Papa Cheese is 75

This year, there are lots of milestone birthdays on the P-side of the family. On Saturday, we celebrated 75 years of Papa Cheese.

Someone grabbed my camera during the party and took pictures however, this person (I think it was Brandon) did not put up the flash so the pictures are not great.

Bryan's niece Ashlie loves Hadleigh. You can't tell in this picture but Ashlie is 6'2" and a sophomore in high school. Hello?? She is a great volleyball player!!

Brandon (Bryan's nephew) is also curiously tall at about 6'5" and he loves Hadleigh. He always asks me if he can hold her after we eat or he will volunteer to give her a bottle. So sweet!!

This a pic of the grandkids loving on their Papa Cheese. Not many people can say they have 11 grandkids ranging from age 21 to 7 months. Happy Birthday Papa Cheese!!!

I know this picture is horrible but I just wanted to include it because it shows how much Jillian and Roc love Papa Cheese and Grandma Strawberry.

Dan the Balloon Man

Last Saturday was the kids' birthday party. Here they are loaded up and ready to go (Please don't judge me by what is in Rocco's mouth - yes, I know that this is Rocco's 3 year old birthday but I choose my battles and I wanted them in a good mood for the party!!!)

So here it is in its' glory, the Disney themed Princess and Buzz Lightyear party table.

I cut two tablecloths in half and then taped a princess side and a Buzz side together. Genius if I do say so myself. Then decorating was easy as Jillian got all of the princesses for Christmas and Rocco got a new Buzz.

Jillian's favorite duo...

Mom's Buzz Lightyear outfit for Rocco....

Jillian's princess outfit....

But of course, she had to have a costume change in the middle of the party...

and Hadleigh's princess outfit with the Pop-ster...

1, 3 and 5....time flies

Then we got to the good part.....When Mom and I went to this place to make our reservation, there was a guy selling these balloon creations. We started talking to him and he was fabulous. We asked Dan the Balloon Man if he would come to our party. He did and it was a HIT!!! All of the kids were mesmorized by DTBM. Here he is creating a monkey swinging from a palm tree..

Rocco got an Elmo

Jillian got Cinderella...

He made each kid at the party whatever they asked for....there were lots of princesses...

There were flowers and Spidermans....

Best money I ever spent!! He was great!!! Birthday Party for 2012! DONE!!!!

Overwhelmed

Sweet Shanna emailed me today wondering where am I. This week has been one of the hardest weeks in a long time. It all started when I began not feeling good. This is the first time ALL school year that I don't feel good. I don't know if it is a cold or allergies but I am down and out. Then Tuesday we had Math Night at school so I was at work for over 12 hours and then Wednesday we had a faculty meeting and blah, blah, blah. Sooooo busy. There is other stuff going on too but I'll get to that in due time.

Let me get to some VERY BIG news in my part of the world concerning Miss Hadleigh-boo.
Here she is sitting.....

Oh, what's this? On her knees....

That's my girl!!! Pulling up and standing!!!

She did it!!!!

She wanted to play tea party at the table with the big kids!!!!

She and Roc were playing away for a good two minutes.

And then she fell and I felt horrible!! Mommy, put down the camera and catch me when I fall please!!!

Random Bits of Information

The kids' birthday party is on Saturday and I have done NOTHING!!!! What is wrong with me??

We are having a Disney Princess and Buzz Lightyear Party (Was there ever any wonder at what our theme would be?). We are having it at an indoor playground because this is January and it could be cold however forecasts say it will be in the high 70s. But it is already booked and lots of the work will be done for me so I appreciate that!!

But I need to gather the decorations and some party snacks and get their outfits ready and the list is a long list. I guess I will do it tonight and tomorrow night??

Hadleigh's physical therapy starts on Monday. Doesn't she look thrilled?? Ha!!! This pic cracks me up. She was not amused with me taking pictures of her yesterday morning before school.


This girl was fine with it!! Except she wouldn't stop eating her cold biscuit (gross) for the picture!!

This boy was not happy with me because I tried to get him to wear his boots. He has now decided he does not like his boots.

Finally, Jillian has known her letters and sounds, beginning sounds and rhyming skills for awhile now. I started teaching some sight words and doing some flashcards and she has memorized about 10 or more words. But this book was brought to my attention and we are trying it! We are on lesson 3 and Jillian loves it!!! I love it because it has a script for the parent to read. A script!!! That's my kind of teaching!! At the beginning, the lessons are taking about 10 minutes a day and then will get longer. By the end, (supposedly) the child will be able to read on a 2nd grade level. We'll see about that!!

3

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,

To shine for Him each day,
In every way try to please Him
At home, at school, at play.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,,

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for Him.

What's up with my 3 year old little boy?

His favorite color: yellow

His favorite fruit: straw-da-berries, raz-berries, black-da-berries

His favorite toy: Buzz Lightyear and trains (and a more honest answer would be: anything Jillian likes)

His favorite snack: apples (he eats at least 2 a day)

Favorite junk food: popcorn

Favorite lunch: Dinosaur chicken nuggets and tator tots

Favorite TV show: Peppa Pig

Favorite friends at school are: Cairolyne (that is the actual spelling) and Josie (he is a ladies man)

Things he is obsessed with: pens and notepads, cell phones of any kind, Mommy's and Grammie's purses

Size: HUGE - wears size 6 (almost 7) diaper, 10 or 11 shoe, wears 3T/4T shirts and 3T pants. Head is huge and most t-shirts are difficult to get over that melon!!

Potty-trained: No

Interested in potty-training: No

Still likes to suck on a paci kept in a secret hiding spot: Yes

Comparing Jillian at 3 to Rocco at 3, Rocco is still quite a toddler. While she is fearless, Rocco will hang back and watch. He is not the first to try something and can be quite timid. Now once he warms up, the boy can get quite crazy and out of control. He wants to be carried and held. He is my cuddle-bug. He says "I wuv you Mommy" 100 x a day. He kisses and hugs all day long. Then he will bop you over the head with his talking Thomas train and laugh with a twinkle in his eye.

It's KK's birthday too - 7 months birthday and we paired these adorable two together for some pics!!!

Checking each other out...

So cute in their train attire!!! (supplied by the ever-loving Grammie)

P/T, O/T, Pajamas and Flamingo

On Wednesday, Hadleigh had her P/T and O/T evaluation and she qualified for both. Both the physical and occupational therapist stayed for about 2 hours and watched her and asked questions. My mom loved both of these ladies and thought they did a fabulous job. Hadleigh will be in good hands.

Some of their concerns:
Gross Motor Skills - When in exersaucer or in jumperoo, she does not bounce. Are knees/legs week? Is that why she is not crawling? This is one of the main areas they will look at and work with her.
Fine Motor Skills - Hadleigh just started feeding herself and basically she is not using her fingers. When picking up Cheerios, she uses her whole hand. They call it "the rake." She also does not point at anything. She also does not wave bye-bye. They will work with her to use her fingers.

Hearing - Hadleigh does not babble. She yells but she does not babble. They are wondering if she is not hearing everything. We know she hears some but how much. They were saying she might hear "through a cloud." Because of her age, we might not know the answer to this question for awhile but we are to be working with her. Of course, we took Hadleigh to the doc yesterday and she had a double ear infection so I am sure that did not help during the evaluation. The good thing is I have always taught my kids to sign certain things and maybe with Hadleigh this might come in very handy??

Okay....I cried at first over all of this information but I am over it. Hadleigh is perfect and just needs to work on some things. Don't we all :-)

Today was Pajama Day at the kids' school! It made getting ready for the day super easy!!! The kids always climb into bed with Hadleigh to wake her up in the morning. Jillian and Rocco love her so much!!

Gosh, look at those matching chins. Cracks me up!!

Rocco with his Cars slippers!!

Jillian in her Princess slippers to match the jammies!!

Poor Hadleigh was really being smothered this morning!!

Finally, Jillian's class "performed" the classic, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? Of course Jillian had to be the flamingo because that is her favorite animal because they are pink. She wore lots of pink to get into character. I put "performed" in parentheses because I am not sure this qualifies as a performance or a play but they did a pretty good job!!!

11 months old

My sweet ice princess is 11 months today. Only one more short month until she is a year old!!!! Sigh, double sigh!!! I hate how fast the baby year goes. She is still so long. All of her pants in size 6-12 months are waaaay too short (seriously come down under her knees) but if I go up a size they fall around her ankles because she is so skinny!! Her hair is really starting to curl in the back. She definitely has the most hair of any of my kids at this same age. She has been working and working on getting her molars and her incisors but all we have gotten so far is drool. No new teeth yet but Look at this awesome smile!!!!!

BUT this month, Miss Hadleigh-boo has grown in leaps and bounds. She has started to mimic and will now clap her hands upon request and fake cough. Here she is in mid-clap.

She is trying soooooooooooooo hard to properly crawl but she just doesn't have it. She still does the pull and drag but she is very fast at it!!! AND in even bigger news, she has been spotted trying to pull herself into a stand. She can't hold the stand without help but again, she has grown so much this past month. Her PT/OT eval is tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Here she is trying to crawl to me....

My girl loves her thumb. We had to take a break from the photo shoot so that she could get some thumb time.

The teachers at the daycare have nicknamed her "Little Rock." When you compare her smile to Rocco's smile at 11 months, you can see where the nickname comes from.....

(Of course, he was about 5-7 pounds heavier at this age than H but you definitely see the resemblence.)

But when she has on her serious face, I think she looks like her sister....

(Jillian at 11 months)

Bryan said the other day that Hadleigh is the perfect combination of Jillian and Rocco and I have to agree!!

Hadleigh's next stop - 1 year old club!!!