The Stuart Clan

Updates, FINALLY

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:59:00 +0000

I know that I've been really bad about keeping the site updated. I've just gone back through and posted all the updates I could think of since October. We've got everything from the holidays, to karate, to losing teeth and climbing ladders.

And one last update... she finally has enough hair to put up in pig tails!

The tooth... she is gone!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:08:00 +0000

It happened today, finally!

Braedan was brushing his teeth and his bottom front tooth fell out! You might recall that we recently visited the dentist after a new tooth discovery. He wasn't sure it would fall out on its own and said it was highly likely all four teeth on the bottom would need to be pulled due to overcrowding. (Not only is his left adult tooth already in, but his right adult tooth is so close to the surface you can see the white under his gums.) Luckily Bradan's tooth became extremely loose in the past 2 days and today, as he set out to brush his teeth, it popped out during the first swipe of the toothbrush!

His first reaction was to freak out. His second reaction was to get really excited that the tooth fairy would bring him some money. ;-)

My first reaction was excitement. My second reaction was a sadness that it was the official beginning of the end of my boy's babyhood. Those little teeth are the last remaining part of baby Bradan. He's growing up so quickly. I just want to savor every last baby bit I can. Where in the heck did five years go anyway?

I thought I would throw this next one in, too. You can totally see his adult tooth, how big it is, and how much it has already come in. :-D

The zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:11:00 +0000

I decided that since Thursday was an early release day (1 pm) I would pack up some snacks and surprise Bradan with a trip to the zoo. It was a gamble, really. The last time we went to the zoo it was a disaster from start to finish, but looking back it was all a big snowball that could have been stopped before it started. Anyway...

He was so excited when I picked him up! The zoo is just a quick hop up the highway for us so it we arrived by 1:45. We took a train ride, saw the animals (I threw in some sneaky learning too - go mom!), had snacks, and, more important than anything, connected. I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but in typical format of my kids, they were making horrible, goofy, or drunk-looking faces. ;-) Oh well, it's the memories that matter most, right?

Brady on a turtle:

On the train before leaving the station:

Luna and I (she looks less than thrilled, but she really loved the train ride):

Luna and Brady... she just got done squeezing the heck out of his hand because he was trying to make her do high fives against her will. LOL She doesn't take his crap. It's hilarious.

The elephants were actually dancing. It was wacky. I think they might have been trying to keep warm while snacking:

Luna was snacking while watching the elephants snacking. :-)

We saw this random armadillo in front of the herpetarium (that we had to visit three times thanks to Brady). He was just digging along, completely oblivious to our presence. Luna was absolutely fascinated by him!

Random Christmas memories

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:52:00 +0000

The gingerbread house (glad I don't live in this neighborhood!)

Mrs. Clause

Lookin' cute

We spent the night at Oma & Opa's house, along with Gramma and Grampa Williams

Kaleigh on her new trike

There's a good chance he might have been excited about this one. Ha ha ha

HIY-YA!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Last night was Bradan's second karate lesson - his first in an actual class setting. He did surprisingly well! I thought he'd be a little more of a misfit, jumping around and not paying attention. Instead he was very well behaved and super focused (for as much as a 5 year old can be). He also "earned" his white belt from Sensei Michael for doing so well his first two classes and minding mommy and daddy in the interim.

He decided last night that he's not going to do tee-ball. He was under the impression that he'd be doing regular Little League, not hitting a ball on a stick. I'm disappointed because I wanted him to have a "team" sport for his social skills, but at the same time, the added expense is not something I will miss!

Peek-a-boo!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:18:00 +0000

Oh, there you are.

18 months and first days

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:19:00 +0000

Today was Kaleigh's 18 month well visit. All is well! She is still above the 95th for height, in the 50th percentile for weight, and 60th percentile for head circumference. After taking all the standardized awareness tests (I think I filled out 5 or 6 pages worth), she was deemed "above average". The doctor said that her progress is outstanding and put to rest my fears that she is speech delayed.

Last night was Bradan's first karate lesson. He had a fantastic time and can not wait until his next lesson on Wednesday. I'm thrilled that he's found something that he's excited about, plus there is the added benefit of some discipline of his mind. He's already taken really well to the "Zero times" rule. Hopefully this will be the start of something really good!

Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Thanksgiving was COLD this year! We went to Georgia to visit Keelan's mom and step-dad. When we arrived it was in the 20s. It warmed up enough to be absolutely pleasant during the rest of the trip. The day we left, however, it was cold and misty-rainy. We had a great time!

A day at the farm

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Kaleigh and I went to Renee's house today. We had a great time playing with the dogs, goats, horses, geese and baby chicks!

Squishing the 24 hour old chick...

Lovin' on Derby...

Kaleigh and Derby waiting patiently for Renee to bring them snacky treats for Derby...

Giving Derby a snacky treat (notice her hand is missing)...

Playing with the Pygmy goats (how cool to have animals your own tiny size?) ...

It's a goat frenzy...

Trying to get the geese to come over...

The funny thing is that she actually got the geese to come over to her, then she proceeded to chase them around the field while they honked crazily. Unfortunately my battery died and I couldn't get any more pictures. Blast technology failing at the wrong moment!

The little climber

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:28:00 +0000

Last week we all had a panic attack looking for Miss Kaleigh. Three adults in three different rooms all thought the other had her. All the doors are locked in our house at all times, so there was no chance she was out of the house. We also keep the bathroom doors shut, so no chance she was playing in the tub. After splitting up to search our little home, Keelan called from Bradan's room in a very slight tone, "Found her..."

Turns out she had scaled the bunk bed ladder, again, and was proudly sitting up there waiting to be found. She was silent as a mouse until daddy walked in and saw her, then she busted out laughing as if she had snuck a bottle of wine up there with her sipping while we scoured.

Fast forward to this weekend. I caught her right as she got on the first rung of the ladder. (Which, by the way, has come down.) I called to Keelan to grab the camera since half of the family didn't quite believe that she could do it. Here is the video (I removed the audio since it's on youtube and we say her name over and over). Maybe I should have inserted some fun music to pass the time?

Also, just so you know, I was within arm's reach of her the entire time. She was not in any danger.

Trick or Treat!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Our Jedi knight:

Our little fairy:

Trying to get a good picture together:

Our pumpkin. It's a goblin trick-or-treating:

All lit up:

Updates soon, I promise!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:57:00 +0000

Kaleigh is just getting over hand, foot and mouth disease. I promise more updates will be coming as soon as I get my head together. :-)

New car seat and some sick kids

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:34:00 +0000

The kids have both been sick this weekend with croup. It's fun stuff.

I took to amusing Kaleigh with the box from her new car seat (pictures below). She loved it. Who would have thought that a box and a dog would be more amusing than all the toys in the world? Hahaha

Kaleigh, sportin' her new seat out of the box, and then in the car. Please excuse her goofy face in this first picture!

Braedan, playing in the seat when I took it out of the box:

Rain, rain, go away

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:39:00 +0000

We've just finally gotten out of the constant rain that has been Tropical Storm Fay. Who would have thought one little TS would bring so much rain? From what the news report said tonight, it looks like our little town here got between 18" and 20" of rain.

Anyone who has been through Oviedo has been by the Duda Sod Farm, right? Well, here's a video of the "farm" from today... to be known for the time being as Lake Duda. This flood also extends to the driving range next door. Both sides of Red Bug were flooded like this. It was truly amazing. There were white caps on the water! Keelan and I estimated it was probably 4 feet deep.

A new friend and some new glasses

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:43:00 +0000

Kaleigh made a new friend yesterday. Our next door neighbor's daughter and grandchildren are visiting. This little girl is 2 months older than Kaleigh and had on shoes, whereas K was barefoot, and Kaleigh was still bigger by a smidge. Gotta love those tall Keelan genes!

In other news, Braedan got his glasses today. He's got 20/30- vision, but also astigmatism, so the optometrist said he should have glasses for seeing the board in class. I let him pick the glasses out and throughout the day he got used to wearing them. The jury is still out on whether he'll wear them at school when we're not there to remind him!

(Had to throw this one in... Kaleigh wearing my glasses.)

First day of Kindergarten!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:37:00 +0000

It's Braedan's first day of Kindergarten. He was excited, we were excited, even Kaleigh was excited!

The little boy in the red shirt next to him in this picture, Ty, sits next to him in his little group of desks.

The nice lady in the foreground with the red lanyard around her neck is his teacher.

Our (short) summer vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:04:00 +0000

We've come back from our first vacation in 6 years. Yes, I said six years. For three nights and four days we called the Disney Wonder cruise ship our home. It was fabulous! We can't say enough good things about the trip. Beautiful weather, great accommodations, a great "club" for Braedan and lots of adult beverages! It was a trip much needed for mommy and daddy, and fun-filled for the boy.

Kaleigh didn't join us. Instead, she spent that time with Gramma and Grampa Williams, hanging out at the pool and getting spoiled rotten. I think a good time was had by everyone, except for one lamp that was a casualty of war with a toddler!

Caught in the act

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:21:00 +0000

All I can say is that she loves the mirror. LOL

New videos

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Here is video #1. Kaleigh was very chipper this afternoon!

I tried to put up another new video, but it was too big for webshots.

I ended up converting it and tried to put it up here on the main page. It took Blogger and I quite some time to come to a consensus about which Flash code I should use.

So here is video #2 - finally. Enjoy. (It really seems like a lot of work for a video that turns out to be less than interesting after watching it 30 times trying to upload it.) Sorry the side is a bit cut off. I'm not going back to fix the size of the flash movie, sorry. :-)

Attack of the killer Kaleigh

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:11:00 +0000

It's not all that exciting, but it's a new video. :-)

Attack of the Killer Kaleigh

It's June already - so where are the new pictures?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:43:00 +0000

I have been just awful about keeping up with things. Braedan is home for the summer and we've been extremely busy. Pictures are now up for May and June.

Kaleigh's birthday has come and gone. It's hard to believe that my baby is one already!

(Yes, that is the ONLY halfway decent picture I got on her actual birthday. Talk about being a crank pot that day. Ugh.)

Her birthday party was small. Only family and two or three friends were invited. After the huge party we had for Braedan's first birthday, I couldn't fathom having tons of people again. Call me crazy.

Here's a quick pic of Kaleigh's new favorite trick. It's called "I'm going to crawl into the basket and stare at mommy to see how long it takes her to turn around and notice that I'm sitting in the toy basket".

Since Braedan is home we've been trying to keep busy each day. It can be challenging to find things that both a nearly 5 year old and a one year old can both enjoy. We've gone to the park several times and have played quite a bit in the new play pool Kaleigh got for her birthday, among other activities.

We're hoping that the weather will stay nice enough for us to get to Sea World at some point this summer, but I'm not holding my breath. For whatever reason, every time we make plans to go to SW, the skies open up and it pours for days on end. It's so ridiculous it's comical!

New pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:16:00 +0000

New pictures are available for March and April. Enjoy!

More side-by-side fun

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Looking at Kaleigh's portraits and at Braedan's portraits I noticed how much they look alike as young babies. Generally I don't see a lot of resemblance between them, but in these pics I think it might be their nose? (Left is Braedan @ 10 months, right is Kaleigh @ 9 months)

Keelan through the years

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:54:00 +0000

We were looking through some old pictures last night and I found one that made me do a double take. It looked very familiar. I scanned it in this morning and found its modern day counter part.

Surgery: Success!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Kaleigh had surgery on Friday, 3/7, to remove the small tumor on her face. Everything went fabulously. We could not have asked for a better outcome. Kaleigh was a real trooper throughout the entire process.

As of today, other than steri-strip bandages between her eyes, you can't tell anything has happened. Her sweet, happy disposition is shining through!

Here is a little picture of Kaleigh and Opa Charlie at the hospital before surgery. Sorry the quality is not great - that's what cell phone pictures and moving babies produce!