Dexter's 8 mo

I'm lagging a bit this week even though I had the video done. We all came down with the flu...some worse than others (me being the "some", Jim not getting it at all, hoping if he does he can make it to the weekend). I did a bit of a video montage and because it's on the lengthy side (close to 3 minutes), I can't post it on the blog. Hence it's on You Tube. You can always search on "Dexter Munholland" to find it, otherwise the link is below. Not much to it...but gives everyone a longer glimpse of the kids and their antics. I'll try and do this every so often & get more creative in the future...guess that's not entirely up to me, but my subjects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M_KxdEdvJo

Only In Colorado

Dexter is on the prowl. He's been a mad man lately, fast little booger. He's now climbing up the stairs and stands up (with support of a piece of furniture). He babbles constantly, been saying "da da" for weeks and then this weekend when I was holding him and talking to Jim, he said "da da" looked at me and said "ma ma, ma ma" and started laughing. Ok, maybe reading a lot into that, but it was cute. We finally moved him into his high chair to eat becuase he kept trying to get out of his other chair even though we had him buckled in. He's graduated to eating Puffs, which were a favorite of Kellan and Zoe's. Now we have to give him Puffs in between bites of food since he loves them so much (luckily half of them end up in his lap). Amazingly, still no teeth. With the amount of drool we expect them any day (been saying that for months now). We miss everyone watching him grow so much.

We had gorgeous weather last week, got a foot of snow on Friday, melted away with warm temps over the weekend to get more snow tonight and tomorrow. That's CO for you.

From the last post follow-up - Kellan and Zoe both did well in their conferences. Kellan is average on everything - which pleases us very much. Zoe is currently above average - which also pleases us very much (granted she is only four, but she is a fiend when it comes to competing with Kellan, which I'm sure has helped her academically and socially).

Jim was outside bar-b-que'ing and two of his buddies were eager to join him

Crazy Kid. Kellan snuck up on Dexter while he was supposed to be taking a nap, instead he was trying to pull his mobile down and eat it.

Zoe decided to put her boots on for the second time this winter (this was actually the first day of spring)...we're still working on the rest of her clothes (though it was pretty warm and most of the snow had melted).

Dexter has mastered telling us when he is done eating. He spits it back in your face. Of course didn't get it on video, but you can tell by his face he's letting you know how he feels.

Saturday, in the park, feels like the 4th of July

It's been awhile (ok not really) since I've taken some pictures of the three kids together. Mood usually rules how picture taking is going to go (more likely not go at all). It started with no one wanting to take pictures (other than Dexter, he's a big ham), but then I bribed them saying they could take some too. It resulted in tons of pictures (not all I will be posting).

We had a great day Sat., 60+ degrees, spent at the park. Kellan and Zoe were super excited to push Dexter in the swing (his first time), at times too enthusiastic. He loved it and we can't wait for more days outside. Unfortunately on Sunday came the snow, sleet and rain, another day in the house, in our pajamas. The rest of the week should be nice.

Kellan and Zoe both have parent/teacher conferences this week. Wish us luck. Kellan says things that make us think he's struggling, but then can never expand on the topic. He continues to talk about D.C. and the monuments. He went to the Denver state capitol building a couple weeks back on a field trip and has requested we take him to Olympia our next trip to WA.

Looking forward to April 5th. We were very sad to find out the Angels traded some of our favorite players, but I'm happy one of my favorites of current day ended up on the Mariners - Chone Figgins. We have to buy Dexter some Rockies attire, in the mean time Papa Jim and G-Ma Lawna bought him a Vladimir Guerrero shirt for X-mas, which are hard to come by now that he's no longer an Angel.

To bring everyone up to speed on a few nicknames we have for Dexter, just in case we throw one out there and no one knows who we are talking about:

Deezer, Deezers, or Deezers Wheezers (don't make fun these are mine & personal favorites)

Deuce (Jim's latest)

Booger / Boogs

Big D

Last kid quote:

Kellan: "Dad said something unappropriate today."
Mom: "You mean inappropriate."
Kellan: "Not sure, what does inappropriate mean?"
Mom: "It was inappropriate when you licked your chips at lunch and put them back in the bag."
Zoe: "And Kellan, not only was that inappropriate, it was disgusting.

The Boys

Dexter loves to eat people's faces, not in the Hannibal Lecter sense, but in a more playful way. He likes to go straight for the chin and cracks himself up when he gets you right where he wants you. He has been getting into more and more lately. We set him down on the ground and the next thing we know he's in another room. We had to break down and buy a gate. We know we won't be able to keep up with him soon and having the three stairwells means trouble. We will be gating off the basement this week (for our guests that means no more Duke waking you up in the morning). Dexter was mesmerized this week with his reflection in the filthy, dirty trash can, he's discoverd long lost toys under the furniture and is eating everything and anything he can get his little hands on.

Zoe is doing well, she actually wore tennis shoes today! (big day for us). The weather has been nice, so wearing shorts and a t-shirt in 50 degrees has made her life a bit easier. She's still enjoying school and gymnastics once a week. I took an early lunch and went to watch her this week. She's done with Kellan and his video games. Today in the car after another long conversation about Lego Star Wars Wii she yelled "Kellan, I've had enough, stop talking about Star Wars." I'm right there with her.

Sitting here watching the Oscars with Jim, hoping I win a big prize for "predicting" the winners in our work contest (though Jim actually did all the predicting). Love the fact that we can fast forward through 50% of it...and "we" are five for five with our predictions (though most people probably are)...make that six for six.

Olympic Closing Ceremonies?

Another mellow week/weekend around here. Friday night I took Kellan and Zoe to a high school basketball game. Kellan's teacher coaches a girl's team and it was their semi-final game. It was a good game and Kellan was really into it (Zoe not so much). It made for a late night and the rest of the weekend was all R & R. Something seems to be up with Dexter again, another long night Saturday. We appreciate all the good nights with him and know it's an exception when he doesn't sleep, so may be taking him back to the doctor depending on how tonight goes. Not sure if it's his teeth (massive drooling) or continued ear infection.

Kellan has been playing a lot of Lego Star Wars Wii. He's almost completed it and Zoe and I couldn't be happier. Outside of the constant playing there's constant conversation around the game. I may be buying a TV for the basement to banish him. This is how bad it has gotten, he turned to me today, as he's playing and says "I peed my pants." and I said "What?" "I had to go so bad I peed myself." and he continued to play. I'm not talking a little pee, he really peed. I told him to stop playing and go take a shower. When he came back down I asked him why he didn't pause it and go to the bathroom. "I swear, you won't believe me, but I didn't realize I peed." Forget the Lego intervention, we now need a video intervention. I may be exaggerating on how much he plays, homework always comes first and there is a time limit (sometimes we forget though), but not exaggerating about him wetting himself, that really did happen this afternoon. As I said before, slow week.

Not much in the way of pictures either...Zoe was my little model of the week.

Dexter's 7 months old

Big blue eyes

The many faces of Zoe

I've been reluctant to post videos since they have not been working on a regular basis, the one below isn't showing an image right now, but is working - unless something is up with blogger again. Sounds like they continue to work on the issue...so tune in every now and then.

Sick Days

Our home was an infirmary this past three day weekend. Zoe still has her bad cold, Dexter was beside himself Sat. night, barely went to bed. We took him to the doctor Sun. - fever, congestion and a double ear infection. Kellan had bouts of needing to vomit. I ended up with a sore throat and headache. I took a sick day from work on Tues. since I got myself pretty run down. Jim was lucky to escape, but loved living with all the sickness. I feel like most posts are now weather or sick related, can't wait for the summer. Lots of snow heading our way by the end of the week. Kellan has been passionate about school this past month. The focus has been Presidents and DC (specifically monuments). He loves non-fiction books now. He keeps asking to go to DC and was excited when we reminded him that he has cousins and an aunt and uncle that live there, that his mom and G-ma Sue were born there and his great G-pa worked at the Smithsonian.

Follow the link below to one of his school projects. Not too sure about the screaming (he thought it was funny) and he's angry at himself for misspeaking about the President on the five dollar bill. You may need to turn it up to actually hear Kellan's voice. It may also take some time to download and will keep playing over and over until it downloads all the way.

Select the km.mov link
http://schools.dcsdk12.org/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=151694&catfilter=26851#showDoc

Gotta run, I'm sitting in the loft on the computer, with both the kids' doors open crying saying they're scared of the night and are going to have bad dreams (well Kellan started first and Zoe heard him and has to follow). So much for sleeping tonight...

Last kid's quote:

Mom: "Kellan, you stink."

Kellan: "That's what I do best."

1 yr Blog Anniversary

I had my doubts, but the blog made it, one year. I may not have been as good as I wanted to be at times in updating, and there are definitely things I forgot to write soon after I published, and Lord knows tons of grammatical errors, but still in awe I made it this far (especially with my track record for calling, emailing, writing). In the first post I said Jim would be doing most of the posts, um yeah, he hasn't done one. That will need to change this year.

This year flew by, at least for me. A year ago we found out we were having a baby boy, Kellan started the first grade, played more ball and spent the majority of the time in braces and Zoe, Zoe's had a couple of tough, tough years to the point where we were worried if things were ever going to get better. I couldn't be happier to say, these past two weeks have been great, she's been absolutely great (I'm starting to cry as I type this). I know kids go through tough stuff, but I think this was a little beyond the terrible twos/threes. I'll have to start writing the blog in Spanish one day so the kids won't be able to read what I am writing about them (as Zoe is looking over my shoulder asking me why here name is spelled here). Her new attitude has made life with three kids a bit easier for Jim. Dexter continues to thrive and if you are not sick of me saying it yet, is still very happy and sleeping great (with a bad night here and there). I will gush while I can, who knows what will be around the corner...there's nothing better than happy kids (I'd say and healthy except Kellan puked last night, Dexter puked all day yesterday and Zoe has an awful cold). Life is still good.

We sent Kellan and Zoe off with Uncle Tom and Aunt Jan this weekend to see a Disney stage show. A good time was had by all, until they brought the kids home. Dexter took one look at Uncle Tom and started crying and screaming like we have never heard him before. I don't know who I felt worse for, Dexter or Tom. Jim sent me for a massage, the first one I have ever had in my life. It was great, except that all I wanted to do was go to sleep so when it was time to leave I felt sick from laying down for so long. Not to say I wouldn't go and get another one in the next 37 years. On Sunday we went to a wildlife like museum that Kellan loves (see pictures) then on to Uncle Tom's for a Super Bowl party (yay, Saints). We're all excited for the upcoming three day weekend.

Last kid's quote:

Kellan at Disneyland after he rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride:

Kellan: "Mom, when I was on the ride, I closed my eyes, concentrated really hard and used The Force to steer the car away from the fire."

Mom: "Oh yeah, you used The Force?"

Kellan: "Yeah, I use The Force a lot now and it really works."

Side note: Every time Kellan and Zoe have to poop, either Jim or I have to go into the bathroom and say "May The Force be with you...always...man.

Butterfly exhibit