The Grewe Crew

A quick rant

2011-03-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

I love my church. And yesterday...I especially loved my church! I don't know what was going on...but there was something in the air and everyone was VERY excited to be there. :) Nick on the other hand, was not at church because he stayed home with the girls so that 1. Makenna wouldn't be thrown off her "bootcamp schedule" and 2. because Kaylee had a runny nose and cough (which has gotten worse, so I'mglad we kept her home)

So with that said, I had a 20 minute drive up to church ALONE in SILENCE! I don't remember the last time that has happened. I then got to sit in church during worship and close my eyes and NOT worry about my kids bothering anyone or screaming too loud. After that, I was able to forget about all my other cares in the world because my entire family was safe at home. For some reason, even though I'm a HUGE advocate of Children's Ministry and trust them back there with my kids COMPLETELY...I can't seem to turn off my "I wonder" brain. You know..."I wonder if Makenna needs a diaper change." or "I wonder if Kaylee is being nasty like she was this morning." or "How long

is it going to take us to leave and are we going to be able to shove lunch down before nap so that she will actually sleep today?"...anyone with me? Are you a mom that's nodding their head as you read this?

Anyway, I was without all of that. So I sat down to begin listening to the sermon. WOW...Aaron was PREACHING the Word. Was I just getting it because I was not distracted? Possibly. Or was the Holy Spirit just using him to speak to me this morning? Probably. And then...oh...dear...what is that? Um..sir? Your cell phone is ringing. Yes...definitely the guy next to me. Why can't everyone silence cell phones at church? sigh. Okay, be like Jesus...grace, grace, grace...he got it after the 4th ring...that's okay. Grace, grace, grace. I look at him and smile as if to say..."Jesus loves you!....lame-o!"

Back to the message...oh wait...um...sir? What are you doing now? oh! I see....

Now one would think that in today's technologically advanced age that he purely has a Bible app and is going to be "tapping" to Luke instead of "turning" to Luke. Right? Of course! Benefit of the doubt. We are at church after all....

How about Wikipedia...

or Gmail

or FACEBOOK!!?!?

I'm sorry, but sir...this opportunity for me to sit and focus on a sermon comes but once in a lifetime these days. MUST you check your email and update your status RIGHT NOW? Can you "check-in" to church later?...

Needless to say, I found a comfortable position where I leaned forward, put my hand to my face (to try and block a bit of the distraction) and continued on listening. All in all, I made it through. I learned a little more about Luke 15, got challenged to improve my BELIEF not just my BEHAVIOR as a Christian...and friendly techy-guy sitting next to me is well informed on red & white blood cells, the Aztecs standings, inbox is cleared out AND all his FB friends now know that he was checked in to church.

I do believe that the Holy Spirit has to work some major overtime to reach hearts these days...gone are the days of being distracted by a snoring grandpa or inappropriately dressed young woman. It's all about the apps now!

-end rant-

A Blog Resurrection

2011-03-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

WOW. It's been a reeeeallly long time. And since it's been so long, I'm NOT going to fill everyone in. I'm simply going to pick up where we are at right now. :) I was told this evening "not to over exert myself" by doingthis...but I feel as if the events that took place today could ONLY be told through a blog post. Thus, I have logged in, recovered the password, discovered that I have to log in as Nick in order to post anything at all (anyone know how to transfer a blog?) and also that Blogspot has become Blogger. Yeah...like I said...it's been a while.

ANYWAY...what kind of event could cause such a resurrection? An Organization Event, of course! It's been a while since me and my friend Kim have hung out. Today she came over and it dawned on me that more than 3 years ago...when I needed to organize Kaylee's closet (before she was born), Kim was one of the main contributors to such a task. Now today marks the day where I had thrown my hands up and just said "forget it!" to the closet and dresser. How on earth do you come up with a system for packing up old clothes, putting out new clothes, storing them for that "just in case you have ANOTHER girl" moment, not to mention fit clothes enough for two girls in such a tiny space!?!? Youcall my friend Kim...and you commit to a whole day of organization. :) So...if I decide to start blogging again, I'll post some fun stuff about the additional human we've created and added to our Crew. I could also post some more fun stuff about the 3rd birthday that is coming up for the first little midget we made. But for now, this post will be ALL about clothes and closets. Sorry. But it was just WAY to exciting. :)

Step 1: Stare at the closet, the dresser and the LOADS of unorganized boxes of baby clothes. You see...when I don't have a system in place, I begin creating chaos. Nothing goes in its place, because nothing really has a place. And let's be honest, even if I had taken the time to

give it a place...after two kids-am I REALLY expected to remember where that place was?

Step 2: Submit to Kim. She had ideas and I was overwhelmed. So when she said dump EVERYTHING out onto the floor and empty out the closet, I obeyed.

(this is not even half of it...)

Step 3: Sort...and sort...and sort...We created little labels for our piles. Newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 12, 24, 2t, 3t & 4t. Then we sorted everything down to the socks and hats. It was nuts. Meanwhile, I also took the opportunity to put all the current sizes for Makenna into the closet. Transferred all of Kaylee's clothes out of the closet into the dresser. They now both have clothes that fit AND they are organized. Such a concept.

(Makenna's clothes will be on the left, and that sorter starts Kaylee's side)

Step 4: Drink orange juice and start playing dress up with Kaylee. In order to figure out what fits, we made a huge game of it! What 2.5yr old doesn't like dressing up? (Are you bored yet? Sorry. I warned you this was all about organization.) And the OJ? Well, I was getting distracted and overwhelmed...so I got something to drink.

(pardon the appearance...anything blue is "just like Cinderella" which means the glass slippers have to go on. And her hair is JACKED from having to take off and put on so many different things. LOL)

Step 5: Place all clothes inboxes and label them accordingly. I was going to use my label maker, but it doesn't make labels large enough...and it was in the closet that Makenna is currently sleeping in. (Yes, she's sleeping in the closet. More on that if I decide to keep blogging.)

Step 6: Make an instruction sheet to place next to the labels, because after all...I WILL forget the system we created and then I'll have to try to remember what we did. And THAT would be very dangerous and VERY scary.

Needless to say...the project took AAAALLLL stinkin' day. But at the end, we were thrilled and I couldn't be more excited about the new system that I am hoping is clear enough to read and remember.

Thank you, Kim...for my girls' closet, dresser, storage boxes but most of all my sanity. :) I love you and hate El Paso. (she's moving there...and I'm gonna be sad.)

Baby Exit....Toddler Entrance

2009-05-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our little girl is turning one! It's hard to believe it. Last year on this day, I was fussing around the house, cleaning out cupboards, straightening shelves and passing by the empty nursery in great anticipation. Now, my almost 1-year-old is sleeping soundly in her crib and I've been struck with a pot full of emotions. How on earth did that year pass by so quickly? Where did the time REALLY go? I'm so thankful for my hard working husband and the choice that I have to stay home with Kaylee. These are precious times and I'm soaking up each one of them. More pictures to come, I just felt a little sappy this morning.

For those of you who REAAALY care....

2009-04-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER since I've posted an update. I'm sorry. I'd love to go into a long explanation, but there is no need for it. I'm sure that most everyone who even reads this already knows why I haven't written in a while...because I have a 10 month old who is growing and developing faster than I can keep up with! So on with the blog entry....

First, I'd like to thank Ashley for the beautiful blog design! We feel so special and "personalized" thanks to her crafty and creative design! THANK YOU, ASHLEY!!! So what HAVE we been up to? Well, a lot! I guess we'll start at the beginning. Like I said, this blog entry if ONLY for the people who really like to read about our lives...cuz I have to fill in two months worth of stuff! haha! Enjoy!

We started out in early March with a visit from Poppy! He spent the weekend with us and as usual, it was an amazing visit. While sitting at Starbucks, Kaylee spotted a dog. Poppy said, "Kaylee, what does a dog say?" and don't you know Kaylee starts "barking"...now, I'm not sure it was actually a "dog" sound that she was making. Because now I know that it was actually her sound that she makes whenever she is excited. It just sounded like she was barking...haha. We also had a nice night out to dinner at Pei Wei. Kaylee is getting very good at "dining out" with her friends. If Mommy has enough puffs, she can go just about anywhere! God Bless Gerber and their invention of puffs. It's the Cadillac of Cheerios...truly.
Next up, our monthly play date with Jillian! It's been so fun to watch two babies, 3-months apart, begin to grow up and interact with each other. We try to get together about once a month...the past two times we got together were for Jillian's 1st Birthdayand a regular fun play day at our house. These girls have "girlfriends" written all over them!

I joined a "Mom's Club" finally! After complaining about the 4 walls in the house creeping in on me, and nobody to talk to but a babbling baby and a dog, I did it. It has been a life saver and a sanity finder. We play once a week with new friends at new parks, libraries and bookstores. It's amazing how much is out there for kids...I had no idea. It's crazy though, I really am starting to feel like "a mom." Here she is with her two new friends, Emily (6-mos. in the center) and Cienna (3 days older than Kaylee, on the right).

Bittersweet moment of the year...Toby is no longer coming over everyday to play. The Kraus House welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Weston, into the world on St. Patty's Day! I finished up the month of March and said good-bye to my Nanny job...for now. I wish we had a bigger house with a little bit more space so that I could take on another baby during the week, but alas, our 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom itty bitty home would not do well with 3 kids under 2-years-old. How Mommy's of multiples do it, I have no idea. So, Big Brother Toby and his little brother are home now. I miss him like crazy! And I know Kaylee does, too.

Shortly after my last post (back in February) we had "lift off"...meaning that we entered the crawling stage...oh, and did I mention that the pulling up onto things stage occurred within a few days of the crawling?! Kaylee is officially a monkey. Crawling around, pulling up and attempting to climb on EVERYTHING!!! Exhibit A:That's right! She did that ALL BY HERSELF! Perhaps I should start researching Rockclimbing for Toddlers?

More recently, like in the past two weeks...I think, we went to the Wild Animal Park with my Mom to see the Butterfly Exhibit. Kaylee watched them flutter by with "childlike wonder." It was awesome! I'm thrilled that none landed on her, because she would have grabbed the poor little guy and squeezed the life out of it! :-) Granny tried to show Kaylee how to flap her wings, but Mommy didn't get the picture in time...oh well.
And then we jumped back to the Colonial days! Our friend, Johanna (AKA the best thing that ever happened to our friend Jim), turned 25. She had an "International Birthday Potluck" and we showed up as Americans. It was awesome! When you have a mother that has an endless costume closet...why wouldn't you dress up like this? Luckily, our good friend Valerie happened to have an antique, homemade nightgown and booties from her grandfather that she let us borrow for Kaylee. Thanks, Valerie! It made the family picture "complete!"

Finally, we celebrated our first Easter as a family! We had a great morning at church and then we went to the park for a picnic. We took a beautiful but unexpected 5-mile hike around a creek/reservoir and then went home for naps and a bbq dinner. It was so nice to just spend time as a family and reflect on the day. I made a mental note that THIS is exactly what I need to make more time for. Family time. What a concept.

Did I mention that Kaylee is 100% a Daddy's girl? Man, oh man! I am in love with these two! Watching Nick in his role as a father has got to be one of my favorite things to do. She LOVES her Daddy and he LOVES his baby girl. Please Lord, protect this relationship forever! It is SO precious to me!PS...yes, Nick shaved his head. A young man at our church is fighting cancer right now. The men of the church have decided to support him by shaving their heads while he goes through the rough stage of losing his hair, due to the chemo. It's truly amazing to see what these men will do to support a brother in Christ. Please pray for Sam Reiser...that his battle with cancer will be a 100% victory!

So there you have it! Thanks for enduring the two-month long update! I promise, I'll do much better at updating from now on.... :-)

"Stay Cool!"

Our baby---a big girl...

2009-02-10T09:13:00.001-08:00

Here I am reporting on some more of "the things they never tell you about parenting." I'd like to meet "They" and give them a piece of my mind, but that's another subject for another day. Perhaps I'll write a book. Anyway, I've gotten used to the "Experienced Mother" telling me to enjoy these moments because they go so fast. This mother then proceeds to tell me stories of when her babies where young and then continues to share how they are now grown and rotten. I usually nod my head and say "yeah, I'm enjoying them" or something else nice and then try to find a way to change the subject. After all, I AM enjoying every moment and I stopped reading "What to Expect in your 1st year" in month 5...because really, the only thing that reading that book does is give you anxiety about how your child is not developing like a text book says she should.

But then these past 7 days happened...and I suddenly found myself on the other side of the Mom category. The one that finds Mom's everywhere saying, "What happened to my baby!?" So now I have a word to say to those "Experienced Moms"...You didn't warn me about the flood of emotions that I was going to experience! You didn't warn me about the shock and awe and pride and joy and remorse and sadness that can be felt all at the same time! You simply said "Enjoy this time!" Grrr... :-) I'm mostly kidding. But I have found that this past week has catapulted Kaylee into a world of "Pre-Toddlerness" that I don't think I was ready for.

#1. Scooting - Apparently this is her main mode of transportation around the house these days. Not a standard baby crawl, more of an army crawl conducted by a soldier that has lost his right leg to a war. After getting up on all fours, Kaylee then plops down and continues to one of her legs (either one) behind the rest of her as she scoots along the floor. So when people ask if she's crawling, I say no. I guess I could start saying "kind of."

#2 Self-feeding - Kaylee started finger foods recently. I find this to be the most entertaining time of my day. There are no words to describe it...so here you go:

#3 The Stroller - This is the kicker for me. This is the event that made me realize that I have a "pre-toddler" as THEY like to call it. Kaylee has been sitting up on her own a lot more lately. Riding in shopping carts has now replaced the carseat coming with us wherever we go. So...I figured that if she can go shopping in a cart, then she can go for a walk in her stroller! We tried it last night...and it went great! Now, I'm sure that most of you "Experienced Moms" are smiling sweetly at my little discoveries, but as a first-time mom, all of these things are brand new to me! So here is my BIG GIRL...in her BIG GIRL outfit...with her BIG GIRL smiles.

Conclusion: My baby is growing up fast indeed...and the little girl in her is starting to emerge. It's bitter sweet. I'm THRILLED at the new stages and can't believe they really DID come so fast. Sigh...I guess this is when people start teasing you about having another one... HA! NO! For anyone who was thinking about it...NO...we are not there. :-)

Happy Birthday, Uncle Rich!

2009-02-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

My baby brother is 17 tomorrow. So Kaylee made him this...

Make a Smilebox greeting

On top of the world....

2009-01-29T09:54:00.001-08:00

So my dad (AKA Poppy) is supposed to be sending me pictures of Christmas so that I can post about it. I figured if I "outed" him here, maybe I'd get them sooner. But while I was trying to upload pictures for a new post titled "Feeding Time at the Zoo" (coming soon...) I came across what I didn't know existed! Christmas pictures! Only 12 of them, but enough to get by. Then I got distracted. As I looked at a picture of Kaylee on her Poppy's shoulders for the first time, I couldn't help but remember that feeling. It's funny, that even as a grown woman, the feeling of sitting on top of my Daddy's shoulders will never fade. It's an "I am on top of the world and nothing can get me down!" type of feeling. (Yes, even at such a young age.) Back to the photo...as I sat there staring at it, I remembered that I have a similar picture from when I was a little bit older than Kaylee-but still on his shoulders. I was going to caption the photo so that readers could know "who's who"...but then I looked at the pictures again and laughed. If you can't figure it out...well, you need some help. :-)

SO....in honor of my Daddy, Kaylee's Poppy and a lack of Christmas photos on this blog...please allow me to introduce you to the best place a kid could ever be! On top of the world!

No More Helmet!

2009-01-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Here she is!

The girl with the round head and symmetrical ears! We went to Cranial Tech on Wednesday to have her helmet removed. Pretty anti-climactic if you ask me. They simply asked us if we were happy with the results, then took it off (like we do everyday) and had some follow up pictures taken as well. Then they gave us a certificate and sent us on our way! No parade? No cheering? No praises for what we have been through?! Oh well. We got back in the car and drove home and continued life as normal.

Kaylee has adjusted to life without the helmet as well as she adjusted to life with it in the beginning. A little bit of restless napping while she figured out that she could no longer push the top of her head up against her crib while arching her back without hurting herself. A few misses with rolling over and plopping her head down a little bit too hard. But here we are three days later and the kiddo is doing great!

Garyn came over today to spend some time with her and we had a little photo session. Now, if you have been a follower of this blog OR if you know anything about Kaylee, you know that she does NOT photograph well. No, I don't mean I think my kid is ugly. I mean that whenever a camera comes out, she gets VERY serious and stops whatever cute thing she was doing that caused us to pull out the camera in the first place. With 1,000,000 attempts, we are lucky if we can walk away with one good smile for the camera. Anyway, not so today! Kaylee was all smiles for her Auntie! Enjoy her new round head! And stand by...I'm working on my version of a "clinical display" of plagiocephaly for a blog post. Complete with mug shots and head'sicle's!

Goodbye, Helmet!

2009-01-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it to our last stretch of baby helmets! On Wednesday morning, Kaylee will be going in for her "exit" appointment at Cranial Tech! I'm more than excited about this for many reasons. #1. No more DAILY baths! Not that I want my kid to be dirty...but a baby just doesn't need a bath daily. #2. No more STANK! Have you ever taken a nice deep breath of someone's inner cast? That's what her head has smelled like ever since Day 3. But of all the things I'm happy about, I'm most happy for #3. A beautiful round head with symmetrical eyes, ears, lips and a happy little face. More updates with pictures on Wednesday...but I just wanted to share what is in the "pipeline" of Kaylee's little life.

Baby Toss

2008-12-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

Determined to keep Kaylee from being plagued with car sickness (like everyone else in my life), I'm determined to break her of it early by constantly tossing her around... especially if she's just eaten! And for all of you saying in your minds, "Yeah, you just wait," I can tell you that I have not yet been puked on (yet).

A fun side effect is that she loves it. In this video she begins absolutely cracking up... JM grabbed the camera just in time. By the way, Kaylee hates cameras, so when she looks at it dead on and squeals something, I think that's her threatening to take her mother out, or at least cry for hours on end, unless she swiftly remove the camera from her presence. She hasn't figured out yet the cell phones have cameras. We have to be tricky...

Eating

2008-12-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a great video to go with the post below!
Wait and see if you can tell when she realizes that she LOVES big people food.
Funny thing... today when Jeanne-Marie was bringing her food, she totally started cracking up in anticipation. What if we did that at our favorite restaurants?

Let the rice cereal begin!

2008-12-11T10:08:00.001-08:00

Kaylee started the journey of "real food" yesterday! I never thought that I would be so interested in all things baby, but here I am! Right in the thick of it. We had decided, with the help of our wonderful pediatrician, that we would wait until Kaylee was older (6mos) to start introducing rice cereal. Mostly due to the fact that the nutrients in my milk are apparently better for preventing allergies down the road. We went to visit Dr. Sanford on Monday and got all of her new stats. Kaylee is a whopping 13.1 lbs. now! :-) I laugh, because at her last appointment (4mos.) she weighed 11 lbs. Two months later, she's gained 2 pounds with nothing on but her helmet...did I fail to mention that her helmet weighs 5oz? That would technically not put her in the 13lb. club quite yet, but who's telling? :-)

Back to the food...my dear friend Helen gave us this great site: wholesomebabyfood.com where I began my research on if I wanted to make my own baby food or not. Turns out I do. If Kate from Jon & Kate plus 8 can do it with a family of 10, I'm sure I can figure it out for a family of 3. So yesterday was the big day! My mom & Drew bought us a VitaMix for Christmas (early so we could get started) and I made the rice cereal from scratch! Totally easy when you have the magic VitaMix...I can't speak more highly about this thing...it's a mother's magical dream come true. Anyway, feeding time went well! At first, Kaylee made this sour face of rejection, but towards the end of the "meal" she was leaning forward in her seat, hands reaching for the spoon and mouth wide open ready for more!

So away we go with the big girl food!

Breakfast with Daddy this morning!

All done! I think she got about 1/2 of it actually IN her mouth.

Auntie Tami comes to visit!

2008-11-21T22:42:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we were able to spend some time with Tami! She drove down from NorCal to hang out with her littlest niece. Though it was a quick visit, it was wonderful to be with family all the same. We didn't do much...just sat around and spent time together. It was lovely! I'm pretty sure that Kaylee is in love with her Auntie Tami (see picture below!) Thanks for coming, Tam! It was so fun!

7 Hour Miracle

2008-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

When you put a baby down to bed at 7pm and enjoy a quiet night with your husband, it's great.

When you fall asleep at 10:30pm expecting to start your normal middle of the night wakings, it's alright.

But when you wake up at 5:30am to a singing baby and realize you've had more sleep than you have in a looong time, it's a MIRACLE!

Hooray for Babywise! Hooray for support groups and message boards! But most of all, Praise the Lord for this beautiful little baby!

Blessed by Silence

2008-11-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

Here I am! Reporting to you from Day 2 of the helmet adventure. I have been reading (as I find time) through the Psalms and today was Psalm 94. Let me give some background first...

The first night of Kaylee's helmet being on (Wednesday night) she woke up once an hour. I checked on her each time to make sure that everything was okay with the helmet adjustments. I could only imagine the discomfort the poor little girl was experiencing. Then for the rest of the day (Thursday) she did not nap...at all! Okay, I am exaggerating, she DID take a 20 minute nap in my arms at about 3pm when I had declared defeat. Nick and I are strong believers in the concepts of Babywise which states that you can have a peaceful baby sleeping through the night by 6-8weeks of age. We implemented BW as soon as we got home from the hospital and lo and behold our angel slept through the night at 7 weeks! Praise the Lord! Since then, she's been doing alright with it. I have not wanted to be so strict with a schedule that we couldn't do anything, and she kept up the sleeping through the night, so all was well. Then she turned 4months old. Kaylee started waking up 2, 3, and sometimes 4 times per night and her naps started becoming few and far between. So what do I do? Get discouraged and practically throw out the problem solving concepts of the book I once swore by. Thinking back I'm saying to myself "Jeanne-Marie, is this how you are going to be as a mom? Give up when it gets tough?" Ugh! So anyway, back to yesterday...

I joined about four different "support groups" online for other mom's who are going through their kids wearing helmets, along with trying to implement the concepts from Babywise. I posted my "letter of defeat" and this morning was greeted with TONS of support, encouragement and advice from lots of other Mommy's. What I was most surprised about was my miraculous renewed energy and stamina to take on the day. It is a testimony to prayer, because last night, my final cry out to the Lord was "renew me, restore me, give me patience for tomorrow."

So I come to you this morning, not with a baby girl that is suddenly sleeping or on her schedule, but a realization that God's promises are true and in my first "feelings of failure" as a mom, this is what He tells us in His word:

Unless the Lord had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Psalm 94:17-19

And now I sit here typing this, because Kaylee, after crying it out for an hour, is finally asleep. Praise God for the silence, if only for a quick moment.

Happy Helmets!

2008-11-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today we went to pick up Kaylee's DOC Band! All in all, I would have to say that it was a successful trip with tons of answers to prayer. Mostly, we were praying that the transition from no helmet to helmet 23 hours a day would go smoothly. Some babies tend to have a rough time adjusting to life inside the helmet and we were praying for this to NOT be the case with Kaylee. During our appointment, they brought in the band and put in on Kaylee. Then they left us for about 30 minutes to see how she would adjust to it and also to be able to see where they needed to make any adjustments. After about an hour of going back and forth with directions on caring for it, for Kaylee and some fitting adjustments, we were on our way home. Our sweet little pumpkin fell asleep with the band on in the car on the way home. When we got home, it was just back to life as normal. Right now, she is fast asleep and hasn't made a peep since I put her down. Praise God for this even tempered little angel!

So now, it's just taking care of Kaylee and her helmet with a bath every night and continuous monitoring of skin irritations or "red spots" on her head. If all goes well, we should be done right around the New Year. If all goes even better than that, we could possibly have it taken off sooner!

For more details on what Plagiocephaly is, if you are really curious, visit http://www.cranialtech.com/ and check it out. Oh, and just for fun, we are taking suggestions on how we should decorate it. Leave a comment with your ideas! And as always, thank you for all your love, support and encouragement. It means the world to us!

RAAAR!

2008-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!! I couldn't resist using today as an excuse to dress up my real life doll. :-) Here's our little lion cub!

DOC Band coming soon!

2008-10-22T21:03:00.001-07:00

First off, to update everyone, Kaylee IS going to be getting a DOC Band. I am doing fine with it and her Daddy is the strongest man I know. The people at Cranial Tech are wonderful. They took us through a variety of different scenarios that included the life with the band and also life without. My favorite part of the appointment came afterwards when we received copies of her "mug shots." Seriously, that's what they are. I feel like all we need to do is photoshop in a little black box with a random number on it and we've got America's first baby criminal. :-) We went in on Friday for her DSI (digital surface imaging) appointment. Kaylee say like a little angel while 25 different cameras take pictures of her head. Did I mention that in order to get accurate images, she wore a sock-like head piece that made her look like a bank robber? Perhaps the crime occurs after the mug shots for babies. Hee hee. Bad Mommy moment-I forgot the camera! Ugh. I would have loved to post the picture of her as the masked bandit. I was amazed at how calm she remained while the stocking mask was on her face. Not a whimper out of this girl! On November 5th we go back in to have the band placed and fit onto Kaylee's head. Then it's just a waiting game! 8-10 weeks is what they say for Kaylee in the helmet. Not bad in the grand scheme of things. We are praying that her head grows quickly so that she does not have to wear it longer than that. Selfishly, I would like it to be 6-8 weeks, but I know that even 10-12 weeks will feel like a blink of an eye later on. I think that's about it...so enjoy a quick giggle...because I sure did. Here are her mug shots. When you look at them, I think that the top right picture best shows her "a-symmetry" in her ears. See how the left side is so much lower than the right? Poor little baby...her expression in this picture gets me every time! :-)

WANTED: Kaylee Marie Grewe

If you have seen this baby, please call for reward.

Pumpkins and Pastizzis

2008-10-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks, since I last wrote on this blog, many things have taken place. I will save the DOC Band update for later, because Nick has to fix our scanner. I want to post pictures with it.

SO...that leaves us with this past weekend. We were blessed to have Kaylee's Nana (Nick's Mom) come down from Santa Clara to visit for the weekend. Something I have been hearing about since before we were married was how amazing these things called pastizzis were. That's right - say it out loud - PAH-stit-sees! They are a maltese tradition that Lynn passed down to us this weekend. Homemade phyllo dough, ricotta cheese filling, another batch of homemade phyllo dough with spinach & ground sirloin filling. All I can say is that they were delicious and well worth the time that it took to make them. Kaylee had a blast hanging out with her Nana and learned so many new things. She got a bath from Nana (and didn't cry at all!), she hung out with her while I went and got my nails done (compliments of Nana), she went shopping and got the most adorable outfit ever! But the biggest deal (to me) is that she took her "big girl" pacifier from Nana for the first time! We are slowly transitioning out of the big blue hospital pacifier into the more traditional look. :-) With me, she would just gag everytime I tried to give it to her. Not with Nana! She took it like a pro. Here are just a few pictures from her visit.

Nana teaches Kaylee how to make Pastizzi

Teaching us how to roll the dough

Our first batch all by ourselves!

The next big thing was Kaylee's first trip to the Pumpkin Patch! I just LOVE pumpkin seeds and I couldn't wait any longer. So Garyn, Nate, the Kraus House and the Grewe Crew all went to find some pumpkins. Lucky for us, there was a really adorable baby pumpkin just waiting for us! Anne Geddes, eat you heart out!

And they let us take this little pumpkin home for free! :-)

DOC Bands?

2008-10-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm here to let you know Kaylee is still tall and skinny! We had her 4 month check up on Monday and everything is going great. She is a whopping 11.8 pounds (1.8lbs in two months) and 25 1/4 inches tall! Dr. Sanford told us that she should be ready for her modeling career soon. On a different note, we also got the reccomendation to go get her head shape evaluated at a place called Cranial Tech, Inc. It seems that because of the torticollis (her head always looking left), she has developed a flat head on the left side. It would be purely cosmetic at this point to get a DOC Band aka Baby Helmet IF it were just her head. Unfortunately, her face is not symetrical either. This means that the flat head is a little more serious than cosmetic. So...next Thursday we are going to get her evaluated and possibly fitted for a cute little helmet. :-/

I (JM) have mixed emotions. Obviously, we are going to do what's best for Kaylee and I would much rather deal with her in a helmet now than resenting me at 16 when she finds out we could have fixed it. It's just hard to...well...it's just hard. So please pray for our appointment on Thursday. That the severity of her head shape is not too bad and that we would only have to have her wear a helmet (if at all) for 2 months vs. 6-9 months. And for me, just pray that God would continue to work on me as a Mommy, and that the sneaky fleshly vanity that I have for Kaylee would be eliminated.

Most recent shot of our little angel...

Thrones

2008-09-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here's Kaylee in her Great Grand Papa's chair...

...but since it was a little big, she ended up getting her own Kaylee-sized throne.

Kaylee's new trick...

2008-09-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

This is Kaylee's new strategy for getting me (NICK) wrapped around her finger. Once that lip shoots out, I'm done.

Burger Night

2008-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

'Nuff said

Where does the time go?

2008-09-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's been forever since we've posted ANYTHING new. A lot has been happening around the Grewe house lately. I am going to let Nick post the videos, because I have no idea how to do it. But I can do pictures! Let's see...

1. Kaylee is now officially 3-months-old. She is cooing, singing, smiling and ALMOST laughing. Her favorite time to talk and smile is when Auntie Garyn comes over and sings the ABC song. Something about her Auntie is just the funniest thing in the world. Here is my favorite smiling girl.

2. Kaylee has a new best friend! Tobin Kraus started coming over during the day to play. Jessica is a trooper and had to complete one more year of teaching, so Nick and I decided to open up our home as a temporary daycare for him! It's been lots of fun watching the two of them discover each other. Mostly, Tobin and Sydney play because of their schedules being different.

3. We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on August 26th! Thanks to Amy, we had a beautiful stay up in Newport Beach for 3 days! Yes, we brought Kaylee. No, we didn't bring Sydney. We spent most of our time relaxing by the pool, cruising Fashion Island and spending time together. We did so much relaxing that we didn't take a single picture! OOPS!

That's all for now. I promise we have the cutest videos and Nick thinks he can get them up by Sunday.

Baby Bootcamp!

2008-08-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

After receiving wise counsel from my good friend Valerie, I decided to re-evaluate Kaylee's daytime sleep routine. When Babywise says that the average time to have "waketime" at 12-weeks old is around 45-60 minutes, they fail to mention that it INCLUDES eating time! So I have been doubling up on the time she should be awake which totally makes sense as to why she wasn't napping without her swing or bouncy seat! ~sigh~

So this week, we started Baby Bootcamp! I'm praying for strength, endurance and patience as I let my little girl cry it out in her crib. Day 1 - Perfect! She went straight down and stayed sleeping for her whole nap! Day 2 - She started figuring out that she was being trained and had to put up a bit of a fight. But she stayed down most of her naps. Day 3 - Daddy participated! I had a church staff meeting, so Nick did the feeding, changing, playing and napping! She tried to pull the "Daddy's little girl" card on him, but he did great! She was in her crib when I got home! Day 4 (today) - She went on a nice long walk with Granny and Pops and only cried for about 10 minutes for her most recent nap. She is getting better! My hope is that after this week, she will have more of a routine to count on and we will have a happier baby!

She is still sleeping through the night, so I'm thrilled. And when she wakes up in the morning, she smiles at us when she sees us. So all in all, it's been a great week!

(Kisses from Sydney)

DR. VISIT UPDATE
Kaylee went to the doctor for a check up. She weighs 10.0 pounds and is growing very healthy and strong. Dr. Sanford said that she is on track to being a tall & thin little lady. Hooray!

Multi-Cultural Day, Part 2

2008-08-01T11:58:00.001-07:00

Well, it's official! Kaylee has been swimming! Yesterday, we spent the day with Sara, Helen & Jillian at their house up in Murrietta. It was a wonderful day for us girls to catch up and watch these little girls get to know each other. There is something about getting together to have our daughters get to know each other that never stops tripping me out. Helen, Sara and I have been friends since highschool and the fact that we are now getting together so our DAUGHTERS can meet is just insane to me. Aren't we still in highschool? Can we really all be this old? ~sigh~ I know that most people reading this that are older & wiser than I am are rolling their eyes or laughing at me...but it's still a new experience for me. So I continue to TRIP OUT!

Anyway, some updates since the last "Multi-Cultural Day" are:

Kaylee seems to be catching up in size to Jillian. The gap between them is beginning to shrink. Although, Jillian is still very much the older & wiser friend. :-) After all, she has experienced a lot more life than Kaylee has.

Kaylee & Jillian in their matching outfits with matching leg poses.

I also learned that babies float! Who knew that I was going to have to hold Kaylee down in the water?

There is nothing better than getting together with life long friends and starting new traditions and friendships with a new generation.

Facial Expressions

2008-07-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's totally fascinating to me when Kaylee develops a new expression. Right from the get go she had her super concentrated look where she'd draw down her eyebrows, squeeze her lips together, and just concentrate...

But the best expression (and most recent), besides her most famous AUDIO expression, is the smiling. It's funny because whenever she smiles, we're like, "what the heck did we just do to make her smile?" So then we try to do everything we did in the last 30 seconds to try to make her smile again. In actuality I think she's figured out a way to get us to start acting strange...not that we needed a kid for that...

I have no excuse...

2008-07-24T18:40:00.002-07:00

I was going to try and think of something to say like, "Oh this is just some random picture that randomly ended up in our pictures" or "here is an 'update' picture"... and even though it's all true, I really just think it's cute. Yes, I'm one of THOSE parents!
-NICK

Feast Night

2008-07-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

So this is from July 3rd, when Jeanne-Marie's family was in town from New York. Rick, her dad, mentioned that he'd like to cook for the Home Fellowship (Bible Study Group) that night... even though I said there were like 20 people in the group (there were about 30 at the house that night!!). Nevertheless, Rick pulled off a gourmet meal for 30 people... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! And then, it was perfect, after dinner we heard explosions outside which turned out to be fireworks.

Me Oh My! Milestones!

2008-07-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Kaylee is 8-weeks old and developing more and more everyday. She has been cooing all week and as of yesterday, I can confidently say that we've seen her first "social smile." When laying on her mat for playtime, I get really close to her face and the conversation goes a little bit like this:

"Kaylee, can you say Daaaaddddeeee?"

~Kaylee opens her mouth, moves her tongue around~ (warming up!)

"Kaylee, say Daaaaaddddeeee!" (Good thing nobody can see or hear me doing this! I feel silly!)

~Kaylee "coos" back~ (success!)

Now, just like any Grandma will say that the gas smile was a real smile, I say that the coo in response to me talking to her is Kaylee actually trying to say Daddy! Don't burst my bubble, I really believe she's talking back! :-)

As for smiling, it's still pretty random. But when Nick speaks to Kaylee, that's when the smiles come out the most. I don't know for sure, but it looks like we are experiencing the beginning of a very beautiful Daddy/Daughter relationship. She is SUCH a Daddy's girl already! ~sigh~ I think she actually gets that from her Mommy.

We don't have pictures or video of this yet, but I'll try to get some up soon.

Blessed

2008-07-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

The past two days have been a little more tough than usual. My Dad, Smom and the kids went back to NY on Wednesday and Kaylee is either going through a growth spurt or missing them as much as I do. The result of a week long vacation/visit with family is a sweet baby girl that does not want to sleep...at all. She'd rather cry...and cry...and cry...and cry just a little bit more. Short of choosing baby Benadryl to calm her down, I submitted to the swing. And now I'm blessed with this beautiful sleeping baby to my right while the "Praise Baby collection" plays softly on the computer. God bless the people who thought of turning regular worship songs into lullabies and God bless my parents who bought the whole pack of them for us! Anyway, as she sleeps soundly in her swing I had a moment to rejoice in the things that God has blessed me with.

It immediately brought me to last night at Bible Study. Our home was filled with the usual people who make it our "home" and Nick was teaching on Mark 9:30-32. He asked each of us to look at the way we respond to situations that prove to be challenging. As we did that, I couldn't help but see that the Holy Spirit had taken over and now, my husband had willingly allowed the Spirit to use him to speak to our group. By the end of the night, I couldn't help but thank the Lord for all He has given our family. Oh, what a proud wife I was, to see my husband using his gifts as a teacher to help others draw closer to God. ~sigh~

So today, as I am more exhausted, more frusterated and more confused on how to make Kaylee's world more comfortable, at least I can rest in the confidence I have that I am truly blessed!

Thank you, Lord for...

*A husband who seeks You in all he does and who responds to the Spirit's call in his life.

*A beautiful & healthy baby girl who continues to grow everyday!

*A family who supports us in everything we do.

*A group of friends who are more than just good friends...they really are family.

With time to reflect on things that I am thankful for, how could I not share it?

New York meets San Diego

2008-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

This past week, our New York family came out to meet Kaylee for the first time. We have had a packed week of fun activities! Sea World on the 4th of July, trips to the beach, trips to the pool and the most fun of all...hanging out at home together doing nothing at all. It's been wonderful having family here and we will be sad to say good-bye tonight. Here are a few pictures to recap their stay with us.

To infinity, and.... well, y'know.

2008-06-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

So one day we noticed a black metallic pod lined with chrome on our doorstep. Having received a mysterious object the week before, we found a slot in the pod that matched the object shape. When we put the two together the top opened up! Tendrils of mist rolled out as the top slid aside, and inside the pod, we found.... well, just look at the picture.

Actually, I came across this picture when sorting through our camera. This is the hearing test they do at the hospital. Yeah, I know it's not a new pic, but a fun one at least!

Before / After

2008-06-25T23:27:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist this...

<----- Before

After ----->

By the way, notice how the dog has her paw on JM's belly. Who says dogs don't know what's up when women are pregnant?

Multi-Cultural Day

2008-06-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Jillian, one of Kaylee's first friends, came over to visit with her mom, Helen Spafford. The first time they hung out, the moms forgot to take pictures, so this time they snapped a few. Man, we thought Kaylee was a little whitey, but I guess there's some olive/tan complexion in there after all! [Kaylee and Jillian]
["One of my first friends!"]

One of my favorite pics so far

2008-06-25T14:31:00.001-07:00

I've called this picture "The Last Tic-Tac"... for whatever reason, that was the first thought that entered my mind when I saw this picture.

That pink blanket is actually kind of a like a straight jacket with velcro on both sides so that she stays swaddled... yeah, see that arm? She's a regular Houdini!

My Girls

2008-06-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

The other night we were just winding down after a busy day of doing nothing... well, okay, we were taking care of a new baby all day... drinking coffee... y'know, "day off" type of stuff. Anyway, the dog jumps up on the couch and lays down awkwardly on the armrest and the Boppee. I look over to see what she's up to and she turns around a couple of times and then positions herself so as to snuggle up to Kaylee.

So when people ask how the dog is doing with all of this change, I can safely say that I think Sydney is handling it just fine.

Bath Time II

2008-06-21T17:52:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the follow up pictures from bath #1. Yeah, there was a little bit of crying, but in the end at least she smelled better (not that she stunk). It's funny, because now she likes taking baths. Now if only could get her to enjoy going down for a nap a little bit better...

Bath Time!

2008-06-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

So, after a couple days we figured we should give her a bath. It's not that she stunk, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Check out the hoarse crying... yeah, now she's got way more power in them lungs.

Fresh out of the oven

2008-06-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

Here is probably the earliest video that we'll let you watch of Kaylee... I think this is the next morning. It's funny to see now because she's not actually "winky" like that anymore.

Birth Announcement

2008-06-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Kaylee is about 3 1/2 weeks old today and so we're going to literally have to pummel this blog site with a bunch of pictures and videos in order to catch up. So bear with us as we rush to get everything uploaded.

A good place to start is with the Birth Announcement. As you can hopefully see at the bottom, she was born at 7:46 PM on May 24th, weighing in at 6,7, and 19" tall.

Even though she was a couple weeks ahead of schedule, she was in no hurry to join us "on the other side," taking nearly 22 hours of labor time. All props to JM who endured the whole process without an epidural or any kind of pain medication. She won't brag about it, but I can! That's right!

If you're interested in seeing more pictures, you can check out (and order prints) from this link:
https://www.collages.net/ConsumerSite/GuestLogin.aspx?eventcode=340768

Never thought we'd be bloggers...

2008-06-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm guessing everyone's first blog is something stupid like what I'm writing all because they don't want to have a blank blog, and at the same time they have nothing to say. That's me right now. I'm writing this in the little spare time that I have.

So that's all folks, ttfn, and all of that.

-Nick