Myla turns 5!

Our tiny little girl turned five in October and was so happy to be so.  We had a little mermaid party with a couple of her friends on one of the fantastic Saturdays that was sunny and warm and then she got a little early birthday present from us – another bike to keep at our house.  She was pretty excited to ride it, even though she acted like she’d never been on a two-wheeler before.  By the end of the ride, she was pretty confident except for the dips in the sidewalk.  She’ll get the hang of it in the spring I’m sure – or this winter if the weather stays this warm.

The party continued through the week and we carved pumpkins with the family on the next Sunday.  She was like me in not wanting to put her hands inside the pumpkin, but she loved watching and was very excited to see the faces.  Myla got all sorts of cute dresses to wear, a tea set, nail polish pens, Cabbage Patch doll and a doll house as big as she is.  I think that everything has been played with extensively and she could not be more excited to be five.

She’s so big – the doctor clocked her in at 29.5 pounds and 38.5 inches.  And she thoroughly impressed her with her language skills and happiness.  Its amazing to think that it was five years ago.  Five years.  My sister told me that she remembers the World Series was on the night Myla was born and here it is on again on her birthday.  I remember not being able to see it very well – I didn’t have my glasses – and I was probably pretty out of it.  This year I didn’t see it very well because I had tears in my eyes – how can she be five!

Sling, what sling?

Oh this?  Its just covering up the broken arm.  Oh, I didn’t tell you about that either?  Huh, well let me explain…

Kinsley was chasing her sister on the playground over the bouncy bridge that connects two platforms.  After seven or eight times over it, somehow she fell on the last time.  This is one tough girl – she didn’t even cry on her last shots – so she just got in the car and fell asleep.  It wasn’t until about 45 minutes later that she woke up and said “hey, my arm hurts.”  Off we went to the doctor, who then sent us to the emergency room for x-rays, who then scheduled us for surgery on Friday.

It was a long day, but at about 3:30 they took her in for two pins and a stylish purple cast.  The break is right at her elbow, where the top bone in your arm meets the joint and so they felt that it was important for her future mobility that the surgery be done.  They didn’t have to make an incision, just stuck the two pins in her bone but they stick out just a little, then the cast wraps over it.  In about three weeks, we go in for another x-ray, and if all is good, off comes the cast and out come the pins. 

We had a rough night on Friday, but last night was a little better.  She’s starting to used to her arm not being exactly the same  - eating takes on a new twist - and has even been holding a few toys in those exposed fingers.  With any luck, tonight she’ll simply lay down and sleep…

Growing up

Myla got an early birthday present in the form of a big girl bike and she LOVES it.  She struggles a little with the turning on it, but I think she did that with her trike too.  She loves to get going on it and will yell out “look at me!”  Its really fun to see her speed off.  She does that with her stories about her day too – just speeds off about what she’s done or learned.  Some days it’s a few days after the fact, but that doesn’t really matter in Myla-time I guess.  Its hard to believe that she’s almost five – crazy in fact.  How could time have gone so fast!?

Kinsley is keeping pace with her sister and grows as much as Myla does.  We clocked them both at growing an inch and 1/2 in three months.  She still talks a lot about something that we don’t fully understand, but she’s definitely getting some words down – me too, no way, balloon, ball, and a number of animal sounds as well.  She loves to fold her arms or she’ll huff and put her hands on her hips.  She is an opinionated little girl, but also very happy and will laugh when we are giving her something that she wants to eat, its so cute.  Her latest thing is to lean against something and cross her little feet at the ankles and talk to you.  About something or other.

And so, in my humble opinion, I submit that they are growing to fast and need to stop now.  Myla tells me that they can’t stop because they have to be as big as me and Johnny.  Good thing I’m not very tall…

Winding down

You know how sometimes you just wish that you were a kid again and there were no worries, just a pool on the deck, a slide, some water and an uncommonly warm September day?  Myla and Kinsley have been making up a lot of games together lately – sometimes it involves running across the room and diving into a pile of pillows, or chasing each other through the tent and tunnel in the basement, or putting their babies to sleep in the fort that they built in the family room.  They really are pretty good friends.

They also take pretty good care of each other.  Myla will tell Kinsley that “you have to eat your dinner if you want a cookie” and Kinsley will yell “abah ato bu bu a ooo!” (which I roughly translate to “come upstairs and brush your teeth!”  They make each other laugh, or stay awake in the car and yes, cry.  But they are always looking out for each other.  Kinsley gets worried when Myla goes to school and is very excited to see her when she picks her up.  Myla will ask first thing in the morning when I wake her up “where’s Kinsley?” and sometimes will rush to put on her clothes to go wake up little sister.

As the summer winds down and we start to take stock of the memories we made, I think that it’s the moments when they are playing together that I will treasure the most.  The ones when Kinsley will take Myla her water cup first after playing outside or Myla will run to the slide on the playground and say “c’mon Kinsley!”  I will remember the bouncy castle and the swimming pool and the wagon rides.  And I will look forward to the leaf jumping and crunching, the snowman making, the…

One project down!

This weekend was one we’ve been waiting for all summer.  Johnny has been working hard on the sprinkler system for our all dirt backyard.

We had already moved the big piles of rocks earlier this year and planted a cute little tree in the hopes of shade someday.  And now that we had it leveled and prepped, sprinklered and ready, it was grass time.

It took a couple of hours but we got it all down.  Myla was a big helper in rolling it all down and Kinsley was a big helper by napping.  :)  And after it was down, we did what any self-respecting sod layer would do -

We ran through the sprinklers.

Adventures in Mini-golf

Friday was a special day because Johnny got to be sort-of off to spend time with the girls.  (I say sort-of because he’s never off, his work phone is constantly ringing.)  The day passed so quickly for them that Johnny didn’t have time to think about what was for dinner.  I seized upon the opportunity to make it a family outing and do dinner and mini golf.

I’d been wanting to take the girls for awhile, even though I knew that Kinsley wouldn’t really know what to do and Myla would didn’t know much more.  But it was about making memories and so we made a night of it.  We went to Qdoba for dinner, the girls got special necklaces for our family “date” and then we went to the course.

I was pleasantly surprised actually.  Kinsley made it though 11 holes before it became more fun to chase the baby bunnies and Myla even got a couple of hole-in-ones before we were done. 

And then we did what any good family outing wraps up with – ice cream.  We had a lot of fun and Myla (who’s been all about exciting stuff these days) even asked if we could go do mini-golf and ice cream one more time before we went home.  I’d say that’s a ringing endorsement.

Reunions

Saturday was the annual preemie reunion, which I always love to go to because I want to show Myla off.  This year, Myla loved to go to it because they had prizes and dancers and fun things to do.  Kinsley had a great time too playing in the swimming pool full of water and looking for babies.  The girls got matching flowers on their arms and Myla did some crafts and played some games.  We only saw two of our nurses this time, but they both were excited to see us and thought Myla was beautiful.  They still check in on her health (can’t take the nurse out of the person even if they are at a luau) and are very happy to hear that she is “normal.”  It was a lot of fun for all of us.