All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

After all the drama of the tooth coming out (and there was lots of drama!), he said he wants to keep it instead of putting it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. I said that was up to him, and that the Tooth Fairy probably wouldn't go broke quite as soon that way. ;) Here he is holding it in the little tooth case he usually uses for when he puts them under his pillow. This is his fourth tooth he has lost. I'm hoping it will be a while before he loses any more!

A Bunch of This and That

Where to start?

I've decided to do a casserole-style post today since I have lots to share and don't feel like doing 5 separate posts. So I'm just going to combine everything here and hope it doesn't leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. :)

Speaking of mouths... Ethan lost another tooth a little over a week ago. It didn't happen without tears, drama, and a couple phone calls to Nana, though. Here he is after all the above-mentioned was over:

The kids spent the afternoon playing outside:

The girls made Ethan's soccer goal into a tent and had fun hiding inside and pulling up grass.

Seth pitched some balls for Ethan to hit. (Pardon the poor photo quality, no time to Photoshop!)

Kibby loves to be tickled while swinging, evidently.

Little Ruby!

Ruby loves her dollies. In fact, she loves all things BABY lately.

However, MY baby is growing up. Soon to be two years old. How did that happen?! Here she is, sporting all of her hair in pigtails (ponytails?) for the first time. (Yes, I know they are crooked! She kept looking around the room while I was putting them in.)

More proof that she loves her dollies. Everyday she pats my tummy and says "Baby!" She also loves to see pictures of babies on the computer, or TV, or on billboards, or in real life... she has been nearly obsessed with babies lately. I'm hoping her affection continues and she'll be nice to her baby brother. Who is due to make his arrival in approximately FIVE WEEKS! He will be one of her birthday presents, most likely, as my due date is the day after Ruby's birthday.

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Switching gears...

Kibby had her Speech / Language evaluation yesterday. I was amazed at how uninhibited she was through it all. At first she didn't want to go in the room, and sat down on the floor, crying "No I don't want to!" Of course this may have been influenced by her hearing the doctor talk about how the hall was quiet at the moment, but they had had a bunch of kids in for shots earlier and it was a big old cry-fest... JUST what Kibby wanted to hear. I had to try to convince her that she wasn't there to get shots, only to play and talk with the doctor...

Once Kibby settled in to play with some toys at the table, things went better. Sort of. She surprised me with how assertive she was being. In fact, it was a little embarrassing at times! She has a hard time focusing on what she is being asked, so the doctor was trying to get her to answer some questions and then reward her with a toy to play with. Well, that has never worked well for Kibby. She just fixates on the toy and cries for it, saying "I want it! I want the ____!" She was being so demanding and trying to grab the toys... I couldn't believe it. She was acting exactly like she does at home. Which isn't necessarily bad... just embarrassing, like I said. The only good thing about it is that the doctor got to see her true colors! The real Kibby.

The doctor did manage to get the evaluation done, but I wonder if it took longer than most. I'll never know. I did get some more insight on her language issues, though. I don't have the report yet (they'll mail it to me) so this will be vague until I have the report to look at, but she said Kibby does have a definite delay. She is partly at a 2-year-old level, and partly at a 3-year-old level for her communication. I can't remember which specific part was which, but I'll clarify in a future post. Sorry.

We talked about autism a little bit, and how it could be hard to diagnose, since it may be hard to tell what is just a result of her speech delay and what could be autism. When I mentioned her lack of imaginative play and social interaction, she said that is what she meant... is it autism or is it just because she doesn't have the communication skills to play at her peers' level yet? Which is something I've wondered, but it was good to hear a professional voice it as well. She mentioned that the Early Childhood Special Education (people) may end up diagnosing her as on the spectrum, and that wouldn't hurt because it would get her help, however, it would also label her. What she said seemed a little bit contradictory to what the social worker told us a couple of weeks ago... The social worker said the Early Childhood program had staff that would do an in-depth evaluation (more so than what was attempted at her pre-K screening / check-in in August). However, the Speech / Language therapist said they have a checklist-type diagnostic system, and that she may end up being diagnosed as autistic "more easily" by that system. So I don't know if they were both talking about the same program or not. There seems to be different programs all under the same "Early Childhood" umbrella.

At any rate, the next step is for me to contact the program on the referral paper (one of the Early Childhood programs) and have them evaluate whether she qualifies for the program. The Speech / Language therapist said that I should show them her report when they evaluate her, so hopefully I will have that by the time of the eval. We are also still waiting for an appointment to be set up for Kibby to see the Developmental Pediatrician. Which could take up to a couple of months, I'm told.

So, that's been life lately. Appointments for Kibby. Appointments for me. Preparing for Baby. Trying not to stress over all of life's little trials and just enjoy our blessings.

And looking forward to MOPS starting up again on Thursday! I've missed it over the Summer.

And my stomach has missed the yummy MOPS breakfasts. :P

Thinking back

My internet has been pretty hit-or-miss lately, due to a problem with our router, so I haven't been able to connect with my laptop much to blog. Since it's been so long since I've posted anything, I was wondering what I could post in place of all the pics waiting to load to the laptop.

Lately I've been thinking how strange it will seem to have a baby boy again. Ethan just turned seven last month, so it's been a while. Since then we've had our girls, Kaliyan and Ruby. I admit I've gotten used to pink around here! Ethan loves his sisters dearly, but he is excited to have a brother finally. (He used to tell us that he didn't want a baby brother ever, because he loves Kibby and Ruby too much. We had to laugh when we realized he thought he'd have to trade one of them for a baby brother! We assured him it didn't work that way.) :)

So, I've been searching through bins of old baby clothes, trying to find anything remotely "boy" that I might have kept. There wasn't much! A friend of mine had a garage sale last September and I sold a lot of my stuff there. Thankfully, our bassinet and exersaucer didn't sell, so I still have those things. And lots of pink clothes. :)

Then last month when I was visiting my sister in WI, she hauls out this large bin of baby boy clothes from a friend of ours who has 2 boys and is not having any more kids... Perfect! I sorted through and came home with a big bag of NON-PINK clothes! Not all of it is newborn - sized, so I still have a bit of shopping to do, but it's a start, and every bit helps. (Thanks, Carrie!)

And, looking back, as I've been doing a lot of lately... I came across this picture that I thought I'd share. Guess who! (Hint, I'm the one in the pink, not the baby!)

Did you guess correctly?

Okay, so I think I've let the FOUR people who've guessed on my previous post wait long enough. :)

Ethan ran home from the bus stop on Thursday, and, out of breath, asked me if he was getting a little brother or sister. I told him to sit down and I'd tell him. He asked me why I had my camera, and I told him I wanted to take a picture of his reaction, since Daddy was still at work and wouldn't see first hand.

So, I told him we were having...

a baby!


...and this was his reaction!

(and although the picture doesn't talk, he also said, "Mo-o-o-ommy!!!" in an exasperated tone.)

But, his expression changed a bit when I said...

...it's a BOY! You're finally getting your brother!

So there you have it! You know, for the few of you who have waited and wondered. Mystery solved! You can now all sleep much better at night. (I know, I know. You're so very welcome.)

I have to share a funny moment during the ultrasound. Or maybe you won't find it funny. Maybe I just found it funny because I was there, and I heard my husband's tone of voice and saw his face when he said this. (Those of you who know him in real life can probably picture this!) When the technician was looking for the gender, and told us he saw a turtle, Seth leaned in closer and said, "But why is there two of them?!" I looked at Seth. He was completely serious - which made me and the technician laugh. Which made it hard for the tech to get a clear picture due to my belly shaking... but he tried to explain the white and dark lines of the 2D image we were looking at, and that there was in fact, only ONE "turtle". To be honest, I didn't hear all of what he said, I was too busy laughing. I remember he DID say he's never seen a baby with 2 of them yet.

I thanked Seth for the nightmares I'm sure to have now...

I'm Still Alive! I Promise!

Hey there everyone! I'm back!

Ok, so I didn't really go anywhere. I only took a looooong blogging break without really meaning to. It just happened. There have been plenty of times over the past couple of weeks where I have sat down to write a post only to be interrupted by some urgent request that *can't wait*.


You know, like dirty diapers.


And then yesterday I had every intention of writing a new post and really wanted to add pictures, but I wasted all my time looking for the USB cable for my camera to upload the latest... I still haven't found the cable. That's what happens when you clean your house, you know.


So, this post really SHOULD be about two things. (The two things that I meant to post about in the last few weeks but didn't.) They are:


Ethan lost his first tooth. Finally. He will be 7 in three months, and I think he was starting to believe he would never lose any! His adult tooth had already broke the surface behind his baby tooth, and so we told him to just keep wiggling the baby tooth to get it out! He finally resorted to using dental floss to hook under it and pry it out. I couldn't watch. I told him that my dad used to tie a string to my loose tooth and the other end of the string was tied to a doorknob. Then he would slam the door and out popped the tooth. (Very quickly but not always painlessly.) Ethan decided to NOT try that way. Can't imagine why...


He now has a second tooth that is loose, right next to the other one that just came out (bottom middle) and of course when I looked this morning I saw the adult tooth already through behind this one, too. So he is wiggling again. The tooth fairy brought him a dollar for his first tooth, and he was so excited that he wanted to take it to school to show his friends. I said no. I told him they've all seen a dollar before and I didn't want it stolen.


We'll see what the tooth fairy gives for a second tooth. It won't be long now!


The second thing I wanted to post was pictures of the girls eating my homemade chocolate chip cookies. I realized that both girls had their very first one at 16 months each, and I wanted to post pictures of each of them eating their first cookie! But I cannot find the picture of Kibby, and I cannot find my cable to upload the pic of Ruby. But I WILL find them! And post them at a later time. Along with the picture of Ethan's lost tooth. And by then I'll have another pic of him with his second tooth out. :)

Of course both of these things really should have been posted a long time ago. So that today, I could just post about the main reason I've been largely absent on the blogger / facebook / twitter scene lately... I've been spending a lot of time lying on the couch. Bone tired. Fighting nausea. Yes, morning sickness to be more precise. Yes, the kind of sickness that accompanies a pregnancy.


Surprised? I sure was! We were certainly happy with our three blessings we already had, and decided that we were done... Well, it would seem that God has other plans for our family. (I'll share more on this later. My couch is calling me again.) However, I wanted to tell you all that we are expecting another little addition to our family in October.


Ethan is hoping for a baby brother this time. :)

If I Can Just Stop Coughing Long Enough to Say...

Ah, sickness. When it hits, it likes to stick around. None of this one-day-visit type thing. In my last post (which should have been a funny "Not Me! Monday" post, but was sorely lacking on the humor) I talked about how we're all sick around here. How we've been sick for the past week.

Well, we're all still sick. No more tummy viruses, thank you, God! Just some yucky colds with red noses, hacking coughs and blocked sinuses that steal our sleep at night and make us walking zombies during the day. I'm sure you all can relate. After all, they don't call it the "Common Cold" for nothing, right?

So I haven't been blogging much yet this month. Partly because of the sickness and partly because I've been spending some time getting some much-needed reorganization done in my kitchen. I'd like to paint it next month when my sister and her family come to visit. (My sis has offered to help! The men can handle watching our 4 kids while we spend a day painting, right???) Maybe I'll post some pics - you know, before / during / after shots.

So, last Friday I cleaned off the area above my cupboards (wow was it dusty up there) and washed and reorganized all my cupboards. I have a box of stuff ready to go to Salvation Army. Which is still sitting in my garage. Even though my neighbor works there at the dock where they accept the donations and could probably just take it along with him to work some day if I asked him, But have I? Nope. And Seth hasn't taken it in, either. So it sits.

But at least it's out of my kitchen!

Yesterday I hung new curtains in there, and I think after I get the room painted, it might actually look nice. My house needs some color. Except my bathroom, which is two-tone purple. I've been wanting to re-do that room since we moved in. (It's next on my list!)

Ok, enough about boring house projects. If you're still with me, wake up, stop snoring... I'm gonna talk about my kids now. :)

I probably don't write enough about them on here. So I'm going to try to be better about recording their milestones and such. After all, that is one of this blog's main purposes! But oh, how I get distracted! (My sister calls it ADOS - "Attention Deficit - Oooooh Shiny!" We both seem to have it!) So, without further ado, here is the latest on:

Ethan: Six-and-a-half (and don't you dare forget the half, my goodness). Loves school. Loves stories. Loves movies. Starting to love Pokemon (not so sure I like that a whole lot.) He is not so fond of onions, peppers, mushrooms... well, it's easier to just write what he does like - Mac N Cheese. Peanut butter and jelly. Fish sticks. That about sums it up. Oh and corn dogs, but I haven't bought them in a while. It's so hard to get him to eat anything else. He will sit at the table for hours if we don't keep encouraging him to eat his food. He always whines about something and asks why he has to eat it, and why can't I make him a PB&J sandwich... Yes, it gets frustrating. Somedays we set a timer for 20 min (after he's been sitting there for 10 - 15 min or longer, not eating) and say when time's up, you're done, and the kitchen is closed. Is that mean? Seriously, anyone got any ideas for us??? I don't like the idea of him eating a separate meal from us all the time, so we've been making him eat what we eat. And it's nothing weird, I assure you! :)

Kaliyan ("Kibby"): Three years old. Is just starting to learn that her name is Kaliyan, but we still mainly call her Kibby. (For those of you who don't know, Ethan gave her the nickname Kibby when she was only 2 weeks old, and it stuck. Her given name, Kaliyan, is Cambodian, and is supposed to mean "sweet, morally good, charming" and is pronounced more like "kaul-ee-yahn" with the "K" sound sort of a cross between a K and hard G sound. See why we call her Kibby? Seth is the only one who gets the pronounciation perfect, but that's just because he's Cambodian!)
Ok, getting back on track (remember the ADOS, people, give me a break here...)
Somedays her speech / language still concerns me. She doesn't answer questions well still. She will either respond with yes or no (if a yes / no question) or just repeat the question back to me. It gets frustrating. For more on her speech / language issues (my concerns) see here.
Some new or current phrases she uses:
~~ "Kin Wooby hug Wooby, Mommy?" Usually when she is being "tormented" by her little sister. She means "Can you hold Ruby, Mommy, (so she will leave me alone?")
~~ "Hup abow, _________?" Fill in the blank with any Disney princess movie. Means "How about, ________?" She will say this repeatedly, trying to get me to switch movies for her halfway through one. Or if I refuse to put one in for her to watch. (So terrible to just color, or play with toys / Mommy / sister...)
~~ "Doh wowwy, Wooby!" Meaning, 'Don't worry, Ruby." She says this when Ruby cries.
~~ "Oooooh, I nee ice pack!" When she gets an owie. Or when Ruby gets a bump, she says, "Ooooh, Wooby nee ice pack, Mommy!"
~~ "NOOOOOO!!! Dohn' you unerSTAN?!" ("NO! Don't you underSTAND?!") Um, yeah, we hear this one a LOT. Poor little girl! :( Although I have to say she has been using this more lately with the meaning of, "I didn't get my own way, and I really should have, don't you know that?"
~~ "I be a pwincess!" She says this while parading around in whatever, a pink blanket, my nightgown, or one day, it was my bra around her middle. Nice. So glad we didn't have company then...
Some other Kibby stuff... She loves pink. Anything pink. She is a picky eater, but loves fruit. And always wants to eat Fruity Pebbles cereal. Except she calls them "Pimples". I'll have to remind her when she is a teenager that she always said, "I wan PIMPLES!" as a 3-year-old!
She also refuses to share her favorite things with anyone. She screams when Ruby gets near her My Little Ponies, Care Bears, or anything else she happens to hold dear at the moment.
What else? Oh, potty training. Ugh. Not going well. She hasn't gotten it that she needs to let me know before she wets... and whenever she does tell me I think it's just to get a piece of candy. Which reminds me. Another favorite phrase of hers is, "Go potty get candy!"

Ruby: 15 months. She's learning so many things! Words she now uses: Momma, Dadda, No, Hi, Bye, All Done, Go, Baby, Awo ("hello" - while holding play phone to her ear). I can't think of any more right now, so that may be it. But what a difference from Kibby, who started to say Dadda and Momma a little (very very little) around 1 year and then didn't start talking again until she was 21 months!
Ruby also is learning to feed herself. Such a messy time! She loves to play with Kibby's tea set, and like to play in the bath and to stack cups. She has learned how to unzip a zipper (thanks, Dad...) This has made it more challenging to keep jammies on her! :)
She runs, loves to be tickled and chased, she climbs up on things, and loves to tug on (and chew on) the speaker wires in our living room. Much to our unliking...

So that's the latest scoop. I'll try to be more prompt about updates in the future, to avoid another overly-long post.

Anyone still reading? You deserve a medal! I'm done! :)

Ethan-ism

Alright, so the Christmas pictures will have to wait... We went to Sprint to get new phones tonight and decided on Culver's (drive-thru) for a late dinner. Yum. Ruby was eating some of Bumpa's venison sausage instead of Culver's, and we found a mustard seed in it. I used the opportunity to tell Ethan about the scripture comparing one's faith to the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20 "²⁰He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." ~English Standard Version.)

I set the mustard seed down in front of him on the table. I asked him, "Is your faith as big as this mustard seed?"

Ethan giggled and said, "No, it's bigger than that!!!"

I looked at him and wondered why he was giggling. When he repeated my question, I realized why immediately.

"If your face is as big as a mustard seed?" (more giggles.)

Oh boy...

I just couldn't stop laughing at that one.

And the thought of moving a mountain with your face is more than a little humorous to me as well. No wonder he was giggling. And giggling.

A New Look, Fun Stuff, Zack Days 4 & 5

I love this new look! What do you think? (I think Danielle rocks!) If you are considering a make-over for your own blog, I highly recommend her! :) Or if you even just want a blog button, check her site out. She does amazing work!

Yesterday I didn't get around to posting because, well, it was Friday and for some reason it just flew by. Maybe it was all the cleaning I did? Before I knew it, it was evening, Seth was coming home, and called to tell me he was bringing home Chinese. (Yey! No cooking again!)

After dinner, I played some games with Ethan. He loves to play games and I always feel that I don't have enough time to spend with my kids individually, so I wanted to take some time to just play with him. It's been a while! We both love games, especially Simply Fun games. If you've never heard of them, check them out! I have two friends that are consultants, and I have quite a few of the games. We just got their game In10sity, so we played that last night. It is a trivia game where every answer is a number between 1 & 10. Even Seth played, which is a rarity. :)

Then we watched some movies and hit the hay. Or tried. Ruby woke up 3 x last night, crying for some unknown reason. So I woke up a little crabby this morning. Ethan came into our room and whispered, "Mom, I can't find Zack!" I waved him out, motioning for him to be quiet so he wouldn't wake Ruby (sleeping finally, in her crib right next to my side of the bed.) He was back a minute later, pointing at the advent / nativity calendar. I shook my head "no" but realized it was useless to expect to get any more sleep.

Ethan found Zack, but it took him a little bit, and a hint from me... First I will show you were he was on Friday, and then I'll post today's hiding spot. :)

I wonder where he will show up tomorrow? Hm, and I just realized that this picture shows just how late I was up last night! :) And maybe explains some of why I've been so tired today!

We are off to go see the Live Nativity Drive-Thru at my alma mater! :D

Pumpkins and Lies

Last night Seth picked the one surviving pumpkin from our garden and scooped out the insides so that Ethan could draw a face on it and Seth could help cut it out. This was Ethan's first year to do this! Every year we mean to, but something else comes up and then we never do. Last year we were going to, but the poor little pumpkin (from our neighbors) sat outside at the edge of our flower bed all season, and then through the next two seasons... Well, you get the picture. It was never carved, just left there all neglected. (Not like I wasn't busy with a newborn and two other - very active - kids... in my defense!) :)
In early Summer, I noticed that a new pumpkin plant was sprouting in my flower bed! I transplanted it to our garden area in the backyard and it produced two pumpkins. One was way too small to carve, really, but the other one now looks like this:




It's not the prettiest jack-o-lantern, but it's Ethan's first! Don't be surprised if it shows up, glowing, in some more pics tonight after trick-or-treating. :)

On to the other subject... Lies.

Grr.

Last night Seth saw that Ethan was playing with 2 small magnets. He asked where Ethan got them. Ethan told us that his teacher gave them to him to "practice math" with. Something about the way he said it made me question him. I asked him more about it, and he replied some more about it, and then I said, "I'm going to email your teacher and ask her." Ethan shrugged and said, "Go ahead, Mom, but she already knows all about it." However... he looked a teeny bit apprehensive when I looked him straight in the eye. I figured something was up. So I wrote the email. And this morning I got the reply I didn't want. His teacher did NOT send them home for him to practice with.

*sigh*

Let me just say that starting this school year, Ethan has picked up (no pun intended) this bad habit of pocketing small items that he finds interesting. Usually this is just rocks, or pieces of leather or concrete or junk that he finds on the playground or sidewalk. Annoying, yes. Bad for my washing machine, yes. Morally wrong? Well, no...

However, this is at least the third time that he has brought home objects that are NOT rocks, are NOT from outside, and are certainly NOT his. Beyond annoying? YES!!

So we are going to have another serious discussion tonight when he arrives home from school. Which will be so much fun, since his cousin, aunt, and grandma and grandpa will all be here, AND it's Halloween...

There are days when I wonder where my sweet little boy went, and if I'll ever get him back! :(


But then, he still is a sweetie. Here's proof. :)

My Little Entertainer

Lately Ethan has taken a renewed interest in his guitar. He has never had any lessons, but I do think he would enjoy them. I mentioned the other day that I recorded him while he danced, played guitar, and tried to lip sync to the Selah song Esengo. He likes the beat and also that its in another language. :) If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post the video here. (You'll want to scroll to the bottom of the page first and pause the music so you can hear what he is strumming along to.) You'll see the girls wandering through from time to time, too. They all love this song, and when it was over (one of the many times it was played the other day) Ruby, my almost 12 month old, said, 'UH OH!" :) I think you can see her and Kaliyan dancing in this video, too.



This afternoon he was sitting on the couch prior to the girls' naptime, strumming away and quietly singing a "lullaby" to them. He only went so far before he stopped and said, "That's all I should do because I don't want them to fall asleep out here!" Both girls were mesmerized!

Then tonight, we were making dinner and Ethan is dancing around in the kitchen with his guitar and singing, "Jeeeeeeesus is always wiiiiiiiith you! Jesus is alwaaaaays with yoooooooooou...!"

At lunch, this was our conversation:

Ethan: "You know in Piglet's Big Movie, Piglet is a missionary, Mom."

Me: "Oh? A missionary? Why do you say that?"

Ethan: "Because he's a HERO!"

That had me grinning. I didn't disagree. :)

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for my Ethan!
Until next time,

Susan

Mangoes?

I thought I'd take a minute to explain the name of my blog, for those of you who don't know me. My husband grew up in Cambodia, and our last name means "mango" in the Khmer language. :) So... we are the 5 mangoes. :)

It is my intent to write about daily happenings in our household, post pictures and short videos of the kiddos, and ramble on with my own thoughts on life. Hm, was there anything post-worthy that happened today?

I spent about 2 hours reading through a fellow blogger's comments section, and spent some time in prayer for families that have lost babies.

I recorded a video of my kids dancing to a congolese song (Esengo, by Selah). My 6 year old was dancing and pretending to play his guitar. He was even attempting to lip sync, which I found humorous because he is not very familiar with the words. Since they are not English words!

Which reminds me.

Ethan wants to learn another language. He talks about it all the time. I personally have admiration for people who can speak more than one language fluently, so I guess I can see his interest! My husband is bilingual, but he has not taught very many words to our children. I know a bit of Spanish, but certainly not enough to teach Ethan very much. He is proud that he can (for the most part) count to 10 in spanish, though. :) He always forgets "siete" but he is getting there.

I think my 2 year old just fell in the toilet. Sigh. I sure hope not, but I guess this ends my blogging for the day!

:)

Susan