was, Reese said a very sweet little prayer. She asked Heavenly Father to be nice to Sparkle and to have fun with him.
Dinnertime turned out to be another memorable prayer time. Greer volunteered to give the blessing on the food because she was starving. She quickly launched into the prayer-- talking soo fast it was next to impossible to understand her. So we stopped her and had her start over--reminding her that she was talking to her Heavenly Father.
Well, lets just say, she took our words to heart. She prayed and prayed and prayed. She thanked the Lord for-- I think, just about everything. For the fish, for the applesauce my parents and I bottled this week, for the apples we got to pick, on and on and on-- she even thanked him for the pumpkin seeds we roasted. Holland started sighing. I started biting my cheeks, my tongue, my lips to keep from giggling out loud. It was priceless. Thankfully it ended before everything was completely cold or we had all passed away from hunger.
Sure wish you could've been there. Especially for part two of the dinner.
First, I must make this disclaimer. The picture following is not from tonight!!! The first clue should be that Reese is smiling.
Tonight we had squash for dinner. You know, that orange, butternut yummy kind? I even cooked it with butter and brown sugar. Byron liked it. I liked it. Greer liked it. But Holland didn't like it. And since Holland didn't like it, Reese decided she didn't like it either, before she even tasted it! I told her she had to have two bites before leaving the table.
Let's just say, I left the house an hour and a half later (and lots of crying and gnashing of teeth later) to go somewhere with my mom-- and Reese was still sitting at the table with her squash on her plate.
My sources tell me, she finally ate the squash.
Parents 1
Reese 0

Better Late Than Never

Somehow, we skipped the yearly tradition of carving pumpkins this year. About two months ago, the girls decorated their pumpkins with Sharpies. I thought that would count-- but, alas, I was wrong. Holland rounded up the troops last night while I bathed and fed Kean. And they got 'er done and had a blast while doing it. I think Reese just supervised (0r bossed). Here are the girls with the finished pumpkins: And each girl with her own creation.

Reese got a little help from her dad. Really, you thought we'd let her loose with a knife?

We just like to milk every holiday for as much as we can.

Finally a good doctor's appointment!

Ahhh! What a relief. We got some great news today at the doctor's office-- little Kean gained 1 pound and 1/2 an ounce. That may not sound like huge news, but trust me, it is. A month and a half ago, we found out his thyroid was not working and the little guy was falling off the growth charts and quickly. So since then, our lives have revolved around eating and keeping him regular. And let me tell ya, it's been a bit stressful. But now we know, it's working. He only grew a quarter of an inch in length, (in a month), but hey, we'll take it and keep our fingers crossed he won't be the first pygmy in the Barker/Leavitt family lines.
On Monday we spent an hour meeting with a dietitian at the hospital. After today's good report, maybe, just maybe, we won't have to go back if he keeps this up.
So here are his stats: he is almost 15 months old and he weighs 17 pounds point 5 ounces. And his length is 26 and 3/4 inches long. His mop of hair probably accounts for at least a pound of that weight!

C'mon In!

Kean had a hot date today, make that a play date-- with one of his first friends on this earth, Emily. Emily and Kean were in NICU together. Emily's twin, Nadia passed away at St. Luke's and little Emily who was a "micro" preemie fought her way through Intensive Care and is now 18 months old. She lives in Hailey, ID but had a specialist appointment today in Boise. So Emily and her mom, my very dear friend and sounding board, Kelly spent the morning with us. I'm not sure Kean was very aware of Miss Em, and he did have pants on to greet her (we took them off for therapy). Isn't she a cutie?

Their visit went by all too quickly. Lucky for us, Emily will have more doctors appointments in Boise.

Kean, by the way, is getting stronger and stronger. He may not be able to run around like Emily, but his trunk muscles are building and he's able to sit for longer periods of time. And just last night, he was on his tummy and scooted back about two feet until his legs were under the couch. Our little mild mannered sweet boy sure let us know he did not like being trapped!

As always, Reese can't leave Kean alone. I swear I spend half of his therapy sessions telling Reese that it's Maureen's turn to play with him. Thankfully, Maureen is the master of patience.

Another Halloween is History...

Don't know about you... but I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I love how excited the kiddos get and how much fun they have dressing up-- but I hate, hate, hate all the loads and loads of candy. My children take after their father, they are all sugar addicts. I guess we can look at the whole rigmarole as stimulating the economy -- for dentists!
We had quite the booked weekend. On Saturday, we all schlepped down to Mrs. Kwid's house- she's our neighbor and Greer's 2nd grade teacher. Each year, she has her entire class and their families over to pick pumpkins out of her garden, eat too many cookies and drink apple cider and go on a hay ride to see the fall leaves. She's very, very brave, isn't she?
Don't mind that my girls dressed like it was a hot summer day (instead of a cool, crisp fall day). Notice how everyone is bundled up but them. Where are the parents, I ask you?

Saturday night, we got the kids decked out for our church's "Trunk or Treat". This is the first year Holland has gone "dark". She was a vampire princess this year. My mom cut up an old prom dress to fit her-- and we made a velvet cloak. Byron was the artistic director for the blood pouring out of her mouth. My friend, Joanne, gave us the cow costume for Kean. His bib says: "I drink my moo, I do my poo. That's all I do!"

At the church, we had a huge pot luck dinner, games for the kids and then... the much awaited and anticipated "Trunk or Treat".

This guy was passing out glow sticks. Notice how Greer and Reese wouldn't get too close to him.

The kids cleaned up in the candy department-- and it wasn't even Halloween night. On Sunday-- the real Halloween, we went to my cousins' house for a pot luck dinner, then Byron took the girls out to hit a few houses-- Grandpa Bodily's, Uncle Craig's etc. Sadly, our yearly tradition since we moved here of going to Nancy's house next door didn't happen- since her house is no longer there. Darn fire! It's still having an impact on all of us (especially Nancy).