Update on my Knees

Well it's been a few months since I've started doing therapy on my knees, so I wanted to share in my progress.  I did physical therapy for almost three months.  It helped my right knee a ton (once i got the official referral from my doc), and it got to the point that it would only ache after a long day of walking.  My left knee was definitely better since the beginning of my therapy, but I had a flareup at the beginning of June that put me quite literally back to square one.  Not sure what caused it, it occured around us going to Out of Africa, but it was bothering me before we went.  Anyway, once that happened, my physical therapy wasn't as effective (since that leg was super-weak), and I had to limp to the point that my left foot would cramp up from using my walking muscles differently. 

So there was one secondary option my doc recommended called Supartz.  It's a series of weekly shots over a five week period that is meant to help build a cushion in the knee joint.  I was interested in getting them before I had the flareup, but once that happened, I called to schedule the injections.  I checked patient reviews online, and all seemed to be positive, that the injections cured almost every person's pain, often for years.  I was nervous about how much the shots might hurt, but I figured a lot of pain for a short time is better than the pain I've been having lasting for the rest of my life.

Well, today I had my third set of injections.  I'm getting them done in both knees (as Ammon put it, "Your body is so fickle, you should just get the right knee done too just in case.")  Thus far, the pain during the shots has been tolerable.  It's a lot like when you get a novacaine shot at the dentist.  Except it's in your knees, and a little quicker.  The feeling for a few days after is just that of puffiness within the joint.  For the most part, my knees have been feeling better.  I can still barely straighten (and still not lock) my left knee, which makes any sort of long periods of standing and walking a bit uncomfortable, but it's better than limping.  Today, the injection into my right knee hurt like the dickens.  I got really nauseated and had to lay down for a few minutes; then I couldn't straighten that one for a few hours, but that seems to have passed (THANK GOODNESS; just try walking without straightening either leg... it's a little goofy)

I'm interested to see how these next two weeks go.  Since my doc is going on vacation next week I will have two weeks between my injections, and it seems that my knees get better the longer it's been since an injection.  Anyway, as for the Weight Watchers experiment I've decided to go back to my original diet plans.  I've lost 21 pounds since January, but only about 5 of those were Weight Watchers.  Once I went back to trusting my instincts in healthier eating I lost 2 pounds in a week.  Long story short, Weight Watchers wasn't helping me do anything I wouldn't do on my own, and it was just more confusing.  So we'll see how things go from here. 

Sasha - 9 Months

Here is the gorgeous Sasha at 8 Months:

And at 9 Months. 

Those pants are getting too small, so I think I'm finally going to retire this outfit.  Funny, since she could still wear it pretty easily.  It's been 6 months in that same outfit without a significant amount of outgrowing anything.  Silly cute baby!! 

At her 9-month appointment she was 28 inches (75th percentile) and 17 lbs, 15 oz. (25-50th).  She continues to be learning and growing at a brisk pace.  She is finally stable enough to sit up in her little bath tub.  This month she started standing on her own.   

And climbing onto anything she can.  She hasn't quite gotten onto the couches, but I'm not looking forward to that day!!

She also finally got her first teeth.  They came in together.  This means I have to be a lot more careful of putting things in her mouth... like my hand and my face.  She is eating more solid food, and has taken a definite liking to bread and oatmeal. 

With all her tumbling and adventures, headbands just aren't cutting it anymore. 

So I made my first attempt at pig-tails... a little crooked, I will admit. 

 The whale spout look is much easier on me, so I tend to do that one more often then anything else.  I promise we did not make the same face in this picture on purpose. 

It shocks me how bright Sasha is at times.  I have taught her drop her binky (on command) into her crib when I pick her up from her naps.  Then, the other day, Kaleb taught her to help clean up the Legos.  He showed her how to drop them in the bucket, and she followed along.  It was AWESOME!

Sasha's favorite thing is to be tickled.  We found out her most ticklish spot is her hands.  It's so cute!!!  She also likes to play peekaboo... through anything.

And around anything. 

 We got to take Sasha to the public pool for the first time.  All she did was splash. And Splash and SPLASH and SPLASH and SPLASH.  Our faces got soaked, but she didn't seem to mind at all.  She just squealed and splashed some more. 

I've noticed Sasha taking a greater interest in her hands.  She will point and even sometimes watch them like she doesn't have control over them.  Now when she gives hugs, she likes to pat people on the back like she really understands. 

She went through a phase where she would put the back of her hand in her mouth and open and close her hand.  Silly cute little quirk.  Plus, she started blowing raspberries.  Add that to the teething and you can imagine the trails of drool!

 Sasha has started exploring more of Kaleb's toys, and it's fun to see her try to understand them.  She can just wander amongst the pile of toys for hours without complaint.  Here she is trying to make a Cat's Cradle (for those who even know what those are).

 This is a toy that's more for her age group.  You hit it and it spins with the little balls rattling around inside.  She liked it for about ten seconds... and moved on. 

 There was a love/hate relationship with this large exercise ball for awhile.  She would get close to it and smack it around, but if it came near her she would get really scared.  Silly, sasha!

What I have loved the most this month is seeing Sasha traveling with toys while she is crawling.  This toy was one of her favorites, cuz it made noise.  Another top contender was one of those echo microphones.  It made an impressive racket every time she smacked it against the floor... almost like the Jaws theme song... you could hear her coming for you. 

Her absolute favorite toy this month is this ball bouncing contraption.  It's been hiding in Kaleb's closet with a lego shoved in it that we never really tried to get out.  It's a noisy little sucker, but she and Kaleb just LOVE it!!

 Well then again, perhaps Sasha's favorite thing to play with is really Kaleb. 

 I guess anything is better than the TV, but she does have her favorites.  Anything with music (which she will readily dance to) and close-ups of dogs and cats appear to be the most attention-getting.  However, I think we have another Sesame Street fan blooming.   

My sweet little girl is still such a cuddler.  She loves to be held and played with by just about anyone, anytime. 

And blankets are always big winners in her book!!

This is her little reminder of what our little world revolves around.  I guess she's not quite ready to have a placemat on the table. 

AAB (or "How I Didn't Kill Anyone This Semester")

Well, I finished another semester of school, and I can admit I didn't think I or my family was going to make it... but here we are.  I took Business Calculations (from simple math to formulas for finding loan payments and what not), World Mythology (that's right, the entire world is covered in myths, and it is not pretty) and Tax Accounting (Ew, get it off me!!!!).  The first two classes weren't terribly challenging.  The Business Math class had one week that seemed to trick me a little, but mythology was fun times.  However, I can't even begin to describe to you the stress that was caused from my tax class. Often, I would have to read 60 pages of tax law... finish it off with bout 10 very confusing online homework questions which could have as many as 10 steps within them, take 1 or 2 20-questions quizes and then do a tax return... oh, and I had my other two classes and the rest of my life to worry about as well.  My tax homework was due on Monday's which cued the emergence of the she-devil within me. There were times I literally didn't understand a bit of the reading, and then I would get to the homework and attempt to apply it and do okay.  Other times I would get the jist of the reading, then go to do the homework/tests, and I would get 60%.  It was NUTS!! 

All that being said, I learned a lot in all my classes.  What I learned most of all this semester is how much I need to REALLY keep myself busy with projects this summer.  Then I will have EVERYTHING done I could possibly have done when I start again in October.  Anyway, I got an A in mythology, an A (by 2 points) in Business Calc, and a B (barely) in Tax Accounting.  I think my GPA is hovering around a 3.5 since I have just as many A's as B's, which is just dandy to me.  I've never looked forward to summer so much!!!

The Potty Training of Kaleb

As I mentioned earlier, we have recently been potty training Kaleb, and I want to write a post about the major points because I think it worked well for all of us, and well... some parts are really funny.

So about two months ago we transitioned Kaleb into Pull-ups.  There are so many expert opinions on both sides of the fence with these suckers but I felt they would be better for Kaleb (and me in the middle of a semester of school) to learn a little more slowly rather than cold-turkey.   The first few days of wearing Pull-Ups made it SO obvious that it would have been REALLY rough if we hadn't used them.  He didn't understand how to pee 'on demand' and it took quite a few tries for him to get the hang of it.  Then there was the getting-dressed aspect that I hadn't thought of.  It's a lot of responsibility to ALWAYS be in charge of putting your pants back on. 

The hardest part was BY FAR getting Kaleb to poop in the toilet.  This has been an issue with a lot of kids in my extended family  and it was no different for Kaleb. He just refused to even try to poop in the toilet.  He would read the signs, then hide, then go.  Finally, about two weeks before our scheduled cold-turkey potty training day, we decided to strip Kaleb down if he showed any signs of pooping, force him to sit on the toilet, often for 20 minutes at a time.  HE HATED IT!  He would scream like I was ripping his toenails off and cry and oh, it was awful.  (I have a tastefully filmed video of it below.  Doesn't show anything nasty) 

Finally, after a few failed days of trying to get him to poo in the toilet (he would just wait till the Pull-up went back on during naps), I left him on there for a big, long screaming session (i had given him juice and a Fiber One brownie, so I knew it was just a matter of time). "Nnnnnnoooooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooooo!!! MOMMY!!Mommy!!! MOMMMY!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

a pause...

(sniff) "I did it!! I pooped"

That happened about four more times, before he was calmed to the point of just a lot of loud crying.  Usually, Kaleb would run to the toilet, cry a bit with some quiet "No, No" moans.  Then he would come out... quickly run back... back and forth, back and forth till 30 minutes later, he would allow himself to poop.  About a week after his third birthday, Ammon took a Thursday and Friday off so we could take a road trip to Out of Africa on Thursday (posting later) before the cold-turkey Friday.  Kaleb successfully pooped in a toilet at Out of Africa with just a whole lot of whining, so I was super proud of him.

Finally, that Friday, we kept Kaleb naked for three straight days.  If we went anywhere, he would 'go commando' under his shorts so he still felt a little less secure, a suggestion I got from my friend Melanie.  (thank you!) We gave him lots of powerade and juice to make sure he had lots of opportunities to go.  We gave him an M&M for #1 and two 'big' candies (like rolo's) for #2.  He had one or two accidents, but overall did great, including going to the potty on his own while at nursery that sunday. 

It's been two weeks now, and I am super-impressed with how Kaleb has embraced his new responsibilities.  At times, he still fights us when we ask him to go to the bathroom (maybe cuz he doesn't think he needs to go or maybe just an "I'm busy" type moment), but we only have random accidents here and there.  We still have him wear Pull-ups at night because he is such a heavy sleeper, but even during his last few naps he hasn't peed. He doesn't mind going in public toilets, and I'm proud to announce that he can poop without even shedding a tear.  I think he has realized just how much more like an adult he has become and the phrase "Big Boy" really has so much more meaning!

Like I said, I'm glad for all the good advice I've received through friends and books, and I feel like I was a little inspired with how to cater this big transition for our little boy... or should I say our Big Boy!! 

Kaleb at 3 years old

I'm still in a little bit of shock that I have a three year old.  A little boy that could start preschool in a few months.  He really does make me so proud so often, it's hard to believe that I could ever be angry with him... but he is still such a little boy at heart.  The other day we were discussing an article about "The Top Things You Should Never Say to Your Kid," and one of them was "ACT YOUR AGE!!"  Their reasoning was of course to never pigeon-hole a child into expectations that are higher than they are capable of at that time... When I think of telling Kaleb to act his age it would be telling him to be MORE rowdy, MORE obnoxious, MORE noisy and just overall less of a person than he is.  When I keep that in mind (which isn't often enough), I remember what a great kid he is. 

ANYWAY, Kaleb is now 40 inches tall and 38 pounds.  That's the 90th percentile for the 3-year point which is why EVERYBODY thinks he is at least 4.  He can be quite a handful, but this has been a busy year for him with his new baby sister, learning to deal with all the rules that come with a big-boy-bed (like don't touch the window treatments) and potty training recently (different posting for that).  Thankfully he is just handling it with more tears than tantrums and continues to be a joy to us.

As always I must RAVE about what a helper is with Sasha.  He loves to pick her up and take her places (like out of his room), and she just thinks it's hilarious!

 Kaleb has also taken on the responsibility of being her little tutor.  He likes to teach her things, even if they make no sense at all.  Doesn't this picture just scream "Aye, Sensei!!"

Here he is feeding her... something he is always asking to do!  Doesn't she look HUGE in his lap!?

 Their favorite game is for Kaleb to run around the room, back and forth and Sasha crawls after him.  Sometimes he will hide around corners and surprise her which she just thinks is AWESOME!!  It might be quite a shock for Kaleb when she starts walking, but for now they really are great buddies!!

 Sometimes when Sasha is napping, I can tell Kaleb really misses her.  The other day, he couldn't help but play with this little baby doll.  He set up the blankets for it, and told me, "Mommy, my baby is crawling!!"  Oh, man i love this kid!

And then there are times when Kaleb is just a cute little kid. 

 I love this shot of his ginormous feet!!

Part of the growing pains of boy-hood include getting a few scrapes, like that week he had one on each elbow from two totally different falls.  One of which he barely teared up, the other he cried for an hour.  Go figure!

One of the most entertaining parts of Kaleb's growth continues to be the things he says.  He still has some odd pronunciations for things (right now he mixes up the K and T sound like a Kag on the back of his shirt), like Applepus for Octopus, Hepitopter for helicopter, Armbow for Elbow, Elmo Street for Sesame Street, and Cheepahs for Cheetahs (that's our favorite!!)
We have worked with him to get the LMNOP part of the alphabet song, and his counting continues to get better, although right now it goes from1 to 11, then forteen, eleventeen, forteen... and he just repeats that over and over.  Some of his favorite things to say right now are the classic "I WANT" which we are trying to switch to Please, and of course everything is "Watch This!!"  He's also become obsessed with singing Old McDonald.  Some of my favorite things he has said recently are:

(When told what we will have for dinner) "I can live with that."
(When Sasha was yelling in the car) "Mommy, your daughter is screaming."
(When asked if he put his dinner dishes in the sink) "Um.. not quite"



We've been having Kaleb dress himself in preparation for potty training, and occasionally run into little mishaps (Both legs in one pant leg)

Kaleb has been such a little helper with the dishes lately.  Ammon taught him one night while I was out grocery shopping, and it has become a great little chore ever since.  Sometimes it's fun for us, other times it's just more work, but at least he's learning to do chores. 

 As he's getting older, we are introducing new games to him.  He still only has about a ten minute excitement/attention span, but it's interesting to see what he takes from each game (like Bingo, Chutes and Ladders, and Matching)

 In late April, Kaleb got to go on his first Fathers&Sons outing with all the Teller men.  Since he was the only little boy on the Teller side, he was able to get a TON of attention from everybody.

Uncle Rylan taught him how to ride his unicycle.

Grandpa (Papa) took him "On Walkabout"

Plus he got to sleep in a tent (on a deflating air mattress) and eat dutch oven cobbler... those two pictures didn't download i guess.  He was exhausted through the whole trip but talked about it for weeks!

With summer has come the chance to swim.  Gramma Teller has graciously bought a pool for the grandkids, and he and his cousin Lilly (usually with Tashina supervision) have a GREAT time!

He also had a chance to visit Brimhall Pool once already as well!

One thing we discovered randomly a few months ago is that Kaleb is allergic to fish.  He usually threw up every time he had fish, but we never put two and two together until a tune fish sandwich lunch back in April.  At least now we know.  Ammon has never been a seafood fan, so it doesn't do much to our daily menu. 

Kaleb has learned the fun of pretending.  He can play with his animal and people figuresand do little interactions with them.  He also likes to pretend talk to people that aren't there.  Like the other day he said something random, and I asked him what he meant.  He just said, "I'm talking to gramma.  She's right there." and he poinedt to an empty space in the room.


I love that Kaleb enjoys church and learning about church things.  Here he is all spiffed up and ready for a little gospel-learning!

Ammon and I observed a day in nursery (on his birthday, to take scrapbook pics and to give out birthday cookies), and it was so fun to see him interact with the other kids in such a wholesome environment.  It's also funny to see how much bigger he is than all the other kids (in spite of half of them being older)

We have started doing family home evernings most weeks, and we do a little lesson based on paintings in the gospel art book.  His favorite story by far is Ammon (go figure) and would request it every week.  I like to review the lesson from the week before to see what he remembers, and it still surprises me what he gleans from each one.  Besides Ammon, we have talked about Noah, Moses with the serpent on a stick, the ten lepers and Joseph Smith. 

You know your kid loves the spirit when he asks you to sing primary songs for his bed-time song.  He has heard one of them so much he asked to sing it by himself.  Thankfully we got a good recording of it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrhygW-uiGw

Sasha - 8 months

Sweet Sasha is 8 months (okay at this point almost 9, but lets not get ahead of ourselves)...  Here she is at 7 months

Then at 8 Months.  We saw that she finally started to fill in a little bit, and her hair is really starting to grow!  What has been really fun is that Sasha is responding to her name now, and we're pretty sure she understands "no" as well.  My smart little girl!

We have moved Sasha down to 2 naps this month.  She also started blabbing.  Saying Baba, Dada over and over.  One funny vocal quirk of hers is to hum when she is eating something she really likes, kinda like you would see on a cheesy commercial "Mmmmmm. Mmmm" It gets a little distracting when you're trying to have a conversation with someone.  She also has the (happy) SHREAKING down pat!  Once when I was on the phone with my mom, she let out a good one.  My mom had to pull the phone away from her ear, and someone across the room on her end heard it loud and clear.  I don't look forward to the tantrum stage for this very reason!

I noticed that Sasha LOOOOOOOVES to cuddle with soft things.  If she sees something she likes, she gets all excited, rushes (in her limited crawling way) over to it and does a face plant right on it!  It's so stinkin silly, and I just love it!

Not that I can blame her, but Sasha just loves herself!!

And with that vanity comes the need for the proper accessories...

Even if that accessory is a green monkey puppet!

Sasha seems to like everybody, but she definitely has her favorites... her family.  The three of us always get special smiles and kicks of excitement when we enter the room... always lights up our day.  She even went through a phase of whining whenever I would leave or reenter a room.  That silly little honor was just for me. 

Poor Kaleb does his best to be a good brother, but he hardly ever gets a moment's peace from Sasha's wandering hands.  She just doesn't know any better than to pull down block towers or slobber on Kaleb's favorite toys or wander into his bedroom.  The only fault Kaleb has as a big brother is sometimes being too attentive or too loving.  I've lost count of the number of times he has squished her or covered her in a pile of toys.  Sweet big boy!

As always, Sasha tries to get ahead of the learning curve.  I can't tell you how much she wants to just feed herself cause Mommy and Daddy just aren't fast enough!

She has been great about feeding herself snacks... and every other little bit she finds on the floor.  No she isn't smoking anything. 

Ambitiously we started teaching Sasha to sign the word "More."  It took Kaleb three months to finally get the hang of it.  After about 2 weeks of inconsistent attempts, Sasha started doing it back to us.  What freaked me out was that a few days later, she started saying "Ma ma ma" whenever I would ask for "MORE."  Only lasted about three days, but nevertheless, made me nervous about what we say in front of her!

This is a photo of her way of signing more.  One time when we fed her ice cream she held this pose for about five minutes, letting us know that she hadn't stopped wanting more!!

There have been a couple of times when I've regretted leavning Sasha unbuckled in the carseat.  No major mishaps yet, thankfully.

Here she is riding in the front of a grocery cart... where she quickly gets every shopper's attention.  She even learned to wave "HI."

Sasha got to play in a pool for the first time.  She had a bad experience once with very cold water and rambunctious playmates, but the second time around went great!

We also had the chance to FINALLY bless Sasha on Cinco De Mayo.  Because I'm a silly girl this is one of the few pictures I got that night, even though we had a great turnout of family and friends.  The blseeing was wonderful, though, and considering her age and how slippery her dress was, it all went smoothly!