Sunday, December 20, 2009

the "happy holidays card" pic


I had to throw in one of the kids in all that fluffy snow! They had so much fun...even though it was COLD! :)


Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and happy all those other many wonderful holidays that are celebrated this time of year! Sometime I must post the million attempts at the "one good pic" with these two. :) Our American buddy, Leanne, was our photographer. At least we all got a good laugh. We hope you have happy holidays and feel blessed, loved & thankful! We'll be traveling & will not have internet access where we will be staying, so our blogging, FBing, etc. will likely slow to a crawl. So...Happy Holidays!
Love,
the Keyshere the kiddos escaped to the stairs rather than endure more cheesing. :)
thanks, Leanne! we love you!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

What's good in the news

my sweet little one...a mini-mommy. :)


Here are a few news stories with happy endings. Both stories contain brave, thoughtful women. And both were sent to me by my hubby. Enjoy!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/17/birth.plan.tips/index.html


http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/01/marquette.moms.nursing.moses/index.html

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Nain...or Naynee...

or Langston. My big fella used to call himself "Nain" (long A). His little sis calls him the same name. Too cute.


I can't believe he'll be going to "big boy" school this year. I will really miss that guy. I've already told him that I might cry & he told me, "It's okay, mom. I promise I'll come back!"
I could post a million things about how he's grown & matured this fall & winter, but I'll shorten the list for the grands & loved ones. :)
He sometimes says, "mom (or dad), I have a happy life." This, of course, makes our hearts full to bursting. Our kid is happy! Funny how that is contentment to a parent's ears. :)
He likes to help...most of the time. He "watches" Zora for a moment as I do something in another room. He lights matches for me to cook with (& I handle the match to flame part...don't worry!)
We have had the usual behavior issues that emerge with an emerging person, so recently we came up with what he calls his "point deck" (sports themed?). He has 10 categories to ace each day. Some of these are simple: be quiet while others sleep, get self dressed, pick up room at night...Some are more difficult: stay in seat & eat at mealtimes (story telling often begs dancing), behaving properly to friends & family (no raising voice, smarty pants talk...), using good manners (remembering those magic words).
He LOVEs to count his "points" at the end of each day. He usually does pretty well, but if he looses points, there are loses in other ways, too. He might loose computer time, i-pod time, or even *gasp* books. He hasn't lost books yet, but he has lost computer time & it hurt. Our little chart worked much better than even I hoped. I would recommend it for a kid around L's age. More points=more rewards. If his behavior has scored high for several days or a week, then we do a special thing (even if it's just a popcorn & movie night). He enjoys that it's his "good job" reward. I don't think we'll need the chart forever, but for now, it's helped. :)dad & L. at the aquarium...tons of scary snakes! they loved it. :)
Yet another daddy project...Langston & Barclay have been really enjoying putting together (& gluing) all kinds of puzzles (see Scooby above). They also have 3 legos car kits & Leanne got L. a pirate Legos kit that is really cool (it even has a functioning drawbridge! Their latest "models" have been these wooden kits of dragons & dinos that they got a market in Krakow. Pix coming soon!
***
Below is Langston posing with a statue of John Paul II, which reminds me that L has become the theologian-in-residence at our house. He's always been my thoughtful guy, but he really "gets it" when it comes to the God stuff. I now understand so much more of how scripture tells us to be like children. What Langston says comes directly from the heart. He feels loved & loves in return. So simple!

Monday, December 14, 2009

made of milk



This post is dedicated to moms who breastfeed, extended breastfeed or even those who hope to bf someday. Zora has been so sickly for the past 8 days, beginning with tossing her cookies (ice cream & supper) a week ago today. Since then, she has only had a few bites of food (literally) & only sips of powerade, water & milk. I have tried every kind of non-acidic food one could imagine or buy in Poland, but she shakes her little head, waves her hand & declares, "don't wan eht!"
I have diagnosed her with Hand, Foot, Mouth & it ain't pretty. Her fever began last Tues & by Wed I noticed that her little gums looked inflamed. By Thurs, I noticed the first of many blisters in her little mouth & since then she has been miserable. She takes 2-4 baths a day (that's our girl! we love a soak around here!), watches way too much Sesame Street, whines & whimpers...and nurses. My cups runneth over once again as this big gal is nursing every couple of hours 24 hours a day. She's not a 8 lb baby anymore, so it takes more to fill her tummy. Plus, I think that the cuddle time is soothing. We hold her & carry her around anyway, but snuggling w mommy is always nice. And it's nice to know that this little chunk of mine will not dehydrate, but rather will be full & comforted by me. God creates some insanely wonderful things & I think that our ability as moms to provide life food for a baby until who knows when is one of those awesome things. Thanks to a wonderful, thoughtful God! I feel blessed to be able to provide so much through such a divine creation.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

belated Halloween post

This year our Halloween consisted of...carving a jack-o-lantern (L. drew the face),
the kids dressing in their matching pumpkin shirts & "trick-or-treating" the dining room, where mommy waited with tiny bags of chocolate & chips...
and then hopping in bed for a "family movie night" of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

It was nice & quiet. I don't think anyone was disappointed. Here are my 3 little punkins. :)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

lots of firsts...and less hairs

In this post, we have: first gum, first haircut(s), first shoes by self...






the 1st pic is z's 1st piece of gum. she did okay with it (which means she didn't swallow it for a while...;)

Here's a post about Zora's 1st haircut (which was quickly followed by her 2nd) & L's 1st time to get his hair washed, cut & styled. :) I attempted to give Z a trim, which looked okay, but not as great as I had hoped.
L. needed a trim anyway, so Leanne & I took the kids to the mall & got them both trimmed. It went great with L (he picked a cut he could style "like a fraggle" aka "spike" or "speek," as the lady here called it :) Zora was another story. We did all we could think of the amuse her, but alas, the kid didn't like it much. No tears were shed, but I think our sweet hairstylist was close to 'em! ;) Enjoy the pix!

Leanne's cell comes to the rescue as shown above.
a blurry, but spiked Langston...
followed by a cute, bobbed sister who was captured just after she put her own shoes on her tiny feet! (hey, who cares if the left is on the right & the right is on the left?) She was so proud! ;)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

our address....3rd time is the charm?







































These are a few shots of "busy Zora-bean"...she is my super busy one these days! Also, there is one of what I do to cook with both kids in the El Gross-o shared dorm kitchen. Yuck-O.

Asystent Hotel
rooms 503-504
ul. Slaska 11
25-369
Kielce
POLAND

sorry, y'all, I have NO idea where the "itten tours" came from on the previous post about our address! The only thing I can think of is that I am NO good at typing on B's SUPER sensitive keyboard, so I dragged the end of a random phrase over to my post (?).
Anywho, mom used my mangled address & her package got to us anyway, so if you've already mailed something using it, it'll be fine. (I cannot imagine how I forgot to double check the address b4 posting...we never have anything exciting going on here! And now everyone who's ever been around a 20-month-old is laughing, right?)
Seriously, both kids are sickly right now. Z has barfed twice & had a fever for about 24 hours. L. started with only a cold, but he's sipped from Z's sippy twice today without thinking. *urg.* At least we made it this long without serious illness. Only 11 weeks to go!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Langston turns 5 in Krakow





We had such a fun (family) weekend in Krakow! Langston Hadley turned 5 on the 4th & we did all kinds of things...some of which are pictured in this jumble below. We took the train in one evening & the kids & I ate at my fav place (an awesome vegan restaurant & the only place I've seen with Yoga ads & Free Tibet posters :) while B dropped our luggage at our apartment. Then we spent the afternoon together & ate dinner at a VERY Polish restaurant (my fav things there are the "traditional cottage cheese," which is smoked with jelly on top...shown below & the huge hunk of fresh bread served with lard & cream cheese.) L. digs the food & that they "serve blocks" to play with instead of crayons. :) The next day we went to a "Chuck E. Cheese/Going Bonkers" type playplace. Both kids went crazy! :) Z loved the dolls & trampolines the best. L ran through the huge mazes & was drenched in sweat by the time we left. (lots of pix throughout..) That night we ate with Piotr, a friend of a member of the History Dept. at WIU (they actually knew each other in Turkey some years ago & B got connected since we've been here...small, small world). Piotr recommended a really neat Jewish place so we ventured into the old Jewish district & all was amazing. His sister joined us for the meal & he even paid for ours! (so nice!) The kids were a little restless, so we headed back home for a Polish bakery style birthday cake for L. He was pretty excited about the "5" candle & the small carton of ice cream with 4 different flavors in pretty lil' scoops. ;) The next morning we went to the "transportation museum" (again with Piotr & again he paid). This was the coolest. The kids did all kinds of hands-on science stuff, saw how books are bound, original printing presses, all kinds of cars (we even got a pic taken in front of the Papamoblie...the car thing built for JP2 to ride around in) & then we saw a gigantic display of trains (we missed you, Amir!). Then we took Piotr to my fav lunch spot & said our goodbyes. We polished off our birthday adventures with a kid-movie marathon (two movies) & homemade popcorn with a bag of m& ms melted into the mix. (sidenote here...Zora LOVEs m&ms. A couple of days ago I asked, "would you like scrambled eggs for b'fast?" she replied, "no. Ems." translates to: m& ms, of course. :)
All in all, birthday #5 was a fun time for all.