Kidzui and Togetherville

At my book club on Tuesday night (the one outing I allow myself each month as I walk in and lie down on the couch, don't have to do anything, and it gets me out of the house) one of the topics that came up was kid-friendly internet browsers. For some reason, I was not aware that such things existed. Browsers are the programs through which you access the internet. We have a filter on our computer to try and stop inappropriate content from coming through, but with all the websites that are added each day and all the videos, etc, that are added, it's impossible for filters to keep everything out of the computer. We've put our desktop computer (and the kids don't get to use my laptop) in the dining room so it's out in the open and we've tried to block the more obvious sites (like wikipedia - which is awesome, but does have pages that are inappropriate), but we knew things would still get through occasionally. Anyway, I got home from book club and the next day searched for kid-friendly browsers. I found several. Rob and I decided on Kidzui (which is free by the way), which seems to be the kid version of Firefox (our preferred browser) and looked like it was fairly similar in set up (although more simple) to a regular internet browser. Every single website, video, game and music track available is approved by a person, not a filter. Navigating through the various sites is so easy that Beth can do it by herself. We love it! We still have the computer in a public area, but we can tell the kids that they don't have to ask any more when they want to try out a new game or watch a music video.

I mentioned this to several friends and one of them suggested a site called togetherville, which is basically facebook for kids. It's linked through both my and Rob's facebook accounts and we can see everything the kids do. None of their information is available except to friends that we approve and you can't search for friends like you do on facebook - you have to talk to them in person first and get their special code - so every friend they add needs to be someone they know in real life. All three girls now have accounts and have been busy all morning taking turns playing online. I am seriously loving both kidzui and togetherville!

Other than that, not a whole lot is happening. I am officially in my third trimester, which is awesome, and am less than two weeks away from being 30 wks along, which was the minimum my dr wanted me to make it to :) My blood pressure is consistently high, but not high enough to warrant hospitalization or delivery at this point. My goal is about another 6 wks. At that point, I'd be 34 wks and Eva would probably be between 5-6 lbs.

I can't believe we are getting that close to having another baby! I've been so focused on doing what I need to do to keep her in that I haven't thought much about actually having her. Rob and I unpacked our box of baby clothes and put them in Eva's dresser. I need to do some serious baby clothes shopping when I finally get off bedrest! We gave away all our baby stuff a few months before we found out that Eva was on her way. Several friends have given us things like a high chair, swing, exersaucer and changing table, and we got a box of baby clothes (the ones we put away the other night - they were Beth's baby clothes that we had given her a while ago) from a friend as well, and we still have our infant car seat, so we have most of the basics :)

Doctor Day

Megan and Jack both had check-ups scheduled for this morning and, as it's a Friday, I, of course, was headed off to the dr too. I made my appt for the same time as Meg and Jack's as our pediatrician's office is in the same building as my OB's office. Flu season is coming up, so I asked the nurse if the kids could just get their flu nose gel stuff (which our dr recommends over flu shots and hey, I'd rather do gel than a shot any day - Rob is very jealous that they don't offer that to parents too). Kylie would have been the only one not there, so Rob suggested that we keep both Meg and Kylie home from school so all four could get their flu thingies and we wouldn't have to worry about it. Plus it's been a stressful few months for everyone, so he told the kids we could pick up fast food for lunch and then he would take them to Cabela's afterwards (he took today off from work so he could take the kids in to the dr).

Both Meg and Jack are doing well :) Megan is in the 40% for height and the dr predicts she'll be about 5'5", but we'll see. Both Rob and I went through growth spurts in high school (Rob started 9th grade at 4'9" and is now 6'1"), so it wouldn't surprise us if our kids do that too and end up taller than expected. I was a bit surprised at Jack's measurements. He is 36 inches tall, measuring in the 8% for his age group. We knew he was short, but not that short! :) Taking after his dad we guess.

My dr's appt went as usual. Blood pressure is still borderline, so not high enough to admit me or induce me fortunately. They did the test they do every two weeks to predict if I'll go into labor in the next two weeks. All the others have come back negative. Hopefully this one will too! In the meantime, I was sent back home to bed for another week unless my symptoms get worse, in which case I'll go and get checked again :) Next Wednesday I'll be in my third trimester, so we're doing good! Basically it's just a waiting game now - we're waiting to see if my blood pressure spikes or if I go into labor again and they can't stop it or if I last long enough that she's big enough to come out :) Any bets?

I finished my last assignment for this quarter last night - a term paper that ended up being 26 pages long and nearly 8500 words. I think that's officially the longest term paper I've done. It was quite the project :) As long as I get above a 78% on it, I should have an A in the class :) We're leaning towards having me take next quarter off. I think things may be getting a bit much to add school work to the mix, so I should be done with school until January!

Pre-K

Beth has started asking if I can teach her how to read. I did some searching online and found a website (www.starfall.com) that has some games and such that can be used to teach the letters of the alphabet along with the sounds they make. Beth and I spent quite a while this morning going over A, B, C, and D. She loved it! We went downstairs for lunch and I set up the desktop computer so that starfall is now the homepage on the kids' sign-in (Megan and Kylie know how to get to the webpages they use). Beth played on the site for another hour by herself and was very disappointed when Megan and Kylie got home and finished their homework and she had to let them have a turn on the computer.

After dinner we printed up the pages for A and B, found a new box of crayons, and set up a "desk" area for Beth in my bedroom. I told Beth she could work on her A worksheets tonight and she has happily colored away for the last hour or so. She keeps giggling to herself as she colors :) She's so excited to have "homework" to do! Jack, of course, decided he needed homework too, so we found him some farm animal print outs. Guess we have a new project to keep us busy during the day!


I don't know where our cameras are, but I had to get a picture of Beth. Sorry for the poor picture quality - I used my cell phone ~

Kids' Current Interests

Every fall I get asked by my family members for a list of the things the kids are currently interested in so they can figure out what to get them for Christmas. I decided to include them here so we can remember them :)

Megan's current favorite colors are Magenta (because it's spelled like Megan) and Rose Red. She is very into jewelry and makeup and LOVES long swirly dresses. She also is very into silly bandz. She loves bugs and dinosaurs and performing science experiments and playing on the computer.

Kylie still loves pink. She is very into computer games and is learning how to read. She loves cowgirls and animals and wants to be a zookeeper. Her favorite animal is a pig because it is pink.

Beth's favorite color is purple. She loves anything Dora and has asked for a new Dora doll that looks just like hers as hers is getting old. She loves playing doctor. She has requested a doll dress and a dress for her that match, a Dora purse with Dora and Boots all over it, Dora stickers, and a Dora pull out couch like Kylie's foam princess couch.

Jack's favorite color is yellow (although he calls it green). He likes anything that moves and/or makes noise, especially trains and cars. He also loves toy guns and hats and sports (he calls all sports baseball though). He LOVES Diego from Go, Diego, Go.

Kylie Lost Another Tooth!!!

Kylie's other front bottom tooth has been loose for quite a while. She has been anxiously checking it multiple times a day for weeks to see if it was ready to come out yet. Last night I told her it was loose enough that if she pulled, it should pop out. She didn't want me to pull it out, like her last one, as she wanted to do it all by herself. I don't think she gets that from Nona or Aunt Kiki :) It took her a bit, but she managed to pop it out!



Her two front top teeth are slightly loose as well, leading me to believe that she may be able to sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" this year and mean it :)

Both Meg and Kylie are doing well in school. Beth and Jack are hanging out with me and watching much more tv than usual, but we're making it :) Beth in particular is a HUGE help. Every time I ask her to do anything, she happily jumps up and does it. The three girls started folding and putting away their own laundry last week. I don't know how well it's getting sorted or folded and it's probably not in the right drawers, but it's put away :)

I have a week left of this quarter of school. As long as I get at least an 80 on both the paper I turned in last week and the one due next week, I should have an A! I wasn't sure I was going to pull that off this quarter. I'm registered for next quarter, but we'll see what happens. I'm not sure if it will help to have something to distract me or if it will just be too much. I had to make another impromptu visit to the dr yesterday. My blood pressure is starting to get a bit high. They redid all my blood work and we'll see if something shows up. As of right now, it's not bad enough to warrant hospitalization or early delivery. Just something else to add to the list :) Rob says this little girl is apparently bound and determined to be the youngest in our family. She has definitely made her point!!! I go back to the dr tomorrow. At least I got out of house several times this week! :)

25 Week Appointment

Yesterday was quite odd - I spent more time out of the house than I did in the house (or at least an equal amount of time).

I had a dr's appt at 11:30am, so after Rob took Megs and Kylie to school, Jack, Beth and I got ready to go (things move a bit slower than they used to). We picked Rob up at work, then headed off to the dr. Jack has a bit of a cold or really bad allergies or something, so I didn't want to have a friend watch the kids as I didn't want to get another family sick. It was not a good appt to have brought kids to. Granted, the kids stayed in the waiting room with Rob, but my appt ended up taking about an hour and a half. First I had my regular checkup, then because of how bad the contractions are getting, the dr did a more in depth check up, complete with another fetal fibronectin test (which predicts whether or not I will go into labor in the next two weeks - if it comes back positive, then I'll be more careful about heading in to get checked), then he sent me to get two sonograms done, then I went back and talked to him again to discuss the results of the sonogram. Eva looks perfect and is measuring just a little bit a head of schedule (which is normal - all of our kids have measured about a week ahead). She is about 2 lbs now. My recent contractions haven't changed anything, so that is good. I just have to hang in there, go get checked if something feels off (at this point I have no idea how I'm supposed to tell if I actually go into labor as I feel like I have several times a day). I'm at 25 weeks as of last Wednesday. My first goal is 30 wks, which is less than 5 wks away :) As of this coming Monday, I'll have been on bedrest for 8 wks. It's getting old and I really don't like it, but that's life :)

We dropped Rob back off at work and headed home. It was such a gorgeous day yesterday! It was only about 80 degrees outside, with a beautiful blue sky and a light breeze. When the girls got home from school, I sent everyone out into the backyard to play. Rob got home a little bit early due to the upcoming holiday weekend. We ordered pizza, then loaded everyone into the car. Rob ran in and picked up the pizza and we found a corner of the parking lot that was pretty empty, then we had a picnic dinner in the car. Rob and Jack (Rob takes turns taking one of the kids with him each weekend) went and did our grocery shopping for the week while the girls and I sat in the car with all the windows open. It was so nice just to get out of the house! We finished off the night with ice cream and frosties from Sonic and Wendy's (half of us wanted ice cream and the other half wanted frosties, but the restaurants were next to each other, so we just made two stops).

I have two weeks left of my current class. I'm registered for a class next quarter, but we haven't decided yet if that would be too much or if it would help to have something to distract me. We're going to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

Blackmail Material for Future Use

Warning - disgusting content :)

Rob has the flu or something, so yesterday I spent the afternoon in a recliner in our upstairs living room (every house in TX has at least two living rooms so one can be used as a tv room) so he could sleep. I haven't spent much time out there recently. The recliner I chose was off in the corner and as I sat down I notice specks of something all over the wall next to the chair. They were almost hidden by the bookcase on the side of our entertainment center. I asked the kids if they knew what it was and Megan nonchalantly replied "oh, that's Kylie's booger collection. She asked if I wanted to include my boogers too, but I said no". Needless to say, the booger collection is no more. Kylie got to scrub every last part of it off the wall. One of the parts of parenting that you never hear about :)

We're still hanging in there. Rob's sick, so he's home today. We think it's the flu and are keeping our fingers crossed that the kids and I don't get it too. My contractions have gotten bad again, so we'll see what the dr says this week. I was able to decrease my meds to every 6 hours for about three days. They've been back to every 4 hours since Thursday. We expected this though. Your body gets used to the meds and they don't work as well anymore, so you have to up the dose. I've made it two weeks so far on this first level of meds (which I learned is the maximum dose prescribed for those who usually take this medication - the original use of the medication is to treat asthmatics). I don't know if my dr is going to up the oral dose or just put me on the pump, which is like an insulin pump and is injected into my leg. I'm trying to wait until my appt on Friday. If the contractions get any worse though, I'll go in earlier. I'm almost 25 wks though! 7 wks of bedrest down. 5 wks to go until I hit the 30 wk goal :)