Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday, Kibby!

Yesterday was Kibby's birthday. Here she is telling us all how old she is!
Anybody notice what's missing?

Two of her gifts - Strawberry Shortcake dolls.



She loves Strawberry Shortcake. She watches the 2 Strawberry Shortcake DVDs that she owns all the time! (I do mean all. the. time!) One of them is called Strawberry Shortcake, Berry Big Journeys. (I won it for her from my friend Sarah's blog. Thanks, Sarah!) Kibby loves to watch it, and she calls it "Strawberry Shortcake Big Germs". :)

She also got some Color Wonder paint & marker kits. She loves to draw and paint and color. She had gotten some Color Wonder stuff from her grandparents for Christmas and has been coloring pictures a lot lately. Since Christmas, when she wants to color, she will tell me, "I just want markers for Christmas, I just want to draw!" all in one breath, rushed together. It's the same phrase, said in the same tone, every time. That's just how Kibby is.


Here is some of her recent artwork:
This used to be more of the norm for her. She would fill entire sheets of paper with just purple. Every single white spot covered with purple marker or crayon. I'm happy to see she is expanding her love of color beyond just that one!



I had asked her to open her eyes instead of squinting them shut (how she usually smiles for the camera!) and she signed "awake" for me! :)



She used up all of her finger paints in about an hour! I looked over and realized she was using gobs of paint at a time, her little fingers nearly stuck together. Ah well, I thought... she is having fun. She was so focused at her creations, too!

Switching gears a bit, we have been having quite a few appointments for her lately. She has been having tests done to see if she will qualify for Early Childhood classes. So far she has had two speech / language evaluations, a vision test, a hearing test, a meeting with a social worker, some academic testing, and she has two more to appointments go. She will have an autism checklist screening done next week, and she will also see a developmental nurse practitioner. I hope to have all of the results compiled by our meeting with the school district in mid-February. I will update around that time to let everyone know what we find out!

For now, we'll keep up the artwork, one day at a time!

Catching Up

It has been a busy few weeks in the Mango household, so I'm a bit behind in posting some important events!

First of all, our little Ruby turned 2 at the end of October!

Birthday Girl!

Blowing out the candle.

Hooray for Cake!

Opening some presents.

Baby Ean, 8 days before his arrival! Please ignore the dark circles around my eyes and lack of make-up! Focus your attention instead on Ruby! She already loved to give her baby brother kisses! :)

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Next came Halloween. It seems so long ago!

Or maybe that is just because we're out of all the "good" candy already?

Ethan was Darth Vader again, cousin Isaiah was a pirate, Kibby was a princess, and Ruby was... well, we weren't sure. I got the costume at a used children's clothing store, and at first I thought it was a bunny, but we're now thinking it's really a lamb. What do you think? Either way, I think it's way adorable on her!

Lamb or bunny?


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Next up is some more recent pictures of Ean. Ean with his siblings, Ean by himself, Ean being held, Ean crying... you get the idea. :)

With his sisters.

Hungry enough to eat his own arm!


Ruby just can't get enough of him.

I may never get a nice picture of all 4 kids... Someone is always bound to have their thumb in their mouth or not be looking this way... I'll keep trying, though! My blog header needs a new photo, for one thing!

We have a hard time keeping Ruby's hands off Ean. Not for lack of trying. We are constantly reminding her! Hands off, please! Well, off his face and hands, at least. Since it's flu season and all, you know...

He's always hungry! :) Here he is trying to eat the pillow!

Not happy, but look how strong he is! Holding himself up.

Until next time!

She has this... thing.... with bathrooms?

Three years ago today, this
cutie pie was born!



For the record, she was born at 8:40 PM, and was 7 lbs, 10.6 oz and... to be honest, I will have to check how long she was again - but the reason that is a bit hazy may be due to the fact that she had a slightly different birth than my other children had.



This girl has a thing with bathrooms, evidently.



She was not born in the hospital room. She was born in the bathroom attached to my hospital room. Nearly on the toilet. (About 5 inches in front of the toilet, in fact.)


When she was 4 weeks old, she rolled off the bathroom counter and cracked her skull on our bathroom floor.



She refuses to potty train. (I'm still hopeful on this one, though! Maybe I need to put a kid potty outside of the bathroom. But, then again... maybe not.)


All that aside, she is also: the demanding one, the high maintenance one, the Daddy's Girl, the cuddler, the screamer, the sensitive, tender-hearted one, the delayed-speaking one, the pony-tails and color pink obsesser, the CareBear and My Little Pony collector, and the most devoted thumb sucker.


She is our Kibby. And I can't imagine life without her.

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we celebrated Ruby's birthday with her first birthday party. Nana and Bumpa, Auntie Bobbie and cousin Isaiah came from Wisconsin, and Auntie Christina and Uncle Prany and cousins Jordan and Autumn were here as well. We ate yummy Bilotti's Pizza, and I made MckMama's Corn and Bean Salad, and of course spinach artichoke dip! I think Ruby liked the cake the best, though!

She also had fun opening some presents:

Happy Birthday, Ruby sweetie!

Ruby's First Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUBY!!
My little sweetie! A year ago she came into our lives, this tiny little thing. Today, she is still a tiny little thing, but full of hugs and giggles. She is learning to talk and blow kisses. She loves to give hugs, to climb on the furniture, to carry around her Care Bears (when her sister lets her).
Hard to believe it's been a whole year since this

adorable little girl was born! :)


That was the pre-cake picture.



Here is the DURING cake picture.


and here is the "about finished with cake" picture:




Hard to tell it was a cake, huh? :)


But it was a nice little cake. See?


We actually remembered to charge the camcorder, so we did get video of her opening her present (a doll) and more video of her eating her cake. Oh, and of Ethan blowing out the candle for her. :) He never even gave her a chance! Oh well. She didn't mind.
In all, it was a nice, peaceful birthday.
The party is next weekend. It probably won't be quite as peaceful, but it will be fun. And there will be more cake!
Susan