Makenna's Conference

We had Makenna's preschool conference this morning and I wanted to document her school progress here on the blog. The teacher was nice enough to meet with us early as the scheduled conference day is actually on my due date.

As everyone expected, Makenna got rave reviews :) She got the top grade in all 22 areas that they reviewed! The teacher was nothing but complimentary and told us that she is one of those kids that is just built for school! Mrs. Stinson was blown away by Makenna's academic abilities. When they did assessments she had no idea that Makenna could read as much as she did - the teacher holds up letter recognition cards (with no pictures) to see if the kids can identify all of their ABC's. Well each card has a word at the bottom (ie. like "nest" on the "N" card) and Makenna would read the word first and then the letter. For example, "Nest starts with N". The teacher was thoroughly impressed. Makenna obviously knew all of her colors and shapes and counted to 100. The one thing that was news to us is that the teacher said that she was also able to count to 100 by 10's! I had no clue! Josh started teaching her that concept one night and I told him that was way too hard for a 4 year old to comprehend! Little did I know! Mrs. Stinson had samples of her writing and cutting from the beginning of the school year and then recent examples and there were dramatic improvements. Mrs. Stinson said that Makenna is can write (also recognizes and spells) her last name in addition to her first name. She said they would be moving on to phone numbers and addresses soon and wasn't shocked when we told her Makenna already knows hers. Mrs. Stinson also said that Makenna is a very well-behaved child and nicely lets others know if they are doing something inappropriate and if necessary will let the teacher know. The only area she said that Makenna will need to work on is that she talks out of turn sometimes. Mrs. Stinson said that since she is so social and has "so many ideas in that head of hers" that it makes it hard for her to contain them all! :) No surprise to us!

The written report at the bottom of her sheet says "Makenna is a good contributor to our class with her ideas and comments. She plays well with others and seems to truly enjoy school. Continue all you do at home with her and encourage her interest in reading!" The teacher's quote when we first sat down was "She's doing really well for preschool. Actually she'd be doing really well in the 1st grade." There was no question from any teacher (we saw the others as we walked out) about kindergarten readiness - they all agreed that she is more than ready for kindergarten and will flourish in that environment. The overall consensus is that given her maturity, social skills and academic abilities that we would be doing Makenna a disservice by putting her in alternative kindergarten instead of regular kindergarten. This is a huge peace of mind for me since this is such a big decision and will have such an impact on her academic life.

On a cute side note, Maryn got her first preschool experience today :) As we were waiting for Josh to show up for conferences, Mrs. Stinson took Maryn in the classroom (while class was still in session) and let her sit on the carpet next to Makenna and finish up the class with Makenna's help! The brief moment I saw as I peaked in the window she was sitting there with her hands folded praying with the kids and then did the song "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" with them! She did very well and Makenna had fun showing her the ropes! As we were leaving though I talked to Mrs. Sodman (the lead 3 year old teacher that was watching Makenna and Maryn for us during our conference) and she told me she now understood why we were waiting to send Maryn to preschool. She said that she's academically ready, it's just a maturity thing (which Josh and I both agree with). It made me feel even more confident in our decision to hold her back one more year.

Makenna Jo - Your daddy and I are extremely proud of you! Not only do you continue to amaze us each and every day, you amaze everyone around you! Keep up the hard work!

Basement Update - Drywall

This update is a little overdue but I still wanted to post the pictures of the drywall stage of our basement. They won't mean much to anyone else, but it's fun for us to see the progress. These pictures were taken just a little over a week ago but the basement already looks vastly different. It is now textured, painted, all the doors are up, light fixtures, outlets and switches are up and probably 85% of the woodwork is in place. Next week will consist of finishing woodwork, staining the woodwork, installing the shelves in various closets and then carpet!!! Whoo-Hoo!

Spare bedroom


Looking down the hall... bedroom door straight ahead, hall closet first door on left and door to storage area is the second door on the left.


Another angle looking at the hall and corner of the main room. The door on the right side of the hall is the bathroom.


Another picture of the main room/playroom


This is right where you come down the bottom of the stairs into the main room/playroom. The little wall that curves around is hiding a nasty construction pole that we couldn't get rid of and we converted it into hidden toy storage on the opposite side!

36 Weeks 2 Days

My doctor told me at my appointment on Monday that if I go into labor from this point on, they won't stop me! Ahhhh! That is just crazy! Granted both of our girls came within 2 days of their due date so I'm sure this won't happen, but it still kind of lit a fire under me! So much to do before she gets here!

I am continuing to feel the 8th month pains of pregnancy. I think I wrote about them all in my last blog so I won't go into that again. As far as changes, we did find out a few weeks ago at one of my appointments that I was anemic. Anemia is common amongst pregnant women but my levels were a little on the concerning side, especially given the fact that I have a very iron-rich diet. The anemia was causing my extreme exhaustion and breathlessness which makes me feel a little better that I now have an explanation (I thought it was all in my head or else I was a wimp!). Anyway, now I'm on an iron supplement that seems to be working.








Proof of no linea nigra and an outie belly button at 36 weeks!

Makenna - 4 1/2 Years Old

Nicknames: Kenna, Nenny, Nenners, Nenner Benner, Nen, Buddy, Peanut (I think she is actually called Nenny at home more than Makenna)
Weight & Height: She has really thinned out this fall/winter and has actually lost some weight. Her appetite isn't quite what it used to be. She weighs in right around 45 lbs (she weighed around 48 lbs last summer).
Hair: Long blond wispy hair that is starting to get darker, especially in the front and underneath. She has a patch of hair on the back of her head that is actually producing wavy/curly hair! The rest of her hair is still straight as a board, but she has some beautiful waves in the back. She's either going to love this or hate this when she gets older. Seeming like she's 14, she has also mastered the skill of tucking her hair behind her ears :)
Favorite foods: Makenna continues to be a good eater for us, but hit kind of pickier streak in the past few months. She still eats more of a variety than most kids, she just seems to not be interested in food. She just doesn't seem to be as hungry. In the past she always ate amounts that just baffled people around her but now she's eating more age appropriate amounts.
Favorite Drink: Mostly she just drinks skim milk, water and watered down apple juice. Since it's winter, she also gets to indulge in a cup of hot chocolate after playing in the snow and she LOVES that!
Favorite toys: Fairies! She is a fairy flitting around our house with fairy wings on pretty much every day. She has a strong imagination and she is constantly playing fairies and princesses. Other than that, she is really into arts and crafts right now.
Favorite stuffed animal: Duckie
Favorite Books: Nothing in particular right now... she likes to read something different everyday.
Bedtime: We start getting ready for bed by 7:30 and she is usually in bed by 8:00. She falls asleep very fast nowadays.
Wake-up time: She is still my power sleeper... most days I have to wake her up at 8:00 or shortly after for preschool. She LOVES to sleep in and will actually ask us not to wake her up on the weekends so she can sleep more :) Sounds like we have a teenager living in our house! Over Christmas break she even slept in until close to 10:00 a few mornings!
Naps: Nonexistent - Who could be ready for a nap after sleeping that long at night??!!
Favorite person: I would say her best friend is actually Maryn. They have become best friends and they often tell mommy to leave them alone when they are playing together upstairs :) I love to see the bond they have formed and their little friendship develop.
Latest Accomplishment: She can now count past 100! I think she even made it to 120 one night! She is also working quite a bit on addition and subtraction and really enjoys working on that. She can now write all the letters in the alphabet (uppercase) and can do a majority of the letters in lower case as well. She wrote the entire alphabet for me on a piece of paper the other day and she is starting to write various words as well. She has also developed a strong interest in geography and can locate quite a few states on a map.
Likes: Comfy clothes (the jeans come off almost immediately when we come home!), being a helper friend at preschool
Dislikes: Staticky hair, bad dreams, having her hair pulled back
What gets said about Makenna most often: What a great big sister she is going to be to the new baby... she talks about the baby constantly.
Best known for: Being a good kid and her contagious enthusiasm
Fears: Definitely bad dreams. She had a horrible dream a few weeks ago and she talked about it for days. To this day she still continues to pray to God every night before bed and asks Him to keep her safe from bad dreams. I would almost say this one particular nightmare kind of haunted her. She made me and Josh promise that we wouldn't tell anyone what she dreamt about. It took her more than an entire day to tell us the full story of the dream... I think she had the fear that her dream would come true or she would get in trouble for dreaming it if she talked about it.
Favorite shows: She doesn't care for a whole lot of TV shows except maybe Martha Speaks on PBS. Outside of that she likes getting to watch the occasional Princess movie or Barbie movie. She watched Mulan for the first time this weekend and thought it was awesome.
Health: Makenna has had a very rough winter. She has had the stomach flu twice, strep throat twice and she's had to get a wart frozen off a few times. Poor kiddo. Unfortunately the stomach flu is my fault since I was the first to get it at our house each time :(
How she's like Daddy: ACTIVE! I would say 5 out of 7 nights of the week our after dinner activity is wrestling/rough housing with Daddy in the living room. She goes non-stop! On the nights we don't rough house she typically wants to do a pretend triathlon!
How she's like Mommy: She is a nurturer and a little mommy. Not only does she love telling Maryn what to do and being a mom to her, but she loves taking care of others in need. The other night Josh just mentioned something about his knee aching and before we knew it she was walking in the room with an ice pack. This is not uncommon for Makenna. She is always thinking of ways to care for others. She will be a great little Mommy to the new baby as well.
Interesting Tidbit: Makenna is our super sensitive child. She can cry at the drop of a hat. We have to really watch how we discipline her because she has such a soft heart. Discipline is a necessity and we will never waver on that, but we need to discipline her in a different way because just even slightly raising your voice with her will crush her spirit. Even times when she's not necessarily in trouble, we'll just be correcting her, she will run off to her room crying and upset thinking she disappointed us. This is definitely something we are working on because we know Makenna needs to be able to take constructive criticism better to function in the real world.

34 Weeks

Six more weeks and counting. And yes, we are actually counting. Makenna and I made a chain for the number of days left until the baby's due date and it's hanging in her room. Every night we tear another link off. I've considered tearing two off every night in hopes that it will speed things up but I that's just wishful thinking :)

As I have mentioned on this blog before, I have been blessed so far with a very easy pregnancy. Unfortunately I have to report that I am finally feeling pregnant. It crept up on me suddenly. I have backaches at the end of every day or if I'm on my feet too long, I run out of breath just going up the stairs, I wake up Josh every time I try to roll over in bed, I have to go to the bathroom at least once an hour (at least it feels like that often), my fingers are starting to swell, and I am just absolutely exhausted. Luckily I can still sleep at night, I'm just having a hard time keeping up with the girls during the day. Today it took all I had to go to the grocery store.

Some other interesting tidbits... my belly button popped out which it has never done before. Apparently I must be carrying different enough with this child to make my belly button pop this time and not with my past two pregnancies. Josh and Makenna are both quite intrigued with my new belly button. I'm also pretty confident that the baby has dropped. This typically doesn't happen until closer to labor for most women, but the same thing happened with Maryn (and most of you can probably remember the immense amount of pain I was in for that last month). So far, I don't have the constant pain, just some various shooting pains, lots of pressure and the pain in my left leg has intensified slightly.

My doctor says that I'm measuring right on. You can look at the picture and decide for yourself ... do I really look 34 weeks? I feel huge, but then a few weeks ago I had some friends tell me that they can't even tell I'm pregnant when I stand in certain positions!! Seriously? I was gaining all my weight in my belly but noticed over the holidays I have extra weight now going to my hips and butt. Bummer... I thought I was avoiding that this time around. My blood pressure is remaining in the healthy range and the baby's heart rate continues to be in the 120s or 130s. The baby has started getting the hiccups more frequently and I can tell that she is head down based on where the hiccups are coming from :) I experience Braxton Hicks numerous times each day, but typically they subside fairly quickly. I've had a few rounds of contractions for an hour or more, but as soon as I get a chance to lay down they go away. Baby is still extremely forceful in her movements and I'm waiting for that day that everyone keeps telling me about. According to all the books and my friends, baby was suppose to run out of room a few weeks ago and the punches and kicks were suppose to subside into softer movements. So far that isn't the case for this little one. As a matter of fact I think she's punching and kicking harder out of frustration that her living environment is growing more cramped every day. When she has an active period my belly seriously takes on a life of it's own.

Preparations for the baby are pretty much at a standstill until we get the basement finished. The race is on... what will get here first? The basement being finished or the baby? Hmmmm... Josh is convinced I'm going to go into labor a week early but since both of our other two girls came within two days of their due dates I think I'm safe to stick with that assumption. Until then I can still do some littler projects like wash all of our cute pink clothes and blankets. She is going to be one of the girliest girls I've ever seen! Pink pink pink everywhere!

Post Christmas Fun

The girls and I enjoyed having Daddy home from work for 5 days over the New Years holiday. He had time off over Christmas as well, but due to all the travel and craziness it didn't really seem like "time off." We spent 5 days at New Years just relaxing at home having fun together as a family. We were productive on some house projects as well, but for the most part we just slept in, played with our new toys and hung out together . The girls LOVED having Daddy here and I smiled every morning when they would get all giddy when they realized Daddy wasn't going to work again. They love their Daddy time :)


One of Maryn's favorite Christmas toys... funny thing is that it was actually Makenna's gift. She can spend an unbelievable amount of time focused on this toy and not notice anything going on around her. I think this was one of Josh's favorites as well :)


Another shot of the Marble Race Deluxe and Maryn deep in concentration


Makenna perched on top of Maryn's new slide.


One of the magnificent forts that Daddy built during his time off. The girls thought this was awesome! I think the girls are going to be bored at home with me now that Daddy has gone back to work.


I stuck my camera inside their fort (my belly's too big to fit through the door) and this is the picture I got!

What Does A Mommy Say?

So I know there was something similar to this on YouTube recently, but trust me, my kids have no idea what YouTube even is so this is an original Budke story :)

One day Makenna and I were asking Maryn what sounds different animals make. We were going through a long list of animals and Maryn was proudly giving us all the answers we were looking for. We did this for quite awhile and towards the end this is what our dialogue consisted of...

Mommy: "What does a monkey say"
Maryn: "Oooo OOoo AAaa AAaa"

Makenna: "Maryn what does a cat say?"
Maryn: "Meeeoooow"

Mommy: "What does a dog say?:
Maryn: "Woof woof woof"

Makenna: "Maryn what does a mommy say?"
Maryn: Complete silence

I looked at Makenna and asked "What does a mommy say?"

Makenna: "Just a minute!"

Yes you can all smile :) I did. But then I felt bad and I told her that I think a mommy says "I love you" more than "just a minute." Luckily she agreed.