Let's catch you up...

It has been a while since the last Ickler family update.  We have lots of reasons (and excuses), but let's just get down to business and share some stories of Summer 2012, shall we?

Maren's 3rd Birthday

Mae Mae turned 3 in style with a party, and what birthday party wouldn't be complete without an Easter egg hunt? Maren's special day was low-key, fun and full of family and friends. We all enjoyed sundaes for dessert because Maren doesn't appreciate carbs in the form of baked goods.

Maren update: Mae has done fabulously in day care/preschool. They decided to move her "up" to the next level with a slightly older age group because her teachers thought she was more "verbally advanced" than the other kids. The trouble is, she has been in her new class for a few months now, and she is so quiet that her new teachers haven't even heard her talk much at all! She has been really shy, but says she still loves her school. Oh well, she gabs it up at home constantly. She is leaning how to recognize and trace her letters now, and she knows which letter begins each of our names. She isn't big on recognizing numbers, but she can count well, so we aren't pushing it.

At home Maren is a complete sass -- she enjoys back talking to all of us, especially her big sister. She still carries a baby doll or stuffed animal everywhere. She loves to mother her babies -- she feeds them, gives them love and even likes to buckle them into her car seat. She has given up her B's (binks) and sucking her thumb due to a communication error on Mama's part. I told her that Addi sucked her thumb so much that she almost got an infection and had to get a shot. Well Mae kept saying "I don't want to get a shot" and refused to ever suck her thumb or a B ever again. I felt terrible, but the silver lining is -- it worked! She still requires rubbing her face on Brian's arm every night to fall asleep. She will say, "Daddy, can I have skin?" -- I think she has always been comforted with skin to skin contact, and it is sweet, so we are in no rush for her to outgrow this little quirk. Plus, Daddy loves being needed!

Our baby is getting bigger and we are loving every moment of it!

Kindergarten: done

Addi graduated from Kindergarten in May. She absolutely loved Kindergarten and couldn't wait to go to school each day. She loved her teacher so much that she cried when she learned that she would have a new teacher for 1st grade. During a conference her teacher told me that Addi is a complete joy and is friends with everyone in her class. She said that she is always so happy that when a kid came in to school in a bad mood, or feeling sad, she would send them to spend time with Addi because she always made them feel better. That just about melted my heart! By the end of the year she was right where she was supposed to be for most academic subjects, and she was already reading at a 1st grade level. We are so proud of our incredible little student and kindhearted friend!

Shhhh, we're hunting wabbits

This was the summer of rabbits, and the one living in the front yard next door was a daily source of excitement to both girls.  I don't think they have ever sat so still or been attentive for such a long period of time before now. The majority of this particular rabbit's appeal was due to the fact that it was an itty bitty motherless baby the size of a cotton ball. The girls felt the overwhelming need to feed, water, protect and "coo" to the bunny -- due to his general motherlessness, of course. Eventually the little bugger moved into the neighbor's backyard, so the girls weren't able to stalk him as efficiently. Our hope is that he is busy making more little baby bunnies and not coyote food, but you never know.

Happy Canada Day

The height of summer is annually celebrated in our neighborhood in the form of a Canada Day party. The Jones family across the street (they are from Canada by the way) throw a bash complete with yard games, a million squealing children playing, a ton of beer and poutine fries - if you are curious, go to en.wikipedia.org/wikiw/Poutine. This year the kids were all riding bikes and looked like a little biker gang ruling the street. They also had a water gun fight which ended in more of a bucket of water fight -- Addi loved it and was absolutely soaked!

Deep Thoughts with Addi Ickler

Addi: "Mama, how do babies get all of their organs inside their body? Do the doctors put them in when they are born?" (She was satisfied when I broke out my anatomy book and showed her pictures of one-celled zygotes progressing up to embryos then fetuses and finally babies!)

Addi: "Mama, how did all of the people in the world get here from one person?" (After some probing I figured out that she was basically asking me about the dawn of mankind. If we believed in creationism my answer would have been much easier, instead I attempted to explain the theory of evolution to a 6 year old.)

Addi: "Mama, how does your skin get goosebumps?"

Daddy: "Hey Addi are you going to get us dinner tonight?"
Addi: "Sure. I've seen you guys drive up to the restaurant window and tell the person what we want, and then they hand us the food."
Daddy: "How are you going to pay for the food?"
Addi: "You hand the person the card."
 Daddy: "Are you going to drive us to get the food too?"
Addi: "I've seen you guys drive. It doesn't look that hard. I think I could do it."

This next conversation occurred right after Addi got busted for breaking some rules behind our backs. We talked about what kind of kid she wanted to be: a sneaky kid who is untruthful, or an honest kid.
Addi: "Mama, I feel really guilty right now."
Mama: "Because you were being sneaky? We talked about it and I know that you are a great kid with a good heart."
Addi: "I don't feel like one of those kids."
Mama: "What, a sneaky kid? Because you aren't one."
Addi: "No, I don't feel like a good kid. I have to tell you something. When I was little I used to lie to you all the time. A long time ago something happened and you probably don't remember it, but I do. I was trying to read my books and Maren was jumping on my bed bothering me. I asked her to stop, but she wouldn't, so I pushed her off the bed. You ran upstairs and I told Maren that she fell of the bed and you believed me. I shouldn't have done that." (I could tell she felt so guilty, but it helped to get this story off her chest.)

Spring Break

Every time I think of spring break I think of Kitty from Arrested Development screaming "spring break" while flashing her boobs Girls Gone Wild style. This was definitely not that kind of spring break for us. We basically spent our whole spring break outside having wholesome family fun and it was awesome! The girls had a blast tracing each other with sidewalk chalk, having picnic park play dates with friends and riding bikes.
This year we decided to go cold turkey with Addi's training wheels on her bike. It turns out she only needed a couple of the traditional Daddy-run-behind-the-bike-lessons and she had enough confidence to trek out on her own. It is so incredible to see her riding up and down the sidewalks on her own now, and I think this milestone has hit me and Brian the same way walking did -- such a transformation! Brian and talked fondly about learning to ride a bike when we were kids and how as a kid you feel this crazy new sense of independence. The morning after she learned to ride unassisted she woke up and immediately said, "Can I go outside and ride my bike now?" -- she's hooked.
Maren got her birthday present a little early. She fell in love with her strider bike in the store and was adamant about getting the red one she test rode -- and she really wanted it to ride home in the front seat -- ahem, even though that is where Mommy usually sits. We took it home that day and gave it to her so she could enjoy the good bike riding weather with her sister. She loves to glide around on her little bike and when she gets a little fast she just bails out on someone's yard to stop herself. We are so proud of our little bike riders!!!

Reunited

The reunion of Addi and Baby Bear as expressed through chalkboard art.

Baby Bear

Baby Bear is Brian's stuffed bear from when he was a baby. He is a well loved and tattered little bear with one eye. Addi has taken him under her wing lately and is constantly loving on him, feeding him bottles and sleeping with him at night. She is quite smitten with him and was pretty devastated when we told her she couldn't take him to an overnight at Noni and Poppy's (they have a little dog who has stuffed animals of his own and he sometimes thinks the girls' animals are his). Brian loves having this special keepsake from his childhood and we don't want to risk losing Baby Bear. Here is the picture that Addison drew to describe their parting (for one night).
I don't think this kid could have a sweeter heart if she tried.

Random fun and adorableness

Maren demonstrates the correct ergonomics when playing one's LeapPad.Addi still insists that she wants to be a chef someday. She says she will own and cook her creations in a restaurant called "Addison's" and she will make us dinner every night. Let's just say that Brian and I are in full support of her dream to make us wonderful meals for free on a daily basis.Bouncing like wild animals.Maren is lucky to have a sweet big sister who is good at multi-tasking.
The Littleton Heritage Museum. Yes I forced Maren to pose uncomfortably next to a sheep b/c I thought it was a good photo-op.Random update:
Addison is thriving in Kindergarten and loves it! Her teacher said she is the sweetest, kindest and smartest little kid and she loves having her in class. When another kid is having a tough day at school her teacher sends them to play with Addison, b/c she always makes the other kids feel better. She is doing great at learning math and is reading at a first grade level already. It is amazing to watch her read -- she soaks up new words and sounds like a sponge and is really self-motivated. She was one of those kids who really needed all of the time she got in preschool (she started right after she turned 3 and went until she was 5 1/2) -- it really helped her with her socialization skills and learning the building blocks necessary for math and reading.

Maren has only been in her new classroom at preschool for a few months, but her teachers say she is really verbal and needs to be stimulated a bit more in the next level of preschool. This class has a bunch of girls in it and Maren will be on the younger side, but she should fit in just fine based on her developmental level. She is loving school and is constantly coming home with new art projects and talking about things they learned. Her curriculum is really well tailored for age appropriateness and the teachers are really good at evaluating the kids and determining which classroom they should be in. They even had a week all about space and the kids read books about space and made their own moons and planets -- so cute, her Daddy was especially proud!

The Ickler House of Fine Art

So, a long time ago Addi's artistic abilities began to exceed my own. Now Maren is beginning to draw actual things, instead of crazy scribbles, and it will just be a matter of time before she too is a better drawer than her Mama.

Maren:
Maren's first drawing ever! This is Henrietta.

She loves to draw her people on the windows with her special window crayons -- it gets really bright though, so she needs her shades.
Addison:
She is impeccable about her coloring (I myself was a pretty bad ass colorer as a kid -- I won more than my fair share of coloring contests -- at least she gets some kind of talent from me :)She also has some wicked sidewalk chalk talents. This gem came after Daddy had her watch an old basketball game of his on DVD. Addi is cheering him on from the stands, Uncle Joe is clapping for him, Daddy has angry eyebrows because he was being really competitive driving to the hoop, and the guy from the other team is sad that Daddy scored on him.

Sick as dogs

The first of the year was crazy for us all. Just as I started clinical rotations (back to back 12 hour shifts) and Brian was flexing his schedule to accomodate school and day care pick ups and drop offs, major illness struck the Ickler house. Maren got croup, full with fevers of 104, terrible stridor and difficulty breathing which led to her being put on steroids to open her airways. Then after her fever had broken for a few days it came back. I listened to her lungs with my stethoscope and heard crackles, which means pneumonia. Brian took her to the doc and she did indeed have pneumonia. Brian slept next to her every night and she actually recovered pretty quickly after being put on antibiotics. We got the all clear from the doc to take a weekend trip to the mountains.
Then, in the mountains, Addi came down with croup (I didn't know kids her age could get it, but apparently they can get croup until about 10 yrs). She spiked a fever of 105.4 and started to say things that didn't make any sense. We called the doc for instructions and headed home from the mountains. Addi quickly developed pneumonia as well -- with a double ear infection to top it all off. It turns out her body didn't like the antibiotics they gave her. After 48 hrs on the antibiotics she was getting worse, the drugs were having no therapeutic effect, and they were causing her some vicious diarrhea and vomiting. This coupled with Addi's unwillingness to drink or eat anything while she is sick (we literally had to force her to drink) caused serious dehydration. Her doctor had to give her 2 very painful shots of antibiotics in her legs to combat the infections (she couldn't walk to the car afterwards), and told us that if we couldn't get her more hydrated by the next day she would have to go to the hospital for IV fluids. We pulled out all the stops and got her all of her favorite naughty foods in hopes of persuading her to eat or drink (milkshakes, Anthony's pizza, popsicles, you name it).

The next day her pneumonia and ear infections hadn't gotten any worse, and she was a bit more hydrated, so we avoided a trip to the hospital. The doc couldn't hear Addi's lung sounds because she was wheezing pretty badly, so she was sent home with a nebulizer machine. After that, she improved steadily and finally got to go back to school. We were so worried about her -- I slept next to her every night and would just watch to make sure she was breathing. Addi never gets that sick, so it was a scary experience for everyone. Luckily she recovered quickly, and was soon back to her adorable fun loving self!

Christmas Day

Modeling xmas jams.

Setting out reindeer food and Santa cookies.
The rest is pretty self explanatory.