Welcome to the 2006 Kid's Archive!

Archives [2006] [2006 Maya]

Maya
10/8/06 Maya loves school this year. She has been struggling a bit with paying attention and staying on task. Her teacher (Mrs. Henderson) is really nice. She teaches in creative ways. Only problem is she has been suggesting (a LOT) for us to look into medication for Maya's attention problems. We REALLY don't want to go that route. Since Darin's recent discovery of essential amino acids (in free form) we have been giving some to Maya. They seem to be helping a little bit. Frequently I have seen her facial expression matching that of Darin - "gone", the spark is missing, she seems tired all the time and can't remember a sequence of simple tasks. When she gets the amino acids she seems to perk up a bit. Things are starting to look hopeful. ------ The kids just had picture day at school..... I can't wait to get them back. I hope she smiled big so everyone can see her toothless grin.

8/16/06 This year Maya starts the 1st grade. She is very excited for school to start. She is now 6 years old. She is very creative and loves to color and build things (out of just about anything).

Talon
10/8/06 Talon is in a different class from Maya this year. His teacher is Mrs. Davis. She is very nice. Her class seems to be a bit more "serious". As serious as one can get in first grade. She is very good for Talon. He tends to over worry and stress about everything. I've talked with her about this trait. She does a good job (in a nice way) to help him calm down. We are also giving him some amino acids along with occasional GABA which seem to help. He acts a lot like his mom with panic attacks/anxiety. Gaba helps out mom and Talon in a similar way. ------ Talon LOVES his baby sister. He comes over to hug and kiss her ALL the time. He is a great helper.

8/16/06 Talon is also starting the 1st grade. He is 6 years old. Talon is also very excited for school to start. He loves to build things out of Lego's and draw LOTS of Yolkians (from "Jimmy Neutron").

Gage
10/8/06 Gage loves to copy Talon. This is hard for Talon to understand but Gage just follows Talon around all the time. Gage does a good job being a pester for Talon as well. Gage loves to get a reaction out of people and Talon gives the loudest reactions so he is Gage's target most of the time. Gage is recently showing an interest in Kiera. He wants to hold her and kiss her (copying Talon) but now he will ask all on his own. I love to see this sweet side of Gage. He can be quite a "pill" some times. We still have problems keeping him dressed. We're about to resort to duct tape again (we had to duct tape his clothes on him when he was about a year old - a 1 yr old has a lot of "accidents" without a diaper on). ---- Gage is making some noticeable improvements in his speech since he started preschool. The number of words he uses has increased. We are still working on him being able to say more than 2 words in a sentence. ---- side note: When Gage holds Kiera their heads look almost the same size. ----- We are still having problems getting Gage to eat. When he gets on our regular scale he is still around 28 pounds. He is getting taller but he is sooo skinny. He just won't eat very much. I try to feed him the healthyist but highest calorie foods I can.

9/5/06 Gage started preschool today. It must have been fun since he was pretty tired when he got home. He fell asleep after he ate lunch. He only goes from 9am to 11:30am. His teacher this year is Brenda Hanks. This is the same teacher that Talon had when he was in the early intervention pre-school (for 2 months). I am THRILLED that Gage gets her as his teacher. She is very loving and passionate about her job with these special needs kids but she is also firm in getting them to follow directions. Exactly what Gage needs.

8/16/06 Gage just turned 4 this August. He will be going back to the early intervention pre-school. I just haven't received word yet as to when it will start. He loves going to class. We noticed an improvement in him after last year. We are hoping to see an even larger change this year. The goal is to have him ready for mainstream kindergarden next year.

Kiera
10/8/06 I just gave Kiera a bath and I put her on our package scale. With her clothes (lightweight jammies) and a diaper (now a size 3) she is 15 lbs 14 oz. She is giving me quite a workout. ha ha. She has recently discovered her tongue. It's pretty cute to see it sticking out all the time (even when grinning). She has rolled over once from her tummy to her back. She gets 98% over from back to tummy.... she just gets stuck when it comes to heafting her head up.

9/5/06 I just took Kiera to the doctor today for her 2 month check-up. She weighs in at 14 lbs. 2 oz. She's 24 1/2" long. She's come a long way from her beginning weight of only 7lbs. 6oz. and 18 1/2" (5 days old she measured 20 1/2" so I think she just wasn't streached out all the way when she was first measured). She also got a round of shots today. She's been pretty sleepy all day because of them.

9/3/06 Kiera's baby blessing went really nice and smooth today. She was a little cranky at home right before we left for church. By the time we got there (we walked) she was zonked out again. She stayed asleep during the entire time we needed her to be asleep (thank goodness). We then went home (after sacrament meeting) and had veggies & dip and small meat & cheese sandwiches. Alleta's parents and brother (Seth) came up from Arizona and Darin's brother Erik and his wife Shaunalei and their kids Jessika, Micah, Ashleigh, and Peter were all there. Our kids LOVED playing with their cousins.

8/16/06 Kiera is changing every day! She will be 2 months old on Aug 21st. Right now she's experimenting with her voice. She is becoming more alert every day. She gives the BIGGEST smiles lately. I say her smiles are "payment" for all the lost sleep. She has graduated from size 1 diapers to size 2. I can't believe how fast she is growing.