November and December 2008

Wow!  The holidays are already coming and going!  Could I get some pictures up already?

So much has been happening since my last post!  Haidyn is now crawling-she's getting faster every day!  She is also waving hello and bye-bye, which is really cute.  She has 8 teeth already! Her favorite "foods" are Cheerios and rice cakes.  I've completely given up on baby food, except for the occasional attempt at baby cereal.  Oh, the other day I found Haidyn standing up in her crib, so we had to lower the matress!  She is trying to pull-up on anything she can reach.  My little baby girl is growing way too quickly!

            

Kealon is really in to rhyming and telling us what letter different words start with!  He's learning so much at his little school 3 days a week!  He loves pretending, riding his bike, reading books, and playing with Haidyn (his "best friend"--he's so cute!).  Right now Kealon's favorite "food" is probably a candy cane.  He gets one from our neighbor EVERY DAY!  Thanks, Maria and Aldo :)

            

I have been enjoying working part-time at our church.  I'm getting to know so many different people through overseeing the Sunday preschool volunteers and other activities.  Stetson is doing really well with his Masters courses and is now on vacation from work and school!  It will be nice to have some family time together over the next 2 weeks.  

Christmas is almost here and, of course, I still have some shopping to do.  Luckily, Kealon somehow hasn't made the connection between Christmas and presents yet!  We are taking advantage of that and going easy on the gifts for as long as we can :)    We plan to stay in Florida this year for the holidays...Leah and Sarah are actually coming here after Christmas with their families!  I see another Dinosaur World trip in our future!  

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!    

  

October 2008

This past October has been a busy one!  Mimi, Pop, and Uncle Keith have been settling into their new home here in Florida and it's been nice to be able to see them more often.  A few weeks ago, Cousin Brad flew down from NJ with Pop to visit.  He and Kealon had a blast going to Dinosaur World (of course) and hanging out with our friend Tammy at her Disney timeshare!  Kealon loves when his cousins come to play.

Kealon is also enjoying his sister as she grows and is able to interact with him more.  He likes to get down on the floor with her and help her sit up again if she "accidentally" topples over--she seems to fall over a lot more when he's around!  :)  Kealon's "new thing" is talking to his fingers (I guess they are his imaginary friends).  They always wiggle and talk back in a high voice. We think it's pretty hilarious!   

A typical conversation might go something like this...

Fingers:  No!  Don't eat us!

Kealon:  Don't worry, guys!  I won't eat you.

Fingers:  But you are going to eat us! 

Kealon: No, I'm just eating my pizza! 

Fingers: Oh, ok.

Haidyn is also doing new things.  Her favorite thing right now is jumping in her bouncy chair or exersaucer.  She goes crazy!  I have to get a video on YouTube soon.   Her eating habits continue to baffle me.  I thought she was ready to wean, but then the next week she got back on track with nursing!  She won't drink from a bottle, but I did find a sippy cup she likes.  But she refuses to drink any formula out of it!  As for eating, she closes her lips and turns her head when offered any type or any stage of babyfood. Sometimes she will eat a bowl of baby cereal, but that's it!  So, at 6 months I resorted to table food.  Now at 7 months, she is eating spaghetti and meatballs, chicken noodle soup, instant oatmeal, scrambled eggs, pancakes...almost anything that we are eating.  I'm not sure how she manages it, since she only has 4 teeth and they are all on the bottom!  She certainly appears to be a healthy and happy baby, so I guess I'll just keep going with the flow :)  

Choo-Choo!

Trying out a gift from Thia Maria!

Hurray for Philly!

Mmmm!  Spaghetti and meatballs!

Trip to Canada

I've been VERY behind in adding pictures to the blog!  Sorry!  Since we've returned from our trip we've been keeping pretty busy between colds, church activities and just the everyday routine stuff.

We had so much fun during our trip to Canada! We were able to visit for over a week with Auntie Jan, Uncle Jan, Dee-Dad and lots of friends.  The weather was actually really nice, even during the last couple of days when the temperature started to drop--brrrr!  It was nice to experience some fall weather and see the leaves changing colors.  I think Kealon's favorite part was going to the park with Uncle Jan to see the black squirrels!

We love our Dee-Dad!

Auntie Jan and Kealon at a gathering to 

honor fallen policemen and women

Parliament building

Uncle Jan and Kealon in the garden

Haidyn was not enjoying the cold!

Family Vacation!

Aunt Leah and Haidyn watch Ryann's drill team

The cousins walking down a spooky trail!

Too much static, Aubrey?

Kealon and Andrew having fun at the park

Haidyn gets her 1st taste of Jersey pizza!


We are having a great time on our North East Tour :) We left on Sept 18 on a flight to Atlantic City, NJ. We spent over a week in NJ and Philly visiting lots of friends and family. Kealon had so much fun playing for hours with all of his cousins! On Sept 26 we started our drive to Canada. We were able to stop overnight to visit college friends in Rome, NY, and also made another stop in Watertown, NY, to have lunch with another college friend. Saturday afternoon we finally crossed the US/Canadian border and made it to Ottawa by the evening.

We will be visiting Stetson's sister Janine, Uncle Jan, Granddad (Dee-Dad), and other friends for the next week. On Oct 5 we begin the long drive back to Philly. We'll be flying back to Tampa on Oct 6. Although we are visiting so many people and driving all over the place, it's really been a relaxing trip. Because we took so much time off, we are able to take our time and actually enjoy ourselves and the people we are visiting with!

The kids have been really great on the trip! Kealon is getting to see and experience some things we don't have too much of in Florida...REAL PIZZA, a train system in a big city, mountains and huge boulders, the beautiful fall foliage, black squirrels, and (starting today) the cold weather! Haidyn seems to be having a lot of fun, as well! She has been laughing and smiling at everyone(especially at Kealon), doing some very loud and extensive babbling, and eating lots of different big people foods--white rice, basmati rice, hard boiled egg, pizza crust, toast, corn bread, avocado...She pretty much refuses to eat her baby food! I guess that isn't a big deal, but I want to make sure she's getting the nutrition she needs! At 6 months and 18 lbs, it sure does seem like she's eating enough :)

I'm going to post the NJ and Philly pictures now and then do another post later with pictures from Canada (since we still have a week left here!).

5 Months

Happy 6th Anniversary!


5 Months Old


Such a big girl!


I guess I haven't been taking too many pictures lately! This is pretty much it for the past couple of weeks. Working at the church has been keeping me pretty busy, apparently! Although you can't tell from the lack of pics, there has been a lot going on!

Stetson and I celebrated our 6th anniversary this month, and we were able to actually get out and have a nice dinner without the kids--thanks, Pam and Salina!

As for Kealon, he is excited to start Awana Club and the Children's Choir with church in Sept! And for all you Haidyn fans...her new favorite things are "blowing raspberries," chewing on everything in sight, playing her little piano, and practicing sitting up! Everything is happening so fast! Where did our tiny, 6 lb infant go? I added 2 new videos to our youtube site--sitting up and little mozart.
http://www.youtube.com/knightupdate

Earrings!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER!



August is more than half-way through and it's already time for the kids here in FL to start school again. I don't plan on tutoring too much this year, since Haidyn can't be separated from the "food source" for longer than a few hours at a time! I'm now working part-time at the church organizing classrooms and volunteers for the preschool dept of the Children's Ministry...and that seems to be keeping me busy enough :) Since I won't be working full-time, we are taking Kealon down to 3-days a week at his daycare. I plan on taking many trips to parks, the zoo, and the science museum on the days he is at home! I've got to keep that kid busy or he will drive me nuts!
The other big news this month is that Haidyn got her ears pierced! Our friend Maria went with me to take pictures and to witness the event. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected! She really only cried while the lady was doing the piercing, and then for maybe 30 seconds afterward. By the time I put her back in the stroller, she was all smiles again! She looks so pretty!
OH! One more big piece of news is that Mimi and Pop and Uncle Keith are officially moving down here this week! They are still working on fixing up the NJ house to put on the market, but will pack up and drive the moving truck down on Wednesday!

4 Months Old!

Haidyn is already four months old! The time is really flying by. We are so blessed to have 2 happy, healthy children! Haidyn is such a laid back baby. She is always smiling and making all of those cute baby noises during the times she is awake...except in the car where she still screams! And she is just so CUTE with all of those chubby rolls!
At her 4 month appointment she weighed a little over 15 lbs. She is already wearing her 6-9 mos clothes! We took a break from trying the cereal, since it didn't seem she was quite ready yet. When she turned 4 months, we tried it again and she enjoyed it much more than the first time. Since then, she has also tried roasted sweet potato, applesauce and sweet plantain. She really loved the sweet potato that I shared with her! Oh, and she finally decided to roll from her stomach to her back just before turning 4 mos.

Kealon is looking more like a little boy and less like my little baby every day :( He is still an affectionate little guy who hugs his friends and kisses anyone smaller than him! Sometimes the luvin' gets to be a bit much, though, and isn't always reciprocated! I wonder if he will ever "grow out" of that :) He also has a real love for animals, music, singing....and pirates!
Kealon has graduated into the 3-year-old class at school and was not too excited to leave the teacher and friends he has been with for the past year...although, he's only moved a few feet away! I can tell he will really learn a lot this year in his new class. He has already come home saying "Letter K! K-k-k...Kick! Kealon!" It's amazing how quickly kids can make connections and pick up on things at this early age.

And what about mommy and daddy? We are busy (who isn't?), but doing great! Stetson continues to work towards his MBA and is maintaining high averages in each class. In September he is participating in a prison ministry with our church to Angola State Prison during an annual child visitation day there.
I am trying to figure what I am doing this fall and for the rest of the school year! I am not going back to teaching this year, and I plan on tutoring very few children until Haidyn stops nursing. I am currently pursuing a part-time job with the Children's Ministry in our church, so we will see how that pans out!

I cannot believe how quickly this summer is going by! To everyone in NJ, remember we are coming to visit on Sept 18 and staying for about 10 days. Then we are driving up to Canada to visit more friends and family! (That should be an adventure!) Don't forget to click on the title of this post to see more pictures. You can also check us out on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/knightupdate

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Happy 4th of July...and more!

July has been a busy month so far and we're only half-way through the month! We had a lot of fun visiting with friends Bob and Camaryn from Philly. We did a lot while they were here...Haidyn and Kealon went to their first baseball game to see the Rays sweep the Red Sox (sorry, Bob). We went to the world famous Brandon parade on the 4th, where Julian and Kealon gathered as much candy and bead necklaces as they could carry! We hung out at the pool and ate bbq until we burst on more than one of the days they were here. And we even made it out to the zoo where Camaryn treated Kealon to a horse ride--one of his favorite things! It was a great week.

Haidyn has hit the 3 1/2 month mark, and I just couldn't wait any longer to experiment with some rice cereal. She wasn't as interested in the whole experience as her brother was when he first tried it! She sort of moved the cereal around her mouth and then pushed it out with her tongue, which is probably the normal reaction vs Kealon who grunted for more with every spoonful! She's getting better at it each day, though. Haidyn's favorite things right now are snuggling her face into blankets whether in her bed or in her carseat or swing AND she is doing lots and lots of coo-ing and babbling. We are waiting in anticipation for the big day when she finally decides to at least make an attempt at turning over! She seems perfectly content to stay in one place right now...I guess I should enjoy that while it lasts! :)

June 2008

Summer is in full effect here in FL and we are enjoying every minute of it! The weather is hot, but that hasn't stopped us from having fun with visitors, bbq-ing with the sound of thunder in the distance, hitting the beach to watch the sunset, and celebrating Kealon's 3rd birthday 2 weekends in a row!
There aren't too many new things to report...
Kealon just got his yearly physical. He measured 3ft, 2 in and weighed 32 lbs. On the growth chart he was right in the middle! Haidyn doesn't have another appointment until 4 months, but I'm interested to see how much she has grown since her 2 month visit. She is starting to get better now being left with other people, as long as mommy is not in the same room. I don't want to jinx this, but the past 2 nights she has slept for 9-10 hours without waking up to eat! I think it's just a growth spurt, though...I really can't complain AT ALL, because any other night she's been sleeping for 6-7 hours at a time. I love this kid!
I guess that's it!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kealon!

Kealon celebrated with his class at daycare...



...and with us and the Smith's at home!


He HAD to have a pink, "smallberry" cake.





He got a big boy bike from Mommy, Daddy, and Haidyn.


We are having a little pool party this weekend, so there are more pictures to come!

We're Back!

I can't believe it's been a month or so since my last post! I was doing so well there for a while...
Haidyn is now about 2 1/2 months old and chunkier than ever! Many have compared her arms to those of the Michelin man. She also has a pretty hilarious double chin :) Other than doing a lot of eating and sleeping, Haidyn has been busy smiling and cooing, kicking in the tub, bouncing in her jumper, and batting at toys or other objects placed in front of her. She is growing so fast!

Kealon is still enjoying his role as big brother. He has been so gentle and caring with his sister...I'm just enjoying this while it lasts! Kealon is really growing, as well. His vocabulary keeps getting bigger, along with his imagination. He has started looking at the clouds and asking us if we can see dinosaurs, trains, horses, etc. It's so cute! Other big accomplishments include being able to pull up his shorts and undies on his own (finally), hopping on one foot, tracing his own hand on paper, and counting to twenty.

We have done so much in the past month, but for most of the time we didn't have a working camera! But don't worry--I couldn't live without one for very long. I missed out on pictures of Haidyn's 1st trip to NJ and her first wedding :( But I did get a few pictures of our visit with Auntie Jan and Haidyn's 1st trip to Disney. There are other candid shots, as well, so check out the newest album!