Getting ready for Santa and his Reindeer

I know it's been a while since we posted stuff, but what can I say... The holidays are hectic. We managed to slow down just a little bit (and by we, I mean Jeff and I, not so much Haley), and prepare for Santa and his reindeer's arrival. Here's a video of Haley explaining it.

Kale's Evaluation

It's 10 degrees outside (which is a 25 degree increase since about 7:30 this morning), there's snow on the ground, the sun is shining and chicken and dumplings are simmering on the stove. What a beautiful day for an intervention. Of the developmental kind that is.

Today we had a team of 4 women come out and assess Kale for early intervention services. A nurse, a speech pathologist, a developmental expert and a case manager all came by to watch our Dude play. As I suspected with 4 brand new people in the house, he didn't utter a single word (except for his favorite UH! sound), and save for once when he told the nurse MINE! when she asked for the toy he had (a developmentally appropriate response, especially for a kid with a 3 year old sister). They said he was right on target for all of his skill and abilities for a typical 18 month old except for that darn speech thing. Apparently a kid his age should have roughly 15 words and is beginning to combine them into two word sentences - we don't have 2 words that would go together to form any kind of coherent sentence, unless you consider MINE! HO! HO! (Kale for "My Santa toy).

I'm pleased with the outcome of this because it looks like we will be having a specialist visit us at our house twice a month (possibly until he's 3) to work on his vocabulary and speech development, particularly his "expressive" words. I know that it won't take him long to catch right on to this speech thing and before we know it we'll be telling him to hush too.

The Dude-a-Man get's down

So the last post was all about Haley, in fairness, it was time to put one up of just Kale. Lately the kid has really wanted to dance, and when that urge comes up, it's hard to suppress it. It's okay buddy, we understand. So, here is some choppy video of that. Also, every time we have a camera out, he thinks it's time to pose so you'll see some video of him "Cheesing" - there's no doubt, it's the cutest thing on the face of the planet. Like I said, it's choppy, but, I'm sparing you some Dramamine needing footage, some screaming children, and other kinds of useless-cute only to parents-debauchery, you should thank me. Enjoy!

Cross that off the bucket list... oh, wait!

One thing that I've always wanted to do was run a triathlon, now, we're not talking anything about the Iron Man, that's just madness, who would really want to swim 2 miles, then bike over 100, and then, just for good measure, run a marathon! Really! But the sprint ones are always something I thought I could do if I could only get into running. Well about 4 months ago I ran a whole mile for the first time since, oh, about 5th grade. Game on! This month our gym hosted an indoor one and I finally had a goal. I managed to pick myself up a training buddy, Ashley (a friend that we knew when we lived in California and happened to run into again out here, who, coincidentally has run a few of these before), and off we went. For about two months I hit the gym daily, doing rotations of biking and running, swimming, and Pilates (because I want my stomach to be flat one day).

Saturday was the big day and I had big goals! The swimming was only 200 yards so I was hoping for a 2:15, then there was a 10 mile bike that I wanted to do in 30 minutes and the 3 mile run that I wanted to do in 35 minutes, I also had goals of placing in swimming and running the entire run (walking is for wusses).

I am proud to say that, while I didn't make my goal time (as you can see in the picture above I did a 2:45), I did win the women's swimming by 26 seconds... Ya'll TWENTY SIX SECONDS!! That's no small amount of time when you're talking about just 200 yards. It's nice to know that competitive swimmer is still in there somewhere. After swimming we hit the bikes for 10 miles. I had a good lead in my heat but my transition was less than stellar (it's no small feat to put workout pants on wet legs, plus get your shoes and socks on.

Again, I missed my time goal on the bike, and did about 32 minutes for 10 miles, not fantastic but a really good starting point. And now I know where my weakness is and am implementing a few spin classes into my routine. Live and learn right?

After the bikes it was on to the treadmill for 3 miles. I ran a pretty steady 5.5 mph and finished it in 32 minutes, three minutes under my goal time, and I'm proud that I was able run the entire three miles.
Ashley, my training buddy and I with the final times. I pulled in a total of 1:15, Ashley was 1:13 and we took 11th and 9th place. Not too shabby!

Now, onto the next goal. For sure (as of right now) the Tri for the Cure August 1st (a 750 swim, 13 mile bike and a 5k), and I'm also hoping to be able to hit the Seattle Rock n Roll half marathon. Oh, and the Briargate Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, and by next summer we will have shirted in the Jack Quinn's Running Club, we only have 2 more left till we meet the requisite 10 5ks. GO ME!!

Haley

Today on our way to Kale's doctor appointment I made a stop by Starbucks for my seasonal favorite (peppermint mocha with soy), and decided that at almost three Haley was plenty big enough for a drink of her own, and a chance to share in what has become known as Red Cup Joy! She got a gingerbread warm steamed milk and really enjoyed drinking "coffee" with mommy. Just another example of how my little girl is getting bigger and bigger every day.

A couple of days ago she was being silly for the camera, and this is what we captured.

Her "cheese" face (with a little bit of laughing).

One of my new favorite pictures of her, I think she looks like such a beautiful little girl here.

And our goofball Haley. She's learned to "look at her nose" and this is the silliness that we get. I love it!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is lots of fun when you have two kids big enough to trick-or-treat! We took them to the Boo at the Zoo last week and they had fun practicing - Haley loved to go up to people and tell them "Trick-or-treatin'" like she needed to announce what she was doing and then they would give her candy. But by tonight she had the whole thing down. Since we're still working on getting a consistent MaMa or DaDa out of Kale, we just let him walk around with his pumpkin, and hold it out to people - they knew what to do.

Haley decided to go as her current (as of the day we went shopping, and luckily today also) favorite princess; Belle. She got to have her hair curled and had a pretty headband to wear just like the real deal. I think we are in for a few years worth of princess costumes.

Love Kale's costume?! Yeah me too... I made it, all by myself! I even put a zipper in it and stuffed the junk out of the tail and spikes. One thing about Colorado is that you never know what the weather is going to be, but this time of year you can bet on either cold or wind (sometimes both), so I wanted to know that he would be warm. the entire thing is made of fleece and I think it turned out pretty great. He loved wearing his costume, even the hood (but wouldn't you love to walk around in a fleece one piece outfit).

This is the pumpkin I made. A couple of years ago we found little glass beads that you could inset in the pumpkin and now all of my pumpkins use them. It makes them glow beautifully. I also scraped some of the skin off to make the name glow.

Jeff's pumpkin, classic and cute.

The kids' pumpkins. Kale's says boo (yes, that's the one he was trying to pick up at the end of the last post), and Haley decided that she wanted polka dots on hers. She has a real fear this year of lots of things associated with Halloween and most of the regular Jack-o-lantern faces fall in that category. We tried to find something that would be on her "good" list and that pretty much always includes things with polka dots on them, oh and we added "squirrels" (or swirls) to it too.

One of my pumpkin lanterns out front of the house. I had four of them all lit up along my walkway. Hope your Halloween was as happy as ours!

The Robersons go to the Pumpkin Patch

So far our Colorado fall has been erratic to say the least. We've had snow, wind and sun, and all in the same week. We lucked out the weekend before last and had a nice (only a little bit windy) day and decided to Carpe Diem and get ourselves out to the Pumpkin Patch. We went to Shooting Star Ranch in Black Forest (less than 15 miles from our house), and they had everything! There was a great petting zoo, pony rides, a hay slide, a train, a mountain of hay bales, a corn kernel box, hay rides, and pumpkins (imagine that). Guys, they even had a camel! They also has a few great photo opportunities too. We spent the entire morning there getting the kids some much needed (already) fresh air and our Jack-o-Lantern's to be. We didn't make it down the driveway before Kale was passed out and the only reason Haley made it home was because she had some kettle corn. With that... Bring on the pictures!

Loving the hay ride!

Also loving the hay ride.

Checking out the bunnies.

I think this pig is part Roberson... He's sleeping with his tongue out.

There were some great boulders on the property and the kids thought they were mountains put there just for them to climb.

Haley: "There's a camel where?"

Camel: "There's a Haley where?"

Playing his new most favorite game: Peek-a-boo! From the corn kernel bin.

Haley playing the same game, at greater than 2 1/2, this game was so last year.

My little farm boy. It's like he was meant to be there.

Haley was having fun jumping off the hay bales.

He was so funny trying to pick up his pumpkin. He would grunt and heave and grunt and it wouldn't go anywhere.

The day of the surgery

Today was the day of Kale's ear tubes surgery, and man are we all tired! Jeff and I woke up at about 5:30 to get the kids out the door on time, which isn't bad considering we had to have Haley to the Burich's and Kale to the hospital across town by 6:30. It helped that we didn't have to dress either kid, just take them straight in their pj's.

Once again let me tell you that we are so lucky to have such great friends so close to us. Haley got to go spend the morning with Crystal, Grandma Krissy, Caden and Hailey Madison at a farm ("with animals mommy") with Caden's preschool. She had a ball picking out a pumpkin and was super tired by the time they brought her home at 10 (which worked out perfect because we all got to take a nap later on).

Anyway, back to the subject of the post. We got to the hospital at 6:30 on the button and were taken right back to his room to wait. We saw about 6 different nurses (all of which remarked on how beautiful his eyes were as they took his temperature), a couple of anesthesiologists, and the doctor who would be doing the surgery. By 7:25 we were handing the little man off, and by we, I mean Jeff - there was no way he was going to leave my arms to go with anyone wearing one of those sets of teal scrubs, plus there would have likely been some tears on my part.

No sooner had I completed about three quarters of a row on the blanket that I've been working on for Kale since before he was born, was the doctor back to tell us it wall all over and it went really well. He said that there was no fluid or infection in either of his ears (a first since June), so we really caught a good window for optimal healing. Additionally, he mentioned that one of his ears was a little thicker and was probably a sign of prolonged fluid build up (further affirmation that we were making the right choice to do this surgery).

Then it was time for one of us (like there was a choice) to go back to recovery and hold him while he woke up. Now that sounds really peaceful. I imagined me holding my little man all knocked out and being the first thing he saw as he slowly opened his groggy little eyes. WWE Smack Down would have been a better comparison to what I got. He was ANGRY that he was waking up and was going to let me, the nurse, and the housekeeping lady know it. There was about 45 minutes of screaming, throwing himself backwards from my arms and all kinds of tantrums. I have never seen my mild mannered little man behave like this. My body was physically tired from this and even several hours later is still very sore (no need to feel guilt about missing the gym today, and thank God for my persistent trips there and all the weight lifting).

They took us out of recovery and down the hall (presumably because there was someone else coming out of surgery who didn't want to listen to a screaming child as they woke up), in any case there were plenty other people to hear his screaming from our room. He didn't let them take his pulse/oxygen or temperature and wasn't about to fall for their ploy of watching cartoons and eating Popsicles while he hung out. Nor was he going to allow anybody wearing a set of those damn teal scrubs any where near him. In his Kale way he would turn his body toward whichever one of us was holding him and say "NO". He didn't even want them in the room with him. He finally gave them 2 post op temperature readings and 2 pulse/oxygen readings and that was enough for them to suggest that maybe we should just go home. No sooner did we get to the car was our little man right back to his normal happy self.

I'm happy to report that as of this afternoon, less than 12 hours after the surgery, he is running around the house, tormenting and being tormented by his sister, eating and drinking like normal.

Kale's ears

I know lots of you have been wondering what's up with the Dude-a-Man's ears, so here's our basic rundown. When we were home in June for Andy and Katie's wedding, I took Kale into the urgent care where he was diagnosed with an ear infection (his official 2nd one). Since June we have been bouncing back and forth between actual infections and just having fluid in one or both ears. Since we have not been able to clear this up we started the tubes conversation about a month and a half ago. The final decision was made today and on Thursday, early in the morning we will head in and have them put in.

We made this decision after only having him off of antibiotics for a grand total of less than a month (since June). The rounds have been made from Amoxicillin to Omnicef, to Zithromax and back around to Amoxicillin again and a daily regimen of Zyrtec. One major concern is that he could possibly become antibiotic resistant. Probably our highest concern is his speech development. At his 12 month well baby, he was about 1 word behind where they consider normal (he had 4 out of 5), while this isn't huge, it could become an issue. We took him last week to an audiologist for an evaluation and found that at the time (with a double ear infection - since he'd been off antibiotics for 4 days) that he was hearing at about 25 decibels (15 is normal, anything above 35 is considered deaf), they called him borderline. We will re-evaluate this 4 weeks after tubes to see if he's made any improvement and I will make the call to begin Early Intervention for speech therapy evaluation. It's pretty likely that once tubes are put in we'll begin speech therapy for him just to keep him on track.

The surgery will take only about 15 minutes to complete and he will only be put out with a mask (no IV required). It will all be done at the Air Force Academy hospital by the Ear Nose and Throat doctor. He said that if all goes well we should be on our way home by 9:00am. The tubes should last about a year before they fall out and the doctor believes that we will likely have to do this at least one more time before his ears properly mature (I think it's hilarious that my HUGE baby boy has tiny ears). There will be ENT checks at 1 month and 6 months to make sure the tubes are functioning properly and haven't fallen out, and also by the pediatrician at any well baby check ups. If you feel you'd like to know way more than any person (aside from the doctor) should know about this you can look here or here. Prayers that all goes well with the surgery and recovery are very appreciated (and also for his mom's peace of mind since I'm about to lose it worrying about him and this whole thing).

Haley Haley Haley

I did the post before this then downloaded pictures and video that were just hanging out on the camera and decided that it was time for this little girl to be the star of her own post. Lately her favorite dress-up costume has been her new tutu from Grandma Linda. She will dance all around the living room in it, doing her best moves. I love it.

You'll have to excuse the state of my living room, it was laundry day.

She is officially in 3T clothing, this is a bit of a pain in the rear because the 2T's finally started to fit her in the waist, but one morning we woke up and her jeans looked like really bad high waters so we're back to having to cinch up the waist again. Thank God for adjustable waist jeans!

The following are some of my new favorite pictures. Jeff went up to bed last night and then called down to ask me for the camera. This is what we found at about 10:00. She was dead asleep on the floor outside hers and Kale's room. I have no idea how she ended up there since we didn't hear her stirring, but whatever she was doing I guess she got tired.

You'll note in this last one, she has, in the hallway, all the things she needs in her actual bed: a book, Amen Baby and her Gaga. Maybe she needed more space and it's time to move her into an official big girl's bed.

Growing up too fast!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are in trouble when it comes to these two kids. I knew I wouldn't quite be prepared for it when it happened but I now have two fully mobile kids, they both go up and down the stairs, and even though Kale is still a fair bit slower than Haley, they chase each other. This gives Haley a greater chance to push Kale down (continuing to rack up Karmic points) and there is never a shortage of "fires" for me to put out. Oh how much easier life was when they just laid on the floor.


Haley lately has learned to use some hilarious phrases... "whatever mama" is her favorite, "no way Jose" is also up there. This kid has more personality than I possibly know what to do with. I remember when she was brand new I looked forward to the day when she would say to me "NO mama" and show her independence. Ohhh boy did I need to be careful what I wished for, at two going on three going on 17, this little girl definitely has an independent streak.

Showing me how she bows, she learned it from Elmo, followed by a few of her phrases.

Hot Air Balloon Classic

Yeah, so there's so catching up to be done around here... every Labor Day weekend, Colorado Springs plays host to the Hot Air Balloon classic. As many Labor day weekends that we've spent out here, neither of us had ever been to it. We woke up extra early and got the kids all ready to go for the day, headed out to the Yukon, started it up and found a flat tire. We were supposed to meet everyone at Starbucks, but they all headed back here and between the Burich's and the Tsitsilianos' piled everyone into their cars and were on our way downtown.

The group at the beginning of the morning.

Noah's Ark Balloon - you can not grasp how big this balloon is unless you see it in person.

Another one that was just larger than life. Haley is still talking about the big bunny (especially when we see Energizer batteries).

The one on the bottom is actually higher up and is behind a cloud.

There were about 75 balloons that took off that morning.

On our way out we walked past the Velodrome and there were riders practicing - it was pretty cool to seem them ride on this track that has such an incredibly steep bank.

Once we were done with the balloons it was time for Brunch (and mimosas, duh). We went to a little restaurant called the Pantry in Green Mountain Falls (just our side of Woodland Park). It was so neat to eat right next to a little creek that went right through the restaurant, they even let the kids play in the creek if they wanted to. We got some really great family pictures there (spoiler: you'll probably see this on our Christmas letter).

Spiro, Andrea, Yanni and his stick.

Great day spent with good friends, can't wait to do it again next year. Possibly next year we'll keep the kids up late and go to the glow (done at night and there isn't a lift off, just the balloons inflated and glowing like big night lights).

COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!

Game Day is sacred in this house. Period. End of story. We tell Haley that she can have the TV 6 mornings out of the week but, without sugarcoating it, Saturday is for Dad. Jeff and I have always had an Apple Cup rivalry in our house. I, having spent some time at WSU am forever a Coug fan... he, on the other hand, well, he supports that other team (don't know why). I'm proud to say that my daughter is a coug fan. Check out this video. She gets a little confused for a minute, but figures it out, I mean, she is only 2. By the end of the season (or more importantly, Apple Cup) she'll have it down. Now, we just need to get Kale to come around, sounds like the Cougs could use a future big guy like him (then what would Jeff do?!).

So, a couple of things that I need to state right up front with this blog: First, it's very late, nearly midnight, but I really felt the need to get this blog up and the whole house is so gosh darn quite. Second, I'm spoiled. I'm very lucky and thankful for the life that I get to live.

Okay, now that this is all out of the way, here's the goods and good they are! You may remember a while back I told y'all that we joined a new gym and it had a really great outdoor pool (again you can visit it here: VillaSport). Well that gym recently went through a little growth spurt and they unveiled it to us, the members today - they should really be paying me for what I'm about to share with you, but, unfortunately, they're not. They expanded their pool to include not only my beloved indoor lap pool and the therapy pool to this (bear with me because there are pictures of the kids below it all and a big reward at the end):

The two new indoor water slides - they go almost as high up as what you see in the picture. They have a small atrium area that sticks up to accommodate them.

Here's the best part, they put in a water play structure that we can enjoy any time of year! January? Snow outside? Blowing wind? Yeah, you'll find me and the kids at the pool!

Another side to the play structure, there are 4, count them, 4 water slides! And, my favorite as a mom, the zero depth entry pool! Haley refers to the pools here as the beach. Wonder if she'll ever know what a real beach is like?

This is an indoor/outdoor hot tub, they have windows that open and close according to the weather. Mmmm, hot tubs in the snow, sounds like fun to me!

The burning lava rocks, wonder if they'd let me bring my own s'mores makings? And that bench behind it? It's a warming bench, and we're not talking about that warm Colorado sun folks, that's just a nice place to sit that will always feel like you're sitting on someone else's recently sat on spot.

Kale has decided that he loves watermelon! I can't say I blame him, it was some really good watermelon.

After eating the watermelon the traditional way, he decided "why bring the watermelon to your face when you can bring your face to the watermelon." So that's what he did - seems to work.

Playing with Daddy's shades - he's a really cool kid.

This one's pretty cool too.

He likes to eat rocks. I think it's a boy thing, 'cause Haley never did such disgusting things, but he loves them. You can tell him "UCK" and he'll stick his tongue out and just let them casually fall out of his mouth. 3 minutes later, he's eating them again. I don't get it.

Miss Attitude 2009 right here. The girl is forever stomping it out on her imaginary runway complete with her hands on her hips.

Kale decided today that he now knows how to stand up on his own and walk wherever he wants to. He climbed out of the pool and then walked to the wall all by himself. So proud of my Dude-a-Man!

I just love her eyes in this picture. I thought I rotated this picture, but folks, it's uploaded and didn't I mention above that it's late?!

You're reward for making it all the way to the end of this post... The Dude-a-Man gettin' down with his funky self. The kid has some pretty awesome moves. He's dancing to Celebrate and you'll have to excuse the kid in the background having a Grand Maul Tantrum... I feel for his mom, I've been there.