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We had our ultrasound for baby #5 today.  I have to say that I don’t understand the draw to waiting to find out, I eagerly anticipated the day of our ultrasound mostly because of the gender identification.  It always makes the baby seem so much more real when I can imagine a little him or her. I talked to Isaac about the ultrasound the night before and he really wanted to go, so we surprised him and picked him up from school and brought him along.  He was hoping to be the first one to identify the baby’s gender and as soon as the ultrasound started, he asked “Where’s the penis?!”  He asked two more times before we had official conformation of the baby’s gender.We’re super excited that Isaac will finally have the brother he has wanted!

Zach and I have been working to compile a Christmas gift recommendations list for our family.  It’s still a draft, but you can find it on the Christmas tab or here.  We will continue to update the list as we think of new ideas.

Charlotte is a girl who likes to play in the dirt.  She regularly comes in from playing outside covered in dirt from head to toe.We had our first big rain of the school year the other day and I got an email from her teacher about her coming in from recess soaking wet.  When I asked Charlotte if she got all wet at recess, she giggled and said yes.  I asked her what she thought of being wet in class and she said it was funny.  I put an extra pair of pants in her backpack, just in case it happened again.  The very next day she came home wearing the extra pants.  I asked her if she got all wet again and she said “no, today I got sandy.”

Isaac’s door was left open while he was at school and here is where I discovered Ila:She used a chair to climb up onto the table and sat right down in the middle of his Legos and started to play.  The big structure in the front is the foundation for the World Trade Center that he is building.  He was really fascinated by 9/11 documentaries this year.

Last week, Nicole got a haircut.  Here is the before:After:Here you can see the length difference better:

I still regularly think of things to write about, but I rarely take the time to sit down and write these days.  I’m not going to write much now either because I want to go to bed instead. 

Here is a picture I took on a Sunday afternoon when I discovered Isaac reading to Charlotte.  They were sharing a chair and I thought of how happy I am that they are such good friends.There is nothing better as a mom, than to know that your kids truly love each other and are best friends.

Name:  Ila Jane Cochran

Age: 1 year, 9 months, 1 week, and 5 days

Weight: 18lbs 9.5oz         less than 3rd percentile

Length:   29 7/8 inches       less than 3rd percentile

Head Circumference: 19”     78th percentile

Last well check (1 year) comparison:

Age = +9 months and 5 days, weight = +3 lb 15.5 oz, length = +4 1/8 inches, head = +1.087 in (+ 13 percentiles!)

Her length and weight are still so low that they were well below the line (they don’t have a specific percentile for her), but she has her own little growth curve that is showing growth.  The doctor said that since her development in terms of language and ability were on track, he wasn’t very concerned about how small she is.

She had a rough time with the immunizations.  She seemed fine right after the appointment, but she woke up from her nap in pain.  She would cry and hold her thighs where she had received shots.  I could tell that every step caused her pain.  I gave her some Tylenol and spent most of the afternoon holding her.  By evening she was starting to walk a little more, but with a bit of stiffness and she was running a fever so I gave her some more Tylenol before she went to bed.

*I spaced her 18 month appointment.  I was counting down until she was old enough for nursery, but didn’t even think about taking her to the doctor.  By the time I did schedule her, I had to wait a month to get an appointment with the doctor that I wanted.

I found this little video on my camera that Isaac took.  I had no idea that he had taken my camera and made a video.  The video shakes constantly, so if you’re prone to motion sickness, you might want to just listen to it rather than watch it—I’ll admit that I had to close my eyes because I couldn’t handle the shakiness of the camera work.

It’s funny listening to Isaac interview Charlotte.  He tries to think of questions to get her talking and some of his questions are a little strange.  They also turn on the water during the video and they know that they aren’t allowed to do that without my permission so if you listen closely you’ll hear the kids say, “now turn it off so mom doesn’t know.” 

My other favorite part was where Charlotte described her invention as “a boomer, but it doesn’t really boom.”  (Boomer was Isaac’s word for gun when he was little.  We liked his term so much that we tried to avoid letting him know the real name for as long as we could—they still call things boomers sometimes instead of guns).

Isaac is only 7, but he is already starting to eat like a teenager sometimes.  He often eats more than his dad at dinner time.  Last time I made burgers, Zach and I each ate one and Isaac ate 2 and ¼ plus chips (the ¼ came from Nicole).  At McDonald’s he can eat 10 chicken nuggets and 2 cheeseburgers.  I wish I could think of some non-burger related examples, but burgers are easiest to describe because the portion size is fairly standard.  He did eat more pasta than the rest of the family combined last night, but Zach and Nicole were not home and Ila didn’t eat any.(Notice the 3 burger patties?  He picked that one out himself.)

When I started potty training Nicole, she decided it was also time to start getting herself dressed.  Underwear has been an interesting experience.  Every time she sat on the potty, she thought she needed a new pair of underwear.  Most of the time she put the underwear on the wrong way and if I tried to help her get it on the right way she’d just pull it off and run upstairs for another pair, which would also likely be put on wrong.  It didn’t take long before there were piles of her underwear everywhere.

In addition to the regular underwear changes, she has also been changing outfits constantly.  It seems like her inclination is to put pants on backwards more frequently than she puts them on correctly. Several times I have found her crying in frustration because she put a PJ shirt on her legs and could find no place for her head in the bottoms. Charlotte’s PJs are among her favorite things to wear and she usually wears a mismatched set of them.  One day she put on a blue shirt and some black tights and announced “I’m wearing naughty, naughty socks.”  I’m not sure where she got the idea that they were naughty, but she wore them with no underwear and refused to take them off or put pants on over them.  Unfortunately, I wanted to go pick up a prescription at the store that day, but we couldn’t leave the house until the next wardrobe change happened naturally several hours later.  Another day she put on some pants that were too big for her and fell down every time she let them go, but instead of changing, she wore them for hours, eating and playing with one hand holding her pants up.

I know one day I will be glad that she passed through this stage because I have one less child that I have to dress, but for now I find it exhausting picking up the remains of wardrobe changes throughout the house each day. 

Charlotte:

Isaac was jealous that I took a video of Charlotte and he wanted me to record something he learned:

Nicole has officially started potty training.  We’ve had some early attempts to train her whenever she has shown some interest in the potty or underwear, but each time it quickly became clear that she was not really ready to start using the potty everyday.  Sadly, all of my children are late potty trainers.  So far each one has been a struggle.  I don’t really know who would want all the details (maybe some family members or friends who are into potty training right now), but if you do, then click below.

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Today was Isaac and Charlotte’s first day of school.  It was Charlotte’s first day ever and she was super excited.  She got up as soon as she saw the first glimmer of sunlight through her window.  She made her bed and got dressed before anyone else was even out of bed.  Over breakfast Isaac explained, “There are two kinds of teachers:  nice teachers and mean teachers.”Isaac and Charlotte picked their own clothes out the night before.  Ironically, Isaac choose the same shirt that he wore for the first day of Kindergarten.  Charlotte choose her clothes based on what she thought the kids in her class would like.  She picked this shirt because she thought the boys would like the blue on it and the girls would like the pink.  It also has hearts and apples and other fun things.Isaac loved his new shoes.  They are air-cooled, which means they have a little pocket of air that blows over his feet each time he takes a step.They both had a great first day and loved school.  They both said that they had really nice teachers.  Here they are at the end of the day:Charlotte looks really tired here:The following video is of Isaac and Charlotte telling about their first day of school.  It’s a little long and Nicole and Ila are noisy in the background at times, so I expect most of our blog readers to skip the video—but grandparents might want to watch it, so here it is (also they are eating the remainders from their lunches):

After being the only in-law for more than 11 years, Zach’s youngest sister is getting married.  Most of my family will not be able to attend the official ceremony in California on 9/10/11, but luckily we got a chance to see Bethani and Dan at an open house in Winlock, WA over the weekend.  Here are some pictures:

We went to Lake Meridian Park on Monday and had a lot of fun with our friends, the Pettibones and the Daytons.  The park was great with new and interesting play structures.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures where you can really see all the neat things to play and climb on.Nicole and Ila’s favorite thing to play on was the merry-go-round which had netting all around it.

They also had a waterfront with ducks and a swimming area.  We didn’t bring swimsuits, but the kids decided to get wet anyway:

My sister Sarah and her family came up from Portland for a visit.  They spent a week in Seattle and split their time between my family and her college roommate’s family.  While they were here they celebrated both their anniversary and Sarah’s birthday.  Here are some pictures from our visit:Sadly, I didn’t have my camera out as much as I typically do, but I’m glad I got at least some pictures of everyone.

We’re not entirely sure how George is related to us.  Here is what we know about him:

He bought the plot where Stanislawa Paukstiene, Julia Brindza (our great-grandmother), and Julia’s daughter Amelia are buried. Stanislawa died in 1927, just a couple years after Korst (our great-grandfather) died, so we assumed they are of the same generation, and since they share a last name, we assumed they are brothers. It’s possible that they are cousins, we just made the easiest assumption.

I found a Petition for Naturalization for George Pauksztis which was signed by our great-grandfather (Korst) and which contains a wealth of information including the name of his wife (Stanislawa).  It also names the ship he came into this country on and several other facts about him and his family.

I only have a trial membership to ancestry, so I don’t know if these links will stay visible, but here are links to the documents that I am posting below ( page 1 and page 2)

Click the more link to see my screenshots of the document.

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