This year was a little more challenging in that Kayleigh came down with Roseola - high fever for 3 days (starting Christmas Eve) and after the fever went away for 24 hours, she broke out in a rash all over her body. 3 days later, she was fine and completely back to normal, but we're having some serious frequent night-time wakings.

Last year, Abby had an upper respiratory infection that led to a trip to Urgent Care on Christmas evening. Not wanting to repeat the Christmas excitement, we took Kayleigh to the doctor's on Christmas Eve as soon as she started showing a mild fever. The doc at first thought she had a sinus infection, but it wasn't until a few days later and a return trip to see the pediatrician when Kayleigh's rash broke out that we learned it was Roseola.

Santa was generous this year. Paul and I both allowed ourselves to purchase a couple of large gifts prior to Christmas - an iMac, a used Xbox 360, and a used Bugaboo Bee stroller - and Abby made out like a bandit, as usual. Both girls got some wonderful toys and much-needed clothes.

We had 2 Christmas dinners! Mom and Dad Newell came over for a Christmas lunch/dinner around 2:00 PM and we had our second Christmas dinner party at 6:00 PM. The evening party was a gathering of my childhood friends and family for our annual reunion. This year, we actually got to play Mafia! The mafia won a few rounds and the townspeople won a few rounds. This game really shines light on the duplicitous (new vocab word - thanks, Yu-Ching) nature of one's friends.

It was sad that my brother, Allen, was missing from the party, but don't feel too badly for him - he's on an eight-week, whirlwind tour of Taiwan and having a blast.

Christmas day was busy, yet so much fun. Abby was ill for last year's party, but was really able to enjoy herself this time. For me, watching her have such a great time with all the family and my good, old friends meant a lot. Abby absolutely loved spending time with Linda and Lily! She zonked out at 8:00 PM, completely worn out from the day's excitement. Kayleigh woke up with a fever shortly after, spent some time with the guests, and joined us in some photos, before the Ibuprofen kicked in and she was able to go back to sleep.

Next Christmas, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that every member of the family will be healthy.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here is our Christmas Photo Album.

Look at this cutie pie we found under our couch in the basement last week.

You would think that with 3 large cats in the house one of these little guys wouldn't survive! Yet, there he was, alive and well.

We set up a trap for him, but he cleverly figured out how to grab bits of cracker out of the trap and avoid getting caught. Eventually, peanut butter on a cracker did catch him and Paul released him in some tall grass in the foothills by our house.

Our house is situated among protected open space, so wildlife is prevalent. These tiny field mice seem to make it into the houses quite a bit, unfortunately.

We just pray that they are not carrying any diseases and try to handle them as cautiously as possible. Otherwise, they bring a bit of excitement into the house for our kitty cats.

Just for fun. This video shows what Kayleigh is like first thing in the morning. "Happy" about sums it up.

Halloween Morning (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

It's been very, very busy at our house lately. Lots of engagements with friends and family this holiday season, but sadly, the main reason for the lack of communication from us has been due to both Paul and I overextending ourselves at work. Just lots and lots of year-end deadlines for which we are responsible.

As of December 1st, Paul is officially out of the Naval Reserves. Although he is still considering renewing his military commitment later on, perhaps with the Coast Guard Reserves, we're just grateful that he has freed up a weekend in December without drill, which is turning out to be a very busy month.

Abby has transitioned early to the second preschool class for 3.5-4 year olds. In this class, she is now responsible for doing weekly homework assignments. The structure of the class and the amount of teaching that actually happens in this class is mind-boggling and we've been extremely impressed with the teacher. Abby is thriving and has a renewed enthusiasm for learning, which had unfortunately dwindled over the last few months.

The students (from toddlers through kindergarteners) are preparing for their annual holiday program, which will be held December 15th. Just one week in the new class Abby got an award for knowing the whole holiday program by memory - songs and dances. Thank goodness that girl inherited Paul's stellar memory and not mine!

Meanwhile, Kayleigh has been hitting some major motor milestones! It really feels like one day she was a sack of potatoes and the next day she's a mobile monster truck, plowing over everything.

On Halloween, she learned to pull herself up to stand. We were in Oklahoma to visit Peter, Nicole, and Annette - and to allow Abby and Annette to go trick-or-treating together again. On the 31st, we took the kids to a park and Kayleigh was playing in her stroller, which was fully-reclined and being used as a play-pen, when she pulled on the frame and canopy and stood up!

A few weeks later, she started sitting up on her elbows, but would lay on her belly and flap her arms and legs, trying to figure out crawling. Up until then, she had been getting around by pivoting on her belly then rolling to wherever she needed to go.

On November 19th, she got herself on her hands and knees for the first time and figured out how to do a pseudo-army crawl! No hesitations. It was almost as if she knew exactly what needed to be done, but was waiting for her muscles to get strong enough to support herself on all fours.

She was also able to sit up from laying down and transition from crawling to sitting on the 19th. It was a big day for her!

This first video shows her crawling on November 25th. Kayleigh is so dominantly right-sided that she was still struggling a bit with her left limbs and figured out she could move better by army-crawling on her left side and on hands and knees/feet on her right side.

Watch Grab (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Just a week later, you can see the improvement she's made in crawling. Still a little weak on the left side, she would stumble a bit. You can also hear her frustrations as she wants to move a lot faster than she can crawl.

Crawl (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

By this week, she has become a mean crawler. We got a report from daycare that Kayleigh sees no obstacles when she crawls. In fact, rather than crawling around other babies, she tends to crawl right over them! Luckily, her baby friends don't seem to mind.

I'm shocked that it's December. This month will fly by as our weekends have already been booked solid with holiday parties, birthday parties, and visits with friends and families.

In case you don't hear from us again this month, we wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday!

If you ask a preschooler what 1+1 is they'll point one finger on their left hand and one finger on their right hand, count them, and tell you 1+1 is 2.

Great!

Math lessons have extended beyond basic counting to addition and subtraction and I'm pretty impressed.

However, when I asked Abby the other day what 5+6 was, she said 7!

When she showed me how she came up with the sum, though, I had a good chuckle.

See, Chinese number gesturing is done with one hand. You count all the way up to 10 using one hand and the gestures from 6-10 represent the characters for those numbers. See this wiki page for a good explanation.

So, 5 digits on one hand to signify 5 + the thumb and pinkie fingers to signify the 6 = a total of 7 fingers up.

+ = 7

Q.E.D.

It's the end of Daylight Savings Time and pretty soon it will be too dark to take those evening walks. So, today, we tried to catch the last hour before the sun disappeared for a quick walk by our house.

There is a trail just out our front door, so we bundled Kayleigh up in the stroller (Abby wanted to brave the chilly weather with a sleeveless dress!) and headed out.

In less than 5 minutes we were at the top of a ridge overlooking miles and miles of land. The Rocky Mountains can also be seen at the horizon. It was a really pretty view with the orange glow of a sunset.



This trail is about 10 miles long with plenty of little side-trails (cow/goat paths) which are meant to promote exploration of remote locations.

At 5:30 PM it started to get pretty dark and we headed home. The above photo was taken just across the street from the trail head. You can see our house just down this street (our truck is parked in front there on the right).

As much as I love the fall it is always sad to lose the daylight.

Oh well, at least we get to sleep in tomorrow.

It's fall and we have been enjoying some beautiful color changes in the foliage. This is my favorite time of year when the air is cool and crisp. Light jacket and sweatshirts weather! So long as it stays dry, though.

Fall festivals, pumpkin patches, hay rides, and corn mazes are abundant this month and we have been out to enjoy a few of them.

Two weekends ago, my parents and I took the girls to a local family farm out east in Elizabeth, CO. We got to go on a tractor-pulled hay ride to see llamas, horses, and cows. Abby and Kayleigh then got to hold and pet some rabbits, see goats, donkey, geese, and pigs. We saw brand new baby bunnies and went through a straw maze in one of the farm buildings. Finally, the trip concluded with all of us plowing through their pumpkin patch trying to find an Abby-sized pumpkin to cut off the vine. We eventually did find one small enough!

Cavities.

We're doing things right, but Abby's just a bit prone to cavities.

Luckily, we have found an amazing pediatric dentist and Abby was able to get 2 fillings and a crown done with no problems. She was so brave. Just look at all the stuff happening around her head - sunglasses to protect eyes from the gas and splatter, headphones for the movie she was watching, gas mask, "raincoat" in her mouth for the drilling work, and stretcher to keep her mouth open.

The dentist did the right side of her mouth 2 weeks ago. This past Thursday, he finished the left side. The first visit required a brief break when Abby started crying in the middle of the filling, but she was able to calm down and the work was finished with Abby still willing to go back again. The dentist kept reassuring us that even with the breakdown, she did surprisingly well for a 3 year old. The visit was just too long, requiring x-rays, analysis, then the actual procedure. This past Thursday, she was calm and did not resist anything. Not a single whimper, flinch, or cry of objection. We were very proud and impressed by her composure.

We very much liked that they treated her with respect and was so good at explaining every single step they did to her to help alleviate any fears, constantly reminding her that if she wanted to ask anything to please do so. The words they used to help her understand were also carefully selected not spawn fear. So, drilling away the decay was explained as brushing away the sugar bugs!

Abby seemed to be pretty happy about getting a "Princess crown" for her tooth, as the dentist called it.



The next day, Abby went to National Jewish Health Clinic for an allergy evaluation. She is very prone to developing upper respiratory infections which leads to wheezing, bronchitis, and trouble breathing. When cold season hits, she ends up with an infection once a month it seems. So, her pediatrician recommended that she see an allergist and National Jewish has the leading allergy and asthma specialists in the US.

A skin prick test was performed and once again Abby showed us how brave she can be with medical procedures.

It turns out that she is allergic to cats (a bit) and dogs (a lot), plus grass and weed pollen. She is on an inhaler of the corticosteroid, Flovent, twice a day and Zyrtec at bedtime.

Unfortunately, I'm not comfortable with the dosage of antihistimine being prescribed and I'm concerned about giving her Flovent for long. For the antihistimine, the doctor is prescribing 5 mg, which is twice the recommended dose for a kid her age. At the normal dose, during an allergic reaction, she already gets drowsy, meaning the dose is too high. We've been able to nullify her allergic reactions by giving her less than the recommended dose. So, I am definitely not comfortable about giving her twice the dose when she's not even having an allergic reaction, especially at bedtime when it's much more difficult to monitor her! Flovent has a side effect of making her susceptible to bronchitis. The whole reason we visited the allergist was to figure out how to PREVENT her from getting bronchitis. Needless to say, I'm a little confused, so I'll be calling the doctor on Monday to get a detailed explanation of this recommended treatment.

Kayleigh is now 6 months old!

She's starting to be able to play with Abby more and older sister is very much enjoying that. However, at times, Kayleigh is still just a doll to her.

Kayleigh is sitting up very well now and can look up and down and all around without falling over as easily. She is still wobbly when cats come close because she gets very, very excited and loses concentration.

She has 2 teeth at the bottom now and with copious amounts of drooling, the doctor and we all believe she will be getting her upper 4 quite soon.

Kayleigh is still not sleeping through the night as much as we would like. She goes to bed at 8PM and wakes at 11:00PM, 3:00AM, and 6:30AM for feedings. We're trying to work on having her drop the 3:00 AM feeding/waking, but it's a lot easier said than done. We have tried every recommended method for dropping feedings, prolonging sleep, and eliminating any sort of night-time sleep issues. Nothing is working so far! Fortunately, she's still the happiest baby we could possibly ask for.

Immunization shots this time included DTaP, Hib, Prevnar, Rotavirus, and half a dose of the flu. The second dose of the flu shot will be given in 4 weeks. She had a slight fever the night she got her shots, but it was quickly remedied with a dose of infant Tylenol drops.

"You will all get the opportunity to hug and take pictures with Knuffle Bunny and at the end of the night we will give it to........the Centers for Disease Control because it will be a petri dish brimming with good stuff!"


"We are in a book!" - "THAT IS SO COOL!!!!"


Mo also read "Knuffle Bunny Free"


Hugging the giant Knuffle bunny and Pigeon. We ended up having to bring that pigeon home with us and Abby insisted that Kayleigh got a mini Knuffle Bunny.

See if Mo Willems will be heading your way on his world tour at http://www.gomo.net.

We are extremely blessed with a child who at 3 years old understands letting mommy and daddy sleep in.

Even though Abby may get up early, she finds something to entertain herself if everyone else is still asleep. Usually she'll read in her room or play outside our bedroom. Many times she'll even go back to her room, tuck herself back into bed, and sleep for awhile longer.

At 7:45 AM yesterday I was woken up by the sound of Abby whispering something in the distance then thump thump thump thump thump, shuffle shuffle, pause, thump thump thump thump thump followed by more whispering.

"Abby?" I called out, still groggy.

She is just outside our bedroom and pokes her head in, smiling.

"Abby, Kayleigh is still asleep, do you want to come in the room and play quietly?"

Whispering, "Um, no thank you. My giraffe is trying to sleep, so I have to stay with him. You can sleep in."

I don't argue with that! So, I closed my eyes and listened to her chattering quietly with her giraffe for a good 20 minutes before guilt pulled me out of bed for good.

When I took Abby to get dressed, this is what I found at the other side of our bedroom door. She had been running back and forth from our bedroom to hers to gather blankets for her giraffe.

More than 10 years ago, the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver opened their indoor play area, which consisted of soft, giant, breakfast items where kids can climb, jump on, crawl under, and basically have a great time.

So, for as long as I could remember, hopping on sliced bananas, skipping on the waffle squares, and sliding down bacon strips was the huge attraction for me at this super chic mall where the only thing I could afford was a Cinnabon.




In August 2010, they had pulled all of the breakfast items and created a new "Looney Toons in Colorado" themed play area and we went to check it out yesterday.






Kayleigh is finally old enough to get in on the action, with lots of help, of course.


"Look, Mama! I'm on fire!"

I am thrilled with Playtime Creations, which is the company that designed this play area, which is creative, fun, and safe for the little ones.

Wouldn't you love to have some of their Classic Elements in your backyard? Prop your feet up on a ladybug or read a book while leaning against a baby bigfoot turtle? I definitely would!