Matthew is Rolling and has his SECOND Tooth!

YAY! Matthew can now roll over (back to front)! We've seen it three times now (I mean, Jon's seen it three times now...I'm sitting at the computer pumping...missing this big moment).

So happy for Matthew!

Oh, and we also discovered his second tooth!

How We've Survived, Part 1

So, as you may (or may not) know, my parents are in Hawaii. They left early in the afternoon on Thursday (November 10), and will be returning early in the morning on Sunday (November 20). I joked with my Mom that her going on vacation makes me go on an "un-vacation". Good-bye mid-day and early-evening visits...

So this is what we've been up to:

Day 1: Friday, November 11

We took advantage of Jon being off on Remembrance Day by visiting his Opa and Oma Bomhof. I love that we live so close to them and that they simply adore Matthew and Kayla. We try to visit with them every couple months. They are amazing people, and we always have such a great time with them.

Oma and Kayla

Opa and Matthew

Day 2: Saturday, November 12

I woke Jon up at 9:15 and told him that I was going shopping for a little bit, while Matthew and Kayla were napping. I went to Wal-Mart and Old Navy, and then treated myself to Value-Village. LOVE! I spent the whole time in the kids books, and found a bunch of great finds. Some are gifts, but the ones I've kept for myself (7!) all have good Christian or Christian-like morals/themes. I love books.

Candice and I took Matthew and Kayla to the public pool in the afternoon. They haven't been swimming since August, and I was hoping to take them soon, so when Candice offered to go with me I jumped at the chance. I cannot believe it costs $6.75 for one adult! That's crazy! Matthew and Kayla LOVED it. Kayla was splashing like crazy (no surprise there, she's crazy in the tub) and Matthew was very content to jump on the step, and then get pulled through the water. I think we spent about 30 minutes in the pool.

Day 3: Sunday, November 13

After church Sunday morning we drove to Lynden, Washington, to visit Kam, Michelle, Carson, and new baby Jake.

Doesn't Jake just fit in perfectly with Jon and Matthew? LOL :)

We also went to the Safeway in Lynden to check out their grocery prices. I cannot believe the price difference for milk! Superstore here is selling 4 L of 1% for $4.37 usually - there it was $2.59! We stocked up for the week...3 x 1% and 2 x chocolate milk.

Day 4: Monday, November 14

Melissa asked if we were interested in going to Tynehead with her during the day...and I jumped at the chance to ask her to babysit Kayla while Matthew and I went to his doctor appointment. Once that was over we went to Tynehead to look at the salmon.

It was COLD! Luckily we were in the trees because the wind was sure blowing!

We came home to our lawn absolutely COVERED in leaves, so as soon as Jon got home from TOC-ing he used the lawnmower to pick them up.

Day 5: Tuesday, November 15

Today we didn't do anything special. Once Jon came home from TOC-ing we quickly took a family picture for his Opa's 90th birthday present (a book of family pictures).

It was freezing outside so this is the best shot we got in 5 minutes. Who cares if Matthew and Kayla aren't even looking at the camera, right?

Day 6: Wednesday, November 16

Nothing special today. I had every intention of walking to Two Ee's this morning, but it started raining just as I had convinced myself that it was worth the effort. It hasn't stopped raining since. Jon's going to Baselines tonight to watch the game with his UBC carpooling friend, so we're on our own.

EVERY Day:

In addition to their morning baths, I've been giving Matthew and Kayla an evening bath as well. It helps give them a change of scenery, rather than having to play in the living room with the same toys they've been playing with all day.

The other night Kayla crawled in front of Matthew, and then Matthew began to spank her repeatedly. It was the funniest thing ever. Kayla didn't even move! We managed to catch it on video, and when we re-watched it, Jon and I were laughing so hard.

She's got him trained! Classic Struik back massages.

The Beginning of November

They LOVE playing together like this - Matthew in the exersaucer and Kayla on the outside.

Jump!

Waiting patiently for her turn.

Jump! Oh wait, she can't...

Celebrating cousin Annika's first birthday! Sitting here with cousin Justin.

Kayla kept busy playing with the toys. So fun when they're 'new'!

Sitting with Auntie Leanne while Justin tries to take Kayla's toy. She's not used to having toys stolen from her - she usually does the stealing!

Sleeping on Opa.

Play-date with cousins (once-removed) Tyler and Josie.

Matthew thought Tyler was great. Tyler started dumping all of the toys on the ground, and Matthew burst out laughing. And then when Tyler proceeded to fall over his 'mess', Matthew laughed even more. I was tearing up I was laughing so hard!

Kayla: "Oh, right there Matthew. Just a little higher. Siiiiiiigh. Perfect. Thank you!"

Such a happy family lol. I'm worried about taking their soothers away eventually. They don't really get them during the day at all (only for naps), but they do come out in the early evening when they're starting to get super tired.

The End of October

My Mom and I called Candice up and told her that we were coming to pick her up so she could come to Costco with us. Matthew and Kayla were quite excited to see Auntie Candice!

And you can't go to Costco without having one of their ice-cream cones. Matthew and Kayla loved it!

My Mom and I also went down to Bellis Fair for the day. I scoped out the prices of baby food and discovered that rice cereal is SO much cheaper down there! We checked out a handful of different stores, and found that Target was the cheapest. I stocked up on a few months' worth of rice cereal and Gerber Graduates.

With Kayla's ability to crawl comes her ability to get into anything and EVERYTHING! She has discovered the toy shelf, and often sits in front of it playing with the different toys.

Jon and I walked up to Tim Horton's on the last Friday of October. We bundled the kids up (we added a blanket onto their legs after the photo was taken!) and treated them to their first Tim Horton's. So much fun!

Playing toys, together!

Stealing toys. Classic Kayla. Usually Matthew just watches her take them from him.

Just hanging out...

...crawling around...

...dumping toy baskets...

...crawling on Daddy...

...playing with Mommy...

...and playing in the laundry basket.

But wait...Matthew and Kayla's new 'thing'...you'll love it...

Kayla: "Matthew has a soother? That's not fair! I want a soother!"

Kayla: "I'll just steal it from him. He can't defend himself anyways!"

Poor Matthew. Since then, he has learned to steal it right back!

Matthew Pooped and Kayla Peed

I was giving Matthew and Kayla their morning bath yesterday, and after I finished washing both I took Matthew out, laid him on the bathroom floor, and wrapped him in his towel. I went to grab Kayla out, and noticed she was staring at where he had been sitting in the tub. I looked over, saw something dark, and thought "how did that leaf get in the tub?" Upon further inspection I noticed that it wasn't a leaf at all...it was smushed poop! I'm so naive :)

After taking them both out of the tub (and leaving the poop to clean up later), I changed Matthew and sat Kayla on the ground with some stuffed animals, wrapped in her towel. Kayla quickly took her towel off and started crawling down the hallway, naked. I looked 30 seconds later and there was a nice wet circle of pee in the carpet.

Thanks Matthew and Kayla, and good morning to you, too!

Matthew's First Tooth

...is coming! We can feel it! Looking forward to (eventually) showing pictures with that pearly white :)

Matthew's X-Ray Results

"Although the skull appears brachiocephalic, the coronal, lambdoid, and sagittal sutures are visible and patent. There is no evidence of craniosynostosis."

YAY! No surgery!

This still leaves Jon and I in a bit of a predicament. I asked Dr. Bhui (the pediatrician we were seeing) if he could guarantee 100% that Matthew's head would round out on his own, and he said no. He also said that he was pretty sure that he going to have craniosynostosis, based on the shape of his head. I asked him if he recommended getting Matthew one of those custom-made molding helmets, and he said he has every reason to believe that his head will round out, but a helmet would definitely guarantee it. He said to go with my intuition. Our next step would be to go back to Dr. Shah (our family doctor) and have him submit a referral to the clinic at BC Children's Hospital that deals with head shapes. I've done a bit of google-ing since our appointment yesterday, just searching on other infants that had a brachiocephalic skull, and what they've done (and didn't do!). Most parents have posted that they did Do the helmet, or wished they would have. One interesting thing I found was that it said that infants with a brachiocephalic skull often have weak neck muscles and so they have a hard time holding their head up against gravity, and struggle with learning to roll over. That's Matthew exactly! He's not NEAR as good as Kayla at "tummy time" and he still can't roll over. My mom and I have been practicing rolling over (back to stomach) with him for the past month or so, and he can get his legs over, but he just can't get his head/shoulders over yet. Interesting...

I've been humming and hawing over what I want to do (in terms of pushing for a referral or not). I don't want to go through all of the appointments etc (and money!) if it would round out on it's own. I don't want to jump the gun on this. But...after I had washed Matthew's hair today, I looked at his head shape and nearly died. Thank goodness he has hair, and hair that lays nicely. When it's wet and laying flat against his head shape looks horrible! I think I'm going to push for the referral and see what the experts at Children's (I'm assuming that's where they'll refer us to) say. It doesn't cost us anything to get a second opinion. I don't want to be kicking myself when he's older and getting teased about his funny head shape...

Anyways, I still have to discuss this with Jon. Stay tuned for updates!