The "move" & "missing" begins

Carly
& Spencer are moving. They leave for Phoenix Sunday morning at 4 am! Spencer starts med school the following Monday. I'm not sure what my life is going to be like without my baby sister here. She is my best friend and I love her to pieces. Look at her smile - how can you NOT smile back and feel her love and happiness?

So, Sue - here's to you and your new adventures in sunny, hot Phoenix, Arizona. You're only a stone throw away, and plane tickets are cheap ($140 round-trip vs. $435 to Charleston). Bet on me coming with the girls to see you!

Morning walk

I took the 4 girls (known by our neighborhood as the Kemp Caravan) on our morning walk. Rebecca & Mary-Gail remember houses that have babies, kitties, water (sprinklers), doggies, flowers, and their friends, and point them out as we circle the neighborhood. They were naming their bestest friends, Amy & Isaac, and I told them they were at school. Mary-Gail turned her hands up like "Where??" It was cute. Then they started saying "moon" and I looked up to see the Moon still in the sky. WOW! Nothing gets by these girls.

They love their morning walk as much as Pixie & ArlaMae do. Each time we go out, Rebecca & Mary-Gail switch places in their wagon as they say "share" & "trade." Tony was marvelling at their development and language skills; I am grateful they are healthy. My visiting teachers came by on Sunday and one said her friend had a 28-weeker (she's 3 years old now) who has severe Cerebral Palsy including a G-tube. I just don't know what to say to that - we are grateful beyond words that both our girls are healthy. And now I'm watching Mary-Gail putting lids on her sippy cups, and putting small treasures in the cups. I am grateful.

Sporting more of our independence

Tony said Rebecca & Mary-Gail started to utilize the doggie door last weekend while I was out of town. Now, they are pros at going in and coming out of the doggie door. It's funny - Rebecca & Mary-Gail prefer the doggie door to the "human" doors, and our pugs prefer the human doors over their doggie door. Go figure! As long as everyone is happy, I'm OK with it.

How do you eat your olives?

Rebecca's right hand is trying to sneak Mary-Gail's olive; but,

Mary-Gail is keen to Rebecca and offers her a half-eaten olive instead

Saturday at the library

Saturday morning was our first trip ever to the Provo Library! Rebecca and Mary-Gail were like little ants in that massive library, but you'd never know that they hadn't been there before. We made our way to the children's section were the girls roamed and meandered through the columns of books. The Provo Library has a sunken area for reading time and this is where Rebecca & Mary-Gail spent most of their time. Rebecca showed of her new skill of going up and down steps all by herself! WOW! She's been practicing this at home holding onto the railing as she goes down the stairs, but this time she did it all by herself. She was so proud of herself too.

Rebecca twisting her piggies

Showing off her size 4 shoes (sadly, they've both outgrown their size 3's)

The girls were pooped by the time we left the library. We caught them yawning all the way home!

Little Miss Smarty Pants

This is Rebecca, our Little Miss Smarty Pants. She learned how to say Raccoon last week, and this week she is learning how to say Flamingo. (Saying Penguin is old news).

Mary-Gail is next to Tony saying the animal names too. She LOVES animals and will kiss each one on the page. She is especially found of kitties!

Back to our silly and happy self!

Mary-Gail is back! And we are so happy to have our happy and healthy little girl again. She is such a delight! And, she is so much fun!!!

Tony is teasing her and Rebecca with his golf club. Mary-Gail doubles over with laughter and Tony hasn't even touched her yet! Silly, silly, silly.

Rebecca's savage ROAR.

Returned health &

Mary-Gail is 99.99% better. She still has a couple bouts of Nystagmus a day, but she is able to ambulate again. (Dadda, I put that word in there for you!) Monday and Tuesday were really tough on her; Mary-Gail couldn't understand why she couldn't stand up. When she'd try to stand, her legs were like Gumby's legs and she'd topple sideways. She would get scared if I put her down, so she'd always say "hold me, hold me" just in case I forgot. Sometimes Mary-Gail would have to revert to crawling, which made her more frustrated because Rebecca would whiz by her saying "run, run, run." I think Rebecca likes to tease. What do you think?

By Wednesday Mary-Gail didn't have anymore "spells" as we called them. She was still very uncertain of her legs since the 3 previous days she wasn't able to trust them.

Outside with Isaac who, one by one, dished out the cereal O's

(we're still steadying Mary-Gail)

Sharon, who is soooo nice and always thoughtful, brought treats for the girls;

Rebecca was guarding her treat very closely

She also monopolized the water

Travi, as we all lovingly call him, is throwing Rebecca in the air (again). She LOVES it and constantly asks for "more!"

Magic Fingers

I've convinced Rebecca & Mary-Gail that I have "magic fingers." They look for them each morning as we prepare for our walk with the doggies.

Rebecca & Mary-Gail climb into their wagon as I harnes and leash the doggies. Then, I do "magic" as I open the garage door without even touching it!! The first time I did this Rebecca was stone-cold scared - how did Mommy do that? Now, she and Mary-Gail anticipate my "magic fingers" and squeal in delight.

Today, I let Rebecca & Mary-Gail in on my secret - they each got a turn to push the garage door button. Now they have "magic fingers."

Switching places

It thought it is funny that Mary-Gail and I have switched places: she's normally following me around as my shadow. But now I'm her shadow as she clumbsily "learns" to walk again.

Last night she fell backwards and I jumped to slide my hand under her head before it hit the tile in the bathroom floor. I know she is so frustrated right now. Sometimes she'll crawl to get around, but she doesn't like it at all. I hope this Vertigo thing doesn't last very long.

Vertigo

That's what they've diagnosed Mary-Gail with. Weird. Poor little girl can't stand up, let alone walk, without falling over.

I was coming home Sunday afternoon from an overnighter with my sis's when Tony called saying he was going to take Mary-Gail to the doctor. He said Rebecca & Mary-Gail were playing and bonked heads. Mary-Gail was stunned and was loopy. Tony said she couldn't stand up after that, and when he tried to help her walk she couldn't get her feet to work right.

I met him at the on-call doctor's office in Orem. Dr. Bailey checked out Mary-Gail - all her neuro functions were normal and responsive, she hadn't thrown-up, she wasn't running a fever or crying or irritated or upset. Quite the opposite, she was looking out the 3rd story window pointing out cars, and trees, babies (all people are babies to Mary-Gail), clapping and laughing. So the doc thought everything was OK. But when he observed her trying to stand, and saw how she fell backwards (without trying to catch herself), and when Mary-Gail tried to walk a few steps to me and wobbled to her side instead of straight forward, he was curious and confused. He contacted the Neurological Pediatrician at Primary Children's Hospital and explained Mary-Gail's exam to him. At the end of the call, and after Tony & I heard "MRI" and "CAT scan" used several times in the conversation, Dr. Bailey and the Neuro Ped decided we should observe Mary-Gail at home for a few days and see how she was doing. If symptoms persisted then we'd have her examined again and possibly schedule an MRI.

So, Mary-Gail has a cross between Vertigo and Benign Paroxysmal Positional Nystagmus. The latter has to deal with the inner ear, but she didn't have an ear infection or any fluid in her ears. Very perplexing.

This is why Rebecca & Mary-Gail do not share a crib anymore!

I came across this video today. I was from July 24th. We had just come home from visiting the Big Red Barn at Thanksgiving Point and the girls were overdue for their nap. However, neither of the girls were interested in napping: one would say "owie" to the other across the hall, and the other would laugh incessantly, and then say "owie" back, which would keep the laughter going. Tony suggested I put the girls in the crib together - to see if they would fall asleep instead of talking across the hall. Yeah, right! These girls are just smack silly!

But this video is super cute and so worth the minute 38 seconds. It shows just how much Rebecca & Mary-Gail love their Daddy. They get sooooo excited when they see him: Rebecca & Mary-Gail are screaming "Daddy!"; Rebecca is saying, "he's coming! he's coming!"; Mary-Gail is tapping the top of her head - her sign for "Daddy"; Mary-Gail is rocking her crib and Rebecca is saying "dance! dance!" as she jumps up and down; I'm whispering to Tony to crawl on the floor and roar at them; and then silence as they shower Daddy with kisses - a tender moment caught on tape.

Tony's playful remark

I made supper tonight (a miracle, I know), and when I served Lovey I said:

"Aren't I the best wife ever?"
and he said, "Ever." I smiled all proud-like, and then he continued:
"When I get to heaven, I'm going to let all my other wives know that you're Number One."

To which I quickly punched him in the arm. Thanks Lovey. :)

But I'm not tired

Mary-Gail's protest about her nap turned into this literally seconds after I put her down

Bless her little heart - she was trying so hard to sit up and be awake instead of taking a nap

The sun & the moon

Rebecca loves the Sun - she points it out in her books and will say "beam" when we say "sun."

Mary-Gail loves the Moon - she too will point it out in her books and skips through the pages until she sees the moon, and then we all hear her excited "moon! moon! moon!"

So, I have the Sun, and the Moon, and we hope we'll have the Stars this fall! I'm getting so excited (and worried and nervous and scared - The NICU was sooooo full of preemies last night when I volunteered that they had to move babies to the Ped floor) but I have hope that we'll be OK as we enter this new adventure of adding another baby to our family!!!!

Check out this book "Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon" written by Karen Viola. It's Mary-Gail's favorite book and she loves watching the Sun fade into the Moon.

This 'n' that

Mary-Gail has a very inquisitive personality; she is super curious about everything. She'll ask us in her cute, girly voice: " 'uts dis? 'uts dis?" " 's dat? 's dat?" (translation: what's this? what's that?) She'll point to the object in question (she still uses her pointer finger - thank goodness!) and presses you until you answer her first question. Then she'll press you for more information, not by asking "why?" but by turning both her hands with her palms facing up, waiting for you to continue to explain. How cute is that?

Tony was able to join us for lunch and sat next to Mary-Gail who drilled him on his watch. It was very pleasant seeing Tony be ever-so-patient with Mary-Gail. When she was fully satisfied with Tony's responses, she then pressed him for some of his lunch: "share. share." Ha ha.

Finished!

I finished Breaking Dawn last night - or this morning rather - at 1:28 am. I still LOVE Edward, and my feelings towards Bella have softened. I didn't like her in the other 3 books: she was so wishy-washy, and such a "girl" about things. I got so frustrated with her. But, Stephanie Meyer found a way to redeem Bella and improve my view of her.

The 754 page book kept me occupied all of Sunday. Now that I'm finished reading it, I can shower and life can return back to normal. If you call 'normal' trying to get Tony to pretend he's Edward :) JUST KIDDING!!!

I got it!!!

The last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.

Jo, me, Sue, Mom, and Pam all gathered at Barnes N Noble at 9 pm for the pre-release party (let me tell you - there were some funky people there) and waited in line until 12:01 am for the book to be released, and then until 12:50 am to obtain our copy of the book!!

I am so stinkin' excited to start reading. More on this fun adventure later!