News about Kimball

For the past year, Kimball has been constantly suffering from ear infections and a gross, goopey right eye. Well, now he is finally going to get tubes in his ears, and at the same time, will be getting his clogged tear duct probed.  Yeah!!!  All I have to say is finally!!!  And that's not all . . . while at the pediatric opthalmologist, I was told that Kimball needs glasses due to "a fairly significant astigmatism"  he has in the right eye.  That's right . . . Kimball is near-sighted and will soon be wearing glasses.  I had no idea that Kimball had any trouble with his vision before we went to the eye doctor (for his tear duct), but was told that it was a blessing that his clogged tear duct brought us in, because the astigmatism was caught early.  Many times, parents have no idea that their children have any visual problems until they're in school -- which is when they complain that they can't see the board.  However, when it isn't caught  until that late, the child has often already developed amblyopia, or a lazy eye, which requires even more intervention.  There's a great website I found that talks about "babies with glasses that gave alot of good info about young kids and vision and glasses, etc., if you want to look.  

After being told that Kimball's distance vision was poor, I then recognized the only sign that could have given me a clue about his vision . . . how close he sits to the tv.  I just thought that he really liked being close!!!  (shame on me for not picking up on this.)  Oh well.  Anyway, look how cute he is just sitting here, watching his Baby Einstein movie.  He LOVES it and will sit just like this during the whole 30 minutes!

Anyway, now all I have to do is figure out what color to order for Kimball's frames. I've taken a few pictures of baby/toddler boys wearing brown, clear, green, and blue glasses from a website to help me decide which one looks the cutest.  Which would you choose?  I'd have to say that if I were to pick any child who looks the closest to Kimball in age and looks right now, it'd be the 2nd kid wearing brown glasses.  

Let me know what you think . . .  do I choose bold? or go less conspicuous?

Kimball turns 1

I'm finally getting around to blogging this, but Kimball turned 1 on September 25th!  We had a small party at our friends' house, the McLaughlin's.   Matt's brother, Mark, was also in town, so he was there for the event.  

After reviewing all of  these pictures, I realized that Kimball's ears must have been bothering him this day,because in almost every photo, he's holding his ear.  Poor guy.

Blowing out the candle . . .

Kimball is such a "reserved" eater (a nice way to say "picky") that he wasn't sure what to do with the cupcake.  He hesitantly decided to try it out.

He's thinking about it . . .

Yeah! He likes it!

Hooray for birthdays and cake!!! (isn't he cute?!)

Allison's Kindergarten Class Bulletin Board Art

Allison's Kindergarten teacher emailed this picture of their class bulletin board to all of the parents.  I thought it was so cute.  All of the kids created their own faces and wrote their own names.  Allison's face is on the bottom row, third from the left.  You can click on the picture to see it larger.

Silly Sock Day

This one's for Kiera . . . thanks for the hand-me-down socks!!  Allison loves them.

And while we're at it, I thought you'd enjoy this one too.  I told you my kids would play with it . . .

Tag from Cheryl - 7 facts about me

Facts about me:

1. I don't like housework.  I can do it, and I can do it well when I want to.  But most of the time I don't want to.  I'm waiting for the day that I can hire someone to clean my house for me.  That's when I will consider that I have "arrived."  I would rather have a messy house and have fun playing with my kids, than have a clean house and ignore my kids.  I'm not organized enough to have a good system. Yesterday I told Matt that I felt like I was living the movie "groundhog day." You know, when you just do the same thing over and over every day??

2.  I love being outside.  I am a happier person when I'm not cooped up inside all day.  Summers in Houston are going to be challenging.

3.  I like sushi, watching my kids laugh together, exploring in nature, gardening (even weeding), numbers, playing the violin in my family's string quartet,  traveling, off-roading . . .  My dream jobs would be: a landscape designer, a statistician, a national park Ranger, or a restaurant critic in the tourism industry.

4.  I spend too much time on the computer (maybe that's why I can't keep my house clean?  Nah . . . . .)

5. I enjoy learning new things.  

6. I like good friends  -- those you can totally be yourself around and relax. I miss my friends in KC.

7.  I'm married to the best husband in the whole world.

Husband Tag from Clarissa

1.  What is his name? Matthew Craner

2. Who eats more? Well, sometimes I do as a whole because Matt skips alot of meals.  But when it comes to spaghetti, Matt out eats me for sure.

3. Who said, "I love you" first? Don't remember.  Probably me.

4. Who is taller? Matt

5. Who is smarter? Uhhhh, well that's debatable.  I'd like to say we complement each other well.  He knows things that I don't know very well, like history, professional sports, public speaking, writing, & random trivial knowledge.  I'm better at music, science, English grammar, money management . . .

6. Who is more sensitive? Not sure.  We're about equal.

7. Who does the laundry? mostly me. But Matt certainly  knows how and does when I'm way behind. He's a great laundry forwarder and folder.

 
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? me

9. Who pays the bills? me.  I'd love to give that one up, but then I'm not sure I really could (even though I threaten to)

10. Who cooks more?  Depends on the week and how domestic I'm feeling.  Matt makes a mean BBQ pork and ribs.

11. Who is more stubborn? Probably me.

12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Depends.  I don't have a problem admitting I'm wrong when I really am  :)

13. Who has more siblings? Matt. He has 7, I have 6.

14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I'd say we're a good team. But if you ask Matt, he'd probably say that I do.

15. What do you like to do together? Things outdoors, go on dates, vacations, fun family activities.

16. Who eats more sweets? Me

17. Guilty Pleasures? The Simpsons 

18. How did you meet? high school - senior year - we had an "adult roles" class together (my only fluff class for my entire high school career)

19. Who asked whom out first? Our first official date was Senior Prom, 2 weeks before the end of our senior year -- 13 years ago.

20. Who kissed who first? Can't remember. . . (it's been 13 years!!!) I think it was probably a mutual desire to kiss- ie: I'm sure we both wanted to kiss each other at prom

21. Who proposed? Matt

22. His best features and qualities? Matt is smart, fun, spontaneous, sexy, kind, thoughtful, funny, a hard worker, a great handyman, an amazing father, a dedicated husband, faithful, spiritual . . .  there are too many to list.

Lunch Break in Paradise

While on the East Shore, in Kapa'a, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch.  The view from our table was to die for.  

I don't know if you can see very well, but under those palms are 2 massage tables.  *gasp*  I wanted a massage right then and there!  But unfortunately, I found out that it was $185.00 for a 50 minute massage.  I wanted one, but not THAT bad.  I made Matt promise me that I could go get a massage after we got back to Katy, and pay $50.00 and not feel bad about it.  He said ok.  Too bad I still can't bring myself to do it . . .  maybe someday when I don't have 2 house payments  every month . . . .

Ahhhhh . . .

Watching the sunset at Poipu Beach

Regrettably, this was the only night that we watched the sunset on the island of Kauai.  We were still snorkeling at Poipu Beach, on the Southwest Shore, when we realized we were at a great location to watch the sunset and it was almost time!  So we just stayed and watched.  There were several people on the beach waiting for the same thing, but even so, it was still romantic.

It's so weird to be on an island and watch the sun go down.  It's like it's falling off the horizon, into the ocean and off the earth.  Hard to explain, but cool to watch.

If we were to do it all over again, I would take the time to watch more sunsets from different beaches. 

I know this is going to be too many pictures of what looks like the same thing over and over again, but I can't help it.  It's sort of a progression, ya  know? Ohhhh, I wish I were there again!

going, going . . . 

gone.

Day 3 - Kayaking Wailua River

On our 3rd day in Kauai, we started out with a river trip. We kayaked the Wailua River.  The Wailua River is a long, slowly meadering river that starts at the Wai'ale'ale Crater (the wettest place on earth) and is fed by several tributaries on the way to the ocean. This is the only navigable river in all of Hawaii. It was pretty easy to kayak and very pretty scenery along the way.  In the picture here (above), you can barely see a red kayak on the water.

We "pulled out"  of the river and took a short hike to Secret Falls.  It's a great waterfall that is about 1 mile off the river.  

The water was nice and cool to swim in , and it was a perfect place to take a break, eat lunch, and enjoy the beauty.  

Along the way we got some more great pictures of the scenery.  Everything was so GREEN! (just ignore the cheesy poses.)  

Secret Falls was so tall that it was hard to get a good picture of it.  I wish we would've stood back further to get a better shot.  

(so although these aren't the best pictures for lighting or perspective - you can still see that it's very beautiful.)

On our way back on the trail, there was one river crossing.

 Below the

 crossing was this smaller waterfall that ran over several large boulders. So of course, we climbed over the boulders to get more pictures. 

After this little jaunt, we kayaked down a different fork in the river to get to 

a well known (local) swimming hole - complete with a rope swing and some cliff jumping.  There was no one there while we were, so that made it kinda fun.  I haven't done any cliff jumping since my last time at Lake Powell -- and that was a LONG time ago -- so even though this wasn't very high, I still let out a little yelp on the way down

Sleep Walking?

Last night, I went upstairs to get something and saw someone in the "kids" bathroom.  No surprise -- it was Allison.  She was unclothed, and was eating toothpaste.  This was about 10pm. When I asked her what she was doing, she went rambling on about nothing that made any sense.  

This has been happening off and on now for a few months.  At first, I thought  she was pulling my leg and "acting" weird/silly, because she got caught being out of bed.  But Matt and I have realized that she really doesn't know what she's doing, and she has no recollection of it the next day.  

Has anyone had kids of their own who have done this?  What's the deal?  Why is this happening? Is something wrong? What can we do?

I read up a little bit about it online and it said that sleep walking can be triggered by stress, and is hereditary.  Well, I don't know anyone who's related to ME that's had this problem, but I don't know about Matt's family.  As far as the stress goes, Allison recently started Kindergarten, and we've moved in the past 3 months.  

Dan?  Katharine? Throw me a bone, here.  

Any comments/help are appreciated.